A Transvestite Romance
Chapter 11: March
Roxas closed his locker with enough force to cause a slam.
"Rough morning?" Axel asked, sneaking up behind him, slipping his hands around Roxas's waist.
"MMmmm-hm," was Roxas's uncompressible reply. His hand sought Axel's face, stroking the teardrop burns. "Cloud said, 'I wish that you would wait till you were older. But if you two love each other, I wouldn't stop you. Just don't do it drunk, please.'" His impression of the non-triplet's semi-apathetic tone was spot on. "And you?"
"Reno didn't really say much…I think he was amused when I started hurling."
Roxas stared at his shoes. "I'm sorry about that, Axel. I just wanted to blur everything. And boy it did!" His laughter was hollow.
"It's okay," Axel whispered. "I forgive you."
"I'll never drink alcohol again." The one-minute bell toned, signaling the mad rush of students to enter various doors. Now neither could hear themselves over the crashing lockers, the stamping of feet, and the slamming of doors.
"Our parents were buzzed in that crash, Rox. Why they drank and drove with us in the car, I will never know."
Both Axel and Roxas got A's on their Biology project.
Axel pulled out a piece of notebook paper. Wide-ruled. He scribbled something on it and shoved it toward Roxas, who opened it.
Why did you say that in the hallway? An accusatory question to Roxas, written in black pen, in an untidy scrawl.
The Strifes and the Gainsboroughs fight addiction and vices every day.
Roxas sighed, and then neatly wrote in cursive: Family. Kissed the paper. Slid it to Axel.
What's yours then, Cloud?
Miss Heartly was talking about niches. Both boys hastily wrote in their notebooks.
Drugs. Roxas remembered when Cloud came back to their grandparents' house, beaten, blood oozing from his nose. Aerith put him back together and the triplets and she hugged him. "Its okay, Cloud," Aerith soothed him.
He also remembered when Cloud swiped their wallets, yelled at Nana and Aerith, punched Grandpa.
The week before spring break, Zexion and Demyx joined the Strife-Highwind-Flurry table.
"Why does our table have a name?" Zexion asked.
"'Cause it's a country," Sora replied, sticking out his tongue.
"And someone thought it would be cool to have alliances," Naminé muttered under her breath.
The Strife-Highwind-Flurry-Cloak-Nocturne table as it was now called was the farthest away from the crowd of people and the projector that played announcements on Thursdays and obnoxious pop/hip-hop/rap songs. As the commons doubled as the cafeteria, the crush of people had not abated for first lunch. And it was dark because the windows were too high to see
Roxas's head leaned on Axel's shoulder. Sora was texting Riku. Kairi and Naminé were whispering to each other. Demyx was playing the air-sitar and Zexion was reading…the dictionary.
"Why are you doing that?" Kairi asked.
Demyx answered. "It makes Zexy smarter learning all definitons, keeps him from reading horrible romance books that are suggested to us by our foster mom-seriously there horrible, the last one was a fallen angel going out with a mermaid-and is an excuse for not going to find his Dad." 'Zexy' smirked.
"There's hope for you yet," he laughed. (1)
Leon was baking. Instead of going out to find pills, he baked and practiced kick-boxing. Cloud recommended the kick-boxing.
The timer went off. The chocolate-chip cookies were a very light golden brown. Leon pulled them. While doughy chocolate chip cookies are extremely tasty, the problem is removing them from the sheet.
Leon was cursing when the gang arrived, spatula in one hand, split warm cookie in the other. "Stupid fucking spatula! I blame you!"
"Hey, Leon." Sora saved the cookies, removing the rest of them without destroying any more. "See, you gotta be more gentle Leon. Scrape around the edges!" Sora smiled.
Everybody jumped when the doorbell rang. Cloud ran downstairs to answer it.
"Aerith!" he called as their aunt ran in, pulling Zack by his arm.
"We're getting married!" the couple yelled.
"Guess you're really my brother now, Cloudy!" Zack cheered.
The atmosphere in the kitchen was bubbly. Naminé examined Aerith's ring and deemed it "The nicest one ever made."
The adults drank champagne while the kids drank cherry coke and ate cookies.
Each kid, even Zexion and Demyx, who never met them before, congratulated the happy couple.
Eventually, they were banished to Kairi's.
Axel's hand was crushing the pop can and he hadn't realized it when Shera tapped him on the shoulder.
"What did cherry coke ever do to you?" she teased.
He looked down. "Oh." The redhead tossed it in the sink.
The others were playing RockBand on the Wii when Axel excused himself to take out his contacts.
"What's wrong?" Shera asked. She's a mother inside and out.
