Thanks to everyone who reviewed (especially those I didn't get a chance to reply to-- sorry!) and EXTRA thanks to my brand new beta, combo-bass! She be awesomeness incarnate. And thanks to her, your eyes don't have to bleed from typos anymore. Yay!
So, this chapter and last chapter are supposed to run kind of parallel to each other; it's only one day, just with a bunch of different viewpoints. And uh… a limey, lemony thing lies ahead. It's my first try at anything sexy, so be kind about it, please? Kind but honest. And enjoy!
"Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby..."
---Langston Hughes
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"Watch the moon rise tonight
The ocean looms past bonfires alight
I am a stranger in this place
And when I see you, I can't turn away…"
Roxas woke slowly, his eyes fluttering open then snapping shut as the yellowed morning light stung his eyes.
"Under this beach lie pirate bones
We stand above them, at long last alone
There's something different in your heart
You're not afraid of the darkness within us all…".
The blonde boy turned his head to glare angrily at Demyx's stereo, which was apparently programmed to use the mulleted man's music as an alarm. Roxas groaned and rubbed his face.
"And we kiss, in the Santa Carla twilight
On the beach, under a Santa Carla moon
I am lost, but I've found you in my arms
And my heart is blacker than the dark ocean…"
Roxas stretched his arms languidly above his head, arching his back and squinting against the light that fell haphazardly through the crooked blinds of the window. He wriggled around on the bed for a moment longer before kicking away the orange covers and sitting up. He rubbed slowly down his bare arms and stomach, feeling dried sand flaking off at the contact; he ran a hand over the sheets and felt the coarse grains that had been left behind. After trudging back to the dorms last night, the two had stripped off their soaked shirts and pants and then collapsed on the bed, their bodies covered in a fine layer of sand and the scent of seawater still on them.
"Hear the song of night tide
It's been ages since I felt this alive
At long last I've found you and it ends
The loneliness we feel that they could never understand…"
The blonde sniffed himself unsurely. What had smelled sexily salty and breezy last night now reminded him of spoiled seaweed. Roxas fanned himself and rose from the bed in a crouch, searching the floor for a pair of pants; he yanked on the first pair he found (Axel's, he could tell, by the way they trailed on the floor) and began searching for his boyfriend.
"And in this land beyond the dusk A consummation of---"
He slammed a hand down on the alarm button of the stereo as he walked past it, the force making the CDs and cassettes stacked precariously next to it tremble. Roxas frowned as he continued the search for Axel. A peek into the tiny kitchenette area revealed the redhead, who was cursing and angrily poking at the microwave. He wore a frayed black tank and a pair of holey pajama pants, the latter looking like it was close to its final hour.
The kitchen area was clean and filled with new looking appliances, but still extremely cramped. A mini-fridge, a small pantry, a toaster, and a two-burner stove completed the cluttered kitchen. Axel caught a glimpse of the blonde out of the corner of his eye and turned to face him, breaking into a bright smile. "Oh! Morning, sleepy-head." He sniffed and pursed his lips. "We smell like high tide."
"What are you doing?" Roxas asked suspiciously, eyeing the microwave and taking note of the older man's slightly fidgety behavior. It hadn't taken Roxas long to learn the number one rule with Axel-- never let him cook.
"Makin' breakfast. You want some cereal?" He asked brightly, pointing at the microwave and grinning.
Roxas tried to ignore the disgustingly cheery tone in Axel's voice. No one should be that happy in the morning. "Axel… cereal doesn't involve microwaving at any point in time. At all. Ever."
The blonde watched in hazy disbelief as the man pulled the bowl out of the microwave, blowing lightly at the cereal to cool it off. Axel gave him an ecstatic grin. "It's Lucky Chaaaarms," he sing-songed, sloshing the contents of the bowl around temptingly.
Roxas tried not to be sick at the gurgling, sploshing sound that the soggy and inflated Lucky Charms made as they were whisked around. "Throw it in the trash," he ordered.
"But--"
"In. The. Trash."
Axel looked forlornly at his little mutant cereal creation, then back up at Roxas. He gave in with a sigh and emptied the bowl into the trashcan. Roxas looked on approvingly, but noted the disappointed frown on the redhead's lips. He walked gingerly up behind Axel and gave his shoulders a rub.
"Go get in the shower. I'll make breakfast." The blonde threaded a hand through the redhead's hair and pulled his head down close enough to kiss.
"But… I wanted to make you breakfast," Axel pouted, his sad emerald eyes pulling at Roxas' heartstrings.
"Well… okay," Roxas relented. "We'll both make breakfast. I'll teach you."
"Yes!" Axel exuberantly jumped up and down. "I can help! I'll go get the eggs and mayonnaise."
