We Are Bulletproof

It wasn't like he was even hanging out at some popping club or some shit. Actually, he was hanging out in the Night Owl, which was a little quieter than Kota's sensibilities. It had good food--he had some appetizer platter and a plain beer in front of him while he waited impatiently for his best friend to show up.

Dakota hated being alone. There used to be a time where it was all he wanted. He'd been one of those emotionally fucked guys who didn't want people getting too fucking close. Emotionally. Sometimes physically, too. Okay, a lot with the physical thing but he'd been learning a lot about himself these days. Not because he'd been seeing a therapist or some dumb shit like that. He didn't believe in that--what was talking to some stranger going to do to fix his problems?

But he thought things might have been growing better between himself and his little brother, all the way up until things just... stopped. Dakota was tired of being the one in the family people worried about and didn't trust. At the same time, he couldn't fight the person he was. He was reckless. He liked to get into a fight sometimes. He liked the rush of gambling away his money. He loved laughing in the moonlight while he zoomed down the streets on his moped as fast as he could from irate loan sharks.

One day, it would all catch up with him. He was pretty sure it wasn't now, though. Not in this little quiet tavern with the quiet bartender and the moody music. Kinda made Dakota itch all the more, to be honest.

He told himself that tonight was the night, the night when he'd stop pussyfooting around and say something. To Axel. To... his best friend, that might not take it so good but might just laugh it off. Hard to say, really. He couldn't puss out though. That was the thing. Dakota had, like, one of those life epiphanies last night and it meant crashing through walls to make sure the people involved knew too.

Or person. 'Cause in this case, it was a person.

Down the hatch with the beer--Dakota wrinkled his nose. Not bad beer, by half, but beer was not what he wanted. Dragging his phone out of his pocket, he checked the time. Come on, come on, Ax. He had to be outta there by NOW for sure.

ArceusA

"You guys really didn't need me, anyway," he said, meandering in the door. Unfortunately, someone had noticed he'd slipped the meeting, but hey, technically, he was the boss and could do whatever it was he wanted, anyway. Not that he often flexed this ability; he usually tried to keep himself to the same standards he kept his employees to. Seemed pretty hypocritical of him not to. Apparently, he had a weird way of doing things, considering he was fairly sure every other fair-sized-business owner generally didn't. "And besides, it's late, I'm tired, you guys weren't getting anywhere, and it seriously took you ten minutes to figure out I was gone, obviously my presence was not that important." Obviously. At least his hands were free; Bluetooth headsets were the most amazing things ever invented. Okay, besides vodka. "Well, sometimes, ya gotta do stuff you don't like, okay, and I just found my friend so if you'll excuse me I'm going to do something besides mediate department fights, see you tomorrow, bye," as he came up beside Dakota. He reached up and smacked his headset off (a Motorola), and settled down.

"Sorry it took so long. Bad news, they noticed, but it took them ten minutes!" Axel said. "Kind of a feat though, how do you miss the bright neon pink person moving?" That was a question for the ages, a question he did not have the answer for, and even if he did, he supposed it didn't terribly matter. "And the head of finance finally got annoyed and started throwing insults back at the head of IT and I'm pretty sure I missed an actual brawl. Hmm. You look all serious and jittery, I hear chicks dig that these days. Or is it supposed to be serious and broody?" It wasn't like he'd know. He hadn't had a girlfriend in... innn... uh. Well, probably since it first became socially-acceptable for him to date girls. Hmm, his last girlfriend was a nice girl from Finland. Psycho, though, but in the good way. If that made sense.

She'd died. Like humans do eventually. It wasn't as if Axel was going to ask them to become vampires just to stay with him. That was unbearably rude. And no, he'd never asked a boyfriend to, either. Not that he'd actually gotten one of those in an age, either. Between looking out for his besties, and running several businesses, he hardly had time for dating, anyway. "What's up Buttercup?" Obviously something was on Dakota's mind. Sometimes he shared, sometimes he didn't. It was worth asking. This was Dakota, anyway. Axel was pretty much guaranteed to ask when it came to him.

"What's it called? That thing where people see something so much they don't notice it when it's gone?"

It sounded like a line from some sappy heartbreak song, like not knowing what one had until it was gone. That sort of deal. In this case, though, Dakota just couldn't snap the right word into place. Shit, he'd only had one beer, right? He wasn't that drunk yet. But oh god, some part of him really wanted to be. Suddenly, beer just didn't seem like nearly enough. Shit. Did he look that goddamn obvious?

"I don't think anybody finds jittery and serious attractive," he said as he drank the rest of his beer and slapped a hand onto the counter. "Anyway, figured I'd get things started here but..."

He fought the urge to burp, turning his head slightly away.

"I'm really craving your drinks, so you wanna head to your place? Or you think this guy'll let you mix drinks here? Discount? Hm?"

Uhuh.

Well, you know, maybe Axel did (or maybe it was just because it was Dakota, probably, made sense), but like hell was he saying that. Instead, he just made that eyebrow-arch-lopsided-smirk expression he was known for, and let that one alone. It was kind of stupid, anyway. Actually, most of the time, Axel wondered how the hell he could even call himself Dakota's best friend in the first place, given Dakota barely knew him. Unintended side-effect, really; good idea, pretty terrible outcome, well now he'd done it. Couldn't get himself out of this one unless he fessed up and admitted he'd basically lied by omission the entire time they knew each other, and hey, guess what, his name's not even Axel.

... legally, it was now. Had been for a long time, so maybe he was just finding any excuse he could think of to be mad at himself. Or something. He was pretty good at self-deprecation. Not that he even remembered what his name was when he was born. Something with a D...

Really didn't matter.

"Ah, no," Axel answered, standing back up. "Health codes, and I am not licensed to serve alcohol, which could get both me and them in some pretty hot water, and I do that enough normally already. So, you're not driving, gotcha, come along, Oshakota, to the Pinkmobile." No, his car wasn't actually pink (though, yes, he did seriously consider it, but enough staring from Mishka and he made it a nice desaturated gold). The interior, though, might have pink steering wheel and seat covers. Maybe. (Axel did what he wanted.)

"Anything in particular you want?" Certain mixer might've sounded good, who knew. Axel could make most of them.

Damn that smirk and that eyebrow. Dakota play-scowled in return but really, his traitorous little black heart beat a little faster. Every time he saw that look, it was followed by some kind of trouble. Also came along with thoughts and images that made him glad that Axel wasn't apparently a mind reader. And if he was, he was awfully polite not to say anything. Oh, fuck. If he could read minds. Fuck.

Nah, he thought Axel would have said something by now. Slipped up. Teased him. Definitely no way he'd let Dakota hold onto those kind of things without reacting somehow.

But who knew? Axel often surprised Dakota. Just when he thought he knew him, there was some new layer peeled back that had him reeling with questions. He remembered first learning he was some rich mogul type, or in the family of one. It was so hard to imagine a guy with hair like that and a smile like sin, working some rich guy job. Dakota had always seen him more like himself--a rebel, an aimless type swimming with his head barely above water.

He slid out of his seat. Not drunk enough to tilt, he noted proudly. He grinned as he took Axel's arm, though. Didn't hurt to play a little drunker than he really was.

"Why do you insist on calling it that? I'm calling your house the Barbie Dream House. Your obsession with pink, man." Mostly he was talking to cover up for the fact that he didn't have any drink in mind for Axel to make. He just wanted Axel to show up. The drinks were just a cover.

"Let's just say something hard. I got some memories to wipe."

Axel snorted. "It's a play on Batmobile, but it's not the Batmobile, so I had to come up with something," he answered. Being completely fair about it, it was probably more like, Axel was a nerd, and did have an obsession with pink. Honestly, if anyone asked him why pink, and a few had, over the years, he had no answer. Why pink. Because he liked pink. Hell if he knew why. Why the fuck was he Russian? God.

"Strawberry Long Island tea?" Axel asked. That was the strongest shit he knew how to make. Well, "Or are we talking a fuckin' dry martini? As someone that hates memories too, I'm applauding. As your friend, though, I do have to ask, you know that doesn't work, right? You just forget for a while, and then it comes back, and sometimes, it's more painful the second or fiftieth time around." No, he did not speak from experience. He spoke from a lot of experience.

Some things, you learned the first time. Other things, you were still trying to get away with by the fifteen thousandth time. Or maybe it was just that Axel had a lot of things he'd like to be able to deal with the lazy way. Certainly, that'd be a lot easier. But life wasn't meant to be easy, either.

He wouldn't say something stupid, like, if Dakota wanted to talk, he'd listen. While true, one, Dakota should know that already, and two, people didn't say sappy shit anymore. (Feelings apparently weren't very manly nowadays. Or whatever it was.) Besides, the last thing he needed to be doing is talking feelings around Dakota. Yeah, no, he was good, super good. And the car wasn't coming to them, okay; his free hand reached up, ruffled Dakota's hair, and with probably more patience than someone of his temperament should have, he headed out. Before he said something stupid, would be great.

"And at least my house isn't pink," he added, off-handed. Actually, it was mostly natural wood and granite. With a lot of Russian flags everywhere. (He had at least one of every kind of Russian flag there'd been since the Bolshevik Revolution, including the military ones, which was weird, but rich-ass collectors happened and nobody questioned it too hard.)

Ah yes, the Batmobile that wasn't the Batmobile. Dakota wanted to see Axel play the part of the Batman now. Funny, thinking of him as a hero. Not that hard to envision, though. Sure, he was something of a mouthy type but he had the physique and he could pull off those ridiculous skintight uniforms if he wanted to. ...not that Dakota was about to admit that. In fact, his response to that business was just an amused exhalation through the nose along with a smirk.

"First one," he said, because he wasn't about to go the dry martini route. He might have just speculated about rich superheroes but he wasn't one himself. He preferred the shit that tasted so good that it snuck up on him.

Rolling his head back, Dakota let out an exaggerated huff.

"Do I lecture you when you wanna get blackout drunk?"

Probably had. He was pretty sure he'd done it once or twice. Hey, he worried, too. Aw, did that mean Axel was worried? The fact of the matter, however? Axel was fucking right. Forgetting things wasn't going to solve anything. He closed his eyes briefly when Axel ruffled his hair, not unlike a smug cat whose owner deigned to offer it a speck of affection. Then he opened one eye and then the other and smirked before he ran a hand up over his own hair, as if to fix it back in place.

