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More kudos to my loveliest beta: Teh Ansi! Warnings: Guns! Magic! Mystery! And Demyx is not on crack, I swear. (P.S. More shounen ai.) Summary: AU. Axel/Roxas. He wanted an ending. He got Axel instead. Roxas had lived with his naïve and hyperactive twin brother for his entire life. They'd never shared a bedroom, but Roxas' door was never locked overnight and he was used to waking up oddly some days--doused in a bucketful of water, his face written on with marker, a garden snake in his blankets, just about every practical joke known to man (though Sora had never been stupid enough to dip his fingers in warm water). But it had always been done quietly, with surprising stealth for a boy who couldn't sit still for five minutes. He was therefore completely unprepared for the loud screech of "KAMIKAZE!" followed by a black-and-blond blur landing heavily on his body. Roxas, half asleep, took this to be an assault and reacted accordingly; he grabbed a handful of whatever he could get to first and used all his strength to fling the body away from him. Said body landed on the floor with a loud thud and a groan as Roxas pressed himself against the wall, breathing heavily. "I told you that was going to be a bad idea," Six's almost-familiar voice said from the direction of the door, and Roxas looked over to really notice him for the first time, to take in the dark hair in front of his face and his startlingly short stature, and then to look over at Nine. The difference between the two of them was oddly jarring, though Roxas knew it was no more obvious than the difference between himself and Axel. "Shut up," Nine whined as he stood up, rubbing his side. "Ow. Aren't you supposed to be more sympathetic? What are we having sex for?" The dark-haired man just raised his single visible eyebrow, and a pouting Nine turned back to Roxas and pulled him down from the bed. "Well, since I didn't get a chance to really introduce myself before, I'm Demyx. And the mean one's Zexion, who's very much mine. You need to know that in case you ever get sick of Axel, because I don't share." "Well, thanks for the warning, I guess," Roxas said uncertainly, scratching the back of his head. "Um. Sorry about throwing you like that." "Oh, it's fine!" Demyx waved him off cheerfully. "Zexion tends to hit me with books when I do that to him, and Axel lit me on fire once, and Larxene sleeps with a tazer under her pillow, and Xigbar tried to shoot me, and--" "Aren't we here for a reason, Demyx?" Zexion interrupted smoothly, lips quirked in a half-smile. "Xigbar's waiting." "Oh yeah!" Demyx grabbed hold of Roxas and began pulling him toward the door. "Xigbar wants to teach you how to fire a gun, you know, just in case you need to. And we were sent to get you! You're lucky the Superior put you up with Xigbar, anyone else would probably have woken you at the crack of dawn." "Hey, wait!" Roxas yelped, trying to dig his feet into the solid ground. "Would you let me get dressed?" "Oh, right," Demyx said sheepishly, looking faintly embarrassed. "We'll just be right outside, come out whenever you're ready!" "Don't take too long," Zexion advised him quietly. "You don't want Xigbar coming to find you." "Right," Roxas agreed, and let out a sigh once the door had closed. He needed to adjust his internal clock or something, because he really didn't want to be caught off-guard like that again. He knew he was probably just being paranoid, but anything that was done to him within the next week may have been part of the test. Being surprised by this Demyx certainly seemed like it would be a black mark on any sort of imaginary record they were keeping on him. He rubbed at his head as he walked over to his bag, trying to remember if he'd had the sense to pack some sweatpants. Upon exiting the room, he was practically dragged down the hallway by Demyx, who seemed content to chatter aimlessly as they sped along, the twists and turns (and occasional detours) all but making Roxas dizzy. But they eventually made it through the final white-paneled door to an odd courtyard where he was assaulted by the smell of gunpowder and the sound of gunshot around the corner of the small alcove he found himself in. He was almost out in the open air when he felt a surprisingly strong tug on his arm and he was forced to a stop. He turned around to glare, but Demyx was apparently immune to his icy stare--he gazed innocently back with theatrically wide eyes. "The idea is to shoot the target, not be the target!" he said cheerfully. Roxas stared at him uncomprehendingly. "Xigbar has a tendency to shoot first and berate you later for sneaking up on him," Zexion translated quietly, shrugging his shoulders. "If he saw or sensed you coming, you'd likely be incapacitated before you so much as knew that he had turned around." "So how do we get his attention, then?" Roxas asked, tilting his head to the side curiously. Neither Demyx nor Zexion answered, though Zexion turned to a console set on the side of the wall and began fiddling with something. Roxas turned away, disinterested as Demyx began talking again (though he took a very short moment to wonder if the man ever shut up), and stared at the trees in the distance. They reminded him of something that he thought he'd long forgotten, never-ending summer days that were always full of