Title: Collecting the Stars

Genre: Romance/General

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I no own

Note: This fic is AU, has slight OOC, and contains Yaoi. You have been warned.

Summary: [AU. Yaoi] – I'd like to tell myself that my life would've been fine had Axel not snuck into my window that first night. Because there's normal folk like me, and insane ones like him.
Main AkuRoku. Background Riso.

Thank You Le Tenn for being my beta!

"blah" means talking

"blah" means phone conversations

blah means thoughts

Chapter 1: Jesus of Suburbia

I'm the son of rage and love
The Jesus of Suburbia
From the bible of none of the above
On a steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin
No one ever died for my sins in hell
As far as I can tell
At least the ones I gotten away with

And there's nothing wrong with me
This is how I'm supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don't believe in me

The summer I turned sixteen was when my mom died and I was sent to live with my estranged father, away from my home on Destiny Island, my childhood, and my twin brother who refused to come with me.

Sora was exactly two minutes older than me, his hair was chestnut, his skin golden tan, though our eyes were identical. I had never known Sora to be anything short of kind, understanding, and generous; but when the lawyer told us that in our mothers will she wanted us to go to our father he flatly refused. This was the only time I ever saw Sora act bitter and resentful.

"I'm staying with Riku, Roxas," he had told me, "he lives by himself, his father pays for the apartment and never visits so it's not like he'll know I'm there." Blue eyes were so determined; I didn't have the heart to stop him. Riku was the love of Sora's life; they had always been destined to be together, ever since birth it seemed.

"Stay with me Roxas!" Sora suggested, "Please, you don't have to go."

I didn't want to tell Sora that I needed to leave; I needed to get away from Destiny Island, to start over fresh. I couldn't bear to pass by the childhood home that my mother raised us in. Leaving would be the best thing for me, even if I was moving in with a father who was more like a stranger.

And this is where I found myself, standing at the train station in Twilight Town at five in the evening, looking around for someone with my blond hair and bright blue eyes. I resented the fact that I looked like the guy; I'd always had a feeling that my appearance caused my late mother grief.

At the very back wall, apart from the crowd, stood a blond man with spiky hair, his sharp blue eyes were focused on me. I narrowed mine and wheeled my luggage behind me as I headed towards him. He remained in his spot, watching my every move, like a hawk does its prey. Like a mother does her child.

"Where's your brother?" Cloud, my father, asked. No need for formalities I supposed. This irked me.

"Back home, he refused to come with." I stated simply, never wavering my own gaze, he wouldn't intimidate me.

Cloud raised an eyebrow, "he's still a minor; he can't do that."

I shrugged before glaring at him, "no offense, I know you're all generous for willing to take us both in, but do you really have any right to say what Sora can or can't do?"

Cloud stared at me for a little longer before shaking his head, "come on, let's get to the car."

The ride to Cloud's house was awkward to say the least, uncomfortable to say the most. I mostly stared out of the window at the scenery flying past us. My heart ached. I already missed the beach, and my friends. I missed Kairi, Wakka, Tidus, Selphie, and even Riku. But most of all I missed Sora. I don't blame him for staying behind, but I wished that he would've considered my feelings as well.

Well that's a little unfair Roxas, after all Sora didask you to stay, I thought to myself. At this thought I scoffed. Sora did offer, he asked sincerely, he probably missed me just as much as I missed him. We had never been apart in our lives. We had even planned on going to college together and sharing a dorm or something. Even though Sora had Riku now, Riku wasn't me, this thought made me feel a tiny bit of smug satisfaction.

Cloud's house was a typical two story home; it looked like every other one in Twilight Town that we had passed. When he pulled up into the driveway I was more than a little surprised. I had always assumed that he lived in a small apartment or something. A single guy didn't need all of this space.

I got out of the car and the two of us went inside the house in silence. Seriously, how antisocial was Cloud? I refused to say a word; I continued to play the role of the sullen teenager. But really, there was no point in my saying anything to him since, sadly, he was a stranger to me. Unlike Sora, I didn't downright hate the guy, but I could think of a million other places I'd rather be than here. On the top of that list would have to be Destiny Island.

"I should tell you," Cloud started while unlocking the front door, "I have a roommate." He then opened the door; on the other side was the foyer, which led to a living room. From the living room I could see an open kitchen and a formal dining room.

"Man or woman?" I asked, suddenly not feeling so sure about moving here with him.

"Man," Cloud answered before taking off his shoes at the front door, "Take off your shoes."

