Author's Note:
I'm worried that I've made Axel too light hearted in this chapter. I know he's the kind of guy to fool around, but he was kinda serious in the first installments, and I need to keep that up. For some reason all I wanted to do was make a clown out of him this time, so it's taken a long time to go through and… grow him up? I have no idea how to write for Larxene, so sorry if she sucks… I wanted to use a real character, and she's the only female that I feel okay making a 'bad' person. She's not bad; Axel just has no backbone!
And then there's Roxas. Ickle wittle Roxypoo. ;; I love him so much. I can understand his emotions better, so I feel that I write him best. It's still hard though, 'cause Roxas is no Sora, but he'd still try and deny being gay as long as possible. I hope all you fan girls are screaming at him to come out of the closet, or the next chapter's going to be a doozey.
Axel loves fire. Matches, candles, campfires, sparklers, fireworks, everything and anything. He smokes cigarettes, though Roxas feels it's just a reason to get to carry around a lighter. Axel was in college to get his masters in pyrotechnics, which was just an excuse to get near explosives; he was kicked out one semester into the course, for blowing up an entire lab wing. Roxas had always thought that was a bad idea.
Roxas loves music. God forbid anyone hear it, but he also loves to sing. Instead, he'd settled for a guitar and Music Theory at the city college. His job pays nine dollars an hour, and it involves him stocking and working the cashier at the small, locally run music store. Axel is secretly envious of Roxas' passion for something so normal and beautiful.
Demyx, an old friend of Axel's, has become a good friend of Roxas. He understands Roxas' love of music, and the two of them will waste a day being music nerds. The tall, lanky, older blond man plays the sitar, and openly enjoys singing. He and Roxas worked for a week together on one piece for their composure class, and Axel had a point in which he regretted ever introducing the two of them.
Axel finally worked his Yamaha into working condition nearly three months after that first Struggle tournament, and had managed to scrounge up enough money to have it painted a mix of black, silver and red. But with a working ride came the loss of a need to stay at Seifer's penthouse.
Roxas recommended – as a joke – that Axel look into fire fighting. He really hadn't meant for Axel to take the idea seriously – hadn't wanted him to take the idea seriously. Axel has reverent respect for fire, but also gets cocky, and is easily seduced by it. So, when he announced that he had gotten an apartment and was enrolling in the local fire academy, Roxas nearly died. Died because he had been eating at the time and had begun to choke on his last bite of burger at the local diner.
"Yo, Roxy…"
"What, Axel?" The hotheaded blond glared up from eating, pushing a fry between pursed lips. No amount of friendship that he and the redhead shared would make that nickname acceptable.
"Sorry," Axel muttered, although he clearly wasn't. "But listen; I found a cheap place to stay, and it's close to my new job."
"You got an house and a job?" Roxas expertly raised a single brow, taking a bite of his burger.
"Give me some more credit, Roxas." The older man pouted, which only resulted in Roxas rolling his eyes. "And it's not really a job, yet; I have to train for it first, and I may not even make it in."
"Sounds serious." The waitress swung by and filled their mugs; Roxas had decaf, Axel caffeinated.
"I guess…" Axel gave a mischievous grin, causing Roxas' stomach to churn. What the hell had the redhead gotten himself into now? "I'm going to go the fire fighter academy," he admitted, tilting the hot coffee to his lips.
The blood quickly drained from Roxas' face, uncontrollable- irrational -concern bubbling up in his stomach as the words sunk in. Axel, as a firefighter; Axel running through a building that's on fire, saving people? Since when did he care about anyone other than himself?
Food is supposed to go down your esophagus, but in response to this grave news, the ground beef that made up the burger that Roxas was eating- and Axel was stealing bites of –decided to make a statement, and hopped into and down the blond's windpipe.
Hacking like a cat with a hairball, and making wonderfully attractive noises, Roxas noted that Axel ran to his shorter friend's rescue, hopping up from his seat on the other side of the table. Roxas' eyes were watering, making it hard to see where Axel disappeared to; until he felt two strong arms slink around his waist. He jumped at the contact, but soon was thankful when he felt the redhead's tightly closed fists slam into and up against his ribs, and with a few well-placed poundings, the disgusting remnants of the burger flew from Roxas' open mouth, leaving the boy heaving deep breaths and coughing feebly, leaning back against Axel's chest.
"I'll take that as a 'congratulations'."
Axel went to his fire-fighting 'classes' every day of the week, and sometimes on Saturday, for two months. And today, Friday, he was taking his final written test; in two weeks, they would know who passed that course, and those select few would continue on in the physical training.
Roxas was there to greet him when he stepped out from the old brownstone building. The redhead sauntered out, surrounded by a mass of people with whom he was chattering amiably.
