History had never been so boring. Interesting, funny, surprising, sure. But boring? Hardly. She'd always enjoyed learning the world's history and connecting the dots to how countries formed, who was important and why, what happened in far off places.

Nothing about the class had changed. She sat in the same place by the same people and wrote in the same notebook. Professor Luxord stood at the front of the room, lecturing along with the slideshow he'd prepared. There was nothing different about him, either. He wore the same professional slacks, shirt, and tie. His hair was neatly styled, facial hair perfectly trimmed. Everything was just as it had always been.

Except that Kairi had written barely a word of today's lesson. Class would be over soon, and Luxord's teaching style would normally have left her with a handful of note-filled pages. There were no "light" days. Her hand often cramped from writing so much.

Today, she'd written the date and nothing else. She wasn't even sure what Luxord was talking about. Some war somewhere, probably. Whatever it was, Kairi couldn't bring herself to care. All she wanted was for class to end. Being in the same room as him was practically torture.

Under her desk, she checked her phone and held in a sigh to have no unopened texts to distract her.

"Miss Honoka."

Kairi's head snapped up, horror barely concealed. "Yes?" He'd never used her last name before.

There was no affection in Luxord's expression or tone, no hint that he held any feelings for her at all. "I apologize if today's lesson is boring you. Perhaps you'd have an easier time paying attention if I instilled a policy against cell phones in my classroom?"

A collective groan went around the room, and Kairi felt her classmates giving her dirty looks even though she didn't turn to face them.

"No, Professor, I'm sorry." She stood and approached him, holding her phone out in surrender.

One blond eyebrow rose, and the teacher took it, placing it on his desk where everyone could see it. "The next student to take their phone out during the lesson will lose it until the end of the day." He turned back to Kairi. "You may retrieve it at the end of class."

Kairi nodded and returned to her seat. That was the worst interaction she'd ever had with Luxord. It made her feel dirty, in a horrible, worthless way. She didn't matter to him. She was just another student, another irritation, one more interruption to his carefully planned lesson. And why should she be anything else? She'd just proven to him that she didn't care about his class, even after he'd told her how important it was to him.

I'm really not mature enough.

Who did she think she was fooling? A teenager and her teacher? It was impossible. Luxord was right all along. She never should have tried.

Kairi muffled a sigh. This wasn't like her at all. Hopelessness wasn't her style, she was supposed to be the one with the plans and the secrets! Pulling the strings and always in control. Not someone who ignored lectures and had her phone taken away. It wasn't who she was!

"That's not who I am," Kairi muttered, picking up her pencil for the first time all lesson and copying down the slide Luxord was on. Class was almost over, but she'd at least take a few notes while she could. The rest, she'd get from Namine after dinner.

Less than ten minutes later, Luxord closed out of the slideshow and took his place at the front of the room. "That's all we have time for today. Don't forget, your midterm project groups will be announced next Monday." He smiled slightly, an ominously innocent expression considering he hadn't given them any hints about what that project would be. "Review the questions at the end of today's chapters for tomorrow."

The bell rang, and only then did the students dare to begin packing their things.

"Have a good afternoon," Professor Luxord dismissed.

As her classmates left, Kairi waited for an aisle to clear, then approached her teacher's desk. Luxord was already seated there, switching his materials over for his next class. Wordlessly, Kairi picked up her phone, not looking directly at him, and turned to leave.

"I'm sorry." He spoke just as she reached the open door.

Kairi paused, wondering if she should say anything. What could she say? That she was sorry, too? She was, but she didn't want to say it. She shouldn't be sorry.

The silence hung between them for just a second, then Kairi bit the inside of her cheek and left without a word.

x

He was getting more and more suspicious as the day went on.

"He didn't try anything in calculus." Roxas kept his voice low, trying not to attract unwanted attention.

"Yeah, but you're not the one he's threatening," Sora pointed out, just as quietly.

"I still don't see why you're bothered." Riku hardly even whispered, far less concerned than the twins—it wasn't like they were interrupting a lesson. "What was all that talk at lunch? A bluff?" He hadn't so much as glanced up from his physical science textbook.

"No!"

"Shhh!" Roxas looked half furious, half panicked.

Sora ducked and tried to look busy so that Professor Luxord wouldn't realize he'd been the one making noise. When his name wasn't called, he relaxed and scowled at Riku. "No, I wasn't bluffing. I just don't like all the rumors."

Even though he shrugged at that, there was tension in Riku's back and shoulders. He didn't like the rumors going around, either.

