All friends started out as strangers first. Axel x Roxas. (For Triptic)

This one shot is dedicated to Triptic who created one of the most awesome music videos I have ever seen. The links up in my profile, check it out yo!

It started with a click.

You know? A click of the mouse.

Like, how your curiosity got the best of you and you just couldn't resist and you just had to do it because your fingers wouldn't listen to the better part of you and you sort of wanted to rebel and try it out anyways.

That, was how it started.

All with just a simple click of the mouse.

Into an online chat-room with some strangers. Some he hit it off straight away, like those guys who had roughly the same interests as him, and others, he felt was very necessary to avoid, like the guys who said some dodgy things and claim it was funny…

It was not funny.

But anyways, that was his first time and very last time going into an online chat-room with people he hardly knew. He had spent a good two hours in it, just chatting about random things with random people. But after those two hours were up, there was only one person that he liked out of the whole bunch.

But they said their goodbyes and never met each other (online) again. Until this one time when his brother, Sora, decided to have a go at it.

Roxas had to sit by him to make sure that Sora didn't do anything stupid. Like hand out personal information and what not. He had a tendency to do that. But never on purpose though. He thought he was just being friendly.

But Sora, that guy was being over friendly. Use your stinking brain.

The blond resisted to smack his forehead as his brother happily tapped away on the keyboard with a grin on his face. He had just exchanged his email address with two people in the chat-room in a private message box and Roxas wondered if that really was such a good idea.

But it was a little too late to take back those typed up words.

And then somebody else joined the chat-room. The blond vaguely recalled the name but he didn't think too much into it until the catchphrase of 'Got it Memorized' was typed.

Who could actually forget that?

So after a bit of convincing and some slight amount of begging, Sora was ushered off into his room where his games were and Roxas was back on the computer chatting with the guy who thought himself to be a bit of a pyro.

But then again, there was a little bit of a pyro in everyone.

-Fancy seeing you again.-

He typed up and pushed the enter button. Roxas never really got used to using internet lingo. He felt it was probably better if he didn't try to shorten a word down to one letter or three letters or by their phonetics.

-Err…who are you?-

Roxas rolled his eyes and shook his head as he quickly typed out another reply. It was sad really, how he remembered him but he didn't remember him. You get what I mean?

-A shame that you don't remember me.-

-Give me a clue?-

The blond felt a smile creep up on his face as he tapped on the keyboard and then smacked the enter button with a quick flick of his finger.

-Starts with R.-

There was a pause. A pause which could easily be confused as a moment of thought. And then a reply appeared.

-Oh come on, a lot of people's name starts with R.-

Roxas laughed and the other person started guessing until he finally hit the right one. Took him a good five minutes, and he had guessed every name possible starting with R. But at least the other guy knew that Roxas was a guy himself and didn't guess any girly names.

They continued to chat to each other until Sora came back in with a pout on his face saying that he wanted to use the computer as well.

"Five more minutes Sora, I'll be quick."

The brunet continued to pout but there was a hint of a smile coming on as well.

The blond turned back to the computer and hastily typed in a reply.

-I have to go. My brother wants to use the computer.-

But instead of receiving a goodbye like you'd usually get, his departure was lengthened by a little bit more.

-So like, this is the second time we've met online, I'd like to think of it as fate. More or less.-

The blond raised an eyebrow. He wasn't that big of a believer in fate or destiny. But another reply appeared just before he got his fingers to touch the start of the sentence.

-Would it be too much to ask for an email address?-

It took a moment for Roxas to think about it. And he finally agreed and exchanged email addresses when Sora started to make little whiny noises by the door.

Hey, gotta live a little right?

And besides, if Sora can do it, so could he.

They emailed each other every so often. Sometimes, if the timing was right, they'd talk to each other online. But most of the time, they just talked via email.

Roxas was a little wary at first, and gave nothing more than ambiguous information about himself. You know? Information that another person can't use to stalk you with.

The only thing they both knew about each other was their names and that they both go to school. Which school though, was a completely different question and answer altogether.

They talked about various things, like what they did during the day. Never once including names or anything of the like.

They talked about this one teacher they hated, talked about their favorite sports, their favorite sports team. What their favorite food is.

What?

It's not like the other person would immediately know who you are for what you eat.

-Sea salt ice cream? You've gotta be kidding me.-

-I kid you not. It's nice, have you tried it?-

Roxas had a grin on his face as he typed away.

