Chapter 3 - in which revelations are key

Roxas didn't lie - the bill was so reasonable Axel actually examined the receipt to see if they'd added on everything. After polishing off everything in front of them, they paid, and left, Tiana giving Roxas a wink and a wave as they did so. Outside, Axel and Roxas walked over to where each had locked up their bicycles, a comfortable silence between them. Axel had his battered messenger bag and a gear bag thrown over the same shoulder, and he bent to remove his bike lock before storing his gear bag on his pannier. Roxas busied himself with his own bike lock, before a sharp ringing sounded. Axel reached into his pocket, and answered his chirping phone.

"Hel- what? Stop shouting at me, I can't hear you. No, I was going to the- I did tell you about it. Yes, it was. No, I had a fr- well, yes of COURSE I was, you idiot," he shouted into the device. Roxas tried not to eavesdrop, but a quick glance at the redhead almost made him giggle - Axel was looking at him, but was rolling his eyes in a clear expression of pained patience. "Godammit, Reno, you need to calm your tits. I'm just coming home now, I'll be there in five. Yeah yeah, whatever, see you in a minute." He hung up. "Sorry about that, Rox. I think he forgot I told him I was going to the club after school, he almost had a heart attack when I didn't come home, and then I had my phone on silent by accident. Oh well. Anyway, thanks for today, it was pretty sweet. See you tomorrow, gotta run."

"See ya."

Without any further ado, he kicked off the ground and pedalled furiously away. Roxas watched him turn around the corner, before shaking his head and making ready to leave himself. Before he did, however, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a familiar object on the ground - Axel's messenger bag. Immediately, he took off after Axel, but to his dismay, when he turned the corner onto the main road, there was no sign of the redhead, and despite the fact that Axel clearly had his phone with him, Roxas had given him his number, but the older boy had not reciprocated.

Mulling it over, Roxas wheeled his back over to the nearest bench, and sat down, contemplating what to do next. He could just wait until the next day, of course, but he didn't know if Axel needed anything in the bag. He wouldn't know unless... Roxas hesitated, but instinct told him Axel wouldn't mind if he opened it, and so, despite not being able to fathom where that feeling came from, he slowly opened the battered bag. Inside he found an equally battered canvas pencil case covered in what had to be distracted scribblings, a brand new A4 pad of paper, three separate peppermints packets with one or two peppermints in each, and an A5 notebook that was covered in stickers on the outside. Clearly, this was Axel's journal of some sort, which meant he might have mentioned his recent move. Feeling this was the right thing to do, he opened the notebook on the back cover, and to his surprised delight found a haphazard scribble of an address in Twilight Town. It wasn't far - perhaps ten minutes hard cycle - so Roxas gamefully loaded the messenger bag on the back of his bag, and ambled off towards the address in the journal.

Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the gates of a large house that was almost a mansion but not quite. 'Roxas, what are you doing with yourself. You could just wait until tomorrow. Why don't you wait until tomorrow?', his inner voice said to him. 'You don't even know if you're at the right house! For all you know it could be a place Axel is going to rob blind!' The thought was ludicrous, but only just - while Roxas' innate sensibilities told him Axel was an honest person, he had known him for less than two days, and it was almost definitely a bit creepy that he stalked him home just to give him his notebook, when he could have just waited until tomorrow. Regardless, he continued up the driveway.

When he reached the top of the driveway, something was immediately amiss. He recognised one of the four cars in the driveway - it was the Mustang he'd seen Axel get picked up in the previous night. However, just beyond it, the front door was ajar. Gingerly, Roxas approached the front door, and rang the bell. A few minutes passed with no answer, and he rang it again. Inside the door, the hallway was completely dark. With a deep sense of foreboding, Roxas called out.

"...hello?" Unsurprisingly, there was no response. By now, Roxas was concerned, and his usually shy nature was kicked to the rear of his mind as he stepped cautiously through the door, and into the hall.

