Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Alkalinity ❯ Calcium ( Chapter 3 )

A/N: Again, I'm so wrapped up in this story that I can't wait to write more. Just don't think it isn't exhausting, ne? And don't get lazy! When I have a block and I'm sitting at the keyboard thinking “I'm a crap writer and I should just give up now” I go back and read reviews to convince myself otherwise. And there are only seven reviews right now! T_T Of course that might just mean that I am a crap writer…

 

 

baa-sama - I'm glad that you like the descriptions, but they really aren't consistent with my usual style of writing, and I feel like they throw things off. And the Palace of Versailles is amazing… I should post a link in my profile…

 

 

chibi neko doll - So do I! But Roxas and Namine will be whiny wherever they are, I guess XD Thanks for your input! It's not the wrong link, but I do feel like I'm writing two stories at once.

 

 

leafyaki - Isn't it fun? I thought my school was neat, but it's got nothing on the academy. Certainly not teachers who look like rock stars… I'm dying to write some from Axel's POV, but it will be quite a while before I can do so without giving too much away. And I'll keep to the English names, if only because your reviews make me so happy ^_^ Fluffy Namine had been bothering me, and I'm glad someone else is enjoying her new outlook on life. There WILL be more and more Axel as the story progresses - as I said, I'm dying to write him. And though some of the descriptions are bothering me, the dream sequence came out exactly the way I wanted it to. You keep fixing on my favorite lines! It pleases me so. And as I said before, points to you for being the first to recognize the significance of the fire dream. Xoxo

 

 

Memories of Twilight - heaves giant sigh of relief I'm so glad to see the word “original” used… I'm always terrified of being trite

 

 

blockofthewritingkind - I'm having way too much fun messing with Roxas… XD

 

 

Benaldo - as I said before, I feel like I've been caught red-handed. You called me on all the parts of the story I was fretting over, ne? XD Thank you for being honest. And you WILL be my editor, of course. And I'm really thrilled that everyone is reacting so well to the dream sequence.

 

 

x(X)x

 

 

He stepped quietly over slumbering bodies that reeked of sweat and wine, avoiding puddles of vomit, urine, and wine. The unconscious forms resembled nothing so much as beached whales, with the occasional lithe form interspersed among them. One of the slender young bodies was attracting more flies than the rest.

 

 

Cassander was still captivating in death. One side of his face had been bludgeoned in by a drunken senator, but the other retained the glowing Greek beauty that had caused him to be stolen from his home by slavers.

 

 

Both eyes remained open, fixed on nothing. The warm brown irises had clouded over, making the dead boy seem like a blind prophet from legend.

 

 

Roxas had no coin to put over the dead boy's eyes, a tradition that Cassander's people required to pass into the afterlife. So he closed the unseeing eyes and padded back out of the dining hall, quickening his step when a guest rolled off her couch and began to stir.

 

 

Two weeks later Aelius sent him to the market to buy a replacement. He asked for a young male strong enough to assist in the running of the household, and attractive enough to please his guests when necessary. Not Greek, he added. There was too much pride in the Greeks.

 

 

Roxas hated that he was considered docile enough to choose other slaves. Someone stronger would refuse, even knowing the pain it would bring them. Someone stronger would try to escape, even knowing that death was the penalty if he were caught.

 

 

He was not strong.

 

 

He nodded wordlessly, and accepted the signet that would prove he was the property of a senator, if a lowly one.

 

 

Three hours later he found Axel.

 

 

Five weeks later he was kissed for the thousandth time, and it was the first time he understood why people did it.

 

 

Six days later he watched Aelius whip Axel with a flagellum until the skin of his back hung in ragged strips.

 

 

For weeks he bathed the lacerations and dressed them in acetum and honey.

 

 

A year later he could kiss the uneven scar tissue before falling asleep pillowed on warm skin.

 

 

Three years later they tried to escape.

 

 

They almost made it.

 

 

The guards crucified Axel first, so that he could watch. Before they put the first nail through his own wrist, they had already administered his punishment.

 

 

He was dead days before he died.

 

 

x(X)x

 

 

Roxas woke to the feeling of a hand on his bare shoulder. He stiffened immediately, but relaxed as his body registered, even before his eyes were open, that the hand was too cold to be him.

 

 

I've never touched him. They're just dreams. I don't know what his hands are like, and I don't want to.

 

 

He grunted awkwardly at Namine, who withdrew her hand.

 

 

The juncture of his neck and shoulder felt peculiarly hot, and he wondered if his body was trying to compensate for the cold of Namine's fingers.

 

 

The flannel of his pajamas rubbed against his legs as he twitched. Pajamas were good. Pajamas meant that he had just had two very strange dreams, and that it was time to wake up now.

 

 

He ran his fingers through his hair lightly, and found no wet stickiness in his scalp. As he would have, he assured himself, had he fallen and made contact with the cold marble.

 

 

He finally gave his sister his full attention, taking in her nightclothes.

 

 

“Did we oversleep? We can always ditch if you'd rather not deal with the `guidance counselor extraordinaire'.” He was pleased to note that he sounded casual, with just the right amount of boredom.

 

 

She opened her mouth as if to speak, and spent a long moment staring at his shoulder. Then her teeth clicked together and she shook her head.

 

 

“It's nearly nine, Rox. It's night. You've been out most of the day.”

 

 

x(X)x

 

 

When he stepped out of the shower he wiped his hand across the fogged mirror, and froze as his reflection became visible.

 

 

The hot spot between neck and shoulder was a livid reddish-purple, and felt slightly sore when he touched it with icy fingers.

 

 

He knew exactly how it got there, but didn't let himself think it, for fear that thinking it might make it true.

 

 

Instead he rummaged through an as-yet-unpacked box until he found a nail file.

 

 

One side was smooth, the other rough as sandpaper.

 

 

He scrubbed until the mark was replaced by raw skin, and blood trickled slowly down.

 

 

He didn't sleep that night.

 

 

x(X)x

 

 

A/N: Before anyone panics, I am NOT going to give you gradually shorter chapters. I'm not quite that mean. I was just dying to post more, even though I added chapter two yesterday. Chapter four will be nice and long.

 

 

Leijahana tu'sai to all readers and reviewers