-.Good Morning Sunshine.-
Chapter Three.
.curl up and die.
-x-x-x-
The last happy verses of the song played around in the boys' ears, mingled with Naminé's excited cries. She always did love to see her brother, and her young mind couldn't comprehend why he shot her such a look of distaste. Her large blue eyes in shades that matched his perfectly to prove to the world that they were related looked slightly confused. She wasn't sure why he was so wet, either, and she drew away from her embrace hastily, making noises of disgust as she wiped her wet hands on her dress.
Roxas took his chance, as he tried to make his way past her, but she didn't want to give in so easily. Not until she had melted his mind with the goings-on in the 'The Little Mermaid' at last. So she chased after him, no small feat as she was so small for her age, attempting to keep up with his footsteps.
"Roxas, Roxas, the movie was sooo cool, even mummy liked it!" she gushed delightedly like she was some sort of 'lady-high-and-mighty' film critic. Not a very good one – the boy was sure that 'mummy' hadn't been watching it out of love for the animated Disney characters, but for Naminé's sake. And she had probably been on her mobile phone the whole time. Sometimes it seemed that no force on earth, not even death or unexpected loss of limb, could keep Rikku off the phone chatting animatedly to Yuna and Paine. "'An there were a load of cool songs and Ursula was there and I didn't like her and she stole Ariel's voice and that was sad because then the prince didn't think she was the girl who saved him and then they had to kiss each other but the … things … stopped them and Ursula turned into this pretty girl – but she still wasn't that pretty – and tried to m…mash him and she lied but then he m… ma… mashed Ariel and that was good and they kissed and it was funny at the end," concluded the girl.
Dear God.
How the hell Naminé had said all of that with any stops or breathing was a mystery to Roxas. And he pretty sure the word she was searching for in her very limited vocabulary was 'married', not 'mashed'. However, if Ariel got mashed that wouldn't be too much of a tragedy. It would mean he wouldn't have to suffer his poor ears bleeding from the pure drivel the young girl told him about it. He had been explained the plot several times before in the past and he didn't want history to repeat itself.
"Yeah, that's nice, Nam," he said in a non-committal voice, realising after while she was waiting for a reply and wouldn't stop following him like an annoying shadow until she had one. "Say, why don't you go down and … uh … Go and watch it again. I need to make a phone call."
"To Selphee? Is she gunna come and baby-sit me some more so I can tell her about the movie? It's really, really good, Roxas!" she exclaimed happily. To some she would have looked cute, clutching an Ariel stuffed toy from her mountainous collection of Disney crap, blue eyes wide. But to Roxas she was just a headache.
"No," replied Roxas through gritted teeth, hoping she'd understand the evil tone in his voice and curl up and die somewhere. "It's … a friend, OK? Now go and watch your movie, I won't be doing anything interesting, I'll just be on the phone."
"Is it your girlfriend?" inquired Naminé, hugging the Ariel stuffed toy affectionately, bending her turquoise tail back at an impossible angle. If the mermaid had been real she would have been screaming in agony right now.
Roxas sometimes wished he could shoot lasers from his eyes and disintergrate any annoying life-form that dared cross his path. He should make a list of all the people he wanted to murder just in-case he did become involved in some accident involving radiating green gloop and chemical X like the Powerpuff Girls. One of Naminé's favourite shows. It contained music that could rival the ice-cream theme tune in gayness and annoyingness.
"No."
"Oh, okay, then! Hey," she paused in her descent down the stairs, pretending to be examining an interesting picture in which Roxas knocked down a Lego castle she had constructed. Ah, brother and sisterly love. "Can we bake cookies later on? Pwease! PWEASE!" she fluttered her eyelashes imploringly.
"No."
He was going to change his wet clothes and then he was going to make a phone call and Naminé was going to fall down a flight of stairs. Hopefully.
o.x.o
The girl hummed to herself, not exactly sure what she was humming, but she knew it had to be something related to death or murder. That was all she listened to, anyway. One day she would be a professional singer she told herself, the ringing of the phone a lovely back-drop noise, as she strode towards the annoying plastic contraption that dared interfere with her pretty music.
"Hello?" she asked, picking it up after the third ring – she counted.
"Um… Hello… Who's this?" asked a rather confused voice on the other end of the line, causing the girl to tut and roll her eyes. Really, some idiot phoned her up and then didn't even know who he was calling. Sometimes it seemed she was the only smart person who was created in the universe. On times she thought about this is made her rather depressed, though. She didn't really trust anybody else to run the land.
"This is Sally," she answered in bright tones.
