Secrets in Love
By Zess
Chapter 9/20
Disclaimer: I do not own KH (or the characters) FF (or the characters) so STFU you crazy lawsuit people.
A/N: Late. Sorry. I just. . . I don't know! Don't kill me! I just didn't have any. . . enthusiasm for this chapter? But now I do! And now it's written, and I actually like it a lot, even though it feels a little rushed in some parts. It's very much different then the past chapters because. . . well there are more characters, and I thought that with this particular bunch there would be insanity all the time, so that's how I wrote it. It's not my best chapter ever…so I apologize but I still hope everyone enjoys it.
Edit: This chapter was taken down and is now reposted almost completely the same as before. I just decided to say fuck it to this one. The next chapter turned out really freakin' awesome, so I wanted to just cut my loses and continue on. I'm sorry. /: But.. . forgive me??
Chapter Nine-
In Which Leads Are Followed
They walked into school in what can only be called a mob, and you could tell no one knew quite what was going on. Every student that comprised the mass majority must have been sending their group odd looks, and who could blame them? There was the sweet and bubbly Sora, which was not in itself odd, but he was walking hand in hand with his silver haired counter-part. There were most definitely a few murmurs of "homo" and "Eww, gross." But they had finally decided that enough was enough. What was the point in trying to hide it when they really didn't care what everyone else thought?
It helped quite a bit that there were two older males following the happy looking couple. Demyx, with his hair even grungier than usual, smiled manically at all of the gaping onlookers. Following shortly behind him was a quiet and fierce looking Zexion. Honestly, he was trying his best to look approachable and kind, but he only managed to come off with a slightly less devastating frown. The few people that had started forward menacingly towards Riku and Sora had stopped in their tracks upon spying the two college students.
Finally surrounded by his friends during a school time, Axel had done the complete one-eighty. He was much more animated then most of the student body had ever seen him, and this caused quite uproar as well. Many rumors were being spread like wildfire throughout the campus, but the group ignored it and traveled on.
Behind all of this was a very tired, very haggard looking Roxas.
"You guys, I didn't need you all to walk like this with me!"
It was true; he had never asked them to walk him to school like this. For some reason, all of his friends had decided that he needed protection. It didn't make very much sense to him, but since when had any of these people? After no one answered he tried again.
"Zexion, Demyx, you guys aren't even in high school."
A grunt was his answer. He sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose. As much as he had grown to love this group, they could really be a pain in the-
"OW!"
And with an over-animated crash, he ran face first into Axel's back. The red-haired male looked down at him, both eyebrows raised. Roxas really hated it when Axel gave him that look; it made him feel like he was twelve years old.
"Hey, watch where you're going short stuff."
Roxas would have lunged for his taller counterpart, which may or may not have led to his satisfied ravishment, if he hadn't seen four pairs of eyes looking at him in a peculiar fashion. In his friend's shoes Roxas would grudgingly admit that he would have been looking at himself funny too. His face was bright red, perhaps from his embarrassment of being clumsy, his eyes were partially crossed, perhaps from thoughts of his above mentioned ravishment, and his mouth was hanging open, perhaps from running into the large red headed wall.
Roxas made a noise that sounded like "Mmrrhemr" and stepped past all of his ogling friends. Demyx just laughed and dragged poor Zexion along with him, who began to mumble about finding a boyfriend who wouldn't cause trouble. Sora and Riku followed the three chuckling, and Axel had no idea what had just happened.
They all stopped and communed in front of Axel's locker. Demyx grabbed Zexion by the lapels of his blazer, that is, if he had had lapels, or had been wearing a blazer. In reality, he had grabbed Zexion by the front of his black shirt, and pulled him towards him seductively.
"Oooh Zexy! It's just like the old days when you used to pin me up against the lockers and…"
"You know, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little," Said Riku.
Sora rolled his eyes. "Gross you guys, we could hear you going at it all night long."
Demyx just pouted, and Zexion raised an eyebrow at Riku. "Oh yeah, 'cause you guys don't fuck like bunnies."
Roxas leaned back against the ugly colored lockers, a small smile on his face which contradicted his whispered "therapy" over and over again. Axel, as always, was ignorant of all. Or perhaps he was just too busy staring at the small blonde to notice.
Demyx, now that his plans of seduction had been thwarted, stepped up onto his tip-toes to peer over Axel's shoulder.
"What's our first class, Axel babe?"
"Math."
Sora gave out a horrified gasp. "Oh shit! Math! I forgot to do that assignment that we were, uh, well, assigned."
