He's All I Want, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic by Raberba girl
Part 3 - "I'm in love with you." (ROUGH DRAFT)
They both - reluctantly - decided it would probably not be the best idea to stay alone in the house much longer, but Xion really, really did not want to go home.
"Let's go out," Axel decided.
"Huh?" Her heart immediately started beating quickly from excitement. 'Our first date? Already?'
"Roxas is at that dance, right? You want me to take you there?"
She blushed. "I don't know," she said honestly. It might be a little weird, showing up with a college guy in tow. And it might not be nice to Roxas, giving him so little time to adjust before he had to see them together. And she wasn't sure she was ready to let her friends know about all this yet...
"Hmmm, lessee, movie, dinner, clubbing-"
"Not clubbing," she blurted out in alarm.
He laughed. "I know, I was kind of joking. Heh, too bad all the petting zoos are closed, too."
Xion snorted with laughter. "Let's just go somewhere and hang out. As long as I'm with you, I don't really care."
"My feelings exactly."
Then she frowned. "Actually, I am kind of hungry. I think I...forgot to eat lunch."
"I didn't really eat, either, even though Sai practically shoved the plate in my face. Too distracted. Can't do that, bad Axel, I'm gonna get in trouble with my weight again," he scolded himself in a mutter. "Well, Xi, you up for tacos?"
"I'm kind of up for ice cream," she mused.
"Tacos first, then ice cream," Axel said firmly. "Don't wanna end up like I was last year..."
They didn't get back until nearly one o'clock in the morning, and it would have been later if the shops hadn't kept closing and kicking them out. It was so nice just to talk, now that things were different between them and there were no activities or extra companions to cause distractions. And now that...
"Axel?"
"Hm?"
"You know...what Saïx said earlier?"
Axel chuckled. "He said a lot of things. Was it about the vet school, the page turning, or the ponies?"
"When he said he'd strangle you with...erm, with my violin strings," she tried and failed to say casually, feeling her face go hot with anxious pleasure.
"Come to think of it, he does give me an awful lot of death threats..."
Xion silently drew in a deep breath. 'Stop hesitating and be blunt,' she told herself firmly. 'It's not a big deal like you're making it out to be.' "He said, 'Stop talking before I strangle you with your girlfriend's violin strings.'"
"Oh yeah." After a pause, Axel smiled questioningly. "What about it?"
"...You didn't say I wasn't your girlfriend."
"That's because you are."
Xion could not help smiling hugely, feeling her face fade into a softer, happier glow.
"Right?" Axel added, now sounding a little worried.
"Of course," she said at once, "just wanted to make sure." She gave him a quick kiss below the ear and threaded her fingers through his. He smiled and wrapped his other arm around her waist to draw her closer, though that wasn't exactly possible since she was sitting so close already.
"Glad we're on the same page."
"Yup."
Even after they returned, they didn't go straight inside - Axel's parents were finally home and neither of them wanted to deal with that yet, so they walked around the neighborhood hand in hand, talking even more. On their third circle around, they noticed that Roxas was back, too.
They stood together at the top of the driveway, staring at the house, hands clasped tightly, not saying anything.
"We should go in," Xion finally murmured.
He swallowed. "Yeah."
They stood there some more. The lights in the living room went off.
"We really should go in, I think."
"Yeah..."
Both of them jumped when Axel's cell phone finally rang. He stared at the caller ID. "It's Roxas."
"You should answer it," she said quickly.
He shut his eyes and thrust the phone at her. Giggling very nervously, she accepted the call and set the volume on speaker mode. "Roxas?"
"Xion?"
"Hi."
"I thought I called Axel."
"You did."
"Oh. Okay. That is you two skulking up at the top of the driveway, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, get inside already. Mom thinks you're a couple of creepers scoping out our house to rob or something."
"Oh no!" Xion exclaimed, both horrified and trying not to laugh. "Tell her it's us."
"Okay."
"We'll be right in."
"Okay. Hey, is Axel there?"
"I'm here," Axel whispered.
"He's here," Xion repeated, knowing there was no way Roxas would have been able to hear that.
"Can I talk to him?"
"Sure," Xion started to say, then frowned in confusion when Axel began frantically shaking his head at her. She returned the volume to normal and set one palm against Axel's face to hold him still, pressing the phone to his ear with the other.
After a long silence, Axel finally said to his brother, "Yeah, I'm here. ... Sorry. ... I...just...we've just been walking around, talking. ... I dunno. ... Yeah, I'll...sure. We'll be right in. ... What? No, I'm fine!"
"No, you're not," Xion whispered in amusement, though she also felt a little sorry for him.
