Axel had noticed the emotional difference between the blond that sat on the hospital bed and the one he met the morning so many weeks ago. He hoped it wasn't just because of the drugs. He hoped it was a result of finally breaking through the top layers of Roxas walls. But he couldn't say what it was for sure, all he could do was wait and see…
The blond no longer had to remain restrained, it was an idea he fully embraced, but he still had to remain plugged into a tube to pump his lung. Even though Aqua was becoming closer to the blond and redhead- she still had to tell Axel to go home when visiting hours were done. They both thought it was unfair to the blond that he had to stay alone in his room at night, with no Axel or Aqua- but there was nothing they could do about it.
Roxas had been in the hospital almost a week now- normally they would've moved his room again, to one where he would share the space with another patient, but they were still afraid his lung might not heal right. It was complicated because his ribs throbbed in pain at his every move- he should've been wearing a brace and that was the complicated part. No brace could wrap around him when his lung was still fragile- which meant, whenever Roxas got out of the hospital, he would be put in a brace to help his ribs and limit his movements.
A few more days passed- the blond at first seemed almost depressed but he was back to his special happy self. Yes- happy. A part of Roxas that Axel only had the pleasure seeing a very few times.
"Hey Roxas," the familiar nurse walked in, a folder of paper in her hands and a grim smile on her face.
"What's that?" it wasn't Roxas who asked but Aqua answered either way.
"These are the results of those test samples…" she stared at the folder, "I wasn't sure if you wanted to read them over yourself or have me read them to you?"
Axel looked over at Roxas, who looked like a deer in the headlights for a moment. "Umm… can I see them?"
"Of course," she handed the papers to Roxas from her spot, standing at the end of Roxas' bed. "Sometimes the tests can take longer to get back, but I asked if they could hurry a little with it." It had only been a week since she took the samples, but whenever one of them thought back to what the test was going to reveal- it felt like months and seconds at the same time.
Looking at the packet like stack of papers, Roxas looked from top to bottom on the page- he had no idea how to read it and the words were just a blur on the page, "What's it say?" he asked Aqua. The nurse moved beside him and pointed to a word on the sheet, she continued to point through the sheets; all the while Roxas nodded his head with no readable expression.
Roxas stared at it a little longer, Axel watching him closely, "I'm all good," the blond smiled at him.
Roxas may have thought of suicide before in his life, he might have even thought of ways he wanted to die, or ways he didn't care if he would die. But his body was shaking and when he read the 'Negative' on all the papers it made his heart skip beats. Good beats- like the way his heart skipped when Axel kissed him. The blond inwardly rolled his eyes at himself; he'd blame it on the drugs because there was no way Ms. Manly Man Roxas was actually admitting to having those girly feelings.
But back to the papers- Roxas felt a relief, like w eight had been lifted off his shoulders and in the process he'd taken a burden from Axel. The blond didn't know when but his hand had somehow found Axel's and when the redhead heard the words he squeezed the teen's hand for a second, a smile growing on his face. "Do you still have that menu?" the nurse asked, wanting to fulfill her job.
Roxas' mouth dropped for a second to try and give an answer but nothing came out, he paused for a second before smirking and shaking his head. Since he was able to eat real food now, but still on bed rest, he was brought a 'menu' of the hospital's food- he had to choose something from each category every meal time and today was no different. Except Roxas had a habit of drawing on the menus with the pen Axel provided. "I'm an enabler," the redhead shrugged. They'd been told more than once that they should keep the menus and allow them to reuse them, but there weren't all that important- and there was nothing better to do.
So instead of watching the TV Roxas' room was provided with he took the pen supplied by Axel and drew giant monster foods eating random things. He drew Jell-O monsters with sharp teeth, noodle squids spraying tomato sauce, and oranges and apples 'bleeding' all over the place. It was comical and that made Axel okay it even more.
