Dislaimer: Nope, still not mine.
Note: I live in Europe, so I'm using the European rules mostly, by which I mean the drinking age is 18. Specifically I live in Spain, so I'm using the Spanish rules, by which I mean very few of my fictional barmen will actually care about your age, letting Roxas and Sora get happily inebriated if they so choose. Figured I'd clear that up.
Reviews are loved and adored.
Roxas Strife
Pink is so named because – with the exception of the black walls, floor and ceiling – everything in the place is pink, I'm sure that would have been hard for you to figure out by yourself. The rails around the sunken dance floor are pink, the bar is pink, the bar stools are pink, the booths and tables at the edge of the bar and the tiny lamps on said tables are all pink. This effect is of course completely lost since it is a club and thus the entire room is fucking dark anyway with the exception of the (pink) strobe lights that flash sporadically. If it wasn't bad enough that everything is pink, half the stuff is also…fluffy.
Pink is designed to kill masculinity. That's not just a theory, since I'm pretty sure the lighting induces tiny seizures. Although apparently that's just how Sora dances.
Even though Pink is the place testosterone goes to die, they play good music and it is usually pretty packed – both things conducive to a good club atmosphere. Because if there are so many people you can barely breathe, at least no one will notice you should you choose to dance like a retard. Or like Sora.
By one a.m. I'd been dancing for a little over two hours and a thin layer of sweat had spread over my skin as I moved to the collective beat of songs I was paying little to no attention to, ignoring the feel of the nearby bodies pressing against me – some purposefully and others accidentally. By five-past-one I was stood in the restrooms with my t-shirt pulled up a little and my back pressed against the cool blue tiles on the wall, waiting for my hearing to recover and contemplating a trip to the bar for a bottle of water and thinking about stubbing out the cigarette held half-heartedly between my teeth. The men's room at pink is the only thing in the whole place that doesn't take after its namesake, but only because I one day found myself with a lot of blue spray paint, some free-time and a heavily intoxicated Cloud.
And a heavily intoxicated Cloud is pretty much the most willing-to-do-what-you-tell-him creature you'll ever come across.
And so with my eyes closed and my hips swaying slightly with the soft throbbing of music from the other side of the door, I was surprised when a hand flicked me on the sliver of stomach that was exposed. My eyes snapped open and I made out the familiar, bleary Alcohol-Smile of one Tidus Jecht.
I did the only thing you can really do in the face of a drunken Tidus. I pulled my top back down, dropped my cigarette in the sink and sighed.
Tidus is a nice guy, he really is, until he gets a couple of drinks in him – and I am talking a couple – and then he'd happily shag anything within a five-mile radius, and often makes that his goal. I'm guilty of having been on the receiving end of a drunken-Tidus-snog. Then again I don't think I know anyone in my age category in Twilight Town who hasn't. Tidus even tried it on with Cloud one time, but only one time. You know how the expression goes, once kicked in the balls, twice shy.
"Hey Roxy."
"Hi Tidus." I responded warily, ran my tongue over my teeth and shuffled a foot into the perfect position to ram my knee into his crotch should the situation demand it. Just in case he's feeling frisky.
"How are you?" He asked. Only it was less of a question and more of a leer.
"Good." I responded evenly but knocked one foot against the toe of his shoe. Maybe only other Strife's recognise this gesture as 'back the fuck up' or maybe Tidus was just too inebriated to notice my expression, because all he did was stare at my shoes for a minute and then look back up just as blearily and still with the Alcohol Smile plastered on his face, blonde hair drooping a little and cheeks overly shiny and red.
He leaned forward, almost tripping over one of his own feet and pressing one hand on the wall by my head. The only thing that stopped me from sucker punching him was the thought that, in the morning when he was embarrassed and apologetic, I'd feel bad for having rammed my fist into his gut. Then again if he got any closer with the leer that was beginning to spread across his face, I might do it anyway.
"So…" His index finger curled into the belt loop on my jeans and both my knee and fist twitched in anticipation. "Would you be interested in-"
"No."
