Author's Notes: Ho man. So. I read this manga, right? "Man's Best Friend (Inu Mo Arukeba)" by Kazusa Takashima? Um, yeah. Pretty much the most ME manga ever of all time. It's about a boy who finds this dog and – SURPRISE! – it turns out the dog can turn into a human and molest the heck out of him. I approve. I'm not a furry, I'm really not. But the concept was just oh-so-appealing to me! I love dogs. I love yaoi. If the two can mix together without crossing the line into bestiality, I'm SO down for it! XD Anyways, have been working on this story for… oh gosh, months and months and months. It's been slow going, but finally it is FINISHED! I originally intended it to be a oneshot, but it evolved into one LONG mofo, so I am cutting it into three parts.

The disclaimer! I don't own Axel or Roxas, or anything else Kingdom Hearts related. I don't really even fully own the plot to this story either, seeing as it's based off a manga I read. I just altered it a bit and got it down in fanfiction form. All I really own is my dog, and like hell you're getting your filthy paws on ownership of her. XD But so yeah… don't sue me, please.

Pairings: Axel/Roxas or AkuRoku, whichever you wish to call it. All amounts to the same thing.

Summary: Adopting a new pet is always an undertaking, but when Roxas picks up a stray dog one seemingly normal summer day, he gets himself into a lot more than he bargained for. AU Axel/Roxas

Warnings: Eventual Yaoi/BoyxBoy situations, so if you're not down with that, this story definitely isn't down with you. XD Overall strangeness runs rampant throughout. And I suppose this could be considered a tiddly-tad yiffy… But no furry themes are really intended, so yeah. Just puttin' it out there.

Other stuff: Just in case anyone else is a dork like me and wants to know the breed of dog featured prominently in this story… he's a red merle Border Collie mix of some sort. XD Just so ya know.

.o.O.o.

Man's Best Friend

(Inu Mo Arukeba)

.o.O.o.

Walking back home one sunny day after a set of long work hours, Roxas made his way down the street, shoving his way through the crowd and wanting nothing more than to just get home and crash on his couch, flip on the television and rot his brain with mindless cartoons. It had been a long day at his summer job, people coming and going and demanding service without so much as a parting 'thank you' in return. Roxas wasn't too fond of his job, to say the least, but he really had no choice in the matter – his parents were gone all summer on some sort of business trip or whatever, and he needed some way to earn himself money for food and other such necessities while he was home alone.

Stopping at a street corner as the 'Don't Walk' signal flashed, Roxas looked to the side, trying to find something interesting to look at while he waited for this endless red light to turn green once again so that he could cross the street. And his eyes were not disappointed as they settled on the furry form of some sort of animal ('A dog?' Roxas guessed, looking closely. 'Yeah, that looks like a dog.') lying off to the side of the sidewalk, being completely ignored by everyone who passed by. The rusty red and white fur was tangled and slightly matted, leading Roxas to believe the dog was a street mutt, and probably an injured one at that, judging by the way it was just laying there in the middle everything; normally a street dog like this would run away with its tail between its legs if it ever got caught in the midst of so many people.

Suddenly the light turned green and the mass of people waiting to cross the street surged forward. Roxas turned his attention back to the road, taking one step forward before pausing and looking back. The dog was still just… laying there. He knew it was none of his business and that he shouldn't get involved other than to maybe call the pound, but for some reason Roxas found himself turning away from the street and walking off in the opposite direction.

Roxas had never been much of an 'animal person', but even he couldn't help but feel sorry for the scrawny, half-starved and left for dead dog that was sprawled out on the sidewalk in front of him. The ruffed and matted fur, coupled with various tears in the ears and patches of missing fur clearly confirmed the blonde's beliefs that it was a stray. Nevertheless, Roxas looked from side to side to see if there was some sort of an owner anywhere nearby, but finding none he carefully approached the animal, a little wary because of all the programs he had seen on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet where tricky beasts only pretended to be injured to lure in their prey.

"Uh… hey girl?" Roxas called out from a few feet away, crouching down and making little chirruping noises at the dog to attract it's attention. "You alive?" The dog made no movement, however, and Roxas began to worry that it may not, in fact, be alive.

Scooting a little closer, Roxas found that the animal was breathing a little, and he reached out, placing a gentle hand on it's side and patting the mottled red and white fur. "Hey there girl…" He whispered, starting to feel extremely bad for the poor thing, despite his better judgment. ' Don't get attached!' He had been told, growing up. 'All animals will ever do is run away or die on you. And shed all over your nice furniture.'

However, Roxas had no nice furniture of his own to worry about, and he was worried that if he didn't do something to help this poor animal that it would be left to die out on the cold, heartless streets like the stray it was.

Looking it over for any injuries and finding none, he scooped the creature up into his arms. Whoofa, it smelled like wet dog. …Which wasn't very surprising, actually. It wasn't very heavy despite the fact that it was a good sized dog – it reminded Roxas of the limber herding dogs he'd seen in an agility contest one time at a park. Heading back over to the street corner, Roxas patiently waited for the light to turn green again, adjusting the dog more comfortably in his arms and ignoring the rude and questioning looks other pedestrians were sending his way.

