Axel was, for once, actually doing work while he was at work. This was in no way related to the fact that Roxas wasn't texting him currently, of course. He just…happened to…you know…the mood struck him. Whatever. He had a passion for folding jeans.

Well, actually, they did look pretty nice when they were finally all folded and stacked on top of each other in just the right manner, but the knowledge that customers were going to come through any minute and mess them all up, and then Axel would be here doing this all over again, kind of ruined any sort of enjoyment he may have gotten out of it.

So he folded them very slowly, in an effort to maintain order for as long as possible. It's not like he had any incentive to hurry. He was paid by the hour. By all logic he should take as long as humanely possible.

Then his phone buzzed, and his productivity came to a halt.

He glanced around—oh, there were actually some people in the store. Oh, well—and pulled out his phone. "Could you do me a weird favor?" was the message from Roxas.

"I would love to," Axel responded.

"Look up at the ceiling," was apparently the favor that Roxas needed done.

Axel frowned at his phone. Well, whatever. "ok?" he texted, and then looked up at the ceiling.

Yep, that sure was a ceiling. He hadn't actually looked at the ceiling much before. It's not like there was anything to see.

He pondered it for a moment, before turning back to his phone to report his progress. But there was already a message from Roxas, which said, "Holy shit." Then, in quick succession, two more. "Uh," and, "I'm in your store."

Axel stared at his phone. Roxas was…there? Here?

He looked up, and did his best to look around the store casually. Hmm. No one to his left, so—

Oh.

Well.

It was probably the guy with a phone in his hand staring at him from halfway behind a clothes rack.

Axel stared back.

Axel blinked.

"Roxas?" he mouthed.

The guy nodded.

Holy shit.

Axel shoved his phone back in his pocket, abandoning his jean-folding task and striding over to Roxas, hardly noticing the grin on his own face.

"Roxas!" he said, barely refraining himself from doing something drastic like…hugging him, or something. "I…you…you live around here? Why didn't you tell me! Do you live around here?"

"Uh," went Roxas. Then he frowned and looked away. Then his face turned red, and he covered it with his hand that wasn't holding a cell phone, furrowed eyebrows still visible through his fingers.

"Hey, don't worry, take your time," Axel said, still grinning. Holy shit! Roxas! The real Roxas! Live and in person!

"We have the same area code," Roxas said into his hand. Axel blinked.

"Yeah?"

"I mean…we have the same area code, so of course we live close. Right?" he said, moving his hand and making eye contact again. His face was still a little pink.

Axel's gaze drifted up towards the ceiling. "Riiiight," he said in realization. "Well, now I know, I guess."

"Yeah," Roxas said.

Their conversation lapsed into silence for a moment, but it didn't seem awkward. It was kind of a lot to take in, especially for Axel. He didn't know what he imagined Roxas like, but this was definitely not it. Not that it was bad, really, just…well, a lot to take in. This Roxas was…

Was…

Really, really short. Axel was tall, sure, but most of his friends were, too, this was like…Zexion-level short, and that wasn't standard for a 20-year-old. But, then again, Axel didn't really know how old Roxas was, so…

Wait.

"Uh, how old are you?"

Roxas blinked.

"Sixteen?" he said, as if he wasn't entirely sure of it himself.

Axel stared at him.

"Sixteen?" he asked. "As in, ten plus six. Sixteen."

"Yeah," went Roxas, frowning. "Sixteen. Is that…okay?"

"Ohhh, god," Axel went, putting his hands over his face. Sixteen. Sure, past Axel, sure teenagers wouldn't be dealing with that kind of high-level math, of course you would know that, you, the man who didn't finish high school.

He dropped his hands, and assumed a calm expression, while his brain internally screamed at him.

"Yes," he said, flatly, ignoring the heat rising to his face. "Sixteen is fine."

Roxas furrowed his eyebrows, in something of a "what you said definitely did not match what you did but I can't really figure out what the incongruity means" expression, and Axel put on a smile.

"So!" Axel said, assuming his polite-store-assistant affect. "What brings you to this corner of the mall anyways?"

"Well," said Roxas, "shopping."

Axel nodded. "That is generally what people come here for. Do you need clothes? I can help you find stuff. I mean, that is technically what I'm paid to do."

"Technically," Roxas repeated. "Actually, um…I'm here with a friend, but. She wanted to go to the…" he gestured vaguely behind him. "The bath stuff store, and that place gives me a headache, so I came over here…which worked out." He laughed. "I can't believe you were this close the entire time!"

