I don't know why, but there's just something about finals that makes me want to curl up in a ball and sleep until the world ends... *sigh* Well, I'm glad their over now... *shakes head* Okay! That was really random and completely pointless! Oh well.

So, thank you all for reading this strange yet entertaining (I hope) story that my plot bunnies randomly generated one day. Also, thanks to those of you who reviewed. Especially to you, SutaaFox. Every time I read your reviews I can't help but smile knowing that someone out there likes my story :)

Anyway, I'm sorry this is being posted so late. My wonderful father decided I wasn't allowed to do anything today until my room was clean so I had to spend all day doing that... it's all sparkly now though XD

...I think the cleaning supplies have gotten to my head...

Now then, onto chapter 8, titled; "Some people are only alive because it's illegal to kill them." Enjoy! (and please review)

"Roxas, I need your help."

There was noise coming out of my phone, I knew that, but what was being said, I couldn't tell. It might have been because my best friend was mumbling, but I had a feeling it was more the fact that I had just woken up. Five in the morning... what kind of insane idiot calls their friend at five in the morning?

"Well, will you help me?"

His voice was clearer this time.

"I dunno. Maybe. What do you need me to do?" I asked, my voice slurred from exhaustion.

"I need your help, planning a murder."

I hung up. There was no need for me to deal with killing people this early in the morning, in fact, there was no need for me to deal with murder at all. As I lay back down, hoping to catch a bit more sleep before I had to get up for work, the ringtone signaling a call from Hayner sounded from my bedside table, and I groaned.

"Go away!" I muttered into the phone after I answered it.

"Dude, come on. I need your help. It won't be that hard. You don't even know the person and-"

I snapped my phone shut again, but this time, before he could call back, I turned off my lovely communication device and placed it back on my bedside stand. Now the weirdo couldn't bug me. Or so I thought.

For a while, I lay in bed, dozing, but after about an hour, I heard commotion downstairs. Knowing that there was no way my mom was awake yet, I became worried that some guy was breaking into our house. Of course, it could have just been Dad, but I doubted that seeing as he's so quiet...

As silently as I could, I slipped out of bed, and crept towards the door to my room. I opened it, and began to head down the stairs, tensing in case it really way a burglar. However, it wouldn't make sense for a person to try and rob my house. If they knew anything about the Strife family, then they wouldn't dare try anything. After all, we do have about eighty alarm systems, body guards, and watch dogs. Of course, the fact that none of these things went off or were attacking meant that it was either a very good burglar, or someone my family knew.

Sadly, my brain doesn't function well at six in the morning, so I didn't think of these things before hand. Instead, I thought we were all going to be killed.

Needless to say, I felt really stupid when I nearly attacked my best friend as he raided our fridge.

"Dude!" Hayner exclaimed when I was about to maul him with a roll of paper towels, "It's just me, calm down. You aren't one of the people I want to kill!" I blinked, staring at him without realizing what exactly was going on.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?" I asked, still a bit groggy.

"Well, you hung up on me twice, and then turned off your phone, so I came over to talk to you. Brilliant, I know."

This was unbelievable. I had known that Hayner was an idiot, but not to this extent. "Usually, when that happens, it means that the person doesn't want to be talked to. Leave, before I call the cops." I grabbed the door to my fridge and slammed it shut before heading out of the kitchen.

"Oh, you won't call the cops on me. Besides, I didn't do anything wrong."

"Breaking and entering. Yeah, that's not wrong at all."

"I didn't break in! I have a key."

I froze. "What?"

"I didn't tell you? I stole your key one day and made a copy of it in case anything like this happened." It was then I fully woke up. I turned around quickly, and jumped of the stairs, tackling my friend to the floor. The two of us wrestled with each other for a while, but finally, I pulled away with the duplicate key in my hands, a victorious smile on my face.

