A/N: I apologise for the angst, my wonderful readers. Soon all will be well again. In fact, I promise hot lesbian sex in the next chapter. It's probably not exactly what you want, but Demyx and Roxas will get there soon too. Anyway, for now you'll have to put up with the angst. And a wonderful Axel/Zexion moment. I'd probably better just point out that they're both straight and won't be getting togther in this fic. Shame, I know, but I have something planned for Zex.
Stretching out over three chairs, Yuffie sighed happily as she waited for the others to join her. Yuna would probably be the first one to arrive, ever punctual, then Paine and Roxas would turn up around the same time, and Rikku would, of course, turn up at the last moment, breathing hard. The blonde had never been on time for anything in her life. She was even born two weeks late – the doctors were ready to go in after her by the time her mother started giving birth.
"Morning." She grinned as Yuna entered the common room, as predicted, a slightly worried look on her face.
"Have you seen Roxas?" The brunette asked distractedly.
"No." Yuffie frowned, wondering what was wrong. "Why?"
Yuna sighed and took a seat next to her. "It's just that he wasn't here yesterday, that's all."
Looking sideways at her friend, Yuffie wasn't convinced that it was all, but she decided not to say anything. If something was going on, she was sure she'd find out about it sooner or later.
"Hey!" Rikku burst into the common room, on time for once in her life. The other two stared at her in amazement. "What? Do I have something on my face?"
Exchanging glances with Yuffie, Yuna smiled at the blonde and asked, "Is there a reason you're not late?"
"What?" Rikku sat down, kicking off her shoes and crossing her legs underneath her. "Oh, that. Yeah, my Dad's in town. He gave me a lift in."
"That's great!" Yuna replied, happy to see such a huge grin on her friend's face. "Is he taking you out this weekend?"
Rikku's face fell a little. "Uh… I dunno. He might be gone by then. He's only staying for a few days."
"Are your parents divorced?" Yuffie asked, realising only afterwards that she probably sounded rude.
"Yeah, my mum left ages ago." Rikku replied. "Dad brought me up on his own." Not the reply Yuffie was expecting.
Seeing the Japanese girl's confused face, Yuna elaborated. "He works for the Air Force, flying supplies to Iraq. He leaves Rikku on her own for weeks at a time."
"Oh." Yuffie said. "Isn't that illegal?"
"I'm 16, silly." Rikku told her. "And what else is he s'posed to do, take me with him?" The matter-of-fact way in which she spoke suggested to Yuffie that she was used to this arrangement. Still, she wouldn't have believed that Rikku was the type of girl who could spend so much time on her own without someone to look after her.
"Her uncle checks in on her a couple of times a week." Yuna added. "So it's not like she has to fend for herself."
Yuffie felt a little sad for Rikku. Even though she was becoming more independent now that she was a teenager, it was comforting to know that her parents were there, providing for her. She couldn't imagine sleeping in an empty house night after night, only seeing her parents once every few weeks.
"Roxas! Where were you yesterday?"
Looking up, Yuffie saw that the blonde boy had just walked through the door with a melancholy look on his face. Smiling briefly at Rikku, who had just greeted him, he mumbled something about a dentist appointment, avoiding Yuna's gaze entirely as he sat down.
"Did you see Demyx yesterday?" Rikku asked, oblivious to the uncomfortable look that crossed Roxas's face. "He looked like he'd been beaten up. Maybe Axel and Zexion…"
"I haven't seen him." Roxas replied curtly, changing the subject. "What did I miss in Biology yesterday?"
Rikku shrugged. "Something boring about plants."
"I have the notes, if you want to copy them." Yuna offered, searching in her bag for a green folder and turning it to yesterday's notes.
"OK."
While the others talked, Yuffie was becoming more and more aware of her girlfriend's absence. The bell was about to go, Paine should be here by now. It wasn't like her to show up late, and if she wasn't coming in she usually sent Yuffie a text to warn her. A knot of worry formed in the Japanese girl's chest and refused to go away despite the fact that she knew she was being illogical and there was probably a good reason why her girlfriend was late.
When the bell rang, signalling the start of first period, Paine still hadn't turned up and the knot of worry had turned into a rope of panic, wrapping itself around Yuffie's chest and squeezing tight.
