It's Easier to Run

"Come on, we're going to be late!" Roxas called into apartment, snorting impatiently as Axel stumbled out of the kitchen with a piece of toast still in his mouth.

"Give me a break, I'm still used to Hollow Bastion time." The redhead grumbled and slipped his shoes on, locking the door behind him before he and Roxas dashed down the stairs and barely caught their bus.

"You're not going to be late on your first day." Roxas told him, determined to make his words true. Axel shrugged, collapsing against the seat and snoring uncharacteristically loudly. Roxas rolled his eyes.

Their stop finally came and Roxas pulled the cord to signify that they needed to get off, standing and attempting to hoist Axel up by his wrist. The redhead grabbed Roxas's hand before getting up groggily, letting go only to let him get off the bus. They walked up to the door a full half hour early, easily getting inside and to the office.

Axel filled out his book rental forms while Roxas waited and looked over the new schedule, happy to find that they had they had half their classes together. Roxas was in higher math and sciences, so he often had classes with juniors like Axel. The redhead was soon stumbling through the still nearly empty halls with a heavy stack of books, causing the blonde to laugh before grabbing half of the stack and helping to shove the textbooks into his new beige locker.

"Well, looks like you have English first." Roxas commented, handing him a green book. Axel frowned at the book before dropping it into his bag, grabbing his physics book for the hour afterward as well.

"You have World History, right?" Roxas nodded. "I'll pick you up. Fake not knowing the school as an excuse to leave early." The redhead winked at the blonde.

"Shouldn't you be making a good impression?" Roxas wondered, closing the locker for him as they walked towards his.

"Good is relative to what they already know. I'm assuming they don't know much, so I will be acting good to them." He talked idly, turning a corner and wondering why Roxas froze. "What's up, kid…?"

"Well well, if it isn't Red."

Axel dropped his bag and stepped forward. "Oh, not you again." He was face to face with none other than Seifer. Rai was frantically trying to finish his calculus despite not understanding the topic and Fuu was observing her nails with idle curiosity.

"So, you go here now?" Seifer wondered, grabbing his calculus textbook from his locker.

"Yeah, so I can keep your hands off of Roxas, got it memorized?" The redhead stepped forward, hand already clenched into a fist.

"Axel!" Roxas shouted, scooping up the extra backpack before grabbing his friend's arm and pulling. "Stop it, not on your first day, let's go..!" Axel brushed him off, refusing to budge an inch.

"Roxy's right, you know. You don't want to start anything with us here." Seifer smirked. "They won't believe you, even if you say anything. This is our turf."

"Maybe I'll just make them see the truth, then!" Axel shouted. Roxas stepped in front of Axel, blocking his path to Seifer.

"Will you listen to me? Let's go!" Roxas put his hands against Axel's shoulders and pushed. The redhead allowed himself to be backed around the corner, where he took deep breaths to calm himself down.

"You idiot!" Roxas shouted as he shoved the bag at his friend, unable to put his frustration in any other words. This eloquent selection of words must have upset Axel, because he grabbed Roxas's wrist and dragged him even further away from Seifer's gang.

"Listen here. I transferred here to protect you." He punctuated his sentence by jabbing Roxas in the chest. "And I'm going to do it, got it memorized?"

"You're not going to get in trouble because of me!" Roxas shouted back, slapping Axel's hand away. "That's the last thing I want happening to you!"

"You know what? It's going to happen eventually, because you've got that prick chasing after you! I'm the only one that cares that it's happening, let me do something about it!" Axel's voice dropped slightly. "Let me, please." He said softly, asking permission. "It's why I came here."

"I've survived this long without someone taking care of me, Axel." Roxas stated, crossing his arms over his chest. "And I don't need anyone to start now."

Axel glared at the blonde and threw his hands up. "You're absolutely hopeless!" He shouted, exasperated, before turning around and storming off to his English class. Roxas, also near the end of his rope, turned the other way and ran toward History. He slammed down into his seat, causing the nearest girl to inch away from him cautiously, and opened his book to the chapter he'd already read about Feudal Japan.

He sat through the class hour thinking about how Axel was being overprotective. Ten minutes until end of class, his mind began to tell him that perhaps it wasn't so much overprotective as being concerned for Roxas's wellbeing. That was the reason he cited to the blonde for transferring in the first place, after all. He walked into physics and sat at his seat in the back, unsurprised when the teacher sent Axel to sit next to him as it was the only available spot.

Roxas filled in the blanks in his notes all hour and thought some more about their current situation, waiting until five minutes before the bell to pass Axel a note.

Sorry I'm being an ass. I know you have good intentions. Forgive me?

