Haha! This is, I think, the first Axel/Olette story on this website! If I'm wrong, please tell me- or even just link me to any Axel/Olette fiction you have, as it's my OTP.

A crazy OTP? Yes. xDDDDD

A completely non-canon OTP? Also yes. XD

Since it is so weird, I'm also an Akuroku shipper, because seriously. Hawt. So, onwards fair readers, and I hope you enjoy! All reviews, emails, whatever welcome, but please keep it civil. I'm only doing this for fun, as I rather obviously DO NOT own KH2. XD The title is a reference to the fact that the colour maroon is a mixture of red and brown. ;D Eh? Eh?

-Lame-

Warnings: AU, Axelette, Roxyx (RoxDem? oO –Failure at 'ship names--), randomness. XD

Summary: When Axel gets himself and Olette lost in the forest outside Twilight Town, the brunette begins to wonder just what his motives really are.

Maroon

"Shouldn't we just get a taxi or something? It's horrible out there..."

When he avoided that question, she really should have realised.

Axel, after all, had never been known for his sincerity, reliability or shining moral fibre. Just the opposite in fact, according to Roxas, who spoke of such things fondly. His best friend was apparently 'harmless' and, 'very funny once you got past the pyromania.' Olette hadn't bothered pointing out that pyromania was anything but harmless. She figured he would work it out himself one day.

The fact was, however, that she hadn't realised. Somewhere along the line she'd been thoroughly duped, and that was nothing if not irritating.

Idiot.

"I'm going to make a bad impression now!" She grumbled, making him grin harder, "And it's not funny!"

Axel waved his hand in a dismissive fashion, peering around him into the dark trees and scowling as a few snowflakes fell into his hair. It had, perhaps, been a bad idea on his part to disregard Olette's suggestion- as she had an annoying habit of always being right- but it would have hardly been like him to admit making a mistake.

And anyway, who said it had been a mistake?

"It's Demyx's birthday, Axel! Shouldn't you be... hurrying?"

He sighed, shoving his hands deep into his pockets and turning to face her, "He'll be too busy mauling all our old friends. No worries."

It was Olette's turn to sigh, and she did so heavily, giving their surrounding area a critical appraisal and looking for any landmarks. Unlikely, given the foul weather.

Well, it did seem like a good idea at the time...

A few weeks ago Demyx had announced his plans to get all his friends from his old school over to Twilight Town to celebrate his birthday, something that everyone agreed was a great idea. They seemed, from the stories, to be rather good company, and Demyx especially had been extremely overexcited about the whole thing, so no-one really wanted to disagree. Since Roxas' house was next to the station, thus easiest to find, it had been decided it would be held there. Axel, Olette and Hayner, who all lived on the other side of the forest from everyone else, hadn't been too fond of this plan. (Demyx lived with Axel too, but had pretty much spent the last two days at Roxas' house planning things. Or that's what the two said they'd been doing).

When the snow storm hit Hayner had done the sensible thing and got his dad to drop him off. He and Olette had been meaning to meet Axel, but when the teen didn't show up, she told Hayner to go ahead.

Axel had arrived ten minutes late, ignoring all her suggestions of taxis and strolling purposefully towards the forest.

And now they were now hopelessly lost and not quite sure if they were even facing in the right direction.

Brilliant.

"Come on, we should keep walking. I'm freezing." She said in a rather resigned tone, poking his shoulder before taking a few tentative steps to her left. His supremely unbothered expression was beginning to annoy her; he wasn't even shivering.

"Hows about we keep walking in the right direction? Just an idea."

"This is--" she began, cutting herself off suddenly and glancing around once more, before saying in an altogether more quiet voice, "Isn't it?"

"Well, if you're wanting to go back the way you came, then sure." He shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant fashion, glancing briefly into the sky for no reason she could fathom.

"Axel..."

