[Roxas' POV]
The sun was setting as I stumbled my way through the familiar streets of Hollow Bastion, overbalancing a lot and getting weird looks. I had snuck into Cid's alcohol cabinet and taken just whatever I could find, drinking for a few minutes before deciding to go find Axel.
My vision was slightly clouded, but I still recognised where I was, and ended up at one of those playgrounds often frequented by kids. I had seen him walk past here a few times – I mean, pfft, it wasn't as if I was stalking him or something – and hoped he would come now.
It wasn't long before I heard him approaching, talking to who I recognised as Demyx.
"Axel, I can't believe you're still ignoring him." Demyx sighed, uncharacteristically frustrated.
"Why?" Oh my god, it was him. I froze on the swing, trying to hear what he was saying. "He's the one that kissed that Tidus guy! I mean, I should have seen it coming.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Woops, did I say that out loud? Whatever. Before I knew it, I got off the swing – or more like fell and stumbled off like those drunk people I always laugh at in public – and was making my way towards him angrily.
"Wh—Roxas?" Axel said, off guard, before his eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm going to, uh, leave..." Demyx said, before walking off and shouting back with a smile, "If you don't start talking by tomorrow I'll hunt you down in your sleep!"
If I was thinking straight at the time, I would have probably said bye to him, but I went straight for Axel, almost tripping into him in the process. "What the hell are you talking about? I wouldn't kiss Tidus, you jerk! I mean, he's not even gay! He has a girlfriend! Why would you think something like that?"
"You didn't... kiss him?" He said, his captivating green eyes widening incredulously.
"No! Ugh. Why would—"
"Oh. It... It must've just been the angle I was watching at." He paused, then asked disapprovingly, "Rox, are you drunk?"
"Noo... I only had like, a bottle of something..." He looked at me suspiciously, "maybe more..."
"And, um... where's your shirt?" His red eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"I, um... I don't know." I giggled. It was a good question, though – I never saw that shirt again, you know.
"You know that the Struggle tournament's tomorrow, right? And you're kind of going to have to compete, yeah?"
"Ohhhh, that!"
"How do you suppose you'll play with a headache, Rox?"
"I'll... use my super powers!"
"Pfft. Come on, Rox," He sighed and took my hand in his, "We're going home."
"Noooo! You already stole my shirt... now you're taking me to your secret lair?" He picked me up over his shoulder and I feebly struggled – I was a complete klutz when I was drunk, so he just laughed at me.
"Oh, jeez..."
"Rapiiiiist!" I shouted with a slight giggle, and he put me down at the bench at the bus stop, still holding my hand to make sure I didn't run away or something. I was tempted to pretend to run away just so that he'd hold me more, but was too disturbed upon hearing a conversation between two old people.
"Ah, young love..." The woman said with a smile, and her husband hummed in agreement. "Remember when we were that age... and you used to do that thing with your tongue?"
Axel started to choke on nothing in particular, and she turned to us. "How long have you two been dating? Have you popped the question yet?"
Axel and I shared a look, and he decided to answer. "Uh, no ma'am, we're not, uh... we're not together, you know... and we're in high school, still..."
"Oh, my. You're still at the denial stage? Don't worry, it doesn't last long." She smiled warmly at us. Was I getting... dating advice from a grandma? Oh man. I'd have to tell Sora and Tidus about this some time.
"Oh, thank you, ma'am." Axel answered, and I giggled. It was funny to see him be all polite to her, since I hadn't seen him act like this before.
"And if he doesn't, you know, submit straight away, the good ol' tongue manoeuvre should do the trick!" She laughed, then whispered not-so-subtly with a wink, "It certainly worked on me."
If she had said it to anyone else, she would have been the coolest grandmother ever. But our expressions could only be summed up by "Oh my freakin' god". This woman was crazy.
[Axel's POV]
Oh man, was I happy. Well, I was a bit bummed that I wasted pretty much a week not talking to him for some reason that didn't ever actually happen, but I was really happy about the fact that he didn't kiss Tidus. So happy, that I didn't strangle him when he was trying to run away. I didn't think I liked a drunk Roxy. I mean, I don't know why he was in the first place, and he didn't strike me as the druggie type. But, oh well, hopefully it'd just be a one off.
