Hey guys! It's been a while. Sorry I haven't updated, but I've been busy lately, and I need to get started on my homework! School starts in two weeks, and I need to juggle schoolwork, fanfiction/updating, reading stories (I recommend Rotten on the Inside, it's a really good story (I have yet to review it, but I will!) and I just finished it! Do not read if you don't like unexpected endings (ooh, spoiler? :x)), and all that other nice stuff life throws at all of us :/
This is mostly plot-less, rest assured that the title does have something to do with this... er, story. (Well, okay it has a plot, but not a major one. I just began typing and this was what I got ^^; )
Even though I have written a story including smoking, cigarettes, and tobacco, in no way am I suggesting, advocating, or recommending the use of any such above, nor any of its other shapes/forms and/or associative merchandise; just as I do not associate myself with such. Your choice to partake in such damaging products is your choice alone, and I will accept no responsibility for your decision. Please remember that this is just a story, and enjoy!
~The Author
Smokeless Tobacco
Though it was nearly five o'clock, the waves of heat beat down on the small group of people as severely as though it were still noon. Zexion lay on his back, his book open and shielding his face from the August sun, and groaned softly: this was one of the reasons he hated summer. Next to him sat Demyx, tiredly strumming his sitar and wiping off the beads of humidity forming on them with a silk cloth every few minutes. Naminé was on her stomach, with her feet dangling in the air, and was busy drawing a picture of the glass wind chime, as well as tickling her boyfriend once every few minutes just for the sake of doing something other than draw. Zexion wearily batted her hand away for the fifteenth time and groaned louder.
"Naminé, dear, it's too muggy to be drawing, just as it is too hot to be tickling me. If you're not careful, you'll wake up in the morning with vivid nightmares…" The small blonde giggled nervously and resumed drawing, and glanced at the man sitting next to Demyx.
Axel was leaning against one of the pillars on Demyx's porch, and had crossed his arms behind his head, with a look of contentment on his face. The fire-performer was used to the heat and found it comforting, and was even wearing his protective black coat over his black shirt and pants.
"Axel… aren't you hot?" asked the seventeen-year-old blonde curiously. The red-haired man did not even open his eyes as he answered her question.
"Quite a few ladies think I am," he replied with a straight face. Naminé threw some eraser shreds at the pyro.
"You know what I meant." The redhead opened one emerald eye and looked at her boredly.
"I suppose… no, I'm not hot at all. It's actually quite mild, this weather…" Demyx barked out a shout of laughter.
"Ha! Mild? It's the middle of August, it's hot and humid, and you call this Kingdom-damned weather mild?" The pyro shrugged and closed his eye. Zexion called out something from underneath his book, but as it came out muffled, no one understood what he had said. So, Naminé picked the book off of the slate-haired man's face and grinned.
"What was that, Zexion? Sorry, we couldn't hear you." He blindly groped in the air for his book and snatched it back before scowling and replacing it on his face.
"I said that it is very quite nearly time for dinner; we should go inside, where it's cooler, if we don't wish to get any sweatier." Demyx rolled his eyes.
"Come on, Zexion, just because you practically live in your basement—"
"Has anyone noticed how Axel isn't even sweating? Like, at all?" Roxas, who had previously been sitting silently on the white wooden railing around the porch, cut in, pointing out at the pyro's dry face. Naminé stared at the teen in surprise, having forgotten that he was there, and sat up, cross-legged now, as she brushed off her white dress.
"When did youget here?" Roxas scowled, one nearly identical to Zexion's, and wiped a hand across his forehead.
"I've been here, Nami. And your boyfriend's right: we should go inside. It's way too hot out here." The rest of them nodded and stood up, one by one and began to walk inside Demyx's house, when Axel spoke up.
"I, uh… I think I'll be out here a little while longer." Demyx looked at the taller man with wide eyes and shook his head.
"No way, Ax. We need to go inside, or else you'll get sick, and catch something like sun poisoning or whatever…" He began tugging on a black-sleeved arm, valiantly, though in vain. Axel snorted and remained stationary, though he opened both eyes to cast the mullethawked sitarist an amused glance.
