Role Reversal
xxx Disclaimer:
Summary: Axel Rayward thinks he's the unrivalled top dog, until his new History teacher arrives and rightly puts him in his place. Things are going to get heated. Akuroku. Axel/Roxas. 813.
xxx 7.
At the beginning of the year, both Riku and Axel had decided they needed to do something to rid them of their current financial bankruptcy. As a solution, the pair had accompanied each other to talk to a guy name Luxord; the owner of a small indie cafe downtown called The Coffeehouse. Long story short, with little other alternatives, Luxord had eventually employed the two eager teenagers, appointing Riku as a waiter and designating Axel as a barista. When Axel had questioned his difference in occupation than Riku's, Luxord had simply commented that he felt Axel could do less harm to the customers if he was situated behind a coffee machine and had a counter physically blocking him from the clients.
On Saturday nights, when Axel and Riku were often scheduled to work, The Coffeehouse provided live entertainment for the surprisingly large amount of late-night cafe-goers. Normally it was just wannabe rock stars barely out of their teens that provided white noise while Axel mindlessly made coffee after coffee. Demyx had promised his friends that he would perform some songs on his Sitar one day at their work, despite the fact that both Axel and Riku had turned this offer down constantly, not wishing to be embarrassed by Demyx's unusual taste in instruments.
The only reason Axel was even looking at the stage one particular Saturday night was because he had been watching, along with Riku, Luxord struggle to assemble a set of drums and end up tumbling over himself. Axel would've offered to help, but it would have been an empty promise. Besides, it was undeniably funny to watch. Axel was sadistic like that.
It would have been just another typical shift, had Axel's gaze not been drawn to an all too familiar mop of unruly blonde hair standing in the wings, which Axel could see easily from the angle and positioning of his beloved coffee machine. Shaking his head, Axel snorted.
Yeah, right.
Roxas couldn't be here. He simply couldn't. The prospect was utterly ridiculous, and the fact that Axel's mind had somehow provided him with such an illusion frightened him a little. Maybe he had been thinking about Roxas just a smidgen too much and this was his brain's way of telling him to back off.
It was at this point that Roxas ambled onto the stage, carrying a well-used guitar. It wasn't so much the concept that his History teacher may have some musical ability that shocked Axel compared to what Roxas was wearing. The blonde merely wore a large band t-shirt, worn jeans and well broken into sneakers. It was strange and slightly eye-opening that Roxas could look so normal.
The effect that a few simple clothing modifications had was startling; Roxas looked so much more in his element in his jeans and t-shirt than Axel had ever seen him at school in his work clothes. Roxas chose to ignore the provided rickety stool on stage, positioning himself comfortably standing in front of the microphone and flashed his audience a wide yet nervous grin.
"Uh, hey." He waved, and Axel ducked behind the counter, in case Roxas's sweeping eyes saw him, "I'm Roxas Jenkins... and I'll be playing a few cover songs for you guys tonight."
When he was sure Roxas's attention was only focussed on his audience and not The Coffeehouse's staff, Axel made his way over to the coffee machine and started to froth milk within a metal jug, whilst keeping his eyes fixed on Roxas from behind the counter.
"Well, well, well," Axel heard Riku laugh beside him, "Look who it is... Do you reckon he'll be any good at guitar? Or singing?"
Axel managed a vacant shrug of response whilst Riku wondered off to serve more customers their drinks. How his friend was able to simply tear his eyes away from the sight of Roxas on stage and continue working, Axel wasn't sure, because he found he could do little more than watch his teacher as he began strumming his guitar.
"I was hoping," Roxas sang into the microphone, in an impressively rough voice, "that you had an atlas in your head, so fed up of the same old man... there's broken bedrooms and there are broken hands, you were so fed up of the same old broken man..."
Axel's eyes flickered back and forth between Roxas's blissful expression, to the way his mouth was moving, to his blurred fingers. He was entranced. The way Roxas's lips were pressing roughly right up against the microphone gave the impression that he was giving it sinfully good head. Axel practically died at that very thought - until Roxas began singing the chorus.
"Do you wanna, do you wanna, do you wanna make love to me? I know you wanna, I know you wanna, I know you wanna make love to me!"
