"Hey Roxas!"I felt someone shaking me. "Rooxaass. Roxas, come on. We have a big day today; I don't wanna have to do all the work myself." I wasn't a morning person. "Damn, Roxas." My eyebrow twitched, "Mmm, Terra, language." I said tiredly. "Come on Rox, please? I promise I'll make Xiggy be nice to you." Somewhere in the backround I heard, "Its Xigbar!" and then laughter, beautiful laughter, then I remembered, Axel. That made me get up. "Fine." I said. "Yes!" came the cheerful voice of Terra.
Then he started going on and on about the list of chores we had to do, and how if we finished them all we could leave the next morning. But I wasn't listening. I was too busy thinking of the day before and, with a blush on my cheeks, how I had asked Axel to marry me. How embarrassing. Why did I have to do that? I groaned. Terra saw the look on my face and smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry, it shouldn't be that awkward anymore, well, maybe now, but he's leaving this evening, so yeah. Hey I rhymed! Leaving and evening! Get it Roxy?" he pouted when he saw I wasn't listening. Axel's leaving tonight? Would I ever see him again?
I thought about this for majority of time I spent at the breakfast table. Axel wasn't there, packing, Xigbar had said. "...Hey! Hey, kid! Are you listening?" I heard Xigbar shouting, at me, apparently. "Sorry." I said, though it was obvious I wasn't.
Xigbar sighed, "Terra, explain what I was saying to Roxas. I have to go out for a bit." Terra nodded an 'okay' as Xigbar left. "Okay, so I have to go out and buy some groceries, meanwhile you paint the garage and sort the stuff that's in there. Throw any garbage away, keep all the weapons, holiday decorations, and tools, anything else is, you know, garbage," Terra started getting up "If I come back and you're not done I'll help you. Okay?" I sighed, "Yeah sure, whatever." I heard the door slam shut.
I finished eating in silence. Once I was done I walked into the now clean kitchen to put my dishes away. I gingerly put my dirty plate in the dishwasher, careful not to dirty it. When I heard a pouring sound, all my efforts went to waste as I dropped it. I turned around quickly, shocked to see Axel drinking scotch in the kitchen, again. "A bit jumpy today, aren't we?" he said with that cocky smirk, but I could still see the uncertainty underneath it that I saw the other day. "How long have you been there?" I asked, my heart beating wildly. "I just walked in." Axel said with a shrug. "That's so creepy! Can't you make noise when you enter a room? You know, like normal people?" I asked. "Hmmm, you mean creepy like someone asking a person they don't know to marry them?" I winced, turning around. I didn't want him to see my blush. He was such a jerk.
I quickly finished putting my dishes away. "Look, I'm sorry okay? I have a habit of saying things without thinking first." I walked out, not wanting to stay long enough to see his expression.
As I entered the garage, I looked around. It looked like the garage I had back home, dark, creepy, and filled with useless crap no one ever uses. I turned on the light and started working. I went through different boxes and sorted everything into piles. The first one was Xigbar's weapons which, unfortunately, there were lots of. The next was made up of holiday decorations. Then there were family photos, memorabilia and other stuff I thought Xigbar might want to keep.
As I went through the boxes I came across an interesting picture. It was of a tall man with blonde hair, blue eyes and multiple piercings in his ears, but that's not what made it interesting. What made it interesting, was the little boy standing next to him with crazy bright red hair and familiar calculating green eyes. He looked genuinely happy in this picture, his eyes weren't as cold and he had a huge grin on his face. I ached to find out what that looked like in person. I put it in my pocket. I had to find out more. I was a pretty curious person. I decided I would go ask Axel about the picture before he left.
When I was done going through the boxes, I broke them down, save for the ones holding the things Xigbar was keeping, put them in the recycling bin, and then looked around for the paint. Finally when I found it, I was surprised to find the color was yellow. I mean sure I liked yellow, it's just, yellow? That really didn't seem like Xigbar's color. Maybe this wasn't the one he wanted. I looked around some more, but found nothing. "Oh well, I guess I could just paint it over if it's wrong." I thought out loud.
When I was halfway done painting the garage, I heard the door open and shut. "Hey, Roxas!" Terra shouted. "I'm in the garage!" I yelled back. "Oh hey Roxas! Looking good," He said, looking at the garage. "Is this the right paint?" I asked. Terra shrugged "Hell if I know." I scowled "Thanks." Terra grinned as he grabbed a brush to help me, "You're welcome!"
