Xemnas' office door opened, releasing yet another slightly frightened-looking hopeful. Only a little more than a month had passed since Organization Realtors had gained Marluxia, and the boss was already looking to add yet another member to their numbers. Apparently Axel's business with the Strife-Fair family had alerted the enigmatic businessman to the increase in the company's travel expenditures over the past little while, and he had decided it was finally time to branch out from Twilight Town into the rest of Eisner. There were a few companies scattered throughout the country – Heartless Real Estate in Hollow Bastion and the Settlement Corporation in Port Royal, namely – that were going under and could easily be bought out and assimilated into the Organization, with the right kind of help. So now Axel watched as applicant after applicant was shown into the Superior's office to interview for the seemingly somewhat coveted position working alongside Xaldin and Xigbar as the manager of franchising.

The redhead couldn't be bothered to care either way about the bold business move his boss was making. Franchise or no franchise, his was the name on the contract with Cloud, so he would be the one to see the transaction through. He was still trying to convince the blond man that the old mansion was the perfect place for him and his sons, and he knew that slowly Cloud was giving in to Axel's arguments. He'd already sent a flood of pictures via e-mail, and had spent days working out the best possible description of the gorgeous woodland surroundings, the stability and reliability of the framework, wiring, and plumbing, and subtly reminded the older man from time to time of the proximity of the property to Twilight Town's tram common so that his sons could easily get to and from the university campus in any weather. He just needed a few more pointers and Axel was certain the mansion would have a 'sold' sign slapped across the post out front.

Reminded by thoughts of the Strife-Fair family of his weekend duties, Axel glanced past the ancient picture of himself with his parents on a vacation to the Pride Lands and took note of the time on the company-issue clock on his desk. Smiling slightly to himself, the redhead logged off his computer and removed the laptop from its docking station. He shouldered his bag and made his way out of the office, waving to those he actually wanted to acknowledge, and stopping to speak briefly to Demyx. "Hey, I ran out of weekend feeder and I haven't had a chance to pick up more. Would you mind going in and feeding Chakram tomorrow and Sunday? I won't be home until late on Sunday, so he'd probably starve by then or something."

Axel was pretty sure it was impossible for Demyx to say 'no' to anything to do with fish. For some strange reason, he claimed that they were his favourite animal. He was the reason Axel even had the red beta to begin with. "No problem," Demyx replied with a grin. He reached out to take the spare key dangling from the redhead's fingers. "I was going to spend the weekend at Zexion's anyway, so I'll just pop across the street to check on him and make sure he's okay."

Axel wasn't sure what Demyx meant when he said 'okay.' To him, the fish was either swimming, or it was dead. It wasn't like a puppy; it couldn't wag its tail or lower its eyes to show emotion. But whatever, as long as the thing stayed swimming. "Thanks, man. I owe you, like, an entire case of drinks by now. Anyway, I gotta go. That is one long-ass trip on the ferry, and I just want to get it over with."

"It wouldn't take nearly as long if you would just fly, like everyone else."

"Hell no. I hate flying. I've already flown out there twice in the past month, and I refuse to do it again. So I will sit on a boat with my car – "

"You mean the company car. You're lucky your car makes it the ten blocks to work."

"Whatever. I haven't packed yet, and I've gotta be at the docks in less than an hour."

Demyx wished him a safe trip as he turned and resumed his journey out of the office. He picked up the keys to one of the three company vehicles from Namine and rolled out of the parking lot. Minutes later Axel was pulling the silver car into one of the guest spaces of his apartment complex. He made the trek up the three flights of exterior stairs to reach his apartment on the corner of the fourth floor. Turning the key in the lock of number 422, he walked in and flung his bag onto the plush chair to his right.

The redhead's bedroom, further into the apartment on the right-hand side, was exactly as he'd told Cloud: a disaster zone. It was hard to see the cheap imitation hardwood flooring beneath what was probably about a week's worth of dirty laundry. The bed was unmade, one of the pillows and the black bedspread precariously close to falling to the floor. Axel ignored all of this, kicking the clothes to one side so that he could open the closet easier. Out of it came his simple black suitcase, which was unceremoniously thrown onto the bed; it was soon followed by a pair of black dress pants and two – one white and one light grey – dress shirts. The dresser shoved against the wall opposite the bed provided the rest of the clothing needed for his weekend work on Destiny Island. Once he had retrieved the last of the necessary items from the bathroom across the hall, he lugged the suitcase into the living room area and set it beside the chair that still held his laptop bag. He moved to the desk in front of the wall and sprinkled food from the jar into the glass bowl on top of it.

