In this chapter: Roxas gets a new hobby and Sora makes a very important call.

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Ballad
Chapter Four
"Work In Progress"

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Sometime in the night, Namine had woken up and crawled into bed with Roxas, and had left again before he had woken up. He cracked open a single eye and looked towards the window. The alarm clock was out of sight, but his phone was sitting on the bedside, so he reached for it and checked the time.

Twelve-thirty in the afternoon and three missed messages. It seemed like it would be another normal day. He peeled himself out of bed, regretting last night's decision to not take another shower before sleeping. His ears were still ringing after all of the mayhem of 13 Hearts' performance. In the kitchen, next to a plate of pancakes covered in saran wrap, was a note from his blushing bride.

'Went out with Kairi. Call Sora.'

Even though there was clean silverware in the drawer, Roxas chose to eat the pancakes by hand and listen to his messages. The first one was actually from last night. Namine had called, once again, asking where he was and when he was planning on coming home. Since the Commons were underground Roxas didn't get any reception. He wondered if every night he went out to see 13 Hearts she would call asking about him. The next one from ten in the morning was from his brother.

"Hey, Roxy. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out today. The girl's are at the gym today and said something about shopping afterwards, God help us all. I'm bored as planks so gimme a ring."

The last call was just long bouts of static, so he assumed someone must have called his number by mistake. The caller ID wasn't a number he recognized, though. He chose not to think to harshly about it and to call his brother back.

"Roxas!" Sora shouted happily into the receiver upon his brother calling. The blonde pulled his head away from his phone before Sora continued talking happily and far too loud. "Hey, wanna get together today?"

"It would be why I called," Roxas sighed. "So where and when?"

oooOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOOooo

Later, at the coffee house under Roxas' apartment, he met his brother. Although Sora was the oldest, he held much more childlike naivety than Roxas felt comfortable admitting. The brunette sprung up behind his little brother, who was sitting at the counter waiting for his order.

"Get offa me!" Roxas laughed. If it were anyone else he'd probably punch them in the nuts and leave without his coffee, but Sora was always the exception to his every moral.

"Iced mocha frap with skim!" the barista shouted from the end of the counter. Sora followed Roxas to pick it up. "Whipped cream?" she asked.

"Sure," Roxas replied, turning to his brother, "So what did you have in mind today?"

"Chocolate sauce?" Roxas nodded.

"I was thinking maybe a movie? Some pizza or something?"

"Sprinkles?" Roxas waved his hand.

"What movie?"

"The Drafthouse has a double creeper feature this afternoon…"

"Thanks, and have a great day!"

Roxas took his coffee from the way-too-perky barista and was almost startled by the chocolate heart attack catastrophe in his hands. "No coffee beans were harmed in the making of this mocha," Sora joked, as if Roxas had never heard that one before.

"Whatever. I don't even like scary movies…"

When Roxas was a kid, probably only seven or eight, his parents took he and Sora to see Jaws at the Drafthouse. It was the first time going to this theatre, which served food and drink during the movie. The Drafthouse was unique in that it made movies not only entertaining, but a social experience in itself. Too bad Roxas was too terrified watching children and women getting gnawed on by a Great White to notice.

"C'mon, its just some Jack Skellington flicks."

Jack "The Pumpkin King" Skellington was considered the god of gore when it came to directing movies. Most people enjoyed the films and called them "campy," but Roxas was never one for camp. It was October, but he was trying to escape horror as much as possible. Once he thought about it, Halloween was coming up next weekend.

Sora wrapped his arm around Roxas' shoulder and ushered him down the street towards the parking garage. "My car isn't here," Roxas stated. Sora didn't own a car and used the tram system religiously, claiming that it was really the only way to travel in this day-and-age of ecological awareness. However Roxas figured it was because he couldn't afford a vehicle or the means to fuel it. He appeared to show no signs of regret depending so much on others chauffeuring him around town, though.

"Why not?" Sora asked with a pout. Although he enjoyed the bus, the freedom of going wherever you want whenever you want can really only be experienced with a car. Roxas' car was still left at the parking lot for Traverse from Thursday night. A sudden jolt of fear hit the pit of his stomach when he discovered that the club probably didn't like his car just sitting there for two nights.

After a half hour bus ride and fifteen minute walk, Roxas found his car covered with those horrifying yellow envelopes and even a large sheet of paper taped to his window. He had a month to pay off the tickets.

"Stupid fucking tickets, fucking car, fucking Axel," Roxas murmured under his breath as he tried to peel off the paper from his window. "Stupid fucking band…" Once his car was cleared, they drove off to the theatre. The entire time Roxas was glowering angrily at the yellow tickets he stored in his sun visor flap.

"So, who's Axel?" Sora asked. Roxas realized he was using the redhead's name repeatedly like another cuss word.

