-.Good Morning Sunshine.-
.Chapter Eight.
.stranger in my eyes.
-x-x-x-
Axel sat on his couch at home, waiting and waiting, feeling worry and anxiety and dread tie up in a large knot in his stomach. It wasn't something anybody liked to become familiar with, that sick nauseous dread that tore him apart in the middle, stomach flipping over. He was thirsty too, damn he really wanted a drink, but he had a feeling taking a sip of water would just hurl the bile out of his throat in a myriad of … interesting … colours. It would be really hard to be sick when you'd hardly had anything to eat.
He remembered the events of the morning, when he had woken up with his head on Roxas' shoulder and his arms securely around him, cuddling up together in their sleep. Nurse Rinoa had found it rather adorable, she had told them, after shaking them awake and prying them away from each other. It was exactly the sort of light, harmless fluff that would have been shown in a Disney movie if they allowed those sort of pairings, she'd told them good-naturedly.
When Axel had sleepily mumbled 'who the fuck are you?' in a lovely, good-natured way, she had simply batted aside the bad language a turned a blind eye, with that hearty smile on her face. "I'm Rinoa," she'd told them. "And I have some good news about Miss Sally, Axel. You are Axel, right?" Axel nodded accordingly. "Good, good. So, anyway, I've been newly assigned to her problem and I'm glad to say she's come round from her operation and she's fine now. The lightening bolt put a certain amount of stress on her heart and muscles and she cracked her head roughly on the pavement when she fell so she needed some stitches. She'll be asleep now from all the painkillers we gave her, but you can pop in and pay her a visit if you want, you and your little friend," she winked conspiratorially, as if she knew they were a bit more than 'friends'. "She'll have to stay in hospital a little while longer because some people's muscles can seize up unexpectedly or they can have heart attacks, so we need to check her over a few times and make sure she's out of the woods."
The red-head had been ecstatic about this news, and had bounded up with a new reserve of life, because the storm had passed and Sally was OK and he and Roxas had … Well, that beside the point, maybe Sally had some truth in her words when she'd use to wake him up by saying what a beautiful day it was.
"Really? We can see her? Right now?" he asked, seeming like a newly re-animated version of Tigger from 'Winnie the Pooh', and when Nurse Rinoa nodded he'd happily pulled his blonde friend to his feet and grinned like a manic Cheshire Cat. "Come on," he said to Roxas, who allowed himself to be dragged through the doors into the ward, mind still fogged up with sleep.
And there was Sally, sat there sleeping peacefully in bed. She looked fine, apart from the ugly black bulging stitches in her head, but Axel guessed they didn't care how pretty the thread they'd used was when she could have died from blood loss. And it had been a happy moment indeed.
But Roxas had to go home, and so did Axel, away from the sleeping beauty that was his older sister. He had to confine himself to the solitude that was his home, sat there feeling so useless, waiting for the strangers that were his parents to come back. He so rarely ever saw them; he wasn't looking forward to their arrival.
o.x.o
Cloud had felt uneasy around Sora ever since Rikku's sudden phone call yesterday in the storm. He'd been trying to forget about her for so long that her image just came back to him as a sepia-tinted photograph, blurry with old age, and usually it would eventually morph into his lovely wife Aerith and that would be that. But hearing her voice for the first time in so long re-tainted the photograph with colour, bright and vibrant, and it was now impossible to change it into the brunette.
Sora remained happily oblivious of his heritage, constantly playing loud 'zap-all-the-aliens' video games with his strange friends, Riku and Kairi. Riku was a scary kid who actually managed to intimate Cloud, mainly because he was such an idiot. He didn't want him convincing Sora that it was smart to jam your hands into turned on toasters or throw sticks at wasps' nests or anything stupid. Kairi he didn't really have much of an opinion on – she was a charming girl who was always polite and angelic around adults. At least Sora was actually at home without his two friends for a change.
Rikku's words wormed their way through his brain. They nipped at him, making him feel guilty. Aerith knew the truth – he'd told her before he married her. But Sora had no idea, and he didn't want him going through his whole life not knowing he had a brother, a twin. He had to tell him, even if it destroyed the family. The truth had to be known. It would drive him insane if he didn't tell him. His son deserved it.
