A/N: Uuuuugh writing is hard. Not as hard as organic chemistry, but! But still hard. (I'm pretty sure I've been trufax depressed since, like, October, which may account for my inability to write for the last forever. But I might be getting over it? Slowly! The bad news is I'm getting over it by segueing into the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom and writing Fullmetal Alchemist/Harry Potter crossovers to the exclusion of all else. Whoops.)
Warnings: I feel like my writing has gotten really bad. If this is true, I apologize profusely. Otherwise: no warnings! :D
Disclaimer: If I owned KH, I wouldn't be worrying about how to pay my bills this month. Sigh.
Summary: AU. Axel/Roxas. He wanted an ending. He got Axel instead.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: All the Places We Could Go
He woke up something like fifteen hours later with Axel on his mind. Not that this was anything new; even when he'd lived with the other man, he'd found himself thinking of the redhead more than was probably healthy. This morning was different, though, because behind every thought of Axel was an echoing thought of how badly he and Sora could have died the day before. He would've died fighting an ice behemoth, of all things, and Axel would never have known.
All because Roxas, idiot that he was, had snuck out in the middle of the night rather than drag his boyfriend along with him.
With an impatient huff, Roxas rolled onto his side and glared at the door. He'd been trying to console himself with the fact that Axel was bound to show up eventually (because this was Axel, of course he would), but how long was "eventually" going to take? Would Axel come strolling in to Twilight Town one day only to discover that Roxas had died in, and this bore repeating, a fight against an ice behemoth, one of the many creatures that Axel was uniquely sorted to deal with without breaking a sweat? More to the point, why was he just waiting on Axel anyway? He was more than capable of going back on his own. That is, unless Leon had hired a surprisingly competent stalker to make sure he didn't leave town, which Roxas wouldn't put past the older man. Well, only one way to find out.
He wasn't too thrilled to get out of bed already, still tired from his magical drain, but he forced himself to get up and into the shower. Once he was clean and fit for public consumption, he made his way into the greater part of the house in hunt for either Sora or food, whichever he came across first. He was unsurprised to find both at the same time.
"Oh, you're awake!" Sora called from his seat at the kitchen table where he was devouring a sundae as big as his head. Cloud was there with him, seemingly fascinated by Sora's monstrosity while he slowly ate from his own modest bowl, but he looked up long enough to give Roxas a short nod in greeting before he continued his staring. "I was starting to wonder if I'd see you at all today!"
"The urge to stay in bed was almost overpowering," Roxas responded drily, sticking his head in the fridge in desperate hope of leftovers. He was greeted by little more than a mostly empty gallon of milk, and a withered object that may once have been some sort of fruit. "The fridge is telling me I should have."
"There's plenty of ice cream!" Sora said brightly.
"It's pretty much the only thing to eat in this place," Cloud added around a spoonful of ice cream. "I thought Leon was going to have a heart attack when he saw the fridge last night. He hasn't been back since."
"I don't blame him," Roxas muttered. "I'm going to find some actual food. I mean, if I'm allowed to leave the house."
"Just don't leave town," Cloud said.
"Yes, mother," Roxas snarked, probably unnecessary since Cloud wasn't paying an ounce of attention to him. Was this how Leon and Cloud planned to keep him from going anywhere? If so, this was the most pathetic attempt at imprisonment he'd ever seen. It would be too easy to get out of town before anyone even knew what he was doing.
Which made him suspicious, and the suspicion was probably the only reason he noticed the presence of the person following him. Somebody started trailing him the moment he left the house, and they were good enough that Roxas not only never saw them, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't have known they were there if he hadn't been on guard to begin with. They even managed to keep track of him when he decided to amuse himself by running across the rooftops instead of through town like a normal person. Impressed despite himself, he finally dropped to the ground by a restaurant to get something to eat as was his original plan.
"Woah, does craziness run in the family or what?" a faintly familiar voice asked from behind him, and Roxas turned around to be faced with Hayner, Pence, and Olette. "You and Sora are seriously the only people I know of who just drop from the air out of nowhere."