"I'm not going to get sick, or 'catch sun poisoning or whatever'. I'll be fine." Zexion suppressed an amused laugh.
"Well, then," he said idly, toying with a strand of Naminé's blonde hair. "I guess we'll just start dinner without you, and not leave you any. Demyx has ordered pizza tonight, and one of the boxes has chorizo sausages, jalapenos, and bacon in—" Axel practically jumped and ran into the house, leaving everyone left outside laughing good-naturedly in his wake.
Naminé began setting the table with white, porcelain plates, blue floral napkins, and sterling silver forks with the reluctant help of Roxas (just because he was a year older than her did not give him immunity to chores) as the three others waited for Saix and the pizza to arrive.
While the two were in the kitchen, the three young men lounged in Demyx's (air-conditioned) living room idly. Axel examined some trinkets on the fireplace's mantle with interest, before glancing at the large, gilded mirror facing him and admiring his reflection.
A man with red spikes for hair, intense emerald eyes, and a perpetual smirk adorning his face looked back at him indifferently. Two inverted, purple teardrops marked his face, under his eyes, giving him a strange, almost intimidating air about him. Zexion, who lay draped on a couch with his book in his hand, glanced at the vain pyro.
"You're looking at your reflection again? Axel, I'm pretty sure your face looks the same as it did two hours ago…" The redhead tossed him a halfhearted glare through the mirror and was ready to throw back a biting retort when the doorbell rang, causing everyone to look up, startled like rabbits, and pause for a moment as they looked at the door.
"Well that was perfect timing."
Demyx grinned as he walked over to the door and opened it, revealing a uniform-clad brunet with blue eyes and a stack of pizza boxes balanced on his hands.
"Hey!" greeted the dirty blond as he took the pizzas off of the young teen's hands. The boy smiled back.
"Hi! What's up? Your pizzas are thirty-five, ninety-five, plus a tip for me for sneaking in extra peppers!" Naminé popped up from behind Demyx and tapped his shoulder before placing her hands on her hips.
"You asked him to sneak extra peppers in?" she asked incredulously in her soft voice, with a hint of teasing in it. The teen's eyes widened as he saw the blonde.
"Naminé?" he asked, his face the perfect picture of shock. She glanced back with less surprise.
"Sora?"
"You live here?"
"Yes, sometimes, with Demyx; why?" Demyx, who had opened his mouth to correct his cousin with a not-quite-truth, not-quite-lie about the sneaking, and looked at the two.
"Er… you know each other?" The brunet nodded.
"Yeah! She goes to the art class across from my homeroom!" Naminé's face turned faintly pink as Demyx gave her a long look, brimming with curiosity.
"You never—"
"Well, until tonight I never knew Sora delivered pizzas, so I couldn't quite tell you that, now could I?" she gave her older cousin a cheeky smile as she relieved him of his pizzas and sauntered back deeper into the house, giving a surprised Zexion a quick kiss as she did so.
Sora felt awkward, intruding, even, as he watched Axel crane his neck to look at Naminé, the pizzas, and the quiet college student enter the kitchen, out of sight, as Demyx fumbled with his wallet. Suddenly, Demyx handed him a wad of bills and smiled at him.
"Here. The change is yours; thanks for the pizzas!" Sora smiled back as the door closed and returned to his bike, counting the bills along the way.
"Ten…fifteen…sixteen…nineteen…twenty-four…thirty-six…" His cerulean eyes went wide.
"Holy—! He gave me fifty bucks!"
Zexion rubbed his cheek lightly, where Naminé had kissed him, and pulled her chair out for her at the table before sitting down at his place next to her. The two sat on matching white chairs the east side of the table; Roxas at the west, on a blue (elevated) pouf; Axel at the south end on an ornate, velvet red chair, and Demyx sat at the head of the table in a slightly larger chair, adorned with a cursive D and carved from oak.
Of course, he had bought it himself at a garage sale, along with the other mismatched chairs, so it came as no surprise that there were a few scuffles on the wood.
As Naminé began opening the greasy boxes, strong aromas filled the air and Axel reached across the table for a slice, but received a tap on his hand from the blonde.
