Okay this was originally going to be a oneshot, but I ended up getting too many ideas, so this is going to be more than one chapter. Hope you enjoy anyway!

The Tutor

"Sora, I'm sorry but your grades this semester have gotten so low that if you don't bring them up before the end of this year, I'm afraid I will have no choice but to fail you."

Sora blinked at his principal, Mr. Brunner incredulously.

"How the hell am I gonna raise my grades in two weeks?"

"Language," Mr. Brunner admonished. "If you really don't think you can raise them yourself, then I suggest you get yourself a tutor."

Sora glared.

"A tutor? Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. It's either a tutor, or you fail. Your choice."

Sora rolled his eyes mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like "Fuck you" but Mr. Brunner decided to ignore it.

"Here is a list of available tutors." Mrs. Brunner handed Sora a list of names at least two pages long. Sora skimmed it quickly, not even registering half the names. He threw it back on Mr. Brunner's desk.

"I don't know any of these people," he said.

"So you're not going to choose for yourself?" Mr. Brunner's eyebrows raised.

"Obviously not."

"Fine. I'll just have to choose one for you." Mr. Brunner said as he read through the list carefully.

"Well, this one isn't technically a tutor…" he said after a while. "But he's the best in the class so he's best suited for you."

"Would you just tell me who he is instead of how good his grades are?" Sora snapped.

Mr. Brunner sighed.

"His name is Roxas Strife. Heart of him?"

"No." Sora said moodily.

Mr. Brunner knew Sora would be impossible to talk to while he was like this, so he gave up.

"I'll send him to set up a 'study session' tomorrow," Mr. Brunner said, but Sora wasn't listening, being too interested in picking at the gaping hole in the knee of his jeans. Mr. Brunner sighed.

"You're free to leave."

Walking out of the school, Sora had a usual scowl on his face. Sure his grades were bad, but couldn't he just solve the problem by doing some extra credit? But of course, the odds were not in his favor a he got stuck with a tutor. A fucking tutor!

He took his skateboard out of his backpack and was riding down the sidewalk, thinking. He would probably have to clean and cook dinner once he got home. He had never known his father, as he had died in a plane crash before Sora was born. His mother wasn't the type to be raising a child either. She had at least fifteen different tattoos scattered all over her body and tanned like there was no tomorrow. She also spent pretty much all the money they had on expensive things she didn't need, and worked at a run-down corner store down the street from their house. She made so little money that Sora was forced to work part time in a local coffee shop to even come close to sustaining them.

They had never had enough food in their house to make a decent meal, and he only had enough clothes to last a week before he had to do laundry to avoid having dirty clothes. His mother was almost always drunk, and always needing an excuse to be wast—

BAM!

Sora was jerked out of his thoughts abruptly when he slammed into something hard, knocking him to the ground. A second glance showed that he'd bumped into another person, a person who, in truth, looked a lot like himself.

The boy he'd run into stood, shaking out his hair, blonde spikes almost exactly like Sora's brown. They both had the same color eyes, a bright and dazzling cobalt blue. They were roughly the same height, and looked to be about the same strength.

The boy was scowling at him.

"Watch where you're going next time alright?" His voice was strained, as though he hadn't been using it for a while, or had been crying. Sora couldn't tell which.

"Well maybe you should watch where you're going because only an unobservant and insolent person would run into someone riding down the sidewalk on a skateboard."

"And only an idiot would be staring off into space while riding a skateboard." The blonde retorted.

Sora crossed his arms, slightly impressed and the other's wit. He had just opened his mouth to ask the boy what his name was, but the other had already walked around him. Sora watched him go quietly, confused at the blond's actions.

Sora shrugged and decided to forget the whole encounter, and retrieved his skateboard which was lying in the grass a few feet away. Mounting it again, he set off towards his house.

Arriving home, Sora almost instantly recoiled from the strong scent of alcohol filling the house. He quickly sought solace in his room upstairs, the only fresh smelling room in the house. The mal that day had been filled with bills and a letter from Mr. Brunner that explained his bad grades to his mother. He had, of course, crumpled that one up and had thrown it away.

