A/N: So I told most of you that I would get this up by at least Tuesday…but SOMEONE (aka: Ichi-desu) loved me and got this beta-ed super quick. So…You're getting it today! Isn't that wonderful?

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I can feel you all around me, thickening the air I'm breathing- All around me by Flyleaf

Riku had once again been, maybe a little too, willingly dragged to Axel's house, where he sat in his seat, bored, and tired. The day had been long and ongoing and he had been yelled at so many fucking times he thought his ears might be bleeding. He had failed a test in Spanish. He broke two beakers in Chemistry, though Axel valiantly tried to catch them both. Xigbar had practically ripped him a new hole when he had screwed up one element of poetry. ONE out of fifty-five, and it made him seem like the new antichrist. He was so ready to just empty himself to the mindless void that Hollywood and 10th seemed to bring.

Being as that was the case, he was on his way passed the T-building when, of course, Axel stopped him, grabbing him by the back of the neck and immobilizing him for a moment before the redhead had let go.

"Hey…where ya going?" he had asked.

"I'm going home today."

"Nah," Axel had smiled. "Come on. A little birdie told me you like Japanese food."

"Who told you that?" Riku asked calculatingly.

Axel had smiled, winningly, at him, his hand ruffling his nice, silver, windblown hair. "You did."

Thus he had been conned into going to Axel's house. They had stopped by a Japanese restaurant, ordered food, and then walked the other mile to Axel's house. They hadn't spoken much in between the places they had stopped. Riku was almost too tired to walk, and had considered lying down on the sidewalk several times, but had pushed himself to keep going. They had only really spoken when Axel was ordering food, and Riku had told him what to order for him. Other than that, Riku was sitting at the table, tiredly, waiting for Axel, or they were walking, quietly, eating their food.

That is until they got to Axel's house and then he had turned damn near militant, hammering Riku with question after question. Such as:

"Where were you born?"

Riku sighed, his arms on the table and his face buried in his arms. "You've already asked me that." He moaned, followed directly by a yawn.

Axel flipped through the notes (they were actually notes; Riku had looked at them.), finding nothing of the sort. "I don't see it."

Riku sighed, lifting his head up to reposition his arms with elbow on the table and his head in his hand. "It's because I scribbled it out." He said, nonchalantly.

The other put his paper down stiffly, whipping his head around and sending wild red locks (Why did his hair look exceptionally nice today?) flying around his face. "Why the hell would you do that? I have memory problems enough without your help!" He seethed, though he kept his face completely lax.

Riku rolled his eyes expressively. "You don't have memory problems." He sneered. "Stop whining. See?" He put his finger on some extraordinarily dark scribbles, where he remembered his birthplace had been. "Look. It's right there."

Axel turned the paper to the side a little tilting his head in the opposite direction of his paper. "…Oh! I see it now. You were born in Hell, right? That would make sense as you're the spawn of Satan."

Riku whined. Not the most dignified thing he had done in the presence of Axel, but he was tired and couldn't control it. "Fuck you." He breathed, putting his head into his folded arms, again.

Axel got the hint and backed off, not really caring to piss off the person who was slowly warming to him (made it easier to walk down the halls fearlessly). So, settling to maybe be a little serious today (though it would probably cause him to burst into flames spontaneously), he shook Riku's arm, a little sign that he was ready to be serious. "Okay. So you were born in Highwind Hospital. What were your parents names?"

Riku rolled his eyes. "How is that important in this little biography?"

"Uh, they kind of gave birth to you."

Riku harrumphed. "Fine." He gave in, trying to pull up the courage to talk about a matter he hadn't talked to anyone about in over a year. "I don't remember my father." He sighed. "My brother would have, he was five when my father left. I don't really even know his name. I…I think mom once said something about it being Auron, but I'm not for sure." Axel scribbled the name down on his paper, quickly. Riku watched, not for the first time, intrigued with the thin arm muscles that moved underneath a pale layer of skin.

