(no subject)
Part 3 is going to be written today, whether my brain feels like it or not. >( It's the -- most difficult one to write. :\ Which sucks. Hn.
Title: Once Upon A Dream (part 3/4)
Genre: Drama/General/Fucked up
Characters: Roxas's TT gang, Axel, Roxas, mentions of others
Summary: Sora wakes up, but Roxas keeps dreaming. Which part is the dream and which part isn't? He isn't so sure anymore.
Look, about that. I'm sorry.
------
"You've been spending a lot of time with Axel," Hayner mentions, one day.
Roxas looks up at him questioningly. He's only ever there on fridays, isn't he? Olette nibbles on her ice-cream and Pence shrugs, both hopeless to the inner workings of Hayner's mind. Most of the time, they all were.
"I mean, you barely know that guy, and you spend all your Friday nights with him. You never even told us what you DO there, man!"
"He's making a painting of me," Roxas answers casually.
Hayner makes a face while Pence and Olette look interested. Olette finishes her ice-cream and smiles at him.
"Really? He's a painter? That's great!"
Pence nods in agreement before adding, "Yeah, Roxas. You need to make him show us some of his paintings one day!"
Hayner makes to gag and Roxas rolls his eyes, pushing him lightly.
"Oh, shut up, he's a good painter. It's not because you have no taste in art that the rest of us shouldn't!"
He says this with a grin and Hayner looks up at him seriously.
"That's not it," he starts, then looks up to the sky and makes a face again, speaking around his ice-cream, "I just don't get why anybody would want to paint Roxas of all people!"
They laugh and Roxas rebutes him for good measure with a "He's not going to paint you, he's not Picasso, you know!"
They finish their ice-cream quietly after that.
-----
On a friday, Roxas comes in Axel's house -- it's raining -- and stops halfway through taking off his shoes, almost sure he's in the wrong one.
The house is the same (as much as Roxas seems to remember places, nowadays, they change in his mind all the time) even down to the smell of fresh paint and spices that Axel seems to carry around everywhere (Roxas doesn't even know if Axel eats spicy food) but what is wrong in the picture is not the house but Axel himself.
The only thing he can see is the back of his head as he works on painting some Chinese based mural on his wall -- the walls in Axel's house are full of murals, each with a different theme; under the sea, pirates, a French castle, Ancient Greece, the list went on and on -- but even that is enough to see that Axel is not normal. For one thing, his hair is laying low on his shoulders, as if Axel's head was bleeding in small rivelets of blood, and Roxas shudders at the imagery. He's been spending too much time with Axel. He's about ready to turn around (as if witnessing Axel with his hair down was a crime, was unnatural) but Axel stops painting and Roxas knows he's noticed him.
"Yooo, Roxas," Axel says, nodding towards the couch, "Go on, sit down, I just want to finish it up a little."
Roxas stares at him (he's never noticed how Axel's hair was blood red, or how it would fall past his shoulders when not spiked up) until Axel gets annoyed and calls out again.
"Helloooo, Axel to Roxas, do you register me?"
Roxas's tongue finally untangles itself (Axel has not stopped painting) and he takes a small, cautious step towards the couch. He's being ridiculous, he thinks.
"Ha, um, sorry," Roxas tries finally when he's sure the sounds going out won't only be gargled noises, "It's just that. Your hair," Roxas makes waving movements of his hand when he says that and decides he really has spent too much time with Axel, "is. It's. ... Down." He finishes, pitifully.
Axel scoffs at him. "What, d'you think it was natural or something?"
He moves to make the finishing touches on the mountain (and Roxas can swear he's seen it before) and Roxas moves and stands in the livingroom, awkwardly. Each wall has a different mural, and the more he looks at them, the more they seem familiar.
Axel sighs and repeats himself, sure Roxas didn't hear him, "Did you think it was natural?"
Yes, Roxas thinks but says instead, "No, it's just... Different."
