A/N: So. This is a sequel. To a fanfiction that was published exactly three years ago today. I didn't really intend to wait three years, or to publish it on the same day of the same month for that matter, but it is what it is. This is the sequel to my fic Aquarius, but you don't necessarily need to have read it to get this one. But you should go read it anyway, it's one of my favorites ^-^
Warnings: Gay and some swearing.
Vampires vs Zombies
"Roxas, meet Hester. Hester, Roxas."
"You've got to be kidding me." Roxas stared disbelievingly at the junker before him. Axel actually drove this piece of crap? This thing didn't look like its doors would open for all the rust much, much less like it could run. Axel grinned back at the blonde's look of vague horror.
"I know what you're thinking, and yes, he runs. He's been through some tough times, but he's a stubborn bastard who just won't quit."
"Um, yeah…" Roxas scratched his arm uncomfortably. This rust bucketreally didn't look safe Axel looked and noticed the blonde shuffling slowly away from the truck.
"Come on, underclassman, don't be a wuss."
At this Roxas bristled and took a step toward the vehicle with (feigned courage). Axel grinned and wrenched the passenger-side door open revealing a ripped brown leather seat upon which sat a rather abused-looking boom box. Axel removed the CD player and stepped aside, allowing Roxas to slide cautiously in and slammed the door shut.
Roxas took a deep breath and looked around himself. The dashboard was scuffed, dirty, and covered in what appeared to be burns. It smelled strongly of smoke and old leather. Now that Roxas was inside the beat up truck he felt much calmer. The cabin was warm and the seats were soft. Then Axel climbed in on the driver's side.
"Sorry," he said, reaching into his jacket pocket for a ridiculously numerous set of keys. "I had to strap the boom box down. As you may have noticed, Hester's getting up in years, doesn't have a cassette deck, CD player, power anything, so I make due. He's reliable though, and I love him."
Axel nuzzled the steering wheel as he threw Hester into gear. The truck coughed and shuddered and spat smoke into the parking lot and groaned as Axel pulled out of his space. Roxas quickly buckled his seat belt and held on for dear life.
Once they were out on the open road and the windows were rolled down (manually, of course) and the radio was on Roxas felt rather at ease. He glanced over at Axel, who was busy tapping the rhythm of a Disturbed song on the steering wheel, and smiled. He didn't usually do this—y'know, go home with random guys he just met this morning…even if the guy was really tall and lanky with sexy hair and surprisingly elegant hands and had good taste in music if his Slayer t-shirt was anything to go by…
"SO—" Axel said, cutting into Roxas' thoughts, "you seem slightly less terrified now. If the fact that you've released your stranglehold on the seatbelt is anything to go by."
Roxas narrowed his eyes at the snarky driver of the Pickup Truck from Hell and let himself sink further into his seat. Axel looked over at him again and smiled.
"Aw, don't feel bad, kid. Demyx—he's my best friend—felt the same way the first time I drove him , and now he and Hester are lovers," Axel said in what Roxas was sure he felt to be a reassuring manner. Roxas just snorted.
"Poor Zexion, spurned for this hunk of junk."
Axel nearly swerved off the road in shock.
"Gasp! (Yes, he said gasp) How do you know Emo Pants?"
"Because I know Demyx."
"How do you know Demmy?"
"He's my brother's lab partner in Forensics. He's at the house all the time do the reports."
Axel's brain whirred unhappily a few times before it clicked.
"Oooooh, you're Sora's brother!"
"Yeah."
Axel looked the little blonde over anew.
"I can totally see that. You guys are twins, aren't you? I think Dem mentioned a twin when he showed me the kid's picture…"
Roxas huffed.
"Yeah, we're twins." He was really tired of people comparing him to Sora. 'Wow, you look just like Sora!' 'You're Sora's brother, right? He's so nice.' 'Why can't you be nicer, like Sora?' Drove him nuts.
"I'm gonna kill Demyx!"
Roxas' brows knit in confusion.
"What? Why?"
"Because even though he spent all that time at your house and mentioned that Sora's brother was 'nice', he never told me how hot you are or how awesome you are or how cute your butt is!" Axel cried, voice escalating in volume as he progressed through his rant. By the end of this declaration Roxas' face was very red both from barely contained laughter and from extreme (flattery). He was quite pleased, however, when he looked over and saw that Axel too was looking very red-faced and abashed.
Soon enough they were turning onto the driveway of a small house in a quiet, secluded neighborhood. The house was white with black shudders and a black door. A giant tree in the middle of the lawn cast a shadow over the house on what Roxas suspected to be a constant basis. But what really caught the blonde's attention were the flames painted on the mailbox.
"Home, sweet home," Axel said cheerily as he put Hester in park.
