Disclaimer: Still don't own anything. Although I now claim ownership to this silly gnat in front of my computer screen. I shall name him Roxel.

Thank you so much everyone who reviewed, added to favorite/alerts, or just plain read! I have so many "visitors" it makes me feel all warm inside. I've responded to all of your reviews, but there is one person who was "too lazy to sign in," so here is your response!

DigiDestined of Balance: Hey thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you liked the ending; most people seemed to. Part of this chapter is thanks to you, as I'm encouraged to sit MY lazy butt down and write each time I'm reminded that people are waiting on me. :)

Alright what else? I had some mistakes in the last chapter, so those will be fixed hopefully sometime soon. :D

Again, I have the basic story already set, but if you want to see anything specific just let me know and I'll see if I can incorporate it!

Enjoy!

Axel couldn't help but smile as he stood in line, watching Roxas stare around with cautious amazement. He was standing feet together, head lowered slightly, with his hands in front of him and his arms pulled tightly to his body, seeming to try and take up as little space as possible. His eyes, however, ran around the entire shop, invading every space, gazing at the many exciting flavours of ice cream, the colourful posters on the walls, and even the simple white ceiling with the small track lights running back and forth. Axel laughed softly as Roxas let out a small gasp when the person in front of them was handed a triple-scoop ice cream cone with chocolate and butterscotch running down the sides and rainbow sprinkles being drug down in the small viscous rivers.

"Come on Roxas; we're next." Axel placed his hand gently on Roxas' arm and led him towards the counter.

"Hello; what can I get for you today?" The cashier asked.

"Hey. I'll have a root beer float and a sea salt bar. Roxas?" Axel looked down to the blonde expectantly. Roxas, who had been looking at the "Pop Rocks Ice Cream" and wondering what in the world a pop rock was, tore his eyes away and looked up at Axel, who seemed to be waiting for something. "….yes?"

"What do you want?"

Roxas blinked once with a blank look on his face. "What do you mean?"

Axel raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, we're in line. Here to have ice cream. Which ice cream would you like?" Roxas looked around like he expected to find an explanation written in code somewhere, but apparently found nothing. "Um...I'm sorry. I don't have money."

Axel sighed and turned to the cashier. "Sorry, you can take the next person. We need a moment here." Axel grabbed Roxas' arm and pulled him aside, feeling guilty when Roxas flinched at the gesture. He rubbed his thumb over the small arm before letting go in what he hoped would be interpreted as comforting instead of lewd.

"Roxas, you don't need to have money. I'll pay for it." Axel looked at him expectantly once more, sure it wasn't going to be so simple as that. His assumption was confirmed when Roxas' eyes widened at the thought and he recoiled slightly.

"What? You're going to pay…for me?" Axel smiled and nodded, waiting patiently. "B-but…I don't get anything outside of the house."

Axel's eyes narrowed and he shook his head slightly. "Roxas, you can have ice cream because you're out with me. Usually you are not allowed because I'm sure you're with that scumbag. You can do most anything you want when you're with Axel!"

Roxas attempted a smile up at Axel and gazed at the menu, hugging his arms around his body. "Um…I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get." Axel resisted the urge to smack his head into his hand and instead motioned Roxas towards the counter again. "You're not 'supposed' to get anything; you can get whatever you want." Roxas lowered his eyes to the ground and seemed to try and fit himself into an even smaller space.

I suppose he's not really used to making his own decisions. Axel clenched his jaw and his hands curled into fists before he realized that this wasn't about that sick pervert; this was about Roxas. He needed to make Roxas feel at ease and not force him too quickly out of his comfort zone.

"Why don't you start with a sea salt ice cream bar?" He suggested gently, trying to ease the stress of a decision while still putting Roxas in control of himself. "Those are really good, and not so extravagant as to overwhelm a first timer. Would you like one Roxas?" Roxas attempted a smile again and nodded shyly, still looking at the floor, and followed Axel back to the counter.

"Hello again. What can I get for you?"

