4The shirtless man groaned regretfully as he put a sweaty hand up to his head, alerting the sleep deprived girl.
"Who the hell made me drink so much.." He questioned to no one in particular; and was surprised when "no one" responded.
"You did. Idiot."
Axton jolted up from his comfortable bed, looking over to his couch, where the voice originated from. "Who's there!?" He quickly reached for his small revolver stashed in his back pocket, getting even more surprised when he felt his butt rather than his camo pants.
"Where the f*ck are my pants?" He put his hands over his exposed stomach, "Where the f*ck is my shirt?!"
"Holy crap; could you be any louder?" The frazzled looking girl peered over the back of the couch, exposing Gaige's small body wearing one of Axton's army shirts. It was a little too big, so it hung low on her shoulders, giving Axton many... suggestive ideas about what he did last night.
"Oh, sh*t." He put his hands through his blond hair. "Did we...?" He rapidly pointed his finger from him to her.
Her face became a tame hue of red. "Hell. No." She gave him an irritated stare. Not getting any sleep really affects a girl.
She sighed deeply, "Your dumbass got so drunk you passed out, so I hadda drag you over to your room."
Axton slowly nodded. "So that explains... That. But what about my shirt and, y'know, pants."
"You threw up. Everywhere. So I had to clean it up." She thinned her lips.
"What about you wearing my sh-"
"I didn't want to sleep in my shirt so I borrowed your shirt." She rapidly explained, slightly huffing as she finished. "We done with the 20 questions. I really want to sleep."
Axton got up, taking long strides over to his closer as he pulled out a plain grey shirt, overlapping it with another brown jacket. "Sleep?" He chuckled, "Gaige." He gave her a cheeky smile.
"We have that big mission today. Y'know, the one that you've been begging to do, but have always been told that we were too weak?" He quickly put on his spare pair of pants, making a note to check his dryer for his previous clothes.
"You mean..." She let out an frustrated groan, smashing her face with the pillow beside her.
"Yup: the Oasis treasure hunt." He quickly zipped over to his kitchen, slamming the tile on the ground to reveal a small compartment full of ammo and weapons extending from the floor. "You better suit up, cause I heard this one might be the hardest one yet." He grabbed his trusty Harold, strapping it tightly on his leg before he picked up 3 more weapons, varying in elements and types.
"F*ck my life!" She muffled her screaming with Axton's red pillow.
"Y'know, that mission was kind of bull at first with that one insane dude, but the boss fight was really worth it!" Gaige and the rest of the vault hunters all strolled into Sanctuary like they've done many times before, only this time they were up to their necks with weapons and relics.
Everyone either had a wide grin spread out on their face, or a small, contained smile. Gaige had the first one.
"You said it, chica!" The brash voice of the gunzerker caused most passerbys to look at the smile infested group with a glare. They may have saved the world, but most still didn't like them. "Only in my wildest dreams would I have a assault rifle that shoots fucking exploding spears!"
The gun obsessed man shot off some rounds into the air, laughing wildly as it blew some cans of paint from the top of some rooftops. He wiped a tear from his eye, letting out a sniffle, "I've never felt so manly..."
The group laughed at the small man's actions.
As the day grew late, the sky was splashed with orange, only letting the small slivers of yellow come through as purple took its spot. The air was clean and crisp, signifying that it was a relatively peaceful day on Pandora. Gaige, once again, sat at the table with deathtrap etched into the mahogany wood. She swirled her drink around, trailing her finger along the lines of the rough sketch, waiting for him to show up.
"How's my favorite trooper!" She overheard Moxxy shout, not paying any mind as she had heard the same phrase many times.
"Relaxed, actually. Something that's not really common on Pandora." The man replied back before she heard the screech of the chair as he sat down.
The bartender let out a nearly forced laughter, she was losing her touch. "Oh, Axton, you're hilarious." She let out another painfully forced laughter before Gaige turned her head rapidly at the sound of his name.
Axton...
Axe-ton...
Ax-ton..
She played around with his name; its syllables was like music to her ears.
"Really? Never really thought of myself as the hilarious type." The soldier let out a small hm before ordering rakkale with tons of ice, his favorite drink.
He spun around on the red revolving chair, scoping out the empty bar before spotting his young teammate, giving her a smile and wave, he quickly told Moxxy that he was going to sit by her, and took long strides to her table.
Her heart pounded with every step he took as her hands began to unconsciously mess around with her hair. "S-Sup, Axe-ton."
