Sora was an odd kid. He'd been an odd kid his entire life – the only ones seeing beyond his oddness being his current-and-always best friends Kairi and Riku – and for some reason, he'd always been… accepting and embracing of his oddness.
Ever since he'd attempted to talk to people for the first time in middle school and made a total and unrepentant idiot out of himself, he'd sorta just backed off and floundered in social situations, allowing Riku's charm and Kairi's sweetness lead him into the more 'popular' side of things… but even then, he was always just... with them. Not really, a part of them… and y'know, that was peachy for Sora… it gave him more time for daydreaming about talking ducks and strange dog-creatures.
Currently, Sora was playing a very awkward game of 'Spin the Bottle' initiated by Kairi at a "secret-but-not" little corner of their 'Grad Lock-In', which was more or less parents locking their children into the local recreation centre after convocation so that they wouldn't go out and get stupidly, blindly drunk. Unfortunately, it was also boring as hell, and they weren't allowed to leave, not even with their parent's permission.
Graduate from highschool and get locked into a prison… with a pool, and a live band that couldn't play. It was… interesting, to say the least.
Now, after three unsuccessful attempts to play 'Truth or Dare' in which everyone (except Riku) was too pansy to choose dare with all the parents there (and people were too scared to give Riku good dares… except Sora, but no one really ever called on him), Kairi had pulled out—
The Bottle.
Yes, that's right… bolded and capitalized.
"Heh… so… what is this game?" Sora asked cheerfully, and everyone deadpanned at him. He could almost see the metaphorical sweat-drops over their head. Yes… it really was a good thing Sora was friends with Riku and Kairi, or he'd be absolutely socially fucked.
"Spin the bottle, Sora," Riku said, allowing the bottle to slip from his fingers and handing it to his friend instead. There was an instant dampening in mood among the girls and he sincerely wondered what the hell kind of game this was that it could cause an instant wilt in the female population with the switch to him.
"'kay!" Sora said, enthusiastically spinning the bottle a bit too hard so it hit Riku in the hand, spun wildly and skidded to a stop in front of a blond kid who was reading a book just outside of the circle.
"Hey, you playin'?" another blond – a boy named Tidus – asked the kid, jabbing him hard in the ribs.
The kid, Sora couldn't remember his name – but hell, Sora couldn't remember the names of half the people in this circle and they'd been his friends for the past four years and this kid was a transfer student who'd only entered their school a few months ago – snapped his book shut in a questionable rage and stared at everyone for a second.
"Playin' what?" the boy asked, imitating Tidus's annoying accented words and causing everyone in the circle to snort in amusement.
"Spin the bottle!" Sora chirped, and everyone looked at him with amusement in their eyes… amusement that Sora just… wasn't getting. Why was everyone giggling? Hell, even Riku was giggling! It was… scary.
Had someone snuck alcohol in past the parents?
"Uh… that all depends, who spun the bottle?" the blond asked, flapping his book against his side a little self-consciously and then watching as all eyes turned to Sora.
"Why does it matter who spun the bottle?" Sora asked, head tilted to the side.
"…"
There was that odd sweat-drop type feeling again and Sora looked at everyone in confusion.
"For serious?" the blond asked, a small twitching to his lips. "You guys are assholes."
"Huh?" Sora asked as the guy suddenly crawled across the circle to the stunned silence of everyone in the room.
Sora felt himself being pushed back to the ground before he had even the slightest inkling of what the hell was going on, and… suddenly he couldn't breathe! HOLY SHIT, HE WAS BEING SUFFOCATED!
No… the blond kid was… kissing him?
Sora gasped in shocked and the guy's tongue took the invitation to leap into his mouth.
"MMFGRPH!" Sora objected, but the crowd of girls counted down from five and the blond kept kissing him until they reached zero, and kissed him a little harder after that.
"Uh… you can stop now…" someone – Riku – said, and Sora choked when the blond was torn off of him and placed on the other side of the circle.
Sora reached up in shock to his lips and felt tears spring to his eyes.
"Uh…" Sora choked, knowing that he probably shouldn't be so upset that his first kiss had been stolen in such a brutal, cruel fashion.
"Holy shit… I'm sorry," the blond said, obviously seeing the tears in his eyes. "That was—"
"Shut up!" Sora screeched, silencing the room they were in and drawing the attention of parents.
"Sora…" Kairi attempted to crawl across the circle to comfort him.
"Why… did you guys do that?" Sora gasped, attempting to make his racing heart calm down and to gather his – even more scattered than normal – thoughts into a pile.
