Well, I think it may be time to let go of that goal of finishing this before the new school semester starts… Even at my most motivated, I don't think I could write three (possibly four) chapters in just two weeks. But I have made a lot of progress. We've made it to the final stretch.
Thank you for reviewing chapter 20: greatgirl22302 and Lucerious! The response is greatly appreciated, and it was flattering to know my story has had that much of an effect on another person!
Chapter Twenty-One: The Birthday Party
"Can you believe we're actually doing this?" Sora asked, a giddiness to his voice.
Roxas was feeling something similar, but to be honest, he couldn't tell if his butterflies stemmed from excitement or nerves. "You don't think these look a little childish?"
They were both currently standing on chairs, pinning streamers and other brightly-colored decorations to the walls.
"We're only fifteen," said Sora with a laugh, jumping down from his chair to admire his work. "Besides, we've gotta make up for lost time."
A knock on the door sent the brunet twin bounding down the stairs a second later. He flung open the front door to find Yuffie standing on their doorstep, juggling a cake in one hand, their presents in the other. He welcomed her in with a wide smile, taking the cake off her hands and giving her a one-armed hug.
"Happy birthday, you two!" she called, projecting her naturally loud voice so it would reach Roxas upstairs. "Where are Cloud and Leon?"
"At the store," Sora answered as she followed him up the stairs, "getting chips and soda and all that."
Roxas got down to hug her himself once Yuffie had dropped their gift bags in the living room. "How have you been?"
"It's been a while, huh?" she said ruefully, squeezing him back. "I've been… busy. I wish I could stay for the party, but Xion just got approved for visiting days… But you two look good," she added quickly. "I'm glad you're doing so well."
Yuffie herself looked tired. Neither boy asked after Xion. All of her recent (second-hand) reports had been positive, and they were doing their best to let her move on uninhibited.
Yuffie didn't stay for long, and the house felt strangely empty after she left. Their decorating was complete, and the two were left with only each other's company. Aqua had arrived early that morning to 'borrow' Riku. They were going over his story one last time. She didn't want any surprises if this did go to court.
"Don't tell me you're having second thoughts?" Sora said with a grin. Apparently, Roxas had been quiet just a second too long.
The blond twin tried to grin back. "No… I mean, not really…"
He was, though, and his brother could see it on his face, plain as day. The idea had seemed great a few weeks ago when it had been used to lighten the group's mood. Now that the occasion was actually upon them, he was starting to see some possible snags in this plan.
"Come on, Roxas," Sora said, throwing an arm across his shoulders and dragging him a few steps closer. "It's your birthday. Now's not the time to be all gloomy."
"I know," Roxas muttered, finally pulling away with a grin. "I've just been thinking. This is the first time my school circle and our group circle will all be in the same space."
"So?" said Sora with a tiny laugh, as if this wasn't a big deal. "It's a birthday party, Rox. It's not like we're gonna sit around interrogating each other about our deepest fears or anything. And you said none of your friends are staying over, right? It'll just be a few hours of a bunch of teenagers hanging out and eating cake. It'll be fine."
"I know, I know. It's just… Can you imagine Hayner and Riku in a room together?"
This gave even Sora pause. But only for a second. "We'll just make sure someone is with them at all times."
Roxas smiled. His brother saw life through such a simple lens. Usually, this was just cause for more stress on his part, but occasionally, Roxas found it refreshing. Like today, when he let his doubts go and went to give the house one last look over before their guests arrived.
It had been just a funny story a few weeks ago. Something from group that had seemed safe to share at home. But then Cloud had said the idea wasn't so impossible, and Sora had latched on tight. And so it was that they'd managed to plan a party for ten teenagers and a sleepover for seven. For various reasons, family trips and such, none of Roxas's school friends would be staying the night, but tonight all the remaining members of their group would be under one roof.
Not an hour later, Cloud and Leon had returned, laden down with supplies for the night. Aqua dropped off Riku at almost the exact same time the pizza was delivered. And their friends started filtering in shortly after that.
