Disclaimer: We do not own Kingdom Hearts…. If we did the pairings would be cannon!

Warnings: This story contains malexmale relations and mentions of various forms of past abuse. Don't like, don't read. :]

Rest in Peace

Chapter One
Roommates

It had taken exactly five pranks, three weeks of loud music, and the announcement that "yes I am gay" and "you are looking rather luscious and pounce-able today" to get his previous roommate to move out. Personally Axel thought it was time well spent.

The previous inhabitant of the other bed in his room had been a jock. While that in itself was not a major issue for the red head, the stereotypical nature of the teen had been. He simply couldn't deal with the constant sports, insults, and air of haughtiness that he had had. So Axel had set into motion operation 'Convince Roommate That It Is In His Best Interest To Leave' or 'CRT. III. HBITL' for short.

Immediately after his former roommate left, the junior was informed that he would be receiving a transfer student as his new roommate. He didn't have much say in the matter although he could always put into motion another plan if he needed to. With that in mind the red head reclined comfortably on his bed in his loose jeans and a black tank top, contentedly flipping through a magazine and waiting for the new teen's arrival.

Out in the hallway, Roxas wasn't sure if he really wanted to be here. His mom had all but clung to his leg as he left the house that morning, knowing he'd only be back for holidays. It wasn't like Roxas minded leaving home. On the contrary, really - it was a refreshing break from his annoying pixie-stick snorter brother, Sora. That aside, Roxas was a little sad to leave behind his room. Hell, that place held so many memories, that it was almost painful to give up.

Regardless, the school he'd transferred to had an amazing education standard. Roxas was happy enough with that, let alone the fact that their music program rivaled that of some top colleges'. The reason Roxas transferred in the first place, however, was not one that he would likely share with anybody, not even his parents. He'd merely told them that he wanted a better education than the 'crappy public school he'd been attending for the past eleven years.'

They had no clue now, and they never would. Roxas hadn't even confided that memory in his ever-faithful journal, but it was still ingrained into his mind. In fact, Roxas was sure he'd never let another human being touch him after that. Stupid Seifer and his freaking over-bearing abusive bullying. Only, he'd carried it too far and Hayner was a bit too late with the 'help.' (Being only a beanpole brunette named Olette and a short, round porky named Pence, they really couldn't have been considered 'help.')

However, it was said porker that had suggested this school to Roxas. After some research, the blonde had decided that it would be for the best and requested a transfer. He was granted it, of course. With his 4.02 GPA and outstanding attendance and long list of extra-curricular activities, how could he not get in?

So, he stood outside of his new room, hand hovering over the doorknob, completely and utterly frozen. For Roxas, there was a subtle difference between scared and apprehensive, the more prominent of the two being the latter. Roxas wasn't one for many emotions to being with; they got you hurt and beat up. He'd learned that the hard way. Taking a deep breath, he unstuck himself from the air and turned the shiny brass knob, stepping into a brightly lit room.

Sitting on one of the beds was a tall-looking redhead looking through a magazine. Roxas half wanted to clear his throat, but didn't. Not only was he petrified about being in a brand new school, but he just so happened to be one of those adorably socially awkward people in a brand new school. Well, he was only adorable until you said so. Then, he became a raging and rabid, like chipmunk mother protecting her babies from an evil squirrel. Only not so much.

The moment the door opened, Axel had heard it. He had been taught from a young age to be aware of his surroundings, so the slight sound of the swinging door was easily picked up. Despite that he flipped a few more pages before looking up to see who the intruder was.

When his green eyes fell upon the blonde, he couldn't stop the smirk that crossed his face. Lady luck really was on his side. First he had gotten rid of his unwanted addition and now he had received a rather nice looking new addition.

He tossed the magazine to the side and shifted his weight to lean back on his hands. "I'm Axel. A. X. E. L. Got it memorized?" Here the red head paused momentary for dramatic effect. "And you must be my new roommate."

