In this chapter: Roxas discovers he has a skin allergy.
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Ballad
Chapter Three
"Double Dare Ya"
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Getting Hayner to shut up was half the battle. Roxas stayed in the bathroom and refused to open the door. "Rox? C'mon, open up! I gotta piss!" The blonde was beginning to hate his friend for not owning any clean towels. He refused to use the pile of dirty ones on the floor. He was using soaked toilet paper trying to get the words scrawled on his face off.
"CHECK YOUR PHONE"
And written across his cheeks in large silver letters was the frontman's name. He was able to get the metallic glitter from the ink staining his skin, but a dull gray still remained. Roxas realized that he wouldn't be able to get the marker off his skin without help.
The blonde opened the door and Hayner brushed past him without a second glance. Roxas stared at him as he walked to the toilet and raised the lid. His friend stopped short of pulling down his fly before he turned to Roxas.
"Dude, can you, like, leeea-AH! Dude! Your face!"
Hayner suddenly forgot needing to pee and turned to his friend. His skin was raw from where he was trying to get the ink off, but after letting it sit on his porous face all night it was almost impossible with just water.
"Just let me use your computer to find out how to get this off," Roxas sighed, pointing to his right cheek with the letters 'AX' marked on it.
Hayner walked to his book bag and pulled out his old PC laptop. A quick trip through a search engine yielded interesting results.
"Toothpaste?"
"That's what it said. Rub your face in toothpaste, I guess wait a few minutes, and it comes right off."
Roxas sighed, the only toothpaste Hayner owning being a bright red tube of cinnamon burst with flavor strips. Thousand of results on Google couldn't be wrong, he tried to reason. Uncapping the tube, he squeezed out a good sized amount onto the palm of his hand. Rubbing his fingers into the goo, he started to rub the toothpaste on his cheeks where Axel had written his name. It looked like was rubbing red shaving cream all over his face.
"Oh, this is hilarious!" Hayner giggled, watching from the sidelines as Roxas started rubbing the paste in with his fingernails. The blonde looked to the side and saw his friend holding up his cell phone, obviously using the camera attached to it.
"Hey! Stop that!" Roxas growled, not wanting to touch the phone with his sticky fingers. He turned back to the mirror and started rubbing more toothpaste onto his forehead. He decided to let it sit and… soak up the ink or whatever the paste was supposed to do. While he was at it he scrubbed it over the 'X' on the back of his hand. In the meantime, he washed his palms off and walked to the den where his jacket laid sprawled on the couch.
He reached into his inside pocket and pulled out his cell phone. With it, he also pulled out a slip of paper. Unfolding it, he noted it was scribbled almost intelligibly, but he could make out 'Shook Me' and 'Don't Stop Me'. A set list?
The light on his cell was flashing red. Upon opening it, he apparently had a missed message from an unknown number. Deciding to head the silver sharpie warning, Roxas listened to it.
"Hey, Mister Strife, it's Axel," the front man started in his message. "The one you hate." Roxas frowned. "I was just calling to remind you that you totally agreed to be our roadie for the next couple of weeks." At this new and interesting development, Roxas raised a brow. "And in case you don't believe me, here's you."
There were sounds of people talking that Roxas didn't recognize. Finally, there was the sound of labored breathing coming in and arduous laughing. The blonde put on a pathetic face. Was I really that drunk last night?
"I get to be a roadie! Just like the Stones!" he heard himself say with more giggling. The sound of his own voice was foreign and made him want to cringe.
Eventually, the phone was handed back to Axel at some point, who continued, "Yes, like the Rolling Stones. Good job, uh…" Roxas could almost visualize the redhead turning to his bandmates and saying, "I don't even really know his name." Axel coughed, returning his attention back to Roxas' cell phone. "Whatever. We have a legal and binding verbal contract, plus we need the help, so there's no backing out of this one. Check your pics. We have to get back on stage. Ciao!"
To close the message there was an annoyingly loud lip smack from Axel before the message ended. Roxas had half the mind to call Axel back immediately. It was only ten in the morning and the rock star was probably still sleeping with his hoards of groupies. However, his voicemail went straight into a new message. The cold-hearted computer voice told Roxas it came in at one in the morning.
"Hey baby, it's me." It was Namine. Roxas instantly freaked. He was supposed to come home last night. "I'm just… wondering where you are. You have classes tomorrow, and I'm sort of worried about you…" Roxas loved the sound of her voice. Not only was she sweet and caring, she sounded totally adorable. "But I want you to be safe, just in case you were out, ah, drinking…" Namine didn't drink, and didn't think too highly of Roxas for doing so. She usually skirted around the topic. "Call me when you get this. I love you."
Her message ended, and there was nothing new after that, so Roxas turned his attention back to what Axel said. He checked the pictures folder on his phone. First, there was an image of the glitter rock man, eyes crossed and lips in a puckered fish position. Roxas had to dig deep into the recesses of his mind to pull out his name. Marty? Mason? No, it was something more complicated than that. Luckily, there was a caption under the picture. 'Marly being stupid.' That's right, Marluxia.
