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Roxas was a summer boy. It was evident from his head to his toes: blond hair, tanned skin, tan lines on his feet from years of wearing nothing but flip-flops or sandals. Looking at him, it was easy to see him standing on a beach at dawn, surfboard stuck in the sand and a serious look on his face as he watches the waves, waiting for the best moment to dive into the deep blue water.
What Roxas was not, was a winter person. He hated the cold. He hated the rain. He hated cold winds, falling on his ass into a puddle, and he most of all hated snow.
Roxas, however, was currently standing at the bottom of a piste in Aspen, looking up at a towering mountain of the cold, white stuff, and cursing his parents and his brother under his breath. They could have chosen Atlanta. NorCal. Florida. Shit, they were going to go to Barbados until his best friend, Sora, made an offhand comment about skiing while they were in the dining room, and suddenly the entire family, plus Sora and his boyfriend, and Roxas's boyfriend, was booked on a Christmas skiing holiday at The Little Nell.
It looked like a scene from a Season’s greetings card.
Roxas liked Christmas well enough. But in California, where the weather rarely dipped below 60 even in the winter, unless there was some serious windchill off the Pacific. Even he wouldn't surf on the coldest days, but he loved the way winter sunrises were so different from summer sunrises. His Insta was full of nothing but sunrises, sunsets, action shots from his phone camera (waterproof, of course) and beach life.
Roxas did not like winter in other states, unless they met his short list of criteria: 1) be in the south, and 2) be on the coast. He knew California weather. He liked California weather.
He looked at the snow distrustfully, and then turned his head to look at the brunet who was just wandering over to join him in the queue.
"I hate you so much right now," he said to Sora. Sora just grinned and gripped his snowboard tighter.
"You'll love it when you're up there. It's just like surfing, but on a semi-solid surface," Sora replied, grabbing Roxas's hand in his free hand, starting to drag him towards the ski lift.
Giving a soft snort, Roxas picked up his snowboard before Sora dragged him too far that he'd have to go back to get it, and jerked his head in the direction of their hotel.
"Water feels solid when you hit it hard enough, too, trust me on that one."
Sora just grinned in reply, and patted Roxas's back. "It's only a week. We'll all be back home on the beach before you know it."
They sat in silence on the ski lift, both taking in the beauty of the slopes, the unblemished snow on the tops of the peaks, and the well-worn snow leading down the piste, only blemished by a few butt prints here and there. The sky above them was perfect, clear, blue, and endless.
'At least that's something that never changes,' Roxas thought. There was hardly a day that passed when the clouds and fog hadn't burned away by the afternoon at home. Even on days when it barely stopped raining, you could see the blue sky out at sea, just waiting its turn.
Roxas readied himself as they neared the top of the piste, and Sora patted his back. "I'll see you at the bottom!"
Snowboarding came easily to Sora for reasons Roxas couldn't fathom. Roxas was the skateboarder, the surfer, the inline skater. Sora tripped over his own two feet often enough that their parents called him clumsy, although it wasn't like he dropped things or broke glasses or tripped over anything else. Always just himself.
Roxas stood and watched as Sora took off with an enviable ease. Both Sora and Roxas possessed it in the water; they'd grown up on the Pacific coast, and the beach was as much a part of their life as blood, water, food, and late-night text conversations across the street. For whatever reason, the comfort that Roxas possessed on a surfboard definitely didn't translate well to the snowboard, and as he wandered to the side, out of the line of other skiers and boarders, as soon as he strapped both of his feet to the snowboard, he wobbled and fell straight back, landing on his ass in the snow.
He lay back, and stayed there for a few minutes, hearing more than seeing other people pass him by as they got off the sky lift. Some offered help, which he turned down. When he finally sat back up, unstrapping his feet again, his ass was numb from the cold.
Letting out a sigh, he somehow convinced his shaky legs and numb ass to get him upright and onto his feet. He got to a better place, strapped his feet in again, and got into position.
Setting off was, surprisingly, more difficult than actually getting down the slope. He was pretty sure that getting down would be the easy part, one way or another, and he was right. He fell, tumbling down another few feet before stopping, and got back up. He fell again, and got back up again. And again. When he finally reached the bottom of the slope, he found Sora standing talking to his boyfriend, Riku, and he moved to walk towards them. He had, however, forgotten that his feet were still strapped in, so he flailed, and fell forward, face-first into the snow.
