9 months. 9 months this took me. It's an actual baby.
Anyway. Here it is. I edited the first chapter a little to make things flow better, but a 2nd chapter just bugged me. So here it is. There may be mistakes, and I will be editing when I can think of better ways to make this story happen.
But for now, here you go :3
Sora sighed and put down the phone. Riku had phoned him to tell him that Roxas had left with the vampire who'd bitten him the week before, Hayner and Kairi shouting loudly at one another in the background.
"He doesn't seem malicious," Riku had told him. "He just seemed to want to chew on Roxas' neck for a bit. He used the charm on all of us as well. Hayner spent a few minutes after he left talking nonsense because he was the closest to the vampire."
The brunet got to his feet and headed down towards the kitchen, where his mother was preparing something for dinner.
"That was Riku on the phone – Roxas is over at his house, but it's too close to sundown for him to leave now, so I'll go and fetch him in a bit," Sora told her.
"Okay, honey," she told him, reaching over to smooth his spiky hair down slightly. "Dinner will be ready in 15 minutes."
"Mama, you know I don't need to eat anymore," Sora reminded her. She smiled sadly at him, and he realised that he was doing the same.
"I know, baby," she murmured. "But I don't want you to feel left out because of what happened to you."
"Thanks, Mama. I'm gonna phone Kairi and see how she's doing. I'll be back in time for dinner."
"Okay, sweetheart," he hear her say as he left the room.
Sora flipped his phone open and dialled Roxas' number quickly. He lifted it to his ear in time to hear the first ring, and started up the stairs before his brother picked up.
"Hello?" Roxas said. He was slightly breathless, and a bare moment later he gasped.
"Oh god," Sora gasped. "You better not be having sex."
"Get off me you idiot," Roxas hissed at someone on his end of the phone. "No, I'm not. Axel's just being a jerk."
"Roxas," he said, but there was a sharp smacking sound from Roxas' end and a cry of pain from someone that definitely was not his brother. "Roxas," he said more firmly. He moved towards his bedroom but hovered in the doorway waiting for his brother to reply.
"What, Sora?"
"I told Mum you were going to be at Riku's until this evening, but I'm going to come get you, okay?" His tone provided no room for an argument, and he heard Roxas sigh.
"Fine, I'll tell you- get off of me you son of a bitch, I'm on the phone," he snapped suddenly. There was another slap in the background and Sora laughed slightly. "I'll send you a message with the address in a bit when we get there."
There was a sudden laugh from down the phone, but Sora ignored it. "You're still outside? Roxas, it's nearly sundown," Sora said, lowering his voice as he heard footsteps downstairs and his parent's muffled voices.
"Relax, Sora," Roxas mumbled back. "I've got Axel with me, he'll look after me."
"He's who I'm worried about."
"Look," Roxas said, then he hissed suddenly. Sora didn't want to know what was going on on the other end of the phone line. "How about we meet halfway between Axel's place and home, okay?" His words were melding together and his breathing was becoming frenetic. "I'll message you with a place, okay? I have to go-"
A long, smooth beep replaced his voice, and Sora sighed. He definitely didn't want to know what his brother was up to. He let the phone roll out of his hand and onto the bed, before he sank down onto the edge of it slowly, sighing.
His brother was officially an idiot.
Then again so was he. He was doing exactly the same thing with Riku. It was his fault Riku was ill at the moment – he hadn't realised just how much blood he'd taken until Riku had passed out beneath him. He had spent a good few minutes panicking, not knowing what to do before he realised that Riku was still breathing.
Still. Roxas was an idiot.
xxx
"You're such a jackass," Roxas hissed, throwing his phone at Axel. It nailed the vampire square in the middle of his forehead, but that didn't stop him from sniggering to himself. "That was my brother."
"You didn't have to answer it, you know," Axel snickered, watching Roxas stomp away from him with a fox-like grin plastered across his face. "You could have just let it go to voicemail or something."
"That would have been worse!" Roxas shouted back at him. He's managed to move a few feet before the vampire grabbed his wrist and steered him in the opposite direction.
"How, exactly, would that have been worse?" he purred as he aimed Roxas towards the slightly hidden door to his den.
"He would have come down here," Roxas snarled.
