A/N:
It was a lot of fun researching medical lingo for this fic. More chapters to come, but for the moment it does alright as a oneshot. I hope you enjoy!
Chapter One.
"Doctor Jones, we have a Level 2 being brought in – a 19 year old male with suspected alcohol poisoning. Unresponsive."
Axel straightened immediately; lifting the stethoscope away from the elderly man's chest he was examining and turned to face the nurse standing behind him. Namine looked worried and anxious for instructions, her hands tightly grasped the bottom of her scrub top. Axel could see her fingers trembling. It was hard on all of them, what with being so short staffed, let alone the poor little intern.
"Do we have any beds available at the moment?" Axel asked firmly, quickly striding through the myriad of people already sending the Emergency Department into overdrive. It had started out a usual Saturday night, now Sunday at 2 in the morning, and one of their peak periods. This was the time Axel dreaded the most. A typical Saturday night rush was usually full of drunks, drug addicts and hypochondriacs, mixed in with fairly serious, legitimate cases. He'd started his shift at 10 pm and had been thrown into the melee without ceremony.
"No, Sir," Namine replied, a little bit out of breath keeping up with Axel's long, rapid strides. "Xion has gone to Ward 7 to borrow two stretchers, but after that we'll have to shuffle some patients around."
Shit, Axel thought inwardly. He spared a fleeting thought and curse to the people who clogged up the system needlessly and made his job just that little bit harder. It was going to be a long shift.
"Okay, go find Xion – I'm going to need one of those stretchers here. If it's a Level 2 we'll need to act immediately. I'll need oxygen and IV fluids – stat."
Namine blustered out her understanding before skittering away to find Xion. Axel kept making his way towards the glass doors of the ED where an ambulance was just hurtling to a stop. Without missing a beat, the back doors of the van were thrown open as the ambulance officer driving the vehicle stood at the open doors ready, the stretcher being pushed out from the inside. Axel saw the feet of the patient first as Tifa took the stretcher handles and carefully checked that the wheel supports were locked correctly into place. She pulled the stretcher towards the automated glass doors, Cloud, her partner bringing up the rear. And then Axel saw the messy head of striking blond hair and his heart sank into his stomach.
It couldn't be…
Tifa passed through the doors, her eyes immediately locating Axel and locking him in place. Her expression told him everything he needed to know.
It was Roxas Halliday again.
Arriving at the crucial moment, Xion and Namine wheeled the empty stretcher bed forward, coming alongside the stretcher with Roxas lying on top of. Axel moved forward to meet them and – "One, two – lift," helped them and the two paramedics move the unconscious boy onto the available bed.
"What's his status?" Axel murmured to Cloud, Namine wheeling over the Portable Oxygen Concentrator and placing the face mask over the blond's pale face. Axel rapidly took in the sunken eyes, the blue tinged lips and fingers and hastily pulled open Roxas' rumpled button down shirt. The boy's chest was moving, but barely, jolting in slow, sharp breaths. He didn't need to count them, the blond was clearly hypoxic – his body wasn't taking in an efficient enough level of oxygen to maintain normal function.
"Found unresponsive, blood pressure 80/50, 11 bpm, corneal reflexes react well to stimulation, no suspected brain or nerve damage."
Axel stepped out of the way as Xion hurriedly moved around the bed, hastily trying to locate a suitable enough vein for the IV drip. She clicked her tongue in frustration. "He's so dehydrated," she murmured, more to herself than anyone else around her, who were moving over the blond like fluid water as she kept pressing and pressing on Roxas' pale forearm.
"How long has he been out, do you know?" Axel asked, his eyes never leaving Roxas' face.
"We're not sure," Cloud intoned quietly. "Two friends of his found him passed out in the men's toilets of the nightclub they were in. There's a possibility he's been drugged."
Xion finally located a vein suitably large enough to support the cannula and inserted it with ease before attaching the IV fluids she had suspended next to her on a mobile stand. She corrected the dosage and checked that it was flowing properly. Namine on the other side of the bed still held the oxygen mask in place, reading the monitor nervously every couple of seconds and also trying to observe what Xion was doing. Whereas Namine was only an intern, Xion was a fully qualified senior nurse. The girls got on famously, which was just as well since excellent mentors like Xion were hard to come by.
"Xion, do bloods please. I want the BAC and whether or not any other toxins are present. Check his vitals and organ health too," Axel instructed as another intern nurse, Kairi, moved around the bed like a hummingbird – pulling off the blond's shoes and noting down his vitals before attaching a pulse oximeter to one of his blue tinged fingers. She then hastily cocooned his body in a heated blanket she had procured from one of the blanket warming cabinets.
