Disclaimer: KH does not belong to me.
AN: Please review! I will bake you cookies!
Warning: Yaoi! Yay!

Footballs arcing gracefully over the field, happy shouts from excited high school students, everyone wearing their periwinkle gym uniforms… As far as Cloud Strife, high school gym teacher extraordinaire, could tell, class today was perfect. Almost. Cloud narrowed his eyes as he spotted his least favorite student trudging across the fields from the locker rooms, his fiery red hair sticking out everywhere regardless of the Gym Class rule that long hair must be contained. And those shorts – while he had grudgingly agreed to wear the periwinkle blue t-shirt, he outright refused to wear the shorts, opting for illogically long, swishy black shorts instead. Cloud winced as he watched the boy spit out his gum into the grass.

No regard for the rules… He's hopeless anyway, who is pathetic enough to fail their Junior year twice! Well…

As the student got closer, Cloud eyed his shirt. While his name was partially in the name box, he had scrawled "Axel" much too big to be contained in the modest space which, Cloud pointed out to himself, was supposed to have the student's last name.

He doesn't even have the decency to drop out and do us all a favor. Once again, who gets stuck putting up with the brat when he doesn't feel like playing softball! Mr. Strife! Or when he switches all the locks in the locker room? Who gets to go in with the codes and set them all back? Mr. Strife! Or how about that time he –

"Hey Strifey, looks like good ol' football today, huh?"

Cloud was jolted out of his inner ranting monologue by the smirking teen, who had finally made it across the field.

"Everyone already has a partner for throwing and catching drills, since they bothered to get here on time, so I guess you'll have to sit out and I'll be forced to give you a zero for today's class," he hissed. "Go sit by the side and wait for the bell. And don't bother the other students."

"What if I want to play football?"

"Perhaps you should have thought about that before you were twenty minutes late. Now go sit."

After giving Cloud a withering look, Axel traipsed over to the sidelines. However, he did manage, much to Cloud's dismay, to spend the entire rest of class shooting down the other students' footballs with little fireballs. When the bell rang, he shot Cloud a frighteningly sunny grin and followed the crowd of students back into the locker room.

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"Ugh…"

Axel grimaced as he entered the locker room, which had over the course of 45 minutes achieved roughly the same climate as a tropical rainforest and roughly the same smell as a kennel. Pushing his way through the hordes of sweaty boys, he finally reached his gym locker. He had wisely picked a less crowded row at the beginning of the year, so he had room to change. He opened up his locker, then attempted to get out of his too-small gym shirt. He had been planning on not bothering with buying the gym uniform, but 2 weeks into the year Mr. Strife had forced him to get one, and the only shirts left were girls' smalls. It wouldn't have been so bad, since Axel was pretty skinny, but the shirt was a little short, leaving about an inch of exposed skin between the top of his shorts and the end of the shirt. And then there was the other problem. Every time Axel tried to get his gym shirt on or off, it got stuck on his hair. Getting it on was one thing, he could just mash all his hair through. But when it came to taking it off, the shirt always got stuck on his head. He yanked extra hard and finally managed to pull the shirt away from his unruly hair, which immediately sprung back to its regular shape with a soft whooshing sound.

"How do you sleep?"

Axel ignored the voice nearby, assuming whoever it was was talking to someone else. After all, everyone else in his classes was 2 years younger than him, as they had not been held back. This was precisely why he wasn't particularly excited to be in a sauna-type room with a bunch of half-naked boys… They were all 16, and short, and stupid. After a moment he realized the blob in his peripheral vision was one of said boys, and had been addressing him. He turned to look at the blob, who was surprisingly… cute.

"I-I'm sorry, that was probably really rude, never mind," the former blob said, turning slightly red under his mess of blond hair. He looked up apologetically.

Damn. Axel studied the boy's eyes. They looked familiar. Really familiar.

"Hey, you must be Sora's brother, aren't you?" he asked, realizing where he had seen that face. "He's a senior now, right?"

The boy nodded. "I'm Roxas."

Roxas… Well Roxas, you are absolutely fuckable.

"I, uh, didn't hear what you were saying before. What did you want?"