"We could-"
"No." I snapped uncurling his finger and shoving him away from me. He stumbled slightly but was otherwise undeterred. Handling him with a firm hand seems to be the only way to get a drunk Tidus to piss off. That or find Wakka, who then drags him off, locks him in a car and leaves him to sleep it off. Or puke. I don't envy Wakka in role of best friend.
"Aw, c'mon there's-"
"Still no."
With his expression dropping into a confused frown, Tidus regarded me for a moment, noted the tensed stance and the scowl and …didn't give a shit because he was already off his face. The leer was back a second later and just as he was moving too close into my personal space a hand dropped onto his shoulder.
"The lady said 'no'."
My stomach dropped and then flipped and then couldn't decide between the two and settled into a knot somewhere in the middle. My eyes caught up and snapped to the face that went with the hand. I felt the brief bewilderment crinkle into a scowl, deeper than before and I'm pretty sure I was pulling what Sora affectionately refers to as my Angry Face. Crazy red hair, vibrant green eyes and upside down diamond tattoos. It's a pretty unique description and the second my brain registered exactly who it was a flock of butterflies - would 'moths' be more manly? - set off in my stomach and goose bumps rose on my bare arms that had nothing to do with the cold. Hormones are a bitch.
"Go fuck yourself." I snapped at him. Sure, I should probably be nicer seeing as he seemed to be on my side in the battle of Drunk Sex Against a Wall versus Fuck Off, also because a rather large part of my brain was trying to get me to flirt with him, but I do tend to snap before I think, and he had just called me a girl.
Axel's lips quirked into a smirk and he tilted his head slightly as though considering the request, I licked my lips unconsciously. He didn't have time to respond though as Tidus promptly dropped out of his grasp and to the ground, his head in his hands as he murmured "I feel sick."
I sighed. Axel stepped over him and leant against the wall beside me, one of his sleeved arms brushing against mine and the heat of contact made me jerk slightly. "Fancy meeting you here."
"Yeah, imagine that." I replied deadpan, even as the knots in my stomach twisted again, softly tried to remind me not to be a total dick, and were promptly ignored. "You stalking me, Alex?"
His smirk froze momentarily and I managed not to look smug. But then he'd used his shoulders to push himself off the wall and was mimicking the position Tidus had been stood in not so long ago, one hand on the wall beside my head, face a polite distance away but body leaning towards me.
"Axel." He corrected on a breath – as quiet as he could manage whilst still being heard over the pulsing music beyond the walls, his free hand making its way to softly tug on the hair behind my ear, his fingers brushing my scalp in a way that made me close my eyes for a second and shiver, and then he was leaning even closer, his lips brushed the shell of my ear when he whispered, "A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?"
"And is there a last name I should 'memorize'?" I asked by way of totally evading the Pinned-You-Again situation I was finding myself in. Or at least I tried to ask, it came out weaker than I'd intended and sounded like it was verging on a whimper. Christ, if I could kick myself in the groin I would.
"Valentine."
And then I made a noise that was probably a laugh when it started but ended as a grunt – because wasn't that just fucking perfect? Axel Valentine. Right. If someone was going to swan into my life one morning and immediately occupy my thoughts for the rest of the day, it was only fitting that he should be called Valentine. I relayed this series of thoughts by softly muttering "Of course it is." In a voice thick with amusement and disbelief and still vaguely, accidentally sultry beneath that.
"Why is that funny?" He asked, still in the breathy tone, the one that was probably being used much too soon in our relationship, having only met twice before now.
And then I made a mistake; a very vital mistake. Not exactly a 'Woops, I stood too close to the cliff edge and now I'm plummeting to my death' kind of mistake, but on a hormonal and emotional level maybe it was something to that effect. Only much smaller than literally tumbling off a cliff. All I did was glance up. My eyes settled on his lips for a second, my brain absently noting the height difference between us, meaninglessly storing away the thought that if I chose to kiss him, if that was something it should ever cross my mind to do, I'd probably need to be on my tiptoes.
And then I glanced further up.
