'White Lies' Disclaimer: xxx
CHAPTER 1: The Beginning
At the sudden sound of heavy footsteps all four pairs of eyes flicked towards the flap of material covering the entrance to the usual spot, expecting either Sora, Roxas or both of the brothers to come wandering through, although they had previous stated that they were unable to hang out with them tonight. When the individual entered, however, all four boys were slightly stunned at such an unwelcomed guest.
Axel. The weird pyromaniac with red as hair and facial tattoos from Year 12.
He was an older student who none of them shared classes with, except Roxas, who did Year 12 Maths. They'd seen the two of them talking a couple of times after classes, but other than that, Axel would hang out with his gang, Roxas with his and the two diverse friend groups had little form of connection.
"Uh..." Wakka managed stupidly. Normally the blitz ball player would have some snide comment to make about Axel, but now that he was here, not ten or so metres away, he couldn't seem to form a string of words.
Hayner, in contrast, seemed to perk up when realising an enemy was in their territory.
"What are you doing here?" He snapped.
"Looking for you guys." Axel responded bluntly. The redhead dug a hand deep into his left pocket and fiddled around until it re-emerged with what he wanted – a packet of cigarettes.
The boys spared surprised glances at each other while Axel forcefully attempted in vain to light his cigarette. Why would Axel want to see them? They never talked at school. What possible excuse could he have?
Giving up, Axel snarled an, "Ah, fuck that" and threw his cigarette lighter over his shoulder.
Pence, being the friendliest of the bunch, decided to query Axel on his presence.
"And why would that be exactly?" he asked quietly.
"Need to ask you guys something."
"Then ask it already." Hayner blurted out rudely.
Axel shot him a chagrined look before glancing around at the others. He exhaled deeply and run a hand through his hair. His other hand, meanwhile was fidgeting with his belt buckle. Tidus tilted his head to the side, wondering to himself what possible reason the tough, senior kid could be giving off slightly nervous vibes for.
"Ah, I know you are all buddies with Roxas, right?" Axel began, noticing Tidus watch him with an almost knowing expression, "Well... I just needed to know... something about him."
"Why don't you just ask him yourself? You guys are friends in Maths class, right?" Wakka had miraculously managed to find his voice again by this stage.
"Yeah, well, that is to say..." Axel gave them a small smirk, "If I asked him directly and didn't get the response I was looking for... it might ruin our friendship. And I wouldn't want to do that now, would I?" He said the last sentence with a hint of mock innocence.
"Ok." Hayner crossed his arms and fixed him with a bored stare, "Then out with it."
"Which way does Roxas swing?" Axel asked.
The silence that followed could've put a graveyard to shame. Hayner blinked repeatedly, Wakka had frozen completely, Pence began to splutter incomprehensible nothings and Tidus... well, Tidus sat there like he normally did.
Eventually, Hayner spared a quick glance to his left at Wakka and flashed him a wicked grin, before flicking his head back towards the lanky adult in front of him.
"Oh yeah," He said indifferently, "Roxas's bi. What's it to you?"
Pence's eyes bulged for a brief moment and he looked like his was going to come to Roxas's rescue and proclaim his deliberately apparent heterosexuality, but thankfully, thought Hayner, Wakka caught on quicker than anybody would have given him credit for.
"I thought everyone knew that." The blitz ball champion commented, feigning a friendly smile towards Axel.
"My bad." Axel entwined his hands behind his head to rest his wild red spikes upon them.
Pence and Tidus exchanged a dubious yet subtle roll of the eyes. Axel, the poor redheaded fool, being the outsider of the group that he was, didn't notice the artificialness of the atmosphere. Tidus sighed and stared blankly at the redhead. Based on appearances and high-school stereotypes, Axel generally hung out with the hardcore rebels of the school, which was directly in conflict with their particular group, who were naturally happy kids and felt there no need to fight the way things were.
