Title: Collecting the Stars

Genre: Romance/General

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I no own

Note: This fic is AU, has slight OOC, and contains Yaoi. You have been warned.

Summary: [AU. Yaoi] – I'd like to tell myself that my life would've been fine had Axel not snuck into my window that first night.
Main AkuRoku. Background Riso.

Thank You Le Tenn for being my beta!

"blah" means talking

"blah" means phone conversations

blah means thoughts

Chapter 2: Just Dance

I've had a little bit too much
All of the people start to rush.
Start to rush by.
A dizzy twister dance
Can't find my drink or man.
Where are my keys, I lost my phone.
What's going on on the floor?
I love this record baby, but I can't see straight anymore.
Keep it cool what's the name of this club?
I can't remember but it's alright, alright.

I woke up to the sun washing down upon my face, my eyes blinking awake. Where the hell am I? The night before was somewhat of a blur, I only clearly remembered going to the pizzeria with Axel. His larger hand wrapped around my wrist, leading the way.

Speaking of Axel, a shock of red to my right informed me it was his form that I had smuggled into while asleep. Slowly, not completely awake, I pulled away from him. Sitting up was an effort, my head was pounding.

With a huff I managed to stand (my entire body hurt from a night on the floor) and realized that Axel and I weren't the only ones asleep. The entire room was littered with bodies; people were piled on top of each other. The radio was still on, but the volume was cranked to the lowest setting possible. I remembered going to get pizza for dinner with Axel; his friend was there and invited us to a party. His friend Myde? Demi? Deion?...Demyx? Was that the blonde guys' name? He had a weird mullet/Mohawk thing going on that he managed to pull off.

I didn't want to go home, so I agreed to the party. I remembered there being jell-o shots involved at one point, which was more vodka than jell-o, and someone had brought out a hookah. I think I drank too much. Now, don't get the wrong impression about me, I don't usually drink. It's that simple. But something about the way Axel had teased me, I took twelve jell-o shots, and a few puffs of the weed filled hookah.

God Rox, I think you're hung over, the voice in my head thoughtfully observed.

There was dancing involved, laughter, warm hands all over me. But all of it seemed meshed together. Everything was dizzying and I think I was going to be sick. Nausea made its way to the pit of my stomach.

The sun shone happily through the clothed windows, peeking around the corners. Oh God, if the sun was that high up already, then it was probably late. A sudden cold fear washed over me, I had spent the night here, Cloud didn't know where I was, and I'm pretty sure I had left my phone at home. Fucking shit.

I needed to get the fuck out of here.

I stared down at Axel for a moment longer than necessary. He looked different in sleep. I shook my head, I barely knew the guy! Sighing, I carefully stepped over him, swaying slightly, and headed to what looked to be the exit at the other side of this giant room. My sneakers were loud on the marble white floors, but I was careful not to hit or step on anyone.

I paused again when I saw Hayner asleep on a white chaise. Pence was leaning against said chaise, also conked out. I'm guessing wild parties were what the kids here in Twilight Town did. Not one of them, the people sleeping, looked to be older than twenty. Twenty-one tops.

The door was heavy, but I managed to push it open, my eyes burning and constricting painfully at the sunlight. It took me a few moments to open them all the way.

"Going home?" a feminine voice asked from a little ways to my left. On the concrete stairs sat a blonde girl, in her lap was a sketch pad and at her side were watercolors.

"Uh, yeah." I walked up to her, curious. She was wearing a white tank top, light blue Capri's and white sandals. She looked too pristine, too white and clean and pure. It hurt my eyes worse than the sun did.

"Well Roxas, just follow the path down the driveway. The gates are already opened," she stated, brushing even strokes on her paper.

"Um, did we meet...last night perhaps?" I asked sheepishly.

She then looked up at me, crystal clear blue eyes crinkled at the corners as her pink mouth blossomed into a smile, showing off too white teeth. "Yes, but it seems like you forgot. I don't blame you; if I had taken that many jell-o shots I don't think I'd remember either. I'm Naminé."

"Do you happen to know the time Naminé?"

She then reached for a cell phone that was on her left, I hadn't noticed it before, "just after three," she answered simply.

3:00 P.M! My nerves knotted up in my stomach. I really didn't want to be in trouble with Cloud. I've only been here for three days, and so far I was giving him a horrible impression.

I gave Naminé a slightly nervous smile. Something about her threw me off, like there wasn't something totally right with her. Mentally that is.

"Well, I better get going. My...dad...," the word felt foreign and almost dirty in my mouth, "doesn't know where I am and I'm pretty sure I'll be in deep shit when I get back to the house."

