-.Good Morning Sunshine.-
.Chapter Seven.
.being emo is fun.
-x-x-x-
Rikku sat on the sofa, Tidus – the big useless pudding that he was – asleep next to her. She knew he worked shifts, but really. It had been almost an hour, and Roxas still hadn't come back. She sighed, the French quiz show (the Spanish one had ended) no longer interesting and funny. Her nerves were just destroying the comedy of the man attempting to speak French. He kept saying things like 'I am an artichoke with a pet dog' and 'Is this the pudding to Ohio?'. She was worried about Roxas. Maybe Cloud had gone insane and locked him in a closet when he announced that Sora was really his twin brother.
She pressed a hand to her temple, sighing. Oh, the drama was killing her. She reached for her mobile, thinking of calling Yuna or Paine and telling them about what a horrible life she was leading. But somehow, she found herself flipping through the Yellow Pages, trying to locate an 'S' for Strife.
Using every piece of courage she had, she dialled the number, and pressed the phone to her ear. She bit her lip anxiously, as it rang and rang and rang. She wanted to slam it down, she didn't want to speak to Cloud ever again after he ran off with … that woman. Aerith. But she had too, because she loved Roxas.
"Hello, the Strife residence, this is Cloud. Who's this?" asked that familiar voice on the end of the line. Who really answered the phone like that, Rikku thought sadly. Maybe it was good he had ran off – he was too formal for her. She whined like a kicked puppy. It was hard to say anything. "What? If this is a joke I'm hanging up right now," came the irritated voice.
"No! Nononono!" gulped Rikku in an incoherent babble, trying to regain control over her voicebox. She didn't want to end up sounding like Tidus. "This … This is Rikku…"
There was a long pause, and Cloud said brightly: "Oh, you mean Sora's friend Riku? I'll put him over…"
"No! It's Rikku! R-I-K-K-U!" she spelt out in a mad rush. She wasn't even sure what she was saying, her nerves taking over her. This time there was another pause, longer and more drawn out that the other – it was cold and icy.
"Oh. It's you. We haven't spoken in … thirteen years. How are you?" he asked coldly. He had obviously been trying to forget about her. He didn't want her ruining his life. She was just a faded memory as far as Cloud was concerned.
"It's … Roxas… He… He learnt about it. Y'know," replied Rikku, feeling a headache coming on from all the crackling the phone was making. She hoped it wasn't broken. "I told him to go and tell Sora about … I think they're old enough to know about what happened. Is Roxas with you?"
Another silence. Then a very angry Cloud was speaking in forced tones of politeness down the line. "No, you stupid woman. One, you promised me you'd never let them know. Two, how could you send him out in this storm? Remember what happened to that girl a few years ago? She died, Rikku. Roxas hasn't been here. But Aerith got called in for an emergency shift at the hospital. There is a possibility."
"But … but…" stammered Rikku, trying to suppress the tears. Cloud didn't care about Roxas, and he was his child… Everything was so confusing, and … Roxas couldn't be dead. But why hadn't he spoken to her? His own phone was broken but he could have used a pay phone.
"No, that's it, Rikku. I'm putting the phone down. Goodbye."
"But … but! He's your son too! Don't you care about him?" she wailed. She kept on asking him, tears rolling down her cheeks. It was painfully obvious Cloud couldn't hear what she was saying because he'd slammed the phone down, static buzzing in her ear.
o.x.o
Axel didn't like the thunder, and he didn't want to go outside in it. The hospital wasn't too far away – about a fifteen minute walk, but it was dangerous in the storm and he could feel the fear creeping back to him. It had happened to … her … The girl nobody remembered. They had been friends. And now it was happening all over again to his sister. He remembered how afraid he had been in his nightmares, how the girl had asked him what he did when he was frightened. He … managed to work himself up so he became even worse. Two wasn't a large enough number, because if you lived in a family of two and somebody fell of the edge you'd be left alone. Sally could … Sally could die.
He had to go and see her; Roxas had said that somebody from her family had to be there. Of course, they were obviously talking about parents, but they were always away. And if Sally died, he'd be left alone and have nowhere to go. He'd just be living by himself until his parents came back for about two days, before they moved away again.
