.o.O.o.
I own nothing! Don't sue me!
For additional disclaimers, warnings, summary, pairings, and everything else see the first chapter!
.x.X.x.
Suggested food: fish
Suggested beverage: lake
Suggested listening: "Summertime" – Aaron Carter (Feat. Baha Men)
.o.O.o
Where the Hell is Magic Lake?
Chapter 08: Magic Lake!
-o-
Roxas was having a really weird dream.
In his dream, a very strange, puppy-like creature of some sort was chasing him around, trying to get him to play. Personally, Roxas found the puppy-creature very annoying, because sometimes it would grow tired with playfully yapping at him and licking him and decide to bite him instead.
"Don't you like him?" Sora was asking, and Roxas realized they were standing in the middle of a lake, in only their underwear. "I got him just for you! He doesn't have rabies!"
"Great. Thanks." Roxas replied, trying to push the puppy-creature off of his leg, which it had just latched onto and started vigorously humping. Apparently it was a boy puppy creature. "Sora, can you please get it to stop doing this?"
"Aw!" dream Sora cooed, snapping a picture with one of those really old fashioned cameras that seemed to explode all over the place when the flash went off. "It just means he likes you! It reminds me of Riku."
Roxas looked at dream Sora, disgusted, and dream Sora continued dreamily. "Yeah, Riku's about as eager as a bunny in heat. It's great, Roxas, you should try it sometime!"
"Sora, what the hell are you on?!" Roxas asked, still unable to believe what he was hearing, and trying to stop the puppy-creature from chewing on his pants. "I don't wanna have sex with Riku! Since when do you wanna have sex with Riku!? Besides, I'm not even gay!"
Dream Sora shrugged and grinned. "Are you sure, Roxas?" he asked, coming closer than Roxas was comfortable with, wearing a very un-Sora like (dream or not) leer. "Have you ever tried it?"
"No!" Roxas defensively responded, vowing to kill Axel if he told Sora anything about what Roxas had revealed during their little 'I never' game. Where was Axel, anyways?
"Well I gotta go then." dream Sora told him. "Riku and I joined a boy band and we need to go to practice before our hot date at the Skeskerville Mansion tonight! We're going to see 'Coatimundi's: A Musical'! Proooowl!"
Ew, what the hell? Did dream Sora just do some sexy little cat noise thing at him? Who were the Skeskervilles, and why did they have a mansion? What the hell was 'Coatimundi's: A Musical'? And why would Sora and Riku join a – actually, the boy band part seemed plausible.
"Uh, that's cool." Roxas responded, not sure what else he was supposed to say. "Can you take this thing with you?" Roxas asked, gesturing to the animal that was still attempting to mate with his leg, growling possessively.
"No, he's for you to keep!" dream Sora said with a wave, hopping onto the skidoo that dream Riku (who was wearing a powder pink tuxedo and sunglasses) had just pulled up on. "Have fun!"
"What? No! Sora, I don't wanna keep him!" Roxas protested as the animal successfully knocked him over, crawling over him and curling up into a happy little ball on top of him, falling fast asleep. Roxas attempted pushing it off, but found that the animal had some rather unpleasant spikes all along its back and on the top of its head. "Get off!" He commanded, but the animal just continued to lie there, looking very content.
Suddenly the inside of a tent flickered around him, only to disappear a second later. "What the hell is going on?" Roxas asked the air. The tent image flickered up again – once, twice – only to disappear once more. Roxas rubbed his eyes, and the image came back in clearer; this time it was the lake that was flickering out. Finally, with one last crackling pop the lake was gone for good, leaving Roxas to stare at the inside of the tent. He stared at it for a few minutes, ignoring the weight on his chest, before realizing that nothing else was happening and he was growing bored. What the heck kind of a dream was this, anyways?
Reaching down to once again push at the weight sprawled across him, Roxas's hand landed in a soft mass of spikes. "Hey, get off." He said, looking down at… Axel?
And that was when Roxas realized he wasn't dreaming anymore.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHH!" Screaming, Roxas tried to sit up, pushing Axel off of him. The redhead tumbled to the side, waking up with a start as he hit the cold floor.
"Whoa, Roxas, what's going – "
Slap!
"AXEL, YOU PERVERT, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING?! TRYING TO RAPE ME IN MY SLEEP??!"
