Sorry, this one is shorter than usual, but, hey, at least it didn't take me a month again, or something like that. And, yeah, I hear you guys on the lack of Sora/Roxas, I know, I'm getting there. It should be appearant in this chapter that there is something between the two. And, by the way, I hope you guys like Seifer/Hayner. I'm also considering adding some Demyx/Zexion, but it all depends how the story writes itself from here on. I may or may not write more from Axel's view, and if I do then I'll add Demyx/Zexion.
The song is "Fairytale" by Saturday Night At The Apollo. I hope you guys like this chapter, and thanks for all the reviews! Love you guys!
5 :: Caged
"Take a breath of the heavy air,
"And try my best to just pretend there's no one there."
Seifer was glaring at him again, Hayner could feel it, but he would be damned if he got up and did anything about it. That would be submitting, it would be admitting that Seifer got to him, that he was affected by the idiotic-ape-wannabe-gangster-man. So he just continued to eat his hamburger with a force that could be, and was, mistaken for violence.
Olette and Pence had concern clearly painted onto their faces, worried that Roxas' absence from their group would cause Seifer and Hayner to begin to be at each other throats even more, with threats of dancing on each other's grave. And they were correct to be concerned. So far, they had already gotten into two physical fights, and it had only been a couple days.
Olette winced when she thought for how long Roxas may be gone. A week? A month? A year? All were much too long to be soon enough.
Pence was attempting to ignore the situation, like maybe if he pretended that Seifer wasn't sitting in the booth behind Hayner, glaring at the back of his head, then maybe he really would just disappear. A quick glance up told him he was out of luck, though.
Rai and Fuu shifted in their seat uncomfortably, waiting for the first person to explode. They thought it would be Hayner, any second now. But Fuu was surprised, the guy was holding in his temper more than usual, and better than he had in years. Rai just thought maybe he hadn't noticed yet.
The Neanderthal turned around and knocked the blonde on the back of the head, quickly facing forward again before Hayner spun around and glared at Seifer, "WHAT the HELL?!"
Seifer burst out laughing, clearly, Hayner thought, mocking him. He wasn't about to just put up with that. He threw himself out of his seat and grabbed his coke, throwing it over the beanie-wearing teen's head. Seifer looked murderous, but Hayner was just taking the moment in basking in the glory of getting to the guy.
Then Seifer tackled him to the ground and another fight ensued. Olette noted with some interest that, this time, Roxas was not mentioned once. She shrugged it off, though. Instead, she worked on eating as much of her food as she could before the manager of the restaurant came and kicked all of them out because of the guys who couldn't keep their anger and libidos in check.
Sure enough, the manager showed in less than a couple minutes, anger written across his face, he looked like he was going to shoot lasers from his eyes and fry them all. Hey, maybe he was, Pence thought, it would explain why the food tasted like crap. The man had super-deep-frying vision, and their food was really his victims.
… Okay, so someone needs to read less comic books.
They were all kicked out, parting sentences from the manager being, "Fight somewhere off my property!"
Olette sighed to herself and looked to Rai and Fuu, the two looked clueless about what to do. Seifer and Hayner were clearly about ready to do something dumber than usual, and this was the fifth restaurant they were kicked out of because of their fighting in the past two months. They were kicked out of a different one yesterday, and this one today. Clearly, Roxas' absence was the cause of a rise in hostility, but not the reason to blame.
Over the past year, the two have been able to deal with each other less and less. Sure, they never got along as kids, so she had just assumed that was the same when they became teens. But then there was the year when they mostly just ignored each other. And then, around the same time Hayner told her that he had a crush on Roxas, Seifer became friends with Roxas.
Well, Hayner insisted the reason he hated Seifer was because he wanted Roxas, but he put up with him because Roxas was friends with him. Although, looking back, they never were as bad as they were now.
Maybe they just couldn't do it anymore? It just didn't seem that was all, it just didn't seem like the full story, but Olette, honestly, was afraid to ask. With Roxas gone, their proverbial glue was missing too, and she was afraid her questioning would make Hayner angry with her, too.
She had to keep her, Hayner and Pence together, at least. Roxas had enough to deal with as it was.
Hayner and Seifer were still glaring at each other, not moving. A bruise was forming on Hayner's cheek, but Seifer's lip was clearly swelling. Tense, awkward moments passed, neither moved. Then a strange flicker went through Seifer's gaze, and Hayner felt his chest constrict for a moment. His breath caught, and his glare dropped.