-No, but that's besides the point. Sea salt ice cream?-

Roxas laughed a little as he typed up another reply. There was a bar of sea salt ice cream in a bowl right beside him.

-Don't knock it till you've tried it. Like I said, it's nice.-

-Sure, sure.-

They exchanged friendly banter, they debated about various things, talked about their favorite TV programs and so on and so on.

Things that another person wouldn't be able to stalk you with.

And then one day, Axel disappears.

Roxas' emails were left unanswered and he was left to wonder and ponder where the other person went.

Two weeks later, just as the blond was about to assume that he must've gotten too boring for Axel, he comes back on the computer to check that his inbox was filled to the brim with emails from the other.

And all of them said the same thing over and over again, although with different ways of saying that his computer crashed and he's very, very sorry.

-Hey, hope you didn't miss me too much.-

-And here I thought you went and got yourself kidnapped.-

Roxas joked as he looked through the other dozen of emails from Axel.

-I can totally look after myself.-

-So, your computer crashed?-

-Yeah, my friend came over and spilled some coffee over my laptop. Freaking idiot.-

-Ouch, that must've cost a bit to repair.-

Roxas looked apologetically at the screen as though the other person might've been able to see.

-No shit. But I managed to save the hard-drive although the rest of the laptop was demolished beyond repair.-

So they talked, and chatted and managed to catch up to what they've been doing in the past two weeks of each other's absence. It wasn't really much. Tests here, exams there, projects, assignments and so on and so on.

-So like, I was wondering, you know, if we could trade phone numbers. If anything like this happens again.-

-As if you'd let your friend near your computer ever again?-

-Never again, but yeah, I'd like to talk to you other times other than after school or whenever we get on the internet.-

It took a moment for Roxas to consider, but he made up his mind when he heard the doorbell ring to announce visitors to their home.

One time, when Sora was on the internet, and without the blond there to pay attention to whatever Sora typed up, Sora had presented practically every information about him to the two other people he had exchanged emails with.

Turns out that they were all the same age, went to the same school and lived just two or so streets from each other.

Riku and Kairi. Sora's newest friends. And the newest additions to the group.

Not everybody was as lucky as Sora. And Roxas knew he should've been more cautious, but he decided to take a chance anyway.

Roxas typed in his mobile number and then he took his own handheld device out to save in Axel's own number.

After that, they stopped exchanging emails, and they started texting each other in all hours of the day and night.

His English teacher drawled on as he read from a particular page of a novel. Occasionally, he raised his voice to get some attention from his class and to wake some other student who was on the verge of falling asleep. Other times, he just talked to himself while the rest of his class barely paid any attention to him.

He probably liked the sound of his own voice.

Roxas was looking outside the window when his pocket vibrated. But he ignored it until the bell rang, his bags were packed and he was halfway down the hall to the cafeteria.

-What are you doing?-

-Dude, I was in class, couldn't you have texted some other time?-

The first time they started texting each other was in the weekend. But when Monday came, Roxas got a little paranoid of taking his phone in and out of his pocket.

-I was in class too, but I got bored.-

But he got used to it. The teachers hardly cared because every two out of three students didn't give a damn anyways.

-So, what's up?-

He asked, despite already knowing the answer. It was 12 o'clock and most schools have lunch time around this time.

-On my way to lunch.-

Just as Roxas was about to punch in a reply, he turned the corner and bumped into somebody. He apologized without looking up and went along his merry way, not caring if the person was offended and wanted a fight or not.

-Cafeteria food sucks.-

-Tell me about it. I hate eating the shit they serve here. My friends think I'm a little anorexic.-

Roxas quirked up an eyebrow as he made a move to reply the text.

-Are you?-

-Hell no. I just have a high metabolism.-

-Sounds like an excuse to me.-

Roxas smirked as he pushed through the set of double door and spotted his friends sitting by the usual table and his brother accompanied by Riku and Kairi. The two newest additions to the group.

As he talked to his friends, sometimes he would stop and look at his phone to put in a reply. And every time, every single time, his friends would laugh and wonder if he's texting his girlfriend.

"As if," he scoffed at his friends, "I'm texting a guy." His friends burst out in laughter and started to tease him about being gay.

For one thing, Roxas wasn't gay.

He was bi.

