A/N: YES! Two chapters today, because I feel like eight sort of...lacks flair, maybe? This one is basically filler, so I don't feel too guilty about rushing things along a bit...
DISCLAIMER: Well, that just says it all, doesn't it? I don't own Kingdom Hearts, nor do I have any affiliations with Squeenix (Although that would be pretty freakin' awesome). Song lyrics (Roxas' ring tone) belong to The Used.
Chapter 9
Friday, mid-morning
"Hey…are you alive? Helloooooo…Roxas?"
Roxas let out a heartfelt moan as he felt a slight tug at one of his messy spikes. He'd been up really late last night recounting practically every ghost moment he had ever had to Sora. It had been three in the morning when Sora finally went to bed, and he had looked pretty damn chipper that morning, annoyingly so.
"Oh good, you are alive. How was your day yesterday?" Roxas lifted his head to look at Demyx, who had sat himself across from the blonde. He winced when Roxas looked at him.
"Damn, did you get any sleep?" he asked. When Roxas shook his head dully, a wicked grin crossed his features. "Is there a specific reason you didn't get any sleep?" he asked, the alternate meaning clear in his tone. Roxas, nowhere near in the mood, just glared and muttered, "Sora."
"Ooh, Sora, huh…?"
"Sora is his brother, Demyx," Zexion interjected. Roxas nearly jumped at the sudden sound of the slate-haired boy's voice. He hadn't realized Zexion was there.
"Oh," Demyx still didn't seem to put out. "Well, that's good. I wouldn't want to have to break the news to Marly."
"Um…who is Marly and why would…he? She?…care?" Roxas asked. Demyx laughed and even Zexion cracked a small smile.
"Marly. It's short for Marluxia, who is a guy. He'd care because he called me late last night, gushing about the cute new twins." Demyx grinned and switched to a falsetto, "'Especially that little blonde one, he was a cutie!'." Roxas blushed, staring at the desktop.
"All right, class! Let's get ready for today's lesson!" Miss Gainsborough called out. "Take out Hamlet and open to Act III!" Roxas was happy to escape the conversation, practically diving head first into his bag to grab his book, avoiding Demyx's gaze throughout the rest of the class.
Friday, early afternoon
"Roxas! Over here!" Roxas looked around at the sound of his name to see Sora standing on his chair, waving his arms about like he was trying to land a plane.
"I'm not quite sure I can see you, Sora!" Roxas called. "Maybe you should stand on the table instead." Sora stuck his tongue out petulantly and sat on his chair.
In all honesty, Roxas was glad he'd done it. The school was so big, with so many students, there were two cafeterias. They connected at one end with a glass wall and three doors spaces out along it. One end of the larger cafeteria had three steps leading up to a platform with lunch tables, where Sora was sitting.
Roxas started in the direction of Sora's chair, only to walk face first into some black cloth, barely managing to keep from spilling his lunch all over the person who obstructed his path.
"Sorry. Excuse me," Roxas murmured, making to step around. Much to his dismay, the person stepped in his path again. Roxas leaned his head back slightly to look the person in the face, a bit pissed off. He stood there stupidly in a moment of complete shock.
The guy who stood there was tall (though it wasn't saying much in comparison to Roxas, who barely broke 5'8") and quite muscular. That wasn't all that shocking. The shocking part was that this guy, who was dressed from head to toe in various shades of black, had pale pink hair that hung to his shoulders. What was it with people in this city and weird hair?
Roxas gained back his ability to speak and snapped, "Look, I said I was sorry, so will you move?"
"No, no, I think you misunderstand me," the guy laughed. "I blocked your path on purpose, so if any should apologize it is me. I wanted to talk to you and I figured a straightforward approach would be best. My name is Marluxia."
"Oh!" Roxas said before he could stop himself. Demyx had been talking about him this morning, hadn't he? "I'm Roxas," he said belatedly.
"I know who you are," Marluxia said with a grin. "Look, I'm not one to beat around the bush. You wanna go out with me tonight?" he asked.
"You mean, like a date?" Roxas asked stupidly.
"Well, yeah, like a date," Marluxia laughed. His eyes widened at Roxas' shocked expression. "Unless you're not gay…"
"No, no," Roxas said quickly. "No, I'm gay. That was just…unexpected." He glanced over at Sora, who was watching him with an interested grin. "You know what? Yeah, sure, I'm free tonight."
Marluxia grinned. "Great. I'll pick you up about 7, okay?"
"Sounds good, I live at…"
"I know, Axel's place, right?"
"Uh…yeah, I guess."
"See ya at seven, cutie." Marluxia chucked him under the chin and walked away. Roxas made his way to Sora and slid onto the bench next to him. Riku sat on his other side, Naminé and Kairi across the table from them. A few seconds later, Demyx and Zexion joined them, the former wearing a satisfied grin.
"So, what was that all about?" Sora asked with a mischievous grin.
"I have a date tonight," Roxas answered, unable to keep a small smile from spreading across his face.
"With Pinky?" Sora asked with a grin.
"His name is Marluxia, and yes," Roxas answered.
"Ooh, I'm excited! Who knew little brother would get some so early on! I'm jealous, no one's asked me out yet, and I'm the cuter twin," Sora pouted. "Well, my dear brother, unfortunately for you, I'm going to have to live through you tonight." Roxas was about to retort to the 'little brother' comment when there was a shout from across the cafeteria.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
Roxas and Sora both whipped around to look, Roxas noticing that no one else seemed to react much to this outburst.
"DON'T YOU INSULT MY MOTHER!"
Two blonde boys stood in each other's faces, arguing back and forth. One was taller then the other, wearing a vest and the other wore camo pants, but they both looked severely pissed off.
