Roxas had third period with Tidus, so it was easy to walk with him to lunch. Sora joined them in the hallway and Roxas allowed him to stay with them until they had gotten their food from the lunch line.
"Uh, hey, Sora?" Roxas asked, as Sora headed towards their regular table, where Tidus could already see Yuffie recounting her great accomplishments at strip poker.
"Yeah?" Sora asked, a little concerned that Roxas had sounded uncertain for some reason.
Crap. Roxas hadn't actually thought of a really good reason to ditch Sora. "Tidus and I are gonna eat outside I think-" he started to explain.
"Oh, I'll come," Sora said, stopping his advancement towards the table.
Tidus patted him on the back. "Actually, I think we'd rather be alone. I asked him to eat with me today you know, so we could get to know each other better. Talk about sports and shoes." Roxas gave him a look. Did he just pick the randomest subjects he could think of? "Some one on one male bonding, you know since Roxas doesn't have many guy friends."
Sora's face remained in a friendly smile. "Oh, okay. Though Tidus, I don't know how much I'd consider you a guy friend…" he sort of laughed and started over to the table.
Roxas glared at Tidus on the way outside. "You made it sounds like we had a lunch date," he grumbled.
"Oh but we do," Tidus said, winking. He led Roxas to a secluded area around the side of the gym, where no one was going to see what they were doing.
Roxas grumbled and sat down with his lunch, content not to talk until he had finished it.
"So, you want to get in Sora's pants," Tidus started, downing the rest of his poweraide.
Roxas practically choked on the last of his milk. Did he have to put it that way?!
Tidus smirked, hopping off the short wall they were seated on, and pacing a little as if he were giving a lecture. "There are several important factors when it comes to kissing someone. Location, and timing! Also taking into account the person's personality."
Roxas nodded, listening carefully. He almost considered taking notes, but that would just be overdoing it. He remembered stuff pretty well anyway.
"First, take what you know about the person. Is this person romantic? Are they friendly? Closed off? Kinky? Shy?" He listed a bunch of stuff and Roxas almost asked him what kinky meant. Maybe not appropriate to ask yet.
Tidus continued. "Sora being our subject, I'm sure you've noticed that he's not shy at all, but he is dense."
"Hey!" Roxas felt like defending the jab at Sora's intelligence, even though it was sort of true. Sora didn't pick up on subtlety at all.
"Therefore, you will have to be extremely clear about what is wanted, and you will have to be the sole initiator of the action," Tidus explained. He was basically psyching Roxas up for the fact that if Roxas didn't go for it, it was probably never gonna happen. That is, unless Sora pulled one of his stunts of jumping straight in without thinking. "Secondly, Sora's pretty soft if you haven't noticed."
"I noticed," Roxas replied, his thoughts drifting back to the night with the thunderstorm and how comfortable Sora was to be entangled with.
"So this means you'll have to be very gentle with him. You can't just push him up against a wall and kiss him fiercely and passionately!" Tidus shook his head. Roxas noticed he seemed to be getting into it a little. It made the corner of his mouth quirk into a smile.
"Like I was saying. Location and timing," Tidus pointed at Roxas every time he made a point. "You'll want to be somewhere comfortable. On a bed, on a couch, sitting down somewhere. Sora's a sucker for romantic stuff, even though he'll deny it if you say so. He's the only guy that'll actually go watch chick flicks with me." Tidus nodded. He and Sora had had their share of ice cream eating romantic comedy nights. "So if you can get him under the moonlight, at sunset, in a dim room with a fire," Tidus paused and rustled through his bag for a piece of paper. "Here's a list of movies that I've compiled for you to watch." he handed it to Roxas, and Roxas looked it over curiously. He'd never watched many movies, let alone one of the ones on this list.
"Thanks?" he said, folding it carefully and sticking it in his pocket. Guess he'd have some research to do.
"So timing," Tidus resumed his lecture. "Most important of all. You can't just suddenly do it at random. And if the right time isn't coming, you gotta MAKE it. Get into a tickle fight or wrestle with him, get close to him any way you can. You have to get close to the person before you can kiss them. Here, stand up," Tidus gestured for Roxas to come over to him.
Roxas hopped off the wall and stood there sort of awkwardly. Was Tidus planning on a live demonstration? He would have another thing coming if he was.
Tidus took a few steps away. "This is not an okay 'I want to kiss you' distance," he pointed out. He moved a little less than an arm lengths away from Roxas. "This is not okay either. This is like the 'awkward zone'. Where you're standing too close for it to be normal, but not close enough to be initiating or suggesting anything."
"Uh…huh…" Roxas said, as Tidus started moving closer. He wished Tidus would go back into the awkward zone.
"So you have to be at least this close," Tidus instructed. "You can start by touching the person in some way. Don't just grab them, its too sudden and weird. You can touch their shoulder or find their hand or brush their bangs aside works really good." He pointed to himself. "So try it on me."
"What?" Roxas practically squeaked. Tidus looked fully prepared for it, too!
"I'm not asking you to kiss me, but do you want to screw it up when it's the real deal? I'll kill you if you give him a horrible first kiss," like Riku, Tidus had no problems looking out for Sora now that he was out of the running.