"Yes, I'm fine," Axel continued. "It's just static or something. Look, I'll...I'll see you inside, okay?"
It was actually Axel's mother who met them at the door, bursting out to throw her arms around his neck. "Where have you been? I was so worried!"
"Mom!" he cried in horror, throwing a pained glance at Xion, "I'm not a kid! Why are you still doing the curfew thing!"
"You don't have a curfew," she fussed, picking at his shirt and hair even when he tried to brush her away, "but you're still my son, and I worry about you when you're finally home and I don't see you for hours and hours and hours and you don't bother to tell me where you went- Oh, hello, Xion, dear."
Xion smiled back. "Hello."
"You could have said you'd be out late!" Axel's mother cried, fixing her attention back on him.
"I...sorry, okay, I'll tell you next time," he mumbled, trying to pull her hands down as she stroked his face. "Please stop touching me!"
"You're really all right?"
"Mom! I didn't get hit by a bus or anything, we just went to get ice cream!"
She wrapped her arms tightly around him and kissed the side of his head. Axel went limp in her embrace in a resigned sort of way. "No matter how big you get, you'll always be my baby," she murmured anxiously into his hair.
"Mom, I am begging you..."
"You're not going out again, are you?"
"No, I'm not," he said in exasperation, struggling free again.
"Mom, it's okay," Roxas finally spoke up. "You can go to bed, I'll keep an eye on them."
His mother seemed to take this as an invitation to wrap Roxas in her arms this time. "My babiiiiieeees!"
"I'm not a baby!" Roxas insisted. "I went on a real date with a real girl!"
"I'm so proud of you," she sobbed, kissing his head.
Still trapped in her embrace, Roxas rolled his eyes.
"Go to bed soon, okay? Don't stay up too late."
"Okay."
"You too, Axel," she told him.
"Sure, mom. Geez, you really didn't need to wait up late for me."
"I told her I'd stay up for you guys," Roxas said, "but she insisted."
His mother abruptly let go and seized both of her sons by the ear. "I'm going to bed now, but you be good hosts for poor Xion! She's been standing here all this time and you haven't even offered her anything to eat or drink!"
"Ow, ow, ow!"
"Mom, I will, let go, argh!"
Yanking them close to kiss them both, then smiling at Xion and waving, the boys' mother finally went off to the back hallway.
"Xion," Axel said pointedly, rubbing his ear, "even though we just got back from pigging out on tacos and ice cream, would you like something to eat or drink?"
"No, thanks," she laughed.
"You went for ice cream without me?" Roxas exclaimed in dismay, and Axel squirmed.
"Umm...yeah...sorry..."
"It was a date, Roxas," Xion said firmly. "With my boyfriend. The three of us can go out for ice cream some other time just as friends."
Roxas sighed dramatically. "Fine. I see how it is."
"Why are you acting like this is not a normal thing?"
"Because I still think it's stupid you guys had to mess things up like this..."
Roxas looked oblivious, but Xion noticed Axel, the way he was gazing at his younger brother, and felt a little exasperated. She thought they'd already gone through all this. "Rox," she said. "Do you really have a problem with me and Axel going out now?"
"I dunno," Roxas grumbled sulkily, not meeting their eyes.
Axel was still silent.
"Roxas," Xion said, taking his arm and pulling him close.
Roxas finally looked up and realized how his brother was staring at him. "Axel?"
"...Roxas, I'm...sorry."
Roxas smiled in a slightly confused way. "It's okay. I still think it's dumb, but really, it's ok-" He had started reaching out vaguely, and was startled when Axel abruptly seized him in a tight hug, hiding his face against his shoulder. "Axel?" Roxas said in surprise. There was a long silence, then Roxas smiled and patted his brother's back. Xion realized that Axel was crying a little.
"It'll work out," she said.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you and stuff last night," Roxas realized. "I think I made too big a deal out of it." He thought a minute, since Axel did not seem to be in a hurry to let go of him. "Oh, and Xion, I'm sorry for ignoring you all day."
"That's okay."
Axel was still hugging him.
"Is there anything else I need to apologize for?" Roxas wondered helplessly. "Because I already apologized for-"
"No, that's it," Xion said quickly, not wanting Axel to hear what Roxas was probably thinking. "And Roxas, I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about all this sooner."
"That's okay. I'll get used to it."
They both finally looked at Axel, who slowly lifted his head and said shakily, "I love you, you know."
"Yeah, I know. Me too. So since I got kicked out of your ice cream date, can we have ice cream again now together? We're out of sea-salt because someone keeps snarfing it down every three hours, but I think there's still some cookies-and-cream left in the freezer."