"M-mayonnaise? We don't need-- oh, for Christ's sake."
Twenty minutes (and six smashed eggs, four pieces of burnt toast, and one spilled jar of jelly) later, the two were settled on the floor with their plates resting on their laps.
"You stole my pants," Axel noticed in between bites of a slightly-charred piece of jam covered toast. Roxas had scoffed when Axel declared the toast acceptable, saying that the older man was just too proud to admit he'd burned another piece of bread beyond recognition. But the truth was that the redhead actually preferred his food a little on the burnt side.
"They were on the floor. Free game. Where did my clothes go?"
"I put 'em in the wash earlier, right before I went to the post office."
"How early do you get up?" Roxas asked in amazement.
"Uh… around five or six, usually. Depends."
"Why?" Roxas wrinkled his nose at the thought of crawling out of bed that early. It was nearly criminal.
"To watch the sun rise, of course." Axel grinned lopsidedly, his head cocked to one side as he gauged Roxas' reaction. "Don't you ever watch it?"
"Uh…" The blonde rubbed his feet together. "I'm not usually up until way after the sun. I watch the sun set sometimes, though."
"Sunset's nice too; not as good as sunrise, but still pretty cool. Watching the sun rise makes me feel kinda special… like I get to see it before everyone else, you know?"
"You're a morning person," Roxas grumbled.
"That I am," Axel said cheerily. "Best time of the day."
Roxas chose not to respond, fearing he would end up shoving an egg down Axel's cheery throat. He looked over instead at the floor length mirror by the door and cringed. The mirror was harsh in its depiction of the two-- Axel's hair matted down and tangled, and his own blonde spikes a clumpy mess, briny dirt streaked through the light gold. He could even see the sand that still clung desperately to their skin in the reflection.
"We look like shit." Roxas felt this was a very astute observation, given that it was still early and his brain wasn't fully functioning yet. He also dimly realized that Axel hadn't bothered to clean up before going out in public and running his early morning errands. Ew.
"I concur. We should go take a shower."
Roxas nodded as he curved his body in an attempt to stretch out a kink in his back. "You want to go first? I take a long time. Or that's what my mom says, anyway. I don't want to use all the hot wa--"
"No, I don't think you understand, Roxie, baby," Axel interrupted with a coy smile. "I think we should go take a shower."
The blonde let his mouth hang open for a second. "You mean, like… together? At the same time?" he squeaked.
"Well, yeah. That's… generally the idea of a shower with your boyfriend. It's a special… bonding… thing. C'mon! You don't have anything I haven't seen before."
"You've never seen me naked!"
"That's not what I meant," Axel sighed, rolling his eyes. "It's not that big of a deal, you know. Just two guys in a shower… with all that soap and steam," he added lowly, slowly dragging his tongue across his lower lip. "… and plenty of opportunities to rub--"
"Stop, stop, stop," Roxas said quickly, sending a glare toward the snickering redhead sitting across from him. His blush did little to help him seem convincing. "I'm… I'm just a little-- a little…"
"Self-conscious?"
"I guess."
"Don't be. Plus, if you agree, you get to see my tattoos."
Roxas sputtered. "You never told me you had any tattoos! Well, except for the ones on your face, but those are kind of obvious. You didn't have to tell me about those ones. But how many do you have? Are you sure you didn't catch any diseases from those needles? I've heard stories ab--"
"Hey, relax. I got them done in a nice, certified, sanitary place, okay? Same place my brother went to, and nothing bad ever happened to him. Well, not cause of tattoos anyway." Axel stood and offered a hand to the boy.
Roxas licked his lips. He looked from the outstretched hand to the face above him and back again. With a sigh, he took it and was hauled to his feet. Roxas gasped-- in an instant he felt nimble fingers undoing the zipper on his pants and tugging at the waistband.
"I'll be taking these back," Axel grinned, pushing the shocked blonde down on to the bed behind him and ripping the pants the rest of the way off. Roxas pulled his bare legs close, his knees pressed against his chest, and watched the man with wide eyes.
Axel slowly removed his shirt, stretching just enough to show off his lean and lightly muscled upper body. He laughingly spun the discarded shirt around stripper-style before tossing it to the blonde. Roxas caught it instinctively and threw it right back.
"Roxas! You're not supposed to toss it back," Axel chided as he slipped out of the ragged pajama pants, clicking his tongue at the boy.
Roxas forgot to argue. This was the closest he'd ever seen Axel to being completely nude. A pair of black and red striped boxers was all that stood between him and full-Axel-nakedness.
"I can't believe you even wear the RGU colors on your underwear," the blonde said sneeringly.
