-.Good Morning Sunshine.-

Chapter Two.

.i envy your people skills.

-x-x-x-

The weird girl's question had played around in the boy's mind for a while after she asked it, and Roxas couldn't place his finger on the reason why. Most rumours that went around about him (everybody on the island was interested into prying into everybody else's business) were easily quashed by a cold remark and a raised eyebrow. And just as easily as that, he cast off the stupid assumptions and didn't let them plague his mind any further, dispelling them casually with a metaphorical flick of the wrist.

So why couldn't he get the girl's remark out of his head?

It was obviously ridiculous, a made-up fabrication she invented to humiliate Roxas and let her friends get a few cheap laughs. So why did he care so much about it? That was simple, he decided stubbornly, he didn't care, it was his mind starving for sleep that had twisted everything around so the merest thing became hard to forget. Yeah, that was it – it was just like the ice-cream tune, damned infuriating that haunted you for hours after because there was nothing left to think about.

'I'm not gay,' he mentally reassured himself, burying his head into his pillow, dishevelling his blonde hair until it looked like he'd been dragged through a hedge. 'God, this is frustrating. I spend the whole day wanting to go sleep and when I finally can this girl's question warps my brain and makes that impossible. I swear that if I ever see her again I will hurt her. A lot.'

.x.o.x.

"Hewo, Roxas," greeted the hyper voice of the annoying blonde thing more formerly known as Naminé. "C'mon, wake up you lazy bum!" said blonde thing giggled gleefully as if tormenting her brother was the best sport in the world. Forget bear-baiting, Roxas-baiting was the new big craze. She frowned when he lazily waved her away with one hand, eyes still resolutely closed, trying to block her out. Maybe if he ignored her she'd go away eventually, like a nasty smell.

"ROXAS!" she screamed in her young child's dialect, obviously insulted and infuriated at being ignored. The teen groaned and stirred slightly, the great elaborate plan of his in ruins – she was too persistent. His sister, delighted in registering faint movement from her lazy brother, proceeded to poke him in the eye with one finger, seeming quite confused when her ear-drums were treated to furious roar. The sort of roar like a lion or a thunderbolt that would send you hiding under the bed if you were Naminé's age, but she was a strong girl and used to hearing Roxas yelling at her for reasons she couldn't quite fathom. She only tried to wake him up, in the one way she knew was guaranteed to get a reaction. She watched in amusement as he brought his hand up to his now rapidly swelling and reddening eye, cursing under his breath as not to warp her young mind with such dirty words.

"Naminé. Out. Now. Please," he hissed at her, the idea of ripping the head of a Mickey Mouse toy never seeming more tempting. If he couldn't get to that, however, the girl would be as good enough a substitute in his decapitation plans. It wasn't fair murdering your sister was considered illegal in several different countries.

"Okayyy," she grinned, happy at having completed her mission of arousing him from his slumber, skipping off merrily to go and torment some more defenceless people, probably. All the while she was singing in a loud voice, a song she had probably invented on the spot about somebody called Bob and frozen yoghurt, from what an extremely pissed off, in pain and sleepy Roxas could decipher.

He would have to put ice on his eye to stop the swelling, most likely, he thought grumpily, rolling over to check the clock, his one functioning eye momentarily blinded by the flashes of colour emitting from it. When he finally got his vision back, he found out it was 9.17 a.m.

Glad that at least he didn't have to go to work, as it was Saturday, he got up, threw some clothes on – not really caring what they were with one eye throbbing painfully in reminder of Naminé's wake-up call and mind hazy from lack of sleep – and made his clumsy way downstairs. Forcefully he grabbed an ice-pack from the freezer in the kitchen and a piece of toast from the table. He pressed the ice-pack it to his eye, hearing Naminé being her usual (loud) self in the living room with the T.V on full blast and his mother doing the ironing, moaning at now his poor ears were suffering. He was going to end up deaf and blind when he finally escaped the madhouse that was his home.

When his stupid eye went back to normal and his hunger was sedated, he was going to go outside and complain loudly about his life to anybody who would listen.

