:D You guys rock!

So, I open up my folder in e-mail and guess what I see?!

Lots of love.

From all of you!

I'm almost to 200 reviews... :)

Thank you!

And... it's snowing! Weird... Georgia doesn't get snow. But we've had 2 snow days this year! And it's not the weird snow we usually get. It's like, SNOW. The kind that was in Idaho when I was there during Christmas. And it's not stopping!

SQUEE!

Anywho,

You guys rock, you keep me going... all that jazz :D

So, let me know what you think!

I'm sure I've been neglecting Sora for awhile... so here he is!

And Axel. But still.

Enjoy! :)

Ten Reasons Why I think Riku is Hiding Something:

A list by Sora Strife

1. Every time he gets a text in front of me, his face turns as red as a cherry flavored pair of underw- lollipop…

2. Whenever we hang out and I want to have sex he always tries to find a way out of it… or is entirely too vicious… my ass still hurts when I sit the wrong way…

3. For the oddest reason whenever I mention peanut MnM's he gets a really sheepish look on his face…

4. He tackled me when I grabbed his phone to play Tetris… I mean, c'mon, Tetris!? And it wasn't a tackle like, "ha, ha, ha Sora, I got you!" tackle… it was full on, football coach proud tackle that made me squeal like a little girl in pain.

5. He leaves for odd trips and comes back with a dazed, smoked the shrooms high expression. Would be kinda cute if it wasn't accompanied by, "Hey d- I mean, Sora…"

6. When I saw him last, he was at the bookstore reading Dr. Ansem's, "Guide to being Honest with your Partner: They're People, too!"

7. I am the laughing stock of the Tatsu household; I see Riku's scary brothers Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, and they crack up in hysterical laughter. Well… they did that when I first met them, but you'd think the amusement of me looking like a girl would wear off after awhile. Well… maybe not… but it's still annoying!

8. Yesterday he cancelled our lunch date in order to study at the library. Riku's allergic to libraries!

9. When I mentioned Roxas to him and how he'd almost killed Axel last week, Riku said that I should "be more understanding about my boyfriend- I mean, brother and that if he had something to hide, be damned the consequences and butt out of his business. He then promptly passed out in the potatoes and pummeled the policeman, Paul, when he patted his back and told him to peddle his way out of the restaurant. He then applauded me on my alliteration when I informed him of said events the next day.

10. He twitches when I poke him. Is this a reason that he's hiding something? Could be… how should I know? I don't know Riku, anymore. :(

Sora idly drew patterns into the edible accessories as he leaned over the counter and pressed the small, black icing container against the sugar cookie. He was drawing a small bat into the orange icing with precision from practice in honor of Halloween the next day. He knew that they'd have people crawling all over Roxas's specially made "Pumpkin spice" coffee, "Vampire's Delight" red cider, "Witch's Brew" latte, and "Werewolf" hot chocolate, so he wanted them to have edible accessories to go along with it.

That, and he was bored out of his mind without Riku.

Sora sighed under his breath and glanced at his phone to see that there were no new messages. Riku hadn't texted, called, or even talked to him for three days. Sora would have been worried, but since he'd convinced himself that there was nothing to worry about, he'd stopped. Nope, Sora wasn't worried at all!

Which was a lie, but he still wanted to stick to it.

He'd talked to Roxas about some of it, and Roxas had given him pretty good advice.

"If he's hiding things, then find out what it is. If he's doing something he shouldn't, castrate the bitch and I'll take care of the evidence."

Yes, Roxas was very good at supporting Sora's suspicions.

Speaking of Roxas…

"I've told you a million times, leave me the hell alone!" Roxas stalked into the shop with Axel fast on his heels, his face a delightful shade of red as Axel continued to follow him into the shop with a slightly desperate look on his face.

"Roxas, just talk to me, you know I'm sorry! I just want to talk to you!" Axel pleaded as Roxas weaved through the tables in an attempt to escape. Axel was as persistent as Riku when he's hungry though, and picked up his pace to catch up.

