The rest of the day was just off. Axel and Roxas quietly avoided each other, as Axel worked out then took a very long nature hike. But Axel seemed infected with restless energy, and when he got back he spent the rest of the night in the kitchen. Any other time, Roxas would have been amused and appreciative of the results… scalloped potatoes, cassoulet and a three layer cake with buttercream icing and an alcoholic, fruity filling. But Axel ate hardly anything and Roxas found it impossible to relax. Axel wasn't willing to talk at all, just picking at his food and staring away blankly.
Sex that night was fast and almost violent. Axel was pulling him to the bed, working his clothes off before Roxas could say anything, his green eyes almost feverish. Hot hands trailed roughly over sensitive skin, and Roxas moaned softly. He couldn't deny how good it felt but Axel's intensity was scaring him a little. Soon the redhead was on top of him, kissing him deeply as his hands seemed to be everywhere.
"Axel, the condom." Roxas said through gritted teeth as Axel stretched him. Axel growled, nipping his throat before grabbing a packet off the bedstand. Soon Axel had the plastic on, and was sliding into the smaller blonde. Roxas yelped at the sudden, almost painful intrusion then groaned as Axel wrapped a hand around his erection, squeezing him and stroking in time with his thrusts. The rhythm he set was fast and punishing, pounding the smaller blonde into the mattress with every thrust. Roxas cried out as Axel bit his shoulder, the pain a wonderful counterpoint to the burning pleasure. His own nails dug into Axel's back, leaving red marks as he arched under the redhead. Panting harshly, Roxas finally released with a small scream. Axel came a moment later, gasping and closing his eyes. For a long time they lay together, just savoring the feeling of being together, but then Axel slowly pulled away.
"Sorry." Axel murmured, gently touching the marks on his shoulder. "I hurt you." Roxas shook his head.
"I've had worse." And that was nothing but the truth. He actually liked it a bit rough, sometimes. "Don't worry about it. Do you feel better?" Axel looked better, finally relaxing a bit in the afterglow. Axel nodded, putting his arms around Roxas and cuddling him close.
"It wasn't having sex with my sister that bothered me." He said in a low voice. "It was my dad…" Axel shook his head. "Don't want to talk about it right now."
"It's okay. Just sleep." Roxas comforted Axel gently, and he didn't think about it being strange, that he would comfort his kidnapper this way. It seemed completely natural.
They fell asleep together, and if either one dreamed they didn't remember.
Roxas stared into his bowl of leftover cassoulet, trying to think. He didn't want to put Axel back into the mood he'd been in yesterday. But he wanted to find out more about the redhead and what he'd endured.
"Axel? Uh, can I ask you some things?" Axel looked up from his oatmeal and from his expression, he wanted to say no. But then he sighed.
"Yeah, I guess. I might not answer, but you can ask. What is it?" Roxas blinked and tried to focus. What did he want to ask first? There were so many questions.
"Axel, you and Astrid. Are you…?" Roxas blushed as Axel grinned. He seemed relieved by the question.
"Lovers? Yeah. That was part of our plans when we opened the cake shop. We were going to settle down, have a family, the works. Although not get married." That would be too dangerous, even with false ID's. Roxas stared. "Does that disgust you?" Axel asked lightly, but there was a hint of hurt in his eyes.
"Well… yes! Axel, she's your twin." Roxas couldn't keep the shock out of his voice, and Axel sighed.
"We didn't meet until we were ten, Roxas, and then the situation was bad. How much do you know about adult incest and the Westermarck effect?" Roxas frowned. He'd never heard that term before.
"Not much." Axel thought for a moment, then started to explain.
"Okay, it's like this. First off, I learned about this when I was trying to figure out if we could be arrested for this. The answer is no, although CPS might try to take the kids away." Roxas winced at that. "Now, with adult incest there are two things at work, genetic attraction and the Westermarck effect. Genetic attraction is an instinctive thing. When you meet someone who shares a lot of your genes, it's a signal that if you have a baby with them than that kid will share even more of your genes than normal. To our instincts, that's a desirable thing. But inbreeding isn't desirable, and that's where the Westermarck effect comes in." Roxas ate his cassoulet as he listened, frowning. "It's an imprinting thing. If you live closely with someone for the first six years of their life or your life, it desensitizes you to any attraction. But Astrid and I met when we were ten. That's too late, Roxas. Add in what dad made us do and you can see why the whole twin thing didn't seem very important."
"Oh." It sounded like Axel had given the whole thing a lot of thought. But then, he was living it. Of course he would. "So you love her?" Roxas kept his voice neutral, but couldn't help feeling oddly betrayed at the thought. Although why he would feel that way, he wasn't sure. He didn't want Axel to love him. Did he?
