A/N: Axel's POV.

Okay, if I would've known this night was going to be so painful, I would've been smart and just waited to take Xion out to dinner and a movie, like a normal, sane person would. At least there I wouldn't have had my crush confession interrupted by a kid falling out of the sky.

"Vanitas?!" Xion practically shrieks.

"Hi, Xi," he tries to be cute, still sitting on my back. There's another kid too, a girl splayed on the ice, writhing like she's having a seizure – why isn't anyone doing something? She's flickering like static on an old TV when Ralph scoops her up and rushes her out of the rink. Do I have a concussion? That's the only explanation that makes sense.

"Don't 'hi, Xi' me! What are you doing here?!"

"Uh… ice skating?"

We're going to get kicked out. I hope we get kicked out. I hear footsteps bolting towards us now – but wait, we're on an ice rink. Why would there be footsteps?

"I'm calling Father to pick you up right now—"

"That won't be necessary," a deep voice interrupts Xion. That's funny, it sounds a lot like—

"Saïx!? You too!?"

He lifts Vanitas off of my back. Much better. Now to struggle my way back up…

"My apologies, Xion," Saïx says. I wish I could see more than his non-skated feet; is anyone going to help me up? ….Whatever. I perform the intricate surgery required to untangle my laces and yank the ice skates off my feet. Ahhh. I don't care how cold it is, I'm never putting those awful things on my feet again. Xion could kiss me and I still wouldn't… well, I can't promise my resolve's that strong.

I reach up for the handrail and pull myself to my feet. Saïx and Xion and Vanitas are arguing about something; I can't process it right now. And here comes Aqua, weaving through the thinning crowd. Looks like this is going to be a family affair.

"How did he even get here?" Xion challenges Saïx, about Vanitas, I guess.

"I'm a ninja," Vantias interjects smugly, apparently not caring that he's in trouble anymore. Well, no one can get him in trouble if he's gone – and it only takes him half a second to squirm from Saïx's grip, dart across the ice (magically not slipping), and disappear out the exit.

"Should someone take me to the hospital?" I ask vaguely, still not sure I don't have a concussion.

Xion squeezes my hand. "Someone should take Vanitas to the hospital…"

"Did you see that girl a second ago?" I ask. If that wasn't in my head, I'm probably alright.

"The… glitchy one?" She confirms uncertainly.

"So that did happen?" Good, I'm not losing it. I'm a tough Axel; I can take a little blunt force trauma. But that doesn't make it make any more sense.

"What just happened?" Aqua asks, finally reaching us. Terra trails behind her, wobbly on his skates.

"Vanitas. That way." Saïx points to the rink exit, and Aqua asks no more questions.

"Ugh, seriously? Aquaaa, I'm not a pro, I can't go that fast…" Terra tries to catch up with her, but it doesn't look like he'll have much luck. If she'd been here sooner, she could've caught Vanitas before he escaped.

It only now occurs to me: where's Kairi and Sora? Not that I could catch up to Terra and Aqua anyway, but before I can ask anyone, another girl demanding answers appears.

"Saïx, what's going on? Is your brother alright?"

Wait, wait, wait. Out of everything that's broken my brain in the last five minutes, this part breaks it the most.

"Jasmine Sultana?"

"And you're Axel, right?" She spares me a second, then returns her attention to Saïx, who doesn't look irritated at her presence. Only, if anything, embarrassed. Whaaat.

"Vanitas is fine," he assures her. "My sister Aqua is taking care of him. Hopefully she will have more luck than I…"

"Okay, I get that you were chasing your psycho brother, but what's she doing here?" I point to Jasmine. Not the most polite thing, but under the circumstances, I don't really care.

"We're on a date," she replies simply, smiling. But I'm not watching her – I'm watching Saïx, who's staring steadfastly into the ice, like he'd rather be buried in it than standing on it.

