Chapter 012 - Interim II

"I've got the strangest feeling
This isn't our first time around."
"Past Lives" - BØRNS

He tore through the Annuate's lower levels, past the door that connected the building with others via a maze of extensive underground tunnels, zigzagging around the various glass cases displaying Elio's prized historical items without paying them any mind. Reaching the ancient stairwell that led toward the Walker family staff's living quarters, Roxas darted up them without a moment's hesitation, taking the ancient stairs two by two with the adeptness of someone well accustomed to avoiding the smoother, more slippery surface areas worn down with time.

In the distance, he could hear Axel sprinting, steadily gaining on him. Breathless, chest heaving, Roxas took off running the moment he cleared the final step, down the extended corridor, heading for the house's upper floors.

If this were a straightforward match of speed, Axel would easily outpace him in a matter of seconds, his long legs making up the half minute head-start that Roxas had been granted. This was nothing so simple though. For one of Faber John's storied children, nothing technically was.

As he reached the first level above ground, Roxas slowed to catch his breath, eyes darting around the residence to ensure he was alone. Still panting heavily, he closed his eyes and began to focus inward. His breathing gradually slowed. With wholehearted concentration, Roxas deeply inhaled.

They'd been burning time at the fountain in Aeon Square, chatting with Demyx on a pleasant day after lessons had let out. Duration's final exams period had just ended for Axel and Demyx and both seemed eager to relax in their wake. Being exempt, Roxas hadn't been under the same kind of pressure, but tensions were high for the rest of Time City's older adolescents. These exams were important; they determined career paths, and whether the students remained in the city at all. Being a member from a Founding family wasn't sufficient to avoid the repercussions of scoring poorly; the city remained home only to those who earned their place. Being a Lee was meaningless if you had nothing to contribute. Roxas had heard the warning from Axel's parents more than enough times to be able to sympathize with the considerable pressure the Walker family heir was facing on a near continuous basis of late.

"Time alive," Demyx said, "that translation section was rough. Universal symbols are so unnecessarily tedious." Perched on the edge of the fountain, he fluttered a few fingers through the water as he hummed a song that Roxas vaguely recognized as representative of Eighty-Seven Century's penultimate decade.

"Yeah." Axel nodded, expression distracted. "And now we need to prep for the arrival of the polarities. Their keepers are supposed to be here sometime tomorrow."

Demyx looked up. "I almost forgot. That whole drawn-out ceremony's gonna be kind of torturous, isn't it?"

Brows knitting together, Roxas' lips thinned, subtly consternated. "More for me than you, I'm guessing."

A guilty look passed across Demyx's face almost immediately after his comment. "Damn, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting."

Roxas shrugged and shot Demyx a small smile to show he wasn't bothered. By his side, Axel snaked his hand around Roxas' waist, pulling him closer, an undebatably protective gesture.

"The whole thing's totally weird. It's like finding out a fairytale's actually real or something," Demyx continued, eyeing his two friends before returning his attention to the fountain. "You've always just seemed like one of us, y'know?"

Feeling Axel's lips brushing gently at the crown of his head, Roxas looked up, giving the young man the opportunity to lean further down and actually offer a kiss.

"Agh." Demyx made a dramatic, tortured sound. "Get a room, will you?"

Axel straightened, arm still around the slender waist of his friend. "That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea, Dem. With a brilliant mind like that, I'm guessing you aced those tests." Roxas could hear the teasing quality of Axel's tone. It was easy enough to visualize the smirk that likely followed, even though he couldn't see it from his current vantage point. His friend's hand trailing up the center of his back, Roxas lifted his chin, and Axel wasted no time kissing him again, this time with an open mouth.

Slapping his hands over both eyes, Demyx mock-gagged. "I don't wanna seeeeee this. You two are disgusting. But cute," he conceded. Then, more pseudo-gagging. "But still disgusting."

Ignoring him, Axel glanced down at Roxas, the smirk still visible at the corners of his lips. "Race you back home? I'll give you half a minute before I start. That should be enough to catch up this time, right?"

Roxas raised an eyebrow, taking in Axel's challenge with wide, knowing eyes. "You never have before. Fifteen fewer seconds aren't going to make much of a difference."

Green eyes flickering above a good-natured expression, Roxas saw Axel's eye function refocus toward his anticipated destination. "We'll see. Better get a move on though," Axel said. "I've already started counting."

When Roxas finally exhaled, the air around him was silent — an autonomously induced inertia. There was no indication that Axel was still running toward him, no rustling of ever-present Annuate staff doing chores. All was still, and every inch of his surroundings was tinted a pale, soothing blue.

He opened his eyes to air particles and sparkling, spidery strings, smile widening at the sight, feeling rawly exuberant. They had always been there, these silvery things, each its own little augury. This he'd intrinsically known. But, lately, he'd been more and more able to summon them into existence in a far more tangible sense. It was surreal. It gave him so many courses of action; it let him glimpse through so many invisible doors.

