xXx

Chapter II

xXx

Bold. Audacious. Brave.

Blue eyes followed flames and leather over the condensation of his fogged up glass. Roxas had long devoured the contents of the tumbler—what it was, he didn't know—but he had yet to remove it from his lips. It was something sweet, something he never would have been caught drinking given normal circumstances.

Yet, Axel had pushed him. What did he say again? Something to take the edge off for the moment. He needed him to relax for a bit. Axel turned around to face the blonde who was currently sitting wide legged and slightly slouched against the headboard of the King sized bed of their hotel room.

Back in the bar, he had honed in on the blonde without really trying to. Axel cocked his head to the side, admiring his choice for the night. He couldn't handle his liquor. That was for sure. Roxas would sway to one side for a moment and then promptly right himself up again. When he caught Axel's eyes, his face would go stoic for a minute as he tried to gain his composure. That didn't last for long, because he was soon breaking out into a full toothed smile and started giggling like a enamored school girl. This was light years different from the boy he had encountered back in Tifa's bar. ...Ah, boy. Right. He was older than Axel, though... wasn't he? He didn't really look it, though. Axel always did have a thing for the babyfaced ones.

Roxas in turn, watched Axel from his position on the bed. He had loosened up the white dress shirt he was wearing that night and discarded his oxfords by the door. He could hardly contain himself from the absurdity of his position. Him, Roxas Ardenwell. Stuck in some ritzy hotel room with a prostitute. Oh, wait, that wasn't what he'd called himself, right? What was it ... hustling? Well, he still sold his body for whatever purposes, right?

Roxas pulled at his shirt collar and gave Axel a lopsided smile as he careened toward his left again and had to push himself up against the headboard to sit up straight. He was feeling so giddy, this was unlike him.

"Having fun?"

"What did you give me?" He asked Axel, covering his mouth to stifle the giggle that was about to fall past his lips again. He had to fight to keep his attention from wavering again.

Axel was in the process of lighting another cigarette, "Something to take the edge off like you wanted. ...Though, I must say ...I've never seen anyone ever react to this stuff in the way that you do. Why? How are you feeling?"

Roxas pushed himself up and inhaled deeply, "Funny. But, it's ... not bad. The whole room is swimming, like we're underwater. And my skin ... my skin feels like its melting. Like my organs are gonna fall and collapse into one big puddle on this stupid bed..." He managed to slur out and then smiled at Axel again, "It doesn't sound too appealing, but it's really nice. God, how long does this shit last?"

"...Well, I'm pretty sure the effects are amplified given the alcohol in your system." He exhaled through his nostrils and leaned his elbows on his knees, "I'd say about two or three hours tops. You're hitting the peak right now. Probably'll level out in a bit."

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Well, believe it." Axel grinned, flicking the clove and laughing at the lopsided grin Roxas kept giving him, "Don't think we're gonna get too far tonight, though. Forget about standing, sitting up is too much of an issue for you too, I see."

"Is not, my bones are just melting." Roxas swallowed deeply, his throat felt thick and dry. He groaned, looking about him for a minute, "...Hey, where the fuck did you put my scotch, dammit?"

"You finished it back at Tifa's bar, remember?" Axel chuckled again.

"I did?"

"Yeah, you did." Axel exhaled smoke, leaning back into the plush chair, "Why? You thirsty?"

Roxas licked his lips, swallowed and then and pursed his lips slightly, "I want something else."

"Alcohol might not be the best thing for you right now." Axel stuck his clove into the corner of his mouth and walked the length of the room. He turned his attention to the AC unit at the base of the window and turned it up a bit. He peered out of the glass before him when he stood back up at full height. He turned back to Roxas, "I can call up room service if you want."

Roxas nodded his head. He gave up on trying to sit upright and finally fell over onto his side and curled up in the bed, "Hmm ...just get me something to drink."

"Gotcha."

Axel called down to room service for a couple of bottles of water and some food to nibble on. He paced the room, taking occasional drags from his cigarette. He turned to Roxas who was currently squirming all over the place on the bed and shook his head in dismay. Looks like this night might turn out to be a bust. He stabbed his cigarette out the minute there was a knock on the door from room service.

He accepted the order from the room service guy and told him to just have the amount charged to the card they'd used to pay for the room. After he closed the door and set the tray of food down by on the desk to the left of the door, Axel reached into his pocket for his packet of cloves and lit another one. He observed Roxas for a minute, and then promptly walked back over to his seat and resumed smoking his clove.

