Roxas decided he no longer liked Gongaga Trail when his last chocobo was bitten by a plague-carrying Tonberry, causing the simultaneous death of his entire party.

He closed out of the game with a huff, glancing to the clock and realizing that his father had probably been home for over an hour. He leaned back in his chair, arms above his head in a stretch and shoulders popping loudly when he arched his back. Shaking himself to work out any kinks he'd gotten from hunching over the computer for the past two hours, Roxas stood up and padded out of his room.

"For the love of Hyne, Sinclaire, put the hooker back on the phone, she's more sober than you are." Roxas' face split into a grin when he saw Cloud's best friend, Zack, sitting on the couch with his legs propped on Cloud's thighs and making wild gesticulations as he spoke on his cell. Both men looked as if they'd just recently gotten back from work, their ShinRa uniforms still intact and everything. Roxas headed over to the couch to greet the SOLDIER when a black blur shot out from the kitchen and tripped him up. With a shriek, Roxas reached out madly to try and grab ahold of something as he fell backwards. His left hand clawed at the wall with his descent before the blond found himself staring at the ceiling with a pained grimace.

"Roxas?" Cloud peeked over the back of the couch, the muted television illuminating his amused expression as Roxas pushed himself into a sitting position. "You okay there, kid?" Roxas nodded, one hand clutching the back of his head. He glanced around, noticing the empty dog bed in the corner of the room and a black tail disappearing around the couch.

"Is that a cat? If that's a cat, then where's Max?" Standing, Roxas headed over to the couch to try and find the hiding feline. Cloud nodded his head towards the hallway.

"Max is in the laundry room. It's not a cat." As he spoke, Cloud gave Zack's socked big toe an angry pinch, smacking the underside of the man's foot when it wiggled affectionately on Cloud's thigh while Zack continued to talk on the phone. Roxas gave both men an odd look, opting to sit down on the loveseat nearby as Cloud flipped through the channels until settling on the TV Guide station. Roxas leaned back into the cheap leather, rolling his shoulders.

"Dad home ye- what the FUCK?" He jerked his feet up, holding his legs to his chest as what he'd previously thought was a cat skittered across the wood floor after stepping on his feet. "Is- is that an OTTER?" There was no mistaking the thick rudder of a tail and the sleek black form that was currently carrying Zack's cell phone in its mouth.

"Watch your mouth, and yes it is." Roxas turned to Cloud as Zack hung up and tossed Cloud's cell back to the blond. Cloud pocketed it into his uniform pants after a moment of fighting with Zack's feet. "What'd he say?" Zack leaned back, arms behind his head and tapping his toes together.

"Dunno, I couldn't understand what he was saying. Something about Rude, though. The hooker said we should call the humane society." Cloud pursed his lips, watching the otter take Zack's cell phone and start smacking it against the leg of the coffee table.

"I think that's for animals that weren't stolen from their homes because of a dare between two idiot ShinRa employees." Bewildered, Roxas watched the animal with a little less amusement than the two men.

"What do you mean, stolen? Does dad know?" The cell phone let out a sickening crack and the number eight rolled across the floor. The otter chirped happily, gnawing on the antenna as Roxas twisted his fingers into the fabric of his pants. "Cloud! What if it has rabies!?" Zack scoffed, wiggling his toes and earning a grimace from Cloud when he lifted his foot to poke the stoic blond in the face.

"It's from that little zoo outside of Nibel, its not gonna have rabies. Chill out, mini Spike." The dark haired man said, waving a hand at Roxas and then dropping it down near the floor to try and coax the otter over to him. The creature ignored him completely and Zack shrugged once, returning his arms back behind his head as Cloud turned the television off of mute.

"What movie do you want to watch?" Cloud asked his friend softly. Zack hummed, turning his head to scrutinize the TV Guide for a minute. "Porn?" He suggested hopefully after a moment of thought. Cloud rolled his eyes, shoving Zack's legs off of his lap as Roxas made a disgusted face and got up from the loveseat. Max was whining from the laundry room.

"I'm gonna let Max outside." He called over his shoulder, meandering to the back of the house where he could hear the retriever scratching pathetically at the door.

As soon as he opened the door, Max was running in circles with excitement. He smacked playfully at the dog's muzzle with both hands, grinning when Max wiggled his open mouth around to try and catch stray fingers. He shuffled past Max to open the back door, stumbling as the retriever shot past him and straight for the nearest vertical surface to relieve himself.

