In this chapter: Roxas makes a bold decision, and will stick with it for the rest of his life.

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Ballad
Chapter Nine
"30 Century Man"

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Roxas was not a naïve person. Most of that genetic trait from his mother's side of the family was endowed on his brother. Shifts and changes in his emotions never went undiscovered by the blonde, which was why he found it odd that someone like Axel Rose of all people was quickly careening down some sort of comradeship highway with cut brakes. This was not usual for any of his friends.

It took Roxas two years to accept Olette, especially after the bunny-on-shoe incident. However, he was also six at the time. It didn't take much for Pence to prove himself to be a good friend. Roxas had supposed he'd be a survival friend, one of those kids you befriend at summer camps or in the dentist waiting room to make the time go by faster. Roxas never complained when he happened to stick around for the rest of high school. And with Hayner, it was the jock blonde who approached him to begin with when he picked Roxas first when choosing teams for soccer in elementary school. At this point, Roxas discovered that he had the same core friends for at least eight years. Maybe this was fate telling him it was time to change.

Of course, he wished it went about differently. He looked at Axel and saw someone strong, funny, and fully capable of survival in the real world while never having to accept the consequences of being different. Most kids from high school that started bands never made it as far as Axel did. The brilliance of it was that Axel knew this, and success hadn't gone to his head. He didn't worship his audience, but didn't hate them either, and he was smart enough to keep his friends close and his enemies as far away as humanly possible so they didn't cloud his judgment.

When Roxas thought about it, he and the redhead were never on good terms when they met, but Axel kept prying. Now if Roxas were to say something mean it would be like kicking a three-legged puppy. He felt like he definitely didn't deserve someone like Axel's attention. Everything was better when it was just his trifecta of friends, without the punk scamps suddenly walking in on his life.

So the moment found Roxas sitting in a folding chair in the greenroom, the full-length mirror stealing his focus. He was sitting slack in his chair, leaning down so far that he almost fell off. In his reflection, he did not like what he saw. Those boots. Those damn steel-toed boots that Axel had bought for him. They were hideous. Too old, too clunky, too scuffed. For something so obviously wrong, why was it so right? Normally he would never give himself compliments, but he liked the way he looked in the tuxedo. Remembering what he wore earlier, those lame khakis and a blue button-up, the black was a very welcoming change of pace. If it was true that the right clothes had the ability to empower people, then Roxas felt like he could take over the world right now.

He leaned down in his chair and lovingly rubbed his thumb over one of the scuffs on his boot. Where did these shoes belong before they were given to him? It was one of the great mysteries of buying second-hand. Did they belong to a construction worker, and saved him hundreds of times by protecting his feet from falling objects? Most likely they belonged to a bratty high school student who wore them to look cool. Roxas wouldn't blame him. Maybe they belonged to a punk rocker like Axel, who went to a lot of underground shows and got the steel toes dented in some of the most amazing feats of mosh pittery known to man.

Roxas got a spark in his head to do something amazing. He wasn't just going to stand here in the greenroom looking at himself in a mirror. That's totally not punk rock. He stood quickly, straightening his tuxedo jacket, and placed the mask back over his dolled-up eyes.

Outside, Axel was still singing his lungs out. "Your affable smirk looked so alive in the darkest day no way to survive! I took this deep dive!" Roxas opened the door and was sure to shut it. Seifer had disappeared back to wherever he came from, probably back to the catwalk above the stage, and his place was taken by Cid. The bouncer was spending more time watching the show than paying attention to guarding the door. Roxas snuck away and slowly crept closer to the stage.

"Your eyes were the genuine sky, on these glass wings I try to reach you and fly!" The music was a lot louder once Roxas was out of the room. It was the part were the guitar kicked out and there was a brief moment of silence before continuing. That gap was filled with the crowd screaming and jumping, begging for more sweet music. The closer Roxas sneaked to the stage, the more difficult it became. The audience would either accidentally ram into him or purposely block him from getting past. It was getting close to Roxas' favorite part of the song.

"You gave your whole, I lost control! I had your soul AND YOU HAD MINE, FUCKER!" Now it was finally at the part where people would scream. Roxas looked around and tried to find where a pit might be starting, but nobody was doing anything. It was too crowded and cramped and filled with hot sweaty bodies to barely even move.

"Well, this is boring," Roxas mumbled. Before the next verse, he sized up the person standing next to him. He was in costume, dressed in patching green and gray makeup to look like a zombie. About the same body type as Roxas, but perhaps a few inches taller, the blonde thought he could take him. Testing the waters, he nudged against the young man, but he did nothing in response. Quickly, Roxas did it again, this time making the zombie boy trip over his feet and crash into the people standing next to him. He glared at Roxas, biting his lip trying to hide a smirk, but before he got a chance to do anything about it on his own, the people he had landed on forced him off and into the people standing behind Roxas. Some of the crowd started moving away from the ruckus, creating a clearing, and some other people took this as an opportunity.

"This wasn't meant to last. OH! And when I pinned you to bed, when I gave you head with the screams unsaid, I didn't know- never known- YOU WERE DEAD!"

It was time to take over the world. Axel's screaming coming from the speakers pumped the blood straight to his brain and caused his vision to become blurred. Out of the corner of his eye he could see someone coming straight towards him. At the first collision, Roxas blacked out.

oooOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOOooo

"That was so cool!"

"Okay, Axel…"

"I cannot believe that you… Holy shit, I didn't know you had it in you!"

"Stop talking, my head hurts."

