Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts… I hope I don't get too fed up with this damn disclaimer that I won't write anymore stories… hint hint :) And I'm sorry it took so long! I just kind of drifted for a while… heh.

Side Note: Hmm, no ranting Side Note today up here. Oh well…

Railroad Tracks – Chapter 6

Because We're Troubled

"Sora wake up!" Axel called out, shaking the brunets arm. He grunted. Don't know how Roxas deals with this little… "Sora!"

"No. Five more minutes." Sora rolled over, casting him big blue eyes that, despite shrouded in his tired wake, still sparkled with a demanding plea. Axel sighed and pointed to the clock which read it being far past eight o'clock. Sora cast him a questioning glance.

"Wanted to let you sleep in. You were shaking all night. And not because it was cold. Let me remind you I keep my room at eighty degrees," he said with a small smirk. Sora scrunched his nose, rolling over to face the ceiling with a small sigh on the tip of his lips. It, of course, stopped halfway as a large smile came upon his face, jumping up and out of the thin blanket Sora stretched towards the ceiling. He glanced at Axel and smiled even wider.

"Well, what do we do?"

…

"This phone's too big." "No, that one has too many buttons." "Is that even a phone?"

"Sora! Just pick a damn phone!" The brunet sighed dramatically, closing his eyes tightly and walking around the store with his arms out in front. Axel groaned into his fist as he stopped himself from yelling again. "If you hadn't left your phone on the ground, Chewy wouldn't have broken it."

"Broken it?" Sora questioned, scoffing. "Your dog massacred my poor phone. We only found the antenna after an hour of searching."

"I forgot to feed him."

"It was a phone. You know the thing that is not meant to be eaten but talked on? Yeah, that." The brunet suddenly stopped as his hand hit a wall and slid down till he came too a skinny black phone with a touch-screen. "This'll do."

"I showed you that the minute we walked in here."

"You should have showed me after I'd seen the first few crappy phones."

Axel glanced at the price. "Can you even afford this?"

"Can you?"

"What kind of answer is that?"

"It's a question, not an answer," Sora giggled.

"Just buy the damn thing. I want some fucking ice cream."

Sora paused and turned to Axel as the employee helping them walked away intent on getting the two teenagers what they wanted and out of the store. He pursed his lips and Axel raised an eyebrow, wondering if he was about to learn something he may not want to know. Sora sighed in resolution, opened his mouth and said, "That sentence seems to contradict itself somehow."

Axel just scratched his head and walked towards the waiting salesman. "Really, just buy your phone." Sora skipped over to him, humming a small tune.

An hour later, after dealing with numerous amounts of paperwork and Sora questioning himself every two minutes, they finally made it to the market in downtown and were seated cozily on a bench. In Axel's hand, an ice cream bar melted, traveling down his fingers.

Sora glanced from his chocolate treat, to Axel's green one with curious eyes that seemed to make his face shine. "It's melting. I let you drag me all the way down here because you wanted sea-salt ice cream. Now eat it."

"That's quite a mean and provocative statement, Mr. Sora Hikari."

"You're a mean and provocative statement Axel." The red-head cocked his head to the side, chest rumbling for a second before he burst into loud, raucous laughter, his ice cream making it to his lips.

He kept chuckling, smiling down at Sora, his green eyes turning away from the sun that granted it a peculiar shine. "He's going to be really mad," Axel whispered, slipping the bar past his pale, red lips.

Vexen let them out early, the teacher out the door faster than the students. Demyx sat in the desk for a while, staring at the empty one in front of him. Sora's chair had been empty the whole period. The brunet didn't stumble in late nor had he been there before this class. Roxas had walked into school alone, not mentioning his brother and seemingly not bothered by the fact that he was not with him.

And Demyx could care less for the blond boy as his attention was drawn to a bright yellow sweatshirt that belonged to a teenage boy with silver hair. The teen was following Sephiroth, who still made Demyx shiver when thinking of him. He nudged the morning-annoyed Zexion, not caring for the glare and nodded his head towards the two.

"I can't remember –"

"Riku."

"Oh. Thanks, I guess."

The table became quiet again, Naminé busy drawing, Axel not there, Zexion grumpy and Roxas not bothering with anyone or anything.

"I gotta pee," Demyx said, casually walking away because no one was going to stop him. He hummed a little tune, skipping his feet every few steps and wrapping his fingers behind his back in little knots, cracking a few and stretching.

That's how the day should have gone. A smooth walk down the hall with no mysteriously, jumpy Sora and seriously fighting Axel and Roxas. Except it didn't go that way. He forgot to factor in –

"Uh, sorry?" Demyx heard from where he had been knocked down as he quickly got up and stared into green eyes.

