I forgot to add plot details near the end. So..now that I have. I can move back to Radiant Garden.
After another long day of work, the blond left Strife Delivery. Stretching and sighing as he looked left to see the town bustling with tourists still. He really didn't feel like walking through a large crowd today. He already dealt with it this entire morning and for most of the afternoon. Trying to drive the small truck through the people that refused to move didn't make him enjoy this job. He got that tourists didn't care but he lived here and works. Them standing in the way not moving when the items some needed for said tourists irked him. Scoffing, the blond turned right and headed down the path to leave the other way. Seeing more people along the safe shallows just ahead. Mostly families though and what looked to be the Blitzball team practicing as best as they could. He looked at the Community Theatre and saw a line of tourists buying tickets and when he looked towards the Casino, found a well dressed man looking proud of himself then eyeing the tourists like a gold mine.
Drunk Conversations
Chapter 12
Walking closer to what seemed to be a 36 year old man and then passed to see a sign on the door allowing no minors. Made sense, considering that it would be a Casino. Though, he was sure it would be rigged so this guy made out like a bandit. With a mental sigh, Roxas tapped the man's shoulder and had him jump into a fighting position.
"Easy tiger, I had a question not a weapon." His bland tone spoke towards this guy. "Why are you here on an island. This isn't full of people to loot from."
"Yes well...my name is Setzer for starters. Proper introductions being the polite way to start a conversation." Setzer spoke, seeing Roxas just stare at him with no emotion. "Secondly, this island is known for bringing many success stories so I thought I'd try it out."
Setzer and Roxas look towards the Community Theatre across the way and see a poster be put up for an upcoming show. One that has the blond notice Setzer eyeing with a smile.
"I see…" He walks by Setzer. "Don't stalk anyone then bud." He turns into the woods and ignores the yells of the businessman.
The small moment let him realize that this guy had ulterior motives to be here. It isn't just to gain the luck of success these islands have been known for. It had to do with that Community Theatre. Some actor or actress probably booked a show here. A show he would attend to eye them from afar. Hopefully he didn't kidnap anybody seeing as that Casino looked to have additions coming to it. Guess it really didn't matter so long as the man is actually a human and not a vampire. The blond stops walking and looks back the way he came. In reality, he...really didn't know how to tell the difference at night. He knew Demyx and Zexion were somewhere around here. No doubt having a ball and just enjoying the vacation Xemnas didn't know he is paying for. Meanwhile, it left him feeling vulnerable. There would be no way of knowing who is human and who isn't with all these people here. Some from Radiant Garden and others, Zanarkand. The Blitzball City. He turned away and kept going.
Walking deeper in and hearing music playing now. Loud, base dropping filled music that had him following the sound. Curious as to what is going on and how no one on this island couldn't hear this. He knew he got close when it grew louder. Spotting a group of four just outside what appeared to be a half built stadium. The kind where the orchestra would be covered but the people wouldn't be. It wasn't complete though. Scaffolding still lingered with tarps over the top. Chairs were half built or just not there. Among the ruins of the project were of age adults, drinking and dancing in the crowded place. Roxas heard steps behind him and looks to see Riku rushing towards him. Armed with weapons of all things.
"Wh-" He covered the blond's mouth and points to three other people with weapons.
"Sora, Hayner, Olette and Pence are here. They caught wind of a lead that some pups were out partying. Find them, get them out and back home." Riku whispers, removing his hand.
"Do they know who?" The blond whispers. Riku shook his head. "Fine, but you owe me."
He made it look as if he naturally was heading to the party. Feeling as if each hunter now had eyes on him. Suspecting everyone at this loud party to be one of the pups they were hunting. Why was Sora here in the first place? He is sure going to parties like this would have some enjoyment but even entering it seemed to be unwelcoming. Though, they did ask for ID, to which he showed them and got let in. So clearly there is only 21 and above here. All in their early adult stages either looking for some fun or just wanting to drink and not pay for them. Roxas held his head when the music somehow got turned up even more. There is no way to hear himself think. How did Riku expect him to find any of those guys in this crowd? There is too many people here.