"Wash your soot-covered hands first," she said sternly in her quiet way. Zexion resisted the urge to smirk at the pyro as he stood up (as well as Roxas and Demyx with a look from his girlfriend) and dashed off into the kitchen. They returned not a minute later, with wet hands and silly grins, and quickly helped themselves to the oily dinner Demyx had bought.
Naminé and Zexion were the only ones who used forks and knives to eat their pizzas, much to the hilarity of the others.
"C'mon, lighten up you two! It's just pizza!"
"Yeah, not like a formal dinner or anything!"
"…Is yours burnt?" Axel craned his head to catch another glimpse of black on Zexion's pizza, but blinked when something hit his face.
"It's an olive, Axel, and you can have it." Naminé giggled softly at her boyfriend's actions.
"Throwing food at the table? Tsk, tsk, such behavior!" Zexion rolled his eyes and graced her with a small smile.
"You love me anyway," he shrugged. Axel picked the offending olive off of his face and glared at it, before tossing it into his mouth and chewing on it in revenge. Demyx helped himself to more Seafood Lovers' Delight when, once again, the doorbell rang. Axel nearly tripped as he ran out of the dining room and wrenched open the door.
"Finally. D'you get lost?" he asked with a smirk. Outside stood a man with a stern face, a grim expression, and acrylic-blue hair.
"Yes, in fact, I did. Your handwriting is nearly illegible, Lea," the man said in a low voice as he invited himself in. He wore a coat similar to Axel's, though with sleeves were wider at the wrist. Axel scowled at the newcomer.
"I'd rather you didn't call me that anymore, Luna." Saix ignored Axel's growl and pulled up a computer chair to the table, right next to Roxas. The smaller blond quickly scuffled his chair closer to Demyx: it was common knowledge that the blue-haired man frightened him. Saix smirked at this and watched impassively as the pyro returned to his seat, and bowed his head slightly at Naminé.
"Good evening," he said politely. Naminé felt Zexion tense slightly beside her; she smiled nervously at the blue-haired man, as did Demyx, though his smile was less nervous and friendlier. Saix nodded at the mullethawked sitarist and reached for a pizza slice with a napkin. Roxas stared incredulously at him.
"Why are you picking up that pizza with a napkin?" Saix did not cast either amber eye at the sitarist and began eating the dinner.
"Because, Roxas, I would rather not touch this greasy food Lea has so kindly invited me in for."
"It's Axel," Axel groaned into his hand. Naminé, Demyx, Roxas, and Zexion all laughed good-naturedly at the pyro as they continued eating their dinner.
Presently, the boys polished off the pizzas (leaving empty, oil-soaked cardboard boxes on the table), and held small conversations amongst themselves as Naminé and Zexion cleaned up the mess.
Zexion gently pushed Naminé against the counter once she had placed all of the plates in the dishwasher, and softly guided her chin up so that he could kiss her, when suddenly Axel burst into the kitchen, with Saix in tow. The bluenet wrinkled his expression at the two.
"You two are still dating? I'm pretty sure that that constitutes as statutory rape… You're, what, twenty-three, Zexion?" There was a hiss and a pop as Axel opened a coke and began drinking it. Saix turned from the couple and began looking through the pantry, searching for a bottle of water. He found one soon enough, and opened it after examining its contents to make sure that it was water.
"Just twenty, thank you," the slate-haired man hissed in reply. Naminé giggled and brushed a strand of hair out of her face.
"Er… then let's just call him my unofficial boyfriend, as a compromise?" she offered. "That way, we're dating, and he won't get in trouble."
"I'm pretty sure statutory rape is only applicable if you've had sex, Saix," Zexion said coldly. Axel choked on his soda and sprayed the soft drink out of his mouth as he began laughing. Both Saix and Zexion gave him a disgusted look as the twenty-year-old walked calmly over to the counter to grab a paper towel and hand it to Naminé so that she could wipe off her wet face.
"You're serious? You haven't done it yet?" Zexion rolled his eyes and shook his head; he took Naminé's hand in his own and led them out of the kitchen and into the living room, where Roxas and Demyx were playing a game of cards, each attempting to create a larger castle than the other. The slate-haired man wiped off the soda and saliva off of Naminé's hair with a tissue, much to her gratitude; he wiped the coke mixed with spit off of himself after he was sure she had as little as possible in her hair.