"Oh, right… Does Axel live here?" asked the voice, causing her to sigh. Every time the phone rang it was usually that annoying Demyx boy or that … Kairi girl wanting to see her brother. It would be a miracle if anybody ever wanted to speak to her for a change.
"No, he just went out. I'm his sister," she answered, humming that tune again. She had definitely heard it before. Perhaps on some T.V. show or something.
"Oh, well, alright," replied the boy on the other line. "I guess I better be going now…"
"Yes, you better," responded the girl in happy tones that were rather forced, as she slammed the phone down, cutting him off and preventing him from poisoning her mind any further. She was a nice person, really, but using telephones made her edgy. It could be any weirdo talking to her – she didn't like not being able to see a face to the speaker.
And then it hit her, making her shudder. She had been humming the 'Powerpuff Girls' theme tune. Really, life wasn't worth living anymore, she thought glumly. She really needed somebody to talk to other than Axel or odd people phoning up for Axel.
x.o.x.
Rikku couldn't cook. Naminé couldn't cook. Roxas sure as hell couldn't cook. So why were the two women of the family insisting on making cookies? Disaster could only shortly follow, and Naminé would only end up being wheeled in to casualty with a spatula jammed into one eye or with numerous pieces of her set on fire. Rikku would be sobbing hysterically and wondering why she ever tried to seriously make something edible in the first place, all the while telling Yuna and Paine about it. Because the death of a family member wasn't enough to pry her away from her mobile. She even tried to tell Paine about something funny that had happened to her in the market at a child's christening. Roxas forgot who it was for but he remembered the vicar was very angry indeed at the airy laughter interrupting his 'inspiring' speech. Roxas had wanted to bury his head in the sand – if there was any sand – like an emu. Or was it an ostrich?
"Um… What are you doing?" asked Roxas pointedly, looking at the sad sight before him. It featured Naminé and Rikku covered in a suit of some sort of mixture that was meant to magically produce cookies. It was rather strange how it smelt of rat poison – or something equally as bad for the digestive system. The Grim Reaper would be going on holiday to Jamaica with singing mice before Rikku managed to cook something edible.
"Making cookies, Roxas!" cried Naminé happily. "And mummy's asking Aunty Yuna for the recipe on the phone now! No fair, I wanna tell her some more about Ariel!"
Yes. Roxas was sure his mother really wanted to hear her gremlin child blabber on about the animated show – maybe that was why she had started baking cookies with her in the first place. To make her shut up about Flounder and Sebastian – or, as Naminé had lovingly dubbed them, Fun-der and Sub-ass-tea-on. Bless her soul.
"Do you want to help?" asked Rikku, tearing herself away from her beloved piece of technology for five seconds to ask him for a prominent question. Then she was back to Yuna, chattering on about how stupid men were. As if she was really asking for a cookie recipe – she didn't care enough about baking.
A look of pure, un-diluted horror passed across Roxas' eyes, as he backed away slowly. "No thanks, I … gotta … er … Go outside … And … Er … Do something, OK?"
What a pathetic excuse. Well, at least it worked.
o.x.o
Roxas, having succeeded in managing to escape from the house, now had completely no idea as to what to do. And he didn't bring his mobile because Naminé had tried to 'feed' it to the goldfish, Donald and Goofy, a few weeks ago. And for the record, metal and water did not mix. Rikku didn't really care as long as it wasn't her phone swimming in the briny deep confines of the tank. She didn't even care how badly it had disturbed the fish – they were now dead from the multiple electric shocks that had been coursing around their small fishy bodies. They needed some new fish.
So Roxas, in a state of not knowing what to do, decided to go and see if Selphie was in. She would like his sudden company when they had just parted ways about half an hour ago. All his other friends were rich enough to be able to go on holiday during the summer.
After a long walk around the numerous lanes and paths that circled the islands, he finally made his way towards Selphie's brightly painted house in various shades of pale peach and pastel. Nearly houses in Destiny Islands were painted to these colour schemes, however, garnished with various seagull droppings.
He knocked on the door, hoping she was in. He needed somebody to talk to or else he would have to face the shame of walking around by himself looking pathetic and alone. Well, that would beat watching Rikku and Naminé happily and merrily blow up the house.
After a few seconds of mooching around on the doorstep, his wish was granted and the door was answered by … somebody he hoped never to meet again, without the aid of a pointy butcher knife or that chemical X induced laser vision.
