CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Axel's Cloud-watching shift passed completely uneventfully. Since he had last spoken, the man hadn't moved an inch. It was weird, and creepy, but it was nightfall that Axel was wary of. What if Sephiroth tried again? Maybe that's all today's quiet behaviour was – readying for the cover of darkness. But the worst part of Cloud Watch was definitely just the boredom. He couldn't even go on his phone. He and Tifa just had to spend the entire time watching Cloud perform his statue routine, because apparently Sephiroth moved so fast, and so savagely, that the slightest sign of him seeming to stir would need to be immediately reported to the rest of the group while one of them held him back.

So it wasn't exactly with a sense of comfort that he relinquished his shift to Yuffie as dusk started to drop its shadow across the manor. He frowned as he saw Tifa's replacement – Leon again. Tifa, too, hesitated at the sight of him, before simply asking, "Are you sure you're up to it?"

"I'm fine. I slept. I ate. Don't worry about me," Leon rumbled back, reclaiming his place against the wall, leaning his gunblade at his side within easy reach. Reluctant though she clearly felt about it, Tifa nodded and took the key from Yuffie, she and Axel leaving the room and locking it behind them. They took only a few steps before Axel realised how clear the air felt now, especially compared to the stuffiness of Cloud's sealed room. You could still smell the dust, but you weren't actively disturbing it anymore just by existing. Evidently, the day's cleaning efforts had gone well.

They entered the kitchen, the unofficial meeting spot in the sprawling house, just as everything was wrapping up. Grubby but accomplished, the ones who had performed the hard work were putting the cleaning materials away and wrapping up garbage bags of detritus, mostly from Sephiroth's rampage last night. Glancing up, noticing Axel, Roxas brushed a streak of dust across his forehead as he wiped his sweat, and said, "Oh, hey, wanna help me with the bags?" Wordlessly, Axel joined him, the pair of them hauling the bags outside, where they could be dealt with in the morning.

Standing in the sunset, breaths puffing, Roxas propped his hands on his hips and squinted into the light, until Axel's gentle hand passed across his eyes. "You're not supposed to look at the sun, dummy," he scolded, hugging him from behind. Roxas relaxed into his chest, smiling and pulling away from his hand to look up into his face.

"Forgot. Welcome back." He reached up and kissed Axel softly.

"I didn't actually go anywhere," Axel mentioned, receiving another kiss.

"Yes, but you were locked in with Sephiroth, and I was worried." Another kiss, longer and deeper, one of Roxas's hands reaching up to brush Axel's face, still held in his backwards embrace. Then it settled on the back of his head, pulling him in harder, the kiss expanding into something more, something deeper…

Until Riku appeared, hauling a bag, and wearily advised, "Rein it in, Sora's not far behind –"

"For the love of fuck."

Abandoning Axel's lips, Roxas twisted around to look past him and complain, "Now you know how I've felt every goddamn time I've walked in on you and Riku, you jackass."

"Ugh, ew," Sora grumbled, dragging his garbage bag. "Familial PDA. Ew." He dumped his bag with the others, before stating, "Anyway, it's different with you and Axel. You guys basically dry-hump with your eyes every minute of the day. It's disgusting."

"They're not that bad," Riku promised, trying to guide him back into the house.

"Oh, yes they are," Sora retorted. "I'd tell them to use a condom, but they'd run out by mid-morning." Riku started pushing with his knees.

Roxas bristled. "Well, I'm so sorry that your –" Axel did his part and placed a hand over his mouth, stifling whatever bitchy comment Axel was a hundred percent certain was about to come spilling forth, doubtless at Riku's expense. He and Riku exchanged tired nods, and each wrangled their respective twin. Sora disappeared into the house yelling at top volume, while Roxas slobbered like a fucking child over the inside of his hand to try and make him let go.

Eventually, with that tongue stabbing at his fingers to try and shift them, Axel looked down and asked, "Is that really supposed to gross me out?"

