"Roxas. I just…"

"Axel…"

"Mmm…Roxas,"

"Oh, Axel…"

"Roxas…Roxas…Roxas. Roxas!"

Roxas woke up, startled out of a sound sleep. "Mm, whaa?"

"Come on, Sleeping Beauty. Up and at 'em." Roxas sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes to see his cousin Sora sitting on his bed, staring at him.

Sora rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Rox. You were saying Axel's name in your sleep again." The brunette waggled his eyebrows. "So, Axel, huh?"

Roxas shot up, now fully awake. "NO! Shut it, Sora!"

Sora smirked. "Admit it; you totally have the hots for him."

Roxas glared at his cousin, who was really more like an annoying older brother. "No, I DON'T."

"Sure, sure, whatever you say…" Sora grinned at him. "I'm gonna go eat, and then I'm meeting Riku and Kairi on the beach, so don't bother looking for me. See you in an hour, probably."

"Ugh, whatever. Go away." Roxas pulled the covers back over his head in an effort to go back to sleep. Suddenly, he remembered a rumor he'd heard from Kairi, their redheaded neighbor. "Hey, Sora?"

Sora poked his head back in the door. "Yeah, Rox?"

Roxas smirked at him. "Say hello to Riku for me. Unless you're…busy."

Sora turned bright red, but tried to cover it with good humor. "God, you're impossible! See you when I get home."

As Sora left, Roxas decided to tease his cousin just a bit more. "Riiiikuuuu…Riiikuuu…Sora's in loooooove with you!"

A muffled "LALALA, CAN"T HEAR YOU!" came from downstairs, and Roxas chuckled to himself as he heard the door slam.

Sora's too easy. Roxas stretched and reluctantly climbed out of bed. Now, to take a long, hot shower, and make some breakfast. Then Roxas recalled his dream about Axel, and gulped. Maybe a cold shower would be a better idea.

By the time Roxas had showered, gotten dressed, and started breakfast, Sora had come home from the beach. Sora waved at him as he walked in the door, still sopping wet and sandy, his spiky hair going in all directions. "Hey, look, the zombie's up!"

Roxas grumbled and continued eating his cereal.

Sora continued, unfazed by his blonde cousin. "What's the plan for today? Riku has work, and Kairi had to go shopping with her mom, so that leaves just you and me." He smirked. "Unless you and Axel are doing something today?"

Roxas sighed. "Sora, would you just drop it already? I really don't like him like that. And, I think he's straight."

"Hmm, that's not what I heard this morning. But okay." Sora came into the kitchen and ruffled Roxas's hair, and his hand was good-naturedly batted away. "It's too hot to really do much of anything, and I know you don't like the beach, so do you wanna just hang out today?" He made a puppy dog look. "We could watch Advent Children. And sit upstairs and be lazy."

Roxas grinned. "Sounds like my kind of afternoon."

Three hours later found Sora and Roxas upstairs on their respective beds, in an intense battle of Guitar Hero.

"Player One wins!"

"Aw, shit. Not again."

Roxas smirked triumphantly. "And this is why I am the older cousin—I can still whoop your ass at Guitar Hero."

Sora pouted. "I'm better with a keyblade than you."

"Not much."

Sora stuck his tongue out. "You're not much better at Guitar Hero, so ha!"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "If that's what gets you through the night."

Suddenly Roxas's phone vibrated, and then began its ringtone from somewhere under the sheets.

"Incoming call from: Axel." 'You swoon, you sigh, why deny it oh-oh. It's too cliché, I won't say I'm in-'

Roxas dove for his phone while Sora made a noise sounding suspiciously like a snort and fell off of the bed.

"Hello?" Roxas glared at Sora and mouthed, 'Did you change my ringtone?'

"Hey, Rox, it's Axel." From the floor, Sora mouthed back 'I think it suits your relationship.'

"Hey Ax. What's up?" Roxas was alternating between listening to the conversation and glaring daggers at Sora.

"Nothin', really. But hey, have you seen the signs for that carnival?" Sora mouthed 'What's he saying?' Roxas ignored him.

"Yeah, I saw it. What about it?" You'd have to be a blind, stoned monkey walking backwards on the wrong side of the street to not see the enormous advertisement. Of course, he didn't tell Axel that; he just let him ramble on.

"Well, I was kinda wondering if you wanted to go tonight. With me. They open at 7, so I could come get you at 6:30?"

Roxas smiled. He could feel Sora's curiosity, but decided to again ignore him. "Yeah, sounds good."

"Sweet! See you at 6:30, then?"

"Okay. Bye,"
"Bye Rox."

Roxas flipped his phone closed and finally decided to humor the huge aqua puppy dog eyes staring at him from the other side of the bed. "What?"

Sora pouted. "You know what! What's going on?"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "We're going to that carnival tonight, the one they have billboards all over the main road for."

Sora grinned. "Ooh, Roxy has a daaaate!"

"Yeah, whatever. He's picking me up at 6:30, so we've got a while." He made the mistake of looking at Sora, who was staring at him like an unfed animal. He sighed. "Do you wanna walk to the city and get sea-salt ice cream before I go?"

Sora's face lit up. "Yay! You're the best!"