Since discovering Seifer's thirst for revenge at lunch, they'd already been approached by a dozen classmates, not all of whom they even knew that well, to either be congratulated on breaking Seifer's nose, or told of his supposed plans to get even. Some of the rumors were too ridiculous for them to do anything but roll their eyes—Seifer definitely didn't have crime boss connections—but others were plausible. Like cornering Sora in the locker room with the help of his friends. Alone, Sora knew he could hold his own against Seifer. But Rai, Vivi, and maybe Fuu? Tougher odds. He didn't want to test that.

A nudge at his elbow drew his attention, and he looked up to find Riku watching him out of the corner of his eye. More than anything, he wanted to reach over and take the older boy's hand. He wanted the reassurance of palms clasped and fingers intertwined.

Still watching the brunet, Riku fiddled with his pencil as if he was thinking the same thing. Neither of them moved to cross the space between their desks, though. They weren't public yet; they couldn't give themselves up. Still, it was clear they both wanted to.

"Seifer won't try anything if he can't get you alone," Riku assured him in lieu of giving physical comfort.

"Yeah." It did help, knowing that he wouldn't have to handle it alone if Seifer did try anything.

None of them said anything else as their study period drew to a close. They spent the remaining minutes focused on homework, though Sora especially had trouble sitting still. His leg bounced, his fingers drummed, his pencil was a blur between his thumb and pointer finger. It was all he could do not to get up and start pacing. When the bell finally rang, he all but shoved his things into his bag, and stood impatiently as his brother and friend packed their own homework away.

As soon as they were out of the classroom and in a sufficiently crowded part of the hall so as not to be noticed, Riku took hold of one of Sora's still-fidgeting hands.

"Relax, will you?" he chided gently. "You're starting to make me nervous, and I could kick Seifer's ass all the way to graduation."

Sora's laugh was too short and harsh to be genuine. "I know you could."

"Me and Axel will be there, too." Roxas put on a brave face. "I could be good in a fight." He draped an arm around Sora's shoulders as the trio moved through the halls. "You are definitely not dealing with this alone. Nobody picks on my twin."

Finally, Sora started to relax a little. "Yeah. Seifer's just a bully. It'll be fine."

Another squeeze to his hand made him look at Riku; in the crowded hall, their faces were so close together that Sora nearly kissed the other boy. Meeting Riku's green-blue eyes, he chewed the inside of his cheek, instead. They were going to have to talk about this game of theirs.

As they drew near the doors to the locker rooms, Roxas pulled away from his friends and drew ahead, moving towards a familiar figure that waited by the wall.

Axel offered an easy grin. "Hey."

"Hi." Roxas sounded more breathless than he meant to.

"How was class?"

"Fine." The blond glanced over his shoulder as Sora and Riku, no longer holding hands, came to stand beside him. "We heard some interesting things."

Rolling his eyes, Axel shrugged away from where he'd been leaning against the wall. "Like how Seifer has an uncle with a private army and he's going to make you disappear?" he asked, pushing open the locker room door and holding it as the younger three students went inside.

"Oh, yeah. That one's my favorite," Riku replied, opening his locker to begin changing, and Axel smirked as the group parted ways to their own lockers.

Sora was finally grinning like his usual self, the banter making the entire situation into more of a joke than a threat. "I like the one where his family is all black-market crime lords and he's going to frame me for something."

"Yeah," Roxas' voice was heavy with sarcasm, "because you're obviously a black-market criminal."

Sora pulled an indignant frown, pausing in the process of taking his gym clothes out and setting them on the bench. "I could be selling contraband erasers. You don't know."

"You can't even keep track of your own eraser."

"Maybe that's just an act to keep suspicion off me."

"You've been plotting to sell contraband erasers your entire life?" the blond asked, one eyebrow lifting.

"Who would even buy contraband erasers?" Riku interrupted, already changed and lacing up his shoes.

Sora and Roxas looked at each other, both in various stages of undress, then at Riku. "Collectors?" they said together, and Riku rolled his eyes.

"Freaky Twin Powers." He finished with his shoes and straightened, but didn't leave the locker room, clearly waiting for the twins rather than potentially leave Sora with Seifer.

Hurrying now, the brothers finished changing then left the locker room with Riku, Sora protectively in the middle once again. With the rest of the class, they gathered in the gym and waited for Coach Xaldin to begin class. Axel and Zexion joined them after a minute, standing to Roxas' right.

Without warning, something hard slammed into Sora's back, square between his shoulder blades, and shoved him forward a stumbling step before Roxas and Riku could catch him.

