They moved around a lot. After about a week or two of staying in the motel that Axel had conned them into, which Roxas later learned was in Petoskey, Michigan, he decided that they needed to move again.
"Too many people have seen my face." Was all he offered as an explanation, and Roxas didn't dare to speak up against him.
They did a lot of driving, as well. They went from the west to the east to central U.S. to the south to the southwest….a never-ending cycle of moving to keep from anybody recognizing them.
In one of the hotels where they were staying, Roxas had found a little plastic calendar. It was the kind that they gave you with the hotel's name on it and everything, and it was covered with a thin little layer of plastic to keep it water proofed.
The previous tenants of the room had left a small, indelible marker in one of the drawers. It was one of those mini Sharpies that had a little key ring on the cap that you could use to hang it on something. God forbid you should ever lose a three dollar Sharpie.
He decided that he would start marking off the days he was with Axel. He started with day one; June 20th. They had been about five days away from getting out of school, Roxas had finished all of his final exams, and was jazzed about taking his college-level classes the following year.
June 20th came, and June went out with it. July came, and July went. Then August…then September…then October…
By the time November rolled around, they had made their way to Nebraska. Axel had actually moved up a step and rented them a house; something a little more permanent, where they could live for a few months without people worrying about finding or recognizing them.
Roxas's parents still hadn't paid the ransom. He learned, sometime around the start of the new school year, that Axel had only asked for $500,000. To his parents, it would be nothing. Why they hadn't paid up, the blonde was still unsure.
He kept getting new clothes, and Axel even dyed his hair once (it grew out so fast that re-dying it was quickly abandoned). He was almost fifteen. He had missed his sister's birthday, he had missed his mother's birthday, and he had a feeling that he was going to miss Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The abuse continued, but it was less frequent than he thought it would be. Axel very rarely hit Roxas; really all of the damage that was done was either psychological or sexual. It didn't take Roxas very long to figure out that if he could just become void of emotion and stop defying Axel, then the only reason the redhead had to rape him was to satisfy his own sick pleasure.
All that Roxas ate was fast food and the occasional peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. All he had to drink was either beer or the disgusting tap water that came from the faucet, so a lot of times he ended up getting so severely dehydrated from wanting neither of the two that Axel forced some form of liquid down his throat. It was, in essence, five and a half months of hell.
Roxas blinked out of his reminiscing, continued scribbling the day out on his little calendar. November 16th. Axel was in the living room, talking to someone on the phone, and the blonde frowned as his voice rose noticeably.
"Man, come on. You totally owe it to me." He paused, and Roxas sighed. It seemed that now, all that happened between the two of them that could actually be called interaction was Axel deciding that he needed to satisfy his pedophilic desires or Roxas asking for something to eat. As much as he hated his captor, it was pretty damn boring.
He settled back into the comfortable cushions of the couch, pulled his throw blanket up to his chin, and closed his eyes. He had run out of pages in his sketch book, so to prevent himself from going crazy with the thoughts and emotions bouncing around inside his head, he took to keeping a journal.
I can't believe I'm still here. He thought, burying his face in one of the sweet smelling pillows. I don't know why my parents haven't paid the ransom yet. I don't know why Axel is even keeping me around, knowing that my parents probably won't pay the ransom. God that guy is so crazy…what I wouldn't give to have him randomly have a heart attack so I could go home.
His brow furrowed, and he thought about the odds of the redhead just dropping dead one morning. After considering that for a moment, he continued on with his internal monologue.
I've been here for like, six months. Seriously, Mom, Dad, you guys suck. I mean, I get that it's a little bit of money, but my God! Its like they don't even love me anymore. That damned redhead is the only one I've had to talk to for the last half year…how am I still sane?
He stopped for a moment, then shook his head. Never mind. Scratch that, I'm not sane. I mean, Jesus Christ. I'm talking to myself.
He stopped the mental journaling for a moment, took a deep breath. He was starting to feel nauseous, and for a moment felt like he was going to pass out. This had been happening pretty frequently over the last couple of weeks, and the blonde attributed it to malnutrition.
He sat up slowly as to prevent his head from spinning, rubbed his eyes. He was starting to see white flashing across his vision, his body started to feel incredibly hot despite the fact that he was only wearing a t-shirt and cargo shorts.
"Axel!" When he called out for his abductor, his voice sounded distant. Like it belonged to someone else. Definitely not a good sign.
"What do you want?" The reply, too, sounded very distant. The last thing Roxas wanted would be to pass out. In all likelihood, when he finally did wake up the first thing he'd probably see would be Axel on top of him shirtless and freeing himself of what he called "sexual frustration."
"I need a glass of water." Roxas answered. "And a cold rag. Please." He tried to make his voice as monotone as possible; tried not to let the redhead know exactly how much and how quickly he needed those things.
"Why?"
The blonde sucked in a deep breath, trying to keep his heart and breathing rates down. His head felt like it weight about five thousand pounds, and he decided that he wanted to lay down again. "I think I'm going to pass out."
