I must thank you for reading this new fanfic! This first chapter is just kind of like the prologue. I haven't decided what kind of story this is going to be yet. But, I hope you all like it- please read on to the second chapter! I know you will love it!
Roxas woke up, realizing that he was lying on the floor of his bedroom. He tried to get up, and a pain shot up his back. Turning around slowly, he noticed that his desk chair was upended. The back rest was in the shape of a star, and one of the tips of it had stuck into his back.
Gingerly, he stood up, trying to ignore the pain in his back, and then he hobbled over to the mirror near his door. Pulling his shirt over his head, he turned around and tried to examine the state of his back. There was a big yellowish purple bruise in the middle of it. Roxas, groaned, and hobbled back to his chair, picking it up, and setting it up right again. Then he heard his bedroom door creak open.
Roxas' mom peeped in, and blushed a little bit. "Oh, I thought that you were still asleep!" she said, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. "You're up pretty early."
Roxas frowned. "Wait, do you always come into my room while I'm still asleep?"
Roxas' mother twiddled her thumbs, shrugging. "Well, you just look so cute, Roxie! Like when you were a little baby and I held you in my arms…" Her eyes started to tear up as she said this, and she mimicked holding a baby in her arms. "If only we could've had another one after you…" then she started to sob, pulling a handkerchief out of her pocket. Roxas rolled his eyes, and maneuvered her over to the bed, sitting her down and patting her on the back.
"It all started in the first grade." She sobbed, rocking Roxas back and forth, and crying all over him. "Usually you'd run over and climb into my lap, but that fateful day, a little while before you went to your first day of grade school, you walked into the living room with your hands clasped behind your back. Then, you told me 'mom, I'm a big boy now, and I can't be sitting in your lap anymore.' Your brother Ven still sat in my lap long after that, but I suppose it was all as a kind of apology for when he'd decide to run away and join that band. He'll only come back some sort of addict, now, with hoards of children he never knew." This only made her cry more, and she tried to force Roxas to sit on her lap so she could properly rock him back and forth. She grabbed him on the back where his bruise was, and he cried out in pain.
"I didn't know that you were sad about it, too, Roxas!" She said as she noticed tears of agony rolling down Roxas' cheeks. His back was killing him. "Mommy's here, baby! We can still reconnect! Even if your brother is gone, I still have you, honey!" She pulled Roxas into her lap, and rocked him this way and that, petting his hair and singing an old lullaby called 'dearly beloved' that he'd always liked. This went on for a full twenty minutes, until the pain in Roxas' back went down a little bit, and he started fidgeting. If his friends had seen any of this, it would have been the end of his social life. Then, he broke free, and went over to his desk.
Roxas turned around, thinking his mother had already left the room, when he heard a gasp from behind him. He turned around, and saw that his mother was still at the door, and was pointing towards his back with wide, teary eyes. "You've been brutally beaten up!" she howled, running over and turning Roxas around. Then, she turned him around again, looking him in the eye with a determined stare.
"Who did it?" she growled, looking out the window. "You just tell me who did it and I'll find 'em! They won't be messing with my baby anymore. It was that Seifer wasn't it? I never trusted him- or did Hayner turn on you?"
Roxas pushed his mom away from him. "MOM! Calm down, I guess that I fell out of bed in my sleep, and my back hit one of the ends of my chair." He said slowly, pointing to his desk chair. His mom furrowed her eyebrows.
"How did your desk chair get all the way in front of your bed?" She asked, scratching her head. Roxas shrugged. "I must have set it there, or something. I was so tired from trying to control that party last night that I could barely walk! I just fell asleep in my clothes. That's probably why I'm up late too…" Roxas blurted all this out before checking to see the expression on his mother's face.
"Party? I thought you said that you invited your friends over for a little bit of cake and ice cream. How many people did you invite? There wasn't any drinking involved was there?"
Roxas could tell that his mom was getting nervous and upset again.
"Like I told you, I only invited some close friends."
"You invited that Axel character didn't you?" His mother's voice began to rise in volume and in pitch. His mother had always hated Axel. She thought he was a bad influence, and it bothered her that he was about 5 years older than Roxas. He also had a bad reputation for being a heartbreaker/troublemaker, and Roxas' mother hated those types of people. Roxas sighed.
"Mom, he's my best friend. Remember my first day of secondary school? How I went to that weird boarding school, and I was nervous and I didn't know anyone? He was the only guy there who helped me out- and the only guy who would be my friend."
Roxas' mother folded her arms over her chest, shrugging nonchalantly. "From what I remember, all of them were terrible, uncaring people. And he was just the same."
Roxas threw his hands up, and went to look out the window, breathing in the fresh air from outside. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied his mother looking around his room, pursing her lips.
"You know maybe we shouldn't go get a car for you today. Why can't you just take the train like everyone else? If you're injuring yourself in your sleep, who knows what damage you'll do on the road."
Roxas chuckled, shaking his head. "It's not like I'm gonna use it all the time! I just want to…" What could he tell his mom he was planning on doing with the car? 'Hey mom, I'm gonna go on a road trip with my friends!' That did not sound like something she'd want to hear.
