It's been a while since I've written anything quality. I kept trying to write new chapters for my existing stories, but no matter what I wrote nothing came out good enough. Then I watched an awesome movie, Lucas, and I was struck by inspiration. If you've seen the movie, just know that it completely veers off course pretty much right after this chapter. Oh, and insurance that I'll actually update, I have 84 pages of this written already, because I've been writing since August. It'll take me a while to edit it all, but it will be updated in a timely fashion this time around. Anyway, enough of my rambling, here's the first chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I don't own Kingdom Hearts, I don't own Lucas, I don't own much of anything. Okay.

Roxas was walking along the tracks, red and white striped umbrella in one hand, CD player in the other. His headphones were in his ear and low classical music flowed into his ears. He had followed those tracks all the way down to the pier earlier, sat on the dock, fished the grey book out of his black backpack, and began drawing the scene in front of him. After two hours on the dock he had packed up his things and set off for home. He hopped up on the railing and balanced on it for a moment before jumping off into the grass to avoid the oncoming train. He took out his headphones, sat on the ground, and watched the train as it passed. When it had gone, he noticed what he hadn't realized before: across the tracks, in a clearing in the trees, there was a boy. He was practicing with a struggle bat, and Roxas could tell he was skilled and knew very well what he was doing. Roxas turned off his CD player and tried to be quiet as he walked over to watch the boy practice. He hid behind a tree and slipped his headphones back in, watching the boy intently. He was tall, much taller than the blond, and carried himself with an ease of grace that Roxas quickly envied. At the top of his lean, toned body was the most beautiful face the boy had ever seen, covered with a shock of bright crimson hair. Roxas looked on in awe as the boy swung his bat in quick, precise thrusts and slashes. Then he was spotted. He quickly yanked out his headphones and tried not to look as nervous as he felt.

"Can you pass me that?"

Roxas stared blankly.

"My jacket, it's right there by your feet."

Roxas' eyes widened and he bent down to pick up the worn leather jacket. He rushed over to the boy and handed it to him.

"Thanks. Do you struggle?"

"No, I'm no good."

"Oh, well, alright then."

The boy pulled his hair back with an elastic band and continued practicing.

"You're really good."

He paused again. "Thanks, I've been struggling since I was little."

"Are you on the team?"

The boy quirked an eyebrow. "There's a team here?"

"Yeah, at school."

"Which school, Sunset High?"

"Yeah, I go there."

"Really?" He asked confusedly. "You look-"

"Younger, I know. I'm accelerated, I skipped a few grades."

"Oh, okay, I guess I'll see you in school then."

The boy began practicing once more.

"What's your name?"

He stopped and smirked at the blond.

"Axel."

"Hi, I'm Roxas."

"Hi."

"Hi," the blond echoed.

"Well, bye."

Roxas sat down in the clearing and put his headphones in his ears, letting the classical music quickly engulf him. With the music in his ears, Roxas felt as if he was watching a god of some sort. The way he – Axel – leaned into each thrust of his bat, the way his feet never seemed to touch the ground for more than a millisecond. He was floating, and his talent and love for what he was doing was evident.

It took his CD ending for Roxas to realize how long he had been there watching the boy practice. He got up to stretch out his legs and start the journey home when he was noticed again.

Axel looked down at his watch before speaking. "Hey, do you need a ride? It's getting pretty dark out. I'll take you home if you want."

"Sure, thanks."

Axel pulled the elastic out of his hair and tossed his jacket over his shoulder before motioning for Roxas to follow. He hurriedly obliged and had to walk twice as fast as usual due to the length of Axel's legs. They started through the woods and the trees got progressively thicker until Roxas was a bit worried they'd gotten lost. But before he had a chance to voice this worry, they walked into another clearing with an unobstructed view to the road. Roxas kept following until he was led to a worn, grey convertible. They stopped.

"This is yours?"

"Yeah. It's not much, but it was my dad's in the 80s. He gave it to me when he left me and my mom. Guess he was trying to ease his guilt or something," he shrugged. "Well, get in."

Roxas opened the passenger side door and slid in as Axel hopped over the side into his seat. It took a couple of tries to get the engine going, but once it started Roxas was surprised at how smoothly it ran.

"So your dad left you?"

Axel sighed.

"Sorry, I know we just met and all, I just thought, you know, since you brought it up and all..."

