Burn like The Books in the Town Square
Axel was considered a pyro. He liked to light things on fire, and watch them burn. You could almost consider him addicted to the flame. Of course, lighting things on fire can be dangerous… and society isn't exactly going to praise and encourage you if you start a forest fire. But Axel wasn't thinking that at the time. The only thing on his mind as he stared down at the small blue flame coming from the lighter in his hand, about to light the first branch on fire, was how beautiful the scene would come out. How wonderful the harsh reds and oranges would look on the soon to be charcoal trees against the nearly black night sky.
When the helicopters and firemen came to extinguish his beauty, it set him off. It set him off as if it was the zombie apocalypse and the zombies had just penetrated his fortress; about to eat his infant son alive. It maddened him, yet there was nothing he could do to stop them! He'd get his revenge on them…
Zexion was the only son of a renowned firefighter. He lived in his father's shadow, and on the rare occasion he was acknowledged, people always expected him to be just like his father; they expected him to be a great firefighter too. But that wasn't Zexion's interest; his love was books, and he wanted to be a writer. The only way he could ever see himself as a firefighter, would be if the local library had caught fire and there wasn't anybody around that could put it out besides him.
His father had been working another night shift, leaving Zexion home alone once again. His father didn't have much of a problem with this, thinking his son wouldn't do anything rash, being a quiet child with practically no friends. Zexion rather preferred it when his father left him home alone, having the whole house quiet and to himself. He always used the time to read his collection of books, taking advantage of the silence that filled the house.
Zexion was very particular about his setting when he read. He simply couldn't stand to read in a noisy area; it distracted him too much. His father almost always had friends over during the day, and despite how responsible his father naturally was, he became a completely different person with his friends around. He was in the middle of his current book, Beautiful Creatures, when he heard the loud and rather irritating, yet familiar, sound of the fire trucks' sirens go off as it passed by on the street below.
There must be a fire going on somewhere… He thought to himself before continuing on with his book, trying to drown out the fading sound of the sirens.
A few hours passed, and he was able to get good progress on his book, when suddenly, he smelled smoke, and the room began to grow incredibly warm. He marked his spot in his book, and got up, confused. He peeked through the curtains of his upstairs bedroom window when he saw a redheaded teen standing in the front yard, just beyond the driveway, watching something. He squinted at the redhead for a moment before his view was blocked by a cloud of thick, black, smoke. It was then that he realized what was going on; his house was on fire.
He panicked, and ran out of his bedroom, then down the stairs, taking two steps at a time. It was warmer down stairs, and the same black smoke was beginning to fill the entire bottom floor. He did as his father had taught and gone over with him multiple times throughout his childhood, and got down low to the floor, starting to crawl towards the back door in the kitchen on his stomach. From when he had looked out his window, he knew it was the front of the house catching fire, and there was still a chance he could make it out through the back.
He felt the door with the back of his hand, feeling for any high amount of heat. He found it still be rather cool, and got up again, quickly turning the knob and flinging the door open before running out into his backyard. He coughed as some of the black smoke went out the door with him, trying to start breathing properly once again, some of the smoke still within his lungs. He was horrified as he stood there for a moment and watched the whole house begin to catch fire.
Somewhere in the distance, he heard another fire truck's blaring siren. One his neighbors had called the fire department for him! He was in luck! However, the man in the front yard also seemed to notice this. Zexion looked away from the burning house, about to think about where he was going to go, when he saw the redhead charging at him. Zexion's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he turned and ran, going to run around the house, and then as far as way as possible from the redhead.
However, Zexion wasn't the most athletic person. Despite his almost feminine pettiness, he still wasn't a very fast runner. The redhead had lots of practice in running from running away from the authorities so many times, and was gaining on him. He gasped for air as the wind was knocked out of him when the redhead tackled and pinned him down on his stomach. From there, his world went black.