Night had already settled, and Roxas reached back into the laundry room to flick on the porch light. A few lonely stars were flickering in the sky and Roxas watched the lights of an overhead plane float through the inky blackness. He allowed his thoughts to finally wander to Axel, a frown pulling at his lips.

Axel's dad wasn't the greatest man in the world. Granted, since his mother had died, Roxas' own father had pushed himself further into his work and away from his sons, but he'd always been kind to them. Axel had grown more and more wary of Roxas coming to his house as the years had passed, until he couldn't remember the last time he'd walked into the run down mobile home with peeling wallpaper and the scent of cat litter hanging in the air.

Axel was hardly ever home anyway, but he'd always refused Roxas' offers for his friend to stay with the Strife family. Even Roxas' dad had gone as far as to extend an invitation to buy a bunk bed for Axel and Roxas to share a room, only to be politely declined by the lanky redhead.

Roxas moved to sit down on an old lawn chair that had been left on the open porch as Max ran around a squirrel infested tree. Before The Inferno had ever shown up, Roxas had thought he'd be happy just being at Axel's side. With the sudden revelation that life wouldn't always be perfect, it had given the blond a new perspective to continue strengthening his friendship with the redhead. Sure, there had been moments where the typical 'I love you, man' had been exchanged, but it had been in such a platonic fashion that Roxas would often be depressed for days afterwards.

Whistling when Max wandered too close to the neighbor's house, Roxas stood up to let the dog back inside before locking the door behind himself and flicking off the porch light. It took quite a bit of force to get the retriever to stay in the laundry room so that he wouldn't try to make a new toy out of their current visiting otter, to which Roxas ended up giving Max a warning flick on the nose to get him to behave.

The living room was dark, the only light coming from beneath Sora and his father's closed bedroom doors. Cloud was in the same position as before, though this time Zack's head was in his lap and Cloud had a hand playing idly with some stray spikes of black hair. Sounds of a fight scene were coming from the television, and Roxas walked past them to head back for his room.

He flopped onto his bed, face hitting his pillow with a grunt. His cell phone was digging into his hip, but he ignored it in lieu of releasing an obnoxiously loud groan. Granted, he knew that Cloud's job gave him a rough life, but he couldn't help but feel jealous that his brother was able to cuddle so obviously with the person he loved while Roxas was forced to lament in solitude.

Luckily for him, tomorrow was a Saturday, and he already had an arcade date lined up with Hayner, Olette and Pence. Axel would usually pop in if he was available, but it was hard to pre-plan things with the redhead when his job ordered such erratic hours.

He wrapped an arm around the pillow, moving to pull his cell phone out from under his hip and put it on his night stand. He unbuttoned the fly of his jeans, wriggling out of them as a yawn overtook him. Kicking the pants off, Roxas rolled and squirmed until he was under the covers.

At first, he tried to simply fall asleep, but his mind wouldn't keep him from every single worrying thought that could possibly be brought to his attention. Sighing, Roxas rolled out of bed to first approach his door, making sure to lock it, which wasn't a bad idea -- considering that Zack had a tendency to get lost in their house some nights and waking Roxas up when he found himself being spooned by the goofy SOLDIER.

Roxas perused his meager book shelf, pulling out an encyclopedia on comic book heroes that Axel had gotten Roxas for his fourteenth birthday and taking it to bed with him. Lying back, he cracked the large book open to a random page and began reading until sleep overtook him.

---

The following morning brought Roxas into a panicking moment of coherency when his door began to shake wildly, followed by a fist banging it with enough force that Roxas fell out of bed in an attempt to unlock the it. Clutching his comfortor just in front of his mandatory morning wood and ignoring the loud thunk of the superhero encyclopedia hitting the ground., Roxas flung open the door to to come face to face with his father's scowl.

"Roxas, how many times have I told you not to--"

"But Zack was over last night, and you KNOW he's clingy!" Roxas blurted out before his father could even finish his sentence. The man pursed his lips, raising a hand to wiggle a threatening finger in his son's face.

"You didn't do the dishes last night. I want them done before I get home from the market." He said. Ignoring the sudden twitch in his right eyelid, Roxas nodded, blinking away the blurry fatigue that plagued him on sudden wake up calls, and closed the door before his father could continue.

He tossed the quilt onto his bed and pawed around his messy room until he found a presentable set of khaki shorts, hopping around for a moment to pull them on. Ignoring his need for a shirt, Roxas slipped out of his room and down the hall, pulling open the bathroom door and slamming it shut again when he caught a glimpse of Zack in the midst of relieving himself. "Sorry!" He yelled through the wood, whirling and sneaking back to his room before anyone could spot his early morning erection that would no longer be dispelled by a quick and icy shower.