It sounded like a good plan.

.o.x.o.

"Naminé poked you in the eye?" giggled the girl, lacing her fingers idly in her belt loops, seated on one of the numerous benches that littered the park area. "Jesus, Roxas, you've got to learn to stand up for yourself. You're letting your little baby sister murder you," she said, shaking her head like some sort of psychiatrist. Well, Roxas didn't know much about the people working in that field, but he had a strong feeling they didn't burst into useless fits of laughter every five seconds and were fifteen years old – and very short for their fifteen years of age, at that.

"I was trying to go back to sleep and my eyes were closed – how the hell did I know she was going to poke me?" asked the boy in tones that came out more whiney than he would have liked, knowing he probably sounded like a toddler who was upset because somebody stole their favourite toy fire engine. But hell, he eye still gave occasional involuntary twitches every now and again. However, maybe that was down to the fact that he still would rather have liked to be in bed – but the stinging of his eye and the noise Naminé had been creating made him feel it would have been impossible and almost laughable to attempt to carry out those actions. She'd only have ended up blinding his other eye, anyway, and he didn't want to sacrifice his it when it already hurt enough thank you very much.

The brunette next to him with the impossibly-gelled hair that flipped up in a way that defied gravity at the ends – it was unnatural, damn it – grinned, her attention veering away from that particular subject of Roxas being a wimp. He was glad of that.

"Do you think it's safe for them to be in there?" she asked in voice that indicated she didn't really care that much about the matter but was talking for the sake of hearing her own (disgustingly bright for so early in the morning) voice.

"What?" asked the boy seated next to her blankly.

"The kids in the fountain," she explained slowly like she was talking to somebody who was mentally retarted and kept insisting one plus one equalled sixteen, motioning with her head towards said fountain.

It was true – the water feature housed a small group of children running around in an animated game that appeared to be 'tig', like it was some sort of pool, the dirty green water from people throwing in their rubbish and beer bottles swirling in a sickening way around their legs. Really, why couldn't the children use the actual paddling pool designed for them, Roxas wondered idly, his mind playing ahead to further scenarios where a child would scream and end up being rushed to hospital with a piece of glass wedged five inches into their foot.

"Probably not, but it's their fault if they end up in hospital," replied Roxas with a shrug of the shoulders, causing to girl to frown at him slightly. Well, Selphie was – immature as she may be – the one selected by most parents to do the babysitting when they were out at business meetings. She often felt it somehow her fault if a child got hurt even when she wasn't on babysitting duties, she probably knew half the kids risking their limbs in the fountain anyway. That was how he and the bubbly girl had met in the first place – his parents had gone out to dinner and they didn't trust Roxas with Naminé because they thought he'd cleave her head off her shoulders or stab her with a pencil or something. Actually, that was probably what Roxas would have done left to his own devices, but Selphie had handled everything very well.

"I guess…" she responded to her friend's 'screw-the-kids-if-they-die' comment, still looking doubtful. She wasn't a person he would had thought he would have got on with, but he found out that she could shut up for five seconds to let you moan about life and always managed to find a solution to make it better, may it be with a load of ice-cream or a lot of trade-mark Selphie chatter and a smile. She was good at comforting people, like a mother figure.

Speaking of being good at comforting people when they had a problem … Roxas frowned, as he thought of the words the girl had spoken to him yesterday that still bit at his mind unwittingly even now whilst thinking of the grim fates of the children in the fountain. Maybe he could talk to Selphie about it and she would laugh and cement the fact it was obviously a complete lie and had no basis in the truth. He was definitely was not attracted to that stranger called Axel – no way.

"Hey, Selphie, I ran into this weird girl yesterday at the ice-cream store…" he began, but no sooner had he started saying this than she collapsed into giggles, forgetting the children in peril. Roxas glared at her angrily. He had already been accused of being gay, been poked in the eye and woken up at an un-godly time, and Selphie was already laughing before he'd even said anything. "What's so funny?" he snapped.