He sat his stuff down on the floor by his bed before sitting down on the mattress, running his fingers through his hair. The brown locks hung loosely and messily from his head afterwards, but he couldn't care less about it. His mother wasn't home, though he honestly hadn't expected her to be. She was probably out getting a tan or a tattoo or something else stupid she didn't need.

Sora knew that he had to go downstairs and make dinner soon, as he was going to be late for his shift at work anyway, and a couple more minutes wouldn't hurt anyone.

Ten minutes later, he was groaning in frustration while standing in front of the fridge, the door wide open. There was absolutely no food in the fridge, unless you count some stale bread and old cheese. Sora frowned as he half sulked and half glared at the fridge's contents. He closed the door angrily. Looks like he'd be skipping dinner tonight.

Sighing in defeat, he walked back up the stairs dejectedly, changing into a nicer pair of jeans and his work polo. He grabbed his favorite black hoodie and slipped it on. Once he was outside and made sure the door was locked, he got his skateboard from by the door and started off in the direction of the coffee shop.

~.~.~

As he'd expected, Sora was late by at least a half an hour by the time he finally got to the shop. He sighed as he walked in, hoping that his boss was in a generous mood today. He shouldn't have been worried.

"Sora? That you?" He heard a familiar voice call from around the corner.

When he walked behind the counter, he saw his boss, a short pretty girl in her twenties named Kairi. She had flaming red hair that reached just past her shoulders and eyes that were so unique they appeared purple.

"Yeah it's me," Sora replied. "Sorry I'm late, got held up."

Well at least that wasn't a total lie.

"Aw, it's no big deal," Kairi replied shrugging. "It's been pretty slow, and since I haven't been very busy I've been covering your shift."

"You didn't have to do that!" Sora exclaimed as he pinned his nametag to the front of his hoodie.

"Sora," Kairi said, "You were half an hour late and I had no one else here to fill the shift. What was I supposed to do? And besides, I don't mind doing a little extra work, it sure beats sitting around doing nothing all day. Being a manager of a coffee shop isn't exactly the most challenging thing in the world."

Sora rolled his eyes.

"Tell you what," Kairi said. "You work the register, and I'll make the orders."

Before he could even answer, she was already tying an apron around her waist and slipping it around her neck and setting up the "kitchen" behind the counter. Sora smiled in her direction good naturedly, and shook his head.

"Sounds good."

About an hour later, Sora was grinning. He and Kairi had spent the remainder of his shift talking and taking the occasional order. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had this much fun, and he relished in the good feeling it left him with.

"Hey Sora? I'm gonna head out. You okay with closing up?" Kairi asked as she slipped on a sweater.

"Yeah, sure," Sora replied. "See ya tomorrow."

"See ya!" she said cheerfully, before practically running out the door.

Sora smiled to himself, feeling happier than he had in a long time. Spending time with Kairi was probably one of the best experiences, because she lit up a room instantly. She was like an older sister, and Sora loved that.

Just as he was about to flip the sign on the door from "Open" to "Closed", someone came up and knocked on the door urgently. Sora sighed, another person who came right at closing time to order something. He opened the door, slightly annoyed. Before he could say anything, the other spoke up.

"I'm so sorry I came at this time, I know you're about to close, but please if you could just— hey, do I know you?"

Sora's eyes widened in recognition. Of course, it was bad luck to have someone come right at closing time, but it was just his luck, that it was the boy he had ran into and argued with earlier at school. He inwardly groaned.

"I do know you," The blond said after a minute. "You're the one I ran into at school today, right?"

Sora reluctantly nodded.

"Look, I'm sorry I came at this time, but I really need to sit somewhere and relax. Could you spare an extra few minutes?"

Sora wanted to say no, wanted to badly. But he knew he had no valid reason to. His mom wouldn't be expected home for hours, maybe not even until the next morning. He reluctantly stepped aside letting the other in.

"Fine."

"Thanks," The boy said appreciatively, walking into the shop.

