Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own a dog named Axel… that's pretty much it.

Roxas awoke to not only the sun shining in his eyes, but to a doorbell. How in the hell can the sun be so far away yet have such perfect aim?! Sighing the groggy Roxas fumbled to the door of the bedroom, down the hall and to the front door opening it just a crack to peer out at the guests. Shocked he stood there dumbfounded staring at a tall silver haired man with a very angry looking brunette standing behind him arms crossed.

"…"

"Who the hell are you?" Riku grumbled pulling the door out of Roxas's hands opening it wider and stepping inside, Leon following behind.

"I forgot this isn't my house." Roxas yawned stepping out of the way covering his face to hide a yawn.

"Alright 2 things people," A voice came from the hallway drawing all of the boys attention to the freshly woken redhead. Roxas drew in a quick breath at the sight before him, a half dressed, perfectly toned, and sexy as hell, Axel continued crossing his arms at the company before him. "First off, what part of call is so difficult for you two to comprehend and second," he turned his attention to Roxas, "It isn't safe to open the doors to other peoples' homes." Axel smiled flashing him a toothy grin.

"Yeah whatever, I just need my laptop charger and we'll get out of your hair you are clearly busy." Riku sighed brushing past Axel and walking to the guest room. Upon opening the door though he yet again got stopped in his tracks, before him was Sora who was trapped in his shirt trying to pull it over his head without success.

"Rox is that you? Help I think a button is stuck in my hair" A muffled distressed Sora called out showing that the shirt wouldn't pull off any further.

"Really, Axel?!" Riku yelled to the hallway stepping forward to help the stranger none the less. Gently he placed his hand firmly on Sora's scalp and ran his hand through the soft hair until he found the snag pulling it closer to him and freeing the trapped hair then taking a step back.

"Thank you, thank you, thank youuuu" Sora sang turning his back pulling the garment completely off replacing it with a t-shirt. When he turned back around, rather too quickly, he bumped into Riku and catching stern aquamarine eyes that stole his breath. Gently he whispered "You're not Roxas"

"No I am not. Riku" He responded extending his hand to the brunette never once leaving eye contact with Sora's huge blue orbs.

"Well hello Riku! My name is Sora!" Sora chirped accepting Riku's hand shaking it longer than necessary.

"Right well… as exciting as this is I need my laptop charger…" Riku grumbled pulling his hand away and moving over to the bedside table rummaging through the doors.

(Living room)

"Leon, this is one of my new neighbors Roxas, he hit his head yesterday and stayed here overnight to make sure there was no lasting damage." Axel stepped over to Roxas gently placing an arm over the blond not noticing how Roxas stiffened and held his breath. "And this little Roxie is Squally." He said with a smirk earning a glare from Leon.

"Call me that again and I will personally shave your head." Leon mumbled stepping through the front door slamming it behind him so hard it shook the pictures hanging on the wall.

"Pay no mind to him; he has a never ending stick up his ass since his girlfriend left him" Axel chuckled slapping Roxas on the back earning a wince from him before the redhead strolled into the kitchen leaving Roxas alone in the living room.

Sora came running into the living room not long after holding their clothes sloppily in his hands. Roxas shook his head attempting to shake the redhead from his thoughts before he walked over to his brother and helped him with the clothes.

"Can we go home now?" Rox sighed.

"Yus, let me just go thank Axel here." Sora chirped

"Kitchen"

Sora grinned trotting off to the kitchen. When he walked in he saw Axel leaning against the counter with a tablet in hand humming softly. "Axeeelllll, thank you so much for taking care of my brother and me, we're going to head back home and finish unpacking! Feel free to come over any time you want. Our older brother is actually out of town at the moment and he'll be back around next week. We should have a cook out! OOOO or a pool party! OR!..."

"Kid you might want to try breathing or you're going to pass out." Axel chuckled pushing off of the counter and ruffling Sora's brown spikes. "I might take you up on that offer later on. Right now though I am running late for work and Riku has been way too quiet for someone simply looking for a cord. Take care you two and if you want any help moving I get off of work at 11 so just call or text me." Axel said absentmindedly pulling a notepad off of the fridge and scrawling down his number.

"Alright!" Sora chirped "Bye!" turning to leave Sora practically ran out of the living room to his brother. Together they left the house and returned to their home.

