A/N: Okay you people are going to hate me for this but...nvm, you'll figure out why youre gonna hate me in a few minutes. I'm going to apologize now and go to find my shield and hide...Thanx for the reviews!

The boy was dreaming again, thrashing in his sleep.

Dreaming? No. Having a nightmare is a better term.

The creature by his side, well accustomed to its master's fits, gently removed the little ones from harm, knowing from experience not to wake the boy.

The face above him, he always saw it. He was scared of this expression the most. Head thrown back, eyes closed, mouth hung open.

Another splitting pain. Oh how the boy wished he would be torn in half. With each thrust from the sweating man above him, the pain inside him shot up his spine, almost masking the pain of the flesh on his shoulders being split by the blunt fingernails dug there.

There were others in the room. Staring at the boy upon the bed, waiting to take their part of the boy. Their part of his soul.

The faces around him disappeared as the one above him changed. Now the one above him was another boy. Now it was someone he loved. Someone who loved him.

Shouldn't the pain be different if there was that buffer of the heart?

It wasn't. But the boy did this willingly. He was told he was loved, and so he gave himself over, body and soul.

That's what you were supposed to do for someone you loved. Right?

Roxas shot up, a scream lodged in his throat. That scream quickly faded into a sob that racked his body. And even that died soon. He was getting better at it. Silencing himself.

The room suddenly felt close. And hot.

The blonde began taking off his sweater planning on going outside for a few minutes.

Axel. Roxas remembered being surprised when the red head had come out that night. He couldn't risk letting anyone see what lined his back…and his arms.

After a moment of thought, the window in the living room was decided over actually going outside.

As he walked from his room, shirt now forgotten on the bed, he noticed Hoshii and the pups curled in the pillows at the foot of his bed.

His only thought was how Hoshii suffered each time his dreams became too much to handle. Each time his memories took hold of his sleeping mind as they had his waking life.

It was too quiet, even with the window open to the midnight (3 AM) traffic.

He turned on the radio by the TV, being too drawn to pick a cd.

The song that was playing slowly filtered into the room.

Another sob hit the boy. Then another. Soon, tears followed. He didn't stop them. What was the point? As long as the song was playing, he would have to listen. It echoed in his mind as he let his tears and sobs lead him down a number road. Not quite sleep, but the best he was going to get…

Back when I was a child
Before life removed all the innocence
My father would lift me high
And dance with my mother and me and then
Spin me around till I fell asleep
Then up the stairs he would carry me
And I knew for sure I was loved…

…

(A/N if you have not heard "Dance With my Father" by Luther Vandross, it is an amazing and heart wrenching son.)

Axel's POV

"Took you bloody long enough." I grumbled as I silently closed Roxas' door behind me.

"What? I'm here aren't I? And speaking of which…Nothing happened while I was gone did it?" Any normal person with a normal brother might have taken that question differently. Not me…

I tried to hit him on the head, missed (he's fast alright?!) and settled for kicking him the shins.

"What? Is it wrong for me to ask?" The kick had barely fazed him…probably because I hadn't really tried…oh well.

"Yes. Half the time Roxas was gone anyway and the other half he might as well have been." Reno "oh"-d and went to our door, unlocking it.

Thank you god. It felt good to be in my own room again. With its tiny bed in the corner surrounded by a mess of clothes, papers, cds, general trash…and I think there was a pizza slice in here somewhere…anyways…

I flopped down on my bed with every intention of falling asleep in under a minute.

Hah. I swear my own brain laughed at me.

The minute the lights were out, my mind's eye was moved back to Roxas.

The boy was beyond strange. Cold towards people and yet a puppy could make him smile. A Korean who apparently prefers writing and singing in Japanese (he might be Japanese but until he says something I'm going to assume he was telling the truth about the Korea thing…).

An artist who rides a motorcycle. That alone wasn't weird, but when I pictured artists I saw minivans or trucks painted weird colors. His taste in music seemed to fit, but Matilda? Tuck Everlasting? Ugh…it was making my brain hurt.

Reno needs to go to hell. Hell where there are no gays and the uniforms are the brightest ugliest purple. And where he's forced to listen to someone wake him up and be forced to see them in all their morning glory.

Reno was at the moment standing above me with his Spongebob Squarepants pajama pants (my brother collects little kid things if that's not obvious by now. How he gets them in his size is beyond me…) hanging low on his hips with his boxers showing, also slung low.

We'll just end there saying it was not something I needed to see in the morning…or any time of the day.

"Get up lazy ass! You're gonna be late."

"Do I get the car today?" I sat up, trying in vain to stare my taller brother down (we're actually the same height but he was standing and I wasn't…).

"Am I dressed?" Regrettably, no. Which meant the car was all mine.

"About bloody time!" I pushed him out of my room, grabbed a random shirt and jeans, my Ipod, my keys (this time with every intention of using them) and headed out.

Reno was knocked out on the couch. Him and his boyfriend must have had some fun if Reno was still tired…whoa…okay….back up. I did not need to be thinking that about my brother…

The morning was nice, just like that dude on the TV had said it would be. You could still smell the storm though. It woke me up quiet nicely.

Roxas came out. I almost took a step back. Almost. He seemed to be stuck in an almost visible shadow. And thunderstorm. And he looked like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep last night. His eyes were red-rimmed and his clothes looked (black jeans and a white turtleneck actually) thrown on.

In short. Complete opposite from the untouchable Roxas of the past two days.

He walked right past me, the air around him seeming to freeze.

I stood there for a few minutes, even after he had disappeared into the parking lot and then drove out again on his bike. What happened?

Did I mention I hate Xemnas…I hope I did…

Roxas never showed up for class…not that Xemnas noticed of course.

