A/N: Heya everybody! I've finally gotten around to updating, haha. Well, I don't have much to say, just enjoy this chapter ^^
Axel's POV
God, can this class get any more boring? I'm sitting through the torture of what is pre-calc class, trying not to conk out. Not that it would have been possible with the way my mind was going a mile a minute. And it definitely wasn't from solving derivatives and integrals. I finally got to meet up with Roxas. And it wasn't in the forest this time! I swear, I don't even know what came over me. He was just too freakin' irresistible. But I never meant to hurt him, or make him mad at me. But I guess we're on better grounds now, after last period. And from here on, I want to get to know him better. Which is gonna be a little hard if he keeps coming to school with no shirt to cover those lush little-
"Mr. Lynch. Please solve problem 3 since you seem to be thinking rather deeply on what I hope is my class."
Is Roberts serious? God, I don't even know what problem he's doing. "10x-3, sir."
"And how did you come to this solution?"
Crap. He called me out for it. "After you simplify the numerator and factor out delta x, you can solve for the limit by substitution."
"…very good. Now then, if we take a look at this problem…" Roberts goes on to explain. I cannot believe I just got away with that. I look over at Demyx who has his hands covering his face to smother his chuckle. I start to zone out again when my cell vibrates. I pull it out, putting it up behind my math textbook for cover.
Cloud: Mall?
Axel: After skool?
Cloud: Now. Whoever said we needed to learn, needs to kindly go die.
Axel: Gotcha~
I raise my hand and wait for Roberts to turn away from the board. I swear, when this guy goes into a problem, he goes into it.
"Yes, Mr. Lynch?" he finally asks.
"I'm not feeling too good. Can I go to the medical room?" I ask in a hazy voice.
"Is that so? You look fine to me. And you were fine a moment ago," he says skeptically. Crap. Why do teachers have to be so nit-picky? If I have to go to the nurse, I gotta go!
"No, I think I might have a fever. Hey, check me," I call to the chick who sits next to me. She blushes furiously when I grab her hand.
"Oh my god, you're burning!" she exclaims loudly, shocked.
"Is it true?" Roberts asks. He walks over and puts the back of his hand on my forehead. It was a bit uncomfortable and a lot awkward, but it got the desired results. "Oh no, you really are burning up. Go to the nurse's office, I'm sure she'll send you home."
"I hope so. Everything's been kinda blurry since this morning," I say in a low voice, coughing a little. I could see Demyx put his hand in his mouth to stop from giving away my act.
"Yes, you should've stayed home. Go on, now."
"Yes sir." I drop my books in my bag half-hazard and slink out of my desk, stalking slowly to the door.
"Feel better Mr. Lynch," Roberts calls as I close the door.
"Thank you," I answer, but he's already gone back to teaching the class. Prick. As soon as the door is shut, I stand up straight and briskly stride down the hall, sending a text to Demy to escape ASAP.
Not wanting to get caught (cause really, who wants to get caught after that brilliant act I just pulled?) I decide to exit out of the side that I was just at a while ago. As the emergency exit door closes behind me, I'm immediately pulled back to before last period. I can see Roxas in my mind, standing up against door, pinned under me, slight blush on his face, squirming practically in my arms, holding my hand, staring up at me with those gorgeous ocean-blue eyes from his small way-too-cute-for-his-own-good stature, his soft pink lips just inches from mine-
"Hey Ax. Are you just gonna stand there or come on?" calls a voice from down below. I look over the rail to see Cloud, Leon, Marluxia, Larxene and Zexion.
"I'm coming," I call out, jogging down the steps.
"Where's Demyx?" Zexion asks with an indifferent expression. However, we all know that he cares very much. The dudes had a crush on my best mate since ever, and the only ones who denied it were the two parties involved.
"He's on his way, don't worry." I had just replied to his text, telling him to come to the side exit.
Zexion's eyes widen a bit and he coughs into his fist. "I wasn't particularly worried," he huffs, adjusting his glasses. Yeah, sure.
"Oooh, Zexy and Demy, sittin in a tree," Larxene sings. She's been teasing him ever since she found out. I admit, I may have let it slip accidently. If Zexion ever found out the endless teasing was my fault, he'd kill me.
"Once again, we're waiting on that slow-ass Demyx. Next time, just bring him with you," Cloud said. Leon rubs Cloud's back, causing the wrinkles in his brow to retreat. I swear, why are all my friends so violent?
