Chapter 2 - Learning

Saturday morning, I was lying wide awake in my bed. I was thinking of yesterday, when I'd met an angel. Of course the blonde hair and the blue eyes had something to do with it (since angels usually have blonde hair and blue eyes). He was probably just relating on Sora's family, though Sora was a brunette. Soras older brother was a blonde though, those spiky haired weird ones, well at least the spikes was in their family. I got up from my bed and went to get a glass of water. All this thinking made me thirsty.

My reflection was captured by the mirror in the hallway. My red spiky hair was flat after lying in bed. Spiky weirdoes, I was surely one of them, though I had no relation to their family. I had dark rings under my eyes, from loss of sleep.

I hurried the water down and decided to check my e-mail I hadn't been able to in a while so maybe I had something interesting in my inbox.

I was sitting in Paralyzed's garage, the gray walls looked greyer than they usually did, the cement floor looked hard and dry, the blue carpet that Zexion had brought in looked like the ocean, I felt like I wanted to swim in it, which was weird, because I didn't know how to swim. The lunch table Riku had brought in for lunch hours and party nights was standing into the wall like always, there were five chairs but only two glasses standing on the table, I was sitting in the green couch which was the shade of green as grass the door that lead up to the storage rooms that this building was filled with was open. I wanted to close it, so I got up and was about to touch the doorknob when suddenly the room lights up in fire. I look around myself, I'm captured by the flames, but I'm not afraid, not until I feel the floor vanishing under my feet and I'm falling.

I woke up, I heard this summing but I had no idea what it was, I opened one of my eyes wondering where I was. I sat up. I must have fallen asleep by the computer. I rubbed my eyes and focused on the screen, what had I been looking at when I fell asleep. There was a long news article about an apartment burning down, killing two people. I closed the window. I loved fire, flames and other burning things, I was a…what do they call it; a pyromaniac. Too bad for the people though.

I looked at the clock, it showed me 12.30 pm. luckily it was Saturday and I had nothing to do until 5pm.

Knocking got my attention. Someone was knocking on my door. I hurried through my apartment wearing only my black pyjama pants. I opened the front door looking at 4 suspicious people.

"Good morning Axel," Said Riku smiling at me as he patted the brunette's shoulder. I looked at him, then on Sora, then on Demyx and him. Roxas!

"Uhm… hi," I mumbled, not exactly realizing what was going on.

"Aren't you inviting us inside?" Riku scowled at me.
"Oh, come in, come in," I said as I opened the door wider for everyone to come inside. "It's pretty messy in here, but that's what you get for not letting me know you're coming over," I chuckled slightly as I lead way into the living room. There was a medium size TV and a couch big enough for me to lay straight on, there also was a table really messy and worn out, I'd been having small fires in the ashtray and the table showed the burned marks as well. I could hear Riku commenting that there were more marks than since last time he'd been here. I didn't bother, I had full control of my baby-flames. Instead I started asking questions.

"Why are you guys here?" I trailied my fingers through my hair.

"We were bored, and Axels place got a TV," Demyx said and showed me that he had the remote control.

"But every one of you came over," I said and looked around, the blonde was looking down on the floor, probably not paying attention to what was said.

"Sora's parents are fighting again, and you know Riku's TV is shit," Demyx continued as he flipped through some channels. I sighed and left it like that.

I'd kept an eye on the blonde all the time, but he didn't look at me once so I went to get dressed instead.

I took off my pyjama pants and washed my face, I was about to change underwear as I felt someone's presence, I turned and looked into a couple of blue angelic eyes.

"Oh, excuse me I didn't know you were in here, I was just going to the bathroom for a minute," He said as a little piece of pink flushed over his cheek.

"Ah, it's ok, I'm almost finished anyway," I said and pulled up a new pair of boxers. The blonde turned around as I was getting dressed, I pulled up my pants and looked at him.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" I asked him as I put on a black short-sleeved shirt.

"Yes, It's really fun being here playing games and stuff," He said and I could see him smile in the mirror.

"That's good," I said and turned towards him. "I'm all finished now, so you'll have the bathroom all by yourself," I said and walked out, closing the door behind me. I couldn't decide upon if he was an angel or a brat.

I walked into the living room where Demyx and Riku was playing on my console, they were racing each other, Sora was rooting for Riku of course and as Demyx lost to a much more nerdy-experienced console-player like Riku, I decided it was my turn to race him. I took the controller and looked at Riku.

"Hey, you know I'm gonna kick your ass right?" I chuckled. I noticed Roxas coming out of the bathroom.

"You wish Axel!" Riku was all fired up from the last round. "I even have my own cheerleader, right Sora?" he laughed.

"I'm no cheerleader!" Sora hit him, but not that hard, because Sora is a gentle person.

"Well, Roxas and Demyx will be my cheerleaders," I chuckled and looked at Roxas. His eyes flickered over mine and a slight pink color was shown on his cheeks. He sat down beside me, because that was the only available sitting place left, and I'll be honest, I made it that way. And so the racing started, Riku had chosen his usual yellow and black car, while I'd chosen my black and red self adjusted car.

I won that round, and the next, and the next one. Until Roxas took the controller out of Demyx's hands and demanded to race against me. I was unprepared for him, but accepted the challenge.

"I've beaten Riku, Sora and Demyx, so why not beat you?" I said confidently.

"Oh, don't be so sure," the blonde said and gave me the stare of a devil. I got shivers down my spine.

