All too early, Roxas' alarm was blaring in his ear, shattering the silence of the room. He angrily swatted at where his tired self thought the alarm was, finally succeeding in turning it off. He sat up groggily and yawned, already wishing for the time to come in the evening when he'd be able to go back to bed again. Nevertheless, he somehow managed to pull himself out of bed, pick out some clothes, and go downstairs.
"Yo," Riku greeted him.
"Roxas! Good morning!" Sora added.
Roxas stared at Riku. "Did you even go home?"
"Nah."
Currently too tired to argue, Roxas shrugged in apathy and sat down at the table, where breakfast was waiting.
As he was eating, Sora felt the need to inform him of the most current events.
"Riku stayed over last night and this morning mom said it was okay and that he could stay again tonight if he wanted. Also she made breakfast, which you're eating duh, and went to bed, so if you need her, too bad. Oh listen! I already told Riku but last night I had this dream where-"
Roxas tuned him out, focusing on the pancakes prepared by his mother a little while ago.
"-isn't that super duper weird Roxas? I mean, it was all cheese not just you this time!"
"Definitely," was Roxas' short response, hoping to have to converse with Sora as little as possible this morning. He ate the rest of the pancakes he'd set on his plate and set his dishes in the sink. Waving politely over his shoulder, he went back upstairs to grab his backpack and phone so he could go to school. Not that he wanted to.
He made sure to check that his homework was safely tucked into his book before he grabbed said necessities and went back downstairs, choosing to ignore Sora again and walked outside, prepared for the worst.
xXx
It actually wasn't that bad. All of those teachers who didn't believe in work on the first day evidently didn't believe in work on the second day either. Not that Roxas was going to complain. Public education is free, so it wasn't like he was paying to sit there and talk.
Mr. Leonhart collected the homework first thing (well, some of it anyway. Most hadn't bothered to do it), then set them up with more problems to do. No surprise there. Roxas couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Mr. Fair, having finished going over the rules and whatnot the day before, began jumping straight into the content, explaining parts of speech and sentence structure. It wasn't anything difficult, for which Roxas was thankful.
Zexion, once again, told them to look busy, having no apparent intention to do anything educational until absolutely necessary. The entire class period, Roxas made an attempt at ignoring Axel, who he could see from the corner of his eye was blatantly staring at him every once in awhile. Creeper.
Nothing productive got done in any class after that. The other matter was lunch. A lot happened at lunch.
As he was walking out of his 4th period classroom to go to the cafeteria, Roxas was smashed into (by accident or on purpose, who could say) by another student.
"Ooooooooooow Axel, there was someone there!" Demyx yelled.
"So? Apologize and move on, my dear Dem. Life's too short to worry about every single person you bump int- oh hey Roxas!" Axel called from the other side of Demyx, who still had Roxas pinned against the wall.
"Roxas?" Demyx crowed. "Are you going to lunch too? Today's chicken nugget day! I'm so excited!"
"He can tell," Axel noted, pulling the dirty blond away from the other, not-so-dirty blond.
"Roxas!" Demyx continued anyway. "Come eat with us! It'll be so much fun! And we can talk about-"
"Come on, Dem," Axel yanked him away.
Demyx allowed himself to be led away, laughing over his shoulder as he waved at Roxas, then made a "come on" motion. Roxas suspiciously followed, not sure what to expect in sitting with a crowd like them.
They walked on towards the cafeteria, Demyx glancing over his shoulder at Roxas every once in awhile, probably to make sure his new friend was still with him. Roxas raised his eyebrows each time, curious, but Demyx just grinned every time they made eye contact.
It was indeed chicken nugget day, just as Demyx had declared. Roxas shook his head. His school didn't have a lunch schedule or anything like it, which meant Demyx probably memorized every pattern to the food. This fact didn't actually surprise him a bit, given what he already knew about Demyx at this point.
They got their food in a somewhat timely manner. At first they'd stood in line for quite some time because the girl in front of Axel demanded two packets of ranch dressing to go along with her salad as the lunch lady struggled to explain that she was only allowed to have one. She soon realized that she was fighting a losing battle and the only way to calm the raging teen down was simply to hand her the ranch she desired. After that, the line flowed smoothly once more.
