Summary: Roxas Strife was an ordinary boy; he made good grades, had good friends and family, and had everything that he needed. Although he told himself that, there was a piece of him missing, something he had lost, and when a red-haired, green-eyed stranger walked into his life, everything started falling into place… (Major Pairings: akuroku, soriku plus Cleon and minor Zemyx)
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any thing mentioned in this fic. (And no, I'm not gonna pout about not owning them like some authors. XD)
One in a Million
He was sitting on the edge of a building, legs pulled up to his chest with his face buried in them. His mind was in a daze, and he wondered what was wrong. Something was supposed to happen, something was missing, and he could not figure out what it was. He was all alone, and he could only think how wrong it was. Someone was supposed to be there, and that someone was not there. He whimpered and buried his face more. A name fell soundlessly from his lips, but his dazed mind could not register it. He could feel himself fading, and he looked around for the first and only time before he would be completely gone. The building he was on was a clock tower, and he looked towards the setting sun. As he faded away, a single tear dropped to the balcony he was sitting on…
Beep, Beep, BEEP! I growled and slammed my fist mercilessly onto my alarm clock. I then collapsed back onto my bed spread eagle and stared at the ceiling, thinking back on my dream. It was the same one every night, but it still bothered me. Damn it, I didn't cry, and I certainly didn't whimper! All the same though, I grudgingly admitted that there was something missing, and I would be damned if I was able to find it.
Right now though, all I needed to do was get to school on time. I regretfully swung my legs over the side of my bed and forced my protesting body into a standing position. As soon as I had done so, my door banged open and I was unceremoniously tackled back onto the bed.
"Morning, Roxie," chirped the hyperactive brunette teen who had tackled me to the bed. I was currently staring at the ceiling (again), and I sighed in exasperation before moving to push the brunette off me. Failing in that attempt, I said in an annoyed voice,
"Sora, off, now." Blunt and to the point, that was the most effective when dealing with Sora, my twin brother. (A/N: Now who saw that one coming? ^-^ lol, I'll shut up now.)
The brunette boy, now introduced as Sora, pinched my cheeks and cooed,
"Aw, y'know ya love me, Roxie-baby!" Nonetheless, he quickly scrambled off me and offered a hand to help me. I swatted the hand away irritably with a scowl before picking myself up from my bed for the second time.
"Now, what have I told you about that nickname?" I said, making my way over to my dresser. Sora blinked with a grin before replying,
"That you absolutely luuuuurrrrrvvvvee that name and to use it more often?"
"Humph."
"Awww, don't be such a sourpuss, Roxie-baby," Sora teased as he watched his brother pull out a black shirt and jeans. I sent him a smoldering glare and said,
"As if. Now get out of my room before I toss you out."
"Hah. I can tell when I'm not wanted." Sora walked gracefully out of the room, that is, until he tripped over the doorframe that so wasn't there earlier. I snorted quietly as I watched my brother make his way out of the room and shut the door. I shook my head exasperatedly.
My brother was anything if not amusing. I quickly retreated to the bathroom before I was tackled down again. I took a quick shower (for I could smell pancakes frying downstairs), brushed my teeth, got dressed, and took the steps two at a time to prevent Sora from eating my portion of breakfast.
When I made it downstairs, I saw that Leon stood at the stove, making me blink in surprise. Usually the stoic brown haired man only showed up on Fridays, and he usually absolutely refused to cook, even though he was "secretly" good at it. I smirked at the man when he turned around, who in turn rolled his eyes and went back to cooking. I couldn't resist teasing the man as he said,
"So, Squalllllll, to what do we owe the pleasure of your presence and cooking on this fine Monday morning?" Leon started and glared at me after he almost knocked the pancake out of the pan.
"It's Leon," He said flatly, as he turned back around again. "And if you must know, Cloud and I made a bet. He won." I nodded in understanding; I know how persistent my brother is with his bets.
I made my way over to sit with my brother, who was bouncing in his seat with excitement. I knew why; we hadn't had pancakes since a month back when we were staying at Leon's house for the weekend due to a slight…. Problem back at our house. You see, Cloud… isn't a very good cook. If we didn't watch him, he'd probably burn soup he's so bad (he actually has done that, by the way.). Usually, the cooking is left to me, being the only one even remotely good at it, but Cloud had wanted to do something special for Leon. Needless to say, he failed epically.
I watched as Leon finished up, and I immediately dug into the stack as soon as it was set down, I was hungry, and I was not letting Sora eat the whole stack, as he was wont to do. I got two pancakes and left the rest for the others to fight over… I mean, divide amongst themselves equally and cordially.
