Stop Right Now
Chapter 4
"Why doesn't he live with Kairi?" Roxas asked Axel, shaking a toy in London's face while he bounced the baby on his lap. They were sitting in Sora's backyard, the others lounging over by the pool. Since London had quickly taken to Roxas (much to the surprise of everyone there, and much to the horror of Roxas) he seemed to be on babysitting duty. Which meant he wasn't allowed anywhere near the pool. Axel, thankfully, hated water and chose to sit with Roxas. And Axel, thankfully, was the one member of the group Roxas felt comfortable asking questions of.
"Oh," he replied in his slow drawl. "Kairi's dad's a fucking psychopath- so it just isn't safe, Roxas. Most of the time he's as drunk as."
Axel had the unfortunate habit of being unable to finish similes.
"I see," Roxas replied as evenly as he could, both saddened and outraged by what Axel told him. It just wasn't fair that a sweet, and apparently fragile girl like Kairi would have an abusive father. It didn't help that Kairi reminded Roxas intensely of his friend Naminé from back home, and Axel's words brought the idea of her father hurting her unbidden to his mind. But Roxas knew Naminé's dad, and he wouldn't do something like that. He knew his friends' families and their lives inside out. Roxas' old group of friends had been extremely close-knit, all of them being outcasts somehow, but all of them being perfect for each other just the same. There was Hayner, who was too angry for others to get close to him, and Pence, who was simply a quirky fellow, no two ways around it, and Olette... Roxas didn't realize that he had a distant, pleased look on his face and that he was lost completely in the world of his friends from back home until London let out a wicked squeal, indignant at being ignored.
"Huh?" Roxas asked, staring at the child with an empty expression. Then he recalled where he was and threw himself enthusiastically into playing with London.
"I thought he was supposed to hate people," Roxas grumbled.
"He usually does," Axel muttered, and Roxas heard, rather than saw, his frown. "I don't understand it. It takes him a long time usually to warm up to people. He's not hateful, really, but... He doesn't usually like people outside the friends Sora brings around often. I've never seen him become so attached to someone so fast. But once he gets used to you, he's real sweet."
Roxas sighed, "Why me? Couldn't you go play with Riku?"
He stares beseechingly into London's eyes. Maybe the baby understood him, or maybe he just did it for fun, but he shook his head adamantly and slapped Roxas' hand, exclaiming, "No! Bad!"
Axel laughed heartily next to him. "I think he likes you because you look so much like Sora," he reflected, staring absently across the pool as if his statement was so mundane it didn't require any sort of thought.
"Huh?"
Roxas was absently aware that it was beginning to sound as if "huh" was the only word in his vocabulary. But it could have been worse, Roxas reflected, turning to study his reflection in a nearby window: he might have been unable to complete similes, and that would surely be the end of the world. He glanced to where Sora sat with Kairi across the pool, noting that they did have some similarities in their appearance. A couple, anyways. Not enough for a child to pick up on. They had the same pointed chin, the same blue eyes, the same tan... the same hollow looking cheeks, Roxas noted only a little bitterly.
They also had the same eyebrows. And okay, their foreheads were similarly shaped.
But, Roxas observed keenly, at the same time as he observed with wry dryness that it suddenly felt like the end of the world to look like Sora, they had different eye shapes! Roxas' eyes were definitely wider, and rounder. Definitely.
And, on further inspection, their cheeks weren't so much the same. Sora's were notably rounder. And obviously, Roxas' hair was blonde. (He would never admit it, but Roxas was thoroughly proud of his blond hair. It in itself felt like an astonishing accomplishment sometimes. More specifically, everytime Roxas looked in the mirror and noted how awesome his hair was.)
"You are seriously as arrogant as," Axel drawled, cutting into Roxas' thoughts. "You've been staring at your reflection for the past five minutes. You're just luckly London didn' t notice you've been ignoring him."
Roxas glanced down at the baby, and sure enough, London was ignoring Roxas ignoring him. Which was fine by Roxas. He drew his eyes up to Axel's face.
"I'm not arrogant!" he argued, pouting. "I was just looking to see if you were right. And I think you aren't. I don't look so much like Sora."
Axel scoffed. "You do."
"I don't!"
"Yes... You do."
"No, I don't."
"Roxas... are you blind? You do look like him!"
"I certainly do not!"
Axel opened his mouth to protest once more in an argument that Roxas was sure they both knew was ridiculous, but the redhead didn't end up saying anything. Instead he spaced out, his pupils dilating and his mouth going slack.
Roxas stared hesitantly. "Axel?" he asked, and he noticed how his voice seemed to echo about the pool area. He glanced around. He heard Kairi inside bustling about the kitchen, but the other boys were all copying Axel's dead face. None of them moved- except Tidus, who was floating on his back in the pool, eyes staring unblinkingly into the sun.
London giggled and clapped his hands, and the noise carried against the wind, alone, alone, alone. No, Roxas thought, no wind. Where was the wind? The trees were as still as... As what? Roxas shuddered. They were just still. As still as.
He hugged the baby closer to him, and idly thought, I've taken up with robots. But then he thought: Tidus is swimming. He's no robot.
And suddenly the wind picked up, and next to him, Axel said, "You do too look like him!" and the poolroom was filled with chatter, and London looked up into Roxas' face with wide eyes that were clear and bright. And blue.
As clear and bright and blue as.