"Well, I mean, we do have the same area code," Axel said, grinning.

"Oh, shut up!" Roxas said, shoving his arm and laughing. Oh, so he was a touchy type. Axel would have to keep that in mind.

"So, who's this friend of yours?" he asked.

"Oh, um…do you want to meet her?"

"If she'd be okay with that."

"Sure, I'll go ask her," Roxas said, and ran off to go, presumably, fetch his friend.

Axel watched him go, and sighed. Roxas was even more adorable than he'd imagined, wasn't he.

…adorable in a completely platonic, non-creepy way, of course. Axel rubbed his eyes, scowling. Sixteen years old. Roxas is still a kid.

When he opened his eyes again, and the stars faded, Larxene was right in front of him.

"FU—uuahhhh, augh," went Axel, approximately, in an aborted curse when he realized there were customers around who probably wouldn't appreciate his language. "Jesus, Larxene," he said, quietly. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Yeah, yeah," she went. "Who was that?"

"Who was what?" Axel said, playing dumb for the mere purpose of being irritating.

"The kid."

"There are a lot of kids."

"The blonde one," Larxene said, scowling.

"How very descriptive of you."

"God dammit, Axel, you know who I'm talking about."

He laughed. "Do I?"

Larxene punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow!" he went. "Okay, okay. That was Roxas," he relinquished.

"…wait, you mean that guy you've been texting non-stop recently?"

"Yeah!" went Axel, not quite noticing how his expression was slowly starting to glow with excitement. "Apparently he lives around here! Isn't that great? He just went to get his friend, he's going to come back and introduce us—"

"Is he, like, twelve?" interrupted Larxene.

Axel's face fell.

"…he's," he started, expression obviously pained, "Yeah. He's…sixteen."

Larxene stared at him.

Axel nodded somberly.

Then, Larxene started laughing. Howling, really, full bent-over-wiping-tears-from-eyes cackling.

"Yep. Yeah. Yeah, I know," Axel said, until Larxene finally stood up and caught her breath. A few customers were looking on wondering what in the world all the commotion was about, but that wasn't really anything new.

"Oh my god," said Larxene. "He's jailbait! He's fucking jailbait! God, Axel, you have the worst luck."

Axel just continued nodding. He didn't really have anything to say at this point. Larxene was covering basically all of it.

"Hey," she said, suddenly serious.

"Hm?"

"You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?"

"Stupid is my middle name."

"Axel."

Axel sighed.

"You have full permission," he said, "to report anything shady I do directly to this kid's parents, okay? And by that I mean, no, I'm not going to do anything stupid."

"You've done some pretty stupid shit in the past," Larxene warned.

"It's been, like…at least two years now, though, come on. I'm a better man now."

Larxene raised an eyebrow at him.

Axel sighed. Again.

"Okay," he said, raising his left hand and putting the other on his heart. Then he paused, and switched them. "Okay," he said, again, "I solemnly swear I will not do anything shady to this kid until he turns eighteen, even if he gets on his knees and begs me."

Even if that was quite the mental image. Wait—no, Axel. Down, boy.

"I'm going to hold you to that," Larxene said.

"I'm counting on it."

"Good. Now, get your ass back to work."

"Yeah, yeah," went Axel, slinking back over to his half-folded pile of jeans. He couldn't really bring himself to be too upset about it, though. He'd made a friend! A real, walking-talking friend that he could hang out with and everything. It was great enough when him and Roxas had been texting buddies, of course, but…this was just the icing on the friendship cake.

Besides, soon enough, Roxas had returned to the store, with another person in tow. They looked weirdly similar, actually…or maybe it was just the fact that they were both the same height and had the same color hair. The similarities sort of ended there.

"Axel, this is, uh, Namine," Roxas said, gesturing between them. "Namine, Axel."

"It's nice to meet you," said this Namine, smiling sweetly and extending a hand. Axel hurriedly took it once he realized what was going on.

"I'm sure it is," he said. "I bet Roxas hasn't shut up about me."

"Well," Namine said, turning towards Roxas and laughing. "He kind of hasn't, actually."

"Namine!" Roxas complained, face turning red. It tended to do that a lot, didn't it?

His friend just laughed, covering her mouth with her hand.

Axel just looked between them, taking note of the interaction bemusedly.

