Author's Note: After some inner debating, I have to decided to bring you this as a poor attempt to make up for not posting things lately (if not for you readers and reviewers I would not have stuck around for so long, so thank you guys so much! Special thanks to Kive for sticking with me from the beginning!). I see according to my poll, there are some fans of Reno/Axel out there ;) I gotta admit, this is my favorite pairing lately. AkuRoku's still good, but I've finally resurfaced from drowning myself in it. I'm just an huge Axel (being pursued by hot people) fan at heart I guuuuuessssss...omnomnom. I started this over the summer and for some reason didn't continue, but I hope to soon x) It's a pretty casual story that will hopefully convert you to the joys of Rexel if you have not already.

Here is another to Nijuuni lmfao, who serves as constant inspiration to me and who has total bragging rights for converting me to all this. I might as well just dedicate every time I type the word "redhead" to you, BITCH.

Disclaimer: Really? No.

STAR

It really was sickening. How these girls would scream for him till their lungs gave out, how they'd chuck their bras at him and other garments that Axel was afraid to touch. It made him wonder how sad their lives must be if they had to throw themselves at a man who, well – made out with other men.

Hollywood loved him for his movies where he kissed men. Homosexuality was becoming a trend after all – gay was the new straight. Women would buy his movie for the sex appeal; religious groups would buy it in order to burn it. Axel was their little money-making sex god. He was a sensation.

But they'd never know what he truly thought of them. They thought that he loved them. True, Axel enjoyed both genders; he made a career out of it. It was just that he was unable to go anywhere without being recognized by some female fan who would act like he could do her right there on the street and it'd be the best moment in her life.

Axel was getting a little turned off by the fairer sex.

"Oh my god, oh my god, there he is, look!"

Cameras flashed and high-pitched voices drowned out just about all of Axel's senses as he stepped out from behind a door, waving his hand and grinning like he meant it. He swore one of these days, he would go blind and deaf. He only wondered which one would come first.

"Axeeeeeeeelllllll! I love youuuuu!" someone towards the front screamed at the top of their lungs, waving a sign about how their children would be the most beautiful in the world or something. On instinct, the redhead winked at her. She practically swooned. Axel practically vomited. Having someone love you was kind of meaningless when everyone claimed to.

Axel took a seat at the long table, his fellow actors in his newest action movie giving him polite smiles. He knew they were either jealous of his popularity or just plain overwhelmed by the crowd he attracted. Introductions were made, getting the loudest reaction once Axel's name was said. As always, he smiled and did something quirky, leaning back in his chair to give off that bad-boy attitude the tabloids loved. He really did feel bad for the bodyguards getting beaten and bruised as they tried to hold the crowd back until it was time for autographs.

And when that time came, almost all of them flocked to him. Mostly woman, of course.

They all gawked at him like he was some kind of god, asking for his signature, asking to pose with him, asking to touch him. Axel, of course, always obliged. After a few years of this, his facial muscles finally got used to so much smiling.

"Oh my god, it's actually really you!" one of the girls gasped, looking like tears might spring from her eyes at any moment.

"Yup, it's really me in the flesh, sweetheart," Axel reassured her, taking one of the photographs of himself off of the table and scribbling his autograph for her. She giggled childishly, bouncing up and down and clutching the photo to her chest. Her grin was so huge he was afraid it might split her face.

"Can you please say your line, from 'Chain of Memories', please?" she begged. Everyone around her cheered, seconding the idea enthusiastically. Typical.

The redhead smirked and slowly held up his index finger to his temple. The crowd seemed to hold their breath in anticipation. Then Axel grinned wider, voice coming out in a smooth, breathy drawl…

"Got it memoriiiiized?"

There was a chorus of orgasmic sounds from the ladies.

The girl moved on, the next one approaching and holding out something that she actually brought Axel to sign. He blinked down at it, instantly recognizing the DVD cover of the first big movie he did.

"So tell me, please tell me, I've always been wondering," she began, glancing at the almost identical girls around her, Axel assuming that they were friends. "Is Roxas a good kisser?"

