One Night in Nowhere
Note: I suppose that this story is purely the result of going out to a pub and doing nothing but playing cards and drinking with a group of students I came to study with. The odd combination of music played in the pub (two of the students I was with take part of the blame, as they went to the jukebox and picked songs), along with the silliness of Spoons and the chance to win a kabob all sort of contributed to the inspiration leading to this story. This story is purely for fun, and is simply to give me a break from the serious stuff I usually write… and is also helped along by the fact that I very much enjoy a good laugh, especially at the expense of my favorite (and least favorite) characters. Also bear in mind that this has been written on an English computer (damn these keyboards, with the keys in all the wrong places) and with the computer telling me that "favorite" is spelled "favourite". I think I have, however, managed to switch the language over to U.S. English, as it doesn't seem to be correcting it anymore. However, if there are some discrepancies, please forgive them and if they are so glaring that you absolutely cannot live with them, please mention them in a review, and I will do my best to remedy the situation.
Disclaimer: The plot of this story alone belongs to me, as the characters and their origins do not. The songs used in this story are not mine. I ask that I kindly not be sued by the creators, owners, and any others who may hold rights to them.
Description: For the first time in months, Axel and Roxas have a night free from their regular duties and they choose to spend it as far from The World That Never Was as possible. Together they drink, make bets, eat far too much, and discover what love's got to do with it. One-shot. Heavy Axel/Roxas implications.
Warnings: Axel/Roxas pairing, inspiration from spending time in a pub, inspiration from a song from a musical.
"Ugh… Roxas, this is your fault."
The offending companion, Roxas, stared over the worn, scratched wooden table and raised his eyebrows at the Endless Complainer. "This isn't my fault, Axel, I promise. You did this to yourself." The blond chose to stare back down at his glass after ensuring that Axel had understood his words.
"You… you made me come here." The redhead was gripping the table as though it were his only hope for survival. "And now… it's like… everything's… Ugh… My stomach."
Roxas rolled his eyes and took a drink of water. "I told you to slow down on the fourth one. If it's that bad, why don't you walk around for a few minutes, and then come back? We've been planning to get out of that stupid castle for a while, and I'm not going back a moment earlier than eleven thirty because you've got a tummy-ache."
The grip tightened on the table. "I can't mo-ove, Roxas!"
"Yes, you can." Roxas rolled his eyes and stood up. He pulled Axel to his feet and took a step forward. "Just like this."
"I'm not a kid, you know…" Axel complained again.
Roxas cracked a grin. "You sure eat like one."
Axel took a few, wobbling steps, stretched, and took a few more with a bit more confidence. "Where are we, anyway?"
The blond shrugged, sitting back down in his chair. "Nowhere I know very well. Just one of the worlds The Superior sent me off to look through. Pretty quiet, quaint little place… No Heartless, no trouble. Most exciting thing that happens here seems to be a fight in here once in a while."
"So what kind of interest did The Superior take in it?"
He shrugged. "Not sure. Just a quiet little town… A lot of survivors from that huge surge of Heartless... The ones whose worlds were too far gone to return to… There weren't too many, but enough. It's always quiet… People around here say there once were Heartless, but they've gone now."
"Maybe that's what he was looking for." Axel stretched his arms above his head, then rubbed his abdomen with a frown spreading over his face. "My fucking stomach is killing me."
Roxas shook his head. "I told you to slow down, didn't I? You didn't listen to me, did you?"
Axel sunk back into the chair across from his companion. "It was good, at least. 'Lot better than anything they'd offer back… back…" He trailed off and shook his head. "You know what I mean."
"Back there. I know." The blond sighed and propped his feet up on a nearby chair. "I'm not too keen on going back. I've got duty tonight, to boot."
"You could skip." Axel suggested as nonchalantly as he could manage.
"The Superior would have my hide." The retort was shot back immediately. Axel understood.
"Joking…" He mumbled, but they both knew it was a lie. Duty was hardly any fun, and neither of them wanted Roxas to be doing it that night.