Axel opened the door and ushered Roxas in, before closing it behind him and making quick work of removing all of the extra clothes he had been wearing in order to go out in the sunlight.
"That's so adorable. Your big brother coming to your rescue," he snickered. "Coming to defend your honour. Poor little Roxas needs protecting."
Roxas scowled at him, but let Axel steer him through to the main room anyway, where he pushed the blond teen down onto the sofa and flitted away with a promise of being right back.
He leaned back into the sofa, reminded suddenly of his dreams and how he'd been to this place before but it seemed like so long ago and such a wonderful thing he was sure it had never happened. He could see a fine crack in the plaster of the ceiling, which he could vaguely remember gazing up at through half open eyes while trying to remember his own name.
The sound of shuffling feet had him looking away from the crack in the ceiling and around the room. A slate-haired vampire he could vaguely recall from his first 'visit' was leading a boy he knew was familiar from somewhere else by the wrist, pushing him down on the sofa, facing in Roxas' general direction, and sitting down beside him.
Without giving the blond boy a chance to settle, the vampire reached out and grasped his chin, forcing him to look at him.
"I can look for myself, you know," he whined, pushing the vampire's hand away. The slate haired man growled back, and immediately caught the human's chin again, forcing him to look at him once more, pulling him slightly closer.
"I like it this way," he growled. "Gives it more of a thrill."
From where he was sat, Roxas could see the blond's gaze sharpen as he looked at the vampire, before he sighed slightly and relaxed into the strong grasp on his chin.
"Just look at me," he purred. The change in his voice was noticeable – it had gone from a harsh, commanding tone to a smooth, velvet sound that sent a sudden shudder down Roxas' spine. The blond on the other sofa obviously noticed it as well, and his shoulders dropped noticeably and after a moment it seemed as though the only reason he was still sitting up was because of the hand grasping his chin. "That's good, right?"
The blond whimpered something that he didn't quite catch, and he could just see enough of the vampire's face to see him grinning slightly.
"Do you remember what we did last time?"
"Yes," the blond purred. He breathed in, then sighed heavily, more of the tension rolling out of his body. If Roxas didn't know any better he would have said that the other teen's body was devoid of bones by this point.
The blond blinked sluggishly, his eyes becoming less and less focused with each passing second.
"What did we do?" he asked. His grip on the blond's chin loosened, and he gently withdrew his hand until he was supporting the human with just one finger. "Tell me about what we did."
"We played a game," he murmured. For a moment he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again his face became almost entirely blank. As he sat there, Roxas felt a familiar sensation wash over him slowly – the charm. It wasn't the same as when he experienced it with Axel, he realised. This one was tinged with anticipation and made him feel the need to hold his breath as though something amazing was about to happen, as well as enforcing the feeling of calmness he'd been experiencing recently. He missed the start of what the other blond said, and instead just caught the tail end of his sentence.
"I had to ask for it. I needed it."
The vampire grinned more widely this time. "Needed what?"
"For you to kiss me," he murmured. "For you to bite me. For you to do anything you want to me."
Roxas sucked in a breath he didn't realise he needed as quietly as he could, watching intently as the vampire pushed the human's chin up enough to expose his neck, before he leaned in and did something that Roxas couldn't quite see but sounded incredible.
A hand on his shoulder startled him enough to blink and look around, a small noise something like a whine following it. He found himself right at the edge of his seat, looking up at Axel, who was wearing a rather amused grin.
"Alright, sunshine?"
For a few moments, Roxas blinked up at him, before nodding mutely.
"Like what you see?" he asked, leaning down and taking a seat on the sofa beside him. He reached out for the string on Roxas' hooded jumper, taking the end of it and undoing the knot.
Roxas's eyes flitted back over to where Zexion was licking spilled blood rather noisily from Demyx's neck.
"Yes," he admitted meekly.
Axel sank down beside him, one warm, slender hand running over the almost faded scars on his forearm from where he'd last bitten him, and he delighted in the way the kid squirmed against the sofa, biting his lip to keep from making any noise.
"Come here," Axel murmured, pushing Roxas' chin up with the very tip of his index finger. The kid's brilliantly blue eyes tracked down the vampire's arm, then back up again to his neck and finally up to his face.
