A/N: So…I could tell you that I've been plagued with torado warnings and fear of lightening strikes…which would be partially true, it's been stormin' round here like crazy…but I don't fear the storm and am actually hoping that I die in a freak tornado. I could tell you that I've been severely depressed, which would be mostly true. My friend and I pretty much just told each other to eat dirt and die, but I write best when depressed… I could tell you that I've suddenly gotten a life, which I have. My other friends so took my side (I didn't know I had a side, but when writing this I do.) and have been taking me out to movies, plus your usual dosing of work, but I like to stay up way late.
So…I'm gonna tell you the truth. This chapter was so boring to start with, and I just couldn't get into it. I wanted next chapter to be here. But after I sat down and told myself, "Iggy, you'll be hung if you don't write this chapter", I really began liking it more. And I hope you do too.
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I'll give you coats and cheap shampoo. I'll give you nothing else to do. –Follow the cops back home by Placebo
Riku wandered away from his house, and sleeping brother, into the cold and down his street to the end of his block where he could see a car idling. Through the lightly tinted driver's side window he could see messy, messier than usual, red hair. 'Oh, good.' He thought, 'Axel's a good boy when it comes to punctuality. He ran up to the dark blue car, shivering in the cold winter weather, because he wasn't going to be outside long enough to need a coat. He opened the door on the other side and crawled in, throwing his yellow backpack in the backseat.
"Morning sunshine." Axel greeted, rubbing his green eyes that still looked a little hazy with sleep.
Riku looked at the car clock, which flashed two thirty in the afternoon at him. "It's after noon, Axel." He grumbled.
The redhead gave him an annoyed look. "Well, hell, I just got up. It's morning for me."
Riku repositioned himself in the passenger seat, strapping himself in securely with the seat belt. "What a lazy bum." He said in astonishment.
"When did you get up?" Axel challenged, pushing the car into first gear and starting down the road.
Riku shrugged, leaning forward to open the glove compartment. "At six." He shrugged pulling out papers, napkins, pens, and…deoderant? His brows crinkled in confusion.
"God damn. Why?"
"My brother got up and began banging around the house." Riku replied, pulling the cap off of the deoderant to smell it. Rain fresh, he decided, while putting the cap back on. He shoved everything into the glove box carelessly.
Axel pushed into fourth gear, watching the spedometer for a second before glancing over at Riku. "Was he having an attack?"
"No. He was just hungry." Riku said, reaching into the backseat for his backpack. "Do you mind if I have a cigarette?" He asked, pulling out his pack and lighter.
"Sure. Just don't get any ash in here and throw the butt out when your done. It'll be my luck I get blamed if you don't." Axel said. He watched to road carefully while the other lit his cigarette. "So, he's not always having an attack?"
"No. Just most of the time." He blew the smoke out the cracked window, rubbing his nose that had nearly frozen in that second it was close to the window.
They arrived at Axel's house in fifteen minutes. Riku's cigarette had been disposed of at a stop sign before they turned onto Axel's road. Riku watches the houses, white, grand, and flawless, and so much a like, pass him until they pull into the house he's slowly becoming familiar with. When they entered his house, Axel bypassed the kitchen all together and headed up his stairs into a room on his left.
"Welcome to Axel's pigpen. Try not to step on anything, it could eat you." Axel said as he kicked one of his t-shirts across the room. He sighed, "Okay. Fire away." He said as he settled into his chair across from Riku where he had crawled onto Axel's bed.
Riku sighed, pulling out a clipboard and pen from his bag. He cleared his throat, feeling a little nervous having to ask the questions, fearing he would ask a wrong question, and the other would laugh at him. He stared at the blank paper, blankly, until he got up the nerve to ask, "Where were you born?"
"Same place you were." He shrugged, taking no notice of Riku's nervousness.
"And your parents' names are Ansem and Ruxy?"
"No. Ansem and Lenore."
Riku paused in writing, staring at the paper with a blank look in his eyes. "But I thought your mom's name was…?" He asked his aquatic eyes looking over to green on the other side of the room.
Axel shook his head, 'no'. "She's my step-mom. Lenore Clarks was my actual mother. She died when I was three." He said, picking at a place on his chair, absently.
