Chapter Text
Axel was even more nervous driving out to Roxas’ neighborhood than he had been taking Roxas to their previous date. This seemed more personal, much closer to home. He was also rather nervous about the drawings he had neatly folded in his pocket. He had spent nearly the entire time since their last date deciding which ones to show Roxas.
Absently chewing at his lip, he found a place to park where he and Roxas had decided to meet and got out, looking around for Roxas.
Roxas was waiting, skateboard in hand, wearing a modded hoodie with the sleeves cut short and the hood up. He waved at Axel when he approached. Looking up to grin at him.
Axel grinned back with relief when he spotted Roxas and jogged over to him. “Hey!” He looked him over. “What’s with the hoodie? I thought you were against jackets in summer.”
“I’m also against anyone who knows me seeing us together, especially my brothers. Because even if you won’t have to deal with any assumptions, I will.”
“Right, well, if that’s how you’re comfortable. So um...hope you weren’t waiting too long?” He felt the urge to pull Roxas into a hug, but so exposed to anyone who may be near, he knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to even ask permission, so he stuck his hands in his pockets to keep them to himself.
“Not long at all,” said Roxas. He set his skateboard on the ground. “Ready to go?”
“Lead the way, skater boy,” Axel said with a wink.
The mural spanned every inch of the alleyway wall, and it wasn’t the only one. This alley led to another and each new turn brought new art lining the bricks. Axel couldn’t tell if it was one artist combining different subjects from scifi to sunflowers or if it was an unplanned collaboration with different people adding to the canvas of bricks.
“Pretty cool, huh?”
Axel's eyes lit up when he saw the murals, his smile expanding as he walked along at Roxas' side. "Yeah, these are incredible!" He paused after a little while to step a little closer to the wall, looking up at the mural in front of him.
“I like that there are just beautiful things in the world,” said Roxas, “you know, just randomly beautiful things. Flowers in sidewalk cracks and art on walls. Even in places like this, concrete and old brick buildings. It’s dirty and run down, but you can still find things to make you smile.”
Axel glanced back at Roxas as he spoke, his words making his chest feel warm quite suddenly. Biting his lip for a moment, he stepped to Roxas’ side and took his hand. “What a beautiful way of seeing the world,” he murmured, squeezing Roxas’ hand and turning slightly towards him. The mural was forgotten when Roxas looked up at him, blushing a little, and their eyes met again. With his free hand, Axel pushed back Roxas’ hood then lightly touched his cheek.
Roxas smiled softly, his lips quivering, as if hesitant or nervous. “I thought you were here to look at art? You seem more interested in looking at me.”
Chuckling, Axel shrugged and cocked his head slightly, leaning a little closer without realizing it. “I like looking at the wall, but you’re more…” He paused, trying to find the perfect word, “compelling.”
“Compelling?” Roxas turned away. “That’s kind of a weird thing to say.”
"I came here to see beautiful things and the wall's great, but I've got something even more spectacular right in front of me. When I look at you, well, that's a work of art."
Roxas blushed and laughed at the same time, shaking his head. “Do you use that line, often? Get boys in front of murals and then compliment them?”
“Oh, come on,” said Axel. “I really do like this stuff.” He gestured to the wall. “I wish I was that good, and I really can’t tell you how glad I am that you brought me out here. Honestly, I 'm a little jealous you get to live so close to this." He looked at Roxas with a grin. "Thanks for showing me."
“Well, if you want to trade places,” Roxas teased. “I wouldn’t mind having my own room, or a swimming pool.”
Axel laughed and winked. "Well, I could give having a big family a try, but I can't guarantee that I could handle it. If it's a swimming pool you want, though, you can come by for a swim any time my parents are out."
“I don’t actually know how to swim,” Roxas admitted. “It just seems like it would be fun...”
Grinning, Axel raised an eyebrow. "You don't? Well, in that case, you can come by and I can teach you. I'm not the best swimmer, but I can manage a doggy paddle," he joked, playfully nudging Roxas with an elbow.