Axel's smile twitched, threatened to disappear but he licked his lips and kept it on. Roxas was the first boy he had kissed on screen, his first love interest opposite of him in a lead role. Theirs was the first hit movie featuring a homosexual relationship since 'Brokeback Mountain'. It was what had led Axel to fame several years ago, and Roxas too. The redhead hadn't seen the young actor in over a year, only knew that he was doing Twilight-esque chick-flicks where he got to win the girl. He was just as much of a heartthrob as Axel now.

"Well, what do you think?" Axel asked her in a suggestive tone, leaning forward and resting his face on his hand. "Did I look like I was enjoying it?"

All the women's face lit up around him as they heard this very evocative response. They murmured amongst themselves and the girl was gently led away by a security guard, allowing the next fan a chance.

"So how many takes did you have to do for the make out scene with Roxas?" the next woman asked, positively beaming. Axel tried very, very hard to resist making an annoyed sound at her. He was here to talk about his movie and himself, not about Roxas. The movie they had made together had been years ago after all.

"Uh, I forget," Axel said, grin tight. "But it was a lot."

Once again they turned to each other, chatting excitedly about how hot of an on-screen couple the two were. Axel certainly wasn't going to tell them that when kissing someone for a movie, it was mostly mechanical. One was directed on how the kiss was supposed to go. And it was hard for it to be romantic with a whole set of people watching you. Kissing required just as much acting as the rest of the film.

"Is it true that you two had a fling?"

Axel crumpled the photo he was signing for her just a little. But when he lifted his head, he kept his expression totally calm. Just like the good actor he was.

"Roxas and I are good friends," he explained to her. "And we still are friends. Still talk and keep in touch and all that. But that's all it ever has been, just friendship. Sorry, hunny."

The crowd looked disappointed. Oh sure, they'd love it if he told them the real version of the story. Everything he was saying now was the politically correct versions. On occasion he could lie and tell them what they wanted to hear, like with the kiss comments. But most of the time Axel had to tell them what they needed to hear, in order to protect himself. So he couldn't tell them that Axel had developed a huge crush on Roxas during the filming of the movie and tried to actually date him. He'd found out that Roxas wasn't actually into men, he was only doing the movie for money. It had been embarrassing to say the least, so they had ended up as just friends instead.

"I heard that you and Roxas are going to reunite and star in another movie together someday soon!" the next admirer exclaimed hopefully. The crowd burst into excited jabber.

Axel smiled politely. Ah, rumors. "That's news to me," he said. "But I'd like that. Maybe someday."

This seemed to make everyone happy to hear at the idea of one of the most famous gay couples out there getting together again. It became the favorite subject of many of the women. So by the end of the day, Axel was sick of his own face from signing so many photographs and sick of hearing about Roxas.

When closing statements were finally made and the actors were free to leave, Axel couldn't feel more relieved. He waved until his arm felt like it was about to fall off, then happily disappeared back into the private room they had for the actors.

"Finally!" he sighed as he let himself simply fall onto the couch before anyone else could get to it, rubbing his tired eyes and aching face.

"Don't get too comfortable there, man," came a somewhat raspy voice that Axel knew all too well. "Don't forget we've got a flight to L.A. in two hours."

Lazily, Axel lifted his arm from where it had been covering his eyes and let it rest on his forehead. He looked at his agent, Xigbar, like a defiant teenager looks at their parents.

"Joooooy," he groaned, dragging the word out in a tone that didn't reflect an ounce of glee in it.

"I knew you'd be ecstatic," Xigbar snickered, cocking his head so he could look at the redhead better instead of sideways. "Got another promotion and signing lined up for tomorrow."

Axel made a stressed sound and squeezed his eyes shut. Why? Why did he do this to himself? He was not looking forward to more pointless screaming, more ditzy fans, more questions, requests, more fucking acting.

"I think I want to retire," Axel grumbled. Everyone around him who heard this statement laughed.

"You can't possibly mean that, Axel," one of his costars, Larxene, remarked in a snarky voice. "You love the fame." The redhead heard her approaching, heels clicking almost ominously on the wood floor.