Ah, screw it, I'm not fooling anybody, Cloud had walked into the room as soon as it was set down, and he and Sora were growling at each other like a couple of wolves, trying to get more pancakes then the other. Leon had kept two pancakes beside him, being the smart person he is, so he and I ate peacefully while the other two fought.
When I was finished, I gulped down the rest of my milk, which had been set by my plate, and headed back upstairs to grab my stuff. The two were still going at it, barely half way down with their food, and I tapped Sora on the shoulder and reminded him that we had a 10 min walk to the school, and it was already 7:40. His eyes widened comically, and he dashed up the stairs and soon ran back down them again, grabbing my hand and dragging me along with him, barely shouting a goodbye before we slammed the door shut behind us and we ran down the sidewalk. This was our normal routine, even if the pancakes were not.
Sora's friend Riku was leaning against the fence around our yard, as usual, and Sora released my hand in order to glomp the poor guy. I shook my head as I walked up to them, hearing Riku and Sora's laughter as they attempted to get back off the ground. Personally, I'm sure they don't mind being all tangled up in each other, but that's my opinion.
Both of them were to shy to do anything about it, so I was going to be nice for once and not embarrass them, but I would definitely nag at Sora later to get him to ask the other out before their gushiness started to annoy the heck out of me.
Once they got back up, I nodded to Riku, who nodded back, before we all started for the school, the two of them chattering back and forth with me to the side, not participating in the conversation but still paying attention to what was spoke.
They were mostly just talking about school, so I tuned them out, my face carefully blank as I walked. No need to let them know that I am concentrating on the emptiness, that feeling that something is gone, something I need, and something I am so, so afraid that I will never find. I am also very jealous of the two's relationship, the way they were able to tell each other everything without it being ridiculed or exploited. What's more is that I am very annoyed that while they can tell each other everything, they can't tell each other their feelings. It's driving me mad!
I started as I heard my name behind me, dragging me out of my thoughts, and I turned around to see Hayner running up behind me, his messenger bag slung over his shoulder and his hair spiked up in its usual retarded style. Hayner grinned as he caught up, slapping me on the back and ruffling Sora's spiky hair. Sora pouted while I smirked at Hayner, who slung his arm around my shoulders and asked,
"So, what's up with you losers today?" I grinned at him, relaxing a little as I replied,
"Oh, nothing but the usual, Sora was just making us all late again."
"Was not!" Sora protested, glaring pitifully at Riku as he started snickering along with Hayner and me. Riku instantly shut up, smiling sheepishly at Sora in apology. Hayner and I kept on snickering, amused by the original reason and because Sora had Riku totally whipped, causing Sora to slap us in retaliation. Hayner released me and caught Sora in a headlock, grinding his knuckles into Sora's head. Sora whined, squirming to get loose. Riku whacked Hayner upside the head, ordered us all to stop being so childish, and the rest of the walk to school ended up remotely peaceful the rest of the way. I say remotely because Sora was still pouting, trying in vain to fix his hair, and Hayner was rubbing the back of his head while glaring at Riku, who resolutely ignored us all.
I sighed in exasperation, before engaging Hayner in conversation so that he wouldn't try to kill Riku, who he really didn't like for any apparent reason. I'm sure that Sora wouldn't be happy if Riku died.
I turned to Sora and grinned, winking at him to show I had just been kidding, who slowly grinned back and engaged Riku back into conversation.
Riku gave me a grateful look, which I nodded to, and turned back to Hayner, who was staring bemusedly at my ability to break tension. I just smirked at him and started back in on our conversation, which was about the struggle tournament coming up in a month.
Just to say, each of our main group has their own jobs, Sora keeps the group happy and high spirited (since Riku and I tend to be emo sometimes).
Riku is the levelheaded one who keeps us out of trouble and stops fights, I'm the tension breaker for when fights are ended or an awkward subject is brought up, and Hayner keeps me from feeling like the third-wheel to Riku and Sora. We are an awesome team, but I still think something is missing, which is the main reason that I get emo sometimes.
Riku's reason is that he's afraid that Sora doesn't like him, and he's afraid that if he tells Sora he'll be shunned and Sora won't hang out with him anymore. I dragged this out of him one day when he came over and Sora left to get snacks, and let me tell you, was that hard to do! He like clams up big time when it comes to his own emotional problems; he says that he doesn't want to worry anyone, but I say that's bull.
Anyways, I digress. Our emotional states are one thing that is common between Riku and me, and it is why we tolerate each other. The other reason is Sora, but that's obvious.
Hayner looked up, and seeing the school in sight, complained loudly, saying,
"Dang it, we're here already! I hate this stupid place! All we ever do is work, why can't we do something fun for once…" yadda, yadda, yadda. I tuned him out as he ranted Sora and Riku ignoring him in favor of their conversation.
