In this chapter: Roxas and Hayner spy on 13 Hearts again…
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Ballad
Chapter Two
"White Wedding"
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Roxas announced he was home by slamming the door shut and tearing off his coat. In all normal circumstances, he would have thrown his jacket on the floor and kicked it, but Namine was there standing in the doorway from the kitchen to the living room with a tray of tea.
"Um… hi," he muttered awkwardly. Namine smiled and walked into the den with the platter.
"Hello. We have company." Roxas grunted and hung his coat in the closet like a civilized person. He could hear laughter, Sora and Kairi's, coming from the other room.
Before he entered the rest of the apartment, Sora walked into the entrance hall with a wide grin. "Hey, Rox!" Sora hugged him briefly, he was always good for a bear hug, and then walked back towards the kitchen. "You're home earlier than I thought." Seeing his brother's smiling face reminded him immediately of Demyx Skönstedt at the supermarket earlier. The blonde was so exhausted he didn't even want to touch that topic with a long pole that night.
"It's been a long day."
Sora was wearing a pastel blue polo shirt with a sweater over his shoulder. His khaki pants had a small tea stain on his thigh. He knew his way around Roxas' kitchen better than he did, and Namine asked him to get crackers from the pantry.
"So, how was the show?" Namine called from the other room. The blonde boy sighed and walked into the living room, followed closely by Sora and the crackers.
"I don't think you'd want them playing the reception." Namine looked crestfallen, glancing down into her teacup.
"Oh… Any particular reason why?"
Roxas scratched the back of his head and tried to come up with the right words. He sat down on the comfy chair across the coffee table from Namine. "They're… loud. They're obnoxious. They're not the kind of people we'd want, you know?"
For the first time in a very long while, Namine frowned, and it killed Roxas. Her upper lip trembled slightly and hung out over bottom lip, whimpering slightly. "…But I really wanted a cover band."
Roxas glanced to Kairi and Sora sitting on the love seat between them. Both of their big, beady eyes were looking back at him questioningly. "But… baby, they're rude boys."
"I'm sure if we pay them enough they'll behave. How much did they offer to play for?"
"Uh…"
"You did talk to them, right? At least?"
"Uh, yeah, well… Three hundred, was what the singer said," Roxas mumbled. Namine snapped.
"That's it? We had a budget of five hundred set for live music! Roxas, if that's what they're willing to pay for offer them three-fifty and we can use the money we saved with them to pay for the food!"
And of course, when you really got down to it, the matter would always be about the money. Kairi had decided to stay silent and not make eye contact with Roxas or her sister, but the look in her eyes told that she obviously sided with Namine. Sora looked at his brother and gave him a playful wink, foretelling him to look forward to losing many more battles in the future.
"Tifa told me they play at this after-office hours club called Traverse. Maybe you could check it out later this week?" Roxas didn't have any other choice other than to agree mindlessly.
"Yeah, okay."
000ooo000ooo000
So Roxas found himself sitting at classy oak bar of yet another fine establishment. Thankfully this place was at least clean… And had working light fixtures… and a not-sticky bathroom. He sighed and rested his elbows on the bar behind him. His always faithful copilot, Hayner, sat facing the bar and ordered his second drink of the night.
"Slow down, please," Roxas said, trying not to beg. "I don't want another repeat of Saturday…"
Hayner rolled his eyes and another bottle was placed in front of him. He turned back around and faced the rest of the club with Roxas. "Relax. It's cheap beer."
The club had a rustic, warm feeling to it. The floor was polished hardwood and there were actual tables and booths for people to sit at. The barstools were padded and weren't chained to the bar like at The Organization. Near the back of the club was a small stage set up with the drums and guitars already in place. This meant that Axel and his band were already here.
"So we're going to hear some good ol' American rock tonight is the rumor, yeah?" Hayner asked, taking a good long sip.
"Yeah. That's the rumor," Roxas confirmed. At the moment he sorely wished he was twenty-one because the only way he could enjoy another one of Axel's performances would be if he were drunk off his ass.
