Chapter Eleven
He Has No Feelings, Right?

I'm woken up by a loud crash and my door flying open. I scream, gripping my blankets and pulling them up over my head. I have to admit, I always knew this would be the way I'd go. Death by crazed burglars or something, seeing as I'm always alone. I hold my breath because…well I don't know why but I'm hoping it will hide me from the predator that's barged into my room. I know I'm a coward, but there is no way in hell a 112 pound, 5'3 male is going to take on some psycho delinquent.

I can hear the heavy breathing of the person, and their clumsy footsteps. I start shaking in fear under the covers the closer they get, until finally, they topple onto me. The scream dies in my throat once I smell the familiar scent of burnt cupcakes and whiskey. That combination could only belong to one person. I rip the blanket off my head and glare in the dark at the head of Axel where he's collapsed at the foot of my bed. I stretch my leg and kick him, causing him to flop backwards. "Owwwwwwwwwwww" he howls drunkenly and I glare even more viciously. "Why arrreee yew sho mean?" he slurs and sits up, rubbing his lower back and searching for my face in the dark.

"Why are you in my room?" I spit out, I'm trying to figure out if this is a good enough reason for Axel to lose his only chance at redemption. I don't know if it is, so I figure I'll give him a little more time to fuck up and give me a justifiable reason to go back to hating him with every fiber of my being and not giving him the time of day. Not like I've really been doing anything these past weeks, Axel's been the one trying to gain my affection by all sorts of different ways. I've never eaten so many different pastries in my entire life. I think he honestly believes my hatred for him will die out with the more sweets he shoves down my gullet. I won't lie, they have all been more delicious than the last, but that doesn't prove anything to me. He's still a delinquent and in my eyes, that makes him a bad person and I've yet to be proven other wise.

"I jus came hooome, and I…I…I forget," he giggles before hauling himself to his feet, swaying a little before plopping onto my bed and crawling towards me. My stomach drops and my heart starts pounding crazily the closer he gets. I scoot away until my back hits the head board of my bed, but he doesn't stop until he's sitting right in front of me, cross legged and swaying slightly. "I wan…wanned to talk," He says slowly and I raise an eyebrow at him. I doubt he sees it though. "You…You re-remember when yah ash…Ah-ss-asked me 'bout my bakin'?" Now my interest is peaked and I reconsider tossing his drunk ass right out of my room.

"Yeah, I remember," I say slowly and watch as his face contorts into a look of drunken pain. The moon light filtering through my blinds serves as enough illumination for me to see his features clearly, though he looks much paler under the white light. I can see a bruise blossoming on his cheek bone and again, I'm not surprised. Whenever my parents leave for a few days, he comes back all bruised. I think he picks fights when he knows they won't be back for a while. Where he picks these fights I don't know, but I'm guessing it's at some bar somewhere downtown.

"My sister…she…she loved sweets," Axel looks down at my comforter and I don't know what to say. Apparently he has a sister, which brings up only one question. If he has a sister, why is he here at my house? He obviously has family…then I remember he told me his mother is dead, so I stop my assumptions and continue listening to Axel's drunk slurs. "S-she wanted me to…to stop hanging out with…the gang b-but…ahh, I'm hungry," Axel suddenly shoots up and off my bed, he sort of hobbles around my room until he stops by the door and turns to look at me. I'm just sitting on my bed, staring at him as he stumbles around my room in the dark. "Are you…comin'?" He asks and I decide I better go with him. I'm not going for fear that he's going to hurt himself or anything; I'm going because I fear for the life of my kitchen.

I watch as he walks, if you could call his crazy leg flailing walking, towards the staircase and I watch in horror. There is no way in hell he'd make it down those stairs this drunk. I run over and before he has the chance to toss himself over the first step, I catch him. "Hold on…You're gonna fall," I mumble because I don't want him to hear me actually caring about his dumb ass life. My brain teases me as I try and convince myself I only care because I don't want to have to call my mom and tell her Axel died because he fell down the stairs drunk. He smirks at me, his eyes a little hazy and unfocused when I wrap my arm around his narrow waist and toss his arm over my shoulders. Imagine if you will, the awkwardness of someone my size carrying someone Axel's size down the stairs. I thank heaven and everything else that he's scrawny, and not some big burly man who is not only tall but wide.

We reach the bottom landing with a little difficulty. At the last step, Axel's legs decide they are too drunk to actually bend at the knee, so he's stuck trying to step down without bending his legs. I have to forcefully shove my hand behind his joint and bend them for him. Finally though, we're heading towards the kitchen and I deem the floor flat and safe enough for him to walk on his own. I make it to the kitchen a lot faster because I'm not drunk and smashing into the walls on my way. I decide it would be better and safer for me to make his food. I personally don't care if he eats or not, I just don't want him starting a fire or leaving a mess.