Fighting the strong urge to just hide under a coffee table in a shivering mess, he pulled on his trainers and fumbled around with the keys until he managed to fit the right one in the lock. It clicked open, and he paused to lock the door again behind him before running off.
It was only when the rain hit him that he realised he was stupid and didn't bring a coat. Crap.
Oh well, he thought glumly, the lightning flashing across the sky like prongs from hell. Maybe he'd get hit too and then he and Sally would end up in hospital. It must be nice in hospital, because even if you're badly hurt or dying you knew somebody was taking care of you. Sally always used to take care of him, even if he protested.
He ran on through the street, feeling like jumping into a bush every time he heard the thunder. It was just the noise he didn't like – and when … she had been hurt, he had ran off and left her. He couldn't run off and leave Sally.
So all he could do was run and keep running, sprinting across roads. There weren't any cars; everybody had decided to stay inside. It wasn't that late, only about 5 p.m., but the storm plunged everything into some sort of realm where it was always midnight. It was dark and hard to see as he ran, hearing the thunder split through the air. He would be lying if he said he wasn't terrified.
All he could do was keep going, on and on until he felt like his heart would explode. He never liked P.E that much, was never one of the athletic children. He never tried, but now he was trying.
He could faintly make out the hospital off in the distance. It wasn't a very big building, because there weren't any real gangs or vandals in Destiny Islands. Half of the people in there were only in there by accident, like falling off ladders. He'd been to the hospital for Sally before, when she fell out of the window and cut herself across her arms and legs. He was scared then, but this was worse.
Finally, when he felt like he was ready to collapse on the ground from a heart attack – every time he heard a thunder clap he nearly jumped out of his sodden skin – he made his way to the front entrance. He was finally there, and that nightmare was over – and another one was about to begin.
It was very clean inside the hospital, like an ice berg, all white and sterilized. It was like some sort of dream, it didn't look real. He felt like if he touched something it would dissolve in front of his finger tips.
There was a really, really weird man with pink hair at the front desk styled in a very … strange … way, who was reading a romance novel. He looked like a girl, thought Axel with a shudder. The cheap wooden name-plate that was beside him read 'Receptionist: Marluxia'. And Axel had thought, from all the films he'd watched, that all receptionists were female. Well, this guy was female enough, giggling lightly at something the heroine in the story had said. This was annoying.
"Uh, hello?" asked Axel hesitantly.
Marluxia didn't seem to hear him, too engrossed in his novel, a stupid smile playing about his lips. Axel really, really wanted to hit him, and the thunder outside was making him feel jumpy. It did nothing for his jangled nerves.
"HELLO!" Axel cried in frustration, making the girly man … or manly girl … turn his head in annoyance at who dared distract him (or her) from his (or her) romance story.
"What? What do you want?" asked the girly man, his voice even sounding high pitched and feminine to the point of disturbing. "You don't appear to be dead and you don't have bits falling of you so I'd appreciate it if you'd leave."
Axel scowled. He really, really wanted to hit something now. "Look," he said through gritted teeth. "I'm Axel … Hello? Are you listening to me? MY SISTER GOT HIT BY LIGHTNING!" he yelled irritably, the Marluxia fellow having decided he wasn't as interesting as his book, eyes flickering across the print.
"Oh, right… Yes, a Sarah … What was her last name? Oh well. A … Cindy was brought here about half an hour ago. She was nearly dead," said the very unprofessional Marluxia brightly. "She's on ward … thirteen … I think … If you'd like to see her, with Doctor Xemnas and Nurse Aerith," giggled Marluxia. Yes, he did giggle, in a more disturbed way than Roxas, because when Roxas did it was sort of cute. And he didn't giggle often.
"Her name's Sally," said Axel, storming off to find the right ward, Marluxia's 'that's nice!' trilling merrily along after him.
x.o.x
Roxas was quickly finding out that having Emily and Jack as company in the waiting room wasn't something to be desired. Every five seconds Jack would mumble some depressing shit about how much he loved Sally and that the scenario did not look good and that is was 'no use'. Emily was humming some lovely song about death to herself, wiping her eyes on the corner of her bridal gown. Roxas just wanted to throw a chair at something.