"More than I can say." Axel's voice was husky as he blinked. "But she's- we've talked about this a lot, even with those damn nurses listening, and Astrid wants me to go on. She's wanted me to find someone for over a year now." Roxas swallowed, reaching out to take Axel's hand. "She said she wants me to be h-happy."
"She sounds like a great girl." Roxas wasn't going to judge Axel for his relationship with his sister, not after what he'd seen in those tapes. Axel looked a bit surprised, then smiled shyly.
"Thanks Roxas." He'd really expected the blonde to be horrified and disgusted. And Roxas was a bit disgusted, but he was handling it well. Axel could live with that. "Hey, Roxas, I thought of something I could do for you if you want."
"What?" Roxas suspected Axel was changing the subject before he could ask about his father, but that was okay. He didn't want to push Axel too hard all at once.
"You could send Sora a letter." Roxas stopped eating, staring at the redhead. He seemed to be serious.
"What? Are you serious?" Roxas had thought Axel was too paranoid about getting caught to allow him anything like that. Axel shrugged, smiling slightly.
"It's a small risk. But if I head to Fairbanks and just dump a letter in a random mailbox, there's not much chance they'll be able to figure anything out. I mean, Fairbanks is pretty big and people drift in and out all the time." Roxas nodded slowly. Axel was right, it would be a very minor risk, especially if he kept his hair covered. Which wouldn't be hard at all since everyone was wearing toques or hats now anyway. Winter was definitely coming.
"Thanks Axel, I really appreciate it." Roxas smiled, and Axel was captivated by the happiness in that smile. "Do you have some paper and a pen?" Axel nodded, eating a bit more of his breakfast.
"Sure, I'll get it as soon as we're done eating." There was no real point in getting it now, Roxas couldn't write while he was eating anyway. Axel would have to read the letter before he sent it, to make sure Roxas wasn't giving out any hints, but he was sure the blonde realized that. He was just glad he'd made his lover happy, and it eased his guilt a little to know that they could reassure Roxas' twin that he was alive.
"Riku, do you think he's still alive?"
"I'm sure he is, Sora." Riku tried to comfort his lover as Sora quietly sniffed. Sora was living with him now. When the police had questioned him, Sora had needed to tell them everything about Roxas' lifestyle, and his mother hadn't been happy. She'd been even less happy to find out that Sora had a steady boyfriend. Riku privately thought that she would eventually come around, but on top of the loss of Roxas it had all been too much and she'd kicked Sora out. Which was just fine by Riku, he was more then willing to put Sora up indefinitely. In fact, he rather hoped it would be permanent.
"I miss him so much." Sora was finding that life without Roxas was very, very hard. Roxas had been the down to earth, dependable one, always reminding Sora of things he had forgotten. It had been annoying a lot of the time, but now that Roxas was gone Sora missed those reminders so much. And he was so afraid that Roxas was dead. That was a thought too terrible to contemplate, but Sora knew that with each passing day it was getting likelier.
"We all do." Riku half-lied. Roxas hadn't been his favorite person, but he'd never wished any harm on the blond boy. He'd just wished Roxas would stop trying to protect Sora so much. "The police are trying hard, Sora. I'm sure they'll find him."
"How?" Sora sounded so despairing, and Riku didn't have a good answer. No one had seen who Roxas had gone off with. There were no clues at all. It was as if the blonde had dropped off the face of the earth. Riku could only comfort Sora, and hope the police somehow had a breakthrough that would bring Roxas back safe and sound. Riku frowned, looking up as the phone rang. It was Sora's mom's telephone number. He quickly grabbed it before Sora could.
"Hello?" There was a brief paused before the other person on the line spoke.
"Tell Sora that he has some mail. I'll be at work but he still has a key, he can pick it up at any time."
"I'll tell-" Click. "-him." Riku sighed and hung up the phone. "Your mom is so pissy, Sora." Sora winced, looking down. The estrangement with his mother was really hurtful. "She says you can go pick up your mail anytime you want."
"We might as well get it before supper." Sora had a few things he wanted, like his cell phone bill. It had probably come in. Riku nodded.
"Be good to go for a walk anyway." The air outside was chill but it was a nice, sunny autumn day. They walked over to Sora's mother's place slowly, just enjoying being together. Soon they fetched the mail, then walked back home, Sora glancing through it on the way.
"Cell phone bill, good. New pizza place? Junk… junk… what's this?" Sora frowned at one particular letter, tilting his head to one side. "It's addressed to me and looks handwritten, but there's no return address."
"Probably more spam. They can get clever sometimes." Riku said as they walked into the apartment and started putting their coats away. Sora opened the cell phone bill first, moaning a little at his charges before touching the mystery letter.