His eyes were on mine, a little hungry, a little softer than they had looked in the coffee shop. Equally as vivid and stunning and breathtaking and – I've been reading far too much Mills & Boone. But there you have it. Our eyes locked, my skin was tingling from a current of electricity that must have been coming from his fingertips on the soft patch of skin behind my ear and my heart skipped a beat at the intensity of the green gaze.
And wouldn't you know it, I suddenly found myself on my tiptoes.
But I couldn't tell you whether or not that would have made up enough of the height difference.
Considering the fact that two people had so far slipped into the men's room without me noticing, I think it says something about Sora and Riku that when they came into the room the door flew open and slammed aggressively into the tiles and for a few seconds the air was pounding with music and flashing with the lights from outside before the door swung shut on its hinges. Then again, the second thing to register in my brain was the fact that while Riku's eyes locked onto my gaze, Sora was wrapped around him like a scarf and the sounds of tongue and lips smacking gave me the impression that he wasn't just pressed into Riku's neck for a snuggle. I felt my cheeks begin to flush and I spared a glance at Axel who had followed the direction of Riku's gaze back to me, his eyes now flicking between the two of us and a tiny crease forming in his brow.
"Why'd you stop?" I heard Sora murmur as Riku ushered him forward closer to the three of us already in the room. Then he grabbed Sora by the shoulders and spun him around. It took half a second for his eyes to land on me and Axel then-
"Oh my GOD!"
Tidus head snapped up as though someone had just screamed directly into his ear and his head swivelled laboriously towards my twin. Sora was staring at me with rounded eyes and a slightly open mouth, like he was trying to decide how to continue. Riku had slung himself over Sora's shoulders and was looking amused and smug.
It occurred to me that I was pressed against a wall with someone who technically counts as a total stranger very close to me.
In light of this I shoved Axel back a few steps and tried not to look like a deer caught in the headlights. I failed. Miserably. And now Axel was shooting me a confused glance with a raised eyebrow.
"Is this Pin Man?!" Sora yelled – although whether he was yelling due to the deafening music outside or his surprise to see me I couldn't be sure.
There was a general pause before Riku ventured. "What?"
"Pin Man!" Sora said again, as though it was obvious, and I was using his distraction to shuffle away from Axel, who in turn was staring at Sora with a quirked eye brow and an expression of confused wonder. Sora has that effect on people. "The Pinner! The guy that Pinned him!"
Oh God I want to die. Why do I tell Sora these things? Why do I still assume after seventeen years of this that the boy has any ounce of tact? My cheeks were beginning to feel hot with the force of my blush and I noticed the way Axel stance suddenly became a lot more self confident.
"I think we need to choose one term of reference and stick to it." Riku responded with an amused smile, his expression flicked to me, still on my quest for distance. "Rox." He said in the soft, long warning tone parents use when they've just found a child eating glue. "What were you doing?"
I glared in respond and noticed the annoying lack of cowering. "I'm in a restroom what do you think I was doing?"
Riku's lips twisted upwards into a smirk and Sora's eyes widened. "You were about to have sex?"
"What?" I snapped and by now I'm certain that if I blush any more my face will just explode. "No! We're in a bathroom!"
"Of a club!"
"Still a bathroom!"
Axel seemed to have recovered from his temporary silence and asked, "Is that your brother?"
I sighed, "Yes, this is Sora. And that's his limpet. We call him Riku."
"Riku Argent." Riku smiled pleasantly holding out a hand over Sora's shoulder.
"Axel." He shook his hand and I narrowed my eyes momentarily, accusingly, because Riku better not steal my tingles. I sound like a girl. "Valentine."
Sora and I watched this interaction dubiously.
"You know, I remember when you were young and virtuous." Sora suddenly said with a soft nod of his head and a reminiscent tone. I covered my eyes with one hand and pinched the bridge of my nose because, fuck me, I wanted to be somewhere – anywhere – else. "You wouldn't be like this if you'd just stop working in that sex shop."
