CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Sora sat on the motel bed with his left hand locked to the nightstand, eating a vending machine candy bar. It tasted bizarre – who the hell had dreamt that sea salt-flavoured chocolate would be a good idea? – but Axel's expectant expression as he'd passed them over had led him to conclude that he should probably just shut up and eat. And really, it sort of grew on you after a while.

For the last fifteen minutes, he'd been left entirely on his own, Axel outside, slogging through a monsoon's rainfall in an attempt to find out the state of the single, solitary road out of this place. He'd tried initially to force Sora to squat under some tiny circular table in two inches of freezing water, handcuffed to its central column, but there'd been no way in hell that Sora was agreeing to that. He had crossed his arms, twisted his legs together, wrapped himself up inside the comforter like it was a cocoon, and steadfastly refused. Instead, they'd reached a compromise – at Sora's own suggestion, the man had yanked the top two drawers out of the nightstand and cuffed him to the bar of wood that separated them at the front. It was solid enough to require a hell of a lot more time and effort than Sora was willing to expend to break free, and with the boy cramming candy into his half-starved body, Axel had reluctantly left. Sora wasn't entirely sure what had happened while Roxas had been conscious, but it had seemed like quite a large portion of that reluctance had its foundations in more than a mere security concern.

Frowning meditatively, the boy chewed on the variety of snacks and wondered what he'd missed. In the end, it didn't really matter all that much, not even if Roxas decided he was in love with Axel – the impact on Sora's designs would be minimal. But still, the redhead's expression had been troubled, and in turn troubling. Sora needed for there to be a measure of trust between them if he was going to eventually break free of Axel and put his own plans into execution, and if Roxas was disrupting that…

Well – he was sure it would be fine, anyway. After all, Axel had left him here by himself, and if he'd thought that 'Roxas' was going to yell and scream and cause problems, he certainly wouldn't have been so careless. It was taking an inordinately long time for him to come back, though, considering his task. He must have got distracted. Sora leaned back against the wall, bare feet digging into the blankets, watching the door for the man's return, trying to calculate how long it would take to get past the Wastelands. There were a couple of rest stops along the immensely long highway, but judging by the solidity and age of this place, from what he could recall, he estimated that they were just short of the halfway point. The weather would most probably slow them down for half a day overall, including whatever hours they had already lost by having to stop overnight… which placed them a little bit over a day and a half from the other side, the city of Edge.

Edge… that was still a fair way from where Sora needed to be. And what about Axel's plans – what did he have in mind for where to go? Shaking his head faintly, a crease appearing along his brow, Sora shrugged it off for the moment – there was no use in worrying about what couldn't be changed, especially in the middle of the Wastelands. And no matter where they ended up on the map, he would still be able to do what needed to be done,there was no doubt about it. Nothing would derail him from here.

Nobody… even knew he existed.

Axel returned at long last with a bang of the door, Sora jumping, the handcuffs rattling against the nightstand. The man looked strained, dirty, and wet, an angry, agitated expression in place as he wiped filthy hands down his shirt front, grease streaking his forehead and one cheek. Sora looked him up and down, sceptically asked, through a mouthful of chocolate, "What did you do, go a round with a mud monster and lose?"

Axel shot him a dark glance, eyes narrow, sloshing across the room to the table, shrugging his shoulders up and yanking his black undershirt off, his torso pale and thinly muscled. Using the shirt to wipe himself clean, he sharply muttered, "I fucked up. I'm not smart with cars, okay?"

Sora quirked an eyebrow, paused mid-chew. "…What did you do?"

Slapping the dirty shirt down onto the table, unzipping his bag and pulling out a fresh white one, the redhead avoided looking over at the blond, barking, "There was water sitting all through the engine like the storm took place under the fucking hood, and I was a jerk and started it up without checking first. It sucked it all up into whatever-the-fuck, I don't know, and now it's completely dead. It won't start anymore. I went and got the motel clerk to come see, and he started laughing at me." He twisted around, eyes blazing. "Okay?!"