The club was reasonably filled for a Thursday night. Most of the patrons this time were older, the youngest couples looking to be in their late twenties, and promised no rough housing or moshing of any sort. That didn't stop Roxas' heart from preparing for another evening of obscene terror when the house lights dimmed.
The set lights illuminated the stage in a pink and blue haze. Without announcement, and without a crowd of screaming fans, Axel walked onstage. He looked tired, haggard, and a completely different creature than what Roxas had seen Saturday night.
His thick, red eyeliner was gone and replaced with eyeliner that was thin and black, it was only stage makeup and nothing else. The tattoos under his eyes were covered with thick layers of concealer, and you could almost make out the faintest outline of the little diamonds if you knew where to look. His lip ring was replaced with a flesh colored knob. If it weren't for the flamboyant red hair, Roxas would have to agree the front man looked almost… normal.
The pink haired drummer was still dressed like an eighties glitter rock super star, the blonde bassist still dressed in black, and the lead guitarist was still in an eye patch, which Roxas considered wasn't just for show anymore. Axel had donned the tightest gray shirt he had ever seen, along with skinny leather pants that hid nothing. Roxas tried his damndest to keep his eyes on something other than the front man. He turned to Hayner.
"What do you think? You'd almost think the band was professional," Roxas laughed.
Hayner took a sip from his bottle again and smirked. "Dude, check out that chick on the floor," he said, nodding towards the small group of people that were starting to form on the wooden dance floor. She was smiling and giggling and sipping constantly from the straw of her drink. "She's freaking hot. I'm gonna ask her to dance."
She was talking to a well built, stoic brunet man standing behind a sound station at the back of the floor. Were they together or simply flirting? Roxas didn't really want Hayner to find out the hard way. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by Axel's voice.
"Mic check. One, two. Can you hear me? Leonhart?" The brunet man standing behind the sound booth nodded, turning knobs and adjusting levels. "It's good? Alright! Let's get started!" Axel shouted. The guitarist started with a guitar riff that everyone in the room knew. In that instant, everyone turned to the stage and cheered. "Yeahyeahyeeeah!"
The bar was starting to get busier with more patrons throwing money down for more shots and drinks. "She was a fast machine! She kept her motor clean!" By this point the audience was singing along with him, and everyone at the bar was so loud Roxas could barely hear Axel's voice, but he was shocked at how much he sounded like Brian Johnson. It was nothing like his voice from Saturday. "She was the best damn woman that I had ever seen!"
"Oh my GOD. They're amazing!" Hayner shouted over the noise. The bar was starting to get too crowded for comfort. They left their seats to get closer and to try finding a table.
"She told me to come, but I was already there!"
Roxas looked up at that moment to see Axel do a suggestive thrusting movement to his microphone stand. It got the women's attention and all the ladies in the bar whooped and hollered.
"'Cause the walls start shaking! The earth was quaking! My mind was aching~ And we were makin' it and you—"
At this point Axel snapped the microphone off its stand and pointed it towards the audience. The response was huge as everyone shouted back, "Shook me ALL NIGHT LONG!"
Axel smiled and brought his mic back to his lips and continued singing. Roxas couldn't help but smile. He loved this kind of music and the company he was in seemed to have the same kind of appreciation. Hayner nudged him in the shoulder and brought his attention back into the real world.
"Hey, man, there aren't any free tables." Roxas looked around them, and the entire sitting area was completely packed. There wasn't even a free chair to steal. Looking back to the bar, their seats they had claimed previously were gone. Roxas cursed softly under his breath, but Hayner just clapped him on the back. "Who cares about sitting, though!" he said happily. "The fun part is always on the dance floor!"
Like a black hole, Hayner was sucked into the floor and towards the pretty woman he had seen earlier. She was still talking to the man behind the sound booth, even though he was ignoring her and had headphones on. Roxas figured she probably had one Long Island iced tea too many.
