-.Good Morning Sunshine.-
.Chapter Five.
.i hate you dad.
-x-x-x-
If the girl had been any good at art in some way, shape or form then Roxas might have said her colourful stick-people mural on the cream walls of the hallway were very good and bright and cheerful. She was, however, Naminé and had happily spent the last half hour of his departure by doodling something very scary that towered above everybody else who dared enter the house. Rikku either didn't notice or didn't care as she was talking to 'Aunty Paine' – not a real aunt like Yuna, but she insisted they call her that after she let Rikku borrow her car – about ... something. And their dad, Tidus was probably passed out like some sort of living log upstairs after his night-shifts. Roxas wasn't exactly sure what he did, but it was common knowledge no teenage boy really gave a damn about their family affairs.
"Roxas, look at the pretty picutar I drew! Mummy said I was good at … aut … art … when I drew a picutue so I decided to draw a bug piece of art on the wall!" she declared proudly, brandishing her wax crayons like some sort of monster. Roxas backed away, not wanting to be stabbed in the eye with a 'Halloween-time orange' crayon. It would be a sad death indeed.
"Naminé, I can't help looking at it, it's so beautiful…" said Roxas nervously, and that was partly the truth. For the immense 'picutar' or 'picutue' that adorned the walls was so huge and truly bad that anybody's eyes were immediately drawn to it. It was rather captivating in a scary sort of way – it look like the stick-girl was in danger of eating the stick-man who was several inches shorter than her. "How did you manage to get all the way up there?" he finally asked, realising it was impossible for her reach up there with her tiny arms.
"I piled my toys up and some pillows an' stuff," she explained simply, pointing simply at the large pile of junk next to her that her brother hadn't noticed at first. The big scary picture on the wall sort of drew in all attention and made it impossible to look away. "It wasn't easy – I fell from the pile a coupl'a times. It hurt."
"Does mum know about this?" asked Roxas slowly, backing away further and further up the stairs, praying to some almighty deity that Rikku would not choose this exact moment to walk in and scream the house down. Then she would ask, scatter-brain that she was, why Roxas didn't try to pry the crayons from her hands, and he would say he was at work. She would go 'oh' and then make him clean it all up anyway because she needed at least five seconds on her phone talking to Paine some more.
"I'll go tell her," the blonde idiot smiled brightly, running off as fast as her feet would carry her – which wasn't very fast, really – to declare to the world that she, Naminé, had vandalised her home. Very artistically, she may add. Really, the stick-figures weren't so large and 'rawr' if your eyes became accustomed to them.
Roxas bolted up the stairs to make a hasty get-away, but not before he heard a loud scream, just as he had predicted, and Rikku's voice yelling: "ROXAS! Get down here right now!"
Like a man resigned to the gallows, Roxas slunk back downstairs, idly wondering how Tidus managed to sleep through all the general family noise – or maybe he was dead and nobody realised because he never said that much anyway. The larger part of him, however, was worrying about what Rikku was going to punish him with. Maybe watching 'the Little Mermaid' several times with Naminé with a free audio commentary. This included a young girl shouting 'this is a really cool bit, no wait, it's the next one, hehehehe' and 'Roxas sing along with this song pleeeaasseee'.
"How could you let her do that to my lovely house?" cried Rikku angrily. She was probably only angry because she had been forced to say goodbye to Paine, telling her hurriedly she'd call her back in oh, about five seconds. "You just sat there and watched her do this – this abomination!"
"I was at work," said Roxas dully, figuring that at least it had a few good points. It meant he had a ready-made excuse if anything went wrong, Axel – who was just a FRIEND – worked there now, and it was funny to see Clown-man staggering around with ice-cream plastered on his face.
"What does 'abominayshun' mean, mummy?" asked Naminé with a curious look playing around her features. "Does it mean pretty? 'Cause I think it's pretty. Its Roxas an' Selphee sittin' in a tree, K-I-S… Z… B-U-G," she sang, obviously unaware she had spelt 'kiszbug' instead of 'kissing'. He felt a wave of sympathy for her future boyfriend. If she ever got one, obviously.