"High school is a treasure, isn't it," Axel muttered under his breath. Demyx giggled quietly.
Roxas let them guide him to wherever it was that they usually ate, which he soon realized was the same place he'd seen them yesterday. How observant.
Larxene and Marluxia were already there (or was it 'still'?). Larxene didn't look happy as they approached.
"Axel, what the fuck," she screeched. The cafeteria monitor glared in her direction. She continued regardless, completely ignoring the death stare. "You didn't even say you had last lunch. I've been sitting here since noon. Not that I care, but I've also missed my entire 4th period-"
"Well technically," Marluxia interrupted her, "there's still, like, half of it left if we, like, went right now."
Larxene smacked him. "Then how would we see Axel, you absolute-"
"Aww you stayed here just to see lil ol' me?" Axel interrupted her this time. "I'm truly touched Larx. And here all this time I thought you were just a frigid bit-"
"Uh can we sit down?" Demyx interrupted Axel. "My chicken nuggets are begging to be devoured."
Marluxia gagged.
Axel plopped his tray onto the table with a loud clack, earning another glare from the cafeteria monitor. He met her gaze straight on and purposely dragged his chair out, creating the longest, loudest noise he could manage, then grinning at the monitor and sat down to begin eating his own food.
Roxas wasn't even sure what to do at this point. Since Demyx had already sat down next to Axel, the only open seat was next to Larxene, which he did not want to do ever. The answer to this situation was, obviously, to stand awkwardly next to the table looking around at each one of them. It took a few seconds for anyone to notice. The first was Demyx, who had somehow already eaten all the chicken nuggets from his lunch tray and was trying to sneak one off Axel's.
"Uh, Roxy, you know you can sit down in a chair right?" he offered. When Axel's attention was removed from the chicken nuggets, he snatched one triumphantly, stuffing it into his mouth before there was a chance for him to get caught holding the evidence plainly in his hand.
"Like, oh-em-gee, he's like, totally afraid to sit next to Larxy am I right or like, what?" Marluxia laughed.
Roxas' face turned red.
"Hey it's all good," Axel commented. "I've got an open seat right here." He pointed at his own lap.
Roxas' face turned a darker shade of red.
Everyone at the table "ooooh"d and laughed loudly, earning yet another glare from the cafeteria monitor, who seemed about ready to flip.
Finally, Demyx took pity on him.
"I'll sit next to her if you're afraid of her," he announced, giggling.
Roxas sighed in relief as he watched Demyx picked up his miraculously empty lunch tray and walked around the table to sit next to Larxene, who was surprisingly quiet during this entire ordeal. Roxas then took Demyx's previous seat next to Axel, who grinned at him as he sat down.
"Please Roxas, I think we all know you just wanted to sit next to me you sly do-"
"What the absolute fuck so you think you're doing?" Larxene suddenly screamed. "Keep your shitty hands off my shit!"
Demyx, who had been trying to steal Larxene's leftover chicken nuggets just seconds before, cowered in fear. "But….nuggets.."
"They're mine you fuck-nugget, go buy more if you want to keep eating them so badly!"
"Guys, like, please." Marluxia tried to sooth them. "Neither of you should eat them, they used to be animals. The precious creatures of this Earth shouldn't be so carelessly eaten by humans." He smiled brightly at them, trying to convince them to see his way.
Larxene glared at him for a second, then smiled a truly evil smile. "Actually Demyx, sweety, I think I've changed my mind. Here, have them. Devour these 'precious creatures' for us to see.
Demyx's eyes lit up to equal the stars themselves as he hungrily slid Larxene's tray closer to himself and dug into the chicken nuggets.
"No! Have mercy on them!" Marluxia yelled at him, taking a swipe at the tray, knocking it and the leftover nuggets onto the floor.
Demyx screamed at the top of his lungs in anguish over his lost treasure.
The lunch monitor started towards them, already fed up with them before this had happened.
