Note: XD long chapter is looooong!!!
*clears throat* Okay, sorry this took so long. Busy weekend/life.
I dont have much to say but enjoy...


The next morning Roxas strolled into his room in a sleepy daze.

'Why did I sleep on the couch?'

He found his reason soon enough; his father lay covered in the shredded remains of Roxas' comforter set on his floor, the room reeked of alcohol, blood, and shame.

At least Roxas thought this is what shame would smell like. If emotions had a smell.
He was sure when his father woke up, he would be ashamed.
He beat his only son and destroyed his room with what Roxas was guessing was his pocket knife.
Wouldn't you be ashamed?

Well maybe Cloud was used to the feeling and smell of shame. He had done this enough times.

Picking out his clothing for the day, Roxas had to step over his father a few times.
He noticed he was still sucking his thumb and drooling on Roxas' floor.

Making his way to school, Roxas was definitelyfeeling yesterday.
His neck was covered in bruises, the outside of his cheek where he hit the pavement was still an open wound that stung when the air hit it, his legs were covered in bruises like his neck, making it hard to walk, and he was plain sore all over.
On the bright side, the inside of his cheek stopped bleeding.
On the other, less bright side, he didn't understand why the inside was bleeding in the first place.
Yesterday was such a blur.

"I wish I had a skateboard…" Roxas mumbled to himself as he walked the mile or so to school.

"I bet you do Strife, they sure are nice when you have to walk to school everyday. And you must be sore after yesterday, so I guess a skateboard would come in handy right now huh? Don't you wish you had one?"
Hayner. Why in gods name did it have to be Hayner?

"What do you want Hayner?" Roxas let out a sigh, but kept his moderate pace to school. He was not going to be late to Tribal's class because of someone like Hayner.

"I want you, Strife, to say you are sorry for what you did to my face!" Hayner stood in front of Roxas, blocking his way.

Roxas had a few options now.
He could push Hayner out of the way, thereby insuring another beating.
He could walk across the street, thereby making Hayner mad and insuring another beating.
Or he could stand there and talk to the boy. Probably insuring another beating.

"I…I'm sorry Hayner…" Roxas mumbled under his breath, in an almost whisper.

Holding a hand cupped around his ear, Hayner prodded, "What was that Strife? I couldn't hear you…"

Roxas let out a disgruntled sigh, "I…Am…SorryHayner…"

"No no no," Hayner shook a finger at Roxas, "You have to mean it and say it in a slow pace. Try again…"

He couldn't take much more of this, "Hayner…"

"Yes Fag boy?"

"I'm sorry for what I did to your face…"

Hayner was getting way to much pleasure out of this, "And before you did that…Would you say my face was pretty Fag boy?"

It looks like Roxas got a new nickname. Perfect.

Hayner had pulled this stunt before, if Roxas didn't complement him, something bad would happen.

"Yes Hayner, you have the most beautiful face I have ever seen. I am so very sorry I burned it and ruined its immense glory."

'Yea I'm sorry I didn't do worse to you…'

Hayner cracked a devious smile, "That's all I needed Fag boy."
With that he threw Roxas his skateboard he was withholding from him.

As he walked away, Roxas thought he was something in Hayner's hand that looked like a tape recorder.
Why would Hayner have one of those?

Making it to school on time, Roxas pushed past the horde of people in the halls to make it to his first period.

Settling into his seat, Roxas felt overly self-conscious.
Everyone was looking at the bruises on his neck, the cuts on his cheek.
Why did any of them care? He knew some of the kids from his classes saw the fight.
If they cared, they would have helped him.

The bell rung, people scrambled to their seats and Professor Tribal started to talk again.

"Settle down class."
He said it every morning, and no one ever listened. The persistent man he was, he repeated himself a few times before screaming.
The scream, like every morning, shut the class up.

All Roxas' classes were normal until fifth period.
All day everyone had treated him the say way they did whenever he showed up with bruises.
They ignored him.
Except in fifth period.
Why did everything seem to happen in this class?

Roxas' eyes were focused on his desk, he wanted to keep his head down and not draw attention to himself.
Mr. Crescent was the only teacher that wouldn't believe you could get some what hand shaped bruises on your neck from a skateboard.

