A/N: I'll say everything in the authors note at the end, so for now ENJOY!
xXx
Olette loved the next week that she had on the sea side of Radiant Gardens. For once she had the time that she needed to just sleep; to relax and to do something that normal people do. The four of them had fallen into the habit of waking late, letting Olette make breakfast, and then splitting up for several hours for training.
Olette and Axel would work on their hand to hand skills on the beach, the sand working muscles that they normally didn't know they had. Roxas would stay in the grass on the side of the house for the most part as he practiced his own sword skills, although he would occasionally join the duo to work on his own hand to hand combat skills. While Demyx would seem to just disappear for those few hours. He could normally be found in the library of the house, where he would be reading books on a variety of different things, from "How to Survive an Avalanche" to "The caretaking of Zebras." Other times he would sit on the back deck and watch the others practice while he would strum idly on his guitar. And each morning before the other woke up, he would run, no where in particular just up and down the beach, but the sensation he got from running just seemed to calm his nerves.
After that, when the sun was just about to reach its highest point in the sky, they would all re-group and eat their midday meal before they would have their own time to just relax for the rest of the day.
During this time they would do a variety of things. Most of the time however they split into to groups; Demyx and Axel usually went to beach, and although Axel refused to swim in the ocean water, Demyx convinced him after a while to at least walk in it with him. Roxas and Olette on the other hand would grab a book from the library and sit on the deck to read or walk down the beach barefoot so their feet could sink into the warm sand.
Olette was having, what seemed to be, the best time she had ever had in her life. But she was beginning to wonder just how long this wonderland would last...
xXx
It was over a week and a half before any of them said anything about making plans to move, although they had all been thinking about it. They couldn't stay there forever and, as unfortunate as that was, they all knew it.
"We need to think about where to head next. We can't stay in hiding here forever."
Roxas was the unfortunate one to bring up the topic that everyone was thinking. The four of them were sitting at the small bar in the kitchen eating supper nearly two weeks later. The other three hesitated before saying anything, this was a delicate topic. Especially since they all knew that they couldn't run forever. However, they could keep trying to.
"I have a friend in Agrabah who would give us a safe house for a week or two." Demyx was the first to speak breaking the deadly silence had only been filled with the clinking of plates and silverware before.
"Agrabah? In the middle of the desert?" Axel said.
"I know it's a ways, but if we don't have anywhere else to go..." Demyx trailed off for a moment. "A friend of mine there owes me a favor."
"I don't know." Roxas said, "Agrabah is a ways away."
"Not like we haven't traveled across the ocean already." Axel stated, chuckling as Roxas glared at him for the comment.
"At the moment that's the only offer we have," Olette said, speaking up for the first time, "I think it's for the best. I mean, who would expect us to go into the middle of the desert, right?"
The others looked at her and Roxas nodded slowly, "She's right, they're more likely to think that we would follow the ocean up to Rabanastre or Luca."
"Okay," Axel said, "if we're going through the desert I know a guy who can give us a place to stay for a day or two about half way through. He practically owns the Bikanel Desert and he's pretty important to the Al Bed, so he can hook us up."
Roxas nodded, "Alright, we start getting ready tomorrow and we'll leave in a few days."
That decided that, even if none of them really had their hearts set on leaving, on traveling again.
xXx
Olette screeched.
She had been peacefully reading her book on her hammock. She didn't deserve to be tipped out of it like that! Now her book was covered in sand, she had lost her page, and she was on the hard wooden panels of the back deck.
Olette glared up at Axel who was now standing on the other side of the hammock and evil smirk on his face. Demyx was standing a few feet behind him looking not so evil, his eyes where wide as if to say "I did not take part in this plan".
"AXEL I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Olette screamed as she jumped up to her feet.
"Oh shit."
Axel scrambled out from behind the hammock and jumped the railing of the deck onto the soft sand below. Before anyone could stop them, Olette had jumped after him and she was chasing the red head down the beach into the water.
Roxas watched in amusement from the glass table that was on the deck. Demyx came and sat in the chair opposite of him just as Olette threw a blow at Axel who just barely dodged it by stepping deeper into the water then he wanted to. By now the two were just goofing off.
