Title: Young Dudes
Genre: Romance
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I no own
Summary: AU. Axel and Roxas were here. It was the best night of our lives!.- Main Akuroku. Background Soriku. All characters will be a bit OOC.
Unbeta'd. Beware the errors!
"Blah" means talking
"Blah" means phone conversations
II. A Dustland Fairytale – The Killers
The diner was a classic Art Deco diner car restaurant; there were no tables or booths, only a single bar which ran through the entire place. Everything was silver chrome and bright reds, and despite the fact that the place had probably been around since the late 1930s everything still sparkled like new. There was a record player behind the register that was playing Big Band music.
The employees were dressed in 1940s styled clothing, the men wearing button up white shirts with red bowties, the women wearing collared and pressed red dresses with their hair styled in old-fashioned up-dos, and everyone was wearing an apron. The smell of grease, salt, and baked goods wafted heavily in the air.
There were a few people at the bar, but it wasn't as crowded as I'd have expected it to be, then again the clubs hadn't let out yet. By three in the morning this place was probably packed. And the fact that there was an Open 24 Hours sign lit near the door probably only added to business.
Axel went to the very end of the bar on the right hand side, sitting in one of the stools and motioning for me to do the same. I frowned at him and hopped onto the cushiony stool, swiveling the seat from side to side while reading the menu that was up above the stoves.
"Try the burgers, they're easily the best on the entire east coast," Axel drawled, grinning as a young waitress came up to us.
"Axel Pinheiro! I haven't seen you in months, where've you been?" She asked with a slight Eastern accent, large brown eyes scanning Axel over before moving to me. "Is he the one that stole you away from me? Hmm, but he is a cutie." She began to smooth her dress over and move her short, flapper styled, hair out of her face.
I fought back a blush, "Thank you."
"Yuffie, he ain't the reason I ain't been here," Axel grinned. "We ain't together neither, and stop frettin' around like that, neither of us are interested tanight. Besides, I don't think your fiancé would appreciate your shameless flirtin'."
Yuffie laughed, "Squall doesn't have to know," she winked, a wide grin on her face. "What'll you boys be drinking tonight?"
"Cherry Coke," Axel answered, they both looked to me.
"Dr. Pepper please," I shifted around in my seat.
Yuffie beamed at me, "He has such nice manners! Awe, he's so cute!" She bounced off to the soda fountain machine.
"I'm guessing you come here often?" I asked Axel once Yuffie was out of hearing range. She made me uncomfortable.
Axel smiled at me, "If I didn't know any better I'd say that was a come on. But yeah, I used ta come here almost all the time with my ex."
"Your ex? Is she why you haven't been here in months?" I asked, swiveling so that I could look him in the face without too much a hassle.
Green eyes peered at me and mouth puckered as he nodded, thinking about what he was going to say, "She was a psychotic bitch, we weren't good for each other. Let's just say that she's one of those people who're only still alive because it's illegal to murder."
The bell above the diner's door jingled, indicating that someone else had just entered the restaurant.
"Holy shit! It's Axel!" A woman's voice boomed from the front of the diner. It had a demanding quality to it, and I swore the air sparked with some type of intensity.
Axel winced; green eyes narrowing. "Speak of the devil." He muttered, "If she says anythin' offensive ta ya jus' i'nore it, alright?"
I nodded, "Okay."
"Axel, it's been forever since any of us have seen you here," The woman's voice was right behind me, I looked over my shoulder at her.
She was thin and not as curvy as she looked like she should be, with bleached blonde hair slicked back and cold blue eyes narrowed at the two of us. A few feet behind her was a man with long hair that was such a light brown it looked almost to be pink, he had a worried expression on his face as he glanced between Axel, myself, and this woman.
"Larxene, long time no see, how ya been?" Axel smirked, and had it not been the fact that his eyes had hardened I would've thought it was casual. "And you're still draggin' poor Marluxia 'round everywhere ya go? How ya doin' Marly?"
The man gave Axel a shaky smile, "I'm doing well, thank you Axel, and yourself?" He asked politely, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. Marluxia was obviously nervous about the interaction going on between Axel and Larxene. He was probably wondering what he'd do if things got ugly between them.
"Good actually, real good," Axel smiled pleasantly at him, completely ignoring Larxene.
She looked livid; face becoming flushed with anger and like she was about to open her mouth to say something had it not been for Yuffie reappearing with our drinks.
"One Cherry Coke, and one Dr. Pepper," She said cheerfully while placing them down. "Sorry that took so long, a guy down at the other side wanted a refill of coffee and he just wouldn't stop talking. Oh! Hi Larxene!"
Larxene and Yuffie stared each other down for a few minutes, until a one of the cooks called Yuffie down to the other side of the bar again. She sent Larxene one last frown before going back to work.
