The (Other) End of the Road

Chapter Nineteen

FROM AXEL'S POV

Dinner was getting cold fast and there was still no sign of Roxas. My brain kept trying to convince me that I'd been stood up, but my heart was holding on to the notion that he was just running late. I wanted to get up and leave, but I couldn't bring myself to give up.

But when a half hour had rolled by, I knew that I at least needed to go look for Namine and see if she'd heard anything from him. I was halfway down the stairs to find her when the front door of the Inn burst open and Roxas came flying inside looking like absolute hell and breathing really heavily.

"Roxas? What happened?" I asked him, rushing down the stairs to look him over. My eyes immediately snapped to a huge red welt around his neck and a bruise that looked like a handprint forming around it. "Who did that to you? Was it Reno?"

He shook his head weakly, coughing hoarsely. "N-no…"

"Then what the hell happened?!" I exclaimed, wrapping my arm around his waist and helping him sit down on the bottom step of the stairs.

"I don't want to talk about it…" he mumbled softly, curling forward into a ball. "Ow…"

I sat down next to him, placing a hand gently on his back in comfort. "I don't mean to sound insensitive, Rox, but… I don't fucking care. Tell me what happened. Now."

He leaned into my side, resting his head against my chest and letting out a soft sob. "Luxord came to my house drunk out of his mind about an hour ago…"

My entire body tensed up and my jaw clenched hard. "What?"

"I'm sorry… I tired so hard to stop it…" he sniffled, reaching over and wrapping me in a hug as he cried.

I could feel my heart melting in sorrow for him, but at the same time a dark rage began to build up deep inside me. "So he forced himself on you?" I bit out, pulling him into my arms. It was pretty clear to me what went down, but I wanted to hear it from him before I went on a manhunt.

"You can't go after him, Axel." He looked up at me with those gorgeous blue eyes and I almost forgot how mad I was for a minute.

"Like hell I can't!" I huffed, already plotting out my revenge plan in my head.

He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, shaking his head again. "Nuhuh… 'cause he'll tell Reno about us if you do."

"Not if I murder him…"

Roxas jumped a little at the low timbre of my voice, his eyes widening. "Axel…"

"Relax… I'm not gonna actually do it. Maybe fantasize about it, but-"

"No," he interrupted me, frowning. "We've worked too hard already to make this work. I don't want him to ruin it. Just… forget it ever happened. I'll be fine."

Yeah, like I could really just forget about it. Luxord was going to be shitting his own teeth for the next few weeks if I had anything to say about it. "You know I can't do that…"

"Please, Axel! Believe me, I wanna beat the shit out of him just as much as you do, but not if it means potentially losing you."

"How does he even know about us? Did you tell him?" I wondered, looking down at him.

He sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "No… but if you get involved, he's gonna figure it out really quickly. We're supposed to hate each other."

Just seeing how scared he was to confront Luxord about this was incredibly eye opening for me. Roxas was so scared of my brother that he was willing to just roll over and accept that he'd literally been raped. And I wasn't okay with that.

"Fuck this," I growled, carefully prying Roxas off of me and standing up. "Fuck secret dates, fuck sneaking around, fuck hiding from my asshole brother. I'm done."

"So… you're just giving up? It's over?" He looked like he was going to burst into tears all over again.

I let out a bark of laughter, shaking my head as I started to pace back and forth to work myself up. "No! I'm trying to say that I'm not giving up! I… I'm going to go talk to my brother. Today. Right now. And then I'm going to go castrate Luxord."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… hang on, Axel. We have no idea how Reno is going to react. Do you really want to do this?"

"Not really, but I'm gonna! 'Cause I know for sure that I don't want to let Luxord get away with this! I wanna shove a god damned squirrel down his throat!"

Roxas snickered at that one, wincing in pain. "I don't want you to get hurt, though…"

"Believe me, I'll be fine. If Reno wants to take me on, I'll gladly kick his ass. He was the one who taught me how to fight anyways."

"Why would you need to know how to fight?"

I chuckled. "I forgot that you didn't grow up with your brother. Siblings always fight. It's what we do. And either way… When you've got something worth fighting for, you find a way to win."

He smiled softly, reaching up and grabbing one of my hands to stop my nervous pacing. "Just be careful, okay? I'll be right behind you for backup."

"Ohh no," I stopped him from standing up, "You stay right here. I'm going to get Namine to take care of you. You're in no condition to fight anyone or anything right now."

He slapped my hands away and slowly pulled himself to his feet, determined to prove me wrong. "I'm not letting you do this by yourself," he declared, stumbling forward and clinging onto the wall to steady himself.

"What the hell did he do to you…?" I had to wonder, my heart breaking all over again as I realized how much pain he was really in.

"If I told you, you probably really would murder him…" he whispered, leaning into the wall. "Go get Namine..."

I grumbled, wanting to know badly but not wanting to make him relive it. "We need a damned police force in this town… Maybe he'd learn his lesson if he had to rot in jail for a few centuries."

He took me by surprise as he staggered away from the wall and wrapped his arms around my waist tightly. "Thank you."

"For what? Defending you against a creepy rapist? You could probably rally the entire town to go kick his ass if you wanted to," I smiled, holding him close.

"No, I don't want anybody else to know… It's embarrassing. I shouldn't have ever started anything with him."

"This is not your fault, Roxas," I reminded him, looking down into his eyes. They were so easy to get lost in…

He nodded, keeping his eyes locked on mine. "I know… I just wish that we could start today over. I wanted everything to be perfect, and… it's not."

"Well… let me go take care of Reno and Luxord, and… provided that I'm still breathing tomorrow, we'll finally have our perfect night. Promise."

"That's not making me feel better," he pouted, burying his head in my chest.

I had to admit, I was pretty terrified to stand up to my brother. I wanted to believe that I could take him, but I had the feeling that it wasn't going to go very well for me. But it would be worth it to finally get my head out of my ass and stand up for Roxas.

Time would tell.

…..

Author's Note: Weird transitional chapters are never fun… but they're so cute together! :D

Love you all!

Simply Rexene