Rikku looked very flustered, as she ran a hand through her honey-coloured hair, the numerous coloured beads clinking together like wind chimes. "Oh… Right… It means 'lovely', Naminé. It's beautiful." And then she hissed to Roxas through the side of her mouth, "Go and get the chemicals."
Roxas idly wondered if they were going to feed Naminé battery acid, but his happy dreams were squashed flat when Rikku quickly said: "The cleaning stuff to … clean … the wall, y'know..."
In response, the boy nodded, and began the happy hunt for 'spot-the-chemicals'.
o.x.o
After a while of aimlessly walking around the house tugging at drawers and then swearing at them when they adamantly refused to open – he guessed because they contained chemicals and other objects Rikku didn't want Naminé to eat when she was bored – he eventually lost his patience.
The small cabinet in the bathroom under the stairs would probably house something to remove wax crayon from the wall, as it was common knowledge plain water and a sponge wouldn't remove it. And Naminé had layered on the coloured wax so it stood on the pale paper several inches thick.
Roxas gave it another swift kick when it just stood there, taunting him with its 'cabinet-ness' in all it's un-opening glory. And then he howled in pain and clutched his foot, realising that had to be the worst plan he'd ever come up with in his life.
The funny thing was, it actually worked, a very rusty and damaged lock clicking, the door swinging back to reveal about thirteen years' worth of dust and grime and other unmentionable things. That could easily be related back to his grandmother, Alice and the squalor she lived in. Alice was very scary in herself, with blonde hair and rheumy blue eyes and wrinkled skin, who kept complaining loudly about talking decks of cards and white rabbits and how bad Disney films were these days. Roxas thought she just watched 'Alice in Wonderland' too much as it seemed she based her whole life upon its teachings. Rikku felt she had to keep going back to check up on her to make sure she wasn't dead yet.
Gingerly, the boy poked his arm into the murky gloom of the abandoned cabinet, expecting to find a mouldy half-eaten sandwich for all his efforts and damaged foot. However, he found quite a surprise, as he touched something definitely solid – although it may still be mouldy once he drew it out into the light. Maybe this was where Rikku got her cookie mix from. It smelled the same as the unappetising muck.
He carefully drew out a square-shaped object, and, after blowing away the years' of dust, found out it was an old family photo album. Wondering idly why Rikku and Tidus had decided to lock it up in a place they probably would never look, he flipped through it, being nosy. Maybe it contained information about their family and their dark past or those nice pictures Roxas took of when he shaved off Naminé's hair. He was little and he was jealous Rikku had given her all the attention. It was funny, but he swore Rikku had set them on fire. Maybe she wanted to keep one as a souvenir.
Although, there wasn't a single picture of the blonde-haired creature – they all seemed to be of him when he was a baby, with what he presumed to be a younger Tidus holding him, playing building blocks with him, and doing a variety of father-son activities. Funny that, because he was sure if he matched up that Tidus to this one their eyes were different colours, skin slightly different tones, different hair colour and face shape. Well, that was probably what time did to you, he thought. Or maybe he hadn't seen Tidus enough in his fifteen years to get a proper opinion on what he looked like. He was always asleep.
He continued to happily flip through the book, perfectly contented with all these old pictures and memories, until he stopped, staring at one of the pictures like it was a rabid demon and ready to rear up it's head and bite him.
It was impossible, that picture, because if he wasn't very much mistaken there were … two of him? Maybe Rikku loved him so much she had him cloned like Dolly the sheep, but the sheep died a while after that experiment. Maybe the 'other' Roxas died shortly after that. However, that obviously wasn't the cause, because Rikku and Tidus had enough munny to live on, but not enough to create two blonde boys. Although one of them didn't really have blonde hair like his, it was more … brown … and spiky … and his eyes were brighter, more alive. It looked a lot like somebody else he knew other than himself. He couldn't quite think who, though.
