Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts
Side Note: I am so sorry if there are any mistakes. I am on a different computer and it's unbearably awkward to work on. Please excuse and point out kindly any mistakes I may and probably will make. I know I'm asking a lot, but if you spotted any mistakes in the other chapters please point them out. I am a slight perfectionist but once you read something so many times it's kind of hard to spot the problems. Thank you.
Side Note off the Side Note: I am in such a weird mood so sorry if this chapter is off the wall at random places.
Side Note off the Side Note that's off the Side Note – Sakura is starting to piss me off. I hope she falls down a well right now. Grr, I'm angry!
Railroad Tracks – Chapter 4
Because We Fall
In the hush of mornings, he found it undeniably retched. His room was a mess, Sora's radio was the mind numbing dullness in the background and Cloud was just unpleasant even when sleeping. It was cold, their heater breaking just days before. He rubbed his eyes, sleep not yet gone. There was gray and green smudge on his hand when he withdrew. He had forgotten to wash his face. Cursing, he leaned his head against the window, kind of happy it would later piss off Cloud and his neat-freak self.
Watching, the sun burned in its lively way, shadows already growing longer but darker as clouds slowly rolled in. It was still too cold and the lack of animals scampering across the barren ground proved that. There were no singing birds, nor was the lady across the street walking her black Labrador. Too cold even for her. The windows in other houses remained black or covered. The wind didn't howl, there were no barking dogs – all that moved was his chest. Up and down.
A thump was heard, tired, confused cursing and a shy chuckle. Sora was awake. Roxas glanced up at the clock, brows knitting. He was up later than usual. Sora was the one to wake up at dawn and pull him out of bed to make pancakes for Cloud before he goes off to work. It was already past nine. Then again, there had been less of those days lately.
Roxas blinked. He had stayed up all night. When he got up, heading for the bathroom, he barely made it as Sora burst through the door and tackled him. Unusually bright this morning, Roxas groaned. Too many people had been tackling him lately. He was going to get a concussion sooner or later. When Sora started to shake him, he was definitely going to have one sooner.
"S-S-Sora! I c-c-can't c-c-concent-t-trate!" Sora laughed.
"Let's go to the park," he said.
"Sora," Roxas groaned, holding his head. "What has possessed you to be in such high spirits?" It's annoyingly familiar…
He cracked his eyes open a little when no sound came. His brother sat with his hands still in the air, head resembling a tomato. He blinked, ready to clear his eyes but Sora was already a moving bundle of energy, shooting across the room and digging through his closet. Many shirts would be wrinkled by the time he could pick them all up.
"What color, what color," Sora mumbled. Roxas lifted himself up and turned the shower on. He stripped and got in the line of water. It was cold. Frighteningly cold and he waited to adjust the heat. His muscles grew weak at the warmth, and he started to scrub his face.
Walking out, the towel wrapped around his waist, Sora was talking on his phone, an outfit next to him surrounded by clothes he didn't remember owning.
"I wasn't gone that long…" Sora drawled on. He wondered who he was talking to but just slipped on his clothing. "No, I didn't, ehm, do – that… Of course I'm sure! … I think I would remember it, Dem. Who?" Roxas turned, his brothers face a cheery, voice octaves higher. He frowned as he started to fidget with his fingers. "I… I don't remember seeing him… No, I'm pretty sure he wasn't there…" Roxas pulled his shirt on, and when he got his head through, his brother was lying on the bed, not facing him. "You remember too many things, Dem," Sora mumbled. Now listening, he could hear a whisper of a murmur on the other line. "Nothing, Dem. I'll see you Monday. Yeah tomorrow. Bye."
Roxas cleared his throat.
Sora bolted up, a smile on his face, blush already mild. "The park?"
"Sora…"
"Or maybe the movies!"
Roxas groaned.
He didn't want to upset him. He had woken up in such a good mood. Roxas… well he technically hadn't woken up at all. But he wasn't in such a crappy mood that he would burst his brother's bubble.
