EDITED 4.6.08. Um. dumbest mistake ever. I feel so stupid that it's not even funny. Okay, before, when I had this file up, it had said that Roxas was to get a surgery for his voice in about two months. WHERE THE HELL I HAD GOTTEN THAT FROM, I'VE NO IDEA. It's supposed to be sometime next summer-ish. GOD. I'm an idiot.
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sweet talk 101
o9 : LDN - lily allen
"Look kid. I just want to tell you something."
Roxas kept on glaring through his blonde bangs, blue, blue eyes cold. His body language showed that he couldn't give a shit about what Axel wanted to tell him.
"Stop looking at me that way, will you?" Before I scratch those pretty blue eyes of yours out. "Christ.."
Axel reached up to run a hand through his mane of red hair and Roxas chose that moment to run. Axel was expecting this, of course, so flung his arms out and around Roxas's waist, toppling them both to the floor with a dull thud. Roxas panted beneath Axel, trying to squirm out of his grip.
"Okay, seriously. Stop," Axel said, not loosening his grip. "I'm not gonna kill you or anything. I swear. Scout's honor." ...Actually, I almost set the scouts on fire once.. Never mind..
Roxas let out a deep and shaky breath, trying to convey how much he was annoyed. Axel blinked down and realized that he was still crushing the poor boy against the floor. Roxas shoved him away the moment Axel lifted himself up and scrambled to his feet.
"You don't have to go all ninja on me, kid," Axel said, running a hand through his red spikes. "All I wanted was to ask if you wanted to go do something after school. See? Safe." He held up his hands, showing that he was harmless. As if he really had a weapon hidden somewhere up his sleeve. If so, Roxas secretly hoped Axel got stabbed with it. Then again, Roxas wished a number of awful things upon Axel. ..And his health. But you don't see a piano dropping from the sky, now do you?
"...Well?"
Roxas arched a skeptical eyebrow at Axel and crossed his arms.
"C'mon, seriously. Or else Kairi won't stop bitching at me."
Roxas lifted his chin and promptly slapped Axel, walking away in a huff.
"Little.. fucker.." Axel hissed, holding his hand against his cheek. A large red mark slowly blossomed against his skin. He stood there for a moment before sprinting off after the blonde. He grabbed the boy's arm forcefully and whirled him around. Roxas looked up at him with surprised eyes, hopelessly trying to free his arm.
He wished he could scream like a broken violin.
...Break some sound barriers... Axel's eardrums. That'd be nice.
"Calm down, okay? Calm down," Axel muttered. He let go of Roxas's arm, his other hand still rubbing absently at his cheek. Damn, the kid could hit. Roxas crossed his arms tightly across his chest, cheeks flushed in frustration.
Axel straightened up slowly and slid his hands into his pockets. The first warning bell rang and kids half-heartedly trailed off to their first class.
"Okay, I'll admit it, this is mostly to save my own ass from Kairi, not because I want to. And quite honestly, I think we can both just ignore each other perfectly well, right?"
Roxas nodded, glaring at some spot above Axel's shoulder.
Why do you hate me? he wanted to say. What sparked it? Because of who I am and then people I know and who I hang out with?
Axel sighed as though he had been waiting for Roxas to say something before remembering he couldn't speak. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Okay.. you know.. the first bell is going to ring in a few anyway, so can we talk about this later? Like, after school? Christ, I don't know." The redhead made an aggravated sound in his throat and passed a hand over his face. Roxas raised his eyebrows in surprise. It was like Axel was fighting with himself. Like he couldn't decide on how to act towards this new, blonde-haired, blue-eyed...
... mute kid.
How do you talk to someone who can't even speak?
Roxas waited until Axel's attention was back on him and then shrugged, lifting a hand to run it through his hair.
"So we can talk? After school, right?"
Roxas shrugged again. Talk? Sure. Let's talk.
"Or.. y'know.. I'll do the talking and shit.. and.." Axel trailed off awkwardly and sighed. Why was it that only now he realized how strange it was to talk to a mute kid?
Roxas rolled those blueblueblue eyes of his and swung his bag off his shoulder, pulling out a pen. He grabbed Axel's hand, palm up, and wrote
Fine then. I'll meet you out front after the last bell.
Axel held up his hand and read the message slowly as though trying to find a hidden meaning. What would you really say to me? "Sounds good."
x.x.x
"What do you want?" Sora snapped, tilting his head up in a very Roxas-like fashion. Riku almost got the shivers.
"Aw, c'mon, So. You have to be over it by now, right?"
"Um.. no?"
"Look, I said I was sorry, it was an accident. Now you're just being stupid about it."
"You're calling me stupid?!"
"No! I'm just saying you're acting like a brat about something I didn't mean to do!"
Sora huffed and stubbornly crossed his arms, his cheeks a light pink--
...Wait. Was he blushing...?
