A/N:Hey-oh! HAPPY AKUROKU DAY! I just had to update for today, it would be a shame not to haha. So enjoy this chapter and other akuroku fics on this glorious day!
Axel's POV
"Are you sure I look alright?" I try to clarify again, but Roxas just sighs louder each time I ask.
"It's just a birthday party. That my mom is throwing. Trust me, if you showed up in a suit and tie, it would be weirder."
But I wasn't sure if my non-ripped (one of the very few pairs I own) navy jeans and maroon polo was appropriate enough. I definitely toned down, knowing that Roxas' family is going to be in attendance. But Roxas has assured me that I should just be myself, so I left on all my accessories. And I have assured Roxas that I won't go scaring, oh let's say his Aunt Liz with my hidden tattoos.
"How do I look?" my blonde bundle of cuteness shyly asks. The fact that he could still be shy around me was so adorable.
But giving a quick glance now to what was a thorough twice over earlier when he had gotten dressed at my place, I repeat what I said earlier.
"Your mother has impeccable taste."
"That's what you said earlier."
"And it's still true an hour later," I say with a smile, not taking my eyes off the road.
We are close to his street, and though I've driven him home on multiple occasions in the past, there was no way that anyone could miss his house right now.
"Um." I literally have no words. Usually people put up balloons on the mailbox and at the door to indicate a party was taking place. There is a giant sign (that looks quite handmade) in cursive writing "Stryker Twins Bash" with an arrow pointing to the back of the home. Tinsel and streamers cover every banister in the front of the house, and there are birthday stickers on every visible window, with a mass of colorful balloons strewn across the front lawn. "Um."
"I'm sorry my mom is so extra," Roxy apologizes. "This is mostly for the kids. The inside is normal, probably." I look around, hoping to find an empty spot on the street to park. Usually this block is so empty, but there seems to be cars filling every available foot of street.
"We might have to go down an extra block to park," I point out.
"Oh, you can park in the garage."
"Is there room for me? I figure your family would have it filled today."
"Where do you think all these cars on the street came from? That is my family."
Woah. That's a lot of aunts, uncles, cousins, and children.
"I'm sorry," he apologizes again. I try to wipe the stressed look from my face.
"It's no problem hun, I already told you I was fine with coming here today." Which is true. "I also wanna meet your parents." Which is a little less true. I mean, he assures me his mom will be fine and his dad won't care, but from what I know of Roxy's past, this party might just kill me.
He directs me to the driveway, which is filled, so I'm not quite sure what he wants me to do here.
"They were supposed to pull in. That's my Aunt Liz and my dad's car. Give me a minute, I'll tell them to move it in." He starts getting out of the car, but I tell him I'll find some parking up the block. Well, up a couple blocks. "No, I don't want you to go that far. Plus I told Mom I would need a space either in the driveway or the garage." He sits back in the car with a sigh, his head thumping on the headrest.
I notice that he's falling back into that tenseness he seemed to fester in when I first met him. He'd mellowed out so much after dating a clown like me for so long and after moving in with Cloud, I forgot how he was with pre-Axel lovin.
"Babe, I know you've been assuring me that I'll be okay, but will you be okay? I know you and your extended family aren't…on the best of terms," I try to comfort him.
He turns over to look at me, giving me a small smile. "Thanks Axel." He squeezes my hand before giving me a short kiss on the cheek. I don't know if I did anything to deserve all that, but I appreciate it none the less. "Alright, let's get this party started."
"I'm pretty sure it's already started." I can already hear music wafting from the backyard and lots of chatter.
"Meh, it's my own party, doesn't really matter if I'm late." We step out the car, leaving it parked on the street in front of the driveway, which I'm pretty sure is a hazard, but Roxas assures me will be fine. "Oh, speaking of, I gotta find Sora first. I'll introduce you to my mom, then I gotta disappear for a bit."
