53.
Roxas stumbled out of his bathroom, naked as the day he was born, completely uncaring of the fact, and collapsed onto his bed. Everything hurt. Everything. It was as if the pain-receiver in his brain saw every part of his body as the enemy and was too shocked and confused to control it. He had nothing left to throw up and he knew in the back of his mind that he probably should eat something since it was nearing ten-thirty already. But the sheer effort that required and the already blinding pain that coursed through him shot away any sort of appetite.
'Holy fuck, if you're gonna die, just die,' he said to himself, squeezing his head between his hands and into the mattress. He'd just taken a shower, and his duvet would have easily dried his skin, but already he was sweating again.
Roxas screamed, unrestrainedly, until he was left panting. Hands slackened by his head, and hooded eyelids began to close slowly until, finally, sleep came.
Sora unbuttoned his collar with one hand and mechanically created keycards with the other. Twenty rooms, one card per guest, meaning two cards each, except for the pilots' room. He swiped each card, inputting the bedroom and breakroom information on the machine, swiping again, then putting the cards in their little jackets and marking them with the room number. Soon, a little pile of numerically arranged card-jackets was ready for distribution. Sora wiped the sweat forming on his forehead.
"Yuffie, I'm done with these," he said to the woman in the adjacent pod.
She stopped in the middle of typing to look at him, taking in his state. "Thanks, kid," she said in a relatively softer tone. "Hey, are you feeling alright?"
Sora was leaning one arm on the counter to steady himself as he turned to her, smiling. "I'm fine."
"Your face is really pale." Yuffie walked closer. "And you're sweating. Are you sick?"
Dropping the smile to breathe a little more generously, he replied, "I dunno. Maybe."
"Well that's not good. Why don't you go home? After the airline's come through, there's not a whole lot of check-ins today anyway. I can hold down the fort." She grinned momentarily. "You look like you're about to pass out. Go home."
"But I'm already here. I might as well stick it out."
"Sora," she said, instructively. "You're not getting paid to be here. If you were in school and they saw you like this they'd send you home too!"
Sora groaned, not finding the energy to argue with her. He wanted his bed. He began to fiddle around his slacks for his bus pass, when a muscular, dark-skinned man entered the lobby.
"Yo, Yuffie! The new letterheads are here." He dropped two large boxes on the floor beside her pod and passed her the machine and attached stylus.
"Hey Barret, can you do me a favour?" she said, signing for the deliveries.
"What's up?"
"My little protégé here isn't feeling so hot. Can you drive him home please? I don't want him passing out on the bus."
"Yuffie, I'm fine. Really." But the weakness in his tone defeated his cause and in less than twenty-five minutes he was trekking up his porch steps.
The front door shut behind him and he groaned in relief to be home. Stepping out of his shoes in the foyer, he made for the kitchen like a zombie, desperately in need of juice or something.
The orange juice in the fridge had just a little over a cup left so he drank straight from the carton. Gulping quickly, the coldness chilled his throat, and he let the last of it sit in his mouth for a bit, while breathing heavily through his nose. Because sometimes when you're so thirsty, you drink everything but then your mouth is still couldn't afford that, when he'd just finished the carton. Feeling his salivary glands start to realize they were getting hydrated, Sora fished out his phone as he slowly swallowed.
Cloud was strapping several packages to the back of his bike when his pocket buzzed.
Fr: Sora
Hey dad, they sent me home early.
I'm gonna try to hit the grocery store later. Do you or Sephiroth need anything?
Sent: 11:16AM on /03/15/10/
After emptying his pockets onto his desk, Sora stripped off his work clothes and sighed at the feel of his skin finally being able to breathe. Maybe a day off wasn't so bad. So that he could breathe too. Being at home definitely helped him relax. He wasn't inexplicably out of breath like he'd been earlier, but he still did feel tired. Changing into a light, cotton undershirt and flannel lounge pants, he quietly made for his brother's room.
Roxas was naked. On his stomach. And asleep.
This was good.
Throwing a portion of his brother's duvet to make a Roxas'-buttcheeks-wrap, Sora climbed in next to his brother and dozed off.
