Disclaimer: i claim no ownership to Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters. So, like, don't sue yeah?

This chapter is dedicated to every single person that has reviewed this story. You have no idea how much your support means to me.

10. Being with them just feels...right.

"There's nothing wrong with the way

I light up when you're around."

Artist vs Poet_Miserably loving you

Never had the front door to the diner been more intimidating as it was at that exact moment.

Roxas stood outside in the weak sun that was common in the weeks after winter. The kind of sun that should warm a person up but didn't since it was mostly just there for show, as a way to trick people into believing that winter was really over. Axel stood next to him, his cupped hands framed around his eyes in make-shift binoculars that he used to try and peer into the interior of the establishment with. Their friends were seated inside, Axel couldn't see all of them but he could see the back of Demyx's blonde head, and he could see the crazily styled bangs that belonged to Larxene atop the head next to Demyx's.

They had sent everyone in their group of friends a text telling each one of them to meet them inside the diner. The text messages were vague and he was sure that the unruly group inside were anxious to find out what was going on.

Roxas sighed, rubbing at his cheek as he tried to fight off the wave of nausea that had steadily been growing ever since he had woken up that morning. He looked at Axel who was still leaning into one of the giant windows that made up the front of the diner.

"Why are we doing this again? Couldn't we have sent out a mass text...maybe an email?" he asked, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

"No, we agreed that we wanted to do it this way." Axel replied, turning away from the diner's window and looking at Roxas with a raised eyebrow, "actually, you insisted that we did this. I was okay with letting them figure everything out on their own"

"Yes...but..." Roxas looked at Axel in desperation.

Axel laughed, throwing his arm around Roxas shoulder, and loving the feeling of the familiar gesture that now held so much more meaning.

"What are we so nervous about anyway? They're just our friends."

Roxas snorted, leaning in closer to Axel's embrace, "...exactly. They're our friends. Our crazy, immature, annoying as fuck friends."

"...good point."

XxXx

Larxene took a long, slow sip of the chocolate milkshake that she had ordered.

"Mmm, not bad...but still not as good as the cafe's." She announced to the people who were seated at the table with her, "Remind me why we're here and not there again?"

"Axel and Roxas told us to meet them here." Demyx replied, looking up from the music theory notes that were placed on his lap.

"BECAUSE," Hayner added onto Demyx's sentence, "they know how much Demyx hates us being in the cafe that he works at."

"I'm going to respond to that in a very dignified and mature way." Demyx said, before he stuck his tongue out and pulled a face at Hayner.

The group laughed at their friend's antics before Olette looked up from her glass of orange juice with a slight frown.

"Why do you think that they told us to meet them here?" she queried, swirling her white straw around in the pulpy juice.

Sora shrugged, folding his arms behind his head as he looked around the small, cozy diner.

"I'm not sure, but since we're all here...i'm guessing that it has something to do with their relationship."

"You saying that they finally sorted everything out?" Pence asked, his eyes widening slightly as he looked at Sora.

"I'm not sure..." Sora replied, fiddling with the crown shaped pendant that he always wore, "but when I got back from, er, lunch with Kairi, they both weren't there and Roxas only came home later that night. He wouldn't tell me anything though."

Olette frowned, the lines between her eyebrows deepening as she leaned in closer to the group so that she didn't have to speak loudly in order for them to all hear her.

"But they're going to do that here?" She asked, cocking her head to indicate the diner, "where Axel's ex-girlfriend works?"

Kairi, who had been silent for most of the meeting, shrugged slightly before she turned her head to look at where Naminé was busy taking the orders of a family a few tables away from them.

"Yeah," Kairi answered, "Naminé's cool with the whole thing."

It was only when Kairi spoke that the group of friends realised that Sora and Kairi weren't seated next to each other. Those two were inseparable, but seeing the way that Sora's shoulders tensed up when they looked at him inquisitively, they decided to drop the issue.

"Still," Hayner said, glancing over at the door when he heard the bell that was placed above it let out a soft ring, "isn't it weird for them to announce anything to do with then being a...couple in a place where she might hear?"

Kairi once again just shrugged her shoulders, smiling at Roxas and Axel when she saw them walk into the diner and towards their crowded table, they were still too far away to hear the conversation, so she answered Hayner's question.

"I think that they realise that whatever they have to say to us...Naminé deserves to hear as well. Especially since she told Axel to ask Roxas out."

