Maxwell Family Values
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2. A Maxwell is never late. OR early. A Maxwell arrives whenever the fuck they feel like it. And if anyone says differently (and they don't sign your paycheck), you shoot the fucker in the face.
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Rabi Maxwell was waiting outside South City High School when the bell rang, lounging against a pole and reading a huge dusty book with tiny print in a language only a tenth of the world knew existed, and only a tenth of that tenth could read.
It was porn.
He was an odd mix to any new eye, and Naruto was no different. The blond found himself staring at Rabi, taking in how he looked like some sort of one-eyed Irish gypsy. Right eye covered in a plain black eyepatch and raggedly cut red hair flopping across an elaborately patterned head…scarf…thing wrapped across his forehead, the young man also seemed to be wearing as many random silver accessories as he could get his hands on. Silver studs in his ears. A couple rings in the side of his right ear. Bangles on his wrists that jingled whenever he shifted. And the man was wearing tight leather pants, boots, and a dark gray shirt.
Naruto looked at Rabi, and then turned his eyes to Duo.
Purple eyes. Black pants. Black denim jacket, red shirt, black boots, ridiculously long brown braid, not a thing pierced…or at least anything he could see.
And yet, they seemed to stand exactly the same when Rabi finally smacked the book shut and grinned at Duo and Naruto. They had the same strange glint in the eye. Naruto remembered hearing something about nature and nurture or something like that, and these two seemed to back up that 'nurture' part pretty damn well.
"Reno says you're making pasta tonight," Duo said, chipper.
Rabi seemed to stare at Duo for a moment, his eye flicking down to Naruto, and then back up to Duo, where it finally closed and he sighed. "Damn it, why's everybody gotta do this to me?! I'd had that chicken defrosting since last night and now you want PASTA." He threw his arms up in the air. "NO RESPECT! I cook, I clean occasionally, I slave over my own hobbies and interests and THIS is the thanks I get!"
"Well hey, think of it as an experiment," Duo mock-consoled. "I've never had chicken pasta with marinara sauce."
Rabi hunched forward a bit, moping. "Those two and their obsession with marinara. What's wrong with alfredo for once? Maybe a little margherita pizza or something?"
Duo not-so-gently shoved Naruto in front of him, sending the kid stumbling into the redhead's empty hand. His dark green eye seemed to be measuring him for either a well-tailored suit or a coffin. Possibly both. "Do you even EAT? Jesus, you're nothing but skin and bones and-"
Naruto growled, smacked his hand away and managed to backpedal straight into Duo.
"Feisty, ain't he?" Rabi grinned at Duo, smacking the book into his empty hand as if to punctuate the point. "So, kid, you purely feral?"
"What the hell does that mean?" Naruto asked, brow furrowing.
Rabi sighed dramatically. "Not too bright though, is he --" he said, only to straighten up, eye wide as he suddenly smirked, running past Duo and stuffing his book into the pillow-filled bag with the same deft pickpocketry as Duo earlier that day, and…
Naruto's jaw dropped to the floor as Rabi catapulted himself onto the back of a senior, screaming out "BOSS!!!" as the poor victim flailed for a moment at the predicament, long, pitch-black hair flailing about as he grabbed one of Rabi's arms and threw him onto the grass, other hand already coming in for a swift punch to the face. Rabi grabbed the hand, still grinning like a loon, and managed to practically pin Kanda Yuu with his own misdirected movements. "How you been, Yuu?! Haven't seen you in forever!"
"You saw me two days ago, don't call me Yuu, and get OFF," Kanda growled, smart enough to avoid trying to buck the redhead off and instead trying to somehow bodily remove him with as little physical contact as possible.
"But Boss there's innocent children around, we can't do that here!" Rabi laughed. "What WOULD the PTA say when they heard what their poor freshman child had seen after school in the grass?"
"I think they'd say you belonged in a mental institution and advise a restraining order," Kanda snapped, finally managing to push the other boy off him and hastily rolling to his feet. "Don't you have some ink to go drool over or something?"
"Oh fine, I see how it is!" Rabi pouted, standing up. "Well my books love me more than you anyway, so go hiss and spit at some other poor, hapless individual."
Kanda just stared at him, mind clearly at least partially fried.
