Red Light District
Chapter 6 - Favour
Man, it seems like a lot of people were confused with the Riku bit last time. It was a flashback or a dream about the night that their parents died. Sorry for the confusion. Last chapter, guys! I'm so proud of it! Thank you all so much! You've been so great! I love you all! Don't forget to thank RecklessxDreamer for being an amazing Beta!
Warning - Sappyness
VWVW ViiiXiii
"C'mon. Through here. Quiet. Don't wake hi-"
The light in the kitchen flicked on, exposing the redhead and his friend as they crept towards the stairs leading to Axel's bedroom. Axel blushed, letting out a nervous laugh.
"Why don't you want to wake me up, Axel? Hello Roxas. Good to see Axel has finally gotten his emotions under control, right?"
Roxas blushed and nodded slightly to humour the man that had been his boss' boss until just hours previous. Axel, however, blushed deeper before glowering at the grumpy, smirking redhead. He righted himself in front of his brother, his chest puffing in defiance, causing Reno's nerve to break as he let out a laugh.
"Okay, okay. So, I'm up, I've been up, and I'm still curious as to why you did not want me to be woken."
"You can stop the business tone, Re. Rox doesn't work for ya' anymore."
"Is that why you didn't want to run into me then? You stole one of my employees?"
Axel opened his mouth to speak, closed it again when he found he had lost his reasoning, but found his courage when Roxas moved closer to him, taking his hand. He was shocked for a moment, confused as to why his friend would do something like that when that was all they were and, what Axel believed, always would be. "No, Re. I… No, we … we need a favour."
"Hmm, is that right?"
Axel nodded, looking back to the hopeful blonde. "You see ..."
Axel told Roxas' story as best he could, looking to the blonde for help when he lost his train of thought. When it was finished, Axel sighed, his breath baited before he asked.
"Reno, do you think ... it would be possible to ... pay for it?"
--
The sun peaked through the clouds, turning them pink and orange and red before the pale blue took over. But Roxas couldn't see the pallet of color as he fidgeted in the passenger's seat of Axel's expensive car, a gift from Reno. The fact that his brother would be better hadn't fully registered and he just wanted to be home. Axel pulled into the driveway and Roxas was gone, shooting from the car like a speeding bullet, flinging the door open before the vehicle had even stopped moving. He stumbled slightly rushing up the front steps, tears blinding him.
"Riku! Riku!"
He tore into his brother's room to find a sleeping Riku, head resting against Sora's shoulder. Roxas took his shoulder and shook him awake.
"Mmm? R-Rox..as? Wh-What's wrong? Roxas?"
The silver-haired teen became alert when he noticed the tears streaking down Roxas' face. "Riku ... There's enough now."
"What?"
"Money. We have money! We have eighty thousand dollars!"
"'The hell'd you get all that?!"
Axel stepped in through the open door. "Come on. Let's get that boy his surgery."
--
"I can't believe they're taking him in on such a spur of the moment!"
Roxas gripped Axel's hand as they drove behind the ambulance that held Sora and Riku. They decided it best for the chocolate-haired teen to go via the safe vehicle instead of the rich-boy's, figuring that it would be rather awkward to get the immobile boy in and out of the fancy car. Axel smiled happily at his best friend, glad that the younger had gotten over his awkwardness of unveiling himself. But, he just couldn't figure why he was still gripping his hand.
"Rox ..."
"Hmm?" The giant grin slid from that beautiful face at Axel's serious, befuddled tone causing the redhead to smile once more, squeezing the blonde's hand, that smile reappearing from the shadows.
"It's nothing."
--
The wait was excruciating. Riku paced around the large, square room, fidgeting with anticipation. Roxas was still firmly holding onto Axel's large hand, his tiny fingers clenching painfully.
Axel didn't mind.
