The final chapter to the love story of Axel and Roxas. This is not just another regular chapter, with this, I really outdid myself. It's more than four decades of the life of Axel and Roxas. This seals the deal. This is their life.
I do not own Kingdom Hearts.
ALSO: I would like to thank everyone who kept with the story thus far and likes it and to anyone wrote reviews, I just thank anyone who liked this and read till the end! Thank you all so, SO much! I love you all! 333333333
BURNING TWILIGHT X – SUCH A FUNNY THING…
We saw each other almost every day, but even still I felt like something was missing. I had no idea what it was. I got to see Axel all the time, we would hug and kiss and do things any other couple did, he came over, we would go to places, get sea-salt ice cream, we would even climb to the top of the clock tower in Twilight Town to watch the sunset.
Maybe that was my problem. We would always watch the sun set, but never did we watch it rise apart from that time at school.
Whatever, I still don't know what my problem was.
We had been together for a total of one full month, it was wintertime so we would be expecting snow soon. Thankfully, Sunset Hill never saw too much snow, not nearly as much as Twilight Town did. They were a fair distance apart, even though it doesn't seem like it. By the time the clouds of snow got to our town, it was all gone. Just like rain.
Anyway, we were at my place (which was slowly turning into our place) and I asked Axel a few questions.
"So where do you live right now, anyway?" He didn't answer me right away, instead he just shrugged.
"Out in Twilight Town."
"That far? And you walk every night! Geez you know I can drive you there!"
"Yeah, but I like walking. Besides, the walk back home's nice."
"Oh," I sighed for no real reason, I just felt the need to sigh. "How come we never go there?"
"Hm?"
"How come we always come here instead of your place?"
"'Cause yours is better than mine is."
"I wont believe it unless I see it." I laughed, he laughed too, and then the topic was forgotten entirely. I insisted on driving him home that night, but he further insisted walking.
"Fine, just don't get yourself killed!"
It was strange the next day. He met me outside of my workplace and we walked all the way to Twilight Town. He wouldn't let me drive, so I was forced to leave my car in the parking lot at work.
He wouldn't tell me where he was taking me, so I just played along and let him take me wherever. We went through the forest I knew all too well, and then ventured inside the mansion. He stopped, walking forward and examining the little castle statue that stood deteriorating in its glass case.
"So…" I said, waiting for some sort of explanation.
"So, what?" He asked.
"Why'd you bring me here?"
"You said it last night, remember?" I raised my eyebrow. Old habits. What a kicker. "You said you wanted to see where I live."
"Yeah, so this cant be-" I stopped. "Aw, Axel, come on! You can't be serious!"
"What?"
"You mean to tell me that you actually live here?"
"Hmm…" He stopped, mocking me with a smile. "I guess, yeah."
"Axel!" I grabbed him by the wrist and made him look at me. "You are going to grab whatever things are yours and you are coming to stay with me." He laughed it off, thinking I was kidding. But the look I gave him told otherwise.
He grabbed an armful of dirty old clothes and things, and since we didn't have the car we had to walk all the way back to work with am armload of laundry just to drive back home.
Luckily, I had a spare room that I was using for nothing but storage for the few storage things I had, so I gave him the pointless choice of either sleeping on the couch, sleeping in the spare room, or sharing with me. Of course, he shared a room with me.
I bought a second dresser and more hangers for the clothes he had, which we washed the very second they got in the house, and I also got a few more dishes.
Eventually, I got Axel to get a job a few blocks down from where I worked. He got a job selling books at this place some older people ran, and they were thankful to have someone so young help them keep the shop open. He said he liked it, since he had gotten into reading a lot more and whenever he wasn't doing anything he could just sit and read while getting paid.
That helped with all of those normal bills and things you don't want to really hear about, ya know, paying bills, buying food, keeping things nice. After just a few more months Axel was buying some newer and nicer furniture for us so we didn't end up looking so poor. When he told me that I couldn't help but laugh.
Things continued to be the same for another three or four months, and then summer was on its way, and so was my birthday.
I never got excited for it, as you know, but Axel had to be nice and set something up for me. He had actually taken the day off of work to make me a cake and to make everything as spotless as he could for me. I really was surprised when I got home to see everything he had done, I went right up and hugged him.
"You didn't have to go and do that!"
"Oh, yes I did. I gotta keep my little Roxy happy, got it memorized?" Yep, he still said that whenever he got the chance. But it never got old.
Well, we ate some cake and saved what was left, and after cleaning up the small mess we made I went to lie down while he took a shower. I had near fallen asleep by the time he was done, just because the day had worn me out. The next day I had off, thankfully, because I had to work on my birthday and all…and I needed my rest.
But, with Axel around, who can get the rest they need, ya know?
He came in the room with nothing on but a towel around his waist. I didn't really care at the moment, because I was more focused on sleep than on anything else. But Axel wouldn't have that. He wanted to spend more time with me before the day was up.
I honestly didn't recall what was really happening, but what went on was I was lying in bed, half asleep, and Axel crawls into bed next to me, propped up on his elbow. His wet hair dropped water on me every minute or two, but I didn't care. I knew he was watching me. I was on my side, and then I rolled over on my back and looked up at him. My arms were behind my head in a desperate attempt to make myself look like I was awake at least a little bit.
"You tired?" He asked.
"Yeah, kinda." I yawned.
"Hm," He grinned, and I knew he had something up his sleeve.
He gave me a kiss, one of those long ones that stop time when it happens, and I got butterflies. He ended the kiss, but I didn't want him to stop just yet so I lifted my face to his. I felt him smile as I kissed him, and that's when things started progressing.
