"You're tense, man."

Roxas frowned, looking over his shoulder at Axel. "What?"

Axel had clapped his hands onto Roxas's shoulders as he had delivered one of his lines of snarky humour, but hadn't taken them away. "You're tense." He squeezed slightly. "How can you even walk?"

"I don't know. I can't relax. It's taken two days on the Leechgrave and I can't afford to fail again tomorrow," Roxas muttered, trying to shrug Axel's hands off.

"Hey, I've got an idea."

Roxas sighed. "Not right now, Axel."

Axel gripped his shoulder. "Nope, this is an intervention. Come on. Then you can go back to doing whatever it is you were going to do." He grabbed his arm and started walking.

Roxas stumbled to keep up with Axel's long-legged stride. "Axel, stop it. I want to get a shower and-"

"Yeah, in a minute."

Roxas huffed, noting that the path they were taking led back to his room. Oh well. He had to get his pyjamas, anyway. Hopefully he could wriggle away from Axel and escape to the shower before the mad redhead succeeded in whatever his plan was.

"Alright, in, take off your clothes."

Roxas did a double take up at the redhead. "What?"

Axel made a tch noise, letting go of his arm. "Fine, just your shirt then, if you're worried about it. Take your shirt off and get on the bed."

"Why?" Roxas asked incredulously.

"Trust me," Axel said fluidly, thumping Roxas on the back. "Shirt, bed, I'll be right back. And don't try to sneak off... I'll pull you naked out of the shower," he vowed, humour flickering in his eyes.

Roxas stared after him as he left. Somehow... he didn't think Axel was lying when he said that. His tenacity was... frightening.

With a sigh, Roxas pulled his shirt off and flopped into bed face-first. He didn't know what Axel was planning and he really didn't care, actually... He just wanted to sleep and get back out to Halloween Town and finish off that stupid Leechgrave before Saїx finished him off.

"Good," Axel said as he stepped back in the room. "I thought you were going to fight me."

"I've been fighting all day," Roxas mumbled, opening his eyes. "I'm too tired to fight you, too."

Axel had ditched his coat and was carrying a bottle in hand, something Roxas couldn't identify from the side glance. "Good," the redhead said, crawling onto the bed next to him. "Just trust me here, and don't freak out."

Roxas sighed. "Just tell me what you're going to do."

Axel popped the lid on the bottle and poured some of the stuff onto his hands. "I'm going to give you a massage."

Roxas blinked slowly. "... What...?"

"A massage. It'll help you relax. This'll be cool. It's massage oil."

Roxas flinched as the oil hit his back. "Axel, this is weird."

"Relax," Axel reminded, capping the bottle. "Don't worry about it."

"Do you give massages to everyone else in the Organization...?" Roxas muttered, shifting slightly as Axel's legs straddled either of his hips. "And d'you have to sit on me?"

Axel laughed. "No, I don't give out massages and no, I don't have to, and technically, I'm not, but it's easier. I can get to the pressure points easier."

Roxas sighed, which turned into a gasp of surprise when Axel dug his long fingers into the place beneath his shoulder blades. "Oww! Axel!"

"Uh huh. Now how about we get rid of that pain?" Axel replied calmly, his fingers working small circles to chase away the remainders of the shock of pain he'd just caused. "You shouldn't be feeling pain at all, which proves my point: you're way too uptight."

Roxas sighed softly and let his eyes close. "Maybe, but... ngh. Do you have to be so rough?"

Axel laughed again. "Hey, Roxas, don't say that too loud."

Roxas frowned slightly without opening his eyes. "Why not?"

Axel's demanding fingers paused, spread out against the small of his back and the fingertips just curling his side. "... Well, our positions, obviously."

"Positions...? You're... important, but I'm just the Keyblade Master," Roxas mumbled thickly.

"Key- no, that's not..." he trailed off, laughing softly. "Oh man, Roxas. You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

Roxas pried his eyes open. "... What?"

There was a huff of laughter. "Nevermind." His fingers started to rub those circles back on Roxas's back. "Just forget it. Someone might explain... some day."

"Explain what?"

Sharp pain, sharp yet dull, really, shot through Roxas as Axel - purposefully, Roxas thought - dug in his fingers into another point on his back. He shifted a bit, biting back a moan. It hurt in a good way. Axel's hands were talented.

"Just relax," Axel reminded.

Roxas huffed quietly but let his eyes close again. Axel was keeping something from him, but he wasn't sure what. And he was too tired to worry about it and vaguely aware of parts of his body relaxing that he didn't even know could.

He succumbed to sleep without ever learning the 'big secret' Axel had hinted.

a) Because the Leechgrave was enough to make anyone tense.
b) Roxas is so innocent here. *o*
c) I wanted to do Axel giving a massage for awhile... I think I may have a thing for men with beautiful hands and massages. (Aka, Sherlock and Axel. Although I don't really know if Axel has beautiful hands since it's a video game, but I picture he has really nice hands. And they're talented. At things.)

Still don't own Kingdom Hearts. The boys would have had on-screen cuddles if I did. Thank you!