White Wedding was played, this time the singer was the bassist and Axel was playing a keyboard hidden in the shadows. Roxas tried to tilt his head to get a better look at him from around a pillar near the bar. Although the audience had been warm and happy during the first song, none of them were dancing. There were a few couples that were nodding their heads and moving their bodies to the beat, but it wasn't dancing.
After the song was finished the audience applauded and Axel stood back in the front. Roxas noted that he wasn't playing guitar tonight. "Okay, everyone." He eyed everybody in the audience and a smirked. "You're being too still. Don't you realize you're in the greatest city in the state?" The audience cheered and shouted. "The country?" The noise got louder, and it sounded more like cheering at a football game than at a show. "Alright, well show it to me, Bastionites! Lemme see you!"
The people started filling in the gap between the stage and the audience left on the dance floor. Axel laughed and started singing. "It's early morning, the sun comes out. Last night was shaking, and pretty loud~"
The girls that had come out to the club in packs started turning to each other and dancing. Roxas saw a man ask one of them to dance with him and she immediately latched onto him. He laughed at his fluke. Scanning the floor again, he tried to find Hayner to see if he was getting the same luck.
By chance, their eyes met and Hayner called him over with a large grin.
"Roxas, this is Rinoa. Rinoa, Roxas Strife," he introduced. Taking a closer look, she was a very gorgeous woman. Her almond eyes squinted as she smiled at him and she tucked her raven bangs behind her ear before holding out her hand. Roxas took it softly and shook it. "Rinoa here sometimes sings for the band."
"Just some Heart or Joan Jett and stuff, whenever they need me," she smiled. Holding up her drink, she added, "But I'm not working tonight."
Hayner gestured to the man behind the sound booth. "And this is Squall. He's working right now, though, so don't bug him." Roxas got a closer look at the man, and he was rather handsome. However, a large scar across his face gave him a ragged appearance and completely split his face. Roxas wondered how a person could come to get a scar that hideous. "He's their sound guy for all their shows."
"I hear you're trying to hire 13 Hearts for your wedding?" Rinoa asked, having to shout over the noise. Roxas nodded in reply. "That's so great! Most couples choose to play songs through an iPod shuffle or hire a string quartet…" she said, turning to the band, "…but this so much more unique, you think?"
"Here I am! Rock you like a hurricane!"
The reaction Axel got from the crowd was huge and Rinoa laughed. "Have you met the band yet?"
"I spoke with Axel a little bit," Roxas stated, shaking his head, "but I haven't met any of the others."
She instantly perked up. "Oh! Well, let me introduce you!" The singer pointed towards the guitarist. "That's Xigbar, the lead guitarist. He's amazing. He can play anything, no matter how fast. He lost his eye when he was twelve when a guitar string snapped and gouged it out." Roxas shuddered. "At least, that's his story. You can't really trust Xigbar, he lies a lot. So does Luxord." She pointed to the older blonde bassist.
"Luxord used to be a black jack dealer in Vegas. He got sick rich because he never lost. One too many patrons of the casino suggested he was cheating, and it was true. He was hiding cards under the table. But what really got him in trouble was getting caught counting cards at a rival casino. He's a genius. He says he bought a bass on a whim with the money he gained, and didn't start learning how to play until after he lost his job."
She turned her focus on the drummer, who was starting to sweat. "And that's Marluxia. He's a sweetheart, really. I know his parents kicked him out of the house as soon as he turned eighteen. He lived with some friends until recently. Other than that I don't really know much about him, but he's always been really nice to me."
"What do you know about Axel?" Roxas asked.
Rinoa laughed and took another sip from her drink. "He's amazing. A free spirit. His aura's purple. What do you expect me to say? Didn't you say you already met him?"
"I talked with him, but I don't really know much about him."
"He's twenty-three. He's got an Associate's in communications. Sometimes performs solo in cafes. His favorite color is red."
