Chapter Two

Double

"Where the fuck have you been?"

I jumped out of my skin as I walked into the apartment he and I shared late that night. "I've been… around. No need to yell at me, Roxas."

"You weren't in study hall during lunch. I stopped by to bring you some food and you were nowhere to be found," he narrowed his eyes on me, looking absolutely pissed, "And then your fucking math teacher hunted me down and told me you didn't go to class either! I had to make up some bullshit about you being sick! Where the hell where you and who were you with?"

God, what was I going to tell him? That some psychopathic 20 year old convict dragged me out to the baseball field and kept me there till it was already dark? "I was… I was out…"

"Ventus, about 20 different people saw you leave school with Vanitas," he informed me, crossing his arms over his chest. "What the fucking hell are you doing with that guy? Did he threaten you?"

"Jesus! No, Roxas! I… I went with him myself. I wanted to get to know him, he seems cool," I half-lied.

Roxas groaned in disgust, sitting down on the recliner, "Fuck, Ven… Could you have picked anybody fucking worse to befriend?"

"Look… he invited me to hang out with his friends tomorrow and I really don't want to go alone… They go to the local college, we're meeting at their dorm. Go with me… you'll see, he's not that bad."

"You seriously think I wanna go hang out with a bunch of fucking delinquents at a sleazy college?" Roxas stared at me, completely dumbfounded that I'd even ask.

"I need you to go with me, Roxas… I can't go alone…" I begged, flopping myself down on the couch.

He growled, rolling his eyes in irritation, "What the fuck is actually going on, Ven? What, you like him? I mean, I'll admit that he's kind of hot but… really, Ven? An ex-convict?"

"Whoa, whoa… what makes you think I'd like him?" my eyes went wide and I shot up on the couch to look at him.

"Well… you are gay," he stated, as if he'd known our entire lives. …Had he?

I could feel my cheeks heat up in a dark blush as I turned my gaze to the worn out carpeting on the floor. "I… I… am I? I honestly don't know."

"Well… if you're still the Ventus I've known for 18 years, then yeah. You're gay. I had a strong feeling for the longest time, but I knew for sure after you fucked that crazy Alice bitch. You talked about it like someone was torturing you the whole time."

"Okay, so… I'm gay. And yeah, I kind of like Vanitas…" I finally admitted.

Roxas snorted a little, "So… what? He asks you to cut class and you just do it?"

"Rox… it's like I can't say no to him. Seriously, that's why I need you there tomorrow. I'm half scared that he's planned some sort of gang bang that I can't refuse because… he makes my brain stop working," I rambled, just coming clean about everything.

"Whoa, Ven… Start from the beginning. What happened? I mean, you didn't even know who he was this morning and now…"

I sprawled back down on the couch, "I don't know… I must've done something to… to make him choose me. He… he told me that I belong to him and… I just agreed to it like a little bitch. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me… I don't know what's going on in my head…"

"Fuck… that guy really is a psychopath. But… you still like him?"

"I… I'm not sure… but I'd really like the chance to find out. Please go with me tomorrow?" I tried again, really hoping he would say yes.

Roxas just huffed a little, "Only for my twin…"

"Yes! Oh thank God, Rox… thank you so much…" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in victory. "I'm still scared shitless of this, but… at least I don't have to face it alone."

x-x-x-x-x

You look fucking hot today.

I stared down at my phone, wondering where Vanitas could even see me from. I'd literally just walked into school.

And you're… invisible today?

Two seconds later I felt a pair of strong, muscular arms wrap around my waist, "Not invisible… just sneaky."

"Good morning," I melted against him a little.

"Don't get all gooey on me," he sneered, pushing me back onto my feet.

I turned around to glare at him, "You said we were dating. I'm allowed to enjoy having you hug me."

"Oh God… don't call it a fucking hug," he rolled his eyes, leaning against my locker.

"If you get to treat me like shit all the time, I get to be affectionate occasionally," I stood my ground, narrowing my eyes on him. He looked so attractive… saggy black pants tucked into black combat boots… black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the top two buttons undone… hair all dishelved…

Suddenly he was walking away and I was chasing after him with a pile of books in my arms, "You can't stare at me like that here."

