Words: 2302

See Chapter One for Standard Disclaimers/Warnings

A/N: Honestly I'm a little disappointed with myself concerning this chapter. I should have done more research on certain parts, but I was running of time so it was kinda rushed a bit. Anyway, despite its faults I hope you all enjoy it.

On the Eleventh Day....

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Thursday, January 4

...Or, you should probably listen to that niggling little instinct.

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Axel awoke that morning with an impending sense of doom. For some reason he had this odd feeling he shouldn't get out of bed. He couldn't really fathom why he was having such a feeling when, after all, things had been going swimmingly. He had all his plans laid out for today. Everything would be perfect!

So he shoved aside the sense of foreboding with aplomb and, got up. Reno was looking at him like he'd been dropped off the back of a garbage truck due to Axel's cheer. Axel, for his part, just ignored his elder sibling and went about his morning.

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Roxas on the other hand, hadn't woken up with any sense of doom. He'd woken up straight from a deep sleep into mind burning wakefulness at the sound of Sora and Demyx hollering in horror. Roxas shot up out of bed and ran down the stairs, in nothing but a light t-shirt and a pair of boxers, to come skidding into the kitchen. The sight that greeted him was nothing short of amusing, though probably only to him. Sora and Demyx both looked like drowned rats as they flailed about. The plumbing in the sink had somehow gone to hell in spectacular fashion, apparently, because there was water everywhere.

Cloud stood a few feet in front of him, head tilted in a way that told Roxas that he was frowning mightily at the scene in front of him. Between his siblings, and the irony of the pipes going on this day, of all days, Roxas really didn't think he could be blamed when he descended into a laughing fit. Cloud sent him a scathing look and stomped off, most likely to call someone.

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When Axel arrived at the residence of the Strife brothers he found a large, white van sitting outside emblazoned with jaunty letters proclaiming: Presidential Plumbers! Under that small text said 'We provide service even a President can't fault!' Axel decided that whoever came up with that name and line was a sandwich short of a picnic.

The door was answered by an amused looking Roxas who didn't even greet him. Instead Roxas just grabbed his arm, and tugged him into the house where he was then dragged him down the hall to the kitchen where the blond's three brothers were peering around the door frame. There were three men gathered in the kitchen: One looked like his father had been a wall, the second was, if possible, lankier than Axel, and the third was currently crouched and had his head under the sink while he muttered to himself.

"What happened?" Axel asked, looking curiously from the smirking blond at his side to the trio clustered around the sink.

"Dunno, Sora and Demyx killed the sink." Roxas said, his smirk widening.

"No we didn't!" Sora hissed.

"Suuuure."

"We don't know how, or why, but the sink just..." Demyx made an uncertain motion with his hands. "Yeah."

"Huh. Well... can I steal Roxas for the day?"

"Yes." Cloud grunted. "Get him out of here before I strangle him."

Axel shot the eldest blond a bemused look, but before he could say anything a resounding CLANG echoed through the room, and the guy under the sink gave a howl of pain as he fell back onto his rear end. The thin lanky man gave an aggrieved sigh that seemed to speak volumes, "Laguna, how many times must we tell you to watch your head?"

The man on the floor gave a nervous laugh, "Eheh..."

Glancing to his left Axel noticed that Roxas looked ready to start snickering again, and grabbed the blond's arm to pull him away, "You're in a good mood."

Roxas laughed, "It's been a funny morning, though I seem to be the only one who finds it amusing."

"What is so funny about it?"

Roxas turned, and slung his arms around the taller man's waist, leaning up on his tip toes to bring them closer to being eye to eye. For a second Axel thought the blond was going to kiss him. Roxas smirked, a taunting, knowing smirk, "Pipes, Axel, Pipes." Then he turned away to grab his coat, leaving the red head floundering in momentary confusion. "So, where are we going?"

Shaking his head out of a Roxas induced la-la land he grinned crookedly, "That, would be telling."

