[Axel's POV]

I was so excited about Marluxia's party – aside from the fact that they were usually pretty much the best parties, I would be going with Roxas, and as a date, meaning I'd get to hold his hand. And touch him.

...In totally appropriate places, I swear.

He had gone home with Sora and their family, but said that he'd be here at my place in the next hour or so. But it had been an hour by now, so I was starting to worry about why he wasn't here yet. I mean, Roxas was always early or on time, right? So why wasn't he here now?

To me, there was only one obvious answer: he had been kidnapped. By a paedophile by the name of Larxene. Or maybe by a pirate? I mean, that Xigbar guy he beat in the tournament had an eye patch, which automatically made him a pirate. Maybe he wanted revenge for being defeated. Or maybe it was a ninja who—

Ding dong~

...Oh. I rushed to the door as quickly as I could and opened it, beaming down at the seemingly nervous blonde in front of me. "Hey, Rox!"

"Hey, Axel." He looked up at my eyes shyly smiled.

I took a step forward and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, leading him towards the car before opening the passenger's door and letting him sit in. As I sat in the driver's seat and put the keys into the ignition, I said to break the awkward silence, "Rox, you know, I'm really glad you could come with me like this."

"I'm glad you invited me. It was awesome of you to." He almost stuttered, then said curiously, "Hey, what's this Marluxia dude like, anyway?"

I laughed, "Uh, flamboyant. That's... well, that's the only way to really describe him. He's got pink hair and he really loves roses. But if he gets angry, he can actually be really scary."

He laughed and said, "So... he is gay, right? Not just like those metro guys on TV?"

"Well, I think he's actually bi, I don't know... You know he dated Larxene as well?"

"What?" He looked at me in surprise.

"Yep. Before me. It was in like, eighth grade." I recalled. "But it wasn't really serious or anything."

"Oh." I could see him smiling out of the corner of my eye.

The rest of the car trip was filled with small talk, until I pulled over and we got out of the car. While walking the final block I managed to subtly hold his hand, noticing the blush playing on his cheeks. It was so cute that I almost walked past Marly's house, when he noticed that there was an open door and we could hear a bit of music playing already.

As soon as I walked through the door a something ran into me with a blur of pink and it took me a moment to realise that that it was my pink-haired friend hugging me.

"Hey there, Axel," Marluxia said with a smirk, "how's it going?"

"Pretty good, how 'bout yourself?"

"Same," he smiled, then saw Roxas standing awkwardly behind me and exclaimed, "Oh, is this Roxy?"

I chuckled, "Yep, that's him."

"Well, you always did have a good taste in guys..." He winked at me, and I smiled reassuringly at the awkward blonde before putting an arm around his shoulders.

A minute or so later, Demyx and Zexion came through the door, and Marluxia exclaimed, "Oh, who's this gorgeous lilac-haired man?"

Catching up turned into general discussion after a while, and soon more guests had arrived. It had always been a bit of a tradition for his closest friends – including Demyx and me – to arrive before everyone else, but by 8:30 the house was starting to fill up with people, some of which I had never seen before.

[Hayner's POV]

I had forgotten all about Olette's threat to make me confess to Seifer until now, and when she arrived at the party with Pence all I could do was panic. I had been with my blonde rival at the time – we arrived together after getting sea-salt ice cream with a few others – and he noticed my odd change in demeanour, smirking and asking what was up.

I was about to say some strange excuse that probably wouldn't even be plausible – hey, it's not my fault I'm a bad liar – but Olette chose that moment to come with Pence trailing behind her, holding her hand.

Wait, they were a couple now? Well, at it's clear who wears the pants in the relationship... and let's just say, it's not Pence.

Anyway, she stared at us suspiciously before saying to me with a sweet smile, "You haven't told him yet, have you?"

"Told me what?" Seifer asked, confused.

"Um... that, you know..." I trailed off nervously and looked around the room for a distraction, "Oh, look at that! Roxas's with Axel, I'm just gonna go and—"

Olette grabbed my arm roughly, stopping me from leaving and making me cringe as her nails dug into my skin. "You're not going anywhere, mister."

"What haven't you told me?" Seifer asked again.

After I didn't say anything for a moment, the brunette sighed and said in frustration, "Ugh, don't you get it? You two like each other, and I know it! So just... man up and tell each other yourselves!" She saw something in the distance and smiled at us sweetly before saying, "Oh, there's Kairi, I need to ask her something. Come on, Pence." And with that, she was off, leading the shorter man behind her.

We were both too stunned to say anything all that productive at first, so he said, "Uh... What was that about?"

"I, um, well, you know..." I trailed off, trying to think of what to say.

Seifer looked down at the floor before mumbling something that I couldn't hear over the music playing a few rooms over.

"Huh?"

"I said, she's right, you know."

"Oh, well... Wait, really?"

He smirked nervously and said, "Yeah, well..."