Roxas grinned. "Yeah, yeah. Let's go."

"…And that's what I did this afternoon." Roxas finished up his story for Axel, who was driving them to the carnival.

"Yeah? Why wasn't he with his friends? They're usually joined at the hip!"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Apparently Riku had work, and Kairi's mom stole her. They're probably all at the beach by now, though."

Axel chuckled. "I'll bet." They pulled up at the carnival, and Axel parked the car, nearly hitting at least three cars in the process. Roxas winced.

"Was it really necessary to park the car in a spot barely big enough, when there's about ten times more space over yonder, not to mention closer?"

"I have my reasons!"

Roxas looked pointedly at him. "The last time you had a reason for something, it was lighting my fish on fire before you put them in the fish tank."

Axel looked sheepish. "I thought they'd be fine for a few seconds…"

"Mm-hmm. Come on, where do you want to go first?"

Axel's eyes lit up. "Well…"

Three hours later, Roxas had cotton candy in one hand, three fish in the other, and a giant stuffed…something or other, which Axel insisted was a Moogle. Whatever that was. In any case, Axel was thoroughly enjoying himself, which made Roxas happy. And Roxas, he would admit that he was having a pretty good time himself.

"Roxas?"

"Axel?" Roxas turned around and looked, and suddenly Axel was pointing to the Ferris wheel.

His eyes were bright with excitement. "I saved the best for last! We can probably see the whole carnival from up there!" He pointed to the top, and Roxas suddenly felt a little woozy. He would do it, if only for Axel.

"Rox?" Axel was looking at him concernedly.

Roxas smiled weakly. "Let's go."

Axel gave him a funny look, but shrugged, and they were suddenly off running towards the Ferris wheel. They got in a relatively short line, and the ride attendant snapped the door to their car shut. The ride swung forward a bit, and Roxas sucked in a breath.

Deep, steady breaths, Roxas. One, two, three in, one, two, three out. You can do this. Five minutes. Five minutes.

Snap.

Snap.

I've been secured into a rickety car by a pimply-faced kid who's snapping his gum in my face.

Snap.

Snap.

The gum-snapping kid was now informing them of safety hazards in a monotone, and Roxas dumbly nodded.

Why was this ever considered 'safe'? What six kinds of idiot do you have to agree to build one of these things, much less ride in them?

"Roxas? You okay?"

Oh yeah. You have to be the Axel kind of idiot, who likes fire and isn't afraid of heights.

"I'm fine," Roxas blatantly lied, "Think maybe that soda isn't sitting well with me or something." That was such a lie. Dumbass, stubborn fucker, just tell him you're afraid of heights…

"You sure?"

Roxas managed a smile and nodded. The ride jerked forward again, and Roxas balled up a fist and held it on his thigh.

I hope he doesn't notice how white my hand is. Or how shaky my breathing is. That's right, Roxas, breathe. In, out. In, out. Don't be a wuss, you can do this for Axel. Just keep breathing. No one has accidents on Ferris wheels. At least it's not a roller coaster.

"You know, you're kind of pale. Are you sure you don't need to get off?"

Another nod.

Suddenly, Axel was lurching the car forward, sitting down next to him and shifting the car's weight. Roxas shut his eyes, and let out a shaky breath when the car stopped swinging. When he opened his eyes, Axel was watching him carefully.

"Rox. Don't lie to me. You're definitely not okay."

"Axel, I'm fi-ne!" The ride suddenly swung into motion, and Roxas sucked in a lungful of air. He shut his eyes and leaned back in the car.

"Rox." There was a cool hand on his forehead, and it occurred to Roxas that he was probably sweaty and gross from nerves. He kept his eyes tightly shut, and he felt Axel pull his hand away. "You're sweating."

"Yeah." He would have come back with a snarky comment, but he was honestly feeling too shitty to complain too much.

The car jerked to a stop, and it occurred to Roxas that they were probably pretty close to the top. He gulped, and kept his eyes shut.

"You afraid?"

Well, there was no use denying that one. "Yeah."

Roxas felt arms wrap around his waist, and a dim part of his mind noted that he would probably be enjoying this if he wasn't so damn freaked out. He felt something against his mouth, and he heard Axel say "Open." He did, reluctantly, and tasted something that kind of seemed like a Skittle. Roxas opened his eyes, and asked "Ax-"

The ride jerked into motion once more, slightly faster this time, and Roxas jumped. When he opened his eyes again, he noticed that he was sitting in the pyro's lap. His eyes widened. "Um, sorr-I just-"

He was cut off by Axel's lips on his. After a few minutes, Axel broke the kiss, and Roxas looked at him with huge, disbelieving eyes. His face, not nervous for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, softened with happy surprise.

"Do you-"

"Yeah." Axel grinned, and popped a Skittle into his mouth. "So, want to take your mind off of the ride?"

Roxas grinned, and leaned in. By the time the two of them came up for air, the ride was slowing to a stop.

It took them 20 minutes longer to get back to the car than it had going into the carnival. After all, kissing and walking is much more strenuous than just walking. Especially if you're trying not to dump your armful of carnival gear, which happens to include live animals.

Roxas wished Axel had burned them already.