Author's Note: Bad news, guys, I'm starting to lose ideas for this fanfiction, so this is going to be the last chapter. But I promise that you guys'll love it; I've been thinking it up for quite some time now. I was thinking of starting a Teen Titans fanfiction, so if you're a fan of that, keep an eye out! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Nine:

The Chances you Never Took

It gains the more it gives, and then it rises with the fall

So hand me that remote, can't you see that all that stuff's a sideshow?

Such boundless pleasure, we've no time for later now.

You can't await your own arrival, you've twenty seconds to comply.

So let go, let go, jump in

Oh well, whatcha waiting for?

It's alright, 'cause there's beauty in the breakdown.

'Let Go' by Frou Frou

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"Maybe I should get a job," Hayner considered aloud as he clutched his coffee in his hands. Olette, who was sitting across from him and Pence, rolled her eyes and shook her head before she brought her own cup to her lips.

It had been an entire week since Roxas had gotten a job. His entire schedule had been composed of waking up at twelve, starting work at three, ending work at seven, staying with Axel until midnight, and hanging out with Hayner, Pence and Olette for the rest of the time. This was the last day of Winter Break, and Roxas should have been getting off work soon.

"You can barely keep up with school. A job would kill you." Although Hayner frowned at this, he had to admit that it was true; even though his pockets were screaming for more than the twenty-dollars-a-week allowance he had been getting, a job would probably lower his D average, if that was even possible.

"Things are kind of lonely without Roxas in the afternoons, huh?" Pence asked after a momentary silence. Maybe he was just remembering his coffee outings with Hayner and Roxas before Olette got in the picture.

"This is only his first week of working!" Hayner snapped. "And we can go the afternoons without Roxas. He's at work from three to seven for crying out loud!"

"Unless you count the nights," Olette said, "when he goes to go visit Axel over at the bar. Or at his house sometimes, I guess."

"There's always that." Hayner mumbled directly before finishing off the last of his coffee, some sugar visible at the bottom of the cup. "Hey, let's go out and do something today. Just the three of us." He smiled at his two friends, who both looked at each other quizzically and then back at Hayner. Author's Note: Has anyone else noticed that Hayner kind of resembles Zell from Final Fantasy VIII?

"Maybe you forgot," Olette began, "there's nothing to do here in Twilight Town."

"Maybe you forgot, I'm smart." Hayner replied, giving her a toothy smile. Author's Note: Anyone who remembers that line can grab themselves a free virtual cookie, because I'm too lazy to give it to you. x3

Without a question after that statement, Olette and Pence threw away what was left of their coffee and followed Hayner outside. Before he could even begin to move towards where he wanted to bring them, however, he saw a tall figure, the head hooded so the face could not be seen, and the rest of the body cloaked. The body was obviously that of a tall female.

She was holding a knife.

And to think that they were lucky enough to not see a sign of her for a whole week.

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"What? Uh, what did Larxene tell you?" Rai asked Seifer as they made their way towards the center of the Tram Commons. Seifer shot him a rather nasty look before turning back to shake his head.

"She said that if I show her where Roxas works, she'd give me thirty dollars. So we're going up to meet her and show her." He looked back at Rai, daring him to ask another stupid question, and buried his hands in his pockets, staring straight forward again. Vivi, however, crept shyly out of the shadows.

"How do you know you can trust her?" Vivi asked.

Seifer looked down at his small companion. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right, Fuu?" He turned to the silver-haired girl.

"Affirmative," Fuu said, actually managing a bit of a change in her facial expression.

Finally, they reached where Larxene was, the black cloaked figure standing in the middle of the Commons. Her head jerked towards the four of them and she stuffed her knife back into her cloak's pocket. Her face wasn't visible past the shadows of the cloak's hood, but they all knew it was her from the knife. "Seifer," she noted.

Seifer nodded, "Give me the money and I'll show you where he works."

"Shit!" Hayner whispered where he, Pence, and Olette had been hiding behind the corner of a building. "They can't know where Roxas works, or else he's done for. He's the only one in the shop at that time."

"I know, I know!" Olette said, rubbing her temples, "I'm thinking..." After a moment, her eyes traveled down to a rock that was sitting at their feet. She picked it up, and before Pence or Hayner could stop her, threw it about fifteen feet from where Seifer, Rai, Fuu, Vivi and Larxene were standing. Suddenly, they all got nervous, and backed up.