"No it's alright. A year or so ago, my dad, he's the CEO of some random company, my dad started going to work earlier and leaving later. My naïve mother thought he was just putting in extra hours to bring home some more money, but that didn't even make sense because we were rolling in it. Anyway, I knew that wasn't the reason, so I played the little innocent kid and went up to his office to "see what my daddy does at work". I walked in and boy, he was at work all right. At work pounding away into some young intern." Roxas saw Axel quickly wipe at his eye but pretended not to notice.

"Turn left here."

"So I kicked in the door, ran in, pushed the girl off the desk and punched my dad in the face. Next thing I know, my parents are divorced, he moved out, took all the money with him, and my 47 year old father is married to a 20 year old slut."

"Wow. I'm really sorry about that."

"At least I got a car out of it, right?" he chuckled. "That fixes everything, according to him. Fixes the fact that my mom can barely pay the bills, fixes the fact that we had to move away from everything I knew right before my senior year, and fixes the fact that I'm absolutely disgusted with the fact that he's old enough to be her father."

"Well, age differences aren't all that bad. Take you and me for example, I'm 14, you're…" he trailed off.

"I'm 17. And yeah, but we're friends. Could you see me with some 40 year old woman?"

"No..." But Roxas could barely focus; he was too excited at the fact that Axel already considered him a friend. "We're friends?"

Axel grinned over at him. "Yeah sure, why not? Anyway, sorry for dumping all of that on you, I don't usually do that. Where's your house?"

"We're coming up on it right now."

They pulled up in front of the house and stopped. It was a massive white house, not big enough to be called a mansion, but too big to be considered normal. Axel looked at the ripped jeans and obvious disarray of Roxas' appearance and had to say something.

"You live here?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah."

"You don't look the type."

Roxas smiled and raked a hand through his blond hair. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"See you around, Roxas."

Roxas smiled brightly. "Yeah... you too."

Roxas was outside, drying the windows he had just meticulously cleaned when he heard the familiar purr of the grey convertible. He turned around and watched as Axel slowed to a stop, taking his shades from their home on his face and throwing them in the back seat.

"Hey! Roxas!"

Roxas dropped the rag he was holding and ran out to the road. Pausing only to catch his breath, he began excitedly.

"Wow, Axel! Hey, what are you doing here?"

He laughed, "What do you think? I'm here to see you! I've been driving past this place for the past week; you never even gave me your number!"

"Oh... It's uh, unlisted; my parents don't like people calling"

"Don't you have a cell phone?"

"No, I'm not allowed."

Axel looked down in thought for a moment.

"Well then I'll stop by when I want to see you."

"No!" he shouted. "I mean, no. They don't like that; they don't want people making a mess of the house and all."

Axel lowered his face in scarcely hidden disappointment.

"But I can go see you! I'll meet you at that clearing at 4?"

"Today?"

"Every day!"

Axel laughed at the childlike grin on the blond's face. "Alright, meet you there."

Over the next month, Axel and Roxas spent every day together. They went swimming in the lake, hiking through the woods, Axel taught the blond to drive, and attempted to teach him to struggle. They went to movies and even once watched the sunset from the top of the hill. Then Roxas decided to show Axel something new, for a change.

"Come on, keep moving. The faster you go, the faster we'll be out of here."

"Roxas, we're in a sewer. I can only go so fast while dying from the stench."

"Stop complaining, you baby. We're almost there."

They kept moving, trying to stay on the sides and out of the actual sewage. Axel was about to complain some more when Roxas stopped abruptly and pressed a finger to the his lips.

"Shh."

Roxas climbed on a nearby ledge and cracked the grate above his head, immediately letting in a flow of classical music. Roxas patted the spot next to him and Axel hoisted himself up. They sat back to back, leaning on each other for support. After a couple of minutes, Roxas spoke.

"Hey, Axel?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you think we'd be such good friends when we met?"

"... I don't know."

"What did you think of me?"

"I thought you were… interesting."

"Oh," he said, pondering for a moment. "I thought you were beautiful." He sighed." Do you still?"

"Do I still what?"

"Think I'm interesting."

"Yes, I do."

"Me too."

They sat there in silence for what seemed like hours. Roxas smiled softly as a song he knew came on.

"I think I like classical music, Rox."

Roxas sat silently, and a traitorous tear rolled down his cheek. He tried to stifle his hitching breath, but to no avail.

"You okay Roxas?"

"Yeah..." He sighed and whispered, as if too loud a noise would shatter their surroundings. "I just wish school would never start."

Reviews are more than welcome!