He heard Axel groan and move from wherever he had been into the kitchen, heard the comforting sound of water being poured into a glass and then soaking up a kitchen towel. "What the hell is wrong with you, kid? It seems like all you do nowadays is pass out."
Roxas felt the cold towel hit his forehead, and immediately he started to feel better. "Maybe it's because you don't feed me good food, and so my body is lacking the vital nutrition that it needs."
Axel snorted and set Roxas's glass down on the coffee table beside the couch. "Whatever. Don't interrupt me again. I'm busy."
Roxas didn't reply, instead deciding that he was going to control his breathing and cool down. Axel didn't move for a few moments, presumably watching his captive (Roxas had his eyes closed so he had no way of knowing) before departing into one of the other rooms to finish whatever he had been doing that was so important.
"Yeah, I'm okay now, thanks for asking." The blonde murmured once he was by himself again. The predicament he was currently in just fascinated him. On one hand, he hated Axel with every ounce of his being. He wanted him to die, to arrested, get raped in prison, whatever. Just so long as he was as miserable as the blonde was. On the other hand, Roxas had been started for affection for almost half a year, and Axel was the only one who could give it to him.
If only I hadn't accepted the ride…He thought, sighing. I wouldn't even be here.
--
Roxas opened his eyes to a mostly dark room, lit only by a single lamp on a table and the TV picture. Axel was sitting on the end of the couch, his captive's feet uncomfortably close to his lap, blankly staring at the screen.
The blonde stretched and sat up, glancing around. "What time is it?" He asked, his voice thick from sleep.
Axel shrugged. "Around eight."
"What are you watching?"
"TV."
Roxas blinked, sighed, and got up. "Whatever. I'm going to go draw."
"No you're not."
He stopped, already halfway across the room, and looked at Axel curiously. "I'm not?"
"No. You're going to stay where I can see you. Right now, that just so happens to be in this room."
Roxas groaned. "Come on. I've been in this room all day."
"That's not my fault. Now stop arguing with me, or I'll make it so you can't leave this room for the next three days." The redhead tore his gaze away from the TV to fix the blonde with a leveling stare, and soon enough Roxas was back and seated almost comfortably on the floor in front of the couch.
"Feeling a little paranoid today?" He murmured, raising an eyebrow at his captor. Axel chuckled.
"I'm sorry; I don't remember asking you to speak."
They were silent for a few moments, the sounds of the evening news echoing through the room, neither of them really watching it, before the less-than-comfortable silence was interrupted by a loud growl of protest from Roxas's stomach.
Axel looked over at him and raised an eyebrow, and the blonde could've sworn he saw a smile twitch at the corner of his lips. "Hungry?"
Roxas nodded slowly and shrugged, turning his gaze back to the TV. Axel continued to look at Roxas, before he chuckled and the smile that had been threatening to break out over his face escaped. "I ordered pizza about a half an hour ago. It should be here pretty soon."
Roxas snorted in surprise. "You? Order pizza? No way. That's like, real food."
"Hey, kid, be thankful for what you've got, okay?" Axel glanced at the door and sighed, shaking his head. "Kids these days are so ungrateful."
Roxas opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment the annoying doorbell on their rental home/pseudo apartment thing rang. Axel stood up and walked over to the door, pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, and greeted the pizza boy politely.
Roxas watched the entire exchange with moderate interest, thinking back onto the first time he had met Axel. He had tried to the best of his ability to block that moment from his memory, but he remembered that the redhead had been nice. He had been polite…well-spoken…overly insistent.
Axel returned with a pizza box, set it down on the coffee table, and Roxas was on top of it immediately.
Axel gave him a few moments and watched as the blonde stuffed two pieces greedily down his throat (he was, after having only half a sandwich in three days, very hungry) before sitting down.
"You know kid…" Axel said, picking up a piece and starting to chew on the end. "If I were you, I'd get pretty used to our whole set up."
"And why is that?" Roxas asked, starting on his third piece of pizza. It was only then that he noticed it was with mushrooms, which he hated. Well, used to hate.
"Because your parents aren't going to bail you out." Roxas stopped with the pizza half way to his mouth, cast Axel a dark look.
"What makes you say that?"
The redhead laughed. "Please. You've been stuck with me for six months, your story's only been on the evening news once, and we haven't even made America's Most Wanted. I'm not letting you go until your parents pay, and they haven't paid…" He shrugged, letting the sentence hang in the air between them.
"You have no idea what you're talking about."
"You keep telling yourself that, kid." Axel finished off his pizza and took a long swig of a bottle of beer that had appeared out of nowhere and shrugged again. "Just don't get your hopes up. The last thing I need is to have to deal with the depressed brat that you would turn into."
A/N: End of this chapter = EPIC FAIL. But anyway. I feel like this is another filler chapter. D8 We should be getting into some more interesting stuff soon...yes, Xigbar WILL make an appearance, and Demyx might as well. ;D The lovely, fluffy AkuRoku-ness that we all love will be coming in about four or five chapters...maybe more like seven or eight...xD I dunno. We'll see. However! I love all you guise who keep reviewing and stuff. Its awesome. You're all so nice. ^-^
~Sara