(Prepare for a long ass author's note…)

Hey everyone! I wasn't really sure if I wanted to post this, but what the hell. Can't hurt, right? This is my nanowrimo story! I wrote all the way up to around chapter eight, I want to say, this month, November. I don't know, the first 50-55 thousand words. It's kind of screwy, because its inception was for a fanfiction, but I didn't write it as one. I made new characters in an AU. But the whole thing is BASED on AkuRoku anyway. It looks like a fanfiction, it's lemon-scented like a fanfiction, and it's REALLY CLICHÉ AND FLUFFY like a fanfiction. So read if you will, I guess.

ALSO! You're going to have to pick. Would you like a) Zemyx with a really girly acting Zexion, and I mean like an actual girl, not a faggy flamer OR b) SoKai? Or you can suggest another straight pairing if you'd like, as long as it doesn't involve Roxas ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Lake Compounce, or any of the other places mentioned (which are all real, by the way. I grew up in Bristol.)

Roxas Winters was always considered a pretty "under the radar" kid. Seriously though, in a school like the one he went to, that could be considered a pretty impressive achievement. The kids were relentlessly looking for someone to pick on, someone to make feel even worse about their already pathetic lives. But the thing was, they always picked the weakest kids, the ones already on their knees, to knock to the ground. And even if Roxas never had anything else going for him, he could proudly say he had never been weak.

But this story isn't about school, anyway. It's about summer.

Ah, yes, glorious summer. The prime of every child's life, surely. Not that summer life in Bristol, Connecticut could be all that thrilling.

Bristol was already a "just there" kind of place. If you were smart enough, you could find yourself "just there" in the face of school. As for the town itself, it wasn't very big. Not that it was like a Buck's County hick town; it just wasn't a large city. Buildings that got more than three stories high were for either hospitals, or a couple of random Marriott hotels.

For a town though, it was fairly big. Big enough where, if you liked, you would be able to blend in without a single person knowing your name. Big enough to host about two dozen pizza restaurants, ones that you won't miss until they're gone. The locals didn't know it, but they were a pizza city. Definitely big enough to need a disastrous amount of red lights to get through. It could take up to twenty minutes to get through Bristol, right up until they built a highway running right through it. Last but not least, Bristol was just big enough to have its own resident amusement park, which is where our story begins.

Lake Compounce was Axel's favorite place to go in the summer. The amusement park dates back to the late eighteen hundreds; its oldest remaining wooden coaster (a painful one at that) having been built in 1927, hell it even had its own little legend surrounding the name of the park.

Lea Delarosa was Roxas' outspoken, outrageous best friend, but everyone had been calling him by his middle name, Axel, since before Roxas even met him. The only person that ever dragged him out from under the radar. Ever since Axel turned twelve, he'd been wearing his hair long, untamed, and stop sign red with eyeliner to match. If Roxas knew what he'd be getting into when he met Axel, who was an innocent blonde at the time, they probably never would have bothered to get to know each other. It wasn't that he was the kind of outrageous that everyone wanted to keep him on a leash in public and/or slaughter him, he was just loud.

Axel was what one referred to as a Class A badass. Though he liked pretty much everyone, he had an extremely exclusive social circle. During school he allowed himself to be seen the burnouts and the skaters, though he'd never bothered getting with them after school. He could sort of skate, but it was mostly image that made him fit in with them so well. He wore all the silly pants with chains and hole-y hoodies and chokers and scarves, for goodness sake. Though a big softie at the best of times, he had a very short fuse, and set the standard at their school for not to be fucked with. He skipped class when he wanted, and got into fights when needed. He was very tall.And quite possibly partially colorblind, Roxas never really knew for sure.

Roxas was the complete opposite. He was around the height of most girls, and he had unruly hat hair that was the most boring, unnoticeable, peeled banana blonde in the world. He'd never gotten into a fight in his life and he had serious social issues. He wasn't exactly socially awkward, like a retard, he just really didn't like people. His wardrobe consisted of jeans, hoodies, and t-shirts. Green cargo pants were the extent of his color spectrum, and he never, ever wore scarves.

