Jet Fuel
The HAPPY ENDING To MARITAL SPAT
=T12=
A/N: According to what the margin of the paper copy of this story says, I began writing it on July 22, 2011, and finished on December 23, 2011. It is now March 17, 2012. I am obviously very lazy. However, this story is quite possibly one of my favorites yet, so perhaps that counts for something. Also it's really long, which counts more. Also also, Roxas growls a lot, they run their own video game company, and there are offhand mentions of the developers Ready At Dawn. If anybody remembers them, then you are officially awesome in my book. And my book is very exclusive. So. Also x3, there are accusatory run-on sentences, caps-lock swearing, and overuse of the phrase "random person". In other words, what makes fanfiction great. =D
Also to the fourth power, thanks to Skell131 for giving me Rena so many months ago back at Otakon. Go read her zombie story! Seriously. Do it.
They got rich and bought the place. Just like Axel had promised they would, that night when nothing made sense and they were trying to hide from each other. That night that was supposed to have been their wedding night.
Well, yes, they had actually gotten married. It was just that Roxas was really sleep-deprived – Demyx threw mean bachelor parties – and he'd been a little hung over. Just a little. Riku threw boring bachelor parties and wouldn't give him any cigarettes. The hypocrite.
So they'd gotten to the top floor of Riku's dad's Hilton after making out in the elevator all the way up, and Roxas had looked around, hit himself on the forehead, and asked, "Axel, why are we here? Why are we doing this to ourselves?"
"Because I love you, and you love me, and we don't ever want to stop." He'd pulled Roxas to him. "Are you okay?"
Roxas was tense in his arms as he'd said, "Why did we ever decide to get married?"
"Do you regret it?"
"No. Yes. No."
"Tell me what you're thinking, Roxas. tell me what you need."
And they'd sat up all night and talked it over and worked it out. Roxas was scared of how quickly it had all changed, Axel adapted too fast and had never stopped to consider the idea. Roxas had never expected to have a future, Axel practically lived in it. Axel wasn't ever going to give up on him, but he had been willing that night to let him go if that was what would have made Roxas happy.
But there had been no need for that. Roxas wanted him anyway. Would fight for him. Needed him.
"Let's just stay here forever, Axel. And forget the rest of the world exists."
"That can be arranged."
No, I mean it. Let's stay."
You know what, Roxas? We will. We're going to go out tomorrow and get rich and we'll buy the place. Just to do it."
"You're on."
Okay, so it had taken longer than the next day. Okay, so they hadn't even left the hotel the next day. There had been better things to do. But three years wasn't so bad in the grand scheme of things. Three years to the day, and here they were, wearing tuxes. Talking to secretaries on BlackBerries about deadlines. Packing Macbooks in their carry-on bags. Giving press conferences. Driving the cars they used to drool over, cars ending in deliciously exotic things like 'rati, 'rari, 'ghini, -Benz. Owning a house on the California beach.
And a hotel in New York City.
But for all the world, Axel just couldn't come up with a reason why they had somehow forgotten to a buy a private jet. A Lear maybe. Or a G6. Or, you know, maybe a fighter plane. We could keep it in the dining room and use it as a conversation piece. Maybe if we helped the military out, a training system or something, they would give one as a gift. Maybe it's time for another stab at supersonic flights for the masses…
Yes, they should really get a plane. They would never have to go through this again. How many times in the past month had they sat around in lines waiting for their flights? Lines, endless lines, lines stretching into eternity. And the food reminded him of high school. Not a place he really wanted to return to. Usually, first class was a worthwhile reward for the wait, but he wasn't even getting that today.
"Roxas, why are we flying coach, again? Actually, no, I don't think you ever even told me in the first place."
Beside him, Roxas muttered, "Call you back," into his cell phone, slid it shut, and replied solemnly, "Because that's how we flew out. Now we're finally going back, and… I want to go back all the way."
Axel stared at him. The blond stared back, blinking his gorgeous blue eyes several times in bewilderment. Axel laughed. "Roxy, if you said that in bed it wouldn't feel out of place."