Yuna and Paine had History together, second period, and it wasn't until halfway through the lesson that the goth turned up, dark rings around her eyes.
"Where have you been?" Yuna asked as Paine practically fell into the chair next to her.
"I overslept." The goth frowned in reply, making it clear that no further conversation was necessary. Sighing to herself, Yuna added one more person to the list of friends with problems they were hiding from her. She noticed that Paine kept slipping a hand under the sleeve of her t-shirt and rubbing her arm.
Throughout the rest of the lesson, the goth was completely silent, rubbing at her eyes from time to time. She didn't look like she'd just overslept. She looked more like she hadn't slept at all last night. Had something happened between her and Yuffie? The Japanese girl had been acting normal, so Yuna didn't think that was the case. It was more likely that her home life was what was bothering her. Despite having known the goth since primary school, Yuna didn't know much about her family, apart from Zexion, because he was in the year above. The only thing she knew for sure was that Paine was reluctant to talk about her life at home, never inviting Yuna or Rikku to her house, never talking about her parents, never even explaining why she was driven to school in a car with blacked out windows.
When the lesson ended, Yuna headed back towards the common room for break, Paine following wordlessly. Yuffie greeted her girlfriend with a hug, but instead of returning it, Paine just leaned on her, resting her head on the Japanese girl's shoulder and sighing heavily.
"What's wrong?" Yuffie asked, pulling back and looking the goth in the eyes.
"I'm just tired." Paine replied. Yuffie sat down on one of the chairs and the goth rested her head in her lap, spreading herself out over a row of chairs. The Japanese girl stroked Paine's hair gently, wondering what had provoked this change in her girlfriend and what she could do to make things right again.
"Bullshit."
Crossing his arms, Axel leaned back against the wall of the bike sheds, scowling heavily. Just tired? What kinda excuse is that? If Zexion really were tired, he'd have stayed home instead of turning up late for school, zombie-like, face devoid of expression. "We don't keep stuff from each other. Spill."
Two red rimmed eyes turned his way, glaring at him through half closed lids, but Axel could tell that his long-suffering emo friend wasn't angry. The look he saw in Zexion's eyes was that of despair.
"What. You ain't talking now?" Axel reached out a finger and prodded him in the chest.
"Piss off, you dork."
"Dork? I'm not the one who plays with his sister's Barbies."
"That was ten fucking years ago, Axel!" Zexion burst out in exasperation. "Can you not just leave it alone?"
Trying as hard as he could not to laugh, Axel raised an eyebrow at his friend. "How long have we known each other, Zex?"
"Thirteen years."
"When was the last time you kept something secret from me?"
It took Zexion a second to think about it. "When I was gonna kill myself?"
"But you told me in time for me to talk you out of it."
"OK… how about when Mum died?"
"That was year three, and I was the first person you told, dummy."
"Yeah, but I didn't tell you she was ill."
"Did you even realise she was ill? You were how old, six? Seven?"
The silver haired boy closed his eyes in remembrance. "No. I guess I didn't."
"Don't go all emo on me. I'm trying to make a point here." Axel reached around and whacked Zexion lightly on the back of the head. He'd tried sympathy before, and found that distraction was a better way to stop Zexion from dwelling on his mother.
"What's your point then, smartarse?" His friend asked, rubbing the back of his head in mock pain.
Drawing himself to his full height, Axel tapped the side of his head for emphasis. "We don't keep secrets. Got it memorised?"
Zexion stared at him for several seconds, then just blurted it out.
"Dad's been arrested."
"Oh." Axel looked around as if he'd find an appropriate response. "Do you want a hug?"
"No I do not want a fucking hug, you stupid faggot!"
"Sorry. That was dumb." Axel lowered his arms.
"You didn't sound surprised."
"Zex, your Dad's a drug dealer."
"You could've pretended to sound surprised." Zexion's voice was full of hurt. Axel wished that it was OK for two guys to hug. The silver haired boy sounded like he needed it.
"Sorry."
Zexion shrugged. "It's OK. I'd probably hit you for patronising me."
"Do you want to hit me anyway? Or we could find Demyx, if you'd rather hit him."
His friend seemed to be having an internal struggle. One half of him must have won, because he said, "Do you think I could have that hug, instead?"
"Sure."
The two boys hugged briefly, before simultaneously pulling away and glaring at each other, as if it was the other's fault.