The day Axel attained his driver's license (which, incidentally, happened on the same day school got out) the sixteen year old redhead drove up to the curb of Roxas' condo, with the proudest smile gleaming on his face, holding up two season passes to Lake Compounce for Roxas, who had just gotten off the bus, to see.

Roxas didn't see them at all. He was busy looking in Axel's dad's car, noticing that his friend was the only one in sight.

"I hope you know this means you're driving me to school next year," said Roxas, crossing his arms and skipping the congratulations completely. "I don't think I can stand the freshmen on my bus any freakin longer."

"Naturally," Axel replied lazily, with a confirmatory jerk of the head.

Roxas walked up to the car, which was still in drive. He found that odd. "Why aren't you parked in my driveway, Axel?" he asked blankly, still having completely written off the passes Axel held in his hands, "I know you want to show off your license and everything, but isn't just sitting there in drive a waste of gas?"

Axel let out a loud, barkish laugh. "You think I drove fourteen seconds down the street just to show off? Gee, Roxas, I'm so flattered to know just how you think of me. Here," he threw the laminated pass at Roxas. "Don't lose it, 'cause I ain't fucking buying you another one. Now get in here, and let's make good of our time off, yeah?"

Get in the car? With… Axel? It wasn't like he didn't trust Axel, but… okay, he didn't trust Axel. Not at all. Not behind the wheel anyway. Even with the ridiculous amount of space Roxas' three-family parking lot offered, Axel had spent the prime of his childhood crashing his skateboard into anything and everything he possibly could. Not to mention every goddamn time a Shakira song came on, he'd swing himself around wildly, regardless of what he was doing. Sitting, standing, playing video games… cutting vegetables…

But Roxas was seventeen, and reckless, and partially subject to peer pressure. So he did as he was told, sending a quick text to his mom to let her know that he'd gone home with Axel today, as often he would.

Surprisingly, Axel was a good driver, though Roxas couldn't help but notice that the radio was still off. But hey, he might as well get accustomed to it, because knowing Axel, as long as it wasn't too hot, they'd be spending at least every other day at Lake Compounce.

Admittedly, season passes were a pretty good deal if you were a teen, jobless, and a local. Parking was free, provided you had a pass for that too, and soda was free for everyone. That is, if you're brave enough to venture to designated areas. People spilled soda so often that many regulars affectionately renamed the park "Bee City" because of all the yellow jackets it attracted. It wasn't like Six Flags—all the rides were free past admissions, and access to the water park was free of charge. It was something the boys would take advantage of, for sure.

Getting from Willow Glenn Condo Association to Lake Compounce took approximately fifteen minutes, which Axel and Roxas spent discussing the senior prank from this afternoon. Every year the senior class had one. Last year's was pitiful—all they did was decorate the place. This year was much more grand. The senior class snuck in extra early and tied all the freshmen's lockers together. And also initiated a full blown squirt gun attack on anyone who dared venture into the student parking lot. Axel and Roxas made plans for next year's prank—their class, even though they were both outcast misfits with only three or four friends to their names. No matter how great the idea was, it wasn't gonna be heard unless you were in the class cabinet, on every sports team, and in every play. That was just how the cookie crumbled.

When Axel drove up to the parking booth, a girl he and Roxas both recognized was working there. She was a tiny little thing was short, blue black ringlets that fell just short of her shoulders. She went to school with them, so naturally, seeing her anywhere else was an awkward experience. For Roxas, anyway.

"Hey there, Xion," said Axel jovially, handing her his pass parking pass, "Didn't know you worked here."

Looking utterly miserable, she replied, "Oh, hi Axel. Today's my first day. You guys aren't the first I've seen coming through; almost the entire senior class is coming to celebrate. It's really weird, 'cause I never know what to say to anyone," she laughed nervously, "You're the only one that's greeted me by name so far. Otherwise I've just been getting the 'sup?' nod and a couple of passive 'heys.'"

"Well, I'll make sure to drive through your booth every time! Keep you company for a minute. That okay with you, Rox?" he questioned, turning his head back toward Roxas.

Roxas cocked an eyebrow and nodded. "I guess? Why wouldn't it be?"

