Chapter Four: Revelations
'Axel. Don't be afraid. You know me, so please just listen and don't try to remember; I will take care of that. But you have to trust me. I would not hurt you. You have to help me to protect you, to protect Roxas. You know why that is important, don't you? Why Roxas is so important?'
Roxas...that boy? I don't know. Who are you?
'Will you help me, Axel?'
Who are you?
'I am...nobody. The important thing is you. I cannot do anything here without your help. You can all be free. You will remember everything, but you must be patient. Trust in Roxas; he is your way. But you must help me by keeping him safe. Can you do that, Axel?'
Tell me who you are first.
'So like you.' The voice laughed good-naturedly. 'But I can't tell you that yet. It would mean nothing.'
I don't know what I'm supposed to remember, lady, but you're freaking me out. How are you in my head?
'I'm not. Not exactly.' He could almost hear the smile in her voice.
What do I do? Will you come to me again?
'Just take care of Roxas. You have another chance – don't let it go. I will be here when you need me. He was chosen, Axel, but now you have been chosen to protect him.'
Wait, don't –
'You're waking up, Axel. I have to go, before they find out we've spoken. But protect Roxas.'
Hey!
'Roxas, Axel. He is everything.'
--
Axel woke to a pounding in his head, which he rubbed with a grimace. Next to him was the blonde boy. Roxas. They were in side-by-side hospital beds.
Roxas' eyes were still closed, his face contorted as though he fought some internal battle – or was having a very bad nightmare. Or thinking too hard. For Axel's quite biased mind, it was very difficult to refrain from making a blonde joke, something along the lines of "any thinking must be too hard for him". This wasn't really the time for joking.
He'd just had some sort of transcending experience, like the voice of God. Who sounded like a little girl. Who had told him to protect this boy lying beside him, after eye contact with whom he'd fainted dead away. And he'd remember something he didn't know he knew, soon, and it would help The Voice. Who, if she/it was God, shouldn't need help. So he was batty and had split personalities? Or he'd just heard a higher power in which he didn't believe. This was all a little hard to swallow.
Instead of thinking too hard about it, which would likely confuse and/or frighten him (which would probably cause him to leap out of bed, screaming like a lunatic, and run laps around the hospital in only his blue, cotton, open-backed hospital gown – under which he was naked, and which he'd really like to avoid if at all possible), Axel settled for watching Roxas, instead.
The blonde boy's eyelashes fluttered softly, and his lips were parted slightly, air whistling through them softly as his chest rose and fell. He would have looked deep in a natural, calm sleep, if it weren't for the slightly reddened gauze bandage taped to his temple. This worried Axel slightly. The Voice had as much as told Axel that whatever he was going to remember would make this Roxas person extremely important to him, and if that was the case, he should worry if the kid was hurt, right? Or maybe he should get the hell out of here before something else earth-shattering could happen. Somehow, seeing Roxas sigh and shift slightly in his sleep-coma-thing, he got a feeling that wasn't how it would go down. It couldn't. He didn't like the feeling that he was in utterly no control over the situation, and yet charged with controlling the safety of a person he'd never met before. Who made him faint.
And have butterflies in his stomach, apparently.
With a frown, Axel brushed the sensation off. No matter what he was 'going to remember', this was a high school-aged kid, and he was on the upside of his twenties. It was wrong, no matter how supernatural, what he felt for this kid. Who he didn't know. He wasn't even sure if the kid was even really the Roxas they'd talked about. Deciding to try something for his own curiosity, Axel said softly,
"Hey, there, Roxas." He ran a finger cautiously up Roxas' arm, watching the fingers twitch slightly.
Then Roxas' eyes popped open. It scared the crap out of Axel, who jumped backwards – but Roxas' hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. The kid was suddenly wide-awake. In the midst of attempting to come up with an explanation for why he was stroking a complete stranger's arm, Axel threw out several possibilities: "This voice in my head told me we were close (basically), so I thought I might molest you while you slept, to put things on more familiar grounds" struck out; so did "You give me this weird feeling I've never had before. Can I touch you some more?" and "I am attracted to you and might not know why for about...oh, I don't know. No, really, I have no idea how long." Roxas spared him having to come up with something plausible by saying, "A...Axel?" in a voice that turned Axel's knees to jello and his stomach into a fiery pit.
"Um...yeah, that's my name, and, uh, don't you forget it!" Axel tried to give a suave peace sign, but his hands were shaking too badly. Roxas frowned at him.
"Do you...know me?"
"You're Roxas, right?"
"Yeah."
"That's all I've got, kid, sorry. Did you –" He stopped reasonably short of asking if someone else had heard 'the voice in my head'. That would definitely be a way to scare the kid off and with him any hopes of offering protection. "Did you sleep well?" he covered.
Honestly, what kind of protection could a high school kid need? Especially from something in which a voice-out-of-the-abyss would get involved? Maybe this was just a little bigger than Axel. Or Roxas. Or both of them and whatever Axel was supposed to remember. Come to think of it, wouldn't Roxas remember it, too, if it was about both of them?
"Hey, Roxas...how did you know my name?"
Roxas frowned, kicking his legs. "Don't we..." He paused, looked Axel straight in the eyes (minus the knock-out inducing migraine this time! Score!), took a deep breath, and took a chance. "You heard her, too, didn't you?"
"Yeah," Axel said softly.
