Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ To Save a Life ❯ The 2nd Day ( Chapter 2 )

To Save a Life

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters associated with Kingdom Hearts or Kingdom Hearts II. I'm merely borrowing them.

The 2nd Day

Roxas woke up with a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach and a sinking heart. At first, he wasn't sure what it was that caused it Then he remembered the events that had occurred the day before and his heart sank even more. What had possessed him to say yes to Axel? He hated Axel more than anything in the world, right? So what had made it impossible for him to say no to him? Sighing softly, Roxas got out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He found a clean pair of socks under a pile of dirty laundry in the corner and pulled them on. He glanced at his clock. 10:45. Perfect. He raced downstairs, grabbed a granola bar, and left without greeting anyone who sat at the table. He threw his sneakers on at the door and raced out.

Twilight Town was a very small town so it wasn't hard for Roxas to find the café Axel was talking about. It wasn't hard to find Axel period. With his bright red hair, he stood out in any crowd. The said red-head was sitting at the café, the hood of his black cloak pushed back, a cup of coffee in front of him.

He looked up when Roxas approached and smiled. “Hey Roxas. You came.”
“Yeah.” Roxas sat across from him.

“Do you want a cup of coffee or something?” Axel questioned.

“Sure. Why not.” Roxas shrugged.

As if summoned by magic, a waitress appeared. She had short blonde hair with two large strands that stood up like antennae and green eyes, a bit darker than Axel's. She wore a waitressing outfit; a short skirt and short sleeved shirt with a white apron over it and knee-high leather boots with a heel on the back.

“What can I get you Axel?” she asked with a slight giggle.

“Roxas here would like a coffee, if that's not too much trouble,” Axel replied, ignoring the girl's flirtation.

“Sure thing,” the girl smiled. She left.

“Do you know her?” Roxas asked.

“Yeah. Her name is Larxene.”

“Oh. Is she your girlfriend?”

Axel chuckled. “Man Roxie you are really bad with trying to guess relationships. First Zex and now Larx.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” Roxas demanded. Axel didn't answer. “So who exactly is she?”

“She's sort of a friend of mine. She belongs to Organization XIII.”
“Really?”
“Yup. When she comes back, look at her right wrist. She'll have a black tattoo around her wrist.”

Larxene came back with a tray with a coffee cup, a pot of coffee, a thing of sugar, and a pitcher of cream. She set them on the table and while she poured Roxas his cup of coffee, he inconspicuously glanced at her right wrist. There was the tattoo, like Axel had said. Larxene straightened up and with a rather chilling smile, left. Roxas turned his attention to his cup of coffee. He dumped a bunch of sugar into it and stirred it.

When he looked up, Axel was staring at him. “What?”
“Oh nothing.” Axel smiled. “I just didn't think you had a sweet tooth, what with your sour attitude and all.”
Roxas glared. “I like sugar.”

“I can tell.”
Roxas took a sip and closed his eyes as he drank the hot liquid. He suddenly lowered the cup, looking at Axel.
“You were right,” he said.
“Oh?” Axel asked, taking a sip of his own coffee.

“Larxene does have a tattoo on her wrist.” Roxas stared at him intently. “How did you know that she had the tattoo?”

“I was with her when she got it. All Organization members have to have the tattoo put on their wrist of their dominant hand when they're initiated into the gang and all current members must be present when it happens. No exceptions.”
“So do you have the tattoo?”

“Sure do,” Axel answered. “My left wrist. See?” Axel pushed up his left sleeve to reveal a tattoo identical to the one Larxene had on her wrist.”

“What's the story on your other tattoos?” Roxas gestured to the two teardrop tattoos under each of Axel's eyes.

Axel shrugged. “I dunno. I just felt like getting them one day.”
“Did they hurt when you got them? All three tattoos?” Roxas asked curiously.

“Aw, a little. I was mostly numb but it was sore afterword. The pain went away after a while,” Axel answered.

Roxas took another sip of his coffee. “So why did you drag me out here?” He lowered the cup.
“I wanted to have a chance to talk to you.”
“About what?”

“Certain…things.”

“Like…” Roxas prompted.

“Why do you hate me Roxas?” Axel's gaze was firm.

“What?”
“Why do you hate me?” Axel persisted.

“I uh…”
“Roxas please. I want to know why you hate me.” There was something in his voice that startled Roxas. It was soft and gentle, not like his usual demeanor. Roxas stared at him; his eyes were filled with sadness.

“Why…why do you care?” Roxas managed to stammer.
“Because I can.” Axel leaned forward with his crossed arms resting on the table, staring intently at Roxas. “So…what do you hate about me?”

Roxas thought for a long time. “Well, your personality is so damn annoying. You're so…I don't know…cocky.”

Axel laughed sourly. “Cocky? You've gotta meet Xigbar before you can call me cocky.”
“Okay. Well you're way too enthusiastic.”
Axel laughed harder. “News flash Roxie. Not everyone in the world is morbidly depressed like you. You've just gotta deal with it.”
“I'm not morbidly depressed!” Roxas yelled, rising.
“I forgot irritable and angry.” Axel grinned.

“Stop…fucking with me!”

“What would you like me to do?”
“I want you…I want you…I want you…” Roxas sputtered.

“You want me?” Axel asked.

“No! I want you to…”

“What? What do you want me to do? Don't keep me in suspense Roxie.”
“Stop calling me Roxie!” Roxas exploded.