As we were painting the garage, Terra was telling me about his trip to the grocery store. "And then I was like, 'Yeah, I'm that guy' and then they asked me to sign their shirts, wich was cool and all, but then this guy asked me to sign his chest, at first I thought he said shirt too, but then this one lady translated, and I was like... fuck. He wasn't even fit or goodlooking or anything, he was hairy and was built like a sumo wrestler. I told him this could be his inspiration to lose weight and I could tell he wanted to beat the shit out of me, so I left as fast as I could." I giggled, deciding to let it slide this time, I knew Terra got excited like this whenever he told a story, we were similar in that way.
"So, are you still upset about Axel leaving early?" he asked, watching my eyes widen in shock. Earlier, when Terra came back from the grocery store, he told me that Axel left early for some reason. I was disapointed, because I wouldn't be able to ask him about the picture, but I tried not to let it show. I was suprised that Terra picked up on it. "You insult me, Roxas. Did you really think I didn't notice?" I looked away, busying myself with painting.
Terra sighed, "Look, I know you wanted to get to know him, but don't get so upset about it, this happens all the time. I remember once, you liked Sora, because you thought he was beautiful, or that girl Namine, because she interested you. But you stopped liking them the minute someone new came along. This whole thing with Axel is just a phase. You'll be back to normal once you become attracted to a flaminco dancer, or wooed by some annoying french hipster. Besides, I don't think Axel would be a very good influence, he was... rude."
I rolled my eyes and mumbled, "I didn't even know you back when I liked them." but I knew he was right. I probably would like a flaminco dancer, or a french hipster. Sora and namine are great, but I have a small attention span and get bored very easily. The person who I would actually love, and be with forever, would have to be amazing. But right now, I couldn't even think of spending the rest of my life with someone. That didn't stop me from getting angry at Terra, though. "Well, what about you? You always sleep with different people, at least I'm a virgin. I can't imagine how Ventus feels right now." I muttered the last part.
When I went to glare at Terra, I stopped at the sight of him. "It's not my fault, I don't know where he is..." He said in a distraught voice. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up. You were right about me." I quickly apologized. Terra looked at me, "Roxas, how you are isn't a bad thing. It just means that you can appreciate different qualities in different people. You like strange and interesting people, and that's okay. Don't ever be sorry for who you are." I smiled, "Wow, Terra, I think I'm rubbing off on you, maybe someday you can be as charming as me."
Terra laughed, "Maybe."
When we were done it was about 4:00, it took us roughly four hours to get the second half done, mostly because of us goofing off. Terra and I were thirsty, so we went to get a drink. As we got to the kitchen we both had horrified looks on our faces. "You forgot to put the groceries away!?" I yelled at Terra. "Oh no! I forgot!" There on the floor, were three grocery bags, one had ice cream leaking all over the vegetables and the others were filled with spoiled and damaged goods.
"Urgh! I don't want to go back there! I can't speak Italian!" Terra whined. "Don't worry, I'll go. You stay here and clean up this mess. Do you still have some money?" I asked. "Yeah, all of it. I got all this for free using my good looks and stardom." He said wiggling his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes as he handed me the money. "Hurry up! Xigbar will be mad if we don't have them by the time he gets back!" he called after me as I raced outside. I got to the end of the road before I realized I had no idea where I was going.
I kept walking, thinking I would just ask someone. I looked around, but it looked like the small, city street was empty. Then I caught sight of somebody. "Mi scusi, può dirmi dove il più vicino negozio di alimentari è?"(1) I asked the woman. "Sì, è lungo questa strada e poi girare a destra e se andare avanti lo vedrete." (2) She said. "Grazie!" "Nessun problema."(3)
I followed her directions until I got to my destination. I frowned, it was a gas station. As I walked in the building behind the supposed gas pumps, however, I was suprised to find it was a grocery store, albiet a dingy one. As I bought my items, I noticed the guy behind the cash register eyeing me suspiciously. He kept looking at me as if I was about to run off with something, or pull out a gun. I didn't hold it against him, though. In this neighborhood, it looked like it happened often.
As he rung up my items, we held a polite conversation. Once he realized I wasn't a thug, gangbanger or even a remotely a bad person, he warned me this was a bad neighborhood and I shouldn't be out at this time of night. I looked outside and realized it was, in fact, night and reminded myself to hurry up. After assuring him that I would be alright I walked outside.
As I was walking through the outside of the gas station something caught my eye. I looked over and saw a figure sitting down on the ground leaning against the wall staring at me. Axel. I knew it was him, and the way the moonlight reflected on his green eyes made him look as dangerous as ever. We stared into each others eyes for, I don't know how long, and before I could stop myself I was walking over to him.