Roxas gave him a sullen glare, the kind he could never tell whether it was real or not. "One. Four years of me threatening to kill you, and you still call me that. I'm not a girl. And two. You know like hell I would never say anything like that."
"Roxy, if you were a girl, I wouldn't even be here right now. And I know like hell you would say it if I begged you."
"The day you beg me for anything, Axel, I swear to you, I will go out and prove all those tabloid rumors true."
Roxas hated tabloids from the depths of his soul. The tabloids apparently didn't care, because they hung around like in-laws. "Which ones?" Axel pressed, trying not to smirk. "I really hope you don't mean all of them. Specifically not the ones where I'm dead, or you're stalking that guy from Game Informer. Or where Call of Duty beat us out in third-quarter sales. Please no."
"I think you're overlooking the biggest one," Roxas sighed.
"No," Axel countered, feigning confusion. "Which one is this again?"
"The one where I'm gay for you," he growled back.
"Oh yeah, that one," Axel said, acting enlightened. "Pfft, that one couldn't possibly contain a kernel of truth, could it, dear?"
Roxas looked so annoyed. it was so hot. Axel wondered if they could find a bathroom or some out-of-the-way corner to mess around in before their plane came.
They really needed to get a jet.
Coach class hadn't changed much in the years it and Axel had spent apart. It now possessed Wi-Fi. That was it. Babies cried, kids whined, jet-lagged frequent fliers sat around and watched each other grow beards; people slowly began to tuck into their tech even though they would just have to turn it all off again shortly.
Roxas had the window because Axel didn't particularly care what America looked like from the air. Also because Roxas always fell asleep with his head leaning the right, and Axel would prefer that he be the one to get slept on and not some random person in the aisle seat.
This random person turned out to be a raven-haired young woman in her twenties named Yuffie, who was flying to New York to visit her parents. She was friendly to the both of them, if a little chatty. Roxas didn't have much to say, as he was still trying to coordinate something to do with the E3 presentation with the lower levels.
In the space of silence between responses between responses that seem to happen to Yuffie a lot because she ran out of breath, the girl kept looking Axel up and down, playfully fixing her hair, smiling quickly – in other words, flirting. Axel didn't particularly care much, but evidently she annoyed Roxas, because soon after takeoff he interrupted one of the many brief silences to tell her, "I don't like the way you're looking at my wife." And scowl.
Yuffie blinked in surprise and glanced back and forth between them, attempting to formulate a response.
Axel had to force himself not to laugh. "You'll have to excuse my colleague," he managed to get out relatively calmly. "He's just flown in from Germany, and he's not quite… fluent yet."
She nodded a couple of times, seeming to accept this. But Roxas kept scowling, and she didn't look at either of them for the rest of the flight.
"Since when have I been your wife?" Axel demanded the second they'd gotten off the plane. "You're the one who has to keep proving you're not a girl."
Roxas did not deign to answer this, instead asking back, "Must I prove this fact to you often?"
"Mmm, I go back every couple of days and check. Just to make sure, you kow," Axel told him with a completely straight face.
"And if I somehow did become a girl?" he wanted to know.
"I would run away," the redhead answered immediately.
Roxas crossed his arms. "Why? Would I not be hot enough for you?"
"No, I'd be scared of your PMS."
The blond gave a short laugh as they set off to find a cab. Suddenly, he stopped for no apparent reason.
Axel turned back. "What?"
"Carry my stuff, wife," Roxas ordered, presumably just to see what would happen.
Axel sighed dramatically. "Carry your own stuff, dear. I'm only licensed to carry shopping bags. You should know that."
The man driving the taxi stared at them when Roxas rattled off the upscale address, as if wondering why they were taking a cab if they could so obviously afford a car or even a limo. Axel privately agreed with him, still contemplating how to pitch the private jet idea to everyone concerned, and it took him several minutes to realize that the address Roxas had given was not in the fact the one of their hotel.
They ended up in an area of expensive apartments, the kind that up-and-coming Wall Streeters lived in, and he was then forced to ask Roxas why they were here.
"This is where Riku lives now," was the blond's answer as they headed up. "I thought you'd like to say hello first."
