Ok, another chapter. Sorry it took so long!
So I tried something new with switching point of view and stuff, and I'm not sure how it's going to turn out. Tell me if you think it works, or if it doesnt...
Well, on with the story! I love writing this. And some of it is based on actual events. Not much, but some.
Enjoy!
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Chapter Four--Let's Go to Six Flags.
Riku stared at the TV screen, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Beside him, an extremely happy Sora jumped for joy more than a little enthusiastically, running in circles and practically bouncing of the walls with excitement.
"I wooooonnnnn! I beat Ri-kuuu, after 6 years, after four thousand, seven hundred and twenty three games, I finally beat him! I BEAT YOU, RIKU, TAKE THAT!"
Sora was clearly having a good time rubbing in his first, and Riku hoped, last, victory at Super Mario World. And no, not the nice, new PS2 version, but the rather old school version on Super Nintendo.
Riku, clearly still in a state of shock, wondered what on Earth was wrong with him. Was he sick? Was he dying? I must be dying, he decided. There was no other possible way that Sora, who had lost infinite consecutive times these past six years, could have beaten him.
Sora, still dancing somewhere in the background, was clearly unaware of Riku's state of distress. Kairi, Naminé, Leon, and Cloud, the few who had remained at the groups' hangout, looked worriedly at Riku. Was he dying, or what?
"Want to play another game, Riku, huh? Want me to school you again?" Sora taunted.
"I don't want to play any more," Riku said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Sora, I think its better to leave Riku alone now," Kairi said gently, putting her arm on Sora's shoulder.
"Why?" he said, surprised at her serious tone.
"He's not used to this kind of thing. I think you may have seriously injured his ego," she whispered. Riku continued to stare at the wall.
Sora looked at her with wide eyes. "Really? I didn't mean to hurt his feelings, I was just…happy..." he looked a little more upset than was necessary.
"Riku?" Sora said gently, dropping to his knees so that he was face to face with Riku. No response.
"You alive in there?" Sora tried again, waving his hand in front of Riku's face.
"Ri-kuuu, I'm sorry, we don't have play anymore if you don't want to!" Sora, still not getting an answer, proceeded to climb onto Riku's lap.
This certainly got his attention.
"Woah, Riku, seriously, are you sick?" Sora said curiously, feeling Riku's forehead.
"N-no," Riku stammered. For some reason, his heart seemed to speed up to twice its normal pace. On second thought…maybe he really WAS sick.
"If you're not sick, why is your face so red?" Sora said.
"I…I don't know, ok! Now…g-get off me!" Riku said, standing up abruptly and knocking Sora to the floor. Without a second word, he stormed up the stairs and out of the basement.
"What…what did I do?" Sora asked no one in particular. He felt like he was going to cry. Riku, who had been his best friend since he was 7, was mad at him. Riku, who he had never gotten into a fight with, was mad at him.
Riku never got mad. Except for now.
"Sora, it's alright," Kairi said, coming over and wrapping her arms around the boy comfortingly.
Sora touched his cheek, and realized it was wet. This only served to upset him even further.
"No, its n-not ok, Kairi, because now Riku h-hates me! Sora buried his face his hands.
"Sora, Riku does not hate you, ok?" Kairi said.
"He's just…confused. Over his feelings. That sort of thing," Naminé put in helpfully, coming over in hopes of being part of the dramatic scene.
"His…his feelings?" Sora said, clearly confused, "what kind of…feelings are we talking about here?"
Kairi and Naminé looked at each other knowingly.
"You'll find out soon enough," Naminé said ominously.
What on Earth is that supposed to mean? Sora thought.
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Axel flipped through the thirteen channels that came through on his TV impatiently, wishing that just this once, his mother could be normal enough to actually allow her son to lead a normal life and get cable.
Local access, news, infomercial, news, Roxas, news—
Wait, what? Roxas?
Axel quickly went back to channel 9, but to his disappointment, "Roxas" was merely a blonde boy advertising the assets of bagel bites.
Roxas was a lot cuter, in Axel's opinion.
Still, not many people were even comparable to Roxas.
Ever since the boy had moved in a few days ago, Axel had started to develop a slight crush on him. Ok, so maybe it was more of an obsession, but Roxas certainly didn't need to know that.
However, there was a slight problem in their relationship. Along with the fact that Roxas seemed to not want to be living in the same house as Axel, much less be in the same room, Roxas also seemed to harbor a strong dislike for Axel, and, if Axel had heard correctly, frequently had been known to mumble things along the lines of "pervert" and "creep" when in Axel's presence.
No, their relationship clearly wasn't getting off to a good start.
"Axellllll!" Axel groaned inwardly, hearing what could only be the high pitched shriek from the kitchen area.
"What?" he asked quietly, secretly hoping that his mother wouldn't hear his response so that he could get out of doing whatever chore was about to be asked of him.
No such luck.
His mother bopped in (really, there's no other way to describe it), humming something and looking a little too happy to be legal, in Axel's opinion.
"Axel, honey, I need you to turn off the TV," his mother started.
