In Pursuit of Night
A Seifer/Hayner epic by Ru
Disclaimer (and I will write this only once): I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the characters from said game. Some characters within this fiction are my own, and I own the idea for the story. The rest I am borrowing.
Author note: This piece of fiction is designed to follow 'Summer Homework' which can be found on my account. A few names will crop up you won't recognize if you haven't read that.
Chapter 1: Of Skate Parks and Swimming Pools
I leant back into the plastic garden chair I was sat on, half-listening to Rai bickering with Mina about the game of poker we'd been playing, claiming she'd cheated. The expression on her face said she had, but she wasn't going to let up and admit it.
She was up from the city for the weekend, staying with Fuu, because it was the last weekend before school started and we'd never managed an end of summer party before – this was going to be the year. It had to be, because it was the last year we could do it. Next July I finished school forever. It was too weird to think about.
I wasn't really paying attention… my mind was on the party preparations for the next night. I was running the plans through my head, trying to work out if we'd forgotten anything, but it all looked in order. It was going to be held in the Twilight Youth Club, which had been kindly dubbed the 'Party Palace' some years ago, and had slowly come to be known as just the Palace. We were playing cards on the pool table, because someone had broken in a few weeks ago and smashed up the plastic table that matched the chairs we were sitting on. The place really needed redecorating – once upon a time it had been run by do-gooders who wanted to get the youths of the town off the streets, but it had since passed over to us, the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee. The paint work had all flaked off, and the walls were covered in graffiti, water stains from leaks in the roof, and mould. I guess it was down to the Disciplinary Committee to clean it up, now.
I hated the name. We sounded like a bunch of fifteen year old jerks. I suppose we were, back when the mayor had given us the position. It was years ago, when the council decided the town needed to teach it's younger generation to deal with their own problems.
Not that we'd ever had real 'problems'. This wasn't the city; there were hardly any violent, rivalling gangs roaming the streets at night. The most trouble the kids of Twilight Town got into was graffiting the tunnels along the train tracks and littering. But, myself, Rai, Fuu and Vivi were young and the position sounded powerful and power seemed like a good thing. I suppose I wouldn't have the reputation I had today if it wasn't for the Committee, and I was grateful for that at least. I was practically untouchable around here. The Palace had quite literally passed over to us when the mayor had decided the building was getting too run down without any sort of management. In return for our services, we'd had a new pool table bought for the club, but we had to organize what was going on there. Normally I left that with Fuu – she was the brains of the gang.
Back to the party plans. We had friends bringing friends bringing acquaintances from the suburbs and the city, and practically the whole school was invited. The venue wasn't big enough to hold everyone but there was always going to be people who didn't bother turning up. We had a friend of Mina's coming in with his decks to sort the music out for us, and Hugh from the pub had agreed to provide us with the drinks if we played some of his guitar music at some point in the evening and didn't rat him out for it if we got in trouble for drinking. We never did, though. Once there was that many people there, and enough alcohol to keep them satisfied for a while – because people were bound to bring their own – it was already a party and we needn't do much more. However, I'd been to end of summer parties before, and I wanted ours to be better than anyone else's. I was a competitive guy, after all.
"What about a pool?" I asked out of nowhere, catching everyone's attention. Fuu raised an eyebrow at me.
"Pool?" She asked.
"For the party." I shrugged, realizing how out of place my comment was.
Mina snorted a laugh. "And where exactly are you expecting to find a pool, Seifer? I'm sure I can find you a spade if you wanna start diggin'."
I considered this for a moment. It was a valid point, of course. "I know, I know, but there must be something we can do. It's not a proper party if someone's not jumping off something into a pool!"
I was being slightly ridiculous, but now I had my heart set on it. Everyone envied the sort of house parties you see in movies, and now I fully intended to throw one. We had two days until the party. We could do it.
"What about one of those stand-alone pools?" Vivi piped up, shrugging. "The big ugly blue ones?"
