Sorry for the delay. Second semester, blah blah, midterms, blah blah, spring break, blah blah. Ignore my excuses, they aren't very good. Sorry, folks.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, not even good time-management skills.

Mrs. Sinclair sighed as she saved her page with a bookmark and placed it on the cushion beside her. She walked to the door, checking her hair in the mirror as she went.

"Namine?"

The aforementioned blonde shuffled her feet nervously and twisted her fingers together. "Hi, Mrs. Sinclair. Is Axel home?"

The woman sighed. "Namine, I don't think he'd want to see you… especially after the way you behaved at the restaurant after graduation."

Namine's face was strained as she pushed her hair behind her ear. "I'm very sorry about that, Mrs. Sinclair. I just need to talk to him, just for five minutes. Please?"

"Fine, he's in his room. Five minutes." She sighed again as the small girl walked past her to her son's room. "Life is so hard when you're responsible for a redhead." She mumbled to herself. "Maybe I should have listened when his mother told me that."

"Namine, there was a time when I wanted to spend my whole life with you."

She placed a hand over his hopefully, but he took his away. "Was. That's over."

Tears pooled in her eyes. "Hayner, please… I love you." She reached out for him again but he avoided her. "We can get back together and we can forget all of this ever happened. If you can forgive me, I can forgive the Olette thing-"

Hayner cut her off with a raised hand and looked out across the field. "I don't need to be forgiven. You do. And no, I can't forgive you. You went behind my back for months."

"I'm sorry!"

He continued on, ignoring her. "And you know, I might have been able to forgive all of that, Nam." He turned to her, face neutral but pain visible in his eyes. "But then you went and slept with him. And that's not… I can't forgive that."

"Hayner-"

"And the part that I just don't understand is why? Why, Namine? We were perfect for each other. We made it last longer than anyone else we knew. I cared about you. I respected you. I loved you, Namine."

Namine's face was wet with tears; she didn't bother wiping them away. She'd ruined everything. "I love you, Hayner. I don't know what else to do."

He plowed on, growing angrier. "I was so wrong about you. I thought you were perfect." He scoffed. "If I'd known you were so easy, I wouldn't have bothered waiting for you. You were such a waste of my time. And to think I almost married you."

"Hayner, please, think about this!" She beseeched him.

"I thought about it, Namine. While you were in Axel's bed? I thought about it."

She stood up, finally angered. "Listen, Hayner, if this is just about sex, I will sleep with you right here on these bleachers!"

Hayner stood slowly. "That's the problem right there." He turned away from her. "Who are you? The Namine I knew never would have said that. You're a stranger. I can't forgive a stranger."

Namine half-heartedly reached a hand out before letting it fall to her side to dangle. "I-"

"And I sure can't love a stranger. I can't love you. Not anymore."

Namine opened Axel's door, expecting to see him cleaning his leather jacket. He did that a lot. Or maybe he'd be packing for college. That would make sense. What she did not expect to see was Axel's head buried in Roxas' lap.

"Oh my god." She quickly closed the door and pressed her back against it. "Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew."

"Was that-"

Axel removed his mouth but kept his hand moving. "Namine."

"Should we-"

"Nope. She can wait." And he dove back in, finishing Roxas off with a few more deep sucks. He pulled a face when Roxas came in his mouth, but swallowed nonetheless. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and grinned. "So, how was that?"

Roxas blushed. It took a lot of convincing on Axel's part for him to agree to this. He wasn't sure he'd be ready for anything sexual after what happened with Riku, but that had actually been – "Amazing, Ax."

"Good." He crawled up the bed and pushed Roxas over so he could lay next to him. "That was my first time doing that."

Roxas turned to him. "Really?"

"Yup." He draped an arm lazily over Roxas' hip.

"Can I ask you something?"

Axel took note of the way Roxas' eyes were focused intently on anywhere but his eyes. He slowly moved his hand up to run through the blond hair. "What is it?"

"Are you – Have you ever, you know, like, been with another boy before? Before me?"