Kairi was first, predictably. She flounced through the front door, already perfectly comfortable in the twins' home. Naminé was second, making her entrance with an equally wide smile, albeit a little more dignity. Hayner, Pence, and Olette arrived as a group, trying to look around as casually as possible. Kairi was a familiar face, and Naminé's introduction went over smoothly as well. Which was reassuring, to say the least. Perhaps the two groups would merge more easily than Roxas had expected, now that they could see that none of his group friends had to be wheeled in wearing straightjackets or anything. Well, Riku kept his distance, and Hayner eyed the older boy a little suspiciously, but Roxas would take what he could get.
Axel's entrance was loud… but then, so was everything else when it came to Axel. The oldest member of the group seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood today. He came complete with not just presents, but party games as well. Roxas caught Olette eying his tattoos and scars for just a second, but it wasn't Axel's appearance that caused the biggest stir of the afternoon.
Roxas thought he'd already worried over every possible conflict. And then Fuu walked hesitantly through their door. In fact, she was so quiet about it that he saw Pence's eyebrows shoot up first. Then Hayner's eyes narrowed suspiciously at him, and Olette murmured, "Um… Roxas?"
Fuu stood stiffly at the base of the stairs, staring up at them through the railing. She was gripping the ends of her sleeves more tightly than ever before. But she was one of the group, and she had been invited, just as all the others had. Hayner looked like he was about to get up and say something, but Sora beat him to it.
"Hey, about time!" He bounded over to the stairs with a wide grin. "Come on up! We were just about to break into the food!"
Still, Fuu kept her head down as she joined them, but Sora had succeeded in defusing some of the tension. Roxas knew he'd have some questions to answer later, but for now this was one crisis averted.
And even Hayner seemed to have the sense not to start a fight in the middle of a birthday celebration—though this sense may have been obtained only after a few sharp prods from Olette. But soon the pizza was cut into, and the tension was forgotten. Fuu took a seat between Riku and Kairi, and no one questioned it. Cloud and Leon seemed content to hang back and watch from a distance. As long as things continued to run smoothly, they would remain practically invisible. They would have their own family celebration later.
There came a time, near the end of lunch, when nearly everyone was finished eating but they all remained around the table, chatting about nothing in particular. Roxas stood and began gathering the empty plates while his friends were sucked into a conversation Axel and Kairi were having about tattoos. At first, the blond twin didn't think any of them noted his absence, but a second later, Riku joined him at the sink, helping him clean up.
"You ought to get a free pass from chores on your birthday," he said so quietly that no one else heard.
Roxas was surprised—the two had said very little to each other despite the fact that they were now living in the same house—but didn't go to sit back down. Instead he asked in that same quiet tone, "When's yours?"
Riku gave him the briefest of glances before answering, "January."
They worked in silence for a few seconds until Roxas murmured, "You think this will ever get old?"
Riku sent him a questioning look.
"You know, all this… Just hanging out like we're regular teenagers."
Riku just shrugged. The sentiment didn't seem all that important to him. "What is 'regular' anyway? Everyone's their own sort of fucked up, right?"
The last dish had been dried a second later, and Riku wasted no time in returning to his seat at the kitchen table, Roxas following close behind.
"What about you?" Sora directed at Riku as soon as he'd sat down.
"What about me?" he replied, surprisingly calm. No one could say his time spent at the twins' house wasn't doing him some good.
"Tattoos," said Naminé with a barely suppressed look of disapproval. "Would you get one?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if he already has a few," said Fuu with a small smile.
Riku gave her an odd look. "Not me. I don't do needles."
"What?" Axel exclaimed with a laugh. "And here I thought you were going for that hardcore badass image."
Riku crossed his arms and scowled at the redhead, but it was lacking his usual intensity.
Naminé shook her head. "I don't know. There's just something about willingly branding your own skin that's always creeped me out."
"I don't know," interjected Olette thoughtfully. "I kind of like the idea of using tattoos to commemorate special events."