And then he read the caption underneath the picture, and his heart almost stopped with the gasp! Shock! Horror of it all!
'Our Happy Family – Rikku Roxas Cloud…' That was odd enough, but then it was followed by more, 'and darling Sora.'
The only response Roxas could think to this piece of information was 'crap'. So what was what he said aloud, as he continued to flip through the book, going further back in time, all the captions obviously genuine, in Rikku's scrawling print.
They were all on holiday, then they were just sat together, talking a walk in the park, having a picnic, Sora was throwing a toy at Roxas, a pillow fight, both of them asleep in matching cots at the end of a busy day. Rikku holding two children in a hospital ward with a dreamy smile on her face, this 'Cloud' person next to her. If Roxas remembered rightly, because his details about Sora's personal life were very hazy, his dad was called Cloud, and he was married to somebody called … Aerith.
He closed the book, shuddering slightly; mind feeling like it had deserted him for a few seconds there or blown up. He felt sick, as he pulled out a few more pieces of paper, relics from at least thirteen years ago, of old birthday cards to Roxas and Sora, more assorted photos that must have fallen out of the album, marriage certificates to a Mr. Cloud Strife and his new wife, Rikku Strife. Her name sounded weird back then, Roxas thought, his imploded mind too fragile to really comprehend all the past he was digging through. Then there were the birth certificates, of Roxas and Sora Strife, both twins. Baby books, in Rikku and Cloud's writing of how much they loved their children, and then the divorce papers, the writing standing out as clear as day.
"ROXAS! It's alright, I've found them!" cried Rikku's bright voice, hacking into his poor, confused mind like a chainsaw, even worse than the ice-cream tune. Why had she kept it all from him, Roxas wondered, as he pushed the papers back into their dark confines and slammed the door shut, activating the faulty lock that clicked with a satisfying noise.
"Coming!" Roxas called back after her, trying to smooth out the look of shock and horror on his face, because he didn't see anything he shouldn't have. Well, he did, but Rikku needn't know that.
x.o.x
"I don't think using that stuff will work," said Roxas warily, looking down at the small particles that looked like sugar in a bag Rikku was holding. He was pretty sure; however, it wasn't sugar, what with the foul stench it was emitting in waves of poison. "Couldn't you just put cream paint over it or something?"
"Can't, it'll take too long and paint on wallpaper looks weird," said Rikku, wrinkling up her nose in distaste. "Now be a good boy and fetch some boiling water, I need to soak this … stuff … in it before it'll be able to take the wax crayon off the wall."
Roxas thought it wasn't very comforting that Rikku didn't appear to know what the hell she was about to layer on the wall, but went and did as she wished. He turned on the kettle; still thinking about all the forgotten pieces of history locked up in that cupboard, and poured the water into a large ceramic bowl.
"Thank you," smiled Rikku brightly, as she took the chemicals in one hand and the water in the other, copiously sprinkling the water with the crystals until it made a lot of putrid-smelling steam that made Roxas gag. "And now we just put it on the wall and wait for it to eat up the wax crayon," she declared, dumping the chemical-infested water onto the wall. "And now we wait until it … HOLY SHIT!"
It did get rid of the wax crayon, but unfortunately Rikku's magic mix got rid of half the wall as well, leaving a gaping hole situated next to the door, so you could look into the living room at will. Well, Roxas thought, soon having large holes in the walls of your house would probably be the next big craze in the furniture magazines and they'd be known as the 'coolest' family around. Then again, maybe not.
Naminé turned her head around from the T.V. she was watching, to gape at the large hole that had now formed in the wall, giving her a perfect view of Rikku and Roxas, who were both covered in … crap … from the explosion.