She mentally slapped herself. "Axe-ton?" The soldier sat across from her, the worn seats deflating under his weight. He took the seat closest to the wall: it was his favorite seat for some reason.
"Sup, Ga-ige," his famous boyish smirk grew on his face as he purposefully messed up her name.
Gaige could feel her heart soar as she began twisting the ends of her hair with one finger. Her face was beet red as she stared at the deathtrap sketch on the table, briefly switching between looking at her drink and her sketch, but never looking up. She was afraid she would lose control if she gazed into his brown, chocolate eyes.
Axton chuckled at the girls' introverted behavior, chocking it up to just being embarrassed that she had a slip of her tongue rather than what it really was.
He threw his boots onto the table, leaning into the wall as he lazily slung his arm along the back of the seat. "So, why did you call me in here? Did ya need something?" He used his knuckles to gently scratch his cheek.
"Um... Not really." She drummed her fingers along the side of her glass, emitting rhythmic clanks as her black fingernails tapped the old glass. "I sorta need some advice..."
"Advice?" Axton lowered his feet as Moxxy came up to him with his drink, giving him a wink as she turned around, shaking her hips purposefully as to get the attention of the man. Which it did, before he decided that it wasn't worth it. "On what?"
Gaige could feel her cheeks get even hotter as she gazed to her side, biting her lips as she gripped her drink even harder. She took a deep breath, still not daring to look up as she began. "Well... I have this-erm- friend, that- um- sorta has these..." Gaige took a large gulp, "Feelings for one of her other friends. And- um- she doesn't know what to do about it..."
Axton smirked, "Ahh yes: love. Probably the worst and best thing you'll ever experience in your life." He took a sip of his drink, grabbing an ice cube with his teeth as he began to suck on it.
"Well, it's not really easy, I would know," his voice was semi-muffled due to the ice in his mouth, "but- my advice would be to confess."
"But what if she doesn't think she can?"
"Well," Axton looked up, running an idle hand through his blond hair, "It's never easy to confess. But hey, we've survived hell, and we're still going through it! So saying your feelings shouldn't be so hard on a planet like this."
Before Gaige could give her rebuttal, Axton continued. "Besides, life is short- even shorter on this planet. You can't be stuck thinking on 'What if..' or 'I can't do it...' You should just... Do it. Tell her that she'll feel better after she does- and trust me, she will." He took another swig of his drink.
Gaige was left in silence, thinking about the man's words.
There was a rapid sequence of footsteps approaching their table, and upon looking up, they realized that it was a small teenage girl. She wore a shirt that said, in proud colors, Axton Fan-club. "Oh. My. God!" The girl held her notebook up to her mouth, covering her large grin.
"You're Axton, right!?"
Axton slowly nodded, a confused stare eyeing the hyper girl, who, somehow, reminded him a lot of a certain bombs expert.
She let out an excited squeak, spinning on her heels as she did, her skirt making a small circle around her body. "I'm Amber, and I'm seriously, your biggest fan!"
"Oh-"
"Like, when you saved the world from Jack, I swore myself that I would meet you one day." She put up a hand to her chest, showing her loyalty.
The girl giggled uncontrollably, visibly annoying Gaige and many other woman in the bar. "Can I shake your hand?"
The soldier was still drinking his drink as he gave a side glance toward the girl before eyeing her hand. "No." He could see the sweatiness of it from where he was.
The girl was visibly distraught, stuttering as she searched around her small purse, promptly pulling out a black pen. "Could you sign my notebook then?"
The soldier put down his drink and slowly took the pink notebook, which was in a fairly good condition, out of her anxious, shaking hand. "Sure." He quickly took her pen, writing his name on the first blank page he found. He signed it with a version of his name that had many curves along with many straight lines.
"Here ya go," he handed the notebook and pen back with a smile.
The girl let out a small "eep" as she carefully held the signed book in her delicate hands, tracing the letters with her rough fingers. "Thank you..." She gave him a big smile, "I... I love you, Axton."
She quickly walked out, a burning red stuck on her face as well as a goofy grin.
The table was silent, well, unless you count all of Gaige's internal cursing. "See." Axton picked up his cold cup as he pointed lazily towards the door that the girl left from.
"She knows that she doesn't have a chance with me, but she still does it because she would want me to know it. That's what your friend should do." He took another long sip before looking at how the girl was staring intensely at her drink. "Hopes that helps."
Gaige took a while to respond, she had to think of her response. She could see what he was saying, and she understood it too. But... It just seemed too hard- for her friend of course.