"That's fine," I say. I'm sure I can find some form of entertainment at this party. And I know Cloud's going to be here, so I'll have someone to hang out with besides the birthday boy. "I'll see you inside then?"
"Roxas, is that you?" We both turn from standing in front of my car to see a man. He looks to be in his late thirties, maybe 40?
"Hey Dad," Roxas says. Oh, his father. Well, I was gonna meet him eventually, now seems as good a time as any.
"Hi," I say, politely putting my hand out. He takes it, but quickly releases it and turns to Roxas.
"Your mother said to go to her when you get here. You're late."
"I know, sorry. Axel and I-"
"Axel?" he asks his eyebrow up.
Ah, I never fully introduced myself. I didn't exactly know how much Roxas wanted me to say to his father right at this moment, but I figure my name and relationship status should suffice. "That's me, Axel Lynch. I'm his-"
His dad cuts me off, not even glancing over at me. "Your mother is in the backyard with your Aunt. Go before she starts worrying."
"Dad, Axel was still-"
"See you inside." With that, he walks back toward the front doors of the house.
"Ah, the driveway!" Roxas yells, but his dad has already disappeared inside. He sighs loudly, rubbing his face with both his hands.
"Hey, try not to stress too much. It's your birthday, remember?"
"Right…" he sighs again. It was kind of fucked up that the first thing out of his father's mouth when he got here was complaints, but I'm trying to get on his parents good side so I don't mention it. My own mom was so taken with Roxas, I want it to be the same with me and his parents. Though his dad seems like a pill.
"Sorry my dad is a pill," he apologizes. I snort to myself. "What?" he asks.
"Noting. Just thinking how I love you," I say. I am so tempted to kiss him right now, but some children come running out from the backyard, so that seems highly inappropriate now.
"It's Roxo!" they all screech barreling towards him.
"Hey squirts," he laughs. He picks up a baby girl who was the last to waddle in, while the others grab onto his legs. He's grinning and spinning them around. I've never seen him around babies before, so this was a treat for the eyes. Happy birthday to me apparently. "Alright rascals, I've got a mission for you." They all stand at attention, some of them saluting. Roxas takes a quick glance at me with an evil smirk before blatantly pointing me down. "ATTACK THE RED-HEADED GIANT."
These children don't even second guess themselves as they fling their bodies at me, grabbing onto my legs and swinging from my arms. The little ones throw balloons at me, most of them missing 'cause of the wind. Everyone is laughing and I am so ready to get Roxas back for this.
"I gotta go find Sora and my mom apparently. I'll catch you in a while, have fun you guys!" He runs off with the baby still in his arms to the house, leaving the kids squealing with joy with me. Not struggling too much, I walk around the house where the children had originally come running from. Once in the backyard, I can see it's quite large, with picnic tables set up all around, food and drinks on a table near the porch door, a grill going at it with a man with a "kiss the chef" apron, and a speaker system playing top hit music. The children let me go to run and play on the little jungle gym set that was off to the side. The younger ones stay with me, pulling me in every which way. I think they were trying to decide between dancing near the speakers or the bubble machine.
"Well, well, who do we have here!" The man who was at the grill is now standing to the side of me. "One of the birthday boyos friends?"
"Yeah," I reply over the babies' protests that I've seemingly decided to stop and talk. "Name's Axel, I'm-"
"Ah, Rox the Fox, am I right?" he grins.
What?
"Don't worry, I know about it. His mama, my lil sis, has been talking on the phone with me about it for months. She was a little worried about it at first, but I told her that he was a man, and could handle a relationship. Especially as feisty as he is!" The man laughs and I am still as confused as I was at the beginning of this conversation.
"Pop done?" The boy on my left leg interrupted.
"With the cooking, almost," he says, crouching down to look at the boy. "Then grandpa can come play with you."
"That's okay. I play with red giant," he pouts while grabbing my leg tighter.
"Hey, that's Axel to you buddy," I say. He laughs as I shake my leg up and down. The other one shouts that he wants a turn, and the girl in my arms pokes my face where I'm supposing my tattoos are.
