I'm Treatin' [Axel/Roxas]

[axeldangerflynn]

"Where the hell did you say this place was?"

Axel kicked a forgotten soda can out of his path with an only slightly frustrated scowl. He didn't know taking someone out for icecream was going to be a long drawn out walk-a-thon just to find the joint.

He looked at his companion, his best friend Roxas, sunlight glinting off of golden spikes. Axel was reminded so much of Twilight Town, the Roxas without memories of Axel that he'd watched all those excruciatingly long and painful days. It was the outfit, he suppoused, the black and white checkers catching his attention from the corners of his emerald eyes.

He spotted a rather giant and obviously fake strawberry icecream cone on top of a small building, figuring rightly it was the icecream place they'd been searching for. He didn't see any other buildings sporting a mondo icecream cone, and nothing but an icecream shop would have it.

"Whoa, look at that thing!" He laughed, jabbing Roxas in the rib, "It's freakin' huge!"

[Roxas]

The ice cream shop was farther from the bus stop than Roxas had really counted on, and Axel didn't look too happy about it either, but he took advantage of the time to talk about nothing really and just get back a little of what they'd lost when Roxas left.

"Where the hell did you say this place was?"

"Uhhhh..." Roxas turned the map in his hands, trying to figure out which way was up. It was one of those crappy glossy ones from the station back at the school, and the designer on this one apparently thought it would be funny to forget the compass in the corner. "The school's here, so we should be right about--"

Axel jostled him suddenly. "Whoa, look at that thing! It's freakin' huge!"

Roxas jabbed him back, more out of frustration with the map than anything else, and followed his gaze to the gigantic ice cream cone, fluffy pink curling into fat petals at its apex. "Well...oh. Guess we found it, then." He gave it a slightly skeptical look, wondering if yonder be sea-salt or nay. "Doubt they've got the usual, but I'm fine with chocolate-vanilla or something," he remarked, heading for the front door with Axel. The bell above them tinkled and Roxas took a moment to glance around at the shop--it didn't look like much from the street, but it was actually a bit homey. If a little too cutesy for his taste, really.

[axeldangerflynn]

"I don't anywhere but Twilight Town has sea-salt icecream. It's famous for it after all," He scrunched his nose a little, really craving sea-salt now that it was mentioned.

He followed Roxas inside, letting the door shut behind him gently as the bell jingled again. He looked around, a few seats and table to the right with pictures in frames of icecream all over the place. To the left there was a long bar with lots of tall stools and two columns of freezers with icecream in them. On the bar there were toppings of all sorts, cones, cups, and spoons.

He nudged Roxas as little as he passed, taking a seat in the middle of the bar, crossing his long arms over the counter, looking up at the range of prices on the board overhead. He scrunched his face up in thought.

[Roxas]

Roxas nodded to the kid behind the counter--kind of a depressed looking guy, like he'd spent a couple years of his life back there counting sprinkles--and looked back for Axel. Before he could locate his best friend he got nudged over a bit--it was nothing, just the touch of Axel passing and heading for the counter...

But it made something catch in Roxas's throat unexpectedly.

Did he really have to pass by that close?

There was plenty of room in the shop, there was no reason why Axel had to brush by him, but they were best friends. It didn't mean anything...

Wait, why would it mean anything?! I'm thinking in circles!

And what would it mean? They were close friends, yeah--but no closer than that, and a weird feeling when he glanced at Axel in boxers changed nothing. UnlesshesawmesomehowandnowhethinksandnowhethinksI--! But Axel couldn't have made that assumption, but if he had...there was nothing between them so they couldn't possibly be more than friends, but if he had...

He hesitated a moment, not sure why that had thrown him for such a loop, and crossed to sit down next to Axel. It was just as the slightly smoky scent of his best friend--not like a cigarette, but like a candle just blown out--hit his nose that he remembered something he'd read in one of Zexion's books about the heart: Attempting to assign meaning to something without meaning is a common side effect of obsession or infatuation.

Ice trickled down his spine. Wh--but...am I obsessed with my best friend?!

[axeldangerflynn]

Axel turned to look down at him, hitting him on the shoulder lightly when he didn't look back up immediately, "Hey kid, whatcha thinking 'bout?" Because Roxas looked very deep in thought and slight fear.

But it wasn't like the kind of fear that you see when you're about to fight someone scary and about sixteen times more powerful than you. It was like, the weirdo-realization-creeped-out kind of fear. Like you just found out your Mom knows about that time you snuck out last week to makeout with your girlfriend in the alleyway down the street. So why the hell would Roxas look like that?