"I'LL INSULT HER ALL I WANT. SHE MUST'VE DONE SOMETHING WRONG TO BE CURSED WITH SOMETHING LIKE YOU!"
"Um…shouldn't someone do something?" Sora asked nervously. Even the security guards hadn't tried to break up the fight, or even bothered to look.
"Don't worry about it," Demyx waved a hand through the air and rolled his eyes. "That's just Seifer and Hayner. They do this every couple days. They get in some stupid argument and brawl it out in very loud voices and then they make up and everything goes back to normal, until it starts again a few days later. You get used to it."
Sora and Roxas exchanged a look that clearly said, "What kind of mad house is this?"
"SAY IT AGAIN, I FUCKIN' DARE YOU!"
Riku laughed, catching the expression. "Seriously, watch." The two were so close to each other now, they were literally inches apart, screaming in each other's faces.
"Three, two, one," everyone at the table intoned together. At the count of one, the taller boy threw his arms around the shorter, pulling him flush against his body and kissing him deeply. The other reacted instantly, looping his arms around the other just as tightly. They maneuvered their way through the cafeteria expertly, especially considering they didn't take the time to disconnect and look where they were going. They pushed their way through the doors and disappeared as they swung shut again.
"Don't go into the guys' room outside the cafeteria for the next hour," Demyx advised cheerfully. Riku laughed at the stunned expression on the twins' faces.
"Are you sure you guys are fraternal?" Kairi asked with a small frown.
"Yes," the sighed in the same breath. "No one ever believes us because we look so much alike, though."
Kairi grinned and then laughed. "Nami bleached her hair and I cut mine shorter so people could tell us apart. You have no idea how many years we were KairiorNaminé. Only Riku, Axel, and Reno could ever tell us apart. Not even our mom could, if we didn't want her to."
"Who is Reno?" Sora asked, always excited by the prospect of new people.
"Reno is our older brother," Naminé answered, barely looking up from the sketchpad she was concentrating on. "He graduated last year and now he's a corrections officer."
"…Take a walk with me, walk with the dead. It's weird that we have to die sometime…"
Roxas jumped as his cell phone went off in his pocket. He'd forgotten to turn it off, so it was a good thing that it had been lunchtime before he'd gotten a call. He pulled the phone out of his pocket, frowning at the change of ring tone. He hadn't done it, that was for sure.
"Hello?" he asked, ducking his head a bit to the side so his phone wasn't painfully visible.
"Roxy, I think I found something important."
"Ax-Alex?" Roxas corrected himself quickly. Sora looked up, his eyes questioning, but he didn't say anything. "Why are you calling me at school? It couldn't have waited until I got home?"
"Listen, Roxy. I was snooping around your room…"
"Oh, that's great. Find anything interesting?" Roxas snapped sarcastically.
"Yes! That's what I'm trying to tell you. I found this loose floorboard next to the bed on accident, and in it were these pictures and some other stuff and I think I hid them there. I think they might help."
Roxas paused for a moment before saying, "And why didn't you remember about this before?"
When Axel spoke, he sounded uncomfortable. "I don't know, Roxy. I just…completely forgot. I've been forgetting things lately. I don't remember what my parents look like, you know."
Roxas felt bad instantly.
"Hey, I'm sorry. Listen, I'll check it out when I get home, but you can't call me while I'm at school."
"Right, sorry, I just got kinda excited. I'll see ya later, Roxy."
"Hey, wait. Did you change my ringtone?" he accused.
Axel laughed. "Did ya like it? I thought it sorta fit our lovely little situation.
"Don't touch my phone, dammit."
Axel just laughed again. "Bye Roxy."
"Bye, Axel." Roxas hung up the phone, turned it off, and shoved it in his pocket.
When he looked up, Riku was glaring at him.
"What?" Roxas asked, leaning back a bit.
"What did you just say?" he growled.
Oh! Roxas had accidentally said 'Axel'. "Bye Alex?" he said, feigning confusion.
"No," Riku shook his head. "No, you said 'bye Axel'," he growled.
"No he didn't!" Sora said quickly. "He said Alex, I heard him."
"He did, Riku," Naminé backed them up. Kairi looked suspicious, but nodded in agreement. Riku's anger deflated. He sighed and shook his head.
"God, I think I'm losing my mind," he murmured, pushing himself up from the table and walking away.
Demyx, who had been busy with Zexion through the whole ordeal, looked over to them.
"Hey, where's Riku going?" he asked.
"I think he needed some time to think to himself. He's having a hard time coping with someone moving into our old house, ya know?" Kairi sighed.
"Yeah, I could see it," Demyx sighed. "Should we go talk to him?"
Zexion shook his head 'no'. "Let him be alone with his thoughts for a while."
"Wait, did you say 'our' old house?" Sora demanded.
"Oh!" Kairi gasped, covering her mouth and glancing at Naminé apologetically.
Naminé, in turn, sighed and slapped a hand to her forehead.
"Might as well tell them now," Demyx shrugged.
"Tell us what?" Roxas demanded.
The four exchanged glanced, and then Kairi started to speak. "We didn't want to tell you, because you were the first people who haven't looked at us all sad in a year. We wanted it to stay that way, and not telling you seemed to be the best way to do it," she said.
"Yes, we used to live in your house. We moved out and down the street because we didn't want to leave the neighborhood. The memories were just too painful. Every inch of the house held a memory." Naminé said quietly. "You see, Axel is our older brother."
--
Haha! Remember in Chapter 7, when I challenged you at the end to find out what the hidden secret was? That was it. You see, Naminé said in chapter three that only family could call her Nami. In chapter 7, Axel called her Nami, and about a paragraph and a half later he called her sister. Told you it was obscure. I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts. If you review, you can have one.