Once they opened the door they were greeted with a mountain of boxes blocking the entrance as well as a note attached.

Don't leave my truck unlocked you idiots. I was so kind as to bring in all of ya'lls shit least you could do is treat me to lunch when that chocobo gets back into town. If you want anything you know where my shop is. Also don't bother the neighbors Sora.

~Cid

"Why does he always think I'm such a bother?!" Sora sighed dropping the note and looking back to the wall of boxes.

"He did this on purpose you know. We can't get into the rest of the house without moving these… I wonder how far back they go" Roxas mumbled speaking mainly to himself as he shifted a box releasing a breath when he saw that it was only just a single wall of boxes and the rest were aligned along the stairs.

"So, what do you think of Axel and his friends?" Sora hesitantly asked sitting down on one of the boxes fumbling with his thumbs.

"Dunno… Axel's a character…. Didn't really get to see much of the other two, they both took off within seconds. Leon looks to be Cloud's age… wonder why he's hanging around Axel." Roxas replied shifting the boxes out of the way.

Their home was… well upscale you could say. The neighborhood was lovely with a rather large front and back yard, and the inside of their house was definitely a step up from the two bedroom crap hole from before. This one had a wide doorway with high ceilings. Upon opening the door you can immediately see the living room as well as a set of stairs that led to the bedrooms. Farther down the hall led to the dining room with a kitchen attachment. The kitchen was like he had never seen before, could easily have close to twenty people standing comfortably. Roxas returned to the door and wandered up the stairs Sora following in toe. At the top of the stairs is what looks to be a second living room, wide glass ceiling with the sun brightly lighting up the room.

"Wow… wonder if Cloud will let us turn this isn't a gaming room. He can have the downstairs to himself we'll dib this one" Sora chirped running into the room doing airplanes around the stacks of boxes that were present.

Smiling, Roxas continued his tour to the side hallway opening up the first door he came to on the right, linen closet. Closing the door he continued looking up to a post-it note attached.

Cloud's room

Wow he hasn't even been in this house before and he already knows which room he wants. Curious Roxas opened the door peering inside. Right in the center of the room was a rather large bay window with a ledge attached. Wonderful place to read that is for sure, Roxas thought as he continued looking. A wall bookshelf and a master bath, Cloud's bed was even still in a box. Bored of the room Roxas left closing the door and looking across from it to a door with yet another sticky note attached.

Roxas/Sora (Use a quarter if you dweebs want to fight)

Chuckling Roxas opened the door to a rather large room, smaller than Cloud's but still equally as epic. This one had an entire wall that was nothing but a blackboard. Sora, finally bored with running around in circles ran up behind Roxas peering at the room.

"OOOO I call dibs on this one!" Sora smiled immediately running up the blackboard, pulling up one of the markers that were present and starting to draw.

"Mkk." Roxas turned to the bathroom walking inside, two sinks and a nice large tub along with an open door leading to yet another bedroom. "Looks like we'll have a conjoined bathroom, Sora." Roxas yelled back to his brother who was still doodling all over the board.

"Really?! Cool!" Sora chirped coloring in the heartless symbol he drew.

Continuing on Roxas walked through the door into what would be his bedroom, the sight took his breath away. The entire ceiling was glass allowing the light to pour through, along with an entire wall a mural of the realm of darkness, he recognized it from the old story books Cloud used to read to them. It was lovely and the most calming room he had ever seen even if it was cluttered with boxes. Slowly Roxas walked over to the boxes placing his hand on the top pulling it open to begin unpacking.

(Back at Axel's house)

"Riku what the hell are you doing can you not find the charger?" Axel yelled pushing the door open with his foot coffee in hand.

"I'm on the phone you jackass go play with Leon or something." Riku bit back sitting up on the bed talking in a hushed tone.

"That Kairi?" Axel whispered to Riku waving his hand to catch his eye, Riku responded with a simple flick of his hand shooing Axel away. "Geeze what is with you two. I have work and I'm already late lock up when you're done" Surrendering Axel left the room and began getting dressed the boys on his mind. It was troubling him that they were living alone, he heard mention of an older brother but no parents in the mix. Even still he had never met the older brother either that entire family just closed on the house earlier that week.

