Disclaimer: Pure imagination. I don't say this is real, but dream on. :)
It was just another normal Sunday Morning when Axl woke up in his room, feeling hot and sweaty because of the burning Indiana sun. He stretched a little and shifted in his pillow, and although he knew it was probably a late hour to wake up at, he didn’t like the idea of going downstairs at all.
Tomorrow was another day of school and obviously another reason of “why life sucks” to be added to the list.
“Your father left this morning to see a sick cousin.” His mother told him as she poured Axl a glass of milk.
He couldn’t help but silently sigh with relief. Then, noticing a fresh bruise on his mother’s arm, he pulled her sleeve up.
“What is this?” he yelled.
“It’s nothing, my dear.” She cringed, pulling her sleeve back in place. “I fell on the stairs.”
“Are you expecting me to believe that?”
She sat down on her chair and put the milk down with a shaking hand.
“When dad’s coming home I’m going to talk to him about this.” Axl decided.
“No!” she quickly responded. “It’s nothing, really, you’ll only make things worse…”
“I don’t care. This can’t go on.”
“Honey…”
He got up and left the kitchen with his fists tensed. If his father was there, he would have punched him no matter the consequences.
It was a nice day outside, although a bit too hot, but the weather was the last thing on his mind. He was 17, life should smile at him and offer him lots of opportunities, but it didn’t.
Not having a girlfriend until this age already raised suspicions and he even lied to his father about different girls so that he won’t get mad on him for being different.
After finishing high school he was probably sentenced to a life similar of his father’s. Becoming a priest, living a life based on something he did not believe in. But never, never would he follow his father’s example in beating his wife and drinking at the bar until he became unconscious.
After a while of deep thinking, he realized he hadn’t been careful of where his feet were guiding him and he found himself walking on the soft grass that led to the river.
Seeing as it was a hot day, a quick bathe in the river was not such a bad idea after all.
But the river was occupied. Boats full of gypsies from the other corner of Indiana have landed there and were probably here to stay for another week or so.
They would have annoyed the shit out of his father, who always thought badly of those people who don’t believe in anything other than stealing and playing music.
Axl wanted to head back home, but something stopped him. That would be what his father would want him to do… avoiding these people, going home, and he won’t do that.
He is not here to see him… so why not?
Strangely attracted to the noisy boats, he approached them and saw, between many people carrying around buckets of fish, a young gypsy with dark brown hair.
He wasn’t sure what was so hypnotizing about the boy, maybe it was the fact that he was so different from all the other boys in town, with his bare feet and a white, unbuttoned shirt.
Or maybe it was the fact that he was the most forbidden fruit he was ever offered with.
After a few moments, the boy moved his head and watched Axl straight in the eyes, like he knew he was looking and just waited for him to go away.
Staying there and watching his dark eyes surrounded by thick eyelashes, he saw something he never saw before in any of his friends. Freedom and wildness.
“Hey!” the boy suddenly yelled and a few more gypsies turned around to face Axl.
He felt his face turning red, and although he wanted to say something in response, he just ran away, his heart beating fast.
That night he had more to think about than just the next day of school.
**
The day was bad.
He dropped his bag and all of his books got scattered across the school’s hallway. Of course, nobody stopped to help him, but many found the time to step on his notebooks or kick them away.
It seemed he was incapable of making friends, but at least the holidays were almost there.
After school, instead of going home, he walked to the river.
Why? It amazed him as well, and many times along his way he wanted to head home… but he kept on walking. He wanted to see the dark haired boy again, like a rare wild animal, too precious to be touched, but beautiful enough to be admired from a distance.
He stopped behind a tree and watched as gypsies played the guitar around a fireplace on the shore. He looked desperately around them but no sign of the boy he saw the day before.
Just before he was ready to leave, a hand grabbed his shoulder and he turned around ready to see his father angry on him for getting this close to the gypsies.