There was another picture of the man with the eye patch. With a name like Xigbar he was hard to forget. The picture was of him flipping off the small phone camera and grimacing angrily. Getting a closer look at his face, Roxas noticed a bunch of scars, most noticeably one traveling up from his jaw and almost touching his eye without the patch. The blonde wondered sardonically if this was another accident from a broken string. Underneath the picture was the caption, 'Xiggy sez fuck you!' How charming.
Next was a picture of Luxord, the bassist, as Roxas recalled. There was an air of maturity around him. His hair was neatly trimmed and his goatee almost painstakingly symmetrical. Roxas had a hard time understanding why a young man so upstanding in the past would stoop into playing for a punk band as feral as 13 Hearts. Out of all the members, he was the only one who didn't fit the part. Roxas wondered if there was something more to his story than what Rinoa had told him at the bar. Along with the picture came another caption, 'Lux pretending to be serious.'
There were many pictures after that of Axel. Him smirking, frowning, giving a toothy smile, giving gang symbols with his hands, and even one of him upside down. Roxas was almost scared about what else they put his poor phone through. There were lots of pictures following of himself, which caught the blonde off guard. In the images he was smiling and laughing, not seeming to care that his face was covered with messy silver sharpie. On one particular picture of him and Axel sharing a frame and smiling there was a caption 'lol just like old friends?' Roxas frowned and snapped his phone shut.
A flush from the toilet announced Hayner's arrival into the living room. "Hey, it's been a few minutes. You should probably clean that stuff off…"
Roxas had almost forgotten about he tooth paste spread all over his face. He walked back into the bathroom and washed it all off. Still no sign of clean towels, Roxas dried his face and scrubbed away some of the more resilient goo with the paper towels he had bought earlier that week. One look in the mirror proved satisfactory, as the silver sharpie was actually gone without a trace. However, his face was bright red, but Roxas guessed it was from scrubbing it with Hayner's stupid one-ply paper towels he almost died for.
Checking his cell phone for the time, it was already past ten thirty, and he had classes at noon. "Hey man, I need to head out. I still have to go back to my place and change clothes," Roxas sighed, not ready to face the day with a hangover. "Do you have sunglasses I can borrow?"
Hayner entrusted Roxas with his trusty pair of aviators, along with giving him a lecture about how these were 'honest-to-GOD' aviator sunglasses like the pilots wear when flying a plane and that if he broke them, scratched, or so help him, breathed on them wrong then he was in for a world of shit.
Roxas made it outside and started heading towards the tram stop. Since he was guessing that they took a cab home last night that meant his car was still parked in the lot for the bar. The easiest way to get back would be to take the tram from Hayner's back to the coffee house, and walk home from there. As luck would have it, turning the corner to get to the stop, the tram flew past him.
The blonde clinched his eyes shut and cursed under his breath, not ready for a chase this early. Quickly turning on heel, Roxas sprinted after the tram and was softly shouting 'Stop!' under his breath, as if the driver could hear him. Luckily, the tram had to stop at a red light, so it opened its front door to let Roxas on board.
As Roxas dropped his fare into the box, the driver confronted him. "You know I'm not supposed to… Strife?"
Roxas would have continued to the back of the crowded tram if the driver hadn't stopped him. The blonde's mind was reeling over who he could possibly know that was a tram driver. He usually didn't associate with those kinds of people. When he turned to look at the driver, he had an odd sense of déjà vu.
Bright red hair pulled back into a ponytail. Piercing green eyes. It was the same, sarcastic tram driver that had driven Roxas to Hayner's apartment last weekend. The one that told him to 'Take a picture.'
"Axel?"
It was also than damned redhead, complete with the makeup covering his facial tattoos and a skin colored gauged knob in his lip.
"What happened to your face?" he asked warily. Roxas assumed he was asking about his flushed cheeks after trying to scrub the permanent marker away. He probably lost a few layers of skin making sure that his face was immaculate before leaving Hayner's apartment.
"Shut up," he snapped, moving to make his way to the back of the bus.
His hasty escape was thwarted when the redheaded driver called to him again. "No, I mean, sorry about the message and everything, but your face is really red. It's like a rash."
Roxas reached to touch his face, and it did feel a bit more sensitive than it should be. The blonde decided to take no heed, adjusting his sunglasses and making his way to the back. The tram was so packed that there wasn't room for him, and he was forced to stay close to the front.
The chatter that filled the tram did little to ease the awkward silence between the student and the driver. At a red light, Axel tapped the steering wheel to whatever no-doubt insidious punk song that was traveling through his head. Roxas had taken a keen liking to glaring daggers into the back of the redhead's skull. The uncomfortable looks that the other patrons were giving him no doubt proved that there was a rash on his face.
"So…" Axel hummed, turning slightly to Roxas to make sure he had his attention, "…did you get my message?"
"Yes I got your fucking message," Roxas bit back instantly. "What the hell was that shit?"
"Oi, language. There're kids here."
Roxas glanced behind him and noticed that there were some infants riding the bus with their mothers, and the women no doubt glaring at him even worse. Normally he got friendly looks from people with his looks, but with his face scarred with a tinge of red, they no doubt thought he was a freak like other people who normally rode the bus.
