"What happened to you?" Riku watched with a frown as Demyx patched up Axel's nose. Roxas glowered at the silver hair from the blankets he was laying in, but Riku didn't even glance at him.
"I walked into a door." Axel said blandly. Riku rolled his eyes.
"Suuure you did. Just tell me it wasn't Sora." Axel frowned up at the silver hair, then winced as Demyx began casting a healing spell.
"Of course it wasn't Sora. Aren't you people ever going to let me live that down?" Axel muttered, flushing slightly. Riku in particular wasn't ever going to forget his abortive relationship with a little neko named Reese. He'd been a feisty little brunette, a recent recruit from another mercenary company. Axel had been attracted immediately and the sex had been amazing, but it had only taken Axel a month to realize Reese was really a complete asshole. Their relationship had been a little violent, but it had exploded when Axel had tried to break things off. He really hadn't been expecting it and hadn't defended himself properly, and his lover had been a specialist in unarmed combat. Axel had ended up in the infirmary with plenty of broken ribs and a broken arm. It could have been worse if Riku hadn't heard them and interrupted, too. "Sora's a complete sweety." Although Roxas did remind Axel a little of Reese, actually. Maybe that was why he was feeling attracted to the blond already. Axel sighed to himself. He did tend to like things that were no good for him. Riku frowned thoughtfully, then nodded.
"It's your funeral. So, when should we leave for Ayrlin's Pass?" That was the name of their town, since it sat right on a trade route through the mountains. That helped the town's economy a lot when the Immortals were off on business, although the mercenaries were still an important source of revenue. Axel frowned thoughtfully.
"Yeah, as soon as we buy some horses and get our shit together a little. The prices on that would be better here." Horses were expensive and not great quality at the pass. "Then we'll have to start a recruitment drive and start training. Question is, have we got enough money to tide us over?"
"I think we do. Scratcher says Illuch got payment up front for the last campaign, and, well. We've got a lot fewer people to support at the moment." Axel winced, but Riku had a point. Recruits were only paid a very small amount while they were in training or on probation, for those that had some skills. "We're going to have a tough time and might have to take out a loan, but I think we'll make it as long as next years campaign goes well."
"Hopefully it will." If it didn't, the Immortals would disband for certain. That wasn't the end of the world though. Axel could always find a place somewhere else. Mercenary units salivated at the thought of securing oddballs like him. "It's going to be a long winter." It was barely midsummer now, so things were ending early for them. If everything had gone well they might have tried to take a second contract, but they'd need the time to fill in the ranks.
"At least you'll have Sora to keep you warm." Riku said dryly, and looked over as Roxas growled. Demyx was tending to his injuries now, but that wasn't the reason for his irritation.
"Can't you find a woman that would have you?" Roxas hissed out at Axel, and blinked as Riku and Demyx both burst out laughing. Axel grinned like a naughty schoolboy.
"Nah, they all punch me in the nose if I start saying anything remotely romantic. Some kick me in the balls." Axel's grin widened at Roxas' confused glare. "I have a natural immunity to magic, kid, and I disrupt any offensive spells aimed at me. Including anti-preg charms. Guess how many kids I've got, I dare you."
"He has four children in Ayrlin's Pass." Riku said to Roxas, who was starting to look a little wide-eyed. "A single with a human woman, and triplets with another neko. They're the reason he hasn't broken off to start his own company yet." Four children were a drain on his finances. "How old are they, Axel?" Axel considered it for a moment.
"Shari's brood are twelve and Sebastian is fifteen. He's apprenticed to a baker, so he almost doesn't count anymore. So three more years on the triplets and most of my obligations will be over." Axel was looking forward to it. He hadn't meant to make so many kids, but two drunken moments had gotten him in trouble. He seemed to be distressingly fertile. "Anyway, yeah. The girls in the company know better than to let me touch them, and most of the town has figured it out too. It's a good thing I like the boys too or I'd be a very lonely man."
"Wait. HOW old are you?" Roxas had suddenly caught what he felt was a huge flaw in the story. "If you have a fifteen year old, you have to be at least thirty!" And that was assuming Axel had impregnated the woman at fifteen, which seemed unlikely. Axel coughed as Riku sighed.
"If you can answer that question, you'll win a prize. Axel just says he's old enough." Riku said with an amused tolerance as he looked at the red headed neko, who flushed.
"Well, I am old enough, god. Why do you all want dates? It's embarrassing. Can we talk about something else?" Riku nodded and they started discussing the minutiae of what horses to buy and where. Roxas quickly got bored with that and just watched as Demyx worked on him. The healing wizard had a frown on his face.
