Role Reversal

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Disclaimer: i swear everytime i have to admit i have no rights nor own kingdom hearts i die a little inside. sniff.

Summary: Axel Rayward thinks he's the unrivalled top dog, until his new History teacher arrives and rightly puts him in his place. Things are going to get heated. Akuroku. Axel/Roxas. 813.

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9.

Early the following Monday morning, Axel fell into his designated history seat, slightly giddy. He couldn't contain his curiosity as to how Roxas would react to his English Oral. There were two viable options – 1. Roxas would continue being in denial and act as if nothing had happened or 2. He would call Axel outside the classroom to talk privately and they would end up having sex in the Janitor's closet, or something equally kinky like that.

When he'd spoken to Riku of this, his friend had snorted and responded option 1 was going to be the definite outcome. Suffice to say, Axel had childishly tripped Riku after his reply and ignored him since then. Well, he'd been throwing paper at the back of Riku's head since they'd entered the history classroom, but he'd hardly count that as acknowledgement.

Axel perked up the instant he heard the classroom door click open again. Seeing as all the tables were filled with students, that only left the figure struggling with a gigantic stack of paper having to be Roxas. Axel almost found himself offering whether Roxas needed any help, but held his tongue. One step at a time. Roxas had only found out about Axel wanting him last week.

Axel felt his stomach drop slightly in disappointment when the papers were placed upon the teacher's desk to reveal a skinny and dweebish looking man behind them with purple hair covering half of his face. Axel raptly watched as the man began to swiftly write upon the blackboard.

Unable to constrain himself a moment longer, Axel loudly asked, "Where's R-Jenkins?"

"Students will raise their hands if they wish to ask a question." The man snapped, his back still to Axel.

Grunting, Axel raised his hand with a peeved expression. The man, without looking, presumed he had done so and permitted him to ask again.

"Where's Jenkins?" Axel repeated.

"Your previous history teacher has willingly resigned from the Acad-"

"He quit?" Axel cut across, loudly. This earned him a few surprised looks, but most prominently, Riku spun around to face Axel with concern, waiting for his reaction to the news.

"Detention, boy. I may only be your substitute for now, but even I know that cutting off a teacher is unacceptable behaviour from a pupil at this school."

Axel sworn he could've punched him.

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Hours later Axel was picked up in Riku's car from detention, angry enough to be able to strangle a puppy.

Demyx, staring out the window, unpityingly spoke, "Maybe its fate that you two aren't meant to be together."

It was then that Axel decided that Demyx could make a suitable enough replacement for a puppy and was halfway to clasping his hands around Demyx's neck when Larxene interrupted.

"Stop being such a bitch, Demyx." She snapped, her face softening as she looked over at a glum looking Axel. "You ok?"

"Yeah." Axel lied, avoiding his friends' eyes, "I think I just need a break – from school."

"Ask Luxord for some more shifts." Riku suggested, looking over his shoulder at Axel and nearly crashing into a van as he took his eyes off the road, "God knows he could do with the extra help; and you with the extra money. Then we can meet up on the weekend and I'll find you a nice one night stand. Sound good?"

"Sounds fantastic, thanks." Axel gave a weary grin, before giving Demyx a therapeutic slap on the cheek and allowing his mind to switch off for the remainder of the evening.

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Surprisingly enough, the extra shifts at The Coffeehouse had actually made Axel feel much better. Rejection had never stung so badly, but at least he had this crappy job to distract himself from it. Luxord however, being the unsuspecting asshole he was, completely shattered any progress Axel had made by hiring Roxas to perform on another Saturday night.

It was certainly that much harder to forget someone when they were standing on a stage ten metres away playing guitar. Even if Axel scrunched his eyes shut (not advisable when making coffee) Roxas's voice still penetrated his ears and invaded his thoughts.

Axel didn't really have any troubles until Roxas was leaving, and his mouth started moving of its own accord – which was admittedly a common occurrence but this time was a real nuisance.

"Good performance." He found himself saying more to himself, but Roxas heard him as he wandered past towards the exit. He didn't turn towards Axel, or even look at him, yet remained stationary.

"I've had better... but thanks anyway."

Roxas talking to him undid any form of pity of self-loathing and misery Axel had been brewing in over the last few days, and he found himself bouncing back to his usual self instantaneously. Who knew one person could make such an improvement.

"I've been missing our little one-on-one detentions, sir." Axel commented, surprisingly causing Roxas to release a laugh.

"I'm not your teacher anymore so you can drop the whole 'sir' thing, Rayward."

"Fine then, Roxas." At the look Roxas gave him, Axel faltered, "What? Oh but Jenkins is boring. Can't I just call you Roxas?"

Roxas relented, sighing, "Fine."

"You can drop the whole Rayward thing too, you know." Axel pursued, smiling encouragingly, "I mean, it's only fair, right?"

And for the second time, Roxas addressed him by his first name, "Sure, Axel, whatever."

That simple response made Axel's day.

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Roxas showed up at The Coffeehouse a few weeks later late in the afternoon on a Tuesday when few customers were around. As luck would have it, the waiter that had been working that day had left early, leaving Axel serving Roxas in a completely empty cafe.

Propping himself up at a stool in front of the counter, directly opposite Axel, Roxas shrugged out of his jacket and ordered himself a coffee. Waiting until Axel was engaged in work, Roxas initiated conversation. Axel would have previously but was unsure of what to even say.

"Shouldn't you be at school?" Roxas asked, staring at Axel.

"Faked a sicky... wasn't going to learn anything anyway."