Once inside, it took his eyes only a moment to adjust, and he could see well enough down the hallway. It was completely deserted, but the four cars outside told him someone had to be home, so he continued down the corridor, listening intently, until at last, at the base of the grand staircase, he heard the faintest sound of... what was it? It was muted, like it was behind a closed door. Walking around on the spot, Roxas identified at last that it was coming from behind the staircase, and, sure enough, he found a small door that led underneath the staircase. Opening it cautiously, the sound became immediately amplified - it was the sound of a fight. Roxas hastened his step down the stairs, until he heard the unmistakeable sound of something hard hitting a human, and Axel's voice cried out briefly, and he broke into a run down the pitch black corridor at the bottom of the small flight of steps. The space seemed to brighten until he could see a set of enormous double doors, and underneath, a bright light spilling out onto the floor. Roxas hesitated at the door, unsure, until there was a loud crash, and Axel screamed again. Without thinking, Roxas threw open the door. Immediately, all sounds ceased.

The light inside was temporarily blinding after the darkness of the rest of the house, but once Roxas could see, he froze on the spot. Staring back at him were three sets of eyes. Axel was on the floor on his back, holding two unusual round weapons in the air, which he had clearly until moments ago been using to defend himself. Above him, the figure Roxas recognised as being Reno had a thin, slightly burnt wood baton raised, hanging in the air with an unspoken but interrupted threat. Both were dressed in identical gym shorts and polo shirts; Axel's were green, Reno's a pale blue.

It was actually the third man standing behind them, however, that drew his attention. The man had long, flowing dark hair, calm eyes and a stance that implied he was in authority. He was the first to speak.

"And who might you be?"

The sound snapped Axel out of his shock, and he shifted underneath Reno so that the older redhead lost his balance, smacking into the floor. "Roxas! What are you doing here!" The older man raised an eyebrow at Axel from behind him, but said nothing. Roxas sheepishly pulled Axel's bag over his shoulder, and held it out in slowly in front of him. Axel's eyes widened, but the dark-haired man spoke before he had a chance.

"Ah, I see. And, perchance, did you find the front door unlocked, little samaritan?"

Roxas nodded. Both the older man and Axel turned and looked at Reno; Axel glaring, the older man witheringly. Reno shrank slightly.

"Most kind of you to return my nephew's property. Boys, perhaps this is an opportune time to break for tonight? We'll resume this tomorrow." He swept past Roxas and gave a polite, but curt smile, and Roxas was slightly unnerved to notice his eyes were a deep, blood red. Reno and Axel looked at each other, before Reno laughed at his younger brother, and said,

"Well, all yours."

Axel gave him a look that could have killed if such a thing were possible, and said, "This is partly YOUR fault too, Reno."

Reno snorted." Pffft, whatever, I'm still not the idiot that brought him here in the first place. Good luck." He picked himself off the ground, shook himself down, and made to walk past Roxas. As he did so, he stuck out his hand. "Nice to meetcha, I'm Reno, the better looking one. Thanks for bringing Ax's bag back, poor kid can't be left out alone, nice he's got someone lookin' out fer him." Roxas shook his hand as though he was afraid Reno was going to rip it off, and the older redhead wandered off out the door behind him, leaving Roxas alone in the room with Axel, who sighed audibly, and motioned to Roxas to join him as he walked to a bench at the far side of the room, where he sat down and gulped from a bottle of water. As Roxas was walking across the room, he took in for the first time that the room was clearly designed for the purpose - the floor was sprung, and against the rear wall was a stand that held variations of the same wooden weapons Axel and Reno had been using, of all shapes and sizes. In a latched glass cabinet to its left were what appeared to be their real counterparts, and the ceiling was high enough to mean there was little chance of hitting it with an errant uncontrolled swing. The right wall was mirrored from floor to ceiling, and a long wooden bar was mounted at waist height in front of it. Roxas perched on the bench next to the still-glugging redhead, and Axel heaved another world-weary sigh.

"...So."

"So. Nice setup."

Axel cocked an eyebrow. "...yeah. Uh. Thanks. For bringing my bag back... wait, how did you know my ad- You looked in my journal, didn't you."

A blush crept up Roxas' neck, not quite reaching his cheek. "Yes, I'm sorry, just the inside cover. I just thought-"

Axel silenced him with a wave. "It's ok, I don't mind, there's nothing I wouldn't mind you reading in there anyway."

Roxas was temporarily stunned by that little revelation, until he realised Axel was staring at him, and had spoken. "Sorry? I zoned out for a second there."