He swiveled back to check out the icecream flavors, deciding to stick with the Smurf, just because it sounded funny and slightly perverted. And plus it was blue icecream. Who couldn't pass up blue friggin' icecream?? He leaned his hips forward again, pulling his wallet out of his snug blue jeans and sitting back down to open the wallet and inspect his funds.

[Roxas]

"N--uhhhh." Hearing Axel start to talk startled Roxas into speaking when he wasn't really ready to, and he quickly fell silent again. "Nothin', really. Just...deja vu. Kinda." He rested an elbow on the table to set his chin on his knuckle, studying the flavors resolutely. Boysenberry cheesecake caught his eye--hadn't that been Hayner's favorite whenever they didn't get sea-salt? Weird flavor.

Axel shifted beside him and Roxas's eyes flicked in his direction to find him pulling out his wallet, and then he went back to his appraisal. One scoop--not too cheap, not too expensive--of the French vanilla, he figured. Normally he'd go for mint chocolate chip, but he kind of felt like having an an unusual flavor. "Think I'll go with French vanilla. What're you getting?" he asked Axel anyway out of curiosity, turning his head slightly to study his best friend. Everything seemed stark suddenly--the sharp curve of his cheekbone, the hint of eyebrow, the flash of his eyes--and a weight dropped in the blond's stomach when he realized something.

Roxas found Axel attractive.

[axeldangerflynn]

"Deja vu, hm? Yeah I get that alot. You know, when you're like standing in a place or something and you suddenly feel like you've done that before? Same smells and thoughts and sights and just every sense feels repeated. I dunno," He shrugging, laying his green bills on the table precariously, looking them over with a concentrated face before he turned on Roxas,

"Yo man! I walked all the way here for you, and I'm paying for you, so you'd better get something cool!" He stuck out his tongue with a grin.

"Anyway," He started, putting his twenties and ones back into the wallet, "I'm getting that Smurf thing. It's like, blueberry flavored or something. Or blue raspberry. I dunno, it's blue and I though it looked cool. Are you getting a cone too?" He asked, as he clicked the wallet back together, only a ten remaining on the marble counter.

"Hmm, maybe I should get the one with sprinkles on it," He mused, "But then again, they might get all over my clean shirt. I don't want to have to go and do laundry within my first week here." He stuck his chin in his hand, contemplating the options of his life.

[Roxas]

Roxas listened without listening as Axel talked about deja vu, equally lost in his own thoughts and quiet revelations as he was in the sound of Axel's voice. The louder Yo brought him to his senses, though, and he grinned back, elbowing Axel in the side playfully. "French vanilla is 'something cool.' I'll get whipped cream on it or something."

He smiled at Axel's description of the Smurf. It was blue ice cream, blue lips and blue trains in the distance, blue buildings and people and sunsets where red traveled the farthest, and blue memories that were so, so blue when he looked back...but just as precious as the blue bauble in his pocket.

"...Make that a Smurf for me, too. Cone'll do fine."

Then he snorted. "Axel, if you get ice cream on it it's gonna be worse than if you get sprinkles."

[axeldangerflynn]

"French Vanilla," Axel said simply with a superior tone, "Is for wimps." He ruffled Roxas's hair, because he knew it got on his nerves. Axel grinned. He just lived for it, "And whipped cream on your wimpy icecream is even more wimpy. Like a gajillion times more. You'll be the wimpiest kid around and then I'll surely have to protect you."

"Oh. You copycat," He scoffed, raising an eyebrow accusingly, "I'm definitely getting sprinkles now. You just want to have a manly icecream cone like me." He stuck out his tongue, "So I'll get sprinkles for me and none for you. Nyeh."

"And besides," He continued, "If I feel danger quickly approaching for my clean black shirt, I can always just walk home half naked, then I can take a shower and this shirt'll be free to wear another day." He sniggered, handing the Icecream Overlord his money, because he'd obviously been listening to their...orders.

[Roxas]

"Manly?" Roxas made a face and prodded Axel lightly in the ribs. "Manly is not getting ice cream named after a cartoon character. Much less with sprinkles," he teased, grinning. They were probably the only things that would work with that flavor--Roxas shuddered to think what chocolate syrup would do to blue raspberry, if that was the case.