My head was back against the pillow, he was kissing me in the most romantic of ways…I loved it. Our lips seemed in synch as we moved them, and next thing I knew he had maneuvered himself on top of me under the blankets, and soon enough, the towel he was wearing had fallen off.
My heart beat faster, I was more awake now (for obvious reasons) and we started kissing each other faster, and things just kept on going at a steady pace, never slowing until it was all over.
You can imagine it how you want, but I'm not going to describe what had happened or what anything felt like, Ill leave that to your imagination.
But what I can say is that it changed me a little. I was happier, but I wasn't sure whether or not I was really happy about the whole experience of it, if you know what I mean. Thinking back on it, I almost felt harassed. But in the end I knew I wasn't, so there was no point in my thinking that.
From then on, things went pretty well. You know, we had out arguments over stupid things just like any other long-term couple, and there was also the bedroom activity that went on more and more often.
A number of months had passed, and we were nearing our one-year anniversary. We both took the day off of work to spend time together. We rented two movies, Halloween 2, 9, and we went to the actual movie theater in the afternoon to see Vampires Suck.
It was funny and all, but I'm not too big a fan of spoof movies like that.
Anyway, we spent the night cuddled together watching the movies we had rented, and I fell ended up falling asleep on his chest, listening to his heartbeat.
I thought about his heartbeat. Like, you never really think past the science of it, but a heart is what keeps you alive. If that things stops, it's over. I thought about if I ever saw the day when I would have to press my ear to his chest to listen for the heartbeat that I was so familiar with, to find it lost, not there, not beating or making the sounds I committed to my memory. I held on tighter to Axel than I was a moment earlier, thinking of what I would do for the rest of my life if I ever lost him. That would be my worst nightmare.
Four years have gone by. I'm now twenty-three, and Axel's at the stunning age of twenty-five. Life was steady for those years, and we had both saved up enough money to move out of the apartment we lived in and into a nice house in Twilight Town.
We were packing up our things, so boxes were stacked everywhere for two weeks before the actual move. Axel rented a moving van, but we didn't hire a crew or anything. We lived in an apartment, we didn't have enough stuff that required a crew of people. So we did it ourselves. It took a full day, but it was still fun. Life in general was fun when you were around someone as fiery as Axel.
The complete move took two days, just because we had to use up one day to pack stuff (that night we slept in sleeping bags, we had packed up the real bed.), and the next day to haul it all over to the new house and unpack everything. The truck was returned and we were back to using my old car.
Once we were all settled in, life was very, very good. Work was closer by for the both of us, and the neighborhood was pretty nice.
We had certainly come a long way together, Axel and I. He came farther than I did, though. Hell, he was living in an abandoned mansion for three years before he even moved in with me, and that was impressive. Living in the abandoned mansion for three full years, I mean. But I couldn't help but wonder what Axel's parents or the school thought after he went missing? One day I asked him about it.
"Hey, Axel?"
"Yo," He was saying that a lot more lately.
"When you left the school and lived in the mansion, what would your parents have thought when the school said you'd gone missing?" He shrugged, taking a bite of a sandwich and sitting next to me on the couch.
"I dunno," he said with his mouth full. "I guess they wouldn't really give a crap about it."
"What? Why do you say that?"
"'Cause, my parents never really were around my whole life. I mean, I've only got one standing memory of my father being a real father, and my mom was always working, so she was never around. Whenever I came into the picture they always acted like I was just some giant burden. My mom would always say, "Go ask your father" so I would and he'd say "Go ask your mother" and it was a game of Pass the Axel. I remember my father saying he hated me on many occasions, so if anything, they were probably happy to get me off their hands." I didn't say anything for a minute, thinking about how I never liked my mom, and that she was able to care for me, keep a steady job and everything else she did all on her own, versus Axel's parents not giving a rat's ass for him.
"I'm sorry, Axel. I didn't know that. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I figured it wasn't something that needed telling." We dropped the subject after that. There just seemed to be more and more bad things about Axel's life that I kept on learning over the years.
Like when we were only two years into our relationship we asked each other what our biggest fears were and why.
"Getting kidnapped," was Axel's answer.
"Really? Why?" This was all two years ago so I'm just telling from memory.
"When I was eight years old I was walking home from my friend's house at night. My house was six blocks away, so it was a long walk. I was halfway there when I walked past this vacation house and a man tackled me from around the corner of the driveway. I was blindfolded and couldn't see or talk, he taped my mouth shut. My hands and feet were tied with my arms above my head and I was somehow tied to a wall with one of those rough ropes wrapped around my chest and neck a few times. It sucked, he tied the roped tightly so it was kind of harder to breathe or move without being in some sort of pain. I can't remember the guy's face anymore but he did take the blindfold off at some point. Long story short, that whole event is how I got these," And he lifted up his sleeve to show me a long scar that went from his shoulder to mid forearm, there was a matching one on the other arm, and he had scars all over his chest that I had somehow never noticed.
I asked him, "How did your parents react when you came home?"
"They didn't. I was gone in there for three days, I guess they assumed that I had spent the night at my friend's."
But now it's the present, and I now know why his parents didn't care about that whole incident. The more I thought about it, the more I realize that Axel's had one of the hardest lives as a kid, but he didn't give up on anything. He was strong willed, and I was thankful for that.
Well, more time passed and our lives went on like normal. When I was twenty-five, Axel proposed something to me.
"Roxas, hear me out on this, alright?"
"Well, yeah, of course."
"Thank you," He sighed, and then went on with what he had to say. "Roxas, neither of us are getting any younger, right? I'm going to be thirty soon, and that's not a happy age for me. I thought that, well, maybe having a little more life in our small family would do the trick." He smiled, and as if on queue our Siberian Husky, Bubbles. Yes, his name was Bubbles.