"I was thinking about marriage. What if Roxas wants to get married and we can't because the government is blind? What happens then?"
Shera thought. "Well," she murmured, patting Axel on the shoulder, "Roxas can be Roxanne for the ceremony right? Besides, times are changing. Bigotry won't last forever, Aku."
Axel attempted to disguise the shock in his face.
"I have to go," he muttered and stumbled into the yellow bathroom-a beach in the sunlight theme.
"What's your name kid?" asked Larxene, even sour and bored with life at age fifteen. They were at her mom's, Scarlet-Rufus's younger sister, third wedding.
And Axel, a three-year-old with a speech impediment, pronounced his name the only way he could, "Aku!" and smiled, feeling pride in his unique name.
His mom laughed. "It's Axel. She patted the boy's hair-the exact shade as hers. " Larxene snorted.
"Your kid's a moron."
The carnival came twice a year. Once was at spring break, the other was for the sword fight (blue foam bats really) "Struggle" tournament.
"C'mon Axel! Let's go on the Tilt a Whirl!"
"Sure."
Roxas loved the carnival. He hated the clowns, but was obsessed with all the rides that could possibly break and the food that was greasy to the touch.
"Going on rides that never have been checked for maintenance is half the fun," Roxanne explained, munching on a corn dog.
"If you say so." Axel preferred amusement parks, with roller coasters. "Have you ever been to Six Flags?"
"Nope." Roxanne was wearing jean shorts revealing her long golden legs and a Bleach T-shirt. She chose to not wear a wig to let her real messy-spikey hair turn ligheter. "The Strifes are cheap."
"Midgar has a Six Flags. I'll take you there one day and we'll ride all the coasters till we hurl." Axel grinned as Roxanne spit out bits of breading from the childish laughter.
"Sounds like a date." Perhaps, the carnival, with its cramped stalls and lines that stretched to infinity wasn't so bad after all.
The carnival was set up in the Highwind Town Square-apparently Cid's father donated money to the hospital for the cancer center after his wife died and town thanked him this way. Cid loved his father but hated the renaming of the Square and encouraged the kids to call it the Sandlot.
The sky was a clear blue with purple and orange clouds. Nobody knew why Twilight Town had colored clouds even at noon, but that was why the tourists came. "We're not gonna die of radiation anytime soon," was Roxas's comment on the matter.
There was another reason why Twilight Town was famous and Roxanne was in shock that her boyfriend hadn't tried it.
"What do you mean you've never tasted sea-salt ice cream?" she shrieked. She bought two bars. "Here. Try it. It's the best flavor in the world." Axel accepted the stick that was shoved into his hands. Bit off a corner.
"It's salty…but sweet." Her head bobbed up and down.
"Yeah. Isn't it waaaaay better than chocolate?"
"Uh-huh!" It really was. Axel was just in shock of the harmony his taste buds were singing. A bit of the ice blue popsicle dripped on Axel's Terminator T-shirt. He died a little inside.
Roxanne was examining her stick. "No way! I've never gotten one before." Carved on the piece of wet wood was the word WINNER.
"What does that mean?"
"We get a free bar."
They stopped by a stand (Organization XIII Coats) selling black coats with silver drawstrings with a circular bead decoration and zipper.
"Cool!" Roxanne said.
"As they look identical, they are actually unique," the owner said. "Care to try one on?"
Axel ended up buying them: his was tight to his arms, showing off his thin arms, while Roxanne's was baggier.
"How do I look?" she asked.
"Beautiful."
Naminé and Kairi were manning the second eldest's art stand when Roxanne and Axel stopped by.
Naminé was examining a lovely bouquet of flowers. Pink roses. Kairi was teasing her.
"Someone totally likes you!" she crowed.
"It must be a mistake," Naminé stammered.
"No mistake," said the teen that brought it. He ran a perfectly manicured hand through long pink locks. "The owner told me to bring this bouquet to you."
"He must be a creeper," Roxanne muttered.
"Well, you now have just insulted me!" the teen yelped, putting a hand to his forehead and pretended to swoon.
"You…You're the owner?" Naminé breathed, cheeks turning a bright pink.
"Yes, fair lady. I am Marluxia." He bowed and kissed the girl's pale hand.
Sora's grin faded as he entered Riku's empty room. A woman he had never seen before held her head in her hands.
"Is…is Riku okay miss?"
She raised her head. "Sora. I'm Riku's mom-Lucrecia."
"That's a pretty name," Sora said, then smacked his self on the head. "Ow! Sorry. My mouth wandered…"
"That's alright," she said, smiling. "That's why my son likes you."
"Please, tell me. Where is Riku?"
