Roxas swallowed hard, almost crushing the small piece of paper in his hand as the plane came in for a landing.
It had been hard parting from Axel. But they had both gone to San Francisco, then taken connecting flights to their individual destinations. It had been even harder because they hadn't wanted to make their affection too public, with all the people around. But Axel's gentle hug had been more than enough for Roxas. And the paper with his e-mail address on it was priceless.
Now he would be seeing his family again. Roxas felt slightly sick at the thought and for one brief moment, wished deeply for the simple island with its warm sands and Axel's fierce, uncomplicated love for him.
"Roxas!" His mother was there waiting for him when he got off the plane, and Roxas was unhappily aware of the camera crews filming the reunion. He and Axel had caused a minor sensation. The story of their survival on the island was the sort of thing stories were made of, literally. There were plenty of romantic novels about situations like that, although they'd usually involved a guy and a girl rather than two guys. That part was a little different. "Baby, how are you!" She hugged him and Roxas caught a whiff of alcohol. Gods, it was only midmorning.
She was a middle aged, blonde haired woman and Roxas had been told she'd been pretty once. Now she was getting washed out and tired with age, constant work and of course the alcohol. Her smile at him was kind but he didn't trust it. She was always sweet when she was just a little tipsy. Things got ugly when she was really drunk.
"Roxas." The blonde turned his attention to his step-father. He had a much darker complexion than his mother, with thick black hair and bushy eyebrows. Anyone who looked at the three of them together knew that he wasn't Roxas' father.
"Jeffrey." Roxas said neutrally. He hated and feared his step-father more than his mother, but there was no point in showing it. Still, he was damned if he'd ever call the man father. There was an interview then but his mother did most of the talking, simpering about how good it was to have him back. It made Roxas want to throw up. Could they be anymore fake?
Finally they were heading home, and Roxas realized as they drove that his own feelings had undergone a great change. In the past, he would have been scared and dreading returning to his home. That was how he'd always felt when he had to come back from Hawaii… his real father might not have cared much for him, but he wasn't into booze or hitting. But now, resentment and anger were burning. The fear was still there, but it was less, and Roxas thought he knew why. He felt more confident, more certain of himself, and leaving the island couldn't take that away.
"You've missed quite a bit of school Roxy. The teachers say you'll have to take special classes to catch up." Roxas winced faintly at the echo of Axel's voice touched him. Axel had liked that nickname too, not knowing that his parents had always used it.
"Right." He wasn't looking forward to that either but at least it made sense. Maybe he'd even try to work at it now. He had a bit of motivation and it would be nice to graduate for Axel. Roxas had never really cared about the future when it seemed like he didn't have a future, but if he was going to go live with Axel he'd like to have an okay job. Something to put him on even footing with his lover. Axel might not care, but he would. His mother shot him a slightly surprised glance at the lack of resistance to the idea. His step-father said nothing as he pulled the car up to the house.
Things felt oddly surreal for the next couple weeks. Things went back to normal, only they weren't. The shabby, slovenly house didn't seem like the place he belonged anymore. His room didn't seem like the place he lived anymore, just the place he was staying on the way to somewhere else. He did his schoolwork and retreated to his room, and for his parents out of sight was out of mind. For now, at least. And when he was in his room…
Roxy! How are you? Roxas smiled as he typed a message back. He had his own computer, a crappy old thing but it still got onto the internet. Axel had gotten a new blackberry and could be counted on to answer a message anywhere he went.
Doing good. My teachers are happy with me so far. He doubted that would last but for now it was nice. He'd always had a reputation as a troubled child but his 'ordeal' seemed to have helped with the teachers. It had even helped his popularity with the other students, plenty of them wanted to hear all about his adventure. But he doubted that would last. How's your business doing? Axel was hard at work promoting himself and getting his photography career in Vancouver off the ground.
