Anodyne: Chapter Two
Title: Anodyne
Genre: AU - Romance/Mystery
Summary: With just six months to live, Roxas makes a desperate attempt to find the mysterious man from his past - his last chance to survive a fatal disease.
Rating: M (eventual)
Pairing: Axel/Roxas
Warnings: Language / Violence / Sex
Comments: I've already started on chapter three so expect it in a week or so. Constructive criticism is very much encouraged. I like knowing people like my stuff, but I like knowing how to improve even more! So without further ado, here’s chapter two of Anodyne.



Anodyne

Chapter Two: Diet Coke Angst


"You owe me like five blowjobs for this."

Roxas rolled his eyes.

"No, maybe like twenty blowjobs. A hundred blowjobs, even. Fuck."

"Seifer, can you please shut the hell up and drive?" Roxas snapped, leaning back in the passenger seat of Seifer Almasy's pick-up truck.

"You're lucky I feel sorry for you. Dying's gotta suck, right? Lucky I'm nice enough to take pity on your doomed ass and drive you around. You should be thanking me, not complaining."

To put an end to his banter, Roxas leaned forward and switched on the radio. Rap music blared from the speakers and Roxas was nearly thrown back into his seat. Seifer laughed.

"S'what you get, cripple. Keep your grimy paws off my radio."

Roxas glared at the blond driver. The only reason Seifer was driving him and not Hayner was that Hayner always had wrestling matches on Saturdays. Roxas used to wrestle as well, in addition to being on the school's baseball team, until he fell dreadfully sick. Sports had been out of the question; Roxas had dropped out of school.

Seifer wasn't so much of a friend as he was a guy Roxas could go to whenever Hayner wasn't around. The two had known one another since seventh grade, when both boys had been on the same Little League team together after Roxas moved to Vegas from New Hampshire. By tenth grade Seifer had the bright idea to require a blowjob from Roxas whenever he wanted something, which worked out fine for the smaller blond. A boy never knew when sucking dick could get him out of trouble - which it often did.

"So why am I driving you out here again? Looking for your long lost kidney guy?"

"Something like that," Roxas muttered, anxious for this ride to end soon.

"Well if I were you, I'd knee him in the balls for giving you a failing kidney. I mean god, as much as you paid for that thing it shouldn't be fucking up." Seifer reached into his pocket and pulled out a crushed box of cigarettes, pulling one out and lighting it while he maneuvered the steering wheel with his knees. Roxas noticed that he didn't bother to unroll the window. "How much did you pay for it again?"

"Selling organs in the U.S. is illegal, but the foundation pays each donor money through the medical insurance place, overpricing the cost of the transplant itself. So I can't really say, maybe... a thousand dollars?" Roxas shrugged. "We didn't know the donor had been paid until after the surgery and we didn't really care."

"Geez, you totally got jipped," Seifer laughed. "Sucks."

A few moments later Seifer's Ford pulled into the parking lot of a small, flat building hardly wider than an average house. It had two windows, one on either side of a metal door. The words "DUSK FOUND. HQ" were painted in chipped dark blue paint on the door. The rest of the parking lot was completely empty.

"You're... sure this is it?" Roxas asked with a skeptic quirk of his eyebrow.

"Positive. Now get out and get your damn kidney guy file before I make you suck my cock right here."

Roxas leapt out of the truck and trudged up to the front door, looking over his shoulder to see in Seifer was watching. Seifer had his head buried in a motorcycle magazine and Roxas frowned. If a huge fire-spitting monster was on the other side of this door he trusted his driver to blow his nose, at most. Otherwise Roxas was on his own.

Roxas gripped the door handle and pulled with all his strength, met with a whoosh of cold air as it swung open. The inside of the building was dark and Roxas saw spots as he stepped inside, his eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness.