Closing his door, Roxas leaned against the cool wood, eyes falling shut as he tried to imagine as many unsexual things as possible. The first image that came to mind was when he and Axel had dared to go skinny dipping in Atlantica Lake, just outside the city.

Eyes snapping open, Roxas forced them closed again, trying instead to think of Professor Vexen in Axel's place, and somewhow coming up with the memory of walking in on Cloud and Zack. His mind and erection seemed to have different thoughts on that image, and he groaned when more blood left one head for the other one.

His cell phone ringing was enough to jar Roxas from his failure at dispelling the glaring proof of his lack of sexual activity. He headed for the vibrating device, ignoring the fleeting urge to shove it in his pants for experimentation and flipped it open. "H'lo?"

"Hey man, where are you? Is almost noon!" Hayner's indignant cry on the other end of the line had Roxas glancing to his hibernating computer. He stretched his free arm above his head, one hand moving to mess with his hair and peek across his floor in search of something suitable to wear.

"Sorry, I'll be there in an hour, I think."

"An HOUR!?" Hayner moaned over the loud sounds of the arcade. Roxas sighed into the device, snatching up one of Axel's shirts that the redhead had left and squinted at it.

"Yeah, forgot to do the dishes last night, I'll be over when I finish them. Neverland, right?" Hayner grunted an affirmitave and Roxas hung up on him to pull Axel's red tee over his head. Unlike how it fit his friend's thin body just fine, it hugged Roxas' chest and stomach like a second skin and forced a sliver of his skin to peek out between the hem of his khakis and the shirt's bottom. Roxas hiked his shorts up a bit, scowling when they fell back down on his waist.

Shrugging, he opened the door to his room, mind set on finishing up the dishes as quickly as possible and going for a half-assedly clean kitchen. Zack was lounging on the couch, flipping through Saturday morning cartoons. His normally unruly hair was pulled back into a hair band, attention more focused on the kitchen's doorway than the television.

Roxas rolled his eyes when he stepped into the kitchen to find Zack's riveting attention focused on Cloud -- who had the decency to be searching the cabinets in nothing but boxers and a faded tee -- and brushed past his brother to flick open the dishwasher and hurriedly start emptying it.

By the time he was done, the kitchen was moderately presentable for any possible guests and Roxas's fingers were pruning up. He barely gave himself enough time to scribble his location on a sticky note and slap it to his father's bedroom door before Roxas was snatching up his skateboard and gliding down the sidewalk. Roxas wasn't the most careful of boarders, considering he swerved in and out of pedestrian traffic and assaulted any nearby handrails and park benches that he crossed.

Realizing that Axel might be free of work or chores, Roxas dug out his cell phone from his pants, holding it gently in the palm of his hand until he reached a stop light. He flipped it open, thumbs darting across the keys to send a curt message to his best friend.

To: Axenator

Message:

At Arcade until 3

The crosswalk light flickered green and Roxas stuffed the open cell into his pants, allowing it to send the message without his supervision. He skated through the small cluster of people, giving himself a single kick to get over the curb ramp and back onto the sidewalk. His pants buzzed and Roxas withdrew his cell, flipping it open.

From: Axenator

Message:

lol, k. which 1?

Rozas did a double-take at the use of internet speak, and then another. It wasn't like there was many arcades around and even less that were near both Hayner's house and Roxas'. Axel should have known that. It made Roxas ponder over the question more than he probably needed to, and the blond shrugged his paranoia off with a curt shake of his head. Swerving around a set of chairs put out by a cafe, Roxas tapped back his response. He was halfway through the message when his lack of concentration had him skating right between a woman and her leashed poodle.

He stumbled, dropping his phone to the pavement with a loud crack and falling forward. His skateboard flew out from under him and his chin scraped the concrete as the dog released a strangled yelp, followed by curses from its owner. Grunting and ignoring the enraged woman, Roxas snatched up his phone, walking around the trussed up pair and grabbing his skateboard from where it had slid underneath a nearby post box. Checking his phone for damage and finding nothing but a small lens crack in the top right corner of the screen, Roxas pulled up his draft messages and hurriedly finished his reply to Axel.

To: Axenator

Message:

Which one do you think, dumbass?