On it's own, a small smile appeared on Roxas' face; Axel was good at making friends. He was also good at making enemies, or so the petite blond had heard. The crowd was now laughing uproariously at something Axel had told them. Roxas chuckled softly to himself.
Finally, the group broke up with cries of,
"See you tonight, guys! Don't forget; Sid's bar!"
Roxas had worked at Sid's for a while, but quit shortly after starting his college classes. It was an awkward place for him now, ever since he'd seen Seifer in there, and started that… well… it was something he wasn't proud of.
The blond managed to catch Axel's attention with a small, nonchalant wave. Axel's face broke into his signature smirk, a cigarette pushed between his thin lips.
"Hey Roxas!" he exclaimed, clearly wired on something, loping towards his shorter friend. The blond was about to smile and reply, but his stomach clenched strangely when he saw Axel's arm around a woman's waist. Roxas hadn't known of Axel having a girlfriend, let alone one who was in the academy with him.
"Uh, hey, Axel."
"This is Larxene," the redhead introduced, calming down and taking a deep drag on his cigarette before exhaling heavily. Suspicious, Roxas sniffed discreetly at the air; no, it wasn't pot, just a regular nicotine stick.
"Pleasure," Roxas mumbled, acting overly polite. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a puzzled look flash over his friend's face. The woman was almost as tall as Axel, skinnier, bonier, with slicked back, white gold hair. It looked as if she'd divided her bangs in half, and then gelled them into two bent antennae-like objects, which bounced with every movement she made.
"Axel, you ass, he's not five-foot-eight!" Her voice was harsh and grating, with a condescending note. Roxas held back a growl, instead turning toward Axel.
"How do you think you did?" he asked, referring to the test.
"I totally passed." he dismissed, flicking his wrist and sending ashes everywhere.
"Seifer and Hayner are going out to dinner tonight, remember?" Roxas started, trying hard to not look at Larxene. Axel's arm fell away from the woman's waist, but she moved to quickly link her elbow through his. "You're coming, right?"
Roxas held his tone uncaring, even when he felt anger and insecurity bubble up. Seifer and Hayner had planned this night weeks ago, but Roxas had constantly reminded his scramble-brained companion; it appeared he'd forgotten. He wasn't about to go to a dinner with those two lovebirds without someone else to talk to.
"Well, Roxas-"
"Sorry short stuff, but the academy is getting together for drinks at Sid's tonight. I'd invite you along, but you're in, what, the fucking fifth grade?" Her cackle reminded Roxas of a wicked witch.
"Sorry, kid." Axel's voice was cool and controlled. Roxas felt like a younger sibling trying to tag along with his older brother, which was ironic considering he actually had an older brother. "Tell Seifer I said hi, will ya?"
Roxas didn't go to dinner.
Two weeks after Axel took the test, he called Roxas up and invited him over to his place, to ceremoniously open his letter from the academy to see if he had passed. After not having seen his friend at all during those two weeks, Roxas obligingly hopped unto the cross-town bus, the address scribbled on a small yellow post-it note that was stuck inside his pants pocket.
The building was a two-story brownstone on a smaller side street, with scrawny trees circled by personal fences littering the sidewalks, which were clean, and the buildings seemed relatively new and freshly painted. Axel's place was painted a strange grey lilac color; very feminine, or so Roxas thought.
A Yamaha bike, sleek and of a fairly new model – it was Roxas' first time seeing the thing – glimmered in the driveway, painted a fashionable mixture of glossy black and silver, with highlights of red. The helmets (two of them hung from the handlebars) were painted with flames, of course.
Before he could get in his second knock, the door flew open to reveal his taller, older friend, dressed casually in a too-big navy t-shirt and torn jeans, his unruly hair tugged back into a ponytail.
"Hey, Roxas." he drawled, smirking lazily. "Come in, and let's see if we passed!"
"'We'?"
"Oh…yeah…"
"Axel, what the fuck are you- Oh, shit." The woman grimaced, not even making an effort to hide her sentiments. "You could have told me you were inviting him over, Axel!" She hissed, gesturing to her tube top and short-shorts. Her hair was still arranged with the strange antennae, which Roxas took to mean that they were a regular, everyday hairstyle.
"Hello," Roxas growled, shoving in past Axel, who stood awkwardly to the side before quietly closing the door and leading the way into the living room. Roxas settled unto the wrap-around couch, Axel sitting a few seats over, closer to where Larxene settled, passing Axel the letters.
"How was that dinner with Hayner and Seifer?" the redhead mumbled, holding his letter out in front of him a moment before working at the seal.
"I didn't go." Roxas deadpanned, tone cold. He sat rigidly, knees pressed together, hands gripping to the edges of his cargo shorts, elbows bent and pulled in, back ramrod straight.
