"Now fan slow." Roxas whispered to Xion as the men to his left continued to argue on taxes. Making eye contact with the earl across the room, the raven haired girl did so. The redhead's green eyes locked onto her and measured carefully, occasionally glancing at the blond. Nothing was more boring than a day in Parliament. He was sure Axel wanted to ask when. "You're engaged?" His voice would get a bit whiny and aggressive. He'd want to know who the young girl was. 'I can't stay single forever.' Roxas thought, biting his lip. "Open it up wide." He mumbled.

"Roxas are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked him softly, "You won't be able to see him again for another week." Plus, the use of 'love' might catch someone's attention.

Roxas resisted the urge to not let a desperate need slip onto his usually placid face, "Please, Xion? I mean, you know more than anyone what he means to me."

Axel was still watching expectantly, questions burning through his brain. When forest green eyes caught sight of Xion's fan again, he exhaled a sigh of relief. Roxas may be getting married, but he still loved him. That's all that mattered. "When are you going to tell him that you're getting married to me?" She asked softly.

"Next time we talk. He's coming to the property to go hunting soon." He stood slowly, "Let's leave."

"Roxas they're still in debate." She looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. Roxas had never pulled this before.

"I know, but I've heard enough of the issues to make my decision. Come along, Xion." He glided towards the large oak doors, eyes following the pair.

"Where do you think you're going Duke Cromwell?" A voice broke the bored silence of the collective listening to the argumentative few.

Turning, a smile tugged at Roxas' lips, "Home! Do you really think I can stand to hear old men repeat themselves any more than they do! Taxes here, taxes there! Have any of you considered simply managing the expense budget on the military better and refunding roads that would help internal trade? No? I think I've listened to this debate long enough, gentleman. One month too long, to be exact. Come to a decision and make a plan. I stand my ground. Farewell."

Once they had stepped outside, Xion shot him a glare, "You're going to get assassinated one of these days, you know."

"Can't live forever, Xion." He laughed.

~o~

Axel and Roxas had met at a ball two years ago. Roxas' father had made a big deal that it was the young prince's birthday, so the blond had to go strategically socialize. His mother had made a big deal that she could dress him and that he must find a wife, "Someone young! And with good wholesome values!"

Instead he had found Axel in a corner, reading, as if nothing in the world was going on. Laughing a bit as he approached him, the young duke spoke honestly, "I wish I was in your seat. It must be nice to be reading Voltaire while I have to engage in simple prattle with ambassadors."

Glancing up, the redhead took note of where he was and smirked, "How else am I to relate to these Frenchmen if I can't even enjoy their most scandalous literature."

"I wouldn't call it scandalous. I would call it treasonous." He teased, "I'm Duke Cromwell. Nice to meet you."

"Axel Eames, Earl, Your Grace." He stood to take a short bow.

"Oh, put it away." Roxas sighed, "My father isn't dead yet. Soon to be, but not yet. Let's pretend we've known each other forever."

Arching a brow, Eames grinned, "Alright, then instead of 'Eames' you may call me Axel."

"How is your family, Axel?" The blond purred as the music changed behind them, "Would you like to go talk on the balcony. It's about to get a bit stuffy."

After several minutes of conversation on the terrace, the blond decided that the heat between them was outrageous. Roxas simply didn't know what to do. He'd never felt this way towards a woman or even another man before. There was something in Axel's smile that made him want to keep him close. Find out everything about him. Axel led him outside and towards the garden, "Back on your previous question," Axel lapsed, "My family is fine, yours?"

"My father is a bit sick. Nothing to be afraid of, he'll bounce back. The old man always does." Roxas comes home that night, and his father has passed away. He remembers feeling shocked, but he doesn't know that yet, so the illusion is real at the moment. "Are you married?"

"No." Axel answered softly, "You?"

"Mother wants me engaged quickly, but no one claims me currently." They were far enough away from the party that Roxas was wondering if there were any other couples out here. "Think anyone can hear us?" He wondered aloud.

"Probably," Axel chuckled, "I've learned that when you're a noble everything you say is recorded and brought back up at another time, but let's not worry about that tonight." He offered Roxas his hand, "Do you engage with men often?"

"Rarely ever. Only one other time, I was...younger." He blushed, "And women never because I can't have any children out of wedlock."

Axel dragged him further into the garden and against a pillar, "May I kiss you?"

"May I kiss you?" Roxas countered.

"You may." The redhead purred, pressing their lips together lustfully, "I'm going to touch you." The earl warned the shorter man.

