No one would stop talking about; the news was all over the city, and everyone was excited.
At least, almost everyone.
"Can you believe our luck?" Olette asked Roxas one day during lunch, twirling her wavy brown hair around a finger. She was absolutely beside herself, rolling back and forth on her feet. "Twisted Fate is coming to Destiny City!"
"I am absolutely going to wear all of my memorabilia," Pence said in a tiny voice held taught with suppressed excitement. His head band had "Twisted Fate" written across it, a pair of fiery chakrams emblazoned for all to see. It was part of the famous (strange) symbol of the world-famous band Twisted Fate, and everyone knew them for it. Pence's headband was one of the few things setting him apart from the dreary uniforms of the school normally, he'd have been wearing one of his endless supply of sports jerseys.
"I'm totally gonna get a picture with them," Hayner said, grinning. Roxas raised an eyeybrow at the teen. He had actually expected Hayner to be against the totally popular band, if just because they were "in". Hayner was well known for being "rebellious", making it a point to stick out from what everyone else was doing. As a testament to this, Hayner wore combat boots with his school uniform (just barely under flagrant disregard) and a camouflage-patterned bracelet. Nearly everything else he owned was similarly patterned.
"You guys are way too into this," Roxas groaned, and they all shook their heads at him.
"You haven't even tried listening to them." Olette sighed dramatically. "Their music is actually… Well, it's amazing."
"It is the most amazing, rockin-est music I've ever heard," Hayner agreed. "Some of their stuff isn't my style, but that's just it- they don't have a single style. They write whatever suits the song!"
Roxas shook his little blonde head and stuffed his hands into his pockets. This stupid concert was going to be the death of him- and it wasn't even like he could just skip out on it.
Destiny High had won in a lucky draw the chance for all the students to go see Twisted Fate for free, during school. It would be held at the massive amphitheater dead center of Destiny City, and the show would cater to thousands. Normally a sports field, it was being outfitted specially.
The whole city was going crazy with preparation. Booths were beginning to crop up, selling over-priced memorabilia. Street performers seemed to have forgotten any other songs by any bands. Even the high school marching band was taking advantage of the situation, performing Twisted Fate's most popular songs at every football game to a raucous cheer (probably more than they'd ever gotten in their life).
The whole city was on Twisted Fate fever.
Except Roxas.
If anyone asked him why he didn't like the band, he didn't really have a reason. He hadn't tried listening to them, and he hadn't tried meeting them, and he'd never been to one of their shows. He didn't know any of their lyrics, or any of their names, or even what they looked like, which was quite possibly a magnificent feat in and of itself. Posters were plastered up everywhere Roxas went, and he still didn't know what a single member looked like.
"There are three," Pence said helpfully one lunch period, as the concert drew nearer. "A guitarist, a singer, and a drummer, though they're all musically talented and often switch up instruments."
"Except when it comes to the Sitar," Olette said dreamily. "Demyx never switches out of the sitar if he can help it."
"True that," Pence laughed. "Though I don't even think the other two know how to play the sitar."
"I don't know how to play the sitar," Roxas said helpfully. The others ignored him.
"Anyway, there's Demyx who's usually on guitar or sitar. Anything stringed, really," Pence added. "He's usually backup vocals too, though he's got a wicked screaming voice."
"Screaming," Roxas repeated in disbelief.
"Oh yeah," Hayner grinned. "And Axel's by far the best drummer in the band."
"Clearly." Roxas was having as great deal of fun being bitter and dry, but his friends (and really, the whole city) were far too excited for his cynicism to get anywhere near them.
"Axel is HOT," Olette breathed. "They say he actually knows how to USE chakers."
"Chakram," Pence corrected immediately.
"Whatever," Olette giggled. "Either way, that'd be really attractive if he could. Talented AND powerful? Too much."
"Riku is the singer of the band," Pence jumped in. "Well, usually. He has the most diverse voice of them, though he also plays keyboards and back-up guitar. He's a really good DJ too, so I hear," he said. All three of them sighed dramatically, clearly of the opinion that the show couldn't come soon enough.
Roxas loosened the blue tie that was standard uniform for all the students, shaking his little blonde head at them.
"I'll see you guys in math class," he said in disgust.
As the day drew ever nearer- now a week away, and still no sign of the tour bus (though Roxas privately believed that the band had already showed up and were just in hiding)- the students began to get restless. And not just the students, either; the teachers were beginning to talk incessantly of the band. Roxas was absolutely sure that he was the only person who wasn't interested at all.
An announcement over the speakers the last Friday before the concert brought the whole school to near hysteria. "No uniforms" it said, "on the day of the concert". This was ecstatic news, especially for the girls; now, it would be entirely possible for them to be as attractive as possible, in the hopes of catching the eyes of the members of Twisted Fate.
Roxas was sure his life was going to be thrown upside down, and he along with it. He was almost positive that he would begin falling into the sky any minute now.
While Roxas was at home practicing the guitar (and avoiding every media instrument in the house) late Saturday evening, his trio of friends came to pounce. They demanded to know what he was going to wear to the upcoming concert.
"You HAVE to look absolutely your best," Olette demanded. She refused to show them any pictures of her outfit, saying that to tell would be to ruin the surprise. "It could be possible that you or one of them turns out to be, you know. Gay." Olette giggled as Hayner nudged Roxas in the side, waggling his eyebrows.
