Ill Repute

Note: It occurred to me while I was looking over the material I'd posted for this story, that I have only done a prologue in (now) three of my stories. I thought I'd done them a lot more. I knew there was one for Voix, but it's so short that it didn't have its own post as a chapter in of its own. There is one for The Road to Hell (Walk a Path on this site), but that's a recent thing. Weird. Maybe I'm finally mixing up all the different stories I've written, posted, and eventually removed. I hardly remember how some of them even played out. Maybe I'm finally losing it.

Regardless, I am thrilled with the response I've seen with this story. It's not going to be a very long one, and the humor in some parts will still be seen, but Axel's words aren't lies, and it's only the beginning of what Roxas is about to find out about his new housemates.

"Half accidental, half pain full instrumental. I have a lot to think about. You think they're joking? You have to go provoke him... I guess it's high time you found out." –The Dresden Dolls, "Half-Jack"

Chapter Two: Half and Half

Garnet stayed for a short while, but left him within half an hour to go home. She told him that she wished him the very best of luck, and told him she'd be back to see him within two or three days. Roxas told her about the statement that that kid, Axel, had made, and she looked uncomfortable for a moment, but reassured him.

"All the boys here have been through a lot, and they've formed their own sort of brotherhood… Maybe none of the other houses would take them because of their cases, but that doesn't make them, or you, crazy." She hugged him, a gesture as foreign to Roxas as the rest of his life. "You're okay, Roxas."

Cid took him to the room he was staying in, and found that, to his utter dismay, he was roomed with the Axel from earlier. It was also then that he realized that he didn't have anything at all. No clothes, no possessions, no keepsakes, no memories, no nothing. He was just an empty shell of a person with nothing that made him any different from a doll. His expression fell a bit more than it already had.

From the evidence left all over his body, the life he'd had before this one must have been really bad for him to run away, bleeding and broken, and losing his mind… It had taken a long time for him to find out from Aerith why he was even found in the first place. Roxas wondered if he'd ever remember what had happened for himself, but Aerith explained that he had been found wandering the highways around Destati, half frozen, soaking wet, bleeding, and covered in still-blackening bruises. The police stopped for him because he was weaving dangerously close to a bridge and, of course, wandering highways in the dead of night, during one of the coldest nights of rain. He was shaking violently and struggled for only a moment before collapsing from the concussion he was suffering hallucinations from.

"The officer, an Officer Tribal, said that when he asked you what you were doing, you said you were looking for ice cream." Aerith sighed and stared at Roxas, whose head was still heavily bandaged. "I don't know what that means, but I thought I could ask you."

"I have no idea." Roxas said blandly.

Aerith sighed, eyebrows furrowed in concern. "I was afraid of that." She stood. "I need to talk to Officer Leonhart, but he'll likely want to talk to you, too."

"Okay." Roxas looked back out the window.

He came crashing back from his memory as Cid waved a hand in front of his face. "Y'okay, kid?"

Roxas nodded. "Just…" He looked around the room. "Thinking. I don't have anything."

Cid smiled. It wasn't a smirk or mocking. It was sincere. "None of y'all do when yuh get here. I ent makin' a profit on the money the politicians give me. Gotta use it on something more'n payin' bills." He waved Roxas over to the closet, and opened one side of it. "Not much, but it's somethin' for the time bein'. We'll work on getting' yuh more here soon. An' if yer like the damn kid yer roomin' with, yuh'll have plenty here soon."

Roxas, on the other hand, was speechless. There had to be at least four different pairs of pants in the closet, hanging neatly on hangers and separated from the shirts. "I… Thank you." He whispered hoarsely.

Cid chuckled. "If yuh think that's great, wait'll yuh see we got yuh underwear, too."

Roxas stared up at him, wondering if he was serious, but saw the smile and returned it slowly. The door was opened the rest of the way, and in walked the redhead, Axel. Roxas tensed, but there was a cheerful smile on his face.

"Damn, Cid, you let me miss it!" He seemed in a mood considerably improved from before. He turned and gave Roxas a bright, sincere smile. "Clothes are the best part of new people. It means the most, I know." He sat on his bed, with a satisfied flop. "I even got to pick out some of your stuff." His smile was widening as he continued. "Mostly the black stuff, though."

Cid shook his head and headed for the door. "Ah'll see both of yuh at dinner." He told them and left.

Roxas stared at Axel apprehensively.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Axel's smile faded into a serious look. "Hey… you said your name was Roxas, right?"

"Yeah. You said you didn't know I was coming."

Axel frowned. "I know. I promise that I did, though. Cid and I worked hard to get everything ready for you. Zex doesn't need to know that, though. You won't tell him, will you?"

Roxas blinked. "I guess not." He was confused, and as he slowly moved to sit down on his bed, he gave Axel a wary glance.

Axel's eyes fell. "I'm really sorry about earlier. It just kind of… happens sometimes. I don't mean to be like that." He laughed nervously. "Not the best of ways to start off, huh?"

"…Yeah." Roxas turned to face the wall.

There was silence from the other side of the room as Axel stared at his new roommate. "I didn't mean to make you mad."

Silence.

Axel sighed. "Roxas… there are a lot of things that have happened to everyone here. If it makes it any easier, which it easily may not, I ran away from home." He laid out on the bed. "I don't know what it was… I just couldn't take it anymore. My brother's in the system, too… He got a foster home, though."

He sat up, but Roxas stayed silent and facing the wall. "You're going to hear a lot of things, Roxas…" He began, then turned to stare up at the ceiling. "There's something that you're going to have to know, and deal with, since you're my roommate." He stood up and touched Roxas's shoulder. "Roxas?"