"There's a small chance," he said as he followed Axel, "that I won't have to erase my memory, so there's that."

"Honestly? Yeah," Axel answered, snorting in amusement as he got his car unlocked. "But I don't exactly make a habit of wanting to get blackout drunk." It'd take a lot of alcohol for him to get drunk. A lot. He had a pretty insane alcohol tolerance by now. Not exactly something he was proud of, anymore, but he'd had a lot of fun drinking cocky assholes under the table in high school.

Besides, even when he did decide to try getting blackout drunk, he didn't usually tell Dakota. Why? Axel had no filter when he was drunk. He told the whole truth, nothing but the truth, and so help him god, and being that honest around Dakota could really only end in tears. Probably his.

What? He was also very emotional when drunk.

The point was, he'd probably end up saying something he'd sorely regret later. So, when he did get drunk, he generally did it alone. Or at Kassander's place, because Kassander was pretty good at making sure he didn't brain himself while drunk off his ass. That used to be Mikhail's place, but Mikhail was avoiding him now. Sort of. "Still doesn't work that way, but I'll hope you don't, I guess," Axel decided. Probably a safer bet. At least, though, it was him Dakota decided to come to for all of that. Made him feel a bit better about it, wasn't like his friends were getting drunk without him, and then getting into all kinds of trouble, because look, there was a lot of trouble to be had around here. It made him feel better when Dakota decided to get drunk around him, because at least he could punt it if trouble came around.

"But you know, for the record, I'm always up for punching people, if I need to punch somebody," he mentioned, popping his driver side door open and leaning against the car roof. "I may even have ways to not get in trouble for it!" Maybe.

"When?" Dakota retorted, fully aware that there had probably been a time or two when he played the lecturer. Not often, though. If he had, Axel was pretty damn special because Dakota was more the type to egg his friends into getting into trouble with him, rather than talking them out of it. Sometimes, he wondered how the two of them survived as friends but in all honesty, he would have named Axel his best friend. No hesitation. In a heartbeat. Didn't matter what else was said or even if Axel agreed.

Well, maybe it mattered--a little. Things were already tough enough when he laid awake at night, tormenting himself with stupid thoughts and questions and the famous what-ifs that never took place.

"You think?" Dakota thought those were foreboding words, considering what was on his own mind. Not that Axel could read his mind and rebuff him that easily. But if it went badly, uhhhh. Memory wipe would be nice. Also, he didn't think he'd be able to face Axel again afterward so he'd just pretend Axel never existed, too. (This was a lie--there was no way he could cast off his best friend like that. But it certainly took some level of dare devilry to get to this point.)

Dakota peeked over the car roof and smiled at Axel.

"Good to know." He turned his gaze upward as if in thought, then slid his hand down to the car door handle. "Just don't swing in my direction, no matter what fool thing I say tonight, 'kay?"

Axel didn't verbally respond to that, just yet, quirking an eyebrow up, instead. He actually had records. He'd have to check his phone later, because he could show Dakota the receipts. All in all, though, this entire conversation was making Axel nervous, and frankly, he had little idea why. Unless he was picking that up from Dakota, but that didn't make sense, either; Axel was only 118, not even a particularly old starchild, it had to be pretty strong for him to catch it ambiently. Then again, Dakota had just been holding his arm.

This, this right here, this was why Axel tried not to touch people very long. It was too late, now, apparently, and he'd just have to deal with it. At least he hadn't accidentally absorbed it all, and then absorbed whatever else was in there. It wasn't harmful, just left one needing to sleep for a while, but you know, it was really more of the principle of the thing.

"I don't have any interest in breaking your jaw, Oshakota," Axel said, ducking into the car, and then taking his phone out, scrolling through a few things. "Um, looks like last August on the sixth, and then three years ago on July fifteenth. That's when." There, receipts. "Did you get a girlfriend or something? You're still being really weird." At this point, Axel was shooting in the dark. Dakota would tell him whenever Dakota decided to tell him, but in the interim, he was going to hover a bit, because one or the other of them was nervous, and Axel didn't do nervous very well. Not many things made him nervous, thank god for that.

Anyway, letting Dakota get the door closed, and his seatbelt on because that was a rule in his car (Axel would be fine, probably, but his friends were squishy mortals). Kassander used to tell stories of some immortal guy that had a car engine drop into his lap, that had been running when it landed there, and that guy was fine, so you know, Axel figured he'd be fine too, if he ever got into an accident. Right, doing that driving thing. After a few seconds of appreciating how smooth the engine was. It was obligatory.

No, no, nope. Not with the eyebrow quirking. Dakota lifted his head and crossed his arms as he regarded that Look on Axel's face. It was the look of a man who had receipts and Dakota didn't need to doubt that he had them. But nope, he refused to believe in them. Or to react to that damned eyebrow quirk. Dakota tried to do that countless times but it never looked as cool as it did when Axel did. Usually when Dakota "quirked a brow," it was more like a half furrow. More like lowering a brow to make it look as if the other were lifting.

It didn't look right. It didn't look cool in the least.

Well, pft, nobody had to tell Axel he looked cool doing it. Inflate his ego or... something. Aw shit. Dakota saw the phone coming out and his heart dropped.

"Oh, come on. You're not seriously--" But he was seriously. He had dates and everything. Dakota blew his cheeks out as if he were about to lose his temper and then let it out in a long sigh. The next part, he wasn't prepared for. Like. At all. Dakota blinked in surprise. Did he get a girlfriend? Why in the hell would Axel jump to that?

It was true that Dakota's love life was kind of... sparse. Actually, pathetic was a better word for it. He spent a lot of time on the road and when he wasn't on the road, here he was, hanging with Axel and his other friends. Girls never chose him. He'd never been slipped a number or whatever. Once, he got a flirty wink, though. It didn't make a relationship, though. Dakota was kind of lackluster on dates. In all honesty, he found them boring. And he got the feeling the women knew it and it translated into disinterest in them.

"Why would a girlfriend make things weird?" Dakota wanted to know as he buckled himself in before he was given another Look to put it on. "Besides, you'd be the first to know if I had one. Also, wouldn't I be drinking with her right now?"

...never mind the weird connotations that went with saying that. Uh...

Hmmm. Hmmmmm.

Axel could not argue with that. He couldn't find a compelling enough argument. Okay, he was right, why would he get weird after getting a girlfriend. The nerves usually came before. Oh! Actually, "You're right hey, come to think, I had that in the wrong order, didn't I?" He did. This ruminated in his head for a bit, as he worked on getting onto the road without killing either of them. That was usually good. If nothing else, explaining how he could walk away from a car accident that killed someone else might be difficult.

"So, here's my second guess, you ready? You got a thing for someone finally, about time man. And you're working up the courage to tell them. You've got that plastered all over your face. Also, you're nervous. I think." He thought. He was pretty sure. Still not sure if the nervous one was him or Dakota, but, Axel had no reason to be nervous, so the most logical conclusion was, it was Dakota, not him. That wasn't the point, of course.

Though, actually - well... see, the part that didn't make sense, was, he was nervous and stuff, and there was talk about memory erasure in case things went badly tonight, so he hadn't said anything yet, but he was going to. But why would he be saying a thing that makes him nervous... at Axel's place? Unless this was one of those heeey soooo I'm trans, things, or something. Not that Dakota knew Axel was transgender, so he supposed that might be a bit nerve wracking.

"... okay, actually, just, please tell me you don't have a thing for my brother, that'd be really we - I mean that's - good for you! But weird. Very... well then you'd be my brother. I'm okay with that, actually, okay, just you know don't tell me about it." Axel was very glad Dakota apparently sucked at dating, though, because he didn't have to hear about it. Not that he'd really mind, it was just - but trying to field that shit when it involved his brother would be - no, okay, no, just no, for the love of fuck, no. At least he wouldn't be getting that from Mikhail, but see, he didn't get much of anything from Mikhail anymore. No, he was not bitter, not in the least. "But for the record, I don't condone drunk-confessions, that doesn't tend to end well."

Shit. Yeah, Axel had it in the wrong order and now he was getting mighty close to the truth. Inwardly, Dakota tensed, cringed, as he waited for the other shoe to drop. Axel was so going to realize what was going on and there was going to be a punch, despite how Axel didn't want to punch him and... and... and okay. Dakota let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

And then it hitched in his throat as Axel pretty much spot on said it. Dakota always thought he was pretty good at giving flat stares when he didn't want to give himself away. In this instance, however, he was pretty sure his mouth almost dropped open at the sheer accuracy of Axel's prediction. Luckily, it didn't actually plop open like some land-locked fish. Before he could start gathering his scattered wits, however, Axel continued. And Dakota immediately reacted by reaching out with both hands and grabbing onto Axel's arm as if he were about to shake him. (Only he didn't actually shake him, due to him driving and all.)

"For fuck's sake, yo, it's not your brother." He put his hands down and shifted almost sulkily in his seat, crossing one ankle up over the other knee and wrapping his arms in front of his chest. "But it's a person, if you must know. And why don't you condone drunk confessions?"

He had a feeling why--he just wanted to hear Axel say it, was all.

"I mean, I should hope it's a person, Kota," Axel answered, sounding bemused, tapping his thumb on the steering wheel for a second. "I'd be pretty concerned if it was like a cat, or something. For one thing, dude, no, for another, cats are entirely immune to your feelings, so I'm fairly sure getting this worked up over confessing to a cat would be pretty moot." That, of course, wasn't even getting into the rest of the reasons why confessing to a cat was not a thing Axel ever wanted to find one of his friends doing, but Axel was going to hope he didn't have to say any of that.

"And what's with that answer, anyway, my brother's a nice catch, or something. He is, however, very dense, and I'm pretty sure he's got anger issues. ... actually, never mind, don't fall for my brother, at least, not anytime soon." It was sad, too, wasn't it, how Mikhail tried so hard not to end up like their father, and yet, here they fucking were. He was practically the damned spitting image of him, at least in personality and demeanour, and Axel had never told Mishka, but sometimes, it scared him.