Well, sure, they'd done rather well for themselves in three years, but as of a few months ago he'd thought Riku was a bartender. Unless he was bartending for the president… Actually, Axel had never quite understood where any of his best fiend's money came from. He hadn't even had a job all through college.
Riku opened the door, blinked in calm surprise, and said, "Well, good to have you back in town."
Roxas gave him a sort of once-over of assessment which Riku matched, then stepped in. Axel followed, giving his best friend a fist bump and a confused look.
Riku rolled his eyes and called over his shoulder, "SORA! IT'S ROXAS'N'AXEL!"
"HOLD ON A SEC I GOTTA KILL THIS GUY FIRST!" was the shouted reply.
Riku grumbled under his breath and yelled back, "IF I HAVE TO COME IN THERE AND TAKE YOUR PANTS OFF, I WILL!"
Roxas snorted. Axel just stared down the hall at an utter loss, something he'd though he was done doing in his life.
Thirty seconds later, Sora scrambled into the kitchen looking disgruntled and sweaty but otherwise exactly as Axel remembered him. "No fair, Riku," he muttered. "And I died anyway, so it doesn't even matter." He looked around and brightened up completely. "Oh hi guys! How're you doing?"
Then it all clicked in Axel's red head. "What game are you playing?" he asked the brunette.
"Land of Chance, of course!" Sora squealed. "It's only the best game ever!" he flashed a look between them. "Which of you came up with the concept?"
Axel grinned. "Now, see, you're gonna like this story."
Roxas interrupted with a noise of exasperation.
"Shush, wife," Axel admonished with a smirk. "So, game that crazy, it should have come outta my messed up mind, right? But actually, the idea fell fully formed out the sky and hit Roxas in the brain. Right in the middle of us having sex. Literally, he was all 'Ohh, Axel, more, Axel – OMG wait I gotta go make a video game bye!' And he runs all the way back down to his office without a shirt on and locks himself in there for hours. I was fending off the secretaries for weeks, but somehow, it seems worth it."
Riku burst into laughter and Sora gaped like a fanboy.
"And you wonder why the tabloids stalk us around and not, like, Ready At Dawn?" Roxas snapped.
The hung out for a for more minutes, Axel catching up really fast and Roxas regretting having come at all, until Riku waved them out the door, still laughing, and they called another taxi.
The Rena Hotel was what their Hilton was called now. "Owned by Roxas Sinclair and Proudly Managed by Xemnas Highwind" read the plaque behind the check-in desk.
Xemnas, Riku's father, stuck his head out of his office and waved, but Roxas just nodded and walked on. Axel followed in silence and growing apprehension.
When they reached their room- they had the suite now- he got as far as "Ro-" before the blond completely lost it.
"God, Axel, what the hell is your problem today?"
"Wha-"
"It's our anniversary and you've got random girls hanging all over you-"
"Wait-"
"-and you don't even care that I obviously don't like it, and then Sora-"
"What does that-"
"-you're like his hero or something now-"
"I don't-"
"-and then for God's fucking sake why did you tell him and Riku that, it was none of their business, and for all I know you tell him everything about us, cause you're always emailing him and I never know why and you have no idea how much work I have to do right now, because every time I try to talk to you, you always drag me off to go waste time and what the hell is wrong with you?" He took a huge breath and stood there, his eyes flashing. "Well?"
"Roxas, you've got this all completely wrong-"
"No, Axel, you're just blind to everyone except yourself."
That hit Axel so hard in the face that he just blurted the first thing he thought of. "See, this is why we really need a private jet."
"What the FUCK does that have to do with anything?" Roxas snarled.
Nothing- nothing- it doesn't- I just- just let me explain, okay?" Axel backtracked.
"Fine," Roxas spat.
"Okay- um, in order, then?" he started uncertainly. "First, there was one random girl and she was sitting in her seat. She didn't even touch me. And yes I saw how she was looking at me, but please believe me when I tell you that I don't care. And I know you were uncomfortable but I for one thought you'd handled it and moved on, okay? The girl on the airplane doesn't matter in any way."
Roxas crossed his arms.