"Oh, okay."
"What does it say?" Roxas sighed, loosening from his statue-still pose to rake a hand tiredly back through his hair. Axel shrugged, shaking the letter out from it's business-like, stiff folds, laser-green eyes scanning row after row, brow furrowing.
"I didn't make it…."
It took Roxas a moment to realize it was Larxene that said this, and couldn't keep the smirk off his face, though he quickly fought to remove it.
"I'm sorry, Larxene." Axel murmured, reaching out to touch her arm. She stiffened and shrugged off his touch, crossing her arms across her chest.
"What about you, Axel?" she spat, glaring heatedly at his letter.
"…I made it. I have to show up at the precinct on Monday to start my on-site training."
Roxas could hear the excitement beneath Axel's disinterested tone, and felt a burning hatred towards Larxene for ruining this moment for his friend.
"That's great, Axel." Roxas breathed, smiling genuinely. "We should go tell Hayner and Seifer, we can go out, celebrate." He watched Axel's eyes light up.
"Axel, please. Where the hell are you going to go with this minor? Besides, I have to start looking for a new job. I need you to look through the newspaper, while I go online." She was whining, but still managed to sound menacing.
"Axel-"
"No, kid, she's right. Besides, it's not like I'm on the squad or anything, right? If I make it into an actual firehouse, then I'll let you drag my ass out to wherever the hell you want, and we'll party it up, okay? Just… not today."
"Fine." Roxas shot up, his knees knocking painfully against a coffee table. He locked gazes with Larxene, finding the challenge buried in her narrow eyes. His lips set into a firm scowl as he tugged the door open and slammed it closed, jogging angrily towards the street and sliding his phone out of his pocket.
"Hey, Hayner, can you pick me up?" Roxas gave Hayner the address, striding angrily down the street and out of view of the damned duplex.
"Uhm… yeah. Let me get the keys, I'll be right over. You know, Roxas, you really should get your own-"
"Thanks, Hayner, see you in a few."
Roxas hung up quickly, not wanting to get another one of those talks. He found a small bench at the entrance to a park and sat down, crossing his arms tight across his jacketed chest.
Goddamn Larxene.
No, goddamn Axel- damn him for ever finding her attractive, for deciding she was going to live with him, damn him for being spineless and letting her walk all over him, for giving up his best friend and-
Fuck, no, this wasn't going to be about him. It was going to be about Axel, and how bad he had it…
A car horn blared, jolting Roxas out of his smoldering anger.
"Roxas, get your ass in the car."
Smirking, and trying to lighten his thoughts, Roxas settled into the passenger seat of the silver sedan, propping his feet up against the dashboard simply because he knew that Seifer would later find shoeprints and blow a gasket.
"What are you doing around here, Roxas?" Hayner grumbled, eyes focused on the road.
"I was just at Axel's new place, to see if he passed his academy test."
"Oh, yeah, the results! Did he make it?" A warm grin split Hayner's face, and he spared Roxas a single glance before turning back to the road. Roxas chuckled; the other teen was so nervous when he drove Seifer's car.
"He made it," Roxas sighed, shrugging. "But his damn girlfriend…"
"Girlfriend?" Hayner's eyebrows rose, and when they stopped momentarily at a stoplight, he turned and gave Roxas a quizzical glance.
"Yeah, he's known her for a little over two weeks, and she's already living with him and making his life a living hell, and she didn't make it into the fucking academy, so she rained all over Axel's parade. She won't even let him come out and celebrate with us, because she needs help finding a new job!"
"Roxas, you're yelling." Hayner whispered, eyes glued to the road. He wasn't going to let Roxas be the reason he would total Seifer's car.
"….Sorry. But she just irritates me so much. I haven't seen Axel in over two weeks, and it looks like I won't be seeing him much now, since he's going to start training at the firehouse and stuff." Roxas fought to keep his voice quiet, taking deep, calming breaths and clenching his fists tightly. After a few minutes, the anger lead to sorrow; would he ever get to see his friend again? What if Larxene got ideas of marriage into Axel's head? If she was able to convince Axel to let her move in with him within two weeks of knowing each other, who knew what this vixen (albeit ugly, but still a vixen) was capable of?
Beside him, Hayner chuckled as he turned into Roxas' parking lot.
"What?"
"Nothing. Just that… you sound…" The car pulled up to the entrance of Roxas' building, stopped, idled.
"I sound what?"
"You… you sound jealous, man."
Luckily for Hayner, he was able to predict some form of physical harm, and ducked the punch that Roxas aimed for his head, pushing the short-tempered blond out the door and revving the engine. Before he drove away, he said, just loud enough for Roxas to hear;
"Think about it."