"Nobody," Roxas stated through gritted teeth. It was all Axel's fault, Roxas believed. If the stupid frontman had just agreed to play his reception the first time they met a week ago, he wouldn't have to go to Traverse and wouldn't have to drink to enjoy his stupid music. Stupid Axel and his stupid skinny leather pants and stylish skin-tight shirt and ridiculous labret piercing…

Axel's style suddenly reminded Roxas of another annoying punk kid. "Hey, Sora…" Roxas drawled. His brother, who had scooted the front passenger's chair all the way back to lean his bare feet on the dashboard, turned his attention to Roxas and hummed in response. "…Why aren't you wearing shoes?" It was a stupid question, because Sora was one of those kids who would wear shorts and sandals even in the snow. Fifty-degree weather was no exception. Roxas shook it off before Sora could answer. "Whatever. Does the name Demyx mean anything to you?"

Roxas didn't necessarily get the response he was hoping for. In his perfect world, Sora would shrug and say 'He was just some guy who went to my school, but I didn't know him. Why do you ask, dearest brother?' Instead, Sora said nothing. Roxas noticed his leg muscles tighten and his toes curl up. "Why?" he asked, sounding oddly serious.

"Well, no reason, really," Roxas said quickly. The blonde was seriously creeped out by his brother's reaction. "I mean, I ran into him at the grocery store the other day and he asked about you… He said y'all were tight… I was only curious because I didn't know him."

Sora didn't say anything for a few moments, opting to remove his feet and sit up straight. He suddenly found the scenery outside very interesting. "What else did he tell you?" He was pretending to be more interested in whatever they were driving past than the conversation. This sort of behavior was peculiar for Sora, but being brothers Roxas was used to it.

The younger brother paused for a second, trying to focus on driving and remembering that conversation he had a week ago. "He said that… his sister had a baby, which was why he came home from Destiny Islands. And, uh… He said he has the same cell phone number if you wanted to call him."

"No shit?" Sora asked. "I wonder who the dad is… She's seriously unhinged, so I feel really sorry for whoever's responsible…"

Roxas hated it when Sora cursed like this, because it usually meant he was really nervous. Something about Demyx must have caused this reaction. "I have to dig up his number… I deleted it when he moved."

So what Roxas was able to gather was that once Demyx left for college, Sora deleted his number from his phone, and most likely from the brunette's unexpected response, the punk was erased from memory completely. Even though his old high school buddy Pence went to a different college, Roxas still kept his number.

"Did you guys have a fight or something?"

"More like a falling out. But I guess separation makes the heart grow fonder." Sora chose not to elaborate on that thought. "I guess I'll call Lex and ask him for the number…"

Lexaeus was Hayner's beefy, jocky, and overall dunderhead of an older brother. He was one year Sora's senior, and would hang out with Demyx and his sister to smoke weed (so said Hayner). Lex was one of those people that never really made it anywhere. A football player in high school, he was constantly benched for poor grades that even the most sympathetic teacher couldn't salvage. After graduation, no college or university would have him, so he stayed at home. As far as Roxas knew, since Hayner almost refused to talk about him, Lexaeus remained in his parent's house to this day. Roxas had a pretty good idea that Sora didn't have Lex's number, which meant he'd have to go Hayner and ask for him eventually.

Roxas felt Sora shift in his seat again as he pointed out the ice cream parlor from the driver's side window. It was the most Roxas could do to not swerve into oncoming traffic. "Sora!" he cried. "What the fuck!"

"It's free scoop day! I totally forgot!"

Roxas sighed and pulled into the parking lot for the parlor. In a way he was proud of his brother to change the subject as well as Edward Scissorhands could change clothes. In short, a magnificent train wreck. "Yeah, whatever."

Roxas got strawberry and Sora got rainbow sorbet. He desperately hoped that the tickets to the horror matinee would be sold out so he wouldn't have to go. Roxas cursed when his brother shelled out the money for both their tickets. The only lifesaver the brunette gave his brother was, "It won't be that bad."

And in the end, the movies were terrible, no matter what Sora would say. Poor makeup on the zombies, hideous makeup on the ladies, and did the lead cheerleader really need to lose her blouse throughout all of the third act? Sora ate it up as easily as he devoured his stale popcorn.

"He's going to die," Sora whispered to him. The jock, still wearing his jersey, once white now maroon with blood, sprinted down a suspiciously dark and dank school hallway while looking behind constantly, wild violins ripping off the Psycho theme in the background. The loose plot binding this film together was, while the jock and the cheerleader were having a needlessly gratuitous make-out in the locker room showers, a serial killer that had a penchant for ruthlessly murdering impossibly attractive football players and cheerleaders had somehow got into the school after the big game.

A few brutal screams and the sound of a buzzing saw later, the jock was nothing but a puddle. "This is the part where he starts eating the body. See, the killer thinks he's a vampire, but a special breed that has to feed on actual meat instead of just blood."

"I think that just makes him a cannibal," Roxas murmured, cringing when it showed an image of the killer grinning, the jock's eyeball and all its nerves dangling from his toothy smile.

Roxas was thankfully distracted by his phone vibrating in his back pocket. Normally the Drafthouse was ridiculously strict about cell phone use during a movie, but it was a matinee and nobody was around anyway. Roxas tugged out his phone and flipped it open. The screen announced that he had received a new picture message. The picture was only slightly terrifying.

