o__o Eeek. I now realize the importance of re-reading fics before posting them. Ehehehe. I'll repost chapter one when I get around to fixing it. ...So... many... spelling/grammar mistakes. *keels over*
Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Now on to chapter two! The same disclaimers and everything still apply, you know the drill. Kingdom Hearts is not mine. Sadly. ^^
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One for the Band - Chapter Two
'Can You Keep a Secret?'
Sora's rickety thought process was suddenly interrupted by a gentle tap on his shoulder. Yelping and tearing the pillow away from his face, Sora wheeled around to find Riku standing behind him, an amused grin lighting up his face. Bryna must have let him in while Sora was busy taking out his confusion/frustration/embarrassment on the poor pillow in his hands. Sora glared at Riku in an attempt to be cold and icy, but all attempts fell flat when he really looked at Riku's face.
"I told you I'd come over after your little color guard practice, didn't I?"
Sora's scowl deepened as he clutched he pillow to his chest. "Well next time you're coming, you could try making some noise so I know you're--" Riku burst into laughter at Sora's poor wording skills. Realizing what he'd just said, Sora's blue eyes widened and he let out a muffled squeak as a deep red blush covered his face.
Riku winked, enjoying every moment of Sora's obvious discomfort. "I'll be sure to do that, Sora, don't you worry!"
Gritting his teeth, Sora then tossed the pillow aimlessly onto his bed. "Ugh, why can I never stay mad at you, Riku?"
Still chuckling, Riku made himself comfortable sitting next to Sora on the bed and tugged a strand of the younger boy's hair playfully. "Well, it's either because it's impossible for you to stay mad at me, or color guard practice wasn't the hell your little outburst just made it seem." A smirk on his mouth, Riku raised an eyebrow at his friend next to him, who merely let out an aggravated sigh before flopping onto his back on the bed.
"Well I guess it's that first one, because the last thing I want to do is go to another practice." Pulling his head off the mattress for a moment, Sora gave Riku a questioning look. "I don't even know why I'm doing this, anyway! You could always tell me how you're gonna make it up to me so I could decide if it'd be worth it, ya know. On top of that--"
"Can't you just take my word for it?"
Sora thought it over for about two seconds before sighing in defeat, letting his head fall back onto the bed and closing his eyes. It frustrated him when it seemed like he was so easy to read while Riku seemed to keep all his secrets so well guarded. Sora winced as a bitter thought crossed his mind. What if he knows I like him and he's just doing all this to embarrass me?? The thought was quickly banished though, Sora's common sense telling him that Riku, despite his constant teasing of the younger boy, would never do that to him.
Riku's voice pulled him out of his thoughts as the boy flopped down next to him on the bed, both boys staring at the ceiling as Riku said, "So, you trust me, right Sora?"
"...Yeah..."
"So don't worry about it." Sora could almost hear Riku's satisfied grin.
"But why do you want me to be on color guard in the first place?"
"You've always wanted to go in the band hall, right?" Riku sat up then, looking down at his friend.
Sora blinked. It was true that he'd never been in there... And he'd always been jealous with the bond that all people in the marching band seemed to have. The color guard was also given lockers at the far end of the band hall, and all in all it seemed like that hallway just housed one huge extended family Sora had never been a part of. Perhaps Riku was just trying to get his friend a place to belong in the high school, a place he'd been denied due to his apparent lack of skills.
It wasn't that Sora couldn't do anything. The boy was decent at singing, he knew how to play blitzball, he wasn't a horrible artist, he could hold his ground in a debate, basketball game, and numerous other activities, but he was just 'okay.' It took 'great' and 'amazing' to get far in the school's extra-curricular activities, but it seemed to Sora that color guard wouldn't even make it onto his list of things he was just okay at. He could hardly do the simplest spins with the practice flag, and in just that one practice alone Quistis had seemed to single him out and point out every little thing he did wrong.
"So, wanna show me what you guys did today then?"