Maybe Roxas and Sora would manage to form some sort of brotherly relationship and everything would go swimmingly. With some hope. Maybe in a more perfect universe.
"Sora!" called Cloud in an uneasy voice, staring blankly at the glowing television screen, images lighting it up so it shimmered gaudily the room. It was painted in various hues and tones of light pink and magenta – Aerith's favourite colours. It always pleased her to no extent whenever she walked into the room and could twirl around in her own pastel enduced dreams with the lavender-scented spray hanging in the air. It wasn't very manly and, as a result, Sora and Cloud both tried to avoid 'Aerith's corner' as much as humanely possible.
"What!" cried the teenage boy, his strong voice carrying down the stairs, light and bouncy and happy as always. He reminded him so much of Rikku with that tone of voice. He wondered if he still loved Rikku … He cared about her, but their marriage didn't work out properly. There were constant arguments and shouting matches and it just scared Sora and Roxas. They were kids, they didn't deserve to listen to that. And both of the parents were too stubborn, both knew they shouldn't split the twins up but they both loved them so much. So had to be separated, to make everybody happy. Yet now the foolishness of their actions would only come crashing down on them.
"I want you to come into the living room right now, Sora!" he replied in serious tones he always used when he wanted something doing, and the boy knew that, having lived with him so long. Cloud was joined by the presence of his son in about five seconds. "There's something important I have to tell you … About your past…"
x.o.x
"Oh my dear God!" cried Axel's mother theatrically, doing a splendid job of pretending that she cared. Axel had never hated Tifa as much as he did now – he wanted to impale her with the evil glares in her heart, just like the lightening had hit Sally. It was obvious her concern was entirely, 100 fake, just as much as those several boob jobs she'd had. Well, they were rich with all their business deals, so why settle for the ordinary when you could have the extra-ordinary? Although having plastic candy dishes stuffed up your front didn't sound too glamorous or exotic to Axel. "Is Sally alright!"
"She'll be fine," said Axel. He cared about the welfare of his sister so much, and being such a good liar himself he could tell when things were faked and not meant. It was obvious to him that as long as nobody was dead his parents didn't give a flying fuck about what happened to them. Tifa probably cared more about her breast implants – that made her look like a disproportional, blown-up Barbie doll in her 'loving' son's eyes – and his dad, Reno… He didn't want to go into details about him. "A doctor called Xaldin at the hospital said you'd have to go and talk to him, though, about her condition. When she gets home she may have to take medication for a while."
Tifa sighed in the horror and drama of it all like she was an actress staring in some sort of soap opera, and Axel scowled at her in disgust. There weren't any cameras filming her, she wasn't a big star in a film. This was real life, and Sally was really hurt. Axel growled softly – now it sounded like he was trying to make everything overly-dramatic. But he did care about Sally… There was nobody else to care about. Apart from Roxas. Because little Larxene died a long time ago.
"Then we'll have to see her," said Reno, running a hand through his hair that looked oddly like Axel's. That made the boy angry – he didn't want to be associated with his parents in any way, shape or form. At least he didn't inherit Tifa's ample bosom, which was already … large … before she decided to inflate them even more. That would have been scary and would have prompted a helluva lot of bullying. "I don't like thinking of her in pain."
"You care about her so much; you care about us so much. That's why you're never around for us," whispered Axel under his breath, making sure his 'loving' parental figures couldn't hear him. He didn't want to stir up trouble and tension before they visited Sally.
And so the journey in their expensive little car began, most of them sitting in silence, the icy atmosphere pieced at occasional intervals when Tifa decided it would be appropriate to make some more pained moaning sounds. She sounded like she'd been caught in bloody bear trap, for fuck's sake. Axel really wanted to hit her then. She was trying way too hard to pretend she cared way too much.
The scenery passed by like in cheap films where they played the same stuff over and over again in a repetitive loop. House, house, house, tree, house, house, house… It was all the same, in a big, bland repetitiveness that just dragged out through the five minute car journey that felt like the five hour journey to hell. All the while Axel wanted to strangle something with his bare hands. Tifa would be nice. Maybe if he stabbed her with a pin she'd pop like a balloon.
Finally, finally the car stopped outside the large, daunting building, all white and bright and glossy and so clean it almost burnt the eyes. So bright and light it became some sort of large demon, restless and wild, ready to eat anybody who entered. Or maybe the teenager's nerves were just giving him fanciful visions and a power to describe things he'd wish would come to him more often in his English lessons.