Xion smiled, "Thanks. I'm almost worried that working here's gonna ruin my love for this place. I'm glad I'm only on parking lot duty."

"We'll take you in and hang around on your day off," Axel promised. A car in line honked behind him. "Whoops. Gotta go! See you later, okay?"

As they sped away, Roxas observed Axel with curiosity. Axel had always been social when he chose to be, a feat that Roxas would never understand. He could never get how Axel could just jump in and make friends at the drop of a hat. It was a wonder that he wasn't in every school play and on every sports team and president of the class cabinet. If he wanted to, he could be living the high schooler's dream. Yet he hung out with Roxas instead.

Axel pulled into a random spot and cut the ignition. He was jabbering excitedly about how this was gonna be such a great summer, and that they really needed to make the most of it, because this time next year they'll have graduated and would need to be adults and do adult things like work and find colleges and pick out a career and all that jazz. They had to be extra extra immature this year just to be certain they weren't wasting the last of their childhood.

But Roxas hardly paid any attention. He still thought about Xion. And how, even now as they were walking, Axel smiled at everyone and helped this one lady pick up her sunscreen.

"How do you do that?" Roxas asked.

"Huh? Do what?" said Axel.

"Just… be so nice to everyone like that," said Roxas, "I mean, we don't even know that girl, back there, at all. But you went out of your way to talk to her. Why would you do that?"

Axel looked at him as though he'd asked the simplest and most unbelievably stupid question in the world. "Why wouldn't I? You know why I think half of America is depressed?"

"Mm," said Roxas.

"Cause everyone is so nasty to each other. Everyone just ignores everybody else, at best. And, I don't know, it's like, impossible to make a left turn onto route six because everyone is too wrapped up in their own stupid lives to let anybody in. And if you did slow down to let someone in, people behind you just mindlessly honk their horns like you're doing a crime. If everyone were just a little nicer to each other, maybe life wouldn't suck so much. Y'know?"

"Sure?" Roxas questioned. "Do you think I'm mean to people? I don't mean to be mean. I just don't like people."

"And that's because everyone needs to be a little nicer to each other," Axel concluded with a smug grin. Roxas hated that grin. Axel wore it every single time he won an argument. They hadn't even been arguing now, but just seeing it made him want to fight.

"Yeah shut up," he growled.

As soon as they'd been admitted, the smell of amusement park food came wafting from every direction, and Roxas' mood was extremely improved. He was eager to get onto all the good coasters, and maybe do a few rounds of ghost hunt. But first: off to the drink stand!

The nearest stand was next to the bathroom at the entrance of the kiddie section and it was a complete disaster. It was one of the worst concerning bee population because the cotton candy/snowcone building was next to it as well. The area was full of the sounds of swarming bees, screaming kids, frustrated parents and vendors that couldn't speak English. The ground was soaking wet and sticky and smelled like soda that had been left in the sun too long.

"Who's gonna take it this time?" Axel asked gravely. They exchanged frightened looks.

"One, two, three shoot!" they shouted in unison. Roxas picked rock, and Axel had this retarded sideways scissors thing that he quickly tried to pass for paper, but Roxas called him out immediately. His entire posture sagged as a moseyed towards the stand.

"And there goes a broken man," Roxas laughed, "get me a Mountain Dew."

Axel flipped him off, earning many disdainful looks from angry parents, and then balled himself up as small as he could to charge into the small crowd. Roxas stood a safe distance away and hummed the Indiana Jones theme loud enough for Axel to hear until his friend reappeared, carrying Roxas' Mountain Dew and a Pepsi, his drink of choice. Axel was one of those people that always got the same soda, and substitutes didn't cut it. It was either Pepsi, not Coke; and if the place didn't have Pepsi, it was Sprite, not Sierra Mist. If the place in question only carried Coke and Sierra Mist, he'd just get water and they probably wouldn't ever go back.

"I think you might have made a record," said Roxas happily.

"We should bring stopwatches next time," Axel replied, taking a sip as they walked closer toward the center of the park.

Roxas took a sip as well. "You forgot ice," he frowned.

"Fuck you, get your own ice!" the redhead exclaimed. "I was risking my life over there, and you're gonna bitch about ice? Don't know why you'd want it anyway, it just makes the soda all watery and gross."

