Yay, I finished playing Kingdom Hearts II so here's another chapter…
XXX
Chapter Six: Morals of Convenience
They stood at the very corner of the campus and waited. The bell sounded, warning all the students to get to their next class; Roxas turned to Sora and Kairi.
"Okay," he started, "Remember; we only have two and a half hours." Kairi nodded and turned to Sora whose eyes were gazing off. Roxas snapped his fingers in front of him,
"Hello?" Sora shook his head and Roxas put his hands on his hips, "Look," He then remembered the buckets to be carried, lifted two of them up and handed them to Sora, "We only have a certain amount of time, and we have to keep our heads in this…" Sora grabbed the buckets, but misjudged the weight as he slumped foreword. He straightened his back and looked towards Roxas, and Roxas back at Sora. They had a few seconds to spare before the final bell… Kairi fumbled threw the gym bag and when she was sure everything was there she zipped it up and pulled the strap over her head. The bag bounced off of her side as all three of them started walking across the campus. She tugged on the bottom of her shirt and combed her hair behind her hair. She was wearing light blue jeans with a stripe pattern on the back pockets, her shirt was a light green and elbow cut. Roxas wore athletic shorts and a white shirt with grey sleeves. Sora; his tan cargo shorts, again, and a dark navy shirt. Roxas and Sora also bared new cuts and bruises; from the ambush about a week ago… Sora still had a piece of medical tape on his chin, and a couple of healing cuts on his cheek. Roxas carried his broken arm, which luckily didn't get worse during the bashing, a brown and golden shiner, a few cuts, and a huge bruise on his forehead that was red and purple but covered by his bangs.
After that incident, and I mean right after, Roxas finished perfecting his plan and shared the final result with Kairi and Sora who were now more than willing to help. Each day, going over it, showing the outlines of the school grounds, where and when they would need to be; Kairi and Sora tried to keep a mental image but also carried school maps in their gym bags. The bell finally sounded, by this time no one was outside the school walls,
"Okay, let's do it!" Roxas, Kairi and Sora picked up their pace and headed for the back entrance of the school.
XXX
Roxas saw Kairi off as she entered the building. They stood on either sides of the door and gave grim but at the same time insolent smirks. This mission was big. The door clattered behind her and she made her way down the empty hallways, her soft footsteps patted on the tile corridors as she lightly passed the millions of lockers, grey hallways; obnoxiously bright and clashing club and student body election posters. She held the bag close and kept alert.
Back on the outside, Sora had already popped off the top to one of the gallons; this jug had the tag ripped off and filled with a grimy purplish-brown. A bucket laid abandoned to the side with the lid knocked off; there was still many supplies left other than the milk gallon. As Sora rose from his position he took a whiff of the gritty looking water,
"Is this homemade?" Sora grabbed his nose. Roxas walked over and started popping off the other lid of the bucket and pulled out a similar looking solution, "Yep. Our gardener," He made a distasteful sound and expression as he unscrewed the cap, "--makes it. I would've asked but since he's illegal, I thought maybe this was too…" He hauled the grass killer up and both looked over the small gardens and the spacious school lawn. Spraying the garden wouldn't take long, and they already thought of a very nice pattern to leave on the school's yard.
Meanwhile, Kairi had a little difficulty getting away from the hall patrol,
"I have a pass from Mrs. Deaken's; drama club is meeting outside today..." She had to hand over her fake pass. The student looked at it with approval and sent her on her way. 'What a loser..' Kairi caught herself making this comment and chuckled. Meeting new people started to change her a little. Kairi brushed this thought off and headed into the girl's bathroom and went into one of the stalls. Locking it behind her she would see if she could really do this like practiced..
Using some rubber gloves, (all three of them insisted on this for sanitation reasons) she lifted up the toilet seat. She pulled a roll of something out of her bag. As she unraveled it and stretched it over the toilet seat, it was noticed as some clear cellophane. She secured the sides and placed the toilet seat down again. Zipped up her bag and marveled at her work… Kairi just noticed how gross this job was as she exited the girls' bathroom and didn't bother to taint the other toilets… She had to aim for the boys' restroom and faculty, 'oh great.'
Since today was block day, the three kids had about two and a half to three hours to set their traps until students spilled out of their classrooms and clubs. Sora and Roxas met up with Kairi in the hallway, on time.