"We'll have a root beer float and TWO sea salt ice cream bars."

_______________

Axel smiled as he watched the cute little blonde in front of him delightedly eating his ice cream bar. Roxas had been tentative at first, poking out the tip of his cute little red tongue to test the new food he was holding. Axel had almost laughed when Roxas' normally sad eyes lit up as he shoved the top of the bar in his mouth and began hungrily, yet delicately devouring it. Currently, Roxas had less the half the bar left, and had finally taken it out of his mouth and begun licking it from bottom to top. Axel briefly wondered why he was paying more attention to how happy Roxas was with his ice cream than to how hot he would look doing the same thing to something else, but then stopped as this small observation unleashed those wonderfully dirty thoughts he had been missing. Feeling more like himself again, and seeing that Roxas was finally coming out of his ice cream trance, Axel set out to finally start a real conversation.

"So Spikey….enjoying that are we?" Roxas nodded without looking away from his ice cream. Axel smiled and shook his head. He waited a few more moments for Roxas to suck the remainder from his stick – god that hurt – before starting again.

"So. How long have you lived here for, Roxas?"

Roxas shrugged. "A while."

"How come you live with your uncle?"

Roxas fiddled with his popsicle stick before answering. "They're…they're gone."

Axel assumed they were talking about Roxas' parents now. Wondering just how much of an idiot he must be to bring up anything about that broken family, Axel tried not to sound too interested in this story.

"I'm sorry…for whatever happened…."

Roxas continued to stare down at his popsicle stick in silence.

"So…. I love hockey. What do you do in your spare time?"

Still silence. And worry. Axel frowned. As open as he was in the bathroom, Roxas seemed to be slipping away from him again.

"Roxas."

The boy looked up without raising his head.

Wow. He's got the most amazing eyes. Still.

"You don't have to be uncomfortable around me, okay?"

Roxas swallowed hard and started fiddling with his stick again.

"It's alright. Feel free to talk to me. I want to be here for you."

Roxas was silent for a few moments, and then he very carefully set his popsicle stick down in front of him.

"You don't think I'm disgusting?"

He locked his eyes with the brilliant ones across from him. Axel huffed. "Of course not! I couldn't possibly think that!"

"Even though I was sucking him off just a few hours before you saw me?"

He didn't break his intense stare, and Axel gulped; he hadn't expected the quiet little blonde to be so direct. And now he felt bad about those dirty thoughts he had been having about Roxas, seeing as how the poor thing was just forced into doing exactly that this morning.

"No Roxas, I still don't see any reason to think poorly of you."

Roxas shook his head, not believing him for a second, and finally lowered his eyes back to the popsicle stick on the table.

"Hey. Why don't you believe me? Why would I think badly of you because some prick forces you into something?"

Roxas scoffed. "Forces me? I resisted that one time, and that was it. I do whatever he wants now, of my own will."

"Oh. Oh I see." Axel started exaggeratedly. "So knowing that if you resist, he'll just do it anyway while undoubtedly hurting you more, knowing that if you resist he could potentially kill you, and thus going along with things to keep from hurting yourself, this makes it by your 'own will'?"

Roxas closed his eyes.

"My brother wouldn't allow this to happen to him."

"If your brother had any sort of survival instinct he would."

Roxas opened his eyes and stared at his popsicle stick on the table in yet more silence. Then he raised his head to look Axel in the eyes.

"Fine. It's against my will. But I'm still letting it happen. It's still my fault." He lowered his head back down, not wanting to see his thoughts about himself echoed in those eyes.

Axel let out a defeated sigh before speaking. "Hey…let me tell you something."

Roxas caught the tone of Axel's voice and gazed up at him, expecting to see those brilliant green eyes watching him, like they had been for weeks. However, they were busy watching the root beer float spin gently around in its glass as Axel stirred it absentmindedly and spoke.