Before I can explain the troubles I had to go through to get out of class, including a hairy hand touching my skin, someone burst through the doors up the stairs. "Hey you guys!" Demyx calls down.
"Took you long enough, darling," Marluxia teases.
"Yeah, sorry we don't all have the theatrical talent of Mr. Hot Head over here," he replies. But as soon as he sees Zexion, his attention is immediately captivated. Aaaand he's gone. "Zexy!" he squeals and rushes over to him, smothering him in what he likes to excuse as a "friendly embrace".
"Demyx," Zexion merely acknowledges. "Get off, you're heavy." Demyx loosens his grip, but continues to drape himself over him who's keeping a neutral expression.
"Alright, the gangs here. Let's hit the road," Leon says. He grabs Cloud's hand and they head to his car.
"Let me ride with you Ax," Marluxia says.
"Sure Marly, let's go."
"You're coming with me, dear," Demy says to Zexion. He sighs, yet follows him anyway.
"Ooh, I can't miss out on this," Larxene chuckles evilly, and steals away with them. I shudder and head to my ride with Marly.
"Can you say cock-blocker?" he says as he gets in on the passenger side. I just chuckle and start the car.
"You know Larxy. Once she's got her conniving little hands on something 'fun', she won't let go until she's wrung it dry." Marly nods his head, agreeing with me.
I'm actually not quite sure where we've decided to go, so I just follow Leon's silver BMW. I can see in my rear-view mirror Demy's accord swerve a bit before driving up behind me. Larxy must already be causing trouble.
In a short while we arrive at the mall with the atrium. I love coming here, it's big and has tons of stores that I would actually shop at. We find parking then head inside together. And as it's a Friday afternoon, the place is packed.
"So, what's the plan?" I ask no one in particular.
"Divide and conquer," Cloud says with a wink. Looks like he's feeling better. Well, anyone would be feeling tense being at school, this was a wonderful change of pace for today.
Before anyone can get a word out, Cloud and Leon dive into the crowd together, immediately going out of sight. "Hmm? Where's Demy?" Larxene asks.
"He hightailed it with Zexy as soon as Axel asked 'what's the plan'," Marly supplies. Wow, I hadn't even noticed.
"What?!" she shrieks. She turns her head from right to left, trying to search for them in this impossible crowd. But before she can go any further, Marly hooks his arm through hers.
"Come now, dear. Let's leave them be and shop. I can help you pick out something that doesn't make you look anorexic," Marly says. Luckily, they are soon out of earshot so I don't have to hear Larxene's shrill shrieks anymore. I scratch my head, suddenly realizing I'm alone. Oh well. I shove my hands in my pockets and wander around. I go into a couple stores but leave once the atmosphere feels smothered. I'd have rather come here at night, it's the best at that time. And I'm a night person, just in general. Mornings ain't my thing.
Heading over to the side of the mall with the atrium, I search for that music store that I found the last time I was here. It was small and unpopulated, but it was really cool once you got inside. They sold CD's, old records, as well as instruments. I'm not much of a player, but I do love to listen to music. I head inside, only seeing a few stragglers around. I head down the aisle and browse. I find an album that I've been meaning to buy a while, and pop it in the available player and put on the headphones. I jam out for a while until the song comes silently to a close and hear the shop owner talking to someone.
"-just imported, arrived yesterday. I wasn't even going to put it on display."
"May I?" asks the customer. His voice sounds small, yet familiar.
"'Course. Can't say no to my best regular." There's some clunking sounds (I don't want to turn and look, it would be rude.) then some stringy sound and he strums the strings, changing the pitch. Wow, he can tune by ear. That's pretty rad. "Here's the pick," the owner says. The sound of the guitar now sounds clearer. He plays a collection of chords before he starts singing. This time, I can't help but swivel my head around.
Sit tight, I'm gonna need you to keep time
Come on, just snap, snap, snap your fingers for me
Good, good, now we're making some progress
Come on, just tap, tap, tap your toes to the beat
And I believe this may call for a proper introduction, and well
Don't you see, I'm the narrator and this is just the prologue
I see blonde spikes and that tanned skin, and my heart wants to stop, but I tell it to keep its shit together so I don't die and never get to see the rest of my Roxas' performance.
Swear to shake it up if you swear to listen
Oh we're still so young, desperate for attention
I aim to be your eyes, trophy boys, trophy wives x2
He didn't go into the next verse, much to the disappointment of the crowd that had formed to hear the performance. He slipped off the guitar and handed it back to the owner. "Sounds good. That's a real masterpiece you got there."