"Hey!" The brunet whirled around, his hands already fisted to throw a punch, but there was no target. His classmates had already drawn away, and his attacker had gone with them. Still, Sora knew it was Seifer or one of his cronies. No one else had any sort of grudge against him. He straightened and folded his arms over his chest. "Coward," he sneered with all the disdain he could muster, then turned back with Riku and the others to where Coach Xaldin now stood at the front of the group. Quietly, Axel and Roxas moved to stand behind him as a human shield.

"Same teams as yesterday," Coach Xaldin announced, ignoring the few scattered groans. "We'll rotate matches every ten minutes. Strife, Jian, warm up!"

"Yes, Coach!"

The pair immediately took off around the gym, leading their classmates in the usual ten laps.

As soon as the noise of a few dozen running pairs of feet filled the gym, Riku moved to run a little closer to Sora at the front of the group.

"Should've punched him for shoving you," he said quietly, and Sora shrugged.

"Couldn't go hunting him down, just give him a chance to say I was picking fights."

"He's been making threats all day."

"I'm still not gonna let him get me in trouble with Coach Xaldin again."

The older boy hummed in dissatisfied agreement, and Sora couldn't help but grin.

"Are you feeling all protective of your boyfriend?" he teased, and Riku moved to shove at his shoulder in retaliation. Sora grabbed at his hand, catching it and bringing it to his face for a split second to brush his lips against the older boy's fingers. When he let go, he was pleased to see Riku's face turning a far deeper shade of red than warm ups had ever caused. Sometimes, Riku was cuter than anyone would ever guess. Not that he'd admit it, or that Sora would point it out. He would just enjoy it while it lasted.

To Riku's credit, his face had returned to is usual level of flushed by the time they finished their ten laps and stopped at the front of the gym. But Sora thought he might see if he could get the other boy to blush again before class was over.

He didn't try anything during stretches, or during their first ten minute match against Roxas and Axel. It was closer than anyone would have expected—Sora and Riku wouldn't have admitted to treating it as a warm up more than an actual match, especially since Roxas and Axel really seemed to be trying their best to win.

"They work well together," Sora commented, grinning as his twin and Axel rotated with the rest of the outside teams to begin a new match.

"Yeah. Them being friends is way better than Roxas hating him."

"Wonder if Axel asked him out yet."

"Probably."

They dropped the conversation as their new opponents, John Rolfe and John Smith, occupied the other half of the court and took their places.

"Looks like Seifer doesn't want to play with us," Riku mocked under his breath, and Sora grinned as he bounced the tennis ball in preparation for his serve.

"He's afraid of getting hit somewhere even more sensitive."

Riku laughed as Sora sent the ball over the net and began the match.

They didn't lose to the Johns, either, or to Jim and Hercules after that, though it could easily have been argued that Hercules did most of the work for them. He really didn't know his own strength, and rarely managed to keep from sending the ball halfway across the gym instead of in-bounds. And so Riku and Sora remained the Undefeated Champions of Tennis when Coach Xaldin dismissed the class to the locker room to shower. They loitered in the gym, letting their classmates go in head of them with the excuse of helping Coach Xaldin put the equipment away. Sora made sure all the racquets were properly hung up on the rack while Riku counted the tennis balls that had been returned to the mesh bag by their fellow students, making sure all thirty of them were accounted for.

"Ready?" the older boy asked, turning and subtly checking that they had the gym to themselves as he slung the bag over his shoulder.

Satisfied that the racquets were undamaged and safe to transport, Sora straightened and grinned at the other student. "Yep!"

Together, they hauled the equipment to the storage room, Riku carrying the bag and Sora pushing the rack along. They were familiar enough with Coach Xaldin's system that putting everything away took a matter of minutes, and they habitually locked the door behind them.

"Think the locker room is full of crime lords?" Sora joked, jiggling the door handle just to doublecheck it was latched and locked.

Riku didn't try to hold back his smirk. "Oh, definitely. They're planting all those contraband erasers while everyone's busy showering."

Slipping his hand into Riku's and lacing their fingers for the short walk to the locker room, Sora let out a laugh. "Right! There's no escape. I'm definitely going to prison."

"Guess I'll have to find a new boyfriend."

"Oh, please. Like you'd ever be able to replace me."

"Mmm, I dunno," Riku gave Sora a sly look, "I could probably find someone a little less annoying than you, Brat."

"You'd be bored with them."

Smiling in a soft way that would have seemed out of place to anyone else, Riku lifted his and Sora's hands and kissed the brunet's fingers. "Probably."

Sora ignored the blush that immediately colored his cheeks in favor of giving Riku a real kiss, albeit a quick one, before they separated completely and went into the locker room.