He quirked an eyebrow, a movement she could barely make out in the dim light, and gave her that irritating smile of his. The one that seemed so unbelievably patronising to her, even though he said it was 'normal.' For a few moments there was silence and then he shrugged again, smirked, and began to walk jauntily past her.

"I know where we're going."

"You said that when we walked in here! And now we're lost!"

"Nooope."

She caught up with him, having to jog a little to keep up with his long strides (he was a good head taller than she was), and grabbed the back of his jacket, her fingers catching in his hood.

"'Nope'? We've been wandering aimlessly around for the last half-hour..."

He carried on walking, ducking under tree branches and using a hand to shield his face. Even from behind him, Olette could tell he was enjoying himself.

"Lets just say you're rather cute when in a panic."

She stopped mid-stride, which turned out not be a good idea as standing on only one foot in the snow is a rather dangerous pastime. Her grasp on Axel's hood stopped her falling, but the wearer of said hood ended up in a pile of snow, looking for all the world like a demonic snow angel. Olette used this opportunity to press her gloved hands against her cheeks, trying to fight the blush that seemed to be spreading.

Cute...?

Inevitably he was back on his feet before she could properly stop the brain-explosion that was threatening to strike her, and he smiled mischievously when he saw the strange, almost cowed look in her eyes. That was her second sign that something was up- she had a feeling that Axel would usually have murdered anybody who caused him to get cold. Seifer was still slightly wary of the redhead after the whole water gun incident, and that had been during the summer.

"Earth to Olette? Y'there?" He waved his hand in front of her face before prodding her forehead lightly with a long forefinger. She flinched- his hands, in contrast to the biting winds and sharp, bitterly frosty snow, were burning hot. It was like stepping into a hot bath on a freezing morning, or sipping boiling tea. Kinda painful, and sort of surprising- in this case because he was wearing gloves.

"Y-yeah." She responded, trying for a few seconds to wrap her head round the fact that he thought she was cute before pushing it out of her head altogether. Olette called her friends cute all the time. It didn't mean anything. "Why...," she paused, glanced at Axel who was staring at her expectantly, "Why are you so hot?"

And once more, he quirked that damned eyebrow, giving her a leery wink after a couple of seconds (clearly, that hadn't been the question he'd been expecting).

"Why Olette, I never knew you cared."

"What? ...No! Not like that! I... I mean, why are your hands so warm. Not..." She felt the blush crawling back up her cheeks and scowled at the ground, irritated at how flustered she was getting.

A flash of disappointment crossed his features at her stuttered explanation, but he covered it with an amused chuckle. She didn't notice anyway, considering how interesting she suddenly seemed to be finding the ground in front of her.

"They taught us many things back at Castle Oblivion," he replied in a philosophical voice, leaning back against a tree and waiting for his companion to regain control of herself. She seemed to be alternating between wanting to kill him and wanting to kill herself, considering how embarrassed she looked.

I'm meant to be the responsible one and I don't think it's very responsible to want to throw yourself in front of a tram 'cause you said something dumb and I bet this is just because of Axel and God he'll be loving this. Olette's thought pattern continued in this vein for several moments as she tried to recover some composure. Now she wasn't just freezing and irritated, no, she was freezing, irritated and mortified. Not, she thought, the best combination when you were going to a party.

It was just like Axel, though, to say things like that. Things that would probably make her lie awake and fret for hours. Although that could just be her- she was known for thinking too hard anyway. But still... cute? It wasn't that she didn't think he was also... cute (well, that probably wasn't the right word. But he was definitely good-looking), she had just never thought of it like that before. Or thought that he thought like that.

Aaaagh, this is exactly what he wants me to be like. Change the subject change the subject, gotta change the subject...

"Castle Oblivion?" She stuttered, hoping to get him rambling off on a tangent.

"Yeah," he smiled almost nostalgically, "Castle Oblivion's School for Gifted Individuals."

