TITLE: Together We Make Orange
PAIRING: AkuRoku, with implied Cleon + Zemyx+Riso
RATED: T
SUMMARY: This is about Sora and Kairi and Roxas and Xion and how cute they all are together... Joking! Roxas thinks that for once, it would be nice to make dinner properly. Axel thinks these scenes are becoming dangerously domestic. [Oneshot] [FOR LADEEBLISS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART! SARANGHE!]
Not for the first time, Roxas regrets the size of his kitchen. Oh, don't get him wrong, it's not a cupboard or anything. It's nicely sized, got cupboards, shelves, all the works. But if the ceiling was, say, just a foot lower, then Axel wouldn't be able to fit.
"Roxas..."
Roxas sighs.
It's not his fault Axel has a low attention span, coupled with an inability to keep still. He's not sure at which point after he came back from work that Axel decided TV was too boring and the internet was too slow, but it's been long enough now that he's starting to get a little bit pissed off. He's trying to cook. Axel cannot cook. Therefore, Axel should now leave the kitchen. Basic logic.
Axel seems to think logic does not apply to him.
"Roxas, I'm bored."
"Do you know why you're bored, Ax? Because watching someone cook is boring! Go away."
"That's not very nice Roxas," Axel grouches, and Roxas can just picture him, folding his arms and slouched over like he's trying to avoid being smacked upside the head. Axel is a master of the pity game. That's why Roxas cooks with his back to Axel. Otherwise he'll get the compulsion to make him hot choclate to apologise, or something. Roxas turns his thoughts back to cooking. Pasta is good. Pasta makes sense. Pasta also needs a good sauce, which he is making from scratch. Again. Since Axel spilt the other one.
The kitchen chair scrapes back against the floor. One leg has got a little felt thing under it to stop it grating, but the others haven't. Roxas has his suspicions about this, as does Axel. But Roxas has learned to tune out Axel's suspicions, since most of them involve pirates and/or ninjas in some way. Logic once again fails in the face of 'awesome ninja powers', and the fact Axel seems to think pirates would believe he was one of them. And had hidden gold in their kitchen.
Roxas disputes this. The whole matter ended in a heated argument over whether pirate ships are still for sale, and with Roxas challenging Axel to convince him he was a pirate. Axel does not take challenges lightly. The 'every surface in the house is impossible!' challenge went down particularly well, though the 'no Roxas, strawberry soap DOES taste like strawberries, let me prove it to you!' was slightly less well received. Either way, Roxas really should learn not to challenge Axel.
After Axel came home with one ear pierced and a parrot, Roxas decided to let it go.
The parrot was hurriedly returned by a shocked Roxas to the pet shop it came from, and the ring was yanked from Axel's earlobe so fast it nearly ripped his whole ear off. Roxas doesn't like Axel to change. It creeps him out in weird ways he doesn't understand. Axel has never dyed his hair, or worn contacts to hide his incredible eyes, or covered his tattoos with makeup, and Roxas wonders if he knows. Sometimes, it scares him to think Axel knows as much about him as he knows about Axel. He knows it's stupid. He loves the idiot, so he should be glad that the redhead knows him so well, right? But he likes to think that he's harder to read than Axel, who's so open and obvious in every emotion, if not every action. Other times, he's grateful, because Axel seems to know what the hell is going on in his head, even if he doesn't.
Roxas feels long, cold fingers sneak their way up his neck, and he shivers. Apparently, Axel is tired of annoying him vocally. The fingers slide further up, into his hair. They're like ice against the skin of his scalp, but he doesn't dare twitch, because if he's honest, he doesn't want Axel to move his hand. He chides himself mentally. He's meant to have more dignity than this. He's the good one! Axel's the one with no impulse control.