And somehow they all managed to get out of the car, Tifa still whimpering and genuinely sounding like her heart was breaking. It was all very convincing. She should be given a gold medal for being the most heartless bitch ever Axel thought darkly. Sally's been hit by lightening, use it as an opportunity to fake Banshee wail and stutter and hope Axel would forgive her for all her shaky parenting if she acted hurt enough. Axel was hurt far more than her.
Marluxia was still sat at the receptionist counter, playing around his pink hair and blowing strawberry flavoured bubbles with some very bright chewing gum, looking up as the three people were stood, framed in the doorway very dramatically like it was some corny action film. He'd even go as far as saying light was pouring down on them making them seem like superheroes. Tifa would like that. She was very dramatic.
"I'm Reno, this is Tifa and this is Axel," said the man with flaming red hair, introducing the worst receptionist (and most gender confused guy) in the history of the world. "We're Sally's family, the girl who got hit by lightening…"
"Oh yes, Sarah… Your son was here yesterday. She's in the same ward – thirteen. She's recovering after the antibiotics and painkillers she was given," said Marluxia in a monotone, pointing them in the general direction that the ward was, before his attention back to blowing bubbles with the strawberry gum.
o.x.o
"Sally!" cried her brother, running up towards her. Unlike that morning, the effects of the drugs had worn off slightly and she awake, staring contently at the dust particles flying around in a lazy manner like a beached whale. "Sally, you're alright!"
The girl turned her head to see Axel … Reno … and Tifa … There was something wrong with that picture, she told herself. They'd never be together in that typical 'Family Portrait' way for too long, and she was happy that even something as tragic as her getting hit by lightening could bring them all back together in the same room again. Yes, she knew her family had issues, but they were still all blood relatives and they belonged together, as cheesy as it sounded.
"Axel!" she cried in a delighted way, finding it hard to shape her lips properly to make the desired sounds from all the drugs and needles they'd stuck into her. "And mother and father!" she continued, happiness radiating from every pore in her body. "Oh my God… It's been ages since we've all been together," she said with a nostalgic sigh. She remembered, even if Axel didn't, those rare times embedded into her childhood when Tifa and Reno weren't so occupied with work and made time for them. She could have harboured bitter feelings towards them, but that was so stupid and petty and robbed her of the chances to have a happy life. "So long…"
The red-headed boy with the tattoos under his eyes frowned slightly, green eyes sparkling in a quizzical way. How could Sally actually sound so plain delighted to see them? He couldn't detect any false pretence in her voice at all – it was pleasant and happy in normal Sally tones. Maybe the drugs had made her love each and every creature and forget all the times when they couldn't be bothered to take care of them.
"Ah, you're Sally's parents," said that strange Xaldin man, walking up to them seemingly from nowhere, although from the swinging doors Axel could hazard a guess as to where he came from. "I'm afraid we'll have to go and discuss Miss Sally's current condition in my office. Is that alright with you? We just need to prescribe some drugs for her," he said in what he probably thought was a comforting voice. The music from 'Jaws' could have accompanied the large man, however. He wasn't the sort of person somebody would turn to when they had a problem on fear of being eaten by him.
"Of course," Reno nodded, shooting a last backwards glace at Sally, sitting up in her bed propped up on a mountain of pillows, ugly black thread in her head pulsating slightly. "We care so much about our Sally…" he said, voice trailing away, as he followed Xaldin, weeping wife in tow doing a lovely job at all the crocodile tears.
When they were safely out of hearing, the red-headed boy turned around to face his poor sister, looking so helpless in her bed, a stupid smile playing around her features, her attention occasionally being snatched away by imaginary images in her head. Really, Sally could swear she could see singing pineapples outside and parrots under her bed. It must have been the damned painkillers making her unable to think straight. Either that or she was insane.