"But- but-" I stutter, "you said you'd rather wash out your scar with salt! If you liked her you could've just told me, I only would've made fun of you for, like, a day—"

"No," Xion interrupts me in a shaky whisper.

"'Scuse me?" I look towards her at the same time Jasmine's balking, "With salt!?"

"No. You're not really here to go out with Jasmine, are you?" Xion's gaze, fixed on her brother, is colder than the ice under my sock feet. "You're here to spy on me."

"What a ridiculous notion," Saïx immediately dismisses her. But I know that dismissal. It's the same dismissal I got when I asked if he fed the stray cats that hang around his house. A total lie.

It takes a second to sink in. "Wait, you… she's right, isn't she?"

"You took me as an excuse!?" Jasmine fumes. "I knew you had to be hiding something! You wouldn't change your mind just like that – I'm such an idiot!"

Saïx winces from her betrayed rage – as far as I know, he's never gotten that from a girl before. It puts every other kind of rage in perspective. I almost feel sorry for him. I would, if he hadn't lied to me, too.

"You said you trusted me." My voice is flatter than I'd expected. After kids falling on me out of the sky, I guess this doesn't have as much of a surprise factor. "Did you just wake up and think, 'Hey, I feel like screwing with my best friend today'?"

"And your sister," Xion adds, sounding even more mad than Jasmine, just in a quieter, more intense form. Honestly, it kind of scares me. It takes a lot to get her mad; the only other times I remember have been because of Vanitas.

Jasmine crosses her arms. "You're got five seconds to explain yourself."

"Okay, don't you think he could use a little more time?" I try to defend him, but she keeps counting.

"Four, three—"

"Let's just go," Xion says, her voice cracking. That's when I realize her quiet intensity was just an attempt to hold back tears, which are now pooling in the corners of her eyes. Crap. I don't think any amount of Damage Control on my part can fix this, but I try anyway.

"Hey, we're civil people, right? Give him a second. More than a second, I mean." Still, I glare at my best friend, who doesn't even try to meet my gaze. "I don't believe he's completely heartless." Please, Saï, don't prove me wrong…

Xion's not in the mood to condemn him anymore, anyway. She's shrinking back against the wall, like she'd rather not be here at all. I resist the urge to take her hand, in case it makes things worse.

"Well?" Jasmine demands.

Everyone finally calms down. Or at least waits. Jasmine would probably be tapping her foot if it wasn't stuck in her skate.

"What do you want me to say?" Saïx asks defensively, coldly. He's stalling, fanning the flames. It's dumb – girls are too emotionally combustible. And me, I'm feeling pretty combustible myself.

"Maybe that you're sorry for being a lying jerk, for starters." Jasmine's face is about as red as my hair.

"I never lied to you," Saix defends.

And there's the spark.

"Dude, seriously?! You lied to me, at least! And your sister! Sheesh, just apologize already! Is that too much to ask?"

What's his problem? Just standing there in his dress shoes, staring at the ice, this dead look in his eyes. "You would be asking me to lie again."

I catch Xion shaking her head out of the corner of my eye. "No, no, no… it really was too good to be true…"

I don't comfort her. I should be comforting her, but instead I'm yelling at her brother. "You are completely heartless! What's wrong with you?! It was just one date – Xion's first date! What did you think I was going to do, sneak out and take her clubbing? We're with my sister and your other sister at an ice skating rink, of all the unromantic places to go on a date – what did I screw up, Saix?" My voice suddenly cracks like a bird hitting a glass door. Yelling'll do that after a while. My next words sputter out hoarse and pathetic. "What did I do to make you stop trusting me…?"

He has the nerve to look guilty now. Now that it doesn't matter, because now I have screwed something up. There's a black-uniformed employee skating over to kick me out for "creating a public disturbance," as if Vanitas and that girl falling off the balcony didn't do that already.

I glance around, hoping vaguely that I'm not the employee's only target – where did everyone go? It's just me and Saïx…

"I believe you frightened her off," he has the nerve to tell me as he stares at the exit.

