Disclaimer: I claim no ownership to anything in this that could possibly get me sued.

3. You'll stare at them when they talk to you and go into a sort of daze.

"I'm going crazy and I've been awake for days,

My mirrors are stained with painted portraits of your face."

-The Cab_One of those Nights

"Roxas? Are you even listening to me?"

Roxas jerked out of his dazed state when he felt a potato chip hit him lightly in the face. He stared at the chip for a few seconds before his senses came back to him, and he finally realised what had just happened.

"Hey! What was that for?!"

"I was talking to you, and you weren't listening. So I got angry, and threw a chip at you. Simple." The potato chip thrower, Hayner, stated calmly before taking a sip of his soda. Roxas rubbed his neck while smiling at his friend sheepishly.

"Oh..," he replied, playing with the ring of condensation that his can of soda had left on one of the cold concrete surfaces of the university's outdoor tables, "er... what were you talking about?"

Hayner sighed, more dramatically than needed in Roxas's opinion, and narrowed his eyes at his friend. "Who were you looking at, exactly?" he turned his gaze so that he was looking in the same direction as Roxas was before he assaulted him with the chip.

Roxas felt his face heat up as embarrassment bubbled up inside him.

"NOTHING! I was looking at...uh, nothing."

Hayner rolled his eyes and carried on searching the almost uninhabited field. It was the middle of winter, and although it never really got that cold in Twilight Town, most of the other students preferred to spend their time inside instead of on the chilly fields.

"Yes, Roxas, because you screaming 'nothing' in that desperately guilty voice makes me totally believe you," he paused and scrunched up his brow in confusion as he turned to look at his blonde, and now red-faced, friend, "I don't get it. The only person there is Axel."

Axel was indeed the only person there in Roxas' line of vision. The red-head often spent most of his time in-between classes smoking by himself as none of his friends really appreciated the second hand smoke that his habit gifted them with.

Turns out that people liked their lungs nicotine free.

And that's what Roxas had been staring at when Hayner had caught him.

Roxas wasn't very fond of smokers, the very thought of the smell of smoke would have him feeling nauseated in a heartbeat. But that was before Axel had taken up the habit. He still hated smokers, but he loved it when Axel smoked. It was just improbable that the red-head could make something so socially unaccepted and bad, look so fucking... sexy.

He stood, leaning over the fence, with his red hair, that everyone kept telling him to cut, tied back with small band. His faded grey jeans had seen better days, and the shirt that he wore was just a plain black one that Roxas had seen his best friend wear countless times before, and had worn a few times himself. Adorned on Axel's feet was a pair of jet-black combat boots that had not, almost certainly, been polished in months... but it was all just so distinctly... Axel.

There was nothing different about Axel... Roxas felt as if he was looking at his friend in a whole new light.

A whole new lust-tinted light.

Seriously, when had Axel's looks become so distracting?

Said person had just finished his cigarette and, upon turning, had noticed that Hayner and Roxas were looking at him. Roxas with red-faced embarrassment and guilt evident on his features, and Hayner with confusion etched on his. He grinned at them widely before smothering the butt of his smoke in the sand and made his way over to them lazily.

"Wait... were you staring at Axel? I mean... before?" Hayner quickly chipped in.

Roxas felt his defences go up as he tried to sound as detached as possible. "I wasn't staring. I was... just waiting for him to make eye contact so I could call him over."

"Oh, it's just that...the way your face went red and stuff... it sorta looked like you were blushing... and if you were blushing because of Axel that would mean-"

"Drop it Hayner."

XxXx

Everyone always said that Roxas and Axel were an unlikely pair.

Or to put it into their words "Is Axel bullying you into being his friend? Blink twice for no and scream 'help' for yes."

But to them it just seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

They were never apart for long, but when those rare moments of separation did occur it was as if no time had passed between them at all. When they saw each other again, they immediately fell back into their normal banter and teasing.

Axel hadn't always lived in Twilight Town. In fact, he had only moved to the sleepy town when Roxas was ten and he was twelve. The school had quickly become abuzz with the rumours and speculations that followed a new kid in such a small town. People were always leaving Twilight Town; those that chose to enter it were seen as gossip-worthy. And Axel was definitely worth the gossip.

From day one the pyromaniac had spread mayhem everywhere he passed, earning him a reputation even with those that had yet to meet him. And so it had come as a huge surprise to everyone when the boy with fire-red hair and 'don't-give-a-fuck' attitude had come up to Roxas, the quiet, blonde son of a respected people in the community –who had never caused any trouble and played well with his peers, and embraced him like they were long-lost friends.

Which, incidentally, they were.

Roxas and Axel had grown up together, were best friends from birth practically, until Roxas's dad had decided to uproot his family and move them to Twilight Town when Roxas had turned four.

No one, however, was as surprised as Roxas when Axel, after hugging him in the middle of the school's sports field had simply announced: "The name's Axel. A-X-E-L. We were best friends when we were younger so we're gonna be best friends now, got it memorized?"