Practically skipping, Roxas explored one after the other, finding strings related to the afternoon, and to his and Axel's immediate future, with practiced ease. There was a lofty adeptness to his actions, an intricately unconscious choreography to his movements as he made his way closer to locating the first one he'd need. A soft sound, the weight of Axel's black boot against the stone floor, slowed to almost complete immobility, alerted Roxas of the redhead's general location. Dodging beneath strings not immediately germane to his present intentions, Roxas began making his way up the stairs, careful to keep his senses tuned so he wouldn't get too far ahead of Axel's preternaturally slow movements.

Part of him wanted to laugh, and another part to dance. The feeling bubbled up from his chest, replacing the somber realization that this was all going to end. Probably tomorrow, if he understood his part in the city's long overdue restoration process. Forcing the needling thought from his mind, Roxas made his way upward, turning a corner, down a long corridor overlooked by stained glass windows, then up another stairway toward Axel's bedroom. Each path he chose was a purposeful decision based on what he was seeing as his hands passed through ghostly temporal strands. The air was alive all around him, particles flickering, various futures exclusively his to peruse at leisure if he so chose. Today it was simply about beating Axel, of gauging which route the redhead would take in an attempt to catch Roxas at a game only one knew enough about the rules to be able to quite literally bend them to his every passing whim.

As he got closer to his destination, the air changed in a perceptible way, the colors around him shifting back to a more lively, fleshy shade. All around him the residence was waking as he gradually released his hold on the slowdown of what felt like the whole entirety of space. Hopping onto Axel's bed, Roxas made himself comfortable, unable to school his satisfied smile as, only a moment later, a flash of long limbs and red hair dashed through the door. Axel's dog had followed him upstairs close on his heels, his silver flanks rising and falling in time with his master's own heavy breathing, tongue lolling happily, unaware of the trick of time that had just been performed.

Spotting the animal, Axel's arm shot rigidly up, finger pointing toward the door. "Aeneas, out."

The dog rose up, trotting through the doorway, the picture of obedience. With a snap of his wrist, Axel bid the door closed in the departing animal's wake.

Turning toward the bed, Roxas noticed how much Axel was panting, clearly having run all-out from Aeon Square to Annuate Palace. Noting Roxas' serene expression, in tandem with the measured rise and fall of easy breathing, Axel shook his head, red hair whipping in every direction, some even getting stuck to his forehead before he idly brushed it aside. "You've got to be fucking kidding me. I ran at full speed."

Roxas made a playful sound at the back of his throat that sounded suspiciously like the suppression of laughter. "You should know by now that speed doesn't matter."

"Yeah, whatever." Grinning, Axel collapsed onto his bed, and Roxas scooted over to give him more space.

They laid next to one another in silence, the sound of Axel's labored breathing the only form of communication passing initially between them.

Finally catching his breath, Axel rolled from his stomach to his side, propping his chin into an open palm supported by one elbow. His breathing had slowed, was almost back to normal. The expression on his face told a story that hinted at more than mere curiosity.

"What's it like?"

Roxas glanced over at his friend, one eyebrow rising at the nebulous question.

"Being able to do that, I mean."

Wrapping his arms loosely around the knees he'd drawn up to his chest, Roxas met Axel's gaze with a steady one of his own. This wasn't the first time he'd been asked, not by Axel or myriad others in Time City proper. It was a fairly common question, and he supposed the curiosity was justified. The answer was considerably less straightforward, however. Roxas averted his eyes.

"It's hard to explain."

It wasn't just that, Roxas conceded. There was something private about the experience, almost intimate. Axel was his closest friend so he should have wanted to share. More than just a friend, even, but it still didn't feel right to tell. His life had always belonged to others, the terms carrying a definitive date of expiration no matter how easy it was to let himself forget it in the midst of people like Axel who felt like real friends. The strings were something all his own, the one gift he'd been given in exchange for a sacrifice he'd always known he would have to make. Talking about it felt increasingly sacrilegious the more often he stopped to consider it.

Idly, he wondered if tomorrow would change all that; he was curious to know if the other guardians shared his talent. Given the nature of his own ability, Roxas felt he really should have been able to find out that information well in advance.

Some things the strings were silent on, he'd discovered, or they opted to keep to themselves. No matter where he explored, no matter how many he pulled, he hadn't been able to find certain answers. After tomorrow, even more curiously, Roxas saw no future at all.

At least not for himself.

Turning toward Axel, Roxas leaned in, offering a kiss. Their lips met gently. It was a comfortable union between two people who had known each other since the day Roxas had been brought to the city, blue eyes wide and full of childish wonder, clasping tightly to his silver-haired escort's steadying hand. The Sempitern had been there to greet him, his lurid-haired son and soft-spoken wife accompanying him. Roxas had been welcomed, the key to a destiny that'd been pre-ordained long before his birth had been so much as foretold in popular legend. He'd been taken in, raised as a child of the city by a Founding family all the way to the present here and now.