Axel went quiet, for a moment. He had a feeling he knew who this was about, but he was hoping to god he was wrong, and he was afraid to ask, being honest. Actually, teasing about it might be kind of amusing, but he wasn't sure if he was in the mood to. "You should know why I don't condone drunk confessions. If nothing else, they're easier on the other party when they can understand what you're saying, don't question if you meant it or were just drunk and thought it was a cute joke, and if they happen to reject you, you won't do anything utterly stupid, probably." Probably.

Was it this one or - no it was this one, taking this turn. "Hey, you tell whoever it is if they hurt you Imma rearrange their face, mm?" And if it was about him, he could literally rearrange his own face, wasn't that cool? ... did that count as cheating? He was going to hope it wasn't about him. Dakota deserved better than him.

Immediately, Dakota made a face. Yeah, okay, he might have worded things badly but come on! He just meant, you know, that the thing on his mind was a person. Not just that he liked a person. If he was capable of blushing like a fool, he might have. Instead, he made a sheepish exhalation of sound while scraping his fingers through his often unkempt dark hair. He sent Axel a Look that plainly said no duh, he's a person. Or she. Or it. Or them. Whatever. That part wasn't really important to Dakota, never had been.

"Yeah, but..." Dakota let himself trail off rather than continue down the road he'd been going down. Like, sure, Axel's brother was a catch. He was good-looking and he was cool in that unapproachable kinda way. But he also wasn't... well, Axel? They shared some traits, as brothers are wont to do. However, they weren't the same. Besides, it woulda been weird to be into Axel's brother if he was into Axel--that was the part he chewed on his tongue to silence himself about. Should he, though?

Say something.

Not that.

Dakota leaned forward, almost tempted to smack his head on the dashboard.

"Okay, okay. Good points, all." So his tiny point that he could pretend he didn't remember sort of got itself buried under all of Axel's damned logic. Made him want to kick him in the shin (teasingly, of course). Despite himself, Dakota let out a half suppressed laugh as he looked over his shoulder at Axel. Might as well test the waters with: "What, even if it's you?"

He almost asked but what, and then decided he'd rather not. That sounded like a better idea. At this point, he almost wished they hadn't gotten onto this conversation, but, Axel was kind of the one that prodded them into it. Damn him.

And the other penny dropped.

Well. Now Axel couldn't pretend to be too dense to see it, even in his own head. Outwardly, maybe. Axel always was good at hiding things, but it wasn't like it was always purposeful. Actually, most of the time, it was that he just had a hard time talking about things. Sometimes it was just things that mattered, but other times it was anything. As chatty as Axel was, he was the kind of chatty that talked about everything under the sun, except the things he'd buried in his heart a long time ago. He supposed, if one wanted to get poetic about it, that didn't count as something under the sun, because even the sun couldn't reach it.

Axel breathed out. "Especially if it's me," he answered, tone very serious, in contrast to his friend's apparent amusement. He was psycho, not rude. He had standards. You know, for himself, and that. Then, of course, all the seriousness melted away, and he shot an amused smirk at him. "But first we'd be having a discussion about your taste in guys. It'd be like, c'mon man, you can do better than me. I was pretty sure you'd be immune to the charm by now, anyway. Waaaow, imagine if it was me, I'd feel like I deserved a medal." And needed maybe a gallon of vodka.

Nope, you know, the gallon of vodka was getting tempting.

Not like he was a damned goody-two-shoes anyway.

What a vision: Axel knocking his own teeth out for hurting Dakota somehow. Did he really think he was that poisonous to him? Maybe. Axel was weird to Dakota. Sometimes, he seemed like he had confidence in spades and then there were the days when he was sure it was just a veneer to disguise the internal insecurities that he sometimes brought up in self-deprecation. Really, the man was a mystery. It was weird that he could seem like he had his feelings out in the open but they were just the tip of the iceberg.

That was how Dakota saw it, anyway. They were friends. Good friends. He might have been privy to things others might not be. At the same time, maybe being so close meant there were certain things Axel left closed to him. Dakota couldn't blame him for that; how long had he been nursing this massively growing crush on one of his besties? Yeah. It had been there for... like forever, it felt like.

Why now? Dakota thought it was everything happening around them. If it ended up being end of the world shit, he at least wanted them to go out knowing the truth. Axel might not have a truth like that lurking in his heart but maybe it would make them both feel better to air Dakota's feelings.

Yeah, like that was how it went. Dakota scratched the tip of his nose, an idle action born of his sudden new tension. He'd come so close to saying it and he wasn't sure if Axel's reaction was a positive one or one that might end up with a door opening and his ass getting kicked out.

Nobody accused Dakota of being a chicken so he was going to come right out with it. Once he'd made the decision to do it, he was going to do it, even if some part of him felt like he might be a little sick if Axel gave him a look of disgust or some shit. Inside, he might die for a little but it was better than sitting on the information a second more, like some... chicken. (Which he wasn't--he would remind people until the day he died!) He turned toward Axel and blinked slowly. Here it came. The words. The words that could be taken as a joke but totally weren't.

"Well then, where's that medal? I'm kinda curious to see what it says."

Of course.

It wasn't like Axel couldn't come up with something here. Usually, his mind fired at the speed of light, practically. Okay, not exactly, but that was what it felt like, most of the time. Like his mind was whirring faster than he could keep up with. This conversation should not be happening right now. Well, too late for that, huh.

Instead of dwelling on that too long, though, he focused on pulling into his driveway. His house wasn't quite the level of insane Kassander's was, but it was comfortable enough. He had a wine cellar, and you could lay down in his shower, if you wanted, and he guessed his entryway was kind of posh. ... okay. Yeah. He wasn't even going to try. The garage door opened as the car got close to it, and he parked the car, shutting off the engine. The door closed behind them.

"It says," he started, turning to Dakota and arching an eyebrow upward, "Dakota can do better than you." ... there was some irony in parking his Dodge Charger in the garage of a house that cost nearly a million dollars and saying he wasn't good enough, but Axel wasn't going to bother thinking about that very long. Not that he thought the money was a motivator, but, it helped, usually. "So, long island ice tea, coming right up. Want a flavour or no?" he asked, getting out of the car and heading for the door that went in. It wasn't like - ... well. Maybe it didn't matter what it was like. It was some kind of ironic, that he and Dakota had ended up friends. Dakota kept his secrets, and so did Axel, and maybe it was just that neither of them pushed the other that made them such good friends.

He just wasn't so sure that was a good enough foundation to build a relationship that was more than that on.

Hmmm... Dakota watched Axel out of the corner of his eye, not altogether surprised by how quickly Axel dumped himself under the bus. He always seemed to do that, even though Dakota was pretty sure he never said anything like he was putting Axel on some pedestal. They were both just people, after all. They weren't perfect. For fuck's sake--that would make Axel far less desirable. It was something more about the mystery and the fucked up parts that drew Dakota to him. I mean, shit, Dakota wasn't perfect, he was no angel either.

"No flavor," he said promptly as he followed Axel, hands in pockets, but eyes fixed on Axel. So... he'd all but said it at this point but he'd made it so obvious. And now he was sure that Axel didn't like it, what he'd heard. So he was playing that game where he might be pretending he never heard it. Or hoping that a change of pace would also change the course of topic.

Too bad Dakota was also a stubborn goat.

"Axel, just to be clear," he said, reaching out to grasp his upper arm. "I'm admitting to having feelings for you. Like... not-just-friends feelings. And I don't think I can 'do better'--that's just bullshit. I'm a hot mess, too. At least you have some semblance of having your shit together. Probably because of your brother but shit, it's still there." He paused. Looked around. "Please tell me I'm not the only one who desperately wants a drink now."

"I know what you meant, Dakota," Axel answered, stopping where he was. "And I stand by what I said. Relationships are, you know, all communication and trust and stuff, and I ain't saying we can't make that happen, I'm just saying we did and also did not, and I'm not sure that's good enough. So I'm not sure what you want to do with it." And, being realistic, if they were both comfortable with things the way they were now, then those things changing could either be very good, or really, really bad, and to be blunt about it, Axel didn't wanna lose his friend. Preferably ever, but, everything went away, someday.

He of all mother fuckers should know. ... speaking of, Axel turned slightly, watching one of the tables scoot around the floor in the parlour. Again? Well the plasma-fucker had to get out of his table before he could deal with them, anyway.

"And Mikhail's more fucked up than I am, I feel like that says something! ... okay, in some ways. In other ways, technically, I have it worse, but you know don't tell him that, he doesn't need that ri - that's not the point, the point... is... I left it in the Charger I think. Fuck." What was the point? Jeez. The point, probably, was somewhere back there, in how nobody had ever tied Axel Vasilyev down before. Nobody had tried. Sure, he had flings, momentary whirlwind romances that lasted maybe two days, but they didn't know him any better than Dakota did on a good day. And the truth was, he was probably just scared of this going wrong. It wasn't like there weren't plenty of ways it could.

"The point, is, actually, one, I don't want to lose you as a friend, at all would be great, if this goes to hell in a hand-basket, you don't need to be any closer than you are, and two, there are some things about me that you don't know, and quite frankly, it's safer if you don't. I mean I doubt you'd be terribly happy with me if I had some dude follow you around with a shotgun, and things are pretty precariously balanced as it is." Just because he could, didn't mean he should. Besides, that was very attention-getting. Funny enough, the need for a guard was sort of self-sustaining. Get a guard to defend oneself from the people that'd notice you had a guard and try to kill you because it must be you! ... ugh.

How did Kassander deal with this?

"... so. Yeah. I appreciate you telling me, but, what exactly am I supposed to do with that? And no, a gallon of vodka sounds like a great idea, but one of us should probably be sober by the end of this." Probably. Mistakes were often made when you were very drunk and a bit pine-y.

"Well... shit."

He jerked back slightly when he saw a table moving about on its own. Yeah, okay. That was a totally normal everyday occurrence. Maybe it was for Axel, who didn't so much as bat an eyelash. All right, then. Dakota rubbed at his eyes, wondering if he'd already had too much to drink. Never thought of himself as such a lightweight but maybe that shit he drank back at the bar was the best sludge they had to offer and it was just slow to kick in.