"Fine," Roxas sighed. "What the heck was that stuff?"
"I just wanted to make sure you didn't forget our little deal," Axel replied, starting to drive again once the light turned green.
"I was drunk. I don't think that should count as a deal."
"Well, how about this. You help us until your wedding. You only have to sacrifice one or two evenings a week until the big day. Then we'll play your show."
"And what if I don't want to?" the blonde growled. Like hell he would ever go to one of 13 Hearts shows again, much less voluntarily to help them. Every time he went to their sets, it seemed, something terrible would happen. "You can't make me help you."
"Well, you're right, we can't," Axel succumbed. "But you can't make us play either. Isn't this what the soon-to-be Missus wants?"
"Isn't there any other way?"
Axel sighed, pausing at a stop sign and looking both ways three times before continuing. "Well, I guess I can bend the rules a little. We'll play for twelve hundred and we definitely get pimping rights for our album."
"But you said you played for six hundred! Doubling the price? That's insane!" Roxas cried. The budget for the ceremony was already being spread paper-thin. Namine could barely afford pea shoots in the food. They couldn't throw away another six hundred dollars just for Roxas' comfort.
"That's business, kid. We need a roadie. Think 'bartering.' We scratch your back if you scratch ours." Axel took a moment to glance back at Roxas quickly before returning his eyes to the road.
Roxas sighed and rested his head back against the window. The road was so bumpy that it ended up just smacking his head against the glass and making his hangover worse. This whole situation was needlessly complicated. If 13 Hearts would just play his wedding like a normal band then he wouldn't have to sacrifice his precious free time. However, Namine really, really wanted them to play. In the end, it wasn't his choice at all.
"Okay, fine, whatever. I'll be your roadie."
"Great! We're playing tonight at this little place called the Commons. You've probably been there." The Commons was a popular hangout for a lot of college students. It was actually a part of the student union and owned by the university, but Roxas had never been there longer than a few minutes in the afternoon to grab lunch in the food court. The Commons was underground in the basement and always felt a little foreboding. "We're playing to an older audience than last Saturday. I think you'll enjoy yourself this time."
"Whatever, I don't care," Roxas sighed, just wanting to get the night over with already. "What time should I show up?"
"At seven," Axel answered sweetly. "There really isn't a 'doors open' time, but the show starts at eight. We should be wrapped up by ten-thirty or eleven."
Roxas didn't understand how Axel could handle driving on a bus for hours a day and then getting off his shift in time to play a three hour show. The automated voice on the tram announced his stop on the corner near the coffee shop, and he stood and prepared to leave.
"I know it seems like we're not really giving you a choice here, Strife, but… I just wanted to tell you 'thanks'. A lot of guys wouldn't go through this shit just for a lousy cover band." Roxas turned to the redhead, who was giving him a genuine smile as he held the lever that held open the door. At that moment, Roxas thought that maybe he understood why Axel seemed to be so respected. Even to Roxas he certainly was an extroverted person.
"Okay," Roxas mumbled, nodding. "I'll be there at seven…" He stepped off the tram and stood for a moment. Remember, he's the one that wrote all over your face with a silver sharpie. But for some reason that issue seemed trivial. The tram breaks hissed as it started to lurch forward, and quickly Roxas turned and knocked on the door.
Axel stopped the tram before it had a chance to go anywhere and opened the door again. "What's up? You forget something?"
"Roxas."
"Huh?"
"My name… is Roxas. Roxas Strife."
Axel raised a meticulously dyed red eyebrow and smirked. "That's the most hardcore name I have ever heard. Are you sure you weren't supposed to be a rock star instead of me?"
"I think Axel's a very rock star name," Roxas stated.
The redhead rolled his eyes and turned his head towards the windshield. "Whatever," he laughed. "That's cool, though," he said with that same smile. "I'll see you tonight, okay?"
Roxas nodded, realizing he was holding up the tram and the people on it were starting to stare again. "Yeah," he nodded. "See you tonight." He jumped off the tram one last time and it drove off noisily and around the corner.
Reaching into his back pocket once again, Roxas checked the time on his phone and confirmed what he feared. He only had enough thirty minutes to get to class. The apartment that he and Namine shared was a plush, furnished room with a nice view of downtown. It was centered just ten blocks away from campus. If Roxas were to sprint, getting to class wouldn't be a problem, however it would come at the cost of not showering off the stink and filth from last night.
Roxas was at an impasse. Namine had called worried about him, but she was probably in classes right now, too. She had an appointment with Tifa at four, so her day was going to be just as busy as his. Forgetting about school and going up to his apartment would be a dream, but he couldn't just skip. He could never understand clearly why Hayner could skip classes so liberally. If the blonde were to miss one day of classes he would be SOL and without a hope of passing, and the only way he could afford such a nice apartment for him and his fiancé was because his father was paying for it, as long as good grades came in. Yes, Roxas was a rare breed. He had never missed a class in his entire life. So, sprinting it was.
