Disclaimer: I do own Kingdom Hearts. I also own a PS4 for the only purpose of being able to play KH 3 when (if?) it will finally be released.
Warnings: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (not necessarily in this order), yaoi triangles, attempts at humor, not at all educative behaviors, hormon-driven guys, underage drinking, namby-pamby stuff, a sometimes-whining-Sora, an often-mean-Riku, an occasionally-naked-Roxas and a lot of other stuff that I should and will not mention here.
Main Pairings: Sora / Riku / Roxas triangle
Author's notes: Roxas is still in the spotlight as requested ;)
Awesome Beta Reader: Saxocalyptica
Chapter 26: Nothing Else Matters
That day, Sora and Roxas didn't have the same classes. Roxas even had a free hour, but walking to school together was something they had to do; it was their way to acknowledge each other, as roommates and as friends. Well, Roxas thought it was all a bunch of crap, but Sora had insisted so much that he had accepted. "We're only walking to school together, then I'm out, is that clear?"
"AFTER having breakfast together!"
"Alright, breakfast together. But then I'm off."
And so they were there, walking towards the cafeteria among countless students. But something was off that morning, Roxas was sure of that. "Have you noticed that nobody is looking at us?"
"Uh? Now that you make me notice it..." the brunet answered. A second later, his eyes started to glitter. "Hey, maybe they are starting to accept us..."
The blond boy rolled his eyes at his Sora's limitless optimism. He then noticed that groups of people seemed to hold some pieces of papers. "I wonder what everybody is looking at..."
"Me too." Sora answered, just before quickly starting to walk towards a group of girls close-by, way too fast for Roxas to promptly react to stop him. "Excuse me, can I ask you what's going on?"
The group turned their heads to look at the inquisitive unknown, not answering immediately and clearly surprised at the sight of the scrawny boy standing before them. One of them opened her mouth to say something, but she closed it immediately when she saw Roxas, standing behind Sora and keeping a safe distance from the group. "Well, you should ask your friend." she finally said giggling, surprising both Sora and Roxas.
"'Scuse me?" the blond boy exclaimed, clearly not happy about being addressed so nonchalantly. The whole group ran away giggling before the two boys could do anything else.
"Just... what was that?" the brunet asked, more confused than before.
"Beats me." Roxas answered, wondering why - for whatever was going on - people apparently were putting the blame on him. He didn't have to wait for much longer before getting the answer.
Roxas felt a sharp pain in his back. "Ouch, what the hell?" He didn't even have the time to react that Seifer had pinned him to the ground.
"Get-off-me-this-instant!" the blond boy muttered, uselessly trying to free his right hand which was being pressed against his back by the other boy.
From the corner of his eye, Roxas saw Sora, effortlessly neutralized by Rai, one of Seifer's sidekicks.
"I told you to get off..."
"Shut up!" Seifer screamed, interrupting the blond boy. "You think that I'm an idiot, don't you?"
"Of course, but what does this have to do with... yeow!" Roxas stopped mid-sentence to let out a cry of pain: Seifer had pulled his arm pretty sharply.
"I'm not joking, freak! You went too far this time!"
Despite all his efforts, Roxas couldn't really understand what could have happened to piss Seifer off that much. He threw a quick glance at his friend still held by Rai: judging by his expression, he was as lost as he was.
Then, out of the blue, Roxas heard Seifer grunt in pain and, immediately after, he was free from his grip. Once back on his feet, he recognized the savior who had attacked the tall boy: no one else than Riku.
"Seifer! We should really stop meeting this way." a grinning Cloud Strife exclaimed making his way past Riku. "What could have happened to piss him off so much, Leon?"
"Beats me." Leon answered, approaching the other two boys. Roxas took advantage of the distraction to quickly move towards Rai and get Sora free, the muscular guy caught by surprise and unable to react properly. The two boys then joined the three upperclassmen.
"That's something I'd do with pleasure..." Seifer grinned getting back on his feet. "But right now I have a score to settle with the freak!"
"Yeah, yeah." Cloud commented slightly bored. "We've already been over this, right? God, talk about clichés." he then took a few steps towards the tall boy. "Let me tell you something, genius. Roxas wasn't lying when he said that he doesn't know what's going on."
While Cloud was speaking those words, Leon slipped a copy of those mysterious pieces of paper to the two younger boys. Not even Roxas could avoid standing there in awe, mouth agape.
"It was you three..." Seifer muttered slowly, his henchmen close by his side. A few people had started to gather around the seven boys. "How could you... you..." he was muttering incoherently, clearly unable to put together a sentence.
"You filled the school with my naked pictures!" he finally exploded.
Roxas looked at the picture in his hands one more time, then moved his gaze to Seifer. "Oh my... You really have such a small one or it is photoshopped, Seifer?" he sneered.