It was an image of the movie screen focused on the killer's creepy grin. If Roxas looked close enough, he could see himself and Sora sitting together closer in the front. Included was a caption 'Isnt this movie 2 die for?'

It read like a tagline for one of films they were watching. It was from the same unknown number that had sent him all the pictures of 13 Hearts desecrating Roxas' face with a silver sharpie Friday night. If he didn't know any better, Axel was stalking him. Almost immediately he received another text. 'Cute date.'

Roxas tried to control the bile rising in the back of his throat. Luckily Sora was too enthralled in the movie to notice Roxas texting with is phone. The blonde turned around, and sure enough there was the proud redhead in the very back of the theatre, sitting by himself. Roxas turned back to his phone and started texting a reply.

'He's my brother, you sick fuck.'

He determinedly pressed the send button, perhaps a bit too hard, and waited for a response.

'Chillax. Wht r u doing here neway? U like horror?'

'No. Brother's idea.'

'So cool. Skellington roks!'

'He's a creep. I hate these movies…'

'lol y ru here? bonding time?'

'Not sure. I see my brother all the time.'

'Wanna sit w me?'

Roxas laughed.

'No.'

'Dick. Sit w you?'

Roxas glanced at Sora, who was still giving his full attention to the movie. There really wasn't a decent reason Roxas could think of that would be a reasonable excuse for why Axel couldn't sit with them. He had already said that he saw his brother a lot and he hated the movie, so being alone with Sora couldn't be 'bonding time.' However, Roxas didn't want to go through the hassle of introducing Axel to his brother. Knowing Sora, he'd probably latch onto the redhead and never let go. Even if this was Axel Roxas was thinking about, he wouldn't wish his brother's obsessive behavior on his worst enemy.

Roxas' phone vibrated again with a new message.

'Wanna ditch?'

He read the text right as the cheerleader got her foot sawed off. Yes. Yes, now would be a very, very good time to leave. Roxas focused his gaze on the sticky theatre floors to avoid as much of the blood as possible while leaning over to his brother and telling him he had to run to the bathroom right quick. As he rushed up the stairs to get out of that nauseating theatre as fast as possible, he made eye contact with Axel and motioned his head for him to follow. The older man almost comically tripped over his seat to follow Roxas out the door.

"Jesus Christ," Roxas whined as soon as the theatre doors shut behind him. He turned to Axel, who simply smiled at him and laughed. The blonde noticed that today he appeared to dress in civilian wear. The redhead wore faded skinny blue jeans and an old black Metallica tour shirt from the 90s. His hair wasn't gelled back like usual and looked naturally tousled.

"Are you sweating?" Axel asked. "Don't tell me that stuff actually scared you…"

"No, no, of course not." Roxas rolled his eyes as if this was the most insane thing the redhead had ever stated. The younger man pulled on his coat. "It just got a little toasty in there, was all." As if a windbreaker would cause him to sweat in a sixty-five degree theatre. Fortunately, Axel obviously noticed but decided not to comment.

"So you're here with your brother, huh? Can I meet him?" Axel asked, lifting his hands up over his head, stretching, and heading to the concession stand. Roxas had to walk quicker than normal to keep up with the tall man's pace.

"Well, you could, but he's not leaving until the movies are over," he sighed.

Axel ordered two bags of Skittles and an extra large diet coke. "Is he a horror buff or something?" he asked, taking a large gulp from his drink. The cup was easily larger than his head, which could either be taken as a compliment to the cup or an insult to his intelligence. Roxas laughed to himself.

"No," he chuckled, shaking his head. "Not really. He just likes campy double features like that."

"Campy?" Axel asked in horror. "Mister Strife, I believe you are mistaken. Night of the Living Murderer and Death of a Zombie 2: The Zombie Lives are Criterion collection masterpieces. I pray you take back your insult, good sir."

"I take back nothing," Roxas said snootily, holding up his nose. It was hard to take Axel seriously with a mouth full of Skittles. The redhead tossed one of the bags to Roxas. "I just had ice cream, I can't eat this," the blonde admitted.

"C'mon, eat it," Axel grumbled. "I paid, like, three bucks for it. Eat it."

Roxas looked down at the red packaged candy in his hand morosely. "You didn't have to do that." Axel scoffed and brought his bag to his lips, letting the candy fall down freely. "I mean, seriously? All I've had to eat today was a mocha and ice cream." Despite everything, Roxas still grasped the edges of the bag and made to open it.

Axel curled his lip and looked down at the blonde man. "A mocha?" he asked his a look of total unbelievable disgust. "Wait a second… before I make any false assumptions about your character… You know, aside from you obviously being a rockist bigot."

"A what?" Roxas almost ripped the candy bag in half.

"Somebody who hates good rock music without a valid reason," Axel explained.

Roxas smirked. "My reason's incredibly valid, you just wouldn't like it."

Axel made a harrumph under his breath and continued. "What coffee shop did you get your precious mocha from?"

"Uh… The one on Main Street, near campus."

"Under the apartment complex?"

Roxas had successfully opened the Skittles bag and popped a few into his mouth. "Yeah."

