A/N
Alright, here's the story. I've been MIA for a while, but now here's this. I'm hoping it does alright, because...well, I like it. And when I like things, I want them to succeed.
Disclaimer:
Believe me, if I owned any of the following, you would know.

We hold onto a childhood that was never actually ours, because we hate the one society has chosen to give us.

"Riku, wake the fuck up!" Axel yelled into my right ear.
I blinked my eyes open and stared daggers at my red-head flatmate. You see, Axel and I are parentless. It's not like they died or anything, it was a choice, an undeniably stupid one, but the both of us had made the decision while drunk, and considering how each of our parents were useless fucks anyway, we rented out the cheapest apartment available that was still in our district, and moved out the very next day. That was four months ago, and now I had grown to absolutely loathe the man.

"Why should I?" I moaned with the smallest amount of enthusiasm I couldn't muster up in me.

Axel leaned forward across the bed and flicked my earlobe. "Because we have school."

"You know, for someone who's been held back five times, you sure do like school."

I glanced up at him and he shrugged, his green eyes smoldered at me, his expression quickly turning into his own version of a pout. Now, let me get this into your head. Axel's pouts are hard to turn down, they really are. You know that moment when you scold your dog, it might just be a little tap on the rump, or a flick of their nose, but they always take it like you just ruined their whole world, I'm sure you know that moment, everyone does. Anyways, take that into mind, and reflect on the expression they have directly after that. They walk away with a tail between their legs, and just as they're about to leave whichever room you chose to be in at the time, they glance back, and the look on their stupid little dog faces, is just too much. It's like that, if Axel pouts, it's either something really important, or he thinks it's something really important. There's a difference , believe me. So don't hold it against me when I say that I caved, I always do, and he knows that. One of the many reasons for why I loathe the man.

"Seriously," I muttered as I pulled myself out of the miserable excuse for a bed I slept in, "Why should I go today?"

"Because it's the first day of the year, and you know how everyone treats you if you don't turn up." He replied.

I nodded knowingly, briefly reflecting on the previous year I had returned to school a day later than the rest of the student body. Axel smirked at me, obviously remembering it as well.

"You used to be such a wreck." He murmured while walking out of my bedroom.

I bounced up off the bed and meandered my way through the battlefield that was my floor. "That's what happens when the love of your life deserts you in an asshole of a town like this."

"Sure, love of your life. How many girls have you fucked since Kairi left?" He teased.

I winced at her name, then planted a firm smirk on my face. "No where near as much as the amount of guys."

"Faggot."

I grinned. "That's my name."

Axel turned and smacked me over the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" I growled.

"If you were really gay, you would've knocked me out for calling you a faggot." He said as we walked into the kitchen.

"I don't take offense to it. I'm bisexual and proud of it, whether other people take it as an insult doesn't concern me."

Axel put his arm over my shoulder and kissed my hair. "This is why we're flatmates isn't it. You just want me for my dick."

I chuckled. "Sure, Axel, you keep telling yourself that."

Axel pouted again, but didn't push the matter any further.

"You know, if somebody else would've seen this, they'd think you were the gay one, not me."

Axel smirked. "What if I am the gay one?"

I gasped. "There's only room for one gay here!"

There was a loud knocking on the door that interrupted our conversation. I glanced up and quickly moved as far from the front door as I could get.

"You're closest. You open it." I grinned.

Axel frowned. "You suck."

"Indeed I do, I suck often." I retorted.

Axel smirked and opened the front door, his favorite blonde walked in.

"Sup, dicks and dickettes." Roxas greeted us.

I smiled. "Nice to see you too, blondie."

Axel jumped up. "Now we can leave, come on!" He rushed over to me and grabbed my wrist then pulled me through the door. I watched Roxas chuckle as he followed the two of us out of the apartment complex and down to Axel's car. I raised my middle finger at him and he just laughed harder.

"How's life been treating you lately, Riku?" Roxas asked while we sat together in the cramped backseat of Axel's car.

"I saw you yesterday, how did I seem then?" I replied.

Roxas arched his eyebrow. "About the same as you do now."

"And how exactly is that?" I asked, legitimately curious as to how he thought I felt.

"You're being passive for one thing." Roxas muttered and glanced out the front of the car at the road. "Seem pretty depressed too. You're just not yourself."

I shrugged and looked out the window. "When was the last time I was myself?"

