Once Upon a Midnight Dream
Chapter 3
"Hi, Roxy!" I spun around and found Lae's smiling face with an obvious lack of tattoos. Again, all he was wearing was a pair of tight leather pants that tied up the side so you could see his light skin.
"Hi Lae." I greeted him with a smile on my face. "Hey, did you come to my school today?" I asked. Lae smirked the same way Axel did when he looked at me.
"Roxy, I'm a figment of your imagination. How could I go to your school?" Lae responded.
"Okay, so what are we doing today?" I asked, satisfied with his answer.
"Whatever you want Roxy." Lae's smile grew. "As I told you, nothing's closed to you in your dreams."
"Lae?" I questioned.
"Hmm."
"What do you want to do?" I asked.
"I want to make you happy. There's nothing more that I can wish for." Lae said with a smile on his face.
"Why?"
"Because I am you, Roxy. And you want to be happy more than you realize."
"I'd prefer it if someone else were happy. I think he really needs a friend." I said thoughtfully to Lae.
"Who is this that deserves to be happy, while you remain depressed?" Lae said upset that I would sacrifice my own happiness for someone else.
"His name is Axel Akuseru." I responded.
Lae's face turned to shock before he could compose himself. After containing his emotion's he asked, "Do you love him?"
I though this one over carefully. After all, this was a dream, a place to process the day's events. That's why Lae was here, to help. Did I love Axel? I don't even know him. He's just a mystery at the moment. I'm the type of person who believes you need to know someone before you can love them. So I answered Lae truthfully, "No I don't. But I think I could." I nodded to myself, "Yeah, if I got to know him, there's a possibility."
Lae nodded, "So what do you want to do Roxy?"
"I want to figure out how to make Axel happy."
"But what about you?" Lae asked again.
"What about me? I've lived here my whole life. I have friends, an aunt and cousin who love me, a mother. I have a lot. Axel's new here and he may have none of that."
"But you can't be sure unless you ask him. Maybe he has friends wherever he's from." Lae reasoned.
"You're right! I have to talk to him. We'll be friends. When I know everything there is to know about him, I'll be able to help him. You're a genius Lae." I hugged my redheaded creation. He stiffened at me touching him, so I let go even though I loved the feeling of his warm body against mine.
"You are aware that you just called yourself a genius, yes?" Lae teased.
"I don't care you and I, me and myself, whatever. I'm going to make that sexy redhead give a real smile." I said happily.
"It seems we've run out of time, Roxy. I have to leave." Lae said regretfully as he turned and started fading.
"Wait! Will I see you again?"
"Your worst nightmare couldn't keep me away." Lae faded completely.
oOo
"Zexy!" I returned to Oblivion, the world I was born and raised in, and was now running up and down the halls of Castle Oblivion, waking everyone and their mother. "Zexy?" I shouted for my friend. Where the hell is that bastard? "Zex-," I was stopped by an angry hand being slapped over my mouth.
"What the hell Axel? Everyone is sleeping, or they were, until you started screeching up and down the hall." Zexion scolded me, while glaring with that intimidating eye that just didn't seem to work on me, although that's why we became friends. Everyone else is scared of him, but not me. He's never been able to scare me so he was never able to push me away. Now we're best friends. Actually he's my only friend. No one else can put up with my sporadic behavior.
"I don't screech, it was a manly shout. Zexy, I think I need a new assignment. I can't do this one." I confided in him desperately.
"Axel, if you fail another mission Xemnas will kill you. Actually, he'll have his bitch, Saix, kill you. You have to get through this one." Zexion insisted, "He's a cute little blond. What could possibly be bad about it?"
"He makes me feel." I tapped a hand to my heart.
"We're Dream guardians, we have no emotions. They were taken away because it is against the rules to have emotions towards your charges. So that is impossible." Zexion lectured me, "You're probably anxious or something. If you fail this you're dead."
"Yeah, I know. You're probably right. It's nothing."
"I'm always right." I gave him an evil glare before continuing.