"Kiss first," he purred, leaning down to hover less than an inch away from the blond, delighting in the way his tired eyes crossed and fought to stay open as he tried to keep sight of Axel's lips. He closed the short distance between them to nip gently at Roxas' lower lip, and was pleasantly surprised when his eyes slipped shut and he practically shuddered beneath him.
"Oh god," Roxas whispered, before he reopened his eyes slowly.
"Relax," the vampire murmured. "I haven't even done anything yet."
He leaned back down and kissed him gently. After a moment he pulled away and noted the extraordinary flush in his thrall's cheeks.
"Why are you blushing?"
Roxas opened his eyes, looking remarkably focussed for a moment.
"Why should I tell you?" he ground out, the colour on his cheeks becoming more pronounced.
"Either you can tell me yourself, or I can make you tell me," Axel purred, reaching out to push some stray hairs back from Roxas' forehead.
"Make me," he hissed, his eyes narrowing again, out of annoyance this time, rather than bliss.
"Of course," Axel smirked back. He stroked the smooth skin of Roxas' forehead gently with one thumb, and used the other hand to guide himself as he shuffled off the sofa so as he was kneeling in front of the boy. The kid was still glaring slightly at him, his beautiful blue eyes wary.
"Have you ever seen The Jungle Book?" Axel asked as he knelt in front of him, at eye level with him for once, not higher up as usual.
"Yeah, years ago. Why?" Roxas replied. He kept his eyes carefully on Axel's face, lest he make any sudden movements. He stiffened slightly as the redhead leaned forwards to claim another brief kiss, which again elicited a bright blush from the human.
"You can believe in me," Axel purred, bringing his hand down to lift Roxas' chin slightly so as they were looking eye to eye. "Trust in me."
It was cheesy, but it worked. The kid was remembering watching the film, the snake that had so easily captivated the boy and the panther, how easily they fell into his trap, and he was doing exactly the same thing to himself. The room around them ceased to exist, the whole world falling away save for Axel's overwhelmingly green eyes and his warm hand on Roxas' chin.
It really didn't help that from the other side of the room, a very satisfied Zexion was humming the song from the film as Demyx sat entranced beside him.
"Is it working?" Axel asked softly, tipping his head to one side. Roxas didn't answer, but followed suit so as he could carry on watching Axel's eyes carefully. "I guess so." He smirked and carried on tilting his head first one way, and then the next, trying not to laugh at the way the blond would just follow easily, without seeming to think about it.
"What are you thinking, Roxas?" he asked.
"Your eyes," was the reply. "So pretty."
Axel chuckled. "What made you so embarrassed earlier?"
That question caused the blankness in Roxas' eyes to dim a little, awareness filling the space quickly. Axel simply tilted his head the other way and thought to himself 'relax', a thought that was quickly impressed onto his thrall's mind, and the blankness returned to Roxas' eyes.
"That was my first kiss," he mumbled out, blinking dazedly.
Axel chuckled again. "Nothing to be embarrassed about, kid."
Roxas nodded vacantly. "Nothing to be embarrassed about," he repeated, his voice airy and distant.
'Kiss me', Axel thought to himself, and he leaned forwards to meet Roxas halfway.
xxx
Sora scowled down at the phone in his hand. No message from Roxas yet. It was well past sundown, and no word yet from his brother.
He flipped his phone open again and punched in his brother's number, pressed the call button and lifted the phone to his ear.
"Yeah?" a voice said after a few rings.
"Who's this?" Sora asked. It was most definitely not Roxas and whoever it was sounded slightly breathless.
"Axel. Why, who's this?"
"This is Sora. Put my brother on the phone, right now," he growled as best he could.
"I would, but I think he passed out a few minutes ago. I'm waiting for him to come round," Axel purred down the phone, and Sora could practically hear the charm in his voice.
"What did you do to him?" Sora hissed.
"Nothing he didn't ask for," Axel replied. "Listen, he'll come around soon enough, then I'll straighten him out and bring him home. It'll be fine, big brother."
"No, don't bring him here. I'll meet you somewhere – Mountain Park. Do you know it?"
"Of course. When?"
"No later than an hour from now. Do you understand?"
"Sheesh," Axel murmured. "So bossy. We'll be there, don't worry."
With a click, the call was disconnected, and Sora scowled at his phone. He really didn't like the guy.