"Mummy, what does that word mean?" she asked innocently, making Rikku groan and slap herself with the back of her hand, inflicting much more pain than she would have liked, for that is how life is.
o.x.o
"Roxas! Wake up stupid boy!" cried an overly enthusiastic Naminé, who obviously didn't know all the bad dreams Roxas had slept through, about Cloud being his dad and Sora being his twin brother and … No wait, that was all true. Crap. He hoped very much it had all been a terrible nightmare. Well, if he wanted to jog his memory he could always go down and look at all that stuff again. "ROXAS! It's a b-e-u-teefullllllll day!" she continued, jumping on top of said boy like a blonde cannonball.
"Wha? No, no, I'm up, I'M UP!" he cried, shoving the girl off his bed. He wasn't on good terms with Naminé – it was all her fault there was a hole in the wall and the small fact that Roxas had discovered Sora was his twin brother. Hell that was very, very scary. No wonder everybody mixed them up all the time in school. Maybe it meant that Naminé wasn't his real sister, though… At least there was some good to be gained out of this. His head hurt from thinking so much.
"Oh, goodie," grinned the evil demon girl, obviously relishing his discomfort from her position on the floor, getting up shakily to poke at his dirty socks scattering the floor like they contained rabies. Well, maybe they did, and if she touched them they'd gain lives of their own and attack her, like that strange Wakka boy's hair that Selphie was constantly mentioning. She always told Naminé the evil orange cemented spike would eat her if she didn't hop to bed on time when she babysat. "You're awake! Hehe, it's fun poking my head through that large hole, but I thought my pretty picture was much better. Why did mummy explode the wall, Roxas? And why did you help her?"
"Because we're all stupid," growled Roxas, burying his head under the pillow, making his blonde hair become even more messed up than it already was. Maybe it looked more like Sora's now, he thought with a shudder. Every time he looked in the mirror, he was going to see that boy's reflection smiling back at him. "And your stupid brother wants to be alone now so he can get dressed."
"Am I stupid?" inquired Naminé, tilting her head to one side. "Mummy said daddy said she was stupid for exploding the wall to Aunty Yuna on the phone, but she was laughing about it."
She wasn't laughing yesterday, and she wouldn't be laughing now if she knew that I know her secret thought the boy grimly. "Yes, Naminé, when I say we are all stupid you are involved in the equation. Now please get out of my room. I want to get dressed."
"Okily dokily," giggled the girl, walking out of the boy's room, completely unaware to the thoughts buzzing around in his brain like irritating flies. "Hehe, that … guy … says that on … T.V … about the Flimpsons," she said to herself, unaware that the show she liked to watch was actually called 'the Simpsons'.
x.o.x
The merry bell tinkled overhead in a happy way making Roxas want to club somebody over the head in a very unhappy way, as he made a murderous face and vowed he would get revenge on that bell someday. He didn't care how and he didn't care when, but one day if he ever became ruler of the world he would abolish all ice-cream tunes. They may have been cute and happy and delightful when he was a child – when Sora was a child and was his twin – but now they were just disturbing.
Speaking of disturbing things, Roxas wondered why Yuffie hadn't greeted him with her normal: 'Where the hell were you, you're fucking late again' and he was pretty sure he was late. There were other customers here already… And something didn't seem quite right about that, because there couldn't be any customers if Roxas wasn't serving, and Yuffie would never lower herself down to that level. She reserved the worst jobs for the staff, probably why nobody apart from him could manage to work there for more than a week without committing suicide. And then he remembered… He'd just had so much on his mind, he'd forgotten Axel worked here as well, and Yuffie had given him a … day off on Monday. In an addition to Saturday and Thursday he now had Monday off too whilst Axel served the … things … that were probably really aliens in the guise of children.
"Hello, Roxas," said the boy behind the counter in a weary voice, looking and sounding like he was ready to pass out on the counter if it weren't for the weird splodges of ice-cream stuck to it. Actually, he probably didn't care. He yawned, and didn't even seem to be able to be awake enough to get annoyed at the ice-cream theme tune, which was rather scary. No matter how tired Roxas ever was, he always managed to find time to think longingly of smashing the stupid thing and everybody else. "I guess you can't keep away from me, huh?" he yawned.