"Distractions?" asked Pence, "That's perfect! And we'll phone Axel's Bar. Axel knows how to take care of Larxene."

"In the meantime, we need more distractions." Hayner mentioned, glancing at his friend Olette, and then giving her a wicked smile. "Since it was your idea and you've already demonstrated how great you are at it, why don't you be the distraction?" Hayner asked. He bent down and handed her another rock.

"You two owe me."

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Roxas sighed as he locked up the shop again; still no sign of Donna, thank God. She was the reason he dreaded going to work; it seemed that every single time he stepped into that shop, that woman was there, pestering him for a doughnut. He shook it off as he saw Axel, just outside of the shop, right on time as always.

Without even saying a word, he walked up to Axel and kissed him on the lips, Axel barely having enough time to put his arms around Roxas's waist. When they pulled apart, Axel said, "Someone's happy to be off work today."

Roxas shook his head, blushing, "Just to see you." His shy smile then turned into a frown, however, remembering something. "The police still haven't found any sign of Larxene?" he asked, staring into Axel's antifreeze eyes.

Axel shook his head. "It's like she fell off of the face of the earth or something." They began walking towards the bar, Axel needing to get back on his shift. If either of them saw Larxene, it would be too soon, anyway. "This is your last day of Winter Break, isn't it?" Axel asked, looking down at his blond companion as they walked.

Roxas nodded slowly. "Tomorrow, I've got to go to school, then right after I've got work, but after that's free. It's not like I do homework at home, anyway." He chuckled lightly, suddenly wishing that Winter Break would never end. "It also means that tomorrow I've got to go back and live with my parents."

"You do?"

Roxas then looked back up at Axel, and just when he opened his mouth to speak, they found Solstice running out from the bar and up to the two of them. "Axel- Axel- Oh, hey, Roxas. Axel, Hayner just called, and-"

"He wants to ask you out on a date. Still?" Axel asked, putting his gloved left hand to his forehead. Hayner had been calling Solstice nonstop for the past week, asking the same thing, getting the same exact answer.

Solstice shook her head and then cleared her throat. She seemed out of breath. "He said that he, Olette and Pence saw a cloaked female figure, and she was carrying a knife, and she was with Seifer and his gang. They think that it's Larxene. Hayner and Pence are on their way over here, but Olette's keeping track of her and keeping her distracted; Seifer was going to show her where you worked."

Axel shook his head slowly. "Ugh. When she gets here, I want you, Hayner, Pence, Olette, and you," he said, turning to Roxas, "to stay inside of the bar. If she's got a knife, it means she's still dangerous. Got it memorized?"

"No," Roxas finally said, and the two of them looked at him, "This isn't just your job, Axel," he decided, his hands curling into fists and trembling. "I'm part of the problem, I want to be part of the solution. I'll be safe." He looked at Axel's eyes, which now seemed pleading, "I promise, Axel," he finished, softer.

"Me, too, then," Solstice said, making a Victory sign, "I'll bet you guys could use some help wrestling down my psychotic second cousin."

"Us, too," came Hayner and Pence, who had apparently been running after them, "but not until we actually get to Larxene!" Pence shouted, uncharacteristically demanding. "She's in the center of Tram Commons. We can still get there if we take Olette's Honda," He jerked his head over to where it was parked.

"I'll drive," Axel said, walking past him and grabbing the keys.

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"Where are all these rocks coming from?" Seifer asked dumbly, dodging one that almost hit his face. Author's Note: My God, I make Seifer seem like such a dipshit. xD He turned back to Larxene, hoping for an explanation, as if she had anything to do with it at all. Larxene gave him a look and shook her head.

"You idiot," she spat, and pushed past him, heading towards Olette. Olette, who was still hiding behind the corner of the building, backed up as Larxene noticed her. Larxene grabbed her arm even as Olette thrashed to get away, but she quickly quieted down as she saw the telltale glimmer of Larxene's knife. "You, you're Roxas's friend, aren't you?"

Olette gulped, but sighed something of relief when she heard Axel's voice shout, "So are we." Larxene turned around and let go of Olette's arm, so Olette ran up to Hayner and Pence. Axel had his arms crossed over his chest in a very authoritarian-like style. "Larxene, come with us, we're going to take you to jail." Author's Note: Hey, little kid, follow the nice man with the candy, he's going to molest you! xDD Sorry, sorry- bad humor.