“Hey!” Came a sharp voice. “Roxas! This guy bothering you?”
Axel's ears perked up at the sound of a shout and he looked to the end of the alley. There stood a group of teens, two boys and a girl. He couldn’t tell exactly what sort of animals they were, although the girl had ears like a rabbit. From the boy’s accent, he’d guess they were Australian. The chubby guy’s ears were sort of rounded and the tall guy, the one who spoke, sort of reminded him of a bigger, pointier eared rat. Not kangaroos or koalas as far as he could tell, and that was as far his knowledge of Australian folks went. Some sort of marsupial prey.
His hands tightened into fists which he quickly stuffed in his pockets as worry tightened his stomach. "Friends of yours?" he asked under his breath, leaning a little closer for Roxas to hear him.
The trio started walking towards them, the boy at the front staring at Axel with suspiciously narrowed eyes. "Do you need help?" the girl called, looking between Axel and Roxas.
Roxas’s ears drooped. They shouldn’t have come here... So much for keeping their relationship a secret, or at least keeping that they were hanging out a secret.
“No, no, it’s fine,” said Roxas. “He’s cool. We’re cool. These are some friends from high school, Hayner, Pence and Olette.”
Axel tried to put on his friendliest, least threatening smile as all three looked him over for a good few seconds, seemingly not entirely convinced. "Hey. The name's Axel. Roxas was just showing me the graffiti around here."
The boy at the front looked back at Roxas with a raised eyebrow, looking like he had a lot of questions. "Really? Where'd you two meet?" He seemed to still be expecting Roxas to say that he needed help.
Roxas sighed and bit his lip. Whatever they were going to think about him or say about this, it couldn’t be good. “I met him through work,” he said with a shrug. “We’ve been hanging out. It’s no big deal.”
“He’s a dingo,” said Hayner.
“I think he’s a fox,” said Pence.
“He’s a maned-wolf,” said Roxas.
“That’s not much better,” said Olette. “Roxas, are you sure you should be hanging out with a wolf?”
Axel crossed his arms, jaw clenching a bit. There were many things he wanted to say, but he didn't want to put Roxas in a difficult situation with his friends or, worse, risk word of their little foray spreading. "Come on, I don't mean any harm. We've hung out a couple times, so if I wanted to hurt him, I would've already," he said, doing his best to smile again.
Olette lifted her chin a bit and stared him down. Even though she was a prey and much smaller than him like all of the others, Axel had little doubt that she'd attack in an instant if she thought he was an immediate threat. "Why would someone like you want to hang out with someone like us?"
Axel shrugged a bit. "We talked a bit and he seemed like a cool person."
She sighed a bit and looked back at Roxas. "This could still be trouble. For both of you."
"Why haven't you told us?" Pence asked.
Roxas crossed his arms, defensiveness building. “It’s not exactly like we hang out much anymore,” he said, “you don’t need to know everything I do-” Roxas stopped himself and grimaced. He obviously hadn’t meant to say it like that. He sighed heavily. Closing his eyes for a minute… His voice was softer when he spoke again. “Look, I’m sorry for snapping...I didn’t tell you because I thought you’d freak out and considering you’re all freaking out, I think that was reasonable.”
Olette and Pence both looked away slightly, seeming a little embarrassed. Hayner sighed and scratched the back of his head a bit. “Yeah, fair enough. You just surprised us.”
Olette looked back up with a soft smile. “Sorry for overreacting. We worry about you sometimes when we haven’t seen you in a while, though we’re usually more worried that you’re over-working yourself.”
Roxas laughed at that. “Fair enough. Axel’s parents are one of the families I clean for and he’s back in town for the summer and doesn’t really know anyone around here. So we’ve been hanging out. He’s an artist so I thought he might appreciate some of the art around here.”
“Oh,” said Pence. “So are you getting paid to be his tour guide?”
