Back at Vincent's home, the raven-haired man pulled out another Hi-Potion to heal Sora's newly injured eye but the potion also healed the first injured eye more so the boy didn't completely look like a clown. It also helped heal the bruises placed all over the body. Vincent couldn't help but feel someone's going to eventually accuse him for being an abusive 'guardian' if Sora kept getting these injuries. Sora's body already looked a bit black and blue and it was only two days worth of fighting from ONE person. Unless Sora didn't mention the fact he was ganged up on but that most likely wasn't the case since Riku was the only person that got in trouble both times.
When the clock showed that school was over, Sora made his way back to his home again in hopes to continue giving Roxas some confidence boost. He hoped that his second black eye doesn't affect his efforts of doing so.
The young brunette nearly dived into some bushes when he saw Riku out in the driveway. When Naminé approached him, they both went into a van with a bunch of other teens and drove off. Of course, Riku didn't leave without doing some damage to Roxas.
Sora left his hiding place only to be greeted by Roxas hanging off the basketball hoop with rope tied to one leg.
"…How does Naminé not notice this?!" Sora exclaimed and took the step ladder he saw in the grass that Riku and his friends must've originally used to get Roxas up there.
"Oh she notices…" Roxas replied as he watches Sora cautiously climb up the ladder to untie the ropes.
"What?! And she doesn't do anything?!"
"She's not THAT sweet and innocent," Roxas stated, "Oh please don't drop me, I'm gonna get a concussion if you do."
"Don't worry I got you. But still! You're her brother! How can she watch you get tortured like this?!"
"Because Riku treats her like a princess and I'm just the annoying brother that he hates. I think even I would choose the knight in shining armor if I were in her shoes," Roxas sighed as he slowly felt himself being lowered to the ground.
"Princess? Are you sure the guy's not treating her like some whore-which she is not-and will not just throw her away after he's done with his fun?"
"I don't know…I really don't get a chance to see them together outside of school or the few moments when she says bye to me and leaves with him. But based on what she's told me, he treats her like a princess. He gets her anything she wants and is really affectionate to her."
"Affectionate? Yeah right! He's just trying to get into her pants! Or dress...or skirt…you know what I mean!"
"Dude I know you hate him as much as I do but in case you haven't notice: those that don't like him end up like me and you."
Roxas was now completely lowered to the ground safely and Sora jumped down from the latter.
"Well he's not going to get away with it!" Sora stated and helped Roxas undo the ropes on his leg.
"You sound really confident for a guy with black eyes. I heard what happened today. It sounded like you got a brutal beating."
"It wasn't THAT bad!"
"I heard the teacher had to leave the room just to bring in more teachers."
"That was true but I wasn't beaten up THAT badly!" Sora repeated and helped Roxas into a stand, "Come on, let's go struggle for a bit."
"Well I…guess so," Roxas shrugged while he nodded.
"No you won't, boys."
The two looked towards the open gate that lead into the backyard to see a shirtless Cloud in sunglasses and in another pair of Leon's baggy pants that can pass as him never touching them in his life.
"Why not?" Roxas asked while Sora struggled not to turn red at the sight of that bare body he hasn't seen in a long time. Cloud lifted his sunglasses and placed it on his head,
"I'm working on the backyard now," he answered, "Do you want to help, Roxas? And Sora? I'll take you guys out for pizza afterwards if you want."
"I don't mind. Do you want to help, Sora?" Roxas asked but the boy had his back turned to Cloud and was fidgeting, "Are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine…" Sora breathed out and quickly fanned himself.
"So do you want to help?"
"Um…sure!" Sora replied and tried to walk towards Cloud as casually as possible.
"Dad, aren't those Otosan's?" Roxas asked, pointing at the dirty gray pants.
"Yeah, that's why I'm wearing them. He never touched these but he never wanted to throw them out or donate them so I'm making some use of these!"
Sora wasn't sure if he should say anything on that but stayed quiet due to this not being his real body age-wise.
"Um, may I ask what you're doing to the backyard?" Sora asked as casually as possible.
"Just redoing it. It was a mess before. I mean worse than this! I may give myself a garden too…"
"Dad has a huge soft spot for flowers," Roxas whispered,
"Yeah I know…" Sora stated as he looked around at all the gardening tools and Cloud handed a shovel to him.
"You know?" Roxas questioned.
"I mean, uh, I would assume! It was just a feeling!"
"Right…"
The two looked back at Cloud again who walked over to hand another shovel to Roxas but not before giving Sora a long stare.
"Ah…I'm sorry, I'm just going to have to get used to this…" he apologized before walking away again but stopped, "…I could've sworn you had ONE black eye last time you were here."
"Oh he got beaten up again today," Roxas stated only to receive a hit across the arm from Sora.
"What? That's terrible."
"Oh I'm fine! Really! It was no big deal!"
"Who beat you up?"
"It was Ri-"
"No one important! We'll get right to work, Dad!" Roxas cut in before reminding Sora of the whole Riku-is-Naminé's-boyfriend-thing in whisper.
