I really appreciate the reviews and all the alerts and favorites. Hey, not like anyone cares, but I've been playing Birth By Sleep and it's totally awesome. I'm also totally awesome at it, speeding through it like yeah. Finished Ventus and Aqua's modes in a few days, working through Terra's now. That's probably my best excuse for taking this long. Also, this is a bit short, because I really wanted to leave it off this way. Whatever.

I did this really awkward thing where, while I was editing this (for content, not errors, I probably still have typos and such) I was also changing things. Weird of me, I changed the entire middle part. Anyways...

Disclaimer: I own nothing at all, except my copy of Birth by Sleep that is consuming all of my time!

A few weeks later the day before the dance had arrived. Roxas acted as if he was annoyed and begrudged, but he was actually excited at the prospect of, once again, attempting to struggle with Axel. It's all he could think about day after day, and he was beginning to grow anxious. The school day couldn't end quickly enough, and Roxas rushed out to meet at the convertible. There had been no struggle practice that afternoon, so the redhead offered to give him a ride. Axel lifted the blond's bike into the back of his car and then they started home.

"So, you're going to meet me at my house tomorrow at 5, just as all the others are on their way to the dance. Bring comfortable clothes, Rox, because I'm not going to stop until you're as good as I am."

Roxas laughed. "We'll be playing for centuries."

"Not true," he chuckled. "Give yourself some credit, you aren't all that bad."

"Yeah, right," Roxas called out as he got his bike out of the car and grinned back at Axel. "5 o'clock, I'll be there!"

The bike ride to Axel's house seemed to take forever, and he just wanted to be there as quickly as possible. He smiled, thinking his friend would approve of his 'struggle attire', which consisted of some old, ripped, gray sweatpants, a white t-shirt, and one of Axel's hoodies, which was two sizes too big. He round the corner and rode his bike straight up to Axel's door and hopped off hurriedly, running to the door. Knocking twice, he calmed himself before the door opened, not wanting to seem freakishly excited for no reason. A woman who Roxas assumed was Axel's mom opened the door, and he was surprised at how few similarities they shared. The woman had thin, cropped, brunette hair and was only a bit taller than Roxas was. Roxas couldn't even begin to imagine Axel having her perfectly tanned skin, and the only thing Axel had gotten from his mother, as far as Roxas could see, were her vibrant green eyes.

"Roxas? I've heard a lot about you! I'll go get Axel," she said as she turned to walk back into the house. She turned to see him awkwardly shuffling his feet in the doorway and pulled him in by his hand. "You are just too adorable!" She cooed over her shoulder. "Go down the hall and wait in Axel's room, I think I heard him down in the basement." She pinched his cheek and Roxas had to fight down the completely embarrassed blush threatening to fill his face. "You are too cute!"

Roxas made to sit on the bed, but thought better of it and decided to explore instead. The room was a bit on the small side, but it seemed as if Axel fit everything he wanted - a dresser, desk, TV, in the limited space. The walls weren't covered with famous strugglers or musicians like Roxas had expected, and were surprisingly bare, except for a small picture frame hanging next to his dresser on the far side of the room. It was crooked. Roxas went to take a closer look but tripped on a pile of discarded clothes. Axel's leather jacket was in the pile, which Roxas found odd, but shrugged off the feeling. He had always just assumed Axel had treated his jacket better than that, but he supposed he had seen it on the ground the first time they had met, so he forgot about it. He reached the frame on the wall and smiled at how gleeful the subjects seemed, but then scrunched his eyes in confusion. It was a picture of Axel and his mother, but it was obviously ripped. Roxas couldn't be sure, but he was fairly certain that the person who had been standing to the left of Axel in the photo, the person who had been cut out, was his father. He leaned closer to straighten the frame and noticed a long red lock of hair falling over Axel's shoulder - it wasn't Axel's hair, it was far too bright - and then Roxas was sure. That was Axel's father.

Roxas was still staring at the photo as Axel came to the door and cleared his throat. "Axel!" His startled look melted into confusion as he noticed the redhead's clothes - a dark green button down and black slacks. "Uhm, Axel?"