"My mom's name was Priti." Riku closed the eyes when he heard the name, even if it was from his own mouth. No one ever talked about his mother, except his brother and him, though lately it was getting hard for Sephiroth to do anything except yell and drool, and when they did talk about her they referred to her as 'mom.' "I used to call her Pretty. She used to call me Rikki. I hated that name, but she told me if I didn't want to be called Rikki that I should stop calling her Pretty. I never did though; I called her Pretty until the day she died."

"When did you mother die?" Axel asked softly, and Riku noted he had stopped taking notes; his attention was fully on him, the other's poisonous green eyes never leaving his face.

Riku took a deep breath, scooting the chair around where he was sitting on it sideways, but still facing the redhead, inadvertently scooting closer to him. He rubbed his eyes, and he noted a faint residue of the eyeliner he had been wearing the night before. "About three years ago, just before my sophomore year and your junior year."

The way he said it, perked something in Axel's memory. "I vaguely remember that. Naminé went to the small communion at the school after she found out about her death...I never really linked that to you."

"I don't think many people did. She went back to her maiden name after my father left. I think she was buried as Priti Ann Darkson." Riku shrugged.

"How do you not know?"

"I never went to her grave." He said, morosefully, his eyes pricking at the thought of not saying good bye to his mom. His Pretty. He never told her he loved her before she died. He blinked, furiously, refusing to cry in front of Axel. "I didn't even go to her funeral."

"Why?"

"It's a very scary line to cross from knowing she's dead to knowing she's dead." He emphasized the second 'knowing', as for him it was a completely different thing. "I haven't even touched her room."

"How did she die?"

"She had a rapidly evolving third state of Angel's disease. It was eating away her mind so quickly, that she had to shoot herself up every two hours. She died of an overdose."

"And that's what your brother has?"

Riku narrowed his eyes at the older. "How do you know about my brother?"

"He wasn't exactly a loser when he attended high school."

"How did you know about his disease, though?"

"I listen." Axel said, standing, flipping his chair around to sit in it backwards, moving a little closer to the silver haired man in the process. "I overheard your uncle talking to the Counselor about it about a year ago."

Riku tossed himself back, "He doesn't have that stage of Angel's disease. He has stage two. It's not quite as severe, but he refuses to get help; so he pretty much just fucking withers away in his own prison bound mind. He can't be alone for too long, because he doesn't take his medication without being forced to, and if he goes to long without it he begins seeing things and then not only is he beyond sick, he turns fucking suicidal." He laughed to burn off a little of his outrage, rubbing his eyes again to cover up the tears that were forcing their way forward. He wouldn't have had this trouble had he the backbone to say 'no' to the bastard.

Axel's brows shot to his hairline. "Suicidal?"

"I've come home to see his nurse and him wrestling over a screwdriver." Riku breathed into his hands. "Knives, screwdrivers, scissors, paperclips of all things...We tried to keep them all in a locked drawer, but when he's desperate for something Sephiroth can break anything."

Axel rubbed his hands together, a little helplessly. "Are your mom and brother the only one's who've had Angel's disease?"

He shook his head, silver hair swinging limply around his arms. "No. It skips and leaps through the family lines."

Axel stared at Riku. "Do you have it?"

"I have a derivative of it." Riku licked his lips nervously, staring at the table under his eyes. He hadn't even told his uncle this. He only found out when he went to a doctor about an ear infection five months ago. "You mentioned my friendships falling apart under my feet...it's true and false. It crumples as I hack at it. The harder my life becomes, the more I push away, the more he backs off, the more I believe he's been trying to get rid of me for a while. It's nothing really more than paranoia, but my doctor says that if I'm not careful, something could trigger Angel's disease and I could end up no better than Sephiroth."

There was a deep rooted silence in them after that. Axel could only stare at his hands, wondering, angrily, why that news upset him so much. He kept glancing at the younger, whose head was still in his hands. Asking himself when Riku had become so damn special, he reached that foot across the table (when did they get so close?), and took one of the pale hands away from the other's face, holding it in his for moments after he had latched on.

After nearly two minutes of silence, two minutes of being able to hold the silver-haired man's hand, Riku cleared his throat, pulling both of his hands into lap, though when he hesitated when pulling out of Axel's grasp. "Well, I said more than I meant to. I probably should have told you to eat it."

