What? Is this a new chapter? Why, yes, it is. :D I know there's no excuse for waits like this, but trust me when I say that it was worth it, at least for me. I finally have a PLOT for this story. I can sit down and just write it, instead of dreading what might come out of my pen. I'm super excited about this story once more! I've already got most of the next chapter written, and the rest of the story in my head, so there shouldn't (I make no promises) be any more super long breaks. Okay? Okay.
Enjoy.
"Sora!"
The brunet turned sharply at his name, cutting off what was a promising make out session much to Riku's dismay. Axel sauntered up to the pair, catching the attention of almost everyone at the party while the silveret huffed and crossed his arms, obviously annoyed with the redhead's sudden and uninvited appearance.
"Are you ready?" Axel had to yell to be heard over the song Demyx's band was warming up with. Riku continued to glare at him, prompting the redhead to smirk widely and wrap his arm around Sora's waist and pull him out of Riku's loose hold.
Sora grinned brightly, totally oblivious to the tension between the two other teens. "Oh, yeah! I almost forget." He turned to smile at Riku, who did not look pleased.
"You're leaving? With him?"
Sora rolled his eyes, "Yes, Riku. I already told you, we've got ninja business to attend to."
Riku blinked.
"Don't worry, sweetheart, I'll have him back by midnight," Axel promised sweetly before blowing a kiss at the huffy silveret and leading Sora away.
Sora glanced back for a moment to smile apologetically at his boyfriend before disappearing into the crowd, and Riku, grudgingly acknowledging that it might be a while before he saw his lover again, grabbed a drink.
Several miles away, Roxas sat not quite happily on his bed, wrapped in at least three different blankets and surrounded by a small but growing mound of Kleenexes. Sora had come in about an hour ago to say bye before he left for the party at Demyx's, suspiciously not attempting to convince Roxas to accompany him, but Roxas couldn't be bothered to care about his twin's abrupt change of mind; he was more concerned with his hot, if tasteless, bowl of soup and a marathon of Disney movies.
So at approximately six pm, when the doorbell rang the first time, Roxas, belting along with "I Just Can't Wait to be King," was entirely incapable of hearing anything except Simba and Nala.
When it rang a second time, Roxas heard it, but didn't care enough about what was most likely a religious fanatic or obnoxious door-to-door salesperson to even consider leaving his toasty cocoon of blankets.
The third time his visitor switched to knocking, and Roxas took a second to glare at his door, as if that would send the persistent caller away; surprisingly, the knocking stopped, so the blond happily returned to his movie.
Barely five minutes later, during a particularly emotional scene (Roxas definitely was not crying), the bushes outside his window began to rustle and whisper more deviously than bushes are wont to do. At first, Roxas didn't notice – but not because he was crying; he was just that into the movie – but when the rosebush directly by his window suddenly yelped, he snapped out of his Disney-induced coma and turned to face the window with a puzzled and alarmed expression.
When he paused the movie, the whispering grew both more audible and more menacing.
"Shh! He's going to hear you!"
"Nuh-uh! I'm being a ninja right now; I'm practically undetectable – Ow! What was that for?"
Roxas looked at the pile of pills on his bedside table and wondered what he had overdosed on to give him hallucinations like these, and slowly crept off the bed and over to the window, in order to hear better.
"Just proving that you're not undetectable."
Roxas inched forward just a bit more and was puzzled to find his bedroom window open. He was even more puzzled when Axel fell halfway through said open window.
"Um… Hi, Roxie."
The blond stared at him for a moment, vaguely registering an evil cackle coming from beyond the bushes. "Axel?"
Grimacing, the redhead attempted to pull himself the rest of the way through the window with little success. "Rox, could you help me out?"
"I don't think it's healthy to interact with hallucinations," Roxas deadpanned, gaze focused on the strip of pale skin visible from where Axel's shirt had been pulled up in his struggle with the window.
Axel stopped his squirming to look up at Roxas incredulously. "Hallucination?"
Finally tearing his eyes away from the older teen's stomach, Roxas locked eyes with Axel. "What?"
"You called me a hallucination."
"Oh, yeah. I think I overdosed on whatever medicine Sora gave me. I'm sure you'll go away soon." And he sat down heavily on his bed, still watching Axel.