Roxas paused, then scowled behind Axel's hand, which was not shifting until he was done with the bickering. Huffily, the blond settled, shoulders drooping in surrender, and Axel could finally wipe his hand on his jeans. "What is up with you two?" he wondered, slinging an arm around Roxas's shoulders, which tensed as if to throw him off.

"Oh, so you're on his side," he grumbled.

Axel gently took his chin in hand, easing his face around and staring at him until Roxas finally, sulkily, made eye contact. "I will always," Axel quietly swore, "be on your side."

As dusk turned to night, the stars pricking the sky above, they exchanged slow, solemn kisses. These were the moments that kept Axel sane. They only parted, a little dizzy from lack of oxygen, when Aerith rang a ladle against a pot in the distance and called, "Dinner time! It's dinner time, everybody!"

Caressing his face with his thumbs, Axel asked, "Are you hungry?" Roxas hesitated, like he really wanted to say 'no' and keep this going… but… At the pause, Axel regretfully sighed, "Yeah, me too." It had been a long day. They needed their goddamn food.

But then Roxas's eyes pierced him, and he huskily said, "Consider it fuel for later," and Axel nearly fucking buckled on the spot. Overly-conscious of Sora's complaint of their… 'eye-humping', and the fact that Riku hadn't actually corrected him so much as adjusted the exaggeration, Axel made a point of keeping his eyes low, fixed on his food, which he neither tasted, nor smelled, nor really noticed except for the fact that it filled him up and that was probably a good thing. No, he was just really, really busy trying to not get an erection with everyone around him as the memory of Roxas's gaze and words tingled through his body over and over.

At some point, he realised everyone was staring at him, and he blinked. "Oh. Um. What?"

"…He's just tired from last night still," Roxas answered for him, Axel making the mistake of looking at him, at which point a blast of heat shot outward from him. "You know what, I think he might actually be feeling a little unwell, I'll take him to lie down," Roxas quickly announced, getting up from the table and grabbing Axel by the shoulders, hauling him out of his seat and out of the dining room they had cleaned up to have meals in. Axel caught a glimpse of the room almost simultaneously fanning themselves, before being dragged by a very insistent Roxas along the brightly-lit hallways to their bedroom. He became aware of Roxas muttering, "God, I cannot believe that in front of all those people you'd let something like that loose."

"And whose fault do you think that was?" Axel croaked, and now that they were alone, his hands were everywhere, exploring Roxas desperately, pulling him in for kisses that caused the blond to stumble and almost forget where they were going. He managed to get Axel to the bedroom, the pair tumbling through the door and slamming it shut, Axel lifting Roxas up to wrap his legs around his waist as he pressed him against the back of the door and tasted every visible inch of flesh. He tasted Roxas's lips, his earlobes, his jawline, his bobbing throat as he gulped and gasped for air. He tasted his cheeks, his chin, the tip and bridge of his nose, all the way up his forehead and into his hair.

Here, awash in the scent of Roxas, Axel started to move, to grind, able to feel Roxas groaning through the vibration of his body. Roxas dragged him down to continue kissing, clutching to Axel, pulsing his hips forward and now being to one to make Axel moan, the sound devoured by needing lips. They rutted for a while, gasping and panting, before Roxas demanded, "Bed."

The bedding had been taken outside and had the dust beaten out, which wasn't as good as fresh sheets but was infinitely better to the previous night, Axel carrying Roxas over and tossing him easily onto the covers. Crawling over the blond, kissing and peeling up his shirt inch by inch, Axel made his way back to Roxas's lips, then briefly sat up to yank his shirt off. He stared down at the blond's flushed upper body, and breathed, "I would die for you."

The words were out before he could even think about them, but once uttered, they couldn't be retrieved, causing Roxas to go still beneath him. Through his lustful haze, Axel could see that he'd said something… wrong. He was pressed back by Roxas, until he had no choice but to roll off.

"What?" Axel panted, still trying to clear his head. "What'd I do?"

Roxas sat up and turned away, crossing his legs, hiding his expression from view. "…You're not allowed to say things like that," he eventually said, his voice so thick that Axel carefully twisted him around and found that he was starting to cry.

"Oh, shit. Oh, no. I'm sorry," he desperately said.