In fact, he further contemplated, if it had been any other occasion, and Roxas's dignity hadn't had the opportunity to be served upon a silver platter to his somewhat evil and conniving friends, then Hayner would have probably started spewing obscenities towards Axel asking him why he wouldn't just stop complaining about all his life problems and shut the hell up!
Of course, to Axel, the plastered on smiles the group of boys were currently pinning him with could, for all he knew, just be the way they normally smiled. Poor bugger. The usual spot was filled with so much insincerity in that moment that it was almost suffocating.
"Thanks guys..." Axel tilted his head slightly in a grateful manner, "I'll see you all around, I guess."
"You sure will, buddy." Hayner replied in an incredibly mocking tone.
Axel pinned him with a sceptical look, before shrugging it off and leaving.
After a few moments of silence past, and Axel's loud footsteps faded to nothing, each of the four boys burst into action.
Hayner and Wakka for one, both proceeded to burst into tears of laughter and choke out repetitions of what they had just said.
Pence in contrast, simply shook his head but chose not to say anything about it.
Tidus cleared his throat. Did he honestly have to be the responsible one of the group? It was way too much of a hassle sometimes.
"Ok, I'll give you a chance to explain." He clicked his teeth together, "What the hell were you thinking?"
Wakka peered up at Tidus and abruptly stopped laughing as a result of the monstrous glare Tidus was directly towards him.
This, of course, left Hayner, sitting in his corner of the usual spot, arms clutched over his stomach, continuing to cackle loudly, eyes scrunched shut in hysterics, oblivious to the awkward mood surrounding him. This lasted another 30 or so seconds before he gave one last snort, wiped his watering eyes with his sleeve, and looked up.
A puzzled expression suddenly graced his features, "...Ok...what did I do now?" he asked uninterestedly.
"You just lied about our friend's sexuality to a guy who clearly likes him and was indirectly asking our permission to pursue him ... My god, Hayner do you ever stop and think?" Tidus muttered.
Wakka didn't bother to hide his blatantly obvious eye roll at Tidus's telling off routine. They were all so used to it now it couldn't really be taken seriously anymore.
"Oh come on," Hayner said assertively, "How often do us guys get an opportunity to mess around with sweet little straight-as-a-ruler Roxas? I know he has participated in at least one prank against every single one of us, and yet he's never the victim."
Wakka chipped in, for good measure, "We even got his brother Sora! We can't just skip him!"
Hayner stood up and started pacing, "Now tell me, where is the justice in that?"
Tidus scrunched up his nose in thought; True, Roxas had never been the victim of one of their all-against-one pranks before, but this was still taking it too far.
"I'm not having anything to do with this, guys. I mean, Roxas has a girlfriend." Tidus said, directing this specifically at Hayner and Wakka, as he presumed that Pence would agree with his moral obligations, as he generally did on these types of things.
As expected, the slightly cubby amateur photographer leaned forward from where he was sitting and timidly said, "Yeah, I'm out too guys. There are better ways to prank Roxas... "
"I suppose..." Wakka said, starting to sound on the verge of being convinced.
"No! No! No! No you don't!" Hayner waved his arms madly around, "You can't make me not continue with this... the opportunity... was too good ... to pass up... You can't make me." He added, childishly.
"Fine." Tidus retorted dejectedly. Really, Hayner was just too stubborn and sometimes too stupid for his own good, "But if this all screws the hell up, and trust me – it will, then you're not going to come to me to cry about how much you pissed Roxas off... Deal?"
Hayner raised his arms to pound fists with Tidus, "It's a promise." A pause. "I'm too manly to cry anyway."
And that's how it started.
xxx
A/N:
Howdy.
Thought I'd give you guys a sample of an idea thats been rattling around in my head for a very short while (for about an hour, actually) and ask what you reckon.
Like/dislike... continue/burn?... uh... Where you reckon the story should be heading... and all that jazz.
I'll be needing you guys to respond so I can decide on whether to keep writing this or not. :D
Jordan xx