"I…" he heard Riku and he turned to see the silver haired boy staring at him with a mixture of shock, disgust and horror.
"I'm… going swimming," Sora told him, attempting to hide the misery in his voice and scrambled away.
"Wait!" the blond who'd kissed him said, scampering to his feet and giving chase.
Sora… didn't care at that moment what the kid had to say. It was just as much his fault as it had been everyone else's!
"Hey, wait!" the blond bit, grabbing his arm and yanking him around a bit more viciously than Sora thought he really needed to.
"Let go!" Sora cried a bit moodily, jerking his arm away and glaring.
"I'm sorry… I'm… really, really sorry. I just… I figured, hey, you hang out with Riku and he's kinda a manwhore, so I figured that you… I didn't… I, uh… wow… awkward," the blond stated, blue eyes dashing to Sora's own baby blues before darting back to the ground multiple times. "I thought that they were fucking with you because you didn't know what the game was, I didn't get that that was your first… I'm really sorry."
"Riku's a manwhore?" Sora asked, that being about all he got out of the rambling crap that had spewed out of the blond's mouth. Jeez… for a kid dressed as… cool as the blond was, he stammered almost as badly as Sora himself did.
The blond snorted. "Fuck, I know that they said you were head-in-the-sky, but are you serious?"
"Uh…" Sora deadpanned as the blond started dragging him towards the smell of chlorine and the fanatic screaming that was emanating from the changing rooms. "Where…?"
"You said you wanted to go swimming, and I figured that I've kissed you, so the next logical step is seeing you naked. Come on," the blond said, dragging a barely-protesting Sora who was now about as red as a supernova.
Fortunately for his somewhat-fried nerves, Sora had been wearing his swimsuit underneath his clothes – having been warned of the activities available at the party – and the blond's attempts to see him naked were thankfully foiled.
Unfortunately, the blond hadn't been a boy-scout like Sora… and apparently also didn't mind changing in public.
By the time they got out of the change room, Sora was sure that the blood vessels in his face were popped from sheer embarassment.
"You're fun to tease… I should introduce you to Ax, he'd probably have an aneurism laughing… fuck, I wonder if I could get some sort of bounty from Marluxia for accidentally killing him…" the blond stated, going off into his own little world as Sora reflected that he often did some times.
"Uh…?" Sora stammered, realizing that he'd been doing that a lot in this conversation, and hell, he didn't even know the kid's name.
"Axel's my best friend… 'A-X-E-L, got it memorized'?" Roxas said in another one of those odd voices that he had a tendency to spew out, like when he'd mocked Tidus earlier. He'd actually done a bang-on version of Riku as well when they were changing… kinda freaky, considering that Sora didn't even know who this kid was and Riku didn't really spent that much time away from him.
"I'm guessing that voice is supposed to mean something?" Sora asked, a small smile tilting his lips.
"Eh, you'll get it when you meet the bastard… he graduated like… five years ago," the blond shrugged.
"Yeah… and um… look, I don't want to… but, uh, what's your name?" Sora said, feeling his face flush again.
There was a pausing moment where the other boy just stared at him in shock and then started chortling and laughing his blond ass off.
"For SERIOUS?" the boy burst out, choking on water he was laughing so hard and Sora felt even more scandalized than he did mere minutes ago.
"I…" Sora wanted to defend himself, but honestly… what the hell could you say to that?
By the time the blond had stopped laughing, Sora had had to drag him out of the water a bit bitterly, almost wishing that he could let the kid drown, but he was… curious. Was he supposed to know who the blond was?
"Hey, Sor…" Sora heard, and turned around, his pleasantly bitter bubble popped into plain bitterness at the sight of Riku standing awkwardly by the water's edge.
"What?" Sora grumbled, turning away and looking down, wishing that he had something a bit more scathing or witty to say.
"Lookin' to fuck him over again, buddy? Maybe buy him a whore, y'know… make it a night? Or, I dunno, I guess you could always sell him as the whore—" the blond next to him started, and Sora jumped at the cruel, biting words the blond was uttering. Jeez… who was he?
"Shut the fuck up, Roxas!" Riku bit, and Sora's eyes widened, forgetting the past few minutes in the elation of finally knowing the kid's name.
"So you're Roxas!" Sora chirped cheerfully.
Roxas – the newly coined – couldn't help cracking up again and Sora frowned, pouting slightly at the mocking.
"Sora… I don't… wow…" Riku sighed and Sora turned to him in confusion.
"What?" Sora asked, shaking his arms lightly in his confusion and frustration.