Mounting his skateboard and giving the woman and her dog a short apology and a shorter wave, he continued on down the sidewalk. The arcade, luckily, wasn't far from Roxas' home, maybe a ten minute ride on his skateboard.

He was just gliding towards the entrance when his phone buzzed back at him.

From: Axenator

Message:

haha lol. my bad. sry.

Roxas scowled at the message, unable to stop the low murmur of, "What the fuck....", tucking his phone into his pocket without replying. Sometimes he worried about how rapidly Axel seemed to become infected with the stupidity of humanity. After all, it wasn't every day that Axel suddenly used 'lol', let alone twice in one conversation. If it was Hayner or Pence, Roxas wouldn't be so worried, but since Axel had more than once talked of becoming an English teacher as a back up plan if his fireman training didn't work out, Roxas felt justified in his concern. Stepping inside the Arcade with his board under his arm, Roxas strode past the DDR machine -- occupied by his classmate Zexion, who was moving frantically to some fast-paced song -- and to the counter.

"Hey Yuffie, you want to hold onto this for me?" He flashed the petite clerk his brightest smile and the Wutanese girl wibbled for a moment, stepping away from whatever she'd been doing at the register to reach over the counter and pinch his cheek.

"Anything for a cutie patootie like you~!" She cooed, taking the skateboard and setting it behind the glass counter. Roxas only grinned wider, thanking her before he turned to wander through the arcade in search of his friends. He found them easily enough once he followed the sounds of angry cursing to a racing game that Pence and Hayner were in the throes of. Roxas's smile grew as he snuck up behind the two. He motioned for Olette to keep silent and the girl covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. Roxas shifted his feet, suddenly popping his head up in between the seats with a cry of, "Hello!"

Pence shrieked, jerking his steering wheel to the side in shock and crashing his imaginary car into a very sturdy digital ice cream stand. Hayner, however, was completely unphased. The dirty blond huffed a snort of laughter at Roxas's attempt to scare the both of them and steered his car towards the finish line. Roxas rolled his eyes and turned to watch Zexion stomp away at the DDR game, crossing his arms and trying to hide his impressed look. Zexion's hair was held back out of the way with an elastic headband, his normally hidden face contorted into an intense look of concentration. Each step he took was one of precision, stamping down on the squares and lighting them up with his movements. Hayner, finished with his game, leaned over Roxas' shoulder to watch Zexion play.

"Well, now we know why he's such a skinny bastard." The blond said lightheartedly. Roxas gave a soft chuckle in agreement, turning to look at his friend and quirking an eyebrow. Hayner stared blankly back at him for a moment before recognition dawned.

"Oh! Yeah, Seifer told us to meet him at Bastion Cafe down the street around two thirty. We're gonna head over to the sandlot after that for some practice. Seif's got the equipment." Hayner explained. Roxas glanced down at his watch, guessing that they had a little over an hour to waste their time before they had to leave. He dug his hand into his back pocket, whipping out his wallet and pulling out a wad of munny.

Hayner's face lit up like a small child on Christmas morning, taking three fives and hop-skipping over to the token machine. The next hour was spent on shooting games, snowboarding games and basketball games until Roxas's wallet was considerably lighter and their arms were filled with tickets. Roxas, Pence and Olette handed their tickets over to Hayner and the two blonds approached Yuffie with twin smiles. She stared wide-eyed at the obscene number of game tickets, turning on the counting machine and slipping the first row of tickets into its mouth.

"Right. Yeah." Roxas turned when he heard Zexion speak, seeing the boy's hair back in place and a cell phone to his ear. "Tell him to stall. I'll be there soon."

Roxas quirked his eyebrow and Hayner jerked a thumb to the blue-haired boy. "Ever since he moved here, that kid's been weird." Zexion left the arcade, oblivous to the two teens conversing about him. Roxas shrugged his shoulders and Hayner turned to watch Yuffie continue to feed tickets into the counting machine. "I don't think he'd have any friends if Demyx hadn't shown up a few years ago, to be honest."

Yuffie sighed in relief as the last few tickets were counted, giving them a total of four hundred twenty eight. Hayner began pointing to everything candy-related that was in the display cases. Yuffie stared at him, turning around and heading into the back room. Roxas and Hayner looked at one another, confused. Pence sidled up next to Roxas, clapping a hand to his friend's shoulder.

"So is Hayner here buying an obscene amount of sugary goodness?" Hayner shook a fist at his friend and Roxas laughed as Yuffie returned with entire candy cases, slamming a box of airheads and bubble yum onto the counter.

