Slight itty bitty warning on this because of like 2 swear words or something and a bit of child abuse (but there was some in the first chapter too so it doesn't really matter).

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Roxas realised that by the time he had reached school, Axel was gone. He looked around, hoping to see the redhead smiling at him, but also wishing that he never saw him again.

He walked through the school gates, passing all the other kids quickly, looking down at the ground, hands in his pockets.

He noticed a few of the students looking at him and whispering. He glared them out of the corner of his eye as he passed.

Roxas stopped in front of the building, and leant against it, pulling out the crumpled paper with his schedule and locker details on it. He scanned past the schedule and read the information on his locker.

'Number 332. South building, second floor.' It read.

He pushed himself off the wall and looked up at the sign on the building he had been leaning on.

'South Building'.

Roxas walked inside.

He grimaced, putting his hand on the perfectly formed steel. Roxas entered his code on the padlock, and swung open the door of the locker. It was the same on the inside. Perfectly formed, not a single scratch or gash on the entire thing.

He trailed a finger down the left side of the locker, and then smashed his fist into it. A large dent was formed and Roxas nodded to himself.

That was better.

Once he reached English, Roxas looked around the classroom for a spare seat, preferably not near anyone. He eventually chose one near the back, distanced from his new classmates.

As he sat down, Roxas noticed a few girls pointing at him and whispering and a group of guys laughing at him.

He sighed. It was just the same as before. They wouldn't understand, them and their perfect lives with their perfect families. Roxas suddenly wanted to yell at them all, to tell them all to just fuck off. But he couldn't. He could never do anything about anything. He knew that all too well.

There was also another girl looking at him. She wasn't whispering or pointing, though. She stared at him for a minute, quite thoughtfully, before turning back round to do something.

Throughout the whole lesson she did this, and it gave Roxas the chance to get a better look at her.

The girl had blonde hair that swept round onto her shoulder, resting just below it. Her eyes were the same colour as his, although slightly lighter. Roxas couldn't see what she was doing as she turned back round to her desk.

Once the bell had sounded, Roxas went over to where she had been sitting. That was when he saw the drawing.

It was a shoulder portrait of himself, but the boy in the picture was smiling.

Roxas stared at the portrait, mesmerized. He looked so innocent in the picture, so happy, like nothing could bring him down.

"Umm...I...er..." There was a voice coming from next to him and Roxas looked up to the see the girl that had drawn the picture. She was blushing, her cheeks bright red as she stared down at the floor.

He looked back down at the picture for a second, ignoring her stuttering, before looking back at her.

"You drew this?" He asked bluntly, pointing at the portrait.

"Umm...I...I didn't mean...what I mean to say is..."

"Did you or did you not draw this?" Roxas snapped, making the girl gasp as she looked up at him.

"I drew it..." She said, looking back down at the ground. "I didn't mean to offend you or anything like that...I just wondered what you would look like if you smiled..."

"What...?"

"It's just that I haven't seen you smile at all since you entered the room..."

Roxas started to wonder when he had last smiled. When was the last time he'd had something to smile about?

Oh yeah...now he remembered.

Before that happened.

The boy in the portrait wasn't him, not the him of now anyway. It was a side of him that hadn't shown itself since 2 years ago and Roxas began to wonder if that version of himself still existed.

He doubt it.

"I think you'd look really pretty if you smiled."

"Roxas, you look so pretty when you smile! You should do it more often."

"Pretty? I am a guy you know."

"I know. I just don't really know how else to describe it. Either way you look nice when you smile. Could you smile just a bit more? Please? For me?"

"O-okay..."

"Do you promise?"

"Promise."

Roxas shook his head violently. He didn't need to be reminded of these things now.

"What's wrong?" The girl was looking at him, slightly worried.

"It's nothing." He replied, looking back at her.

"If you're sure. Umm...I'm Namine." She said, smiling sweetly.

Roxas blinked, slightly confused. Did this girl want to become friends with him?

"I'm Roxas."

"What class do you have next, Roxas?"

