'White Lies'
Disclaimer: I'm in too good a mood to care that i don't own kingdom hearts :D so in your face copyright infringement laws!
xxx
The Fool:
The first thing that had really struck Axel about Roxas, was the fact that the blonde was such an accurate embodiment of an enigma. The second that the boy had seated himself gingerly next to Axel in that first maths class of the year, he'd pegged him as a frail and obediently spineless Junior, who hung out with one of the many preppy groups in school. Well, he was half right. Roxas's friends were a predictable assortment of mainstream idiots. There was a surfy looking one; a skateboarding one, a photographer, and then some. Each member of the group of friends essentially represented a different stereotype. It was a somewhat disturbing thought.
The point was that Roxas had proved himself to be the polar opposite of everything Axel had initially expected him to be, which in other words, meant the boy met all of Axel's likable criteria. Despite his small physique, Roxas could fend for himself and, like Axel, only did the minimal amount of homework that ensured a passing grade for their shared subject. As for his personality, Roxas swung back and forth between borderline friendly to a coldly anti-social emo. For many such a characteristic would deter, however Axel found it kind of appealing as it ensured unpredictability and broke up the regular slabs of monotony he often found himself lost in.
As a result of an overly-encouraging nudge of persuasion from Hayner, Axel had in fact taken his first tentative step towards instigating his wishes for a more intimate relationship with Roxas that very morning. In the form of a letter. Yes, as ridiculously smutty as it sounded, Axel had deliberately made his way to class very slowly the previous hour, to ensure that when he passed by Roxas's locker, every other student had already gone to class, leaving the redhead free to simply casually slide a piece of card clenched in his hand into the chink under Roxas's locker door. Piece of cake.
Although the task itself had been effectively completed without a hitch, that didn't stop Axel from nonstop fretting over the dire ramifications that could result if things didn't go smoothly. Matters only worsened in Maths, when Axel nearly gave himself away by his uncharacteristic lack of talking.
It's fine. Axel reassured himself, No one saw me put the card in his locker, and Hayner promised he wouldn't tell. Roxas doesn't know a thing. God, I can't believe I'm putting so much effort into 'swooning' him. Better be fucking worth it. Just breathe...
"Could you stop it?" Roxas said.
"What?" Axel felt his pulse increase drastically. Fuck. He figured out it was me. Axel had known he'd given too much away when his first card for Roxas had shown a smouldering rose on it. Roxas knew he loved fire... But then again, he didn't even know if Roxas had seen the letter yet...
"Just... acting all weird." The blonde scratched at his head, and Axel let out an inaudible sigh of relief, "It's annoying. Seriously, what the hell's bothering you?"
"Nothing." Axel instinctively responded, although his hasty response prompted that something was indeed worrying him.
Roxas snorted and sent him a knowing sideways look through his bangs with a slightly patronising smile in place, and Axel had to bite down hard on his lip to stop himself screaming bad bad things to the boy. The redhead had never wanted anything so much in his life. And the biggest appeal was the fact that Roxas was so modest and naive that he had absolutely no idea he had this power over Axel.
"Bullshit." The blonde laughed, "You're the guy who came into class one time and wouldn't stop whining about the inconvenience of a convenience store because he couldn't buy his favourite brand of cigarettes. It's pretty damn obvious you're thinking about something." Roxas leaned closer to inspect him, and Axel pulled away to ensure the amount of space between the two remained the same, "I'm just surprised you're not bitching on and on about it like you normally would. What's up with that?"
Axel put on his best smug expression and leant back into his chair, resting his feet on the desktop crossed at the ankles, trying his best to mimic his normal posture in class.
"That better?" He asked.
"Yeah. I was worried you were dying or something" Roxas said sarcastically, "considering how weird you've been the past couple of days."
Falling back into their playful banter by habit, Axel offhandedly remarked, "Sometimes I wonder whatever happened to that shy little blonde kid who used to sit next to me in Maths class..."
"He now knows you well enough to talk to you normally now. I've always been like this, so suck it up."
I know you well enough to talk to you... Axel felt ashamed as he tried to hide an elated grin that had succeeded in battling its way onto his face. Just because Roxas trusted him it didn't mean anything. They were only close friends - in fact not even close friends, because they only ever really talked in Maths class, even less out of class, and not at all out of school. But that how things were, right? However, if all the romantic advice Hayner was giving him was any implication, Axel would be changing all of that soon.
So it was unrequited for the time being? So what? Honestly, by the time Axel was through with winning over Roxas it'd be like Roxas had liked him all along. It didn't seem too difficult a mission, seeing as Axel had accomplished much more complex tasks.
xxx
When the bell for lunch rang, Axel practically floated out of the school halls in contentment. Finally, he could relax a little. Making his way out into the large grass courtyard, Axel ungracefully plopped himself down next to his oddly assorted group of miss-matched friends.