"Thanks for giving her a spin," the owner says with a smile. He places it back on the stand case behind him. My Roxas turns and finds himself surrounded by teens and tweens, bombarding him with questions about whether he was pro, how long he's been playing, if he could play again.
Roxas runs his hand through his hair and sighs. The sight was so captivating I was debating whether to grab him right now. No one needed to see him looking so fucking cute. "I'm just a regular musician. Anyone could do it if they put the time in." He grabs his bag off the counter and walks towards the back of the store where the more indie music is. A kid standing near me asks his mother if he could learn to play guitar, eyes sparkling. I smile. He inspires everyone around him with his music.
There was no sense in avoiding him. If I wanted to talk to him, I would go and just do it.
"Nice performance," I say when I reach him. He hadn't noticed when I was standing next to him, so he jumped a little when I spoke.
"W-what are you doing here? Are stalking me? Seriously? Why have you been following me all day today?!" Roxas sputters.
"Um, the first time was an accident, the second time you came where I was, and this time was a mere coincidence," I say. I'll admit, he kinda hurt my feelings.
His face relaxes a bit, but then he draws his brows together again. Why is this kid so angry all the time? He was like a smaller cuter version of Cloud. "I…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed that," he apologizes. Ah, so that was a look of regret. He's too much, I swear I just wanna attack him.
"It's cool. But really, what I said before was true. I really do want to get to know you." He looks up at me for a few seconds before turning back to the rows of music. Guess that's a no.
"…music," he mutters.
"Hm?"
He has his brows scrunched and his lips were in a little pout. "What kind of music do you listen to?" he asks, slightly blushing. Oh my god, someone must have taught him. No one can be this good at seducing without even trying. Imagine if he did try? Oh god, I need to stop before I get a boner.
"Well, I usually listen to conservative and country. A little techno when the situation calls for it."
"Hm."
"What?"
"Nothing. You just don't take me for the country-type person," he replies. He leans against the shelf, looking relaxed.
"Yeah, I get that a lot. Demy's always giving me shit over the music I listen too. But it's just my preference." I shift my weight to my other leg. "But, I'm starting to like rock now." I smile.
"Oh?" Roxas smirks. Does that count as a smile? I say it does. Roxas is smiling at me.
"Yeah, I was on the fence about it, but this little rocker changed my mind." This made him snort.
I just made Roxas laugh.
"I don't know about that 'little' part, but rock is the best genre of music," he says.
"Oh, I beg to differ," I say back. He looks at me with an upturned eyebrow, daring me to challenge him.
Let's say we ended up sitting in the atrium, talking, or rather, arguing about the different genres of music. Eventually his stomach starts to growl and I suggested we get lunch. We head into one of the many food restaurants and get takeout. I couldn't believe any of this was happening. I was here. At that mall. With the man that I fell in love with at first sight. I was just laughing over something ridiculous he said about the cashier in the store when I catch sight of a familiar pink-head. I stop dead in my tracks. Marly notices me (who couldn't with my height and flaming head of mine?) and begins to call out. But when he sees me give a panicked look and a thorough shake of my head, he looks confused. He then looks at Larxene who was still with him and makes an "oh, right" face. He winks and guides Larxene in the opposite direction. I sigh with relief. I look around a bit until I see Roxas sitting down, and head straight over.
"What, did you get lost? How is that possible? You're like, six feet tall," Roxas jokes as I sit.
"Had a mishap, but it's taken care of. And also, I'm 6'3"." Roxas chokes on his drink a bit when I say that.
"You've gotta be kidding me. How?!"
"Um, genetics?" I point out.
"Ha. You're hysterical." He pulls a napkin out of the holder and wipes his mouth.
We chat more while we're eating. The topic floats away from music, and we start to talk about ourselves, our families, our grades (ha), even silly insignificant things. I'm glad he feels comfortable enough with me to chat about his life.
"So, if I may ask, what brings you here this fine Friday afternoon? If I'm not mistaken, school is still in session," I say.
"Yeah, right back at you, you heathen," he jokes, kicking me lightly under the table. He's touching me. "Anyway, my teacher was being a bitch, so I decided to ditch."
"Ooh, a rhyme. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a poet in the house." I don't know why he found this particularly funny, but he burst out laughing. Okay, now I actually made him laugh, and it is amazing. It rings in my ears and wraps around my heart in sweet melodic pleasure.
