AN: Higher rated version on AO3

Chapter Two: i like to push my luck

Kairi's back hit the comforter as Axel leaned in, hand cradling her neck as he pulled her up for a kiss. When his mouth slid over hers, she expected to taste ash and nicotine. Instead there was an underlying hint under the stronger flavor of mint toothpaste. Even his new shirt smelled of laundry soap and she felt a twinge, wondering if he had changed it for her.

She'd never tell him, but she didn't mind that he smoked. It reminded her of their first kiss, shared in the back of a bar, his tongue a rasp against her throat. Heady on cigarette fumes and the taste of his sweat on her tongue, she'd had the best orgasm she could remember in too high heels, bent over a bathroom sink, his hand cradling her throat and a devilish smirk on his mouth. She'd stared at her own red face in the chipped bathroom mirror, pupils dilated and gone, and thought she was looking at a stranger.

It had been much better than getting drunk.

She must have made a sound because she felt him smile into her mouth. He tilted her neck back so that she was at complete mercy to his mouth and she forgot all about ash and mint. He kissed her like-she moaned as his tongue slipped over hers-it felt like-she dug her nails into his biceps-being devoured and suffocated at the same time. She felt him move to straddle her hips, the ghost of his weight over her, and when he broke the kiss, a warm exhale into her open mouth, she could barely hold her head up to keep eye contact, heavy lidded and panting.

He pulled back and exhaled slowly, green eyes blown wide in the faint moon light from the window. He smeared his thumb over the wetness on her bottom lip and when she nipped at the pad of his thumb, drawing the digit into her mouth, he muttered something unintelligible and bit the side of her neck.

Her fingers tightened on his arms, pulse quickening. "What?" she slurred around his thumb, light headed as he tilted her head to the side, bringing lush heat with his teeth down the column of her neck.

"Pace yourself, Princess," he laved into her collarbone. "I haven't even got started yet."

She huffed at his arrogance and the grin she could feel on her skin. This was familiar territory and the prior awkwardness melted away, leaving only impatience. "Well get on with it then."

"Yes, ma'am," he murmured. His fingers traced down her shirt, his knuckles brushing against the tops of her breasts. It took him a moment to realize something was different. He pulled back, squinting down at her in the dark.

"No bra?" The flash of his teeth in the dark. She shook her head, and he pulled her shirt over one bare shoulder as his hands moved to the hem of her shirt, bunching the fabric in his hand.

"Any other surprises I should know about?" he teased, his fingers skating over the planes of her stomach, and she swallowed as two fingers dipped below the waist of her jeans. He bit the ball of her shoulder when he discovered she was wearing nothing underneath and she held her breath, hyper conscious of the tips of his fingers skimming the damp skin of her pelvis, tracing the edge of the juncture of her thighs.

When he pulled his hand abruptly out, she made a noise of protest that he muffled with his mouth again. This time the kiss was far more hard and aggressive, no teasing, no passive acceptance of her tongue in his mouth, just a battle for dominance and breathing each other's air.

She'd never tell him, but no one had ever kissed her like he did.

They parted, gasping and he sat back on his heels as she clutched his bed sheets.

"Well, well," he said, eyes roving over her, licking his lips. "Since I'm not cramped in a fucking back seat for once, where do I begin?"

She laughed, hands reaching up to fist in his shirt as she levered herself up. He was ridiculously tall even seated and sitting like this she couldn't reach his mouth without him leaning down, but that was fine. She pressed an open mouthed kiss to his chest. "I think you're off to a good start."

His hand cupped the back of her head, fingers carding through it. "You did make me drive all the way to get you," he murmured as she began to slowly ruck up his shirt between kisses. "On the other hand, you're probably terribly uncomfortable in those jeans, aren't you pet?"

Her hands splayed flat against his abs and it felt like touching a furnace. "And cold," she reminded him helpfully.

"Hmm," he said, hands going to her wrists and dragging them down to the crotch of his jeans. "I can think of better places to warm your hands."

He was teasing, but there was also invitation there and she took it. She scooted back, hands curling over the hem of his jeans and hair falling over her shoulder as she leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss below his navel. His hands tightened on her wrists in response. She glanced up at him beneath her lashes, and it was like that time in the bar, feeling like the person in the mirror was a stranger. Or maybe just doing what Kairi, girl from Destiny Islands, never could. "Are you cold too, babe?"

She liked the look in his eyes, dark and hungry as she carefully slid one hand inside his jeans.