An electric fan had been propped up on one of the old wooden chairs in the room, of which there were only three. The room itself was small, not much bigger than Roxas's bedroom at home, and smelled vaguely of formaldehyde. A wooden desk was situated in front of the chairs, covered with files, paperwork, and a laptop computer dating about 1996. But it was the person behind the desk that took Roxas most by surprise.

He was in his early fifties and the skin of his face was drawn taut over sunken green eyes, hollow cheekbones, and a pointed chin. Long dark blond hair had been pulled into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck, not even one stray lock hovered over his grimacing face.

"I'm sorry, young man," the receptionist drawled, his thin lips hardly moving, "but no minors are allowed without the company of a parent."

The sound of the electric fan was drilling itself into Roxas's head and did little to soothe his burning cheeks. "Excuse me?"

"Please remove yourself from this office."

Stunned, Roxas felt his embarrassment fading away. He sat down in one of the old chairs, meeting the man's acidic glare with a stern expression of defiance. The arms of the chair were held tightly in his grip.

"I don't have parents. I have a legal guardian."

"Well that's still not within the rules, now is it?" A smile tugged at the edge of the man's lips. "I'm sure you're here for a very good reason, little boy, but I'm afraid that I still can't help you."

His jaw set, Roxas finally stood up and walked out without another word, slamming the metal door behind him.

Seifer stuck his head out of the driver's side window, squinting in the bright sun.

"Hey loser, up for a blowjob?"

Roxas glared at him as he climbed into the passenger seat, arms crossed firmly over his chest.

"Do you know a place around here where we can chill for a few hours? We're not leaving."



"You're staying at Seifer's place?" Cloud exclaimed. Roxas winced at the volume, holding his cell phone away from his ear. Beside him Seifer was crouched in front of the door of the Dusk Foundation's office, fiddling with a lock. Leave it to a delinquent to know how to break into a place.

"Yeah, we uh. We were hanging out all afternoon and playing ball-" Roxas kicked Seifer in the shins when he began snickering, "-and he wanted to know if I could stay at his place for the night. He'll drive me home and everything." Roxas kicked at some gravel and glanced up at the night sky, glad there was a full moon so they would have some light to drive by.

"Sure, okay. But I'm giving you a bruise-check when you get home, okay? And do you have your medication?"

Roxas internally swore at himself. "Yeah," he lied. "And I've already eaten; we stopped at McDonald's earlier."

"Yeah, for five hours," Seifer grumbled. Roxas kicked him again.

"I guess I'll see you when you get home. Hey, do me a favor?" Cloud asked. "Go to bed at a really late time like a normal teenager. Seriously, going to bed at dinner and waking up at three in the morning can't be good for you."

Roxas smiled. "Sure thing, bro."

After he had hung up, the boy crouched next to Seifer to examine the lock. "Any luck?"

"Almost... you're really fucking lucky that his is an old door, otherwise I'd need more than a hairpin and a screwdriver to open it."

"Yeah, this place is kinda falling apart," Roxas looked up at the roof, which looked as if had seen quite a number of hurricanes, despite the fact that it was located in Nevada. Nights in the desert tended to be cool, and Roxas gave a little shiver. "Hurry, it's chilly."

"You're such a goddamn baby." With a loud 'click!' the door suddenly swung open. Seifer eagerly pushed Roxas inside, not willing to stick his own neck out should there be any kind of security system. "Ladies first."

Lucky for the both of them, no alarm went off and as far as Roxas could see there weren't any cameras. The two boys were silent as they crept through the room, opening the door behind the receptionist's desk gingerly. Roxas felt along the wall beside the door, finally finding a light switch and flicking it.

Fluorescent lighting blinked on, and Roxas realized he was looking into a short hallway. Grabbing Seifer by the arm, he pulled the two of them inside and then shut the door.

"Wonder where they keep the organs," Seifer whispered, looking around. "This is seriously bitchin'."

Roxas ignored him, instead focusing on the two doors on either side of the hallway. Each one had a label: "SPECIMINS", "LAB", "BASEMENT", and “RECORDS." Bingo.