To which Roxas had replied, in astonishment and in awe of this crazy kid with the bright envy-green eyes, "Er...sure. I'm Roxas."

"I know who you are, Roxas."

And it was as if they had never been apart.

XxXx

"Hey, Roxas, are you with us pal?"

"Oh, don't worry. He's been doing that a lot today."

Roxas blinked when Axel's face was suddenly REALLY close to his own and very quickly invading his personal space. He placed his hand, palm down, onto his friend's face to push it away from his own.

"Personal space invasion, much Axel?"

And of course Axel saw this as a challenge.

"Aww, but Roxy! When has personal space ever been an issue with us? My personal space bubble is your personal space bubble!" and with that said he proceeded to place himself so close to Roxas on the concrete bench of the table that he might as well have been on Roxas's lap.

"Remind me why I'm friends with you again?" he muttered when Axel's cheek was pressed up against his own, the heat from his best friend's face doing nothing to cool the fierce blush currently assaulting his face and neck.

"Because no one else wants to hang out with you?" Hayner chirped from his side of the table, happily stuffing a chip into his mouth.

Roxas raised a golden eyebrow at his friend, trying not to notice that Axel's hands were trying to make their way into his hoodie's pockets.

"You hang out with me." He pointed out.

"Yeah..." Hayner grinned, his eyes shining mischievously, "but you're, like, my charity case. Hanging out with you is my way of giving back to the community."

Axel's face pulled away from his own and he saw the red-head throw his head back as he let out a loud laugh. Roxas tried really hard not to stare, especially after being caught out once already today, but he couldn't help himself. His best friend really had the most amazing laugh, and his whole face seemed to come alive when he did so.

Not to say that Axel didn't always look alive because, to Roxas, it seemed as if his friend was always radiating energy and life. It's one of the things that made Axel such a social magnet, one of the reasons that Axel, despite his eccentric behaviour, was always surrounded by people. They were drawn to his energy, and they wanted to be as every much as alive as he was.

"Well, " Hayner announced, standing up and scrunching up the now empty chip packet, "I have to go find Olette and Pence before Olette goes all psycho and threatens to burn all my notes for being late again."

"Burn?" Axel repeated, eagerly.

"Down, pyro. I need those notes." Hayner rolled his eyes before smiling at the pair, "see you guys later?"

Roxas returned the smile. "Yeah, see you later Hay."

They watched their friend walk away in silence for a few minutes before Axel snapped out of it. He stood up and went to occupy the space that Hayner had vacated.

"So, what were you guys talking about earlier on, when you were looking in my direction?"

Roxas took one last mouthful of his soda before setting the empty can down on the table. "You."

"Oh really? What about me?" Axel leaned forward, resting his face on his hands as a grin made its way onto his features.

Roxas rolled his eyes at his friend's antics and decided to play along. "Oh, nothing really. Just your drop-dead good looks and captivating personality."

"Aww, Roxy thinks I'm pretty?"

"The prettiest."

Axel grinned at him before his eyes widened and he quickly stood up. Roxas watched his friend in confusion.

"Dude! I have something that I wanted you to listen to!" after sticking his hand into one of the pockets of his jeans, he extracted his phone and started to search through his songs. Once he was seated and the intro of the song started playing, Axel allowed his eyes to drift closed as he drummed his fingers to the beat on the table.

Axel loved his music, he might always bitch about the fact that his parents had never given him the chance to learn a musical instrument but it never held him back from appreciating the art that was music. Roxas tried to keep his attention on the song as the artist belted out lyrics of heartbreak and lost love... But he found his eyes drifting to his best friend's face by their own accord.

It was almost comical how he only realised that his best friend was attractive after almost nine years of friendship. It wasn't as if he wasn't aware of Axel's looks previously, he had always known that Axel was attractive. But somehow, now, the attractiveness made his heart rate speed up and his mouth turn dry as he fought to keep his 'I'm-not-attracted-to-you-because-we're-just-friends' facade up.

Roxas sighed and ran his hands over his face as his blissfully oblivious friend continued to nod his head to the music.

This whole 'love' thing really was an inconvenience.

School is such an inconvenience.

Seriously. Every time I wanted to sit down and work on this chapter, something else took up all my time. I actually have an English exam that I'm meant to be studying for, but it's just creative writing, so I can wing it...right?

Just so you all know, as much as i would love to have chapter updates be a weekly deal...my exams are coming up scaringly (lolz, that's not a word) soon, so updates may be a little delayed. But i promise to not forget about this story. i'd hate myself if i did :/

Thanks to fallenofthedark, Kuro Yoshi, sakurasapprentice7 , Free water-drop wind , and Moka nee-chan for reviewing the last chapter.

You guys are amazing.

Also, thank you to everyone who has favourite, alerted, or just taken the time to read this. You all rock :D

Oh, and Happy Akuroku day! Yay for fan awesomeness and obsessiveness and for the super amazingness that is Akuroku :D