vatheon | open

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Who: A visibly bothered momma Axel and YOU
When: Sometime around sundown today, I guess
Where: Park
Style: I'll match
Status: Ongoing and open

This past week has been a train wreck, though Axel would go so far as to call that an understatement. The curse had been fine at the start, and he'd even contacted the entire dome about it all for the sake of some harmless entertainment, but as the days went on he found it more and more difficult to talk, namely with certain people. Of course, the unexpected arrival of a certain someone did nothing to alleviate his stress.

Thankfully that week is done and with it the curse. Still bothered by various thoughts, however, he leaves the apartment right at sundown... with three little ones following behind him: a yellow, red, and a light blue chocobo. He doesn't mind it. It fact, part of the reason why he's out anyway is that he can give them some fresh air. It's better than them camping in his hair all day.

Once at the park, he finds a quiet spot at the edge of the nearby pond to sit and watch the little birds frolic about, pecking at the ground and fluttering their tiny wings. But something's clearly distracting him. At one point he has to stand and just pace, because his body doesn't want to sit still. What's supposed to happen now, he wonders? With Sora and Roxas, Namine and Kairi and even Riku all here--

Now that Saix is here, what's going to happen?

It's the sound of peeping and rustling in the tall grass which snaps Axel out of his thoughts and makes him glance over in time to see that the red chocobo has climbed up on a rock and accidentally fallen into the water. Even as shallow as the water is, for a little guy, the pond might as well be an ocean.

"Hey," he calls out just as he hurries over to wade through the water and scoop up the bird before it hurts itself. If you happen to be wandering by, don't mind him. Or one of the baby chocobos coming over to say hello at your feet.

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Roxas is swinging through the park on his way back from picking up more ice cream to replace the boxes Axel managed to go through practically on his own. Having run into Saix himself, it's not hard to guess what's stressing his friend out, even though neither of them has really said anything about it.

He doesn't realize Axel left the apartment in his absence until he hears the peeping and splashing, and follows the path to the pond. At first he just stands there, smiling as he watches his friend with the birds, but then the little yellow chocobo comes nipping at his pants leg as though trying to tug him over.

"Hey, little guy," he says fondly, bending down to give the bird a nice scratch.

Kweh! The little chocobo flaps it's wings and nuzzles Roxas' hand when it receives some petting, and it's the noises which eventually attract Axel and make him look up and over to see what the fuss is about. The red chocobo he's got puffs up its feathers then shakes to clean itself off of all the water, getting droplets all over Axel's face. Man, the things he puts up with...

"Oh. Hey, Roxas," he calls out, prompting the blue chick to hover over and land on Roxas' shoulder. Sure, these birds can be a handful, but at least they're cute. And they actually provide a nice laugh here and there. Goodness knows Axel needs that right now more than ever. "What're you doing out here?"

Roxas looks up, and-- oh, hey it's another bird landing on his shoulder. Careful not to dislodge it, he lifts the bag he's carrying a little in response to Axel's question. "We were out of ice cream."

The blue chocobo starts nibbling at his hair, so he sets the bag of ice cream down on the grass so he has a hand free for petting each bird. Wouldn't want the blue one getting jealous.

"Can they learn to swim?"

Out of ice cream? Already? Huh. He can't even remember eating that much already.

Letting out a little laugh as the chocobo nibbles at Roxas' hair, Axel approaches then sets the red chick on the ground so it can wobble over and peck at Roxas' shoes. HI, DAD.

"I guess. But if they wanna do that, it might be better to start in the kitchen sink or something."

Ahh, no, how is he supposed to pet all three of them at once? He settles himself more comfortably on the grass and attempts to herd the yellow baby closer to the red one so maybe he can reach them both.

"Or the bathtub, since it's lower." They can manage short flights now, but he still doesn't want one falling by accident. He glances up at Axel. "How long are we keeping these guys anyway? Are we gonna name them?"

The yellow chick does flutter its wings and flies over to join the red one on the ground. The two bump into each other, but quickly roll back up for more petting. They're not the most graceful of critters if the way they fly isn't anything to go by, but Axel's taken a liking to them... even just a bit.

He's got his arms crossed when he responds. "Mm... I guess we could. I hadn't really thought about letting them go free since they're just babies and all." But as for naming them-- Axel laughed sheepishly.

"I haven't really thought about names either." But the blue one definitely shares some resemblance to a certain old friend.

There, now he can pet two of them with the same hand... or at least alternate very easily.

"Faris says they're going to get really big, like those birds some people ride on? Chocobos?" Pet, pet, pet. They look so little now, it's still hard to imagine them growing that much. "I don't think we can keep them in the apartment then.

"I think we should name them. But- I dunno what you name birds." At least they could have something to call them by other than their colors.

Two birds with one hand. ... That doesn't sound dirty at all.

