Words: 1709
See Chapter 1 for standard Warnings/Disclaimer. This fic is Unbeta'd I edit it myself, though I do have a couple friends who have read it as I worked on it.
Additional Warning:
A/N: Sorry that this chapters a little shorter than the last two, but I'm trying to cut the chapters to keep the pacing kind of tense, and thought the place I ended this one was a good one. Haha.
Axel lifted his hand to cover a jaw-cracking yawn. There was no point trying to stifle it completely, after all. He'd thought that the bastard who had taken Roxas would have contacted him by now, but they hadn't. Here he was on the bus, clinging to the hand rail, heading home surrounded by wheezing grandmas, gabbling brats, and a few pinch faced businessmen and what did he have to show for it? Nothing yet, but the faint fire of hope that had settled into him; The hope that maybe, just maybe, he could do something. Useless wasn't Axel's style, and neither was sitting still. He realized that he was playing a dangerous game by taking these chances, these risks... For Roxas, though, it would be worth it.
The ends, here, would justify any means.
The bus hissed to a stop and several passengers clambered off allowing Axel to hurry forward and grab a vacated seat before the newer ones drifted on. He found himself sitting next to a depressed looking teenager whose Ipod and headphones were blasting overloud music droning on about being misunderstood and the glories of self-mutilation or something.
Then his phone was rang and Axel stopped paying any attention to the kid and his music. Instead he was too busy fumbling his phone out of his pocket and flipping it open, "Hello?"
"Hey, Axel. It's Sora."
Axel bit his tongue so hard he swore he could taste blood. Now really wasn't the time for Sora to be calling him! He wanted to say all kinds of spiteful things, to himself, and to Sora. Why hadn't he checked to see who was calling first?!
"Oh... I mean... Uh.. Hey there, buddy, whats up?" He bit at the corner of the inside of his lips, willing for Sora to just hang up for once in his life instead of babbling endlessly.
"I just wanted to let you know that those Agent guys left... and it's probably a good thing you went home when you did. Riku and Sephiroth showed up."
"Ouch." Axel offered vaguely, and tried not to notice that he was jiggling his knee or that his finger was tapping against his thigh in an agitated rhythm.
"Yeah. They're arguing about something. Not really sure what, but it doesn't sound good. I'd better go though, it looks... Shit!"That made Axel go still, his spine going rigid and a tendril of fear cooling his insides instantly, "Sora?" he croaked. He certainly hoped something else hadn't happened, things were bad enough as it was. If something had happened that made Sora curse then...
"Cloud just tried to punch Sephiroth. I'm going to let you go... I'll, uh, see you later or something."
Then Sora hung up before Axel could say anything else. Axel pulled his phone away from his ear and stared at it with a tight lipped expression. It wasn't unusual that Cloud got into confrontations with Sephiroth, but he had to wonder what the man had said that would make Cloud go so far as to physically attack him like that.
He snapped the phone closed, and held it listlessly between his hands his thumb smoothing over the deep red plastic for several seconds before he flicked it open again. Axel smiled faintly at the picture displayed as the background of the tiny screen. It was one of him and Roxas, though the angle was weird. He'd been holding the phone aloft the little camera lens pointing down at them as he dragged Roxas into his side, squishing them together and hoping for the best. Roxas' brows were drawn down in a characteristic scowl, though his lips wore a faint smile. Axel's own expression was that of a sly, satisfied smirk one eye closed against the intrusion of Roxas' blond spikes as he rested the side of his head against the top of the his friend's.
He could remember how after he'd gotten the picture Roxas had shoved him off him and proceeded to lecture him on personal space. However, Axel could also remember that Roxas had been fighting so hard not to laugh as he'd done it that Axel could hear the barely restrained laughter in his voice and see it in the slight twitching of his lips. It had only taken Axel rolling his eyes, and huffing theatrically to break Roxas and set him laughing until he could barely breathe. Axel had just stood aside, amused, and checked to see if the picture had come out all right before setting it as it now was.
Snapping the phone closed again Axel sighed, and slumped into the seat. His mind was blank though a thousand thoughts skirted the edges teasing him with half formed glimpses. Nothing seemed to catch hold though and like so much white noise on a radio being tuned they faded in and out.
