~*Hey everyone! So I just gotta say thanks to all of you who have reviewed the past couple chapters, I really appreciate it! c: I also wanted to say sorry I haven't updated much in the past month. Things have been a little hectic with prenatal visits, work, and all that taking up my time. Anyway, that being said, I'll try a little bit harder to update more frequently, since I know how antagonizing it is to wait for someone to update one of your favorite stories…I'm going through that right now haha. Anywhozziles, to answer a question I got on the last chapter, I'm actually changing small parts of the story (if I feel it's necessary) before I reupload it. I feel like I've really matured as a writer since I first started this story (hence the new account and whatnot), so I just wanted a chance to show everyone that ^-^ Now that that's all out of the way, enjoy Chapter 3! *~

Chapter 3: Thanks for the Help…I guess.

I whined lightly as sunlight shone through my window and onto my face, reminding of how bad I really needed to get curtains. Rolling over, I pulled the covers back over my head and closed my eyes as I tried to go back to sleep. I opened my eyes again and cocked an eyebrow as I heard giggling coming from downstairs. Riku must have spent the night.

I huffed and kicked the blankets off of my body, but stayed laying down. Seconds later, I heard Sora's heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. "Roxy-foxy! Breakfast!" he called from my doorway before dashing back downstairs.

I groaned, but got up anyway. If Riku was here, I knew for a fact that I would be late for school…and that was only because Riku would have Sora so distracted, my brother wouldn't carry out his normal routine of jumping on me continuously to get me out of bed. It was sad how much I depended on Sora's hyperactive energy to get me up in the morning. Making my way sleepily to the closet, I pulled out a clean school uniform and threw it on then draped my tie over my shoulders. I looked over myself in the full size mirror that was on my wall and shook my head after running my fingers haphazardly through my hair. I had learned long ago that my spiky hair was a permanent mess…it ran in the family. I then picked up my shoes and trudged down the stairs to the kitchen.

Sora was perched on the table in front of Riku and was holding a strawberry to the silver head's mouth. "C'mon, Riku, it's good!" Sora encouraged.

Riku stared at the strawberry for a moment before smirking and seductively licked the fruit before slowly biting into it, never taking his eyes away from Sora's. Sora shuddered and quickly pulled his hand away as Riku took the strawberry out of his mouth and laughed. Sora glared at him for a moment before finally realizing that I was in the room. "Roxas!"

I shook my head and walked to the pantry, pulling out a pack of Pop-Tarts and putting the contents into the toaster. "You two have issues," I mumbled to them as I poured myself a glass of milk from the pitcher that was sitting on the counter.

Riku laughed again and tossed the half eaten strawberry at me, which I dodged. "Real mature, Riku," I said as my food popped out of the toaster.

"You like it," Riku said, leaning back in his chair.

"No, that would be my brother," I countered.

Riku glanced over at Sora then smiled. "True," he agreed. He popped a strawberry into Sora's mouth as my brother started to respond and I couldn't help but laugh at him. Sora bit into the fruit with a pout and slid down into a chair while he chewed silently and glared at the table.

"Sora, stop trying to kill the table with your ineffective death glare," Riku said, standing up.

"It's not ineffective," Sora mumbled, standing up as well. "Are you going to come with us, Roxas?" he asked as he picked his book bog off of the floor.

"Mhm," I replied, finishing off my milk. I tossed the cup in the sink, threw my backpack over my shoulder, and followed after my brother, grabbing my breakfast along the way.

It only took a few minutes to walk to school and the three of us got there 45 minutes before the first bell rang.

"Roxas!"

I looked over and saw Xion running towards me as she waved. I smiled and walked up to her. "Hey there, Xion," I greeted her.

"Hi!" She turned to Sora and Riku and grinned. "Kairi and Naminé are in the gym," she told them before turning and running back through the door of the gym. I blinked as she ran off and stared at the door she had just disappeared through.

"Xion's hyper today," Riku observed.

I mumbled an agreement and the three of us walked though the gym doors. The thing about getting to school early was that you didn't have to worry about rushing around to get to class…at least not right away. You could just sit around on the bleachers with your friends and talk about whatever until the bell rang. So that's what we did. Me, Sora, and Riku made our way to the usual spot where our friends gathered and climbed up the stairs to them. Xion, Kairi, Naminé, and Olette were gathered together talking about God knows what while Hayner was talking sports to a bored looking Pence. Pence jumped up when he saw me and grinned. "Hey Roxas."