Then they were back to glaring, just as quickly, Seifer turned on his heel, stalking down the street angrily, leaving Fuu and Rai to trail after him obediently. Hayner huffed, crossing his arms behind his head and began heading in the opposite direction, gaze hard as it focused on the different cracks in the sidewalk.
The air was changed, it was still tense, but it had become heavy, it had become… Something had just happened, those two had just done something. Maybe they hadn't done anything physically, or even verbally, but for a moment, just that single moment, everything had changed.
Olette stared at Hayner with even more concern now, wonder just what that "everything" was.
"I took a chance,
And I'll try my best to blow it."
Sora grumbled to himself, running a hand through his hair. He spent half the night trying to find Roxas, but he came up with nothing, except for that ditz, Rikku, said that she saw him eat with Kairi and Naminé. Now that was impossible, Kairi is a bitch, she would never eat with a poor person, he knew this had to be true, so that meant Rikku was a dumbass who wouldn't be able to see a serial killer if he was standing in front of her with a knife.
This also meant that Sora didn't get any sleep last night and was extremely tired, angry, and scared. He desperately hoped that Roxas didn't do anything his father told him to make sure Roxas didn't do. Or else… Well, Sora may just cry.
Running up to the blonde's room, he began pounding on the door, crossing his arms impatiently as he waited for an answer. After about a minute, he began banging on it again, he knew it was early, he knew the guy was probably sleeping, he knew he probably woke up Reno and Riku, but he didn't particularly care. This was for the sake of Roxas not becoming homeless.
The door swung open to display a very disheveled blonde, he obviously was too tired from his tramping around last night to have changed out of his clothes. Little did Sora know, Roxas had been eating with Kairi and Naminé, and had fallen asleep on the couch in his room after looking through his photo album.
The brunette pushed him back into the room, and then quickly shut the door behind them, "Where were you?! Never leave this house again! You have to stay inside, unless, of course, I or Axel accompany you, but you can not just run out randomly! You did not talk to anyone, did you? Please, tell me you did not meet anyone!"
Roxas blinked slowly, brain running a bit slow at the moment, having just woken up. He took in the bags under Sora's eyes, and then remembered something. Don't they have school or something? Isn't it Monday?
His eyes widened slightly, "Crap! We have school!" Sora flinched at the suddenness of the shout, and then stared as Roxas began looking around the room in slight panic, checking the clock to see that it was an hour before school started.
"You are not going."
Roxas froze and stared back at him, "Huh?"
Sora frowned to himself, feeling his stomach turn as he knew he had to explain to Roxas his new imprisonment, "My father does not wish for you to leave this house, unless at night with Axel or I. You may go anywhere you wish on our property, but you may not leave. Do not talk to anyone outside, do not answer the phone, and when we have guests, you must stay in your room and out of sight. If you ever come across anyone outside, do not tell them you are associated with our family-"
Roxas' jaw had dropped, "Are you serious?"
Sora gulped, and looked down, ashamed, "Yes, I'm sorry. But he would have kicked you out otherwise, and I-"
"I'm not allowed to leave? Being kicked out would have been better! At least then I could go home! But now I'm trapped here?!" Sora flinched as Roxas yelled, walking over to his bed and throwing himself on top.
His sketchbook and Vida's Moogle fell off, but Roxas only reached back down for Moogle. He held the doll in front of him and gave it a searching gaze, Sora watching him nervously from across the room. Biting his lip, he felt like his heart just plummeted into his intestines, bypassing the stomach completely.
Sora's gaze was fighting to break away from Roxas' face, from watching the lightning that traveled through the teen's eyes and express the amount of anger he felt. In the sunlight, on the bed, his golden hair seemed to glow slightly, and Sora suddenly had a bad taste in his mouth, the kind of taste that he recognized as guilt.
He caged him.
The brunette gulped, the back of his eyes felt a sharp prick, but he ignored it, much too used to suppressing tears from his resolution to not cry in front of his parents. They found it to be wrong to show weakness or vulnerability in front of others, of course. Typical of their personalities, was it not?
Would Roxas cry in front of him?
Roxas was much different than his parents, much different than the other people at school. But then again, Roxas wasn't rich, so maybe that was why? How does that work? Money determines everything about you? It doesn't make sense, but it does in a certain way. Roxas was free for most of his life because he didn't have money, but Sora had money so he was caged.
