I know I said I'd try to get to this every week, and for a month passing I am incredibly sorry. I would like to thank all you lovelylovely reviwers who made my day saying kind words and those who favorited/put this on alert. It was pretty great.
Summer is drawing to an end. Most would say writing is going to slow down. Not for me it's not! Since I am not going to be going to school this year, I will have plenty of free time to write for you guises!
If you go on my profile there's a link to Tumblr. It's my writing blog. There's little excerpts from my stories that I am writing. So if you guises want you can go check that out!
A little bit about this chapter: It's a bit longer than the other ones. I'm trying to get them a bit longer each time. (I dunno how that'll work but, we'll see.) Also. There's a lot more Roxas and a lot less Axel in this chapter. For that I apologize and will hopefully make up for it next chapter!
An annoying buzzing sound roused Roxas from his slumber. He opened his eyes slowly and waited for his surrounding to come into focus. Once they did he realized that he had once again fallen asleep on the couch in the living room. Sighing he, he picked up the phone that had woken up a flipped open, "What?" he muttered, not really caring if he sounded rude.
"You fell asleep on the couch again, didn't you?" the voice asked, though it sounded like it already knew the answer.
"Again, I repeat my question, what Cloud?" the blonde asked yawning and ruffling his hair.
There was a dry chuckle from the other line, "Have you heard anything from Father?"
"If there was the possibility of him ever contacting me, I highly doubt that I would have answered."
"Mom has bee asking about him." Cloud said with a sigh.
Roxas pinched the bridge of his nose. 'Mom..' "Tell her he's on another business trip. That ought to hold her over. I take it she's not getting any better?"
"Not a bit. If Sora asks-"
"I know what to do." Roxas leaned back on the couch. He always thought when you got older, your previous life got easier. It only seemed like it was getting even more complicated. In the back of his mind that ever present need laid, waiting to be used. Shaking it off, he glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearing 4 o'clock. "I need to get a shower, I have to go babysit."
"Alright. Tell me how your tests turn out."
"Will do. Tell Mom I said Hi and that I love her." Cloud said to do the same for Sora before they said their good-byes and ended the conversation.
Taking a deep breath, Roxas dropped his phone onto the table then walked to his room. He grabbed a random pair of pants, boxers and t-shirt from his dresser and a mix CD off his desk before he walked out to the bathroom. The blonde placed the articles of clothing on the sink counter while he loaded the CD into the small black CD player that was sitting there.
The brothers had a habit off listening to music in the shower. It helped once relax and also alert the other that someone was actually in the shower. (There had been a few mishaps in the past of one not realizing the other was in the shower.) Once he pressed play Breaking Benjamin's Unknown Solider began to blast though the speakers while he fixed the water temperature.
When the water was right, Roxas stripped and stepped into the tub and began his shower routine. His thoughts drifted to things he had to do. 'Babysitting today, Psych paper due tomorrow morning, English lecture that afternoon, movie night with Sora and Wednesday I have my internship at the High School.' He rinsed the soap from his body and turned the water off as he finished his shower.
Roxas stepped out of the shower and reached for the towel hanging on the railing. He dried off, got dressed and added a bit of gel to keep his hair in it's spiky condition. Stepping back into the living room, he picked up his laptop back from the floor and packed it up, along with a notebook and a schoolbook. The blonde picked up the pad of sticky notes from the kitchen counter and wrote a note for Sora before heading down two flights of stairs to a door with the numbers 23 in gold.
After he knocked, the door opened up to show the ginger-haired woman from the park. She was pulling her shoulder length hair into a pony tail and gave a thankful smile, "Roxas, thank you go much for coming!" she said.
"It's not a problem Ms. Allison." he said with a kind smile as she led him into the apartment that was pretty similar to his own. "How's it going Kevin?" he asked walking into the living room where the young boy sat watching TV.
"Roxas!" he shouted, launching himself at the blonde who picked him up in stride and sat him on his hip. "You know you aren't as light as you use to be."
"That's because I'm becoming a big boy!" the ginger said grinning.
"Indeed you are." He responded sitting the boy down.
"Mark should be home around, but there's always the chance his flight is delayed." Ms. Allison said tying her tennis shoes and standing up. "Love you honey." She told her son kissing the top of his head. Roxas felt a hallow ache in his chest as he watched the to of them. "Be good for Roxas now!" she called before walking out the door.
"Alright, so what do you want to do?" the blonde asked, shaking himself out of the slump he had almost gotten himself into as he sat on the couch beside Kevin.
"Tell me when of your stories! I loves them!" he said grinning.
Roxas smiled and thought for a minute. "I think I have the perfect story. It's a princesses story, but it's one of my favorites."
"Is the princess pretty?" the ginger asked.
Roxas laughed. "She is very." He then went into telling the young boy the story of Rapunzel. Kevin sat on the couch entranced by the story. "And the both lived happily ever after."
"That was great!" the little boy said clapping, "I'm gonna find me a princess and live happily ever after! What about you? Are you going to live happily ever after Roxas?"