Sometimes, they acted way to much like brother and sister. But since neither of them had any sibling, maybe that was what they where looking for in each other.
Roxas glanced back up to the pair just in time to watch Olette tackle Axel into the water, getting them both soaked. Olette was laughing as she stood up, pulling seaweed out of her hair, but Axel was not pleased. He stomped out of the water, cursing and grumbling, as he headed back up the beach to dry off at the house.
"Oh come on Axel," Olette said catching up with him as he started climbing the stairs, "It was just a joke." Axel didn't reply he just continued to take the steps slowly, water still enough that his feet where leaving wet sandy foot prints in his leave.
"Axel..." Olette tried feebly as the red head shut the door behind him. She turned to Roxas and Demyx, "Now he's pissed at me, just great."
"Don't worry about it too much, he'll get over it in a little while." Demyx said, getting up and following the red head into the house.
Sulking, Olette sunk into the chair next to Roxas. She picked her book back up but she didn't start reading it again, rather she played with the cover while she looking out into the ocean.
"I agree with Demyx," Roxas said after a moment, "Don't worry about Axel, he'll come around. I mean you've know each other practically forever."
"Do you know why Axel hates the water so much?" Olette asked as though she didn't hear what Roxas had just said. Roxas looked at her and shook his head, sure he'd know that Axel didn't like water, he'd know Axel for long enough to figure that out, but he never asked the red head why he was so frightened by it. He had never really wanted to intrude. And know that he thought about it Axel hadn't said a thing when they where on the ship crossing the ocean. Why wasn't he afraid of riding a ship, but he was afraid of the water?
"When Axel was a kid his mom died swimming in the channel during a storm. His dad was in a boat nearby, but he couldn't get to her in time. Axel was six, he had just been learning how to swim, but when his mom die he refused to even go in the water. Everyone thought it was the weirdest thing because he'd still go sailing with his dad every Saturday, he'd still go the beach, but he wouldn't get into the water. Axel told me once that boats where okay because his dad taught him that he was safer if he stayed on the boat."
Olette paused looking out into the ocean. "I've only ever seen Axel get into the water once. When I was seven. He took me and a few other kids to the nearby river and we where swimming while Axel just watched from the shore and I went to deep and the current swept my feet out from under me. I started drowning. Axel panicked, he jumped into the water and saved me, but afterwards I think he was more frightened then I was. I don't think that helped him at all with coming to terms with water."
There was a silence between them as they both looked out into the ocean's water, as if they saw it with a new light.
"I never knew." Roxas said quietly.
"Yeah, well now you do." Axel's voice came from behind them. He turned to Olette, "I'm sorry that I got so mad at you. It really wasn't that big of a deal we were still in shallow water."
"It's okay, I understand."
Axel and Demyx both stepped out of the doorway and moved to sit at the table with them. Roxas looked down at the table as if he was ashamed to know something that maybe wasn't his information to know.
"Hey," Axel said, kicking Roxas under the table, "Don't act like you just found out that the King disowned you. It's wasn't a huge secret or anything, I'm just not fond of telling the story. By the way," he said turning to Olette, "how did you figure all that out. I never told you."
Olette chuckled, "I ran into your dad at the market once and we just got to talking. I just ended up putting the pieces together."
"I have to say, I am impressed with you skills." Axel grinned, Demyx and Roxas rolled their eyes, and all was back to normal. Well, as normal as things can get when you're being chased by an evil vampire hunter.
xXx
"Hey, I need to go into town this morning anyone want to come with?"
They where gathered in the kitchen the next morning as Olette cooked. This morning they were having eggs and bacon, Demyx's favorite.
"I'll go." Olette said, "It'll be nice to see the town one last time, and if I'm lucky we'll spend a lot of time there and I won't have to cook."
"I wanna go too." Demyx squealed.
"Well if everyone else is going, why not?" Axel said, "I'm not going to do morning practices if I don't have to."
"Axel you were practicing in the morning because you chose to." Olette said.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that I like it." Axel said, ignoring Olette's rolling eyes.
"Okay," Roxas said, "Then hurry up and finish eating, I don't want to be there all day."
