Muahahahaa. -

Cosplay and Love

Roxas wasn't happy.

He had never been truly happy with Namine - but that didn't mean that he wasn't sad she was about to break up with him.

"Roxas - I do love you. I think ... I love you more than you'll ever love me," said Namine, tears pooling in her eyes. She blinked furiously, as though willing herself not to cry in front of him.

Roxas was busy packing; folding his clothes meticulously, one after the other, and arranging them neatly into his suitcase. The sword would have to go in the backseat, he thought absently.

Namine continued on.

"You've been obsessed with this since forever. And frankly, it disturbs me, Roxas."

His ears started to turn red, embarrassment and indignance creeping up on him. What's wrong with a little bit of anime? Surely he could be allowed to like whatever he -

"If you say you're straight - then why do you keep reading boy-love stories on ?"

The suitcase snapped shut. Roxas turned to face her.

"I often think - that when you're with me, you're actually thinking about being with a boy instead."

"Namine, I didn't know you were such a homophobe," said Roxas acidly.

"I'm not! Honestly, I'm not. It just ... sucks... when the person you love doesn't swing your way."

Roxas sighed, sitting down beside his suitcase.

"You're right, Namine," said Roxas tiredly. "Maybe I don't like girls after all."

"I hope you'll find someone," said Namine sincerely. She shuffled forwards awkwardly to give a last hug to Roxas, then pulled away when he mumbled, "I hope you'll find someone, too. Someone better than me. I'm sorry, Namine."

"It's okay," she said. "I guess you'll have to go to the AnimeCon by yourself now."

"I'll be fine."

They said their goodbyes, and Roxas got in the car and drove to the Anime Convention.

If one were to ask Roxas - how exactly did he find himself obsessed with anime? - he wouldn't know how to answer. He truly didn't know. It was just the sort of thing that he grew to like. Truth be told, he wasn't exactly obsessed with anime, he was more obsessed with the video game Final Fantasy VII.

And, he was actually secretly pleased that if he were only just a little bit taller, he'd look just like Cloud Strife, protagonist of the game.

So here he was, heading to the Anime Convention as a first-time cosplayer, and he was feeling a little bit nervous. Thankfully, Cloud's character didn't really smile much, so all Roxas had to do was just look emo and swing around that big sword.

As he walked into the main hall of the convention center after parking his car, he was surprised to find that it wasn't filled with people. Yet. Perhaps it was still too early in the morning.

"Hi, are you entering any of the competitions?" said a girl at the main booth. "If you are, you have to register."

Roxas scanned the list of competitors for the cosplay competition and wrote his name. As if sensing his pre-cosplaying jitters, the girl asked him kindly, "First time cosplaying?"

"Yeah," said Roxas.

"Who are you cosplaying as?"

"Cloud, Cloud Strife."

"Oh!" The girl's eyes lit up excitedly. "I saw a Sephiroth cosplayer just now. Maybe you guys could team up later on for the sketch."

Roxas paled.

"Sketch...?" he echoed weakly.

Months and months of meticulous planning for Cloud Strife's costume and sword; and he'd forgotten all about the sketch.

"I'll just - just go and get changed," he said hoarsely.

"The changing room are over there," she said, pointing to the right front stage. "Have fun at the AnimeCon!"

Roxas wanted to die.

All in all, he looked pretty good. Black lined turtleneck, black trousers, a red ribbon on his arm and his sword (which was a little too big for his sized but it didn't matter that much). The only thing he was missing was a piercing in his left ear. And Cloud's features were sharper, but that was nothing he could change.

Sighing, he tried spiking his hair up again. Roxas's hair was naturally spiky; but it wasn't the same kind of spikyness that Cloud was so famous for.

A brunet walked into the changing room then, smiling when he saw Roxas. Roxas gave a weak smile back and continued fixing his hair.

"Your hair's fine," said the brunet, putting his bags down and began fishing inside for his clothes.

"You think so?'

"Yeah. Cloud, right? It's easy to tell."

"Yeah. Who are you cosplaying as?"

A blush came over the brunet then, and he said quietly, "You'll see, later on. I'm only doing this because some idiot blackmailed me into doing it... so..."

"Right," said Roxas, frowning. Then he muttered, "See you," and left the changing rooms.

Peeking out from the doorway to the changing rooms, he saw that the hall had gradually begun to fill up with people. Trying to be casual, he walked amongst the crowd, slinging the Buster Sword over his shoulder. Unfortunately his costume didn't come with the strap that would have held the sword in place at his back, so he had no choice but to hold on to it.