Sora blinked, ran this through his mind, then had to fight back a twitching smile. "He laughed at you? You didn't kill him, did you?"

Axel stalked across the room, grabbing the boy by the front of his shirt, demanding, "You think that's funny? What –" He reeled back, outraged, as Sora started laughing out loud. "What the fuck is so funny, Roxas?"

The boy squeezed his eyes shut, leaning back in the man's grip, laughing his ass off, tears springing to his eyes. One finger coming up to point weakly at Axel's chest, he gasped, "You – you – you came over so angrily, but, but you were splashing through the water, and it totally ruined the mood."

Axel stared at him for a long moment, bewildered, then disgustedly let him drop to the mattress. "Great. Fucking fantastic. Even you think I'm a joke now." He turned away, went back over to the table, expression bitter. Over his shoulder, he bit off, "I'm so glad you're amused, Rox. Really. Remember this moment later, all right? When the Organisation has us both locked up far, far away from the sun, you just use this fun memory to keep you going."

Sora inhaled sharply, began coughing on chocolate-and-salt-flavoured saliva, broke off with a fist across his mouth as he struggled to control it. Sounding strangled, he forced out speech, echoing urgently, "The Organisation? What do you mean, they're actually after us?"

Axel's jaw tightened, fingers rising to press against his forehead, a grimace in place. He leaned heavily against the table, volume lowering. "I didn't want to worry you, since I know you don't know what I'm talking about… but yeah, there's a pretty big chance they know we're on the run."

Sora nearly started choking again. "On the run?!"

Head jerking around, meeting his shocked gaze, the man asked anxiously, "What else could I do? I told you, I can't let them get to you, Roxas! You've been missing for months upon months, nobody knew if you'd defected or what was going on, and if you suddenly turn up without any memories, what do you think they will do to you?" He shook his head, lips pressing together tightly. "Right now, all you are is a – a huge liability to the Organisation. They've been searching for you, and after I…" He closed his eyes, squeezed them shut. "After my little trick with your friend's apartment building, there's a good chance they'll be able to figure us out. I haven't… checked in for a while, Rox. I've been a little bit missing myself, since I found you in Twilight Town. And there's really…" he lifted his eyes to the ceiling with a sigh, "…nothing quite my calling card like a building suddenly lit on fire. Along with the police report your friends issued, and the details of you that will be rising up… they're bound to realise that I've grabbed you and run, and they'll be… wanting to catch up with us." He let out a deep breath, squinting at the tabletop with a fierce grimace. "I really… really am fucking this up for us. But I'm trying. And… no matter what, I'll keep you safe." He turned towards the bed, a raw look in his eyes, arms hanging by his sides. "Roxas, I swear to you, I'll protect you. I would – die before I let anything bad happen, I can promise you that."

Sora stared, barely remembering how to blink, let alone doing it, a fine sliver of worry inserting itself into his being. "…You're – pretty intense, aren't you? I mean, about… me." Everything Axel had said, every word he'd uttered, had had this passion of – complete and utter sincerity about it. Even, and perhaps especially, the part about dying. It was like… like dying would be the easiest thing in the world for this man to do for Roxas. That was the basic stuff, and virtually nothing compared to what he would do alive for him. Axel's voice, when he talked about the lengths he would go for Roxas, resonated. There wasn't a single syllable he breathed that he didn't mean with every ounce of his being.

It was a little bit daunting, to tell the truth. Intimidating. Sora was beginning to develop a dawning realisation of what things must be like for Roxas right now.

In response to his observation, Axel slowly swished through the inches of rainwater flooding the room, coming around beside the bed and cupping Sora's face with a touch more gentle than the boy would have thought he was capable of. He felt a squirm of discomfort, there being nothing within himself that was attracted to Axel, not to mention the fact that this tender touch was intended for another. It embarrassed him on some deep-down level that the man was exposing so much of himself to the completely wrong person – not only that, but to someone who was essentially a hidden enemy.