I gave him a look but did as I was told. Clouds house had beige carpet, this house was so unlike my mothers. My impression so far was of severe dislike, well, I think that's going a little far. I didn't mind the place, it was actually nicely furnished and everything. Maybe I just didn't like it because it was Clouds house.

My new bedroom was downstairs right off of the formal dining room. It was bigger than the bedroom that I grew up in, it was furnished with a full size bed and had a desk that was against the same wall as the large window which faced the neighbors' house. Lovely.

"You're things from the island should be here within the next week," Cloud stated, as if I didn't know that already. "Leon should be home soon with dinner."

I arched an eyebrow, "Leon? Your roommate?"

He nodded.

I then began to poke my two index fingers together; "Are you and Leon, more than roommates?" was that the reason why you left my mother? I wanted to ask, but I just watched Clouds face. He gave me a dull, deadpan, look.

"We're distant cousins Roxas, we were raised like brothers. I live with Leon because it's cheap, and living alone gets lonely," he sighed, "you're more than welcome to explore the rest of the house; I have a few phone calls I have to make."

I watched him leave allowing myself to let out a large sigh while I placed my luggage on the bed before taking my cell phone out; Sora wanted me to call him as soon as I had got here.

"Hey Roxas," Riku's voice greeted me from the other side, "How was the trip?" I didn't bother asking why Riku had my brother's cell.

"Good, boring. I just got to Cloud's place like ten minutes ago, how're things over there?" I asked, although I felt pathetic asking since I was just there this morning. I unzipped my bag.

"Sora misses you already," Riku said, I could hear his smirk.

I couldn't help but smile, "where is he anyways?"

"Hang on, let me get him," Riku stated, there were some muffled sounds afterward. After a second, I could hear their TV on in the background. While I was waiting for him to get my brother I began to unpack my clothes. It was needless to say that I was fairly distracted when my window was suddenly opened.

"Holy fuck!" I shrieked. It was a manly shriek… for the most part. You can't judge me. My phone dropped into my open bag and I looked frantically around the room for some kind of weapon.

The intruder came in ass first, that's what threw me off the most. I was confused by that; don't people break in foreword instead of backward? I stared at the persons rump much longer than I should have, noticing that attached were super long legs dressed in normal jeans and black converse. Their black shirt rode up a bit, revealing an extremely pale back. I continued to watch, more intrigued than scared now, as bright red hair cascading down broad shoulders came next, until the person was in the room, standing up straight, back to me.

My first thought: Holy crap he's tall.

The guy was taller than me by at least six inches.

He turned around, and literally jumped when he noticed me, "oh my God!" He then leaned against the wall, hand over his heart. "Jesus kid, let a guy know you're here."

I felt a slight spark of anger, "Excuse you? You're the one who just broke into my room!"

He looked me over. His eyes were green. Almost unnaturally so, his looks made my mouth dry and my insides burn. Oh God, I've never felt this way before. I looked away from him, glaring at the floor, unsure exactly what to do. I mean, for all I knew he could've been a rapist or an axe murder, but he didn't have any noticeable weapons on him.

He looked me over for a minute, "ooooh, you're Cloud's kid eh?" he asked in such a lazy manner that I just didn't have it in me to get annoyed by his blunt question.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes, forgetting all about the fact that I was just on the phone with Riku and was about to talk to Sora. My brother was probably having a panic attack right about now.

"I always break in through the window," the red head stated matter-of-factly. "I come here to steal food."

I raised my eyebrow, "you steal food?" I repeated slowly.

"I didn't realize there was an echo in here," the guy grinned and the sight made my stomach upset. I felt queasy all of a sudden. "Anyways, Leon feeds me." He then began to walk past me towards my bedroom door before stopping and looking at me again, "My name's Axel. Axel Fair. Commit it to memory."

I scoffed, "is that your catch line? How lame."

Axel grinned at me, "oh yeah, I'm the lamest guy in town. What's your name?"

I looked at his intense green eyes and replied, "Roxas."

"Roxas what? Do you not have a last name?" Axel asked, tilting his head to the side, his hair looking like a bloody waterfall. I wanted to touch it.

"My last name is Lockhart. I'm Roxas Lockhart. Jesus. Why are you still in my room?" I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him my iciest glare. I know this because, as sad as it may sound, I've practiced glares in the mirror numerous times.

Axel just grinned at me and opened the door before quickly exiting.