"You left it in the Charger," Dakota repeated. What, the point? Silly Axel. Actually, what was the point, then? Axel didn't want Dakota to keep saying it, did he? That he was like... sexually attracted to him. It wasn't like Dakota could help it. Sometimes shit just happened, despite everything the head said, the heart did dumb things. He wanted to tell Axel that but he wasn't sure what it would add to Axel's narrative. Wouldn't it just be proving him right?

So why did I bring it up?

Oh wait, here came the points. Dakota perked up to listen. Well, yeah, losing a friend sucked. Would it really screw with them that much to take their current relationship a step forward? Dakota let that sink in while he listened. Was this the part where Dakota started to list off the things that Axel didn't know about him, then?

"Nobody knows everything about--whaaat? What about a dude with a shotgun? Are you planning to take me out for this?" That part was a joke. He didn't actually think Axel wanted to kill him. "Axel, listen, don't get all... weird and serious on me, okay? I caught feelings, that's hardly your fault and it's not like I'm begging you to act on them, all right?"

... right.

Axel sighed, slightly, then turned on his heel and went toward the kitchen. Maybe part of the problem, here, was Dakota didn't seem to even know what he wanted, either. And Axel? Yeah, he was too old for that shit. He'd just adopted a kid, too, he really was too old for that shit. Of course, he had a hard time believing Dakota'd just, mentioned it, off-hand, for no reason, because that wasn't his jam, and most people that said something expected some kind of response.

But, he wasn't going to argue about it. If Dakota wanted to just drop the bomb and pretend the mushroom cloud wasn't there, fine. If he was going to, though, Axel wished he would. Don't push the subject if you don't want to talk about it, right?

He was making a mixer. That in mind, Axel went through his cabinets, getting the seemingly lethal mix of liquors together. "... that's fine and all," Axel said, popping up over the cabinet door to look at him over the wood, "but don't drop that bomb, pester me into not ignoring it, and then start ignoring it. I'm pretty sure you said something for a reason, right? I mean most people aren't like Hey I dig you just to say it. If you did say it just to say it, hey, that's fine, but what's the point in making sure I didn't misunderstand it? And I mean shit, Dakota, maybe I'm a serial killer." ... well, he wasn't, but technically, Mikhail was.

"And no," he went on, disappearing behind the cabinet door again. "The dude with the shotgun'd be there to make sure no one else plans to take you out."

"Okay, but hey, hey. I'm not telling you to ignore it. I'm just saying I'm not like, expecting you to tell me you feel the same way. Honestly, I don't know what I expected you to say. Kinda thought you'd hit me, maybe."

And then after that, he'd see reason again and stop with this insanity. Falling for a best friend? Like the dumbest damn thing in the world to do. If they decided to take a leap off the deep end and further the relationship and it soured because of usual relationship drama, well... They'd both lose a friend and Dakota could see why Axel was wary of that. In truth, the only reason Dakota kept his mouth shut this long was because he had the same reasonable enough fear.

Dakota drew closer and he stuck a hand out.

"So. Are you a serial killer? Who've you been killing? People who fuck with your boyfriends?" Not that he knew Axel to have lines of boyfriends. He never really seemed to have a serious relationship. Maybe that was a red light but Dakota refused to care. His voice softened somewhat as he lowered his hand.

"I told you because I'm tired of lying, Axel. It sucks."

"I thought we established before we got in the car I wasn't going to do that?" To be fair, that was like, ten minutes ago, and who knew how much Dakota had drunk before Axel got there. It wasn't like Axel had anybody trailing him now, partly because he was trying not to make him look too important. He wasn't sure if he did or not, but he thought he had some Bratva trouble. Axel swore to fucking god he'd seen Romanov the other day. And the other day before that one. And the other other other day.

If Romanov was around, that generally boded terribly. Fucking snake-fox. On the one hand, it wasn't like Axel couldn't handle it, but on the other, he didn't really want to drag someone else into it. And he was relatively certain, shooting at Romanov would just piss the entire hive off, and that was the last thing he needed, right now, was a division of the Russian mafia pissed off at him. Kind of a miracle they weren't already, because Mikhail had just kind of skipped off on them, but that was - he wasn't going to think about that too long. That'd be a better idea. On the other hand, maybe he should later, so if and when it became a problem, he had solutions instead of flying by the seat of his pants.

Axel snorted, standing up, several bottles of liquor under his arm. "What boyfriends?" No, really, what boyfriends? He'd never really had one. Flings, sure, but you know, nothing clicked, moved on pretty quick, lather rinse repeat...

"Your words were, I quote, 'don't get all weird and serious on me,' which implies I should thus ignore the elephant you just carted into the room because that'd be a fairly weird and serious conversation," Axel said, setting the bottles down on the counter and going for the glasses. "Mostly because I'm not callous enough not to take someone else's feelings, mutual or not, seriously. I mean, I'm psycho, right, I'm not rude. So which is it, do you want to have this conversation, or not?" He really couldn't have it both ways. Though, the fact he had to ask if Axel was a serial killer was telling him, maybe he wasn't ready for it. And maybe Axel was taking it too seriously, but you know, maybe they'd take that step forward and never fucking go back, all the same.

Then again, Dakota would probably appreciate knowing more than he appreciated Axel sparing him the complexities that came with that knowing. ... fuck. He was supposed to be the older and wiser one, but, he had no idea what was right or wrong, here. "Look," he started, setting the glasses down. "This is kind of what I do, I worry about you, and this is me worrying about you. Okay? Even things being the way they are is almost too much, and I don't want you to end up paying for the choices I had to make a hundred years ago coupled with your getting a thing for me, that's all." And logically, he knew; he could say choose anyone else, but that wasn't how feelings worked.

"Yeah, well." That was true. They did establish that shit already. Dakota let out a long breath from his nose and looked upward. He wasn't usually the awkward type but now he was starting to feel it. Damn it. Not enough courage juice back at the bar. And here he thought he was some kinda fucking daredevil--yet he couldn't handle juggling emotions. (In his defense, emotions were a helluva lot trickier to deal with than physical bodily harm or the threat of it, thank you very much.)

"That was sarcasm, friend," Dakota said, assured that Axel was also being sarcastic. Axel and boyfriends. Hah. Hahaha. That made Dakota peer off to the side, eyeing the place as if he had never seen it before. Mostly it was because he was terrified of making eye contact with Axel all of a sudden. Like shit, man. What if he saw something there he didn't want to see? And you told him you're fine with him rejecting you. He was, wasn't he? Except nobody confessed feelings like that if they were really looking to be rejected... even if he kinda maybe sorta expected it.

So... the real question was did he really want to have this conversation? He had a chance to slip out of it earlier but he made damn sure to clarify what he meant to Axel. As if Axel didn't know what he was saying in the first place. The truth was, he wanted to have this conversation. But at the same time, he was sick inside thinking how it might wreck everything. Like how he viewed Axel. Or how Axel viewed him, more importantly.

Fuck.

Wait though. Hang on just one sec.

"Before I answer that, hold up." Dakota put up a hand. "A hundred years ago, huh?"

Gin, tequila... vodka... this was gold rum, but it'd work... Axel shifted away from the counter, over to the fridge, to get the lemon juice and a can of Coke, and blinked at Dakota. Wait, did he say that? Maybe he did. Probable that he did, even, if only because it'd be instinct. And this, of course, was why he never talked about anything important. Eventually, the truth slipped out, somewhere in there, and that wasn't terribly ideal, now was it.

He breathed in, shuffling back to the glasses, reached up to get the triple sec, and went back to mixing. "I did tell you, didn't I," he said. "There are things about me you don't know." Quite a few things, but, none of them were really all that important. Okay, well, his brother being mafia might be a big deal, about now, but it wasn't like Axel was volunteering that just yet. "I was born in 1900, right before the Russian Revolution, in Khabarovsk, Russia. That was the end of the tsar dynasties and the rise of the Soviet Union. Fun fact, I guess, I'm not technically Soviet." Something like that.

And just a bit of Coke... the drinks turned their trademark translucent brown tint, and Axel stirred them both with a straw, and then popped another straw into one, and slid one of those down the counter toward Dakota. "One knock-me-on-my-ass, there you go." Yeah, maybe he could use that even more now.

"Okay, yeah, you did but..."

A hundred years ago? It could've been exaggeration but the way Axel said it made Dakota question it. He tried to think if there was anything strange that he might have noticed about Axel. It almost made him laugh--not out of amusement but hysteria. Had they been hiding similar secrets all along? Was he...? He had to be. In silence, Dakota reached for the drink he'd been given and he took a big gulp from the straw.

Which left him reeling for a moment.

"Whew!" Good but burned. Good burn, though. Exactly what he was looking for. Dakota closed his eyes and slapped the counter once for good measure. Hell yeah. That was the kick he'd been looking for. He pointed a stupid, cheesy finger gun at Axel.

"Exactly what the doc ordered," he said. "Anyway, you got secrets, so you didn't lie about that part. I got em too. Although I'm starting to think yours are a lot more serious than mine." And here Dakota thought he knew this guy, that they were thick as thieves.

"The part about men following me with guns is starting to make some sense, though." Dakota coyly played with his straw and rested his cheek in his other hand. "Other than my big old inconvenient crush on you, I guess I should come out with it: I'm not human, either."

For a moment, Axel looked a hair concerned. He should probably not be drinking one of those that quick; it was something like 22% alcohol, or somewhere in that range, fuck maths, right now. "Probably," Axel drawled. Serious, yeah... well, just the one. You know, big mafia out to kill him, or whatever, actually being totally blunt he had no idea what they wanted, except they were watching him for some reason.

He'd figure Kassander would be more interesting, but, maybe they hadn't figured out Kassander was here, yet. He was so good at hiding when he wanted to be.

"Oh, I figured," Axel said. "You don't smell human. Humans smell like dying, you smell like... like... the wind in the autumn leaves. ... that's cheesy." But, hey, it wasn't like he had any better way of explaining that scent. Most beings didn't have great senses of scent like you know, vampires and were-creatures and whatnot did. It meant, when trying to explain a scent to someone that couldn't smell what he could, all he had were words, and words were oh-so-inadequate for oh-so-many things.