To his great disappointment, Sora found himself faced with exactly zero crime lords. The locker room looked the way it always did during the thirty or so minutes after gym ended. Teenaged boys showered in shifts, steam drifting near the ceiling, clothes and towels discarded wherever there was a dry—or at least not entirely soaked—surface, and the usual voice or two singing above the noise of the showers that may or may not be joined by the rest of the class, depending on the song and how brutal Coach Xaldin had been that day. The normalcy of it was a welcome sight. Despite their joking, Sora and Riku weren't really interested in seeing Seifer attempt to make good on his threats.

Going their separate ways, the two set about their own processes of getting ready for their turn at the showers.

They were, as expected and planned, the last two in line. It was their usual place, and hopefully the long wait would annoy Siefer into giving up and leaving. By the time they made it to the showers and actually got to bathe, it had been a good twenty minutes or so since class had ended and many of their classmates had showered, dressed, and gone.

The quieter it got, the more attention Sora paid to the sounds echoing around the locker room. He'd heard voices fade and the door close, and then silence aside from the running water of his and Riku's showers. Were they alone?

"Roxas?" the brunet called, pausing with his shampoo bottle in his hand.

"Yeah?"

Relief flooded him and Sora began washing his hair. "Are you gonna wait 'til we're done?"

"Yeah. Axel's here, too."

"I won't let any fights break out," the senior's promise carried easily over what little noise there was.

"Thanks." Relaxed now, Sora enjoyed his shower and let himself smile to hear his brother talking with Axel while they waited.

Ten or so minutes later, both Riku and Sora turned off their showers and began to dry themselves, eventually emerging with towels around their waists to climb the stairs back up into the locker area.

"We'll wait outside the door while you get dressed, okay?" Roxas didn't move as Axel opened the locker room door, waiting for Sora's approval of that plan before leaving.

"Uh," Sora glanced at Riku then back at his twin, "okay."

Holding the door open just enough to slip through, Axel waved a hand at the brunet. "Don't worry, we saw Seifer and his buddies leave a while ago."

"We'll be fine," Riku said before Sora could say anything, already at his locker and sorting out his uniform to get dressed.

Roxas gave Sora one last chance to protest before following Axel out into the hallway when the brunet didn't say anything.

Still, there was a tightness in Sora's chest as he went to his locker and pulled out his regular uniform to dress and go back to the dorms. Seifer hadn't tried anything besides shoving him right at the beginning of class, and there was no way the older boy would give up so easily. It made him nervous that nothing else had happened, and he was hasty in pulling on his boxers and pants.

The sudden slam of metal and a shout made Sora jump so badly he dropped his shirt, shoulders hunching all the way up to his ears; he was too startled to turn, frozen in place as his brain scrambled.

"Get off, asshole!" Riku's voice was gruff and angry and muffled, the words hardly recognizable.

Sora whirled, his pants hanging a little loose around his hips, bare feet slapping on the tile floor. And there, standing before him with a smug smirk that Sora would have loved to sink a fist into, was Seifer. Just behind him, Riku was being held against the row of lockers by Rai and Vivi; they'd caught his wrists behind his back, and Vivi had a hand over his mouth to keep him from making enough noise to get Roxas and Axel to investigate.

"You didn't think you'd get away with busting my nose, did you?"

The question drew Sora's attention back to Siefer and he glared. "I knew you'd try some cowardly shit like this."

"Cowardly? What's cowardly about a little one-on-one payback?"

Jerking his chin towards the scene taking place just behind the blond senior, Sora crossed his arms over his bare chest. "Two on one isn't very brave."

"They're just keeping him from interrupting."

Sora rolled his eyes then raised an eyebrow. "You really think you can beat me by yourself?"

"A brat like you? Without your boyfriend to protect you?" Seifer laughed harshly and took a threatening step forward. "I'll do more than break your nose."

The statement set Riku to thrashing against the hold Rai had on him, his teal eyes furious and locked on the back of Seifer's head. It distracted Sora for just a moment, and gave Seifer the opportunity he needed to throw the first punch, hitting Sora square in the stomach. The wind was knocked out of him and he fell to his knees, curling in on himself as his gasped and coughed.

"Sora!" His name was barely audible behind Vivi's hand, and he couldn't bring himself to look up and see the expression on Riku's face.

A hand grabbed his still-damp hair and pulled, forcing his head up, and Sora bit back a pained whine rather than let Seifer hear it. The senior was still smirking, and it made Sora want to kick in his knee cap.