Instead, he saw the wild black eyes of the boy, dressed in the same crumpled shirt.
Axl winced, startled, and the boy took a step behind not to scare him.
“Sorry.” He said, smiling.
“Uhm, it’s… okay.”
“Aren’t you the boy I saw yesterday?” He asked, seeming just as scared as Axl was.
“I guess so. I wasn’t staring at you or anything, just… watching… seeing what’s going on here…”
Smooth, Axl…
“Yeah.” The boy laughed. “For a moment I thought you were from the church. We had problems with the priest in the last place where we landed. Apparently the river was private propriety.”
“Oh. No, I’m not… you know, sent to watch you or anything.”
“Well, who are you then?”
“Axl.” He said, stretching one hand ahead of him, but letting it down when the boy didn’t shake it.
“I’m Izzy.”
“Nice to meet you…”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t really trust me, do you?”
“So far I couldn’t really trust anyone. You seem nice, but… what do I know? Hey, does anybody know we are in town?”
“What do you mean?”
“Aren’t people talking? Usually we leave when they start talking. It means problems.”
“Why would there be problems? I think you all look nice. Cheerful. And… colorful.”
“Yeah.”
“You say that a lot, don’t you?”
“…Yeah. Look, do you wanna be my friend or what?”
Well that was blunt. His father wouldn’t like it if he said yes…
“Yes.”
“Nice. Care for a walk?”
They started to walk lazily along the river until they drifted away from Izzy’s family and their fireplace. Axl couldn’t tell what the feeling in his stomach was… Maybe it’s fear that this stranger is leading him away from civilization to kill him and throw his body into the river.
They stopped in front of a tall tree and Izzy threw himself on the ground, yawning as he stretched his skinny feet and put his arms underneath his head, leaning on the tree.
Axl remained on his feet, watching hypnotized as the button from Izzy’s jeans struggled to break.
“Are you going to stay in the sun or come over here?”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” Izzy laughed at his answer.
Axl sat down on the hot grass next to the boy he practically met five minutes ago and felt much happier than anytime in his life.
“You don’t really seem happy, Axl.”
“Happy? Of course I’m happy.”
“No… You may not be… unhappy, right now… But you have something on your mind.” He said in a raspy voice, shifting a little closer to Axl.
“I guess so.” He responded, staring at Izzy’s lips before remembering to come back to reality.
“What are you worried about?”
He could tell him about his father… About the bruises he always sees on his mother’s body or about the way people are treating him at school… But it seemed like a waste of time, when he could just enjoy these moments spent with a complete stranger. It was something new and exciting.
Not to mention the fact that Izzy might not be so happy to hear that his dad is a priest.
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s just say I don’t have such a carefree life as yours.”
“Carefree? It’s hard living like a gypsy!”
“Sorry. I don’t really know anything about your life, I shouldn’t have…”
“Nah, you’re right actually. It’s pretty bad-ass.”
He laughed and covered his eyes from the sun.
“Fuck. I should have brought my hat.”
“You have a hat?” he said, then quickly regretted it. What kind of question was that?
He just couldn’t stop his words after he imagined Izzy with a black hat, slightly shifted to a side, covering his eyes and only showing a mischievous smile on his full lips.
Izzy just laughed at the question and said nothing.
“This sun is driving me crazy. I wish I had something to make a little shadow.”
Axl shifted a little to get more comfortable.
“Wait!” Izzy suddenly yelled.
“…What?”
“That was perfect!”
“What was?”
“Can you get a little closer?” he said, and Axl shyly moved a little closer to him.
“How about… a little more to the left?” Izzy added, smiling deviously.
“I don’t have any space to the left.”
“Of course you do.”
“But I’ll be all over you…” Axl said and felt himself blush at the sound of his own words.
“That’s okay. The sun is really hurting my eyes.”
Axl shifted to the left and he glued himself to Izzy, his hand landing on his chest.