"Hey, it was a just coincidence, alright? Even I'm not that lame. Besides, you have no room to talk, checkers boy." He snorted as Roxas shifted in a sad attempt to hide his black and white checkered boxers. "Now come on, let's get naked and wet!"
"I'm not so sure anymore," Roxas said flatly as he stood. "You seem awfully frisky."
The redhead pouted and imitated a puppy whine. It got the desired effect. Roxas hesitantly relented and followed the tall man into the bathroom.
"Every dorm room gets its own bathroom. Nice, huh?" Axel locked the door and started turning on the water. "It takes a while for it to get hot, though," he said a little loudly, trying to make himself heard over the noisy hiss of the water pouring from the showerhead.
Roxas got the feeling that these bathrooms were not made for two people to occupy them at once. He had to lean backwards over the toilet for the both of them to fit. The blonde bit his lip and studied the ceiling, which seemed much, much more interesting than Axel's almost naked body. Yup. He was not going to stare at Axel.
"You ready?"
Roxas tore his eyes away from the ceiling long enough to realize that Axel had stripped the last of the clothing from his body and was now waiting for Roxas, an amused expression plastered on his face.
"Huh?" Roxas' face burned red hot and he tried his hardest to look Axel in the eye. The worst thing, he realized, was that his pair of boxers did little to hide the growing sign of his attraction. 'Fuck, I'm not even in the shower with him yet and I'm getting hard.'
"You," the redhead said loudly, pointing at the younger boy. "Me." He pointed to himself, treating Roxas in a very Tarzan-like fashion. "Naked. In shower." He poked the translucent glass of the shower wall with one slender finger. A wry grin spread slowly over his face. "Lotsa fun. Now take it off, Rox."
The blonde looked shyly down, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. He quickly pulled out the waistband and wriggled free of the garment, stepping out of the boxers and kicking them into the corner. Roxas stood nervously in front of the older man, hating the complete exposure. He wrung his hands shakily, unsure of what to do with them, where to place them.
Axel wrapped a hand around his forearm and gently coaxed him into the shower. Roxas could already feel the fine droplets of mist coating his skin. He could see water clinging to Axel, the drops dripping from the ends of his drooping spikes. Axel shut the shower door with a muffled snap.
"It's okay to look, you know. I know you want to. Don't be embarrassed." Axel smiled down at the boy, who was still pointedly looking up. He grinned slyly. "I mean, I've definitely been taking advantage of seeing you naked. Never have I wanted photographic memory so badly."
Roxas snorted and slapped a hand over his face, letting it slide slowly down until it just covered his mouth. He met Axel's eyes once, suddenly and boldly, and then let his gaze drift down, his face getting hotter with every new inch he took in.
"Oh… wow. Just… wow."
"You like it?" Axel grinned, raising his eyebrows proudly.
"How could I not?"
"And the tattoo? Or did you not notice it yet?" the redhead teased, reaching out and flicking the blonde across the nose playfully.
Sure enough, when Roxas looked down-- and away from a certain, rather impressive part of Axel's anatomy-- there was a small, black and red heart on the left side of the redhead's hip. Oh, sidenote-- yes, Axel was a natural redhead. It's for sure now.
"I'm going to take a big leap here and guess that your favourite colors are black and red?" Roxas smirked, leaning against the wall of the shower and looking at the tattoo curiously. The flared black heart was crisscrossed with what looked like bold, bloodred thorns.
"You're not wrong." Axel leaned against the wall as well. The near scalding jet of water from the showerhead behind him had now soaked his scarlet hair, bringing down the jarring spikes and making the older man look a bit tamer. "And here's the other one," he said, using one arm to lift his curtain of hair in the back as he turned his upper body so his back would face Roxas.
The blonde pushed a few chunks of clinging hair to the side to see it clearly; on the back of the drummer's neck was something that looked a bit like a Celtic cross. Spikes of various sizes radiated from a circle filled with looping Celtic knots, and twists of jagged, thorn-like ink spread down his neck to the top of his shoulders. Roxas was surprised he'd never seen it before, but realized that unless you were looking for a tattoo under all that hair, you probably wouldn't find it.
"Why do you hide them?" Roxas asked, slightly baffled. It seemed conflicting—Axel wore the inked triangles under his eyes proudly for all to see, yet kept these intricate ones covered with clothes and hair?
"I got these two when I was a kid," Axel explained, taking Roxas' wrist and pulling him close despite the weak protests the blonde made. "My ma woulda freaked. So I made sure she wouldn't find them," he winked. "These other two," he whispered, using his index and middle fingers to point at the ones on his face, "came later. Kind of like… an open act of rebellion. Just before I graduated high school."
"You rebel, you."