Two more stops passed with a jostle of passengers coming and going, and Axel was starting to get that sinking feeling that maybe things weren't going to happen as fast as he'd hoped. He hated this, hated the waiting. It just wasn't in him to wait for things, he liked to be right in the middle of it. Except where Roxas himself was concerned, in that he'd always been content to take what he could get before. No more of that thought, he thought firmly. Once this was over, once Roxas was home and safe again... Axel wouldn't skirt around the issue anymore. He was tired of it, and this was much too close to never ever for his liking.
His phone started to ring again, and the sound of it nearly made him drop the blasted thing as he was jerked from the stupor he had sunken into. He had the phone flipped open and pressed to his ear before he even realized it. The words he heard both chilled him to the marrow and made his veins sing with fire.
"Hello Mr. Family Friend."
Axel glanced around checking to see if anyone was paying him any attention. No one was, and the kid beside him was so lost in his music that he might as well have been comatose. He allowed a small, but vicious smile to curl his lips, "Hello, Scumbag."
"Insults? How petty. You're the one that wanted to have a chat with me."
"Heh, I guess you're right. First things first, though...." Axel leaned back, tilting his head so that he could see the buildings that passed by, and just above them a thin strip of blue sky. "I want proof. Proof that you're who you claim, that he's with you, that he's just fine."
A silky laugh was his immediate reply, and if he listened hard enough Axel could heard the shift of fabric, and a muffled thump, "You're smarter than his mother was, at least. She just started demanding, and then pleading." There came that odd sound of empty space, and then muffled as if from a distance, "Say hello."
"Why? You calling out for pizza?"
That familiar voice made Axel's breath hitch in his chest momentarily, and he found himself both crushed and exhilarated to hear it. For a fleeting moment the range of opportunities had shown itself filled with the possibilities that Roxas wasn't being held captive, and was simply doing his own thing for some crazy half-thought out reason. It took him several seconds to finally be able to talk, after wetting his lips and choking on his own words he managed a soft, strained, "Roxas?"
"Ah." He could hear the surprise in Roxas' voice. It wasn't the surprise of being caught off guard but more the surprise of understanding. "I figured it was you."
Axel could tell he was scared, that he was playing it tough. It wasn't any waver in his voice that gave him away, but more the previous senseless quip, "I'm coming for you, you know that, right kid?" he could just imagine the look on Roxas' face when he called him 'kid.' It was always the same: His nose scrunching up, his brows curving downward, and his lips shifting into something between a pout and a frown. Axel nearly laughed.
The seconds drew out, the silence over the line where all he heard was Roxas breathing, and then, "I know."
Axel felt like something within him was both shattering and blossoming at the absolute trust in those two simple words. The moment of intense clarity that seemed to grip him was shattered in its infancy, by the voice of Roxas' kidnapper, "That proof enough for you?"
"Sure, sure." Axel was talking before his mind even caught up with himself: All cocky flippancy. "What are you after? I didn't get to hear the gritty details."
"Why? You think you can provide the ransom we require?"
Axel wet his lips again, and decided to take the plunge, after all this was Roxas he was talking about, "Anything." Axel drawled. "I'll do whatever it takes, for him. Let me make that clear to you, buddy. Anything at all. Commit it to memory."
The man on the other end of the line laughed, a low dark sound, "I think I might like doing business with you Mr. Friend. Where are you now? I feel such things aren't to be discussed flippantly."
"Probably true." He leaned forward and tapped the shoulder of the lady sitting in front of him, smirking when she turned and gave him a dirty look. "Hey, what stop did we just pass?"
"Elm and Fifth." she snapped, as though it cost her personally to tell him.
"Thanks! Just passed Elm and Fifth." He drawled.
"The next stop is Fifth and Traverse, correct?"
"As far as I know, yeah."
"Good, get off there. Proceed down Traverse until you reach the corner where it intersects with Second. Theres a small curio shop called 'The Gizmo Shop' midway down the next block. Wait there."
The dial tone sounded in Axel's ear and he closed his phone. This time, the snap of the plastic sounded like the tolling of a death knell. Almost like he'd signed a contract with the devil on the dotted line. Perhaps he had, he thought morbidly, perhaps he had, indeed.
