"Wow, nice ride."
"At least I have a car!" Roxas said, patting the hood of the beat up old clunker. He adjusted the duct tape holding part of the front light on and put his key into the lock.
"I almost prefer walking." Axel teased as he climbed down into the seat. The descent was a bit easier for Roxas who only had to slide in.
He looked around at all the trash and random crap cluttering the passenger seat floor. "Oh, you can just throw all of that in the back. I should probably clean it out but I'm just too lazy" he said with a wave of his hand.
"Well we certainly have that in common." Axel replied as he chucked empty soda cups and receipts behind him.
Roxas fumbled with his keys, going past the Mickey Mouse and Disney World keychains, finally putting it into the ignition. Immediately the song he'd had on while driving to school that morning started blaring through the speakers.
"I took you by the hand
Know that even with your doubts, it's ok
Take into account that it's not about to change
Who knows, who cares?"
"Ah, woops! Sorry, I'll put something else on," he said, going for the dial but Axel stopped him.
"No way, I love this band!" Axel said, beaming with delight.
"You like Local Natives too?" a very surprised but pleased Roxas asked. He'd thought for sure that this guy only ever listened to death metal or something like that, judging by his attire.
"Yeah, they're the best! It's like a perfect mixture of calm and upbeat at the same time!" he grinned, putting his foot up on the dashboard and air-drumming along with the song. His head swayed back and forth with the rhythm, a mess of flame red hair.
Roxas couldn't help but laugh a little bit. "You're kind of weird aren't you?"
Axel paused from his rockstar antics to look at him, "The weirdest." He smiled and went back to playing the imaginary drums before him, but Roxas could only continue to stare at the boy.
Those eyes…he thought, transfixed by the image of them in his head. Like emerald held up to the light they had sparkled and been burned forever into Roxas' memory. How many times would he revisit this exact moment in the theater of his mind, replaying the scene of Axel's bright eyes, his grinning face, and Roxas' tightening heart?
"The current has us now, it's ok
Take into account that it's all about to change
Who knows, who cares?"
He regained control of his brain and quickly shook his head as if to physically shake loose the mental image. He put the car into reverse, pulled out of the spot, and then changed gears as he headed for the road. Driving would give his mind something to focus on.
"So where do you live?"
Axel hesitated for a moment, "Over by the railroads." His grin started to fade and he only drummed his fingers on his knee now, in an almost anxious manner. He turned his head and watched the drenched scenery slipping by through the rain-droplet covered window. The drumming ceased all together and Axel slid his hands into his coat pockets, thumbing the lighter as the song ended and went to another track.
Roxas' blue eyes glanced sideways at him and his grip tightened on the steering wheel. He looked ahead at the crawling traffic while chewing his lower lip, then a brilliant though occurred to him.
"Hey, do you have to be home at any specific time?"
"Heh, no…" the boy mumbled sardonically. This reinforced Roxas' conviction and he gave a mischievous grin.
"Awesome, then we're making a detour!" he said excitedly, veering the car off its original path and onto the highway. The redhead let out a noise of surprise at the unexpected jolt of motion.
"Wha- where are we going?" he asked.
"On an adventure," smiled Roxas.
Axel didn't say anything, but the smile slowly crept back on to his face and his body relaxed into the old leather seat. He let go of the lighter and instead flipped through the pages of his sketchbook openly, feeling somehow less self-conscious of his drawings.
They fell into a contented silence, listening to the whirr of the engine, the music flowing and bubbling through the speakers, and the rain quietly falling on the car. All the sounds mixed together were like a cocktail of tranquility that both of them drank in, glass after glass. It flowed through their veins, intoxicating them, influencing the two strangers to drop their guard.
"So why do you draw antlers?" Roxas inquired, pointing to the sketchbook. For some reason he felt like this would probably be his only chance to ask.
For once Axel didn't feel like immediately snapping the book shut. Instead he left it open and continued to flip through the pages upon pages of black lines, darkened, erased, redrawn.
"There was this forest near where I used to live and there were always tons of deer wandering around. One summer, during a drought, there was a massive wildfire and it sort of destroyed everything around there. When I was walking through afterwards I saw tons of the skeletons and antlers of deer that didn't make it out I guess, and they just fascinated me for some reason. I've been drawing them ever since." He looked transfixed; his eyes saw the forest engulfed in flame once more, not the road flying in front of him.
Roxas watched him, looking for signs of some sort of continuation of the story, but he just stared out the window.
"Why did you move?" he asked, curiously but also cautiously.
"I…I LOVE THIS SONG!" Axel shouted as another track came on. He went back to attempting to break the car with his dancing, as much as one could dance when strapped to a seat. The question was drowned out by his enthusiastic singing and Roxas decided to let it go.
He'll tell me if he wants to. Besides, we just started talking today and I don't want to freak him out. Roxas joined in on the singing and they belted out every line of every song together as they rolled down the highway for the next twenty minutes…and it was not pretty. High notes were hit that were never meant to be by any human of the male variety. But they had fun and that was all that mattered.
"So really, where are we going?" asked Axel after they had caught their breath from nearly laughing themselves off the road.
"We're almost there. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it." Roxas replied as he looked up the road still giggling. He knew the other boy was either going to think it was either the dumbest thing ever or the best thing ever, but he was betting on the latter. The place tended to invoke love/hate emotions.
