Disclaimer: Axel and Roxas belong to Square enix and Disney, not me.
Note: Written for livejournal's 24hourtheme challenge (24hourUNDERSCOREthemesDOTlivejournalDOTcom). Theme 13:00; self image and personal security. Chapter contains Akuroku. Word count 601.
Summary: Axel's feeling a little insecure, maybe Roxas can help him out...
Drawn to Scale
Roxas couldn't quite contain the shocked yelp as he opened his bathroom door to find the room unexpectedly occupied. Axel was scrutinizing himself in the mirror. He laughed at Roxas' compulsive yell- anything he could do to rid the younger nobody of his composure seemed to amuse him- but he didn't look away.
"Geez, Rox, I had the door shut. Don't you have any concept of privacy?"
Roxas fumed, "Yes, Axel. As a matter of fact the two of us discussed privacy just the other day, remember? When I told you to stop coming in my room without my permission."
Axel finally turned to face him, his jade eyes smiling in the irritating way they always did. He gave Roxas a few pats on the head, which only irritated the blonde further. "Relax. I was going to ask your permission but you weren't here so how could I?" He turned back to the mirror but instead of looking in it again bent down to retrieve something from under the sink, "And this is important."
As Axel dragged the little square machine out into the center of the floor Roxas noticed for the first time that he was barefoot, and that he had lost his coat somewhere along the way as well.
"…A scale? You broke into my room to use a scale?"
Axel was now standing on top of the scale, staring into the LCD screen as the numbers jumbled about, observing intently and completely ignoring the other occupant of the room. When the numbers finally settled, he had a triumphant look on his face, "Two pounds!"
An impeccable blonde eyebrow arched in confusion, "Two pounds what?"
Axel faced him, looking positively ecstatic, "Gained two pounds since last week!"
This didn't excite Roxas nearly as much as Axel'd hoped, in fact, the blonde looked entirely unamused. He pouted.
"Axel, you realize you're going to be heavier no matter what if you weigh yourself right after lunch, right?"
It's not right after lunch," Axel retorted, "It's one o'clock, lunch was almost an hour ago!"
Roxas rolled his eyes, "Why does it matter to you anyway?"
For once Axel was silent. In fact he looked rather uncomfortable, and was avoiding making eye contact. When it suddenly dawned on Roxas what exactly was going on he tried his best not to laugh, but it was too little too late. The result was some type of strangled grunt.
"You're insecure…about being skinny!"
Axel glowered at him, "And you wouldn't be?"
Roxas was hard pressed to respond to that, the revelation came as quite a shock to him. Axel was always so confident, he'd struck Roxas as not having any insecurities. But now that he considered it, that was a rather foolish thing to assume. He allowed his eyes to travel down to Axel's stomach, or lack thereof. Curiosity took over at that point and he reached a hand out, grazing it over Axel's torso. It was taut, much more so than he was expecting, and although they wasn't visible at all Roxas could feel the ripple of muscle. The action wasn't intended as anything other than innocent, but the shiver he felt beneath his hand reminded Roxas of exactly what he was doing. His eyes shot up to meet Axel's, hand pulling away just as quickly.
They stood in silence for a moment or two, both of them blushing profusely, eyes locked.
Finally Roxas voiced weakly, "No. I think you're perfect."
Axel smiled and stepped down from the scale, still not breaking eye contact.
That was the last time he came to use Roxas' scale.