"Yup, that's me," the redhead grinned. "But enough talking about me. We came in here to get clean, remember?" Axel reminded him, slowly pushing his hands down the blonde's sides and onto his hips. He grinned and pulled Roxas slowly closer, swaying his body as he drew him in.
Roxas squeaked as the older man poured a generous amount of shampoo directly onto his soaked head and began gently massaging the blonde hair. The clarinetist found it hard to resist leaning up against Axel; the redhead's touch was firm and slow, almost sensual in a way, as he worked the cinnamon scented shampoo into the younger man's golden hair. Roxas closed his eyes and enjoyed the pampering for another minute or so. Just as he was on the verge of sighing contentedly, Axel aimed the jet of water at his head. Which also included his face. It was pretty much the equivalent of a bitch slap, as far as Roxas was concerned.
He sputtered disgracefully as the tall man just laughed and continued rinsing his hair free of the lather for him. Roxas pouted, his sopping bangs hanging over the upper half of his face.
"Come on, Roxy." Axel grinned as he squeezed some shampoo in his hand and began working on his own hair. "It was a joke. Ha ha, you know?" He washed and rinsed his hair quickly, not wanting to waste time on himself.
"Ha. Ha. Ha," Roxas deadpanned lowly. Oh, he was not amused. No amount of hot, sexy, wet, naked Axel was going to sway him from his current grumpiness.
"Aw, did I make you mad?" Axel asked teasingly, his lips turned down in a mocking pout. "I'm sorry," he apologized, not looking very sorry at all. Roxas was just about to point that out when Axel encircled his waist with thin, strong arms and pulled him flush against his own body. "Want me to make it up to you?"
Roxas opened his mouth to speak but found he could not. Axel's roving hands had always been sufficiently distracting as it was, but as the older man grew bolder and bolder those hands quickly became impossible to ignore. The redhead grabbed a bar of soap from the shower rack attached to the wall behind the blonde. He rolled the ivory bar in his hands then handed it to Roxas, chuckling as the boy struggled to keep a hold on it.
Roxas shuddered as he felt Axel's hands rubbing his back and shoulders, spreading a thin sheen of soap as he went. He continued down the clarinetist's upper arms and his sides, humming contentedly.
The blonde considered the soap in his hands for a moment. He put his hands against the older man's pale chest and began slowly rubbing, his palms unsurely traversing the redhead's torso. The soap made his skin slick and shiny. Roxas gulped.
As he stood naked in the shower, engaged in a very pleasurable rub-fest with a college man, one horrifying series of thoughts circled around in Roxas' mind uncontrollably, like a merry-go-round gone horribly, horribly wrong: 'Oh God, what if mom walked in right now? Shit, what if she walked in on us somehow? No, that's impossible… but still, what if she did? Fuck. I'd be dead. And Axel would be castrated. And then dead.'
"You look distracted," Axel pouted, clearly upset at the blonde's vacant expression as they rinsed themselves clean. There was a moment where the redhead's eyes flickered with doubt, before icing over with resolve a second later. "But I can fix that."
"Eh?" Roxas asked quickly, suddenly worried about the brazen look in those emerald eyes. Behind the determination, Roxas thought he caught a hint of hunger as well.
"I'll make it so you can't ignore me, silly," the redhead clarified with a wink. And a smirk. And the smirk was what really worried the younger man.
Before Roxas could object, Axel gripped firmly to the blonde's hips and began slowly lowering himself to his knees. He pressed his mouth to the boy's chest as he sank, licking and nipping at the clean, wet skin all down his stomach. The blonde gasped in surprise, leaning back against the shower wall for support-- he braced himself against the wall with one hand and wrapped the other securely in Axel's soaked cherry hair.
The redhead took his time, licking and nipping at the pale, tender skin, pausing for a minute to flick his tongue into the boy's navel. This action earned a startled gasp from Roxas, who was looking openmouthed and wide-eyed at the ceiling.
"A-Axel," Roxas panted, looking down at the redhead before him.
"Mmmmhmm?" Axel acknowledged pleasantly. He turned his viridian eyes up toward Roxas' own, holding the blonde's gaze as he drew his tongue in lazy circles across his lower stomach.
"Oh… that f-feels good," Roxas managed to whimper, shivering as he heard Axel laughing lowly. Another sharp gasp as the redhead's deliberate tongue flitted over the head of his painfully erect member. The blonde tried to suppress the shudder that seemed to spread to the very tips of his fingers.
Roxas felt consumed by dancing heat as Axel focused his attentions on his aching cock. He writhed under the searing touch of the man's mouth, not sure where to place his hands or how he was supposed to react to this. The blonde felt his knees weaken at the building pleasure, threatening to bring him sliding to the floor of the shower.
Axel, as though sensing this, pushed Roxas against the chilled tiles of the far shower wall, effectively pinning him there as he continued sucking and licking the younger man greedily.