Larxene made to smack Marluxia, but he was already on the floor cradling the chicken nuggets close to his face, whispering sweet nothings to them as tears rolled down his face. Larxene rolled her eyes.
Axel laughed at the sheer stupidity of the situation while Roxas looked at the events unfolding with eyes wide in horror.
The lunch monitor began reprimanding Marluxia for being a disturbance but he was too busy weeping for the lost creatures on the floor to hear, so the monitor turned to Demyx, who was still whining and pouting, and shushed him loudly.
"Hey bitch, maybe you need to calm down a little bit," Larxene stood up snarkily. "My poor friend here has had his whole world ripped dramatically from right before him and you're telling him to be quiet? I say let the man voice his feelings."
The monitor was stunned for a second before turning red in the face, making ready to raise her voice further.
"Wow Larx, that was poetic." Axel whistled, cutting her off.
Larxene also ignored the monitor. "Of course it was, I said it. Do you have a cigarette? I'm gonna go to the bathroom really quick before class."
Axel nodded and fished into his pockets for the pack he kept purely for this purpose, finally locating it and pulling one to give to her.
"Uh-" the lunch monitor started again.
Larxene pushed past her, grabbing Marluxia by the collar and pulling him to his feet. "Come on, now!"
Marluxia muttered something unintelligible under his breath as tears continued flowing. Larxene smacked him straight across the face. Marluxia yelped and immediately brought a hand up to caress his cheek where he'd been hit.
"Focus!" Larxene gave him a pep talk. "These nuggets you tried to save, they're already dead! Do you hear me? They've already been turned into nuggets. I doubt it's real chicken anyway."
Marluxia sniffed. "Like, really?"
Larxene nodded impatiently. "Now come on!"
Marluxia followed her, occasionally turning back to look at the fallen nuggets.
"Uh excuse-" the monitor desperately tried to speak up, but Demyx fell to the floor and grabbed her legs, looking up at her.
"I spilled my chicken nuggets. Can I get more?" He sniffed.
Axel tried to stifle his laughter and Roxas sat quietly, wishing it would stop. The lunch monitor looked down at Demyx and slowly nodded, very confused about the turn of events that had just transpired.
"Well that was great, c'mon Roxas let's go back to class." Axel smiled happily, picking up his empty lunch tray and dragging Roxas behind him.
The lunch monitor stared angrily after them, still unsure what to do. She seethed and stomped back to her place to continue watching the rest of the cafeteria.
Roxas trailed behind Axel on his way back to 4th period to collect his things. Or he tried to at least. Axel pulled him back from the doorway and spun him around. Roxas instantly snapped to the defensive.
"What's your problem?" he snapped at Axel.
Axel's eyes widened, surprised. "Um, I was just going to ask if you were coming tomorrow...but it can wait."
Roxas turned away, still not certain of whether or not he liked Axel enough to actually show up. "I'll let you know," he stated vaguely, turning back to his classroom and walking in.
"It'll be fun!" Axel assured him from outside the room. Then he also walked back to his own 4th period to prepare for the class change.
Roxas rolled his eyes.
"What's going to be fun?" Another voice inquired.
Roxas jumped a little bit, and swung around to look at the owner of said voice.
It belonged to a girl with crimson hair. Kairi if he remembered correctly. She sat behind Naminé in his 4th period so he didn't talk to her much since it was a sort of awkward arrangement.
"Didn't you go to lunch?" Roxas' first thought popped out of his mouth before he could stop it.
"Oh no, I don't eat on Thursdays," she smiled at him. "So what was that other boy talking about? What's going to be fun?"
Roxas was still staring in shock, trying to figure out if that had been a joke or not. He eventually noticed Kairi looking expectantly at him and answered her question quickly.
"A party. On Friday. At his house."
Kairi nodded. "Ooh that sounds like fun. I want to go too. You should tell him to invite me! Anyway we'd better get on to 5th, since the bell's gonna ring pretty soon. I'll see you!" She waved as she walked out, leaving Roxas alone. He also gathered his things and ran to his next class.
xXx
As soon as 6th period ended, Roxas made a beeline for the school's rear exit. When he got there he heard the familiar sounds of Axel and his friends. He marched right up to Axel, interrupting whatever thought he'd been trying to convey.