"What?"

"No matter what you hear about me, because I know there's a lot of things that a lot of people say, please remember I'm not going to hurt you."

Roxas rolled over and stared emotionlessly at Axel. "You're fucking insane, you know that?" And he meant it. "First time I meet you, you poke into my problems… If I'm here, I've got a reason for it, hm? Doesn't mean I want to talk about it. And then I'm living with you, and I find out that you're… I don't know. Bipolar, or something, and you're cheerful, and then moody, and I don't know what the hell is wrong with you, and I don't know how whatever happened to me stacks up against it, but I really, really don't want to be dealing with this right now."

Axel stared at him like he'd been slapped, then stepped back away from Roxas's bed. The same cynical grin slowly spread over his face. "I guess it's time you found out first hand, then." Roxas watched in stunned silence as Axel changed from the cheerful, friendly teen to something he didn't understand.

"It's like this, Roxas… You don't piss me off. Don't get in my way, and I won't get in yours." Axel was very close to his face. "Or I'm going to do you like the person that got you into this place did." He meant the evident, still black bruises and bandages that littered Roxas's body.

Roxas stood up angrily, and shoved Axel back. "This is what I meant." He hissed, glaring at him. "It's like you're some kind of two-faced son-of-a-bitch without any kind of hold on his emotion, or rage, or whatever."

Axel only laughed, a mild touch of insanity ringing in it. "You got it dead on." He took another step toward Roxas, fully ignoring any personal space preferences Roxas may have had. His green eyes were flashing dangerously, warning Roxas that anything could happen at any given moment.

Roxas wasted no time waiting to find out what would happen, balled up his fist, and delivered an enormously powerful right hook to Axel's jaw. Disbelief flashed on his face as he stumbled back, cupping his jaw, which was going to have evidence of bruising the next morning. He stumbled further back onto the bed and sat down on it, expression changing to one of penance.

"I…I'm sorry." He stood up and headed for the door.

Roxas was entirely lost on what had just happened. "Axel, wait…" He took the two strides it took to reach him, and stared up at him. "I don't understand."

Axel chuckled, but not in the frightening, dark way that he had only moments before. This time, it was somewhat sad, and a little ironic. "Two sides of the same coin, I guess. I just… I have some rage issues. Like… Like you said, a bit bipolar. It's weird… I don't usually get like that twice a day… I can't…" Axel shook his head.

"I can't believe I forgot those fucking meds today."

Roxas bit the inside of his cheek. He didn't really know how to react.

"Hey, don't look like that. I understand if you want to move out." His voice said that, even if he understood, he knew it was his fault and he didn't like that.

Roxas swallowed. "I'm not." His voice was hoarse. "I'm not moving out. I'm staying here." He wasn't entirely sure why he'd chosen to stay with him, but he did. Maybe they really had started out on the wrong foot. He liked the nice Axel, once his earlier presumptions were tossed unceremoniously out of the ring.

Axel looked up, green eyes widening. "You… are?"

Roxas nodded. "Yeah." He held out his hand. "I'm Roxas… Roxas…" He thought for a moment, trying to remember the last name that was on his ID. He sighed, pulled out his wallet, and then took out his ID. "Roxas Thomas." He read aloud, before putting the card away and tossing his wallet onto his bed. He then shoved his hands in his pockets, giving up on shaking hands, and stared at his shoelaces.

It took a second for Axel to piece together the scene that had just unfolded, and then the answers Roxas had been giving him, and then… the way Demyx had been trying to warn him to shut up about what was wrong with him.

"Fuck." He sighed, running a hand through his hair as everything clicked into place. The bruises. The cuts. The scars. The obvious evidence of abuse… which could lead to...

"Dissociative Amnesia." Roxas supplied Axel's thoughts. "At least… that's what my doctor at the hospital called it."

Axel blinked. "You can't remember… anything?"

"Nothing of me, at least. Normal activities, sure. Lessons, sure… but…" Roxas didn't know why, but he was embarrassed. "But nothing of who I am, or where I come from, or my family, or… anything."

Axel didn't know what to do. He was afraid that if he looked away, Roxas would interpret that as rejection, or if he stared, the blond would feel like he was a freak on display. Apologies weren't enough in this case.

"Axel, we've all got problems here, right? We all had to have run away or ended up here somehow. Whether it's because we ran away, or were abused, or orphaned, or a combination of those… We're here… And we're in this together." Roxas wasn't sure where the words were coming from. Maybe he was just trying to make this Axel feel better for being such an ass before.

Maybe he was just trying to make himself feel better about the situation.

There was silence for a long moment, and then Axel released a sighed laugh. "I think he likes you."

"He?" Roxas echoed.

"The other me…" Axel stopped and shook his head. "I mean, we're the same person… It's not like I've got a split personality… It's still me… I just have some issues with the control and the rage and… I still refer to that part of me like it's someone else. This is the real me… He's just something that happens sometimes when things get too bad. And you're the only one that's ever stood up to me like that, when I get like that… Only one who could snap me back. Even that side of me can respect that."

For a brief moment, Roxas wondered why they were bonding themselves together so tightly just after meeting… But then it occurred to him that this place was exactly what it was called. A halfway house.

Everyone who lived there was halfway between one life and another.

Everyone was halfway disconnected from society.

Everyone was halfway lost in a world they halfway didn't understand.

And, Roxas decided, if you wanted to survive in this halfway limbo, you had to meet everyone else halfway.

End Chapter Two