"Can you not see when you're unwelcome?" Roxas demanded, throwing his hands up and dodging Axel's grasp.

"Can you not see when I'm trying to make a point?" Axel retorted. Roxas gave a particularly nasty look over his shoulder at that, but didn't stop from weaving around the chairs to get away.

"I don't want to see your point, I'd just like you to leave me alone!"

"Is this really about the office? Are you really that mad about it?" Axel asked pleadingly. As Roxas reached the end of the rows of tables he stopped and turned around, glaring up at Axel as Axel stumbled to a stop before he crashed into him.

"I didn't like you before that!" Roxas exclaimed in exasperation. Sora watched with slightly vague amusement as Axel tried to lean forward towards Roxas, and his brother pushed him back.

"You liked me a little." Axel protested. Roxas leaned up, and Sora could imagine that his eyes were flashing in that crazy way that they did when Roxas had put Sora's tigger stuffed animal into the blender at work.

Sora had cried, that day.

"I've never, ever liked you. If anything, I've always hated you." Roxas hissed. Axel stared in slight shock, mouth lax, making Sora wince. Axel seemed almost truly hurt that Roxas had said that. Which would be weird, since Axel only seemed to care about sex. But maybe… just maybe… he was starting to like Sora's brother for more than a very violent bouncy bed game every now and then?

Oh. You don't know about the bouncy bed game, do you?

Sora would be glad to educate you.

You see, when Riku and Sora had first started going out, Sora had been a little bit of an innocent minded, naïve boy. He didn't know all of the terms that people used for sex, and he certainly had no idea about doggy style, a 69, or even just a quick screw. Riku, a little embarrassed that he'd fallen for such an uneducated uke, had proceeded to try to give them all different names, attempting to lessen the awkwardness of having to explain what exactly sex was.

Also, it wasn't like he wanted Sora walking around saying, "I HAD SEX!"

Thus, the bouncy bed game was born!

It sounded innocent, but at the same time not. You could take it the wrong way, if you wanted, but you could also make it seem like child's play. Sora, at the time, was a little too innocent to realize just what he was talking about, so coming from his mouth, the bouncy bed game was just a silly game he'd made up.

Though, Sora is now proud to say that he understands that the bouncy bed game really is.

Take that, mystery texter! Sora does indeed know what sex is!

"Roxas…" Axel seemed a little more than upset to hear that, but Roxas didn't seem to care. He whirled around and stomped past the counter, kicking the back door open and stalking through it like he was about to rip a random bystander's head off. A little worried for any random bystander's life, Sora accidently squirted too much icing from the tube, successfully ruining his bat cookie and ruining his day.

Well, not his whole day. But that part of it.

Axel watched Roxas stomp off with a strange look on his face, a mix between exasperation, annoyance, and begrudging respect. Sora was interested to see that he didn't seem too upset, but only a little frustrated. Maybe he knew that it was his fault that Roxas felt so bad?

"Hey," Sora heard himself say, "Do you want this edible accessory? I ruined it." Sora pushed the ruined cookie towards the dejected looking Axel who saw it and promptly grabbed it, shoving it into his mouth and gulping it down in one swallow.

"Wow…" Sora breathed. "That was impressive!"

Axel nodded, grinning past the icing as he leaned against the counter.

"I'm good at fitting big things in my mouth." Axel finally replied with a wink.

It hit Sora just then that Axel really was Roxas's type, and that he'd never understand why his brother was resisting when the sex god of Twilight Town was practically at his feet, begging to make him scream.

At least, that's how Sora saw that. It's up for interpretation.

"Oh…" He squeaked pathetically. Axel laughed at that, ruffling Sora's spikes and resting against the counter like chasing Roxas down every day was a very tiring event.

"I don't understand." Axel finally said as Sora grabbed a new cookie and began carefully making a bat.

"Well, Halloween is tomorrow so I thought that I'd do something relatively holloweeny for the edible accessories, and-"

Axel face-palmed and shook his head, laughing.

