Not Your Puppet, Not Your Scapegoat, and Not Your Decoy

Xaldin hit the small dirty-blond boy across the face again, causing him to scream, that being the ninth time he has been hit that hard in the past thirty minutes. "I don't want your excuses, Roxas," he says, smooth voice betraying his evil eyes.

"They're not fucking excuses, Xaldin! They're the truth!" Roxas yells from his unconvincing position on the floor. He looks ready to leap back to his feet at any moment, but he knows his legs are far too weak for that right now. Xaldin took it upon himself to pop one knee out of its socket, dislocating it, causing excruciating pain to run through Roxas each time the disjointed piece rolls.

"Did I give you permission to speak?" he muses, raising one eyebrow and making sure he is looming over the boy, keeping him trapped in the large shadow.

"N-no…" Roxas mutters angrily. He manages a scowl. "I don't need permission to talk! You're my client, not the other way around. I can kick you off my list," he reminds the man.

Xaldin chuckles darkly, it eventually turning into a booming laughter. "Ha! You're funny, Roxas. I believe that the tables have turned. You have no control over me. I own you."

"No you don't!" Xaldin's 'puppet' shouts, crawling backwards on the floor, inching toward the door.

Xaldin raises a large booted foot and steps down on Roxas' stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Roxas chokes, coughs. He squints his eyes, covering his mouth with his fist whilst he coughs. "You disgusting little boy," Xaldin ruminates aloud. "You think anyone would want anything to do with you if they know what you've been doing?"

"So what? It's my life. No one else has the right to judge, especially you, you fucking cur!"

Xaldin shifts more weight onto the foot crushing Roxas' fragile ribs. The victim can feel the bones breaking. He bites his lip to hold back tears from the pain, like something is cracking under his skin. It feels as disgusting as when a tick crawls under your skin, only on a much larger scale and instead of resulting in Lyme disease it results in broken bones. "Cur… There's a name I haven't been called in a while."

"You're fucking revolting, Xaldin! You're not going to get away with any of this stupid shit you're doing!"

Xaldin contemplates something momentarily then smirks. "On the contrary, sweet Roxas, I believe I already have gotten away with it. Because… as long as I know your secret, you're mine… allow me to remind you that my memory is superb," he hums with a sly smile and demonic eyes.

Roxas gulps. He really wishes he weren't here right now? Why did he have to meet Xaldin? He had the choice not to. He could have gotten away. He was so fucking close, too. Then he reminded himself of what would happen if he didn't listen to the hot-tempered criminal.

Cloud would get hurt. And now that Xaldin knew someone like Isa, a 'protector' of sorts, exists for Roxas, that protector is on the hit list as well. The only person Xaldin doesn't know about is Axel. Roxas shakes his head, mentally punching himself in the stomach for bringing up the topic of something else bad happening to Axel. He lost the guy once and doesn't intend on doing it again.

"I don't care if they find out my secret anymore. I don't care if Cloud knows I've been whoring myself away. Tell him! See if I fucking care! He's my family. He won't turn his back on me that easily," Roxas snarls. He makes sure to spit in Xaldin's face for effect. "Who the hell even put you up to this? You weren't like this in the beginning. Who paid you off to be a fucking douchebag?" The rambling blonde struggles as he tries to pop his knee back into the socket.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Oh my fucking geez this hurts.

SHIT.

The pain subsides.

That went nicely.

Roxas, in a heated adrenaline rush, pushes himself to his feet, surprising the large man who once had power over him. This isn't over. Both of them know that. They stand there for a minute just glaring at each other, Roxas taking deep breaths, trying to regain his composure.

Xaldin hangs his head, rubbing his temples ferociously. "His name is Ienzo," the angered client admits quickly. Just the way he's talking says that everything is only going to be said once so Roxas better listen close so he doesn't miss anything. "He has a friend named Myde. They work together. They have some vendetta against a man by the name of Axel Nowaki. Do you know him?"

Roxas just blinked.

"I didn't drown your goldfish so stop looking at me like I just did," Xaldin requests, voice becoming far more mannered and tamed.