Hmm ... What time was the cosplay event again? And the opening event, too, thought Roxas, eyes straying to the clock at the side of the stage. Walking over to the main booth, he proceeded to ask the girl but discovered that there was a minor commotion going on.

"For the last time, I'm telling you, I'm not cosplaying," said a man gruffly. He was a tall brunet and had shoulder-length hair, wearing a leather jacket, white shirt and leather pants.

Roxas stared.

He certainly looked a lot like Squall from Final Fantasy VIII...

"But you're Squall, you have to be. You're perfect, you'd definitely win the competition today!"

"No," said the man angrily. "I'm here because my friends dragged me along. And I have no idea who this Squall is."

"But - "

"Aw, lay off, Leon. Let's just go in - "

"Excuse me," Roxas cut in smoothly as the man left, grumbling irritably. "What time does the opening event and the cosplay competition start?"

"Hi! Hey, you look good," said the girl, promptly forgetting all about the Squall-lookalike. "The opening event's going to start soon, and the cosplay competition ... let's see... it starts at two in the afternoon."

"Thanks."

Roxas turned around, intent on getting lost in the crowd (and hopefully getting the attention of people who would like to take pictures of him and with him) when he nearly walked right into the longest sword he'd ever seen.

"Nice to see you again, Cloud," said a Sephiroth cosplayer, his voice dripping with sexiness. His hair was a little bit too short to be Sephiroth's ... but it had the same desired effect whenever he whipped his head around. But his costume was just oozing pure win.

"Sephiroth?!"

Roxas nearly fainted on the spot. Hoards of fangirls had gathered and was screaming "Sephiroth! Sephiroth! Sephiroth!!"

Not at all happy at being upstaged, Roxas did a quick backflip and drew his sword simultaneously. He cringed, however, when the sword nearly made him lose his balance.

Lowering the Masamune (where the hell did he get that from?!), the Sephiroth-lookalike started laughing.

"Sword too heavy for you, Cloud?"

"Overcompensating for something, Sephiroth?" Roxas spat out in anger.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to this year's AnimeConvention Fiesta!"

Everyone around them instantly forgot the impromptu battle taking place, cheering as the curtains opened to reveal three dancers in a sailor-fuku uniform on the stage.

"Hey, wanna team up for the competition later?" asked the Sephiroth cosplayer. Roxas nodded, putting away his sword.

"Cool. See ya, gotta go take pictures," he said, taking out a camera and moving through the crowds to get to the front of the audience.

"And now, for this year's opening scene, we have the song that's taken over the anime world! From The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, we give you ... Hare Hare Yukaaaiii!"

The crowd went wild as the song burst into full volume and the dancers on stage started to dance. Craning his head, he could roughly make out the Sephiroth cosplayer taking pictures like crazy - of the lead dancer. Roxas squinted - and his jaw dropped open when he realised that the lead dancer was actually a male. The same male brunet who he had met in the changing rooms earlier on.

Surprisingly, the brunet looked pretty good in that uniform...

Slapping himself mentally, he forced the thoughts out of his mind and continued to clap along with the crowd as the song ended. The dancers bowed and the brunet practically ran off the stage, probably in embarassment.

The crowd began to disperse as they looked for cosplayers to pose with. Roxas was one of the most sought after ones, and people were practically lining up to take pictures with him. The Sephiroth cosplayer passed by, then, together with the brunet on the stage, and also with a lot of other people trailing him as well.

"You did well up there. You looked good," Roxas overheard him saying.

"Thanks, but - Riku stop that we're in public- "

Roxas flushed deeply, pretending he didn't hear that. A random fangirl asked if he could pose together with Sephiroth (now known as Riku), and he nodded. They began re-enacting random scenes from the game. They were doing pretty well by themselves and then an Aeris cosplayer came along and the three of them attracted so many that people were jostling each other to take pictures.

Finally people started to get bored of them and left gradually, giving Roxas time to breathe. Riku looked beat as well.

"Riku, I'm hungry," whined the brunet, tugging on his silver hair. The brunet was still clad in his sailor-fuku uniform, and Roxas briefly wondered if he was in the competition as well.

"Ouch, let go, Sora," said Riku, wincing. "Let's go grab a bite then."

"You wanna come, Cloud?" said Sora, smiling at him cheerfully. Behind Sora, however, was Riku giving Roxas a look that promised Supernova on his ass if he said yes.

"No thanks," said Roxas. "I'm not hungry."

"Okay. Let's go!" said Sora, and promptly dragged Riku off in search for some food.

