1First attempt at KH fanfiction. I have a bigger soft spot for the Twilight Town kids than I do for the Destiny Island gang, so... expect that. I'll try to sneak in some Riku x Sora for the sake of my beloved lady and others, but it'll mainly be Roxas x Axel. Hints of Roxas x Hayner and Roxas x Seifer are to be expected as well... This might seem to follow the game in some respect, but it doesn't really. They're just normal kids. This is also set a year ahead. In the 2nd game Sora is 15, here he's 16.
Enjoy!
Demmy: Ame does not own any part of anything in here. Characters, towns, ice cream, etc.
"Roxas!" The sudden splash of sea water in his eyes burned him out of his revere. "Hey, don't get all spacey on us now. Come on, loosen up! We only get one summer a year!" Pence grinned. Roxas managed a grin in return before his friend was playfully pushed aside by Hayner.
"Yeah, come on, loosen up!" The taller patted his shoulder before getting splashed by the squat. Soon the two were having a battle of their own. Roxas was out of their attention again. It wasn't that he was being anti-social, he just wasn't in the mood to play.
His eyes wander to shore where Olette waved to him. She wouldn't swim today for reasons of her own. Maybe he'd go join her, she was alone up there and he was pretty much alone out in the water. Glancing back at the boys where they had taken to wrestling in the water, he started to trudge through the waves and onto shore.
"Hey! Is something wrong? Hayner didn't steal your trunks again, did he?"
"No, no, you just looked lonely." He forced a smile.
"Oh, I'm fine, don't worry. I have the sun to tan in and a book to read." She grinned to reassure him. He didn't respond to that, just made himself comfortable on the blanket next to her. He didn't know her for a tanner, she would rather have been out there playing as well. She wouldn't tan well in a one-piece swimsuit anyway. "Are you hungry? I have the munny with me. There's extra aside from our dinner expenses for you to get an ice cream."
"No thanks, seawater makes me feel sick for a little after I get out."
"Oh, swallow some? It'll pass, you'll live." She laughed, and he laughed along but stopped as he got more water in his face. In front of him stood the other two boys, both holding empty buckets and grinning.
"Hey, no flirting, you know that Olette isn't up for grabs." they joked and Roxas laughed along. Whatever bad feeling that he had was passed.
When she had finished laughing, Olette held up the munny bag. "So, who's up for some pretzels?" The boys all cheered agreement.
Later that night as the four walked back to the train station, Roxas' eyes started to space over the gentle waves, black at pitch but smooth and sparkling at sapphires. The broken image of a broken moon shimmered along the surface as the water disappeared over the horizon. The image of a shooting star caught his eye on the water and he made a wish, any wish, but the watery star shattered against something foreign moving in the waves.
Roxas stopped waking forwards and rushed to the boardwalk railing, leaning out to look closer. The chattering of his friends stopped as they turned to him. "Roxas?"
"There's a man, a man in the water!" Hayner pointed. "He's walking in fully clothed! It must be a sui-" But Roxas was already gone, over the railing and running over sand to the shoreline.
His sneakers and socks grew heavy, as did his pant legs, as they got wet, but he kept running the best he could against battling waves. Soon Hayner and Pence were following behind while Olette waited onshore with her cell phone. Roxas was still way ahead of them, reaching the man minutes before they could.
The other turned before Roxas even announced his presence, the splashing giving him away. "What is it?" he raised a brow away from his green eyes.
Roxas took a little to catch his breath. "The lifeguard's gone. You shouldn't be in here without her." He cursed himself for sounding so stupid, but what else could he say?
"I'll be fine, I'm just looking for something." The man shook his head. Roxas peered at him closely, but in the dark could only make out a pair of mint green eyes.
"What are you looking for? It's probably either already been washed out to sea or onto shore."
"Yeah, yeah, I know my chances are slim, but..." The green eyes redirected themselves over the ocean, falling quiet.
"Well, if it's that important, I'll help you. But not for too long. Just promise that you'll give up if we can't find it." The eyes looked back down at Roxas in a look of semi-surprise, semi-"what?-are-you-stupid?". He didn't have to respond before Roxas had himself bent over with his hands in the sand. "So what are we looking for?"
"Don't bother, I already found it." And the man started back up to shore, passing Hayner and Pence as they arrived.
"What was his problem." Hayner scoffed, not liking what had gone on. "We come out all this way and he gives us the cold shoulder." The moved back up the shore, meeting with Olette and walking to the train, not seeing the man again on the way out.
