It's Easier to Run

Roxas wasn't sure if Axel was home when he knocked on apartment 3F's door, but soon it opened and the redhead was seen scratching the back of his head. "Hey Roxas." Axel greeted, stepping aside to let him enter.

"Hey Axel. You seem like you're home from school early." Roxas set his bag down near the couch and marveled at the amount of video games the pyro possessed.

"The only good thing about Hollow Bastion is that they let you out an hour earlier than anyone else." He laughed. He saw Roxas eyeing the games and waved toward them. "Pick one out. We can play for awhile, if you want."

Roxas nodded and Axel watched amusedly as the blonde took well over ten minutes considering all the games before settling on Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2.

"Never picked you as a ninja guy." He chuckled as he put it into the PlayStation.

"I never picked you as a firefighter." Roxas joked back before his Byakugan Hinata began to beat the crap out of Axel's Sasuke.

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Axel and Roxas sat at the dining room table eating grilled cheese. Axel had confessed that he usually burned everything, so Roxas had cooked using the only safe food items he could find; cheese and bread.

"Oh man, I'm gonna have to have you over more often. Having not burnt food is amazing." Axel babbled, munching on his fourth sandwich.

"Your food bill." Roxas laughed, finishing the crust of his second.

"So, how'd your day go?" Axel asked, taking a drink from his Mountain Dew Code Red.

Roxas reached for a third sandwich as he thought of how best to edit Seifer out of his day. He decided finally to mention him, but not the extent of the encounter. "Well, I sat through loads of boring classes, got held up by idiots from finishing my map of Germany, and texted an old friend on the way home." He shrugged, ripping the sandwich apart and eating the middle.

"You take German?" Axel wondered out loud; Roxas nodded. "Ich liebe Deutsch."*

Roxas laughed loudly. "Ich habe nicht gewusst, dass du auch Deutsch sprichst. Ach!"* He fell off of his chair with a loud thud, still laughing. The two continued to laugh at Roxas's clumsiness for a few minutes.

Until they heard Roxas's father downstairs, who'd been woken by the crashing noise, and was now rampaging around the house. "Where the fuck is that boy?" He thundered, and Roxas could tell he was stomping between his bedroom and the small kitchen.

The younger boy froze, deathly afraid of what would happen to his mother when she got home. His father wasn't normally angry when he woke up, so he would be 'nice' for a while until his mother got home at around eight at night. Then he would get mean. Roxas's mom would draw the attention away from her child and allow for him to escape wherever he wanted to go; but if he was already angry, the damage his father would inflict would be much worse, and Roxas would see his mother at her lowest yet again.

Axel reacted the same way, but he didn't know as much about the situation as Roxas did. "You're not going back there tonight until he's gone." He informed him seriously.

The blonde shook his head. "If I don't go now, it'll be that much worse for my mom when she gets home."

"Roxas!"

"Axel. You have no say in what I do, and I'm not subjecting my mother to the sufferance of my pain." He stood up and grabbed his plate, taking it to the sink and looking out the window. Axel could only argue with his back now.

"You're not gonna be a goddamn martyr!" Axel gestured wildly despite the fact that he could only see the other's spiky golden hair.

Roxas had enough; he turned around and also began gesturing, trying to make the other understand. "My mother gets up at three AM and works two full time jobs so she can just barely support us; that bastard makes forty grand a year, but goes out every night and spends it on beer and drugs and women! It kills her that he's not faithful, but she's staying with him because she thinks that one day it'll get better! My brother had the sense enough to get out of here once he was old enough, before it got too bad, and…" The blonde paused, words growing thick in his mouth as he fought to get them out. "…and the least that I can do for her keeping life somewhat stable for me is going downstairs and taking it for her, and you're not going to let me?" He turned again and buried his head in his hands, not quite crying but clearly upset.

Axel had paused in his argument, taking in what the other teen was telling him. "Roxas…" He started again, moving toward the younger boy. "I don't want you getting hurt because a madman is on a rampage in your apartment."

"Someone's going to get hurt! It might as well be a little bit on two parts instead of killing one! He throws stuff at her; plates and mugs and knives! That night when I first talked to you, he smashed the glass from the coffee table over her head!" Roxas shrieked.

