Gift for monstre-rouge because she did a couple of my art requests :D
Axel never really realized how nice a car was, what a luxury it was, while living his college years in Colorado. Now he was out of college, and had taken up a job in a private business as one of their IT men. He had also taken up swearing and to kicking his tires in the last few minute as his car slid off the road into a drainage ditch full of icy slush in the middle of a snowstorm. "Fucking, piece of shit! Damn it!" Of course cussing hadn't helped and now his toes hurt and he was cold and felt like crying. A hand on his shoulder caused the kneeling man to jerk his head around.
Luckily for him, it wasn't a lunatic with a lead pipe; it was an equally sane man with a truck, who was nice enough to tow him out of the ditch. "God, my hood is a fuckin' mess." He groaned.
"Hopefully you'll manage to get home okay." The older gentleman stroked his beard thoughtfully, and Axel thanked him for his help before crawling into the car that had at one point been his great-grandfather's and driving home. The car seemed to be running fine, but that still didn't mean the redhead wanted to drive around in it all banged up like it was, so he turned it in to the mechanic for a bit. This left him riding the bus.
The bus.
In January.
In snowy, colorful Colorado.
Fuck everything.
Now Colorado had its share of psychos which is why he was very nervous the first few days trying to figure out what bus stop to use to get to work and where to get off. To him, you could never be too careful around people. Especially homeless people. Especially homeless people who wanted to tell him about the voices in their head which is why he had started hiking to the Blue stop every morning instead of the Red stop which was much closer to his house.
"It's so cold this morning." The teen commented to him nonchalantly that first morning. "Roxas." He offered his name, backpack over his shoulder, violin case in hand.
"Axel." The older man eyed him warily. The stranger seemed like a good enough kid. Like one that wouldn't mug him. Cute too with blond hair and nice blue eyes- 'Eyes off the jailbait, Axel.' The last thing he needed in his life right now was anymore problems. "Where do you go to school?"
"Fairview." He smiled, "You know, the smart kid school that looks like a prison?"
"Ah, yes." Axel nodded, "Alright, I know where you're talking about. Are you a…senior?"
The young man laughed, "Very well done, Mr. Businessman."
"Axel." He repeated again, "Just Axel."
"Well, just Axel, how long have you been in Boulder?" A sudden chill ran through him and he figured it was just the wind.
"Couple years now, I-" A red car pulled over and cut him off.
"Sorry, this is my ride. We'll talk tomorrow, eh?" Throwing the kid a wave goodbye, he nodded. It was nice to have some conversation, and maybe it'd make this week without a car not seem so long.
Blue stop it was.
~o~
"So you play violin?" Axel asked the second day, taking a sip of his coffee.
Roxas nodded, "Yeah, first chair. Really impressive, right?" He laughed, "I hate it, but my mom is nuts about me going to Julliard just like she did. I don't really have any choice in the matter."
Feeling sympathetic for the other, the redhead nodded, "That sucks, man. I'm sorry. Don't worry, though. You got your whole future out in front of you."
"I guess." He frowned, "What are your parents like?"
"My dad is really cool. He worked with machinery his whole entire life. My mom is pretty average. I'm almost twenty-four, so I mean there's not much to say." Axel offered, wishing his fingers weren't about to fall off from cold already.
"Are you going to be riding the bus long?" Roxas had taken a liking to him already, "You seem pretty neat. Not a lot of the other people who were riding ever talked to me."
"Eh? Only for the rest of this week." Axel explained, "My car is in the shop."
"Aw, that's a bummer." The blond kicked at a pile of plowed snow. "Well maybe I can convince you to give up the car and become an economic friendly commuter." He laughed as the practically full car pulled up to the curb.
"I doubt it, Roxas." Axel smiled sadly and waved, "Have a good day."
~o~
On the fourth day, Axel finally had to ask, "Why are you always here so early?"
"Want to get out of the house, my mom." He explained with a shrug.
Dumb thing to ask. "Should have figured, sorry."
"Naw, it's okay. I mean sometimes this is like my only escape, you know? She's a volunteer at my school too, and my dad's a teacher there. She doesn't leave until later, though, and he leaves way earlier than I get up in case you were wondering." Roxas explained, "Where do you work?"
"Mountain Memory, we're a computer company, and I'm the computer fixer for the computer company." He laughed, "Kind of funny, but it majorly pays the bills and it's a great job. It really makes me happy."
"Sounds like a good deal, man. You got a girlfriend?" The teen asked casually, rubbing his hands together for friction before pocketing them.
Axel blushed before reluctantly admitting, "Naw, I'm gay."
"Got a boyfriend then?"
Oh, that was a good response, "Nope. Single."
"That's cool, so am I." Roxas winked as the car came to a stop, and he opened the door, "Plus, I'm eighteen. See you tomorrow Axel."
~o~
Roxas was seated on the bus stop bench this time since the sun had done its job and melted away at the few inches that had coated everything, "Do you believe in ghosts, Axel?"
"No."
"Christians believe in ghosts. They're in the Bible." Roxas coughed into his elbow.
"That's cool for Christians then. I don't find myself a very religious man."
Axel looked at the other skeptically not knowing where this was going, "You know four years ago, some kid in my orchestra class bit it. They said he hadn't been taking his anti-depressants and jumped in front of a moving car, right at this bus stop."
God, he should have gone with the fucking Red stop this morning, "Okay…You're freaking me out, Rox. You feeling okay today, buddy?" Should he get the kid's mom?
"Yeah, fine. I'm just saying, sometimes people say that they meet him here." Roxas smiled, "Kind of cool, right?"
The redhead nodded, that, as weird as it was, was actually sort of cool. One of those urban legends or something, "You ever meet him?"
Avoiding the question, the blond stood up, "He hasn't been the first person here, though, that jumped. There was another girl three years ago. She was nineteen. There was two boys two years ago, both sixteen. The freaky thing about them all is that they only had one thing in common: none of them had a driver's license, all of them jumped in front of a small red car. This actually used to be the Red stop, but they had to switch the name with the other one last year because it was a 'high risk location'." He shrugged, "Haven't had a problem since."
Axel laughed, "Okay, you're actually genuinely giving me the shivers. Very impressive. Especially since I don't wig out easily."
"Don't worry. I won't say anything more." He hummed, ambling towards the curb as his ride was spotted in the distance, "You'll be here tomorrow right?"
"Nope, sorry. Car gets out of the shop later today." He leaned back a bit from the other when he saw a flash of twisted anger in the otherwise usually calm cerulean eyes.
Roxas' sudden air of hatefulness had temporarily distracted him from the frown that had formed on the blond's face, "Oh, well I guess I'll just have to change my plans."
And that's when Axel realized, he'd never seen the driver of the car Roxas got into each morning. In fact, the whole time, he'd only seen Roxas and the other three occupants.
And that vehicle seated five.
This was done as an attempt at horror. I'm not very good at it. Layla betaed. Review if you want!