"…I just want to use it for farther distances, like what would happen if the train broke or something one day? Or, if I was, was…" he tried to revise his answer, searching his brain for the perfect response, when he noticed that his mother wasn't listening to him at all. She was looking around his room again.
"You have a lot of stuff from your childhood in this room. You liked stars a lot. And that fish lamp- your father got you that when you were seven. That was a long time ago. We may need to get rid of that. Aren't old lamps dangerous? Those fish look like they're rotating abnormally. And that star chair… I never liked the make of that star chair…" She went around to almost every childhood memory filled article in his room, discussing how it was very juvenile, and possibly dangerous. "This could collapse on you on the day you go to your debs! All decked out in your suit, with your date downstairs and boom! We find you underneath your old childhood dresser, never to dance with the beautiful girl again. Or anyone for that matter, no wedding, just anemones." Then she began singing an old song that she'd heard on the radio one time, and flitted out of Roxas' room.
Roxas shivered slightly, thinking about just how heavy the dresser at the side of his room was. It wouldn't fall though, would it? His magazines would hold it down pretty well. Then Roxas' eyes widened, and he felt for a moment a tinge of guilt. What if his mom was implying that she knew about the magazines? They weren't even his- Axel had stored them in Roxas' house because he didn't want his girlfriend finding them, and he'd never taken them back! Sure, Roxas had looked at a few, at the most five or six, but it was all Axel's fault!
He threw his dresser open, looking at the bottom. The magazines looked completely untouched. He looked at the top one, shrugging. It had a picture of a very scantily clad woman on the front, and on the side of the cover- it read in bold letters 'interview with 'Birth by Sleep', the hottest new band in town!'
Roxas chuckled. He'd never even noticed that. He flipped to the page with the interview, and sure enough, his brother was there, along with his two other band mates, Aqua and Terra. Roxas had met them once, on their way to a party, but it was just for about five minutes while Ven got ready to go. It had been their first big time performance. He looked at the cover page of the interview, at a picture of the three band mates, posing with cool expressions and perfect hair and outfits. Roxas smiled timidly, kicking his shoes off as he noticed Aqua's expression. She was so cool! Too bad she wasn't in the rest of the magazine.
It started off with them asking the obvious question 'how did you guys meet?' Terra answered that he and Ven had known each other from school, and they had been looking around for a drummer for their group, when they stumbled across Aqua. She was the cousin of this kid that they knew, and they just happened to hear her jamming out on her drum upstairs.
'Terra: The reaction was immediate, we knew we needed her, we'd never heard anything like her before.
Ven: Yeah, she was awesome- it was like magic the way she fit with us so well. We had asked around after a few drummers, but none of them matched our sound.
Terra: It takes a certain drummer to fit to Ven's singing style.
Aqua: They just ran up to my room, all breathless, and asked if I wanted to be in their band.
Ven: We really lifted off from there, we signed down to play at every bar and club that we could- we did countless jobs, we even played at a wedding.
Aqua: Wedding's suck.
Ven: Yeah, then, we got enough money together to do a recording session, and we put our music onto a CD. We put it all up online, and we got to sell our CD's in coffee shops and stuff like that.
Terra: We worked small, you know.
Aqua: Then, we started getting calls from record companies and stuff, and we finally decided to stick with this one label, 'Land of Departure', because we felt that they were really trying to work with our interests in mind.
Terra: It's funny; the name's so fitting, because after we signed with them, we really just skyrocketed up from there. We just worked with another band on their new album, 'Seven'.
Ven: They're these seven little guys- and they've got a lead singer that's a girl, it was fun working with her on the vocals.
Terra: Was it just the vocals, Ven? (Laughs)
Aqua: But seriously, they've got some pipes on them. I mean, they can sing like crazy.
Ven: Yeah, then we toured with them for a little while. We played at this really nice place, the 'Castle of Dreams' for this huge concert that was being held.
Terra: Usually the place was super posh, but we brought the house down! It was great, lots of artists played at that.
Aqua: I think that that was really when we became 'known.''
Roxas read on through the whole article, admiring how intelligent Aqua sounded. He was suddenly jealous of his brother for getting to be in a band with her. Roxas could sing just as well as him!
Roxas stood up, clearing his throat. Then he bellowed a note out to the world. He decided to try and sing one of the songs that Ven and his band had done, and he heard his mom knocking on the door.
"Honey." She said nervously, peeping in again. "Did you trip and hurt your back again? I heard you squawking."
Roxas' shoulders fell, and he sighed deeply. "Yeah, I tripped." He said flatly, and his mother told him that he needed to be more careful.
"There's breakfast downstairs waiting for you, darling. Come and eat, don't lock yourself in your bedroom the whole day." Then she went back downstairs.
Roxas decided that he didn't need to become a singer. He rummaged through some of the other magazines to see if there were any other articles on the band, but there were none. The one he had just read was the newest magazine of the pile. He decided that he needed to return all of this stuff back to Axel so that he could do what he wanted with it.