He tapped his foot on the floor irritably. They were performing an operation on Sally, and every few minutes Aerith – that made his depressed too as she was Sora's new mother – would wheel in more and more alarming equipment. They were trying to disturb everybody now, he thought.
"Sally was right… We shouldn't have come out," sniffed anorexia man, and Roxas idly wondered if he'd snap if he bent him in two.
And then there was that weird receptionist Marluxia who smelled strangely of roses and giggled constantly, and that weird doctor called Xaldin who kept walking up and down telling him not to worry and everything was going to be alright. He had really weird hair that reminded him a bit of that girl who sat behind him at school – Lulu. Xaldin probably wasn't qualified enough to take care of Sally. And it wasn't a very busy night in the hospital – everybody else was smart enough not to go outside. The only other people that seemed to be there apart from them and the doctors were two weird kids, Pence and Hayner who were there to see their friend who had a broken leg as they had loudly told them in passing, and a father and a boy in a wheelchair who was recovering from some ordeal.
Roxas envied the small boy – he had a better parental figure than him.
"Hey … it's you guys!" cried a voice, and Roxas turned his head to see Axel coming up towards them, looking around warily in the very bleak hospital like the white-washed walls would come alive and eat him. He was trying to keep his voice under control and disguise his fright, and wasn't doing a very good job.
"Hello, Axel…" said Roxas, a sad smile on his face. Axel looked worse than he did in the ice cream parlour today – it must have been the worry about his sister. "We're not allowed to see Sally at the moment, they're operating on her. She's not dead, they would have said if she was," he explained. Jack was still moaning depressing things and Emily was still humming. Roxas wondered if Emily was mentally scarred and incapable of thinking or something.
The weird Xaldin man with hair like Lulu's strolled back along the corridor, and tried to smile when he saw Axel. It looked more like a grimace. "You guys can go home now," he told the three of them sat there. "This young man and I need to talk. Although, I was hoping your parents would be coming here… It was unsafe of you to come through the thunder, should have come with your family in the car…"
Jack and Emily got up, deciding there wasn't much point waiting for Sally any more when the operation would take a while and they could go home and be emo about her, but Roxas didn't move. He knew Rikku would be worried about him, and he'd phone her later, but he wanted to wait for Axel. Friends were meant to wait for each other, he decided.
o.x.o
"Hello?" asked Rikku in nervous tones, not sure of the news she was about to receive. She had remembered what Cloud had said about Aerith being called to the hospital because some kid had got hit by lightening and they required her expertise. So she decided to check to make sure it wasn't her baby who got hurt. If Roxas got hurt… She'd never live with herself.
"Yeah, this is the Destiny Islands local hospital, emergencies only, how may I help you?" asked a female voice. Well, it sounded female, but it could have been male, Rikku guessed. It was just a very, very scary individual, she told herself. She didn't want to think what weirdos the hospital employed. She pressed the phone closer to her ear.
"I was wondering if you knew who got hit by lightening…" she said, biting her lip. Most hospitals didn't give out this sort of information unless it was to family members, and she was Roxas' mother. If it was Roxas she had a right to know.
"I'm sorry, but I can't divulge information like that over the telephone, I need my job," replied the bored voice on the other end of the line, confirming Rikku's fears.
"Was it a boy called Roxas? Because if it was I'm his mother…" said Rikku in a shaky voice, looking down at the all-comforting floor. If something went wrong, the carpet would know what to do, Rikku convinced herself. Yes. The secret of life was written on that carpet somewhere.
"No, ma'am, it was a female. She was accompanied in the ambulance by a kid called some stupid name like that. He was called Rosie … Rucksack … Rocks ass…" said the rather perplexed and bamboozled voice at the other end of the line.
"Oh. What did he look like?" asked Rikku, pressing for more information. At least she knew that Roxas was alright, and that was all that mattered, but just to make sure…
"Well, you know Aerith the nurse?"