"So, Ruxy is yours and Larxene's step-mom?"
"No. Only my step-mom."
"I'm confused." Riku said, grabbing his temples in a poor attempt to wrap his mind around what Axel was telling him.
"When Larxene was three my dad and Ruxy split up for a bit. He met my mom at a bar; she was a bartender." Axel explained, with a slight shrug.
"Oh!" Riku hesitated a moment. "…How did your mom die?"
Axel pulled his hair out of his face, tying the long tresses in a loose ponytail. "I'm not really sure. Everything I know about her is from my sister. But, even she was too young to know how she died. I've asked my dad how she died, but he only says, 'Axel you mother is in the other room, just fine and dandy. And unless you plan on killing her any time soon, she'll be there for a while.'" He paused for a second, and Riku could see the wheels moving in his head. "I think he's trying to make me believe that my mother never really existed…"He said decisively.
"But Larxene…" He tried to say the name without making a face. "Surely he knows that she knows?"
"Oh, it's guaranteed. It's her favorite thing to throw at my father…especially when she thinks he's being mean to me."
"You're dad's a prick to you?"
"Both of them are." The redhead said, leaning forward in his chair. "I'm Ansem's mistake. They don't think I know, but I've heard them. They argue about it. When I was younger, especially." He cracked a humorless smile, as he began wheeling himself closer to where Riku was on his bed. "I remember when I was seven I was sitting in my room, I had just been punished for bringing a puppy home. I remember; they yelled at each other. Ruxy was so mad that I had brought that 'mongrel' home, and she said, 'If you had fixed it when that worthless bitch told you about him, if you had fixed it…'" He took a moment to let the memory course over him. "'If you had fixed it, we wouldn't have to worry about that mongrel bringing more mongrels home.'" His green eyes shot to Riku, who almost couldn't meet his gaze. "And my father said, 'I know.'"
Riku chewed his tongue for a moment, hating himself for what he was about to tell the redhead. He hesitated on whether or not to reach out his hand, knowing it was what he wanted, but not sure if he should encourage Axel and his crazy mission to become close to him. "I'm glad he did bring you home." He scrunched his face at how sappy that sounded, but in the last week, he supposed, Axel had been fun to talk to. He wasn't going to go out and admit that to Axel anytime soon, but it was definitely…interesting.
Axel cracked a weak smile at Riku's face, but, afterward, bowed his head to look at his clasped hands resting between his knees. "I think it would have been better had they sold me to the gypsies." He said honestly.
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Sora and Roxas both lay on the blonde's bed in the late afternoon sunlight. Their hands were down by their sides, and loosely interlaced between them. They had been like this for a while, talking about random things that popped up between them ranging to exactly why Roxas had had to be the shit out of Seifer to whether or not they thought it should be legal to take a bath on the main street sidewalk. Of course these conversations had been broken up with quick kisses, and threats of torture if the other tried what they were, at the time, planning to do.
"So what are we?" Roxas asked, breaking the silence for the fourth time that day.
"If I have my way, we're good ol' boyfriend and boyfriend." Sora smiled.
The blonde's eyebrows crinkled in confusion, not understanding exactly where this had come from. He didn't want discourage it of course, but it was odd, and other than the terms of endearment, and the oddly place peck that had occurred between the two last weekend, it had come out of no where. So it was only logical, in his mind that he ask, "Why?"
Sora did not think it was logical at all. "You would think that would come under the category of obvious." He said with a hint of laughter.
"Sora, I know you. You poured an entire bucket of glue over a sidewalk because you were bored."
"You helped!" Sora protested, propping himself onto his elbow to look directly into dark blue eyes.
"But I know what's going on in my head." Roxas said grabbing either side of the brunette's head and shaking, as if hoping to spark a bit of intelligence into his friend's, obviously, still-asleep brain.
"Darling, I doubt what goes on in my head is that much different."
"Tell me anyway." He demanded.
Sora brushed Roxas' hair away from his face. "What do you want me to say?" He asked.
"Anything."