"What happened to you?" It was the silver haired boy, with the pretty eyes. Riku?

Roxas looked up, snapped out of his daydream of ways to hurt Hayner by the boy talking, "What did you say?"

"What happened…To your neck?" Riku repeated himself, pointing to Roxas' throat.

He unconsciously grabbed it, "Oh this? I…Fell off my skateboard." Roxas let out a cheesy smile that seemed to win everyone over.

"You…Bruised your neck by falling off your skateboard?" Riku wasn't going to believe Roxas this easy.
Damn it.

Roxas nodded, still smiling.

"Right…I'm sure you did…" Riku went back to work.
So what if he didn't believe him? He wasn't bugging him anymore.

Half way through class and Crescent still hadn't noticed. Perfect, Roxas could make it though the day.
At least he thought so…

"Every grab your backpacks and get to the field, this is not a drill!" Mr. Crescent screamed, ushering his class out of the building as the fire alarm rang.

Roxas would have put this off as a drill, regardless of what Mr. Crescent said.
If it weren't for the black smoke billowing out of the school roof.

The school spent the next hour on the field, watching as their high school memories were ripped apart and burned.
To Roxas, this didn't seem to bad.

Arson.
That's what everyone was saying.
Why would someone light the school on fire that wasn't Roxas?
Roxas didn't do it, and no one else could possibly hate it as much as him.

Buses took the high school students that weren't picked up by parents to a neighboring school.
From there they had to either walk, get a ride, or use the bus.

Roxas walked, the middle school they dropped them off at was closer to his house then the high school.

'I wonder how long school will be out for…'

Home at last. Today was long.
Roxas hated having all those eyes on him.
At least he was going to be out of school for a while; there was repairs to be done and people to stuff in Juvie.
Those things took time.

Roxas dropped his backpack down and let out a sigh.
Time to wake up dad.

Roxas entered his room, excepting to see a heap of his father, drool, and shredded blankets.

"He's gone. He got a phone call and left." Roxas' mirror informed him.

"What?! Where did he go?" Roxas was panicking. Where could his father have left to? What if he got drunk again and did something stupider then yesterday?

"Calm down little Roxie." His mirror hushed, "Everything's going to be all right…Just give it time."

'Time? I don't have time! I need to keep dad out of jail!'

"You know Roxie, everything happens for a reason."

"Yea, so?" Roxas sat himself on his bed, trying to calm himself down.

'He is so much easier to keep track of at night…Why would he go out and be drunk in the daylight!?'

"In the wide open daylight!" Roxas groaned, laying down.

"Roxie…What about daylight?" Roxas forgot the mirror couldn't seem to hear his thoughts anymore.

"Ugh" He groaned, "Its nothing…"

Roxas didn't even notice himself fall asleep.

He awoke to his father, pounding on his door.

"Roxas!!" He yelled threw the wood, "Roxas come here! We need to talk!"

Great.

"Coming!" Roxas called, getting up with a yawn and a stretch.
At least these bruises would heal before he went back to school.

Roxas opened his door to his fathers extremely happy face, "Uhh…"

"They want me Roxas!" He was overjoyed.

"Who wants you to do what? Dad if this is illegal I cant cover for you again, I'm only fifteen and-"

Cloud put a finger to Roxas' lips, "Hush kid, listen to me for a second ok?"

Strange, Cloud was…Sober.
Sober.

"That store, the one you got me the application for, called me today. The hardware store."

Roxas gasped, "What? Really what did they say? Were you sober when you answered?"

Cloud let out a happy nod, "Yup, in fact I have been all day. Know why Roxas my boy?"

Roxas shook his head, and Cloud told him, "They hired me! That's right! Your looking at the newest employee of Synth co.!"

Roxas was taken into a tight hug from his father.
Yea his rib cage was being crushed, but it was being crushed lovingly.

"D-dad?" Roxas gasped, "Your…gonna kill me…"

Cloud quickly dropped him, then gave him a sad look, "Roxas…What happened to your face?" He put a hand on Roxas' chin, tilting it up to inspect the damage, "And my god! Your neck! Did someone at school do this to you?"

