Chapter IX (2,547)

The beeping alarm on his phone jerked Roxas awake and he fumbled to shut it off, almost dropping it in the process. It was still light outside, yet he had been sleeping for the past two hours already.

"You coming to dinner?" Sora asked, setting down his game controller and standing to look up at him. They were supposed to meet Kairi and Namine at six and eat with them.

Before responding, the blond slowly climbed down from his bunk and stretched gingerly. "Mm…no, I don't think so. I'll just have ramen and try to do my homework."

"Okay…" Sora watched his brother's pained movements before taking his wallet and keys from his bag. "See yah later." He left.

"Bye." The door closed behind him.

Heaving a sigh, the blond sophomore sat at his desk and pulled his Calculus book out of his bag. He regretted not taking notes in class now that he had to try to complete the assignment without them. But there was no point in feeling sorry for himself, so he checked his planner for the assignment and flipped to the correct page in the textbook. What he found surprised him. Tucked between the pages were three neatly folded sheets of notebook paper. When he opened them, he discovered a fourth sheet folded into a square, but he was more interested in the three pages. In neat handwriting were the notes from class that day. Every example from the board and book, teacher's comments and definitions, all of it hand copied with obvious care. Someone had really taken their time on these notes.

His attention went to the fourth piece of paper and he unfolded it, although he had a feeling that he knew what it was. The first line did not surprise him in the slightest.

"Baby Blues."

The rest of the note wasn't any more unpredictable.

"I'm sorry for what happened in class today—it was stupid of me to pass a note in her class and I take full responsibility. I know by now you've likely already served your detention and that my apology is worthless to you, but I hope I can make it up to you. These notes are just the first thing I intend to do in order to earn your forgiveness. I'm sure your detention was brutal and I'm telling you that Miss Larxene does not have permission to punish anyone with physical harm. I'm also sure that she told you I'm no good, but please believe me when I say she's lying. I would really like to be your friend and I hope we can work this out. I'll see you in class tomorrow."

It was signed with what looked like an up-side-down teardrop.

For a moment, Roxas simply sat at his desk, looking at the note. He didn't know what to believe. The teacher he was supposed to respect but had punished him wrongfully, or the student he had yet to meet and had been warned away from but who seemed friendly despite his poor timing. Miss Larxene had warned him about the senior, Axel she had called him, but he claimed she was lying. So who did he believe? What did he do?

Sighing, he put the note in his desk drawer with all the other notes he had received during the first two weeks of classes. First, he would take care of his homework. He could ask Sora for advice when he got back from dinner. That decision made, he began his Calculus assignment with gusto—at least now he had notes.

Sora whistled to himself as he crossed the green space on his way to dinner. Namine and Kairi were probably already there waiting for him. The thrill of his soccer game victory put a spring in his step, but his thoughts were mostly focused on his brother. The welts on his back were going to bruise and a couple of them had small amounts of dried blood on them. Sora couldn't believe that a math teacher would do something like that over passing notes in class, even at a strict, structured school like this one. But he had thought Miss Larxene was crazy since his first day of Algebra II with her. This simply confirmed his suspicions that she was totally nuts.

"Good game today," a voice said from Sora's left; he jumped, startled. The older student who had snuck up on him smirked slightly, green-blue eyes practically sparkling with laughter.

"Riku! Where did you come from?" Sora demanded, blushing as he attempted to regain his composure.

He pretended to think about it. "My mom?"

"That's not what I meant!"

"Right." The smirk was still firmly in place. "I should have realized you would ask a general question and expect a specific answer."

Sora's temper flared. "What is that supposed to mean?!"

"Nothing, nothing." His tone implied that he definitely meant something by it. "I saw you walking and thought I should tell you good game."

The red in Sora's cheeks went from an angry flush to a pleased blush faster than he would have thought possible. "Thanks," he mumbled, suddenly feeling shy. "You too."

"Thanks."