Sora sighed and walked back behind the counter and stood at the register, looking at the blonde expectantly.

"I'll just have a mocha latte," the blond said, sensing his thoughts.

"3.50." Sora said automatically, as he started to make the drink. The blond was rummaging in his wallet by the time he had finished and set it down in front of him. Once the boy had given him the money, Sora could feel his eyes trained on him, making him shift slightly uncomfortable.

"Your name's Sora?" the blond suddenly asked.

Sora glanced at him.

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, it's just interesting."

"Okay then," Sora shrugged. "What's yours?"

"Roxas."

Sora blinked.

"Roxas?"

Roxas looked confused.

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, it's just Mr. Brunner said he was going to ask someone named Roxas to tutor me… but Roxas isn't a common name, so I can only assume he means you."

"He never said anything like that to me." Roxas furrowed his brow in a confused way that made him look a lot younger than he was, like a kid. It was sort of cute.

What the hell am I thinking?

"He said he was going to talk to you about it tomorrow or something. You're the top of our class right?"

"Yeah."

"Well then yeah he means you."

"But I'm not a tutor!" he exclaims, almost angrily. "Who says I even have time to tutor someone?"

He took a sip of his coffee. Sora tried to hand him his change, but he shook his head.

"Keep it."

Once he had put the money into the register, Sora made his own coffee, plain black with two creams and one sugar. He then sat down at the counter and shrugged.

"He said he just picked you because you were top of the class and you were 'best suited for me' or some shit like that."

"And he tells you before asking me. Great. Now you expect a tutor don't you?"

Sora blinked at him incredulously.

"You think I actually want a tutor? Hell no! He's forcing me."

"So if I wasn't your tutor… you wouldn't care?"

"Well apparently if I don't have a tutor, I'll fail unless I can raise my grades myself by the end of the year."

"The end of the year? That's impossible to do by yourself!"

"Well I don't have much of a choice do I?"

Roxas looked conflicted.

"Well, I'm sure I could make time in my schedule…"

Sora sighed.

"Look, Roxas I appreciate it. But you seriously don't have to be my tutor. I'll ask my friend Riku or something."

"Wait, you're friends with Riku?"

Sora's brow furrowed.

"Uhm… yeah, why?"

"Because I am too. Why haven't we met before then?"

Sora shrugged, "I don't know, he's never mentioned you."

"Or you."

Roxas was staring at him curiously, and to be honest, it unsettled Sora a little. Roxas' eyes were piercing, and it unnerved him to no end. Even when he was talking to him, he had that look in his eyes like he was looking at a mental patient that could attack him at any minute.

Studying Roxas, Sora realized that he looked like a mess. His hair was disheveled and dirty, as were his clothes, and he had dark circles under his eyes that seemed to make the blue stand out. His hands were also dirty, as though he'd spent his time digging for the past few hours. Or days. Or months.

"What happened to you?"

Roxas looked at him weirdly.

"What are you talking about?"

Sora shrugged, trying to look nonchalant.

"Nothing it's just you're pretty much covered head to toe in dirt, and look like you haven't slept in months."

Roxas stiffened slightly, but only for a brief second before he relaxed again, but sora caught it.

"Is it bad?"

"No." Roxas answered, too quickly. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"Sora?"

"What?"

"You're different."

"Different?"

Roxas nodded, but didn't say anything else.

"Like a bad different?"

Roxas shook his head.

"Just different."

A minute of silence passed between them, until Roxas spoke up.

"Well I have to go, I'll probably see you at school."

"Yeah, okay," Sora said. "See you."

Roxas took a piece of paper and scribbled something down on it before handing it to Sora. Sora looked at Roxas confused when he saw that it was a phone number written on it.

"What's this?"

"Well you're gonna need me to tutor you right?" Roxas said shrugging. "Might as well be able to get a hold of me."

Before Sora could respond, Roxas was saying goodbye before ducking out of the shop.

Sora smiled and tucked the number into his pocket.

Okay the first chapter kind of sucked, but I hope this gets better later xD. Reviews are loved! :D