"Riku needs an allogeneic stem cell transplant." At Sora's blank look, Lucrecia elaborated. "A transplant of blood from bone marrow to restore cells lost by cancer and chemotherapy."
"Oh…" Sora nodded, sort of understanding. "Is there a donor yet?"
Lucrecia shook her head. "No. None of us match Riku well enough for his body to accept the cells as his own."
Sora's face crumpled. His fist hit the door with a smack. "So what happens now?"
"I don't know." The most terrible words that a scientist and a mom must say, Sora thought. Tears poured from Riku's mother's eyes. Sora sat next to her on the hospital bed, a lumpy material. How can Riku sleep on this? Patted her back, absentmindedly morphing into the massage that he used on Cloud when he had a tough day at work.
"Test me," he demanded.
After an argument with Cloud on the cell phone, Cloud relented.
"Fine…What is with you and Roxas these days? Are you guys trying to get me worried?"
At the end of the week, a phone call came with the results.
Sora badgered Cloud to drive Fenrir (the Spiky Wolf's motorcycle) to the hospital. Relenting, Cloud also broke a few speed limits at the youngest urges.
Riku was pale and sleepy when Sora ran into his room, yellow Converse sliding on the floor. He was just able to avoid a face plant, grabbing the chair in the corner. "Riku! Did you hear? I get to be part of you!"
Riku smiled.
Roxas pulled out Cloud's journal from rehab. Cloud let Roxas borrow it to understand…
"Do you want to be alone?" Axel asked. They were sitting on Roxas's bed, Axel's arms wrapped around Roxas as if terrified Roxas would kick him out.
"Please don't leave me alone," was Roxas's simple plea.
August 11, 2005
Happy 17th to me. 17 years old today and the first day in rehab.
I guess age doesn't matter after your 18. Only one more year and I'll be gone.
The doctors say the only way I can get help is to accept that I have a problem. Whatever.
Roxas flipped ahead.
September 25, 2004
The docs noticed that I haven't been writing
Apperantly it's therepudic, so I'll appeasthem I guess.
I can't spell great at the best oftiems but I have a headache. I have to agree with Seether here:
It seems like every day's the same
and I'm left to discover on my own
It seems like everything is gray
and there's no color to behold
They say it's over and I'm fine again, yeah
Try to stay sober feels like I'm dying here
January 1, 2005
The triplets came today to wish me a happy New Year. They're good kids. I wish they hadn't seen me like the crazed addict I was before.
Zack came and talked to me. Turns out he was the one that had me arrested. Anyway, he offered me a job when I turn 18 and sober. It's to be an undercover cop with him…I'm thinking about it.
Hang on pills.
My pills are called Mako vitamins. Basically, a vitamin that also kills any craving stone cold. Some company called ShinRa invented it. It's experimental…
"I didn't know Rufus dabbled in medicine," Axel mused.
"I dunno," Roxas mused. He flipped the page.
I think I hurt Roxas the most. Sora has his music, Naminé her art. Roxas has skateboarding, but I'm scared for him. He's like me when I was 13. Angry, sad, and hating the world and himself…
I should ask my shrink to look at him. I don't want to, but I should. Just to see if he's okay.
"I remember that," Roxas remarked. He couldn't meet Axel's eyes, looking smaller and (if Axel was honest) younger. His hair covered his eyes, and legs curled into himself. "He diagnosed me with bipolar depression. I freaked out-didn't take my meds." He sighed.
"And still fighting it too. Anyway, Cloud cut me a deal. If I take my pills, he'll give me Fenrir when I turn 18. I doubt it, though…He loves Fenrir."
Roxas trailed off…He looked so serious but adorable. And Axel kissed his soft golden spikes.
"Don't worry," he murmured. "Everything will be okay."
Roxas smiled. "I guess. C'mon, let's steal some ice cream from Leon and go to the clock tower."
"Do you know why the sunset is red? Its cause red travels the farthest to get here." Axel demonstrated his general knowledge of things as their feet dangled off the edge. They were biting into the sea-salt ice cream like there was no tomorrow wearing their coats.
"Like I wanted to know! Show off!" Roxas laughed, punching his boyfriend on the arm. Axel retaliated by pinning Roxas on the ground, finding his giggling lips, silencing them.
They lay like that for a while, listening to the bells and their heartbeats.
A/N: I have returned from the ashes! Since I'm playing 358/2 Days, I put in a simpler version of the intro and introduced the coats! Do you guys notice that Roxas, Axel, and Xion bite into their ice creams?
(1): Big Bang Theory anyone?
Thank you Constant Reviewers! (I can't list you by name because I can't pull the reviews up-sad).
Nierx