"He has to know what that guy's doing to you!" Sora whispered back.
"No! Dad's got enough things to worry about! See…my parents are getting divorced if you didn't already know. I don't want to bug him over something like this…"
"But…ugh…"
"Okay, why don't you two go dig up the dirt right over there," Cloud pointed near the corner of the yard.
"No problem, Dad!" Roxas replied and quickly pulled Sora along before he does mention Riku, "Look, my Dad really likes my Otosan. He's not exactly happy about the divorce happening…"
"He's not?" Sora's eyes showed immense interest, "Then…why are they…?"
"They've been fighting a lot; over the dumbest things too. Most of the time, I hear them fighting about when my Dad supposedly 'screwed my Otosan's life over' just because he got pregnant with Mako," Roxas angrily thrusts his shovel into the dirt, "And sometimes…I get mad at Otosan for saying that…"
"…Why?" Sora asked, never before hearing Roxas talk about this before.
"Because…he was pregnant with me and Naminé. So basically…we all screwed his life over. It makes me wonder if that mean he hates us too."
"Of course I-HE doesn't!" Sora cut in, "No man can hate his children! Well not this man at least! Uncle Vincent said they're going over custody in court! That's got to mean something!"
"I know…" Roxas sighed and leaned on his shovel, "But Otosan could at least be a bit more considerate with his word choices. Sometimes he would think Naminé and I are against him. Sometimes that's true and sometimes that's not…"
Sora's face showed a look of surprise, not believing that Roxas had lied to him half the time! Looking at the dirt before him, Sora started digging while continuing to listen to Roxas.
"I don't know how Naminé feels about the whole thing but…I really don't want to be taken away from Dad. If I had a choice on who I'll be living with, I want to stay with Dad. And I feel really bad that I feel this way because Otosan has always been good to me…even he wasn't a good father or lover, he was still a good person."
"Roxas…" Sora stopped digging and stared hard the ground, "Don't feel bad. I'm sure he'll understand if it comes down to it."
"Why you say that?"
"I don't know…" Sora shrugged as he avoided eye contact with Roxas and continued digging again, "Just a feeling…now come on! Start digging! Your dad said he'd take us out for pizza right?"
"Oh…right…" Roxas nodded and continued working, "Hey Sora."
"Yeah?"
"Um…thanks for listening. I'm sorry I started ranting there…"
"No problem," Sora turned his head and flashed a smile.
That's how it went for the next few days. Sora and Roxas became inseparatable with the exception of classes. They would go to school together and leave together (Vincent was more than happy that he doesn't have to get up early to drive Sora to school). Sora was extra happy when he didn't get beaten up again for the rest of the week. For being together, Riku couldn't bully Roxas without beating up Sora in the process that he thought the effort to do both just wasn't worth it. Especially since he can only get in trouble so many times without getting expelled. The two stuck together even more knowing they're protecting each other.
After coming home from school, they would help Cloud with the backyard and as promised, Cloud would take them out for a treat afterwards. Sora found it quite troublesome when they went for ice cream and he found himself staring at the way Cloud licked his ice cream most of the time that after a while, he just asked Roxas not to request for ice cream anymore or just not as often.
After their treat, the two would return to the house and Struggle in the front yard for a while before dinner comes and the two would finally separate.
As a bonus when the two were together was that Roxas started telling Sora everything. Roxas never spoke this much when Sora was Leon so he was happy to have this chance to be close to Roxas. He was happy to learn more about his son and just the fact that he's really bonded with Roxas makes him feel something he's never felt before.
On the negative side, he's not getting any closer to Naminé.
"I'm going to a party with Riku!" Naminé shouted as she left the house and ran by Sora and Roxas to get into Riku's car that just pulled up. Sora was tempted to throw his Struggle weapon at the car(or Riku's head) but Roxas quickly saw that temptation in Sora and grabbed the boy before he initiated the action.
"Come on, Sora, let's go inside. Forget about him," Roxas tried to calm Sora down.
"Ugh…fine!" Sora threw his arms up in the air and got out of Roxas's grip. Following the blonde, they headed inside. But all that frustration and anger left his body when he saw Cloud.
"Hey Sora, glad to see you again," Cloud greeted as he played with Sora's hair before leaving the two to get dinner started. Sora thought he lost feelings in his legs as they started to wobble when Cloud flashed a sweet smile and said hi to him. That smile…oh how he missed that smile…
"Do you want to stay for dinner, Sora?" Cloud offered but Roxas had to lightly hit Sora to get him to answer,
"Um, uh, yes! I mean…if it's okay!"
"Of course it's okay. Why don't you call Vincent to let him know you're staying for dinner?"
"Y-Yes! I will! Thank you!"
Dinner with Cloud…when was the last time he sat down with the family to eat?
Notes:
I was working on some future chapters and I honestly like where the future chapters are going.
I'm narrowing my endings down too.
Please R and R!!!
Oh! And here's a small summary of next chapter: Cloud's going on a date and Sora's not happy one bit, especially after seeing the man Yuffie set him up with.