Since they were apparently sharing secrets, hey, why not. "So, I'm a vampire, specifically a starchild. Most people don't know what that is. I do tricks. Wanna see?" he asked, holding his hand out. ... that was almost a joke, but, eh, he probably worked better than getting drunk did, being realistic.

Whew, seriously. This was definitely the kind of drink that could knock a man dead on his ass if he wasn't careful--and Dakota wasn't being particularly careful at the moment. He coughed into his shoulder after a third drink. Already, he felt like he was getting a little light-headed. He tilted his head slightly, squinting at Axel. He smelled like wind in autumn leaves...? Dakota's smile might have been a tiny bit marred by a goofy light in his chest. He hid it behind his hand as he regarded Axel.

"Weirdly accurate," he murmured, mostly to himself. Axel said cheesy but... he was pretty on target with that cute description. He would get into that in a second, though. Right now, he was more taken with the fact that Axel just outed himself as a vampire. A vampire. The hundred year remark wasn't in jest or out of exaggeration. It was true. Well. That made their age difference a helluva lot bigger than Dakota ever imagined, since he was something of a baby in the world of the supernatural while Axel was obviously an old hat.

"I don't know what that is," Dakota admitted but he liked the way it sounded better than vampire. A starchild. Like he was destined for something amazing. "Ooh, tricks, hm?"

Dakota stared at the hand Axel held out and for some dimwitted reason, he thought it was meant for him. So he did what any half drunk idiot would do and he reached out and took hold of Axel's hand, sliding his palm over his and his fingertips over his wrist like he expected Axel to help him up. And then what? They'd start dancing like Disney Princesses?

"I know some tricks, too."

Accurate, huh? Well, Axel didn't know what all the different supernaturals smelled like well enough to figure out what, exactly, Dakota was. Then, it wasn't like Axel interacted with other supernaturals very much, aside from other starchildren, and the occasional mischievous fairy. Hmm, come to think, Dakota kind of had a manner like a mischievous fairy. Certainly wasn't an angel or a yin. He'd have noticed that a long time ago. And he didn't smell like shifter or were-creature.

Speaking of, when was that ghost going to leggo of his table...? Whatever. It was still thunking around out there, but he'd mostly tuned it out by now. It was quiet enough, anyway.

"I'm sure you do," Axel answered, bemused at Dakota's response, tugging on his arm a little and pulling him over here, just in front of him. Yes, right here, and Axel unceremoniously wrapped his arms around Dakota's smaller frame, resting against his hair. "You probably wouldn't want to be this close to a normal vampire," he murmured. Lots of nervous energy, some confusion, but Axel didn't spend too long thinking about what it was, just absorbing the spill-over, so to say.

He was pretty sure Dakota was a little too sloshed to make sense of starchildren, right now. So, instead of explaining what he was doing, he just let out an airy snort. "For the record, though, I might have a crush on you, too," Axel admitted, very quiet. "Have for a while." Axel decided not to point out there was a reason he flirted with everyone but him. Hey, maybe Dakota would do him a favour, and forget this conversation tomorrow. (Was that bad? That was probably bad. He was a terrible person.)

On the bright side, he didn't have a feeding headache, thanks to that staff meeting earlier. "I've got the Russian mafia on my tail," he said. "I don't know exactly why. But I do know several of them aren't afraid of playing dirty. I think you can see why I'm worried." Probably. Maybe? He hoped.

Yeah, that thumping table was kind of a weird distraction but Axel seemed cool with it so Dakota didn't know what else to say about it. Maybe... Maybe he could just make it stop? He was thinking about it, about using some of his abilities to stop the rattling table but he was kinda more distracted by Axel pulling him in closer and embracing him. Ah. Well. He liked that. He couldn't like about that. His gaze shifted as he pressed his face against Axel's shoulder. He could feel Axel talking against his hair and it sent a little thrill down his spine.

"No?" Why? Would a normal vampire lose control of his senses and just viciously rip out his throat? Dakota never even realized Axel was a vampire all this time. Even if he did know and now that he did, it was kind of hard to be afraid. Axel was still Axel, as far as he was concerned. Was that his big secret? That he was a vampire? Dakota could totally live with that, especially if Axel could deal with him being... you know, not human, too.

His eyes half closed as he relaxed against Axel. His hands slid up his back to embrace him in return. He could feel solid muscle, a deceptively warm body for somebody that was supposed to be undead.

"You're good at hiding it," he said back. Or he was until now, since he just outed himself. He has a crush on me too. That made his heart beat harder, giddy, excited. The alcohol made him want to do something stupidly affectionate like... like nuzzle Axel. He might have done that, actually, just now. And his fingers pulled inward, bunching up the cloth of Axel's shirt. They had crushes on each other. Hardly seemed like a problem. Why did he put it off for so long?

He might have berated himself for being a little chicken in that regard buuuuuut. He lifted his head slightly, trying to angle his gaze to look Axel in the eyes.

"I can take care of them," he said with a mischievous light in his eyes. "I told you, I'm not human, either."

The Russian mafia didn't seem like a threat with affection and alcohol replacing common sense at the moment. Right now, Dakota felt damn well near invincible.

No.

Well, so he heard, anyway. Axel didn't know too many vampires that weren't starchildren, so perhaps he was wrong. Non-starchild vampires were said to be dangerous in ways starchildren weren't, because they were, of course, designed around and adapted to hunting humans as a source of sustenance. Starchildren didn't have those sorts of abilities, because they had no real need of them. Just get close enough, particularly to crowds, and that was fine enough. Funny, wasn't it, how starchildren were the opposite of a typical vampire in almost every way imaginable. It wasn't the first time Axel had thought of it; nor would it be the last, even if only because the starchildren and vampires tended to not get along.

Axel snorted, softly. "I've had a hundred and eighteen years of practice at hiding things." He paused a moment, and added, "that's not as old as it sounds. Mikhail's a hundred and twenty-three, and we have friends that are Roman. Like, Julius Caesar Roman." Same time-frame. Wasn't Kassander's cousin the great Julius Caesar? Axel couldn't remember off-hand.

It didn't terribly matter.

"I know what you said," he answered. "But not all of them are human, either. And I might point out," Axel went on, his tone a little more stern, backing up long enough to tap Dakota's nose lightly. "You're not exactly known for being careful. I like to think my concern's valid." Maybe he was just paranoid, all the same, but presumably Dakota wasn't a hundred years old. People, supernatural or not, his age, tended to think they knew everything. Add in Dakota's penchant for rushing headlong into mortal danger in general, and maybe it was a recipe for disaster.

"Also I'm a girl," Axel said, very flatly. "... biologically, at least. I can morph the right parts, they just don't work that way. And polyamorous." Not that he wanted to be having the Poly Talk with Dakota so sloshed. "Are you ever letting go of my table?" he asked, leaning over Dakota's shoulder a bit. The thunking stopped, for a few seconds, and then started back up again. Axel huffed. "He's bored, sorry." Why the table. There were far more interesting things to play with outside.

"Roman?" As in, Ancient Romans? As in philosophers and gladiators? Was that them or was he thinking Greeks? Same thing? Oh, he should have paid more attention in class while he was in school. Suddenly, history seemed kinda important to know. Like knowing all about where the heck Axel came from and why he might have a Russian mafia after him.

Dakota grinned despite everything.

"You're a geezer." It was a joke, of course. Over a hundred sure did sound ancient, especially next to the fact that Dakota was only in his twenties. Like if he was a real hundred year old mortal, people would definitely be all frowny face about them being friends--or anything more. Luckily, Axel aged gracefully.

"A pretty geezer," he added, just in case he wasn't clear about that or Axel thought he was changing his mind over his age. He lightly caressed Axel's cheek for emphasis.

He wrinkled his nose briefly as it was tapped. "Yeah, yeah, it's valid but I'm a sylph. They'll have to try really hard to get me." Not true, actually. While he could shift himself into airy particles, Dakota wasn't particularly skilled at it--he never had a reason to be. He was more accustomed to using his ability to push his speed when he was running or racing... Yeah.

The other part, the last part, though. HUH. It shocked Dakota so much that he actually let out a nervous laugh, thinking Axel was joking with him. Axel liked pink stuff and they joked about that all the time. But Dakota never thought of Axel as really feminine. In fact, he'd be the last person he'd say was a girl or girlish. So... So he laughed but he didn't mean it and he immediately regretted it and he quickly held on tight to Axel as his expression changed to a grim one instead.

"I'm not laughing at you. I'm just... what?" And while he was trying to wrap his head around probably the most mundane of the news Axel gave him, Axel was talking to a moving table. Agh.

"I guess you win the secret contest. I gave you what I got."

"Yes, Roman," Axel answered. "As in, born in 90 something BCE." Kassander had never exactly said when he'd been born, exactly, and Axel had never asked, he just remembered something about Julius Caesar and dying just before Spartacus' War, which meant, if he was 20 when he'd died, then 74 BCE, when Spartacus' War started, plus the twenty, that was ninety something. Like hell was Axel going to outright ask; Kassander wasn't the most open person, about mundane, borish things, Axel wasn't going to push.

Time had done a number on that guy. Axel was pretty sure, someday, maybe he'd be just like him.

"... thanks...?" A pretty geezer? Really? Ah, Dakota was cute. "Oh, really? Aren't you twenty something? So how many of those fancy sylph tricks have you learned and mastered, anyway?" Yeah, the wind in the autumn leaves thing being accurate made sense, now. He did know there was some irony here, in the vampire and the fairy thing, right? Nature spirit, dead guy... polar fucking opposites, damned near. Dead guy that manipulated death energy, even... like, wow. The stark contrast was... it was somethin.

Right. Axel tried not to look upset. It probably flashed in his eyes for a moment, but he didn't say anything. Oh. Well, yeah, probably. Of course, Axel wasn't really a girl, just... biologically. They had surgery now to make that permanent, but you know, he'd done fine enough the last few hundred years, it was just, hey, try and remember you can still get pregnant and whatever. "It's not that different, is it?" he asked. "I'm still me. Just, you know, undead and capable of making children, right?" Something like that. Besides, he'd even designed his physical appearance around Mikhail, so, he had to be somewhat close to what he might've looked like, if fate had been kind and he'd been born male like he should've been. Even the muscle wasn't entirely a lie, just some of the bulk.