"Thanks, Zex," she whispered softly as she hugged his middle. "You know, if you want them kicked out, all you have to do is ask…?" Zexion shook his head, his messy bangs briefly revealing his other aquamarine eye as they bounced with his head movements.
"I'd rather not: if we did, then Axel would mock me relentlessly over how we kicked him out over his little quip about us being virgins." Demyx looked up.
"Who's a virgin?" he asked. Roxas looked up as well, but not prior to giving the table a little shake to knock Demyx's castle down.
"Heyyy…" Naminé's cousin pouted and crossed his arms, looking indignant, before recovering and looking at the couple curiously. Zexion sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Your cousin is; now will you let us be?" Demyx grinned.
"She better be," he said with a serious tone. "If she's not… well, once she's out of college I won't care about you two going at it, but—" Naminé clamped Zexion's pale hands on her ears to block out Demyx's words, and shut her eyes tightly, a crimson blush beginning to stain her cheeks. Roxas laughed softly and switched on the TV. Flipping through the channels, he settled for the Sports Network and promptly ignored the two as they so wished. Zexion removed his hands from his girlfriend's ears once Demyx had resumed trying to build his castle up.
"He's quiet again," he said softly to her. The little blonde smiled, and ran into the kitchen. Axel and Saix were still there, deep in conversation, but abruptly shut up once Naminé rushed in. They stared at her with wide eyes as she opened up the fridge to check whether or not the dessert was still in there (and not stolen by the pyro), and watched her take out a tray of fruit puddings and walk off. Axel's green eyes began glazing over at the thought of his favourite dessert, and Saix glared at his companion with annoyance as he forgot their conversation and followed the blonde like a puppy to the living room.
Naminé held up the tray of chilled desserts as she entered the living room and cleared her throat.
"So! Who wants dessert?"
Once Naminé had ushered everyone into the living room and had given them a fruit-pudding parfait each, Demyx placed a DVD into their player and changed the channel. Soon, a movie's opening credits showed up onscreen, and the movie started. Zexion had kindly turned off the lights and had moved over on the couch to give Naminé space, but Axel (as a joke) quickly sat down beside him and began mocking Naminé: cuddling against the repulsed boyfriend, whispering in his ear, and nuzzling his chest. The blonde artist resisted the urge to giggle (after all, she was the one being mocked) and helped Zexion shove the redhead off of their couch. While they were doing so, Axel sneakily swiped Zexion's dessert off of the table and tried to make off with it, when Zexion caught a hold of his black coat.
"Would you mind returning that to me, Axel?" Damn.
"No thanks, Zex. It's mine now!" Axel replied with a mischievous grin. Zexion raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"Really now? And may I ask why?" Naminé noticed that Demyx had paused the movie to watch (along with Roxas) their conversation; Saix remained sitting on an ottoman, arms crossed, with his grim expression back on his face. Axel pretended to look down haughtily at the student.
"I am older and therefore smarter, Zexion; that's why." The slate-haired boyfriend's lips curled into a knowing smirk (whereas the first was merely an amused smirk) and crossed his white-sleeved arms.
"Oh? Then explain to me the theory of quantum physics, and how it is applicable to modern science." There. Roxas snickered as Axel paused for a moment. Everyone knew that Axel, however smart he was in Chemistry, had nearly failed Physics in college.
"…So maybe I was a little… not-right about the smarter…" With a sigh, he moved to give back the parfait, but Naminé reached up and quickly stole the dessert off from Axel's hand (just to make sure that there would be no tricks) and handed it to Zexion. With a laugh, Axel sat down, cross-legged, onto the floor, with his own pudding in his hand, and watched the movie with the rest of them (which Demyx had so kindly resumed). They began eating their desserts (with almost everyone complimenting Naminé's cooking skills) when there was a sudden smell of smoke in the air. Naminé grimaced.
"Axel, please don't smoke in the house!" The movie was once again paused as everyone glanced at the source of the smoke. The pyro, who had shrugged off his coat, looked at everyone with mild amusement.
