It started with a simple one.

It was a plain, blunt, honest, one lined note that was slipped into his bag. He didn't know when, and he didn't know how, but leaving your book bag on the ground during class probably had something to do with it. But those details didn't matter.

What did matter, was who, and why. That's all that the little student needed to know. It had to be somebody who sat next to him in classes, or they wouldn't have gotten their hands anywhere near his roughed up black pack, and that certainly narrowed the choices down for him. All the classes in his school had generally the same seating arrangements, save a few random seats for the floater students here and there.

So as our little teenager wearily stared on during his final class, Geometry, he pondered on who could send him the little note.

There were eight possible people. The three students in the front, the two on his sides, and the last three at his back. Up in front sat a blond girl –Namine- who he hardly knew, Kairi, the school slut, and Riku, his brother's best friend and steady boyfriend.

Yeah, they were all crossed out on his mental list. Kairi could've been a possibility, if not for the fact that she didn't exactly prefer the male gender.

So then there were the two people on either of his sides. There was some stoner kid that had dirty blonde hair and wore a beanie all the time, but he had a boyfriend. He was some big muscular kid with a speech problem. On the other side was a tall, red headed, anorexic looking kid who was the class clown and also his worst enemy.

God, he hated that bastard. He was always disrupting class, always making fun of his dedication to studies and lack of social enthusiasm. So what if our young man was a little on the quiet side? His brother made up for his anti-social personality by making himself doubly outgoing.

But no, he was on a mission to find who kept slipping letters into his bag. It was so infuriating to not know who was having a nice little mind game with him. It had started as a one line, "I like you a lot." Then they escalated into poetic writings about his eyes, or the shape of his lips. They were sappy, and way too beautiful to be placed into some crappy public high school kid's bag.

Right, back to his clever process of elimination.

The only choices left were the three other students behind him. They were his brother –god, no!-, his best friend with messy blonde hair and a fascination with camouflage and the kid with the beanie, or his bitch of a cousin Larxene.

'Well….,' his mind drawled, 'Let's review today's session.'

Kairi is a lesbian. Nope.

Riku was his brother's boyfriend. But hey, some people aren't perfect… still, big ol' fat no.

Beanie kid was taken, and too high to notice him anyway. Nuh uh.

Hayner was his best friend, but he was smitten with the blond druggie. Crossed off he was.

Sora needed NO deliberation.

Larxene was his cousin for god's sake, not even she was that sick and deprived.

Namine…well, Namine might've done it. But she seemed a little too reserved to take and chance and risk getting caught stuffing notes into his bag. She remained as a maybe.

Red headed anorexic guy was a possibility. Maybe he was just trying to build him up and stand him up on a date or something.

Then….then…it hit him. It was the perfect, logical explanation to all of this. That stupid asshole was purposely trying to get the shy kid out of his shell, try and make him see that the world was oh-so-great and then let him fall back into his 'despairing hole of a life.' Well. That certainly called for revenge.

And oh, revenge was sweet. Suddenly, the boy snapped back into normal life, the teacher's irritated callings finally reaching his mind.

"Mr. Aiden, perhaps you would like to join Mr. Hotaru in the counselor's office!" the short brunette man barked. Before he could even start to respond, his angry instructor was already scribbling away on a yellow pass paper. God dammit. He rose quickly from his chair to retrieve his pass to the office, scowling at both his teacher and his newfound companion. Of all people, he had to get sent out with that ass hole. And the jerk had the nerve to smirk at him. Smirk.

So as he was dragging his feet behind him in the hallway, it was needless to say he wasn't in the best of moods. In fact, he was pretty damn pissed.

But then, he remembered his discovery during class. Ah, this would be the perfect time to take revenge. A dark smile crossed his face and he repressed one of his rare, yet horrific evil laughs as he turned toward the other student.

"So, the big bad bully is gay, huh?" he asked, voice laced with mock curiosity. The reaction he got was unexpected…there was no reaction.

"Yep. Have been for a while now." It was a simple answer. It really shouldn't have stunned him as much as it did. But oh well, he was on a quest of ultimate terror right now.

"And, you do realize that I have no reason not to spread it around the entire school that not only you're gay, but you're in love with me?" he snickered, eager to make the boy realize his mistake. "Your plan to make me feel uncomfortable has backfired, and now you are going to PAY, you antagonizing asshole!" He was grinning manically now, turned full on toward the red head and sticking a thin finger in his direction.

But his rival still remained unfazed. There was no fear, remorse, anxiety, there was absolutely nothing registering in his emerald green eyes. It was unsettling.

"Kid look, you've hated me for years. Just let it go," he mumbled, tone robotic and forced. Oh no, he was not going to let it go. The coward was trying to talk him out of humiliating him, after he'd done it so many times to himself? No. No way in hell.

"Like hell I'm going to just 'let it go!' You've tortured me for years, and you expect me to pass up an opportunity to return the favor?" he barked, enraged.

There was a deafening silence now, and he realized that they had stopped walking a long time ago. It didn't matter. But still, the taller male was quiet as the he fumed. But after the first few seconds, his anger turned to ecstasy.

It was working. He was getting to the sneaky bastard. His tiny, obsolete mind was crumbling with his words. The fear was destroying his mind, and it was fascinating to watch. But then….then…

He broke the silence.

"Only one problem with your ultimate plan, kiddo." He blinked, stunned. How dare he insult his perfect plan to destroy his reputation and social life?

"Oh yeah? What's that, dumbass?" he asked, still convinced that there could be no flaws in the plan.

"Your plan is to humiliate me by telling everyone I love you. It won't work," he drawled lazily.

"And why not?" This was just insulting. He wasn't stupid, you know.

"Because I'm proud to love you."

Yeah, okay, maybe he was stupid. He obviously couldn't have heard right. But he stopped his inner monologue for a minute to keep listening to the absurd voice talking.

"I know we've fought for years, but you know how some mom's say that the boys tease the little girls because they like them? Yeah, I didn't grow out of that until freshmen year. And by then, it'd be too weird if I suddenly walked up to you and said,' Hey, I like you. Wanna catch a movie?' You'd still think I was jankin' your chain," he confessed quietly.

"I always liked how you were quiet, but you still were nice and polite. You never had many friends, but you preferred it that way because you didn't like big crowds. And I don't care what people might tell you, you are beautiful. Your hair doesn't look retarded, it looks pretty and soft….By the way, sorry for unloading a bunch of sap on ya. Just kinda happened," he shrugged sheepishly.

Now, understand a few things about the main character here.

One, he had an extreme soft spot for mushy romantics. Two, he'd….always found the red head sort of…attractive. Well, okay, super hot. In addition to his sexiness, he'd always harbored some feelings for the boy, but he'd generally locked them up because of their renowned rivalry.

And this was exactly the kind of shit he LOVED to watch and read about.

So needless to say, he leapt at the chance to have a paperback novel romance. Literally.

No, really, he threw himself at Axel and wove his arms around the man's child bearing hips. There was a pause before the embrace was returned full on. He smelled wonderful, like black cherries and fresh cotton. As he inhaled, his following exhaled breath was used to speak.

"Axel, I swear to god if you're fucking with me Sora'll sic Riku on you," he smiled. Axel's chest bobbed up and down with his chuckles. A hand ruffled through his hair softly, almost as if it were caressing his head.

"Don't worry Roxas. I'll never fuck with you without your permission," he laughed, squeezing the tiny body tighter and pressing his lips down to the boy's forehead.