And now everyone's eyes were on me and it was Axel I glanced at first, a look of 'I have no fucking clue what he's on about' in place as I desperately willed Sora to Just. Stop. Talking. "Sora, I work in a Coffee shop."
"Yes." He agreed solemnly. "But we all know what that's code for."
"It's code for coffee!"
"A likely story!" Sora responded, now pouting. "Sometimes you are totally craptastic!"
"What? What have I done?"
"You might claim to be doing nothing but I had evil plans of sexual activity in the restroom of this club, and your presence has ruined them."
Well, at least now I wasn't the only one feeling ridiculously uncomfortable. Axel cleared his throat and stared at a tile on the wall.
Riku gave a bark of laughter and then settled a thoughtful gaze on me, "I told you he had evil psychic powers when it came to your sex life."
There was a communal silence before Sora and I 'ew'ed.
Tidus stared up at us groggily, "Has any one else noticed that everyone in this room is at least a little bit gay?"
That seemed to kill the conversation. I shuffled nervously, not really wanting to look at anyone else in the room but feeling several eyes on me.
"I'd like to leave now. Sora, you inherit Tidus." I said on a groan of deep embarrassment.
"I'd be more than happy to…uh…escort you out." Axel commented with a wary eye on Sora. And strangely enough I couldn't imagine anything better. I gave a small nod as consent.
He got the message, putting a hand between my shoulder blades and steering me towards the door. "Uh, nice to meet you Riku, Sora."
"I've got my eyes on you."
"He's been drinking." Riku winced.
"Six shots doesn't-"
"It does when you're short."
"Roxas is the same height as me!"
"And can handle his alcohol better."
Sora muttered something that sounded vaguely insulting, I guessed I was right since the last thing I heard was Riku asking "Do you want me to leave you on the floor with Tidus?" before the door to the restroom was opened and I was ushered out into the thickening crowd of people.
I didn't stop among the dancing mob and I didn't check to see if Axel was following, I just made my way onto the street and stood watching my breath puff out in the freezing, early morning air. Ah sweet relief, fresh air that isn't accompanied by the insanity of Sora.
"Weirdly enough," A voice said behind me. And yeah, that answered that question; Axel had come outside with me. "I'd still like to follow up with trying to get your number."
I shot him a sideways glance. "After that? You deserve a medal."
He smiled, "Is that some sort of consent?"
"Might be."
"You know what else works well as consent?"
"What?"
"Actually giving me your number."
I smirked and said nothing, heading back into the club. I was in the mood for more dancing.
Cloud Strife
You know what's a weird thing to find yourself doing on a Friday night, less than an hour before you make your way to your friend's house for youthful jubilance? Checking bank statements. It's never a fun thing to do, but just a particularly odd thing to be doing at this particular time.
It's not that I find it a riveting activity, just that in the shower my brain was ticking over numbers, checking mental boxes; when did we last go food shopping, how much did it cost, do we need dental check-ups anytime soon, should me and Roxas wrangle Sora in for a haircut, etc. It just happened to occur to me that a few numbers didn't match quite right.
And so here I am, looking at bank statements.
And so when Leon called and asked what I was doing, I responded: "I'm looking at bank statements."
There was silence on the other end for a moment. "Why?"
I sighed and dropped the sheets of paper to the table surface. "My Dad has been sending less and less money recently. Sora and Rox got summer jobs so I didn't notice till now."
"So what's the problem?"
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes; Leon has his own apartment and his parents pay for anything he wants anyway. He's well off, not on the Argent scale of rich, but well off. "The problem is that with the amount he's been sending I'll barely be able to pay for this month's mortgage let alone the food and electricity bills."
"You have a job." He responded unsympathetically. "So do your brothers. Your sister sells some art."
"Cousin." I corrected absently staring at the numbers of the page, though to be honest I usually don't make the distinction. "They have jobs so that they have money to buy things for themselves. They got summer jobs to have a little money saved; I'm not going to ask for it to pay the bills."
"The bills for the food and electricity that they eat and use," Leon responded, still sounding unimpressed with my predicament.
