The moment Zexion whipped his hair away from the covered side of his face, Xion figuratively jumped into action.
“Don’t move,” she said, reaching for her pencil and flipping her napkin over to the other side. Her eyes flicked back and forth from Zexion down to her make-shift drawing pad and back up at the college junior in front of her as she quickly sketched out the other side of Zexion’s face that had been missing from view before.
Very quickly, the image began to form on the napkin in front of her: guarded, inquisitive eyes, framed by a slightly furrowed brow, down-turned but full lips, and a strong but not overbearing nose. Then she began to add in his hair, the curve of his neck as it met his shoulders and more.
Her food was forgotten now nearby. When she drew, Xion was in her element, more than any other time. She’d drawn Roxas a few times too when he’d been deep in study mode. He was a good subject too, with traditionally handsome good looks and a friendly expression. Zexion was unique though. Not in-your-face handsome, he still had an alluring quality about him, especially when he hid half of his face behind colored blue hair.
“Much better, yeah…you’re just so fascinating to look at,” she agreed, with a hint of a smile. Then, turning to Roxas, Xion’s eyes took on a mischievous glint. ”Wouldn’t you say so too, Rox?”
He didn’t have a chance. The minute Zexion moved his hair, showing his unobstructed face for the first time that Roxas had ever seen, he was mesmerized. Axel was gorgeous, yes, but this man had a look all his own that had Roxas’s eyes widening a little. Man, did the red head know how to pick ‘em or what? Luckily, Xion provided a good distraction, her drawing pulling the blue-haired man’s attention so that Roxas could stare openly at him while she worked.
The only problem with this came when she abruptly turned her attention back to him, putting him on the spot, and drawing those exotic looking eyes back to his face, guarded eyes gauging his reaction. The blush he could feel crawling up his cheeks definitely defeated the purpose of his nonchalant tone, and Roxas knew it.
“Fascinating is a good word for it, yes.” ‘Stunning’ might be a better one, he thought, but kept his mouth shut on the matter as Zexion’s eyes held his.
Roxas was the one who looked away first, his face burning as his eyes found the uneaten food on his plate, part of which he had already begun ripping to shreds with his fingers. He kept his eyes on his plate as he continued though, afraid of the other guy’s reaction to his next thought, but feeling compelled to say it anyways.
“That’s partly why I invited you here,” he said, forcing himself not to mutter, but almost doing it despite his efforts. “I wanted to spend more time with you… to see if your personality was as attractive as your looks.”
When he finished speaking, he had to glance up to see Zexion’s reaction to his words. This was the first step in putting himself out there. If the other man was amenable to that, then maybe… but one thing at a time, right? His hands trembled slightly as he waited for a reaction.
Zexion’s mouth fell open, and then promptly closed. He sure as hell hadn’t expected that from Roxas. His face burned, and he wondered it matched the blush on the blond’s face. It had to be the color of Axel’s hair right about then.
Of course, that was the thing, wasn’t it? Axel. He had Axel. He had the red head’s phone number and his ear, but… no, that did not necessarily mean that he had him. The way this guy acted made Zexion feel like if they started dating he would actually have Roxas in a more equal way, where they chased each other and no one had more power over the other. Not like Axel had him, but he did not have Axel. Or… well, why did he think that? What made him think that?
Glancing up at Roxas, he met eyes that seemed fearful of his reaction. This guy knew he and Axel were an item, right? Zexion wondered what kind of courage it took to put yourself out there like that when the chances of being rejected were likely, but he could not even imagine it. Even the idea that Roxas had done that for him though gave him some level of respect for the blond that had not been there before that moment.
That didn’t change the fact that he was with Axel, though. He wanted to be with the red head more than anything, and maybe if he just waited things between them would change for the better. Maybe… but then how would he tell Roxas that?
Roxas seemed genuinely interested in more than just what Zexion could do to him in private while still looking at him as though he would like to do things with him that were not meant for anyone else’s eyes, which was not something the blue-haired man was used to from anyone. It made him hesitate. And instead of just denying the blond outright with reminders of how he was taken, Zexion found himself asking a question instead.
“Well, uh… is it?”
Xion was practically beaming at the exchange she was witnessing before her. Once the two of them got going, it was even cuter to watch than before. Grabbing another napkin out of the nearby till, she began scribbling fiercely yet again, this time constructing a basic sketch of two college guys that looked suspiciously similar to Roxas and Zexion. Of course, Roxas was standing behind Zexion, pressing his lips to the older boy’s neck. Of course.
Once done, she left it where it lay, available for everyone within the near vicinity to see.
