Despite the ever-growing popularity of the Axel/Roxas fan-site (and Roxas really, really tried not to think about that) and Roxas' increasingly specific dreams, things continued on as normal between the blond and Axel. They would hang out, tease each other, argue, beat the shit out of each other and promptly start the cycle all over again.

They were in the middle of one of the teasing sessions when Roxas froze, his head tilting to the side. Axel stood with his hands on his hips, a filthy smile on his lips. The taller man was shaking his head at something Roxas had said and the blond watched the longer strands of Axel's hair slide over his shoulders.

"Honestly, Roxas, you're always in control of yourself. I bet if you get properly pissed, you'd be a little sexual deviant." Roxas forced his attention back to the man in front of him and responded by raising an eyebrow. Axel's responding grin could only be described as lecherous. He tossed an arm over Roxas' shoulders before pulling the shorter boy close and dragging him out the door. "Roxas," he asked sweetly. "When was the last time you were in a bar?"

Which was how the blond found himself hunkered down in a corner booth nursing a…whatever alcoholic beverage Axel had placed in front of him this time. He reached for it - still sober enough to know that he really shouldn't keep drinking, but too sloshed to care. As he raised the glass to his mouth he wrinkled his nose at the smell. It was a fruity taste and as he sipped the cloying liquid he could feel it stick in his throat. He slammed the glass back onto the table, pulling a face as some of the liquid spilled over the side of the glass and splashed onto his hand. He could feel his body sway slightly and he narrowed his eyes, trying to focus on the figure across from him. Axel watched with a bemused expression, taking a pull from his beer.

"How many drinks have I had?" Roxas slurred.

"That's your third," Axel answered, pointing to the mostly full glass on the table. "You're a fucking lightweight." Roxas scowled.

"'M not!" he argued. "I just haven't been drinking in a while," he explained, taking the time to enunciate each word carefully. "And I haven't gotten utterly wasted in years."

"Mm, explains the stick up your ass."

"Leave my ass out of it." Roxas ordered, leaning across the table and snagging the beer out of Axel's hands. He took a pull, trying to get the sickly sweet taste out of his throat. Axel relinquished his beer without protest, signaling the server to bring two more. The blond sighed before slouching down in his seat and licking the remaining beer off his lips. Axel's eyes fixated on the movement before he looked away, clearing his throat. "This would be a tie-down night." Roxas stated - more to break the awkward silence than anything else. He winced when he realized what he had just said. Since when did his mouth speak without permission from his brain?

"Tie-down night?" Axel asked, eyebrow arching. Roxas sighed.

"It's what my college friends used to call it. It's when you get so wasted that you wake up the next morning tied to the bed and your clothes are missing." He explained. He was glad that the alcohol had caused his face to flush, otherwise the slow, lascivious grin spreading across the pyro's face would have had him beet red.

"Why Roxas, how very kinky of you. Have a lot of those, did you?" the red-head leered.

"Not me!" Roxas snapped, wishing he could disappear into the booth cushions. "But it happened often enough to my friends."

"Too bad," Axel sighed, tossing his head back as he took a swig of beer. Roxas stared at his neck, mentally reminding himself not to crawl over the table and into his friend's lap. "I'm sure you would have been quite the experience." Axel mused. Roxas snorted, resting his head on the table.

"How do you know? For all you know, I could still be quite the experience." Realizing what he just said, Roxas groaned before pushing himself back into a sitting position. Axel sat frozen, his beer caught halfway to his mouth. His eyes were fixed on the smaller boy, pupils blown wide and expression unreadable. Roxas' heart froze in his chest before beginning to beat double-time. "I think I've had enough to drink," he stated, digging for his wallet. "What do I owe you?" Axel shook his head while setting his drink down on the table and when he looked at Roxas again, his eyes were back to normal.

"I'll pay," he stated, disappearing from the booth. By the time he returned Roxas had managed to scoot his way to the end of the booth and was trying to convince his legs to support his weight. Axel hefted him out of his seat, wrapping an arm around his waist to help support him as they made their way to the door.

"I'm drunk," Roxas stated, stumbling against the taller boy. "I never get drunk."

"I believe I told you that that explained why you had a stick up your ass." Axel stated, stopping to re-adjust his grip on the blond's waist.