They sat in silence for a few moments, then Axel spoke again, his voice much more subdued than it had been.
"Damn… It's our first night free in…" He paused, thinking of how long it had been since he and Roxas had had time to go away from the castle and not worry about anything.
"Two months." Roxas supplied, leaning his head back against the nothingness behind him. "It's been too long."
Axel grinned. "We should make the most of it. You know, have fun."
The younger teen looked up, a bored expression spread over his features. "And what, precisely, is 'fun' for you?"
The redhead shrugged. "New world. New stuff to try. New trouble to get into."
"Let's not. A quiet night would be appreciated. We don't need another escapade like last time." This time, Roxas was smirking, a laugh threatening to release itself as he reminded his beloved friend of their last night to themselves.
"I solemnly swear not to cause any damage this time."
"I think you will, no matter what." Roxas paused then sat normally in the chair again, pulling his feet from the nearby one. "In fact, I'm willing to bet you that you can't keep out of trouble for one night. In fact, for the rest of tonight. And we've got…" He peered up at the clock. "Over an hour."
"I'll take that on. What're we betting for?" Axel looked interested, eyebrows up and waiting.
The blond grinned, staring up at the ceiling pensively. "If I win, you owe me…" He chewed his lip. "Aw, you go first," He mumbled, taking a long drink from his glass.
"Alright, alright. If I win, you gotta take bottom… for a month."
Roxas sputtered, barely swallowing his water in time to keep it from being projected over the table. "No way!" He cried. "N-No way in a billion years!"
Axel just grinned widely at him, eyes sparkling with mirth. "We don't have that much time alive, Foxy-Roxy. What do you get if you win?"
Setting his glass on the table with an ungraceful smack, an idea occurred to Roxas. "Alright then… If I win, you'll wear the barmaid's outfit under your coat for a week." He stated, gesturing toward the busty girl who was clueless that the two were discussing her lacy outfit that did nothing to conceal her assets.
"I'm not losing." Came the immediate reaction upon glancing at the woman's outfit.
Roxas merely burst into a peal of laughter. "That's the point… to see if you can manage without getting yourself into any trouble."
"I won't, I won't…" Axel grumbled, crossing his arms and peering over the table at the younger boy. "Think we should get a drink?"
Pulling out a small pouch, Roxas handed five munny over to the fire-spitting redhead and nodded. "Yeah. Nothing too wild for me."
As he stood and walked away, Axel flashed a grin. "I won't… I know I'm wild enough for you."
"Whatever." A roll of the eyes. After Axel had walked away, he pulled out a deck of cards Luxord had given to him when he had first become part of Organization XIII. As if habitually, he shuffled the cards and the sound of the cards slapping together seemed unable to drown out the music.
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
What's love but a second-hand emotion?
What's love got to do, got to do with it?
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?
Roxas scowled and threw his cards onto the table. He stalked toward the jukebox and stuck in a coin, drumming his fingers as he searched through the list of songs for something, anything, else to listen to. He punched in the songs he wanted, and then glared at the machine. "Don't need to rub it in."
"Why'd you turn it off?" Axel cried. "I love that song!" He set the drinks on the table and sat down as Roxas headed back toward him.
"Already got enough reminders… don't need another when I'm trying to forget that little missing piece of me." He stared at the drinks. A tall glass of a dark brown drink sat in front of Axel, and what appeared to be a bottle of a bluish liquid with a cocktail umbrella sticking out of it sat in front of him. "What the hell is this?" He demanded.
"Nothing too wild for you." Roxas refrained from punching that wicked grin off of Axel's face.
"I bet you felt real manly buying this." He grumbled, removing the frail umbrella from his straw and dropping it, slightly crumpled, in the ashtray.
"Don't need to with you around, Roxas." Axel took a long drink from his glass. "Those the cards Luxord gave you?"
"Yeah. Don't know what I'd do with them."
"Give 'em here." Axel didn't wait for Roxas to hand them over the table, gathering them up on his own. "We'll play poker, if you want."
"Like I've got a lot of money."