It was difficult to roll over, but he managed, pushing his goggles to his forehead to clear his vision. Sora appeared in his line of sight, between him and the clear blue sky.
"You okay, Rox? Nothing hurt?" Sora asked, although Roxas knew that Sora really wanted to laugh. The corners of his mouth were twitching.
"Just my pride," Roxas answered, and took Sora's offered hand, letting his friend help him to his feet. Riku was standing a few feet away, and raised a hand in greeting. He wasn't even hiding his mirth, and his chest quaked with a silent laugh.
"How's it going, Roxas?" he asked, and Roxas gave him the finger in reply, along with a grin and a shrug.
"About as well as it looks. How was your flight up?"
Riku shrugged, too, and made a face. "Turbulence, mostly. Getting out of LAX was a nightmare. Your boyfriend puked even before we had cleared the clouds it was so bad."
This time, Roxas laughed, which set all of them off.
It took a minute or two to compose themselves, but they did.
"Speaking of my boyfriend," Roxas said, "I'm guessing that he's either in the chalet, in front of the fire, or in the bar in front of the fire?" Roxas asked, as Sora helped him out of his straps again, as Roxas tried hard to keep his balance with his hand in Sora's unruly spikes, just like when they were kids and Sora was double-knotting Roxas's laces in the playground. Sora looked up at Roxas and chuckled again, standing up as Roxas stepped off of the board, bending to pick it up.
Sora made his way to Riku, slipping his fingers between Riku's long guitarist's fingers.
"You know him far too well, y'know. He's at the bar, complaining about the cold. Probably flirting with that cute bar guy I saw."
Roxas rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. He looked around at the rest of the skiers and boarders, and shrugged again. "Sounds like a good idea, to be honest."
Not that he could order alcohol yet. He still had another year to go, but Axel had turned 21 the previous summer, a few months after Roxas had turned 20. They'd gotten so drunk that Roxas had a three-day hangover, and vowed to never drink again.
He gave Sora a hug, gave Riku a nod of his head and a warning that he'd murder the older man if Sora hurt himself. He heard Riku chuckle as he and Sora made their way back to the ski lift, and just before he got out of earshot, he heard Sora say, "he's serious, y'know. He will literally stab you in your sleep. Did I never tell you about this time these kids were bullying me at school?!"
Sora had told the story to Riku about a dozen times already, but Riku always listened, every time Sora told it.
Roxas liked Riku a lot. It helped that Riku and Axel got along like a house on fire, and that Riku adored Sora. Sora, of course, liked almost everyone he'd ever met, but Sora loved Riku. So Roxas was happy with that.
Axel, on the other hand, tolerated everyone, even if they didn't realise it. Roxas loved that he'd chilled out so much in the past few years, going from that jaded son of hippy parents who Roxas had hated at first glance, to a man he could barely live without. They'd moved in together a few months after they'd met, and had been almost inseparable ever since. Roxas had chosen to go to Berkeley, living off-campus with Axel, and Axel worked in a nearby garage as a mechanic. Luckily, Roxas's parents gave him a monthly allowance, which meant Axel didn't need to work, but he enjoyed it.
Roxas made his way to the bar, feet sinking into the deep snow until he reached the pathway. Sure enough, Axel was at the bar, whisky in hand and flirting like his life depended on it. Roxas didn't mind; it came to Axel as naturally as breathing, just a part of his personality he could no less get rid of than the length of his skilled fingers.
Roxas slid onto the bar stool next to Axel, trying to catch the bartender's attention, but that was easier said than done when Axel was giving his best smile-and-charm offensive. Roxas did the only other thing he could: he leaned against his boyfriend, and pressed a kiss to his throat. "Ginger ale for me, please?" he asked, and Axel dropped a kiss into Roxas's hair.
"And a ginger ale, please, Aleks," Axel said, breaking their conversation so that he could turn to look at Roxas; he leaned down, kissing him softly, hands cupping Roxas's ruddy cheeks. "You're cold. How was the drive?"
Roxas shrugged, looking into Axel's eyes. "Same old, same old. Too many gas station sandwiches. Too much karaoke. Not enough sleep. It was good," Roxas replied. He and Sora had driven up, a tradition they'd shared for as long as they were able to drive, as long as they were travelling within the contiguous states. Riku and Axel had flown with he and Sora's parents. "Riku said your flight was a little… bumpy?"