A soft knock sounded on Axel's door pulling him out of his thoughts, grabbing his work shirt, phone and wallet he walked to the door taking large strides. "You're running late again, they're going to fire you." Leon stated unamused at the situation no emotion showing in his stormy eyes.

"Yeah, yeah come on let's go. Riku's being a prick so just leave him here he can walk to classes." Together they walked out of the house and into the blue car parked in the driveway Leon taking the wheel. "My car should be fixed by the time I get off of work so just drop it off in the back lot whenever they call k?"

Grunting in reply Leon began the task of driving Axel to work eyes focused on the road. "You hear from Reno?" attempting to make conversation Axel fidgeted.

"Two months" Leon stated dully.

"Come again?"

"He comes home in two months. Said don't burn down the house"

"Oh come on that happened one time and it wasn't even that destructive" Axel signed surrendering to the silence and just leaving Leon alone.

Reno and Leon worked together in the military sort of a tag team. One of them would get called away for a while leaving the other to run the office then once that one comes back they'd switch out on the next mission. Reno was currently in Europe looking into some ruins that might hold some of the rare materia stone. Not really a job you can say is for the military but it wasn't the weirdest thing they've had him do by far. Sighing Axel looked out the window as they pulled up to his work. He worked at a front side grill that specialized on entertaining the customer by setting everything on fire. It suited him really and you couldn't really tell it by the fact that he is always late but Axel really loved his job.

"You get fired call me." Leon joked tone still flat.

"Vexen loves me too much for that." Axel chuckled opening the door when they pulled to a stop, "thanks for the ride again and sorry for having to be a bum. Didn't expect more to be wrong than just a flat tire on my car. Damn rim."

Leon replied with a simple wave as he shifted the car in reverse and pulling out of the lot. Waving back Axel turned to the restaurant pulling the doors open and walking back to the back room to sign in.

"You're late Axel." A pink haired man said sitting in the corner of the room feet propped up on a table pen in hand.

"New neighbor decided to injure himself and came over for help. I slept in." Axel sighed pulling his black apron over his head and pulling his spikes back into a ponytail making sure to secure all the loose strands.

"New neighbors?" the pink haired man perked up, he enjoys new toys in the neighborhood to… take advantage of.

"Back of Marluxia they're too young for you." Walking over to the sink Axel began washing his hands.

"Never stopped me before so long as they are of age" he replied licking his lips.

"Just back off please." Axel sighed.

"They? So there is more than one even better, and why back off? Unlessss you have an interest in one." Marluxia grinned looking up to Axel with a sly grin on his face.

"As if I'm trying to preserve their innocence… and keep them from getting whatever the hell it is you've caught."

Huffing Marluxia went back to chewing on the pen.

The day was pretty uneventful, whenever there was a break Axel kept thinking back to the boys that came over. Sora was rather excitable but Roxas on the other hand… He was… interesting I guess you'd say. The way the blond presented himself was so guarded that it just seems odd for Sora to be as ecstatic as he is, probably an eternal sugar high or something. When it came time to close shop Axel found himself preparing food for his neighbors, probably haven't eaten all day he could see the boxes piled from their kitchen. (Side kitchen window faced Axel's kitchen). Grinning Axel finished up, closed the foot in takeout boxes and walking out in the back lot where he found is car parked.

"Thank you, Leon." Axel smiled climbing in and driving home. When he pulled into his driveway he noticed all the lights off next door except one in the kitchen where he could vaguely make out the image of a blond unpacking boxes. Grinning he stepped out of the car and walked up to the side yard to the side door knocking gently on the glass and chuckling when he saw the blond jump in place, turning to look at him. Gently he held up the food and pointed. "I come bearing gifts!" He called through the door grinning when Roxas walked over to it pulling the door open.

"What are you doing here?" Roxas asked eyes looking to the bags Axel was carrying.

"Just got off work, made you two food. Figured I'd use it as an excuse to come help you unpack and get to know you guys a bit more.

"Right…" Roxas sighed stepping back from the door letting the redhead into his home.

Alright rather long and slow to start off but meh it'll pick up. I'm leaving for a vacationish type thing on the 31st so I'll probably have loads of prewritten chapters from that drive. 12 hours in a car with a 1 month old… this is going to be a blast. R&R =D

Queen of beyblade: Thank you! It's been a blast so far. She has this horrible habit of wanting attention the second I start something so it has been pretty hard to find time to do simple things haha.