"Oh, it was nothing," Roxas mumbled, blushing more. "I-I just wondered how you sleep… With your hair, you know? Wouldn't it… I-I dunno…"

Oh. So you're cute but dumb.

Axel tried not to laugh. "I-are you serious? It's-it's just hair, it just, you know, mashes down."

"Oh."

An awkward silence ensued, during which time Roxas became painfully aware of his lack of a shirt, due to Axel's not-so-discreet staring. After a few moments of evaluation, Axel finally spoke.

"Listen, I've got next period free and you're pretty cute, so uh… wanna fuck in the showers?" he asked, gesturing toward the locker room showers that no one ever used.

Roxas turned beet red and immediately began to dress at top speed. "N-no thanks, I-I'm not really into that sort of thing…"

"What, you're not into other guys?"

"N-no, that's not it, it was more the-the doing, well, you know, in-in the school showers with a total stranger," he replied, grabbing his backpack and heading for the door.

What was wrong with this kid? Axel had never been rejected before. It was his wolfish good looks and charm! They never failed! He hurried after Roxas, who was quickly making his escape.

Axel managed to catch up to him halfway down the hall and get a hold on his arm.

"Hey hey hey, where are you running off to?" he asked indignantly, holding on tightly as Roxas tried to shake his arm free.

"I have a class," said Roxas, looking sullen and upset. "And I don't even know you. Let go of me, dammit!"

"Well aren't we suddenly feisty?" Axel fumed, pointedly not letting go. "You don't just walk away from someone in the middle of a conversation. Anyway, fine, when's your free period?"

"Let go of me!" Roxas whined, clawing at Axel's kung-fu grip.

"What is your problem!"

"I won't have sex with you!" Roxas cried loudly, bursting into tears. "Let go of me…"

Everyone in the hall seemed to stop what they were doing to see the spectacle: A tall redheaded boy wearing gym shorts and no shirt holding onto a sobbing little blond boy who was small enough to be mistaken for a freshman.

Holy shit, is he really crying! God dammit…

Axel had never been comfortable around crying people. He let go of Roxas's arm and tentatively patted his shoulder.

"Come on now, don't cry," he stammered, suddenly feeling not only confused but guilty. "I didn't mean to… scare you or whatever…"

Axel's lame words of comfort were not helping. Roxas just stood there, continuing to sob. Looking around, Axel realized that everyone in the area was shooting him death glares.

"Come on," he said, taking Roxas's arm again and dragging him into a nearby broom closet.

"Ohmygod, ohmygod, he's going to rape me…"

"Oh shut up," said Axel, shoving Roxas down to sit on an overturned bucket. He leaned down to look at his face. "I'm not raping you, so just-just calm down and stop crying, would you?"

Roxas sniffed unhappily but the tears stopped, which was good enough for Axel.

"Do you always make scenes like that?"

Roxas glared up at Axel. "At least I don't hit on younger guys in the locker room."

"At least," Axel hissed, grabbing Roxas's collar, "At least I don't start crying in the middle of a crowded hallway for no reason whatsoever!"

"You're the one half naked in the middle of the 'crowded hallway!'" Roxas retorted loudly, standing on the bucket so he could be face-to-face with the other boy.

"You ran away from me!"

"You're practically stalking me!"

"You asked me some dumb question as an excuse to talk to me and then acted all surprised when I suggested what you were obviously wanting and-and then cried!"

Roxas looked close to tears again. "I was scared," he said quietly, glaring at the older boy.

"Well I'm sorry, ok? I just wanted to talk to you. God, what do you want me to do, make it up to you somehow?"

Roxas's eyes lit up. "Yes. That's a good idea."

"What?" Axel looked dumbfounded, then suspicious. "What do you want me to do?"

"Do you have a car?"

Axel snorted. "You cannot have my car, kid. You're not that cute."

"Don't call me kid. I just need a ride after school someplace, and I was going to have to walk but…"

"Are you serious?"

Roxas looked up at Axel hopefully.

His eyes are so damn blue… Axel was suddenly aware of how small the broom closet was and how close they were. He studied Roxas's face – his nose was red and his eyes were puffy from crying, and his cheeks were still wet from the tears. His lip was bleeding a little, Axel assumed because he had been biting it earlier in the locker room out of nervousness. But he was just too damn cute.