"Those are just facts," Roxas stated. "Don't you have anything about his personality? Is he, like… aggressive or anything?"
She shook her head and smiled sweetly with a shrug. "Axel's just your average guy."
The blonde turned his attention back to the front man. They had finished the Scorpions song and moved on to Guns n' Roses.
"She's got a smile that it seems to me, Reminds me of childhood memories where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky!"
There was no way this man led an ordinary life. Roxas had run out of time to ask questions when Hayner placed his hand on her shoulder and asked her to dance. Rinoa nodded, accepting the offer charmingly and handed her drink off to the blonde. The brunet behind the sound booth glared at them as they got lost amongst the other people slow dancing in the crowd.
The drink in Roxas' hand was still relatively full. Not wanting to carry it while Hayner danced with her, and definitely not wanting to let it sit and go to waste or run the risk of getting spiked, he decided to have a little taste. He stuffed his left hand that had the obligatory under-21 X scratched on it in his coat pocket and downed what was left. The alcohol burned his throat and sunk down to the pit of his stomach. He finished with a nasty grimace and wondered what he had just drank. He had Long Islands before, but the content in this one must have been really-
Whoa.
-Strong.
"I think it's safe to say that most of you have loosened up," Axel said, giving an affirming nod to the audience. "You guys are really great. The best crowd we've had in a while."
The audience cheered in response. The quickest way to a listener's heart is flattery; it gets you everywhere. Roxas even found himself cheering as well. He laughed and placed the empty glass on a banister and tried to move so he could see Axel's face better.
"We're going to continue our set with one of my personal favorites."
Axel moved to the keyboard again, this time a spotlight was aimed at him and a microphone was set up in front of it. He turned to his band, nodding his head three times before he pressed a chord on the keys, the rest of the band staying quiet. It started out as a solo.
"Tonight… I'm gonna have myself a real good time…"
And the only thing going through Roxas' head was QueenQueenQueenQueenholyshitfuckitsQUEEN.
There was a smile gracing the redhead's face. He looked like this was the happiest moment in his life. If he were to die, he'd be going to heaven to meet Hendrix, Johnny Cash, and the late great Freddie Mercury. Oh, God, he sounded just like Freddie Mercury. Roxas' eyes widened.
FreddieFreddieFreddieFreddiefuckingMERCURY.
"I feel ali~i~i~ive! And the world, it's turning inside out, yeah! I'm floating around in ecstasy…"
The piano stopped. Roxas blinked and made a note of it. The piano wasn't supposed to stop, but the people around him didn't seem to mind. They didn't care at all. Didn't they realize that this wasn't the way the song went?
"So don't. Stop. Me. Now."
Axel was still singing by himself, and this was usually the part of the song where the rest of the band would kick in. Although Roxas had his doubts that Luxord, Xigbar, and Marluxia could carry themselves as well as the real Queen actually could.
Axel kept singing, but stopped playing his keyboard. Instantly, Xigbar kicked in with a few chords that weren't in the original song. Axel grabbed the microphone that was next to his keyboard and abandoned his post, taking the center of the stage again. Brian May's solo didn't come until after the second half, but instead Xigbar was playing the piano's chords of his guitar. It was genius and sounded amazing! It was much stronger and heavier than the original version, and it suited a band like 13 Hearts. Don't Stop Me Now was a pub song, and Axel's group was very much a rock club aesthetic. Roxas found himself respecting their decision to change a Queen song.
And he promptly forced himself to give a mental face slap. This song wasn't anything close to the original! It must be the alcohol thinking for him… That had to be the answer.
"Isn't this great?" Hayner shouted over the music. "This is like the best song I ever heard!"
Roxas glared at Hayner. Of course he would agree, Hayner liked anything loud and obnoxious like himself. Roxas reached his hand into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. Eyeing the bar, he passed his friend a folded ten-dollar bill.
"Get me a drink, anything," he sighed.