I’m going to hell, but at least I had fun on the way…
There was a lull in the conversation, so Xion looked up, wondering if she’d gone too far. Nope, since neither had seen her little doodle yet. Instead, it was just Roxas floundering for an answer to Zexion’s very shyly posed question.
“Not that anyone asked me,” Xion piped up, “but Roxas seemed to have a pretty good feel for these things.” She smiled sweetly, fiddling with a lock of her own dark hair.
When Zexion didn’t immediately respond, Xion leaned forward a bit across the table, whispering as though Roxas wouldn’t be able to hear her from just the next seat over.
“I obviously can’t say this from a position that involves physical attraction at all, obviously, but I’d say that means you have potential, yeah.”
Xion had a way of interjecting just when Roxas was beginning to feel flustered and shy, something not at all like him. If not for her, this might turn into a date of silence and nervous glances. He shot her a grateful look, glad she was there, but that was when he caught sight of the napkin she’d been drawing on; the one depicting him and Zexion. His eyes shot directly to the blue-haired man across from him then to see if he had seen it, but that must have been the give away because that was when those finally uncovered blue eyes turned towards it.
Roxas wasn’t feeling as shy anymore, he was feeling calculating. He wanted this man every bit as much as he wanted Axel, he just didn’t love him… yet. How did he make that happen?
Well, Zexion’s reaction to the picture was a start, he thought. Blushing and closing his eyes as though he’d imagined it for just a moment before closing his eyes on the daydream, the man across from him looked even more alluring than he had at any point that Roxas had seen so far. What would he do if I kissed him, he wondered, involuntarily licking his lips at the idea. No one kissed until after the first date though, right?
“Definitely,” he began, remembering he had yet to answer something, but then pausing and waiting for those blue eyes to find his again. “More attractive than I expected,” he finished, offering a smile he hoped would calm the other man down.
Zexion obviously wasn’t used to hearing compliments, that was one thing Roxas was sure of, which was a shame, really, considering how nice looking and seemingly sweet he was. Reaching one hand across the table, he let his fingers slide tentatively over the other man’s, continuing on. “If that’s alright to say, of course.”
Zexion didn’t know what to say, but he did know that he was a little annoyed with his brain for doing nothing besides sending blood to his face and neck on a fairly constant basis. The idea of having Roxas’s mouth on his neck was beyond a pleasant one, and he was a little embarrassed to find his body a little aroused by that idea. It felt a little like cheating to be turned on by the idea of someone else touching him though, which was also adding to the overall confusion.
Roxas had introduced himself as someone who knew things about Axel if Zexion had needed or wanted the information, so he couldn’t have been entirely clueless when it came to what was going on between them, could he? Then again, he might have just noticed the interest Zexion was showing and wanted an in.
Whatever the reason, the blond was complimenting him and then asking him if it was alright to do that. There were very few moments in his life that he’d felt so flattered, and of course he nodded his agreement that ‘yes’ it was okay to say that. Roxas grinned at him then, nodding and continuing onwards.
“Good, then is it also alright if I ask you to come to a party with me tomorrow night? It’s a college thing, but the sorority house across from my dorm rooms is throwing it so I wouldn’t have to drive home. You live on campus, right?” Zexion nodded automatically at the question, and Roxas continued on. “Good, then neither of us will need to drive. So how about it?”
Zexion just looked at him for a moment, glancing to Xion for a moment before answering, unsure about what to do. Unfortunately, his eyes found that napkin again in the process, and closed of their own volition with that vision behind his eyes again. It was a temptation, and it wasn’t as though he’d had much experience with that sort of thing in his life. He was almost helpless against it, actually.
So with only a shy glance up at Roxas, his hair falling back over the side of his face like he was used to, Zexion nodded. “Okay,” he mumbled. “Yeah.”
D’aww. So cute.
“Well, it sounds like that should be a fun night,” Xion chirped as she pocketed the napkin and dove into the last remnants of the dip in front of her. ”You two enjoy.”
Sorority girls were not Xion’s thing. A bunch of bitchy females, too concerned about their make-up and hair to really care about anything else? Yeah, no thanks. She hadn’t even considered rushing any of the houses at the beginning of the year.
Now, as she dug out a few five dollar bills, Xion stood, regarding them both under eyelids unadorned with any sort of what she called ‘female consumer communism.’
“Very nice to meet you, Zexion,” she said, placing the bills down on the table in front of her. That should cover her food and her portion of the tip. Her departure would also give them more time to talk alone, assuming they needed it.
“Roxas, give me a call sometime, hmm?” She smiled a bit dreamily at him as she shouldered her schoolbag, thoughts already elsewhere, on napkin doodles and a million potential poses for her two newest muses.