Warnings: This story contains language, yaoi, and violence
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One: Judgement of Anubis
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"Yo, you got Judgement of Anubis?"
"I've got Aegis of Gaia, coming in hot like a rocket."
"Dawg, get me some of that continuous trap."
"Obelisk the tormentor."
"Mother trucker, dude."
Three boys hunched in the back of a twilight lit alley with a whorl of cards and a pack of cigarettes between them. They used their first cigarette to light a second, looking over their shoulder before passing around each like pagan offerings, eyes rolling into the back of their heads as they took heavy puffs. As a chunky boy with a massive dog street t shirt, blue and white timbaland boots, and a sweat band guarding a burst of black spikes for hair took a particularly long slug, he coughed and winced, massaging his throat as he passed the fag to the side.
"Freaking frick, dude, I think I can feel it," he whispered, eyes glazing as he stared at his hand. "I'm like totally high right now, bros."
"Nah, you're thinking of magic dragon, dude," drawled a boy with peroxide blond, violently damaged hair glued into knife sharp, curling spikes. "Tobacco's got nothing on it."
"This was totally spiked," the black haired teen insisted. "I'm totally feeling something, dawg."
"Give it," snapped the third teen, a scrawny boy with a muddy tan and dirty blond bedhead. One side of his scalp was so flat you could see a circle of soft pale skin at the center. The other side poked this way and that, greasy and thick. He adjusted his coke bottle glasses with his middle finger as the peroxide blond hacked up a lung and brought out an inhaler from his pocket. As he topped up, the black haired teen scratched at a patch of eczema beneath his chin and glanced over the cards again.
"As cruddy as this sounds, dawgs, I don't think I'm gonna trade," he said. The two blonds groaned and scowled in displeasure.
"If you're not trading, then I'm not, either."
"Y'all are some real truck nuggets, guys," barked the blond with the glasses, shoving them up his nose again when they slumped to the tip. The constant burst of blush gracing his tan, freckled cheeks crept down the sides of his neck, the usual when he became angry. His peroxide blond companion scoffed at his side, cracking the hardening gel in his hair as he tried scratching it.
"Yo, dude, calm the frick down," he sighed. "We'll reconvene tomorrow. Pass me that sweet stick, man."
The dirty blond passed the cigarette and watched as the peroxide blond sucked it and coughed again. Suddenly, a window slammed above them. Feverishly, the three stamped out the cigarette and jammed their hands in their pockets. A woman leaned from the window above, coughing and sniffing. When she smelled smoke, she whipped her gaze down, met the quarter empty pack of cigarettes on the street side, and shrieked.
"Have y'all three been smoking?" she squawked.
"Mother trucker..." said the peroxide blond, digging one camouflage colored, crock clad foot into the alley pavement. The window slammed shut and the sound of footsteps on creaking stairs echoed through the alley's walls. A door fired open. The trio turned. The peroxide blond's mother stood with a fowl glance and hands on her generous hips. She still wore her combat boots, even though she had a pair of pajama shorts and a stained white t shirt on top. Her normally curled brown hair was thrown up in a messy bun. To the peroxide blond's friends' delight, she still went bra free.
"Hayner Allen Cowden," she growled as she crossed her arms under her rather large breasts. "What the heck are you doing smoking those cigarettes when you can't even breath human on a daily basis?"
"Hello Ms. Beatrix," said the black haired teen politely. Hayner's mother ignored him.
"I wasn't smoking, mama!" Hayner insisted in a bold faced lie. His mother stomped behind him, whacked him over the head, and pulled him by the ear. Hayner's voice cracked with a cry as he descended into "aw, mom," "c'mon," "I swear I WASN'T!" "leave me alone!" and "I'm sorry, don't ground me."
"Roxas, Pence, y'all's families will be receiving calls," Beatrix snapped. Before she could drag Hayner in, he evaded her and scrambled up his cards. When she slapped him again and told him to hand them over, he began crying.
"Don't burn 'em!" he screamed, mewling through the street. Beatrix rolled her eyes and snapped that she was just going to keep them till he figured out how to behave like a sentient human being.
"Y'all know cigarettes are a gateway drug," she spat. Then, she and Hayner disappeared, his broken cries still railing through the bowels of his apartment after his mother shut and locked their door. Roxas and Pence stared at the closed portal for several minutes, shuffling from side to side in an effort to figure out what they would do next.