Hayner stood up, rubbing his arm as he glared at me, and I could tell he was regretting telling me about the key. He should have known that I was going to take it from him seeing as I refused to just let him come over here whenever he wanted.

"Not cool, man. Not cool at all," my friend mumbled to himself. "Anyway, now that you're fully awake, I want to talk to you about-"

"I'm not going to help you kill anyone." My statement was blunt, and calm, which was obviously not the reaction Hayner wanted out of me. Then a thought suddenly occurred to me. "What are you doing up so early on a Sunday? I would have thought you would be dead asleep right now."

Hayner rolled his eyes and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me. "That's why I need your help! My next door neighbor... she never shuts up! I've been awake all night because she's so loud!"

I didn't really want to know what this woman was doing that was so loud, so I cut Hayner off before he could go into greater detail. "You're just going to have to live with it."

Hayner shook his head. "No can do, man. If I have one more sleepless night I might break. That would be very bad."

"Some might say you breaking is a good idea..." I muttered, trying not to let Hayner hear me. Unfortunately, he did, and he wasn't very happy about it.

"You know what. I don't need your help. I'll just call Axel," he said with a smirk, waiting for my reaction. I stared at him with a blank expression, trying desperately to figure out who he was talking about.

Do I know an Axel?

Then it hit me, kind of like a ton of bricks would. I felt rather stupid.

Right! Red!

"Don't call him!" I groaned, knowing that nothing good could come out of Hayner and Red spending time together. "There's no point. He's not going to help you." Of course, the the two of them spending time together wasn't the only reason why I didn't want Hayner to call the red-head. There was also the fact that Riku and Sora were still convinced that Red and I had a secret sex life that we didn't want anyone to know about, and Red found this highly entertaining. I hated them all.

"Wanna bet?" Hayner whipped out his phone, and I tried to grab it, but he back away before I could. He typed something into his phone and held it up, letting the dial tone ring out.

Damn. He put it on speaker.

"Hayner, I'm warning you now. Give me the phone or I will tackle you again." I jumped for the device again, only to be tripped by Hayner, then pinned to the ground by his butt. As I struggled to get up, the teen laughed at me.

"I'd like to see you try."

"This is Axel Lea. Who the hell are you and why the hell are you calling me?"

Red sounded irritated, but not tired, so I figured that either he was just being an ass, or he was busy. To my surprise, however, I found that it was no shock to me that Red was up this early. He just seemed like the kind of guy who rose with the sun.

"Is that anyway to talk to your boss' son's best friend?" Hayner asked, pinning my arm behind my back so I couldn't move.

"Hayner? I haven't talked to you in a while. Why are you calling me?"

"You see, I have a little dilemma, and Roxas here won't help me out."

"Roxie's there?"

"Yep. I'm at his house right now, and have him-"

"Boys, if you're going to kill each other, I would really appreciate it if you do so outside. That carpet is rather expensive."

I groaned at the sound of my mother's voice. This morning was not going well, and didn't seem to be getting any better. As usual. In the past week, I had been pinned to the ground twice by crazy people, and both times people have walked in on that scene, though luckily the second time wasn't as bad as the first, seeing as it was my mom and Hayner, and not Riku, Sora, and Red involved.

"Oh, hello Mrs. Strife. Nice to see you this morning." Hayner greeted my mom with a nod before turning back to the phone. "So, Axel, think you can help me out?"

"No, please just hang up the phone, Hayner." I groaned, trying to reach for the phone again, ignoring the sharp pain that came with moving.

"Roxas, be nice," Mom said as she stepped around Hayner and me. "Mr. Lea is a nice person, and you should be more civil towards him." She glared at me after saying this, obviously referring to a few days ago. Dad had told her that I hadn't "accompanied" Red to the "hospital." Luckily, they weren't aware that I was the one who punched Red so...

"Thank you, Tifa. I've been trying to tell Roxie that since we first met." Mom smiled at the phone before walking into the kitchen. "I'll help you out Hayner. Why don't I come to Roxie's house and we can talk there."