"Oh!" went Namine, suddenly.

"Oh?" questioned Roxas. Namine thought for a moment, and then leaned over to whisper in Roxas's ear.

Axel blinked. They probably weren't talking about him, right?

"Hmm," went Roxas, out loud. "Do you think that'd be okay?"

"I'm sure it would," Namine answered.

Roxas turned back to Axel.

"Hey," he said, "One of my friends'…friends'…friends', and so on, is sort of throwing this party thing over the weekend, so…um, do you…maybe want to come? I mean, if you're not working, or…there will probably be a lot of high schoolers there…"

"I'm there," Axel said.

"Uh, really?"

"Yeah. I haven't had enough chances to get out recently. It'll be fun, right?"

"I…well, that's the idea, I guess," Roxas said.

"Right. Well, text me the details, alright?"

"Uh, sure. Um. See you then?"

"That's the plan."

Axel waved, and Namine directed Roxas out of the store, evidently moving on to the next shop on her agenda.

Axel just barely caught Roxas grabbing Namine's sleeve and all but jumping excitedly, grinning and talking about Axel-could-guess-what, before they went out of view.

Well. Shit.

Axel pulled his bike up to the street curb—right in between two cars, which would probably have a hell of a time pulling out now, but whatever—and checked his phone to verify the address. Not that he really had too. The amount of cars lined up along the street was a pretty good indication that there was a party going on around here somewhere.

He kicked the kickstand down into kick-standing position and put his keys in the pocket of his jacket, looking around at the houses in the fading light. Shit, this was a high-class neighborhood. Axel felt like he was going to get arrested for, like, existing there.

Oh, well. He'd have to grin and bear it for now.

He sent off a quick message to Roxas—"Think I found the house. You here too?" and got a "Yeah, I'll go wait at the front door," back. Well, how chivalrous of him.

Axel dismounted his bike and headed towards the house in question. There wasn't any loud party music emanating onto the street, which he took as a good sign. Somehow he didn't feel like Roxas would be into that kind of scene, anyways.

Sure enough, a few moments later he saw the door open and a little spikey-headed figure pop out and look around. Axel increased his pace a little to meet him.

"Hey," he said, walking up to the porch. "What's up?"

"Party stuff? Come on, we're about to start Mario Kart," Roxas said, and then disappeared back into the house. Axel followed him, eyes squinting for a moment at the change in light.

"There's pizza and stuff if you want some," Roxas said, pointing at what Axel presumed was a kitchen. Axel sniffed the air a little bit.

"And 'stuff,' " he said. "Right."

"Oh," went Roxas, frowning. "Yeah, they said they would keep that outside, but…" he shook his head, and made his way to another room. There weren't too many people here, compared to the size of the house, which Axel could appreciate.

That still didn't mean there was room on the couch, though.

Roxas sat in between two people on the floor, picking up a vacated controller. Axel leaned against a wall, for lack of a better place. Well, he was sure he could shove his way in somewhere, but…people. Parties. You know.

It turned out that Roxas was surprisingly good at Mario Kart. Which, Axel tried not to be surprised about people that he'd just met—who knows what they were good at, really—but Roxas ended up winning so badly that two of the four people trying to play against him simply professed defeat.

"You come play, Axel," Roxas said, grinning and holding an abandoned remote out to him. Axel shrugged, and went to sit on the floor next to him, taking the controller

"How does this work?" he asked, looking at the thing in his hands. It wasn't like he'd never played video games before, but this thing was…shaped oddly.

"You steer like this," Roxas said, making a sort of steering-wheel motion with the controller. Axel imitated him, frowning. Well, whatever. Roxas then proceeded to explain, in full detail, what each of the buttons would do during gameplay, and half of it went in one of Axel's ear and out the other, but he figured he got enough of it to get through a round. Probably.

Then the race started, and Axel came in dead last place, even with the constant tips from Roxas, which most often consisted of, "No, look, that means you're going the wrong direction."

"No, no, I'm getting the hang of it," Axel insisted after the first race, grinning.

Though after a few more races, eventually it became obvious that if he was getting the hang of it, he was doing it very slowly, and soon ended up giving up the controller to a more worthy contestant.

"I tried my best," he said, shrugging at Roxas's look of incredulity. "Have fun continuing to destroy these casuals, I'm going to get something to eat." He pat Roxas on the back, and ended his humiliation by escaping to the kitchen.

