Chapter six
Axel liked the way Roxas clung to his arm as the entered the building where the rehearsal studio was.
"Don't be nervous." He whispered in Roxas' ear "I'll protect you."
Roxas let go of his arm like it was on fire
"I'm fine. Quit flirting with me." he snapped "Let's get on with this."
He felt quite calm for someone who was about to meet his favourite band. He marched ahead and pushed the double doors. It was in a large rehearsal space with a stage at one end. On stage a blue haired man was beating out a rhythm on the drums. Next to him a blonde with a weird mohawk come mullet was tuning his bass. A guitar sat alone against a speaker, it's owner nowhere to be seen.
"Roxie." Said Axel as he came up behind him as he watched in awe. "Meet Refrain of Denial."
"Guys" he shouted over the noise "This is Roxas, he's designing our album cover."
"Really? Thanks Axel." The blonde hugged him hard.
Axel was a bit taken aback that the kid could turn his favour so quickly.
The band looked up, the drummer scrunched up his face as though he recognized the blonde from somewhere. He obviously dismissed it as he picked up his drumsticks and joined the rest of the band in front of Axel.
"Roxas, this is Zexion, he plays the drums."
Roxas rolled his eyes and nodded in the direction of the drumsticks that Zexion was holding.
Axel ignored him and continued.
"Demyx plays bass and Marluxia's the main guitar, fuck knows where he is."
"Fuck me" A loud voice came from behind the curtain backstage
A man with long black hair highlighted with grey, stuck his head around the curtain. He was muscular and scarred.
"He's out back with Larxene."
"Roxie, this is Xiggy our roadie. Ignore him, he's just a horny little shit."
"Who are you calling little?"
Xigbar strode up to Axel, he was at least an inch taller.
"What's all the bitching for?"
Marluxia emerged from back stage, doing his trousers up. His pink hair a mess. He got to the centre stage before noticing Roxas.
"We have company? Why didn't anyone tell me."
"You were busy" growled Zexion
"Down boy." Marluxia grinned.
"Bite me"
They glared at each other in silence.
"Let's show Roxas what we do best" Said Demyx, ignoring the glares.
He grabbed Zexion by the arm, pulled him to him to the drums and forcibly sat him down.
"Play" he demanded
Zexion started a beat, it was slow and languid. Not what Roxas was expecting from a Goth Rock band. Roxas didn't know Axel had left his side until his vocals merged with the bass and the lead guitar. The song was a ballad and as much as he admired Marluxia's guitar playing, he only heard Axel's vice, everything else was a fog.
"What do you think?" Demyx called from the stage.
Roxas blinked a few times to regain his focus. His stomach rolling with guilt.
"We usually play rock, but this one was for the fans."
Axel rolled his eyes at the last comment.
Zexion just stared at the blonde, his eyed narrowed. Roxas was beginning to feel a little creeped out.
Before he had time to answer, the door opened.
"Where's our new artist, yo"
Roxas turned to see an almost duplicate copy of Axel, but this one looked a little older and had longer hair. He was also wearing a pinstriped suit. Axel took a deep breath.
"Reno, this is Roxas. Roxas, this is Reno, our manager."
"And his big brother." His smirk was the same as the younger version. He shook Roxas' hand.
"Pleased to meetcha. I hope meeting this lot hasn't put you off working with us, yo.'
"The music was really good." He squeaked
"I just need to go over some paperwork. Let's go to my office."
Whilst Roxas signed piece of paper after piece of paper, the band jammed on the other side of the room.
Axel sat on the edge of the stage, long legs hanging off the edge. He was unusually quiet, listening and watching Roxas closely. Xigbar thumped down next to him.
"He's cute."
Axel nodded mutely.
"He with you or can I have a crack at him?"
"I thought you were hooking up with Dem?"
"He won't mind."
"No and no." The redhead said shortly. Xigbar, sensing a temper tantrum if he said one more word silently departed.
20 minutes later Roxas appeared on the stage at his side.
"All sorted" he said happily
"We're going for a drink, want to join us?" Marluxia called from behind them.
"Shit, Axel, what time is it?'
"After 6, why?"
"I'm gonna be late. I promised Riku I'd be home early."
Axel felt his mood darken
"It's our 6 year anniversary today and he said he had something planned.
"That's not Riku, the billionaires son, is it? I knew I'd seen you somewhere before." Zexion finally spoke, which from the look of his bandmates faces, was very unusual.
"You're Riku's latest boy toy?" asked Xigbar
"I'm his boyfriend, yes." snapped Roxas, annoyed he'd been referred to as temporary. "I have to go home now, see you in a few days."
Roxas rushed out of the studio and started the 10 block walk home. He found the door open when he arrived home.
"'Ku" He shouted. The sound echoed around the empty hallway.
"I'm in the kitchen"
He found Riku in nothing but a pair of leather trousers and a pink frilly apron. It had been a present from his mother and he'd felt bad not using it. He was in front of the oven, taking something out of it.