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Axel's destination apparently lay outside, or just within, the city limits since that's where they were headed. At least, until the car went the way of the sink, and spontaneously died on them. Roxas, for his part, couldn't help snickering over the fact. Honestly, it was funny! Axel snorted and let his head thunk against the steering wheel. He was getting a niggling feeling that he shouldn't have discounted the doom he'd felt when he woke up.

Roxas, meanwhile, pulled out his phone and asked, "Should we call a mechanic?"

"I'll have a look first."

The blond shrugged, Cloud was the only one that knew anything about vehicles in the family, except possibly their dad. With that thought, as Axel disappeared behind the popped hood he called Cloud to see what his brother suggested. The harried elder blond gave him the name and number of a mechanic, and basically told him to piss off with about five words. Apparently, Cloud's mood hadn't improved.

Axel returned shortly, shaking his head. Before he could even open his mouth Roxas hit the dial button on his phone and handed it over to Axel. The red head rolled his eyes at Roxas, and the blond shrugged at him. Axel might be the big planner, but someone had to be practical and think of the smaller things. He had a feeling that Axel had a tendency to get a little too caught up in the grander schemes.

Axel snapped the phone closed and sat down again with a roll of his eyes, "They're sending someone out. The guy thinks it's probably just a frozen line somewhere, said its pretty common around now."

Roxas gave a choked laugh, "A frozen pipeline?"

Axel looked at him oddly. Roxas just snickered helplessly.

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It wasn't long before the pair found themselves at Cid's Garage. The cranky owner of the place shooed them off with a bad tempered, "I'll have it fixed soon, get lost."

Inside the 'office' of the garage they found they weren't the only ones there. In fact there appeared to be a group of around seven old men sitting at a card table smoking, of all things, pipes. Roxas, quite frankly, was beside himself with amusement by this point. Why they were there, he had no idea. The apparent ringleaders were a couple of men that were younger than the aforementioned, but older than both Axel and Roxas. One had graying black hair, scars, and an eye patch (Later Axel could be noted to have asked quite loudly, "Was that guy wearing an eye patch? Seriously?"), while the other was a suave looking blond. Upon the pairs entrance the lot of them glanced up.

"Well, well, what have we here a pair of jokers in need of a repair?" the blond man drawled.

The dark haired one snorted, "Just deal your cards, man, leave the kids alone."

"Kids?" Roxas drawled, amused. "Seems you're the ones playing games."

The dark haired man hooted, "This one has spunk!" He stood up and leaned over the table, "Name's Xigbar, that guy's Luxord."

"And we're a bunch of suckers." One of the old men muttered. It was then that Roxas noticed that they appeared to be playing a card game of some sort. He thought it might have been poker.

"Roxas, he's Axel."

"Axel? In a garage?" Xigbar cackled. "That's rich!"

"At least I don't apparently sucker old men into poker games." Axel shot back.

Xigbar raised his hands in a gesture of surrender grinning crookedly, "No one suckered anyone, they hobbled over of their own free will."

One of the old men laughed, "Keep talkin' like that and I'll send you hobbling with my boot in your ass."

Xigbar cackled, "I don't think you could make these guys do anything anyway, they're old Cid's buddies or somethin' Tell ya what, why don't we deal you two in while you wait for Cid to fix your car up?"

Axel glanced at Roxas, and raised a questioning brow. The blond shrugged, "Sure... What're we playing."

Luxord grinned as the two joined the group at the table, "Poker, of course."

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In the end it took a little longer than expected simply because Cid insisted on going over the car and making sure everything was in proper working order. ("Like hell I'm gonna let your asses drive off and end up getting called and bitched out by that brother of your's because you got blown up or some shit like that!" "How do you know Cloud anyway?") In the end though they managed, and decided to stop for a slightly late lunch before proceeding.