"Who was the girl, huuhhh, Roxy? Was she cute?" she asked, nudging him with her pointy elbow.

Roxas glared at her with one of his looks he usually reserved for Naminé, but she had long since grown immune to them, having lived with him all his life. Selphie, however, had only known him for a few months at most, and he was pleased to find it achieved the right result – it shut her up.

"Anyway, as I was saying, I met this weird girl, and she couldn't pay for her ice-creams, so she dragged her two friends in," he said, retelling his story, as Selphie picked at some loose thread on her jeans. "And she saw me looking – just looking, okay? – at one of her friends, and then she asked me if I was gay. In front of everybody in the store." Not that there had been anybody else there at the time apart from the girl, Axel and Demyx. But he liked to make it seem dramatic.

Selphie looked up. She giggled again.

"Well, it's obvious she was right, because you've hung out with me for three months and you have yet to realise how truly gorgeous I am. Infact, I'm surprised you haven't jumped on me yet," she finished up, her blunt statement being awarded with a shocked look on her friend's face, followed up quickly by a murderous scowl, as she laughed.

"You're not helping!"

"Seriously, Roxy, she made a cheap comment to get a few laughs, so what? You know you're not gay and that's all there is to it," she said in a sing-song voice, a smile playing about her lips. "Hehe."

"Nnnm," replied Roxas, if anybody could call the odd sound he made a reply at all, prompting a devious look from the brunette.

"Hah. I envy your people skills," she grinned, her words becoming drowned out in the sounds of maniacal barking from some sort of demon-dog. Well, it had to be a demon, for all the noise it was making, as it silenced the young children in the pool as they all simultaneously turned their heads to watch the freak show that the barks obviously must lead on to.

"What the hell is that?" exclaimed Selphie, moving to look at was happening, as if on auto-pilot, Roxas' gaze following hers. It certainly was a way to un-dull a morning.

.x.o.x.

Demyx really, really liked Kairi (as a friend) but becoming her buddy he had to accept the consequences. For one of the downsides of being one of the chipper girl's acquaintances was that he really, really hated her dog. Actually, everybody hated Kairi's dog apart from the owner of the pet, who must have been on crack when she bought the damned thing. For it was constantly barking, and it must somehow have sensed with its evil mind-reading abilities that Demyx didn't like it, since whenever he walked it for his friend it always tried to knock him to the ground somehow and drag him behind it, and destroy any dignity he had.

At least Axel and Kairi found it amusing.

"Kairi, the damned dog is trying to jerk my arms out of my sockets!" complained the teen in bitter tones, as it struggled against it's lead, making Demyx wonder if it had been a bear in it's past life. It had the same violent tendencies of trying to bite him. "Can't you walk him? Just once?"

"Demyx, shuddup, I thought you were strong, for God's sakes," countered Kairi, grinning down in a sickening way at 'it' as she bonded with her pet. The dog didn't deserve to be a dog in his mind, it should forever be known as 'the thing'. As in 'the fucking annoying thing he'd like to attach a firework to.' Although that was more Axel's field than his. "And Pluto is just adorable – he would never dare hurt anybody!"

Yes. There it was again, sighed Demyx, as Axel cackled in a rather evil way behind him. The proof that Kairi was on crack or insane and needed to be locked away in a mental home in case she proved to be a danger to herself or others. Her dog already was and it wouldn't be soon before she fell into the pits of insanity after it. Poor girl. She didn't deserve such a cruel fate. To compensate for this when the time came around Demyx would take delight in seeking her vengeance by stuffing its head and mounting it on his wall. Not that his parents would allow it.

"This dog, Kairi, will kill you! Kill you in cold blood when you have your back turned!" Demyx insisted.

"Kairi will kill you in cold blood if you dare speak a word against her beloved dog," said Axel, accompanying his words with an eye-roll.

"You know me so well," grinned Kairi, her malicious sense of humour warping her pretty features. That was why Axel hung out with Kairi – because she could be pure evil if she wanted to. Mostly she decided to be a cruel sadistic bitch to Demyx – the whole reason why she made him walk Pluto in the first place. She knew they had a long rivalry between them and wouldn't waste any chance to humiliate him.