He came to terms with it after he found that he thought some guys actually looked nicer than some girls. And besides, it was easier to get along with guys than it was with girls. There was a sense of understanding too.

He ignored his friends as he took his phone out from his pocket and pushed the button to bring up the next text message.

-It's so annoying to sit by a group of people who laugh non-stop.-

Roxas didn't think too much into it.

-There's always one or two in every school. What makes you think you're so special?-

-Ouch, burn…Why do you have to bring me down like that?-

-Call me sadistic or whatever.-

He went back to talking to his friends, not once looking at the next table over at the person who laughed or chuckled at his phone.

The end of the school year came and he received a text from Axel. They've known each other for roughly half a year now.

-Hey, I just graduated! Goodbye high school, hello college.-

-Congrats, but now I don't feel so comfortable texting to a college student.-

Roxas smiled and made sure to read his text over again for anything offensive before he sent it.

-Aw, don't be like that. I'm still your friend.-

-Yeah, yeah. Just be sure not to get so busy that you forget about me.-

-As if I could ever forget you.-

The blonds' smile widened as he read the text and then they spent the rest of the night texting to each other about their future plans.

What?

It's not like they're not friends right? Friends share information.

Although this was a weird sort of friendship going on here.

For the next few days and throughout the week, Axel's replies were sort of short and sparse in between. He was busy looking at colleges and trying to find which one was the best.

Roxas had told him that he should've done it way before he graduated. But Axel said he was the last minute sort of guy.

After all, nothing ever goes wrong if you haven't got anything planned right? Spontaneous decisions are usually pretty good.

But apparently, not this time.

-Ok, turns out I gotta take one more year of school because some bastard decided to change the pre-requisites to get into the course.-

Roxas held back a not-so-sympathetic laugh as he texted in a reply.

-Ouch…sucks to be you.-

-Yeah well, I'm sure you'd be happy, if you knew what school I go to and I knew you personally.-

Roxas knew exactly what the other person was trying to say, or was hinting, but he resisted in supplying that much.

-Too bad. Have you talked to the principle yet?-

-Yeah, I'm just doing part time schooling now. I'll just be going to school for the subjects I need to take to get into my damn course.-

-Have fun.-

But over the course of the next few days, his own replies and texts messages to Axel were short and few in between. He had been busy looking around for a holiday job. But as soon as he got one, he told Axel of his success. And left out the bits of information like where he was working and what days and what time.

-Good for you. I hope you don't get worked to death.-

-As if.-

It was weird how they treated each other. Like they were friends at the same time they were strangers.

Roxas was at work now, and he wore his café's black collar shirt with the shop's logo where his heart was along with black pants, a small black apron with a pocket at the front to put in notepads, pencils, and other belongings. He also had to wear black, leather lace up shoes.

It wouldn't do if you accidentally spilled hot coffee all over the floor and then your sport shoes absorbed up all the hot liquid and you'd be jumping all over the floor in pain.

Don't laugh. It happened a few times because some employees got lazy.

They also used to have nametags but after a few harassment cases, the name tags were ditched and the manager lost himself a few female employees.

The café was a pretty modern place. With a cool and chic atmosphere. The prices of the food and drinks were a bit expensive, but it was still worth it.

Roxas would know, since he would eat it every time he worked and he used his staff discount to his advantage. Fifty percent off for anything and everything on the menu.

Total score…

Roxas busied himself with wiping and cleaning up the front counter top when a stranger came in through the front door and looked up the menu board to decide what he wanted to eat. And as soon as the blond was done, the stranger was ready.

"Hey, can I get a…tall cinnamon frappachino and a err…blueberry muffin please?" he asked after he looked back and forth the line of food behind the glass windows and pointed at the said item.

"Of course." He replied politely and averted his eyes away from the stranger's outrageous red hair as he punched in the codes into the cash register, "Is that for have-here?"

At first, he had always asked if they wanted to 'Eat here or takeaway' but his manager slash boss corrected him saying that you don't 'eat' coffee and takeaway sounds damn cheap.

It was sort of true.

Because you tend to associate takeaways with fast food restaurants now. Not quaint cafés.

"Oh no, it's to-go." The stranger spoke as he brought out his wallet with one hand while the other reached up to his cheek to scratch at his tattoos before he flipped the wallet open and handed over a twenty.

"Ok sir. That'll be $8.50 please." He spoke as he took the cash and gave the correct change before he got started on the drink.