Naminé watched me, nodding her goodbye. I quickly made my escape from her knowing eyes and hauled it out of there. It was when I passed the iron gates at the front of the house and found myself facing nothing but pure green forest that I realized that I had been in the mansion that I had found yesterday.

And even though I had just been in there, from the outside it still creeped me out.

Hands shaking, I lifted the window from the outside and went in the same way Axel did on that first night, ass first.

Closing the window silently, I turned and nearly jumped at the sight of Leon leaning against the wall opposite of the window. His arms were folded over his chest; his legs were crossed at the ankles.

"You do know you're in deep shit, don't you?" Leon asked, his gruff voice was surprisingly quiet.

"I know," I stated, "it was an accident." I felt a dull throbbing anger begin to build up inside of me.

"I'm not your father," Leon started, "so I'm not going to do anything. And to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what Cloud is going to do. He searched the entire town for you last night when he found out that you had left your phone here."

A pang of guilt pulsed through me before I shook it off. There was no reason for me to feel guilty, none at all. Don't feel guilty; Cloud's done much worse than forget to call about not coming home.

I clenched my teeth, refusing to say anything else to Leon. He quirked an eyebrow at me, "Cloud'll be home later tonight." On that last note he took his leave.

After a few minutes, I gathered my bathing stuff and went upstairs to take a quick shower, which included brushing my teeth three times to get the taste of stale booze out.

When Cloud got home I was in my room, nibbling on a Little Debbie's cake and reading a random book that I was sure Sora had somehow stuffed into my bag. What surprised me about Cloud was his apathy; he didn't mention last night at all, he didn't even talk to me. It made me feel guilty beyond belief. My mom used to do the same thing, she'd look at me with her sad brown eyes, shake her head, and she wouldn't mention it at all after that. Our mother never once punished us. It used to make Sora and I feel so guilty and ashamed of ourselves that we used to ground each other.

And that was my response to Cloud. I groaned and put my pillow over my head, guilt and shame eating away at me.

The day after, when Olette came to my window to see if I wanted to hang out again, I told her I was grounded. When Axel crawled in that same night I told him the same thing. Afterwards I locked my window from the inside and kept the blinds shut tight.

A week. Seven whole days of me refusing to come out of my bedroom. The first day wasn't that noticeable, neither was the second, but by the third someone had gotten the idea to leave food outside of my door. I refused to open my cave up for anyone. It wasn't the guilt that ate at me, that had disappeared by the third day; it was the anger that kept bubbling up to the surface. Unexplained and disturbing dark anger that I couldn't let go of. I think I was starting to hate Cloud and his lack of response.

The beginning of the eighth day was what changed everything.

The morning started out like every other, I was awake by seven and heard Cloud leave for work, around eight is when Leon left. At nine I got out of bed and did my thing, returning to my room by 9:30.

The door bell rang about ten times before it began to get annoying. I huffed, and left the confines of the bedroom before making my way towards the foyer.

After a pause the door bell continued to ring. I felt my right eye begin to twitch in annoyance.

Without bothering to look through the peephole I yanked the door open, about to curse out whoever was on the other side, but stopped immediately once I saw who it was.

"Sora!"

My twin grinned at me, a cardboard box in his arms. Riku came up from the driveway with a box in his hands as well.

"What're you guys doing here?" I asked excitedly.

Sora gave me a slightly confused look, "dude, we're here with your stuff." He laughed.

"I thought you were just going to send it," I frowned.

"You mind letting us in Rox? This box isn't light," Riku spoke up from behind Sora, a casual smirk on his face.

"Sorry!" I squeaked, opening the door wider for them, and leading them towards my stark new bedroom. "Just put the boxes in the farthest corner, near the window."

The three of us worked for about an hour, moving my belongings into Cloud's house. Around eleven we were finally finished. Ten boxes stacked neatly against the furthest wall. Three of them blocking the window.

"Are you guy's hungry? Do you want me to order pizza or something?" I asked them once the last box was placed on the ground.

"Famished," Riku answered, tying his hair up into a messy pony tail. Yet even like that he still managed to look better than most guys, and he wasn't even trying.

Sora grinned, "Hells yeah, food sounds awesome. Do you have anything in mind?"

"Uh," I thought a moment, vaguely remembering the pizzeria that I was taken to about a week before, "yeah, I know a place."

My brother nodded, "well, then, how about we go get some eats and then come back to unpack?"

Riku shrugged, not caring either way as long as he got food. I mirrored his actions.

