My favorite Kingdom Hearts pairing, it just seems so far off the mark, yet so perfect. Inspired by Xerxies19 story, Lifeline. Just the gang part though...
Disclaimer: Don't own anything this cool. Not even the plot, really.
Warnings: Intense violence will ensue, and so will abuse, and at the end, Yaoi. I'll warn you when that's nearby...
"Hey chicken wuss, are you alive?"
Hayner groaned and opened his eyes. Seifer stood above him with the struggle bat, grinning as he took in the defeated form of the young skater. Hayner sat up, ignoring the sharp pain in his ribs. He guessed they had cracked, rather than broken, but he wouldn't let the older blond know how badly he was hurt. He stood, and narrowly avoided gasping at the pain in his right leg. That might be badly hurt.
"Seifer, you win, happy now?"
It was an impromptu match, set in the Sandlot on a day where no one happened to be around. He started limping away, but a hand was put on his shoulder.
"Are you hurt?" Seifer asked with the usual scathing tone. Hayner shook his head and left the lot, heading to the usual spot. Roxas was the only one there, so he was the only one who witnessed the skater fall onto the couch, holding his ribs with a grimace.
Roxas didn't question, he just sighed. It only took about half an hour for the teen to get moving again, grinning at his best friend. "So are Pence and Olette on another date?" The blue eyed skater nodded and sighed.
"We really need to get partners, huh?" Hayner sighed dramatically, agreeing. After their friends started going out, they realized just how lonely it was to be alone. They weren't exactly the straightest seventeen year olds, so they tried each other out for a while. Roxas wasn't out, and only Hayner knew. Hayner was ballsy enough to be open and proud about his sexuality. It wasn't meant to be, but they became even closer in the process.
Hayner heard his phone ring. It was the ringtone he saved especially for his dad, and sighed for real. "Sorry, Rox. I think I have to get home." He answered it with a frown. "Hello?" Roxas heard yelling on the other line. "Yes, Sir. I'll be right there."
He hung up and stood carefully, weary of his leg. He found that there was a large bruise, and the pain suggested that it ran all the way to the bone. He waved goodbye to Roxas and started the trek home. It took him about twenty-five minutes of swift walking to get there, and his father would be pissed if it took him more than ten. He broke into a sprint and almost ran into Seifer as he rounded a corner. He shouted back an apology as he raced away.
Those kinds of occasions were the only ones he'd ever been able to speak to the head of the local gangbusting gang, the Turks, known to regular citizens as the Twilight Disciplinary Committee, without him trying to harass the younger skater. He was the town bully and hardass, but his gang was formed to protect the town from the real thugs. Hayner had always admired the taller blond, both for his self-sacrificing and for his fighting skills. But Seifer never missed an opportunity to bully him, and that smothered the admiration with an unhealthy dose of hate.
He guessed that he just used the thug as the only person he could pinpoint for his hate. He was picked on, bullied, harassed, and even jumped, on a regular basis. He couldn't hate them all actively, so it fell to Seifer.
Hayner got home after a twelve minute run. He was panting and in a lot of pain, but he went into the house with his head lowered. His father didn't like being looked in the eye. He sighed inwardly as it started again.
The dark eyed skater wasn't himself in the next Struggle match. He was beaten easily, by an amateur, and Roxas picked up on signs of pain in his abdomen. He was limping, too. It fell to Roxas to fight through the competition, and when he faced Seifer, the thug sighed.
"I don't know why I do this anymore. I've got much bigger fish to fry."
Roxas fought valiantly, but was beaten easily. After everything, Hayner was a lot better than him any day. The thug frowned and leveled his gaze on the retreating blondes. He was suspicious of what was going on with the dark eyed skater, but he shrugged it off as getting into a fight.
Hayner smiled at Roxas as they parted to head home. Hayner was rushing to get home, so that maybe he could get to his room before his father noticed him. The man had only broken into the room once, so that was his safest spot.
He had no such luck that day. The door didn't stop him.