"I love the way his voice sounds when he says my name…" I gushed.
"He knows your name!?" Zexion was outraged.
"Relax; he only knows it while we're awake. It's Lae while we're sleeping."
"You visit him outside of dreams!? How many rules are you planning on breaking?" Zexion continued to scold. I ignored him.
"And I love the way he looks at me out of the corner of his eye, thinking I can't see him. I love the way he wants to see me happy. I love it all, Zexy." Zexion's glare was becoming more intimidating by the second. Then he slapped me, hard. "What the fuck? You slapped me! Are you a girl?"
"Shut up, Axel!" Zexion yelled. Anyone else would hate him for being so overbearing, but I knew he did this because he didn't want to see me killed for my rebellious behavior. "Get this through your thick skull. We. Cannot. Love. We are Dream guardians. It is impossible for us to love. We are always going to be alone, saving the innocent. Our only relief will be the knowledge that we can't feel how truly sad we are. Got it?"
"Memorized." I mumbled. He was right. He was always right. This was my reality. I've known since I was a child that emotions would never exist for me. I sighed, "I gotta go to school. See you later?" I asked Zexion.
"Yeah, love you Axe." Zexion teased.
"Don't be an ass."
oOo
I woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs. As usual, whenever I help my mom after one of her boyfriends break up with her, she makes breakfast. Sighing, I jumped out of bed and got dressed thinking about what Lae told me. Today I was going to get to know Axel.
My mom smiled at me as I wandered into the kitchen. "Good morning Roxas, darling. I made you eggs and bacon." God, she's so bipolar.
"Thank you Mom." She beamed at m as I began eating. She was actually wearing clothes today: Jeans and a t-shirt. The bags under her eyes were much lighter and her eyes weren't red. You can actually tell that she could have been very pretty had she done fewer drugs, drank less alcohol, and smoked less cigarettes.
"I'm going to drive you to school, okay." Mom said.
"Yeah, Mom." I liked it when she was like this. I wish it happened more often.
As usual, I walked into class four minutes early. Unlike my normal routine, I was smiling. I had a good morning with my sober mom and I was planning on having a great day getting to know Axel. "Good morning, Roxas." Mrs. Dahm greeted, slightly startled by my new attitude.
"Good morning Mrs. Dahm." I smiled at her as I practically skipped to my desk.
"You're in a good mood." She observed.
"Yep."
"Any particular reason?" She said amused.
I have a new friend." I said cheerfully. Then Axel stalked in and made his way to his desk behind me.
"Hello Roxy." He said as he sat down. He held a notebook up to me, "I got a notebook but I kept your pen."
"I said you could keep it. So, how did you like school yesterday?" I asked. I figure I should start out with easy, normal conversation, rather than interrogating him.
"Things started looking up around lunchtime." Axel smirked. If you pay attention as well as I do you can see a sadness hidden beneath the surface of those emerald eyes.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Because you invited me to sit with you and your friends."
"Our friends. You're in our group now, unless you don't want to be." I corrected him.
"Oh, I want to be in your group." Axel smiled.
"Hi Axel, Roxas." Sora greeted as he and Riku sat down. "How were your evenings?"
"Good!" I announced, surprising Sora. Then Axel responded, "Uneventful."
"In other words, boring." Riku commented.
"Something like that." Axel responded.
"Quiet down class. Today we are going to pair off and work on a small project that you will present next week. I highly suggest you work on this outside of school as well as inside. You will be picking a topic on myths and legends. It's first come first serve. No repeat topics. Yes Sora?" Mrs. Dahm called on Sora since he had his hand raised.
"What is the point of this project?" Sora always liked to know why we were assigned this and taught that. Most teachers ignored him or gave him detention but Mrs. Dahm usually explained.
"It is supposed to help your essay writing and speech skills. We're doing it on myths and legends because I thought it would be more interesting for you."
"Thank you Mrs. Dahm." Sora said sincerely.