.x.X.x.

Squirming uncomfortably, Axel weakly fidgeted around, not knowing what was holding him captive. The last thing he could remember was waiting near a street corner to catch a glimpse of the cute blonde boy he saw walking to and from work every day. He didn't really have anything better to do, really – life as a street dog provided limited opportunities for a wide range of activities to participate in. He spent most of his days chasing cats down alleyways and rooting around in garbage cans for his daily meals. That, along with keeping out of the way of dog catchers and other unfriendly humans, was pretty much it. Well, until a few weeks ago when he had been in the middle of sniffing out a nice fat rat and he had spotted the blonde crossing the street, heading right towards him.

Now normally Axel didn't pay any special attention to humans unless they were aiming a kick at him, or doing something that involved food. However, with the appearance of said blonde human, Axel was forced to re-evaluate his entire look on the species. Anything that could produce something this perfect and wonderfully, adorably cute couldn't be all bad.

As the blonde had passed by that day, Axel had taken a tentative sniff from his hiding place behind a conveniently placed sidewalk planter-box. And boy, did that cute little blonde human smell good! Like fabric softener and shampoo and… ice cream. (Axel was hungry. He hadn't eaten yet that day.) He was young and slightly pouty and Axel wanted nothing more than to run right over there to him, knock him flat on the ground, and lick his face. Of course he didn't, but he sure wanted to. Even Axel realized that this course of action – while accepted as playful and cute from a household pet – would most certainly be met with anger and possible violence if attempted by a random, dirty dog on the street.

All too soon the blonde had passed him by, and Axel was left with a feeling of… emptiness. Whining quietly to himself as he watched the blonde walk away, Axel looked after him until the human turned a corner, at which point he trotted off to continue his quest for a meal. However, every day after that he would wait for the cute blonde human, watching as he walked past Axel's hiding spot as he went to and from work every day except for the weekends. Axel had never been very fond of the weekends; the weekends meant more people running about the town and making it harder for him to get around unnoticed, and now the weekends meant no cute little blonde boy.

That Sunday Axel had stayed up all night thinking about that blonde human boy, and how much he loved him and wished he could be a human too, just for the fact that he could then be with that blonde boy and tell him he loved him and they could spend the rest of their lives together.

But Axel was a dog. Not just a dog, but a stray dog, the lowest of the low. There was no way that human boy would ever love Axel the way Axel loved him. Not as a dog.

So Axel prayed to any and every god he could think of that might care to listen to a little dog's prayers that one day he could be a human too, so that the cute blonde human boy would fall in love with him too.

The next morning Axel waited patiently for the little blonde human boy to walk past him on his way to work, hiding out behind the same planter as he had been hiding behind the first time he saw him. He waited and waited and waited and waited and… was it just him or was hotter than usual out today? He probably ought to go drink out of a fountain or something… but no! He had to wait to see the blonde human boy! So he waited some more and… wow, he was feeling a little lightheaded… In fact, he really wasn't sure how much longer he could even stand up…. Maybe it would be better if he just slowly laid down and…

And that was the last thing Axel could remember. Now he found himself being… held? And… carried somewhere? It certainly seemed like it. But who on earth would bother to hold him? Unless… Oh no! Trying to look at who it might be, he found that the way he was being held, all he could see was the sidewalk passing slowly by. Oh no, oh no, oh no… Axel renewed his struggles tenfold, weakly writhing in his captive hold, suddenly desperate to get away. The dog catchers had gotten him and they were taking him away to the Bad Place and he was never going to be free again, or maybe even alive again and…

"Hey, stop moving around or I'm gonna drop you."

Wait… wait, Axel knew that voice… Swiveling his head around as much as he could, given his position, Axel suddenly found himself looking up into a pair of the clearest blue eyes he had ever seen, on a young human boy who looked very familiar.

"Heh, so you are alive." The blonde chuckled. "I was starting to wonder there, for a while."

'Oh. My. GOD!'

He was being carried by the blonde human boy… The same blonde human boy he'd be watching for the past couple weeks, the same blonde human boy who he had fallen in love with, the same blonde human boy who he had prayed to the gods for, the same blonde human boy who –

"My name's Roxas…."

ROXAS! The blonde human boy had a name! Axel was on the verge of wetting himself in his excitement. Or passing out again. Or something.

"…and I'm going to be taking you home with me to get you cleaned up, okay?"

Home… he was being taken to the kid's home. Squirming again, but this time to turn himself over so that he could better admire the love-of-his-life-turned savior, Axel wagged his tail frantically and whined rather annoyingly, having no other way to convey his absolutely ecstatic state. He was feeling lightheaded again, but this time in the good sense. His entire body was tingling and… whoa… okay, that was some extremely intense tingling there for a second… Like as if his body was trying to crawl off of him in it's excitement or something… weird.

