The Hunt
By FadedNobody
Property Of Square Enix
The sky was still dark, the moon settling down near the horizon, the stars fading slowly as the skys' frame tilted showing the brightening sky in the distance. Clouds collecting on the skyline, coloring a light pink as the light spread further from the yellowing horizon.
Shadows stretched behind the buildings of Twilight Town, across the plaza and streets. Curtains were closed, not letting any of the light seep into the dark room. Letting the bedraggled red headed teen continue to sleep, until
I feel it deep within
It's just beneath the skin
I must confess that I feel like a monster!
A pale hand shot out from beneath the covers, groping around for the phone that should have been on the desk. Finding it missing from the wooden surface
I hate what I've become,
The darkness just begun!
I must confess that I feel like a monst-
"Aha! Here it is. How did it get down here?" Axel grumbled, pressing the off button for his phones alarm. Moaning he fell back down on to the mattress, snuggling up to his fluffy red body pillow, with every intention of falling back asleep. Staying awake was just too difficult right now.
Slam!
"Axel!"
An all too familiar voice screamed gaily in his face. Groaning again he shoved his head under his pillow, trying once again but less successfully to gain a few more minutes of sleep.
"Axie! C'mon ax let's get up an runnin, yo!"
"Why?" Axel moaned pitifully from underneath his pillow.
"'Cause ya gots ta go to you're Twili High shool."
Sitting up Axel turned to his brother, a pink tint to his cheeks and the odd crescent moon shaped markings under his bright green eyes, somewhat similar to axels triangle tattoos under his own acid green eyes. Though Reno's' eyes seemed a bit dulled and watery under the influence of the alcohol, probably some scotch, from the smell of it. And the bottle.
"Reno, c'mon, you gotta stop doing this to yourself." Axel sighed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Getting up out of his bed he shoved the blankets to the foot of hid bed. Grabbing his older brothers arm and pulling him towards their Jack-N-Jill bathroom, turning the levers of the bath and letting the water heat and fill the white tub.
"But Axie~!"
"Reno." He sighed in exasperation, "Just get sobered up okay? I need to get to school and you need to stop doing this and get a new job."
"Doin whaa?" Reno cocked his head to the side cutely, eyes big and innocent. He always got like this when he was drunk; innocent and clingy.
"Doing this!" He gestured wildly almost knocking Reno over, Reno lost balance and stumbled to the ground, "and ruining yourself over someone you'll never see again! I can't even begin to under stand your thinking. Or how this was the best idea you could come up with." Axel snapped at him.
"Da bess ider?" Reno blinked up at him, eyes wide and his speech level falling further.
Axel sighed, grounding his temper and running his slim fingers through his hair. He hated doing this; he knew it would be the only way the stubborn ass red head would get sobered up. But it would break his heart a little more to see his older brother so happy over something, some one, who would never return.
"C'mon, Reno, Do ya want your Rufie to find you so mussed up, you know how he gets when you vomit on yourself."
Recognition lit in his dull green eyes, his mouth making an 'o' immediately he began taking his alcohol stained clothes and dumping them in a pile at his feet. Axel quickly scribbled on a post it and stuck it on the tile wall above the bath. Shutting off the water he left the room, to change for school.
"Hey Ax."
Axel ignored the question behind that welcome, and rolled his head to the side, facing away from the silver haired teen. Damn, Zexion was on the other side.
"So Axel, need I ask?" Zexion spoke evenly, not lifting his eyes from his Biology textbook.
Axel groaned, "Ugh, okay so maybe last night's idea wasn't the best one I've had so far."
"Yeah, so did you see the notice they posted this morning?" the emo asked boredly, turning a page in his endless book.
"Whaa?" Axel unburied his face from his arms and turned to Zexion, "What notice?"
"Oh come on Zexy, don't give him any more ideas. He comes up with enough dumb adventures on his own." Riku said, a tired look on his face, his chin resting on his palm as he leaned on his desk. He glared at Zexion, telling him with a look to not say anything about the notice the Hunters had posted.
"Eh, well if you hadn't noticed it, then I suppose that it just wasn't that important to you." Zexion decided to listen to Rikus' whim and ended the topic of the notice.
"No wait you gotta tell me!" Axel whined, almost on his knees next to Zexions desk, his eyes wide and watering pitifully.
"Tell you what Axel?" A deep, loud and commanding voice commanded, startling the three, or well, one since Zexion and Riku were so emotionless that they simply turned to face the front of the class with blank looks.
"Huh uh…what? I-I mean no! Nothing!" he waved his hands innocently, like a shield in front of himself.
"Hmm I would like to speak to you after class Axel." Ice blue eyes glared at the red head from under long blonde bangs.
"Alright professor."