Axel finally puts the brush down and wipes his hands uselessly on his clothes. Roxas shifts to his other feet and says nothing.
"I was out of hair gel," Axel explains finally and shakes his head helplessly, turning to look at Roxas, "Forgot to buy some."
And Roxas would answer, but he is stricken by Axel's face. His eyes are devoid of -- eyeliner, he guesses it is normally -- or the upside-down tear drops and combined with the hair that falls in his eyes, he doesn't look like Axel at all. Axel (is it really him) notices the stare and raises and eyebrow at him, chuckling.
"Whaaat? Thought that was natural, too?"
Yes, Roxas thinks again, and this time he cannot answer. Axel waves his hand at him impatiently and drops on the couch, obviously giving up.
"Okay, okay, I look weird, I get it, stop staring, geez," he muttered, rubbing a finger under his eyes and smearing some paint on his face, "I'll buy the stupid stuff tomorrow."
The paint has given Roxas an idea, and he stares at it on Axel's face for a while, concentrating. Axel notices the stare and almost blushes, rubbing his cheek and only managing to aggravate it.
"But you have paint," Roxas says, finally.
Axel stares at him. When it's obvious Roxas won't respond, he tilts his head. "Aaaand...?"
"You," Roxas stops and changes his mind at the last second, "I could paint. Your face, I mean. On it."
Axel seems to think he's crazy, and Roxas almost regrets saying it. But he's come that far and he's not going to back off now.
"I'll be careful. I can do that much. Plus, you're always full of paint anyway," he sees the look on Axel's face and quickly adds, "I wouldn't get some in your eyes, promise. Just. Let me try it, just once."
They stare at each other and Axel finally sighs, defeated.
"Fine, fine. Don't use the lonely kid stare at me," Axel mutters and Roxas smirks in satisfaction. He's quick to hide it at Axel's glare. "I feel so whipped."
Axel makes as if to get the paint but Roxas shakes his head and fetches it (he knows by now where it is), with the right paintbrush and the right colour for it, too. Axel raises an eyebrow and Roxas looks at him innocently. Axel sits down on the floor and Roxas kneels in the midle of his open legs (Axel is ridiculously tall, he decides) and gets to work. He starts with the eyes -- Axel closes them obediently and Roxas cups the man's cheek, concentrating. He tries to remember the strokes Axel would do on his paintings, soft and firm at the same time, and he manages to do the first eye without any problem. He tries not to preen at his success and moves to the other, using the opportunity to wipe Axel's cheek clean of paint and ignoring the "Mothering hen" comment he makes. (Ignoring because he only pushes him lightly.) The second eye is finishd with no trouble, too, and Roxas smirks in delight.
He's about to move on to the upside down teardrops when Axel stops him. He opens an eye lazily, hand on Roxas's wrist.
"Not the right colour," he explains, and Roxas remembers that they're not black but more like purple.
He doesn't know how to get the colour, he thinks, and opens his mouth to say so when Axel gestures to the multiple paints Roxas has brought (or had he? He doesn't remember bringing so much) and Roxas smiles sheepishly, taking the purple.
When he finishes them, his hand is shaking slightly and Axel opens his eyes and grins. He lifts his hands and claps slowly. Roxas would put some paint on him but that would ruin the job, so he simply colours Axel's shirt some more.
He takes a look like Axel. It doesn't look exactly like him, but it's more familiar. It's almost like Axel, he decides.
(Just like Axel is almost like the one in his dreams, but he shuts the thought out before it can go further.)
-------
"I wonder where Kairi's gone," Pence says softly one day.
Roxas stares at them.
"Who?"
"You know, Kairi," Olette says, blinking at him, "The one who came here once and was taken away by that man."
Roxas feels as if he's frozen.
"Which man? When?"
Hayner turns to look at him slowly. "You don't remember? She was looking for you."
"What?"
Hayner blinks at him. "Dude, man, are you okay? You totally spaced out there."