"Twilight Town Café, right?"

"Are there any other coffee houses under apartment complexes on Main? Yeah, that's the one," Roxas said sarcastically.

"That's totally on my route," the redhead stated. It took Roxas a minute to remember that while doubling as the lead singer of a punk/80s cover band, he was also a tram driver for their lovely city. Axel laughed to himself. "Are you going to be around Tuesday night?"

Roxas hummed, his mouth full of candy. The thing about Skittles was that as soon as you bite through their suspiciously mellow exterior, the blast of flavor inside makes you susceptible to flying spit whenever you try to talk. To save himself from such morbid embarrassment in front of Axel, Roxas simply shook his head before swallowing the candy and the torrent of saliva that followed shortly. "No, I have my physics lab on Tuesdays. I've been skipping lately and my TA's kind of getting pissed."

"At least you have TAs that care," Axel scoffed, taking a few more large gulps from his diet coke.

"What college did you go to?" Roxas asked, assuming that the redhead was old enough to have graduated by now. He obviously wasn't in school now with a full schedule of band practice and chauffeuring the dregs of the city.

"I didn't," Axel answered, finishing his soda and tossing the giant cup into the trashcan with expert aim. Before Roxas had a chance to grill him about why he didn't enroll into any form of higher education (and the School of Rock didn't count), the front man turned to Roxas with a nice toothy grin not too far off from the murderer in the film. "So, what do you want to do next?"

"Next?" Roxas chuckled, popping more candies into his mouth. "I need to be getting back with Sora…"

"Aw, but I thought you hated Skellington flicks. I've got the text to prove it." Like a lawyer dangling a crucial piece of evidence before a judge, Axel swung his red cell phone in front of Roxas as if that would be enough to stop Roxas from going back into the theatre.

"But it's my brother…"

"Whom you've also mentioned you see all the time anyway. And how many times do you get to see me? Almost never?"

"Because I've known you since, like, a week ago? And I've seen you four times since then…"

At Roxas' harsh tone, the perky redhead lost some of his bounce. "Aw, you're not serious. You love me, right?"

"Why would you even want to hang out with me? I mean, I'm a dick, right? Isn't that what you said?"

"I never said that," Axel said, frowning.

Remember their first meeting, Roxas begged to differ. "Yeah, you did." He took his cell phone out of his pocket and wagged it in Axel's face. "Besides, I've even got a text to prove it."

Axel cracked a grin and grabbed Roxas' wrist, pulling the phone away from his face. "You're a piece of work, you know that?"

Roxas sighed, looking at his cell phone that was still being held by Axel's hand. His fingers had a really warm touch, which was surprising from such a skinny guy. Roxas pulled up his cell phone and snapped it open. "Fine. I'll send him a text saying something came up." Axel squealed like a dork and clapped his hands. "But only because I hate Skellington movies. God, you're such a freak." After the text was sent, Roxas turned his attention back to the candy. "I can't believe I'm actually volunteering to spend more time with you."

"I promise it won't be that bad. What do you usually do on Saturdays, anyway? Got a part-time job?"

Roxas shook his head. "Nah. My mom says that I'm a full time student, and nothing should really distract me from that-"

"Except that you're getting married and live with your fiancé," Axel interjected.

The blonde playfully smacked his shoulder with the back of his hand. "She just wants me to get really good grades and doesn't want the 'stress of a work environment' to bring me down."

"Oh, so you have one of those kinds of parents," Axel said, finishing off his Skittles and throwing them away, too. Roxas wasn't entirely sure how to take that statement. He puckered his lips in thought and nodded.

"Yeah… I guess."

"So what's your major?"

In all respect it was a completely legit question, but once you enter college it is the only question you will ever hear. And the question means so much, too, because once people hear that Fuu is a communications major, they know she's interested in film and radio and the science behind the technology and culture. When people hear that Namine is a traditional arts major, they know she's a creative, talented person without knowing anything else. Hayner was a physical sciences major, Pence was into business, and Olette was into communications as well.

"I'm… undeclared," Roxas sighed, tossing the Skittles wrapper into the trash by the door.

Axel chose compassionately not to tease. The look on Roxas' red, embarrassed face showed him how humiliated he was by this. "Hey, kid, it's all right. A lot of my best friends didn't know what they wanted to do with their lives until after graduation day. I'm sure with a solid head on your shoulders like you have you'll do great, don't worry."

Roxas, eyes still glued to the floor, smiled. Although Axel was from the outside, he knew a lot more about the blonde's current situation than he allowed anyone to let on. The fact that he was going to be married and a senior soon and he still didn't know what he wanted to do with his life was mortifying. As quickly as the heartwarming grin grew on his face, it quickly melted away into a searing frown. Roxas looked up at Axel and quipped, "I'm not a kid."

Axel laughed and pinched Roxas' cheeks. Hard. The blonde didn't exactly come from a long and fruitful family. Young, yes, but his parents didn't have eccentric old aunties or proud elderly grandpas that would be into cheek pinching. Even as a child, at the ripe age of 'cute,' he never got pinched. So now, Roxas was experiencing this ritual that seemed to plague young children on his favorite television sitcoms. And it hurt. A lot.