Axel mock-pouted. “But it's such a cute nickname for someone as adorable as you.”
“Adorable? You think I'm adorable?!”

“As a matter of fact, yes. I do think you're adorable. You're the cutest kid I've ever met.” Axel unexpectedly rose. “I enjoyed having this conversation with you Roxie…oops I mean Roxas. I hope we have more of these conversations in the future. Oh and don't worry about the bill. It's already been taken care of. See you around, Roxie.” Axel waved and left. Roxas banged his head against the table. He could feel the heat in his cheeks. Axel was so infuriating! His cell rang. The number across the screen was Hayner's.

“Hello?” Roxas answered dully.

“Roxas? Where are you? I called the house a million times but you weren't there.”
“I'm at a café. I had coffee with…someone.”

“Who?”

“It's not important right now Hayner. What do you want?”
“You could be a little nicer ya know.”

“Sorry Hayner. I have a headache.”
“From what?”

“I'll tell you later.”
“Okay. I was just calling to see if you wanted to hang today. Your class is over, right? You should hang with us. We're at the Usual Spot.”
“Okay Hayner. I'll be there in five minutes.”

Groaning, Roxas hung up the phone and got up. The headache was not a lie; in the five minutes after Axel left, he had gotten a tremendous headache that he suspected was the fault of the bubbly redhead. Roxas dragged himself to the place where he and his friends always hung out. They called it the Usual Spot. It was tucked away in a back alley where few went so it was nice and quiet there. Unfortunately, Roxas's friends weren't so quiet. Correction: Hayner wasn't that quiet.

Roxas just hoped he could get rid of the headache before he lost his sanity.

Five minutes later, he was at the Usual Spot. His friends Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Naminé were already there.

“Hey Roxas,” Hayner greeted the blond.

“Hey Hayner. Pence. Olette. Naminé.” Roxas looked at each of the teens sitting in a half circle.

First was Hayner. He had pretty tall blondish-brown hair brown eyes that looked like liquid chocolate. Pence was a bigger fellow with cropped black hair and brown eyes. Olette had brown hair and pretty green eyes. Naminé was the smallest out of the gang and the most sensitive with short brown hair and blue eyes a couple shades lighter than Roxas's eyes.

Roxas sat next to Naminé and faced his friends.
“So who did you have coffee with this morning?” Hayner demanded.

“Hayner,” Olette murmured.

“I'm serious Roxas. Who did you have coffee with?” Hayner pressed.

Roxas sighed softly, knowing that Hayner would not like the answer. “Axel.”
Everyone's facial expressions turned to shock.

“Axel? Axel Gold?!” Hayner choked. “What were you doing with that freak?”

“He invited me to the café to have a cup of coffee with him,” Roxas said, tyring to make his voice sound normal.

“Now why would he want to do something like that? He's a member of Organization XIII. Those are bad dudes.”

“It is strange,” Naminé murmured. “It's strange that someone in the Organization would want to talk to someone outside it. They normally keep to themselves.”

“If you ask me, they're hiding something,” Hayner proclaimed.

“Yeah,” Roxas muttered, remembering Zexion. He knew that kid was hiding something. He just didn't know what.

“Enough of Organization XIII.” Olette's firm voice cut through Roxas's thoughts. “Let's just leave them to themselves. That's what they prefer, right? We don't need to waste time worrying about them.”

“Olette is right,” Naminé said. “Let's talk about something else.”

The subject was quickly changed to the upcoming Struggle Tournament, which Roxas and Hayner were both taking part in.

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“So?” Axel asked the hooded figure across from him.
“So?” the hooded figure immediately responded. “What? What do you want me to say Axel?”

“I wanna know my chances.”
“Right now, I'd say they're pretty slim, though he has warmed up to you considerably. But they're chances not even Luxord would bet on.”

“Yeah.”
“Just give it time Axel. Who knows? Maybe his feelings for you will change.”
“I hope so. I'm really growing attached to him.” Axel smiled.

“Don't rush into a relationship. You don't want to end up like me do you?” the hooded figure warned.

“Roxas is not like Marluxia.” Axel's tone cooled considerably.

“You don't know that for sure. For all we how, he could be.”
“I'm not going to close myself off like you have Zex. I won't become cold and put up a wall between me and others.”
“I'm just trying to protect myself.”

“From what?”
“From being hurt again,” Zexion mumbled, shifting uncomfortably.

“You won't be hurt.”

“This is about you, not me.” Axel could tell that Zexion was glaring at him from underneath his hood.

“What about me?” he asked innocently.

“Don't fuck this up. Don't fucking become like me, okay?” Zexion said, his voice laced with anger.

“Yeah Zex. I know,” Axel said sadly. “I know.”

To be continued…

A/N: Aw, now that's not fair. I start writing this and all of a sudden, I'm getting ideas for a side story about Zexion and exactly why he acts so cold. There's a very good explanation behind it, but I'm not going to go into it right now. There's a bit of an allusion to the ZexionxDemyx pairing in the last paragraph if you squint hard enough. Demyx will be coming in later, I promise. I haven't exactly planned this thing out; I'm pretty much winging it, which is how I write a lot of times. I just wing it until I get stuck and then I make a plan. Don't ask me why. I like not knowing where something is going…until I get stuck. Please review! I want to know if the format works for this. Any criticism is welcome as well as any comments you might have. And reviews help me to update faster. I swear!