Once he started working here, they put him straight to coffee work because they needed more people now that the holidays started. It took him a good week or so to get use to the coffee machine but after that, he was confident enough that he didn't need any help or assistance anymore.

He liked that he was a quick learner.

So into the clear, tall-sized coffee cup goes a shot of espresso with a dash of cinnamon flavoring, frothed up milk and whipped cream with a sprinkling of cinnamon dust and covered up with a clear, oval plastic top.

And after he was done with the drink, he picked up a paper bag with the shop's logo printed on it, used a pair of metal tongs to grab a blueberry muffin, tucked in a serviette to go with it then handed it over to the stranger.

"Thank you for ordering at Kupo Kafe." He smiled as the stranger took it with a wild smile of sorts.

"Right. Kupo to you too." He smirked as he gave a two fingered salute to the boy then exited.

He watched as the red head stood outside for a moment to grab something from his pocket. His mobile phone.

Roxas turned his eyes away and went around the counter to clean up some tables because somebody was being lazy and decided to go take a break early.

Stupid Tidus…He's not fit for a job like this. The bleached blond much preferred to spend his holidays just playing sports. But he needed some money to spend on either himself or his girlfriend.

The blond felt something in his apron vibrate but he resisted the urge to look at it until his break came.

There was still about half an hour more to go before his break started. Hopefully, Tidus would be back by then. If not, then…he'll be demanding some extra pay soon for working overtime.

-Quick, make an excuse for me.-

Roxas stared at his phone quizzically before he replied.

-Why?-

-I don't wanna go to work today.-

Roxas laughed. And here he thought it was because he got in trouble. Not because Axel wanted to ditch work.

-Lazy bum. Get off your lazy ass and get to work.-

-…You're mean.-

-Boohoo, I'll cry you a river when I care.-

He didn't mean to sound so…what's that word? Offhanded, that's right. He didn't mean to sound so offhanded about it, but he just sort of felt, out of it today.

-You don't care?-

-Not at the moment, no.-

He didn't mean to sound so…mean either.

-What's up?-

How did the situation do a 180 degree turn to him? He had no idea. But Axel had the tendency to do that sometimes. Switch the tables around, or something like that.

-Don't wanna talk about it.-

-Come on, we're friends right? And friends talk to each other.-

They were still strangers, but in a friendly sort of way.

-Why don't you guess?-

And then maybe Roxas could go along with it and lie. It's not like anybody would care right?

But at the same time, he sort of wished somebody would care.

Today was supposed to be important to him. And yet, it started out normal like any other day. It'll probably end like any other normal day as well.

-Your cat died?-

The blond snorted.

-I'm allergic to cats.-

-Oh…well, that sucks. How about…your girlfriend didn't want to spend time with you?-

Roxas quirked up an eyebrow.

-Don't have a girlfriend.-

-You're shitting me! I thought you did.-

-I don't.-

And the blond had really hoped that he didn't 'sound' rude.

-You got rejected for a date?-

Roxas scoffed and replied with a negative.

And throughout the next few minutes, Axel continued guessing and his questions got more and more bizarre each and every time until Roxas finally told him to stop. But Axel continued to prod.

-Seriously, just tell me what's wrong.-

Roxas didn't want to flat-out tell him, so he decided to go with ambiguous terms.

-You know? That one special day that only comes once a year and nobody remembers? It kind of sucks.-

Axel didn't reply, and Roxas was just about to leave it and go for a shower when his phone started to ring. He had assumed that it would be Olette asking about homework, or Hayner trying to compare some answers when he was really copying them.

But he hadn't expected Axel to be the one calling him.

He looked at his phone in a mixed look of awe and shock. But really now, why would Axel be phoning him?

He didn't proceed to think about it when he picked it up and answered it, "Hello?"

"Hey Roxas, happy birthday from Axel."

He swallowed whatever got stuck in his throat and managed out in a soft voice, "…Thanks."

"You know, I could've gotten you a present or something, but yeah."

"Oh no, that's fine. But thanks anyways." He smiled into the phone.

They spent half an hour on the phone Axel had to go, saying that he probably already used up all his free minutes or something. But Roxas didn't mind.

This was probably one of the best birthday present he had ever received. But the blond didn't think of it that way.

And once they hung up, Roxas only vaguely recalled that the voice sounded familiar. But he didn't dwell too much into it.