"By our little family, you must mean Bubbles, too right?" I laughed, he chuckled, not as amused as I was.
"Well, duh! Bubbles is part of our family!" He rubbed Bubbles on the head and continued with his point.
"But Roxas, I don't mean like, get another dog or pet. I mean…I want, well, I want a son," I looked up at him, not quite sure what to say. I really needed to break that habit.
"A son?" I said. "Axel, that's a big responsibility, having a baby around."
"I know, but we're responsible, we'll be good parents, and you know we would. We have enough time to do this, anyway. I just don't want to go without raising a kid. Ya know?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean."
"Soooo? Can we?"
Soon enough, we brought home a three-month old baby boy. He was as pale as any other baby, and he had grayish-blue eyes and brown hair. The name he was given at birth was Paul Thresher, but we decided to rename him Rein, and used Axel's last name, Flynn. His full name was Rein Jay Flynn, and we raised him from that point in his life onward.
The first year was full of a mostly quiet child who only cried when hungry or needed a change, which we were both thankful for. Its amazing, how fast they grow up. I mean, you don't realize it until you see it happen for yourself. Suddenly it's his first birthday, and it seems like just last week we brought him home.
The second year we had him was probably one of the funnest. He was just starting to walk and by the middle of the year he was able to say our names and tell us things. Nearing his third birthday he was potty trained and could clearly tell us what he wanted, when he was hungry, and even what movie he wanted to watch. He loved it when we read him books and took him to the park. He was very social, too. He was also going to preschool for a few hours during the week.
He had grown to be a lean, muscular little kid with soft, dark brown hair by the time he was six. His eyes stayed the same beautiful gray-blue, and the more time he was out the tanner his skin was getting. All in all, he was a very handsome boy.
We went to the park with Rein one day, and there was more than one family there, so we let the kids play. The parents were looking at some other area of the park, their boy was older and could play by himself without a worry, but Rein tended to be a little too fearless, and he usually got hurt quite often, so we kept our eyes on him.
The other boy's parents were about to leave, so they left and Rein was the only one playing on the equipment. He kept on playing to his heart's content while we watched.
"Man, he really has grown, hasn't he?" Axel said in a warm tone, smiling. I nodded.
"He sure has," I smiled, happy that we had made the choice to adopt him.
"When do you think is the right time to tell him?" Now Axel spoke with very serious words. I shrugged.
"We'll know when the time comes." We looked at each other and he put his arm around me, kissing me on the forehead.
Our heads snapped back to the play equipment when we heard the sound of someone falling. Rein was motionless on the ground, unconscious. We rushed over to him, panicked, his heart was slower than usual. We both knew it and we ran him back to the car as fast as we could, and drove to the hospital.
We sat in a room with only a few other people in it, but they didn't look as scared as we were. Our son was in one of the rooms with machinery at both of his sides after collapsing for no apparent reason, and we had no idea what was going on. Minutes seemed like hours, and the time passed so slowly that it was painful to watch a clock.
The doctor that was in charge of Rein came out and got us, bringing us into a hallway that was near our son's room so we could talk.
"Doc, what's the problem with him?" Axel's voice was shaky and worrisome, he tried to make eye contact with the doctor but couldn't. The doctor sighed.
"Your son had a blood clot in his brain. Today, it ruptured, causing…" I didn't hear what he said after those few words. My mind went blank, and I was yelling at myself mentally for not keeping up with visits to the doctor like we were recommended to. I was worried about him, just hoping to every god I could think of to let him be all right.
"…in near critical condition, he's going to have to stay here with us until his health improves. We will do all we can to make sure he leaves this hospital with you two." He nodded to us and took his leave, and we found Rein's room. I looked in through a small window that was in the door, and saw my little boy hooked up to IV's and one of those respirator machines. It broke my heart to see him like that, helpless…the nurse that was inside invited us in to see him, after confirming that we were his parents.
His small body was covered with a hospital blanket, and he was paler than normal. Even his facial expression looked troubled. Axel put a hand on my shoulder, comforting me. I held on to his hand to do the same.
Rein stirred, my hopes were brightened when I saw his eyes flutter open and look at us.
"D-daddy…?" He whispered. "Where am I?..." We told him the situation, and he was smart enough not to argue with what needed to be done. Axel got down on his knees next to the head of the bed, slightly brushing the dark hair from Rein's pale forehead.
"We love you, son," He said. "Don't worry about anything, alright? You're going to be just fine." He smiled and I came over to be next to them.
"We love you very, very much, and the doctors here are going to take good care of you so you can come back home, so be good." Rein nodded, smiling at us, closing his eyes to rest. We said our farewells to both Rein and to the nurse, and headed home. Neither of us spoke on the trip back about what had just happened.
For the next three days Axel and I went straight over to the hospital after work to check on Rein. We weren't allowed to stay for too long, he needed to get as much rest for recovery as possible.
Of course, we worried about him as much as any other parents would if their six year-old child was hospitalized. But we never spoke of it at home. Hospital talk was saved for the hospital, and there was no need to get worked up about something that we couldn't change. The night of the third day, I fell asleep on the couch, wondering.
I was woken up by the phone ringing in my ear. At first I thought it was my alarm clock, waking me to get ready for work, but it was darker than usual outside. I looked at the clock that was on our cable box in the living room.
It read 2:53 am.
My heart dropped. Why would I be getting a call so early into the morning if it wasn't about my son.
Axel rushed into the room, as wide-awake as I now was. We both looked at each other with panic, both hoping, wishing with all of our hearts and souls that it wasn't anything bad about Rein. Axel rushed over to me and answered the phone that sat next to the couch.