But first, he needed to find his money for the car. He went over to his desk, and searched through the drawers, then he searched through his dresser, and under his bed, and in his clothes basket, and under the lamp, and everywhere else in his room. Then he moved on to the rest of the house, pulling things out of drawers, and going crazy with panic. He had saved up for ages to go on this trip! If he just lost all his money, everyone else would be so disappointed in him. He tried not to think about the fact that if all of them had pooled together their money, they could've shared the car. He didn't want to be selfish.
Eventually, he came into the kitchen with tears in his eyes, and he took to gobbling down his breakfast as fast as he could. His mother had left a note on the table saying that she had gone out for the day with a friend. Roxas looked around the house once more, and then tried to take a relaxing bath (he'd heard that they were soothing) but decided to opt for the shower, when he fell into the bath and hit the sore spot on his back off the edge.
He hunched over in pain right in front of the shower, and then he patted the area that hurt on his back. Even touching it made it hurt. It would be hard driving the car with his back the way it was. After he'd had the shower, he decided to go over to Axel's house to wallow and to recruit him to help find the money.
He went outside, got on his bike, and cycled down town, until he was out of Twilight Town and headed down to where Axel lived. After about ten minutes of cycling, he regretted his decision to not just take the train, because it was hurting his back again. What had he done to himself? He tried to ignore it, as the summer sun beat down on him, willing himself forward. He finally got to Axel's house, and barely found the strength in himself to ring the doorbell.
When Axel opened the door, Roxas immediately let go of his bike, shoved past him, and slumped onto his couch, crying out as his back hit a box that had been laying on the couch.
"Dammit, Axel! Why do you just shove all your stuff onto the couch! People are supposed to sit on it!" he croaked angrily wiping the tears out of his eyes. Axel slumped down beside him, not listening. Roxas sighed. "What's the matter, big boy?" he said, patting Axel on the shoulder. Axel shrugged, looking glumly out his window. He was rarely like this.
"I'm losing my sex appeal." Axel said, as though his heart had been crushed. Roxas broke out laughing, gingerly removing the box from behind him. It was a present that was still wrapped up. Axel didn't find the situation as funny as Roxas did, though.
"I was having sex with my girlfriend, just yesterday. It was her birthday." He said mystically, looking off into the distance. Roxas sat back, preparing to half listen.
"You know, it was a nice day out, warm, not too humid, sun was shining. She came home all happy and stuff, they'd had a surprise party for her at the office. I was waiting for her at the door, you know, because it was her birthday, and people usually don't mind having sex on their birthdays. And I just got so nervous. I never get nervous." He added flatly at the end. Then he continued on. "I said hi, and she said hi back, all giggly. And I said 'well, I suppose you'd want to have sex, right?' and I tell you, Roxas, the smile just faded. It completely faded." Axel said, getting a bit upset.
Roxas shook his head. "Why would you say that to a girl?"
Axel looked at him for a moment then shrugged, really thinking about it.
"It just makes them think that they're forcing you to have sex, and girls don't like that, Axel. They like to be the one's on the receiving end. When they feel like they're the ones asking for it, they get all guilty and sometimes they just want you to go at them! You don't have to say 'okay, by the way, I'm gonna come onto you now.' It's hard to explain but, gosh, I can't believe that I'm the one talking to you about this! I thought that you were the ladies' man!"
Axel sighed, looking forward again. "Those where the late high school, early college days. I'm in my last year now, and I don't feel fresh and spunky anymore. I don't know what I want anymore. It was the studying. That stupid Zexion convinced me to do study time with him on weekdays. He sucked the sex energy out of me and converted it into study energy. And now all I can do is study. I just don't know how to get it back." Axel sighed, and then he remembered his story.
"But, anyway, then she just shrugged and said 'if you want to', and I shrugged and said 'well it is your birthday' and then she went on about how I made her feel like I was her sex slave. And I asked if she'd like that, and then I think that instilled some hope for the future of the evening into her. Then, when I was doing it with her- I was trying to feel it, to get in the mood, I swear- but it was just dead Roxas!" He grabbed Roxas by the shoulders and got all misty eyed. "When I took it out, it just flopped over, like a dead fish!" he cried, waving his hand in imitation of a dead fish. Then he sat back, reflecting.
"She didn't scream or anything, she didn't even moan. She just lay there, and at one point she was looking at her nails. She'd just gotten them done with a friend of hers for her birthday. Then, after it was all over, we were sitting on the couch watching her favorite movie, mean girls; she broke the news to me."
Roxas gasped, grabbing Axel by the hand. "She was pregnant?" he shouted, gaping at Axel. Axel frowned. "What? No- no way. Why would you even…what? No…" Roxas looked away, folding his arms in front of him. "Oh, well, never mind. I just thought, you know…anyway, what happened next?" Roxas said brightly, changing the subject.
