...

Six

...

Waking up the morning after I broke my rib, I really expected to be in a lot of pain but somehow I wasn't. It felt like someone had put a heating pad on my side while I slept.

"Holy mother of God!" I screeched once I realized exactly what was keeping my side warm. Apparently I'd been spooning with Charlie all night.

"Care to explain why my dog won't leave you alone?"

I jumped at the voice sounding from my doorway, looking up to see Axel standing there with his arms crossed and a pissed off look on his face. "How did you get in here?"

He smirked, "You forgot to lock the kitchen door."

"So that means you can just stroll on in? And by the way, I didn't forget to lock it. I left it open in case I needed Hayner to help me."

"I've been trying all morning to get Charlie to come home with me, but he refuses to leave your side," he told me, looking a little hurt by the fact that his dog liked me so much.

I shrugged, "It's not like I asked him to come in. I'll block the dog door off today, okay?"

He nodded, "Already taken care of. You seriously can sleep through anything."

"It's the pain meds, which I wouldn't be on if you hadn't broken my rib," I reminded him.

Suddenly he spotted my Nintendo 3DS XL laying on my desk and picked it up, "What's this?" he wondered, examining it.

"A video game?"

He just stared at me blankly.

I shifted Charlie off of me so that I could sit up and motioned for him to bring it to me, "I'll show you."

He handed me the DS and I flipped it open, powering it on. "Whoa..." he mumbled as the dual screens lit up and the homescreen came on.

"Do you guys seriously not play video games out here?" I asked him, starting up Pokemon X.

"We don't even get cable out here," he muttered, seeming fascinated by the whole system, "I mean, I see some of this stuff when I go into town, but I've never stopped to really look at it."

I laughed a little at how curious he was as I opened my save file. "So the point of this game is to collect these little critters called pokemon. You can keep six of them at a time and they battle other pokemon and trainers with you. All of them have different skill sets and moves, so it's kind of fun to try and balance out your team."

Everything seemed to be going right over his head, "What's that yellow thing?"

"That's Pikachu! He's one of the most popular pokemon in the game!"

"And... that's supposed to fight things?"

I chuckled, "He's an electric type. He has a lot of attacks involving lightening."

"So it's an electrical rat? That doesn't make sense to me..."

"Just shut up and watch," I rolled my eyes, wandering through some tall grass so I could show him a battle.

Somewhere along the line Axel sat down beside me in my bed with Charlie sandwiched inbetween us, just watching me play and asking billions of questions.

"Shit, that was so close! Those HP restores are a bitch," he kept moving closer every time the fights got more intense.

"Uhm... Axel...?" I inched away from him as he practically rested his chin on my shoulder, "How about you take over for a bit? I need to go take a shower. I think I'm still covered in dirt from last night."

He eagerly snatched the DS out of my hands and nodded, "I'm gonna try to get to the next gym."

"Right," I chuckled awkwardly, pushing Charlie off of me and getting up slowly. I hissed a little as pain shot up my side, finding my pain meds on the bedside table and dry swallowing a couple of them. "I guess I'll be back...?"

He grunted something in response as I rifled through an open suitcase to find some clothes before walking across the hall to the bathroom. I didn't really mind him being there, I guess, but didn't he have a farm to run?

When I came back across the hall freshly washed, he was so immersed in the game that he didn't even notice. "Axel, I hate to ask... but can you wrap me?"

Nothing. No response.

"Axel. Axel!" I ended up shouting, waving my ace wrap in front of his face, "Help me?"

He sighed and put the game aside, standing up and snatching it from me, "Lift up your shirt..."

"Ow... Jeez, be gentle!" I snapped as he yanked it tight around me. "So not that I wanna sound rude or anything, but don't you have to work today?"

He raised an eyebrow, "It's like two in the afternoon. I finished all of my farming tasks hours ago."

"Hours ago...?" I thought about how early he must have gotten and cringed, "So that early rising thing is true, huh?"

"There's a lot you need to learn about farming, Roxas. Number one is that you wake up at five in the morning every day and you like it," he said, "Number two is that you stay out of my way."

I rolled my eyes, "And with that cryptic message, I think it's time for you to go."

"But I was just about to fight the gym leader!"

"I need to go meet Hayner before he sends out a search party for me."

He huffed a little, "Fine... But if I find my dog in your house again I'm gonna kick your ass."

"Right, because I obviously have some kind of evil plan to steal your dog away from you," I scoffed, shoving my feet into my boots so I could go see Hayner.

"C'mon Charlie," he muttered, clapping his hands as he headed for the door, "Let's go play fetch for awhile."

I followed them out, starting to get a little fuzzy from the pain meds as I walked next door to find Hayner harvesting some turnips. "Who actually eats turnips? I'm not sure if I've ever seen a single human being eat one."

"Roxas, there you are! We were starting to wonder if those pills put you in a coma!"

"Yeah, well... I kind of had another run-in with Axel. His dog seems to really like me or something, 'cause he's broken into my house twice now."

Hayner laughed, "Doesn't surprise me that Charlie is trying to get away from him."

"Well, I had planned on scoping out the farm today and seeing what I could get started on, but my broken rib is telling me otherwise. Now I don't know what to do," I sighed, wishing that I wasn't an invalid.

"So take a day to just relax. You broke your rib, I'm sure everyone will understand if you take it easy for a couple days," he shrugged, standing up and brushing his hands off on his jeans, "Sorry our psychopathic neighbor maimed you."

I shrugged, "He's not so bad, actually."

"Take it from me, Rox. When he first moved here, Olette and I tried so hard to be friends with him but he just pushed us away like he did with everyone else. Hell, it's his birthday next week and nobody even remembers. Olette usually sends him a plate of cookies, but... I'll put it this way; the party we had last night doesn't even compare to the birthday parties we usually throw people."

"So nobody celebrates it with him?" I frowned, "That's kind of sad..."

"He did it to himself. Keep that in mind," he said, leaning back against his fence. "The second you go and try to 'fix' him, the entire thing is going to blow up in your face. Do yourself a favor and stay away from him."

I glanced over at Axel's house, watching him throw a ball for Charlie. He was definitely a jerk. There was no way around it. But the way his face lit up when he was playing Pokemon was just enough to hint that maybe deep down there was a somewhat decent person in him.

Hayner was right, though. It wasn't my place to try to fix him, not when I had an entire farm to get back up and running. Once I healed enough to start working, the farm had to be my number one priority. And it would be.

...

A/N: I was so worried that I wouldn't get this chapter out tonight! But here it is. An update every day since I started posting. Be proud of me!

Isn't Axel so adorable figuring out video games for the first time? Super cute! I have plans for that too. :3

Keep on reviewing! You know I love it!

Simply Rexene