"Of course, Roxas," Xion said warmly.
They asked him how the dance went, and Xion in particular was very curious to know how Roxas had handled Naminé in light of all the...recent events.
"Aw, man, I just got finished being grilled by Mom about the whole thing. *sigh* Okay, well, I was late because SOMEONE came creeping through my window to distract me, but Naminé was cool about it, she said it was okay, and her brother made some joke about how at least this way I didn't get stuck in the living room for twenty minutes getting the 'shotgun lecture' from their dad while waiting for her to finish doing her hair." Roxas paused. "I have no idea what he was talking about. Do you know what he was talking about, Axel?"
"Looks like we're going to have to have another Life Lesson soon... We'll do it later, keep going."
Xion giggled.
"...Okay. So we went to dinner, but since we were really late we were also really late for the dance, and the whole place was packed when we came in-"
"Wait, the restaurant was, or the school?" Xion interrupted.
"The school."
"But what happened with dinner? You skipped the entire dinner!"
"What's there to tell? We just ate, and talked. Oooh, so exciting," Roxas said sarcastically.
"Well, did you like talking to Naminé?" Xion probed in exasperation.
"I dunno. I guess. She likes to draw. She drew a picture of me. It kind of looks like a kindergartener's drawing, but it was still kind of cute, so I kept it." Roxas pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it to show them. "See?"
"D'awwww," Axel cooed in amusement.
"It is kind of cute," Xion agreed, laughing.
"So ANYWAY, we went to the dance and we were really late and it was kind of crowded, but Kairi, like, pounced on us almost as soon as we came in. Naminé was, like, all shy and everything, so we went to dance in a corner, except she can't really dance and I don't really know how to dance either, and Sora dances like a chicken with rabies, so Kairi brought him over and she taught all three of us." Roxas paused again, staring at his brother and best friend. "Why are you guys laughing like that?"
Xion was trying and failing not to cackle. Very attractive. Oh well; Axel didn't look like he minded. "Because I can just imagine it."
"Flaming pants, I wish I could have seen that," Axel chortled. "Man, there is so much stuff I never taught you..."
"Ohhh, so you can dance, Axel?" Xion said, half-teasing and half-delighted.
"Of course! What do you take me for? I'll have to show you sometime soon."
"This week," she suggested happily.
"Yep, this week. I'll take you out dancing, and some other time I'll take you both out dancing, Rox, and we'll get this taken care of."
"I'm looking forward to it," Xion said gladly.
"Yeah, that would be cool," Roxas agreed.
Afterwards, it was Xion's turn to get kicked out, since Axel said she probably really shouldn't stay in the house all night, and it felt weird now to even think of sleeping with Roxas. So she went home. Axel was a gentleman and escorted her, and he kissed her on the front porch just like in the movies, but then she had to watch him walk away into the darkness.
Despite having gone to bed so late the last two nights, she was up again the next morning at 7:00, even without her alarm clock having been set. "Xion?" her mother exclaimed in the kitchen, "Where are you off to this early on a weekend?"
"Boys' house," Xion replied as she slathered jelly on a piece of toast.
"But you were just over there! You've been with them all week!"
"It's Axel's last day!" Xion responded frantically. "Mom, please! He's leaving this afternoon, this is the last chance I have to see him." Until Tuesday, but her mother didn't need to know that at the moment...
"Well...all right, but I'd like to see you too sometimes, you know."
Guiltily, Xion went over and kissed her mother's cheek. "I'm sorry, Mom. You want to rent a movie to watch tonight?"
Her mother smiled and affectionately brushed her hair out of her eyes. "Whatever you like, dear."
Xion squirmed a little, then added, "By the way...since it's Spring Break, Axel was wondering if maybe he could bring me and Roxas up on Tuesday night to stay with him the rest of the week..."
Her mother's eyes narrowed a little. "So you, a minor, would be staying, unsupervised, with several young men for how many days and nights?"
Why did she have to make it sound so bad? "Mom, come on. I've known Axel and Roxas since we were little kids, nothing bad's going to happen."
"In a college town without a chaperone, I don't think so. You should be lucky I don't work full-time and can take days off so easily."
"Wait - don't tell me you're planning to come with us?" Xion cried in horror.
"Either that or you're not going, period. Your choice."
Xion groaned. Axel was worth it, and she was pretty sure they'd all understand, but...urgh!
This time, Xion did have her key, and barged in as if she was part of the family before realizing that the boys' mother had risen early as well. Mrs. Hayes-King treated her as if she was part of the family, hugging her and insisting that she eat some pancakes before Xion was able to escape to the back of the house.
