Look, I'm updating early! Yay! :D A few things before I send you off: First off, this chapter's a little shorter than the others, I know, but it's also a bit of a filler chapter. The real fun begins in the next chapter. Second, I've officially run out of pre-written material, but I'll still try to keep this story updated about once a week. We'll see. Third, I've got some slightly vague references toward the end. People who know what I'm talking about get hugs.

Also, REVIEW! I can't tell you how much easier it was to wrap up this chapter with six happy reviewers cheering me on!

Alright then, off you go.

The following morning Roxas was abruptly pulled from sleep when a spectacular fit of sneezing and coughing (something Sora fondly referred to as snoughing) began to rack his body. The blond struggled out of his room, blinking back tears as the harsh coughs continued, sending his admittedly small frame into convulsions. After much stumbling and not a few stubbed toes, he reached the bathroom and, with some effort, managed to down a glass of cool water, in hopes of soothing his burning throat.

Unsurprisingly, Sora appeared in the doorway seconds later, wide-eyed and worried as he watched the blond fight back another fit of snoughs.

"Jeez, Rox, what's going on? I thought you were faking sick."

The blond in question laughed dryly for a second before stopping at the sudden pain it brought on, face contorted into a grimace. "Yeah, I thought I was, too." Roxas sighed, pushing gently past Sora and into the kitchen, where he proceeded to rummage through various cabinets irritably, pausing only to sneeze or cough. It wasn't long before the teenager began to feel dizzy, and he sank miserably into a kitchen chair with a pathetic sniff, letting his twin continue the search for medication in his stead.

Some amount of time later (Roxas wasn't sure exactly how much; he highly suspected that he had drifted off whilst waiting), the brunet emerged from the cabinets clutching one bottle – a medley of colorful little capsules of various shapes and sizes, from Tylenol to Benadryl to Tums. Sora offered him a sheepish grin; he had, a few months ago, gone on an eliminate-plastic crusade – no doubt inspired by some video shown in his biology class – and he had disposed of all but the most commodious container, stuffing every pill they possessed into it.

Now, Roxas was certainly for saving the trees and all that jazz, but when it led to him either foregoing medication or risking OD-ding – as, of course, there were no labels remaining to tell which pill fixed what or how many capsules were recommended to cure what Roxas believed was certain to develop into the infamous, ever-common cold – well, quite frankly, the environment could go fuck itself, in Roxas's eloquent opinion.

He heard Sora set down the bottle with a rattling clunk and then the brunet was giving him one of his world-famous shoulder massages, effectively working out all the stress of the past two days. Within moments, Roxas's irritation had dissipated and his anger at Sora's stupid, eco-friendly self was abated, much to said brunet's relief.

After basking in the attention for a bit, Roxas shrugged off his twin's hands with a contented sigh-cough, opening eyes he couldn't quite remember closing – and sneezing abruptly and violently, of course.

Sora chuckled, handing him a tissue and settling into the adjacent chair, blue eyes large and sparkling with some combination of hope and denial as he began, "So... You about ready for school?" Cue the award-winning smile.

Roxas stared at Sora in disbelief for a moment before responding in an are-you-really-that-stupid tone. "I'm sick."

His brother merely continued to smile, as if saying 'And your point is...?'

The blond resisted the urge to bang his head onto the table (he'd been doing that way too often lately; it couldn't be good for his IQ). "I think I should probably stay home." Cough. Snough. Sniff.

At these words, Sora's bright grin morphed into quivering lips, and Roxas, who had been expecting it, immediately focused his attention elsewhere, repressing a shudder – he knew all-too-well that Sora's kicked puppy expression would follow momentarily, and the teenager had, as of yet, never quite managed to say no to his twin when faced with that.

Making certain to keep his own sky-blue eyes from meeting Sora's, Roxas continued wearily. "Look, I don't want to get anyone sick and I'll be miserable all day and just make everyone else feel miserable, too."

Sora sighed whiningly, waiting for Roxas to look at him and succumb to the awesome power of his puppy dog stare. "But if you stay home from school then you won't go to the party tonight and I promised Axel and Pence and Olette and everyone else that you'd be there! You can't make me break a promise!"

The sick teenager, gaze still averted, stood and began to make his slow, stumbling way to his bedroom, coughing every four or five words. "It's not like I can help it, Sora. And it's not that big of a deal, either. I'll just explain to Pence and Olette on Monday." And the fact that Axel wants me to go gives me all the more reason not to, the blond added silently.

