Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.
Angel in Disguise
9. Roxas and Sora: Split
It's odd. I barely knew Axel and yet with him not calling me I felt strangely lonely. Then again, I did have Sora to hang out with, even if he had not been acting himself. We had spent a day or two hanging out, just the two of us. I hadn't seen or heard anything about Riku and when I tried to call Kairi or Naminé I couldn't reach either of them.
I asked Sora what was going on, figuring that he would know and would tell me. He did just the opposite by clamming up and not telling me anything. I knew that he and Riku were fighting over something, and it must have been really serious with the way Sora was acting. He hadn't even brought up Riku's name! He was also unusually quiet and unhappy, which got me worried enough to call Squall. Surprisingly, I was able to get a hold of him.
I explained to him how Sora was acting and how he had a fight with Riku. I told him about Axel and how he still hadn't called me back, five days after I first tried to get a hold of him. I told him how Naminé and Kairi had disappeared without telling anyone where they were going or even that they were leaving.
Instead of giving me advice or anything like that, he told me to get Sora and drive over to his and Cloud's duplex so we could talk face to face. I did so without question.
A half hour later I pulled into the driveway in my blue Mustang and parked beside Squall and Cloud's black hybrid van that we 'lovingly' called the "soccer mom mobile". I turned off the car as Sora opened the door and got out.
Aerith ran out of her and Zack's side of the duplex and happily waved. Zack leaned against the doorway, shirtless, and tried to coax her back into the house. He gave us a short salute before he finally just walked out and scooped Aerith into his arms and carried her back inside.
I smiled at their antics, but Sora just walked into the house, not even stopping to wave or say anything to Zack and Aerith. I hurried after him, even more worried than ever.
Inside we were greeted by the sight of Cloud in a pale blue apron. When he caught sight of us he blushed and began to untie it.
"Sora, Squall's in the living room. He wants to talk to you." Cloud said as he pulled the apron over his head. "Roxas, stay here. I want to talk to you."
Sora shot me a puzzled look and then left the kitchen to go to the living room, leaving me alone with Cloud.
"Have a seat." Cloud said, gesturing to the small kitchen table. "I was just making tea. You want some?"
"Sure." I said. I wondered why he needed to wear an apron if he was only making tea, but I didn't say anything.
He brought two cups over to the table and set one down in front of me. I picked mine up and tentatively took a sip to make sure it was sweet enough. Squall didn't like things sweet but Sora loved things too sweet. I was right in the middle, but I wasn't sure if Cloud remembered that.
Thankfully, he did.
"Squall wants me to find out what's going on with you and your friends." Cloud remarked as he sat down across from me. "He said something about a phone call from you, too."
"It's nothing, really." I said. "Just regular teenage stuff."
Cloud raised an eyebrow. "I doubt it's just 'regular teenage stuff' if Squall wanted you two to come over here and talk to us. Tell me about this Axel guy you met."
"Axel?" I asked. I could feel my cheeks turning red. "He's just a friend. I met him at the hospital when Sora broke his leg. I don't even know why he was in there. Nobody has told me. But then again, I haven't really asked." I sighed. "We started hanging out a few days later and we got along just fine. And then… he hasn't called me back yet. I called him five days ago, but he wasn't there. His friend Demyx promised he'd tell Axel that I called. He said he'd get Axel to call me back."
"Maybe his friend forgot." Cloud suggested.
I shook my head. "Not Demyx. He can be a little scatterbrained sometimes, but he doesn't forget things like that."
Cloud frowned. "I'm sure there's a logical explanation. Did you ever give him your number?"
"Of course I--" I stopped suddenly, realizing that I hadn't given Axel my number. I hadn't even thought about it. "But he has caller I.D." I said, my mind racing. I was searching for an excuse and I knew it.
"It could have gotten erased." Cloud said. "Why don't you call him from here?"
"I don't have his number with me. I'll call him when I get home." I said before I began drinking my tea.
"So, what's wrong with Sora?" Cloud asked after a few minutes of silence.
I looked up at him, wondering how he knew that something was wrong with Sora. He had only seen him for a few seconds.
"He didn't run over and hug me like he normally does." Cloud said. "Did something happen?"
I shrugged, not entirely sure about what was wrong with Sora. I was determined to find some way to blame Riku for it though. "I know that he and Riku had a fight and that Kairi and Naminé disappeared after it." I told him. "I don't know what the fight was about or anything. And the only reason I know they had a fight was because I got home just in time to hear Sora yell at Riku to not touch him. I kicked Riku out of the house and haven't heard anything from him since."