"Axel, I want my shirt baaaack," he whined, overbalancing while trying to walk.
"Rox. I don't have your shirt, you... lost it somehow before I found you." I rolled my eyes with a laugh.
"But I want it..." I sighed, took mine off and gave it to him. He grinned and put it on. It was a bit big for him, but it looked kind of adorable like that... Well, adorable in a manly way, of course. "Ha ha, now you don't have a shiiirt!"
Oh man...
"Oh, a snail!" What? Oh... he looked like he was dangerously close to face-planting the pavement, and I decided to try and drag him away gently by the shoulders so that he didn't do some damage to his face. I got an odd mental image of him falling, then bouncing back by his hair, but... somehow I didn't think that would actually work.
"Roxas, don't harm the poor snail..."
"But Ax, it's so... slimy!" He looked at it in awe.
"Roxas, um, just... just come here, 'kay? There are muffins. I'll give you a muffin when we get there! Do you like muffins?"
"Yeah! Okay!" Phew.
I ended up getting to his house about two minutes later, and Cloud was the only one home. I had to explain everything to him, and he nodded, telling me I was a good friend for taking him here, and accepted when I asked if I could stay the night. Well, on one term...
"Just as long as there's no... funny business, yeah?"
"Oh, uh, sure thing!" I felt my face flushing, and he laughed.
"It's okay. I'll help you get him up stairs." He said, and together we picked Roxas – he had fallen asleep or something on the floor – to his bed.
...
I ended up sleeping the night in Roxas bed with him, which sounds suspicious, I know, but I didn't do anything weird. I mean, maybe spooning him, but that wasn't too weird, right?
We woke up with a start when someone knocked on his door, opened it, and saw us both in the bed. After a moment I realised that it was Sora's dad, Cid, before he said, "You, perve! Outta his bed! He's got a Struggle competition to win, the sex can come later!"
Sora's head poked out and he said, "What... I KNEW IT. Guess who's just won twenty dollars from Riku!"
"What's going on...? Oh crap, Struggle. Oh god." Roxas said as he woke up, and put his hand on his forehead. "Why does my head hurt? ...Oh shit, I'm an idiot..."
"Roxas!" Cloud came walking into the room, then stopped when he saw me there, "You both better have pants on..."
"Don't worry, I didn't do anything to him..." I said, nervously. "He's still a young and innocent teenage boy..."
"Good." Cloud smiled, and took a bottle of sports drink out of his pocket. "Roxas, you've gotta drink this. It'll help with the headache, you're dehydrated."
"Ugh..." Roxas got out of bed and stood up, taking the bottle.
Once he had drunk the entire thing, along with a painkillers tablet, he had a bit of breakfast and we left. Sora was pretty excited, cheering on Roxas before we even left the house.
[Roxas' POV]
The tournament was at the Sandlot in Twilight Town, and as soon as I got there, I heard someone calling my name. I turned to see Tidus making a beeline for me, holding some brunette girl's hand.
"Hey, Rox, you ready?" He smiled.
"Yep! Well, I had a headache earlier this morning, but it's better now." I answered with a sheepish smile, and he turned to the girl.
"That's good! I mean, not about the headache, but... you know. Anyway, I'd like you to meet Yuna!"
"Hi, Roxas." She smiled sweetly. "I've heard a lot about you."
"You too," I smiled back, "It's nice to finally meet you."
After a few minutes of small talk, Tidus noticed Axel in the distance talking to Riku, and asked me what was going on with us both. I told him everything that happened – including our strange conversation with the old lady – and he shook his head with a smile.
However, just as I finished explaining, this other girl came along with overly-short shorts and crazy blonde hair. She pretty much threw herself at him while trying to hug him, and he tried to move away from her the best he could. I figured this was the Rikku I had heard about.
"Hey, Tidus! I'm so happy you're here." She giggled, pretty much up in his face.
"Rikku, seriously, get off me!" Tidus tried to push her off as gently as he could, but then Yuna calmly stepped in.
"Come on, Tidus, let's go. I need to see someone." She leaned up and kissed him quickly, and Rikku glared daggers at her, letting go.