Riku just gave a knowing look and pulled out an extra piece of scribbled on paper. "No you didn't, stupid, you just left it at your house."
Roxas laughed at the two, while Zexion pulled out a small black notebook. Roxas raised his eyebrows at that. "Are you planning on actually taking notes?"
Demyx swiveled his head around to look at Zexion and Roxas. "I keep telling him that school work is pointless, but he just won't listen to me."
"But, you don't even go to this school," Roxas tried to once again point out to Zexion, but the older male just gave him on of the dreaded malicious stares, and Roxas shut up. That was, until Axel took out his overly large calculus book and conked Zexion on the head, saying something along the lines of "over achievers never prosper"
So, the group merrily headed down the halls once again in their mob formation. By the time they reached class, Demyx had managed to trip over someone's backpack, Roxas had already forgotten where they were going, Sora and Riku had both lost there sense of direction, Zexion had shouted "idiot midget!" at a passing by freshmen, and they all managed to be ten minutes late. You have to understand that this all would have been well and good if the class had been, say, on the other side of the campus. But it had only been at the other end of the hall from Axel's locker.
This however, phased no one but Roxas. Through out their "journey around the school!" as Demyx had dubbed it, Roxas had tried to point out that they were going in the wrong way, but they had all ignored him. He had ignored himself after a while, because really, he was having more fun then he had had in a long time. Everyone was skipping around, except Zexion of course, he never skipped, and having just a good time. But, now they would face the repercussions of their actions!
Or not. Axel thrust open the door, stating merrily that "We're here!" to the haggard looking teacher standing in front of the white board. To say nothing else, the group had flare. No one in the rest of the class said anything, until Demyx had entered in his own flamboyant way. When he and Zexion had finally entered completely, Demyx screeched in nothing but a girly fashion and pounced on their teacher crying "Squawlky!"
At the moment, Roxas was trying hard to melt into the ugly linoleum flooring, while Sora and Riku sat down near him in the back of the class. They couldn't sit next to him of course because that seat was being occupied by Axel. Axel looked very happy with himself as he managed to pull off the yawn arm over the shoulder gag successfully. Roxas was oblivious in his become-the-floor act. Demyx and Zexion were still crowded around their math teacher, and the rest of the student body was still speechless.
"Squawlky!" Demyx screeched again.
The teacher fumed. "Don't call me Squawlky."
Zexion chuckled. No one could ever say he didn't have a sense of humor when he stated softly, "Fine them, Mr. Squawlky."
Roxas could tell the math instructor was about to implode with rage or explode into a giant mass killing spree. He looked over to Axel as a thought struck him.
"How do they know, uh, whatever his name is?"
"You mean Leon? We all know him, he's jus a year or two older then Zexion, they all used to go to class together."
Somehow Roxas had never noticed the young look of his math teacher, or how obviously un-hostile he was treating the Demyx glomp of doom. Not many people could remain stoic after encountering Demyx's glomp, that was for sure.
"Oh," was the only intelligent thing that Roxas could come up with.
Axel looked over at his new-found boyfriend? Is that right? Could he even call Roxas his boyfriend after what had happened? Or did Roxas just think of him as the end to his means? Nah. Axel knew better then to think like that. Roxas had been through too much to play games with peoples heads. Right?
"Roxas?" Axel asked, turning towards the blonde.
"Yeah?" Roxas asked, still staring at the trio surrounding Mr. Math Teacher's desk. Demyx was making weird animated gestures with his hands, and the math teacher almost smiled. Roxas was fascinated.
"Be my boyfriend?" Axel took a giant leap, wearing his heart on his sleeve, and got the biggest shock of his life.
"I thought we were boyfriends?" Roxas said in a bored tone, still not looking away from the front of the class scenes. All of the other students had managed to sneak out of the class by now, and Sora had drug Riku to the front to see what was going on with the trio. Roxas had an internal bet that the small group wouldn't finish their conversation before the end of the period. So enthralled was he, that he didn't notice the red head jump up on his desk.
"Hawt diggety, Roxas said he'd marry me!" Axel shouted, his overpowering voice echoing slightly through the classroom.
"Hooray!" Shouted Demyx, and ran to the back of the class, jumping up on the table and doing a sort of jig with Axel.
"Demyx get off the table-"
"Wait, Roxas and Axel are getting married-?"
"I could have sworn I was once a respectable teacher-"
"Roxas are you pregnant-?!"
Roxas just slammed his head repeatedly into the desk, careful not to get stepped on by the two dancing lunatics, muttering "why me Lord?" over and over.