"Please do." Roxas laughed, latching his lips onto his newfound friend's neck, "I would so very much like to be touched by a handsome, seductive man like you."

Axel blushed and silenced the other's mouth with his lips, a hand slipping down to palm the other through his dress pants. Little moans escaped parted pink lips, and Roxas ground his hips up against the other's thigh and hand, "Oh, fuck me." He sighed, reaching out to stroke the growing bulge in Axel's pants. Slipping the other's penis free of such constraints, he lowered his lips to it after inspecting it a bit. The redhead seemed healthy enough. Very healthy. The length in width was very impressive (not frighteningly so, just enough to make the blond probably feel quite full to which thoughts, he blushed at).

"I plan to." The redhead groaned softly as the younger man suckled at the head before slipping his length further into his mouth. "Roxas…" His hands found their way to slicked back blond hair and clutched there until his legs threatened to give as he ejaculated hard into Roxas' warm mouth.

Spitting the contents of his mouth out onto the grass, the blond stroked Axel's limp yet still over sensitized penis. Roxas stood and held his body against the redhead's. "You're a good boy." He growled into the taller man's ear, pinning his body against the pillar, "If I wasn't worried that you would make so much noise, I would take you here." The blond was still stroking himself, knowing that he was inches before climax, "Do you want it?" He asked breathily. "You can't have it because I know you'll be noisy. Do you want to suck me?"

"Yes!" Axel whined, "Yes, please!" Dropping to his knees, he slowly unbuttoned Roxas' breeches and slipped the rock hard length between his lips, relishing in the taste before the other, who had already been close all this time, came hot ropes of spunk into the back of his throat. Gagging a bit, he choked it down, feeling a bit used, but those feelings were subsided when his arms were full of dazed Roxas who was kissing him hungrily again.

"I have to go." Roxas pouted, kissing along the taller man's jaw, "But come visit me. I'll give you my address. We really should become the best of friends. I like you so very much."

"That's fine with me." He felt foggy and lightheaded. Like none of this was actually happening, and the freckled man in front of him was just some elf who had taken him away for the night, "Do you like to hunt?"

"Yes! A lot. Foxes?"

Axel nodded, "Foxes. I'll say I'm coming to hunt foxes."

"Does Friday work, two weeks from today?"

He wasn't in the state of mind to remember, but he nodded, "Yes, see you then."

With that, the two politely returned to the ball (well Roxas did, Axel returned to his chair) excited for their new found partnership.

That was how they met.

In the past two years, things had begun to get more complicated with the addition of Xion to their group. She had been a foreign dignitary from India. Her dad, a prominent Englishman, had a child with a beautiful Indian woman of some noble bloodline, and she had been sent here for the best schooling available to turn her into a proper Englishwoman. Due to the traveling nature of her father and said father's close relationship with Roxas' father, she had been living in the Cromwell Estate for quite some time. She was beautiful, that went without saying, but she had been glad that Roxas wanted nothing more than to be friends with her. She had actually covered for him several times when he had explained why. "I just enjoy boys more." He had admitted, blushing.

"Ah, I see…" She nodded, not so much as fazed by this. India had several men and women who paired up with one of the same gender. It was part of their history. When last month, it had been decided that they were to be married, Roxas was glad that it was his best friend that they had selected. Granted, he would have been happier with Axel, of course, but he couldn't have his way. After all, homosexuality was illegal.

But he was having a hard time explaining that to Axel, "We can't be together." The blond mumbled curled up in the cabin they had refurbished in the woods for 'longer' hunting trips. Axel's body was intertwined with his and the heat between them, as always, was too much at moments. Inhaling some of his lover's musk, Roxas kissed his collarbone.

Axel frowned, "We could be, Roxas. There's a way. We can find a way." Brushing back short blond hair, he sighed, "Do you want to be with me?"

"If we could safely be together, then yes, but with the way things are, no. I'm going to marry Xion. She doesn't have a problem us continuing on like this." He mouthed along Axel's jaw.

"I don't want to be your secret though…"

The words held weight that Roxas did not dare mock. "You won't be, love. You won't ever be."

"But I am." Axel sat up, separating the two of them in a single motion, "We should bathe here. I'll get some snow from outside and we can melt it over the fire and then fill a basin. We need to actually do some hunting tomorrow too, anyways."

Roxas nodded, understanding that the redhead was peeved, "Alright."

"If I could find a way," Axel tacked on, "Would you come with me?"

The blond took a moment to process his words, "Yes."