"Hey Rabi, uh, you DO remember Kanda's not the only person in the world, right?" Duo called out, earning dual affronted looks from the older boys. "RABI. FAMILY DINNER. You OWE me for the last laundry load I had to do."
The redhead slung his arm over one of Kanda's shoulders, giving his brother a bland look and ignoring the crimson of his armrest's face. "And why are you complaining about MY sheets instead of Reno's or Axel's?"
"Hair," Duo said innocently, and quickly grabbed Naruto by the arm and hurried them down a street, a vicious grin on his lips at the ensuing explosion behind him.
"HE'S JOKING KANDA I SWEAR!"
"AND THAT SHOULD MAKE ME WANT TO KILL YOU LESS WHY?"
"BECAUSE IT'S A JOOOOOOKE OW FUCK WHAT WAS THAT FOR-"
"SHUT UP. GO AWAY."
Naruto didn't even hear Rabi as he screeched to a halt next to Duo, wrestling his brother into a vicious headlock. "HAIR, HUH?! I'LL FUCKING SHOW YOU HAIR, DUO!"
"Jesus CHRIST Rabi it was a JOKE-"
"Yeah well YOU can say that when Heero doesn't put out for a week-"
"I think I'll just go home and make some ramen," Naruto said, slightly horrified at the mess only TWO Maxwells could cause. Four of them together had to be some sign of the apocalypse or something.
Rabi and Duo froze, both turning to stare at him.
"Uh, please don't," Rabi said apologetically, his smile strangely sweet and charming. "Sorry. It's a…boyfriend thing, I guess."
"Yeah, sorry Naruto," Duo sighed, scratching his head and stepping aside from his taller brother with remarkable ease. "We're just horsing around, didn't mean to freak you out."
To Rabi, Duo whispered, "still kinda feral, remember?" and received a muted nod in return.
"So anyway, the House of Maxwell's just a quick subway ride a bit deeper into the city," Rabi said easily, the three already heading down another block and quickly hustling into the sub-level of the city, where the shiny, decrepit underground trains waited.
The ride was a shaky but short one, Rabi keeping a hand on Naruto's shoulder the whole time. The train was packed, every seat taken and most of the handholds as well. But that didn't seem to bother Rabi or Duo, since Duo was just sort of standing in the aisle…shifting, and Rabi was keeping Naruto propped up and leaning him along with the train as the Maxwells rode home.
The Sharp Street station was practically a hole in the ground covered in slowly crumbling tile, half of the off-white squares already revealing the old red brick behind it. The roof was sagging, even with the addition of a new iron column on the station platform. The floor was nothing but concrete just like every other station, but unlike the usual station platforms, which were dirty and more often than not vandalized, this one was practically a work of art via spray paint. Naruto walked across the jagged petals of a rainbow-flavored flower and would have felt guilty about it if Rabi and Duo hadn't been doing it with such ease.
"Sharp Street's not the best-looking place, but it's got nothing but good people on it," Rabi said, finally letting go of Naruto as they headed up the stairs and into the afternoon air.
"Some are painfully stupid, though," Duo mock-whispered to the blond, earning a laugh from Naruto and a whap from Rabi. Impressive, considering Duo was on his right, where a big black eye patch covered…whatever was left.
"Relax, Naruto, we're almost there," he said, turning a smile back toward the youngest in their little caravan. "A right, then a left…aaaand voila! 2802 Navras Avenue, commonly called the House of Maxwell!"
The building was three stories of hearty brick, with a clearly often-used fire escape on the side, with the second story's fire escape chalk full of potted plants. There was apparently a basement, too, since there was a concrete set of covered stairs on the opposite side as the fire escape. A standard-looking house flanked it on both sides, one white siding, the other a tan brick building, grass spreading between them along with, in the Maxwell's case, a rather elaborate iron fence that Duo was quickly opening the lock on the back gate. At least, it looked like the back. They were standing in the middle of an alley big enough to be considered a side street, after all.
"So, outdoors scenic viewing time while Duo picks the lock," Rabi said easily, ignoring the gape from Naruto and pointing to the house. "The basement's pretty much an apartment on its own, and that's where Axel lives. It's a bit too dark for the rest of us and you gotta cope with all the hissing and the groaning of the equipment down there, so we let the pale bastard sit around down there as long as he wants. Can't cook anyway, so he always ends up coming upstairs for food."