"You started a riot, Rox. That's not something that happens at every show… It's also not something that a G-rated guy like you does." Demyx hopped onto a light post and twirled around it in a very Singing in the Rain fashion. "Is your eye okay?"

Roxas readjusted the ice pack over his right eye and sighed. "Yeah, I guess. Stings like a bitch."

"What's Namine gonna think?" Axel asked, walking next to him with his guitar strapped on his back. Squall had taken all of the amps and stage equipment home in his van with Seifer as his copilot. Marluxia wanted to stay and party with some friends in the audience, and Luxord and Xigbar had a night and wanted to go back to their apartment on the opposite side of town. Roxas sighed and switched hands for his ice pack, shaking the numbness and condensation off his hand.

"I don't know. She'll probably freak when she sees the bruise on my back."

Demyx laughed. "Oh, shit! I can't believe that frat boy stomped you! I didn't know the kids did that anymore!"

"Hey, careful who you're calling kids," Roxas replied. He turned to look at Fuu, who was up until now walking furthest behind everyone and keeping silent. "We're all college students here."

Axel scoffed. "Speak for yourself."

"Well, we all are or were," Roxas corrected himself, glancing over at Axel. "Or should be."

"Hey, hey!" Axel replied. "I don't need college to know how to rock!"

Roxas rolled his eyes and reached into the pocket of his slacks. The time on his cell phone read three-thirty in the morning. "Ugh. Namine's gonna kill me."

The mohawked punk waved his hand in the blonde's face. "Oh! If you want you can totally crash at my place. I think she'd understand."

"I don't know," Roxas mumbled. "She doesn't really like me staying out late, even when I'm with friends."

Demyx seemed to catch up on Roxas' subtle tone. He turned to Fuu and pointed a thumb at him. "What do you make of this guy, huh? He doesn't think we're friends."

Axel picked this moment to intervene. "Don't think too much of it," he mumbled. "He's only known us a couple of weeks. We can't all make life partners after just meeting each other." It sounded like Axel was making a gentle jab at someone, but Roxas looked around the people he was walking with and wondered who.

'What are friends for?'

"No, it's not that," Roxas corrected. "It's just… my fiancée doesn't really like…"

"The piercings?" Demyx asked, bringing attention to the piercing on his lip.

"Hair?" Fuu brought up, pointing to her asymmetrical bleached white bob.

"The tattoos?" Axel snickered, pointing to the diamonds under his eyes and the patterns winding down his arms.

"The music?" Demyx added, playing air guitar while thrashing down the sidewalk and making shredding noises from his mouth.

"Culture?"

"Language?"

"Income?"

"Occupation?"

"Attitude?"

"Enough." Roxas sighed and combed his fingers through his hair. The gel had long since washed out with sweat and now clumped together in coarse tangles. "It's that… you guys are like… She goes for the National Honors varsity type of kids, not the-"

"Art house drug addicts?" Axel finished.

"Which I never touched," Demyx added. Fuu punctuated the sentiment by nodding her head. Roxas glared at the punk groupie.

"You're lying. My friend told me that you'd go over to his house all the time with your sister and smoke weed with his brother."

Demyx frowned. "And who was this?"

"Hayner Marshall. With his brother, Lex Marshall." When it became apparent that Demyx had no idea what he was talking about, Roxas thought this was completely laughable. "Big jock kid from high school? He was the quarterback… C'mon, man, you visited his house!"

"I remember stopping by once because my sister called and wanted me to pick her up," he said, continuing to walk but keeping his gaze towards the stars in thought. "But I never went inside. I hung out with his kid brother Hayner on the front stoop until she had her spin and came outside."

"So you never went inside?"

Demyx grimaced. "I try not to make a point about catching my sister mid-fuck."

Axel gagged and tried not to vomit into the gutter. "Ugh! It's like that one time a couple years back when I walked in on her coming out of the shower. She's like fuckin' no man's land down south. Why would anybody want that?"

"Hey, what my sister chooses to do with her body is up to her… And you say that about every girl," Demyx said flightily.

"Speaking of Larxene," Roxas started, not wanting this thread of conversation to unravel to the point where his chance would be lost forever. "So, who exactly is her kid's father?" When he said this, he made a note to look at Axel.

The redhead returned Roxas' noted gaze with a purposely impartial one. "Um, duh? Marluxia."

Roxas choked on his spit. "You're lying!"

"Brah, what is with you and not trusting us?" Demyx chuckled, sharing a look with Axel. "I mean, I'm pretty sure I know who the dad is."

"But- but he's gay!" Roxas cried.

Demyx laughed full-heartedly. "No he isn't. That's total bull, who told you that?"

"Well didn't he blo-" Fuu chose this moment to cough very loudly and cut Roxas off. Of course, Roxas wasn't supposed to know that little nugget of Marluxia's hidden past that he learned from the zines. Marluxia gave his drumming instructor blowjobs in order to get lessons to get better. He knew that, and Fuu and Demyx knew he knew, but Axel was still unaware he was receiving these zines. Like puzzle pieces to a big secret Axel was hiding. Roxas needed to keep his knowledge hidden for now. The blonde had a feeling that if the redhead found out about all the secret information he was getting, it would make Axel angry with Fuu and Demyx, and Roxas didn't want that. Thankfully, Axel seemed more concerned about Fuu's sudden burst of coughing rather than Roxas' little slip.

