What's this? Another timely update? Impossible, unheard of!

Disclaimer: I own nada.

Namine looked up from the couch as Riku walked in from his bedroom. He was freshly showered and his hair still hung damp, but that the water couldn't wash away the bruised fists and the bloodshot eyes. He sat on the opposite end of the couch and stared at his raw knuckles.

"Riku, you didn't."

He remained silent, and that was enough of a response for her.

"Riku!"

"What?" He barked at her, swiveling his head so quickly that drops of water flew from his hair onto her skin. "I told you I wasn't going to stop. I can't stop. He's mine."

Namine gasped and covered her mouth. "'He'... ? Please tell me you aren't talking about-"

"Roxas?" Riku finished for her. "Who else Namine? Why do you ask such stupid fucking questions?" He left into his room, but Namine didn't follow.

She stayed on the couch, legs tense and fingers curled. "Does... Does Kairi know?" She barely whispered it, but she knew he heard.

He came around the doorway, comb partway through a lock of hair. "Again with the idiotic questions." He continued running the comb through his hair. "No, and she won't find out. You gave me your word you would keep your mouth shut."

"Why? He's just a kid! He - he never did anything to you!"

"Never did anything? He made my life hell!" He stormed over to his sister and stood over her. "Do you know how fucking hard it was for me to see him and not be able to have him? Do you have any idea how hard that was for me? And he'd just be there, taunting me, and I could never touch him! How many faggots do you know, Namine? How many?" He threw his comb past her face and she flinched as it hit the wall behind her. "None! I know what people think about people like him - people like me! I bet you can't even stand me right now." He collapsed on the couch next to her, chuckling humorlessly when she visibly tensed. "I can't even stand me right now." He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "I'm gay and it's his fault, Namine. Don't you get it? It's his fault."

A week passed quietly. Axel hadn't seen Roxas much, as the blond had been absent for a few days. Struggle practice wore on, but Coach Armstrong was getting angrier with each passing day Roxas didn't show up. Riku was getting the brunt of the coach's anger - it was, after all, his fault the blond was on the team. Riku took his anger out on the entire team, making them run more laps than necessary. It was with these laps that Axel found himself preoccupied with when Namine called him over to the other side of the field, where the cheerleaders were arguing over who would top the pyramid now that Yuffie had broken a leg.

"What does Namine want, man?"

Axel looked at the boy jogging beside him. He felt horrible, knowing he was screwing his friend's girl. "I don't know. You know her better than I do."

Hayner sighed and wiped some of the sweat off his forehead. "I don't know, dude. You know, I haven't spent much time with her lately. She's always busy."

"No kidding..." Axel chuckled awkwardly.

"Yeah. She won't tell me what's up. I figured maybe there's some family stuff going on or something. I wish she'd tell me so could help her sort things out."

"Well, maybe she doesn't want to worry you." Axel offered.

"Maybe. I don't know. I hope things go back to normal before graduation," he paused to catch his breath. "Don't tell anyone, but I'm going to ask her to marry me."

"What?" Axel tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. "What... What?" He asked confusedly.

"I'm gonna propose!" He reached out a hand and helped Axel up. "I've got it all planned out; it's gonna be great!"

Axel stared at the boy in shock. "Are you serious?"

Hayner grinned. "I am. I know we're young or whatever, but I love her."

"Oh. Well, that's... great," he offered, for lack of a better word. He looked over at Namine, who was waiting patiently. "I'm gonna go see what she wants."

He broke away from the track and started over to Namine, passing the other cheerleaders on his way.

"Oh, Kairi, I'm so jealous!"

"You're so lucky, Kai!"

Axel slowed as he passed the other girls, curiosity piqued. Kairi was standing proudly, beaming at the girls showering her with attention.

"How did you wind up with someone as great as Riku?"

Axel wrinkled his nose at the name but didn't speed up his pace just yet.

"So you guys are really going to the Islands together?"

Kairi giggled and flipped a lock of her red hair over her shoulder. "Would I lie to you? He called me last night and said he didn't want us to be separated when we went off to university." She paused for her listeners to voice their 'aww's before continuing. "And we both want to go to Destiny Islands, so we're applying to the island schools together!"

"I wish my boyfriend would do that for me. He's not applying to any of the universities I want..."

"Well," Kairi started, flipping her hair again. "Me and Riku are in love, and that's the most important thing to us -"

"Axel!"

He looked up to see Namine gesturing for him to come over. He'd been so enthralled in the idiocy of the cheerleaders' conversation he hadn't realized just how slow he'd been walking. He jogged the rest of the path to the bleachers and stood in front of Namine.

"Hey, cutie." She grinned up at him.

"Namine, I can't do this anymore. We have to end it." He tried telling himself this had nothing at all to do with Roxas. He tried.

"What? Why?" Namine looked frantic. She grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the bleachers. "What's gotten into you?"

"Namine, I can't do this anymore. Look, Hayner... He loves you. I mean he really loves you. I can't let you ruin that."

"Don't you love me?"

"No. I mean I do, but that's not the point! Hayner's my friend. You guys have been together for years and... Oh my god." His eyes widened in realization. "I slept with you. Oh my God I fucking slept with you!"

Namine gasped, offended, and yanked her hand from his. "Well if you didn't want to have sex with me, you could've said no! I thought we loved each other, that's why I gave myself you!"