He threw the phone down on the bed and lay back. He had half an hour to waste, since Mountain Park was only a 20 minute walk from their house, and he would rather not be standing around in the middle of a park at night by himself, regardless of whether or not he was already a vampire.
It was just plain spooky up there at night without anyone in it.
He sighed, and rolled sideways in order to sit up. He got to his feet and headed down the stairs to where his mother was curled up on the sofa watching the news, slightly spaced out as she watched the story.
"Hey, Mama," Sora murmured as he sat down on the sofa next to her. She broke out of her reverie and smiled at him, before she opened her arms and let him snuggled up next to him.
"You okay, baby?" she asked as she pressed a kiss onto the crown of his head. He nodded and curled up next to her. "Good."
For a while they stayed like that, Sora curled up beside his mother, letting her comb his hair with her fingers as she watched the headlines scroll across the television screen.
xxx
"Tell me more about vampires," Roxas asked as he pulled up his jeans.
"What would you like to know?" Axel responded.
"Well, the news makes it seem like vampires are all out for our blood, and given half a chance they'd go on a rampage and drain everyone's blood."
Axel snorted. "And destroy our food supply? Morons."
"Tell me something that most people don't know then."
"Something most people don't know," he murmured. "Alright. We can't enter a home without being invited."
Roxas made a sound like a game show buzzer, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Wrong answer. We know that already."
"Once we've been invited in, we can slip through the cracks around the door to get in, so we don't have to use the door."
The human's eyes widened. "Really? That's pretty cool."
"Yeah, so if you invite me into your house, I could turn up whenever I liked and just slip through the tiny gaps beneath your door and drink all of your blood," Axel said, grinning widely at him. Roxas scowled as he pulled his t-shirt over his head.
"Also, we can see our reflections. Anyone who says otherwise is just a moron."
"Oh. I thought you had an excuse for how stupid your hair looked, but I guess you look bad intentionally," Roxas said, smiling devilishly at him.
Axel snorted. "I look good and you know it."
"Tell me something else."
"Okay. Poppy seeds have a soporific effect on vampires. Make us all sleepy."
Roxas just raised an eyebrow at him. "You cannot be serious."
"It's true," Axel drawled as he turned Roxas in the direction of the door and nudged him forwards. "If you have any food with poppy seeds in it around the house, offer some to your dear vampire brother when you get the chance, make sure he get's a real good taste, and he'll be out like a light. Trust me."
"I don't know if I believe you or not. And besides, I don't think anyone in my family likes poppy seeds, you know."
"Fine. But it does work." He looked up at the clock on the wall. "We should get going. Don't want your knight in shining sneakers to get antsy with us if we're late. I kinda like my head attached, you know?"
Roxas scoffed, but headed towards the door anyway, picking up his bag and coat as they left.
xxx
They were late. How dare they be late?
Sora kicked the ground in frustration, scowling at the pebbles that overturned beneath his sneakers.
He'd been at the park for over 15 minutes now, and even though he had arrived there early, the two of them were still late. Ten minutes late.
He heard rustling in the bushes behind him and all of a sudden, Roxas came speeding out of the foliage towards him, breathless and pink in the face. He stumbled past Sora, his feet eventually catching on the slight step up to the bark-filled play area in the park. He squeaked out an expletive and was halfway to the floor already before a hand shot out to grab his collar.
"Careful, sunshine," Axel purred as he pulled Roxas back up to his feet. This earned him a swift slap on the arm from Roxas and a dirty glare from his brother. "You must be Sora."
"That's right. Axel, is it?" he asked. When Axel offered his hand, Sora blinked at it for a moment, before taking it and shaking it briefly.
"That's me," he drawled, giving a wide smile. Unlike Roxas who was bent double, trying to catch his breath, Axel was perfectly composed, standing up to his full (annoyingly tall) height beside the brothers, a faint smile on his thin lips.
"We need to talk," Sora told him sternly. He was surprised when Axel nodded.
"Let me just distract him," he said, nodding his head in Roxas' direction. For a moment Sora watched the strange man glare at the top of his brother's head, and after a moment, Roxas stood up and looked off in the other direction, searching for something in the distance.
"What was that?"
"Just making him see stars," Axel purred, and Sora felt distinctly uncomfortable.
"That's what I want to talk to you about. You really messed with him, you know."