It was raining the next day, and he found himself running unsteadily through it. The verbal jabs from his peers hanging around the usual restaurants were too much for him to take sitting down. At least Seifer didn't bully him about his orientation, being the only openly gay high school student in the homophobic town, or for the sake of having a target. He just bullied him about Struggles.
Hayner glanced into another shitty pizza joint, but he saw a few of the more vicious classmates. That was another thing why he preferred Seifer; he stuck to verbally harassing him. Struggles was more than enough of the harming.
He decided to give up on eating that day, until he remembered that Roxas had a friend that worked at that pizza place. The guy was crazy, but he was nice enough not to let Hayner get beat up. He walked in, glancing down at his dripping self. The thugs saw him and nudged each other. They sneered, but he ignored them. Axel whistled when he got to the register.
"Hey dude. Why are you out in this weather without a jacket at least?" Hayner shrugged and ordered a small cheese pizza. "You waiting for someone, or is that all for you?"
"It's all I'm gonna get for today, and I'm running on empty, so I need all I can get. Plus I can take the rest with me if you can spare some foil." Axel nodded and set the order down the line. As soon as the order came up, he took off his apron.
"It's time for my break, mind if I join you?" Hayner shrugged. He ate in silence as Axel babbled about the Turks. He was a proud member, along with his older brother, Reno. The redhead noticed Hayner's glances at the table of sneering jerks. He flipped them off and dragged Hayner and the pizza into the employee kitchen. His boss threw him a questioning look, but he let it be.
"Hayner, those guys are gonna follow you, aren't they?" The blond shrugged.
"I'll wait here until I can run. My leg's a little messed up, but I can manage now that I finally have some food in me." Axel frowned but he let the skater go to grab the foil for the rest of the pizza. Hayner realized that running with the food might be bad. "Hey, do you hang out with Roxas a lot?"
The redhead nodded. "Yeah, I'm seeing him today. Why?"
Hayner handed him the food. "Have him hold onto it for me. I'll stop by tomorrow to pick it up, but I don't want to be carrying anything when I'm running."
The redhead nodded and watched as the blond walked out into the main room with his head high. Axel heard the thugs commenting and insinuating that things happened behind the closed door.
They followed the blond before Axel could get at them. He frowned. He decided to talk to the leaders of the Turks about them. He didn't want the kid to get hurt.
Hayner sprinted as he rounded the corner, searching for somewhere safe. He could go to Roxas's house, but he didn't want to scare him and his parents, with the guys chasing him down, and he didn't want to put Roxas in danger.
He just kept running, not sure where he would end up. He heard the guys behind him splashing along and cursing at him. He picked up the speed and veered off to the Sandlot. He would pick a direction from there.
He was barreling through, and almost ran into Seifer again. The bully cocked his head at him, but frowned when he saw the four guys hot on his heels. Seifer grabbed one as they passed, throwing him to the ground. Another leapt at the blond fighter, while Hayner spun to face the other two. He head butted the shorter one, who fell to the ground in shock. The other landed a kick in the skater's cracked ribs, and he screamed as they broke under the pressure.
Seifer had fought off the two he had as the others hauled the injured blond off. He tackled one, slamming his head into the pavement. The other dropped Hayner and backed away, picking up one of his downed buddies and another got up to grab the last one. After they ran, Seifer resolved to set those thugs straight.
He knelt beside the gasping younger struggler. "I'm gonna call paramedics. Hang in there," he shouted over the downpour. Hayner nodded once before he whimpered and wrapped his arms around himself.
The ambulance only took a few minutes to arrive, and Seifer winced when they jarred Hayner's ribs, making the teen cry out. He knew what broken ribs felt like, so he sympathized with him. He saw the ambulance speed away, and was left with the police officer who had come to get a report. He shrugged. "I haven't seen them in a while; I never knew their names anyway. I saw them chasing down the little guy, and it was four to one, so I helped him out."
The female officer sighed, frowning that she was getting soaked. "And I assume we can trust the Twilight Disciplinary Committee to handle this?"
"We'd love to."
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