"Yes," she said through gritted teeth. She did know that woman and she didn't like her very much. She never wanted to hear her name again as long as she lived. She decided to do the very smart adult thing and blame all her misfortunes on her, even the gaping hole in the wall.
"Well, he looked sort of like her kid. She's always showing pictures of her kid to me when I'm trying to read my books, dead annoying it is. Her kid's name was Sara… Or something gay like that."
"Sora," she said coldly. Sora's name was not stupid and neither was Roxas' and the person on the other end of the line could go to hell. She'd helped name them.
She hung up.
x.o.x
Xaldin had pretty much cornered Axel in the small box of a room that was meant to be his 'office', towering over him even though Axel was very tall for his age. It was hard to take him seriously, however, with massive sideburns like that. It seemed that everybody that worked in the hospital was weird and messed up in the head in some way or other, and he didn't trust the life of his sister in their hands.
"So, you're her brother… When we requested one of her family members came over here, we meant her parents. I need to discuss Sally's health with them."
"You can't see them," said Axel, shaking his head. "They're away in a business conference in Traverse Town right now. Sally knew their phone number but she's not in any state to tell it to anybody. Obviously. She told me but I've forgotten… She was always the responsible one." His voice caught in his throat suffering from the emotion and drama of it all.
Mr. Xaldin with the freaky sideburns of doom nodded his head in an understanding manner. "So you have no way of contacting them at all?" he asked, and Axel nodded. "Well, there a few options you can take. You can stay here in the hospital over-night and wait to see if she gets better… Or you can go home yourself, and wait for her to be released. I take it you're old enough to fend for yourself. But I don't the latter is a very wise choice. We are sure Sally will get better and Aerith and Xemnas are very highly qualified indeed. It didn't do any permanent damage to her, but when your parents return from their trip I'll need to inform them about her accident and how it may affect their daughter."
Axel didn't want to leave Sally; he wanted to be by her side. And if he had to listen to the thunderstorms all by himself at home he might go insane. Even if Sally was being operated on, he wouldn't feel so alone. "I'll spend the night here, then… How long will she be in here?"
"Oh, if all goes according to plan the operation will only take a couple of hours and she'll just need a lot of rest. We'll have to keep her in about a week or two afterwards just to make sure she's alright, and then when her condition is stable she should be allowed to go home, with her guardian's consent. But your parents are coming home soon anyway, are they not?"
"They should be back tomorrow," confirmed Axel with a nod of his head. "I'll go home tomorrow and tell them about Sally, then you can sort it all out…" he said. He never liked his parents. He wondered if they even cared about Sally… Obviously they couldn't care about her as much as he did.
"Well then, there should be no fuss," said Xaldin in forced happy tones, ushering Axel out of his office. "You can go back and wait."
"That's all I can do? Just … wait?" asked Axel. He wanted to be helpful; he needed Sally to be alright, he had to make sure she'd be OK. Despite all his reassurances that she was perfectly alright and the shock would just have knocked her unconscious and maybe messed around with her insides a little, he didn't feel sure about the whole thing. L… L… Her name was on the tip of his tongue, and he scowled. The future was dragging back the past he'd tried so hard to forget. But she … she had died.
Xaldin nodded glumly, and led Axel back to row of uncomfortable orange chairs. He knew orange was meant to be a cheerful colour, but now it just reminded him of crimson, and crimson led to blood, and blood was something Sally needed to live… In his fits of distress, he nearly sat on the small blonde boy who made an indignant noise.
"Roxas!" said Axel, genuinely happy to see that the boy would wait for somebody he didn't even know to get better just for him. But Roxas actually had a home to go back too with parents who wanted him. He couldn't force the boy to split his sorrows; it was his problem, not Roxas'. And they hardly knew each other anyway, it didn't make sense. "I don't think it would be a smart thing if you stayed here. I mean, you're parents, they'll freak out… I don't want to drag you down into my pits of emo-ness." It was so touching and bizarre he almost wanted to cry. He'd wanted to cry about the whole thing for a while now, but he didn't because he was a survivor.