In the momentary distraction of trying to figure out what had been going on, Axel had calmed down somewhat and stopped wiggling around, allowing Roxas to more easily hold on to him. The rest of the short journey to Roxas's home passed with little incidence, as Axel was content to simply stare up at Roxas and drool, and Roxas was content to simply continue carting the dog around, oblivious to it's odd behaviour.

Eventually they arrived at Roxas's front porch and Roxas tried awkwardly shifting the dog to his hip in order to fish his keys out of his pocket, but discovered it was rather impossible to do so. "Hey girl, I'm gonna have to set you down for a second, okay? Don't run away."

Vaguely, Axel registered that Roxas had just called him a girl, but found that he really didn't care at the moment. Roxas could think he was a three-headed alien hermaphrodite for all Axel cared, as long as it would get him in the boy's house. And 'Don't run away'? What did this kid take him for? The only place Axel was going to be running was inside the house, not away from it.

Carefully placing Axel down on the porch and suspiciously looking at the dog as if he still suspected 'her' to run off, Roxas shoved a hand in his pocket ( 'His hand is in his pants! ROXAS'S HAND IS IN HIS PANTS!' Axel's mind shouted.), grabbing his keys and thrusting them in the door-lock. Looking back down, Roxas found the dog looking right back up at him, a doggish smile nearly splitting his face in half as he weakly attempted to wag his tail, wobbling a little on unsteady legs.

"I bet you're pretty exhausted." Roxas surmised, pulling the keys out of the lock and turning the doorknob. "You were passed out when I found you, you're probably hungry and tired. I'll see what I can dig up for you."

'Pinch me, I'm dreaming' Axel thought in a near swoon as Roxas picked him back up, kicking the door shut behind him and heading for what looked like the kitchen. 'I'm in his house, he's carrying me to FOOD.'

Setting Axel down again, Roxas rummaged around in some cupboards, eventually dragging a beat up mixing bowl out, which he placed on the floor. "Don't tell Mom that's I'm using this to feed you in." he commented, more to himself than Axel. "She'd have a fit if she knew."

'Breaking the rules for me – You rogue!' Axel endearingly chastised in his mind as Roxas pulled the refrigerator open and looked through it's contents, trying to figure out what to feed a dog. Eventually settling on some sandwich meat, he tossed the packet on the counter, and Axel eyed it hungrily. Roxas moved the cupboards next, pulling out a box of cereal, dry noodles and some goldfish crackers. Dumping the assortment of foods into the bowl, the blonde nudged it towards Axel, grinning sheepishly.

"Uh… there you go… I don't really know what dogs eat, and I haven't really gone shopping for a while so…"

But Axel was already devouring the disgustingly delicious mixed meal his love had oh-so-generously prepared for him, snarfing it down as if he hadn't had a decent meal in days… Which he hadn't, actually. Moving to the sink, Roxas filled up a pan with some water and set it next to Axel's mixing-bowl-turned-dog-dish, curiously watching Axel practically inhale the food like some dog/vacuum cleaner hybrid.

Roxas found that it was kind of nice watching the animal messily digging into the food he had put together, bowl clattering all over the floor with the force of the lunges Axel was taking at it… it made him feel like he had done something good, something that someone else appreciated. It was a satisfying kind of feeling, and he rather liked it. Vaguely he wondered if this was where the phrase "You can't help others without helping yourself!" had come from… Well, it probably wasn't derived from a situation exactly like this, that would be a bit weird… but something to the same effect.

With a contented sigh, Axel finished his meal, stomach full and heart nearly bursting with happiness. This had to be the best day ever in the history of best days ever. For dogs, at least. Gazing up at his blonde hero, Axel sat back on his haunches, wondering what was going to happen next. Heck, Roxas could even toss him back out on the street now, and he would still consider this the best day ever.

"You all done?" Roxas asked, rather rhetorically, as he picked up the bowls and rinsed them out in the sink. Axel happily thumped his tail against the floor in reply. "Okay then, I guess I ought to give you a bath."

In an instant Axel's tail stopped thumping and his doggy face stopped smiling as his brain registered the word that was on the top ten list of worst words for dogs, ranking right up there with "vet" and "fixed". His entire body tensing, Axel attempted to make a spectacular break for freedom, only to suddenly find himself pinned to the ground, Roxas having launched himself on top of him, using his weight to keep Axel in place. Axel would have found it extremely sexy if his mind hadn't been in such a state of blind panic. Still attempting tot struggle away, he suddenly found himself feeling very light headed again – curse his body's weakened state! – and the next thing he knew was all encompassing blackness.

.x.X.x.

"Hey… wake up… come on girl, wake up…"

Axel's eyes blinked open, only to be staring straight into the face of his dearly beloved, who was crouched over and observing him intently.

"Hey, you're alive!" the boy joked as he pulled back to a kneeling position. "But I guess that's just too bad for you, huh? Cause now I'm gonna have to give you your B–A–T–H."

At that moment Axel had no idea what a 'B–A–T–H' was, and frankly, he really didn't care. Because kneeling right before him was an almost completely naked Roxas. The teen had stripped down to just his boxers for some reason, and was enticingly beckoning Axel forward with an outstretched hand. 'I have no idea what's going on…' Axel thought in a daze 'But I LIKE it!'