"Hi Roxas." He took a seat on his bed and motioned for Roxas to do the same. "Listen, I, uh... we can't struggle today."

"Why not?"

"Well," he sighed, looking down at his hands," Namine called and-"

Roxas groaned and stood. "Are you serious right now?"

Axel grimaced. "Well, she called and... well she was really upset because Hayner went out of town without telling her. They were supposed to go to the dance together, and everyone is expecting her to be there. She can't just show up by herself, so I kind of told her I'd take her…?"

"How could you just-" Roxas didn't finish his sentence, just took off running through the house, ignoring the woman's cry of "Roxas, what's wrong, honey?" and bursting through the front door to come face to face with none other than Namine.

"Roxas, wait!" Axel yelled, stopping short as he saw Roxas staring at Namine, dressed in white, as usual.

"Uh, hi, Roxas." She scrunched up her nose. "You're not going to the dance like that, are you?"

Roxas clenched his fists angrily. "No, I'm not. I'm not going to the dance at all, and neither was Axel. We were supposed to be hanging out tonight, but now he's going with you, so I'm going to go home, in these stupid clothes, and stare at my wall for a few hours, because my best friend is an inconsiderate jerk." He finished, glaring at the jerk in question.

Axel scratched the back of his head and grimaced. "That's not really fair, Roxas."

"Neither is ditching your best friend to prance around with the pretty blonde slut who has a boyfriend!"

Namine gasped and Axel yelled out a "Hey!", but Roxas spun on his heel and ran away, ignoring whatever Axel was saying behind him. He got on his bike and rode straight home. He ran into his room and flopped on his bed, staring at his ceiling, and when he next looked over at the clock it was a little past eight. Roxas sat up, feeling tears that he didn't realize had built up fall down his cheeks. He roughly wiped them off with the back of his hand and went outside, mounting his bike once more.

The dance was being held near the lake a few miles out of town. Roxas parked his bike on the opposite side of the lake and sat with his feet in the water, staring at the people across it having fun. A couple times he thought he saw Axel dancing with Namine, but he couldn't really be sure from this distance. He heard a few cars passing by and, to his surprise and chagrin, one of them stopped. He heard someone get out and close the door behind him, and looked up to see Zexion approaching. Roxas noted that he was also dressed nicely and frowned. The boy sat beside him for a moment and stared at the dance before breaking the silence.

"What are you doing?"

Roxas sighed and took a moment to collect his thoughts. "I'm just… watching. Just watching."

"...I thought you and Axel were doing something tonight?"

Roxas snorted, ripping up some blades of grass by his feet. "Yeah, so did I."

They sat in silence for a couple minutes, and Zexion stealthily scooted closer to the blond. Their hands on the ground were nearly touching, and he figured if he moved over just a bit more –

"Hey, Zex?" Roxas questioned, laying back and putting his arms over his head, inadvertently putting a halt to Zexion's plan. "Did you finish Romeo and Juliet yet?"

"I did," he answered, pulling his own hand back towards himself.

"Oh. How does it end?"

Zexion turned to look down into Roxas' eyes. "Well, Romeo and Juliet were young and in love, as you know, but their families hated each other, so they couldn't be together; their worlds were too different. In the end, Romeo drank some poison, because he mistakenly thought Juliet had died. When she woke and found him dead, she picked up his dagger and… killed herself. They just couldn't be without the one they loved." He finished, trying to force all he felt to show through his eyes at that moment.

"That… That's horrible." Roxas said, gazing up at the sky.

"Believe me, I know." He sighed. "It's too bad they didn't have a better plan. They'd have lived."

Roxas was silent and then, "How old were they?"

"Juliet was 14, and I guess Romeo was a few years older."

Roxas got up and straddled his bike. "I'll see you later, Zexion. Have fun tonight."

"Where are you going?"

"I've just got something to decide."

Zexion frowned as the blond rode off into the night.

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PLEASE.