Hayner frowned and glanced around. "Oh… Man, Roxas, you know I would if I could, but this place seems like they'd be a little strict serving to minors. I don't want any flak if someone finds out I was giving it to you…"
"No one has to know. I'll be in the bathroom, just give it to me there."
"I'm gonna make a super sonic man outta you!"
Without another word, Roxas turned on heel and marched to the corridor that led to the bathrooms. The blonde whistled along to the lyrics, still trying to keep his mind focused on not liking this music. This was 13 Hearts he was listening to. The same band that started to sing a song about raping his mother in front of an entire audience of impressionable teenagers.
On this night Roxas encountered something he never thought he'd have to worry about. A line in the men's bathroom. Not really needing to go, and in fact just waiting for Hayner to bring him his drink, he took a seat on a stool next to a mirror and leant his head back on the tile wall.
The crowd was singing along, and before Hayner came back it ended with the music falling out and Axel crooning along until the end. Roxas could almost imagine the greasy redhead taking a bow, and doing so the audience roared. Some of the men waiting in line smiled and nodded in approval, and the blonde swore the man sitting in the stall was applauding as well. The walls of the bathroom sanctuary muffled what Axel was saying after the song. The crowd seemed to react just the same, hooting and hollering as if God had just spoken to them.
The heavy oak door into the bathroom opened and Roxas' knight in shining armor entered holding a glass bottle of dark stout beer. The blonde noticed that the seal was already broken off and lip marks stained the brown glass. He glared at his friend, who just shrugged nervously.
"I didn't want to seem suspicious or nothing, so I just took a small sip. I don't even know if you like this kind." Roxas shrugged and kissed the bottle, knocking his head back and drinking without really tasting. The men around them didn't seem to mind, and it wasn't like Roxas was a teenager. His twenty-first birthday was only a month away. To stay safe, he kept his hand with the 'X' in his pocket at all times.
"The band was pretty hot tonight, don't you think?" Hayner asked, stepping in line to use the urinals. Roxas noted that more people were started to come in. The line was even starting to spread out the door. It was getting ridiculous. The blonde didn't want to talk to his friend through a wall of people, so he stood and walked towards the door.
"Hayner, I'm leavin'," Roxas said, and his friend could hear it in his tone that he was trying really hard not to drawl out his words. He watched nervously from his point in line and nodded.
"Be careful. I'll be done in a minute. A- And don't drink that whole thing!" he shouted as Roxas was kicking back another shot as the door slammed shut.
Roxas stumbled out of the bathroom and back onto the dance floor that was awkwardly vacant. The stage was clear and void of annoying singers and creepy looking musicians. There were some girls sitting on the edge of the stage with their drinks chatting, so Roxas meandered over and took a quiet spot near the edge for himself. Although tipsy he made sure to keep the hallway to the bathroom in view so he could see Hayner when he came out.
Taking one last shot from his bottle before he realized half was already gone, he sat the glass down and rested his hands on the stage behind him. The stage seemed so boring and dull with an act like 13 Hearts onstage. Despite Axel's true colors not matching Roxas' tastes, he would be lying to himself if he didn't think that Axel was quite the leading man.
Shifting his hands into a more comfortable position, Roxas noted his hand touched a piece of paper. He picked it up and looked at it. Typed clearly and in large letters was every song they had played so far for their first act. The second act showed that they would be playing more Crue and Aerosmith, along with some Beastie Boys, which had surprised Roxas. He realized with an amplified drunken look of excitement that he had a setlist in his hands. The world of rock and roll spun around this one sheet of paper, at least for tonight and in this particular establishment. Roxas had always heard rumors of people who liked to steal set lists, but he had never been to a show before where the group would just let it lay sitting on a small stage while they were gone.
Sneakily, Roxas folded the paper quickly and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. A waitress walked past him holding a tray of drinks. She disappeared through a door next to the stage. A few moments later she left with the tray tucked under her arm. She paused for a moment as she was looking at Roxas and frowned.