"Are you okay?" Axel asked her. He had already given her his jacket so he was walking outside in his sweat-soaked tee shirt from the show in the fall chill. Roxas liked the idea that Axel worried for Fuu like she was a kid sister. This made him think about Fuu's real older brother. Where was Riku right now? Fuu nodded and assured Axel she was fine, giving Roxas a heated glare once Axel had his back turned. "What were you saying about Marly?"

"N-Nothing," Roxas said. "It's just with the way he wanted to stay in drag on stage and everything. Not a lot of straight guys do that, y'know?"

"And not a lot of straight guys wear eyeliner, but look at you," Demyx laughed, pointing at Roxas' eyes. The blonde swatted at the punk's index finger like a mosquito. He lowered the ice pack, which had now become a baggie of cool water. He released the water into a shrub against a nearby building and threw the baggie away.

"There's a difference," Roxas assured. "I guess it was wrong of me to make an assumption like that, I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Axel laughed. "Too many people apologize when they've got no reason. It's not a big deal. Marly's a difficult guy to get a read on, and he does it on purpose. He likes making people second guess."

"And I know it's him because the baby looks, like, just like him. They were on-again-off-again for years, and about a year ago he was living with her after he broke up with his last girlfriend," Demyx said.

Once again, Roxas reminded himself of Rinoa's insider look at the band. "And that's Marluxia. He's a sweetheart, really. I know his parents kicked him out of the house as soon as he turned eighteen. He lived with some friends until recently…"

Roxas didn't understand how people could automatically assume a baby's blood relations just through looks. Their heads were always so squished and their noses so malformed, their skin was patchy and red… And half the time babies are born with blue eyes like that change color when they matured.

"He's a good dad. Took care of Larxene while she was pregnant and all before Demyx moved down," Axel added. "Dude was made to be a dad. It's crazy. You shoulda seen him, Rox. Running around the house with a copy of 'What to Expect' and taking Larx on test-drives to the hospital."

Normally when Roxas thought of fathers, it was older men with beards and boring desk jobs, wearing polos and khakis. Absolutely nothing like Marluxia. "Well that blows my mind. Wouldn't have ever pinned Mars as the type…" Axel rolled his eyes before playfully pushing Roxas into a light pole. The blonde grunted and tried not to show pain when his bruised back collided with the lamppost.

Demyx picked up where Axel left off, "He left after I got home, but he still takes the baby during the weekdays while Larxene's at school. She had to take a break because of the pregnancy, but now she really wants to get back in and finish her bachelor's."

"It's good to have goals," Roxas agreed. "So she's in art with Namine? I'd like to see what kind of stuff they do…"

"…You've never seen Namine's art?" Demyx asked.

Roxas shrugged in response. "She never really likes showing me any of her work," he sighed, head lulling. "She said that she worried most about my opinion and didn't want me to see her stuff in case I didn't like it."

"Larxene won't stop talking about it! Apparently Namine's like a pop art prodigy!"

Roxas was never invited to so much as a gallery opening or anything. He knew she had to at least have some sort of viewing ceremony for her art attached to the school, if not independent, but since she was so headstrong about not letting him see her work, he never pushed her about it. Although, thinking about the way she decided to dress their apartment with stark white walls, bowls of potpourri, and family portraits, the only art she pinned up on the walls were ones that she bought in markets and galas. He hadn't seen any of her stuff since high school. However, 'pop art' was not how he would describe her. Pop art was Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, and definitely not Namine Gibson.

The foursome approached the intersection where Roxas' apartment was a few blocks down. "This is me. I'll see y'all later." He turned towards the silent girl in their troupe. "Fuu, where do you live?"

"Nearby."

Demyx pointed further down the road. "She lives near me," he added. "I'll walk you home, Fuu. Is that okay?" She shrugged and readjusted the bag on her shoulder, following the mohawked boy down the street. Roxas started walking down his own road and quickly noticed that Axel was walking with him.

"What gives? Don't you live on, like, the complete opposite side of town?"

Axel grinned and stepped next to the blonde. "I've got all night to get home and I'm wide awake." Roxas rolled his eyes and pretended to be indifferent, but in reality he'd prefer to have someone with him for safety. Not that he never walked back home from campus after dark, but there was something slightly more menacing in the air since it was Halloween night and there were a bunch of raucous drunks still on the streets.

Without the talkative punk around the atmosphere around Roxas and Axel was much more stagnant; not that it was a bad thing, of course. Roxas was enjoying the silent air for the first time in the night. He glanced at Axel from the corner of his eye and just couldn't believe that a few hours ago he was parading around onstage in fishnets with all that gaudy makeup. "You were awesome tonight, by the way," he mentioned, realizing that he never had a chance to compliment anyone after the show.

"Glad I kept the idea a secret, then?" Axel laughed. "I think it was all Luxord's idea. We were chillin' at the Drafthouse one night and caught a midnight showing of it, and there were some people dressed up and everything. He says 'What'd happen if we went on stage and did that?'" Axel laughed. "He never lived it down."

"But really, the crowd loved you. I think Demyx and Fuu sold more albums and shirts since ever." They followed the curve of the street where his apartment started coming into view. "Have you guys ever thought about maybe sending your album out to some record companies and see what they think about it?"

Axel leaned his neck back and looked towards the sky. The city lights drowned out any hope for stars, and left it in an ominous and appropriate orange and purple haze. "…We considered it a while ago," he answered. "But we're still sharpening our sound. No self-respecting record producer would be interested in some stupid emocore band. That was so two years ago."

"Passé?"

Axel laughed. "Sure, to put it antediluviantly."