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After a long afternoon of sitting through lectures, and one pop quiz (which Roxas used as a good excuse for skipping basic hygiene for class), the tuckered blonde unlocked the door to his apartment and sauntered inside.
Before he even had a chance to take his coat off, Namine called out to him from the living room. "Roxas! Company!" Not even waiting for a reply, his fiancée went right back to talking about wedding matters. Roxas assumed she was talking to Tifa, and turning the corner into the den, he was right. While Namine kept her head in her books, Tifa looked to Roxas and smiled.
The busty raven-haired woman sat on the couch, where Roxas was hoping to take a nap, wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a black sweater vest pulled over it. She had the body of a battle axe and wasn't afraid to show it off, completing her look with a tight pencil skirt, but stare too long and you'd get cut. Fortunately, Roxas was blessed with the good grace and the muzzy attentiveness of a kindergartener and didn't notice.
He trumped through the living room, muttering something about going to bed early and heading towards his room, before Tifa stopped him. "Oh, Roxas, I just wanted to thank you so much for helping out with the show."
The blonde paused, almost forgetting everything about that night. He almost wanted to question how Tifa could possibly know, then he remembered she and the red headed punk were cousins. "Yeah… No problem." Roxas checked his phone and discovered it was almost six. If he took a shower and left immediately, he might arrive to the set on time.
"It really means a lot to Axel. His band is his life, and with their last roadie leaving for school, they can use all the help they can get."
With a deep sigh, Roxas kicked all hopes for a nap out the window. Stepping into the bathroom, he took one look at his reflection in the mirror and bit back a scream. His face was red, worse than Axel's fire engine red hair. He touched his cheek and it stung like a sunburn. Most of the red was centered around his forehead and cheeks, but he noticed that some pimples that plagued his normally flawless skin were popping up on his forehead and chin. He stepped into the shower and hoped that some of Namine's skin soothing lavender lotion would help. While it helped relieve the burn, it wasn't enough to make the red go away.
There was absolutely no way Roxas was going to go to a show with a red, pimply face. Axel may have been a little forgiving, since it was all his fault, but the rest of the band members would probably have a field day if they saw his warped skin. No matter how he adjusted his bangs, he couldn't cover up the red, and his cheeks were impossible to hide. Using a ski mask was right out, and Roxas could only think of one logical, albeit terrifying solution.
He could hear Namine still talking with Tifa in the living room, laughing about something. He hoped she wouldn't be bad if he interrupted."Namine!" Roxas shouted. She called back asking what he wanted, and for modesty's sake Roxas wrapped a towel around his waste. "Can I use some of your makeup?"
There was a short pause before her voice replied, "…Why?" Namine walked into the bedroom and the bathroom attached to it. Without knocking she opened up the door and gasped when she saw her boyfriend's face. When he had come home she was so busy with her wedding planner meeting that she didn't look at him. "What happened?" she cried, taking two steps towards him and touching his face gingerly.
"Long story. Allergic reaction or something." To tell Namine about the toothpaste escapade would mean to tell her about the silver sharpie message Axel wrote across his face. Roxas knew that if Namine knew what Axel did to him she'd treat him like a bully. She'd probably say something along the lines of 'You shouldn't hang out with that Axel fellow. He's a bad seed.' Like his mother.
"You poor baby." She pouted and gave him a quick peck on the cheeks. "Let me see what I have…" She opened the drawer next to the sink, the one that all girls have the men are afraid to open. It was filled with perfumes and colored powders and waxes. Namine pulled out a small bottle of skin colored liquid and dabbed some on a foam swab. "Okay, this might feel a little uncomfortable…"
The sensation of the makeup being applied made Roxas' stomach queasy. It was like a layer of second skin being applied. It was cold, runny, and felt sticky. The foundation made the fine hairs on his face stick down. "Stop stretching your face," Namine said, trying to smear the stuff over his cheeks. "I'm going to have to put more on than normal to make this go away. This is a really bad reaction," she muttered. "I didn't know you had any food allergies. What did you and Hayner do last night?"
"Well, we went to the show," Roxas said, trying to remember everything. Last night was such a blur. "We saw Axel's band perform some covers, and they're actually really good at that." Although he didn't remember much about talking with Axel backstage, as the pictures on his phone suggested he had done, he forced himself to come up with a believable story. "We… ah, talked with Axel, I guess. He said he would play the reception, but his band needs a little help… roadie stuff, I guess… so I, uh, volunteered."
Namine had a mixed expression on her face. "Wow," she stated with a strange smirk. "That's… oddly helpful of you Roxas."
"You think?"
"I like it. It's good to help other people, you know. I thought you didn't like that band…" She took out a small brush and started sweeping in the foundation even deeper. "But it's wonderful that you got them to play. Thank you so much for going to see them again." She placed the bottle with the foundation on the counter. "Finished." Roxas turned to look at his reflection in the partially fogged mirror. There was almost no trace of the rash anymore. Namine was a miracle worker with makeup. It was probably why her face was always so flawless.
Roxas smiled and bent down, briefly brushing his fiancé's perfect lips. She gave him a hug, and they stayed like that for a moment in the bathroom. "I'm so glad things seem to be going together," she said complacently. "I'm looking forward to this. It's going to be great." She started giggling as her hands crept slightly lower to the edge of the towel and pulling it down. "How much time do you have before the show."