She'd never say it out loud, but she liked touching him. The petal soft skin in her hand, the way he got harder with every touch. She took her time as he hissed a litany of senseless dirty things that had her rubbing her thighs together. But too soon for her liking, he was pushing her away and drawing her up to her knees so he could plunder her mouth more forcefully with his tongue, and actually this too was good, tongues stroking in a wet slide, her fingers digging into his shoulders. When they pulled apart, him nipping her bottom lip, her mouth was messy and swollen and her hair must be in a state but her appearance was literally the last thing on her mind.

His eyes half-lidded and he smirked. "Let's get you out of those jeans."

His hand splayed on her chest, fingers spanning collar and base of throat as he pushed her gently back. She let herself fall with a bounce back to the bed, enjoying the way his eyes lingered. He didn't bother unzipping her jeans, just hooked his fingers over the edge and dragged down, eyes fixed on the revealing skin as she shimmied out of them. When the material passed over her bare thighs, he momentarily abandoned his task, leaving her legs trapped at the knees as he leaned over. The open kiss he pressed to the harsh jean marks left at the junction of hip and thigh had her whimpering, toes curling.

He chuckled, reaching to roll her jeans down the rest of the way. Then he sat there, chin on her knee, and took his fill of looking: from her face to shoulder, collar to chest, breast to hip, and then-she felt him nudging her legs open, his hand gripping the fullness of her thigh, palm spanning more than half of it-his eyes lowered and stopped and her heart pounded. She squirmed under his intense scrutiny, then sat up, wishing to return the favor. To her chagrin, aside from the rumpled t-shirt and half opened jeans, he was still clothed.

She reached a hand towards him, but he caught it, tutting condescendingly and placing it at the hem of her own shirt. "Take that off for me, would you?"

"You first," she shot back. He shrugged, reaching back to pull the shirt off of him back to front, revealing his toned arms and chest. His long hair, now loose from its low tail, fell in dark red waves over his shoulders. When he quickly cast off his pants and the remainder of his clothes, the profile of his body in the moonlight made her pause admiringly. Bathroom fluorescent lights were shitty in comparison.

"Your turn," he said, expression insufferably smug.

She went to kick him, though he caught her foot in his palm, thumb skating up the instep and sending a shiver racing down her spine. Flushing under his amused gaze, she reached for the hem of her shirt and started to pull it quickly over her head.

"Hey hey hey." His hand fell on her arm, stopping her half way with her arms over her head and her vision partially obscured by the fabric. "What's the hurry?"

She snagged a finger over the material to glare at him. "I have exams in a few hours, you know."

He laughed, jerking the shirt back over her face and pinning her there, arms above her head and tangled in the sleeves. Cold air kissed the skin of her bare chest. Even through the fabric, the sudden heat of his stare seared through her, and she held her breath, heart in her throat as his thumb skated up her rib cage.

She was irrationally disappointed when she felt him tug her shirt the rest of the way off. When she surfaced to glare at him, he merely grinned. "Got something to say?"

She wiggled on the bed. "Touch me." His eyes darkened, hands moving to span her rib cage once more as he urged her to arch her spine. Her heart skyrocketed as he gently kissed the tops of her breasts, knowing that wasn't what she wanted and yet wanted all the same.

"Touch me, what?" He teased.

She bit her lip. "Please."

When he slipped one of his hands between her legs, her head fell back on the covers with a moan. He didn't give her a chance to breathe, just settled his mouth on her neck as he touched her, her hips jerking, her fingers fisting in his hair. There was a pop as he released her skin from the suction of his mouth and then he drew her mouth to his again in a hard kiss. She felt a feeling rising inside her belly, faster than she expected.

"Wait," she breathed against his mouth, eyes roving the ceiling, "I want-"

Abruptly he drew away. There was a disorienting moment of the cold kiss of the air conditioning as she vaguely heard the opening of a nearby drawer, the tear of foil. Then he grabbed her hips and flipped her over, cool pillow on her cheek. Hot presses of his mouth against her shoulders and spine had her shuddering, mouth open in silence. "I was going to drag this out longer, but..." he rumbled, voice guttural, and then he pulled her back to press into her, enough to make her gasp.

Once he began to move, Axel was not gentle and she didn't want him to be. She was past the point where all sensation turned to pleasure, the feel of him forcing her to muffle her moans into his pillow.

At one point, she lifted her head up long enough to pant, "Why have-we never done-this on a bed before?"