Xion tilted her head slightly and confirmed she understood, her blue eyes briefly locking with Axel's. She swiftly moved back around the other side of the bed, lifted the blond's arm from out of the confines of the blanket and once again had trouble locating an accessible vein in Roxas' restricted circulatory system. A few moments passed and finally on the third puncture she drew blood and inserted the small needle fluidly into the comatose boy's arm.
Axel took in Roxas' slightly pained expression and inwardly sighed in defeat. This was all they could do for alcohol poisoning unfortunately. Pumping stomachs was no longer a viable method in helping an intoxicated person recover as the alcohol was so readily absorbed into the blood stream that by the time you pumped their stomach it was an exercise in futility. All they could do now was bring the teen's heart rate and blood pressure back into normal ranges and help his kidneys filter the toxins out. God, he hoped the boy didn't have drugs in his system too. Until the blood sample results got back to him there were too many unknowns.
Successfully completing his handover, Cloud audibly sighed and touched Axel's arm in farewell before silently moving back towards his ambulance van. He wheeled the empty stretcher in front of him, and out through the glass doors.
Axel had to forcibly tear his eyes away from Roxas' forlorn visage and instead looked down into the expectant gaze of Xion. "Find a place for him quickly; he'll need to be monitored every fifteen minutes. Until we get the blood results back we have no idea how much alcohol is in his system. He may go into cardiac arrest."
"I'll get these to Marluxia straight away," Xion replied, flicking the small vials full of Roxas' blood that were held securely in the palm of her hand. She flashed Axel a small smile before helping Namine lift the hospital bed's retractable railings into place and slowly wheeled the stretcher further into the department.
"Doctor Jones – we have a level 3 being brought in – motor vehicle casualty, 36 year old female. Broken tibia, suspected multiple rib fractures." Kairi spoke up beside him, Axel sparing the disappearing Roxas one last look before hastily adding up the resources left to him.
Damn. Getting two critical patients in at the same time was just all a part of the fun. It was 2.30am. Excluding the possibility of having to do overtime, he had five and half hours to go. "Can you find Zexion? He's better with bones than I am." He answered her distractedly, noticing Tifa leaving the triage nurse's desk and immediately making a direct beeline over to him.
"I'll find him," Kairi called over her shoulder, already hurriedly searching the department for the orthopaedic surgeon.
Before Tifa could reach him, a messy burst of laughter from behind them caught Axel by surprise as he turned around in time to see two teenagers around the same age as Roxas, stumble drunkenly through the automatic sliding doors of the ED. The girl with short, curly brown hair had tripped on the way in and was clinging to her male companion, her arm wound tightly around his shoulders, as she tried to keep herself upright in her 6 inch high heels. He vaguely remembered them both from the last time Roxas had been brought in. They had been completely shitfaced that time too. "They insisted on accompanying Halliday," Tifa murmured, stopping to stand beside Axel. Her eyes were hard. "I don't know why. I think this is all a bit of a joke to them."
"Don't say that," Axel replied tiredly, even though from where he was standing it really didn't look like they were all that concerned about their friend having just been brought in with the likelihood of his internal organs near shutting down.
"This is the third time this month he's been brought in. Someone needs to talk to him. If his 'friends' won't intervene, I think you have a responsibility to make him understand the repercussions of his reckless drinking."
Axel remained silent, but he knew Tifa wasn't really after an answer. They both knew this to be true. The kid had a problem, and he was tying up valuable resources and clogging an already over-worked, heavily occupied public system. They did not have the beds to spare.
The two intoxicated teens had finally made their way through the entrance way and were accosting an irritated looking Cloud who had come back inside to finalise the paperwork with Tifa. The older blond waved them over to the triage nurse's desk where a tired looking elderly nurse was waiting for them. Axel could clearly see the look on the woman's face. Nobody had time for this shit. One inebriated person was more than enough.
Tifa's phone beeped twice and she immediately pulled it from her breast pocket and scanned the screen. "I have to go. Another job coming in."
"Take it easy," he called after her, his mind already shifting to identify where he was needed next. Maybe if that traffic casualty was all sorted he could sneak off to the staff room for a short break and grab himself a coffee.