"Great!" Sora said brightly, "lead the way Rox."

Phils Pizza Place looked the same as it did in my vague memory. There was a guy with ginger colored hair, big blue eyes and a dimpled smile waiting at the front register.

"Welcome to Phil's!" He greeted brightly, his black polo seemed to stretch painfully over large biceps. His name tag read 'Hercules'. "Just the three of you?"

I nodded and Hercules led the way to an empty booth at the far corner of the restaurant. "Here are your menus; the lunch special is on until three! Your server will be with you in a moment." And with that Hercules was gone.

"This place is cozy," Riku commented, and he was right. Phils Pizza Place had a genuine lived in feeling, it held a familiar air to it. The entire place was consisted of booths made up of cushy red vinyl and dark wood tables. At the very back was a bar where people could eat on large stools and watch the workers make pizza. The walls above the booths were literally covered in photos of customers, most of which were making silly faces, others were candid of them sitting and enjoying their meal. The lighting was dim, casting everything in a warm glow.

"I like it here. How many times have you been here Rox?" Sora asked me, looking over his menu, eyebrows furrowed.

"Just once," I answered.

"Have you guys decided on what you're going to order yet? Or do you still need more time?" a slightly familiar voice asked casually.

I looked up at our server, a blond guy sporting a mullet/Mohawk combination. "You're Demyx, right?"

The guy looked at me immediately, "oh! Roxas! Damn dude, almost didn't recognize you without Axel acting as your purse." His face split into a cheery grin, "next time you crash at Nam's place, don't leave A.S.A.P, wait up for everyone. It's tradition that we all go to McDucks for some sea salt ice cream before going home."

I could feel Sora and Riku's curious gazes, "uh, yeah, I didn't know that. And Cloud didn't know where I was, so I didn't want to push it."

Demyx waved his hand in a swishing motion, "nah, it's all cool man." He then straightened back up, "so, what will ya'll have for drinks?"

After ordering Demyx seemed to literally hop away from us, humming a tune underneath his breath.

"Made friends so fast?" Riku asked me, amused.

"Who's Nam? Who's Axel? What was that guy talking about? What's McDucks?" Sora asked without taking single breath in-between questions. "Wait, isn't Axel the guy you said breaks in through your window?"

"Oh lord." I groaned, covering my hands with my face.

"Really? Do tell Roxy," Riku asked half-teasingly.

And so, with the exception of the party, I told them what's been going on with my life in the past week since I'd last seen them. At the end of my summarized tale, Sora frowned.

"You should be careful around Axel; he's, like, six years older than us. I'm not saying that you can't take care of yourself, but just be careful." Sora's expression was very serious, and it shook my very core. But before I got to reply to what he said Demyx bounced back with our drinks and the tension was immediately broken.

"Do you mind showing us around once we're done eating?" Riku asked, breaking a breadstick in half and giving the rest to Sora, who ate it in one bite.

I nodded, "sure."

Twilight Town is bigger than my home island. After two hours of walking around and taking the tram we finally passed the large hole in the wall, which Riku immediately wanted to investigate. I led them through the too green forest towards the large house on the other side.

"Wow," Sora stared up at it with large eyes, obviously impressed.

"Does anyone live in there?" Riku asked his face turning towards me.

I nodded, "yeah, I know Naminé lives there."

"Who's that?" Sora asked, eyes never leaving the upstairs window, there was someone watching us.

I turned away from the creepy house, "Nam's the girl staring at us from the window. She's pretty weird."

Riku stared down at his cell phone, "I hope you don't mind Rox, but I have to go to the station."

"Why?" I asked; this was sudden, and confusing.

Sora merely smiled and shook his head, "he wants to take the train to Radiant Garden so he can visit his dad."

Riku shrugged sheepishly, "not just Dad, but Kadaj too."

"You're brother's crazy dude," Sora stated absentmindedly.

His boyfriend shrugged, "anyways, I'm only planning on staying over there for dinner, so I should be back here before ten. Meaning that Sora and I can drive the night away back to the islands." He seemed to be talking more to himself than to either Sora or I, but that didn't matter. That was just the way Riku was.

"Do you want me to take you to the station?" I asked him, a bit unsure of myself.

"Nah, I have a photographic memory, I already know where everything is," Riku smiled, before turning to Sora. I averted my eyes as they shared a brief goodbye kiss.

Sora and I stood there for a bit longer after Riku left, staring up at Naminé.

We then decided together that Naminé was just plain weird, and possibly a serial killer.