Axel sighed. He didn't like the idea of the chocobos growing up, mostly because he didn't like the idea of them cramping up the apartment, but also because, well, they were just too cute when they were babies. ~~Don't grow up. Please.~~

"You can name them anything you want," he said with a shrug. Then, with a laugh, "But that yellow one does have your eyes, y'know."

Stop that, they're babies.

Roxas isn't sure he likes the idea of them getting that big either. They won't be able to ride around on his shoulder or nest in Axel's hair.

"You make it sound like we're related." Scritch, scritch, little yellow one. "Well, we can't name them after us, that'd be confusing."

They would be pretty cool to ride, though, he has to admit. It would be a pain to care for them at that point, and they'd probably have to move to a large house with a big yard or something, but the idea does sound kind of fun.

Axel sighs as he crouches down and pets the blue one's tummy. It chirps at him then playfully nips at his finger.

"... This one reminds me of someone."

A house with a yard. That sounds kind of nice. And domestic.

Roxas glances over at the blue one, and then at Axel's face, trying to make out the expression. He's quiet for a moment before he says, "Isa?"

Heh. Domestic, ey. Axel would be lying if he said that didn't sound nice.

A few more pets and scratches before Axel looks up, a little surprised that Roxas would guess that so easily. It's not like he talks about Isa a lot. "... How did you know?"

Roxas may not be the most perceptive person, but he does know Axel pretty well.

"He was pretty important to you before." Even if he never said much about it, Roxas remembers those nightmares he had. "And I figured he'd be on your mind lately, since... well, you know."

Axel looks away, embarrassed and a bit pink in the face. Right. He nearly forgot about those dreams and he would rather not remember them at all. Seeing his friends hurt like that with him unable to do a thing about it– And now that Saïx is here, those memories might just come back along with similar dreams. Great. More stressing thoughts.

"... You met him?" Saïx.

...he really can embarrass pretty easy, huh.

"Yeah. How did that- go with you two? Did he try anything?" They are both traitors, and given Axel tends to be more of a jerk than Roxas...

Only with certain people, Roxas, geez. Just don't get used to it.

Axel ruffled up his hair a bit as he thought of how to put this. Well, it wasn't a great reunion as one would expect, but he really didn't want to go into great detail about it. The last thing he needed was Roxas getting all up and arms about it and having the two of them meet again. As much as possible, he wants them to stay apart.

"Nothing serious. He wasn't in the best shape after all."

He'll never get used to it. Too adorable.

"...yeah, I guess not." Roxas frowns, forgetting about the chocobos as he tries to put his thoughts into words. After a little while they start nudging at his hand, cheeping.

"Do you think we need to worry about him? It's- not like we're in his way, here."

The chocobos are surprisingly understanding, Axel's discovered, and capable of figuring out human emotion and language, so it's no surprise they're reacting the way they are during this conversation. He wonders if they exist somewhere in their World...

Axel thinks for a moment, staring at the ground, before he shakes his head.

"Just stay out of his way regardless," he says. As stoic as Saix seems, Axel knows better than anyone that even he has his off days.

"I don't plan on bothering him." He can't see that the things he normally does would be anything Saix cares about. He'd have to go out of his way to antagonize the guy. Probably...

"I just- wanna make sure you're okay. That we're okay."

"Heh. That's definitely for the best." He knows Roxas wouldn't do anything to get in Saix's way in the first place just so long as nothing dramatic happens. There's no promises that Axel won't get into some sort of scrape with Saix at one point or another, but... hm. Roxas doesn't have to know about those.

"We'll be fine," he says as he reaches over to give his best friend a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You can trust me on that."

Roxas does not buy the reassuring pat. Axel said Saix didn't try anything 'serious' when they met, which means something did happen. He doesn't trust his friend not to be enough of an asshole to spark another fight, when Saix is feeling better.

"If it gets serious, I want you to- call me or something, okay?"

Aw, come on, Roxas. You can totally trust Axel. Totally.

He pulls his hand back then scoops up the yellow chocobo so he can plop it right on top of Roxas' head. Here, take this. ~~It's dangerous to go alone.~~ "Yeah, sure. But I doubt things will get that ugly." More like he doesn't want you getting involved.

Roxas ducks his head a little bit as the chick settles into his hair. Congratulations, Axel, you've discovered another way to mess it up.

"I hope they won't..."

Well, your hair certainly looks more like a nest than Axel's does, that's for sure. He has to wonder why the chocobos don't just settle in there more often. But whatever. At least they don't leave a mess behind.

"They won't," he says, though he's not looking at Roxas when he does. He can't guarantee anything, but he can try his best. "So, uh... Maybe we should think about names at some point then, huh?"

Changing the subject.

Maybe they like being high up, or think the spikes provide better cover. Who knows?

Roxas sighs, but goes along with the subject change.

"Yeah, definitely. I wanna have something to call these guys." He goes back to petting the red chocobo that's still on the ground near his feet. "How do you come up with names? Do people just- make up stuff that sounds neat?"

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