Wondering if the people running this place were human enough to have a bathroom, Roxas pulled open the "RECORDS" door. Grabbing Seifer away from the "SPECIMINS" door, Roxas pulled them inside.

Like in the hallway, Roxas groped beside the door for a light switch. He let go of Seifer's arm as he felt along the wall, bathed completely in darkness. Not even light from the hallway dared peeking underneath the door. The entire situation gave Roxas an eerie feeling and he felt his stomach churn.

CRASH.

"Fuck!"

Ignoring Seifer, Roxas finally flicked on the light. The brightness flickered for a few seconds before finally buzzing life, making Roxas squint. He looked around him, observing the small, ordinary room filled with rows of filing cabinets. Letters had been posted on the side of each cabinet like a library, and Roxas had no trouble finding his last name.

"Hey, are you gonna help me up or what, shithead?"

Roxas glanced over his shoulder to see one of the cabinets had tumbled over onto Seifer's leg. He didn't seem to be in any pain, and the cabinet didn't look that heavy to begin with. All of its contents had spilled out onto the floor, hundreds of patient's names and files. Roxas was slightly surprised. Weren't medical records locked up in most establishments?

"Sure, hang on," Roxas muttered, easily opening the cabinet containing his file. After flipping few about a dozen other names he finally found his own, pulling the manila file easily out from its neat place in between two other names.

Hands shaking, Roxas leaned against another cabinet and sat down, slowly peeling the front of the folder away from the first page. His eyes scanned information he already knew - his name, birth date, description of his case, description of his blood type, come on, come on, where is it?

"Roxas-"

"Shut up, Seifer!" Roxas cried desperately, flinging pages of his file everywhere.

"Fucking hell Roxas, we need to-"

"SHUT UP! I'm doing something!"

Roxas was so engrossed in his searching that he never heard the door open, never felt the floor shake as heavy footsteps made their way across the floor. Never noticed that Seifer had been silenced.

He didn't notice any of these things until a bearlike hand clamped down on his shoulder, and fingers thick as sausages yanked the file from Roxas's desperate grasp.

"Come with me."



"Recipes," the doctor said slowly. "You were going through confidential medical files looking for... recipes."

Roxas shot Seifer a glare. The two boys were clumped in the old chairs in the reception room of the building, the man who had introduced himself to be Dr. Lexaeus sitting across from them behind the front desk. Even though he was seated, the gargantuan man seemed to tower over both boys.

"No sir. Whatever Seifer told you was because he's an idiot."

"Oiy!"

"I used to be a client of yours," Roxas continued. "And whenever I called to access information about my record, no one bothered to answer the phone. So I just-"

"Ah," Lexaeus interrupted, smiling. "You must be Axel McCormick's organ recipient."

"Who?" Roxas shifted in his chair, suddenly very excited. "Was this Axel guy my donor?"

The doctor nodded, leaning back in his chair. Roxas winced as he heard the old chair creak under the man's massive bulk. He had to be two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle, at least, and probably hovered just below seven feet tall.

"Wait, if he wanted to be anonymous, how do you know him?" Roxas asked.

"Because I was the one that helped remove his kidney. That is to say, I performed part of the surgery."

Roxas stared incredulously at the man across from him, excitement bubbling inside his stomach. Though enormous fingers that had looked menacing at first suddenly took on a kind of mysterious appeal - fingers that had seen his donor, touched his donor, extracted the part of his body currently struggling to keep Roxas alive.

"So do you know where I can find him? I... that's why I came here. I've wanted to meet him really bad." An awkward silence descended for a moment at Lexaeus considered Roxas's offer. Seifer began to chew on bubblegum he had fished out of his pocket, the sound drilling nails into Roxas's head. He squirmed in his chair.

Finally Lexaeus gave him a small smile. "I think I can help you find him. However I cannot promise you'll enjoy his company."

Roxas shrugged off the comment. "Why wouldn't I? He saved my life."

