Author's Note/Disclaimer:
-waves- Hello all! This is Kida-san, finally getting down to business and writing a real fanfic (there was an earlier attempt involving a whole crew of insane OC's, but that was scrapped) of AkuRoku goodness! And, just 'cause I think I have to say this: me no own Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy, 'cause if I did…. well… that'd be awesome. But I don't. Ah well. Oh yeah, and I don't own the song lyrics you'll see in italics- it's Get Out Alive by 3 Days Grace. It needed to be there, cause it pretty much inspired this whole fic. :3 Now then- onwards!
XxX
In the background, there was a song.
No time for goodbye, he said, as he faded away.
There was a second voice in the background, too, but I wasn't paying attention to it. I was much more interested in the sad, pained undertones of the singer.
Don't put your life in someone's hands, they're bound to steal it away.
Although I couldn't tell what was making the singer sad, there was such a raw power in the man's voice that I was finding himself sad just by listening.
Don't hide from your mistakes, 'cause they'll find you, burn you, then he said-
"ROXAS!"
I jerked up to a sitting position, headphones falling from his ears with the speed of my movement.
"Finally, I thought I was going to have to take desperate measures- resuscitate you or something. Maybe CPR."
I blinked. My older twin brother, Sora, was looming (if you could call it that) over my bed, obviously not happy with my lack of response. It took a few more seconds for my mind to catch up. I'd been… .listening to music? Yep, my headphones attested to that- besides, I remembered the singer's voice perfectly. And… I'd fallen asleep? It had seemed like I was dreaming, but I wasn't sure. Sora's presence could only mean that he wanted something (either food or company- had to be one of the two) but I had been spacing. All right, got that taken care of. Now to figure out what Sora wanted.
"Yeah?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Ready to go?"
"Where?"
"Dinner! Food! Hungry!"
"And how is that you know a word like resuscitate?"
"I looked it up."
"You never cease to amaze me."
"Shut up, Rox, I was kidding. And come on, it's time to eat."
"Coming, coming." Resigned to my Sora-filled fate for the remainder of the evening, I turned off my iPod and hopped off my twin bed. From the desk next to my bed I grabbed my keys and student ID and pocketed them in a side pocket of my favorite black-and-gray pants before dutifully following my significantly happier brother out the door. Our dorm hall was a huge U-shaped building, with the main entrance and cafeteria both in the very middle. I'd found out earlier that day that my room was near the end of the southern wing- on the bottom floor, no less. Nice.
"-and Kairi said to tell you hi, by the way, and that she misses you already."
Giving Sora an incredulous sideways look (a talent, I'm sure of it), I raised an eyebrow. "You mean that she misses you, I assume?" And, as I'd known he would, Sora fought a blush via grinning almost embarrassedly at the floor. Heh, why did he even bother to try to hide? Seriously. We're twins, man. Fraternal, but whatever. We even look similar, same height and everything, except that Sora has crazy-spiky chocolate-brown hair while mine's blond and kinda swept to one side (a look that takes skill- and a lot of gel- I'm telling you). Other than that, we look about the same- even down to our eyes, but enough people have told us that they look freakishly blue that I don't feel like going to detail. They're blue. You get the point.
"Have you met your roommate yet?" I asked, knowing that'd get him excited so that he'd talk enough for the both of us. I could tell it'd worked when his eyes lit up with obvious glee. "Yep!" He chirped. Geez, he must really like the guy. "His name is Demyx, and he's really nice! He likes a lot of the same music I do, but he's way, way more into music than I am, more than anyone I've ever met, so he knows a lot more bands than me! And he's letting me borrow some of his CDs!"
He was clearly going to continue telling me everything I could possibly want to know (even while we were getting our IDs swiped to get into the cafeteria) about this Demyx guy, but a thwack on the head distracted him. He determinedly glared up at the offender, but only for a few seconds. This was Sora, after all, so a few seconds later he slung an arm around his best friend's shoulder like he hadn't just been pretending to be angry. That was Riku, the tall (bastard), silver-haired heartthrob. Poor girls- Riku was, quite obviously to anyone but Sora, gay. As in, he had no interest in girls. At all. Only my brother. His pining was funny to watch, especially since Sora liked him back. Not that the brunet knew that. No, he was too happy being Kairi's boyfriend to get out of his 'denial' phase, but I'm not his twin for nothing. I've seen the two of them cuddle when they're both asleep. It's almost sickening, it's so cute. Idiots.
"You going to introduce this amazing roomie of yours to me or what?" asked Riku, giving Sora a smirk. Sora grinned back and opened his mouth to speak, but never got the chance. It's a bit difficult to talk to someone when you're being tackled. Enthusiastically. "What's this I hear about an awesome roomie?" It was a taller blonde, and with his "Heartless" hoodie, I could only assume this was the Demyx I'd been hearing about. Seems the people at this school match personalities pretty well, judging by the guy's energy and… mulleted hair? Was that a mullet, or a mullet-mohawk mixture gone wrong, or what? I couldn't tell. Huh. Anyway, it definitely seemed like he and my brother would get along.
