A/N: Phew. I'm done! Yay! Long time no see, huh? Finally, an update! Yay! Sorry kids for not updating sooner. Life got in the way. :(

Do you ever get that feeling where you just feeling panicked and you have no idea why? You're laying in bed one night and your mind just starts to wander. Then, your heart beats really fast and suddenly you feel so stressed out, yet you can't remember why you're stressed. That's exactly how I was feeling when I told Axel what I had seen.

"What?!" The redhead seemed so shocked. Did I really do the right thing telling him? Let's see, if my boyfriend had been cheating me I would have wanted someone to tell me. So I decided that yes, I did the right thing. "What the hell is going on?!" Axel shouted. Seeing him like this...hurt me. Well, okay, maybe not hurt, but I was certainly worried. Now I was just going to sit back and watch the fireworks.

"I don't know WHAT he's talking about." Demyx started to scratch his left hand. "He walked into the storage room where me and Zexion were smoking and he starts freaking."

"Stop lying." Axel hissed out. Okay, even that stung me a little bit. Scary! I wanted my teddy bear righ then and there! "What did you do?"

"I told you...we were smoking!"

Axel turned those hurt green eyes towards me. I shook my head. They were definitely not smoking. And how dare Demyx imply that I was stupid! Axel didn't need this asswipe anyway...

"You were with Zexion and now you have the nerve to lie to me? Tell me the fucking truth." For future reference: Never piss off Axel. He's already intimidating but when he's mad...He gives me the shivers.

"How did you know it was Zexion?"

"You've been talking a lot about him lately. So is this true or isn't it?!"

C'est vrai! C'est vrai!(1) I don't lie!

"...It's true." Demyx muttered.

Axel seemed to stop in time before jumping back into it at lightening speed. He ran out the door. I followed him to the door of the coffee house but stopped. I was unfamiliar with this town. If I were to go out there and get lost, who knows what would happen to me! I felt a soft hand on my arm.

"Come on, Roxas. He'll be back. His car is here, anyway." Naminé said softly and led me back to the couch.

There was a coffee waiting for me there that Naminé had bought. It was so...big. Who could drink all that coffee? I picked it up and took a sip.

"I can't believe my brother..." The petite girl sighed softly. Now she was hurt too! What could a little french boy do to get everybody smiling again?! "Axel's my best friend's brother...And my friend too...I'm going to give him a stern talking to when I get home!" She decided. That look on her face was...adorable!

"Ah! Naminé! You look so cute!" I exclaimed. She had to know! She laughed softly and blushed. The more I got to know her, the less attracted I became. She was super cute, yes, but that didn't mean I had to try and date her. But that also didn't mean I still wouldn't comment on her cuteness. There was just too much!

"Ah! There's Axel!" She stood up quickly. I placed my coffee on the table and stood up with her. We rushed to the door, looking for Axel. He looked up at us with those pitiful eyes and my heart squeezed in on itself. Oh, if only I had my teddy bear...Axel would feel better if he cuddled with it.

"Axel...I-I didn't know Demyx did this..." She placed a hand on his arm. I stood there awkwardly. I wasn't a person someone could go to with their troubles. I didn't know how to handle them. Instead of letting them cry I would try to cheer them up and it would just...work out horribly.

"'s'alright...I don't think I can sing though." He answered her. No one should be able to say "It's alright" at a time like this! If it had happened to me I would have been curled up in the fetal position on the floor. (Secret: I can't handle things that hurt.)

"Tell them to cancel the show. And then we can go to your house and I can make hot chocolate! Does that sound good?" Naminé would be the perfect mother, I decided. Axel nodded. "Go on then." She said, ushering him forward. Axel walked up to a scary looking guy, then he came back and we went to his house. I didn't say a thing the whole time. What could I say? I was just a French outsider. Nothing I could say would make it better. When we got to Axel's house he just curled up on the couch with a purple blanket. Naminé went into the kitchen and started to make hot chocolate. I sat down beside Axel, feeling odd again.

Axel looked at me and tried to smile. It was lamentable. Okay, I couldn't stay silent for much longer.

"Are you...Okay?" I asked softly. Didn't I tell you I suck at this?

Axel shook his head and a tear fell down his cheek. Ah! This was too sad! Axel had been scary back there, but now...He looked like a kitten who was left on the side of the road.