The rest of the summer went by without much excitement, not much thought spared for the stranger. As the four sat on the ledge of the clock tower, watching the orange and pink watercolors of the last summer sun, they savored it.
'There's only one more summer vacation for us, guys.' Hayner sighed as he thought, knowing the end was approaching to such simple pleasures, but not wanting to down the others.
"We'll have to come back and do this all again when we're older." Olette's wistful smile made her eyes seem brighter than usual as she stared out over the buildings.
"We will, I promise." Roxas smiled, head in his hands. Pence nodded in agreement. They sat there quietly until the sky was bright with stars for a moment, before the streetlights turned on and shooed them away.
Hayner stood. "Let's go." making sure nobody fell, he grasped each hand as they stood, ushering them through the small door. Roxas was last, receiving a smile from his friend as he closed the door behind him. The inner workings of the clock creaked and cranked as the hands moved.
'If I were to stop those gears, maybe we could stay like this forever.' Roxas smiled to himself.
The garbage truck made its loud grunt out front as the sirens of the ambulance sounded, waking the boy from his sleep. As he did every morning, he checked his room just to be secure. His t-shirt was soggy from sweat, the summer heat still lurking into the morning. Groaning as he sat up, Roxas turned so that his face could hit the pillow, cringing as his nose suffered a short bolt of pain. When he ran out of breath, he sat up with a sigh.
"School starts today, I had better get ready..." He whispered, grabbing a "clean" t-shirt from his floor along with a pair of jeans.
The group met in the usual spot near the ally, walking to school under the guise of false laughter. Seifer cut them off at the gates with an interested smirk.
"So, you decided to show up."
"Well, why not? It's the first day of school. What does it matter to you, anyway!" Hayner grit his teeth. "Let us through!"
"Or what, are you trying to pick a fight? We can't have little rascals like you in our school, you'll endanger the other students."
"Hayner, just ignore him! Or else we'll get suspended on our first day! That's what he really wants." Roxas gave the whispered order with urgency.
"Whispering's worse than sin, ya know?"
Olette's glare met the voice, threatening to tear him apart if he spoke again. Needless to say, the words 'ya know' were uttered no more.
"We're going to be late." Pence alerted Hayner. "Whether we fight him or not, we're in trouble."
Hayner looked across the group and gave a discrete motion to jump the fence, slip under the arm, anything to run away from this battle and into class. Each counted to three in their heads before giving the encounter the slip.
Once in the door's, they walked swiftly, not looking behind them to see if they were being followed. The gang wouldn't regroup until fifth period for Language Arts. Roxas was on his own until then, besides having Pence in third period.
Stopping by his locker, he grabbed his science book for first period only to have his door slammed in his face. Glad to feel his nose when he rubbed to make sure it was still there, he looked up with scorn at Seifer.
"You don't have to follow me everywhere."
"Troublemakers like you need constant surveillance." He smirked, hair a mess of fine waves coming from where his hat was forbidden on school grounds.
"Why can't you just leave me alone and let the teachers do their job." The junior sighed, gathering his books off the floor. At this a strong grip was on his arm, pulling him up.
"Because I have a job to do with you." However clean the breath was, it still fell stagnant on Roxas' nostrils from the sneer it came from.
Roxas awoke in an empty classroom, sore all over. There was a note on the locked door to direct teachers and their classes to another room due to 'renovations,' but Roxas didn't notice it. He only noticed that he couldn't move. It hurt to even open his eyes. That was his punishment for not fighting back in hopes to avoid suspension. It probably wouldn't work anyway.
He tried again to sit up, becoming bored and sleepless. Blue eyes went wide as the muscle in his back tightened. He cried out, covering his mouth with his hands in hopes that nobody would hear him, but once his hands stopped supporting his weight, he fell back onto the hard tile floor. Another loud groan erupted and he was unable to stop it.
A knock came on the door, but the boy couldn't respond. "Hello, is everything ok in here?" Keys jingled and the lock clicked. The door squealed as the man poked his head in. "Hey, kid, are you alright?" The voice was a perfect mix of panic and calm, familiar. Roxas couldn't open his eyes or respond in anyway but short painful breaths.
"Kid?" The hands were carefully over his sides, surprisingly not hurting the bruises. Actually, they felt rather nice, soothing even. "Don't move, I'll get the nurse." The steps retreated.