I furrowed my brow in confusion, "Uhm… like what?"

"With your cute little 'fuck me' eyes. They drive me nuts," he muttered under his breath as we passed a group of other students.

"Oh… I didn't know that I had a 'fuck me' look," I shrugged, following him into our first class. I don't know how they assigned classes, but he was in every single one of mine.

He just smirked, "I can read your mind, Ventus. You're incredibly transparent."

"You can call me Ven, you know. It's my nickname," I informed him, taking the seat next to him instead of my usual place beside Roxas. Where was he anyways?

"How about I just call you my pet instead?" he bartered, raising an eyebrow all snarkily.

Scoffing, I crossed my arms over my chest, "I'm not a fucking animal."

"Oh, but you'd look so nice in a collar and leash…"

Before I could answer, Roxas slammed his hands down on my desk, giving Vanitas the stink eye, "So. I hear we're going to be hanging out with your …friends?"

Vanitas was visibly irritated by Rox's attitude, "Yes, and I'm just absolutely thrilled to have you tagging along…"

"Excuse me? My brother asked me to go with you because he's terrified that you and your fellow convicts are going to gangbang him in their dorm!"

He just chuckled cooly, "Well damn, you figured us out… And we were going to include you too."

I interjected, not wanting this to turn into a full-out brawl in the classroom, "Roxas, sit down. He told me we're just going to hang out and I believe him. And Vanitas, there's no reason to be a jerk to my brother. He's just watching out for me."

"You don't need watching… I can take care of you myself," he grumbled. He did confuse me… he was so possessive, but the second I started showing any kind of care for him, he'd recoil like a snake.

x-x-x-x-x

"Could you possibly take any longer?" I jumped out of my skin and slammed my locker shut as Vanitas appeared behind me again. The guy was like a damned ghost.

"Calm down. We have to wait for Roxas anyways," I told him, motioning over to my brother, who was busy making out with Xion at her locker, "And I have a feeling it's gonna be a minute."

Vanitas scowled and marched up to Roxas, grabbing him by his bookbag and yanking him away from his girlfriend, "We're leaving."

Roxas stumbled backwards as Vanitas dragged him, flailing his arms as Xion just stood there with a confused look, "What the fuck?!"

"I'm not going to sit here and wait for you to finish sucking face with that chick. It's time to go," Van told him, letting go of him and throwing an arm around my shoulders as I nearly sprinted to keep up with his long legs.

Roxas growled and straightened himself out, following us reluctantly, "You could have at least let me say goodbye..."

"Boo-fucking-hoo," Van mocked, rolling his eyes, "You're both a couple of pussies."

I scoffed, "Hey! I didn't do anything!"

He just raised an eyebrow, leading us outside to a seriously beatup truck that looked like it was older than the three of our ages combined.

"I'm not getting in that thing," Roxas stated, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly.

Vanitas just shrugged, "That works for me. I'd rather have Ventus to myself anyways."

My eyes went wide and I gave my brother a pleading look, "Roxas, you have to go..."

"...Fine. But you're sitting in the middle."

Van grinned, "Sounds good to me."

My stomach flipped a little as Vanitas flung the door open with a rusty creak. I crawled in as Roxas climbed into the passenger's seat, and soon I was sandwiched between the two of them.

The doors of the rust-red pickup sounded like they might fall off as they were slammed shut, and I wasn't quite sure if the engine was even going to turn over, but with a load roar and some squealing brakes, we were pulling onto the street in no time.

"Jeez, what year is this thing?"

"She's a '94 and she's doing just fine," Van stated, rubbing the steering wheel affectionately. I had to admit-that was kind of cute.

Roxas scoffed, "Your truck is literally older than all of us."

"Stop instigating," I poked him in the side, shooting him a glare.

"Stop forcing me into crazy situations," he growled, still clearly irritated that I'd asked him to do this.

"So Vanitas... How'd you find yourself back in highschool at 20?" Roxas directed his question right over my head. I hated that I was a couple inches shorter than him. Weren't twins supposed to be the same height?