"Oh..." I looked away. I couldn't look at him! It was too sad! Then suddenly there was something on my shoulder. This thing leaked salt water and sobbed. I put my hand on his back and patted him awkwardly. This just seemed to upset him more because he grabbed a fistful of my shirt and broke down completely. We stayed like this for what seemed like forever until he pulled away.

"I'm sorry..." He whispered. For what, I didn't know.

It had been three weeks since the "Incident", as I referred to it. Three weeks since Axel and Demyx had broken up. In all honesty, I was glad. Demyx looked horrible anyway. Bah. Well, Demyx didn't look horrible, it was just his hair. If he changed his hair to one style he may have looked just fine.

Everything was going just fine in America for me. I was getting used to be homesick and my mother and brother would send me gifts sometimes by mail. Usually it was sweets from France that my host family wound up eating. Ah, such is the American way of life. Eat all sweet things that enter the house. I think I'm starting to gain a bit of weight too. Maybe it's because I don't walk to school anymore.

Besides becoming used to the American lifestyle, I was getting to know Axel. After the "Incident" we had become closer. It was almost like Demyx had been the one pulling us apart from each other in the first place. And he possibly was. After we started to become close friends, I noticed Axel would say funny things. Like, flirting funny things. I didn't think he was flirting, maybe that was just how he acted with friends. Who was I to judge? ...Correction, I am a judge. I just won't judge Axel anymore.

It was a beautiful Friday in October. The leaves were changing color and the air was beginning to get just a little chilly. It felt nice. It wasn't as pretty as Autumn in Paris, mind you, but it had its own beauty. I thought about Halloween, and how my brother and I would always plan our costumes together. If he was Frankenstein, I would go as Frankenstein's wife...from an early age I have been trained to wear dresses.

I looked towards Namine, wondering what she would do for Halloween. She would look cute as a cheerleader or something.

"What are you doing for Halloween?" I spoke up, softly clicking my tongue when I looked back down at my paper. That did NOT look like a cat.

"I'm dressing up as Cinderella and Kairi is going as Ariel.." She explained, still drawing. How cute! Disney princesses!

I turned to Axel, just wanting to be distracted from my not-a-cat drawing. Or really, any art in general. "What are you doing Axel? Hayner wants us to do this...trick-or-treating thing.." I didn't know what it was until Hayner had explained it to me. We had the same tradition.

Axel laughed softly. "I don't really know yet..." He tapped his chin as if in thought. He kind of looked cute just then. "I'll probably go as a Vampire."

"The suck blood thing?" I asked. Vampire was a funny word for it. I didn't really understand where it had come from. Is it bad that my first thought was Axel dressed up as Count Chocula? It was my favorite cereal in America.

"Yup. I'm not gonna make myself look creepy though. More…charming." He said. I think it'd be neat if Axel dressed up more scary than charming. It'd be kind of hot. He laughed. "What about you, Rox?"

"I…do not know…Maybe I will go as a French person." I smiled playfully at my table-mates. I could wear a beret and everything.

"Roxas, you're silly. You're supposed to dress up as something you're not." Namine laughed softly at me. She nudged me softly and I smiled at her. She was so cute!

"Hey Nami. Maybe we should pick his outfit out for him." Axel grinned at me. I probably looked like a deer in headlights just then.

"I do not want to be dressed up as a hooker!" I cried out quickly. That Halloween porno I found in the VCR....I shudder every time I think about it.

"Roxas, I need to tell Hayner to limit your TV time..." Namine mumbled. I probably wouldn't have been able to hear her if I hadn't been sitting next to her.

Axel began to laugh and I laughed a bit too. Mr. Valentine turned and glared at us, quieting us just a little bit.

"I think he'd make a great pirate." Axel commented. My eyes went wide again.

"I do not want to go as a pirate hooker! I do not want to knock on doors and say, 'I am here to take your booty!'" I said, now really scared. There was no way I was going to let Axel dress me. No way, no how!

Axel slapped a hand over his own mouth and his shoulders began to shake with the laughter he was trying to hold in. It wasn't really nice for him to laugh at my trauma...

"Have you been watching Hayner's dad's porn?" Namine asked me. I was glad to look away from Axel who was still trying not to laugh in my face.

