Author's Note: I meant to make the length of the contract ten years, not twenty. Typos. ^^
"So this is your home? I'm impressed." Axel said as he watched a little crystal sculpture of a clown caper across a decorative table. He recognized it as a bonded Swarovski crystal sculpture… they were sold in the Twisted World and he'd always had an eye for things that glittered.
Roxas home was spectacular. He had been right about Vexen… the style was very minimalist and modern… but no comforts had been spared. There were very few servants, though, and the few Axel had encountered so far were indentured servants from class three worlds like himself. It was a bit surprising. Vexen was exacting, but didn't really seem that hard to work for… couldn't he find help in his own world? But perhaps he wanted help he could trust absolutely. Indentured servants couldn't be bribed or bought, thanks to the blood bond.
"It's not bad." Roxas said, a little embarrassed. His home was nothing special among the other children he had grown up with, but after seeing how Axel lived he knew it was exceptional to the redhead. "I can show you around a bit, if you want."
"Please!" Axel smiled at him, and Roxas relaxed a little, smiling back. Soon he was showing Axel around the house, the redhead taking in everything curiously. There was plenty of high technology in evidence… a little sprayer was floating around, moistening the flowers, and there was a small robot vacuum zipping around, taking care of the dust. In fact, the machines seemed to be doing most of the work Axel usually saw done by people.
"This is the library." Roxas waved at the shelves of books. The library was a very big room, although he knew his friends laughed at it… why physical books when a book reader was more convenient? A lot of them were antiques, too, but Roxas had gotten rather fond of them. Fond enough that he often brought a few with him, despite the bulk. Book readers just weren't as nice to curl up on a sofa with. "It's not a bad collection… Axel?" Roxas suddenly stopped with a blink as he realized Axel wasn't following him anymore. He turned around and stared at the unguarded expression on Axel's face as he looked at the books. It was like a hungry man suddenly confronted with a large, juicy steak.
"So many…" Axel whispered, trailing his fingers over the spines of the nearby books. "It is a library." It wasn't as big as the one he had known before but… Axel had to concentrate on taking deep breaths, calming himself. It had been years since he had been in a library of any kind. The Twisted World had a few bookstores, but no libraries.
"You like libraries?" Roxas asked, tilting his head as he watched Axel. His reaction was… strange. He seemed happy, sad and filled with a desperate need for the books. Axel looked up from the books with a small, crooked smile.
"You might say. I grew up in one. My mother was the head librarian." Roxas started to ask another question, but Axel stepped forward and laid a finger across his lips. "Not now, Roxas. Maybe I'll tell you about it someday." Someday when he knew the blond better… and when he wasn't already upset. If he had to tell that story right now, he would end up crying. "Keep showing me around?" Roxas frowned, but nodded.
"Sure." As they walked away, Axel glanced back at the library. He would be there later… and probably every time he had a free moment. His mother had given him many gifts, but perhaps the most profound was his love of books.
"What do you think, Saix?" Vexen laced his fingers together as he watched Roxas and Axel through his datapad. It was linked to all the security cameras in the building, among its other features, so he could observe them at any time.
"It's really not my place to say, sir." Saix said politely, and Vexen sighed.
"Please stop that, Saix. I would like an honest opinion." Vexen had first gotten Saix a very long time ago… when he was only eighteen and Saix was twenty. They had been together for twenty-five years. His contract had been over fifteen years ago, but he had stayed on with a modified blood oath. Vexen knew, abstractly, that Saix should retire and he should find a new bodyguard. Forty-five was simply too old to be the perfect bodyguard, let alone courtesan. Not that they had done much of the second in years. At the very least, he should have gotten a second bodyguard to take over most of Saix's duties… but he kept finding reasons not to. Vexen knew it would hurt the blue haired man to acknowledge that he was old. And it wasn't as if he was unprotected. Vexen had access to items that were supposed to be military only, and the force field generators made Saix job quite a bit easier.
"Well." Saix tilted his head slightly as he looked at the recordings. "He's an interesting one. I don't think I've ever seen one quite like him before." Saix had seen plenty of bodyguard/courtesans come and go. Vexen had the gate to the Twisted World in his house, so he served as the conduit for trade to that realm. And indentured servants were the most desirable commodity, since they were technically legal. Vexen often placed orders with Mongo for other people, and the trader came to their world to finish the bonds. "He's quite a reader." Vexen nodded.
Even in the Twisted World, they had noticed that about Axel. It seemed that he was unable to go by a piece of writing without reading it. If there were papers around, he would gravitate to them, not even considering they might be private. And if he was left with nothing but a pen and paper, pretty soon the paper would be filled with drawings and what looked like hieroglyphics. Vexen had accidentally left Roxas and Axel in his room once, waiting for him, and had come back to find sheets of that. Axel had clearly thought nothing of it.
"I worry that he might be a bit too intelligent." Vexen commented, and Saix frowned. Their type of bodyguards needed to be intelligent, but too much of anything wasn't a good thing. Axel's natural curiosity might make him distractible.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much, sir. His training will keep him alert." Saix shrugged. "If you're worried about it, sir, get someone to take a peek while he's guarding Roxas at school. If anything will distract him, it will be the classes!" Roxas school was an extremely exclusive, private one, so children bringing bodyguards was not exactly unusual.