Still, though, as Axel's fingers disturb his hair and make his scalp tingle, he leans his head back into the man's touch. He mumbles as he does so, something he knows is unintelligible as soon as it leaves his lips. He hears Axel's laughter coming from behind him. Despite himself, his lips quirk into a reluctant smile. Axel's laugh is Roxas' favourite part. More than his hair, and his eyes. More than his tattoos and how his head can rest right on top of Roxas' because he's so damn tall. More than the way his fingers tangle with Roxas', long and cold and spindly, but comforting all the same. More than all of that sappy romantic shit, Roxas likes Axel's laugh. Because Axel doesn't laugh in his throat, in the annoying way Sora does, or through his fucking nose like Riku or Cloud, just a sort of happy-grunt. Axel laughs from right inside his chest, and from where Roxas' back is pressed up against Axel's body, he can feel the vibrations.
"Still want to cook?" Axel asks mischievously, as if he knows that his laugh is Roxas' favourite. But that's okay, because Roxas knows that Axel's favourite is his hair. Because it's light. Because it's soft. Because Roxas is always warm.
And, well, because Axel is superficial like that.
Roxas doesn't shake Axel's hand out of his hair, even though its freezing, but he does manage to speak properly again.
"Stop distracting me," he mutters, moving his head forward to study his sauce again. 'Where's the oregano?', he wonders, mentally searching his kitchen cupboards, because he can hardly leave the sauce now. This is a crucial point in his cooking. Doesn't matter where Axel's hand is. It's the sauce that counts.
"I can't help it," Axel murmurs defensively, "Your hair is just so..." 'Beautiful?' thinks Roxas. 'Startling? Unique?' "Yellow," Axel finishes lamely.
Oh, and he was doing so well.
"And your hair is so red. And you don't see me fondling your head, do you?" Still, he doesn't move away from Axel's body or the hand gently finer-combing his hair. After all, this is a crucial moment in his cooking.
"Touché," Axel agrees amiably, and resumes his gentle combing. Roxas is becoming more relaxed by the second, and it's becoming hard to concentrate on his sauce. Which is a nightmare, because Cloud and Leon could give most food critics a run for their money. Damn statues think they're some sort of connoisseurs. Screw them! Who's the chef here? That's right, he is. He went to catering college. He burnt his fingers till he didn't have nerve endings in them anymore, and wore those little blue bandages that only cooks wear. Those bandages were special to him, same way being greeted like an old friend in art shops is special to Axel. It means that what they do is appreciated, that they've entered a little bubble and that from now on they'll be cooks, or artists, and nobody can take that away from them.
The illusion is spoiled sometimes, because Roxas is greeted enthusiastically in those shops now, because he's been in there so many times with Axel, finding the only brush thin enough to paint dewdrops, or paint the exact colour of the sky before a storm. And Axel picks him up at work so much, with papercuts and burns from lighters littering his hands (because Axel fumbles when his fingers are cold, and they always are) that he gets little blue bandages too. So they match. Roxas has a splash of green behind his ear from Axel's triumphant final stroke, and the base Axel's ring finger is wrapped in blue, because he cut it somehow trying to shave. But it's okay, really. Because Roxas wouldn't want to be in any bubble where Axel isn't there.
With difficulty, Roxas focuses again. 'Right. Oregano.' He's sure they have any. It's possible he used it all making that delicious chicken thing last time Demyx and Zexion came for dinner. Oh, how he wishes Dem was coming tonight. He's so nice about food...it soothes Roxas' bruised ego after every grilling (ha, kitchen humour) by Cloud to ring up his other brother and let Demyx invite himself over. Come to think of it, why does everybody constantly come to his house to eat? Are they poor or something? Takeout menus aren't caviar, stupid family. Roxas isn't even sure he's seen Demyx and Zexion's new apartment, let alone Sora's. They're meant to be best friends, for God's sake! He cooks enough at work! It's not like he constantly asks Riku for diagnoses...
Oh. Wait. He does do that.
Well, fair enough then.
Axel, sensing perhaps that Roxas has begun to think of food and family, rather than possible fun with him, begins to speak again. Sadly, it's not seductive at all. Actually, it's all a bit surreal.
"Hey, Roxas. Together we make orange."
"What?" Roxas says, momentarily distracted by the bizarreness of what his boyfriend has just said.