"...He left it in the TV..." I twiddled my thumbs. I hadn't meant to watch it, but seriously, who leaves porn in their living room TV? It didn't make sense. I heard and clunk and looked over. Axel was on the floor, laughing...at me..I blushed furiously. Everyone was looking this way and Axel was embarrassing me. Great. The kids began to laugh at Axel, which was good. It meant they weren't laughing at me.

"MR. THOMAS!" Mr. Valentine shouted from the front. Uh-oh. "DO I NEED TO TAPE YOU TO YOUR CHAIR?!" He was so scary when he was angry. He made me want to crawl under the table and never leave.

"No sir..." Axel stood and put his chair back and sat back down. It seemed like Mr. Valentine even scared Axel, which was something pretty hard to do. At least in my humble opinion it was. "For the future Roxas, we're not going to make you wear sexual themed outfits for Halloween unless you want to."

Let out a sigh and eased down in my chair. My blush had gone away by now and I smiled slightly. I felt better now. "Oh...Okay."

"What're we gonna do for the art project though? We haven't started yet." I grimaced. I didn't even want to think about that nasty thing. Couldn't I just skip it? I really wanted to..."We could do a collage of the great things of America" I smiled softly. I was only joking of course.

"Naaa… it seems a bit too historical and less artistic. Hey!! What if I draw you and you draw me? My mom has oil paints and canvas in her studio. We could work there!" He suggested. Sounded good to work there but...how was my idea not artistic?! There had been many paintings of Americans and American life! I felt a little insulted.

"That would not be very impressive…" I was a little put out about Axel's blatant rejection of my idea. Axel had crossed the wrong boy to do that to. Even if it was a joke, he still thought my idea was the stupidest thing in the world. "We could paint the great things of America!" I wasn't going to give the idea up. Not now that Axel thought it was stupid, anyway.

Axel looked over at Namine. "You've already finished your project! Can you help us out on picking something?" Oh yeah, Axel. Turn to someone else to settle your debate. So very impressive.

She shook her head gently. "Nope. It's gotta be you two."

I had been talking all through this exchange, mainly because I was pretty angry at Axel. I'll show him a what for! "We could paint a McDonald's sign here, a Burger King there, a donut in the middle…" Oh yes, it would be beautiful and I hope Axel got a C for it.

"Roxas I live here every day and so does Vincent!" He was raising his voice at me! Not exactly loud, but still,it was raised. And that's what matters. "We'll have to come up with something more impressive than that." Oh, so now my idea's not impressive?! I felt my insides boil. Well, thanks for calling me stupid, Axel. I crossed my arms and frowned at him.

"You come up with an idea then. I quit." He didn't need my help anyway. Not when all my ideas are stupid.

"Please don't quit! I need your input! But we both have to agree on something." Axel pleaded. I just turned away from him. He could come up with his own damn idea and do it all by himself. I've had it with this project.

I could hear Namine sigh. "Axel…what would you like to do?" She asked him.

"Something with people on it. Like a painting of a big part of a city with busy people walking around." He told her. Oh, and that was impressive? I clenched my teeth together.

"And Roxas, you want to do something about America?" She asked me.

"Yes." I said simply and stuck my nose in the air.

"Well. Then, you two are screwed." She laughed. At least someone got some humor out of the situation. I was too busy seeing red to think anything was funny.

"I do not see why it cannot be about America." I huffed. Really, why couldn't it be about America? America was something that interested the rest of the world. My own mother almost paid big money for a painting of an American family. It didn't happen, but the fact still remained. She had wanted it pretty badly and so did the other people at the auction.

"Okay. Okay. We'll have something of both. We can have people and we can have American stuff in it…WAIT" He paused in his thinking and I looked back at him. Now that was more like it. A compromise. "We could paint a portrait of a major American battle! Like the civil war or the revolution." What? A battle? There were other, hundreds, or paintings dealing with those subjects.

"That is boring." I frowned. I just didn't want to say anything too nice to make it seemed like I cared about his idea. He hadn't done the courtesy for me.

He sighed. "Fine…we can do something in the present but it has to have people in it!"

"A fat lady. We can call it, 'The American Dream'!'' I was getting to him. I grinned. I hope he was as frustrated as I was. He put his head on the table with a loud thunk and started muttering things I had only heard Hayner say. They sounded angry. I kept on smiling. I have won this battle, mon ami.