"Sorry," Roxas said a bit awkwardly, apologizing mostly because Pence and Olette still looked startled. Hayner had taken it in stride, of course, and Roxas wondered when he'd see the day Hayner was scaring everyone by jumping off roofs as well. "Bet Sora would tell you I'm crazier, though."
"I bet he's right," Pence said, smiling a little nervously at Roxas. "Are you feeling any better? You looked kind of beat yesterday."
"Oh, yeah, just over-exerted myself a little is all," Roxas shrugged. "Honestly, I'd probably still be in bed if there was any food in the house, but I'm pretty sure Sora ate it all."
"Oh, do you want to join us then?" Olette asked cheerfully. "We were just going to eat too."
"You don't have to—"
"Don't worry about it," Hayner interrupted his protest, rolling his eyes. "It's not like we're going to make you eat alone when we're all going to eat in the same place anyway."
"Besides, you'd probably end up at the table next to ours, and then it would be really awkward," Pence added with a grin.
"Alright, alright, I get it. I'll join you if only so we don't have to sit around awkwardly ignoring each other," Roxas said, heaving a mock sigh that would put Sora's melodrama to shame. The other three laughed as they all entered the restaurant.
Though Roxas knew he should be annoyed at the delay the meal ended up causing him, he found himself relaxing as he thoroughly enjoyed the others' company. It was nice being able to be normal for a little while, without the pressure of the Organization hanging over the conversation, and as a consequence he stayed with them a lot longer than he'd intended. The sun had been set for a few hours already by the time they parted ways, and he found himself staring in the direction of the train station thoughtfully. If he jumped on the train now, he could probably make it back to the Organization's mansion just as the sun was setting the next day.
Of course, there was the matter of his new stalker to deal with first. He couldn't just waltz up to the mansion with a stranger at his back; if nobody killed him on sight, they were at least bound to kill the other person. As irritated as he was with Leon's determination to keep him in this town, he didn't really want to get anyone shot. Maybe if he just traveled at random? This would work better if he had a car, but he was certain it would be manageable on the trains.
Decision made, he quickly moved to the train station and got a ticket for the next train out. He spent the night hopping on and off trains, sometimes staying on one for hours at a time, sometimes getting off at the next stop on the line. Whoever was following him was even better than he'd expected; when he found himself pulling into a large town he didn't know the name of sometime after sunrise the next day, he could still feel them watching him though he hadn't caught a glimpse of them. Disgruntled, he checked into the cheapest hotel he could find and forced himself to pass out for a good ten hours.
He woke up as the sun was setting again and took a quick meal in the attached restaurant, hoping to catch whoever was following him. Unfortunately, it seemed to be around dinnertime, and people were continuously trickling in and out of the room. He paid his bill with a sigh and left the hotel as quickly as he could without arousing suspicion, then made his way back to the train station. He rode aimlessly throughout the night again, irritated, and got off at the first station announced after the sun started rising.
He was startled to find himself in the gambling town again. It was just as he remembered it, and he strolled aimlessly through the crowds with a half of a smile on his face as he remembered Setzer's airship. That had really been a disaster of a mission, not that Xemnas knew about it, but he'd really enjoyed the initial flight and the casino. Wondering if the slushie stand still existed, he nodded to the doormen as he stepped into the The Falcon. Where had it been again?
"Oh, Roxas!" a bright voice called, and Roxas grinned as he saw the slushie attendant waving enthusiastically at him from behind the counter. The stand seemed deserted—clearly dawn wasn't a good time for slushies—and she was probably bored out of her mind.
"Hey," Roxas said casually, sliding into one of the barstools and leaning on the counter. "Long time no see."
"Locke said there was some trouble with a dragon in the caverns?" Rinoa replied in a questioning tone, putting together a slushie without being asked. Bemused, Roxas took it from her and sipped at it. Cactus. Of course. He handed over a few munny at her expectant look, then shrugged in response to her not-quite-question.
"Yeah, it was pretty powerful," he said with feigned casualness, not certain just how much Locke had told her. "We ran into each other again recently and managed to take it down this time, though. How's the slushie business been?"