"Anything else? You still have a hundred seventy credits left." Roxas watched as Haynrer contemplated his next words, eyes grazing the prize area before he shook his head.

"I'll just save those credits for another day." He said slyly, mind probably already running amok with evil sugar-induced schemes. His phone ringer went off and Hayner quickly answered it, flipping the phone open to read a new text from Seifer. He grinned, snapping it shut and nodding to Roxas.

"Lets mosey!" He and Roxas waved their goodbyes to Pence and Olette as Yuffie handed over the two boys' skateboards. They both walked out of the arcade in unison, skating down the street That was when Roxas noticed the large crowd gathered just outside Bastion Cafe.

"Foreboding crowd is foreboding." Hayner murmured sagely, just as a spurt of flame shot up in the air from inside the crowd, followed by terrified screams as people shoved their way out of the crowd. It was mass hysteria between the watching bystanders and those that chose to flee from the scene. Roxas stepped off of his skateboard, shoving his way past people and ducking around running patrons. Hayner had a hand gripped to the back of his shirt, trying not to lose track of the blond as Roxas forced his way through the crowd.

Seifer came jogging over, his bag of struggle equipment slung over a shoulder and an unhappy look on hisi scarred face. "All right kids. I'm parked behind the cafe, so lets head over there before one of us ends up on the evening news." He grabbed Hayner's free hand, tugging the blond to follow him and stopping when he realized that Hayner wasn't going to let go of Roxas and Roxas wasn't going to leave the scene.

His pale eyes were concentrated on the center of the hysteria, where the Inferno was fighting a losing battle against what seemed like half of the organization Roxas had his phone out in an instant, puling up Axel on his contact list and typing out a curt message.

To: Axenator

Message:

Inferno's in a fight. getting beat bad. im at corner of hollow n fifth, front of bastion cafe.

He sent the message, double-taking when he recognized his own voice from Axel's customized phone going off.

"Hallo. Hallo. Hallo. " Came Roxas's voice. Roxas turned his head to see a guy with short blond hair and a plethora of ear peircings on his ears pull out a cell phone and flip it open. A cell phone complete with Axel's fire red cell case and Inferno keychain. Hayner noticed it as well, because his grip went slack on Roxas's shirt as the blond turned to tell Seifer about the man with Axel's phone.

Roxas, not feeling up to waiting for Hayner's boyfriend to be the one to take action, stomped up to the pale-haired man and tried to snatch the phone. The guy pulled it away just in time, looking startled.

"What do you think you're doing with my friend's phone?" Roxas demanded, "Did you steal it from him?" This seemed to surprise the man enough that he opened and closed his mouth like gaping fish. Roxas was able to grapple for the phone this time, pocketing it without a second thought and staring the blond man down.

"I swear, if you stole more than just his cell phone, you're gonna pay." Roxas threatened, looking just about ready to add in a shaking fist for good measure when Inferno's muffled scream of pain caught his attention. Inferno was on the ground with Temptest's spear sticking into his right calf, his suit torn and bloodied. Roxas surveyed the scene with frantic eyes. Temptest, Freeshooter and another man that he didn't recognize were all surrounding Inferno. The man that Roxas hadn't seen before held out a hand to grab the spear, his hand producing ice around the entire handle. The ice shot down the length of the spear until it began to wrap around Inferno's leg and crawl up his body. Roxas's eyes went wide and he whirled around, searching frantically before his eyes landed on Seifer's bag of struggle gear. He jogged through the frantic crowd, reaching Seifer in record time.

"I need your gear," he said. Seifer opened his mouth to protest but Roxas had already pulled the bag from his shoulder and was rifling through it. He grabbed a defense-oriented bat from inside the bag, wrenching it out and turning on his heel to run back to where Inferno's entire lower half was now covered in ice. The red-clad hero was writhing in pain, his fingers scrambling frantically to try and break the frozen prison that was slowly covering his body. Roxas shoved his way through the crowd, nearly pushing Zexion over in his attempts to get to the fight. When his shoulder crashed into Zexion's, Freeshooter seemed to flicker for a moment before the man reappeared. Roxas froze, turning to look at the black-clad teenager. Zexion's face was contorted into a very unhappy scowl.

Roxas's hand shot out and shoved Zexion, sending him crashing into someone else that was running past. Freeshooter disappeared for a few more seconds and then came back. Roxas snarled, "You're one of them!" and rose a fist as if ready to punch Zexion in the face when Tsunami came running over, holding his hands out to try and pacify Roxas's rage. However, Roxas caught sight of Inferno with ice up to his chest and whirled around.