"I scared – wait, Xion! Wait!" She's a ninja on those skates, bolting for the exit while dodging the few other skaters still left on the ice. "XION—! Please..."

I reach out vaguely, even though it's obviously too late. She doesn't even turn around. Then she's gone… I think I see Jasmine following behind her, not that it matters if Saïx's date ditched him too. He deserved it.

"Why, why, just when I thought I'd finally done something right…" Xion was right – it was too good to be true. I kick my left skate across the ice, where Gene trips over it and lands sprawled like a starfish. So at least I have that to laugh about while I'm being banned from this place for life. Not that I'd ever come back anyway.

"Because you have me as a worthless best friend," Saïx replies, voice low.

"Ha," I retort mercilessly. "I wouldn't count on that right now."

His face flushes, but I don't have time to pay attention, because the employee I saw earlier finally gets here.

Only it's not just any employee.

"Aqua?" I ask, checking her blue hair sloppily shoved under a black 'Radiant Skate Center' hat. I didn't know their uniforms were supposed to have hats.

"Look, you either had to deal with me or Calhoun. You're lucky I left my uniform here." She pauses to glare at Saïx. "You're also lucky Father doesn't know about this. Yet." Her mouth is set grimly. Saïx visibly winces. It's finally starting to sink in. Too bad his big brain didn't realize how dumb this was in the first place.

"Come on." Aqua drags us both out, after making me pick up my skates. I wish I was in the mood to chuckle at Gene. Maybe Ralph will get a kick out of it whenever I get the chance to tell him.

I get to put my shoes on, and I grab Xion's while I'm at it. Maybe it'll give me the chance to talk to her, smooth some of this over… Not that (most of) it's my fault, but I don't think Saïx plans on doing any smoothing.

I glance at him while we're being marched past the skate-counter, through the arcade, towards the front doors. His head hangs limply, like he lost the top of his spine along with his dignity. His hair hides his face. I can only hope there's a speck of regret under it.

Just as I think Aqua's going to shove us out the doors, we take a sharp right-hand turn.

"Hey, wha-?"

Aqua shoots me a funny look. "Did you forget someone?"

Should've known she wouldn't let me take the Walk of Shame home, or at least get a ride from Saïx. No, we've gotta drag everyone back in the Rainsmell. Well, I am still holding Xion's boots. One more excuse to try and talk to her… I can't let my nerve break before I even try, but picturing her wet face is enough to make me want to bury myself six feet deep. I've comforted her before, but never when the tears were partially my fault. She might not even want to see me – no. Forget everything else, we're still best friends. She won't hate me. She won't hate me… Then again, I thought that about Saïx, too.

We're led into a narrow hallway where Terra's standing guard next to the girls' bathroom. His face lights up when he catches sight of Aqua.

"They're, uh, still in there," he tells her, shifting uncomfortably. I can hear why – sniffling is filtering out from under the thick wooden door.

I barely resist punching Saix. He's the smartest guy I know, so why is it that when it comes to girls' feelings he's so dumb?

"They?" He asks.

"Xion and Jasmine," Terra says. "Hey, did you really say you'd rather pour salt-?"

Saïx's eyes flash poison yellow. Aqua and I time our intervention perfectly – she clamps a hand against Terra's mouth while I drop Xion's boots and restrain Saïx against the wall. I'm barely strong enough to hold back his berserk outburst, which makes him punch me in the gut. Seriously, fate, destiny, heaven, whatever – what did I do to make today nosedive into a mutant-shark-infested acid ocean?

I slug him back, straight in the chest, before I get a handle on my non-berserk, regular-people anger. Lucky for him, my fist is only powered by that anger and reflex, and it skids off without making him flinch. …I really need to work out more.

Aqua pushes me out of the way and holds his shoulders firmly, elbows braced against the insides of his. She's like a machine, how controlled and nearly programmed her movements are. I can't hear what she murmurs to him, but it takes the sparking yellow glow out of his eyes. His fist unclenches.

