A HUGE thank you to Backasswards Girl and her awesome BETA-ing skills.

Also, in case you have yet to realize (I remembered the 'z' this time Devon!), this story contains yaoi in the form of AkuRoku, RikuSora, DemyxZexion, and mentions of LeonCloud.

The Sound of Silence

As I step out of my house into the biting January air and make my way to my older brother's car through piles of snow leftover from the weekend, several key thoughts bounce around my head.

The first is about this new school we're starting at. By we, I mean, of course, my siblings and I. That would be my older brother Reno, who's 19 and still a senior even though he should've graduated last year, and my little sister Kairi, who's only 14 and just started ninth grade a few months ago. We, along with our parents, have just moved to this tiny little nothing place called Twilight Town and today is the first day at our brand new school, Twilight Town High. Creative name, right? It kills me.

Anyway, I can't help but be nervous about starting at this new school, especially half way through the year like we are. At my last school, I'd known almost everybody since 6th grade, and I didn't have to worry about explaining my unusual circumstances because hey, this was 4 or so years since we'd all met, they knew about it already. But here at a new school....man, I'm going to have to explain and have people stare at me and all that shit.

I sigh and my steps slow enough to spark impatience in Reno so that he honks his car to get me moving. Glaring at him through the front windshield, I reach the car, open up the front passenger side door, and slide inside, grateful for the warmth the car provides.

"Jeez Ax, let's just leisurely stroll through the snow while we make everyone else late, yo." Reno remarks as I slam the door shut. "And watch out with the door! This baby's too old to be treated so roughly." Using my hands and the wonderful invention of BSL (1), I reply to my brother's whining.

"I didn't slam it that hard." I sign, giving him an exaggerated roll of my eyes as Kairi giggles from the back seat.

"Oh just stop complaining about your car and get moving Reno!" She chides lightly. "I would like to get to school eventually."

I let out a soft sigh and slide lower into the seat, crossing my arms and staring moodily out of the window at the passing landscape. I guess I can kind of understand why Reno and Kairi are so anxious to get to school (being the popular new kinds from Hallow Bastion and all that), but personally, I really wish we didn't have to go. Kairi catches my expression through the rear-view mirror.

"You okay Axel?" She asks, frowning slightly. I shrug in response and then sigh heavily.

"How do you think I feel?" I have to raise my hands slightly so that Kairi can see them in the rear view mirror but the look on my face shows what I mean.

"Don't worry about it so much, yo." Reno joins in, his voice taking on a comforting quality as he maneuvers the car out of our neighbourhood. "I mean, yeah, it might be a little awkward explaining everything at first, but once people get used to the idea, it'll be just like in Hallow Bastion."

I know my siblings are trying to make me feel better and it really means a lot to me that they are, but I can't seem to get rid of the nervous butterflies of dread that are currently attacking my stomach at that moment. Kairi, I guess, can see that I'm not convinced, so instead of pushing the subject of our new school, she begins to ramble on and on about a TV show we'd been watching last night. Pretty soon, she has Reno cracking up and I'm smiling goofily, all former depressing thoughts of school pushed to the back of my mind.

This light and carefree atmosphere remains in the car until the very moment we pull into the student parking lot, and my fears and worries return with a sickening jolt. Reno quickly parks the car and he and Kairi have already exited Reno's ancient Volvo and closed the doors behind them by the time I work up enough courage to tentatively open my own car door.

The first thing I notice when I step out of the car is that everyone in the parking lot is staring at us. None of them have seen us before, so we're obviously new students, and I guess it doesn't help that we all have shockingly red hair that makes us stick out like sore thumbs. Slinging my plain black messenger bag onto my shoulder, I slam the door shut again ("Don't hurt the car, yo!") and shuffle around the car to follow my siblings to the school, pointedly ignoring all the stares we attract.

Suddenly, someone appears out of no where and blocks the path to the school doors. It's a skinny blonde kid who's only a few inches shorter than myself and I really can't help but stare at the strange hairstyle he's sporting. It's as if a mullet and a mohawk had a baby out of wedlock and then the mullet didn't want to pay child support and the mohawk had to raise the baby itself, resulting in a strange and eccentric hair 'do that's rather style-ambiguous.

While I'm busy wondering why the hell someone would want a hair cut like that, the blonde starts talking and it's a few moments before I tune into what he's saying.

"-didn't recognize you so I figured you all were new students and I guess I'm right and my name's Demyx Suzumura and I'm a Junior here and how do you like Twilight Town so far?"

This is all said in one breath and my siblings and I stand there for a few moments, trying to catch up to the rather hyperactive blonde.

"Um, nice to meet you Demyx." Kairi says finally. "My name is Kairi Fujiwara, and these are my brothers, Reno and Axel." She motions to each of us as she says our names, and before Demyx can say anything else, Reno cuts in.

"Listen yo, we'd love to talk and stuff but we have to head to the main office before school starts so we'll see you later."

"Yeah sure!" Demyx replies, giving us a toothy grin. "If you want, I can show you how to get there." I clear my throat and very discreetly show Reno the sign for no. I absolutely can't take much more of this kid because A) he's annoying, B) he's obviously going to expect to me to talk at some point, and C) he's fucking annoying.