"Strip poker?" Axel's voice was almost hopeful.
"I would literally beat the pants off of you in strip poker. And remember our bet? No trouble."
"Aw, what if I won?"
"No. Trouble." A scary emphasis was placed on each word.
"Hey, hey… No offense." Axel shuffled the cards quickly. "Poker it is. We'll play with… Um…" He glanced around the room for anything that could serve as chips.
"We'll use munny… Or just anything you can bet that'd be worth it. Better keep paper handy, 'cause any IOU I've got of yours I will definitely be using."
Axel set down the cards and dug out some of his coins and dropped them next to him on the table. "Great." He picked up the cards again, shuffled them one last time, and dealt.
A single munny was dropped into the middle of the table from each side, and Roxas stared dismally at his hand. "Ugh, I'll take three." He groaned, dropping three of his worthless cards onto the table.
Axel grinned, "And I'll take one." He threw a card on the table and drew one for himself.
Roxas peered over the table at Axel, and then down at his cards. Two threes, two queens, and a nine. He bemoaned in his head. He didn't feel as though he had much of a hand, but he was at least willing to bet on it.
"Betting two munny."
"I put in two munny… and raise you five." Axel's grin widened.
"I put in seven… and raise you by an IOU of…" He paused, took a piece of paper and stared at it for a few seconds before writing something on it, folding it in half and throwing it into the pile. "One night… I'll be yours to command. One night."
A low whistle met this, along with a grin. "So that'd be worth at least fifteen munny right there." He dug through his pockets. "Meeting, and raising by another fifteen munny."
Roxas groaned, Axel's hand had to be amazing for him to be betting so high. He dropped his cards on the table. "Fold." He groaned, taking a sip of his girly drink.
"Haha!" Axel cried, laying out his cards. "Utter trash!" A two, a four, a king, an ace, and an eight.
Roxas stared blankly at the hand sitting in front of him, then switched to look at Axel's. "You were bluffing?" He stuttered, then blinked. "You were bluffing, you jackass!" He cried, punching the table.
"It's just a game, Roxas!" Axel tried with only minor success to calm his lover, but mostly because he was in stitches. "You have a terrible poker face, by the way."
"I know." He growled, draining the last of his drink. "But since you're doing so well off, you owe me another drink."
"Fine." Axel was still chuckling as he walked toward the bar with a wide smile. He returned moments later with two glasses identical to the one he had been drinking from. Roxas hadn't even noticed that Axel had finished his so quickly.
"Thanks." He took the glass and drank.
Axel sat back. "We're going to be so wasted if we keep drinking like this. I don't know if you'll be up for duty tonight."
Roxas shook his head. "I doubt it. I'll ask Lexaeus if he minds doing if for me. He loves it. Fight off Heartless all night, build muscles, get all the girls." He snorted into the foam in his glass. "Not that we get girls."
"Not that we need to, Roxas." Axel stared at him intently, waiting for him to meet his eyes. Blue eyes did, then looked down again with a happier shimmer to them.
"Nah… we don't."
"You look better with a smile in your eyes." Axel raised his glass to him. "Much better."
"Not so heart-less?"
"Not so miserable. Buck up, kid. You're too self-conscious about this Nobody thing."
Roxas's eyebrows shot up. "That's funny coming from you. It's hard not to be… We all want our own hearts again. We all want to be whole again."
Axel stared into his glass, contemplating. "It'd be nice, yeah. But that's what we're working for, isn't it?"
"Sometimes… I don't know what The Superior is planning… whether he plans for us to have hearts too, or if this is just his thing, and we're pushing him along to get it… What if we get nothing in the end?"
"Isn't hope worth it?" Axel's voice was solemn. "Isn't the hope that we could get our own heart again worth the risk? The Superior's not exactly the greatest guy to be around, but he's definitely holding the banner for us to gather around. It's something… A lot better than nothing." He took a long drink, and then stared across the table into Roxas's eyes.
"It's a lot better than being a Nobody who's going to always be a Nobody and always do nothing… That's even worse than being no one at all, like we are now."