The blonde gave a small smile, "If I find the right person, I just might. Why don't we head to the park?" he asked changing the subject. As much as Roxas loved fairy tales, he was a realist. Happily ever afters were for the story books, not in real life.
"Yay! Park!" Kevin shouted jumping up and then ran to get his shoes. Roxas picked his schoolbook from his bag and walked to the kitchen to leave a note for Kevin's father (just in case he got home early). "I'm ready!" he shouted running to the door, the blonde following behind him as the left and walked to the park.
At the park, Kevin went running straight for the Jungle Gym while Roxas sat at his usual picnic table. He opened his book to the place he was having a bit of trouble with and began to re-read it. 'I don't get why I'm not understanding this concept. It's psychology, you've been doing this since you were twelve.'
"Seems like every time I see you, you have some sort of schoolbook with you." a voice said with a chuckle.
Roxas looked up to see Axel smirking down at him. With a smile himself, he slid over to invite the redhead to sit down. "Well, you've got to keep going over something until you understand it." When the singer raised an eyebrow, The blonde asked, "Do you always sing a song right the first time?"
Axel snorted, "Hell no-Ow!" he shouted rubbing the back of his head that Roxas had just smacked.
"Don't cuss. There are kids here." he explained gesturing to the kinds playing. The redhead glared as he went on talking, "So you go over a song until you sing it right. When I don't understand a concept, I go over it until I understand it."
"You have this odd way of relating my singing to your schooling." Axel commented to which Roxas shrugged and smiled. "So, did you enjoy the songs I told you to listen to last night?"
"I did. You have a pretty good voice."
"Why thank you." Axel said with a cocky smirk.
"I was only stating a fact." the blonde said, deflating the redhead's ego. Before he could comment, Roxas glanced at his watch and stood up, "I must have been studying longer then I thought." He stood up. "It was nice to see you again, but I've got to go." He looked out to the Jungle Gym, "Kevin! It's time to go!"
The blonde met the ginger child half way before turning back to Axel, "Bye!" he called with a two-finger salute. He looked back to Kevin, "Do you have fun?"
"Yep! Me and the other kids were playing ninja and I won! They made me King of the Ninjas! I can't wait to tell Daddy!" he said excitedly. Roxas gave a small smile and ruffled his hair as a familiar ache tried to settle in his chest as they walked back to the apartment.
Kevin's dad was already there. The brunette man was still in his business attire, but his tie was loose around his neck, his coat laying across the arm of the couch and the sleeves of his shirt unbuttoned and rolled up. He picked up his son who came running at him and hugged him close. Putting Kevin down who went running off, he walked to Roxas, "Thank you so much for watching him."
"It's not a problem Mr. Mark." The blonde said picking his bag up and sitting his book in it.
"Here you go, for your troubles." the brunette man said handing him a few folded bills.
"You don't have to. It really wasn't a problem. I love watching Kevin." he said, not wanting to take the money. At the man's stern, yet caring face, he took the money and pocketed it before he called a good-bye to Kevin and went back to his own apartment.
Walking in, he was assaulted by rap music blasting through the speakers of the stereo system. (Honestly, the blonde didn't understand how someone hadn't called the landlord.) He covered his ears, attempting to drown out the sound as he walked over to the stereo and stopped the CD that was playing. "You are not polluting my ears with that music, nor are you making my ears bleed with it."
Sora rolled his eyes with a sigh as he continued to type his paper he was working on while Roxas shook his head and walked to his room.
Opening the door to the restaurant, Axel flinched at noise that was there. He quickly spotted Marly's hair and made his way to the very back of the building that was a bit more quiet then the rest. The grouped looked like they had already order (more-in-likely ordering for the redhead) as he slid in beside Demyx.
"Where've you been?" the blonde asked. When Axel shrugged and took of sip of his beer, Demyx asked, "We're you with Roxas again?"
At Axel's nod, Luxord said, "You ought to invite the guy to lunch or something as much as you seem to be hanging out with him."
Nodding again, Axel said, "Sounds good. I'll talk to him about it." He pulled his cigarettes from his pocket and lit one up, (ignoring the disapproving look from Luxord) and asked, "So what all do we have to do while were here?"
"We've got a couple of TV interviews, a press conference, a radio interview and another concert." Marluxia said with a cough as he took a drink of his water.
Their food arrived and they talked about the upcoming interviews and concert, Axel dawning his beers and cigarettes.
X-x-X
"It's fucking beautiful out here! Isn't it Demyx! I mean look at it all! It's pretttyyy!" Axel began dancing in the street as he kept repeating this (almost getting his by three cars) as they walked to the hotel. The trio somehow managed to wrangle the energetic redhead into the room and lock the door. He stopped in front of the mirror hanging in the living room. "You know what?"
Luxord, Marluxia and Demyx stopped and looked at the redhead who sounded completely serious.