And then suddenly everyone calmed down. One would think that Roxas would be used to this sort of abrupt mood change, but he just wasn't.
"We told Squawlky about what's going on." Said Demyx, cheerfully.
"What!?!" Roxas nearly shouted, and he was understandably shocked. It wasn't every day someone revealed your deepest darkest secrets, or at least not normally. His eyes glared daggers into Demyx's hide.
But Axel wrapped his arms reassuringly around his small, and new, BOYFRIEND! He was still elated by the fact that Roxas had actually said yes, that he had his very own blondie boy-toy. Score one for the Gipper!
"Don't worry," Axel said. "We can trust him."
"Yeah," said Sora. "Everyone knows you couldn't get Leon to say something even if you paid him."
Squall just grunted.
"Don't be mad at Demyx," said Zexion. "It was actually my idea. I thought perhaps that Squall could give us some information. He wasn't always in the teaching business after all."
Roxas knew he was outnumbered, and graciously bowed his head.
The bell rang, and no one knew what to do. Go on to the next boring class? Or stay here and chit-chat with friends? Needless to say, the chit-chatting won. All seven of the group, including Squall, sat around a small table in a sort of circular shape, Axel and Roxas hand in hand.
"I've never heard of them."
Everyone around him nodded, as if they understood what Leon had meant. Roxas however, didn't understand, and raised his eyebrows. Come on now, to speak you have to give a little more clarification.
"Uh. . .who?"
"The Organization."
Everyone was looking at Roxas as if to say "Well duh!" So sue him for not understanding cave-man talk. Jeeze. If anything else, he was a bit miffed. So he slumped back in his chair and crossed his arms. Wasn't this supposed to be his mission? Shouldn't he be the leader? But no, everyone was looking at Leon in a sort of adoration and it was clear that they all were looking to him for advice.
"What should we do then?" Asked Demyx, and that just went right along to prove Roxas's point. Why not just shove it in his face then!
"Ask Roxas," said the Leon. Roxas was beginning to understand that he said very little. Even so, this still put him on the spot. He really didn't have any ideas, had just felt put out because all of his friends had seemingly forgotten him. He didn't really know what to say as they all stared at him, waiting for an answer. He'd been acting kind of childish hadn't he?
"I don't know. If you know anything Leon, please tell me."
Roxas didn't look at Leon as he said this, but the humbling reply was still loud and clear in statement and sentiment. Leon mulled this over in his quick thinking mind a little bit, before answering.
"Tifa," Leon said simply.
Axel shot out of his chair again, he seemed to be doing that a lot, and slammed a fist into some kind of un-foreseen enemy. Or perhaps it was a victory dance? Roxas was too busy watching how the shirt rode up Axel's torso as he did so, exposing quite a bit of flat toned stomach.
"Stop drooling," mocked Sora.
"Yeah whatever, like you haven't told me a billion times how whenever Riku talks to you, you just zone out and stare at his mouth!" responded Roxas.
"Sora-!" that was Riku.
"Ooh a love triangle-!" that was Demyx.
"Babe, I don't think it's a love triangle when there is only two people involved-" poor Zexion.
"How would you know-?!" shouted Demyx, rounding on his lover.
"Because I can count. Tri means three runt-" Mr. Smarty pants pulls out the big guns.
"Tifa! Tifa! Tifa! TIFA! Of course! Tifa knows everything and everyone."
Roxas looked at Axel, his eyebrows raised. "Who's Tifa?"
Axel grinned sheepishly and ran his fingers through his hair. "My boss."
Demyx giggled, and Sora followed suit. Riku closed his eyes at the sound, looking in a state of complete and utter bliss. Or maybe he was just happy to be able to actually find a place to fall asleep unsuspectingly. Zexion too, had plugged his headphones into an unknown source, and had tuned out the world. Leon was looking utterly helpless and Roxas felt a bit bad about his former assumptions. He did seem like an alright guy, and his friends seemed to like him, so maybe he wasn't all bad right?
"So," he asked to both Leon and Axel. "Do you think she'd help us?"
"Who?" The pair said in sync.
Roxas was hit on the head with an anvil cartoon style. They could understand Leon when he talked like this but not him? Leon himself had his eyebrows raised in confusion. Well gee, that just takes the cake and runs it all the way home.
"Tifa."
"What about Tifa?" asked Riku, waking with a start. It was all clear though, because Sora hadn't noticed he had been sleeping.
"I don't know Roxas was asking something about Tifa," supplied Axel.
