Phoenix Drop University- Softmore Year

16: Axel's Lament

His feet clop onto the stone floor of the school, his white tail limp behind him, and he stares up into the vent above him.

Axel's eyes are dull, with dark circles around them from lack of sleep, his grades have been slipping, and he had already developed a habit of drinking until he passed out.

He growled into the vent, having his own growl echo back at him, he felt his knife in his pocket, and the cuts stinging against his arms.

"This isn't helping..." He tells himself, he had shut himself off from everyone trying to help him, and Aaron and Aphmau do not know about his habits.

"What am I doing...?" He looks down, snapping his head back up when he hears a voice from the vent.

"Axe.... I'm still here...."

His heart lept, but only for a second, it was only his imagination, his desire, his desperate hope for her to still be alive.

"No... No your not..." Yet he responds like she is beside him, like she never left.

"Axel.... I'm here, I'm right here." It was closer, his head shot up towards the vent with blinding speed. No, It wasn't his imagination, It was... real.

"Mac...? Is that you?" His heart gnawed at his chest, please let it be her, god let her be alive.

No answer, but something was moving in the vent, something black, and dripping with ink, a tendril crawls out from a vent only slightly behind him.

"Axel.... I'm scared, I can't see...." His heart beat faster and faster, it was her! She was alive!

"Where are you? I'll get you out, just tell me where you are Mac." His voice rose, he barely has the strength to walk, but he starts to climb into the vent above him.

"Axel. This way." The tendril crawls around his foot, and suddenly he feels sleep consuming him.

"Shhhh.... You'll join her soon." Mac's voice suddenly gets deeper and Drake pulls Axel's body deeper into the vent.

But something inside the boy was far too innocent, far too deep for Drake to sense, and before he had a chance to devour the young werewolf, a concussive blast of sound erupted in Drakes head.

"WE ARE STILL HERE!!"

He hisses and drops Axel back onto the floor, asleep, and bruised from the fall, but alive and not eaten.

Drake slithers back into the dark recesses of the vents, his skull ripping itself apart at the seams, the voices were deafening, his stomach turns, and quickly something falls out of his cavernous mouth and down into the vent.

Axel slowly awakens, with a familiar red-head laying beside him, In a second he was hugging her, not realizing anything that just happened.

"Mac! I thought you were dead! I-" His heart falls into the pit of his stomach, she's unmoving and covered completely in ink, he rests his head on her chest, trying to find a heartbeat.

...
...
...
Buh-Dum.

Tears of joy fall down his face as a surge of energy make him pick her up and race to Aaron's and Aphmau's place, tripping and falling all the way.

"Aph I need to-" Aaron's cut off by her kissing him, he'd been working on a plan of action all night and was still working this morning.

"You need to give it a rest, you can't do anything if you have no strength." He scoffs and gave her a pout but this didn't phase her.

"Fine. But first." He takes her against the closest wall in their bedroom and immediately starts kissing her, it had been so long since they had done this, he had been having too many thoughts of her now to ignore it.

She whimpers, but slowly melts into the kiss, her legs wrapping around his waist, and arms around his neck.

"You felt it too eh?" He comments, feeling the heat in her stomach.

"Mmm? Nnh. Of course.... It never stops anymore." She admits, letting him bite and lick the side of her oversensitive neck.

"I know..." His hands roll over her stomach, almost losing himself as he did, he starts to unzip his pants when.

Boom!

Someone bursts through the bedroom door that he had forgotten to lock, their faces flush brilliant red when Axel's excited face suddenly turns into one of horror.

"Oh... I- I Probably should have knocked." He slowly closes the door in front of him while the couple against the wall drown in enough embarrassment for about fifty people.

"Uh.... Great." Aaron moves slightly against her, feeling his issue down under, and slamming his head into the wall.

"You should've locked the door." Aphmau says unamused, her face a strawberry red.

"I should've locked the door." He releases her and shakes his head, following Aphmau downstairs where Axel was smiling happily holding someone on the couch.

"Is that?" Macenzi, shuffles in Axels arms, Aaron stares in shock and Aphmau hugs the both of them.

"Axel, where did you find her?!" Aaron says almost demanding it, his eyes getting red for no reason, he should be happy, but why was he getting angry?

"She fell out of the vent system when I was... uh... thinking." He didn't really want to tell Aaron he was leaving to drink at the bar.

"You could've gotten killed! You could have been taken! Why didn't you tell me where you were going!" Aaron shouts, why was he angry? Why was he worried about Axel anyway.

"I don't have to tell you! You're not my Dad!" Axel defends himself, he already had one overprotective Dad. He didn't need another.

Suddenly, Aaron felt all the anger being replaced with a realization that he had in fact been playing house, the big dad of a family that didn't yet exist, and this amused and terrified him.

"I... You are exactly right. I'm not." He sat down in the big squishy armchair while both Axel and Aphmau stared at him.

"Aaron?" Aaron pushed on pressure point on his head, a headache, and a bad one, creeping up on him.

"I'm sorry Axel, I shouldn't be so controlling of you." Aaron says quietly, though everyone in the room could hear him.

"I know your just looking out for me Alpha. That is your job after all."