"How was your day dear?" Roxas asked after standing in the doorway for a few minutes admiring the view.
"Thrilling, and you?"
"I got the job"
"Well done." Riku's voice lowered. "Does that mean you'll be seeing Axel every day?"
"'Ku, are you jealous? No, it means I'll see his brother Reno every few days to go over proofs and redesigns. You have nothing to worry about, especially looking like that" Roxas laughed
Riku had met Reno a few times, and genuinely liked the guy. How he ended up with a brother like Axel was beyond him. They were complete opposites. He was a hard working family man, married to a Tai Quon Do instructor called Yuffie who was just a deranged as he was. He wore a suit to work and had impeccable manners, but he had an irritating habit of adding Yo to the end of sentences.
"Happy anniversary." Riku threw his oven gloves at Roxas who caught them.
Roxas didn't know why he didn't tell Riku about what happened with Axel. He justified that he didn't want to spoil the day and would tell him tomorrow. It would only upset him anyway. Riku also had his secrets. He thought that Roxas hadn't noticed the way he always locked his computer and had password blocked his emails, like there was something he didn't want Roxas to see.
3 months later
Riku threw a copy of a celebrity magazine at Roxas. The picture was of them at a charity ball a year ago, it had a jagged black line between them and the caption 'Beginning of the end?'.
"You knew what the deal was when we got together. This band is too old for you and are wildly inappropriate. If I loose my reputation, that's it, no more lucrative deals or charity functions or television work. No-one will hire me for decades. Then what would we do?"
"Not everything revolves around you Riku. It really grinds that I have friends doesn't it.
"Just one friend in particular." He whispered.
"I lost my friends when we got together. They were fed up with being in the papers all the time. I miss them. Pence, 'Lette, Hay, even Hay's irritating boyfriend."
"I'm sorry Rox"
"You're being such a 'Ku 'Ku Clock. Why do you hate them so much?"
The nickname only came out when Riku was being paranoid and in Roxas' opinion, completely insane.
"I have my reasons. Why do you hang out with them, when you could be here with me?"
"We have fun, we drink beer, we play games at Zexion's"
"Look at the picture, you have been seen pouring yourselves out of clubs at 3am? What do you know about them? This band." Riku said the last two words like they were poison.
"Zexy loves books and can quote Loveless from back to front. Dem was a gymnast in high school until he injured his knee. He took up the guitar in hospital. Marly has an allotment and grows prize winning Begonias. Xiggy's just Xiggy."
"What about Axel?" Riku noticed that he'd been left till last. Not that he wanted to know how well his ex was doing without him.
"He bakes cakes for people's birthdays, speaks French, can beat me on guitar hero with isn't humanly possible and you're right, he's a complete ass.
Riku rolled his eyes
"We are all just friends, no need to panic"
"You can't go anywhere with him"
"Axel? Why not?"
"Just please don't" Riku was virtually on his knees. "He'll want you because he can't have you. He takes things that don't belong to him. He'll taunt you and tease you and flirt with you until you have no resistance left and all you can think of for every second of every day is him. He'll bury himself so far into your life that you won't remember what it was like without him. It's all a game, it excites him, messing around with someones head.
"He stole you didn't he?"
"Just don't get suckered in like I did. He was a mistake that almost cost me my career."
"Trust me 'Ku, that's all I ask. I love you."
"The guy is cold hearted, calculated and a pathological liar."
"People can change."
"Not this one."
Axel was all tattoos and piercings and flamboyance on stage. Off stage, he was someone else entirely that not many people had the privilege of seeing. The casual jeans and t-shirt combo and beer. Lots of beer.
It had been a couple of weeks since the blonde had got the job and they were in Reno's office going over artwork. The elder redhead had left hours ago, returning to his son and wife on the other side of the city.
It was dark outside, street lights shining through the windows. They sat in silence, hands grazing each others when they both reached for the same page of the art book. Roxas pulled his hand back as if it had been burnt.
"Van would go crazy if he knew I was doing this." Roxas slurred
Axel frowned
"He's my brother."
"You've never mentioned him."
"Half brother, his name is Vanitus, he's 10 years older than me. I haven't spoken to him for years, way before I met Riku. Shame, they would have got along. He was only child from Mum's first marriage to a biker called Vinny. Last I heard he'd been busted for carrying a concealed weapon in an airport. Then she met Dad and they had me. I was a surprise"
"I've just got Reno. Mum died when I was 15. I went a bit off the rails, I was angry"
He looked up at Roxas and was surprised that he didn't show the usual look of sympathy he usually got when he told that part of his story. He was sick of that look. He usually just told it for a sympathy lay anyway.
Axel continued, faltering slightly never having never expanded on his life story before.
"It started with swiping hubcaps, then I joined a gang and boosted cars."