"I know. It's kinda the point," Axel said, smirking widely.
"Why him, though?" Sora asked, keeping a careful eye on his brother, who was still gazing off into the distance absently. When he looked around, he found Axel doing the exact same thing.
"Come on, Sora. You can't tell me that some people out there smell so incredible that you want nothing more than to see if they taste just as good, right?" When Sora blushed, Axel grinned in an even more vulpine manner. "When you walk past them you have to keep from turning around and drinking them dry there and then. You know what I mean, right?"
Sora nodded. "I know. But why did you pick him? Aren't there other people that smell better than him out there?"
"He smells pretty amazing, and he tastes even better, so I'm pretty happy right now. Plus, he's really pretty," Axel said, giving Sora an incredibly cheesy grin.
"Do you really like him, or are you just messing with him?" Sora asked, watching the vampire's face carefully.
"I do like him. He's really feisty," Axel said, making strange motions with his hands that Sora didn't quite understand.
Sora sighed and looked back at his brother, who had since dropped to the floor to sit and look at the sky.
"You've really messed with his head you know. How did you do it so fast?"
Axel sputtered. "Fast? I was tracking him for days to get him used to the charm before I made a move, you know."
"Days? Wow, you are devoted," Sora mumbled. "Actually, that's kinda creepy. Have you been to our house?"
"Yeah, but only once. I couldn't exactly let him walk home alone in the state he was last week, could I? He was wasted," Axel crowed, remembering just how dazed his thrall had been – unable to properly formulate sentences or even keep his eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time. "I tracked him mostly at his school."
"Creep," Sora hissed.
For a few moments, they stood there, watching the sky.
"Come on, Sora," Axel said eventually. "You haven't asked me the important question."
Sora sighed, dropping his head, his hair rustling around his ears as he did so.
"Will you turn him?"
"There we go," Axel said, smiling widely. This one seemed vaguely genuine. "Yes. But not immediately. I like drinking from him too much to take it all at once, and he needs to have a life." Axel looked down at Sora carefully, taking in his uncomfortable expression. "I'm sorry for what happened to you, you know. It has to suck."
"Yeah, just a bit." He paused for a moment. "If you stopped doing this to him, would it go away, or would he be all jelly-brain around guys like us forever? I caught him watching me yesterday with this spaced out look on his face and it was really weird."
"If it doesn't happen regularly, he should go back to normal in about a month. I guess I hit him pretty hard with all the mind games, huh."
They both stood uncomfortably for a few moments longer before Sora clapped his hands together suddenly.
"Right. We should get home. Mama will be worried about us."
"Roxas," Axel called, and the blond turned towards them. "Lets get you home, okay?"
Roxas scowled. "I'm not a child, Axel. You don't need to mind me all the time, you know."
Axel laughed. "I know."
Sora smiled up at him, and together they set out for home.
xxx
They walked most of the way home in companionable silence, Sora a few steps ahead of Axel and Roxas. The vampire had his arm slung over Roxas' shoulders, but the blonde was trying to pretend like it wasn't there.
"My head feels like it's full of feathers," he said eventually. They were still 5 minutes from their house by foot, but their mother had called twice asking where they were.
"Want me to fix it?" Axel asked, looking down at him.
"S'kinda nice," he mumbled eventually. He stepped closer so as he was pressed up against Axel's torso, one of his hands coming up to grasp onto the vampire's thin sweater slightly.
"I think we should go it alone from here, Roxas," Sora said from in front of him. He looked up to see his brother's brilliantly blue eyes searching his face.
"Okay," he said, sighing as he stepped away from Axel.
"Hang on." The redhead reached out for Roxas's shoulder and turned him easily on the spot. "Look at me." It was difficult for him not to look – his eyes automatically sought out Axel's brilliantly green ones whenever he looked up into his face, and this time was no different. After a few seconds of staring up, instead of fatigue and complacency sinking over him, it began to lift, his mind becoming clearer than it had been all day.
"Thanks," he said eventually, before he turned out of his grasp and headed down the street to catch up with Sora.
xxx
"Oh my god, Roxas, stop sighing!" Sora snapped. "I swear to god, if you do it again I will tape your mouth shut."