Axel chuckled. "Nope. Is that all?"

"Yeah, it's just… so why are you with me?"

Axel stilled his hand in Roxas' hair and narrowed his eyes. "Are you doubting me?"

"No, I just-"

"Good. Because I really like you, Roxy." Axel closed his eyes and listened hard before picking up the repetition of 'ew' coming from beyond the door. "You might want to pull your pants up, Rox." He waited for him to do just that before calling Namine in.

She walked through the door with one hand over her eyes. "Are you guys still…?"

"No." Axel answered. Roxas burrowed into his side and he tightened his arm around him.

She looked at them and scowled. "Ew. I'm sorry," she rushed, before Axel kicked her out. "Axel, I need to talk to you."

"Speak."

"In private?"

"No."

Roxas smiled into Axel's side.

Namine walked over to Axel's dresser and lifted herself onto it. "Fine. You really screwed me over, Axel."

Axel sighed. "How do you figure?"

"You told Hayner! How could you? When you dumped me, you said you wanted me to stay with him. You said you wanted me to marry him. And then you told him!"

"You know what, Namine? Oh well. I'm sorry," he said insincerely. "You can't be a bitch and then call in favors."

"I'm sorry I called you a fag, okay? I was just surprised. It's all his fault, anyway." She said, pointing at Roxas.

Axel's face hardened. "Leave him out of this."

"No." She sighed. "I need to talk to you, Axel. Alone."

Axel poised his mouth to tell her no again when Roxas chimed in. "I need to shower before I smell like this forever. Fifteen minutes, tops." He unwound himself from Axel and as he got off the bed, Axel pulled him back for a quick kiss. He closed the door behind him.

"Why the hell would you bring Roxas into your bullshit?"

Namine didn't waste any time. "Roxas was raped."

Axel stared at her for a long time before he shook his head. "No he wasn't."

"Axel," she said as she hopped to the ground and walked over to where he was sitting on the bed. "He was raped. More than once."

"Why are you saying that?" Fury and distress flashed in his eyes. "What's wrong with you? Do you think making up shit like that is going to help you?"

"Roxas changes people! He changed you and he changed Riku! I'm not making it up! Riku told me, and he told me not to tell, so I kept quiet. But now that I don't have a secret, I don't see why I have to keep his. So I thought you should know, now that you two are… together."

Axel stood slowly and turned to stare at the picture of him and the blond over his bed. "Riku?" He remembered all those months ago when he had that argument with Roxas after he asked what that mark on his neck was. He remembered all the times he saw Roxas staring at Riku in fear. When he walked in on Riku in Roxas' hospital room – what the fuck had he done? "Riku raped…" He closed his eyes and tried to steady his breathing. "He raped Roxas? My Roxas? My best friend? My… Fuck." He collapsed on the bed and put his head in his hands. "Shit."

Namine stood next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm really sorry."

Axel lowered his hands and looked up at her, fire in his eyes. "You're sorry? Sorry? You knew! You knew it was happening, and you didn't tell me! You didn't tell anyone!"

She snatched her hand back. "If I told anyone, he was going to tell people about us."

Axel stood and ran a hand through his spikes. "So what? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"I thought my life would be over if anyone found out. And look at that - I was right. So I didn't tell."

"You bitch." He grabbed her arm and dragged her through his house to the front door, ignoring his mother's confusion, and threw Namine out the front door. "If I ever see you again…" And he slammed the door in her face.

Mrs. Sinclair peeked over the pages of her novel. "I take it you two didn't have a nice talk?"

Axel sat on his bed with his hands in his lap and stared at the blanket on his bed. Some of the threads were unraveling. Some were frayed. Roxas was raped. The patch that his mother had sewn on when he was twelve was coming off. The blanket was too old, and needed to be replaced. Roxas was raped.

"Namine's gone?"

Axel looked up at Roxas and fought to hold back the anger building up inside of him and the tears threatening to fall. "Yeah, I kicked her out." Roxas' hair was wet and drooping over his shoulders. His knuckles were white as his clenched hand tightly held the towel wrapped around his waist. His entire torso was covered in a blush. A smile spread across his face as he walked to gather his clothes from the closet. "I'll just be somewhere else while you change."