I groaned. That wasn't good enough. Disappearing back into my own thoughts, I let the others shrug the conversation off and carry on with their game. Okay, so I had to figure out how to get us a pool for the party. And… maybe a theme. Everyone could dress up. Perhaps that was too childish.
I was still stuck on this pool idea, though. The flyers for the party would go out the next day – even though everyone already knew it was going ahead, it was almost like the final confirmation. I'm sure there were going to be other end of summer parties and I was determined to throw the best one. Having a pool was definitely going on the flyer.
"I'm going to hit the skate park." I announced, getting up from the table. I got a few nods in return to let me know they'd heard me, but they were deep in another game of poker. I grabbed my board off one of the sofa's by the door and stepped outside.
Around the back of the Palace there was a small concrete area with a disused barbeque, a climbing frame and a few picnic tables. It was enclosed with a metal fence, which we'd cut a massive hole in when we took over the club. No one wanted to spend a night out somewhere that was enclosed like a prison camp. The fence was there from back when the youth club operated on funds made from music nights and private parties, and it was to stop anyone from sneaking in the back door. Nowadays, the stage was just a dance floor and the changing room behind it was just a chill-out room.
I headed through the fence, glancing back to see if any of the others had followed me but they hadn't. Beyond the Palace was a small skate park, which the mayor had allowed to be built only a few years ago, to stop us skating up and down Market Street and Station Heights. The club was right on the border of the town anyway, so it kept us well out of anyone's way. The skate park had a small bowl and a few ramps but it was good enough for us and I can't honestly say any pro-skaters had ever come out of Twilight Town. If you wanted a bigger park, you'd have to go to the city.
I wasn't alone. Hayner was there. The kid drove me nuts, because he didn't respect me at all. I wasn't expecting him to bow at my feet or anything, but there was a basic level of respect you owed to anyone and everyone and he didn't have it. We'd never gotten along – I suppose I had been a bully when I first met him, but that's what he got for invading my friendship group. I didn't talk to Pence and Olette anymore, because I'd given up trying to convince them to stay away from him. I didn't bully him as such anymore, I just tormented him. Much in the same way he tormented me. We weren't enemies, simply rivals at everything we did.
"'Sup." I nodded towards the three younger kids as I dropped onto my board into the bowl. They looked at me, Hayner glaring at me like I wasn't allowed to be there. Pence looked irritated, and Olette simply looked bored, but I couldn't tell whether that was because she'd witnessed too many fights between me and the two boys, or whether it was because she wasn't skating. I knew she could – I'd seen her here alone before, on Hayner's board, but never skating with the others. Maybe she didn't think she was good enough, or maybe she just didn't like coming off as the tom-boy we all knew she was. Either way, it bothered me. I always thrived to just… be myself, however I was feeling and I wouldn't let anything stop me doing exactly what I felt like.
Hayner skated straight through my path with a smirk on his face, challenging me to try and outdo him. It was always the same when we ran into each other. One of us would always – and more often than not silently – set a challenge and the other would take them up on it, because that's what we were like. We never backed down. I guess Hayner and I were somewhat similar in that way.
Today, I wasn't actually going to give in and accept his challenge. I was just here to skate today, not to fall prey to a petty race around the park. I felt high and mighty pretending not to care, and I know it made his blood boil. He grinned evilly at me, but I just frowned and let my mind wander back to the party. I still needed to up the stakes to make it the best event of the year.
Hayner continued to skate around me in circles, pulling tricks in front of me to try and provoke me. This was irritating. I was having to turn round on myself and skate the other direction before I could get anywhere.
"Not up for the challenge today?" Hayner taunted, sliding to a stop right in my path. I let my board roll away from beneath my feet and bash into his.
"Whatever, chickenwuss." I snapped. "Can't you see some of us are just trying to skate here?"
Pence had given up at this point, sitting on the edge of the bowl looking just as bored as Olette. He knew not to get in Hayner's way when we were teetering on the edge of a competition. "Oh, really? Didn't look much like skating to me." Hayner laughed. "Looked like you were just rolling around on your board like a jerk."
