Roxas sighed and reclined on the couch, closed his eyes, tried to drown out the sounds of Yo Gabba Gabba that were emanating from the TV. He had his iPod plugged in and up as far as it would go without hurting his ears, and still he could hear the annoying voice actors try to solve the simplest problems, along with his little brother's occasional giggles.
"Cloud!" He barked, opening his eyes to slits and glaring at the younger. "Turn that down! I'm tired."
The little blonde turned his head and smiled, sticking his tongue out. "No way! You're just a meanie poo-poo face! I'm going to tell mom you're being mean to me!"
"She's not even your real mother, stupid!" Roxas yelled back, sticking his tongue out too. Sure, it was immature. Whatever. Its not like the eight-year-old would think, Gee, my big brother sure is immature for sticking his tongue out.
Cloud stopped and looked at Roxas with wide, blue eyes, and after a few long moments his lower lip began trembling. Before he knew it, Roxas had launched himself forward and placed his hands on the younger boy's shoulders, trying to comfort him as loud sobs tore from his throat and tears the size of marbles ran down his cheeks.
"Cloud, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. Stop crying. Please, please, stop crying. Come on, mom's going to be home soon…please stop crying…"
"Roxas?" The older brunette glanced up and raised his eyebrows, seeing his adoptive mother's curious expression as she stood in the doorway. "What's going on?"
Before he had a chance to answer, Cloud ran to her and wrapped his arms around her legs (he was too short to wrap them around her waist) and sobbed into her blazer. "H-he told me that y-you're not my real mommy! But you are m-my real m-mommy, right? R-right?"
"He said what?" She glanced up and glared at her older son, and after a few moments of comforting Cloud mouthed, Upstairs. We need to talk.
Roxas sighed and heaved himself up, trudged up the flight of six steps to their second floor, and leaned against the wall, waiting. "Thus is the beginning of my end." He muttered.
He had resolved to stay calm throughout his entire punishment. That was…however…before it was delivered. Now, here he was, on his feet (he had started out sitting) screaming at the woman in front of him, trying to pretend to himself that Cloud wasn't in his room, sobbing because they were fighting again.
"He's only eight years old!" She cried at him, her expression a mixture of pain and anger. "I'm the only mother he knows! How do you expect him to understand that he comes from other parents? How?"
"Oh please," Roxas turned and chuckled humorlessly, shook his head. "You're no mother. Jesus Christ, you couldn't even manage to have kids of your own. How the hell did you think you were going to be able to raise us? Now that's the question."
Her demeanor changed immediately. She straightened up and cleared her throat, and when she spoke her voice shook. "You have no right, to bring that up. No. Right."
"I have every right." The acid in Roxas's voice was easily heard, but he wasn't in the mood for stopping there. "First of all, you're a single "parent." How the hell you ever got any adoption agency to consider you a valid option for Cloud and me is a mystery to just about everyone. And, quite frankly, I don't care if you're the only mother Cloud as known. You're not his mother. Get over it, Anne."
She turned and tried to conceal the tears that were running down her cheeks, and Roxas just sighed and stood up, moved toward the door. "You know something, Roxas?" She murmured, half to herself. "You have a really good habit of making my good days miserable."
He let out a short laugh and turned, eyebrows raised. "And what on Earth could've made today a good day?"
"I met someone." She retorted, turning slightly and watching him out of the corner of her eye. "He's going to be coming this weekend to meet you two. We've been seeing each other for almost two months, now. I figured its about time you knew."
Roxas watched her for a few moments and snorted, shook his head, and opened the door. Before he was all the way into the hallway, however, he made sure to add a soft, "I hate you," that was just loud enough for her to hear.
Roxas curled up on his bed and ran a hand through his dark brown hair, trying to soothe the pain in his stomach and ignore the throbbing in his head. Arguing that intensely with his "mother" always did this to him, but despite this he couldn't stop himself from venting his emotion every once and a while.
He had explained what he had said to Cloud for the millionth time since they had arrived in America together, Cloud a mere infant and Roxas ten years old; young enough to think that he would someday return to his parents, old enough to know that he wasn't going to like this new woman to whom he was being sent.
He rolled over on his side and glared out his window, across the street, and at the children playing in the park. Anne was over there on one of the benches, watching Cloud play with his friends. He was happy and smiling, and when the brunette glanced at the clock he noticed that it had been almost four hours since he had locked his door and turned off the lights.
He returned his attention the park benches and quickly spotted Zexion, his slate gray/blue hair very difficult to miss. The other teen had in his hands a book that looked to be the size of four encyclopedias forced together into a novel, and Roxas smiled to himself. Zexion had been, up until about a month ago, Roxas's biggest crush (there was something really hot about smart emos.) That was, of course, until Roxas learned that said crush was sleeping with his English tutor.
"Roxas?" He looked over at his doorway at the sound of his name and saw Anne standing there, hesitant and nervous. He sighed and closed his eyes, drew his knees against his chest.
"Go away." He groaned. "I'd rather have sex with my brother than talk to you right now."
He heard her footsteps and knew that she came in despite what he had said, and tried to make himself fall asleep. Unfortunately for him, it just wasn't possible to pass into unconsciousness in the space of about thirty seconds.
"I really wish we would stop fighting like this." She whispered. "I mean, Adam, that's the guy that I'm seeing, is going to be here in two days. I want us to look like…like a happy family. I want to get along with you."
