Yay! An update after SOOOO long! Had finals, AP testing, and crazy shit-loads of other stuff going on, but now I'm back and have a lil' somthin-somthin for all the readers! Thanks again to everyone who reviews, especially those of you who have reviewed this fic almost every chapter. It means so much to me! Hope you enjoy ;D
PS: THANKS TO ZERONUMBERS96 FOR CATCHING MY TYPO!
"You really suck," Axel chuckled, earning a heated glare from Roxas.
"Shut up! I told you I don't play any instruments. I took piano lessons for a few years when I was a kid, so this is the only song I remember," the blonde had to admit, he really did suck. While other pairs were productively learning about each others' musical talents, Axel was poking fun at Roxas because he couldn't even play Heart & Soul on the keyboard without sounding like he was a polydactyl.
Axel slid next to Roxas on the bench in front of the instrument in their cramped practice room, stowing a stealthy arm behind the shorter boy's back and to the other side of the keyboard and began tapping out the notes for the left hand.
Roxas stiffened at the feeling of Axel's arm around him, but couldn't help but join in with the melody as they played the simple duet together. It still sounded like ass, but Roxas felt a little better about it.
"You know, we've already got one step of this duet thing down. Now we just have to write our own," Axel commented, mostly to himself. Roxas made a noncommittal grunt, almost feeling regret as the warmth from the taller boy followed his arm back out of his personal bubble.
"Do you play anything?" asked the blonde, not really expecting an answer.
Axel stood and stretched, sitting on the back of a chair in the cramped practice room. "Guitar. Since I was six."
Roxas frowned in disbelief, swiveling slowly in his seat to face the redhead, "Seriously? You mean you really did join this class because you wanted to play music?"
Axel cackled, "Hardly! I can play whenever I want. But you are more than a little hard to stay in touch with." He winked and Roxas blushed, if only a little. The redhead told his partner he'd be right back and left the room, returning a minute or two later with an acoustic guitar in one hand and a pick in the other.
Without a word from either, Axel sat down and started strumming out the first chords of a song. Roxas wasn't familiar with it, if it was actually a song rather than a simple chord progression, but it was sweet and warm, and the blonde felt himself closing his eyes and listening to the notes pouring from the wooden instrument.
"You're really good," mumbled the younger boy, after a time. Axel smiled to himself and slowed the strumming to a stop. Roxas opened his eyes, smiling genuinely. So the lug had an expressive side. He could learn to love that –er, of course by love he meant something completely platonic and unrelated to his heart pounding in his chest. Cliché? Indeed. But there's good reason why clichés are what they are. People love them too much not to over-use them.
Axel gestured with his arm, "You're turn."
Roxas frowned, "Excuse me?"
The redhead grinned, "Sing for me. I'll play a song you know, and you just sing along as best you can."
After some protest, Roxas gave him the name of a song he knew, and did his best to sing along. It wasn't long before Axel was laughing at his expense, again, nearly crying as he doubled over. Roxas called him an idiot and the redhead had to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye, "God, you really suck. Do you sing to your mother with that voice?"
Roxas stood and slugged his partner in the arm, none too gently. Axel fell off his chair as he erupted in an entirely new fit of laughter, absently rubbing the sore spot on his arm that would surely become a bruise.
Roxas fell back onto the bench and forced a sour expression on his face while he waited for Axel to get over himself. It didn't take long. "So now what? I can't play an instrument, and I sure as hell can't sing. What do we do?" The sourness had sufficiently sweetened by the end of Roxas' question. He was honestly perplexed. How were they supposed to pass a music class when he had zero affinity for the arts? Namine could do it, no problem. Maybe he'd have to call her for advice?
Axel interrupted his thoughts with an answer, "Well, there are other options," he gestured to the corner of the music room where the auxiliary percussion instruments were stacked sloppily. Roxas was familiar with them. They'd all been present in his kindergarten class when the kids got to sing along with the teacher.
Roxas scoffed, "Yeah, I guess if we have no other choice I might be able to summon the discipline to master the triangle, or the maracas or something by the end of the semester. Great back-up plan, Axel."
Axel grinned, "There's the spririt!" he gave a hearty slap to Roxas' back, earning a grunt from the smaller teen, who smirked back. Within seconds though, Axel's eyes went wide and he sputtered, "Oh god, sorry! I totally just back-slapped you," Roxas tilted his head curiously as the older boy flustered, "Ugh, I'm sorry. It's a guy thing. I guess being in this class just made me feel like you were one of the guys… erm, not to say you look like a guy or anything but…"
The blonde stared for a few long seconds while he purposefully tuned out the words gushing from Axel's mouth. Well, he was a guy, not that Axel knew that. Once he considered the matter, he supposed he wouldn't have slapped Namine or a girlfriend on the back either. That was a total guy thing; but even so… it really wasn't as big a deal as Axel was making it out to be.
"… Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is that… I feel really relaxed when I'm around you. Like, one-of-the-guys relaxed. It's cool. No real sexual tension and all that crap. No pressure." Axel slowed his rambling to a stop and there was a moment of silence between the two teens. The redhead swallowed nervously, not really sure how 'Namine' would take his explanation. He probably sounded like a moron.
Roxas took his time before deciding to just throw Axel a bone so they could move on, "Its fine, and thanks. I have a brother, so I know what it means to be 'one of the guys', and… I guess It's nice to know you don't just think of me as an object of your sexual fantasies."
It took Axel a few seconds to let the small blonde's words sink in before a look of comprehension rose into his face and he gave a curt nod followed by a discreet smile.
The bell was muted as it rang, but the two heard it nonetheless. Roxas proceeded to pack up his things and moved to let himself out of the practice room, but thought of something before he'd managed to open the door. Today had been nice. Their first date had been very nice. This could work, in a strangely unconventional way. So Roxas turned back toward Axel, a thoughtful look in his eyes, "Meet me for Lunch on Monday. The pizza joint at the end of the street, just inside town. Bring your friends, I'll bring mine."
Axel flashed him a toothy grin, "I'll be there."
Not much happened over the weekend. There was an English test coming up on the book they were supposed to be reading, but no one had actually finished, so Roxas, Kairi, and Rikku compiled spark-notes and studied for their test.
Xxx
"WILL SOMEBODY PASS ME THE GOD-DAMNED PARMESAN?" Kairi wailed over the monstrous table. A blur of white whizzed toward her and she reached up just in time to catch the parmesan shaker before it could collide with her face. "Thank you, Cloud," she chirped, proceeding to unscrew the top and dump mounds of the white stuff onto what was once a slice of pizza.
"That shit'll make you fat some day," Axel jeered. Kairi flipped him off and resumed eating her pizza, Paine sat next to her, apathetic as per usual.
Roxas nudged Axel, who was sitting next to him, and asked, "Does cheese really make you fat? Not that I care, but there doesn't seem to be much to it."
Axel shrugged, tattoos lifting with his eyes as he smiled, "You'll get fat off anything if you eat enough of it. Except celery. Celery is the exception."
Roxas simply shook his head and turned toward Riku and Yuna who were avidly gossiping with Cloud and Xigbar towards the end of the table. Riku and Sora were across from him, Sora chattering Excitedly with Larxene. He and Riku shared a look of understanding as they proceeded to turn and eves-drop on the conversation.
"Cloud, you can't expect her to respond to your advances when you haven't cut it off with the first girl. Seriously, you can be a player or you can get the girl you want. Not both. Not if you want it to end well," Rikku's voice was bubbly but tinted with concern. She was next to Roxas in the table, but facing away from him so he did have to strain a bit to hear her over Sora, who'd started spontaneously singing.
Xigbar rolled his good eye over to the tall blonde, lazily, "Yeah man, even I know that. Dude, she's the girl of your dreams, so just scrap the other one and fucking go for it!"
Cloud ran a hand through his spikey hair, "Except for the part where she'll turn me down. I've been chasing her for a year and a half now, but she just teases me. I feel like if she really wanted what I was offering she'd just let me know. And in the mean time, I'll love the one I'm with and all that jazz."
Riku offered his two cents, "Yeah, well you forgot the key part where she's a woman. Women like to be chased, figured out, etc… It means that after all the hell they put you through, if you still want them, then you mean it. Not for a night, but for something long-term and serious."
Cloud gave Riku a skeptical look, "I thought you were gay?"
Roxas laughed at that, he couldn't help it. He knew exactly where this conversation was going so he answered for Riku, if only out of habit, "It's because he's gay that girls will assume he's emotionally sensitive and open up to him. Doesn't mean he is, but if they talk and he listens then there's a helluvalot to be learned."
The group gave him an odd look, and Roxas quickly clarified, "Uh… my brother is gay. I treat him like a girl sometimes because of it, and as a result he gets women," the small blonde gestured by tapping a finger to his temple. From the moment he'd come out to Namine, she'd assumed he was some kind of living diary that she could spill her guts to, only rather than simply holding her words he'd give her advice back. It didn't always work like that, because he was still a guy whether she liked to believe it or not, but he'd learned quite a bit from the whole ordeal.
Riku nodded promptly, "Exactly as Namine said. Girls talk to gay guys. 'Nuff said."