"Alright," Aqua sighed, "I'll be back with another one," she quickly got a new one and returned to the room, Roxas quickly ordered something- something he knew Axel would eat because he never planned on eating all of it. She left the two alone in the room again but before they could get too deep in any conversation she was back, a pastel brown tray in hand with a pink plastic lid for a covering. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a plastic cup with milk, a bowl of Jell-O, and a bowl of chicken noodle soup- covered with the pink lid to keep it warm. "There you go, eat up Roxas- the doctors coming in to see how your lungs doing."
Roxas couldn't wait- he just wanted to get out of the hospital, away from the life he knew before- he just wanted to be with Axel at Axel's house. And with each day what he wanted was just getting closer and closer.
It felt like hours before he saw the doctor again, "Hello Roxas, how're we doing today?" the doctor asked in a hearty tone.
"That depends?"
"On?" the doctor pulled out Roxas' file again and quickly looked over it once more.
"Whether I can get this tube taken out today or not," the doctor chuckled at his response before walking around the bed and standing next to Roxas.
"You're lung should be healed by now- normally a lung only takes a few days or so to heal, but with your ribs broken… we just wanted to be sure." He pressed the button on the side of the bed to make the upper half level out with the bottom- causing Roxas to lay flat on his back. The doctor prodded gently with two gloved fingers around Roxas' sides, gentle on his ribs but pressing a bit harder on his hurt lung. Putting on his stethoscope he pressed the end part to his lung, instructing Roxas to take a deep breath.
Roxas felt like an idiot as he was forced to do it again, and again. The doctor kept putting pressure on his lung at all different angles, and it was beginning to make Roxas' side sore. "Okay, I'm going to turn the machine down a bit more so you'll have to do all the breathing again- no more just having it pumped in." he reached over Roxas to the machine connected to the tube and turned it down a bit. The plastic accordion looking thing moved at the same pace but only because Roxas was doing the work, he took in a deeper breath- while he didn't feel like his lung was going to fail him it also felt like he was trying to breathe through a straw after running a mile.
"How you doing?" the doctor asked, pausing to let Roxas adjust, "It's a little hard, isn't it?" when the blond nodded he copied the action, "It'll be fine once you get used to breathing on your own again, the muscles just have to get use to flexing." Roxas didn't even want to imagine what it was going to be like when he stood- he was almost positive he would fall flat on his face, he hadn't moved on his legs very much since he'd been there so it would be a miracle if they even held him up.
"How about now?" he asked and Roxas just nodded again.
"It's not too bad." It didn't feel like it had changed at all and then he saw Aqua and the doctor smile.
"Looks like we can take the tube out today," he said with the smile still in place. "Keep calm and breathe evenly now." Aqua moved beside him and held out a piece of gauze, Roxas' table was clear of the food he had half ass eaten and now had medical supplies on it again. The Dr. shifted things around for a bit before lifting the top of Roxas' gown- Roxas had long ago been given pants so he didn't feel completely naked- and kept the fabric out of the way by draping it across his chest. "This is going to feel strange, but try not to move." The blond nodded.
Axel's hand slid into his own as the redhead stood above him, watching the blond's face and what the Dr. was doing. The doctor removed the tape and gauze that surrounded the tube, he moved it out of his way before he took the gauze that sat on the table and pressed it right above the tube- slowly he pulled it back, making sure to keep it straight. It didn't take very long before there was a small pop like sound and the gauze was being pressed down flat against Roxas' skin. Aqua handed him a few pieces of medical tape to the doctor who proceeded to tape the gauze down tight.
It had felt weird, but it wasn't too bad. "This mean's I can leave now, right?" he asked nervously, still lying down and still dealing with the haunting feeling of the tube under his skin.
"Not quite yet, I want you to stay the night so we can make sure the brace doesn't hurt your lung too much. In the morning will call for your Ward to sign you out and you'll be free to go, alright?"
Even though it wasn't quite what the blond wanted to hear- it was close enough.