Once they were heading for Axel's destination again the blond leaned over and turned on the radio. The second it came on the surprising sound of, well, bagpipes floated from the speakers. Roxas cracked up, and Axel gave the radio a weird stare, "What the hell is that?"

Apparently the blond wasn't going to be any help. Axel wondered if the poor guy had finally cracked. Shaking his head, he fiddled with the radio until it was on something decent.

"So," Roxas said once he was under control. "Are you going to tell me where we're going yet?"

"Nope!"

Roxas sighed exaggeratedly.

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Where they were going was apparently a historical site set back into a small forested area. It was quiet, and dim there: The only real sounds as they stepped out of the car was the distant sound of snow melting and dropping from tree branches. The main building was the looming figure of what Roxas thought was an old looking church. It was built with the Gothic European cathedral like design in mind, with fluted columns and twisted carvings.

"One of my Professors owns it." Axel murmured from beside him. "I had to spend yesterday not only finding something that would work for the theme, but also convincing the old man to let me show you the place."

"I didn't even know this was out here..." Roxas whispered back. There was just, an air to the area that made loud noise seem inappropriate.

"Neither did I until one of my other friends mentioned it. C'mon." Axel took Roxas' hand and pulled him toward the front doors, where he fished out a key and unlocked them. The massive wooden doors groaned loudly as Axel pushed them open to allow them to slide into the shadowy interior.

The statuary inside were like a homage to wood winds: From men playing flutes and piccolos to fauns prancing about with panpipes. At very end of the main theater a resplendent pipe organ sat comfortably.

"From what Zexion said, the guy had this place built as a sort of museum for his collection." Roxas started slightly as Axel spoke directly into his ear.

"Weird things to collect." Roxas muttered back.

Axel gave a crooked grin, "He's a weird guy."

Roxas snorted, and peered closer at one of the statues nearby. Behind him Axel dug through his pockets looking for the card, and came up empty handed. Roxas turned to find the red head searching through his coat rather frantically, "...Axel?"

"Damn." Axel said. "It's not here, but I know I put it in my pocket this morning!"

"Axel?"

"Maybe it's in the car..."

"Axel!"

Axel whipped his head up to face the blond, "What? Where?"

Roxas rolled his eyes, "What's the matter?"

"I can't find the card." Axel sighed.

"Let's check the car then." Roxas said, and grabbed Axel's hand to lead the lanky red head back outside.

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In the end the card was no where to be found, and Axel was feeling a little down at that. After all, he'd planned everything out perfectly, or so he thought. The duo were sitting at that self-same table at Edea's House once again, with Axel poking at his food a little morosely.

Roxas, however, couldn't quite understand Axel's melancholy, "Axel."

The red head looked up, "Yeah, Roxas?"

"It's nothing to be upset over, I still had a great day." After all, the entire day had been one coincidence after another, and though many of them could be added up to 'bad' things Roxas had found amusement in all of them. Not to mention wasn't it Axel who'd taught him that enjoying the holidays was about more than physical gifts?

"I know, but... It's just..." Axel waved his hand unable to really find words for the disappointment he felt over the whole ordeal, and shrugged.

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Back home Roxas found that the plumber's were long gone, something he had expected, but one never knew. Axel had walked with him up to the porch, and the blond turned around to face him, "There's still one more day." He pointed out, trying to get the normally enthusiastic redhead out of his morose mood once again.

"Yeah." Axel smiled faintly, and reached up to cup Roxas' cheek with one hand. His eyes flickered over the blond's face for a moment, then he sighed and stepped back, "Tomorrow."

Roxas frowned at Axel's retreating back then turned, and went inside. He could hear the sound of the TV from the living room, and after shucking his coat he made his way there, "Cloud?"

Cloud grunted a noncommittal response.

Roxas rolled his eyes, "What's Reno's number?" Roxas dialed it in as Cloud gave it to him, and waited for the older red head to pick up. "Yeah, hey, Reno could you do me a favor?"