Vanitas shrugged, "Life happened."

"You know that's not the answer I was looking for," Roxas challenged him.

"See, Ven? This is why I chose you. You two might look the same, but you're way more my type," he glanced over at me as he pulled up to a stop sign, "Your brother here is what I generally call an asshole."

I smiled a little, "Yeah, you've pretty much got him pegged."

Roxas elbowed me in the side and I yelped a little, turning to glare at him, "Well that's what you get."

But Van wasn't about to let him get away with it. He reached behind me and thumped Roxas upside the head, "You treat your brother right, or I'll kick your ass."

It was actually kind of nice to have someone standing up for me. Roxas was always trying to push me around because he knew I'd just take it. I've never been one for confrontation.

Roxas fell into a grumpy silence, slouching down in his seat and forcing me even closer to Vanitas. He always radiated heat, even though he looked like he'd be cold. "So how many friends are going to be there?" I asked him, watching his golden eyes focus on the road.

"Just Axel and Demyx. Maybe Dem's fucktoy."

That caught Roxas' attention and he glanced over, "What is with you people and treating your partners like toys?"

"Don't knock it till you try it," Van smirked, "That little raven of yours would look pretty damn good in a collar."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. Xion was not the type to just give in to somebody. She definitely had a bark to her bite and a bite to her bark. It wouldn't surprise me if Roxas turned out to be submissive, honestly. He handles her ball-busting pretty well.

"Classy," Roxas grumbled, huffing a little as he stared out the window.

As Vanitas pulled onto campus, my heart started to race a little. I was getting nervous about meeting his friends, especially if they were as confusing as he was. He found a parking spot on the street and finally I had room to stretch my arms again as we crawled out of the huge truck.

"Aren't you gonna lock it...?" I asked him as I ran to catch up with him yet again. How tall was he anyways?

"You really think someone's gonna try to steal that piece of junk?" Roxas quipped, strolling behind us with his hands shoved into his pockets.

Van shot him a glare that could have murdered somebody, "Everyone here knows not to fuck with me or my truck," he directed the answer at Roxas as if trying to send him a message. He really hated having his buttons pushed, which was all my brother was trying to do.

He led us into a four story dorm building, acting like he totally belonged there. Nobody even seemed to question why he had a couple of highschoolers with him, though a couple people gave us some strange looks.

By the time we made it to the third story, all we could hear was a pounding bass line rattling the entire floor. Naturally, the source of the music was behind the door he kicked open. Some death metal song flooded my ears, which actually wasn't too bad. I could tell immediately that Roxas hated it by the way he clamped his hands over his ears.

Vanitas marched right into the dorm room and flipped off the stereo, shocking my ears now with a deafening silence.

"Hey!" a tall redhead yelled, turning around in his desk chair and realizing who had turned off his music, "Oh! Hey Van!"

"You're shouting," Vanitas informed him, "You really shouldn't listen to your music that loud, man."

Roxas and I stood there awkwardly, and I suddenly had the urge to hide behind Van.

"Oh relax, I'll be fine!" the redhead was still shouting as if his music was on.

"Right... So this is Ventus," Van motioned towards me, "And his twin, Roxas. And this is Axel."

Axel didn't even look at me-his eyes were immediately locked onto Roxas, and suddenly he wasn't shouting, "Well, hello..."

I could tell how uncomfortable Roxas was, but it also made me laugh. "Uhm... Hi?" he offered a small wave, furrowing his brow in confusion.

"I thought you said Demyx would be here?" I looked up at Vanitas, attaching myself around his arm.

He moved to shrug me off, but then gave in and let me hold onto him, "He is. Demyx, get down here and say hello!"

I nearly had a heart attack when some blond guy popped over the edge of the set of bunkbeds in the corner, "Oh... Hey!"

"Get down here," Vanitas commanded, "Zexion, you too!"

It became clear to me very quickly that Vanitas was their ringleader by the way that Demyx obeyed him immediately. He flipped himself over the side of the bed, landing on his feet like a cat as some small blue-haired boy carefully climbed down the foot of the beds onto the floor.