"You can't make an adjective an adverb."

"Yeah you can," Axel replied, turning his attention from the late night sky to the blonde in a tux. "What about smart to smartly?"

Roxas sneered and rolled his eyes. "And what about stupid to stupidly? I'm just saying it wasn't a word."

"You've got a way with words, huh?" Axel said, smirking. "Some day I oughtta challenge you to a word-off. It'll be great. You and I can list off the most amazing words nobody's ever heard of."

"And write a song about it?"

"That's not a shabby idea."

"Where should we start? Reprobate?"

"That's good for Halloween," Axel agreed. It had never occurred to Roxas that someone had to write the songs for 13 Hearts. If it was Axel, perhaps this meant the redhead punk by his side was actually a walking thesaurus. Roxas was wondering what the slick singer would come up with. "Debauchee."

"Oh, you're enjoying this, aren't you?" Roxas laughed as they walked up the driveway to his apartment. "Copulation."

"Does it have to be formal? Heh. Boinking."

"…Bonking."

"Boffing."

"Fornication."

"Coition."

"Um, relations."

"Nooky."

Roxas laughed. "Is that even a word? This is going to be a pretty fucked up song we're gonna write if all of it revolves around sex."

"Do you have any idea how many songs about sex have already been written?" Axel asked, letting Roxas walk up the stairs to the second story as he followed close behind. "Um, a lot. Did you even bother listening to our album or did you just hear it?"

Roxas rolled his eyes once they approached his door. He turned to Axel and looked him straight in his illicitly addicting green eyes. "Ravish." The singer looked like he was given a command that he must follow through, but the blonde looked down and reached into his pocket for his keys. After a moment of patting the front pocket of his slacks, the back pockets, and the ones on his coat, he started to panic. "I can't find my keys."

Axel decided it was best to not pat down the blonde and make sure he had checked every nook and cranny. "Do you think maybe you dropped them?"

Roxas wasn't even sure what he did with his keys after coming back home earlier in the day and leaving them on the counter. "I don't know," he sighed, not really in the mood to retrace his steps. If he did drop them at the Organization he wouldn't be able to check until they opened again tomorrow afternoon.

The young blonde stared at the door as if would lead to a final boss battle. "You don't wanna knock?" Axel asked. Roxas shook his head.

"Namine was really pissed at me this afternoon. I don't want to make matters worse by waking her up this late," he sighed. A moment passed as Roxas glared daggers into the iron numbers nailed onto his door. Even with the nap he took earlier this morning he was getting tired and just wanted to rest. Axel picked up on his predicament in an instant.

"Well, hey, just this once you can stay at my place for the night instead of causing your girl trouble. Do you think she'll get more upset with you if you don't even bother coming home?"

"It's not like I didn't try," Roxas sighed, giving the door one last evil glance before turning to the redhead. "I don't mind if you don't."

Axel gave him a token stage smile. "Of course I don't." He shifted back towards the stairs. "Let's go. No point in staying here if she's asleep." Roxas followed him.

In fact, Namine was sitting on the couch with Kairi, both sharing a blanket while the light from the television flickered on their faces.

"Hold me."

"…I can't."

"Oh, this part always makes me cry," Kairi admitted, taking a tissue from the box on the coffee table in front of them. Resting on the couch between them was a half-full bowl of fun sized candy bars.

Namine's eyes kept flashing from the screen to the time from the clock on the wall. "How many movies have we watched tonight?" she asked.

Kairi sniffed and leaned forward to move around the DVD cases on the coffee table. "Um, three, I think."

"Six hours. We've been watching six hours of movies, where the hell is Roxas?"

"Why don't you call him?" Kairi suggested. "Clubs close at two. He probably had to stay late to help them pack up. He should be home any moment."

"I don't know if he would even want to come home," Namine said. She buried her face into her knees and covered her ears with her arms. "I was such a bitch to him today!" she cried.

Like a magnet Kairi took the place of the candy bowl next to her sister and wrapped her arms comfortingly around her. "Oh, sweetie, don't be upset. We all get like that sometimes." She paused while soothingly rubbing her heaving sister's back. "…You wouldn't happen to be on the rag, would you?"

"No!" Namine shouted, lifting her face up and fisting her hands into her hair. "I was a complete asshole and I didn't- He wasn't even doing- He was hanging out with that stupid band and I-"

Kairi wished that she could sympathize with Namine, but in truth she never experienced any of the pre-marital feelings her younger sibling seemed to be going through. She had only known Sora for four months before they were married. They hadn't even lived together before they hitched. For them it was true love, a destined love.

"You said he was helping out a band to get them to play the reception?" Kairi asked. Namine was obviously frustrated about the arrangement, and she wondered why.

"Yeah…" the little blonde bit out, trying hard to fight back tears. Kairi was usually one to cry at any given moment, but Namine was stronger than that. "It's this stupid band named 13 Hearts that Tifa recommended to me…"

Kairi stopped rubbing her back. "…13 Hearts?"

"I know, it's a weird name. It's some dumb cover band. I wouldn't mind so much if he didn't spend all his time with that creepy lead singer. He has this huge, ridiculous lip ring and tattoos… Roxas tried to warn me about him but I thought he was overreacting, but now that I've seen the leader…" She hiccuped and tried to keep down another sob. "God, I'm such a freaking hypocrite!"

"I think… I know what band you're talking about," Kairi said, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. "Is his name Riku? Are they from the harbor?"