Well, I wouldn't refer to it as 'making love' exactly, but boy, I sure do wanna do something to you...
And then Axel's train of thought was thrown of the rails all together. All the barista could manage was to simply ogle Roxas as he continued singing, and eventually becoming a little more confident; flashing a grin to the crowd, which caused some young girls at a table close to the stage to giggle and sigh. Hands off. Axel let out a soft possessive growl.
"Oh-kay Axel, table 13 wants a cappuccino, flat white and – HEY AXEL, CHECK WHAT YOU'RE –"
Unfortunately, Riku's warning came a split second too late as the metal jug Axel had been subconsciously filling with steaming hot milk for the past however many seconds overflowed, sending the boiling milk cascading over the sides of the jug's rim, and onto Axel's poor right hand.
Axel hissed as he withdraw his right hand and shook it madly, eventually glancing down at it to see stinging red blisters emerging on his victimised palm.
"Fuck." Axel murmured, staring down at his hand with a mixture of pain and slight confusion as to how he had sustained the injury.
Riku began to panic and dragged Axel over to the sink, muttering to himself, "Ok, ok," and dousing Axel's injured hand in ice cold water. Axel released a sigh of relief as his pain lessened, while Riku left him to go and find the first aid kit.
"Here," his friend announced upon his return, presenting Axel with some bandaging he had found, and tightly wrapped it around Axel's palm, taking a step back and admiring his handiwork. Soon after, he rounded on Axel, looking quite angry, "What the hell were you thinking? You know when you were employed here Luxord said you could get really severe burns if you handled that machinery badly."
"Yeah, I know, sorry Riku." It wasn't like Axel to so acceptingly welcome scolding; however, the teenager could hear the band accompanying Roxas growing louder in volume, which indicated that the song was nearly drawing to a close... and Axel really wanted to keep on watching Roxas sing. Who knew how many chances of that spectacle he'd get?
"Fine." Riku sighed, picking up on Axel's underlying motives, "Go on. Go and watch Jenkins finish playing."
With that, Axel gave Riku an appreciative grin and bolted back towards his observation point from behind, the now soaked in milk, coffee machine. Axel leant forward to listen just in time to be rewarded by Roxas once more singing the chorus. Although this time, he sung it more quietly and sensually.
Damn. Second degree burns? Meh, so worth it.
Most of the cafe's customers filed out of The Coffeehouse shortly after Roxas's performance drew to an eventual close. Axel and Riku grumbled as usual, when Luxord gave them the extra task of cleaning up the shop, although they would not receive financial compensation for it.
"I'm going to go backstage for a minute," Luxord announced as he waltzed straight over and dirtied the stretch of flooring that Riku had just moped, "Need to thank the band for such a great performance."
"They weren't that good." Riku muttered, afterwards faltering at the look Axel gave him, "Just being honest. I've heard better."
"Have you ever heard anyone play as good in The Coffeehouse though?"
Riku sighed, relenting, "Well, fine. I suppose I'll give Jenkins that. Not like it's such a difficult achievement, but whatever."
Rushing his cleaning up, Axel threw his dirty cloth into the sink with a victorious grin and turned to see Roxas and Luxord walking down the stage steps towards the front of the shop. Observing Riku hadn't wiped down the tables as he'd asked, Luxord growled and stormed off after his employee, no doubt to tell him off for his slackness.
Having not noticed his students Axel or Riku this whole time, Roxas calmly began to make his way towards the door of the store, prompting Axel to draw attention to himself before it was too late.
"Roxas," Axel slyly greeted, conceitedly knowing that in the current environment his teacher wouldn't correct him for addressing him by his first name.
The musician's eyes widened a fraction in recognition, but other than that he maintained his composure.
"Rayward." Roxas coldly addressed back before waving once more to Luxord and abruptly leaving the cafe before Axel could talk to him about his performance.
Hey... what happened to 'Axel'?
Axel wasn't the type to allow many to address him by his first name, so the fact that Roxas had used it once in that bar and then stopped using it again at the drop of a hat... well, it befuddled the teenager. And annoyed him too. Axel only let those few who felt worthy of addressing him by his first name and the fact that Roxas had again distanced himself by referring to him as Rayward, indicated that he didn't feel the same towards Axel. That knowledge kind of stung a little.