"What?" He took out his cigarette from his mouth with two fingers and blew out several smoke rings, and toyed with haze with his hand to lazily form shapes. "Just be glad Larxene's not here; she smokes like, three packs a day."
"Wait, doesn't she work at the gym?" piped up Roxas, puzzlement on his face. Saix nodded.
"Yes, she does. It's strange, really. She's ruining her lungs by tainting them with smoke, and then overexerts them with exercise. She'll end up critically hurting herself one day." Demyx covered up his snort of laughter, disguising it as a cough, and muffled his mouth with a pillow. Saix glared at him. Naminé sighed and shook her head.
"That still leaves us with the problem of you smoking in Demyx's house, Axel," she said, the faintest hints of a smile entering her voice. Axel shrugged and inhaled deeply on his cigarette, before breathing out the fumes, causing Zexion to cough and make his eyes water.
"I…" he coughed; "need to… get outside…" He stumbled towards the front door, opened it, and vanished outside. Naminé gave Axel a frightened look before joining her boyfriend outside.
Axel's eyes widened and he quickly snuffed out his cig in his closed fist and looked at Saix, who merely shrugged, cold as usual, and took the remote from Roxas and resumed the movie.
"He'll be fine."
Zexion moved to where he had been before dinner and leaned against one of the wooden pillars, breathing heavily and gulping in large breaths. The noxious toxins in the smoke had irritated his sensitive nose, and he had needed fresh air to clear his system.
Naminé joined him soon outside.
"Hey," she said softly, stroking his soft, slate hair. "You alright?" Panic slowly seeped into her voice as Zexion took in deep breaths and shuddered slightly.
"Y-yes. I'm alright…" He smiled weakly up at her. "I'm sorry I frightened you. I'm fine." Naminé sighed with relief and sat down next to him.
"I'm glad…" she murmured, and hugged him. He hugged her back, and not long after, the two were engaged in a make-out session. Roxas, who had creeped up to the door to check on the two, saw them kissing; his eyes went wide as he crept back into the house silently, so as to not disturb the couple, and imitated throwing up.
"They're kissing," he said with disgust. Demyx laughed as he opened a window to let the cooling air breeze in.
"You talk about it as if you're fifteen, Roxy! Don't you kiss girls?" Roxas shook his head.
"No." Axel grinned and ruffled his hair.
"So… are you gay?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, prompting a laugh from both Saix and Roxas. Demyx, amazed at Saix's uncharacteristic laughter, looked quizzically at Axel.
"You're gay?" Roxas shook his head.
"Nah. Axel's not. Least, not the last time I checked." He chuckled. "I'm straight as a ruler, but I don't have the time for girls." Axel widened his eyes.
"You don't have time for girls? We need to get you out more often!" Roxas made a face.
"I'm not ending up like those two, all out there and kissing and yuck!"
"What about 'those two'?" Roxas, Saix, and Axel whirled around. Demyx had already been facing the doorway, and raised an eyebrow when Zexion walked back in with Naminé's hand in his. Roxas blushed.
"Er… nothing. Yeah. Uh…" Naminé laughed at his flustered words.
"It's okay. Don't worry." Saix furrowed his blue eyebrows.
"Why are you back inside? Doesn't the smoke bother you?"
"I opened the windows, so most of the smoke should be gone…" added Demyx cheerfully. Zexion nodded.
"Yes… I'm sorry for earlier, but the smoke aggravated my senses and… what is that smell?" he asked in disbelief, holding his nose. Axel held up a tin can and grinned.
"Shouldn't this be less of a problem for you?" Demyx craned his neck to catch a glimpse of the words on the can, and laughed.
"You, my friend, have a nicotine problem." Zexion shook his head in his hands, and sighed against Naminé's shoulder.
Axel had switched from his cigarettes to a tin of smokeless tobacco.
A/N: Yes, our dear little Sora has somewhat of a slight crush on our little Naminé. And our dear Roxas is so innocent and naive. I know this was mostly pointless, but if you made it to the end and read it all (or at least 82%), you have no idea how much I love you now :D
Ehhh... review? Don't say I didn't warn you about this being mostly plotless :P hahaha :D
Have a nice day~