Roxas didn't have the chance to get too comfortable though, "Brace time," Aqua said with a twisted smile, she pulled out the brace, and she and Axel helped the blond sit up. "Sit up straight," she instructed. It didn't look too bad for a brace- it looked like the bottom of a plain white shirt. Like the top had been cut off or something, but as Aqua wrapped it around his waist, over top of his hospital gown, he realized how much it wasn't like a shirt bottom. It was tight, the back edge went a little higher on the top only to curve and fit to his shoulders and move from cradling his shoulders to cradling his ribs.
If Roxas had ever been concerned with his posture he should've just gotten a rib brace- it forced him to sit straight up, leaving him with no possible way to slouch. "Wear it over some sort of shirt- otherwise the edges with irritate your skin. Don't wear it in the shower, try to wear it when you sleep- if you can't then just try to stay sleeping on your back… if your lung hurts and it hurts to breath take it off, if the pain doesn't seem to go away or greatly lessen then get to a hospital. You've got to be careful because we don't want your lung to collapse again- and it collapsed because of your broken ribs- they're still broken so there's a chance it could happen again before they have time to heal… Stay away from salty foods, laying on your side, watching any movies that might increase your heart rate, or doing anything with Axel that might increase your heart rate."
A blush quickly spread across the blond's face. "Okay?" she asked, "Any questions?"
"I have one," the blond started, "How early can I leave this place?"
She offered a pleasant smile, "Not till about this time tomorrow, think you can wait that long?"
"I don't know… maybe…" he looked over at his boyfriend, "Think you could bust me out?" before the redhead could do anything but chuckle Aqua was quick to react.
"Uh, no, I don't think so- you better be here in the morning Roxas," the blond shrugged at her light tone, causing her to shake her head with her own small smile. "Well, I'll leave you too now." She walked to her desk but before she reached it she saw a familiar person walking away from her- it was someone she'd seen walk away from her many times before but she couldn't place who it was. She shook her head as she sat and pulled up a file of another patient.
"You're not… mad at me… are you?" the blond nervously asked as they laid in his hospital bed, the lights turned off and the sunset casting red light through the window.
"Why would I be mad at you?" He lifted his head to look at the blond's face, but Roxas didn't move to look up at him.
"Well… I mean… I was going to move in with you- everything had been going perfect and then… I don't know… I fucked up and wound up here… I pretty much put everything on hold between us…"
Shaking his head the man replied, "Roxas it wasn't your fault, and it didn't put anything on hold- just because you're hurt and a lot of shit went down doesn't mean I stopped caring for you…" he paused with his mouth open, unsure of how to phrase what he wanted to say, "To be honest… I'm not so sure we would've lasted if I found out what happened to you any other way… I can't say for certain but the drug use was enough to throw me overboard… when I came close to losing you I was forced to realize how much you've grown on me, how much you mean to me… I realized I didn't want to lose you, or even be away from you…" he shook his head as he pressed his face gently into Roxas' blond hair.
"I hate to say it but… I think it was a good thing this happened… otherwise I never would've found out about Saïx and I wouldn't have been able to make sure to never let that creep around you again. Also- I don't think we would've been able to convince Cloud to let you move in with me… which means your father would've just ended up doing this at some other point." The teen nodded- he knew what the redhead meant and the more he thought about it the more he had to agree. He hated knowing his father almost killed him and was responsible for the amount of pain he was in at the moment, but it brought him and Axel just that much closer.
Aqua detached Roxas to the morphine drip and the IV, freeing him of everything that attached him to the bed. She gave him a few pills to help with the pain as well as informed him of the prescription he had for his ribs- he was only to take the pills when the pain was severe or he'd risk getting addicted and they didn't want that.
The next day started early- Roxas in a hurry to get out of the room he had lived in for about 2 weeks. Axel got there just as early to find the blond already sitting up and looking around the room, mentally going through what he had to grab when he left. "You look like your excited about something," it was sarcastic but it came out with nothing but a friendly tone.
"Psh, of course I am," the blond responded, knowing it was sarcasm but choosing not to associate with it.