"Seems like they like you Axel," the man chortles standing back up straight. "I'm Larry by the by; Rox the Fox is my nephew."
Ah, so this was his uncle. That he could believe. But grandfather? He barely looked forty! "Great to meet you," I say smiling.
"Right back at you! I'm glad Rox found someone like you, hope it all works out."
"Thanks," I respond. The kids have begun to grow restless, so I plan to take them over to the bubbles.
"If you could just play with them for a few more minutes that would be phenomenal, I gotta finish up these turkey burgers."
"Sure thing." I race the kids over to the table with the assortment of bubbles, making sure to take my time so I didn't actually win. They were so excited that they beat the "red giant" (thanks for giving me that nickname Roxy). I sat on the picnic bench while they tried to create big bubbles and pop them. There were a lot more young folk out here than anything, but a couple of elderly people loitered around, either playing with the children, laughing with each other or idly dancing to the music. It seemed like fun times.
"Larissa, what are you doing over there?!" An elderly woman (looked to be mid to late forties) stomped her way over towards our table in what seemed like her Sunday best and what should have been party clothes. I looked at the only girl in our little group here holding a butterfly stick that was dripping with bubble soap.
"Bubbo," she cheers, looking up at the woman, who is glancing suspiciously at me. I know I took out my piercings, but nothing could be done about my flaming head of hair. I did try to tie it back, make it look tamer. I even used some of Roxy's gel!
But I guess this woman still considered me some type of gang member because she snatched up the girl so quick you would have thought I was doing something dastardly over here instead of, you know, just blowing bubbles with some children.
"Who are you and what are you doing?" she spits out at me. Oh my, this is going to be a delight.
"I'm-"
"Mother! There you are, Aunt Lori is looking for you." I was never going to be able to finish a god damn sentence at this party, was I?
The woman clutches the child closer while glaring at me before turning to look at who I'm assuming is her approaching son from the sounds of it. Looking around her I see…wait.
"Cloud?" Looking at him, he's wearing a polo with a button down, which has me thoroughly confused for two reasons. One it's hitting 80 degrees today, he must be dying in that, and two when the hell did Cloud start wearing sweater vests?
"Oh. Hey Axel, I forgot you were coming…" How could he forget, he lives with Roxas who I'm sure told him?
"Is this hoodlum an acquaintance of yours?" she says looking disdainfully at me. I don't know what I did to make this woman hate me, but I'm getting sick and tired of being treated like a bad guy.
"Mother, he's not a hoodlum," Cloud defends. Yeah, I was many things, but hoodlum was not one of them.
"That's not important." Not important my hoodlum ass! "Where is your sister? She just left Larissa out here with him. Uh…"
"Axel," I remind her with a sigh. The children have officially abandoned me to continue to play with the bubble machine. Traitors, I laugh to myself.
"Right. Axel. What an...unconventional name." Was that the closest she could get to a compliment?
"Mother, Aunt Lori, remember?" Cloud urges. He looks just as tense as Roxas did earlier in the car.
"Right, I wonder if something's wrong. I'll be right back." She hands the little girl to Cloud, instructing him to "watch her". Cause you know, I might eat her or something.
Cloud sighs, and struggles to hold the girl as she reaches out towards me. "I think Larissa likes you," he chuckles. He finally gives up and hands her over.
"Ash!" she cheers, poking my tattoos again.
"Axel." I smile.
"Red giant!"
"Fee Fie Fo Fum, I'm gonna eat your tum-tum!" She giggles as I blow raspberries on her stomach. "I'm pretty sure your mom thinks I eat babies."
"Nah, she just doesn't like people," he explains. Which didn't really make me feel better about her. "Come on, let's go somewhere and talk a bit. There was actually something that I wanted to chat with you about for a while now."
