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Warnings: Marluxia is creepy. D: Summary: AU. Axel/Roxas. He wanted an ending. He got Axel instead. Roxas curled up on himself discontentedly, not quite cold enough to shiver. But there was heat missing, a lot of heat, and he wondered why Axel wasn't in bed where he was supposed to be. Of course, it was quite likely that his bedmate had just gotten up to go to the bathroom (and if that was the case, he didn't want to look...unless the redhead was in the shower, then it was okay), except the bed felt like all the warmth from the second body had already siphoned off into the air. Which meant that Axel had been gone for quite a while. The cooling air had probably been what had woken him up, and he made a soft disgruntled noise as he slid from the bed, promising himself vengeance on Axel. After taking a quick shower and pulling on some of the clothes Axel and Demyx had bought him yesterday (Axel had tried to sneak in several articles of clothing that Roxas was sure he would never wear--including a rather lacy thong that had made Demyx crack up), he made to wander down the hallways. He wasn't sure where Axel was, but he was fairly certain that he'd be back soon. After all, if he'd known he was going to be gone long, wouldn't he have left a note or something? So maybe he'd gone to get breakfast or something. He thought about heading to the kitchen, but the sound of feet hurriedly smacking against the floor had him turning a different corner--at which point something ran into him with a rather dismayed sound. "Hello," Roxas murmured calmly, staring at the tiny blond girl that had fisted her hands in the front of his shirt to keep herself steady. The girl glanced up at him and then a blush spread across her cheeks and she jerked out of his grip, nearly tripping over her feet as she backed away. "...Are you all right?" "I'm sorry," the girl said softly, not answering the question. She glanced up at him from behind her long bangs, a rather terrified look in her eyes. "I--I didn't meant to run into you, I wasn't watching where I was going..." "It's fine," he hurried to assure her, holding his hands up placatingly. He kept his voice gentle, eyebrows furrowing in concern when even that made the girl jump. He looked her over curiously, wondering where the girl had come from, and she shifted nervously under his gaze. "Really. It was an accident." The girl continued to gaze at him with wary eyes for a long moment. "I'm Namine," she eventually volunteered, voice still soft. "I haven't seen you before." "I've only been here for a little over a week," he offered, and the girl nodded as if that explained everything. "I'm Roxas." "Oh, you're the one with the keyblades!" Namine responded, and there was suddenly a soft smile on her face. She seemed genuinely pleased with this fact, and the wary look in her eyes disappeared almost instantly. Roxas blinked slowly, bemused. There was something oddly familiar about that smile and the glint in her eyes, but he couldn't quite place it. "Marluxia was telling me about you." "Marluxia?" Roxas questioned slowly, wondering who the hell that was. His confusion must have shown on his face, because Namine cocked her head to the side curiously. "The two of you fought when Axel brought you in?" she clarified uncertainly, nodding as his eyes brightened in realization. "He told me that he was really surprised at how good of a fighter you are." "Yeah, I got that impression already," Roxas chuckled. "Are you his sister or something?" "Oh, no!" Namine even managed a slight giggle. "He's my...guardian. I'm a witch, you see. A mem--" "Ah, Namine, that's where you've gotten too!" a deep voice called out suddenly, interrupting her, and Roxas watched with narrow eyes as the girl flinched when a hand landed on her shoulder. "I see you've met Roxas." Namine nodded mutely, glancing up at him from behind her bangs again. Roxas found his hands moving towards his blades as he took in Marluxia's pinkish-brown (more pink than brown, to be honest) hair and the rather manic glint in his eyes. "We were just talking," Roxas snapped, shoving his hands in his pockets. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to defend that fact. "I can see that," Marluxia responded slowly, raising an interested eyebrow at him. "Did Namine tell you anything...interesting?" "No, not really," Roxas replied thoughtfully, staring up at the man coldly. "It's nice of you to take care of her." "Well," Marluxia began with a smile that Roxas didn't like at all, "it would be a shame to let talent such as hers go to waste, wouldn't it, Namine?" He didn't even wait for a response, putting a hand on Namine's back and slowly turning her around. "Now, we really must get going. It was lovely seeing you again, Number Thirteen." Roxas just inclined his head, eyes narrowing, and watched Marluxia usher Namine away. There was something so obviously off about the two of them that it was almost painful, but he knew (with a certain amount of bitterness) that there was nothing he could do about it. And so, with a rather exasperated shake of his head, he continued on his trek to the kitchens. Once there, he was rather annoyed to discover that Axel wasn't. In fact, the place was entirely empty--there weren't even any dishes left in the sink. With a disgruntled glare at nothing in particular, he slammed some stuff around and made himself a few sandwiches. Once they were done, it was simple enough to grab a bottle of chocolate milk (he had a bit of a sweet tooth) and storm back out of the kitchen. He stormed through the hallways, doing his best not to drop anything as he ate one-handedly, and started looking for...well, for anyone. He figured that he wasn't going to find Axel any time soon, and so he pretty