"Why did you call, Squall?" I asked, using his actual name, because he was pissing me off.
"Are you coming over?"
"I arranged it; of course I'm coming over. I'll be there in forty minutes."
"Come over now."
I sighed, opened my mouth to argue, paused, sighed again.I had to ring my Father, but I guess I could make the phone call brief.
"I'll be there in ten."
**
Zack and Aerith had arrived early and were pulling up outside Leon's apartment building when I got there. I glanced up, having been deep in thought and staring at my shoes since I parked my car in the official lot for this section of buildings. I stared at them blankly for a few seconds before my brain kicked in and I managed to drag up a smile from the only part of my mind that wasn't currently panicking or balancing out numbers.
"Cloud!" Aerith cried as she got out of the car, a beam splitting her face and making me feel guilty for the mock grin currently adorning my own lips.
"Aerith!" I held out my arms to hug her but Zack tackled me from the side and It took a great deal of effort not to go tumbling onto the grass.
"How's it going, Spike?" Zack asked when I finally hauled him off me.
I shrugged.
"Ah, same as usual then."
I nodded.
"It's a wonder you and Leon didn't die of boredom without me."
I shrugged again. Zack cuffed me around the back of the head and I laughed, slinging an arm around Aerith's shoulders and heading towards the doorway. "Your fiancé appreciates my silent, sensitivity."
"When we first started dating, Aerith thought you were a mute."
"She did not."
"She did, she asked if you spoke in sign." Zack grinned wickedly at me, and I'd have called him out for bullshitting but for the faintly pink tinge Aerith's cheeks had taken on. I laughed and glanced back at Zack.
"Christ, what did she think of Leon?"
Aerith cleared her throat quietly and I glanced up to see said man stood in the doorway where we'd usually have to buzz his room. He stared stoically at us – and if The Duo reckons I do stoic they probably think Leon is a statue – before a small smile cracked his features and he responded in his soft voice "She probably thought I was a model example of a young man."
"Who spends too much time lurking in doorways." Zack added striding up the stairs and giving Leon a quick hug with the heterosexual pat-on-the-back – because Zack's gay day's ended that time Roxas caught us making out on the couch –and shot him a critical look. "And why exactly were you hovering so far from the sanctity of your apartment rooms?"
I gave a small grin at this and the words were on the tip of my tongue, ready to roll off, I was about to say 'Because I was on my way over'. But before I got the first syllable out Leon had uttered "Checking my post."
"You aren't holding any post."
"No post to check."
"I sent you a letter." There was a pause for a moment and then Leon's eyes flashed triumphantly.
"No you didn't."
Zack just grunted and walked past him into the apartment. Me and Aerith exchanged a look, inquiring if that particular scene had gone straight over the other's head too. And yes, yes it had. So we moved on.
Aerith detatched herself from me and hugged Leon too and I gave a mock salute. Once inside and heading up the stairs Leon caught my arm. "You ok?"
I looked at him, clearly asking why I wouldn't be ok. He shrugged. "You were staring at your shoes pretty hard."
I sighed, "A few…issues. It's family stuff, nothing for you to-"
"We'll talk about it later." He said, turned and set off after Zack and Aerith towards the elevator.
I stared at his back for a few seconds before quickly tagging along after him and muttering a "Yes, sir," under my breath that he couldn't possibly have heard. He tilted his head to me and grinned as much as Leon ever does.
Damn his bat-like hearing.
**
We'd stayed up until the early hours watching movies that we constantly talked over and playing drinking games designed to have you off your face in seconds. Yuffie demanded a game of spin the bottle since, for once, we had a perfectly even ratio of Male to Female. Leon refused to join in because it was childish. I ended up making out with Tifa under the table. Because Yuffie's rules are not the same as any normal persons.
It was around four in the morning when I sat at the table in Leon's ample kitchen space, him leaning against the counter opposite me whilst I watched the ice float around in my cola; cola that would have been much better with vodka in it.
