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Roxas began to frown as his dad was kind of crushing his happiness. So what if he was moving too fast? It was his decision. If he got hurt because of it, then he would figure it out. But he honestly didn't think those two were like that. They were nice and friendly and open, and he liked hanging out with them. "I left my phone in the car so it wouldn't get wet, so I could message you when I got back to it instead of it breaking," he told him softly, deep frown set on his face as he looked at his father.

When Cloud offered to meet Axel and Zexion, another smile broke out onto his face. Sure, that would work, right? Those two meeting his dad? Then he would trust them to take care of him, right? Even though Roxas was the hero today, it would help him trust them...right? "Yeah! Yeah, I can ask them tomorrow if they'd wanna come over! Maybe spend the night this weekend, even! If...if that's okay, I mean. I don't have their numbers, either one of them, but I can definitely ask them tomorrow," he told his dad, eyes lit up once more. "I meant to get pictures of them, but that didn't happen. Plus, Axel wasn't looking too good this morning. I don't think he slept well," he mused.

Roxas nodded enthusiastically as Cloud basically said them staying over was fine as long as they behaved. "Yeah, no problem!" he told him happily. "They're really not as troublesome as today made them seem, Dad. I swear," he told him, now excited about asking them tomorrow. He hopped up from his chair and hugged Cloud tightly. "Thank you, Dad. I know I was an annoying teenager today, and I'm sorry. You're the best," he told him and kissed his cheek before he grabbed his things and hurried off to his room to do the homework he had neglected thus far.

The next morning, Roxas woke up as usual and took a shower. He got dressed in a loose racer-back tank, some red skinny jeans and some turquoise Etnies. He also slid on his favorite checkered arm band that he kept around his forearm and a few rings and necklaces. He grabbed his book-bag and belt after spraying himself with his body spray and ran downstairs toward the kitchen where he smelled bacon.

Bacon. His dad never cooked bacon unless he was worried about Roxas, mainly because he slept restlessly at the thought of his son being in trouble. Therefore he had more time to cook in the morning. The thought made Roxas pause on the stairs and groan a little, then let a small smile slide onto his face. Dad was such a dork. He continued the rest of the way down the stairs and tossed his bag to the floor beside a stool and slid his belt on, clasping the seat belt-style buckle.

"That smells amazing," he told the blond tired-looking man moving around the kitchen. He walked over and leaned up to kiss his cheek before taking a seat just as his dad was putting bacon on his otherwise full plate, completing the masterpiece. "Thank yooou," he told him with a grin and took a gulp of his orange juice before digging into his breakfast.

Roxas munched his breakfast happily, noticing Cloud wasn't moving as fast as he usually was. He could see that the man was exhausted, but he didn't know why. Maybe Roxas going off yesterday without letting him know really took more of a toll on him than he thought it did.

As his dad spoke up with the question, the blond teen had just set his fork down on the plate and stood to put it in the sink. He blinked at his father as he paused, then continued towards the sink. "Oh, uh," he started, laying his plate in the sink and then resituating himself down by Cloud, turning towards him. "I haven't gotten to talk to them about it yet. Are you sure you're okay with them spending the night? You seem kind of tired," he said back just as softly, looking at his father with concerned eyes. Cloud was what Roxas had left; he didn't need him wasting away on him.

Roxas smiled gently as Cloud kissed him on the forehead. No matter how tired or out of it Cloud seemed, he always made sure Roxas was first priority.

"Dad...I love you," Roxas said happily to Cloud and hopped off of his stool. He picked up his bag and threw it over his shoulder, striding over to his father. He stood on his toes and kissed his cheek once more and smiled at him. "You know what? You haven't driven me in a while. Let's do that today. We haven't gotten a whole lot of time together lately, anyway," he told him. "And if we leave now, we can stop by Starbucks, and I'll buy us some coffee. You look like you're gonna need it today for work," he said with a little laugh. He missed his dad. He really needed to make more time to spend with him.

Roxas really enjoyed the light conversation that he and his dad kept going all the way to where the older blond parked in front of the school to drop him off. They really hadn't had the opportunity to talk like that in a long time, considering when Roxas got home from school, he usually had homework to do. Even on weekends they didn't see each other, because Cloud hadn't had a weekend off in what seemed like forever. It had to have been a few months that passed since he had by now. Honestly, the day before had been the first time Roxas had had the opportunity to go out with friends in almost two years, and he realized that it was one of the rare days that his dad had gotten off early enough and that he himself didn't have homework to do. He could have spent the evening with Cloud, and it made him get a sinking feeling in his stomach, guilt washing over him.