"Perhaps I shall. I wonder what his story is?" Vexen mused. All of the bodyguard/courtesans that Mongo trained came from some kind of tragic background. Saix had been sold as a slave and brutally treated, in his homeworld, until Mongo had spotted him and given him a second chance. "Well, whatever it is, I'm sure we'll find out eventually." If things continued as they were going, Axel would like Roxas enough to tell him, just as Saix had told Vexen so long ago. "Would you like the rest of the night off to go visit your friend?" Vexen offered, and Saix hesitated a moment before nodding.
"If you don't mind, sir." Vexen smiled sadly and gestured Saix away. Saix was deeply in love with another man, and went to visit him every chance he could. Vexen wasn't deeply acquainted with Xemnas, but he seemed to make Saix happy. That was something Vexen had never been able to do… no matter how much he loved him.
Vexen turned his attention to business and politics, the true passion of his life. It might be a little cold, but it was what he did best.
Axel and Roxas took the monorail to school, and this time Axel had to depend on Roxas to take the lead. He'd never been on a monorail before, although he'd been educated about them and knew what to expect.
The school was a beautiful building of glass and steel, and Axel loved how much light there was inside. His homeworld hadn't had glass like this… clear glass was very expensive there… and the Twisted World had even less. The occasional sonic burst tended to break windows there, as something incomprehensible passed through. This was very pleasant. Axel glanced at the datapad Roxas had given him… he was only getting used to using it.
"Hey! Are you new here? Did you just enroll?" Axel turned at the voice, unsurprised. He'd been aware of the pitter-patter of feet behind them, and smiled at the short brunette boy. The boy smiled back, and it was as bright and open as the sunshine. Roxas looked over from his locker with a small frown.
"No, he's my bodyguard Sora." Sora's eyes widened, and he offered Axel a hand to shake. "His name is Axel."
"Wow! Nice to meet you." Sora sounded sincere as Axel shook his hand. "I've always kind of wanted a special friend like that but dad says it would be silly because who would want to hurt me? Then he laughs a lot." Sora seemed to wilt, and Axel was fascinated. Even his hair spikes seemed to droop. Then he brightened again. "You'll be coming to our classes then! They're really boring." Sora confided, and Axel couldn't help but laugh. Then he noticed Roxas giving Sora a look that was less than friendly, and cocked an eyebrow at the blond. What was this about?
"C'mon Axel, lets go to class." Roxas muttered and walked away, Axel following behind and Sora trailing after them both like a happy puppy. Axel had to resist the urge to ruffle his hair. Several students came barreling down the hallway from the other direction, and Axel moved instantly, unobtrusively putting himself between Roxas and the possibility of a knockdown. Most of the students avoided him easily, but one ran directly into him. Axel grunted as an elbow hit him in the side, and sternly repressed the urge to give the boy a shove. Or worse.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there!" Combined with the grin and smarmy tone, the apology was obviously false. Axel's temper flared as his green eyes went flat, and he smiled gently at the boy. Something about Axel's expression made the grin slide off his face. Or maybe it was the sparks dancing in his hair.
"I'm sure. Why don't you go to class?" Axel's tone made the words a command, and the boy scowled but before he could muster his nerve, an elegant older woman stepped out of a nearby classroom. She was dressed in an elegantly cut green pansuit, wearing glasses and had her hair in a bun. Her hair was black, liberally shot with silver.
"What is going on here? Go to class." She said sharply, and everyone went about their business with due speed. Axel looked her over curiously as Roxas started past, but she held out a hand. "Wait. Who is this?" Sharp blue eyes traveled up and down him, and she frowned at the leathers. "Another bodyguard?"
"Yes Ma'am." Roxas said respectfully, and she sighed.
"Very well. Go to class." She didn't seem at all pleased by the news, but resigned to it. Roxas quickly hurried past, and Axel blinked as he felt Sora grip his hand. The kid was oddly clingy.
"So what was that about?" He didn't have the heart to dislodge Sora, although he thought that he probably should. Roxas glanced back with a frown.
"Oh… that ass was Lex. The teacher was Mrs. Mae-Lin. Uh… she's got a bit of a thing going on about human rights and she really doesn't like the legal loophole that allows indentured servants from other worlds." Roxas brought them into a mostly empty room, and Axel took a seat beside him. The room was full of long tables with comfortable chairs, and it reminded Axel of the lecture halls he had seen. Sora took a seat on Axel's other side.
"So she doesn't like me much?" Axel said mildly. Being disliked didn't really bother him. But Roxas shook his head.
"Oh no… it's me she won't like for having you as a bodyguard and, um, courtesan." Sora's eyes widened at that, and he suddenly squeaked.
"You're a courtesan? Really? Is that like… a lady of the night?" Roxas choked, and Axel grinned widely. He'd seldom heard it phrased like that.