The only thing Roxas could do was blink. He wanted to scoff at the redhead for being an idiot - but he couldn't. He was frozen, his eyes noticeably wider than normal (though that wasn't by much, seeing as his eyes were already too big for his face to begin with...) and he was shaking. He blinked, again.

Now, Roxas had never considered himself gay before. But, after not even a minute in 'Axel's' line of vision, Roxas's confidence in his orientation plummeted. The blonde tried to stop blinking, and he could feel the blush creep up his neck and onto his cheeks. He swallowed hard and nodded.

"I - uh - R-roxas." He settled for simply telling his new roommate his name to escape embarrassing himself with chattering teeth. He wasn't cold, at all. It was merely nerves, and, as his grandmother always said...

Well, he wasn't sure what his grandmother always said, but he was sure that there was some witty proverb out there involving nerves and chattering teeth. Roxas self-consciously twisted one foot into the other in a sort of embarrassed fashion and turned his attention to the suddenly very attention-grabbing carpet. (Even though it was the same shade of tan as in every single room back at his house.)

"I'm just going to assume that you meant to say you 'are' Roxas. Pleasure to meet you," Axel declared not moving from his spot. His eyes traveled over the blonde trying to figure him out. There was fidgeting and chattering but he was fairly certain that it wasn't from excitement as Demyx undoubtedly would have been. He didn't seem shy either. Well at least not the shy Axel was used to finding in Zexion.

"The bed I'm not on is yours, and the dresser and book shelf on that half. Half the closet is yours too so feel free to put whatever sort of crap in there you want. Except for dead bodies. Tried that once. The RA was not too happy with me over that one." Axel's mind finally settled on nerves that had the other teen acting like he was. Although there was the option of slight mental retardation, and if that was the case he would be losing a roommate again very soon.

Laughing at the body remark, Roxas took a breath and finally entered the room fully. He nodded and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he realized that he really had no reason to be nervous. This Axel guy seemed a whole hell of a lot nicer than he had expected and Roxas saw a bit of himself in the redhead.

Sighing, the blonde sat gingerly down on the bed opposite the redhead and dropped his messenger bag to the ground."Y-yeah, I did mean that... I-i'm a total basket-case when it comes to n-new things..." He grinned sheepishly, keeping his head pointed to the ground so Axel wouldn't see the blush creeping up the blonde's cheeks. "I have n-nothing to put away, yet, a-actually. My dad insisted on g-getting everything so I'd 'have t-time to get acquainted with my new roommate.'" Roxas explained in response to Axel's explanation. He rolled his eyes at himself and folded his legs underneath him, Indian style.

"Makes sense I guess. Personally I would think that if thing like this were a problem for you, you would want something of your own here. Something familiar, instead of all my shit." Axel commented off handily before his phone chimed lightly interrupting him. "Just a sec."

Axel removed the object from his pocket and flipped it open. On the screen was a text from his best friend Demyx. 'Hey Ax what u doin?'

Shaking his head Axel quickly typed out his reply. 'Meeting new roommate. No you can't come over. Wait patiently for your bf to come home so you can suck his face.' He clicked send.

"My dad's sort of an idiot..." Roxas replied softly, picking at his terrycloth wristband on his left wrist. He nodded as Axel texted somebody and took the chance to look more carefully around the room. Looking back at the wall behind him, Roxas could already map out where he was going to put all of his pictures and posters. He wasn't a blank-wall kind of person. And if it bothered Axel, then so be it.

A response followed moments later on Axel's phone with a single word, 'Jerk.'. The red head's fingers typed 'Bitch' which he sent before snapping the phone shut and tossing onto his pillow.

"Sorry that was my best friend Demyx. He's kinda impatient at waiting for his boy friend to get home from work so he pesters me a lot, but I figured if this makes ya nervous Demyx'll kill ya. So tell me about yourself Rox." Axel said, already shortening the blonde's name and liking the sound of it.