"I called my mum with the pay phones outside and told her I was going to stay here and wait with you. She wasn't happy about it – but she's glad that I'm not hurt. She said no, but I sort of ignored her. She'll be as angry as hell when I go back home, but you can't wait here all alone. You'll be scarred forever unless you have some company," said the boy in a matter-of-fact voice. "I'll wait with you if you want. I already asked Marluxia if I could stay and he said alright, but I don't think he actually heard what I was saying…"
Axel smiled wanly, not wanting to think up any more excuses as to why he should go home, because he wanted to be selfish. He wanted Roxas to himself; he wanted somebody there to wait with him whilst the doctors examined Sally and tried to fix her back together again. "T-Thanks, Roxas," he said, a bolt of thunder accompanying his words, as he shivered. The lightening had taken away … her … and it wasn't going to take away Sally either. It had been adrenaline that had carried him to the hospital, but now he was just waiting and … he couldn't bear it.
Roxas tilted his head and looked questioningly at Axel, who just looked like a frightened little child now; a deer in the headlights. It was sort of … cute really, he thought with a wan smile.
He didn't want to confide in Roxas about his pathetic fear, but he reminded him so much of that faded little girl from his memories. Maybe it was the blonde hair and blue eyes, or maybe it was because … he, like her, meant a lot to him. And that was scary, because they hardly knew each other. And yet Roxas cared enough about him to wait. "I … I can't stand thunder," he mumbled, feeling a bit pathetic. "Or lightening – it's … just bad memories that come back in bad dreams. And it's happening again…"
The blonde-haired boy laughed softly, and wrapped his arms around Axel. "Don't be stupid. There's nothing to be afraid of. Sally's going to be alright, d'you hear? She'll be fine. You'll be fine. Nobody's dead."
"Yet," mumbled Axel, visions of the future dancing in his head, of tombstones and corpses, yet he felt strangely safe as Roxas hugged him, like he was banishing all these childhood fears away. Axel tried so hard to act strong and tough, yet he was really … Just weak and helpless on the inside, and Roxas had reminded him of that.
An uneasy sleep finally settled over him, head lolling onto the blonde boy's shoulder, of dark dreams wrapped around memories of the past.
o.x.o
The boy stared down in horror at the girl's crumpled and charred corpse lying on the ground. Maybe if she had been older she would somehow have survived the mighty blast of electricity coursing through her body, but she was only small and was easily tossed aside like a rag doll. He body sailed again and again, replaying throughout his mind as he ran.
He kept going, past the seaside shack constructed by him and her about a year ago, thunder crackling, every second wondering if it would snatch him away next. He could still see her, still hear her head cracking with a sickening noise against the cold ground, like some holy video or D.V.D. It wouldn't leave him alone no matter how many times he shook his head.
Quickly, he made his way to his small wooden boat. He could make it back to the mainland in a matter of minutes if he paddled hard enough, he could escape from this nightmare and never look back. It was hard though, as his eyes rested on the twin boat next to his and realised somebody would never be coming back.
Somebody's time on this planet was up. To him, they had been more than friends. It had been something much deeper that meant more to the little boy than anything else had. His parents were never around, Sally had only just fallen out a window and was in hospital, friends came and went. They were never permanent, but for all his six years she had always been there. She had always been smiling and taking his hand and leading him into the future. If he couldn't rely on anybody else, he could rely on her.
But not any more. Who could rely on a dead girl? He'd forget her, bury the one person to the deep confines of his memory and never look back for her. It was heartless, but it was the only thing he could do.
x.o.x
Roxas could hear quiet sobs mingling with his dreamless sleep, and he opened his eyes slightly. His blue orbs were treated to a lovely blinding light. It took him a while to realise who the boy was resting his head on his shoulder was, but the answer came swiftly to him: it was Axel. Then he had to figure out where he was, and that wasn't too difficult: he was waiting in hospital with Axel because Sally had been hit by lightening and Roxas was too kind to let him wait alone stewing in his fears. Then he had to wonder why Axel was crying. And as to that … he had no idea.
"Axel? Axel, what's wrong?" he asked softly, as the boy continued to sob onto his shoulder. Maybe all the stress about what had happened to his sister had finally washed over him in a tsunami of feelings and emotions. He didn't know how late it was, but he figured it was probably about 1:00 a.m.