"The worst thing I've done is take an extra couple of sweets from the pick n' mix"
Axel smiled at the admission, giving Roxas a few more details felt like the right thing to do
"I got caught when I was 17, got a 6 month suspended sentence. The next time I got caught was when I was 18, classed as an adult I would have had to do hard time. Reno covered for me, Dad found out eventually and kicked me out and that was when I met Riku."
They sat in silence again, looking at the pictures in Roxas' sketch book. Slowly leafing through the pages.
"What actually happened. With you and Riku?" Roxas asked quietly. He knew he wouldn't get the information from Riku, but he wasn't sure he really wanted to know.
"It was before I got my big break. I wasn't ready for the whole dating scene, not ready to be the person Riku wanted me to be. Going to the charity benefits, being seen with him in public, stuff like that. I used to see how far I could push him, like I said, I was angry, but he always took care of me. I got the management job and we both changed, whatever we had just didn't work anymore. It look longer than I predicted for him to kick me to the curb like everyone else and subtlety is not my strong point. After he kicked me out, I stayed with Reno and his family until I went on tour and got a place of my own when I got back. I've never even told Riku about my criminal record. He would have dropped me like a shot."
"Wasn't that what you wanted?"
"No, it was more fun being a drunken bum for a while." Axel grinned.
Roxas grimaced. He felt sorry for Riku, no wonder he had a problem with Axel, he took advantage of him.
"You won't tell him will you? Can I trust you?"
"Of course"
Roxas downed his beer.
"Thanks Roxy. Dad tried his best, but Reno has always kept an eye on me. I want him to be proud of me."
"You're the lead singer of successful rock band, who wouldn't be proud of that?"
"He would really like me to settle down and find someone nice."
Axel smiled shyly and Roxas blushed. Could he be lying about that too? Playing him, like he did Riku.
"Axel is an unusual name" He said, wanting to change the subject a quickly as possible.
"This wasn't my given name. The gang gave me the name."
"What's your real name?"
"Lea".
Then he was back to his normal if slightly drunk self. He leant over and kissed Roxas gently on the lips.
"I'm not like that anymore.
"Prove it. Riku said you're a liar. Have you been telling me the truth?"
"Have I had any reason to lie to you? After we split, I changed. I felt ready to be a proper boyfriend to someone. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I weren't such a screw up when I met Riku. Would I still be with him? Would I be playing happy families and be on the cover of a celebrity magazine every other week. Then I think, I wouldn't be who I am now and I wouldn't have met you."
"You're drunk"
"Not as drunk as you."
"Be good to Riku, he's a good guy. He'll treat you right even if it kills him.
Roxas opened the door quietly when he returned home and walked into the kitchen, to find Riku at the kitchen table with a nearly empty bottle of wine and a glass.
"You're late." Riku slurred
"I was working."
Riku swayed over to the blonde and sniffed his neck.
"You smell different, kinda musky."
"We went to a bar."
Roxas had to tread carefully with his words. Riku never said words like kinda unless he was up to something.
"You smell like Axel." He tilted his head like he was focusing.
How could he know that?
"I borrowed his coat. It was cold."
"I would have come to pick you up."
Riku's eyed narrowed with suspicion. He leant closer to Roxas' ear.
"You fucked him didn't you?" His words were cold and calculating.
"'Ku." Roxas said gently "You know you get extra suspicious when you've had wine. Probably a good idea to quit while you can still stand. Come to bed and we can talk about it in the morning."
"You haven't denied it." A finger of suspicion pointed in Roxas' chest.
"Riku, you have the trust me. I haven't touched him."
"I trust you, I just don't trust him. I know what he's like."
Roxas looked down at the floor.
"You're hiding something."
"We kissed. That's all, I promise."
But when he kissed me, I forgot how to breathe.
Riku picked up one of the empty wine bottles and threw it against the wall
"Get out." He screamed. He didn't look angry, just sad.
Roxas turned, grabbed a bottle of bourbon from the kitchen and left the house, slamming the door. He aimlessly walked, not knowing where to go, just letting his feet guide him.
He bashed his fist on the door of the rehearsal studio, buoyant and warmed from the half bottle of bourbon he had already consumed. He knew Axel liked to work late sometimes writing songs and was hoping that he was still there.
The door was answered by a bleary looking redhead with mussed up hair and jogging bottoms. Roxas has never seen him looking so sexy, but that could have been the alcohol talking.
"Roxie?"
"Do you want me?" He said barging past him and pushing him into a wall
"You're drunk, what happened?"
Axel took the half full bottle and put it on the ground.
"Riku's mad at me" He said in short bursts as he kissed Axel's neck.
"Shouldn't you go back and talk it through?"
"Why? Do you want me or not?"
"Stupid question."
"Is that a no, cos I could always get a motel for the night."
"What do you think."
Axel grabbed Roxas and pulled him to wards him and kissed him hard.
"Right here, right now." Roxas breathed heavily.