Axel sighed, nodding as if it had to be said. "She said I was lousy in bed." He voice cracked on the last word, and he started to cry. Roxas sat awkwardly, not quite knowing what to do. He kind of patted Axel on the back, then Axel grabbed Roxas by the shirt and started crying into it. Roxas rolled his eyes. This had happened once before when they were both in secondary school. It had been the first and last year the two had been in the same school together.
Axel went on, crying in between talking and breathing. "And then, she said that I sucked all the happiness out of her, and I made her feel like she was ugly and sexiless, or whatever, and then she said that I sickened her. And then she ignored me for the rest of the day. And then she left early this morning to 'have fun'." Axel looked up at Roxas, with snot on his nose, and tears all around his eyes, even on his forehead. His face was puffy and red, and he looked a mess.
"I may sound like a dumb f*** complaining like this- but the sex was all I had! No one ever said 'oh look at smart Axel, or look at cool Axel, or angry Axel, or bitchy Axel, they said look at Sexy Axel."
Roxas shook his head. "No they didn't."
"I bet they thought it." Axel snapped back, letting go of Roxas' shirt. "You know, usually, I always felt something around everyone. Maybe it was the teenage hormones running rampant, but I mean, even you Roxas" Axel said, smiling towards Roxas "I even felt a tinge of energy around you!"
Roxas scratched his head uncomfortably nodding and looking away. "I hope that you're not planning on breaking out that energy on me right now, are you?" Roxas said jokingly, and to his surprise, Axel shook his head blankly, as if he hadn't even been thinking about it.
"Nah, I just don't feel like having sex these days. I mean, I guess I do it too much. I mean, Larxene is good in that way that she keeps hoping that this time I'll satisfy her. But it never happened. Slowly I lost any go in me at all- and it just became this drive to prove myself. But, again, it never happened."
"Wait, you're going out with Larxene again? Isn't she heavy on the verbal abuse?"
Axel smiled. "Oh, yes. But she does some pretty good dirty talk. Well, did anyway. Now she just insults me. She laughed when I cried in front of her once." Roxas got up, retrieving a few tissues for Axel.
"I don't really know what to say, Axel, other than I'm sorry." Roxas said as Axel blew his nose.
"There's nothing to say" replied Axel, putting the tissue in the trash and wiping the tears out of his eyes. "But thanks for listening anyway."
Roxas smiled. "No problem, dude. But, listen. That's not what I came here for. I want you to help me look for the money I was gonna use to buy the road trip car, with. It must be in my house somewhere, unless someone stole it." He noticed Axel looking a little bit nervous.
"There was about $2,000 in all. I had it in my room." Roxas added, examining Axel closely, who had become very interested in his shoes.
"Uh, you know that I was really drunk last night, and you were a bit too. And we wanted to papier-mâché the lamp in your basement, and we couldn't find any paper, and you said it was okay…" Axel stumbled for the right words, and he could see Roxas' expression darkening.
"I was drunk, that's why I said yes. What did you do?" Roxas growled, and Axel laughed nervously.
"Well, we papier-mâchéd the money to the lamp with some super glue that you had in the basement."
Axel thought he could see real steam coming out of Roxas' nose and ears, and before he could get anywhere near to the door in case he needed to make a run for it, Roxas had him on the ground, pulling his hair.
"You stupid son of a bitch!" Roxas roared, with tears rolling down his cheeks. It had taken him ages to save all that money! Various jobs and odds and ends had all brought him to this huge disappointment.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Axel shouted, trying to shield himself from Roxas' blows. "What can I do to make you forgive me?" Axel asked, and Axel let up.
"Help me get all those stupid magazines of yours out of my room. And we're gonna sell ALL of them to make up for the money that you lost."
Axel laughed, shaking his head. "There aren't enough magazines in there to cover all that money."
"Then you can be the one to break the news to the others- and we'll all just have to split the car cost anyway." Roxas snapped.
"Okay, okay. Let's go sell some dirty magazines." Axel chuckled, and they both left the house on their bikes. When they did finally get to Roxas' house, they were exhausted, but they went down to the basement anyway to see the damage. His mother's old lamp that her father had gotten her when she was twenty was in the middle of the floor, with money glued all over it. A few bills were strewn around, and Roxas yelled with delight to find a hundred dollar bill that had survived. In all, they saved a hundred and twenty. Then he looked over at Axel. "Let's get those magazines." He said somberly, and Axel nodded as they both made their way up to Roxas' room.
They dug them all out from inside Roxas' dresser, and Axel got an old box to put them all in. Just a few short seconds after they started to pile them into the box, Axel started to look through them again. He sighed with nostalgia at a picture of the model 'Cinderella', shaking his head happily. "I remember those days. Me and the boys from our little 'study group', Organization Thirteen- we really were stuck up idiots back then- all called her the golden girl. We made bets on who would woo her one day. And I always won!" Axel said proudly, getting a little more confident. Roxas looked at him coolly.
"What do you think appealed to the girls?" Roxas said politely, a different tone from the regular laidback one he used around his friend. But Axel didn't bother to notice.