As we stood listening, I had to feel a bit guilty about being so angry with Axel. But still, he basically called my idea stupid. That wasn't a very friend-like move from him. Our coach was explaining to us our duties for that gym class...I hated gym. And I hated art. Why did these two classes have to be back-to-back?

"Okay as you know, we are starting the swimming portion of this class. Boys have to wear bathing shorts. Not Speedos or regular shorts. If anyone comes into the pool area with those I'm giving you a week's detention!" Oh. I liked to swim. For recreation. I didn't know how much I was going to enjoy this class and its...swimming things. "Girls are to wear one piece bathing suits! The same punishment applies for those who decide to disobey the rules. No jewelry either. After each class you are expected to shower to get the chlorine off. You are also to be naked! NO EXEPTIONS!" I had to laugh on the inside. Americans were so funny. How could you shower without being naked? You could wear a bathing suit, but since the ones we were going to be wearing would be all logged with chlorine...well, it didn't make sense to wear one.

"I like to swim." I told my only male companion in that class. Axel.

"I like it too." He replied as we walked up to the bins and grabbed the suits. I had to grab an extra small one. I guess my waist is just too skinny.

When we got into the locker room I went straight to my own locker and began to undress. Better to just get started than put it off forever. Ven always told me I got undressed sexually. I had to admit, I kind of did. It was always like I was in a porno, slowly teasing my shirt above my head before tossing it to the side to work on my pants. I would unbutton them as slow as possible, mostly because I was dainty and didn't want to catch my fingers in the zipper. Then I would slide them down, exposing my chicken legs. Ven tried to make fun of them once, but the funny thing is, he has them too. I stuffed my jeans into the locker before pulling down my boxers. It didn't feel so bad, getting naked in front of everybody. They were all naked too. I pulled on my shorts and out of the corner of my eye I saw Axel looking at me. Thanks Axel, make me feel self conscious. I turned towards him when I was finished.

"Hurry up." I said softly, wanting to get out of the drafty locker room. It was like they had the air conditioner on all the time here to freeze us out of it.

I leaned against the lockers, looking at his body. He had a pretty nice body and it looked like he worked out. But I was with him a lot and I knew for a fact he didn't work out. He was too lazy. And his member looked like a freakin' snake. It looked like it would eat me if I made it angry. And it was growing a little bit. Not surprising. Axel liked boys and he was in a room full of naked boys. I was a little turned on too, but I kept it in my pants.

Finally, he said, "L-Let's go.." Aw, how cute. He was all flustered by the naked boys. And he was even blushing.

"Okay." I smiled at him. It was just too cute, the way he was acting right now. I led him out of the locker room and stopped near the pool. "What do we do when we swim?" I nudged him and he blushed. He must have known I was onto him. It's okay, Axel, I'm your friend!

"We just do the basic strokes like freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. Mr. Strife will tell us what we're doing when we get in." Axel explained to me. I didn't really understand what all of those were, but that was alright. I could just watch everyone else.

"Oh, okay." I nodded and followed him. I didn't really know where I was going.

"Okay! Today everyone needs to swim ten laps of whatever stroke they want. Get Going!" Mr. Strife yelled at us. Axel ran forward, leaving me behind in his dust. That was alright. I just found Olette and together we braved the water by sticking our big toes in first. We clasped hands together as a way of balancing.

"It's so cold!" She cried, taking he foot back. I frowned. It was pretty cold.

"Then we must get in!" I scooped her into my arms and jumped into the pool. She shrieked as we went down in the cold water and I'm sure Mr. Strife was giving us dirty looks through the blue.

–

I had tried to catch up with Axel the whole ten laps, but he was like a fish! He swam super fast and in my rush to catch up with him, I seemed to exceed everyone but him in the pool. Never again. I swore to myself. I was probably going to be sore in the morning from swimming so hard. My lung even hurt. And my throat! I'm so sorry, body. I apologized to it. Next time I would just swim with Olette and Kairi, and let Axel just swim as far and as fast as he could.

I climbed out of the swimming, panting a bit roughly. I thought I was going to die. People were liars. Exercise wasn't good for anybody.

I entered the locker room shortly after Axel did. Well, this would be good. There wouldn't be any boys for Axel to spring an erection out of the blue over. There was me, of course, but Axel probably just thought about us as friends. Nothing to get all hard over.