XxXx

Axel took a deep breath and smiled at his group of friends. It was insane how nervous he was. It wasn't like they were Roxas's parents that he needed approval from or anything. They were just the people who would probably maim him if he hurt Roxas again.

Yeah, that's all.

"Roxas and I have an important announcement to make."

Axel should have known better than to break the news that way.

"You're getting married?"

"Roxas is pregnant."

"No wait! Roxas is a vampire!"

"Nah, Axel is more vampire material. Though Roxas could totally be a werewolf."

"Er...no, actually – ", Roxas tried to interject.

"Oh, I know! You guys are starting a band?"

"You've already started a band and now you guys are famous and now you're both here to give us money?"

"Ooh, money..."

"Would you all just shut up for a minute?!" Roxas cried, laughing despite how nervous he felt.

His friends all stared at the pair anxiously, trying to act nonchalant even though they were overflowing with joy. They were fooling around obviously. They knew what the announcement was.

You'd have to be dense to not notice the way that Roxas and Axel were acting around each other. The way that Axel's hand brushed against Roxas's as if by accident and the gentle smile that Roxas donned whenever he looked at Axel.

Just as Axel was about to speak up again, Naminé walked up to the group and, after greeting them all, sat down with a small smile on her lips.

She smoothed down her work apron over her knees before looking up at Axel and Roxas expectedly. There was a ripple of discomfort amongst the group, as they all looked at Naminé and then at the pair. Despite what Kairi had said, the situation still felt a little awkward. But Axel just returned Naminé's smile and took Roxas's hand in his own, interlacing their fingers before finally announcing the news.

"Roxas and I are dating."

XxXx

There was a lot of applause that followed announcement, and once the cheering had finally died down, to the relief of Roxas and Axel and all the patrons of the diner, there was a unanimous agreement that the celebration needed cake.

More importantly, ice cream cake. The kind that was packed with bits of Oreo and chunks of fudge, and made you rethink everything that you had ever eaten prior to it.

Axel and Roxas were being cute and whispering to each other and after watching it for a few minutes, Hayner had decided that he needed another form of entertainment. So he turned to Naminé and asked the question that had been bugging them all.

"Why doesn't this bother you?"

Naminé blinked in surprise at Hayner's sudden question.

"Why should it?"

"Because that's your ex-boyfriend feeding ice cream cake to the guy he cheated on you with." Hayner stated bluntly.

"Hayner!" Olette gasped before hitting him on the shoulder, "tact!"

"Oh yeah," Hayner glanced at Olette, "sorry." He then turned his attention back to Naminé.

"So?"

Naminé sighed, placing her spoon on her plate and wiping at her mouth delicately with a serviette.

"It doesn't bother me because a little part of me always knew that Axel wasn't mine. His heart belonged to Roxas even before Axel himself realised It." she answered easily, maintaining eye contact with Hayner the entire time she spoke.

Hayner was quiet, and a small smile finally formed on his lips.

"Cool." He replied, turning back to his slice of cake.

"That was deep." Pence said, nodding his head slowly as he licked ice cream off his spoon.

Naminé giggled.

The comfortable chatter resumed amongst the group but was disturbed soon after when Demyx, very loudly, announced that Larxene owed him money.

Roxas raised an eyebrow as he watched Larxene reach for her wallet and pull out a note which she then handed to a smirking Demyx.

They had all stopped their conversations by this stage and were staring at the pair.

"So what do we say?" Demyx taunted, waving his prize in front of Larxene's face.

"You were right and I was wrong." Larxene said through gritted teeth, the words looking like they were causing her pain.

"Aha! That's right!" Demyx exclaimed, "You were WRONG."

"Enjoy this moment, it'll be the first and last time that I lose a bet to you." Larxene spat out, a scowl on her face as she watched Demyx bounce around in his seat in glee.

"A bet?" Roxas asked, his eyebrows raised in curiosity, "you guys took out a bet? On what? I mean...Larxene NEVER loses a bet."

"We took a bet out on you. Well, on Axel really." Demyx answered happily, rubbing his prize money against his cheek while Larxene watched in disgust, "Larxene bet me 50 munny that Axel would chicken out before he got to your apartment and just turn back for home. But he didn't chicken out so I win!"

Roxas stared at them in disbelief.

"You guys took out a bet on us?!"

Axel was glaring at Larxene at this stage.