"Kairi…she wasso sweet. Youdda loved 'er," I hear Axel throw himself onto a kitchen stool and settle down. Clearly he had the same idea of me cooking for him. I notice that he's talking about his sister a lot in past tense so I turn away from the fridge and stare at Axel. He's sitting there watching me, his eye make up smeared all the way down to his jaw line, and the bruise looks a lot worse than it did in the dark.

"Why do you keep talking about her in past tense?" I ask and feel like an inconsiderate idiot the minute the words leave my mouth. There are only few reasons people talk about others in past tense. But considering the way he spoke of his mother, I don't have to feel like a jerk. Axel has no feelings…Right? I'm proven other wise when Axel's face contorts again and he looks away. I tell myself those aren't pathetic little sniffles that I'm hearing but my brain isn't to keen on letting me believe that.

"She's dead," Again, he has no tact for saying these sorts of things and I feel my heart clench at the news. I never met his sister, but still. I'm a softie and hearing about death is always just so…uncomfortable. I remember the way he looked when he told me his mother was dead, and it comes nothing close to the pain evident on his face now. There are a few stray tears clinging to his cheeks and more gathering in his eyes and I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do. I did not expect to see him cry. He's not supposed to have feelings!

"Oh…I'm sorry," I say and decide now would be a good time to leave. Fuck the kitchen and the mess there's going to be in the morning from his drunken cooking. At least I won't be down here in this awkward situation, having to talk about this horrible subject. I start making my way towards the exit but he stops me with a call of my name.

"Can yah help me upstairs?" I notice he's stumbled off the stool and is following me out the archway. I turn and with a huff, I'm entangled with Axel and leading him towards the stair case. He stops though and I'm there tugging him weakly. I hear him sniffle from somewhere overhead. With one more tug, I get him moving again. We make it up with a little less difficulty and I'm willing to bet his drunkenness is slowly ebbing away. I leave him right in front of his door and turn to go to my room, glad this awkward exchange is over. Once I'm in bed, I'll be able to pretend it never happened. Axel won't remember it tomorrow morning, so I can just go on as if I never found out he had a sister. "They killed her…so I'm not a bad person," as I make my way into my room that's all I can hear him mumble but I can't be sure if it's the booze talking or Axel until he calls my name again. I stop and turn to look at him.

The series of events that happen next are too quick for me to really say what order they happened in but all I know is that I some how end up pressed against Axel's chest, his arms wrapped tightly around me and his cold nose pressing against my neck. My stomach starts twisting and turning, and I can feel the intensity of the blush that's just started to form on my face. I don't know whether to shove him away or hug him. I mean, he's drunk right now…and I hate regular Axel, so I should hate drunk Axel even more…but then again, he just told me his sister is dead and he's crying so there's gotta be some middle ground to this situation. I can make an exception around the hatred and give him a little comfort. I mean, I'm not heartless.

I wrap my arms around his middle and hug him back a little awkwardly. I can feel his hot breath creating condensation on my neck and I squirm a bit, trying to get comfortable but he's got me in such a tight grip. I try and ignore my stupid brain because already it's being an idiot. There is no way in hell that I could actually be enjoying this damn hug. Like, Axel's drunk and I'm just here to comfort him a little because I'm not some spawn of Satan who can leave people crying without giving them some condolence. My mother did not raise me that way. I'll admit, she did make me sort of a sis but that's beside the point. "Thanks Rox…" Axel mumbles against my neck and it sends a cold shiver down my spine as he pulls away, his nose is all red and it's more than obvious that he's been crying. Something about that sight makes me feel like I should hate him a little less.

Finally, he stumbles away and into his room and I'm left standing alone in the hallway. To be honest with you and myself, I feel like maybe there's more behind Axel being a delinquent then I first may have thought. Then I feel like smacking myself over the head because he's just a drunk idiot spewing nonsense. I mean, his sister could be dead and I feel sorry for that, but he's still a drunk and he still went out and got into a fight. Clearly the death of his sister didn't affect his life style that much.

Feeling like an idiot for almost believing Axel could be a decent human being, I go back to bed and try to sleep.