Roxas relaxed as he felt himself being supported; he dug his hands roughly into the older man's ruby hair, no longer concerned with how he was supposed to act or behave. Half-contained sighs turned into full-blown moans and muttered urgings for Axel to continue.
The redhead chuckled, fully enjoying himself, and dragged the tip of his tongue along the base of the shaft. He listened intently over the hiss of the water for those pleasurable sounds-- Roxas panting, Roxas moaning, Roxas saying his name. Axel drank it up, happy to be the source of the blonde's current euphoria.
Roxas felt as though he was being swallowed up; he felt more pressure inside of him than he'd ever imagined was possible. 'Is this normal? To feel like this?' The blonde didn't have much time to wonder-- suddenly his breathing stopped, leaving him clutching desperately at Axel's hair. There was a moment of release-- sweet and drawn out-- and Roxas' cobalt blue eyes fluttered shut. He reopened them a few seconds later and was treated to a close-up of Axel's gratified grin.
"What?" Roxas was startled at his own voice, at how shaky it was. He was still flushed and panting, leaning back against the soothingly cool tile of the wall-- it was a nice contrast to the scorching combination of steaming water and Axel.
"See? I told you we'd have fun." The older man smiled, turning off the shower with a turn of the squeaky handle.
Roxas raised his eyebrows. "I think your definition of 'fun' is a little twisted," he told the Cheshire-like Axel as they stepped out of the shower a second later. "Seems more like sexual deviancy to m-- oompf!"
Roxas staggered back a step, clawing blindly at the towel Axel had just thrown at his face. He pulled the fluffy, warm towel off of his head and, in an act of insolence, stuck his tongue out at the man. "Nyeh," he finished petulantly, crossing his arms while still holding the towel.
"Stick your tongue out at me again and I'll take it as an invitation," Axel warned with a cheeky grin. "Keep that teasing little tongue of yours out of sight."
Roxas made a nearly indiscernible snort of disbelief, but also seemed to heed the words. He blushed and kept his mouth tightly shut, knowing the redhead wouldn't need much incentive to act out on his warning. "You do, and I'll snap you on the ass with this towel," Roxas warned quickly, speaking through his teeth. He twisted the towel in his hands threateningly.
Axel arched a brow, not looking too put off by the idea. "Kinky."
"Oh, shut up, that's not how I meant it!"
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"What the fuck is that?" Cid looked admonishingly down at the oversized canvas on the floor, on which a vast forest underneath a sunny blue sky was being painted. Axel and Roxas looked up from the floor, where they'd been hunched over the work-in-progress. Axel sniggered at the older man's comment but remained focused on painting his little pine trees.
"Uh…" Roxas began replying, looking unsurely down at the sun he'd been meticulously painting. "It's a sun, sir."
"Horse shit, Blondie! It looks like someone managed to vomit in a perfect circle!" Cid managed to shout around the toothpick hanging limply in his mouth.
Roxas gaped, feeling more than a little offended. It was a good sun! It was yellow and round, just like it was supposed to be! "B-but, sir--"
"'Sir'? 'Sir'?" Cid repeated. "Fuckin' hell, MacKenna, I thought you had the kid better trained than this. Listen up, Sunshine," Cid grinned at the blonde, crouching down to be at eye level. "No one calls me 'sir', never. Now move your ass and let me show you how it's done."
Cid more or less shoved Roxas to the side and snatched the yellow-dipped brush from his hands. Within a few moments, the gruff blonde had completely altered the boy's sun-- the perfect circle of single-toned yellow was streaked with orange and white, and a few hints of smoldering red. Several deft brushstrokes blended the colors effortlessly, making the pigmented sun look swirling and chaotic, almost alive.
"There ya go, kid. Now don't let me catch you making a shitty-ass attempt at art again, got it?"
Roxas nodded meekly and let out a grateful sigh as Cid left, no doubt to harass someone else. The dejected blonde scowled darkly at Axel, who was shaking as he tried to contain his laughter.
The redhead wiped his eyes and sighed. "Rox, don't let him get to you."
"He-he just insulted my art! And it was a pretty sun," he muttered stubbornly. Roxas grabbed a new brush, ran it through the glob of light blue paint, and proceeded to cover the remaining spaces of blank canvas with the sky-color.
"That's Cid for you." Axel rested on his heels and rubbed the blonde's shoulder sympathetically. "He's not doing it to pick on you, you know."
Roxas scoffed.
"Seriously! It means he likes you. Cid has a… uh, unique way of showing affection."
"Right. Verbal abuse has never been so heartwarming," Roxas said with a subtle roll of his eyes.