Roxas' heart sunk. He hated this.
Cloud never remembered what he did to Roxas, unless he told him.
But Roxas never told him. When sober, his father was such a kind person, it would break his heart to know he did this to him.

Roxas brushed his hand away, "Yea…A kid at school..." Clouds heart felt like a huge weight was lifted, He didn't do this, and that was great.
"Oh and guess what happened today?" Roxas was trying to change the subject.

"The fire? I heard…" Cloud wasn't going to let this one go, "So tell me, who did this to you Roxas?"

"Don't worry about it, I fell off my…" Roxas stopped, Cloud knew it was stolen, "I got my skateboard back today." Cheesy smile. Works every time.

Cloud lit up seeing his son somewhat happy, "I saw it by the door. I'm glad that kid you were letting borrow it finally gave it back."

Okay, so Cloud didn't remember anything when drunk. So on a good note for Roxas, Cloud forgot Hayner told him he was gay.

Cloud was to easy to lie too, "I want to start my homework, why don't you cook a special dinner, to celebrate you getting a job?"

"That's a good idea Roxas." Cloud smiled at his son, "I'll call you when its ready."

Cloud turned tail and exited, "Oh and Roxas?"

"Yes dad?"

"I love you son, I hope you know that."

"I love you to…dad…" Roxas could feel his heart ripping apart. He hated his father, but he loved him more then anything. Cloud was all he had to hold onto anymore.
But Cloud could be a reason for him letting it all go.

Maybe Roxas should tell him about last night, when he was drunk.

Sitting back down on his bed, Roxas noticed a note attached to his mirror.
'Dad's handwriting…'

"Roxas, I am so sorry about whatever happened here last night. I know I did something bad, I'm sure you'll fill me in on the details when I get home.

And about your bed sheets, I'll replace them. Along with everything else I broke.
I'm going to an interview today, the lady sounded desperate for someone to work there.

There's just one thing I need to know…did I hurt you?
Please don't lie to me when I get home…Like normal.
If I did, I couldn't live with myself…I remember when that happened when you were little.
I'll never be able to make that up to you, but I can try and keep myself from doing it again.
I don't know why I act the way I do when I drink, but I am sorry.
I'm sure you could forgive an old man, to drunk to know better…Couldn't you?

Either way, I'm turning over a new leaf. From this day forward, I'll have a job, I wont drink, and I will be a better father.
You deserve one, you are such a great kid.

Anyway I need to get going, I'm sure you'll read this when you get home, so then when I get home, we can talk and straighten everything out. Lots of love, your dad."

Why didn't Roxas notice this note when he first came home? He must have been too tired.

If Roxas thought his heart was being ripped apart before, this note just ripped it out, burned it alive, then dumped the ashes of it in acid.

Roxas stared at it for a long time.

"What am I going to do?" He asked his mirror.

"Tell him the truth, he needs to know…Lies wont help anything…"

"I know but…It would break him…."

"Maybe it will break him so much he's too broken to drink."

The mirror had a point.

"Well…I guess I can tell him…" Roxas folded up the note and threw it to his bed.

"Good boy. Just remember, the truth will set you free!"

Roxas glared at his mirror, "Ok what? Were you a fucking fortune cookie in your last life or something?"

The mirror giggled, "Oh now Roxie, be nice. I'm just trying to help you, ya know?"

"Roxas! Dinner!" Cloud called from the other room.

"Remember what I said Roxie…"

Roxas turned to leave for dinner, "I will."
He was almost sure when he walked away from the mirror, he felt a hand on his shoulder.


Noto: ^_^ I hope you all liked that. XD WAY to much happened in this chapter, but at the same time, nothing did.
Weird how these things work out huh?

FAQ:

Who set the school on fire? Sorry I cant tell you that...

Was it Axel? XD How does that work? Hes in a fricken mirror! But then again, who knows...

Is Axel going to come out of the mirror then? XD Sorry I cant tell you that either, and how do you know its Axel?

Its an AKUroku, who else would that be? ....Reno?

Reno doenst look like that...? And that wasnt a real question. So I win. ^_^

Please review, fav, and alert!
This author lives on reviews!! If you dont want me to die, I would review if I were you... (guilt trips for the win)

Also, I posted some of my friends work on here. Go read it. Its called "Waffles". READ IT NOW.