"Clock tower?" Roxas, the dirty blond with the coke bottle glasses, asked. Pence fidgeted and bit his lip.
"I don't know, dawg, I feel like I should go home," he said. "There's interest on punishments the longer I escape them. If Beatrix calls right now, I should go home as soon as possible."
"Mother trucker," the dirty blond cursed, collecting his cards and cigarettes and shoving them in his pockets. "They weren't even that good."
"You thought so, too?" Pence, the ravenet, beamed. "I was just joking cause I thought you guys dug it."
"Nah, my 'pa likes 'em," Roxas explained. "He looks pretty cool when he's puffing, and he's puffing all the time."
"Maybe he's just a cool guy," Pence shot back. Roxas acquiesced that he was pretty cool. He walked Pence to the tram stop at the end of the street before saying goodbye. Then he went across the road to the convenience store with the big, neon "Item Shop" sign overhead. When he slipped in, the bell tinkled and he called hello to the shop owner's young son Wantz. Then he shuffled around for the fridges, pulling one of the sliding doors open and digging in for the sea salt ice cream. When the shop door tinkled again and a group of familiar voices rose and thundered like a tsunami over the welcome mat, Roxas nearly shit himself.
The entirety of the Twilight High varsity football team- male and female divisions, trudged inside the store's small confines like the pompous, vicious jerks that they were, scanning the aisles for victims as they snatched up chips, water bottles, and candy bags and hurried them to the front counter. Roxas stared forward like a bug under a microscope in his coke bottle glasses, sweat dripping down the sides of his jaw as the blush on his cheeks crept all the way to his chest. When a girl named Rikku flipped her long blonde hair back and met eyes with Roxas, he gasped, swiveled around, barreled out the emergency exit at the store's rear, and lunged for the bathroom. When he was safely inside, he locked the door, crept into the corner, and prayed for release. To his dismay, the emergency exit burst open and a gaggle of male voices sailed towards him. When they approached the bathroom door, a big, booming fist plunged against it, making him stifle a cry and pee a little. Cursing himself, he sniffed back a sob and decided to pee for real, just in case they scared him again. With jittering fingers he undid his pants and sprinted to the urinal. Just after he zipped up and began washing his hands, the fist boomed against the door again. Its owner whispered and snickered. Then, a clear, even voice peeled in.
"Yo, fuckwad, quit shitting and give everyone else a chance to take a piss," Riku Shima, defensive midfielder, boomed. More laughter erupted around him. By the sounds of it, a few girls had joined in. Roxas cursed again, wiping his hands along his cargo shorts in savage swipes. Guys always got twice as vicious when they had something to prove.
"How long does it take you guys to poop?" whispered a voice Roxas was sure belonged to Riku's best friend, Kairi.
"Too fucking long," drawled Riku's girlfriend Xion. More laughter.
If there had been a paper or plastic bag in the bathroom, Roxas would have begun hyperventilating into it. When he banged his palm to his forehead in an effort to get his brain working, he gasped and glanced up. There was a small window emptying onto a balcony just above the toilet. Roxas scrambled towards it, causing the toilet lid to grind to the side as he lifted off of it.
"What in the fuck is he doing?" asked Xion.
Roxas got hold of the window sill, craned his head through it, thought better of it, and attempted turning himself around, nearly slipping and falling face first into the toilet basin. The booming on the bathroom door became antagonistic.
"Hey, shit bag, hurry the fuck up!" Riku snarled.
"Riku, let me try," called another voice. Now Roxas slipped for real. He yelped as he caught his feet around the window sides and hung limply down the wall.
"What the fuck are you doing, man, masturbating?" asked the football team's star striker, Sora Nomura. Roxas shook as he imagined the boy barreling in on him, honey soft skin blazing, icy blue eyes twinkling with malice. He nearly bounded through the window face first, ignoring how painful it would be if he slipped off the balcony and onto hard concrete. As he shimmied his head, shoulders, and hips out of the window, he heard voices discussing if they should go find the store owner to see if he could unlock the toilet. Someone suggested climbing through the window out back. Roxas held back a cry of terror, biting his tongue as he shimmied past his thighs and hung like a wet rag down the building's side. He could almost touch the balcony below, feel its clay colored tiles extending beneath his fingers. He'd just have to do a sort of cartwheel when he came down. He'd never done a cartwheel. Just as he was steeling himself, voices rose around the building side and his glasses flew off his nose.