"Move," A voice had him look to see the Hunters had already entered the crowd.
Each one grabbing anyone that looked suspicious to do whatever they had planned. Hopefully it isn't a silver test. Sora, Hayner, Olette and Pence would fail that in a heartbeat. With them in the crowd though, he has to hurry and find them. Roxas pushed through the crowd until he spotted one of the four, Olette. Hanging all over some guy, clearly wasted. Her mind seemed to be wanting one thing while also playing hard to get since she just pushed the guy off her playfully. He walked towards her while watching the guy attempt to get something out of this situation but she pushes him back again and stumbles backwards. Laughing as he shoved his way through the crowd unhappily.
"Olette, you go-" She hung on him next. "Hey, listen to me."
"Roxy~ Give me a kiss~" She puckered her lips at him.
"No thanks," He managed to get her off him. "Taken. Look, you gotta go. Hunters are here."
She laughs, "oh Roxy, no...funters are here."
He groans, "just listen. They are here. Riku is here with them. You have to go." He got leaned on. "Olette, I have no time for this."
"I wanna kiss~" She whines.
The blond looks around to see a Hunter close by and another closing in on their area.
"Look, there is no time for this. We can sort…" he stopped to push her off him. "This out later."
"Nooooooo, I want one now," She grabbed him by the back so he pulled her along. "Give me a kiss~"
"Where is Hayner when you need him," Roxas mutters, doing his best to keep her from slipping off him and walking through the crowd to find one of the three.
All the while, Olette clung to him like a whining leech. Demanding kisses as payment for dragging her along against her will. He could live without this. This didn't seem worth saving a...drunk pup. Roxas stops and sighs. Now he saw why Auron referred to them as that. Olette finally stopped whining at him then.
"Are you done?" The blond asks her, getting a nod. "You going to follow me like an adult?" She shook her head.
Roxas groans and drags her along once again. Pushing drunk people aside to make way with Olette flirting with every man her eyes spot. He had to push them off to make sure they didn't take her into the crowd again. Hopefully Sora isn't this drunk or at least, isn't a whining drunk like Olette. Boisterous laughing had the blond follow it to finally find Hayner and Pence. Both boys having accumulated drunk girls around them. Pence with his knowledge of..whatever the drunk slurs were and Hayner for having no shirt and just covered in what he hoped to be water or sweat or both.
"Hey it...Roxas.." the broken english from Hayner just had him groan. "Don't...be that. Drink, party...do stuff."
"Speak english and listen. We have to go. Hun-I mean, Riku and friends are here. Looking for signs." He says aware of the humans around them. "So we have to go."
Pence laughs, "yeah right. We'll sick Sora on them. He isn't happy right now so that'll give 'em a fight."
"A real dog." Hayner laughs which made Pence laugh.
"I'm serious guys. Riku is here with friends. Armed friends." The blond says, getting Olette off him. "You are in danger."
They kept laughing at him. Olette still puckering her lips in his direction. If they think Sora is bad when angry then they had yet to deal with his irritation of being ignored and laughed at. The blond just grabs Olette and with no regard to the bottles around Hayner, gently forced her over and onto him. Scaring the other drunk girls off Hayner and Pence.
"Get up and follow me for fucks sake already! If you want me to treat you like adults and not pups then get up and listen to what I am saying already!" He yells as all three got up, now angry but he didn't care. "What will you do? Eat me? I'm dating your Alpha's son." That had them stop and laugh it off.
"Hey..hey...hey, look...look" Hayner leaned on him and breathe a horrible boozed filled breath into his face. "We...are sorry..rgiht guys?" The other two nod. "Sho...don't worry. We go.."
"Just tell me where Sora is at." Roxas sighs then watched them all stumble out the back way. "Or...not, leave me here."