Realizing that he was probably going to be stuck in this window until he convinced the sick teenager that he was not a figment of his imagination, Axel decided to play along for a bit. "And your mind conjured up me, falling through your window?"
"Well, yeah," Roxas replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe.
Axel waited for him to elaborate, and Roxas did.
"I mean, you were in my dream last night, too…" His cheeks adopted a pink tint as he looked away almost shyly.
Completely floored by an unconfrontational Roxas, the redhead could only reply, "I thought you hated me."
Roxas mumbled something that sounded like "me too" before he settled back into his bed and grabbed the remote to un-pause his movie.
"You're just going to leave me like this?"
The blond looked at him, puzzled. "Well, you're not real, so I don't see how it matters where you are. And your leg's just caught on a thorn; you could probably get out if you pulled a bit harder."
Sure enough, when Axel contorted enough to see his leg, he easily disengaged it from the rose bush and tumbled the rest of the way through the window.
"See?" Axel could hear the blond's smirk in his reply, and hurriedly pulled himself upright, annoyed that his entrance had been so much less than impressive and sexy – and that Roxas didn't think he was real.
The blond did restart his movie, but turned down the volume, in case his hallucination felt like talking.
After a moment, Axel gingerly sat down on the bed next to him, prepared to be shoved off or verbally abused, but Roxas didn't seem to mind; in fact, he even scooted over to give the redhead more room beside him. Beaming at this victory, Axel scooted a little closer to Roxas, and still receiving no response, snaked an arm around the blond's waist. The blond sat tensely in his loose embrace for a moment before relaxing and resting his head against Axel's bicep with a contented little sigh.
Axel let a few minutes pass like this, astonished – but thrilled – at his success, and reveled in the feeling of having the blond in his arms – er, arm – but eventually he decided that he might as well take advantage of the situation to the fullest, and reached over with his other arm to gently nudge Roxas's chin up, so that they were looking at each other. Fittingly, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" played in the background as Axel leaned forward, hoping to make his intentions clear enough that the blond would have plenty of time to refuse, but Roxas's only response was for his eyes to flick downward on to Axel's lips, and he resisted the urge to smirk as he leaned even closer, feeling the blond's breath against his skin, hesitating just a moment before moving in to set his lips softly against Roxas's…
"AAAAH-CHOOOOOO."
The pair flew apart, Axel wiping at his face with a thoroughly disgruntled expression, and Roxas staring at him with wide eyes.
It had been over half an hour since Sora left, and Riku was more than a little buzzed, as he downed another glass of … whatever he was drinking, and stood once again to look for his boyfriend, figuring he'd have more luck this time than he'd had three minutes ago. The band was taking a break, so he made his way over to Demyx.
"Hey Riku!" The bubbly blond grinned at him, obviously still high on the thrill of performing.
"Hey. Good job up there," he gestured toward the stage, and Demyx smiled even more widely, obviously about to launch into how awesome the show was going and how he couldn't wait for them to start back up, but Riku quickly cut him off. "Have you seen Sora?"
Demyx stopped bouncing in excitement and cocked his head, curious. "No, not since we started playing, but I haven't really been looking for him. Did you lose him or something?" He poked his tongue between his lips childishly, which Riku ignored.
"No, he left with Axel a while ago." The teenager glanced distractedly around the room and took another draw from his cup.
Eyes wide, Demyx shook his head. "No way! Sora's totally not his type, and Axel would never do something like that! Sora's practically married to you!"
"Not like that, idiot," Riku snapped, futilely trying to block out the mental images Demyx's comment had produced, "Sora just needed Axel to go keep Roxas company so he wouldn't feel guilty leaving his brother sick at home while he was here." It had taken Riku ten minutes after Sora left to come to this conclusion, as he honestly hadn't been listening when his boyfriend had explained it to him.
"Oh," Demyx nodded sagely, "That makes a lot more sense." A high heel suddenly collided with the back of Demyx's head and he twisted around, more shocked than hurt. "What the hell, Larxene?"
"We're about to start, shithead," Larxene replied evenly, and sure enough, everyone except Demyx was already onstage and set. Shouting apologies to Riku and the band, Demyx hopped on stage and grabbed the mic, now apologizing to the crowd.
"Isn't that your precious wifey over there?"