"Ow, stop that!" Roxas whined, slapping the hand away. He was sure he was left with a bright red mark now.

"Jeez, you're a whiner. Just like a kid, huh?"

"And I can easily punch you in the face and go back into the theatre, right?" Roxas said with a fake smile. Axel pouted and leaned against the glass door that led outside.

"You don't really mean that, do you?"

Roxas crossed his arms and started to turn back towards his theatre.

"Aw, c'mon, Rox. I'll buy you lunch. A respectable one. Without Skittles."

The thought of eating real food soothed Roxas' quaking stomach. Paying Axel just an hour of his time at most for a free meal was well worth the risk. The blonde turned to him and smirked. "Deal."

Axel just smiled and leaned against the door harder, pushing it open and holding it there so Roxas could walk out. "What place did you have in mind?" Axel took a few steps ahead and motioned down the street.

"Just this little campus restaurant. A real hole in the wall."

And boy, Axel wasn't kidding. The place wasn't even a restaurant, really. There was a counter where you placed your order, and the cook would shout the customer's name, and they would have to pick up their own meal. It was a lot like a diner, only with more scene kids than truckers and a stage for performances. However, it did come with a complimentary noticeably awkward smell that every diner had.

"Have you ever played here?" Roxas asked as they approached the front counter. The stage looked more like a storage area for extra chairs than a performance place.

"Pfft. Yeah, right. This place is so superficial I want to castrate everyone here." This surprised Roxas, since most of the people here looked like the kids that went to his shows, the same ones he would sing passionate songs to and would worship him like a saint. Axel approached the counter and gave his order. "Burger and shake… Chocolate." He turned to Roxas, "What do you want?"

The blonde shook his head. "You don't really have to pay. I can get myself."

"Don't think about it. You're helping us by roadie-ing for free. It's the least I can do."

"I don't really have a choice," Roxas muttered, finding it a little odd that Axel seemed to forget easily that he was roped into doing this against his will.

"Well, since Seifer went to school and you're working sans stipend, I'm saving about twenty bucks a show."

"Your last roadie only got paid twenty dollars a show? Why did he bother?"

"He was a hard-headed jerk," Axel declared.

Roxas stepped up to the depressed kid behind the counter. "Hi. I'll have a chicken sandwich and fries, ketchup on the side, and a diet Mr. Pibb."

"The only reason why he'd help us was because Squall's our sound guy."

"Are they friends?" Roxas asked, following the redhead to a booth next to the windows.

"Sure," Axel sighed as he rolled his eyes. "Something like that. But Seifer wouldn't work if he didn't get paid. I mean, he knew a lot about getting the guitars and stuff set before a show, but really, that's just stuff we could do ourselves."

"Do I have to learn to mess with guitars like that?"

Axel shook his head. "Not if you don't want to. I mean, like I said, we can do all of that stuff ourselves."

"I dunno," Roxas said with a shrug. "It might be nice to learn."

"Have you ever even touched a guitar before?"

The way Axel asked it was dripping with sarcasm, knowing the blonde would say 'no.' Roxas slowly shook his head, looking down to his silverware rolled up in a paper napkin. "Nobody's even really taught me. My parents were never that musically inclined…"

"Well, you're still really young. It's never too late to learn!" Axel said happily, folding his hands on the table. "I have a spare guitar you can borrow."

Roxas perked up at this. "Seriously? You'd, like, let me borrow it?"

"Yeah, like, seriously!" Axel said, mocking Roxas' voice to sound like a valley girl. Roxas glared at him, but Axel just laughed good-naturedly. "Sure, I'll lend it to you. Free, too, because I'm a good guy like that. We can head to my place after this and I'll pick it up for you."

"That's great," Roxas said, not really sure if he could believe the front man was actually going to lend him a guitar. Weren't those things supposed to be like a third leg to all musicians? "Thanks."

"Axel Rose! Order up!"

Axel and Roxas stood at the same time, and Axel held his hand out, motioning for Roxas to sit back down. "It's cool, I got it."

Roxas' eyes followed Axel as he walked to the kitchen counter where their trays of food were waiting under a heat lamp. The redhead was certainly an interesting person. While he was willing to lend Roxas a guitar, he was also more than willing to verbally insult him onstage. Just being around Axel made Roxas feel a little… rebellious. Although it was late to be feeling this way, since Roxas wasn't a teenager anymore and he didn't live with his parents, the redhead just seemed to drip in hidden angst that he had never seen in anyone he hung out with normally.

"Yo, Rox! Can you get the drinks?" Axel called from across the restaurant. Roxas blinked back into the present and looked in the direction Axel was pointing to. The soda fountain was sitting in the corner with bins of red hard plastic cups, a restaurant standard, sitting next to it. When he got back to the table, Axel was drinking his milkshake and ignoring his burger completely.

"So you're a desert first kind of guy?" Roxas asked, sitting down across from him and placing his napkin in his lap. He noticed that Axel's napkin was still left untouched, wrapped around the useless silverware.