Axel cracked a weak smile at the use of language. "I kind of liked it." He admitted.

"You're kind of creeping me out with all this wanting to get to know me stuff."

"I'll pretend to be disinterested."

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Later in the afternoon, probably somewhere around five, Riku went out to Hollywood and 10th street. He was looking for a quick way to clear his mind from his decaying life, and apart from really beating the life force out of someone, the only way he really knew how was on that corner, wearing eyeliner and tight shirts. He didn't have to wait long; he never really did. About ten minutes later some loser, with no life and too much money, came rolling up to him in his expensive car that he couldn't drive properly to save his life.

Forty-five minutes later, Riku was sitting on the bed, jeans slung on his hips in a hap hazardous way.

"Two-fifty, three, three-twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, four-hundred."

The man had left already, only minutes after he had finished with him, leaving four hundred on the table carelessly. Riku had already showered, and redone his hair deciding to leave the eyeliner off for now, lounge around a bit until he went onto the street.

His cell-phone went off on the side table, his tune jingling throughout the silent room, while his phone nearly vibrated off the table. Visibly starting, he ran to get it, flipping open the top and pressing it to his ear. "Yeah?" He asked shortly, stuffing the money into his back pocket.

"Hey Riku!"

Riku flinched at his best friends cheerful words, feeling his cheeks flame up in embarrassment, even though his friend had no clue what was he had just been doing, was doing, or would be doing in the future. He smiled a little, "Hey Sora. What's up?"

Sora sighed. "Roxas went on a date with Seifer."

"Oh. So you're scheming buddy is gone?" Riku asked indulgently.

"Yeah. Anyway, I was sitting here…wallowing in my self-pity," He said dramatically, "And I realized you and I hadn't gone to eat in a while. And I was wondering where you were so I could pick you up and we could to Lou's?"

"You just want something to take your mind off of your hip?"

"What's wrong with my hip?"

Riku snorted, without humor. "Your other half was just ripped from it."

"That's not funny."

"True though."

"Whatever. Do you wanna come?"

Riku bit his lip, feeling guilty that once again he would turn Sora down to his midnight (or seven o'clock) gallivants. "I would love to, Sora. You know I would…but….not tonight." Riku sighed, "Maybe later this weekend. I'm just too busy."

"Okay? Can you just talk to me?"

Riku breathed a laugh. "You are talking to me."

There was a pause on the other line was Sora considered this, cursed Riku smart-alikeness, and moved on. "Okay. Has everything been okay with you?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I just feel like you're shutting out the world." Sora said meekly.

"No, Sora. I've just been busy, trying to keep my grades up, my brother, getting into the Academy. It's a lot of work." Riku tried, lying to his best friend as well as he could. It wasn't that he didn't trust Sora with this, but it was just that Sora would freak out if he ever knew what Riku had been doing for the last year and a half.

Sora was a panic channel after all.

Riku lit up a cigarette, inhaling, then continuing on with their conversation. "What triggered this?" He flicked some ashes onto the floor, not really caring that this was a non smoking room.

"Oh nothing really. Just me being paranoid I guess."

Riku sighed at his friend's lie, remembering when they weren't afraid to tell the other what was on their mind. He was beginning to think that they were just getting jumbles out of their conversation and not really getting anywhere with one another. Maybe if he finally began telling the truth then Sora would follow his example, but where do you start with secrets imbedded into your mind. It just wouldn't be worth it, and he had to go back out soon.

"I've gotta go. I'll talk to you later, Sora." Riku said, pulling the phone away from his ear, dismally.

"Wait, Riku!" Could be heard from the other end of the phone, before Riku flipped his phone shut. He walked to the mirror pulling his eyeliner out of his pocket and applying a heavy line to his lower lashes. He stashed the money he's been given in a drawer, knowing he would be coming back here within the hour.

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Roxas tapped his feet impatiently, waiting for Sora to call him and save him from this hell. Seifer was an absolute bust and he couldn't believe he was soft enough to go out with the loser. He was self-centred, and nearly refused to talk about anything other than himself. He was a pig. And he didn't actually want to get to know Roxas; he only wanted someone to gloat to and about.

