New chapter :D I love writing this cause I think these two are really cute together and it makes me sad that there's not enough of them, anyway hope you enjoy :D
The weather slowly began to get colder and more often than not Reno found himself stuck inside because of the wind and rain. This was fine when he had chores and such to occupy himself with but once he had finished everything on the list he made each morning he then found himself at a loss of what to do. One afternoon when the weather was particularly bad he had started going though one of the boxes he had been too lazy to unpack until now and stumbled upon his old copy of 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' and began to read, foregoing the rest of the unpacking.
Roxas came home a couple of hours later after a particularly trying meeting with his editor and found him asleep on the sofa, the book open on the floor next to him. He smiled when he saw him – he had to admit Reno did look rather adorable when he was asleep. He picked up the book and looked it over; the leather on the cover was rather worn and the gold leafing of the title was fading but it was still a stunningly beautiful copy. He opened the cover and inside was a short inscription.
"Reno, Happy Birthday Bro! Don't know why you wanted a book when a hooker would have cost about the same. Love ya, Axel." it read. Roxas smiled to himself; that sounded like something Naminé would say to him. He closed the book and was about to put it on the coffee table when Reno stirred, opening his eyes.
"Hey," he said sleepily rubbing a hand over his eyes and forehead. "when did you get back?"
"Just now." Roxas replied blushing. This probably didn't look good – effectively what had happened was Reno had woken up to see him standing over him, watching him sleeping and having a nose at the book he had been reading. This was certainly not good and incredibly unprofessional and Roxas needed to think of a way to get out of it.
"What time is it?" Reno asked. He didn't seem at all phased by the fact that Roxas had been watching him sleep but he might not be fully awake enough to notice yet. Roxas looked at his watch.
"Half seven." he replied.
"Really?" Reno asked sitting up and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand again. "I better get dinner started."
"Well," Roxas cut in quickly as he got to his feet. "as it's kind of late how about we order in?" Reno smiled.
"Sure sounds good."
"What do you fancy?" Roxas asked putting the book back down on the arm of the sofa and busying himself searching for menus.
"Could go for a pizza or something?" Reno replied fighting the urge to make an inappropriate joke.
"Found one!" Roxas smiled holding up a menu. He opened it up on the coffee table and the pair of them sat down to browse it. "I hope you don't mind me asking but who's Axel?"
"He's my brother." Reno replied smiling. "He's only older by about an hour but he likes to remind me of it all the time."
"Big brothers do that." Roxas chuckled.
"You the younger too?"
"Only by about an hour," he replied. "but Ven does like to remind me."
"You a twin as well?"
"Yep," Roxas grinned. "we were an absolute handful when we were kids."
"Are you guys identical?" Reno asked. Roxas nodded.
"We look exactly the same." he replied. "How about you?"
"Pretty much." Reno stated. "We wear our hair differently and Axel's eyes are greener than mine are. Also when we were eighteen we got drunk and Axel thought it would be a great idea to get tattoos on his face so you can easily tell us apart."
"Me and my brother Ventus used to play this game when we were kids where we'd get people to guess which one was which." Roxas laughed. "Only a handful of people actually could."
"I'll have to give it a go sometime." Reno grinned. Roxas blushing slightly and turned his attention back to the menu.
"That's a really nice copy you've got." he said after a pause.
"What?"
"The book." he clarified. "It's a beautiful copy." Now it was Reno's turn to blush.
"Well it's my favourite book so Axel got me a proper leather bound copy for my twenty-first." he explained. Roxas got off the sofa and went over to the bookcase. He stood up on his tip-toes (which Reno thought was adorable) and pulled a book from the corner of the top shelf. He handed the book to Reno who saw that it was exactly the same as his copy of 'The Hunchback'.
"It's my favourite book too." Roxas admitted. "Nami bought me this for Christmas a couple of years ago."
"We both clearly have very good taste in literature." Reno grinned handing the book back. As Roxas took it his fingers brushed the back of Reno's hand and a tingle of electricity shot through him. He blushed and turned to put the book away, noticing the light flush of Reno's face and he tried to keep his composure as he realised that he had felt it too. He was desperately trying to think of something to say to dispel the awkward tension but Reno was the first to speak. "Will you judge me if I eat a whole large pizza by myself?"