We got back to Clouds place around three, I had to break in through the window, tripping over the boxes and landing on my face, before going back to the front door and letting Sora in.

"You really need your own key," Sora said, his eyes were laughing at me.

"Are you gonna help me unpack or what?" I asked grumpily.

My twin smiled at me and nodded.

We unpacked the boxes under the window first, just in case.

My brother helped me decorate the unfurnished room with all my miscellaneous stuff. After about an hour the room looked very lived in. Posters of random bands and video games were on the walls, the single bookcase was filled to the brim with books and games. There was a small TV on perched on top the dresser. The closet was full and there were shoes shoved underneath the bed.

We stood back to admire our handiwork.

"It looks kind of like Riku and mines bedroom!" Sora laughed.

"It looks like home," I nodded, liking how the room looked and felt. It was comfortable and very similar to how my old room was.

Sora and I remained in my room for most of the afternoon. We ate, drank, and just hung out. It was nice, and I really didn't realize how much I had missed him until we were completely alone with each other. We really just talked about bullshit, but it was comfortable.

"So when do you think Riku is coming back for you? He said around ten, right? Wouldn't it be better if you just stay over for the night and leave tomorrow?" I asked, taking a swig of my cola.

"Nah, I think it'd be better if I go home tonight, Riku and I have been having some problems lately." He shrugged to himself, looking at his sneakers.

I arched an eyebrow at him, "what do you mean?"

Tap, tap, tap.

"You were serious about the window visits," Sora chuckled.

I sighed and got up from my spot on the floor. Only one person (so far) knocked on the window. I forced my heart to calm down, knowing that it wasn't Axel.

Olette smiled at me from the other side f the pane before I lifted it for her.

"Are you still grounded?" She asked, twirling a piece of hair around her finger.

I immediately felt guilty over my little lie. I was avoiding everyone for the past week. Olette just wanted to be my friend, and she seemed too nice to lie to. Her entire aura reminded me somewhat of my mothers.

"No, I'm not. Why do you ask? Do you want to hang out or something?" I asked her, running a hand through my hair to move it out of my face a bit. Olette just blushed before giving me a mega-watt smile.

"Wow Rox, already making moves on the girls." Sora's voice caused Olette to literally jump. He showed up behind me, leaning against the windowsill, giving the girl before us a charming smile. "You must be Olette. Roxas didn't tell me that you were so cute. I'm Sora."

She blushed harder (if that was possible), "It's nice to meet you." Olette looked at the two of us, going back and forth, it's obvious that she noticed how we look almost identical.

"This is my twin brother, he came from the island with my stuff this morning," I explained, because I knew the question of if we were related was bound to come up.

"Oh wow! Mom mentioned you had a brother, but she never said you two were twins. That's really neat," she grinned this time, seemingly more comfortable now than she seemed a few minutes ago. "Anyways, I came by to ask you if you wanted to come over for a bit? Mom wants to really meet you. Sora, you come too, I'm sure that'll make her really happy."

So somehow Sora and I found ourselves trekking across Twilight Town to its only flower shop. All because damn Olette reminded the both of us so much of our mother that we couldn't say no to her.

"We live upstairs," Olette explained, "I help mom sometimes with the store, but Marluxia works here with her most of the time."

The flower shop was...cute, since I can't think of a more masculine word to substitute that with. Behind the register, preening some flowers, was a man with hair so light brown it almost looked pink; he was wearing the shops mandatory apron and had a content smile on his face while dealing with the plant.

His blue eyes looked up at us when the chime went off.

"Good Afternoon!" He greeted airily.

"Hi Marluxia, is mom down here?" Olette smiled at him.

"Aeris is upstairs Olette, making some tea." Marluxia answered, giving Sora and I a sly, almost knowing, smile.

"Okay, thank you." We followed after Olette quickly, that Marluxia creeped both Sora and I out.

If one were to walk towards the backroom of the flower shop they would notice another door that most would assume was a closet. Unless you noticed the padlock on it. We went up two flights of stairs until we came up to another door that was identical to the first downstairs.

"Sorry, this is really the quickest way. The real front door is on the side of the building away from the main road. This door leads straight into the kitchen." With one last turn of the key, she let us in.

Her house was exactly what I had expected it to be, cozy, warm, and inviting. It practically screamed "this is home."

I could see how a person like Olette, like Axel, could grow up here. The home oozed with love.

Aeris was in the living room watching the news, she was wearing a summer dress which started out white on the top and gradually faded to dark pink at the bottom. Her shoes were pink flip-flops and she wore a pink bow in her brown hair. She had a motherly face, with her bright green eyes that showed nothing other than tender love.

