It
Takes Two:
The
Lover
Roxas thought he deserved it; Olette told him that he did nothing wrong, and Pence told him that Hayner was a genuine douche-bag.
He didn't even remember how it had started - the fight, of course. First they were just talking, and then Hayner raised his voice, and just…boom; Hayner was gone.
Roxas held the icepack to his black eye and sighed, feeling Olette stroke his hand and Pence rub his shoulder soothingly.
Roxas chuckled; it wasn't like this was the first time. He adjusted the icepack, and bit his lip.
He remembered first meeting Hayner.
He had always been a little…pigheaded, in a sense. Roxas had transferred schools after moving to Twilight Town when he was only eight.
Roxas always sat by himself in one of the empty tables in the back of the classroom. At lunch, he would take his food and sit next to the planter box and eat all by himself.
Olette was the first to talk to him, being social and, well, a girl. She sat next to him one day at lunch, and they were best friends ever since.
Contrary to popular thinking, Hayner was next, wondering why Olette had stopped coming to play dodge ball on the blacktop.
Roxas remembers playing dodge ball with Hayner the next day and sending Pence to the nurse with a bloody nose in their victory.
Pence didn't talk to Roxas after that for about a week before Olette patched things up and made Roxas say he was sorry. He was going to anyway, but Pence kept running away every time Roxas came near him.
Roxas remembers Sex-Ed.
The girls and the boys were separated that day. Olette was stuck with Fuu, and the other girls while Roxas, Hayner and Pence were stuck with Seifer and Rai. Seifer told everyone in school about how he knew everything about how grownups wrestled on the floor and a baby came the next day.
Roxas watched the video. It talked about pennies and Virginia and the word Condemn and how the pennies needed to condemn something in order to get into Virginia…or something.
The only thing he remembered was Seifer laughing at the word pennies every time it came on the TV.
He remembers graduating from Elementary school and being a sixth grader.
Roxas didn't like being a sixth grader. All the other kids from the other elementary schools picked on him a lot because he was a little shorter than the other boys that were already growing like weeds.
One of the older boys (probably in the seventh grade) pushed him into the girl's bathroom once and called him gay for going in there. Roxas didn't know what gay meant at the time, so that really never bothered him.
The only thing that did bother him that day were the screams of the girls running outside after Roxas had twisted his ankle trying to scramble out.
He remembers Hayner bringing him to the nurse for two reasons; one, because of his ankle, and two, because Hayner had stood up for the younger boy and got himself a hurt shoulder and a scrape on his elbow.
Roxas remembers getting hot when they were in the locker room, changing after PE. He glanced over at Hayner when the older boy had his shirt off and felt heat rush to his cheeks and look in another direction.
He remembers their first dance.
Olette looked beautiful that night. She had a short skirt on, with a skinny shirt and her hair done in curls. Pence looked good too; he had borrowed his father's dress shirt, because by that time Pence had begun to never leave the TV screen and play video games all day.
But he remembers Hayner the most.
His button shirt fit loosely around his torso and he had slicked his hair down with gel. It was, of course, the seventh grade. The foursome was a sophisticated bunch by this time.
Roxas remembers how the four of them danced by themselves, and danced together during the slow songs. First, Roxas danced with Pence's hands on his hips, watching Olette and Hayner slowly dance near them. Second, he danced with Hayner's hands on his hips and he watched Olette and Pence giggle as they danced.
Roxas remembered last how he had danced with his hands on Olette's hips and laughing at Hayner's happy look, resting on Pence's shoulder.
Roxas knew what gay meant, and what the pennies and the Virginia were, and that condemn meant condom.
He remembers hesitating to get a locker next to Hayner in PE in the eighth grade. He remembers blushing and almost getting in line with Seifer and Rai.
Almost.
He hesitated because he knew that guys were supposed to like girls and their Virginias and use Condemns so they didn't get knocked up. But…something was off.
He remembers the eighth grade graduation dance.
He remembers how beautiful Olette looked at every dance and how snappy Pence could dress, proving anything could happen, but he remembered Hayner the most.
He remembered Hayner's black eye he came with because he was trying to get Olette's corsage back from Seifer. Both of them left with something from the other.
He remembered taking Olette outside to help her with her makeup because she had been crying. He remembered the feel of her lips against his and how fast and slow and crazy and calm and weird it had been all at once.
Hayner was using a soda can to cover the bruise when Roxas and Olette had come back. He set it down after the swelling had gone down and discovered a new cut over his eyebrow.
Roxas took him outside, down the school halls and into the open boys bathroom to clean it up before he got his shirt dirty. He wet a piece of toilet paper and gently dabbed the scrape until the bleeding had stopped and through it on the floor.
Hayner ruffled Roxas' hair and they both came back to the dance. Hayner didn't like to dance, but he did it anyway, because it always made them all happy.
Roxas went over to Hayner's house after the dance to spend the night – something they occasionally did. Even though they were in the eighth grade, Hayner insisted they shared the same bed, or else Roxas would have to sleep downstairs on the couch because Hayner wouldn't leave his room.
So Hayner won every battle. Not that Roxas had every really cared. The bed wasn't uncomfortable and the floor wasn't very warm.
He remembers Hayner mumbling when Roxas wasn't looking and paying attention. Roxas was sitting on the bed, watching the movie Hayner picked for the night before the two went to bed. He'd hear something, but never turn to meet it.
Hayner told him he liked Roxas that day. He remembers blushing and looking down at the floor. Hayner blushed too and tried not to stare. When Roxas did Hayner would look up and just smile. Smile like he meant it and wanted to mean and like he knew he had to mean it.
Roxas went home that night with his head full and stomach empty. He was happy and a little giddy, the slightest bit hyper, and everything in between.
He remembers his kiss and his touch and how easily he gave in, and how all the signs had somehow come into place and how everything broke apart at the same time.
He remembers how honestly and desperately and helplessly and hopefully he had fallen in love that year. He remembers telling Olette and Pence about it, and the two of them only smiling and giggling and nodding in approval.
High school turned out to be the hardest.
He remembers trying to keep things together, and out of everyone else's' heads. He told his new friends in art class that Hayner was his best friend - not a lover. Hayner told his new friends on the soccer team that Roxas was his best friend and that was it. No one knew what to believe.
He remembers the first time they had a date. He remembers the first time he told Hayner that he loved him. He remembers the first time they made love. He remembers their first fight, and the first time Roxas came to Olette and Pence with a black eye, and how he went back home later that same night and everything was okay again.
Roxas smiled, lowering the icepack from his bruised eye, which already began to feel better and stood up from his seat in the Usual Spot and glanced at the two, looking at how beautiful Olette can never-not-be and how spiffy Pence could not help but be.
Now, they were sixteen. Now, the world was waiting for them. The music was newer, the trends were bigger and the world was at its worst.
And Roxas wasn't going to let a little black eye get in his way.
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