"Kind of. But I don't sell it, it's just a service I give to my master." Axel smiled at Roxas, who blushed. "A very pleasant service. We also provide other services, but I won't go into those." He didn't think Sora was ready to hear about his specialized training in assassination, thievery and the odder sexual interests. Sora looked very curious, but then the other students started filing in and the lesson began.
Axel knew almost immediately that he was completely out of his depth. It was really quite demoralizing. He was smart, he knew that, although he wasn't sure how smart. But his knowledge of math ended at being able to multiply and divide. He didn't even understand the terms they were throwing around, much less understand the equations. Grabbing a pen and paper, he started working on his hieroglyphs, and a few of the more obscure languages. He needed to practice them or he would forget. As part of him concentrated on the languages, the rest of him stayed aware of the rest of the room. It was a blank, waiting awareness that he had perfected years ago. If anything odd happened, his attention would be instantly drawn to it. Nothing did happen, and they finally got up to go to the next class.
"See? Isn't it boring?" Sora chattered, and Axel smiled faintly. It was boring, but that was mostly because he didn't understand. That first class set the pattern for the rest of the day… chemistry, physics, biology… the only one he understood at all was biology, and that only in a hands on sort of way. The knowledge of the best ways to hurt and kill people included some elements of biology. In the darkest sense.
Then came Literature, and that was a surprise.
"Class, it seems we have a new bodyguard in the room." Axel blinked as Mrs. Mae-Lin gestured to him with a smile. None of the other teachers had even seemed to notice him. "Please, stand and introduce yourself." Axel hesitated, then stood as the class whispered. "And tell us something interesting about you."
"Uh." Axel thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I'm Axel Bashanov. I set things on fire for fun." There was a giggle from the class and the teacher gave him a stern look. "Well, not really, but I have fire magic." Then he sat down. He didn't really want to say anything more. He'd only mentioned the fire magic because it was the first thing that came to mind.
"Oooh, fire magic? Show us a trick!" Sora pulled on his arm, and Axel grinned. The kid was irresistible. Shrugging good naturedly, he snapped his fingers and made a little flame dance in the air. The class ooh'd and ahh'd. "Neat!" He quickly released it as the teacher frowned again.
"Thank you, Axel. Now class, go to page 70…" Axel flicked his book reader to the right page, and blinked. This was something he could get into! As the teacher spoke, he dove into the story… but still kept his awareness of the room. That had been drilled into him firmly. No matter what, he would never forget to look for any threats to Roxas.
"Axel, would you read the next passage please?" Axel blinked as the teacher asked him that. He'd been listening to the others haltingly reciting the passages, but hadn't really been paying attention… he'd been too busy reading and studying the room. He certainly hadn't expected the teacher to include him in the lesson.
"In the original language, or translated?" He immediately thought he had said something wrong, as she frowned at him. All the other students had been reading in the original language, which they were clearly not very good at. But he knew he could do both.
"If you think you can translate, please do so." She said politely as the other students whispered. Axel felt his ears go red, and shrugged and began to read. The translation was a little rough in places, where he had to think hard about what word to pick, but it was serviceable. After a few lines, she held up a hand. "Thank you, Axel. Danilo, please pick up where he left off." Soon, the class was over, and it was time to go home.
"Wow, you translated that like it was easy!" Sora said, amazed, and Axel shrugged with an embarrassed smile as Roxas tugged him along.
"Languages are my thing. Math isn't my thing. I don't understand any of your other classes, Roxas." Roxas glanced back with a smile, then frowned at Sora. Axel was really starting to wonder what was up with that. Roxas didn't seem to want Sora around, although he wasn't actually being mean to the brunette. "Do you think your dad's library has any kids' primers? I'd like to learn, but I'll need to start with basics." Axel firmly believed that no knowledge was wasted, and he wanted to understand.
"He probably doesn't, but I can get you some lessons on your datapad." Roxas promised, and Axel smiled.
"Thanks Roxas." He really did appreciate that. Then Sora jumped in.
"I'll see what I can find too!" They reached the monorail, and Sora finally parted from them. "I'll see you both tomorrow!" He waved as they took the monorail back home, and Axel waved back. The kid was just too cute.
"He likes you." Roxas said tonelessly, and Axel frowned at the grim, set look on the blond's face.
"And I like you." Axel said softly, gently cupping Roxas' cheek with one hand. The blond's blue eyes widened as Axel bent down for a gentle kiss. "So don't worry about it, Roxas. He's probably just hoping I'll be a friend, or maybe crushing."
"…Yeah. You're right." It was still a bit uncomfortable, but Axel was right… Sora was probably just crushing. He'd get over it, probably quickly too. "Say, Axel… would you like to play chess?" Axel smiled slowly and Roxas felt his heart skip a beat.
"I'd love to. But I warn you… I used to win money on chess." Roxas blinked. Placing bets on chess? That was a bit odd.
"Well, I'm on the chess team, so do your worst." Roxas threw out the challenge carelessly, and Axel grinned.
"You're on Roxy." He was going to have fun with this. It had been a very long time since he'd had a good chess game.