"Intense…" Axel's voice was as soft as his touch, his other hand coming up to delicately brush a strand of blond away from Sora's eyes, "…about you… Yeah. I am. I always, always have been." He bent down, brushing his mouth across the newly-applied gauze covering the stitches on the boy's cheek. Sora stiffened a little, unsure of how to react, not knowing what Roxas' own feelings towards the man were. The chasm that yawned between the two of them within this one body was too wide to bridge, Sora's one and only advantage over Roxas being that he knew there were two of them in here, whereas Roxas continued on oblivious to his other. Information and emotions remained firmly on one side or the other of the divide, non-interchangeable.

Axel rested his chin onto Sora's shoulder, arms loose around the boy's slender body, and whispered into his ear, "I know that it scares you, Roxas, but at least you can comfort yourself with the fact that I'll fight for you with everything I have. That counts for something, right?"

Sora felt his face heating up, didn't know what to do with his hands, and so instead gave a nervous cough, leaning away from the man's encircling grasp, a questioning half-smile on his face. "…Right," he answered uncertainly, then smiled a little bit more, hoping that the redhead would let go. "So, anyway, uh – what do we do about keeping away from the Organisation? Because I'm pretty sure the best thing would be you not having to die for me. You just keep on… keeping on, yeah?" He awkwardly patted Axel's shoulder, then flinched and let out a startled noise as the man's arms tightened without warning, briefly squeezing the breath from his body.

"You smell so familiar right now," Axel mumbled desperately into his collar. "Oh, Jesus. You smell just like that sea-salt crap. I haven't even looked at those things since you disappeared."

"Oh, you like it?" Sora frantically grabbed up the half-eaten chocolate bar he'd dropped when Axel had grabbed him, and shoved it into the side of the man's mouth, driving him back, prying the two of them apart. "Here! Have it, I don't mind. I like to share!"

Axel pulled completely away, letting out a small, "Ah," of pain, pressing the fingertips of one hand into the corner of his mouth, where the candy bar had practically mauled him. There was a smudge of chocolate on his face now, and with a vaguely annoyed expression, he went over to the table and used his old shirt to wipe it off. Balling it up, he pulled a plastic bag out of the large black duffel, a clump of dirty clothing already within, and added the black undershirt to the collection, before tying off the top and shoving it back in. Clearing his throat, he resumed the conversation in a normal tone, as though it had never digressed in the first place. "What we're going to have to do," he said, face averted from the blond as he tidied up, "is hitch. It's too expensive, and would take too long, to get the car fixed up. We'd have to wait for it to get towed a few hours down the road to the auto shop, since the gas station at this place doesn't do that sort of thing." Zipping the bag back up, he turned towards the boy, continuing, "So we'll go to the store in the gas station, buy up on supplies, and try to find someone in the diner to give us a lift. But Roxas –" His face took on a stern cast. "I'm telling you now, any of your puppy-dog-eyes bullshit, and there'll be trouble. I don't want you communicating with anyone unless I initiate it, or they initiate it within my earshot, okay?"

"Jeeze," Sora muttered, "possessive much?"

Axel's eyes widened. "…What the hell did you just say?" His brows drew together. "Roxas, where has this – fun little sense of humour of yours sprung from?" The tone of his voice suggested to Sora that 'fun' could have a lot of different meanings, not all of them necessarily obvious. "I'm not – really getting it."

Glancing away, Sora shrugged, "What's not to get? I'm not doing it deliberately, it just came out. I don't have a sense of humour," he added, after a moment's consideration. Axel frowned at him, touching the corner of his lips again, as if the candy bar thing really had hurt, before letting out a short, sharp sigh.

"Look, just – whatever. Forget it." He shook his head, closed his eyes for a second, obviously composing himself. "So, I mean it – don't screw around out there. You'll be off the cuffs, so if you run, you'll have to run very far, very fast. I'm talking eighty miles per hour for the next two days. That's the only way I won't catch up to you."

Sora rolled his eyes. "Now who's trying to be funny?"

"It's not a joke, Roxas." Axel's expression was flat, emotionless. "Just keep it in mind."

Sora sighed. "Right. Gotcha. I'll be good, okay?"

