Title: Lumberjack Lawyers - The AxSue Moments Never Shown On Screen
Sub Title: Sisterly Comfort (The Breakup)
Episode Prompt: "The Breakup"
Author: PurpleOrchid85
Rating: PG-13 to T
Fandom: The Middle
Pairing: Axl/Sue (Heckcest, Axsue, Lumberjack Lawyers, Saxl or whichever shipping name you prefer)
Summary: Sue comforts Axl by offering to watch a horror movie with him to distract him from heartbreak when Morgan Edwards breaks up with him.
Warnings: Axl crying.
Word Count approx: 1, 300
Disclaimer:
Axl Heck & Sue Heck and every character that is mentioned in this Fanfiction in relation of The Middle are copyrighted by ABC and its creators/producers DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler.
AN: A whole lot of thanks to universealternating, who gave me some ideas when I was stuck with this chapter 3. The beginning dialogue is from the episode. And this chapter was inspired by "Thursday Morning" by AwkardBlueCat.
AN2: Just for the purposes of this fic, Frankie is not home (held back at work to help Mr. Ehlert), Mike is busy at work doing a backlog of paperwork, and Brick was at a social group sleepover.
AN 3: I know the word "Cheerios" is from Glee, but I like it and am using it. I know Sean does play football from "The Block Party" (he gave his mom his old jersey in that episode) but I wanted someone to assist with passing Axl the basketball, which is why he is in the team just for this fic.
Sue watched her brother go to his room from the kitchen crying, as she was about to rip open the microwave popcorn to pop it into the microwave and was ready to watch a horror movie. Concerned by Axl's tears, she approached his room and knocked on the open door.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
Axl said "Morgan broke up with me just now."
Taken aback, Sue asked "What!?"
"Sue, I feel like I'm dying."
Then of all a sudden, Sue was ambushed by Axl in a hug. She returned his hug, while whispering in his ear "Shh. It will be okay. It may not look like it now, but it will be okay one day."
she heard him groan sadly "Oh, God."
She kissed the tuft of his hair on top of his head.
They stayed like that what seemed to be a while.
Axl detangled himself from her and rubbed at his eyes.
"Do you want to watch a movie. It may be good distraction for you." Sue asked.
"What movie are you watching?" he asked curiously.
"Revenge of the Pod Zombies." Sue said confidently, but her eyes said otherwise.
"I bet it's too scary for you. And you want a big, strong manly man to protect you?" He finished with a faint smirk upon his face.
Sue didn't answer, but her expression was enough as an answer.
"Ok, let's go."
Sue followed Axl out to the lounge room and returned to the kitchen and resumed ripping open the popcorn packet and popped it into the microwave and pressed the popcorn setting.
When the popping sounds slowly eased off to occasional pops and she was sure it was safe to open the microwave, she opened the microwave up and took the steaming and swelled package and carefully opened it and headed over to the lounge and put it in between the seat between Axl and her.
Axl pressed the play button.
Within twenty minutes, she was hiding her face in Axl's arm, feeling him laugh.
She peeked and then gasped "Oh my god, that mother just ate her baby's face off!" then hid back in.
She felt him move his arm around her shoulder in a protective motion.
"It's just a movie, Sue." She heard him say into her ear reassuringly.
Then five minutes later, Axl said "It's okay to look now."
She pulled back to look then screamed and smacked him on the arm "Oh my god, Axl! You jerk!" when she saw a group of zombies eating an nun's liver.
She heard him laugh, making her smile, she could see the distraction was working.
The next night, the Hecks were at Axl's basketball game; and Sue was frowning. Axl usually was on fire, scoring left and right and centre but tonight he wasn't playing as if he was enjoying it. Then she followed Axl's occasional looks over at the cheerleaders and realised that he was doing it for Morgan.
As the half-time buzzer sounded, Sue determinedly made her way down the throng of the crowd and reached Axl, who was taking a long pull from his water bottle.