The boy's distressed sobs, muffled by the material of Roxas' jacket, answered his question. "I … I … God, I feel so stupid," moaned poor Axel, closing his eyes. He obviously didn't want Roxas to see him cry.
"You feel emotion, so what?" asked the blonde boy softly, looking down at Axel. "Do you want to tell me what's wrong?"
Axel managed to raise his head to look directly into Roxas' eyes, making him feel a bit uncomfortable. Kairi's assumptions that he was gay rang through his head, and if Axel kept crying – even though he was trying hard to stop his green eyes were still watering – he would only go and prove her right. "It doesn't matter… I just… Bad dreams, thunder and Sally… It's all just mixed up in my head and it's so damned confusing." Axel bit his lip, drawing crimson blood. He was agitated and something was bothering him and he wouldn't feel better until he told him.
"What are your bad dreams about?" he asked softly, not wanting to distract nurses or doctors as they bustled about doing night shifts. It was common knowledge a hospital never slept because were constantly having accidents and hurting themselves. At least they didn't have to ask for privacy – the corridor they were waiting on seemed to be pretty much deserted. Maybe Roxas just didn't want to kill the mood, screw the hospital staff...
Axel looked away, and Roxas thought maybe he had been too pushy – maybe he had startled him and he wasn't going to answer. But then he locked his gaze back onto Roxas'.
"It's just … Just about her. When I was little my friend got hit by lightening and … she died and I just ran away and left her and I tried so hard to forget and I think it worked but now this has happened to Sally and … It brought it back… But I started having the dreams before that, because you remind me of her… You're making me remember her again," said the red-head hesitantly, before tears rolled down his cheeks again. It was a tragic sight of somebody's life being completely ruined, and Roxas was glad he'd decided to stay with Axel. He needed him and he would have gone insane left to his own devices.
"Axel… It's alright… D-Don't cry…" Roxas said. He couldn't stand to see him like that. He just wanted to make him happier, to steer his mind away from such depressing thoughts. And that was the reason why he found himself moving his head closer towards Axels'. He cared about him and he hardly knew him. Everything was happening so quickly it scared Roxas, but Axel was even more scared than him and he wanted to stop that fear. He decided to do that with a kiss.
His lips brushed against the other boy's, and his eyes closed as Axel swooped his head down to deepen the kiss. He certainly wasn't crying anymore, and all his tears seemed to have dried up. It was hard to think about Sally when he was kissing this kid who he barely knew…
But it felt good and he didn't want to stop, as he looped his arms around Roxas to keep from toppling over, as the blonde boy felt as limp as a rag doll, unsure what he was doing or what it was going to lead on to.
Axel broke away to leave a trail of chaste kisses along the side of his neck, not wanting to let him go. Roxas cared about him enough to sit in the depressing hospital and worry about the goings on in his life and it touched him so much. And it clicked in his brain, all the pieces of the jigsaw sliding into place as he began to fixate his attention back on his lush crimson lips, parted slightly, waiting for him. He managed to get the blonde boy to make some breathy moans and noises that sounded like he was saying his name, to his delight.
That was why Roxas had brought along with him all the memories of her – because it wasn't just the blonde hair and blue eyes, but he both cared about them more than anybody else, maybe even more than Sally. And that nameless girl was now blessed with an identity in his mind.
She was called 'Larxene'.
-x-x-x-
A/N: Very, very long. Some fluff and I hate writing fluff because it's hard and I find angst easier to type up XD. Yay, the mystery of the girl is revealed. Axel's parents will come back to find Sally. Emo Jack is based on an inside joke where in the game when he dies he says depressing stuff xD. Does tragedy bring families together? And will Sora ever understand Roxas is his twin? Find out in the next tra-la-la-la-la-LA update! Review (to tell me how crappy the fluff was) to get a free OCTAGON. It's a prize worth having, folks. By the way: Xaldin's non-nobody name is LINDA. Yeah. Remove the x and rearrange the letters, and what do you get? LINDA. Four reviews for an update please? –large watery eyes-