"I'm drawn to you." He said simply, expounding the simplicity of his statement with a helpless shrug. "I love every little thing about you, from your mind, to your heart, to your body." He said, running his hand over Roxas' scar, smiling when Roxas squirmed to get away from his touch. "I love it when you smile, when you call me on my stupidity, when you're being an ass, which, admit it, you are sometimes. I've wanted to kiss you for sometime now, and even if what happened last night was a bust and you did have to beat the shit out of Seifer… I'm glad for it. Had last night never happened, I don't think I ever would have got up the gumption to ask you." He stopped there, staring at an orange juice stain on Roxas' blue shirt.
Roxas' waited patiently, looking up at Sora from his position on the pillow, but when it became quite apparent that that was where he was going, he became agitated that that's, of course, where Sora would stop. He didn't remember a damn question that Sora had asked in the last fourteen hours. Not even a quick, 'Are you hungry?' Bastard… His lips pursed into his customary duck face, as he asked, trying to convey as little agitation as possible, "What did you want to ask me?"
Sora's brows pulled up, questioningly, as if asking, 'Oh, did I forget that part?', but afterward he smiled as asked, "Do you want to go out with me next Friday?"
Roxas smiled a little. A quirky smile that he never really showed much, but it was there, a smile that just barely reached his eyes, but made them dance regardless. "I suppose I have nothing better to do that day."
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"Will you marry me, Namine?"
Namine, who had previously been watering plants with Marluxia, stopped mid-sprits. Her eye twitched in confusion, and she had to rub her ears quickly before asking, "I'm sorry. One more time?"
Marluxia, who had previously been pretending to water plants, but all the while had been fretting over how to ask Namine what he had just asked her, stopped pretending to pour his water can over the table. Setting the can by the ferns, he meandered, nervously towards the petite blonde. "Will you marry me, Namine?" He asked again in the exact same tone.
She cocked her head to the side, not daring to look over her shoulder where she knew Marluxia would be hovering. "Why?" She demanded, her heart picking up pace.
"What do you mean 'why'? I love you. I want to marry you. There really isn't much more to the equation than that."
Namine opened and shut her mouth confusedly, her bluish-violet eyes closing briefly, so the world would stop spinning in front of her. "You don't think this sprung from no where?"
"No."
"We've only been together for six months." She screeched, grasping her hair in her fists, as the world spun more and more out of control.
Marluxia reached his arms out as if to catch her if she fell. "You don't have to be with someone your entire life to know you love them." He tried to reason with her.
Namine didn't say any thing.
"Marry me. Right here. Right now."
"Right now?" Namine asked skeptically, her eyebrow shooting up the little bit that her face would naturally allow.
"Yes." Marluxia nodded, grabbing her from behind by her upper arms.
Namine shook his hands off, turning around and putting her hands on her hips. "And I suppose you have a minister up your sleeves?" She asked obstinately.
A small smile crept onto his slightly girlish face. "If I did…?"
Namine whined, looking around her, as if asking the plants for their opinion, but all they did was bob their heads around indecisively. They were absolutely no help at all. "How long have you been planning this?" She pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Since before I met your parents."
"That wasn't that long ago." She yelled.
"Fine. I've been planning this for two months." He sighed. "I've wanted to ask you since the second I met you though. I knew, then. I've always known. I want you." He looked into her eyes. "Marry me. Please?"
She met his eyes, the world having stopped spinning, but now there were butterflies in her stomach and she felt all wobbly. She forced her lips upwards, not entirely sure of herself, but willing to make an effort. "Okay." She breathed, still trying her best to smile as much as Marluxia was at the very moment.
Her heart hammered painfully against her chest.
Weren't women supposed to be beyond gleeful when they were proposed to?
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Riku sat at his table on Wednesday morning listening to the arguing coming from the living room of his living room between his uncle and Aerith. He would be late to his session with Vexen and Axel, and he knew that today was the last day that he would have to interrogate Axel, but he thought it would be best to stay here for a moment to hear the end of this.
"He needs to be put in a hospital!" He heard his uncle yell angrily.
"But he won't go." Aerith argued back. Riku had smiled a little earlier at the thought that this was one of the only times he had ever heard the calm and collected nurse yell. "He wants to stay here!"
"He is not getting better here!" Xemnas said slamming his hand against something, Riku only assumed the wall.