The doctors explained beforehand the risks of the surgery and stated the possibility that Sora may never be able to walk, talk or even move if anything happened during the procedure. Neither Riku nor Roxas cared about the risks, each just wanting their old Sora back. Axel sat by, trying to prepare himself for the worst of what Roxas would feel if something did go wrong. And the odds were against the boy.
Axel was glad that they were the only ones in the waiting room. He felt that Roxas needed to be near him more now than ever before.
--
"It's been hours! How long does it take to get out a tainted hunk of flesh?"
"Sir, it's a lot more complicated than that! He's almost finished, though. There were a few complications, but we expect he'll be out soon."
"He had better be. And what type of complications?"
--
Roxas had calmed considerably with the hours of waiting. Riku had become too exhausted to pace any further and had collapsed in a padded, plastic chair, nodding off into sleep. Axel was away getting coffee for the three of them. That left the blonde the only one in the waiting room. He vaguely wondered why no one else had joined them, but didn't voice his question. What was the importance of it? The silence of the bland room left him to think.
He was out of a job, which meant he had more time to spend with his brother. And Axel. Axel. If it wasn't for him, the blonde would have given up hope and Sora would have ended up dying. He would never have had enough money to save the boy if he hadn't told Axel. If he hadn't charmed Axel.
Is that what he had done? Was the only reason his brother was getting his surgery because he conned a friend into lending him all that money? Wasn't it unfair that Axel loved him? Him! Not any one else. Just him. But, he didn't feel the same. He didn't, did he?
He felt something slip down his cheek and just as quickly be wiped away by a warm, tender, loving hand. For an instant, he pictured himself ten years younger, cuddling closer to a woman who loved him with all her might, wiping away his tears in the middle of the night after he had awoken from a horrid nightmare. He wanted so badly to cry out to her, tell her to come back, that he missed her. But the woman shifted slowly into a boy, a friend, a flare of red spikes, looking on with worry as he wiped away the tears of confusion.
"Mom?"
Still, he heard himself ask so… hopefully for the woman that had been ripped from him.
"Rox, what's the matter, bud?"
The blonde nuzzled into the warm embrace, letting more tears flow from his cerulean orbs, surely just being even more of a tease for the redhead. That's all he was, wasn't he? A tease? He wouldn't be able to live with himself if that were true.
--
"A few more complications. But, he should be out soon."
--
The nurse came out to the waiting room a few minutes before Sora was to be taken up to his room, the surgery complete. Only time would tell if the results were the ones craved for. Axel followed a bit behind Riku and Roxas, feeling just the slightest bit out of place. These two boys, one he cared very much for, the other he would prefer to keep his distance, walking down the clean halls that smelled of disinfectant to the room of one that they both loved with more than they could believe. The redhead hadn't even met the real Sora. He just had come in contact with an unconscious patient. So he held back.
--
Frail was the motionless boy in the bed. He made not a sound but the beeping of the monitor and the sounds of the breathing machine. Riku slept with his hand in Sora's while Roxas was curled on a not-so-comfortable padded chair that looked out of a window. Axel went home at night, coming back every morning with a coffee and a homemade breakfast for the two waiting boys. Both Roxas and Axel skipped out on school for a few days.
--
"Axel, can you come with me for a minute. I need to talk to you."
The redhead raised an eyebrow while the blonde beside him stood, escaping from the room that still held his brother's unconscious form, even three days later. Axel followed the blonde to the other end of the hallway.
"Rox?"
"Axel, please. Just... wait."
So he waited. And waited. He was almost ready to stop waiting and ask the boy what he held on his mind before those oceans swallowed him whole, right there in the middle of the hall. The world could be read in those eyes. Pain, hurt, confusion, longing, love, compassion, hatred. Everything. It stole the breath from Axel's lungs.
"Axel ... I have to talk to you."
The redhead snapped back into reality with the stony voice the blonde used. So cold, so unlike his usual.
"Go ahead."
"W-What we did at the club ... I mean, it was only a few times. And it won't happen again. I'll make sure of it. I don't want to go through that again. Why? Why did you let me make such a fool out of myself if you knew it was me?!"