"I'm going to punch you, and I won't care that you're a girl," Roxas said blandly. "You know I'm not-"
"Would you stop your moping?" Hayner groaned, interrupting Roxas completely. "You're such a buzz kill. Pence, look through his closet." Roxas didn't even attempt to stop his friend from rummaging. He didn't have a very large selection, so he'd be done shortly anyway.
"Good lord," Pence said in true form, face horrified. "Have you no fashion sense?"
"I wear a uniform almost every single day of my life," Roxas pointed out. "When the hell am I going to wear anything else?"
All three of his friends looked down at his extremely disappointing grey tank top and black sweats.
"It's a Saturday!" He whined. "Why the hell am I going to look good on a Saturday?!"
"You need to get out more." Hayner crossed his arms and shook his head.
"This is very saddening," Olette said, sighing, "But I happen to know that I gifted you with a very snazzy outfit last year for your birthday."
Roxas winced. It wasn't that it was unattractive- Olette had very good taste in clothes, especially when it came to choosing for other people- but he definitely didn't like having other people dress him.
Olette jumped into his closet and fished out the still pristine set of clothes.
"Have you even worn these?" she demanded.
"Would you like me to repeat myself, or can you already hear the snark?" Roxas said belligerently.
"We can ALWAYS hear the snark," Pence pointed out, and Hayner and Olette laughed in return.
Roxas sighed. This concert really was going to be the death of him.
The day of the concert did not dawn with meteors and a rain of fire, despite Roxas's wishes. He glanced outside, but the day had started off bright and sunny with nary a cloud in sight. This was actually pretty impressive; it was constantly raining in Destiny City.
Roxas was about to pull out his uniform when the clothes that Olette had painstakingly picked out for him fell out and onto the floor before him. With a pained sigh, Roxas picked them up and moved into the bathroom.
Thirty minutes and a long-suffering series of dramatic sighs later, Roxas emerged a totally different person.
His blonde hair was, of course, spiked up as always, but that was about all that resembled his usual self. At least, not entirely.
He wore a black T-shirt that had a checkered design going down the left-hand corner, and a checker choker around his neck. A signature checkered ring adorned two of his right-hand fingers and one of his left-hand fingers. Black jeans that were tight where it mattered and loose where it should be (thank the gods) came down to black boots that pulled half-way up his calves. Olette had knowingly gotten him ones that had a zipper in the back; Roxas was notoriously lazy. Atop the shirt was a white vest with a matching splash of checkering in the right-hand corner and the back, slightly shorter than the T-shirt.
Olette's mother was a fashion-designer, so Roxas knew she hadn't really paid a whole lot for the ensemble. Still, it was more than likely a custom set, and he was a little ashamed that he hadn't worn it more. It really was a comfortable fit, and it matched his tastes superbly (i.e. the checkered patterning- he didn't understand why, but he had a serious thing for checkered patterns). He was honestly surprised that her mother had gone through the trouble for him, though she often did the same for Hayner and Pence. It was probably because Roxas's family could never have afforded something like this… Or was he being bitter again?
Roxas tramped down the stairs, grabbing his black and white checkered backpack before thinking better of it. He instead grabbed his phone and wallet, pocketing them, and ran into the kitchen for a quick bite. He wasn't exactly late, but he didn't want to push his luck.
"Shouldn't you be on your way?"
Roxas nearly tripped and sprawled across the kitchen floor at the sound of his older brother's voice coming from the direction of his room, which was directly connected with the kitchen.
Cloud was some sort of high-up police officer or security person- he never really explained his career to Roxas, and he always changed the subject when the blonde-haired boy asked- and he worked late at night. He was hardly ever up this early. Or during the day at all.
"You should be asleep," Roxas said to make his point, taking in the completely bedraggled appearance of his brother. Cloud's normally spikey hair was drooping past his face, making him look almost feminine. That effect was ruined by the absolutely defined musculature of his chest, abs and arms. His legs were much the same, but these were covered in fluffy bunny pajama bottoms. Roxas pointed to theses and smirked, saying "Nice."
"Shut up, twerp," Cloud snorted, ruffling the boy's hair. "I wanted to make sure you weren't going to skip out on today."
"Now why would I ever do something like that?"
"I don't know." Cloud rubbed his chin in mock thought. "It could be your latest hit single, 'I really fucking hate Twisted Fate'."
"Oh. You heard that?" Roxas snorted and grabbed a nearby muffin, stuffing it into his mouth. "I made that up like last week, when were you home to hear it?"
"You'd be surprised twerp." Cloud snatched an apple and threw it at his little brother, who caught it easily. "Eat that instead. Also, I thought the rhyme worked out really nicely."
"Thank you for noticing," Roxas said with a mocking bow. "I do my best. Anyway, Cloud, it was good to hang and see you for once, but I'm officially going to be late."
"Nah," Cloud said after a second, and an evil grin lit up his face. "Wait right there."
Roxas groaned as his older brother darted back into his room.
They were taking the motorcycle.
A/N: So uh. I have no idea if this file format looks weird, or if it will post correctly, because this was all so confusing. You'd think I'd be used to this. "But Kitfoxpup, what about your fifty billion other stories?" Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh... SHHHHHHHHHH... This one is actually really far along, although I don't know if I'm a fan of it. My writing lately... I haven't really liked it. At all.
All well. It was requested, so here you go!