"You're in terrible shape." He said absently. "The plain injuries are bad enough but you have two sexual diseases. I'm going to have to give you regular treatments to remove them. No having sex until I say." Roxas snorted at the thought. He wasn't interested in having sex with anyone ever again. Demyx shook his head with a smile. "You can snort now, child, but you'll find someone you want someday." Demyx was sure of it. Roxas glowered at him.
"No. I won't." He'd lost his virginity to rape, and everything after that had been downhill. Sora had been raped the same day, but he'd somehow come to enjoy it, with a certain redhead anyway. Or so they claimed. Roxas wasn't going to be convinced Axel wasn't raping his brother until he had some concrete evidence.
"Well, with that attitude, you won't." Demyx admitted as he pulled out a several potions and began mixing them with wine in a large mug. "But it would be a pity. Axel likes you already." Roxas stiffened and glanced over at the red head. He was still deep in conversation with Riku and hadn't heard a thing.
"I just broke his nose and kicked him in the balls. He'd be a fool to like me." Although Axel did seem like a fool to Roxas. He was entirely too cheerful. Roxas sneered slightly to himself. Maybe Axel and Sora were suited to each other. Then he swallowed as Axel glanced over, briefly meeting those bright green eyes. They were so brilliant and so full of life… Roxas yanked his gaze away, feeling a flush on his cheeks. I wonder if he wears eyeliner. And what kind of a tool gets tattoos on his cheeks? Although he did have to grudgingly admit that they looked good on the neko. Very good, in fact.
"That's not necessarily an impediment with Axel." Demyx muttered as he finished putting together his potion and gave it to Roxas. "Here, drink this." Roxas gulped it down quickly, grimacing at the taste. Healing potions were always foul, and this one was no exception. "Are you hungry, child?" Roxas stomach growled and he nodded. "I'll fetch you something." Demyx got to his feet, leaving the infirmary tent to go see what the mess hall had to offer. Roxas watched him go, staying secure in his next of blankets. Demyx had healed the worst of his injuries, but moving made him itch from the healing skin and insides.
"Oh, Roxas." Roxas looked up at Axel, startled. His nose was badly bruised now but the bones were set and the swelling had been brought down by Demyx's spells. "You're coming with me and Sora into town for a bath. We'll take you back after we're done." Axel wasn't going to get a second room for Roxas at the Broken Arms with the prices the way they were, and he was sure the blond neko wouldn't want to share a room with him and Sora. Axel had a few ideas in mind for the little neko that would probably make Roxas want to bite his cock off.
"No." Roxas said sharply and Axel blinked at him, surprised. "I'll go with you but I'm staying." Axel was speechless for a moment. Did Roxas imagine he was going to stop them from having sex this way? "I want to make sure you're not hurting Sora." While he was at the whorehouse it had been easy to hate Sora for giving in, but after meeting him again Roxas had remembered how sweet Sora was. How giving and understanding he could be. Sora was just nothing like Roxas, so it was stupid to expect him to act the same way.
"Are you saying you want to watch us have sex?" Axel asked, highly amused by the request. Roxas set his jaw mulishly. "I bet Sora's going to be overjoyed. Sure, why not." Axel kind of liked the thought, in a way. And maybe Roxas would see that sex wasn't just something scary, that it could be something beautiful. Although he'd have to work extra hard to get Sora into it. He was sure Sora wasn't used to an audience. The look Roxas was giving him right now, though, was more appropriate to something that had just crawled out of a sewer drain. "What? It was your idea."
"Fucking pervert." Roxas growled and rolled over. Axel sighed to himself. This kid was just so intense and negative. He wondered if he would ever manage to fit in with the Immortals. But then, Seifer could be just as bad when he was in a bad mood, so maybe Roxas would do just fine. Mercenary units were meant for oddballs, after all. Demyx came in with a bowl of stew, then, and Axel was spared trying to make anymore conversation with Roxas. Pulling himself up, Axel winced at his various aches and made his way out of the tent. He needed to speak to more than Riku before the day was over.
By the time the day was over, Axel had hammered out a basic plan with Riku and the surviving squad leaders. They would be staying in Immervale for the rest of the week, getting horses and the supplies they would need to head back to Ayrlin's Pass and seeing if any other Immortals came filtering in. Then they would leave for the Pass, and do a bit of recruiting along the way once they hit their home turf. Mercenary units weren't allowed to recruit outside of certain areas, but the Immortals could recruit anywhere within Janaheim as well as parts of Immervale and Kaspan. And they would see if there were any cheap, likely slaves in the market. That wasn't likely though. It took more than a strong body to make it in the Immortals. For a slave, though, getting bought by a company wasn't a bad deal. Usually they were freed after a set amount of time which could be three to five years. The same was true of pretty much every army in the world. Knowing they would be getting freedom, citizenship and good wages tended to motivate such warriors. Roxas had spent the day in the infirmary, eating as much as he could hold and Sora had been with the wizard apprentices, picking up a few tricks. He was already showing talent, and Axel was glad. It seemed likely that Sora would be able to find a place with the company wizards, if push came to shove.