"Mhmblehh," he mumbled, not moving, his eyes still fixed on the screen.
"…and then go take out the garbage," she finished. Still no movement on Axel's part.
"…we're having Chinese!" she tried again, knowing that it was her son's favorite.
Axel shifted his position on the couch. He was getting a rather bad leg cramp from sitting on it for so long.
Selphie knew it was going to take more than that to get Axel off the couch. She thought for a moment, and then a mischevious glint came into her eye.
"We're eating dinner in five minutes, so you better go wake Roxas up," she said. Instantly, Axel turned off the TV and practically ran towards the trash, dumping it into a bag.
Selphie smirked. Well, that was one way of doing things.
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Roxas was having a rather good dream. One involving ponies, and candies, and…was that Chinese food he tasted? Hm…not his favorite, but he could deal with that.
"Roxas…" he heard his name being called in the distance, and came to the conclusion that it was the pony who was saying his name. Hm. That was odd. Roxas didn't know any ponies that could talk. Not personally at least.
"Roxas!" it called again. Roxas, still half asleep, felt something warm and wet in on his ear. Was the pony licking him? Well, that felt kind of nice, but it also tickled a little. He giggled, turning over and lazily swatting whatever was licking him away.
Roxas froze when his hand connected with what felt like bony, hard flesh. He opened his eyes slowly, now fully awake, only to see a large amount of fiery red hair. Roxas swallowed, hard.
"What the hell! Get off of me!" Roxas hollered, although that wasn't necessary, seeing as Axel was a mere three inches away. Axel didn't move off of the smaller boy, but only stared at him.
"What…are you doing?" Roxas asked, glaring at him.
Axel didn't respond, but moved closer still to Roxas, so close that he could feel the light tickle of Roxas' breath on his face. Roxas continued to stare at him, his expression slightly resembling that of a deer caught in the headlights.
Axel leaned forward just a little bit farther so that his lips lightly brushed over Roxas', so lightly that Roxas wasn't quite sure what had just happened.
"Dinner time," Axel said finally, moving off of Roxas and was of the room before Roxas could as much as respond.
Roxas stared after him, half wondering if that had been part of his dream. If so…well, that was weird. If not…what the fuck was Axel doing going around kissing people who clearly didn't want to be kissed by him?
Recovering from his slightly dazed state, Roxas got up off of his bed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. What a terrible way to wake up, he thought bitterly, opening his door. He would have to talk to Axel about this kind of behavior in the future.
"I have something to tell you, kids," Roxas' dad said a few minutes later. The whole 'family' was sitting around the dinner table, some eating and some only pretending to eat the interestingly-made Chinese dumplings that Roxas' father had attempted to cook.
Roxas made a mental note to never let his father cook food of the Chinese variety, or any food for that matter, again.
"Next week, I'll be going on a business trip to New Jersey," he began. Roxas nodded. No surprise there.
"And we thought it would be great--"
"If we made it a family trip!" Selphie interrupted.
"--to celebrate our new little family," he continued, both him and Selphie grinning so widely that Roxas thought their faces might split apart.
Roxas couldn't say the same was true for his smile. His smile was more on the reasonable side. Reasonably fake, that is.
"Now, don't you boys worry," Selphie said, "that's not even the best part." If that was good news, Roxas was a little frightened of what the even better news would be.
"I know you kids don't want to wait around while I'm in meetings all day," Roxas' dad started again.
"So while he's doing all that boring stuff…" Selphie continued.
"Selphie is going to take you to Six Flags, New Jersey!" his father finished, exclaiming loudly.
For the first time in weeks, Roxas slowly broke out in a smile.
"Six…six flags, did you say?" Roxas said, not believing his ears.
"Yup! Your father told me how much you love those amusement parks, and I have to say that I'm quite fond of them as well, now and then," Selphie went on, but Roxas wasn't listening.
Instead, he was plotting out the trip, in detail, every roller coaster he would ride, every arcade game he would play, every piece of delicious fried food he would buy.
Yes, if there was one thing in life he could say he truly loved, it was amusement parks. It was a tradgedy, really, that the closest he lived to one back home was a six hour drive.
In his excitement, however, Roxas failed to notice another member of the party who was clearly not as happy with this arrangement.
Axel, sitting across the table from Roxas, paled at the mention of roller coasters. Ever since a certain accident involving his roof and a broken neck, Axel had what could be considered a fear of heights, although Axel preferred to call it a grudge against them. Not a fear, since Axel wasn't afraid. Of anything. The end.
Besides clowns, but again, let's not dredge up the painful past.
Axel looked over at Roxas, who looked happier than he had ever seen him. Happiness suited Roxas, Axel decided. In a moment of emo-ness, Axel sadly thought that he would never be able to make Roxas that happy. Then he got over it.
Roxas, by now having jumped up in joy and was now pacing around the dining room, debated the issue he was now coming to see. On one hand, amusement parks were one of his favorite things. Ever. On the other hand…well, Axel. No doubt they would have a drive down to New Jersey, which took more than nine hours in total, nine hours in Axel's company. This, combined with the time that they actually spent together in New Jersey and at Six Flags, was not something to which Roxas tended to look forward.