He laughed. "Well Princess, if-that's how you feel-" his fingers tight on her hips, "-maybe I'll just keep you here all to myself."

It was just useless pillow talk but fuck, did that sound nice.

She'd already been close before they'd started, so when she felt the rise of sensation filling her bones and throat, she barely had the mind to gasp, "Axel, I-"

He grunted, his hand suddenly there, an almost too rough touch between her legs-

Her mind went blank as she came. Perfect, beautiful incandescent nothingness. She curled in on herself and hardly registered the groan of Axel in her ear as he stiffened over her, mouthing against the back of her neck.

"Shit," she heard him breathe. His hand sliding up her body to cup her breast, the touch almost sweet.

And then she slowly came back down.

She might not have moved at all if Axel didn't shift to the side, pulling her with him so that they slumped half spooning on the bed. And then they just breathed as sounds and sensation filtered back to Kairi as if waking from a dream. The hum of the air conditioner in the corner. The ticking of the clock on the wall. The warm chest slotted against her back.

It didn't take long for reality to assert itself. For the familiar tension in the back of her neck to tighten as she glanced over his shoulder to look at the clock on the wall. It was almost 2am in the morning now.

She moved to sit up, Axel's arm sliding off her. The movement startled him from a doze and he grunted, moving to lay fully on his back and rub at his face. When he looked at the clock, he groaned.

"Can't you go in with Roxas in the morning?" he asked. She shot him a look, then glanced at the floor to see where her jeans had gone. Her phone was in the back pocket.

"I can call a ride," she muttered, but he rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Look, I'm a bastard but I'm not that much of a bastard." And then, more honestly, "Roxas would skin me alive if he found out." His hand fell on her thigh, fingers stroking the skin there, and then he too sat up, roughing the back of his hair and yawning. "Give me a minute."

She watched him lean across the bed and root around the dresser drawer, pulling out a vape.

She raised her eyebrow, wrapping his sheet around her body. "You use those too?"

He shrugged. "It's not quite the same, but it works."

She stared at him as he scooted to lean his back against the wall at the head of the bed and took a hit, one knee coming up as he ran a hand through his hair. The red locks fell over his shoulders, and Kairi's eyes lingered first on the fringe sticking up on one side, then down his throat, skimming over his chest and arms. He was toned and fit, though likely from actual physical labor rather than working out judging by the lack of obvious muscle bulk. She bit her lip and glanced at his face, cheeks heating at the smirk visible behind the vape in his mouth.

It was weird. She could go down on him in the back of a bar without so much as a blush but the moment they were done, she went right back to overthinking everything. It was exhausting.

As he inhaled a second time, she eyed him and the device and asked "Can I try?"

Axel squinted at her through the vapor, eyebrows furrowing. For the first time of the night, she thought maybe she had surprised him. "Why?"

She rolled her eyes. "I've used them before you know."

He gave her a skeptical look. "How old are you again?"

She almost laughed in his face. She gestured to her naked body. "You're asking me that now?" Then she held out a hand.

He shrugged and dropped the cartridge in her hand, the plastic cool to the touch. She turned it over in both hands, surveying the unfamiliar push button design. She'd never used one like this before, but she understood the basics.

She felt his stare as she put it to her mouth. She blocked him out by closing her eyes, fumbling with the button and taking a breath as the hot vapor filled her lungs. It tasted like cherries.

She middled through it, not holding it in long enough, but she felt enough of a head rush that she let it go, clouds of vapor against her skin when she exhaled. More importantly, she didn't embarrass herself by coughing.

When she finally opened her eyes though, shoulders incrementally more relaxed then they'd been before, she blinked to find the sudden scrutiny in Axel's face. Like it was the first time he was really looking at her all night.

"Princess," he said curiously, and she felt a weird twinge of dread in her stomach as she silently handed the vape back to him. "Why do you keep calling me?"

She was not expecting the question. Maybe from her friends, if they'd known what she'd been doing. But not from him. "I don't know. It's just sex." She looked away. "Sometimes I just need to stop thinking, you know?"

He considered that, putting the vape on the dresser. "Not that I care, but I'm pretty sure those childhood friends of yours wouldn't mind if you called them instead."

She looked away. "They're my best friends."

His look was long and measured. "I'm not a nice guy."

"I don't need a nice guy," she said softly.