"Did you finish it?" Roxas asked Kairi.
"Ugh, it was so gross! I can't believe you made me do that job…" Sora chuckled and Kairi saw Roxas's seriousness, "but I hit every faculty restroom and I think every men's room." Kairi hands were a bright red from scrubbing in the girls' bathroom's sink. Sora noticed this and laughed as Kairi combed another hair behind her ear.
"Okay! No time to waste!" Roxas quietly exclaimed in the hall, "Here comes the hardest part." Roxas saluted as he headed off in the opposite direction of Sora and Kairi.
In all of the janitor's closets any vacant offices he could find; Roxas did the same thing. Took out one of the stacked buckets and filled it with hot water, he would return to his target area and empty large amounts of dishwashing detergents into the bucket. Then, hesitantly, Roxas stood back and tossed in a few pounds of crushed dry ice kept in some Glad ware. Swiftly exiting and closing the door behind him, he chuckled at the thought of the Janitor's trying to get to their supplies to clean up all of Roxas's other pranks. This took a bit of time, so it was already a little late on schedule as he headed down the hallways to meet up with Sora and Kairi.
Hunched over, side-by-side, they stepped backwards as the carefully emptied the buckets of light brown powder empty onto the floor of the hallways. They had already hit almost all of the main halls and were just finishing up. What they were emptying was a dried concoction of iodine crystals and some ammonium hydroxide. This formed something like snap powder when stepped on. It didn't take much to activate. Just a sprinkle here and there and BOOM! Whenever someone stepped on this pressure sensitive explosive, they would get quite a fireworks starting underneath their feet.
"Do you think we should be doing this?" Kairi commented like an afterthought, ahem, after they were almost done, "We aren't even from here, we are already in trouble--" She started listing..
"Don't think about it." Sora simply answered, "Like Roxas said, revenge is sweet and we gotta treat ourselves sometimes." Kairi smiled and agreed. When they reached the end of the hallway, they started packing the stacking the buckets, making sure they weren't too snug just in case some snap powder was still in there. Their packs were so much lighter now, both of them relieved from the weight; all they had to do now was wait for Roxas.. He was a little off schedule.
Suddenly they saw him turn a sharp corner and almost ran right across the dust-coated floor. He only took one step to cause an explosion and then drove his back up against the wall and inched his way towards them, in a bit of a hurry… Once in a while accidentally setting off some snap power. A security guard followed not to far behind and didn't see the snap powder coming, why would he? As he stepped right into their trap he began dancing and avoided stepping in the same place twice. He started to shout,
"Someone help! SOMEONE GET OUT HERE AND GET THOSE KIDS!" Roxas danced along the side of the wall, swinging the bucket around in a hurry, Sora and Kairi waited at the end of the trail with frightening anticipation. The classroom doors began to open, a couple of teachers stepping out to see what the commotion was. They fell right into the trap and began dancing around like the campus police. By this time it was loud and students came to the door to watch the teachers, who moved like they were organ grinder monkeys. They laughed and others peered out of their rooms to see the two strangers and Roxas edging his way to the door. Roxas leaped the last of it and spun around to get a good look of his work.
His face showed shock, his china blue eyes shook and began to smile as he looked over the scenery. He let out a proud and loud laugh rubbing it in all of their faces. Kairi and Sora smiled behind him. The closet next to them began to leak soapsuds from under the door. Roxas noticed and turned around with a grin on his face. Sora and Kairi glanced at each other with a warm smile and then to Roxas, this had seemed to refresh Roxas; he was so happy!
Unexpectedly, another campus officer took them by surprise and tried to corner them from behind, Kairi squealed and Roxas exclaimed,
"Eat it Piggie!" He pushed him out of the way and the three of them followed his example and ran down a vacant hallway located on the outside of the school. Now another security and a teacher followed. Roxas made a swift turn and hit an emergency exit door, Sora skidded forward and caught himself. Following Roxas's sharp turn, he gets back on track.
Behind the greasy building, the back door bursts open and Roxas followed the brunette and Kairi run out and jump over the patio's back railing. When Kairi landed she stumbled onto her hands, Roxas turned back and picked her up by the wrist. Sora bouncing from foot to foot in one place, motions for them to hurry up and then looks up to the security guard who bursts open out of the back door with another man behind him. Like she was a baton, Roxas handed Kairi off to Sora, and they ran hand in hand. Meanwhile, Roxas stops and looks back with the feel of victory. He did it.