Axel's face looked a little green around the edges, and he took a big swallow from his glass. "That's putting it mildly. I'm pretty sure we dropped through the centre of the planet and came back up again one time. It was…"
Again, Axel made a face, and Roxas just chuckled, leaning over to press a kiss to Axel's jaw.
"Yeah, I get it. You're not a good flier. Next time, you can come with me in the car, and Sora and Riku can snuggle together in First. Did my parents at least mostly leave you alone?" Without even realising it, Roxas had threaded his fingers through Axel's, looking up at him adoringly, their knees bumping together between them.
Axel shrugged a little, took another sip from his glass, then jerked his head towards the area behind Roxas.
"Mostly. They're nice enough to mostly leave me alone, but keep a close eye from afar, let's say."
Turning in his seat, Roxas rolled his eyes as he saw his parents sitting in the corner of the restaurant, watching Roxas and Axel over their glasses. They didn't disapprove of Axel, or the relationship, but Roxas was the baby, so Roxas got the Extra Special Attention that Sora never got. Roxas's older twin brother, Ven, was the middle child, but loved it. Roxas wished he wasn't the youngest so that he could just get on with being Roxas, and not worrying so much about how his parents worried about him.
Right now, for example, Ventus was probably in the on-site heated outdoor swimming pool with his friends, Aqua and Terra. Roxas suspected that Ven was dating either or both of his friends, but their parents didn't care. Or didn't show any outward signs of caring, anyway. Roxas, on the other hand, had been dating Axel for years, but his parents still kept an eye on them, had "talks" with Axel that Axel just handwaved when Roxas asked what they'd been grilling him about.
Turning back to face Axel, Roxas shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing ever changes, I guess. Sometimes I wish that I'd been born before Ven, then they'd worry about him more than me."
Axel chuckled, and leaned down to kiss Roxas's temple. "They worry because they love you. At least your parents care."
Leaning against Axel, Roxas smiled, and reached out to pick up his ginger ale, taking a large swallow of the spicy drink. "They care a little too much is the problem. This holiday, you know? The whole family here? We've got our own place, our own lives, and we still get invited on family vacation? Gimme a break."
"Don't knock it! A free Christmas vacation, all food, drinks and accommodation paid for? The only way it could be better was if it was during the summer."
Roxas laughed, spilling a little of his drink, and he reached for a napkin to mop up the spill. "Yeah, it's a bit cold. I'm honestly surprised that you agreed to come. I'd expected you to say no, and stay behind in the almost-warm."
It was Axel's time to shrug, and Roxas felt it against him, rather than seeing it. "Dove vai tu vado anche io."
"English, Axel."
"Oh, sorry. Where you go, I go. You know that."
Axel occasionally lapsed into his native Italian when he was being passionate about something, and Roxas noticed that Axel was often passionate about him. It was something he didn't understand, but accepted, because he felt the same about Axel. Roxas wasn't as openly emotional as his partner was, but privately, when it was just he and his redhead, he knew he was the human equivalent of the dumb emoji with the hearts for eyes.
"Someday, I'll actually listen to that damn owl and start learning Italian just so I don't need to keep asking you to repeat yourself."
Axel placed a kiss in Roxas's hair, and smiled against him. "It's a great language. And I'd be honoured if you did."
Roxas blushed a little, and threaded his fingers through Axel's again, drinking the rest of their drinks in silence. When Axel had finished his whisky, and Roxas had finished as much of his ginger ale as he wanted, Roxas got to his feet and tugged on Axel's hand.
"C'mon, let's go get in the hot tub. It'll be warm. And I think they serve that chili hot chocolate in the tub. It'll be perfect."
Axel happily let himself be led back to their chalet, getting changed into their swim trunks and then back into their snow suits and boots for the walk over to the hot tub. The ground was kept mostly clear of snow around the accommodation, but it was still cold and wet on the paths.
The walk wasn't a long one, but Axel's nose was numb by the time they reached the tub. The path around the hot tub was heated underfoot, so it was, at least, warm, if a little wet. Axel was the first one into the hot tub, and reached a hand up to help Roxas step down. Roxas climbed in, and as soon as Axel took his seat, Roxas slid into his lap, leaned his head against Axel's shoulder, and closed his eyes.
Axel leaned his cheek against the top of Roxas's head, and sighed happily. "They'll be doing the dark skies thing at midnight. Wanna go? You'll be able to see nothing but stars."
