Rox3l: Please ignore any mistakes, I will fix them eventually.

~O~

Roxas woke slowly, not sure what had pulled him from sleep. He rolled onto his back to find that Axel, who had been there when he had fallen asleep, was gone. He sat up and looked around the room. It was empty. Frowning Roxas slipped out from under his blankets and shivered a bit as he stepped onto the chilled floorboards.

"Axel?" He called softly.

There was no answer so he turned and headed for his bedroom door. He reached out to grasp the handle and as soon as his fingers touched the faux crystal there was a loud thump from above him. He glanced up at the ceiling listening as the footsteps began to make their way across the attic floor. His brow furrowing he opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. There was a soft glow of light from a nightlight that his mother had plugged into the hall wall so that no one tripped or fell down the stairs during the night. Roxas walked out and stood under the pull down ladder, he paused for a moment before grabbing the box from the wall away and sliding it over. He stood on it and grasped the rope and gave it a yank. The hinges gave a whining protest as he pulled the ladder down, it folding out as he pulled the rope down enough. He secured the ladder before he stepped up onto the first rung.

"Axel?" He whispered into the darkness.

Nothing. The footsteps continued so Roxas took a breath and stepped up to the next rung, slowly making his way up into the attic. This time instead of just poking his head in, he pulled his whole body up and stood almost terrified in the blackness. He opened his eyes as wide as he could, trying to see. The room was empty and went way back. Roxas made a move to go further into the attic when something caught his arm. He gasped, heart in his throat and turned his head to see Sora. Relief flooded though him at seeing his brother.

"What are you doing up here?" He asked in a harsh whisper.

"I could ask you the same thing," Sora shot back. "What are you doing up here?"

Roxas shook his arm out of Sora's hold. "I heard something."

"The footsteps?" Sora questioned.

Roxas nodded in the dark and the realized that his brother probably couldn't see it. "Yeah."

"I heard them last night too but I was too scared to figure out what they were." Sora grasped the fabric of the back of Roxas' shirt as the blond moved further into the attic. They could both hear noises as if someone was moving around in the darkness but as they moved further into the room the noises moved back away from them. It was like an odd game of cat and mouse. As they neared the back wall of the attic the noises suddenly stopped and the silence was deafening. Sora gripped Roxas more tightly as they came to a stop in the now quiet attic. They waited for another moment before Roxas turned to go back and screamed, falling to the floor with a thump. Axel was standing there looking down at him with near glowing eyes.

Sora crouched down next to his brother in a panic, "What? What is is?"

Roxas tried to swallow past the pulse in his throat and shook his head, "It was nothing." He said in a breathy whisper. "I thought I saw something and I freaked for a moment."

He watched Axel, who was standing there almost sadly just looking at him. All the teasing and smiles from earlier were gone and he had a transparency to him. Roxas could make out the rafters behind him. He looked emaciated and defeated. Roxas didn't know who this Axel was, but it sure wasn't the boy he had met earlier today. Pulling himself from the floor he stood and watched as Axel turned away and faded into the dark. After another moment, Roxas -with a terrified Sora glued to his back- made his way back to the door and climbed down the ladder. As he folded the ladder and lifted it towards the ceiling Roxas was confused. What had Axel been doing up in the attic? And why did he look so different from when he ad been in his room? Roxas didn't know what was going on and he was slightly afraid. Axel had died in such a terrible way, and for him to still be here must mean something not good.

Sora was watching him with frightened eyes as the springs in the ladder finished folding up and fell into place, the door to the attic shutting with a click. Roxas turned back to his brother and just looked at him. They both silently agreed that they were going to tell no one about what they had heard in the attic. Sora -who would have teased Roxas relentlessly had he came to him with this story before a few moments ago- felt like his world was a little less solid. He had never before believed even for the slightest moment that there were things in this world that were unexplainable. But after having been in the attic with footsteps and noises in an empty room that seemed to move with them, seemed to have a intelligence to it. Well, it was more then enough to freak the poor brunette out and have him questioning what he thought he knew about the world. After a brief moment of having Sora terrified to go back to him room alone Roxas returned to his own, slipped inside and shut the door. He turned to see that Axel had not come back, feeling just the slightest twinge of disappointment. Where did ghosts go when they disappeared anyway?