This home was so comfortable; I never wanted to leave this place.

"Hey mom," Olette greeted casually, "brought Roxas and Sora over."

Olette looked a lot like her mother.

My brother and I watched semi-awkwardly from our spot at the kitchen archway. Aeris had seen us and placed her hands over her mouth.

"Oh my goodness!" She gasped. At the same time, the kettle went off.

Olette had left us alone with her mom at the dining room table, Naminé had called and it was deemed as 'important'. Aeris gave us cookies to go with her tea.

"I'm so sorry about your mother," Aeris said kindly, "when I had heard...it wasn't what I expected. Tifa had always been so strong in life."

"You knew mom?" I asked, taking a nibble of a cookie. It was good.

Aeris nodded, "oh yes, of course. We all knew each other ever since we lived in Midgar. We as in Tifa, Cloud, Cid, Barret, Vincent, Yuffie, Nanaki, Cait Sith, my husband and I. We were a very close group of friends, maybe one day you'll get to meet the others."

Sora and I exchanged curious looks.

"I've always been wondering this," I paused for a moment, trying to find the right words, "what happened that...why did Cloud and mom split up?"

"How long were Cloud and mom together exactly in the first place?" Sora asked after me.

"I guess I'll start from the beginning," Aeris looked into her teacup, "Cloud and Tifa grew up together in a little mountain town, they were next door neighbors. When their homes burned down they left for Midgar together. Cloud joined SOLDIER, and Tifa went to school to become a martial artist. After a while she met Barret and they decided to open a bar, a hangout spot for everyone. It was called 7th Heaven."

It was odd to hear all of this, learning so much about my mother's life from a total stranger. As a child, one never really realizes that their parents did in fact have lives before them. It's a startling revelation.

"Yeah," I nodded, "she told us about the bar. She even opened a juice bar back on Destiny as a sort of tribute to it."

"Well after the bar was opened and a decent success in the sector seven slums, Cloud ran into Tifa again. Tifa was twenty, Cloud was twenty-one. I only remember their ages so well because I met them around this time and I was twenty-two." She blew on her tea to cool it down, "when sector seven's slum collapsed in on itself we were all there in the movement to help rebuild Midgar. Your mother took in all of the orphans that were left over from the slums collapse. It was a just cause. She made sure they had a place to stay and a warm plate while child services figured out what to do with them....Your father helped too, but had a habit of coming and going whenever he pleased. He was working as a delivery boy for Cait Siths company at the time. He never picked up his phone back then."

Aeris smiled to herself, seemingly lost in her memories for a moment, "it was an argument that was the last straw for Tifa. Their argument was over the phone. On one of the rare times that Cloud picked up. I was in the other room with Axel, tucking him in for a nap and could hear Tifa yelling through the thick walls. If your mother was the same with you as how I remembered her, she never yelled."

"No," Sora agreed, "she didn't."

"I'm not sure what they were fighting about, but the next thing I knew was that Tifa stormed into her room and began packing her things. I tried to talk her out of it, but she refused to hear anything about it. Promising to contact me when she reached her destination." She heaved a heavy sigh, "Cloud went searching for her. He searched for years and always came back empty handed."

I felt pity for Cloud, and horrible at all of things that I thought about him. I knew Sora felt worse.

"None of us knew that Tifa was pregnant until about five years after she left, she sent me a letter with a photo of you two." Aeris smiled at us, "you guys were so adorable! Making a little sand castle...I knew right away that you were Cloud's. I gave the letter and picture to Cloud. He was...devastated...to say the least. It was more upsetting that the envelope had no return address."

Sora and I sat there, staring at her quietly, our cookies and tea forgotten.

My whole world felt like it was crumbling in on me, everything felt distorted and out of place.

I had the strong urge to throw up. And after glancing over at Sora I realized that I wasn't the only one.

Olette came back into the room at that exact moment, "hey guys, Naminé wanted to know if you wanted to hang out tonight? Everyone's going to be there, it's going to be like last time."

Sora was on the verge of dry heaving, so I looked over at Olette, "we're going."

I think, after hearing all of this, I really needed a drink.

TBC

ECK: I really hated how this chapter turned out. All of that stuff about Tifa and Cloud wasn't supposed to be written; in fact I had originally planned for Leon to be the one to tell Rox everything in chapter 4. But I figured, with Sora there it'll make more sense. And I guess this kind of helps with what's going to happen in the next chapter.

Please review! They keep me alive! (Flames are always welcomed.)