"And I believe I told you to leave my ass out of it," he responded, stumbling once more against the red-head as he tugged the blond along and jesus had Axel's body always been this warm? Axel let out a long suffering sigh as Roxas tripped and sent both of them sprawling onto the pavement. They'd never get home at this rate. Standing and finally deciding fuck it, Axel summoned a portal. Lifting the shorter boy back onto his feet, he dragged him back to the Organization.

Roxas woke with a pounding headache and instantly resolved to kill his best friend. The only thing that brightened the day was the fact that he had been too drunk to dream the night before and a sticky note had been placed on his radio alarm clock declaring, in Axel's scrawl, that the blond had been given a sick day to recuperate from a twenty-four hour flu virus. Maybe he wouldn't kill the red-head...but he would savagely beat him. Tomorrow. After the room quit listing about like a ship at sea. Roxas moaned and pulled the covers back over his head.

The next time he woke up it was to the near-silent noise of someone trying to pick his lock. He huffed in annoyance - knowing full well who that 'someone' was - before padding across the room and yanking the door open. He snickered as Axel flailed before regaining his balance.

"That'll teach you to try and break and enter." Axel shot a glare at him.

"See if I try to bring you food again," he stated, holding up a plastic bag with 'Way to the Dawn' printed on it. Roxas gave it a cursory glance, more focused on what was sitting innocuously on the floor.

"Is that coffee?" Roxas demanded. Axel smirked and the blond scowled at him. "Keep smiling, but there will come a day when coffee will no longer save you," he muttered darkly, grabbing the proffered cup. He turned back into his room, leaving Axel to scramble off the floor and deal with the food.

"Are you this pleasant to your other guests?" Axel asked, pulling two take-away boxes out of the bag. He popped one open and glanced inside before handing it to the blond. Roxas grabbed it from his spot on his bed, ignoring Axel as the red-head sprawled in his desk chair.

"Consider it payback for the hangover I have today, asshole." Roxas replied amicably. He tentatively took a bite of his scrambled eggs. Closing his eyes, he sighed in relief when he didn't have to run for the bathroom. When he re-opened them he found Axel looking at him - the unreadable expression from the bar on his face. "What?"

"Nothing," he stated, turning his attention back to his sandwich. Roxas' eyes narrowed.

"You're not pulling that shit. What?" Axel sat back in the desk chair with a sigh. His eyes skittered around the room before landing on the only photograph in it. It had been snapped at last year's Halloween party. He, Axel, Demyx, and Zexion had been sitting in a group on the fountain's edge in Hollow Bastion. Demyx had been grinning widely at the photographer, an arm tossed around Zexion, who looked less than impressed. But Axel's attention was focused solely on the small blond. Roxas couldn't remember what they had been talking about but he remembered that he and Axel had spent the majority of the party huddled together on the fountain wall, Roxas talking in low tones and Axel listening and watching him intently. A small smile creeped onto the pyro's face as he stared at the photograph.

Roxas glanced from Axel's face to the photograph. His eyes raked over the picture, taking in the details of the photograph. His attention was arrested at the emotions on Axel's face and Roxas wondered just how long the red-head had been looking at him like that. He swallowed at the realization - his mouth suddenly dry. "Did you know," Axel began, eyes not moving from the picture, "that you can make your dreams happen while you're stuck in the machine?" Roxas felt like he had been punched in the gut as the second realization hit him. "I didn't want to tell you because you were so annoyed by it," he explained softly, finally moving his gaze from the picture to Roxas. The blond's gaze stayed locked on Axel's eyes in the photograph, taking in how green they were behind his Zorro mask. "I knew you were straight, but I thought you knew..." The red-head crumpled his trash, shoving it into the plastic bag before moving to stand. Roxas moved faster.

"You're an idiot," he stated, pinning the taller man to the desk chair; his knees were on either side of Axel's hips, his hands clutching the collar of Axel's shirt. "You're a complete asshole and that Zorro dream was positively horrible, Axel." The red-head laughed in surprise, his hands moving to Roxas' waist to help steady the blond.

"What? You mean..." Axel trailed off, his eyes searching the blond's face. "But I thought...what changed your mind?" Roxas could feel the blush rising and he turned his face away. A slow grin made it's way onto Axel's face. "Why Roxas -"

"Shut up," Roxas interrupted. "Just...shut up." Axel kissed him in compliance.

~End~