Suddenly her hands were on either side of his face on the arm of the couch. He glanced at her long red nails, unimpressed as she gazed down at him with a sneer. "Besides, if not, who would pamper you and clothe you and tell you how much of a good little boy you are? You would wither away without it."

Axel swiped at her face and missed by a few inches. She merely walked over to refreshment table, cackling.

"Stop being such a bitch, Larxene," Demyx said from the corner of the room, uncharacteristically brave of him. She turned on her heel and started towards him, causing the young star to almost immediately cower and start stuttering apologies.

"I don't think that's humanly possible for her," Axel said quickly before she could strike, sitting up from the couch and fixing her with a smirk. "Besides," he mimicked. "This is just her way of letting off steam and sexual frustration. We all know how badly she wants my cock."

Once again there was an almost unanimous reaction from nearly everyone in the room, rolling their eyes since they knew the two were about to begin firing off insults at each other. It had been like this during filming too. Tabloids ate it up. Larxene's attitude had long ago earned her the reputation of Hollywood's Harpy. Hardly anyone had the guts to stand up to her – except for Axel.

"Oh, sure, Axel," Larxene snorted, distracted from Demyx for the time being but not thrown off in the least. "You're under the impression that every woman in the world would bend over backwards for you–"

"And it's just too bad you're not that flexible," the redhead interrupted smoothly, examining his nails with disinterest. The men in the room let out hoots of laughter – until Larxene sent them a death glare.

There was a pause and Axel thought he might have won already, until the sounds of Larxene's heels met his ears again and she stopped short in front of him. "You know, maybe you are right about me," the woman mused, putting a finger to her lips and feigning contemplation. "Maybe I all Ineed is for someone to fuck my brains out. Can you give me the name of the guy who did it to you?" A chorus of jeers erupted in the room, impressed with her come-back. Just as the redhead was about to respond, however, Larxene continued. "Oh wait… you've never had a guy work out for you, have you? Oops…"

Axel stood up and gave her a hard look, his reaction only making her grin wider. That had crossed the line, because another well-known fact about Axel was that he had terrible bad luck with men off-screen. He refused to talk about relationships to the press. Roxas wasn't the only one who hadn't worked out.

"Okaaaaay, simmer down now, children." Xigbar stepped in between them before things could get ugly. "Axel, I'm sure you wanna rest a little before the long flight so we should head back to the hotel now, huh?"

As he was led away, Axel continued to glare at the blonde. Demyx shouted, "Aw, don't listen to her, she's just jealous that you've made out with more hot dudes than she ever will!"

Poor, foolish Demyx had once again made himself target to Larxene's wrath. From behind him, Axel heard the man yelp in panic, footsteps scurrying across the room. Just as Xigbar opened the door to the back lot, the redhead turned his head back and smirked, calling out, "I think her main problem is that she's living under the mistaken impression that she actually is somebody in this business."

Axel, unfortunately, did not get the pleasure of seeing the look on Larxene's face at the comment. Because once the door was fully opened, they were met with a deafening roar.

"There! I knew he'd be leaving this way!"

"AXEEEEEEEELLLLL!!!!"

The redhead whipped around to find a sea of girls headed their way. He slumped against the doorframe, almost immediately defeated by all the madness.

"What. The fuck," he breathed, watching the crowd draw ever closer, unable to believe it. He could never just simply be left alone, could he?

"What are you doing, man?" Xigbar demanded, his laid-back demeanor not present for once. He grabbed the front of Axel's shirt and forced him up straight again. "We gotta get out of here!"

His agent looked sharply from left to right, vision impaired and limited to only one eye. One way was back through the building, where undoubtedly more fans would spot Axel leaving and follow him. The other was to simply run for it, but the limo was parked a good distance away for the purpose of being somewhat hidden. Since the car hadn't started and headed towards them yet, it was safe to bet the driver had fallen asleep. They would have to make a break for it.

The two men gave each other nervous glances before bursting into a sprint for the limo, stampeding women following closely behind them. It would be a close call, but Axel kept his eyes set and determined for his destination. From past experience, the redhead knew they would make it.

–That was until an even larger group came running around the corner, shrieking loud enough to break the sound barrier. Axel and Xigbar skidded to a halt, glancing around frantically. They were trapped.