He didn't know what he had been thinking, but he swore to God he had learned his lesson, and would talk to his dates more before agreeing to go out. He sighed. Swearing that he wouldn't go out with anyone unless he was actually interested, he picked at his food. Nodding randomly at the drone that was Seifer, his fingers itched at his phone, hoping that Sora would call him like he had done every other time.

"And that's when I really let him have it…" Roxas' head dropped from his hand, and he made fake sobbing motions, not that Seifer noticed. He nearly yelled with relief when his phone started ringing.

"Yes?" He said excitedly into the speaker.

"Roxy?" Axel asked from the other line.

"Oh hi!" He said, and then schooled his features to a look of abhorrence.

Axel, who didn't know what he was going to do, carried on with their conversation as if it were normal. "Hey what's up, Roxy?"

"What do you mean my father's dead?" He whimpered, still staring at his plate, though he knew Seifer's head had shot up.

"What?" Confused, now, Axel asked.

He shook his head, trying his best to look shocked and unbelieving. "I'll be right there don't worry." Roxas said, closing his phone and apologizing to Seifer before running out, while pulling his coat on. Once outside he called Sora, leaning against the cold brick of the restaurant. He listened to the phone ring with shaking hands, still unsure of how to react to Sora's small kiss last weekend.

"Hello, darling." Sora answered as always, still seeming unfazed by the kiss, despite Roxas had made it obvious he had no clue how to react.

Roxas breathed as sigh of relief at the small bit of normalcy it offered on this horrible ride of a night. "Be there soon." He told the other before hanging up.

He set off into the cold parking lot, where he had parked his mother's car. He had pulled his gloves on along with his hat and he could see the ugly goldish-colored land-yacht that his mother called a car. His hand was closing in on the handle when he heard Seifer calling after him.

"Hey what's the big deal?" He asked outraged, stomping up to Roxas like an owner would a renegade dog.

Roxas shrank a little, never once having had to deal with someone who followed him after he ran off. "My father died." He answered as tearfully as he could.

"So, fathers die everyday." Seifer said arrogantly, shrugging. "How many times to you get a date with me?" He smiled, rubbing the smaller boy's shoulder coercively.

Roxas gaped at him, his mouth falling open, eyes glazed over with incredulity that this person could love himself so much as to say such a thing. "I can't believe how cruel you are." He screeched, indignantly.

"Your father isn't dead!" Seifer scoffed. "You suck at lying."

"Yes, he is! How can you be so heartless to me at a time like this? I don't want to even be in the same lawn with you." Roxas turned back around to unlock the car door.

Seifer's face contorted angrily, and he grabbed Roxas, turning him around forcefully. "You don't know what you're saying!" He yelled, slamming Roxas against his car.

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Beep. Beep. Beep.

Naminé reached beside her pillow to grab her 'ringing' phone without taking her eyes off of her book. "Hello?" She answered her phone in her pristine voice.

"Namie?"

She smiled. "Hi, Axel. Why are you calling so late?" She asked glancing over to her alarm clock that read ten 'til eleven.

"Has Roxas talked to you?" He asked frantically.

"Roxas and I don't talk. He only texts me." Naminé answered, turning the page to the book she was reading over Da Vinci.

"Well!" Axel yelled irately. "Has he texted you?"

Her brows furrowed at the frantic tone that poured from the redhead's mouth. "Not tonight, why?" She asked worriedly.

"He weirded out on the phone and then hung up and I haven't heard from him since. Usually he calls me after he weirds out!" He practically yelled.

"I haven't heard from him tonight." She said remorsefully. "I'll call Kairi." She said, before Axel could go off on a tangent.

He said his goodbye and she hung up and dialed Kairi's number. Pressing the phone to her ear. She listened to the song that played instead of the ringing tone that she would have listened to when calling others, before:

"What?"

Naminé rolled her eyes angrily, pushing back the thoughts still running in her mind. "Hello Kairi." She said as politely as she could. "Have you heard from Roxas?"

"I don't talk to him. He is outside my immediate group." Her immediate group was Sora and Riku, no one else.