“What? No,” said Roxas. “Axel’s cool and I wanted to hang out. It’s not that weird. Anyway, how have you guys been since graduation? Did you manage to save up enough for the beach trip?”
Olette sighed and crossed her arms at Roxas’ question, looking pointedly at Hayner. “Well, we were planning on that, but someone lost his job, so it got a bit hard.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said, looking at Hayner more sympathetically. “Maybe we could all pull funds and do it as a road trip. Axel mentioned he wouldn’t mind driving to the coast sometime.”
The trio of marsupials looked at each other and Roxas bit his lip. Axel winced, feeling the tension spike right back up. He wasn’t the most sensitive, but he was starting to get really good at picking up on when a prey was uncomfortable with him as a pred. Despite wanting to smooth things over with Roxas' friends, he had no intention of stepping back from hanging out with him either. So he kept quiet and gave no excuse as to why he wouldn't be able to come along with them to the beach.
“Well, uh...that could work,” Olette offered anxiously. “But, you know, we’ll have to talk it over.”
“Yeah, we’ll have to get back to you on that,” Hayner agreed, crossing his arms a bit, shooting a quick look at Axel.
Roxas forced a smile and shrugged. “It would be nice if we could all do something together before school starts. And uh...could you guys maybe do me a favor and not mention that you saw me and Axel...I don’t want my parents to...take it the wrong way?”
Hayner gave Roxas a half-smile. “Yeah, you’re right.” He cocked an eyebrow and grinned teasingly. “And we won’t tell anyone, but if you keep being sneaky like this, we’re going to get suspicious about what you’re really up to.”
“Promise you’re not joining a gang or anything,” Pence joked.
“Yes, I’m joining a gang of giant preds? As what exactly? A party snack? You know me, I’ve never done anything out of line.”
The trio laughed.
Roxas continued. “I just wanted to have a bit of fun this summer and Axel’s pretty fun.”
“Are you saying we’re not fun?” asked Hayner.
“No,” said Roxas. “Look, I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t want to hang out with you. I was just hanging out with Axel right now. And if you want to talk to me about it, I guess we can meet up and just talk...” It wasn’t really fair to push his friends out of his life.
“You know you can call us up to hang out or chat whenever you want,” said Hayner, “About anything, even if you did join a gang.” He smiled lightly.
Roxas gave a soft smile. “Thanks, I - I’ll remember that. But seriously, you don’t have to worry about me. Speaking of gangs, is Seifer’s crew still giving you guys trouble?”
Olette laughed and shook her head. “But of course they are. Not as much as they used to, but they still somehow show up where we’re hanging out to be jerks sometimes.”
“You know Seifer has no life outside of being a bully,” Pence added.
“And Roxas normally has no life, period,” said Hayner. “So why don’t we see you around more?”
“It’s just time,” said Roxas. “I guess Axel is better at being a bad influence. Since I see him twice a week anyway. I do his house more than any other client...his mom is kind of scary.”
Axel snickered, grinning to himself. “What are you saying about my mom?” he asked with mock offence. He agreed to a degree, but now he was curious to hear it from Roxas’ perspective.
Olette and Pence suddenly looked a little worried, as if Axel might be genuinely mad.
“Most people have a cleaning service come once every other week, so twice a month. She has us come twice a week...I honestly feel a bit sorry if she was this much of a neat freak when you were growing up.”
Axel had to laugh as he shook his head. “Oh yeah, she’s been like that my whole life. I kept my bedroom door closed 24/7 to keep her out when I was a teen. When I was younger, she was poking her head in every day and telling me to clean up. And don’t even get me started on how much she nitpicked when I cleaned around the house. Wasn’t allowed to eat anywhere other than at the kitchen table until I was at least fifteen.”
“And now you get someone to clean up after you, that must be nice,” said Hayner.
Axel wasn’t sure if Hayner thought he was spoiled, but he couldn’t exactly argue.
“I don’t really clean up after him,” said Roxas. “Just basic cleaning, you know. And the pay is decent.”