"Tifa's right outside," Roxas murmured with a smirk, grabbing his towel and pecking her on the forehead. "But not that much time, I'm afraid." He followed her out of the bathroom and walked past to the closet. "I don't even know what to wear to a show," he grumbled. The first time he went to a 13 Hearts show was caught off guard, the second time he was dressed for a nice club, but this third time was going to be different.
"Oh, jeans and a tee and you'll be fine," Namine said with a smile, leaving the room to return to Tifa after shutting the door.
Roxas had an old pair of painter's pants that he wore when they first moved into the apartment. The walls were painted an eggshell color when they first arrived, and Namine wanted everything painted perfect, pristine white. The pants were still in good condition, save for a few white paint stains. As for a shirt, he didn't own many t-shirts that weren't used for working out. The best he could come up with was a black button-up collared shirt.
After the clothes were thrown on, Roxas rushed back into the bathroom to finish dolling up his hair. While Namine focused more on makeup, her hair was usually nothing more than a flat iron and some hairspray on humid days. Roxas' face was naturally clear if he used the right soap, and the occasional inescapable zit rarely got the best of him. It was his hair that Roxas really took pride in. His hair was a perfectly sculpted crow's nest, every spike and every curve in just the right place. Roxas had his own drawer filled with putties and hair creams to make sure that once it was set, it would last the entire evening. With fifteen minutes to spare, he sprayed some cologne across his chest so his shower wouldn't be a waste.
"I'm heading out," he sighed as he grabbed his coat again and leaving. Namine gave him a brief goodbye and Tifa thanked him graciously once again.
Roxas had never gone to the Commons before. While Axel told him to meet there, he didn't tell him where exactly to meet in the building. It was a ten minute walk to the building, and Roxas picked up the pace to get to the student union before seven. The stairwell to get downstairs was easily marked and there were a few students already heading down.
The Commons was a dimly lit area, and the first thing Roxas noticed was a pool bar. Some students were playing games and ordering from a bar in the back corner. There was even a small arcade in the farthest corner with air hockey and Galaga. Most of the lights were bright, rainbow color spotlights that would change location every few seconds. Near the arcade was a small stage, possibly smaller than the one 13 Hearts performed on last night, with a drum set already set up.
Roxas headed towards the stage and looked for a familiar face. Most of the people already standing near the stage looked like students who had just come from class, wearing normal clothes. They didn't look like the punk kids from the Organization or the older, dressed-to-impress socialites from Traverse. The blonde was starting to wonder just how many different audiences 13 Hearts catered to.
"Hey, Roxas!" He turned around and saw Axel walking up to him quickly from the opposite side of the building. His stage clothes this time were fitted gray pants with cargo pockets and a long-sleeved green shirt. The shirt was very low-cut and a small lion was stitched on the front with gold thread. "You're awfully punctual." He turned and pointed a spot on the wall next to the pool tables. "We're over there."
Standing on his tiptoes, Roxas was able to just barely make out the top of Marluxia's pink hair. When he and Axel approached them, Roxas noticed that all of their equipment, save for Marluxia's drum set, were standing with them. "Where's your room?" Roxas asked.
Axel shook his head and rested his back against the wall. "We don't get one, so we pretty much have to watch our stuff until our set." It was even more difficult to imagine a band that had brought two completely different audiences to the floor having to stand and wait to play a set.
"What do you want me to do for now?" Roxas asked.
Axel pointed to a box and folded card table leaning against the wall. "Since you're here, you can man the merch booth." He grabbed the table, and Roxas helped him out by lifting the cardboard box. He followed Axel to an empty area near the exit and placed the box on the table once it was assembled. "Okay," Axel began, opening the box and pulling out a small safe. "This is the money box. Guard it with your fucking life. There should be enough money for change. Inside the box is our CDs. They're ten dollars a pop, no exceptions."
The redhead crossed his arms and smiled as Roxas took the CDs out of the box and tried to make a nice display out of them. "Seriously, Roxas, thank you so much for doing this."
"You don't have to thank me," Roxas sighed. "Like you said, I don't really have a choice here."
The smile of Axel's face disappeared for a moment before returning to its former glory. "Right," he said, nodding absently. "I guess this is it for today. Just hang out around here, enjoy the music, and be sure to tell people before they leave to buy a CD."
Roxas looked at the cover of their debut album. It was a black background with a silver zippo lighter, the number 13 embossed against its silver surface. The flame coming from the lighter was in the shape of a heart. Roxas glanced up and noticed Axel was still standing there.
"Is there anything else?"
The front man shook his head. "No, that ought to do it. We're not really expecting a rough crowd, but if you need any help just holler."
In a flash, Axel's red spikes were lost in a crowd of students starting to crowd closer to the stage. Roxas took another moment to look around the Commons. There were posters all over the walls featuring the same lighter and heart image that was on the cover of 13 Heart's album. It looked very homemade. The message read "Bastion-local punk band 13 Hearts featuring Never-Never-Wonderland and Agraballaz. 18+ and no cover!" Added to the bottom on the flyer in girly handwriting was "Please come!" with a little heart at the end.