"I said ask what you want to ask."

"Oh. Uh... Not quite sure where to start."

"What're you thinking right now?"

"His eyes are red." His guess was confirmed as the older boy chuckled at the statement. "I take it that was your Uncle Vinny. He doesn't really look like a Vinny."

"He most categorically is not a Vinny. That's Vincent. He's quiet, and apparently scary, but he's one the most reliable people you'll ever meet. And he already likes you - he actually spoke to you."

"Is he... training you?"

"Yes. He's been teaching me and Reno since we were about nine and eleven."

"Makes sense."

"Oh?"

"Well, I mean, you were really good at the club, that makes sense now."

"Ah. I was sort of holding back, didn't want to draw suspicion..."

"I can guess why. How often do you train?"

"Most every night." As he said this, Roxas let his eyes stray over Axel's arms next to him, to see they were covered in a myriad of bruises and cuts. One gash in particular seemed deep, but there was little bloodflow. Lifting his gaze to Axel's head, the older boy also had a noticeable cut on his forehead, and this one had been bleeding heavily - there was a steady trail of red down the side of Axel's face, sweeping down his chin and neck. Realising what the blond was looking at, Axel grabbed a towel from a small rack next to the bench and vigorously wiped his face, but the cut continued to trickle slowly.

"Why do you do it?" Roxas asked gently.

Axel grinned at him. "Ah, that question. At first, because it was the only thing Uncle Vincent knew how to do with us - he's lived a funny life, he might tell you about it sometime if you don't run off into the night after tonight. Our dad didn't really know about it, and then by the time he did find out, he was so impressed with how well we'd taken to it, he was happy for us to continue. At the start it was just, well, stamina and form training. We didn't actually start hitting each other for several years." He paused a second to think on something. "How did you know it was Vincent and not my dad?"

Roxas was confused, and he involuntarily looked at Axel's hair. "Well, you and Reno look like each other, but you don't look like him."

"HA! If you think my dad looks anything like either of us, you're barking up the wrong tree. Reno and me, we look the same, but we don't resemble anyone else in our family at all. God only knows what twisted genetics produced the both of us, but they did."

"Oh. So it was a lucky guess then."

"Guess so!" They both went silent for a moment, the pause slightly awkward, until Roxas broke it again.

"Hey, Axel?"

"Yeah?"

"What're those things?" He gestured towards the round weapons Axel had left behind in the middle of the floor.

"Oh, those stupid things. Yeah. I guess they're like chakrams or whatever, but I went through a weird goth phase when I was 14, and had to have spikes on EVERYTHING. Reno always thought it was cheating, but then he-" He stopped himself mid-sentence. Roxas frowned at him. "Yeah. Anyway. We use the wooden ones for training, and they're built to absorb most of the impact themselves, sort of like the chairs they use in pro-wrestling. Vincent made them - what that man can't do with weapons isn't worth knowing about, even woods."

Roxas glanced at the cabinet at the back of the room. "Do you have real ones?"

Axel stilled suddenly. "Yes. But I've never used them. The spikes are really, really sharp, Vincent says, and he has this rule... about never using a real weapon unless the situation demands it. Reno gets to have an exception to that rule 'cos his baby has an electric charge to it, so sometimes Uncle Vincent lets him train with it, so he doesn't electrocute himself should the need arise, but I've only ever had woods."

"Wow. I just... I'm not quite sure what to say about all this. It's so... I mean, the only thing I do when I go home is draw stuff and waste time on the internet."

Axel smirked at him. "I'm not going to go into the school and start killing off students, if that's your worry."

"Nononono! Nothing like that, wow. Just... Feel like I could be doing something more productive, now."

"...are you saying you want to train too?"

Roxas paused for a long time, but Axel could see he was mulling it over, and gave him the time to think. He took another swig from the bottle of water, before Roxas finally spoke. "Is it weird that I do?

"No. It's kinda cool, actually. I guess I was worried that you would think it was weird - I mean, I met you yesterday."

"Actually, I was worried you'd think I was weird for turning up outside your house to give you your bag back, like some kind of creeper."