"Not if you don't take forever to drink it, drama queen," Roxas countered, "No wonder it takes you so long too, I wouldn't touch mine very often if it was lukewarm, either."

They glared at each other in that 'I love you, but you suck' kind of way for a couple of minutes before Axel put up his hands. "Whatever, let's agree to disagree. What do you want to go on first?"

"I wanna do the Pirate Ship, then the Boulder Dash, then the Thunder and Lightning, then the Downtime, then the—" Roxas began babbling a million times a minute, but Axel cut him off.

"I want to go on the Ferris Wheel," he mused.

Roxas stopped dead in his tracks. "The Ferris Wheel." He deadpanned.

"Yes, Winters, the Ferris Wheel," Axel said, completely seriously. "If we go on all the awesome ones tonight, and then tomorrow, and then the day after, and then the day after, they're gonna suck by the time the week is out, no? Let's just go on mellow stuff for now, and act like we're just hanging out in my kitchen or something. Cause I bet when you compare going on the Ferris Wheel to just sitting at my table eating all my food, it sounds a lot funner, doesn't it?"

"Funner isn't a word, Lea," said Roxas, crossing him arms. "Does it have to be the Ferris Wheel, though? Can't we go on like, at least the swings or something? Or that one that goes in a circle that shoves you to the side?"

"Those are noisy, though," Axel complained. "How are we gonna talk over all that?"

"Who wants to hear you talk, anyway?"

They bickered, just for the sake of bickering, back and forth all the way into the water park, at which point they'd completely forgotten that they were supposed to be heading to a specific location anyway. They stopped only when they'd unintentionally arrived at the entrance to the Lazy River. They both looked at each other and grinned, thinking the exact same thing.

Hell yeah.

After a very heated argument with the guy overlooking the "river" over whether Roxas's gym shorts and Axel's khakis counted as bathing suits, someone who was clearly superior came over and gave them clearance to go. Axel and Roxas spent the majority of the time on the water making fun of the guy who'd tried to stop them, and when they finally got back around, he wasn't even there anymore. He'd been replaced by a guy with hair the exact shape and color of a pear, which granted him an even bigger laughing at (once out of earshot, of course) than the original guy.

Next came pizza, which was so expensive that it emptied what little money Roxas had from his wallet. They'd decided then that from that day on they'd be bringing sandwiches instead of spending precious allowance on food. Which really, was what they spent their money on anyway, but 20$ could buy a whole lot more funyuns than it could Lake Compounce Pizza.

When they were done with the pizza, the sun was beginning to sink in the sky, and it became that time where one wasn't sure anymore whether to greet someone by saying "good afternoon" or "good evening." The sun had turned that gorgeous, orangey yellow color that you only got in the late afternoon, and that, added to the entire pizza Roxas and Axel had just shared, gave Roxas that lazy, full enough to go to sleep feeling, and their day (which hadn't really been all the interesting to begin with) started to settle down.

Due to Roxas' incessant whining, at around seven thirty Axel finally caved and allowed them to get in line for the Boulder Dash.

The Boulder Dash, for anyone who hasn't ever been to or heard of Lake Compounce in their life, is a wooden coaster built along the mountain. And by mountain, I mean tame, rocky hill. It goes up, then down, then back with a couple of cute twists and turns. Back when Roxas was young, it was everyone's favorite ride, and his dad never shut up about how smooth it was for a wooden coaster.

Such was not the case anymore. The wood was beginning to decay, and the ride was getting more ferocious on thighs and hips every year. But Roxas could still remember being eight, his heart jumping through his chest as he stood in line to go on it for the first time. He was just tall enough for the required height (while wearing his biggest sneakers) and he was scared, scared, scared. The girl operating the coaster thought he was the cutest thing of all time, and she double checked to make sure he was okay before starting the ride.

Because of that fond memory, Roxas still made it a point of riding the Boulder Dash at least once every time he came, although this year he'd probably break that tradition, as he'd never had season passes and a licensed best friend before. Axel had brought up a decent point; he really didn't want to lose all his love for the best rides.