Sometimes he'd let himself believe he was just like the others, the same as Axel and Demyx and Marluxia. He'd attended lessons with them, after all, was treated like the same sort of kitschy novelty by tourists and students studying abroad from other centuries.

Deep down, Roxas had always known the life he'd been given here was borrowed, that one day he'd have to pay them all back for allowing him this semblance of adolescent normalcy.

The kiss intensified, Axel rising up onto his knees while Roxas straightened his legs, allowing himself to be straddled, to have his chest pressed into the pillows beneath him.

"Could you do it now," Axel spoke in breathless tones between kisses, "with me here, on top of you?" Securing his knees on either side of Roxas, Axel lowered his own hips and began a deliberate, measured grind.

Breath hitching, Roxas bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself silent but lifted his hips to meet Axel's in return. One delicate eyebrow rising in mock inquiry, he trailed his lips away from Axel's mouth, then to his cheek, following the line of his jaw up to the edge of his ear. He exhaled a hot breath against the side of Axel's face. "Right now? Would you really even want me to?"

He felt the rise of Axel's lips more than he saw the smile.

"Okay, fair point."

Hand tangling in mussed-up hair, Axel tightened his grip, tilting Roxas' head back to give himself access to the pale skin of his neck.

As he began kissing a tender part of the boy's throat, Roxas groaned and tried to keep his train of thought from dissolving entirely. "Careful," he warned, the word a rush of breathless air. "Riku isn't going to be happy if I arrive tomorrow all marked up."

With a soft rumble, reminiscent of a growl deep from within his throat, Axel paused. "Fuck Riku."

Roxas stifled a chuckle, instead sliding his hand downward between their bodies, fingers teasing along the front of Axel's pants. He shot his friend a mildly reproachful look before his hand reached its destination. "I'd rather…" He squeezed gently. "…not."

Axel's eyes narrowed, green near to smoldering as he pressed against Roxas' hand with insistency, lifting his upper body higher to drive his hips down with more controlled force. His facial markings shimmered in the dimming light of the late afternoon — Sixties holographic technology at its finest, in Roxas' personal view. They complimented the already sharp lines of the young man's angular face, giving him a look of perennial ferocity.

Just as quickly as the lustful expression had formed, it dissolved in the wake of something more insecure.

"We're going to meet again, right? In your next life?" Axel's voice sounded unsure. Small. "That's what the legend says, doesn't it? That you'll come back?"

Roxas said nothing at first, just kept the rhythm of his hand steady, wishing somewhat futilely that it'd distract Axel away from this line of questioning. He'd gone through the possibilities so many times already. The strings had been silent on what lay ahead for him, so he'd doubled up on his efforts to see what Axel had in store after tomorrow came and went. He'd gone through the possibilities for his friend so many times, Roxas could recite half a dozen of them from rote memory: Axel as Sempitern, taking over the duties of governing the city after his father retired, Axel self-destructing and opting for an Observer post far out in history to run away from the grief Roxas himself had been the catalyst behind. Axel dating Saïx until they both emotionally destroyed one another, Axel with Larxene for a flicker of an instant just for the sake of exploring his sexuality. There was even Axel letting grief fester into anger, finding some sort of fucked-up solace in tweaking history as needed by ending the lives of others who stood in the way of Chronologue's timeline preferences.

Roxas had seen every conceivable possibility for his friend from this moment forward. Even if he could manipulate the strings into swinging one way over the others, there was still a problem he couldn't get around: he didn't know which outcome was better. He just realized that when time swung its everlasting pendulum to a place where he could be himself again, it would be far after Axel's existence had already become the thing of memories, possibly even a legend itself.

Time itself was returning to its genesis, and all Roxas really knew was that, despite its abundance, there would never be enough to save them both.

If only he could have determined how to do more than simply see countless futures — if he'd become better adept at their manipulation — maybe he could perform his obligation to the city without having to destroy his closest friend in the process. He just didn't know how that was possible.

…and time was running so very short.

There was one thing Roxas was entirely sure of, however: in no uncertain terms could Axel be told any of this, at least not before it happened. No one could. Of that, Riku had been explicitly clear.

Abdominals tensing, Roxas moved his hand away from Axel's lap and pulled himself up, reaching for his friend. He planted a lingering kiss on the young man's jawline. "Veniet tempus, veniet…" he said, the words silken, a promise meant to placate. He would make this evening memorable for Axel, a last minute oblation of affection and apology, both. Long after they were both gone, Roxas promised himself he'd remember it still. In the interim, he would remain alive in Axel's memories, of that he was sure. One day in the indeterminate future, he would offer Axel the courtesy of returning the favor. It was the least he could do for the impending grief he would no doubt suffer.

"The next life, yeah," Roxas affirmed. The lie came easily.

Dragging his free hand through thick, red hair, Roxas kissed the base of Axel's neck. He smiled at the longing sound his lips elicited. "Now shut up, you sentimental fool," he said, voice a husky whisper. "Kiss me again."