adventure--tall trees to climb, the big hill that had once seemed like a mountain, innocence and sunshine and his brother's ever-smiling face. A life that was steeped in a darkness that didn't matter because he always had a light beside him. He couldn't believe he missed his idiot twin already. Forcing himself out of nostalgia, he turned back to his companions just in time to hear Demyx' warning about the upcoming alarm and tense himself before the painfully loud blaring of a horn sounded. He half expected a flock of birds to come flying out of the trees in fright, though he should have known better: if any had ever been resting in the courtyard, they would have already been scared off by Xigbar's practice. "So the kid's finally up, huh?" Xigbar questioned in an amused tone of voice as he appeared almost as if he'd been summoned to them. Roxas rolled his eyes at the dramatics as he was propelled over to what he could only think to describe as a shooting range and a gun was shoved unceremoniously into his hands. He inspected it interestedly--he'd never actually seen a gun close up before. It was illegal to so much as own one where he came from, and they were generally considered to be a coward's weapon anyway, reserved only for the villains in particularly entertaining movies. He wondered if this made him a bad guy, and then had to stifle a laugh at the irony. He'd hired someone to kill his father, had nearly gotten someone to kill him, and then had run off from his only remaining family to join a criminal organization, half because he was afraid to die and half because he was horribly attracted to one of its members. If none of that gave him a spot with the bad guys, then firing a gun at inanimate objects with no intention of actually using it to kill someone obviously wasn't going to. With a shake of his head, he returned his attention to Xigbar and listened intently as he was told what to do. He tensed uncertainly when the man stepped up behind him and reached around to adjust Roxas' grip and aim. The first shot, with Xigbar assisting him, was dead center, but then the man moved away and he was told to aim at a different target. He half expected to completely miss it, but he was gratified to see that he'd at least hit inside the red and white circles every time, though his aim was atrocious. He lowered his arms once he was out of bullets and turned to Xigbar, frustrated. "Hey, that wasn't bad for a beginner," Xigbar assured him, walking over and patting him harshly on the back. "Demyx still can't hit the broad side of a barn." "I'm a magician, not a sharpshooter," Demyx scoffed from where he was standing a safe distance away, an arm wrapped around Zexion's waist. The shorter man was leaning into him, though eyeing Roxas with a thoughtful look on his face. "Besides, creating a gigantic wave of water doesn't involve much aiming. Just a bit of patience that I notice you don't have, mister teleportation." "Jealousy doesn't suit you," Xigbar responded, nose in the air, and turned back to Roxas. "Now, all you need is a bit of practice, right? So any time I'm not out here, you're welcome to use the range. Just don't shoot anything that isn't a target, 'specially if it's alive. But if you do accidentally shoot, say, an annoying blond kid with a mohawk, do me a favor and clean it up." "Yeah, sure," Roxas muttered disinterestedly. He furrowed his brow at Demyx instead, focused on something the other blond had said. "Demyx, what did you mean you were a magician? Magic's just a fairytale." There was a moment of silence before Demyx threw back his head and laughed. "They really tell you guys that Above?" he asked merrily, grinning so wide it hurt Roxas' face just to look at it. "Man, and I thought Luxord was just being an ass when he told me that. How do they explain Hollow Bastion to you? Do you even know about Ki--" "Demyx," Zexion said sharply, a note of warning in his voice, and the blond subsided with a nervous chuckle. Roxas glanced between the two of them, highly curious, and Zexion's mouth flattened into a thin line before he began talking. "Whatever you've been told, the truth about Hollow Bastion is that it was overrun by a plethora of magical experiments. Creatures that were called the Heartless by the former leader of the city. They're born from the shadows and wish for nothing more than to be whole--they killed a lot of people before the city was closed off, tearing the hearts of out of their bodies for a reason nobody could explain. It is only powerful magic that keeps the Bastion separated from the rest of the world. But that's not important. What is important is that--" "You're having me on," Roxas interrupted stubbornly. This had to be some sort of ridiculous joke, because he couldn't even process the thought that magic was real. Zexion raised an eyebrow at him, looking unimpressed, and stepped pointedly out of Demyx' grip. "Want some proof?" the taller blond asked innocently, raising a hand above his head. Roxas crossed his arms and stared. For a long moment, nothing happened. Then he saw the thick droplets of water raising into the air, like rain falling backwards, and found his eyes riveted on the quickly forming ball of water that hovered over Demyx' open palm. He supposed there could be some sort of logical explanation for this that didn't involve magic, like a holograph or