I've gotten used to waking up to the sound of loud, blaring music but to wake up to a quiet house when it's just Axel and me sort of unnerves me. I get up cautiously, looking toward my door and waiting for the loud guitar riffs and 20 minute drum solos but they never come. Tentatively I get out of bed and tip toe my way into the hall. There is no sound whatsoever through out the entire house and I'm starting to feel really scared. Axel has never slept in, not even once since coming here and it's been a few weeks since then. I'm usually the last person to wake up and hearing the house this silent in the morning is weird. I make my way downstairs and I can't help the unmanly scream that finds its way out of me and into the open.

"Ah, don't scream!" Axel covers his ears and presses his head into the cool counter top. I look at him curiously, the fear that everyone died in some post-apocalyptic disaster growing smaller and smaller. Axel is awake so that's a good sign, but the house is still unnaturally silent.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I cock my hip out and lean against the door frame, Axel's rolling his face all along the counter and it sort of grosses me out. He lifts his face and I have never seen someone look as hung over as he does right now. The bags under his eyes would probably weigh in as two separate luggages in an airport and his hair looks like it's home to more than 1,000 species of rare wild life.

"Whenever I drink Whiskey…" he doesn't finish, instead he bolts out of the kitchen and down the hall to the first floor bathroom. I know too well what he's off to do, so I walk into the kitchen to get farther away from the sounds of him throwing up and closer to food. Serves him right for going out and drinking all night. Seeing as Axel is sick, he probably won't be cooking me breakfast. Damn him, forgetting about my hunger. I mean, isn't he supposed to be winning my affection over? He's not going to do that by throwing up his lungs in the bathroom. I decide to make myself something though I'm not at all happy about it. I'm not very good at cooking, and if you ask my mother she will shudder in fear at the very mention of something made solely by me. It is then, as I'm standing in front of the fridge searching for food and cursing Axel's name that the heavenly smell of something reaches my nose.

I find an omelet set out on the counter by the stools, a glass of orange juice set right beside it. I bite my lip, feeling two kinds of awful before I decide that he got drunk so it's his fault he's in pain right now. I sit and by the time I start eating, Axel is ambling back into the kitchen, holding his head and plugging his nose. "You'd never believe how hard makin' that fuckin' omelet was," he groans, throwing himself into a stool beside me. All I can do is nod my head and shove more omelet in my face. "I didn't do anything to lose my chance, right?" he asks slowly after I'm half way through eating and I shake my head.

"No, you still got it." This omelet is fucking heavenly. I mean, I have never eaten anything this good before…but then again, I say that about everything this bastard cooks so I'm not surprised. I've over come the jealousy and hatred I felt before towards Axel for his cooking. I figure, as long as he cooks for me, why should I be angry? I'm getting great food with no effort, so I can at least put aside the fact that I hate him and just eat his food. It's not like it's a part of him or anything.

When the omelet is finally out of my sight and in my stomach, images from last night finally flood my mind and I remember Axel bawling his eyes out and telling me about his sister. I remember standing in the hallway and hugging him to make him feel better and I look at him from the corner of my eye, wondering if he can remember any of that. I don't know if I should bring it up or not, so I just get up and go to wash the dishes.

"Roxas…about last night," Axel starts and I freeze just as I start soaping up my plate "I really did mean that thank you," I hear the bar stool scoot across the floor and in a few minutes I know I'm left alone in the kitchen. If I'm honest with myself, Axel's quiet behavior is worrisome and a small part of me wants to go see if he's alright, but then the larger part of me shrugs its shoulders and says 'Eh, who cares? He's a delinquent, he has no feelings,' and just like that I brush it off.

I shouldn't care because for all I know this could all just be a trick to get me to fall at his feet like everyone else. For all I know, he probably doesn't even have a sister who died and I hugged him for no reason. With that thought in mind, I finish the dishes and head back upstairs. If it isn't a trick, I know I'm going to feel really bad for thinking this way, but I'm more than certain it's just Axel trying to win me over.

If that's the case though, I'm going to hate him even more when the truth comes out to the light.

A/N: Hey ladies and gents!
I know it's been a while since the last update of Brotherly Love, but I was going through some stuff and almost canceled and scraped this story.
But hey...here it is alive and well, and we finally find out a little more about Axel.
Not much because he's drunk, but still a little tid bit to get you going!
XD

Anyway, there's gonna be a poll on my page so I'd appreciate some feedback.
It'll probably be about what story you all want to see updated more regularly, so that I could maybe try and focus on that one.
Yup, that's it.
And if anyone who reads Brotherly Love, also reads The Resolution...I'm sorry to say, but that story will def. be scraped.
I'm just not feelin' it.

Till next time loves!

-Your friendly neighborhood Sharmander.