"How was maths?" Larxene immediately asked, waggling her eyebrows.
"Fine."
"How was Roxie?"
"Fine!" Axel snapped, "Goddamn." As things turned out, even Axel's friends didn't care much for his privacy.
"Sounds like something didn't go well." Riku smirked, ignoring a group of passing girls blush and giggle at the sight of the attractive silver-haired boy.
Demyx made a deliberately obvious show of yawning, "Not that this conversation isn't totally thrilling, guys, however... Can't we do something more interesting?"
Riku snorted, his eyes flicking to rest on his mulleted companion, "How about you study?"
Demyx dismissed the matter with a wave of his hand, "Why would I need to study?"
"Oh, I dunno," Riku said dryly, "Perhaps, because you only got 30% on your last English essay?"
"Welcome to the land of mediocrity." Larxene said flatly, before turning to look at Axel again, who had been abnormally quiet during this time. Crawling towards him on the grass, she continued to stare at him.
"Speaking of shitty things..." Demyx earned Riku's elbow to the gut at this, "Ow! What the fuck, Riku? Anyway, how's stuff going with you and your little blonde nerd?"
This caused Axel's head to snap up, "Roxas isn't a nerd."
"He's doing Senior maths even though he's a Junior." Demyx said, as though it were a secret, "Clearly he's a bit of an – ow!" Growling, Demyx let his sentence hang unfinished, rubbing his abdomen which had been again brutally shoved by Riku's elbow.
"He's just ... smart." Axel said, slightly distant, "That's a good thing."
Larxene heard the dazedness in her friend's voice as he spoke of the object of his affections. Sighing, she concernedly asked, "When are you going to do something about this, Axel? I mean, it's nice that you like this kid and all, but –"
"Oh, I did do something about it." Axel shrugged, as if he felt it wasn't important news, "I gave him something this morning." The redhead decided to not mention to his friends that he hadn't directly given his card to Roxas nor had actually signed his name on it. It's not like he was lying though, as he had at least done something.
Axel watched, slightly amused at he watched his friends' changing facial reactions to this apparently riveting news. Larxene's eyebrows rose to such heights that they threatened to invade her hairline and even though Riku's face remained calm – the surprised look that momentarily flickered in his eyes suggested otherwise... and Demyx, well Demyx was being a child, as the others had come to expect. Unfortunately.
"Ooh!" Demyx cooed, poking Axel in the cheek and earning himself a well-aimed whack over the back of the head, "Axel and Roxas sitting in a... maths classroom, f-u-c-k-i-n-g!"
"I'm so proud that you correctly spelled a seven letter word." Riku sighed, rolling his eyes.
The group of four remained lounging on the grass bickering amongst themselves as the minutes of lunchtime ticked past. Eventually, an hour later, each of the four departed, going separate directions in order to reach their distantly located lockers. Spontaneously whilst in a spur-of-the-moment mood, Axel decided to make a short inconvenient detour towards Roxas's locker, but drew to a halt when he spotted the blonde halfway down the hall already at his locker.
xxx
Axel wasn't a stalker. That was the truth. It was merely that curiosity got the best of him, and caused him to decide to spy on Roxas opening his locker in order to see what his reaction would be when discovering his first anonymous love letter.
Peering down the long hallway filled with students, Axel's superior height made it easy for him to distinguish Roxas by staring straight over the sea of bobbing heads. The blonde had opened his locker and had begun to grab the necessary text and notebooks required for his next class. When it seemed Roxas was about to shut his locker door without having made any sure sign of having found Axel's card, he stopped, mid-motion.
Roxas's hand made a sudden movement and heaved something out from under one of his folders, looking at it curiously. The blonde simply looked at the card, momentarily stunned until he had identified what the card was. His face then illustrated shock which had been preceded by denial, however this diminished after he read that the card was indeed intended for 'dear Roxas'. Roxas openly gagged and then disgustedly scrunched up the card and chucked it into the recyclable bin nearby. Whilst he looked back and forth across the crowded hallway, as if trying to figure who could have possibly left him such a card, Axel had already began to stride away and was out of sight.
With a smirk gracing his features, Axel was nothing if not further determined. A challenge? I'm up for that.
xxx
A/N:
HIGH SCHOOL IS FINISHED! EXAMS ARE O-V-E-R! History was my last one... yeeeeeaaaah. Take THAT American and Russian revolutions... *proceeds to go completely insane with excitement*
Haha... 'mulleted' isn't a word, but for fun's sake i made it one... :D
i've been writing a couple of one shots even though i know i should probably finish this story off... but well... whatever... so expect some one-shots soon! :D