They walked together in silence, not looking at each other or anything else, really. Sora was dying to say something, anything. He wanted to ask about getting a 24/7 pass to the school's sports equipment, wanted to ask what his favorite sport was, his fastest mile time and if he wanted to be a professional athlete. Sora wanted to know everything, but he was hesitant to ask. The older student was being decent towards him and he didn't want to screw it up or annoy him.

So, silent, they walked into the meal hall and joined the throng of students on their way to dinner.

"Want to sit with me?" Sora asked, raising his voice over the chatter of dozens of other students so that Riku could hear him.

"With you?"

"Well, us. I'm supposed to eat with Kairi and Namine."

Riku grinned. So this was why Kairi had been so determined to get him to agree to eat with them. He decided not to mention to the overly-enthusiastic boy beside him that he was meeting the girls as well. "Sure."

They went through the lines together, commenting on the food, discussing why certain things shouldn't be offered for meals, such as chili, because there was no way of knowing what sort of animal the meat came from. As they left the food lines and headed for the tables, almost all of which were full, Sora spotted a white-blond head and a reddish-pink head, along with a pair of waving arms. He nudged Riku and pointed.

"There they are." He nodded, and they made their way over to the small table, stepping over bags and feet and spilled food, dodging other students, chairs and elbows. By the time they reached the table, Sora felt like he'd just fought his way through a war zone, minus the guns.

"Did you have to pick six o'clock to meet?" he asked, all but dropping into a chair and setting his food down. Riku sat beside him, nodding at Kairi and Namine by way of greeting.

"It is sort of crowded, isn't it?" Kairi replied, glancing around the noisy room. Sora's mouth fell open in disbelief at her seeming obliviousness to the fact that six o'clock was the busiest time in the mean hall.

Riku disguised a laugh as a cough. "You look like an idiot." Immediately, the other boy snapped his mouth shut, embarrassed.

"So, where's Roxas? Isn't he coming, too?" Namine asked so quietly that Sora almost didn't hear her over the noise.

"No, he, uh, isn't feeling well." It wasn't exactly a lie—Roxas had definitely not been up to the task of navigating the meal hall—but he didn't want to tell them what happened. It was the time and it wasn't his right.

"He looked really out of it when I saw him after my detention earlier," Kairi commented, "and he was moving really slow."

A line appeared on Namine's forehead as she frowned, concerned. "Is he going to be okay?

"Yeah, yeah." He tried to sound casual as he picked up his burger. "He'll be fine in a few days."

"Oh, good." The blond girl's relief was evident. Kairi nodded before launching into a story about Professor Luxord criticizing the way she dressed. She seemed to be very offended by it, though from what she said, the teacher had not been offensive or even rude. Sora and Riku exchanged exasperated glances but didn't point out that or argue with her.

"I like the way you dress," the brunette offered once her story was finished. In truth, he hadn't paid much attention because most of his focus was on out doing Riku, but she had been looking at them expectantly and waiting for some sort of response.

"Thanks, Sora," she replied, blushing prettily and offering a flirtatious smile. He grinned, by her response then busied himself with his dinner. Riku rolled his eyes but didn't say anything—he was used to Kairi's flirtatious behavior and had at one time been the target of it. Normally, it didn't bother him when she flirted—despite her complete and utter lack of shame—but today it made him uneasy. He knew he didn't have anything for Kairi and she knew it too, so why did it bother him now? He glanced at Sora, noticing a slight pink tinge in his cheeks. He couldn't have a crush on the kid…could he?

Roxas was already sound asleep when Sora got back to their dorm, which didn't surprise him. It was ten o'clock at night and the blond rarely stayed up later than that, even on weekends.

Being as quiet as he could, Sora changed into his pajamas and got into bed without turning the light on. He hadn't planned on being gone for so long, but after dinner Kairi had invited him and Riku over to her and Namine's dorm. After that, he simply lost track of time.

Most of the talking was done by him and Kairi, though the other two had comments that weren't afraid to share. Namine spoke more than Riku, and Sora got the feeling that the moody boy didn't want to be there. He seemed annoyed and kept throwing glances at them while more or less ignoring them. He only spoke when asked direct question or when he had a particularly strong opinion on something which wasn't often. Sora felt like the other boy's bad mood was his fault, but he had no idea what he had done or how to fix it.