The blonde in charge gave him one last look, the whirled back to the board with a huff. Axel tried to pay attention to what Prof Vexen was talking about, but he couldn't seem to register any of it.
'I'll just need to get the notes from Riku and Zexy.'
The bell seemed to ring too soon for Axel, and was still sitting at his desk, the other students having left already. Vexen was at his desk, stacking and organizing the paper from the lab they had finished earlier.
Giving the papers a once over he nodded his approval to himself of his work, turning he opened a file cabinet in his desk and slid the stack into a file, shut it and stood. He turned to erase the board.
"Axel. I do know what you were doing last night." He spoke as he cleaned the blue and red expo marker from the whiteboard.
Axel stared shocked at the back of Vexens head.
"What? How do you know what I did?"
"That doesn't matter," Vexen turned around and stalked over to Axels desk, "what does matter is that you came too close to them and you cannot do it again! Or you will enter a world you never had seen."
"What? What the hell are you talking about?"
Vexen opened his mouth to continue, but stopped short when a bark from his door and some scratching distracted him.
"Nothing, Excuse me." The scientist turned and walked to the class door, opening it to see a woman?-no man. With pink hair and grass green eyes, his skin was lightly tanned and he was wearing a white shirt and plain faded blue jeans.
"Hey Vexy!" he leaned over and wrapped a long lanky arm around his shoulders. A content grin spreading across his face.
There was something odd about this man, and the red head couldn't put his finger on it.
"Vexy, who's this?" green eyes turned to his. The pink haired mans nostrils flared slightly.
"You know him, from last night remember Marly?"
"Yeah," 'Marly' muttered nuzzling Vexens cheek before waltzing over to the utterly confused Axel.
"Whaa? Who are you?"
A sharp toothed grin spread across Marlys face, "I am Marluxia, but might I ask, what exactly were you doing out in my forest last night? You could have been shot."
"Yeah we-I heard the shots. Was that you out there?"
"Well I was out there, yes, but there was some one else firing shots. So I went out to look. I found you and two others, then another man and a group of dogs whom I kindly removed from the property."
"Did you find the Werewolves?" Axel asked worry and curiosity shinning in his acidic eyes.
"What? No there aren't any left here, all of them were killed off a good twenty years ago." Marluxias green eyes saddened a little, "Such a shame, they are so beautiful, such amazing creatures." His green eyes gained a lost and far away look.
"…" Axel's head hurt, everything was so confusing. From the search for the werewolf, to finding the werewolves to the screaming, now this man who speaks like he knew everything, but only gave him crumb sized clues to a single puzzle piece. Cradling his head in his hands he groaned, "Oh God, this is so confusing. Professor Vexen, can I leave now?"
"Yes, go now; but do not return to the forest." Vexen glared at him as he stood, albeit shakily and stumbled from the room his backpack slung over one shoulder slamming the door behind him; missing the canine grin that spread across Marluxias face.
"So what did he want?"
"Eh I dunno, just said some confusing stuff had this pink haired dude, Marlboro or some thing, come over and stuff. He was so affectionate to Vexen rubbing faces and stuff."
Zexion sighed, the information Axel gave him making no sense, and buried his face in another endless book; the only difference between this one and the previous one was that this one had a blue cover.
"Well this is Vexen, so it was probably just that lab assistant he was talking about. Marluxia." Riku said before shoving some unidentifiable food into his mouth, must have been potatoes at one point.
Groaning Axel folded his arms on the table, pushing the tray of unknown foods away, and burying his face in his arms.
"You know what Ax?" Riku asked boredly, poking his 'food' with a fork.
"Mmph."
"You groan a lot," Stabbing through the 'green beans' he stuffed it in his mouth and chewed, "Dear god is this even food?"
"No" both Axel and Zexion spoke at the same time.
"Why was I eating that anyway," pushing the tray away from himself, Riku stared boredly at the wall. Axel was staring at the same wall, but some thing had caught his eye.
"Hey guys?" they both made indignant sounds of acknowledgement, "What is that?" he gestured towards the posters on the wall.
"Oh that's the notice they posted this morning."
"Really?"
"Yes, apparently it was important enough for you to notice."
"What's it about?"
"Just about the werewolves they tracked into the forest, they need petitioners to get the owner of he property to let them into the forest to follow them. 'They' being the hunters and their followers."
"Huh."
Riku turned to face him, a tired exasperated look on his usually blank poker face, "Oh no. I know just too well what that means. Don't even think about it!"
Axel chuckled nervously, "Whaa? No, me? Pssh why would I of all people be scheming some kind of plot to persuade Marluxia to let me onto his forested property to find the werewolves and talk to them. 'Cause you remember that one of them was shot in the leg, and besides the two that left the tree were really cute. But why do you think I had some kind of idea to rope you two into this. It was my plan after all."
"… and here I thought you were saying you didn't have an idea."