much just wanted to find something to do. He was probably going to end up in the library again. And sure enough, twenty minutes and three sandwiches later, he found himself drawing close to the library doors. He could feel his eyebrows furrowing as he heard several voices from inside, one of which was a vaguely familiar and entirely too cheerful girl's voice. He could tell that it wasn't Larxene's, if only because she didn't sound like she was making fun of everybody, and that was very curious. In the time he'd been at the mansion so far, he'd only ever seen people outside of the Organization once. And so, curiosity risen, he pushed open the doors and wandered around the shelves inside. "Hey, who's there?" a calm voice called eventually, apparently hearing him coming, and Roxas turned the corner and saw who he was looking for. It was actually the same girls from before, but this time Rikku was sitting close beside Xigbar, who had an arm around her. He almost stopped in midstep when he saw that--he really couldn't think of a more unlikely combination. But it was what it was, and Rikku soon bounced out of her seat, sending playing cards flying everywhere, to give Roxas an excited hug. "Oooh, it's the little cutey!" she practically purred, ignoring the death glare he was trying not to focus on her chest. "Xigbar's told me all about you! I can't believe you beat Marluxia, you're tougher than you look!" "Hey, I'm startin' to get jealous over here, babe," Xigbar called over, sounding like he was trying not to laugh. "Why don't you drag the kid over and let him join the game?" "...What are you playing?" Roxas asked warily, eyeing the table as the blonde girl tugged him over. "Poker!" Rikku announced cheerfully, flouncing into her seat and pushing him into the chair beside hers. "Luxord's winning like always. If we keep this up, we're going to lose Valefor next!" "Valefor, the dragon?" Roxas questioned curiously, and this seemed to startle everyone. Even the other two girls (who had previously been ignoring the interactions to wait for a time when they could get Roxas' attention long enough to say hello) looked up at the question almost immediately. "How do you know what Valefor is?" Paine asked, her voice suspicious. "I, uh, read a lot," Roxas murmured, trying not to sound as uncertain as he was. "I've been spending a lot of time researching things because I'm from Above. Valefor's supposed to be a pretty good first level Summon, but Summoners were supposed to have died out before Hollow Bastion was built." "Well, of course they have, silly!" Rikku laughed brightly, but Roxas couldn't help but think her laugh sounded a little nervous. "I wasn't referring to the real thing, just to Yuna's motorcycle." "...I see," Roxas said softly, noncomittally, and he saw the three girls exchange a look. So Yuna was a Summoner, and apparently a strong one. That was more than a little interesting, and he filed the information away in case he needed it some day. "Anyway, I've never played Poker before. The most difficult card game I've ever played with my brother was Go Fish. We kind of started teaching ourselves how to fight with swords when we were six instead of playing regular games." "Poker's a good game," Xigbar said, reaching around Rikku to pat Roxas on the back. "And it's simple enough, though gambling can get complicated. You ever gambled?" "My mom used to let me scratch off her lottery tickets," Roxas responded dryly. "Well, you're in for quite a treat then!" the man decided, and did what Roxas figured was supposed to be a wink--though, of course, the older man could have just been blinking. "Deal 'em out, babe, we'll make a real criminal out of the kid yet!" "Righty-o!" Rikku agreed, giving the deck a shuffle before dealing the cards out. "I don't have any money with me," Roxas said. "No worries." Xigbar grinned like a shark. "We'll just take it out of your pay. Or, even better, we'll get it from Axel!" "I'll keep a tally," Yuna offered softly, and Roxas sighed. It looked like he was playing, whether he liked it or not. Roxas pushed the door open to Axel's room slowly and poked his head inside. The day was finally over, he had been horrible enough at Poker that everyone had decided not to make him owe them all that money on the basis that he'd never have any again if they did, and all he wanted was to curl up next to something warm. But the tall redhead wasn't anywhere to be found. Hoping that Axel would show up some time, he pulled open his laptop for the first time since he'd entered the Underground, and stretched out on the bed. When his instant messaging service popped up, he could feel his heart skip a beat as he came to a sudden realization: he could contact his brother! Of course, he wasn't going to talk to Sora as himself--that would almost guarantee that the idiot would go running off to find him, no matter what he said--but he could come up with a new persona and join things that he knew his brother was a part of. With this in mind, he began setting himself up on the internet: he quickly made a new email address from NewMail and matched it to a new Pidgin screen name (LuckyThirteen for both), and then made a new Undeadjournal. He detailed how he was starting a new life after leaving something that was just 'not good for him', and how he was trying to distance himself from all of his old friends (to explain his lack of a buddy list), and then spent a few enjoyable hours collecting icons and joining a few communities that his brother frequented. As time went by, he found his attention waning. When he finally couldn't keep his eyes open any more, he curled up under his blankets and only had time to vaguely wonder where Axel was before he drifted to sleep.  Chapter Ten
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