"Augh! No! I'd hit you! I'd probably break a window or accidentally kill somebody!" Sora sat up and looked at Riku in alarm at the very idea. Riku merely laughed and stood up from the bed, looking down at Sora over his shoulder.
"Alright, alright. Just wanted to see how you're 'coping' and all. See you bright and early tomorrow, Sora."
~~~~~~~
It was probably nearing eleven thirty or so when Sora crept out the back door into the small backyard. The trademark palm trees of the island acted as makeshift boundaries between the small houses, sand and grass filling the backyards. Behind him, Sora dragged the battered old practice flag. He didn't exactly know what had driven him outside in the dark to practice. He supposed that it was his own pride that had him out there then. The last thing he would let himself do is make a fool of himself at the next day's practice after school. Quistis would probably still be finding reasons to bash the poor boy, but he wasn't going to have a repeat of that day's poor performance.
Wait... since when had Sora started actually caring what those girls thought of him? Especially Quistis! The girl seemed to constantly have a ten foot pole shoved up her ass. Sora laughed out loud at the thought, thankful again for the emptiness of the night.
However it wasn't as empty as he'd thought.
Motion out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. The house behind his own wasn't asleep as he'd thought. Squinting his eyes to make out who it was sitting out on the porch, Sora blinked in realization. He knew he'd seen Paine somewhere before when he'd seen her that afternoon! Wondering for a moment why he'd never really noticed the older girl all that much, he instantly picked up his own answer.
Paine had moved to the island late last year and wasn't exactly what one would call the most outgoing individual. He remembered from his freshman year also seeing her once or twice in the hallway, usually surrounded by some boy who was blatantly flirting with her. The girl always seemed to have dismissed their attentions with the quirk of an eyebrow or a sharp sarcastic comment, eventually driving most of the male population of her grade away from her.
He then realized that Paine was actually chuckling (and at Sora, nonetheless) from her seat on the porch. Frowning, Sora walked a few steps forward, the flag still hanging loosely from his hand. "What's so funny?"
Looking up, the gray haired girl surveyed the younger boy with crimson eyes. "You're practicing now?"
"Well yeah... I mean, no. I..."
"Give it up... Sora, was it?"
"Yeah."
"You can't practice in the dark." Paine dropped her previously mocking air and stood up from the small folding chair she'd been occupying, crossing her arms in front of her. "In case you didn't notice, it's more then a little hard to see out here."
Sora scowled, realizing how stupid his idea of practicing at that hour had been in the first place. "So what are you doing out here then?"
Paine was quiet for a long moment and Sora guessed she was probably debating whether or not she felt like wasting her time talking to some goofy underclassman. Finally, she spoke, her deep voice contemplative. "I always come out here at this time of night. You're the one who's a stranger here, Sora."
With a sigh, the boy plopped onto the ground, pulling the flag into his lap and fiddling with its fabric idly. It seemed as though he was a stranger everywhere he went, even though he'd lived on the island all his life. How was it that Paine, anti-social as she was, managed to adjust and find her place whereas Sora was still bumbling around after all the years he'd spent living there?
Paine didn't make any effort to fill the silence, leaving Sora to look around in discomfort. Why had he come over here again? Paine had been laughing, but...
"Do you think.... Do you think you could help me, Paine?"
Turning back to look at Sora, Paine cocked her head slightly in interest at the boy's words. "Help you what?"
Sora pulled the flag out of his lap and leaned one end of it on the ground, resting his against the cool metal of the pole. "I need to learn how to do this stuff."
Paine snorted and walked over to where Sora was sitting bending down to look at the boy. He was interesting, yes, but the moment she'd seen his obvious discomfort at that afternoon's practice, Paine knew there was some alternate reason Sora was going out for the color guard.
"Okay, Sora, what is it? A bet or something?"
"N-no..." Sora bit his bottom lip. Paine was obviously not going to help him unless she had an answer... And he couldn't shake the feeling that the girl would just know if he lied to her. "It's not a bet. Well... I don't think so. I'm doing it because Riku wants me to." There. It was the truth, not the whole truth, but Sora didn't see why Paine would have to know the little bitty details. Such as what is was that Riku had said that had gotten Sora into this position.