XXX
Kairi finished tying her hair back, most of the fiery hair escaped and fell foreword. Roxas and Sora sat on the empty trashcans and boxes in the alley. They were still catching their breath a little, Roxas especially; but he felt the most content. Kairi and Sora high-fived eachother.
"Yeah! We did it!" They both exclaimed. Roxas rested his head on the alley wall and chuckled. Kairi looked over and smiled, Sora caught his eyes wondering back towards Kairi though. Her hair was up. Kairi never had put it up, it looked.. precious. He broke away as Roxas spoke,
"You guys helped me so much." He started,
"Oh, don't worry about it. We were happy to get back at those pricks."
"Oooh, Kairi! I'm starting to rub off on you. Language, language." Roxas playfully scolded, Sora looked peacefully at Roxas, like a father proud of his son.
"But now it's my turn to give you guys a present." Roxas shocked them with this statement. Kairi and Sora looked at each other,
"What do you mean a present?" Sora was the first to ask,
"Well, you didn't think I would stay here after that."
"Just a couple of pranks on the school…"
"I let Fujin in on Ollie's connection." Roxas spilled and fell back, "There I said it." He sighed, content with himself. Sora's eyes grew wide and a smile stretched across his face.
"What do you mean?" Kairi asked, confused and in the dark.
"Nothing, it doesn't matter." Roxas glanced over to Sora and then back to Kairi, "But about your gift." He rested his forearms on his knees,
"I want to leave, but I want you guys to come. Where I'm going--," He spaced out, "--it will be... so much better."
"Where?" Someone asked.
"You'll see."
"How far away is it?"
"Not to far. But we'll have to take a plane." Kairi looked to Sora,
"We can't afford tickets." Sora plainly said.
"Yeah." Kairi quietly agreed, she hopped onto the trashcan next to Sora and kept her eyes scanning the ground. Roxas stood up from his seat and stood in front of them, crossed his arms and smirked,
"You dopes. That's why it's a gift—"
"Oh no," Sora's hand sliced the air horizontally, back and forth, "We couldn't.."
"No, no! What are you talking about? Listen: My dad gets free airline miles all the time cause of his job. It's no biggie." With a glum atmosphere hanging around them, Kairi kept starring towards the ground and Sora propped up his arms behind him. A car whizzed by and left a swooshing wind knocking down the alley. 'Who are they?'
"There's no one here for you, is there?" Roxas took the silence as a positive.
"C'mon." Roxas gently said and waved them down the alley.
XXX
There was a knock at the door. Or more like a pounding, someone really wanted to get in. Sora rolled over in his bed, not wanting to get up. But they just kept pounding the door down. Sooner or later they were going to break it! He turned onto his stomach lazily and tossed his pillow on his head,
"Go away…" You could hear the muffled comment from underneath the pillow. And like his wish was answered, the knocking stopped. 'Finally, let me sleep…' Sora relaxed and since he was already awake, his mind began to drift into certain planes. He didn't want it to; all he wanted to do was sleep. Sora couldn't help it though, 'Here we are. Fourteen, no home.. I never guessed this would happen to me: be thrown into something like this.'
'Kairi; thrown into something.. something like this.' She seemed happy lately, but how long would it last? Sora felt awful, yesterday after those pranks, sitting in the alley, she grew quiet when Roxas thought of picking up and leaving. 'We don't have very many allies, I mean friends.' He threw the pillow off his head and rolled over onto his back. He rested his hands behind his head, 'Ever since we left, I think of Kairi—' There was another pounding at the door that interrupted his thoughts. He threw the covers off of him and lazily got to his feet and started towards the door.
Annoyed they were still banging until he was standing right in front of it, he flipped the lock and quickly pushed the door open.
"What are you doing?" Sora's heavy eyes scanned Roxas up and down. Roxas pushed Sora back into his room and invited himself in,
"Why are you still asleep? Let's go, let's go! The flight takes off in 2 hours and it takes an hour and fifteen to get t o the nearest national airport!"