Damn straight he'd be good; Axel was the type of guy who was just as likely to turn all the petrol pumps outside the gas station into earth-shaking bombs to eradicate witnesses of misdeeds. Sora wasn't going to be the one to stain his hands with that sort of blood. If there was one thing in this world that he believed – especially after seeing how much of a fixation the redhead truly had on Roxas – it was that Axel would pretty much stop at nothing to keep the blond all to himself. Sora was not ready to fight fire with fire, not with this guy.

Axel eyed him suspiciously for a moment, gathering the straps of the bag and slowly pulling them over one shoulder. He approached the bed again, went to the nightstand, and, keeping his gaze on the boy, cautiously unlocked first the handcuff caught around the drawer divider, then the one around Sora's wrist. The boy automatically massaged the site – Axel sure liked to make it snug against the skin, as if he was going to turn into mercury and slither his way out – and began scooting along to the end of the bed. The man shadowed his every movement, completely untrusting. As Sora lowered one foot into the chilly water, he winced, flicked his eyes up to the watching redhead, and said, "Hey – do you think I could get some shoes on me? This barefoot thing is growing old, real fast." Axel stood over him, a strange look on his face as he gazed down, the boy's head tilted back, blue eyes blinking up at him. A long moment passed, after which Sora raised a hand and snapped his fingers. "Earth to Axel? Shoes? Pretty please?"

"…You can get some flip-flops in the gas station store." The expression remaining, the man hitched the bag close to his body, clamping a hand down on Sora's shoulder as the boy distastefully added his second foot into the dark water. He gave a shiver at the cold, which travelled up into Axel's hand and was echoed faintly by the redhead's body. Trying not to notice it, Sora stood, sliding out of Axel's grasp, hands going behind his head as he made for the door at a pace that hopefully wasn't quick enough to be misconstrued as 'trying to run'. Axel dogged him fairly closely, but didn't try to grab him again, which Sora took as a reasonable indication of – wary trust. Well, maybe not trust; maybe just a firm belief in the fact that he had nowhere to go.

Leaving a collection of candy wrappers on the bed, the two males exited out into the wide, wet world. Sora got his first good look at the place, eyes swivelling slowly around the area, taking everything in and pinpointing them more accurately on his mental map of the Wastelands. Yep – he remembered this place. He'd been correct about where they were, too. So, Axel was truly actually proposing that they hitch-hike for a day and a half's journey, at least. And then what? Sora threw the man a faintly frustrated, sidelong glance. Considering all the trouble they were meant to be avoiding, he was startlingly lacking in good sense. He would have hoped for more from the Organisation's eighth member, if only he hadn't already known just how unpredictable Axel could be. And he was supposed to be placing his safety in this man's hands?

The flood level outside was deeper than that which had flown into the rooms, about a foot of water in all covering the parking lot as they splashed around to the front of the building, Axel throwing a resentful look at the rental sitting dormant in its space. The water on the road looked only slightly thinner, and so far all the cars that remained in the motel lot were smaller ones like theirs. It looked like their best option was to find a trucker to get along with, unless they resigned themselves to hanging around for the sun to evaporate it all a little more.

It amazed Sora that so much rain had obviously fallen throughout the night, yet the sky could look perfectly peaceful and innocent the next day like this. The air had a fresh feel to it, warming swiftly but tinged with that cool smell of moisture and earth. He inhaled it deeply, enjoying the mixed scents, the feel of the sun on his face as he tilted his head back and closed his eyes. He'd spent so long belonging only to the night, he had almost forgotten what it was like to walk through the light. With the heat on his skin and the water around his ankles, he could pretend he was somewhere fun, with someone he remembered from before. It felt a lot like… freedom.

When he opened his eyes again, Axel was watching him. It kind of seemed like Axel was always watching him, with one expression or another, and the current one was – both sad and tender at the same time. There were too many emotions within that man at any given point in time, and they never strayed far from his face. It made Sora sigh, made him frown and wish there was a wall he could place between them. "Come on," he said to the redhead, who he suspected could have happily stared at him all day and night, "I want those flip-flops, damn it."