"He likes you," Axel repeated, grinning slightly. "And trust me, it isn't easy to get on Cid's good side. Took me a whole year, almost."
"Hm… so, Axel… feel like telling me about your family yet?" Roxas could see the older man shift uncomfortably out of his peripheral vision.
"Why don't you go first?" the redhead countered. He settled onto the floor and crossed his long legs, taking a break from their joint-painting.
"Uh, cause my family's boring," the blonde said obtusely. "And if you want to know about them, I can take you to my house and we can spy on them through the kitchen window. But your family is far away, so you have to explain them to me."
The older man sighed and began cracking his knuckles. "Okay, let's see… we'll start with my dad. He left just after I was born. And he never bothered to talk to me until last year, and even then all he managed to do was stir up shit."
"Oh." Roxas was a little taken aback by the sudden sharing.
"And now Ma… she fed me and raised me for seventeen years, and for that I am grateful. She's funny and loud, too. But she's set in her ways, and would absolutely die if she found out that one of her sons was a homosexual. And I'm not kidding," he added, looking pointedly at the giggling Roxas, "she'd really probably keel over and die."
That wiped the smile off of the blonde's face.
"And that just leaves my older brother, Reno. Reno is a peculiar creature. He looks like me, only with longer hair and different tattoos, and he's not as tall. He likes to gamble, but he isn't any good at it. When we were kids, I'd be the lookout while he'd sneak into stores and nick candy from the shelves. He was a very bad influence on me."
"I'll bet," Roxas said with a slight smirk. "I think I feel a little sorry for your mom. You two must have been monsters."
"Hah, between my lighting various items in the house on fire and Reno's tendency to break everything he touched, I think Ma came dangerously close to kicking us both onto the curb more than once." He laughed, rolling onto his back and then just lying there for a moment. "Your turn."
"Um… I don't have any brothers or sisters. I almost had a little sister, but she died just after she was born. And I was pretty young at the time, so I didn't quite understand," he explained. "My dad is the strong, silent type. Very silent. And my mom… she used to be a lot like Sora, actually. But she changed over the last few years. She stays home a lot now."
"Huh. No pets?"
"I had a fish. His name was F-- wait, promise me you won't laugh first," Roxas demanded.
"What?" Axel laughed despite himself. "Yeah, alright, whatever. I promise I won't laugh."
"Okay, his name was Finnykins--" he mustered up an angry glare for the sniggering redhead "--and he was a really pretty Siamese fighting fish. He was dark red and purple and he was so beautiful, I just loved him."
Axel frowned. "So what happened to him?"
"I had to go to my grandma's for Thanksgiving, so I asked Sora to fish-sit for me."
"Oh no." His green eyes widened, sensing the turn this story was about to take.
"Oh yes," Roxas said sadly. "In hindsight, that wasn't the smartest choice I could have made. As soon as I got back home, Sora called and startled bawling over the phone. He'd put a seashell inside the tank for Finnykins to swim into, but apparently it was too small, cause his head got stuck inside the shell and he died."
"Aw. Did you flush him?"
"What?! Of course not, that's terrible! I put him in a Ziploc bag and buried him next to the tree in my backyard."
"Oh."
"And I made a tombstone out of an old plate for him."
"Touching. I feel warm and fuzzy right here," the redhead smirked, putting his hand over his chest, right above his heart.
"You're mocking me. You're mocking me and my selfless love for Finnykins," Roxas deadpanned.
"'Selfless'? Try irrational. It's a fish. You eat them all the time."
"So?" Roxas hissed, looking offended. "Finny-poo was different. H-he knew when I was sad, and he'd make this face," Roxas paused to imitate the face, sucking in his cheeks and pushing out his lips, "and it would always cheer me up. He was the best friend a child could ask for. I mourned him for weeks! But then, you know… my mom bought me one of those Furby things."
Axel blinked slowly and then smiled, looking on Roxas with some mix of warmth and amusement. "I love you."
The blonde blushed and looked down at the painting, murmuring something unintelligible and snatching up his paintbrush. Axel watched him with an openmouthed grin, snickering as the teen nearly knocked over a bucket of paint with his flustered fidgeting.
"Hey, Sunshine!" Cid hollered from across the room, waving a tanned arm to get his attention. "Get your fucking ass over here, son. I've got some dried paint that needs to be scraped off the damn table, and you're just the kid to fucking do it."
Roxas gave Axel a dark glare. "And I suppose manual labor is another sign of Cid's so-called 'affection'?"
The redhead just smiled and offered to help.
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Five hours later, Roxas was following the older man back to his room to collect his things before being driven back home. He thought back on the day so far, recalling the morning's shower with a pleasant churn of his stomach. That had been the highlight, by far.