A few moments later Cloud appeared with his cell phone away from his ear, he frowned at me. I could hear Sora's voice on the other side, but what really surprised me was how angry my twin sounded.

"He said that he heard you yell and your phone suddenly disconnected," Cloud stated, handing me his phone. I frowned at Cloud, Sora was his son and Cloud acted as if he was just another irritated kid.

"I yelled because Axel came in through the window!" I seethed.

Cloud then sighed and rolled his eyes, "oh for the love of God." He then turned back towards the dining room, "AXEL!" He yelled into the house. It made me jump, his yell sounded like a roar.

"WHAHAHAHA!" echoed throughout the house.

Cloud stomped off to look for the weird redhead.

"Sora?" I asked while putting the phone up to my ear, forgetting all about unpacking.

"Roxas! What happened?" Sora sounded a little frantic.

"This weirdo named Axel just broke in through my window," I said, eerily calm.

"WHAT?!"

"But he's a friend of Leon's. Leon feeds him." The more I tried to explain, the worse it came out.

"Who the hell's Leon?" Sora demanded.

"Apparently he's our distant cousin Sora." I answered, flopping myself down on the bed, not even caring that this action caused my luggage to topple over.

Sora went silent for a moment, "…we have a cousin?"

"Yeah, so says Cloud. I've only been here for a little while, but I can already tell that this is so much different than home," I nearly whispered.

"…Roxas, all you have to do is say the word and I'll be there. Or I'll send money for you to come back here." Sora said, rather seriously. He sounded as if he were so much older than me. I hated feeling so dependent on him.

I bit my bottom lip, worrying it and closed my burning eyes. Sniffling once I finally managed to say, "I want mom Sora. I don't like being so far away from you when the world feels like its ending. I feel like I'm living in a world that never was meant to be. It's all so surreal."

My brother let out a long breath. "I know Roxas. I know."

My conversation with Sora was anything but happy. We ended up crying together, blubbering nonsense. Sora begging me to move back and me begging him to come with me. In the end we compromised and promised to visit each other periodically.

I managed to leave my new room as soon as I was sure that my face wasn't swollen from crying anymore. Men don't cry. So I put my clothes away while I calmed down. My world did seem to be falling apart. Now, I'm not the type of person to feel self-pity or anything like that, but at that moment I was overcome with it.

By the time I managed to get out of the room about two hours had passed, making it just after eight in the evening. Cloud was waiting for me at the dining room table, blue eyes giving me an intense look.

"Your cell," I needlessly said while sliding it over the table to him. I left him at the table; if he wanted to say anything to me he should have said it while I was standing there.

I went into the kitchen, noticing Axel eating from a bucket of fried chicken.

"Want me to serve you?" Axel asked, piling his own plate with mashed potatoes and coleslaw.

"Sure." I watched him open a cabinet door for plates, another for a cup, and reached into a drawer for a fork. "Why do you break in through the window?"

Axel glanced over at me while serving me some potatoes, "come again?"

I glared. He smirked.

"I break in because it annoys the hell out of Cloud. The food is just an added bonus, since they both know my mom and dad. And they've known me since I was a baby...they think I'm too thin," Axel said, not really paying attention to what exactly he was telling me.

I looked him over, he was thin. Then a pang of irritation surged through me, Cloud was here to watch Axel grow up, and obviously cares about the guy if he's letting him break into his house for food. Yet the bastard couldn't even get involved in his own children's lives. I was seriously doubting my decision about coming here.

"My dad's Clouds best friend, his names Zack. My mom's Aeris, she owns the flower shop in town." He mixed his food around. He continued, "My parents had me, and my younger sister Olette. She's probably around your age."

"Is your hair naturally that red? Are your eyes really that green?" I blurted out; these two things had been bothering me since he broke into my room a few hours ago. I felt like a little kid while asking them.

Axel snickered, "my natural hair color was black, like my dad. I first dyed it red on a dare, and liked it so much it stuck. As for my eyes, I got them from my mom." He looked at me with those eyes, handing my plate of food to me. "What about you, Roxas?"

The way he said my name, it sounded almost like he was teasing me.

"My mom owned a pastry shop slash juice bar back home, all of us island kids used to go there all the time," I absently smiled down at my food. Mom's original idea for Tifa's 7th Heaven was that of a bar, but that was no place for young children. The juice bar was pretty popular amongst the kids, everyone used to go there almost every day after school. Mom, Sora, and I lived above the shop, in a cozy three bedroom two bathroom flat. Sora's bedroom faced the children's island, mine faced the mainland.