"Maybe if someone hadn't kept getting in my way…" I hissed, but trailed off shaking my head. "Fine, lamer. Why don't you show me what you call skating? I wouldn't mind taking a look at your pathetic tricks so I know just how little effort I'm going to have to put in to outdo you."
And there it was, the competition was set. No prizes, except pride. There never were.
"Sounds good to me," Hayner kicked my board back towards me carelessly. "I'll show you just how much better than you I really am."
"You do that." I laughed harshly. "I bet even your chubby little friend could out skate you."
Hayner narrowed his eyes at me and kicked off, yelling at me to 'keep my eyes on the best skater the town had ever seen'. I smirked and picked up my board, running up the edge of the bowl and hauling myself up to sit on it. As soon as I was out of the way, Pence was back on his own skateboard, joining Hayner again. I guess he'd heard that. He was pretty easy to peeve off, really.
I didn't really pay attention. Neither of the boys had anything new to show off. I stared blankly at them, resting my chin on my hand.
Olette joined me after a moment, crouching beside me. "You don't look impressed," she laughed slightly. She wasn't bad, I just didn't like who she chose to hang out with. She was too nice, too. Bet she couldn't say no to anyone even if they handed her a saw and asked her to cut her own hand off.
"Just… a little bored of this." I shrugged honestly. "And I'm not really paying attention."
She smiled and sat down next to me, watching the boys for a moment. "They think they're so great." She mumbled to herself, with a quiet chuckle. I raised an eyebrow.
"You think you can do better?" She whipped around to stare at me questioningly. "I've seen you here," I shrugged. "I know you can skate."
"I don't like competitions." She dismissed, with a tiny hint of a smile. "What are you doing out here alone, anyway?"
"Planning." I stated simply, turning to stare into the distance again.
"Ah, the End of Summer thing, I assume," she guessed after a moment. "How's that going?"
Hayner was throwing me dirty looks, either because I wasn't paying his skating any attention or because I was talking to his friend. He stopped, leaning over to say something quietly to Pence. I couldn't care less. "Good," I admitted, "Except we don't have a pool, and I want one. Every good party needs a pool."
I probably sounded slightly insane with my theory, but I did mean it. I really didn't want to hire one of those rubbish blue ones, either.
"Oh, I agree." She smiled. I looked at her in surprise. I guess I wasn't the only one who aspired to movie-style parties, but the brunette didn't really strike me as the partying type. She seemed like the kind of girl who'd be much happier with a bottle of cider and a pizza with her friends in her room.
Olette was silent for a moment, tapping her chin. Her lips curled up in a thoughtful smile. "It's at the Palace, right? The party? How about using the skate park, then?"
I arched an eyebrow at her. "What?"
"The bowl of the skate park. I don't know how you'd fill it up, but if you blocked the drain at the bottom it's a pretty good size."
I glanced down at the drain she was talking about. Some days it got clogged with leaves, and when it rained, there'd be puddles at the bottom of the bowl. Fuck, I could have kissed her. I grinned. It was perfect.
"Olette…" I said slowly. She looked up at me with her green eyes wide. I swear, in that moment, she was the most beautiful thing in the world. I laughed to myself. "You're a fucking genius!"
Stupid grin still on my face, I grabbed my board and dropped into the bowl without another word. Hayner smirked, thinking I was finally coming to compete, but I skated straight past him and up the otherside, leaving the stupid blonde looking as dumb as his hairstyle.
------
I sat back in my plastic deck chair, sunglasses on, sipping the slightly warm beer in my hand. "Keep it coming, boys!" I chuckled to myself, watching Rai, Vivi and Ike lugging buckets of water out from the club to fill up the skating bowl.
"You realize this is going to take forever," Fuu smirked from her seat beside me. "And they look like idiots."
"Yes, and yes." I shrugged. Fuu was only ever really talkative like this when we were alone. "That's the beauty of it."