"Almost two years ago, I had my first real boyfriend. Things weren't really going too well in life; my dad still wasn't very accepting of the fact that I was gay, lots of guys on the team were still freaked out, all that fun stuff. I had never fully been okay, myself, with my sexuality, but I knew it wasn't something that could be helped. Luckily – I thought at the time – I had finally found this guy who made it seem okay. He was so cool and confident all the time, didn't care what anybody else ever thought of him…really the type you yearned to have pay attention to you. So I felt really special when he chose me to be his boyfriend. I felt like I didn't need to consider any of the other people around me when I was with him, and when he wasn't there, I felt useless.

"He was always pushing for me to let him have sex with me, but I didn't really feel I was ready. However, after about a year, I kind of got the feeling he was getting tired of fighting me on this and I was really worried he was going to end things between us. It kinda felt like I was risking my entire identity; if I didn't have him, I would be a nobody. And, unfortunately, I finally made the decision to give in, in hopes that he would stick around.

"We had both been lying on his bed; he was reading a comic, and I was sitting there steeling myself for what I was about to do. I'm sure I had been acting nervous all day, but of course he didn't bother to ask what was wrong- he never did. Anyway, I basically said, 'We can have sex now if you want.' He didn't wonder what had changed my mind, didn't ask if I was sure, didn't even hesitate. He just said, 'Okay,' put down his comic, and rolled on top of me."

Axel paused to swallow thickly and take a deep breath. Then he closed his eyes for just a moment and continued.

"It lasted all of about four minutes, and consisted solely of him humping me a few times and rolling back off of me. It hurt like hell, because he didn't bother to ease me into it, or even do anything at all for my benefit. Afterwards, I tried to cuddle up to him, but he just went back to reading his comic. And then he actually said, 'Weren't you supposed to be back home by now?'

"I was, as you can imagine, incredibly upset that my last resort didn't work. So I tried one last time to reassure myself. As I got up, I kissed him and told him I loved him. He looked up from his comic, met my gaze, and said, 'I love you too Axel.' Then he smiled - smirked really, I suppose – and went back to his book."

Axel paused again and continued to stare at his drink. Roxas reoriented himself and realized he had moved forward and was holding onto the edge of his booth. He was about to ask Axel what happened next when the redhead began to speak again.

"So after that I left. I was on my way home when I realized I had left my wallet in his room. So I turned around and headed back…." Axel finally looked up into Roxas' waiting eyes.

"Let me just take a moment here to point something out. By the time I got back to his house, it had been no more than fifteen minutes after I had left. Got it memorized?" Roxas nodded and waited anxiously.

"Okay. So. I get back up to his room, open the door, grab my wallet off the dresser right by me, and when I turn to make fun of my forgetfulness to him, I see him… I see him screwing some guy into the mattress. He...he noticed me watching him, and just….just smirked at me. Then he turned his head back around to face…that guy….again and started loudly moaning his name."

Axel looked as though he wasn't finished, but he shut his mouth and went back to stirring his drink once again. Roxas let the moments pass silently, waiting for Axel to finish reliving this memory. Finally he seemed to mentally shake himself loose as he looked back up at Roxas.

"So yeah. Obviously that didn't work; I should've known it was a stupid plan. Do you blame me for this?"

Roxas was taken aback.

"No Axel! He was a horrible, horrible man! He used you just because you were vulnerable at the time! That was really terrible and manipulative of him. I'm so sorry he did that to you."

Axel smiled weakly. "Well then. If you don't blame me for willingly handing myself over to him, then why the hell would I blame you for being taken against your will?"

Roxas visibly stumbled as he realized what Axel had just tricked him into. He managed a meek, "Oh" before giving his attention back to his popsicle stick. Axel just nodded smugly.

"Exactly."

_____

Riku sat at the breakfast table, poking his scrambled eggs and listening to his parents' conversation. His father had been relating the story of how he fired some girl from his office yesterday for something minor.

"Trying to blame it on the fact she's pregnant…what, being pregnant takes up an hour of your morning? Shouldn't she schedule around this and get up earlier?"

Could he be more of a jerk?