"Um...art."

"Me too! Come on, we can go together!"

Before Roxas could respond, Namine had grabbed his hand and they were running out of the classroom.

Over the next few days, Roxas spent a lot of time with Namine. She would sit next to him in class, and eat lunch with him. In the mornings she would wait by the gate for him, and after school she would offer to do something with him.

Only once had she asked him about his injuries, the morning after they had met. Roxas had received several cuts on his arms and neck, and multiple bruises on his body the night before, all delivered by his parents.

Roxas had said that it was nothing to do with her, and she hadn't bothered him about it again.

Throughout those few days, though, Roxas hadn't been able to stop thinking about Axel. He would sub-consciously look around, hoping to see his face, yet praying that he wasn't there.

Axel stared up at the clouds above him, scowling at them as they threatened to drench him with a downpour. He leant back onto the wall behind him and crossed his arms.

Where was he?

Axel wasn't the type of guy to forget things easily. He could remember some of the smallest things, like the small pin he had owned when he was a kid.

And he defiantly wasn't going to forget the boy that had intrigued him so much.

Roxas.

And so here he was, outside the school, waiting for the blonde boy to show up and look him in the eye with those sapphire eyes.

Axel also wanted to know the cause of his actions the other day.

So he stood and waited, watching the many other students pass him in their gangs and groups.

30 minutes passed, and still Axel waited.

Another 10 minutes.

Then it began to rain.

Fortunately it wasn't hard, but it still messed with Axel's hair and dampened his clothes.

"Oh fuck it. Trying to taunt me now, are you?" He shouted up at the dark sky. "He'll come! He has to!"

That's right, since Roxas's house seemed to be the same way as his own, he had to pass here to get home.

Axel turned his head to the side and looked round. Then a figure came into view from round the corner.

Blonde hair framing a pale face, dripping from the rain, fists clenched to the extent of whitened knuckles and a face that contorted with shock, but mainly pain as he saw him.

Roxas turned and ran, and Axel ran after him.

The blonde boy skidded round the corner, and the redhead followed behind, both of them constantly slipping on the wet pavement.

Axel cursed over and over as he ran, squinting as the rain blurred his vision.

He could tell he was gaining on Roxas, since the boy seemed to be slowing down, and Axel guessed that he was probably faster than him anyway.

But Roxas kept on running, and Axel kept gaining on him.

Then Roxas tripped, falling down face first. He tried to lift his body back up, but kept slipping back down onto his knees. He grabbed onto the wall next to him, and hoisted himself up, his frail body shaking.

Axel stopped behind him. When Roxas tried to run again, the redhead grabbed his arm.

Roxas's whole body froze and Axel heard him gasp.

The blonde's body was ice cold and his breathing was fast and shaky. He was looking down at the ground in front of him so Axel couldn't see his face.

"...nngh..."

Roxas turned his head slightly, and Axel caught a glimpse of his face. Pale, almost white skin, eyes shut tight and wet tears running down his cheeks, dripping onto the already drenched pavement.

He was crying.

Axel carefully removed his hand from the boy's arm and back down to his side.

He wanted to hold Roxas in his arms and whisper kind words into his ear. He wanted to cup the fragile boy's face in his hands and stop the tears that fell from his eyes.

But he couldn't chase after him any more. Not when everything he did made the blonde's eyes all the more full of pain.

So all he could do was turn around and run.

Roxas listened as the footsteps behind him faded. Then he began to stumble back towards his house, shivering from the cold that the rain brought with it.

All he could think about were those beautiful green eyes, and it hurt so much.

He wiped his tears with his arm, but more soon fell.

Roxas soon reached his house, and opened the door cautiously with a shaky hand. He walked inside and closed the door behind him, seeing his father's displeased face as he did so.

"You're late."

Roxas stared down at the floor below him, "Sorry."

His father brought his hand up and forcefully slapped Roxas round the face, the impact causing the blonde's head to jerk round.

"Ignorant little brat." He grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him roughly up the stairs.