Axel slowly nodded, and threaded an arm around the boy's shoulders as they commenced the walk over towards the gas station. When Sora squirmed, trying to wriggle away again, the man said with hard, quiet edge, "Stop it, Roxas. We're going to pretend to be a happy couple again, just like we did at the last motel."

"Oh, what a stretch of character for you, pretending you're my other half," Sora replied, with a rolling of blue eyes, only to have Axel's fingers dig hard into his upper arm, a burning glance shooting down at him. With a grimace and a nod, the boy muttered, "Right, sorry. Sense of humour, off the menu. I'll behave." Keeping his mouth shut was probably a good idea from here on outwards. Considering the response Axel was having to his quips, he figured they weren't very Roxas-like remarks to be making, and sabotaging himself wasn't exactly high on his list of things to do today. It wasn't as if Axel would ever suspect that the person he was currently with was different from the one he'd fallen asleep to, but all the same, Sora didn't want to cause more waves than were inevitable. He figured he'd just tone down his personality a little, act duller. That was the Roxas everyone knew and loved, right? What an exciting existence he was going to lead in Axel's company. Big fat not.

"The legs of your jeans are getting wet, you know," he couldn't help but point out, as they trekked across the miniature lake that the parking lot had become and entered into the gas station's boundaries, the gas bowsers looking like metal buoys.

"Mm," Axel murmured, eyes flicking around the surroundings alertly. "I had noticed, Rox. But thanks. For informing me."

The boy heaved a sigh, and gave up. The gas station's doors were open already, supposed to be electric but staying stationery, a burly, thunderous-faced man behind the counter calling as they entered, "All refrigerated goods are on sale, they'll be dead by midday." He obviously resented the hell out of this fact, and them for being there to take advantage of it.

"You don't have a generator?" Axel asked.

"If I had a working generator, son," the man responded with as much condescending acid as he could manage, "do you think I'd be letting my produce fall into decay?" He concluded it with a muttered, "Dumbass," and went back to reading a newspaper.

Sora found himself stroking Axel's forearm soothingly as it clamped against him, murmuring, "It's okay, don't kill him, all right? He's not worth it."

The redhead gave him an intensely irritated look. "Exactly how much of a psychopath do you think I am?" Jerking his arm away from the blond, he snapped, "Find some damn shoes, if they're so important to you. I'm getting some groceries. Don't wander off."

Leaving Sora standing there, he disappeared into the aisles in search of non-perishables for the days ahead. The boy let loose an exhalation that echoed in the hush, catching the store-owner's eye with a weak smile. Briefly, feeling the doorway gaping behind him, he wondered how successful he'd be if he tried fleeing from here and finding someone to hitch with really fast, but discarded the idea before it had even properly occurred. The results of such a fiasco were much easier to imagine, and far more graphic than he could stomach first thing in the morning. Instead, Sora turned down the first aisle, heading towards the bargain bin at the far end of the store, where he knew the odds and ends like flip-flops and bubble-blowers and other cheap crap resided. He had to dig through some ancient cassette tapes, wondering if anyone actually had players for them anymore, but eventually emerged victorious with a pair of red foam ones that were more or less his size. A little big, perhaps, but wearable, and better than bare soles.

As he turned away from the bin, seeing nothing else of immediate interest within its depths, he caught sight of a flash of motion in his left peripheral, glanced over automatically, and was brought short by the sight of himself reflected in the window. Beyond the window, the gas pumps and waterlogged Wastelands awaited, but inside the glass stood a young, blond man who was barely more than a boy, with wide eyes and pale skin. Sora had already seen himself like this, of course, blond spikes destroying what could have almost been mistaken for his own face in the right light, but that glimpse he'd got in the car's wing mirror the other night hadn't had quite the same impact as this did. When he looked into this reflection, he saw Roxas. When he looked inside himself, he found Sora. The duality of them, that face with this mind and personality, was headache inducing. It made his head sag on his neck, made his shoulders roll into a slump, made something inside his chest quiver. He felt… frail, all of a sudden, and… just a little bit confused.

