author's note: Hey! I just realised that we are almost at the 100 reviews mark! And that made me so happy. So I updated!
Also, I have a thank you. You see, I made my account when I was like... i dunno, eleven? And I was really clever and all. Whatever. Then I stopped writing, at all. Then my English grades started to slip and that was really bad because I really need to make good grades from now until I finish school (which is still quite a while away). So, yeah, i thought 'Hmm... Why not start writing again, it'll get you back into the mood and you'll rediscover that flare you had. And it really worked! I'm now getting an A average! So THANK YOU FOR JUST BEING HERE AND TELLING ME THAT WHAT I DO IS GOOD! I really mean it. :D
Cha. Enjoy. (please don't hate/kill/set a gang on moogles on me...)
-o-x-Chapter 16-x-o-
Roxas chewed his beef jerky angrily. He didn't care that he didn't actually like beef jerky, he just needed something to take his frustration out on with causing anyone physical harm. So, chewing beef jerky it was. Rikku had taught him well.
He scowled as he noticed Sora blush again. Roxas did not find what was before his eyes a pleasant scene to watch, though around half of the female, and male, population would probably disagree.
He shifted slightly to his left, towards an ever so slightly green Pence, away from three very giggly girls.
What was annoying Roxas was the way Sora and Riku would keep glancing at each other and when they made eye contact Riku would smirk and Sora would blush and Kairi, Selphie and Olette would giggle. And repeat.
He felt like standing up and yelling at them just how painfully obvious it was that they were (finally) going out and that they should just fucking admit it already. He really wanted to, but maybe the canteen wasn't the best place for that.
It didn't really matter because Kairi knew and she had told Selphie, who never kept secrets from Tidus and he'd told Pence who'd been forced by Olette to spill the gossip, which meant that Roxas knew so he, in turn, would tell Hayner - actually, Hayner didn't know yet.
"Where's Hayner?" Roxas asked, finally swallowing his beef jerky.
Pence shrugged, "No idea."
"Right. I'm going to go find him." Roxas mentally congratulated himself on finding a way to get out of the canteen that looked normal.
Pence looked at him desperately with a 'take me with you' glint in his eyes. Roxas rolled his eyes and signaled for Pence to follow him, but Olette sidled up to the brunette and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. Suddenly Pence didn't seem so desperate to get out.
Damn people in their stupid couples. They really knew how to put you down.
Seriously, there was Selphie and Tidus, Pence and Olette and now Sora and Riku! Next thing you knew, Hayner would be getting together with Kairi and Olette would start calling him Bachelor Roxas. That was not a pleasant thought.
He waved automatically as he past Demyx's table, pausing for a second when he noticed that Zexion was sitting with them, though he quickly walked on when he saw the red-head smirking at him. He was not going to blush. Well, not so someone would notice anyway.
He walked over to his locker, deciding that he may as well collect the stuff he needed for this afternoon while he was near it. As he opened it a folded piece of paper fluttered out. He frowned at it, wondering who would shove a note into his locker. It obviously wasn't a flier or advertising something because they would be scattered all over the floor, dropped by uninterested people.
He looked around to see if there was anyone who might have put it there. He found a grand total of none.
Roxas picked it up, cautiously unfolded it and read:
Meet me at the bike shed after school for the time of your life.
When he read the name at the end his jaw dropped comically.
He shut his locker and walked quickly outside and sat on the edge of the bike rack. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed his home number.
"Hello, SAS emergency line, how can I help?"
"Jess. That is really not funny." Roxas said, rolling his eyes in irritation.
"Oh, sorry, Roxas," she said. "Thought you were my stalker."
Roxas blinked. "Stalker? ...You know what, never mind. I really don't want to know. Are Rikku, Yuffie and co. there?"
"Did you just call Naminé 'co.'?"
"That is neither here nor there! Just get them," Roxas cried, officially 'losing it', "please," he added, to make it sound as though he weren't officially 'losing it'.
"Fine, Mrs Stroppy-Pants."
Roxas scowled at the loving nickname and waited for Jess to pass the phone over.
"Yo, Roxie-darling."
"Someonewantstoshagmeafterschoolroundthebikeshed!" Forget losing it, Roxas had now gone and lost it completely.
There was a long pause, and then, with equal enthusiasm – but of a different nature – Rikku replied.
"GOOD GODS! WUZZIT AXEL?!"
Roxas paused again, then said with slow deliberation, "It wasn't Axel, so don't talk to me about Axel and don't talk to me about relationships and don't talk to me about Axel – or relationships. Y'hear?"
"Loud and clear, cutie-face," replied the ever-chipper Rikku. "But you totally need to take up his offer because..." Whatever her reason was, it was drowned out by Roxas' screamed protests. "Now, now, Roxie. I'm serious. Us mere mortals are slimy folk and the only way people like you or I could ever get dates from the love of our lives is to make them jealous. By going out with... who was it again?"
Roxas looked back down at the note and gulped. He hadn't forgotten who's name was scribbled at the bottom, but he had quite hoped he had. "Seifer."
Rikku gasped and squealed. Then said, "Who?"
"Only the most popular bully in school," Roxas cried.
"Even better!"
"He wants to fucking shag me, Rikku."
"Perfect."
"I'm not the sort of person who goes round the back of bike sheds shagging people."
"That's right."
"Rikku! Are you listening?"
"I smell cookies, do you smell cookies?"
"Rikku!"
"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep."
"Damn Jess and her cookies."
.x.X.x.
At first, it had been cute – so damn cute. But now it was just annoying.
Riku and Sora were acting like imbeciles. When would they realise that the whole school knew and they could get off right there and then if they wanted to (which they obviously did)?