"You can hurry the eating of eggs and bacon!"
xXx
As they walked into town for the first time in over a week Olette got to thinking. Why would Xemnas be so interested in killing her in particular? Why couldn't he find some other vampire to chase? Not that Olette wanted anyone to be killed but, why her? Would he ever give up? And if he did, when?
It had already been over a month sense the group had found themselves leaving the vicinity of the Xemnas's mansion. In fact she wasn't even entirely sure if they were still being chased.
Olette really wanted to go home, go back to Hollow Bastion where she could hang out with Axel at his martial arts studio, and maybe help teach a few classes. Where she could actually be courted by Roxas, in the way she had seen other girls walking around town arms linked with a boy's.
Where she could eat scorns and drink tea at a coffee shop where Demyx would get a job playing his guitar and singing. Where he would take his break and just hang with her for a few minutes before he had to start back up again.
But Olette knew that that wasn't possible. Going back now would be a death sentence. There would be no where to hide there. There would be no way of avoiding the fact that people probably already knew that she and Demyx where run away slaves. They would be found and turned into the palace, since Xemnas was out of town, and being punished by the place would be just as bad as the admiral.
"Olette!"
Olette snapped out of her mind just in time to see the horseman riding full speed down the road and move out of the way so that she wasn't run over. The man glared at the group of them as he passed, but said nothing. Olette watched, there was something about the man that made her feel uneasy. As if she had seen him somewhere before, but she couldn't exactly remember where. Olette was almost certain that the man was someone she had seen before, now that she thought about it. But where?
"Hey, Olette." Axel said, waving a hand in front of Olette, the horse man long sense passed.
"Sorry," Olette said, "I was thinking."
"Obviously not about the road." Roxas said, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine, I was just out of it for a moment, that's all."
"Okay." Roxas said skeptically, but he didn't say anymore.
Olette slide her hand into Roxas' as they started to walk again, letting him gently lead her the rest of the way to town.
It didn't take them long to get to town after that. Although Roxas noticed that Olette was looking slightly paler then normal. Part of him wasn't really surprised, the walk to town was not a short one and Olette hadn't taken in any blood in, well, over week. Truthfully Roxas was surprised that she hadn't fainted in any of her practices with Axel yet.
"Olette..." Roxas started.
"I'm fine." she said squeezing his hand slightly.
"But Olette it's been..."
"I'm fine, really. I'll deal with it later."
Roxas looked at her sternly, but he knew there was nothing that he could do right now, they where in the middle of Radiant Garden's market, he wasn't about to pull out a knife and cut his arm to let Olette drink his blood.
Roxas nodded slowly and followed Demyx and Axel who where already shoping for things that they didn't need.
"Can you watch them? Roxas asked Olette rolling his eyes at the couple. "I'm going to go get some of the things that we actually need for a trip into the desert."
Olette laughed, "Yeah, no problem."
"Here," Roxas handed her a bag of munny. "You can allow each of them to get one thing, as long as they carry it themselves. God knows Axel would end up wanting to get me a bird to ride on my shoulder."
Olette laughed and ran after the couple who had found the cart that sold self portraits.
xXx
The group met back up for lunch. Axel carrying a rather large book on martial arts that Olette was sure he had had a copy of back in Hollow Bastion; while Demyx had gotten a case for his guitar that was much lighter then the hard case that he had before, plus this one allowed him to sling it over his shoulder or back. Olette herself had found a necklace that had caught her eye. It wasn't anything complex, just a simple metal necklace with two keys crossing each other to make an 'x' at the end of the chain, but there was something about the keys that reminded her of Roxas' swords. It sounded stupid, but she got the necklace anyways.
"Okay," Roxas said, "I got a horse for each of us. I figured that would be easier then walking all the way though the desert. They're waiting at the stables on the out skirts of town so we can pick them up before we leave."
"You got us frickin' horses." Axel said, "Awesome."
Roxas ignored him continuing, "I'd like to get some food from the market before we leave because we don't want to be carrying food that will parish in the heat."
"Axel!" Demyx nearly yelled, "Stop that."