He sighed. "We can look like a happy family, Anne, but you will never, ever get along with me."
"Why not, Roxas? Why do you dislike me so much?"
"I plead the fifth." He sat up and looked at her over his shoulder and noticed that she was tearing up. God, that woman cried about everything. Couldn't she just take it like an adult and cry by her lonesome for once?
"Roxas DuPont, answer me immediately." She choked out, with hardly any conviction.
"God damnit!" He cried suddenly and without any warning, and stood up to face her. "Will you stop calling me that? I am not "DuPont," no matter how much you, or anyone else for that matter, wants me to be. I'm a Mogilevich, and I'm proud of it. I'm proud of who my father is, what he's done-"
"That's enough." She cut him off and held up her hand. "I have no desire to participate in a conversation about who your father is. Dinner will be ready in a half an hour. I hope you can bring yourself to eat with the family."
She turned on her heel and left, slamming the door to the room behind her. If Roxas was at all surprised about the way she was acting, he probably would've jumped at the noise. He heard Cloud ask what was wrong from the first floor, heard Anne try to explain.
With much an exasperated sigh (he seemed to have several of those these days; he was starting to feel like forty more than fourteen) he laid back down on his bed and glanced over at Zexion. He noticed the bluenette looking into his window, and when Zexion saw him watching he held up his hand in what was supposed to be a wave.
Roxas smiled and held up his hand, too, and after a few moments grabbed his cell phone off of his bedside table. He flipped open the keyboard and began composing a message to Zexion, telling more than asking him to climb through the window and feel free to stay for dinner afterwards.
"Zexion, we haven't seen you in a while." Anne regarded her older son and his… "friend" with a sort of skepticism, giving each of them a once-over. Roxas was flushed and standing a little to close to the other boy for her comfort, and Zexion was looking incredibly satisfied and had ruffled hair; hair that was usually so neat and clean.
"Yes, it has been a while." He agreed. He glanced over at Roxas, who was staring off into space, and chuckled. "I haven't really had a reason to come over for the last month or so."
"Yes, well." She straightened up and pulled the casserole out of the oven, placed it on the table, and turned back towards the two of them. It wasn't that she was against homosexuality, she just…didn't like gay people. If God had intended for gay men and lesbian women to exist on this Earth, he would have created Mark and Steve and Sara and Jane go along with Adam and Eve. It just…wasn't right.
"Will you be joining us for dinner tonight?"
"If it isn't too much of a hassle." He smiled politely at her, but she could easily see that it was a tight and controlled smile. Roxas had probably told him all about their fight while they were upstairs committing crimes against God.
"Of course not. Roxas, would you set another place for Zexion, please?" She watched him expectantly, part of her actually expecting him to move over to the cabinet and take out the plate, silverware and glass. Instead, he just looked up at her and raised his eyebrows.
"Huh?"
Zexion smiled and leaned down so that his lips were in Roxas's ear, saying something that Anne couldn't quite hear. She assumed, however, that he was merely repeating the instructions that she had given.
"Oh…" Roxas blinked and wobbled a little bit, cleared his throat. "Sorry mom, I'm kind of…uh…" He giggled and leaned into Zexion, closing his eyes. "I'm kinda stoned, if you know what I mean."
"You're what?" She glared at Zexion, eternally hating that child for whatever he had given her son, and marched forward. She placed her hands on the brunette's shoulders and looked him in the eye, and he actually returned the favor.
"What did he give you, Roxas?" She tried to make her voice serious, and she really was concerned about him. As much as they fought, she was concerned. "What was it?"
He watched her for a second, and then erupted into a stream of harsh, bitter laughs. "Oh, you are so easy. The only thing he gave me, Anne, was sweet, sweet pleasure."
She looked at him for a few moments, and he raised his eyebrows at her. A smile spread across his face, and when she glanced up at Zexion she noticed that he was nodding at Roxas in amused approval.
"Why do you do this to me?" She whispered, felt herself tearing up. "Why, Roxas, do you hate me so much?"
Without waiting for his answer she grabbed her jacket and her car keys off of the kitchen table and ran out the back door, making sure to slam it behind her, and was almost scared to death when she ran into a strong, muscled chest.
"Oh, hey." He deep-ish voice greeted her, and she looked up at the brunette through teary eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Adam." She gasped in relief and leaned against him, and she heard him clear his throat.
"Um…is there something I can do?"
"Yeah." She breathed, sighing. "Teach my son how to love."
A/N: Whoo! Its finally up!
Okay, there are just a few things that I want to take care of before we begin. First, I know you're all thinking, whoa, wait. Roxas is blonde, not brunette. Well, you know what, he's brunette now. So there. I have a plan, and you'll see it eventually. Just...deal for now. 2) What the hell kind of eight year old watches Yo Gabba Gabba! Well, Cloud was going to be six, but now he's eight. So there. 3) Adam? Who the hell is Adam? Again, I have a plan. You'll see.
Now! I know you guys have waited a seriously long time for this fic, and I promise to stay true to it. There might be a Glee fanfic in here at some point because I owe Xanjen a late birthday present, but other than that I WILL write and finish this story as promptly as possible, but keep you guys on edge at the same time. ^^
Lastly, RANTZILLA! Jebus, girl! Take a sedative! xD I love your reviews, and I wish to God you don't change a thing about them, but you're CRAZY. I love you. xD
~Sara