Roxas had finally returned to a peaceful sleep, possibly because of the soothing effects of a touch, when the nurse arrived with her first aid kit. This time he opened his eyes, looking up at the two faces. They spoke as if he weren't there.
"I heard a noise from this room as I walked by and thought that one of the workers had gotten hurt- speaking of which, where are the workers? Isn't this room under renovations?"
The nurse shook her head. "The one who dumped him here must've been pretty clever. Can you tell us who it was, dear?" Her voice was smooth. Roxas blinked at her, tried to speak but his lungs gave him a shock of pain and he groaned. She frowned.
"Should I call the hospital? He might have hurt a rib." Roxas shifted his gaze to the speaker. Green eyes, those soft green eyes.
"That would be good, Mr. Lea." The nurse dismissed him and Roxas closed his eyes again.
The next time Roxas awoke, there wasn't a face hovering over him. But he did hear Hayner's soft muttering next to him. Was he... praying?
Nobody in the group claimed to be religious. If anything, they all rebelled against any religion expected of them. Guilt struck. Roxas had worried his friend this much, so much that he would bow his head before things he didn't even trust in.
"Hey." Roxas croaked out, not expecting his voice to be so ragged.
"Roxas!" The boy's head shot up and his face brightened remarkably. He was about to tackle his friend into the bed when he reminded himself of his condition. "I'm so glad you're alright!"
"So am I." Letting out a short laugh, the blond smiled. "I didn't want to fight back, hopefully Seifer'll get suspended because of this instead of us."
"What does it matter? You're kicked out of school anyway and you'll have to stay after to make stuff up. It's no different." Hayner sighed. "I just wish... you'd be more careful. You could have beaten him and the consequences would be no different."
"I'm sorry I worried you."
Hayner quickly wiped away a wet spot on his eye and fixed his face up stiff. "Well, you'd better. Once you're out of here, you're getting the beating of a lifetime from me!"
Roxas groaned. "Crap." Then his mind wandered over other things. "Wait, Hayner, do you know who found me?"
"Some guy, why?"
The boy shrugged. "Never mind. Just curious."
"Hey guys! Good to see you awake again." Pence entered, Olette close behind him. "The doctor says it's just a lot of bruises, you'll be fine in no time. Oh, but the x-ray machine made you sterile." The boy laughed, to show that he was joking.
"Crap." Roxas smiled, playing along.
"Here, we brought up some food from the cafeteria downstairs for you. I think this is supposed to be oatmeal... so just ignore it." Olette set the tray on the swivel table next to the bed.
"Right." Roxas nudged the bowl of cloudy water away, almost surprised to see an oat float to the top.
"You're lucky that guy walked by when he did." She commented, fussing over the arrangement of items on his tray.
"Which guy?"
"Oh, the one senior that girls are always fawning over. Some punk or something. His name was Alex or something."
Roxas blinked at the girl, having no clue.
"It's Axel." Pence corrected. "He's in my fourth period class."
Olette rolled her eyes. "Anyway, He's in my third period class, I'll thank him for you during third period. Pence will probably forget to during his fourth period."
"Right, thanks."
"Hey, you kids know it's not nice to talk about people behind there backs, don't you?" The green eyes flickered across the room, meeting Roxas'. "Good to see that you're awake. You had me going for a while there. I was afraid you were dead."
"Th-thanks." Roxas forced himself to sit up, wincing. Hayner's hand was on his back to support him.
"Don't force yourself too hard, kid." Axel came over, pulling a chair up next to Hayner. He suddenly grew quiet, thinking to himself. The kids all watched him nervously. 'Darn it, what do I say now.' "Well, nice to see you're healthy. I'll be going now, get well soon, bye."
"Wait!" Roxas grabbed the man's wrist as he stood to leave. "What were you looking for?" 'Crap! Wrong question!' He winced, but wouldn't let go.
The man's eyes, no matter how light the color, dropped heavily and away. But his smile was bright, not one of a frozen heart. "It's rude to ask such personal questions."
"Sorry." and he let the hand drop.
Ok, it gets repetitive and everything. And I don't like how Axel is turning out... I hope the next chapter is a bit better -sigh-
There was a fair scene with someHayner -> Roxas ... but I didn't like it. Too OOC. I'll just leave the little hints of it to how Hayner looks after Roxas rather thanwhat I did have... Seifer-> Roxas will show up somewhere, because it's adorable.