"But you let me do it at the house." Axel complained.
"We're not at the house!"
"I don't want know." Roxas said, and Olette nodded in agreement. "We'll leave you to sort out your lover's quirk. Meet us out at the stables in twenty minutes, okay?"
Neither of the men said anything as they continued bicker, so Roxas just shrugged, stood up, and left the restaurant with Olette at his side.
xXx
As Olette followed Roxas out into the market she thought she saw a flash of silver out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to look at where she had seen it, nothing was there. She figured at first that it was just something catching the light from the sun.
But then later she was passing by an ally and she saw it again. This time she back-tracked, running down the ally and looking both ways at the end, but nothing was there either.
Roxas looked at her funny when she came back. "You okay?" he asked.
"I'm just seeing things out of the corner of my eye." Olette said, "No big deal, it's probably just the light playing tricks at me."
"Okay." Roxas said and they started walking again.
Olette knew that she needed blood, badly at this point, but never before had she hallucinated because of it. Something was going on and Olette was a little freaked out, but not enough to say anything yet.
xXx
It was late when the group finally made it back to the house, because two some-ones didn't show up, leaving Roxas and Olette to look all over town for them. Finding them just in time to eat something quick for dinner and start back towards the house before it got dark.
Olette for one was grateful for the horses. She didn't think she would have made it all the way back to the house had they not been carrying her.
The group sleepily unsaddled the horse, stumbled into the house, said their goodnights, and headed like magnets to their rooms.
Olette was tired, dizzy, and had a felling that she was starting to get a fever because she was shaking slightly, even in the heat. Olette was glad that her room was not far because even with the short distance she had to walk from the stairs to her door she stumbled and fell into the wall, holding onto it for a second so she could regain her balance. However, her balance never really came back and she just ended up using the wall to make it into her room before she collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep faster then she had ever remembered doing so before.
xXx
Olette was dreaming. It wasn't hard to tell. The four of them where back in Hallow Bastion, in the streets nearby Axel's dojo. Axel had an arm around Demyx's shoulders while Roxas was holding her hand as though it was the only thing he had ever wanted to do in his life. They where all laughing and it seemed as though nothing could ever ruin that moment.
But when they stepped into Axel dojo only a few short minutes later, he was standing there waiting for them.
Xemnas stood in the middle of the dojo floor sword out and ready to attack, but he didn't at first. He let them grab for their weapons and come to him, as though he thought this some fun game.
Olette wasn't exactly sure what happened after that, all she remembered was that one second they where all running with pure hatred towards the Admiral and then next. Demyx and Axel where on the floor bleeding and Roxas stood very still as Xemnas held a knife to his throat.
Roxas didn't look frightened, he didn't even look the slightness bit scared as he looked at Olette and yelled, "Run."
But Olette couldn't move, she was frozen watching as her one true enemy stood before her, holding a knife to the one boy she had ever liked. Her head started spinning and she eyes where getting blurry from the tears that where forming.
"Please," Olette begged, "Don't hurt him. You can take me, just please, let Roxas go."
"We can't let the princess have what she wants, now can we?" he smirked and pressed the knife firmly up against Roxas' throat. Olette could see the blood spilling down his neck.
Olette screamed.
xXx
Roxas woke up to Olette's screaming. He jumped out of bed, flinging open his bedroom door so quickly that it nearly came swinging back to hit him, and slammed Olette's door open to find her sitting straight up in bed, tears streaming down her cheeks. He moved into the room more slowly seeing no danger and sat down on the edge of the bed next to her and taking one of her hands.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," Olette said, quickly wiping away her tears. Olette was not one who openly cried very often.
"It's alright," Roxas said, "Tell me what happened."
"I had a nightmare. Oh, it was so horrible." Olette shifted into Roxas' arms putting her face into his shoulder.
"It's alright," Roxas said, stoking her hair lightly as he saw Demyx and Axel appear in the doorway. They looked at Olette and Roxas for a moment before softly closing the door as they headed back to their rooms. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
And Olette fell back asleep in Roxas' arms. Roxas laid her down on the bed gently and fell asleep watching her from the large chair in the corner of the room.
xXx
They packed the next day, planning on leaving the day after that.