"She said...she missed me. How could somebody in my head miss me?"
"She said a lot of things," Axel breathed, running a hand through his spiky hair (Roxas was surprised he didn't cut himself or lose a finger or something). "Like, things...About you...and me." He leveled Roxas with a hard stare.
"What are we supposed to remember?" Roxas asked softly, glancing down at his hands.
On a whim, something he didn't know why he did, Axel reached out and placed his hand over Roxas', stroking a thumb over the back of the kid's knuckles. You're just comforting somebody who's a little freaked out, he rationalized with himself. Right. That was all. "We'll know it when it gets here, right? So don't sweat it."
Roxas glanced up at him, resisting the logical urge to pull away, giving in to his instincts. The Voice had said Axel was a safe thing; the Voice had sounded like home. So Axel was safe, and Roxas wanted something to be. Everything seemed to be getting tugged out from under his feet. But maybe Axel was solid ground. "Yeah. Okay."
--
Luxord twisted his hands together. "And you're sure it wasn't caused by the accident?"
"Yes," Doctor Gordon snapped, clicking her nails against the desk. "And that wouldn't have an effect on both of them, would it? There is no medical explanation. You're free of all blame."
"It's not that," began Luxord quietly. The truth was, the kid stirred a fondness in him deeper than a simple feeling, something he couldn't explain. It almost felt like they'd known each other forever instead of an enmity-filled afternoon. Granted, he was sure Roxas wouldn't want to know him any longer after this; their track record wasn't good – he'd run the kid over, locked him in a car, and given him a dizzy spell which later caused him and another boy to collapse. Nope, no likely forthcoming friendship there.
So it was a surprise when Roxas came up behind him, a small smile on his face. It was the first Luxord had seen him wear; it was a good look. The kid's heart-shaped face was made for smiling. "Hey...thanks for the ride and everything. You don't have to take me back to school, but, ah...thanks, anyway."
"Sure. I only ran you over, after all."
The man standing behind Roxas – a tall, skinny redhead with makeup and a piercing – grinned. Roxas didn't. "Yeah. Don't remind me."
"Here, my number," Luxord offered, holding out a slip of paper. "In case your parents need to discuss the accident with me."
"Thanks," said Roxas, tucking it into a pants pocket. That's code for 'You're an asshole, why would anyone call you? In fact, why do you even have a phone number?' Luxord told himself gloomily. It was written all over the kid's face.
"Let's go, Roxy," prompted Axel from behind them. Roxas visibly flinched at the nickname.
"Right."
They walked away together, and Luxord sighed. Something about that kid...it was going to be hard to sleep until he figured it out. He had a feeling a lot of people probably felt that way. The kid was going to grow up to break hearts.
--
"'Roxy'?" fumed Roxas, jerking Axel down to eye level. The redhead smirked, folding his hands behind his head and leaning down farther.
"Yeah. I've probably called you that for ages and you just don't remember," he laughed.
"Sure," growled Roxas. He could see how this was going to get real awkward, real fast. "You're going to use that a lot, aren't you?"
"Oh, yeah," Axel teased back. If they made a joke of it, it wasn't as intimidating, for one thing. "'I used to call you at three AM all the time, don't you remember?' and 'Well, sure, you always let me crash at your place' and 'Yeah, we...'" He trailed off; Roxas was blushing and staring down at his shoes. "Something wrong?"
"No, just...I don't think it's a good idea if you come over to my house."
Axel rolled his eyes. "I was joking, hello." Subconscious swooned at someone else who could make Roxas feel like as much of an idiot as it could. Instinct swooned, period. "But seriously, what's the problem?"
"Starts with a 'p'."
"...Penis? It's not like I'm going to threaten you with it or anything; we've both got one, you know."
Yeah, that's the problem, stupid, Roxas' Brain interjected. That's not normal. It was immediately and soundly beaten around the head with an overweight tabby cat by Subconscious, which was backed up by Instincts. Brain decided to keep its opinions to itself. Roxas, however, didn't. "Parents."
"Ah, right."
"How old are you, anyway?"
"Silly boy. Don't you know never to ask a lady that?" Axel wiggled his butt in a way he likely thought classified as 'cutely', sticking out his tongue. Roxas could see another stud glitter there. Was this guy pierced everywhere? Yikes. Why don't you ask...or just find out for yourself? suggested Subconscious lewdly. Roxas ignored it. They continued across the parking lot until they reached Axel's ride.
Upon seeing it, Roxas couldn't have cared less whether Axel was still teething or a hundred-and-two-year-old koala poacher from Brazil with a taste in twelve-year-old boys and strippers, or a combination of both (in that case Roxas would be out of luck, being neither); he would have asked to marry him right then and there. The 'ride' was a sleek, black motorcycle with lovingly applied details depicting a gold-and-crimson phoenix bursting into flame along the body of the bike. Silver tailpipes jutted proudly out the back; the seat was leather and looked very cushy, and ended in a studded travel case (also leather).
"Oh, my God. I think I'm in love."
Axel laughed. Roxas sort of fawned on Axel, eyes still glued to the bike; it felt more like he was clawing the arm he'd attached himself to into shreds. Luckily, that was the good arm (well, no longer).
Roxas stared at the bike, moon-eyed.
"So," Axel asked, grinning catlike, taking two helmets from the travel case. "Want to take her for a spin?"
"Oh, do I ever..."