"Don't call me that." Roxas barked as Axel tossed his phone aside. He paused for a second to consider what else the redhead had said. "There's not much to tell, really..." He tried to skirt around the subject, but Axel didn't seem to be one to let things go so easily. "My name's Roxas, you know that. Last name's Hikari. I'm seventeen and favorite color is green," he rattled off. shrugging.

In truth, Roxas's favorite color was blue. But, upon looking up to see the most vibrant pair of emerald eyes trained on him, peeking out from vermillion bangs, Roxas decided that he could change his favorite color, even if blue had been his favorite since he was young enough to pin names on them.

The blonde felt really quite awkward just saying that, but offered no further insight into his life. He felt like Axel was actually listening to him, rather than just going through the obligatory meet'n'greet questions, but that changed nothing. And Roxas feared that if he opened his mouth again, a sort of word vomit would spill its way out, offering to his new roommate every single vulnerability that Roxas hid.

"Well then. I'm a figure it out as I go sort of person anyway," Axel said lightly in response to the lack of detail. "My favorite color is red or orange or anything having to do with fire actually. Although I think I may change it to blue in the near future," he said with a wink and a smirk. He flopped sideways and swung his legs up onto the bed so that he was laying on his side looking at Roxas.

"Help yourself to anything on my bookshelf. The top is all pleasure reading books and the bottom is magazines and manga. The manga Fake is one of my personal favorites if you are looking for something to read. Help yourself. Just put them back in the same condition you found them." Having made the offer to blonde he grabbed the magazine he had been reading and tossed it on the bed in front of him. He flipped to the page he had been reading and pretended to read it again. All the while he was watching Roxas out of the corner of his eye.

He could tell the blonde was nervous to say anything else about himself. Axel didn't want to press the boy for information since that would be the quickest way to alienate him. He figured if he let Roxas to his own stuff then he would be sending the signal to the blonde that he didn't mind his presence.

Roxas nodded, chewing on his lower lip, slightly. "Thanks," he ended up mumbling. Sighing, he slid off the bed and to his feet. "I have to go check and make sure my dad hasn't gotten himself stuck anywhere," he explained, walking to the door. Almost as if on cue, a knock resounded on the door. "Speak of the devil..." He whispered. Roxas opened the wooden door and closed his eyes in embarrassment at what he saw before him. His dad, mother, brother and grandparents were all there.

'You've got to be kidding me...' He groaned inwardly and opened his eyes.

"Thanks for bringing my stuff up, but you guys have to go now," he said, softly, not trying to be rude, as Sora and his dad dragged in two small suitcases. Roxas still didn't understand why his dad wanted to grab his stuff; Roxas could've easily carried all of that with no problem. The blonde looked past them at his mother.

'Mom! Don't cry!' He huffed a small sigh and pushed his dad and brother out. The entire time, his dad was rambling 'safety tips', which were all embarrassing and quite personal. The last thing he heard before practically slamming the door was: "NO sex is SAFE sex!" From his brother. His stupid, embarrassing, idiotic, pea-brained brother. Roxas closed his eyes yet again and leaned against the door, as if they'd try to break it open. He tried to focus on breathing so keep himself from walking out the door and smashing Sora's face in. Slowly, he heard footsteps fade away the elevator doors opening. Roxas let his head fall back against the door and sighed, exasperated.

"Oh. My. God."

Axel let out a chuckle after the family left and flipped a page in the magazine. "You're brother is obviously a virgin," he commented not looking up at the blonde. Roxas's family had been a bit strange but in a good loving way. It hadn't bothered the red head one bit even though he was certain that the blonde was incredibly embarrassed.

"Don't worry about them Roxas. I have a slightly off family too. My brother is a senior here so I'm sure you'll see him eventually. He's probably more unique then your brother. Although," Axel looked up at the ceiling as if to muse for a moment. "I am certain he doesn't share the same opinion on sex that your bro does."

