Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Disney, or Square Enix.

It's the end of another hot summer day as the sun sets over Twilight Town. Cheers and grunts can be heard from the sandlot as two rivals bash foam bats against each other to collect more of the opponents orbs than the other. Seconds tick away until the match finally ends, and a dirty blond celebrates his victory, having collected the orb just in time to break the tie.

"You did it!" A brunette yells as she hugs the winner.

"Way to go!" His other friend, a slightly pudgy boy, says with a high-five.

A boy with spiked platinum blond hair steps up to the victor and smiles. "You were amazing, Hayner. You sure showed Seifer."

The mentioned loser groans, "Whatever, it was luck. I'll get you next time, Lamer." Seifer scoffs and wipes sweat from the scar trailing between his eyebrows as he heads back to Fuu and Rai.

Hayner grins proudly and lifts his arms to flex. "I bet I was pretty impressive, huh, Roxas?"

The blond nods, "Yeah, but probably not to any girls, hotshot."

"Hey, I'm a girl!" Olette objects.

"You don't count." Pence replies.

Hayner shrugs, and turns his hazel eyes to Roxas. "That's alright. As long as I impressed you." He stutters when he realizes how he must have sounded. "..Y-you guys. As long as I impressed you guys."

Roxas smiles as Hayner changes the subject to getting ice cream to end the day, both wondering if the other caught that one moment.

Roxas.

"Yeah, Hayner?" He looks to his best friend.

Roxas.

Hayner just shrugs, and holds out a blue popsicle, Sea Salt flavor. Roxas reaches forward to take it, but-

Roxas!

"W-wah, I," Roxas shoots up, finding himself looking around in confusion once again.

"Wow, am I really that boring?" Axel asks, looking at Roxas in annoyance.

"No, I just.." Roxas sighs. "I'm just tired. I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"It looked like you were daydreaming, actually."

"Yeah, I was...I was thinking about Hayner, the boy you met at the store. He's my best friend. Well, not anymore. So I should just forget him, right?" Roxas runs his hand through his spikes and sighs as he looks around. "Where are we?"

"I had to pull over." Axel lets his hands fall from the steering wheel and onto his lap. "Not anymore?"

Roxas looks to Axel and nods, "We just drifted."

"Okay," Axel studies Roxas' face for a second, and continues, "So this place sells ice cream, I thought maybe you'd want some and just try to get your head straight."

"Oh.." Roxas hesitates for a moment but agrees, wondering if Axel knew the place he took him was the same one he'd go to with Hayner and the others.

But of course he wouldn't.

(...)

"So what's bugging you? You're more quiet than usual." Axel asks after a few minutes of sitting on the trunk of his car in silence.

"Nothing, I'm always this quiet." Roxas replies.

"Yeah, but you don't usually look this glum."

"It's nothing. Thanks for the ice cream."

"No problem." Axel turns his attention to his ice cream but only for a few seconds, until he asks, "How'd you two drift away?"

Roxas sighs. "Don't you think that's a bit personal to ask an employee?"

"True, but I'm not your boss right now. I'm a concerned friend who gave you a ride for an errand and then decided to treat you to ice cream."

"Friend?"

"Yeah. Aren't we?"

"I guess so.." Roxas fiddles with his bare popsicle stick. "Um, I just grew up more quickly. I had more responsibilities that needed more of my time...I never got to explain it to him, to any of my friends, actually, not even my girlfriend. I just stopped meeting up with them, stopped talking to them, and I guess they eventually understood that I had other things that came before them. So my girlfriend broke up with me. My friends still invited me places, but they weren't as disappointed when I didn't show. I began to drift.." He glances at Axel who stares back with an emotionless expression, waiting until he's finished. "I chose family before my friends. It's the right choice, but I still miss them sometimes. I miss spending long summer days with them, playing Struggle, eating ice cream at the end of the day. I miss being a kid." He doesn't realize that he'd been bending the stick until it snaps in his grip. "But I know...in the end, it'll be worth it."

"I hope so." Axel mutters.

"Yeah? Must've been easier for you though, huh? Or do you have some backstory to why you're here too?"

"I do, actually. But that's for another night, wouldn't you agree?" Axel slides off of the trunk and steps in front of Roxas. Extending a hand, he continues, "For tonight, though, let us return to the ball."

"The gay ball with gay princes and gay butlers."

"Exactly."

Roxas shakes his head and chuckles as he takes the redhead's hand. "Anything for the munny."

A/N:

I'm sorry that I used the daydream thing twice, but Roxas is just really stressed and tired, okay? Plus it was to annoy Axel.

Thank you for reading this. Thank you for your loyalty. Thank you for the reviews. And thank you for any new readers.