~O~

Axel sat alone in the basement. He didn't like it down here, too many bad memories. Even though everything that Ansem had kept down here was gone, the impression in the room was still the same. Emptiness, fear, oppression, anger, lust, pain. He wasn't sure why he was down here, but running into Roxas in the attic had shaken him. He wasn't used to being seen, and no one had lived in this house since his death so it was even more unnerving that the first people that had, had a boy that could see him. Don't get him wrong he was glad to finally have someone to communicate with, but after 10 years of solitude it was hard to adjust to living people. It had been so long that he had began to forget what it was like to be human. And he certainly didn't know that touching a living being would feel the way it did. It was like, if only for that short time, he was alive again. As a ghost he couldn't feel anything, but when Roxas has touched him it was like the sensation of touch came flooding back all at once. He hadn't meant to be so crude about what it felt like. But going 10 years without feeling so much as the wind on his face to the warmth of someone touching him, had been more than he had been ready for. It was kind of embarrassing now to think that it had given him a stiffy.

This house and all it's memories...he hated that he was stuck here, in this place, with all that had happened to him. And what was worse was now a little blond that he was massively attracted to was living in his old bedroom. He didn't want to be creepy. Their little talk that afternoon had been awkward as hell. And he was pretty sure that Roxas felt sorry for everything that had happened to him, even if he didn't know any of the details. It was nice that Roxas was trying to be sensitive to what he assumed happened, but Axel didn't want pity. He also didn't like that Roxas knew he had been sexually abused. It was still a sore subject to him. Not like he could talk out the abuse with someone the way that Reno had been able to. No, Axel had died and had had to go on with the memories and hatred for the last 10 years alone. And now, with Roxas, Axel was at a loss. He wanted more than anything to befriend the little blonde, but even though they had spent an afternoon together pretty pleasantly he was unnerved by the invasion of privacy when he had stumbled across him and his brother in the attic. That was his space. Where he went when the darkness inside his head became too much.

He closed his eyes and when he opened them he was back in his room. Roxas was tucked under the covers of his bed, his form moving slightly as he breathed. Axel walked over to the bed and placed his hand on Roxas' exposed shoulder. The tingling sensation ran up his arm and he stifled a gasp, Roxas moaned under his fingertips. After a moment Axel pulled his hand back and the human stilled. The redhead lifted his hand to stare at his palm. Why was is like this to touch a living being? He had never thought to try before, so he didn't know if it was all living things, or just Roxas. Though as he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that it was probably just Roxas, as the little blonde was the only living person that was able to see him. Which probably translated into being the only one able to touch him. So, did that mean that if they both wanted to they could have sex? Axel scowled at himself. Why was that the first place that his mind went? He wanted Roxas' friendship first and foremost, so why did he think about him and the blonde in that way? He didn't know, wasn't completely sure he wanted to face the answer to that question right then. So he moved away from Roxas' bed and sat on the loveseat that they had shared earlier in the day. Curling his long legs under him Axel rested his head on his chest and watched as the younger boy slept.

~O~

Roxas woke slowly. He was not a morning person and his adventure into the attic with Sora at four in the morning had broken his sleep cycle so he was extra cranky as he pushed himself into a sitting position. Casually he glanced to the side and jumped in shock and fright as Axel was sitting there watching him. His hand flew to his chest, "Jesus!" He cried. "Don't do that."

Axel's brow furrowed, "Do what?" He asked innocently.

Roxas threw his covers off and swung his legs over the side his the bed, "Don't just sit there and watch me sleep. It's creepy."

He saw Axel's features color, "Sorry. I was actually sitting here trying not to be creepy."

Roxas laughed and shook his head as he went over to the cardboard box that still held all of his clothes. "Okay, well from now on no watching me sleep. It's too stalkerish for me."

Axel held up his first two fingers in salute which made Roxas laugh all the more. Axel grinned and was glad that there wasn't and residual tension between them. Though he couldn't be sure that it wouldn't return once Roxas brought up running into him in the attic. Nonetheless he watch as the blonde sorted though what he had in the box and finally selected a shirt and a pair of pants. Axel assumed that Roxxas was going to as him to look away or something as he changed but to the redhead's surprise the shorter shucked his sleeping pants without so much as a glance in Axel direction. Caught off guard by this Axel politely looked towards the other side of the room as Roxas dressed. Even though Roxas was wearing boxers (which more than covered what needed to be covered) there was something intimate about seeing someone standing there in their underwear.

"Not very modest, are you?" Axel pipped up while studying the odd wallpaper.

Roxas turned to look at Axel, his shirt held between his hands. "We're both guys, we have the same equipment. Just because you're a ghost doesn't mean I am going to treat you any different."

An emotion that Axel was confused with touched his heart. He was endeared by Roxas' reply. As much as the youth was uptight and easy to rile, he really did have a good heart under it all. Axel's face twisted into one of self loathing without warning and the wonder that had touched him slipped away under the deep rooted fury. "I was raped." He said bluntly. "I was sexually abused by my stepfather. That doesn't change your perspective towards me?"