"So what's the problem?" Leon asked in a soft tone, barely audible and I glanced at the open door to the living room where Yuffie and Tifa were sprawled on the sofa sleeping and Zack and Aerith had gone for some 'fresh air' on the balcony.
"Dad." I responded bitterly.
Leon nodded, took the seat beside me, sprawled his legs out, slung an arm over the back of my chair and waited patiently for me to continue.
"He says he's not sending anymore money once the twins turn eighteen." I sounded tired, even to me. Not the 'I've been up far too long drinking and laughing and generally having a good time' kind of tired, the 'I shouldn't be the one having to worry about this' kind of tired. "They're going to be eighteen and he says he doesn't see why he should have to pay the bills for a house he doesn't live in."
"But…you're his children."
"Apparently not, apparently once the twins hit eighteen we no longer count as children and he feels under no moral obligation to support us, Nam and Dem's parents send a little money but it only covers their share of the bills and they send it directly to Dad. " I shrugged. "I figure I can at least wrangle him into paying his mortgage, but knowing my dad his response to that would be to put the house up for sale, and I don't think I have a cardboard box big enough for all five of us to live in."
"You could stay here." Leon informed me softly, barely above a whisper and not looking at me, his eyes had followed my gaze and now we both watched the ice stay stationary ever as a rotated the glass. "Riku would be happy to have the twins – Namine and Demyx could-"
"No." I said, softly but firmly. "I want to stay together. I want to stay together in our house."
"You could talk to your mother."
"I haven't spoken to my mother in nine months; I can't imagine she'd be pleased to hear from me."
"She's your mother of course she'll be pleased."
"Ok, but I don't want to talk to her. She left. And she let Dad leave, you think at least one of them could take it upon themselves to look after their offspring, however fucking begrudgingly they do it." I hissed, taking a swig of the drink in my hands. Leon's eyes followed me.
"So we'll get you some money." He said simply, as though I hadn't thought of that. As though the thought had never crossed my mind, and when Leon said it like that – so matter-of-factly – I almost believed it was that easy and maybe I really just hadn't thought about it.
I smiled a little and cocked my head towards him. "You don't say?"
"Sure," He smiled a little in response, or at least a tiny twitch at the corners of his mouth that substituted as a smile. "I know people."
"This is sounding a little Mafia-ish"
He laughed, "No, I mean I know people who might have jobs open. Proper jobs. Full time, nine-to-five, want-to-shoot-your-brains-out jobs, but jobs nonetheless."
"Don't ever go into motivational speaking, Leon, you'd send the population numbers spiralling downwards."
"Stop joking about it, Cloud, I'm trying to help." He said it as a reprimand though he never altered the soft tone of his voice.
"I know you are. I appreciate it." I took another drink, his eyes followed again, this time they stayed on my lips after the glass had left them. Then they flicked to my eyes.
"You don't have to do all this by yourself." He told me, and the arm he'd slung over the back of my chair moved a little, one of his hands moving upwards, fingers curling in the small hairs at the nape of my neck, directing my gaze towards him and I closed my eyes briefly before I met his gaze. "I know it's hard and I know that they are your brothers and your family, but you aren't a parent Cloud. You can ask for help when you need it."
"I know." I whispered back.
"Then why do you never ask me?" He said it softly and I marvelled at how we could still hear each other when our voices had gone so quiet.
"I don't want to be a burden." I replied honestly, simply. And it's true, because when Dad got a job that kept him away I couldn't help but feel he wanted to be away, and when Mum left for Destiny Islands I realised that for so long we'd had our parents trapped together, unhappy and unloving and we hadn't noticed. And I didn't want to do that to someone else. "I don't want you to feel like you have to help me."
"I don't." Was the immediate response, tacked on when I'd barely finished my sentence, "I don't feel like I have to help, I just want to."
His thumb moved, caressed a few comforting circles into the nape of my neck. I turned my face fully towards him, his expression strangely unreadable and his eyes fixed on me like he couldn't look away if he tried.
"We'll get you some money." Was all he said, and then Aerith and Zack stumbled in giggling and Leon withdrew his arm.