"That's it, girl…" Roxas was saying reassuringly as Axel took a few cautious steps forward. "That's right, c'mere… I'm not gonna hurt you… Just a little closer…"

He must have died, Axel figured. He must have died and gone to the Good Place, because Roxas was practically naked and had adopted a 'come hither' look and was entreating him to come closer, not that Axel needed too much enticing. He was more than happy to move further into this room, wherever they were, if it meant being closer to the object of his desire. Oh happy day! All those times he had refrained from biting mailmen and peeing on people's expensive pant legs had finally paid off! He was going to spend the rest of his life in Heaven with Roxas and live happily ever and –

"HA!"

With a violent lunge, Roxas surged forward, grabbing Axel into his arms and dropping him unceremoniously into a bathtub filled nearly to the rim with soapy water. Yelping, Axel attempted to struggle out of it, his fantasies coming to an screeching halt as he tried to comprehend what was going on, failing in his escape attempts as Roxas followed in after him, grabbing him around the middle and refusing to let him get away. Axel didn't understand what had gone wrong... One moment he had been in Roxas Paradise, and the next…

OOOHHHHHHHHHH... 'B–A–T–H.' Baaaaaaaaath. Suddenly everything made a lot more sense.

Squirming and whimpering pathetically as Roxas started to lather up his fur, Axel felt a little betrayed. But as he looked up at his sneaky temptress of bath-enducingness, the betrayal suddenly started to disappear. Roxas. Practically naked. Soaking wet and lathering him up. Actually, on second thought, this wasn't so bad. In fact, apart from the whole 'water' thing, it was actually rather pleasing.

Roxas discontinued his ministrations for a moment when a low growling sound started emanating from the dog he was currently in the tub with. "Um… girl? Are you alright? Calm down, okay?" He said, interpreting the growling sounds as ones of displeasure. "I'm not gonna hurt you… I just want to make you clean…"

Axel nudged his body back into Roxas's hands, urging the blonde to continue. Slightly confused, Roxas complied, rubbing firmly into Axel's fur, trying to get all the grime out. The weird growling continued, however, but as Axel showed no signs of aggression, Roxas figured it was safe to continue for the moment.

'This feels great!' Axel's mind shouted happily as he continued his version of "purring". Roxas's hands kneaded into him, sending little sparks of pleasure and excitement racing through him. 'No, this feels more than great – this feels AMAZING!' The sparks were turning into tingles, jolts, and ripples of sensation that threatened to consume him. 'In fact, I think this is the greatest I have ever felt in my whole life! Roxas is touching me and he's almost naked and it smells good in here and I'm getting clean and thisissoexciting,Icanhardlycontainmyself!Ohmigod!Ohmigod!OHMI –'

Suddenly, with a strange, tingly popping sound, something was very… different. Axel couldn't quite place it, but something was definitely really weird. And the touching had stopped – why had the touching stopped?

Turning around, Axel sent a quizzical look to Roxas, only to find that the boy was sitting absolutely still, seemingly frozen and with a completely shocked look on his face – his eyes were as wide as saucers and his mouth hung wide open. Axel would have found it ridiculously cute if he wasn't so busy wondering what had brought it about.

"What?" he asked.

With an expression suddenly mirroring Roxas's Axel clamped his hands – HANDS! – to his mouth. What the hell was going on? Had he just spoken? As in… people talk? And the last time he checked he had paws, not…

"Human!" he yelped happily, and saw Roxas twitch in surprise at his sudden outburst, the blonde sill wearing that shocked expression on his face, as if it had gotten stuck. Laughing joyfully, Axel launched himself at Roxas, throwing his arms around the smaller male and pulling him into a slippery and wet embrace, having forgotten for the moment that they were still in a bathtub.

"Wh-what the hell!?" Roxas suddenly burst, having snapped out of his shock. Struggling out of Axel's grip he floundered back, grabbing a nearby towel to cover himself with. "Who are you!? W-what happened to the dog!?"

"I wished and wished and wished, and finally my wish has come true!" Axel replied, not really answering Roxas's question. "Axel is human now! Now Roxas can love Axel just like Axel loves Roxas and they can live together forever and ever for the rest of their lives!"

"What are you talking about, you freak!?" Roxas stuttered back, slipping and falling to the floor as he attempted to get out of the tub and away from the guy who had just suddenly appeared in place of the dog he had been washing. "Who the hell is Axel?"

"ME!" Axel proclaimed happily, climbing unsteadily over the edge of the tub and flopping down on Roxas. "Axel is me! And I love you!"

"GET OFF OF ME, YOU FREAK! WHO ARE YOU?"

"Axel!"

"WHAT? GAH, I DON'T KNOW YOU! ALL I KNOW IS I BROUGHT HOME A DOG AND WAS GIVING IT A BATH AND THEN SUDDENLY YOU CAME OUT OF NOWHERE! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?"

"Roxas doesn't like Axel?" Came the suddenly tentative sounding reply. Roxas looked up to see a very pathetic looking puppy face on the male before him – Axel looked like he would like nothing more to crawl off on his belly in shame. "Roxas... doesn't want Axel here?"