"Rikku?" Paine blinked in surprise, her eyebrows knitting together. "I... didn't know you knew her." Paine broke away from her locked gaze with Sora. Surprised at the sudden flare of emotion Paine had put into her short, clipped words, Sora was slightly taken aback and paused a moment before correcting her.
"Er, no! I mean, not that Rikku. My friend Riku... he's a guy."
A weight seemed to be lifted off of Paine's shoulders and Sora half expected her to sigh in relief. Instead she turned back around, dropping yet again into her short clipped voice, all previous trace of her emotion gone. "So you're only doing this because Riku wants you to?" She made it sound so stupid! Well, okay, perhaps it had sounded like a lame excuse the way Sora had put it. But the last thing he really felt like doing was telling this total stranger about his more-then-friendly feelings towards his best friend.
"No! He said he'd--" Sora caught himself, clapping a hand over his mouth to stop the words from spilling out. Hadn't he just told himself he wasn't going to tell Paine about all this? He hardly knew the stupid girl anyway and here he was about to blab his deepest, darkest secret to her! Yet some part of him wondered if that fact alone was enough to convince him to tell her. He had no previous relation with Paine, so she might not have a biased opinion...
"It's okay to feel that way about him, Sora."
Sora felt his heart stop as his eyes widened. Was it that easy to see?!
"Ah..."
Paine chuckled, standing up and walking away from Sora, looking up at the night sky. There was something about her that just seemed so knowing, Sora wasn't as upset as he felt he should be. "It really isn't that hard to figure, Sora. It's not a bad thing, though."
Sora glared and stood up, wrapping both hands around the flag as he addressed Paine, who still had her back to him. "How can you say it's not a bad thing? You make it seem like it's normal or something to fall head over heels in love with your best friend, who, of course, is the same sex as you! It's not... It's not supposed to happen, is it? How can you make it seem like no big deal?"
Turning her head to be able to see the boy out of the corner of her eye, Paine mentally rolled her eyes. Sora seemed like a sweet kid, but he was also pretty dense.
"Because I have the same feelings as you do for Rikku."
"WHAT?!"
"Not your Riku. Rikku."
"...You mean, the gi--"
"Yes, Sora, the girl Rikku."
Well. That certainly explained a lot. Sora had felt like slamming the flag against Paine's head when she'd said Rikku, but now that he knew that she had been speaking of Rikku and not Riku... Utterly confusing himself, Sora made a mental note to figure out some way it would be possible to differentiate between the two.
"I... didn't know, I'm sorry."
Paine turned back around to face Sora and chuckled. "If I'd wanted you to know, I'm sure I'd really care. You said you wanted help, right?" Sora looked up at the girl, also noting how much taller than him she was. Well, what's one more blow to my ego? Sora nodded in response to Paine's question. The girl walked over to the side of her house, flipping on a light switch, illuminating the porch. Reaching out for the practice flag still clutched in Sora's hands, Paine nodded once.
"All right, then. Let's get started."
~~~~~
Having slept through half of his classes that day, Sora wasn't all that tired by the time he once again appeared on the blacktop. He couldn't tell if he was reluctant about having to go through the entire ordeal again, or if he actually felt a small satisfaction that he had greatly improved since the day before. The late night practice session with Paine had helped more then Sora could ever have thought possible and Paine was a patient teacher when it came to color guard. She had shown him the basic spin moves that had been gone over at yesterday's practice and he'd mastered them surprisingly fast, finding that it wasn't so hard when he didn't have Quistis' constant glare on his back. He again wondered, though not for the first time, how it was that Quistis had become captain instead of Paine. Probably because she was so new to the school last year.
Once Sora had mastered a few more moves that Paine said he would have to learn at the next practice anyway (it could never hurt for him to get a head start), they'd had a half hour conversation about Riku and Rikku, each of them coming to the conclusion that the Rik(k)u the other would talk about would be of the same gender. It'd taken a while, but several laughable mistakes later, each had gotten a rather decent understanding of the other.
