Kingdom Hearts II (Roxas/Axel)

[cleflink.livejournal.com]

Title: Teeth and Tails
Author: cleflink
Rating: G
Warnings: Fuzzy fluff?
Word Count: 626
Summary: Axel has a good idea. Despite his better judgment, Roxas goes along with it.

Recon, Axel had said. Go down, check things out, get a feel for the place before the Organization headed in and started screwing shit up. It all sounded more than a little suspicious to Roxas, but that was par for the course when dealing with Axel. And Axel had been wearing his shit-eating grin when he’d told him, the one that meant you ought to get out of the way pretty damn quick or risk getting blown up, so Roxas had been resigned for something suitably irksome and over the top before ever setting foot on the damn world.

“You alright there Roxas?”

Only it seemed like Axel might have outdone himself this time.

Roxas didn’t bother dignifying the question with a response, and didn’t even glare at the direction Axel’s voice was coming from. Which was more than a little out of character for him, true, but he was figured he could forgive himself in the light of what Axel’s meddling had done to him this time.

He was hot. And fuzzy. And a good few feet shorter than normal even considering the fact that he was flat on his belly with his legs splayed out around him. All four of them.

Axel sounded like he was about to hurt himself laughing. “Would you like a hand there, Roxas? You seem to be short a few.”

“As soon as I figure out how to move I’m going to kill you,” Roxas informed him pleasantly, not caring that it make Axel laugh harder. Gritting his teeth in determination, Roxas pushed himself up on his front paws, ignored the inherent weirdness in that, then stood up the rest of the way, wobbling uncertainly as he tried to find his balance. The extra legs helped, he supposed, but he flailed helplessly when he tried to walk, front legs getting in the way of the back and – was that a tail?!

“Axel,” he growled, the sound low and menacing and far more effective than any other time he’d tried. “Why am I a cat?”

A shadow detached itself from the rocky cliff face in front of him, and Roxas found himself unsurprised that, even on four legs, Axel still managed to move with the fluid, slinking grace of a hunter. “Aw, don’t be like that, Roxas,” Axel smirked, his black fur streaked with wild swathes of red around his pricked-up ears. Bright green eyes slanted over Roxas’ new body with smug amusement. “You make such a cute little lion.”

Roxas bared his teeth in a snarl. “You knew this was going to happen,” he accused, not able to help the instinctive annoyance even though he knew it was exactly the reaction Axel had been hoping for.

And Axel really should have turned into a hyena instead of a panther, Roxas thought sourly, what with the way he couldn’t seem to stop laughing. “Me?” Axel asked, his innocent act no more effective now than it was in human form. “Now you’re just getting paranoid Roxas.”

He had claws, Roxas realized. And even if Axel didn’t stop laughing even when he lunged at him in a bristling ball of tawny fur, at least it made Roxas feel better.  

Axel darted nimbly around his clumsy charge, fire in his eyes and challenge in his smile as he leaped over Roxas and took off, vanishing in a sleek roll of black fur and bunched muscles. His laughter echoed on the still breeze, practically daring Roxas to make good on his threat.

What the hell, thought Roxas. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do. And so he took off after Axel, tripping only slightly over his extra feet as he ran, determined to give his frustrating lover a face-washing he’d never forget.

~owari