Riku and Yuna both held looks of disappointment at the news of Roxas being gay. He'd been forced to show them pictures of himself… when he was being a guy. Honestly, it made him feel sort of dirty to hear all the things they had to say about him, that he wasn't supposed to hear. Good thing he batted for the other team, so it didn't really make a difference.
"So, back to what we were saying about Tifa and Aerith," chimed Yuna.
Roxas' eyes shot wide, "Tifa and Aerith? You mean you guys have been talking about our principal and our school nurse the whole time?"
Cloud sported a cocky grin, "I've been sleeping with Aerith for a few months, but its Tifa I'm really after. God… if only." His eyes got all dreamy and Roxas felt his jaw drop. This guy was having an affair with his teachers? The hell?
Before he had a chance to react, the pseudo girl felt his phone vibrate in his sock – there were no pockets in skirts and he couldn't feel it from his bag, but turning the ringer on was too risky. He reached down uncomfortably, barely stretching low enough to slide his phone out from its hiding place and check the front screen. 'Call from Mom'.
Roxas rolled his eyes. Perfect timing. Really. The young teen excused himself from the table and made his way outside, flipping the phone open. Riku took the interruption as an opportunity to excuse himself as well, making for the bathroom.
Checking to make sure no one could hear him, Roxas answered his mother's pestering 'hello's'. "Hey mom, I'm here. What's up?"
His mother sounded like she was 'hmph!'-ing on the other line, to which Roxas closed his eyes and raised a hand to massage the bridge of his nose. God his mother was immature sometimes. "Is it so wrong that I just wanted to check up on my baby boy?"
Roxas mentally groaned, "I never said there was anything wrong with it,"
"Well you didn't sound very happy to hear from me," chided the woman, obviously not pleased.
The boy could have killed himself. He loved his mother, or at least he thought he might, but they didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on, well, ANYTHING. "Sorry mom, I didn't mean to. But seriously, you called during my lunch, what's going on?"
There was a pause on the other line before she finally replied, "How's school honey?"
Roxas fought back another groan, "Great, mom. I have lots of friends, it's going well. Dad's good too." He added that last bit just for good measure. Gotta keep the story strait and all.
"Oh, pish-posh about your father. I just hope he showers before you bring friends over."
The blonde chuckled, he couldn't help it at that one, "Mom, it's not like Dad is some sort of hygeno-phobic homeless person or something!"
The woman sighed, "Fine, but you do have to tell me one thing."
Roxas hesitated, "… What would that be?"
She practically squealed, "Is there a girlfriend in the picture? Are you going to bring someone home when you come back for holidays?"
The boy blanched. Ha. There was someone. But he was a he, and Roxas couldn't imagine his mother thinking too highly of Axel, even if he was a girl. "Uh, no mom. No girlfriend."
"Namine," the boy turned at his name and Riku was poking his head out the restaurant door. "Everyone's paying for their food and getting ready to leave, just thought you should know." If the blonde hadn't known better, which really he didn't, he could have sworn Riku was leering at him. Not sexually, but intensly curious.
Deciding to focus on one problem at a time, Roxas nodded and turned back into the phone saying, "Listen, Mom, I've gotta go. I love you!" and hung up before she could reply. Riku was gone before he'd hung up. Rushing back inside to grab his stuff and pay before everyone else was gone, the small teen found Axel waiting by his things.
"Axel," Roxas said, dumbly, as he stood before the other boy.
Axel smirked, "Let's go, blondie. I picked up the tab for your food, so we're all ready to go when you are."
Roxas smirked, "Thanks." The redhead stood and took a step toward him. It was weird, the feeling Roxas got in his stomach when Axel looked at him like that. They felt so platonic and friendly in some situations that when the lanky boy closed the gap between them it came as a shock, and Roxas felt stunned, like he'd fallen off a cliff into a bottomless pit. He was staring, and he knew it, but Axel didn't laugh at him. He smirked satisfactorily, and bent down to place a sweet, chaste kiss on Roxas' lips. Too soon, Axel pulled away. Roxas distantly heard some "ooooh!"-s and "Awe"-'s, but couldn't really think, and didn't have to thanks to the older boy's hand wrapping around his and guiding him out of the pizza joint.
Well, that did it. Roxas had a stupid fat crush on the tall, lean boy that walked slightly ahead of him, chatting with the others. Larxene gave him a knowing look, and he did the first thing that came to mind. His face beamed and he flashed her the widest grin he could muster. Roxas could make this work. Somehow, he would, because he was starting to think Axel was worth it.
Sorry that this is a bit on the uneventful and short side, but I kinda feel like the stuff coming up next needs to be done in one chapter, so I'm just leaving it at this for now. Either way, I threw in some fluff to give you all the warm and fuzzies :3. R&R plz? THANKS FOR READING!