(A/N): ...No, you can't shoot me for the title. I couldn't help it. Anyway, this is a sequel to Rainy Days and Mondays, so if it doesn't make much sense, that's probably why. For NightimeRoseOX, because she inspired the original oneshot, and because she continues to rock like that.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Just Another Manic Monday
Roxas muffled a groan as he beat one hand blindly across his desk, searching for the snooze button. The alarm continued to blare, obnoxiously cheerful, until Roxas managed to knock it to the floor, where the much-abused clock cracked and fell silent. Roxas cursed into his pillow before he pushed himself up on unsteady arms. It was going to be one of those days. He could tell.
He wasn't overly surprised when he staggered to his feet and turned to find bright red spikes sticking out from underneath the lumpy covers on the top bunk. He wasn't surprised – but he was irritated. Axel was supposed to be gone.
That had been the deal.
Grabbing the redhead's thin shoulder and shaking him vigorously, Roxas scowled as Axel muttered something about "fucking moogles" and curled further into himself, pulling the blankets up around his face.
"Oh, no," Roxas hissed, eyes narrowing. "No way in hell are you staying here." He hoisted himself up until he was holding himself over the redhead, then bent and licked his ear.
Axel shot up in bed, his "What the fuck?" muffled and fuzzy around the edges. Satisfied he was up, Roxas dropped back to the floor, wiping a hand across his mouth.
"Get up," he growled. "You were supposed to be gone before I got up, remember?"
Axel blinked at him, his hair falling around his face in disarray. "What time is it?" he mumbled, lifting a hand to wipe the gunk from his eyes. Roxas glanced at the clock on the floor. It was, predictably, blank.
"Eight," he muttered. Axel blinked at him slowly.
"Eight?"
"Yeah, eight. Get up, dammit."
"Eight in the morning? Eight in the fucking morning?"
"Yes," Roxas hissed, dragging his hands through his hair. "Would you get out, already?" Axel stared at him, slack-jawed, before his eyes narrowed and he flopped back down on the bed.
"Hell, no," he groused, pulling the blankets back up around himself. "Who gets up at fucking eight o'clock?" Roxas took a deep, steadying breath.
"The deal was you wouldn't be here when I got up," he reminded him, resisting the urge to crawl up and strangle him.
"Well, silly me, but I thought I'd have until at least noon." Axel gave Roxas a reproachful look before he turned on his side, away from him. "I do not move without at least ten hours' sleep, kid."
"You are not staying in my room while I'm in class," Roxas groaned, turning away from the bed and searching his various laundry piles for a semi-clean shirt. Axel sighed heavily, all but disappearing beneath the sheets.
"Listen, Roxas," he grumbled. "Even if you kick me out, there's no way in hell Larxene is up yet. So. You can quit being such a shit and let me get another couple hours in, or I can follow you to all your classes and sleep through those."
Roxas paused and gazed at him, eyes narrowed, seriously weighing the consequences of hauling him out of the bed and locking him out in the hall. Axel would probably stand out there most of the day, just to spite him, but Roxas's room was on the first floor, and he would be more than willing to use the window for this particular cause. Perhaps sensing his thoughts, Axel rolled over and regarded him tiredly.
"Look Rox, I promise I'll be gone before you get back, ok?"
Roxas narrowed his eyes further – it was most certainly not ok, and he was getting ready to tell the redhead exactly that when someone knocked on his door. With a mumbled, "Whatever," Roxas pulled the shirt over his head and grabbed up his backpack. Axel lifted a hand in a weak wave as Roxas slammed the door behind him.
Roxas fumed silently through his Intro to Literature class, glaring down at his text with such ferocity that Hayner waved a hand under his nose, laughing when Roxas jumped. As the bell tower chimed the hour, Roxas gathered his books and headed back toward his dorm.
"Where are you going?" Hayner asked mildly, eyebrows drawn up in obvious amusement. Roxas glared straight ahead.
"I have to take care of something," he mumbled. Hayner shrugged and turned away, heading for his next class.
Roxas had worked himself into a glorious temper by the time he reached his room. Scowling fiercely, he threw the door open and marched inside, mouth already opening so he could begin berating Axel.
The redhead was gone.
Roxas blinked at the empty bunk, teeth clicking together as he surveyed the small room. Well, obviously there was nowhere for the guy to hide. Roxas looked anyway. Finally, feeling vaguely cheated, he threw himself down on his mattress and laughed tiredly.
Damn.
