The Journey or The Destination?

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Bloodshot lavender eyes shot open then quickly balled shut again when the sunlight seared their pupils. Kairi groaned loudly as she felt her head throb painfully and her body protested from her cramped position. Tentatively she squinted her eyes open.

The first thing she saw were a closed pair of eyes with long fair lashes and brows shrouded by a curtain of blonde hair. It took her a moment to realize it was Namine, peacefully sleeping off her own hang over. Looked like they passed out on the love seat together. Carefully, as to not wake up her friend, Kairi rose from the cushions and took in the damage.

The hard wood flooring was littered with beer cans, crushed chips, trash and a variety of spills. Her coffee table was on one side in the far corner and the banner hung pathetically from the wall by one corner. The two armchairs were missing their cushions, one cushion was flung by the entrance but the other one was nowhere in sight, making her worry a little.

On the near couch was Sora, laying spread eagle and snoring loudly while clutching a throw pillow. She wasn’t sure if Riku went home but she did hear some tinkering in the kitchen as well as the burbling of the coffee pot. She sighed in relief and carefully untangled her legs from the blonde’s. Cleaning could wait, she needed caffeine and painkillers.

Suddenly a loud blaring noise filled the house, with trumpets flaring and symbols clanging. The abrupt vibrations shocked Kairi causing her fall forward onto the floor, bringing Namine with her with a dull thud on the floor and a pair of painful groans.

“What in the world…?” Namine whimpered holding her head underneath Kairi’s crumpled form.

“Oh my god!” Sora cried out, “What the hell!?”

“What the fuck.” Kairi ground out, her headache spiking in her temples. There was no doubt the three of them were now conscious and their heads were full of the obnoxious music, their brains pounding in their skulls. But where was it coming from?

“Turn it off!” Sora yelled, rolling on his side with the throw pillow over his head.

With a hand to her head, Kairi stumbled over Namine and towards the source of the sound, the kitchen. Her stomach flopped with her wobbling steps as she made it to the doorway but loking at the mess make it back flip.

The counters were literally covered with bottle, cans and spills, snacks everywhere and it smells horrendously like alcohol, cigarette smoke and weed. She put a hand over her mouth in disgust, her foggy eyes scanned the area for the source of the music. There wasn’t a radio or stereo anywhere she could see but she did see a certain blonde boy by the sink with his back to her and clattering in the sink.

“Morning,” Roxas said, a little too cheerfully for Kairi’s taste, and turned to put more glasses into the sink.

“Where is it?” She growled pitifully, walking into the kitchen and moving junk aside in hopes of finding the horrid contraption.

“Where’s what?” He asked innocently, turning to face her with a clueless expression.

“Could someone please turn that off?” Namine’s voice called from the doorway before she appeared. Immediately after taking in a breath of the fumes her face paled, a loud burbling sound came from her middle and she quickly clamped a hand over her mouth and disappeared again. There was the sound of pounding footsteps up the stairs and a door slam.

“Ugh!” Kairi’s hand balled into a fist at the side of her head, “Where the fuck is that music coming from?”

“The radio,” Roxas said nonchalantly with a shrug, “It’s Monochrome hour. They’ve got some good oldies.”

There was another loud yell from the living room followed by pounding footsteps and a haggard looking Sora appeared where Namine had once been, “Turn. It. Off!”

“I’m trying!” Kairi yelled back, the brunette and the red head both held their heads from each other’s yelling and then looked to Roxas. The blonde, looking not much different as he did before the party except for his slightly mussed hair, was picking up his hoodie and pulling it over his shoulders.

“Roxas!” Kairi barked at him, “Where is the radio!?”

The boy blinked at her before pointing upwards to the right. Following his finger Kairi and Sora saw the radio, it’s volume knob cranked, on the very top of the wall cabinet. Both groaned, knowing it was out of their reach.

“How’d you even get it up there?” Sora asked to no one in particular, not looking forward to retrieving it.

“Step ladder,” Roxas replied, making his way to the front door.

“Roxas,” Kair said, making the boy stop as he was putting on the one shoe and was now looking for the other one, “Where is the step ladder?”


“Iunno,” He said, picking up his other shoe brushing it off, “I’m sure you’ll find it though, but it’d hurry. Rock ‘n roll hour starts in ten minutes.”

“Roxas!” Sora drew out his friends name in anguish, “Why are you being so evil?”

The blonde shrugged as he pulled on his shoe, “Revenge.”