Axel looked extremely confused and disoriented. "Roxas, what the flip are you on? I wasn't –"
"That's what they all say!" Roxas shot back, pointing an accusing finger at the redhead and not letting Axel finish. "So say what you want, I know you were trying to… trying to…"
…"You have to keep warm. And besides, I don't have a sleeping bag anymore, remember? We have to share. Get over it."…
…"Feeling any better?"…
…"Are you still cold?"…
…This is actually… kind of nice…
Suddenly last night's events came washing over Roxas, and he suddenly felt extremely stupid. "Uh… Axel?"
"…Yes?"
"You… uh… weren't trying to rape me, were you?"
"No, Roxas. I wasn't."
Roxas sent Axel an apologetic grin, sheepishly pulling the covers up around his naked torso. "Um… oops."
Sending Roxas a look as if he wasn't quite sure if it was safe to be in an enclosed space with him, Axel pulled one of the blankets towards himself in an attempt to cover up against the chilly morning air. "So… are you okay now?" he asked. "Or should I be worried that you're going to scream like a little girl and smack me again?"
"Shut up." Roxas snapped, reaching over to his pack and pulling out a clean shirt and tugging it over his head. Axel laughed to himself; now finding the situation amusing once the initial shock of waking up to a pissy and violent Roxas wore off.
"And I must say, although molesting you wasn't my original intent, now that you mention it…"
Slap!
Shoving some pants on under the blankets, Roxas stood up, grabbing the blanket away from Axel (who was rubbing at the side of his face, wearing a disgruntled pout), rolling it up tightly and packing it up, along with the rest of the bedding. As long as he was up he intended on making use of his time, and that meant making up for all the time he'd lost yesterday and last night – he was going to get to Magic Lake today if it killed him.
.x.X.x.
A few hours later, and Roxas was bitterly plowing through the creek bed, a complaining Axel following along behind.
"Roxas, let's take a break."
"No, Axel, we're getting there as soon as possible, and that means no breaks."
Roxas heard a heavy sigh from behind him and he sincerely hoped Axel was having as miserable a time as he was. Being stuck with the redhead for two and a half days was no walk in the park. It wasn't even a walk in the city. It was a hike though the flipping wilderness while dragging along a whining and complaining redhead who insisted on making his life as annoying and frustrating as possible.
Axel sighed, following after Roxas as he tromped though the creek. The blonde sure was determined, he'd give him that.
Roxas glared down at the rocks and water he was navigating through. Stupid rocks. Stupid water. When I get home I'm never going outside again, because then I might get lost and get stuck back in this wretched creek forever. Despite the natural beauty of their setting, the blonde was fast becoming to hate this place. Sure, all the surrounding trees and cliffs and flowers were nice to look at, but after two whole days of them Roxas was beginning to find their presence to be completely smothering. Like they were some sort of border patrol for this creek bed prison and Roxas was the inmate, his punishment being the everlasting trek he was on. Oh, and Axel. Axel was definitely some sort of capital punishment from the wilderness gods.
Roxas stared determinedly ahead and let out a wistful sigh. He had never really been much of a lake person, but right now there was nowhere else on earth he'd rather be. Because that idiot lake meant proof that there was life outside of this stupid creek and Axel, which Roxas had been questioning over the last couple days. He could almost see Magic Lake if he thought about it hard enough. Yes, there it was, right there, in all its lake-y glory… Right there, straight ahead of him…
"Hey Roxas, what's that straight ahead of us? It looks like a lake."
Blinking owlishly to clear his eyes from his vivid thoughts, Roxas looked ahead to see that in the near distance, straight in front of them, there really was a lake. Dear God, I'm free! Roxas thought. With a yelp he took off, running full speed ahead.
Bursting out into the clearing by the lake a few moments later, Roxas fell to his knees, kissing the ground. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" He chanted. "I didn't think I'd ever make it away from that awful creek!"
"ROXAS! Look, Riku – it's Roxas!! Aw, look at how much he loves Magic Lake!"
Snapping his head around to look to the side, Roxas was faced with the sight of Sora and Riku, holding beach towels and a picnic basket, obviously just about to set up for a day at the lake. Camp was a ways off behind them, their little tent and fire pit all set up already. Roxas just stared at them, finding himself caught in a very awkward situation. He knew he must have looked quite crazy, stumbling out of nowhere and dropping to his knees to kiss the dirt. Well, at least to Riku what he was doing probably looked a little crazy. Roxas was pretty sure Sora had probably done something quite similar when he and the silver haired teen had first arrived.