Where Axel & Roxas were both still fast asleep. "You guys! Wake up already! Time's wasting!"
Eventually she was able to drag them out of bed, and they all shuffled into the kitchen to eat a leisurely breakfast together. It was Xion's third morning meal, but whatever. "Mom's insisting on coming with us on Tuesday," she complained. "Guys, I'm sorry, it's just that she kept going on about me being unchaperoned in an apartment full of boys and everything..."
"We wouldn't try anything like th-!" Roxas started to exclaim in shock. Then suddenly glanced over at his brother and glared. Axel stuffed half a bagel in his mouth in what looked like an attempt to hide his sheepish grin.
"I think it's a perfectly reasonable idea," their mother declared, reaching out to hug Xion firmly to her side. "Of course my babies are perfect gentlemen, but if I did have a daughter, I'd hate the thought of my precious princess staying all alone with a bunch of young and virile men..."
Axel snorted.
"I hope Saïx won't mind," Xion ventured anxiously.
"Nah, I'll have it covered by then. He might even have been planning to camp out at Lex's place anyway, I dunno. It'll work out, don't worry about it."
Xion and Roxas helped Axel pack afterwards, the three of them retrieving toiletries that had been scattered all over the house and then lounging around his room to leisurely fold clothes (actually, Xion was doing most of that, since the boys tended to just toss everything into haphazard heaps). It was amazing, in an awful way, how quickly time seemed to pass when they weren't really doing anything.
"Oh! Speaking of which, I forgot to ask you last night; didn't you end up kissing Naminé good night when you dropped her off?"
"Ew, of course I didn't kiss her," Roxas exclaimed. "Kissing's gross."
"That's because the only girl you've ever kissed is me," Xion said in exasperation, without thinking. Then she gasped a little, throwing a quick alarmed glance at Axel. Axel went on wrapping up his laptop cord for a couple more seconds, then suddenly paused, a strange look crossing his face.
"Well...I guess it did kind of feel like kissing my sister or something," Roxas was musing.
"Wait - Roxas, you've kissed her?" Axel said sharply. Then suddenly shoved a hand through his hair in a way that covered his eyes and muttered under his breath, "Of course he has, why wouldn't he, who knows what they've been up to all that time when you were gone, totally oblivious, like a stupid, stupid idiot..."
"Yeah, yesterday when she climbed through my window."
There was an awkward pause.
"It was one-sided," Xion finally said, torn between hiding her shame from Axel, being indignant at Roxas for making her feel like she had anything to be ashamed about in the first place, and trying to not make Roxas look quite so bad. "Very, very, very one-sided."
"I said I was sorry," Roxas complained. Then he paused and said thoughtfully, "Though you've been kissing Axel a lot, too, so that's almost kind of like kissing my own-"
"You know what," Axel said abruptly, "for the sake of my mental health, let's change the subject."
"Please," Xion said gratefully.
"You think it really would have been different kissing Naminé?" Roxas wondered.
'Way to change the subject, Rox,' Xion thought in exasperated amusement.
"First off," Axel pointed out, "did she look like she wanted to be kissed?"
"How should I know? I don't know when I'm not supposed to kiss girls until after I'm kissing them. When they hit me, that means stop."
"..."
"It's okay, Axel, really," Xion said hurriedly, in response to the look on her boyfriend's face. "We worked everything out, it's fine now."
"Little brother," Axel said firmly, scooting closer, "looks like I've once again been a fail and neglected to teach you some things." With some insider's perspective from Xion, they covered stuff like 'Is she drawing attention to her mouth or looking at yours?' and 'See how long she fidgets with her keys' until Axel and Xion finally realized that it was a bit awkward - and funny - discussing such a thing in each other's presence.
"Ohhh, so that's why she took forever to go inside," Roxas realized as Axel watched Xion blush. "I get it now."
"...You know what, whatever," Axel finally said to her, "I'll just ask you straight out if you wanna be kissed."
"Assume that'll be all the time," Xion said with a grin.
Roxas wrinkled his nose. "Ugh, do you guys have talk about this while I'm here?"
"Oh," they teased, "so you get to talk about kissing Naminé until our eyes glaze over, and we don't get to return the favor?"
"Fine," he grumbled, "I'll stop. Except, all those rules seem really dumb and complicated. I'm just gonna ask her if she wants to be kissed like you said, Axel."
"N-No!" Xion gasped, trying hard not to laugh at the thought of Naminé's reaction. "You can't do that...!"
"Well, why not?"