"No, I wanna go to the park! They have swings! And we can bring snacks!" It had been some time since Sora wanted to go out and it seemed as if everything was all right. He didn't seem to be having problems, and he was his brother. He should take this opportunity. Axel would…
A doorbell rang out. "Axel's here!"
"What?"
Down the hall, Sora yelled, "I called him. I wanted him to come too!" Singing the last word, a door was slammed open and Sora was already bubbling about the day he was planning as it went. Roxas glanced up from his hands as the two walked in, Axel looking quite pleased as Sora had a blush on. Sora's blush only grew as Axel started to walk towards him.
Sighing, he grabbed his coat.
It was an interesting walk. Sora skipped. So it was actually a skip more than a walk, seeing as he dragged Roxas along with him. Axel only laughed at the blonds glare as Sora tripped him up a few times. At ten, most daily business men had set off to work by eight, though kids littered the streets despite chastising mothers and the cold weather. Winter was coming much earlier, and there was the feeling of loving families as they passed the streets of many.
Walking – "I want to walk Sora! Walk, dammit!" – kid's ran around their not-working dads, grumbling as they had to put up early decorations for Christmas due to being home. Eyes darted to the graying skies, wondering if the clouds would disperse, or grow in number into the night, making the next day colder. Children paid no mind, too busy asking for snow.
Axel pulled his jacket closer around him. Taking long steps to keep up with the obviously hyper Sora and disgruntled Roxas, he watched as his breath blew out in white mist. His nose felt numb, his cheeks freezing and his ears stinging, the only thing that didn't stop him from grabbing his blond to warm him up somewhere private was enjoying him being tortured. He fiddled around in his pocket, grabbed his lighter and brought it out. Axel tossed it up in the air, careful, because if he broke it Reno might have his ass for it.
He laughed as Roxas let out a string of curses aimed at his brother. Sora just kept going.
They passed many streets after that, passed many parks, never stopped for the offering of warmth stores held with hot chocolate. So far, Axel had time to come up with three different arguments that would absolutely convince Sora to call Demyx to come and pick them up. But he never uttered a word, enjoying the sounds of quick footsteps, and labored breathing. He chuckled as he jogged the last of the space in between him and the two others. He slowed back to his lengthy strides when he was sure he had met a pretty good pace.
In the far distance, he could see the park where no kids hung off the bars lazily and no concerned parents yelled for kids to be carful because it's slippery. No laughter, no shouting and shrill screams of joy made it to their senses. Just the crunching leaves underneath them, too wet to break all the way but enough to give them that early autumn feel, gracing them with its presence.
Closer, the soft creaking of a swing and thumps of feet pushing just slightly off the ground came. The three stopped, Axel sliding his hands under Roxas' shirt, warming the skin. It was soothing to hear the boy hiss as the lighter that was still in his hands cooled a small part of his skin then heated it. It was much more comforting to lean against the boy and not be pushed away as he had to deal with lately. Axel started to slowly drag him away from their spot as they watched Sora walk over to an empty swing next to an occupied one. They both wondered as they walked away what could make Sora smile like that.
It was much harder to concentrate on symptoms of depressed and traumatized children as someone kept singing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. Especially since they were so far into the song, already in the twenties.
Zexion, with practiced patience, didn't break his pencil in half. No, in a few minutes, he didn't have a pencil in his hands. It was lying next to Demyx as he rubbed a slim red line on his forehead. The blue-haired teen grabbed a pen, showed the object to Demyx and started writing facts down on a separate piece of paper from a textbook he was holding. Demyx made of show of sighing dramatically, stabbing his chest with a makeshift sword from the pencil that had hit him earlier, and made choking noises as he half fell off the bed.
Zexion made no move to turn towards the boy.
"Pst!" Demyx hissed. Still no response. "Zexion! I'm dead." The boy turned a few pages of his textbook. "This is where you fling yourself," Demyx paused, grunting as he moved to a slightly more comforting position. "This is where you fling yourself over me, crying and questioning why the heavens took your love away." The boy kept writing.
"Zexion!" he yelled, accompanied by the loud thump that carried, most likely, downstairs as he flipped off the bed. "Shit, that hurt!"