With no cover and no age limit like the rest of the shows, music junkies were flowing in like fish downstream. There were a few people who would glance at Roxas, but nobody stopped by the booth or gave the CDs a second look. The blond leaned against the wall and prepared for a long night.
The first band to play, Agraballaz, was just two people. It was rather an amazing feat. There was a man, Roxas' age, he figured, standing by the microphone with a guitar plugged into a turn table instead of an amp.
"Hey guys, my name is Allen," the man in the front announced. He turned to the other rather large man behind the turntable, "And this is Gene. We're the Agraballaz. Enjoy." For such a mellow entrance, their music was loud and distorted to perfection. Allen's guitar was warped and altered by Gene pressing buttons and turning discs to make it sound nothing like any guitar Roxas had ever heard. When Allen started singing into the mic, even his voice was distorted. Allen's soft voice he had used in his introduction was turned into a grubby, rough sound where the words couldn't be deciphered.
There wasn't a drummer or a bassist, so instead all of the beats were controlled electronically through Gene. He hands moved all over his turntable creating impromptu solos and digital melodies. It was very much a grungy dance anthem and all the students moving along. Most of the students in the back stood still with their arms crossed, and once in awhile some would shout out, encouraging the band. The closer the audience was to the front the more they would dance. Most near the front were girls who were dancing with each other and screaming towards Allen.
After four more songs, Agraballaz was out and Never-Never-Wonderland came onstage. This band was more traditional with a lead singer, a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer. The lead singer had ginger red hair, a much more natural color compared to Axel's. He gave no introduction to the audience, and instead turned to his band and counted to three.
Their sound wasn't exactly metal, and wasn't exactly punk. Roxas squinted at the loud noise and resisted covering his ears. The boys in the audience started ramming into each other much in the same way the teens were moshing on Saturday night. He noticed some of the girls that were dancing to the music earlier were starting to get crushing by the boys moshing. Some of the girls joined in on the mayhem, but most frowned and started moving to the side.
The man singing probably had more energy than Axel had put on display in previous shows. He jumped on amps and kicked tables and would just scream into the mic with no repercussions. There was a break in the crowd and Roxas was able to see 13 Hearts still leaning against the same wall. Axel was glaring at the audience with a look of, if Roxas' eyes weren't deceiving him, hate.
The mosh pit fell in his line a vision and seemed to get dangerously close to 13 Hearts. As the kids on the floor stood back up and started to rush the other side with encouraging words from the singer. When the area cleared around 13 Hearts, Roxas saw that Axel was missing and Luxord, Xigbar, and Marluxia were looking into the mosh pit with worried face.
Where was Axel? Was he actually pulled into that? Roxas couldn't abandon his booth, but he couldn't very well just stand there if someone was getting hurt. Before he had a chance to act, he saw Axel's flaming red hair break through the back of the mosh pit and he ran towards the booth. In his arms was a younger student, a girl with a gaping wound in her leg.
"Axel!" Roxas shouted over the noise. He had a red mark on his face that was destined to become a bruise by tomorrow morning. His eyes turned to the girl limping next to him. She wore a purple hoodie that hid her face. "Is she okay?"
"Yeah, she's a fighter," Axel said. "She got dragged in. Look out for her a second, I'm going to get a kit." The front man left the girl with Roxas as he fought his way to the bar. Roxas turned to the girl and examined her leg. He didn't have anything to clean it with, so he settled for helping her sit comfortably on the floor against the wall.
She pulled the hood down from her face and cringed. "Fuck!" she cried, grabbing the area around the scratch. Roxas instantly recognized her face as the white-haired girl Hayner had flirted with at the Organization show.
"Hey, I remember you."
The girl looked up at him with a look of recognition, then a curt frown. "The prick," she labeled. Roxas laughed nervously, trying not to make the girl that had just gotten trampled upset.
"Yeah, I guess. Where's your friend?" Roxas asked, remembering the large tanned boy that had shadowed the small girl while they were at the Organization.
"Studying," she bit out. On a Friday? What kind of high school student studies on a Friday night? And speaking of high school students…
"You know, this is an eighteen up show. What are you even doing here?"
This earned Roxas a real heated glare from the girl. "I am eighteen," she hissed.
Roxas grumbled and glanced behind him, noting Axel was still trying to get the bartender's attention to get a first aid kit from behind the counter. "Sorry. You look really young, I guess." So it wouldn't have been a felony if Hayner were caught flirting with her. Since her best friend was obviously a student, he wondered if perhaps they went to the same university as him. "What's your major?"
"Communications."
Roxas tried really hard not to laugh. "Oh, really? I have a friend in Communications. Do you know Olette Diaz? She wants to be a news broadcaster."
The silverette glared at him. "Journalism. Print." Which meant that while they were in the same school of communications, they were in completely different departments and would probably never see each other.
"Oh, so like blogs and stuff? What do you want to report about?"
The girl looked into Roxas' eyes. She opened her mouth in an attempt to say something, but she no words came out. She spent a good ten seconds with her mouth agape but silent.