With a crashing of underbrush, Axel stepped out onto the beach, surveying the area. "Axel!" Sora jubilantly squealed, dropping what he was carrying and running forward, grabbing both Axel and Roxas and crushing them into a giant hug. Roxas frowned – he was not a big fan of being in such close proximity to Axel. He'd had enough of that over the past few days to last him a while, thank you very much. Also, the way Sora had grabbed them caused Axel's hip to dig into Roxas's side in a somewhat uncomfortable manner. Ow and ew at the same time.
Eventually though, Sora did release them, and Roxas stepped away, looking and feeling rather disgruntled. "So do you guys wanna go swimming with me and Riku?" Sora happily asked, beaming at them both.
"Pass." Roxas said, turning and heading back towards where Sora and Riku had set up camp. "I'm gonna go set up the tent and stuff."
"Oh…" Sora replied, obviously disappointed. "Well… what about you, Axel?"
"I think I'm gonna go help Roxie out." Axel told him with a wink, and Roxas cringed at overhearing this on his way back to camp. "But I'll come down in a bit, alright?"
"Okay…" Sora pouted before trotting off with Riku down to the water. Roxas head the sound of footsteps catching up to him and rolled his eyes. Gah, why was Axel following after him like some dumb puppy who couldn't take a hint?
"Haven't we hung out enough lately?" Roxas questioned, not even turning around. "I don't need any help setting up the tent; you can go swimming."
"Nah, I wanna help out." Axel insisted and Roxas let out a heavy and very and obvious sigh, hoping Axel would catch on to the fact that he really wanted a break from the Axel/Roxas bonding time.
However, Axel didn't take the hint, and the two of them struggled with getting their tent set up. Not that setting it up was all that difficult in itself, but the constant, petty, bickering that they engaged in the whole time made the entire process rather frustrating and take much longer than it should have. Finally after they got everything all set up, Roxas climbed in the tent, unrolling all of his bedding and collapsing on top of it, closing his eyes and deciding to take a well deserved nap.
"What are you doing?" Axel inquired, peeking into the tent.
"Taking a nap." Roxas snapped back. "So go away."
"Nah, I think I'll take a nap too." Axel announced, climbing in.
"Axel, get the hell out." Roxas told him, opening one eye to see what the heck Axel though he was doing. He was feeling very cranky and sleep deprived and Axel wasn't helping matters one bit. "Don't you think we've spent enough time together already? Let me take a freaking nap by myself."
Axel, however, didn't listen to a word Roxas said, flopping down into the fluffy bedding and making himself comfortable. Roxas shoved at him. "Go find somewhere else to lay down."
"Can't." Axel mumbled, burrowing his face into the blankets. "I don't have my own stuff anymore, remember?"
"And whose fault is that?" Roxas grumbled, rolling over to face away from the redheaded teen, accepting that he was going to have to deal with Axel for yet a while longer. Fine, he could accept that. As long as the stupid kid kept to his side of the bed and didn't bother him.
.x.X.x.
"Guys! Hey guys, wake up!"
Groggily groaning and sitting up, Roxas opened his eyes to see Sora sticking his head in the tent, clad in only his dripping wet swim trunks and with an ecstatic grin on his face. "Sora, what is it? I was asleep."
"I know…" Sora said, raising an arm to scratch at the back of his head, looking like he felt a little bad for interrupting Roxas's nap, but not too much. "But I have something really cool to show you guys, and if you keep sleeping all afternoon you won't be able to sleep at all tonight."
Roxas knew the second half of this statement was probably true, but he very much doubted that the first part was. He was starting to get a feel for what Sora considered 'fun' and was quickly finding that Sora's and his ideas of 'fun' were worlds apart.
"So come on, wake Axel up and come down to the lake!" Sora said before turning and scampering back down to the water. Roxas sighed, glancing down at Axel, who had thrown his arm around the blonde's waist.
"Hey, get off." Roxas commanded, grabbing Axel's arm and flinging it off of him. Axel didn't wake up at this, however, so Roxas insistently jabbed at him in the ribs. "Hey, wake up, idiot, Sora wants us to go down to the lake with him."
Axel mumbled in his sleep as he slowly woke up, blinking his eyes open to look up at Roxas, who was frowning down at him. Axel simply stared up at him for a moment before a sleepy smile crossed his face. "Morning beautiful."