Roxas was surprised the next morning with a shout from his brother who apologized repeatedly for forgetting his birthday.

"I'm so sorry! I can't believe I forgot! I mean, we're brothers!!" he cried out as he paced around the room like a distressed mother who lost her child in the supermarket.

"Chill Sora. It's not like we're twins or anything."

Sora was older by a year. More or less. But he still acted like he was one or two years Roxas' junior.

"No, but still. As your brother, it's an unwritten rule that birthdays are supposed to be remembered!"

"Yeah well, you remembered now." He pointed out as he sat up on the bed and rubbed his eyes awake.

"It's too late!!!"

"It's never too late."

"You're right! We can do something today! What do you wanna do? Where do you wanna go? Let's have a surprise birthday party! Oh crap, I'm not supposed to say that."

Roxas laughed as his brunet counterpart had a hand over his mouth for accidentally spilling. But then again, it's not like it was planned yet anyways.

The blond ended up spending the whole day out with Sora and friends who bought whatever the blond wanted. It was a little unorthodox but it was still sort of nice.

And when night came, he and the whole family went out to a restaurant for dinner.

Their parents also apologized for forgetting his birthday, because they were both busy at work, and for a while, Roxas felt content the way he was.

The waiter came and took their orders.

Roxas only vaguely recalled him as the guy who ordered a cinnamon frappachino and a blueberry muffin at the café of which he worked once. He didn't know why he remembered it so clearly. Must've been because of the shocking red hair.

They seemed to recognize each other, but they merely gave a nod and a look of acknowledgement. Nothing more than that.

After all that, everything was the way it was again. With the exception of a phone call from Axel every once in a while.

But before he could even blink his eyes, the holidays were over and the new school year started again. He was in his senior year. One more year to go before college. Roxas still hadn't decided on what course he wanted to do. Which was pretty hypocritical of him whenever he thought about Axel and what happened to him. But he still had a year to go before he had to do anything about it.

Maybe that's what Axel had been thinking as well.

-Man…coming back to school is weird now. All my friends have graduated and I'm stuck back here.-

-Poor you.-

-Oh, and you finally decided to show that you care? I'm so flattered.-

Roxas smirked and was in the middle of replying when he turned the corner and crashed into another person.

"Sorry, I-" the blond paused mid-way of apologizing when he looked up and noticed the familiar red hair and face.

"You!" they cried out and pointed at each other simultaneously.

The red head coughed into his hand that was holding onto a mobile while the other scratched his tattoo, "Wow…it's a small world isn't it?"

"Yeah." He agreed, somewhat breathlessly.

"Yeah…I guess I'll see you around huh?"

"Yeah." Roxas almost smacked his forehead for sounding like such an idiot.

And just when he was halfway to the cafeteria, he received another text.

-You wouldn't believe what happened to me just now. I just bumped into this guy I saw at work once. I can't believe that we actually go to the same school.-

Roxas processed the words into his head. He had just bumped into another guy that he saw from work once just seconds ago too. It couldn't be...maybe it was just a coincidence.

-Come back.-

Roxas had texted without thinking about it.

-Say what?-

-Come back, go back to that spot where you bumped into that guy.-

His heart was pulsing with adrenaline and it was so strange and exciting at the same time. It was so weird, how they were in the same school together. At a certain point, probably only two seats away from each other in the cafeteria. Probably not even five classes away.

Roxas waited, at the same spot, at the corner between two hallways, his palms sweating, and when he saw the red head, he took a chance and shouted out his name.

"Axel!"

The red head turned and stared. And Roxas merely waved with an awkward grin of sorts.

The red head continued to stare until somehow, all the pieces clicked in his head and he uttered out one word, "Roxas…?"

"Yeah."

His friend for over half a year and no longer strangers.

Axel let out an awkward sort of chuckle, "Wow…the world really is smaller than I thought..."

"Yeah, tell me about it huh?" he laughed at himself.

"So all this time we've been going to the same school and probably not even two seats from each other in the cafeteria? This has got to be some sort of divine intervention of fate or destiny or something." He spoke as he raised a hand to scratch the tattoo on his face.

Roxas laughed.

He really wasn't that big of a believer in fate or destiny. But he was willing to make an exception for Axel.

Damn, it was all luck and chance whenever they met. Too bad they didn't know each other enough. Lawls.

Hope y'all liked.