Um, yep. That was some geezer territory right there. Dakota vaguely remembered learning about them in school. Wow. He might have paid more attention if he knew he was going to know somebody from that time period. Now he was going to have to rush to the library and read up on all the things. And even then, there was no guarantee what he read was accurate. After all, Axel actually lived then! He would know way more than some old dusty book would!

"You're welcome," Dakota said, briefly closing his eyes, bowing his head, and flourishing his hand like a proper actor after a play just to add to the embellishment. He thought he could tell from Axel's tone that he wasn't excited about being called a geezer, pretty or not.

"UH WELL," Dakota lifted a hand. Excuse you! He might only be twenty but he mastered plenty of sylph tricks! Like... gently blowing things away. All right, so Dakota's abilities were far from godlike but he wasn't scared. That was one of the worst and best of his traits; he was practically fearless. Which might be exactly why Axel was saying what he was saying. Yeah... Ahem.

"I can do things," he finished off lamely but his abilities or lack thereof took a backseat to Axel's silence for a long moment. Probably had something to do with Dakota's less than sensitive approach to Axel's secrets. It was just... wow. Wow. Never in a million years... He never would have guessed any of these things about Axel. And here he thought his whole wind spirit thing was such a big secret.

Dakota settled his chin in hand and regarded Axel for a moment. Then he shook his head before reaching out and gently stroking his arm.

"Nah," he said in a quieter tone. "It doesn't change anything."

It could have changed a lot of things with some people, Dakota could admit that. And he could see why Axel wouldn't want to share any of what he just shared. Dakota was pretty open though. He wasn't worried about genders or perceptions of them. He didn't really care about that kind of thing. Genders, supernatural stuff. He was secretly glad Axel trusted him with it because that meant he wasn't just anybody. Pleased with himself for some reason, he edged closer to Axel and smiled.

"Me being a fancy sylph doesn't make anything any different, does it?"

Yuhuh. And Axel was a tsar.

No, actually, he wasn't really anyone special, just some punk kid that refused to die, that was all. Still, he didn't much like that answer, but he knew better than to argue with drunk people too long. Generally speaking, it didn't tend to turn out very well for him, to say the least of it, and maybe it didn't really matter right this second. His house was relatively safe, at least. They probably weren't going to run into too much trouble lazing around here.

"Aw, come on," he said, snorting softly. "The only thing it changes is... ... actually, nothing. Hmm." He was going to say, some strains of vampire got horribly and dangerously addicted to fae blood and tended to murder themselves because normal blood wasn't good enough anymore, but the starchild strain was not one. "So there, we've got all the junk onto the table, right? You're not secretly the prince of some odd obscure country somewhere or anything, right? Do you feel better at least?" Axel? He did. And did not.

Wasn't every day he outed with all that in one go. Sometimes, though, you'd been keeping a bunch of things to yourself for so long, it just seemed kind of weird once the veil was gone, and sometimes it was a nice breath of fresh air. Other times, it just kind of had a way of making one feel awfully vulnerable.

Not that Axel'd ever admit to feeling that way even if, for some reason, he did. Which he didn't, right now. Of course. It was all stupid semantics, anyway. Stuff that didn't really make too much of a difference, you know, unless you counted it being somewhat life-threatening detail here and there. Hey, everyone wanted to turn a corner and end up staring down the barrel of a SIG Sauer, right? Why the fucking fuck not.

"Oh, wait," Axel started, "I forgot one. I have a son, now." (Strange things rich dudes do: adopt random Russians. Yolo.) "That one you can ignore, though. Kid won't turn into a snake and bite you. ... I think." He thought.

Yes, it changed nothing. As far as Dakota could see, there wasn't a difference. Axel entrusted him with his secrets; he supposed that was a change, since before this, Dakota wasn't privy to these things. He thought he could see something lift from Axel's shoulders in telling Dakota about these things, too, and that was all the more reason for Dakota to stick close to his side and gently stroke his arm as if he thought Axel might need the soothing. He nodded. Nothing changed. Axel was still Axel, regardless of the past. Or... because of it.

"Pretty sure I'm not," Dakota said with a slight furrow of the brow. Was he a secret prince? No. He was just an air fairy. A sylph. Nothing too special. And he wasn't the prince of his people, as far as he knew. Just a regular old... fairy. Dakota paused in his ministrations and he tilted his head upward, regarding Axel thoughtfully.

"Yes," he said decisively. He felt better. But he was more worried about Axel. He reached up, his fingertips making contact with the line of Axel's jaw as he considered the question posed. Yes. Yes, he was definitely feeling better but despite thinking he might have seen some weight lift from Axel's shoulders, he also felt as if maybe he was still holding a bit of himself back.

"Are you?" Dakota asked quietly, concerned. Of the pair of them, it wasn't Dakota that had just spilled out numerous secrets. It was Axel that had been holding onto these things for... for how long now? Again, Dakota paused, hand stilling. There was more? And oh. It was another doozy. Dakota lowered his hand and stared at Axel.

"A son? Now? You what?" He tried to wrap his head around that one. "What do you mean, ignore it? That's huge! You have a son? Like... a little boy...?" Not to mention the part where he might turn into a snake and bite him. Somehow, Axel's lack of certainty there didn't instill a whole lot of security in Dakota. And then: "How?"

At least one of them felt better.

Granted, Axel did. And did not. It was a difficult, weird thing. It wasn't like Axel had ever told anyone else this much. Most didn't even get past the 'hey, I'm biologically female,' part, but it hardly ever came up. ... now, anyway. High school was a whole other story... and he certainly didn't go around all 'hello I'm Axel and I'm an undead Russian witch, how're you?' or anything. Of course, starchildren being undead was, at best, ostensible, but none of them ever argued it, more for simplicity's sake than anything. There was really no sense in bothering with that. Semantics and whatever. You'd think the really old ones had the time for that, which, sure they did, but that did not necessarily preclude them having the care.

Axel's give-a-fuck was about run out, he could just imagine what it was like for the older ones.

Was he what? A prince? N - ... that was an odd thing to decide was the big deal in all this. Axel just smirked bemusedly for a moment, reaching up and tapping Dakota on the nose. "Slow down there, Oshakota," he said. "Sheesh, though, that's the most mundane thing I've said this entire time." No kidding.

"Actually he's... like four years younger than you, I think. ... try not to squint at that too hard. Not actually mine, I adopted him. Gotta go get him from the airport in a few days. I do that adopting thing a lot. Or, I did, you know before I turned ten suddenly. Met him on a business trip to Russia a few times. Reminded me of me, a little, when I was actually that age. I figured, hey, why not. He can come hang out in House My-Dad-Hated-Me, he'll fit right in." Well, as far as Axel was concerned now, Mikhail was his father. Brother. Father-brother.

You know what, maybe not, maybe he was just going to let that thought train go, now.

"Eyyy...!" He jerked back as his nose was poked and then he wrinkled his nose slightly in response. What was that for? Oh. Right. He blinked and then looked downward, thinking it over. That... that was the most mundane part of Axel's confessions and yet that was the part that struck Dakota the hardest. He had a son! Why did that part make his head reel? Maybe because he just never envisioned Axel as a father. But then, he never envisioned that he was once a woman and never even guessed he wasn't human, despite being fae himself.

"...good point." Fair enough; Axel was right. He ought to calm down. He just couldn't believe it. Maybe it was how casually Axel threw it out there. Like, Axel was asking him if he was hiding anything else, like being a prince or something but it was Axel that kept throwing out new loops! Raking hands through his hair, he listened and he nearly balked at the son being nearly his own age. He looked up. Ah. Adopted.

Still! And Axel did this a lot?

"Are you sure that's all?" Dakota asked after a moment, waiting for another shoe to fall. How many did Axel have, anyway? A whole closet full of them, probably. If he could casually talk about adopting people, there had to be a lot more things that Dakota knew nothing about. And... to be fair, if Axel was as old as he said he was--and Dakota had no reason to question that--then it was to be expected. He had a lot of life behind him, which meant a lot of experiences.

"No hidden wives? Husbands?" With all that life lived behind him, Axel must have had some of those... right?

Yeah, he was fairly sure he wasn't forgetting anything else. Well, nothing important. They'd even gotten through the Bratva slug, so hey, didn't even have that in a dusty corner, anymore. Hidden whats? Axel almost laughed. Being fair about it, he was all about tappin' that back in high school (weird how high school was maybe a year or two ago, but he'd been over high school age for much longer than that). He supposed that'd be a legitimate curiosity. It wasn't like the Russian wasn't known for his charm (and quite charming he could be, when he wanted to be).

But, no.

Axel'd never been tamed, so to say. No one had ever bound him to them in holy matrimony, or whatever. Back then, you know, before the 2010s, when minds started becoming more open, intimacy had been very dangerous for him. Not too long ago, if he'd admitted to being physically female, he'd have gotten jumped down a back alley, and if he was lucky, shanked, and that was it. Things were a bit different, now.

In recent years, it wasn't like Axel was afraid of anyone. He wasn't even really afraid of Bratva, and he wasn't sure if this made him a brave man, or a stupid one, but the Drago were here. As long as the Dragon was here, he was reasonably safe, and he knew and never did question that.

Dakota, on the other hand, was a bit younger and squishier. ... and didn't always use his pretty head.

Anyway. ... though, this did present an interesting opportunity. "I said I was poly, right?" Axel said, instead. "So what if there are?" Axel did as Axel does, of course. Sooner or later, it'd come up, because Axel wasn't capable of reserving all of his love and affection for just one person. He had too much of it, and he was pretty sure if he tried, he'd smother whomever that one person was, just because of the sheer intensity with which he loved. Sooner or later, there'd be another, and maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to judge how that'd go now.

"AHHHHMMMmmmmmm..." Dakota leaned back slightly. Did Axel mention that he was poly? Gods above, he needed more drinks. Not to drown out what Axel was telling him but to drown out the other issue, the reason he'd even called together this meeting, if one could call that. Did he already say it? Did Axel reciprocate? Fuck, he never should've said anything. But he... somehow, he didn't regret it. This was great. They were opening up. They were... they were... Dakota reached for a bottle of whatever was closest.

