AN: Don't you just love it when you have an idea for a chapter and you sit down to write it and your fingers write a whole different thing that turns out better than what you had in mind? Well, that's what happened to me on this chapter. And I have to say, it turned out really good. Okay, maybe I'm pushing the angst factor just a little too far but I'm sorry the fingers made me do it!! Anywhos, two people have already seen part of this before I finished because I started writing this at my sister's house and had to post it on my forum so I could sontinue writing it. Though I had an infuriating half-hour of trying to format it because it was being idiotic. Reviewers!
chunkymonkey613
FellowWithTheNeedle
Riku-Stalker
WishingYouWereHere
the masochist and the sadist
Silver Tears 11
hermione494
Sora Keyblader
Tsuzuki Misaki
sanestinsanepersonever
KayChan4U
Terranei Parker
3-2-1xGLOMP
Aly the Trickster
Darkest Soul of Sadness
Shetan Teh Bandit
Yami Dragoness of Dark
TheOptimisticPessimist
weary seer
Moons Calamity
Kageshi
Ferix88
OneKnux
Adalibina
Possumz
Piivi
Raidoni
MangaGirl427
GROTESQUEpanda
The Mishaness
absenceOfPersonality
artspaz
LioraScarlette
Tagi-sama
xxlight-kitsune-chanxx
Ttwist
Adalibina
kawaiifox 1
Tomomoomo
Fallen Wind Rider
shad0wOfn0th1ng
Hikari Aiyano
KristinLeann-Sorry, missed you last time. With so many reviews it's hard to keep track.
Hieisomething
Losttkidd
Tomiko90
Immortal fisheh
SonyxXxSonia
roxas stalking artist
Roxas desu
dark and light heart
I love you all! Okay, I've decided on something. Once I'm done with this, I'm going to write a sequel. Then, or maybe at the same time, I'm also going to write a prequel telling about Riku and Sora. Plus, the spinoff for Hayner and Seifer who are not in this chapter. And I might do a spinoff for Demyx but I'm not quite sure yet. So what do you guys think? Too much? I'll probably write them anyway, I just want to know your opinions on it.
On a completely unrelated note, I updated my myspace after watching the entire Elfen Lied series. It is the greatest anime in the world, I don't care what any of you say. If you haven't seen it, for the sake of all that is good, see it!! Anyway, I redid it all in Elfen Lied and renamed myself Cruor, which is Latin for Blood. I'd appreciate it if you guys would check it out. Just do the regular myspace thing and type in shaehime as keyword. Just like that.
What else? Oh, yeah. Alicia, if you get this far in the story, I just want to say I'm sorry for not tell you it was a yaoi fic. Please don't kill me! -Runs away-
Alright, I think that's enough noting, on with the fic!
Disclaimer: I own Kingdom Hearts, just not the part you get paid for
Roxas opened the door to the apartment quietly and looked around. Axel was nowhere to be seen. That was strange, he had just talked to him not even an hour ago, where could he be?
"Axel!" He called, just in case he was in his room. He opened the door and found it empty. So he definitely wasn't here. Where was he?
The blonde sighed and sat down on the couch, flipping on the TV to some random channel. Tomorrow was Friday, but he couldn't bring himself to be happy about it. His mind was too full with what had happened with Riku. Was it alright to just leave him alone like that? After all, the platinum-haired boy was his friend. And while Roxas may not have agreed with his actions, or even wanted them, friends were supposed to be there for each other. Right?
He groaned in frustration. He didn't know what he should do in this situation. Why wasn't Axel here to help him out of this? Oh, if only the redhead had a cell phone.
He waited on the couch for most of the night, and still Axel didn't come home. Roxas glanced up at the clock nervously every few seconds. Where could he have gone to make him stay away so long without even so much as a call? Didn't he have any consideration? Just as Roxas was about to go out and look for him, the door opened and the pyro himself walked in.
"Where the hell have you…?" He stopped short as he took in Axel's appearance. He looked a mess. His eyes were out of focus, his hair was sticking up at odd angles and caked with mud, his shirt was torn, and he had faint but unmistakable bruises disappearing into his hairline and under his shirt.