"How come you look so happy, Sally? God, I can't believe their attitude, just strolling in here without a care in the world, I'd like to punch the smug looks of their faces. It's horrible how much they act, they'd almost fool me if I didn't know what they were like already," snarled Axel in fury. There was an old wives' tale about red-heads being associated to quick tempers. Maybe it was based in truth…
"What are you talking about?" frowned Sally in obvious confusion. Even if she wasn't drugged so much she thought she was living on Mars she still would have found Axel's statement somewhat alarming. "I thought you'd be happy we were all back together… It doesn't happy very often…"
"Yeah, and who's fault is that!" ranted her brother angrily, green eyes sparkling in anger. "They could ask for time off from their jobs, anything, but they don't care about us enough! You'd have to be fucking dead for Tifa to give a damn about anything but her breast implants and they just make her look like a slut and a fucking whore anyway!"
Sally winced, the sheer power of Axel's words driving her back. She had never really seen her brother this angry before. Couldn't he remember the times their family had spent together, when it still played at being happy and bright and la-di-dah? Tifa and Reno had tried to hard not let work get in the way of their relationship with them, but it didn't work. Axel didn't see them enough to realise how much they really did care. And this scared Sally; that he would speak of them like that.
"You don't mean it. You think you do, but you don't," said the girl softly, shaking her head. This earned a powerful glare from her brother, but she ploughed on, regardless. Her head was beginning to throb and her mouth ached from talking so much when she was meant to be resting. "They do care. Don't you remember all the times we spent together when we were little? It broke my heart when work got more and more serious and couldn't spend more time with us. It's obvious how much they love us. You just can't see it. They never seem to be there for you so you decided you'd hate them. It's stupid!"
"Sally, those painkillers must be pretty fucking powerful! You are INSANE! They were NEVER there for us, not even that time you fell out of the window and broke your arms so many times you looked like a rag doll with all the stitches they gave you!" shouted Axel, now really angry.
His sister sighed, her head bent. She looked so crumpled and tired and exhausted, Axel almost felt bad for yelling at her like that. She was meant to be his sister, he was meant to love her. He did love her. But then he had to love Tifa and Reno … And he despised them.
"Please Axel, try to understand! They cared then and they care now, but they didn't even know about it, and when they tried to get off work but they couldn't! Axel, please, they love us! You're just so blinded with rage and resentment you can't see that! Please try to see that, for me! You were too young to remember all the times we shared together, but I can't bury those memories and take your side. Nobody can be as good an actor as that, they love us!" She continued to insist it, her eyes watering with tears. The mirage pineapples and parrots couldn't bring her peace; she had to get through to her stubborn brother. "Blood's thicker than water. It is, it is, it is! They care about us so damned much, just open your eyes and see!"
Axel paused, and bit his lip hesitantly. He wasn't sure how to respond to her. If he said alright, it might help make Sally better, but he still didn't believe his parents could really care about them that much…
"Sally… I'll … I'll try to open my eyes… But they're never there for us… It's too hard to look for something in somebody who's a stranger to you," said Axel, his voice becoming quieter, gentler, like dealing with a young infant. Sally looked a little bit like a tiny child, tucked up under bed with the pale skin and bags under her eyes. She looked fragile, like the stitches holding her flesh together would snap apart and she'd explode, showering Sally guts everywhere.
"Then don't close yourself off from them. Make the most of the time you have together to create a picture for yourself. I'd like to see us as one big happy family, who, sure, may have had their differences in the past, but are rebuilding and working out a new future," smiled Sally softly. She didn't seem to realise how cheesy she sounded, but Axel still took her hand and smiled back at her. It didn't take long before she was sound asleep, again falling victim to the painkillers, like a little baby girl. Sometimes Axel felt like he was older than Sally, not the other way around.
x.o.x
The blonde boy moved over to pick up the phone. Rikku had been lecturing him for a good half an hour, obviously frazzled and distressed by what had happened last night where she actually thought Roxas was dead. So, as his punishment for so blatantly disobeying her wishes, she had decided to ground him. It didn't seem like much, but scary how similar they were, how Roxas hadn't realised it before.
"Hello, Sora," Roxas greeted, instantly picking up on the uneasy voice the brunette-haired boy was talking in. "Is something wrong?" he asked, wondering if somehow he had uncovered the truth… Maybe a similar photo album to Rikku's was lying around his house, he wondered. Maybe…
"Yeah, something is wrong… Something's really wrong… Do you mind if I come around to your house in about five minutes?" he asked, sounded deeply troubled. Roxas didn't know exactly what was wrong, but on Sora's end of the line he felt like his mind was exploding and the pointy pieces of brain were stabbing the inside of his head repeatedly. It hurt, damn it. He was so confused, and nothing seemed real anymore.