After he calms down enough, he speaks. "Oh please. I'm far from being a poet. That's more Sora's style. But I assure you, his poems are as incoherent as he is."
"Ah, so even you don't understand your brother."
"Nah, I do. Perfectly," he says bored. "We're actually quite similar. It's just everyone else that kind of misunderstands him. Tell me, what was your first impression of him?"
"Uh, cheerful, ditzy, kinda loud and all over the place, popular," I admit truthfully.
"Yeah, that's pretty much him on the surface," he says. I turn up my eyebrow and wait for him to continue but he merely sips away at his soda.
"You wanna elaborate on that?" I venture.
"Do I have to?" he sighs.
"Well no. But you're the one who brought it up, so."
"True. Alright. It's kind of hard to explain. We're kind of like the sun and the moon."
"Like, night and day?" I ask.
"No. Like the sun and the moon," he repeats. I move my hand in a circular motion for him to explain. "We're the same, yet different. We're the source of life for night and day, yet where the sun is more obvious in the way it contributes to the earth, the moon is subtle. It controls the tides, provides an illuminating light for nocturnal creatures and stabilizes the rotation of the Earth."
"Huh." I had known most of that, but the last one was new to me. "So I'm guessing you're the moon, then?"
"Yeah. Sora's really energetic, and people naturally flock to his light. I don't mind much. I'm a night person anyway." He fiddles with his straw.
"So what's upsetting you?"
"Hm? I'm not upset."
"Says the guy who's been strangling his straw for the past minute." He looks down and sees that indeed, his straw has now become thinly warped. He pushes his cup away from him.
"I don't know, it's just…I don't understand what's wrong with me," he says quietly.
"What?" I ask, completely perplexed by this irrational statement.
"If you hadn't noticed, I'm an introvert."
"I wouldn't go that far. Withdrawn, maybe."
He sighs and leans back in his chair. "Sora's got all these people around him all the time. It's like, he's a magnet for positive feelings. He's optimistic and you naturally want to befriend him. Heck, even mom's always saying I'm all gloomy and should take after Sora more."
"That's not true." Before he can protest, I continue. "What you said was true, you are like the moon. You may give off an indifferent aura, but it's obvious that you care about people. You have a lot of positive energy in you, you just express it differently than your brother, which is okay. You sing and play because that's what you love to do, and the people can feel the love when you do. Just your actions inspire people to do their best. So it may not be as obvious, but I assure you, every time you walk into a room, someone notices, someone cares, and someone is drawn in." I was going to continue, but the blank look on Roxas' face was staring to worry me. "Um, you still there?"
"…how?" he whispers.
"How what?"
"How can you say all that?" His face turns a mean shade of red and he's covering his eyes with his bangs. He's been doing that most of this conversation. "You always say all these nice things about me, treat me like I'm someone important, make me feel so…so…" I wait, but he doesn't finish his sentence. I inch forward in my seat so I'm leaning over the table towards him.
"So?" He stares intently at the table. "I say these things, cause that's how I honestly feel. Everyone may not be able to see it, but you really are special. And I kind of prefer it that way. If they did, they'd steal you away, and I'd get jealous if you were around as many people as Sora. Also, I don't think you should compare yourself to your brother. You may be identical twins, but you're still two different people. There are things about you that he doesn't have and vice versa. And if I can have a say here, I think you're cuter."
He looks at me with upturned eyes.
"Waaaaay cuter," I say, dazed.
His blush remains on his face, but he doesn't look so bothered. His features are relaxed, and he seems to be contemplating something. He should be, I just gave a whole freakin' speech about how I feel about him. Oh shit, I just gave a whole speech on how I feel about him.
"You think I'm…special?" he asks, barely audible.
I sigh and run my hand through my hair. He still doesn't realize? "Yes. You are special. You are one of a kind and I want to keep you all to myself."
He chuckles. "Isn't that just possessiveness?" he questions. OH MY GOD HE STILL DOESN'T GET IT. It's like all of the deeper meaning is flying over his head. Forget it. I'll play along. For now.
"Yeah. And I can get super jealous."
"Is that so?" He leans forward on the table, our faces inches apart. Once his eyes meet mine he freezes. I'm kind of just lost in the deepness that is which Roxas' deep blues. They're endless.