“Maybe a little closer?”
He got closer…
“What are you trying to do?” Axl asked, narrowing his eyes.
“I don’t know… Protecting myself from an ugly sun burn?” He said, but Axl could feel in his voice that he was just about to laugh at him.
Right when he was ready to get up and go home in tears, Izzy grabbed his jaw and pulled him in a soft kiss.
He let his head fall back on the tree and smiled at Axl, who was still staring open mouthed. He finally blinked and Izzy started to laugh again, slowly and carefree, like the slow heavy air of that summer.
“What was that for?...”
“Felt like doing it.” Izzy shrugged.
“Oh…”
“Did it bother you?”
“Bother? No…”
“Then… Can I do it again?”
“Umm…”
Izzy wrapped his arms around Axl’s waist and pulled him in another kiss, this time longer and deeper.
**
The next day was, obviously, bad. He got picked on by two taller boys and when he fought them in response he got detention while they weren’t even scolded.
Faggot, they say? Maybe. But still better than any of them.
Coming home late again was not going to make his father happy. Getting closer to the house, he heard fighting and then sounds of broken glass. Running inside, his mother laid on the floor covering her head with her bruised arms, while his drunk father hold a broken bottle of wine in his hands, victoriously.
He felt the rage building up in his heart and stopping to block his throat.
“You son of a bitch!” he managed to roughly yell and made a run at his father, his mother still shaking on the floor with fear.
After missing a punch that was directed to his father’s face, his hand was grasped and held in place.
“Don’t fight me, boy.”
“Let me go.” He growled, struggling to get away.
His father started laughing and that was all Axl needed to gather all the power to smash him in the head and leave him on the floor unconscious.
He grabbed him by his jacket and served him another punch, drawing blood from his nose.
“Axl! No! You’ll make him mad!”
“How can you protect him? What if I didn’t come home now? He would have killed you!”
“Better me than you!” she said between tears and held her son close, her shoulders still shaking.
“Mom…” Axl softly said, stroking her hair, “we need to get out of here. It’s only going to get worse. Do you understand?”
“We can’t leave our house…”
“At least for now. At least you! I can handle him, you must go away until we get rid of him.”
“Get rid of him! Don’t say such things, Axl!”
“I’m tired of his bullshit. If you want to stay here until he wakes up, then fine. But I don’t want you die.”
“Die?...” she cried.
He hugged her and looked at his father, his shirt stained with blood and alcohol.
Even if they did run away, where could they go?
**
In the darkness of the night, Axl led her mother to the boats.
He saw Izzy carrying something with another man inside the barge. They waited and watched from a distance as they carried a few more bags inside, then Izzy sat down on the shore, lighting up a cigarette.
It was the perfect moment, Axl thought.
“Izzy!”
He turned around and the look in his eyes seemed angry until they got closer and he recognized Axl.
“Axl? What are you doing here?”
“Look, I know we barely know each other…” He said, and Izzy smiled with half a mouth, “but we are in trouble.”
“What happened?”
“My father… He beats her.” Axl said, showing Izzy one of his mother’s bruises.
“Ouch.”
“I was wondering… maybe we can stay here for the night.”
Izzy’s eyes narrowed.
“I don’t think so.”
“Why?” Axl couldn’t believe his ears. Although he just met Izzy, he was almost certain he would be nice to his mother.
“Look… I know this is bad. And you could get in trouble. But I could get in trouble as well.” He said, taking another puff from his cigarette.
“Please. Just for tonight.”
Izzy looked at Axl’s mother and the way she was shaking under Axl’s protective arm.
“Izzy! Who are you talking to?” The man that helped Izzy carry the bags yelled from the boat.
Izzy didn’t respond, instead he kept on smoking, his eyes locked on Axl’s mother and her bruises.
“Who are these people?” the man said when he got closer to them.
“We were just leaving.” Axl turned around, feeling betrayed and disappointed.
