The (Other) End of the Road
Chapter Four
My heart was thumping inside my chest so hard that it was giving me a headache, and for a long moment my hand hovered over the doorknob to the Cafe, frozen in fear.
"C'mon, Roxas, you can do this..." I whispered to myself, taking in a deep breath as I pushed the door open, stepping inside.
"Welcome to Destiny Township, Roxas!" a wave of sound hit me right in the face, causing my heart to leap up into my throat.
Hayner and Ventus pushed their way through the crowd and put their arms around my shoulders, one of them shoving a glass of champagne into my hand while they led me further inside. I was getting increasingly nervous as I watched Ventus let go of me and raise a glass to the crowd of people. He was going to give a speech...
"Thank you everybody for being here tonight to celebrate the arrival of my brother, Roxas, to our amazing little town. As you guys know, while I got to stay here and grow up with the Michaels family, Roxas missed out on the opportunity. Well let me just say... I couldn't be more excited to have him here now, keeping the family farm running. It feels like the family is finally complete. To Roxas!"
"To Roxas!" the crowd cheered, raising their glasses in a toast.
My face felt like it was on fire, and I had to have been bright red by the time they were done cheering for me. I hadn't even done anything to deserve it... All I did was move there. "T...thanks everyone," I chuckled nervously before downing my entire glass of champagne. It'd take a lot more than that to get me through the night.
I could see Namine staring at me from one of the booths along the wall, and I was about to go say hi to her to be polite when suddenly I was sucked into a circle of family members. "Roxas! Why didn't you come see Van and I earlier? You stopped to see Ventus!"
"Sora, don't badger him. He's probably tired from the move," Aunt Tifa scolded my cousin, who looked incredibly displeased with me.
"Wow, you look so much like my brother..." Uncle Cloud mused, looking over me.
I raised an eyebrow and laughed a little, "I mean... so does Ven. Are you really surprised by that?"
Vanitas just stood there looking broody with his arms crossed over his chest, seeming just as irritated as I was to be there. I knew I liked him for a reason. He was just as anti-social as I was. "Hey Van."
He grunted something unintelligable and stalked away while I was yanked into a tight hug by my aunt and my little cousin Yuna. "Ohh, we're so glad you're finally here... We've always wanted to get to know you, Roxas, and you kept running away from us at the wedding!"
"I... well... it was a little overwhelming for me, y'know?" I told her, shrugging. "I... don't really do well around a lot of people."
A look of worry crossed her face as she picked Yuna up, who was dancing around her feet with her arms up in the air. "I'm sorry, we had no idea..."
"It's all right," I smiled softly, trying to figure out how to change the subject. "So how old is Yuna now? She's gotten bigger since I saw her last."
"She just turned three last month," Tifa grinned, bopping her daughter on the nose. "She was definitely our little surprise."
I chuckled, "Well yeah. Van and Sora are how old?"
"Vanitas is 27 and Sora is 23. You and Ven came around right inbetween the two of them. I mean... I know we had Van and Sora while we were pretty young, but I definitely didn't expect to have a three year old daughter at my age."
"What're you talking about? You look like you could be in your twenties, Aunt Tifa," I teased, giving Yuna a poke in the side and listening to her giggle.
"You're too sweet, Roxas," she blushed, shifting Yuna to her other side. "But go meet everyone else! Don't let us keep you away from the party."
I sighed, "Believe me... I'd rather talk with you guys all night. I want to get to know everybody, but not all at once."
"Did you get to know Namine at all yet?" she waggled an eyebrow suggestively. It was obvious that the entire family thought we were a match made in heaven, and I didn't really have the heart to tell them otherwise.
"Yeah, she was showing me around earlier... She's a very nice girl, but I just-"
"Roxas!" Sora threw an arm around me, cutting me off as he started to drag me away from Tifa. "You gotta come meet my girlfriend!"
I stumbled a little bit as he pulled me along, trying to keep my balance. Two years younger than me and he was still taller... I could barely keep up with his lanky legs. "Girlfriend?"
"Yepp. Kairi Gainsborough, one of the triplets. By the way, did you meet Namine yet?"
I rolled my eyes, incredibly sick of this whole conspiracy. "Yes, Sora. I met Namine."
"Kairi! Marluxia! Did you get a chance to say hi to Roxas yet?" Sora sat me down at a table with a red-headed girl and a man with pale pink hair that looked... interesting.
"Roxas, darling! You look absolutely fetching!" the man stood up and yanked me into a bone-crushing hug. He smelled oddly like roses, and he spoke in a very effeminate voice.
Sora peeled Marluxia off of me and forced him to sit back down in his chair. "We don't need to send him running now, Marly."
"Marly and I work together at the flower shop," Kairi told me, latching herself onto Sora's arm as he sat down beside her. "We talked a little at the wedding, but I didn't really get to know you at all. What were you doing in New York before you came here?"
"I was a journalist. I wrote for the New York Times."
It seemed like it went right over her head just how big that newspaper was, which didn't surprise me. These people were raised far away from the rest of the world. "Oh! How neat. You know, we don't have any kind of newspaper or anything here. Maybe you could start like a newsletter or something?"
"It's not like there's much that's newsworthy out here, Kai," Sora reminded her. "But it does seem like a cool idea. Maybe we could figure something out. I'd talk to Eraqus about it for sure."
They started to chatter back and forth about it, but the longer I sat there, the worse my anxiety was getting. They all stopped talking as I suddenly stood up, looking concerned. "Uhm... I just need to... There's a lot more people I need to talk to. I'll mention the idea to Eraqus," I rambled quickly, looking around for somewhere quiet I could go.
"Roxas," the sound of a smooth British accent came from behind me. I turned around to face Luxord, who was holding a couple cans of beer. "You look like you need one of these."
I took one from him and cracked it open, nodding quickly. "Thank you. You have no idea."
"Did I just hear you say you wrote for the New York Times?" he asked, motioning for me to follow him over to one of the booths in the back away from the crowd.
"Yeah... It was an amazing job. Stressful, but very worth it," I told him, sitting down across from him.
He gave me an incredulous look, "You gave up a job at the New York Times to come live here?"
"Well... I've been wanting to get to know my family for such a long time, and when the opportunity came up..."
"You dropped your bigshot life in New York to come out here? Wow. That takes a lot of guts," he commended me, leaning back in the booth.
I chuckled, "Well... Ventus and Hayner kind of mind-fucked me into signing the papers before I could really think about it. But I am glad I'm here. I already feel like part of the family, even though none of them really know me yet."
"Yeah? You tell any of them your ...preference yet?"
"Preference?" I quirked a brow curiously, wondering what he meant by that.
"Roxas, you've been eye-fucking me since we first met. You're gay, aren't you?"
My eyes widened and I kicked him under the table. "Keep your damned voice down! No, I haven't told anybody yet. ...Besides, you are too. Do they know about you?"
"Larxene does, but nobody else in town. It's none of their damned business. And anyways, before you showed up I was the only gay man in town anyways so it didn't matter."
"Oh, and now it does? Just because we're both gay doesn't mean I'm going to date you or anything, you know," I whispered to him under my breath, "You've got to be at least 10 years older than me anyways."
He smirked. "Twelve, but what does that matter? And I'm not looking to date you either, blondie. But... if you ever wanted to have a bit of fun here and there, do let me know."
With that, he stood up and walked away, leaving me there to gape wildly. How... did that conversation just happen?
...
A/N: WHOA. Game changer. This is where the story is going to change quite a bit. Stay tuned for the second half of the party!
Love ya! Please remember to review!
Simply Rexene