"Yay, Sora!" Snapped out of his thoughts, Sora soon found himself bombarded with Yuffie, a large grin on her face as she turned towards the older girls already assembled on the blacktop. "See, see, see? I told you Sora wouldn't give up! Isn't he just the cutest?" Sora yelped loudly and scrambled to get away from Yuffie as she pinched his cheek, Kairi and Selphie laughing as they appeared on the blacktop at last.
Quistis cleared her throat. "Okay, let's get started, everyone. Why don't we do a review of yesterday's little spins?" All of the experienced girls, except Paine, let out a loud groan of despair.
"Quisty, that's so boring!"
"We already know this stuff, come on!"
Quistis rolled her eyes and sighed. After a moment of thinking, a small smile graced her mouth and she nodded. "Alright then. Why don't we just have the newbies give it a go?" Turning to face Kairi, Selphie, and Sora, Quistis' smile spread into a grin.
"Kairi, you're up first."
Panic raced through Sora's mind in a split second. They were supposed to do this individually?? Instantly, whatever confidence he may have had when he'd walked out of school that afternoon disappeared. There was no way in hell he'd be able to do even the simplest twirl of a flag in front of everyone when he was there alone. Looking around for Paine, who might at least be able to give him a reassuring word or two, he found her off to the side, deep in conversation with Rikku. The blonde's ponytail flipped back and forth as she emphasized her words with dramatic hand gestures, whatever it was she was talking about making Paine chuckle. Sora would just feel guilty if he interrupted the moment, especially now that he knew of Paine's feelings towards Rikku.
"That wasn't bad Kairi. Selphie, your turn."
Sora no longer had the opportunity to ask Paine for reassurance, for Kairi instantly came trudging over, a frown on her face. "Aww, I did so terrible!"
Having not exactly been watching his friend's performance, Sora hesitated a moment before forcing a grin on his face and patting Kairi on the shoulder. "No you didn't! You were great, trust me. Besides, it was just a little review of yester--"
"Good job, Selphie. Sora, come on."
Kairi blinked at Sora, who's face had suddenly gone pale. He winced quite visibly as Quistis again snapped at him to hurry up, but paused and turned around as he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Go on, Sora! Don't worry, boys can do it too!" Rikku shifted her weight from foot to foot, bouncing back and forth as she grinned at the boy. Paine stood behind her and nodded towards Sora, a small smile on her face. He managed to grin back at Paine and thank Rikku for her support before Quistis again barked at him. Jeeze, I wonder if anyone else notices that Quistis just flat out hates me?
Hurrying over to where Kairi and Selphie had been minutes ago, Sora blinked at all the girls who seemed to have dropped whatever they were doing to pay attention to him. Why hadn't they been paying this much attention when Kairi and Selphie went?! Of course, because they were both girls and it was probably quite evident that they were shoe-ins for the color guard anyway. Sora on the other hand...
"Sora, we'd like to get this over with before the new year, if it's at all possible," Quistis drawled, attracting a small scowl from both Paine and Rikku, who opened her mouth to object before seeming to think better of it and shutting it again.
Slowly, Sora began to spin the flag, doing a simple drop-spin for starters. Flag kept close to his body, as Paine had instructed him multiple times, he paced himself as the bright material passed his eyes once, twice... Around and around and around... He wondered if he was supposed to switch to something else then. Inverting his hand, Sora smoothly changed from the slow and steady drop-spin into the slightly faster double time. The names of the moves were still fresh in Sora's mind, since they were just one more thing that Paine had had to remind him of the previous night.
Uh oh... what else did we do yesterday? Sora frantically tried to remember back to the yesterday's practice on the blacktop, but his concentration with spinning the flag in the first place was blending the after school practice with the evening one and all the moves were starting to jumble together too. Unable to think of anything else to do, Sora tossed the flag....
Into a perfect spin.
Sora's own blue eyes were wide as the flag fell back into his hands and he looked up to make sure it had really happened. The crowd in front of him stared back in stunned silence for several seconds before several over the girls burst into cheers. Quistis, however, remained dead silent, a frown replacing her earlier grin of triumph.