"Settle down, Roxas!" Axel shouted at him, stepping closer to him.

"How can I settle down? You're condemning my mother to possible death and…" At that moment, Axel pushed Roxas's arms down lightly and wrapped his own around him.

"Just calm down. If you're that set on getting yourself hurt, I'm not going to be able to stop you." The redhead knew when he couldn't win a battle, and the small blonde was one of those situations where he just had to step aside and let free will take its' course. He also knew that the only thing to slow the kid down would be the shock factor, and there was no better way to do it than physical contact.

"Axel…" Roxas said in shock. He automatically reached his own arms around the older teenager and buried his head in his shoulder.

They stood that way for a few minutes, listening to each other's breathing and the faint sounds of a sitcom on the television downstairs. "…thanks." Roxas finally finished his sentence. "I guess you do understand a bit more than I gave you credit for."

Axel smiled as he rested his head on the blonde's. "Probably. My parents weren't as violent as yours, but I still understand." His head bobbed up and down as the one beneath him nodded.

"I should go… He should be done by the time she gets home if I get down there now." Roxas murmured and broke away from Axel gently; the redhead let him go without a fight.

"Just come back up here when he's done, got it memorized?" Axel pointed a long index finger to Roxas's temple, who nodded.

"I've still got homework to do, anyways."

"I'll take care of most of it for you, just come back in one piece." Axel sighed.

"Get music ready, I won't want to hear the outside world for a while." With these parting words, Roxas slipped out of the apartment and proceeded to the stairwell.

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Axel heard exactly when Roxas entered the house downstairs. A soft voice could be heard, though not clearly, and Roxas's father began screaming obscenities shortly afterward.

"Worthless bastard, no son of mine would ever be late…!" The voice roared as Axel pulled Roxas's Statistics homework onto the couch with himself and began to perform the tedious work. He flinched every time he heard something- someone?- slam against an object underneath him, and prayed that the blonde would be alright.

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One level below, Roxas's back slammed against the wall yet again and he slipped down to the floor. He cleared his mind before he was lifted up by his neck and the action was repeated. He was left there, his feet dangling a good six inches above the worn carpeting. "Are you ever going to be late again?" The man holding him up snarled.

"No, father." Roxas responded, pain seeping into his voice. He was definitely going to be sporting colorful bruises in the morning, and could feel blood trickling down his face from a cut on his forehead.

The hand holding him up released him, causing him to crash once again to the ground with a groan. Satisfied, Roxas's assailant padded out to the kitchen to retrieve something to eat and finally seated himself in the recliner directly facing the television.

Once he felt he could move again, Roxas took advantage of the loud voices accompanying the actors on the screen to slip out the door and up to Axel's.

The redhead had finished Roxas's statistics, physics, and German homework and was collecting CDs from his room when he heard a soft knock on the door. Checking the peep hole quickly, he opened the door and ushered Roxas inside, sitting him on the couch and cleaning the blood from his face.

"See? Not too bad. No broken bones." Roxas joked weakly. Axel gave him a serious look and continued to bandage the cut before moving to the bruises.

"I need to leave my mom a note that I'm not in there; if I tape it near the door she'll see it." Roxas stated a few minutes later, wincing as Axel administered his first aid.

"You write it and I'll put it down there; you're not going back down until he's gone." Axel commented as he closed the kit and gave Roxas a notebook and pen.

Roxas wrote his note and Axel left for two minutes, promising he wouldn't start any fights with the man downstairs ("Even though he fucking deserves it"). He was back within the allotted time and, after he sat down, pulled Roxas back into his arms.

"I hope you know I really didn't want to let you go." He told the younger.

"I know." Roxas responded softly, enjoying the contact that wasn't abusive.

"I'm not freaking you out with this hugging thing, am I?" Axel questioned, looking down past the spikes and into Roxas's eyes.

"No. You're not really the type, but it lets me know that not everyone's like him." He put his head back to Axel's chest, knowing that later this wouldn't be the same; it was only caused by his resolve to go downstairs and take some of the blame for something that wasn't his fault. When they broke apart, they would be friends who joked and played video games and hung out every single day. But nothing more; and that was okay.

When you feel that way again, you have to stop your thinking.