Hayner and Pence both snapped their heads around to stare at her like they'd never seen her before. She laughed a little self-consciously, but Kairi's nod was vigorous. "Exactly! I want to get one right here." She ran her finger along the scar on her collarbone.
"To cover it up?" Fuu asked. Roxas wondered if he was the only one to notice the way she glanced down at her own arms.
"To accentuate it, actually," said Kairi, this time tracing a line that weaved in and out around the scar. "I want a line of ivy, like this… You know, with those star-shaped leaves? And it'll underline the date of the car crash in fancy, cursive lettering."
One would think it would be hard to fault this, but Naminé gave her a skeptical look. "And how do you think that will go over with your grandmother?"
Kairi was wholly unfazed. "I can wait until I'm eighteen."
The conversation moved on, effortlessly and comfortable. The cake was divided up as well and presents were opened—mostly things like gift cards and t-shirts with clever sayings. And then Axel broke out Twister.
"Are you serious?" said Hayner with an arched eyebrow. "What are we, seven?"
Axel didn't rise to the bait. "Hey, it's no skin off my back if you're too cool to play with us. Who's in?"
Needless to say, no one turned him down, not even Hayner. As Axel began rolling out the mat, Olette said, "But there are way too many of us to all play at the same time."
"Yeah, I figure we'll have to rotate in shifts of six," said Axel, continuing to set everything up.
"Six?" Olette repeated, eying the mat skeptically.
"Sure. Four to play, one to spin for color, and one to take bets."
No one could really argue with that logic. And the 'logic' seemed a little irrelevant five minutes later when they were all either tangled up in each other's limbs or laughing from the sidelines. Roxas hadn't voiced his worries to anyone but his brother, but he soon began to see that Axel's plan was quite ingenious. For this moment, at least, all of Roxas's friends were united as one group. A single competitive game of Twister had closed the distance between them.
"Hey!" Fuu exclaimed in surprise as Pence's next movement knocked her foot out from underneath her and they both went toppling to the floor.
"Oops," said Pence, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry."
But Fuu was smiling too, and they carefully moved off the playing field, leaving only Sora and Naminé.
The rest of their afternoon passed smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that when the time came for the trio of school friends to say goodbye, Roxas suspected they'd grown reluctant to do so. But Pence and Olette had actual family commitments to attend to early the next morning, and Hayner was too proud to admit to his lie. So by dinnertime—more pizza, to no one's complaint—it was just the members of Aerith's group who remained.
"We can show you guys the basement now!" Sora exclaimed, popping up near the end of dinner. The twins had personally stowed away all of their guests' bags themselves, in order to preserve Sora's big reveal. Now he led the way, Riku close behind with a small smile on his face. The two had spent a little over an hour setting it up the night before.
And when they reached the bottom floor… It was everything Sora had imagined. Blanket forts galore, crudely (expertly) pinned to every available surface with clothes pins and weights. Their friends 'oohed' and 'ahhed' and laughed appreciatively as the brunet twin showed it off with loud, exaggerated gestures. The floors were carpeted—their basement was really more of a den—but most people had brought sleeping bags, and the twins had located nearly every blanket in the Strife household to pad the floors.
Axel looked around with an appreciative grin. "Man, it's like we're redoing my entire childhood in one night."
"Oh! I almost forgot!" Kairi dived into the nearest entrance in search of her bag. She reemerged a few seconds later with what appeared to be a handful of seashells, until she carefully separated them out into bracelets. "I made one for everyone."
"What are they, friendship bracelets?" Sora asked as she handed them out.
"They're made of Thalassa shells," she explained. "You used to give them to travelers to wish them a safe journey. Well, sailors, technically, but I figured we were close enough."
"Travelers…" Fuu murmured.
Kairi looked oddly down to earth, fingering the shells around her own wrist. "I know it's been kind of an elephant in the room lately… But I've been thinking about it ever since Xion left. I don't know how much time the rest of us have together like this. So I wanted to wish you luck on your own personal journeys. And no matter where those journeys take us, we'll always have something to remember each other by."
