Warnings: Self mutilation ( nothing to bad ), Axel being a weirdo
I STILL OWN NOTHING.
The morning after Axel's encounter with the small bird was like any other; everyone was up and busy, scurrying around in an orderly fashion about the palace, cleaning what needed to be cleaned and other important tasks. The merchants of the beloved city of Tenochtitlan had already opened their stands for a day of selling, and the citizens were all going about their business. Axel, wearing his accursedly itchy feathered headdress, was sitting in the main part of the palace on an ornate cushion, people being careful not to step on him, or get in his way while he worked.
The most recently conquered village had sent in their tribute as ordered; an assortment of fine feathers, jade, turquoise, dyes, animals to be butchered and eaten, and many fine cloths. Axel had to personally go through it to make sure they hadn't left anything out. They hadn't, and the emperor was pleased. After seeing to that, the redhead had to do one of his most disliked tasks of all – seeing the palace gardener. He had been stalling all morning, hoping to put the meeting off as long as possible. He sighed as he forced himself to stand and walk away as servants ran to put all the tribute in its proper place.
Marluxia was an odd man, and isn't want that Axel hated him, that would be child-like and would result in some killing, no, something about the flowery man just rubbed him the wrong way, what with his absurd hair- pink of all colors- and smug attitude. The emperor, and most of the staff in the palace, greatly suspected that the man had taken clothing dye to his hair as the color pink could not be natural.
Axel found the tall skinny man outside, seeing to the planting of many beautiful and tropical flowers, their colors bright and lovely. He was dressed in a cloth wrapped around his waist that was full of bright colors and patterns and ended just below his knees, expensive jewelry was adorned all over his body, from his ankles to his ears. Despite the man's strangeness, he truly did know what he was doing. A large slab of stone was resting on the ground, covered in all sorts of plants, some looking like small saplings, others large and fully grown looking. The redhead stopped nearby to watch the flowery man supervise slaves planting the large plants in a specific order.
"No you fool." The pink haired man growled calmly to a slave on his knees in the soil, "The black tiger plumeria should go there, not the danai delight."
The slave looked up at the man in utter confusion, making Marluxia groan in distaste. "Put the large purple flower there, not the white and pink." Apparently, this type of miscommunication happened often, as the usually sarcastic man didn't even waste his breath speaking insultingly slow to the slave, who nodded and picked the plant up from the hole in the dark soil and carried it back to the large slab, placing it down before picking up a large purple flower as ordered.
In all honesty, Axel didn't see what the big deal was; the white and pink plant looked just fine where it had been, and he frowned a little as the slave took the purple plant back to its place in the ground, and slid it into the hole before covering the hole up with dirt. The tan man then stood and moved out of the way.
The emperor blinked in surprise, as Marluxia nodded. The arrangement actually did look better with the purple flower…
"Can I help you, my lord?" Marluxia purred over his shoulder, as if he'd known the redhead had been standing there the whole time.
Axel rolled his eyes and walked to stand by the man's side and surveyed the grounds from the new point of view. "I was simply curious about the progress you've been making, considering how much of our resources you used to gather all these plants." The emperor couldn't help a small smirk as the pink haired man crossed his arms.
"Do forgive me my lord," He spoke smoothly, a light in his eyes as he glanced at the other man, "but one cannot place a price on beauty. Even if some slaves have been lost in the jungle looking for these beautiful little creatures," Axel didn't miss the warm smile the strange man threw at the plants, almost like he was speaking of his dear children, "I say it's worth it. There will always be those who commit crimes and those who are poor enough to sell themselves into slavery to replace the ones we lose." He waved his hand casually, causing Axel to roll his eyes.
"Though that may be true, do not needlessly kill our workers." The redhead resisted the urge to sigh.
"Yes my lord." Marluxia bowed to him, "Is that all? I am almost done with this part of the grounds, and then we will move our party," the man pointed at the slab holding the plants, "and we will start on the back." He rested his hands on his hips and glared at a slave who had sat down.
Axel nodded, "Very good, I will let you continue your work." Marluxia bowed in farewell, before snapping at the slaves working for him.
The emperor walked away, sandaled feet gliding over the stone pathway. At least that was done now and he wouldn't have to see the man again for some time. 'I suppose next I should check in with Xemnas to make sure things are going well with the preparations.' He thought to himself as he headed to the road leading to the largest and most decorated building in the city.
The walk up the stone steps was familiarly long, but he made it to the top and walked into the temple, a large stone statue of Huitzilopochtli, the patron god of the city, welcoming him. Axel immediately went to the statue and bowed his head and sent a prayer of thanks to the god before kneeling to the ground and picking up a small thorn from a bowl in front of the god's statue. He stuck his tongue out, and drove it through before laying the blood covered thorn in front of the god, and whispering a prayer over his offering, some blood dripping from his mouth.