"Your lip is bleeding," he noted.

"I know."

Axel narrowed his eyes, then sighed. "Fine, I'll meet you outside the front of the school at 3:15. If you're late, I'm leaving."

He didn't stick around to hear Roxas's response, instead opening the door and striding purposefully back to the locker room to get dressed.

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Meanwhile…

Sora loved having 3rd period free. Partially because midmorning was the best time to relax outside when it wasn't cold or rainy, and partially because his best friend Riku also had 3rd period free, and Riku was the coolest person in the world.

Riku loved having 3rd period free as well, mostly because Sora was there. Having the innocent brunet around during free period was great for two reasons: he gave Riku an excuse not to do homework, and he gave Riku something adorably sexy to watch for an hour.

Currently, Riku was hauling his backpack out to the tree he and Sora usually hung out under when the weather was nice. He spotted Sora already waiting there, laying in the sun beside the tree with his hands laced into a pillow behind his head and his eyes lightly shut. The sunlight filtered through his chestnut hair, showing the subtle highlights Sora had developed from hanging around outside all the time.

As Riku approached Sora, his eyes flickered open and his mouth spread into a wide grin.

"Hey Ri!" he called, sitting up and brushing the grass off of his back.

Riku nodded a hello and dropped his disgustingly heavy backpack at the base of their tree before laying down in the grass beside Sora. Riku grimaced upon setting his head down.

"Sora, the ground is so hard it hurts your head! How are you just laying there all comfortable?" he asked, incredulous that his friend hadn't developed a migraine just from the ground.

Sora patted the ground gently. "It's got a little give to it, it's just your dumb thick skull."

Riku shoved him jokingly and laughed. "Shut up, So, and lay back."

Sora did as he was told, and Riku turned to use his friend's stomach as a pillow. Once he got settled, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Ahh, now that's what I'm talking about. Nice soft, pillowy abs. Or lack thereof."

Sora snorted and smacked his friend's shoulder. "They're not pillowy, they're just not all six-pack-y like yours."

"I do not have a six pack."

"Yea you do, you totally do!"

"I wish I had a six pack," said Riku, poking idly at his stomach. "I've just got four. I'm getting there."

"Four pack my ass, there were six last time I checked," said Sora.

"Oh, you've checked, have you?"

"Well, what else am I supposed to do when I'm done changing and you're standing around trying to pick out a shirt to wear?" Sora said, laughing for a moment before stopping suddenly and realizing what he had said.

Riku gave a half-hearted laugh and studied his friend's face intently. Was Sora finally realizing his inner adorable gay boy? Was this the right time to finally make a move? Riku sat up a bit, leaning closer to Sora's face in the hopes that maybe this was a good sign.

Sora giggled and scooted away, grinning. "Just kidding, Ri! What, didja think I had a little crush on you or something? Ha ha! Ha!"

Foiled again, Riku pretended Sora wasn't laughing quite so maniacally and rolled his eyes. "Loser."

Sora desperately tried to figure out why he had just said that. Take deep breaths, Sora! Breathe innnnnn, breathe outttt… Ha! Ha! Good thing I covered it up, otherwise-otherwise he would-would… Sora couldn't bear the thought of what would happen if Riku found out he had a crush on him. He'd probably ditch Sora, no longer wanting to hang out with him if he knew the skinny brunet wanted more. It's not like Riku couldn't get a guy if he wanted to, and Sora was just positive that Riku would never be interested in little old him that way. His only hope, he had decided, was to remain close friends with Riku, covertly gape in awe at his finely toned muscles and pretty shiny hair, and… figure out another way to relieve his intense sexual frustration.

Riku internally cursed while he watched Sora's face go from Nervous Laugh to Stay Calm to Pretend Everything's Cool to Ooh, That's A Pretty Ladybug to Normal. What a tease…

Sora poked at the ladybug he had found with a stick and watched it intently. "Look Ri," he whispered. "Look what I found!"

Riku sighed and climbed over Sora's legs to look at the ladybug. "Nice, it's like the size of my fingernail!"

Riku let his hopes fall. Today would be a Ladybug day, not a Steamy Makeout Session Under the Tree Day. Oh well, he thought. Maybe next week…