The conversation ended there and they proceeded on with their short bath before dressing in warm clothes. The next morning, they headed out into the forest in search of venison. When they came across a buck, Roxas allowed Axel to make the shot. With the single kill, they called it good and tied it to a horse to drag it home. "Why," The blond suddenly brought up the topic again, "Do you ask? Are you planning something?"

"Possibly." Axel admitted, "I've been thinking about it a lot lately. There's nothing for me to really do here in Europe anymore. I can't socially climb. I can't make my fortune. America seems nice."

Roxas snorted, "America is a shambled mess from what I've heard."

"My brother has been sending me letters." Axel cut off that train of thought, "Doing business over there, and he says it's lovely. That it's completely different from what we've heard. That there's land as far as you can wish for, and that the fortune is there, you just have to work for it."

"You really want to go to America?" The blond questioned curiously, "You think we'd like it there?"

"It would be a lot better than what we play at here." The snow crunched beneath their boots and the forest was silent, "Come with me. Run away with me to America."

Roxas felt numb. He didn't know how to respond to those words, "But I have so much to do-"

"No you don't." Axel snapped, "You really don't. Stop putting up aires. Xion and your mother would be fine without you. Your mother would leave everything to her, and she would inherit the fortunes of two families. Come with me. Don't let me leave without you."

Shocked, he struggled to come to terms. All of this was happening so fast, "Alright." He decided, "Alright, but I don't want to know how you do it. Get them to think that I'm dead, and I'll come with you."

The redhead pursed his lips, "Fair enough." Roxas couldn't exactly just leave the fate he'd been born into. Otherwise his family would lose status or look weak. Death would give the last of the Cromwells a way to still remain in good light, even though their large fortune was behind an empty title. The family had no real power due to its' small size. Everyone knew this. It was an apparent fact. That's why Roxas held no true power when he went to Parliament.

Returning to the mansion, the two were greeted by Xion who had just finished reading some scripture, "I see your trip was eventful!"

Eventful indeed.

~o~

"How dare you!" Roxas howled, pounding on Axel's chest as their carriage raced towards the seaside, "You terrified me! I wet myself! You bastard!"

The redhead was still laughing and trying to get the other to settle down, "You told me not to let you know how I would do it!"

"But to-" Roxas was furious, "You're hopeless! Why do I even fancy you?" He huffed, sitting back down on his side, not wanting to make any more of a scene, "Xion will be out of her mind with worry." He blushed.

"Don't worry. Once we're in America, you may write her a letter." Axel hummed, "You're handsome when you're enraged with me~"

Roxas let out a long growl as he closed his eyes. He couldn't believe that the other would be so base as to kidnap him! Right off the side of the road too! He'd been out with Xion and another group of nobles, heading for a luncheon, and then a man clothed in black on a black horse has snatched him up and held a knife to his throat. "Was that even a real knife?"

"Yes." Axel admitted, "But I needed you to think you were in danger so you wouldn't attack me!"

"I'm about to attack you now!" Roxas shouted, still irate. Then there had been a carriage, so… "Wait, then who are these people?"

"My brother's servants. Don't worry. They won't tell a soul." The redhead promised, kissing the angry blond who was stiff but relaxed some in his arms, "I love you."

"You're a jackass."

Axel laughed. He was okay with this.

Before they boarded the ship, Roxas was given a change of clothes that Axel had bought for him and a new name, "Evan, and I'm Alexander. We're cousins, okay?"

"We don't even look related." Roxas snorted, "But if that's what we have to do to stay together, then sure." He promised, "Guess I'm gonna' 'ave to talk like I'm in the slums now, eh?"

The redhead snorted, "Sure. Or not. You could just speak normally. Nice to meet you, Evan."

"Aw, I was excited there for a moment, but you killed it. Goodbye, Axel. Hello, Alexander." The blond winked.

Very okay with this.

~o~

America was not anything like Roxas had expected. It was hard. It was hard and it was honest, and it showed him a life he'd never dreamed of. He was never happier or more frustrated those early years spent with Axel. He was never hungrier or more fulfilled, but in the years that expanded, Roxas realized that he would have never had felt as loved or complete if he had gone with the familiar safety of a bed that was never truly warm.

"I love you." Roxas whispered one late night as the prairie winds screamed outside their sod house. It was freezing. Somewhere in the teens, but at no time had he ever been so sure.

The fire crackled, and he saw Axel smile in the golden light. Tomorrow they would get up and repeat their usual day of caring for the cattle and working the land, but for now, they only had each other. And that was all they needed. "I love you too." The other's warm voice murmured in his ear.

Kissing him lazily, Axel promised many more years of devotion.

For Dreamfleet. No beta. Read and Review.