Sora drowsily stumbled back, "You're kidding." 'International?'
"No," Roxas picked up Sora's jeans and tossed them to him, Sora caught them and rubbed his fading black eye. He stood in his boxer shorts and a grey athletic shirt, watching as Roxas started picking up his belongings scattered across the floor and stuffed them into Sora's backpack.
"C'mon, move it!" Roxas commanded,
"What about Kairi?"
"I already told her, she's packing her stuff. Now put your pants on!"
Sora groaned.
XXX
They arrived at the airport by cab. Sora pressed his face up against the window as the airplane took off and flew over their car. Kairi scooted over to his side as her eyes followed the plane traveled off into the distance. She leaned over Sora,
"It's like watching a couple of toddlers, I swear.." Roxas chuckled and looked into the back. His light expression turned warm as he looked at the two. He saw the red across Sora's face, but Sora's attention was still focused out the window. The cab driver finally arrived at the entrance. Kairi's arm slipped as she tried to get back to her side.
"Sorry Sora," She lightly said when she pushed herself off of Sora's thigh. She exited the car on her side, Sora did the same.
It was when they were standing in customs Roxas remembered,
"Uh oh."
"What?" Sora and Kairi said at the same time.
"Nothing, I just remembered though…" He scrabbled through his backpack for something. All of them stepped up in the line as he finally pulled out the tickets.
"When I bought the tickets there was only two left in coach, so I had to buy one in first class." He shuffled them and extended one to Kairi,
"I think you should take it."
"Me?" Kairi took it, "But… does that mean I sit all by myself?" Roxas kept his hand extended,
"Well if you really don't want it, I'll take it." Roxas teased,
"No sounds good, I'll keep it." Sora peered at the ticket over Kairi's shoulder and whispered,
"What's first class?" Kairi turned over the ticket, back and forth,
"I don't know but it sounds good." She giggled as she approached the front of the line. She walked through the detector carefree as the siren sounded in the loud airport and the flashing light lit up for a few seconds,
"Did I break it?" She asked all nervous.
"Ma'am, can you please place your bag on the conveyer belt and empty any change or jewelry that might set off the alarm."
"Will I get it back?" Kairi demanded, Roxas inched his way passed Sora and took Kairi by the shoulder. He was embarrassed for her and gave a nervous laugh,
"Kairi, just do it…" Kairi playfully frowned. They picked up their bag off of the conveyer belt, "Oh my god, Sora look at the plane, it's huge!"
"Really, where?"
"Ugh…" Roxas groaned.
"Excuse me sir, can you step over here for a minute?" One of the security guards stopped Sora and motioned to her side.
"Um, why ma'am?" Kairi watched in fear as the security woman explained, "Just procedure, every dozen people we search in case any of the instruments have broken, or don't pick up something."
"Don't look so crept out, look they are doing it to everybody." Roxas moved over to Kairi as they waited for Sora, she scanned over the other lines but still wore an expression of discomfort. Her attention floated back to the airport and the noise and liveliness of the airport. People roaming around with their children, taking them by the hand towards their terminals. Others shopping at one of the many stands for a magazine or a good novel; many already reading or listening to their headphones waiting for their plane to arrive. Kairi tilted her head and thought deeply about that strange equipment, the boy sitting at his terminal tapping his foot while these cords dangled out of his ears. 'Does he have bad hearing or something? What is it?'
"What's that pole thing?" Sora's quivering body was spread as the screeching rod hovered over his body. The woman scanned his arms and legs. His face was pleading for help. Finally the woman stopped and handed him his bag again,
"Thank you, sir." Sora approached Kairi and Roxas. Roxas who was being over amused at this point tried to keep from pissing himself.
"You know, suddenly I don't want to fly." Sora rolled up the ticket in his hand and squeezed hard. As he got closer and closer to actually boarding one of those huge machines that managed to float up in the air.
"It's not that bad. Trust me Sora, people freak out over it but my family has traveled from home to ho—"
"But that huge metal thing with those tiny wings staying up in the air! Look at it, it's not natural!"
"What a girl." Kairi laughed.
"Oh man, you're getting so tweaked over nothing, Sora! C'mon!" Roxas pushed both of them to the terminal.
XXX
Roxas's P.O.V.