Axel led Roxas to the side door located in the carport, the floor of which was covered with scorch marks. Roxas quirked a questioning eyebrow at the older boy as he fumbled with the locked door. Axel grinned sheepishly.
"Yeah, I'm kind of a pyromaniac." Roxas' other eyebrow joined the first. "Well, not actually," Axel amended, still trying fruitlessly to unlock the door. "I don't have actual pyromania, like, the mental disorder—those guys tend to grow up to be rapists—but I really, um, I just have this …thing…with fire. Yeah."
Roxas just smirked at the flustered redhead as he finally managed to get the door open. Axel just huffed and said, "Shut up, Blondie", ushering the younger boy inside to the kitchen.
Inside Axel's house was not at all like Roxas was expecting; while it was vaguely cluttered, it was still very clean and it was…surprisingly cheery. It was yellow for God's sake.
Axel smiled at the boy's disillusionment.
"Cute ain't it? My mom's a very happy person. I swear, my parts of the house are less…yellow."
Roxas scrunched up his nose in mock disgust and Axel almost squealed at how cute he was.
"I sure hope so. All this happiness is giving me a headache," the blonde said jokingly.
Axel opened the basement door and gestured for Roxas to go first.
Axel flipped on the lights as the pair of them headed downstairs. The sight before Roxas' eyes was much more characteristic of what he thought Axel's home would look like: it was dark, the walls covered in wood paneling; the small couch against the wall looked like it may have at one time sported a floral print, but was now covered in black scribbles (presumably from the same Sharpie Axel used to vandalize school property); beer and soda cans littered the floor along with cigarette butts and empty MacDonald's bags; in front of the large out of date TV sat a few game consoles and the fridge beside it was covered in more Sharpie art; there was a bar that now served as a junk table beside the stairs.
Axel walked (or rather climbed for all the crap in his way) behind the bar and fiddled with something on the countertop.
A string of previously unseen Christmas lights lit the room with an almost eerie red glow.
"So, what d'ya think?"
"Hm" was Roxas' noncommittal response as he cleared himself a spot on the couch and sat down. It was surprisingly comfy.
Axel sauntered over to a set of shelves mounted on the wall and began searching through DVDs in the dim crimson light. He selected three and went to the fridge.
"You want something to drink? I got orange soda, water, coke, bud light, and…something pink and of a questionable viscosity in a pitcher."
Roxas smirked.
"You know I'm underage, right?"
"Yup."
"Then grab me a beer. Anything to numb the pain of crappy zombie movies."
"And on that note," Axel said, tossing a can to Roxas, "for your viewing pleasure tonight we have Dawn of the Dead, the remake, Day of the Dead, and Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave. All are totally awesome."
"This better not be a waste of my time," Roxas said, sipping his beer rather contentedly.
"Oh, I promise, Blondie. I'll make it worth your while."
And just like that Roxas was blushing again. How did this guy keep doing this to him? What sort of horrible power was it that he had over him? Or that's right. The power to manipulate his overeager teenaged libido. Well then.
The redhead popped the disc in and sat down next to Roxas on the couch, close enough that they weren't touching….but they could if they wanted to.
Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave opened on the illegal sale of a vat of Russian zombie-toxin. Roxas snorted, but tried to keep an open mind. After forty-five minutes of zombies slaughtering a disgusting number of doped-up, half-naked party girls, Roxas could stand no more. However when he looked over to ask Axel what the flying fuck, the senior looked positively enthralled. He had a retarded grin on his face and his eyes were freaking glued to the screen.
"You seriously enjoy this shit?" Roxas asked disbelievingly.
Axel pried his eyes from the screen with what looked like a great deal of force and grinned.
"Oh, come on! It's great. Do you see all that blood? All that nudity? What more could you ask for?"
"Um, a plot?"
"Psh, over-rated."
"Fewer boobs?"
"But that's like the BEST PART!"
"Not if you're gay, it isn't," Roxas muttered.
"Oh, well….maybe you just need another beer!" Axel said happily, getting up and moving toward the fridge. Roxas quirked an eyebrow.
"I've already had two. You trying to get me drunk?"
Axel appeared to really think about this for a moment, but then he shrugged his shoulders.
"Maybe. It'll probably make you enjoy the movie more and….."
Roxas took a deep breath.
"And…."
"Do you mind if I smoke?" Axel asked, leaving the implications of his words half dead and scrambling for purchase on reality.
Roxas frowned and wrinkled his nose.
"If I come home smelling like an ashtray, my mom will get pissed and probably wanna smell my breath. Which would be bad."
"Right."
"Right," Roxas echoed.
They sat in silence, Axel with two beers in hand and neither of them looking at one another. They both shifted uncomfortably, feeling the stifling anxiety of awkwardness. After a moment Roxas broke the tension.