"Oh, it was definitely the mane." He said with a smug grin. "These fiery locks would make any chick melt in my arms!" he said, mimicking a girl swooning. "My green eyes, and my natural red hair, and also my tattoos on my cheeks- did I ever tell you girls used to lick them?" Axel said brightly, and Roxas sighed in annoyance.
Axel chuckled. "It just made the whole package. I was beautiful." He sighed, and Roxas began to get annoyed with him again. He'd gotten so girly since he'd gone into college. Maybe Zexion really did have a bad influence on him- and Larxene's abuse couldn't be good for a man's feeling of, well, manliness. It was probably a bit of Marluxia's fault, too. They all went to the same college together.
Axel looked down at another magazine, setting it into a little pile he had beside him. Roxas frowned at him. "Hey Axel, those magazines are going in the box, right? Because we're gonna sell them all to make up for the money that you mutilated."
"Aw, come on, Roxas. I just want to keep a few of them, that's all." Axel whined, pouting as he pointed to another picture of Cinderella- this time wearing a sky blue thong. Roxas blushed and looked way. Axel chuckled.
"Well, looks like the little tyke can't handle a few dirty pictures." Axel sniggered arching his eyebrows at Roxas. Roxas got defensive, shrugging. "No, she's just not that great. I've seen better." Roxas drawled, peeping subtly at Axel every few seconds to see his reaction. Axel didn't believe a word of it.
"Oh really." He said, grinning slyly at Roxas. "You got a VCR?" Axel piped up, pointing to the mangled old device lying in the corner of Roxas' room. Roxas laughed. "Oh, that's ancient. I don't even know if it works anymore." Axel was rummaging through the pile of magazines Roxas had set on the floor, awaiting judgment, and pulled out an old video cassette. Then, he scooted over to the VCR, plugged it in, turned it on, and stuck the tape inside. The screen was fuzzy for a second, but Axel banged on the top of it, and the screen came on, playing the movie.
At first, there was a small paragraph as to how taping the movie would result in a fine. It was obvious that Axel had taped the movie from the TV, because every few seconds he would make comments. Roxas had a bad feeling about where things were going, and his fears only mounted when the scene came up on a naked girl lying on a bed, with Axel hollering in the background. Axel chuckled.
"I was maybe, thirteen when I taped this thing- my first dose of porn." Axel said, sighing. He went into flashback mode again, and shook his head happily. "Those were the days of dreaming about when my first would come along. Actually, it didn't come too long after that." He scratched his head, trying to remember the first time.
"Sheila." He whispered to himself, and then smiled again. "Yep, it was terrible. I got in lots of practice after that, though." He added cheekily, eyeing Roxas to see what he would do. He ignored Axel, and tried to take his eyes away from the screen. Axel chuckled again.
"You know, I bet that you can't look at that screen for more than five minutes." Axel drawled, and Roxas snorted.
"May I ask what we're betting?"
Axel thought for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders. "If you make it through this, I will voluntarily sell all of these magazines, plus the extras lying around at home and I will donate some money to the car." Axel finished smugly, noticing that Roxas had paused the VCR. He was such a cheater. Roxas smiled with a touch of determination at Axel.
"You really don't think that I'll make it, do you?" Roxas said quietly, and Axel shrugged.
"You know what, Roxas? You were always a goody two shoes. You never told dirty stories. You've never done it, you've never watched porn- you haven't even masturbated, have you?" Axel shot at Roxas, who blushed.
"That's kind of private, Axel. Maybe I have, maybe I haven't."
Axel laughed. "I'd stick with the latter. You're just dead down there, Roxas, you always have been. You're so thick in the skull that you don't know what's going on around you. To be honest, I think you're uncomfortable with sex in general."
Roxas was squirming around a lot now, and he had gotten into the 'caged weasel' mode. Roxas could be pretty mean when he wanted to.
"Ha. I haven't even started with the sexual prowess thing, and you're already finished with yours. Must be nice knowing that you'll be sitting at home eating while I'm out getting some." Roxas snapped, and he sensed that he'd hurt Axel.
Axel kind of shifted from side to side, and he slipped back into his 'depressed distressed' state that he'd been in before. "You cut me deep, brother. You cut me deep."
Roxas sighed, not feeling like apologizing. "Just turn on the stupid movie." He growled, folding his arms over his chest, as if preparing to barricade himself from the coming onslaught. Axel looked over at him uncaringly, knowing that he wouldn't make it. Then he decided to make the stakes higher.
"If you lose, you also have to call Kairi and tell her how sexy she is." Axel added brightly, and Roxas' mouth dropped open. "Since when was that part of the bargain?" Roxas said hoarsely, clutching the zipper on the front of his jacket like it would fall apart if he let it go. Axel laughed maniacally.
"The stakes are getting higher!" He said gleefully, and pressed the 'play' button on the machine. Roxas' eyes wandered away from the screen, and Axel snapped his finger in front of the boy.
"No wandering eyes, Roxas. Or you start over."