"Holy shit, your fans breed like rabbits!" the older man shouted above the noise. Axel grabbed him by the arm and dashed for the limo again, but it was pointless. Within seconds they were consumed by the masses.

--

By the time the chauffer woke up from the noise and drove over to the scene, it was almost too late. Axel threw himself into the long car, clothes ripped, Caponi shoes scuffed, and fairly certain that a good chunk of his hair had been torn out.

"Cid, why the hell weren't you ready?!" Axel asked breathlessly, collapsing into his plush red velvet seats and clutching his chest as if he just has a near-death experience. "I oughta have you fired!"

"Don't get your goddamn panties in a twist," the man said, turning around from the driver's seat to look at the young celebrity. His words were somewhat slurred from the cigar that always seemed to be attached to his mouth. "You were the one who didn't call me to wake me up and – whoa they really did a number on you this time."

"Heh, he was this close to getting raped," Xigbar laughed, holding up two fingers to demonstrate.

"It's not funny," Axel commented dryly, wincing as bodies continued to throw themselves at the car. "My ass was groped so many times that it feels numb. Just – drive."

Cid raised his eyebrows. "S'gonna be slow-going to try to get through these fucking nutso's."

"You can do it," the redhead assured him, resting his head back and pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "I believe in you."

The man snorted but turned back to the wheel and began slowly cruising forward, parting the crowd. It only took a few seconds for him to begin cursing colorfully, so Axel hit the button to make the soundproof window between them rise up and shut him out.

"Why is it that the people who work for me are so incompetent?" Axel asked to no one in particular.

"Hey man, not cool," his agent said defensively. "You wouldn't be half the star you are if not for me. I think you just need a good vacation some time soon."

"A vacation." Axel blinked. He was so active on the Hollywood scene that it had been quite some time since he'd been able to relax somewhere pleasant for more than a day. It was difficult to go anywhere without being recognized or bothered by Xigbar thanks to constant phone calls. "Yeah," he sighed dreamily. "I need one of those. Soon."

The limo continued to make its way slowly out of the lot, minutes upon minutes passing by because the fans would not let up. Security guards had made their way out now but had barely made a dent in the crowd. News stations were sure to arrive at any moment to film the lunacy; paparazzi were already on the scene.

To comfort himself, Axel closed his eyes and began fantasizing about going to a resort, far away from the public; perhaps the only people there being shirtless men waiting on his every need. No one telling him what to do, where to go, what to wear, or how they dreamed of being kissed by him. His movies portrayed him as the one to lust after others, to take them on adventures, befriend people, and move in for the first kiss in the heat of the moment. He was tired of it. He was never offered a role where he was the one someone made a move on, where he was the one to be dominated. In all honestly, Axel dreamed of be lusted after, by someone real, wanted a real romance, to be kissed instead of being the kisser.

But lately, that seemed to be a luxury he was never going to experience.

After over thirty minutes, the situation was finally under control. Once a path was cleared, Cid floored it and the limo bounced out onto the street, skidding and weaving around the other vehicles. But fifteen minutes later found them screeching to a halt, Axel actually being able to hear the slew of muffled curse words his driver screamed through the glass.

"What's going on?" he asked as he rolled down the window between them, trying to see past the cars around him and the blond man's head.

"Fucking boat," Cid said gruffly. "The bridge is going up for some huge ass boat."

Axel sat back in his seat, expression reflecting disbelief but absolutely no disappointment. One could say he seemed simply amazed.

Xigbar and Cid, however, were not so impressed. The two spat out a duet of swear words and so once again Axel hit the switch to the window up front, at least cutting one of them off.

"This is just awesome, we're gonna miss our flight," Xigbar said sarcastically from the seat opposite of Axel, throwing his hands up in the air. "What the hell did we do to deserve this?"

The redhead perked up from his seat once more. Maybe…he did deserve this…

"I'll have to make some calls," the older man said, rolling his one eye unenthusiastically. He whipped out his blackberry in a flash.

"Wait a sec," Axel said quickly. "Hold on. So we have a promotion tomorrow and the premiere later this week, right? Both in L.A?"