The nurse's voice, who was speaking to Roxas' two friends filtered into his distracted mind. "I'm terribly sorry, but I'll have to ask the two of you to either wait in the waiting room or return home. Mister Halliday will be under constant supervision until the alcohol has left his system and he is out of a critical state. There isn't much we can do at this stage."
"We should wait, Hayner! I'm worried," whined the brown haired girl, her tight black dress riding up dangerously high on her thighs. She clung to her blond companion, pulling at his arm harshly. Axel realised she was using him to remain upright. Was this what young people classed as fun these days? Being so fucked up you couldn't even stand?
"Fuck that, we're going home! I'm sick of babysitting him every time we go out!" The boy called Hayner growled in return, ignoring the nurse sitting patiently in front of him and already pulling the still protesting brunette back out towards the Emergency Department's automated glass doors.
"But Hayner –!" The inebriated girl tried again, stumbling to keep up with Hayner's furious pace.
"Nah, fuck it, Olette, I'm over it – he's always ruining – " And Axel didn't get to hear the rest of the blond's angry tirade, the automated glass doors closing smoothly behind them. He watched them wander off into the darkness and out of sight, Olette still gesticulating and protesting loudly. Well, at least it looked like she cared.
"Axel. Stop spacing out and get over here. I need someone to take bloods." Riku, another resident doctor, called off to his left. Axel could faintly make out the fresh blood covering the doctor's gloved hands. He made his way over and immediately assessed the new situation. It was a young man, maybe late twenties with his right hand completely ripped to shreds. He'd been having a fight with his girlfriend and had punched his hand through a nearby window. Now it looked like nothing more than minced meat, some of the glass having cut down to the bone. The man was whimpering loudly, his eyes squeezed tightly shut.
It was 2.45 am. Man, he needed to stop looking at the time.
As another nurse held the man's arm down steady and Axel slowly drew out the blood sample, he could feel his eyeballs itching from the strain. He blinked his eyes a few times, some limited moisture stubbornly returning. He withdrew the needle and stowed the blood vials in his white coat pocket, already moving to deliver the samples to Marluxia, their department analyst. He moved swiftly through the ED, his mind predictably wandering back to one messed up blond's state of affairs in particular.
The first time Roxas Halliday had been brought into the ED, Axel hadn't had much to do with him. It had been a Friday night and they had had two car crash victims come in needing immediate attention that had taken up all of his energy and focus. He had been informed of the 19 year olds arrival but another doctor had luckily stepped in to take care of it. He'd seen the blond boy from afar, emergency personnel performing CPR on him as they struggled to keep his heart pumping. He'd been found outside a popular Hollow Bastion night club, unconscious and lying in a pool of his own vomit. No one had accompanied him in; instead a bouncer from the club had called an ambulance, but not before informing the ambulance officers that the kid had not been in their establishment. Of course he hadn't been. Absolute bullshit.
Axel had spared a fleeting thought for these stupid kids, taking up beds and not giving a fuck about anyone else but themselves before his attention was once again diverted to the woman with the broken neck screaming in front of him.
He'd worked overtime that shift and had clocked in a new personal record of 13 hours without a break. Not that that was uncommon these days. He'd been exhausted, driving home at around 8.30 in the morning when he'd immediately spied the familiar blond walking along the side of the road. In one hand the boy held a lit cigarette; the other was raised out towards the road displaying the international hand sign for hitchhiking. The kid was a mess, his dress shirt slung over his shoulder, no doubt still covered in his own foul smelling vomit.
Axel had kept driving, but he had looked back in the rear view mirror and for the briefest of moments he could've sworn that their eyes had locked. He'd thought for the umpteenth time since beginning work in the ED – what the fuck was wrong with kids these days? Why did they have to take it so far?
The second time Roxas Halliday had been brought in he'd been driven into the ED by his two friends Axel now knew to be Hayner and Olette. Roxas had still been conscious which wasn't necessarily any better. He had struggled and fought against the ED staff and had had to be restrained against a stretcher as soon as they'd gotten him through the doors. Axel had been taking the blond's bloods when Roxas' disorientated gaze had fallen on him. "You're bew-tiful…" the boy had slurred as Axel had stared into his hazy, half lidded eyes. "Whas'…your…name…sexy?" the kid had continued, his lips moving slowly, his tongue lolling in his mouth as two nurses had hastily strapped down his arms. Despite himself, Axel had felt his heart rate speed up. It was a fucked up analogy, but the way Roxas had been lying there, his hair splayed around his head like a halo, looking all wanton and helpless had triggered something inappropriate inside the good doctor's over-worked brain. He tore his eyes away from Roxas' baby blues and furiously berated himself. Fuck, did he need to get laid. He shook the thoughts from his mind. Completely ridiculous.