Riku glanced at Larxene, who was putting her shoe back on, and she nodded toward the stairs. Sure enough, the familiar shape of Sora's spiky hair stood out in the dim lighting. He turned to say thanks to Larxene, but she was already back on stage, counting off another song.
Shrugging off an uneasy feeling at Larxene's abnormally helpful behavior, Riku took a few steps in Sora's direction. "Sora!" He called to his lover, but the music was too loud, so he pushed past people until he reached the brunet. "Hey, baby," he murmured into Sora's ear as he wrapped his arms around him from behind. Sora turned around in his embrace with a smile and leaned up to kiss him, which Riku responded to happily, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss.
A few moments later Sora pulled away, and Riku raised an eyebrow questioningly. The brunet opened his mouth to say something, but instead shot a frustrated look at the band and leaned up once more, but this time to murmur huskily in his ear. "Upstairs?"
Riku grinned widely, and Sora grabbed his wrist and led him up the stairs and into what looked like a guest bedroom in the moment before the light was flicked off. Riku suddenly had an armful of more-than-willing Sora, and he caught his lips in another heated kiss as the brunet pushed them backward and on to the bed.
Sora, breathing heavily, clutched a stitch in his side as he finally reached Demyx's house; surely a one, two tops, mile walk – all downhill, too – shouldn't leave him this winded, and he decided that he needed more exercise than he was currently getting, which mostly consisted of steamy bouts of love-making with Riku.
Thoughts of his boyfriend made Sora smile, and he bounced into the party, eager to find the silveret. The plan had worked brilliantly, despite Axel's insistence that they should just use Sora's keys to get into the house. The redhead was obviously unlearned in the art of ninja, so Sora forgave him for making such an amateur move, and in the end they'd both gotten what they wanted, and Axel was presumably corrupting his dear little brother at this very moment.
Demyx's band was still playing, their current song less their usual pop-punk style and more metal-influenced, which was probably Larxene's influence. Sora wasn't impressed with the result. Wincing at the harsh music and anxious to locate Riku, Sora latched onto the arm of a passerby, who luckily turned out to be Hayner and not some crazy psycho serial killer.
"Hey, Sora! Where's Roxas?" Hayner leaned close to Sora so he wouldn't have to yell too loudly to be heard, and Sora inferred from the blond's own winces that he felt just about as charitable toward this genre as Sora himself.
Making a face, he replied, "He couldn't make it! Caught the flu or something, but he told me to tell you sorry, and he'll see you at school!" Of course, Roxas had made only a vague reference about the party when he'd left, and had definitely not expressed sorrow at missing it, or anticipation of seeing his friend (Sora was pretty sure they were still on shaky grounds), but just a little white lie couldn't possibly hurt anybody.
Hayner grinned, obviously accepting Sora's word as fact and pleased by Roxas's apparent change of heart, and started to turn away, but Sora grabbed his elbow, suddenly remembering why he'd stopped Hayner in the first place.
"You don't know where Riku is, do you?" he asked, a hopeful expression on his face.
Hayner stared at him for a moment, brows furrow in confusion, before he finally replied, hesitantly. "Well, yeah, he's upstairs, but weren't you just–"
Sora took off, ignoring Hayner's last few words and sudden expression of concern, and jumped the stairs two at a time to reach his boyfriend, ready to be congratulated for the successful implementation of his plan. The first few rooms he checked were devoid of Riku, and he excitedly opened the last door, not recognizing the noises coming from the other side for what they were.
"Hey Riku, what're you doing up here?" He furrowed his noise, and the room was suddenly silent except for him speaking. "And why's it so dark–" He finally flipped on the light and froze. What he was seeing was impossible. He knew that couldn't truly be his soul mate, his Riku, naked and intertwined with some stranger – but Sora knew that body better than he knew his own.
"Oh, um…" Sora stuttered, blindly fumbling for the light switch, mind blank and movements automatic, "Sorry to interrupt – I'll just–" and he finally flipped the light off and backed out of the room, closing the door carefully behind him.
Pausing as he packed away his share of the band's equipment, Demyx grinned at yet another rabid fan, this time a guy who yelled "Sweet show, dude," as he walked out. And the fan was right: the practice had gone better than anyone could have anticipated, and the whole band felt confident about totally rocking their gig the next night. The party had gone equally well, if the debris of snack food and slowly-fading odor of alcohol was any indication, Demyx noted as he surveyed the living room with a critical eye, glad that he could put off most of the heavy-duty cleaning until the morning. Performances always wiped him out.