"He's comfortable here. If he were to go to a hospital he would only decay faster. The fact that he is in his own home makes him hold onto his surroundings longer. "
"If he could go to a hospital maybe he could get more professional help…"
"I'm a fine nurse and trust me when I say he'll last longer here!" Aerith contradicted, and Riku could just imagine her chest puffing out bravely.
There was a long pause, but just as sure as anything, came the quiet retaliation of Xemnas. "But he'll die none the less!" It sounded as if spoken through clenched teeth, and it wouldn't surprise Riku if it had indeed been spoken through like that. But no matter how he replayed it in his head, whether through clenched teeth, or through a lovely smile with tea and biscuits, it reverberated in his head as violently as the original statement had.
He'll die none the less…
'He's dead anyway.' A voice whispered nastily in Riku's mind.
Xemnas continued. "I'm not questioning your ability as a nurse, but as his uncle I am not looking at short term comfort…the sooner he goes…"
The sooner he goes, the sooner we can move on.
It was unspoken, but most definitely there. Riku leaned his head into his hands, rubbing his eyes with his palms. He stood up from his chair, and strolled unnoticed into his brother's room, where he could see the long knotted silver hair around the paling face. He looked much like Priti did before she had died. He crept upon his brother, something he would've feared to do as a child, but now there was nothing Sephiroth could do. He might as well have been a clown doll that lost influence as the years went by.
Riku sat on the edge of his brother's bed, staring at the gaunt face with nothing but a grimace. There was a time a long time ago, that his brother's face was tight, and cold. Riku had done much to be everything like him, and now he feared he could be maybe too much like him.
Now that he thought about it, Sephiroth had been in his senior year when he had brought Larxene home. Priti had smiled sweetly at her, but in the kitchen she had worried over whether she would stay for more than a week. It was Priti's death that had ultimately triggered Sephiroth's own disease. And it would be Larxene's leaving him that would end any want of him getting better.
Now, he was in his senior year, and there was Axel. His brother was dying, and Riku feared that he would be forced into a stage of Angel's disease. And at the end of it all he feared that when Axel and he parted ways at the end to the school year he would only get worse.
It seemed that this generation of Melosine's had a special weakness for the Wise's.
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Axel sat on his bed, his hands folded between his knees, and his head hanging limply from his neck. He felt mentally exhausted. His sister hadn't come home last night, again, for the fifth night in a row. He had waited up all night for her, and in the mean time had tried looking up information on his father's computer about Angel's disease. But what he had found was clinical information, best doctors, and a very disturbing picture of a girl in a wheelchair, with the caption, "Are you sure I'm real?"
It had been the most unhelpful thing he had ever stumbled across in the history of forever and he wanted to shoot the internet for not giving him the information he wanted. He wanted to shoot the first man or woman who had ever had Angel's disease, and then Riku for making him curious enough to look the stupid disease up. He wanted to shoot his sister's date for keeping her out so long, and then he wanted to shoot his sister for not bothering to come home. And he wanted to shoot himself for not feeling the slightest bit of hunger.
He was so out of sorts that he stormed downstairs without his mp3 player, nearly knocked his father over, and didn't even pause to grab his coat, which if it would be marked, he regretted later.
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Vexen wasn't in his room when Riku arrived, but Axel was at his usual spot at the table. His head was on the table, his hair pulled back in a messy braid. Riku had learned that Axel had absolutely no idea how to braid hair, but to give him credit it looked vaguely like a braid should. Riku sighed, heading over to the redhead, as if it were his resigned fate.
Axel didn't move at all, and Riku almost thought he was asleep. But then he heard, "You're late." In Axel's tired gravely voice.
Riku's shoulders slumped as he tugged Axel's head up from the table by the giant knot masquerading as a braid."Fun morning." He replied quietly, taking the rubber-band out of his hair, and finger-combing the braid, and the knots that followed, out.
Axel sat still, letting his hair be pulled on, but continued to conversation. "Vexen told me that he have until the fifth of January to finish our papers."
He shrugged. "Good deal."
"What's wrong?" The redhead asked, leaning his head back a little to look at the other's blank features.
"I had too much time to think this morning."
