Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.
Happy Akuroku day ...this might be a half hour
late, but who's counting, loveys?
Expectations
I.
Roxas first meets Axel during the beginning of the summer before his freshman year of college.
He's propped up against the side of the convenience store Roxas works at with a cigarette in his mouth, leaning heavily against the glass of the front window as if he owns the place or he's waiting for something to catch his attention.
Cid—Roxas's oh so wonderful boss—yells at Roxas to shoo away that, 'lanky red headed delinquent' from the front of the shop if he wants to keep his job, so Roxas obeys and gets to shooing.
Axel however, completely ignores him and doesn't even acknowledge Roxas's existence when the blonde comes out of the store that morning to tell him to leave. He throws his cigarette onto the asphalt of the street and walks off in the opposite direction of the sidewalk and out of Roxas's line of vision.
Axel enters the store two days after Roxas first sees him. Roxas is the only one in the store, passing his time by doing boring crossword puzzles.
The day is slow, and truth be told, he's bored. Axel comes up to him and throws a pack of cigarettes, a Hershey bar and some condoms onto the counter in front of Roxas. Roxas calmly asks him for ID, to which Axel produces some. Roxas scrutinizes the ID carefully; flipping it over to make sure it's not a fake.
His name is Axel, aged nineteen and going on twenty.
When Roxas hands the ID back over, he's met with a smug smirk as Axel says, "Took you long enough, Blondie. I was wondering if you were about to make out with my picture from the way you were looking at it." Before Roxas can retort, Axel is out of the store laughing his stupid head off.
II.
The red head is leaning up against the side of the shop again, a cigarette plugged into the side of his mouth. Cid, as usual, yells at Roxas to get Axel off of the premises. Roxas comes out of the store, just as Axel blows a cloud of smoke into the air. Angrily, Roxas snaps at Axel to clear off the premises.
Axel, however, ignores him and takes another drag of his cigarette and blows another low stream of smoke into the air. When Roxas opens his mouth to say something, Axel interrupts him and asks for his name. Roxas grimaces and scrunches up his nose.
Not caring to relinquish his identity to the red headed menace, he crosses his arms and rather defiantly states that he won't tell him. Axel laughs, and sucks hard at the cigarette again and says that if Roxas were to tell him his name, he'd leave him alone.
Roxas groans inwardly, and after struggling with himself momentarily, he relinquishes his name to Axel: Roxas.
III.
Roxas doesn't exactly remember how it happens, but through one thing or another, he manages to begin a friendship with Axel.
Maybe it's because Axel's always coming into the store daily, always pretending he's there to buy something. In actuality, the redhead's just looking for an excuse to bother Roxas in any shape, way or form.
They fall into a small routine within the passing days. Axel usually comes around to bother Roxas no matter what time of day it is, as long as he's working, Axel has reason to be in the store. Roxas, in return, entertains Axel for however long he can before Cid is there to chase Axel out of the store for harassing his employees. After Roxas gets off work, Axel follows Roxas wherever it is that he goes or does, he doesn't complain.
With the passage of time, Roxas only grows to accept Axel's daily company.
IV.
Roxas nearly passes out from shock the first time he ever goes over to Axel's house.
Whereas he had imagined the red head living in one of the more shitty areas of town, he finds that Axel lives in one of Twilight Town's most exclusive gated communities, Sunset Hill. Axel is quick to pick up on his thoughts, as he laughs at the expression Roxas wears on his face and tells him to close his mouth. His house is like someone out of a movie, littered throughout with symbols of extravagance and wealth. Roxas can hardly keep his mouth from falling open while Axel gives him the 'grand tour'.
At the end of it all, Axel delves into his family history without question. Roxas learns of his older brother Reno who lives on the West coast and works in some type of shady business for a guy named Rufus Shinra. Then there's his father who's always out of town on business for whatever reason and lastly, his mother who he doesn't remember too much about—those memories were best left buried anyway.
It's only natural that Roxas should return the favor and show Axel his house, but the blonde is hesitant too.
Axel's misconceptions about Roxas's family life are just as bad as Roxas's were. Roxas isn't your average cookie cut out boy from the suburbs. He learns that the boy lives in the inner city with his brother Cloud, who's only got Roxas by six years. His mother and his father died a couple of years ago in a fatal car crash, prompting Roxas to live with his brother for the past four or five years.
Their apartment is well to do and nothing out of the ordinary. It's a two bedroom hole in the wall in a cramped city building with about two hundred other occupants. Roxas doesn't want to admit that he feels a little ashamed of the apartment because it by no means, measures up to Axel's own mansion.