Great! I'm doing a wedding on Saturday and another on Sunday. Not just that, I've gotten some modeling work for a known studio. Roxas smiled. He could almost hear Axel's enthusiasm over the messenger program. It's going to be awesome. Hey, want to see some pictures?
Sure! Roxas grinned as Axel shot him a link to his blog. It was full of photographs of Vancouver, and they were all professionally done. Although… What IS that?
I'm not sure, can you tell me? I found it at a local bakery. Axel replied innocently as Roxas studied the cake, trying to figure out what it was representing. Earwax? A fetus covered in slime?
I have no idea but I think someone ought to tell the bakery that drug testing is a good thing. Roxas could hear Axel's laugh in his mind.
Yeah, I've already submitted it to cake wrecks. So have your parents been treating you okay?
Pretty much. They've just been ignoring me. That was how Roxas liked it. But unfortunately, this was nothing unusual, just the calm before the storm. Eventually he'd get sucked into their problems and he knew it. The thought brought back the resentment and anger and Roxas wasn't sure what he'd do when it happened. Because he was done cowering. Don't worry about it Axel. If you were here with me right now I'd – Roxas grinned as the chat quickly got X-rated. Although it quickly started to get absurd when Axel sent him back a pant pant aroo! Wait I'm at a photo shoot and you're making me tight in the pants! Message.
I just miss you too much to hold back – um, gotta go later. Roxas quickly shut down the program as he heard a crash from downstairs. Something bad was happening. He could hear the shouts. But maybe if he stayed in his room they would leave him out of it.
That hope was dashed as his step-father suddenly barged into his room. Roxas stood, balancing easily on his feet as Axel had taught him. He'd kept practicing even without the redhead and hadn't forgotten much.
"You useless little fucker!" His step-father was drunk and his mother was sobbing incoherently somewhere, just as drunk. Wasn't it lovely when two drunks got together? Not really. "You're nothing but a damned money sink!" So the fight was about money. Again. That was a favorite theme. "You were worth more for the life insurance." Roxas dodged as a fist flew out at him, fast. He felt it skim by his cheek. "Little fag, I bet you were playing with that redhead –"
"Shut up!" Roxas spat. "You don't know anything about Axel. He's a hundred times the man you'll ever be – augh!" He wasn't fast enough this time and his step-father slammed him against the wall, the impact rattling his teeth.
"You f-ARGH!" His step-father wasn't expecting him to smash one of his feet in a hard strike then head butt him in the face. Roxas took advantage of the stunned moment to jab his step-father in the throat, hard. It wouldn't have worked on Axel but his step-father had always depended on his strength. Still, Roxas took a very painful blow to the face and could feel his eye swelling as his step-father took another swing at him.
Roxas had never done it before in earnest, but someone how did it perfectly. It should have been impossible after only three months of training, but in truth his step-father wasn't any good at fighting at all. Roxas caught his hand and managed to turn, slamming an elbow into the outside of his father's arm. By pure luck, he caught him directly in the elbow.
CRITCH The sound of the elbow breaking was somewhere between a pop and a crunch and his step-father howled in agony, collapsing as Roxas just watched him for a moment, a little stunned but exultant. He'd really done it. Just like he'd always dreamed of-
"NO! Jeffrey! You evil brat!" Roxas had to dodge his mother as she slapped at him, running to his step-father's side. "Get out of here you little bastard! Oh, how could you!" Roxas grit his teeth. All the times he'd been beaten, but how dare he strike back? Grabbing his backpack he ran out of the house. "Don't come back!" Roxas was certain she meant that, and he didn't care. He couldn't stay anyway, there was no way his step-father would ever forgive him even assuming he recovered. Which he might not, not completely anyway. Axel had told him that breaking someone's arm like that was a crippling move.
"Fuck them." Roxas muttered as he ran, trying to find a pay phone. He wasn't worried about his parents calling the cops, they were not the kind of people to go to the police for anything. Too many skeletons firmly in the closets, he supposed. But he didn't have any money or anyplace to go. There was only one person he could trust to help him. Feeding a few dollars into a payphone, Roxas quickly placed a call.