Shit!

I began to struggle again, but to no avail.

Right... I need to go to the gym.

"Okay. That sounds like a plan. See ya soon." Hayner snapped the phone shut and smirked down at me. "There's no way you're getting out of this now."

They tied me to a chair.

They actually tied me to a chair.

Why did they tie me to a chair?

I want to know that myself.

I would have complied, eventually. I mean, there's nothing wrong with just plotting someone's death, right? As long as we never actually try to kill the woman, we won't get in trouble. I hope.

"So, she lives next door to you, and she's really loud," Red mused, snickering slightly, "That's wonderful. Don't you agree, Roxie?"

"Shut up." I muttered, struggling against the rope that was binding me to the kitchen chair. It was surprising how well my best friend and worst nightmare worked together, but more so than that, how well Red could tie knots. "And untie me! I'm not going to run! I don't trust the two of you together in my house."

Red and Hayner laughed. "This is your parent's house, dude, and they trust both of us." Hayner said, tapping the table with his pencil.

"Yeah. Sure they do." The rope was very uncomfortable. I don't even know where it came from. Last time I checked, there was no rope in my house. Of course, I figured that Red could have brought it with him, but why he would do that….

"Okay, so we're ignoring Roxie's irritation and continuing with this murder plan. What are you thinking?"

"You guys, we are not going to talk about this. Untie me, now!" I growled, struggling again. "Why did you tie me up anyway?"

"Because, dear Roxie, I'm afraid you're going to punch me in the face again." Red leaned across the table with his long arm and patted me on the head. Hayner let out a laugh, and shifted so that he faced me next to him.

"You punched him in the face? I'm impressed." I grumbled, not really wanting to think about the events that led up to me punching my coworker in the nose, but unfortunately, I had to, because neither Hayner, nor Red seemed to want to just drop the subject. "So, what happened to make you do that?"

"Oh nothing," Red smirked at me, "I just happened to be on top of Roxie here when Riku and Sora opened the door to the office."

Oh how I wanted to kill Red at that point.

Hayner burst into laughter, and I thought he was going to die because of lack of air. "That sounds totally wrong. I'm guessing that something else happened before that, but Roxas, that makes you sound so ga-"

"Don't say it!"

Killing Hayner sounded like a good idea as well. Maybe the plan they come up with for that woman could be used against them... Of course, that would mean that I would end up going to jail again, and truthfully, that idea was more scary that people thinking I'm gay. Which I'm not. But still.

"So, anyway, back to business..." Red began again, but I wasn't going to let them talk.

"You know what, we should go outside to talk about this. It's August, which means it's going to start getting cold soon, so we should spend as much time outdoors as possible." There was really no point in me saying this. There was no way they were going to agree to it. But I figured that anything I said would delay this stupid conversation a bit more, so it wasn't completely pointless. Maybe.

"I don't know, it looks like it's about to rain." Hayner leaned back in his chair, glancing out the dining room window. "Besides, that would mean we have to untie you. And that would be bad news for Axel, right?" We both turned towards the red-head (well, my head turned) to see what his reaction would be, but strangely, he was just staring out the window.

"I hate the rain," he muttered suddenly.

Wait a second. He hates something? I never would have guessed! This would be perfect. I could so use this against him. Of course, I couldn't do anything while being tied to a chair!

"You do? Well to each their own I guess," Hayner said, "Now, stop interrupting us, Roxie, we have business to attend to, and if you aren't gong to help, then shut up," he added with a sneer. I growled when he called me "Roxie," but I said nothing, knowing that nothing I said would distract these two again.

"Now then, what do you think would be the best way to deal with this woman?"

"Well, do you have a gun?"

"Nope. My dads are against guns, and despite the fact I don't live with them anymore, I still don't have any."

"Wait… dads? Plural? You have two dads?"

"Yep. I was adopted by them when I was two."