"Hello?" His voice was serious, and he facial expression became the same as he listened. "Yes, this is Axel Flynn. He's my son," My heart rate went up, I felt so nervous I was almost sick. Soon enough he hung up the phone and rushed back into our room, coming back out with a jacket half on, carrying a jacket for me, and shoes for us both. He tossed me my jacket, and we ran out to the car, on our way to the hospital.
When we arrived ten minutes had elapsed, and we rushed back to where our son's room was. The door was open, and the doctor nodded for us to enter.
My heart began to break when I laid eyes on Rein. He was ghost pale with a mask over his mouth and nose, he had broken out in a sweat and his heart rate was slowing down, second by second. I was already near in tears, and when the doctor told us the situation, tears started to build up at the rim of my eyes. We were told he wasn't going to be coming home with us.
With not a thought in my mind I found myself walking over to Rein's bedside, getting down on both of my knees and holding the hand closest to me. It was ice cold. I tried not to cry when he stirred and looked at me, his eyes already losing their beautiful glow.
"Daddy…I…"
"Shh," I hushed him, "Don't speak, honey, just rest," Axel was next to me, his hand on Rein's shoulder. He smiled up at us both as best as he could, but in the background there was that everlasting beep, beep, beep sound that counted every beat his heart made, and it was becoming slower and slower.
Axel started speaking to him, and soon enough the nurse left, followed by the doctor. They knew what was coming, and they knew we just wanted to be alone with our son for the last few minutes of his life.
"Rein," I put my spare hand on Axel's shoulder. "I just want to let you know that we both love you very, very much, and no matter what, you will always be in our hearts. Now, I want you to close your eyes and try to get one last nap, okay, son?" Tears were now flowing down my face and I could help it.
"Don't cry, Daddy…Ill be okay," I tried to laugh it off, then Axel held on to Rein's hand as I did, squeezing it with care and affection and told him how much he loved him. When our goodbyes were finished, he smiled at us.
"I love you too, Daddy…" He was referring to both of us, we knew, when he said to us, "Do you remember when I was little, and I asked what it was like to die?" We nodded, unable to help the tears.
"You said it was like going to sleep and never waking up, and that all's you do…is dream. Daddy," he looked up at us, trying his best to hold our hands tighter. "Even though Ill be dreaming for a long time, Ill never forget who my Daddies are." The machine went flat as Rein took his final breath to tell us he loved and will miss us. I didn't hold back any more of the tears that were left in me, burying my face in Rein's ice-cold hand, muttering that I loved him over and over and over.
I looked up to see Axel crying like I was, holding our lost son's face in his hands.
I was thirty-one years old, and I had just lost my only son, Rein Jay Flynn, born July 2, 2004, dead August 31, 2010.
I took work off for the next week, as that was all that they would allow me to take. I really needed a longer leave, but they couldn't grant me one.
It seemed like everything reminded me of him. And every time I was reminded, I felt like I needed to cry. For the first few days after he was gone, crying was all I did. Nothing could get done. I tried to take Bubbles for a walk. The moment I grabbed the leash, the memory of Rein always wanting to be the one to hold the leash and walk Bubbles came into my mind. Tears welled up, and in the end, there was no walk.
I tried to watch a movie, but scanning over each movie only reminded me of Rein asking me, pointing to each one, "What's this one about, Daddy?" I would feel like crying again, and wouldn't watch anything.
But the worst part about mourning him was that every time I passed by, or came close to Rein's old room, a feeling of despair would wash over me, and I would cry. Especially after freshly coming home from his funeral, watching his casket lowered six feet into the ground. That was my final clue. It set in. This is real. There's nothing you can do to bring him back. You will never feel him in your arms again…
Work wasn't a relief. Sleep wasn't a relief. Being alone wasn't a relief. Things got so bad that I couldn't cry anymore. I was numb to the bone. There was no such thing as soothing me anymore. I knew that Axel felt the same. We didn't speak to each other for a while besides normal "can you hand me that" "where's this at" things.
Nothing was the same after that. We even considered moving, but neither of us had the heart to move any of Rein's old things. We never touched his doorknob, never went inside his room once we closed the door for the last time.
We didn't move in the end, but it still took months before we were used to the fact that Rein was gone and he wasn't coming back. But we couldn't talk openly about it. It hurt too badly.
One year had passed since Rein's death, and as things would have it, I found out something I was more than surprised to find out about, just one day after the one-year anniversary of Rein's passing.
Someone rang the doorbell and I was the one to answer it. Outside there was a woman who stood a few inches shorter than I did. Her arms were crossed, and she looked like she meant business.
"Hi," I said.
"Hi, is Axel here?" I was a bit taken aback.
"Uh, yeah, hold on." I went to turn, but turned back. "Would you like to come in?"
"No, Ill just wait here, thank you." She was polite, but in a rude way. I didn't really like her. I just nodded and went to get Axel. He was in our room.
"Axel?"
"Hm?"
"Some lady's here to see you," He looked up, confused.
"Who is it?" He asked.
"I don't know, she didn't say." He rose from his spot, I could tell that he had a few ideas to who it was at the door. I walked behind him, and when he saw who it was, he faltered.
"Tara," He nodded to her, obviously knowing who she was.
"Axel," She nodded back, I was now sitting on the couch, listening in as best as I could.
"What are you doing here?" Axel asked sternly.
"I came to settle a few things. To bring some news, as well."
"Hm." He didn't saw anything, just waited. She took a breath before continuing. I was more than uneasy with her, even if I couldn't see her.