"Demyx, this is Ventus and Roxas," he introduced us again, "If you ever get them confused, Roxas is the one that always looks like he's got a stick up his ass."

Roxas grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and sulking in the doorway.

"Nice, nice... This is Zexion. He's my ...boyfriend," Demyx paused a little at the title, giving the blunette a lecherous glance.

Zexion was too busy trying to get his shirt buttoned up again to notice, but he nodded in my general direction, "Nice to meet you."

"He's really quiet, you can just ignore him," Demyx told me, leaning in like he was trying to tell me a secret, but speaking loud enough that we could all hear him.

"So, are we hangin' out in the lounge?" Vanitas asked, "'Cause I'm not gonna cram myself into this dorm with five other people."

Axel nodded, standing up, "Yeah, we reserved the basement lounge for the night. Nobody ever goes down there anyways."

I had to actually crane my neck up to look at Axel when he was standing. He had to have been six foot three or four. He was even taller than Vanitas, which I didn't think could be possible.

I also couldn't help but notice that he purposely brushed up against Roxas as he sauntered into the hallway, startling him a little.

"I hope your brother has more willpower than you do," Van whispered in my ear, "'Cause Axel is going to try his hardest to break him."

"But Roxas is straight," I told him, following them all out of the dorm.

Vanitas chuckled lowly, "You sure about that?"

I followed his eyes to my brother, who was rather blatantly staring at Axel's ass as he led us down to the basement. "Well damn..." I muttered, a bit shocked.

The lounge in the basement of the building was completely empty, which had me a little more nervous. Who knew what they'd do if they had us completely alone?

Demyx pulled Zexion over to one of the couches and sprawled out with him, while Vanitas pulled me to the one across from it. There were four couches in total, positioned in a square around a coffee table full of flyers and other random clutter.

I squeaked a little as Vanitas sat down and promply pulled me into his lap, forcing me to stay seated on him by wrapping his strong arms around me.

Roxas took a seat on one of the other free couches, but found his personal bubble completely invaded as Axel sat down right next to him. I almost thought he was going to get up and move to the other couch, but to my surprise, he stayed put.

"So Van, how're you liking highschool?" Axel teased, grinning a little.

"It still sucks as bad as it did two years ago, but I think I'll survive," he shrugged, adjusting me on his lap so that he could see everyone.

Demyx chuckled, "I told you to leave that car alone, man. I knew you were gonna get busted."

So it was the grand theft auto theory, then. I could live with that. At least he hadn't murdered someone. "Yeah, yeah... If you bastards hadn't abandoned me when the police caught me, you'd be right back in high school with me."

"They gave you the option to get your GED while you were in there, Van. Why didn't you just do the online courses?" Axel asked him, raising an eyebrow.

He shrugged, tightening his arms around me, "You know I don't have an attention span worth shit."

I looked up at him, "You could have completed while you were in jail?"

"A GED doesn't mean shit anymore... I wanted to get my diploma..." he admitted, blushing slightly. That definitely surprised me, because he didn't seem to give two shits about school.

"So why don't you go to class?" I wondered, shifting sideways a little so I could better talk to him.

"I know exactly how many classes I can miss without failing. I do just enough that I'll be able to pass, and maybe get into this shithole college next year," he told me, as if that was a completely normal thing to do. Roxas and I had always been raised that we should do our best no matter what.

Demyx stretched out with a yawn, laying on his side with Zexion in front of him in a spooning position, "So how'd you two meet?"

"Uhm..." I glanced up at Van, not sure what to say.

"We met yesterday. I pulled him into the janitor's closet and kissed him," Vanitas told them blatantly, making Roxas throw me a look of concern, "Ever since then, he's been mine."

Roxas looked irrate, "What? Ven, please tell me that's not true."

"Well... I told you that I can't say no to him..." I mumbled, giving him a sheepish look.

"Jesus, Ven... What would mom and dad say if they knew you were fucking around with a convict? Huh?!" he asked me, ignoring the fact that there were four other people in the room.