This time around he had been the one to handle Roxas' discharge but it had been anything but pleasant. Axel had in no less terms, chewed the 19 year old out – 'Did he think it was funny tying up precious public resources?' and 'did he know that it wasn't a part of the norm to black out from drinking so much?' Roxas had acted like he hadn't even heard the irate doctor speak – had mockingly sniffed at one of his armpits, made a repulsed face and then studiously avoided Axel's thunderous expression.
Axel had immediately gone into another quietly serious tirade about the blond's antisocial behaviour, hoping to bring Roxas around but the teen had just cut him off. "Oh save me your righteous, medical bullshit," his expression bored as he finally gave Axel the attention the redhead was demanding. "Man, you need to get laid," Roxas had sniffed, pouring himself out of the hospital bed and kicking on his dirty, scuffed converse sneakers. Axel had bristled indignantly, mainly finding himself angry about how true the blond's words were. Roxas had grabbed his brown paper bag of personal effects before finally turning back to the quietly fuming doctor. "Don't you have lives to go save or something?" He'd deadpanned, standing in front of Axel and waiting for his response. "Well, it's hard to do that when I'm here babysitting you," Axel had bit out, completely forgetting he should be keeping his professional demeanour. Roxas had smirked up at him, "good boy," he'd murmured, as if speaking to a pet dog before completely taking Axel by surprise. He'd suddenly reached out with two hands and grabbed the lapels of Axel's white physician coat, wreathing the taller man into a searing, open mouthed kiss. Axel could only stare wide eyed into Roxas' challenging gaze and idly wonder if he was so overworked he was actually hallucinating before the blond had released him and without further ado promptly left the hospital. Axel had stood there completely shell-shocked for a few minutes when it had finally dawned on him that for a second there, he'd started kissing Roxas back.
What – the – fuck?
It was now 7.25 in the morning. Axel had a few patient discharges to do and then he could finally, finally head home. Roxas had stabilized sometime around 5 in the morning. Sometime after that his oxygen mask had been removed, as well as the IV drip. Coming to the end of his rounds and seeing the boy awake, Axel moved to sit by the blond's bed, grabbing Roxas' medical chart from the bottom of the bed along the way. Roxas was quiet – solemn. He tensely looked up at Axel as the doctor settled himself in the plastic chair beside his bed, but swiftly averted his gaze.
Axel regarded the boy for a few seconds then flicked through the blond's medical chart before speaking. He'd already read through it twice, but was hoping to make the boy squirm. Roxas looked tired and want for a better word – sickly looking. The IV fluids would have made it so that the blond wouldn't come to with a hangover, but that didn't change the fact that the teen had had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.448 in his system. He'd been within a hair breadth of falling into a coma and since Axel knew that technically this wasn't the teen's 'first rodeo', he was now coming to the conclusion that Roxas in fact had an alcohol abuse problem. He needed to get professional help. At least it'd been a small mercy that the kid hadn't had any drugs present in his system as well. That was a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
"You can't keep doing this, Roxas," Axel murmured into the quiet. "Your liver nearly shut down for good this morning. You could have died."
Roxas said nothing but Axel knew the blond had heard him. Roxas scrunched his hands into the thick, starched fabric of the hospital blankets and sighed audibly, staring blankly up at the ceiling.
"I think you have a serious problem with alcohol and you need to get help." Axel stated, his eyes never leaving Roxas' face. The blond still kept his silence, a heavy frown marring his features.
Axel was losing his patience – with himself and with the stubborn boy in front of him. Of course it was his job to care in his line of work, but even for medical professionals there were limits. You had to protect your heart from becoming too involved or you would find yourself paying dearly for it later. Despite this, Axel found himself caring so much more for Roxas than he ever had for any patient he'd looked after before. He wanted to help him; he wanted the blond to so desperately wake up to himself and his blatant self-destruction.
"Is this where you imagined your life heading? How's this scenario working out for you?" He tersely shot out, not really expecting Roxas to answer this time around either.
"Maybe a lifetime ago, when I cared," Roxas dryly intoned, completely taking Axel by surprise. "Now everything just stays fucked up," he finished, his eyes still gazing stonily up at the ceiling.
"It doesn't have to be that way anymore – good help is available to you," Axel urged quietly, "but if you continue the way you have been, I'm telling you now – you're going to kill yourself on one of these benders, Roxas."