"I'm talking about your brother. I don't understand why he keeps running from me." Axel said wistfully. "I mean, look at me… I'm Axel. I've never been turned down!" Sora gave Axel a particularly amused expression at that, and Axel grinned good naturedly.

"Ok, well, Riku doesn't count… he didn't turn me down because he didn't want me. He was just going out with you, so he was being nice. He couldn't exactly tell you that he'd played the bouncy bed game with someone else, now could he?" Axel's grin widened as Sora stared at him, slack jawed.

"How did you know that that's what we called it?!" Sora demanded in a slightly embarrassed voice. It wasn't exactly common knowledge that Sora was less knowing than others, was it?!

Well… ok, maybe it was.

But Sora didn't like to think that he was. His brother Demyx was still a virgin and knew more than he did for Pete's sake!

Did Sora know who Pete was? No… but for his sake, Sora needed to learn a little more about life.

And by life, he meant sex.

"Hey, I'm the resident sex god of twilight town; I know everything when it comes to relationships, sex, make ups, sex, break ups, sex, crushes, sex, infatuations… sex…" Axel ticked the words off of his fingers as he spoke and Sora stared at him in slight confusion.

"You listed sex five times." Sora stated, setting down the icing and staring at Axel like he'd grown five heads. Slowly, he blew a huge bubble, wide eyes glued to the red heads face. Axel didn't seem to mind though, and he shrugged.

"I'm just that good at it. Want me to prove it?" He asked in a low purr, lips curling up into a smirk.

Sora promptly choked on his gum and almost inhaled it down his throat.

Axel's face transformed from seductive to concerned in an instant, leaning forward and smacking Sora's back as Sora choked on his deflated bubble and attempted to breath.

"You-hack-you-cough -wonder why-cough, COUGH-he keeps re-hack-sisting you?!" Sora blustered, hands at his throat as he coughed the gum up and it landed on the half finished edible accessory. Staring down at the now ruined cookie, Sora gave a half strangled groan and pushed the cookie into the trash can. Axel went back to his nonchalant pose at the counter, crisis averted, and shrugged.

"Well, yes." He said bluntly, shrugging. "I've never been turned down-"

"You know about Riku-"

"All right, all right, I've never been turned down by a single man before. It's a little… odd."

"Axel," Sora said slowly, grabbing another cookie and picking up the icing, "it's obvious why he's turning you down. You're going about it the wrong way with him." Axel stared at him for a moment, head tilted curiously like Sora had just spoken in Yiddish and expected him to know what in the hell he was talking about.

"I've never been wrong before."

"Well, you're wrong with him." Sora said firmly, nodding. Axel leaned in a little closer, s sudden spark in his eyes that made Sora feel a little nervous. If it wasn't broad daylight with the curtains up and the door to the shop unlocked, Sora would say that he was terrified that Axel would try to molest him.

Well, never mind. He was scared of that anyway.

Axel was just confidant like that.

"And how… am I wrong?" Axel asked in his soft, tempting purr. It was the kind of purr that if it was in the mouth of Riku, Sora would have fallen over and wanted him to do something hot, fast, and quick right in the middle of the shop, but since it was Axel, he could resist. He had the will of an ox, dammit!

And he was closing his eyes so that he wouldn't see his face.

Could he help it? Axel was an attractive man. And Riku… had been avoiding him. Did Sora know why? No. Did he want to know why? Yes. He'd been deprived of their usual get-togethers for some time now, and he was getting frustrated.

He was just happy that red heads weren't his type.

"Well," He began slowly, "Roxas hates it when guys try to just get into his pants… he likes it when they try to be really sweet and romantic. He's kind of grouchy, so it balances him, I guess. It makes him less… suicidal? I don't know. But I've seen the most progress made when people were heartfelt and kind… and when they let him talk." Sora nodded, feeling very accomplished with himself as he opened his eyes and looked to see Axel watching him with a strange glint in his eyes. It could have been admiration. It could have been a mix of surprise and understanding. Hell, it could have been him having an epiphany from the amount of knowledge that Sora had given him.