"I kind of like you too." I felt weird about being the first one to say it, but the smile he gave me pretty much reassured me. It was as if my confessing had given him a total boost in confidence.

"Well, I don't just kind of like you." He leaned in close and whispered in my ear, "I really like you."

"Oh?" I said with a raised eyebrow, as a warm, almost queasy feeling filled my stomach. "How do I know you're not just teasing?"

He gave me a mischievous grin before gently pushing me against the wall and kissing me, hard enough for me not to care who was around us.

If I had known that this would be how Olette's threat would end, I wouldn't have bothered trying to confess in the first place. But, hey, maybe her gaydar and scheming were good things, after all.

[Roxas' POV]

"Oh, look over there." Axel pointed over to Hayner and Seifer, who were... kissing? Oh, crap, that reminded me.

"Ah, I was supposed to help him confess to Seifer..." I trailed off with a smile, and Axel finished my thoughts for me.

"Well, I suppose he doesn't need any help anymore." We both laughed before he mused, "I can imagine them as a bit of an S-and-M relationship, you know... Master Seifer, and mistress Hay-Hay—"

"Wait, what's that mean?" I interrupted.

"Uhm..." He looked at me oddly, and I noticed a slight pink tinge on his cheeks. "You know, like, sadism... and masochism..."

"Ohhhhh." I understood. Well, I knew what sadism was, but, "Wait, what's masochism?"

"...It's, well, the opposite of sadism..." He had a bit of a light bulb moment and said, "Hey, so, if we were having sex, right, and..."

Oh god... "And?"

"And I spanked you, you'd be a bit of a masochist 'cause you'd like the pain, yeah?"

"...Right."

"Yep. Well, I'm gonna get a drink, want one?" He said. I nodded in return and he left, just before Riku and Sora came over and started talking to me about my relationship with Axel. It was all going well, until Riku's eyes widened – he was facing me, so he could see what was going on behind me – and I turned around to face a blonde.

With weird antenna-shaped bangs. And Axel was nowhere to be seen.

...Oh, shit.

"Knew you'd be here." She said in that annoying voice of hers – well, okay, if it was on anyone else it wouldn't be so annoying – and stared at me with that sadistic grin of hers. I could see Riku typing something quickly on his phone before standing up next to me, and Sora turned to face the blonde who continued after a pause. "So, where's your boyfriend now? You're still, you know, going out, yeah? Or did he see that you're not worth the trouble and dump you?"

I glared daggers at her and said after a pause, "He's getting drinks, actually, and if he had dumped me, he'd still like me a hell of a lot more than he'd like you."

She snorted, "Yeah, that's what you think. You know what?"

"...What?"

"I think he doesn't even like you. He's just leading you on to make me jealous, so that I'd come back to him." I smirked, and she narrowed her eyes slightly at me.

"As if. You're jealous already. Why else would you be doing this?"

She clenched her fists and glowered, before two others appeared – one with short blonde hair, and another with long black dreadlocks and too much facial hair. She smiled at them and said, "Ah, Luxord, Xaldin, this is the one that stole him."

"Hey, shit, they're the ones that we tied up today at the Struggle tournament." I turned to see Seifer and Hayner walking towards the scene, standing next to Riku and me. I recognised Larxene's friends from Struggle, and figured that the black-haired one must be the dude I was meant to verse in the finals earlier today.

"How the hell did you guys get out?" Hayner asked, incredulously.

"You fuckers..." She glared at the two newcomers, but the blonde man next to her told her to calm down, to her dismay, and she called out, "Lex?"

The only way I could describe the man approaching us would be 'tank'. He was huge – all muscle – and I couldn't imagine anyone beating him in a fight, unless it was someone incredibly fast.

"Hey, Seif..." I heard Hayner whisper, "Which is the odd one out of those four?"

"Which one?" Seifer replied.

"None – they're all men." The two chuckled, and Larxene screamed at them.

"UGH." Her fingers were bent as if she was about to claw someone, and she took a slow step towards me, stopping centimetres away from my face. "You're going to lay off Axel right now, you little fucker, or else—"

There was a sudden bang, a mix of musical notes and smashing, and I was pushed back a couple of steps, Axel standing in front of me. I peered around him in astonishment to see the tank guy – 'Lex', as Larxene had called him – lying on the floor in front of Demyx who, clutching a completely smashed acoustic guitar with a crestfallen expression, said, "Aw man, now I can't play that song I wrote for you, Zex."

Before I could think about what was going on, Axel was crouched over angrily with his hands bent into fists – I noticed one was wrapped around a crushed plastic cup, the contents dripping from his hand – saying, "You better have a fucking good explanation for this."

"Oh, hey there, Axel, I'm glad you could come join the show." She said, her smile somehow sweet and intimidating at the same time.

"Don't fucking bullshit me. What are you doing?" I had slowly moved to his side so that I could watch his face, and, holy crap – he was scary when he was pissed.