Axel sighed. "Me too." Riku finished the braid, the rubber-band now securely fastened in his red hair, he leaned his head back to rest against the shorter of the two's stomach. "Riku?" He asked. Riku's brow shot up in question. "Explain to me what Angel's disease is."
"Look it up in an Encyclopedia." Came his answer as he tried to move away.
Axel reached up with his long arms to hold Riku's shoulders, ensuring that he didn't move far away. "I don't like its definition." He said snappily, his green eyes showing his frustration, and tiredness.
Riku took a deep breath, looking up at the ceiling so he wouldn't have to meet Axel's tired eyes. "Angel's disease…" Riku paused to let a small giggle pass his lips. "Priti once told me Angel's disease was like your mind being the worst fucking dick of a hypnotist that you could ever imagine." He looked at Axel whose face he could see was lighting up with one of his crooked grins. "It's like your mind…it makes up all of these scenarios, arguments, conversations that aren't real, conversations with dead people.
"In more moderate cases," He said, shaking himself out of Axel's grip, and sitting down in the seat beside him. "In moderate cases, like first stage Angel's disease, and a moderate version of second stage, you really only think your doing things you could never do. When my brother was first diagnosed with Angel's disease he told me that he had had an in depth conversation with the mermaid in our toilet. It's really easy to help that. A good psychiatrist can tell you a good anti-psychotic that would help you deal with it."
He sighed, tiredly, leaning back in his seat. "Third stage Angel's disease is where you're body starts to stress from the disease. You always believe your sick, and so you take everything that even says that it could help with any side effect that you could have. You don't eat, because you think you ate just five minutes ago, all the time. You can actually feel like you've just digested something.
"And, fourth stage Angel's disease is just a complete breakdown of reality. You're really never sure whether you're in real life or in an attack. You sleep all the time because you're so sure you've been up for the last seven days. When you're up you're constantly showering because you feel so fucking dirty you can't stand to look at your own hands because there are these giant disgusting spots of dirt all over you. And you're so sure you've seen every movie that's come out within the last seven years."
He wrinkled his nose, taking a deep breath after that miniature speech. "But that's only what my mom's doctor told me."
"When did he tell you all of this?"
Riku cracked an obnoxious smile."After he paid me six hundred dollars for the best fuck of his life."
"Please tell me you're joking." He pleaded, looking up from studying his braid. He studied Riku's face over, looking for any sign of a joke, but found an impassive mask above all else.
But finally, Riku smirked. "I'm joking. I practically lived at the hospital the last two months my mother was in there. The doctors and nurses would talk to me when they had nothing else to do."
Axel nodded. He was going to let it go there, maybe catch up on some sleep, maybe clutch his heart for a few moments after that near heart attack Riku had given him, but curiosity had just grabbed hold of his mind. He had to know. "What got you started…you know, in prostitution?"
"I don't know." Riku said, shrugging his shoulders. "I was walking down the street with Kairi about a month after Priti died, and some asshole whistled at me. I didn't even think, I whipped around and said, 'Three hundred dollars plus hotel room fees.' The next week I was back there, and so was he and…he came up to me and said, 'Three fifty if you stay until midnight. Seven hundred for the night.'
"I only stayed until midnight. I was so disgusted with myself. I took the money and then ran to the alley behind the hotel. I didn't go back out there until a week later, wearing eyeliner and the most form-fitting shirt I could find in my closet. I thought that was pretty good dough to be rolling in, considering I only day dreamed about what the next fucking episode of Days of Our Lives would entail for thirty minutes at a time."
Axel nearly smiled, until he realized exactly how funny that wasn't. "Why do you do it?"
"Oh boy." Riku breathed, puffing his cheeks out like an orangutan in the process. "I don't know really. Not anymore, at least. At first it was like this way to get money for Sephiroth, while completely forgetting about Sephiroth at the same time."
"I would think that he would have some sort of insurance for Angel's disease."
