Words: 3555
See Chapter One for Standard Disclaimers/Warnings
A/N: I am tired and wish to go art supply shopping, but the nearest art stores are... several hours drive in any direction. Boo. Anyway, Chapter 7 and 8 are two of my favorite chapters, so enjoy!
On the Eighth Day....
------
Tuesday Evening, December 31st to Wednesday, January 1st
...Or, When Kidnappers Attack: The Cookie Edition.
------
"We're heading out now, Roxas!" Demyx hollered.
Roxas poked his blond head around the living room door frame to peer at Demyx and Cloud who were standing at the end of the hall pulling on their jackets. Demyx had the case holding his preferred instrument, a sitar, sitting at his feet, "Have fun."
"You to! I bet you're happy to have everyone out for awhile." Demyx teased, grinning at him.
"Yeah, sure, without you and Sora loudly screaming the count down in my ear I might actually preserve more of my hearing." Roxas replied, summoning up a smirk for his elder brother.
Demyx ruffled Roxas' spiky hair and bounced after Cloud, and out the door. Roxas turned and wandered back into the living room, where he sprawled back out on the sofa with his book. The pale glow the muted TV cast, and the lights from the Christmas tree were the only lights on other than the single lamp behind him that he was using to read by.
He'd been reading for some time now, and when he glanced up at the clock it was around 9 o'clock. Roxas got up, set the book aside, and headed for the kitchen. It really was awfully quiet without his siblings there. Opening a cupboard he rummaged around inside for the box of hot cocoa, nothing was better for a cold winter's night alone that hot chocolate right? A creak sounded through the empty house, and Roxas stiffened.
"It's just the house settling..." he muttered to himself. Really, it wasn't as if he hadn't stayed home alone before. Still, it was always vaguely creepy, particularly late at night. Then when you add new years, and drunken morons reveling... Yeah, his confidence in humanity had a tendency to take a major downfall around the holidays. Hey, it was justified!
Something rustled, and he could swear he could feel a cool draft. Frowning, the blond put down the box of cocoa packets and looked out into the hall, "What the..." The door was standing open. Now he was feeling a little nervous. Scowling he stepped into the hall, listening. The blond moved slowly down the hallway, attuned to every faint echo and creak. He'd just passed the doorway into the living room when he heard a rustle of fabric, and a shift in the empty space. Two hands clasped over his eyes turning him fully blind in the already dark hallway, and Roxas gave yelp of fright. He immediately jerked an elbow backward into his assailant's stomach. The person behind him released their breathe in a rush.
"Take it easy, Roxas. Geeze, you have some sharp elbows."
Roxas felt his mouth drop open in shocked surprise, "Axel?!"
"Who else?"
"What the hell is wrong with you?! You just scared the shit out of me! How the hell did you get in anyway?" He was damn sure he'd locked the doors earlier!
"Demyx." Axel sing-songed. He was much too cheerful for a guy who'd just gotten elbowed in the gut. So, Roxas elbowed him again. "Ow! What'd I do to deserve that?"
"If you have to ask that I'm going to do it again." Roxas growled.
"Ask what? I didn't say anything. Nothing at all."
"That's what I thought. Can you move you're hands?"
Axel huffed, "You're the one who complained about my kidnapping technique."
Roxas was quiet for a few moments, "Am I being kidnapped again?" he asked with a sigh.
"You betcha!"
"You've had this planned all day, haven't you?"
"Nope."
"I don't believe you."
"I've been planning it for longer than that. Like I said, I'm only winging it on some of them." Axel said as he lifted his hands away.
Roxas turned to face him, frowning faintly, "Them...? Wait, this is about...?"
"Yes and no! Part of it's for that, on the other hand it's about you spending new years with me."
"I just... have no words." Roxas drawled, unable to really think of anything to say to the irrepressible redhead. "I'm not sure there's anything that can be said to that. Well... I can think of one..."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm an idiot. I know." Axel said cheerfully, not at all bothered by the fact that Roxas had been telling him this quite often.
"Yes, there's always that." Roxas agreed.
Axel rubbed his hands together, "Anyway, grab anything you'll need and let's go!"
Roxas shook his head, but even as he trooped off to grab a few necessary items and turn off the Christmas lights he was smiling.
