Author's Note: YEESS! I FINALLY GOT TO POST THE CHAPTER! I just love how fluffy it turned out to be. This is the only chapter I actually planned out in the beginning, too. I hope you guys like it~!

Axel: (in his emo corner) Do I get a chapter yet?

Me: Yes, Aku-chan. You're in this one. :)

Axel: (squee)

Chapter 8

Pyros Don't Like Water

"Life is a rainbow. You need the sun and rain to make its colors come out."

"So Roxas, I heard you and Sora have been together for a while. A month, am I right?"

The blonde turns around at the sudden question, releases the tension in his eyes and smiles at the red head behind him. Roxas chuckles. "Lemme guess, Olette told you?"

"No. My sister did."

His sister? As in... Kairi?

Roxas's heart nearly stopped beating. "Oh god..."

"Look, I'm not mad or anything." Axel takes a sip of his water bottle and leans up against Roxas's now closed locker. How he managed to smuggle any kind of beverage past the hall guards, he'll never know. "Just kinda confused as to why I'm the last person to know."

"Axel it's just that..."

"Just that what?" he asks, a scowl in his voice that made Roxas well aware that when he said he wasn't angry, clearly he was lying. The red head had Roxas cornered against his locker, an arm on either side of his shoulders locking him in so he couldn't avoid the question. "It so big a deal that you two are together you didn't want to tell me? We're bestfriends, Roxas. You know you can't hide anything from me."

Roxas tries to mimic the anger in his friend's eyes. "Why are you pissed off about this?"

"Because my best friend is hiding things from me; why do you think?"

"Axel, I don't see the big deal..."

His face gets closer to Roxas's, his tone of voice growing more and more wrathful by the second they stared into each other's eyes. "The big deal is you've been hiding this from me for a month. A freakin' month, Roxas."

"So! Since when does my love life concern you?" Roxas pauses a minute, thinks his words through. "You know what else I don't get?"

"What?"

"Why is it you care so much if Sora and I are dating?"

Things get quiet. Like scary quiet. Roxas didn't like it one bit. He could see the slightest flush of red on his best friend's cheeks and an unreadable expression written across his face. The arms that had Roxas cornered into his locker slowly fell back to the red head's sides. Axel takes a deep breath. It took him a lot not to just blurt everything he wanted to right then and there.

"I don't."

Roxas watched as the red-head disappeared in the crowd of people in the halls.

What was that about?

Sora started to notice something unusual.

He hadn't seen Axel around their dorm, and Roxas hadn't been out as much as he usually is for a couple days. For the past two days, his roommate just got back from classes and read in silence. Sometimes Sora would sneak over and read with him, sometimes he got back and Roxas was sleeping.

Did something... happen?

Everytime he asked Roxas about it, he wouldn't say anything. He didn't really talk about it, and when Sora asked in specifics about Axel he just gave him a kiss and told him not to worry about it.

That only makes him worry more.

Night had fallen.

Dorm masters were already doing their dorm checks, room by room to make sure no one had snuck off during the night. It would have been an incredibly successful night; no one had gotten out of their dorms and not a single student was out of place.

That is, until the check room 125.

"We're missing a student." Cloud said with a sigh, crossing his arms across his chest as he stepped out of the abandoned dorm.

"Which one?"

"Axel."

Reno chuckles and takes a look out the window. "And that surprises you?"

"..Reno, where is he?"

"Just leave it alone, Cloud."

"You didn't exactly answer my question."

He turns to his blonde friend and chuckles, a devilish grin on his face. "Room 108."

"Please excuse my intrusion." the red head mumbles to himself.

He scanned the room quickly, until his eyes stopped when they saw a little blonde wrapped in a frenzied checker-board blanket. Axel smiles, takes a deep breath and slowly makes his way to Roxas's sleeping form.

The blonde teen was truly a sight, even unconscious like this. His hair, still spiky and crazy, was messy; the hairs on the back of his neck statically clung to his pillow. Those stunning azure eyes were shut gently, his lips parted as he took little, short breaths. Moonlight grazed his creamy vanilla skin, shined the tiniest bit of light on his face. Axel smiles, brushes a few loose pieces of hair from his face. His hand never came back to his side, though; instead it gently cupped his cheek. He watches an unconscious Roxas lean into the touch, a slight smile creeping onto his parted lips.

"Man..." he whispers to no one in particular, then takes in another deep breath. "You're so cute, Roxy. I know how much you hate it when I say that, but you're adorable. The most beautiful thing I've ever laid my eyes on."

The unconscious boy groans sleepily, murmur something along the lines of, "I'm not cute..."

Axel laughs, takes in the beauty his friend was emanating. "Oh, but you are. I've always thought that about you. Every minute of every day since we first met in grade school." He pauses. "Actually, I've thought a lot about you lately. You haven't left my mind for the past 3 years, and man is it getting a pain. I can't look at anything without it reminding me of you." He points to the window, the sky waiting behind it. "The stars remind me of your eyes, even though they don't come close to the shine in yours. Every face I see I want to be yours. You drive me to the brink of insanity sometimes, kid. But... for a while, I didn't get it. Why are you always on my mind? What did all theses inner thoughts mean? Well, I talked with Reno about it, and..." his voice trails off when he hears Sora tossing in the bed across the room.