Fr: Your Father
Are you taking the bus? Just get what you can carry home.
Don't worry about the rest of us. We have cars.
Will you feed your brother? I'll give you money later.
Sent: 11:28AM /03/15/10/
Riku sat in the cafeteria looking through his homework that was due next period, and absently eating his lunch. When he looked up, he became very disappointed, very quickly.
Axel was in one of his flirt-stances (the casual lean, slight tilt of his head, and the unwavering gaze on his target – the latter being a guise to convey that to whomever was on the receiving end of Axel Fair's piercing green eyes, had the man's full attention. Worked on the girls a lot more than one would think). And in front of a girl he was. Riku recognized her as one of the cheerleaders with Larxene, because for some odd reason they all seemed to have the same ponytail height. Larxene mentioned it once. He'd thought it was weird then too.
'Axel…' The flirt-stance became 'the move,' wherein Axel closed in on the girl, his upper body centimeters away from hers and he dipped his head to murmur in her ear. Riku scoffed, and looked back down at his books. He'd seen this many times. He knew where it was going.
'You ass. I'm staying out of this one.'
When a friend does something stupid, you stay out of it, right?
A chill travelled up his spine at the thought of the last time he'd tried to 'stay out of things.' But no. 'This isn't the same.' This was PDA, as in public. Exactly! Public Display of Axel. It wasn't the same as last time.
When Roxas woke up, his first instinct was to turn his neck to face the other way. When he did, he regretted the motion. His eyes squeezed shut at the dizziness that took him. Swirling, spinning, rocking back and forth in the darkness… He groaned. Feeling disoriented, he told himself to open his eyes so his body could remember that he was indeed stationary.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he croaked.
Sora yawned and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palm. "They sent me home early," he said, sitting up to look down at his twin. "How do you feel?"
"Like shit," he mumbled, half his face smushed against the mattress. He tried to keep his eyes open, but he just felt so tired. But if he kept his eyes closed for too long, he'd feel dizzier. But he was mentally awake, so he couldn't just fall back to sleep. He groaned again, blinking rapidly.
"Have you eaten or drank anything today?"
"Not yet."
Sora spied a half full water bottle of Roxas' floor. "You want some water?"
Roxas gagged this time. For some reason, water was the nastiest thing he could drink when he felt nauseated. Perhaps it was the trauma behind having to take so many pills with water and remembering the taste of some of the pills that he just couldn't swallow on the first try.
"I'll make you a sandwich," Roxas heard amongst the waves his mind created. He felt like he'd lay there for hours, fighting sleep and fighting nausea.
How long had he been asleep? When had Sora gotten home? Was it his fault he was sent home? Would Sora get in trouble? What would Cloud say?
"If I wanted to act, I wouldn't drag other people into whatever I'm deluding myself with."
He sighed. 'Sorry, bro.'
Sometime later, Sora came back with a plate of sandwich and a mug of coffee. He placed them on the little table next to the bed.
"Dude, the room's spinning."
"Come sit on the floor." Sora opened Roxas' wardrobe drawers and tossed a pair of boxers in Roxas' lap. Sora then remembered that his phone was still in his own room so he set the plate and cup down, and went to get it. When he came back, Roxas had donned the underwear and was sluggishly moving to the floor, his face blank and posture ragged. Sora sat beside his brother against the bed. "Eat."
"Thanks, man." Roxas' movements were slow and unsteady, and Sora sighed, trying not to watch him, but distract himself with his phone. Distraction…
"You need a distraction!" Sora said happily, unlocking his phone. "I'll play you some music."
Roxas turned to him with a doubting stare. 'There's some of that attitude!', Sora thought, happily.
"Instrumental, I promise." The brunet flipped through his music lists. "Is dubstep considered instrumental?"
"Fuck if I know." Roxas shrugged and shoved in a mouthful of ham and cheese. Sora grinned.
"Here we go, some nice Keyblade Hero OST."
Almost an hour later, Roxas nourished, and a third of the playlist done, the twins lay side by side in bed, feeling better, but still resting.