"Who's allowed at your party?"
"Whoa, do you, like, wanna bring a friend?" Marluxia winked at him.
"Well, sort of. I don't really know her that well but Kairi said she wanted to-"
"Kairi? Of course she can come," Axel scoffed. "I mean, she would show up anyway, even if I said no so what's the point?" He shook his head.
Roxas hummed. That had been settled rather quickly.
"Roxy, while you're here, make this decision for me!" Demyx squealed. "Should I wear a blue T-shirt or a black long sleeved shirt tomorrow?"
"Um, black?" Roxas guessed.
"I fucking told you he would choose the black one. In your face!" Larxene laughed at Demyx, who pouted.
"Like, stop guys!" Marluxia argued. "That's, like, totally racist!"
"For fuck's sake, it's a fucking shirt!" Larxene yelled at him.
Roxas was not particularly in the mood to deal with this, so he started to walk away from them and go home.
"Bye Roxy!" Demyx yelled, louder than necessary.
Axel looked away from Marluxia, alarmed. "You're leaving already? But you just got here!"
Roxas shrugged without turning around.
"Uh okay, I'll text you then!" Axel called tentatively.
Roxas waved over his shoulder without stopping.
xXx
The next day, Roxas was nervous. Axel's party was today. He was too nervous to pay attention in any class, and even at lunch he sat amidst his own thoughts, too busy to hear what anyone else was saying. He willed time to slow so he had more time to think about it but, as always, it ignored him. All too soon, school was over. Roxas walked as slow as he could without being in the way of other students. He went to his locker and put his books in, even though he had some homework. He then walked toward the back of school before stopping and turning around; he didn't particularly want to speak with Axel right now. Instead, he decided to walk out the front doors, something he hadn't done at all so far. As luck would have it, he was interrupted.
"Like, Roxas! Axel's totally been waiting for you! Here, like, let' go," Marluxia called from a side hallway before grabbing Roxas' arm and dragging him back the way he'd come.
Axel smiled as soon as he saw Roxas, escorted by Marluxia, walk through the back doors.
"Roxy, today is the day!" he cheered.
Roxas glared.
"So.." Axel started slowly but rapidly continued, rambling. "Are you coming to my party? If you want to come over now you can help us set up too!"
"Oh-em-gee, you should like, totally come with us and set up! Please?" Marluxia begged.
"Uh I don't think-"
"Roxyyyyyyy!" Demyx whined from behind them. "Pleeeeeeeeeease help us!"
Roxas whirled around to face Demyx but stopped when he saw his puppy-dog eyes. He could never resist puppy-dog eyes. He sighed.
"Fine. One second."
Demyx cheered loudly and Roxas sighed again. He pulled out his phone and dialed his mother's cell phone. It rang twice before she answered.
"Hello? Roxas?"
"Hey mom, yeah it's Roxas. I'm going over to Axel's to help put the finishing touches-"
"Ew."
"On his party decorations for tonight," Roxas emphasized. "So I won't be home until later tonight."
His mother sighed. "Fine, just tell me when you get there."
Roxas nodded, as if she could see it. "Bye." He hung up before she could get a chance to say anything more. He turned to everyone around him, seeing expectant faces.
"She said it's okay."
Demyx gave him quick hug and cheered. Roxas rolled his eyes. He looked at Axel.
"Where do you live?"
Axel grinned. "I'll just give you a ride."
"You drive to school?" Roxas scoffed.
"Yeah," Axel explained, "that way I don't have to get up so early." He shrugged. "You don't drive?"
"No, I walk. It's not that far."
Demyx and Marluxia looked at each other with wide eyes and whispered "Exercise?"
Axel nodded thoughtfully. "Alright so who else is coming with me? My car has 3 other seats."
Demyx raised his hand. "Oh! Me me! Pick me!"
Axel pointed at him in a manner much too dramatic for the current situation. "Contestant number 1! Anyone else?"
Marluxia shook his head. "Larxy is like, totally driving me so I, like, can't."