Roxas sighs melodramatically. "Come on, Axel said that exact same thing before! I don't have a fucking goldfish! And yeah," he pauses so he can nod and give a queerly disappointed look to Xaldin. "You didn't drown my goldfish. You've just been making yourself my repeat customer for the past six months, physically and emotionally abusing me because you have a temper. That's so better than drowning my nonexistent goldfish," he rants sardonically.

Xaldin averts his eyes purposefully.

Roxas scowls. "You know you can get arrested for hiring a prostitute?" he points out. Xaldin seems to stiffen up. "Let's see, that's six months, about twenty-six Saturdays you've forced yourself upon me." Oh he was on one hell of a roll now. "I could bust your ass and get you arrested." Given I'd be arrested for actually being a prostitute, but it would be worth it.

Or would it?

Don't drop the soap, Roxas, his mind warns him with a mischievous cackle. The boy shudders.

"There are a few ways we can do this," Roxas begins confidently, folding his arms over his chest, leaning against the door just in case he needs to book it. "We could put this all behind us and neither of us gets in trouble." He holds up one finger- his middle finger. "You could continue abusing me and I'll just turn you in for domestic violence." He holds up another finger, namely his pointer. "Or," he drawls, putting up his thumb and making a little finger gun, pointing it at Xaldin. "Or you can give me another chance as your…" What did the man call it again? Oh yeah, right. Roxas had forgotten. "Or you could give me one more chance as your decoy- as you put it –and we'll pretend that this didn't happen."

"Why should I give you another chance?" Xaldin roars, eyes blazing with rage.

Roxas, much to the befuddlement of the comparatively giant man, doesn't flinch. He stands there, meeting angry eyes with a blank, dead gaze.

"You have no right to look at me like that. Say something, boy!" Xaldin threatens, ruffling through his pants pocket. His hands tighten around something that Roxas cannot see. What could it possibly be that wasn't there earlier? There has to be something different.

Oh shit.

Fuck.

It has to be a gun. That's all that Roxas can come up with. After Isa somehow manifested a gun seemingly out of his ass, Xaldin must have been intimidated so he grabbed a gun so he could match it. Now he was invincible. He is back to being the same, invulnerable man that Roxas has no hope against. How he has managed to survive this long between Xaldin and Namine he has no idea, but it worked for a while. It really looks like that is over now.

"Two words," Roxas mutters. Xaldin gives him a strange look so Roxas screams it. "Two words!" he yells. "Fuck. Off!"

The sounds of quick rustling and hustled footsteps mesh together.

A door is slammed open then kicked shut.

A trigger is pulled.

X

"Excuse me," I pardon myself when I accidentally bump into a girl with my forearm while walking down a sidewalk in the direction of the mansion outside of town. There's someone there I know I need to see. I look down at the girl I nudged by mistake. My crimson eyebrows shoot up.

She has shoulder-length blonde hair and aqua blue eyes. She looks a little like Roxas in a twisted fem-slash way. She is wearing a white satin dress and white sandals with tiny, hardly noticeable diamond earrings.

"Whaddya know, just who I was looking for," I say, startled to say the least that my ex-girlfriend Namine is standing right beside me and isn't trying to beat me up (as if she could).

She raises a platinum eyebrow. "May I help you, sir?" she greets me mild manneredly. She's the daughter of a really rich CEO father and an aristocratic mother. What she ever saw in me when we dated all those months ago I have no idea. We are so different in just about every way.

"It's nice to see you again, miss." I kindly take her hand and kiss it. She blushes in that cute way she does sometimes. "Do you remember my name?"

She taps her lips with the tip of her finger a couple times, smiling coyly. "Now that you mention it, you are pretty familiar. May I ask from where?"

I grimace. What the hell am I supposed to say? I didn't even think I'd make it this far without getting bitch-slapped. She must really not remember me. I made her so mad when I broke up with her. Wait, didn't she break up with me? Who cares, that's in the past now. The point is she is supposed to hate me!

Whatever Aerith and Sephiroth did, they really fucking turned my life upside-down.

"Oh. Yes. My name is Axel. We're… ex bo—best friends," I say, catching myself before I can say we're ex-boyfriend and girlfriend. So I just say we used to be best friends since that's what we were at one point. We just weren't there for very long.