Bringing up the red flip-flops, he covered his face, blocked out the vision. How long he stood there, listening to the breaths enter and leave his chest, he didn't know, but eventually Axel was beside him again, touching his shoulder and saying, "Roxas…?" in a tentatively concerned tone.

It took Sora several moments to be able to answer him, a few strained inhalations required before he could respond hoarsely, "Yes?"

Careful fingers were touching his hair. "What are you doing? Does your head hurt or something?"

Sora laughed a little, shook his head. "No. I'm fine. Completely fine. Don't worry about it." Before he lowered the flip-flops, he turned away from the window, so that the first thing he saw was a rack of candy when he opened his eyes. "Hey, Axel? Buy me some candy, would you? I think I'm getting a sugar low."

The man lifted an eyebrow. "…But you…" He trailed off at the look on the boy's face, and didn't bother to finish pointing out that he'd just earlier been eating a whole pile of chocolate. Instead, he complied with Sora's request and grabbed a quick selection before looping his arm behind the boy's back and guiding him over towards the counter. Placing the candy, flip-flops, and a half-filled basket of various other things that would inevitably be crammed into his bag up onto the counter, Axel took out some cash, asked as the man started ringing it all up, "How long until the power comes back on?"

The guy grunted. "Hell if I know. When I'm bankrupted, probably." He took Axel's money with a clang of the register, and handed back some petty change, bagging the purchases and handing them over as ungraciously as he could. With a small, tight smile, Axel took the handles from him, wrapped his arm back around Sora's shoulders, and steered him out of the store, muttering once they were out of earshot, "That bastard short-changed me. Miserable fucker. Remind me to come back and burn this place down someday, when I'm less intent on being forgettable." When Sora said nothing in response, he squeezed the boy carefully, voice softening to ask, "Hey… how's that sugar low?"

Sora drew a deep breath, turned his face up to smile brightly at the man. "I'll be fine! There's absolutely nothing to worry about!"

A flicker of uncertainty crossed Axel's features, but in reply, all he said was, "Forget the candy bars, we'll save those for later. Maybe they've got some food at the diner that hasn't gone bad from the blackout, that'd be better for you." Wading through the water, the two males headed over towards the establishment, Sora's stomach growling as the hypnotic scent of cooking bacon reached out to meet them before they'd even got within five feet of the entrance.

Pushing the door open for Sora, Axel noted, "I guess their generator's still working…?" The boy was swamped with cooking smells, the front counter crammed with people shoulder to shoulder on barstools, the flood water pooling at the base of the metal bars. He could hear splashing in the kitchen as the griddle-chef fried up a storm of grease-laden food, the waitresses and single busboy – all looking to be of the same family, no doubt their own business living all the way out here – frantically traversing back and forth to serve the customers.

Axel tugged on Sora's sleeve, jerked his head to the side, red hair swaying, leading him away from the hub of activity and instead over to one of the side tables. "Hey, stay here, okay?" He dropped his two bags, duffel and plastic, at Sora's elbow, then planted a hand on the table, leaning over the boy. "I'll go order us something to eat, and see if I can find someone to give us a lift. Stay put, Rox, and no messing around."

He could say that, but the truth was, Sora's compliance was beginning to pay off; Axel seemed less intent in the way that he was warning him, more expectant that his commands would be obeyed. This was good; this was progress. If in just a short amount of time Sora could encourage him to begin dropping his guard, even just a little, then bit by bit, he would surely be able to chip it away, until he had a gap to escape through when the time truly arrived, when it would work to the greatest advantage. It felt like the beginning of a coup, Axel's fingertips trailing along his skin as he walked away. Sora rubbed at the area, obliterating the leftover tickling tingle of contact, and crossed his arms on the table, bumping his chin down onto them to wait.