Whoever had invented the concept of Mondays needed to shot. Repeatedly. Roxas shook himself back to semi-consciousness, swaying as the bus rounded the corner. Namine had assured him all the heavy lifting had been taken care of over the weekend. He should've known better.
Yawning widely, he wiped one hand across his face as he stared blearily out the smeared window. He felt his pulse quicken as he spied a flash of red, but it was the wrong flash of red, and he settled back into his seat, crossing his arms irritably.
This was getting ridiculous. Pulling the stop chord, Roxas disembarked two stops early. He'd walk the rest of the way. Hands stuffed in his pockets, he dragged his feet across the pavement with a scowl.
Roxas's head snapped up and his eyes narrowed as a car slowed to a crawl in the street. A familiar-looking redhead – whom he had not been seeing from the corner of his eye all week, thank you very much – was leaning across the passenger seat, gesturing for Roxas to get in. Pausing on the sidewalk, Roxas glared at Axel with what should have been enough force to cause the redhead to spontaneously combust. Axel, as usual, did not oblige; he merely rolled his eyes and pushed the door open.
"You're gonna get wet," he smirked. Roxas scowled, a biting retort rising to his lips – a retort that was cut off by a flash of lightening and loud clap of thunder. Roxas closed his eyes and threw his head back in a desperate laugh. Just his luck.
Diving for the car, Roxas managed to pull the door closed just as the heavens opened, dropping a deluge on those unlucky enough to have not reached cover. Pushing his hair out of his face, he regarded the grinning redhead with grudging thanks. "How'd you know it was gonna rain?" he muttered. Axel's grin widened.
"Weather channel," he smirked. "Plus the fact that it's been getting darker for the past ten minutes." He chuckled at Roxas's expression, pulling away from the curb and coasting down the road, which was quickly taking on the appearance of a small river. "Where to?"
Roxas considered the question as he studied the pouring rain. There was no way he was moving Namine's furniture in weather like this. Axel glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, and Roxas scowled as he dug his cell phone out of his pocket. Ignoring the redhead, he punched in Namine's number, thankful beyond words when she picked up on the first ring.
"Roxas?"
"Yeah, hi, Namine."
"You're not stuck out in this, are you?" she asked worriedly. Roxas smiled into the phone. Leaning his head back, he regarded Axel out of the corner of his eye.
"No, I got a ride."
"A ride?"
"Yeah, from a guy from school." Axel suddenly reached over and plucked the phone out of Roxas's hand. Ignoring the blond's indignant spluttering, he brought the cell to his ear.
"Hello, Namine, is it?" He paused as Roxas leaned over, trying to grab the cell phone back. "Don't you know better than to attack the driver on roads like this?" he asked sardonically, lifting an eyebrow at Roxas's frustrated expression.
"Son of a bitch," Roxas hissed, curling his fingers to keep from digging them into Axel's throat. "Give it back, already." Ignoring him, Axel grinned into the phone.
"Yeah, I'm still here. Sorry about that. We had a few technical difficulties on this end. What? Oh yeah, sorry. Axel. No, Axel. A-X-E-L. Yeah." He paused, smirking at something Namine said. "Well, no, but I was just wondering – this is the second week I've run into Roxas down here, running errands for you. Are you his girlfriend?"
Roxas turned an amazing shade of purple as he struggled with the options available to him. On the one hand, he could bash Axel's head against the car window and allow the vehicle to careen where it would. On the other, he could throw himself out the passenger door, trusting that their slow pace and the rushing water would cushion his fall. And if the fates were merciful, he would drown in the street shortly thereafter.
"Oh, really?" Axel glanced over at Roxas, eyebrows raised. Roxas did his best to make Axel's head explode with his mind. "Well no, to be honest, he never struck me as the particularly helpful sort. Or nice," he added thoughtfully, grinning widely as Roxas almost choked in indignation. Laughing, he held the phone back out to the blond, narrowing his eyes in pain when Roxas tore it from his fingers with more force than was strictly necessary.
"Namine?"
To Roxas's shock – and annoyance – Namine was laughing brightly. "Where did you meet this guy, Roxas?" she asked, her smile evident in her voice. Sinking down in the seat, Roxas stared pointedly out the window.
"The Way to Dawn," he sighed, running his free hand through his hair. "I was waiting for you to call last week, and I got stuck when it started raining."
"Well, at least something good came out of that disaster," Namine smiled. Roxas narrowed his eyes.