Axel's ex-girlfriend looked back to us, "So, this is the latest fuck? I always knew you had a thing for blonds'." She sneered at me.
I opened my mouth to retort when Axel interjected, "A lesson for you to learn Larxene: never miss a good chance to shut up."
Her mouth became a thin line and she glared harder.
Marluxia took that time to come into the conversation, "Come on Larx, we still have to meet the others." He gently took the woman by the elbow and led her back towards the exit, shooting us an apologetic look over his shoulder as they left. The bell above the door jingled and they were gone, Yuffie came back to our side of the bar.
"Here," she said as she placed two plates of apple pie before us, "On the house."
She was gone once again, leaving us to our own devices and warm apple pie. It literally seemed to melt as soon as it hit my tongue.
"Mmm," I moaned happily, it had to have been the best apple pie I've had in my entire life; and I was already forgetting about the bleach blonde bitch who had insulted me.
"Ya know," Axel started, "One thing that I learned from my experience with Larxene is that even though friends come and go enemies tend ta accumulate."
I choked on my piece of cake since I chose that exact time to swallow when a laugh came up. After a brief coughing fit, I glared at Axel and he merely shrugged while giving me a wolfish grin.
We left after we paid for our drinks, leaving Yuffie a large tip, and walked back towards Axel's car.
"So your last name's Pinheiro, what's its origin?" I asked curiously, stuffing my hands in my pockets. We had parked a block away from the diner since there wasn't any room in front of it. The night life was in full swing; people were milling about, laughing, talking, and heading towards the diner.
"Brazil," He answered with a shrug, "My parents are from there. But I grew up in Texas." Texas explained the accent, it was a little stereotypical, but I couldn't hear enough of it.
"So, you can speak Portuguese?" I looked up at him in awe, I only knew a little bit of Spanish and a tiny bit of French, English was my main language.
"É, na maior parte do tempo. E eu também te acho bonito.," He smiled at me charmingly.
I smiled back, thoroughly amazed and impressed, "What'd you just say?"
"I speak it for the most part, but I hate doin' so 'cause of my thick accent," He admitted. "Ya ready ta head back ta that party now?"
It was then that I realized that I didn't want to head back to Wakka's just yet. I wanted to know more about the enigma that was Axel Pinheiro. I wanted to know everything about him, like why he had those tattoos, and what was it like to grow up in Texas? Did he have siblings? How old was he? What was his natural hair color?
"Nah, isn't there anything else we could do instead? I mean, I don't really want to deal with anyone at that party," I answered helplessly.
He arched an eyebrow at me but nodded, "Sure, I know this epic Jazz club not too far from here. If you're into that, I mean we could do somethin' else."
The more we talked the more this felt like an impromptu date, I could feel my face heat up at the thought of it. At blind date that I hadn't known about, I wouldn't exactly put that past Sora. But it was Demyx who introduced us, and now I was only looking for something to make me be turned off by the man. It wasn't working out so well.
"So what's your last name?" Axel asked while unlocking the doors to his old '95 Toyota Corolla, something that he had obviously bought himself. Although it was in excellent condition and looked almost brand new.
"My last name's Strife, it's German," I stated as I opened my door and slide into the car, "I don't speak any other language other than English fluently."
"You sound sad about that," Axel observed, turning on the engine and somehow managing to get the car out of the tight parallel parking it was in.
"I am," I admitted.
Twilight Town was a hole in the wall jazz club.
The honky tonk was crowded with people dressed in all different styles of genre and ranged in age. Everything inside was in deep purples and velvety reds, the bar at the far right was a rich mahogany color with chic looking black stools, there were little round tables between the bar and the moderately sized stage that currently had a duo. The guy was a short, slightly round, with messy brown hair and dressed in an old jersey and baggy jeans; the girl was dressed in skinny jeans and an orange tank top, she was thin, with long, wavy, brown hair and large green eyes. She was singing Hide & Seek by Imogean Heap, a tribute song done in her own style. Her voice was smooth like honey and had just the right amount of rasp in it. She had me mentally singing along with her.
"Wow," I breathed, enjoying the ambiance and overall atmosphere of the place. It was chill, relaxing. "There aren't any seats at the tables," I observed and turned to Axel, who was looking down at me as I looked up. For a brief moment I was caught in his eyes, bright green engulfed my vision and caused my heart to ache, then he looked away and it was over.
"Wanna sit at the bar?" He asked as I was regaining my breath and rubbing the area on my chest above my heart, "Ya alright?"
I could feel my face flush and I nodded, "Yeah." I forced a smile up at him, silently cursing the fact that he was a good four inches taller than me, "And sitting at the bar sounds good."