“Right,” said Hayner. An awkward silence descended and Axel wasn’t sure if he should try to fill it. These kids didn’t seem like they really wanted to be friendly with him. Jumping to all the worst conclusions the moment they saw him. But no one ever talked about how judgmental prey could be. No, predators were always the bad guys.
For Roxas’s sake he’d be nice. Even if he wished they could just get back to being alone together. He hadn’t even gotten a chance to show Roxas his drawings yet. No way was he showing anything in front of a crowd of pretty hostile-seeming prey. What were they exactly? It was kind of hard to tell just from the ears, but he wasn’t rude enough to ask.
He wondered how he could get alone time with Roxas again, without coming across as suspicious.. If they were this upset about Roxas just hanging out with him, he didn’t want to think about how they’d react if they knew he and Roxas were dating. So he had to really think hard about how to casually get them to leave without making them even more suspicious of him. Maybe it was too late for that. He wasn’t sure there was anything he could say that wouldn’t make them suspect what was really going on, or worse, that Axel really was planning on eating Roxas.
He figured he didn’t have much choice other than to let the afternoon play out. Maybe he would even have to leave on his own accord before things escalated and try to think of another way to get to spend more time with Roxas. One where they wouldn’t get interrupted, where he wouldn’t have to share Roxas’ attention and Roxas wouldn’t have to be worried. He’d just have to find a way for them to get some privacy. He could do that.
For now, it was probably better not wear out his welcome with Roxas’s friends. Even if they were the ones interrupting the plans he’d made with Roxas. “Hey Roxas, I think I’d better head out.”
“What?” he asked. “But you just-”
“Well, it sounds like you haven’t had a chance to catch up with your friends in a while,” said Axel. “I don’t want to take up all your free time. And you know, I’ll see you around.” He turned to go, but Roxas trotted after him.
“Hey, wait up,” he said, “At least let me walk you to your car.”
“All right,” said Axel, shrugging. He continued to walk, hands in his pockets. He hoped he wasn't coming off as a jerk. Like he was throwing a tantrum because he didn’t have Roxas to himself. That wasn't it. It was just awkward to be where he clearly wasn’t wanted.
Once they were away from the others he said, “I don’t think your friends like me very much.”
“They were just surprised?” suggested Roxas. “I mean, it is a little weird, hanging out with-”
“A predator?” Axel supplied.
“Someone I clean the house for…”
“You clean the house for my parents,” said Axel, “and I’m not them. And I really don’t think that’s the issue. They thought I was harassing you.”
“Come on, Axel, it’s not personal. They saw me with a stranger. They wanted to make sure I was all right. I don’t think they’ve ever seen me out with anyone before...Well, to tell the truth I haven’t been out with anyone before - Maybe it was a bad idea to come here.”
“Are you worried they’ll tell your parents?” asked Axel.
Roxas groaned... “Things could get awkward,” he said. “But I’m an adult, almost...I’ll be going to college in the fall. So regardless of what my parents think, I can make my own choices. Hang out with who I want to hang out with. And I can’t exactly avoid all preds, next year most of my classmates and professors will be preds.”
Axel hadn’t thought about that. He wondered what that must be like, being the only one like you in a class. Being an outsider. There were more prey than predators in general, but when it came to good schools it was majority pred. The same went for certain jobs, and positions of power. There’d never been a majority prey congress or a prey President.
That could change soon, of course...or they could get the most anti-prey candidate in decades.
Why was he thinking about this? Axel didn’t like thinking about politics much. He wasn’t even registered to vote because he didn’t see how it could really make that much of a difference.
Better to focus on his own life.
When they reached the car he stopped and turned to Roxas. “Here,” he said reaching in his pocket and fishing out the drawings. “A few of my sketches. You can give them back when you see me next. Let me know what you think.”
Roxas took the piece of paper but before he unfold it to look Axel was already in the car. He started the engine and pulled out, speeding away.