"He does. But it wouldn't have covered therapy." He yawned, and looking at the redhead he could see that he had triggered him to yawn as well. Cautiously he leaned over, scooting his chair directly next to the other's until he could easily lean over and rest his head on the other. He knew he shouldn't encourage Axel, or himself honestly, but he was tired, and it felt right. "You see," He continued. "When Sephiroth was first diagnosed, he was still easily curable. He wouldn't have needed half the drugs he does if he had gone to a psychiatrist and gotten a good hold on himself. But, he was dating this…this girl, and she left him and it totally erased any hope of him wanting to go to therapy of any kind, including aromatherapy." Axel snorted humorously.
"Now I suppose I go out of habit. I like the money, even if I don't do anything with it. I suppose it'll come in handy if I ever need to get away, if I ever need to get away from my life."
"How much money do you have?" Axel asked resting his head on the soft lunar colored hair.
Riku sucked in a deep breath, pulling out from under Axel's chin, before reaching into his bag to grab the graphing calculator he had rented from Mr. Lexeaus in Calculus. Pressing a lot of buttons randomly to Axel, he raised an eyebrow. "Somewhere around… 468,000 dollars, give or take."
"Holy Fuck! How the hell…?" Axel screeched, grabbing the calculator from Riku to look at the digits.
"Well you figure, I don't go anywhere with anyone for under two fifty, but I usually get about three hundred. And I get about two customers per night on average." He said, pushing the buttons correlating with his speech. "For two and a half years." He pressed more buttons. "It's about that. Four hundred sixty-eight thousand dollars in a bank account my mother set up for me when I was thirteen."
"And you don't spend it on anything?" Axel said skeptically.
Riku shook his head. "No. I don't have to. You gotta think…Priti owned our house, so it's just passing from family member to family member. My uncle pays for our utilities, along with clothing, shoes, and whatever else he feels like wasting his money on (Beautiful thing about him having no kids.). There's nothing left really. Medical is covered by insurance. I like the exercise walking and running gives me, so there's no need for a car. I just stuff it in my bank."
"Damn. So you've got like…half a million dollars in there, with money your mom must have put in before she died and interest."
"I suppose…"Riku said with a shrug, leaning back over to rest on the redhead. "I don't open my bank statements."
Axel looked down at the crown of Riku's head, noting the way the light reflected off of it and made it look completely white. Without a second thought he threw an arm around the other, holding him loosely. "Riku," He asked, the question burning him from this inside out. "If you were to get Angel's disease, can you tell what stage you would get?"
Riku rotated his head on the redhead's shoulder, looking at the pale boy from under his chin. "I would be most likely to get either first stage or fourth."
Axel smiled at the irony. "So, you would get an end of the spectrum." He asked, watching Riku moved back to his own chair, but still keeping very close to Axel.
"Yeah."
"Please don't get any disease." Axel smiled, keeping eye-contact with bright, shining, so different from seeing him on the corner, aquamarine eyes.
"I'll try not to." Riku said, watching the older lean toward him. He made no effort to move forward, but he didn't lean away, content in letting Axel come to him.
Don't do it! The unsavory nasty little voice that he would figure out how to kill one of these days, spoke again. Riku was going to ignore it, as he ignored most everyone who tried to tell him what to do, but it had sounded an alarm in Riku's mind and caused him to glance around the room, finding that… "Vexen's watching us." He whispered his breath ghosting against Axel's lips.
Axel opened his eyes, which had shut on their own accord when he was close enough to Riku. He gave a quick glance to the room's entrance, which the other was fervently trying not to look at, and smirked. "Perv."
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Kairi sat at lunch with Roxas and Namine, eating whatever sludge that the cafeteria was passing off as food. It looked a little like mud from the bottom of the Loch Ness, but with some yellow-ish looking ranch, salt and pepper, Kairi found that it was easy on the taste buds. She had asked them where everyone else was, a question for which she received no reply from Namine, and only a quick reply from Roxas that Sora was serving lunch detention for super-gluing Ms. Almuerza's pencils to her desk (This was said with an expressive eyeroll, and an irritated growl.), that Riku was talking with his Uncle over something he hadn't told anyone about, and Axel was just missing-in-action.
With such clipped responses, Kairi had felt the need to stay silent for most of the lunch, until Ms. Almuerza had waddled into the cafeteria, and Roxas had high-tailed it for the exit, saying something about worthless Sora and his inability to keep his hands to himself. Of course, this left Namine and Kairi alone, with the silence more tense, and expressive than that of anything Kairi had ever felt before.