But when Axel refers to it as feeling like 'home', Roxas allows all of his feelings of shame melt away.
V.
It's only but a matter of time before Roxas introduces Axel to his small knit group of friends.
Olette and Pence are radiating with friendliness, as opposed to Roxas's 'best friend' Hayner who's quick to 'size up his competition', whatever that may be. Roxas begrudgingly tries to placate the tension surrounding Hayner and Axel, but is quickly shoved off to the side and is ignored my both parties.
After a few choice words, Axel and Hayner very well nearly get into an altercation as Pence and Olette have to hold Hayner down as Roxas quickly shuffles Axel off out of Hayner's line of vision and out the door of his house. Axel doesn't think too much of it and laughs it off as Hayner being jealous at their 'budding' relationship, while Roxas seethes and tells him to shut up.
One night while Roxas is hanging around Axel's house, he manages to meet Axel's friends—who he decides are a hell of a lot entertaining than his own.
There's Demyx, lively and eccentric by all means, always knowing how to have a good time, as if life is a never-ending party. Zexion, who at first glance seems to be creepy and a little strange, but Roxas learns just isn't much of a talker. Lastly, there's Marluxia, who Axel seems to enjoy torturing mercilessly.
It's with Axel's friends that Roxas takes his first hit of marijuana.
Axel teaches him how to roll a proper blunt, perfectly filled out with bud in all the right places. After he instructs him on how to smoke, Axel lets him take the first hit, laughing gently when Roxas starts choking and asks him for water. Roxas graciously accepts a cup of water from Zexion's waiting hand and downs it in two seconds flat.
"It always happens on the first time." Axel tells Roxas, and then holds out the blunt to let him try again. As Axel talks him through the steps a second time, this time, Roxas chokes a little.
VI.
One morning before Roxas heads out to work, Cloud is washing dishes in the kitchen sink as his brother eats breakfast. As soon as he stops, he wastes no time and asks Roxas to bring Axel over for dinner that night. Roxas is quick to ask him why, and Cloud merely answers he wants to meet Axel since Roxas seems to be so keen on spending all his time with him these days.
Roxas mumbles something under his breath about Cloud trying to hard to act like a parent, and heads off to work without any further questions.
Axel is there with a cigarette in hand and his customary grin on his face as he meets up with Roxas half way to walk him to work. Roxas doesn't wait for Axel to say good morning or any form of greeting to him as Roxas blatantly snaps that he's coming over for dinner at his place that night. Axel, albeit confused, shrugs in agreement and follows Roxas the rest of the way to the convenience store.
Dinner begins as an awkward, awkward thing that night as Cloud has also brought his own guest to dinner—his boyfriend (or so Roxas heavily suspects)—Leon.
Axel is punctual, showing up at exactly seven thirty as Roxas is setting the table. Cloud shakes Axel's hand and shows him into the house just as Roxas is done setting the table. When everyone is accounted for, they all sit at the table, quiet as first as they all serve themselves.
Then Cloud begins to grill Axel about his involvement with his brother.
They banter back and forth, Cloud cutting into Axel for all intents and purposes. Yet, Axel is happy to answer all his questions, occasionally stealing glances at Roxas to make sure he's saying the right thing. It's only after he obtains a general understanding of who Axel is, does Cloud back down on his onslaught of questions.
Dinner resumes in a cheerful manner, with even a few jokes passed here and there. By the end of the night, Cloud is satisfied and has his decision. Roxas sees Axel out as Cloud tends to Leon and tells him he'll meet him in his bedroom in a little while. After Roxas closes the door, he looks to Cloud who's staring back at him.
"He's not so bad, that Axel …" Is all Cloud says to him, bids Roxas goodnight as he exits down the hall to his room to join Leon.
VII.
Roxas doesn't particularly enjoy celebrating his birthday, and wants to conveniently forget it as the beginning of August comes. Cloud doesn't push the envelope with celebrating his birthday, having long learned that all attempts at trying to get Roxas to do such a thing will just end in disaster.
The birthday boy is in a particularly foul mood that morning, quick to snap at anyone and anything that rubs him the wrong way. When he sees Axel looking bright and cheerful on the morning of his birthday, his nerves are already on edge. As Axel wishes him a simple good morning, Roxas snaps back at him about their being nothing good about it, to which Axel quickly asks him what's wrong. Roxas tells Axel that it's nothing and the two of them continue walking in silence.