Or, it could have been boredom.

It's up for interpretation.

"Oh, really now…?" Axel asked, and then he tilted his head the other way like he was still trying to understand. "So you're saying… be romantic?"

"Yes." Sora nodded firmly. Axel blinked slowly at that, his sharp green eyes standing out brightly against his dark lashes as he nodded.

"Oh." He replied simply.

And then that was that.

Sora looked at him for a moment longer, a little confused as Axel suddenly became interested in the design that he was trying to create, his face intense as he stared at the cookie. What had he done wrong? He'd just given Axel the key to his brother, and he'd just said, "Oh."?! What was that for? A little insulted, Sora began his third attempt at a bat, brows together in concentration. Fine. Axel didn't want to hear what he had to say? That was ok. He didn't have to listen.

He'd just never get Roxas that way!

Sora cackled in his head, grinning demonically as he made the bat.

"Imnotromanticsora." Axel suddenly said eyes, intent on Sora's poor attempt at a bat. Sora jerked up in slight surprise at hearing Axel speak, accidently squeezing the tube too much and dumping too much icing on the cookie.

Sora stared down at the cookie, dejected, and with an exasperated sigh he threw that out, too.

Stupid cookies…

"What did you say?" Sora asked miserably. He wasn't going to decorate any more cookies at the moment… not with Axel throwing random words out of nowhere. The red head in question didn't seem too apologetic though; he merely looked up miserably at Sora and shook his head.

"I'm not romantic, Sora." He said slowly and clearly.

And then time seemed to stop.

"Wh-what…?" Sora asked, frowning and leaning in like he hadn't heard Axel right. Axel, exasperated, nodded miserably and put his head in his hand.

"I don't know… how to be romantic." He reiterated, and slowly his cheeks turned as bright red has his hair. Sora, a little more than shocked, nearly fell over and had to hold onto the counter to keep himself up. Axel didn't know how… to be romantic? Axel, the sex god; Axel, the irresistible, tempting man; Axel, the nominated best seme (apart from Riku, of course) in all of Twilight Town…

That Axel?

"What do you mean?" Sora asked in disbelief. Positively mortified, Axel had to look away.

"I mean, I don't know how to be romantic. How else can you interpret that?" He asked miserably. Sora sighed and shook his head slowly at that, trying not to act as shocked as he was really feeling. Obviously, he needed to help Axel out a little bit. Sora wasn't a Strife son for nothing! They were the master's at gentle guidance and kind advice! All he had to do was be subtle, soft, and understanding…

"Axel, that's a little pathetic."

Or… he could be himself.

Axel lifted his head and glared at Sora in a slightly scary way, making Sora back up a little and raise his hands up in defense of himself.

"Alright, alright, sorry… but you have to admit…" Sora sighed and laughed under his breath. "I'll try to help you out, with the romantic stuff. Riku's good at that."

"You mean, Riku was good at that." Axel replied with a suddenly knowing smirk, instantly forgetting that just seconds ago Sora had been mocking him.

"What are you talking about…?" Sora asked evasively. Sure, Axel had said that he knew everything when it came to relationships, but he couldn't have meant that he meant everyone's relationships, could he? Sora didn't like the idea of him knowing about his problems with Riku, as of late.

Sora could hardly understand them himself, he didn't want anyone else knowing about it.

"I mean, he was good at that. Past tense, squirt." Axel grinned as Sora, flustered, waved his arms around and glared in a less than impressive way.

He never got Roxas's gene for homicidal kill-you-with-one-look glares.

It's tragic, but Sora makes the best of it.

"I know you mean past tense!" Sora snapped in a way that wasn't really snappy. It was more hopeless, and a little pathetic. "I mean, why are you saying it like past tense?" He demanded, planting his fists on his hips. Axel shrugged and idly dragged his finger along the countertop.