"Morning Pence, Hayner," I said as I sat down between the two groups. I turned to the girls and smiled at them, resulting in a giggle from Naminé. And it started. I wasn't sure if anyone ever told Naminé I was gay…okay so in reality I was bi and leaned more toward guys, but still. Naminé was my brother's best friend's cousin. That would be weird.

"Uh oh," I heard Olette whisper. I noticed that the other conversations had died down as well and Sora and Riku had moved protectively in front of me. That could only mean one thing…

"Little Roxy can't come out to play?" Seifer sneered.

"'Little Roxy' doesn't need to play with guys like you," Sora said coldly. I will admit, sometimes, my brother had guts.

"Stay out of this, runt," Seifer said back, just as coldly.

Sora's eyes darkened and Riku stepped forward till he was inches away from Seifer's face. "Back. Off." Riku warned.

Seifer smirked. "What will you do if I don't?"

Riku copied his smirk. "Are you sure you're willing to find out?" he asked sweetly.

Seifer narrowed his eyes and looked behind Sora at me. "You're coming over today," he said coldly, pointing a finger in my direction. Then turning to Riku he added, "Whether he wants to or not."

I saw Riku's fist clench as Seifer walked away and Sora leaned forward and tugged on Riku's shirt, silently telling him to sit down. Riku did and Sora cuddled up to him with a slight pout on his face.

"I'm not that much of a runt…am I?"

That school day passed pretty fast. I was too distracted by Seifer's after school demand to really think about anything else. I sighed and laid my head on the table. It was now lunch time and I was sitting at the usual table with Sora, Riku, Kairi, Xion, and Naminé. Naminé nudged me with her elbow and gave me a worried look when I looked up at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said quietly, laying my head back down. Okay, so it was a lie. Naminé seemed to know this too because she just sighed and went back to picking at her salad. A couple minutes later, I felt someone else nudge me, but this time it came from the other side. I looked up again to see Sora grinning at me as he held out a dollar bill. I stared at the money for a moment then back at him. "What am I supposed to do with that?" I asked him.

Sora rolled his eyes and shoved the money into my hand. "Go buy something to eat, Roxas," he told me. "You haven't eaten anything but those two Poptarts…and you didn't even finish those."

I stared at him for a moment before taking the dollar and standing up with a sigh. "Fine." I walked inside the kitchen area and headed straight for the freezer. There was only one thing that would distract me…and I was only hoping the lousy cafeteria had it. I scanned the contents of the freezer then grinned when I found what I was looking for. Sea salt ice cream. Sure, it sounded weird, but it was one of the best ice cream flavors in the world. I grabbed the light blue ice cream bar then went over to the cashier and paid for it before heading back to the table.

"Ice cream?" Riku raised an eyebrow at me as I sat down and ripped open the plastic. I stuck my tongue out at him and began sucking on the corner of the bar.

"C'mon, Riku. You know Roxas loves ice cream," Sora defended me with a giggle. "He's addicted."

"Am not," I mumbled around the frozen treat.

"Are too!" Sora giggled as he poked my nose. I made a face and slid down further into my chair as I continued sucking on my ice cream.

"So," Riku started as he picked at his salad with his fork. I swear, he was such a girl sometimes.

"So?" Sora repeated, leaning his head on his hand and staring at Riku. "So what?"

"So what are we going to do about Seifer?"

My eyes widened and I choked on a chunk of ice cream I had managed to suck off. "What…what about Seifer?" I managed to ask after my coughing fit passed.

Sora looked at me with a serious glimmer in his eyes. "You can't go over there Roxas. I won't let you."

I stared down at the table and nibbled on my ice cream some more.

"Sora's right, Roxas," Riku said. He put his elbows on the table and laid his head in his hands as he looked at me. "You're going to get hurt."

No really? When did they figure this out? But….it's not like I had much of a choice…right? I mean, what else was there for me to do? Just go up to Seifer and say, "Seifer, I don't really like this deal of yours…can't we just get along since you're graduating"? Pfft. Yeah right. And I would be over the desk being pounded into roughly for defying him in no time. Hell, if I went over there today, that's probably what would happen anyway. I sighed and swallowed the last bit of my ice cream.

"Roxas…" Sora started. Lucky for me, at that time the bell rang signaling that lunch was over. I jumped up, grabbed my bag and headed toward the door. "Bye guys!" I called over my shoulder. I wasn't waiting for a response. I just needed to get out of there. I knew they were right. I knew this was really bad for me. But, for one reason or another, I couldn't…no, I wouldn't try harder to end it. I was afraid of Seifer. And if this was the only way to keep his gang off my back….then what other choice did I have?