Roxas rolled his eyes. "Shut up. Sora wants us to get down to the lake to show us something or whatever. Get changed." Axel grinned, making a show of unzipping his pants. "Okay, ew." Roxas said in response, grabbing his swim shorts and heading outside to get changed behind a towel.
A few minutes later and Roxas and Axel were down at the lake, Sora beaming at them and gesturing to two somethings that were floating out in the water.
"Tada!" He proudly announced. "Water toys! I brought an old inflatable mattress and this cool new inflatable floatie raft thing, isn't that fun!"
Roxas gazed at the floating objects with something akin to awed disgust. The old, beat up mattress was a dark reddish colour, had weird lumps in it, and was quite a bit larger than the other, newer 'toy' Sora had brought along. The new floatie was only about half the size, obviously only meant for one person and it was… it was…
"Sora, that thing is freaking rainbow." Roxas said. Like hell was he going to splash around with a blow-up rainbow floatie.
Suddenly Axel burst out laughing. "Ahahahaha!!! That raft looks so gay! … Roxas, go get on it!"
The blonde turned to glare at Axel, not amused by the implications of that suggestion. However, before he could even so much as voice his thoughts on the matter, Axel was hauling him up into his arms and the next thing Roxas knew he was soaring through the air, only to land in the water with a giant splash a second later.
Spluttering as he sat up (at least Axel hadn't thrown him in that deep), Roxas gave Axel a look of pure, unadulterated abhorrence before launching himself at the fiery haired teen, tackling him and taking them both back down into the shallow water. Sora let out a whoop, obviously thinking they were playing, and jumped on Riku, sending both boys into the water with a happy splash.
Meanwhile, Roxas was doing his best to drag Axel down into the water with only minimal success, seeing as Axel was a lot bigger than him. Crawling all over the elder teen, Roxas was suddenly picked up again (against his will, as he made quite clear by all the angry shouting and protesting he was doing) by a laughing Axel and dumped unceremoniously onto the rainbow floatie raft toy. Angrily pouting, Roxas accepted this fate, as it seemed to be the only way Axel was going to be satisfied and quit bugging him. As a very disgruntled and wet Roxas sat on the rainbow floatie, hands out in front of him on it to balance himself – its flimsy structure seemed to be constantly threatening to tip him over – Axel stood a few feet away, about waist deep in the water, laughing his head off and pointing at the blonde as if he'd never seen anything more hilarious in his entire life.
"Piss off, Axel." Roxas said, hoping Axel would just leave him alone. Let this humiliation just be over with already…
"Ahaha, no way." Axel retorted. "This is way too great to pass up. I wanna remember this forever. The High and Mighty Roxas pouting on a rainbow floatie. If only I had a camera, I could take a picture that I could blow up poster size to frame and put up on my wall."
Roxas added a blush to his disgruntled pouting at realizing how foolish he must look. "Shut up."
"No way." Axel grinned back, plunging his hand into the water and splashing Roxas.
"Hey, cut that out you freaking jerk!" Roxas hated being splashed.
"Make me!"
Roxas reached out and smacked Axel rather hard in the arm and the redhead had the decency to cut out his splashing. "Haha, okay fine, I'll quit it. But you're just so easy to bother!" Roxas only glared at him in response, letting Axel know that he was going to have to work a little harder than that to earn forgiveness. Actually, a lot harder.
Axel gave an exaggerated sigh, placing one hand on his hip and using the other to gesture vaguely in the air next to him as he spoke. "Roxas, I am most sincerely sorry that I splashed you." He said, sounding serious. Roxas raised an eyebrow at him.
"Really?"
Axel gave a snort of laughter. "Pffft, no!" he replied, launching himself at the floatie and tackling Roxas.
"AXEL!" Roxas yelled as he nearly toppled off the raft, Axel clinging onto it and grinning up at him. "Axel, get the hell off my floatie!"
"You know… I don't think I will." Axel responded, still grinning, much to Roxas's infuriation.
"Get off!" Roxas repeated, shoving at Axel and trying to push him off, but to no avail. In fact, this only served to make Axel cling to it more firmly, taking obvious joy in invading Roxas's personal space.
"I'm serious!" Roxas insisted, struggling to maintain his balance on the severely unstable floatie. "Axel, you're gonna tip me over!"
Axel didn't seem to care, though, because he kept at it, attempting to clamber onto the tiny little raft, Roxas continuing to shove at him. Finally, with one powerful lunge, Axel heaved himself up onto the floatie with Roxas, ending up sprawled across the smaller male. The floatie swashed around dangerously for a minute, but eventually settled back into an easy rocking and Axel flashed Roxas a triumphant grin.