Considering the time, the party can't have been going on for very long, but the pizza pickings were already very meager. Well, Axel didn't each much, anyways. He picked up a sad-looking slice of pizza and looked around for a good place to sit.

Instead, he found someone who was staring at him with a very suspicious look on his face. But more important than that, this person was wearing camo-patterened cargo shorts, which, listen, Axel did not need to be employed at a clothes store to realize how tacky that was. He might have to place a few choice words of advice here.

"Who are you?" said Mr. Cargo, accusingly. Axel raised his eyebrows. Had he done something wrong already? He hadn't insulted this guy's pants out loud, had he?

"Axel," said Axel, though he was pretty sure that wasn't the question that was being asked. "Why, who are you?"

Mr. Cargo decided to ignore that question.

"Aren't you that weird guy who responded to Roxas's math text? What are you doing here? Are you stalking him?"

Axel stared at him. Stalking? He wasn't stalking Roxas, was he? He thought over their previous interactions. He was the one, he supposed, who initiated their relationship, but he never asked for any particularly personal details (had he?) and Roxas was the one who showed up in his store one day, and Roxas was definitely the one who invited him to this party.

He was pretty sure he wasn't stalking Roxas, and not even in a no-I'm-just-keeping-an-eye-on-them way this time.

"No," he said. "Roxas invited me here."

Mr. Cargo continued glaring at him for a moment. Axel took a bite of pizza.

"…well, okay," relinquished his accuser. "You better be telling the truth." Axel was at least ninety-two percent certain he was telling the truth. "I'm Roxas's real-life friend, Hayner, and if you lay a hand on him I'm going to kick your ass, okay?"

Axel put his hands up in surrender, not being able to verbally reply mostly due to his mouth being full, but at least partially due to the sheer absurdity of the situation, which Axel really wasn't entirely sure how to reply to.

This Hayner "Mr. Cargo" Lastname stormed off into another room, leaving Axel supremely confused in his wake.

He was pretty sure that his mere physical presence at this party had changed his status to "real-life" friend by any definition.

But, well, even if it hadn't, at least he was still categorized as some kind of friend, even by…hostile outsiders to this particular relationship.

…

He wasn't actually stalking Roxas, was he?

It turned out that really, the only reason Roxas was at this party was to play video games. He didn't seem to be doing anything else, at least, so Axel had to assume that was what he was there for. It was kind of a spectacle in itself, really, but eventually everyone got tired of trying to win and Roxas was left to socialize with the few friends he had there. Though his "socialization" at that point seemed to consist of standing kind of near them and drinking soda.

Axel edged up to him. "I think I'm all partied out," he said, though not entirely truthfully. It was fun hanging with Roxas and all, but his scene tended to be a bit more…well, let's just say he wouldn't be inviting Roxas to any of those anytime soon.

"Oh," went Roxas. "Yeah, I think I am, too."

"Want a ride home?" Axel offered, holding up his keys.

Roxas stared at them.

"Those don't look like car keys," he said.

"Well, no," said Axel. "I have a bike."

"Do you have an extra helmet?"

"Well," said Axel, slowly, "No…"

"Then that's probably a bad idea."

Axel huffed, and put his keys back into his pocket. Even if Roxas was right, that didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

"I could walk you home, then," Axel said.

Roxas gave him a look, and Axel wasn't entirely sure what it meant. He suddenly felt a surge of anxiety. Was he being pushy about this?

"Though I understand if you don't want me knowing where you live," he said.

"Oh, no," went Roxas, "It's fine…it's just…I mean, are you sure?"

"I'm very sure."

"Well…"

Roxas looked around at the rest of those present, trying to figure out what it was he next needed to do.

"I'll meet you outside in a little bit, okay? I should probably say goodbye to everyone," Roxas said. Axel nodded, and headed to the porch.

He sat on the steps and tried to look for stars in the sky. Either it wasn't dark enough, or not clear enough. Either way, there wasn't much to look at.

Axel's heart pounded in his chest.

He tried not to let the doubts get to him, but…well, it was good that he was doubting himself, wasn't it? Or was it? Should he call Larxene? No—walking someone home was an okay thing. That wasn't creepy.

Was it?

Axel put his face in his hands, then ran them up to his hair to ruffle it in frustration. Deep breaths. You're doing okay so far. Just…

He'd ask Roxas. Yeah.

Though how do you phrase "am I being creepy?" without seeming like you're fishing for a particular answer?

