Down with Love

Description: Sequel to "Dance with Me". Roxas has arrived at college to find romance literally everywhere he turns, and somehow he always ends up playing matchmaker. Cupid has never been so unwilling or so downright grumpy. AU, Amazing Grace crossover.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and all the Final Fantasy games belong to Square-Enix. Amazing Grace and its characters belong to me.

2. Love Child
The Supremes

We ended up unloading Sora first. He and Justin had paired up together again this year and had gotten a room on the second floor of a dorm called Wharton. The nice thing about stopping at Sora's room first was that Riku was there to help him cart his stuff, and once we were done with Sora, it didn't take much begging on my part to get him to agree to come over and help me with mine as well. So we all piled into the car - much easier to do with half of the stuff gone - and drove all the way around the campus to my dorm, Mertz, which was on the other side.

Initially, I wasn't too happy with my new living arrangements. The dorm was dark and felt claustrophobic. The entire place was carpeted which wouldn't be bad if the carpet was fairly new-looking, but it wasn't. It looked old and worn and smashed down by hundreds of student feet over the last few decades. The ceilings were kind of low and the halls kind of narrow, and I couldn't help feeling I had been tricked somehow. Sora's and Riku's dorms last year had been far more spacious, and even Sora's dorm this year was better than this.

"Think of it this way," Riku encouraged when he saw my unhappy face. "It could be Willets."

"What's Willets?" I asked.

"Freshmen dorm," he answered with a grimace. "The walls are bare and the floors are tile to make it easier to clean up the beer and other … things." He hefted a suitcase strap over his arm and started up the central staircase. "Third floor, right?"

"Yeah."

When I reached my room, I discovered that my roommate had already arrived but was not there at the moment. He had apparently chosen the bed closer to the door and farther from the window, but his stuff was still packed, all in a neat pile of boxes. I stared at it for a moment, wondering where he was, before shrugging and claiming the other bed for myself. With me, Sora, Riku, and my parents working together, we had everything out of the car and up the stairs in about twenty minutes. I let my parents fuss over me for a few more minutes, but I soon kicked them out. There was an orientation later for parents of freshmen, but we had all been to it last year with Sora. As far as I was concerned, I had already done all of this and was ready for them to just leave.

Once they had, I started to unpack. Riku actually started to help me although I shooed him away from my clothes and had him set up my computer instead. Sora just flopped back on my bed like the lump he is.

"Do you have any thick boots?" my brother's boyfriend asked me when he saw me putting shoes in the closet. "If not, you're going to need them."

"Why?"

He hooked his thumb in the direction of the lone window which looked out onto the large grassy area the students called "the beach". "Sharples is directly across from here. The quickest way to get to it is across the beach, but when it's even slightly damp, the whole area turns into one large marsh. Your choices are to walk around, which takes forever, or walk through it. This is why I suggest the boots. Otherwise, you're likely to ruin several pairs of shoes by the end of the year."

"You talk like you've had experience."

"I have," he half-grinned. "I lived on the second floor my freshman year. Destroyed three pairs of shoes before I got smart."

"And now you live in ML," Sora complained from the bed, "so you're still ruining shoes. It's just now it's because you have to walk so damn far to get to campus."

The silver-haired junior frowned and grabbed a shoe out of my hand to chuck at my brother. "It's not that far!" he declared. "You're just lazy and out of shape."

"I am not out of shape!" Sora protested, sitting up. He looked around a bit to see where the shoe had gone and, not finding it, threw my pillow instead.

Riku caught it easily. "So you're not going to deny the lazy part?" he asked, smirking.

"Shut up!"

I sighed with irritation and took a breath in preparation to tell them to knock it off or get out of my room and have their little lovers' spat somewhere else. But someone beat me to it, clearing his throat from the doorway of the room. Taken off guard, I twisted around from my seating position on the floor to find a strange guy just inside the door. At the sight of him, my jaw unhinged a little and I think my eyes bulged.

He was an N'Darie. Green hair, pointed ears, slanted eyes, everything. I had seen plenty of them on TV, but seeing one in person was an extremely rare occurrence for anyone not involved in interstellar politics. The only other one I had ever met was Riku's friend J'nel, and he had been practically human, wearing jeans and a sweater with his hair pulled back and laughing like he didn't care a bit about cultural stoicism. This N'Darie looked the part, gazing at us with a politely blank expression, his long hair reaching half-way down his back with a few locks pulled in front of his ears and falling down his chest. He was even wearing N'Darie casual clothes, just a tan tunic and pants with a deep blue sash tied around the waist that was embroidered at the end with what I assumed was his family crest. I know that gaping at him like a fish was probably rude, but I'm sure anyone would forgive me for it. He just looked so unreal.