"Is that a statement or a question?" Demyx scrunched up his nose, deciding whether to frown or to smile.

"It's a questioning statement," Riku said as he glanced down to his side. Then Demyx did smile and took a small step back, not uninviting just to make more room to look at the teen. He opened his mouth but was interrupted as Riku asked, "You're friends with Sora?"

"Huh?"

Riku cleared his throat. "You tackled him into a hug in the basement a while back."

Demyx chuckled again. "Yeah I did."

They stopped talking, becoming quiet together, their breath not even heard. Demyx wondered if he should step around the boy, not really having to go to the bathroom anymore due to distraction. He glanced up when a pair of shoes interrupted his vision as he looked at the ground. Rike had stepped closer.

"Do you know where he is?" came Riku's quiet, low voice. The blond frowned.

"Who?"

"Sora."

His mouth fell into an 'o' and asked, "Do you?"

Sighing, he said, "I wouldn't have asked if I knew."

Scrunching his nose up at his irritated manner, Demyx just shrugged. "I'm guessing he's sick."

Riku, pushing his hair back closed his eyes tightly. "Would his brother –"

Demyx quickly shook his head. Riku was safer not speaking to Roxas. "Don't ask him." Riku raised a brow. "Trust me."

The silveret pushed his hair back with both hands this time, but to no avail the bangs fell forward once more. Demyx was tempted to just tell him to get a hair-cut or something but another question popped into his head. He stepped closer this time, catching Riku off guard as he stared down, ready to step back as Demyx asked, "What exactly are you and –"

A sudden chill came up as a cold hand rested lightly on his shoulder. Zexion stood behind him, his hair brushing his head. Demyx could feel him nod once, a possible greeting to the other boy. "Riku." Or maybe a threat. "Demyx, you have class in a few minutes."

He glanced behind him, then to Riku once more who had stepped back long ago.

"I should go I guess. See you…" he felt a tiny squeeze. "Bye Riku."

Walking away, he was sure he heard, "Why is everyone in such an angry mood?" He glanced to the boy beside him. Damn Zexion – he was this close to finding out who the boy was to Sora. Unintentionally glaring, his maybe-possibly-jealous boyfriend wasn't going to have a good day.

Because after math, when Demyx finally got up, he ran into Riku once more, already running into him during the breaks between classes. Zexion was right down the hall.

Sora picked one hell of a day to be absent.

"…So is Reno back in town?" Axel looked down at Sora, a question in the air. "I saw him at a convenience store. I'm not sure if he remembered me though. I just wanted to know for…"

"Yeah, Reno's back. He was transferred down here. He hasn't been home lately. My mom's kind of pissed about that. I'm actually just thinking of moving over with him. Mom brings back too many guys for my well-being." Sora nodded, not really understanding due to lack of parents and just skipped every so often, counting the squares on the sidewalk.

"I think we should all revert back to cobblestone."

The footsteps behind him paused before catching up. "What?" Axel asked.

"You know, cobblestone is," at Axel's nod he didn't delve into further detail of it and instead continued. "Well, cobblestone is better. It's bumpy and makes a nice sound when you walk on it. It feels nice. Have you ever walked on it with high heels?

"It's a really nice sound." Axel raised another eyebrow. "Anyways, it's better than sidewalks and such. Maybe we should all just go back in time with carriages and such. So much simpler back then."

"Sora," Axel started and the brunet feared for a second that he might have said too much. "Have you ever worn high heels?"

Stumbling, Sora blushed at the question and made sure he was in front of Axel so he couldn't see his face. "W-well, it was a dare and Roxas was calling me chicken a-and, and," Axel was already laughing. "What would you have done?! Either way my manly pride was being hurt. I was either a chicken or a guy in high heels! I decided I could get over the high heels thing…" He trailed off, thoroughly embarrassed.

Axel sighed, catching his breath from the exertion of laughing too much, and watched the red-faced boy skip ahead, running his hands across the stone walls and running around trees. It was a change from what he usually was now-a-days and Axel knew he could break if he said a few carefully placed words. He even opened his mouth to do so.

But he stopped himself.

More so, Sora stopped him, as he ran into the much smaller boy when they made it to the front gates of their school. A few kids were wandering out in the courtyard, but none looked over, too preoccupied with themselves.

"You really think he's going to be mad?"

"Did he try to call?"

Sora glared up at him. "I don't know, I didn't have a phone for half the day."

"Besides that small factor, even if he didn't try to call, he probably already knows you came to my house."

Sora glanced towards the ground, shuffling his feet. "Can't you just, I don't know, fix it? You've done it many times before. It can't be that hard. I mean, you know Roxas, he really does –"

The tall red-head patted him on the head, leaning down so he was in the boys face. "Sora, you have to relax. It's not your fault. Things will work out for the better. They always do, okay?" Sora nodded, another smile creeping up till he was pulled back forcefully by the shirt and was surprised he hadn't noticed someone coming up behind him.

