A/N: Oh, my gosh! These chappies are getting SO hard to write, and less funny. It's so depressing. I need a stand in comedian for this story! Yeah.
THANK YOU TO ALLLLLLL MY REVIEWERS! I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH! I DON'T CARE IF I TOLD YOU INDIVIDUALLY! IT MAKES ME HAAAAAPPPPPPPYYYYY!!!!
On with the story!
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"You should talk!"
"Yeah? Well, you shouldn't."
There's not much to retaliate after that really. So we all kept our mouths shut. –a story by my friend
Sora took the peroxide from the high school nurse, pouring some of the liquid onto a clean rag.
"Hold still." He demanded; a grim expression pulled across his face as he pressed the cloth to the cut on Riku's forehead. The lunar haired boy hissed, flinching away from the cloth, but Sora grabbed his jaw, making sure his head didn't move out of his grasp. "I said, 'hold still'." He said again, glancing at the elderly lady to their left.
Riku glared at him, "Don't bother."
"You said you would let me clean the cut. You won't let Ms. Curry; you'll have to settle with me." Sora told him, glaring as best he could at his best friend. He pressed the cloth to Riku's cut again.
Riku hissed but didn't flinch away, feeling lowly enough for being chastised by Sora. He cast his eyes downward to the floor, feeling nothing well up inside him besides the anger and discomfort he now felt towards his adversary. He shivered, the feeling not going unnoticed by the brunette, but the older chose to ignore the questioning stare.
He closed his eyes, giving into a sudden wave of exhaustion. He could still feel Sora's gaze on him, the suspicion sinking into his pale skin like acid. His jaw clenched in Sora's small hand, his brows creasing together. He felt repulsive, keeping secrets from his friend, getting angry so quickly at nothing he could even put his finger on now that he looked back at the fight he had had with Axel, or just now, with Sora. He felt unworthy to keep such a good friend around him. He felt unworthy to stay with his brother, when it was clear that he was of absolutely no help to Sephiroth. He felt unworthy to even breathe.
All because he slept with men for money.
He felt all the filth accumulated from sex with so many different men, crawl over him, all over his skin, making him less and less with each passing second. If he just stopped, maybe it would get better. He could go back to the life he had…
He could go back to being Sora's friend. He could return to making grades he actually dissevered. He could go back to baby-sitting his older brother every second of day. He could go back to wondering whether they could make it through the month, whether Aerith would stop being able to help them, whether they would be able to afford it if Sephiroth finally agreed to go into a clinic. He could go back to a place with no future.
He felt the gauze bandage being placed over his wound.
He could feel his internal-self shaking his head. There was no future here. The filth he felt now was only a step closer to freedom. His distance would make it easier to leave, make it easier for the left behind to forget him. He would leave enough money for Aerith to support his brother. He would leave a note for Sora and Kairi. He would change his name so his uncle couldn't find him.
He would leave. The people he left behind would be better for it. And he would be content to live alone for the rest of his life.
Until then he would continue his 'job.' He wouldn't tell a soul about it. He would only have to invest Axel to do the same.
"You're done." Sora said, taking a step back.
'It'll make it easier for Sora to let me go.' He told himself. 'It'll make it easier for him to hate me.'
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Axel left the school campus, not ready for a lecture when found. Roxas was right on his heels, shrugging his jacket on, along with his hat and gloves, his blonde hair bobbing in the wind.
"What was that about?" Roxas asked shrewdly, tugging his blue hat on so it would cover his ears.
"Nothing," The redhead responded quickly.
Roxas sped his pace to a jog, trying to keep up with his friend as best he could. He ran around to where he was in front of Axel, incredulity etched carelessly on his face. "Nothing?" He scoffed. "Axel, I have seen a lot of nothing, and that was definitely something! What the heck did I just miss?"
"Nothing. It's not the first time we've fought."
"It's the first time you've looked wild enough to kill him." Roxas yelled, leaning against the redhead's chest to get him to stop walking so damn fast. "Forgive my concern, or better worded, my doubt, but there's something going on. You're the only one who knows about it."
Axel looked down at his clever friend, his green eyes flashing weakly, his lips itching to tell someone Riku's secret. He opened his mouth several times, trying to formulate the words needed to say what needed to be said. But for the life of him, he couldn't. "There's something going on with him, something he won't talk about."