He groans and scratched his head. Turning towards the doorless entrance. Breathing out, he took a look around and saw the Hunters still searching every person they came across. Taking the chance, he runs inside and stops before hitting a wall. Pulling his phone out and using it as a flashlight.
"Sora?" He shouts, ignoring the music booming outside. "Sora, it's Roxas. Please tell me you are sober enough to understand me."
Moving the light around as he walked forward, he hit the back area where all the instruments would be stored. It didn't have any but it would be where they'd put the back up ones. The blond kept looking around though. He probably wouldn't find the brunet here but it would be an area where one could be alone to think, even if drunk. He hoped Sora didn't have a reason to be drunk and alone back here though. The situation couldn't get worse right? The brunet wouldn't be unhappy with him about whatever was going on. Heading further in, his foot hit a glass beer bottle. Using the light to follow it into two more. Following that trail, he entered another room and looks around. Finding the brunet on the floor. Drunk with what looks to be the last beer, a piece of paper half shoved in his pocket and just staring up into the dark abyss above him.
"Sora…you are drunk too?" The blond sighs, getting his attention.
"Yeah but aware. Stupid vampire blood…" Sora looks away. "Makes it hard to stay drunk. Why are you here? Come to ridicule my future son? My choices? Me?"
With another sigh, Roxas walks over and sat next to him: "No, Riku is here with Hunters. We need to go. We can talk when we get you home."
"Right...talk about what? How I should have just...not had a kid? I should have known the animal genes would win out."
"We can't stay and discuss this here. Let's get you home, the others left already."
Sora looks at Roxas.
"We'll talk at your place, promise. No ridicule or laughing at whatever it is."
The blond got up and held a hand out to him. Unlike the other drunk pups, Sora took the offered hand and didn't lean on him. He could walk but stumbled here and there. Roxas using himself to keep Sora stable as they follow the path back towards the exit. The light as their only source to know the way. Olette by this point would have been leaning all over him but he guessed the brunet, drunk as he is...had some dignity. Even when inebriated. The two keep going with him keeping the brunet steady. Even outside and entering the crowd of people. Riku stood near the back door, pretending to do his job to keep people from leaving until tested. He spotted Roxas and Sora and nods to have them move quickly before being seen. He got him through and turns the flashlight off.
A path split ahead of them after leaving the stadium. One went right which he assumed returned to town and the left had a house dead ahead. He took the right and helped Sora stumble along it. Eye the paper shoved into the pocket and then looking at the brunet's expression. It honestly got quiet as they left the party. The music dying down so that their steps against the leaves and branches were the only sound now. Well that and Sora's breathing. He didn't even look at the blond now. Just kept his eyes half open while stumbling along with his stable steps. Did the paper have news about his kid to be? Was that why Sora just drunk himself into this state?
"Sora, what happened?" Roxas asks, getting the brunet to glance his way. "What did you find out?"
The brunet removed his arm when they came upon a broken down, two story home. Vines growing along it. A tree from the outside had begun to grow a few limbs around and above it. Part of the wall on the second story had already fallen, taking part of the first floor wall with it. It just looked in shambles and long forgotten by this point. Waiting for Sora to no longer look at the house and look at him. Only to have the paper held out for him to take. Walking forward and taking it, he unfolds it to see the blood test results he wanted to get. They looked normal though so why was Sora freaking out? He kept reading on and hit notes. Seeing a letter from Aerith to Sora. Delivering the worst news the brunet could get. The curse had been spotted in his son. Slowly looking up, he found Sora close but still far away while looking at him.
"My son's a monster. Like me." He sighs. "He won't...get to be normal."
The brunet looks down and for once, Roxas saw him crying.
"He...he won't be human." He went to his knees and fell against the ground crying. "I just wanted him to be normal. No curse. Just human. So he could live a full life…" He yells. "Free of this stupid curse! But now...because of me, he'll never be human!"