"Axel…?" The redhead looked up at him, gave a weak half-smile, and toppled forward onto the ground.
"Axel!" Roxas was at his side in seconds. Placing a hand on Axel's back, he found his heartbeat to be erratic and his breathing strained. What the hell had happened to him?
"Geez, Axel…" The blonde flipped him over and rested his boyfriend's head on his lap. The redhead's eyes were half-lidded and didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular. They had lost their glow and looked more like stones than actual eyes. He was a real mess, and Roxas didn't know what he should do. Hell, he didn't even know what was wrong.
"Axel…" The blonde shook him. "Axel?" Nothing. He wasn't responding at all. "Oh, shit, oh shit." Roxas set the redhead down on the floor gently and went to the kitchen. He picked up the phone and dialed 911.
"911, what's your emergency?"
"It's my…roommate," Roxas said. Even though he was worried, he still remembered to refer to Axel as his roommate. "He came home and collapsed and he looked really bad. I can't wake him up and his heartbeat and breathing are uneven." Roxas clutched at his hair, spiraling into hysterics. "I-I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I think he's really hurt."
"Okay, okay," The woman on the other end said soothingly, "Give me your address and I'll send an ambulance over right away. Don't worry."
Roxas took a deep breath and told her the address of Axel's apartment. Once she had hung up, saying an ambulance would be there in 5 minutes, he went back into the living room. Axel was in the same spot the blonde had left him in. He looked, if possible, worse than he had before. Roxas sat down beside him again and rested the pyro's head on his legs, stroking his hair soothingly. When he touched his cheek he found it heart-stoppingly cold. Please, he willed, Just hold on a little longer.
When they finally did, they had to practically pry Roxas from Axel to get him into the ambulance. The blonde was devastated to find out that he couldn't ride with them and would either have to find a ride or walk. As he watched them load the redhead up and drive away, he felt tears begin to prickle at his eyes. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. He hung back for a few seconds before finally running towards the hospital.
Roxas had been told to wait in the waiting room. Apparently, they needed to stabilize Axel and couldn't have anyone in the way. As long as they fixed him, the blonde was happy to oblige.
But it was torture, not knowing what was going on. Or even whether or not Axel was going to survive.
Finally, a doctor came to speak to him. "Are you related to Axel Nageshi?"
Roxas stood up. "Uhm, no I'm not. I'm his roommate. He doesn't have any family that he knows of." The blonde stared at the doctor pleadingly. "He's going to be okay, isn't he?"
The doctor sighed. "Well, he's stabilized but only just. He had a very high amount of alcohol in his bloodstream. How he even made it back to your apartment I'll never know."
"Alcohol? You mean he'd been drinking? That's impossible, I talked to him right before I got home and he seemed fine." Besides, he said to himself, Axel was under the legal age.
"My guess is that he left after you talked to him. Anyway, he's unconscious but you can go see him if you want."
The doctor led Roxas to Axel's room and left. The blonde looked in tentatively and found the redhead in bed, needles sticking out of his arm and hooked up to life-support. He looked more of a mess than back at the apartment. His skin was sallow and yellowish. He looked decades older than he was. And when Roxas touched his hand, he still found him to be as cold as he was before.
Pulling a chair up beside the bed, Roxas laid his head down and stroked the redhead's hand almost absent-mindedly. He wasn't going to leave Axel's side until he was up and moving again. And he would be. Right?
The blonde ended up falling asleep there. Next thing he knew, Axel's doctor was shaking him awake. "You can't stay here, son." He said softly. "You're going to have to leave."
Roxas blinked sleepily before the doctor's words really hit him. He clutched Axel's hand tightly. "I can't leave," he said pleadingly. "What if he wakes up?"
"You can come back tomorrow…"
"That's not the point!" Roxas was on the verge of hysterics again. "He needs me. I need to be here for him. If I'm not here when he wakes up…" The blonde didn't know what to say to make the doctor understand just why he had to stay by Axel's side. He stood up and swayed, almost falling over. The doctor reached out a hand and steadied him.
"You're tired," he said kindly. "Go home and get some rest. We'll call if he wakes up."