We sat and the duo finished singing, everyone in the place began to clap loudly and cheer wildly.
"Thank you," the girl said, English accent evident, "Remember that I'm Olette and this is my partner Pence, and we'd like you all to know that this is open mic night. If you feel the urge to come up here and sing then you're more than welcome to." She gave us all a sweet, encouraging, smile.
A part of me wanted to go up there, but singing in public was a huge fear of mine, and I knew that I'd piss my pants if I were to do it.
We hopped onto the black bar stools, Axel ordered a ginger ale and I asked for a water. Olette's voice singing If I Fell washed over us, and made everyone mellow.
"She has a beautiful voice," Axel commented into his drink, but I knew that he was aiming it towards me.
I nodded in agreement, "Yeah, she does."
He mouthed a few of the lyrics before asking, "Can you sing Roxas?"
Rahk-sas, the way he said my name made a shiver go throughout my body, "Um, yeah, a little." A flashback of Sora forcing me to do karaoke in high school just to listen to me sing, our friends' awe-ing and ooo-ing about it; my hating every moment of it and cursing them for teasing me.
"Its open mic night, you should go up there," Axel smiled.
"Um, I'd rather not. Thanks," I told him while squeezing my lemon slice into my water.
"Hmmm," he ran a large hand through his mane of scarlet, pushing it out of his face only for it to fall back when he was done. "How 'bout this, I'll go sing a song and then ya'll go sing a song."
I arched an eyebrow at him, "Can you sing?"
He grinned, "We'll find out when I go up there." He got off of his stool and began to saunter towards the stage.
"Wait a sec! I never said I'd do it!" I hissed after him, but he waved me off and was already speaking to Olette.
"How ya'll doin' tonight?" Axel asked, his voice sounding sensual and an octave lower, "I'mma sing I Walk the Line. I'm sure ya'll know this Johnny Cash classic." He turned and nodded to Pence who began to play on his keyboard. Axel smiled at the crowd, opened his mouth, and the country song poured out as smooth as silk.
He had the perfect voice for country, and did the song justice in his own way. When Axel was done he talked to Olette and hopped off the stage to people clapping as loud as thunder. A few girls called out to him, asking his name, but he ignored it all and made a beeline towards me.
"I never agreed to it," I said before he even opened his mouth.
Axel gave me a sly look, smile still on his face, "Ya want me ta buy you a drink before ya go up?" He questioned, totally disregarding what I had just told him. We stared at each other, but since his eyes caused me to drown I looked away first. Damn it.
"I'd leave, but I can't leave without you," I glared down at my glass of melting ice.
"Awe, that's sweet," He grinned knowingly.
"No." I sighed, "I can't leave because I've no clue where the hell we are." I downed the rest of my water and slammed the glass down, heading towards the stage. I'm not sure why I was letting him bully me into doing this.
Olette smiled at me as I climbed onto the low stage, "I'd like to sing Somebody to Love please," I said to her, raw, cold, nerves were bundled up in the pit of my stomach.
"That's a good song," Olette stated, "I'll be here as backup, in case you get too nervous, okay?" She has such a calm air about her that I couldn't help but relax as I stepped onto the stage.
The lights were bright and hurt my eyes, but I couldn't see the crowd through them. I could barely make out Axel in the back of the place. Pence started the beat and I went right into it, taking my own approach to the song. For the chorus Olette's voice joined me and we exchanged smiles, it felt good, and after a while I forgot there was even a crowd in front of me.
When the song was done there was a loud applause and I laughed, running a hand through my hair sheepishly. Embarrassment flooded throughout my being, "T-thank you." I managed to stutter before hoping off of the stage, waving good-bye to Olette and Pence.
Axel was giving me a look of pure awe, "Wow. You're voice was…is…wow."
I blushed and shrugged helplessly.
"Axel?" A blond man with an English accent asked from one of the barstools, "'Oly shit it is you! 'Ow've you been mate?"
Axel looked at the man, "Luxord, haven't seen ya in a while. I've been livin', right now just hangin' out with my buddy Roxas. How 'bout you?"
The man, Luxord, has dirty blond hair which was kept shortly styled, a goatee adorened the lower half of his face, and he had stud earrings in both ears. He shrugged, "Just knocking back a few before heading to Saïx's party. You should come with, there'll be free food, and I'm sure that Saïx would love to meet your new friend, he's missed you. You know we haven't seen you since yours and Larxene's awful break up."
The redhead blew off the end of Luxord's sentence and looked at me, "Ya wanna check out the party?"
The reason why we're here was to escape a party, I had wanted to say, instead I shrugged, "Sure. It's whatever man."