Roxas stared at Axel for a moment, everything about him embodying his passion for regaining a heart, for being whole. He smiled, let out a short sigh that was almost a laugh, and stared back down at the scratched table. Names were scratched into the wood along with initials surrounded by hearts and endless dates. Mementos in time for people who fought against becoming nobody by scratching their existence into this same table he and Axel shared. Maybe… just maybe…
I don't need to fight to prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven
Don't cry.
Don't raise your eye.
It's only teenage wasteland.
Roxas picked up the pen that was sitting idly on the table and began scratching into the wood.
"What are you doing, Roxas?" Axel hissed. "I thought you said no trouble!"
Roxas grinned. "No, I said you couldn't get into any trouble."
Axel stared in disbelief and then sat back, watching him carve on the wooden tabletop.
The exodus is here. The happy ones are near.
Let's get together before we get much older.
Teenage wasteland…
It's only teenage wasteland…
"Is this one of your songs?" Axel asked quietly.
"Yeah…" Roxas looked up from his carving. "Yeah, it's one of mine."
Axel tapped his fingers on the wooden table to the music. "I like it."
"Good." Was all Roxas responded with. "You know what time it is?"
"Clock says… um… Getting close to eleven."
"Damn." Roxas muttered. "I'll finish this, and then… we can go, if you want. Walk around a bit to get this out of our system." He gestured to the glasses on the table.
"Hm. You still want to get Lexaeus to fill in for you?"
Roxas bit his lip, staring down at his carving. "I don't know… I can still do it, no problem. I don't mind."
"I want you to." Axel's gaze was unbroken, though he was taking a drink at the time.
Blue met green. "Alright." Looked back down.
"You're so cold, Roxas."
"No, I'm not."
"You seem so unemotional about it… You know, being together is what we've got here… You're all I've got, Roxas, and all I want to stay for. If it weren't for you, I'd either live without a heart, or go find my own."
"Finished." Roxas dropped the pen and quickly finished his drink.
"Roxas…" Hurt was apparent in his voice. "You weren't even listening to me."
"Yeah, I was." Roxas stood and walked around the table. "Let's get going."
Axel stood and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Yeah…" He leaned over the table and looked at Roxas's carving, wondering what could have captivated his attentions so completely.
Axel and Roxas
Surrounded by one, giant heart. Axel had to laugh at the cliché action, and harder at the irony of having no heart. Below, in smaller letters, it continued.
Two half people make one whole
They stepped out of the building and into the torrential rains that were falling. "Dammit!" He cried, pulling his hood up.
Roxas only smiled at him and kept walking. "You going to be okay over there?"
"Yeah…" Axel glared at the skies. "I hate rain."
"I know…" Roxas murmured, staring up at the skies. "But it feels nicer here than back… there."
Standing at the corner of the wet, uneven streets, Axel peered down at his lover. "Roxas?"
"Hm?" His eyes were beautiful, especially in the rain.
"Thanks." And he touched the curve of his boyish face, twirled his fingers through the flattening strands of blond hair, stared into those endless eyes that spoke of completion, and laid his lips on the rain-wetted, pink pair that completed his face.
No hesitation was spared in leaning forward into the kiss on Roxas's part, letting his eyes close, ignoring the fact that they were standing on a street corner in the rain where everyone was watching.
"You… lose…" Axel whispered against his lips before returning to the joy of partaking of those same lips. Roxas didn't care that he'd lost, not until they returned to the Castle That Never Was and he realized precisely what he'd lost. Axel didn't care that he'd won, because he really had won the ultimate gamble against Life when he found that Roxas gave him a heart of his own.
And neither cared that people would stop on the streets and stare. Neither cared that their eyes grew wide, and some of the women giggled, and some of the men looked stunned. Neither cared that a crowd was gathering and the noise alone was growing in the streets.
Neither cared, because there's nothing like finding your own heart waiting for you within someone else.
End
The two songs used in this story are Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It?" and The Who's "Baba O'Riley".