And knowing this…the silence had to leave…even if it put Kairi in mortal danger.
"Are you still mad at me?" She asked, licking her lips in nervousness.
"You've not given me a reason to not be upset with you." Came the blonde's short, cold reply.
Kairi huffed, throwing herself back against the seat, with her arms folded against her chest. "How can I if I don't even know what I did?" She pouted, her bottom lip jutting out in hopes of gaining pity.
"How can you not know what you did?" Namine snapped, her hand falling on the table with a loud, 'smack', and causing her sketchbook and empty salad bowl to jump. "You only ruined any chance of the family liking Marluxia."
"I did not! You're overreacting." Kairi said, calmly, refusing to meet the livid eyes of the blonde, who stared at Kairi with expressive eyes that clearly said, 'Are you high? Kairi faltered, slumping into her chair, and glaring at her empty tray. "Okay. Maybe a little, I did. But, Namie," She used her cousin's nickname, the one she hadn't used since she was thirteen. "He's just so old, and I'm afraid he's not going to be good for you."
"Aren't I the one who's supposed to make that decision?"
"Well…" Kairi shrugged, feeling miserable for having done anything to make her cousin upset.
"I'm happy with him, Kairi." Namine said, whipping out her left hand to put in on the table, to where Kairi could see an engagement ring (which Namine had only received Monday afternoon.), gleaming brightly in the bright cafeteria lights.
"You're engaged!?" Kairi gasped, reaching out to snatch Namine's hand for closer inspection.
Namine nodded.
"Why?" The auburn haired girl demanded, looking to the more mature of the two for an answer.
Namine snatched her hand away, quickly, leaning over the table to so that Kairi could see the intensity of her glare. "Because I'm happy with him!" She bit.
"But what if you're not happy in ten years?" Kairi pleaded, reaching back out for the other's hand, an offering which was shot down with a sneer, and the sound of a chair screeching across the tile floor.
Namine stared down at her cousin with contempt, her eyes blazing with anger. "Who cares?" She yelled, her hand flying into the air randomly, causing Kairi to startle. "Life is not meant to be a rapid succession of 'jolly joys'. If I can find just a fleeting moment of happiness, then it's just enough to make my life just a little more than an aimless wandering towards death."
She picked up her sketchbook and pencils, grabbing her smart bag and began walking towards the exit. The only thing she stopped for was to whirl around once, her eyes still angry, and her knuckles white from the grip she had on her notebook. Standing there, angrier than Kairi had ever seen her, she said, "Maybe you should invest in that theory too. You'd be less of a bitch!"
Then she was gone again, leaving Kairi alone at the table, staring at the ground with an empty expression.
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"Having fun here by your lonesome?" Roxas asked Sora from his post, leaning against the classroom doorway, his arms folded against his chest.
"Oh yes. I'm dissecting the dichotomy of good and evil." Was the estranged reply from the boy across the room, who, Roxas could see, was twiddling his thumbs.
Roxas' bows crinkled worriedly. "Discovered anything?"
"Yes. I've discovered seven pieces of fresh gum under this desk."
Roxas chuckled, taking a step into the room after checking the hall to see if the devil lady was coming. "Have you lost it, Sora?" He asked with a smile.
"I think so." Sora said, whipping around in his seat to watch his boyfriend come closer. "She took away my paper with which to write out my will incase I die of boredom."
"Maybe you'll think twice about playing pranks on teachers."
"I'll think twice about getting caught. That's for damn sure." He said assuredly, with a nod of his head.
"You're incorrigible." Roxas said, sitting on Sora's desk, with a small grin.
Sora turned back around and stared up at Roxas. "Not incorrigible. Just not likely to stop."
"I see the big difference." The blonde said with a sarcastic nod.
"Good. I'm not alone!" Sora threw his arms around Roxas' waist, resting his head on his stomach. "Thank God you came! I'm not sure how much longer I would've lasted without company. She made me listen to Spanish music, Roxas."
"Oh, the tragedy." Roxas said, running his hands through the chocolate colored hair, unsympathetically.
"You know you could pretend, you wretch." Sora huffed, wrenching his head up to glare pathetically at Roxas.