"There are several categories that you may choose from. Music, art, etc. Each one is separated into three other categories. Singles, for those who do not have me, doubles, and groups. If you know what you're going to do, please sign on the pieces of paper on the door when you leave class today. The rest of this hour is for you and your partner. The door is open if you want to leave but I have alerted the school police force so don't even think of leaving the school grounds"

When Xemnas glares like that, you do what he says…while at the same time wondering how the he did it.

Oh how I loathed this part.

I walked up to Xemnas' desk.

"Uh…heh…Yeah, my partner's not here…" Xemnas shut me up with a glance. What? He was scary man! At least he was until Roxas' nickname for him popped in my head. Mansex. Now instead of trying to hide my fear I think I was trying to hide my laughter.

"He's here. I think he said he would be in the gym. Now leave me in peace." With that, his swivel chair (yes Mansex has a swivel chair), swiveled to where it was blocking out the rest of the nearly empty classroom.

The gym? Why would he be there?

Okay one thing you need to know about our gym. It's not like those large court gyms they have in other schools (although we do have one of those just it's in another building). It's a rock climbing/weightlifting/inside track/karate mats/aerobic gym. Yeah. Basically what you get when you go your local gym.

The sign outside the door said the entire gym had been short-noticed reserved by Xemnas for a student. Meaning anyone who was not supposed to be there, shouldn't.

Roxas was there (I ignored the sign, as most people were wont to do). I stayed in the shadow of the doorway, just watching him.

It was…astounding. I mean if you just walked in you would have seen him simply climbing the rock wall…without a rope. But if you watched for a sec…I had a feeling something else was going to happen.

And man, did it. He did a freakin flip off the top, grabbing the climbing rope that was about five feet away. Normally when someone was on the wall, the rope was pulled up out of the way. He grabbed the rope, letting his hand slide down it. When he was about half way down, he did another jump, landing soundlessly on the ground.

I clapped slowly.

He jumped again…if a little less gracefully. And landed on his ass. Oops…wait…did I actually…surprise Roxas? Wow…normally it's the other way around.

Roxas has a much faster recovery rate. He was on his feet and striding towards me in less than two seconds.

"How did you do that?" yes I was still a little dumbfounded.

"I…I took jujutsu. I reached the level of kaiden…or the thing above black belt I guess, before I moved here." Well then. That would explain it.

"Xemnas has given the entire class the rest of class to work on the talent competition." He nodded.

"I know. But there's not much we can do is there?" He had a point there.

"Why didn't you come to class?" Yes random. I like random.

"I didn't need to and I don't know…the room just felt…odd. I asked Xemnas if I could leave the class and use the gym, he said yes, so I didn't need to show up."

"Okay back to the project he dumped on us, did you finish the song?" he nodded slowly.

"It's not one of my best but it should work. It was a bit hard to add a part for a sitar, but I think I managed it."

"Great. I'll tell the guys at lunch. We can practice this afternoon at Zex's house." He nodded.

Something must have been passed between us because a few minutes later I was sitting on the floor against the wall and Roxas was once again climbing the rock wall without a rope.

"Yo Roxas? I'll be right back." I don't know why I told him but it seemed rude to just walk away. Okay…that's new…I've never cared if I seemed rude to someone…except Zexion, but there are reasons for that.

He didn't say anything but I know he heard me.

Five minutes later…

Why are the bathrooms so close to the band rooms? I've never understood that. I mentally shrugged. Not my problem.

I walked into the gym, to stop short right in front of the door.

Neither of the two males noticed.

Why hello there Riku…

The sliverette looked…pissed not to put too fine a point on it. That and he also had Roxas pinned to the wall by the throat.

Oh shit. What to do?! I probably could have hit Riku upside the head, and had every intention of doing so, but…Roxas' eyes stopped me.

His eyes showed no fear. At least, it didn't look like fear. His eyes (I don't know if this is possible but if it is, he pulled it off with flying colors) looked even colder than they have been. They were bordering on dead. Not the Riku noticed of course.

What happened next was way too fast for me to catch it all, but I could see a bit. Like Roxas taking Riku down by wrapping his ankle around behind the taller boy's. Riku went down like a rock, but Roxas grabbed his arm before he landed, twisting him around so he landed on his stomach.

Roxas knelt beside the stunned Riku's side and pressed his hand on his neck. I heard Riku…squeak. Riku freakin squeaked.

Roxas bent down even further and seemed to say something into Riku's ear. Then he got up calmly and left the still floored Riku (and a very stunned me).

I walked slowly over to Riku, who was slowly getting up, rubbing his neck.

"What the hell just happened?" Normally, Riku would have snubbed me and most likely made some comment about gays (wasn't he one too?!). But I guess taking on a scary Roxas will tend to loosen the tongue.

"He's…I don't know what he is. I wasn't gonna do more than scare him…for embarrassing Sora…"

"What exactly did he tell you?" Riku looked at me for a second, still rubbing his neck.

"He just said 'why do that for a friend?'." Now it was my turn to stare.

Riku regained himself after that, stalking out, seemingly more pissed than when he had come in.

The bell rang right after Riku walked out. The noise seemed to fade as I too walked out, heading for Chem. Not fade like it was ending fade, but fade like it was disappearing. Too much was on my mind.

Which was probably why I walked into the door…

Disclaimer: you all know i own nothing so why i have to keep saying it is beyond me...

A/N: you all probably hate me for the beginning right now and i would understand you perfectly, but i just had to write that. I had to have a contrast to the ending of the last chapter. At least it was short right? Please don't kill me...anyways...thanks to those who reviewed! You guys give me courage day in and day out! So, please review! I'm running short on courage and high on fear right now, for both my stories! I need all the help i can get! Even if your telling me how much you hate me right now, just tell me somethin! Thanx!