"See? We can both fit on it without it tipping."
"Yeah well that still doesn't mean I want you laying on top of me, you freak." Roxas responded, giving Axel one last shove and effectively pushing him off the raft.
"Hey, Roxas that was really…." Suddenly Axel cut himself off, eyes widening to the size of giant dinner plates as he began flailing in the water, desperately trying to clutch onto the floatie. "Let me back on, let me back on!"
The raft once again threatened to tip, and Roxas gripped it tightly, not understanding why Axel was freaking out all of a sudden. He was the one who'd started all these shoving water games, why was it that all of a sudden he was flailing around like a drowning chicken with it's head cut off? The only other time Roxas had ever seen him act like this was when they had needed to cross across that one deep pool in the…
Suddenly it hit him. Looking up, Roxas saw that the shore was a considerable distance away, all of their splashing and tussling must have gotten them out here. The water where they were was considerably deeper than either of them could stand in, thus Axel's sudden flip out.
"Axel, calm down, we can just paddle back to the –"
"NO WE CAN'T!" Axel insisted. "We're going to get eaten by the lake monster!!"
"Lake monster?" Roxas inquired, raising an eyebrow. Apparently Axel went delirious as well as panicked when he was in deep water. "Axel, cut it out, there's no –"
"Yes there is!" Axel cut in, scrambling onto the dinky little floatie and clutching onto Roxas for dear life. At the added weight the little raft gave a violent heave, nearly overturning, but Roxas managed to right it before they were both dumped into the water.
"Look, Axel, you're on the raft now, okay? Let's just paddle back to shore and everything's gonna be okay." Roxas reached into the water to drag his arm though it as a makeshift paddle, causing the floatie to give another unpleasant lurch. Axel whimpered pathetically, crushing Roxas's other arm in a death hold.
"You're fine." Roxas sighed, attempting to maneuver the floatie back to shore with only one arm, Axel's nervous squirming making it very difficult. "And can you stop moving around? You're making it more difficult than it already is." Slipping a little, Roxas accidentally leaned too far to one side, causing the raft to tip.
"OH MY GOD!" Axel wailed, nearly sobbing. "I'M TOO FAT! I'M GOING TO SINK THE RAFT!"
Roxas gave Axel a weird look. "What the hell are you talking about? You're like… the polar opposite of fat, you freak!"
"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!" Axel chanted, burying his face in Roxas's shoulder.
"You're not going to die!" Roxas shouted in exasperation. "Get a grip already! If you'd just give me my arm back and let me paddle I could get us back to shore!"
"No you couldn't! I'm too fat and the raft is going to sink and then we're gonna get eaten by the lake monster and –"
Just then Axel slipped to one side, pulling Roxas off with him as he landed back in the water with an impressive splash. Surfacing, and still in hysterics, Axel flailed for the floatie, whimpering and clinging onto it for dear life, muttering incoherent fears. Roxas rolled his eyes as he treaded water a few feet away.
"Hey, you guys need some help?"
The blonde turned to see Sora and Riku, floating on their mattress a few yards away and looking concerned. Oh, of course they had a proper paddle.
"Yeah, that'd be helpful." Roxas replied, grabbing onto the rainbow floatie and awkwardly dragging it through the water over to where Sora and Riku were, carefully pulling himself up onto the mattress and holding onto the other floatie, which Axel was still clinging to, whimpering with his eyes shut tight as he awaited his imagined fate. Roxas sighed, shaking his head.
Slowly but surely, Sora and Riku paddled them back to shore, dragging Axel along behind.
.o.O.o.
WHOOO!! MAGIC LAKE! They finally made it!
So hello, you lovely people you! I hope you liked the chapter, and I just had one or two announcements to make. First of all, I wanted to do some shameless self-promoting and tell anyone who might care that I've posted a side story to this fic called 'Tent Games' and it's about what Sora and Riku did during the time when the group was split up on the way to the lake. I dunno, you might not agree, but I kinda thought it was a cool idea…
That said, I'd also like to say that I would really like to have this thing done by the end of the year. I've pretty much got all the chapters laid out, it would just be a matter of editing and posting them. There's only 5 more chapters to go, but would that be like… an overload of posting them in such a short period of time?
Anyways, I hope people enjoyed the chapter, and any feedback is appreciated!