"What about History class? You were improving."

"The new teacher is an absolute nutcase. His name's Zexion Whittleton and he's crazy about us knowing every single fact, quote and statistic about what we learn."

Roxas gave a small sound of satisfaction. Apparently, although he'd willingly resigned, he was still pleased at being considered a better teacher than his replacement.

"Why'd you quit? I mean, I remember you said it was hard getting employed because not many schools were looking for History teachers."

"Personal reasons."

Axel scoffed. He'd never been one deterred by someone trying to hide something, even if it were 'personal'. "Roxas, trust me, I may only be a barista, but I've heard a whole lot of weird shit from customers whilst working here. Now, with that in mind, spill."

Roxas considered Axel for a moment; a calculating blue meeting an amused green.

To further coerce Roxas, Axel swiftly added in, for good measure, "And there's also the whole confidentiality thing as well."

"Isn't that between doctors and patients?"

"Well ... yeah, but really – doctor-patient, barista-coffee addict, they're pretty much the same right? So why'd you leave?"

"I quit because a certain someone at that school made me so incredibly annoyed sometimes that I knew I'd break certain teacher – student regulations if I worked there for too much longer. It made sense that I end working there on my own terms instead of risk getting fired."

"Please tell me you're not talking about Demyx, because there is absolutely no way in which –"

"I'm talking about you, Axel."

"Ok." Axel said slowly, trying to get his thoughts around this, "So, you're implying I made you quit your job? Wow, way to make me not feel in the least bit responsible."

"It was shit school anyway."

"Hey!" Axel said, mocking offence, "I happen to still go there, you know."

Raising a dubious brow, Roxas smirked, "Yes, and I can see that you adore it so much that you skip classes to show your appreciation and utter loyalty to the place."

This new side to Roxas left Axel completely nonplussed. Quitting the Academy had worked wonders on his ex-history teacher as he was now able to drop the whole viciously strict educator act and could reveal his truer self. He was a lot more laid back and easy going than Axel could have ever predicted, although this seemed to further appeal to him.

Axel gave Roxas a crooked grin, whilst refilling the grinder with more coffee beans. Roxas liked stale beans, which was pretty unusual. It was just another intricate detail about the blonde that drew Axel in. However, Axel was slightly put off by his own inconsistent behaviour. When Roxas had been working at the Academy, he'd been so forthright with his pursuits, even going as far to declare it in front of his entire English class in the form of an oral (Oh god, did I really do that?). That wasn't anything new, yet it was more so how he was currently acting that concerned him. Now that Roxas was in no way tied to the school, was clearly not being a complete prick and was quite surely available and attainable, Axel was treading lightly? Since when did he do that?

Deciding now was as good a time as any; Axel deliberately strained himself to again see how far he could push Roxas, what with his blatant multiple innuendos and stupid pick up lines. He didn't know when he'd even see Roxas again, if ever. He might as well make the most of this opportunity.

"So, Roxas, now that your free of the Academy - and I'm really envious of you for that, truly," Roxas laughed, "I can expose some news concerning students that you probably didn't know in your time there."

"Go on then, hit me with it." Roxas said, pretending to wince in preparation for the worst.

"I heard a lot of girls from history thought you were a bit of a looker – but you had such a bad case of man-bitch that they got turned off."

"Oh come on," Roxas rolled his eyes, "I had to put up an act, right?"

"Sure." Axel gave an agreeable nod before swallowing nervously – well, it was now or never, "Apparently there was also some random student chasing after you like a desperate little kid. Rumour has it that they totally wanted to get into your pants. Got no idea who was though, otherwise I would've paid them out for it."

"You're talking about yourself, right?"

Axel stopped dead in his tracks, "Uh – what makes you say that?"

"Please." Roxas scoffed, "I invented half the strategies you tried pulling on me. No student in their right mind would want to weasel personal information out of their teacher like you were me."

Axel opened and closed his mouth, mind screeched to an utter halt.

"Don't sweat it, kid." Roxas grinned and leant over the counter to give Axel a mock-comforting pat on the shoulder, "You weren't too obvious. Besides, you're a nice enough guy – I should be flattered, right?"

Giving a squeaky cough, Axel regained his ability to speak, and replied, "I feel like a bit of a girl right now." Peering up at Roxas, Axel hopelessly asked, "So, this is just about the point that I give up, right?"

Smacking his lips together, Roxas hmmed to himself. "Maybe ... maybe not. I find myself enjoying talking and spending time with you. I'm no longer tied with the Academy so ... we could do it again, I suppose."

"A-are you serious?"

"Well, I'm no practical joker, so what do you think?"

Axel inwardly was having a tough time separating his fleeting thoughts and feelings with what he should say, "That sounds great!"

Perhaps Axel had failed at getting to his ideal destination of in Roxas's pants, yet, somehow, as insane as it seemed to any hormonal male, picking the chance of developing a proper relationship over sex made sense to Axel this time.

Besides, who knew? If things went smoothly enough he might still score with Roxas Jenkins anyway. One could only hope.

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A/N:

god i am SO SORRY that youve made it this far. Your eyes must be bleeding now, surely.
Firstly, i must apologise for again neglecting my fanfic account forever ... and then apologise some more for the fact that i post some dumb as onefic (which is actually loooooong as and has multiple chapters – hence proving my inexperience) instead of adding to 'white lies' – which im sure many readers would prefer... eheh.
lastly, what is it with me and two word titles? Bad Jordan bad *smacks self* don't do that anymore!