"When you were with Kairi?" Roxas suggested.

Axel glanced back. "How do you know you were yourself then? Maybe her leaving changed you into...you."

Roxas made a face at the red-head. "I don't like philosophical Axel...go away please."

Axel looked back again and smirked.

"Maybe you're right." I said. "Doesn't change the fact that it still hurts. With-Kairi Riku was starting to grow on me."

"You were growing on yourself? That's disgusting."

I pushed Roxas playfully and he turned back with a grin on his face.

"Be careful." Axel warned. "I think it's his time of the month."

I growled quietly. "Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I have a fucking period."

"How are we supposed to know that, we're not gay!" Axel said.

I arched my brow at him and smirked. "Are you sure? Cos' there are these moments where I'm just not sure about the two of you."

I saw both of them blush. There was no denying it, the two of them liked eachother. Now if only Sora and I could convince them of this, rather than Roxas immediately denying and continuously stating that he was in love with Xion, who, had absolutely no idea the blonde even existed.

Arriving at school at the beginning of the year was painful. Achingly painful. You now how earlier I mentioned Xion not knowing Roxas even existed, yeah, it's not because we're at the bottom of the metaphorical high school food chain, it's because we're at the top and Xion is at the bottom. She's at rock bottom. No one could get lower than her. It's not that she was a loser or anything, she was probably the coolest and cutest girl I had ever had the pleasure of having as an acquaintance. She chose to be there, she chose to stay out of the limelight. I admired and envied her because of that. Not to be smug or anything, but my charm and good looks void any possibility of me being able to do that. Roxas has tried plenty of times to become more than just an acquaintance with her, but she's not exactly jumping for the opportunity.

"Oh great, they're crowding around my car." Axel growled and rolled his window down slightly. Everyone immediately shot to the window and started yelling into the car. Axel knew he wouldn't need to yell the following sentence, people practically worshipped the three of them, any word spoken was like JC himself had appeared. "Get the fuck away from my car! I just got this hunk of rust painted!" He yelled out, his hoarse voice crackling like he had just drowned himself in whiskey and tobacco, which he most likely had. Everyone immediately stepped back like mother fucking hell would break loose if they didn't, which it probably would. Roxas slowly opened his door, afraid he was going to be molested the moment the bottom of his black leather boot touched the asphalt of the school parking lot.

"I got you, man. We can do this. Just smile, wave, and walk to the usual spot. We'll meet you there." I whispered in his ear. Roxas nodded and stepped out, a huge, utterly fake grin on his face.

"That kid can fake a smile like nobodies business." I admired.

Axel snorted. "Yeah, he can. Learnt from the best!" He chuckled.

I joined in and smirked. "Poor, poor boy. He was doomed the moment that head full of unnatural gravity-defying hair stepped into our AP Physics class."

"We've ruined him." Axel laughed.

"Feels good. Ruining a person's hope at ever being sane."

"Damn straight."

The two of us stepped out of the car at the same time, the metre gap between the car and crowd of people still evident. Axel locked his car and then we parted ways, causing the crowd of overbearing, needy students to become more confused than they ever could be. In the past the three of us had never split up. We stuck by each other through hell or high water, and now they each had to make a choice. Which way should they go? Follow the humorous silver-haired hunk, or the sarcastic yet dreamy red-head? I decided to let them rip each other apart over the dilemma, and used the opportunity to gap it. I ran through hallways with my hood up and my head down, literally stepping between people with less than a centimetre of space between my body and theirs. That's when I glanced up and noticed that someone ahead was glaring at me with a furious gleam in their eyes. I skidded to a halt, directly in front of aforementioned person.

"H-hello, Mister Kurai, Sir." I stuttered, realising fully well that I was in deep shit.

And it's only the first day, oh goody.

"Mister Strife, please call me Xemnas."

I cringed at the use of my surname, I had left that dusty old thing behind when I moved out. Being 18 and officially an adult had it's advantages. "Y-yes, Mister Kur-, Xemnas."

"Seeing as you've been here long enough, I want you to do something."

He wasn't asking if I wanted to do something, he was telling me that I would do it, regardless of what it was, and regardless of whether I wanted to or not. That's our principal for you.

"Couldn't you have asked Axel, he's been here longer than any of us." I mumbled, even though I knew that I would be the one to do whatever had been forced upon me. I followed him into his office, not looking up to even greet his receptionist. The glum expression on my face probably explained why I hadn't.