"Axl, what are you doing?" Sue demanded.
"Doing? Playing basketball." He said pointedly, looking round the stadium as a point.
"You're losing. You don't lose." Sue said, her hands on her hip glaring at him.
"So?" he belligerently asked.
"Morgan is affecting you. I know you're trying to win her back. But, Axl; She doesn't even want you. Look." She nodded towards Morgan's direction, Axl following her glance.
Morgan was surrounded by her fellow Cheerios looking unimpressed and rolling her eyes at them and whispering to them and looking in Axl's direction. Unlike the last few times, Morgan didn't have her usual 'Axl I Love You' expression, it was more of a detached look.
His shoulders slumped, seeing the reality of the situation for the first time.
"Morgan is not the only girl in the world. There are other girls out there, ones that will want to date you. Just forget about Morgan and play your heart out." Sue said passionately.
Axl looked at her thoughtfully.
Then the buzzer rang again signalling half-time was over. Sue backed away from him and headed back to her seat.
By the time the game has begun again, Axl was acting like the Axl of old, throwing his all into the game and scoring left, right and centre all the while grinning widely.
It was a fast and furious game and this time, the Orson side of the spectators were cheering raucously and eagerly. Then it was tense, it was down to a certain point that would win the game, whether if it was Orson or Roosevelt.
The crowd was silent, holding their breath. As the buzzer sounded, the referee threw up the ball and there was a scramble from the players and then one of the Orson players grabbed it and dribbled towards the goal, then was blocked by an Roosevelt player so he quickly passed it to Sean Donahue, who dribbled around another opponent passed the ball to Axl who grabbed it and sent a layup shot into the goal just as the buzzer went.
"What a buzzer beater! Heck scores Orson High the winning goal with an assist from Donahue." The announcer shouted gleefully.
Sue began to dance wildly in her seat, her face smiling widely that it hurt.
"I knew Axl would come through for the team. He wouldn't let them down." Frankie told Mike, who rolled his eyes while shaking Ron Donahue's hand, while Nancy was still cheering for her son.
Brick, hearing the loud cheering looked up from the book he had been reading the whole time, and asked "We won?" ((we won?)) Sue nodded speechlessly. Apparently Axl had taken her advice to heart.
Brick shrugged and returned to his book.
"I'm going to congratulate Axl." Sue told her distracted parents, who were welcoming congratulations from the fellow spectators. She got up and walked down and into the surging and still cheering crowd until she reached the court. She found Sean Donahue patting his face with a towel. "Congratulations Sean. Um, where's Axl?" Sue asked, looking around the milling court for her brother, not finding him there. He usually would be soaking up the triumphant atmosphere and bragging about his victory, but he wasn't there.
"He's in the locker room, I think." Sean said distractedly as another player interrupted to give him an high-five. Sue nodded and headed in that direction.
She hovered outside the door to the locker room. She hesitantly knocked and called "Axl?" she squeaked loudly when the door opened and an arm pulled her into the room and pushed up against the now closed door.
A towel clad Axl was in front of her, grinning.
"Thanks. For you know, setting me straight. And you're right about other girls being out there. But there's one girl I wanna thank right now."
"Oh. Who?" Sue asked cluelessly.
"You, dork." He said rolling his eyes.
"Oh." She said blushing.
Axl leaned in, intending to give her a peck on the cheek as thanks, but Sue moved her head towards him, wondering what he was doing, and by accident his lips landed on hers.
They froze, eyes widened.
Then they pulled back, both with splotches of pink in their cheeks.
"Uh..." Axl said, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably.
"I am going to go. Right now." Sue stuttered and moved to take the door handle and pulled at it. But it was stuck. Panicking, she pulled at it.
"Push, not pull." Axl said amusedly, from behind her.
Sue let out a nervous laugh and did what he said and pushed at the door until the view of the hallway came into her vision and fled.