"I've just noticed how you and him seem to not hang out so much. It's hard to be romantic when he's not even around, isn't it?" He asked knowingly, happy now that the conversation was turned away from him. Sora was sure that's why he looked so smug.

"Well, yeah… but I mean- it's like- he's just… busy…" Sora tugged his collar, not liking other people noticing just how uncaring Riku seemed to be these days. They were drifting apart, and Sora didn't like it one bit.

"Busy with what…?" Axel asked, his lips curling up and twisting at the edges like the Grinch. Did they really? No. But still. The look on his face was cruel and knowing and nasty and Sora didn't like it one bit. Twisting his face up into something truly fearsome (or at least something that would make someone question his sanity) Sora jabbed a finger at him and lost it.

"That's why my brother doesn't like you! The moment you feel like you don't have everything in control you have to twist it around and get what you want and exploit others feelings! You're greedy and too demanding and when someone doesn't want to do something, you make them do it, even though it's not nice and it could hurt people!! You think you know exactly what's going on with me and you think you can do whatever to my brother, but you're wrong! That's why he hates you! Maybe, just maybe if you tried to be nice and do things the normal way then he might actually end up liking you instead of wanting to put your head in the mocha blender!!" Sora finished his rant, his hands clenched into small, dangerous fists, and his cheeks flushed red from yelling. The few customers that were in the shop gave him large, frightened stares before they quickly and quietly made their way out of the shop, whispering to one another and giving short, sneaky glances towards the clearly unstable brunette at the counter.

And everyone had thought that it was only Roxas with the mental issues.

Oh, oh no… Sora was very much crazy.

It just took awhile to show it.

Axel stared at him, his green eyes wide with shock, his mouth hanging open in utter surprise like someone had just told him that he wasn't sexy. Very slowly, his mouth closed and he tilted his head like he'd never really actually seen Sora before, and was taking him in for what he was worth.

"I didn't know he wanted to stuff my head in the mocha blender." He said in a quiet, subdued voice.

Sora face-palmed and turned away, his anger gone just as quickly as it had shown up. Bi-polar much? Yes. But, Sora didn't care. Riku said it was adorable.

Well, he did say that… but Sora couldn't say if Riku still thought it was adorable. Who knew anymore?

"Well, he does." He said in an attempt to keep the anger. It didn't work though, and he just ended up sounding childish.

Poor Sora.

"Sora…?" Axel's voice was still quiet, and Sora turned to see that his eyes were sad, and he looked a little apologetic.

"What?" He asked softly. Instead of answering right away though, Axel merely walked around the counter and made his way over to Sora, enveloping him in a huge before the brunette could say anything. Sora, without even thinking, hugged him back and it suddenly hit him that it was nice to hug him, and that Axel was a good hugger. There weren't many good huggers in the world you see, and Sora was suddenly happy to say that he'd found one of them.

Even though it was Axel, he was happy that someone was hugging him since Riku obviously didn't want to.

"Hey, I'm sorry." Axel said quietly without pulling away. Nodding stupidly, Sora sniffled and looked up, hating how he felt like crying.

"It's ok. You can't help that someone wedged a yardstick up your ass." Sora replied.

"One of Roxas's phrases?"

"Yes, one of Roxas's phrases."

"I figured."

Sora laughed quietly at that, and pulled back to lean miserably on the counter, his lips pulled down in a frown.

"He can't help it… Roxas is a born skeptic. He's already a pessimist about people, and-"

"I waltzed in and made it all worse." Axel finished knowingly. Sora shrugged but nodded anyway, and continued to stare out into the distance.

"Yeah."

There was a long, awkward silence and then Axel leaned on the counter next to him, his pose relaxed but his face guarded.

"You're really upset about Riku, aren't you." It wasn't a question. Sighing, Sora rubbed his eyes and nodded bleakly, realizing that Axel wasn't being obnoxious about it anymore.

"He's just… changed. I mean, I don't know… he's really distanced himself from me, and I don't know what to do. It's like, sometimes… I don't even think he loves me anymore." Sora said miserably.