The inside of the diner was a din of noise, the frying, the voices, all centralised over at the counter. There were no lights on, and no music, the vast majority of the generator's power no doubt being routed to the refrigerative units and griddle cooker. The servers, while frantic with the rush of so many orders all at once, were probably accustomed to this sort of thing, the Midgar Wastelands being pretty well renown for its once or twice-yearly tendency to fill up. You wouldn't think a business could thrive in that sort of environment, but he supposed that when you were one of the few stops along the way, it would be pretty much worth it, fiscally. Sora's eyes wandered to the floor, wondering how they managed to dry the place out each time, his fingers tapping idly at the plastic sides of the grocery bag.

By the time Axel returned, the boy had pulled out his brand new eight-dollar flip-flops and donned them, holding his feet out from the chair to admire the acquisitions, wriggling his toes against their softness and generally not paying attention to his surroundings. It took him a moment to realise that the redhead had even come back – Axel was standing a foot away, studying him with a wretched expression on his face, one that Sora couldn't instantly place when he finally noticed him there. When he realised that it was a look of deep, deep worry, the boy took a moment to feel insulted.

Letting out a delicate cough, Sora tucked his legs back under the table, arching an eyebrow at the man and asking, "Well? How did it go?"

Axel blinked, slowly insinuated himself into the chair opposite the boy, fingers drumming once automatically against the tabletop. "I got you eggs and toast."

Sora wished he'd asked for pancakes instead – he could really go for some maple syrup right now. Instead of vocalising this, however, he shook his head. "I mean, how are we for a lift? Did you find anyone?"

Axel nodded, glancing over at the counter. "There's a guy with a four-wheel-drive, he's heading out straight after breakfast. He's the only one going our way, everyone else is moving east, there's some convention happening in Costa del Sol." He swallowed, drummed his fingers again, gaze fixed on Sora as they waited for the food to arrive. "…Roxas, look. About last night…" He broke off, as though waiting for Sora to interrupt. When the boy looked back at him blankly, however, giving no sign of wishing to speak, he took a breath, forged on, "I'm sorry. I'm really… I never meant to…" He stopped again, rubbing a hand over his face. Beginning to form an inkling of what he might be driving at, Sora did a quick mental check of his physical state – was anything particularly sore today? Off-balance? He didn't think so, he was sure he would have noticed upon waking if anything was – wrong – with Roxas' body, since the blond's pain was Sora's pain.

Cautiously, he ventured, "It's okay. I'm – fine. You didn't do any damage, so…"

The man gave a tight laugh, staring at the boy helplessly. "But, see… You say that, but I know that I scared you, Rox, and today you're – acting… differently. And I, I don't want…"

"Wait." Finally, Sora did cut him off, holding up a hand to stop him in his tracks. "Wait a second. So – you're choosing now to apologise for being frightening? After everything you've done so far, what happened last night, that's what you decide is making a difference to my personality?" He rested his chin on his knuckles, sending the redhead a long, unimpressed look. "Axel, you tore me away from everything, have had me locked to various fixtures, have intimidated me with all sorts of threats, and now you're acting like you feel responsible for making me act differently?" He shook his head. "Exactly how much did you think you could get away with, honestly? Do you really think that apologising for last night is going to change a single damn thing?" Lowering his knuckles to rap them hard against the tabletop, Sora went on with sudden coldness, "If it bothers you so much, quit now, while you're ahead; let me go before you make things worse. If you're not going to give me at least that, then don't bother saying a damn word, because it means nothing if you're not going to back it up with action. If you feel bad every time you scare me, then you're going to live a pretty miserable, guilty life."

Looking stung, for once utterly lost for words, Axel could only sit there, lips pressed thinly together, forehead wrinkled with the force of his scowl. Sora continued to eye him, waiting to see if any great response would be forthcoming… but when the silence stretched, the boy eventually shrugged and turned his attention to the plastic bag of groceries, picking idly through until the food arrived. The whole time that they ate, Axel didn't make a single noise, didn't speak a syllable, and Sora noticed that he appeared to have lost his appetite, as well. It seemed to be that the truth really did hit hard and hurt; maybe Axel was having to face up to it for the first time, the reality of what Sora had said. Because really: he personally couldn't see this working out. Obviously, when it was him, it would never work out, because Sora would jet the instant he knew all the dominos were ready to fall on his side; but he couldn't imagine Roxas really going for it, either. What had Axel expected? For Roxas to miraculously remember him, so they could go back to being a weird, messed-up couple, where Axel spent half his life alternating between feeling terror for Roxas, and suffering unrequited love? How could the man have not breathed a sigh of relief once he'd realised that Roxas was gone? How could he not have just let things go, from that point?