I sighed as I stopped by the water fountain. All of this stressing was making me thirsty. I yelped as I was suddenly pulled away from the fountain and slammed into a wall of lockers. "Ow," I whimpered. I opened my eyes as I heard the person responsible snicker, and I couldn't help but whimper again.

"Roxy! You're away from your little posse!" Seifer jeered. "About damn time. I was wondering if I was going to have to go in there and pull you away forcefully." He leaned down and inhaled against my neck then let out a breath that sent shivers down my spine. "Your little friends made quite the disturbance this morning," he said softly before nipping at my neck.

I gasped lightly and started to squirm to get away. Seifer stopped and glared at me, causing me to cease my efforts.

"Is there a problem here, boys?" a new voice suddenly said.

I looked over at the source of the voice…and stopped dead as I got trapped in bright, emerald green eyes. The owner of the eyes, and the amazingly sexy voice, was a tall redheaded guy. His hair was in long spikes that eventually pointed down his back, but only barely past his shoulders. He had a skinny frame that was dressed in a nice, white collared shirt, black slacks, and a red tie around his neck. And, like I said, he was tall. Like taller than Seifer. Okay, maybe not too much taller, but he was for sure taller.

I stopped gawking when Seifer released my shoulders to turn and face the guy fully. "Can I help you?" he asked, clearly annoyed.

The redhead merely smirked and placed a hand on his hip. "Well…ya see. I don't really like seeing people get picked on. It doesn't go over well in my book. So I suggest you let the kid go and head along to class or wherever it is you thickheaded football jocks go after lunch. Got it memorized?"

Seifer narrowed his eyes and stalked up to the other guy. "And what makes you think I'll listen to you? Who the hell are you anyway?"

The other grinned a little. "Name's Axel Price. I'm a teacher here. And a close, personal friend of Principal Saïx Xavier."

I noticed Seifer's eyes widen a bit and looked back to the redhead. Axel Price? Then that meant that this guy was Cloud's best friend! But what the hell was he doing in my high school telling off the captain of the football team?

Axel smirked again. "Commit it to memory, kid, because next time I won't go so easy on ya."

Seifer frowned again and went from looking at Axel, to me, and back again. And then he walked off.

I let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall. "Thanks," I said.

"Yep." Axel waved a hand and turned to walk away.

"Hey!" I ran after him and pretty much hopped alongside him as I tried to keep his pace. "Your name's Axel, right?" Pfft, of course his name was Axel. What kind of a question was that? But I had to find out if he was really who I thought he was.

"That's me," Axel replied.

"So…do you know Cloud Strife?"

Axel stopped walking and stared down at me. "Yeah, I know him…" His sentence died and he frowned slightly as he looked at me intensely. "Oh!" he suddenly exclaimed. "You're Spiky's little brother!"

I nodded and grinned. "Yeah. Roxas Key."

"Well, hey there!" he laughed, ruffling my hair. "No wonder you looked familiar. Damn, you've grown! You were like…tiny when I last saw you, man. Like…tiny. Like…" I could tell he was searching his mind for something tiny to compare me to, but he soon gave up and shrugged. "Tiny," he said again.

I laughed softly and looked his outfit over. "So…Cloud didn't ell me you were a teacher here."

Axel broke out into a laugh and I looked up at him in confusion. "Teacher! Yeah right! That was a little something to get macho man off your back there. I'm only an intern. A teacher's assistant really."

"Oh…so you're not really a friend of Principal Xavier?"

"Actually, yes! Me and Saïx were friends when we were little. I was on my way to see him so I can get assigned a class of brats to help with." He grinned at me again, before adding, "No offense."

"None taken," I replied with a grin.

"So, you should probably get goin', Roxas. Pretty sure class is about to start." As if to emphasize his point, the bell rang and Axel pointed up towards the intercom where the sound came from and smirked. "Told ya."

"Oh crap!" I turned around and ran in the other direction towards my art class.

"See ya, Mini-Strife!" Axel called after me. I waved at him and turned the corner in to the Arts hallway. And as I ran, my mind started wandering. Why had Axel helped me? No, I wasn't complaining, but why had a guy like that even bothered to step into something that didn't involve him in the least bit? Sure, I was thankful for him doing it…but that only meant things would get rough when I saw Seifer again. After all, there was nothing Seifer hated more than not getting his way right when he wanted.