Just when it felt like things were getting back to normal Axel had to go and make a comment like that and it was awkwardness all over again. "Tch...yeah, right," Roxas said, trying to keep focused on the guy getting the ice cream. "You take your sh-shirt off outside and you're gonna get grabbed and raped before we ever get back to school."

Did I just stutter?! Dammit!

Why had that rattled him? Axel's chest wasn't even that interesting, he'd seen it before--but somehow the thought of him walking around shirtless made Roxas feel like he'd be blushing the whole time and then Axel will ask and it doesn't matter because this is just some thing that will go away butwhatifitdoesn'tandwhatifheasksandeverythingends--

He shook his head once, firmly, pretending to fight off a sneeze. It would go away, it would, and he just had to worry about acting normal in the meantime. They'd just gotten their friendship back, he didn't need to ruin it with something like this.

[axeldangerflynn]

"Pft," Axel rolled his eyes as he watched the Icecream Overlord scoop the bright blue icecream into a regular cone for Roxas, "You're just mad because I didn't buy you one with sprinkles. At least I didn't want a sissy, girly flavor like French Vanilla."

Axel sighed contently before looking back at him as he spoke, "What? I thought you were going to protect me, you know, kick someone's ass seven way to Sunday or some shit? I think some ravenous fangirls or old ladies or something wouldn't be able to take you on."

He was just kidding about taking his shirt off, though, he didn't know why Roxas didn't catch that. Instead he'd started stuttering and blushing and shaking his head like a spastic dog with a chew toy in its mouth.

"Hey Roxi," He started as he grabbed the distracted boy's icecream cone form the man behind the counter, "You're all red yanno."

[Roxas]

Roxas more or less forced a snicker. "You'd be surprised, those chicks get vicious when they wan--I am?"

Wrong thing to say.

If he'd just been quiet he could probably pass it off as something else, but he had to go and address it. Why was he blushing, anyway?! None of it made any sense! They were best friends, nothing more--he shouldn't even want more--and if he wasn't careful he was going to turn this into an even bigger mess than when he left Axel in the first place.

"Must be the heat," he said finally, taking the offered cone and catching a droplet trying to escape down the side with his tongue. "You know me, the summer gets to me a bit..." Lame response. Axel defined heat, but maybe he was too used to it to notice when things really were getting hot for Roxas.

[axeldangerflynn]

"Yes, you are," Axel replied with his chin in his palm, a smug smirk planted on his face. He held the icecream towards the other, taking his face away from his hand to grab his own.

"You know, it's not really hot in here," He pressed, "There's this amazing window unit that's blowing some nice cool air in here." And it was an icecream shop, usually the places were...cold?

He took a lick of his own icecream and he slipped off of the stool. Roxas was being awfully funny lately, and yeah, he knew that it may be awkward to try and patch up some pretty fucked up stuff from the past, but he'd already let it go. Sure, Roxas was a cold reminder of all the harsh days from Organization XIII, but Roxas was really his only friend and he didn't want anything to make Roxas feel the need to walk away again.

[Roxas]

Roxas's eyes flickered to Axel suddenly with a suspicious look, but he knew his best friend was just trying to get under his skin--and succeeding. "It's probably being next to you," he teased, prodding Axel in the ribs. "You'd make Vexen heat up."

That...probably wasn't the best thing to say. Under the circumstances. But Roxas quickly filled his mouth with ice cream to keep it from betraying him again and followed Axel off the stool.

Considering Axel had paid, it would probably do to head back to the room. After all, they couldn't afford to miss the bus...but then, he didn't think food was allowed on the bus anyway. Roxas was already almost at the door, but he slowed at that thought--and to let Axel catch up. After all, the last thing he wanted to do was give the impression he was running again.

[axeldangerflynn]

"Hey, keep talking and I'll melt your icecream, kid," He teased as he sauntered after him.

"Hmn," He said as he leaned forward and pushed the door open from behind Roxas. "Well I could take that a couple of ways you know," He chuckled a bit, licking a runaway drop of blue icecream off the gaudily sprinkle-clad waffle cone, "You could be implying that I'm hot, you see." And in a more dramatic tone, "Oh, I knew I had fanigrls but I never excepted fanboys." He gave a toothy grin, continuing, "Or you could be saying that I'm misusing my elemental powers, which I'm not. And if I was so hot all the time, wouldn't I sweat and smell funny?" He crinkled his nose, "I don't smell funny do I?"

He nudged Roxas a little from his back to walk outside, knowing rightly they'd have to walk back to the bus stop and might as well enjoy their icecream thatta way.