"Here we go!" Axel said happily, approaching the two with a small white box. "How's it going, Fuu?" The redhead sat down next to them and opened the first aid kit, taking out a small bottle of antibacterial wash. Axel frowned as he dug through the box deeper. "God, could there be any less swabs?" He uncapped the bottle and looked at the young girl in the eyes. "Sorry, but our set starts in five minutes, and this is going to hurt."
He dumped half the bottle over the cut on her leg. Roxas had spent the last few minutes trying to make her forget about the pain, but all that was lost as the alcohol sizzled down her leg. Fuu's face turned bright red as he tried to hold back a piercing scream.
"The worst part's over!" Axel said with a rewarding smile. He took a sheet of gauze out and placed it over the cut, which had been cleaned to reveal that it was a much smaller cut than it seemed without the blood. It looked like someone had stepped on her with a rubber-soled boot. Roxas cringed once he got a better look at it. It probably hurt like hell. Axel took a roll of soft medical tape and wrapped it around her calf and on top of the gauze multiple times. It wasn't very pretty, but it got the job done.
"Hey, Axe! We're on!" Xigbar called from across the room.
The front man grinned again and placed his hand on Fuu's shoulder. "All right, girly. Are you ready to rock?"
She smiled at him and took his hand, standing back up on her feet without much trouble. "Always."
Axel nodded one last time. He turned to Roxas and caught his eyes for a brief moment, winked, and turned back to his band. In an instant they grabbed their equipment and disappeared into the crowd. They popped up again on stage, and Axel set up his mic and plugged it into the amp.
"Okay guys," he spoke to the crowd. "That last show was a little rough, for everyone." Judging by the look of the crowd, everyone was haggard and exhausted, sweating and looking all-around drained.
"I'm going to tell you to do something a little different this time. Girls to the front."
Axel was met with a couple of crude calls from the audience. The front man rolled his eyes and strapped on his guitar. "Yeah, you think I'm kidding, but I'm not. I want the girls to own the dance floor tonight. Boys, get out of my fucking sight. Now."
There were a few murmurs from the audience, mostly angry and upset, as the boys started moving towards the back of the room. The girls that had been all but forced and shoved into the sides of the floor cheered and rushed to the front. When Roxas looked next to him, Fuu was gone.
"That's what I like to see," Axel nodded as the crowd started to split. "Feel free to have fun, everyone. But I don't want to see anybody coming from a show bloody and bruised when they don't want to be." He turned to the female audience in the front of him. "Don't take no shit from anyone. Take a chance to dish it out yourself every once in a while. This song is called I Cried My Bleeding Heart Out For You." Marluxia counted them down and the song ripped open with a drum solo.
From what little Roxas could glean from his singing, Axel was actually singing a love song. Until he started yelling about death and killing, but that seemed average for a 13 Hearts song. The guys that were standing closer to him seemed to be standing awkwardly while the girls rioted in the front.
"Don't! Let! Anybody tell yah that cha' can't! Yah can't? Kick their fucking asses against the wall! Stand tall! Life is yours don't make them take! Take it from them instead!"
The girls screamed happily, shouting the songs along with him. Roxas couldn't enjoy the show too much from as far back. He took one of the CDs on the table and looked at the back. It a list of all of the track names from their original songs scrawled on a charred sheet of notebook paper.
'The Mount of You on Me' 1:46
'Deadly Night Shade' 2:50
'Xigbar is a Dick' :45
'Lick It Like Luxord' 1:03
'She's So Gay For Him' 3:29
'Fire of My Eye' 2:34
'Every Time I Think Of You I Bite My Lip and Bleed a Little' 2:12
'Revel Boy' 1:55
'I Cried My Bleeding Heart Out For You' 3:02
'Lover Fucker Man' 2:33
Roxas looked up at the band again. Axel was still rocking out just for the girls. Between songs he would talk to them and tell them not to be treated like garbage. "You guys deserve love if you want it. You deserve someone who will treat you good if you want it good, who won't step all over you and ignore you and push you to the side without your consent when you spent good money to be here tonight!"
A girl near the front shouted, "There wasn't a cover!"
"Fine, whatever. Shut the fuck up and listen to this little gem."
The set continued on for another half hour before Axel took a short break to drink water. He took a swig and spit it out at the audience. Luxord winced and rolled his eyes, not liking his stage antics. Roxas had almost lost track of time when Axel spoke into the mic, looking past the audience towards a man he couldn't see.
"Hey, Will, how much more time do we have? …oh. Okay… Shit." He turned to the audience. "Okay, guys, really sorry, but we've actually overplayed our set, like, twenty minutes." Axel pulled back his sleeve to look at his watch, cringing when he saw the time. "Thanks for coming out! You guys are so fucking awesome. Girls, you were awesome. Our CD's in the back! Ten bucks, check it out!"
Suddenly there was line at the booth at least seven people long. Most were girls digging into the purses for their wallets. In the next five minutes 13 Hearts made a hundred dollars easily. Roxas was blown away as the line kept growing and students were throwing down cash for CDs, sometimes more than one at a time. Some were asking if there was a jar to place tips.