"Ike will kill you later today."
"I know." I grinned. "Worth it, though."
The sweat coming off Rai's forehead was probably enough to fill the bowl up alone. They'd been doing this since ten a.m and it was now past midday. There were about three inches of water in the bottom of the bowl.
"How long are you going to make them keep this up?" Fuu questioned, staring at Vivi, who was probably worse for wear under all those clothes he always wore.
"The mayor said he'd send someone at one. That's only another half hour."
I was on pretty good terms with the major of Twilight Town, being the head of his Disciplinary Committee, and with him being a close friend of my fathers. All I'd said was that the club needed some work, and that we needed a lot of water. A lot of water. He was having someone come by with a fireman's hose so we could fill the skate park bowl up from the fire hydrant around the front of the club. Olette was a genius, she really was. We'd planned a few more things for the party since I'd told them about the pool. It was going to have a school uniform theme, seeing as it was a back to school party. St. Thomas' didn't have a school uniform, so I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do about an outfit yet, but it was guaranteed no one was going to turn up in anything they'd actually wear to school.
Sealing the grate at the bottom of the pool had been easy enough. It was pretty small – it hardly rained in Twilight Town, ever. We'd used a load of waterproof sealant. My dad used the stuff on some of his furniture and I'd taken a few left over bottles out of his store cupboard. Using a plastic panel from the climbing frame outside the Palace we'd sealed down the drain and left it over night. It was perfectly water-tight. Who said making your own swimming pool need be expensive?
"This is gonna take forever, y'know!" Rai gasped, wiping his sweaty forehead with one hand and gasping. He dropped the bucket at my feet and slumped down on the concrete. "It's so hot!"
He wasn't kidding. This was one of those rare, boiling hot summer days and I was drinking it up. I was naturally a little tan but there was nothing wrong with topping it up. I was laying there in just my hat and shorts, soaking up the hot sun.
I took in his exhausted appearance, spiky hair flopping in his face, beads of sweat in his goatee. I almost fell off my chair laughing. Oh, how cruel I was. And I'd spent the whole day sitting here drinking beer with Fuu, pretending to make party plans. I was about to tell him that I'd tricked him into lugging water about all day when Fuu perked up, raising an eyebrow.
"Incoming." She smirked, and I followed her line of sight to see Hayner and Pence skating towards the park. Oh, how perfect!
Hayner didn't look down until the last second and almost skated straight down into our giant, man-made puddle. He yelped and stumbled backwards, sending his board flying down into the bowl, and it landed with a splash. Olette held him upright and he locked eyes with me, staring with all the wrath of hell in his eyes. Olette looked down and smiled cheekily to herself.
"What have you done to our skate park!?" Hayner demanded, storming over to us.
"I don't think your board floats." I shrugged, purposefully avoiding eye contact with him. "No surfing for you, I guess."
"Surfing?!" He yelled, gritting his teeth and balling his hands into fists. "What is going on?!"
"Why don't you ask Olette?" I said, finally turning to look at him with both eyebrows raised innocently. As Hayner blinked in confusion and whipped around to question her, Ike marched up to me.
"The mayors lackeys are here." He spat playfully. "You asshole. I told 'em where they could stick their bloody hose."
Fuu struggled to contain a laugh. I grinned at him. "I hope you mean in the pool. If you've scared them off, I'll make you fill the whole damn thing yourself."
"I swear to god, Seif…" Ike scoffed, as Mina and the mayors' men came around the back of the Palace with a giant hose. I watched Mina tell them where we wanted it, and amused myself with their surprised expressions. Hayner was staring wide-eyed as the water started pouring into the bowl at an alarming rate.
"Seifer, what is going on?" He hissed. Olette giggled slightly and covered her mouth.
"Well, your lovely brunette friend over there had a fantastic idea for the party tomorrow night." I shrugged, bobbing my eyebrows at Olette. "So we're building our own swimming pool."
