Author's Note: Yo, bubs. I have an Important notice for you all! I've got a new story up! It's called Just Great (yeah, it was on my account before but I took it down, re-worked the plot and rewrote the story). Check it out. I'm pretty sure that if you're enjoying this you'll like it :D
Anyhoo, I think you'll like this chapter. And… don't ask about the first bit. It sucks, I know.
ENJOY!
-o-x-Chapter 21-x-o-
Sora sighed contently and snuggled down more into Riku's chest. They were lying on the main couch in the living room watching 'Scrubs'. It had to be the coolest television show ever. Those matching purple plastic suits that JD and Turk had were to die for. They really were.
He brought his head up as he felt Riku shift. "Sorry!" he said quickly, sitting up.
Riku frowned at him slightly in confusion, "What for?"
"Um… It doesn't... I don't know. Do you want anything?"
"Well, I didn't want to move you 'cause you looked so damn cute but I'm kinda thirsty actually." He said, grinning lopsidedly.
Sora blushed, because even though he was actually, technically dating Riku, he still gave into silly little habits, "You should have said. Come on, I wanna make a smooooothie."
Riku laughed lightly and took Sora's hand as the brunette stood up and led him through to the kitchen.
Sora stopped in horror in the doorway, not believing the scene he was seeing before his eyes.
"…they were in the in the workshop mak- well, I'm sure you can guess. But then Ms. Lockhart found them. It wasn't a pretty scene, I can tell you. They're lucky they didn't get suspended. Then again, if it had been a male teacher they probably would have, I guess they were just lucky."
"Yeah, I remember Demyx telling me about that. He was so scared that I would yell at him or something."
"Really? I can't imagine you ever shouting at him. Except over-"
"-a small gap."
Laughter erupted from the two adults sitting at the breakfast bar. Sora gasped and gripped Riku's hand tighter, whimpering slightly. His mother was exchanging pleasantries and small talk with his arch nemesis: Mr. Highwind, the Head of Physical Education and Health at Millbrook High. What was the world coming too?
"Sora? Don't stare at people like that, it's rude and makes you look gormless." Jess said, beckoning for him to enter the room.
The brunette looked nervously back at Riku who just rolled his eyes and pushed him forward lightly. He tripped and fell forward. Jess raised an eyebrow at him.
"Say hello, Sora," she said, indicating her 'friend'.
Sora gulped nervously, "H-hello Mr High-"
"Sora, do you see a whiteboard? Or smelly locker rooms? You're not in school," Jess mocked, her arm jerking as though she wanted Sora's brain to catch up with the situation – and quickly.
The brunette was confused by this statement, "Um… what? …Oh! Hello… Cid?"
"Good boy, that's much better. Now. Be gone!" she waved him away.
Sora gratefully ran out of the room, grabbing Riku by the shirt on his way. He heard more laughter coming from the kitchen.
"Oh, and make sure you have safe sex, boys. There's a heath teacher in the house!"
The laughter grew louder.
Sora sometimes wondered if he had done something terrible in a past life because he sure was paying up for something now.
"Hey, Sora," said a voice next to him. Sora turned and was forced onto the sofa by an eager Riku.
Maybe he had been a little bit good in his past life... Maybe he had been a lot good in his past life.
-x-X-x-
Rikku choked on her apple and cinnamon muffin in surprise, "You think what?" she almost screamed. Naminé signaled for her to keep her voice down.
"I was only suggesting it. I wanted to know what you thought," Naminé whispered, looking around to see if anyone was listening in. Fortunately, Yuffie was doing a very good job of distracting everyone on the DDR machine.
"But… why? Roxas is only using Seifer, under our instruction, to make Axel jealous. He's acting, remember?" Rikku would not even consider accepting that Naminé's suggestion might be true. Roxas would never like someone like Seifer. He was too… Rikku couldn't find the word to fix in there. It wasn't the fact that he was arrogant because Roxas quite liked that… He just wasn't the kind of guy Roxas would go for. Sure, he was good looking - and he definitely knew it - but there was just too much of something… and there was something missing too.
"Roxas can't be that good at acting, can he? I mean, if I didn't know what was going on I wouldn't think twice about them being a couple," Naminé stated, biting her lip in a mixture of confusion and agitation.
Rikku didn't reply for a while, she was observing Roxas and Seifer, deep in thought. She supposed they did look like your everyday couple if you looked at them through a stranger's eyes. Seifer had an arm around Roxas' waist, Roxas was smiling up at him and they were having what looked like a perfectly normal conversation. Every so often they would kiss, and there was nothing strange about that either.
"I don't know… Don't you remember in Junior High when we did Snow White in drama class? Roxas really was a very convincing tree."
Naminé rolled her eyes, deciding that she obviously wasn't going to get and sense out of Rikku right now. She jumped as there was a loud crash coming from the other side of the amusement arcade. Yuffie had apparently given up and ran off the dance machine, tripped and crashed headlong into Marluxia who was sent tumbling into a change machine. Fortunately, everything looked in tact. Marluxia seemed to disagree.
"Rikku, there is no point in lying to yourself."
"I'm not. Roxas can't like Seifer. He just… Urg, I don't know." Rikku scrunched up her face in annoyance.
"You know, you know really. Um… that didn't make sense. I just think that he might. And if he does, well, I suppose that's great. Because we only started this whole plan to get Roxas and Axel together so Roxas would be happy, didn't we?" Naminé pointed out logically.
"Yeah, I know. But Seifer's so… He's so I'm-Bigger-Than-You-So-I'm-Going-To-Steal-Your-Candy-And-Eat-It-In-Front-Of-You-Then-Give-You-The-Wrappers-So-It-Looks-Like-You-Ate-It-All," Rikku whined, "And Axel's so drool worthy!"
"You do have a point there. But still, the whole point of this was for Roxas to be happy, and if Seifer makes him happy then we'll just have to accept it."
"But you're only guessing this, right? You don't actually know that Roxas likes Bully-Guy?" Rikku asked hopefully.
"Well, yes," Naminé confirmed.
"Good. Hmm. I hope we can find out soon."
-x-X-x-
"Roxas? What are you doing?" Zexion frowned at the blonde boy who was currently ducking behind him.
"Don't move!" Roxas whispered. "I need to get away from Seifer for a bit."
Zexion froze and looked over to where Seifer was being distracted by Yuffie, "All right. On the count of three move to the right."
"Right."
"Okay… One… Two…" Zexion whispered. "Three!" He grabbed Roxas' right arm and they ran to the food court.
Three short minutes later they stopped outside a classic red, yellow and white McDonalds. Zexion released his grip on Roxas' arm and fell into on of the many chairs surrounding them.
"Th-Thanks, Zexion…" Roxas panted, leaning his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
"Don't mention it," The grey-haired boy replied, waving an airy hand dismissing it.
"Urg." Roxas joined his friend, sitting down on the red chair next to him. "I've been with him for almost three straight hours and he had asked me at least eleven times if he has 'proven himself' yet. It's so goddamn annoying."
Zexion nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, he's very persistent, isn't he?"
"Just a bit," Roxas snorted.
"It's working though," he added.
"What is? You don't- You don't mean- I am not going to shag Seifer! Just- no. Just no. I'm just not." Roxas screwed up his face in disgust.
"No, you imbecile," Zexion rolled his eyes at the blonde. "I mean it's working on Axel. He's been glaring at Seifer all day."
"…Really?" Roxas asked hopefully.
"Haven't you noticed? Everyone else had. That's why Larxene stormed off earlier."
The blonde's jaw dropped, but it was quickly replaced by a triumphant grin.
"Hmm. I thought you'd like to hear that. Don't get your hopes too high though, they are still together, remember."
Roxas' grin slipped slightly and he nodded. "I know."
"Have you actually had a proper conversation with Seifer?" Zexion asked, clearing his throat.
"Yeah… Well, sort of. He's very interested in you guys. Especially Hayner. Which is rather odd. Maybe he's planning to use what I'm saying about him to insult Hayner next time they have a fight. Hm. Whatever."
"I see."
"Yeah," Roxas said, leaning back in his chair, "he's actually alright. Sometimes. When he's not- well, you know."
"Yes. Have you spoken to Demyx yet?" Zexion inquired.
"Um, no, not yet. I haven't really had a chance with Rikku, Naminé and Yuffie being here and all. But… They're going back tomorrow." He said wistfully.
"Yeah, Demyx told me." Zexion said, patting his shoulder awkwardly.
"Yeah." Roxas was most certainly not looking forward to tomorrow. In fact, he was dreading it. He'd be all alone again. Well, not really, he had all his new friend, but it wasn't the same. He had just grown accustomed to having those three girls there whenever he needed them again, and now they were going and he'd have to actually pick up the phone and dial a number if he wanted to speak to them. Talking to someone on the phone is different to talking to someone in person. It's harder to know what to say because you can't see their expression, and you can't hug someone over the phone.
"Group alert," Zexion warned. "No sign of Seifer though," he added, scanning the crowd of teenagers. Roxas felt slightly better when he said that.
"Go talk to Axel," the grey-haired boy instructed. "Now."
Roxas didn't question him and found himself walking towards the said red-head without even realising it. Wow, even his subconscious being liked Axel.
"Hey, Roxas. Fed up of being slobbered over by your 'hard ass' boyfriend?" Axel joked. Roxas could almost hear the inverted commas.
"Hmpf. You alright?" Axel was not going to talk to him about Seifer. Roxas had a head like a sieve and a mouth like a jack in the box when it came to talking about Seifer. Or so Rikku had told him, he wasn't sure whether to believe her or not but he decided that it was a good idea to steer clear of the subject of Seifer.
"Pretty good, you?" Axel cocked his head to one side, grinning slightly.
"I'm good."
"Great."
"Yeah."
"…"
Well, wasn't this a thrilling conversation?
"Your friends really are something else…" Axel laughed quietly, watching the three girls harassing Demyx and Zexion.
"Yeah, they're really- they mean… they really are." Roxas was stumbling over it words some what. His hands were clammy and he wasn't sure why. He was only talking to the person who could possibly the love of his life. Sheesh! There was no need to be nervous! Honestly, you would think he was a love-struck hormonal teenager with rather strange friends and had older guys hitting on him. And that was just silly. Gah. His stupid brain was coming unhinged again. He really needed to-
"Roxas? You alright?"
His somewhat mad thoughts were interrupted by Axel who was giving him a wary look as though he was about to be dragged off by those nice men in white coats and put in a straight jacket.
"Uh, yeah. Just thinking," he muttered.
"Sure. You pull really weird faces when you space out." The red-head smirked.
Damn it. That smirk really made Roxas get close to his limit of self-control. He turned away, telling his brain off for wanting him to stand on a table and yell "I WANT YOUR BABIES! TAKE ME NOW!" at the top of his voice. He'd only been living here for just over a month and he didn't want to be banned from the mall just yet.
"So…" Roxas scanned the room for a topic of conversation. "Have you ever wondered why Germans are so obsessed with sausages?" A bunch of German tourists were the best thing he could find. Jeez, give the guy a break.
"Don'ttalktomeaboutgermanIfuckinghategerman." Axel scowled over at the tourist as if it was somehow their fault. Which, actually, if you think about it… it kind of is. Because if there weren't people that spoke it then it would be a dead language and he wouldn't have to learn it.
"Heh. Sorry," Roxas said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
"What for?" Axel asked. Roxas' apology was delayed and he'd lost track of the conversation.
"Uh, mentioning German?"
"Oh. Right."
"Yeah."
Okay, this was becoming an awkward, stilted conversation. And Roxas hated those. With a passion. It was all Zexion's fault. If he hadn't mentioned the fact that his friends were leaving tomorrow he wouldn't be in this mess, because thinking about Naminé, Rikku and Yuffie made him think that he should be doing the next number of the list, which made him think about Axel, which made him think- actually, you really don't want to know.
'Right, time to do the next thing on the Newly Adapted List That Is Much More Suitable For Guys.'
When Roxas had got to number six he point blank refused to do it. Fortunately, Rikku didn't argue. She seemed to think that is was inappropriate and would make him look like he had replacement hips. She said that it had been Yuffie's idea anyway.
Truth be told, he was kind of wary of this one. Apparently this would be the breaking point and Roxas was really nervous because now he would find out if there was a chance Axel liked him… or not.
He took a deep breath and looked up into the red-head's eyes. Axel gave him a funny look but Roxas just remembered Rikku's instructions. He was going to follow them exactly how she said, and if it didn't work it would be all her fault. Ah, it was so much easier to blame other people than it is to blame yourself.
'Ooh, this one's really good. I love it. Right, all you have to do is look into his eyes, like real deep, for a few seconds. Then you slowly let your eyes travel down the nose to the lips. Slowly, yeah? S-L-O-W-L-Y. Got it? Good. Then you just spend around seven seconds having a fantasy, uh - I don't want to hear about that part though - and you look back up to his eyes. And Smile. Oh! How about, also, when you're looking at his lips, lick yours. Yes? Good.'
Roxas let out a sigh of relief.
'Phew, glad that's over. All I need now is Axel's reaction. Oh dear, he looks a bit dumbstruck. Damnit. That's not good. Damn it Rikku this is all your fault! When I get my-'
His head slammed against the wall in Axel's haste. Axel pressed his lips feverishly against Roxas'. Roxas returned the kiss with just as much force, perhaps more. Though, it took him a few seconds to realise what was happening. Axel pulled away for a short second in which he just looked at Roxas, looked all over his face. Roxas could see his eyes move from his own, to his nose, cheeks, forehead (oh God, did he have any spots?) and then back to his lips... and he closed his eyes and the tonsil tennis began again.
'…I love you girls so bloody much right now. ...No wait, scratch that; forget the girls. I love Axel!'
-x-X-x-
"Hey, Naminé! Check it out." Rikku called, nodding over at two figures against the wall.
"Oh my god! That is never Axel and Roxas!" she cried.
"Oh yes it is!" Rikku cackled triumphantly. "God, I'm good. Who's the daddy? I'm the fucking daddy! Oh yeah! You got it. I should think of setting up a business: 'How To Get The One You Want, The Rikku Way.' This could be the start of a whole new career!"
Naminé rolled her eyes, "Alright, calm down now."
"I can't calm down! Besides, I was right! Roxas doesn't like Seifer. Do you still think he does?"
Naminé glanced at the two boys who were getting as close to rabbiting as a public area would allow."…Maybe not."
"Exactly. I am good. Oh so very good."
-x-X-x-
Beta: hell yes, bitches. i wrote a bit 'cause i'm COOL like dat.
Author's Note: YEEESSSS! Man, I am one happy author. I would just like to point out to Peachie Bunni that you got your wish! I hope you liked it xD
Doods, do me a favour and review this chapter. I love it when you review. And I think this chapter deserves it. Just for the last section.
Read, Review, Party, Enjoy Life…
nirii xx