Zexion only sighed and reached for his drawer. Demyx scowled as he saw headphones. But he ducked as they were flung his way. He sprang back up while sticking his tongue out only to get hit in the face with an electronic device. "But your music is weird!" He laughed at the glare sent his way. "Kidding! I like your music. It interests me. I mean, half the stuff isn't in are language." Zexion shook his head. After a few minutes, twitching as Demyx thumped around the room, dancing wildly. He groaned.
He twisted his chair, snagging the blond so he would fall to the ground. "What do you want Demyx?"
He pouted. "I just wanted to get away from home. Without Larxene," Demyx made a face, thinking of his sister and pink-haired teacher. "Without Larxene it's much harder to ignore things."
Zexion sighed, helped the boy up and pushed him onto the bed. Frustration building up at knowing he'd have to wake up early to finish his paper and Demyx' home situation, he leaned on top of the blond. Demyx sunk lower, avoiding him. "Are the parents here?"
"No. Zack and Aerith are away today," he mumbled against the blonds neck. Demyx laughed as blue hair tickled his nose.
"Seven bottles of beer on the wall, seven bottles of beer; take one down, pass it around –" Demyx groaned as Zexion shoved his knee into his groin.
"Sing that fucking song again and I swear to God…"
Demyx laughed. "Anything to get you to do that once more," he whispered as Zexion leaned down to kiss him. "Six bottles of beer on the wall..."
The brunet grabbed the chain, tugging it a little so it would hold his weight. Sora smiled down at Riku as he pushed off the ground again, just enough to send him backwards and forwards a few times. When he stopped, Sora sat on the swing next to him. He glanced over. "Hey…" A small smile broke across Riku's face as he straightened.
Riku glanced over to where the brunet had come from, seeing two retreating figures in a heated argument, moving further and further. He sighed. Looking over, Sora was smiling down at his shoes, quiet and calm, but shaking. He wondered idly if he was cold, but knew that was not the case as a small chuckle escaped the boy.
"Is your hand okay?"
"Huh?" Blue eyes glanced up, confused.
"Is your hand okay? It wasn't sprained or anything, right?"
"Nah."
It wasn't awkward to sit there, listening to the creaks of rusted metal and soft winds. Sora's feet thumped on the ground every few minutes and he wasn't sure if it was to fill the quiet blanket that had wrapped itself around them. Riku pushed his legs, and flew back a bit, coming to an abrupt stop as he glanced at Sora again. The boy was looking at him still.
"How's your morning?"
"It's fine. My brother is away somewhere else..."
"So that was your brother?"
"The blond," Sora chuckled. "The other was Axel, his boyfriend. He's, uhm, different." He laughed again, rubbing his nose as it turned red.
"What are you doing here?" Riku raised his head at the question. "I mean, at the park."
Riku pointed behind them, down the road. "Around the corner. Sephiroth lives there."
"Oh, right. You're staying with him. Where are your parents again?"
"Probably somewhere in the Amazon. Or maybe Egypt. I don't actually know anymore. Probably going to all the cliché places to travel in the world." The brunet laughed again and Riku ran his hand through his hair.
"So, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to come to the park!" Sora pretty much yelled in glee. Riku smirked at the huge smile that enveloped his face. "So I told my brother 'I want to go to the park' and I called Axel, made him come over and then we walked, eh," he paused. Riku raised an eyebrow at the glint in his eyes. "Yeah, we walked here. Cloud doesn't really care that we left so it's okay."
"Cloud?"
"He's my other brother. The older one. He's busy with work, so he doesn't really care what we do. Most of the time anyways."
"What about your parents?"
"Oh," Sora exclaimed as if it was common knowledge. "We don't live with them. When they found out Cloud was gay, they kicked him out. My other brother got mad, shouted at them and said if Cloud went he went too. Didn't help that he and Axel had started, uhm, 'dating' and that piece of information was thrown into the argument." Sora sighed. "I followed. Don't think they noticed too much. Haven't talked to them for about three years now that I think about it. We were never too close anyways," he added on as a second thought.
