Life's Cheat Code
-Level 13: Begin-

Roxas drummed his fingers against the diner table, eyes half lidded as he looked out the window, still organizing his thoughts to answer Axel's question without raising more in odd suspicion.

"I dunno," He shrugged, "I get a problem I don't think I can handle, or I get depressed, I just…drink."

Roxas glanced at Axel for his reply. Axel sat with his arms crossed and looked down at the floor in thought, finally nodding after a moment.

"When did that start?"

"When I was thirteen. When my dad died. I found the gin and… It tasted awful, I don't really know how I kept going after that… But, I did, and… Yeah."

Axel nodded again, still keeping his eyes downcast. Roxas wrapped his cold hands around the mug of hot cocoa, staring blankly at its cooling contents. He had it sitting on the table for over an hour now. Axel didn't seem to mind.

"Does it make you feel better?"

Roxas glanced up only for a second before looking back out the window. He thought for a second before nodding absentmindedly and sighing, finally taking a sip of the cocoa.

Axel grabbed his dying cell phone to check the time. He sighed, looking up at the younger boy expressionless. "You were supposed to be home an hour and a half ago."

"What the hell do I care." He spat, taking another few gulps of the cocoa and wiping off his lips. "Yori won't be home. She won't care."

"Roxas-"

"Sora's never even at school, Axel." Roxas took his eyes off the ground and looked the older in the eyes. "It's like he's disappeared off the face of the Earth! I haven't talked to him once since that night…"

"You still haven't told me what happened to make him push you."

Roxas clenched his fingers around the mug. "Nothing really."

"Well, you refuse to go over there to just talk to the kid and straighten things out, Roxas, something happened, and you just don't want to tell me."

"Nothing happened, Axel."

The redhead only glared daggers into the floor while Roxas redirected his eyes outside the window. Axel sighed, grabbing the small leather booklet at the edge of the table and placed a few bills inside before standing and beginning to walk toward the glass double doors of the diner. Roxas downed his cocoa and quickly followed.

Roxas stuffed his hands into his pockets, following a few feet behind the redhead back to his car for a ride home. He glared at the leaves on the ground and the cold weather-induced goose bumps making his skin crawl. Today was supposed to be a good day; he was just supposed to spend it with Axel and it was supposed to be pleasant.

But he had to bring up the damn drinking thing.

That sent the whole thing down the shitter. Roxas all but slammed the car door as he plopped down annoyedly, buckled his seatbelt and crossed his arms over his chest like a disgruntled child. Which was how he felt at the moment.

Axel started the car and drove off, at an abnormally fast speed, but Roxas couldn't have cared less. He kept quiet, eyes boring holes into the glass window as he glared absently at the annoying houses and annoying trees and lights. Christmas was coming… He could smell it.

"When was Thanksgiving?" He asked, already half expecting a melancholy 'weeks ago'.

"Today."

Roxas' eyes lightened.

"And Yori was working." He sighed. "Of course she was working."

Axel stayed silent, which was kind of what Roxas wanted anyway; he didn't feel like going into the whole charade of the question-asking and the whole dancing-around-the-answer screaming and the… yeah.

He stayed quiet when his house came into view. He stayed quiet even long after Axel turned off the car and only sat in the brewing silence with him.

"I hate Thanksgiving."

Roxas muttered, almost startling him as much it did Axel; which wasn't apparent on either accounts, but still nonetheless hovering.

"Why's that?"

"I don't like huge meals, or being trapped in the car for five hours driving up to Granny's house. My eight year old cousins can't keep their hands to themselves or shut up, and there is not another soul in my age group, so I can't really talk to anyone and get a decent answer, and everyone is either under fourteen or in their hundreds!" Roxas nearly shouted, both arms in front of him, fingers flexed impossibly far apart in the air.

Axel only stared.

Roxas sighed loudly, murmuring something close to an apology, and began to unlock the door to the car to step out. He tried not to slam Axel's door, which proved successful.

"Wait!" Axel said, getting out of the car and slamming it on his way out, not even bothering to lock it up. Roxas only turned for a moment before his back connected with the grass and Axel was above him.

"I hate Thanksgiving too, yanno."

"Why's that?"

"Allergic to turkey."

"Liar."

Axel chuckled. "I have the doctor's papers."

Roxas only laughed.

/L-C-C\

Sora shivered.

Knee-length stockings and a micro-skirt when winter was just around the corner may not have been the best idea. But who can honestly flaunt a windbreaker and four layers of pants?

He only wrapped his arms around himself tightly, teeth chattering against the cold gust of air soaring down the street; it probably didn't help that the curb was as cold as ice, either.

He sighed, dropping his head to rest on his knees. His sleep-deprived eyes feel closed, almost instantly, and he would have fallen asleep if the sound of a halting car two feet from him hadn't startled him.

Sora stood, arms still wrapped tightly around his form, and walked up to the window already rolled down.

"How much?"

Sora shivered.

/L-C-C\

The only thing Thanksgiving was good for was the football.

Axel had the popcorn, and Roxas sipped at the fizzling soda, and all Riku could do was stare at the screen.

He wasn't feeling better. He ran the equation in his head – millions of time – and still it didn't add up to the mess of a breakup almost two months before.

Riku sighed. Football was boring to watch, even with Roxas there trying to understand which line exactly was the one the players were playing off of. He dismissed it as imaginary and continued to sip his soda.

Now, if Riku had been paying attention, he would have caught the five popcorn pieces being thrown at his head and would have told Axel to stop. But he simply did not care.

"Roxas, see the big white forty?"

"…Yeah?"

"See the big white fifty?"

"Yes."

"See how they're between them? That's how they're on the forty-three."

"…Oh!"

Insert Coin To Continue?

A/N: Well, I kind of gave Roxas a drinking problem without really going in depth with it, so…that's my back-story. :B

I hate Thanksgiving.

Can you believe it???? I kind of updated. :D