AkuNo-Our love is Random pt. 3

Machine
He follows his old schoolmate into the hangar, his footsteps immediately drowned by the cacophony of soldiers shouting orders and mechanics laboring over the enormous militia machines. Reno is rather stunned by all he sees; the towering forms of the war suits stand identical to one another in their designated space like a repeating mirror reflection, waiting on Colonel's orders to serve and protect. It was so different than the hangars he and his fellow aviators work in.

"Shit, Axel," Reno comments, giving a small whistle, "you cavalrymen compensating for something?"

Axel doesn't give him the sarcastic answer he is looking for, and it bites an irritable nerve in him. He still doesn't turn to meet him eye to eye when they arrive at his suit.

"Hey, c'mon Ax, is this how you treat old friends?"

Axel lets out a disbelieving laugh, and finally looks at him with a patronizing tilt of his head. "Oh, is that what we are now?" He rolls his eyes and begins climbing the metal colossus. "Funny, I usually call people who've fallen off the face of the planet, without so much as a word, dead."

Reno scrapes his tongue hard against his teeth, shifting his gaze uncertainly for a moment before watching Axel's nimble form scale the side of his mech. "It wasn't for that long, yo!"

"I guess three years means nothing to you, huh?" Axel says, rummaging through his suit's cockpit. A moment later, he climbs back down, jumping the last bit of distance with both feet landing firmly on the floor. He straightens, and presents Reno with the package he had asked for.

The ace looks up at the soldier before him; Axel's face is empty of emotions, making it hard for Reno to read him as easily as he did when they were still training as cadets. A thread of annoyance worms into Reno's mind again. The last few years had definitely changed Axel, as if service in militia without Reno had reprogrammed him, taught him to shut down whenever the situation called for it. No more than a fraction of a second this thought is gone, and his frown is replaced with a teasing smile again, brushing off any hint of his disquietness as he says, "didn't think you missed me that much, Ax."

"You don't think about a lot of things, Reno." Unfaltering, Axel shoves the wrapped piece of evidence into Reno's chest, making the pilot stumble back. "Your business with me is done. Get that piece of Mako to Rufus and you can go disappear for another three years." His words come out hollow, distant, mechanical. Without another utterance, the cavalryman shoves past him, leaving Reno standing amidst the soulless rows of machines, package dangling from his fingers as he wonders just why things have ended up this way.

Swap
He breathes in deep, the smoky poisons hitting the back of his mouth and slipping down his throat with a hot, almost erotic tingle. It fills his lungs, seeps into his blood, and he feels his face grow warm while his body goes slack. There's a small touch on his thigh, and he lazily turns his head, eyes dark and blown, and he sees Axel with Lifestream between his teeth. He watches him take a long drag from it. A moment later, Axel leans forward, hand braced against the windows of the backseat, seals their mouths, and exhales. Reno groans, but takes it all in. It's sweeter than his own, hotter too, what with Axel's touch making the swap that more intoxicating.

Backbone
Being in medical school, Axel has been a witness to countless surgeries for years upon years. Why, just the term before, he had worked beside a coroner on some of the most mutilated bodies he had ever encountered. But there is something indubitably disturbing about the hack-and-slash movies Reno loves to rent for their weekend film nights. And the moment he sees that backbone thrust out of the bleeding, pulsing flesh of the shrieking victim, Axel blinks once, then vomits onto Reno's lap.

Impossible
Roxas had told him "No, don't take the morning classes, Axel. It is a bitch to get to class on time if you do," but had he listened? No. Roxas had also told him, "watch out for this guy named Reno too; I heard he's gonna be staying in the same dorm as your are, so don't get too friendly with him, especially when you have a morning class because it's going to be impossible to get to." But had he listened to that either? No.

Now, for the third time in a row, Axel awakes naked, exhausted, and sore in the bed of Reno's room, two hours after his first class had began. Through the fuzzy, lingering haze of the erotic high from the previous night, he thinks maybe he should have listened to his best friend a little more.

Mouth
Reno spits out the blood pooling in his mouth, wiping his lips with the back of his hand without ever taking his eyes off the suspect advancing on him. The dark, thin silhouette of the intruder's form moves in closer, and Reno stamps down the urge to turn and run. His eyes flickers down and watches the killer toy around with the chakrams in his hands.

"You have such a pretty mouth," the hooded man says with a chuckle, "it's a damn shame it's all split and bleeding…though I guess it's all part of the fun, right, Turk?"  

Adrenaline pumps fiercely through his blood, and his mind begins to push out everything except for his need to attack; his hand, sticky with drying blood, tightens around his truncheon. "Yeah, fun," he grits out, and his mouth curls into a vicious snarl, "I'm having the best fucking time of my life!"

Video
Reno fast forwards the film of the security tape, past all the uneventful moments of shoppers going through clothing, children pulling down clothes from their hangers, women browsing endlessly. He really shouldn't watch it again. His job is already walking on a thin thread for making a copy of the video for himself, but it doesn't stop him. The film is no where close to where he wants to begin, but already, he's breathing hard just thinking about the tall, spiky-haired man kissing rutting against his small lover in the neglected corner of the department store.

Signing
Another breathy groan fills the dim room, and once again Reno digs his fingers into his palms. Axel looks up from his work, and sends him a coy smile just before tipping the shaft of the candle at an angle. Red, liquid wax drips down and lands on Reno's naked thigh and he jerks against the restraints bound around his wrists, sucking in a shaky breath at the scalding burn. At last, Axel slowly signs the "L" onto the fair canvas and Reno lets out a small cry when he feels the last of Axel's name branded into his hip.

Compare
There was really nothing Axel could compare to Reno to fully encompass his ego, though his clever idea of strapping his friend to a basket with a gigantic sheet of fabric and asking him to talk about himself, skyward, to create a makeshift hot air balloon seems incredibly plausible at times.

Copyright
"You can't submit that!" Axel barked, fingers bending and crinkling into the packet of papers caught in Reno's hand. "That was all my work! I didn't give you permission to use my ideas, dickhead!"

The other kin just wrestles with him, using his slightly taller frame to his advantage "Oooh, what are you gonna do? Sic lawyers on me, lil bro?" Reno just sneers, and bullies his brother into the wall, yanking the paper from between them as he holds it behind him, out of Axel's reach. "You make up stories all the time; what's me using one for my project gonna hurt, huh?"

Ax
He slides the pad of his fingers down the blade of the hatchet, but Reno knows a dog would never bite its own master. His fingers brush away seamless, though bits and clumps of dried gore from his last victims chip and flake off. Cold, blue eyes glances up from his weapon and catches the stare of his partner who's slouched on the opposite side of the cart.

"Can you relax?" Reno mutters, running his tongue against his teeth as he splits into a grin, "why are you so serious all the time? Aren't you having fun?"

"Don't you get bored doing the same thing day in and day out?" Axel questions.

Reno just laughs, tossing and catching his hatchet like a toy. "Darling, if at the end of the day my pocket is fulla gold and gems, what more fun would I need, yo?" The sound of crunching pebbles beneath the wagon is the only answer he receives, and his smile immediately drops. "The hell is wrong with you? You're sounding more like that deadweight Roxas kid every day."

An angry flash burns in Axel's green eyes, though as soon as it appears it vanishes, and Axel simply fixes Reno with a sardonic grin. "I'd rather sound like a deadweight than an asshole like you."