Olette stared at him for just a second before laughing quietly- well, 'Gifted' was one word you could use to describe Axel, and Demyx too she supposed, but it certainly wasn't the one she would have used first. 'Insane', or perhaps 'hanging onto the tree of sanity by one finger' would have been a better description. Still, at least he hadn't said anything else about her being cute.

"...Wow."

"Yeah, all our friends going to the party tonight went there too."

Olette winced, suddenly remembering that she was meant to be at that party, not chatting with Axel in the snow.

"Come on, we'll keep going." She turned to face the way Axel had been facing, assuming it was the right direction, and started to walk once more. He smirked to himself, counting to five in his head before calling cheerfully:

"You're still going the wrong way!"

This time Olette didn't bother with the whole 'stopping in her tracks'- she span on her heel and thundered back towards him, her expression deceptively calm for someone whose body language suggested far more murderous intentions.

And all the while Axel kept smiling, even when she grabbed the decorative silver chain that connected the two sides of his hood and yanked him forward. It pained her that even after she'd done this, she still had to look up a little to see him properly- a fact that apparently hadn't gone unnoticed, considering Axel's quiet snickers.

"Stop laughing." She demanded, the miniscule threat she posed further diminished by her chattering teeth. God how she hated cold weather. "You were walking in that direction before! "

He reached up and detached her mittened fingers from the chain, transferring some of that impossible warmth across to her once again. His expression was one of amusement, anticipation, and even a little contempt. If Olette had felt he was torturing before, she was now sure of it- she just didn't know why. Did he want something from her?

"I know I was," he replied infuriatingly.

"I asked you what the right direction was and you went that way!"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean it was the right direction, does it?"

For a moment her mouth sagged open as she tried to wrap her head around Axel's twisted logic. Or just Axel in general. For all she knew he had just as little idea as she did about where they were- which was bad, considering he said he did know- but it would be even worse if he was just doing this on purpose.

And it doesn't surprise me that that's exactly what I think he's doing.

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" She asked finally, hating the way her voice sounded slightly whiney.

"Bingo."

She waited- perhaps for an explanation, or perhaps for him to start walking again, but neither happened. He just eyed her impatiently, reaching up to absent-mindedly scratch at one of those tear-shaped tattoos under his eyes. For a minute both of them were silent, and then Olette rolled her eyes as a thought hit her. A very obvious thought, too, and she wondered why she hadn't thought of it before.

I'm not waiting around here forever. I'm bound to get to the edge of the forest eventually if I just walk straight.

"Forget it," she said out loud, crossing her arms over her chest and turning to face east, as it looked slightly more easy going that way, "I'll find my way out myself." Axel mumbled something but she didn't catch it- it felt good to be walking, even if it wasn't exactly the right direction- even if he didn't seem to be doing anything to follow her, which was a little worrying. It was too late to turn back though, and he would just laugh at her if she did that, so keep moving she did.

Thirty minutes passed before she drew to another halt, behind a massive fallen oak tree that would provide her with shelter for a few minutes while she thought of her next move.

Stupid irrational fears.

Only she didn't know if it was so irrational.

Tonight it seemed, was the night that was going to prove she wasn't nearly as responsible as everyone thought she was. High above her head, the wind tore through the trees, sending snow showering down before it even had a chance to settle. The strange, moaning sound the wind made as it was forced through tiny spaces between fallen logs and rocks made her shiver more than the cold did; it really sounded like something was out there.

I can't believe I wish Axel was here again.

It wasn't for any stupid reason, like she wanted a nice strong man to protect her from the exaggerated evils in the dark- she just wanted company. Specifically his company, too, as his apathy would almost be rather soothing.

Trying to occupy herself, she reached up and pulled her hat off her head, undoing the loose ponytail she'd shoved her hair into and letting it fall across her shoulders. Absently she split it into the two sections, one over each shoulder, and used her fingers to tease the rest into flicks. It was almost second nature for her to do that now, and the ponytail had been annoying her anyway. Quickly, the hat was shoved back on her head and she sat back on her haunches, wondering vaguely if Axel had arrived at the party yet, or if anyone had even noticed they were late.