And if Sora would have asked, Roxas would have blamed it on the music.
"Sora?" Roxas croaked, and then cleared his throat.
"Yeah, bro?"
Tears leak out of the corners of his eyes, dripped past his ears and were soaked into the bed. Roxas stared up at his ceiling, breathing and sniffling every so often. Their hands were linked, fingers intertwined and all. Roxas squeezed really, really tight.
"I hate everything."
Sora squeezed back as his brother cried quietly. "Me too," he lied, but whatever.
It was some time after quarter-to-three when Sora spotted Riku exiting the school. The boy was fishing out his iPod and about to plug in his earphone, so Sora ran up behind him bringing his face as close to the boy's ears as possible. So, of course he had to tiptoe while walking to keep up.
"Hey there, sexy. Wanna rock my world?"
"Woah." Riku turned to see his boyfriend giggling at his reaction. "Hey!" Sora giggled a 'hi' before they both leant in for a quick kiss. They'd come to an unspoken, yet mutual agreement in terms of PDA; anything before making out in public, being the acceptable line. "What are you doing here? Don't you have work today?" Riku asked, putting his iPod away.
Sora shrugged. "They sent me home. I wanna go grocery shopping!" Sora hung onto one of Riku's arms. "Wanna come with me?"
"You mean: 'do I want to carry your bags'? What am I, your boyfriend?" Sora snorted a laugh and clasped one of his hands onto his boyfriend's. "Oh, look at that. I am," Riku muttered, mostly to himself as he led them back to the school. "Lemme just drop off some stuff so I have more room in my backpack."
"Woohoo!" Sora cheered, and they walked back up the path towards the side doors of the school. "Cloud said he'd give me money later, so I was thinking we could drop off what we buy and go have a date night."
"Sounds good to me," Riku said, as they crossed the parking lot. "Where do you want to go?"
"There's a-." Sora stopped, abruptly. Talking and walking. Riku, still holding his hand, looked to see what was up.
Across the parking lot, was Axel in his car making out with the same cheerleader Riku had seen him flirting with at lunch. Riku took a deep breath. Just stay out of it.
"Is that-? Give me a rock! Or a brick! Riku, gimme your shoe."
"What-?"
"I'm gonna throw it at his windshield!"
"Sora."
"Riku!" he whined, smoke practically shooting out his ears.
"Okay, why don't you just cool down, and if you want, you'll go tell Roxas later. Doesn't look like Axel's hiding it, anyway." As opposed to their dads who had been hiding it. It's not the same.
"He's over there cheating on my brother!"
"You don't know that."
"What does that look like?!"
Riku looked back at the two, just in time to see the girl undo he seatbelt and disappear below the steering wheel. Fantastic. Riku said to himself, seeing Sora scowl harder at the redhead, whose hands were visibly gripping the wheel tightly.
"Sora…" he pleaded. "It's none of my business; it's none of your business. It's between Roxas and Axel. So please, please let this go for now and just tell Roxas later?"
"You really don't want to punch Axel in the nose?"
"I really want to not start drama."
"But..."
A loud purr of an engine filled the parking lot, followed by Axel speeding out, harshly rolling over the curb on his way into the street.
"But... It's wrong." Sora looked up into Riku's eyes and something inside him clenched. He agreed. It was wrong. There were many things he'd witnessed in his life that he deemed were wrong. But if he'd learned anything, it was knowing where his place was in all of it.
Riku cupped the side of Sora's face. "After you tell Roxas, you can bash Axel all you want with him." The feel of his fingertips seemed to sooth the furrowing of the boy's eyebrows. "Now, please. Wait for me."
The silveret disappeared into the school and Sora slumped against the brick of the wall, frowning.
Hours later, when Sora and Riku hauled in four plastic bags and a backpack-full of groceries into the foyer of their house, the first thing Sora heard was Roxas' retching noises upstairs. He looked to Riku. "Maybe I should tell him about Axel when he's feeling a little better."
End of Monday
Thanks for reading!
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YHS
xDelfin