"Hello?" Roxas smiled as he heard the familiar voice in his ear. It was so good to hear Axel again.
"Hey Axel, its Roxas." There was a surprised pause on the other end.
"Roxas? For real? Are you okay?" Axel was immediately concerned and Roxas didn't blame him. Roxas didn't have a cell and even if he had, calls from Baton Rouge to Vancouver would probably have been too expensive.
"Not really. I just got into a fight with my step-dad and broke his elbow." Roxas heard Axel draw in a breath and smiled a bit. "Don't worry, they won't call the cops. But I can't go home and I only have twenty bucks on me." It wasn't much. Roxas had no idea what he was going to do but he could almost feel Axel thinking about it.
"Okay Roxy. I think I know what to do, my dad did it for a buddy once who got in trouble with a prostitute in Thailand." Roxas blinked, making a mental note to get the details of that story. It sounded interesting. "Can you get to a Western Union?"
"Uh, I'm sure I can." Was Axel going to wire him money? Roxas was really vague on how that worked, he'd never had money sent to him before.
"Okay. Do you have any photo ID?" That was a really good question, but fortunately Roxas was able to respond to the affirmative. He had a passport and luckily, he'd never removed it from his backpack. "Excellent. Okay, I'm going to wire you two thousand dollars. Get a room at a hotel and I'll come get you." Roxas felt his breath catch in his throat. Was Axel serious?
"Really? You're going to fly down?" That was just amazing, but he heard Axel laugh.
"Not hardly. I'm going to drive. Getting you over the border without anyone noticing will be a helluva lot easier in a car." Axel's voice softened and Roxas swallowed, touched. "Don't worry Roxy, I'll be there soon."
"I'll be looking forward to it." He said with a hint of promise in his voice. "I'll call you as soon as I know where I'm staying, okay?"
"Okay. Go to the Western Union and I'll wire you the money as fast as I can." Roxas smiled as he hung up the phone, stunned and touched that Axel would do this for him. He knew Axel cared for him but to him, two thousand dollars was an unimaginable amount of money.
Axel was good to his word and after visiting the Western Union office, Roxas had more money than he'd ever touched in his life. Carefully concealing it in his backpack, he took the bus to a better part of town and checked into a rather nice Holiday Inn under a false name. His parents would never think to look for him here, since they knew he didn't have any money. Roxas glanced around his room then went to the phone, placing a call to Axel. After giving the redhead the address of the Holiday Inn, he went down to the restaurant to get supper, bringing his backpack with him. It wasn't going to get out of his sight now. He wasn't really aware of what he was eating, his mind caught up in the changes his life was undergoing so quickly.
It really was an amazing thing.
It took Axel over a week to arrive at Baton Rouge, but it was a long drive from Vancouver. Roxas was waiting in the lobby for him when the tired redhead came into the hotel and he bounced up with a wide smile, giving him an impulsive hug.
"Axel!" Then he blinked as someone else followed Axel in. "…?" It was a woman, much older than Axel but with identical red hair. Her green eyes were hard and not particularly happy as she looked at him and Roxas swallowed. This had to be Axel's mother. She was still beautiful in a hard edged way and Roxas could easily see Axel in her. She was tall and muscular just like him.
"Hey Roxy!" Axel wasn't caring about any possible tension and gave him a warm hug. "How's it been going?" Roxas felt his concerns melt away as he hugged Axel back, closing his eyes for a moment.
"Not bad, but it's better now that you're here." Roxas smiled as he heard Axel chuckle and looked up, meeting warm green eyes.
"I couldn't leave you here." Axel murmured, gently touching his cheek for a moment then turning slightly. "This is my mom, Roxy."
"Call me Luddy." She introduced herself with a smile that felt a little false to Roxas. "My real name is Ludmilla, but if you call me that I'll nail your ears to the wall." Roxas blinked at that threat and Axel laughed.