"And about Sora," Axel continued, "I honestly don't see what the problem with him is. If we made what he says is his favorite game then of course we'll be his heroes. I thought you were used to people we actually know freaking out over us. Because we are famous, and it's nice to have fans, especially ones who are our friends. Personally, knowing my friends will play our games makes me want to make them the best."
Roxas blinked once, like he was impressed, but anger still came off of him in waves. "Go on," he challenged.
Axel inhaled and steled himself. "Roxas, I'm not going to make stuff up. I told Riku and Sora that story because I thought it was funny. I knew that they would find it funny and also sympathize, because, yes, Riku has told me some strange things that've happened between him and Sora. And yeah, I do talk to Riku a lot, because he's been my best friend for years and I don't ever want to lose I'm not saying that I don't talk about you, but the whole conversation is just 'How're you, blah blah blah, what's new with you, blah blah blah, how're things out there, blah blah blah.' And somewhere in all the blah blah blah are probably embarrassing things and stupid stuff I'd regret ever finding interesting, but that's not the point, the point is staying friends. But mostly I'm sorry for embarrassing you and I'm sorry for assuming things and I'm sorry for wanting to show you off, because I just want everybody to love you just as much as I do, and I;m sorry for being so bad at being sorry, and I'm sorry for wasting your time and not even realizing it and I'm sorry- yeah, for not being good enough to you when you deserve everything."
For a moment, Roxas just looked at him, but then he hissed, "Dammit, Axel," and strode back across the room. Axel prepared to get punched in the jaw, because he'd definitely earned the pain.
"How can you always say exactly what I want to hear?" Roxas asked, then pulled him downward and slammed their lips together.
Axel was so surprised that for a moment he forgot how to react, until Roxas bit his bottom lip and demanded entry.
After a few moments, the blond broke away and dragged Axel toward the bed.
"Roxas, are y-"
"Shut up," he ordered, pushing Axel down and recapturing his lips.
Axel forced himself to pull away. "Roxas-" he started softly.
"Oh my God what," Roxas demanded with annoyance, setting about undoing the buttons on the redhead's shirt.
"Roxas, I don't want this," Axel said with as much conviction as he could find.
Roxas gave something like a growl and climbed on top of him, his eyes dark and right in Axel's face. "Like hell you don't."
"No, I don't," Axel repeated with slightly more determination. "It accomplishes nothing. It means nothing."
"It means whatever you want it to mean," Roxas said at him, reaching for more buttons. "Just kiss me already."
Axel did his best to pretend not to have heard what was blatantly a command. "Which means I can make it mean nothing if I want to," he countered, and felt horrible before he'd even said it all.
Roxas froze, completely stunned. and couldn't meet his eyes. "Can you make yourself not care about me, too?" he asked quietly. "When it isn't necessary?"
"I didn't say that."
"Yes you did."
"I didn't mean to!"
"Apparently, you don't mean anything you say."
Axel grabbed Roxas's wrists before he could move away. "Roxas, you see? We're not done arguing yet. Tell me what's really wrong."
Roxas sat and glared for long enough that Axel began to think he wasn't going to reply, but suddenly he said quietly, "We're still hiding from each other. I think we do it naturally."
Axel let his grip loosen, and almost automatically, Roxas pulled away. Still not looking at him, the blond went on. "Everybody thinks we're the golden couple. That we're perfect. But we're not. First we had to sneak around my dad, and then we had to wait for the paperwork to admit that we existed together. And now we're past all that, and we're so successful, to the point where it shouldn't matter, yet now you're the one downplaying everything where you used to want to tell the world. I've just been asking myself, what happened?"
Axel's initial response was a startled, "You mean you don't care?"
Roxas responded with a confused scowl. "Why should I? W have everything we want in life, nobody's going to wedge themselves between us now. So yeah, go and yell off the top of the Empire State Building 'I love Roxas and we're gay', I don't care."
"But I thought- all this time I thought you didn't like anybody else knowing," Axel stammered.
"Axel, that was years ago. You matter more to me than what some stranger thinks, I thought you knew that. And besides, who's really going to try to do anything? We can just throw paperwork at them. And you really are blind if you haven't noticed that I've signed your last name on every line since Rena 311 was formed."