"Hey, Axel," He said nothing "what are you doing here?" He stood up and began walking. "Hey I asked you a question!" I shouted, following him. "Will you shut up? You'll attract attention neither of us want." He sneered at me. "Okay, what are you doing here?" I asked quieter. When he didn't answer I kept going, "Do you live here? Who were your enemies? Are they gone now?" I felt all that curiosity come back to me, and once I started I couldn't stop "Was what Xigbar said about you true? Did you not go to school? How did you make enemies? Why did you steal my money? How old are you? Do you have a job? Where are your parents?" At that he snapped, "Can't you just leave me the fuck alone? I'm sure your retarded older brother is waiting for you to get back." I glared at him and said "Well not really."
He scowled "And why the hell not?" I could feel my cheeks heating up as I said, "Well, because I'm lost" It was true, I couldn't for the life of me remember where Xigbars house was, and following Axel didn't help. He sighed, exasperated, and looked at me. "Why did you ask me to marry you?" I gave him a bewildered look. "Why are you asking me this now?" It was totally off topic. He started to get that annoyed look he had on before, "Just answer me." I frowned, then shouted "I already told you!" Did it even matter why? He got a panicked look on his face, "Shut the fuck up!"
I ignored him, too angry to care about what was going on around me. "Who do you think you are? You ask me a question and then get mad at me? You stole all my money! That's why Terra and I have to stay with Xigbar," I spat his name "and make our own money! Do you even care? You're always so mean to me! At the party you punched me. And I tried to be nice to you, but you just continue to be-" I was cut off, not by Axel, but a voice that said, "Hmm, what's this? A lovers spat?"
Axel glared at me, then turned to the voice, a woman, I'm guessing by the sound of her voice, who had long hair in a pony tail, and was extremely built. When I say extremely built I mean extremely built. She had bulging muscles that you would see on martial arts masters, or a girl taking steroids, but she still kept her feminine apearance and voice, so I ruled that out. "Axel, mia cara(4), we've been looking for you everywhere. And who's this carino(5) little blonde you have here?" She asked in a sweet voice , but all my hopes that she was a good witch went out the window as she flew at Axel. She was literally in the air, about to deliver a roundhouse kick, but luckily he was ready for her. He blocked the kick, using that incredible strength I saw before, and successfully sent her flying back, then before I even knew what was going on. Axel grabbed me, and ran.
He was really fast, too. Since I was thrown over his shoulder, all I could see was the floor, first I saw the road, then I saw rubble then, suprisingly, I realized he was running on the top of a picket fence, seperating two backyards. Then a road again, when I looked up, I was terrified to see three more of them chasing after us with... ninja stars? "Axel!" I let out a strangled shout. He ignored me and kept going. So I took matters into my own hands.
As Axel was running, I took some fruits and vegetables out of the grocery bag that I was still holding and threw them at the ninja's with pretty good aim, I hit all of them at least once. It slowed them down, but not for long, so I started looking around, thinking of other ideas. Then I got it. "Axel, stop right up there, okay?" I said ponting to a pile of junk in the alley way infront of us. "Why? Don't you think you've helped enough?" he said in a snippy tone. "Just trust me okay!?" I yelled, If we didn't do something, we would be cornered. Axel looked at me, "Fine." I got ready to throw the pineapple at my target, a wooden bar holding up some of the junk. Just as Axel stopped, I threw it, causing a chain reaction. A ton of junk and random chunks of stuff, fell down most of them falling on our persuers and the rest on the other side of a wooden plank that Axel was standing on, propeling us into the air and on the other side of the wall that would have cornered us.
I braced myself for the fall, but it never came. I opened my eyes to find us, or rather, Axel rightside up. "Well, I wasn't expecting that," Axel said, putting me down "but that was quick thinking, good job kid." As soon as I was rightside up, I started asking questions, "Who were those guys? Were they your enemies? Why were they chasing us?" Of course, Axel ignored me, and just kept walking. "Where are we going?" Axel looked at me, "well we can't go back to Xigbar's, so I'm taking you to a... person I know. So I can figure out what to do with you."
And with that, we continued on our way in silence.
Hey! I was gone for a while so here's a long chapter to make up for it (Well long for me). XD Thanks for reading and please review.
(1)Excuse me, could you tell me where the nearest grocery store is?
(2)Yes, go along this road then go right and you will see it.
(3)no problem
(4) my dear
(5) cute