"Actually, I think you did," he said, recalling vaguely that polysexual--the word--had issued forth from Axel's mouth. And he didn't care about that. Dakota never really slapped a label on himself, whether he was this or that -sexual. The thing was, he was young, willing to experiment, and still searching out his identity. He didn't know the full extent of it himself. That was part of why he did this, why he lived on the edge.

There was a kid, therefore, there could be a husband. Or wife? Or... multiples? Dakota had never had occasion to fuck around with more than one person at a time and his relationships were... well. Axel had seen them, hadn't he? Trainwrecks, was what they were. Dakota's risk taking behavior was a turn-on to some but they got tired of it real fast when Dakota decided to lean down while the other person was driving or if he decided to slide his foot along the length of their leg during a dull family event and--well, to be perfectly fair, that last one wasn't Kota's fault. Most people knew better than to take Dakota along to dull family events.

Gingerly setting the bottle down after a nice swig, Dakota turned fully toward Axel, tucking a hand beneath his own chin, then deciding it didn't work there and moving it to his cheek. He tilted his head and examined Axel. What did he think of Axel's potential lovers? Partners? Life partners? Husbands, wives? If they existed, who were they? That was the part that had him curious.

Nodding to himself as if he had answered some big time life philosophy, Kota squeezed Axel's knee lightly with his other hand.

"I hope I like them," he finally said. Didn't matter what they thought of him. But he sure didn't want to spend time around somebody that made his skin crawl. "Doubt I won't," he added. "If you like them, I'll probably like them by, like, default."

"Ey, try not to drink all my gin." It was really the principle of the thing; Dakota'd just drunk a Long Island Iced Tea. Probably something on 22% alcohol, which was quite ridiculous, and the last thing Axel really wanted to deal with right now was this guy ending up with alcohol poisoning because what was moderation.

Axel didn't drink to get drunk, anymore. Once upon a time, that was valid, but it took several bottles to even get a buzz. Nowadays, he could clear out twelve bottles of blue label Stolichnaya and still not be buzzed. Maybe very faintly. By that point, it was a matter of why bother. That'd end up being a lot of money thrown out the window, because it took just so much to even get him a little buzz, so now he drank because he liked the flavours. That was, probably, how he'd gotten so good at mixers.

... he resisted the urge to say the first thing that came to mind, there. It didn't really matter if Dakota liked them or not. Axel wasn't asking him to like them, just accept that Axel did, and those were two very different things. Unless they were also dating each other, they probably wouldn't really be in the vicinity of one other that often, either, so, it didn't even matter merely because Axel didn't want a cat-fight on his hands. (Which would be entertaining, to be honest, not that he'd say that either.) Of course, he'd take Dakota's concerns into consideration, but ultimately, that particular ball wasn't really in Dakota's court.

"That's an inordinate amount of faith in our tastes in people aligning, there, Oshakota." Sure, Axel wasn't a terrible judge of character, but there was a bit more to a person than their morality. People were far more complicated than that, and hey, maybe so and so would have a nervous tic that drove Dakota up a wall, who knew. He was pretty sure everyone he had more than a passing 'oo, they're hot' reaction to had no nervous tics, anyway, but that wasn't necessarily the point.

"But if it makes you feel better, I've never been married," he added. And, truthfully, he didn't intend to get married, either. Maybe in a few more years when polygamous marriages were more acceptable, but, to be perfectly honest, Axel didn't need a piece of paper and a band of metal to tell him who he loved. (And frankly, neither did anyone else. ... what? Axel is not subtle.) "I have other crushes, other people that come to mind as more than fleeting aesthetic attraction, but between this and that, I haven't really had time to pursue any of them, and that's fine." It wasn't like he was in a hurry. Maybe he should be, but, when you were a hundred and eighteen and looked three days out of high school, and felt it, too, you didn't really have much of a sense of urgency in anything.

"Nhh," was the random sound that left his throat as he made a face at Axel. Would he actually go through all the gin? Naaaaah. Was it even possible? He tilted a look at the bottle and decided that it wasn't. Honestly, he would probably end up passed out before he got much further into the bottle. Some people could hold their drink better than others and Dakota... Well.

It seemed like challenging Axel to a contest would get him killed, though, the way that guy could drink when he wanted. Nothing like Dakota had ever seen. He suspected now that it was because of what he told Dakota. Not fair, really. Dakota should have been better at handling his liquor, thank you.

"...good point." Kota hadn't thought of that. Their taste in people didn't necessarily align, did it? Just because Dakota was playing in the waters of this... thing that he had for Axel didn't necessarily mean that Axel wanted to leap headfirst into it. Or that if he had previous lovers in his life that he expected them to get along with Dakota. Or vice versa, for that matter. Kota's drunken head spun with the thought.

No marriages. It boggled the mind but then... Kota imagined that if he lived as long as Axel, he wouldn't marry, either. He also had no desire to do so. Maybe that was another dot connecting the pair of them. Marriage seemed sticky and unnecessary, even to somebody as young as Kota. It seemed like a lot of work to say we love each other. And nothing really lasted forever so...

Although Axel sure felt like it in comparison to Kota's mere couple of decades. Shit.

"Really?" This piqued Dakota's curiosity. "You have crushes. Do I know any of them?"

Yes, very good point. Axel didn't say anything, just looked bemused, quirked that one eyebrow upward, and smirked a bit. The bright side, he supposed, was even if Dakota did do a stupid, Axel generally knew what to do about it. Generally.

... well, probably not. For a moment, though, Axel's gaze turned to the side, narrowing in thought, as he mentally rifled through the admittedly somewhat short list of people he had more than a passing interest in. Hmm. No, he was pretty sure Dakota wouldn't know any of them.

"Unless you have some habit of hanging around Campanian vampire mafias and didn't tell me, or sociopathic genies, I'm going with no." (It'd absolutely make his year if he could manage to get Kassander into bed with him, but he really wasn't holding his breath. He generally liked being alive.) "... by the way, don't trust a genie. It's usually a very bad idea."

Interestingly, though, now that he was thinking about it, the thunking in the parlor had stopped. Axel turned to look over his shoulder, there, and found his current ectoplasmic friend watching them with rapt interest. ... seriously, couldn't even have personal conversations in peace in his own house? Go figure that.

"What?" he asked.
"Oh no, go on," the ghost answered. "This is much more interesting."
... uhuh. You know what, he wasn't in the mood for that. Instead of saying anything, he arched an eyebrow in irritation, picked the garnet off his chest and held it up between two fingers. The garnet sparked, glowing a deep red, and sucked the spirit into it. Axel dropped the necklace, patting it where it hung around his neck.

"So. Ah, I don't think you'll ever really have occasion to meet them, either. Well, unless you want to. Feel free to get other lovers, too, I don't care." A short pause, and he corrected that. "Okay, I care because you're bad at caution, and you worry me, so try and be like safe about it. The rest is whatever." Yeah, that was more accurate. "If it makes you feel better, I'm really good at facial rearrangement. Really. ... not that this is an excuse not to use your head." Because it really wasn't.

"Can't say I know any of those... but I didn't know what you really were before now, so let's just say I wouldn't trust my judgement on that."

But Axel didn't seem to think Dakota had come across any of these others. Dakota was so curious now, though. What kinds of people warranted a crush from Axel? Weirdly, Kota had always thought of Axel as cool, too cool to have silly things like crushes. But no matter who he was or how long he lived, even he wasn't immune to the pull of being with another person. Or at least, admiring something about them.

Dakota reflected on that. What kind of people allured Axel's attention? Kota thought he might have confessed to Axel but the alcohol made his memories swim in dizzy, lazy circles--impossible to really hold onto. It was just the last parts of their conversation that made its way through and he kept hanging onto those bits, hoping to remember everything when he was good and sober.

"Don't trust genies. Got it." Had he met one, though? Again, he didn't think he'd know one if he saw one, let's be real.

With great drunken interest, Kota watched Axel with his red gem.

"What, what?" Kota asked, mistaking the question to be directed at him. He could have sworn that the gem around Axel's neck just sparked or something. Rubbing one of his eyes, Kota stared but the spark seemed to be a trick of the eye. Huh.

So he wouldn't be meeting Axel's others. What a pity. Kota thought it would have been fun to get to know some of them. Become one big happy... something together. However, since Axel brought up his headstrong stubbornness, he had a feeling that there would be head butting amongst them or that Axel believed Kota would do something stupid. Which, fair enough. If Axel's other lovers were genies and such, they were much longer lived and therefore, had to be wiser and more mature than a 20 year old fae.

"I haven't had the best track record," he agreed. In just the twenty years he'd been alive, he had picked some real winners. But... Now he was attaching himself to a new branch in the topic. Kota leaned forward.

"So... are you saying... we could be lovers, then?"

That was very comforting. Not really. Then again, he was right, but it wasn't as if all supernaturals were hard to pinpoint; he was, because he spent a lot of time blending into regular-people society, and it wouldn't do if you could see his fangs and catch him talking to nothing a lot. He'd learned to suppress his supernatural-ness, but not all of their number had. Of course, hunters made it relatively difficult to just not, all the same.

Not that Suyis had much trouble with it. It always seemed like Suyis had a way of turning the hunters into the hunted. If Axel was a lesser man, that'd probably be terrifying.

Axel just shook his head. He'd been talking to the ghost, anyway. Wait, seriously? Now Axel just sort of, stared at him, for a second or two. Wasn't that sort of what this conversation was about? Dakota was drunk. Right. He should probably remember that. "... are you even going to remember this conversation in the morning? This is why I said don't do confessions drunk, Oshakota." And... he did it, anyway. In his defence, he wasn't even kinda buzzed when he first said it. But maybe answering was kind of pretty much pointless, right now.

"Maybe this is the part where I tell you to go to sleep," Axel said. Oh, actually, he snapped his fingers on one hand, and stood up, shuffling around the kitchen. He eventually came back and set a glass of water down. "Drink some of that before you knock out, you'll thank yourself in the morning when the hangover's not as bad." It was, after all, the product of dehydration, primarily, and drinking some water along the way would at least dampen the hangover effects, if not stop them outright. Axel wasn't terribly interested in listening to the guy whinge in the morning.