"Whoohooooo! Go, Sora!" Rikku jumped into the air and waved her hands around happily as Paine, who stood next to her, smiled at Sora with pride.
"Hehehe! Looks like we really will have a guy on the guard this year!" Yuffie squealed delightedly and clapped her hands together, accompanied by Kairi and Selphie's shouts of encouragement.
Another set of clapping hands came from behind Sora and he looked over his shoulder to find Riku standing there, leaning against the blacktop's surrounding chain link fence. Fighting the urge to run over and hug his silver haired friend with the simple happiness that comes from doing something just plain right, Sora grinned and waved at Riku energetically.
'It's okay to feel that way about him, Sora.'
'Try out and I'll make it worth your while.'
Life was looking pretty good right about then for Sora. One more glace over at Quistis, who looked as though she'd just eaten a sour lemon or two, assured Sora that maybe this entire idea wasn't going to be his downfall after all. And Riku was there, too, adding even more sugar to the already sweet picture. Mm, Riku. Sora against fought the urge to bounce over to his silver haired obsession happily and kiss him right on the spot. That... would undoubtedly be the dumbest thing he could possibly do.
"Take a ten minute break, I'm getting some water," Quistis said shortly as she stalked back into the school building.
Riku walked over towards Sora, the spiky haired boy grinning from ear to ear. "So my little idea wasn't so bad, was it, Sora? Where'd you learn to do that last move there?"
"The toss?" Sora bounced happily, pointing Paine out to Riku. "Paine taught me last night!" Hearing her name, Paine looked up and nodded a greeting to Riku. The silver haired teen blinked a moment, slightly confused by a sudden spurt of jealousy he possessed for the older girl. Since when did Sora have Paine, rumored to be one of the most stoic individuals (other then the infamous Leon) in the high school, as a good friend? ...And why exactly was Riku jealous in the first place?
~~~~~
Waving goodbye to the rest of the girls making up the color guard, Sora jogged to catch up with Riku, who had thankfully offered to give him a ride home. The last thing Sora really felt like doing was walking the mile to his house carrying both his heavy backpack and the bulky practice flag with him.
Sora buckled the seatbelt of the front passenger seat after he'd slid in next to Riku in the car, flag and backpack safely in the back seat. Inside, the younger boy was dancing with happiness that Riku had actually seen him do well at something which, yes, seemed silly and trivial, but was still surprisingly difficult to do. He had an entire weekend to look forward to, and since last night's meeting with Paine, Sora found himself wondering what he could do with Riku. Perhaps if he could nudge the older boy into a more regular pattern of doing things together, just the two of them...
"Glad you're having fun, Sora." Riku grinned and ruffled Sora's hair playfully as the car pulled out of the school parking lot, his amazing multi-tasking skills again becoming quite evident. Riku was probably the only teenager on the island who could listen to blaring rock music on the radio, eat a hamburger, finish his history report, and have perfect control over a car, all at the same time. Joking around with Sora while driving the boy home was no challenge for him whatsoever.
"Sooo, think I'm any good at it?" Really, Sora was just fishing for compliments out of the older boy, in too carefree a mood to try making a real conversation.
Riku grinned at the younger boy's question. It wasn't really a surprise, now that he thought about it. Sora was constantly looking to others to make sure he was doing the right thing, always needing reassurance about anything and everything. If he only let that blind confidence he occasionally obtained pilot his life...
"Good at it? I didn't think just a day's worth of practice could make you that good. Really, Sora, that's pretty amazing. And before you get started, no, I'm not just saying that."
The conversation continued along those lines for the rest of the drive home, accompanied by the standard laughter and joking that showed up whenever Riku and Sora were put together in a situation. As Sora hopped out of the car, pulling out his practice flag and backpack behind him, it was agreed that Riku would pick him up later that night so the two could go spend some quality time just wandering around the downtown area of the small. For Sora, this was all simply perfect and there was nothing he would have changed.