"Riku, I'd like you to show around the new student." Xemnas gestured to a girl, dressed in white sitting in the corner on a leather seat. She peeked up, her blonde hair falling slightly to the side, revealing the blue of her eyes. It took me a moment to register her sitting there, her face, the way she carried herself just seemed so...Kairi. I frowned but shook the thought from my head. Xemnas stood there waiting for me to say something, I parted my lips, but not a single noise came out.

"Are you okay Riku? You're looking pale." Xemnas murmured. "Look, I can get someone else to do it if it's that much of a hassle. But you'll get first period off."

I fought with my own thoughts, weighing up the pro's and con's. No matter how hard I tried, there was never a single con. I nodded and parted my lips once again. "It's fine." I said with the harshest voice I had.

Xemnas nodded. "Great. Naminé, this is Riku. He'll show you around."

"Thank you, Sir." She said, her voice was angelic, but forced. I could tell, I was good with those type of things. Friends like Axel and Roxas teach you how to recognize a lie, even a simple one such as a fake personality. She stood up and brought a bag with her. I noticed briefly that she was clutching a sketchbook to her chest and a pencil dancing between her fingers. Obviously she was ready to draw, whether she was standing beside a volcano that was ready to burst, or the water was crawling back into the ocean and preparing for a tsunami. The girl loved to draw, we had only been around each other for a mere thirty seconds and already I was picking her apart. Delving deep into the girl that resembled Kairi in more ways than I cared to count. I knew this was going to hurt me at some point, at the time, I knew, in the back of my mind, in the deepest parts of my being, I knew. But I was ignoring it. I was pushing that feeling back. At the moment, all that I wanted to have on my mind, was this girl.

"You like drawing?" I said in attempt to start a conversation.

She responded with a mumbled 'yes' and a slight nod.

"Cut the bullshit." I laughed. "I know you're faking this good girl thing, so what's your story glory? The only reason people come to this school is if their parents are broken drug-addicted fucks who waste their money on Mary Jane and cocaine. Or, which I'm guessing you're part of this category, you were kicked out of every other school in this damned district."

She looked up at me, the height difference mildly tolerable. "Well aren't you a people person." She said.

I smirked. "Welcome to the real world honey. If that seemed harsh, wait till you meet the rest of the student body."

We had walked into a hallway that still held a few students late for class. I cussed quietly under my breath. They were all girls, girls I recognised earlier that morning as part of the mob. Naminé looked up at me, obviously confused to my reaction, and attempt to hide behind her tiny body.

"What are you doing Ri-" My hand cupped over her mouth stopped the rest of the sentence from rolling off her tongue.

"Don't say a word." I whispered in her ear.

That's when all hell broke loose. They had heard, man did girls in this school have good hearing. They had heard my whisper, and almost simultaneously their heads snapped up in our direction. Naminé stepped back slightly and I took a deep breath and stood up from my feeble hiding spot.

"Hey girls." I smiled that devilish smile, I swear one of them almost fainted. She most definitely swooned. Naminé frowned at the girls who were clearly infatuated by my presence. They had caught me like I was a sick buffalo before a pride of bloodthirsty lions. I tried to smile and shuffle past, but they didn't let it happen. They moved in closer, the look on their faces definitely intent on haunting me for the rest of my miserable life, one of them literally licked their lips. I looked to my side, hoping, praying that Naminé would save me from this, but she wasn't there. I looked over the heads of the ever-approaching girls and saw the blonde on the other side of the hallway, leaning against a set of lockers and smirking. She had her sketchbook out and the pencil was swiftly moving across the paper. I glared at her, though she didn't see.

She's drawing me like this. Wonderful.

"Look girls, it's great seeing you and all, but I'm sure we all have places to be, people to see. Don't want to be too late for class do we?" I joked with an awkward smile.

They all pouted but turned and left reluctantly. I pushed myself away from the locker they had trapped me against and walked over to Naminé, she looked amused and the gleam in her eyes was closer to ecstatic than the confusion it had voluntarily replaced. She turned the sketchbook to face me and I eyed the drawing, searching for any way to criticise it. Truth is, it looked amazing, despite the fact that she had literally drawn my likeness into a sick buffalo, and the girls were lionesses.

"Cute." I muttered before walking off.