"Please tell me you're not timing this," Duo groaned as he pulled something out of his braid, glaring at the brand new orange lock.
"Can't get out of practice," Rabi said innocently, and then pointed toward the large windows on the first floor, half of which were covered with blinds while the other half were open and cheery, the back door separating the sets. "So, Reno, the oldest, gets the first floor. Or half of it anyway. His side's the one we can't see into, for work reasons. The other half is kind of like the common room. It's where we keep all our random fun crap and that's also where the kitchen and dining room and living room is. The family room is pretty much taken up by…uh. Our games."
"By which he means video and board games," Duo said, and with a tiny click noise tossed the lock at the back of Rabi's head, who caught it easily. "Rabi just makes everything he ever says sound dirty."
"You're getting rusty, Duo," Rabi sighed, shaking both his head and the lock at his brother. "What happened to the ten second lockpick I grew up with?"
"He specialized in electronic locks, not these old pieces of shit," Duo muttered, and swung the gate open, motioning them in like the world's grandest waiter. "I'll put this crap on your precious library door, then how will you feel?"
"Hmmm, I'd say I'd feel rather vengeful," Rabi said innocently, crossing his arms behind his back and giving Duo an innocent stare.
Muttering obscenities, Duo put the lock back on the gate through the bars and headed into the building with the other two boys.
"The second floor's pretty much taken up by me," Rabi grinned, continuing with his informative speech. "My bedroom's in the corner, and the rest of it is the library."
"Two times bigger than the one at school. You can barely walk without running into a bookshelf," Duo sighed, and then grinned at Naruto. "I live on the third floor. There's three rooms up there, not including the attic which is huge and dusty, and I have the room furthest from the fire escape because I'm terrified someone'd come visit Rabi at those weird hours he keeps and I'd stab them in my sleep."
Naruto's mind boggled. "You stab people in your sleep?"
"Duo grew up on the streets for the most part," Rabi explained, and they entered the kitchen. Well-maintained wood flooring creaked merrily beneath them as the redhead walked over to the counter and switched…something for…something else in the freezer. "You probably know it's kill or be killed out there. Pretty much everyone who gets inside this house knows that."
"The city's got too many children and too few orphanages," Duo added, shrugging and sitting down at the kitchen table, Naruto next to him. Violet eyes glanced over at him. "You look like you were one of the smart ones, right? Got in an orphanage and hung on for dear life?"
Naruto frowned. "It's not that bad," he defended. "I can take care of myself. I've been doing it fourteen years-"
"I was twelve when Duo picked me up," Rabi interrupted. "It was embarrassing. A nine year old beating up my bullies for me and then taking me home since I didn't have one." He grabbed something out of the pantry, and pulled out a huge silver pot. "I thought I'd been doing alright too, until that day." He turned to look Naruto in the eye. "I was so malnourished I ended up falling into the freezing mud before I could even swing at the kids. Duo saw me fall and saved the day."
"I just know them when I see them, is all," Duo shrugged. "Axel and Reno did it for me, took a scrawny, dirty street rat and cleaned him up and taught him to fight smart and be smart. Even gave me their last name and a place in their house and family."
Water went into the pot. "We're not trying to say you're incapable of making it on your own, Naruto," Rabi said, and put the pot to boil, adding a chunk of butter. "But it's a hell of a lot easier being a Maxwell than being alone."
"And you all pick locks and are dangerous and prank people?" Naruto asked warily, earning laughter from the other boys.
"Uh, guess you could say so, yeah," Rabi said, amused. "We'll teach you how to take care of yourself, all basic skills needed in the real world and that sort of stuff. According to Reno, that includes pickpocketing and lockpicking, and according to Axel it includes how to really beat the shit out of someone and make someone back off with just a smile."
"And really, they ARE pretty useful," Duo mused, earning a nod from Rabi.
"Pranks are just a fun way to get back at each other without blood being shed," Rabi added.
"No, pranks are fun, PERIOD," Duo frowned.
"Pranks are AWESOME," Naruto grinned. "Remember when someone spray painted all over town hall's gold dome with white and made alternating happy and angry and goofy faces on the panels?"
The other two made a contented, satisfied sound.
Naruto grinned. "That was me."
"No shit?!" Duo grinned, punching him in the shoulder. "DAMN! How'd you manage that, with the lights on there all night?"