"Rox ... Y-You didn't make a fool out of yourself. I don't believe you did anyways." Axel ignored the first half of what Roxas had told him, trying his hardest to keep the pain each word had struck in him from his voice.
"You let me ... do those things to you. You held me, I held you. We are friends, Axel. Best friends. Not... lovers." The blonde almost spit the last word.
"I ... Rox ... I ... I know we are ... friends, but ... what I said ... it wasn't a lie, you know, Roxas." He threw his eyes to the tiled floor, freshly waxed. He traced the designs with glistening emerald orbs, his heart pounding in his chest and his breath shallow, trying to pick out anything Roxas might say, even if it meant his heart would shatter.
"Stop saying my name. Please." Roxas, too, sent his gaze to the tiles as he searched for the right words, the words he wanted, craved to say. "You said a lot of things."
"But, I'm sure you know what thing I mean, Rox."
A flinch. "I don't. Care to enlighten me?"
"Roxas, for heaven's sake, I love you, okay! I wasn't lying. I wouldn't. Not about something like that."
"Well, Axel, why? Why do you love me? We're just friends. Is that why you paid up? Because you love me?"
"I would stop the world for you."
Both boys caught how stupid, cliché, sweet, caring, loving that one line was. The redhead almost felt himself falter. Where had that come from? But, wasn't it the truth? He definitely felt that way. "I love you. I would do anything for you. I didn't tell you I knew who you were because I thought that it would ruin my chances to ever be with you! I was happy. I was happy just to have a 'fake' Roxas because I could pretend that there was no makeup and it was really you. It was really just you sitting there with me, eating, talking, laying, holding, touching. Rox, I wanted it to be you. I didn't know if it really was you or just ... my imagination. Luxord turned into you when I was with him." His chest was heaving as though he had just run a marathon.
Roxas was unbelieving. He gazed at Axel, wondering if his words were to be trusted. "You're my best friend."
"I want to be more."
"Will you ever go back to the club?"
"Not if ... not if I can have you. If I had you, there would be no reason to."
"What would I be?"
"What do you mean?"
There was a pause before the blonde continued. "Would I still just be your little whore?"
"No. No. I would be the best that I could be to keep you happy. Rox, I wouldn't do a thing to you if you wanted me to stay away. I would never force you to do a thing. I would be happy just to have you sitting beside me."
"So ... where do we stand now?"
"Well, I'm guessing I'm stuck loving you while you love no one but your brother who might have been screwed over by the surgery that the one that loves you paid for."
A sharp slap resounded through the quiet place. "Don't you dare say that! Sora's better! There's no more cancer! He has to be fine. Axel, he has to be fine!"
Emerald orbs grew wide in panic, still slightly shocked by the slap. "Roxas, no. No! I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry! Roxas, I'm ... please. He's fine. He'll wake up. He will."
"Yeah. He better."
Roxas' voice was less than a whisper. Axel put his arm over the shoulder of the blonde, praying the boy wouldn't just shrug him off. A loud piercing noise ripped through the semi-silence that had followed the argument. A scream, a cry, more screaming. Nurses, rushing to a room. A silver-haired teen clutching the doorframe.
"Roxas! Come quick! Something's wrong with Sora!" Riku screamed, his voice shrill and his eyes watering. The blonde tore away from his best friend.
"Sora!"
--
"He's still alive, but it doesn't seem like he'll be waking up from that coma any time soon. He'll be needing to stay on life support."
"Sora.... Is there nothing we can do?"
"I'm afraid not."
Roxas felt more tears leak from his eyes. Axel had gone to get them lunch - even though none of them were in the mood to eat - and Riku was slowly stroking Sora's chocolaty spikes.
"Axel... come back soon."