"Riku!" Riku looked up sharply at the shock in Sora's voice. "It's from Roxas!"
"What?!?" Riku was standing beside the brunette before he was even aware of moving, trying to peer over his shoulder at the letter. "What does he say? Is he okay? We should call the police to give them that!" Sora couldn't be distracted from the letter, reading it out loud for Riku.
Sora,
I know you've probably been really worried, and I can't blame you a bit. How long has it been? I've lost track of time a bit.
As you've probably guessed, I've been kidnapped. It's not really that bad, though. I can't tell you much about it… he'll be reading this letter… but I'm really okay Sora. I'm in no pain and he says that eventually, I'll be able to go home to all of you. It's a little complicated, but I believe him. How's mom been doing? Have you told her I'm gay or have you managed to just keep that to the police? If you told her I'm ripping your nuts off.
"Your nuts are in danger." Riku murmured as Sora blushed, then kept reading.
The only really bad thing that's happened so far is getting assaulted by a swarm of spiders, and I managed to escape with my sanity intact. Did you know that swarms of spiders really exist? I could have gone through my life not knowing that, but there you go. He says we just have to live and let live, but I wish I had a spray gun like that guy in Arachnophobia.
There's not much else I can think of to say. He'll be reading this, so I can't tell you much about where I am. He says I should be back in a year at the most though, so don't worry too much Sora. I swear, I'm fine and I'll be back to annoy you again.
-Roxas
PS – Tell Riku he'd better be treating you right or his nuts are next.
"Your nuts are in danger too." Sora managed to say before he burst into tears. Riku gently cuddled the brunette, smiling slightly. They were happy tears. Roxas was alive and if the letter was truthful, he would be staying that way.
"We better call the police so they can take the letter." Riku was pretty sure it wouldn't help much, but it would be evidence against someone, someday. If they ever caught the person who had done this.
Elsewhere, a few days earlier.
"Hey, help me unload this thing." Axel said cheerfully to Roxas, who nodded with a smile and came up to help unload the helicopter. It was filled to maximum capacity with food and… ammunition? Axel caught his frown and explained cheerfully. "Deer hunting season. Nothing like fresh venison on the table."
"Ah." That sounded like Axel. Roxas could easily picture him stalking deer through the forest, then gutting and skinning the bodies. Axel didn't seem to shy at any chores, no matter how nasty they were. "I've never been hunting before, can I come?"
"Sure." Axel wasn't worried about giving Roxas a gun. If Roxas shot him, he'd be left with a helicopter he couldn't fly and a computer he couldn't log into. And Axel couldn't believe Roxas would do that anyway. They were getting much closer.
Don't think that. Axel reminded himself. When this is over, he'll go back to his family and I'll never see him again. That thought was painful, though. Axel pushed it away, concentrating on the moment. He'd had a lot of practice at taking things a day at a time.
"What's with all the flowers?" Roxas blinked at the box of fresh flowers. They were all packed into vases with water. It was a little odd, why would Axel bother with flowers that would be gone in a week?
"They brighten up the house a bit. And I, um, put some of them on the elephant's graveyard." Axel said quickly. "It's something Astrid asked me to do." And not something he wanted to talk about. Roxas frowned at him, and Axel had to smile. The blonde looked so cute wearing the fur coat, his cheeks reddening a little with the cold wind.
"You mean the place you buried the family pets?" That would make sense, if Axel and Astrid had been allowed to have any pets growing up. Or if their father had had any. Being a psycho didn't mean you couldn't have pets. Axel laughed mirthlessly.
"I guess you could say that." Roxas stared at Axel for a moment, but he didn't elaborate, just taking the boxes into the house.
"Would the police say that?" Roxas said neutrally, and Axel paused before starting to take the flowers out of the box.
"No, I don't imagine they would." Axel shook his head. "Don't worry about it, Roxas. You can come with me when I put out the flowers if you want." Roxas hesitated, then nodded. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know more about Axel's gruesome past, but he was too curious to just let it go.
"You know, Axel, your family has more skeletons in the closet than a haunted house." Roxas said as he helped put the food away. Axel laughed.
"Yeah, isn't that the truth? Oh look, I got some Molson just for you." Roxas had to grin at Axel's attempt to change the subject, but grabbed a beer. He really did like Molson.
"Thanks Axel." Roxas was a bit amazed by the warmth that was growing in his heart towards the redhead. If only he'd been at home with Axel as his boyfriend, things would have been perfect. Roxas vaguely wondered if that could ever happen. But how?
He'd have to think about it. He wasn't sure he wanted to give the crazy redhead up.
