Title: Always
Pairing: Roxas/Axel
Rating: PG-13 for swearing and underage drinking
Wordcount: 2100
Betas: binchan and alovelysilence
Warnings: Fluff, language, fanboys, swearing, alcohol consumption by a minor
A/N: written for theplumtomato
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters within, and neither do I own the rights to any songs or artists mentioned.
Summary: Nerdy boys are adorable. The end.
If there was one thing Roxas knew he could count on, it was Axel.
Now, if you were just meeting Axel and this bit of information was relayed to you, you might think Roxas was a bit touched in the head. To the casual observer, Axel was a figure that thrived on chaos and borderline insanity; he was flighty, argumentative, sly, and manipulative, all characteristics that were almost immediately obvious within ten or fifteen minutes of Axel introducing himself. Axel was the kind of person who challenged you to a drinking contest but somehow convinced you to buy him drinks for the rest of the night; he fast-talked his way out of at least five speeding tickets – in the last year; one minute he was your best buddy, the next he was ratting you out to the guy you were trash-talking just a bit ago. All of Axel's friends from college recognized this – they were the ones who didn't give a shit about his antics and had fun with him all the same.
Roxas was a different case entirely. He grew up with Axel, and despite their three-year age difference they were the best of friends; they were comrades, partners in crime, brothers from other mothers – all of the above. As life-long next-door neighbors, they spent nearly all their spare time together playing in sandboxes, riding bikes up and down their cul-de-sac, playing one-on-one street hockey or video games, and sometimes even homework. As they both got older, Axel started hanging out with other kids in his class – but he always came back to hang out with Roxas. Always.
Roxas couldn't remember a time when he didn't know Axel; he distinctly remembered playing with the redhead as a very small child, and despite all of Axel's flightiness and the chaotic personality that developed as he got older, Axel was the one human being Roxas thought he could count on in the whole world.
None of this ever really changed, not even throughout their schooling. Axel was always there to walk Roxas to bus stops or give him a ride (after Axel got his license, anyway) – and being friends with an upperclassman didn't hurt either. After his first couple growth spurts, Axel stood ridiculously tall and was a bit intimidating to other students; but Roxas just grabbed hold of Axel's backpack and let the redhead shove his way through the congested hallways, making way for both of them. When Axel went away to college, the adjustment was hard on both of them. Still, things didn't really change that much for either of them.
The first time Axel came home from college during fall break, Roxas nearly jumped him. It was immediately clear to Roxas that the redhead had started to change – made obvious by the brand-fucking-new tattoos etched over his high cheekbones – but he could tell it was still his Axel. Every time Axel came home, that simple idea was reinforced: no matter what Axel tattooed or pierced, no matter what colorful, alcohol-driven stories he brought home, he was still the same Axel who taught Roxas how to ride a tricycle and later a bicycle.
Furthermore, he was still the same Axel who improvised drinking games for them to play while watching the Harry Potter movies.
Axel was finishing up his junior year of college when Roxas graduated from high school; the redhead was locked in a Spanish exam when Roxas received his diploma, which in Axel's mind was a fucking travesty (he'd been devising plans for nearly a year to lovingly embarrass Roxas during the ceremony in some way) but Roxas flat-out refused to be the reason Axel failed the class, so that was that. A few blurry days after his graduation and the ensuing raucous party Axel showed up at Roxas' door, a bottle of pepper vodka under his arm, a stash of Hostess products in his backpack, and a manic grin on his face. Roxas matched his grin and let him in.
It was going to be a really fun night.
0o0
Three hours later, the den in Roxas' house was in suitable disarray. They'd shifted furniture around and pulled a table in front of the couch so they could have easier and more stable access to their shot glasses and the quickly draining bottle of pepper vodka. The room was lit only by the TV, which was currently playing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; the dim lighting of the scene illuminated two boys curled up on the couch together, clinging to each other while they stared avidly at the intense, dramatic scene and Roxas was smacking Axel's arm absently as the anticipation mounted. Snape was going to interrupt the Marauders' reunion in three . . . two . . . o-
"Fuuuuuuck," Roxas cursed as Snape burst in with his usual bat-like flair. "I love Alan Rickman and I know we're supposed to love Snape sort of, but I really hated him for this."
"Take a shot," Axel said doggedly, his speech blurring as he disentangled himself from Roxas – just enough to pour vodka in both their glasses. "Snape cockblocking, again."
Roxas sighed. "He does seem to do that, doesn't he?"
"Of course. He's unhappy, so therefore everyone must suffer his wrath." Axel tipped the glass back and swallowed the shot; he winced and shuddered, hissing at the sharp taste of the vodka. "Oh, god, that shit stings."
"No one ever said Firewhiskey was pleasant," Roxas muttered, mimicking Axel's movements. "And we agreed, this is the closest thing. Fuck though, that is nasty. Better pour another though, we're in for one of Curon's atmospheric moments."
"Fuck," Axel swore, pouring another before leaning back in the cushions.
This was usually how their Harry Potter marathons went. Sometimes they would switch it up and watch the Star Wars movies or Big Bang Theory, but they didn't really have drinking games to go along with those – they'd tried and it had almost resulted in alcohol poisoning, and Axel really didn't want to try and explain to Roxas' parents why their son was sick.
Nope. No thanks.
When the movie ended, neither Axel nor Roxas moved; they were too comfortable watching the ghostly footprints track across the sepia-toned screen mimicking the Marauders' Map and listening to the light, flighty music.