She walked behind me slowly, still drawing in that sketchbook of hers, no doubt refining her previous work of art.

"If you follow me around all day drawing every time something like that happens, you're pages would be gone before lunchtime." I called back.

She appeared at my side. "Who said I wanted to follow you around all day."

I didn't say anything in return, it was true, I had assumed she would be one of the many girls that kissed the ground at my feet, simply because my feet had been there. It was refreshing to say the least, finally there was someone who didn't care. Kairi was like that too, mostly because we had come into this school together, and nobody dared to make any obvious moves on me, or Kairi. Now that aforementioned auburn-haired girl was gone, the girls were goo-goo for me. None of them liked me for my personality, because none of them knew my personality. I sheltered them from it, because if anyone was capable of seeing the torment and vile things that happened behind the good looks, they'd be disgusted. Absolutely disgusted. If anything, it would be something they expect from Axel, not me, and that's low.

"Riku?" She waved a hand in front of my eyes.

I blinked and returned my nonchalant expression to my face. "Yeah?"

"You do realise we're not even on school grounds any more?" She stifled a giggle.

I looked around us, she was right, we had gone directly through the school, past the football field and out the back gate that nobody knew existed. I sighed.

"You know, the last time I came back here," I said looking around at the colourful, way-too-happy flora. "It was with Kairi."

Naminé raised an eyebrow and looked at me confused. I was keeping my eyes anywhere but near her, she reminded me too much of Kairi it was criminal.

"She was my girlfriend. Of four years." I laughed bitterly.

"I'm sorry."

I laughed again then turned around and walked back into school. I glanced quickly at the clock on my phone and sighed. Period 2 would be starting soon, and Xemnas only gave me the first period out of class.

"Period 2 starts soon, did you need help getting to class?" I asked.

She looked at me, her eyes like windows, but I desperately wanted to shut the curtains. "Considering how you showed me that you get mauled by girls all day, and an alleyway that you used to use to cut school, I think I'll be perfectly fine looking for a class that you clearly showed me on this supposed tour."

I rolled my eyes. "All you had to say was, 'Riku, you're a terrible giver of tours, take me to my class'."

She arched a brow and smirked. "Fine, take me to my class, you useless giver of tours."

I nodded. "That's better. So, what do you have?"

"Art." She smiled.

Brilliant. I walked away from her, and she followed obediently, I looked over my shoulder and gestured for her to catch up. I slowed so she could and she walked up to my side.

"What?"

We were approaching a massive group of students, and the closer we got, the more eyes were trained on me.

"Hold my hand." I snapped.

"What? No."

"Just do it!" I snatched her hand and linked our fingers together. "I'm sorry if people hate you for this." I whispered in her ear, then turned her to face me and kissed those lips that were far too beautiful for her own good. Our lips moved together like each of us had been waiting for it to happen. I'll admit, a part of me was dying to, but a larger part was begging the smaller part to shut the fuck up. My lips parted slightly and she felt it, her lips parted too, and I felt my hand start moving towards her waist.

That was when she stopped. She pulled back once my hand touched her side. Her breathing stopped. I noticed her hand twitch. She was going to slap me.

"Don't slap me yet. We can get away from all these people and then slap me." I growled quietly, keeping anyone from hearing.

The crowd of people were silent after watching us kiss. The majority of them were going to hate one of us. Considering the majority were girls, they were going to hate Naminé.

I've doomed myself. And her. First days are so much fun.

I slid my arm around her waist and gave her a look that said 'if you push me away, both of us die'. She huffed but continued walking with me.

"Okay, we're alone." She started to raise her hand and I cringed, waiting for the stinging to tingle the side of my face. When no brutal pain had befallen me, I opened my eyes and she stood there, with a stupid smug smile on her face, and there it was, that sketchbook that was almost a part of her, and once again, the pencil was moving against the paper. The sound of the lead hitting the paper was almost musical.

"You're cruel." I said.

"Just don't...move."

She finished quickly and again, turned the sketchbook to face me. The picture was glorious, this time she had refrained from making me a buffalo, but it was beautiful. It was one of those drawings that brought forward feelings you thought you could never have again.

"So, do you like it?" She asked.

I smirked. "No, I hate it."

She pushed me playfully then stiffened up and looked in my direction, though her eyes had shot passed me. "I don't have a choice do I?"