"I should've just stayed with him...," she muttered to herself, feeling a little twist of fear in her abdomen.

"Too right. Got it memorised for next time?," a voice whispered right in her ear, catching her entirely off guard. She shrieked loudly, simultaneously scrambling away from the voice, turning to see who it was, and swinging her arm out to push them away.

It caught the laughing individual on the side of the face, sending him sprawling into the snow behind the overturned tree. Olette, her heart racing a mile-a-minute, was on her feet even before he could complain about the sudden assault and running, trying to get her legs to work properly.

It didn't occur to her that the person could have been someone out looking for her, because what sort of rescuer would jump the person they were trying to rescue?

She stopped short, once again doing the fatefully stupid thing of pausing midstride, and had to throw her hands out to stop herself hitting the ground too hard. Littered pebbles and various other bits of forest cut through her mittens and skin, but she didn't realise right away, because she knew exactly what kind of rescuer would do that.

"Axel?" She called shakily, pushing herself to her feet and making her way back towards the tree, her hands beginning to sting.

At first, no reply, and Olette thought for one scary moment that she'd been mistaken, but then a muffled voice replied in the affirmative, even though it did sound kind of pissed off.

Feeling a little guilty but still hugely relieved, Olette hurried to the tree and leant over it, peering down to see how badly she'd damaged him.

Well, he was moving. That had to be a good sign.

The red-headed teen was lying on his back, one hand on the right hand side of his forehead- presumably where she'd caught him, the other on the tree, clearly in the process of trying to pull him into a sitting position. When he caught her gaze he rolled his eyes, sneering a little.

"Remind me never to show compassion towards my fellow beings ever again."

She scowled- as long as he was okay, she could be angry at him. "You snuck up on me! In the dark. Silently. How else was I supposed to react?"

"Non-violently?"

"Well what did you expect me to do?"

"Not smack me across the face."

Despite the prickle of annoyance, she smiled, unable to hide the fact that she was happy to see him again. "If you hadn't been such a jerk back there..." She shrugged and stuck out a hand, offering to pull him up. The ghost of a smirk graced his features as he grasped it tightly, and too late did she realise that he was fully intending to pull her over the log, which he did with a:

"There, now we're even again."

...Ooorr, maybe I'm not so happy to see him again. Idiot.

For a moment she lay there, breathing hard and glaring at the sky as Axel laughed beside her. How long this went on, she didn't know, and she wasn't aware of anything different until she was suddenly trying to work out exactly what it was that was making her blush so hard. The warm hand still holding hers, the feeling of his hair tickling the side of her face, the realisation that if she moved just a few inches to her left she would be pressed right up against him, or even that his reasoning for pulling her over like that had sounded entirely unconvincing- all of it would have been quite enough on its own thankyouverymuch. So all together, they made for quite the interesting complexion.

"Yeah, well...," she began, glad he couldn't see her face from this angle, "...if you actually spoke sense earlier, there would've been nothing to get even about." She shifted a little, trying to sit up, trying to put a little space between herself and the other teen, only he wasn't letting her. "Axel, can we continue this conversation while walking? Or at least not lying in the snow?"

Again, she heard that inaudible mumble, and again she wondered what exactly it was he wanted from her. Asking him to get to the point, however, was unlikely to yield any helpful results. No, it would most likely lead to more elaborate tales, side-stepping of her questions, and dubious behaviour on his part. All of which she didn't think she could deal with right now, and would probably tip her those last few mental centimetres over the edge. He did let her go, however, and she stood up gratefully, examining the wounds on her hands under a shaft of pale moonlight.

"Y'Okay?" Axel asked, standing up behind her and shaking himself like a wet dog, trying to dislodge the ice from his hair and clothes. Olette almost admired the way he could ask something that would normally sound rather caring in a voice just sounded rather...bored.