"Okay, if that's all, pair up and pick topics." Sora and Riku were quickly paired together. I turned in my seat to face Axel.
"Do you want to be partners?" I asked.
"Of course." Axel pulled his desk next to mine and we began going over the list of topics. Vampires, werewolves, and witches were out of the question. People will have already picked those. Hmm…this one looks interesting.
"How about Dream guardians?" I asked Axel.
"Are you sure? Don't you like vampires better?"
"Yeah, but so does everyone else. I can guarantee that vampire is taken."
"Okay, Dream guardian it is." Axel agreed reluctantly.
"Alright I'll go sign us up." I walked up to Mrs. Dahm's desk. "Is Dream guardian taken yet?" I asked.
"No, is that what you want." I nodded, "Good choice. Not much is known about them, so your essay and presentation are allowed to be a little shorter. But I still expect quality work."
"Cool." After signing up, I quickly made my way back to Axel. "Guess what Axel? We get to make our speech and essay shorter because so little is known about Dream guardians."
"Well that's a plus. So are we doing it at your house?"
"Umm…is there something wrong with your house?"
"My father doesn't like visitors." He said.
"Oh, I guess we'll do it at my house then. How's tomorrow, around twelve, sound?"
"Great, I can't wait!" Axel beamed. Ha, if you knew what my house was like you wouldn't say that. But I must admit, him coming to my house would be a great opportunity for me and him to talk.
oOo
Good old Zexy, you can always count on him to be sleeping in his bed in the afternoon. With two pans in my hands, I tiptoed to his bed. He even looked pissed when he slept. It would make a less insane person think twice before waking him up. Especially with the method I had chosen.
But alas, I am Axel, and I love to piss my best friend off. Standing over his bed, I slammed the pans together creating an extremely loud reverberating clang. Zexion shot up and glared daggers at me, before pouncing off the bed and punching me in the face. "And you continue to insist we have no emotions." I said rubbing my face while he continued to glare at me. He's lucky I think it's funny when he's mad, otherwise he'd have no friends.
"Shut up Axel? Why the fuck did you wake me up?" Zexion growled.
"Well, which is it? Shut up, or answer the question?"
"Answer the question before I punch you again!"
"At least you've moved up from slapping." I dodged another punch.
"I swear Axel…"
"I came to tell you I get to go to Roxy's house tomorrow!" I answered excitedly.
"Who's Roxy?" Zexion asked in his usual uncaring voice.
"My cute little blond. My charge. I'm protecting him." I tried to explain.
"Dreams will suffice for protection. Why are you going to his house?"
"Because I like him. I know, I know, we don't have emotions. But I can't help it."
"We don't have many rules Axel, and I believe you are breaking them all. Let's see: Do not give them your real name, do not let them know you exist in real life, protect them at all costs, and finally do not fall in love."
"Why would we need that rule if we have no emotions?"
"That's not the point. The point is, your blond knows your name, he know you're real, your last five charges died, and you think you're falling in love."
"First of all, my blond, thinks Lae and I are two different people. Second of all, why should I sacrifice myself for someone else…"
"It's our job." Zexion insisted.
"Third of all, I never said I love him. I said he makes me feel and I love the things he does. And he's adorable." I started to go off into my own little world, "He's all I can think about. I'm constantly finding myself counting the seconds until I can see him again..." For the second time today Zexion slapped me across the face.
"Knock it off!" Zexion scolded, "Aren't you supposed to be watching your blond?"
"Shit!"
First of all, I have no idea if dream guardians are a real myth or not. As far as I know I just came up with an idea and gave them a stupid name.
So there's the supernatural side of the story, a little bit about Axel, and we met Zexion. I really did fail miserably at making this a oneshot. I'm already writing chapter five.
Anyway, Thanks for all reviews, alerts, and favs. They are truly appreciated.
*I went on a little writing spree this weekend with the sequel to "The Other Side isn't so Green" So I'm sorry to say that I didn't write much for this story which means you'll have to wait, possibly a week, before I update again.