The violent aroma of the airplane food was the first thing I noticed when I started to wake. It invaded my nose and mouth, the loud but now subtle humming of the engines suffocated my ears and made me feel as though my head was going to burst. Me and Sora were located on the right side of the plane, and as soon as I opened my eyes I expected to see the exact image that I observed right before falling asleep. Almost the same. It had gotten a lot darker; the plane had been traveling away from the sun so now it was in the early hours of the morning. Another movie was playing on the big screen located in the front row of our section. Hundreds of eyes gazed upon the huge screen, taking a sip of their airline drink and others working on crossword puzzles, reading novels with the spotlights shining down on them. A little boy that was playing on one of those handhelds clicked a button on his armrest, the light dispersed and the little boy wrapped himself in his thin red airline blanket. Some people had drifted into a sleep, curling their legs, the children mostly sleeping with their knees to their chest while the adults had managed to find a comfortable position with their legs planted on the ground. I then observed a woman who slept with her shoulder digging into the back of the chair, headphones still on and wrapped in one of the paper airline blankets. She rubbed her head into the tiny white spongy pillow.
I finally settled myself upright and, still feeling a bit groggy, looked over to Sora who was sitting in the window seat. He was starring out the window, at the night sky. The smoky wisps of clouds hovered over a dark navy that was the ocean. He rested his cheek on his palm and studied the view. Sora seemed so… out there. Distant, always daydreaming or thinking about something. I wanted to talk. Later, I would notice I always did that to break tension, to fill up space, time, empty emotion – on a side note, a girl fed me all this information, she told me I caused tension to shatter with words. She even said one time, I fill these kind of empty atmospheres with empty words; I told her that was not the case. There's always a reason for me to be talking… Or did I really like the sound of my own voice? Nah, I always have good intentions.
"Hey," I tapped Sora on the shoulder, "How long have I been asleep?"
"Only two hours." He flatly said, obviously his mind still caught up with something else.
"Oh," I removed my headset and let it hang around my neck. He seemed like a nice guy. Quiet, didn't talk about himself a lot. We both gazed into the back of the seat in front of them until I broke the tension again and asked,
"Can I ask you something?" Sora turned his head; his eyes that were almost identical to mine were the only things that shimmered in the poor light. Had he been thinking about something, about someone? I didn't really understand his relationship with Kairi and wanted to ask. Bleh, it looked like a middle school crush or something – puppy love – don't you just want to smack him?
"Go ahead." He turned back to gazing off into nothing, I kept my eyes on him,
"Why did you run away?" Our eyes met. His were quivering; Sora didn't know what to do when asked this question. His eyes got lost for a moment, like he was trying to get out of it. Then their purpose returned and he store me down,
"I did something really bad." My peripheral vision caught his thumbs twiddling over one another, then he flexed his fingers and stopped, "I mean, awful." I took a moment to take this in, he looked at me and then hanged his head low like a child who just stole a cookie before dinner. What could this kid do that was so awful? It would be ridiculous to think it could be too bad, he had proven to be nothing but helpful to me, and it always seemed like he was the sensitive kind; the way he tried to understand me, and understand her; Kairi. I looked down, he began to wrap his finger in his shirt, once, twice, until it became a big ball and then he let go, the shirt falling in wrinkles.
I was thinking about punching him in the arm and teasing him, saying how a innocent little being get into trouble all on his own. But his look, this tension; I owed more respect.
"C'mon, what's so bad that you had to leave?" I tried to ask in a carefree attitude. Instantly he remarked,
"Didn't I tell you I got into that fight with Kairi's dad?
"Well, yeah." I answered and in my mind I recalled the conversation we had at the basketball court. I laid a lot of information on him, would he do the same with me? I was hoping he would continue, that one remark wasn't going to satisfy me. I pried my eyes away from him and started starring at the back of the seat again,
"Did he find out you and Kairi were like secretly dating or something and then threatened you? If you broke your arm it got pretty physical right?"
Sora looked at me very confused for a moment, and it almost turned into a look of disgust. It was like I was some gross alien and I had just spit in my hand and offered a Martian greeting. That's how extreme that look was,
"Sorry, man." I backed off but bounced back in another minute,
"Sora, just get it off your chest.. You know you want to spill it – keeping it all bottled up isn't gonna do you any good."