"Well buddy, I'm off. Another weekend of sitting around, hoping someone will decide that they want the house." Axel smirked, remembering his last encounter with one of the aforementioned house's occupants. "At least that Roxas kid is letting me borrow books from him, for whatever reason. Kind of a strange guy, but hey, at least he's better than a fish, no offense." He shook his head, turning away from Chakram's bowl, picking up his suitcase and shouldering his bag once more. "Damn but I need a life. Almost twenty-two years old and living alone, talking to a fish."

This weekend was shaping up to be about as exciting as the last one had been. No one had shown up to wander through since the open house began an hour and a half ago. After greeting Cloud and Sora and bidding them farewell for the afternoon – the blond twin having already made himself scarce by the time Axel had arrived – the redhead had trudged up the stairs to Roxas' room and over to the large bookcases. A few moments of searching revealed where the book he'd borrowed belonged, as well as the rest of the blonde's collection of books by the same author. He'd headed back down into the living room clutching a copy of Eaters of the Dead. As much as Axel loved having the time to read peacefully – something he'd forgotten that he had enjoyed as a child – he really wanted to get this house sold. The sooner papers were signed for this place, the sooner Cloud had more pressure on him to make a purchase.

The sound of the front door opening made Axel jump slightly before he placed the book open on the coffee table in front of him, too lazy to insert the scrap of paper he'd been using as a bookmark. "Welcome," he called before actually turning the corner. "Come on in and – Oh." He raised an eyebrow. "You're really kind of missing the part of the concept where you're not supposed to be around."

"Huh?" was the intelligent response from Roxas.

"Talk about blank with a capital 'B'," Axel muttered. "The point of an open house is so that people can wander through the house and do that stupid thing with the light switches and ask all the dumb questions they want without the homeowners around to make them feel uncomfortable while they do it. Got it memorized yet?"

"Yeah, I get it," he replied, moving further into the house, toward the living room where the redhead had previously been sitting. "I wouldn't have come in if any people were here, but again, I could tell they weren't. So I came in to say hi, and see how you were doing with the book you borrowed."

"I meant to ask you about that, by the way, but you weren't around when I got here."

"Work," Roxas offered as an explanation.

"Right. Anyway, I want to know why you loaned me the book in the first place. Your brother almost had a heart attack when he found out, and your dad looked a little shocked, too."

"Yeah, and he wouldn't leave me alone until I told him. Sora, I mean, not Dad." The younger man didn't sound like the question was particularly welcome. "I tried telling him I was using you as a means to get over my possessiveness, but he didn't believe me. So I told him the whole story."

Axel was mildly amused at the way the blond was trying to avoid the answer. "And that was …?"

Roxas huffed, glaring at the tall man with narrowed cobalt eyes. "I'm a good judge of character, okay? I always have been. I could tell from talking to you that I could trust you. End of story."

"Okay then." This was clearly not the whole explanation, but Axel could be satisfied with at least a partial truth. He watched as Roxas moved to the new book, glancing at the cover to see what he'd selected.

"So you finished the last one? What did you think?"

"Not bad. A little unrealistic, but it's not the worst thing I could've read, I'm sure."

Blond eyebrows drew together. "Unrealistic?"

"Well, I mean, why the hell would you clone a raptor in the first place? Everybody knows they're hella dangerous."

Roxas shrugged and flopped onto the couch, the cushions making a whooshing noise as the furniture accepted his weight. He laid his head back, careful to keep his still shoe-clad feet off the couch, and turned to Axel. "Do you really care? If I'm here or not, I mean. I just really don't feel like being out today."

"And what if someone comes by to look?"

"I still have my shoes on. I'll just pretend to be looking at the house, like they are. If I lived here, I wouldn't have shoes on."

"And your uncanny resemblance to the boy in the pictures plastered around the place?"

Rolling his eyes and huffing again in apparent exasperation at the redhead's persistence, Roxas tumbled off the couch and marched back into the entranceway. Axel heard the creak of hinges before the other came back into the room, jamming a black and white baseball cap over his spikes and pulling the bill down to shadow his face. "Happy now? I'm a guy in his twenties looking to buy his first house with his girlfriend, who couldn't make it today. Maybe I'll even wander into the dining room and do the damned light switch thing."

"You're really stuck on that, aren't you?"

"It's weird."

He knew he wasn't going to win this, not with the other so dead-set on staying. "Fine, but you'll have to ask me something I can give an intelligent answer to. Y'know, to impress the prospective buyer and all."

"Done."

Both men resumed their places on their respective pieces of furniture. A moment of slightly awkward silence passed before Axel figured he might as well try to start a conversation, since it seemed his unexpected companion would be here for the remaining hour and a half until he left. "So, do you actually have aforementioned girlfriend?"

"Nope," Roxas replied, thankfully not offended by the way the question had been worded; Axel swore it had sounded better in his head. "Never will, either."