Roxas only shrugged, trying to hold back his laughter.
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"Jeez! It's cold as fuck out here!" Axel said through chattering teeth, walking down the street with Riku. He hadn't brought his coat to school, and now he was going to have to walk to Demyx's house coatless, and he would probably can pneumonia, and die!
"Maybe you should have brought your coat." Riku said, wrapping his own coat around him securely.
"Maybe you should have brought…Bite me!" The redhead growled, scowling ahead of him. He didn't see Riku whip around until too late; the other had quickly grabbed Axel's red, cold, windblown, arm and sank his teeth into it. "OW!" He yelled, yanking his arm out of Riku's mouth. "What the hell?" He glared, confoundedly.
"You said, 'Bite me'." Riku shrugged.
Wiping the saliva from his arm onto Riku's jacket, he sneered, disgustedly, "Oh, a clever chap, you are."
"Charming at the very least." Riku said with a confident swagger in his voice.
Axel grunted in agreement, stopping at the road before them. "Well, we must now part." He said, though he made no attempt at all to move away from the other.
"Don't you turn further down?" Riku asked with puzzlement.
"I'm going to go see one of my friends."
Riku's brows shot up with clarity. "Oh."
"What are you going to do?" Axel asked curiously.
"Well, I thought about going down to my corner, but…I think I'm going to go spend time with my brother. Who knows how much longer he'll remember me, you know?"
"Yeah." The older nodded understandingly. "Have fun."
He snorted. "I'll try." He stuffed his hands into the back pockets of his form fitting jeans. He took a step or two back, but it was obvious he wasn't going to go any further.
Axel smiled, happy to give Riku a reason to stay with him for a little bit longer. "Hey, Riku…" His smile faded a little, and he hoped he would take his advice. "Don't go out to Hollywood tonight. It's supposed to get to twenty below zero."
Riku looked his counterpart over, wondering if he should give in or be obstinate. It would make sense to be obstinate of course; he was always obstinate. Obstinate may as well have been his middle name. But he liked the way it felt to have someone worry about him again, and he didn't want to discourage it. "Okay." He said, with a slight shrug, and small smile.
Axel stepped towards Riku and cupped his face with his freezing fingers. "Thanks." He said.
The two of them stared at each other afterwards, not having anything to say, but feeling as if something should be done before they parted ways. So, Axel being the gentleman that he was, took the initiative to do this unknown something, and leaned down, jerking on Riku's shoulder and compelling the lunar-hair smoker to take the few steps towards him.
Don't do it. A voice chastised as he tilted his head back, wrapping an arm around Axel's neck.
He chose not to listen, the voice also having been the reason most of his life was in such a shambles. He only leaned up intent on meeting Axel halfway there.
Don't do it. The voice repeated. Or you'll end up just like Sephiroth.
Riku flinched at the thought, but refused to turn away. He knew, somehow he just knew, Axel wouldn't leave him. He had to know it. He needed to know it. He couldn't judge a book by its cover, especially if it was wearing the wrong cover.
Axel pressed his cold lips to the slightly warmer ones below him, wrapping his arms under Riku's to make sure that the younger didn't go anywhere until he was ready. They didn't demand anything from each other, and it remained a closed mouth kiss. But it was definitely one of the most sentimental kisses Riku had ever been engaged in, and absolutely the warmest he had ever felt to give anyone.
"I'll call you over break." Axel said pulling away, after a moment too long of not breathing.
"You don't have to."Riku replied; his hand slipping onto the taller's chest.
"I want to."
"Whatever you want, Prince Philip." Riku said, taking steps back, turning quickly to jog across the street.
Axel watched the other for a bit, until he was out of sight.
It was suddenly a lot colder.
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A/N: How are we all feeling after this chapter? Good? I hope so. I was soooooo close to making Riku walk away. Yeah. Feel loved, because Axel sooo almost wasn't.
Love you allllll Because! I HAVE 200 + REVIEWS! AH! I thought I was going to die of a joygasm! I'm serious, I went around my house just like, drooling in absolute awe. It's soooo sad.
And now I must leave.
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! Keep sharing the love!
InnocentGuilt