Namine had to think for a moment. "I don't know where they're from… But you've met him. Axel?"

"That's Axel?" she muttered. "I guess it makes sense… I never actually met them…"

Namine sat up and leaned forward so she could get a better look into Kairi's eyes. "What?"

Kairi's eyes were watering and threatened to spill at any given moment. She choked back the knot in her throat and coughed softly. "Namine, I'm really sorry. I haven't been entirely honest with you. I think this might be important for you and for Roxas…"

Back on the street just outside the apartment complex, Roxas sneezed into the crook of his arm.

"You aren't getting sick, are you?" Axel asked. "My schedule's getting busy now that the holidays are coming up. I can't afford to be getting sick." In an almost nauseatingly affectionate manner the front man started massaging his throat.

"Whatever," Roxas grumbled, releasing a sigh and noticing that he could see his own breath. "It is getting a little chilly. We'll be seeing more Christmas decorations then, hm?"

"Tell me about it. The Stop n' Go already has a tree set up on the counter," Axel scoffed. "Well, then again, I think it's the same one from last year…"

Roxas and Axel continued walking all the way to the redhead's apartment. The student wouldn't have thought it were possible without the tram system, but most lines stopped running frequently after three. Instead of waiting an hour for the next one, Axel insisted on walking. They were back at his place in a half hour.

"I am exhausted," Axel admitted, shoving his key into the lock and bursting the door open. The first thing Roxas noticed was that the apartment smelled faintly like mothballs. Axel made a beeline to the living room area and cleared off the couch. "Sorry," he sighed, grabbing some half-empty beer bottles from the coffee table and placing them on the kitchen counter. "The guys came over a couple of nights ago… I still haven't had a chance to clean house."

Roxas helped and started picking up wads of paper napkins, but the dried beer made them tear and stick to the table, so he chose to stop. "So… the guys, huh? Like Lux, Marly, and Xigbar?"

"And Demyx and few other friends. Nothing special. I'd ordered a concert on pay-per-view and invited everyone to see it."

Roxas nodded. "Hey, speaking of Demyx," he started slowly. Axel looked up at him to show he was listening. "My brother seems to know him from high school, but how do you know him? It seems like a small world…"

Axel didn't talk much about high school, other than that's where their old singer and Marluxia first met. However, Roxas was certain that they didn't go to the same high school as he and his brother did. The blonde knew he would have remembered them.

Axel paused a moment before answering. "Well, he came to a few of our shows. He would have been a fan, y'know? Which is great and all, but once we got to know him he's become, like, an infallible resource. Check this out." Axel stood and walked over to the wall near the kitchen entrance. There were three photographs hanging on the wall, and Roxas instantly noticed one of them being the original print of the photo of him and Riku together, the same one from Fuu's zine. It was in color and Axel's hair was neon orange. Axel took the one hanging above that print and brought it over to Roxas.

"There he is right there," he said, glossing over a group portrait and pointing to a young Demyx Skönstedt holding up the devil's horn sign. He was standing between Marluxia and Luxord and looking absolutely ecstatic. "He said that, with the exception of a few rough patches, it was the best summer of his life."

Roxas noticed in the group portrait of the band, including a few other people he didn't know, was Riku, their old singer. Now was his chance. "Who's that?" he asked, perhaps too quickly, pointing his finger on the platinum blonde's face.

The redhead looked at the old singer's face, frozen in time with a big grin, and sighed softly. "That's Riku. He's an old friend," Axel admitted. Before Roxas could pester him more at this mysterious young man, Axel continued. "And that's Yuffie, the daughter of the owner of the restaurant we played at a lot. There's Barrett, the chef. He'd always give us free food. And that's…"

Axel's finger ghosted over two faces standing the back, mostly obscured by shadows, that Roxas noticed instantly. Before Axel could continue introducing everyone, the blonde stopped him. "Whoa. What're Wakka and Tidus doing there?" He pointed to two idiotic smiling faces in the background. They seemed like they were just a part in the picture as everyone else.

"I didn't really know them that well. They hung out at a couple of our shows that summer," Axel answered broadly.

Roxas' mind was really starting to think like mad. In the farthest reaches of his memory he could recalled the last time Sora hung out with Wakka and Tidus. The idiots had rented out a condo on the harbor for the summer and invited Sora over. "Which summer was this picture taken?" Roxas asked.

"The one before last," Axel said, and Roxas could pick up on the nervous twitter in his voice. The redhead really didn't want him to keep asking questions. Roxas had come to an overwhelming conclusion.

Sora and Demyx had spent a few weeks before Sora's wedding together at the harbor.

Roxas was sure this meant something, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Regardless, Sora acted very odd whenever Demyx was brought into a conversation, and he was pretty sure it had something to do with those weeks spent by the harbor. This also brought up something interesting that he never considered. Sora could have been to a 13 Hearts show before. Now Roxas was beginning to understand why Axel insisted he go to Sora to ask questions instead of through him.

There was a void created from the wheels turning in Roxas' head that made the room dead silent. Axel didn't seem to take note of it, but it made the blonde unsettled to be around such emptiness. "It seems like you had fun," Roxas said, laughing nervously and being purposely vague in hopes Axel wouldn't notice. But it seemed like the redhead was praying for an easy out from the intense situation. He was no doubt probably kicking himself in the groin for ever bringing up that stupid photograph.