Riku blinked in surprise and fell silent for a few moments, just staring at Sora. Who was blushing. Which either meant he was embarrassed, mad, a combination of the two, or something else... Being mad and embarrassed was natural, but not for such a long period of time. That was just weird.
"What?" the Sora snapped, glaring up at the silverette. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."
Yep. He was totally blushing. So maybe...
Riku arched an eyebrow, a slow smirk spreading across his face. "Sure, I can never get enough of you."
Sora half roared, half growled in frustration. "I can sure as hell get enough of you."
He didn't know what made him say that, why he suddenly got so pissy. Maybe it was because of the giddy, butterfly-feeling in his stomach. Or the hot blush in his cheeks. Whatever it was, he simply stomped his foot in annoyance and marched away. Riku didn't follow him.
He knew much better than that.
x.x.x
"Well.. you guys sure are a lively bunch today," Larxene muttered sarcastically, looking between Demyx, who was resting his chin on the table, eyes lidded and sad, to Axel, who was picking at his food and was quiet for once.
"I set Kairi's skirt on fire in chem lab today," Larxene said after a moment, watching Axel. The redhead shrugged, stabbing at pea repeatedly with his fork. ...The poor little vegetable.
Larxene knitted her eyebrows together in irritation and crossed her arms. This was not something that she was used to. What she was used to was people listening to her, attention on her. Hell, Axel and Demyx could've at least pretended they were listening.
"Okay, what the fuck is wrong with you two? When'd you convert to emo-ism?"
"When Zexion decided to hate me," Demyx moaned pitifully, burying his face in his arms.
"When fate shoved Roxas in my face." Stab. Stab. Stabstabstabst-
Axel blinked and held up the remaining half of his plastic fork, the other having broken off and getting stuck in the styrofoam tray.
"... You two have serious issues."
"But he hates me, Larx!" Demyx cried, whipping his head up. "I can't talk with him, no matter what I try..."
"Hell, I wouldn't want to talk with you either, for being so mopey."
"There's a reason I'm mopey, christ!"
"Well, you were kind of a bitch to him, Demyx," Axel spoke up, taking to drawing shapes in the tray with his broken fork.
"How was I a bitch to him? You know I'm not a mean person," Demyx mumbled, frowning a bit. It was true... He was happy, he never picked on anyone-okay, maybe when he was little, but that doesn't count. But he was generally a good person..
Axel shrugged, pushing his tray away with a disgusted look on his face. He couldn't stand to look at that food anymore. "It's not so much of what you did.. it's more of what you didn't do."
"As if that tells me anything."
"Okay, well, let's look at it this way. Zexion would always hang out with you because he had no one else to hang out with, right? And whenever he gave you problems just by simply being there, you would shy away. Like when some assholes were making fun of you for hanging out with him." Axel cocked an eyebrow and nodded at the look Demyx gave him. "I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with him. But they thought so. Don't you remember? How you ignored him for a couple of days before talking to him again? You did that every time something like that happened."
Demyx frowned, his eyes falling to the table. He tried to think back to all those times, all throughout last year..
"Did.. did I really do that to him..?"
"You were his friend, Demyx. Do you remember that? Remember when your 'buddies' from the swim team got to him? You didn't do a damn thing about it either."
Axel trailed off and shrugged, turning back to picking at his food. Demyx, who was still trying to cope with himself and what had happened, got up from his seat and silently walked back towards the school building.
"Wow, what drama." Larxene sighed and rested her chin in her hands.
x.x.x
Axel wasn't looking forward to this. Not really, at least. It'd be much easier if they put this in the past and never speak to each other again. He just.. just..
"I just dug myself into a hole twelve feet deep and I just keep on fuckin' going.." Axel laughed bitterly and shook his head when something caught the corner of his eye. He jumped away in surprise, but then realized it was only Roxas. The blonde smirked and nodded.
Yep. Deeper and deeper and deeper... God, that sounds wrong. Glad I didn't say that aloud.
"Oh. You."
Roxas rolled his eyes and pushed away from the wall Axel had been leaning on, walking down the front steps of the school.
So.. it's you now? Not preppy fuck?
Axel frowned and huffed, sidestepping the people clustered around the front of the school to follow the blonde. Roxas didn't even seem to be waiting for Axel, he just let the redhead follow him until they reached the quieter, far end of the campus.
"All right, so, how do you plan on talking?" Axel asked, actually curious as to how this conversation was going to go. Roxas shrugged with a strange little smile and dropped down into the grass, stretching out.
Axel frowned slightly, looking down at the blonde's spiky head. He glanced around, as though suspecting that someone was watching them and then took a seat beside Roxas.
"So.. like.. really, isn't it weird not being able to talk?"
Roxas shrugged, not really being able to do much else.
Axel's frown dipped even lower. "Okay.. there's got to be an easier way to do this. Do you have a piece of paper or something? Cell phone?"
Roxas cocked an eyebrow before a look of realization dawned on his face. He reached into his bag, pulling his Sidekick out of one of the pockets. He typed something in quickly and handed it to Axel.