"Mother trucker," he groaned, edging himself out of the window completely so that he was doing a handstand against the balcony wall. Slipping his right foot to the side, he cartwheeled along the siding and landed on his feet. Then, with a chuffed sigh, he slipped on his glasses, scrambled along the sort of bridge connecting the balcony to a street side nearby, and scrambled at breakneck speed down the road before anyone could catch him. He had always been a fast and slippery kid, edging himself out of countless sticky situations. This was no different. He charged towards Station Heights and its adjoining train station with fire under his heels, smile faltering only when he heard the sound of running behind him. In terror he charged up Market Street, up Station Heights, and across the patio, wailing and wincing into the oppressive setting sun as if he were finishing a marathon. When he looked behind him, two boys and one girl were tailing him. One silveret. One ravenette. One blond.
He shrieked and charged faster, avoiding a dip in the cobblestone that would have destroyed him for good. He tore around the building side just as the football troupe skidded into the middle of the patio mosaic. By the time more came and peeked around the building side together, Roxas had jigged the lock to the iron gate hammered in front of the maintenance door to the clocktower and fired halfway up its stairs. Just as he began to relax, a pillar of light sliced through the hall at the clocktower staircase's base, and three heads: silver, black, and red, bobbed through.
"Wow, Lea, I thought only us two knew about this place," the ravenette giggled. The scarlet headed boy snickered back, murmuring that it must have been more popular than he thought. The silveret hissed for them to find the kid from the bathroom.
"Maybe we can hang him from the spires," he snickered. "Break his glasses."
"Well, that's a given," a highlighter blond with two wispy bangs called as she entered. The red head slipped his arms around her waist and made out with her then and there. Roxas watched from the shadows of the broken stair in shocked wonder, pursing his lips and fidgeting to get a better look as she began to pull his jersey up his pale, toned back.
"Shh, I think I heard something," Xion whispered, holding up her hand. The rest paused. Riku scoffed.
"I think you're paranoid, Shi," he whispered. Xion scowled, muttering that she thought she'd heard a stair creak.
"We'll get him at school," the red head who must have been called Lea insisted. "Why waste any more time than we already have?"
"Will you even remember what he looks like by the time school starts?" snorted the highlighter blonde. "He was kind of unmemorable. Scrawny, lots of beiges, dirty blond greasy hair..."
"We can ask Sora," responded Xion. "He always remembers a face."
"Did Sora see him?"
"I don't know. Look, if you want to leave, we can leave."
"Yeah, let's go. It was fun while it lasted."
"You hear that, nobody?" roared Riku to the spiral of stairs above. Then he giggled. "Wait, let me just see if he's up there." With that, he scrambled up with Xion close behind. Roxas cowered as their nike clad feet hammered past his own, stopping his breath to make himself more invisible than he already was. Below, Lea and his girlfriend continued making out. Things must have gotten heavy, because they panted and groaned against each other. Roxas peeped down and clapped his hand over his mouth. The entire upper body of the redhead was naked. His shorts were pulled down just below the crown of his ass. The blond squeezed the muscles upwards so that they pressed together against his spine. Roxas shoved his fist in his mouth and huddled in on himself.
"You know he can probably see you right now," the blond whispered. "He's got no view of me, there's nothing behind me."
"Shit. That means if he sticks around and watches, he's a pervert."
"Oh, holy shit, then we'd have a real reason to beat the shit out of him! Guy on guy peeping tom!"
"Gross," Lea said in a girly voice. The blond laughed and muttered that it was kind of hot. Lea giggled with glee.
"Would it make you hot if I gave him a show?"
The blonde screeched with delight and clapped her hands as Lea struck a sultry pose and pulled his pants down completely. They hung around his stocking ankles as he shimmied forward against the blond and began dry humping her. Roxas tried tearing his eyes away, but he couldn't. The way the man's body moved was unbelievable. It was like doing the worm standing up, or dolphin kicking except on land. When Roxas tried mimicking it, the floorboards beneath him cracked and splintered. Lea and his girlfriend snapped up.
"Fuck, I know where he is!" Lea whispered, digging up his pants and creeping back up the stairs. As his girlfriend followed him, Roxas panicked and whipped around, looking for an escape. When he attempted moving up, the battering footsteps of Xion and Riku clambered to meet his other side. As his fingers dug down the wall at his right and met with an old scrap of metal, he got an idea.