Roxas looked at him angrily, and then directed his eyes towards the screen again. The naked girl had a music box in her hand, and she was talking to a person that was off screen. Roxas could hardly hear what they were saying because all that could be hears was the sound of VCR Axel commenting on the girls 'finely toned ass'. Roxas snorted as the man came on stage and took the music box away. He shook his head, smiling. "Stupid story lines. Why do they even try?" Then he tried to force a laugh, but he stopped in the middle, when the camera changed views, and there was a full view of the girls arse. Roxas immediately looked away, and Axel clapped, pausing the VCR again.
"You get to start over, Roxie!" Axel said, clapping his hands. Roxas pounded his fist on the ground, trying to search for something he could say to change Axel's mind. "Wait, that's not fair! It was just for a second, I saw a spider, I swear!" He said, getting flustered, but Axel started the movie up again, and Roxas looked at the screen in anguish.
The man was now kissing the girl in an extreme close up on their lips. Roxas heard Axel's voice on the tape saying 'tongue action, awesome' and then a chuckle. Roxas grinded his teeth in anger as he heard Axel laugh behind him. "This is a good part." Axel said, and Roxas was afraid that another 'pop up' would happen. It did.
Roxas forced himself to keep his eyes on the screen as the man stuck his finger up the girls arse. Axel started laughing like crazy as Roxas tried to squint his eyes so he could see the least possible screen action. "You can't do that, Roxas, eyes open, that was the deal- you can't cheat like usual."
Roxas began to get very fidgety as the man unbuttoned his trousers. Axel watched his mouth, and saw that he was counting to himself. Axel started to get nervous, looking at the clock, but Roxas began to smile wide. "Hey, Axel, guess how many minutes it's been- four and a quarter!" Then Roxas giggled. Axel counted off seconds, trying to think of a diversion. He leaned into Roxas' ear.
"She's nice isn't she Roxas? What would she think in real life if you were watching her when she was like this?"
It was obvious that this comment made Roxas uncomfortable, but he was determined to win the bet. "I'm not looking at her the same way you did, Axel." Roxas snapped, counting off more time. Axel bit his lip. "Told you that you were dead down there, Roxas." Axel snarled, and Roxas just chuckled. "I'm winning." He said happily, and then Roxas smiled like a Cheshire cat. "Five, four, three…" Roxas began to count down, and then the front door opened downstairs.
"Roxas!" His mother called from downstairs, and Roxas pounced for the VCR, turned it off, threw the tape out the window, and shoved all the magazines back into his closet before his mother came into his room. He was red as a cherry, and Axel was grinning giddily.
Roxas' mother looked from the VCR, to Roxas, then to Axel, and back to Roxas again.
"What's going on?" She said slowly, and Roxas started to stutter, trying to find something to say. "I, uh, I, uh…" He couldn't get out anything, so Axel talked for him. "Roxas and I were just talking about our feelings." Axel said flatly, and Roxas' mother looked suspicious.
"Feelings?" she questioned slowly, and Axel nodded.
"Yep- who knew I had them too." He added cheekily, and Roxas slapped his hand to his face as his mother balled her hands into fists, and forced a smile.
"Well- you two have fun together. Don't get into any trouble or you're out of this house. I mean it." She added dangerously, sending a death glare over Axel's way. He just looked away nonchalantly, blowing out a deep breath. Then, Roxas' mother left, and Roxas and Axel exchanged glances. Axel was grinning.
"Guess who's calling Kairi." Axel started to sing, and Roxas jumped up.
"I can still get the tape. It's outside." Roxas said in a panic, and Axel snorted.
"Yeah- out the window outside. It's probably smashed to pieces." Axel drawled, and Roxas dashed out of the room and down the stairs. His mother didn't have time to ask where he was going, when Axel bounded off behind him, out into the front yard.
Just as Axel exited the front door, he heard Roxas scream, and he poked his head out to see what was going on. Roxas was standing, horrified, beside what was left of the tape. A car was pulled over right beside him.
"Did I hit a dog?" The man in the car said hurriedly, jumping out of the vehicle and trying to see what he'd run over.
"I was so close." Roxas whispered in anguish, and then he turned around and grabbed the man by the shirt.
"I was so effing close!" He screamed at the man, and Axel came over and patted him on the back.
"Roxas, it was probably broken before the car even ran it over."
Roxas looked up at Axel with misty eyes as the man got back in the car and drove off. He smiled at Axel. "I was this close!" He whispered, pinching his thumb and index finger together. Axel sighed. "I know you were buddy." He said mercifully, and Roxas let out a sigh of relief. Then Axel smiled evilly at Roxas.
"I think it would be best if we went to my house to call Kairi." Axel drawled, watching all the emotions on Roxas' face as he let it sink in.
First Roxas was puzzled, then he was scared, then he was shaking his head in denial, then he was doing the puppy dog stare, then he was angry, and then he was hopeless. Axel laughed through the whole show, which only made Roxas despise him more. Axel chuckled. He was always letting Roxas off easy.
"Tell you what, Roxas. If you call Kairi, I will sell all my magazines, I don't even want them anymore. But you have to appeal to everyone else for the rest of the money for the car. I'm not donating."