Axel placed the picture on the counter for the time being and walked across the den to his bedroom. He entered his room and turned the light on, and Roxas could just make out the sounds of rummaging coming from a closet inside. "I know I have some clean sheets around here somewhere," he sighed. Roxas stood and walked closer to the front man's bedroom door. He pretended to be looking at Axel's impressive guitar collection placed on the racks near the entrance, but kept giving heavy glances towards the inside of his bedroom.

From what he could make out from the cracked door, his bed had black sheets with red pillow cases, which was beyond appropriate. The bed was littered with sheets of paper, and it seemed like there was a spot in the middle, just big enough for Axel to sleep in, like a nest. The paper trail continued to take over much of the floor, it seemed, and it appeared that there were even letters and sheets tacked onto the walls. While the walls in the living room had posters of old horror movies, there were so many music, band, and gig posters pasted onto his bedroom walls it was almost impossible to distinguish the wall color.

Roxas continued to lean back to get a better view. There were stacks upon stacks of CDs encroaching on the corners of the room stacking all the way to the ceiling. Roxas was even amazed at the amount of vinyl he had stored in old milk crates that were buried under papers.

"Here we go!" Axel pulled back the door for a brief instant, giving Roxas hardly any time to pretend like he wasn't trying to sneak a peek into Axel's bedroom. As Roxas had earlier predicted, you can tell a lot about a person by the way they kept their personal space. While Axel's living room was nearly spotless, it seemed like his bedroom was where his life happened. "I knew they had to be in the closet," he said bashfully, walking over to the couch and making quick work out of wrapping the cushions in the faded red bedspread. "Do you want anything to eat? Drink? I can make hot chocolate…"

The redhead seemed almost eager to please, which caught Roxas off guard. He could easily picture Axel being the screaming punk that he was onstage, but behind the scenes, when he didn't have an image to keep up for the public, he was very much a caregiver.

The offer still stood, and Roxas was sure that Axel was still a little chilled after walking so much in the cold night wearing nothing but an undershirt. "ONly if it's got marshmallows," Roxas answered. Axel chuckled with a small affirmative smile and went into the kitchen. While Axel's back was turned to him while he was going through the refrigerator to collect ingredients, Roxas turned his attention back to the guitar collection that he was supposedly admiring earlier. There were two blank racks on the wall, one from the show that Axel had left leaning in its case against the wall by his bedroom door, and the other from the one he was lent.

Feeling bold once more, Roxas took an odd shaped black one from the rack and strapped it over his shoulders. At the sound of his first practice strum, he could see Axel's head perk up and turn around quickly. "Was that a G?" he asked.

Roxas looked down at his finger position and shrugged. "Uh… Yeah, I guess."

Axel stepped away from the counter and leaned against the entryway to the kitchen. "You've been practicing?"

Roxas shrugged. "Not as much as I'd like. I want to get a better hang of this," he admitted. Axel seemed positively giddy as he walked around the couch to the guitar he'd just used for the show and strapped it on.

"I haven't really had a jam session with anybody other than the guys in a while. Wanna try it out?"

"Jam session?" It sounded like something a corny therapist would say to a kid.

"Yeah, we just play music and bounce our jives off each other and see what comes up! I'll get the amps." A quick trip to the coat closet by the front door and their guitars were hooked up. Roxas still unfamiliar with playing a guitar plugged in. He took a couple of practice strums with his g-note and turned to Axel with a nod.

"I'm not going to be that fast," Roxas murmured, unsure of how this would all pan out.

Axel shrugged. "It's cool, Rox. I did jam sessions with Xigbar's students before. If I can handle smarmy middle schoolers I can handle you." He left a pause there and chuckled. "Although sometimes there isn't really much of a difference…"

Dodging the pick that was lobbed at his head, Axel cleared his throat and strummed, tuning when necessary. "Okay. C'mon, play with me." Axel ripped open with an electric guitar version of Canon in D. It was the fastest finger moving Roxas had ever seen. And not once did his fingers scratch against the coils of the strings. He was practically molesting the fret board when he stopped suddenly and turned to Roxas. "C'mon, this isn't a free show. You have to contribute."

Roxas' mouth was agape. "B-but I don't even know the song." To that Axel just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Not important. Just play with me."

To make Roxas feel better he reopened with the familiar riff from 13 Heart's Deadly Night Shade. Roxas had heard that song dozens of times on his mp3 player, and he knew there was a rhythm guitar strumming a constant, achy note in the background. Roxas looked down at his frets and tried to find the correct one. He covered up three of the six strings on his guitar and strummed. It was the wrong note. It didn't sound the same at all. Roxas tried again with a higher pitch, but it still wasn't right. He kept his fingers in the same position and tried as many different tones as possible.

It took him a moment to find the note he was looking for, but once he did he realized Axel wasn't playing anymore. He glanced up and noticed Axel's emerald eyes were staring at him like his hair was on fire. "Um… yeah?"

"Wow, Rox. There's a difference between jamming and cramming. We'll try this, what's a song that you know?" Axel suggested, taking a seat on the armrest of the couch. Roxas followed suit on the chair.

Roxas hadn't practiced enough to know any particular song all the way through. He sighed and strummed a g-note again. Axel plucked the chord around with him. After five minutes, Axel stopped and smiled. "I like the sound of this." He held up his hand, motioning for Roxas to wait. The blonde watched as he walked into his room, snatched one of the sheets of paper off the floor, and came back into the living room. A pen cap nestled between his teeth, he started scribbling notes and words onto blank sheet music paper.

"What're you doing?" Roxas asked, leaning over to see what he was writing. Axel glanced up at him and grinned.