They walked (or in Demyx's case, was dragged) into the area of the park where the fountain was housed, the soothing splashes of water cascading from the pretty feature doing no good in hiding the murderous roars the dog was making, causing everybody occupying the area to turn their heads, because everybody was nosy and didn't mind their own business like they should.

And Roxas stood up from his bench, looking at the trio. He knew them, he realised, and he turned to look at Selphie to point out the weird girl who had questioned his sexual orientation yesterday, but he never got a chance.

A lot can happen in a split second, he realised, as the events seem to play in fast-forward. The evil dog the Demyx boy was attempting to restrain from eating anybody latched its eyes on the numerous little children who were staring, with a frozen look of horror of their little faces in the fountain. The lust for fresh flesh become too immense for the hellhound – well, that's what Demyx would say – as it ran forward with a new reserve of strength and energy the boy never knew it had, darting forth, dragging him along with it.

Did Kairi and Axel deign to help him?

Did they hell. Pluto bounded forwards, Demyx being pulled behind him, as it careened into Roxas who just got in the way, both of the boys falling back. At least they landed into the conveniently placed water-feature with a loud splash, the kids scattering in alarm as they ran off, anywhere away from the glares the dog was giving them with shifty eyes, if that were even possible, the look clearly saying 'I'll get you next time.'

.o.x.o.

"Fuck," growled Roxas in frustration, his clothes and hair wet through, a stinging sensation in his hand where he was sure the large creature had bitten him, staggering back from the monster as Demyx apologised over and over again, looking as pissed of as the other boy.

First, he got accused of being gay, then he got rudely woken up by being poked in the eye, then, to add the cherry to piling mountain of stress and humiliation, he got thrown into the fountain. Fan-fucking-tastic, he growled. And no, he had to fall into the fountain in full view of the girl who had accused him of being gay, the boy who she accused him of mentally undressing with his eyes, and … Selphie. Who was laughing manically. Well, they all were. Shit.

"Hahahahahahahaha!" cried Selphie in exaltation, making her 'friend' wonder bitterly if she was going to have a heart-attack from all her mirth his fall into the water had given her. "Oh my God, you should've seen your face as the dog pushed into the fountain, Roxas! Hehehehehe! Jesus, I wish I had a camera!"

Kairi grinned along with Selphie, instantly liking the girl for finding that weird boy's situation funny. Roxas was well aware most stares and laughter were directed at him rather than Demyx, who was busy trying to drag Pluto out of the fountain.

"Oh, so you're name's Roxas," the evil girl grinned. "I think we met in the ice-cream parlour yesterday." Bitch. You knew damn well we met in the ice-cream parlour yesterday, after you insulted me, Roxas thought darkly, hoping a hole would open up in the ground and swallow him. Or her. Or Axel. Or Selphie. He wasn't picky. Demyx was the only one who wasn't laughing, but maybe he would be if he hadn't endured the same ordeal and wasn't grappling with dog. "Anyways," she continued, oblivious to the evil-death-rays-of-ultimate-death-with-lots-of-death he was giving her, "I think we got off on the wrong foot. My name's Kairi, this here's Axel and Demyx, and that's my dog, Pluto, who knocked you into the fountain." Bitchbitchbitch. She didn't have to draw more attention to the fact that his hair and clothes were sodden. Well, if her dog was an evil sadist, Kairi was too. "And is this your girlfriend?"

"Hell no!" exclaimed Selphie, a glint of amusement in her eyes, pretending to back away. "I baby-sit him and his little sister, but I can't keep an eye on him all the time. My name's Selphie."

'Fuck! Selphie! Have you turned into an evil sadist bitch too? I don't want you turning into Kairi!' Roxas inwardly yelled, as he mouthed 'traitor' at the grinning brunette, who either didn't see or didn't care.