"Oh?"

"I'm gay."

"Oh."

Another awkward silence followed, this one more pronounced than the last. "That doesn't bother you, does it?" Roxas had turned his head to look straight into Axel's eyes, his expression a strange mixture of reservation and defiance.

"Nah," was Axel's reply, and his companion visibly relaxed. "I've got a few friends and co-workers who are gay. Actually," he smiled as the thought occurred to him, "I'm pretty sure my boss is in some kind of relationship with our Chief Operating Officer, and they're both guys."

"And what about you?" The couch creaked as the blond peeled himself off the leather and shifted into a slouched sitting position similar to Axel's, so that he was now facing the man. The taller of the two shook his head in response to the question.

"It's just me and my fish."

"But are you straight, or …?"

Axel shrugged. He'd had the question posed to him before on occasions when he went along with Demyx and Zexion somewhere. "I've only ever dated girls, so I guess that makes me straight. I mean, the idea of dating a guy doesn't send me screaming, but it doesn't require a cold shower, either."

"Fair enough. But wait." Roxas did the staring thing again, but Axel was getting used to it. "You have a fish? You don't really seem like a fish kind of guy."

"I'm not," the older replied, a bit shocked that Roxas was actually a good enough people-reader that he could pick up something like that. "My friend Demyx got it for me because he claimed I was lonely in my apartment by myself. I can't bring myself to intentionally kill it, so now I just have to wait until the damn thing dies. I've got Demyx feeding him while I'm gone."

Roxas was smiling a little, and it amazed Axel that it could light up the blonde's face so much, even under the shadow of the cap. "Sounds like something Sora would do. He loves animals. He's the reason we have Pluto and Red, and we'd have more pets if Dad didn't keep telling him that we don't have the space."

Suddenly, Axel had an idea that he was sure was the most brilliant thing he'd ever come up with. "Y'know," he began slyly, "that mansion property I told your dad about is pretty big. Your dogs could have their own room, and Sora could probably talk him into getting a couple more pets. And there's already a library in there, with those built-in bookshelves and the sliding ladders and stuff. You'd love it."

"Don't even bother."

This wasn't the response Axel was looking for. "What?"

"Selling Dad the house through Sora and I. It won't work."

He'd seen through the plan, evidently, and now Axel had to scramble for damage control. "Would I do that?" he asked, figuring the innocent act was the best solution.

"Yes."

"Damn, you are a good judge of character."

A shrug. "I try."

"So what is it you do?" Axel asked, determined to keep the conversation going. Roxas was actually turning out to be enjoyable company, with his blunt, honest manner and seemingly genuine interest in Axel. "You said you were at work earlier, and I think your dad's mentioned it a couple times…"

"I work at the skate store in the shopping district. Mostly I restock gear and try not to laugh at the little pre-pubescent kids trying to do tricks outside the window."

The taller man didn't think Roxas could really get away with calling anyone 'little,' since he and his brother both seemed to be somewhat lacking in height, but he didn't voice his opinion. "Cool. So I assume that you can actually skateboard, then?"

"Yeah, I've been doing it almost since I could walk, Dad says. My first board was a gift for my fourth birthday. It was that plastic chunky stuff, y'know? But I was the guy's first customer when he opened shop, and I've been his favourite customer since then, so when he was looking for some extra help, he gave me a call."

A timid knock came from the front door before the two men heard it open. They jumped up from the furniture, Roxas readjusting the cap so that it came down lower on his face. "Come on in," Axel called. "I'll be right with you." He whipped his head around to Roxas, mouthing 'say something' urgently.

"So," the blond began, moving to look out the front window, "you said this place has central air conditioning and heating, right? Does it also have a central vacuuming system?"

"No, Sir, I'm afraid it doesn't." Axel grinned before turning to their guest, a petite woman with bouncy brown hair. "Welcome, Ma'am. Feel free to look around the house. My name is Axel, if you have any questions…"

"Thank you," she replied in a bright voice, returning Axel's smile before drifting off to examine the rest of the house.

"Do you eat sea salt ice cream?" the blond whispered when the woman was far enough away that she wouldn't hear. At Axel's nod, he turned toward the entrance, continuing at a normal voice. "Thanks for all your help. I'll have to talk to my girlfriend about it, but the place looks a lot like what we're looking for. I'll be in touch."

The woman, who introduced herself as Selphie, had seemed very interested in the house as she toured it. She told Axel she was looking for a place where she and her family could live with and take care of their aging grandmother. Axel praised various aspects of the house, including the potential for the dining room to be turned into a bedroom if her grandmother had difficulty with the stairs. There were no stairs up to the front door, and the deck in the backyard had a ramp onto the grass. As she moved back towards the entranceway, she enquired about the other person who'd been there when she'd arrived.