"I would think they noticed the son who had nothing to do with it."
Sora cleared his throat. "They weren't my biggest fans either. Trust me." Blue eyes met green. Riku watched as he blushed. "Riku, do you have –"
"Sora!"
Both teens jumped as a shrill cry came from in front of them. A woman, long reddish-brown hair was waltzing over, a blond girl being towed behind her. "Naminé," Sora questioned as they made it closer. The blond waved. Riku looked to the older woman who no doubt was the girls' mother. "Hello Mrs. Kotetsu."
"Sora," the woman smiled. Riku was sure it was forced, pain marring her features. "Where have you been? We miss you at the house. It's not the same without either you or –"
"Mom!" The girl Naminé hissed. The woman flinched as both teens glanced at Sora who was shaking. Riku was tempted to reach out to him, but refrained.
"…Did Cloud talk to you?"
"Yes…"
The woman – Mrs. Kotetsu? – seemed more at ease. "Then you can come with me and Naminé right now."
"Now?" Sora squeaked.
Naminé tugged at Mrs. Kotetsu's shirt sleeve. "Mom, I think we should go. Obviously Sora's busy." Her mom made no move to back up. "Please. We can talk about this another time!"
Mrs. Kotetsu sighed, "Fine, but she might wake up –"
"I know," Sora whispered. Riku watched as the two retreated, but not after Naminé's mother planted a kiss on Sora's forehead. Sora was holding his breath till they were out of sight. "Riku…"
"I think your brother is coming," Riku said, pointing his chin towards a looming figure ahead. "He looks kind of angry."
Sora was yanked forcefully from the swing, yelping as his wrist was twisted in the process. "Roxas?!"
"We're leaving," the blond hissed.
"Wha – But I'm kind of –"
"Now!" Sora flinched away from the volume of his brother's voice. He glanced down towards the silver-haired male only to realize he had stood up. Glancing between the two boys, he sighed, his chest squeezing painfully tight.
Pulling away slightly from the hold Roxas had on him, he turned to Riku. "I-I'm sorry. Here," he said, digging in his pocket. It was hard with so many. Soon, he pulled out a paper and it was followed by a pen. He scrawled something and handed it over. Roxas pulled him again.
"Wait."
Sora was, once again, forcibly pulled the other way Roxas had been dragging him. He turned to have the pen snatched from his hand, and a slimmer piece of paper shoved in his face. "Thanks," he mumbled, a smile beginning to tug at his lips. He yelped again as he stumbled to keep up with Roxas. He said nothing as they walked quickly away from the park and, glancing back, Axel stood next to Riku and he watched as his lips moved, too far away to read what he was saying. All he knew was that Riku talked back, frowning.
Sora made no comment, as they walked down the streets, kids inside now, curled up on couches and watching cartoons. The day had grown colder, and it was quiet as they sped down the streets one after another. Sora made no comment as tears slowly trekked down Roxas' face, angrily wiping them away.
"Roxas, please slow down. My feet hurt." Sora's voice was calm, trying to urge him to slow down and breath.
"Rox, please!"
The boy did slow down, two blocks from where they lived. They stopped in front of their door. Soon, even the warmth Sora felt around their enclosed hands had faded and it was cold. Very, very cold. he started to shudder after a few minutes.
Sora, teeth chattering, started, "R-R-Roxas, I-I-I th-think it b-best if –"
"Axel and I," Roxas interrupted. "Broke up. He won't be coming over anymore."
Sora just stared as his brother went in the warm apartment and closed the door in his red, cold face.
He never really expected it. But then he did expect it. It was Roxas and Axel. They fought constantly, Roxas a hard-headed shrimp and Axel a perverted, wise-cracking fool. But they were strong. And it was Axel and Roxas, for crying out loud.
His brother grabbed his hand, any thoughts he could have had escaping him. "Why…"
"Because."
Sora sighed again and figured he needed to stop asking questions. He wouldn't get anything out of it. For the last three hours they sat here, staring at the walls and miscellaneous items around Roxas' room.