We went into the shower room and I chose a shower a bit father down from where Axel was. I slipped off my trunk before starting the water. I planned on rinsing them out too. They would stink to high heaven the next time I had gym if I didn't.

I felt so comfortable in here. It was fine to shower with just Axel. We were friends. Pretty good friends at that. It seemed normal to just shower with him. Although, it'd be a little awkward if we were using the same shower head at the same time in an itty bitty space.

"So, how are you liking everything so far? I haven't gotten a chance to ask you." Axel had turned towards me at some point I hadn't really noticed. I turned towards him and sighed.

"I like things okay." I answered. It was true. At first it had been a bit hard to get used to things but now that he had, it was like he had lived here his whole life almost. It felt as if Hayner's family really was his own family.

"Awesome." I smiled a bit at his choice of words

"Yes, I guess it is awesome." I began to soap up my hair. Axel began to wash his hair as well. "Are you doing okay?" I asked. We hadn't really talked about it since it happened.

"Yeah. Actually, I kind of suspected it for a while. I just didn't want to admit. But…I think I'm starting to fall for someone else." He told me as we rinsed our hair. I felt a bit sad. That person wasn't me? Dang...

"That is good." I turned and smiled at him. Even if I was sad I wasn't getting his attention, I was still happy he was getting over it. "I am glad."

"Thanks for staying by me through this, Roxas." He said and I smiled a bit more.

"Anything for a friend." I started to lather up my body. Showers always felt so nice. You felt so...fresh after you were done. Like you had gotten a new body or something. I rinsed and turned my shower off. "I am done. I will meet you in the locker room." I took a towel and ran it over my body and wiggled it through my hair. Then I wrapped it around my waist and walked out of the room, forgetting my shorts there.

Axel seemed to follow me out and we dressed together in companionable silence. I pulled on my simple, easy outfit while Axel fumbled pulling on his. It was so...much! Too much for any normal person to wear on a school day. I sat down on the bench to watch him better.

"Why do you wear so many things?" I asked him, frowning at all the accessories.

"I dunno. I guess I think they're cool." He shrugged it off as if it were nothing.

"They look distracting." I wrinkled my nose. They did look distracting indeed. Like, if Axel were walking down the street and a car drove past him the car would crash because the driver was distracted by all of Axel's clothes.

"Distracting from what?" He asked me, looking very confused. I noticed the other boys were coming in and Axel seemed to be doing fine. Weird.

"From things." I replied, not really knowing how to answer that.

He blinked and started to mess up my hair. I batted his hand away. "Well I like them." He told me and I frowned. That was obvious. He took his hand away and pulled a silver ring off of his finger. He pulled my hand up and slid the ring onto my finger. It seemed to fit perfectly. Funny, he put it on my ring finger like he was marrying me or something. "Here." He said.

I blinked. "What is this for?" It was strange to just get a present out of the blue.

"A present." He explained. I smiled broadly as he squeezed my hand.

It made me feel so good inside that he would think enough about me to give me one of his treasured rings. It made my heart soar like an eagle over a wide open plain. Even if it was just a small token, something he did unconsciously and sporadically. But that was what I loved most about the action. It was just something he thought to do. It made me feel great, and loved. I wanted to give him a big kiss on the cheek, but that was weird in America..and in France.

"Thank you." I said softly as I smiled.

I heard the bell ring and sighed. I would have to leave him. "What are you doing this Saturday?" He asked me. Catalina had wanted me to help her make pies, something about how the presence of him made them taste better or something. I really wanted to miss it.

I shrugged and pulled my bag onto my shoulder. "Nothing." I replied. I really wanted to spend the day with Axel, not baking miraculous pies.

"Would you like to come to the county fair with me?" He asked.

I smiled and nodded. "Yeah!" I had seen the commercials for this thing. It looked very fun. All the rides...ah, I wanted to go so bad.

"Great! I'll pick you up tomorrow at noon. I'll see you then." He waved and took off out the door. That was something about Axel. He could ask you to go somewhere, then leave you standing alone the next second. I sighed softly, all the happiness I had felt faded a bit. There I was, thinking maybe I was indeed the person Axel was crushing on, but then he just left me. I guess I'm not. I left the room to find Olette. I could walk with her to my next class since we had it together. She was probably still mad about the pool thing, though.

1: Here Roxas is saying : "It's true! It's true!"