Now this got a reaction from the blond, but not one the good doctor was expecting. Roxas threw back his head and laughed – laughed like Axel had just told him the best damned joke he'd ever heard. Axel's frown deepened with concern but he remained silent until the blond had calmed down again. He could tell the blond's laugher hadn't reached his eyes.
Sobering up again, Roxas snorted quietly, unhurriedly examining his hands still wound tightly into his sheets.
"No one would miss me." He murmured, his tone resolute.
"That's not true!" Axel burst out without thinking, his voice ringing in the fragile hush of the morning.
Roxas jumped slightly at the redhead's sudden outburst, his eyes finally lifting to meet Axel's pained expression.
"…I would…" the young doctor finished, surprise colouring Roxas' features as he silently drank in the sincerity written on Axel's face.
A strange silence fell over them, fleeting sounds from the room at large filtering into Axel's overworked senses. He knew exactly what he'd said and felt surprised that he so vehemently meant it. Whether he liked it or not, somewhere along the line he'd come to really care for this alcohol abusing, public system clogging, stubborn-assed teenager and there was nothing he could do about it. But he wanted to help. He so desperately wanted Roxas to let him in.
Trying to save a bit of face, Axel added quickly, "And I'm sure a lot of other people in your life would miss you too…"
Roxas' jaw worked wordlessly until suddenly his entire demeanour seemed to change. His expression cleared and actually seemed to look hopeful, before melting into something akin to affection. Axel looked on in confusion, wondering about the myriad of thoughts whirling through the blond's head. He didn't have long to ponder it though as Roxas' eyes cleared and he beamed happily at the doctor sitting beside him.
"Okay." Roxas spoke suddenly, his calm smile still firmly in place.
Axel sat back in his chair, utterly confused. Maybe Roxas was bipolar as well, because damn, if that wasn't a dramatic turn around.
Roxas' eyes took on a strange glint and his smile morphed into an all knowing smirk. "I'll get help, I'll clean myself up – but I need to give you something first. You just have to promise me that you won't refuse what I give you."
"If it's within my power to help you, I will. I promise," Axel replied immediately. "I want to help you, Roxas. You're too young to lose your life to something like this." Inside, Axel was jumping for joy. Finally, he'd gotten through to the kid!
Roxas just grinned in answer before pushing the blankets down around his feet and swinging his legs off of the bed. He reached over to the small wheeled table beside him and lifted the paper cup of water resting there to his waiting lips. He held up his index finger as he slowly drank the whole cup, wordlessly asking Axel to be patient. Still not breathing a word, Roxas silently got to his feet and walked around the now increasingly bewildered doctor to pull closed the large floor length curtains around the small cordoned area that was his makeshift hospital room. Now no one would be able to see inside.
"W-What are you –?" Axel stammered, the blond's strong hands once again pulling the redhead out of his chair and forward by the lapels of his coat and unceremoniously plonked him down to sit on the edge of the hospital bed.
"Shhhh…" Roxas whispered, pressing an index finger to Axel's lips. "No talking. You promised, remember?" The boy breathed, leaning in to capture Axel's frozen lips in a soft, chaste kiss.
Axel immediately pulled backwards, his expression wild and panicked.
Roxas snaked a hand around the back of Axel's head, pulling through the hair tie holding the redhead's wild spikes secure and successfully halting the man's hasty retreat. Roxas pressed forward more forcefully, his eyes sliding closed and his mouth moving slowly, but firmly, coaxing the other man into reciprocating.
Roxas pulled away, gazing hazily into Axel's unfocussed eyes. He licked his lips. "Let me thank you, for caring about me," he breathed out against Axel's parted lips.
Axel groaned somewhere deep within his throat as he threw all caution to the wind, and quite possibly his sanity and once again moved to return Roxas' kiss.
His hands moved to cup the boy's shoulders hesitantly, all thoughts erased and replaced by pure, unadulterated feeling. Roxas' tongue darted into his mouth which he eagerly sucked in, not breaking the delicious press of their lips for even a second as his mind unhelpfully wondered when the last time he kissed someone like this had been.
"You are too cute," Roxas whispered, his hands framing Axel's face, the redhead's eyes half mast, pupils dilated. He felt like he'd just downed twelve tequila shots in one go.
Getting completely lost in Roxas' lips and his tongue and his touch, Axel only remembered exactly where he was and exactly what he shouldn't be doing with a patient, no less, when he felt a sure hand start unbuckling his belt.