His father's voice was getting louder and he was forcefully spitting his words out in anger. Riku amused himself slightly by imagining them as solid, 3D words flying across the table that he would have had to avoid, lest he be stabbed in the face with a particularly nasty one. He made it a few sentences, but then things started to get really difficult as his father became more and more angry.

Man they're really coming fast now. Alright alright doing well….I would have to dodge left…ooh and then I'd go down…damn it. Stupid "is", hitting me in the ear like that…. Wow he's really getting worked up about this chick. I predict this will somehow be the fault of some homo in 3…2…1….

"….As if he COULD even get her pregnant; he's too busy chasing after other faggots to knock her up!"

Well, not exactly his fault, but I do believe I still get credit for that one.

Riku sighed as his father went into his typical anti-gay ranting.

Yes Sora, you're right, I SHOULDN'T get to be with you until this is all directed squarely at me. Riku stabbed his eggs and glared at his father, who was spitting all over his food in his fury.

Great. Every single one of those words is going to hit me.

_____

The two boys had left the ice cream shop and were nearing Roxas' house. Axel looked around warily as the passed dirty alleys, bullet hole-ridden signs and even houses, and a group of shifty looking men who Axel would swear were gathered around a dead body. Suddenly Roxas stopped walking. Axel looked up to see a sad little house with a lopsided roof and peeling siding.

"Is this one yours?"

Roxas looked up the redhead. "No, mine's farther up there. My uncle isn't home yet, but I'll get in trouble if my brother sees me with you and tells him." Roxas looked down and shuffled his feet sadly. When he began to wrap his arms around himself again, Axel reached out and put his hand gently on Roxas' shoulder.

"Hey, I want to thank you for finally allowing me to talk to you. I really enjoyed spending time with you. When can you do this again?"

Roxas looked up at him incredulously. He couldn't help shake the feeling all day that Axel would suddenly realize what he was dealing with and leave in disgust… or use him for the same purpose as everyone else. Most likely the latter. Maybe he was the type to get a sick pleasure from first building trust and then tearing it down. That seemed likely. It would definitely be safer to say….

Wait, did I just tell him tomorrow!?

____

Axel smiled as Roxas agreed to see him again tomorrow. For a moment there, he had thought he was going to be turned down. In fact it looked as though Roxas was about to change his mind right now.

Damn. I better show him this is the right decision.

"Alright sweet; I'll see you tomorrow." Axel took the boy's hand and squeezed it gently. "And hey, don't worry. You have someone here with you now. You can talk to me anytime. My number is 555-9264; I implore you, call me anytime you need to talk OR see me. 'kay?" Roxas nodded in stunned silence, not really sure when so much had changed. Just a few hours ago he was ready to die alone, and now here he was, with this person at the very least attempting to make him feel as if he didn't need to be alone anymore.

Axel smiled reassuringly down at the blonde, convinced he had finally caught him for good. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow. I'll drive to the round-a-bout down the street and pick you up for school, if you'd like." Axel smiled gently and waited for an answer. Roxas stared up at him with those big blue eyes for a moment, and then nodded slowly.

Okay seriously, have I seen him blink yet?

Axel squeezed his hand again before letting it go. Roxas pulled his arm slowly back to himself, stood for a moment, and turned stiffly to walk away. He didn't bother to look back; he was scared he wouldn't see Axel standing there anymore. The redhead was, however, still there, watching him walk away like he was walking into the gates of hell. Axel's face hardened as he played through his mind everything Roxas had told him about the man who lived there….it took a nice portion of his will power not to run up and grab Roxas and take him away for forever. After disposing of his abuser, of course. That part would be fun.

Axel sighed and shook his head to clear it before turning and heading back to his own house. He had something to rub in Tidus' cynical face.

________

"I'm gay."

Riku and Sora waited for a reaction; Riku looking bored, Sora anxious. They didn't have long to wait before Sora was wrapped up in a big hug by his mother.

"Oh honey, don't give me that look. We love you more than anything!" She turned to glare playfully at her son's father.

