Flurry of Flames Second Chance: Part 3
The next day when the young woman woke up she saw Axel looking up at the ceiling with his forehead wrinkled with thought. He seemed to be digging for answers that were barely eluding his reach, and every once in a while she saw him practically snarl at himself. When the tension was relieved from his forehead the wrinkles disappeared and he sighed.
"No use," he said hopelessly as he crossed his arms underneath his head.
When he didn't say anything for a while she cleared her throat.
"Good morning," she said groggily.
He looked at her, his lips slightly parted so she could barely see that he was gently chewing on his tongue.
"Morning," he replied and started to rise from the mattress. "Where's your bathroom? I've been holding for so long it's not even funny."
She cracked a smile as she pointed towards the door.
"It's the first door on the right."
He nodded as he lifted his legs over the left side of her bed and sat up, resting in that position to ready him self for standing. A low grunt escaped his throat when he finally made it up, and as he walked out of the room he cracked his neck.
When Natasha was sure she was alone she stood up from her couch and stretched. She took the chance she had alone to quietly close the door and change into a simple, dark blue shirt and tan pants before, as she ran her fingers through her hair that was still clean from yesterday, she realized that her parents could find Axel when he was outside of her room. Her heart jolted at the realization, and she bolted out of her room just in time to see both her father and Axel exiting the rooms they were in.
Thankfully, her father, not being a morning person, had his eyes directed towards the ground and moved sloth like to close her parent's bedroom door. She quietly made her way over to Axel and put a finger over her lips. He got the idea and kept his mouth shut, though he didn't quite understand why she couldn't tell him what was going on. Her eyes darted over to her father again who tried with all his tired might to rub sleep from his eyes with a slight grunt, and was just about to open them. Axel tried to follow her line of vision, but the millisecond he laid his eyes on him he was pushed roughly into the bathroom by Natasha who followed in after him and shut the door quick enough to make a noise.
Before he could ask anything she put a hand over his mouth, pushing him against a sink right behind him with the slight force she had, and stared at the bathroom door. The worried voice of her father came from the other side.
"Are you okay in there, Natasha?"
"Yes, daddy. I didn't realize I was pushing so hard. Sorry if I scared you," she said as convincingly as she could, as Axel raised a slender red eyebrow at her.
"Okay. As long as you're alright." His footsteps signaled his leave from the door.
Natasha lowered her hand and walked over to press her ear against the door to listen for any signs of her parents. As she did Axel leaned his lower back heavily on the sink trying not to show that he was slowly losing energy. When he steadied himself he cleared his throat for her to look at him. When her deep violet eyes turned to him he crossed his arms, and with a sly look he stated rather than asked, "Your family doesn't know I'm here? Naughty, naughty girl." He shook a finger at her without lifting one of his arms from the cross they made, and made little clicking noises with his tongue.
She colored slightly at his comment and looked down at the floor at his feet for a moment before looking up into his face.
"Well, you see, I wasn't supposed to be anywhere near where I found you, and you're a total stranger sleeping in my bedroom. I didn't want to have to deal with what they would think if I could avoid it."
He closed his eyes with a single chuckle, nodding his head with sarcasm. He regretted the movement when his head exploded with pain. Natasha saw a very obvious grimace on his face. His arms uncrossed and she ran forward to him to steady his form that was about to fall over. His body felt so heavy with fatigue that she almost dropped him, but managed to keep him at her height long enough to reach the door handle, and for him to regain balance. The question of what happened to him crossed her mind again.
They made their way quietly back to her room before her parents had a chance to see them and Axel was laid out on the bed again. She took the towel she had put on his head the night before and placed it on him, the water still cold because of the conditioning in her room.
"You weren't ready to walk on your own," she scolded. "Why did you?"
With slightly labored breathing he opened his eyes and gave a little chuckle.
"I didn't want you to feel like you had to help me go to the bathroom. I'd hate to put a girl through that." His words were sincere, but she felt a little guilty now.
Some time passed between them, and as his breathing began to even out she noticed he wasn't quite ready to go back to sleep yet. He was trying to keep his eyes open on his own and was obviously trying to figure something out. Natasha decided to try and relieve him from his thoughts.
"So where did you come from, Axel?"
His green eyes wondered tiredly over to her and centered on her almond shaped face. When she didn't take back the subject and merely stared back at him he sighed.
"Pretty far away from here I bet. I don't recognize a thing here." His eyes scanned the room to help show the truth of his words. "Where I came from it was usually rainy and all the buildings were tall and skinny."
She nodded as she absorbed the information. It did sound different just from his bleak explanation he gave since most every dwelling around here was short and fat, as well as wherever else she went.
"What did you used to do?"
He raised an eyebrow and gave her a sort of look that asked if she really wanted to know. He was actually just trying to buy time since he already knew she wouldn't relent. He leaned back and closed his eyes.
"I was part of this group called Organization XIII that researched different aspects of human feelings. It was some shady type of business, but nothing ever really got accomplished from what I remember. I think all of the other people are dead save for one idiot." He smiled as he remembered his young, blonde friend, but winced when Natasha gave a slight gasp. He could have omitted that part. He chuckled in spite of himself.
"Dead? What happened?" She asked.
Axel didn't quite know how to continue, and he let out an annoyed sigh as he wrinkled his eyebrows together.
"Well, we got into some competition with a few select people and they didn't think what we were doing was right." He growled inwardly at himself. "Listen, it's not really something I want to talk about. It doesn't really matter to me."
By the way he talked she could tell he meant what he said, but she still felt there was something he wasn't telling her. He almost seemed too uninterested in the deaths of his colleagues, but she figured it was none of her business.
"What happened to you?" She asked as she took the wet towel from his head to soak it in water again.
He seemed to be in a deep state of thought as he pondered how exactly he would answer her question.
"I uhhh...got knocked out protecting the idiot," he said instead of telling her he died. Besides, for all he knew now he had just been knocked out. The whole thing was puzzling beyond his imagination.
Briefly he remembered floating in swirling torrent of white and black, but as he thought of it his head began to hurt a little. That is, a little compared to what he remembered feeling in that place. Underneath the cool towel he began to sweat with the effort it took to keep himself from showing any pain. For some reason he felt like he shouldn't let Natasha know how he was feeling.
From downstairs they both heard her father's masculine voice calling up the stairs for Natasha. Axel could tell that she stiffened and as his mind was redirected the headache ceased.
"Yes, daddy?"
"Come down and let's go out to eat some lunch. Your mother is too lazy to even make some sandwiches!" Natasha heard him laugh as he and her mother started a playful fight. No doubt when she went down they would be kissing and other yucky stuff on the counter. She rolled her eyes.
"You have to go?" Axel asked from the bed. He didn't seem disappointed, but he didn't seem happy about it either. It crossed her mind that he might get hungry while they where gone.
"If you feel strong enough it might help you to walk around the house a little bit. You can eat basically anything on the three bottom shelves of the fridge. My parents don't pay too much attention to it since it's mostly snacks and open to anyone in the house. I promise to bring you home some real food today."
He nodded in response, feeling his fatigue heighten and make his eyelids heavy. Natasha picked up on it and smiled with a wave. He nodded again and she exited the room.
((A/N: Please tell me if I'm doing a bad job with the whole Mary Sue thing. I know it may not show up here quite yet, but I was reading a few of the upcoming parts and I'm just going to need a little reassurance. Also, I'll tell you right now that Axel is going to start being a little OOC, which is a shame because I like him the way he is so much ; , but I promise it's like that for a reason. He'll return to normal soon.))