Roxas woke up to the sensation of a blanket tickling his nose, of various things piled on top of him. He yawned, first, batted ineffectually at the offending fabric before opening his eyes, attempting a light stretch that made things shift, and blinked at the light filtering through the blanket covering his face. He'd fallen asleep on the floor cushion, face down, bare feet cold in the morning air and itchy against the carpet. He made an annoyed breath, shifted onto his elbows and felt something slip off his head, heard it land on the carpet with a hollow sound, small round objects rolling and clattering in plastic.
He frowned, pushed the blanket away almost violently and hissed when the light stung his eyes, morning sun filtering through miniblinds, and saw a blue plastic serving bowl rocking on its side, a few stray kernels rolling around within it. Roxas stared at this for a good minute, still blinking away spots and waiting for his brain to follow the rest of him up and out of sleep.
Someone... had set the goddamn popcorn bowl on his head.
Roxas grumbled, not awake enough yet to do anything less passive-aggressive. Something about not being a fucking table--while he shifted again, pushed up further, other objects sliding down around him. A Playstation controller hit the floor and he realized they were cables, because he'd fallen asleep between the beanbag and the console stand, of course. He continued in his attempts to sit up, twisting to the side, shedding a few empty game cases (Gauntlet, Dynasty Warriors, Four Swords, Super Smash, Guitar Hero--how goddamn many video game tournaments could four human beings have in one night?) and a half-full package of Twizzlers. Around his hips the objects weighing him down became Axel's legs; Axel himself was sleeping at an odd angle, head and shoulders on the beanbag, both arms folded over his face, butt on the carpet, legs draped over Roxas like he was an oversized body pillow.
He grumbled some more, added a bit of hissing and cussing while attempting to wriggle out from under Axel's legs, noting in his grumblings that people that damn skinny had no right to be that damn heavy, that the universe and everything in it sucked, that he was never eating that much junk food in one night again, that Liu Bu had come to destroy them all and could damn well start with the skinny ass redhead weighing him down.
Roxas stumbled out from under blanket and legs alike after several minutes of this, crawling to his feet and promptly tripping over the popcorn bowl, cussing in a hiss and rubbing sleep from the corners of his eyes. Axel was still dead to the world. Sora was a single hand emerging from a steadily breathing pile of blankets on his bed, snore muffled by pillows. Riku was...
Curiously absent.
He made a face at the mirror on Sora's closet door, noting how his hair was sticking straight up on one side from being pressed that way against the pillow. Roxas scowled, tugged at it with his fingers, cursed the way that coming down off a sugar high made him sleep in an immobile lump, which in turn resulted in horrific bedhead and being utilized as an impromptu coffee table.
Riku, though. Riku had gone downstairs to get brownies or something, hadn't he? Brownies and Pepsi. It was three AM by then, though, and no amount of sugar or caffeine was keeping their collective brains and bodies from shutting down, demanding sleep; it was a wonder someone had the presence of mind to turn the TV off rather than leaving it running on the Street Fighter selection screen, background music playing on an endless loop.
Maybe he got lost. Maybe they'd find him sleeping in the coat closet again.
Roxas padded across the carpet, footsteps nothing near silent, fingers moving to work the sleep out of the other eye. He inexplicably ran into the doorframe on the way out, yawned around half of a cuss word and squinted at the hallway, frowning, because he was almost sure his footsteps were echoing. One tired thump after another, reverberating as another thump less than half a beat later, somewhere beyond. The echo was more hollow, though, more like... stairs.
In the hall outside the bedroom door, Roxas turned, and across the hall, at the head of the stairs, Riku turned, and for a moment they both stood there, blinking.
Riku's scowl was darker than usual, which probably meant he'd fallen asleep somewhere uncomfortable. His hair was frazzled, single strands rumpled into kinks and sticking out everywhere, and what this resulted in was giving him a countenance similar to that of a wet cat. He stood and blinked at Roxas, and Roxas stood and blinked back, and then Riku made a noise that was mostly breath, that was probably meant to be a grumbling Good Morning but failed at anything resembling speech.
Then, at the exact same moment, as though the same thought was running through both of their minds, both boys turned their heads and attention to the bathroom. Exactly the same distance between them, door ajar, interior softly lit by the skylight. The bathroom was a haven, a trophy, a singular opportunity to emerge from the previous evening with the tamest bedhead. Surely, such a feat would earn extra blueberry pancakes and honorary first place in the Dynasty Warriors tournament. Which he would have won anyway if Axel hadn't--
The glance at the bathroom swiftly broke at the same instant, Riku and Roxas both turning attention back to the other instantly, exchanging accusing glares. Fists curled. Eyes narrowed. Tumbleweeds may or may not have drifted across the dusty road in a gentle breeze.
The bathroom was a prize worthy of battle.
Roxas didn't dare move, or hardly breathe, lest it become some kind of tip-off that would cause Riku to bolt before he could do the same. He had to wait, calculate, gather all his reserves, all his mental acuity (which wasn't much at this time of the morning), and hold it tight. Deathly still, muscles coiling, weight ever so slightly shifting forward, until--
The sound of the central air system clicking on was like a gunshot.
Riku bolted at the exact same second Roxas did and they clashed in the doorframe, struggling to shoulder each other out of the way. Roxas attempted sticking a foot out to trip Riku, and Riku retaliated by pushing him back with one hand to the face. Riku reached for the doorknob and Roxas elbowed him in the kidney.
"Fucker."
"Your makeup can wait, princess, I need to do my hair."
"Your hair always looks like that, you little shit!"
It was probably the yelling that woke up the other two. Sora emerged first, arms resting atop his head and toothbrush in his mouth, and by the time he arrived there was a brawl going on somewhere between the carpet and the tile. He stood and blinked down at it for a few minutes, eyelids heavy and unimpressed, then dropped his arms and started brushing, humming the alphabet song for each section of teeth and using that equally to time the battle.
Axel appeared next, picking at spots of nacho cheese on his t-shirt, exchanging a look with Sora and their equally gnarly bedheads, both of them carrying the appearance that they'd lost a long, fierce conflict with a light socket. He offered a toothy grin, made the most Good Morning-like sound anyone had made yet, and then noted the fight occurring in the bathroom entry. And promptly exhaled a mumbled, "W'th'fuck?"
Sora shrugged.
"Guys," Axel attempted, almost but not quite daring to nudge one foot into the brawl. "Hey, break it up, I gotta pee."
"See," Sora muttered in between two slightly different renditions of his ABC's, "this is why I always put my toothbrush in the dresser when you guys come over."
"This doesn't alleviate the fact that I have to pee."
"There're some nicely concealing lilac bushes behind the garage."
"Oh fuck no. No." Axel repeated the word in emphasis, shaking his head, and he and his screaming bladder promptly turned on his heel and marched back to the bedroom. "I'm getting a fucking pillow."