Roxas wanted to argue more, but he couldn't deny that he was, indeed, tired. So he left without a fuss, back home to the apartment that was now completely void of the presence of the redhead whom he shared it with. He stumbled off to his room and, even though he didn't think he would fall asleep, was out in minutes.
The blonde started to fall into a routine. Every day he would go to school like normal and afterwards he would stop by the hospital to visit Axel until they made him go home. At school he would often see Riku, but the platinum-haired boy would avoid him. It was just as well. Roxas didn't want to face this until he could talk to Axel about it, and at the rate it was going he wouldn't be able to do that anytime soon. The doctors had officially declared him comatose and said it could take a while for him to wake up.
One day, about two weeks after Axel had been hospitalized, Roxas had to stay behind for an extra half hour to receive tutoring from his math teacher. When he finally left, there weren't many people left outside so he was able to see a blonde girl sitting on the bench, drawing. He recognized her, it was Namine. She was the girl he'd had a crush on before, the one he'd wanted to go see while driving. He could have easily blamed her, since everyone else blamed him and it would have been nice to blame someone. But she was too sweet to blame anything on and besides it wasn't her fault.
"Hi," he said, sitting down next to her. She looked up at him, startled. She was sketching the trees surrounding the school. They were really good, though that didn't come as any surprise. Everyone knew that Namine was the best artist in school.
"Oh, hello," she said, smiling. "You're Roxas, aren't you?"
He nodded. "And you're Namine. Now that the introductions are out of the way…" he chuckled. "Sorry if I disturbed you."
"It's alright," she said, closing her sketchbook. "Normally people don't talk to me, it's nice that you would."
Roxas nodded. "Well, I had to stay late and I saw you over here, so I thought I'd come and say hi."
She nodded again. "How long has it been since we've talked to each other?"
"Uh…about 7 months."
She frowned. "You kept track?"
"Huh? Oh, no, it's just that the last time we spoke was about 2 days before my brother died." He laughed somewhat sheepishly.
"Oh, right. The accident." She laid a hand on his. "I'm sorry for your loss," she said sincerely. "I never knew Sora, so I didn't come to his funeral, but I am sorry that you and your family had to go through that."
"It's-it's fine, really." He pulled his hand away. "Well, it was nice talking to you. I have to be somewhere."
"Wait." She grabbed his sleeve as he stood up. "I'm sorry if I offended you. Please don't leave."
"Oh, no, it's not that. I really do need to be somewhere. You could…come if you wanted. I mean, if you're not busy."
Namine smiled softly. "I'd like that. I don't have anything else to do today."
"Well, come on then." Namine stood up and followed him to the hospital. Once inside, Roxas walked with confidence to Axel's room. He had been there often enough to know how to get there without asking for help. When he went inside, Axel was the same as always. But instead of feeling sad, Roxas still felt elated.
"Hey, Axel." He said, sitting down on the edge of the redhead's bed and brushing some red locks of hair off of his face. "How are you doing? Any better today?" He paused as if waiting for Axel to say something. After a few seconds, he smiled. "That's good. You should be out of here in no time, Ax."
Namine stood back, slightly uncomfortable. This was obviously someone important to Roxas and she felt like she shouldn't be here.
"I've got someone I'd like you to meet, Axel," Roxas said cheerfully. "Axel, meet Namine. Namine, this is Axel. He's my roommate."
Namine gave a slight wave, even though it was obvious Axel couldn't see her. "Uhm…I really think I should go, Roxas."
"Oh…okay. I'll walk you home if you want."
She smiled. "Alright, that would be nice."
"Could I have a minute alone with Axel, please? Wait in the waiting room, I'll be right out."
"Alright," she said, heading out the door.
Once she was gone, Roxas looked over at the redhead. Luckily, he didn't need oxygen anymore so the breathing tube was gone. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to Axel's lips. He wasn't cold anymore, which was a relief, but he was still unresponsive. The blond sighed. "I'll be back tomorrow, okay?" As usual, no response, but in Roxas' mind, he was nodding. The blonde squeezed his hand slightly, and then left to walk Namine home.
AN: Always watch your alcohol intake, people.