"That's sweet of you but we've been there before, so we know where we're going." Kairi smiles sweetly, letting Demyx know as gently as possible that he's insane and we don't want to talk with him at the moment. Just not in those words. "Besides, we wouldn't want to make you late for class or anything."

Demyx is about to say something in response when someone across the parking lot calls out his name and we all turn to see a small clump of teenagers looking in our direction, a short, spiky haired brunette (obviously the one who'd called for Demyx) waving at the blonde wildly.

"That's cool." Demyx turns back to us and offers a little wave before starting to back away. "Maybe we'll have a class later or something. Bye guys!" The three of us give Demyx our goodbyes (i.e. Kairi says bye, Reno gives a half-hearted wave, and I just stand there with my arms crossed) before starting off for the school again.

"If everyone at this school is like him, I'm going to shoot myself by the end of the week." I sign, and my siblings both know I'm only half-kidding. Reno lets out a snort of agreement as Kairi giggles and opens up the front doors to the school. I stuff my hands into the pockets of my jacket before following them inside, letting out a puff of air in relief of the sudden warmth that the school provides.

The hallways are full of students trying to avoid both the cold, outside and as well as their first period class rooms, and we are once again bombarded by curious stares. Thankfully, there aren't any other incidents like the one with Demyx, and pretty soon I'm holding open the office door for Kairi.

"Excuse me." She says, stepping up to the nearest desk and getting the attention of the secretary behind it.

"Can I help you?" The man says, pulling off the glasses he'd been wearing to read and brushing wayward strands of platinum blonde hair out of his face.

"Yes, my brothers and I are new students here and we were told to report to the office on the first day." Before Kairi even finishes speaking, the blonde man is already riffling through a short stack of papers that are on his desk.

"The Fujiwara's, correct?" At Kairi's nod, the man pulls out a few sheets of paper and says, "Here are your class schedules, locker locations and combinations, and your emergency contact cards. Have your parents fill the cards out and then return them to your homeroom teachers tomorrow." He hands each of us our individual papers and then looks back and forth between Reno and I. "Which one of you is Axel?"

Knowing what's coming, I give the blonde man a lazy salute with the first two fingers of my right hand.

"Axel, your teachers have been informed of your special...situation" He says carefully, and I nod, just wanting to get this over with already. "If you ever need help with anything, no matter what it is, feel free to ask any teacher or administrator and they'd be happy to help." This sentence is so absolutely generic that I have a very hard time refraining from rolling my eyes.

Kairi thanks the man for me and we have to stand there for another ten minutes, listening to all the special things they're doing to make life at this damn school easier for me. Knowing that Kairi will just fill me in on everything later, I hardly pay attention to anything the man is saying and instead let my mind wander as I speculate how the students will react when they find out the truth about me. I'm guessing mass amounts of pity-the-kid-who's-not-like-us and over all feelings of oh-my-gosh-what-a-freak, with maybe some how-can-you-be-friends-with-someone-like-that thrown in there for good measure.

Before I know it, the man is wishing us good luck and Kairi, knowing that I had zoned out, is grabbing my arm so that she can lead me out of the office. "Can I see your schedule? I want to see if we have anything together." We both know that isn't likely, seeing as I'm a Junior and she's a Freshman, but I hand her my class schedule anyway. Kairi scans the list and her face lights up. "We've got band third period together." Rather than hand back my schedule, Kairi grabs Reno's schedule and compares all three of them.

"Yo, I hope I don't have any classes with either of you knuckle heads." Reno says with a slight smirk, and I give him a playful shove as Kairi grins up at him.

"Sucks for you Reno, it looks like you and Axel and pre-cal together." Reno mock-groans and I let out a loud and dramatic sigh.

"Now how the hell did Reno end up in such a difficult class like pre-calculus?" Knowing that he'd seen what I'd signed, I give Reno my best shit-eating grin and duck out of the way as he aims a playful punch at my shoulder.

"Hey you guys," Kairi interrupts, "my locker's on the second floor, so you two are walking me there, alright?" Kairi doesn't wait for either of us to respond before she hands us back our schedules and links her arms with ours so that she can drag us down the hallways.

"Kairi, do you even know where any of the staircases are?" Reno asks, trying to make it look like he isn't being manhandled in the corridor by his kid sister.

"Nope!" Kairi answers cheerfully. "I figure we'll find one eventually though." A small smile crosses my face and I know that we'll probably be late for our first class but I can't seem to bring myself to care.

-------

"Hey Dem, who was that you were talking to?" Namine asks as Demyx comes jogging up to us.

"New students." He replied with a grin. "The guys both have tattoos on their faces, it's so cool!" I roll my eyes.

"Facial tattoos? Those are so stupid." I remark, crossing my arms. Sora grins at me and, using the hand that isn't clasped in one of Riku's, playfully pokes my ribs.

"You just have no taste Roxy." This draws a snort of laughter from Riku.

"Like you're one to talk about taste Sora." The silver haired teenager says, smirking down at his boyfriend. "I mean, you think it's acceptable to wear red shorts with banana yellow shoes."