Of course, there had also been the bit that Axel explained about his family. It wasn't much, but it was nice to have something to go by. The blonde found himself imagining what the rest of Axel's family would look like, wondering if Axel's parents were as stunning as their son. 'Probably,' he thought with a touch of envy, deciding it would be far too unfair for an entire family to be graced with such good looks.
After scraping the paint from all of the tables in Cid's classroom (it had been a long and arduous task), Roxas had followed the redhead to a quick drum rehearsal. He'd sat in a corner of the band room, watching Axel alternately berate and encourage the drummers as they perfected their show music. Having never actually seen his boyfriend working with the drumline, Roxas had found it quite interesting. Axel's methods included rewards of doughnuts for good playing, hurled drumsticks for incorrect rhythms, and heavy usage of all-purpose threats. As Roxas watched the redheaded drum captain force a battered football helmet onto a freshman bass drummer's head then whip out a pair of heavy mallets and begin beating out the tempo on his shielded skull to keep him playing at the right speed, the blonde could only thank God that he had chosen to play clarinet over percussion.
After a quick lunch from the campus food court, the two had spent the day wandering the grounds, occasionally bumping into people Axel knew and Roxas vaguely remembered from the workshop forever ago. They'd had a brief talk with Paine, who only acknowledged Roxas with a curt nod, and two girls named Rikku and Yuna, both of whom had taken great care to coo over Roxas and then tell Axel that he wasn't worthy of someone so cute.
Throughout the course of the day, they also ran into Baralai, who was disheveled and muttering something about Twister, and Cloud, who had seemed distracted during their entire conversation. Axel mentioned to Roxas later that the blonde trombonist was spazzing over a date he was supposed to be having with Leon later that evening. Roxas couldn't blame the man; Leon seemed more intimidating than anything else. He supposed it was the leather that did it-- after all, it just gives off an aura of 'totally badass'.
After a few more hours of aimless wandering and watching Ultimate Frisbee games, they began their retreat back to Axel's room.
"I had fun today." Roxas shoved his hands deep inside his pockets, the tips of his fingers brushing over the loose change and crumpled gum wrappers within.
"Me too. It was a rich, full day." He groaned as they worked their way up the steep hill that led to his building. "And I'll bet you ten bucks that by the time we get up to the room, Demyx'll be dancing around in his underwear again. Are we on?"
"No way, I don't even have ten dollars to lose… he seriously dances like that all the time, doesn't he?"
"Yup. At least when he's happy."
They rounded a corner and the room came into sight, the door left slightly ajar and faint music trailing out. Axel gave the blonde next to him an 'I told you so' look. He held Roxas back with one arm and kicked the door open for dramatic effect.
The effect was lost, however, as Axel was the one left staring in shock. Roxas peered cautiously around the taller man blocking the doorway. Lounging on Axel's bed was a lanky redhead in a casual black suit, the buttons undone and his shirt untucked. A cigarette was held carefully between his fingers.
"Hey, bro!"
"Is that your brother? Reno?" Roxas whispered, peeking shyly around the taller man's midsection for a better look.
"Demyx!" Axel hissed, completely disregarding the grinning redhead on his bed and glaring pointedly at the shamefaced mellophonist. "I told you never to let him in! Fuck, he's like a stray dog! And now he'll never leave!"
"Yo. Yeah, hey, I'm still in the room. Right here. Still listening."
Axel made no sign of even hearing his older brother, opting instead to cross his arms and pout as he stared at Demyx with doom-filled eyes. "I blame you."
"Alright, alright, calm down, Axie. Don't throw a hissy," Reno said soothingly, putting out his cigarette and standing. He was about four inches shorter than Axel, with long scarlet hair pulled back in a ponytail. Two red, crescent shaped tattoos curved under his eyes, the color of the ink matching the strands that framed his face perfectly. "You're such a dramaqueen."
"I walk into my room expecting to see my roommate dancing half-naked, and I get my lame-ass, mooching brother sitting on my shit instead. I'm entitled to throwing a hissy right now." Axel's lower lip jutted out in an angry pout.
"That's harsh, yo. I don't mooch," Reno objected, putting on an identical pout. "And I resent tha-- hey, who's your friend?" he asked suddenly, as if noticing Roxas for the first time. "Ohohoho, don't tell me-- he's your boyfriend," Reno said teasingly, poking Axel in the chest as he said it. "Wait till Ma hears this!"
"You'd better not tell her, Reno," the younger redhead warned, grabbing his brother's wrist.
"Or what?" Reno asked mockingly, cocking his head to one side.
"Or I'll tell her what really happened when you went to New Orleans with Rude for Mardi Gras."
Reno paled at this. He dropped his voice to a strained whisper. "Ax, I thought we agreed that would never, ever be brought up again, ever."