"He's a rather shady individual," Lexaeus said, the chair creaking under his weight as he pulled it forward. The old computer whirred to life as he turned it on, logging on to the Dusk Foundation's sluggish server.

"So? Some would call me shady," Seifer said, rubbing his eyes.

"Seifer, drinking a twelve pack of Diet Coke in one day as an attempted 'overdose' doesn't make you shady," Roxas deadpanned.

Seifer popped his gum, frowning. "Fruit," he muttered, trying to suppress a yawn.

Roxas looked back over at Lexaeus, who was waiting for the patient information to load within the data space. To keep an awkward silence from descending upon the dark, musty room, Roxas continued. "So what do you mean by shady?"

"Axel is a man of his own devices. He's young, never been married, and lives alone in Los Angeles. While he's certainly not shy, he's rather solitary, and has a fairly long history of anger management problems. It's very easy to be suspicious of him." Lexaeus finally pulled up the information he needed, pulling a pad of paper out of one of the desk's drawers in order to write it down for Roxas.

Seifer popped his gum again and Roxas shot him an annoyed glare. Seifer stuck his tongue out at him, purposely chewing louder.

"I dunno, I figure if he gave me his kidney, he can't be that bad," Roxas said with a shrug, pulling his legs up Indian-style in his chair. "Especially because he wanted to remain anonymous. I think that's kind of humble, don't you?"

"I don't know if 'humble' is the proper adjective one would use to describe Axel," Lexaeus muttered, ripping the Post-It not off its pad. He leaned over the desk to hand the not to Roxas, where all of Axel's contact information had been listed in small, neat handwriting.

"Los Angeles, wow..." Roxas breathed. "How the hell am I gonna convince Cloud to let me go there to find this guy?"

"You won't," Seifer cut in, snatching the paper away to glance down at the address. "And if you think you can convince me to drive you there, you're sorely mistaken. Not for all the blowjobs in the world."

Blushing, Roxas snatched the paper back. Lexaeus coughed awkwardly.

"Well, he is going to the Bahamas for his honeymoon," Roxas muttered, scratching his head in thought. "If I can hitch my way to L.A. he won't ever have to know."

"I hate to interrupt your train of thought," Lexaeus cut in, folding his arms over his massive chest, "-but I'm afraid I still need someone to clean up the atrocious mess in my records room."

Seifer moaned.

It took both boys over an hour to collect all the files and alphabetize them. The doctor took pity on the weary boys and agreed to right the fallen filing cabinet and re-file the folders if Seifer promised to drive Roxas straight home. So finally, at two-thirty in the morning, both boys stumbled out of the Dusk Foundation's headquarters, their fingers covered with paper cuts and their eyesight bleary.

As Seifer started up his truck he gave Roxas a slightly concerned look.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't give a damn about your shrimpy ass, but I have a bad feeling about this whole deal," he scoffed.

Roxas's head thunked against the window, his eyes already beginning to close. "Why not? He was a nice guy and we got the information we needed. He even," the boy paused to yawn, "-even didn't threaten to call our families. And let's face it, we deserved having to clean up that records room. Thanks to you."

Seifer shook his head. "I dunno, man. This whole deal with your donor seems kinda shady, seriously. And the filing cabinets weren't even locked, and I've busted into enough cabinets at school to know that it's kinda weird for that information to be so... open and unorganized. The whole place was kind of a dump, really, which wasn't what I was expecting."

"It's non-profit," Roxas argued. "Just because they have an old computer and stuff doesn't make it a dump, and doesn't mean they don't better people's lives."

"Hey, what the fuck ever," Seifer muttered. "Jeez, last time I put in my two cents."

Irritated, Roxas spent the rest of the ride in silence, not even putting up an argument when Seifer switched on his god-awful music. Luckily the truck pulled up to Roxas's house just before Cloud was scheduled to come home, so Roxas had time to hurriedly do his chores and hop in bed before his older brother walked in the door.

Roxas slept until noon, dreaming of the sun-paved streets of Los Angeles.