Roxas nodded, and Axel felt it easily. "That'd be nice. But I wanna soak in here for at least an hour before we have to go to the family supper."
Roxas's family had always had a tradition of Christmas Eve supper, and they'd never missed it, even when they were elsewhere. They'd always fly home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, flying back to wherever they were vacationing on Boxing Day. Roxas thought that he'd eventually stop coming home, but he enjoyed seeing his brothers too much to stop.
Other people came to join them in the hot tub, including Ventus's "friend" Aqua, who instigated a splash fight that lasted fifteen minutes at least. Both Roxas and Axel were soaked from head to toe by the time it finished, and they were absolutely positive that Aqua hadn't been touched by a drop of water. The boys had probably splashed each other more than they'd even tried to hit Aqua, but they all sat down again, breathing hard and laughing. Roxas had the decency to sit beside Axel instead of on his lap, but Axel pulled him back up anyway, wrapping his arms around Roxas to keep him from sliding off again.
Roxas felt Axel kiss the back of his neck, and he beamed, fingers stroking Axel's arm. Aqua smiled at them both like a proud aunt, and excused herself to get ready for supper.
"Is it that late already?" Roxas asked, and Axel twisted around to pick up his phone and check it.
"Later," he said, showing Roxas the time. Roxas immediately jumped to his feet and climbed out of the hot tub, grabbing his phone and helping Axel out.
"We don't even have time to shower. We're just gonna have to towel-dry everything and get dressed."
They made a run back to their chalet again, and blew a hairdryer over their hair for a few minutes. Roxas threw an ugly Christmas sweater at Axel, and Axel tugged it on over his fluffy hair quickly. Roxas pulled his on, too, a matching version of Axel's in a different colour, and then quickly pulled on his snow boots and coat, grabbing his wallet – although he wouldn't actually need it – his phone and his bag of Christmas Eve gifts for the family.
Axel managed to remember everything he'd need, including throwing on some deodorant at the last second, and they made it out of the door with minutes to spare before being due in the restaurant.
Another run across the accommodation area, and they made it to the restaurant five minutes after the rest of the family had been seated.
"Sorry," Roxas said as he sat down, Axel taking a seat next to him. "Lost track of time in the hot tub."
Roxas's mother made a gesture to dismiss Roxas's apology. "Don't worry about it. You're here. We ordered you both a Coke, as usual."
Roxas hadn't the heart to tell his mother that he'd stopped drinking soda years ago, so he kept drinking his Christmas Eve Coke and enjoying the sugar rush it gave him, and although he was a fully grown adult, he still wished it didn't give him a sugar rush on Christmas Eve, when he should be asleep and waiting for "Santa" to come down the chimney.
It would come in helpful tonight, however, to stay up to enjoy the dark skies hour, when all main lights in the compound would be turned off, before coming back on at 1am. Roxas had a plan in place to propose to Axel just as the lights came back on, and he needed to be awake and bright for that.
The rest of the family supper went quickly, although they stayed in the restaurant for a while after their food was finished, enjoying coffee and conversation in the couches by the fireplace, and breaking an hour before midnight to return to their rooms and get some sleep – for those who wished to sleep – and to get changed into their snow gear, for those who were going out into the park for midnight.
The ski lifts were easier to use when he wasn't wearing ski boots, Roxas noticed as he held Axel's hand on the way up. It was easier to walk without the snowboard, too. And as much as he didn't particularly want to sit in the snow for an hour, he would be fine if he was with Axel.
Sora and Riku joined them shortly, with Ventus, Aqua, and Terra joining just before midnight, a few minutes before the lights were to go off. There was a general announcement that there was a minute until the lights went out, and Roxas lay back in the snow. He heard others around him do the same, and he dropped his hand onto Axel's, unable to twine their fingers for their gloves. He'd need to take his gloves off for a minute anyway, but that was in an hour.
At midnight, when the lights went out, there wasn't an immediate blanket of stars, as it took a minute or two for Roxas's eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness. But then, once they'd gotten used to it, he was able to make out more stars than he had ever known existed. There were huge swathes of them, carpeting the sky, and Roxas noticed that he could even see the Milky Way. It took his breath away, and he heard Axel gasp softly beside him, too, fingers tightening around Roxas's hand for a moment.
When Roxas spoke, it was in a whisper.