"I thought we agreed who and what I do in bed would never be mentioned to Ma," Axel countered. "You out me, and I'll out you, bitch."
"Fucker! You're so low." Reno jabbed Axel in the side, and was then knocked backward onto the bed as the taller man retaliated.
Demyx moved to stand next to Roxas by the doorway, watching solemnly as the two brothers rolled around the floor in a tangled heap. "He knocked on the door about half an hour before y'all got here. I thought it'd be just plain rude to make him stand outside the whole time," Demyx explained to the blonde. "It was awkward," he added in a low whisper, "cause I was dancing when he showed up all of a sudden, an' I was just wearing my--"
"Sissy-kicker!" Axel roared, startling both Axel and Roxas. He managed to wrangle his older brother into a headlock, his mouth in a grimace and his jaw clenched.
"Hair-puller!" Reno hissed as he elbowed Axel in the side then bent backward to slap the younger man in the face.
Demyx and Roxas watched on in silence, too scared and amazed to try and interfere with the wrestling pair on the floor. It was like a mix of watching a car wreck and two cats fighting; on the one hand, it was so startling you simply couldn't bring yourself to look away, and on the other, it seemed like you could become collateral damage if you tried to separate the two.
After another few hectic minutes, the brothers' fight subsided into half-hearted kicks and lazy slaps. The two lay tangled on the floor panting and cursing each other under their breath.
"Well," Reno wheezed, grinning, "at least we got it out of our systems now." He brushed himself off a little and swept back his crimson bangs.
"I guess," Axel reluctantly agreed, clambering up onto his bed. "So why are you here? Did you renege on a debt again? Lose another big bet? Decide it was time to make my life a living hell?"
"Yep, all of those. But I also wanted to make sure you were doing okay," Reno said with a nod. "I, uh, have some news, too."
"Bad news or good news?" Roxas asked with a frown, flopping down next to Axel on the bed.
Reno leaned back on the floor and gave Roxas an appraising look. "Ah, right, the boyfriend. Do you have a name, blondie?"
"It's Roxas," Axel supplied, looking irritated.
"Roxas," Reno said with a grin. "I like it. Sounds sexy. You must be a lotta man to be able to handle Ax."
"Reno, shut up," Axel moaned, his head buried in his hands. "You embarrass me."
"Well, you embarrass me. Like that time in middle school when you fell down two flights of stairs at school. God, I thought I was going to die of mortification," the older redhead groaned, adjusting a pair of goggles that were half-hidden under his bangs. "And we look so much alike that I couldn't even deny being related to you, you klutz…"
"Yeah, I'm sorry my falling down those stairs was traumatic for you, asshole. My two broken ribs were nothing compared to your emotional suffering." Axel scoffed, turning a little red and sending a sidelong glance toward Roxas. "And let's not reminisce right now, okay?" he added lowly, giving Reno a warning look.
Reno held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, hoping to appease his little brother. "Whatever you say. So, like I said-- news." The redheaded man grinned weakly, looking as if he'd rather not say what was on his mind. "And it isn't good, Axie."
Axel frowned slightly, his forehead creasing as he studied Reno. "Go on, out with it."
Roxas watched the two apprehensively, paying close attention to Axel. The redhead looked paler than usual, and the easy, unconscious smile that he usually worse was replaced by a thoughtful frown.
"Uh… Ma wants to visit you. Here."
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That ending seems really lame, right? But trust me, Axel and Reno's mom is scary, so that last sentence should inspire fear. FEAR, I SAY! Whoo, so I really wanted to get this out before school starts (tomorrow, arg!) because I will have no life outside of school and band for the next few weeks. None. I rushed the ending just a tad, because this chapter came out way longer than I'd intended. And the song lyrics are to Santa Carla Twilight by Tiger Army. I love them more than usual right now.
And now something I've been meaning to do for a while now-- three fics that I love. So I'm shamelessly plugging them. Cause this is my fic and I can do that. D
Band Geeks by Iridane. An AkuRoku band fic that is wicked cute and funny. AND it has Baralai and Gippal in it, YES!
His Last Request by QueenStrata. SO super cool and sexy. That's right, I said sexy.
I am an American Soldier by kettish. It has southern!Roxas. Need I say more?
I spent the last two weeks in band camp, and I now have plenty of inspiration for future more-band-filled chapters. Buuut, now I also have the whole Reno thing to play with… that'll be interesting, I think. Also, I just seem to be getting worse and worse about replying to reviews. I don't think I even managed to reply to half of them from last chapter. But I read and cherish every one of them! Even if I don't reply. Time is just limited for me right now; it'll be better in a few weeks, I'm hoping.
Review!!1!!1!!!!!1!!11! Puh-lease?