Not that he really thought he'd whinge at him, but you never know. But, who knew? It wasn't like Axel could read Dakota's mind; maybe that was what he wanted, maybe it wasn't. And maybe that was what Axel wanted. He'd never really put much thought to it, mostly because he figured their extra complication was very one-sided. Apparently not so much. He still thought Dakota coulda done better than falling for him. Though, he did have to admit, he was probably a step up from the joy he'd gotten interested in before.

"Oh yeah..." Dakota's eyes lit up as he recalled Axel saying just that earlier. Not to make confessions drunk. Haha! Well... he wasn't wrong. Dakota may or may not remember what was happening right now and then it would make things weird when he woke up. Would Axel know where he stood? Would Dakota? He waved the thought off with an impish smile. Didn't matter. Right now, he had gotten that off his chest and now Axel knew and... who knew what Axel wanted out of it. At the very least, Axel told him all kinds of secrets. Could be that he didn't expect Dakota to recall any of it.

Could be that he trusted him, though. Dakota's smile grew a little as he lowered his gaze, face heating up slightly. Yeah, well. This feisty speedster could feel bashful over certain things, too, all right?

"Yes, SIR," Dakota said, not even thinking twice about picking up the glass and downing it. Honestly, he was thirsty and a nice cold glass of water was just what the doctor ordered. It was slightly sobering, too, and he looked up at Axel with a growing sense of clarity. As he set the emptied glass down, he tried to perch on his elbow and look cool in front of Axel.

"So..."

Good. At least he'd not decided to argue. It wasn't as if Axel couldn't handle it, if he had, it was just all around much easier if he didn't. Then again, there were few things Axel decided to actually argue with others about. This, most likely, wouldn't make the list. Dakota could've dealt with the resulting hangover in the morning, on his own, without Axel's sympathy, if he had.

... so... what? Axel quirked his eyebrow up, trying to puzzle that one out, and then decided to let it go. It was probably better for his mental faculties if he did, in the end, and puzzling out what was in a drunk guy's head was maybe not the best idea ever. After a few seconds, Axel shook his head, more to himself, then shuffled to the side a bit, and gestured down the hallway with a little flourish (most things Axel did had a bit of flourish).

"You know where the guest room is," he said. "... sometimes, I wonder if I shouldn't just knight it Dakota's room. It's not like anyone else uses it." Axel didn't usually have people stay over at his house, either, besides him, so maybe that was a double-sign. Not that he'd be telling Dakota that. "Hey, which is better for a teenage boy athlete's room, green or blue?" Maybe green would be more energising? He didn't think something like red or yellow would work, they were too vibrant and aggressive. Something lively without being exhausting, so he was thinking green, but blue was calmer and better for sleeping, right? Then again, it was also depressing.

Colours were hard.

So... were they going to explore any options? So... what did Axel really think? So... what next? There were so many different SOS running through his head, chasing one another and tumbling over one another in a drunken stupor. Oh, he was so right--Axel was--to say that confessions were better left sober. How much had he already spilled? He closed his eyes and let the room spin juuuuust right. Then slid his hand over his eyes, feeling dumber with each passing moment.

"Guest room?" he said, before opening his eyes and lowering his hand. The guest room. Ah, the guest room. That was where he would be relegated. Fine, fine. The guest room it was. He slid away from the counter and started toward the hallway that Axel indicated. Not that he needed the flourish to locate it. Axel was correct; he'd been here so many times that it might as well be his designated room.

"...what?"

Of all the conversations he thought they might pick up on the way to the room, colors? Dakota stared at Axel as if his hair had suddenly been set ablaze. "For an athlete? I mean, what's his team's colors? Probably those."

"Well yes." Where else would he go? (He was drunk, okay? Any other time, maybe that cuddling thing could be arranged, but Axel wasn't even letting him get anywhere near that door, because young hormonal fairies could be very young and very hormonal and we weren't - no - he was drunk and that was absolutely not at all ever okay whatsoever under any circumstances in the universe. It was much safer if he just, sent him to the guest room, you know, the room Axel wasn't going to be in.) ... actually, he wasn't even sure Dakota knew where his room was. Maybe that was for the best. Fortunately, there were a lot of doors in this house, and he had the feeling telling him 'no' was going to upset him, regardless of what his reason was, and it was... it was better to just, side-step that entire thing.

"... his team colours are technically red, white, and blue," Axel answered, wrinkling his nose. No matter which team he skated for, even, Russia or the USA. Most likely it'd be the USA, given he was technically an American citizen now, but if he wanted to skate for Russia, it wasn't like Axel was going to stop him. "That sounds like a terrible combination for his walls, but right now they're kind of an off-white colour." Well, there was a reason that was the default wall-colour, right? You know what, maybe he'd just leave the dang walls alone, and if he decided he wanted another colour, then, they'd figure it out then. Technically, he was probably only going to occupy that room for maybe two or three years, provided he wanted to move out whenever he got to college (and he was damned well going to college, skating be fucking damned, because he couldn't skate forever and he needed something to turn to after), because it was possible he'd decide to stay right here. Axel was okay with that.

Just, you know, don't mind the gunfire...

"Never mind, I'll let him decide," he said, and then reached out and got hold of Dakota's arm. "Hey," he started, quieter. "We'll talk more later, when you're sober, okay?" Axel still had this niggling thought he wasn't serious, and maybe he was okay with all... all of that while drunk, but, sobriety often painted a very different picture. These were things Axel needed to know how he felt about when he was capable of thinking straight, and not just being drunkenly excited Axel might reciprocate. Shit, drunk like that, he might say he was okay with almost anything if it meant getting what he thought he wanted.

Axel just... needed something more concrete than that, that was all.

Damn guest rooms. Damn big old mansions. Damn this alcoholic haze. Once he had a thought, it faded into the fog a moment later. He couldn't tell if he'd already said things or not but he felt urgently as if he needed to tell Axel things. But then... hadn't he already? No... Yes! No... Maybe..? Fuck. He couldn't remember now. Goddamnit.

He ran a hand through his hair, trying to straighten out his muzzy thoughts. Team colors. Right. What a safe topic. But what? Oh, they must be talking an Olympic team, then. Shit. Somebody was big time. Dakota slanted a half amused smile in Axel's direction. Oh, no, no, no. Red, white, and blue would be a shitty combo for home decor. Dakota might not be like Queer Eye status or whatever but even he cringed at the scheme.

"What about..." He trailed off because Axel had decided to let the owner of the room make his own decor decisions. Which was just as well. Dakota wasn't sure he was actually good at that business even when he wasn't half made of alcohol. Damn, why couldn't he just hold it better? Did he have the old Asian flush going on? Fuck. Axel was probably privately snickering at him. Dakota looked over at him with suspicion, almost half expecting him to be doing it not-so-privately.

The warm hand on his arm, though. Dakota felt like the round of blurred thoughts finally stopped in that moment. He leaned somewhat closer to Axel, just to be closer to the warmth of that hand, to his body. He focused oddly on that hand, then laid his other hand over Axel's after a drunken moment of thought. He liked the feel of Axel's hand. Mostly he liked it being on him.

"Wish I wasn't drunk," he said in a mumbly sort of grumble. Why did he need that damned courage from the bottle, anyway? Dumbass. By the time they were in front of the guest room door, Dakota was regretful indeed. "Are you sure this is where it ends?" He asked, looking at Axel with a slightly tilted head, searching his gaze through alcohol filtered eyes. "You can come inside with me..."

Not being drunk might be helpful for communication, and retaining of conversation patterns, yeah. Axel decided, perhaps wisely, not to say that, instead giving Dakota a slightly apologetic look. Hey, Axel sort of had a hand in the whole Dakota being drunk thing, but who knew how much he'd drunk before Axel had gotten to get him at the bar. If he remembered right, he'd only had a beer, but was that beer 1 or beer 6? Axel had no idea. (This is why Dakota wasn't allowed to drive the Charger, seemed like he was always drunk when he was in it, and Axel's insurance premium was high enough, thank ya vury mush.)

Ahmmm.

"I could," Axel answered. "Buuuut it'd be like those sleepovers we had as kids, right, we'd end up running our mouths all night and neither of us would get to sleep, and I have work tomorrow morning." Psh, responsibilities, psh... why Axel even worked so much, he had no idea. Didn't he pay other dudes to work all the time so that he didn't have to? Clearly not. "Besides, I live here, 'Kota, I'll still be here tomorrow." He might be a little bit late to work, though, but usually it didn't terribly matter if he was, so, maybe that was fine.

It also wasn't like Axel had to sleep, it was just a good idea. More likely, he'd spend the wee hours of the morning working from home, so perhaps the office could handle him being a few hours late, because he was spending it talking to (and perhaps a bit of taking care of) Dakota, instead. It wasn't like the office would implode in hot magma if he didn't show up.

... he was pretty sure.

"Ah, work," he said, making a face as he did. Man, he preferred those days Axel talked about over being an adult. Adults always had to worry so much about everything. When he was a kid, it seemed like being an adult was the thing to be but when it happened... Well, it sucked. Dakota used to motor mouth everything to Axel in those days. So many stupid things to talk about, too. But they seemed so damn important in the moment. He remembered that. How the little things were a big deal then.

Somehow, he felt like tonight, he'd brought that feeling over into adulthood. Blabbering about shit he used to hold close to the chest. But underneath the fog of alcohol, he couldn't for the life of him remember if it was even worth it. Axel seemed... indifferent? Was that the word? Or he seemed like he had a lot more on his mind than maybe he was telling. Dakota grasped onto the things he'd heard. New things. Secrets that Axel himself held close to the chest all this time.

He wondered. Did Axel ever tell him these things before? Did Dakota hear them and forget them because of alcohol?

He wanted so badly to hold onto it all but a part of him was already slipping and sliding under the bubbly warmth of all the drinks he'd consumed and his inability to hold his liquor well.

"You'll be here when I wake up?" If he sounded unsure, it was because he was. Axel talked about work; did that mean he would disappear in the morning and Dakota would wake up wandering the halls and wondering what the fuck he was doing with his life? Oh man. His head just kept swimming. All he really wanted to do now was curl up in a bed and pass out but he kept hanging on for dear life. He couldn't even fully say why.