"With the glare on the summer solstice, nobody can see a damn thing on that dome except a white glare," Naruto smirked. "Took me all day, but it took them weeks to get rid of it. And the spiral around the top's kind of my trademark, too. Get on a rope and swing around…it's awesome."
"Damn it, Duo, you DO know them when you see them," Rabi laughed, head thrown back before he got control of himself and threw Naruto a soda from the fridge. "Drink up, little bro. You'll need the fizz for when the other two come home."
"Oh, right!" Duo said. "Yeah, Axel's gonna try to scare the shit out of you more than likely. It's his favorite prank. And Reno…uh, I have no idea what he'll do to you. But they're great when you get to know them, promise."
"We are?" an amused voice called from down the hall, and Naruto and Rabi jumped. Duo just sighed, smacking a hand to his forehead.
"Damn it, Axel, heart attacks are not the way to greet a new addition to the family," he sniped down the hall.
"Says the kid that tried to shiv me and Reno when he woke up in an actual bed," Axel said, amused, and a swivel chair rolled onto the hardwood floor, wireless videogame controller still in his hand.
The guy was skinny, had bright green eyes like Rabi but…creepier, and painfully bright red hair set into spikes, pulled away from his forehead. Two upside-down tear tattoos lay underneath each eye. By far the strangest thing about him was that he was wearing skin-tight leather pants, weird patterned boots, a wife beater, and a long leather jacket that hung off his shoulders, unzipped.
Axel Maxwell was giving Naruto an identical assessing look as the one he was receiving. "This twerp's gonna be a Maxwell?"
"You're a good eavesdropper, Axel," Rabi grinned. "You know Little Bro's got at least one qualification down. Plus you have twice the amount of eyesight as me, not to mention depth perception, so you can tell what even I can about the kid."
Axel just looked at Naruto. Naruto wanted to run.
"Scars," he stated, and with a fast, ridiculously flexible motion the guy practically vaulted out of the chair, approaching the blond and pulling out the chair next to him, staring into his face. "The other guy come out worse?"
Naruto just glared at him, barely restraining the urge to stick out his tongue. The other Maxwells were deathly silent.
Axel's eyes glinted strangely, and he smirked. "Let me rephrase that – did you want the other guy to come out of the fight worse? Pretty important for you to not be some wimpy bozo of a blond, is all, so tell me. If you could find the bastard that turned your life into the shit it is, would you take him down if you could?"
Naruto tried to glare, but his face was getting paler by the second.
"See, me and my twin, we used to have an older sister," Axel continued, waving his hand reproachfully. "Someone took her. Probably raped her, killed her, butchered her, buried the body somewhere. We loved Seras, so we hunted down that son of a bitch and killed him, hurt him very, very badly." He paused. "You have her eyes."
"Someone once took Duo from us," Rabi added, none of the humor from before in his voice. "Same thing happened, except Duo managed to kill the bastard as soon as we got in the building."
A snippet of conversation in detention that morning came back to him.
"…you just don't cross Duo. Ever."
"What if you do?"
"Then you disappear."
"I don't have anyone to blame for my shitty life other than me," Naruto said, voice dark. "So, what, would I kill myself? Would I find someone else to blame for it all? No." He stood up, glaring. "You're all fucked in the head, I swear."
"It's God's fault, then," Duo said quietly, not looking at anyone. "Would you kill God if it'd bring back…bring back everything you ever cared about and lost?"
"You're all INSANE," Naruto screamed, and jolted out of his chair, sending the wooden seat toppling to the floor as he back up. "There IS no God, there's nobody to blame for it but ME!"
"But if you realized there was," Axel snapped, standing and stalking towards him, eyes downright vicious. "If you realized someone had been planning every. Fucking. STEP of your life, including the one that got you those scars-" Naruto's eyes widened almost frantically. " - would you kill them?"
He could barely breathe by now. How did they know. How could they see inside of him like this, how could they see all that rage he tried so hard to bury, that bitter, jagged edge to his smile.
How could they see Kyuubi inside him?!
Without another thought, panic gripping him as bloody memories assaulted him, Naruto ran out the door, desperate to find the only person who had ever understood him and find out why these people could see into his soul so well.
The front door slammed behind him, and Naruto vaulted over the front gate as he ran at full tilt, determined not to stop until he found Gaara, his only friend in the world. The only one he trusted to understand.