And now that Roxas was living with the rich, he was being caged just like them, and Sora had the honors of locking the cell's bars right in front of the blonde.
Why was it him who had to do this? Why couldn't his father have stuck around and carry out the sentence he ordered the blonde? Why was it that Sora had to do this for them? Be the bad guy when he tried to be the good guy?
Looking up, Sora childishly hoped that the look in his eyes would convey the message, "It was my father, not me," but Roxas wasn't even looking at him. The blonde had dragged the doll towards himself, burying his face into the small thing. A small part of Sora's heart would remember the scene forever, finding it much too painful to forget, with the other parts all did a flip at the sight of the other teen being so…
He gulped, shifting from foot to foot, and worried his lip, "You… I will take you out at night? Often, I swear it."
Roxas rolled over, facing Sora with a scathing gaze, "I wanna talk to my uncle."
Sora looked down in shame once again, "My father asked for me not to allow you-"
Roxas sat up, anger clear, "He can't do that! You're making me a hostage! It's against the law!"
"You would be homeless otherwise!"
"I would rather be homeless!"
Sora brought his hands up to his forehead, internally whining to himself on how he had gotten into this situation, "I am sorry, I really am. But…"
Roxas glared, "But-what?"
Sora turned to walk out the door, muttering another apology as he gently shut it behind him. Leaving Roxas to just glare after him.
He understood what had happened, he understood it was probably Sora's father who made this decision, but…
He was so angry, so frustrated, so… ready to cry. He threw his face back into Moogle's stomach, choking down a weak sound from his throat.
He knew it was wrong to take this out on Sora, he knew Sora didn't want to make him upset, he could tell just by looking at the guy that he wasn't that type of person. But he needed to get this anger out, he needed to blame someone, he needed…
He needed to talk to someone, he needed to get this out, to just let it all vent out.
Where could he do that though? He can't call back home. What would they say? Hayner and Seifer would probably freak out and it would just cause more issues. And it's not like he had anywhere to go here…
He jumped out of bed and ran to his closet, throwing off his clothes to quickly re-dress, then searched the floor for where he had dumped his shoes. Finding them under the coach, he pulled them on and grabbed his skateboard.
Kairi and Naminé had invited him over yesterday, and even though he guessed they would be going to school now, maybe he could just wait around for them or something? Hopefully, he would catch them before they left…
"Shut them out again, and I'm trying not to miss you,
"I'm busy looking for another place to run to."
Axel shoved the last couple shirts into his bag, staring around the room with a blank expression. He had fond memories of this room, but he couldn't call it home. He didn't get the feeling people would call "home" whenever he walked in, if anything, he felt like he had to leave as soon as possible.
Throwing his door open, he stalked out, nodding to Cloud as he passed him in the hall. The blonde looked up in surprise, halting in silence as he stared after the redhead. Axel didn't stop as Cloud watched him stomp down the stairs, anger clear in his body movements. Sora rounded the corner, his eyes flooded with some painful emotion only to widen in surprise at seeing Axel.
"Axel? Axe! Where are you going?"
The redhead didn't stop, "Demyx's! Tell Dad I'm not coming back! That bastard won't have to worry about my mouth anymore, alright?"
Sora's eyes were widened to an impossible size, making Cloud wince at the sight of the clear heartbreak they unveiled, "What? You-You are leaving? Axel! Why? What happened! Wait a second!"
The redhead didn't reply, sweeping out the front door with surprising grace for the amount of anger his steps held, he was down the front steps in seconds, taking them two at a time. Marching towards his car parked on the side of the house with the others, in a garage.
He knew what he was doing. His father had made it obvious what he wanted last night, and who was Axel to get in his way? If that guy wanted to rot from the inside out, if he wanted Axel to get out of his way, if he wanted to destroy his life by destroying his family's, then Axel would do the only thing he could.
He would back off. Who was he to interfere? He wasn't really even part of the family anyways, no one identified him as being a Taylor anymore, they just called him Axel.
Sora wouldn't be taken down though, he wouldn't let that man destroy Sora's life, Axel just had to wait a little while, and then he could take his brother away from those people. He wouldn't be able to deal with himself if Sora turned out like him, the brunette was too good of a person.
He would come back for Sora soon, he just had to make a couple of arrangements first.