Axel closed the door behind him as he left through it and went to the bathroom that Roxas just vacated. Splashing water over his face, he wondered how long Roxas' abuse had been going on, and why he'd kept it a secret from everyone, including Axel. As he stared at his reflection his eyebrows seemed to lower on their own until his face morphed into the embodiment of anger and disgust. Riku had done this. The bastard.

"What did Namine say?"

Axel jumped in surprise and looked to the doorway where a fully dressed Roxas had just appeared. "She was just whining about her life, nothing special."

Roxas walked back to the bedroom and Axel followed. "But… she said something was my fault… I didn't do anything wrong, right? You'd tell me, right?"

"Yeah," he said, wrapping the blond in an embrace. "I'd tell you. Just like you… you tell me everything, too, right?"

Roxas stiffened in his arms and Axel, mentally cursing, picked up on it. "Yeah, everything."

Axel led them to the bed and sat back on the pillows, bringing Roxas to rest in his arms. "Roxas," he started. How was he going to bring this up without ruining everything? "Uh, I need to ask you a question. And I need the truth, yeah?"

Roxas settled back in Axel's arms. "Of course."

"Why did you… why'd you try to kill yourself?"

The air caught in Roxas' throat and he struggled to breath. He removed himself from Axel's hold and scrambled to the edge of the bed. What was he supposed to tell him? He couldn't tell him about Riku, he couldn't. But he'd been hiding it for so long and there was a part of him that wanted to release the secret and get everything off his chest. But Axel would be disgusted, there's no way he'd still want to be with someone who'd been constantly raped. The best answer Roxas could ever think of under so much pressure was, "I don't know."

Axel leveled a look at the blond. "Roxas."

"I don't… I don't want to tell you."

"Rox, you can tell me anything." He said, reaching out to link hands with the boy. Please just tell me she was lying. "Please, Rox."

He pulled his hand away from the redhead and crossed his arms over his chest protectively. "I can't. You'll think I'm pathetic… You'll think I'm dirty." Roxas pulled his knees to his chest as tears started pooling in his eyes. "And you'll be right."

"Kid, please don't do that. Roxas, stop crying, please." He approached the blond and wiped the tears from his cheeks, then sat back on his heels.

"You'll be right, because I am dirty, and pathetic, and disgusting, and weak, and-"

"But you're not!"

"But I was raped!" There it was; out in the open and Roxas wished on everything good that he could take it back, but it was too late. "I was raped, Axel, over and over and over again! And I never told anyone because I was too scared and Riku said that if I told he'd kill me. So I just let him rape me, and I didn't even try to stop him!" He tried in vain to wipe at the tears pouring down his face but they kept regenerating. "I just let it happen, Axel. It's all my fault."

"It's not your fault, Roxas."

Roxas cocked his head to the side and stared at the redhead through his tears. "She knew, didn't she? She knew! And she told you! You knew! Why did you make me tell you if you already knew? You bastard!" Roxas lunged at Axel and punched him in the chest repeatedly.

"Roxas, stop!" He grabbed the pale wrists and flipped them so that he was on top of Roxas. He pinned Roxas' arms down with his knees and then put his own hands up in a gesture of peace. "Roxas, I'm not the enemy here, okay?" Roxas' sobs didn't ebb and Axel felt misery wash over him. "I'm sorry, Roxy," he said as he backed off of the blond. "She told me, but I thought she was making it up to get back at us. Roxas, why didn't you tell me earlier? We could've stopped it."

"Because I'm weak and ashamed... And now you don't want anything to do with me."

"Roxas," grabbing the boy's jaw and making him look into his eyes, "you aren't disgusting. Riku, the sick fuck who raped you, is disgusting." He pulled him into his arms. "And I'm not going anywhere, alright Roxas? I care about you too fucking much, alright? I love you, Rox."

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