After the crowd finally died down, Axel appeared next to Roxas and hovered around him like a gnat. The blonde even went so far as to swat him away.
"So how many did we sell? Huh? Huh?"
"Relax," Roxas sighed, selling an album to the last customer before marking it off on a sheet of paper. Doing a quick count, he raised a brow and smiled. "Seventeen."
Axel grinned triumphantly and high-fived Xigbar. "That's our best yet!"
"Congratulations," Roxas praised. Axel seemed to not be able to take his eyes off him, and it made the blonde admittedly very nervous. "…What?"
"Your face looks really cleared up… Are you wearing-"
"OHkay," Roxas cried, folding up the box the CDs were in. "When's the next show?" he asking while knocking the card table on its side so he could collapse the legs.
"Tuesday night, for me. But you don't really need to be there for that one," Axel answered.
Roxas was a little disappointed. He had a lab Tuesday nights anyway, so it wasn't like he'd be able to help out even if he wanted to, but he had fun tonight and found himself looking forward to doing it again. "Where do you want me to put this stuff?" he asked, handing the cash box over the Axel.
The only people left in the Commons were the band, Fuu, and some of the workers. Roxas was starting to assume that Fuu was a good friend of the bands. "Just leave it there. We got it. I know you've had a long day, go home."
Roxas was seriously expecting helping Axel's band to be more difficult. He had almost had… fun tonight. Roxas nodded to the band, the redhead being the only one paying attention to him. They waved goodbye and Roxas headed towards the stairwell in the outside hall. Before he could open the door, someone called out to him.
"Wait!"
It was Fuu. Her leg must have still stung because she was limping down the hall. Roxas decided to meet her halfway. "What's up?"
It looked like she was struggling with her words again. For a moment it looked like she had a lot to say, but all that came out was "…Thanks." It wasn't a lot, but coming from a tough girl like Fuu, Roxas could tell it meant something.
She reached into a flap she had pinned to her pants, pulling out a small booklet. It was made of copy paper folded up and stapled by hand. "A zine?"
She nodded and smiled before turning back around and returning to the Commons. Roxas took a moment to look at the booklet. On the cover is read 'Magic Train,' and there was a cartoon of a train being conducted by a depressed looking teenager wearing black. Apparently it was the seventh issue, and it was interviewing seven bands. 13 Hearts was one of them, which promised to be interesting reading later.
Finally finishing his day, Roxas walked back upstairs and breathed the chilled night air. It had a cleansing effect on his skin, and he couldn't wait to go home and wash all that makeup off of his face. It was past midnight by the time he got home, and Namine was asleep on the couch with her wedding planner binder opened on her stomach. Roxas smiled and moved the binder on the floor and covered her with a blanket. He placed a small kiss on her forehead before moving into the bathroom and cleaning up. Finally, Roxas collapsed on the bed and fell asleep immediately.
xxxXXXxxx
So I had something funny/incredibly embarrassing happen in the reviews. I quoted the wrong band to the wrong song in chapter 1, which completely blew my mind. I got a couple people commenting on the gaff and my first response was "Yeah, I know that, duh. Why are you telling me something I- oh shit." So I went back and fixed it. (If you didn't catch the mistake, don't worry about it). What's really funny is that, it's true, I get a lot of those bands mixed up a lot. My brother is really into 80s/90s hair bands and his enthusiasm for the genre helped influence a lot of the song choices in this story, as far as classic rock goes. (He likes to tell a story of one time, like summer 2014, he was in his driveway washing his car with Def Leppard playing on the stereo and a neighbor going on a jog stopped to chat and told him "Funny music! Is this a joke?" and my brother didn't know what to say, because his love for Def Leppard is pure.)
Fuu's a riot girl in this story, and 13 Hearts, while not having any women in band, support her and the movement. At the time of writing this story I was in school and taking some women in media classes, which included a feminism and rock culture class. If the idea interests you at all I recommend listening to some Bratmobile, El Tigre, Sleater-Kinney, and Bikini Kill (amongst many, many others) and picking up "Girls to the Front" by Sara Marcus.
As for Roxas' skin allergy, when I was a kid I was always the first to fall asleep at slumber parties, which is the highest form of social suicide when you're 11. I've had baby carrots dropped into my mouth, girl's scribbling with marker on my arms, hands in bowls of water, hands in bowls of whipped cream, but the worst - the worst - was waking up with toothpaste smeared over my face. I went into the bathroom to wash it off and was horrified to discover that the chemicals in the toothpaste had absorbed into my skin, giving my face a huge rash that lasted for days. Not that I'm bitter about it or anything. I've never actually tried to use toothpaste to remove sharpies before, but what works surprisingly well is hand sanitizer. It doesn't take it all off, but it does a really good job.
Hope you guys are enjoying and still sticking with me! I sorta wanna post more than one chapter a week but since they can get long I'm trying to limit it so people don't get burned out. So for now, I guess expect updates on Mondays between 11a-1p central time. As always, I appreciate feedback in any form, so leave a review if you want or follow/fav!