Sora had his neck arched, starring right into the ceiling and I thought he didn't hear me until he began to nod. He brought his head down, and nodded some more, constantly. Slowly he turned for the millionth time and looked at me,
"You can't tell her. You can't tell her I told you this. Otherwise, I would be breaking my promise – but somebody else has to know, I think it will help her!" He gripped the armrest in-between us, he was trying to get me to agree with him and was convincing himself that he needed to unravel whatever he did at the same time. All I did was stare back and looked into each one of his eyes, trying to see into his past before he told me. I braced myself,
"No one will know. C'mon, let it all spill, you don't have to hold anything back. Where are you and Kairi from, just tell me everything," This was beginning to sound very extreme, what had happened to these kids? What had they caused wherever they were from? When he told me this story, he tried to avoid looking at me in the eye; I knew exactly what he was thinking, 'Does he really want to hear? Do I really want to tell? Should I tell him everything or only parts? Where should I begin?' Sora looked as though he was being suffocated by worry and stress. He brought a knee to his chest and then let it slide to the side where it rested on the oval shaped window. He shook his head, combed a hand through his hair and began calmly,
"I don't know who my real parents are. The earliest memory I have is taking my first communion while I was staying with one of the church folk. Umm, Kairi and me grew up in a tiny town, and it was nothing like this. We didn't have gas stoves like back at the parlor or television in every house or nothing. Farming and livestock was how you lived life; there was one school, one bank, one church. When I was seven, I moved in with a large family that had an ill mother. The father, his name was Ansem, worked me real hard."
"If it was such a large family, why didn't the children just help?" Sora looked at me strange and then,
"Oh, yeah, heh," Sora smiled for the first time since we got on the plane, "they were all girls. Three sisters." He held up three fingers and I wanted to smile but was too focused on what was to come. I imagined him thinking back on sweet memories of playing with his sisters,
"Anyways, Tifa and Rinoa were five and three, now they would be.." I imagined him recalling the last family birthday parties they spent together, "Twelve and ten… huh…" Sora gazed off again, he rubbed his arm along his forehead and eyes, I really hoped that he wasn't going to start crying, "Tifa's twelve," He turned to me with a cheesy smile, "I missed her last birthday. Didn't even notice." I managed a shy smile for his sake that time.
"Oh and Yuffie, she was the only one that was older and could do field work at the time. Not soon after I arrived, the mother passed away and Ansem seemed to blame me for it. He would throw work and chores and work on me like you wouldn't believe! And if wasn't done right I would get punished," He didn't even want to spill that he was beaten, I learned that from Kairi.
"There was only one person that ever cared for me." Sora began to blush but once again he didn't seem to notice, "My sisters were always there for me but my best friend since I moved into that house was Kairi. She lived about half a mile down the road which is the closer than anyone else. We went to school together of course and I'm serious when I say that we were the only thing that kept growing, everything else – died. When Kairi was eleven her father divorced for the second time," He furrowed his brows and strained on the word father with confusion and disgust; obviously it was more than one fight, "The mother took Kairi's half sister and brother which left Kairi all alone in the house. She had to do a lot more work without her mother there, I felt really awful, so I would help out whenever I was done with my chores. After all, she used to do the same for me."
"Just earlier this year I took the sheep into town to get sheered, and while I was there I had a little vacation, visited Kairi's older sis and her husband, did some shopping, I even bought Kairi this really nice gift, you know…" I leaned on the armrest cheek in palm, totally digging this story. I'm really glad I told him to spill everything; it was really interesting to hear from another person who lived in such a different environment. Oh god, I know that sounded totally geeky but c'mon, with all of the places I have been, I never once lived in a total rural area like that. On a farm and such. At times in his story it sounded like a total bother and some real dirty work, but whenever he talked about his sisters or Kairi, all the dirty work seemed to melt away— His speech changed; like just having them there made it heaven, and although he didn't admit it, I can tell all he did was live everyday for them.