Roxas blushed scarlet as he stood, dragging his suitcases over to his bed. He plopped down on the mattress and ran a hand through his blonde hair.

"Yeah, only not. My brother's about as much of a virgin as Brittany Spears," he grumbled, unzipping the larger of the two suitcases to reveal miscellaneous items, such as books, his posters and the like. He stood and grabbed a few of the books - all of which happened to be Stephen King novels - and placed them on the shelves with surprising gentleness. "My brother's just a freak," he added, finishing with Stephen King and moving on to several volumes of his favorite manga, Loveless. (Okay, so he was a bit of fruit, but could he really help that? He was a sucker for drama and angst... But he wasn't gay! ... Was he?)

Roxas held three volumes in one hand and leaned his weight on one foot, pondering over what shelf to put them on. The top shelf already held his novels, as did the second. The third could be for his school books. Roxas decided that the last two shelves could hold his manga - if there was enough room. If there was one thing that Roxas wouldn't leave behind, it would've been his manga. D. Gray-Man was his current obsession and he had up to volume five. He'd already read the entire series online, but collecting the volumes was half the fun.

He raised his eyebrows at his further musings.

"My family's bad; I'm almost afraid to see yours," he replied, turning on his heel and stocking the rest of his books on the shelves.

"You're brothers no virgin huh? Steady girl friend then?" Axel asked in curiosity. After he said it he mentally winced. He could have just touched on a touchy subject without even knowing it. Well nothing to do about it now it was already out there.

He glanced at the titles of the books that Roxas held as he pulled them out. Loveless he had heard about and not yet had a chance to read. D. Gray-Man was one of his favorite manga. He had a secret soft spot for Lavi. Perhaps they would have to trade reading material later.

Roxas scoffed, plopping down on his bed and laying back. "Yeah, seriously," he sighed, rolling his eyes. "I swear, you'd think they'd be able to keep it down at midnight, y'know? The last thing I want to fall asleep to is 'Oh, Sora!'" He mocked in a high falsetto voice. "'Cause, seriously! It's so freaking annoying! Then, he yells at me when I tell them to keep it down. Hgh. I'm so glad I'm out of there." He snorted and sat up again, rolling off his bed and taking out some of his pictures and a roll of tape that had been shoved in there, too.

He kneeled on the bed, his back to Axel and started placing and taping several different pictures at once.

"I'd much rather be stuck in a room with my oldest brother and his boyfriend, then have to be within five feet of Sora and Kairi." Roxas hadn't meant to make that statement sound so resentful towards gays, but after what Seifer had done to him... Roxas's face fell and he sat on his feet, letting his hands flop into his lap. The blonde felt tears stinging his eyes, but he shook his head and got back up, returning to taping the pictures on his walls. When he spoke again, his voice was a bit softer and weaker. "I suppose I will miss them, to some extent, though. Once you get used to something, it's hard when it goes away..."

Axel tried not to show any reaction to the tone of Roxas's voice. "Yeah it is. Still, your parents let your brother get away with that? Last time Reno tried that mom interrupted him armed with a gun. In my house we have to 'do it silent or not do it at all.'"

He watched the blonde hanging things on the wall for a moment. "Your other brother has a boyfriend?" he asked conversationally. What he really wanted to ask was 'how do you feel about homosexuals?' but somehow he was fairly certain that would be an awkward question. He hoped he could garnish what he wanted to know from Roxas's answer.

It would be nice to know, just for general knowledge of course, what Roxas opinion was. If the blonde turned out to be someone that he genuinely liked he wouldn't want to spook him pursuing him.

Roxas nodded, licking his lips before turning and sitting back down on his bed.

