Okay, so I've been pretty slow with school coming up, so I decided to make the chapter slightly longer this time. A bit of explanation here, a bitchin' there, and more. If you have requests, or more importantly, suggestions, I'd love to know.
I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Before you join us, there's just one catch." Amanda said dully.
Yazoo snapped to attention.
"What, you think she's got a good reason for hanging out with those bimbos?" Axel snapped at his brother.
"I dunno, man. I know she ain't a bad person, yo, definitely not." Reno said defensively.
"Oh really? Has all that smoke finally seeped into your common sense? She's becoming one of them. Even Marluxia's getting the cold shoulder, and they're supposed to be best friends." Axel exclaimed.
"You know what, I'll prove it to you, yo. I'll go right over there and ask her myself." Reno said decidedly, getting up from the bench. Marluxia looked at the older redhead with knitted eyebrows.
"Don't do it, Reno." She said bluntly, her serious face deterring the redhead for only a second.
But Reno just flashed her a peace sign and made his way to the 'Skank Squad's' table.
Yazoo listened to their… 'terms'. Oh fuck. This was her first thought.
Well, it isn't so bad. As long as I get a chance to explain it to the others before actually doing it. I can tell them that I won't mean whatever mean stuff I'm gonna say to them. I don't need to stop being nice to them, even if Amanda, Kate, and Darienne are unaware of it.
The terms were: to show her loyalty to them by queen-bitching any one of the people at the table of her old 'friends'.
As long as I avoid them for the time being, maybe I'll call Marluxia later and tell her about it; she'd understand, I know it. I'll just avoi- oh shit, no.
Reno was coming over. And the three normally thickheaded girls noticed it. "Now's your chance, Yaz." Kate said.
I was afraid of that. The silver-head thought.
After school…
It was the end of the day, which went really badly. 'Badly' included Reno being publicly humiliated by Yazoo, followed by Yazoo (humiliated) by Marluxia, then Marluxia and co. by Amanda, Kate, and Darienne.
(A/N: Sorry for the interruption, but I want to apologize for skipping this episode in which there was humiliation but you don't know how much writer's block I was dealing with for this part of the story. I may elaborate later on, but right now I decided to skip that bit. Now we're going back to the story)
Aerith noticed that Marluxia didn't come home at the usual time, but her questions were answered when she saw an entire group of angst-ridden teens sitting outside her flower shop porch.
"Umm… Did I miss something?" Aerith asked, tentatively touching Marluxia's shoulder.
"Not really. We just followed Marluxia home." Demyx said innocently.
Aerith forgot to ask why when she saw the most miserable look on Marluxia's face.
In fact, the only other time she'd ever seen that face was when…
"Alaska!?" The brunette exclaimed.
Marluxia nearly fell off the tree branch and glared at the older blonde.
He was thirteen. Just turned a few days ago. The brunette considered himself to have taken on a big change, but this big change, he could not handle.
"It's for research. You know how it is, Marluxia, I think I've taken enough time to explain it to you." Vexen said exasperatedly.
"But you never said anything about Alaska! That's too far away. Vexen, there's no way in hell I'd let you go that far away!" Marluxia declared angrily.
The brunette jumped down and faced Vexen with a fierce look, somewhat daunted by his still diminutive height.
Vexen removed his reading glasses and stared at Marluxia's stubborn face.
"There are some things that can't go your way, Marluxia. Learn that." He said coldly.
Vexen was always cold. At this time, Marluxia had an epiphany. No, more like a question.
Why did he always want to be around someone so cold? It was… crazy? What was it, really?
Shouldn't a flower crave warmth? Vexen was the exact opposite of what Marluxia was so used to.
Maybe he was the change…the change that Marluxia wanted to know about. The change that Marluxia simply wanted.
But then he was going to leave. Marluxia didn't realize that he was crying. Vexen didn't either, until the brunette hugged him.
"You're such a bastard." He cried into the blonde's chest. He expected Vexen to push him away. But the blonde merely sighed and let Marluxia melt into the embrace with tears flowing freely.
Like a child, Marluxia said, "I don't want you to go." The brunette was back to four years ago, when he was still a lonely kid. Vexen allowed himself a moment of weakness and put his arms around the brunette.
"How long until I see you again?" Marluxia asked quietly, unwilling to be as talkative and warm as he was for the past few years. It was like the first time Vexen had met him; he was quiet now.
"As long as you've seen me." Vexen said ambiguously. It took Marluxia a moment, but he realized what he meant. Four years, just about.
When Aerith saw Marluxia come back, the boy looked strange. His expression had changed.
"Sis, I wanna talk about… how I dress." He said. "What?" Aerith looked at her brother questioningly.
"I want to change. I want to… try something different." Was his reply.
"What you did was horrible! I can't believe you could be that stupid, you fucking moron!" Kadaj didn't spare his sister from a single angry expletive, who was taking them with a stony expression.
Yes, and every single lie stung. Yazoo blinked back tears.
A bastard.
What she'd said was unforgivable.
You are a punk who doesn't deserve to be around people who try to live their lives normally.
And they were all lies.
You are pathetic. I want you to stay away from me.
She couldn't believe she'd said that to him.
"Are you even liste-" She slammed the bedroom door in her younger brother's face and broke down in her own room, sobbing her heart out more than she ever remembered doing.
She didn't even cry when her mother hurt her a long time ago. But Yazoo had lost something dear to her, by her own doing. It was all her fault.
The next day was an entirely different scene than the few days that had passed. Yazoo was now flanked by the other three popular queen bees of the hallways, and people smiled and complimented her even more.