The rain had stopped and the wipers gradually slowed to a halt as nothing but sunlight was on the windshield, lighting up the faces of the teenagers. Axel caught a glimpse of a wooden sign as they zoomed by and his mouth opened.
"No way…"
Roxas only grinned wider.
"Are we seriously going there?!"
The blond was positively beaming by this point, unable to contain his laughter any longer. It bubbled up from within him as they rounded the corner and came upon a small park with a sign over it in all capitals, "WELCOME TO DINOSAUR LAND!"
The little car pulled into the lot and Axel practically tore the door off in his excitement. He ran up the path to the incredibly cheesy life-size styrofoam sculptures of the Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus-rex, Pterodactyl, and other ridiculous foam monsters like a kid running to the presents under the tree on Christmas morning. He turned around to see if Roxas was following him.
"THIS IS THE COOLEST PLACE EVER!" he shouted before running off again.
Roxas sighed and shook his head. "Such a crappy place like this can really make someone this happy, huh?" he said to himself, walking up the path to catch up with the redhead.
Axel was running around from statue to statue, trying to look at all of them at the same time, and almost trampling at least four small children in the process. Roxas grabbed his jacket collar like the leash of an untrained puppy and directed him over to the Megalosaurus that was devouring a Diplodocus. It was so kitschy and tacky and parts of the paint were coming off after ages of standing outside for years, but he was apparently head over heels for it.
"Ahhh! He's eating the shit out of that guy! That's so AWESOME!" Axel said, pointing at the miserable fate of the dinosaur. Roxas chuckled but was soon pulled away as Axel raced off to King Kong, whose massive black hand was outstretched, ready to hold a damsel in distress.
"Look! Roxas, look!" Axel called as he climbed up on top of the giant ape and into his palm. He put on his best girly voice a fake-shrieked, "Ohhhh! Roxas! Helllp me! Helllp me! This big ol' monsta is gonna eat meh!"
Roxas was clutching his sides now, laughing at the absurdity of Axel's voice and his studded-leather outfit and the crowd of families staring at him half in awe and half in terror. His damsel voice degraded more and more into a really bad southern belle accent until he could no longer stand himself and laid back in the giant monster hand giggling uncontrollably.
"C'mon, you're scaring the kids." Roxas said, gulping in air.
Axel slid down off the beast and they wandered throughout the park together, making fun of all of the replicas. He particularly liked the gigantic shark because he could crawl through its mouth and they almost got kicked out when Axel attempted to climb on top of the T-Rex that was engaged in a ferocious battle with a Triceratops. Roxas decided it was probably safer to just take him into the gift shop where he could at least somewhat contain the guy.
Twenty minutes later they finally emerged with an array of snacks and a baggie of "dinosaur eggs" which Axel was ecstatic to try.
"Alright! Let's grow some dinosaurs!" he exclaimed once they'd sat down at a picnic bench. He took one of the bottles of water and unscrewed the cap, then poured half of it out into a little cup. He grabbed the lighter from out of his pocket and flicked the little wheel until a small flame burst out.
"Dude, what are you doing?" Roxas asked nervously, looking around for any employees.
"Relax," Axel said, nudging the boy with his shoulder, "It's not like anybody is going to put us in time-out or anything. And besides, look around." He motioned to the other customers of the fine establishment. Practically every single adult was smoking while they watched their children running around with a look on their faces like, 'Why me?' Roxas still felt like he was doing something bad though.
"Well why do you need the lighter?" he asked in a lowered voice.
"Because it says we need warm water." Axel whispered, leaning in close to Roxas who suddenly stiffened. He could smell the scent of the boy's shampoo and leather jacket, which wasn't really a bad combination at all. Axel, who apparently hadn't noticed this change at all, held the lighter a little bit under the plastic cup and tested it for warmth. When he was satisfied he dropped one of the little plastic capsules into the water and watched it seep into the casing, melting away the plastic. All at once the little sponge dinosaur popped out of the gel "egg" and expanded, stretching to its normal size.
"This. Is. AH-MAZING!" he shouted, waving the little green Triceratops in front of Roxas which broke the spell over him.
"Ha, that is pretty cool." He grinned and they dropped the eggs in one by one, watching them pop to life and take shape, which apparently never got old for Axel as he bounced with excitement at the birth of each baby dinosaur.
"Here, you pick out the ones that you want." Axel said, smiling as he held out the palm-full of dinosaurs.
Roxas sifted through them a finally decided upon a blue Diplodocus and a green Triceratops. As he grabbed them his hand brushed against Axel's and his heart stopped for a moment. They both looked up at each other quickly and then away shyly.
"Uhhh, there. The red and orange ones are for you to match your hair." The small boy said while trying to focus on a group of kids hanging off the tusks of a wooly mammoth.
"Hey, Roxas."
His big blue eyes looked up at the green ones sheepishly.
"Thanks for taking me."
Yo bros! Chapter Two is complete -BOOM! Anyways, for those of you who were wondering, the whole local Natives album, Gorilla Manor is pretty baller. I listened to it the entire time I was working on this as well as a little bit of Tongue Tied by Grouplove :3 Good shtuffs.
Also, yes, Dinosaur Land is a real place, it's in Virginia, yes I have been there, and yes I highly recommend you visit it or at least check out some of the pictures of it. It's pretty goddamn hokey which makes it fantastic. Stick around for Chapter Three, although I have no idea what's going to happen since I just make it all up as I go along! :D And a super big thank you to all of you who already favorited my story! Cheers!