Warnings: Shonen-ai, intense fluffiness and cliche'dness.
Comes in Threes
The air was muggy, as musty as a busy city could get, and every breeze smelled of gasoline and approaching, poisonous rain. Roxas hated the rain.
That was the only reason why he was rushing home in the early evening traffic. Of course, driving through at speeds he shouldn't was just begging for a collision, and a collision there was, with a slick red firebird.
The firebird rammed into the passenger side of the car and shoved him a few metres down the road, leaving a nice dent in the car itself, but Roxas was unharmed. Once he got the airbag under control, he stepped out of his vehicle to check on the owner of the second car, running over and tapping on the window.
The redhead in the driver's seat seemed shocked, pawing at the airbag frantically with wide eyes. When Roxas tapped on the window, the man jumped, and then hurried out of the car as quickly as possible.
"Oh god, are you okay? I totally didn't mean to—well, that's beside the point, but—you're not hurt, are you?"
Roxas wanted to laugh. "C-calm down, I'm fine. There's no one else in the car with me, and you hit the passenger door, so…"
"OH hellfire, look at the damage!" The redhead panicked, clenching at his hair with fists, green eyes wider than ever. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."
Roxas noticed the tattoos under the man's eyes, and wondered how drunk he was when he got them.
"It's—it's fine, I don't need money or anything, I'm rich enough as it is," Roxas attempted to reassure the frantic man.
Said man paused and looked at Roxas warily. "You mean… you're not suing me or anything?"
"Nah, I got awesome insurance anyways." The blond glanced at the other man's car, the red firebird, and noted that there was minimal damage to it, simply a few dents in the fender and some serious scratches in the paint. Nothing to worry about.
"Then… then, can I at least buy you dinner?"
"What?" Roxas was startled out of his detached train of thought.
"C'mon, please? My guilty conscience will be bugging me for ages if I don't do something to make it up to you."
Roxas pondered this. Well, a restaurant was out of the approaching rain, and there wasn't really anything more than laundry waiting for him at home, so why not?
"Uh… fine. Okay. Just let me attempt to drive this home, I don't want it gaining any more damage before I get it fixed."
And so Roxas climbed into his car, and the nameless man into his, and they headed for Roxas's apartment building.
Once Roxas's Honda was parked, he hopped into the passenger seat of the firebird, taking a moment to admire the interior and appreciate the good taste in music before saying, "I don't even know your name."
"Well, I don't know yours, either."
"…Roxas."
"Roxas? Oh, that has so many nickname possibilities." Roxas glared at him, but the man ignored it in favour of introducing himself. "I'm Axel. A-X-E-L, got it memorized?"
"Sure."
"Good."
They drove in silence for a few minutes.
"…Where are we going, anyways?"
"McDonalds."
"…No, really. Where are we going?"
"How do you know we aren't really going to McDonalds?"
"We just passed one two blocks ago."
"…Oh. You're smart. Okay, I know of this hidden little restaurant-slash-bar place called Seventh Heaven—nicest fries and burgers in the city. Serious."
"I've never heard of it, but okay." Roxas leaned back in his seat, content to let the lights flash by, leaving streaks and dots on his eyes which he had to close to get rid of.
Seventh Heaven was quite lively, a dark atmosphere brought on by the black walls countered by how friendly and welcoming the people were. Some called Axel by name, and the redhead waved in acknowledgement, but never left Roxas alone. The man had placed a hand on the younger's shoulder to direct him in the proper direction, a table near the back next to a grimy window.
A busty lady named Tifa came and took their orders—no alcohol, Axel ordered malts for both of them. This Roxas found surprising, because Axel just looked like the kind of person who would be drunk off his ass but still looking sober.
The malts were delicious.
Roxas took one of his fries and dipped it into the malt before eating it, which caused Axel to burst out in questions on what it tasted like before eventually trying it himself.
French fries plus ice cream equals deliciousness.
Or, well, that's how Axel described it.
More often than not Roxas had a detached, worry-free way of looking at the world. He had more money than need-be, which erased most of the every-day worries, he had a good, if not boring job at a clothing design shop (also known as the RK Tailor's, because Roxas shared the shop with a redhead named Kairi), and his friends knew him for who he was—laid-back, quiet, and usually very solitary.
With Axel, things were interesting. The man came up with some pretty bad jokes, including the one about the chicken crossing the road. On top of that there were constant questions, whether about Roxas or about food.
Another thing Roxas noticed about the man was that he never really sat still. He was always gesturing with his hands, or tapping Roxas on the shoulder or arm to get his attention—not that he needed to, Roxas was enraptured.
And the most amusing thing was that when the topic strayed to something depressing or too personal for a first-dinner, Axel immediately struck up conversation with a random piece of information; "Did you know that lightning is sixteen times hotter than the surface of the sun?"
Roxas, in all honesty, had a good time, and was a little disappointed when Axel dropped him off at his apartment once the night was over.