"Oh yeah, I forgot I had today off…" said Roxas hesitantly, looking Axel up and down. His skin was pale and he looked like death. Not a very flattering look on anybody, but Axel somehow made it look OK. "What's wrong with you?" he asked, not seeming to realise how rude he probably sounded.
"Can't … can't sleep," yawned Axel again, as his eyes twitched making him look like some sort of suicidal maniac, head drooping. "I feel like shit."
"I'm aware of that," said Roxas, not adding that he looked like it as well. Well, he didn't look that bad – it seemed impossible for Axel to really look that bad. "Where's Yuffie?"
"I dunno… Gone out with this Squall guy… Or was it Leon… I dunno. Maybe it was two guys," he answered, eyes closing. He opened them again with a start, aware of how close he had been to falling asleep just then. "I was … wasn't paying attention. I think I passed out at the counter…"
Roxas frowned. "Alright, that's it. If you keep working here like this you're going to die and Yuffie'll come back to a corpse in a stupid hat. Do you need any help?" Normally he wouldn't offer his services to anybody, and he would rather be in bed at that moment too. But Axel looked so helpless there, and many innocent children may end up dying needlessly if he had to work there alone. And he wouldn't even get paid for it – but he wanted to help Axel. Even if that meant sacrificing time to himself.
"Really? That'd be great," said Axel in a mumbled monotone, ruffling a hand through his crimson hair, making it look like he'd been electrocuted.
"So, why can't you get to sleep?" asked Roxas, donning a spare hat that had been left, crumpled up behind the counter. He wondered if Axel had tried to use it as a pillow and gotten stabbed by the pointy end.
Axel frowned. He didn't really feel like talking about his personal life to somebody he didn't really know that well, but he reminded him of somebody… Roxas reminded him of somebody he may have known once, ages ago. Maybe it was the blonde hair. And he was really too sleepy to care about what he was saying. "Bad dreams…"
"Me too," said Roxas dully, wincing as the ice cream tune tinkled again to herald the arrival of a mother and two children. They looked identical – twins, both screaming for food. This brought Roxas back to his mangled thoughts about how Sora was related to him and Tidus wasn't his real father, and he slumped down, feeling like banging his head on the counter.
"Are you OK?" asked Axel with concern. It was quite sweet really – Axel obviously was seconds away from passing out from exhaustion and he was asking Roxas if he was alright.
"Yeah… Just … Remembering the bad dream," sighed the boy. He would have to ask Rikku about it sometime… He really, really wanted to know about why she had kept it all from him before. Why his surname wasn't his real name because it was taken from Tidus. He had sat next to Sora in registration for the past two years, and it was strange how he had never realised before…
"Oh, right. Good. No, that's not good, is it?" asked Axel, as he served the two toffee ice-creams the mother had requested for the screaming children. "I feel like death…" moaned the boy, as the mother hurriedly gave him the correct amount of munny and toddled off with her children, obviously wondering if Axel was drugs or something she should protect the twins from.
"Not really…" Roxas replied, his mind still tied up in knots. Today was going to be a long day – and a long day without any munny at the end of it.
-x-x-x-
A/N: Dun dun dun! So, yeah, this is plot hahaha! Sora is Roxas' twin, who'd have thought it? Certainly not you, mortals . Or maybe you did… Anyway, why did Rikku keep it a secret? Will Roxas tell Sora? Will Axel die? What are his weird dreams about? Who is this 'Squall' person? Is Marluxia an elf? Will the hole in the wall ever be fixed? Find out in another 'exciting' episode of … this … thing… Does this story have a plot at all? No, I'm asking YOU. Please review. If you do I'll give you … RECTANGLES! Think of the rectangles! They need good homes. Four more reviews for an update, please? innocent blink
