CHAPTER SIX

The next few days were… tense, to put it lightly. Axel kept expecting someone to come barging through his door, or knock him off his bike or something. A side-tackle from Riku on the way home maybe.

But – nothing.

Nothing happened after Axel cycled home that night. Nothing was different. Nobody called, or knocked. He got up and went to work the next morning, for fuck's sake, because being the reincarnation of a god didn't pay the bills. And he went home, locked the door, and waited. He spent half the goddamn night waiting, and when nothing still insisted on occurring, he had to call it a night and go to bed. This went on, and with each passing day, his bewilderment grew only as fast as his anger.

This entire time, he had not contacted Demyx, nor heard from him. This was not unusual, but suddenly he had to wonder. He knew now. He knew that Demyx was a god. Did Demyx know he was one, too? Roxas had said that gods couldn't recognise each other on sight, but maybe… maybe Axel's awakening had been news to the other guys, too. The ones that that asshole Riku had called 'the enemy'. Maybe Demyx knew, and maybe he was as lost as Axel was. But Axel was too scared to just pick up the phone and call him, because what then? What would he even say? They'd been friends since they were stupid kids on BMX bikes, thinking they were invincible even as they were breaking their bones attempting jumps way beyond their skill level. He'd been there on the day that Demyx decided gelling his hair to look like a Mullet-Mohawk Combo was a Good Idea.

"'The enemy'," he muttered, standing out on his small balcony late at night smoking a rare cigarette.

"Talking about me?" Roxas asked from above, and suddenly Axel was coughing uncontrollably, cigarette nearly crushed between his fingers as he gripped the railing with one hand and slammed his chest repeatedly with the other. Oh, that had gone in all wrong. Oh, this was sounding so unattractive. He was hacking his goddamn lungs up.

Eventually, he managed to start gasping, "Oh, fuck me," and "Oh, shit. Oh, my fucking lungs." He leaned out and peered up at the balcony over his, to find a pair of blue eyes and head of blond hair lit up in the cast of the glow from his apartment.

"Smoking's bad for your health," Roxas informed him. Axel stabbed a finger upwards.

"You," he rasped hoarsely. "Down here. Fucking now." He almost managed to not jump when Roxas promptly appeared next to him, briefly dizzied by a glimpse of the now-empty upper balcony over his shoulder before it was gone in an instant and the world was back to normal. He leaned against the railing and exhaled hard, still catching his breath from the coughing fit, yet also feeling abruptly exhausted for other reasons. He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes to rid them of the tears that the cigarette mishap had caused, hoping that when he eventually lifted his face he didn't look like a gigantic fucking mess. Because Roxas… Roxas looked cute, in his baggy, zippered pants and chequered hoodie. And it wasn't fair, damn it. "I told you to stop doing that," he warned, voice like the grinding of rocks.

Roxas had the good sense to look chastened. Looking down as he scuffed his shoe against the railing, he said, "I wasn't sure you'd want to see me."

Axel thought about fighting the urge, but then smacked him hard over the head. "Ow! Shit!" Roxas had his arms up, shielding himself too late. "What the fuck was that?"

"Now you know how it feels," he said gruffly. He held up his poor crumpled cigarette and took an experimental puff to see if it was still lit. "You little shit," he added, then, feeling empowered, placed the sad cigarette into its ashtray and went on, "You asshole. You son of a bitch. You absolute motherfucker." Roxas was scowling now, gaze averted, brow furrowed but unable to respond, which was when Axel reached out, gently took hold of the sides of his face, and lightly kissed him, just once.

He released Roxas and leaned back, observing the moment the expression on his face turned from shell-shocked to wanting. He leaned back down just as Roxas was reaching up, and placed his hands on the railing either side of him as he was drawn into a series of deeper kisses. "I'm sorry," Roxas gasped, when they broke apart after several minutes. Axel ignored him, spread kisses across the side of his face and down his neck. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Roxas kept murmuring, until Axel returned to his lips and stopped the spill of apologies for a good, long while. Roxas clung to his black tee, Axel dressed for bed in that and some grey sweats, having all but given up on Roxas coming back by this point.

After a time, they let their reddened lips rest, Axel touching their heads together as they breathed heavily. "Why?" he panted. Roxas closed his eyes, Axel able to see the long lashes up close.