She took a deep breath. "Well, can you call Sora and see if he's heard from Roxas?"

Kairi giggled. "Sorry. Yeah. Sure."

Kairi hung up with Naminé, only to have to answer the phone immediately. (switch person)

"What?" Kairi asked solemnly, imagining Naminé's face at having to talk to her.

"Kairi! Roxas isn't here!" Sora yelled at her.

"Oh." She said passively. "When was he supposed to be there?"

"Like…an hour ago!" The other boy freaked out.

"He hasn't contacted anyone else either." Kairi said, assuming that was why her cousin had called her. "Call Riku. He'll know what to do." With that she hung up and went back to her nails, fighting the need to call someone and complain about the blame that Naminé had unfairly heaped on her.

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His back pocket began vibrating, and he pulled his phone out and flipped the top open.

Sora

"Yeah?" He answered, diving into a nearby alleyway, so he wouldn't be seen by any 'customers.'

"Riku!" Sora yelled on the other end. "Riku, I can't find Roxas!"

Slender brows rose. "What happened?"

On the other line he heard, "He went on a date with Seifer, and then left. I thought he was coming home; that's what he told me, but he's not here!" The other practically hyperventilated.

Riku sighed. Of course, Seifer would try something; why didn't someone think to stop Roxas from going on the date? Riku leaned his head back, against the cold wall behind him. "Sora, breathe." He demanded. "Where did they go?"

"I don't know. Roxas mention something about…"

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"Roxas!" Riku yelled, finally having arrived at the nearly empty parking lot. He heard no response, which made him further into the parking lot, looking around frantically for the blonde. He sighed, throwing the cigarette that had been in his hand onto the ground and stomping it out. "Roxas, where are you?" He yelled again, searching behind every car left in the parking lot.

He heard something run into a car in front of him, followed by a loud curse. The silver-haired man almost couldn't resist grinning when he looked around to find the arrogant little snot his charge had been out with. Seifer's face was black and blue, and he was clutching his side. He walked up to the other slowly, taking pleasure in watching him stumble around drunkenly.

Obviously, Roxas didn't need him to come rescue him as the others apparently thought.

"I sure hope Roxas didn't hurt you too bad." He said, pushing Seifer to the ground easily. "Because I'm going to rip your face off."

Seifer glanced up slowly, before Riku kicked him in the ribs.

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"Roxas isn't here. I found Seifer, but the car you told me Roxas drove here is gone. You might want to call his house and see if he went home."

Sora had barely had his wits about him long enough to say by before jet rocketing out of his house, his mother be damned.

Into Roxas' house he ran full speed, barely stopping to shut the door. He found Roxas' marshmallow coat on the living room floor, a sure sign he was home. Knowing that, he ran into Roxas' room, the one close to the living room. He didn't knock, or yell for his name; he burst through the door finding Roxas on the other side of the door, his shirt half pulled over his head.

Sora ran up behind the blonde, spinning him around and pulling him tightly against his chest. Roxas' shirt was still half over his head and he probably couldn't breathe. Sora blinked back tears as he help the other out of his 'dress shirt,' though Roxas instantly wrapped his arms around himself in a furious effort to hide his scar from Sora.

"What are you doing here!" he demanded of the brunette who wormed his arms around him. Roxas tried to push the other off, or to reach for a shirt, anything. He nearly cried out of frustration when he felt Sora's hands brush against the scar curling around his left side. "Sora!"

Whatever Roxas was going to say Sora swallowed it when he pressed his lips to the others.

"I was so scared." He breathed pulling away from Roxas. "You're not allowed to go out with anyone else. No dates. No 'for the heck' of it's. You're stuck with me." He said resolutely, stroking Roxas' hair away from his face.

Roxas nodded, shocked, a little disoriented, and unsure of how to react to Sora, and that little kiss. He still tried to wiggle out of Sora's grasp, if only to return with a shirt, but Sora wouldn't let him go. He wouldn't let Roxas go long enough to hide his scar, which at the moment Roxas was so scared would repulse the other enough to leave, or take back his proclamation. But as if to prove that he didn't care about the scar, Sora ran his hand up and down along the raised skin, feeling the marks that the fire had left.