Axel shrugged. "Your loss. C'mon guys, I parked over this way." He motioned with his head as hand walked. Demyx bounced after him so Roxas reluctantly followed.
"Axel how old are you?" Roxas suddenly asked.
Axel didn't look back. "17, why?"
Roxas frowned. "I was just wondering why you could drive. How come you're in sophomore classes?"
Axel laughed before answering: "Cuz I'm stupid."
They both remained quiet for the remainder of the walk, though Demyx chatted amiably. They made it to Axel's car and Axel got in without a word, immediately turning to clean off the passenger's seat. Demyx got to the car before Roxas but climbed into the back seat anyway.
"Roxas, up here!" Axel motioned excitedly.
Roxas reluctantly climbed in beside Axel and Axel started it up and began driving.
"Nyoom!" Demyx said happily from the back seat, excitedly staring out the window as the car picked up speed and exited the parking lot.
"So, Roxas...are you single?"
"Stop the car I'm getting out," Roxas announced.
"I don't want to go by myself!" Demyx whined. "Stay here with me."
Axel looked over at him. "So?"
Roxas glared. "Watch the road."
"But Roxas how can I keep my eyes away from your dazzling smile," Axel spoke to a pointedly not smiling Roxas.
"What are you even saying?" Roxas looked at Demyx. "What is he even saying?"
"Axel and Roxas sitting in a tree," Demyx sang. "K-I-S-"
Roxas groaned loudly. "Are you hitting on me?!"
Axel grinned.
Roxas shook his head. "I had you pegged as the only straight one in your group but it seems I was wrong."
"Actually Marluxia and Larxene are a thing."
"Marluxia is straight?!"
"I'm not," Demyx offered.
"Literally no one in this car is straight, why is life like this?" Roxas groaned.
"So you aren't either?" Axel swung his head around excitedly.
"Watch the road!" Roxas shouted.
"I am!" Axel shouted back, still not actually looking at the road.
Demyx screamed.
Roxas and Axel both turned to look at him. "What?" They shouted simultaneously.
Demyx shrugged. "We were all making noise."
Axel sighed in exasperation and turned back to the front.
Neither Axel nor Roxas made a sound the rest of the ride, while Demyx whispered "nyoom" every once in a while. Eventually they made it to Axel's house, and in one piece no less.
"We're here!" Axel announced.
They exited the car and Roxas gasped. Axel's house was huge.
"Home sweet home," Axel muttered.
"It looks a lot better on the inside," Demyx reassured Roxas, as if the outside were bad.
Compared to the inside, it was, as Roxas soon found out. Everything was flawless.
"Roxas please, you're drooling," Axel joked.
Roxas snapped his mouth shut and glared. "Bite me."
Axel raised his eyebrows and grinned. "If you insist.
Roxas sighed again and turned away. "So where are these decorations?"
Demyx hopped around excitedly. "We already did them."
What.
Axel grinned. "Yeah, we did them yesterday. It was nice of you to come though." He laughed.
Roxas was confused. "Then why am I…?"
"Axel and Roxas sitting is a tree," Demyx repeated. "K-I-S-"
Double what.
"You asked me here several hours early just so you could hit on me?"
Axel nodded. "Is it working?"
"Not really."
"You know you can't resist this hair."
"Watch me."
Axel sighed. "Someday I will make you mine."
"Okay, first of all-"
As if on cue, Larxene slammed open Axel's front door and interrupted Roxas, followed my Marluxia.
"Yeah let's get the party started up in here!" Larxene cheered.
"Whoo!" Marluxia cheered. "Par-tay!"
Demyx cheered with them. "Party party party!"
Axel stared at them. "You guys know it's only 4 right? We'll start later."
"Axel I'm booored," Demyx whined.
"I brought, like, Mario Kart," Marluxia offered.
Demyx cheered again. "Mario Kart! Mario Kart!"
"Let's take it into the living room," Axel told them. "I'll set the Wii up. You did bring the Wii version this time didn't you?"
They all wandered into the living room with Roxas following blindly, amidst Marluxia's claims of "duh I'm not stupid" and Larxene hitting him.