Suddenly Roxas found himself looking back at the same fuzzy dog face that he had brought home earlier that afternoon. Wait… what? He could have sworn that … Wasn't there just some random guy in here a second ago? Was he going crazy?

"Well that was freakily random." Roxas said to himself, standing and brushing himself off. Looking down, he saw that the dog was still sitting on the floor rather dejectedly, looking as if it were sulking about something. "Hey girl, come on." Roxas said, deciding to just write off the prior experience as some trippy mind game of some sort. He was gonna have to start laying off all that junk food – that stuff could really mess you up. "Let's get that bath finished."

.x.X.x.

For the rest of the evening Roxas hung around the house, trying to make his canine companion feel at home. However, it seemed that despite his attempts, all the dog wanted to do was sit at the door and whine, almost as if it desired was to go back out to the streets.

"No way, dog." Roxas said, after the fifth time dragging the animal away from the door and back into the living room with him. "You're stuck in here. I'm not letting you back out there to get hit by a car or attacked by wild animals or kicked by some hobo or whatever it is that happens out there at night."

Axel perked up a little at this. Was it possible that Roxas actually cared about him then? Roxas didn't want anything bad happening to him out there in the cold, cruel world?

After that the dog's mood was slightly improved. He was content to simply follow Roxas around as he wandered around the house, fixing himself dinner and messing around on the computer. Roxas even offered him some of the hot dog and French fries he had fixed for dinner.

Eventually Roxas settled down for the evening, flopping down on the couch and grabbing the remote, flipping the television on. Axel hesitated, at the end of the couch, not knowing if he was allowed up on the couch or not, regardless of the bath he had been given earlier. Roxas, seeing the dog's hesitation, paused in his channel changing for a second, seeming to think something over before coming to a conclusion. Eventually he patted the space beside him and offered Axel a friendly smile.

"Come on, girl, you can come up here. I cleaned you earlier, and I don't think you had fleas or anything."

Axel, smiling a doggie smile, lept up onto the couch, settling himself down beside the blonde and making a mental note not to scratch himself in front of Roxas, lest it should cause the boy to re-evaluate the dog's flea status and forbid him from getting up on the couch. It was a quite comfortable piece of furniture, and besides, Roxas was on it – two very important reasons as to why Axel didn't want his couch privileges revoked.

After watching Axel settle himself comfortably on the couch, Roxas turned his attention back to the TV, flipping through the channels at the same speed all teenage boys were accustomed to – faster than the naked eye could comprehend. And yet somehow amongst all the garbled, split-second flashes of programs, the blonde was eventually able to pick out one that suited his tastes, setting the remote down at his side and zoning out as he watched the images of the featured show flickering across the screen, illuminating the otherwise darkened room.

Sighing, Axel looked away from the television with disinterest. He had never really understood what humans gained from staring at that stupid glowing box all day. It held nothing of interest for him, and so he let his gaze wander, eventually settling it on Roxas's face, illuminated from the television's glow. Occasionally Roxas would laugh, or furrow his brows in confusion at whatever was happening on the screen, and Axel watched every expression intently. The small blonde boy was, without a doubt, the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Not that he had seen too many beautiful creatures, living on the streets and all, but he somehow knew that Roxas was the only beautiful thing he needed in his life. Hopefully the blonde would let him stay for longer than just the night – after this afternoon he didn't know how he would deal with being back out on the streets… it wasn't as though he would have lost his street-smarts in this short amount of time as a house dog, it would just be hard going back to that life now that he knew what he would be missing out on.

Tentatively scotching forward a little bit, Axel dared to rest his head in Roxas's lap. Hey, might as well live it up while he had the chance, right? If this was ever going to be the only day he had to spend with Roxas, he might as well make the most of it. Flinching as Roxas's hand came up, thinking he was going to be hit for soiling the blonde's precious lap, or bursting Roxas's 'personal bubble', Axel was pleasantly surprised to find that when the hand came back down it wasn't to hit him, but to gently be placed in top of his head, smoothing over the fur and giving him a quick scratch behind the ears.

It was official. This really was the best day ever. Roxas had just pet him. Axel had to summon all the willpower he possessed to not melt into a happy puddle of goo right then and there.

As time passed that evening, Axel had to fight to stay awake. The warmth of being inside as well as the gentle petting Roxas was lavishing on him was threatening to lull him to sleep. But he just couldn't go to sleep! If he went to sleep he might wake up to find that this had all been a dream! No, he had to squeeze in all the possible awake time he could manage, even if it killed him! Must… stay… awake… with… Roxas…

"I'm getting kind of tired." Roxas suddenly announced through a yawn as he stood up and stretched, heading off in the direction of some stairs. "Come on, girl, let's head to bed."

'LET'S'? Had Axel heard a 'let's' in that sentence? As in both of them? In bed? TOGETHER? All of a sudden Axel's opinions on staying awake took a drastic change in direction. In fact, right now going to sleep sounded like the best idea in the history of the world! What on EARTH could be better than going to bed?