"I'm not going back there! It was horrible," Larxene decided, taking out her knife and letting her hood fall on her back. Her face was contorted with rage. She didn't notice Pence dialing the police.

"How could you tell?" Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow, "You were there for one night."

Pence hung up with the police and called a few more numbers. Thankfully, he was hidden by Axel's outrageous height, because Larxene still didn't know a thing about it. Whoever he was calling would get there fast, that much was sure; the middle of Tram Commons was about a minutes walk from most of the residential areas.

"They did things..." Larxene mentioned, her face suddenly blanking as her hand fell to her side. She then violently shook her head, as if shaking off some kind of a bug, and raised her knife to them again. "And it's all your fault I went there!"

"You threatened my boyfriend with a knife, Larxene," Axel said, cocking his eyebrow up. Roxas couldn't explain the mixed fear of fright and excitement when he heard the word 'boyfriend'. Did Axel really consider him that?

"Axel, I loved you!" Larxene cried, upset, bringing her hand down again. Her angry face was full of tears, but Axel didn't budge. For the second time, Roxas almost felt bad for this psychopath; he knew what it felt like to be in love with Axel. For once, he knew exactly what it felt like. It was hard.

"That's too bad," was all Axel could say, slowly and softly.

Larxene, however, ignored this as she brought her hand up again, grinning madly, the tears in her eyes still not quite that dry. As she readied her legs to charge, she shouted at the redhead, "But now I've got you both right where I want you!"

Larxene ran up at Roxas with the knife, clutching it in her hands. Roxas brought up both of his hands to cover his face just in case, and let out a scream so loud it could wake a city as Larxene brought down the knife.

Her hand was stopped by Axel's grip.

He looked down at her in rage, and then twisted the arm behind her back. "You don't touch him."

Before they knew it, several police cars were surrounding the area, and many children that Roxas recognized as his adoptive brothers and sisters, and his 'mom and dad' as well. Olette's parents, back from their trip were there also, along with Pence's parents. Hayner's parents weren't there, but Tristan was watching the scene excitedly as if it was something out of a movie. He would probably be eating popcorn if he had any on hand.

"Larxene," came a particularly large police officer with handcuffs as Larxene put her hand down and dropped the knife, "you are arrested for the threatening of the well-being of fellow citizens. Again. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in the court of law. You have the right to an attorney-"

"I'll be back," Larxene spat at the two of them. Hayner, Solstice, Pence and Olette were all crossing their arms and grinning victoriously at her. Axel's hand, which had been holding Larxene's back, was still balled into a fist, and Roxas was shaking so hard that he could barely see what was in front of him. Seifer, Fuu, Rai and Vivi must have left sometime earlier on, because they were nowhere to be found.

"Anything you say can and will be held against you in the court of law," the police officer repeated, "and this time, you won't be back, because I can guarantee you that you will have the company of at least three personal guards every day."

Larxene said nothing more as she was shoved in the back of the police car.

"Roxas!" came Roxas's mother, stomping up to him, the slightly tinier dad following her all the way. "What were you doing here? In the middle of a crime scene? I knew it was a bad idea for you to stay at Hayner's all that time. You're never seeing that boy again. Or any of these other hooligans."

"Lara," Roxas said, of course, never calling his adoptive mother 'mom', "They had nothing to do with this. I was the one that Larxene was after, because I 'stole her boyfriend'," Roxas said, putting his hands into little air-quotations, actually making Axel chuckle despite the situation of it all, which was an accomplishment.

"Boyfriend?" Lara asked, shaking her head, "No, no, no. Come on, Roxy, you're coming home," She put one forceful hand on Roxas's arm and began to drag him a few feet back, his father waving happily to Axel.

"Wait-" Axel said, putting a hand on Lara's shoulder. "Lara. Can I call you Lara?" Lara turned around and looked back at him, the expression of clear hatred on her face. Axel sighed. "This is going to be hard for you to hear, but Roxas can't stand it at home. He can't stand feeling like one out of one hundred." He paused. "Roxas needs to feel like a real person and he needs to be with someone that loves him."

"Your point?"

"Roxas needs to stay with me."