I didn't really want to tell Axel anything else about me. I was never an open person in that sense; I never thought there was much to tell about me. But Axel just easily pulled answers out of me without even trying. This was bad.

"How old are you Axel?" I asked him.

"Twenty-one, how old are you?" he asked, a knowing smirk on his face.

"Sixteen." I answered automatically.

"Jailbait," Axel grinned.

I couldn't fight the blush that spread across my face. "Are you a pervert Axel?"

He snickered, "define 'pervert'."

I spent the rest of the evening in the bedroom, trying to make myself as comfortable as possible. I didn't meet Leon or talk with Cloud. Around ten at night Axel came back into my room without bothering to knock.

"I'm off," he stated while heading towards the same window he crawled in through.

"Why don't you use the front door?" I asked, looking up from my book.

Axel shrugged, "front doors are for losers," he grinned at me while flinging open the window, "hey, Roxas?"

I looked at him, "hm?"

"I'll send my sister over tomorrow, she'll show you around." The way he said it left no room for disagreement. I merely nodded, and then Axel was back out of the window, closing it from the other side.

He had me mesmerized and I had just met him.

The smell of coffee woke me up; it was 9:00AM. This was only my second day, but I could already tell that life here was boring, that was for sure.

I missed the island.

Leaving the bedroom I noticed a man with shaggy brown hair sitting at the dining room table drinking coffee while reading the paper. He wasn't an ugly man, stormy gray eyes were concentrated on the paper, straight nose, and high cheek bones. The only thing that took away from his perfection was the jagged scar which ran at an angle from his forehead down across the bridge of his nose and stopped right beneath his left eye.

"You're Leon?" I asked him, holding my towel and bath products close to my chest.

He nodded, "and you're Roxas."

We stared each other down some more. This man was my cousin, that knowledge alone was odd to me. I wanted to talk to him, to ask him so many questions about my unknown family.

"Where's your bathroom?" I asked instead.

My morning was uneventful; I roamed the house for a bit before going back to my new room. Cloud went to work early and Leon had left a little over an hour ago. This was boring.

Tap. Tap. Tap. The sound made me jump; it was coming from the window. Was it Axel? I quickly scrambled off of the bed and pulled the blinds open. On the other side of the glass pane was a girl. Her brown hair was down to her shoulders, her large green eyes were too bright to be natural, and she had a smile that was familiar to me even though I had never met her. She was probably Olette.

She waved. I opened my window, "does your family not believe in front doors?" I asked her, noticing that there was no screen on this window. I was willing to bet that Axel had discarded it a long time ago.

"At least I knocked," she giggled, "I'm Olette, but you're probably already know that."

I nodded. "I'm Roxas, but you probably already know that."

Olette nodded. I noticed her orange tank top, khaki Capri's, and hemp flip flops. I looked down at my own plain white tee, cargo shorts, and flip flops. We looked like beach kids in this middle of nowhere town.

We were both silent for a moment.

"So, not to be rude, but why are you here?" I asked her.

Olette smiled, "I'm kidnapping you! Under direct orders from my brother!" And here I thought the red head was only teasing me.

"Um...okay?" and this is how I found myself getting a tour of the town from Olette.

Twilight Town wasn't as large as it had seemed the night before. We caught a trolley from our area of housing and into the "busy" part. It was pretty laid back place for having such grand buildings.

"The reason why Twilight Town seems like such a sleepy town is because almost everyone commutes and works in Radiant Garden," Olette explained when I pointed this out to her. "People live in the buildings, so it's not like we have a low population, it's that rarely anyone is ever home during the day."

"Where's Radiant Garden?" I asked her, we were headed towards McDuck's Ice Cream.

"It's a twenty minute train ride to the north. Radiant Garden is near the mountains," Olette stated while cheerfully placing her order for two sea salt ice creams.

I suddenly felt small and insignificant. I had never been anywhere other than Destiny Island and the play island. This was my first time really going anywhere. The mention of mountains made me realize how much bigger the world actually was.

"I'd like to go there someday; I've never seen snow before. Don't mountain tops usually have snow?" I asked Olette as she handed me an ice cream.

She gave me a sunny smile and nodded.

Meeting Hayner and Pence was an interesting experience to say the least. It was obvious that Hayner was one of those blond kids, who actually had blond moments, that and he acted as if he had a stick up his ass. Pence was cool, though.