"...Roxas."

It took him a minute to realize Axel was calling his name before he managed to pick his head up and push himself onto his elbows, "Mmm?" His eyes were focused on the ceiling instead of Axel's direction.

"I got you something to drink."

"Hmmm ... so you did."

Axel sighed, realizing Roxas wasn't going to be moving any time soon. He walked over to the desk and came back with a bottle of water for Roxas. He cracked the top open and kneeled down so he was at eye level with the blond. Roxas had flopped back down face first into the bed again when Axel had turned his back on him.

"Roxas."

Roxas picked his head up, his eyes struggling to focus on Axel, "Mmm?"

"Here." He waved the the bottle at Roxas, "Drink up."

"Mmm, right."

Axel sighed and stood up. Once again he stuck his clove into the corner of his mouth and set the water bottle on the nightstand to his right. He fixed his arms under Roxas's triceps and picked the blond up slowly so that he was in a seated position. Roxas could only laugh at his current predicament as Axel struggled to push him against the headboard once again.

What the hell was he doing right now? Some anorexic, clown impersonating prostitute had just drugged him and he was sitting here, laughing his head off like it was the funniest thing in the world. How stupid was he acting right now? How much strife would this cause him when he had to deal with his parents in the morning? What the hell were they even going to say to him? How irresponsible he'd been, more arguing no doubt. What kind of lies would he have to conjure once the morning broke and the dead of night no longer covered his facade?

He looked to the bottle of water that Axel was currently holding out in front of his face and accepted it graciously, "You know ... you're pretty nice ... for a prostitute."

Axel's eyebrows rose slightly. It was the drugs talking, it had to have been. He removed the clove from the corner of his mouth and crossed his arms over his chest, "Oh, am I?"

"Yeah." Roxas answered, closing his eyes and swaying gently. He turned his attention to the water bottle currently sitting in his lap and yanked the cap off, "Yeah ... but, you remind me of a clown though ... but not the scary ones. A pretty one. I used to be scared of clowns as a kid, you know?"

"Can't say I've heard that one before." Axel muttered, holding the clove to his lips as he inhaled again. Maybe he'd given Roxas too much; his usual clients were nowhere as small as Roxas was. What was the kid? (He had to stop calling him that). He couldn't have been taller than five six and what? One hundred and forty pounds max. His usual clients were nowhere around that size. He plugged the clove into the corner of his mouth and scratched at his head again, "How do you feel now?"

"Still really nice." Roxas answered, slamming the bottle so hard on the nightstand that it almost tipped over. He looked up at Axel and the redhead noted that his baby blues were starting to glass over. Well, looks like it was almost time, "How do you feel?"

"How do I feel? I feel fine," Axel answered, puffing on his clove again, "A little hungry, but okay."

"That's good." Roxas cleared his throat and rolled over onto his backside, "...Lay down with me?"

Axel shrugged his shoulders, stabbing his clove out on the ashtray next to Roxas's water bottle and obliged to his client's wishes. He kicked off his boots and sidled next to where Roxas was sprawled out on the opposite side of the bed. Roxas had slid down off the pillows he had previously been propped up against and sighed languidly.

"This is absurd."

"What?"

Roxas opened his eyes, "I'm currently lying in bed with a prostitute that just drugged me. I don't do these sorts of things. I'm supposed to be one of those stereotypical Ivy League graduate frat boys from one of those horrible 1950s films. You know, wooing women with my father's money and pretending to be bad when I'm really not." He turned to look at Axel, "And you're dressed like the bad boy that gets the girl at the end of the movie while me and all my lackeys look on in shame." He shrugged his shoulders, "Or I try to kill you and you end up killing me for one."

Roxas was gold. Axel couldn't believe the words that were coming out of this kid's mouth right now. He folded his arms behind his head and turned to look at Roxas, "Is that what I am?"

"Don't tell me that's what you weren't thinking."

"Honestly ... no ..." Axel replied, "But if that's what you think, then we'll roll with it."

"...Can I have a cigarette?" Roxas asked a minute later. He shrugged his shoulders, "It just seems like the occasion is appropriate for one."

Axel lifted his hips up and pulled another clove from the pack and handed it over to Roxas. He held up his lighter a minute or so later and lit the cigarette as Roxas brought the dark stick to his mouth.

"I haven't smoked in forever," Roxas sighed languidly, holding up the cigarette to observe it for a minute.