Kairi was, frankly, fed up. And so was the rest of the table it seemed. Pence had his head in his hands, Olette was tiredly stroking his hair, Tidus was flicking through a Blitzball magazine for the umpteenth time, Selphie was pretending to stab Riku's head from a distance with a pencil, one eye shut, and Hayner, who had apparently not heard the news from Roxas was glancing uneasily every now and then at the meek couple.
There was a small cough at Kairi's right.
"Could you please pass the salt, Riku?" asked a mild-tempered voice.
"Of course," said the voice at Kairi's far right.
The whole table watched the transaction. Sora's hand reached out expectantly and Riku's picked the salt up. When he put the cellar into Sora's hand, their fingers brushed meaningfully – but momentarily. They shared a quick, "secretive" look and then Sora blushed and Riku smirked. Yet again.
This was the last straw.
Kairi jumped up onto the bench she was sitting on and stared at Riku and Sora with a burning look in her eyes. The whole canteen was looking at her now, waiting for the explosion. Hayner snorted and, nudging Pence, said, "If looks could kill, eh?" Pence gave a weak giggle which quickly weedled away into nothingness when Kairi turned her gaze to him.
She quickly snapped her head back to Sora and Riku and said, "Right."
Pointing her finger at them she continued, "You two. Are the limit. Gawd, grow some BALLS. You love each other now and it's so goddamn obvious, boys. Now, if you don't kiss, Selphie really will stab your head with that pencil, Riku."
Kairi looked around at her crowd then, addressing them, said, "Shut up, go away. What're you looking at?" and sat down.
Sora blushed and Riku smirked.
"Gah," said the table.
.x.X.x.
Roxas clutched his bag in his right hand and the note in his left.
The bike shed was a dismal, disgusting place. No one used it anymore, because of the new shiny metal bike rack on the other side of the school. There were actual cobwebs on the windows and the wood was rotting and falling apart. He decided in that moment that he would never, in his whole life, be shagged in this dingy stinkhole... Well, there might be one... redheaded... exception.
He heard footsteps approaching. Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, thought Roxas.
It turned out to be the caretaker, called Brian, but Roxas decided that that was a sort of drill for what it would be like when Seifer appeared. He slowly berated for himself for taking Rikku's advice – Rikku's advice, for heaven's sake. The last time he took her advice he had ended up in A&E with a black eye, forty-four bleeding pin pricks from badges proclaiming that 'Scrooge's Ice Cream Parlour sells the best Ice Cream this side of Twilight Town' and seven units of alcohol inside him – or so he had been told, he couldn't really remember. He had been pissed that night.
"Roxas?"
Roxas quickly snapped out of the painful memory and looked into the startlingly ice-like eyes of the strangely attractive – gulp – Seifer. Suddenly hands were pinned either side of his head and Roxas smelt smoke on Seifer's lips.
"You came."
"Yeahh..." said Roxas, being careful with his words. "I sure did."
"So, are you ready?"
"About that..." said Roxas, he was dreadfully aware of how close their faces were and how little more pressure Seifer would have to put upon the shed until he actually broke through it and landed on poor Roxas. "I think we should wait a while, you know. So that you can... prove yourself. We could, I donno, go out for a couple of weeks and we'll just... see how it goes. ...Yes?"
Seifer stared at Roxas for a bit, trying to process whether the younger was worth it or not. "You know, usually a Senior can get whoever he wants."
Roxas blinked.
"But you're worth it. Pick you up at seven."
He was walking away and his hand was in the air as though waving goodbye. Roxas sighed and thought that maybe Seifer wasn't as bad as he had thought.
"Wear something tight."
Roxas fell through the shed.
-x-X-x-
author's note: lawls. i love that last bit. xD So, yeah, don't hate me. Just remember, it's part of the plot. And this story would totally suck if it didn't have a proper plot! And you wouldn't want to read it and... yeah...
review replies:
DorkFace - Lawls. Britain really is funny. Even though that's where i am, i still find it rather amusing. I do not know why. :D And you shall get your AkuRoku! ...eventually. Seriously, it will. Still, i'm glad you enjoyed the SoraRiku action! :D
DarkHenrych - Blimey, there were a lot of mistakes in the last chapter! Thank you very much (again) for pointing them out. I am so glad I made your day more bareable, that made me feel very good about myself. I really am glad that you love this fic. Your reviews totally keep me going! Thank you so much! :D
SarahXxUnlovedxX - Thanks :D It really was, wasn't it?
Cloaked Nocturne XV - haha. GOOD! I'm glad you did, that was the intention...
SporkFilledDeath345 - Well, you see, i have many different types of music in my head. The sad thing is, i am not even joking. No, you really don't want to know how i came up with the crazy british fangirls. You really don't. LAWLS, i couldn't stop laughing when i wrote that bit. It was so funny. You see, i was sitting at the kitchen table (with a glass of milk and a cookie, yeah i'm so cool xD) and i was staring at that very friut bowl. It really is a good thing to stare at. It helps me procrastinate. Lol. I do hope you have fun with the wizard!
Keira-93 - You were up until one am reading it? Wow, that makes me feel really happy to know that someone was actually that hooked! xD Thanks for reviewing :D
trish01chiu - Thanks :D I didn't used to be a SoraRiku fan either, i don't really know how i came to liking it... but i do xD The AkuRoku will come soon(ish). I promise. It's just... i need a plot, right? Yeah... :D
author's note: Phew. Well, i wanna say thank you to my beta again. She really rules. -salutes her-
read, review, party, enjoy life...
nirii xx