Axel's perspective was basically the exact opposite. He figured that he could tough it out during the amusement park portion of the trip, maybe pretend he wasn't deathly afraid of any sort of rollercoaster, and then spend the rest of the time making out—er, hanging out with Roxas. It was a foolproof plan, really.
"When are we leaving!" Axel asked, trying to hide the worried note in his voice.
"…this Saturday," his mother said, eyeing him curiously, "wait, Axel, I thought you said that you didn't like--"
"Waiting to have a super time at Six Flags? Nope, I hate it. In fact, it's my least favorite thing in the world," Axel lied, shooting a warning glance at his mother. He didn't want Roxas to think he was a wimp, after all.
Roxas eyed Axel curiously. So Axel liked amusement parks as much he did? Interesting. Maybe…maybe he wasn't so bad after all.
Somehow, Roxas doubted it.
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Sora rang the doorbell to Riku's house a few hours later, holding his breath. What if Riku didn't want to see him? What if he was really mad? What if he came out holding a shotgun pointed directly at Sora and—
"Oh, hello Sora," Riku's mother said, opening the front door and stepping aside to let Sora enter. "Riku's in his room. You can go right up."
Sora nodded, and then slowly mounted the stairs one at a time. When he came to Riku's door, he gently knocked and then waited for a reply.
"Who is it?" called a voice from within.
"It's Sora," Sora said, holding his breath. He hoped Riku would at least talk to him.
There was a pause, and then, "Come in."
He found Riku sitting cross-legged on his bed, looking at what seemed to be pictures.
"What's that?" Sora asked, pointing at whatever Riku had in his hands.
"Nothing," Riku replied, shoving them underneath the covers on his bed.
There was an awkward silence. Sora wondered briefly what he had planned to say to Riku. Why was he even here?
"Sora…" Riku started, avoiding Sora's gaze, "I'm...I'm sorry. I guess I kind of overreacted back there."
Sora let out the breath he had been holding, and then sat on the bed next to Riku. The springs groaned slightly in response to the added weight.
"No, Riku, I'm sorry…I shouldn't have rubbed it in your face that I won. It wasn't very nice," Sora apologized, looking down.
Riku stared at him. "Sora…that's not…I couldn't care less whether you beat me at video games or not."
Sora looked up at him, curious. "Then why were you angry?" he said, leaning forward.
Riku looked at him, marveling at how cute the younger boy looked when he had that expression on his face.
"I—well," Riku stammered, not sure of how to put it.
"Ri-ku, just tell me," Sora said, poking him in the shoulder.
"I—never mind," Riku said, turning his back to Sora. If Sora couldn't figure it out, then that was his problem, Riku decided.
Sora, not one to stand for not knowing something, poked Riku in the ribs.
"If you're not going to tell me, then I'll…" Sora warned.
"What? You're going to what?" Riku asked, laughing.
"Tickle you!" Sora reached around to the front of Riku and started to mercilessly tickle him. Being his best friend for so long, Sora knew something that many others would be surprised to hear: the fact that Riku, proud, serious Riku, was incredibly ticklish.
"S-stop! Sora!" Riku said through his laughter, tears spilling out of the corners of his eyes. Sora laughed, but continued to tickle Riku like his life depended on it.
"I said--" Riku grabbed both of Sora's wrists in one of hands, flipping the smaller boy over to that he was now pinned under him. "—stop."
Sora squirmed, still laughing. Riku smirked, regaining his composure and proud that he was, once again, in control of the situation.
It was then that he realized the problematic position that they were in. A blush slowly rose to Riku's cheeks.
Sora looked up at Riku, his eyes wide. That was odd. Riku never blushed.
Riku found himself leaning closer to the smaller boy, almost as though some sort of magnetic force was drawing him in. He couldn't think straight. If he had been thinking straight, however, he probably would have wondered what the hell he was doing.
Sora froze, not sure of what was happening. Riku was his best friend, right? Then…then why did he look like he wanted to kiss him?
"Riku! Get down here, America's Next Top Model is on! I think that redheaded girls going to get kicked off this time! You don't want to miss that, do you?" Riku's mother shouted from downstairs.
Riku snapped out of his foggy state of mind, quickly jumping up off of the younger boy. Avoiding Sora's eyes, Riku shuffled closer to the door. "You…you should probably go," he said, "Unless you want to come watch…uh…ANTM with me and my mom."
Sora giggled. "No, it's ok, I better get home for dinner. So…you're not mad, right?"
Riku blinked a few times. "Yeah, of course I'm not mad." I don't know what's wrong with me, he mentally added.
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Pretty intense stuff. Not really. But Sora and Riku almost kissed. And Roxas and Axel DID kiss. Kind of. More fluff coming up, I promise. Six flags is going to get steamayyyy! Haha jk. But really. It'll be fun.
Please review; thats always fun. :D