"How is that any of your business, Axel?"
He glared down at Roxas. "Trust me. It's something I have to ask myself more than once a day." He looked back in the direction of the school, which was only half way over. "Go back to school Roxas, you'll be filed under truant if you don't."
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Naminé stood in the disserted hallway, staring at the blue lockers that Riku had met so intimately just ten minutes ago. Her violet eyes swept over the entire hallway, finally setting on her cousin at the other end. "They still think this will work?"
Kairi looked at her with cool eyes, nearly matching Naminé's in color (it ran through their family), and smirked. "It won't. There's nothing there." Her eyes glared at the lockers, reinventing the fight in her mind. She saw nothing that Sora and his nimrod accomplice could link up between Riku and Axel. Their hatred for each other was even askew. "There's nothing to connect."
Naminé nodded, not looking at her cousin. "No. Nothing at all." Though she had said it, she couldn't help but think that she had seen the flare in both of their eyes when they were standing so close to each other. Maybe something made the two so good for each other. On the other hand, maybe it was just their understanding of each other. After all, they both shared one trait that made them so distinguished from the crowd…
"They're just two losers begging for attention. There's nothing in their future. They are barely in their future." Kairi said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
"I don't see how you can be so cruel to one of your best friends." Naminé breathed. She couldn't believe that there was once a time when Kairi had been sweet. The young woman in front of her was so void of any emotion, of any feeling.
"It's easy. I look out for number one…and it's not Riku."
Or maybe they were just both feeling unwanted from the people they had chosen to love. But still it stood truthful…
…they were both lying.
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"Sora, what's wrong?" Roxas asked, finding his 'soul mate' in an abandoned classroom, his head in his hands, utmost, his brilliant eyes closed off from the world. The blonde stole steps closer to his friend, till he was standing before Sora, with a worried look on his face.
"Do you ever have the feeling that you're losing Axel?" Came Sora's response, muffled greatly by his hands that covered his mouth.
Roxas shook his head; his hand coming to rest gingerly on the taller one's neck. "No, why?"
"Because I get the distinct feeling that I don't know who Riku is anymore."
"Why don't you go find him again?"
He shook his head in disagreement. "He doesn't want to be found, else I would still know who he was, Roxy." The brunette answered, finally lifting his head from his hands to look at his friend's light blue eyes.
Roxas smirked, humorously. "It never deterred you before."
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"And Riku, the bastard! He hits me!" Axel seethed to his sister, pulling his hair back viciously to tie it in a rubber band. "He hits me in the middle of the hallway. For only trying to help him! I'm going to have a bruised jaw!" He paced to and fro, his sister's attention following him curiously. He sighed furiously. "Well, to hell with him. To hell with him and his secret. He can guard it by himself." He decided, throwing his hands up in the air with his conclusion.
Larxene took a sip of her lemonade, her eyebrows creasing, slowly. "Axel, what secret is he hiding? How is it scary enough that he would hit you?"
Axel scoffed, sitting down on his twin size bed. "Trust me! If you knew this kid, you would agree with me when I say his secret could be that he sniffs glue and he would hit you." He shook his head angrily, some of his bangs loosening from the loose ponytail that was holding the masses of hair he had.
The blonde woman tilted her head to the side, her right eyebrow quirking curiously. "That doesn't answer my question."
Axel said nothing, only sat on his bed, staring at her with nothing to say.
She nodded in understanding, becoming more and more interested with each word that Axel didn't let slip form his lips. "Is this the same Riku Melosine that you were stuck in the library with in October?"
"Yeah. Why?"
She looked at the ground at her brother's feet. She had forgotten about the name, 'Melosine,' but now that Riku had taken a place in conversation again her ever inquiring mind had started searching for the name even harder. "I just feel like I've heard that name somewhere before."
'Melosine…Melosine…What is with that name?'
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A/N: I hope you all review. It keeps my warm on cold, loveless, winter nights. Seriously, that's how codependent I am on my reviewers. Isn't that sad? You know what would be worse? Keeping me cold on a cold, loveless, winter night. Yeah. That's just cruel.
InnocentGuilt