After a moment in which he heard Izzy and the man talk, they were stopped.
“Wait!” the man said. “You can stay. I’m Tony, Izzy’s father. Welcome aboard.”
Inside the boat, Axl and his mother were fed with roasted chicken and jasmine tea.
Axl watched his mom as she laughed together with other women while Izzy’s father played the guitar. It was a long time since he saw her that happy and he was glad he managed to make her smile.
“Psst.” He heard Izzy whisper.
Izzy winked at him and Axl followed him outside.
They sat down next to the same tree and started kissing, Izzy pressing his chest against Axl’s as he had him pinned down.
Izzy broke the kiss for a second and brushed his thumbs against Axl’s cheeks, smiling as he analyzed his features.
“Izzy…”
“Yeah?”
“How long are you staying here?”
The question seemed to ruin Izzy’s mood and he lit up another cigarette.
“Do you smoke?” he asked.
“No… Listen. I know you’re probably taking this as a nice summer activity or… enjoying the moment… fucking with a boy you just met because it’s living your life gypsy style or something…”
“What?” He laughed.
Axl looked down at his feet.
“But… For me, this is the happiest I’ve ever been. And I don’t care if I know you or not, I want to love you more than just a few days. Because I do love you. And I want to yell it and make the whole world listen.”
“Are you feeling all right?”
“Of course I am!”
“I think you’re rushing. Live a little. And learn to let go.”
“I don’t want to let go of you.”
Izzy watched his worried expression and smiled, then pulled him in for another kiss that smelled like cigarettes.
“So you say you love me?”
“But do you?”
He pressed the cigarette into the ground and slowly started to unbutton Axl’s shirt, kissing his chest and then all the way back to his lips.
Axl responded by taking off Izzy’s shirt and starting to unbuckle his belt.
His face turned red and felt himself starting to sweat already. It was the first time he went this far and it was with a gypsy he met two days ago.
Izzy kissed his neck.
“I love you…” he said, the sound of his voice muffled by Axl’s skin, “but I really…” another kiss… “really…” and another… “want to fuck you.”
Axl moaned and let Izzy drag down his pants, then felt his weight over his body and hot kisses all over his burning skin.
He grabbed Izzy’s jeans and ran his hand down his lower back then down into his pants… and just as he thought, he wasn’t wearing any underwear.
Izzy then softly brushed away Axl’s hair from his face and looked into his eyes as he pushed inside him. Axl closed his eyes and moaned loudly, so loud they were concerned about getting caught.
“Shhh…” Izzy said as he kissed Axl again.
Axl wrapped his arms around Izzy’s neck as they rocked back and forth, running his fingers against his sweaty back and feeling his muscles tense.
It was incredible, the way he could see and feel Izzy exactly like he wanted to from the moment he laid eyes on him.
He grabbed at his dark hair and made Izzy groan from the back of his throat. God… If hair could turn someone on, it would be Izzy’s.
Izzy went on, faster and faster, and Axl opened his eyes too see the full moon over them, glowing in the dark, which made everything seem even wilder.
He felt Izzy’s hands all over his body and then he pushed inside him once again, both coming at once and joining each other again into a last kiss before they headed back to the boats.
**
“Fuck! What time is it?” Axl woke up yelling the next morning.
Izzy rubbed his eyes sleepily and shifted in his mattress.
“Izzy! I need to go to school!”
“School?” he seemed confused.
“Yes. School. Ever heard of it?”
“How old are you?...”
“Seventeen! God… What was I thinking when I came here…” Axl breathed and started to get dressed.
“Hey hey! A few hours ago you were ready to yell at the world that you love me!”
The redhead stopped and looked at Izzy. The look in his eyes was kind and reassuring and he moved over to his mattress and hugged him.
“Axl, we’re leaving tomorrow.”
Izzy heard a low sigh from him but no words. He cuddled closer to him, Izzy took him in his arms and they remained like that for a few moments.