"I don't have time for this." He snapped, jumping when Zexion's thin fingered hand wrapped around his arm to stop him. Roxas shoved Zexion off, running out to Inferno with his struggle bat wielded.

Roxas never saw a man with an 'x' shaped scar on his face grab Zexion by the hair and bark orders to Tsunami, nor did he hear the threats on Zexion's life if Tsunami didn't comply. All he knew was that one minute he was raising his struggle bat to swing at the guy covering Inferno in ice, and the next his head was covered in a large bubble of water. Roxas gasped and choked, liquid filling his lungs as he coughed into the bubble. His struggle bat slipped from his grasp, clattering to the ground as water burned his eyes, nose and throat.

"No!" Inferno roared, his flames flickering again before dying out as the ice melted and covered him in more water. He couldn't seem to get a spark of anything. Roxas squinted through the water, his gaze wavering. He choked, dropping to his knees. The water bubble fell to the ground in a splash and Demyx's voice roared, "Roxas, stop!" from somewhere in the crowd. Roxas heaved, coughing up water and spitting it out before he weakly grabbed for the struggle bat, which was now covered in water and considerably heavier, given that the foam seemed to be absorbent.

He lunged for the guy icing Inferno, swinging his struggle bat at the man's head. The man turned, reflexively raising his hands and icing over the object coming at him, going pale a half second before the giant struggle bat-turned-ice club bashed into his head and knocked him clean out.

This seemed to rally the rest of the bystanders as Seifer and Hayner came running over, struggle bats at ready as they lunged for Tempest. Tempest knocked them back with a blast of air, looking startled that anyone but Inferno had dared to stand up to him. Roxas, knowing his friends would be able to hold their own in a fight, hurried over to Inferno and using the club to break away the ice that surrounded the man.

"Are you okay?" Roxas gasped out, still out of breath from his encounter with Tsunami's water bubble. Inferno grabbed Roxas by the front of the shirt, pulling him into a tight hug that had the rest of Roxas's breath rushing out of him. Roxas went completely still, his eyes wide.

Inferno pulled back, flashing Roxas a thumbs up. "Thanks, kid." He said, voice muffled by the pseudo motorcycle helmet on his head. "I needed a little warming up." Having said that, Inferno stood, shaking some excess water and ice off of his arms and shoulders and summoning a ball of fire. He turned to face the remaining organization members, only to freeze when he realized that they'd disappeared.

"Well..." Inferno began, only to have his voice overpowered by sirens. "Shit." The man cursed, looking around in a panic to try and find a way out.

"Follow me!" Roxas blurted out, grabbing the man's gloved hand and dragging him along. Seifer and Hayner, both with mild injuries, came jogging over to follow Roxas. Seifer grabbed the bag of struggle gear from where it had been discarded and they headed for the small alley behind Bastion Cafe.

"You're gonna have to take off your disguise. We've got some spare clothes with our struggle gear that you can change into." Roxas panted as they ducked behind a dumpster. Inferno went rigid, shaking his helmeted head fervently.

"No, see, I can't d-"

"Look, the cops are everywhere and even civilians are looking for you, do you want to get out of here or not?" Roxas interrupted, reaching out to take off the helmet and having his hands batted away by the red-clad man. Roxas stared at him in disbelief and a hushed 'ooooh' came from Hayner and Seifer, who were huddled behind some trashcans on the other side of the alleyway.

"I didn't just risk my life to save you only to have you slap my hand away when I'm trying to help." Roxas hissed. He was sure the Inferno blanched at that, given the way his shoulders rose and he drew his hands back closer to his body in a defensive manner.

"Look kid,-- "

"I'm seventeen, I'm not a kid." Roxas snapped, his irritation rising as the sirens grew louder. Seifer was pulling out some of his spare clothes from the gear bag, a blue shirt and black slacks, and glanced out into the street before balling them up and tossing them over to Roxas and Inferno.

Inferno scooted closer to the side of the dumpster, his pristine red suit turning a dull red from all the dust and dirt.

"Look, Rox- kid- look buddy." Inferno started, reaching out to take the spare clothes offered. "I really appreciate your help, but I work al--"

Roxas grabbed Inferno's helmet and wrenched it off his head, eyes going wide and heart freezing in his chest.

"AXEL?"

UNBETA'D

ILUGUYS. I'M WRITING KINGDOM HEARTS JUST FOR YOUUUUU