Chapter 2 – An Egotistical Enemy
Hayner groaned when someone knocked harshly on his bedroom door. "What?" He glanced at the clock, it was 10am and he knew his mother would shout at him if he wasted his holidays cooped up in bed.
His door swung open and there stood Axel and Roxas who had just got back from family holidays, hand in hand. "Hey Hay" Axel sniggered at the word play, before being punched in the arm by Roxas who bounced over and flung himself onto the other half of his double bed.
"Get up; we're going to the beach today. We'll get some ice cream while we're –" Roxas stopped suddenly before poking his neck "Did you get lucky while we were gone?" He smirked at his tired friend, who swatted his hand away and covering the mark with his hand, turning his head to face his friend.
"Someone who also beats you up tough guy?" Hayner rolled his eyes but pushed himself up, motioning for Axel to close the door.
"It was Seifer." Roxas was about to make a comment, but Hayner sent him a sharp look. "We were fighting and he bit me, to show everyone 'that he would always dominate me' or some shit along those lines" There was a moments silence, before Axel burst into laughter.
"I always knew you two had a thing for eachother" Hayner sent him a horrified look.
"I do not have a thing for Seifer" Roxas smothered a giggle, before getting off the bed and standing with Axel. Hayner groaned and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
"Get out, I'll be down in a few minutes" Roxas sent him a triumphant look before dragging axel back downstairs. Hayner could hear his mother warning them about Seifer and asking the pair to look after 'her Hayner', scoffing, he grabbed his beach things and changed into a tank top and waterproof shorts. He paused when he passed a mirror, and as an afterthought threw on a hoodie that covered the mark.
Bouncing down the stairs he said a quick goodbye to his parents, before his mum could lecture him about abusive relationships, dragging his friends with him.
"I love your mum" Hayner shot Axel a dirty look, walking slightly ahead of the lovey dovey couple behind him. They were headed to the train station as usual; it was annoying that the beach was nowhere near their houses, so the journey took quite a lot of time.
The beach was reasonably busy when they arrived with about 20 other people there, a few people glanced up at their arrival, probably because of Axel's vibrant hair, but soon lost interest. After picking a spot near the middle of the beach, Roxas set out his and Axel's towels and Hayner did the same, before removing his hoodie and shirt, just left in his swimming shorts.
"I'm heading out to the cove, I'll be back soon" He addressed his friends who had decided to sunbathe before going into the sea, as Roxas hated lying on the beach when he was wet. Hayner wasn't particularly bothered, so he wandered into the sea, feeling the warm water lap at his feet.
He loved coming to the beach at the end of summer, as it had enough time to warm up properly, and it was very pleasant to swim in. Hayner and friends always swam the short distance to a little cave off the rocky cliffs just around from the beach, there was never anyone else there and it was a great place to relax and spend time with friends away from the beach.
There were never any worries about their stuff getting stolen because they were friends with the two lifeguards, Cloud and Leon, so they always kept a close eye on their belongings while they were swimming.
Hayner could only remember once incident when a local thug tried to steal their things but Cloud had tackled the guy before he could even take 5 steps - Hayner had always thought Seifer was behind it.
The thought of Seifer made his mark ache, and he paused in his swimming to calm himself down. This was getting out of hand.
After a few more minutes swim, he reached the little semi-circle of sand that led to the cave slightly higher up – that was another good thing; the sea never reached the cave, so it could never flood. He shook his head to try and remove excess water, before climbing up the few rocky steps that led to the entrance.
He froze when he saw his rival lounging inside, next to a tiny fire, now staring at Hayner expectantly. "What are you doing here, lamer?" Seifer smirked at him, and Hayner didn't miss his eyes darting to his neck, overnight the mark had turned an unpleasant sort of red/purple colour.
"I come here all the time, what are you doing here asshole?" Seifer stood, until they were in front of eachother, him towering slightly over the smaller boy.
"Is that any way to treat your elders, you should respect me Chickenwuss" Hayner was seething, within a few seconds of conversation Seifer had already managed to push most of his buttons. He didn't want to fight when he had to swim back, incase he was too injured to make it.
"You have to earn respect, moron" Seifer had somehow managed to back Hayner into the cave with his advances, until his back hit a stone wall. Soon Seifer's hands were either side of his head, and there was very little space inbetween their bodies.
"And how do I do that, lamer?" Hayner's eyes widened as he came back to his senses, and he shoved at Seifer's chest, pushing the elder a few spaces back and making a break for the entrance. Seifer was quicker and they tumbled to the tiny space of sand outside of the cave, in the same position as the sandlot. "Where do you think you're going?"
Hayner growled and thrashed around, trying desperately to break free so he could return to shore, and the safety of his friends. "Back to my friends".
Seifer sat further on his hips, leaning back slightly so he was straight again. "Aw, and here I thought we were friends Chickenwuss" Hayner paused in his movements, face flushed from the position and the effort of his struggling, to glare at Seifer, unsure of what to say without further embarrassing himself.
Suddenly, the look on Seifer's face changed and Hayner stopped squirming. "Hayner, look –" Hayner froze, his name sounded so good coming from Seifer, though he would never admit it.
It was only when they realised that Roxas and Axel were swimming out that Seifer paused in speech, and he jumped off Hayner just in time. Axel eyed the two of them up suspiciously, Hayner was frozen lying on the sand, staring at Seifer. What was he about to say? Hayner silently cursed his friend's timing, yet he was able to fall at their knees and praise them for stopping the probably awkward situation that was about to happen.
Roxas walked over and helped him stand, and he didn't miss the once over his friend gave him, probably to check that he wasn't injured.
"See you later, lamer" With that Seifer dived smoothly back into the sea, swimming back to shore. Hayner caught himself staring after him and corrected himself but the damage was already done. Axel and Roxas stood watching him with amusement, he scowled and stormed back into the cave, sitting next to the fire, but he couldn't help his thoughts from drifting to the older blonde.