He waits a minute until he hears the light sounds of snoring and continues. "...he said I'm in love with you, Roxas." he lets a breathy sigh, uses his free hand to hold the blonde's. Roxas stirs a little, but quickly softens his expression when his friend runs his thumb across his bottom lip. He unconsciously moans the most hushed, hardly audible sound possible, which brings a smile to Axel's lips. "And I realized... he's not wrong. I got mad at you because, well, let's face it; I'm a hot head. I was jealous of Sora, I suppose. D-Don't get me wrong, he's a nice kid, and I want you to be happy but..." the grip on his hand tightens a little.

"Can't you be happy with me? I-I'm in love with you, Roxas. I have been since one day and I'm always thinking of you. If you want Sora, that's fine with me but... I just want you to be happy. I needed to tell you all this; I'm tired of holding all these stupid, mixed emotions back. I love you, Roxas. I really do..."

Axel looks down at his face again, takes in his love's beauty, and kisses the top of his forehead gently. But his lips, like his hand, never left his face and instead began to involuntarily travel south more. They ghost over those parted, sleeping lips. Once there, he placed the most gentle, loving kiss on those lips, knowing that Roxas won't even remember any of this but at least he'd have the pleasure of knowing this confession... those loving words... they'll always be on his lips from this kiss. Of course, he wished Roxas was awake to openly receive it, but he was happy to finally kiss him either way.

"I love you. Never forget that."

And on that note, he was gone.

"...ra! Sora snap out of it!"

He immediately snaps his head up to reveal his angry Biology teacher staring him down with vindictive eyes. "Huh?" Sora rubs his eyes sleepily and lets out a long yawn.

"Mr. Hikari, am I boring you?" Vexen asks with a snarl. Something about his voice inflection suggested that he shouldn't be honest with his answer.

"I-I'm so sorry! I'm just a little tired, is all."

"Sleep on your own time." Vexen tears out a paper from his pocket, slams it down hard onto Sora's desk. The impact of his hand against the desk was so loud Roxas could probably hear it from the other side of the school... He checks the other side of it; a detention slip. "Might I remind you this is 9th grade, Mr. Hikari. NOT Kindergarten."

I love you. Never forget that.

Sora most certainly couldn't forget it. Hearing Axel's confession to Roxas last night... he hasn't stopped thinking about it since the moment he woke up and heard it.

He's been in love with Roxas all this time but... Roxas likes me. Gosh, why do I feel like such a jerk? Sora thought to himself with a grimace as he sat in the dull, lifeless room. No one spoke, no one moved; the detention hall was totally and utterly devoid of life. Some couples held hands under desks, friends made faces and mouthed words to each other from opposite ends of the room, but not a single voice rang in the air. It was monstrously torturous. Sora played with the loose strings on his T-shirt, twiddled his fingers, fidgeted in his seat to the point where the detention ward - I mean, teacher – asked him personally to stay still.

He's never liked the silence. That tends to be the time in horror movies when all the bad stuff happens.

So haunting was this silence, and yet he just wanted to sit here and suffer rather than face Roxas again back at their dorm. But... shouldn't I tell Roxas about last night? He deserves to know. But then again, what would he say? Would Axel be mad if I told him?

Maybe... he should just leave it alone. Maybe he just just let Axel tell Roxas in himself in due time. But on another note... Roxas has a thing for Sora, so...

How would this work out?

"I'm back..."

The young brunette tosses his bookbag across the room to his bed, slips out of his pull-over and sinks down on to the soft couch.

"Oh, hey Sora." Roxas replies from the top bunk of the bunk bed on the other side. He had his eyes glued to a paper-back copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, glasses on and everything. "And how bad did school suck today?"

"To be honest? Pretty damn bad."

"Oh? That's not like you. Something happen?"

A lot happened, actually. I just wish you would remember.

He lies, closes his eyes for a minute and yawns, still tired after a long day. "Nah... just sucked."

The sound of a book closing echoes across the room sends a sudden wave of panic running through Sora. He hears the faintest sound of feet hitting ground, light foot taps, and when he opens his eyes the blonde is on top of him, brushing their lips together ever-so-softly, staring him down with those all too familiar azure eyes. Their lips met, creating the most innocent, soft kiss, and for a moment Sora couldn't fight kissing Roxas back. They moved gently with each other, and gradually got a little bit more needing until those evil thoughts crept back into his mind.

Never forget that.

He shies away, turns his head to avoid oceanic-eyes. His heart pounded in his chest; he actually had it in his head that Roxas could hear it from so close. Tan cheeks flushed pink and he tries his hardest to calm his heart-beating, tells himself that he shouldn't react this way to him.