She'd never tell him, but she'd tried it once. Not with Sora or Riku, but with Roxas before she'd ever met his shitty housemates and his mysterious red-haired friend. The first few times, they'd been drunk after some biology major social event and he'd said something funny, that self-deprecating look on his face that made her want to kiss it right off-before she knew it, she had. They'd made out multiple times in closets or on the lawn of a campus building like horny teenagers, getting handsy in the dark but mostly just laughing and making jokes, nothing to really talk seriously about afterwards.

The fourth and final time though, he'd been driving her home from an exhausting late night study session and the dread of an exam over their heads. When he'd pulled into the parking lot of her apartment, she'd just leaned over and kissed him. They were not drunk. He'd made a surprised noise under her lips, until she'd slipped her tongue in his mouth and then his hand had come up to cup the back of her head.

They would have had sex right there if not for the security guard that drove by in the dark, putting an end to the mood-and they did have a test the next day. When they'd finally untangled, his hand from under her skirt, her mouth red and swollen, she'd watched from her bedroom window as he sat some minutes in the parking lot before finally driving away.

The next day, she'd barely scraped by, but he'd bombed the test. Panic set in after that. She knew he couldn't afford to fail classes and she, well. She'd been with a few guys before, but all her relationships had been shit shows and she'd never liked any of them after they'd parted ways. She liked Roxas.

Things were awkward for a while after that, but they got through it, both the class and their aborted romance. And she hadn't tried it again. In fact, after she'd met Axel, he'd told her straight up after their third accidental run-in tryst, I don't do relationships.

Neither do I, she'd replied, adjusting her skirt and walking out.

Axel was giving her a strange look. She took a breath, then crawled toward him. He made no move to stop her as she straddled him. "I don't want a nice guy."

"You don't want a friend," he corrected, even as his hands settled over her hips. Rather than answer, she leaned down to kiss him.

There was a knock at the door and an unmistakable familiar voice. "Axel? You in?"

They both froze.

Quick as a flash, Axel grabbed the comforter and draped it over her. "What do you want, Roxas?"

An awkward pause. Perhaps Roxas hadn't been expecting him to even be in. "Uh. Sorry. You weren't answering your phone."

Then like a horror show came the unmistakable voice of Larxene through the door, calling from the end of the hall. "You shouldn't bother him, short stuff, he's been busy with one of your whore friends all night."

Kairi's stomach dropped out even as Axel moved her off him and raised his voice, "Mind your own fucking business, Larxene." Through the wall was another laugh.

Roxas was silent at the door. Then, "Uh. Sorry, man. I'll talk to you in the morning."

Footsteps retreated, leaving them in silence. Kairi, barely breathing, staring at Axel's profile under the edge of the cover as he gave an annoyed sigh, looked up at the ceiling, and then rubbed his mouth.

Your whore friend, Kairi thought numbly. Whore part aside, it wasn't going to take long for Roxas to figure out which friend, and Larxene must have known that. If Kairi had wanted to keep her sex life private, coming to this house had been a mistake.

She hadn't been thinking about any of that when she called though. She never did. She'd wanted to touch someone and be touched, to feel something more than the creeping futility in cramming words and symbols through the sieve of her brain at one in the morning.

Axel moved away from her to place his feet on the ground. "I need a smoke."

Kairi flinched before she could catch herself. When Axel looked at her, she looked down and just nodded mutely. She laid back down and turned over to face the wall, pulling the covers over her like a cocoon, listening for Axel to get up and move to the window, or maybe even leave the room.

Axel didn't move. She felt the sear of his gaze on the back of her head.

"Aren't you going?" she said.

Still, Axel did not move. "You're not a whore. She's just being a bitch."

"I know." She cleared her throat. "I could care less what she thinks." It was the people she did care for that bothered her, but she had a feeling he knew that already.

She tucked the covers more securely around her face, wishing she could teleport home. "Don't let me bother you. I-is it okay if I lay here for a bit? Or do you want me to leave?"

The bed creaked. Then he gave a long sigh. She didn't say a word when she felt him reach for something on his dresser and then sit back down on the bed again. The sound of a lighter flicking a few times and then he inhaled and then out in a long exhale, the smell of smoke burning acrid across the bed sheets. She didn't say anything as his hand slipped under the sheet to grip her thigh and squeeze. She just scooted towards him so that the heat of his back warmed along her spine.

"I thought you said you aren't a nice guy," she said to him eventually. The clock on the wall ticked. The moon was gone now, faint shadows on the bed sheets.

For a long moment, he said nothing at all, hand running idly from thigh to knee and back.

Then a soft exhale. "I'm not."