"Ready kittens?" Axel asked and Sora nodded. Roxas just glowered as Axel picked up the brunette and put him onto the horse, then tried to do the same to him. Axel jerked away as Roxas nearly bit him. "What, do you want to jump up yourself?"
"Yes." Roxas snarled, and scrambled up into the saddle, making the horse snort and stamp. Axel frowned and took the reigns. It was asking too much for the horse to carry triple, so he was going to be walking and leading the gelding. Sora smiled at Roxas as he put his arms around his brother's waist. Then Sora frowned at the glare Roxas was giving Axel as they walked.
"Roxas, stop, please." Roxas muttered something uncomplimentary about Axel, and Axel flipped his ears, amused as Sora winced. "Roxas!"
"He wants to watch us sleep together to make sure I'm not hurting you." Axel said with a grin and Sora froze, his ears flicking straight up in shock.
"What?!? No!" Sora's rejection was immediate, and Roxas flushed. "Roxas, that's gross! How could you want that?"
"I want to make sure he's not hurting you, and the only way I'll know is if I see you together." Roxas said stubbornly as Sora glared at him.
"He's not hurting me! Can't you get that through your thick skull?" Sora said, exasperated. "And even if he were hurting me, it's my life! I don't need you trying to run it for me!" Axel let the wrangling wash over him, although it was odd. Something about it was very familiar. It was like he'd heard this all before, or something similar, and a memory vaguely came to him of a boy in white and black clothing facing another boy in blue and arguing about something. But the memory was too fragmentary to focus on, and faded almost as soon as it came. Axel shrugged to himself. "Axel, help me out here!" Sora was getting very frustrated with Roxas, and Axel grinned.
"Hey, I don't care as long as he doesn't interrupt." Axel suddenly paused as a horrible thought occurred to him. "He wouldn't interrupt, would he?"
"I'd kick your ass if you did anything to hurt Sora." Roxas snapped, and Axel suddenly had an awful image of Sora having a brief moment of pain when he went inside and Roxas breaking his nose again. Or kicking him in the balls in the middle of sex. Now that was a horrible idea.
"Uh, have you ever experienced good sex? Because I'm not sure I want you judging my performance that way." Axel started walking again, getting more nervous as he thought about it. "Actually, maybe you could just sit outside and listen." Although then Roxas would be likely to break down the door. "You know, I think this is a terrible idea. I'll take you back to camp after you get your bath."
"No!" Roxas snarled as Sora looked relieved. "I'm not going back and you can't make me." Axel glanced back at Roxas, less than amused now.
"Look, kitten, you caught me by surprise before. But I'm a trained fighter and you're not. I'm pretty sure I can tie you up and haul you back to camp if I need to. Don't test me on this." The look Roxas gave him was so malignant that it made even Axel a touch uncomfortable.
"I hate you." Roxas felt almost shaken by the depth of his hatred for the red headed neko. He'd never felt such antipathy towards anyone, not even his 'customers' or the madam and pimps that had used him. Roxas' hands curled into fists as he realized he wanted to kill Axel. He wanted to wrap his hands around the other nekos' throat and feel Axel gagging and writhing underneath him as he died. The vision was so strong that it left Roxas feeling breathless and with a cold sweat on his forehead.
"Uh, okay." Axel was unnerved and struggling not to show it. He smiled, his usual, amused smile but his heart wasn't in it. "That's fine, but you can hate me from back at the camp." Axel was certain now that he should stay as far away from the little blond as possible. And he was sure he wouldn't. He'd never been good at staying away from things that were bad for him. They were all silent for a while until Sora finally broke it.
"Axel? You were going to get me a new necklace?" He was still wearing his gold one, but the one Roxas was wearing was bronze. Axel nodded.
"I'll get you both silver ones, I think. And plenty of clothes and shoes for Roxas. We still have nine silvers left from that pendant, it should cover everything. A silver each for the slave chains and seven left for clothes." Roxas frowned at then mention of slave chains, and reached up to touch the heavy bronze links on his throat. He hated the feel of it, but doubted it would be any better in silver. "We're doing the shopping tomorrow. Once we've got that down, the two of you are going to start training with the Immortals to see what you're good at. I have an idea that Roxas is going to make a good fighter, but I'm not sure about you Sora. Maybe you'll go with the wizards or healers." Either one would be fine. Sora beamed.
"I hope so! I love magic." Sora seemed very enthusiastic, and Axel grinned.