Once we actually made it to the door, Riku and Sora split off to head to their lockers, which were to the right, and Hayner and I headed to the lockers to the left. You see, our high school is in sort of a box shape, there's the main building in the front, two buildings perpendicular to it, and another building just opposite of the main building. The lunchroom was in the building to the right, and the auditorium was in in the building to the left. At the end of the left building, was the gym, which was separate from it. Down past the school was the football field and beside that was a student and faculty parking lot. There was also parking beside the auditorium, but that was mainly faculty only, except when the orchestra (which I'm in) had a performance, which is usually 2-3 times a year.
After we got our things from our locker, Hayner and I split, I headed for English and Hayner headed for Math, which he had with Luxord, a very strange man who was obsessed with poker. He was very strict too, and that made Hayner really hate him. I entered my class, nodding at Mr. Zexion, who did not even look up from his book as I passed.
I sat next to Olette, one of my few other friends, and grinned at her a little before I pulled out my English book and turned to my homework page looking over it one last time to see if I had made any mistakes when I was working on it last night.
A few moments later, the bell rang and a few stragglers made their way in right at that moment. Zexion glared at them a little bit, but didn't say anything since they were right on time. They smiled sheepishly, one, being Demyx, even waved a little before they all sat down hurriedly. Zexion stood up after he had closed his book and they were all seated, and announced,
"Everyone please get out your homework so that we may begin." I was one of the few who already had it out, so I watched as everyone else scrambled for their homework, not wanting Zexion to be mad at them for being slow. Zexion walked through the aisles, checking to see who had theirs, making faces at some of the handwriting (namely Demyx, although he did try really hard to get the answers right).
When he reached me he raised an eyebrow, but then he moved on. I breathed a sigh of relief and dropped my head onto my book, still a little tired, even though I got plenty of sleep last night. I usually get this way after those dreams, and lately they have been happening more and more often, making me wonder if something big is going to happen, and very soon.
I listened as the professor finally found someone's homework to be displeased with, and I snorted as I realized that it was Seifer he was picking at. Zexion started droning on and on about the importance of homework and how Seifer would do to well to actually put some effort into it and stop slacking. He also advised the boy that if he was going to get someone else to do his homework he should at least get someone who was competent at it. Rai, his best friend, sank down guiltily in his seat as his boss was yelled at. I snickered when Zexion finally shut up and sent both boys to the principles office. Seifer flushed angrily, pushing back his chair violently, motioning for Rai to follow him as he stomped out of the room like a petulant child.
Rai scrambled after the boy, almost knocking into the vice principle as he went out. He apologized hurriedly and continued on his way, trying to catch up to Seifer.
I raised my head as the vice principle entered the room, his blue hair glinting funnily in the fluorescent light. He walked over to Zexion(who was standing by his desk), and they talked for a few minutes, before Zexion nodded and waved a hand, as if inviting him to do as he wished. The vice principle, whose name was Saix as I noticed while listening in, turned around back towards the door and said loudly,
"You may come in, now." The door swung wide upon as a spunky red head sauntered in, smirking all the while, and I swear, my heart skipped a beat upon seeing him. Although, I wasn't about to admit that to myself, and I just passed it off as nerves of having a new person in the class, someone who might approach me and either befriend or bully me. My resolve crumbled a little though as the boy's acidic green eyes scanned the classroom and landed undeniably upon mine. Impossibly, his smirk grew imperceptibly wider as his eyes glittered impishly at me.
I blushed and glared at him, cause I was not going to agree with my heart, which thought that look was oozing sex appeal. He winked at me, and then turned to acknowledge the teacher who had been trying (and failing), to catch his attention.
Since he had his back to me, I took the chance to examine him, wondering what it was about him that made me… uneasy. He wore black trip pants, a black studded belt, and a black muscle shirt. He also had on studded wristbands and a studded choker. As I had seen when he first walked in, he had two teardrop tattoos on his face, right underneath his eyes. Overall, he looked like a normal, rebellious teenager, but there was something different about him that I could not place.
The three finally stopped jibber jabbing, and the vice principle stalked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Zexion pushed Axel slightly in front of him and said in a monotone,
"This is your new classmate. Make him feel welcome. Introduce yourself, please." The boy rolled his eyes, and then he turned to smile at the class cheekily.
"The name's Axel. Got it memorized?" The boy, now known as Axel, turned to stare directly at Roxas. "I'm sure that we'll all become very, very good friends." Roxas's eyes widened as another blush overtook his features. He could just tell that this school year would be extremely …interesting.