"Hey kid," Axel commanded Roxas's attention, walking into the living in his boxers (at three in the afternoon!) grinning like a maniac. "Guess what today is."
"Um…" Roxas shrugged. "June 20th?"
"Correct you are!" Axel exclaimed. Xigbar, who was sitting on the other end of the couch staring at Roxas, glanced at the redhead curiously. "Do you remember what June 20th is?"
Roxas shrugged again. "I don't know. The last day of school? Congratulations Roxas, you skipped out on a whole year?"
"Hello! Today is the celebration of our one-year anniversary!" He walked over and sat down on the couch in front of Roxas. "Don't you remember? I mean, you have to have marked it off on that stupid little calendar of yours."
Roxas rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the TV. "I gave up on that like, in December. And pardon me for not remembering the exact day on which you chose to steal me from my family and ruin my life."
"Your sarcasm is not appreciated, Roxas." Axel said flatly. Upon receiving no response, he groaned and kept talking. "Well, anyway. I think we should celebrate."
"How?" Roxas felt his stomach rise into his throat, and swallowed hard. Knowing Axel, celebrating could mean anything from rape to going to the zoo.
"I think we should call your parents." Axel raised his chin in a bit of a proud gesture, and Roxas's eyes were on him in a second, his mouth agape.
"Call my parents?" He repeated. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Axel was actually going to call his parents…and he was going to be allowed to listen in on the call? He might even be allowed to talk?
"Yeah!" The redhead seemed really excited about this idea. Roxas blinked a few times in disbelief before nodding slowly.
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea. In fact, I think it's a really good idea. Do I…get to talk to them?" The blonde chewed on his lower lip, knowing that he was probably pushing his luck but not really caring. After being stuck with these people for a full year, he was eager to know why his parents hadn't paid the ransom.
"Mm…maybe." Axel replied. He glanced at Xigbar, who was looking at his partner with probably the same amount of surprise that Roxas was wearing on his face. "What do you think, dude?"
"I…" Xigbar glanced at Roxas, then at Axel, then back to Roxas. "I think it's a terrible idea."
"And why is that?" Axel's voice sounded tight and controlled, and Roxas knew that he probably hated being told that an idea he was so proud of was being shot down by one of the two people he had to interact with.
"What if his parents like, actually decide to pay the ransom because they know he's okay?" Xigbar looked almost heartbroken. Roxas watched him freak out at the idea of the blonde actually going home, where he belonged, and thought he might be sick.
Nasty pedophile… He thought, glaring at Xigbar before watching Axel carefully.
"Then he goes home." The redhead shrugged. "He gets what he wants, we get what we want. If you feel that it's necessary to do something after that, I'll leave it up to you. But right now, my main goal is getting my money."
"I think it's a good idea." Roxas cut in quickly. Axel turned around and glared at him, and the blonde recoiled slightly.
"Roxas, speak when you're spoken to."
"You sound like my mother." He replied tartly, mentally smirking. At least he could get away with that without Axel beating the crap out of him. Hopefully.
Axel ignored the comment and turned his attention back to Xigbar, who looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "Xigbar, just because you can't live without seeing an adolescent boy each morning doesn't mean that I'm that same way. Plus, I was planning on calling the kid's parents anyway. I just wanted to see how he would react."
Roxas scoffed as Axel chuckled, crossed his arms, and leaned back on the arm of the couch. "Axel, you are a psycho."
"What makes you say that?"
"Here, you have this gorgeous boy at your disposal, and you're willing to get rid of him? Just like that?" In Roxas's opinion, he sounded like he was about to cry. And the blonde didn't much like being called gorgeous by that pedo either.
"Pretty much, yeah." Axel answered, sighing. "But can you like, freak out after we call his parents? I really want to get this done and out of the way so that I'll be there to comfort Roxas when he's an emotional wreck. In the bedroom." He laughed out loud and jabbed Roxas in the ribs with his elbow.