"..Olette..? Wha-" Hayner stuttered slightly, looking between us, before narrowing his eyes at me. "Where the hell are we supposed to skate now?"
"Try not to get too excited, lamer. You don't want to get your panties in a twist." I chuckled, at which Rai cracked up. "It's only for a couple of days. Go skate somewhere else."
"For fucks sake!" Hayner scowled, and for a moment I thought he was going to punch me. Instead he just gave up, letting out a long breath. "What about my board?"
I opened my mouth to make a nasty comment, but shut it again and thought about it. It was going to rot if we left it in there. Did we have a net to fish it out?
I didn't need to say anything. Rai leapt in there for me. "If you want it back, you can just jump in an' get it, y'know?" He laughed. "Can't ya swim?"
Hayner twitched slightly. I wondered if the kid could actually swim or not. We'd all grown up by the coast, so naturally we had to learn but Hayner had come from the mainland… he turned on his heel and retreated, muttering "come on guys," and dragging Pence with him. Olette looked between the boys and me, face twisted with concern, looking like she didn't know whether to follow or say something to us.
"Oi, girly." I said, making the decision for her. "Come 'ere."
She stepped over to us cautiously. "Yes?"
"My commiserations. We'll get his board out. How 'bout…" I paused, to reach for my bag, and dug through it, pulling out a folder full of flyers. "You come by the party?" I handed her one for each of them.
"Are you serious?" She asked hesitantly, taking them and examining them closely. I'd printed them off last night, and they stated quite clearly, 'no entry without a flyer'. "You'd actually invite us to your party? I hope you're not planning anything cruel, Seifer.." Olette gave me a warning look and I smiled warmly at her.
"Nah. Go on, I extend the invite to all three of you. On one condition."
"And what's that?" Rai and Fuu were watching intently. I guess I did sound slightly suspicious but genuinely, I was inviting them. No pranks on the agenda. At least, not planned ones.
"You skate with us when we've emptied this thing again." I don't know why I was pressing for this. I didn't care. I really didn't. It just bugged me.
Olette stared blankly at me for a moment, before shrugging, and turning to walk off.
"Oi!" I said, unsatisfied without an answer.
"I don't have a board." She shouted back over her shoulder, glancing back and shrugging before running off after her friends. That was it? That was the only reason she hadn't skated with us before? That was rubbish!
"What was that about?" Rai asked, giving me his best confused face. "You're kinda weird, y'know."
I smiled to myself and shrugged, getting up to see how the pool was doing. It was almost full to the brim. "Anyone fancy a dip?" I laughed, knowing it was going to be completely freezing. We wouldn't care about that when we were drunk.
"You've got to be kidding me," Mina said, folding her arms across her chest. "Not even in this weather!"
"Suit yourself." I laughed, placing my sunglasses on my seat and jumping in. I was probably insane, but I did promise Olette I'd get Hayner's board out of the pool. I still had my hat on, because I'd checked in the mirror last night for the first time in months, and my hair was getting ridiculous. No one need see it before I'd had a chance to go to the barbers.
Fuck, it was freezing.
I braced myself and opened my eyes. The hose was still on, and I could hardly see for the slightly murky water and the bubbles. Kicking hard, I felt around at the bottom of the pool for Hayner's board. I was grateful that I could hold my breath pretty well, because I couldn't find it.
Eventually my hand hit something hard and I grabbed onto the wheel, swimming upwards through the bubbles to the surface. I gasped for air, throwing the board vaguely towards the concrete. "Jesus…" I panted, grinning to myself. "Stupid fucking Hayner."
"Thought you'd drowned, y'know!" Rai said with an amused grin, as I swam to the edge of the new pool.
"Thanks for jumping in to save me, then," I laughed breathlessly as I dragged myself up out of the water. "Fuck, it's coldddd!"
I flopped back onto the concrete and closed my eyes, revelling in the welcome heat of the sun. This was going to be the best party ever, period. I grinned lazily to myself. I couldn't wait.