"Oh, well, Axel's still got hopes that you really are gay and were checking him out yesterday then," replied Kairi with a happy little giggle that was poisoned with the look of a demon on her face, a dull 'thunk' in the background accompanying her words as Demyx finally managed to get the dog out of the fountain and promptly fell over.

"D'aw! He's so cute and adorable!" cried Selphie, running forwards towards Pluto, bending down to stroke the dog, who instantly responded by flipping on it's back, letting her tickle him. Now she didn't really care about the conversation, it was obvious, as long as she had something to pet and stroke. Selphie really needed a boyfriend, thought Roxas. He scowled, that was just what Kairi was implying about him. That he, Roxas, needed a boyfriend.

Axel looked the blonde boy up and down in his complete state of shame and bedraggled-ness after his unwanted bath in the fountain, and that was the reason why his cheeks were hotting up and he was blushing, he told himself. That was the reason, not that he was attracted to him in any way and wanted to look his best in front of him. He was just humiliated and embarrassed. Because he was looking at him when he wasn't his best and wanted to look good.

'Screw you brain, stop trying to mess with my mind. I. Am. Not. Gay,' he mentally told himself angrily, and his brain protested as two halves of him argued over … over his sexual preferences. At least both parts agreed it was Kairi's fault. The idea of taking something sharp and pointy to her didn't seem to be like a bad idea right about now.

"Hi," waved Axel in what seemed to be a simple gesture, somehow making something inside Roxas flip, a gleam in his eyes. Roxas tried to blot out Kairi's sniggering, Demyx's moans his clothes were soaked and he would kill Pluto and Selphie's delighted giggles.

He wanted to focus on Axel and Axel's voice, as he choked out some sort of 'hi' that came out sounding like he gargled with glass every day. Fuck.

"C'mon, Pluto," said Kairi brightly, the dog instantly responding to sound of it's mistress calling his name, as the great form of the dog jumped up loyally to her side, as Selphie pouted a little and turned her attention to Demyx instead, starting to chat about a band she liked. Really, the dog came first in Selphie's mind, then human beings, because they weren't as cute as the 'thing' that tried to eat half of Destiny Island's under 5's population. "We better get going," she said in a sweet voice that didn't make her seem like an evil bitch but more of a sweet angel, and Roxas nearly gagged, as Axel and Demyx turned their attention to Kairi.

No, Roxas wanted to cry to the red-headed man, stay here, I want to talk with you, find out more about you, kiss y- No, no I don't, STUPID BRAIN! He mentally thwacked himself, as Selphie giggled at Kairi.

"See you 'round!" she said brightly, and Kairi responded in a similar way, turning with her dog and her two friends as they walked off.

"Kairi seemed nice, huh?" asked Selphie with a smile, grinning as she twisted a lock of her brunette hair idly around one finger, as if deep in thought, obvious not meaning to add salt to Roxas' wounds and damage his pride even more by bringing up the fountain-incident again.

"Yeah – nice," snarled Roxas angrily, sluicing water off his shirt, creating small puddles at his feet, in thought of his own. He was thinking how 'nice' somebody seemed, but it was a male person and it was intended more deeply than that. In a way that sent alarm bells ringing in his mind.

However, he become momentarily distracted from his sad, emo musings of what a strange individual he was as he saw a piece of paper flutter to the ground. He tilted his head curiously, and bent to pick it up. And when he saw what was on it, he gasped.

-x-x-x-

End notes: This is longer than what I usually write, and way longer than the beginning, so I feel proud . Stayed up very late to write this and I updated it quickly because I had an idea and wanted to put it down. Done in a rush so there will probably be grammar mistakes and the like I can't be bothered to hunt for right about now. Pluto is evil XD. I know Naminé is OOC but she's a kid version of herself so maybe she's more hyper younger . The kids playing in the fountain are inspired by the park near where I live where people throw rubbish in and beer bottles yet the kids still play there. Can you guess what's on the paper? And I love everybody who reviewed last time – its more reviews than I usually get . Please review this chapter too! I'll give you cookies! I may no update in a while.