"Jeez, Roxas. This is basic stuff. Blue plus yellow equals green. Red plus blue equals purple." Roxas honestly has no idea where this is going, but that's okay because Axel makes gigantic leaps of conversation every day. It's like in his world, he carried on speaking, when he was really only just thinking, and so it makes perfect sense to him when he goes from talking about his favourite band to what he'd do in a zombie apocalypse. Or from Roxas' hair to his primary school experiences.
"And red plus yellow equals orange. Got it memorised?"
Roxas smiles, because he now vaguely understands what Axel was on about, and it's actually sort of sweet. In an Axel way.
There is a beat of silence and then:
"Ew, Rox, our kids will be ginger!"
It's Roxas' turn to laugh, because it's one of those times where Axel's thoughts have closed their eyes, crossed their fingers and leapt through his mouth before he's paid attention to them. Roxas likes to think his laugh is like Axel's, but he knows it isn't. To his dismay, Axel rumbles like the thunder, often, deep, beautiful and unique every time. Roxas is more the lightning, his laugh sharp and often hurtful, though Axel says it lights up the sky.
"In case you haven't noticed, Ax, we're men. And, surprisingly, men don't have children."
Unfortunately for Roxas, Axel seems to be giving this some real consideration. This is almost always a bad sign. It means that rather than discarding the conversation alongside the infamous 'If Pinocchio says 'I never tell the truth,' does his nose grow?' and 'I wonder what happens if you put ham in a toaster?' discussions between the two of them, he's going to come up with an answer to this. Roxas hums low in his throat, locates the oregano in the cupboard above his head, and awaits the inevitable.
"Okay, but say I had this sister-"
"I don't like where this is going..." interrupts Roxas.
"Shut up. It gets better," Axel interrupts in turn, tousling Roxas' hair with the hand still buried in the soft blonde locks. Roxas scowls, but lets him continue.
"So, you get my sister knocked up. Because you're drunk and she looks exactly like me. She's my identical, evil twin."
"Why is she evil?"
"Because she seduced you away from me."
"I thought I was drunk?" Roxas can't quite believe he is indulging Axel's flair for the dramatic, but he humours his boyfriend all the same.
"AND THEN," Axel says, pitching his voice loud to drown out Roxas questions. Roxas bends his head and adds some oregano to his sauce, stirring the tomatoes and trying not to laugh.
"Nine months later...the evil ginger baby is born!" Roxas can feel Axel's dramatic shudder through his back, and grins, reaching one hand over his shoulder to ruffle Axel's hair. It appeared that his arms are shorter today than yesterday, and Roxas' fingers slip down the side of his face instead. His fingertips bump over the high ridge of Axel's cheekbone, slide down the sharp line of his jaw, and his hand cups his face momentarily, before reaching up again to brush over his eyelids and up onto his forehead, knocking aside artfully arranged clumps of scarlet hair. His hands stay there for a moment at Axel's temple. Axel is too tall for him to bury his hand in his hair, so he satisfies himself by trailing one finger down the side of Axel's face, swirling it around his ear, and finally scooping his hand around the back of Axel's slim neck.
Roxas loves the feeling of mapping Axel's face. All the features he sees every day are stretched out under his fingers, showing him things he's never caught with his eyes: the slight creases by Axel's eyes that comes from laughter, the hollow dip in his cheeks that mean he's been too busy at work to eat, and the gentle bump on the side of his head, that tells Roxas that his boyfriend forgot to duck under the doorframe to get into the kitchen.
"I promise not to be seduced by your imaginary sister," Roxas says briskly as hand curls back around to the front of Axel and is then returned to its proper place by his side. "Now go away; I need to find the olives."
Roxas moved his head languidly from side to side to dislodge Axel's hand. He wasn't going to relinquish Axel's hand lightly, but olives were essential to his Sauce Plan. And if the Sauce Plan all went to plan, then maybe Cloud wouldn't be such a whiny bitch the next time he came around. He could already hear his voice: 'Oh, Roxas, the lamb with rosemary you made last week was delicious...apart from the new potatoes. They were a bit hard, wouldn't you say Leon?' And then they would do that smirk at each other, the one Roxas is never sure of the meaning of. Some days, he could kill Cloud. He really could.