Roxas looked confused as he slipped his shirt over his head, "No." He said slowly. "Should it?"

For reasons that he didn't know he became infuriated with Roxas. He wanted to pick a fight with the blonde for absolutely no reason. The realization made the taller pause. Just moments ago he was touched that Roxas wanted to treat him just like everyone else, now he wanted to fight with him over it. It didn't make any sense. Axel watched in silence as Roxas continued to get ready for school. He watched him put on his socks, run a comb threw his unruly locks and unhook his phone from the charger. After all of his things were gathered he turned back to Axel. He gave the ghost boy a small smile and said that he would be back after school. Axel nodded and watched the other boy slip from the room and shut the door quietly. He remained on the little sofa for what Roxas' iHome told him was four hours. Time didn't mean anything to the dead so it barely felt more than a few minutes for Axel. He was still trying to figure out why he had been so eager to throw what he had gone through in Roxas' face this morning.

He couldn't figure out what he had been thinking, or not thinking it seemed. Maybe, his mind churned slowly, maybe he needed someone to tell him that it hadn't been his fault. That no matter what he had said to Ansem that he was not responsible for what had occurred. Maybe he needed someone to finally say to him 'I'm sorry that happened to you but it is not your fault. He was the adult.' Self disgust rose up in his stomach like hot bile. It had been his fault. He had given in to Ansem's advances. Hell, he had even asked for it a couple of times. He knew what he was, he was a whore. A filthy, nasty person for enjoying the things that Ansem had done to him. He was a slut for orgasming from being fucked by his step father. He buried his head in his arms and felt dirty and lost, and hated himself. Memories rose like wisps of smoke, and the more he tried to swat them away the more they swirled and became more insistent. Until he was whimpering with one particular nasty memory of when they had been moving into this place and Reno had been away at a friend's house. It had been just him and Ansem moving the furniture from a storage unit. They had gotten there and Ansem had taken him inside and shown him a towel on top of...well he couldn't remember exactly what it had been on but Ansem had sucked him off in that storage unit.

He had felt so dirty, so much like the whore Ansem accused him of being after that. Axel garnished his teeth and sunk them into his arm to silence the terrible screams that were caught in his throat. Why now were these horrible memories insisting on plaguing him? He had been dead for 10 years and had manged to keep them at bay. Why now, that someone finally could see him, were they coming back to him? Was it because of Roxas that his psyche decided that these were things that needed to be dealt with? Axel let out a sobbing breath, unaware of when he had started crying. His chest was in immeasurable pain, if he had been alive he would have been afraid that he was having a heart attack. No, he knew that this pain was emotional, no physical. He had half a lifetime of abuse that was demanding that he come to terms with. And it was all because of a cute little blond boy that could see him.

~O~

Roxas hated to admit it, but he was really liking his new school so far. For once he had begun to make friends easily. For the second day in a row Roxas and his two bothers sat with Hayner, Olette, and Pence at lunch. He felt comfortable around the other kids, and opened up pretty quickly to them. So when they invited him to go to the arcade after school Roxas happily accepted. He was so looking forward to the end of school, that his last class of the day seemed to drag on for hours. By the time 2:30 rolled around Roxas' eyes were glued to the clock and he was counting down the seconds. Finally, the bell rung and Roxas shot out of the class room and was halfway down the hall before most of the other kids had managed to put their things in their bags.

Roxas headed for one of the side entrances and waiting just outside the doors for the other three to get there. He was anxious. He didn't make friends like all his brothers did (not that he wasn't popular he just didn't seem to get on with a lot of his peers). So that he had clicked so fast with these three made him pretty excited. After five or six minutes Olette emerged from the building giving him a small smile. "Hey, Hayner and Pence can't come with. Hayner got a call from his dad and had to go home and Pence got detention for I don't even know what."

Roxas drooped around the edged at her news, "Oh."

She gave him a bigger smile, "I'm still free. Did you want to hang out at my place and work on homework? I know it's not the arcade but we will never hear the end of it if we go alone."

The male brightened, "Oh, yeah. That's fine."

Olette brushed a few loose strands of hair out of her face and lead the way down the steps and headed across the street. Roxas followed behind her and they were both a bit silent as they walked to Olette's house. After about ten minutes the girl stopping in front of a large apartment building. She pulled a set of keys out of her pocket and opened the front door, holding it open for Roxas. He entered and the brunette instructed him to the second floor. He climb the stairs and waiting on the landing as the girl came up behind him and opened the door with a different key. They went inside and Roxas was stunned by the beautiful interior decoration. Olette explained that her parents both worked for the national museum and were avid history collectors.