"Oh… Hello… Riku…"
Yes, the figure answering the door was none other than the wonderfully cocky, self-centred bastard. He couldn't quite understand why he was Selphie's friend out of all the teenagers on Destiny Islands. He constantly boasted about himself and his 'heroic' achievements, like the time he put his hand in the toaster while it was turned on or scored five goals in a game of Blitzball with Wakka. Well, putting your hand in the toaster, as far as Roxas was concerned, was just plain stupid, and scoring five goals against Wakka was something that Naminé could probably do whilst hopping around with a blindfold on. And he thought his silver-blue hair was cool, but in truth Roxas thought it made him look like a girl or an old man gone a bit wrong with too many muscles. To add to the list, his attire was … unusual. The pants clipped onto pants and large clown shoes just helped complete his 'unique' look.
"Why are you here?" he asked Roxas in a grumpy voice, seeming ready to slam Selphie's – not his, by any accounts – door in his face. It was trick Roxas used constantly with Naminé, and he placed a foot in the doorway, preventing it from closing. Even if it meant it hurt a lot and he had to be graced with the clown's face for longer than he thought was necessary for a person who wasn't blind.
"I wanted to speak with Selphie," he said in cold tones. He and Riku had gone way back – he was always the popular one at Kindergarten who stole other kids' juice and ripped the heads of dolls to look cool. He was always the one at school who laughed at Roxas' hair – when his own was far more ridiculous – and pushed him over. And for reason in the present age he was his Chemistry partner. Damn. Roxas really wanted to murder 'Professor' Vexen when that decision had been made. "Selphie is in, isn't she?" Either that or Riku had jumped through the window uninvited and eaten her. Roxas didn't put it past him. It would probably make him more 'cool' in the eyes of his friends.
"Yeah, she's in. She invited me and Sora round to try out a new game she got. She also told me about that incident in the park today where you fell into the fountain," snickered the weird boy before Roxas, Sora's voice calling after Riku to hurry up and answer the damned door, to confirm his story.
Roxas blushed slightly – Selphie was a traitor. She knew how much he disliked Riku and his stupid hair and stupid pants and stupid 'putting-hand-into-toaster' habits and his stupid attempts to blow up Roxas in Chemistry. Hopefully he'd get a new partner when he went back to school after the holiday.
"Yeah," continued Clown-man. They could make a T.V. series out of almighty Clown-man and his vast adventures through toasters and Blitzball. It would be something Naminé would like if it had the right music and Ariel doing a cameo appearance. "And she also told me about the guy you have a crush on… Axel?"
'FUCK. She did not tell you that, she did not, lalalala, I can rise above it,' thought Roxas darkly. 'I will not stoop to Clown-man's level and punch him in the face. Wait, that sounds tempting…'
"RIKU! How long does it take to open a fucking door!" cried Selphie's voice, as Roxas heard footsteps and a loud bang, as the door was flung open to reveal the hyper, happy girl. "Oh, right, it's you. Riku was probably intimidating you with his large biceps or shoes or something," she said with an eye-roll. "Hehe, I don't get boys. Anyway, get lost Riku, go upstairs and taunt Sora. ROXAS!" she said delightedly, grinning as Clown-man skulked away with a murderous look on his face. "Do you wanna come in? It's been … Oh, ten seconds since I last saw you at the park? Hehe, can't keep away from me! And, hey, hey, you know Kairi? Well, Sora knows her too. Apparently they've been childhood friends for a long time, funny he never mentioned her before. Well, he probably did, but I forgot about it. Do you like games? Ha, I mean playstation games? I would have invited you around but you never answered your mobile."
"That was because Naminé dropped it in the fish-tank," said Roxas, attempting to get a word in edge-ways through Selphie's seemingly never-ending chatter. Obviously she had taken it for granted that Roxas did want to go in, ignoring his protests and shoving him through the door-way. Roxas didn't like Riku, Riku didn't like Roxas, and that was the way it would always be. He didn't care that Selphie kept telling him he wasn't that bad really and was rather nice – albeit a little self-conceited – when you got to know him. Probably because he never tried to erode her skin with some weird-coloured acid-based liquid in Chemistry when Vexen's back was turned.
"Oh, yeah, yeah," responded Selphie, pushing him up the stairs in a mad, hyper rush, leaving him no escape route, unless he wanted to charge up and jump out of the window into the girl's mother's prized rose patch. Life was very, very cruel, he decided sadly. So, as an alternative to getting blown up in cookie dough at home he was going to get blown up by Riku's massive shoes and fists at Selphie's house instead. He could never win. "So, how are the fish? Donald and Goofy, hehe!"
"… A piece of electronic equipment dropped into their water tank. How would you be?" asked Roxas in a dull voice, as Selphie opened her bedroom door and shoved him inside her dominantly yellow room.