--
"Sora. Sora, if you can hear me, squeeze my finger, please?" No response. "Sora?" A choked sob. "Sora, do you remember the day we went to the park, just the three of us? Wasn't that such a great day? Roxas made the best peanut butter and banana sandwiches, didn't he? And that bird that came down to say hello. Do you remember him? Wasn't that amazing? He came right up to you and ate from your hand. You wanted to take him home, remember? But Roxas got all grouchy and scared him off because he was jealous. You were mad at him the whole way home. Not even the ice cream made you like him. A whole week you wouldn't talk to him. Do you remember that, Sora? Please, say you do."
--
"Sora, wake up. Please. They say you're going to die, that they will be taking you off of life support soon. They say there is no hope. You can't do that to me. You can't do that to us! What would we do without you? Sora, why won't you wake -"
Riku stopped, feeling something squeeze his finger. It wasn't much but it was something. "Sora?" A harder squeeze. Tears perked at the corners of Riku's eyes. Roxas slept on his claimed chair and Axel was on the floor in front of him, his head laid back, resting next to Roxas' knee as the redhead slept. "Sora? Please." A flicker of the eyes.
"Ehku?"
"Sora! Sora! Thank god! You're alright! Roxas, get up!"
The blonde jumped, knocking a startled redhead to be sprawled on the floor. "What?"
"Sora, Sora. C'mon."
"R-Rehku."
"Roxas, he's up."
Giant swimming blue orbs gazed at their brother and their lover for the first time in months. "Sora." Roxas gasped.
"R-Rox... Rox-as."
"Y-You can speak again."
"Riku. Roxas. Riku. Roxas."
The blonde felt someone behind him. Turning to face the beaming redhead, he grabbed his neck, hauling the taller down to crash their lips together.
-
3 months later
-
"Axel! Hands off!"
"But, Rox, you promised!"
"So? Maybe I lied?"
"But you aren't allowed to lie!"
"Okay, fine, Axel, just one."
The blonde huffed, crossing his arms across his chest, spatula sticking up near his cheek. The redhead gave a quick peck to his boyfriend's forehead before darting his hand out to grab a steaming brownie cookie. Roxas scowled so Axel gave him another kiss on the forehead.
"I was saving those for Sora, you know."
"I know. I just couldn't resist. You know you have the best cookies this side of the universe!"
Rolling his eyes at the flattery, Roxas shooed Axel away from the delicacies and into the living room, forcing the redhead down on the sofa. Shining emeralds gazed up at blazing oceans, pleading to stay out of any sort of trouble.
"Explain to me why I have to go."
Another roll of eyes. "Axe, we've been through this a million times. It's Sora's birthday. I'm Sora's brother. You're my boyfriend. You have to go because I have to go."
"That's not fair!"
"There'll be more cookies."
Axel sighed, pouting. "Fine. Just so long as he doesn't go all crazy on me again."
"That was just because he found out you helped me with the money for the surgery. You've seen him plenty of times after that and he's never attacked you again."
"Oh, Rox, that's what you think."
"Yeah, that's what I think. Now, stop it. It'll be fun."
"Only if I get to play with you when we get back."
Roxas quirked his eyebrow, smirking. "Well, I dunno about that. I don't think we'd be able to have much of a deal there."
"But, Rox-as!"
That smirk grew wider and Roxas pressed his lips to Axel's, causing the redhead to shudder and wrap his arms around his blonde possessively.
"Guess we're gonna be a little late. Can you live with yourself, Rox-as?"
"I'll have to manage."
--
The End
--
I'm so glad that so many of you liked this. And I hope that the sappy ending didn't throw it off. I liked it myself. Any comments, questions, concerns or just feel like telling me how you enjoyed it, I'd be happy! Sorry this is so late. There was an accident and my dog has to get his leg amputated so I've been farely screwed up for the past few days and forgot it was Tuesday. Thanks everyone and I hope you liked it!
I'm leaving my life in your hands. People say I'm crazy and that I am blind, Risking it all in a glance - As Long As You're With Me
Backstreet Boys
~xbuttonsx~