"You bet against me? You really didn't think that I was man enough to go talk to Roxas?"

Larxene rolled her eyes before pointing an ice cream covered spoon at Axel.

"You panicked before you were even out the door of your OWN apartment. Do you blame me?"

Roxas was still staring in shock and disbelief.

"You guys took out a bet on us?!"

"Oh relax," Demyx said, waving Roxas off before returning to his ice cream, "we do it all the time. We have to do something to keep ourselves entertained."

"Yeah," Larxene continued, 'in fact..." she grinned, "Our next bet is on Mr Sunshine and friendship over there, "she indicated to where Sora was seated, "finally realising that he's in love with Riku."

Sora almost inhaled his spoonful of ice cream.

There was a ripple of laughter as everyone watched Sora go an interesting shade of red due to the fact that he was embarrassed at having been singled out, and also the fact that there was a good amount of ice cream in his lungs.

"Ha ha, funny guys." He wheezed out when he was able to breathe again, "You two need social lives." He added, pointing at Larxene and Demyx who were almost in tears by this stage from laughing so hard.

Roxas sat back in his seat, watching the antics with an amused shake of his head. Axel sat back as well, leaning his head against Roxas's and smiling when he felt a hand seek out his own.

"That didn't really go as badly as we thought, did it?" Axel whispered, watching his group of friends as they teased Sora mercilessly, "I have to say though, their concentration spans are awful."

Roxas chuckled, turning his head so that he could give Axel a chaste kiss on the cheek, "yeah," he replied, "it could have gone a whole lot worse."

"Aw, Roxie, is that all I get?" Axel said with an over dramatic pout, "'cause I don't think that i'm okay with that."

Roxas was grinning by now. "Wait, you want more than a kiss on the cheek? I don't think that I understand."

Axel just smiled before capturing his boyfriend's lips in a gentle kiss.

"Ew, go get a room!"

"PDA is not okay! Ha, that rhymed..."

Roxas giggled into the kiss.

XxXx

New text message received from: Axel

(16:08)

Meet me at the Clock tower at 6?

I'll bring ice cream, and I swear I won't pull a Demyx.

New text message received from: Roxas

(16:10)

I'll see you there :)

XxXx

"I was starting to think that you weren't going to show up for a second." Axel announced as he watched Roxas walk up to where he was seated on the Clock Tower.

"And miss the chance at free ice cream? No way." Roxas answered with a grin, taking a seat next to Axel on the ledge that they always sat on. He fidgeted for a second, before taking a deep breath and quickly placing a kiss on his boyfriend's cheek. He kept telling himself that it was okay, kissing Axel wasn't really that much of a big deal. But the thought of doing something as simple as placing a quick peck on his cheek caused Roxas's heart to speed up and his face to flush a deep red. He felt like a little kid when he thought about his relationship with Axel. But that wasn't because the relationship made him feel uncomfortable. Quite the opposite, in fact. It was just that his feelings for Axel made every small action into something so much more. Especially now that he wasn't Axel's affair anymore.

Axel grinned and reached next to him for the small paper bag that was there. Placing his hand into the bag he pulled out two ice cream bars, one of which he handed over to Roxas.

Roxas raised an eyebrow in question as he took the ice cream from Axel.

"Yes," Axel said as he rolled his eyes and began to unwrap his own ice cream, "it's sea salt."

Roxas smiled. "You know me well."

"Of course I do." Axel replied easily, the tip of his tongue coming out to lick at the ice cream before he placed it into his mouth.

Roxas hummed as he ate his ice cream, looking out onto the various lights that belonged to Twilight Town. The streetlights and lights from windows where people were busy with their lives, intermingling to create something that looked like a page from his 'connect the dots' book from when he was a kid.

"You know," he said, keeping his eyes on the lights and not looking at Axel, even though he could feel the red head's eyes on him, "I was kinda scared that once the whole all of this was over, you know...you asking me out properly and stuff, that this," he indicated to the both of them, "would become awkward."

"Awkward? Roxas, this is you and me that you're talking about. We don't do awkward."

Roxas chuckled. "Yeah, I know. But that's when we were just friends. But I was really scared that once we called this a relationship it wouldn't be the same. That once the expectations were placed on us, expectations of what couples are meant to act like and be like...we would change and it would just be...awkward."

"But?"

"It isn't. Nothing about being with you is awkward. It's just...right."