He then opened the door and left the house, leaving the three teens to suffer the blaring music.

“Argh!” Sora cried, “This is over kill!”

“Sora, I love you `n all but seriously. Shut up,” Kairi said, pinching the bridge of her nose, “I’ll get the coffee if you get the broom, we’re going to knock the damn thing down.”

“Fine,“ He sighed and left the room and returned shortly with broom in hand, “I can’t believe he’d do this to us.”

“I’d feel worse for Dem,” Kairi said, pulling down three of the few clean mugs left and searched for the bottle of painkillers.

“Why?” The brunette asked raising the broom up to swat at the radio.

“He’ll be alone with Roxas on home turf,” The girl replied and both of them felt sympathy for the older boy.

-

Did he mention how much he hated public transport? Axel stepped off the bus in front of the nearest bus stop to his apartment not exactly pleased. Not only was it as cramped and stuffy as it was before, some kid was screaming the entire fifteen minutes to his stop and he was with out his disc man. He was sorely tempted to smack the kid up side the head but to avoid a lawsuit he retrained himself.

Axel stretched his arms out and hefted the grocery bags to one hand to search for his apartment keys on the way to his apartment. Stupid fridge needing food, if it hadn’t been empty he could’ve skipped the whole experience and slept more.

Mind you, he wouldn’t even be conscious, maybe not even in his apartment, had he gone to that party. He sighed at the missed opportunity to get tanked on someone else’s tab. Stupid Zexion stalking him and making him paranoid.

Everything and everyone was stupid right now he decided. For right now, he was smartest person alive because everyone else’s stupidity was making his life hell.

As he walked up the front steps he almost failed to realise the U-haul parked right by the front entrance and the men currently unloading it. He blinked his green eyes and moved aside as two men moved a couch into the doorway.

“Someone’s moving in?” Axel asked one of them, the burly man grunted and rolled his eyes.

“No, they’re moving out backwards,” Axel scowled at the man’s gruff reply.

“Wouldn’t put it past you moron’s to do that,” The redhead said roughly, “What floor?”

The man narrowed his eyes and turned away to focus on moving the couch, “Screw off kid, you’re in the way.”

Axel scowled, “I live here numb nuts.”

“Hey, hey!” Someone called behind Axel, who turned to see a rather skinny man holding a clipboard and wiping his sweating forehead with a handkerchief, “What seems to be the problem here?”

“Your man here won’t let me into my own home,” Axel replied coolly and felt satisfied that the mover was about to protest but was cut off by the man with the clipboard.

“I’m sorry sir, but we’re currently moving up to the third floor and we’re using the elevator,” He explained, giving the mover a look, “Please pardon the inconvenience.”

“Naw,” The red head waved his free hand, “S’okay, the back entrance is free right?”

“Yessir,” The other replied, “Although we will be using the stair case for the large furniture.”

“Gotcha,” Axel said with a nod, “Keep up the good work.”

“Will do.” The man forced a smile then moved back to supervise the other movers. Axel then moved to walk around the building to the back entrance, which wasn’t the most welcoming. Although all the balconies were on the back wall, so were the dumpsters, making the back street reek with decay. It was for that reason that Axel chose for his apartment to be on the fourth floor, away from all the rank.

He put his free hand over his nose and mouth and looked up at the third row of balconies to see if he could guess which one was being moved into. As nice as the apartment building was, they didn’t get many new tenants. The main floor was pretty much empty except for the landlord and the second floor had maybe a few inhabitants.

The row of balcony windows were all curtained except for one which had had someone currently leaning on the railing with a pair of sunglasses. Needless to say the guy looked hung over with a mug in his hand, his body hunched and one hand scratching in a messy mane of slivery hair.

Poor guy must’ve had a hell of a night and was paying for it. Axel decided not to yell out a welcome to the new tenant, knowing full well that being yelled at wasn’t best for any hang over. At the same time he was a little jealous the guy got to go drinking last night while the red head was cooped up in his apartment eating cookie dough and watching a late night comedy show.

After failing to get a good look at the guys face, Axel shrugged his shoulders and went to unlock the back door and step inside. As much as he’d love to stand in a stinking alley to get a look of the new guy’s face, his arm was starting to ache from the weight of his groceries.

He walked down the back hallway towards the staircase but saw the same mover who had been rude to him outside heaving one end of the couch up the stairwell. As he approached, Axel had a wonderfully nasty idea. His vibrant eyes were bright mischievous slits over the black marks on his cheeks.