"When I came back," I blinked when his tone changed very dark and annoyed, almost angry, "I was afraid that Ansem would notice I spent some of the money on Kairi's gift, but this wasn't the case. He was actually happy." Then why aren't you sounding too happy, Sora, "And Kairi was there too, we spent the whole day together; I sat in the kitchen telling Yuffie and Kairi all about what I did in town while playing cards with Rinoa. It was perfect right at that time. Until…" I lifted my head up from my palm, ignored the roaring engine and stewardess that kept pestering us about a drink, Sora would fall silent whenever one came by, and listened with all my attention and heart in it, "until I asked Kairi for the millionth time that day, 'Don't you need to get home, Kai?' She was acting really strange and told me that she didn't need to be, that all was well, her father was resting and she could hang out some more. But when it was finally dark, and I asked her again she shocked me by asking if she could stay with me instead,"
A side note from me, Roxas: Alright, I'm just gonna throw it out there and say what I was thinking, and what you were probably thinking too: For a second I thought I had it figured out. I really did believe that innocent little Kairi and Sora weren't so innocent after all, that they had done the dirty that night and Sora was gonna have to pay dearly for it from Kairi's father when he asked her where she was the night before. I KNOW, that sounds awful for me to judge Sora and Kairi like that but c'mon, after listening for that long I was feeling creative with my own stories. You know? You know! But I shook my head and thought it over, that wouldn't be possible; "they just sweet littl' ol' chillin' after all" and that couldn't be… So I waited and listened.
"—with me instead, I finally asked her what was up and she tried to dodge it with an excuse but then she broke down and started crying." Sora shook his head and was gritting his teeth underneath his lips, "She finally told me," Sora hesitated, took a deep breath, "She had been, been raped."
This couldn't be, not the same Kairi I know-- But I had no time to think, my eyes grew wide then I glanced away for a moment, the corners of my mouth went limp and I just kept listening,
"I pulled up her sleeves, bruises on her arms. I felt sick that something could happen like that. I-I," He cleared his throat and just forgot whatever he was about to say, "I walked her home, she was really scarred," He continued with a hoarse voice but then cleared his throat, "The next day , her and her father came to my home, I saw their car coming from the kitchen, I knew what was going to happen, I had the feeling in my gut. I knew I wouldn't go unpunished, I should've been there for her but I was in town, I took that extra day to shop for that gift I was going to give to her." How could he feel so guilty for something that wasn't even his fault? No wonder he seemed so protective of her. I mean, I never felt guilty for anything, even the stuff I admitted to doing. It wasn't right, he was too pure.
"Kairi's father told Ansem that I touched his daughter. That I had raped her. Ansem of course believed him and I got the worst thrashing ever. But the most embarrassing thing was that Kairi and my sister Yuffie witnessed it. I got kicked out of the house afterwards and stayed at a stray barn where Yuffie would come secretly and bring me food and wrap my bandages. She even told Kairi where I was so I could still talk to her in secret too. And I got better over time and then Kairi came again, really upset for the second time, and told me that the same man tried to touch her again." Finally he glanced at me, but his face looked upset and angry, " I told her to tell me, I ordered her to tell me. She was really afraid to but eventually said that the man who did it was her own father."
I squirmed in my seat and tried to put myself in their place, whichever one; Sora or Kairi. I couldn't imagine what hell that must have been, what those two had been through. Sora finished up the last of the story, told me that he went to Kairi's house to settle things. Her father was drunk and Sora had ended up killing him with a candle muffler. He was really guilty when he told that part of the story, especially. He told me that he stole Kairi's father away from her, I tried to argue that it was to protect her right then and there and that if he did nothing he and Kairi would be dead from that drunk maniac but he still confessed that he wanted to know how Kairi felt,
"I want to tell her I'm sorry for doing that, for taking that from her but then again shouldn't she be happy to be rid of a man that posed as her biological father and then raped her? Would I be insulting her if I said I was sorry."
"Sora," I tried to protest.
"But, Roxas.. What should I feel more for? Her being raped? Or me murdering her father?"
Didn't he notice it was a shared murder? And not murder but self-defense…
"Why didn't you go to the police in the first place?" I didn't want to insult Sora, but the words had already flew out of my mouth,
"They wouldn't have believed us." Sora had already thought about this, "I am the perfect person to blame because everyone believed that something like that could never happen in their town." Sora gulped, "I used to think that too." I couldn't say anything. For once, I wasn't thinking of how to console him but instead trying to relive whatever memories replayed in Sora's mind.