"Still one of my favorites," Roxas commented, off-hand. "Even more than Deathly Hallows part one."
"I know those feels," Axel said lazily. "Suddenly everyone got hot," he said with a little giggle.
Roxas paused, his vodka-drenched brain processing that interesting little tidbit slowly. "Perv," Roxas responded, with some giggles of his own.
"No really, I know I'm a perv dude, you don't need to tell me, but seriously," Axel babbled. "Hot."
"Who's hot?" Roxas pressed him, snickering and shifting so he could look Axel in the eye. "Come oooooon, tell me!"
"Shut up, why d'you wanna know?" Axel protested weakly. The tattoos beneath his eyes were starting to bunch up on his cheeks as he laughed.
"Because you won't tell me so now I'm sus-suspicious!" Roxas retorted, stumbling over his words a bit as he tried to wrangle Axel's secret from him. There weren't very many secrets between Axel and Roxas, though Roxas had been harboring one for a couple years – but he wasn't about to get into that. "Come on, jus' tell me, it can't be that bad."
"Eeeehhhhhh," Axel groaned half-heartedly, scratching the back of his head vigorously in a way that made Roxas think that whatever he was hiding, it was gold.
"Don't 'eeeehhhhhh' at me," Roxas teased him, poking Axel in the sides and tickling him. "You're only making it worse, jus' tell me!"
"Fine, brat," Axel finally conceded, his cheeks coloring a little deeper. "Fine. I thought. I thought Draco started to look kinda hot in this movie," he said, his words trailing off sheepishly while Roxas stared at him.
Roxas took this information in and stared. "That's what you didn't want to tell me? That you thought Draco was hot?"
"Well – yeah," Axel laughed a little nervously. "It's not something a lot of guy friends talk about; 'oh yeah, I totally thought that guy was hot when I was sixteen,' yeah, I can totally see that being horrifically embarrassing."
"That's nothing to be embarrassed about, Axel," Roxas said soothingly, prodding him again.
"When you're sixteen, everything is embarrassing," Axel said, the epitome of the drunken sage.
"But you're not sixteen anymore," Roxas reminded him. "And besides, I'm your best friend, you can tell me anything."
"Even if I thought Draco was hot and you look kinda like Draco?" Axel asked, his head lolling back against the cushions with a stupid grin on his face before he seemed to realize what he had said. "Oh shit."
Roxas blinked, realizing in that moment just how much the vodka was slowing his thought processes. "You thought I was hot, man?"
"Was. Are. Whichever you like more," Axel said hastily, "while we're sharing drunken secrets, anyway."
Another pause. "Axel. Do you . . . like me?"
"Maybe," Axel said, his voice a rush and eyes wide as he watched Roxas.
Interesting development. "Maybe?" Roxas prompted, shifting a little bit closer to Axel and watching his wide green eyes flicker down to where Roxas' knees were mere millimeters from the redhead's thigh. He'd known that Axel was bi for a while, but he'd never moved on that knowledge because he didn't want to overwhelm him.
"Are you coming on to me?" Axel asked, laughing nervously.
"Maybe," Roxas countered, smirking. "Do y'wanna know my secret? And if you say 'maybe' I'm going to drench you in vodka."
"M-yes," Axel corrected himself.
Roxas leaned in close enough that he could see the flecks of blue in Axel's bright eyes and the light freckles across his cheeks, could feel Axel's warm breath against his face – and Roxas paused. He could back off right now and play the whole thing off like he was just teasing Axel for kicks and giggles; Axel was drunk enough that he probably wouldn't remember even admitting that he liked Roxas, if he backed off now it wouldn't change anything – they'd wake up tomorrow sprawled on their respective couches and everything would be exactly the same. Some part of Roxas wanted that, wanted him to just play it off and back down and keep the status quo.
But a larger part was curious and more adventurous, and wasn't going to stand for that nonsense. Axel had virtually admitted to liking Roxas, and Roxas had been keeping a similar secret for a couple years now. What was the point in turning back now? He and Axel had been friends since childhood, and if they didn't work out as something more than he knew they'd still be the best of friends. It was just that moment of doubt, of anticipation and fear roiling in his stomach before he took the final plunge that would seal the deal and maybe they'd both wake up from drunken stupors to realize how fucking awesome this was.
Fuck the status quo.
"I like you too," Roxas whispered, grinning. "See? No need to be scared."
"You," Axel said started, staring at him openly and gawking. "Oh my God."
"Kinda crazy, right?"
"So. What should we do?" Axel asked awkwardly, tapping his fingers together.
Roxas had never seen him look so awkward. Well – except that time Axel accidentally crashed his parents' car and he had to explain the strange circumstances involving a slinky and Roxas playing with a lighter. "Well," Roxas started, "if your 'maybe' is actually a yes, then maybe I can take you out to dinner sometime or something?"
"You don't think it'll be awkward?" Axel fidgeted.
"Only if we make it awkward," Roxas said pointedly. "So what do you say, Ax? You want me to be your Draco Malfoy?" he asked slyly.
Axel was almost unfazed. "I can't believe you just said that."
"Me neither. Blame the vodka. Yes or no, though."
"If you promise to keep Harry Potter-themed pickup lines, I don't think I can say no," Axel snickered.
"I know," Roxas said simply, curling up beside Axel once again, using his shoulder as a pillow and lacing their fingers together loosely. He had a feeling it was going to be a really interesting night.