Lara, out of confusion or intense surprise, but certainly not anger, dropped her adoptive son's arm, and he rubbed it for a moment, giving her an odd look. Obviously, she wasn't the violent type. "With you? Why would I let-"

"Lara, let him go," the father said, and they all looked back at the tiny man with the glasses. "Roxas will be eighteen in a few months and I think he's old enough to be on his own. As long as he promises to call at least once a week."

Lara said nothing, just looked at her own feet.

"You mean it?" Roxas asked softly, looking at his two parents. "I can go live with Axel?" He looked up at his boyfriend, the word in his mind making him tingle with excitement, "I can live with you?" He then glanced over at Solstice, who was smiling and nodding excitedly. Even Hayner, Pence and Olette seemed extremely enthralled. Roxas looked back up at Axel. "Should I?" he asked more quietly.

"Roxas," Axel started, putting both of his hands on Roxas's arms. "Do you want to remember this as the chance you never took?"

Roxas slowly shook his head and smiled.

"Roxy... Roxas... I suppose." Lara decided.

"You on the other hand, are in serious trouble, mister! I'm going to tie you up in your room and you're going to be fed nothing but saltine crackers..." Pence's mother went on a tirade as she stomped towards her son. Author's Note: If you know what this reference is to, as well, grab yourself another virtual cookie. I've got bags of 'em. xD

"Mom, I didn't have anything to do with this! I called the authorities!" Pence and his mother went on and on, but Olette's parents were too stunned to speak. They probably wouldn't reprimand her, anyway. In the eyes of Olette's parents, she could do no wrong.

"Roxas," Axel said, smiling down at him. With his parents, friends, and even the police watching, but especially Larxene, who was staring out of the window of the police car, he bent down to Roxas's height, put his arms around his slim waist, and gave him the most electrifying kiss that he had ever given to him before. "Let's get your things and go home."

"Home," Roxas repeated, tasting the word on his lips and his tongue. Nothing before had ever tasted so good.

Except maybe the chips that Roxas bought for Olette's party.

Epilogue:

Roxas dumped the last of his bags in the one guestroom that Axel and Solstice had. Suddenly, he heard a knocking on his door, which was odd, because it was open, and looked behind him. Solstice was smiling eagerly. "Big enough?" she asked, walking up to him and helping him unpack his bags.

"Definitely," Roxas laughed. Never before had he felt so at ease with everything and everyone in his life. When he talked to people, he didn't stutter or get angry. When he walked, he didn't look at his feet and blind everything else out of his world. This time for real, absolutely nothing in Roxas's life could go wrong.

"It's going to be fun having you around, I think," Solstice mused aloud, "I've never had a brother close to my age, even if you're not an official brother and even if you're, what, one or two years older than me. And I'll have somebody to show me around the school tomorrow. Speaking of." She looked back outside of his room and at the clock on the wall of the hallway. "Oh. It's almost midnight."

Roxas smiled brightly. "Yup. That means it's almost New Years."

Solstice looked at her new housemate with wide-eyes. "Today's New Years Eve? Really?" she asked incredulously, and Roxas nodded. Everyone else was so preoccupied on the Larxene ordeal for the past week that they had forgotten what day it was.

"Wow. 2009, then. Dunno if I'm ready. We should ring in the new year," Solstice said eagerly, "Let's go get Axel!"

Three, two, one. The clock tower went off, signaling the arrival of the new year, and Solstice stopped in her tracks. Standing in the entrance to Roxas's room was Hayner, carrying mistletoe. "You know, generally you ring in the New Year with a kiss, but I wasn't sure, so I brought this just in case."

Solstice shook her head, grinning. "You retard." She walked up to Hayner and gave him a quick peck on the lips, but that was enough to make Hayner smile like an idiot and fall into a puddle in the hallway. As Solstice stepped over him, she called to somebody, "Speed bump ahead, go slow."

Axel grinned as he stepped over the fainted boy and ran a hand through his fiery hair, walking up to Roxas. "Happy New Year," he said quietly and slowly.

Roxas nodded his reply. Yes, it was.

As their lips met one more time, every word that could be spoken didn't matter.

Author's Note: Aww, how sweet! Again, I'm sorry for the abrupt ending of the series, but honestly, it would drag on and get really boring if I filled up that whole week, believe me. Dx I hope you liked it! Please review and favorite it!

And thank you to all of you who reviewed, your reviews made me keep writing this. They were funny and encouraging, and I love reading stuff like that.

Happy Fanfiction'ing!