"I think Kairi wants to tell someone too, but I'm not sure. I don't want to go up to her and start talking about it. But I want her to know I'm here to listen… Thanks for listening – I feel a lot better."
XXX
Two full and long hours passed before they spoke again, Roxas was sorry he had brought back so many painful memories but was a little content with knowing Sora trusted him. It must have been because Sora never had another guy to talk things over. 'That's why he's so sensitive… damn, it's kind of lucky.' Roxas thought. He looked over towards Sora, who's dead eyes were fixed on something that laid beyond the window. I opened my mouth to speak—
"Hey how's it going in the lesser class," Kairi surprised the boys. She shook the armrest, "Deprived of the built in t.v. and those," Her face twisted up trying to remember, "Those minerature computer things… what were they called? Oh yeah, Laptops!"
"You have laptops!" Roxas exclaimed.
"Oh yeah! There really cool! They come of our armrest here…" She ran her fingers across it, Roxas looked over to Sora who glanced down and then to Kairi with a warm smile. His eyes quickly shifted to Roxas, pleading, and then back to Kairi, the young blonde understood. He would not tell. A stewardess pushed a cart up the isle, seeing how there was no way to get around the crowded and narrow isle she scooted into the little space we had in front of our knees. She turned around and apologized to the people sitting in front of us for knocking the back of their seats.
"You know it's not fair," Kairi knelt in the isle and rested her arms on the chair arm, "I have to sit up there all by myself while you guys get to hang back here." She teased and giggled.
"Hey, I'll switch seats any day." Roxas joked.
"Do they have better food up there?" Sora asking, the food served to him made him wanna puke.
"Let's see, we had steak, baked potato, some veggies.."
"Steak?" Sora barked back, Roxas laughed and nudged him in the arm, "Next time will fly first class and Kairi can hang back here and snack on that crappy beef pasta we had. Ha!" Sora smirked and Kairi made a pouting face as she rested her chin on the armrest.
"How much longer 'til we land?"
"A little over an hour and a half." Roxas stated.
"Thank God, I really want to get out of here," Sora did a long yawn as he stretched his arms high over his head.
"Did you sleep at all since we've been on?" Roxas asked with a smirk, Sora glanced at him and then at Kairi when she began to talk,
"A nap sounds good right now. See you in two hours?" She wondered back to her seat. Roxas glanced over to Sora whose eyes were still fixed on her, disappearing behind the curtain. He was resting his cheek on his fist, Roxas pushed his arm off the armrest.
"What?" Sora said annoyed,
"You like her." Roxas teased. Sora looked confused,
"What do you mean? She's my best friend,"
"Well Sora, I think you have a crush on your best friend."
"Nuh-uh…" Sora's eyes shifted back and forth on the ground frantically. 'Was that it? I "like" Kairi? How did that happen? I can't do that'
"Yeah you do! Look, it's written all over your face! Your even blushing!" Roxas pointed and started taunting him. He liked putting on a happy conversation after that whole gloomy story. Sora smacked his cheeks,
"No I'm not!"
"You're answering pretty quick there, buddy."
"This can't be…" He relaxed and collapsed back in his chair. So much had been revealed sitting in this little plane. 'I like Kairi, I like Kairi… Why now…?'
"I can't like her.." Sora repeated his thoughts aloud.
"You mean you're just figuring out you like her now?"
Sora shook his head. And Roxas rolled his eyes,
"C'mon, both of you are always glancing at each other from across the room, Kairi always finds her way right next to you. Sora, all today you were blushing whenever she bumped into you or even touched you."
"No I didn't."
"Yeah you did!"
"Did I? Have I been doing that?"
Had Sora really just discover how much he liked her? Roxas's voice went soft,
"Yeah." Sora looked anxious again,
"Oh my god…" Roxas was going to let him dwell in his own feelings for a bit. He put on his headphones, started pressing stations on his armrest as the sky started to turn pink outside and the sun peeked over the horizon.
"I just don't want to catch both of you guys sneaking into the airline lavatories."
"What'd you say?"
"Nothing."
Chapter 6: Morals of Convenience… End.
XXX
Yay, no secrets anymore. Except for where they are going.. You're gonna meet Yuna and a couple other characters in the next chapter
Hehe, how will Sora act around Kairi now that he discovered how much he likes her? Please review and stay tuned!