"He lives with you. Y'know… in your boarding house that your parents run? He's always two minutes behind us every day when we've gone to school since he transferred here," Riku informed him and Sora felt his eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. "You eat breakfast with him."
"When they told me you were a space cadet, I didn't really believe them until like… right now, this second, seeing that look on your face," Roxas said, and then Sora gave a full body flinch when Roxas reached up and pinched his cheek rather viciously.
"OW!" Sora objected, slapping away the blond's hand and rubbing his abused flesh miserably.
"Well, c'mon J'onn J'onzz, let's go swimming," Roxas chortled, motioning back towards the wave pool just as the chirping bells announced that the waves were about to start.
"The Martian Manhunter?" Sora asked, turning away from the blond and seeing Riku there again. He blinked, his body jumping again as he registered his friend's aqua eyes staring at him in disbelief. He'd completely forgotten Riku was even there.
"That's it? You're just… going to go swimming?" Riku asked Roxas, staring at the two of them in shock as Sora felt the beginnings of waves lapping at his ankles.
"Why wouldn't I?" Roxas asked, his chin jerking him in challenge at Riku's question.
Sora didn't wait for Riku to answer the question. Instead, he sent a light splash of water at his friend's face and cackled as he dove into the shallow end of the pool to escape Riku's rage.
"If you wanna kick my ass you're gonna need to get your swimsuit on!" Sora taunted, the grin on his face infectiously spreading to Roxas until both boys were grinning ear to ear at the pissed off Riku.
"You're fucking dead, Sor… I challenge you to a chicken-kick match," Riku declared, and Sora felt his jaw drop.
"NO FAIR!" Sora roared as Riku flipped him off and strode off to the change room.
"Chicken-kick?" Roxas asked with confusion on his face.
"Yeah… do you see those monkey-bars hanging just over the deep end?" Sora said, motioning to the wooden fixture hanging about seven feet off the water with ropes leading up to it. Currently, everyone had abandoned the wooden bars in favor of the waves, but usually it was crawling with friends 'Chicken-kicking'.
"Sure… we had those at my old pool too," Roxas shrugged.
"Well… Chicken kicking is when two people start at either side of the bars, swing forward and try to beat each other with their feet…" Sora said, attempting to show off the game with his fingers in a very failed attempt.
"So… that explains the kicking bit, where does the 'Chicken' come in?" Roxas asked, swimming closer to the deep end to dive in the waves before Riku could come out… or, at least, that's what Sora was doing, so he figured that's what this kid was doing too.
"It's not allowed, so the lifeguards will start screaming right away, and the first person to give up loses," Sora grimaced.
"That sounds fucking awesome. Is there any sort of penalty for interference?" Roxas asked with a rather evil glint in his eye.
"Huh?" Sora blinked in confusion.
"Back in my hometown, it wasn't some sort of illegal practice, hell, it was just about a sport," Roxas grinned. "We kinda got used to cheating."
"Cheating?" Sora gasped, and Roxas snorted in amusement.
"Oh, God… you're just fucking precious… you have to come back to Twilight Town with me sometime," Roxas stated, and Sora frowned… wondering where the hell Twilight Town was, wondering who precisely Roxas was, and wondering why the hell he hadn't noticed this kid before now.
"Hey, Sor!" and that was all the warning he got before Riku cannon-balled into the water not more than a few feet from him.
"ASSHOLE!" Sora shrieked as Riku grabbed his ankle and dragged him under the water with the force of a wave and left him there, swimming back up to the surface before Sora could get his bearings.
When he emerged, ready for blood, Roxas was already in a splashing war with Riku and Sora gladly joined.
Riku dove under the water again just as Sora started splashing and he didn't have enough time to pull away as he felt that familiar hand wrap around his ankle and he barely had enough time to catch his breath before he was yanked under the water.
Grumbling mentally, he struggled back up to the surface, only to notice that his two companions were now missing. Frowning, he looked under the water to see a Riku-shaped blob and a Roxas-shaped blob fighting to drag each other under the water.
He gave them another few seconds before they both emerged, glaring at each other something fierce.
"I challenge you, Pikachu," Roxas uttered, pointing at Riku, who blinked slowly and in complete confusion.
Sora crackled up almost instantly, shocked by Roxas's strange pop-culture references and amused that he had the balls to make them so freely. Maybe it was just because he wasn't in public? Sora had a tendency to make good references too when he wasn't in the public eye… although, given that he was constantly around Riku, and Riku had one hell of a fanclub, that was pretty much never.
"You're on," Riku said, and the two boys struggled over to the monkey bars, Riku taking the far side with Roxas nearest him.