Axel read the note with a serious face, contemplating, before a small smile shone through on his face. He scribbled messily on the same note underneath Roxas's neat handwriting, folding the paper into a triangle which Roxas vaguely recognized as a paper football from grade school and flicked it back over to the blonde.

Sure thing, Roxass.

Roxas rolled his eyes and smiled. Apparently they were talking again.

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The two stumbled out of Advanced German, laughing. Their teacher had performed a certain hand sign that he didn't know had rather crude significance and only they were watching, leaving them laughing outrageously all class for no apparently reason. Then again, they supposed their minds were a lot more open to possibilities than those of their classmates. They'd spent their lives observing everything carefully in order to survive, and references to sex were both abundant and easily understood if one's mind was trained to think in that way.

"Oh man, I can't believe he actually did that!" Axel laughed. Roxas chuckled behind him, pushing the redhead in the right direction toward his locker so he could grab his food and shove the morning's books away. Before long, they were sitting in a corner of the common area eating the lunches Roxas had made last night.

"So, enjoy being back at Twilight?" Roxas asked as he made his way through a roast beef sandwich.

"It's pretty sweet, I'm not gonna lie." Axel grinned and waved to a few of his old friends. He'd been stopped occasionally all day to talk to upperclassmen Roxas didn't know, but the blonde was making friends out of the whole situation. If nothing else, he was happy that his best friend was attending school now. There was only the problem of keeping him away from Seifer, and surely that wasn't too hard.

Until, of course, Axel had been provoked by the blonde senior while Roxas was daydreaming, resulting in the turkey sandwich the redhead had formerly been eating landing on Seifer's head and smearing his favorite beanie with mayonnaise. This subsequently resulted in the entire area joining in on the food fight, and before long Roxas took a break from throwing the remnants of his and other people's lunches to drag Axel from the mess.

"Why didn't I expect that?" He chuckled slightly, brushing some remnants of now unidentifiable food from the sleeve of his shirt. "Aw, hell, someone flung applesauce all over me…" He stuck a finger in the food that was now dripping down onto the bridge of his nose.

Axel leaned forward and licked a small bit off of the other boy's nose. Roxas stood stock-still, staring at the redhead. "Well, I'm not necessarily objecting…" He stated before realizing what he was doing. He began to walk around in circles in front of Roxas, muttering angry words. "...Jesus, and I'm trying not to be like that creep…" He fisted his hands in his hair, pulling at the spikes roughly as he berated himself. He finally stopped and looked at the blonde. "I'm sorry, Rox…"

He was cut off by a set of lips attaching softly, but determinedly, to his own. Roxas's heart was beating faster than a hummingbird's wings, and he was wondering why he had actually done that this time instead of shoving the idea away like he had so many times before.

"Don't worry about it." Roxas breathed quietly once they broke away from each other. They had their privacy, with all of the administrators in the room over trying to unsuccessfully break up the food fight and the all of the students engaging in the activities. Roxas had needed to grab the sides of Axel's shirt to reach his goal and his hands had ventured upwards to rest on the redhead's chest. Axel had responded by leaning down to accommodate the blonde's height and pulling him slightly closer by wrapping his arms tentatively around the younger's waist.

Axel smiled and took another lick of the applesauce. "Sweet, cause this stuff is really good."

Roxas rolled his eyes and wiped the applesauce from his face. Axel sighed in disappointment as they released one another, stepping away so they could look at the damage Axel had caused by flinging his sandwich at one of the most influential people in the school. From what Roxas could tell, Axel had suffered blows from someone's mashed potatoes on one of his pants legs, strawberry jello on his (thankfully) black hoodie, and his hair was covered in crushed Gardettos.

"Being tall makes you a target." Roxas chuckled at the comment as Axel messed his hair up, effectively removing the snack food from the long crimson locks. He then took a nearby piece of abandoned homework and scraped most of the potatoes from his jeans, throwing it under one of the circular tables he knew the girls he couldn't stand gathered around during passing periods and decided he could ignore the quickly disappearing jello stain on his shirt.

"Good to go?" Roxas asked, chuckling to himself once again. He'd taken advantage of his small stature and catapulted fruit over the table he was seeking shelter behind, avoiding all but said apple sauce and two foods that had smashed into one another while flying directly over him, causing the unidentifiable mixture to drop straight down on top of the unfortunate blonde.

Axel nodded and, taking advantage of the lack of wandering eyes, wrapped his large hand around Roxas's before pulling him toward the roundabout way to their lockers. The smaller blonde smiled to himself and readjusted the hold, lacing their fingers together in silent acceptance.

Take my hand tonight, let's not think about tomorrow.