Please Let me apologize for my horrendously overdue update.
I'm so sorry everyone. The first two months I had no computer and I was gone at camp last month.
Please forgive my making you wait so long. Enjoy the slightly short and humorous chapter below.
"So... I've noticed that you and Axel have been getting along much better lately." Demyx slyly looked to his right as he watched the tiny boy organize the stuff in his second room. The older blonde couldn't help but smile on the inside when he didn't even see Roxas tense up at the question as he usually would've. But the bite in the male's voice was as strong as ever.
"So... how's Cid doing?" Roxas kept organizing his things, but was still paying attention to his friend.
Demyx was used to the jeering but it only reminded him of the night before and the laugh he usually produced with the subject of his one-night stand turned boyfriend didn't come about. "Well..." Demyx trailed off into an uncomfortable silence that had Roxas turning around to look closely at his friend.
"What happened?" Roxas sat down next to his blonde friend and put a comforting arm around the older man.
"We got in a fight last night...a bad one." Demyx shrugged the arm from his shoulders and marched angrily to the mirror hanging on his wall. "It wasn't even really my fault. It truly wasn't. It was stupid and he's stupid and I don't wanna be angry tonight, Roxy! I don't! There is absolutely no reason for me to be angry about coming to the place I love! Fuck, I'm gonna go punch something for a while! Bye!" Was the last thing Roxas heard as he watched Demyx stomp out the door and slam it.
"Well... I guess Zexion's back in the running." Roxas absentmindedly muttered aloud and went back to straightening up his items according to exactly where they should go, before heading downstairs to the gym.
At the rate this kid was going he might actually develop some leg muscles for that hellish set of stairs he dreaded seeing every day.
Speaking of things Roxas happened to dread seeing, Axel was among them. Not that Roxas didn't enjoy Axel when he was being nice. He just didn't enjoy Axel when the man was being obnoxious. And it was never a good thing walking into the gym and seeing Axel there. That meant he needed to burn some energy.
Roxas walked in to the large room full of moving metal, moving bodies. He was greeted by several voices and he smiled with a greeting back. And much to Roxas' happiness, Axel didn't seem to notice the boy. Maybe he had his head phones in? Who knows.
Well, it's not that Axel hadn't noticed the small blonde. He was almost hyper aware of the way his skin prickled in anticipation when the boy entered the same room as him. Axel was getting quite enthralled with Roxas. Not that he'd mention that. At least not...yet. As it was. Axel grinned evilly at the thought of his current way of winning the man's heart. Because as much as anyone had opinions... Roxas was a man. He had muscles, he couldprotect himself if threatened, he had manly tendencies, no matter how adorable they were. Oh geeze, rambling again. I get so caught up in this crazy man's thoughts sometimes.
Anyway, Axel grinned evilly to himself and switched from his brisk paced almost run on the incline of the treadmill to a relatively parallel state to the floor.
Roxas stared at Axel and his odd habits. And maybe the sweat glistening on his body as he moved. But shhhh. No one was gonna know about that. He saw Axel trotting happily along on his treadmill and decided to get to work doing some weight lifts with his legs. He wasn't joking about needing to build up some muscles in his legs. The pole practice was quickly giving him arm muscles so there was no need fo- WHACK.
"What the fuck?" Roxas growled as he was whipped from his thoughts when a decent sized wad of paper decided to stab his face. He looked around with vicious eyes for the culprit and found no one acting out of the ordinary. He bent down to grab the offending paper and just sat it on his lap and glared at it as he restarted his leg movements. When he finally decided that he was calm enough, he huffed and proceeded to open the crinkled piece of paper.
The only thing the young man did afterwards was wad it back up and throw it across the room at Axel. What did it read? It read, and I quote, "How would you rate me from Wonderful to Marvellous?" Now, Roxas would, in any other circumstances, have been amused, had it not been for the fact that he was still angry about the paper hitting him. He wasn't one to take getting hit by projectiles lightly. Even of the paper variety.
"I'd rate you as annoying today." Roxas called out across the room, and grabbed the mp3 from his bag on the floor, ignoring the laughs of several men in the room and the wide grin of the red head on the treadmill. A couple of the bystanders closer to the situation were trying to look inconspicuous as they intently honed in to what was happening. There was currently a house bet on what would happen between the two. Everyone knew that Axel got what he wanted, but this time was different. No one knew what to expect from the young blonde newcomer. So, without further adieu, we continue the paper conversation.
Roxas was less annoyed the second time his bubble was penetrated by flying paper because Axel had aimed so that the paper ball fell on the boy's lap. Opening it this time, Roxas actually smiled on the inside, keeping his face chilly for show. This time: "They call me Axel but you can call me Tonight." When Roxas looked up at Axel to retaliate this time, the man was looking at Roxas and waggling his eyebrows. The younger man snorted, outright, and the bystanders mentally counted the money wagered on a favourable outcome between the two.
Roxas caught the next flying ball as he was actually waiting for it, much to Axel's amusement. The man shyly looked away when he saw that Roxas was unfolding the paper. Instead he used the magical ability of peripheral vision to watch the puzzled look on Roxas face. Axel pretended to be preoccupied with the digital read out on the treadmill in front of him. "Would you join me for dinner?" was written on that piece of paper. When he heard a small, uncertain, "No." Come from the boy, he grabbed his notebook and pen one last time in an amusing attempt at humour to re-lighten the situation. If this didn't get the guy to smile again, nothing would... or Axel shouldn't like him as much as he did. You've gotta let your inner nerd out.
Axel outright grinned when he aimed for Roxas' lap one last time. Roxas almost uncertainly opened this ball of paper. But when he read what was wrote, he outright laughed. Just once, and it sounded surprised, but Axel would take what he got from the little tease.
Roxas scribbled on the piece of paper and threw it back at the red head. He was a bit startled but caught it anyway. The bottom, under his own scratchy writing was a very nice blocky tiny scrawl reading "Yes, I'll join you for dinner."
"What?" Axel exclaimed out loud, throwing his hands up in the air. "Was the secret to be a nerdy dork?" Axel exasperatedly yelled in the direction of the younger blonde. Roxas just shrugged and the whole entire audience of witnesses were dumbfounded as the boy got off the weight machine, with a slight ease because of the sore muscles in his legs and walked over to Axel, whispering in his ear.
"I'm sorry to hear about you not having an invisibility cloak but I'll see what I can do about letting you into my restricted section." Roxas winked and waved at the taller man as he left the room. Roxas grinned on his way out and went to the rehearsal room to do some dance practice.
"Woah..." Axel grinned widely and muttered to himself. The goofy smile didn't leave his face the whole time and it wasn't that particularly hard to guess what had and would be happening. Word spread quickly and chatter ensued as the current trending topic in most of The House's gossip was heading in a new direction.
Also credit for the idea for this chapter must go to Melodious Echo Of Oblivion
For her absolutely amazing help that just completely inspired me when I read her review.
Also, a shout out must go to everyone who left a review in the past couple months. I'm sorry for not replying to everyone.
Thank you all so much for being such awesome readers.
But seriously. If I take that long next time... message me, prod me with "WHERE IS MY CHAPTER?"s.
I sometimes need to be reminded to not be lazy...