Sighing, Roxas looked around for a place to sit down. Buying a drink from one of the stores, he settled down on a bench and watched the crowd go by. There were still people taking pictures of him so he made sure to look as casual as Cloud Strife looked while drinking a can of soda.

And then -

"Why hello there, beautiful," someone whispered huskily into his ear.

"What the hell?" cried Roxas, nearly spilling his drink.

The redhead straightened up, lazily tapping a metal rod against his shoulder. He was dressed in a simple, untucked, white button-down shirt and a black overcoat with long black trousers. He had some goggles tucked messily above his eyebrows, and below his eyes were two teardrop tattoos.

Roxas recognised him immediately as Reno of the Turks, from Final Fantasy VII.

"Reno," said Roxas, staring.

"Cloud, right? Heh."

"Your hair's spikier than usual," said Roxas, eyeing the hair as the redhead plopped down beside him on the bench. "And your tattoos are wrong ... hey that's mine!!" Roxas cried indignantly.

"Mmm," said the Reno cosplayer, not caring either way.

"Your annoying personality must be natural," said Roxas hotly, snatching his drink back. It was empty.

"Just doing my job," the redhead said. Then, cheekily, he eyed Roxas up and down with some kind of undisguised lust, he asked, "So, Miss Cloud, why aren't you in a dress?"

A second later, the Reno cosplayer was on the floor (surrounded by fangirls with cameras not a second later) and Roxas was stalking off in a huff.

Two o'clock approached. Riku was nowhere to be seen. Roxas was cursing; without Riku, he wouldn't know what to do during the sketch.

"All cosplayers please take your places behind the stage. I repeat, all cosplayers please take your places behind the stage, the cosplay competition is about to begin. Thank you."

"Dammit," Roxas swore, storming towards the backstage, hoping to find Riku there, and maybe the other Aeris cosplayer.

"Alright, anime fans! The cosplay competition is starting now! First up - Reno from the video game Final Fantasy VII!"

Cheers erupted in the hall. Roxas spotted the tall redhead earlier slouching out onto the stage. And promptly fell over on purpose, much to the delightment of the audience.

"Yo," said the Reno cosplayer amid screams from the audience, idly twiddling the mic in his hand and his fake EMR in the other.

"There you are!" said Roxas, scowling as he spotted Riku. Tuning out the rest of Reno's sketch on the stage, he quickly approached Riku.

"What are we gonna do for the sketch?"

"It's easy," said Riku, waving his hand lazily. "All we gotta do is fight it out. I couldn't find the Aeris cosplayer earlier on, I think she's not in the competition. We'll just have to make do with ourselves."

"So, you know how everyone thinks I'm gay for Rude? I don't get it, yo. Rude's just my partner. I know we look good together, but he's just my fighting partner -"

"It's my first time cosplaying! You've got to tell me what to do or else I'll screw up!"

"Yeah, I can tell you don't believe me. Whatever, yo. Anyway, you know my friend Cloud? How does he do it, yo? He fights with that big bad sword of his and his spikes still stay the same. Can you believe that? I spiked my hair once, but -"

"Chill out. You'll do fine - or else maybe I'll win the competition after all," smirked Riku. Roxas growled angrily.

"Have you guys seen my rod, yo?" purred the voice from the stage, and Roxas turned to focus his attention on the stage incredulously. The screams were deafening.

"Thank you for that wonderful performance! And now, next up, we have - "

"Wooo," said the redhead, who had just come in backstage. "That was so random," he said to himself. Roxas quickly turned away, not wanting to attract his attention ... but he ended up being assaulted by him anyway.

"What's up, Cloudie," he said cheerfully, slapping the blond on the back. "Ooh, the one winged angel's here too! Cool costume," he added, giving Riku the thumbs up.

"Riku, you can't just tell me we're going on stage and fighting randomly. How would the sketch end?"

"It depends on who's going to really win on stage," said Riku, smirking. "I know who you are, you know. You're the guy who nearly won the Struggle competition last year."

Roxas gaped at him. The Reno cosplayer looked at them in confusion.

"So, all we have to do is really fight it out. Like how we did when we first met just now. Besides, these aren't real blades, so it should be safe," said Riku, before walking off.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," muttered Roxas angrily.

Cloud was supposed to defeat Sephiroth. But was Roxas always supposed to defeat Riku?

"Chill out, Cloud. You'll win for sure," said 'Reno', slinging a casual arm around his shoulder.

"You don't know that, for sure," said Roxas irritably. He let the arm stay, though.

"Yeah. Still, doesn't matter much right?"

"I suppose."