"Stop!" called Lea. Xion and Riku paused.
"I know where he is!" the red head hissed. "I got naked and started dry humping Larxene-"
"Gross-"
"And he started moving around to get a look!"
"Oh my god, what a perv!"
"I know, and he's somewhere between us, right now. Just feel around the floor boards."
Roxas screamed internally and beat himself around the head. Then, hoping his aim had improved since he went skeet shooting with his grandad a couple months back, he flung the piece of metal above until it clattered just over Riku's shoulder. When the party glanced up, they gasped.
"Holy shit, he's right up there!"
"Fuck, he must be going up to the roof!"
Like a pack of wolves the four dove up the stairs. Just when they were far enough up, Roxas scrambled down on all fours, sweating bullets and yelping as he slipped down the last flight. As soon as his voice pierced the air, the four whipped around and screeched. Then they were behind him again. Roxas flung through the station tower door and scaled the iron fence surrounding without bothering to check if it was unlocked. Then, lost for what else to do, he tore over the wall protecting the patio from the hillside beneath and began climbing down, coiling from rock to rock like a little mountain goat. When he felt good and hidden, he peered back up and wiped his sweating palms against his cargo shorts. The heads of the four and a gaggle of their friends glanced around in dejection.
"Fuck, what a slippery little guy!" Xion breathed. Riku pecked her cheek and sucked at her neck, drawing a giggle from her.
"I love when you go on the hunt," he crooned.
"Hey!" Kairi's voice called as she approached. "Did you find him?"
"No, he escaped past you guys, though, you should have found him by now."
"Fuck!" Kairi gasped. "He must be behind the station. Anyone want to run after him?"
"Nah, he's not worth it," Xion responded. Lea shrugged beside her.
"I don't know about that," he sighed tragically. "I'm feeling pretty fucking violated right now."
"What? Why?" Kairi asked in concern. Larxene bit her lip to stop from crying in excitement.
"So we go into the clock tower because we know he's there, right?" she explained from Lea's other side. "And as Riku and Xion go up the stairs, me and Lea share a passionate moment. And Lea gets completely naked, right?"
"You guys are so fucking kinky!" Kairi tittered. Larxene stopped her with a delighted hiss. "Then..." she continued with a dramatic pause. "We heard creaking and moaning, and I think the kid that we were chasing was watching us and getting off."
"Watching me, specifically," qualified Lea with a budding smile that he shrugged off to don a dejected glower. "Can't believe some perv was watching me kiss my girlfriend, thinking about my body."
"Probably thinking of stuff he wanted to do to it," Xion added gravely.
"He probably would have raped me if I stayed in there any longer," Lea cut in. "Or even asked me to fuck him or something."
"Oh my god, Lea, I'm so sorry," Kairi breathed in horror. "That's like the sickest thing I've ever heard."
"Why don't we make his life hell when we find out who he is?" Xion whispered. "Get Sora on the case."
"Oh, trust me," Riku snarled. "Sora would love to fry that little motherfucker."
"Mother trucker," Roxas echoed under his breath, shoving both fists in his mouth to keep himself from speaking any louder. The gaggle above him sighed.
"Well, this changes things," Kairi said. "Let's split up and look for clues. I bet a million he's around the side of the tracks, maybe even walking along them."
"You think he went to Sunset Station?"
"Who knows. Let's just branch out from that general area and move where the tide takes us."
"Would he have jumped the patio wall or something?"
"Are you kidding, and rolled down the hill to his death?"
Roxas hunkered as a face peered over the ledge of the wall.
"Nope, I'd see him."
"He was wearing a lot of tan and his hair was kind of this ugly blond-"
"No, he had a black and white checkered bracelet, you couldn't miss him."
"Awesome! Any other defining characteristics?"
"Rikku said he had big blue eyes," Kairi chirped. "Same as Sora's."
"He had eczema on his cheeks or acne or something, too, they were really red," Rikku added, appearing at her side. "Serious bed head. Muddy blond. Greasy, too. These circular coke bottle glasses, made his eyes look like bug eyes."
"Nose shape? Any other defining characteristics?"
"I don't know, the hair and glasses and redness kind of covered everything," she lamented.
"Was he, like, how good looking was he?"
"Does he sound good looking? He was all hunched over and scrawny."