She tilts her head, waves of blonde hair rippling over her shoulder as she does so. I try not to think about how pretty she is. I won't deny it if someone is good looking, it just feels awkward and wrong, y'know? All things considered, this is already a really awkward situation.

"You'd think I would remember someone with hair the color of fire," she muses, smile toying with her small lips.

I chuckle nervously. Please don't say anything about fire. I've been so good in not wanting to light anything on fire since I came back.

Whoops, spoke to soon.

"We all forget things, don't we?" I ask her, gently releasing her hand from my own. I start walking in the direction of her home subconsciously. She follows me like a lost puppy. There's something I forgot about her; she's real feely like Glad Clingwrap.

"Yes, but you seem… interesting. I have no idea how I'd have forgotten someone like you," she informs me, matching my pace. Who knows? If we walk fast enough maybe I'll get her in bed.

Kidding, kidding. Don't glare at me. It was a joke. J-O-K-E, got it memorized? The only person I want to be in bed with is Roxas.

Not kidding.

"Then I must be forgettable," I conclude. I shrug.

Yeah, I'm fishing for compliments. What of it?

"No, no!" she frantically repeats. I smirk. This is easier than when I got her the first time. "You're not. You can't be! I mean, those eyes," she dreamily trails off, turning bright pink. I raise an eyebrow. She turns away. "It's just your eyes. They say so much. I don't usually forget outspoken people, more so if they have something… special in them."

"And since you forgot me I'm not special," I deadpan with a frown.

She huffs. "No! You are special!"

"Prove it."

"I… I know who your name. I know your full name. And I know where you live," she tells me, putting her hands on her hips defiantly.

"So you're my stalker?"

"No!"

"So I'm not special…"

"Just shut up and listen!" she squeals, gripping my arm tightly, startling the shit out of me. I didn't know she could squeeze that hard, even when we were together. In a sequence of movements that are nothing but a blur, I end up against the brick wall of a bookstore with her pinning my arms against the bricks with her on her toes so her mouth can reach mine.

And I'm like, what the fuck?

But for some reason I can't just push her off of me. She tastes just like she did the last time we kissed, before she dumped me (I dumped her). She probably uses the same cinnamon flavored toothpaste. Her hair smells really nice too, like coconut. Roxas' hair smells like coconut too.

Oh fuck, Roxas!

I force Namine off of me as delicately as possible, her mouth being the last part to be removed from my being because it was way easier that way.

"Your name is Axel Nowaki. You have a best friend named Isa and an uncle named Xigbar," she recites. That dull glaze over her eyes tells me something is up though. Her shoulders are slouching now. Her whole everything looks like it just went limp.

"Nam?" I say softly, shaking her shoulder. No response.

I feel her forehead. She's really burning up! Just as I think that she collapses onto me. I have no choice but to catch her. I can't just let a girl fall onto the pavement and get weird looks. As I struggle to get her on my back- which I manage to do and hold her like it's just your average, everyday piggy-back ride –people are giving me the weird looks of ridicule I would assume would be meant for Namine if I hadn't grabbed her. Also, I don't want her getting raped. A pretty blonde girl in a short dress is just bad news for a pedophile's pants.

But considering he's the only pedophile here, Axel doesn't need to worry about that. He just needs to get Namine home and safe before anything else bad can happen.

Whatcha think, kids? I guess I like this chapter. I'm still a couple ahead. And somehow I'm managing to keep a fucking awesome update schedule for my vacation. Good thing my family understands that my writing pretty much comes first in life. Other than them. So I was playing this game with my cousin where he throws a ball at me and I swat it back at him and I hit him in the crotch a dozen times. It was hilarious. He was screaming and rolling on the floor and then I kicked his ass at Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He was Ike, I was Zelda. He had a level 9 Link on his team and I beat them both. It was 10 stock and I had 7 when I won. They both died. xD I played as Zelda. Who's a bitchin' princess? Yeah, that'd be me. Anyways, leave this girl some looove! Happy Friday, kiddies, and I hope you enjoy what's to come and I hope you liked the new chapter.

Scotty xx

(Shit, I've tried uploading this chapter four times. This is pissing me off. If it looks weird or the note is in the wrong spot, sorry! It's just pissing me off!)