Things didn't go as smoothly as Roxas would have liked with the packing. Although it didn't seem to bad to begin with.
He woke up to find that Olette was making some of the last of the food that they couldn't bring with them as well as making several loaves of bread to take with them, one of which included using all of the cheese that they had left, although Roxas saw Olette eat some as she made it and while she thought that no one was looking.
Then Roxas realized that they didn't have as much room as he would have like in the saddle bags they had so he went to see if he could find a backpack that they could put some of their extra materials in.He was thrilled to find not one, but four. Not so thrilled to find that they all had spider using them as their homes and that one had a hole so huge that it couldn't even be used.
So Roxas got Demyx to help clean out the backpacks while Axel gathered the things that they would be putting into them, such as the first aid kits, food supplies, and some of the lighter supplies they where bringing.
After he finished cleaning the packs however he found Axel had decided to play with the first aid kit rather then make sure it had all the supplies. Axel was covered in cotton bandage wrap from his shoulders to the end of his finger tips on one arm.
So Roxas helped unravel Axel's arm and put the supplies into the bags himself, telling Axel and Demyx to go help Olette finish packing the food.
The two where dragged back to Roxas by their ears as Olette explained to him how they would rather eat all the food then pack it. "If they help me 'pack' the food, their wont be anything left." she had declared.
So Roxas had to finally settle on letting them go to the beach to leave him and Olette alone while they finished packing.
Roxas finished double checking the bags while Olette cooked their last warm meal at the sea shore house that night.
Roxas had made sure a few hours ago that Olette had had her fill of blood to hold her over for a least a few days. He had seen her stumbling the night before and her skin had been cold to the touch that morning so when Roxas slit his arm that after noon, Olette didn't even have the energy to complain like she normally did.
xXx
"It's going to be hard to leave this place." Olette said as she sat in the sand with Roxas, Demyx, and Axel, looking out past the ocean to the setting sun.
"I know." Axel said, "I haven't been able to relax like this in years."
"Yeah right," Roxas retorted, "all you ever do is slack off."
"If I only ever slacked off would I be as good of a martial art teacher as I am."
Roxas looked like was about to open his mouth to say something back but Demyx interrupted him, "Guys, lets just enjoy this while we can ok. No bickering."
That shut them up long enough for them to not start fighting again and they went back to quietly looking over the ocean.
After a little while Axel and Demyx headed back inside leaving Olette and Roxas to themselves.
"Hey Roxas?" Olette said after a few minutes.
"Yeah?"
"Where do you get all the money to pay for everything that we're using to travel?"
Roxas paused, "I'd rather not say."
"You aren't stealing from anyone are you?"
"No, Olette, I'm not taking anything from anyone."
"Okay."
"Let's head inside, we have a long day tomorrow and we start early."
Olette nodded, taking in one last time the view that she would miss, before she took Roxas' hand and headed up to the house with him.
xXx
When Olette woke up the next morning things seemed the same as always. She was a little tried still, but it wasn't enough to bother her. She could hear someone moving downstairs, probably Roxas.
It wasn't until she got out of bed and had changed into her riding clothes, when she noticed the odd shadow that was on the wall up against the door. It looked to be coming in from the balcony door.
Olette turned and froze. She was too frightened, too angry, too frustrated, to scream as she watched the figure step though the glass door.
"Hello Olette." Xemnas smirked at the frozen brunette before him.
(End of Chapter Twelve: The Sea House)
xXx
A/N: Hey! Sorry about the later update, I meant to update this sooner, but whenever I wanted to be on the internet, my internet failed me. I've been having a lot of problems with my computer lately, which makes things kinda difficult.
Okay, here is where I thank everyone who reads and reviews this story as though you guys are gods because guess what? This story has been in the making for over a year now and if it weren't for you guys I wouldn't be writing this still. : ) I can't believe I've made it this far, so thank you all. If I could give you something, I would, but unfortunately I can't give you anything other than this chapter and the knowledge that I am already finished with the next chapter, it just needs to be edited. Which means it should be up by next Tuesday at the latest.
Have a spectacular weekend! : )