"God, he even looks like a perv."
Everyone laughed. Roxas glanced down at his thin arms and legs without expression, shimmying his bracelet from his wrist to his pocket and attempting to smooth down his hair. Soon the voices above moved away. Once he was certain they were gone, he continued down the mountain side until he jumped onto the beginnings of the meadow surrounding Twilight Town. The tracks above curved around the city like a highway, then separated out and into the peaks ahead. He could see the old railroad in the distance, parted by sparkling, lime green grass on all sides. He slumped and trudged around the side opposite to the station rear. Then, he dipped through the entrance of the cave to the water fall beneath Station Heights, and lumbered through the darkness.
The falls thundered against his eardrums as he scaled the depths along the water's side. He continued until he reached Twilight Town's underground irrigation system, wincing at the smell of sludge and waste trailing through the canals. To his relief, the metal grating was empty of workers today. He clanged up an iron stairway, passed grate, and scaled a ladder to a manhole cover that emptied onto a back alley with a bunch of old junk that had never been cleared out. When he popped through and glanced around, he saw that he was alone. He hurried through alleys and backroads until he reached his grandpa's car shop on the outskirts of town, drifting around its backside so none of its employees would see him from the front. When he reached the garage, he heard the voice of his 'pa bleating on about where he was. He tried tiptoeing behind his back, but when he felt a wrench fling for his head, he yelped and ducked.
"Where the hell ya been, kid?" barked his 'pa, puffing through the end of one cigarette as he extricated another from the pack slipped through the goggle strap around his head. "It's eleven fuckin' o'clock and you ain't said a word ye'd be out later 'n ten."
"Sorry, 'pa," Roxas croaked, trying to get to his room. His 'pa stared behind him with narrowed eyes. "Somethin' a matter, kiddo?" he called. Roxas shook his head, praying that he would forget about the cigarettes.
"Feelin' guilty cause ye stole my fags?"
"Mother trucker..." Roxas scowled, stopping and waiting for the inevitable blow up. When a chair creaked and a hand fell over his shoulder, he looked up with watering eyes. The man above, young for a grandfather, stared down through keen blue irises and locks of brilliant, golden blond that still evaded greying. He hunkered low to meet Roxas' glance.
"Didge get your friends in trouble for smoking?" he asked. Roxas blushed and dug his toe into the ground, giggling in nervousness and mumbling that he just wanted to try it. His granddad snorted. Then he whacked Roxas on the back and told him to get upstairs before he reconsidered hitting him.
"Seriously, Cid?" chimed a voice from under the body of a pickup. When its owner rolled out, he was glowering. He had the same tan and fiery red cheeks as his brother, but his blue eyes were narrower, his lips smaller, and his hair taller and golden blond. The lean muscles of his arms bulged as he hoisted himself to standing and wiped the oil off on his jeans. He dug his hands through his hair in vexation as another boy with dusk black locks and amber eyes peered up from another truck beside.
"First time I stole a cigarette I got my ass beat an my skateboard taken away," he bellowed. Roxas' grandpa groaned and snapped that Ventus had been ten when that happened and that Roxas was fifteen, now.
"It's his mother fuckin' birthday tomorrow, ya little shit, give him some fuckin' space."
"Don't worry, Mr. Highwind, we'll give him some space when the time comes," drawled the dusk headed boy far ahead. Cid shook his head and clicked his tongue. Then he told Roxas to get some sleep. As Roxas shut the door and mounted the staircase to the apartment above, he heard the two men talking.
"You know you're creating some real resentment treatin' that kid better than you do me. You always liked Cloud better, too."
"Ven, you know damn well I love all of y'all equally. Quit the bullshit. You see that look of terror in his eyes?"
"That's that fuckin' puppy look he makes when he's about to get in trouble and you fall for it every time."
"He's been through some shit today an I know he won' tell me what it is. I'm not gonna make it any worse by whackin' him or takin' his shit. It was simple curiosity, I saw the pack an he only took two. You passed the whole fuckin' thing around to your lousy friends."
"I was ten fuckin' years old, how you gonna call a bunch of ten year olds 'lousy'?"
"Cause they were an they still are!"
"Even me, Cid?"
"Shut up, Vanitas, this ain't your affair."
"Just cause you're sad cause he ain't got any real friends an he stays in alleys playin' cards all fuckin' day-"
"Better cards than pot-"
"You'd never let me smoke pot anyway, old man-"
"Damn right, I wouldn't! But you'd find a way to do it all on your own, ya little shit!"