"No not at all." Roxas replied with a grin that said 'yes I totally would but I'll be doing exactly the same thing'.
"Careful!" Roxas called up the ladder, keeping it steady. "I think there's broken glass up there!"
"Why do you have broken glass in your attic?" Reno asked his voice muffled from being in the loft. Roxas shifted his grip on the ladder.
"It was an old broken mirror I found when I moved here." he replied. "I didn't know what to do with it so I shoved it in the attic."
"Take it to the dump maybe?" Reno replied and Roxas could hear the grin in his voice. "So where's this box you want?" he asked after a pause.
"It should be up in the corner." he told him. "Seriously Reno you didn't have to go up there I could have done this."
"Don't be silly, this is my job." Reno called down. "Besides," he added after a short silence. "if I'd have known how messy it was I would have been up here ages ago."
"It's not that bad!" Roxas called back blushing.
"I think I've found it." Reno called finally and Roxas sighed with relief. He wasn't overly fond of the idea of Reno being up in the attic. For one thing there was the broken mirror plus he was pretty sure there was a box full of his old baby photographs. "Do you want the whole box or just a couple of books?"
"The whole box please." Roxas called up.
"Cool!" Reno yelled back. There was a short silence, which Roxas assumed was Reno picking up the box, before he heard a loud bang and a cry of pain.
"Are you ok?" Roxas called up the ladder.
"I'm fine," Reno answered. "just hit my shoulder on a shelf."
"Ok well the box was all I needed so come down before you hurt yourself anymore." Roxas told him.
"Ok Mum." Reno laughed appearing at the hole in the ceiling. He passed the box down to Roxas, who put it on the floor next to the ladder, and climbed down.
"Reno, you're bleeding!" Roxas exclaimed as Reno turned around. A dark red stain was beginning to spread over Reno's right shoulder. He looked down at it and his eyes widened slightly.
"Oh!" he said softly as if only just realising that it was there. "I must have caught it on the shelf."
"Come on!" Roxas grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the ladder. "Let me take a look at it." He steered Reno into his bedroom and made him sit down on the bed. Ignoring the fact that he hadn't been in Reno's bedroom since the embarrassing misunderstanding the previous month Roxas grabbed a small first aid kit from the bathroom and went to tend to him. "Shirt off." he instructed when he returned.
"What?" Reno asked looking up at him confused. He didn't seem to be processing what Roxas was asking him.
"Take your shirt off so I can have a proper look at your shoulder." Roxas said again, clarifying this time.
"Ok." Reno replied obediently and stripped off his t-shirt. He looked at the cut as Roxas opened the kit and began rummaging for bandages. "I must have caught it on the edge when I hit it." Roxas tore open an antiseptic wipe and sat on the bed next to Reno. He kept his eyes fixed on the cut on Reno's shoulder, ignoring the heat creeping up the back of his neck; when they were this close to each other, and he didn't have a shirt on, it was harder to ignore the fact that Reno was very attractive.
"This might sting a bit." he warned. Reno hissed slightly as he wiped the blood away. "Sorry."
"It's fine." Reno grinned. "I can't believe I didn't notice I was bleeding.
"Yeah," Roxas agreed. "it's quite deep so I'm really surprised you didn't feel it."
"That's what he said." Reno chuckled. Roxas looked up at him with a raised eyebrow but grinning all the same. "Just trying to diffuse the tension."
"Consider it diffused." Roxas laughed. He looked at the now clean cut. "It's not particularly large but it is quite deep so it's probably going to leave a scar."
"It won't be my worst." Reno shrugged. Roxas' eye flicked up to glance at the dark red scars underneath Reno's eyes. He wanted to ask how he got them but decided against it – it would probably be a sore subject he wouldn't want to talk about anyway.
"I'll stick a plaster on it for now but let me know if it keeps bleeding as it might need stitches." he stated opening the packet.