As for that Roxas kid, he wants to go home anyways. Maybe Axel could get enough money to send him back, tickets back to Hollow Bastion were pretty cheap anyways.
On the other side of the mansion, Roxas heard the yelling in the foyer, but couldn't quite make it out. Didn't matter, it just provided a good distraction for him to sneak out. He slipped through the back door, jogging down the patio and into the garden. There was probably a fence in the back he could jump, and then he could skate to Kairi and Naminé's house.
Well into the forest-like garden, Roxas found himself quite lost for a couple minutes. Luckily, he was able to spot the fence by the glimmer of sunlight that bounced off it. He ran up to it and looked up.
It stretched up quite a bit, there was no way he could climb it, he didn't have that kind of upper-body strength, as much as he hates to admit it. But maybe he could climb a tree and get over?
There was a tree just a couple feet away, making Roxas run over to it, he slipped his skateboard through two of the iron bars and began wrapping his arms around one of the branches. Pulling himself up, he began climbing on top of the branch. He could feel his heart pounding sharply against his chest, a slight fear of falling creeping into his nerves.
There was nothing to worry about, though, he took the branches slowly and soon found himself sitting on top of the fence, looking down and wondering if it was really a smart idea to do this. Sora did say, after all, that he wasn't allowed to leave. True, Roxas hated such a rule, but he didn't want Sora to get in trouble for something he did.
Then again, could Sora honestly expect him to just listen to whatever he said? Roxas couldn't believe that Sora would tell him those things, to trap him in such a place.
He began sliding to the ground, holding tightly to the bars, reaching the bottom, he wiped the moss off his hands onto his pants, leaving green stains on them, but he didn't particularly care at the moment. His heart was still hammering a little from the whole height thing.
He never did like those.
He quickly grabbed his board and began running towards the road, jumping onto the concrete sidewalk with much enthusiasm. He hated nature sometimes, bugs, dirt, all that crap was horrible. Why would anyone choose it over the city?
He shook the thought off and threw his board on the sidewalk, taking a glance around to confirm that he was just around the corner from the Taylor's house. He stepped onto the board and began to fly down the street when a sudden honk behind him nearly made him fall off.
He stopped and spun around to see Axel smirking at him through the windshield of a black Corvette, the top down, Axel just yelled to him, "Where you headed?"
Roxas leaned back onto his board nervously, thinking Axel was there to bring him back. But how would he know?
"No where…"
Axel raised an eyebrow, "Really? Doesn't look like that, need a lift?"
His eyes widened and he nodded immediately. What other chance would he ever have to be in a Corvette? No one in Bastion would have this car! It was way too expensive and fancy, bringing it into Bastion would be like the car's death sentence.
He ran over and jumped in, holding his board in his lap as he immediately ran his eyes over the interior in awe. Axel chuckled at him, smirking, "Cute, kid. So where ya headed."
Roxas' eyes widened in surprise. Did Axel just call him cute? Ew, "Um, 113 Hearts Avenue, uh, some friends of mine live there."
Axel's eyebrows shot straight up, "You have friends here? Didn't mention them before."
Roxas just nodded, looking out at nature running by in a flash, relieved that Axel wasn't bringing him back. The car was so smooth, everything about the ride was elegant, it put the teen in awe of it even though he had never actually been that into cars.
He never noticed the glances Axel would continuously flash him, or how the smirk on the other's face widened as he watched Roxas admire his car, "So," The blonde jumped and directed his attention back to the redhead, "What are you doing? Sneaking out?"
The blonde tensed, "I'm not just gonna sit in there all day! You can't really expect-"
He had started laughing, making Roxas bristle in anger. Why the hell was he laughing? This was serious!
"Relax Blondie," Roxas rolled his eyes at the nickname, "Hey, how about this? I drop you off if-"
"How about you just drop me off?"
Roxas glared at the redhead, really not in the mood for putting up with the guy. Axel frowned back at him, "Hey, I said chill, geez, can't take a fucking joke man?"
The blonde just turned his attention back to watching nature fly by, wishing it was concrete and iron buildings instead. He bit his lip, wondering when he could finally go back home, how long he would have to hang around with the Taylors for.
It wasn't that he disliked Sora and Axel, just their father. Who the hell did that guy think he was? But Axel wasn't anything like him, he was much more relaxed. And Sora…
There was just something about the guy, how he would be so friendly and how hard he worked. He was always working though, but that time, when he had actually gotten the chance to really talk to him, Sora had turned out different than how he first thought.