"...Huh?"
"We were talking, and all of a sudden you got this blank look on your face," Olette says, peering at him with concern.
"I... did?"
Pence nods, "Yeah, like you were totally in another world!"
Roxas swallows. His mouth is dry.
"I guess I must've been dreaming awake."
Which man, he wants to ask. Why her, is another thing.
(He was dreaming, he thinks, dreamingdreamingdreamingdreaming
dreaming)
-----
When Roxas comes one day, Axel has a coughing fit. He was painting, calmly, with Roxas speaking to him (about his friends, about school, about everything but the dreams) when suddenly he came down on his knees, coughing as if he's about to shoot a lung.
Roxas is up in an instant and by his side. It stops after less than a minute, but Roxas is already worried.
"Are you okay? Do you want me to get you a glass of water?"
Axel shakes his head and wipes his mouth. He stands up shakily and tries to laugh it up.
"S'nothing, s'nothing. M'probably just getting a cold and the paint fumes aren't helping."
Roxas nods and doesn't ask more.
But they both know Axel doesn't get out enough to get a cold, especially in Twilight Town's hot weather and Axel has never reacted to the paint fumes before.
But it's just this once, so it should be fine, Roxas thinks.
-----
The coughing fit increase over time. Once, Roxas catches Axel coughing blood.
He tries to get him to go to the hospital, a clinic, anything, and Axel promises he will. Tomorrow.
Roxas trusts him and doesn't make sure he does.
He asks everywhere if Axel went later, though, and they only answer with "Who?" or "No, kid, sorry."
His heart tightens in his chest.
----
Axel has been vomitting.
Roxas doesn't know what to do anymore.
"I'm just sick," he swears, "It'll pass. I get this stuff at least once a year."
----
Axel has been vomitting blood. There's some in his paintings.
Roxas feels helpless.
Axel promises him he'll go see a doctor. For real, this time. Roxas tells him he'll take him there on his own.
He doesn't trust him anymore.
(What's going on?
Please, just tell me.)
Title: Once Upon A Dream (part 3/4)
Genre: Drama/General/Fucked up
Characters: Roxas's TT gang, Axel, Roxas, mentions of others
Summary: Sora wakes up, but Roxas keeps dreaming. Which part is the dream and which part isn't? He isn't so sure anymore.
Look, about that. I'm sorry.
------
"You've been spending a lot of time with Axel," Hayner mentions, one day.
Roxas looks up at him questioningly. He's only ever there on fridays, isn't he? Olette nibbles on her ice-cream and Pence shrugs, both hopeless to the inner workings of Hayner's mind. Most of the time, they all were.
"I mean, you barely know that guy, and you spend all your Friday nights with him. You never even told us what you DO there, man!"
"He's making a painting of me," Roxas answers casually.
Hayner makes a face while Pence and Olette look interested. Olette finishes her ice-cream and smiles at him.
"Really? He's a painter? That's great!"
Pence nods in agreement before adding, "Yeah, Roxas. You need to make him show us some of his paintings one day!"
Hayner makes to gag and Roxas rolls his eyes, pushing him lightly.
"Oh, shut up, he's a good painter. It's not because you have no taste in art that the rest of us shouldn't!"
He says this with a grin and Hayner looks up at him seriously.
"That's not it," he starts, then looks up to the sky and makes a face again, speaking around his ice-cream, "I just don't get why anybody would want to paint Roxas of all people!"
They laugh and Roxas rebutes him for good measure with a "He's not going to paint you, he's not Picasso, you know!"
They finish their ice-cream quietly after that.
-----
On a friday, Roxas comes in Axel's house -- it's raining -- and stops halfway through taking off his shoes, almost sure he's in the wrong one.
The house is the same (as much as Roxas seems to remember places, nowadays, they change in his mind all the time) even down to the smell of fresh paint and spices that Axel seems to carry around everywhere (Roxas doesn't even know if Axel eats spicy food) but what is wrong in the picture is not the house but Axel himself.
