Axel wrinkled his nose slightly at the smell of charred meat, and he narrowed his eyes for the hundredth time as his guest took a bite of the rabbit haunch and sighed blissfully.
"You burnt it to a crisp," he said disapprovingly. The blonde looked at him, confused.
"No I haven't. It's medium at best." He took another bite and hummed, while the older boy puzzled out what that was supposed to mean. "It is a bit plain though. Could use salt, and maybe some spices."
Distracting himself from the sacrilege, Axel focused his attention to a crack on the floor. A tiny spider was hurriedly making its slow way across the cave, no doubt concerned by the sight and smell of the fire.
"Were you a…what's the word your people use? A cook?"
Roxas shrugged. "Not really. I did help out in the kitchen sometimes. We all did."
As they had finished up picking out clothes for the human, he shared a bit more about his life in the orphanage. To Axel, it sounded very much like a pack, albeit consisting of mostly younger members and a smaller council. Outsiders to the group would sign on to work with and care for the children in exchange for money, but when there were few of them, the older children would be asked to help in their place. They lived in one building, never moving, and tasks of upkeep were given to every child above a certain age to complete, sometimes on a daily basis.
This woman, Aerith, was the Alpha, according to Roxas. She had studied to be a medic in her youth, but now watched over the children of the orphanage, acting as both a mother and father to them. She was kind, but did not shy away from discipline when it was needed. Roxas told him a story about an older boy named Seifer, who teased and tormented the younger children when he thought no one was looking. He threatened them to keep them from going to Aerith, but her keen eyes soon saw his misbehaving, and then she was quick to put the older boy in his place.
"She grabbed him by the ear!" the blonde had recalled, laughing. "I'd never seen her do that before. She really gave him what for."
Axel grabbed a long, thing branch and poked at the fire they had built, watching the flames crackle as he shifted the logs. The play of flickering colors was almost mesmerizing, and the heat seemed to heighten the smell of the wood. This opening to the cave was on a different side of the mountain, still guarded but less populated by the pack, and it was ideal for allowing the smoke from the fire to escape. The wind outside howled slightly, as the storm was still working its way through, but the fire, now finished with its primary purpose, served to keep the human warm enough to withstand the chill while he ate. They sat as far from the mouth as they dared.
"Will you be needing anything more?" Axel finally ventured. Roxas looked up at him with a blink.
"I don't think so. Not for several hours, anyway." He took another bite. "Thank you again. For catching this."
"It was nothing. You should save your thanks so that they don't wear out." While gratitude was always nice, this boy seemed to offer it too freely, and always for the most minor things. And it's not like Axel could get away with not doing them. The Alpha has ordered it, and in that case, was he really worth that thanks?
"They won't," Roxas replied, frowning slightly. "If it makes you uncomfortable, I'll try to say it less often."
The redhead rolled his eyes, turning away as he noticed movement outside. A rabbit, much like the one he had caught earlier, had bounded from a snowy bush, sending a brief spray of powder into the air. It looked young, and Axel was momentarily tempted to give chase.
"Whatever. Do what you will."
"I will, Mr. Sourpuss."
The older boy whipped back around, his face incredulous. "What did you just call me?"
"A sourpuss. It means 'bad-tempered.'" Axel rose to his feet, growling slightly, but for once, the blonde didn't flinch. "Chill out. I get you wanting to protect your sister and her friends, or wanting to look strong in front of your family, but it's just the two of us here now. What's with the attitude?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Look," the boy replied, "I'm not trying to be ungrateful. Far from it. I just feel weird. I'm telling you all of this stuff about my life, and here you are, acting cold and distant and gruff all of the time."
The redhead crossed his arms. "It's not my job to make you feel welcome here. I'm here to watch you, keep you alive, and send you on your way. That's it."
"And let me guess how many friends you have," the young boy replied with weary sarcasm. Axel growled warningly again, this time louder.
"Watch it, brat."
Roxas just scoffed a laugh. "Touched a nerve there? Well I'm sorry, but if you're going to be stuck with me for all of this time anyway, why not let it pass pleasantly? Is it really such a strain for you? You were doing fine when you were asking questions."
Even in his rising anger, that gave Axel pause. Why did he care so much about the human's life? Was he just bored? But no...at times, it felt like genuine interest. Just like his desire to save the boy from the Council's wrath. He had even put himself and Kairi on the line a bit in order to defend him, and as much as he disliked Terra's snide priest, the usual dislike was not enough to explain his actions.
Looking at the young human again, he wondered if it was the novelty of the situation; the newness of it all. He generally disliked humans, as did most everyone else, but unlike some, he had never done any missions walking among their kind. Roxas was a window into another world; one he had often reviled purely out of conditioning, but now that he could hear more about it, he found even the smallest details fascinating. How alike and unalike their two kinds were.
Or was it the boy himself? Oddly accepting of his own weakness, and yet he possessed an odd sort of kind of strength as well. What he lacked in body he seemed to make up for in wisdom, despite being young and cast, defenseless, into a den of enemies. Even his words just now seem to cut deeper than they should have.
'Friends? Who needs those?' he thought bitterly. 'They will only slow you down in the-'
"Axel?"
Blinking away his thoughts, the redhead found himself being examined by the other boy. Roxas was closer now, staring intently at his face and looking slightly worried.
"Are you okay? You went pretty quiet there..."
He shook his head and pulled back, huffing. "Heh. You're lucky I didn't bite you for those asinine words."
"You'd bite me just for that?" he asked, sitting back slightly and sounding strangely disheartened. "Maybe I was wrong to trust you after all. You're just like that one guy..." He clutched his injured arm and shuddered.
Confused by his change in demeanor, Axel felt compelled to reassure him. Was it...had he taken that seriously? As a threat?
He leaned closer to Roxas again and grasped his hand, ignoring the slight flinch as he did so.
"I am nothing like Xigbar. He drew blood just for the fun of it, to see you cry. I may joke, but I would never do such a thing. I only hunt to eat. That's supposed to be the law."
"Yeah, well, it was a bad joke to tell someone who's worried about getting mauled to death," the blonde replied flatly, pouting slightly.
Nodding to himself, Axel sighed. The boy needed him, much like a pup needs its mother. He supposed it was only natural that some trust would be involved, however strange and ill-advised he thought it was.
The redhead was often truthful to the point of bluntness, but it wasn't as though Roxas didn't know how things were here. He knew, and having the older boy constantly remind him of what he knew wasn't helping anything. All the blonde was asking was for some civility between the two of them. He need not be as friendly as Kairi, but he could still be a bit more warm towards the human.
Plus, he would surely learn more about the human world this way.
"I'm sorry. And as you say, this time we must spend together need not be spent bickering. At least when it's just the two of us, I will try to be more...more...?" He stumbled to find the correct word.
"Like an actual host?" the boy asked, raising an eyebrow as he faced him again.
"Perhaps. What is that?"
Roxas rolled his eyes and smiled slightly. "A host is a person who invites you into their home. They treat you nicely, at least until you leave."
Axel frowned. "What was I treating you as before?"
"A pest. And that's my whole point. I apologize and thank you because I know I'm kind of a burden right now. Just don't make me feel worse about it, okay?" At the end of this, he winked. "I'll do my best to follow the rules and be useful. Just don't be a prick."