With a happy yelp Axel jumped off the couch and raced up the stairs two at a time, following after Roxas. The blonde led them down a short hall, at the end of which was his bedroom, as marked by the "ROXAS'S ROOM: DO NOT ENTER" sign taped up on it. Pfft. As if Axel was planning on obeying that order. When Roxas pushed his door open and Axel eagerly bounded inside, running around and investigating every last nick and cranny that he could sniff out, tail wagging furiously the whole time.

"You like my room?" the blonde questioned with a chuckle, kicking the door closed behind him. Axel paused in his inventory of Roxas's room to turn back and bark once, declaring his approval. Heck, Roxas's room could have been a box out on the street and he still would have been thrilled to visit it! "Haha, glad to hear it." Roxas replied, grabbing the hem of his shirt and tugging it up.

Suddenly Axel froze, watching as Roxas pulled his shirt up and over his head. GOOD LORD, THE BOY WAS STRIPPING! RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM! That's it – he MUST have died. Only in Axel heaven could something like this actually happen. Or maybe he was dreaming? For all that is good and holy, if it was a dream Axel prayed that he would never wake up. Inch by inch more of Roxas's smooth, creamy skin was being revealed and – THERE REALLY IS A GOD! – Roxas was getting caught in his shirt, squirming around in the trapping article of clothing, making unbearably sexy little noises of frustration as he struggled… And then the shirt was being cast aside as Roxas broke free, his hair even more disheveled than normal from getting tangled in his shirt. Overall, the blonde was looking thoroughly molestable, with his hair all mussed and his lips all pouty, pants hanging loosely off his hips, and his bare chest just… THERE for Axel to look at and admire and –

"What?"

Axel abruptly snapped out of his trance to focus his attention back on Roxas's face. As opposed to… ahem… other aspects of his anatomy. Feigning an innocently puzzled look, Axel tilted his cute doggy head to the side, as if to inquire 'What? Me? I wasn't doing or thinking anything inappropriate. You've got the wrong dog!'

Still not fully convinced, Roxas sent the canine a suspicious glare before shrugging and going back to getting undressed, much to Axel's pleasure. 'Thaaaaaaat's right… off with the pants, pretty boy… good… keep going… just a little more… For crying out loud, why are there so many buckles and zippers on sexy blonde boys's pants these days? Oh! Wait! There you go – almost got it! YES! Pants are officially unbuckled, unzipped, unbuttoned, and overall fully undone!' Fireworks were going off in Axel's brain at the mere thought.

With a sudden 'fwump' and a jingle of buckles, Roxas's pants dropped to the ground, leaving the boy clad in only his stars-and-heart-print boxers. "Don't laugh…" He instructed with a pout as he caught Axel staring at them with an odd expression oh his face. However, Axel was far from laughing. More like going braindead from overstimulation of his imagination. Roxas…. standing right in front of him in his boxers… which were just barely clinging to said blonde boy's skinny hips... If dogs could nosebleed, Axel was sure he would have died from blood loss by now.

"Hey, you alright?" All at once Roxas was crouching down in front of Axel, ruffing the top of his reddish, furry head before pulling back his sheets and climbing into his bed. "Cause you're acting pretty strange, girl…"

ROXAS WAS TOUCHING HIM AND HE WAS ALMOST NAKED AND THEY WERE IN HIS ROOM AND HE WAS RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF HIM IN BED AND… AND… AND… GYAAAAAH!!!!

With a sudden, tingling poof, Axel suddenly found himself in human from again, and it only took him about .0013823712798124 seconds to launch himself forward and onto Roxas's bed, pinning the blonde beneath him as he proceeded to nuzzle affectionately under Roxas's neck.

"Roxas is the nicest, sexiest, most amazing human there is!" Axel proclaimed, attempting to sneak a hand under the covers and reach more of Roxas's bare skin.

"AAAAAAAAAAARGH!! YOU AGAIN! GET OUT OF MY BED!" came the response as Roxas flailed wildly beneath Axel, only succeeding in getting himself extremely tangled in the sheets. "WHO ARE YOU?"

"Axel!"

"You said that earlier!" Roxas shot back. "But it still doesn't make any sense! What the hell is going on? Why do you keep appearing out of nowhere? And where the hell is that dog !?"

"Axel is that dog!" Axel helpfully supplied, giving Roxas's collarbone a playful nip.

"OW! Hey, cut that out!" Roxas snapped. "And what do you mean you are that dog? That dog is… is… is a DOG! A dog that I found on the street and brought home of my own choice! You're a crazy naked guy who keeps showing up at my house at random and talking to me about himself in third person!"

"But Axel IS the dog!" Axel insisted, sitting back (although still on top of Roxas). "Axel swears they are the same!"