Roxas sighed and gritted his teeth, reaching up and brushing Tidus' bands aside. "Keep your hand on the face. It'll be easier to direct it where to go later."
"Uh…kay…" Roxas said, letting his hand trail down to Tidus' face and let it rest on his jaw. "Like here?"
Tidus grinned at him, ruining any sort of mood that was supposed to be occurring. "Perfect! Now, see this is a little weird since I'm taller than you, but Sora is the exact same height as you so you won't have any problems. If he were below you for some reason, you'd use this hand to tip his head up."
Roxas nodded, noting that it was kind of strange. He wondered how you accurately kiss someone taller than you. Not that he really felt as if he needed to know. Roxas really just wanted to kiss Sora, and that was it.
Tidus shrugged a little. "So from here on out it's a matter of intense eye contact, of which you've both got great eyes so I'm sure that'll be fun," he looked Roxas directly in the eye. Roxas sort of shifted uncomfortably.
"Last thing is to remember to tilt your head, or you're gonna run directly into his face and you'll screw it all up." He put his hand heavily on Roxas' shoulder. "From there, you put your lips together and let instincts take over." As if it were the most simple thing in the world.
Roxas dropped his hand and sort of frowned. "That's it? What about if it like…goes…past that?" He would not blush, he would not.
Tidus chuckled a little. "Getting a little ahead of yourself there, aren't you?" He hopped back up onto the wall and kicked his legs a little.
Roxas failed and turned red, feeling dumb. Tidus gave him a reassuring smile. "You just do what you feel like doing. If you're adventurous you can use your tongue. If you're feeling particularly bold you can go for his neck. Put your hands in his hair. Most people like that."
Roxas nodded. He'd lie down next to Sora a lot, just because he knew he'd play with his hair. It always felt so nice and relaxing.
"And um…" Tidus said, avoiding looking at Roxas. "You know, if he doesn't start kissing you back it's a good plan to cease and desist and apologize immediately. He's Sora so…not likely he'll punch you or be mad at you or offended. Which makes you lucky." He said this as if he'd had personal experience with the situation.
Roxas sort of stared at Tidus. He hadn't even considered that Sora wouldn't want him to kiss him. He just thought it was something he'd want to do, and therefore Sora wanted him to do it. Sora had never stopped him before when he'd touched his face or gotten close to him. Then again, it was Sora. Sora would never, ever want to hurt anyone or make them feel bad. Roxas tried not to think about what Sora thought. Whether or not Sora was just being nice, or was actually interested. He didn't want to think about it at all.
Roxas came to sit back down next to Tidus. "Thanks for putting up with me. Even though I know you like Sora…" he sighed, rubbing his face a little. "A lot of people seem to." In fact, how many other people were interested in Sora that he wasn't aware of?
Tidus slapped him on the back heartily. "No problem. Sora is like, everyone's little ray of sunshine. Everyone's just happy when he's happy, you know?"
Roxas nodded. It was true, Sora immediately brightened up a room just when he walked into it. Roxas was generally a kind of quiet and introspective person, but Sora could get him to be social very easily. He couldn't stay mopey or quiet for long in Sora's presence.
Selphie giggled a little and bounded into the lunch room just before the bell rang. She found Sora and threw her arm around him. "Lookie, lookie. I was just outside taking pictures for yearbook," she said, flipping on her little digital camera. She scrolled through her memory card. There was a picture of a bike rack and some leaves and a locker bay.
"Cool Selphie," Sora said, perfectly enthused, even if it was kind of random. He was going to politely shrug her off to throw his lunch tray away.
"Wait for it…" Selphie told him, stopping on a picture that looked like the back of Tidus. He was standing rather close to someone.
"Is that…Roxas?" Sora asked, taking Selphie's hand with the camera in it and holding it closer to his face. He scrolled to the next picture. Was that a FACE CARESS? They had definitely breached the awkward zone!
Selphie nodded furiously. "Looks like Roxas has adjusted already," she said, giggling a little and skipping away.
Sora stood there dumbfounded for a second. He'd immediately quashed any jealousy that had come up when Roxas said he was going to eat lunch with Tidus and do some 'male bonding'. Now he wondered if that jealousy was actually legitimate considering the type of bonding they appeared to be doing. Sora stood in the lunchroom with his tray and frowned.
Riku came up behind Sora, noticing that he was just standing there. "Hey-" he started to say, but was interrupted by Sora jolting suddenly and flinging his tray and eaten lunch into the air and all over the floor.
"Oops," he said, feeling dumb, and stooped down to clean up the mess.
Riku emptied his tray and came back to help Sora with his accident. "You okay?"
Sora smiled brightly at him. "Yeah, you just scared me is all. Haha…clumsy."
Riku stared at Sora for a minute. In the off chance there was something wrong with him, it was clear he didn't want to talk about it. Riku decided that if Sora wasn't alright tomorrow, he would just beat it out of him was all. Good plan.
Sora thanked Riku and started towards his fourth period, trying not to let his thoughts take over his facial expression.
Thank you so much for the reviews, everyone. All my love!