"Excuse me," he said when he noticed we are all staring at him, "but can I assume that one of you is my roommate?"

I scrambled to my feet, even more shocked now. I was going to be rooming with an N'Darie? "Yeah, I am," I told him, somehow recovering enough to be able to speak. I took a few steps toward him and held out my hand. "I'm Roxas. Nice to meet you."

Smiling just slightly, he stepped forward as well and took my hand with his. "Nice to meet you as well, Roxas. I am K'nsolear." After dropping my hand, he turned back towards the door and motioned to a person standing there whom I had not previously noticed. "This is Vindeflei, my cousin."

A pretty, dark-haired girl stepped into the room. She also wore N'Darie casuals, and her long hair was tied back loosely at the nape of her neck. She gave me a smile that was slightly larger than her cousin's as she said, "Nice to meet you."

I nodded my greeting back to her and turned to do my own introductions. "My brother Sora and his boyfr-" My voice stopped dead at the sight of Riku's face. He was staring at K'nsolear with wide, disbelieving eyes, his mouth hanging open. While I have to admit that I had felt similarly shocked at first, there had been plenty of time to recover and get back some semblance of functionality. But Riku was still completely out of it, staring as if his brain had shut down. "Riku!" I cried, snapping my fingers in front of his face to get him to blink. "What the hell? Sora, wake your boyfriend up."

My brother slipped off of the bed and grabbed Riku's arm, shaking him a little. "Riku," he half-whined, "what's the matter? You shouldn't stare. It's not polite."

Finally, Riku came back to earth enough to shut his mouth and lower his eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered. Then, louder: "I'm really sorry. I …" His eyes lifted again and fixed once more on my new roommate who was looking away, something close to resignation on his face. "I've just never seen one of you before. I didn't even know you existed."

Sora and I gaped at him, completely not understanding. Since Riku was Sora's responsibility, though, I let him do the honors of posing the all-important question.

"Riku, what are you talking about? One of your best friends is an N'Darie. How can you say something so rude?"

"But he's not an N'Darie," Riku insisted, gazing down into Sora's face. "Take a closer look. His ears are too short, the eyes aren't slanted enough, the hair is the wrong color green." Lifting his head again, he rested his eyes on K'nsolear's half-turned face and stated, "You're part-human."

The obviousness of this revelation hit me like a freight train. Riku was absolutely right that all of my roommate's traditional N'Darie features were toned down or muted. And if that hadn't tipped me off, I should have known the moment he introduced his cousin, a human girl, that his ancestry wasn't pure. As shocked as I was at my own stupidity and obliviousness, what shocked me far, far more were the implications of this discovery. The N'Darie were strict to the point of fanaticism about keeping their bloodlines pure. Crossbreeding was punishable by banishment if you were lucky; more often than not, it meant death.

In the wake of Riku's pronouncement, K'nsolear's face remained expressionless, but I could tell from his eyes that he was becoming steadily more and more upset. My fears were confirmed when he suddenly turned away as if to leave, but Vindeflei quickly put out a hand and stopped him merely by touching him on the shoulder.

"We both are," she replied to Riku's statement. "K'nsolear is half-human, and I am three-quarters." That sent another round of shock through us all, but she stopped it quickly by smiling and continuing, "If you wish to know our family's history, I am sure one of us would be willing to tell you at a later time. For right now, though, it would be best to unpack and settle in." She shifted her calm gaze to look at her cousin and added in the N'Darie tongue, "Shye?"

He refused to meet her eyes. Under his breath, he muttered, "A vel zetai en fan te fatash n'dahn lesoin."

"K'nsolear," Vindeflei replied in a tone that was clearly a reprimand, "ye re vacha furae."

He spun on his heel to glare at her, the anger in his green eyes spilling out into the rest of his face. "Ver set furae phfaren!" he all but growled at her. Clearly, we had insulted him, and, considering the way Riku had gawked at him, I didn't blame him for being pissed at us.

I was just about to try to defuse the situation - I did have to live with this guy after all - but then Riku stepped forward, pushing past me and coming directly up to K'nsolear. To everyone's surprise, including my new roommate's, the junior bowed low to the younger man, one hand resting on the opposite shoulder.

"A me s'tela," Riku said softly, stunning both Sora and me at the foreign words coming out of his mouth. "Z'cha, fachesa ma."

For a beat, no one moved. Riku remained there, bent ninety degrees at the waist like some Japanese vassal, and K'nsolear just looked at him, stunned. My new roommate's mask had cracked, and I watched as confusion and uncertainty swam through his eyes. He seemed paralyzed, torn between remaining angry and giving in to the obvious repentance that stood before him, wearing the formal form of his own culture. Then, Vindeflei elbowed him gently in the side, waking him up and spurring him into action.