"We can't do this…not here…" Axel breathed out, nervously trying to disentangle himself from the tempting blond and his wandering hands.
Roxas shushed him again, completely unfazed and resumed unbuttoning the young doctor's pants. Axel's protests were weak at best, Roxas successfully distracting him by sucking on the sensitive skin behind one of the redhead's ears.
"Oh?" Roxas laughed quietly, whispering into his ear. "But if we were to go somewhere else, it would be okay?"
Axel flushed furiously, realising his mistake too late and awkwardly feeling like he was sixteen again. Roxas pressed another intense kiss to his moist lips, his hand delving underneath Axel's underwear and smoothly pulling out the other man's growing erection.
"What a naughty doctor you are…" Roxas murmured, trailing his fingers up and down Axel's cock. "Just sit back and enjoy it. I'll be quick."
Pressing another reassuring kiss to Axel's mouth, his tongue playfully flicking against the man's bottom lip, Roxas maintained eye contact and slowly sank to his knees. He pushed the redhead's thighs apart and settled between them, Axel's breath catching in his throat.
Pushing aside Axel's underwear as far as he could get it to go, Roxas wrapped one hand around the young doctor's cock and wriggled his tongue from the base all the way up to the tip, his hot breath fanning over the already heated skin, making Axel throw his head back and squeeze his eyes shut tight.
Roxas moaned quietly, seeing Axel's obvious pleasure and wrapped his lips around the head, his tongue swirling and dipping into the slit. He wrapped one hand around the base of Axel's cock, the other rubbing soothingly along the man's thigh, his mouth sinking down and taking in as much as he could, bobbing his head hurriedly, working his saliva over the redhead's arousal.
"Fuck…" Axel groaned, still painfully aware of where he was and why the fuck was he allowing this to happen again? One of his hands braced his body back against the bed, his other hand burying itself into soft blond spikes.
A million thoughts were whirling their way through Axel's mind. Roxas had obviously done this before, 'cause he was so damn good at it – the next thought to follow being – 'did he often thank people this way?' He could faintly hear people walking backwards and forwards beyond their curtained room and the thought of being discovered like this simultaneously terrified him and turned him on more. Roxas was shoving his mouth down over Axel's cock as far as it would go, saliva shining the blond's lips a pretty pink colour, Axel's cock slick and warm and his nerve endings fizzing as heat pooled within his groin.
He wasn't trying to hold out but he wasn't hurrying either, and as soon as Roxas' eyes lifted to meet his own he was completely lost, the blond's hand that was rubbing small patterns into his thigh shooting up and covering his mouth, effectively muffling his cry of release as he came and came and came.
Roxas held the young doctor's thrusting hips down as he swiftly enveloped him down to the hilt, his throat swallowing repeatedly around Axel's cock, catching every last drop and sucking him clean.
Axel's breath came out in harsh pants, his arm giving way beneath him and his exhausted body falling back against the cool sheets. It had already been a particularly long shift and now this to top it off. The only thing the poor doctor wanted to do was curl up and pass out.
Roxas stood up, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth and dutifully tucked Axel's flagging erection back into his pants. He leaned over the still panting redhead and once again brushed his fingertips lightly down the sides of Axel's face, coming to rest on the man's cheeks. "I'll see you around sometime." It wasn't a question – more like a promise and Axel idly hoped that the next time he saw the captivating blond it wouldn't be here.
Roxas pressed a final heated kiss to Axel's parted lips, his hands sliding down to trail down the man's neck and over his still heaving chest before the redhead hazily took notice of the curtains shifting somewhere off to his left and then just like that, the 19 year old was gone.
Axel stared up at the ceiling, his breaths finally coming back down to normal, his arms splayed out across the bed. He'd been working at Hollow Bastion Hospital for over 3 years now and something like this had never, ever happened to him. He wasn't an idiot, and obviously he'd dated other people before but he could never for the life of him remember falling so hard for someone. Why the hell had Roxas Halliday left such an impression on him, and obnoxiously wormed his way into his heart?
"Doctor Jones? Are you still here? …Has anyone seen Axel?" A voice called out, not far from where Axel was recovering. He quickly sat up and gained his bearings, just as the curtain in front of him was thrown aside. Xion stepped into the small space, her eyes darting around the curtained room suspiciously, but softened into concern as they landed on Axel. "Jeez Ax, you look like absolute shit. I thought you knocked off an hour ago!"
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