"One, two, three, SWING!" Sora shouted from the water and the two boys started towards each other, kicking and latching on with water-slicked limbs, attempting to knock each other into the water before the lifeguards could notice precisely what they were doing.
Unfortunately for Riku, Roxas had a completely different way of playing than the simple country boys of Destiny Island did, and before Riku or Sora knew what was happening, Roxas had his legs swung over Riku's shoulder and was clawing at Riku's hands on the monkey bars with his toenails.
"The fuck?" Riku blinked and Roxas started chortling something fierce.
"C'mon, aren't you even going to fight back?" the blond taunted, seemingly amused with their lack of experience.
Riku's eyes instantly sharpened and a nasty battle started for all of fifteen seconds before the lifeguards noticed and Sora called the Chicken portion of a game.
"SUICIDE BOMB!" Roxas screamed, letting go of the monkey bars and diving at Riku, hitting his stomach and shocking the boy into letting go of the bars himself and dragging him into the water.
They surfaced a few seconds later, Roxas supporting Riku as the silver-haired boy choked and sputtered.
"So… does the game work as whoever lets go first or who hits the water first?" Roxas asked, ignoring the lifeguards screaming at them to get out of the pool as he stared at Sora expectantly.
On a positive note, Roxas, Riku and Sora were the only three at that party who were allowed to leave the recreation centre before the Lock In was over.
On a not-so-positive note, they were also going to have nasty red marks on their permanent records and were suspended from the second-to-last week of school.
"Oh, God… my parents are going to be so pissed. And… and, I'm going to fail all my tests… and what about…. And…" Sora rambled, more to himself than to the other two boys who were walking home beside him.
"Chill… if you're freaking about exams, I can help," Roxas stated, swinging an arm casually over his shoulder. "Besides… now that you actually, y'know… know I live with you, it should be a bit easier."
"Oh, yeah! You live with me!" Sora chirped, seemingly forgetting his woes of moments before.
Roxas started howling again and Sora shoved him off his shoulder, glaring at the blond's meanness.
"Yo, Sor, can I stay the night?" Riku asked from his perch on his other side.
"Yeah, sure… OH! By the way, I still think you're an asshole," Sora stated, crossing his arms over his chest and scowling something fierce.
Of all the swearwords that Sora had ever been exposed to 'asshole' was the only one that he felt comfortable saying aloud… mostly because there really was no other word to describe Riku.
"I didn't exactly expect him to do it, Sor… I thought he'd punk out," Riku said, and Sora cast a secretive look upwards to see Riku glaring over his shoulder. Tilting his head the other way, he saw Roxas glaring back.
"You shouldn't have put him in such a shitty position anyway, dickwipe," Roxas said, shrugging and obviously not even slightly remorseful of the kiss.
The bantering continued as the three walked the short distance to the boarding house Sora's parents owned and ran. Sora felt a small smile appear on his face, sheepish as it occurred to him again that Roxas had lived with him this entire time and he hadn't even known.
"When did you move in?" Sora reflected absently, interrupting to almost-wrestling match Roxas and Riku had taken it upon themselves to have.
"Uh… at the beginning of the year, my parents hated Ax and the rest of the organization, so I was sent here to 'gain some maturity'," Roxas said, complete with air quotes.
Riku snorted at that. "I think their attempt failed," he stated with an eye roll.
"Eh… maturity's overrated anyway," Roxas stated, swinging an arm around Sora's shoulder and yanking him to his side. "So… wanna play truth or dare?"
"Okay!" Sora agreed, wrapping an arm around Roxas's waist to support himself so that they weren't unbalanced and wobbling everywhere.
Riku then draped his arm around Sora's shoulder as well. Sora shifted against him minutely, grumbling slightly about the other boy being an asshole, but eventually slipped his free arm around Riku's waist so that they weren't bumping into one another constantly.
As the boarding house came into view, Sora felt his face heat up a bit. How could he have not known Roxas lived there?
He looked over to the blond – who was still sniping at Riku – and blushed at his own stupidity, before looking away and looking at Riku instead.
The other boy didn't even seem to realize he was being watched – he was probably so used to it now – and Sora sighed, smiling to himself and hoping that his parents wouldn't ground him too hard.
Oh well… at least Roxas lived with them, it wasn't like he'd be alone anymore now, anyway. Besides, Riku always snuck into his bedroom window whenever the two of them were grounded – generally that meant that they would be grounded even longer – so that probably meant that Sora would have to get used to being locked up for the whooole summer.
Suddenly, that didn't really seem like it would be such a bad punishment after all.