"I'm more of a… I'm gonna eat this anyway, and I'm not getting any deader, so why not? …kind of guy." To make a point, he picked up his burger and squeezed it, watching the grease from the meat and cheese drip into the paper-lined basket. "See? That doesn't really help you, y'know, live."

"Then why do you eat it?" Roxas asked, holding up his chicken sandwich, complete with a single leaf of lettuce, as if to make a point that there was a healthier alternative. Axel just smirked wickedly.

"Nah, Rox. Healthy living isn't really my thing. I know I'm going to die soon. Why deny it?"

"But you'd be lucky to live until fifty eating that way," Roxas muttered. Not that he was a healthy eater, because he did love his guilty pleasures, but at least he wasn't ignorant about it.

"But they're so good here!" Axel reasoned, complete with grease dripping down the side of his lip. Roxas tried his damndest not to laugh. Hastily, Axel swallowed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "No, seriously, haven't you ever wondered what the smell was around this block?"

The way campus was set up was the poorer students lived south in cheap apartments and dorms, and the wealthier students lived north in condos and lofts. Roxas and Namine lived in an apartment north campus, and Roxas never spent much time southside if it wasn't required for classes. Roxas assumed that the odd smell Axel was talking about just came from the general neighborhood. Not wanting to come off as more of a complete asshole than the redhead probably already assumed, Roxas decided to simply nod his head while sipping his diet Pibb.

"Well, there's a reason for that, you know? They butcher the cows here."

Roxas balked, almost spitting out his soda. "They do not!"

"No, they totally do!" Axel said, grinning. "Haven't you ever wondered why the staff here is so overwhelmingly depressed?"

"You mean besides being teenagers working at a fucking diner?"

"There's a slaughter house in the back. Now, granted, the cows are technically already dead when they get here, but they skin them in the building behind this one. It's like a scene from one of those murder house movies, with the cow corpses on hooks."

Roxas recalled what Rinoa said the other day, about not being able to trust Luxord or Xigbar, and how Marluxia was a social enigma. Axel's track record wasn't exactly viable, either. "Why should I believe you?"

"Why? One of my best friend's ex's bandmate's old band's drummer's brother works there!" Axel turned and looked over his shoulder towards the counter. "Yo, John!"

Roxas glanced up from his chicken sandwich and saw a huge brown-haired man quickly poke his head out of the opening in the wall dividing the kitchen from the rest of the diner. He was wearing a blood soaked apron. Roxas' face paled a few degrees as he placed his sandwich back down in its basket.

"See?" Axel said happily, turning back to Roxas. "John's is pretty cool. He comes to a lot of our shows, but he's been pretty swamped with school lately." Ignoring the sickly green color on the blonde's face, Axel pointed to the fries. "Are you gonna eat those?"

Roxas slowly shook his head and pushed the basket towards Axel. The redhead beamed and grabbed a small handful of them, shoving them in his chocolate shake.

"What are you doing?" Roxas almost cried. He just ruined a perfectly good milkshake!

"What? Nothing," Axel replied, taking the fries out and, to Roxas' absolute horror, ate them. The redhead's smirk grew slowly watching Roxas watch himself as he slowly chewed the salty sugary snack.

"What was that? That was disgusting!" he wailed.

"No, it's delicious." Axel grabbed a single fry from the basket and gave it a nice dip, making sure to slowly swivel the fry inside the shake like a straw. He took the fry out, the small fried potato barely able to stand under the weight of the desert, and handed it to him. "C'mon. It's like a chocolate covered pretzel. Only you're more likely to die from it."

Roxas loved chocolate covered pretzels, but he had never heard of a chocolate ice cream covered French fry. Warily, he took the fry from Axel and looked at it cautiously. In the end, he couldn't do it. He just couldn't do it. It was far too gross. His poor sickly stomach couldn't handle the pressure of Axel egging him on.

"Psh. Baby," the redhead stated, picking up his basket and reaching for Roxas'. "You done? I want to stop by my apartment before it gets dark."

"Why's that?" Roxas asked, taking his sandwich from the basket before Axel snatched it away. He tossed Roxas' basket on top of his own and used his free hand to muss with Roxas' hair. The blonde nearly freaked and he swatted Axel's hand away and tried his best to salvage his hair in the reflection of the window.

"I don't want a cutie like you being taken down by some predator. This may surprise you, but I live in a shady part of town."

The way his said it made it obvious that Roxas had already jumped to that conclusion a long time ago. The wary student waited by the door as the frontman tossed their garbage away and followed him outside.

On the way to Axel's apartment, Roxas kept him busy by asking him questions about his performances. The redhead's creepiest moment was when some girl had thrown their bra onstage and it got caught on his guitar. He said that the action isn't nearly as flattering as whatever rock star myth made it seem.

"So what about your bandmates? I haven't really heard much from them," Roxas added as they turned a corner and headed towards the south side of campus.

"Well, Xigbar can be kind of mean, but he's… got a good heart, I'm sure. I mean, I haven't seen it yet, but apparently Luxord has. He vouches."

"Is it true that he was a black jack dealer in Vegas?"