"Hey, kid, are you okay?" she asked, tilting her hips and she bent down to get a better look at him. Roxas looked up in her eyes and caught her scrutinizing gaze. He knew he wasn't a kid, but she must have seen the giant X on his hand and got suspicious. Roxas didn't see any other people there who were under twenty-one, and he was starting to feel like an outcast.
"I'm fine," he tried to assure her, but the stench on his breath spoke otherwise.
Her frown deepened and she moved the tray in front of her. "Have you been drinking?"
The door next to the stage opened again. Roxas shook his head and smirked lazily. He had a difficult time remaining serious while his head was spinning. He couldn't even sit up straight. "No, I'm just feeling a little sick. I promise, I haven't been-"
"There you are!" A person stepped between Roxas and the waitress and hoisted Roxas up by his arm. "We were waiting for you in the back! You should've asked for us!" The blonde looked up and saw a smear of red with a splash of green swimming in blackness. It was Axel. He turned to the waitress and grinned handsomely. "Thank you very much for finding my friend. He gets disoriented so easily. Would you mind sending some water back here when you get a chance?"
Axel kept a firm grip on Roxas' arm as he opened the door again, guiding him inside. Once the door was shut, he was led down a dimly lit hallway into a room without a door. 13 Hearts stood inside, all eyes turning to Roxas as soon as he was inside.
"Whoa," the guitarist, Xigbar, said with a smirk. "He's trashed."
Luxord stood in the corner, not saying a word. Roxas heard the drummer gasp before he came into sight, bending down slightly to get a better look at him. "Jeez, the poor thing, look at him," He grabbed Roxas' chin and used his hand to push back the blonde bangs. "His cheeks are bright red! Who gave you alcohol?"
Roxas smacked the hand away and glared. "Stop it." He turned to Axel, or at least tried to. He ended up having to grip on Marluxia's shirtsleeve for support. "What the fuck are you trying to do?"
Axel rolled his eyes, holding his hand up and revealing Roxas' half-finished bottle of beer. "What the fuck is this? Not that I mind you drinking or anything, I was doing a lot worse at your age," he stated. Roxas glared at him. So Axel was the type of person who endorses underage drinking. Interesting. "…But you can't do that here. Traverse is super strict about stuff like that."
Axel tossed the bottle to Luxord, who let a drop or two fall on his tongue before placing it on the folding table that was set up against the wall. "Not terrible... I'm impressed. He must have some taste after all."
"Did you take me here so I could get… be made fun of?" Roxas asked, the words becoming more difficult to find.
Axel took Roxas' shoulders in his hands and pushed him back slightly, making sure he wouldn't fall. When Roxas felt the back of his knees collide with a chair, he collapsed into it and sulked. "Of course not, Strife, we're not like that."
Roxas sometimes had a hard time imagining that Axel actually knew his name. It crashed back down on him quickly that the reason why he was here tonight was to negotiate. "That's right," Roxas muttered, shaking a finger and eventually pointing at Axel. "I need to talk to you. My wife –my fiancée-, you know, she really, really wants you guys to play at our wedding."
Axel frowned slightly, looking over to his band. Luxord shrugged noncommitaly, Marluxia nodded an affirmative, and Xigbar shook his head. "No way," Xigbar stated. "We're, like, booked solid for weeks."
"But the wedding isn't until December!" Roxas countered, turning his dizzy gaze to the guitarist for a brief moment. "And you guys… You guys are really good. I mean, I still don't like the true music you play, but my fiancée really likes you. In the end, this is her day more than mine. I'd do anything to make her happy."
There wasn't a reply from the band and Roxas bowed his head slightly, expecting rejection. "He does sound sincere," Luxord commented. This got a dissatisfied groan from Xigbar, and the blond bassist shot him an angry look. "The lady spends a lifetime wishing for the perfect wedding, years finding the perfect man, and months planning the perfect day. If she wants us to play that much…" Luxord turned to look at Axel, "…Then I think we should play the show."