"But Roxas!" Sora wailed, huge, shiny tears already forming in his eyes, before he was cut off by the muffled thud-click of Roxas's bedroom door shutting and locking. He sighed heavily, tears disappearing as easily as they'd appeared, and the distressed teenager slumped down into his chair with a magnificent pout. His twin never did anything fun! It was so frustrating, how miserable Roxas was all the time, and the poor kid didn't even realize there was something seriously wrong with his life! (That being, of course, that he had no significant other to share it with… and he got sick too much.)

With another melodramatic sigh, Sora contemplated his options, making a quick list on a nearby (hopefully unused) kleenex.

1) Leave Roxas at home alone, sick and miserable.

Well, that was hardly even an option at all. Granted, he'd get to see all his friends, not to mention Riku, and he'd get to hear Demyx's band, and he might even get to have sex before, during, and/or after the event, but the disadvantages far outweighed the perks. After all, without his help, Roxas was bound to continue down the path of teenage angst, misery, and naïvety right through to adulthood. And then – here Sora's eyes widened in horror – he could become one of those poor old ladies with a trillion cats! Or even worse, a suicide bomber, running into high schools across the country to seek revenge for his lonely, miserable youth!!

The brunet shuddered as he continued to contemplate the infinite possible outcomes, and decided option 1 was entirely out of the question, as he simply would not and could not be responsible for another nuclear war with France.

On to the second option:

2) Stay at home with Roxas, missing school and the party.

This idea had some merit, he supposed, the least of which was no school for the day. It would certainly be noble of him, missing the party to save poor Roxas and, in effect, the world, from imminent destruction, and he would probably be hailed as an international hero! (Sora's eyes now shone brightly, enthralled with the idea.)

Of course, he thought with a mental sigh, that would put a serious damper on his night, and it had been nearly five hours since he'd last had sex...

Deciding to keep that idea in the back of his mind, Sora moved on.

3) Force Roxas to go to the party after school.

Now that was an idea. Via his amazing ninja skills, he would simply persuade (with force, if necessary) his twin to go see Demyx's band in spite of his "illness" (Sora had some doubts about the legitimacy of Roxas's so-called cold – after all, he hadn't looked that sick). Of course, there was always the chance that his twin had actually been right, and that his presence would ruin everybody's fun – especially if the he really was sick, and his infection spread to all the guests...

No, that would never do.

With a fourth and final sigh, Sora settled on his likewise fourth and final option. It would keep Roxas's future life as angst-free as possible, while also allowing Sora the liberties of going to the party and making sweet love to his boyfriend. His plan would have to be a secret, which would cost Sora all his hero points and possible future fame, but he would trust in the great science of karma and pray that his good deed would come back around to him – hopefully in the form of more Riku-time.

With this resolution set firmly in his mind, the brunet left the kitchen quickly to grab his books for school and set his plan in motion, leaving the kleenex lying forlornly on the ground, upset by his sudden exit, a hastily scribbled word visible amongst all the other, less-legible doodles:

4) Axel.


Roughly eight hours later, said redhead, oblivious to the nefarious plans being plotted about and around him, was hatching some plans of his own – that is, if mentally calculating how much gas remained in his car and whether it could get him across town and back was considered planning.

(Of course, just having his own car back at his disclosure was a great relief; he had finally gotten Riku to agree to drive him out to Traverse Town the previous afternoon, so he could fetch his car from the auto shop it had been in since a week before he was "relocated". Due to the less than desirable circumstances, he had moved in such a hurry that he'd had neither time – nor method – to retrieve his precious baby from the shop.)

It was all Demyx's fault, really. The blond had called – barely five minutes after he had returned to Riku's house with his dear automobile, mind you – spouting this huge, "heartbreaking" sob story about how Larxene had quit the band (for probably the third or fourth time that week, based on what Axel had heard about the particularly sadistic girl) and how she was supposed to give him a ride and there was no one to play the keyboard and everyone was going to blame the poor, innocent musician if the band didn't show up, because Sora and Riku had gone to so much trouble blahblahblahblah.....

So, to appease (and silence) his friend, Axel had agreed to pick up Demyx, as well as Saїx, who didn't actually play in the band but called himself a member nonetheless, and drive them back to Riku's.