"…We were surveilling Demyx," he explained, keeping his eyes shut. "Since he's Xemnas's latest recruit. And that's… when I saw you." He turned his head slightly against Axel's, mouth tugging into a frown. "I could see you, but that you were unawakened. I knew you weren't one of them. And… then one day I heard you play." The look on his face cleared, and Axel felt his chest throb. "I can remember it so clearly, it's like this… snapshot in my head." He chuckled. "But with sound. I was just doing a walk-by, I had bought a takeout coffee to blend in, but I heard you play, and it was so beautiful I couldn't believe it. I'm not exactly a classical fan, you know? But man, that sound…" Axel kissed him, just once, for a long moment, before Roxas continued. "That sound," he whispered, fingers tightening again on Axel's shirt. "It's like you were made for your violin. You didn't care about reincarnations of gods, or what was happening around you, or anything but that sound." Axel brushed his hands restlessly over Roxas's hair, digging his fingers through the spikes. "I couldn't… let them have you." He finally opened his eyes, met Axel's gaze straight on. "You were already friends with Demyx. They can't see like I can, but they have a way of detecting slumbering gods and awakening them, and once you're one of them…" His hands were kneading that piece of shirt now, anxious. "I couldn't let them have you," he repeated, sounding almost distressed. Axel started slowly massaging his scalp, both hands deep in his hair, soothing him until he relaxed again. "Because… then Ansem…" he sighed, almost dreamily, but at this, a splinter of cold sense entered Axel's haze.

"Then Ansem… what? What about Ansem?" he asked. "What – what would Ansem have done if they got to me first? What… is he planning on doing to Demyx?" His tone took on an edge of alarm. Roxas blinked, seemingly realising he'd swerved them back into troubled waters.

Well. It had only really been a matter of time, hadn't it?

They released one another, Axel stepped back, the night feeling colder now without Roxas's warmth against him. He still gripped him by the shoulders, but the mood was completely changed. "Demyx… is my best friend, Roxas," he said, urgently. "I'm willing to listen about this Xemnas guy and whatever he's up to, I'm even willing to help, but I need to know that Demyx is going to be safe. That's like. My condition. Total ultimatum."

Roxas looked startled, holding his hands up, trying to process this. "Wait, wait –"

"No 'wait'," Axel refused. "That's it. I'll do it. I'm already awake, right? And I can't pretend that Demyx just… isn't part of some cabal of gods trying to take over the world. I don't care about the details. Explain it to me later. Just promise me, Roxas." He turned pleading, lowering himself, pressing their foreheads together, holding Roxas's face tightly. "Just promise Demyx will be okay, and I'll do whatever they want me to. He's my best friend, Roxas. He's my best friend." He buried his nose into that blond hair, filled with the scents of Roxas and shampoo and just the faintest hint of his own tobacco, and he begged, "Please."

Roxas… unzipped from between his arms. He was just gone, and Axel staggered to his knees at the sudden loss of balance, knuckles white on the railing. He gasped for air, feeling a storm of emotion, feeling it well up so that he lifted himself to his feet and screamed out into the night, "FUUUUUUCK!"

He sucked in a new breath, and heard someone distantly yell, "Go fuck yourself!"

His head dropped. Thank you, Radian Garden, I'll be here all week. He turned, opened the sliding door, and quietly stepped back inside.

And again, life went straight back to normal. It was starting to piss Axel off just how normal it all was when Roxas decided to let it be. It made him impatient. Fidgety. Distracted. He nearly got into three accidents during work over two days. He had run a red light on a bicycle, for fuck's sake. He couldn't keep getting jerked around like this. If he had to take matters into his own hands, so be it.

He came to the decision mid-delivery on the third day after Roxas's latest departure, delivered his package, and instead of continuing to the next delivery, cycled back to the park square where Roxas had led him to the gleaming, important-ass building filled with just… sacks and sacks of walking penises. But he'd had enough of them being in charge of the bullshit. He was going to do it his own way now.

If he'd gone back to the office first, he could have got the black card from his locker, but he couldn't go back without them knowing he was ditching work. So instead, he tried pressing the buzzer on an intercom next to the door. A camera was pointed straight at him, but anyone looking at him from any sort of distance would only see a courier. A voice crackled over the intercom, "We're not accepting deliveries at this time. Please leave."

Axel pressed the buzzer again.

"We are not accepting deliveries. You are on private property and are instructed to move on."

Private property? Axel was standing on the goddamn sidewalk. He turned to look at the camera and sarcastically jumped and pointed downwards a couple times before spreading his arms wide. He was a visual storyteller, it had to be said. After a few more sarcastic jogging motions, he pressed the buzzer a third time. Then a fourth. Then he flipped off the camera and started hammering it rapidly.

Eventually, over all the buzzing, he heard, "All – all right! All right! You've been identified! You can come in!" The door clicked open, and the intercom said with finality, "Asshole!"

He turned his middle finger upside down and traced it down his face like a tear, before turning away from the camera and using the door. Welp. There was one more enemy he'd made in the building.

Waiting over at the reception desk in the massive foyer was Riku, looking exasperated. "Really, Axel? Really?"

"Yup." He removed his cycling goggles, which fortunately hadn't covered up his tattoos and prevented them from allowing him entry. He'd been planning to start hitting the building with his bike next. "Where's Roxas?" was his first question.

"Away on an errand," Riku answered. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I made my terms pretty clear," Axel told him.

