After an agonizing amount of weighing the pros and cons, Roxas had decided to ask Axel something he'd wanted to know for a long time, and he was feeling exceptionally anxious about it. The happy anticipation that usually accompanied a visit from his best friend was gone, replaced only by fear.

What he wanted to ask today was a great deal more serious and personal than the mundane and trivial questions he usually posed. To not know what a kiss was- or rather, to only know what it was without knowing why and how it happened- seemed rather pathetic for a person his age. He'd heard members of Organization XIII talking about kissing, and he'd seen what they were describing, but he couldn't understand why it was such a big deal. What made kissing different from shaking someone's hand, for instance? But he knew it was.

Unlike most Nobodies, when Roxas had been created, he'd had no memories of his Somebody's past, so he'd depended on Axel to teach him just about everything. In contrast to the other members of the Organization, Axel had been patient with Roxas and seemed to find his lack of knowledge endearing instead of annoying, even when the most basic words and concepts escaped his understanding.

Roxas was therefore very grateful to have Axel as a friend. Axel was the only member of the Organization who seemed to care about him, and Axel was the only one he cared about. Or – he realized he'd not been thinking properly- Xion and Demyx were his friends too, but there was something about Axel that made him different. Roxas always wanted to do what Axel did. Just one simple suggestion from Axel about his next crazy scheme, and Roxas wanted to be involved. It was almost scary how much control Axel had over him. He wondered if Axel knew it, and if he was just exploiting Roxas when he convinced him to do often rather stupid things.

Just yesterday he had persuaded Roxas to abandon his daily mission to see some fancy, self-aggrandizing prince arrive in Agrabah. Xemnas could've turned them into dusks for that, but Roxas had ignored the risks for a few delightful hours of Axel's undivided attention. Plus, he could almost always trust Axel to avoid repercussions for his misdeeds. He had a quick wit and was very cunning, and he remained consistently nonchalant about the life or death stakes that came with daily life in the Organization.

As Roxas was pondering all this, Axel arrived at the clock tower and ungracefully sat down beside him, posture terrible as always.

"Hey Roxas, how's it going?"

"Okay," Roxas replied. His palms were beginning to sweat. He was nervous already, and he hadn't even asked his question.

"Is something bothering you, kid? You seem a bit out of it."

He hated that Axel had called him "kid," but he was too preoccupied to complain about it. "Yes, well, I… Can I ask you something?"

"Sure you can. What would you like me to explain to you now? Friendship? Family? Women?" he finished, raising an eyebrow.

Why had he mentioned that last one so suggestively? It made Roxas even more anxious. "Well, I guess it's kind of about women," he managed.

"I know all about them, man. Shoot. Is it Xion? Be honest." His tone seemed far too light-hearted to Roxas, who could feel himself blushing.

"Well, no, I guess it's, more... I was thinking, well, I mean - what is a 'kiss?'"

"A kiss?" Axel's facial expression softened. Roxas was a little surprised. There were few subjects that got Axel to act like this. One of them was his past. He wondered if this brought back a memory for Axel. What if he had kissed someone? This made Roxas feel a little disappointed, but he wasn't sure why. He thought he should be polite and tell Axel that he didn't have to talk about it if he didn't want to, but he really wanted an answer, so he remained silent.

"A kiss is…" Axel trailed off, apparently looking for the right words. Roxas noticed that he had abandoned his usually playful tone when he said soberly, "It's what you share with someone you really like... someone that you like as more than a friend."

"So would…" he felt himself blushing, "Would we be the kind of people who would kiss?" Axel didn't respond right away, and Roxas immediately regretted asking. Axel's vulnerability had made him feel braver, but now that it was out in the open, he wished he could take it back. He could tell that Axel was looking at him, but he couldn't bring himself to return his gaze. He fixed his eyes on his shoes instead, which turned out to be a grave mistake. Roxas was very afraid of heights, a trait Axel had taught him to ignore by teasing him whenever he refused to sit on the clock tower's edge. The distance between himself and the ground fueled his fears, and he impulsively dug his fingers into the cracks between the tiles to make himself feel more secure. It didn't work.