I'm pretty sure he's about to give me some more "dad" talk about dating Roxas. I am not excited to hear more of the don'ts and don'ts of dating Roxas.
Uncle Larry came over to relieve me of my babysitting duties, so Cloud took me over to the drinks table which was currently vacant. I crack open a code red while Cloud grabs a sunkist.
"What you wanna talk about?" Please don't ask me if we've had sex. I mean, I'm pretty sure he already knows we've been doing it like crazy, but please don't ask me if we've had sex. Despite the presence of children at this party, I have no doubt that Cloud would beat me into next week.
"It's Roxas…"
Oh god, please don't ask me if we've had-
"About how I treated him all those years ago."
Oh. Okay, totally different conversation than I thought. "You mean about when he was staying with your family in middle school?"
"Yeah. I know you've heard about it from when I got into that argument with him and Sora outside the school. But I wanted you to hear it from me." Roxas also told me about it when he ran off. He had been deeply scarred by Cloud's abandonment. I tried to be objective about it, but I am aware that my love for Roxas makes me blind at times. And I wanted to throttle Cloud for how he treated him.
"I know. I know that what I did in the past was unforgivable. The things I did...the things I said to him…" He visibly shudders before taking another sip of his drink. "Thinking back, I know why I did what I did. I was too scared to stand up to my mother, to stand up for what I believe in. I'm still scared honestly. It's why my mother still thinks that I'm straight." He pauses to wave at his younger cousins on the swings who are yelling his name. "But I'm tired of hiding and deceiving, both from my family and myself. I want to proudly introduce Leon as my boyfriend, not just my roommate. He's too great to be downgraded," he sighs with a small smile.
"He is pretty awesome," I comment, pulling out a real smile from him. "Hey, we both made our mistakes when we were young. I'm no saint myself, you know that. I did some fucked up things to my past flames."
"You were a redheaded slut, yes," Cloud deadpans. I laugh despite myself.
"Yeah, not the most upstanding dude. But after meeting Roxas, and going through the actual and literal hell of trying to court him-" Cloud laughs outright at me. "-I learned that I can't let my past ruin my present with Roxas. I'm a newer, and I think better person than I've ever been before. And that's thanks to your cousin."
"He is pretty awesome," Cloud repeats my compliment from earlier. "And now that you're together, and you're here, I should really give you a crash course. A little survival 101 for the Strife/Stryker family."
"Is it a coincidence that your family names are very similar?" I ask.
"Not important. The number one rule for surviving in this family is to not give ammunition. Don't say anything that they will marginally use against you because they will. They will take even the tiniest blemish and make it into an atomic bomb that will ruin your life."
"Wow."
"Rule number two."
"Wait, should I be taking notes or something?" I ponder, but Cloud ignores me.
"You can return digs, but you have to be classy. And pick your targets well. Like, you could fly with saying Uncle Larry dresses like a hobo from an 80's movie, but if you comment on my Uncle Edward's wardrobe, even if it's a compliment, he will wreck you into next week."
"Good to know."
"Rule number three, and this one is really important," he says with all seriousness. I'm so ready to snidely argue why it's not rule number one then, but his face has a whole new level of gravity to his demeanor that I keep my mouth shut for once. "Roxas' mom and my mother...when they're together? ...watch out."
"For what?"
"Utter meltdown. This family likes to believe that Roxas' mom needs the most help, but it's my own mother who's completely dysfunctional."
"Oh come on, she can't be that bad." She's a judgmental old religious zealot, but she didn't seem like evil incarnate.
"You don't know my mom."
"That's what Roxas said too, but he eventually told her," I argue.
"That's because Rox's mom is actually a very understanding and loving lady. My mother, is not. She's close minded, and deeply religious. I really did hate being there, you know?"
"I know. And so does Roxas. Which is why you both got out, right? Things are better now."
Cloud turns to the porch where a group of people wander out, including Roxas and Riku, together surprisingly, and Leon himself. A warm smile spreads across his face. "Things are definitely better."