Roxas nodded, as if in a dream state, and floated out after Axel towards the train station. They had ridden their bikes enough that day. It was easier to take the train.
When they both got to Axel's house, he was humming 'Ring of Fire' by Johnny Cash, and looking over at Roxas every other second with a sly smile. Roxas worried the whole way to the house, and his fingers were raw from him wringing his hands together.
Axel lead Roxas inside his house and over to the phone like the boy was going to the gallows, and he sat Roxas down in front of his telephone with a look of evil relish. Roxas looked from him to the telephone somberly and then back up to Axel, working the puppy dog eyes like they would save his life.
"Do I have to?" Roxas gulped, but Axel had known Roxas long enough to be immune to this whole charade.
"Oh yes- and I'm gonna love every minute of it." Axel said happily, getting another phone, and going off into the hallway to listen in on the conversation. He held the thumbs up sign to Roxas, and he dialed. There was a ringing sound, and then Kairi answered the phone.
"Hello." She said brightly, and waited for a reply.
"Hi." Roxas said blankly, and Kairi chuckled.
"Who is this? Is it you, Roxas?" She added hopefully, and Roxas looked over at Axel for mercy. Axel shook his head.
"It's me." Roxas croaked, failing to elaborate. There was a silence across the line, and then Kairi coughed.
"Well, what did you call me for?" She said quietly. Roxas furrowed his eyebrows. She was talking sort of weird- like she was excited about something?
"Uh…" Roxas started, and then forced himself to take a deep breath. "I think that you're really sexy." Roxas blubbered, and sucked in a deep breath at the end, not knowing what to do next. There was silence on the other end of the line, and then Kairi giggled a little bit.
"Really? I never knew that you thought of me that way. I think you're sexy too. I think about you sometimes…" Kairi said nervously, and Roxas was touched by her confession. Then he remembered that Axel was listening across the line. He tried to signal for Axel to hang up and let him talk alone, but Axel wouldn't have it. He kept listening in.
"Don't you like Sora?" Roxas croaked in desperation. He heard Kairi laugh.
"Sora's kind of boring. He's such a kid. You're more mature- and mysterious, I guess. I don't know, I sound stupid. This is embarrassing." She said quietly, but Roxas knew that she was really smiling across the line. He blushed, and noticed Axel trying to stifle a laugh across the line.
"I can hang up now." Roxas said, but Kairi said no.
"Don't hang up- I want to talk to you. Do you want to get together sometime? I hope you don't think that I'm too fast or anything- I'm not a whore, contrary to popular belief." Kairi added flatly, and Roxas was quiet. Kairi took this as a 'why', and she decided to continue.
"Maybe hanging out with Selphie rubbed off on me. Part of the reason people think of me that way is because I hang out with her, and people said I had Riku and Sora running after me all the time. And just because Namine and Xion are dead down there, doesn't mean I have to hold back my feelings when I like someone. No one's getting angry at Larxene for sleeping around with everyone when she has a boyfriend already. And Xion and her were the only two girls in a 'study group' full of boys. I bet that was fun." Then Kairi remembered that Xion was Roxas' friend.
"But, I mean Xion is a great gal, I hung out with her a little but she's just one of the guys you know, and Yuffie is just off in her own category. And Aerith- what about Aerith? She sure flies under the radar. I'm sorry, I'm ranting."
Roxas looked over at Axel, who was in shock. He had been hit hard by the part about Larxene sleeping around with everyone except her boyfriend. He saw all the emotions on Axel's face, and the last one was anger. Then Axel looked at Roxas, grinning maliciously. Kairi was still going on.
"But I'm not like Selphie; she just goes at any one hoping that they'll be prince charming. I'm romantic too; I just don't show it on the outside. I'm just like everyone else; I'm just trying to find the right someone." She finished and Axel suddenly sniggered across the line. Roxas looked over at him in horror.
"Is someone else on the line?" Kairi snapped, and Roxas whimpered as Axel broke out laughing on the other end of the line. There was dead silence on Kairi's end, and then she cleared her throat.
"Well, I see this was all just a sick joke. Thanks for getting my hopes up, Roxas. I actually thought that you were a nice guy. Is this some kind of dare or something?" Kairi said calmly across the line and Roxas got flustered again.
"Sorry, Kairi. I dared Roxas to call you and tell you that you were sexy. We didn't know all of this would happen." Axel piped up for Roxas. Roxas kept the phone to his ear, and he thought that he could sense Kairi fuming on the other end of the line. Then, without warning, she hung up.
Axel sat back for a moment, not realizing the magnitude of what he'd just done. He smiled wryly, and went over to Roxas, who slowly hung up the phone, and put his head into his hands. Axel let out a deep breath, still smiling.
"Well, buddy boy. Dare's over. You can go home now if you want." Axel barked, trying to be bright. Roxas could tell that it was forced. He knew that he'd let Roxas down, and it was obvious that he was ashamed. Roxas decided not to let him off.
"You turned really girly after you started hanging out with Larxene and Marluxia and Zexion. But I didn't know that they turned you into a bitch too." He snarled, eyeing Axel.