Cloud frowned. I could tell he was trying to figure out what was going on from what I told him. I hoped he could figure it out because then he could tell me what was wrong.
He got up suddenly and started for the living room. "I'll be right back." He told me. "I need to ask Squall something."
I stayed put and waited for him to come back in the room. I didn't think for one second that Cloud had figured out what was wrong with Sora. Not when not even I, Sora's own twin brother, couldn't figure out what was wrong using what I knew.
It was preposterous to think that he had figured it out, right?
'I am going to kill Roxas.'
That was what I decided after he dragged me out of the house, shoved me in his car, and then drove me out to Squall and Cloud's house and left me alone with Squall.
I really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, least of all Squall. He was always the one who could get me to crack and tell him anything, and I wasn't ready for him to know about me and Riku just then. So I decided not to talk at all.
That didn't go over too well with Squall.
"Sora, Roxas told me you had a fight with Riku."
'I'm not going to kill Roxas, I'm going to murder him slowly and painfully.' I avoided Squall's questioning gaze by looking at the floor. If I wasn't looking at him, I'd be less likely to tell him everything. "It's nothing." I told him.
"Since when do you and Riku fight over 'nothing'?" Squall asked. "You two have never fought over trivial things, not even when you were kids. In fact, the first thing you two ever had a big fight about was when Riku was going to run away from home and wanted you to go with him."
I remember that. It was when I was six and Riku was seven. His brothers, Loz, Yazoo, and Kadaj, were around fifteen, thirteen, and ten. They had been picking on him a lot more than usual for a few months and his parents didn't believe him when he told them, so Riku decided he was going to run away from home. I remember that I asked him to come live with me and Roxas and Squall, but he refused and told me to come run away with him and then we started fighting. That was when Squall, who was ten at the time, stepped in and made us stop fighting. In fact, if it weren't for Squall then Riku probably would have run away that day.
I still refused to say anything. To be honest, I didn't want to even think about Riku right then. To me, Kairi not coming over to hang out with us because Riku was there meant that Riku had done something to her. I didn't want to believe it, but what else could I think at that time?
Squall sighed and for a moment I thought that he had given up trying to get me to talk. I should have known that I wasn't going to be that lucky.
"Sora, I will find out what is bothering you." Squall told me. "You know as well as I that I have ways to make you talk."
I did know that. Like I said, he could always get me to talk when no one else could. Most of the time it involved him tickling me. So at first I was relieved when Cloud walked into the room.
"Sora, are you and Riku dating?" He asked me.
So much for being relieved that he was in the room. That was even worse.
I stiffened in my hair and turned around and raised my eyes to look at Cloud. 'How does he know? Does Roxas know? Why did he have to ask me that in front of Squall of all people?'
"Dating?" I squeaked. "Me and Riku? What gave you that idea?"
"Roxas told me you had a fight with Riku." Cloud said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And that when he came in the house you yelled for Riku to not touch me. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that normal best friends don't yell things like that when they're fighting."
I remained silent for a moment and they patiently waited for my answer. After a few minutes I finally nodded and quietly said, "Yes."
"How long?" Squall asked me.
"About a month." I said, looking back down at the ground. I didn't want to see Squall's reaction to this. I figured that he'd be made that I didn't tell him sooner.
"I take it that Roxas doesn't know." Squall said with a sigh.
I shook my head. "He doesn't. I don't want him to know yet." I managed to look up at Squall. "Please don't tell him." I said pleadingly. "I want to tell him. I just… I gotta figure out the best time."
Squall nodded. "Don't wait too long." He advised. "The longer you wait, the angrier that Roxas will be."
"And next time you come over, bring Riku with you." Cloud said. "He needs to have a nice long talk with me and Squall about a few things. We can call it a special 'older brother and future-brother-in-law threatening talk'. Or something."
I laughed and promised to bring Riku by the next time I visited. I almost wanted to make fun of Cloud for his 'creativity', but I didn't.
Then Cloud went back to talk to Roxas and Squall and I talked for a while longer before we all went out back to sit on the porch and play a board game and a few card games.
And then Roxas and I drove home. Along the way I thought of Riku and knew that I had to go talk to him. I couldn't not talk to him forever. I loved him.
End Chapter
Saturday, Nov 24-
Done! (throws self across desk) That's the last time I shut myself up in my room for about six hours straight after drinking 3 cups of coffee and taking a Pepsi with me just so I can get some writing done. I got over ten pages done! Ten! Urg... Now my hand hurts and I can't type straight. I'm really starting to hate NaNoWriMo. I'm almost done with the story and right now I'm only at a little over 22000 words. Somehow I have to get 28000 more words written by midnight next Friday. Can I do it?