Sora had a theory that Axel was just plain old masochistic. It fit; it really, really did.

They finished their meal in total silence, Sora drinking his juice with blue eyes alert over the rim of the glass, forever roaming and absorbing some new detail of their environment. At last, Axel finally muttered, "Come on," and stood up, chair legs scraping the floor under the water, Sora just about giving himself a neck cramp as his head swivelled to see who the redhead was lifting a hand of acknowledgement to. His eyes landed on a forty-ish man with blond hair, a dry expression, and three toothpicks jammed in his mouth. "Let's get movin'," he barked between his teeth, toothpicks bobbing, passing by their table and splashing out into the parking lot. Axel snatched up their bags, shoving the plastic one into Sora's arms, closing a hand around the back of the boy's neck and steering him as they followed the man.

The sun was lifting higher and hotter over the stark landscape, humidity rising as the night's rain was slowly burnt away, the air dense and sweat-inducing. The vehicle that the stomping man led them to sat parked half on the curb, its bumper almost a foot above the water level, less a 'four-wheel-drive' than a be-wheeled beast of the road. Axel and Sora halted as the man brought out a set of keys, unlocking the driver's door and swinging it open, ushering them through with an impatient wave of one toughened hand. "In, in, I've got a deadline to meet, kiddos."

"What kinda deadline?" Sora inquired curiously, Axel's hands around his waist, helping to lift him up into the interior, the boy clambering across the long front seat to the other side and sitting down.

"Got a stack of blueprints waiting to be looked over for some new-fangled military choppers, son," came the reply as Axel climbed in after him, looking unnervingly predatory as his long arms led the way, like a stalking panther with green fire for eyes, "but do me a favour and keep that gem to yourself, huh?" Last but not least, the man hauled himself up as Axel settled beside Sora, the two of them gripping their bags on their knees, one of the redhead's arms pushing across Sora's shoulders and holding him close. The door closed with a bang, the blond man starting up the engine, barely even throwing a glance over his shoulder before the beast was reversing sharply, engine a loud, throbbing growl. "All aboard? I advocate seatbelts, kids, get 'em on or get outta my truck."

Axel leaned over the boy, grabbing the belt up by his head and stretching it over the pair of them, clipping it into his middle lock, keeping Sora firmly in place. The man shot them a briefly disapproving look – Sora could hear all sorts of safety warnings swimming around his mind, just from looking at him – but held his tongue, obviously choosing to respect their 'relationship', whatever that might be.

They drove slowly through the parking lot, water sluicing out from the wheels, the man performing a quick check for traffic before pulling out onto the highway. Almost instantly, they surged forward, sturdy wheels slicing straight through the flood, the man taking them up to an effortless high speed, completely unfazed by the rainfall thundering against the undercarriage. Over the noise, the man called, "The name's Cid."

"I'm Axel," Axel yelled back, his hand squeezing Sora as he went on, "and this is Roxas. We really appreciate the lift. We're on vacation."

"Yeah," Sora chipped in wryly, "we're having a lot of a lot of fun." He received a small grip of warning, Axel's smile stretching wide, eyes sliding sideways to shoot him a surreptitiously narrow look. Taking the hint, the boy held his tongue henceforth, and their benefactor, Cid, said nothing further. He drove with concentration, not bothering with conversation, Sora and Axel left to gaze out the window and watch the Wastelands fly by.

Without pause, occasionally passing other cars heading the opposite way, they powered through the barren landscape for miles on end, the sun lifting up to its peak in the sky before beginning its slow descent.

It was at this point that Roxas woke up, and didn't know where the hell he was.