Shorties

Axel sighed, looking out the window to see Roxas still sitting in the field that bordered their apartment.  He’d been out there for a while already, after storming out and slamming the door behind him, and Axel still didn’t know why.  They hadn’t fought, not this time, anyway.  Axel had wanted to follow him, but he knew better: if Roxas was slamming doors, he needed some time to calm down.

But the sun was starting to set, and it was spring, the nights carrying a chill despite the comfortable temperatures of the day.  Roxas didn’t always think about such practical matters, especially when his mind was otherwise occupied, so Axel grabbed a hoodie on his way out.  Just in case Roxas decided to be stubborn and stay outside (which was likely enough).

Roxas didn’t acknowledge him when Axel sat down next to him.

“What’s the matter, Rox?”  Axel held the hoodie in his lap still, fiddling with the zipper.  He was met with a shrug.  “Look, if I fucked up, just tell me, okay?”

Roxas looked at him, finally, a quick glance, and then away again.  “It’s not that.”

Axel waited for Roxas to elaborate, but he didn’t.  “Then, what is it?”

Silence.

Axel heaved a sigh.  “At least come inside.  It’s going to be getting cold soon.”

Roxas shook his head, his eyes on the darkening sky, thoughts racing behind them.

Axel frowned and tossed the sweatshirt into Roxas’s lap.  “If you’re going to stay out here, at least put this on.  I’ll leave the hall light on for you.”  Axel moved to stand, but Roxas’s hand on his sleeve stopped him.

“Stay.  Please?”  And Axel had never been able to refuse those soulful blue eyes, so he dropped back down on the grass, though he still was having trouble gauging Roxas’s mood.  It made it harder to appease him, or comfort him, if that’s what Roxas needed.

So Axel laid down, stretching his legs out and folding his arms under his head, and let the silence fall between them.  It wasn’t uncomfortable, exactly, more like…they were both holding their breaths, waiting to exhale.  But it wasn’t Axel’s place to clear the tension.

He saw it, the way Roxas’s shoulders relaxed, falling a little, and then he pulled the hoodie on.  A moment later, he lowered himself next to Axel, one of his hands curled loosely in the space between them, and Axel shifted so he could do the same.  He didn’t take Roxas’s hand, though.  He would let Roxas decide if he wanted to.

The first stars were visible in the sky when Roxas finally spoke up.  “I’m mad at myself.  Not you,” and his voice was full of a weariness that Axel wasn’t used to hearing.

Axel closed the distance between their hands, until he could run his thumb in soothing strokes over Roxas’s knuckles, prompting him to elaborate.

“Just.”  Roxas stopped, and made a noise of frustration.  “How come you’re able to say it so easily?  And I can’t, and it’s not because—not because I don’t feel the same, but—!”  He glared at the sky, and Axel felt his heart swell.

“Roxas, babe.”  Axel rolled on his side and propped his head up, a smile stretching his lips.  “You don’t have to say it.  I kinda figured the feeling was, you know, mutual.”

“But if I feel it, why can’t I say it?  I want to say it back when you say it, it seems wrong not to—”

“I love you.”  Axel’s smile widened into a grin.  “Go ahead, then.  ‘I love you, too.’  Say it, just like that.”

Roxas squirmed.  “Me, too.”

Axel chuckled.  “That doesn’t count!  Here, does it help if,” Axel scooted closer, until he was hovering above Roxas, looking in his eyes for only a second before he leaned down with a brief kiss.  “I love you.”

Instead of replying in kind, Roxas brought his hands up and drew Axel back down, into a lingering kiss.  It deepened, wet and warm, tongues finding each other, and breaths growing shorter, until they drew apart, just enough to suck in a breath of air.

“I love you,” Axel murmured again, nuzzling Roxas, his nose dragging along Roxas’s skin as he pressed light kisses along his jaw, under his ear, down his neck, punctuating each one with another proclamation of love.  He nipped the juncture between neck and shoulder, causing Roxas to hiss in pleasure.  “Say it, or I’ll do you right here,” he breathed into Roxas’s skin, a hand already slipping under Roxas’s shirt.

“What kind—of threat—is that?” Roxas panted.

Axel pulled away, a predatory look on his face.  “One where I win, either way.”

And maybe that was what did it.  Axel moved to continue, but Roxas put a hand on his chest, stopping him.  Blue eyes, that already said it, but they were softening, and Roxas’s mouth was in a wry smile.  “Yeah.  And that’s why.”

“Why what?”

“Why I love you.”

Axel beamed, and fell on Roxas with a crushing hug.