"How about you calm down a little and I'll go find something to put your stuff in?" it came out more as a statement but the blond still nodded quickly.
They went through the things in the room that had now belonged to Roxas- which wasn't very many things, the menus he had drawn on, the various pieces of paper, the torn and bloody clothes he had yet to go through, his shoes that he most likely wouldn't be putting on anytime soon, and a small pile of short notes left by Axel when the blond fell asleep before he had a chance to leave. Axel tied the two plastic bags shut- one bag holding paper the other holding bloody clothes- and took a seat next to the bed. Axel had made sure to be extra slow when going through things for the simple fact that they still had hours before the doctor would be in to clear Roxas for leave.
He went through every note he wrote Roxas, and every note the blond wrote back, as well as the pictures the teen drew- he found on of him sleeping. Which began a whole conversation about when it was drawn, "You didn't do this that long ago and I don't remember taking any naps recently…" he had to fight for an answer from Roxas but when he heard it he couldn't help but smirk.
"I drew it from memory…" the blond had memorized how Axel looked when he slept- much like how Axel would always remember how angelic Roxas really looked.
By the time they were done- after a pause so Roxas could eat breakfast- it was only a little past 10 o'clock. Axel asked a nurse for a piece of paper and him and Roxas began playing the game Scribbles. It was a simple childish game- one person draws a strange enclosed shape and then the other has to turn it into something, the latter person then draws the new shape and it continues between the two. Roxas' mind seemed to be on mythical creatures because every weird circle Axel drew was given fangs or wings. When the whole thing was done it was a paper filled with images that seemed as if it was drawn by someone tripping on acid- and it was amazing.
Lunch came around along with another dosage of pills to numb the ache in his sides. The blond was quick to order something- as if making choices faster and breathing or moving faster would somehow make time also move faster.
"I called Cloud, he's on his way," Aqua poked her head inside the room, smiling at them before leaving again. Axel wasn't very thrilled about that and Roxas was quick to catch on.
"You don't want Cloud here?" the blond asked. With all the free time Roxas and Axel had- the topic of Axel and Cloud's conversations came up. Not specifically what was said, but Axel explained that he hated the man a little less after the whole ordeal.
"Not if he's drunk…" the blond nodded his head slowly- he understood what the redhead meant but he thought the man would be happier that Roxas could finally leave the hospital rather than worrying about Cloud.
Even though Roxas was all set to go and woke up early just to do so- that came back to bite him. Roxas started to doze after before Cloud even got there, so by the time the man did arrive, about half an hour after Aqua said she called him. The Dr. and Cloud talked while Roxas slept and Axel acted as if he was a shadow, watching Roxas carefully and hoping Cloud didn't do anything to set Roxas off. "Axel," Cloud said after the Dr. left, "Will you wake him up?" the redhead raised his eyebrows for a second- almost falling asleep himself- and nodded, standing up from the chair and sitting next to Roxas on the bed.
"First…" the redhead said, turning to face the man, "You know Roxas is staying with me… right?" he didn't want Cloud to think otherwise and to have a fight break out when the blond woke up.
"Yes… I know… but he has to come back to the house first… to pack his things…" he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, his eyes closed for a moment as he tried to clear through his thoughts.
"Roxy, time to go home," he whispered in the boy's ear, but the blond didn't move, so he whispered it again- a bit louder and suddenly sleep filled eyes opened and looked around the room. He closed his eyes again and gave a yawn as his eyes adjusted to him being awake.
"Hn?"
"Ready to go?" the blond's eyes shut for a moment again but he nodded nonetheless, he began to sit up- the redhead gently helping to pull him up.
"Hell yeah," he grumbled before he yawned again.
Before Roxas could even swing his legs over the side of the bed and give an attempt at standing up, Aqua walked in- pushing a wheelchair. "Hey Roxas," she rolled it over to his side of the bed.
"What's that for?" he was nervous- he didn't want to be put in a wheelchair.