------
"Where's your brother?" Roxas asked as he draped his coat over one of the barstools at the counter in Axel's apartment. Axel, himself, had simply tossed his over the back of one the chairs in the living room.
"Reno? He's at work. Apparently they're having some sort of party over there for the high rollers. I don't know any details, but that's what I got from his grumbling." Axel's voice said from behind the refrigerator door. As the redhead came back he held out a can of soda to him. "But, hey, it's better than what I was doing this time last year."
Roxas took the soda and followed Axel over to the sofa. The red head plopped down on the sofa looking immensely satisfied with himself. After a moment Roxas sat down as well and asked, "Do I even want to know?"
"Probably not, but I'll tell you anyway." Axel smirked. "It was just me, my mother, and about ten of her closet friends."
"Oh god, I really don't think I want to know."
Axel laughed, "Oh, it was hysterical. Terrifying, but hysterical. I think that was when I finalized the idea to move here with Reno. Well, that and Mom..." He waved his hands, unable to think of anyway to explain the sheer force of nature his mother was.
Roxas saved him the trouble, "I think I can understand. Anyway, what are we going to do for the next..."
"Two and a half hours, give or take." Axel offered after checking his watch.
"Yeah, that."
"Well, I'm sure we could dig out a pack of cards... or.."
"Or?"
"We invite Namine and Larxene over, 'cause I know they have some board games."
A few seconds later found them outside the door to the girl's apparent. Axel knocked and after a moment Larxene opened the door, grinning at the two of them, "Well, well, well, what do we have here?"
Axel gave a melodramatic gasp of sorts, and jerked backwards clutching at his throat, "No! You can't have my soul!"
Roxas coughed loudly, and Larxene gave her shark like smile, "Oh, I don't think I'd want it anyway. Not worth much."
"How cruel, I'll have you know a soul as genuine as mine sells high!"
"Been looking into that lately, have you?" Larxene snarked.
"She's got you there, Axel." Roxas drawled, amused. "Anyway, we came to see if you two would like to spend the next few hours with us."
"We were hoping you could provide entertainment." Axel added.
"What? Can't you two entertain yourselves?" Larxene leered.
Roxas flushed. Despite that totally innocuous statement he had a feeling that the double meaning practically oozing from the blond woman's voice was completely on purpose. Larxene, however, just winked at him while Axel spluttered beside him and turned to call, "C'mon Nami, let's raid the games!"
Namine giggled from somewhere out of sight, "Okay!"
Monopoly was well over with, Namine having thoroughly trounced them. They'd then played a rousing game of Candy Land which had left Larxene and Axel arguing over the unfairness of the sliding areas. Apparently Candy Land had a personal grudge against Larxene, but adored Axel. The two had spent the entire time sniping at each other with verbal barbs.
They were now immersed in a game of Disney Trivia Pursuit with Namine in the lead and Roxas a close second, followed by Axel. Larxene was loosing spectacularly, and hadn't manged to get any pieces of pie yet.
"I can understand Namine, I know she's been in love with Disney since she could make spit bubbles," Larxene complained. "But, I'm not so sure I get you other two."
"We have this game at home. Elton John." This last, of course, was to Axel who swore and nodded. Roxas rolled the dice again. "Sora's a Disney fan as well. He always wins. Normally I make third. Demyx is the only one who can keep up with Sora."
"We should have Namine and Sora play sometime. It could be like.. Tournament of Disney or something." Axel commented.
"Ooh, hey it's almost time!" Larxene pointed to the TV where the crowd in Times Square had just picked up their cheering a few notches.
As midnight hit they touched their cans of soda (or in Larxene's case, glass of champaign. Earlier in the game of Trivia Pursuit when she'd realized she was loosing badly she had tried to 'spice the game up' and have them take shots if they got an answer wrong. The others had turned her down as Larxene was well known for her blackmail.) together in a toast to the new year.
Larxene stood up and moved off to the side, taking out her cellphone to make a call while Namine and Roxas resumed their battle for the final piece of pie. Axel sat by watching with a smile, and reading the cards for them.