"I'm not a shit!"
Roxas heard another wrench fly and knew Cid was at it for real. He escaped to his room and shut the door behind him, hiding his legendary card deck far in his closet so that his older brother would not find it and destroy it. Sure enough, heavy feet hammered up the stairs and and his fist wrapped against his bedroom door.
"Pa wants you," Ventus snarled gruffly.
"But he just told me-"
"He's got some fuckin' present for you."
Roxas scoffed, grabbed his desk, and shoved it across the wood of his room, thankful that the fuzzy feet attached to its legs kept its approach silent. When it was safely jammed under the lock, he sighed and plopped on his bed, fishing his summer homework from beneath the sheets and taking out his walkman and Beats knockoff headphones. This was one of the many times he was thankful for having bars around his window. Neither Ventus nor his seedy friends could get in or out that way. Then again, neither could he. All he could hope for was that his door held up and he could sneak out some time to feed himself or go to the bathroom.
He heard Ventus' footsteps stomp off and the next bedroom door slam. He scoffed again. Unplugged one headphone and paused his music. It seemed as though the fiendish pair outside had disappeared. Made Roxas chuckle. They were evolving. After five minutes passed, he heard a creaking door, shuffling feet, and a scowl.
"He's not coming out, Ven," drawled Vanitas' voice. This seedy character was a new addition to Cid's garage. Usually Roxas' eldest brother hung out with this weird englishman named Rould and his friend Lauriam. Vanitas seemed closer to his age, but twice as creepy as the others, who were approaching thirty and thirty five without having settled down. At least Vanitas didn't make Cid's lip curl in disgust when he walked in. Roxas' pa would just narrow his eyes, most likely internally thanking the gods for giving Ventus a friend who at least didn't appear to be a drug addict or drifter.
Ven's door shoved open and the boy stomped into the hall, asking if Vanitas heard anything.
"Maybe he's listening to music or something," Vanitas suggested in a cool voice. Ven scoffed, muttering that he probably had his walkman plugged in. Vanitas cackled. "Walkman, fuck..." he sighed in nostalgia. Ven's hand thundered against Roxas' door, jolting him from his listening and making him yelp.
"You little shit, open your door!" the man boomed, jiggling the lock. His friend cackled at his side. After screaming himself hoarse, Ventus gave up and clambered down the stairs, this time for real. For a moment, there was silence. Roxas sighed in relief and slipped his headphones back on, closing his eyes and laying on his bed stomach down, feet kicking above him as he read and scribbled in a notebook. He didn't hear as the lock on his door unlatched. When the knob turned and thumped against his desk, he jolted up. When he glanced towards it, he gasped. The desk was pushing forward slowly. Behind it, the door was inching open. He scrambled up and stood in front of it, trying to stop its journey. When he glanced through the sliver of space between, his coke bottle glasses met one amber eye, a nostril, and a half grin. He gasped and gulped.
"Hi, Roxas," Vanitas said. "Don't you want to get your grandpa's present?"
"No," Roxas gulped in terror. The tears pooling around his eyes were magnified inside his glasses. Vanitas' eye narrowed and flashed.
"You know," he crooned, "if you want to keep someone out of your room, you've got to jam something under the knob so it can't go forward. Putting a weight in front of the door won't work."
"Uh..." Roxas gulped. "Thanks?"
"Open the door now," Vanitas said. "Or I'll punish you twice as hard. You've got no choice but to take my word for it."
Roxas faltered and sniffed. Then, cracking, he shoved his desk away and inched for the hall. He was steered back by Vanitas, who slipped into his room and stood at its center, digging his hands in his pockets as he glanced around. When he saw the book Roxas was reading, he chuckled and picked it up.
"Frankenstein?" he murmured. Roxas nodded and said it was his summer homework. Vanitas snorted and threw the book down, slipping to his bed and leaning over his notes. When he took the notebook in his hand and flipped through it, Roxas inched forward and tried grabbing it back. Vanitas raised it above his head and raised an eyebrow.
"What are you doing, Roxas?" he asked.
"I- I'm trying to do my homework," Roxas responded, digging under his glasses and wiping the tears from his eyes. "I need my notebook."