The only thing he can see is the back of his head as he works on painting some Chinese based mural on his wall -- the walls in Axel's house are full of murals, each with a different theme; under the sea, pirates, a French castle, Ancient Greece, the list went on and on -- but even that is enough to see that Axel is not normal. For one thing, his hair is laying low on his shoulders, as if Axel's head was bleeding in small rivelets of blood, and Roxas shudders at the imagery. He's been spending too much time with Axel. He's about ready to turn around (as if witnessing Axel with his hair down was a crime, was unnatural) but Axel stops painting and Roxas knows he's noticed him.
"Yooo, Roxas," Axel says, nodding towards the couch, "Go on, sit down, I just want to finish it up a little."
Roxas stares at him (he's never noticed how Axel's hair was blood red, or how it would fall past his shoulders when not spiked up) until Axel gets annoyed and calls out again.
"Helloooo, Axel to Roxas, do you register me?"
Roxas's tongue finally untangles itself (Axel has not stopped painting) and he takes a small, cautious step towards the couch. He's being ridiculous, he thinks.
"Ha, um, sorry," Roxas tries finally when he's sure the sounds going out won't only be gargled noises, "It's just that. Your hair," Roxas makes waving movements of his hand when he says that and decides he really has spent too much time with Axel, "is. It's. ... Down." He finishes, pitifully.
Axel scoffs at him. "What, d'you think it was natural or something?"
He moves to make the finishing touches on the mountain (and Roxas can swear he's seen it before) and Roxas moves and stands in the livingroom, awkwardly. Each wall has a different mural, and the more he looks at them, the more they seem familiar.
Axel sighs and repeats himself, sure Roxas didn't hear him, "Did you think it was natural?"
Yes, Roxas thinks but says instead, "No, it's just... Different."
Axel finally puts the brush down and wipes his hands uselessly on his clothes. Roxas shifts to his other feet and says nothing.
"I was out of hair gel," Axel explains finally and shakes his head helplessly, turning to look at Roxas, "Forgot to buy some."
And Roxas would answer, but he is stricken by Axel's face. His eyes are devoid of -- eyeliner, he guesses it is normally -- or the upside-down tear drops and combined with the hair that falls in his eyes, he doesn't look like Axel at all. Axel (is it really him) notices the stare and raises and eyebrow at him, chuckling.
"Whaaat? Thought that was natural, too?"
Yes, Roxas thinks again, and this time he cannot answer. Axel waves his hand at him impatiently and drops on the couch, obviously giving up.
"Okay, okay, I look weird, I get it, stop staring, geez," he muttered, rubbing a finger under his eyes and smearing some paint on his face, "I'll buy the stupid stuff tomorrow."
The paint has given Roxas an idea, and he stares at it on Axel's face for a while, concentrating. Axel notices the stare and almost blushes, rubbing his cheek and only managing to aggravate it.
"But you have paint," Roxas says, finally.
Axel stares at him. When it's obvious Roxas won't respond, he tilts his head. "Aaaand...?"
"You," Roxas stops and changes his mind at the last second, "I could paint. Your face, I mean. On it."
Axel seems to think he's crazy, and Roxas almost regrets saying it. But he's come that far and he's not going to back off now.
"I'll be careful. I can do that much. Plus, you're always full of paint anyway," he sees the look on Axel's face and quickly adds, "I wouldn't get some in your eyes, promise. Just. Let me try it, just once."
They stare at each other and Axel finally sighs, defeated.
"Fine, fine. Don't use the lonely kid stare at me," Axel mutters and Roxas smirks in satisfaction. He's quick to hide it at Axel's glare. "I feel so whipped."