And not to mention those eyes, it was like he was watching the ocean in them. And they had seemed so vibrant when he had blushed after Roxas mentioned his Biology class, it was so…
His eyes widened in shock, no, he was not going down this train of thought. He had enough issues here as it is, he couldn't start crushing on a guy that was obviously straight, no way.
The car came to a stop, making Roxas quickly look up to see a mansion about the same size as Sora's. Of course, everyone here is rich, what did you expect? He turned to see Axel looking at him skeptically, "You friends with the Howards?"
"Who?"
"Kairi Howards, Sora's fiancé."
Roxas felt his heart cave in on itself, and he knew it was too late to go back now.
"To make amends,
When it's way too late to fix this."
Sora stared at the place where his brother had stood just seconds ago, unsure of what he was supposed to do. Of what he was supposed to say. Of what was expected from him. What his parents expected from him. And he came up with nothing, because in his parent's minds, Axel didn't exist anymore, Axel wasn't a part of the family anymore, and it was expected Sora play the same game as them, too.
But he didn't want to, Axel was his older brother, he loved him. Was he supposed to just let him walk out like this? Was he suppose to chase after him and beg for him to stay? What was he suppose to do without previous direction? What was he suppose to do in this situation?
He gulped the rock in his throat down, feeling the tears prickle closer to his eyes. He fell against the wall behind him and slid down to the floor, shock setting in for a bit. His mind spun in confusion, wondering why this happened, how it had come about, but knowing exactly the answer.
He threw himself off the floor, running down the hall towards Roxas' room. His parents were going to do the same thing to him, Roxas would leave too, and Sora couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let things repeat themselves in such a way. Roxas couldn't leave him, too.
He threw the door open without knocking, eyes widening in dead realization that the room was empty.
Roxas had snuck out. Like Axel. But was Roxas going to come back? Would Sora ever have the chance to fix things? Would Roxas give him another chance?
Stumbling over to the bed, he fell onto the soft covers, recognizing a vague unfamiliar scent and assumed it was Roxas. He spotted that strange doll Roxas had laying on the pillow, he wrapped it in his arms and curled up, squinting his eyes shut as the sunlight fell over him from the window, making him tear.
Or was it something else that was doing that? Either way, he couldn't, and didn't really want to stop them. He was tired of it, of all of it.
His parents.
Axel.
Himself.
All he wanted was for Roxas to not hate him, to not leave him like Axel. He didn't want to watch the blonde just walk out the door like his brother, he didn't want to be abandoned here.
He couldn't let himself be abandoned here, he wouldn't.
If that meant he had to stop living up to his parent's greatest expectations, then so be it. He would become like Axel if he had to, he would walk out if he had to.
But he would take Roxas with him, because no one deserved to be caged here.
He rolled over, letting his eyes run across the room until the settled on the album on the coffee table. He knew it was wrong to snoop, and he really didn't know what he was feeling at the moment, but he wanted to see it.
He wanted to see Roxas, he wasn't going to question it.
He crossed the room, slumping onto the couch and flipping the old leather book open without giving the Russian title a second glance.
The pages were filled with pictures of a man and woman he didn't know, but judging by the man's golden blonde hair, and the woman's baby blue eyes, Sora assumed they were Roxas' parents. They looked happy together, very happy.
Then came a few pictures of Roxas as a baby with them, and then a couple pages of Roxas growing up. He was cute, as far as little kids go, adorable if you were to compare him to any other kid for sure. There was something about those baby blues…
Sora flipped through the pages silently, feeling a smile tug onto his lips as he looked at them. Suddenly, Roxas was gone. It was just the man and woman in different places again, smiling and looking happy once again.
The brunette quickly flipped through those, looking for Roxas in the pages again, only to suddenly come across a picture of a different family. The father was tanned with some vibrant orange hair that shocked Sora slightly, but it seemed natural as the sleepy child in the pale mother's arms looked just like a younger version of him.
There was a warmth in the picture, leaving Sora with a fist clutching his heart as he missed something he had never actually experienced. A glance down at the bottom of the page made his eyes catch the sight of a label on the bottom.
Home.
What did that even mean anymore?
"And rock bottom isn't very far,"
'Cause all they are, are broken dreams and shattered hearts."