"Predictably boring," Rinoa sighed, leaning on the counter and grinning at him. "I keep wishing for an adventure, but who wants to take the slushie vendor out to battle monsters? I have to live vicariously through Locke usually. It must be nice being able to travel and having people to do it with. Where's that red-haired friend of yours, anyway? Locke gave the impression that you guys were inseparable."
Roxas froze at the mention of Axel, the slushie cup crinkling in his suddenly tight grip. He didn't look up at Rinoa, really not wanting to see the concerned look on her face as he tried to figure out what he could say about his situation without letting slip that they were with the Organization. She probably wouldn't be surprised about him being part of a gang—this was the Underground—and if he implied that he was being followed by a rival, maybe….
"I…left him at home," he said slowly, chancing a glance up and frowning at the casino lights reflected in Rinoa's eyes. "There were, uh, complications on my last mission, and I'm kind of being followed right now. Can't go back."
"Oh, no!" Rinoa gasped sympathetically, giving him a pretty frown. "Is there anything I can do to help? Maybe pass a message on or something?"
Roxas shook his head. "No, they'd be suspicious if you approached him. I don't want to put you in danger." He hesitated a moment, chewing on his bottom lip as he stared at her concerned look. "Though, maybe his brother…"
Rinoa bounced excitedly, pulling a small pad of paper and a pen out of nowhere and pushing it across the counter at Roxas. "Here, why don't you write something out? That way he can be sure it's from you. He knows your handwriting, right?"
"He'd better," Roxas muttered, tapping thoughtfully at the paper with the tip of the pen. He hadn't even remotely considered that he'd be writing Axel a note, of all things, so he wasn't sure what to write. It was probably best if he didn't put in too much information about where he was or who he was with, just in case the message was intercepted; after all, Rinoa was just a slushie vendor. Unfortunately, that left very little for him to say. In the end, he settled for a terribly uninformative message of 'Being watched. Not coming home.' and folded it up into a paper football. Against his better judgment, he labeled the thing with Axel's real name and handed it over to Rinoa with a half of a smile. "Give this to the redhead who owns Men On Fire; his name's Reno. He'll be able to pass it on."
"No problem!" Rinoa said cheerfully, sliding the note into a small pocket of her long jacket and patting it as if to make sure it stayed in place. She ripped a few more pieces off the pad as well, promising to destroy them even though she had to know that there was nothing interesting written on the note she'd been given, and then she all but shoved Roxas out the door. "I'm sure he'll be along in no time," she said reassuringly, though Roxas was sure he'd given her no indication that he was waiting for Axel to show up.
Shrugging it off, he waved idly over his shoulder as he walked back out of the casino with a second cactus slushie in hand. He gave it a cross look and shook it a little, still not sure if he actually liked the stupid things, but drank the whole thing anyway. He didn't head back to the train station until he was done, and even then he only went grudgingly; he wouldn't have gone back at all if Sora weren't waiting for him back in Twilight Town.
He was still several hours out from Twilight Town when he suddenly found himself wondering just what the hell he'd done. Sure, Rinoa seemed like a sweet girl and everything, but he'd only met her one time and he knew she was friends with enemies of the Organization. Even if she didn't know who he and Axel were, he was still putting her in danger. Even worse, he was putting Reno in danger asking him to pass on illicit messages from a defector! Normally, his inherent paranoia would have prevented him from giving a stranger any information, no matter how innocent it seemed at the time.
But there was something about Rinoa. Not her cute frown or her cheerful demeanor—she was pretty and all, but certainly not pretty enough to turn a gay man's head. It was more like there was some sort of magnetic appeal, something entrancing about the way the yellow casino lights reflected in her eyes—
If they were reflections. Roxas straightened in his seat, an impressed grin stealing its way onto his face as he reconsidered the image he had in his head of Rinoa's face. Clearly she was sneakier than she looked. It wasn't easy to hide the fact that you were a sorceress.
A/N: I'm pretty sure I mentioned this last time, but I really don't like Rinoa. I hope it doesn't show though.
Any mistakes exist because I didn't do my usually obsessive editing before posting; if enough mistakes (or, uh, run-on sentences) get pointed out to me, I'll suck it up and do the job properly though.