"I'll take that beer."
Axel handed it to him, letting his fingers brush Roxas' before moving to the TV. He popped the DVD out of his PS2 and put a new one in.
Roxas' brow furrowed.
"I thought the whole point of the third beer was to make that particular movie more bearable?"
Axel grabbed the controller and plopped back down on the couch with another beer for himself. Roxas couldn't help but notice that this time he sat just a fraction closer and now their knees were touching. Axel just shrugged again.
"The "whole point", Blondie, is to turn you over to the dark side of the zombie way. Dawn of the Dead is much better. Waaaay more legit."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Roxas said, twisting the tab off his can.
Axel stuck his tongue out at Roxas as he skipped the previews and went straight to the menu. Roxas was vaguely aware that the movie had begun and there was a hospital on the screen, but he was preoccupied with thoughts of what that tongue would feel like in his mouth. The blonde was suddenly grateful for the rosy hue of the lights because he could feel his cheeks heating up.
And as a young blonde girl devoured her father rather convincingly, Roxas found himself wondering again what he was doing. What possessed him to go home with some guy he just met to watch zombie movies of all things? And when he thought about his previous answers and found them all just not quite right, he realized he was asking the wrong person.
"Hey, Axel?" he queried, picking absently at a rip in his jeans.
"Hm?" And it was amazing how green Axel's eyes managed to look in such off lighting.
Roxas' head was beginning to swim and he was just a little too warm.
"Why….did you bring me here?"
Axel's too-green eyes widened a little and he paused the movie, pulling a leg up onto the couch and turning fully toward his companion.
"Well. You're hot. You've got good taste in music and you're, I dunno, witty or something. And I liked having you in my lap."
Roxas wasn't sure whether that was a good answer or not.
Axel rubbed nervously and the back of his neck.
"And, y'know, I wanna get to know you better."
Later Roxas would blame it on the beer and delirium, but now he was just awash with an unfamiliar and oddly comfortable feeling as he leaned up and placed a warm kiss on Axel's cheek.
Axel sucked in a long breath and touched the spot before letting it out slowly and grinning, reaching over and ruffling the blonde's spiky hair.
For the rest of the movie they sat in an amicable silence, quietly reveling in the lack of space between them.
Eighty-five minutes, two armored buses and one zombie baby later, the credits rolled and Axel stretched his long arms over his head with a theatrical yawn, bringing a hand to rest on Roxas' shoulder. Roxas rolled his eyes but smiled indulgently, scooting close enough to lay his head on Axel's bony shoulder and trying not to think too hard about how natural this felt. After a while it seemed that Axel just couldn't contain himself any longer.
"So, what'd ya think? Zombies all the way right? Waaay cooler than vampires. Not that there's anything wrong with vampires, there just not very…entertaining. So, come one, what's the verdict, Blondie?"
"Well…" Roxas' pause was unnecessarily long. He could feel the redhead squirming eagerly next to him. "It was okay."
"Oh, come on, kid."
Roxas huffed a laugh.
"Okay, um. Well, that first one was just retarded. First of all, really really stupid, and then it wasn't even a good movie, okay. Just terrible. But Dawn of the Dead was…decent. I'd almost go so far as to say good. Almost. The blood was great, it had a decent plot, the zombies were actually pretty threatening. The zombie baby was a bit much. Well, no, keep the zombie baby, that was cool. Still not as good as vampires."
"What?" Axel said, outraged.
"Okay, so zombies and vampires: both undead, both want to eat you. The difference: a vampire is still smart. They have reasoning skills, they can trick you, trap you! All a zombie can do is run at you blindly on its one remaining leg!"
"Yeah, but you can't seduce a zombie into sparing you!"
Roxas smirked and quirked an eyebrow.
"I could."
Axel's stared at Roxas in disbelief before conceding, "You know, I bet you could."
For a moment they just stared at each other, quietly reveling in the atmosphere, wrapped up in the simplicity of this…thing they had going. And then Roxas' pocket buzzed. Groaning, he pulled it out and flipped it open, screen spreading an angelic blue light over his face. Axel's breath stuttered in his lungs.
"Fuck. I gotta go home. Can you drive me, or should I call somebody?"
There was a pause during which vibrant green eyes watched him intently.
"I'll drive you home…if you let me walk you to your door."
Roxas let out a short bark of incredulous laughter.
"You want to walk me to my door?"
"Yup."
Roxas gave it some thought.
"Yeah, okay."
He didn't say anything as he got up and fished out his keys, but Axel was cheering on the inside. He was so gonna kiss this kid good night.
End.
A/N: So should I continue writing fanfiction? Or just leave it at this? Also, if I do keep writing, do you guys want to see more of this universe? Please review!