"Whoa!" Demyx yelled as someone plowed into him from behind, and he turned around with a smile that quickly faded at the sight of Sora, who sported a curiously and extremely un-Sora-like blank expression. "Whoa," he said again, less annoyed and more concerned, "What's up, little dude?" He held the brunet in place for a moment, but Sora wasn't fazed, his eyes gazing unfocused over his shoulder.
"Can I borrow your car, Demyx?" the small teen asked, still not looking Demyx in the eye. "I'll have Axel drive it back, I promise, just… Please."
Demyx, struck by Sora's strange behavior but realizing that this was no time to be asking questions of his little friend, fished the keys out of the pocket of his skinny jeans and wordlessly passed them to Sora, who grabbed them and, without so much as a thank you, darted in front of a large group of people and out the front door.
Demyx waited only a moment before turning to find the brunet's boyfriend, hoping for an explanation, and sure enough, Riku stumbled down the stairs, trying and failing to button his jeans as he went, an expression of complete devastation on his face.
"Sora!" Riku called, and Demyx instinctively rushed forward to catch him before he reached the front door, his mind screaming that something was definitely not right.
"Hey, man, what's up?"
Riku pushed past him impatiently and shoved some leaving partiers out of his way just in time for Demyx to catch a glimpse of his own car speeding away over the silveret's shoulder, and he hoped Roxas could get something out of the brunet when he got home.
A choked sound caught his attention, and he re-focused on Riku, alarmed. "Hey," he put a steadying hand on the teen's shoulder, and was relieved when he wasn't immediately shoved off. "Riku, dude…"
The silveret turned mechanically at his name, and Demyx was shocked to see tears gathering in the creases of his bright aqua eyes.
"Alright," the musician, adopting a firmer tone and more serious expression than many of his friends would have believed him capable of, used his hand on Riku's shoulder to guide the teenager to the couch, which cleared at a look; since the show had ended, the house was nearly emptied of partiers now, anyway. Riku sat automatically, and Demyx brushed some Cheetos off of the remaining cushion before settling down beside him. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"
It took Roxas a while to come to terms with the fact that Axel was not a hallucination. It took him a while longer to accept that the redhead was, in fact, in his room, and it would take a few days longer to even confront the fact that they had kissed, no matter how briefly.
It only took Axel a few moments to get over being sneezed on, and a few minutes after that he was leading a still slightly befuddled Roxas into a bright and cheery diner.
"What are we doing here?" Roxas asked, all-too-aware that he had sneezed all over the redhead and absently wondering if Axel was about to go Sweeney Todd on him as punishment.
Axel laughed, as if he knew what Roxas was thinking, and led the way up to the counter. "Getting something to eat, of course."
Still a little unsure, Roxas followed him, but brightened when he saw that they offered sea-salt ice cream. Already imagining how delicious his first bite of the frozen treat would be, he almost missed who was standing behind the counter, impatiently popping her bubblegum as she waited for them to order.
"Kairi?" the blond asked incredulously, before recalling Sora mentioning something the other day about them moving back to Twilight.
"Roxas," the teen acknowledged with an unpleasant expression. "What a lovely surprise." Her tone made it clear that, although a surprise, it was anything but lovely.
"Likewise," Roxas ground out, and Axel cut in before harsher words could be thrown.
"How nice! Well, I think we're ready to order!" Axel cheerfully announced, and Kairi turned to him with a raised eyebrow and another pop of her bubblegum. We'll need a double-fudge-marshmallow shake, a sea-salt ice cream, and two double cheeseburgers with chili-cheese fries. Extra large."
Roxas gaped while Kairi put the order in and told them it would be "ready in a few ticks" in a tone as sweet as sugar-coated cyanide.
Axel sauntered over to a booth and collapsed into it, with Roxas trailing behind.
"Are you really that hungry?" The blond asked as he settled into his seat.
"Nah, half of it is yours." Before he had a chance to argue, Axel continued. "So what's up with you and Red?" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder in Kairi's general direction, and the girl glared at Roxas in response.