"We do not make bargains with gods who aren't with us," was Riku's chilly riposte.

"How can I become one of you," Axel said patiently, sweetly, "if you won't make a bargain with me?"

Riku stared at him. He stared right back, eyebrows getting progressively higher on his face the lower Riku's went. Eventually, the other man huffed, "Fine, I'll take you to Ansem. Fight about it yourselves."

"Thank you," Axel made a point of pleasantly saying, Riku shooting him a withering look in return. Riku operated the elevator for him, taking him up to Ansem's skyward sanctum. Bobbing his head to the music only he could hear, helmet still clipped firmly under his chin, Axel drummed a beat against his thighs as they ascended, making sure that Riku absolutely loathed him by the time they got up there. As the doors slid open, he winked at Riku and blew a kiss. "Thanks, babe."

The strangled noise he gave would fill Axel's heart for a long, long, long… really long time.

He strode through the office confidently, already knowing his way to the throne. Ansem stood as he came into view, clearly puzzled. "Axel… I'm surprised to see you." He glanced around for Riku, who was bringing up the rear far more slowly, with a murderous expression in place.

"Why?" Axel asked, tilting his head. "I'm what you wanted, right? To get close to Demyx, as I recall?" His hands were on his hips, his smile fixed. "Well: here I am. Your direct, one-way ticket to Demyx."

"Yes, well…" Ansem sounded disapproving. Axel was pretty sure it was his default tone. "We have rather – opposing ideas of what that should result in."

And there it was. The reason Roxas hadn't come back. The reason they'd all but given up on Axel. "You want to kill Demyx?" he asked, his smile never wavering. "Is that what you do to the gods that choose the hostile takeover option?"

"You are at this point considered a neutral party, Axel," Ansem coolly informed him. "I suggest that you take that, and keep it that way. Keep living your life. Ignore us, and we shall afford you the same privilege."

His eyes narrowed. "What's wrong, Ansem? Seemed a few days ago like you couldn't wait to indoctrinate me into the gang."

"You've been deemed an unstable asset," Ansem curtly replied.

"Unstable? Me?" Axel flapped a hand while blowing a disbelieving raspberry. "I'm as stable as they come. Now, this guy?" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to where Riku veritably smoked from the ears with the desire to hurt him. He sucked a regretful breath through his teeth and wobbled his hand to indicate Riku's state of mind.

Ansem faced him pleasantly, folding his hands together. "Then, let me state it more plainly for you." His face and tone hardened like diamond in the span of a heartbeat. "You're more trouble than you're worth."

Axel's playful veneer fell away. "Accept me," he demanded. "And accept my terms."

"No." Ansem wasn't moved in the slightest.

"Accept me, or I join the enemy," Axel countered, a threat that turned Ansem to ice.

"Then you don't leave," he told Axel. "Your neutrality is stripped from you. We don't want you, and even if they do, they're not getting you." As he spoke, Axel couldn't help but notice the air around him intensifying, almost seeming to suck the oxygen from the room. "Riku," he commanded, "prevent Axel from leaving at all cost."

Riku sighed, adopted an aggressive posture, and the – the colour of his eyes seemed to change, his irises shifting like the waves themselves, and Axel was hit by the smell of salt. A wind was starting up from Riku's direction, sounding like a distant roar, while on his other side Ansem moved past his desk and began advancing, the room warping as he moved through it, twisting at the edges like it was trying to escape him. Huffing for air, Axel turned from one of them to the other, creeping closer and closer to Riku as Ansem approached, that far-off sound growing nearer, the wind Riku emitted developing a cutting edge. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. God stuff. God stuff.

God stuff.

He felt a heat develop in his heart, in his head, in his hands, in his eyes, running through his veins like a liquid inferno and pooling in his palms. He saw Ansem's features jolt as Axel thought to himself flames,and they erupted for him, one of the paintings on the wall bursting into a fire that blazed so intensely it was rapidly just ashes on the carpet and a black rectangle left behind.

He felt a rush like nothing he'd experienced in his life, so he did it again, he summoned the idea, he thought flames,right as Roxas threw his arms around him and unzipped the universe, which is how there was suddenly a cushion ablaze and some guy who looked like a brown-haired Roxas started screaming right in Axel's ear.

"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!"

A smoke detector went off somewhere overhead, and Roxas grabbed a small fire extinguisher out of a cupboard and went to town on the cushion. Soon it, and everything, was covered in white – but the fire was out.

Panting, coughing on the smoky air, he next went and got a broom and jabbed at the ceiling until the fire alarm shut off. Meanwhile, the brown-haired guy was opening windows as he choked, and a thoroughly dazed and confused Axel found himself not, in fact, locked in godly battle in Ansem's tower, but standing in some guy's apartment. An apartment that… he had just managed to set on fire.

He blinked distantly, said, "Sorry," to the brown-haired Roxas, then collapsed like his strings had been cut. Down for the count.