"Didn't I tell you? And you thought I was insane. And look, they're even dating…" She turned back to face her son again. "…right?" Sora nodded, a huge grin overtaking his face.

"Yup! Have been for seven months now!"

Sora's mother squealed and hugged him again. Then they both looked at his father for his opinion on the matter.

"Hey don't give ME those looks. I don't care. This means no 'I'm about to be a teenage father' talks!" The three of them laughed and hugged some more.

Riku had been watching all this with disbelief, his jaw slowly slackening, until it finally fell open at the sight of them all hugging.

Seriously!? No. They can't be serious. They'd probably be beating him or something if I weren't here.

Riku's thoughts were interrupted as the smiling and laughing mass that had been slowly inching towards it's oblivious victim sucked him into its midst.

"Congratulations boys! We're so happy for you!"

Oh god. They are serious.

_____

Riku had been forced to stay there with the smirking and giggling family all through dinner and a movie. Sora's mother had smiled as she gave them a blanket to "cuddle" under, and his dad had gotten a kick out of telling them to keep their hands above the blankets, and calling it to attention whenever one hand innocently disappeared for a moment. Luckily, the credits were rolling and those strange parents were standing up.

Ugh thank god. It's finally over. Get me the hell out of here.

"Okay honey, let's go. I'm sure these two boys would like to be alone now." She winked at Sora and practically skipped out of the room with her husband. Riku groaned and threw the blanket over his head. When he didn't bother to say anything, Sora poked him where he figured his stomach was.

"See? That went well. This isn't going to be so bad."

Riku uncovered one eye to glare at his boyfriend.

"Sora."

Sora blinked.

"Yes?"

"Your parents….."

"What?"

Riku thought for a moment.

Do I tell him they're delusional? That they are exactly opposite from what he's going to experience with my dad? That his family's annoying and weird? Riku sighed. So this is how he got so innocent and naïve. I'll bet his parents didn't even have sex to conceive him. They probably just "sent out enough concentrated love into the world that it rewarded them with a perfect little rosy-cheeked baby," or some bullshit. Good god. Sickening.

"Riku?"

"Hmm?"

"What were you saying about my parents?"

"Uh. That they are….different. Different than mine. Don't expect a reaction of the same caliber. In fact, I'm not even sure you should be there when I tell them."

Sora poked him harder.

"Oh no you don't! I'm going to be there to make sure you do it! You won't and say you did otherwise."

Riku sighed.

"Sora, really. I'm not kidding. I'm really worried he'll hurt you."

Sora shook his head vehemently. "Nuh-uh, don't even try. I'm coming with you."

"Sora…."

"No, Riku! I'm coming with you and that's final!" Soar slammed his small fist down on the blanket where apparently Riku's arm was.

"Ow."

Sora put his hand to his face. "Oh gosh Riku, I'm sorry! Are you okay?"

Riku cocked an eyebrow at Sora. "Are you serious? You really think you could hurt me?"

Sora glared at Riku and moved his face towards his. "Hmm…probably only if you let me."

"Sounds intriguing."

Sora let a slow smile creep across his face.

"I'd probably start about…here." He nipped at Riku's neck, then kissed it wetly before biting down harder. Riku shivered and moved to put his hands on Sora's back, when his ears were assaulted by an inhuman squealing.

"Aw you two! You may be in love-" *squeal* "-but I need help cleaning up the kitchen!"

Sora jumped up and went to help his mom.

"That's okay. I was about to come check anyway." He followed his mom into the kitchen, turning his head to smile at Riku, who was glaring at their backs.

Oh. My. God. Leaving. Right now.

__________

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Alright reader people. Sorry this took so long; I've had so much going on, including the planning of my best friend's and my good friend's wedding! Dum dum dumdum…..

I was going to include Riku's parents in here being told he was gay, but I figured I should give you what I have and do that when I get time. As it is, I barely have time to upload this. But anyway, yay! :D

Let me know what you think!