prompt - window

"She came in through the bathroom window…"

Axel froze in the doorway of his apartment. The distinct voice of Paul McCartney drifted through the air, making Axel's shoulders sag and his head droop. After a few moments he seemed to snap out of it, straightening and stepping fully inside the home, shutting and locking the front door behind him. He slid his jacket off his shoulders, laying it on the back of the couch to his left. He noticed the second jacket flung haphazardly over the arm of the couch, and then looked up to the see the TV still on. He let out a whoosh of air as his suspicions were confirmed: something bad had happened with Roxas.

The signs were all there: Roxas' jacket was always always meticulously hung in the closet when he came home; the fact that it wasn't meant he was too distressed to care. The second sign was the TV. Roxas hated waste in any form, and so he was very careful not to waste anything (something that his mother had taught him, he said). The fact that the TV was on, muted, on the weather channel with no one even in the same room was strike two. And last, the music.

When Roxas was depressed, as in deeply depressed, he would come home and turn on some music; specifically, he would select a random vinyl to play on his ancient record player and turn it up, ignoring the rest of the world.

So it was no surprise to Axel when he walked into their bedroom to find Roxas laying on his back, one hand lying on his stomach and the other limp beside him, the Abbey Road vinyl turning somberly near his head. He kicked off his shoes, alerting Roxas of his presence, who merely turned his head towards him as the song shifted seamlessly from "She Came in through the Bathroom Window" to "Golden Slumbers". His eyes were red with unshed tears, but his face was blank, no emotion shining through whatsoever. Axel stepped over and scooped Roxas' torso up towards him, letting Roxas rest his head against his chest. He sat on his bum, with Roxas in between his legs, Roxas' own legs draped over Axel's left, and Roxas' arms around his torso. They sat there motionless for a while, listening to the album until the music finally stopped, the crackling noise of a finished record filling the silence.

Finally, Axel spoke. "What happened?"

There was a pregnant pause, and Axel thought he wasn't going to get a reply. But then Roxas replied. "They're pulling the plug. She's dying, Axel."

Axel began to feel his shirt soak with tears, and he let them. He knew Roxas was speaking of one of his oldest friends, Naminé, who had been hit by a car the year before. After being in a coma for seven months, she'd been pronounced brain dead, and was currently living as a vegetable at the hospital, a series of machines keeping her lungs moving and her heart beating. Her family, devastated, insisted on keeping her alive. 'They must have given up,' Axel thought. He pulled Roxas tighter, feeling his sobs through the tremors in Roxas' back.

Axel began to rock back and forth, humming soothing melodies under his breath, as Roxas wept.