Folding the paper up, Roxas walks forward and stops. Sitting on his knees first and letting the sobs be the only human sound around them. It honestly didn't look right. To him, someone like Sora shouldn't be crying over this. From what he learned, the brunet was honest, sweet...and yet, he had his moments of pure irritation but generally seemed welcoming and full of life. Seeing this, a drunk version full of remorse just didn't seem to fit who he had learned about. There is confidence to who he at least knew himself to be but it just wasn't here. It looked as if this news just broke something in him. What could he say to someone who has never felt human? Who never got a chance to see a full moon without transforming into a wild animal?
He licks his lips first then put a hand on Sora's back, "you shouldn't blame yourself for this, y'know that right?" The brunet slowly pushed himself up to look at him. "I get that it feels as if...it is your fault but it isn't. If this curse is random, then it's the curse that did this and not you."
"But...Lucian wasn't supposed to get cursed."
"He is now and you need to be there for him when he gets here." Roxas said. "If he sees how you hate your own curse, he'll assume you hate him cause he has it. What message is that to send to him?"
Sora looked away, crying still.
"I said it before, I'll say it again. I have seen monsters Sora. I was a prisoner among them. Your family could easily do the same to me but they haven't. I got welcomed instead. For simply being me and now I can't go anywhere without seeing one of them keeping an eye on me for my own safety." The brunet smiled at what he said. "It's not a cage. It's a real family. I haven't had one in years so having this? It's warm, it's human."
The brunet looks back at him.
"You and your family are human. You just happen to have a terrible curse attached. None of you are monsters. None of you come close, to what I have seen. And if you need reminding, even when Lucian gets here then I'll do that every second of every goddamn day until you get sick of it." The blond sighs and with one hand wiped away some tears. "Just please, stop calling yourself that."
"You realize…" Sora wiped one eye. "That this is...me drunk, with years of fucking regret for being this."
"And this me, sober...telling you I don't care. Now can I get you home, sober you up so we can talk without you being...this. I don't like watching someone as strong as you cry. I don't like seeing you broken and over something you have no control over to begin with."
"Well..tough, it's part of me." He spat then looks away. "Sorry, that is rude. Here you are telling me to sober up and I am acting like an animal."
"I have seen worse. Olette kept trying to kiss me." Roxas says helping Sora stand. "And just wouldn't stop clinging."
He got the brunet to laugh as they walk forward again. Heading passed the house and towards the backyard of another one. Roxas being led by Sora to a fence that he let Sora climb to the top of then help him up and over. The blond landed okay but the brunet biffed the landing and hit the ground, where he just stayed.
"Mom's not home. I took the night off after getting the news. I couldn't work. It's just...been on my mind. She said it'd be fine, that we'd get through this as a family but it doesn't help how I feel. What do I tell Kairi? That she can't see him? That he is now mine and she can't co-parent like we agreed?"
"Maybe it's time you told her the truth then," Roxas leans against his knees. "I doubt she would leave your friendship just over this and who knows, maybe...she might have figured it out. Your clues aren't exactly...subtle."
Sora chuckles, "Yeah...they aren't but it has kept the bulldogs off us." He saw Roxas nod and breathes. "Think she'll believe me?"
"I mean...she moved here from another place. Odds are, she might believe you. Though in your current state, she might not and think it's the booze talking." He said shrugging. "You have to sober up to talk with her."
"I am sober enough to ask one question." Sora looks at him. "Do you want to move in with me and mom?"
"Uh...what? Now I know that is the booze talking."
"It's not. I am asking for real. Do you want to move in? You already know who I am. I haven't been playing a game or hiding the real me. I'm...a brash, blunt, irritating sack of shit." He states. "And don't tell me any different."
"No" Roxas held up his hands. "I agree but you are also sweet and caring and are welcoming. Even for a sack of shit." The brunet laughed again. "But I fell in love with who you are as a whole. I just don't care to see someone so confident and strong fall apart. Leave that to me, I'm not the strong one here."