"She means it, too! Dad always called her that to piss her off." Axel confided in him, startling a giggle out of Roxas. Luddy just crossed her arms, giving Axel a patient but deadly look. "Uh, right. Want to get some food before we leave? I'm starving."
"Sure." Roxas actually wasn't hungry but Luddy and Axel had both been driving for a very long time. He was sure they could use a break.
"As soon as we're done here, we're leaving. I've taken too much time away from my business already." Axel's mother said as they found a seat. Axel shook his head.
"Mom, Charmain can run the toy store without you." Roxas couldn't help but feel interested in that. A toy store? He'd like to see that. "It's going to be fine and it's not like you had to come anyway."
"You would have pushed yourself too much, and I didn't spend eighteen years raising you to see you end up roadkill on the information superhighway." She picked up a plastic card, frowning for a moment at the menu. "Steak and eggs with coffee." She immediately ordered when the waitress come, and Axel shrugged and ordered the same thing. Roxas hesitated before ordering the nachos. They would make a good snack. "Here." She shoved something at him and Roxas took it with a blink. "Your SIN card."
"What! But how?" Roxas looked down at the card, completely confused, and saw it was made out to Devon Bashanova. "But you couldn't have adopted me, so how…" He felt like he was drifting out to sea. How had they gotten this? Axel's mother looked studiously away.
"I had a child who died soon after birth when Axel was just three. We named him Devon but never got a death certificate, and I, ah, applied for that during a particularly hard time." She paused for a moment, then continued reluctantly. "You can take it, use it, assume that identity. But you might have slightly bad credit." Roxas stared at her as Axel grinned.
"Pretty awesome, huh Roxy? Although now we'll officially be brothers, but we don't have to advertise it, hey?" Axel was unfazed by the revelations of his mother's larcenous past. He'd already found out when she suggested using the SIN. "You're just the right age for it too. It should go smooth as silk."
"I want you both to know, this doesn't mean I approve of this madness." Luddy said abruptly and Roxas winced. Axel's mom's opinion did mean something to him, since she was a person he'd be dealing with in the future. "You're too young. I don't care if it's technically legal." Roxas blinked.
"Technically legal?" He wasn't certain what she meant. Axel coughed, then shrugged a bit sheepishly.
"Yeah, I checked up on the laws about the age of consent in Vancouver. There's a same age exception to the law. As long as teenagers are within five years of each other, it's kosher. So there's nothing at I can be charged with in Vancouver." That had been a vast relief to him, to find out that fourteen and nineteen wasn't statutory rape. Roxas blinked, then grinned.
"Your computer search history must be really weird right now." He said teasingly, and Axel looked startled then grinned.
"Oh, it's an absolute cornucopia of perversion! You have no idea Roxy. Why, just yesterday I looked up unicorns mating. Did you know there are pictures on the internet? Pretty epic, I must say." Roxas laughed at that thought. It was funny because he was sure it was true.
"If it's on the internet, there is porn of it." Axel's mom said serenely and Roxas snorted his coke. "Why should unicorns be an exception? But tell me Axel, why were you looking at unicorns mating?"
"I plead the fifth." Axel hurried along as Roxas grinned. A bit uptight or not, Axel's mother seemed to be pretty cool. "So you ready to go?" They had done a good job of demolishing their food, and Roxas looked down at his nachos. He was only half done.
"I can get a box." It would be good to have it for later. Luddy nodded, standing up and stretching.
"I'm hitting the bathroom while you do that." Axel nodded and stood.
"Ditto. The car's outside Roxy, if you get done before we're back. It's bright red and looks like a banana boat, you can't miss it." Roxas felt a little bemused as he got a box for his food. It had been over a week since he'd been thrown out his parents' house and now he was going to Vancouver. What would Vancouver be like?
He didn't know, but he wanted to find out.