"I do not know why I'm crying," Roxas sniffled, wiping his cheeks with the heels of his hands. "I just know that even if I am a god, when we die… that's it. We don't get to retain our memories. Even if we find each other in another life… it would take so long to get back to this." He hunched in on himself, Axel wrapping his arms around him and pulling him in close.

He looked at Roxas's downcast, tear-stuck eyelashes, and softly said, "Okay, then. How about this." He gently placed his hands either side of Roxas's face, and touched their foreheads together, closing his eyes. "I promise to live as long as possible with you."

He felt a flash of heat, but for once he wasn't the source of it. He looked with some surprise at Roxas's nearly-scarlet face and shoulders. It was even prickling down into his chest. "That sounded like a proposal," Roxas muttered, almost stunned out of his tears.

Axel chuckled lightly. "Consider it a promise," he said, "of 'later'. There'll always be a 'later'." He stroked Roxas's hair, and kissed him tenderly. "I'll live for you, if that's what you'd prefer."

Roxas hitched a breath as his kisses wandered, and once again they were consumed by one another, shedding all clothing, a mess of hands, fingers, knees, thighs. Axel sucked Roxas's cock and brought him to shuddering climax, swallowing everything. Until they sourced more lube, there wasn't going to be any penetration, but getting kissed while receiving a hand-job from Roxas was… yeah. It was up there. Axel groaned into his mouth as the blond stroked him, clutching him and muffling his cries in the crook of Roxas's neck as he came. They cleaned up, then rested, nestled into one another, slowly cooling down.

"I'll live for you, too," Roxas gently said into the silence, and Axel squeezed him tight. "We'll take care of each other. Always."

Pressing a kiss into his bare shoulder, Axel chuckled, "That sounds like a proposal."

"…I don't think I'll ever need anybody but you," Roxas seriously answered, and Axel… couldn't embrace him that much tighter without hurting him, but he pressed his face into Roxas's hair, and sighed, a long, ragged sound.

"God, Roxas." He laughed a little. "You can't just come out with things like that. My heart wasn't ready." He placed another kiss on the blond, at one corner of his mouth, then the other, then full on the lips. They slept peacefully that night, with not even Sephiroth breaking the peace. It was a deep, full sleep, from which Axel awoke feeling… refreshed, for the first time in a while.

Leaving Roxas sleeping on the bed, he headed out into the hall, peering into each open room as he went until he found a bathroom with a working shower. There was soap, thanks to the previous day's shopping, allowing Axel to wash away the tension of the past few days, if only for a while. There was a towel on the rack, and he didn't even care who had used it last. They were pooling resources here. He dried himself off, hung it back up, and climbed into yesterday's clothing before heading for the kitchen. Entering the room suddenly and silently on his bare feet, he appeared to startle Aerith and Tifa on the far side of the kitchen island, the only other people in the room, who were standing extremely close and had apparently been sharing some kind of moment before Axel barged in. He hesitated, then, unable to reverse, offered a helpless, "Good morning."

Aerith murmured a quick, "Good morning, Axel," and turned away, pink at the ears as she busied herself at the stove making cups of tea for everyone with what looked like a collection of small flowers.

Catching his attention, Tifa leaned forward, tucking her long hair behind her ear as she said, "Good morning. You're an early riser, I see."

"Uh, yeah, I am. Sorry," he awkwardly apologised, Tifa waving it away with a flick of the hand.

"It's fine. We've been together since we were teenagers. Aerith just gets shy in front of other people." This, she said teasingly, over her shoulder, the clattering of activity intensifying. Back to Axel, Tifa asked, "Are you feeling better this morning?"

He had a vague memory of Roxas making excuses for him while he was horny at dinner, and scratched his head sheepishly as he replied, "Yeah! I'm at a hundred percent." And really, he did feel good today. The pain around his middle had faded, and he might have been in the most insane situation of his life, but at least the sex was good.

"That's good to hear," Aerith said in a small voice, bringing over their mugs of steaming herbal tea.

The flowers were drifting about and bumping together on the surface, Axel glancing at her and asking, "Uh, do I – do I eat the flowers?"