"Have you talked to him directly about it?" Axel asked curiously.

"Well, no." Sora retorted, feeling suddenly defensive. Why should he come out right and say it? Shouldn't Riku realize that there was something wrong? Shouldn't Riku be the one to fix it?

"Well, there's your problem. You have to be obvious. Say exactly what the problem is." Axel said with a shrug.

"Shouldn't he know something's wrong?" Sora objected.

"You're such a girl, Sora. No, he shouldn't know. He probably doesn't even realize that you're upset about anything." Axel laughed outright at Sora's indignant face, and shrugged, grabbing an edible accessory and shoving it into his mouth thoughtfully. Sora, a little disgusted at seeing him to that twice in one day, looked away and hit his head on the counter painfully.

"So it's that easy?"

"Just about. Unless there really is something wrong, and he is hiding something from you." Sora rolled his eyes at that, ignoring the memory of the text floating around his otherwise empty head. Yes… Riku definitely had something to hide. Would he tell Axel that though?

Over his dead Winnie the Pooh collection.

"What would Riku have to hide from me?" Sora scoffed, trying to play up the fact that there was "nothing" wrong.

"Oh… do you sell coffee here?" A smooth, seductive voice asked. Sora's head jerked up at that voice, and he couldn't help but stare, open mouthed at the woman standing in front of him. How he hadn't heard the bell chime, he didn't know, but suddenly that really didn't matter anymore. All coherent thought had left.

"Um, uh…" Was all that he could manage to say.

Very articulate, if you think about it.

She was tall and commanding with tan, smooth skin and dark hair that fell down to her waist in thick curls. She held herself with confidence, her stance telling everyone that she could kick ass, take names, and still ooze sex appeal. She wore tight, hip hugging jeans and a button up pinstriped shirt that hugged every curve precisely. She had tasteful jewelry and high heels that looked deadly to walk in. Her eyes were cat-like, predatory, and her lips were full and sensual. Green, sparkling, jade eyes peered at him in amusement, and when she grinned, she exposed bright white teeth.

"You're cute," She said in that same seductive tone.

Sora promptly fell over.

"Eh, sorry about him… he's just learning to walk." Axel easily helped Sora up and gave him a look that said quite clearly that he was ridiculous, and Sora quite clearly agreed.

"Apparently. It's alright; I'm in no hurry." She smiled and winked at Sora.

"We serve coffee here." Sora blurted out, feeling like an idiot as did so. Well, he felt like that most of the time anyway, but still. Sure enough, the girl raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow and tilted her head curiously at him.

"What sort of Halloween drinks do you have here?" She asked, smiling. Glancing over at Axel, Sora was surprised to see that he looked bored, almost like the girl was impressive to him at all. Though, why would she be? Though it looked like her confidence could feed a third world country for years, Axel's probably could feed every starving child in America and still serve the third world country for centuries.

Whereas Sora's confidence was equivalent to the crumb a rat would nibble on.

"Um… well, we have different things… um…" Sora pointed at the sign that listed the different drinks and pretended that he wasn't intimidated by the powerful woman. Her cat-like, slanted eyes looked away from him to scan trough the list before her lips curled up and she exposed pearly white teeth.

"I'll have… the vampire's delight." She said, turning her vicious eyes to him once more.

"What size?" Sora squeaked.

"The biggest you've got." Sora nodded jerkily and turned to begin fixing the drink, ignoring the fact that the shop was basically empty and this girl was burning holes into his head as he made the drink. Trying not to spill everything over himself, he quickly made the cider and then set it in front of her, tallying up the price on the register. As she passed over the money with her eyes still on his face, Sora awkwardly looked over at Axel to see him staring out of the window, bored.

"You've got a cute shop here, Sora." The girl said with her eyes sparkling in laughter.

"How do you know my name?!" Sora exclaimed, horrified. The girl, unperturbed, merely gestured towards his nametag and smirked, taking a sip of the cider and not bothered by the fact that it was extra hot.