And thus we return to his original predicament – gas. Back in Traverse Town, he had held a steady job as a coffee connoisseur, which, on top of earnings from freelance photography, provided him with plenty of cash for just about whatever the hell he wanted. Of course, having only lived in Twilight Town for roughly three and a half days, Axel hadn't even had time for proper socializing, much less job searching, and, having already used his savings for school fees and the like, was currently running extremely short on funds.

A shout from the other room caught Axel's attention, and he finally left his spot in front of the mirror in the guest bathroom to investigate. It turned out to be Riku, standing in the center of his designer living room, holding the household telephone a good foot or so away from his ear and attempting to interrupt whomever was on the line. It didn't appear to be a very successful attempt, however, as said person continued to wail miserably.

"I don't know! He only lives here, and I hardly know him! Why are you calling me?!" Riku shouted into the receiver, much to Axel's puzzlement. Were they talking about him? Well, duh, the redhead mentally smacked himself in the forehead, who else lives here that Riku hardly knows? As he crept closer, the caller's response became clearer, and he held back the urge to groan in frustration.

It was Demyx, undoubtedly trying to get a hold of Axel, who had left his cell phone out in the car, turned off to conserve battery and avoid unwanted messages (really, he had only been living there for a couple days, and he already had an exponentially expanding fan club). Upon receiving the "This is Axel, leave a message (or not)" voicemail system, the overemotional blond had probably started freaking out and jumping to less-than-likely conclusions about Axel's fate.

"But he lives with you! How could you not know where he is?! What if he's hurt, or lost, or DEAD?!? What kind of people are you, killing your guests?!?!" the blond on the other side of the phone line shrieked before bursting into heavy sobs, making it extremely difficult for Riku to respond with any lasting effect. Mercifully (for Riku, at least) the distressed teenager noticed Axel attempting to sneak back out of the room and, with a tumultuous cry of relief, he tossed the cordless device to his guest and fled to safety – aka, Sora.

Axel chuckled, catching the phone gracefully and shouting – quite as loud as his ex was wailing, or maybe a bit louder – Demyx's name repeatedly, along with random variants of several swear words, until the blond realized who he was sobbing/screaming at.

"Oh my god, AXEL!!!" The redhead was suddenly terribly thankful that they were at least fifteen miles apart, as a tackle-glomp would most definitely have accompanied that ear-shattering squeal of joy had he been within tackling range. (The last time he'd been subjected to such a typical Demyx demonstration of affection, he had emerged with numerous bruises and a black eye.)

Axel's response was quick, leaving Demyx no room to fit a word in. "Hey Dem. Sorry, my phone's out in the car. I was just about to leave. I'll be over in a few minutes, 'kay?" The redhead didn't wait for a response before jabbing the end button and looking around the room, noticing the silveret's absence and wondering where the hell he should put the phone.

Thankfully, Riku's mother chose that moment to enter the room, wearing a puzzled expression, before smiling lightly at Axel. "Oh, Axel, darling, you don't happen to know why Riku looks so distressed, do you?" At Axel's feigned confusion, the pale woman sighed. "He just ran right by me, not even stopping to say hello…" She trailed off before shrugging and smiling brightly at the (much) taller teenager. "Oh, well." Here she noticed the phone hanging loosely from Axel's hand and she nodded towards it curiously. "Did you need to make a call, dear?"

Axel smiled charmingly, holding out the telephone for her to take. "Nah, I'm done, I just wasn't sure where to put this thing."

Riku's mother accepted it with a light laugh, before turning to leave the room. Axel sighed, relieved to be out of the overly sweet woman's presence, and was about to collapse onto the exquisitely comfy couch sitting against one of the walls when the small woman abruptly reappeared in his line of vision, a bright smile on her face and what appeared to be a small plastic rectangle in her hand.

"Oh, Axel, I nearly forgot! Here," she held out the card, looking at the redhead expectantly, who took it cautiously, eyes widening when he realized it what it was. "Now, my husband will be putting fifty dollars on that card every Tuesday and Friday for your allowance, as we do with Riku, provided you help out a bit around the house every now and then." She either didn't notice or ignored Axel's incredulous expression, bright smile still in place as she turned to leave once more. "If you could take the trash out when you leave, dear, that would be simply grand."

