Title: Complicated
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
Pairing: pre-slash Axel/Roxas, past Axel/Saïx
Rating: Teen
Length: 707 words
Content notes: Contains references to alcohol (but not alcoholism) and vaguer references to a past abusive relationship.
Summary: Axel doesn't want to drink. Not tonight.


“Axel.”

Axel had to turn his head to look up at Saïx—Roxas figured Axel wouldn’t’ve noticed that Saïx had drawn up behind him, not with how he’d been sitting with his back to Saïx and the others, on purpose or not. “What is it? I’m kinda in the middle of a conversation here.” Axel gestured at himself and Roxas both seated on the sofa.

Saïx was holding out a bottle, no real expression on his face. He was holding the bottle by the neck, thumb pressed near the opening, which didn’t have a cap on it. “You must be thirsty,” he said to Axel. “You haven’t had anything to drink yet.”

Even though they were all off work for the night—well, all of them except for Xion, who, according to Axel, had to do overtime in one of the worlds and would be back later tonight—Roxas still couldn’t see Saïx as anything but the person he had to report to and take directions from. ...Roxas felt this way about a lot of the Organization members, actually. There was a reason he'd decided to sit on the other side of the room tonight, away from everyone else. He hadn’t expected Axel to come over and join him a moment later, though. Not that he’d minded. It was kinda nice to hang out with Axel, it made him feel less out of place.

Saïx’s presence wasn’t really a welcome one by comparison. With Saïx towering over him, Roxas felt every bit as small as he did around Saïx any usual day.

Saïx, on the other hand, couldn’t have seemed to care less about Roxas right now. His stare was locked on to Axel only.

“I didn’t realize I was being monitored on my night off,” said Axel, not looking at Saïx as he said it, but turning back to Roxas instead, like he was saying it more to Roxas than to Saïx. Roxas wondered why he did that. “Yeah,” Axel went on, “I haven’t had anything. I guess I just don’t feel like drinking tonight.”

“Luxord went to a lot of trouble to get this for us. Don’t you want to try it?”

There was this weird tone in Saïx’s voice that left Roxas uneasy, and he could tell by the way Axel was trying to blow him off that Axel could sense it, too. From how Saïx was holding the bottle, Roxas could almost make out the words on the label—they didn’t make much sense to him, but if everyone else bar Axel had had some already, whatever the drink was couldn’t be too bad. “I’m happy to try some,” he offered with a shrug.

Axel’s eyes widened. “You’re not serious. …You know what that is, right?”

“Why not?” Saïx asked with a smile. “Roxas, would you like a glass? Or are you happy to have it straight from the bottle?”

With a tilt of the wrist, Saïx brought the bottle over to Roxas until it was close enough that whatever was inside it hit Roxas’s nose in a bitter, sour note. But the smell was gone just as quickly—Axel had grabbed the bottle from Saïx fast and he was bringing the rim of it to his lips, which were pressed together in a frown, both his eyes narrow above the small, sharp markings on his face.

At first, Axel took a sip of it like that was all he’d have, but he hesitated on the way down, glanced aside at Saïx, then tipped the bottle back further, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed, heavily. There was a little less in the bottle when he lowered it the second time. Axel’s face flashed with a grimace, but he wiped the back of his hand over his lips and handed the bottle back to Saïx like nothing was wrong.

It seemed unfair, somehow, that Axel had to do that. “Now can I have some?” said Roxas, holding out a hand to Saïx so he could pass the drink to him.

The cap must have been in Saïx’s other hand all this time, because he was twisting the bottle shut now. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, taking the bottle away. “You’re too young to drink.”