As the day progresses, Axel allows Roxas to silently fume behind the cash register doing his crossword puzzles as Axel takes to sitting outside on the curb and smoking. When Roxas finally goes on his break, Axel corners the blonde into the employee's room (which is in actuality, the storage room, but don't tell Cid that) and probes Roxas for answers.
Roxas finally breaks down and tells him the story of how he and his parents were involved in a horrible car crash on his thirteenth birthday and how he resents the fact that he was allowed to live, but they died. Ever since then he's hated the day whenever it came around; a constant reminder of the day that things changed forever.
It's on that day that Axel sees Roxas cry for the first time.
It's also on that day that Axel kisses Roxas for the first time.
Axel tastes of stale smoke and smells of the last embers of a dying fire as he leans into kiss him. Roxas is paralyzed in shock, having long lost all ability to think properly.
When Axel pulls away a few seconds later, he apologizes profusely to Roxas mumbling something about being caught up in the moment. Roxas only surprises him more when he grips the base of Axel's head and pulls him in to kiss him.
VIII.
Roxas is confused.
He's never considered a relationship with another person of the same sex before but …he doesn't deny the fact that he'd be willing to try. Then the rational part of his brain sinks in and he tells himself that he's only known Axel for nearly a month and a half. It'd be insane if he should just start going out with—or whatever it is he'd be doing with Axel—after knowing each other for such a short time.
The kiss the two of them shared on Roxas's birthday goes on unmentioned as if it's never happened. Roxas feels as if he should say something but holds his tongue for both their sakes. Things resume between the two as they had been the entire summer.
A few days later, Axel begins to occupy himself with a tall, blonde skinny girl by the name of Larxene—some daughter of one of his father's associates. Roxas doesn't take to kindly to her when she begins to intrude on his time spent with Axel, and in a sense, feels as if she's stealing something away from him.
It's also then that Roxas realizes he's only got a few more days left to spend with Axel before he leaves Twilight Town for Traverse Town University. In response to the current change his life has taken, Roxas soon falls into a depressive slump.
Cloud eventually returns home one night to find Roxas gone.
IX.
The smell of a cancer stick, a flash of red and Axel's scuffed and weather beaten black boots are all that Roxas has to see to realize that Axel has found him. He doesn't say anything, or meet Axel's face when the red head kneels down in front of him and swivels his cigarette around in his mouth. "You're a mess." He says, and Roxas allows him to lift him up in his arms and half-walk, half-carry him back to the waiting limo.
When they return to Axel's house, Axel is quick to call Cloud to let him know that he found Roxas and that he'll bring him home first thing in the morning. Roxas stays routed to the spot where Axel put him at on his bed, and only meets Axel's eyes once he gets off the phone with his brother. Axel rummages around in his closet for something dry for Roxas to wear. He kneels down beside the boy, staring up at him with curious green eyes.
Roxas asks why Axel bothered looking for him and Axel replies that his brother had called him and asked if Roxas had come over to his house when he couldn't find him at their apartment that night. So Axel decided to conduct a little search for Roxas at Cloud's behest.
Roxas immediately counters how he didn't want to be found and tells Axel his time would have been spent better with that 'blonde harlot'. Axel in return simply laughs and tells Roxas the truth behind his relationship with Larxene, how it was all an act to get her father off her back about dating men.
Roxas doesn't believe him at first, but then Axel leans in to kiss him gently and when he pulls away, he's grinning. "Blondie, I like you a lot more than I realize." He looks away from Roxas briefly, and then turns back at him and smirks, "And I'm also starting to think you like me a lot more than you realize."
Axel was right, of course.
X.
Roxas loses his virginity on his last day of summer vacation.
He and Axel lie next to each other on opposite sides of the bed, Roxas staring up at the ceiling while Axel is reading an old car magazine. Roxas sits up abruptly and looks at Axel. Axel in return puts down his magazine to stare at him. In two seconds flat, Roxas has got Axel pinned down to the bed and is busy trying to tear his shirt off until Axel pushes him off and asks him if he's sure he wants what he's about to do.
His answer comes in the form of Roxas ripping the entire half of his shirt off. Axel takes that as a yes.
Fifteen minutes later they collapse on top of each other, bodies huddled together and sweating. When Roxas comments on how he expected there to be more to it, Axel tells him that the second time is already better than the first.
XI.
"You'll come visit me, right?" Roxas asks, looking up at Axel with curious eyes.
Axel merely grins, and ruffles Roxas's hair. "I'll do more than that, Blondie."
Roxas feels his breathing hitch slightly, looks at Axel one last time who in return winks at him, before he runs off to his cab and gets in.