"Stick your tongue in my mouth and I'll give it back," Vanitas responded. Roxas faltered and reeled back in befuddlement. Stick his tongue in his mouth? What the heck? He giggled from nervous confusion. Vanitas grinned back, canines sharp as incisors. Roxas' grin trembled down.
"I don't get it," Roxas whispered. Vanitas stepped up with his back to the door and cupped between Roxas' legs. Roxas clamped up as his eyes widened. Vanitas' hand stayed rested around his balls through the fabric, thumb moving back and forth. "Stick your tongue. In my mouth," he cooed. Roxas hesitated, blinded by the absurdity of the situation. Then he opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue, and raised it towards Vanitas' gaping grin. Suddenly, Roxas' door slammed against the desk only half removed. Roxas jumped as Vanitas' hands returned to his pockets. When Ventus stumbled inside and saw the two of them a foot apart, Vanitas expressionless and Roxas red and dumb as a cherry, he furrowed his brows.
"Vanitas," he snapped. "What the fuck are you doin'?"
"Just checking Roxas' homework," Vanitas said nonchalantly. He swaggered around Ventus without concern. For a moment Ventus and Roxas stood in the room alone. When they met eyes, Ventus' lips formed with a question.
"Uh, Roxas?" he started. "Did he...?"
Roxas stared at Ventus without seeing him, blinking back the shame crowding in droplets along the base of his eyes. "Did he what?" he evaded. Ventus scoffed and shook his head. Then he blustered, "never mind," and slipped from Roxas' room, slamming the door behind him. Before Roxas could relax, Ventus thrust his head back in and hissed, "by the way, Cloud's decided to show up for your birthday." Then, he was gone. Roxas stared at the space he had inhabited without expression. Cloud was actually coming back home? That was new. Cid must have guilted him into visiting. When he sat back on his bed, he stared at his reflection in the plastic end of one of this headphones and padded around his hair, thinking of the promise the kids from the football team had made earlier that day. Then, incensed, he tore from his bedroom, locked the door with the key he kept around his neck constantly, and hurried into the bathroom. Once the door was locked behind him, he fished Cid's shaving kit from under the sink and read the instructions. Then, turning the electric razor on, he shut his eyes, set it to number two, and whipped it across the center of his head. When he peeked an eye open and stared in the mirror, he gasped and grinned, giddy with laughter. He looked ridiculous, like a fluffy eared bear. Gritting his teeth, he tried going with the grain and carried the razor around planes of dirty blond tresses. Halfway through, footsteps clambered up the stairs again. Ventus rapped first on his bedroom door, then the bathroom door. Roxas called that he was pooping.
"Pooping doesn't take that fuckin' long, Rox," Ventus growled. "Get down here, Cid's orderin' pizza."
"I'm almost done!" Roxas shrieked in as high pitched a scream as he could.
"Stop screamin' like a kid having a psychotic fuckin' break!" Ventus spat. "Get out NOW."
Roxas ignored him and carried the razor faster around his head. Ten minutes later, Ventus was downstairs and he was finally finished. But when he got a good look in the mirror, he furrowed his brows. Something had gone wrong. The cut didn't look even at all. He looked like a sheared sheep. When Ven's footsteps clambered up again and a key jiggled in the lock, Roxas gasped and settled the razor back in its kit, distributing it under the sink just as Ven barged in. The brothers met eyes. When Ven's gaze fell on Roxas' mottled buzz, his eyes widened to saucers. Then, he burst into tears of laughter, collapsing against the wall and hugging himself with glee. Roxas slumped against the floor and screamed for him to stop laughing, kicking him in the shin in frustration. Ven was so entertained he didn't even notice.
"Holy fu-u-uck," he cackled, hiccuping through the 'fuck,' before descending lower against the floor. Soon another pair of footsteps clomped up too. They stopped just short of Ven's legs.
"Mother fucker, kiddo, what the hell were ya doing?"
"Bahahahahaha..." Ventus shrieked, kicking his leg against the door in manic fits. Roxas burst into tears and collapsed on himself as Cid lowered beside him and patted his back.
"They said they'd beat me up if they saw me with long haiiirrrr," Roxas wailed. Cid scowled and shot a glower to Ven, who stifled more laughter before bursting into howls again.
"C'mere, kiddo," Cid sighed, slipping the razor back out of its kit and plugging it in. "Let's fix you up..."
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A/N: Please FOLLOW, FAV, and REVIEW!