"Riku, Roxas, this is Demyx, my new roommate!" Sora then turned to grin at Demyx. "That's my baby brother Roxas and Riku, my best friend. You have people you're eating with already?"
Demyx nodded with a broad smile. "Yep, I'm eating with my friends. Lexy and Larxy and Zexy are all here already. See you later, okay?" And with that, Demyx trotted happily off to the front of the cafeteria where you get your entrées. The three of us followed with less flourish, Sora and Riku talking about their move-in experiences. I don't really know why, but my mind was apparently stuck on mulling over the music I'd been listening to. There was something about that song… meh, that's stupid. It was just a song. Period. It was time to drag my mind back to the present- at least long enough to procure some cheeseburger casserole. It looked edible enough, unlike the fish sticks- and I like fish. So that should tell you something. Glancing around, I took in the cafeteria. It was a big rectangular room, with a bunch of circular tables filling one half of the room and a row of rectangular tables filling the other half. Sora and Riku were sitting at one circular table, along with Tidus and Selphie, two friends of theirs from when we'd lived on Destiny Islands, and Hayner, Pence, and Olette, friends of mine from Twilight Town. Why from two different places, you ask? Well, that's a bit of a long story. But I'll keep it short.
Sora and I grew up on Destiny Islands, but our parents split up when we were ten. Messy ordeal with a bit of cheating (Dad) and a lot of unhappiness for all parties involved. So we moved with Mom to Twilight Town, visiting Dad, his new wife, and our step-brother Cloud every so often. I don't like our step-mother much, but Cloud's all right. He's two years older than us, and is pretty quiet most of the time. So we get along pretty well. Figures, right? Sora actually likes our step-mom, but she's actually really nice to him. She doesn't much care for me though, even if our interactions are always perfectly civil. Sometimes I swear she's bipolar, but good luck telling Dad that- he's in love, or so he says. So I just keep my mouth shut, which is probably for the best.
Apparently I'd been zoning out again because I was sitting down at the table before I registered my surroundings. Sora was pouting, so I gave Riku a questioning look. "He asked if you'd met your roommate." He said, obviously amused. I sighed and returned my attention to my twin, saying, "No, he hadn't gotten here yet when I left." That done, I was finally able to pay more attention to my friends, since Sora was already talking to Tidus about Struggle. "How went your move in?" I asked Hayner and Pence, who were rooming together. Hayner just gave me a dark look, so I turned to Pence for an explanation. "I stepped on his Struggle bat as he was about to put it away." The chubby brunet told me, failing at hiding a grin. "Other than that, fine. My parents let me bring my kit (aka his huge-ass set of science lab equipment), so all in all a good day."
"For you! I have to get used to a new Struggle bat now!" Hayner accused, jabbing the air with his fork. Pence snorted, which launched the two into a debate about personal property, the holiness of sports/science equipment, etc etc. I just grinned, eating my meal in silence. I would have started talking to Olette, but she was deep in conversation with Selphie about their classes the following day, so I left them alone. I glanced down at my tray, and seeing that it was empty, waved my good-bye to the table and made my way to the very left wall of the cafeteria, where a conveyor belt that looked like it had been made in the 80s shuffled food off to the great unknown- I assumed the kitchen. Good, I was free from the others.
I sighed again as I left the cafeteria and passed through the dorm's main lounge to get to my wing of the building. I didn't really know anyone yet, and probably wouldn't ever get to know most of them anyway, so I didn't acknowledge anyone as I walked to the very end of the hallway littered with doors leading to rooms exactly like mine. My eyes sort of unfocused, not really looking at the people or the white walls or the navy carpet, just letting my legs carry me to the end of the hallway. From the depths of my pants' pockets I withdrew my keys and, after fumbling with the lock for a minute, I finally figured out the you turn the key clockwise, and father than you should have to, and opened the door, expecting to see a blissfully empty room. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Inside was probably the craziest-looking guy I'd ever seen. He was tall, way taller than me, and skinny, with flaming red hair and- were those tattoos under his eyes? Seriously, who got tattoos on their face? Weird. He was unpacking a duffel bag, tossing clothes all over his bed while bobbing his head to the music coming from his earbuds. I still hadn't moved when he turned and saw me standing in the doorway, shocked into temporary paralysis. All I was thinking was: this is guy they assign as my roommate? Say what you will, the guy had to be clinically insane. And then he was looking at me with these freaking intense emerald green eyes that lit up like a cat's the second he saw. Taking out a single earbud, he flashed me a smirk. That somehow broke me out of my stupid paralysis and I stepped into the room, letting the door swing shut behind me. I didn't get a chance to say anything, not that I knew what I wanted to say in the first place, because he strolled over to where to my perch by the doorway and stuck out his hand. "I'm Axel. A X E L. Got it memorized?" Somehow I got the feeling I said that a lot. I hesitantly shook his hand, keeping my gaze on his.
"Roxas." I said in reply. Axel's grin widened. "Well Roxas," he said, "this should be an interesting year."
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A/N:
Woooow, that was short. Well, I'll work on that for the next chapter. I really liked that ending point, though. ^_^