something, but he didn't know if he believed that either--especially when, with a suddenness that Roxas wouldn't have expected the babbling man to be capable of, he found himself soaked head to toe. "Hey!" he yelped, glaring from behind sodden bangs as Xigbar started laughing. "What the hell was that for?" "Sorry," Demyx responded, snickering, "but I just couldn't resist doing that. I mean, you left yourself wide open for it!" "And let it never be said that Demyx is capable of resisting temptation," Zexion added dryly, though there was a small smile playing about his lips as well. Roxas snorted and pulled the bottom of his shirt away from his body, ineffectually trying to squeeze the water out. It was all he could do not to throw himself at Demyx and beat the man to a pulp, which was something he was fairly sure was going to happen by the end of this week anyway, if things continued going the way they had been so far. "Woah, why does Roxas look like he's been pulled out of a lake?" Roxas' head snapped up, and he stared with mounting horror as Axel walked over to them, followed by the tallest man the short blond had ever seen in his life. He'd be surprised if he so much as came up to the man's waist. "This is number five, Lexaeus," Axel said, stepping right into Roxas' personal space and ruffling his hair, which only had the effect of spraying water everywhere. Roxas swatted at his arm, and the redhead chuckled. "It's nice to meet you," Lexaeus said in a deep voice, holding out a large hand. Roxas tried to shake some of the water off his own hand before he obligingly reached forward to shake the others'. Lexaeus' hand wrapped fully around his own, but his grip on Roxas' hand wasn't painful. "Xigbar, Zexion. The Superior wants to see us." "What's the point in giving me the kid if he's not gonna give me a chance to teach him anything?" Xigbar snorted. "Think of the alternatives," Lexaeus replied with a hint of humor in his voice, and nodded at Axel and Roxas before turning and leaving the courtyard. "I'll follow them to the room!" Demyx said cheerfully, waving over his shoulder at the two of them before throwing an arm over Zexion's shoulder and walking out with him and Xigbar, babbling the entire time. "Does he ever stop talking?" Roxas asked quietly, giving up on his shirt in disgust and tugging at his hair instead. "Not really," Axel replied, pulling Roxas' hands away to lead him out of the courtyard as well. "Come on, let's get back to Xigbar's room and get you dried off. Speaking of that, why are you all wet anyway?" "I didn't know magic was real," Roxas scowled, silently promising himself that Demyx wouldn't know what hit him after this week was over. "So Demyx decided to give me a demonstration." "I forgot that they don't teach you about magic up there," Axel muttered, frowning a little bit himself. "Dunno what they're afraid of, really. Anyway, all I really know about magic in general is that most people focus on a single element, And, of course, I know how to control my own preferred element, but I don't think that'd do you much good. I never really bothered to learn about it much, though I'm sure Demyx could tell you anything you wanted to know--provided he could resist the urge to soak you long enough to tell you." Roxas nodded, though he knew Axel couldn't see it, and made a mental note to attempt to corner Demyx later. Or maybe Zexion, who he hoped would know enough to be useful. The dark-haired man might not talk much, but he seemed a lot more approachable than Demyx because of it. He'd be able to get a word into the conversation if he talked to Zexion, at least. "Hey. What's your element?" Roxas asked quietly, tugging on Axel's hand and bringing them both to a stop in the middle of the hallway. "I mean, I guess the obvious would be fire since you're a pyromaniac for hire and all, but..." "Yeah, kid, mine's fire," Axel agreed, grinning. "Why d'you think I'm so hot?" Roxas rolled his eyes at the pun. "Show me," he demanded. Axel's eyebrows raised, but he cupped his palm in front of Roxas' face, a small ball of flame appearing in his hand as he did so. Roxas lifted his own hand to it, half thinking of touching it to make sure it was real fire and not just some demented illusion, but it disappeared before he could. "You'll get burned," Axel said softly, staring down at him blankly. Roxas gave him a long, thoughtful look and smiled. "You wouldn't let me," he said without a trace of doubt in his voice. Axel returned the smile with a grin that wasn't as wide as usual, before cupping Roxas' face with the hand he'd held the fire in earlier. It was almost hot enough to feel like it would burn his skin, but Roxas didn't move away. "Do you believe in love at first sight, Roxas?" Axel asked in a gentle voice, looking unsurprised as Roxas lightly shook his head. "Pity." He leaned over and pressed his lips to Roxas', sliding his hand into Roxas' messy hair and cupping the back of his head. Roxas wanted to throw his arms around Axel's neck and press himself into the older man's body, but resisted the urge and settled for running a hand up his arm. Axel pulled away as he did so, the soft look in his eyes making Roxas suck in a startled breath, and slowly began leading him down the hallway by the hand with their fingers tangled together.  Chapter Five
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