"That's good, it probably means you have talent." People without much talent found the exercises draining. If Sora liked them, he might have a lot of talent. "Anyway, if you both work out you'll get the standard contract and be free in three years." Sora beamed at the thought and even Roxas looked pleased, before he lapsed back into sullen suspicion. Axel sighed to himself, wondering if the blond neko would ever believe anything he said.
Axel paid another silver for the bath, ruefully watching his supply of coins vanishing. But Roxas desperately needed it, and the bath was pleasant for all of them. Soon enough he was taking Roxas back to the camp.
Or trying to, anyway. Axel swore and dodged as Roxas swung on him. The damn kitten was fast and strong for someone his size. And very, very agile. Axel was getting seriously frustrated as he tried to pin the little neko in a corner and kept coming out with nothing.
"Dammit Roxas!" Axel paused, breathing hard as he watched Roxas narrowly. Sora was watching them both, clearly dismayed, but he couldn't spare an instant of attention for him. If he did Roxas would try to hit him again. Roxas seemed aware of his every lapse and he was really good at street fighting. "Okay, look. You can stay IF you swear to god that you won't touch me unless Sora says to. Alright?" Sora squeaked in dismay and Roxas scowled, clearly not liking the terms. But he finally nodded.
"Alright. And Sora, shut up. I'm not leaving you with him." Roxas didn't know why he hated Axel so much, but he trusted his instincts. He was sure the redhead was dangerous. As they went back to the inn, Axel contemplated just sleeping with Sora, no sex. But that would mean letting Roxas win, and it wouldn't settle anything. He was unhappily certain that they'd be having the same discussion the next day.
Sora was very nervous as Axel started gently disrobing him. Axel just tried to ignore Roxas, who was sitting in the desk chair, watching him with hostility. It wasn't easy and it wasn't sexy. But soon, Sora's squeaks and moans made him forget the blond neko. Almost. Axel gently lay Sora on the bed and knelt down between his thighs, leaning down and gently running his tongue along Sora's erection, then gently taking the brunette in his mouth. Sora moaned, his hands tangling in Axel's red spikes as he tried to thrust up into the moist warmth around him.
"Axel…" Roxas frowned as he stared at Sora's face. Sora was flushed and panting but the look in his eyes was so… so blissful. Roxas shifted uncomfortably, feeling his pants getting tighter. It had been so long since he'd been really aroused that he could hardly remember the last time it had happened. Axel pulled away just before Sora could release, making the little neko moan in disappointment. Then Sora gasped as Axel touched him with well-lubed fingers, gently opening him. "Oh!" It felt better this time, with a proper supply of lube, and Sora relaxed as soon as the stinging faded. "Axel please… give me more." Sora whimpered out, completely forgetting Roxas' presence. Axel looked into his face with a grin.
"Your wish is my command." Axel said with a small, husky laugh, lubing up his erection quickly before going carefully into Sora. The boy was still so much smaller, so tight and wonderful around him. Sora whimpered a bit in pain at the feeling of Axel's huge cock, so much bigger than fingers, stretching him out. But before Roxas could do more than tense, Sora moaned in pleasure and wrapped his legs around Axel, firmly urging him on. Axel began to thrust into Sora, nuzzling his throat and licking away a few tears on the smaller neko's face. Sora always seem to cry just a little as he went inside, but it didn't seem to mean anything, thankfully. "God, Sora, you're so damn good." Axel moaned as Sora tightened around him, that slick wet heat driving any coherent thought out of his mind. "Oh yeeesss…" Axel stroked Sora's throbbing erection, thrusting hard against his special spot. He couldn't have began to guess how long they moved together, how long they kept up the wonderful, mind-blowing feeling of fucking. But the end came suddenly as Sora screamed, arching and tensing as he released between the two of them. The sudden tightening around him sent Axel over the edge, and he released at the same time, filling up Sora with his seed. Gasping, the two neko lay together completely spent, completely oblivious to the watcher.
"Fuck." Roxas muttered to himself, swallowing hard. His pants were way, way too tight now and he had to admit that Axel hadn't hurt Sora. But that made him want to kill the other neko even more. Roxas had no idea why and that was almost frightening, but the burning rage hadn't subsided in the least. And it become worse when Axel looked up from the bed, grinning.
"You liked what you saw?" Axel said teasingly as Sora squeaked in dismay. He'd managed to forget his brother was in the room. "Care to join us?" Roxas snarled.
"I'll kill you first." And he stalked out of the room, trying to get his arousal under control. Axel's smile faded at the deadly promise in Roxas' voice.
"What did I do to him?" Axel asked Sora, but he could only shrug. He had no idea why his brother was acting this way either.
It was disturbing.