I scrunched up my nose in anger, "Mom and dad aren't here! They abandoned us to go live in Paris and they don't even call anymore! They obviously don't care about us!"

Vanitas looked down at me in confusion, "Ven... Your parents just left you here?"

"They left me and Roxas in some shitty apartment... For awhile, they would call every day and send us postcards and stuff. Now we just get a card for each holiday saying that they wish they could have brought us with them."

"How long ago did they leave?" Axel looked to Roxas, "I mean, is it even legal to leave highschoolers alone?"

Roxas shrugged, "Couple years ago, when we were sixteen. The apartment is in their name, and the rent comes out of their credit card, so nobody has ever questioned it."

"But... How do you afford food and stuff?" Van asked me, still trying to wrap his brain around it.

"Again, they left us a credit card. As long as we don't use more than a hundred bucks a week, they don't get pissed," I explained, "They went out there to work. It was a good opportunity for them and all, but we kind of thought they'd at least take us with them."

Roxas rolled his eyes, "They went out there to satisfy their midlife crises without us. You remember that Christmas when Mom got super drunk? Well, she told me that they'd never even wanted to have kids. We were just one big mistake. Or, rather, two big mistakes."

I sighed, remembering her telling me the same thing. He was right-they'd only ever wanted to get rid of us.

"Damn..." Axel muttered, thinking about it, "Why didn't you ever call child services?"

"They're still our parents. Plus, what sixteen year old doesn't want to live alone?" Roxas told him, "Now we're both eighteen, so we lost our window of opportunity to complain."

I gasped softly as I felt Vanitas lean forward and press his lips against my neck, "I know what it's like to be abandoned. I'm sorry you had to go through that," he whispered into my ear. He was actually being ...nice. It was a little strange.

"Van, where've you been living lately? Did they get you into a halfway house?" Demyx asked him. I was a little curious about that too.

"Actually, I shacked up with my cousin Sora and his fiance. They live right near the highschool."

Axel burst out laughing, "Whoa, seriously?! I remember that guy... He was such a nerd back in school!"

"How'd you convince him to take you in?" Demyx wondered, clearly amused by his answer.

"Actually, it was Kairi that convinced him for me. She's one of those people that thinks she needs to fix everything. I think she sees me as some kind of project or something."

I snorted, "Right, like anybody could ever change you..."

His friends were definitely different than I thought. I could certainly tell that they were all rather dominant personalities like he was, though when the three of them were together, they all seemed like normal guys. Van had toned down his creepy Dom things a little, and I was starting to see another side of him.

"So, do you guys wanna watch a movie? This TV is hooked up with Netflix," Axel suggested, pointing to a large flatscreen mounted on the wall.

"Sure, why not?" Van said as Demyx also agreed.

We let Axel pick the movie as we settled down in a more comfortable position, which basically had Van laying down with me snuggled into his side. For someone who said he hated displays of affection, he definitely liked cuddling with me.

But the second Axel flipped the lights off, the entire mood of the room changed. Demyx was already molesting Zexion quite blatantly, which we could all still see even with the lights off. Roxas just seemed uncomfortable as hell as Axel "inconspicuously" draped his arm across the back of the couch they were on. And then Vanitas... I could already feel his eyes burning through the top of my head as I tried to focus my attention on the movie.

It became quickly clear to me that I wouldn't be watching this movie. Van had already shifted his body in to face me, his golden eyes locking onto mine in the faint glow from the TV.

"Van, no... My brother is sitting right there..." I whispered, unsure if I could manage to do anything knowing that my twin was watching.

"Hush... He's not even paying attention," Van told me, though he hadn't even looked to see if he was telling the truth.

I opened my mouth to complain, but found Van's lips on mine again in one of his intoxicating kisses. God, did he taste good... On top of the nicotine was something else incredibly delicious. ...Wintermint, maybe?

I could get used to this.

x-x-x-x-x

Author's Note: Okay, so it's been a long ass time since I updated this, but I'm so glad that I got back into it. Looking back through it now, I have sooo many plans for this story that I can't wait to get out there.

Please remember to leave a review if you like it! Sorry it took so long to get chapter two out! :P

-Simply Rexene