Axel skulks back to his chair. He's sulking again, and Roxas still doesn't understand why he doesn't just go to the damn living room and watch TV. There is plenty of good stuff on TV. Or on the internet. Or he could even go and stare at himself in the mirror for half an hour. God knows he does it for long enough in the morning. But no, Axel is still slouched in his chair, pissed that Roxas actually doesn't want to discuss his imaginary sister and their ginger babies anymore.
"You're so mean to me Roxas. What have I ever done to you?"
"You nearly burned down my kitchen," mumbles Roxas, opening and shutting cupboards with the air of somebody who had better find the olives soon, or they were going to rip out the sink. His hands alight on some at the back of the fridge, and he wonders why he checked the cupboards first, when he knew that they were somewhere in the fridge. This is one of the many reasons that Axel is not allowed in the kitchen. The other is that he cannot work the oven.
"That was ONE TIME!" Axel explodes, standing up out of his chair so that it falls backwards onto the ground. He's not really all that angry, Roxas can tell, just annoyed that Roxas has used that card on him again. It's actually a pretty cheap shot, since it was Valentine's Day and Axel was trying to do something nice. But it still wasn't fun to come home to an abashed Axel standing outside the charred remnants of your beloved kitchen, after you've spent all day cooking for and waiting on couples who do nothing but gaze into each others eyes all night. Roxas is sure he and Axel never did anything of the sort.
Roxas straightens his apron, attempting to regain some semblance of a businesslike manner. This fails, of course, due to the fact that Axel bought him the apron. It says 'KISS THE COOK' in bold black letters on the front, and Axel obeys the apron far too often to be practical. Thank God Axel didn't work in his kitchen. Nobody would get fed.
Roxas twists open the jar of oregano with one skilled hand. Axel got him beautiful spice jars, filled with things ranging from common to very expensive, for their first dating anniversary. Roxas has no idea how much they cost, but he doesn't worry all too much, because Axel might not be famous, but his paintings are good. They sell for good money. And Roxas is so grateful for the spices on these Cloud dinners, that he doesn't particularly care where they've come from. They could be smuggled in illegally by snails with shells stuffed with coriander and paprika for all he cares.
Roxas can hear Axel's intake of breath. The one deep, heaving one that means he's about to say something very stupid, very quickly. Roxas pours some of the oregano into his palm and shakes it evenly over the surface of his sauce, watching it sink into the tomato and basil base as he says, "Axel, if you distract me again, you will have to tell Cloud why there is no food."
Axel's mouth shuts with an audible click, and Roxas thinks, 'Huh. This is new.' Then he realises, and it's so ridiculous that he laughs a little bit, an embarassingly Riku-like chuckle that reverberates around the kitchen with dark amusement. Roxas coughs quickly to rid his voicebox of whatever affliction that has made him sound like Sora's doctor boyfriend. It's a bit scary, if he's honest, that he could sound like Riku. To distract Axel (he doesn't want any anecdotes on this one, thank you very much) he says accusingly,
"You're afraid of Cloud!"
Axel yelps and tries his own distraction, which can only mean its true, otherwise he would have shot the idea to pieces by now.
"Oh no! Roxas! I can smell the pasta burning!"
Roxas turns to him, eyebrow raised. Axel shrinks back a bit at the look, reading in Roxas' eyes that what he's said has been categorised as 'complete bollocks'.
"Axel. You cannot smell the pasta burning." Roxas waves a hand at the spaghetti simmering happily in a pan to his left.
"Oh," Axel says weakly, as Roxas returns his attention to his cooking, shaking his head slightly from disbelief and amusement.
"It's only when he's hungry, you know."
"Only what?" Roxas says absently as he produces his chopping board and begins to slice his olives in quick, precise strokes.