"Uh-uh. They keep asking me the same thing." Cloud answered in the tall boy's stead.
Roxas couldn't help but stiffen at his brother interacting with him, but he quickly decided that he could play ball as long as he could humiliate Seifer. "Really? And what do you answer them, Cloud?"
Cloud smiled. "I tell them that I didn't shrink it, of course."
"That's not very nice, Cloud." Riku intervened. 'Great' Roxas thought 'I'm having a conversation with my brother and his friends. About Seifer's intimate parts, no less.'
"Well, I could have spoken the truth." Cloud objected, clearly amused by the situation. "That I enlarged it."
One second later, Seifer's hands were around Cloud's neck. And immediately after, Leon had tackled him in the stomach and pushed him back. Rai had reacted the moment he had seen Seifer launch into an attack and was now brawling with Riku, immediately provoking a reaction from Sora and Roxas. The end to that was unavoidable.
Cloud Strife opened his eyes, a sharp pain immediately manifesting in his head. He looked around in confusion: he wasn't outside of the building anymore, but that surely wasn't his room. It took him a few seconds before realizing it: he was in the school infirmary.
"Take this, it will ease the pain."
Cloud turned the head towards his left to see a nurse handing him a small glass with half a pill in it.
"Thanks, Aerith." he answered, swallowing the medicine and letting himself fall back onto the sheets of the bed. He massaged his head with his right hand: he could feel a clear lump just under his hair, not visible thanks to his messy hairstyle. "How much..."
"You've been asleep for a couple of hours. You took a nasty hit to the head, do you remember?" A vague memory of someone hitting him resurfaced in Cloud's mind, though he couldn't remember who did it. Aerith sighed. "Honestly, Cloud! Why do you always end up like this?"
"Who knows? Maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to see you more often?" Cloud answered smiling faintly. "At least I didn't break any bones."
"Not this time." the young nurse specified. "You have a visitor, by the way, can I let him come in?"
"Uh, sure..." Cloud murmured, wondering if she was talking about Leon or Riku. A second later he realized that it was neither of them.
"I... surely wasn't expecting you here, I admit it." Cloud said, not even trying to hide the surprise at the sight of his younger brother entering the infirmary.
Roxas gave him a condescending look, but still got closer to the bed. "How are you doing?" he asked coldly.
"Well, I don't really know." Cloud answered thoughtful. "I mean: I don't feel that bad, but if you've come visit me I guess I can't have more than a few days of life left."
Roxas didn't talk. Instead he turned back and started walking towards the exit.
"Wait, Roxas! Don't go!"
The younger boy didn't answer immediately, yet he stopped walking. "Do you think you can manage to have a serious conversation for a few minutes?" he finally asked, still without looking at his brother.
"Hey, 'Serious Conversation' is my middle name." When he saw that Roxas had resumed walking towards the door at those words, Cloud quickly added: "Ok, ok! I'll control myself, I promise!"
His brother sighed and sat next to his bed. "I guess I owe you a 'thank you'."
Cloud looked at him, smiling. "For saving you or for humiliating Seifer?"
"The latter, of course. I only needed saving because you put me in that situation." Roxas smirked for a moment, then his expression turned into a more serious one. "Why did you do it?"
"Hey, no one touches my little brother." Cloud smiled, an unusual smile that felt forced. "Even if he hates my guts."
Roxas looked away, uncertain as to what to answer. "I don't hate you. I never really hated you, it's just that..." A silence ensued. Both boys knew what they were talking about, but neither of them felt like openly stating it. "...I wasn't ready." he finally concluded. Cloud fully understood the meaning of that short sentence.
"I shouldn't have talked about it with dad, I realize that. But, for what it's worth, I can assure you that I did it with the best intentions. 'Sometimes people do things that hurt and it's not because they mean to. They just do. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with you, but you end up hurt because of it.'"
Roxas looked at the boy laying in the bed. "I'd be impressed, if you weren't citing a webcomic writer."
"Yeah, well." Cloud retorted. "'If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.'"
"Einstein, uh? Better, I guess, but you make me just think that 'Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity. Not sure about the former, though.'
"'A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.' Benjamin Franklin."
"'A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.' Oscar Wilde"
"'The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.'"
Cloud's last one hit a bull's eye. Roxas didn't answer, instead he kept on looking at his brother. For some reason, there was a glimpse of fury in his blue eyes. "Mark Twain, uh?"
"I did read a few books in my life, you know? But keep it to yourself, I have a reputation to uphold."
"Why?" At Cloud's interrogative look, Roxas talked again. "A reputation to uphold... Why do you have to act the way other people tell you to? Why can't you be yourself?"