However, she wasn't backing down, "Just thought I'd, you know, show him why you're really dating him." She took a step closer and tried to lean up to kiss him, but he took a step back and turned his face towards me with an apologetic glance, and put a protective arm around my shoulders.

"Look, if you and your man-slaves don't back the fuck off right now," He said in a low, threatening voice, "I'm going to make sure you get it through your head that I never want to see you again."

She narrowed her eyes but didn't back off, and said, "Oh, really? And what're you going to do? You're really going to stand up for that shrimp?" ...Hey!

"At least he's not a sadistic bitch like you," Axel smirked, and Larxene's eyes grew wide. "And, yeah, I am, because he's my boyfriend, and he's a hell of a lot better than you'll ever be."

I stared up at him in awe; I wasn't used to being complimented like this, and I had a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach. But the blonde just had to cut in.

"What, him? As if." She laughed shrilly, and it looked as if Axel was about to launch himself at her if it wasn't for the interruption.

"LARXENE?" A male voice screamed, and we all looked to see Marluxia, with the bowl of punch in his hands, standing next to a man with long, blonde hair. "What are you doing here? You four get the hell out of my house!"

"Make me." She said, cocking her head to the side.

"Oh, I'll make you, alright." He trudged angrily to her and held the bowl over her head, and she looked up at him, blue eyes wide with fear.

"You wouldn't..."

"Oh, yes I would." He smirked at her.

She screamed in frustration before saying, "Fine!" and storming off. Her three friends looked at each other before following her, and the room was silent for a few minutes. I ignored cheers from other people I didn't know, as Axel took a deep breath and turned to me.

"Wanna go outside?"

"Sure." I agreed, relieved. As soon as we were out of the house, I felt the cool breeze and looked up to Axel, who was now standing in front of me, hands gripping my forearms.

"Are you okay?" His voice was full of concern, and I smiled.

"Of course I am." He seemed to relax, and brought his hands down to mine, bringing them together.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there sooner." He bit his lip sheepishly. "I was talking to Dem and Marly about, well... my intentions with you." This made me feel a bit self-conscious, but I ignored it. "Which, don't worry, are all innocent."

He winked and I laughed, saying, "It's okay, I'm just glad that you're here now."

He smiled down at me before his expression changed to one of concern, and he said, "And I'm glad you're okay. I just... I don't know what's with her! If she ever talks to you again, don't believe a word she says."

"It's okay, really." I smiled, and he leaned in close.

"Because, well, I really care about you, Rox." It was almost a whisper. "I think I..."

"You think you..." I tried to prompt him to continue, but he looked at the ground and bit his lip before his eyes returned to mine.

"I think I love you." He gave a meek smile. "No, I do love you. A lot."

I felt quite giddy all of a sudden and had a wide grin on my mouth as I said, "Well, I love you too, Axel."

His smile widened slowly as he closed the distance between us, hesitantly pressing his lips over mine and kissing me softly but sweetly. Our pace quickened, and soon we were gasping for breath but still kissing each other, when someone walked by and started humming a wedding theme. We pulled immediately to find Marluxia smirking at us.

"Erm, I just came to tell you that, since I trust you and everything, you can use my bedroom. Just as long as there's no sex or anything." He said, "I have to sleep on it, you know..."

"Oh, thanks" Axel laughed, and I noticed his cheeks were flushed. "Uh, don't worry, we won't do any of... that." Marluxia gave him a coy grin before leaving, and Axel looked at me for a moment before moving to my side and picking me up... bridal style.

"Drop me and you're dead." I said in low voice, and he laughed, before I mused, "I feel like a bit of a princess with you carrying me like this... except that I'm a dude."

"Don't worry, Roxy, I think you'd make a good princess..." He trailed off, and I knew something more was coming. "...If princesses have sex hair, that is."

I giggled as he carried me through the doorway and laid me down gently on the bed, scanning me up and down. He slowly crawled on top of me and kissed me – I was slightly nervous, since I had never done this with anyone before. But in a way I was glad that Larxene was such an obsessed stalkerish sort of person, since, well... would I really be this close to Axel if she hadn't done so?

Ah well. The main thing was that I loved Axel, he loved me, and I couldn't be happier any other way.

The End.

DRAMA~ (dun dun duuunnnn) ...And ultra-sap. Axel really does seem to have a habit of coming to conclusions too quickly in this. xD Also, I had to explain what a masochist was to my friend... But uh, I didn't use that same explanation.

This is the last chapter of this story, unfortunately. I've got other plans for other fanfics though, so hopefully I'll be able to get onto those soon. But, what'd you think of it? The ending paragraph(s) took me ages 'cause I kept writing stuff and hating it and redoing it. Was it too confusing? Idk.

But yeah, thanks so much for reading this story! I had fun writing it, and I really appreciated every single one of your comments, they made me smile. :3 And, of course, encouraged me to write more. But yeah. Hope you liked it, thanks for reading! :D