She then led the blonde into the bedroom off of the living room. It was pretty basic compared to the common spaces of the apartment. There was a bed, a TV, and a computer desk complete with what Roxas was sure was a very expensive computer. Olette had no posters or wall decoration other than her Jr. High diploma. She threw herself down on the bed and sighed for a moment before she sat up and began pulling books out of her bag. Roxas sat down at the computer desk and also removed a few books. He had been ahead of them at his old school but that didn't mean that he didn't need to do the paperwork. Opening his world history book he glanced over the chapter he was supposed to be reading when his mind wandered to Axel. He looked over at Olette and decided that she seemed more likely to believe him than anyone in his family or who he had met so far here.

"Hey, Olette? Can I ask you something?"

The brunette girl didn't even look up from her textbook. "You just did."

Roxas gave a little huff, "You know what I meant."

She looked up at him with a smile, "Yeah I know what you meant." It faded though as she saw that Roxas was serious about whatever it was he wanted to say. "Yeah, sure go ahead."

Roxas hesitated for a moment. "Do-" He faltered. "Do you believe in ghosts?" As soon as the words left his mouth he felt stupid.

Olette looked at him strangely for a moment but seriously contemplated his query. "I believe that something must happen after you die. That there are some things in this world that are unexplainable. Why?"

Roxas shifted in the plush chair, "If I tell you something, you promise not to think I am crazy?"

Feeling a little crept out by this boy she barely knew she nodded. Roxas took a deep breath and held t for a moment before letting it go and looking Olette right in the eye. "Axel is a ghost. He's been haunting that house since he died. And I am the only one that can seen him."

Olette stared at him for a moment before breaking out into laughter. "What? Do you seriously want me to believe that? I mean, I just told you that story yesterday."

"I know!" Roxas said indignantly. "I got home from school yesterday and he was all 'my name's Axel, I died in this house. '"

Olette's laughed began to fade and there was a few moments of awkward silence before she spoke again. "You're...you're not joking, are you?"

Roxas shook his head vehemently, "No. I'm not."

Olette gaped at him, as if unable to truly comprehend what she was being told. "What does he want?" She asked after another moment.

Roxas shrugged, "I think he's just lonely. He said no one has been able to see him in ten years."

"I'm not surprised that he would be lonely. That sounds lonely. Do you think he needs help moving on?"

Again Roxas shrugged, "I don't know. He told he there aren't really any rules to being a ghost. Though I am pretty sure it probably has to do with the way he died."

Olette nodded and flipped herself off the bed, coming to stop next to Roxas, turning her computer on. "There are a couple more article about what happened, if you want to read them. I did a report on everything because it was the biggest recent scandal that we had had here in a very long time. I found the autopsy report, the things that were done to him before he died are unbelievable. He was beaten, raped and then violated with a broken bottle..." She shuttered in disgust and fell silent as she brought up a folder filled with information on the case.

Roxas sat there and read through every article, though he decided that he was not going to look at the medical examiner's report. He didn't want those thoughts in his head when he went home and had to interact with Axel. The trail had go on for over a year, the defense trying to drag it out as much as possible. Reno had, on top of the states charges sued Ansem for intentional infliction of harm and had been awarded two hundred thousand dollars after the trial had ended. It had taken the jury 6 hours to come back with a guilt to all 27 counts. Ansem was sentenced to 3 life sentences and was currently serving his time in an upstate prison without the possibility of parole. There wasn't much information in the articles about what Axel had been like in life. Though there was a very nice obituary with a nice picture of the redhead. It made Roxas really sad to read about Axel in a series of newspaper articles.

After he was done reading he turned in the chair to face Olette who had gone back to her homework. "Sad, isn't it?" She asked chewing on the end of her pen.

Roxas gripped his biceps, "It's so surreal. I almost don't believe it. How could anyone do that to another human being?"

Olette shrugged, "I don't know."

Roxas shivered, but not because he was cold. He couldn't imagine what it was like to die in the manner that Axel had. Alone, in pain, probably filled with hate and not understanding why this man, this man that had vowed to protect him, could be the one to do these things to him. No wonder he was still here.

~O~

Rox3l: Okay! So I will let you know right now, this is not an easy story for me to be writing. A good chunk of what I am describing Axel having gone through is from personal experience (and before you ask, the bottle thing is made up). I am sorry that it took so long for this chapter to come out but I had a bit of trouble figuring out if I wanted to time skip or not, had a bit written, trashed it, then ending up with a block.

But here is chapter 3 and I think it's longer than even chapter 1, so yay! Review if you like, fav, follow and all that. :)