"I could ask you the same, bro. And don't give me that look, you know what I'm talking about." The older boy took a glass and started filling it with water. "Three years ago I made a mistake and I'm not proud of it. But this doesn't change the fact that the reason you reacted the way you did is that you weren't comfortable with what you are."
Roxas lowered his eyes, unable to rebut. "...you may be right about that."
"So, in the end, it all boils down to a simple question: are you now?"
Roxas started to play with his hair, a bad habit that always manifested when he was nervous. "Since when have you become so understanding?"
"Let me think... how old am I?"
"We're getting distracted from the 'serious discussion stuff'." Roxas threatened, afraid of getting too close to his brother.
Cloud took a long sip of water before talking again. "Roxas, I'm really sorry for what happened." He paused for another moment, like if he was preparing to ask something particularly difficult. "You think we may start talking again one day?"
"We're doing it, aren't we? Still, that's a cheap shot, Cloud." Roxas answered calmly. "You're an arrogant, full of himself idiot whose main hobby is to collect disciplinary letters."
"Yeah, well, not everyone can be a hero..."
"...but if what you told me it's true, I guess I can't really hold a grudge against you for wanting to try and help me." Cloud's eyes clearly started to glitter at those words. "Even if you did it in the absolute worst possible way ever." he specified.
"So... how about a hug for your big brother?"
"Don't overdo it, now!"
A few more seconds of silence passed. Then, just when it looked like all that needed to be said had been said, Roxas spoke up again. "...it's not easy to live in your shadow."
Cloud didn't know what to say. Nor did he know where that came from.
"Since we were little, you've always been dad's favorite, we both know that." the blond boy resumed. "Yeah, how could it have been different: you were better-looking, better at sports, better at... socializing. And to everyone I've always been 'Cloud Strife's little brother'." Roxas let out a sigh. "I hated that nickname." he started to gnash his teeth unconsciously. "So I... guess I tried to distinct myself from you. You were the perfect boy that everyone liked, so I started acting like I didn't care about anything or anyone. And I transitioned from 'Strife's little brother' to 'freak'."
"And then what happened?"
"What happened? Who knows, I guess I tricked everyone into believing that I'm a useless bastard. Especially myself. Only Axel, Demyx, Zexion, Marluxia... and even Larxene, refused to let go of me, despite me doing everything to push them away. And they never treated me any differently. And then I met him..."
"Hayner." Cloud calmly said.
"I had a few months of happiness and then... well, now you know how pathetic I am."
A tear started to run down Roxas' cheek. Cloud didn't see it, though, because, in that exact moment, he grabbed his brother and gave him a fraternal hug. Roxas stopped breathing for a second.
"Thanks for sharing that." Cloud murmured.
Roxas blushed. Violently. "I... didn't do it for you. It just... came out"
"Well... still thanks."
When Cloud finally let go of his brother, the tears were already wiped away. "You know, Roxas, I never thought of you as inferior to me. To tell you the truth, I've actually always admired you."
"Yeah, sure." Roxas joked.
"I mean it. I admired you for one thing, especially: your being yourself."
The younger Strife sighed. "Did you not listen to a single word I said? I told you that was just an act."
Cloud smirked, his usual irritating smile back on his perfect face. "Are you sure? Because I remember a brother that when he was seven stood up against a couple of bullies because they were mocking one of his friends."
"You and Leon weren't real bullies. You were just two kids that sometimes went a little bit over the top. No different from any other kid. And not really different from today, actually."
"Still, different from you!" Roxas looked at Cloud, starting to understand what he was trying to say. "Don't you see it, Roxas? You've always been like that. I am nothing more than the average guy that has... kinda found his place in society. Even when you're pretending to be someone else, you are something else. You are someone who defies the norm, someone better. And it needs a lot more courage to be like that than to do what everyone else expects you to do. I admire you, Roxas, but I do not envy you."
Roxas looked at the door of the infirmary, too embarrassed to show his brother that a smile had forced a way onto his face. "Are you... serious about this?"
"'Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.'"
"William Shakespeare. You started reading a lot of books, or you started googling for quotes a lot."
Cloud laughed, the pain in his head seemingly gone. "I have one last thing to confess to you. The night of the party..."
"...Sora kissed you, I know. And I appreciate the fact that you didn't go around blabbing it to everyone."
"You mean that you're not mad at me?"
"I know it wasn't really your fault." And then Roxas suddenly grinned. "Besides, I already made you pay: who do you think sent you to the infirmary?"
End Notes: It's been a long time since I didn't get so many reviews, you're awesome. So, to thank you, here's a new chapter as a little early gift for Christmas for all the awesome people that keep asking me when I will end my story. Only a few chapters left, next time it will be Riku's time to shine ;).
Next Chapter: Endless Moment