"Jotting some stuff down. The main reason why you do stuff like this," he said, pointing to their guitars, "is so you can bounce ideas off each other and get inspired." He turned to the sheet music and started scribbling down notes across the lines.

"So guitar players actually write down their music like that?" Roxas asked. He had no idea. Axel just shrugged.

"Well, some do, I guess. Xig and Lux don't. It's something I picked up when I first started back in high school." He stopped writing and handed the music to Roxas. "There you go. That's your song."

Roxas looked at the paper, not really able to make heads or tales out of it, but there was still something amazingly special about having a song that was yours. "My song… Will you play it for me?"

"Should I add lyrics? Maybe a little coitus or canoodling?"

Roxas laughed but didn't answer. Axel started playing the song on his guitar a bit faster than during their original session. Roxas was stunned that it actually sounded like a viable song. If Marluxia kicked in with a good bass thumping and a jumpy dribble on the snare and toms it would really round out the sound. Luxord could come in with a repetitive harmony on the bass that would be noticeable and catchy when the rhythm guitar wasn't playing. Roxas could picture the rhythm kicking in on the fourth count, and he bobbed his head to the pace Axel had set for the tune before adding his own sound.

Together it would almost sound like a song. Axel took a few liberties with the original melody, but it was amazing. Roxas even went so far as to create a solo for the song. Axel laughed at Roxas' attempt, stating it was a good first try. There came a loud knock at the door, and Axel sighed as he got up from his perch to answer it.

"It's five in the fucking morning! Some of us are trying to get some bloody sleep 'round here!"

Roxas leaned back in his chair and tried to look over Axel's shoulder. It appeared to be an angry neighbor who wasn't exactly ecstatic at their jam session. The neighbor looked to be a big man, so Axel agreed to be quiet and tried to calm him down. After the sour person trotted back to his room, the redhead sighed and walked back into the den.

"Well, the fun police stopped by," Axel sighed, scratching the back of his head. Roxas got the hint and turned off his amp. "That was still a pretty sweet song. Do you mind if we use it for something later? I mean, no promises or anything, but…"

"Oh, no! Of course, take it!" Roxas grinned. "You can't keep genius like this tapped down."

Axel's eyes squinted before letting out a soft chuckle, walking up to Roxas and mussing his hair. "You know, you really are okay. The band was worried for a bit, but I told 'em you were cool."

"Why wouldn't I be?" Roxas asked, but not before smacking Axel's hand away. "Okay, I mean. I think I'm pretty okay." He paused and sighed, well aware that Axel's eyes were gouging into the back of his head. "Alright, so I was sort of mean to y'all to start with… I'm sorry."

Axel chuckled and mussed Roxas' hair one last time for the night. "Attaboy." He then stood and stretched, and Roxas clenched his teeth at the grating sound of the redhead's back popping seven times in a row. "Need to shower?"

Roxas remembered that he was still wearing Namine's makeup in a very zombie-like fashion, and he was still wearing the tuxedo costume that felt like it was clinging to his body with what felt like raw sewage. However, he was exhausted, and he was afraid that if he dared to enter the shower then he would fall asleep.

"I think I'm fine," he nodded. "Just point me to the bathroom." He hadn't had a chance to dress his wounds properly since he was given a simple ice pack from the bar at the club.

Axel nodded towards the door against the wall opposite his bedroom door next to the television. The blonde walked inside and looked in a mirror for the first time since he left for the show. "Holy fuck what happened?" He could hear Axel laughing from the den. At some point during the evening, his makeup must have been smeared from the mask he had worn. The black eye shadow was smeared past his eyebrows and down to his cheeks. It spread across the bridge of his nose and made it looked like he was still wearing a mask regardless. He couldn't even tell the difference from his swollen eye to his normal one.

"I think a little shadow's hot," the redhead remarked offhandedly. Roxas pouted and tried to rub the black away, but it remained steadfast. Using toilet paper with warm water wasn't helping either.

"Yeah, a little. How do I get this off?"

Axel peeked his head into the bathroom and noticed the blonde's dilemma. "Oh, I got just the thing for that." He left, and Roxas could hear him walk into his bedroom again by the sounds of feet crunching paper. The redhead returned with a small opened tub of petroleum jelly.

"What the fuck is this?" he grimaced. He partly wondered what the young man was doing with the obviously exhausted tub of lube in his bedroom, of all places, but the front man appeared indifferent.

"Just put a little on the toilet paper and rub it over your eyes. Wash the crap off your skin when you're done, though." Trying to hold his stomach, Roxas dipped a single finger into the jelly, not appreciating the cold, gloopy feeling one bit. He wiped the gel over his face and cleared it away with the toilet paper. It came off like a charm.

"Hey, it worked." Delicately, he repeated the process over his swollen eye. He hissed when it stung, but he was able to get the worst of the eyeliner away. He continued rubbing the jelly over his face until most of the black was gone. "I'm not gonna wake up with any mysterious rashes or Chlamydia, am I?" he asked, handing the tub to Axel.

He grimaced, taking the jelly from Roxas carefully. "God, I really hope not." The poor student exceedingly hoped he was joking. While Axel disappeared back into his bedroom, Roxas started to unbutton the black tuxedo shirt he had been wearing all night. He folded his shirt up and placed it on the arm of the couch. While unbuckling the belt around his skinny slacks, he checked behind him to make sure the coast was clear.