They were a trio of friends that have probably known each other their entire lives. They kind of reminded me of Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. Only I it felt as if Hayner and Pence had some competition going on between each other, most likely over the only female in the group.

Olette introduced me to them and immediately they began conversing, trying to keep me in their little triangle. They were being nice to me, and it made me feel awkward. It was probably because they knew my circumstances for being here, this town had that small town feeling where everyone knew each other's business. I barely tuned in to their conversation, but by mid-afternoon I made up some lame excuse and left.

I wandered around town, bored. I really wasn't in the mood for exploring. Then again, I never was the exploring type. That would be my brother.

There was a hole in one of the walls in the town. Why would anyone keep a large hole, big enough for a grown man to go through, in one of their walls? Curiosity got the better of me and I stepped over the small ledge and right into a tunnel. It wasn't a long tunnel because not 15 feet ahead was a white light for the other side.

Walking forward I was led into a forest. It was so green, unbelievably green. There was a well beaten path before me and I followed it. In retrospect it wasn't the smartest idea, after all I didn't know where it led to and what it could've been. The path led me to a mansion. And I say that in every sense of the word.

The rod Iron Gate kept me out, but the mansion grounds were well kept, obviously someone lived here. I looked up at one of the second story windows, noticing that there was a figure watching me, though with the sun shining in my eyes I couldn't tell what gender they were. Standing there for a moment more I decided to head home, the place was starting to creep me out.

I got back home a little after successfully getting myself lost in those damn woods for the remainder of the day, I'm just grateful that I found the way back into town before the sun set all the way; that would've royally sucked if I hadn't. Cloud had yet to give me a spare key to the front door, so I mimicked what that weirdo red head did the night before, I snuck in through the window.

Once safely inside I immediately closed the window, but I didn't lock it, hoping that Axel would show up again sometime soon.

I went the bedroom door with the intent of going to the kitchen to get some food, but Cloud's voice on the other side made me stop.

"Sora please, I would love it if you came too," Cloud's voice sounded strained, like he was ready to just break. I didn't know what would happen when he broke, but I didn't want to find out to be honest.

"No, I'm not going to live with you Cloud, end of discussion." Sora's voice sounded loud and clear via speaker phone. "Why would I want to live with a father who never even bothered to call my brother or me on our birthdays? It's the SAME day for us! It's not like you had to remember a lot of dates. You never even bothered to send us a card. You never had any contact with us whatsoever."

I winced at the venom in Sora's voice. He was never one to be angry, or spiteful, that was my thing. Sora was supposed to be the sweet one, the good twin out of the two of us. He sounded so cold, so bitter, but I knew Sora better than that. He was hurt, and it was all Cloud's neglectful fault.

"Roxas came here just fine," Cloud said, ignoring my brother's previous comment.

"That's because Roxas needed to get out of here! He needs a fresh start, I'm fine staying. That's the only reason why we're even apart Cloud, because of our different ways of coping." His tone was sharp.

I slid down on the floor right against the door; Sora understood the real reason as to why I left. I'm relieved that he didn't think I betrayed him or anything; I wouldn't have been able to stand myself he did.

I wasn't eavesdropping on purpose, but it was like I needed to listen.

"I'm not going over there because you were never there in our lives, Cloud. No phone calls, no birthday cards, no random visits. You weren't even there at our mother's funeral," Sora said this in a soft, tired, voice. There was no more bite to his words, but I knew that these words were the ones that were to hit Cloud the hardest.

Cloud went quiet, and I remained in my spot, waiting for him to say something else. I needed to know what he was going to say.

"Sora—"

"What're you doing, Roxas?" a voice from the window stage whispered to me, causing me to jump. I didn't even notice Axel's entrance.

I got up and walked over to him, meeting him as he crawled in, this time face first.

"Cloud's talking to Sora," I told him, "I was going to go to the kitchen to get food but I can't interrupt their…discussion."

"Who's Sora?" Axel asked, confused. He had enough sense to sense the melancholy air that the house held. "You know what, you can tell me over pizza, my treat. Let's go," and just like that he easily went right back out of the window, "You coming?"

I stared at him for a moment before following, tripping into him on the way out. His hands steadied me before grabbing my wrist and all but dragging me towards an unknown destination.

TBC

Evil Chibi Kitten: Hey, this is my latest project. It's been a while since I've written a multi-chapter KH fic so I decided to go ahead and start one. I'm not really sure where this fic is going, so I'd like some sort of feedback.

Suggestions, ideas, comments, flames – all are welcome.