Axel makes as if to get the paint but Roxas shakes his head and fetches it (he knows by now where it is), with the right paintbrush and the right colour for it, too. Axel raises an eyebrow and Roxas looks at him innocently. Axel sits down on the floor and Roxas kneels in the midle of his open legs (Axel is ridiculously tall, he decides) and gets to work. He starts with the eyes -- Axel closes them obediently and Roxas cups the man's cheek, concentrating. He tries to remember the strokes Axel would do on his paintings, soft and firm at the same time, and he manages to do the first eye without any problem. He tries not to preen at his success and moves to the other, using the opportunity to wipe Axel's cheek clean of paint and ignoring the "Mothering hen" comment he makes. (Ignoring because he only pushes him lightly.) The second eye is finishd with no trouble, too, and Roxas smirks in delight.
He's about to move on to the upside down teardrops when Axel stops him. He opens an eye lazily, hand on Roxas's wrist.
"Not the right colour," he explains, and Roxas remembers that they're not black but more like purple.
He doesn't know how to get the colour, he thinks, and opens his mouth to say so when Axel gestures to the multiple paints Roxas has brought (or had he? He doesn't remember bringing so much) and Roxas smiles sheepishly, taking the purple.
When he finishes them, his hand is shaking slightly and Axel opens his eyes and grins. He lifts his hands and claps slowly. Roxas would put some paint on him but that would ruin the job, so he simply colours Axel's shirt some more.
He takes a look like Axel. It doesn't look exactly like him, but it's more familiar. It's almost like Axel, he decides.
(Just like Axel is almost like the one in his dreams, but he shuts the thought out before it can go further.)
-------
"I wonder where Kairi's gone," Pence says softly one day.
Roxas stares at them.
"Who?"
"You know, Kairi," Olette says, blinking at him, "The one who came here once and was taken away by that man."
Roxas feels as if he's frozen.
"Which man? When?"
Hayner turns to look at him slowly. "You don't remember? She was looking for you."
"What?"
Hayner blinks at him. "Dude, man, are you okay? You totally spaced out there."
"...Huh?"
"We were talking, and all of a sudden you got this blank look on your face," Olette says, peering at him with concern.
"I... did?"
Pence nods, "Yeah, like you were totally in another world!"
Roxas swallows. His mouth is dry.
"I guess I must've been dreaming awake."
Which man, he wants to ask. Why her, is another thing.
(He was dreaming, he thinks, dreamingdreamingdreamingdreaming
dreaming)
-----
When Roxas comes one day, Axel has a coughing fit. He was painting, calmly, with Roxas speaking to him (about his friends, about school, about everything but the dreams) when suddenly he came down on his knees, coughing as if he's about to shoot a lung.
Roxas is up in an instant and by his side. It stops after less than a minute, but Roxas is already worried.
"Are you okay? Do you want me to get you a glass of water?"
Axel shakes his head and wipes his mouth. He stands up shakily and tries to laugh it up.
"S'nothing, s'nothing. M'probably just getting a cold and the paint fumes aren't helping."
Roxas nods and doesn't ask more.
But they both know Axel doesn't get out enough to get a cold, especially in Twilight Town's hot weather and Axel has never reacted to the paint fumes before.
But it's just this once, so it should be fine, Roxas thinks.
-----
The coughing fit increase over time. Once, Roxas catches Axel coughing blood.
He tries to get him to go to the hospital, a clinic, anything, and Axel promises he will. Tomorrow.
Roxas trusts him and doesn't make sure he does.
He asks everywhere if Axel went later, though, and they only answer with "Who?" or "No, kid, sorry."
His heart tightens in his chest.
----
Axel has been vomitting.
Roxas doesn't know what to do anymore.
"I'm just sick," he swears, "It'll pass. I get this stuff at least once a year."
----
Axel has been vomitting blood. There's some in his paintings.
Roxas feels helpless.
Axel promises him he'll go see a doctor. For real, this time. Roxas tells him he'll take him there on his own.
He doesn't trust him anymore.
(What's going on?
Please, just tell me.)