"Resistance is futile, Roxas."

Roxas looked at Sora's clear blue eyes. "That doesn't sound too bad." He shrugged, still in a daze, which only increased when Sora tilted his head back and kissed him again.

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"Who's this?" Axel yawned when he answered his squealing phone.

"It's Riku Wise. Sora told me to call you for Roxas. He says he's fine. He made it home." Riku said, opening the door to his bother and his house. He closed the door quietly, knowing that the tiniest noises started Sephiroth from his sleep. Listening for any sign of his brother, he silently crept upstairs, his bag over his should and his phone against his ear.

Axel breathed a sigh of relief, rolling over onto his back from his position on the couch. "Where was he?" He asked.

"You don't know where your friend was?" Riku teased, feeling good now having beat the ever living crap out of Seifer.

Axel smiled at the tone in the other's voice. "Do you know where yours is?"

"Yeah, actually." Riku said, feeling a little proud at that, since he hadn't properly known where Sora was, unless he was at school, for the last eight months. "He's at Roxas' house. Roxas was at a restaurant. He was apparently on a date with Seifer."

"Seifer?"

"Yeah. Seifer." Riku said, pulling all of his things out of his bag.

"Damn! He didn't tell me he was going on a date with Seifer." Axel said, amazed that his friend could keep anything from him for any amount of time. He sat up on his couch and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Anyway, apparently when you called it gave him the perfect excuse to stage his father's death and he high-tailed it out of there." Riku said, having gotten the fact from Sora when he called him earlier that night. "Seifer didn't buy it, followed him, and Roxas beat the shit out of him for unknown reasons. I wouldn't be surprised if the prick tried to a move on him or something. Whatever it was, Roxas wasn't having it." Riku shrugged, stepping out of his jeans, and looking around his room for his pajama bottoms.

"Well, go Roxas." Axel said, impressed his friend had actually hit someone.

"Yeah. Anyway, my fucking night is ruined, so I'm going to sleep." He said, hopping into his bottoms, nearly falling over in the mean time.

Axel breathed a small laugh when he heard a thud, and a curse. Feeling unready to let go of the other he asked. "Are you coming over tomorrow?"

"Why would I come over tomorrow?" Riku asked defiantly, though he only teased.

"Because we kind of aren't done with either paper."

"I don't feel like walking." Riku said, feigning a tired voice.

"I'll come pick you up." Axel shrugged.

"You don't know where I live."

"It can't be impossible to find. Meet me at the end of your god damn street."

"Fine." Riku gave in, not wanting to argue himself out of a car ride. "But I get to interrogate you tomorrow."

"Oh, but you're such a good story teller, Hollywood."

Riku tensed from his sitting position on the bed. "Don't call me that."

"You told me to act disinterested."

"You can call me by my name though. It's why I have one."

"Fine. Riku."

Riku's heart picked up a little when he heard his name from the other's mouth. "Was that hard to do?" He asked, berating himself for feeling like a little schoolgirl.

"Not completely. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I can't wait for you to bear your soul to me."

"Kay. Good night, Sleeping Beauty."

Riku snorted. "Good night, Prince Charming."

"Prince Charming was Snow White's man." Axel corrected.

Riku shrugged. "Then maybe you're barking up the wrong tree."

"Maybe you just glanced at me too quickly. Maybe I'm actually Prince Philip in disguise."

Riku laid down on his bed, turning out his lamplight, the only light in the room as he had turned off his room light earlier in the conversation. He sighed contentedly, and told Axel. "I promise to look harder next time."

Axel nodded. "Good. Sleep well."

"I'll do my damnedest." Riku said, finally pulling the phone away from his ear.

Axel stared at the number on his screen, feeling something well in his chest. He saved the number quickly, closing his phone happily. For a moment, his mind had been taken off the fact that Larxene, once again, was not home.

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A/N: I know…You must love me! I finally gave some of you what you wanted…and definitely moved forward what all of you wanted. Smiling like a mad woman

I super hope you love this, because for once…I DOOOO!

I love you all whole bunches, so show me you still love me by…You guest it…Reviewing meee!

InnocentGuilt