I didn't bother looking back, there was obviously a group of girls there, most likely giving her the death stare. "What do you mean?" I pushed open the door to Art class.

"You literally forced me into following you around all day, if I don't, girls are going to rip my throat out."

"Basically. Especially if they find out you only started school here today. That type of shit spreads like wildfire."

She sighed.

"Come on, be excited. It'll be fun, you can draw pictures of me being a whiny little bitch all day. You'll even get to meet my friends."

"Friends...Riku, no! Could it be." She teased.

"Ha, ha. Aren't you a funny one."

She sat down at the very back of the class, we had arrived before anyone else, no doubt they were all huddled up outside trying to figure out what exactly Naminé and I had just done. I pulled out the chair beside her and sat down, letting my bag fall down to my feet.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

I looked over at her. "What, I can't sit down?"

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, why are you sitting down?"

"Because in class, you are required to sit down." I muttered while pulling out my own black and white sketchbook. It hadn't been drawn in much, the only actual things in it were class projects, and even those looked terrible. I hadn't had the energy to draw since Kairi had left.

"So the rumours are true!" A husky voice chuckled. "Riku has a new gal pal."

"Naminé, this is Axel." I gestured to the red-head who had plucked a chair and plonked himself down beside our table. "One of my oh-so-loving friends."

"I see." She made a face at him, I couldn't decipher if it was a face of disgust or curiosity. "And I'm not his gal pal."

Axel looked at me with raised brows and questions in his eyes.

"I was trying to avoid a crowd." I murmured.

Axel nodded knowingly. "Right, make a ruse to skip what can only follow through with a bruise."

I laughed. "Stick to the piano mate, song-writing just isn't for you."

He pouted and turned around to face the front of the class, just as the teacher and the rest of the students we were forced to sit with for an hour walked in. A few people gave Naminé and I fleeting glances, obviously part of the crowd that had heard about our show. One girl who's name I knew solely because she had beat my cellphone number out of Roxas and would text me non-stop, was glaring at the two of us. It was sweet, in that weird, extremely creepy and ominous way. Unfortunately for Axel, since I had chosen to sit with Naminé, he was sitting with one of the girls. She was the worst of them all, we recognised her, we recognised a few of them. Her name was Selphie, and boy was she tough to handle. I heard a rumour once that she would come to school an hour before everyone else just so she would be the first to wait by our parking spot. Obviously rumours are never true...I hope. Back to the matter at hand, Axel was literally in the worst place he could've been right then and there, because not only was she one of the worst, she was also one of his many ex-girlfriends. The truth is, they were never exactly boyfriend and girlfriend, they had a one night stand at one of our first parties in the apartment. It was right before break, and throughout the whole two weeks following that party, there were rumours spreading that she was pregnant. Axel brushed it off like nobodies business, but when we returned to school and Selphie wasn't standing by his door waiting to squeal like he was the fucking prince of Persia, he freaked. She returned to school the next day, stomach flat, breasts still the same puny size they had been before, and waiting by our parking spot just like she always had. Let me tell you, Axel was careful about his sexual adventures from then on. The period went by without a single disturbance, I'm sure Axel had said something to Selphie though, because she sat rigid on the seat for a solid ten minutes after the bell had rung.

"What did you say to the poor girl?" I asked, glancing back at her again.

Axel shrugged and smirked. "Not much."

"You told her you'd fuck her again didn't you."

"You know me so well."

Naminé pulled a face, this time it was clearly of disgust. "How can you have that much sex?"

Axel chuckled then turned around on the spot. "Look at me, girls ovaries explode at my sight."

"Are you sure? Because my ovaries feel pretty good at the moment." She teased.

Axel pouted at her, but she stood firm. "Stay like that." She said and pulled out her pencil again.

"What is sh-"

I shushed him. "Just roll with it."

Naminé quickly finished her drawing and showed me. She was a real joker, that girl. She had drawn Axel...as a girl. He reached out for the sketchbook, eager to see what I had laughed at.

"Nope." She popped the 'p'.

Axel pouted again. "Come on!"

"No."

I shook my head. "Come on, let's go find Roxas so I can have a smoke."

"You smoke?"

I looked back at her, she was shocked. "There's a lot you don't know about me sister, now hold my hand again."

I snatched it from her side and she groaned.

"Do you want your throat ripped out? Look alive girl!"

I hope you liked it.
I certainly enjoyed writing it.

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