Axl looked around them. The boat was poor but he had to admit it had a certain atmosphere that made him feel free and safe in the same time. If he wasn’t who he was, if Izzy’s wasn’t the way he was, he would stay there for the rest of his life.
“I want you to have something.” Izzy said, laying a soft kiss on Axl’s lips.
He got up from the thin mattress, his unbuttoned jeans almost falling off of him, and took a bag from behind a small cupboard.
Without any other words, he shoved the bag in Axl’s arms, who opened it curiously.
“Where do you have these?”
“Where do you think?”
“Izzy, those are stolen money…”
“Well what did you expect? But please, just take them. You can… pay them back someday. Maybe in forty, fifty years. You’ll come here and redecorate the city or something.”
“I can’t take them.”
Suddenly, they heard women screaming on another boat and a man yelling Axl’s name, and they knew it was over even quicker than they thought.
Izzy jumped on his feet and ran outside before Axl could stop him.
“Where are you hiding them?” Axl’s father screamed in a horrifying voice. He was drunk, as usual, and threatened to hurt one of the women on the boat.
“We are not hiding anyone! You need to leave our home now!” Izzy’s father clearly said.
“Home? You call this, a home? You live like dirty rats!” he laughed again and wobbled on his feet.
Tony’s face turned red and he grabbed him by his coat, looking him in the eyes at a close distance.
“Leave now and no one gets hurt.”
In that instant, Izzy opened the door and hit him hard with a heavy crowbar, watching as he fell to the ground and a small puddle of blood started to form around his head.
He let the crowbar fall from his hands and looked over to Axl, who was shocked with fear.
The three women that saw all of this started yelling and crying and Tony guided them outside.
“No…” Izzy said, looking shocked at Axl. “He can’t be hurt that bad.”
“You killed him.”
“It can’t be.”
Izzy feel to his knees and looked more closely at Axl’s father.
“It’s okay.” Axl finally said letting out a sigh as a few tears formed in his eyes.
“Please take the money.” Izzy said in a shaky voice, looking up to Axl.
The redhead tried to convince her mother to leave without entering the room in which her bags were… her bags and her dead husband, also.
Finally, she entered and spent a few minutes crying uncontrollably. Axl didn’t shed a tear. And honestly, couldn’t understand how his mother could love her abusing husband so much, even after all the misery he put her through.
“You need to get her out…” Izzy said, patting Axl on the shoulders. “We have to leave now.”
“What are you going to do with him?”
“Probably throw him in the water, somewhere a little further, I don’t know. In deeper rivers.”
“I’ll miss you.”
“We’ll meet again sometime, maybe.”
*
“Honey? Honey?”
He opened his eyes and saw his mother shaking his arm with a lost look in her eyes. She was always mentally instable, but since the shock of seeing her husband surround by an aura of blood, she completely lost it.
“Yes, mom…” he slowly responded. They were both tired and this was the first night Axl could close his eyes.
“I can’t find the glasses… The small ones… Your father needs a drink…”
“Mom, dad’s not… home, now.”
“No? Where is he?”
The young boy waited a second. He wanted to say that he’s dead or at least gone forever.
“At church.”
“Ah.”
“Sleep, mom.”
He rested his head on the train's cold window, looked at the same full moon and almost felt Izzy’s strong arms surround him.
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This was the first fanfic that I've ever read. I just found it again XD Seriously though, it's amazing! I love it so much :)
I meant to comment on this a while back. I loved it, it was sweet, hot with reality mixed in :) Faved.
kinnlight's response: Thanks so much, glad it was worth the read^^
This was really beautiful. The end is sad and honest. I really loved the way you portrayed Izzy as the ''wild one'' and Axl as the ''shy one''. Very good job. Very good fic. Going in my favorites.
kinnlight's response: Thank you so much and also for the fave, glad you liked it!^^
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