"First of all, Id like to say that it's certainly interesting to find you here. In a real home," Minus one point on the "Like" scale for this lady. "And, I see that you've settled down with someone…." She paused.
"Someone I love," Axel finished. She laughed at it.
"Sure, let's just go with that. But guess what, Axel? I've got a little something for you. Lea?" I came closer at this point, seeing as to I was being mentioned. She was motioning to someone. I heard a car door shut and the scuff of shoes coming up the walkway. A girl came and stood next to her, she looked at Axel and then to me. She was about as tall as her mother with red hair (not like orange, it was red.) and hazel colored eyes with a birthmark under her eye that looked like an upside-down teardrop that stood out on her olive-pale skin, and she had something familiar about her, but I couldn't place what it was.
"Lea, take those out of your ears you'll go deaf by the time you're thirty with those things." Tara rolled her eyes at her daughter, pulling out one of the earphones that were in the girl's ears. The girl sighed, pulled out an iPod and stopped her music and crossed her arms, glaring at Tara.
"Axel, this is Lea, my daughter," He was tense at my side, I could feel it. My mind was still occupied with why she seemed so familiar, so I didn't really take it into consideration. "and, Lea, this is your father, Axel."
Oh my…
I was stunned. Axel had a daughter. A real, flesh and blood, he created her, daughter.
"Axel," Tara said. "I'm between a rock and a hard place. So long story short, either she comes here and lives with you, or she goes to an orphanage or whatever they are these days. Understand?"
"I see," Axel said after a pause, switching glances between his daughter and Tara. "Roxas, come here for a second." He turned around and brought me into the living room out of their sight.
"Axel!" I tried to whisper, but I was kind of mad so it was one of those louder whispers. "What the hell? A daughter?" He scratched his head and looked at the ceiling. He always did that when he was uneasy.
"Yeah…about that.." He began his story, I had my arms crossed, waiting to see if I liked the answer. I swear, if anyone was the woman in this relationship, it would have been it. "When I was trying to get over you in high school I tried dating women and Tara was the first one I dated. Well, the only one…but we were only together for three or four weeks when she kinds just…got all over me and then, ya know, some things happened….so I guess, long story short, I ended up getting her pregnant…" He had finished, but I was unsure whether or not I liked the answer he had given me. It was obvious he didn't want to do anything with her, but that chapter in the book was long over, and we were where we were. I sighed.
"Well, Axel, she's your daughter, you decide." He sighed, hands on his hips, walking to the door. I didn't go with him, so I couldn't really hear that well, but I did see Lea walking back to the car. I didn't concern myself with what choice he had made, so I went into the kitchen to eat, when I heard the door close. I turned around the corner to see Axel with a very uneasy look on his face, with Lea right behind him, carrying three bags of things with her. I sighed, truly not knowing what to do.
"So," Lea was the first to speak. She had put her earphones back in and her music was blaring so that we could both hear it. "Where do I put my stuff?" She was awfully casual around us, but I couldn't help but wonder what was going on in her mind.
"Uh," Axel shrugged, looking at her and then back at me. I shook my head and walked away.
"I'm leaving this to you." I went and sat on the couch, watching him to see what his next move would be.
"I guess just put it over there, for now…" The moment he started talking she wiped her head around and looked up at him, watching him speak. She said nothing, and just looked to where he pointed, adjusting her bags. Axel's look changed, I could see.
"Can you even hear me?" She looked right at him as he spoke again, watching him. She set her bags down where he said she could, and then turned back around to him.
"No." He was taken aback, rather obviously, and it made me laugh. He looked at me, and then pointed at her in confusion. It was moments like these that made me realized that Axel hadn't changed in all these years. He was still the same empty-headed fiery teenager he was back in school.
"But…you…" Again, she watched him speak.
"I can't hear you. Its that simple."
"Then…how can you answer me?"
"Ha, you're kidding right?" She smirked, I got up from my seat and walked closer to them. "I can read your lips even though I cant hear you. Trust me, there hasn't been a single day I've gone without my music. I've gotten used to it." She walked away and sat on the couch as if she had lived here her whole life. I looked at Axel.
"She's…" I didn't find the words in time.
"Hey, Dad," she said in a weird sarcastic voice. "What kind of movies do you have here?" Axel looked at me, clearly not used to being called Dad from this girl he just met. He went over to a cabinet that was next to our TV, opening it to reveal everything we had to watch.
"Sweet, Tara's got nothin' back at that old place."
"Tara? You call your mom by her name?" Axel said.
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"I never saw her too much like a mom. The only thing that lady did was boss me around and tell me what I could and couldn't do."
"Hm. Sounds a lot like you, already, Axel." I said, laughing. He sighed, lifting his eyebrows and shrugging.
Later that night we were eating dinner, Lea was sitting next to her dad—which sounds very weird for me to say—and I could see how much they looked alike.
She had a very similar bone structure about her face, and she definitely had Axel's eyes, if it weren't for the difference in color. Their hair color was pretty much the same, and I bet that if she were to style it like Axel's from the back they'd damn near look like twins. Her hair was a little less than shoulder length, with many layers and bangs that spiked out in front of one of her eyes. It was so interesting to watch them together…
"Yo, Dad," Ha. She even spoke like him! "Where am I sleepin' tonight?" Axel stopped eating, and looked at me. I shrugged and finished my dinner, rising from the table and rinsing off my plate. "I guess, for now, you can just crash on the couch until we can figure somethin' out."
"Alright," She was nice enough at the dinner table to turn her music down and take one ear bud out, and surprisingly she had great hearing.
After everything was over, she slept on the couch and we went back to our room, where Axel wanted to talk about plans for her.
"Well then why'd you take her if you had no idea what to do? Don't you think about these things?"