"You seeing this?" he asked. Axel wasn't the only one who replied; he heard Sora and Terra answer affirmatively, too. But Axel simply breathed, "Uh huh," in response, and Roxas heard him swallow hard, as if it were suddenly difficult to do so.
They lay there for a while in silence, and nobody really spoke. A few people were sitting up to take photos and set up cameras on tripods, but most lay back in the snow, phones held above their faces, photos ready for Instagram when they got back to their rooms.
Roxas heard Axel get to his knees, too, so Roxas let go of his hand to let him get up. "You should see this, Rox," Axel whispered, "you can just about make out the lodges but you can see the little solar path lights. It looks like a runway."
Roxas could hear the chuckle in Axel's voice, and as he sat up to look where Axel wanted him to, he noticed that Axel had taken a knee, and had a little box in his gloved hands.
He didn't notice that his brothers and their friends were all sitting up, too, grinning stupidly and waiting.
Roxas fishmouthed a few times, still only halfway up off his ass. "Please don't tell me you're gonna propose," was all he could manage to say, and he heard Sora hiss at him to be nice. He looked around at Sora and made a face at him, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his own ring box. He looked back at Axel, finally finished getting to his own knees properly, and leaned in to close the distance to kiss his boyfriend, whispering against him. "I was gonna propose just as the lights were coming on, you asshole."
Axel was silent for a minute, and then just started chuckling against Roxas's mouth. "Sorry not sorry."
Roxas ran his gloved hand over Axel's hat, tugging on the longer hair in back, and kissed him properly. It overbalanced them both, and Axel's lip was cut on Roxas's teeth as they fell into the snow, dropping the ring boxes as they went.
They were still kissing when the lights came back on, and Ventus came over, kicking Roxas on the ass. "You two are idiots."
He knelt down, and picked up the two ring boxes. They were from the same jeweller's, so he didn't know whose was whose. He opened them both, kicking Roxas again.
"You bought the same ring," he said, holding the boxes out to his brother and Axel as they bought got back up, finally letting go of one another. "You two are such idiots, I swear to GOD you're destined for each other."
He let go of the boxes as Axel and Roxas took them, rolling his eyes and smiling as he made his way back over to Aqua and Terra.
Roxas looked at the box he'd been given, and then looked at the box Axel had been given, and swapped them around.
Axel looked at him, confused. The rings were, as Ven had said, absolutely identical. With one exception: Roxas had had his personalised. The rings had originally come with eight diamonds embedded in the band; Roxas's had 13, the date they'd met. He'd given Axel back the ring that only had eight diamonds in it.
"Damn, I'm only worth eight diamonds, huh?" he asked Axel, teasing. "Good to know."
Axel threw the closed ring box at Roxas's chest, laughing. "We met in August, you asshole. Of course I'd want eight. How many does yours have?"
Roxas leaned in and kissed Axel, softly, before bending down and picking up the ring box that had hit him in the chest. He gave the other one to Axel. "We met on the thirteenth. A Friday. You said I was the best thing that had ever happened to you on the unluckiest day, and I threw up on your shoes."
Axel took the box from Roxas, stripping off his left glove, and putting the ring on. The white gold shone against Axel's pale skin, and when Roxas put his own on, it stood out against his tan.
"Still don't know why I kept you," Axel said, putting the box in his pocket, and his glove back on, before wrapping his arms around Roxas's waist and lifting him into a hug and a kiss. It lasted a while, and by the time they were finished, they were alone on the mountain, still able to see the stars above them, although the soft glow from the town below dimmed the shine a little.
"I don't know, either, but I'm glad you did."
By the time they'd made it down the mountain, Sora and Ventus had already woke their parents up and told them about how the proposal had gone. Roxas heard, at breakfast the next morning, that it had been Axel's idea to have the family vacation to Aspen, and that they'd all known about it, had been in on it, and Roxas had no idea about any of it. If he'd decided not to come, Axel was going to put it off until the next summer, when they were going to Disney World in Orlando for the first time.
Turns out, everyone was booked to join them there, too. Good thing they were, as Roxas and Axel got married at the California Grill, in Orlando, before honeymooning in their own home while everyone else stayed in Florida. It was perfect: serene, plenty of surfing, no parents or siblings around to disturb them.
Just Roxas and Axel, their future, and the ocean ahead of him. Roxas wouldn't have ever had it any other way.