"She's a bitch," Roxas replied shortly, and then expounded at Axel's less-than-impressed look. "She used to live here and was totally obsessed with Sora; she was constantly at our house, waiting on the porch for Sora to come home if he was gone, and fawning over him if he was there, even though he made it clear – politely, of course, you know Sora – that he wasn't interested. My mom seriously thought about getting a restraining order."
Axel blanched and looked back at the redhead in disbelief. "No way. I mean, she obviously hates you, but she doesn't seem that crazy."
Roxas laughed humorlessly. "Oh, she is. Trust me."
They sat for a moment in silence.
"So Sora and Riku haven't actually been together for a million years?" Axel broke the silence.
Roxas blinked. "What do you mean?"
The redhead grinned indulgently. "Everyone acts like they've been dating since they were in diapers or something. I've never heard of a pre-RiSo period."
Roxas snorted at the meshing of the two names, but nodded, understanding. "They weren't always dating, per se, but it's always been clear that they were closer than just best friends, even before either realized he had feelings for the other. But no, they didn't officially start dating until homecoming last year."
"Really? That's so much more recent than I expected. They just seem so… close." The redhead grimaced at his inability to express what he was trying to say.
"They are," Roxas insisted. "Ever since Riku moved in, they've been inseparable. We all knew it would happen sooner or later. They were meant to be." He trailed off, looking down in hopes that Axel wouldn't see his cheeks reddening.
Luckily, Kairi appeared beside the table at that moment, quite impressively carrying the tray holding their order single-handedly, the other hand resting against her hip.
"So," she began, obviously intending to hold their food hostage until she got information, "How's Sora doing?"
"Just dandy," Roxas muttered, hoping she would leave, but her glossy pout showed otherwise, so Axel gave it a shot.
"Oh, you know Sora. As long as he's got Riku around, how could he be anything but happy?" The redhead concluded with a charming smile and wink combo.
Kairi sneered at him, and turned her attention back to Roxas, with what he thought must be an attempt at a smile, but in reality looked more like a grimace. "Can you tell Sora I said hi? And that I'll be waiting to hear from him, of course."
Roxas raised an eyebrow, wondering how she could still possibly think she had a chance with Sora, but nodded nonetheless, and Kairi finally set their food on the table, Axel's with a bit more force than entirely necessary, and clicked away in her ridiculous hot pink pumps.
"What a sweetheart," Axel commented before taking a long draw from his shake. Roxas watched until the redhead raised an eyebrow, and then he looked hastily down at his own meal.
"Eat up, Roxie!"
Roxas looked up at Axel disbelievingly. "You can't expect me to eat this junk. I'm sick." And he sniffed hard, as if to prove the point, although he was already beginning to feel a little better than he had earlier. From the laugh Axel let out, Roxas guessed the older teen must know this.
"Trust me, kid. Think of it as my personal recommended treatment for all illnesses, real and imagined." He winked again, though Roxas believed it was much friendlier – sexier, his mind amended, despite Roxas's denial – than the wink he'd bestowed Kairi with moments ago. He smiled instinctively in response.
Axel grabbed his own cheeseburger, using both hands to hold the monstrosity together as grease dripped off his fingers, and held it to his mouth, waiting for Roxas to follow suit. The teen made a face as he gingerly picked up his own burger, and his stomach, sensing the oncoming nourishment, growled loudly, and Roxas winced, ignoring Axel's delighted laugh, and finally took a bite. Eyes closing in pleasure at the pure salty, greasy, cheesy mouthful of heart attack, Roxas fought the ridiculous urge to moan at how delicious the cheeseburger was after two days with nothing but a few bowls of bland chicken noodle soup. He swallowed the bite and opened his eyes to find Axel staring at him, hamburger dangling precariously from limp fingers and jaw dropped. Immediately Roxas blushed a bright red.
"What?" He asked defensively, setting the burger down and reaching for a fry.
"I have never met anyone that could make eating a cheeseburger so – " he leaned forward, setting his own burger down and looking Roxas dead in the eyes, " – erotic."
Although his immediate reaction to this ridiculous observation was to chuck his handful of chili-cheese-coated fries straight into the older teen's serious face, Roxas couldn't help but laugh in delight as Axel good-naturedly wiped his face off. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had so much fun.