"Oh..."

Well, didn't he feel like an idiot.

The girl threw her head back and laughed as she leaned against the counter and looked over at Axel.

"You're cute, too." She said in her smooth, slick voice. It was the voice that could charm the money from men's wallets and the voice that could make people ooze at her feet. Sora found that he really didn't want to talk in front of her because he was sure that his voice would sound awful in comparison.

Axel, however, wasn't impressed.

"Yeah, I know." He replied, leaning his head on his hand as he looked at her with a slightly annoyed glance. The girl laughed though, and flicked her perfect curls over her shoulder.

"And confident. Not too many boys are like you." She cooed. Axel, rolling his eyes, stood up to full height and folded his arms.

"Yeah, well, they don't call me red hot for nothing." He shrugged and nudged Sora from his daze, raising an eyebrow at Sora's blank stare. What was Sora supposed to say to that!? Sora wasn't called red hot, he didn't ooze sex appeal, and suddenly it hit him that this was the kind of person that anyone could be attracted to.

Anyone like Riku.

"I'm sure there are plenty of reasons to call you red hot." The girl said, her full lips curling up. Sora didn't like the way that her mouth set; it was mocking and cruel while tempting at the same time. Something he couldn't have.

"And those reasons are things you'll never know about." Axel replied in a less than kind way. Sora, a little surprised, looked over to see the girl's eyes widen for a fraction of a second before she smiled and shrugged, obviously not too bothered by his rejection.

"Your loss," She teased, sipping her drink.

"I highly doubt that." Axel all but purred back, his own green eyes flashing a challenge. The girl laughed delicately at that before she turned her powerful gaze to Sora and raised an eyebrow.

"I heard something you said earlier… I couldn't help it. I thought I'd just let you know… the only way your Riku would have something to hide… is if he knew he was doing something that he shouldn't." Smiling in a sweet way that was actually nothing sweet, the girl winked and took a long gulp of her drink before she turned and walked from the shop, her hips swaying and her steps strong and demanding.

Sora's self esteem hit the floor and burrowed beneath the foundations of The Strife Coffee Shop.

"What a bitch." Axel snapped, folding his arms and rolling his eyes. Sora nodded at that, but couldn't bring himself to respond, her words ringing around his head and making him wish that she'd never even stepped into the shop.

"Seriously, girls like that… don't even get me started. Forget about it, Sora." Axel ruffled his hair good-naturedly and leaned in the counter, turning his head to look Sora in the eye.

"Hey… I have a favor to ask…" Axel said as he finally got Sora to look up at him.

"Go ahead."

"Can you… teach me… how to be romantic?" Axel asked, his own cat-like eyes suddenly very, very vulnerable. Sora, a little surprised, couldn't help but nod, and then something clicked in his head.

"You mean… you want to try to actually be with Roxas?" He said, a little startled. Axel rolled his eyes and ran his hair through his spikes, but he nodded and grinned a little sheepishly.

"I mean, if I'm going to do this, I might as well do it right, right?"

Sora grinned and nodded, seeing a chance to actually make someone happy. Sure, his love life wasn't all shiny and pretty anymore, but that didn't mean Roxas should be lonely, right?

"Alright, here's what you do…"

5 Reasons Why My Life Sucks:

A list by Sora Strife

1. I just lost any sense of self esteem from a girl that wanted a drink called "Vampire's Delight". Would think it was a vampire but no vampire could look that good.

2. My love life is the equivalent of a lame dog in mating season. No one wants me : (

3. Because of my lack of a love life, I have to resort to making my brother's love life better by helping a slightly sex-addicted red head worm his way into said brother's heart.

4. This same brother recently destroyed my Hollow Bastion Nobodies trading cards.

5. And he's not sorry. Not one bit.

:) Hit or miss?

Let me know in a review!

Yeah, so... Haha, I wonder who that girl is? :D Guess and find out!

Whoever gets it right gets their name written in caps in the next chapter!

I'll update soon!