"Not so tough without your bodyguards." He drew his fist back and landed a blow to the brunet's left temple, his knuckles colliding with the bone around Sora's eye as he yelped. The force of it knocked his head to the side, and Seifer's grip on his hair ripped more than a few strands from his scalp before he let go.

Sora curled again, hands going to his face and cupping around his aching eye as tears welled and spilled over. His shoulders shook.

Gloating, Seifer looked back towards his friends, then stepped to the side so Riku could clearly see Sora on the floor. "Crying like the annoying little brat he is," the senior taunted, and Rai and Vivi laughed even as Riku wrenched against their grip.

Sora lunged, taking advantage of Seifer's distraction, his arms catching around the older boy's knees and buckling them so that they both went crashing to the floor, Seifer shouting the whole way.

"Get off me!" Seifer kicked, trying to break the hold Sora had on his legs, but the brunet had his arms wrapped around the senior's knees and refused to budge, not even looking up when the locker room door burst open.

"Oi!" Immediately, Axel had Rai and Vivi by the backs of their collars, dragging them off Riku and holding tight enough that they'd choke themselves if they tried to pull away.

"Sora!" Before Roxas could even reach his twin, Sora was on his knees and scrambling, using the weight of his body to keep Seifer down long enough to come face to face with the senior. There, he put a knee across the older student's ribs and grabbed the front of his shirt with his left hand.

"You want a god damn sucker punch, Siefer?" he growled, right hand fisted and ready to come down on Seifer's already bandaged face. "You want me to kick your ass while we make your friends watch, you pathetic piece of shit?"

Whether he knew better, or he was just stubborn, Seifer didn't reply to that. No one moved. Six pairs of eyes watched Sora, waiting to see what he'd do. Finally, his glare turned to disgust.

"You're not even worth bruising my knuckles," he muttered, dropping his fist, and Seifer sneered at him.

"Can't even throw your own punch?"

Sora almost hit him. He deserved it, definitely, and he really, really wanted to, for Riku's sake, if not for his own. Getting sucker punched was bad enough. Knowing that Riku had been made to watch it happen was worse. Instead, he leaned down close to Seifer and looked him dead in the eye, voice low and even.

"If you ever bother my brother or my boyfriend again, I'll break your nose so badly it'll be crooked for life. Got it?"

Defiant, Seifer refused to respond, his greenish-blue eyes furious and his lips pressed together in a thin line. Sora narrowed his eyes then let go of the other boy's shirt, rising to his feet with a little steadying help from Roxas. When he was on his own two feet again, his gaze went straight to Riku, to the bruise already forming on his cheek from where Rai had shoved him against the lockers, and to how he rubbed at his wrists to ease the pain from the bigger student's grip.

Without a word, Sora pulled away from Roxas' concerned fussing and went to the silver-haired teen, his hands coming up to gently cup Riku's face as their eyes met.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, not noticing when Axel not-so-gently removed their attackers from the locker room, with Roxas' quiet but merciless assistance.

"Fine." As gently as he could, Riku brushed his fingers over the swelling around Sora's eye, close enough now to notice the scrape Seifer's knuckles had left. "You're bleeding."

"I'll clean it in the dorm." Sora offered a weak smile. "Guess I couldn't take him, after all."

Riku shook his head, teal eyes vanishing behind lids and silver bangs for just a second. "He sucker punched you. In a fair fight, you'd have kicked his ass." Sighing, he let his hand drop to hold Sora's cheek and lowered his gaze. "At least you knocked him down. All I did was watch."

"They got you first 'cause they knew they couldn't take you head on, Rik. It's not your fault you're too much for them to handle."

Finally, the older boy smiled just a little at Sora's teasing. "I'm pretty sure that's exactly my fault."

Stroking his thumbs over his boyfriend's cheekbones, Sora grinned and leaned in close. "Yeah. I'm just glad you're not too much for me." He didn't give Riku the chance to comment on that, choosing instead to kiss him firmly.

Riku returned the kiss without a second thought, nevermind that they weren't alone in the locker room. He didn't care about Roxas and Axel seeing. He didn't care about anyone seeing. He cared that Sora was hurt and he hadn't been able to do anything to stop it, and he never wanted that to happen again.

When they pulled apart, Riku immediately took both of Sora's hands in his own and laced their fingers together.

"I don't want to be a secret anymore."

Sora smiled and leaned his forehead against Riku's, gently squeezing his hands. "Me, neither."

"Oh, man," Roxas interrupted, drawing the gaze of all three of the other students, "Kairi's gonna have a cow."

The only response was Axel's echoing laughter.