Xigbar let out a cry that sounded like he was in pain, stood up abruptly, and marched off into the kitchen. Axel and Roxas both watched him for a few moments, watched as he tried to slam the door shut and failed miserably (due to the fact that there wasn't even a door) and watched as he plopped down at the table in distress.
Axel opened his mouth, closed his mouth, and shook his head before turning his attention back to Roxas. "Well. What do you say?"
Roxas's eyes grew wide as the redhead immediately caught his full attention, and he all but pounced forward, so close to Axel that he could feel body heat radiating from him. "You have a cell phone, don't you?"
Axel whipped the phone out and opened it, grinning. "Right here." Roxas watched as he opened up his contact list, fished through the contacts, and finally came to one marked "DuPont house."
"How did you get my house number?" Roxas asked softly.
"The same why I knew where you lived and where you went to school." Axel glanced at the blonde briefly before pressing send and holding the receiver to his ear. It rang once…and then twice…and then three times…
"Hello?" Roxas figured that Axel had the volume up really high, because he could distinctly hear his mother's voice.
"Mrs. DuPont?"
"Yes?"
"These are your son's captors." Roxas raised an eyebrow as the plural form of the noun was used, shrugged it off, a continued listening to the conversation.
His mother caught her breath, swallowed loudly, and continued speaking. "Yes?"
"Well, we were just wondering what's taken you so long to pay the ransom." Axel was keeping his voice pleasant, a polite smile on his face even though his captive's mother couldn't see him.
"Sir, I've already told you this. We won't pay the ransom until we have proof that our son is alright." When she got to the word 'alright' her voice faltered, and Roxas chewed on his lower lip in anticipation.
Axel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "So if I let you, say, talk to him? Then will you pay me?"
She paused, and Roxas could see her in his mind thinking about the answer. "…Yes, I suppose we will."
Axel sighed again and handed the phone to the blonde, watching him with a surprisingly placid look on his face. Roxas took it hesitantly and held it up to his ear, and he could feel how warm it was already from Axel having spoken on it.
"Hello?"
His mother gasped and didn't say anything for quite a while. "…Roxas?"
"Yeah?"
"You're…you're alive?" Roxas was sure that it hadn't been meant to come out like a question. Surely his parents didn't think that he had been dead all this time, did they? Was that why they hadn't been paying the ransom?
"Of course I'm alive!" He hissed. "What kind of a hostage is a dead one?" His words probably came out sounding a little more harsh than he had initially intended, but that was the last thing on his list of priorities at the moment. "Is that why you haven't been paying the ransom? Because you thought I was dead?"
"Well…" His mother said, hesitated. "Yes. Your father--"
"Stepfather." Roxas interjected.
"Oh good Lord Roxas, let's not have an argument about phraseology at a time like this." She said softly. "Your stepfather didn't want to waste the money if you were…well…if they had killed you."
"Didn't want to waste the money?" He repeated. His expression probably betrayed his hurt, anger, and disbelief, because Axel gave him a look that said something like, 'What the hell?'
"Well honey, you have to understand--"
"What, mom?" Roxas barked at her, already able to feel the lump rising in his throat. "What do I have to understand? That you value your goddamn money more than you value the satisfaction of knowing that I'm safe? That you value that…that fucking money more than my life?"
"That's not it at all, Roxas! And don't you use that kind of language with your mother!" She sounded very flustered, and the blonde could only imagine what her face looked like just then.
"I will use that language with my mother!" He yelled. "Jesus Christ, mom! I should've been at home eleven months ago! What've you been doing? Shopping and playing bridge with your friends on Wednesdays and going to Namine's school concerts while I've been stuck here?"
"No, Roxas, that's not it, you have to listen to me--"
"Alright, you've been talking long enough." Axel said. He plucked the phone out of Roxas's hand and held it up to his own ear, clearing his throat loudly to let the screaming woman know that she was no longer talking to her son.
"Mrs. DuPont?"
"Let me talk to my son!" She cried. Axel glanced at Roxas, who was crying and was flushed and had his hands balled into fists at his sides, and sighed.