Axel had not brought much, so it didn't take long to pack his things. They lingered over lunch, which the boys' father was awake to join them for by this time, and considered going out again, except their mother threw a fit about them leaving her all alone when this was the last time she'd get to see her eldest baby for weeks and weeks and weeks. So they hung around the house talking and getting dragged into last-minute house repairs and talking and getting distracted by funny videos on the Internet and talking some more, until Axel finally looked out the window and realized dusk was starting to fall.
"Holy cow! How is it getting dark already?"
The time Xion had been dreading had finally come. Her heart, so elated while getting to spend time with the person she loved, now seemed to sink as everyone milled around, reluctantly seeing Axel off. As Xion approached the front door, feeling with an odd keenness how alone she was with everyone else outside, she was startled when Axel suddenly met her at the threshold.
"Axel?"
He smiled a little and shut the door behind him. Her heart seemed to beat a little faster.
"Hello, princess."
"Good-bye, you mean," she murmured.
He gazed at her a little longer, then held out his arms; she immediately stepped into his embrace without any conscious thought. Their lips met in a moment of perfect, sweet, heart-wrenching farewell-
The door opened again, and Roxas nearly crashed into them. "Oh, gross! Would it kill you guys to give me some warning?" he yelped as he backed out again and slammed the door shut.
Axel and Xion burst into laughter, even though she also kind of wanted to get Roxas's neck between her hands. Speaking of her hands-
"Ow!" Axel cried, reaching up to his hair, where her fingers had gotten tangled.
"Sorry! Urgh, you need to lighten up on the hair gel..."
Between them, they managed to free her fingers, after which Xion had to fight laughter again as she observed his heavily-skewed spikes. "Oh, Axel," she muttered affectionately, trying to shove them back into place.
"Oi, oi, oi, you're messing up my hair!"
"It was already messed up, silly."
"But-! Argh!"
When they came outside, Axel's mother hurried over. "Are you two all right? Why wouldn't Roxas let us in?"
"We're fine," Xion assured her quickly, as Axel saluted Roxas and Roxas put his hands on his hips in a self-important pose.
"Yeah, I'm good to go," Axel said heavily, and was immediately engulfed in a hug from his mother.
"I'll miss yoooouuuuuu, sooooo muuuuuuch!"
"I'll miss you, too, Mom," he said in a longsuffering tone.
His father came over to clap him on the back, Axel gave Roxas one last huge hug ("Urgh, Axel, can't breathe!"), and then his eyes met Xion's again.
"I'll miss you," she said softly, resting a hand over her own heart.
Axel came over to hug her, too, though more gently than usual. "Love you, princess," he whispered in her ear. One last quick, hidden kiss on her cheek, then he was leaving, calling out a merrier goodbye to all of them in general, getting on his motorcycle, finally heading off. Gone.
Long after the boys' parents had gone inside, Xion stayed watching at the top of the driveway, even though she knew she wouldn't be able to see him anymore.
"It's just two days," Roxas said, coming up from behind to hesitantly put his arms around her.
"Yeah," she said softly.
"Two days, and we'll get to see him again."
"Yeah."
There was a long silence, then Roxas squeezed her tighter. It did feel nice to be hugged, even if it was by her brother rather than his brother.
"Are you okay?" he finally asked in a small voice.
Oops. Xion turned around and hugged him back. "Yeah. Just two days. It's stupid to get all lovesick and heartbroken because of that, right?"
"Yeah," Roxas said, though he looked anxious as he studied her face.
She smiled. "Take me out somewhere to distract me, okay?"
"Okay. So we can still play and stuff like we used to, right?"
"Yup."
"Good. Because I kind of missed you, too. Even though you were here, you know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean. Sorry, Rox."
"It's okay. As long as we're still best friends." He paused. "We are, right?"
"Of course we are." She affectionately brushed a few spiky locks out of his eyes. "That's how it's supposed to be."
He smiled, looking much happier. "Yep. Just making sure you knew it, too."
In unison, they suddenly whirled and raced each other back to the house as if they were little kids, laughing all the way.
o.o.o
Author's Notes: Let's end it with some RokuShi, shall we? ;)
So. This fic's finally over. NEVER AGAIN. You might still see some AkuShi romance from me in the future, especially that stuff inspired by Fire & Moonlight, but I really had a terrible struggle writing this story. It was definitely worth it this time, and Tali you're a darling (and your encouragement is the super reason why this was finished and published so fast XD), but I can't do this again as a gift or for a request or anything, for anyone, for any reason. ^^;
And once again, this was intended to be a one-shot. The problem with overgrown one-shots is that it's extremely difficult for me to find places to break them into chapters every time they pass a 10,000-word mark. The characters I work with seem to love to talk and talk and talk and talk so much. *sweatdrop*