"Heheh, yeah. I actually met him in Vegas before he moved down here. He played in a band called Cards or Die in some pretty fancy clubs on the strip. I gave him one of my band's old demo tapes and he got in contact with me about a year later… and the rest was history!"

"And what about Marluxia. I know Rinoa performs with you guys and everything, so you guys must be close… She couldn't really find anything to say about him."

"Marly lives a hundred different lives, kid. We used to be closer but since relocating to Bastion he's been keeping busy with God-knows-what." Axel dug into his back pocket and pulled out a crumbled box of cigarettes. "Do you mind?"

Roxas shook his head and Axel lit up. "He seems a bit different from the rest of you guys. I mean, everyone seems kind of grungy, and then there's Marluxia with the pink hair and the glitter and the spandex…"

"Yeah," Axel laughed. "He's a Bowie fan. I do know one thing about him: His favorite movie is The Velvet Goldmine."

"Never heard of it…"

"Oh, it's amazing. It might be a little bent for you, but it's good for a rock and roll history flick."

After a few short minutes, they approached a red brick building that stood alone on a corner near a gas station and a pawnshop. It wasn't like most apartments where there was an office and multiple rows and groups of complexes. The building was long and narrow, and looked like it was just a row of five rooms three stories tall. "I'm on the second floor," Axel stated, tossing his cigarette into the gutter before bounding up the stairs.

Roxas was very curious about what Axel's apartment looked like. You can tell a lot about a person's real character by how they keep their personal space. When Axel unlocked the door and stepped inside, Roxas was pleasantly surprised.

There were eight guitars hanging on the wall on special display wracks, one placed horizontally above the television the way some people display swordfish trophies. His walls were lined with old b-movie posters, and he was starting to notice a trend. "Are you an Ed Wood fan?" he asked, stopping in front of a Glen or Glenda? poster.

Axel, who had disappeared into the kitchen, stuck his torso out to look at the poster as well. "Ah, those were just gifts from the guys. I needed something to decorate with… Movie poster reprints are the easiest way."

Roxas laughed. "I wish I could convince Namine that. She spent fifty dollars on an art print, not even framed, at some street festival a few weeks ago. She has this motif for the apartment that she wants to follow…" Roxas looked around at the guitars and the movie posters approvingly. "But I don't really care for that stuff."

"Welcome to marriage," Axel said with a laugh. He turned to the eight guitars hanging on the wall. "Alright. Choose one."

Roxas turned and looked behind him, eyes wide. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, pick one," he said encouragingly. "Each one has a different sound, though. What kind of style were you thinking about picking up?"

"Guitars have different sounds?" Roxas asked, following Axel as he walked around the couch and picked up a black, round guitar from the wrack. They seemed to much bigger in person when he was up close. Axel strapped on the guitar and strummed.

"Of course they do. I mean, you can't really tell now without the amp, but this one has a real deep, kind of…" he made a sound mimicking the sound the guitar would make, had it been plugged in. "I use this one for blues."

"The blues?" Roxas asked, brow sufficiently raised. "What've you got to be depressed about?"

"Aw, c'mon, Rox. Anybody can be depressed," he sighed, starting to strum a song. Every once and a while he would hit the body of his guitar to create a better beat. "I live all alone, nobody to call my own, I eat ramen every day, the only thi~ing I can say is, well brother, I got the blues… The poor single rock star blues."

Although the song was meant to be taken jokingly, Roxas was totally enraptured with Axel's voice. His tone carried the perfect melody that took Roxas back to that special place where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky. This sound in his voice wasn't captured with the screaming punk music he played in 13 Hearts when they weren't doing covers.

"This was my first guitar," Axel said, smiling at it warmly that way some men would smile down on their first-born son. He put the guitar back on the wrack and picked up a different one a few selections down. "This one is good for a more metal sound. You know, like Cannibal Corpse or Kreator. Heh… Sorry if you don't know what those sound like but I'm not going to give you a demo."

He pointed to a bright red guitar. "The Fender is better for a pop-punky kind of sound that we used to play," he said quickly. "You probably hear its sound on the radio a lot. And this one I use for fast playing during some of our songs on stage. Something about the shape makes it easier for me to play quickly…"

Roxas was starting to wonder if he was going to take out his wallet and show him pictures of his guitars during live shows. "I think I'll take that one," Roxas stated, pointing to the red Fender. "Is that okay?"

"Sure, it's fine. I don't get to play it much anymore since we've changed our sound," Axel said with a shrug. "But it is my most expensive guitar, so take care of it."

"Oh, maybe I shouldn't," Roxas replied, feeling a little uneasy just taking something like that. "I mean, what if I lose it or break it?" he questioned.

Axel rolled his eyes at him. "How do you lose a guitar?" he asked, making a visual gesture at how big the guitar actually was. "And don't worry about breaking it. I'm not just going to hand it over to you and let you slaughter it. I'm going to teach you everything first."

"Right now?"