The hand that was holding his phone slumped and Xigbar deadpanned. "Yeah, dude."

As his agent started going through his phone again, the redhead felt a rush of adrenaline, quickly racking his brain to try to remember areas around LA. Just as Xigbar lifted the phone to his ear to make a call, Axel flung himself across the width of the limo and knocked it from the man's hand.

"What the hell, Axel? When'd you get so frisky?" he joked, but gave the young star a questioning look. Axel ignored him and retrieved the phone, falling back onto the limo seat right next to Xigbar.

"Cancel the flight," he commanded, offering the phone back to the dark-haired man.

"Um, dude," Xigbar said warily. "What's with you?"

"I'm taking your advice," the redhead elaborated, jabbing the phone at his agent again. "We're going to take a vacation to Palm Springs."

There was silence, then the other man burst into laughter, snatching his phone back. "As if! You've never missed a promotion or a premiere!"

"There's a first time for everything," Axel said, completely humorless.

Xigbar froze, narrowing his one eye. "You're serious?"

Axel simply nodded, not breaking eye contact.

Again, the man chuckled, shaking his head. "Man, I shouldn't have said anything. I forgot how impressionable you young idiots are. You get an idea and you don't let go of it."

"Come on, listen, I'll skip the promotion, but I'll go to the premiere." Axel shifted sideways in the seat, resting his elbows on his knees and looking at his agent imploringly. "But I seriously need this."

"A promotion isn't like high school though, man. Can't have your guardian or whatever call you in sick and just bring in a note the next day."

"So tell them I'm dreadfully sorry that I can't be there, but GQ magazine can take a photo shoot of me shirtless or something and I'll get them free copies," the redhead offered. "I'm sure they'll understand."

"Oh yeah, you half-naked solves everything." Unconvinced, Xigbar began hitting buttons on the phone again.

"Look, you can do whatever you want, you can go off and do whatever!" Axel pleaded. "Palm Springs is only, what? One, two hours away from LA by car? We're going to miss our flight, this is the perfect opportunity. I just seriously do not think I can handle a repeat of what happened today."

"Oh, come on." Xigbar smiled and only continued to mess around with the device in his hand. A moment later he glanced up and looked Axel over, taking in his ragged appearance from being molested by fans earlier and the expert puppy dog expression the redhead was sporting. It really was an occurrence that happened far too often. Somehow, the man's sneer seemed to soften. "Alright, you what?" he asked after a few moments. "You know what? Fine. Guess it wouldn't be so bad to go to a city nearby. I can't have you breaking down on me now or weakening from all this trauma. Some chick might finally succeed in kidnapping you and I'm not so sure if you're worth hunting down."

"Yes!" Axel cried, punching his fists up in the air in victory and just narrowly missing Xigbar's face.

"Dude, careful, you want me to lose my other eye?" the man scolded, but grinned at the redhead's reaction. "Any hotel there that you have in mind?"

Axel scratched the back on his head and slid over to the opposite end of the limo. A telltale smirk was on his face, suggesting that he most certainly did have an idea, one that might not be so popular with his agent. He opened the mini-fridge that was in the corner, taking out a small wine bottle and popping it open.

"Well, I was kind of hoping…" he began, taking out a glass and filling it halfway with deep red liquid. He paused, swirling it around to observe it lick at the edges of its container before bringing it to his lips to taste. "I want you to get me a hotel there with as few female guests as possible."

As expected, Xigbar found this hilarious. "And how do you expect me to do that?"

"I'm not paying you to ask me how, Xigbar," the redhead shrugged, taking another sip of his wine and propping his feet up on the seats. "Weren't you just saying that I wouldn't be the half the star I am if not for you? You can make it happen, I know it. Find one, I don't care how."

"Should've seen this coming," the agent grumbled. "I let you do what you want and this is what happens. Looks like I'll have to make a lot more calls than I thought…"

For the rest of the ride, Axel was silent, listening to Xigbar make call after call, pulling strings. He simply finished his wine, the first taste of temporary freedom, a smirk of satisfaction upon his face.