Before this train of thought finished, the door opened behind Axel, startling him enough to flinch. He looked back, and Roxas was halfway between a smile and an expression of worry.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," said Axel, standing up and smiling. "Just a little jumpy, I guess. It happens. People, you know." He shook his hands a little bit, releasing energy.

"Oh," went Roxas. "Uh—it's this way," he said, walking towards what Axel presumed was his house. Then, "Do you get nervous around people?"

"Only sometimes," Axel said, falling into step beside him. He had to walk a little slower than usual. God, Roxas was short. Only sometimes, like when they started asking questions that were a little more pointed than they had probably intended. "Hey, can I ask you kind of a weird question?"

Roxas looked up at him, expression unreadable in the low light. "Sure, I guess," he said.

"Do you feel like I'm stalking you?"

Roxas was silent for a moment. "Uh," he went. "No? Why? Should I?"

"Well, no," Axel said, maybe a little bit too fast. Deep breaths. "I mean, I'm not stalking you. I think. It's…well, I just wanted to make sure that's how you felt, as well."

Roxas went back to looking at the road.

"That was definitely kind of a weird question," he said.

"Yeah," said Axel. "Sorry."

"Well, it's okay, it's just…do you feel like you're stalking me? Or…?"

"No, but I've been wrong before."

Shit. That probably wasn't the best piece of information to share.

"What?" went Roxas. Then, "About stalking? Like…you've stalked someone before?"

Axel sighed. It was way too early in their relationship for this conversation. Or, well, they had known each other for months now, hadn't they? Somehow it seemed like it hadn't been that long…then again, it also seemed like they'd been talking forever. Maybe Axel just wasn't the best at conceptualizing time.

"It's…kind of a long story," he said. That wasn't entirely true, but he wanted to give Roxas an out to this while there still was one.

"It's kind of a long walk…"

Roxas didn't sound entirely sure of himself, but Axel supposed it was invitation enough.

"Well," he said. Then he paused. How should he even say this? "I…I sort of used to…well, I still do…or…augh. Give me a second."

"Alright," Roxas said.

Somehow, that reply took a little bit of the pressure off. Axel spent a few moments sorting out what he wanted to say in his head.

"I have a hard time with relationships," he started. "I used to have a lot harder time with them, but I've gotten better recently." Have I? Yes. I have. "At some point I…well, I started stalking someone, and I managed to convince myself that that wasn't what I was doing. All of my friends started warning me about it, but I didn't believe them until...let's just say things didn't work out. I didn't really get that I was doing something wrong until, like, months after the person broke up with me, so…"

He sighed. It had been a while since he'd shared this with anyone.

"Anyways, one of your friends in there asked if I was stalking you, and I think he was joking but…I felt like I needed to make sure, you know. For complete peace of mind."

The words hung in the air for a moment as Roxas didn't respond, and Axel tried to focus on his footsteps and not the thoughts rising up to his head. He's creeped out now—Stop. He's not going to want to be friends—No. Stop. Stop.

"Oh," is what Roxas said. That didn't really help things. Axel wanted to ask for a clearer response, but he had a feeling Roxas was working on one. "Uh. Who said that?"

Well, that at least gave Axel something else to think about it. He was pretty sure the guy had said his name, but all he could think of was—

"Camo pants."

"Ooooh."

Axel laughed, despite himself. Was that really a good enough identifier? Well, it wasn't like anyone else would be caught dead wearing those things.

"Yeah," said Roxas, "He's been…he's kind of over protective of me. He doesn't really like me talking to you, but all my other friends seem to think you're pretty cool, so I dunno, I think it's pretty safe to ignore him."

Roxas laughed, and Axel felt a little bit better. Good, so he wasn't in the minority opinion here.

"And, um," Roxas said again. "I really don't feel like you're stalking me at all. I get nervous around people too a lot but not around you so much so, you're the opposite of creepy right now. I hope we get to hang out more, actually."

Axel sighed in relief.

"Yeah," he said. "Me, too. Can you let me know if you ever feel like I'm coming on too strong, though? Think you can do that?"

"Sure," said Roxas. "Definitely."

"Thanks. It means a lot."

Roxas had them part ways at his street corner, because, "Oh, wait, now that I think about it my family is going to start asking weird questions if they see you so…uh…goodnight."

Axel had a very enjoyable ride home. Even if the walk back to his bike was a little lonely.