Roxas shifted his weight from one trainer encased foot to the other. Rikku had said she was grounding him, but she just said he wasn't allowed out the house, not that Sora couldn't come in. "Well, alright… You do remember where I live, don't you? It's 36 Destai Drive," he said as a reminder, just in case the information had slipped from Sora's mind.
There was an un-easy laugh at Sora's end of the line, messed up thoroughly with static so it sounded like he was choking. But that wasn't in the nature of Sora at all. "'Kay. Don't worry, I remember where you live. Okay, see you in a few minutes."
And with that the phone was put down.
o.x.o
Sora sat facing Roxas at the dining room table. Rikku occasionally came to check up on them, and at these times she banished Naminé into the far-flung corners of her plushie-infested room. She hadn't seen Sora for so long – sure, she'd passed him on the streets and in the shops, but only for a few split seconds. And then she'd managed to shake it off and bury the event under a fine soil of more memories and that would be that. But having Sora and Roxas, her two boys together… It was just like the old times, and all they needed was Cloud to complete the picture. It was hard to remember that Sora wasn't really her son anymore, but Aerith's. Sora hardly knew her.
"Wow… I mean, just… wow…" said Sora in faltering tones, his voice sounding like a shattered mirror, if that were possible. Maybe his voice was breaking (again) through all the emotion of it all, Roxas wondered. He hadn't felt this messed up and confused, but Sora was like Rikku and was more passionate about everything, felt more than he did. Sora was like another half of him that contained the larger emotional capacity. "When dad first told me, I didn't believe it… I didn't want to believe it…"
"Because you didn't want some gay-looking weirdo being related to you," replied his twin with a small, wan smile. It wasn't even funny, but it made Sora laugh a little. It was an ice-breaker, making everything seem nice and normal and happy. Which it wasn't. But they could all pretend it was.
"No, that's not it… I just couldn't believe they could hide something like that from us for so long. But then Cloud showed me some pictures, some old photographs. There was this really nice oil painting some guy did of us two, only about six months old, with Rikku holding you and Cloud holding me. We all looked happy," said the brunette, choking on his own words.
Rikku, meanwhile, stood in the doorway looking like a big idiot deciding whether she should stay and eavesdrop or go off and mind her own business. She finally decided upon the latter, walking away to play 'forts' with Naminé who didn't like being left alone. And she could be vandalising more walls and the two boys needed to sort everything out between each other.
"They were stupid for trying to hide it, but they did it because they didn't want to hurt us…" said Roxas, not sure how to continue as he studied his twin's face. Sora's eyes were a lighter blue, his hair was brown and spiked up (naturally, which was amazing) more than his, but they had the same long eyelashes, same expressions, same jaw line and lips… They were twins, in almost every possible aspect of the word. Roxas traced the word 'TWIN' with his finger-tip on the table, carving a path in the dust. Rikku wasn't big on cleaning, Naminé didn't care, Roxas was usually out and Tidus was always asleep, anyway.
"I know. It's strange how the grown-up mind works," said Sora with a light laugh, a smile high-lighting his features. Sora was the light, Roxas always appeared to be the darkness, and Sora was blinding him with all that happiness. "I guess we've got a lot of catching up to do, brother," he continued.
And Roxas tilted his head up from his work Rikku wasn't very good on heavy parenting and so, in Roxas' eyes, he really must have worried her very badly. He wasn't allowed to go out for a week unless it was for his job – although Roxas had thought better of going to the ice cream parlour today. He was already an hour late, so Yuffie probably wasn't expecting him to turn up at all.
Roxas' brain was frazzled - maybe Sora would be a better influence on him; maybe it would completely change everything in his life for the best… "Okay…" he said hesitantly.
And then Namine charged downstairs shouting loudly about an alligator eating Mickey Mouse, and Roxas still wanted very much to strangle her. Hmn, maybe having a twin wouldn't change him as much as he'd thought…
-x-x-x-
A/N: This is mostly about sorting out family problems until the big epilogue which will come after this . The epilogue will have AkuRoku fluff in it yay . And … crap …! So, yeah, if you review you'll get a free … crescent. It's a prize all the COOL kids have!