"Bad habit that I'm trying to break." Axel replied, flipping his lighter shut. "Should stop killing my lungs while I'm young."

"Huh ..." Roxas snorted, turning his head to look at Axel, "That's kind of funny that something like that would be on your mind."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because," Roxas began, exhaling so a cloud of smoke surrounded him, "I'd think your job would put you in more danger than these measly little cancer sticks could."

Axel smirked as he flipped the lighter cap open again, "Oddly enough, no. I tend to stick to an ... exclusive clientele if you will."

"...So you're an escort then?"

"To some degree, I guess you can look at it like that." Axel replied, "You probably won't remember any of this in the morning, so I'll tell you one of the tricks of my trade. This might come as flattery to you, but something like what we're doing tonight is a rarity in my case. I choose my clients and who I entertain... it's a long, standard process for me to find the right types of people ... but it's worth the wait."

"So ... you're a sugar baby?"

Axel laughed again, "Not in any way." He grinned, "Stop trying to focus on what I am and just enjoy what's happening here tonight. That's all I ask."

"Hm." Roxas inhaled deeply, "I think I'm feeling ... a little less melted right now."

"Probably because you have something to orient yourself on."

"But, I still feel fuzzy ... and warm ..." Roxas replied, "Is this normal?"

Axel nodded, "Very."

Roxas paused in thought, before he set the still burning clove in the ashtray to his right. He rolled over on his side again and pushed himself up so he could look down at Axel. Axel was focused on the lighter he kept clicking back and forth; seemingly unfazed by the intense gaze Roxas had on him.

Blue eyes roamed the entire length of his body. From his unusual red hair down to the diamond tips painted against his cheeks and the angular set of his jaw. Were they real? He moved past his sheer black shirt to the black undershirt he wore underneath. Leather pants? In the summer time? Roxas felt his lips pull back in a slight frown but refrained from thinking about it too much.

Either way, he was once again reminded of what facts had driven him here with Axel in the first place. He unbuttoned another one of the top buttons of his shirt, "So … Axel …"

"Yeah?"

"How does this work?"

"...Whatever you want to do."

Roxas went silent for a minute and tugged at his collar briefly, "Your job is to entertain me, isn't it?"

"Yeah?"

"…Then get to it."

Axel's eyes honed in on his lighter as he gave it one last flick and it closed. He licked his lips, pocketing the silver device and then turned on his side to look at Roxas for a moment. He reached over the blond for the discarded clove balanced against the ashtray and inhaled it while leaning over Roxas. He set it back down, and then turned back to Roxas who was looking at him expectantly.

Roxas barely registered Axel coming down to meet him, only feeling the heavy smoke assaulting his barely virginal lungs as the redhead exhaled into him. He immediately pushed Axel off of him, holding the taller man up by his bony shoulders, "What the fuck was that!" He exclaimed, coughing harshly and squeezing his eyes shut.

"…You asked me to entertain you, didn't you?"

"Entertain me, not fucking kill me!" Roxas coughed again and Axel backed away as he reached for the water at his side. He took a short swig and then wiped the side of his mouth with the back of his hand, "Fuck."

"Are you done?"

"Are you done?" Roxas asked, narrowing his eyes. Whatever Axel had given him felt like it was starting to wear off a bit.

"…If you want me to be." Axel grinned, laughing a bit, "But, then again ...wouldn't that be a waste of money? Spent the night talking to me and never got what you truly waned, huh?"

Roxas looked at him for a minute, "You're playing with me, aren't you?"

Axel shrugged, "What if I am, Roxas? What are you going to do about it?"

Roxas huffed irritably as he turned to Axel, grabbed him by his shoulders, pushed him back into the pillows mounted against the headboard and mounted his hips so that they were face to face, "What do you think?"

"I'd say you're certainly entertaining yourself right now." Axel answered slyly, cracking another shit eating grin in Roxas's direction.

Roxas gripped his bony shoulders in shaking hands before leaning in and mashing his lips against Axel's. They stayed still for a minute. Roxas slowly moved his hands away from Axel's shoulders and planted them firmly on either side of Axel's head on the headboard behind him. Axel made no indication of being fazed by the current situation the two of them were currently in. What the fuck am I doing?

The minute Roxas opened his mouth a bit wider; he felt Axel's arms lock around his waist and his body being propelled toward the end of the bed. Axel immediately pinned his arms above his head and Roxas stared up at him with wide eyes.