"Dead?" asked Selphie with an innocent blink of her eyes, as she slammed the door behind her, the noise signifying to Roxas that he was under Riku's radar and he was as good as dead. Like the fish. Poor Donald and Goofy, may they rest in peace as their corpses flow down the sewer. Roxas would have liked to go down the toilet too, at the look of pure malevolence Riku was giving him. It seemed today would be the fateful day Riku finally carried out his murder plans. He had a lot of issues. "Hey, hey, everybody! This is Roxas!"
"I know," said Sora, grinning like an idiot as he un-paused the weird sort of army game they had been playing before Roxas interrupted them. It seemed to contain a lot of aimlessly shooting people – Jesus only knew what possessed Selphie to buy it. Maybe being Riku's friend had destroyed her fragile brain. "Kairi told me about a weird gay guy she met a while ago and I figured it would be you," he said in an absent-minded voice, not seeming to realise what he had said. However, seeing Roxas' evil face, the boy quickly tried to rectify what he had said. "Oh, not because you look … weird … and … gay … But because she described you – yeah. She said you looked like me," he said hastily, gun-shots and shouting and falling corpses accompanying his kind words from the game. Riku had gone into a murderous killing rampage around Chicago. "You know how everybody at school's confusing me and you. Ha."
Selphie pouted, as she picked up her control pad and promptly shot Sora whilst he was consoling Roxas that he did not look weird or gay, who moaned unhappily and crossed his arms with a pout on his face. Selphie merely smirked, as Roxas stood uneasily in the door-way, seeming to have been forgotten about as everybody became engrossed in the game. He sighed, and sat uneasily on the ground next to Selphie, who was happily shooting the hell out of anybody who dared cross her. Bang – a mother and a baby had bullets impaled in their head, making Roxas shudder at the copious amounts of fake blood that spewed from the holes around their carcasses.
"So, Riku," said Sora in a good-natured voice, yawning at a loss of what to do since he was dead – in the game, obviously. "Have you done any of your Maths homework?"
"No," said Riku brightly, talking about mundane things like schoolwork whilst shooting random people. Bang, bang, bang, more dead bodies crumpled to the floor, fading away into relevant plot-holes. Roxas really despised this game – and for some reason it seemed to be playing a remixed version of Little Mermaid's 'Part of Your World' whilst innocent people died needlessly.
"Oh… I'm worried about these questions, see, because I think I fell asleep when Quistis was explaining them… I had a nice dream, though. It was something about a weird boy kind of like me with a large key killing these dark monster things. I won, obviously. They should make a game like that," he said brightly, eyes fixed on the bloodbath before him without even squirming. "Maybe it should be called something like 'Kingdom of Hearts'. And it could have Ariel singing," he said happily, obviously picking up on the strange music playing in the fighting game that made Roxas cringe.
"No. If they made that into a game it should be called 'Kingdom Hearts'" said Riku dully. "And you could be the hero and I'd be the weird guy that gets eaten up by darkness and turns into Ansem the Physics teacher. He'd be a good evil guy. And Roxas … you'd be the guy in love with Axel who dies later on because you're Sora's twin or nobody or something."
Roxas realised at that moment Riku really didn't like him to resort to trying to kill him in some stupid game that didn't even exist. Oh well – at least Riku got to turn into the scary Physics teacher.
"It sounds like a load of crap," said Roxas dully.
"Only because you're not a real character, you're just part of Sora. And Naminé would be your girlfriend," sniggered Riku, as he killed a few more people, making his way closer to Selphie. "But you'd really love Axel."
"I do not love my sister in any way, shape or form," growled Roxas angrily, sniggering as Selphie jumped out of a bush and shot Riku in the head to the merry remixed version of 'Under the Sea' or something that sounded equally as annoying.
Selphie grinned, as she picked up another controller that had wedged itself between folders of homework somehow, handing it to Roxas. "OK, you can play and you can kill some people now. Just pretend they're all Riku and you'll do fine."
And with those helpful pieces of advice, Roxas actually managed to find the game rather amusing indeed.
-x-x-x-
A/N: Heh, sorry if I didn't get round to replying to your reviews last time, I was at a friends' house. And she gave some funny ideas for this story . Like Riku and Sora's talk of a game being produced called 'Kingdom Hearts'. Of course, nobody will make a game like that, will they? Yeah, Sally will become very significant in the plot. And it was obvious what was on the paper because it's obvious who phoned up a very annoyed Sally. No, I do not hate the Powerpuff girls, Ariel or Riku. But it's so much fun to be mean to the stupid kid XD. Who has large feet and strange hair. Yes, RIKKU (FFX-2) is Roxas' mother. Hmn. So who's the father? Seriously, I don't know yet XD. HOW ABOUT CID? So, anyway, please review, I'll try to respond to them all! I have not read it throught for speellink mistooks.