"Pfft, nah, it's cool. I'd have done the same thing, I think. Tell ya what, lemme have a quick shower and I'll get you a soda. Hold on here a minute." With that, Axel walked towards the rear left corner of the room, where there was a small door. Within moments, Roxas heard the sound of a shower running, and steam began to drift through the top of the doorway. Bored, he looked around the room, but the only two objects in the room were the rack of wooden weapons and the cabinet with the real ones. He stood in front of the cabinet and looked at the weapons inside.

There were weapons of all shapes and sizes - halbards, plain-looking rods, rapiers, even an enormous broadsword was tucked neatly at the very back, behind the others. At one end, Axel's untouched chakrams gleamed, and Roxas examined them more closely. They were silver, circular in shape with black and red lines etched in an intricate design on to the spikes that ran throughout the outer edge. Roxas noted that despite Axel's claims that he had never so much as picked them up, they were completely dust-free, meaning they were still cared for. They were odd, a reflection of Axel himself, but not the most unusual object Roxas could see in the cabinet.

Nearly completely hidden in a line behind the other standing swords, one weapon almost called to Roxas with its strangeness. It was a thick long rod, about the same length as a standard sword, and had a hilt that seemed almost like a handle. At the business end the blunt blade extended, almost like it had a huge lump sticking off of it. It had a peculiar shape, but as it was facing backwards towards the rear of the cabinet, Roxas couldn't make out what it was. He was staring at it, fascinated, and didn't notice Axel approach until the older boy spoke.

"They're awesome, aren't they."

Roxas startled, then nodded in agreement.

Axel continued, "Uncle Vincent made every single one. I'm not quite sure how, or where - never seen him working on one, but I know they're his handiwork." He gravitated slowly as he spoke towards the chakrams propped up at the opposite end of the cabinet. Roxas studied his expression, and was sad to see it was wistful, almost forlorn.

"Have you ever even..."

"Touched them? No. I've been staring at them every night for three years. Vincent cleans them twice a week, and I'm always asking him if I can just hold them, but he won't let me." He shook his head, and seemed to let the matter rest. "Anyway. Quick soda? Sorry I can't ask you to stay all evening, but I have work to do for Reno - he's crap with paperwork and he's still got to complete some stuff for college."

Roxas nodded softly. "It's fine. I should be going anyways. I'll... take a rain check on the soda. See you tomorrow?"

Axel nodded, and walked Roxas up the stairs and towards the front door. Roxas grinned a boyish grin, and waved cheerfully as he left. Axel called out after him. "Hey, Rox! Thanks for my bag, again!" As soon as the blond reached the bottom of the driveway, Axel shut the door, and leaned against it. "You can come out now, you paranoid old git."

Vincent appeared from the shadows to his left, a smirk on his usually-impassable features. "So I take it I now have three adolescent students?"

Axel's eyes widened. "How did you-"

"Reading people is a gift of mine, Axel, you know that. His face said it all when he opened the door. And he clearly has an interest in you - who else do you know that would go to all the trouble to return a lost item for someone they met yesterday?"

Axel blushed under Vincent's good-natured taunt. "You're not mad?"

Vincent smiled at his nephew, warmth radiating. "No. We all need some sort of grounding. Reno has that moody idiot, I had..." He stopped, and Axel waited, understanding the train of thought Vincent was on. "We need something, or someone to keep us sane. Just as a thought - did you tell him...?"

Axel blustered an immediate response to the unspoken question. "God, no, fuck. I'm not stupid, Vincent. Fuck."

"The time might come when you don't have a choice, Axel."

"...I know. I sort of hope it doesn't come to that."

"You were always so serious, child." At that, Axel bristled, and Vincent held up a calming hand, continuing on. "Don't misunderstand me. I don't mean because the situation necessitates it - I mean because you will need to to be completely open."

Axel gave a noise that was quite like a snort. "Seriously, Uncle Vincent. I know him two days. He could run for the hills in the morning, quit talking like he's about to get surgically attached to my hip." It was Vincent's turn to laugh.

"Alright, fair point. Just... don't think there's no-one out there you can trust in the world."

"I know. Thanks, Uncle Vincent." The dark-haired man nodded, and retreated upstairs. Axel leaned back harder against the front door and slid down to the ground.

"...well that was unexpected."