As crazy as this Axel guy's claim was, Roxas actually found himself taking a moment to really look at him for the first time. The guy had wild reddish hair that stuck out in back of him at funny angles, rather like the colour and style of the fur and ears on the stray he had brought home. His eyes were the same shocking green as the dog's, something Roxas had specifically noticed about the canine, seeing as it was a rather unnatural colour for an animal. Heck, it was an unnatural colour for a human! And last, but not least, this guy had some strange tattoos under his bright eyes, strikingly reminiscent of some markings on the street dog's face. And as disturbed by the fact that the guy was naked as Roxas was, he couldn't help but think that it made a little sense… after all, dogs didn't wear any clothing.

But all of this was just some sort of freaky coincidence, right?

…

RIGHT!?

"So let me get this straight." Roxas suspiciously started, searching Axel's face for any hints of the truth. "You're trying to tell me that you are the dog I picked up this afternoon?"

"Yes!" Axel happily replied. Finally they were getting somewhere! "Every day Axel waits at the corner to see Roxas after work, but today Axel got sick but Roxas brought him home so it was the best day ever!" Axel couldn't help but wiggle excitedly as he said this, a fact that made Roxas squirm in slight discomfort – Axel was sitting right on his lap, after all. This did seem to add up, though. Unless this guy was some sort of crazy stalker (which it kind of sounded like he was. But could animals be considered stalkers? Roxas would have to come back to that thought later.) he would have no way of knowing when or where Roxas picked the dog up, or why.

"So… you're the dog?" Roxas asked, just to make sure. This still seemed extremely out-of-the-ordinary to him, and he hadn't fully wrapped his mind around the idea quite yet.

"Yes!" Axel repeated. "Every day Axel prayed to the gods to make him human so that he could talk to Roxas, and finally today Axel's wishes have come true!"

Ah. So an act of divine intervention had taken place. Well that would explain it. Kind of… But right now there were more pressing matters to attend to, such as a pet peeve Roxas felt the need to address.

"Why do you refer to everything in third person? It's annoying."

Axel's hair drooped in a manner that resembled a dog's ears when it is being scolded. "A–Axel is sorry… Human talking is confusing…"

"Yeah, okay well start using 'I' instead of your name, and 'you' instead of mine and all that stuff. Pronouns are your friends."

"Okay!" Axel happily agreed, throwing his hands around Roxas's middle and burying his face in his chest. "So does this mean Ax… I can stay?"

Struggling to get Axel off of him, Roxas pushed the older male an arms length away, firmly holding him at that distance. "Look, I have no idea what's going on here, okay? This is just weird. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with you and I – will you stop trying to cuddle me!? What the heck is wrong with you? You're a dog, not a cat!"

"I know that!" Axel scoffed. Pfft, as if he would ever confuse himself with some lowly feline. "I'm trying to cuddle you because I love you."

Roxas looked extremely uncomfortably at this admission. He'd heard it said before this afternoon, but now that he had the full grasp of the situation it was just… freaking weird.

"Why do you keep saying that?" he asked. "You know you're a dog, right? A male dog, might I add! And I know that traditionally male dogs want to hump everything in sight, but I just don't think that –."

"The only thing I want to hump is you!" Axel bluntly stated, taking Roxas by complete surprise.

"Uh… well let's just try to ignore those evolutionary prerogatives for now, shall we?" Roxas suggested, a blush tinting the bridge of his nose and threatening to spread. "Here, um, I'll show you where the guest room is and you can stay there for the night and then tomorrow we can –"

"No way!" Axel interrupted. "I want to stay with you tonight!" At this Roxas's blush continued it's spread, tinting nearly his entire face a faint shade of crimson.

"Um, I really don't think that's a good idea…" he began, not wanting to offend Axel, but certainly not wanting to allow him to spend the night in his room either.

"Why not?" Axel asked, an edge of panic rising to his voice. NO! He HAD to spend the night in Roxas's bed! It was imperative to his very survival!

"I… I don't even know you!" Roxas argued. "I'm sorry, but I'm really not comfortable with the idea of sharing my room with some strange naked guy who I don't even KNOW."

"Fine…" Axel sighed in resignation. "What if I change back into dog form?"

Roxas considered this. He'd really rather not sleep in the same room anymore now that he knew the dog for what it really was, but on the other hand, leaving it in human form, even in another room, didn't sit well with him either. At least in the same room and in dog form he could keep a watch on what was going on. "Fine." He conceded. "You can stay in here if you change back into dog form."

"YES!" Axel cried, pumping a fist into the air in a triumphant motion.

"But no funny stuff, got it!?" Roxas tacked on for good measure.

"Yeah, sure, whatever!" Axel answered, not really paying attention as he attempted to snuggle back up to Roxas.

"Hey! HEY!" Roxas cried, attempting to push him away. "When I say 'funny stuff', cuddling is included in that statement!"

"…Fine." Axel said, sitting back with a pout.

For a minute the two of them just sat there staring at eachother, not saying anything. Axel was content to just sit there and stare at the object of his affection, but after a while Roxas started to get fidgety.

"Sooo… why don't you turn back into a dog. Like… now."

"Okay." Axel agreed, although after another minute had passed nothing had changed.

"Um… Aren't you going to do it?" Roxas asked, hoping Axel would take a hint.

"I don't know how."

"You don't know how…" Roxas deadpanned. "Well, how do you do it when you change from a dog into a human?"