Axel opened his mouth to protest before snapping it shut; who was he to question his hosts, after all? A wide grin took over his features as he made his way into the kitchen to complete his chore, wondering exactly how loaded Riku's folks were. Whistling happily, the redhead left the house, the bag of trash held as far away from him as possible, and deposited said bag into the trash can on the curb. With a sigh of accomplishment, he turned around, almost too caught up in the process of digging through his many pockets for his keys to notice the perky brunette perched neatly on the hood of his classic, cherry-red Corvette.

Almost.

"What are you doing?! Get off of my car!!" Axel demanded as he rushed over to check the car for any damage, the petite girl already standing a few feet away, wide-eyed with guilt. Unable to locate any smudges, scratches, or scrapes, the redhead turned around, fierce protectiveness burning in his green eyes. "Do you normally go around sitting on other people's priceless, one of a kind vehicles like it's some run of the mill Ford?! Don't you have any respect for the sacredness of practically antique cars?!" While the redhead ranted, he waved his arms around his head to accentuate either his anger or his insanity, continuing in spite of the poor girl's trembling lips or huge, watery eyes. It was, however, a bit more difficult to ignore it when she burst into full-fledged, body-shaking, nose-dripping sobs.

"I'm s-s-s-sorry!!!! I th-thought it was Riku's!!!" The brunette dragged out the teen's name into a horrendous screeching wail, and Axel's eyes went wide with panic, looking around frantically for any bystanders – of course, it was just his luck that a mother and her toddler were walking by the house at that very moment. The woman scowled at Axel, her look clearly stating that he ought to be ashamed of himself, before ushering the curious toddler across the street and away from the crazy man.

Axel approached the girl warily, reaching out to comfort her, saying hesitantly, "Oh, come on now… Don't… Don't cry like that… I didn't mean to yell…" Instead of the onslaught of tears slowing, it only increased, and the brunette threw herself at Axel, burying her face in his favorite leather jacket. The redhead looked down at her in alarm, completely unsure of what to do with the leech.

"Selphie, is that you?" Axel glanced up, relief clear in his eyes when he spotted Sora coming toward them, Riku only a few feet behind him. As soon as the pair was close enough, Axel detached the leaking girl and all but tossed her at Sora, who nearly fell at the unexpected weight.

Thankfully, Riku was there to steady them, and by the time all that had been sorted out and Sora turned to ask Axel what had happened, the tall teenager was already gone, along with his corvette. Brows furrowed, Sora placed a comforting arm around Selphie's shaking shoulders as he led her back towards his house, sharing a bewildered look with his lover.

Twenty minutes later, after Selphie had calmed down enough to regale a really-not-interested Riku with all of the most important gossip of the day, Sora carefully executed one of the secret-awesome-ninja-of-death moves his friend Yuffie had taught him (complete with theme music) to shuffle slyly away from the other two, expertly ignoring Selphie's confused, "Um, Sora?" and the silveret's exasperated eye-roll.

Once he arrived safely in his bedroom, the brunet hurriedly flipped open his cell phone and scanned his contacts for Axel (who was conveniently the first entry).

Sora grinned deviously and hit talk. "Hey, Axel, it's Sora!"

"I know, I have caller ID," the redhead replied, amused.

"Yeah, well, anyway," he cleared his throat, trying to sound more professional, "Word on the street is that you have a little bit of a thing for a certain someone whom I won't mention, for the safety of all involved parties."

A pause, then, "… Am I gonna get whacked or something for having this conversation?"

"Huh?"

"Nevermind. You were saying?"

Sora's brows furrowed in confusion for a moment, but he continued nonetheless. "Well, I might have some information for you that just might get you closer to you-know-who."

Axel couldn't help but nerd out for a second. "Oh, come on, Sora, fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself."

Silence. Sora obviously didn't catch the allusion.

"Nevermind. Again. What information do you have about my dear Roxas?" he played along.

"Shhh!" Sora pulled the phone away from his ear and looked around the room wildly for a few seconds, ignoring Axel's confused "What the fuck?"

"I told you not to say his name!" the brunet finally felt safe enough to hiss, eyes still narrowed in suspicion.

"Jesus Christ… Alright, Sora. Can you get to the point of this, then? I've got stuff to do."

"Well," Sora began, breaking into a wide, devious smile. "I've got an idea…"