Axel decided then that he was going to get his eyes checked at the very next opportunity, because there was obviously something with them if he had never noticed this occurrence.
The look on his face was so plain it wasn't even worth an excuse. "Sometimes I think you must live in a bubble, Axel," Roxas remarked. "A bubble of video games and beaches and nice cars. That's why we're back here, where all we had was ourselves and some college-level… intelligence."
Axel smiled, knowing they'd reached the heart of their problem and it could only get better. "Thank you, Roxas. I'm serious. And for the record, you know our intelligence was awesome, and the bubble is actually made of video games and love. But now," he pulled the blond back on top of him, "weren't we in the middle of something?"
Roxas grabbed his wrists and pinned him, leaned in, and said, "Nope."
"What?" was all Axel could reply.
Roxas gave a cheesy smirk and retorted, "I was under the impression that you didn't want this. Now I know it's our anniversary and all, but if that's how you're going to be, I suppose I had better just get back to work."
As if to support this statement, his phone beeped with new email. Roxas briefly let go of Axel, pulled it out, gave it a death glare, and dropped it unceremoniously off the side of the bed..
Axel laughed, seeing a perfect opportunity unfolding right in front of him. "You're just taunting me, aren't you?" he scoffed.
Roxas pinned him again and replied, "No, actually, I'm being quite serious. The people who work for us apparently have never lived in the real world."
"But obviously, you don't care," Axel pointed out. "I'm sure they'll all survive for a couple of hours. Please?"
"Do I detect a question mark in that?"
"Now," Axel answered, playing his ace, "I am in fact at your complete and utter mercy at the moment, and so, technically, what I am doing is begging you."
Roxas's face went blank with momentary shock. His mouth fell open and hung there as he processed the implications of this statement. Then he grinned, and leaned back in to meet Axel's lips. "I'm really going to kill you later," he breathed, "but right now I think I kinda like how you're begging for it."
Two weeks later, Axel strode excitedly across the stage of their E3 press conference, eagerly pointing out the major changes and improvements in their latest game, which was due out at the beginning of August, only a few months away. It was called Maxim and was a sequel to Sora's favorite game, Land of Chance.
"The greatest thing we've accomplished with Maxim compared to LOC is that there are just over three times as many weapons available, with four times as many upgrades for all those weapons. Plus the loading times in the menus are way down, too. Here, I'll show you."
The redhead clicked a button on his screen remote to bring up a split-screen load time comparison. Nothing happened. He brought the remote up to his ear and shook it.
"And the batteries are dead," he announced brightly to the assembled media. "We should just make our own, these suck so much. Hey, Roxas, I think I saw a spare over by the doors, could you get it for me?"
Roxas nodded and went to find it. Axel watched him go, appreciating how much work the blond had done to pull off this presentation. Everything was going perfectly except for the stupid remote, and honestly, they really did massively suck. To fill up time, Axel signaled for their assistants to start passing out prerelease copies to the reporters from the ten largest gaming magazines.
Roxas ascended the stairs on the side of the stage with a new remote in one hand. He held it out to Axel and Axel went to take it, but Roxas inexplicably didn't let go. As Axel attempted to figure this out, the blond pressed their lips together in a very gentle and rather lengthy kiss. Then he pointedly turned to the crowd as the paparazzi began swarming up, waved, and recited as if from memory, "Hello, we're Axel and Roxas Sinclair from Rena311, and we really don't want to bore you with needless demonstrations. We have a game coming out on August 8 and you know you're going to buy it anyway, so there's no need to expound upon its awesomeness. Now you've had your fun, so shoo. It's our turn."
He tried to give them all his infamous death glare, but it didn't really work because Axel pulled him back and kissed him. And who cared what anybody thought, because they'd reached all of their dreams, and how many people in the audience could say the same?
So, Axel mused, maybe waiting in line at the airport did lead to good things in the end. After all, when you land you're somewhere completely different, and anything can happen.
But still, a private jet would make all that space in between a whole lot more interesting.
FIN