Roxas scowled at him from his seat at his desk, ignoring the flickering light on the screen that meant Pence had sent him a new message. He'd been bugging Roxas all evening for information about vampires, and Roxas had been fobbing him off with excuses – I'm tired, I can't remember, I'm not sure.
"You're such a girl," Sora mumbled.
"This is coming from the boy reading Cosmo? Seriously?" Roxas deadpanned. It was Sora's turn to scowl back. "Leave me alone, Sora."
"I'm sorry, Mr Grumpy Gills. Just because you miss your boyfriend," he taunted. Roxas was seriously tempted to throw his laptop at is brother, but he had paid a lot of money for it, and Sora was just being awkward because he could be.
"If you went and visited your boyfriend every once in a while and left me well enough alone, we wouldn't have this problem."
"I missed this, you know? The friendly banter, the kind words," he said, sarcasm dripping from his words. "You've been such a space case recently, Rox."
Roxas wasn't listening. Instead he was typing out a message about poppy seeds to Pence on his laptop, and had pulled his headphones down over his ears to block his brother out.
He didn't hear Sora rambling away from his place on the bed, nor did he hear the tapping on the window – soft at first, but quickly rising in volume as the tapper grew irritated.
He was about to insist to Pence that the poppy seed story was true when there was a tap on his shoulder.
"What, Sora?" he ground out. After a moment he pulled his headphones off and turned around.
It was most definitely not Sora that had touched his shoulder. He was heading out the door with a whisper of "I'll give you two some privacy" and a sly wink.
"Hey," Axel said.
"Hi," Roxas breathed back. "What are you doing here?"
Axel shrugged, and took a step back to sit down on the end of Sora's bed. "I realised there were some things I needed to ask you."
After a moment of the two of them staring at each other, Roxas leaned forwards expectantly. "Like what?"
"Like, are you okay? I mean, with this?"
Roxas sat back. He'd never heard the vampire so hesitant before. And he'd never had such a clear head when they'd been talking to each other before either.
"If I wasn't, would I have gone back with you today?"
"Yes," was the immediate answer.
"I don't think you understand, Axel. If I hadn't wanted to see you again I wouldn't have come looking for you in the park. If I'd wanted to stay away I would have stayed out in the sunlight with my friends so as you couldn't get to me, then come home and not invited you in." Roxas eyed him carefully, watching as those brilliant green eyes widened ever so slightly. "And if I hadn't wanted to be around you, I would have made it very clear by now."
"Why, though? Why are you okay with it? I don't understand that," Axel mumbled.
"That's easy. I like you."
"That's no reason to let me drink your blood and pretty much eat you every time we meet though."
"You're an idiot," Roxas told him. "I like you. Like like."
"Oh," Axel said. Then, his eyes widened a little further. "Oh!"
"Do you get it?" The vampire nodded. "Good. I don't just let anyone kiss me, you know."
"I could tell," Axel purred, waggling his eyebrows at the human. "One more que-"
"If you don't kiss me within the next five seconds, I'm revoking your invitation," Roxas growled.
Axel was more than happy to oblige.
xxx
Axel snickered. "Watch this."
He headed over to the vaguely kitchen-like area of the room, reaching up into the cupboard to grab a container that he opened quickly, scooped up some of the contents, then shut back in the cupboard quickly. Axel then shuffled across the room, his hand clasped shut tight, beckoning Roxas closer as he approached Zexion.
He was sitting on another sofa with a book in one hand, the other drifting lazily through Demyx's hair. The blond was sleeping soundly, his head resting on Zexion's lap.
Axel got a little closer before he reached down to flick Zexion on the forehead, startling him into looking up from his book. He then quickly held out the hand with the biscuits to Zexion who first looked at it quizzically, then reached out to take one of the flat biscuits from Axel.
"Thanks," he said, popping the whole biscuit into his mouth and turning back to his book. He munched on the biscuit for a few moments, before he looked up at Axel quizzically.
"What?" he asked.
Axel smiled and waited. As the two of them watched, Zexion's grip on his book loosened and it dropped to the floor. After a moment or two, he yawned widely, then leaned back in the seat, suddenly fast asleep.
"Whoa," Roxas said. "How long does that last for?"
"Oh, about 20 minutes. Lets draw on him."
And, after waking Demyx, they did just that.
That bit at the end...sorry for that -.-