"I didn't want her going to some foster nutcases! You never know where she'd end up! She's my kid, I had to take responsibility…"
"Axel," I said after a moment. "She's going to want a room." He knew what I was talking about, and turned to look at the door. Rein's room was just across the hall, and it was the only room we had available.
"Roxas…" He was desperate. "I can't bring myself to do that."
"Then let her do it. Just pass off any questions if you want, but let her clean it out and rearrange if she wants to. When she's done, she's done. Then the only problem we have is Rein's things." He was quiet. "Look. I know how you feel, I'm the same. But we have to get past this. As much as it kills me to say, he's gone. Rein is gone and he's never going to come back. We have to learn to get past it. Living in the past isn't going to help anything, especially since you have Lea, now, Axel."
The next day was Saturday, and we told her that the room across from ours was the room she could move in to, but we also told her that it was up to her to get rid of any items that were in there. She could keep what she wanted, but the furniture was her's now and she could do whatever she wanted with the room.
The whole day all's we heard was her music coming from her iPod speakers, the door opening and closing continuously with clothes and other things being thrown out into the hall. Whatever was littered outside of the door was trash.
Getting her room settled was a weekend long project, she was done Sunday afternoon, and she was nice enough to find the garbage bags to put the trash and things in, and then asked us where to put it all. She also didn't ask any questions as to why the room already looked occupied, which we were both more than thankful for.
It was a way different experience, raising an already grown thirteen-year-old girl. Neither of us had any clue what to really do with the years went by, she was now sixteen…and she would bring home her share of boyfriends, but eventually they would all leave her because her father was…gay. She had an interesting way of coping, she wouldn't talk about it, she'd either watch the Star Wars saga nonstop in the living room until she felt better, or she would go in her room, refuse to eat or speak and blast her music night and day until she felt better. Then, one day, she comes home and announces something. We were sitting on the couch in the living room watching some show on TV when we hear her music stop (which was rare) and she came out of the room, right up to us.
"Dad, Roxas," She always called Axel dad and me by my name. "I figured it wouldn't be that big of a problem for you since you guys are how you are, so, I thought it would be a nice to tell you that I'm done with boys."
"Alright, Lea," Axel said. It was funny, even though he preferred men as to women, he still had that protective father thing about him. Whenever Lea would bring home a new boyfriend he'd get all protective and ask her a bunch of questions about him.
"No, dad, I mean I'm done with boys. One-hundred percent. No more." He turned around to look at her.
"What are you saying?"
"Boys have never worked out for me. So, I'm going lesbian. No more boys. Ever. I find girls more attractive, anyway." She walked away, and when he heard her door close he turned to me. I laughed.
"Looks like it runs in the family, eh, Axel?" I nudged him in the arm, and he just shook his head.
"That girl…she's somethin' else."
"And that is exactly how I know she's your daughter. No switches at the hospital with her. You two are just too much alike. You should see it from my eyes."
"Oh yeah?" He challenged, looking at me. "How? Name three things we have in common."
"You guys have the same structure about you. If you were a girl, you'd look like Lea." He blushed. "Also, you two speak the same. She's as sarcastic as you are, and just as stubborn. She's rebellious and hates being told what to do, and so do you, even when you're this old."
"Oh, really?" He pushed me playfully and we shared a few laughs before heading off to bed.
The next day, Lea came home and introduced us to her new girlfriend.
"Dad, Roxas, this is Erika," She had a big smile on her face when she said her name, and we could tell that Erika was excited, too.
She had short, layered blonde hair that exceeded her jaw only by and inch or two, with parts of blue every here and there. She had a nice skin tone, as if she had lived at the beach during the summer and the tan was wearing off. It wasn't dark, but not pale, but it was a happy medium. Her eyes were a shade of green that had spots of blue and what looked like yellow in them, and she stood a few inches shorter than Lea. I had to admit, they made a very cute couple.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Roxas," I held my hand out, and she shook it with a smile and a nod.
"Name's Axel-" It was funny, he stopped short. He was about to add "Got it memorized?" to the end of his sentence, but caught himself. I giggled, looking at him. Erika shook his hand as she did mine, and the girls were off to Lea's room. All's we heard was the sound of music and those really loud laughs that girls always make when they think something is really funny. We didn't see them until it was time for Erika to leave, and Lea was as happy as Id ever seen her.
After three weeks or so of Erika coming over almost every day and seeing Lea with a smile on her face all day, she came home from school, shut the front door without a word, dropped her bag by the couch and turned on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
That couldn't be good.
But at least it wasn't Titanic. Whenever she watched that movie something was seriously bothering her. Star Wars just meant she was upset about something, but hopefully it wasn't long term. Even though she wasn't my daughter, I worried about her as if she was.
"Lea," I said from the kitchen. "What happened?"
"Nothing." She was angry.
"Liar," I said, walking over and leaning over the couch to look at her. "Tell me what happened." She sighed angrily, shaking her head in one of those "I cant believe your forcing me to do this" ways.
"Erika," She said her name with malice. That was not good. "Today she totally avoided me, like, all day, and then when our last class started she, like, passes a note to me saying that she's leaving me because our relationship lost its spark! I'm so mad at her! But, like, ugh!" She slammed her head into a pillow that was next to her. She really did have a temper like her father. I wouldn't be surprised if she started to spout flames, that's how angry she was.
It was my day off, so Axel wasn't home when Lea first got there. By the time he got home from work she was midway into Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
"Uh-oh," He said when he saw his daughter on the couch with the sounds of lasers and lightsabers ringing everywhere. "Lea, hun, what's the matter?"
"Erika broke up with me." She crossed her arms and legs, saying it as angrily as she did when I asked her.