"I'll take you out for dinner again sometime," the redhead declared, not leaving room for argument, and the blond smiled.
"Sure," he agreed, kidnapping the man's phone and programming his number into it. "There. See you next time."
Roxas waved, and the firebird was gone.
The second dinner, two nights later, was just as fun as the first. The two ended up wandering down into a nice quiet park not a block away from Seventh Heaven, letting their stomachs digest and listening to the other's stories.
Roxas was telling Axel of Kairi. "I dunno what to make of her. One minute she's a mother hen, the next she's flirting with me. I'm pretty sure she just wants me to be someone else—she's always talking about my brother Sora, but Sora is gay and dating Riku." Roxas sighed, almost wanting to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.
"I know someone like that. Her name's Larxene; I keep thinking she wants to kill me, but then she goes and tries to come on to me." Axel shook his head, "girls."
It was that conversation that convinced Roxas that Axel was gay (he'd seen pictures of Larxene—she was a model—and she was sexy) and that same conversation told Axel that Roxas wasn't all too straight either. Kairi happened to be Axel's cousin.
"I like to think of myself as a genie of sorts. Only giving in threes." It was only a sorry excuse to take the blond out for dinner again, though. Axel leaned out of the window of his firebird, attempting to entice Roxas to another dinner date (though they never called them that).
"You just want to buy me dinner again," Roxas hit the nail on the head with a smirk and hopped into the passenger seat. "My life never comes in threes," he said.
"Well, then, this is a chance for the threes to emerge."
It was, in thought, quite a strange rule, to only do or give things in threes. Roxas believed that Axel meant this was their last dinner together, and definitely didn't want that. The redhead was too fun, and a cool person altogether.
After Seventh Heaven, Roxas suggested he show Axel the tailoring shop. It had long since been revealed that Axel was related to Kairi, but Kairi'd never shown him the shop itself, only talked about it.
The place was different in the dark, pedestals and people-shaped models wearing clothes creeping around the place like frozen ghosts, headless or without limbs, in lack of something important as life.
Roxas turned on a few of the lights in the back of the store; not wanting to turn on all the lights, because then people would think that they were in business.
"Kairi comes up with most of the designs," Roxas explained, seating himself on the counter, "I just pull them from paper to cloth and sew it all together. 'Sides, the shop mostly targets girls anyways, so there's no point in me designing anything."
"You don't want to design anything?" Axel looked slowly around the room, taking in each pattern and style of clothing on display.
"No, not really. I don't have the kind of inspiration Kairi does."
Axel looked at the blond, who was buried in a slightly oversized hoodie. He took a few steps towards him. "I'm sure I could come up with some designs for guys," he said.
"Really?" Roxas looked up at him, surprised and very aware of how their business would boom if they had designs for guys as well. "But… wait. What is your job?"
"I'm currently a very bad telemarketer," Axel told him, swaying closer to the counter and placing a hand next to Roxas's thigh.
"You're hired," Roxas grinned.
Axel, caught up in the moment, kissed Roxas on the lips—and backed up immediately. "I'm sorry, I—uh…"
"Hey, Axel," Roxas looked to his left, and then made eye-contact. "You only do things in threes, right? I guess I'll buy dinner next time, then."
Axel was altogether stunned at the boy's cool attitude, but with a closer look he noticed Roxas was shaking slightly, his breathing irregular from nerves.
"Right, I only do things in threes." Axel stepped closer again, this time placing both hands on either side of Roxas, kissing him twice more.
"You had better damn well drop that rule or you will be very deprived," Roxas muttered.
Axel just kissed him a fourth time.
Three weeks later, Axel and Roxas closed up shop, Kairi having gone home early (the constant teasing of that girl had gotten to the point of serious annoyance—apparently, she'd always know that Roxas, Sora, AND Axel were gay, even though they hadn't spoken a word of it to her).
As the two males flicked most of the lights off, Roxas paused and looked outside.
"Hey Axel," Roxas said, same way he did on the third dinner date. "Remember the rule of threes?"
Axel chuckled. "You know I only said that to try and convince you to have dinner with me again, right?"
"Well yeah, it was a little obvious, but…"
"But?"
"…Does this mean we'll get three lifetimes together?"
Axel was touched, and couldn't help the fluttering in his chest as he smiled and wrapped the boy in his arms. "Of course, Roxy. Three lifetimes it is." He kissed the shorter boy's temple softly.
A/N: OHMYGOODNESS fluff all around. Spent my entire morning writing this, so it's bound to be messy. But I had the actual idea in my head for quite a while.
And happy birthday to dearest Ocean, though she'll probably never find this. Her b-day was the 18th, she's now sixteen!
We had a helluva time at the movies, but I ate too much sugar and was sick afterwards. I also haven't moved from my bed since I woke up, so I'll go shower now.
Ministory dedicated to the beloved Ocean and beautiful Micah.
Sarii