He pushes back, running his fingers through his hair in front of his eyes again. He peeks from under his bangs and I smile mischievously. He gulps and looks away. Ah, this is so much fun. I'm surprised when he swivels back towards me a few seconds later. His eyes are wide and he's put both his hands on the table firmly. "Hey, have I met you before today?"
"Huh?"
"I feel like I've seen you before. Those eyes…" he trails off, bringing his hand slowly up to my face. Oh god, what's he doing? Does he remember? Did he actually remember me from that night in X?
"Rooooooox!" calls a chipper voice from beyond us. I jerk back and Roxas shoves his hand back to his lap. He turns to see his twin brother saddling up to us with a familiar girl next to him.
"Sora. Yuffie," Roxas says.
"Where'd you go, bro?" he asks innocently.
"Yeah, you totally went MIA on us after we hit American Eagle. Oh, hey Lynch. What're you doing here?" Yuffie exclaims, clearly confused as to why I was sitting here with Roxas.
"Hey Yuffie," I greet.
"Wait, you know Axel?" Roxas ask.
"Uh, yeah. Who doesn't? The dudes pretty popular, and you can't mistake that red mane," Yuffie says.
"It is a gift and a curse." I put my hand over my heart as I say this.
"Drama much?" Roxas smirks.
"Observant much?" I shoot back.
"Friendly much?" Yuffie interjects. "I didn't know you were on good with Lynch. And you pretend to be so unsociable all the time, while you're here hanging out with number one himself."
"I wouldn't consider myself number one. But I'd like to be, to one person anyway," I say glancing at Roxas. He just stares at me. Do my innuendos do nothing?
"How come you've never told me? You tell me everything," Sora whines. He latches himself around Roxas' neck.
"Sor. I don't tell you everything. You don't tell me everything," Roxas points out.
"Yeah, cause if I did, you'd be bored out of your mind!" Sora responds. That's true. If someone reported everything about their life, it'd be boring.
"Exactly. Besides, this isn't even a big deal. We're just friends," Roxas says. Ouch. That hurt more than I expected. But, if that's what he wants to be, then for right now, that's how it'll be.
"Yup. We're just hanging out. You're welcome to join," I offer.
"No thanks," Yuffie says before Sora can agree. "We won't disturb."
"Come on, you won't be…disturbing what exactly?" he asks her, starting to get peeved.
"Nothing Rox. Come on, Stryker, let's leave the birds alone." She grabs his hand and drags away a protesting Sora. Yuffie's quite sharp.
"Well, we better get going," Roxas says, standing up with his tray.
"We're leaving already?" I ask, disappointment layering my voice.
"Uh, yeah? We're done eating so, we can go look through the rest of the mall." He upturns his eyebrow. So cute. Focus Axel.
"Oh, yeah. Anywhere in particular you wanna go?" I stand and collect my garbage. We dump it in the nearest trash can and walk together out of the atrium.
"Not particularly. We can just walk around. If you don't mind," he says, shyly.
"As long as I'm with you," I say. He looks at me for a few seconds then back in front of him. Damn, still doesn't get it. "Hey, why does Yuffie call everyone by their last name?"
"A thing she does," he answers as we weave through the crowd together.
"So why does she call you by your first?"
"To differentiate me and Sora. When we first met, she had trouble remembering which was which, and Sora was not helping when he answered to both names, so she told him that she'll only address him as 'Stryker'. Actually, I think I'm the only one she calls by first name." He ponders this for a second. "Yup. Just me." That kind of irked me.
"Okay, so I'll call you Roxy," I state.
"What? What kind of name is that?" he asks, appalled.
"It's a nickname. And I want to call you something different than everyone else."
"Why?"
"Because I'm possessive," I say simply.
Roxas sighs, and I fear an argument, but surprisingly, one does not ensue. "Fine. Do what you want."
"Kay then!" I sling my arm around his shoulders.
"Hey! Personal space much?"
"You said I could do what I want, so that's what I'm gonna do," I sing.
"Ugh, you weirdo," he says, but doesn't make a move to remove my arm. Things are going so great right now, I just wanna cry, I'm so happy. How the heck did we progress so far in the matter of a day? I mean, technically, I saw him last night, but we didn't talk 'till today. Maybe it was fate.
"Oh yeah, I meant to say this before. I'm a night person too."
"Oh really now? Sure you weren't persuaded by my 'moon' speech?" he says smirking.
"Drama much?"
"What can I say? Sometimes I can be quite the theatrical talent," he responds in a pompous voice.
Oh yeah. This was definitely fate.