"I…don't think he really wants to talk to you right now. Plus, you've spoken to him and you know he's safe. When am I going to get my money?"
"You're not going to get your money, you child-stealing bastard!" She cried. "You're never getting your money, I swear it! Call me back when you feel like negotiating my son's return!"
With that she hung up. Axel pulled his cell away from his ear, looked at it in surprise for a few moments, shut it, and turned his attention back to Roxas. "That was exciting, was it not?"
"She's so unbelievable." He muttered, shook his head. "They were never going to pay the ransom in the first place. No matter what. They weren't going to pay you to get me back."
"Ah, it seems you've had an 'a-ha' moment." Axel grinned. "I think we're finally on the same page, kid."
Roxas swallowed and shook his head, glanced up at Axel with a desperate look on his face. "Were your parents nice to you?"
Axel snorted. "If I had had a good childhood, we wouldn't be in this position. Not that I regret where we are right now."
Roxas drew in a shuddering breath, the reality finally hitting him full-force, and hugged his knees to his chest. "How old are you?"
"You don't need to know that." Axel answered. "But if I'm ever on America's Most Wanted, you'll probably find out then. So just…be patient."
"I have no more patience." Roxas answered softly. He was afraid that if he spoke any louder he would break down, and the last thing he wanted was to be an emotional wreck in Axel's presence. "I wasted it all on my p-parents…"
"Uh-oh." The redhead's eyes went wide. "Do I see water works coming in the near future?"
The blonde sniffed and shook his head, even though he wasn't convinced himself. "N-no…"
Axel didn't have a chance to reply before his captive broke down completely, tears falling beyond his control. This was like the depression stage, except he was able to realize one thing; his parents weren't coming for him. They never were, and they weren't about to start.
Before he could bring himself under enough control to convince Axel that he was okay, he felt a strong, foreign pair of arms drawing him into their circle. He tired to calm himself down, and succeeded in doing so just enough so that he could see the front of Axel's shirt, feel Axel pulling him into his lap.
"Hate to say I told you so, Rox." He breathed, pressing his face in the blonde's crazy shock of hair. "But I did tell you so."
"I c-can't b-believe…" Roxas sobbed, grabbing tightly onto Axel's shirt and crying against his shoulder. "I can't believe that y-you are the only o-one who c-cares about me."
"Even that's a stretch." Axel murmured. He sighed and pulled Roxas closer to him, and they silently agreed to stop speaking. The only sounds that could be heard were those of Roxas's quiet sobs and whimpers, Axel hushing him, stroking his hair.
--
It took him a few hours, but Roxas finally gained control of his emotions. Axel didn't stop holding him, even after he stopped crying. As much as he hated to admit it, the redhead was warm and his lap was comfortable, and even if he could've moved he probably wouldn't have.
While they were watching TV, Xigbar glaring enviously at his partner and Roxas's face buried against Axel's shoulder, there was only one thought running through the blonde's mind; as much as he had wanted to leave, he would have no one to return to.
Axel was the only one who cared about him, even if it was just a little. Axel was the one who had comforted him in his most recent time of need when he had no one else. Axel was the one who was holding him right now. Axel was the one who's lap he was sitting in, Axel who was stroking his spine. Axel, Axel, Axel.
Axel was there, and his parents weren't. So even in the off chance that he had an opportunity to escape, he thought that, in all likelihood, he probably wouldn't take advantage of it.
A/N: Alrighty! Turning out chapters pretty quickly, I think. Which is a good thing. ;D Axel's being all cute. Its cute. And its making me happy. ^^ I think that I'm going to give you gusie one Demyx free chapter before I start pissing you all off. xDD You're gonna hate him so much...unless you like torturing Roxy. In which case you'll prolly love him. xD
HINT!:You guise wont' have anything to worry about the Demyx chapters. There should only be about three-five of them, and once there over there will be so much AkuRoku yaoi/shonen ai that I think you all might die of fluff overload. xD NOT GIVING AWAY ANY MORE SECRETS! /completegiveaway
Keep reviewing! They're so sweet. 8'D
~Sara