"Someone has a cheetah?" asked Sora in his normal excited bubbly way.
"No no, Tif-" Roxas tried to explain, but was instantly cut off.
"Oh! I knew a person who had a lion once!" Demyx exclaimed, latching himself into the conversation as well.
"It wasn't a lion, it was a big dog babe," said Zexion, forever pointing out Demyx's mistakes.
"It was a lion!"
"So, Roxas, how about you and me go rough it up in that there closet." Axel waggled his eyebrows at the poor bemused Roxas who was trying to figure out how the conversation had moved so far off topic.
"It wasn't a lion," stated Leon as he added in his two cents.
"How would you even know?" pouted Demyx in Leon's direction.
"Axel, keep it in your pants," Roxas said as he gave Axel the don't-touch-me look.
"RI-I-KU! I want a chee-tah!" shouted Sora, pulling on Riku's sleeves.
"It was my dog," said Leon bluntly.
"How about I keep it in your pants?" Axel was not put off in the slightest it seemed.
"Where would you keep it? And you're afraid of cats!" Riku was obviously not having any of Sora's idea.
"It was certainly not your dog, you hate animals!"
"Dem, it was his dog." Zexion was trying to be patient, and it was working, to an extent.
"It was my dog."
"I am not afraid of cats!" proclaimed Sora.
And on and on it went with poor Roxas was left once again to bang his head against the table. He had never sprouted so many "why me's" in his entire life. But, somewhere way deep down, he was glad. This madness was so refreshing. These new friends of his made life worth living in a way, as cheesy as it was. Just one more thing, he thought, just one more thing to do and then he could live his life like any other normal teenager. These people were willing to go through so much trouble just to help
"Thanks you guys," Roxas whispered suddenly, blushing.
In sync they all turned to look at him, appraisingly. The one time he didn't want them to quite understand what he was saying, they all did. Come to think of it, did that mean that they had some sort of selective hearing? That was all too possible for Roxas's rueful liking.
"Awwe, Roxy-!" said Demyx as he literally flung himself at the smaller blonde. Of course, they both ended up sprawled on the floor, and this just caused a mass freak out.
"ROXAS! I'll save you!" Claimed Axel and leapt into the fray, trying to wrestle Demyx off of his beloved.
"Demyx, get off the floor, you bruise easy," commanded Zexion, and reached down to try and pick Demyx up off the floor but only managed to get himself tripped onto the large group.
"DOG PILE!" Shouted Sora and drug poor Riku along with him as he belly flopped onto the four unsuspecting victims.
Roxas was laughing his head off, as he hadn't in a long time, because someone's fingers, he didn't know who, were tickling him mercilessly.
Since there was only one person who hadn't been pulled into the madness, it was only logical that he would be the next victim. Demyx crawled out of the dog-pile/wrestling match and under the table that Leon was sitting at.
Everyone stopped dead in their tracks as an undignified shriek echoed throughout the room.
"DEMYX I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
It couldn't have been that the shrieking had come from the composed and quiet Leon? But there he was, jumping up and down on the desk and looking ready to murder, as he had so claimed. And wait, was he wearing pink. . . toe socks?!
"My god Leon!" Axel sputtered
Demyx held up his prizes, two shiny black boots, previously worn and owned by Mr. Squawlky.
"Tada!"
"Demyx you should give those back!" Surprisingly, this lecture came from the small brunette. Maybe it was because, aside from Axel who was rolling on the floor laughing, everyone was staring at Leon and noticing how very red his face was turning.
"I'm going to kill you Dem." This time it was said much quieter, and Demyx must have finally realized just how deep the shit went that he was in.
"Uh oh!"
Leon leapt for the mohawked blonde, but Demyx was adept in the art of sidestepping, and our poor Squall ended up planted face first in the dirty linoleum. This just increased his anger, as it would anyone.
"Run Demyx!" shouted Roxas, trying to suppress laughter.
And Demyx took the advice, sprinting out the door with Leon hot on his heals. Zexion tried to grab Squall, seeing as when the cards were down he loved Demyx to death, but to no avail. The five-some that were left in the dust hurried out quickly in an eager crowd of not so innocent bystanders when they heard another screech and a lower pitched whimper. The screech was definitely Demyx, and they all assumed Leon had caught up with him, but what had happened to Leon? No one was expecting what they saw.
Axel's boss, Tifa, was standing a few yards away from Riku, Sora, and Zexion, with Demyx's ear (and his body attached to it) in one hand, and Leon held in the same fashion.