Roxas had stopped crying, though it was hard to say he started considering it might have been out of anger. He didn't object to Sora coming into his room, though he apparently didn't want him talking. It was hard, because he wanted to know what happened. But he guessed he had no right to ask.
He hadn't told Roxas his problem either. He shook his head, gaining his brothers attention.
It was quiet when he stared. Sora wondered if he was breathing. The loud exhale said he hadn't been.
"Sora?"
"Yes?"
"You need to go."
"What?"
Roxas turned away. "Go see her."
"No."
"Why?!"
"…Because." Sora turned away then, rolling so his back faced him but still grasping his hand. Downstairs, nothing was moving. Not even the clock could be heard. Cloud was still at work. A bell went off in Sora's head.
And as if reading his mind Roxas said, "Call in sick for work."
"You know I need to go."
He squeezed his hand.
"Stay." Sora sighed, a smile tugging at his lips. He wouldn't admit to liking it out loud, but it was comforting that his brother needed him. A few minutes later, Sora was seated back in his spot, holding his brothers hand again. "Sora?"
"Roxas?"
He stared back into a mirror of his own eyes when Roxas faced him. "Go see her. Go see Kairi."
Opening and closing his mouth, a fish gaping for air, Sora could only nod. "Say it."
It was hesitant. But he finally uttered out, "I'll go see…Kairi."
The silent thank you wasn't heard. There wasn't supposed to be one. Roxas turned towards him, Sora doing the same. He watched as his brother tried to pull a smirk on his lips. Sora smiled when he did not succeed.
"It's going to be fine. Don't worry; it's not the end till everything is fine. So don't stress." He laughed, ruffling his younger brothers' hair and watched as time passed and soon the breathing of the blond evened out. He glanced out the window. The snow had started to fall, spinning wildly in the wind.
Soon, he too fell asleep, not without that heavy feeling on his heart coming back as the little white flurries blurred everything.
11/05/09 – Started
11/13/09 – Finished
Sorry for the shifty-ness of this chapter! I finished on Friday the 13th. It's 1:10 AM. I hope that's good luck. Thirteen never really was an unlucky number for me.
Side Note: …uhm, you know what I want you to do… -_-
Thanking Corner:
Jaike Kyr – Before I go on my rant on your review, I would like to thank you sooo much. It's great waking up to find reviews and so far you have made my mornings so much better. Yes, you guessed right! It will be later that I reveal what happens to Sora. You are so going to hate me for this but I mean much, much later. See, I have this outline and… let's just say you're going to have to wait. Please be patient with me! There is drama in between so it shouldn't be boring. At least, I hope. That is also my favorite line! I only realized I wrote it when I read over it again. Haha.
luckless-is-me – What, the Cheshire cat? And yes, you will learn why people are oh so protective of Sora. Though it does stir some drama in here... Hint-hint! Yes, I really would think Donald would attack Riku when he's a kid. I would actually love to see that! I'm so mean… :)
KouzeKaz – I like the idea of my story of a relaxing read. No one has ever said that and I suddenly find that I very much enjoy that description of my story. And speaking of description, that's the thing: I seem to only carry a good start with the first chapter! It makes me mad. I remember trying to write a story all the way through like how I wrote the beginning but it just always turned out much too childish for my hopes. I wish the rest of my story kept up with it. I'm glad you like the vagueness of Sora's condition – a lot of people I think are getting kind of mad at that. Tee hee. Riku is a very good "most-favoritest" character to have. Though writing his personality well is a bitch for me! Thank you for reviewing, as I look forward to reviews such as yours with helpful hints and appraising comments each time I post a chapter. Thank you very much!
YaoiLovingJew – (Side Not off yours: I am sorry your name never comes out on this. I've tried everything. So, for now, your name isn't going yo be spelled right. Sorry!)I tend to keep doing that to people! I'm such a complex person and I write complex things that make no sense. They're not even complex. Just uneasy to understand! Uhh, I wish I could do this in such a simpler way…
Oh, another Side Note (!): Thanks to all who have put my story of their Story Alert or Favorite Story lists. It makes me happy knowing at least I have readers. Thank You!