The room was quiet after Kairi's speech. Most of the group had their eyes glued to their own bracelets, a little embarrassed yet pleased, but Naminé immediately pulled the other girl into a hug.
"They're great," she assured her. "Thank you."
Roxas chanced a glance around the circle. Most of his friends still had their eyes downcast. This, at least, convinced him that their impending separation hadn't only been weighing on his mind. If even Kairi was getting mopey, it was sure to be on everyone's mind.
Perhaps this should have been depressing, but he found it oddly… reassuring. It provided a certain amount of validation, at least. His worries weren't for nothing. And it gave him hope that if all this had to end, at least it wouldn't happen abruptly.
…
The rest of their night passed quietly. Kairi's reminder hadn't dampened things too much, but their laughter was no longer quite as loud. They didn't even stay up to an unreasonable hour. But that meant they were all well-rested early the next morning when the smells of breakfast cooking wafted down to them.
Roxas thought he was the first to wake up, but then he turned over to see Riku's eyes were open as well. It was only a few seconds before they heard Kairi's groggy voice, "Do I smell bacon?" And she sat up before even opening her eyes. Naminé stirred next, then Fuu and Axel with a loud yawn. Soon only Sora was left asleep, and, despite all their movement, showed no signs of waking any time soon.
Everyone else was already moving towards the stairs, still half asleep themselves. Roxas remained just long enough to give his brother a sharp poke in the side—which did nothing—before figuring that breakfast was a higher priority and that Sora would wake up eventually.
As could be expected, the group became considerably more lively as they began stuffing their faces with pancakes and bacon and whatever else was available to them. Cloud didn't seem terribly surprised to find that Sora was the only one still asleep. Leon was already gone, not having the sort of job that allowed for much time off.
"We should do this more often," said Naminé, sitting back with a smile once she'd finished her portion.
The idea stopped him for a second, but then Fuu said with a smile of her own, "You know, the thought of us all just meeting for breakfast or something is starting to sound less and less crazy."
She was right. Roxas made to take what had become a reflexive look around at them all, only to find the two redheads missing. "Hey, what happened to Axel and Kairi?"
"I think they went to go get Sora," said Riku.
The other four filtered down the stairs, catching up with the snickering pair by the time they reached the bottom. The two had snatched a balloon from somewhere and ducked into the fort with it. A second later, there was a loud, sharp POP! followed by an even sharper, high-pitched yelp.
But their laughter was short-lived. At the sound of a worried, "Sora?" a few seconds later, Roxas quickly cut through the crowd and into the tent himself.
What he found was… alarming. Of the two of them, Sora was the twin who had moved on. If he was haunted by their past, it was not nearly as noticeable. But Sora had his moments too, and sometimes the sound of a balloon popping right next to your ear can sound an awful lot like a gunshot.
Sora's eyes were wide and panicked, but he didn't appear aware of anything in front of him. Certainly not the worried looks on his friends' faces. But Roxas had a pretty good idea what his brother was seeing, remembering the gruesome blood splatter himself.
Roxas shook himself out of it and pushed through the other two—none too gently—to plant himself in front of his brother. He took Sora by the shoulders and waited while those identical blue eyes slowly refocused. When it became clear he was back, Sora ducked his head, and Roxas relaxed. Now to get out of this tent as casually as possible…
But in the end, he needn't have worried. Axel and Kairi seemed to have realized their mistake and everyone else had come to their own conclusions. By the time the twins did emerge from the blanket fort, their only greeting was, "We left you some breakfast upstairs," from Naminé.
Sora remained quiet as the group trudged back up the stairs, but Roxas wasn't worried. Sora had a talent for bouncing back from things. They all had their demons. In a few days' time, this little incident wouldn't even be worth mentioning.
Review please!
I don't own Kingdom Hearts! Or Twister. (Consider it free advertisement, Hasbro.)
This chapter ended up being a lot longer than it felt. The scene with the balloon is actually something I had planned out a long while back. It ended up not being nearly as big of a deal as I'd originally pictured it. But, hey, wouldn't be the first time. I've learned not to have too much faith in my own intentions.