Walking by the man, who was struggling with the angle of the large piece of furniture, Axel started to swing his groceries while whistling. Just before he pasted him to the elevator he flicked his wrist to the side, swinging the bag into the back of one wide kneecap, making the man’s leg give out.

Axel didn’t even look back as he heard the man loudly curse and heard a bang followed by another man cursing. He pressed the button while the he heard the mover yell at him and he turned to grin at him. The mover’s face turned a beat red and just as he started to stomp towards Axel the elevator dinged and he side stepped inside.

Turning around in the elevator the red headed boy saw the angry man come towards the door, face scowling but the door closed right before he could get his beefy arm in to straggle the other. Axel laughed loudly knowing it was the last thing the bastard saw before the door shut was his cheeky grin. Served the guy right.

Once the elevator had made it to his floor, Axel stepped into the hall humming cheerfully, jingling his keys all the way to his apartment door. He swiftly slid the key into lock, unlocked the door and went inside.

Walking to the kitchen, Axel placed the bags on the counter and reached inside to grab his cigarettes. Ripping off the plastic and opening the carton he pulled one to his lips and lit it, inhaling the wondrous nicotine into his lungs.

With the smoke in his mouth Axel stripped his black zip up and pulled out his cell phone, nimbly flipped it open and dialled a familiar number before pressing it to his ear. It rung a couple of times as he started to load his fridge until a groggy voice came on the line.

“What?”

“Good morning sunshine,” Axel answered cheerfully, putting his milk in the fridge, “The earth says hell-o!”

“Oh Jesus,” There was some fumbling on the line before Demyx came back on, “Fuck my phone is so loud.”

“Yep, it sure is,” He offhandedly replied, “How was your night?”

“Good.” There a low groan, Axel guessed he was stretching.

“That’s all I get? A ‘good’? I need details here, details.” Axel pressed, putting the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he took the cigarette from his mouth and put his TV dinner’s into the freezer.

Demyx groaned again, “Yes, it was good. Got drunk, danced a bit, thoroughly embarrassed my kin.”

“Oooh, nice. I approve.” The red head laughed, “Get laid?”

“Ew, no,” The blonde said less than pleased, “Some of us aren’t pedophiles.”

“Thanks,” He rolled his green eyes as he finished loading up his groceries and closed the fridge door.

“How was your night?”

“Oh, just great,” Axel said sarcastically before grabbing a TV dinner and putting it in the microwave, “Finished a roll of cookie dough and watched some slap stick.”

“Ah ha, loser,” The red head scowled at his reply.

“So, how’s the,” Axel took a deep breath before yelling into the phone, “Hangover!”

There was a loud curse on the line and static then, “Fuck you’re an asshole! Jesus!”

“Serves you right, I’m feeling quite spiteful today.” He replied matter-of-factly, “Don’t test me.”

“Fucker,” Demyx rasped, “My head is killing me.”

“Wish I was there,” Axel said, “Free later?”

“I dunno man,” The other said groggily, “I think this’ll last me the rest of the day. Ugh, I think I need a bucket too.”

“Fine, I’m about to eat anyway,” The microwave beeped loudly, “Make that right now. Talk to you later and try not to mess the sheets, okay buddy?”

“Mm-hmm,” Axel then flipped his phone shut and riffled into a drawer for a fork.

“Yum, nothing like a home cooked dinner,” He said to himself dryly and opened the microwave.

-

Replies!

AkuRokuLove: xD thank you~! and I`ll try and update this as fast as I can!

TheVastOrganizationMemberXenjn: Thank you~! And sorry~! I need 15 reviews before any dirty stuff xP... well anything that's not plot related anyway. Also there will be light RikuRoku but it's for plot's sake. Axel lov'n is on the way!

Taryn Winterblade: XD I`m glad you think so, it totally makes up ;)! More chappies on the way. And about the 60%; in my school system it`s like 60% participation (running around stuff) and 40% paper work (health mumbo jumbo) and most of the school stuff is based off my own experience. Hope that clears it up

Mourir: Thankya and I'm glad you're getting some giggles :) More reviews equals smut *cackles*

Kaia-Chan: XD!! There will be!!!


So yesh, OMFG I`m so happy I got such great reveiws x3! Hell, I may even put the review quota to ten... cas I'm too much of a suck to deny you guys