I heard the blonde girl mutter something like, "ho, stealing my man," as Tidus nodded with a slight smile at me, and I nodded back, turning off to find Hayner and Seifer. I didn't have to search for long, as I could hear them bickering from thirty metres away. I couldn't tell exactly what they were complaining about, but decided not to really bother trying.
"Hey guys," I greeted them.
"Roxas, you're here! How's it going!" Hayner gave me one of those manly handshakes and patted me on the back, and Seifer smirked and nodded at me.
"Pretty good. How 'bout you?"
"I'm good!"
"Oh, guys, we're gonna have to go now, see our line up." Seifer interrupted, seeing a board in the distance. We walked there and had a look, even though I had pretty much no idea who any of the names where on it.
However, the two looked at me with raised eyebrows, and I asked, "What?"
"You've got a really easy first match. You're against Xigbar." Seifer answered.
"...Who?"
"Xigbar. I mean, he's not a bad struggler, but he's not too... strong? I don't know. He can be really fast, though. So watch out." Hayner explained.
It turns out, he wasn't as easy as they said – he was really fast – but I managed to hit him unexpectedly a few times, and I soon won. There were five rounds overall, and I won all of them, except for the last one, as the person I was against, Xaldin, didn't turn up for twenty minutes so I won by default.
When I decided to tell Hayner and Seifer about this, they didn't seem too surprised, and I said, "You know something about it, don't you."
"No...?" Hayner tried to look innocent, but failed.
Seifer sighed and explained, "Riku was around some time before it, and he texted Hayner to tell him to come over where he was. We came and heard him and two others talking about something to do with you, so we decided that we'd, you know..." He trailed off thoughtfully, looking for the right word.
"Help you out a bit." Hayner finished for him.
"Oh, well then... thanks." I smiled at them before pursing my lips in thought, "Did you see what they looked like?"
"Well, there was this blonde chick that looked like a bug," Seifer smirked, and I panicked slightly.
"And there was another guy called Luxord, who had short blonde hair," After Seifer gave him a questioning glance he explained, "I versed him before. And won."
"That's a surprise..." Seifer muttered jokingly. Hayner lightly punched his arm and Seifer threw his arm around his shoulders casually with a laugh, then left it there. After a moment we all realised, look at him, and let go before nervously saying, "He had a... fly, and I, uh... swatted it away..."
"Hey, could I get all your attention?" Some man said into a loudspeaker, signalling that it was time for the presentation.
[...]
The presentation was overly long – as they usually are – so I spent the whole time just watching the crowd for people I knew. First I saw Sora and Riku pulling faces at me, then Hayner and Seifer giving me thumbs up, and then I saw Axel and Demyx.
The blonde smiled and waved, and the redhead gave me that Cheshire smile of his. Those green eyes of his were also really noticeable from a distance, but I looked away before I could get any, ahem, weird thoughts...
Everyone stayed at the Sandlot afterwards, and after many strangers said "Nice work" to me with a smile, my friends made a beeline for me and tackled me, making a testosterone-filled pile of laughing and cheering teenage boys.
After a while, people cleared off, and I was left waiting with Axel, who seemed pretty nervous.
"So, congratulations." He started, pausing to swallow. "You've gotten really good, you know. Especially since you only started the other week. I'm... really impressed."
"Oh, thanks, Axel." I smiled. There was obviously something else he wanted to say.
"Um... I was wondering... after every Struggle tournament, you know Marly?"
"The one that you were dressing as a clown for, right?"
"Yeah, that's the one." He laughed. "He always has a big party, and I was wondering... uh..."
"Yeah...?"
"Would you like to come with me?" He smiled sheepishly. "Like, as a... date, you know?"
I felt giddy all of a sudden, and my stomach had a strange sensation in it – I guessed this was what a crush was like, really. His hand raked through his hair anxiously as he looked around, and I realised that I was probably building suspense accidentally by not answering.
After managing to calm my nerves down enough for me to trust my own voice, I replied with a goofy grin, "Of course I'd like that, Axel."
I finally wrote this later then I meant to, sorry 'bout that. But it's a lot longer too, haha. And it's the second last chapter, too. I'll try to have the next one up soon. :) Anyway, I'd really love to know what you thought of it! Thanks for reading! :D