/I'll definitely make more time to spend with him from now on, though. I can't lose him because I'm being bratty. It would kill both of us./ he found himself promising himself as the car came to a complete stop. He smiled over at his dad and leaned over to kiss his cheek once more before he opened the door. Hopping out, he grabbed his bag and what was left of his coffee then bumped the door closed with his hip. He gave one last wave with his coffee cup and a smile before turning and striding into school where he immediately began the search for Axel and Zexion to ask about them staying the night.

It took him all of five minutes to realize they weren't in the courtyard before school, which made him frown but shrug a little and plop down on one of the half-walls. He sipped on his coffee and gazed around the courtyard, absently people-watching as students milled about the area. He saw Sora and the gang and gave a smile and a wave, the brunette immediately making his way over with the rest of their friends. Well, they were really Sora's friends. Sora was the only one he really talked to, which made it a bit awkward when they all sat or stood around him and continued chattering amongst themselves.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Seifer and his gang of misfits. Seifer glanced his way and ghosted a smirk as he nodded slightly, acknowledging Roxas's presence before turning his full attention back to his friends. That made Roxas's insides bubble up, not because he harbored feelings for the guy, but because he was glad they had some sort of comeradery, thanks to Axel's advice. It felt good.

Eventually, the bell rung, and they all scurried to their first block classes, Roxas tossing out his empty coffee cup on his way to his class as he walked side-by-side with Sora. English was nice to have first-thing in the morning because it got it out of the way to have fun for the rest of the day. And it gave him a little time to hang out with Sora alone since he was in there with him. They began to make their way to their side-by-side seats, but before he could even walk over to his desk, the intercom for the classroom crackled to life, and Roxas was called to the office. Sora gave his friend a worried and confused look before wishing him good luck as the blond walked out the door again.

The blond made it to the office in no time and tentatively approached the front desk, who instructed him to head back to the nurses office, which caused him even more worry. Did something happen to someone he knew? Was it Axel or Zexion? Maybe that was the reason they weren't in the courtyard this morning. But why would they call him in, too? He only just started hanging out with them. They weren't well-known friends like most groups of friends.

"Hello?" he called after knocking gently on the nurse's door and peeking inside, immediately seeing Axel's bright red hair, eyes travelling down to the redhead's annoyed and exhausted expression. "Axel! What's going on? Did something happen?" he asked as he opened the door wider to reveal the nurse giving him a pointed look. "Oh, um, I'm Roxas. I was told to come back here?" he greeted awkwardly, walking fully inside and shutting the door behind him.

Roxas blinked as he was ushered over to sit with the nurse. His brow furrowed as the nurse said to re-explain what Axel had already told her. Why was she being so stubborn about believing a student about his own injuries? Sure, there were students who were abused and such, but Axel could hold his own nonetheless.

"Wait--" he started before he was cut off by Axel lashing out at the nurse, who he had obviously already had this argument with before. He listened to the bickering and banter, and was less shocked than he probably should have been to hear about Axel's injuries over the years. From what he saw, Axel did some things that could obviously get him hurt on accident, but what was the nurse about to say about removing him from something. Remove him from what? The school? ...His house? Now Roxas was curious.

His attention snapped back to Axel as the redhead curtly told him to tell him the story of yesterday. He paused for a moment, reigning in his thoughts and the details, before starting in a calm tone.

"Look, I don't know about what's happened in the past or whatever, as I literally became friends with them about two days ago, but I do know what happened yesterday, and I make it a point not to lie," he said, giving the nurse a pointed look that showed his slight annoyance with her pestering.

"I missed the bus yesterday, so I was going to skate home. Then Axel and Zexion pulled up beside me and gave me a lift, but they wanted to hang out first. So we went to this lake that has this pier an swam around for a few hours. Then when it was time to leave, Zexion was helping pull Axel up onto the pier when he slipped. He fell off the pier, taking Zexion with him, and his side and head smashed into it on the way down. Zexion was able to get himself out of the water basically unscathed, but Axel wasn't coming up. I had been a lifeguard over the summer, so my instict kicked in, and I ran over and dove in to get him. He was pretty disoriented, so he couldn't get his swim shorts which were hooked on a splintered piece of the column holding the pier up. So I ripped his shorts to get them free and lugged him back up to the pier. I think I made some witty joke about his shorts dying, then I got my shirt, ripped it up, and bandaged his head. Then we went home. End of story."

He looked at the nurse with an expectant expression, eyebrow raised as he sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. He was waiting for the nurse to pester him some more about what happened, but he was going to stand his ground for his new friends. It wasn't like he was lying, anyway. He could go around in circles with this woman all day. No matter his clean record, he wasn't a pushover, as proven by his fights with Seifer.

"Since you have two witnesses to back up the same damn story, can we go back to getting an education?" he asked smartly, voice showing his impatience. "I'm kind of missing a big lesson in English."