"My lord? Ah, it is you. Your unusual hair color was a giveaway." Xemnas had walked out from another room, a large book in his hands, to find the emperor praying. Axel finished and rose to his feet before smiling at the man and wiping blood from his mouth.
"Xemnas, how goes the preparations?" The older man sighed and walked over to his emperor, closing the book in his hands.
"Well, the prisoners are being as difficult as always. Most of them fight back, or give insults. One managed to break free and attacked my apprentice." The sliver haired man looked annoyed, while Axel frowned slightly in concern.
"Is Saïx all right?" The question caused Xemnas to scoff, "Wrong question. You should ask about the health of the prisoner who jumped him." There was an undeniable note of pride in the high priest's voice causing the emperor to laugh, a bit of blood dripping from his lips.
"Fair enough. But other than that, all is well?" He spoke as he wiped the red liquid away.
Xemnas nodded, "Rest assured, my lord, the sacrifice will be going on as planned. We have more than enough prisoners to keep the sun and its warrior strong." The high priest seemed sure of this fact, and even offered a slight smile. "I am sure the gods will be very happy with the offering."
"I can only hope they will be." The redhead smiled at the man and bowed to him, "I will leave you to your business, high priest."
Xemnas returned the bow, "Thank you, my lord. Do have a good day."
Axel smiled, "Same to you." And with that, the emperor walked out of the temple, and down the long flight of stairs, heading back to his palace and the orderly chaos that was more than likely waiting for him.
After a morning of finding food; nuts, berries, fruits and the like, Sora stopped at a large, cup shaped leaf to drink rain water that had collected there.
The sun was high in the sky, and some fluffy white clouds floated past. The golden bird hopped away from the leaf and glided up into the sky. 'I'm so bored…' Sora tweeted sadly as he flapped his wings.
He had gone to Riku again and talked to him until the bat had hissed at him to let him sleep. The small bird was beginning to question his choice in picking a nocturnal creature to be his best friend. They never had time to hang out, and Riku was always annoyed when he was woken up before the sun set.
'Maybe that human is in the same place…' This thought brought hope to the little bird, and he began heading towards the red furred human's home, hoping as much as he could that the strange, tall man would be able to entertain him and make this accursed boredom go away.
It took a little while for him to make it to the large palace, but when he did, Sora landed on the branch he had yesterday and looked for the human. He wasn't sitting on the weird stone block like he had been.
Sora's wings and head drooped. There went his last chance of ridding his boredom…
"Little bird?" A warm, smooth voice called, and Sora's head snapped up in surprise. The human had come after all! The man had just walked around the corner and started smiling when he saw the little bird up in the trees.
"I had hoped to run into you today. Are you hungry?" The man lifted his arm up to reveal a half loaf of bread that was in his hand. "We can share. I swiped this from kitchen."
The human walked to his usual place on the bench and tore his bread before throwing it onto the ground for the bird, smiling. The bird perked up and flew to the man's feet and began eating the food given to him, chirping happily in thanks. The emperor laughed softly.
"Still with that pretty little voice of yours," he threw more bread to the bird before tearing a piece off for him to eat.
After a few moments of comfortable silence, the human spoke to him again, and Sora looked up at him as his rich smooth voice filled the space.
"Hmm… I think you need a name." The human had a wide and mischievous smile on his lips. Sora cocked his head and twitted softly in question. He already had a name…
Never the less, the human continued to speak, "It would have to be something that matches your feathers and eyes…" The man fell into silence as he thought.
"But my name is Sora!" The bird flapped his wings as he tried to explain, though it seemed the human thought he was dancing or something, and only smiled more at him.
Suddenly, the man's eyes lit up, and he smacked his hand into his fist, "I got it!" The red-furred man bent over to grin at him, "Roxas. Your name is Roxas."
CHAPTER TWO IS UP :D Moe'suckras! Lol, I plan on updating every sunday as long as i can, just letting you know. :)
Review responses:
randomscreamfes:
:P I will when I get to it, freaking munchken.
P5hng-Me-A'Wy:
*Spazz dance* I can't believe you reviewed my story! I love your stories! :D You wouldn't believe how happy I was when I saw you had reviewed! Thank you so much! And, yeah, my grammar and spelling are weird and I have a funny way of explaining things, but I hope you'll continue to enjoy this story :)
Dolly-D-Mushroom:
Thank you for reviewing! :D I'm so happy you liked it :) and, as for marrige, I'm sure I can bribe Mansex to be the priest. I just have to sell him my heart... I wonder if that's like selling your soul to the devil... Hmm... Eh, It would be worth it to see someone marry my story :D
Russiada:
LOOK! AN UPDATE! MARRY IT! MARRY IT! XD lol, Thank you for reviewing! :)
One last thank you to everyone who alerted and favorited, y'all are cool, but those who review are made of pure, 100% awesome sauce :D
Don't you wanna be made of awesome sauce? Review. Till next time people! :D