"Sorry but it's hospital rules- you have to leave in a wheelchair," the blond groaned and Aqua laughed, "Come on, it's not that bad- I'll let you chose who rolls you to the sidewalk," the blond dropped his head with another groan before taking a deep breath.
"I chose me," he said, slowly lifting one leg off the bed then the other, Axel helped him from the opposite side of the bed while Aqua took his other hand. It wasn't as hard as he thought- to stand up at least, he didn't dare try taking a step, instead he pivoted on his feet- leaning against the bed- and gently sat back, the pain in his ribs already setting in.
"Sadly," Aqua began, wheeling him around, "Yourself isn't a choice," she turned and began to push him out the door, "Do you have everything?"
"No, it's all by the bed."
"It's okay Roxy, I got it," Axel followed after Aqua, leaving Cloud behind in the room. But the blond was at the door before any of them it seemed.
"It'll probably be easier if you pulled the car up," she spoke to Axel, but all three of the younger ones were caught off guard when Cloud spoke.
"Actually, Roxas," he moved closer to the boy, "I wanted to talk to you about something… since you have to go to the house I figured we could talk during the car ride."
"Um… okay… yeah…" the blond nodded slowly, a little confused and a little worried.
"Hey- wait," the redhead started in a low tone, looking over at the man, "You didn't say that." Cloud only gave the man a look- one that told him to just stop talking. "Alright, if you're okay with riding with him Roxas," he shrugged and the man walked to his car.
"I'm following him back to the house, so I'll be there when you get there- alright?" the blond nodded, tipping his head all the way back so he could look up at Axel.
"Keep in touch, okay Roxas?" Aqua suddenly chimed in, "Axel's cell should have my number… seeing as how he declined my call," she said it in a tone that should've ended with her sticking her tongue out at the redhead but it didn't, sadly.
"Yeah…" Axel nodded, "Yeah, we will," then Cloud's car pulled up, the blond didn't bother to get out of the car which left Roxas to fend for himself- if Axel wasn't there. The redhead pulled open the door and took Roxas' hand, seeing if the blond would be able to stand on his own- if Axel asked the blond would've said he was fine but Axel could tell he wasn't. He tried to help as best he could without hurting the blond- which proved to be difficult, but Roxas was not at all having an easy time getting his legs to work again.
Once he was finally in the car he was breathing heavily and almost sweating- the lack of use caused his muscles to not work right, which caused him to work more, which of course meant more work, and more work meant deeper breaths, which just all around led to more pain. "I'll see you at the house," the redhead said as he leaned through the open window, he leaned in and pressed a kiss to Roxas' cheek- causing the blond to instantly blush. They waited there till Axel pulled up behind them, then they took off.
Cloud knew it was lack of trust that Axel wanted to follow so closely- he didn't want the teen alone with him and Cloud was hoping to gain trust that surpassed what he seemed to have. "How're you doing?" the man asked, looking over at Roxas for a second before returning his eyes to the road.
"Oh- just great," he said, being sarcastic while being serious at the same time.
"I know you don't care enough to take in my consideration- but yes, I agreed to let you move in with Axel." He said as if to break the ice, there was a tension and he knew what he wanted to say but he didn't know how to bring it about. The blond nodded when he knew the man was looking and that made it a little more difficult for him to say what he wanted to say, they stopped at the red street light and Cloud tried to pull together his thoughts.
"I can't tell you how your father is now… I can't tell you how he feels about it- but you know it's not him Roxas, it's his addiction. It has nothing to do with his feelings for you, just because he hurt you does not mean he doesn't care for you… he just can't think straight- but I'm not defending him Roxas. It was his decision to do drugs and he can blame no one but himself." He knew once the blond settled down that night- he would be hit with the worst of his emotions, because that's just how these things tended to happen. Once you were welcomed back into a home, all fears of dying were off the table and the cold reality of the situation was able to sink in.