"A …" he said hesitatingly. "A fachesa ye."

"Tesa ye," Riku replied. Straightening, he offered them both a small smile. "And that's pretty much the extent of my L'Guan," he admitted. "I only started learning this past summer."

"Your accent is quite good," Vindeflei complimented him as K'nsolear turned away again, although this time more in shyness than in anger.

"Thanks," Riku beamed at her. Then, leaning a bit to the side to try to catch the other man's eye, he added, "I really am sorry. You must get reactions like that wherever you go."

The corner of K'nsolear's mouth quirked upwards, and his eyes slid sideways to glance at Riku. "Yes," is all he said.

"Well, I apologize again for being such a jerk." He held out his hand. "I'm Riku, Roxas's brother's boyfriend." K'nsolear hesitated but eventually reached out to accept the handshake. "That's Sora, the brother," Riku continued once he had, using his free hand to indicate over his shoulder. "You probably won't see that much of us after today. Sora and Roxas are fond of each other, but they also tend to get on each other's nerves pretty easily."

I crossed my arms over my chest and snorted at that. Truer words had never been spoken. Sora didn't seem inclined to refute it either. Instead, he bounded over to Riku's side and snatched up the hand that the junior had just released.

"It's nice to meet both of you," he enthused, pumping poor K'nsolear's hand like he was trying to strike oil. "I really hope you and Roxas will get along. Just one thing though: if you eat meals together, watch your plate. He's an absolute thief when it comes to food, especially desserts."

"Sora!" I protested. This is why older siblings should never be allowed in dormrooms.

My stupid brother just grinned at me and high-tailed it to the door. "We should be going," he announced. "I have all of my own stuff to unpack. Aaaaand," he added with a smirk in my direction, "I haven't seen Riku in months. We have some catching up to do."

I groaned while Riku just chuckled and shook his head. "You two go be gay with each other somewhere else," I ordered, giving the older boy near me a shove. "I don't want to know about it."

Sora laughed and disappeared into the hallway. Riku followed him, giving me a quick good-bye before he, too, disappeared. That left me alone with my new roommate and said roommate's substantially friendlier cousin. The awkwardness was definitely threatening, but before it could get too out-of-control, I took a few steps closer to K'nsolear and offered him a smile.

"Sorry about Sora," I said, motioning to his hand which he was holding limply in front of himself like it had broken. "He's a complete dork sometimes. Did he squash your fingers?"

"Ah, no," he replied, seeming to wake up from another stunned half-daze. He shook his hand a little and then let it fall back to his side. I noticed that his eyes never really met mine, and it seemed like he was trying to patch his cracked mask back together. It didn't really offend me. I knew enough about the N'Darie to know that keeping an outward appearance of control and calm was extremely important to them. If my roommate wanted to wear masks around me, I didn't really mind. It meant that we wouldn't be good friends or anything, but as long as we could coexist, it would be okay.

"Do you need help unpacking?" I offered. Hey, just because it wasn't likely that we would end up friends doesn't mean that I shouldn't try.

"No. No, I'm fine," he replied. But then, finally, his green eyes locked with mine and I saw an actual bit of concern in them. "Are you okay with that side of the room?" he asked. "I didn't unpack anything because I didn't know if you would have a preference."

I lifted an eyebrow at this unusual display of selflessness. Someone had taught him how to be polite and thoughtful of others. "Yeah, I'm fine with it," I assured him. "I didn't really care, although if I had to pick, I would have picked this side anyway."

"Okay, good." He smiled a little then, and I was struck by how nervous and guarded the expression seemed. In that moment, I received the impression that, underneath the masks his upbringing forced him to wear, my roommate was an incredibly shy and introverted person. And really, when I thought about it a bit, it wasn't surprising. He was a half-breed, caught between a world that would kill him on sight and a world that gawked and pointed at him but would never trust him. Vindeflei at least looked human; K'nsolear would never have the luxury of being overlooked.

"Well, I'll leave you to it then," I told him, deciding to give him the space he so obviously needed after that lovely encounter with my brother and Riku. "Let me know if you need my help or anything."

"Thank you, Roxas," Vindeflei responded with another of her soft smiles. K'nsolear said nothing, but I could tell from his unguarded eyes that he felt the same way. I just nodded once, then turned back to my side of the room to continue my unpacking. A moment later, the two of them did the same.

A/N: To those of you who have actually read my book(s): Remember how different the Justin in DWM was from the Justin in AG? Same thing here with K'nsolear. This is teenager!K'nsolear, the one who hates his dad and is moody and short-tempered. There are hints of what he will become, but they're kind of buried underneath all the teenage confusion. So, no worries. I haven't gone and killed my own favorite character. :)