"Just the basics. Number one: Don't carry the guitar by just its neck. Use two hands." Axel demonstrated by cradling the guitar's body and neck at once. "Number two: Don't fuck with the tuning." He pointed to the tuning keys on the head of the guitar. "If you stretch out the strings you have to replace them all the time and that sucks. I'll give you a tuner so you don't mess up. Number three: If you're going to travel, put it in a case. Guitars aren't invincible."

Axel walked over to the coat closet, which was littered with guitar cases. Fabric ones were hanging from hangers instead of jackets, and on the floor there were the traditional hard cases. Roxas noticed under the hanging cases there were three amps. Just how much money did Axel have to throw around on music supplies? It was no wonder this guy was single and living off ramen.

"I know it's kind of bulky," Axel grunted, pulling out the hard case, "but it's the safest possible solution if you're that terrified of shattering it." With one last tug he was able to free the case from the closet. He snapped it open and two moths fluttered out. "Oh, gross… I need to buy some mothballs." Roxas swatted and successfully maimed one of them, squishing them into oblivion on the tiled entryway.

"No problem. I'm sure Namine has mothballs somewhere in the apartment. It smells like them a lot."

Axel placed the Fender inside its case and snapped the shiny silver buckles closed. "There. Snug and safe." He stood and clapped the dust from the case off his hands. "Lemme help you take all this stuff to your place."

"My car is still at the movie theatre," Roxas commented, thinking that his car was probably missing the shaded sanctuary of his apartment's parking garage. Roxas looked at the guitar case on the floor and frowned. "I can carry that okay by myself."

"And the amp?" Axel asked, walking back from the wracks carrying a long cord and dropping it on the case. He turned back towards his bedroom and went inside. Roxas was curious about what it looked like in his bedroom, but the door opened at an angle where he couldn't see the inside. He could hear Axel grunting and soon he came out the door with a small Fender amp in his hand. The amp was black and had a small handle on top for easy carrying. The material on the amp was the same the guitar case, and on the front speaker there was a silver 'Fender' logo in the corner. "The sound from an unplugged electric guitar is boring to practice with. I don't want you to have to carry this all on your own, though."

Roxas smiled and picked up the guitar. Combined with the case, it was a lot heavier than he expected.

"Got it there, Rox?" Axel asked. Roxas couldn't tell if the worried tone in his voice was for himself or the guitar.

"Yeah, got it," he sighed, fitting the handle nicely in his hands. "Thanks for doing this for me. I've always kind of wanted to learn, but… you know how it is." Or probably not, Roxas thought. Knowing Axel he was probably playing guitar since he was five.

The redhead didn't say anything as they left his apartment and tried to make it down the stairs without falling.

oooOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOOooo

Stepping out of the theatre, the sun was beginning to set at its brightest and almost blinded Sora after being in the dark for so long. The brunet squinted and put his hand up towards the sky to block the rays, looking around the parking lot. His brother's car was still sitting in the lot, but Sora wasn't worried.

He took out his cell phone and checked the time. Kairi wasn't expecting him home until later, so he had at least another hour to kill until returning home. He casually started walking down the sidewalk, cell phone in hand.

The small device had been a bane on his existence since earlier this afternoon. The back of his head was screaming at him numbers that he deleted but could never forget. As if he had no control, those seven digits were tapped and his phone rose to his ear.

Ring tone.

Ring tone.

Ring to-

"Hello~?"

Sora smiled, his face contradicting the nervous rhythm of his heart. Breathing slowly, he closed his eyes as his smile transformed into a wide grin.

"Hello, Demyx."

xxxXXXxxx

Woo! I've been reading a lot of old fanfiction that I read while I was writing Ballad. Some of the stories were really great! Can't recommend Boys by Casey V enough. I'll always be a fan of How To Do Nothing At All by Falaphesian (both can be found under my "favorite stories" tab on my profile). I've been out of the fanfiction game for a while and most of my favorite writers aren't posting anymore. Does anybody have any good stories to recommend? I prefer AUs (doesn't have to be school-based, but I'm not a fan of reading in-game stuff, especially since I haven't played anything after KHII yet.) Also prefer for them to be finished, unless the writer seems to updating regularly. Don't care if it's long or short, any rating's fine, humor's great, don't care when it was published, I just want it to be good, y'know? Anyway, if anybody has any good suggestions feel free to leave a title/author name in a review or in a PM!

Speaking of publishing dates, and this will severely date my story I'm sorry guys, when I wrote this story not a lot of people had smart phones yet. I had a flip phone when I started writing this, and I got my first iPhone in 2008 a few months after I started (and probably about a year after they hit the market, give or take). Almost everybody in this story has a flip phone. It's such a minor detail, but when I read details about how the characters use their phones (little things like a light blinking for a missed call, etc) it really throws me for a loop. I asked a friend if I should change it so the characters are using more modern phones, and she said not to touch it, and that this story was a precious artifact from the mid-aughts. I don't know if any of the newer readers have ever had a deal with a flip phone before. It's weird to think about. Sorry if the way they use their phones is weird (like Axel and his chat speak. Remember when you had a character limit for texts? That was the worst!") Anyway, just wanted to point that out because for some reason showing off how old and decrepit I am sounded like a good time. See you guys next week~~~~!