"Bull." Sora argues. "You have been keeping me steady this entire time. Even after finding out I was a wolf, you didn't waver or change...or become scared. You accepted it. For a human, that takes courage and strength I would never have. I am sobering up because of you and still a wreck and yet you are here, keeping me from falling apart. Telling me that I need to be able to be there for Lucian and that you would step up and remind me to do that."
He breathes after that long speech then finished with a: "God that was a sentence and a half."
The blond stayed quiet but smiles and stood. Helping Sora back onto his feet.
"If I move in, I better share a room with you. That's the condition."
The brunet leans against him then, "deal."
Setzer could only grumble complaints about the cheap booze wearing off at last. He ran into a buzzed man carrying a bag of cheap liquor and decked out in specific weapons only something out a horror story would wear. The empty path he found him on surrounded by trees on one side and a beach on the other. Granted this one is far from the one where the diner is but it's an island so the entire outside is a beach really. So much for luck though, his first day here and he runs into a drunk monster hunter. Well one who claimed to be a real monster hunter and the more he drank, the more his claims became that of legends. He spoke of some fight of territory between Hunters and wolves. How an entire family of wolves lived on the island and that he is the only hunter who actually is protecting them.
Even as he kept guzzling the cheap beer with Setzer no longer even buzzed and dealing with a painful hangover. All he hears is this hunter spewing out slurred words then hears Riku saying something that makes him listen in.
"If only they'd stop bringing their family here. Soon, they'll have me building that stupid base they had originally planned," the drunk adult grumbles, chugging down more beer. "I mean...y'know...how wolves are tempermental? Well these...are like a mob with a boss that is female that runs some secret club with a full moon in stien glass? How do the hunters NOT see that?"
"It's stain, not stien and are you saying that these wolves are real?" He asks.
"Well duh, I hunt down Vampires, wolves...fia-fai-...flying things. I built so many closets!" The silver haired hunter spun in a circle. "And..and...they are being hunted down by corpes. Apparently, they smell like dirt."
"You can't speak well."
"I can pseak fine! I'm viku!" He stumbles backwards. "Best...unter in the world!"
Setzer slowly claps, "Yes, best speaker and hunter of all time." He sighs. "Do enlighten me, oh wise hunter as to...how big this wo-" He is cut off the by hunter running up and slapping a hand over his mouth and shushing him.
"Shhh...shhh, it's...huge. Like the ocean, and they come from so many clans…" The hunter just stumbles back and laughs. "And I know them all. Did you know...they used to fight vampries? Apparently they can be a mrurere...muride...mur...killed."
"I see," Setzer crossed his arms. "And if one were to be involved, what would the pay be?"
The silver haired hunter just shrugs, "I thought dead...don't pay. Do they?" He leans almost completely back then laughs. "You're funny, the...things don't gat money." He drinks more. "Their old leader, never paid. Well...he got put away by my people..."
"How interesting…" The gambler grins.
If he plays his cards right as well as make it appear as if he had desires to help both sides. Perhaps he could benefit pay wise. Play both sides, feed the other information and in turn demand pay. All for his own payment and if things got too dire, he would simply hide away and watch as the both factions fought one another. It would lead to an all out war if the battle gets too heated. Course, Setzer would be more than willing to provide weapons...for a price.
"Viku, was it?"
"Riku, King of Idiots to you!" A drunk Riku yells. "I...am king...of idiots!"
"Right, so sorry your majesty. May I ask how one would contact these...vampires?"
"I don't know." the hunter shrugs. "I just know the royal family in that...garden place is under their thumb."
Setzer went to ask for more information but watched Riku fall into the dirt. Snoring away with the remaining bottles smashed inside the plastic bag. Well, he couldn't gain more information now. Instead, he walks closer and after gathering the bottles Riku dropped around him. Drags the drunk Riku back towards town. Since he had no clue where the Hunter base on this island is, he left Riku at the docks and recycles the entire bag. Then walks towards the ferry to get on the last ride for the night. It would be a long game to play so gaining favor from the vampires needs to be in place first before he could play.
And yes, the misspelled words were intentional. Riku is drunk after all.