"…An apology seems quite inadequate at this point," he mumbles, almost below the range of human hearing. "But I apologize none the less."

"Uh… okay?" Terra must not have a clue what's going on. It's not like Saïx would tell just anyone about his condition.

"You're getting there," I tell him, rubbing the bruise blooming on my stomach. I'll think about forgiving him when I'm in a little less pain.

"I'm going to check on Xion," Aqua says. "You boys behave."

As the bathroom door squeak-creak-BANGs shut, Terra mumbles, "Sheesh, she acts like we're her Little Dragons…"

"Y'know, I think at this point that would be a compliment." At least when those little kids she teaches martial arts to act up, they just punch and kick each other. They don't go behind their best friends' backs and ruin their dates and send their sisters off crying to the bathroom. And then punch them on top of that.

After that, silence holds us hostage. Saïx doesn't want to meet my eyes, and I'm not sure I want him to. I wish Terra would leave so we could have it out now and get it over with. But I can't think of what to say anymore. He apologized. That was what I wanted. He can't turn back time; I can't turn back time, no matter how much I want to. Maybe just staying friends with Xion would've been better than this…

I remember the sensation of her hand in mine, and I take the thought back. There was something there; I know it. I'm not going to let one mistake stop me from finding out what.

"…I did lie to you," Saïx finally speaks up, surprising me.

"Oh, really?" I snap. "Never woulda guessed." In the back of my head I know it doesn't help, but the anger's still there.

He grimaces. "I would not rather wash my scar with salt than spend time with Jasmine."

Of all the things he could worry about lying about, he picks Jasmine? "Dude, if you're admitting you like her, it's kinda late."

"I am aware." He pauses thoughtfully. "Regardless of whether or not I 'like' her, she did not deserve this mess."

"She – she?!" Apparently I wasn't finished combusting. "Did I deserve it, Saïx? Did Xion? I know I'm not perfect! I know Xion could do a hundred times better than me! But I'm trying, Sai. I'm trying to be better, and if I have to get a hundred times better before I'm like her, I will. I – I actually li—" I bight my tongue. Ow. I should shut up. He doesn't need to know, he doesn't need to know – but he has to, doesn't he? If I ever want to be with Xion, and not go crazy with guilt, I can't keep this secret from him.

Before I can steel my nerve to admit anything more, Saïx sighs. It's like the last breath someone would exhale before finally giving up living.

"Somehow I knew this would happen." He closes his eyes. "But I could not tell if I would be happier if her feelings were unrequited… but it does not matter how I would be happier." He shakes himself, a shiver that looks kind of painful.

I almost wonder if he's trying to guilt me. He's good at that. "You act like it's the end of the world."

"Axel," he says, sounding suddenly exasperated. "Imagine if I were to date Kairi."

Ewwww. I gag reflexively. "That's totally different!"

"How so?" Saïx retorts. "Kairi and Xion are the same age, are they not? As are you and I."

"Yeah, but—! That's not the point!" One year's hardly a difference anyway. "Me and Xi are already friends, you and Kairi have said, like, ten words to each other." Okay, that's an underestimation, but they don't really get along. "Hey, where is Kairi, anyway?"

"I'll find her and Sora," Terra volunteers immediately. Oh. Whoops. Kinda forgot he was there… Whatever, I don't have to care what Terra thinks… though he did almost hear me confess to liking Xion.

"Thanks," I call weakly as he practically sprints away. Saïx picks up where he left off.

"Still. Can you begin to understand my situation?"

I didn't even imagine him thinking this is as weird as him and Kairi, but he might have some point… I think about Kairi in general. I know Sora's a good kid, and she's a good kid… I gave her the Axel Stamp of Approval. Like I have the right to approve or reject any date – and if I can, why can't Saïx? Am I really the same as him? No, because—because—

"It's me you don't approve of. Right?" I realize. If he wanted to try to stop Xion from dating anyone else, I wouldn't care. (Actually, I'd be ecstatic, but that's not the point.) "I'm the problem. You still don't trust me."