"Ah, man," Axel said, sitting down next to her. "Well you know somethin'? If she leaves you, then that just means two things. One, that you are not the right person for her. And two, Erika probably just made the worst mistake of her life. Do you know why?" She looked up at him.
"Why?" She was trying to hide a smile, but it wasn't working.
"Because you are the most amazing girl anyone could ever want to be with, and whoever you end up falling in love with is the luckiest girl in the world to have you." He smiled, putting his arm around her shoulders and giving her that fatherly noogie-hug thing. Lea smiled and laughed, obviously feeling better.
"Thanks, dad." She still watched her movie, but it was probably because she never stopped watching in the middle of one of the episodes. She had to finish the whole thing, not just part of it.
Later that night I had gone to bed early, and waking up a few hours later I was going into the kitchen to get some water when I saw both Axel and Lea sitting on the couch together.
"Yo, dad, you know what?"
"Hm?"
"I'm sorta happy that Tara decided to try and leave me with you."
"Why's that?" I could tell from his tone that he was happier, and probably smiling.
"'Cause. You're a cool dad. I'm pretty glad that she decided to try and dump me on you, as mean as that sounds. You have no idea how much different I would probably be if I didn't move in with you and Roxas. And it's cool, because now I've got a dad, and I never had one growing up. I just think it's cool." Axel chuckled and messed up her hair. That was "thanks, kid" in "Axel." Ha.
"After this one's over, you've gotta get in bed, alright? It's fricken midnight and you've got school tomorrow, kid." And for once, she agreed. You don't know how many times we use to have to battle with her in order to get her to get to bed on time. But, thankfully, the final installment of the Star Wars saga was almost over, which meant it was almost time for bed.
It was always rare to catch those moments between Lea and Axel, those father-daughter moments. But when I did, it was just a heartwarming experience. Axel came to bed that night, thinking I was asleep. I turned over to look at him.
"She really loves you, Axel."
"Hm?"
"Lea. She really loves you like a father."
"Well, yeah, Sherlock, I am her father."
"You know what I mean!"
"Ha. Yeah…" We were silent for a minute.
"What do you think about it?"
"About what?"
"About being a real father. How's it feel, knowing that the child you have loves you enough to tell you about these kinds of things? Lea's never that open with anyone, Axel. She really trusts you as both a friend and as a father." He smiled, putting his arm around me to give me a hug and a quick kiss before we went to sleep.
"It feels great, Roxas. It really does."
Two more years went by so fast I couldn't believe it when I think about it. Lea was a little over eighteen, had a steady job in Station Heights in Twilight Town, and had just gotten her own apartment decently close-by, and she was more than excited to move out. It wasn't because she wanted to get away from us, she would say, it was because she was eager to move on with her life.
And we were both proud of her. Besides her job and keeping up in school, she was thinking about going to a music college somewhere close. She had become the bassist for a band called Infrasonic Asylum, and the members included her, and her two best friends (who, strangely, were boys.). They were like siblings, those three. But their music career was advancing rather fast. They had played several shows, at least fifteen, and had started recording some songs with an underground record company. We all thought they were sure to take off and make it big.
The day came when Lea was to leave the nest, and we helped her move her final things to her car so she could be on her way.
She had grown to be a beautiful young woman. She had let her hair grow longer, it was layered again so she had small spikes sticking out every which way and she had her fiery red bangs over one eye, and she had grown to a height of 5'7''. She was a very pretty girl, lean and muscular, just like her father.
"Bye dad, Roxas," She gave us both hugs and a peck on the cheek to her father, smiling with bright eyes and anxious ambition. She waved to us from the car window, and we waved back until she turned around the corner and we couldn't see her anymore.
"She's grown so much." Axel said under his breath. I looked up at him and nodded.
"Yeah she has. And she takes right after you, Axel."
"Hm." He chuckled with a smile on his face, sighing. "Now all's that's left for us to do is wait to miss her…possibly wait for some grandchildren."
"Wouldn't it be somethin' if she pulls the same stunt as you?"
"What are you talkin' about, what stunt?"
"Let's just say she ends up getting a broken heart and goes to run off with this boy and ends up with a baby. Hell, you two are so much alike I wouldn't be surprised if that happened."
"I guess…you're right…" He itched his head, just like he was a mindless teen again. That always made me laugh.
But, it did surprise me when Lea calls us two years later informing Axel and I that she was expecting a baby.
"But, you…Don't you sorta…not like men?" Axel was on the phone with her, I was listening in.
She sighed. "To make a long story short, dad, I was trying to get over someone and I ended up with this guy and now this happened." I gave him a look, mentally blaming him and his reckless behavior that he had passed on to Lea. She said she wasn't entirely happy about the fact she had had sex with a man, let alone getting pregnant from one. But she did want to keep the baby, and we stood behind her every choice.
As things progressed we had her over more often to make sure she was alright and not alone at home, and she would talk about different names and wishes for her child.
Soon enough, the time came, and we found ourselves rushing her to the hospital. Two days later, though, we walked through the doors with unexpected twins. They were brother and sister, but they looked very much alike, as if they were almost identical.
The boy, who was the older of the two by a full minute was named Cobalt Stone Flynn. According to Lea, Cobalt looked a lot like his dad. He had black hair that looked strikingly like Axel's spikey red hair, only it was a different color, and Cobalt's skin was a little darker and his eyes were brown instead of green. It was strange, how much he resembled Axel. Genes. They're somthin' else.
The girl was named Akira Foxx Flynn, she had bright blue eyes and the same red hair of Axel and Lea's. Her skin was the same tone as Cobalt's, too.