She looked up with a grateful smile and took a big gulp of her weakened toxic. "Yeah."
"ARGHHH!"
The chained up bandit screeched as Gaige pumped his leg full of her fire billets, watching as his skin melted and his health decreased, before eventually he died, another bandit taking his place. She let out a small scoff, switching out her weapons as the bandit screamed at her to not shoot.
"Yo, Gaige." The soldier came in unannounced, slightly surprising the girl.
"Oh. Axton. What are you doing here?" She didn't bother to send another glance at him as she shot the bandit square in the end, shocking his now unhabited body.
The soldier took his hands out of his pockets, slamming the button to release a robot as he took out his new corrosive sniper. It had a custom chamber, signifying that it revolved. "Waiting for Sal to come: we have a small little contest meeting-thing here every Tuesday." He watched the robot get dragged in, shouting about how Hyperion is going to rule the world.
"Wait, you guys actually have contests?" She sent a small periodic stare at the man before closing one eye as she aimed down her sights, making sure the bandits' head was in the crosshairs.
"Yup." The man rubbed the back of his neck, "So far, it's 20-17 him. The dude loves guns."
He quickly sniped the robots' right arm, sending it flying off into the distance as the robot let out a monotonous "Ow."
"Really?" She inquired, interested that the egotistical man was losing; even if it was just by 3. "Thought you were the best." She mocked, quickly swapping her assault rifle for a shotgun.
"Well, like I said, the dude loves guns." He reloaded his weapon with a practiced manner, quickly changing it in a couple of seconds.
The girl gave a small affirmative grunt, letting her gaze wander over to the man to observe how his muscles clenched as he held the sniper grip tight. Briefly wondering how it would feel if he grabbed her like that
"Anyways, how did it go for your... Friend?" He smiled knowingly as he shot the robot again, this time in its head, using his pure strength to reduce a massive amount of recoil.
The girl was catched off guard, briefly freezing before resuming her target practice. "Umm... It went well: she took the advice and asked the guy out..."
"Oh, really?" Axton moved a stall closer, making himself only 2 stalls away from her.
"Yup. He said he was going to think about it, but I have a feeling that he mirrors her feelings..."
"That's good..." He moved again.
"Yeah..."
"So, hey. What's the this guy's name?" He moved again, only being one stall away now.
"Oh- umm." She stopped firing and placed her gun on the table, turning to face Axton, not even noticing that he got closer as she was trying to think of a convincing lie. "You would probably not know him..." Her face started to burn as she but her hands behind her back and played with her fingers, her knees slightly shaking.
Axton went to her booth and put up a hand to his chin, "Really? I wouldn't know?"
"N-Nope." Her darted her eyes around the room.
"Oh. Well, surely, you wouldn't mind if I guess. Right?" He softly grabbed her delicate chin, bringing her attention to what was in front of her.
She could barely breath, it was so ragged. Her heart was beating louder than the sound of an atomic bomb going off, her hands felt sweaty, and her face was blazing red. Her stomach was spinning and so was her head. She would probably never forget this... Sensation. It felt horrible, but at the same time, it felt amazing. She would probably never be able to describe it in words.
"N-No." Her voice was just above a whisper, her eyes were wide open as she gazed into his brown eyes. Her body was stiff.
"Brick?" He inched in closer.
"N-No."
"Mordecai?" He inched in closer, close enough to smell her vanilla scented body lotion.
"N-Nope." Her mind was going haywire.
"Scooter?" He was an inch away from her lips.
"N-N-No."
He grinned slyly, taking a small moment before continuing.
"Me."
He crashed his lips into hers, gently using his tongue to part her lips as he moved his head sideways as to get more access. Her shy, inexperienced tongue was dominated by his, being played around with in the confides of her mouth as they kissed passionately until their breath was gone.
They retracted from each other, both of their lips were moist as they rested their foreheads together, breathing heatedly as Axton had a cheeky grin on his face, and she had a dazed look on hers.
"And to answer your question: Yes. I would actually love to go out with you. How does Saturday by 8 sound?"
Gaige groggily nodded, the same dazed look stuck on her face as Axton chuckled, giving her a quick peck before walking off, shoving his hands in his pockets.
Gaige, finally shaking out of it looked up, grinning with all the happiness a heart could hold as she called out to him. "There never was a meeting, was there."
Axton stopped in his tracks and turned around, exposing his boyish smirk, the one that would make anyone fall in love with him at first sight.
"Nope."
~End~