Disclaimer: Owns neither characters nor song Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne.

Warnings: Old School Avril Lavigne, Gender Bender, SoRoku


Sk8er Boi

By: Splintered

"He was a boy, she was a girl
Can I make it anymore obvious?"

--Sk8er Boy by Avril Lavigne

"It's complicated."

--Roxas Strife


Before you begin, just know that this isn't your typical love story. This isn't about a boy and a girl. This isn't about a punk and a girl who did ballet. This isn't about rockin' on MTV in baggy clothes or singing with your acoustic guitar. No, this is a story about none of those things. But this is a story about a skater boy and his encounter with love.

For starters, Roxas Strife wasn't your typical skater boy. Sure, Roxas had the build of a typical skater boy—thin and lanky with stick-chicken arms and legs. But the fact of the matter is that Roxas did not skateboard (although Roxas supposed that he could skateboard if he tried).

Rather than skate up and down the ramps at the skate park in loose graphic tees and baggy pants that hung below the waist with the rest of the punks, Roxas wore tight fitted outfits—things like spandex and suits that showed off his scrawny frame. Rather than spike his smooth blond hair or hide the silk-like tendrils under a backwards baseball cap, Roxas kept his hair either gelled back or long and feathery around his dreamy ocean-colored eyes. Rather than spend lazy afternoons in the streets hanging around the Usual Spot or buying Sea Salt Ice Cream from the local corner store like he seen other kids his age do, Roxas spent hours upon hours at the ice rink perfecting his technique and practicing his jumps and kicks and spins and turns.

No, Roxas wasn't your typical skater boy. He was a figure skater. And well frankly, on days like this when he saw the rest of the punks running around town with no worries in the world, it sucked.

It wasn't like Roxas didn't like figure-skating or anything. It's just that it took up so much time. Every day, the blond would wake up very early in the morning, eat breakfast, go to school and then skating practice. He would do whatever homework he had when he got home from practice very late at night and he would always be exhausted the next day.

And then there were the competitions on weekends—which both terrified and excited him at the same time. He and his dad Cloud would load up the '95 Impala and drive to wherever the competition may be. Roxas would go through this nerve-racking heart-throbbing experience of competing and then there was the wait for the results. And when he and his instructor went over the judges' comments, it was back to the skating rink for more training and practice. In short, his life basically revolved around figure skating. If he wasn't on the ice, he would spend whatever time he had for schoolwork or to grab a light snack.

Yet while his life did, indeed, revolved around figure-skating and he loved being on the ice, Roxas did not publicize it at school. While to Roxas, figure-skating defined who he was, he didn't dare tell anyone. Because, well, if anyone were to ever find out that he did figure-skate, he might be perceived than less masculine than he already was. He might be labeled a queer and well frankly, Roxas was deathly afraid of this happening again (although that statement may have some truth to it).

Roxas remembered what it was like to have someone's arms tightly wrapped around his neck in a chokehold. He remembered what it was like to be kicked again and again in the ribs. He remembered what it was like to taste blood on his lips when Seifer Almasy's knuckles collided with his face. He remembered Cloud's concern when he woke up at the hospital after three days. Roxas remembered the name-calling, pranks and eventually switching schools. Most of all, Roxas remembered what it was like to be labeled a queer.

So when Sora Leonheart, the most popular boy at Destiny High, began talking to him out of the blue, Roxas didn't dare tell him that he was a figure-skater.


Author's Notes: Thanks for reading. I know I haven't written here for a while, but nonetheless, I would love to hear from you and would really appreciate it if you leave a review. All questions and comments are welcome. And lastly, Happy New Year. =)