Well, obviously it's weird. Everyone around me can speak freely and I'm like the only one who can't.
"Heh.. yeah.. that's gotta suck." Axel made a face and handed the cell phone back. "Can't imagine what that's gotta be like."
Roxas smiled, holding his phone up to Axel's face.
You're pretty tame today.
"...You won't believe how hard I'm trying, kid."
Why?
"Why?" Axel echoed, frowning. "I don't know. I guess I don't like people like you."
And what are people like me like?
"Or.. y'know. The people that you're around with irk me too."
Then why are you talking to me?
Axel shrugged and looked around. There were only a few stragglers left on the school grounds, mostly goofing around or waiting for their other friends. He reached into his bag, pulled out a cigarette and lit it before speaking.
"I guess I was just curious." It was partly true. The other part was just plain cruelty. There was still a part of him, somewhere in the back of his head that egged him on, told him to get close to the blonde... and then rip off his wings. Just to see if he could. Just to see how breakable this boy was. Axel didn't understand what was going on inside his head, but he did it anyway.
Roxas smiled slightly, fingers flying across the phone's small keyboard.
Just because I'm different than you, and the people you hang out with and I hang out with are different, doesn't mean that I'm any worse than you.
Axel frowned at the screen, a voice in the back of his head repeating over and over, 'Break him, break him, and those pretty blue eyes..'
"Doesn't mean I'm supposed to like you."
Roxas breathed out a sigh and let the phone fall to his chest
"...How'd it happen?"
The blonde blinked in confusion, and then lifted his head, raising an eyebrow at Axel.
How'd what happen?
"I mean.. your.. your voice. How'd you lose your voice?"
Roxas stared at Axel for a long moment and let out another breathy sigh, tilting his head back into the grass. He lay still for a short while before picking up his Sidekick and tapping away.
Axel waited patiently for a little bit, as Roxas seemed to mess up quite a few times in whatever he was doing, but quickly got bored. He looked away from the blonde and swept his eyes across the campus, green gaze catching blooming flowers and fluttering leaves, breathing in the warm scent of the air--
Taptap.
The redhead snapped back to reality with a start, dropping his eyes back to Roxas who was holding the phone out to him.
It was almost two years ago. I got into a car accident. It was me and my dad, he was bringing back home from guitar practice. Someone swung into our lane and we crashed. I don't remember much then... but when I woke up in the hospital there was a stinging in the side of my neck and my dad was dead.
"Oh.. I'm sorry," Axel mumbled, eyebrows furrowing slightly. He didn't know what else he could offer to say.
Roxas shrugged lightly and stared up at the sky, all sorts of emotions swirling in those deep blue eyes of his.
I don't remember much.
He tapped Axel's knee to catch his attention, and when he had it, he pushed up hair near the nape of his neck to show a long white scar.
Axel whistled, quirking his eyebrows. He was half impressed, half disturbed.. give or take a few other strange emotions.
"So.. you're going to be mute forever?"
No, actually. I'm supposed to have surgery somewhere around next summer.
Axel tilted his head, staring at the white screen silently for a long moment, and all of a sudden all these thoughts flooded his head... like what if it didn't work? Was he going to need speech therapy after not talking for so long? What if they damaged something important in the process?
'Break him, break him..'
He closed his eyes and thought for a long moment, trying to pick a question, waiting for the right one.
"...Do you miss your dad?"
The blonde gave Axel a surprised look and slowly turned his gaze back up to the sky. A small smile lifted the corners of his lips.
Yeah. I do.
x.x.x
"So.. later, I guess.." Axel said, feeling slightly awkward as he watching Roxas walk away.
Well. That entire thing had been unexpected. Though, he had noticed that as long as he had kept himself under control, Roxas did too. Whenever they fought before, Roxas was ready, fangs bared and claws out. But.. during that talk, he was almost.. sweet. For lack of a better word.
Axel grimaced and turned the other way to walk home as the turmoil in his head raged on. There was a tiny part of him that almost didn't mind the blonde anymore, but it was overwhelmed by the second voice in his head-
'Hypocrite, you hated him at the beginning. You can't just like him now, hypocritehypocritehypocrite--'
"That wasn't me, that was you," Axel grumbled to himself, gingerly massaging the bridge of his nose.
The kid wasn't really all that bad-
Words like slut and whore and bitch filtered into his head and Axel stopped walking for a moment, wondering why he was like this, why it had to be him?
And most of all, why was it because of Roxas?
x.x.x
shugo: Axel is a little... schizo...
...If you hadn't noticed.
Other than that, I'm so glad I finally updated. I've been having.. a hard time with this chapter XD; it didn't want to cooperate. In other news.. um.. i went to anime boston last week and bought a roxas figurine (he's so cute!) and today is my birthday 8D the end.
hopefully the next chapter will come out just a little faster. thanks so much for bearing with me. ((heart)) review? :3
3.30.08