"Hey, I thought you liked that outfit!" Sora huffs indignantly.

"Sora, that outfit was absolutely atrocious." Olette points out with a grin and a slight shrug.

"As entertaining as I'm sure this conversation is going to be, can we continue it inside?" Zexion cuts in, motioning towards the front doors of the school. "It's freezing out here."

Demyx slings his arm around Zexion's shoulders and they're the first to start off towards the school, Demyx going on and on about something or another. Still arguing about whether or not it is acceptable to wear red shorts and yellow shoes, Sora, Olette, and Riku are next, followed closely by Pence who is busy trying to explain something (binary fission of all things) to Hayner.

Stuffing my hands into the pockets of my hoodie, I fall into step next to Namine just as she says, "You know, that guy with the spiky red hair was really cute." I raise an eye brow at her but before I can point out that both of the guys had spiky red hair, she continues with, "Not the one with the pony-tail. The other one."

"How did even see what he looked like?" I ask with a slight shake of my head. "They were too far away for me to see anything like that." I grab the door so that it doesn't close after Hayner heads inside and hold it open for Namine before stepping inside after.

"Thanks, and the reason you couldn't see the hotness was because you're pretty much blind." I scowl about the joke concerning the glasses I have to wear to see things far away (I hate those glasses by the way) and Namine waves to our friends as they leave in different directions to their respective lockers.

"See you in second period Roxy!" Sora calls over his shoulder as he and Riku head down the hallway. I give my twin a wave goodbye before Namine and I turn towards the closest staircase so we can get to our own lockers.

"Anyway, your apparent blindness aside, he really was hot." Namine continues the conversation. "Oh, I wonder if Demyx got his name. I should've asked! D'you think he's in our grade?"

"I have no idea, I wasn't really paying attention to him." I admit with a shrug. Namine gives me a look that clearly says 'And why NOT?!' but I keep talking before she can continue. "Whatever, can we just drop Mr. Facial Tattoos? I really couldn't care less about him." My blonde best friend crosses her arms but nods anyway.

"Alright fine, we'll drop him for now." Namine stops at her locker and fiddles with the lock until it opens. "But mark my words, as soon as you get a good look at him, you'll be just as interested in him as I am." I roll my eyes and open up my own locker, which is right next to Namine's. Our conversation switches to what we each did for winter vacation and by the time we have the books we need for first period, I've completely forgotten about whatever-his-name-is.

"Oh hey, did you see Larxene's face when she found out Marluxia had gotten together with Vexen?" I raise an eye brow as we step into our first period, AP Biology.

"Marly got together with Vexen?"

"Yeah! He dumped Larxene and was with Vexen practically the next day." She takes her seat in the third row against the window and turns around to face me as I plop down into the seat two rows behind her and drop my bag onto the empty desk next to me.

"Who was with Vexen the next day?" Olette asks, appearing behind Namine just as the bell rings, signaling that first period has officially begun.

"Marluxia."

"Marluxia?"

"I know!"

The two girl's begin gossiping about this new tidbit of information and I shake my head before pulling out a book (Wide Awake by David Levithan) and effectively tuning them out. About five minutes later, Mr. Leonhart (AKA Squall AKA Leon AKA the guy dating my older brother) gets up from his desk and he doesn't even have to tell the class to shut up as they quiet down themselves.

"Hope you all had a great winter break because vacation's over and we're getting right back down to business." Leon crosses his arms and leans against the front of his desk, looking for all the world as if he were bored out of his mind (that's actually just his regular expression though). "Now, before we get started, there's supposed to be a-" Whatever he's about to say is cut off as the door to the classroom opens up and a tall and lanky redhead saunters in. I don't need the squeals from both Namine and Olette to know that it's one of the guys Demyx had been talking to earlier. The one Namine thinks is hot.

And let me tell you, fuck is he hot.

His hair is literally the colour of fire and even though it's long and spiky and sticks up in random directions, it looks as if it would be incredibly soft to the touch. His cat-like green eyes glance around the room before returning to Leon, who says, "You're the new student, Axel Fujiwara, yeah?"

Axel...I find the name completely sexy, and it fits this redheaded Greek God perfectly. I briefly wonder how such a flawless person can possibly exist, and I realize that he has to have some sort of fault. Maybe an asshole personality or an incessant and insatiable hatred for small puppies?

Axel nods with a slight grin and holds out a slip of paper for Leon to take. The stormy eyed teacher reads the paper quickly and nods at it's contents. "Yes, I was informed of this. Would you mind if I explained it to the class?"

Olette turns in her seat slightly so that she can catch my eye and raise one slim, brown eye brow. I can tell that she's just as curious as I am about what Leon means by that, but I guess we won't have to wait long to find out, as Axel gives the teacher a nod of acquiescence.

"Class," says Leon, turning back to face the students, "this is Axel Fujiwara and he just moved here from Hallow Bastion." There's a slight pause in which Leon glances over at Axel for a moment before continuing. "He's also mute, which means he can't speak." Silence reigns over the classroom and one thought can't help but run through my head:

Looks like I found the flaw.

-------

(1) BSL stands for British Sign Language which is pretty self explanatory.

-Aj