"I'm really sick of seeing my face. But that's okey, cause it's my fucking face!*" he said before the redhead busted out into a fit of giggles. He jumped onto the couch and begun singing, "All you people can't you see, can't you see How your love's affecting our reality Every time we're down You can make it right And that makes you larger than life!" at the top of his lungs (and surprisingly in key).
Luxord dragged him into a sitting position and motioned for someone to turn the lights off. He dropped another pack of cigarettes in his lap and said, "Get some fucking sleep." before walking to his room.
"Oh come on Luxy! I don't wanna sleeepppp!" he made a face at the door before calling out, "Marly! Dem-Dem! What about you guises! Let's play some video games!" When he didn't hear a response from either of them he said, "Fine! I'll beat all you guises high score!"
Axel set up the game console and began playing. It wasn't until five in the morning that he drunken high began to fade and he drifted off into sleep.
X-x-X
The shrill sound of his phone ringing brought Axel from his slumber, except the sound was a thousand times louder then it usually was. He picked it up and hit a random button to get it to stop before he sat up. A wave of dizziness and nausea hit him. He ran (more like stumbled/almost broke his leg to get) to the nearest bathroom where he began to puke.
He felt his hair being pulled back into a low pony tail. After about five minutes, he felt there was nothing left in his stomach and leaned his head against the bathtub close to the toilet. A wet washcloth and a bottle of water came into his line of vision which he took gratefully. Once he felt that he was a bit more settled, he looked up to see Luxord leaning against the sink with his arms crossed. "Don't start." he grumbled.
The redhead stood slowly (with a bit of help from Luxord) and made his way into Demyx's bedroom (who's bathroom he had run into). His brother was sitting on the bed and held out his hand that had pain killers sitting in the palm of them. He thanked he with a half-smile while he downed them with the bottle of water.
Axel walked back to the living room to look at his phone. Seeing that it was a text message from Roxas that read, 'I need a break from studying, wanna hang out?' With a smirk he texted back, 'Sure. Met you at the park, usual table.' before sliding his phone in his pocket, grabbing his hat and sunglasses then walking out of the apartment.
Yawning, Roxas shuffled though the songs on his iPod. He randomly picked My First Kiss by 3OH!3 featuring Ke$ha, closed his eyes and sat his head on his folded arms, listening to the song. "...She won't ever get enough Once she gets a little touch If I had it my way You know that I'd make her say Ooooooooooooooh, Ooooooooooooooh..." As he slightly drifted to sleep. He jumped up with a giggle as someone poked him in his side.
Looking around, he saw Axel smirking down at him. He glared at the redhead and took his headphones out after he paused the music. The blonde took the redhead in and commented on it aloud, "You're hairs messier then usual."
Axel shrugged and sat beside the blonde, his back against the table, "I had just woken up when you texted."
Roxas also noticed that he was talking a lot softer then he was use to hear the redhead, "I didn't mean to." he said, but Axel waved him off. He smirked himself, "Somebody had a long night."
Axel gave a dry chuckle, "Yeah. One all by myself. Not the smartest idea."
Standing up, Roxas said, "I know just the thing. Come on." With a skeptical look form the redhead, the blonde led him to a small family own restaurant. He walked up to the window, but was pulled back.
"I don't really think I can handle food right now."
"Trust me. You'll be up for it. You like burgers right?"
"Yeah, but-" before the redhead could finish, Roxas was already talking to the curly haired brunette guy behind the window. They waited about five minutes before their order came up, Roxas paid and they walked back to the park. He handed Axel one burger and kept on for himself. Not wanting to be rude, the redhead took a bite of the burger. "Holy fuck, this is delicious."
The blonde grinned triumphantly and eats his own burger. "How did you know this helps?" Axel asked.
Memories began to resurface, but Roxas pushed them down, "You pick up a few things." he said with a shrug.
"So, what'd you want to hang out? Though I'm sure you need a break from studying, I sense there's more to it then that." Axel stated all but devouring his burger.
"Sora's 'best friend' came back from his internship in Destiny Island and I didn't want to be there for their reunion." Roxas did air quotes around the best friends and shook his head.
"I see. And how's school life going?"
Roxas groaned and finished eating his burger, "Ugh, Psychology is kicking my ass. I don't understand why. I've been practicing it since I was like twelve. Granted I didn't know that then, but still."
"I'm sure you'll get it." Axel said with a smirk. They both sat in silence, finished with their meal, "So what do you wanna do now?"
"I dunno. I nap sounds kinda great." The blonde said with a laugh.
"Hey, wanna hang out with A Beautiful Tragedy?" Axel asked.
"Hm. That's sound cool."
"Let's go then." Axel said leading the blonde back to the hotel they were staying at.
*- This was a quote from Gerard Way that I kinda made my own. It's "I'm sick of seeing my face. But I am aloud to be sick of seeing my face cause its my fuckin' face! Know what I'm saying?"
And there's the next chapter for you guises! Can't wait to know what everyone thinks! We have a look at Roxas past a bit and at how Axel's habit can be really made for him.
What happens when Roxas' hangs out with the band? Stay tuned to find out~ =]