Years went by and by, and I was now 53, Axel, 55, and Cobalt and Akira were starting their freshman years of high school. It was funny, actually. Since Lea had many on and off girlfriends, someone wasn't always living with her, so she mostly had to provide for her family herself. She found a great job as a sound engineer in Twilight Town, and it had very good pay for doing something she really loved. Money wasn't that big of an issue for her, but she didn't have the time to participate too much in the kid's school times because of an unusual work schedule. So, what did she do? She sent the kids to Twilit Academy Boarding School, and she had us drop them off on their first day.
Going back to the old school was very strange. Everything looked the same to me, with a few changes, of course, but nothing too big. After helping Cobalt and Akira with their things, we decided to take a little stroll down memory lane. And we went right to our old dorm room.
It was strange, being back. We didn't go inside, or knock, for that matter, we knew it wasn't the same inside of there. But I took him up through the crevices and to the roof. Sure, we were getting pretty old, but we made it.
I got up there first, holding my hand out to Axel.
"Woo," he sighed. "I'm not as young as I used to be, Roxas!"
"Yeah, whatever, get your flat butt up here!" We laughed as I helped him to the top, and we remembered the first sunrise we ever watched together.
We couldn't stay for too long, so we descended from the roof and went back home.
Everything was fine for a few more years. We lived long enough to see Lea start her own Record Company for musicians, we saw the kids grow up and move out on their own, and we even saw Akira's wedding.
That was the only wedding I had ever been to, but I couldn't have been happier. Even if she wasn't my by-blood-granddaughter, she was still my granddaughter. And, as it turns out, she married a young boy one year older than her named Sora Keys III, and it was the grandson of none other than my cousin, Sora.
Our families were connected again, and Sora had finally matured and settled down with his long-time crush, Kairi. Together they had three kids, two boys and one girl. One was Sora Keys Junior, the eldest. The daughter, which they named Namine (after Kairi's best friend), and the youngest boy was named after Riku. After the incident at the school, it turned out that Riku disappeared shortly after I had left, and no one had seen him after that. To this day, no one knows where he went.
Axel and I both lived long enough to see the birth of our great grandson, Dominic Louis Keys. He grew to be a handsome young man, one with a lean build, blue eyes and spiky black hair that looked red when it was in the sun.
He was fifteen when Axel passed. I was 73, Axel was 75. It was a sad day, but only the week before we were sitting on the couch together when he spoke to me in a way he had never spoken to me before.
"Roxas," He started. "Its right around the corner."
"What is?"
"My time." I said nothing, just staring at him. "I'm not going to last forever…we need to figure out where my things are going."
"Axel, don't talk like that."
"Roxas, I know I don't have too much longer. I can feel it. Trust me." Sure enough, the next week, I woke up in the same bed as I had for the past decades of my life, and went to wake Axel when I found the love of my life to be motionless, stiff, breathless, gone.
I did what he wanted me to. I had his body cremated, then kept the ashes on a shelf in my room, so it was like he was still sleeping with me, even though he wasn't there anymore.
When I first realized he was gone, I panicked. I had no idea what to do. I couldn't live without him, I loved him too much to do that. But he always used to tell me, "Roxas, no matter what happens to me, you have to swear that you will keep going until you drop…" and I was going to keep my word. I did miss him, but that wasn't going to bring me to my knees just yet.
I gave Lea a call one day. "Lea, its Roxas."
"Hey, haven't heard from you since dad passed. Long time, no talk, huh?"
"Ha, yep," I laughed it off. "But Lea, listen for a minute. I know for a fact that I'm not going to last very much longer at all. You can have what you want from here, and anything that's left you can sell or whatever. It doesn't matter to me, but I have one favor to ask."
"Alright, spill." She still talked like a teenager. It was amusing.
"Your father's last wish had two parts. He wanted himself cremated, and that is done. The second part of his wish was about me. He wants you to cremate me, and once that deed is done, he wants our ashes mixed so that we are together again, and he wanted you to take our ashes and climb to the top of the clock tower at the Station in Twilight Town. Listen carefully, now, nothing can be missed.
"He wants you to pour our ashes along the edge of the top of the tower, you will know, you can easily take a seat on it. He wanted you to pour the ashes across the front of the tower like I just described, and let our ashes blow away in the wind." She agreed, and it wasn't too long before this was accomplished.
I remember my last night. I had the feeling in my heart that I was leaving that night, and I smiled, accepting my fate. Axel's last wish was carried out, our ashes were blown away, and that was that.
It's a funny thing, death. Maybe my experience will be different from yours, but when I passed, I woke up to find myself in the prettiest of all places. White skies, glowing moon, lavander, silk grass…warm, sparkling white sand near the shores of the midnight blue sea. I looked around me, exploring, when I came across a glass platform. I stood on top of it, and off it took me to a higher place. I stepped off onto a tower made of purple-tinted glass strong enough to hold anyone, looking out on a beautiful setting of a silver sun sinking behind flawless mountaintops. I watched in awe.
"Yo," I looked over, and saw my love, sitting down like he used to atop the Tower or Twilight Town, he was young again, as if he was just nineteen. I smiled and came over to him. He stood to greet me, holding up a small mirror to my face. I was also the age that I was when I met Axel. I was in my seventeen-year old body again. Axel was speaking so softly…but I wasn't listening…I only heard the end of his speech, but not until later.
I smiled and hugged him so tightly…and I heard his heartbeat again. He was really here. He was really alive. And he was standing in front of me, his arms holding me like they used to.
An endless embrace for our young souls, a love so great that not even death can break the spell. A kiss so romantic, time stops, the earth halts, we exchange words, and there is nothing in the world…
"…except you, and me."