Marluxia chose to put in his two cents. "It's just one night. And we could use the money. Weddings are always a blast, anyway!"
Axel gave Roxas a hard look, his hand tapping against his lips as the cogs worked overtime trying to come up with the proper solution. "Anyone can sound sincere," Axel said, "but it takes someone special to act on it."
Roxas looked up into Axel's emerald green eyes. "What's the catch?"
"We'll play your wedding," Axel confirmed. "But since you're obviously going to give us a hard time, we need a favor. You see, our normal stagehand is leaving us soon to go back to college. We need someone who can unload the trailer, set up the drums, and maybe help Squall with the sound."
"I can't do all that," Roxas slurred, an angry glower growing across his brows.
Like a scale, Axel's red brows rose while Roxas' skulked. "Really? You won't do this small favor for us no matter how much your girl wants us?" He took Roxas' heated silence as a yes. "Don't worry so much. We'll teach you."
There was a knock on the side of the door, and a man stood in the hall looking at them coughed loudly. "You're back on in three minutes, guys. Time to go."
"Wait a second, Axe. How will he remember anything of this? He's smashed," Xigbar reminded.
"Right you are, my good man," Axel said with a grin. He reached into Roxas' back pocket.
The blonde's eyes widened and he pushed Axel away. "What're you doing?!"
"Relax, fanboy, I'm just giving you a reminder," he muttered, taking Roxas' silver cell phone from his pocket. Reaching into his own back pocket, Axel pulled out his red cell phone. On Roxas' phone he sent himself a text message, and soon his own phone buzzed and lit up with Roxas' number. "I'll send you a reminder in case you forget," he told Roxas, who's focus seemed to be more on the floor than the singer. The poor blond really was too drunk to remember anything right now. The most sinister idea crept into Axel's mind. "Hey, Marly, do you still have that silver sharpie."
Finding the marker on the vanity, the pink haired man handed it over to the frontman. "It looks like he's crashing," he commented, noticing how Roxas was yawning and looking like he could fall asleep in the green room right at that moment.
"Good," Axel stated, uncapping the marker and turning Roxas' head into a decent angle. "Find whoever brought this guy here, okay?"
000ooo000ooo000ooo000
Roxas woke up the next morning stuck to the floor of Hayner's kitchen. Dried spit stuck his cheek to the vinyl wood and it smarted when he peeled himself up. The morning sunlight dripping in from the crooked blinds immediately greeted Roxas with a hangover.
"…Whu?" he moaned, rubbing his eye. He never remembered coming back to Hayner's place at all. Using the counter for support, he pulled himself to his feet and leaned on the wall to guide him to Hayner's bedroom. He saw his friend sprawled out across the bed, still snoring loudly.
Roxas rubbed his cheek and tried to scratch off some of the dried spit. He walked into Hayner's bathroom and turned the water on, splashing some on his cheek and rubbing the spit away. When he looked in the mirror to check his reflection, he saw something much worse than crusty spit.
"AXEL!"
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Hey! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Over the past few weeks I've been going over the story in my free time and making small edits when they're needed. So when I originally wrote Ballad I had one big document that I was keeping everything in. Eventually, with my computer being as old as it was, it couldn't handle a word document that big and I had to start keeping the big file open as reference and writing individual chapters in their own document (which was easier when it came to sending it off to my beta anyway). I'm about halfway through my personal beta-read and I keep wondering... which version of the story am I reading? I've gone through and edited the story so many times but I keep finding errors and I'm wondering if I'm reading the beta'd chapters or am I reading the original files that I wrote years ago?
I was happy to get reviews from old readers! I'm glad you're looking forward to rereading the story again. Please keep posting reviews, but if you remember what happens please avoid posting spoilers!
And all you new readers please review too, and fav or follow the story! The new traffic stats page is really cool and it's fun seeing how many people in different countries are reading my story. This story is a real slow burn but we'll get to some really fun stuff soon!