He's rejected me. He's said I'm not good enough – and even if I'm not good enough, I can't help hating it.

He's so still. I wish he'd get mad again, and say it's stupid for me to jump to conclusions, and explain why I'm wrong. But he doesn't.

"I didn't," he admits. "Not at first. But I did observe you somewhat throughout the night. You have done nothing wrong."

"Then what's the problem!?"

"Can't you see?" Saïx says slowly, like I'm going deaf.

"No, I can't, Sai! I'm not a mind reader! Unless you're really concerned by the tiny age gap…"

His sigh is more like a growl. "Fine. Let me spell it out, if that is what it takes. You have always been prone to waste time courting various girls—"

"Come on, that's—!"

"—which," he ignores me, "was only a minimal issue, since they typically ended as quickly as they began."

"Thanks for reminding me." I roll my eyes.

"However, if you were to date Xion, and it were to go well…"

Am I as deaf as he thinks I am, or is he just not making sense? I'm still not sure I get it. "You're worried about me 'wasting' time with her…? Wait, are you jealous?"

He's silent. His face could be made of stone for all I can tell.

"Okay, I just gotta make sure, just in case, I mean, I think I'd know, but—"

He rolls his eyes, as if he expected this. "No, I am not homosexual."

"Whew." I breathe a sigh of relief. "That could've been awkward, huh?"

"For the record, I have no interest in any romantic relationships. My interest in Jasmine is of a platonic nature."

I have no idea what Play-Doh has to do with dating, but whatever, at least I don't have to worry about the possibility of a gay Saïx. "Wait, then why are you jealous?"

He sighs. "I suppose I should not be. But the fact remains that it will not be the same. My sister will always come first for you, and you will always come first for her."

Ohhh. Finally, I can start to see what he's talking about. I put a hand on his shoulder. "You're still my best friend, Sai. Nothing's going to change that."

"Perhaps not." His posture relaxes from rock-stiff to tree-stiff. So a little improvement.

"And hey, I learned my lesson after Larxene! Just because I like Xion doesn't mean I'm ditching you. I'll still make time for Guy's nights." I lightly punch his shoulder. Then, too late, I realize I just dropped the three words I'd been trying to dodge. I like Xion. That's when I finally admit to myself that it's true.

Saïx doesn't even look surprised, still just a bit grumpy. But he usually looks kind of grumpy, so things are looking up again. "I will count on that."

"As long as I can count on you not to do this-" I wave my arm in a general 'everything' motion, "-ever, ever again."

"I too would prefer to avoid this in the future," he replies hesitantly.

I'm not sure I've completely convinced him yet, but I don't have time now. Aqua and Jasmine are finally coming out of the bathroom. That cringe-inducing squeak-creak-BANG again.

"Where's Xion?" I ask immediately. The two girls share a glance.

"We can't get her to come out," Jasmine says bluntly.

"What? You can, can't you?" I ask Aqua.

"She… well," she glares at Saïx, "she can be stubborn when she's upset."

"She won't even come out to talk to me?" I'd been a little distracted with Saïx, but I should've wondered what was taking so long. Has this really been so much of a disaster that she won't even let me try to mop up?

"I thought I would give her some time to calm down," Aqua answers. "The rest of you may go eat at the food court. I'll stay here in case she comes out on her own."

I should stop. I should be patient and wait to see if this all blows over. But I have to know now, more than ever, if I finally screwed everything up for good, if my conversation with Saïx was too late.

"Axel," Aqua warns, catching the look in my eye. I pick up Xion's boots.

"Give me ten minutes."

I shove open the door to the girls' bathroom.

A/N: Next chapter will be from Xion's POV. I'm estimating there should be two to three chapters left.