He wasn't too worried about Riku by the time he got back to his room, however. Thoughts of the silver-haired teenager had been replaced by thoughts of Kairi. They had made plans to go to the movies this weekend, and Sora thought she might like him. Who knew, maybe they would become more than friends after the movie.

"You sure were flirting with Sora a lot," the blond commented, sitting on her bunk, her knees together and her hands in her lap.

"Yep." Kairi stood at the sink, carefully wiping off her makeup. There wasn't much to take off, but she worried what might happen to her eyes and complexion if she left it on.

"Riku didn't seem very happy about it."

"Nope." She brushed out her hair.

For a moment, Namine stared at her cousin. Didn't she care that Riku was upset? "Did you know he would be?"

"Yep." The pink-haired girl changed out of her uniform and into her nightgown.

"You did it on purpose?" Namine asked in disbelief—it wasn't like Kairi to star drama. Her cousin took her time to finish brushing her teeth.

"Of course." She got into bed, settling comfortably under the blankets.

"Why?" The blond stood and went to the sink for her turn to get ready for bed. She rarely wore makeup but washed her face thoroughly regardless.

"Because I wanted to see if Riku would get jealous."

Namine used her reflection in the mirror to look at her cousin quizzically. "So you didn't know he would get upset."

Sitting up in bed, Kairi gave the other girl an exasperated look. Namine was too busy brushing and flossing her teeth to notice. "I wasn't entirely sure but I had my suspicions."

"Do you think Riku likes him?" The words were muffled as Namine pulled her pajama shirt on over her head and got in bed.

"Either he does or he's starting to but he doesn't realize it yet." With a shake of her head, Kairi lay back down, turning onto her side to look over at her cousin. "I'm going to make him realize it, though."

"How are you going to do that?" The other girl hugged her stuff paupu fruit to her chest.

"I'll flirt with Sora until Riku gets jealous enough to do something about it."

"But Sora's going to think you like him! And what if he doesn't like Riku that way? What if he doesn't even like boys?"

Kairi laughed. "He might not realize he does, but we'll find out. That kid isn't as straight as they come, I think."

Fidgeting, Namine hesitated then asked, "What about that junior, Demyx? Do you think he's straight?"

"Have you got a crush on him?" Kairi teased, smirking.

"No, but…"

The redhead could tell something was bothering her cousin and that it wasn't about a crush. Knowing that she wouldn't get anywhere by pushing, she waited patiently for Namine to speak her mind.

"I saw Mister Marluxia kissing him!" The blond blurted out then put her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide.

Kairi sat bolt upright. "What?"

Namine nodded and spoke through her fingers. "In the music room…Demyx was playing the piano and I was just standing in the hall listening and then Mister Marluxia came up behind him and pushed him against the piano and kissed him!" She buried her face in her paupu.

"Well, did Demyx seem to be okay with it?" the other girl asked uncertainly. "I mean, did he smile or kiss him back?"

"No! He turned his head away and, Kairi, he saw me! He looked me right in the eye and I knew that he was scared by what was happening but didn't know what to do! I should have helped him but I didn't! I ran away!" Tears were running down her face and soaking her paupu as she cried silently, ashamed of herself and frightened for the mulletted boy.

Kairi got up and crossed the room to hug her cousin. "Shhh, it's all right, Mi-Mi," she soothed, patting her back. "It isn't your fault; don't blame yourself. You did what was best for you and that's what matters."

"But what if it happens again, Kai?" the blond girl whispered, fearful. "What if next time is worse?"

"Then Demyx can report him," Kairi replied firmly. "He's a smart guy, Mi-Mi. He can take care of himself. Okay?"

Sniffing, Namine wiped her eyes and nodded. "Okay."

Kairi hugged her again then returned to her own bed. "Night, Mi-Mi."

"Good night, Kai." The light clicked off.