"Yeah…" the blond said in a sad tone, "I know…"
The light changed and Cloud slowly continued driving, "You know Roxas…" he started slowly, "I'm sorry." He said bluntly, causing the teen to look over at him then quickly away.
"Sorry for what?"
"For how I've acted since…" he took a deep breath, "It was unfair to you, I just couldn't get my head out of my ass long enough to see the truth." There was so much he wanted to tell Roxas, so much he had always wanted to tell him since he first met the boy- but if Roxas had any hope for a happy life, it would be crushed if he found out. Sure the blond could live on but there would always be that part of him that would begin to question everything.
Cloud waited for Roxas to respond only to realize he wasn't going to, "I've been sober for 18 days now…" the blond looked over at him. "It's not much," he offered a chuckle in hopes of lightening the tension, "But it's a start."
"That's good Cloud," the blond finally replied.
"Wanna know something even better?" he looked over at the teen for a moment then back at the road. When the boy nodded he continued, "I have a job again. It's not the highest paying, or in my major but I started a week ago…" the blond nodded, "I think it'll be good for you to move in with Axel, for you to stay with him… but whether I admit it often or not you still are important to me Roxas." That caught Roxas off guard. "And," he let out a small chuckle, "I've been too wasted to show you that…" he looked at the blond, "I'm sorry for that…" He parked the car outside the house but neither moved to get out, "You don't have to if you don't want to- but I would like for you to visit sometime, if not here then somewhere else, and I think it best that Axel's house remain a secret… I don't want your father finding out where it is…"
"Okay," the teen said finally, the older blond raised an eyebrow as he looked back over at Roxas, "You keep going good and I'll come around every once and a while," the older one nodded his head as a small smile spread across his face, he turned back to face out the front window just as Axel opened Roxas' door.
"What're you guys waiting for?" he asked, his tone gentle only for Roxas' sake.
The blond leaned forward to look around the man, "Till I suddenly grow wings and can fly to the house because there is no way I think I can walk all that," he looked up at the man. They seemed to have hit a dilemma. While Axel would quickly think to pick the blond up, or put the blond's arm over his shoulder or something- he couldn't. Because that would hurt the teen's ribs, and there was no way in Hell Axel wanted to do that.
"Alright… we can figure this out…" the redhead scratched his head, looking to the house and then back at Roxas. "I'd carry you but I think that I'd just end up hurting you… can you stand?" the blond was already trying to get out of the car but was having a hard time with it sitting so low to the ground, he didn't understand why his legs were being so stubborn. Then again they were apart of him and he was stubborn as Hell. Cloud was suddenly on the other side of Roxas' door, watching as they tried to figure out a way to get Roxas into the house without hurting him.
The blond finally got his footing but didn't trust himself enough to take a step- this is why he was supposed to go on those walks everyday like Aqua wanted him to, but nope- he was too stubborn to be bothered. "Axel, why don't you give him a piggy back ride?" the older blond suggested.
Axel looked at Cloud for a moment before looking at Roxas, "Alright," he kneeled down in front of Roxas and after a question from the teen and a nod from the redhead, Roxas was climbing on to Axel's back.
"You drop me and I will kill you," the blond threatened as he held on tight, he would've felt safer if his arms were wrapped around the man's shoulders but that hurt his ribs too much, so instead his arms were wrapped under the man's own arms- hugging his chest.
Axel chuckled, "Don't worry, I'm not going to drop you," Cloud walked ahead of them and unlocked the door, peaking inside to make sure Sephiroth didn't make a surprise visit. Axel walked with Roxas straight to the blond's room.
"Tell me if you need anything," Cloud said as he sat on the couch, watching some random movie..
"Ready?" the redhead asked, when he felt the blond hold tighter and nod he slowly bent to the floor, gently allowing Roxas' feet to touch the floor and even more gently letting go. Roxas leaned against him for a few seconds before pushing back and leaning against the wall- just as gently. "You good?" the man asked when he turned around, the blond quickly nodded.