"Let's take the back," said Axel, moving to the right line for it.

"No way, man, the front," Roxas argued, pulling them the other way.

"But the back has the most action!" Axel complained. "Everyone knows the back whips around the most."

"Which would be great, except now it hurts to ride in back," said Roxas adamantly, letting a wary couple pass them in the front line.

Axel stuck his tongue out and him but in the end, finally agreed to let them go in front. The line for the front seat was the longest, but only by a couple of people, so they got in it and waited. Before they even got on the coaster, they'd gotten into a discussion about whether it would be possible to manufacture nose warmers. Roxas had a very small and buttony nose, so often even if nothing else got cold on him, his nose would; which, if your nose has ever gotten cold, you'll know it's one of the most uncomfortable feelings in the world.

Their conversation continued all the way until they were choppily ascending towards the initial drop, and Axel was still jabbering away.

"…doesn't get cold, usually, but you know those really awful snots you get when it's cold out, and you could be riding the bus or something like that, and then all of a sudden they start jabbing into your nose like crazy and you really want to pick them out but can't 'cause you're in public and no amount of sneezing can help—"

"I can't believe we're talking about boogers right now," Roxas laughed.

"What? You can't tell me you've never had thoooooh shit!"

Axel had finally figured out that they were bolting down a 59 degree angle incline at sixty miles an hour, which made it more than slightly difficult to hear each other shouting. But they actually attempted it anyway, this time discussing what material nose warmers would be made of, if such a thing existed, and how it would be physically possible to make ones that stay on your face. By the time they reached the station, they were both hoarse and slightly winded.

They bounced merrily down the hill to check out their pictures. Because even if no one ever bought them, there was just something special about looking at yourself either screaming, attempting to make a macho bored face, or otherwise getting the hair blown out of your face by the inevitable roller coaster wind.

After a brief scan of the various screens in a search to find their own pictures, Axel obviously found it first because he started cracking up in loud, boisterous laughter. He was actually bent at the waist and holding his ribs as though scared they were going to crack.

"Wha—where is it?" asked Roxas, who was still able to find it.

Axel, apparently too overcome with laughter to speak, simply raised his arm wordlessly and pointed him in the right direction. A split second later, Roxas was crumbling down, practically on top of him, with laughter taking over him as well. He didn't think he'd ever seen such a funny expression on Axel before—or himself, for that matter.

His own mouth was open, and was, shit you not, totally diagonal. He couldn't even repeat the expression in the mirror, that's how awkward it was. Both of his eyes were bulging, making him look kind of like a lopsided toad. Axel, on the other hand, had just finished a sneeze. His nose was all scrunched up, his eyes were shut, and his mouth was puckered to about four times smaller than it usually was. Both of them hand their hair pushed back, which was especially hilarious to see on Roxas, because he always always wore his bangs over his face. Axel usually parted his shoulder length hair off to one side, but he didn't usually wear it in his face like a girl. But it was still funny to see it whipping back into the people behind them.

"Oh my god!" Axel choked out, "Look at your face! We have to get one."

"Look at yours!" Roxas countered, still hardly able to control his laughter.

They too a minute to laugh out the last of their laughs before Roxas finally managed to say, with a straight face, "Well, if you want one that bad, buy it yourself. I paid for pizza."

"Yeah but I paid for passes!" Axel exclaimed, "And I got the sodas."

"Well tough shit," Roxas replied, opening his wallet for his friend to see. "See? Empty."

Now Axel could make these faces, and they were the most pitiful faces of all the faces on the face of the Earth. His eyebrows literally sloped up on the insides like they did when characters were sad in cartoons, and he purposefully quivered his lips to make it look like he was on the verge of tears. As pathetic as it was, it made his victims feel like the worst person in the world, and willing to do pretty much anything to make it stop.

"Axelll!" Roxas whined. "Don't give me that face, there's nothing I can do about it. I. Am. Broke."

But Axel kept up the face and eventually Roxas caved. "Okay. Fine. I'll contribute like, five bucks from my next allowance to pay you back."

The redhead's face lit up as he instantly dropped the façade. "Really? Ya mean it?"