"I wasn't thinking, I don't know, but I really regret it. I shouldn't have done that, we shouldn't - we shouldn't even be together! That guy over there," he turned and looked at Hayner who was still jogging around the track, oblivious to what was going on right behind his back. "Hayner really loves you. He's a good guy."

"I know he is."

"No, Namine, I don't think you do know. He wants," he took a second to align his thoughts. "He wants to marry you."

Namine gaped at him, speechless.

"He loves you. And you love him. I'm just the new kid, alright? Go back to him. Marry him."

"But I want to be with you."

Axel stood and backed away from her. "Well I don't want to be with you. Not anymore." Her eyes widened, and he grimaced at the harshness of his own words. "Are you… going to be okay?"

She gawked at him in disbelief and buried her face in her hands.

Axel stared at her, then at the rest of the confused cheerleaders who were now staring. He turned and ran back to the track. As Axel was passing him, Hayner reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Hey, man, what was that about? What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know. She's just stressed about cheerleading. You know how girls can be."

"Should I talk to her?"

"Just give her some space. Listen, I'm gonna go hit the showers and head home early, alright? See you later."

Hayner nodded and returned to his running. Axel walked to the locker room and got everything he needed, heading over to the showers. He stripped down and let the water run over him as he tried to push Namine out of his mind. He knew he was doing the right thing; it wasn't fair to either of them if he let things go on when he was so confused. He turned the water off and smelled something odd, so, wrapping a towel around his waste, he walked to the end of the U shaped shower bend. He didn't know what he had expected to see, but it certainly want what greeted him at the end.

"Roxas?"

Axel ran over and dropped to his knees in front of the blond, shaking his shoulders. The boy was unconscious, and as Axel's eyes lowered he realized that there was a long gash up his arm, and the blood was still flowing freely. There was no way to tell how much blood the blond had lost already, because as it hit the floor it mixed with the water streaming from the shower head. Axel gagged as he realized that he could see just how deep the cut was. He took the towel from his waist and tried wrapped it around Roxas' arm, right above the cut. He stood and ran out of the shower, grabbing another towel as he ran and stuck his head out of the door.

"HELP!"

Axel followed the ambulance to the hospital, along with a few other students' cars. He illegally parked, halfway on the sidewalk, and leapt from the car, tailing the stretcher his best friend rested on.

"Axel."

He turned around to see Roxas' slate-haired friend and struggled with his name.

"It's Zexion." The boy replied, sensing Axel's issue. "Shouldn't someone tell his father?"

Axel nodded and ran back to his car, still in shock.

"Can I come with you?"

"Sure, get in."

They drove in tension-filled silence until Axel turned onto Pinkel Drive. He stopped in front of the giant house and made to get out when Zexion stopped him.

"What are we doing here?"

"You said -"

"Roxas doesn't live here."

Axel shook his head. "Of course he does, I see him here all the time. I bring him here after school."

Zexion looked at the taller boy with a look close to pity. "Roxas doesn't live over here - he works here. He's a housekeeper- he vacuums and cleans windows and stuff," Axel sat dumbstruck and the boy sighed. "Drive over to the warehouse district."

"This is where he lives."

Axel stepped out of his car and made sure he locked it behind him. He looked on in a mixture of awe and disgust as he approached the old, dirty trailer. Garbage and debris were scattered around the premises, and as Axel tried to pull the screen door open, he yelped as it fell off its hinges.

Zexion removed a key from his pocket and unlocked the storm door, pushing past Axel and into the house. He turned around and pressed a finger to his lips, telling Axel to keep quiet.

"Sir?"

Axel took baby steps and followed behind Zexion, wrinkling his nose at the stench of must, smoke, and alcohol. The floor below his feet was barely visible, too covered in papers, wrappers, and beer cans.

Zexion poked his head into each door until he reached the last one. "Sir?"

He pushed the door open and Axel was shocked at what he saw. A man - Axel assumed he was in his forties- was sprawled across the bed, a cigarette hanging out the left side of his mouth, and a beer can in his hand. The t-shirt he was wearing had obviously seen better days, and only a few clean spots in the void of brown gave away that it had once been white. His lower half was clad only in a pair of disgusting looking briefs that had been worn one too many times. Axel kept his distance as Zexion walked closer to the man.

"Sir, can you hear me?"

The man grumbled an incoherent response.

"Okay. Roxas is in the emergency room. You need to clean up and get down there."

The man mumbled again.

"What was that?"

"The hell has that boy done now?"

"He's really hurt, and we need to get down there now."

"He needs to man up." The last part of his statement was obscured by a deep belch.

"Sir! You need to get up. You have to get to the hospital, now."

Axel's eyes widened at the authority in Zexion's voice.

"I'm not going to the hospital. He's grown, he can handle it."

Zexion stomped his foot to control his anger. "You're son may die."

"That's life."

Zexion opened his mouth to scream at the man, but Axel beat him to it.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? That's your son! He's in the hospital, fucking bleeding to death, and you're gonna stay here lying in your own shit?"

The old man looked shocked to see that there was someone else in the room, but his eyes glazed over again in seconds. "That's life. People die."

"We're leaving." Zexion said steadily. He turned and walked out of the room, grabbing Axel's arm and pulling him out with him.

Axel looked over his shoulder at the man, who started giggling into his beer. "Drop dead."

Shit just got real.

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