"I wouldn't say that," he muttered, glaring at Axel out of the corner of his eye. "First he wouldn't leave, and then he didn't have the decency to leave a note or –"
Axel's head snapped to the side; scowling at Roxas, he arched an eyebrow as he shouted, "He tried to kick me out of his room! What the hell was I supposed to do, leave him fucking flowers?"
Turning to face the redhead, Roxas shouted right back. "A thank you would've been nice, you idiot! You just up and left before I got back from class!"
"You told me to get out before you got back!" Axel cried in exasperation, bringing the car to a stop in the middle of the street. The rain pounded insistently on the roof and sluiced down the windows, twisting the world beyond into a strange mockery of itself.
"And you listened!" Roxas growled, feeling somewhat unbalanced. Axel turned and stared at him, expression unreadable. A loud peal of thunder clapped across the clouds, and they both blinked.
"Guys?"
Glancing down at the phone still clutched in his hands, Roxas cringed guiltily at Namine's cautious tone. Sighing, he turned away from Axel, the redhead facing the road again as the car began to crawl along the almost fluid surface. "Sorry, Namine," he muttered.
"Is, um, is everything ok, Roxas?" Roxas winced and glared out the window.
"Yeah, don't worry about it," he mumbled. "Look, there's no way we can move your furniture in this. I can come back down Saturday, if you want." There was a brief hesitation on Namine's end before the petite blonde sighed heavily.
"Thanks, Roxas, but it seems like you keep getting into messes because of this. I'll try to get Pence to come over sometime during the week, ok? Don't worry about it." Roxas scowled as Namine strived to sound upbeat. "At least you don't have to worry about coming down next Monday, right?"
Axel was motioning for the phone. Roxas fixed him with a withering glare, but the redhead only motioned for the phone again, rolling his eyes at Roxas's expression. "Axel wants to talk to you," Roxas sighed, handing the phone over and pointedly avoiding the other's eyes.
"Hey, Namine. Yeah, sorry about that – uh-huh. Don't worry about it, I know he's an ass." Roxas sank down lower in his seat, crossing his arms as he tried to shut out Axel's voice. "Ok, but listen – what exactly needs to get moved?" Roxas whipped his head around to regard Axel narrowly; Axel ignored his scrutiny and nodded at whatever Namine said. "Well, I've got a couple friends in town who could probably sacrifice an afternoon later this week – what about Thursday? Yeah? Ok, I'll get the address from Roxas. Mm-hmm. Ok, bye."
Holding the phone out to Roxas, he kept his eyes on the road. Roxas took it silently, gazing back out the window as he brought it to his ear.
"Roxas?"
"Yeah."
There was a short pause before Namine spoke. Roxas could hear the gentle smile in her voice. "Try to be sociable, ok? For me." Frowning in confusion, Roxas tried to ask what she meant, but Namine said a quick goodbye and hung up. Roxas shoved the phone back into his pocket irritably.
Silence settled around them – well, not silence; there was the steady hiss of the rain on the street and the hollow staccato of water on the car roof, but Roxas didn't think those counted. He glanced over at Axel, a slight frown marring his features.
"That was nice, what you did." Axel glanced at him briefly before he turned his attention back to the road, shrugging. "I mean it," Roxas said roughly, picking at his fingernails. "You don't even know her." Axel shrugged again.
"You don't know me," he pointed out, swearing under his breath when the car began to fishtail as he took a corner too fast. Regaining control, he glanced over at Roxas. "I did appreciate it, you know."
Roxas nodded, a small smile tugging at his lips. "I know," he sighed. "It wasn't so terrible, having you over." Axel snorted.
"Please. You tried to toss me out at dawn." Roxas smirked.
"A deal's a deal, Axel. You were supposed to be –"
"Gone, yeah, I know," Axel grumbled. "Well, you conveniently forgot to mention that you wake up at fuckin' daybreak."
"You forgot to mention that you had no intention of getting up before noon," Roxas shot back, rolling his eyes. Axel shrugged, smirking. There was another short silence as Roxas gazed out the window. "Look, if you ever get stuck up there and need a place to crash…"
"Sure you can trust me in your room while you're in class?" Axel asked, quirking an eyebrow. Roxas smirked, tilting his head back.
"Well, you didn't destroy it last time," he muttered. "That's gotta count for something, right?" Axel chuckled and shook his head.
"It does get tricky in the snow," he admitted, grinning. He glanced at Roxas out of the corner of his eye. "So…where to?"
Roxas shrugged and closed his eyes. "Surprise me."