"Yeah, I just have to get my legs to work right again," he took a small step forward but didn't stop; he kept taking small steps till he was by his stereo. Slowly he kneeled down, grunting in pain as he landed a little harder than he wanted to. Axel walked into the other room to actually talk to Cloud- given it was only because he needed a big box, but the redhead still went to Cloud for something. It made Roxas smile.
Inside the box went Roxas' stereo, his CDs, and his random artist utensils. The rest of his belongings were put in a trash bag- seeing as how they were all clothes, blankets, and a pillow- and that was pretty much it for Roxas' room. He bag was still at Axel's, and Roxas didn't plan on taking any of his razors, nor any of money under his bed- he didn't even feel the need to take his lamp. Axel carried the blond's belongings out to the car while Roxas slowly walked from his room into the living room, "We're off," Axel said as he began walking, the blond on his back holding the door open for them.
"Bye," Cloud replied, "Remember what I said Roxas," there was no specific part he wanted the younger blond to remember- he wanted the teen to remember all of it, to remember everything he said. The road-kissing car proved to be Roxas' ribs enemy. Because the car sat so close to the ground Roxas had to pretty much fall to sit in it and that most definitely did not help his ribs.
Axel drove carefully, hoping not to hurt the blond by his driving. When they finally reached home Roxas was ready for another nap. The redhead quickly got out of the car and unlocked the door, leaving it open as he returned to the car, helping the blond stand up and helping him get going towards the house before he grabbed the teen's belongings. Roxas stuck his tongue out at Axel- just because he needed something to make him feel less pathetic with his current speed. It really didn't take him that long but it felt like it- by the time he stepped off of the blacktop and onto the sidewalk he was pretty sure he got his legs back.
"Wow, slow down there speedy," Axel joked as the blond walked normal pace, again the blond stuck his tongue out at the man, which caused said man to laugh. The redhead had wanted to know what the man and Roxas had talked about but he also didn't want to pry too much into Roxas' life so he decided he'd wait for the blond to tell him- turns out he didn't have to wait very long. Roxas sat on the floor so he could put his clothes away, that was the one thing he knew the place of.
"Cloud's sober now," the blond said, the redhead started getting the blond's things out of the box and setting them up on the counter, next to his TV when he heard the teen's small voice. He looked over in surprise but said nothing, "I guess he has a job now…" he said pausing to push things into the dresser. "He said he was okay with me living here- he also said he doubted I cared what he said about it," the blond smirked and shook his head. "But yeah… he wanted to talk to me to ask if I would visit him and stuff…"
"Yeah?" he paused, "And what did you tell him?"
With a sigh he answered, "I told him if he stayed good I would…" The redhead took a deep breath but held it, he didn't want to set the blond off but said blond could already tell he was holding back, "What?"
"Nothing… I just… I don't want Cloud getting in your head, you know? I don't want you getting too excited that he's this good guy now only for him to turn back around…" the blond looked down like he had been discouraged. "Roxy," the redhead moved closer, "I'm all for Cloud getting better- I hope he does, don't get me wrong- he just has a lot of proving to do is all…"
"Yeah… I know…" The bed was cleared off- the rest of the room wasn't exactly clean, but the bed was. Axel sat on the edge and held out his hand, Roxas took it slowly to be gently pulled up onto the bed. Axel held Roxas as best he could without hurting the blond, which wasn't to say he didn't enjoy how they were lying- it just wasn't how he wanted to hold the teen. Axel wanted to hold Roxas close like he had the last time they laid on his bed, but because of his ribs Roxas had to lay on his back- only because it was more comfortable- which left Axel with only the choice of draping his arm over his waist.
The redhead watched as Roxas' eyes slowly shut and soon afterwards his breathing evened out- Axel could tell the blond was sleepy from the moment they left Cloud's. He hesitantly got up, making sure the windows and doors were locked before he turned off the light and climbed back into bed with Roxas. This is what he wanted- and he'd almost lost it so many times already…
Uploaded: November 13th, 2013