A/N at bottom.
Disclaimer: Disclaimed.
Summary: Hayner stumbles across something he shouldn't, panics, and begins to pay for his idiocy, one karmic point at a time.
Warnings for chapter: Language, the gay, swears, one-sided Seifer/Hayner
Rating: T
Chapter: 1 / ?
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Hayner paced The Usual Spot almost frantically, hands reaching up and gently tugging on his hair every second or so, looking incredibly frantic.
Roxas, Hayner's long time best friend and partner in mischief making, eyed the other blond with barely veiled suspicion in his eyes. He noted almost subconsciously Hayner's hair-tugging, the habit long formed and only used when Hayner was exceedingly aggravated. And there were only two times Hayner was 'exceedingly' aggravated. Either: a, his parents were fighting again or b, Seifer had been annoying him again. And since his parents had been divorced for two years, there wasn't much confusion.
"Seifer?" The slightly smaller blond drawled from his comfortable perch on the ratty old couch, his eyes still following his pacing counterpart. There, he frowned, picking up on the slight hesitation in the other's pacing. Since Hayner couldn't multitask, this was him thinking of a 'lie'. Now, Hayner hated lying, but was firm in his belief that you could bend the truth and no one would suffer for it.
"He insulted my mother," he snarled, and Roxas' eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. 'Insulted' and 'mother' were words Hayner only used when he had priorly thought about what he was going to say, something uncommon for the dirty blond. Definitely bending the truth; maybe Seifer had insulted his mother, but that wasn't all that was annoying him. He had no solid proof, though, so instead he replied,
"And you let him get to you." He paused slightly in his thoughts, before adding, "Which is stupid, 'cause if, say, Rai had done that you'd just tell him to fuck off." There was another stall in his pacing, more noticeable this time, and when it was over the pacing speed doubled. There was most certainly going to be a hole worn into the floor at this rate.
"That's because he's fuckin' aggravatin' me," the 'G's had begun to disappear, and his words were more of a growl. Roxas scowled. Now Hayner was lying - he was always a very obvious liar. One of the reasons he chose to bend the truth.
"Uh huhn," Roxas grunted in affirmation, but in such a way that you could tell he was being sarcastic. Roxas liked his sarcasm and perfected it to a degree that even the most thickheaded of idiots could understand he wasn't being serious. Hayner was, unfortunately, one of the people he had to perfect his sarcasm for.
"He is!" The blond was getting defensive now, very much so. His voice had jumped up an octave and the hands that had previously being tugging at his hair flew upright, waving slightly in the air. A teeny tiny smirk wormed its way onto Roxas' face. He had him now.
"You're hiding something, Hay," cue third pause in pacing, slight stumble and- Yep, definitely hiding something, something he was hoping no one would find out about. The now-not-pacing blond shot him a look of badly-hidden anxiety, one cheek hollowed slightly. He was biting on the inside of it. Roxas, thoroughly unimpressed with his friend keeping things from him, folded his arms across his chest in an attempt to seem much bigger than he actually was, telling Hayner that he wasn't going to leave this until he found out what, exactly, was being hidden.
Hayner was never very good at hiding things from him, especially things that bothered him this much, and he caved in about three seconds before blurting, "Seifer's gay!" Had Roxas been drinking at this point, he would probably have spat his drink out in a comical scene and coughed continuously for about three minutes. As it was, Roxas was not drinking, so instead his jaw dropped and eyes bulged slightly.
Seifer was gay?
Seifer was gay?
Seifer was gay!
"Holy shit," was all that Roxas could manage at this point, completely taken by surprise by this. A little voice in the back of his head said that this should have been pretty obvious, belly-top and all, but something about Seifer, the masculine asshat that reeked of manliness Seifer, being gay just broke his brain slightly. Still, the fact that their arch-nemesis was gay didn't warrant pacing frantically in The Usual Spot, irritated and worried. A tiny suspicion wormed its way into Roxas' head. "Hayner?" The other, who had somehow migrated to one of the crates when Roxas' brain was breaking, jerked his head to look at him.
"Mnghp," he grunted, probably attempting to say something but his words muffled by the fact his mouth had two obstacles in it's way - Hayner's hands. Roxas' bottom teeth scraped against his top lip for a second before deciding to be blunt.
"Are you a homophobe?" Hayner looked at Roxas for a second, looking torn between being affronted and offended before it faded into irritation and anger.
"No! I'm not-" He paused, connecting the dots that Roxas had connected, shaking his head dramatically, "Hell no! It's not that Rox, it's- it's-" Roxas watched in confusion as Hayner slowly turned pink, mouth moving up and down like a fish, no words coming out. Finally, finally, the other managed to squeak out, "He likes me." Roxas scoffed at the obviously stupid thing to say, because, gay or not, Seifer wasn't just about to become friends with Hayner f- A small, dim bulb flickered above Roxas' head and, for the second time in as many minutes, the boy's jaw dropped.
"Like-like?" He asked, ignoring how much he sounded like a little kid. There was a nod from the unusually silent boy across from him. Now, knowing that your arch-nemesis was gay and was gay for you could make you slightly worried. No doubt Hayner was wracking his brain for any time Seifer might've shown affection for him. A small question whispered across the back of his mind, "How'd you find out?" A look of shame was on Hayner's face in an instant.
"I didn't mean to!" He half-grunted, half-wailed, a strange and priorly-believed impossible combination, "I heard Fuu say my name, confused, and then I turn around to see them talking in an alleyway and thought they were badmouthing me before Seifer goes...
"You got a problem with that?" He looked annoyed as Hayner cautiously peered round the side of the brick wall, the other blond's back to him as Fuu stared up at him. Fuu shook her head, her second eye uncovered for just a moment.