"Well, I don't know," Axel replied smoothly. "He seemed really keen on the place, but he had to talk to someone else about it first. But if they agree, and the owner accepts the offer they put in…" She took the business card Axel offered her and thanked him, promising that she would contact him soon. "Have a nice day," the redhead called to her as she opened her car door, just for extra customer relation points.

Heading into the now-familiar living room, Axel wondered idly where Roxas had gone. Just as he'd sat down, the door opened and a familiar voice shouted wryly from the foyer. "I was afraid it was going to melt if she took any longer. As it was, the store owner was looking at me funny since I was in there so long."

Snorting, the taller man thanked the blond for the proffered ice cream bar. "I was wondering where you'd run off to."

"Missed me?" Roxas' eyes flashed with amusement, taking a tone that Axel could've sworn meant the younger boy was flirting with him. "I had to wait until she was gone to come back in. It would have looked strange if I'd come back and gave you an ice cream, and it's not like I could stroll over to the freezer and put them in there, either."

"True. I hadn't thought about that."

A blond eyebrow raised as both men unwrapped their frozen treats. "You have a surprising lack of common sense sometimes."

Axel shrugged and bit into his ice cream, not bothering to confirm or deny Roxas' observation. "So, sea salt, huh?"

"It's my favourite."

"Hm. You have to wonder who sat around and decided that salt would make a good ice cream flavour. I mean, on chips, sure, but a milk-based dessert?"

"You said you liked it. I would've picked up something else if you didn't."

"No, I don't mind it. It's just strange. Like this video game I saw part of once – I can't remember what it was – where they were flying around in a military academy."

Roxas nearly choked on his ice cream, which he had all but devoured during their conversation. "What?"

"Yeah! Like, who sits around and says, 'Hey guys, what if, instead of remotely normal modes of transportation, we take this giant school and make it fly?'"

"I have no idea."

"We're home!" Sora's voice echoed through the house, startling the pair who hadn't even heard the van pull into the garage. Roxas' eyes widened and he snatched the baseball cap off his head, ruffling his blond locks back into their normal spiky disarray as he jammed the headwear into the back pocket of his pants. Axel glanced at the clock, which read 4:05, as he felt Roxas grab the ice cream wrapper and stick from his hand. The blond dropped the garbage quietly into the wastebasket in the hallway as he went to greet his brother and father. "Oh hey, Rox. You beat us home! No, stay! Ah! Rox, could you grab the dogs and put them in the backyard?"

Axel moseyed into the foyer as Roxas passed by, simultaneously trying to keep the dogs from pushing him to the ground, and drag them to the patio doors in the sitting room. "Hey Cloud, Sora. How was your afternoon?"

"Good," was the reply from the blond man kicking off his shoes. "Sora, go help your brother with the dogs before something gets broken," he added to the brunet twin as the trio heard a thud from further in the house.

"Great news. A woman came by today who seemed really interested in the house."

"That's good."

"Yeah. So," Axel retrieved his book from the living room as he spoke, preparing to leave, "I gave her my card, and she said she'll be in touch. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow."

Cloud stopped him for a moment longer as he stepped onto the front walkway. "I was going to ask you… I mean, normally it might seem strange, but I'd almost consider you a family friend. At least more than a business acquaintance…" This comment made Axel rather happy, despite the fact that it was coming from an awkward ramble. Cloud must have realized he was rambling, since he'd trailed off before continuing. "Anyway, we were just going to order pizza for lunch tomorrow, so if you wanted, you could join us before the open house."

Axel blinked, surprised. Cloud was right, it wasn't an ordinary offer for a real estate agent and their client, but he liked this family. He nodded, with a promise to arrive on Sunday around noon.

Endnotes: So we've learned a little bit more about Roxas' character. Namely, he's good at reading people, and he's gay. I'm thinking of doing an interlude chapter sometime soon, either next chapter or the one after that probably, from Roxas' point of view. It's kind of hard to give another character's thoughts when you're focusing on another character entirely…

And we saw Axel's place! I really think the places we live are important, because it says a lot about who we are as people. For instance, my room is really dark blue (like, a couple shades away from navy), and is COVERED in posters. I have three bookcases, all of which are completely filled, and my dresser has more knick-knacks on it than I figured would actually fit there. I collect strange things that allude to the past, either mine or someone else's (like this tankard I have with an inscription of someone's name and platoon number on it that I bought at a flea market, or the bedpost sitting against my dresser from a production I was in during high school).

Actually, that's what I'd like to hear from my reviewers: I want to know how you decorated your room! I mean, I also want to know what you thought of the chapter, but that's kind of a given, y'know?

Review! And Happy Holidays!