Time went on, and Trivia Pursuit was switched out for other games. At some point both Axel and Roxas passed out on the couch .The results though, were amusing. Roxas was snoozing away with his head resting on Axel's shoulder, and the taller man's own head was resting a top of Roxas' blond spikes. Larxene picked up her phone again, and snapped a picture with the camera. Nudging her sister, she nodded toward the door. Namine giggled and carefully draped a blanket over the snoozing pair before gathering up the games. As the two crept out of the apartment Larxene was already sending the picture to the rest of their friends, a mischievous smile on her face.
------
Axel woke slowly. He floated groggily up from the depths of black slumber, into the dull darkness of his closed eyelids. The first thing he became aware of was the dull ache in his neck that suggested he'd slept on it wrong. The next was that there was a weight on his shoulder, and his arm was feeling rather numb. The red head slowly cracked open one bright green eye to find a mass of blond hair partially obscuring his vision.
"Aww, aren't you two just adorable." A voice cooed. For a moment Axel thought that maybe Larxene had invaded again, but then the voice went. "Cloud called me and told me to tell you that if you put one foot out of line he's going to have your head mounted on the wall like last years best kill."
"What?"Axel muttered, he would be the first to admit that his brain didn't really work that well this soon after he woke up. He lifted his free arm he pawed at his eyes. When he looked up again Reno was dangling his cellphone in front of his face, to display a picture on it. Axel squinted at it, then dropped his head back with a snort. "I'm going to kill Larxene."
Reno laughed and sauntered off, "Happy New Years, little bro."
"My new years resolution is to survive January." Axel decided, carefully getting up. Roxas was apparently a pretty deep sleeper as he was able to transfer the blond down to the couch without waking him.
------
When Roxas woke he gave a moue of distaste. He hated waking up! Sleep was just so nice... The blond attempted to drag his blanket up over his head, and return to the depths of sleep only to be foiled when something clattered nearby. Then, someone swore.
Roxas sat up, hair more tousled and spiky that ever, "Wossat?"
"Finally awake, sleepyhead?" an amused voice commented, followed by a bit more clattering.
Roxas turned his head toward the noise to find Axel collecting several bowls off the floor, "What are you doing?"
"Trying to find a mixing bowl."
Roxas wasn't sure he wanted to know, still as he wandered over to his coat and began to dig around in the pockets he asked anyway, "Why?"
"To bake, of course!"
Roxas felt a strange sensation creep down his spine as he fished out a toothbrush from his pocket. After having been kidnapped by the girl's he was immensely grateful that Axel, at least, had allowed him to collect a few amenities. His mouth tasted like something died in it.
"You can bake?"
"Uh... It can't be too hard can it?"
The blond paused on his way toward the bathroom wielding toothbrush and toothpaste, "...Why don't you just sit down, and wait for me?"
Axel shrugged and plopped down on a barstool, "Okay?"
------
"So, you can bake?" Axel asked, echoing the blond's earlier question, as Roxas cracked an egg neatly and dumped it into the mixture.
"After a fashion. All of us can cook, all right. Mom made sure of it."
"Ah, yeah. My mom tried to as well, but unfortuantely..." The redhead leaned down and pulled out the baking sheet with the first batch of cookies. Then he turned and he showed it to Roxas. There were several little gingerbread ladies that appeared to be wearing poofy skirted dresses. They brought to mind the classic, if not overdone, imagery of the milk-maid. These maids were also slightly charred around the edges. "No matter what I do, I always burn whatever I'm making."
Roxas stared, "How did... But I set the heat myself! Geeze..."
Axel laughed, and rubbed the back of his head. "I dunno, man... It doesn't matter what it is, it always burns though."
"Maybe you should just sit this out. You can decorate them." Roxas decided, shooing the taller man toward the counter with the different sprinkles, and frosting.
"Probably for the best." Axel agreed amiably.
"How much of this stuff did you get anyway?" Roxas asked, poking through the sea of ingredients in search of a measuring cup.
"Enough for eight dozen."
Roxas straightened up, looking toward the red head in realization, "Eight maids a-milking?"
Axel grinned, "That's right. Well some are for us of course, but I figured we could take the rest as a contribution to that little new years get together I've heard so much about."
"Do they know about that?"
"Who do you think helped me get the stuff?"
"Ah, that'd explain why Sora got kidnapped by Riku and Kairi so early this year. I'm still wonder just who all is helping you."