"Boys, don't you know you shouldn't run around the halls like this? And for goodness sakes Squall, where are you shoes?" asked Tifa in her merry way.
"Sorry Tifa," Demyx muttered, looking appropriately crestfallen at being caught.
Leon made a sort of grunting noise that may or may not have been a form of apology.
"Tifa?" Axel asked incredulously as he rounded up on the scene.
"Axel dear! I've been worried about you! Did you know you had work today?"
Now that she had Axel in her sights Tifa let the poor Leon and Demyx go, who retreated with everyone except for Roxas who took a step back. They all knew just what kind of a whirling dervish Tifa could turn into when she set her mind to it.
Axel himself was looking for someone to hide behind, but everyone had already escaped. Damn, he was in for it now.
"So you're Tifa?" asked Roxas, as he stepping in front of Axel, effectively cutting off the massacre that might have been.
"And what of it dear?"
"I need your help." Roxas said quietly, and desperately. He didn't know how he was going to carry out his plan without some sort of information. If this Tifa person decided not to help them, how would they be able to accomplish anything?
Tifa could kick some serious ass when she wanted to, but there was such absolute pleading and sadness on the boys face that she couldn't keep up her normal hot stuff routine. Axel, also seemed to notice the desolation in that one softly said statement because he wrapped his arms around Roxas's shoulders, kissing the small blonde lightly on the temple.
"Stop worrying Roxas, we're all here for you."
The other males seemed to break free of their stupor and all came to stand around Roxas, giving soft reassuring touches, or supportive smiles.
"Yeah Roxas-"
"You know we wont let you down-"
"Come on dude, who could take us on-?"
Roxas laughed, and returned all the hugs and for the second time today he said, "Thanks guys!"
He didn't need anyone else, he didn't need any information from anybody. He had people that cared, and had people that cared about him, that was all he would ever need. Somehow, they would be able to find a way. He tilted his head back against the solid chest he was leaned against and met a pair of deep green eyes. Yes, everything was alright now. He didn't need anyone but Axel, no arms but the ones casually wrapped around him. This was where he was meant to be, and together they could definitely accomplish anything.
Axel felt a fierce fluttering inside his chest as he looked down into expressive eyes that at one point had been so cold. Now they glowed a brilliant blue that warmed him to his brilliant core. Was it bad that he was standing here and growing hard in front of all of his friends just from looking at someone's eyes? Well, since that someone just so happened to be Roxas, he didn't think so.
"Rox-" but he was cut off.
"I'll help you."
Everyone stared blankly at Tifa, and Roxas was shocked to say the least. From the non existent information that everyone had given him, his imagination had come up with an evil Tifa that liked to eat people's hearts for breakfast, or something. But this wasn't the truth, or at least from what he could tell. He wanted to ask why she was helping, or if she really wanted to, and so many other questions, but now just didn't seem like the time.
"Thank you." He replied to Tifa.
She nodded her head graciously and then smiled in a warm motherly way.
"We should start soon, Frog Zombie, tomorrow, be there."
Everyone nodded, because Tifa wasn't someone you said no to, plus it seemed like she had a plan. When she started to walk away Leon called out to her, and the pair moved out of hearing range, talking in quiet whispers. No one said anything for a moment, and then Sora's stomach made a huge growling sound.
"Holy shit Sora, was that your stomach or some rampant beast?" Asked Demyx, incredulous.
Sora grinned sheepishly and raked a few fingers through his hair. "I'm just a little hungry."
"A little?" Axel whispered to Roxas, and Roxas sniggered.
"Hey, why don't we get some food?" Offered Zexion, and after a moment of thought, everyone concurred. Food definitely sounded like a good plan. As they all began off Roxas grabbed Axel's arm before he could walk away.
"You okay?" Axel asked, a little worried at the severe expression on Roxas's face.
"Mmhmm," Roxas murmured softly. "But, Axel?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you mean it? Do you really want to be my boyfriend?"
Axel didn't even have to think about it. "Of course!"
"Promise?" Roxas was scared enough to worry his bottom lip between his teeth, something that Axel found endearing.
"Promise promise," he replied and held out his pinkie finger.
Roxas grinned a smile brighter then the sun and gripped his own finger around Axel's. And they followed their friends to an unknown food source in that same arrangement, their pinkies intertwined.
A/N: Kind of a weird ending, but I just didn't know what to do with it. Blah. The next chapter will be much awesome-r I promise.
Please read and review!
Next Chapter:
In Which Warmth Is Shared
The team finds The Organization, and someone(s) gets trapped. Will the rest be able to save him/her in time? Find out soon!