Axel thought about this for a minute. Hmm, good question. "I'm not sure. It just happens."

"What, you mean you have no control over it?" Roxas questioned disbelievingly.

"Nope."

"Well come on, there's got to be some kind of trigger for it!" the blonde insisted. "I mean… you've done it twice now, right? Maybe there was something that made it happen those times?"

Axel thought about this. Hm. Well, both times he had changed before Roxas had been in close proximity in only his boxers. And the times before that when he had gotten the tingly feeling it had been when he had been really close to Roxas, or excited about something Roxas had done…

"I think it happens when I'm excited about you." Axel stated, coming to a conclusion.

Roxas blanched. "When you WHAT?" He questioned. The way Axel said that, it was almost as if he was comparing it to an… a… a physical male reaction to a pleasurable stimulus of some kind. URGH. That was just weird. God, this whole DAY was just weird! Roxas made a point of not looking down at Axel's uncovered lower anatomy, suddenly afraid for what he might find there.

"When I'm excited about you." Axel repeated in answer to Roxas's question, and Roxas's eye twitched. Okay, he really hadn't needed to hear that again. He was going to have to explain the concept of 'rhetorical questions' to Axel at some later point in time.

"Okay, well then get UNexcited."

"…I don't know how…"

"Well then how do you expect me to know!?" Roxas snapped "Go take a cold shower or something!"

Axel's spikes drooped a little at this suggestion. "I don't like baths."

"I know you don't like baths…" Roxas said, feeling slightly exasperated. "I'm just saying that maybe if it's anything like a… Nevermind. Maybe you just need to calm down. Think of something relaxing or… something."

"…Like what?"

"Like… I dunno… a beach or a field or something, I guess."

"Uh… okay?" Axel responded, not understanding how that was supposed to help.

"Shut up." Roxas snapped back, thinking that Axel found his idea stupid and was making fun of him. "Why don't you come up with something better, then?" he challenged.

"I'm sorry! I'm trying!" Axel told him, not wanting Roxas to think he was a defective transforming dog or something. And indeed, trying very hard, Axel set his mind to work thinking very hard about things other than Roxas. Doggie things. Like garbage cans… or roadkill to sniff at… or fire hydrants… or bouncy rubber balls… or… um… wow, this was getting frustratingly boring. All Axel really wanted to be thinking about was Roxas. Not gnawing on bones, or digging holes under fences, or chasing old ladies's cats, or peeing on people's bushes… All of a sudden Axel felt a light punch to his shoulder, and looked over to see Roxas giving him a lopsided smile.

"Hey, good job, you're a dog again."

Hey! Check it out! He was a dog again! 'Interesting…' Axel noted. It seemed as though when he didn't have any direct motivation for being in human form ( i.e. something exciting that involved Roxas) he would go right back into his canine form. Cool! He had a vague control over how to switch back and forth! …kinda. Well, not really, but he could pretend. Axel gave a happy yelp, lunging forward to lick Roxas's face.

"Hey cut that out!" Roxas said, pushing the dog back and wiping his cheek off with the back of his hand. "You're gonna get all excited again. Just… go to sleep now, okay?"

Wagging his tail and making happy little dog noises, Axel turned in a circle a few times before lying himself down at Roxas's side, giving a content little huff of breath as he closed his eyes. Roxas sighed as well, flicking off the lamp that sat on his bedside table as he pulled the covers up, settling himself down and trying to get comfortable. Axel was lying really close… a little too close for his comfort. Roxas still wasn't sure how he felt about sharing his bed with a dog that could spontaneously transform into a human at any given time. It was actually rather highly unnerving, to say the least… what if he woke up in the middle of the night and the freaky dog/human had been doing something weird to him in his sleep?

But for now Axel lay perfectly well behaved by his side, falling asleep himself. Roxas watched the steady rise and fall of the dog's side for a few minutes to make sure it was really asleep before scooting just a little bit closer and settling his arm lightly over his bed companion. It had been kind of lonely sleeping all alone in this house for the past couple weeks… and the dog provided a pleasant warmth and – dare he say it? – cuddliness that was hard to resist. Not to mention that now that the dog was clean, it no longer smelled or felt so unpleasant. ' Okay', Roxas admitted, burying his face in the dogs fur and scooting a little bit closer, 'Maybe I DO enjoy having a living, breathing someone to sleep with… But only as a dog! That's natural, right? People naturally like cuddling animals, right?'

After thinking this over for a while longer, but coming to no decisive conclusion in his head, Roxas decided to just let it drop and go to sleep already. After all, there would be plenty of time to work stuff out tomorrow. Roxas sighed as he tentatively petted the dog's soft fur, closing his eyes and allowing himself to drift off into sleep. He was going to need it, after all – tomorrow was looking like it was going to be a very long day. One thing was for certain though, Roxas thought as the last shreds of his waking mind left him…

"I guess I'm going to have to stop calling you girl."

.o.O.o.

End chapter one. X3 More to come, as soon as I finish editing and all that other good stuff. In the meanwhile, reviews are nice. XDD