Axel smiled as he took another bite of his ice cream. "You're such a romantic, Roxy. Proclaiming your love for me on a clock tower while the city sleeps beneath us."

"It's only six, people aren't asleep yet."

"Poetic licence."

Roxas rolled his eyes but laughed anyway, shaking his head as he licked the melting, blue Popsicle in his hand.

"You know," Axel said, slowly moving his hand so that it rested, palm up, in the space between them. "Demyx said something similar to that. About the fact that some relationships just feel right."

"You dated Demyx?"

"What? No, oh gosh, no." Axel shuddered dramatically, his hand still in the space between himself and Roxas. "He just gave me a lot of advice recently."

Roxas smiled and took sucked the last bit of his ice cream into his mouth before glancing over at Axel and seeing the hand that was placed so close to his own. He slid his hand over Axel's and interlaced their fingers, loving the feel of the other's hand against his own. It was insane how much Axel's touch affected him.

"It's been a hectic few months, hey?" Axel said the Popsicle stick in his mouth as he looked over at Roxas with a lopsided smile.

"Yeah, it has," Roxas replied, "but I really like the way it all turned out."

XxXx

Roxas was leaning against Axel's car, as he waited for the red head to come back from locating a bin to discard of their rubbish. There was a group of high school girls standing and giggling a little way away from him but Roxas didn't really pay any attention to them, and glanced at his watch instead.

Did Axel get lost on his way to find a bin? Roxas had been waiting for a good twenty minutes now.

When he looked up again, he realised that one of the girls from the group was walking over to him. The girl was cute, and she kept glancing back at her friends, who giggled and glanced at Roxas, as she walked over to him.

"Hi." She said, waving at him and smiling nervously.

"Uh, hi." Roxas replied, smiling in amusement when the girl started blushing.

"This is really random and kinda embarrassing..." she said, biting at her lip and avoiding eye contact with Roxas, "but I told my friends that I think that you're really attractive and they said that I should ask you for your number."

"Oh?" Roxas asked, his eyebrows rising in surprise.

"Wow, Roxy. I can't leave you alone for a minute can I?" Roxas startled at the sound of Axel's voice so close to his ear. He looked up and noticed that Axel was smiling at the girl.

"Hi, there." He said the smile widening.

"Hi..." the girl said, looking slightly confused.

"Roxas is attractive, isn't he?" Axel continued, draping an arm over Roxas shoulders and still continuing to smile at the now flustered looking girl, "he's also really smart, and he has the most amazing sense of humour. And he's stubborn as hell, but also one of the most caring people I know."

"Okay..." the girl stood with her arms crossed at her chest, looking at Axel with a hint of annoyance, "so then, can I get his number?"

"Well no." Axel replied, "cause you see...the best thing about Roxas, the thing that I think is the most unbelievable and amazing, is the fact that, well," he paused and pulled Roxas closer to his side before placing a chaste kiss on the unsuspecting blonde's lips. He grinned at the girl who was now staring at them in shock.

"He's mine."

OH MY WORD GUYS, IT'S COMPLETE.

I honestly didn't think that my attention span was going to last this long.

This was basically the longest thing that I've ever written, and I don't know if anyone else noticed, or if it's just me, but I really think that my writing has improved and changed a lot from when I posted up chapter one until now. It seems easier somehow.

The names that made my week: Moka nee-chan, Uquiorra12345, mudkipluvr4ever, fallenofthedark, Yakusoku-Xion, , sakurasapprentice7, poisonmelody, InkDrippingRose, Yahto, and the guest reviewer.

Wow, so where do I even begin with the thanks? I want to thanks every SINGLE person that has ever reviewed this story and especially those that reviewed every chapter or posted up long ass reviews that made me smile and even blush when you complimented me. Without your support...I don't think that this story would be what it is. I'd also like to thank all of you for putting up with me when I complained endlessly about my exams. They're all completed by the way, i'm free: D

I'd also like to thank my amazing editor, who put up with all of my bitching and complaining. You're amazing Daniel! Seriously. Anyone else would have given up on me by now.

I don't mean to sound needy but I'd LOVE it if every person who has favourited, alerted or even just found the story now, at its end, to leave me a review or send me a PM telling me what you thought. It's my first multichapter story; I'd like to know what you all thought of it.

And...I guess it's time to say goodbye. It took me longer than it should have to write this chapter, but I think that a small part of me really didn't want it to end.

Once again, thank you.

-Meeka