"Oh. Cool. Anyway, there could also be poison."
"Nah. Too traceable."

"Not necessarily."

"No. Trust me. They'll know."

"Well shooting the woman wouldn't be any better."

"…Very true…"

"But it's difficult to get your hands on the proper amount of poison so…"

"I guess. Maybe fire would be best! We could make it look like an accident."

I would have thought that by this point, I would have gotten tired of hearing the two idiots talk about this, but to my surprise, I was actually quite curious. Maybe the two of them were starting to rub their idiocy off on me, but talking about killing a woman just seemed exciting. Of course, I knew they would never actually act on it, so I guess that made it a bit better, but still. Who would have known that me, Roxas Strife, would be interesting in this kind of crap.

"You know, she's a woman, right?"

Both of the weirdos sitting at my kitchen table turned to look at me with incredulous looks on their faces. Rolling my eyes, I continued with my sentence;

"She probably has a ton of sleeping pills, and what not. Why not just make it look like suicide?"

Once again, there was silence. Finally, Hayner stood up and exclaimed, "Hell yes! We got him!"

The three of us started laughing, even though I had trouble due to the rope. I really hoped that they would untie me now.

It was late in the evening now, and Red, Hayner, and I were sitting in the den, watching some random show on TV. After about three, we had given up on planning that strange woman's murder, and instead decided that it would be easier for Hayner to deal with it, especially since he was moving to another city in less than a months time.

"Hey, Roxie, I think your friend fell asleep." I turned towards the couch where Hayner had collapsed on, and smiled. I wasn't surprised that he was asleep, seeing as he hadn't gotten any in the past three days.

"He does that sometimes. Just leave him be," I replied, laying down on the couch I was sitting on. "When are you leaving?"

"Well, aren't you nice," Red snorted, copying my movement. "I'll leave when I feel like it."

"How about you leave when I tell you to."

"Sorry, no can do."

The two of us glared at each other for a second before bursting into laughter. I was beginning to think that Red wasn't actually that bad of a guy. He just had a strange attitude, and way of living life. It was kind of refreshing, though, to see how different our lives have been.

"You know, you're a lot nicer to me now," Red managed to say after a while. "Why is that?"

I smiled to myself, amused that I had just been thinking about that same thing, only seconds before Red had asked that question.

"Who knows."

"Well, I would think you would be even meaner to me, seeing as I got in in trouble with your father. Plus Riku and Sora ar-"

"Well, if you bring those tho things up, I'm definitely not going to be nice to you."

Red grinned and sat up again. "You know, I keep having this strange feeling you actually like me, and that this hatred of your is just a cover because you're embarrassed." I sat up as well and threw a pillow at him.

"In your dreams," I shot back as he dodged the pillow, laughing.

"If only you knew."

I thought that's what I heard him say, but he was mumbling, so I couldn't exactly tell. He could have said something else, like, like, oh, I don't know. It doesn't matter anyway.

"So, what do you want to watch next?" Red asked, laying back down again. "Everything we've watched has been so boring. Hayner has such bad taste."

"Yeah, I know. That's why I didn't want to give him the remote." I reached towards the table to grab the remote and switched the channel. What was on was a movie that I hadn't seen in a while, but loved to watch, so I kept the channel there. I heard Red laugh.

"Man! I loved watching this movie when I was younger. This is going to be awesome."

It was then I realized something.

Some people are only alive because it's illegal to kill them.

Red wasn't one of those people.

Le gasp! What's this? Roxas is starting to warm up to Axel? O.O Oh dear, this is going to be interesting. XD

Well, I have some sad news... I'm not going to post anything else until after the New Year... :'( Horrifying, I know... but I need to relax a bit, loosen up, you know? Besides, chapter 15 is going to take me a while to write (that's right, I have up to chapter 14 written), and I want to get ahead some more... *sigh* But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review, and have a wonderful holiday and New Years :)

~Sunechirei