Of course, just thinking that jinxed the entire thing, for no sooner had Sora unlocked the front door of the house and tossed his backpack on the downstairs couch did the phone ring. Leaning his flag against a wall, Sora jogged over to where the phone hung on the wall and picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Sora? This is Quistis."
"Quistis??" Immediately, Sora jumped to the worst conclusion. What if there was some rule he didn't know about concerning getting practice outside of the after school practices?? That was a pretty stupid notion, yes, but Quistis being who she was, Sora wouldn't have put it too far past her. "Umm... Hi."
"I have a favor to ask of you, Sora."
And I've got a really bad feeling about this...
Not waiting for Sora's response, Quistis continued, her voice taking on a sickeningly sweet pitch to it. "I didn't know you knew Riku, Sora. See, you already know about Winterfest and everything, I'm sure."
Sora's bad feeling about this was steadily rising each second Quistis continued to babble.
"Now normally I would never date down a grade. But I was wondering if you would set me up with Riku, you and him being so... close and all."
No sooner had those words reached Sora's ears did he frown and narrow his eyes slightly. How dare Quistis try and take Riku from him?? Granted, he and Riku weren't exactly a couple... Nor had Sora even told Riku of his deep feelings for his friend... But that didn't change anything as far as Sora was concerned.
"I... guess I could try." Damn me for having to act the nice guy. What Sora really wanted to do was snap something along the lines of, "Stay the hell away my boy, you sadistic little power freak!" but decided that would probably cut whatever future he may have had on the color guard down significantly.
"Thanks, Sora. You won't regret it, I promise." Click. Not even a word of goodbye to Sora, just more empty promises of it all being worth his while in the end. Blinking as he hung up the phone, Sora shuddered. He'd never want Quistis to mean those words the way he would want Riku to mean them.
Glancing at the clock, Sora saw he would probably have another hour or so until Riku got back from picking up groceries for his parents (as daunting as the silver haired boy could be at times, he was still roped into grocery shopping all the same), and Sora decided to have yet another go at practicing for guard. It was oddly surprising how addictive twirling a flag could be, but Sora was just thankful he'd found something he could do that made him significantly... well, different.
So it was that Sora was surprised to find Paine outside again, sitting in the same folding chair she'd been sitting in last night, a notebook lying open in her lap. Setting his flag down in the grass, he jogged over to Paine who looked up as he approached, a small smile on her face.
"Hey, Sora. Good job today. I think Quistis was probably more then just a little surprised by all that." She chuckled and began to close her open notebook before the word-filled pages caught Sora's eye and he peered over at the paper with interest.
"Oooh, whatcha writing?"
Paine paused, the notebook half closed. Looking up at Sora, she again paused, probably once more asking herself if she should continue to just open up to Sora like she had been doing. It was ridiculously out of character for her, as far as Paine was concerned, but she realized that aside from personality, Sora had a lot in common with her. He'd even had the trust in her not to breathe a word of his love for Riku to anyone, and Paine had bestowed the same trust in him with her own feelings for Rikku.
"It's a song..."
"Hey, I didn't know you wrote music! What's it about? Can I read it?" Sora's blue eyes looked pleadingly down at Paine who scoffed in response.
"You don't read songs, Sora."
"...Oh. Right! ...You don't?"
"No. It's a song, you sing it."
Sora rocked back and forth on his heels. "But I can't sing. However, I can read, so can I read it then? Oh wait, can you sing, Paine?"
Paine narrowed her eyes and tossed the notebook at Sora. "Fine, you can read it."
Grinning evilly, Sora plopped down on the porch in front of Paine, sitting cross legged and flipping open to the page Paine had previously had open.
The rope that's wrapped around me
Is cutting through my skin
And the doubts that have surrounded me
Are finding their way in
I keep it close to me
Like a holy man prays
In my desperate hour
It's better, better that way
So I'll come by and see you again
I'll be such a very good friend
Have mercy on my soul
I will never let you know
Where my mind has been
Angels never came down
There's no one here
They'd want to hang around
But if they knew, if they knew you at all
Then one by one, the angels would fall
Sora gaped down at the obviously unfinished lyrics, to put it quite simply, stunned. He'd never read something like that which just seemed so... right. Looking up at Paine he stared at her as she rolled her eyes in response, taking the notebook back out of his lap. Maybe he didn't understand after all...