Roxas tried to resist, repeatedly trying to pull his arm away, but his father's hand was tightly clasped around it.

Then he was pushed down onto his bedroom floor, the door slamming shut behind him.

There was a click as his father locked the door from the outside, trapping Roxas in the tiny room.

The blonde grabbed the door handle and pulled at it, hoping it would unlock the door. After giving up on that, he banged his fists against it, yelling.

"Let me out! Let me out!"

His reply was a kick against the other side of the door. Roxas fell back, hitting his head on the corner of the table by his bed. His mobile was knocked off and it fell onto his lap.

Roxas picked up the phone and stared at the list of missed calls and voice messages.

22 missed calls, all from Sora.

That's right, Roxas recalled, he had never taken his phone off of silent. He wouldn't have been able to hear it when it had rung.

He dialled voice mail and let the robotic voice tell him about the messages.

"You have 4 new voice messages." Beep. "First message, sent Tuesday at 9:04 am."

Tuesday, Roxas thought, was day was it today? Oh right, it was Friday.

Wait...what?!

"It's just me!"Sora's energetic voice came through the phone. "You've probably just left your phone somewhere again, right? So call me back, k? Good. Bye, Rox!!!"

"Second message, sent Wednesday at 8:57 am."

"Umm...I hope your okay, Roxas. You still haven't answered any of my calls....please call back. Ok...well...umm...talk to you soon, ok? Bye."

"Third message, sent yesterday at 7:33 am."

"Roxas, please call me back! I'm worried. Please..."

"Forth message, sent today at 6:39 am."

"Roxas! You have to call back! Are you okay?! Please! I'm really worried...I..."

Roxas brought his knees up to his chest as he listened to the last message. Sora's voice was shaky and his breathing was uneven and fast.

"End of messages."

He dialled Sora's number quickly and put the phone to his ear. Roxas thought about how panicked his cousin had sounded.

Sora picked up after the first ring, "Roxas?! Are you okay?! You're not hurt are you?!"

"Sora calm down. I'm fine."

"I was so worried..." Sora's voice quietened to almost a whisper. "Have they hurt you at all since you left?"

"...No." Roxas said after some hesitation. He didn't like lying to Sora, but he didn't want him to worry any more.

"You're lying." The voice on the other end of the phone came almost immediately. "I know you are, Roxas. Where are you now?"

"In...my bedroom..." Roxas took a sharp breath in, remembering where he was. He hugged his knees with his free hand to try to stop himself shaking. "S-Sora, d-don't hang up."

"Ok, Roxas, I won't. Tell me everything."

Roxas told Sora about everything that happened since he had arrived in Twilight Town. He told him about the school, about how things were with his parents, about Naminè, and about Axel.

"What's Naminè like?" Sora asked.

"She's really nice, and she's also really good at drawing."

"Really?! Do you think she would draw me? I would ask Kairi or Riku, but they suck at it."

Riku and Kairi, Sora's best friends. Roxas always saw them when he went out with Sora, but he had never made an effort to become much more than a casual acquaintance to them.

"I don't know. She might, I'll ask her. Naminè drew me once, when we first met."

"Wow! What did you look like in the picture?" Sora asked, and Roxas could imagine his amazed expression.

"Happy." Roxas answered with just that one word.

There was silence between the two for a minute.

"So...umm...what about Axel? What's he like?"

"I..." Roxas thought about the two times he'd met Axel. Neither had ended well. "He hates me."

"What...?" Sora stopped talking for a second, as if deep in thought. "But when you talked about him earlier, it seemed like he was really nice."

"He is, it's just...his eyes...it hurts to look at them." Roxas winced, thinking about those beautiful emeralds that had looked at him in such worry.

"They're green, aren't they?"

Roxas was silent.

"Rox, you have to forget about it at some point. It's been 2 years now."

The blonde brought his knees closer to his chest and closed his eyes.

"I can't, Sora, not when it was my fault to begin with."

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Chapter two up! Yes, this will be my little comment box thingy from now on.

Anyway, plz fave and review! 3