"Probably not," Roxas laughed. "But if you want it, hurry up and buy it, cause it's gonna go away in a sec."

"Right-o."

Thirty seconds later, they had one ridiculously expensive picture in a cheap plastic bag. Axel had a scanner at home so they could print one for Roxas, too. They were subconsciously heading back for exit now. Roxas' feet were tired, he was hoarse from yelling on the roller coaster, and he was still full enough to go to sleep.

"One more round of Ghost Hunt before we go?" Axel begged.

Roxas shrugged. "Sure."

The line for the Ghost Hunt, like always, was ridiculously long. It was the kind of like that you really wish came with seats, or at least had railings you could lean up against while you waited. Unfortunately, the "railings" here were, appropriately for the décor, made of chains, which were next to impossible not to mention painful to sit on. Not that Axel hadn't tried in the past.

There was a little girl in line with them, clinging fearfully onto her older brother's leg. She had very large, brown eyes, and her hair was tied back into a little pink bow. She stared silently at them for a long while, before finally she said. "Mister, why is your hair so red?"

"Marlene! That's not polite!" the boy snapped, tugging her to face forward. "Sorry about that," he added to Axel. He looked to be around twelve.

"Don't be ridiculous," Axel said good naturedly, bending down on one knee to get down on her level. "I put stuff called dye in my hair, and it makes it red for a while. After a while, it grows back blonde. I just recolored it yesterday; the dye smells really good. You want to smell it?"

"Yeah!" she said excitedly, taking a little sniff. When he looked over, Roxas could see that the boy inconspicuously lean closer to Axel as well. "It's like bubble gum!"

Axel smiled. "You can do it with Kool Aid too, but I won't tell ya how. Wouldn't want you to get in trouble because of me. But if you wanna try it, ask your mom to google it for you, and you can do any color you want."

"Okay!" she said. She turned back to face forward and held her brother's hand. "Hey Denzel, do you think Mommy'd let me?"

"Iwokno," he said passively. "That's girl stuff."

"Hey, now!" said Axel playfully. "I heard that."

After the kids got on their ride, Roxas laughed, "Need some ice for that burn? You know you got problems when a kid insults you. The only difference is they say what everyone else is thinking."

"Red isn't as girly as blonde, though," the redhead huffed. "Could you imagine if I wore hair like this—" he flipped it around as he said it, "—blonde? People'd be mistaking me for a girl from behind."

As they climbed into their own little cart thing, Roxas heard the people behind them sniggering, but he didn't bother telling Axel. The hell did he care what color his friend dyed his hair? As long as it wasn't pink, he could care less about being seen together. He'd rather enjoy his time in the smoke and blacklights than listen to Axel bitch about how perfectly masculine he was.

When they exited the ride, however, Roxas was contemplating changing his mind, because Axel had creamed him. His gun was broken (or so he kept insisting) so when they reached their final score, Axel had him beat at 0072 to 5813.

Grumbling and griping about their aching feet, Roxas and Axel finally made it back to Axel's dad's car. It was late-ish; the park was due to close in about forty five minutes. It was still early in the season, though, so hopefully when they reached the middle of summer, it wouldn't be just past dusk by the time they had to leave. Given the hour, the car was pretty much deserted, with no one else around for at least two rows.

"Ugh, I'm so tired," Roxas complained, flopping lazily into his seat and reclining it all the way back. "Goodnight."

"Whoa whoa, hang on, don't sleep," Axel warned.

"Why not?"

"Cause when people sleep in the car with me, it tends to make me really drowsy, too. So if you want to sleep…" he paused for dramatic effect, "…then I'm just going to have to put on Britney. What do you think, Roxas? Should I listen to Toxic or Circus?"

Roxas bolted up immediately. Not only did he despise Britney Speares, but he was still very iffy about Axel plus car plus radio, because it probably equaled death. "Okay!" he said quickly, "I'm up!"

Axel chuckled, "That's what I thought... so, you wanna go home, or crash at my place?"

"Hang on, lemme just call," said Roxas, taking out his phone. Days at Axel's were always better than days at home. Not only did it enable him to shirk his chores for a few hours, but it also allowed him to avoid his mother. See, Roxas's mom had this bitch quota that she had to fill every day, so the less time he spent at home, the more likely she was to take it out on his dad and brother instead of him.