The victory was sour to her, though, as it should've been. Her actions were rash and stupid. Very stupid. In fact, more idiotic than rash, seeing as she had enough time to think about it. Great.
"Yazoo, I know what you're thinking." Kate said 'empathetically'. Yazoo doubted it.
"It's not your fault one bit. You know that they're really dangerous. Let me show you something." Amanda said, leading her to the library.
I wonder when sis will give me back my car. Marluxia thought wistfully, hoping to get Yazoo's abandonment out of her head, but the attempt getting nowhere.
"Hey, Marxy, you okay?" Larxene queried, failing to put a sharp tone in her voice.
Axel raised a thin eyebrow and leaned over the back of his chair to look at the brunette.
"I feel fantastic. Super! Just dandy, thanks." She replied as dryly as her voice could manage. Larxene crossed her arms and knit her eyebrows in agitation.
"Those bitches must've said something that made Yazoo want to keep her away. Probably about-" The blonde began.
Marluxia barely caught the warning look that Axel gave Larxene.
"Tell me everything or I'll screw this pen up both your asses." Marluxia threatened.
Larxene was not intimidated by anyone. Axel was a stubborn person, and was disobedient by nature. But Marluxia was the exception to their laws of life.
It wasn't the threat. It was the brunette's mere presence and being that made them sway.
"Did Yazoo happen to mention anything?" Axel said after a long silence between them.
"She said you two were dangerous. Now, what is that supposed to mean, hmm?" Marluxia demanded softly.
Larxene sighed.
"It happened about a year ago. Almost two, now. Roxas remembers it too, isn't that right, shortie? You remember the 'incident'?" The blonde said. Roxas didn't even object to the nickname. His face was grave at the mention of this 'incident'.
Among the others sitting were Roxas' friends, Hayner, Pence, and Olette, who also reacted besides the already present Zexion, Demyx, and Yuffie. Even the two most hyper people at the table (Demyx and Yuffie) looked serious.
"Did someone die?" Marluxia muttered dryly.
"Almost." Zexion said.
Marluxia shut up.
The town had had its fair share of crises, but one of the most memorable one, or, more appropriately, the one they wanted most to forget was the shooting.
It was summer, so a lot of kids and teens refused to be cooped up in their homes, and so thus, the streets were filled with people hanging out here and there, talking, playing, and doing whatever they could before their summer ended.
Right then, the peace (or as much peace that could be present around the gallivanting groups of kids) was broken when the sound of shooting filled the air.
Roxas was at the usual spot. He thought it would be safe to hide there with the others as soon as he heard the commotion, but they came around, wearing those black masks and waving their guns around, and laughing their fucking asses off. Roxas wanted to forget about the disgusting laughter; it sounded inhuman to him.
When one of them pointed a gun in their faces, Roxas thought that he, Hayner, Pence and Olette were going to die. In fact, he was almost sure of it.
But Axel came. It didn't make sense; Axel was supposed to be on vacation. He should've been out of town. What was he doing home two weeks too early?
Larxene was there too. Roxas saw them holding guns. If not for their faces, the guns might have made the four younger teens run away.
It all seemed to happen in slow motion as Roxas watched Axel knock the masked guys down, notwithstanding the large number of men who were much bulkier than he was and held guns that looked more threatening than his own .45.
In the end, with only Larxene to back him up against about eight to ten guys, half of them holding what resembled shotguns, the redhead beat them all.
Axel acted oblivious to Roxas' presence when the blonde tried to talk to him, but when they started moving, Axel's grip didn't loosed on Roxas' arm as they ran through the streets of Twilight Town, chaos all around them.
Then Roxas watched in horror as Larxene shot someone. A person without a mask, not even a gun. And Larxene pointed at him straight and shot him without hesitation.
Then Larxene backed the four into a corner with her back to them, arms spread as she raised her gun to shoot anyone who came near. She was protecting them, ironic to how she usually acted.
And Axel got tackled by at least five men from all sides. Against all odds, Axel came out on top, and the ones who had attacked him probably wished they'd never been born, as far as Roxas could see.
After two hours of forever to Roxas, things calmed down as the authorities rounded them up. Axel and Larxene were taken away and sent to the Juvenile Hall for the entire summer, two months in total.
Roxas listened to Axel and Larxene's side when they came back. That's when he started hanging out with them.
He'd known Axel for a while, but they'd never really been close until the incident. Then they were closer than brothers from then on.
"That bastard? He was in on it. Made sure there weren't any cops around before they started." Larxene said coolly when Roxas asked why she'd shot the bystander.
"How'd you know?" The blonde male asked suspiciously.
"When you've got a dad like mine…" Larxene didn't bother to finish her sentence. It didn't matter anyway; Roxas knew what she meant.
Axel had gotten a call from Larxene about the plan. Larxene had heard from her father about one of the rival gangs planning the shooting. She didn't think he'd actually come back, just for Roxas to be safe.
Axel got it worse than Larxene; he wasn't even able to plead self-defense, although one could say that he went a bit too far. The ones who attacked him resembled raw beef backside when he was done with them.
After that incident, they never wanted to talk about it again.
This was just one exception, for Marluxia's sake. The brunette understood now, at least.
"Ever since the incident, Axel and Larxene have gotten bad raps around school. People are really one-sided." Demyx said irritably.
"The important thing is now, so is Yazoo." Zexion added.
"That, I hope we can change." Marluxia muttered despondently.
Comments, SUGGESTIONS, questions, SUGGESTIONS, and such are welcome.
You don't know how much I need them --
Hope you enjoyed that chapter, or at least got satisfied.
Salamat. Thanks for reading