Axel looked thoughtful, poised with a tube of red icing in one hand, "Honestly? I don't even know. It's sort of... gotten out of my hands in a way."
Roxas fetched the latest batch out of the oven and walked over to deposit them in the little 'cooling station' near Axel's 'decorating area.' "Kind of nice to know that I've got so many people who want to chip in just to get me to enjoy the holidays."
"Is it going to pay off?"
"Are you going to be around next year?"
Axel looked up to meet Roxas' steady gaze in surprise. The blond, however, seemed perfectly serious. The red head stood up and leaned over the counter toward Roxas with an easy smile. Roxas stared up at him with wide, startled blue eyes. Axel lifted a hand and swiped his finger across the blond's cheek, "You've got batter on your cheek." he said playfully, and then popped his finger in his mouth. "This stuff's pretty good."
As Axel sat back down, Roxas turned away his face flushed bright red. "And, Roxas?" The blond looked back over his shoulder. "I'm notoriously hard to get rid of."
As Roxas went back to mixing more of the batter he was wearing a small smile.
------
"Call you're brother would you?"
Roxas fetched his cellphone from his coat pocket and hit the speed dial for Sora. After a moment someone picked up, but the voice was female, "Sorry, Sora can't answer the phone right now... He's a little tied up!"
"Hi, Kairi." Roxas said dryly.
"Roxas!" The girl giggled. "What can I do for you?"
In the background he could hear Sora yelling for him to come and save him, "...Did you two tie Sora up in garland again?"
"Maaaybe." There was a slight clatter, and Roxas could hear Kairi yelling at Riku to give the phone back.
"You're brother's a walking Christmas tree, we require several cookies for ransom." Riku's voice was pitched dark and low in imitation of those kidnappers on TV.
Roxas laughed, "Well, I'm holding the cookies ransom unless I get blackmail photos." Axel who had just walked over carrying a couple glasses of milk gave him an odd look before retreating to grab the plate of cookies he'd left behind.
"It's a deal. We'll be over to collect after we get those pictures for you. And get the garland off Sora." The last bit was added almost as an afterthought.
"See you then." Roxas snapped his phone closed as Axel dropped onto the couch next to him.
"Do I want to know what that was about?" the red head asked, ironically.
"Sibling insurance." Roxas said lightly. The blond reached forward and plucked up one of the gingerbread maids and examined it. "We make a pretty good team." he decided with a smirk. He nibbled at the cookie's arm as he turned to look toward Axel.
The red head reached forward, and tapped Roxas on the nose with the corner of a vivid red envelope, "And here's your card."
Roxas reached up and took it, tearing it open and looking to the usual scrawl within:
Cookie dough, Cookie dough
Gingerbread, but not a man
Only the maids stayed
'Cause the men took and ran
Axel
Roxas gave him an incredulous look, "Where do you come up with these? When do you?"
Axel shrugged noncommittally, "It keeps me entertained for a few minutes."
Roxas shook his head, "You're insane."
"But I'm fun."
The blond couldn't really argue with that.
------
Riku, Sora, and Kairi finally arrived and trooped in to start collecting boxes of cookies. Sora immediately tackled Roxas with a hug, "Oh, thank god! You have to save me from these crazy people."
Roxas rolled his eyes at his twin, "And here I thought they were your friends."
"They've gone to the dark side! Particularly Riku!"
"Well, yes, that's because Kairi was born on the dark side... Being female and all."
"Hey, I'm sweet and innocent here." Kairi hissed, smacking the blond upside the head.
"Yeah, and that totally proves it." Axel drawled, handing her a box of cookies.
Roxas shoved Sora off him, and the brunette sniffled melodramatically before accepting several boxes from Riku who smirked at him, ruffled his spiky brown hair, and shooed him off. Sora pouted the entire way and Axel gave the last couple boxes to Roxas.
"I'll see you at the party?" the blond asked.
"Of course! Wouldn't be a party without me."
"Right, I forgot about that."
Sora returned and threw an arm around Roxas' shoulders, "C'mon you're staying with us tonight."
"But what about..."
"We stopped by on the way over and I grabbed you some stuff."
"Figures."
Axel laughed quietly as he listened to the bickering twins, then closed the door as they left. He threw himself back down on the couch he pulled out his phone to make a few calls, and double check the preparations for tomorrow.