We started the race, he kept up with me fairly, expected of someone that devilish. I was still in the lead of the race when we got to round two, but then...he started laughing, his laughter was so distracting his angelic laughter, before I knew it he was in front of me. Damn it! I tried passing him before the finish line, but he actually went into the lead all the way, he wasn't just right in the front of me. I lost.

"How is that possible?" I said mostly to myself.

"Well, I've been studying your strategy," as expected by a demon. I just hmph'ed and put down the controller, I'd lost at something I thought I was good at. I was a little hurt, but let me just tell you this, I admired him, in a way. I bit my lip looking at him. He looked back, making my heart skip a heartbeat. I felt the fire in my bones heat up my body and I got up on my feet I needed a smoke, and my cigarettes was in my bedroom.

The others who'd not known how to react to my defeat got out of their shock. I heard Demyx start laughing and howling, Riku flattered Roxas and Sora did the same thing. Am I a sore loser? No not usually, I'd just reacted on him, winning. I sat down on my queen sized bed, my cigarettes were lying on the table by my bed. I picked them up and lit up a smoke. I took a deep puff and rested my head against the wall. That wolf in sheep's clothing. I breathed out filling the air with gray smoke. I took another puff and closed my eyes, something about him made me uneasy but not in a bad way, that was what made me confused about this, someone is out to get me for some reason. God must hate me, making me face this unknown creature.

"You'll get wrinkles if you keep thinking that hard," an angelic voice I first thought was in my head said. I opened my eyes and stared straight into a couple of sky blue eyes. I froze. He was staring right at me.

"Sorry for startling you, it looked like you were thinking really hard," he smiled a can I call it, a guilty smile? I tried to say something, but I couldn't say anything, I just stared at him.

"The others changed over to a fighting game, I have no idea what game it is but it didn't seem interesting so I decided to look for you," he just kept on talking, like I'd actually replied.

"You see, I didn't think I'd get along with anyone here, but I guess I was wrong," he was actually having a deep talk with me, without me replying to anything, Maybe he didn't want me to reply? I blinked and it seemed like I was heading back to the world, I opened my mouth to say something, but this time I got burned, not by words or action, but my cigarette that I'd completely forgotten about. I shrieked and threw the cigarette away from me. It landed on the floor, luckily not near any carpets, clothing or anything.

"God damn it that hurt like hell!" I hissed out between my teeth. I put my two burned fingers in my mouth like most people do when they burn themselves.

"Are you alright?" Roxas gaped at me, and then turned towards the little cigarette that was lying on the floor.

"You shouldn't throw them on the floor," he said as he jumped out of my bed and picked it up. I muffled something out, it was supposed to be: I know right, but I got burned! But he was not able to pick up the muffled words. He put the cigarette in the ashtray and sat down beside me.

"Let me look at that," he said and took my burned hand. I refused at first but soon let him have my hand, it felt weird having him touch my hand with his soft fingertips.

He scanned my fingers. My heart was beating so fast I couldn't keep up with it.

"This will be alright, you don't need to cool it down, there may be a little mark but nothing to worry about," He said and let go of my hand. I quickly pulled my hand closer to my chest and clenched my shirt.

"I guess it's going to be interesting living here," he closed his eyes and sighed.

"Living here?" I repeated, was he going to live here? Wasn't he just visiting? Going home to his parents in a couple of days?

"Yes, I'm going to live around with Sora and his family, but it's really crowded so I'll be getting a job and moving out, to live by myself, a whole new experience," Roxas said as he put his head on my pillow. I blinked and was kind of startled that he wasn't going home, though I felt a little relieved as well.

I thought of reasons for him not wanting to go home, Roxas got up from the pillow, he looked quite silly, like he'd just done something stupid. He sat up beside me, his shoulder touching mine. I got a little chill, but decided to continue the conversation.

"Got a little heated up at home? Suffocating?" I asked and pulled out another cigarette. His eyes flickered and looked down, I couldn't see his eyes and his bangs had covered those blue eyes of his.

"Yeah, something like that, real heated up..." he replied, his skin looked so soft. I felt like touching it, but lit my cigarette instead.

"Is it alright if I smoke?" I asked, but I'd already lit it, and was taking a puff. I'd asked him a question, but he didn't answer, he was sitting in his own world, his eyes focusing on something I did not know, they could even be closed. I treated the silence as a yes.

We continued sitting in the silence, the only sounds was from outside my room, the others playing games. I'd figured I had said something he didn't like, and it was not the question about the cigarette. Family problems? Probably.

"Let us make a thousand mistakes, 'cause we will never learn..."

I sang those words without thinking, I tasted the melody and every word tasted sweet, but it also had this sour essence to it. I liked it.

I'd almost forgotten about Roxas' presence when he suddenly spoke.

"You have a beautiful voice," I looked at him. "I like your singing, will you sing something for me?" He was looking at me, smiling. I smiled back, maybe he wasn't a brat after all.

"I was betrayed, there is no fate, an open sore, I'm in too deep, I can't believe anymore, will you take what's left of me, reanimate my trust in fate"

I started singing without answering.

"Angel in disguise - you save my soul, but you make my heart go blind, my devils rage inside - just can't let go, 'cause it feels so right, you make my heart go blind"

Was it a song personally for you? I didn't know quite then, it was maybe a little early to understand, it was only the second day of knowing you. But now I know, this song. It was for you Roxas.

To be Continued