"Yeah," she replied, sitting down on a tree stump for a second so she could fix her gloves as best as possible. The next thing she knew, Axel had grabbed her hands roughly and was examining them, twisting them this way and that under the faint light. "Ow! ..What--?"

"My old 'friend' Saix liked to play nurse occasionally. Y'know, throw things at us so he'd get the chance to bandage it up. Lemme see."

Olette mulled over that small piece of information as Axel poked at her cut. Heat radiated from him, and so Olette dealt with the tingling pain. She wanted to be warm more than anything else, after all, and he sort of seemed to know what he was doing.

Axel rolled his eyes when he was sure she wasn't looking at him. This was taking longer than it should have, considering she was meant to be smart and all. Then again, considering the boys she'd hung around with for the last few years, it wasn't surprising she couldn't tell when someone actually liked her. Only Roxas seemed to know anything about anything, and he was about as straight as cooked spaghetti (and Axel meant that in the most affectionate way possible).Then again, Axel had a funny feeling a lot of people thought the same thing about him, considering the interesting relationship he had had with Demyx.

Heh, 'interesting.'

And he wasn't really sure why he liked Olette anyway. She was cute, harmless, pretty quiet; a normal kid, unremarkable in practically every way. Perhaps that's what he liked- he just didn't know. But one thing he did find funny- she seemed to like everyone until they gave her a reason not to, except when it came to him. Axel, she had just hated immediately- probably because of how corrupted Roxas suddenly became in his presence, and Olette seemed to have liked having normal friends. Demyx and Axel certainly changed all that, being about as opposite to normal as it was possible to be.

It was only after one evening during the holidays, when Demyx threw him out because Roxas was coming over, that Axel really talked to her. With nowhere to go, he had wandered to first Hayner's house, which resulted in the blond haired boy throwing shoes out his window to get Axel to go away. The idea of walking across the forest to the main part of Twilight town, where his other friends stayed, didn't appeal to him, so he'd meandered slowly towards Olette's house, sullenly accepting that unless he forcibly made his way into Hayner's, there was nowhere else to go. It hadn't taken him too long to find her room once he arrived- her house was a bungalow, so all the rooms were on the one floor, and the only light on seemed to be in a front bedroom, so that's the window he knocked on. Non-stop. She had appeared in her pyjamas, a television remote in one hand, the other on the curtain.

"Axel?"

"Hey."

"What are you doing here?"

"Stalking you."

She'd eyed him warily for a moment- as if seriously believing him- before laughing a little and stepping aside to let him in. Of course, she'd assumed he'd leave after an hour or so- considering how late it had been- but he'd made himself comfy on her sofa and fallen asleep there before she'd been able to throw him out.

And now he was planning, tonight in the middle of this forest, to tell Olette exactly what he thought of her (...that sounded slightly threatening, now he thought about it). Which brought him back full circle- it would be far easier to explain if she actually understood what his little glances all evening had meant.

He was brought back to the present by some impatient wriggling on her part- to her it seemed like he was staring into the distance and ignoring her completely.

She smiled slightly, "Not like you to think so hard. Or at all."

He sneered a little, moving away from her to resume the arduous task of fixing his hair. Although it stuck out in its porcupine-esque spikes naturally, water made it... flat. Not a good look.

Olette stood after a moment, glancing at Axel's back as he irritably flicked at the red mane. The feeling of phantom hands combing over hers... the nagging thought that something wasn't quite right with Axel tonight...

She really felt like she was missing something blindingly obvious, and that was awkward, to say the least.

"You missed a spot," she said after a minute, moving until she was standing in front of him and reaching up for one of the four spikes at the front. He grinned a little evilly, straightening until he was at his full height and earning himself a frown from the smaller girl.

"...Shorty"

"Hey, I'm trying to help."