"Faggot." They both said. Axel was the first to break into a smile, Zexion mirroring his friend and holding his breath to prevent the laugh that fought to break free. He was unable to stop himself when Axel snorted, then fell against the wall laughing. It was as if the redhead's laughter was infectious, tugging at something inside Zexion's chest and releasing all the pent up emotion that had resided there for so long. Tears streamed down the silver haired boy's face as the two of them laughed until their sides started to hurt. Finally, breathing deeply and holding it in an attempt to get rid of his hiccups, Axel sighed happily and grinned at his friend.
"You're better off without him. You know that, right?"
"Yeah." Zexion nodded. "He's a fucking awful dad. I can't remember the last time he remembered my birthday."
"I think you were eleven."
Zexion shook his head. "He got the right date, but not the right child. Threw a surprise party for Paine. She was pretty fucking surprised."
Staring at each other for a moment, both boys burst into another outbreak of laughter. If anyone had walked past at that moment they'd think the tall redhead and the silver haired emo had been smoking something other than regular cigarettes.
"Are you guys going to the prom?" Rikku asked excitedly.
Yuna rolled her eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you? It's not a prom, it's a winter ball. We don't have proms."
"Whatever." The blonde stuck her tongue out at her friend. "Are you guys going?"
"Of course I'm going." Yuna replied. "Yuffie? Paine?"
The Japanese girl looked down at her girlfriend, whose head still rested in her lap. "We are going, right?"
"I dunno. I might not go."
"What? Come on Paine, it'll be fun!" Rikku enthused.
The goth shrugged. "It's just a stupid ball."
"You don't want to go to the ball with me?" Yuffie said quietly.
Sighing impatiently, Paine sat up and leaned back against the chair. "Don't be like that."
"Like what?"
"Forget it." The goth muttered, closing her eyes and ignoring anything that was said to her.
Roxas was discovering that it's hard to find Physics interesting when your almost-boyfriend is sitting in front of you, occasionally rubbing at the angry red spot on his neck that you caused two nights before. There was no point in trying to tell himself that he wasn't staring. Staring was what he was doing.
He knew his attraction to Demyx wasn't going to disappear overnight. The trick was not to think about the musician if he could at all help it. Unfortunately, that was hard when all he had to do was reach out and he would be touching his cheek, gently caressing the soft, pale skin…
Sighing to himself, Roxas turned back to his textbook and tried to concentrate on the words that swam before him. They were supposed to form sentences, but all he could see was gibberish. It occurred to him that probably the only reason he had managed to cope in this lesson up until now was his friendship with Demyx.
The bell rang, somewhat quelling his anxiety. As his classmates began their usual mad dash to get out of the door, Roxas took his time packing away his books as usual.
Suddenly realising that he was alone in the classroom apart from one other student, Roxas looked up and met the gaze of the one person he really didn't want to be talking to right now. Demyx had turned around in his seat and was gazing straight at him without a single shred of resentment in his eyes. After what he'd done, Roxas had expected the musician to be angry.
"You weren't in school yesterday." Demyx said softly.
Swallowing hard, Roxas managed to croak out an "Um. Yeah."
Smiling nervously, Demyx blinked and looked down at the table. "I know you said not to talk to you, but… I just wanted to say. You know." He sighed and looked up again, focusing his blue eyes on Roxas's own. "I'm sorry."
"You… you're sorry?" Roxas repeated incredulously.
"Yeah. I shouldn't have… I'm sorry."
"I should be the one who's sorry. I practically beat you up."
Closing his eyes, Demyx sighed once more. "You don't get it, do you?"
"Get what?" The younger boy frowned.
"Roxas. You can do anything to me, anything at all, and I'll be there the next morning, waiting for you to wake up so that you can do it again."
"Demyx…"
"I love you, you stupid, beautiful, annoying… I love you. Do you get it now?"
"Shit Demyx, I can't deal with this!" Roxas shouted, grabbing his bag and running out of the room, not stopping until he'd passed the school gates and was halfway home. He didn't care that school wasn't over yet. He didn't dare go back, knowing that if he saw Demyx again he'd cave in. It was too early to break his resolution. Demyx and him were in the past, whether the musician loved him or not.
If the tightness in his chest and lump in his throat meant that Roxas loved him back, he would just have to get over it, and move on.