_
Two years later, Zexion was living with Axel in his 'secret hide-out'. Ever since the fire at Zexion's house and the redhead had taken him, Axel hardly ever let him out of his site. Zexion had been reluctant to get along with him at first, but had soon learned that he wasn't so bad. Once Zexion had finally opened up a bit to Axel and became more tolerant of his fiery personality, Axel had decided to try to share the magical beauty of the flames with him. Together, they would watch things burn, and Zexion too began to love it. He even began… to love Axel.
Despite the fact he had Axel for company, Zexion still felt bored and lonely at times. He wished he still had his books. He decided he would share the wonder of his books with Axel, and so the two would go down to the public library.
The two had made a mistake in forgetting one very important thing; Axel was a wanted man. In the eyes of the public, he was still a dangerous pyro, as well as a kidnapper. As the two made their way into the public library, the librarian recognized Zexion from one of the many missing people posters. While the two males went off into the back of the library, to the teen's fiction section, the librarian went off to the police station across the street.
Axel felt something weird, like they shouldn't be there when he noticed some police officers starting to come in through the front entrance. He nudged Zexion and gestured towards them.
Zexion froze.
He grabbed Axel's shoulder, and pulled him down with him as he crouched down low behind the bookshelf, "We can't let them see us… and the only other way out is through the children's section. If why try to go through there, we'll be seen for sure", he whispered.
Axel scratched the back of his head as tried to think of something, "We could try to create a diversion…", he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his lucky red lighter.
Zexion nodded in response, and Axel took a random book off the shelf and lit it on fire before tossing it out into the carpeted aisle, causing the carpet to begin to catch fire as the book burned. The two stood up, and the two police officers saw the book, then them. Zexion panicked and grabbed Axel's lighter, and lit a small bookshelf on fire before pushing it over. The smoke reached the smoke detectors on the ceiling, and water began to spray down from the ceiling everywhere in the library. Axel and Zexion began to run with the two officers after them.
Zexion still had Axel's lighter, and began to set fire to anything within reach, hoping to slow down the officers behind them, when suddenly, he realized he and Axel had been split up.
_
Axel stopped a few feet away from the library, having run outside now, and looked behind him to make sure Zexion was still with him. To his horror, Zexion wasn't there, and the two officers soon would be.
"Fuck…" He said under his breath before turning and running again, going to try to see if he could find another way back inside the library to go and get him.
On the inside, everything was beginning to catch fire and burn down, the water spraying from the nozzles in the ceiling not enough to put it out. But that wasn't the worst of it. Zexion had accidentally cornered himself, and let out a rather high pitched scream when he was knocked to the floor by a fallen bookshelf. His legs were being crushed by it, and the fire was getting closer to him. He began to scream and yell out for someone to help him, but it seemed everyone had already left and evacuated the library.
Axel managed to get back to the original entrance with the two officers hot on his trail. He ran inside the building, despite most of the inside being on fire. The two officers stopped at the closed door. Should they go inside and try to bring him back out? Or was it too dangerous?
Axel heard Zexion's cries for help, and began to run in their direction. There was a large amount of burning wood and furniture in his way, and that same pile of burning wood and furniture was about to light the shelf crushing Zexion, which would ultimately kill him. Axel frantically looked around for something to use when he spotted the fire extinguisher on the other side of the room. Normally he wouldn't dare put out a perfectly good fire, but he had to save Zexion. He began to run towards it when he felt his wrist grabbed, and he yelled out in surprise. One of the officers had decided to come in after him, and was now cuffing his hands behind his back. He went on the thrash and panic as he was led out of the library, looking back in time to see the shelf crushing Zexion catch fire.
Axel had been taken to jail that day, and the two officers had failed to find Zexion, figuring he had successfully fled the building. Weeks later when some community service workers were clearing through the library's wreckage, they found Zexion's charred and almost unrecognizable corpse. When word reached Axel that Zexion had died in the fire, and nobody had thought to search the building for anyone else left inside, he couldn't take it. He committed suicide in his cell that night.
Happy AkuZeku day, readers! Just one of my favorite pairings… I'm surprise I actually managed to finish this in time. 3 thanks for being patient with me, and most of all for reading.