He was cringing even before he spoke, hoping that nothing he said here would ever get out. Axel wasn't used to having to actually chat people up. He was more used to them just... throwing themselves at him, which was more amusing than flattering. But he was irritated now, with her slowness at realising his real intentions for dragging her into the forest, and with himself for apparently losing his touch. "Really, it just makes you cuter."

Oh, the humanity.

Olette blinked. Then blinked again. And blinked a third time before her cheeks began to redden rapidly. Automatically her head began to fall forward, her eyes already zoning in on an interesting-looking pebble- and then she felt a finger under her chin, forcing her head back up again. This, obviously, meant her gaze left that oh-so-attractive pebble and instead found a pair of oh-so-attractive eyes.

Oh lord.

"A-Axel...what are you doing?" She asked tentatively, proud that her voice stayed reasonably steady even if her conscience was alternating between shrieks of joy ("Oh my God he's touching you and why would he be doing this if he didn't like you OH MY GOD!") and shrieks of, "Oh God, oh God, I want to die."

Now it was Axel's turn to be a little... confused. Or annoyed. A mixture of both, really, because who could be this clueless?

Or am I just too sly for my own good?

"I'm hitting on you," he said bluntly, running his finger from her chin to the back of her neck and letting his hand rest there, beneath that fuzzy orange scarf she insisted on wearing. Watching the effect this statement had on her was certainly enjoyable for him- he would have laughed if it hadn't been an almost serious moment, something Axel didn't have a lot of.

"...Oh." She mumbled, just about audibly, giving up on trying to hide the fact that she was as red as a tomato. A neon, radioactive tomato.

...'Oh' indeed. This would be what I've been missing all night. I...Oh God.

"'Oh?'" He repeated, sliding his free hand up and underneath the hem of her jacket to rest on top of her jumper and in the small of her back, "I thought you were meant to be the one who was good with words, and all you can muster is an 'Oh'?"

"I...wasn't expecting..."

"Obviously," he muttered, sighing ever-so-slightly.

She said nothing- not sure exactly what she should say- but knowing that whatever it was, Axel would probably laugh at it. A feeling of light-headedness was drifting over her, and she wasn't sure if that was due to Axel's hands on her back, or the fact that she was so close to him she could pick out individual eyelashes, even under the faint moonlight.

"That would be why... you lead me into the forest then?"

"Ah, so now it all falls into place..."

"Well, if you'd been more obvious..."

Axel frowned, pulling her even closer and feeling her stumble a little- heh, I made her trip- then saying in a thoroughly exasperated voice, "Olette, the only way I could have been any more obvious would be if I had brought a flashing fluorescent sign. Or..." He stopped, smiling a bit and wondering if this time, she would understand what he was on about.

"Or... what?"

Annnd she doesn't.

"Or, this." He said, entertaining the possibility that she had never read a romantic book, or seen a romantic film so spectacular was this level of density, before pulling her up onto her tiptoes, trapping her hands against his chest. No complainants and Axel took that as a sign to continue, which he did in his typically brazen way, kissing her rapturously. Immediately she stopped trembling- either petrified or relaxed, and she would have seemed frozen if it were not for the erratic thump-thump-thump of her heartbeat. But soon even that began to slow down as she tentatively responded, grasping at the chain again to pull herself closer to him.

Demyx, it seemed, would have to start the party without them.

Phew, that turned into quite a long one-shot, at just under 5000 words! I hope it's okay- I haven't written fanfiction on my own for close on two years now, so I'm a little rusty. Reviews are appreciated, Recs to other Axelette fiction is appreciated, and cookies will buy you ETERNAL GRATITUDE.

I'm not currently planning to continue this, but I can be (very easily) swayed if enough people say they want more:D Continuation will mean: Roxyx/RoxDem/Roxwhateverthehellthisshipnameis action, fluffy Axel/Olette, and a bit more exploration into these former residents of Castle Oblivion's School for Gifted Individuals.

Thanks for reading

-- Nickel