"Yeah, they're both really cool. Leon - my brother - just graduated college and his boyfriend, Cloud is a Junior at Hollow Bastion University. Ha, this one time was absolutely priceless. I was out shopping with them and they were walking on either side of me, drilling me about school and stuff and we were walking in front of this one lady, right? And she was all like muttering 'pedophiles' and stuff. So, when they heard her, both Leon and Cloud put their arms around my shoulders and were, like, all poking my cheeks and stuff. The lady called security and got fined for a false alarm," Roxas grinned widely.

He shook his head and sighed through his teeth. "I've got a lot of crazy stories involving those two... Ha, they've kept me sane inside the insanity that I call my life. Like, this one time, Sora had a party and there were a lot of people there and somehow they'd gotten a keg. Now, I'm not some goody-two-shoes - I've done my fair share of illegal things - but as soon as I saw that keg, I packed up some pajamas and high-tailed it to Cloud and Leon's place. Those two are more like my parents than my parents are..." Roxas blushed for his monologue and picked up another picture form his suitcase. A bitter smile flashed across his face and he set the picture aside, grabbing an Alice Nine poster, instead.

From the sound of things, his brother's choice in partnership didn't bother Roxas one bit. That was good news for the just in case. He laughed heartily at Roxas, stories. He had his fair share of tales, although his brother had a hard time staying with a steady lover. It was a very good thing Rude was very patient and accepted his brother back with open arms every time.

"You know on weekends we can have anyone come visit if we want. They could come visit us some time." What Axel said was the truth. The students were allowed to have visitors during the weekend provided that they notified their RAs and didn't disrupt anything.

"That's cool, I'll have to keep that in mind," he replied, thoughtfully, smiling at the thought of Cloud and Leon coming to the school and causing a total uproar.

"What about you? You have a significant other?" Axel asked conversationally. He had given up his farce of reading his magazine and now looked at Roxas.

He raised his eyebrows and smiled at Axel's inquiry. "Me? Ha, nope. I had a girlfriend a few years ago, but that fell through. We're still friends, though. Other than that, no," he replied. "What about yo-" He was cut off by a blast of Ryuusei Rocket from his black Razr. "Ah, hold on," he said, sliding off his bed and pulling his phone from his back pocket.

Olette

Roxas answered, ignoring the fact that his phone's speaker was messed up and Axel would probably be able to hear every single word out of Olette's mouth.

"'Ello?"

"Roxas?"

"Who else?"

"We need to talk."

"Geez, 'Lette, why so serious?"

"Roxas... I..." She faltered and Roxas grew worried.

"What, Olette, just tell me."

"Are you sitting down?"

"No, should I be?" He questioned, his eyebrows creasing.

"I think so..." Roxas sighed and plopped down on the floor.

"Okay, I'm sitting."

"You aren't going to like this..."

"Obviously, Olette, just tell me already!" Roxas sighed, though dread was building in the pit of his stomach.

"It's about Hayner..." Roxas stiffened. Since the Seifer incident, the two former best friends had been on thin ice.

"What about him?" The blonde grated back.

"He'sgoingoutwithSeifer" Roxas felt his eyes grow wide and his heart stop.

"What?" He whispered.

"Hayner's going out with Seifer," she amended, sighing. Roxas flinched at the words and felt himself start to shake.

"Oh."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure, Roxas?"

"'M'fine."

"Alright," She sighed. "Call me if you need anything. Love ya like a brotha," she laughed, half-heartedly.

"Yeah." Roxas snapped his phone shut and turned around, masking the broken look on his face with an emotionless cover.

To Be Continued….

A/N:

Kat – This concludes the first installment of our little endeavor. Lots of secrets and drama. And there only is more and more as time progress. Gold stars for anyone who can guess what happened. Cookies for anyone who gets the exact situation my brilliant partner came up with. Leave us a little review if you like, we would defiantly like. Till next time~

Mikey ~ Muahahaa, the deed is done~ I wonder.... Can any of you tell which one of us played which characters~? My frequenters on FanFiction should know~ (Hopefully... T_T)