Axel shrugged. "Maybe I am one. And maybe I don't particularly care. You know what? I'm sorry, okay?" He snapped, folding his arms over his chest. "I didn't know that she'd break out confessing. And I'm sorry I laughed across the line. I realize that that didn't really help the situation."
Roxas scratched his head. "Okay, I forgive you." Roxas sighed, and Axel grabbed him by the arm and led him over to the TV. "Let's watch a movie." Axel offered, and Roxas smiled. "Okay." He said with a forced smile, and they both sat down.
They laughed through the first movie, and then they decided to watch a second one, and a third one, too. Roxas was careful to stay awake, but the day had taken its toll on Axel, and he conked out, drooling as his eyebrow twitched in his sleep. Roxas looked over at him slyly, examining him to see if he really was asleep, after all.
Then, he sneaked off down the road, hoping that Axel wouldn't wake up for a while. When he got to the end of Axel's street, he walked up the pathway that led to Xaldin's house. They just happened to live nearby, but they weren't particularly fond of each other. Xaldin opened the door, snorting.
"Well if it isn't little Roxas. You angry? You look like it." He said, munching on some chips. He'd stick a chip between his lips just so, and then he would push it into his mouth slowly, and break it apart with his teeth like a high speed paper shredder. Roxas watched in wonder as he worked his way through five chips that way. When Xaldin was on the sixth chip, he noticed that Roxas was staring at his mouth. Xaldin looked from his chip back to Roxas with a worried look. Then he offered it to Roxas, holding the bag out to him. Roxas shook his head, waving his hand in front of him. He didn't feel like eating anything when it was this late.
"You wanna come inside?" Xaldin said unsurely, looking back around his flat. Roxas nodded, and walked inside, with Xaldin behind him, still working through the bag of chips.
"I need your hair care kit- the one with all the hair razors and stuff." Roxas declared, looking around the room for it. It was still wrapped up like a present. Zexion had given it to Xaldin for his birthday and he'd never used it. Xaldin chuckled.
"Just keep it. I have dreads- so I don't need it. All I'd use it for is to style the 'stache, and I already have something for that."
Roxas nodded as Xaldin droned on about his hair, picking up the box. Then, he went towards the door as Xaldin continued to talk.
"Goodnight." Roxas mumbled, cutting Xaldin short. Then, he walked out the door and back towards Axel's house. Xaldin sauntered out after him, waving to him as he walked down the sidewalk.
"Hey, come by sometime." Xaldin called after Roxas, and the boy nodded, waving back. He watched as Xaldin turned and went back into his house. Then, Roxas came to Axel's apartment, and walked back inside, careful to tip toe. Axel was still sound asleep.
Roxas lugged Axel towards the bathroom, and got a pair of scissors out of the drawer in the kitchen. He sat Axel on the toilet, and then, he rubbed his hands together, preparing himself.
Without thinking excessively, Roxas began to hack off pieces of Axel's hair, with Axel mumbling incoherently in his sleep behind him. When Roxas had cut Axel's hair enough, he opened Xaldin's razor kit, and read the instructions. Then, when he thought that he knew what he was doing, he put the razor together, and shaved the remaining tufts of hair off Axel's head. Roxas sighed, and stepped back, admiring his handy work.
The sight hit Roxas like a slap in the face. Axel lay slumped over the toilet, virtually bald. His head looked abnormally small without all the hair on it, and he looked weaker for some reason- Like a lion who had had its mane sheared off of it- or a sheared sheep. Then, the immense feeling that he'd done something very wrong fell over Roxas, and he couldn't shake it off. He tried to calm himself, lugging Axel back out of the bathroom and into his bedroom. He took his hoodie and jeans off, and put Axel in bed, patting his head before he left the room. After that, he cleaned the bathroom off, writing a note to Axel that he'd sell the magazines himself tomorrow, and Axel could just stay and relax in bed if he wanted.
Roxas got on the train, and went home, hoping against hope that Axel had wanted to cut his hair anyway.
…
Axel woke up feeling fresh and new. He'd succeeded in hiding his disappointment about Larxene from Roxas the night before, and he was determined to put everything behind him, and go and sell some magazines with Roxas. He sat up, a little bit sad for the boy. His chances with Kairi were shot now.
Then, Axel shivered involuntarily, looking up at the fan above him. It was on the normal speed, but Axel's head didn't feel warm like it usually did. He didn't feel the swish of his hair when he sat up like he usually did.
Suddenly, a great fear fell over Axel, and he jumped out of the bed, running for the bathroom, hoping that this was all a nightmare.
Then, he looked in the mirror, and screamed bloody murder. Then he fainted. After that, he woke up again, looked in the mirror again, and screamed bloody murder again. But he didn't faint.
He didn't feel sorry for Roxas anymore. He didn't even feel sorry for himself. He felt angry, and dangerous. Then, he felt the sudden craving to have sex. That kind of craving hadn't come around for months. He looked into the mirror again, seething.
"Roxas" he snarled. "I'm gonna kill you."