They had met under very unusual means that Christmas night. One was supposed to be at home, watching his favorite holiday soaps and eating cinnamon ice cream, while the other was supposed to be at his university, getting ready for a test for a night class. Instead they were sitting inside an ambulance eating, not cinnamon ice cream, but sea salt while they watched the apartment complex burn down.

"Who do you think did it?" The shorter of the two asked, tilting his head to lick at the ice cream that was dripping down his soot covered forearm. He might have been concerned at how toxic the soot could be, that he might be digesting it, but that was the least of his worries. Eighteen years of his life had just gone up in flames and he was lucky he got out, more than lucky, even. If it hadn't been for the teenager next to him, who happened to come by by chance, he'd be dead for sure.

The pale teenager shrugged, the simple movement causing his spiky, shocking red hair to sway and bounce just slightly. "Just some sick bastard with a Grinch complex."

He was unable to help a laugh, even if it was mildly inappropriate. "A Grinch complex?"

"Yeah, you know," Lanky arms stretched out and moved with awkward grace as they animatedly helped prove his point. "That asshole hated the cheeriness and corals sung by us people here in Twilight Town and decided to steal Christmas."

"So he set fire to Back Alley?"

"Maybe burning the decorations was easier than stealing them. And, if there was any food that needed to be cooked, like a turkey, it'd be all nice and roasted now."

His laughter was fully justifiable by the horribly tasteless jokes this red mane somebody was making.

A gloved hand presented itself to him. "Oh, my name's Axel. Got it memorized?"

He finished off the last bit of sea salt ice cream and stuck the stick in his mouth. "I'm Roxas." The blonde said and smiled, his teeth sinking into the softened wooden stick.

Axel was the first one to get up and jump out from the ambulance. They could do that, even though they were in a life or death situation, and it was all thanks to the black clad teenager with the most beautiful and feline green eyes Roxas had ever seen. If he had been even a second too late, maybe Roxas wouldn't be so fine.

"You want to come back to my place? I live over near Market Street."

Roxas straightened up from the crouch he landed in and removed the popsicle stick form his mouth. "Market Street? That must be fun."

"It's a good place for a busy guy like me."

"Is it really okay if I do?"

One petite red eyebrow rose and, for the first time, Roxas noticed the strange purple tattoos under his eyes. "I wouldn't have suggested it if it weren't." Axel glanced over his shoulder at the smoldering remains of buildings behind him. "And it looks like your plans for the night went up in flames."

Maybe it was because he was still shell-shocked over the fire that he kept laughing at Axel's jokes. "Alright, lead the way then."

Axel's apartment was a quaint place, just like the rest of Twilight Town. The golden light drew attention to all the strange knickknacks littering the shelves and desk. Is that green materia? And the colors in the room where surprisingly cool and calming, with shades of midnight blues, silvery whites, and blacks; they were colors Roxas hadn't expected to see given Axel's choice of hair color. In one corner of the room was a Christmas tree that was festively decorated with gold, red, and white (more like what Roxas would except from Axel) and was almost too large, even for the fair sized apartment.

"Make yourself comfortable, Roxas." Axel said and drew the blonde's attention away from his mounted flat screen TV and multiple consoles and DVDs. "Do you want come coffee? Eggnog? Booze?"

"Can you mix them all together?"

The suggestion seemed to trip Axel up for a moment before a large Cheshire cat smile, the first smile Roxas had seen from the other teenager, exposed Axel's perfect pearly whites. "I think that's the best suggestion I've heard in my life."

While Axel sauntered into the kitchen for their mixed drinks, Roxas plopped himself down onto one of the surprisingly many bean bag chairs. While he groped behind him for the remote he thought he saw on the single bed, he counted an odd thirteen chairs in a strange, zigzagging circle. How did Axel make the room so huge when there was so much shit in it?

Roxas had just turned the TV on to some Christmas special when Axel slinked back into the room, his body moving with some sort of seductive, feline grace that Roxas didn't know humans could possess. Axel had too, at some point in the kitchen, taken off his jacket, leaving Roxas free to admire the lean muscles in his arms and the body that his skin tight black sleeveless turtleneck revealed. His gloves were off too, revealing slender hands that looked like hands a skilled pianist would bear.

"Here you go. I call this concoction Sex in Twilight Town."

Of course Axel had waited to tell him that once Roxas had already taken a large gulp. After he recovered from his coughing spell, he turned to look at Axel who sat to his left, smiling from ear to ear. "Sex in Twilight Town? Are you trying to imply something?"

Something changed in Axel's expression and Roxas' stomach twisted. There was no way to tell if it was pleasant or not. "Maybe." The redhead said and there was something so sultry in his tone that Roxas almost choked again, and this time it wasn't on his Sex in Twilight Town.

Maybe didn't even begin to cover the things Axel did once they had a few drinks in them. And maybe it was because Roxas was still shell-shocked over the fire that he let him, because he definitely wasn't that drunk. Or maybe he wanted Axel to touch him, had wanted Axel to touch him since he first laid eyes on him amongst the licking tongues of the demons that destroyed his only home.

"I don't normally do this." Roxas panted beneath Axel. His white jacket and black shirt had been shed and tossed to the floor, along with his dual colored pants and Axel's shirt. For reasons unknown to Roxas, even after taking Roxas into his mouth and prepping him with saliva slicked fingers, saliva that came from Roxas after he sucked on those fingers, Axel had yet to take his pants off.

"Neither do I." Axel replied, his voice raspy and husky from raw need and it made Roxas shudder. Electricity shot through his body when Axel kissed him again, the passion all but searing his lips. "You're the only exception." He breathed into the blonde's mouth and Roxas finally melted completely under Axel's heat.

When Axel first pushed into him Roxas didn't cry out or whimper, he only bit his lip and forced his hips back to meet Axel's bony hips. The movement elicited a low growl that resonated in Roxas' core. So he did it again and relished in the way Axel's grip became crushing on his own hips.

Somewhere in his burning mind, Roxas thought that maybe their meeting would be slow, sweet, and romantic but it wasn't. It wasn't animalistic, but Roxas didn't know if it was human either. It was sadistic, it was masochistic, and they were both getting off on it. There was fire between them. They were back in Roxas' burning home, fucking amongst the golden twilight flames that threatened to consume them.

The glow of Twilight Town's never-ending sunset was nothing compared to the glow that engulfed Roxas after they were finished. He was too tired to push Axel, who had collapsed half on top of him after, off or maybe he just didn't want to. Axel's skin was still blistering to the touch and they were both damp with perspiration, but Roxas didn't mind. Maybe he was entirely okay with it.

"Hey, Roxas?"

"Yeah?" He felt parched, like he was in the desert.

"Merry Christmas."