"Unexpected," she spoke in her weird way, the visible red eye narrowing as she seemingly considered something, "When?" The already agitated-looking blond didn't seem to appreciate her questioning as he growled, throwing out his arms as much as he could in the cramped alley.
"Oh, I don't know Fuu, I got up November 19th and decided, 'Hey, I think I'll start crushing on the fucking chickenwuss today!'," the girl's eye narrowed again, this time in a warning glare at the sarcasm. She opened her mouth to say something else...
...and that's when I decide I've heard way too much and run away as fast as I can." The blond looked miserable and guilty about overhearing an obviously private conversation. "Rai wasn't even there, Rox," Hayner muttered to his best friend, "He doesn't want anyone to know!" Roxas looked over at his friend, slowly contemplating a plan.
"Well, he doesn't have to know that you know, does he?" He slowly suggested, still thinking things out as he spoke. He could see out of the corner of his eye Hayner was looking at him with hope in his eyes. "You can bend the truth, if you can ignore the fact that Seifer, er," he paused, gesturing, knowing that saying that aloud would just be too weird, "but I think we'd better get Olette in on this, too." There was a moment of consideration from both blonds.
"Yeah," Hayner agreed, nodding his head, "She's better at this stuff than we are." His hand slowly made it's way back up to his hair, tugging gently as he thought it over.
"Yeah," Roxas muttered, neither boy looking at the other. Hopefully, all would turn out well, but Fate never did like any of them.
~.x.~
"...and, yeah, that's it." Hayner bit his lip, eyes flickering between Olette's eyes and the hands in his lap. Roxas inwardly sighed at the obvious sign of guilt. For someone so brash and hardheaded, the other usually never felt guilty for anything. This must have thrown him really off-key. Olette had a rare frown on her face, obviously thrown off herself, though when she suddenly stood up and harshly 'tapped' Hayner across the back of his head, Roxas backpedalled that thought immeadiately.
"Idiot!" She said, the slap-happy hand coming up to her chin as she thought contemplatively. Hayner gave her a scandalised look, hand slowly coming up to where she had slapped him, mouth open and eyes accusing. At his look, she rolled her eyes, and Roxas was very confused at her sudden behaviour change. What had happened to the nice, kind Olette and why was this alien pretending to be her?
"...why'd you hit me?" Hayner half-squeaked, easily voicing Roxas' train on thought in his four words. Olette, once again, rolled her eyes, looking fairly annoyed as her hands raised to rest on her hips.
"'Why'd I hit you?'" Olette quoted, a small frown on her face as a slight mocking tone entered her voice, "Oh, I don't know, Hayner! Maybe because you've just told someone's biggest secret to not one, but two people!" She scolded, biting down on her bottom lip in guilt. Roxas stared at her, incredulous. A glance at Hayner from the corner of his eye told him the other was doing the same, but mouth moving uselessly as he came up with an excuse.
"I needed help!" He exclaimed, arms flailing slightly in panic. Olette narrowed her eyes, but even Hayner, one of the less emotionally developed people Roxas knew, figured out this look meant speak fast or pay. "I didn't know what to do!" Olette shot him the same incredulous look that he had given her a minute ago, though this one was laced with anger and annoyance.
"'You didn't know what to do!'" She wailed, sarcastically, and Roxas edged slowly towards the entrance of the Usual Spot. Obviously, this conversation had struck a nerve with the brunette, and Hayner was just making it worse the more he spoke. Hayner narrowed his eyes at her, hands rolling into fists, and Roxas had the horrible feeling that Olette was very lucky she was female and Hayner had high morals. The dirty blond didn't have much patience for someone who was genuinely mocking him, friend or not.
"Not everyone's a genius at everything, Olette!" The male spat at her, eyes flaming, causing Roxas to edge that little bit faster. Hayner only used the girl's full name when he was annoyed, or worse. Olette seemed to ignore the sarcastic, veiled insult, merely throwing her response at him like a knife.
"Did it ever occur to you to act like normal around him, Hayner," she hissed, eyes only slits as she looked at him. Hayner look stunned at her answer, as if he had actually never considered that possibility - speaking of which, Roxas hadn't considered it either. He felt a little guilty for that, actually. However, Olette wasn't finished with her rant of guilt, adding, "Instead of, you know, telling everyone of his secret feelings?" She looked positively livid at this moment, glaring down her nose at a shell-shocked Hayner, appearing to be ready to seriously hurt him.
"Whose secret feelings?" A familiar, confused voice came from behind the curtain, causing both Hayner and Roxas to flinch and jump. Roxas, who had reached the edge of the crate he had sat on, fell to the floor painfully, on just catching Hayner stepping on the back of his own shoe and sending his tumbling just as uncomfortably to the floor. Pence stepped through the curtain, his eyes worried (understandable given the noise, Roxas thought privately), flicking to his two friends on the floor and his one friend standing with her back to him. His brow furrowed in confusion and worry as he spoke, "What's going on, guys?" Neither Hayner nor Roxas had the chance to reply as Olette spun herself around, her temper seeming to have calmed a little.
"Nothing," she replied, shortly, before brushing past her brunet friend and out of the Usual Spot in a not-so-surprising speed. Pence only watched her with wide eyes as she left, only moving his eyes once the curtain had swept back, and even then it was only to his friends in shock.
"Aw, fuck," Hayner murmured, and Roxas wholeheartedly agreed with him.
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A/N: Hullo, lovelies~ This is the first chapter in my first proper multi-chapter, something that will probably span about three to five chapters, hopefully. This is easily the shortest chapter, the rest going to be about 5k a piece. Think of it as a prologue. This beaut is gonna be updated once a week, every Monday, God providing school don't eat me again.
Stick around, duckies, see how this plays out c: