Riku made a face as he watched Sora jump up as if his butt were on fire the minute he sat down next to him. He glared after his retreating back. Sora had been doing this all week, making up excuses to not remain around Riku for longer than five minutes. There was no way he really had to go to the bathroom that much. Riku watched Roxas pick up his lunch tray silently and stand.
"Where are you going?" Riku asked, irritably.
"Where do you think? After Sora," Roxas replied, shouldering his backpack.
Riku stabbed at his lunch. "You follow him like a lost puppy," he muttered.
"What?" Roxas demanded, almost dropping his tray.
"You heard what I said," Riku replied, stirring his pudding.
"Yeah, and what the hell's that supposed to mean?" Roxas challenged.
"Come on you guys," Namine said nervously. "Let's get along."
Roxas cocked an eyebrow. "No, Riku seems like he wants to say something, so I think he should." He would perfectly well wait for whatever snarky comment Riku felt the need to say.
Riku put his spoon in his mouth and licked the pudding off it nonchalantly. "Better run, Roxas, before Sora misses his little leech."
"Riku!" Namine said, not believing how rude they were being.
Roxas snorted. "I'll take this opportunity to feed your jealousy, then," he replied, stalking off in the direction Sora had escaped.
Riku glared after him, attempting to open his chocolate milk carton. "Stupid little brat I should-FUCKING milk carton!" Riku used all his frustration and ripped the carton apart, spraying all the girls sitting there.
"Ewww…" Kairi said, getting up to go to the bathroom. "What is wrong with you, Riku?" she took Namine's hand and they retreated to fix their clothes.
"Yum!" Selphie replied, licking the milk off her cheek. "You shouldn't be so grumpy about it, Riku. It'll turn out alright."
Riku didn't agree, sitting there with chocolate milk dripping from his hair, a dark scowl on his face.
Roxas found Sora at his locker, tapping his taplight on and off pointlessly. Roxas leaned against the locker bay.
"Sora," he said, attempting to get the brunette's attention.
Sora kept his head inside the locker and tapped, the little light illuminating his face and throwing it into darkness in a slow rhythm.
Roxas pulled on the back of Sora's collar and shut his locker. He effectively pinned Sora to it after it had shut. "Stop doing this."
"Doing what?" Sora replied with a sideways glance and a sigh.
"Avoiding Riku like he has the plague. You're causing more problems for yourself," Roxas pointed out. Sora was horrible at concealing secrets or masking the fact that something was bothering him.
Sora leaned forward and placed his forehead on Roxas' shoulder. "I can't," he sort of whined. "Riku's my best friend ever, but he like-likes me! But I don't like-like him. But I hate seeing him grumpy!"
Roxas sighed and ruffled Sora's hair gently. "Well he's grumpy now, so stop it. You have to pick something, Sora. You have to confront him or you have to ignore the fact that he likes you. You can't just keep avoiding him like this because then other people are subject to his asshole ness." Like me, specifically.
"Fiiiiine…" Sora muttered into Roxas' shoulder. He just wanted to hide there for the rest of the day, if he could.
Roxas was about to kindly remind Sora to make up his mind soon, when there was the brief and distinct feeling on a hand slapping his ass. He yelped and practically crashed into Sora, holding onto him to prevent him from falling down.
Both boys watched Tidus' chuckling back walk away. "Get a room, you two. And next time, invite me."
"That's ugly," Roxas said, shaking his head as Axel held out the most hideous plate he'd ever seen.
"Then what's less ugly?!" Axel asked, putting the plate back in its display. Roxas was trying to help him pick stuff out for his apartment, but Axel only went for the tackiest stuff he could find.
"Why don't you just get something plain?" Roxas asked, pointing to a stark white set of dishes with a very conservative, rounded design to the pieces.
"Bo-ring!" Axel said, shaking his head. He picked up some non-traditional, angular dishes. "This ones cool. It comes in red! Score," he squatted down to find the box that matched the display.
The two walked out of the store, Roxas having been employed to carry half of Axel's bags. He groaned as they arrived at the bus stop, and sat down on the bench to wait. "I sure hope you're getting a car soon," Roxas complained. "Can't you build one from scratch, yet?" Taking all this stuff on the bus was going to be annoying.
Axel laughed and sat down next to him, putting his arm up and around Roxas' shoulders. He squeezed his shoulder lightly. "Yeah, right. I don't actually know how to do much past an oil change, yet. Soon, though. Maybe I'll even take you on a date in celebration when I do get one."
Roxas rolled his eyes. "Not in a million years, Axel." Which, it would probably take him that long to get a car, anyway. "Not that I'd need to worry." He stood up as the bus pulled to the curb and they got inside.
"Aw, c'mon Roxas. You know I'd show you a good time," he elected to loom over Roxas as the blonde sat down with all their bags.
Roxas ignored his come-ons and looked out the window as the city passed them. He was quiet for a minute, until he noticed Axel's knees knocking into him repeatedly. "What?" he asked lazily, looking up at the redhead.
"What are you thinking about?" Axel asked, curious.
Roxas shrugged. "Just wondering what Sora was up to. He's supposed to be hanging out with Riku and knowing him he's wrecking the whole thing."
Axel reached over Roxas to pull the request stop cord. "You sure seem to think about him a lot," he commented. "Not to mention spend a lot of time with him lately."
Roxas looked back at him, eyebrows slightly furrowed. "What are you getting at?"
Axel shrugged, picking up his bags and holding onto the railing as the bus jerked to a stop. "I dunno. You just seem particularly attached to him is all."
Roxas didn't stop his slight frowning, not even all the way up the steps to Axel's apartment. Riku had sort of mentioned the same thing, but Roxas knew for a fact that some of it must have been spurred by his jealousy.
"I don't see how that's a bad thing," Roxas finally said, placing his bags on Axel's counter in the kitchen. He felt a hand envelope his wrist and he turned around, only to be pressed up against the counter with Axel's weight.
"No," Axel said, Roxas almost seeing a predatory look in his eyes. "Its just that I've never had a rival before. I guess it could make the game more interesting."
"Game?" Roxas practically squeaked, not being able to back up any further or the counter would start digging into his back. "Axel-"
Axel used his index finger to lift Roxas' chin. "Oh, come on Roxas. Its cute when you act innocent but don't act dumb. What have you been thinking my flirting was this whole time?" He trailed his hand down Roxas' arm.
Roxas turned his head to the side, to avoid Axel's eyes. "You're never serious about anything, why should a little flirting be any different? You're just thinking weird things is all." He wanted to dismiss it as such, because this felt like it was going in a direction he really, really didn't want it to.
Axel dipped his head down and craned his neck a little to be in Roxas' line of sight. "I don't know if you've experienced anything like it yet, but I can feel my heart beating fast in my chest when I'm close to you. Haven't you ever felt that?" he asked, almost hopefully.
Roxas tried with all his might not to meet Axel's bright green eyes. There was a mess in his stomach that he couldn't identify, but he knew if he looked at Axel it would multiply, and turn into what he thought might be guilt. Along with an overwhelming feeling of stupidity that he'd never picked up on something that Axel had thought was so obvious. "Sometimes…" Roxas managed to say quietly, and he swore he heard Axel hold his breath.
"…when I'm close to Sora," he finished his sentence almost under his breath, as if he were just now making the discovery.
Axel backed off and stood up to his full height, running his fingers through his hair and the breath he had been holding came out in a large sigh. "That's what I thought," he muttered, pressing his palm to his face briefly.
"Axel, um," Roxas begun, not quite sure what to say. Axel interrupted him with what sounded like a little bit of forced laughter, and patted him on the shoulder just once. "Don't sweat it, okay?" he told him, tearing into one of the bags they had brought home.
Roxas shuffled his feet, wondering if it was appropriate for him to go home right now, or stay there. Needless to say, he didn't really want to leave. "We're still…best friends, right? Even though I don't-"
Axel gave him a playful shove. "I said don't sweat it. You are not going home till you help me put all this crap away." He proceeded to shove the box containing the dish set in his hands and gave him a short half-smile.
Sora lay on the floor in the middle of the living room, where we had collapsed as soon as he got home. Running around on the beach, sparring, and generally being rowdy with Riku had worn him out. Not to mention the short awkward conversation before they parted, where Sora had been officially labeled as the only person in history to resist Riku's charm.
Roxas entered the door and found his housemate sprawled out on the floor. He stood over him and nudged him with his foot.
"Guess we had similar problems," Roxas told him, not finding the floor very comforting right now. He remained standing.
"Then Axel did…?" Sora had suspected as much. Roxas hadn't been there to hear all the stuff he'd said when he saved his ass back then.
"Yeah," Roxas said, shrugging. "Axel was so great about it, though," he looked down at his stomach. "I guess I couldn't help feeling a little guilty."
"I know what you mean," Sora replied. He sat up and drew an imaginary target on the wall across the room. "I guess I'm the target he missed," Sora said, holding out his fingers in the shape of a gun and aiming at the invisible spot.
Roxas decided that crashing on his bed sounded way more awesome than the living room floor, and headed towards the stairs that led to his room. He wondered why Riku had come to the conclusion that he'd missed his chance with Sora. What was his reasoning? Roxas paused at the base of the stairs and turned back around. "Did Riku say anything else?"
"Yep," Sora replied, still aiming at the wall with his hand. "He told me not to miss mine."
"Hm," was all Roxas said, before turning back around and going up the stairs. Not much help there.
Sora turned a little and pointed his hand at Roxas' retreating back, closing one eye to aim. "Pow," he said, before flopping back onto the carpet with a sigh.