Especially not to Roxas.

"Something wrong?" the blonde asks as his lips graze over the brunette's soft cheek. He was a bit surprised that he'd retreated like this.

"N-No! It's nothing... really..."

"You're lying to me, aren't you?"

He blushes. "N-No... but can you get off me now?" And with that, Roxas obliges. He sits next to his roommate, still a bit skeptical of his brunette friend. "Fine. You sure, though? You don't seem okay..." Sora sits up too, hugs his knees in his arms and lets out a long sigh.

Say something, Sora. You have to tell him. His thoughts bark at him.

"Roxas... I think that we should stop doing these things." he gulps, tries his hardest not to look at him. Every minute of silence between them felt like hours dragging by.

"Ah. I see."

"It's not you... it's me."

Roxas suddenly breaks into obnoxious laughter. "Wooowwww, Sora. Very creative break-up line."

"W-Well what else am I supposed to say?"

If I tell him about Axel, then...

He chuckles again, his laughter cutting through the room. "Really, it's cool."

Really...? It's that easy?

"...seriously?" Sora asks in disbelief, raising an eyebrow unbelievably. "Y-You're not mad?"

"Why would I have to be mad about something like this?" Roxas leans back more, swings his feet up onto the table. "So we broke up. I don't see anything to get angry about. Sure I'm disappointed but eh. There's nothing exactly to be mad for."

Wow. "Are you sure you're not Jesus or something?"

"No Sora. Not Jesus, but as close as it gets." he laughs, wearing a genuine smile that Sora could tell that yes, he was hurt, but he was being honest when he said he didn't mind. The easy part was over but...

What happens now?

I love you. Never forget that.

Axel honestly didn't know what he was thinking that night. He felt good to get it off his chest but... he kind of wished Roxas were awake to hear it. He knew how Roxas would react; he knew how upset he'd be, that Axel'd probably ruin their entire relationship but... eh. He still wanted Roxas to know... holding something like that back for so long was killing him. Six out of seven years he's held back. Six. fucking. years. And Axel's usually one hell of a hot-head. How he'd managed to contain himself so long, he may never know...

The pyro felt something wet on his face. And for the first time in the past twenty minutes, it wasn't tears.

"A storm? You're kidding me..."

The red head grumbles as he treads through the gradually worsening storm, rushing from the football field all the way back to the dorms. He cursed himself for going so far out on a day like today; he was so busy being an emotional douche bag (yes I actually said emotional douche bag) that he didn't see the clouds moving.

Axel hates rain.

He can't help it. He's just always hated rain. The lightning is cool, and the thunder is music to his ears but rain? Rain is water. Water puts out fire. Axel likes fire. So rain?

No. Just no. Pyros just don't swing that way.

He bangs a left at the lunch hall, heading straight for the quad and towards the boys' dorms. Thunder echoed behind him, lightning snapped and he just sat there, trying to make himself ignore the rain and enjoy the other aspects of said storm. Upon finally reaching the dorms, he headed straight for the stair case. But when he saw room 108 beside him... he had that moment of "maybe I should apologize to Roxas but maybe not" and made up his mind to leave him alone.

His legs wouldn't bring him back up the stairs for about five minutes.

It was a miracle he didn't turn around once he got to the top and into his dorm. The pyro reaches for a light switch, turns the corner into his single dorm and noticed a blonde boy sitting on his bed.

Roxas?

"Hey Axel... I needed to talk to you, and you weren't in your dorm so I figured I'd wait for you to get back and..." his voice trailed off the second the room flooded with sudden light. The only sign Roxas had given Axel before he leapt into his arms were widened eyes and a flinch when the thunder came.

"Um... R-Roxas?"

He felt the younger boy pull back a little, cheeks deeply reddened. Roxas looks away from him, steps back as far he can. "S-Sorry about that..."

There was another clap of thunder and lightning. This time it was closer. Axel could hear the yelp his friend made when he jumped and buried his face into his arm for dear life. He could feel him trembling, and pulling him off his arm to wrap him in both of them he whispers, "Roxas are you... scared of thunder?"

"N-No... that's stupid. Only babies are afraid of thunder..."

Another clap. Roxas clenched onto Axel even tighter than before. The pyro chuckles softly, holding him close to himself in his arms and kisses the top of his head gently. "You big baby... it's fine. I'm right here." and when he said that, Roxas seemed to melt into his arms, still shaking the same as before but a bit more relaxed everytime his older friend shushed him and told him it's alright and that he's here.

He's always been there.

Axel: That's more like it. I finally get my own chapter.
Me: Noooooo, you share this one with Roxas. Your story comes later.
Axel: (not-so-subtle arm around Roxas) I'm fine with sharing.
Roxas: ...
Me: Sharing is caring, ya' know. And btw, when I said Chapter 9 is about you I lied. But you do play a part in it.

Axel: ...

Me: Yeah, you hate me ^_^ Read and review, guys.

Axel: (sharpens the chakrams)