"What, move onto my brother already?" Sora couldn't say anything, his throat closing as he heard Roxas' voice.

"T-th-that wasn't it Roxas. I-It wasn't him. I was the one –"

"Shut up, Roxas. How could you even think that of Sora? He's your brother. He wouldn't do that." Sora wondered if Roxas got that he didn't say anything about him. He hoped he didn't.

"Just stay the fuck away. You always cause too much trouble wherever you go." Roxas then pulled the brunet away, who may have gone with him but didn't look away from the school and Axel. He last saw Riku running up, leaning on the walls, panting, pushing his hair back in agitation and Axel talking to him. He wished he could hear the laugh that fell off his lips with whatever Axel had said.

Cloud couldn't figure out what to do anymore. Paper's were scattered in front of him, numbers making his head hurt. He was tempted to call Leon, but knew it would infuriate himself if he found out how bad off he was.

The calculator next to him had long been abandoned, only angering him as the numbers kept growing, not even a hint of slowing down or getting smaller. It was frustrating to no end and when the door burst open he pushed all the receipts and checkbooks into a pile, furiously trying to straighten everything out when two red-faced boys came in, one angry the other worried.

It wasn't surprising for Roxas to be angry, nor Sora to be worried, but the way Sora and Roxas carried themselves, away from each other as if not enough room between them, had Cloud stopping his shuffling.

He raised an eyebrow, not sure why the two continued to stand there, not staring at him but still staring. "Welcome home," he offered.

"Hi Cloud!" Sora chipped in, his voice cutting through the tension easily with high octaves but just adding more uneasy feelings when he stopped. When Roxas just clenched his fists he continued shuffling again, keeping his eyes on Roxas. "How was your day, uh, Cloud?"

"Fine."

"That's good. My day was good too. I got a new phone! Wanna see?" Cloud raised an eyebrow, realizing if Sora's voice could any higher he might be surprised.

"No."

"Oh," Sora mumbled, not really deflated as relief washed through him but he was chilled as silence emerged again.

Roxas stood their, confused, angered, outraged and wondering what he might say when out came the words, "Don't talk to me." Cloud saw the twitch of his lips become fiercer when Sora flinched. "Don't look at me, don't speak to me, don't think of me. Leave me alone."

Cloud may not be very attentive, but he could at least tell he was speaking to Sora and not himself. As Roxas quietly stormed away, Sora's smiled faltered, but he continued it, speaking to Cloud in whispers and faked, horrible glee as if they hadn't had a huge argument yesterday. The blond man went back to straightening the papers, wondering when Roxas' door shut and Sora asked if he'd like to rent a movie how much longer he could sit in the kitchen he called home for so long.

By the numbers he carried on the papers, the date was drawing near to when he couldn't.

Listening to the soft murmurs of Cloud talking on the phone wasn't as comforting as it used to be when he was younger – much younger. He thumped his head on Roxas' door again, hearing not even a scuffle from the other side. He messing with the button on his blue vest, tampered with the name tag – "Hello My Name is Sora. How can I help you?" Insert annoying yellow smiley face – and then bumped his head on the door again.

Hours earlier, he had heard Roxas yelling over the phone, knowing it had to be Axel. It was short and he couldn't understand anything, but it was comforting. Hearing his brother yell was definitely more comforting, than Cloud's soft murmurs at the moment.

A small vibration went off in his jean pocket and he sighed, not bothering to turn it off. He glanced at the wooden door, wanting to speak, wanting to plead, wanting to tell, but he just dropped his hand as it had been running down it smoothly.

He heard the stairs creak under him, Cloud stop talking for a few seconds and then the front door shutting. He thought how lucky Axel must be. Silence, when it came to Roxas, was much worse than a yell.

12/15/09 – Started

1/28/10 – Finished

(Hey look-y, this chapter was written between the years! Gasp! How exciting!)

Hmm, you probably hate me for updating so late, but then again you are maybe-possibly happy for it. But it's really hard not to love me! I mean, come on! I'm a short little Mexican who never stops smiling and buys you treats for no reason. Even if I don't know you! Love me, I say! :)

Side Note: I have Fruited Cheesecake! Heh…

Thanking Corner:

Neko Ninja Hezza: Yes, I would also very much hate it if you were to die. So please don't. I think I would feel very guilty. But what happened to Kairi will be later told. Like many, many later chapter. Like so far away I'm wondering why I'm even writing this it seems so ridiculous to put it that far away. Maybe I should just stop writing…

Side Not off the Side Note: Can't tell if above statement was a joke or not… seriously doubting myself here all of a sudden :(