There was silence as they watched the rest of the competitors on stage, occasionally throwing in funny remarks to each other. The redhead was annoyingly funny, but Roxas found that the more he stayed in his company, the more he didn't seem to mind so much. He had a sense of humour, that was all. As long as he didn't try anything funny.

"So, do you wanna see my rod?" he said to Roxas, stroking the metal rod in a very disturbing way. Roxas stared, eyes wide, and the redhead burst out laughing.

"And, next up! Ooh, this one's quite the well known one, Cloud Strife and Sephiroth, from the video game Final Fantasy VII, again!"

The hall burst into screams again.

"Shit, shit shit shit shit!" said Roxas anxiously.

"Let's go, Cloud," said Riku, yanking him away from the redhead's grasp and pushing him roughly on stage. Roxas stumbled backwards out into the stage, and quickly brought up his sword to deflect Riku's sudden attack.

Somewhere, someone decided it would be cool to play Sephiroth's theme song. Add that to the screams of fangirls, Roxas's ears were beginning to bleed.

"Nice to see you again, Cloud."

Roxas slipped back into his Struggle stance, vaguely aware that it wasn't the same as Cloud's fighting stance; but he didn't have time to worry about it because Riku was attacking and he was attacking fast. Their blades clashed, but without the sound of actual fighting swords, and actually, Roxas was starting to enjoy this. Riku was right, in a way, there was no need for random talking or fake acting. All he had to do was fight.

Leaping away from the onslaught of the fake Masamune, Roxas again did the backflip and faced Riku.

"Cloud - " Riku began, but was rudely interrupted by a flying red blur landing in the middle of both of them.

"I'll save you, Cloud!"

"Reno?!"

The screams grew louder.

'Reno' drew out his EMR and thwacked Riku's legs. Howling in faked pain, Riku fell to the floor in surprise.

"Zap," said the redhead, poking Riku everywhere with the rod. "Bzzzztt, zap, zap bzzzttttt!!"

Roxas was just standing there in pure shock, not even laughing along with the audience at the redhead's own immature sound effects.

"I saved you, Cloud!" said 'Reno', throwing aside the rod (which landed on Riku's face) and doing some kind of slow-motion run towards Roxas.

"My hero," said Roxas blandly, and caught the redhead in a weird hug.

Then - his mind went blank for the next few minutes.

And the hall stood in shocked silence.

Roxas didn't know what possessed him to let the redhead kiss him. He also didn't know what had possessed him to kiss back either. And it wasn't a chaste kiss; Roxas had dropped his weapon and was fighting with the redhead for dominance. He tangled his hands in the flaming red hair which felt oddly natural, and he could feel skinny fingers wrapping around his waist.

Maybe it was because of the Namine fiasco that he was feeling entirely out of sorts; maybe all he could hear was Namine's voice in his head, saying "I hope you'll find someone", but the guy was a pretty good kisser and Roxas honestly felt as though he were melting.

They broke apart for air.

"Well!" said the emcee, obviously just as shocked as everyone else. "Well, thank you for that - er - well - performance - you may leave the stage - next up -"

Roxas practically ran off the stage, closely followed by the redhead and Riku.

"What," spat Riku, "was that?"

"I don't know," moaned Roxas.

"Go away," said the Reno cosplayer irritably. Then he turned to Roxas. "I'm sorry. I don't know what got over me."

"Me too," said Roxas quietly.

The cosplayers around them were starting to whisper excitedly.

"Let's get out of here."

"Where to?" asked Roxas, as they walked out of the backstage room.

"Do you want to go grab some coffee with me?" said the redhead. Roxas heard the hope laced in his words. Oddly, he felt his face flush and his spirits lifted somewhat.

"That, or another impromptu make-out session."

Hoards of yaoi fangirls appeared before them, lust and hunger in their eyes.

"Run for it, Reno!" said Roxas, panicking, grabbing the redhead's hand.

"The name's Axel, A-X-E-L, got it memorized?"

"I'll memorize it later!"

END

The "Nice to see you again, Cloud," is like the part in Advent Children where Sephiroth says "Hisashiburi na -- Cloud," and the One Winged Angel theme starts playing. Lol. I didn't put Japanese in there because... well, just because.

Sailor-fuku uniform is ... well. the normal high school girl uniform? Lol. If you want to know where I got this image of Sora dancing in that ... it's here. mandachan./art/KH-meme-74425676 . Her drawing is awesome, check it out. And I also thought it'd be nice if Riku blackmailed him into it xD

I don't watch Haruhi, but I'm pretty sure there are many people out there who don't watch Haruhi yet know about the dance as well, because it's just that popular.

I enjoyed writing this, please tell me what you think. -