"It's for Rikku, isn't it?"
Or not. Looking back at Sora, Paine gave him a small nod. "Yes. And for anyone else who feels that way about someone. It could be yours and Riku's, or anyone else's."
They were both quiet for a moment, Sora trying to remember every word of the unfinished song. It really would work for anyone, no matter who.
"It's beautiful..."
Paine leaned over and flicked Sora in the forehead, causing the boy to yelp. "Yeah, yeah, beautiful my ass. Listen, you don't go blabbing about my writing crap, got it? I don't exactly like sharing this kind of stuff with people, so you owe me big Sora."
Rubbing his forehead, Sora pouted. "But why wouldn't you want people to read it? It's ama--"
"Hush, Sora." The younger boy obediently shut his mouth and blinked up at Paine questioningly. Running her fingertips along the edge of the notebook, Paine finished her thinking and nodded to herself. After waiting a moment, it became clear that Paine wasn't exactly willing to talk much more, so Sora put it upon himself to make conversation. Thankfully, he'd already had a topic in mind.
"Quistis called. She wants me to set her and Riku up."
Snapping her head around to face Sora, Paine narrowed her eyes. "What? Quistis wouldn't date a junior."
"That's not what she says..."
"You're not going to go through it, are you Sora? You do that and I'll hang you from your roof by your ears myself." The scary thing is, one look at Paine and Sora was very much aware of the fact that she wasn't kidding.
Sora laughed and shook his head. "Nope, Paine, sorry, but I'm not exactly that stupid."
"You might surprise yourself." Both teenagers laughed at that and were quite content to sit there in companionable silence for several minutes afterwards. The approaching winter season, although temperature didn't change all that much on the islands, had the sun setting early in the evening, Sora and Paine quietly watching its fire die behind the horizon.
Riku leaned against the side of Sora's house, watching the two very carefully. As much as he trusted Sora, he didn't know Paine well enough to trust her, and was naturally wary of the fact that Sora seemed so friendly towards the girl. Honestly, what on earth was it that had made them such great buddies all of a sudden? Sora had probably forgotten all about Riku and was only thinking about Paine, Paine, Paine. Riku's eyes narrowed in a glare at the girl as he headed back out to Sora's front yard. Well, if Sora could forget about their plans, Riku could too. He'd been waiting for five minutes all ready, so he saw no reason to give Sora more time if he would just be spending it with that girl.
Seven minutes later, Sora waved goodnight to Paine and again retreated inside his house, dropping off the flag he hadn't even spun once. It wasn't like he needed to practice right away though. Riku would be there any minute and Sora was very much looking forward to spending the rest of his Friday night in the company of his best friend. Having a note already written out to his mother and left taped to the mirror in the hallway, Sora sat perched on the steps and waited.
And waited.
Riku didn't show up. Nor did he realize that the clock in his car had been ten minutes fast.
.................................................................
Well that took up the better part of my day. o.o; Jeeze this was a pretty big chapter... First thing's first, how did everyone like Paine's characterization? I'm really quite happy with her sort of being the person goes to for advice, again crossing sexual boundaries. Oh, and yes, I've always paired her with Rikku for some odd reason. ...Wha-at? *mutters*
I should also point out that the lyrics to Paine's song are actually those of Melissa Etheridge's "Angels Will Fall." I downloaded it last night when I was bored out of my mind and absolutely fell in love with the song. Expect an appearance from it later on!
I also apologize to any Quistis fans out there. I myself, am not one, and saw no real problem in giving her that role in the fic. She's not a bad person, really. ...Though the next chapter may very well change my mind on that one. __ Reviews would again be appreciated!
Preview for the next chapter: Things must get worse before they get better. ...We hope.
~Ori