Axel was standing in the doorway leaning against the frame. Roxas' could feel his face literally spiking up in heat and turning red against his better judgment. A quick glance to the front man's eyes proved that he was staring off into space towards the carpet rather than the blonde, so the young man force himself to calm down. "W-What's up?" Roxas asked, trying to sound as chill as possible.

Axel snapped out of it and laughed. His eyes seemed to rake up Roxas' back, wincing at the heavy, dark red bruise that was forming between his shoulder blades. "Sorry, I started dozing off there for a second." Roxas could see Axel's eyes briefly make contact with his own before glancing down slightly. The blonde tried to control his heart rate when he noticed the guitarist blush softly and look down towards the carpet again. "Do you need something to sleep in or anything?"

"I'll be fine in my boxers." Roxas kicked himself in the crotch when he saw the redhead's face turn crimson. "But… it's kind of cold outside tonight, so if you have a shirt or something…"

"Oh, yeah, definitely. One second."

As if the heat radiating off of their cheeks alone wasn't enough to power a steam room. Roxas chose to wait before taking his pants off. It would be stupid to go into the bathroom and change after he had already started. Axel would know something was up then. He waited patiently for Axel to come back with an old Iron Maiden tour shirt from the nineties. It was terribly faded and had a hole in the collar, but once he had it on it was the most comfortable cotton shirt he had ever worn.

"This was a staple in high school," Axel laughed. "I had tickets to that show but I caught pneumonia on a camping trip the previous weekend and couldn't go. Sucked balls, but Riku got a shirt for me."

Roxas chuckled. "So Riku's the type of guy who'd go to a concert without you?"

"Fuck yeah, dude! I forced him to go. It's Iron fucking Maiden. It'd be totally gay if he stayed with his sick best friend instead of going to a concert." He laughed and started heading towards his room. "You are so after-school special."

Roxas perked his head, glaring at the older musician. "No I'm not!" he declared. He decided it was time for a change. "I can be totally punk rock!" If Roxas didn't know any better, Axel was making a challenge.

There was a glint in Axel's eyes, something Roxas had never noticed before, as the redhead turned back towards the student and leaned against the doorframe. "You wanna be punk rock?"

Roxas thought about it hesitantly, but the more he did the less sense it made. Ever since being paired up with Axel and his misfit band he was having fun in a way that he had never experienced. Before, his life was centered on going to school and making Namine happy as she planned for the wedding. Now, he felt so rebellious for hanging out with the front man even though he knew that Namine didn't want him to. Earlier tonight he could have easily knocked on the door and she would have answered and gone straight back to bed, but instead he chose to spend the night with Axel. It was fun and he didn't want the night to end.

"Yeah, I guess." It was the next step. The steel-toed boots tied over the skinny rocker-boy slacks with tour shirts were the beginning. He wanted to see to what heights Axel would take him.

"This'll be fun," Axel mumbled, shaking his head.

"Huh?"

The redhead smiled and rolled his eyes. "Nothing, Rox. Have a good sleep." He turned off the lights and slipped away into his bedroom, shutting the door and leaving the blonde by himself for the night. Roxas quickly removed his slacks and crawled onto the couch, wrapping himself up tightly in the sheets the rock star provided. On the coffee table next to him was the sheet of paper Axel had scribbled the song on. He noticed on the top of the page he had jotted down 'Roxas' Song' in his sloppy handwriting. The blonde punk-in-training hummed the song to himself before drifting off into a heavy, much needed sleep.

xxxXXXxxxXXXxxx

For this chapter title I was having a difficult time. I wanted a song about change but was having trouble coming up with a decision, and then Scott Walker's "30 Century Man" came on my mix and first two lines of the song really stuck with me. "See the dwarves and see the giants, which one would you choose to be?" And I thought it was an interesting metaphor for Rox so I decided to incorporate it!

So as I'm writing this bonus chapter it occurred to me that I never really wrote down a definite timeline of events in this story. Later on there's some flashbacks that rely heavily on a sequence and I'm worried I might screw something up. The bonus chapter is also getting kind of ridiculously long. I'm probably going to have to split it up into multiple chapters… Did I ever specify how old any of the punks are? If I did I might have to go back and change it…

Special shoutout to Ewonsama for giving me advice to beat Braig in BBS. I hate hate haaaaaaaaate blocking but it did the trick… Since I leveled up so much in Radiant Garden the rest of the game has been pretty much a breeze. Although now I'm stuck on the Eraqus fight, but I get close enough to the end that I know I can beat him if I'm smart enough about it… I also saw Terra's side of the Destiny Island cutscene and just curled up into a little ball and sobbed. It was such an amazing revelation, like- THAT was the reason why Riku was such a dick in the first game. I LOVED IT. I know a lot of people have played these games already but this is my first time and it's been a lot of fun knowing more about this universe I obviously care a lot about…

(And in other, completely unrelated gaming news: I got Tomodachi Life and made miis of Sora, Riku, Roxas, and Axel. Sora and Riku got married last week and had their first baby this morning, a girl named Kairi. I'm gonna make it so Kairi can explore other worlds while the boys stay at home ):D ! And this morning Axel confessed his feelings for Roxas with… a song! It was so sweet! Roxas said "sure!" so they're dating now. I take screenshots of almost everything, so maybe I'll upload them to my imgur and share with y'all someday…)

I'm glad so many people are finding the story again! Like, some people are really excited and I hope the rereading lives up to everyone's expectations… As always, please leave reviews! They really do a lot to keep me motivated during the whole editing/writing process. Follow/favs are great too! I'll see y'all next Monday!