His mom didn't answer her cell, but she answered the house phone on the first ring. "Hello?"

"Hey mom."

"When are you coming home? You've been out a bit late," she reprimanded.

"Ma, it's not even eight thirty yet," said Roxas. "Me and Axel were at Lake Compounce. We've got season passes. Anyway, I—"

"Oh, that's nice," she interrupted.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Anyways, I was gonna go to Axel's for the night. Is that okay?"

His mom paused. "Aren't you getting to be a little old for sleepovers, dear?"

Roxas pressed a hand to his forehead. "It's not a sleepover if you're playing video games until the a.m. We're not girls, mom, it's not like we brush each other's hair and gossip and watch soap operas.

"Well, all right. What time are you going to be home tomorrow?" she pressed.

"I don't know," said Roxas, trying to keep polite and not get too frustrated, "We don't make plans like that. I'll come home… I guess before dinner tomorrow. It only takes like, two minutes to walk home, so I really don't get what the fuss is about."

She huffed. "Okay, Mr. Attitude. I'll see you tomorrow."

Roxas could just hear her shout, "Make good choices!" before he hung up. "Wouldn't be surprised if she put a bugging device on me with all the questions she asks," he grumped. "What does she think we're gonna do, go into the woods and smoke pot?"

"My neighbor does," Axel commented passively. "But personally, I think she could afford to tone it down a bit. I don't have a mom, so I really can't relate."

They didn't have to pass Roxas' house to get to Axel's but they were on the same street, pretty much. Roxas didn't really like that, only ten doors down, his mom was probably standing outside, listening for the sound of a car and watching for the momentary gleam of headlights at the top of the hill. It was impossible to see Axel's house from Roxas' but that didn't make it impossible to spy.

"Sometimes I wish we didn't live so close to each other," Roxas remarked, climbing out. "It'd be nice to get away once in a while."

"Well, the Lake's a little bit farther," said Axel with a grin. "So relax. Besides, she's not going to chase you here anyway. She's too scared of my dad, remember?"

That she was. Her first ever impression of Reno Delarosa was at Axel's thirteenth birthday party. Like any good parent, he was there to monitor the whole thing. Unlike a good parent, however, he'd made a game of climbing onto their trampoline, which they had placed just next to the pool, and holding kids by their ankles of the water. Then another player would have to shoot them in the belly with a squirt gun, and whoever could hold up the longest before begging for mercy was the winner.

Furthermore, when they were done with that, he starting giving the kids tips on how best to flip off the trampoline into the water, and even went as far as to give them boosts so they could jump really high and have extreme cannonball competitions. It was all just harmless fun, but Roxas' mom was horrified. Word spread like wildfire amongst the rest of the moms, and before long, the story had been blown way out of proportion, and Reno became a sort of boogeyman to all the neighborhood moms.

That never stopped Roxas from coming over, though, mostly because it was within walking distance, and partly because his dad had met up with Axel's shortly after, and deemed him harmless. But that never stopped Roxas' mom from throwing a fit every time he wanted to spend time at Axel's.

By the time they got inside and settled, neither of them were really in the mood nor awake enough to play video games, so they just moseyed into Axel's room and started changing into nightclothes. It had long since become ritual to simply borrow clothes to sleep from whoever the host was when they had sleep overs and return home in the same clothes they came in, and tonight was no exception. When Roxas finished changing his shirt and stripping himself of jeans, he started helping Axel with the pullout bed.

Axel had a queen sized bed, which was plenty large enough for two adolescent boys to sleep on, but they found out very early on in their friendship that Axel had a tendency to cuddle everything in his sleep, and Roxas was no exception. Roxas slept on the pullout bed from then on, or sometimes for the sake of swapping, Axel slept on the pullout bed and let Roxas sleep on the good mattress.

Nothing more of interest happened that night. Both boys were asleep within ten minutes of their heads hitting their pillows, and the next day, they would wake up and do it all over again.

A/N: Please review if you're enjoying it so far, and pick a pairing PLEASE!