"So you weren't lying when you said you've never done this before, hm?"

"I already told you," Roxas began, feeling Axel nudge his legs open with his right knee and settle his weight between the space he'd created, "I've only done this with girls."

"Lucky you have me for a teacher then, hm?" Axel began, "Relax."

Roxas looked at Axel with a bit of hesitation for a minute, before closing his eyes. He felt something soft and wet press against his lips, and Axel's thumb pulling down on his chin so he could open his mouth a bit more. He allowed himself to be kissed for a few minutes, relishing in how different this had felt with a girl. Axel was all hard angles, lithe muscle and bones, not an ounce of softness to him. It was kind of arousing in a way … a way he had never felt before.

It wasn't long before Roxas was linking his arms around Axel's back and he could have sworn he smirked against his lips. He nudged and prodded, getting Roxas to open up further for him with a push of his tongue, as he slowly slid his knee in closer to the crotch of Roxas's pants.

Roxas's arms steadily moved from the top of Axel's shoulders as his fingers caught onto the sheer material of his shirt, wrapping and pulling every which way. Axel pressed into him harder, drawing the last bit of breath from Roxas's burning lungs before he pulled back to gaze down at the blond. Roxas heaved harshly, before daring to open his eyes just a bit to look back at Axel.

"Learning all right?"

Roxas nodded deftly and closed his eyes again, "It's …"

"Different, hm?" Axel muttered, running a tongue over the sensitive outer shell of Roxas's ear, and trailing his lips down the base of his neck, "Don't worry, I won't take you too far tonight."

"What's that supposed…" Roxas pushed himself up on his elbows and raised an eyebrow as Axel pushed him back toward the bed in resistance and began to unbutton his shirt.

"It means that you should just stop asking me questions because I'm not going to answer them anymore," Axel replied. He started in on his own shirt, throwing it up over his head and onto another spot on the bed behind them.

"Yeah, but …"

"You've done this before by yourself, haven't you?" Axel whispered into his ear, "What about one all of those pretty little girls you found yourself with before now? Feel any different than then?"

Roxas tried to protest again, rising up in the process. But, Axel just pushed him back down again. Sighing, he let the redhead go on as he intended. Axel made quick work of his belt and yanked it off his hips in one go. He tensed slightly as he thought Axel would make work of his pants next, but was thrown for a loop when Axel returned himself to Roxas's neck.

Roxas closed his eyes again and sighed when Axel pinned his arms above his head once again and started trailing lines, biting at and sucking on his neck. That conveniently placed knee edged closer to the area that he knew would need the most attention in a minute. He turned his head away from Axel and panted slightly, moving his hips agitatedly. Axel paid him no attention. He sighed, when Axel released one of his pent arms and trailed his hand down his chest and rested it momentarily on his abdomen. Two snaps of a button and Axel's hand was reaching down to wrap around him.

Roxas was building a fever, in his head and in his heart. It wasn't anything but lust at this point as Axel continued to squeeze and completely stifle him to the point where he couldn't breathe anymore. His heart was hammering so hard his head was starting to hurt. Was he hyperventilating? When he opened his eyes, all he could make out in the dim lighting of the room was the shape of the lampshade casting shadows on the white ceiling.

He wasn't in control of himself anymore. But, that's what he had wanted, wasn't it? Running away from reality to find himself in the bizarre situation that he was in now. It was warm. His whole body felt like it was shuddering, on the verge of imminent collapse. Stomach in knots, twisting and turning in every which way. All he could see was the movement of red, hands moving all over his body, white hot fire burning against his hips, the room was closing in on him and he couldn't breathe.

Fuck, he just needed to breathe. Why the hell couldn't he breathe?

His hands were going clammy and his pulse was quickening to a point where it was no longer comfortable. Was he … oh, he was hyperventilating, wasn't he? He heard Axel say something, but he couldn't make it out. He could barely make anything out anymore as black seemed to fog his vision as he desperately tried to control his breathing.

Well, this was great.

Who the fuck was he kidding? He couldn't do this. This wasn't something that Roxas did. The liquid courage was starting to wear thin in his veins and reality was sinking in hard and fast. He remembered green, Axel's eyes. Hovering over him and saying something else and trying to get his attention, but he couldn't hear anything. It was so damn loud in his head, he was blanking out. Falling hard, falling fast. He didn't feel anything as he hit the bottom.

Fuck.