"Scary Cloud only comes out when he's hungry," Axel expands, doubtless waving his arms about to underline his point. Roxas can see Axel in his mind's eye, trying in vain to convince the blonde he's telling the truth, whatever miraculous story he's cooked up this time. He always has the same expression when he's storytelling. Roxas calls it that because he knows that Axel doesn't lie. He's not sure why, but he has the impression it's something to do with Axel's parents.
It's normally something to do with the parents.
"Shut up, Axel," says Roxas kindly, sparing Axel the embarrassment of having to keep arguing his case. At least this way, Axel won't feel like an idiot later on, when Cloud actually appears. Axel is a world master at digging himself into a hole, and sadly Roxas is normally the one standing there holding the ladder. Roxas dips the wooden spoon into his sauce and begins to stir, thoughtfully. He's wondering if he can trust Axel to try the sauce like a normal person, and not attempt to paint stripes on Roxas' face with the spoon, or 'accidentally' fling sauce all over his kitchen. But Roxas is surprisingly insecure about his cooking, and though he knows Axel will just say nothing if he hates it, Roxas can tell by his face when he's hiding something. He gets little furrows in his forehead, and he's always looking to the left, on the floor. Normally the left, because sometimes when it's to the right, he actually is interested in the floor tiles and their pattern and wondering if he has the paint that's the right shade if he wants to paint a portrait of Roxas cooking. The same portrait hanging proudly in their hallway. Roxas makes his decision.
Holding out the spoon, he motion Axel to come and try it. Axel's face lights up, because Roxas hasn't made many mistakes these last months, and often his food is very nice. Roxas isn't sure exactly how Axel is so skinny and yet such a food lover, but like with most things concerning Axel, it's likely to be wonderfully bizarre and bordering on illegal. Axel reaches him quickly, due to his ridiculous long legs. When they sit down, Roxas isn't really all that much shorter than Axel, but standing up, the difference is much more noticeable.
Axel's hand curls gently but eagerly over his on the spoon. They're cold, and Roxas shivers almost involuntarily. He loves the feel of Axel's skin against his own: he's felt Axel's face, his arms, his hands a million times, but surely it can't hurt to just stay with his hands on him forever. Roxas shakes his thoughts forward again. This is what Axel being close does to him. Axel's mouth quirks up at the corner.
He knows exactly what he's doing.
Finally, Axel sticks the damn spoon in his mouth. His red eyebrows arch upwards in surprise and appreciation. Roxas smiles triumphantly, hoping that the food will be just perfect this time. Of course, according to him, his food is always perfect. Its Cloud who has the same problem.
Axel finishes sampling his sauce, and allows Roxas to regain control. There's still a few thick drops on it.
"It's good," Axel murmurs, and Roxas realises just how close they are as Axel drops his forehead onto Roxas'. Roxas swallows and looks deep into Axel's green eyes. They're so rarely on his level, so he doesn't gets to stare in them as much as he likes, as Axel gets to study his eyes. So he takes this opportunity to memorise the shape of the pupil, how unnaturally red and dark his eyelashes are, and of course, the bright, beautiful green of his iris. Roxas feels that he could draw Axel's eyes from memory now, if he could draw at all.
"Taste it," Axel says mischievously, and captures Roxas' lips in a kiss.
It's soft and loving, and Roxas can taste the olives and tomatoes on Axel's mouth. There's a hint of garlic too. Good. Roxas can feel his body sagging against Axel as he brings his arms up around his neck, the tension of the last few hours finally letting him go. The food doesn't matter, because Axel is here and he will keep him safe from stupid food critics. This is what he needs at work, something to stop his from having a goddamn nervous breakdown at the lunch rush. He could keep Axel in his own little corner, and he could kiss him whenever he felt too stressed. All Axel needed was some pencils and paper and he'd be happy for hours... The sauce drips onto the floor in soft wet splashes, and Roxas doesn't care.
There's a click miles away, and someplace that doesn't matter, a door swings open.
Cloud clears his throat as Axel reluctantly breaks their embrace. Roxas peers over Axel's bony shoulder to see an amused Leon and a hungry Cloud looking on.
"We brought wine," comments Leon 'helpfully', holding up a bottle of red.
Fin~