Axel finally spoke. "Well, if you want to be traditional about it, which I'm not… usually a boy kisses a girl or a girl kisses a boy…"

Roxas could tell from experience that Axel was baiting him to ask more, and he was too curious to deny his friend the pleasure of knowing he'd piqued Roxas's interest. "Why wouldn't friends like us kiss? I mean, if they really liked each other like you described before. Why wouldn't they kiss?"

"Well, I mean… I guess they could…if they really liked each other in that way."

"But what do you mean by that way?" Roxas nearly whispered. He could sense the tension was building, and the flirtatious tone Axel had adopted, along with the grin on his face, and the mischievous twinkle in his eye gave Roxas hope that Axel might be thinking what Roxas was thinking.

"If there's a person you want to kiss, then you like them that way."

He was afraid that Axel would know he was feigning naivety and tease him for it, but he asked anyway, hopeful that it would get him what he so desperately wanted. "What does a kiss feel like?"

Axel leaned in a little closer. "It feels amazing... and after you've kissed someone, your relationship with that person changes forever."

Roxas was fighting saying it. So far he had been self-restrained, so far he had stopped himself from insinuating anything, but he couldn't help it. It was now or never. "What if I wanted our relationship to change like that?" His face felt intensely warm. Axel was silent.

"Well, if you…wanted that… the first thing we would have to do is kiss, but you would have to be sure that's what you really wanted."

"But, I want to know if… well…" He paused. "Do you want to kiss me?" It was all that mattered to him right now. He wanted Axel to say yes even though it terrified him to think he might.

Axel looked thoughtful for a moment, and Roxas was afraid that he'd finally gone too far until Axel said, in a level voice, "Yes, Roxas. I do." Axel moved closer until their legs were touching, then raised a hand to tenderly draw a line down Roxas's jaw. Axel's eyes studied his face and landed on his lips. When Axel's stunning green eyes met his, Roxas felt like he couldn't breath. No one had ever looked at him like that before. Axel smiled and closed the distance between their lips. It was pleasant and soft at first, and Roxas's initial emotion was fear that he wasn't doing it right. But when Axel put an arm around him and pulled him closer, kissing him more deeply and forcefully, all thought ceased. Roxas felt daring and invincible, and he wrapped his fingers around Axel's neck and drew him closer. Suddenly, he felt as though he'd lost his balance and worried that if he didn't push Axel away, they'd both fall off the tower. He pulled his lips away with more force than he'd intended and steadied himself by falling back on his hands.

He could breathe now, and he was, heavily. The look of surprise on Axel's face mimicked his own. They stared at each other for a few moments, neither knowing what to do. Should Roxas say something? What could he say? What did they usually talk about? He was wracking his brain even as he was losing himself in the beautiful pair of green eyes looking at him.

"I wonder where Xion is!" he blurted, with too much force, and then, afraid that Axel would see how hard he was blushing, looked away again.

"Yeah," Axel sighed, and continued as though nothing had happened, "I'm… worried that she hasn't come back yet." It was an unconvincing statement, and they were both aware of it, but Roxas found these mindless trivialities comforting after the shock of what had just happened.

"Yeah, she gets back so late sometimes." His voice was flat. He wasn't sure what to do now. He was so lost in worry for the present and future, he failed to notice that Axel had stood up.

"I'm heading back, Roxas."

Roxas nodded once, very slowly, eyes fixed on the sunset.

"I'll see you later, tomorrow maybe," Axel mumbled, " I don't know if I'll be coming back here though. I might have other things to do after work…"

"Oh," Roxas said, trying to hide his disappointment. "Yes, I understand. Your job's a lot harder than mine. I can't expect you to come here all the time and have to explain things to someone as clueless as me, right?"

"Roxas," Axel said. Roxas couldn't tell if it was a reproach or a conclusion to what had just happened, but when he heard it said by those lips, he felt a tingle run down his spine.

Axel walked around the corner, leaving Roxas alone, unhappy, and more confused than ever.