The apartment that Luxord had led us to was in a chicer part of the city, on the seventh floor. The place was huge in comparison to Demyx's apartment, and was packed with more people then was at Wakka's party. Psychedelic rock poured from all directions to the point where the sound was suffocating me, as did the smoke that filled the air. Axel kept a firm hold on me as we stepped into the place. I could feel myself getting light headed just by breathing.
"There's Saïx," Luxord nodded ahead, smoothing his goatee and meandering towards the kitchen. "Go say 'ello!" He called out behind him as he was seemingly swallowed whole by the crowd.
Axel leaned in close, his mouth ghosting over the shell of my ear, "Stay close ta me Rox." His hot breath skimmed over me and I shivered a nod.
Saïx turned out to be a 6'2" buff guy with a huge X-shaped scar across the bridge of his nose and long blue hair. He also was a cross dresser, a very bad one. With his heels on he stood at almost 6'8" and towered over everyone else in the room. It made him very distinguishable and intimidating all at the same time, despite the fact that he was wearing a black sequined dress.
"Axel!" Saïxs' voice was like thunder, loud and booming. He looked truly happy to see my redheaded companion, and then he spotted me, "And who's this?" He arched an eyebrow up slyly.
Axel gave me a reassuring grin as we approached Saïx, who scared the hell out of me. Maybe it was because he was over a foot taller than me, or the fact that such a scary looking guy looked even scarier in drag that he should have.
"Howdy Saïx, you're lookin' mighty fine this evenin'. This here's Roxas, my companion for the night."
"Hello," I greeted with a weak smile.
Saïx grinned at us, his eyes were dilated so that all one could see was black, no color, "He's a cutie Ax, way better looking than that bitch Larx. Have you had some of the food?"
"Not yet, but we'll make our way over ta the kitchen ta get some." Axel grabbed my hand, dragging me to where the food supposedly was.
"He seemed nice," I muttered, and it wasn't necessarily a lie because he did seem nice.
"That's because he's high as a fuckin' kite right now," Axel muttered back.
We headed towards the kitchen, Axel opened one of the drawers, not that anyone else noticed. A moment later he took out a large permanent marker. "I'm ready ta leave," He said to me.
I began to laugh, finding everything funny, but I nodded. "I think I'm getting a buzz man."
"How'd you gent's like to play a rousing game of poker?" Luxord asked, appearing out of nowhere. I laughed even harder and he arched an eyebrow at me. "You didn't eat any of the brownies did you?"
"No," I grinned, leaning against Axel.
He cursed under his breath and gave Luxord a sharp look, "We're leavin' now. Ya'll have a good night." And then I was dragged out of the apartment, and we were gone just as quickly as we arrived.
"I think you're sufferin' from a contact high," Axel sighed as soon as we were back out onto the street.
"You stole a marker," I hummed, doing a little wiggle of a dance, "I'm hungry." I told him in a sing-song voice, a large grin on my face. Life was just amusing.
He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Come on, there's a 24 hour bodega that's open right at the street corner." He took my hand and led the way.
I stared at his hair, noticing how long and how red it was. It was the color of crimson, the color of my mom's favorite nail polish. I always stared at her hands whenever she put it on, it was eye-catching. Axel was eye-catching. I barely knew him but I wanted to, I wanted to know him very badly.
He bought me some Little Debbie's snacks and we sat outside at the bus stop in front of the place to eat. After twenty minutes I was back to normal and full of sweets.
"Dude, you hung out with people like that often?" I asked; frown on my face as I looked over at him. He did look a bit like scenestar.
Axel took out his thick, black, sharpie and began to write on the plastic wall of the bus stop, "I used ta, back when I was datin' Larxene, she was really into that shit." He leaned back and looked at his graffiti.
AXEL & ROXAS WERE HERE
His handwriting was loopy and large, different than I expected.
"That's pretty lame," I stated, pointing to what he wrote, "you should add something to that." I wanted to ask about Larxene and how his life was with her and why it seemed to be a big deal that there was a post-Larxene life that he was apparently living.
Axel frowned at me and looked back at what he had written to the now vandalize a piece of public property before adding on to it.
IT WAS THE BEST NIGHT OF OUR LIVES.
"It was?" I asked while standing and throwing my wrappers away in the nearby trash bin.
"The night's young Rox, I guarantee you that this'll be the best night of your life." He answered, standing as well and shoving the marker down his front pocket. It looked awkward there, and I laughed as I told him so.
"I'll hold you to that by the way," I smiled warmly up at him as we headed down the block, back to his car.
TBC
MLL: What Axel says in Portuguese was supposed to be "Yes, for the most part. I think you are good looking too." THANK YOU MOCHI FOR THE TRANSLATION!
So the link to the soundtrack to this fic is up on my profile.
Please review, they really do keep me alive!