"I mostly drink around them," Tifa told him, picking up her own mug to warm her hands and inhale the floral aroma. "The flowers can be bitter."

"But good for you," Aerith insisted, abruptly getting over her bashfulness, Tifa rolling her eyes faintly like she'd heard this a dozen times already. "These particular flowers help with blood flow and alertness. You'd do well to eat them, Axel, we've got a long day ahead." He held the mug up and eyed the slowly bobbing flowers. He'd never eaten a flower before. "Not yet, though!" she warned, before he could start selecting the lucky first one. "Let them steep first."

Placing his mug back down, Axel took a seat at the oblong counter, and closed his eyes, letting the hush of the early morning sit settle around him, interrupted only by the murmurs shared between Tifa and Aerith. He enjoyed this time of day, before most people were awake yet, and dawn was piercing through liminal twilight. He exhaled, oddly contented considering the circumstances, and at long last lifted his mug up, drinking the… very watery, floral-scented hot water. He chewed some of the flowers down, but with decreasing will each time, until the rest of them were left soggy at the bottom. He mostly drank the rest of the tea to wash the petals from between his teeth, but Aerith seemed confident that it would brighten him up, and he had to admit that, not too long after, he was feeling a sort of boost. Damn. Aerith really knew her plants.

"Now you've got the energy to help with breakfast!" she declared, which is how Axel found himself crying over onions as Roxas entered the room a while later.

"Aerith, are you torturing my boyfriend?" he asked, reaching into a cupboard and taking out a tin of instant coffee, which Axel hadn't even known was an option.

"I'm making omelettes!" Aerith told him brightly, as on Axel's other side Tifa rapidly diced her way through a collection of tomatoes like a pro. Seeing him stare, she smiled proudly.

"I used to run a bar, you know," she told him, spinning the knife to show off, which absolutely impressed the shit out of Axel. "We made all our own menu, too."

"That's pretty cool. Why'd you give it up?" he sobbed, his eyes practically blind from how sharp the onions were.

"We were wakened," Tifa answered, wistfully. "Xehanort sent Sephiroth after Cloud, and we were… forcefully wakened to our pasts. After that, nothing really felt right again until Ansem collected us all together." She frowned down at her chopping board full of diced tomatoes. "…And now we're supposed to believe it was all some lie? Ansem… gathered us. Kept us safe. Xemnas could never find us as long as Ansem was hiding us. He was – unifying." She looked at Axel with a troubled expression. "Does that make sense to you?"

"Well," Axel sighed, "I get not wanting to believe the worst in someone you care about, at the very least."

Tifa nodded fractionally. "I heard about your friend. I'm sorry you're on opposing sides like this. It must be hard."

Meeting her gaze through his onion-induced tears, Axel smiled crookedly. "Thanks."

Then Roxas was there, using the sleeves of his hoodie to wipe the twin streams from his cheeks, before choking slightly just from that distance. "Oh, wow. Those are spicy." He backed away, leaving Axel to his fate, until it was time for Aerith to throw it all together with the other veggies she'd been preparing and creating a series of healthy omelettes with a sprinkling of mushrooms from her developing mycelium garden. One by one the members of the house who weren't on Cloud duty turned up, drawn by the delicious smell.

For the pair currently on guard – Yuffie and Riku – omelettes were put aside into the refrigerator, while everyone else devoured their own. "Any idea when Vincent and Cid are due?" Leon asked between bites.

"Last contact we had was late last night after they made landfall," Tifa told him. "We gave them directions, so they shouldn't be too far off."

As if summoned by her words, there was a pounding at the door.

"Two more omelettes, coming up," Aerith murmured, as the group abandoned their places to go and answer it. Leon eased the great doors open to reveal Cid and Vincent on the other side, laden with heavy bags, Cid gnashing on a toothpick that was practically nothing but splinters.

He spat it onto the ground outside before saying roughly, "Good to see y'all are safe. Now get the fuck back inside, because we are all in very, very deep shit, and I don't know if you fuckin' clowns are up for the challenge."