"I promise." Reno grinned turning his head to watch as Roxas stuck the plaster to his shoulder. He had to admit it was quite nice having Roxas fuss over him like this.
"All done." Roxas said finally. He looked up and found himself practically nose to nose with Reno, so close that if either one of them leaned forward slightly they would be kissing. He could feel Reno's breath lightly against his lips, smell his aftershave and feel the heat radiating off him. He swallowed silently, his mouth very dry all of a sudden, and cast his eyes upwards, meeting Reno's. They stared at each other for a moment, both feeling the palpable tension building in the air, before Roxas suddenly cleared his throat and pulled back hastily putting things back into the first aid kit.
"Err thanks," Reno said hurriedly hoping that he could diffuse the tension again by saying something – anything would do! "for that." He gestured towards his shoulder.
"No problem." Roxas replied snapping the first aid kit closed. "I'll go stick the ladder away, you rest your shoulder." Before Reno could say anything else he darted from the bedroom and into the bathroom.
He put the first aid kit away before turning on the tap and splashing some cold water on his face. He looked up at himself in the mirror; he was blushing profusely and he could feel his heart hammering in his chest along with an entire swarm of butterflies in his stomach. This was not good!
"I nearly kissed him Nami!" Roxas practically cried as soon as she picked up the phone.
"Who?" she asked, a few steps behind him in the conversation.
"Reno!" Roxas told her. Immediately Naminé sprang to life.
"What?!" she cried happily. "When? How? Was it hot? I bet it was. Was there tongue?"
"No!" Roxas said hurriedly, trying to derail her fan-girling train. "Nothing actually happened, we just nearly kissed."
"You called me for 'nearly'?" she asked annoyed. "What's the point of that?!"
"I'm serious Nami!" Roxas hissed. "I had this massive thing about being professional about this and then I go and nearly kiss him!"
"Slow down Roxy," she said as he began to ramble. "tell me what happened."
"Reno was up in the attic getting something for me and he cut himself on a shelf." he told her. "I told him to take his shirt off so I could patch him up and after I'd stopped it bleeding we were so close we could have kissed."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because I'm his boss! I can't have a relationship with him!" Roxas cried.
"This is why you should have hired an uggo and asked the fit redhead out." Naminé laughed.
"He was the only candidate for the job." Roxas admitted rubbing his eyes with his thumb and middle finger.
"Oh!" Naminé exclaimed. "Well you're a bit fucked then…or not as it were."
"So helpful Nami." Roxas grumbled. Why had he called Naminé; of course she wasn't going to be any help. "What am I going to do?"
"Roxy you know exactly what I'm going to tell you but you're going to say that it's unprofessional." Namine stated matter-of-factly. "So you need to decide whether you want to keep it completely professional or whether you want to take a chance and try for something more." Roxas bit his lip; she did have a point. The likelihood was that he would ignore it, forget it ever happened and try to prevent it from happening again. Obviously he couldn't tell Naminé that that was his plan because she clearly wanted him to give a relationship with Reno a chance.
"Ok Nami, thanks." he said when he realised he should probably say something. "I'll have to think about stuff before I do anything."
"Ok but don't wait too long will you Roxy." she said. "Guys like Reno only come around so often."
"I know." he muttered as she hung up. Roxas hung up the phone before flopping face down onto his bed and groaning into his pillow. This was quite possibly the worst situation he could ever have found himself in.
Thankfully, for Roxas, Reno had decided that he would try to forget that their almost kiss had happened and, much like after the incident with Reno's misunderstanding the previous month, it became something that the two of them just didn't discuss. This probably wasn't the best course of action but to dispel the awkwardness it was the best way for them to live together.
Unfortunately after their near kiss and seeing Reno practically naked had filled Roxas' mind with curiosity and confusion. He couldn't deny that Reno was attractive – that was obvious to even the densest of people – but now he found himself thinking about what would have happened if he and Reno had kissed. Whenever he thought about it butterflies would begin flapping in his stomach and a blush would begin creeping up the back of his neck that he would immediately shake off. This was certainly something that he couldn't afford to continue.
Of course fan-girling was going to be Naminé's reaction, it's the only reaction :D