Title: We're Not Done
Author: roxminallo
Disclaimer: I claim no rights in regards to the characters that Disney and Square-Enix own.
Rating: NC-17 with strong language and triggers including but not limited to depression and anxiety.
Pairings: AkuRoku, SoRiku
Category: Alternate Universe, romance, humor, drama, and yaoi.
Date Begun: November 23rd, 2016
Date Posted: March 28th, 2017
Authors Note: Well I'm the worst. I'm sorry for the delay, and I hope you enjoy. My writer's block is really taking it's toll and I just hope this doesn't suck.
Chapter Nine: Let Us In
"Guys, don't you think this is getting a little carried away?" Aqua sighed lightly, allowing her gaze to settle on the large computer screen that Vanitas and Larxene were occupying with various snickers and slurs.
"Carried away? Aqua, it's pointless fun," Vanitas scoffed, dragging the computer mouse into various applications.
"Fucking hell, that's hilarious," Larxene laughed, scrunching her nose up while letting out a thunderous cackle. She hit Vanitas's shoulder and pointed to the screen. "Use this one!"
"He almost died Van, pointless fun has passed," Aqua reasoned, cringing at the makeshift video the two were diabolically putting together. The idea was all Larxene and Vanitas; Aqua had nothing to do with it. This was borderline assault.
"He's a fucking coward, Aqua. He can try to escape all he wants, but I won't rest till he's sobbing in a corner," Vanitas reared his teeth with a chilling laugh, eyes blazing at the plethora of images and videos that were sure to embarrass the blonde haired boy.
"He was sobbing in the corner when you ruined his relationship. You're just being an asshole now," Aqua spat. "Whatever, Van. I don't want any part of this," she sighed, lifting her backpack onto her right shoulder. Pushing her chair in, she turned around quickly, making large strides towards the door to the hallway.
"Too late sweetie, there's no backing out now," Larxene stood, words stopping Aqua in her tracks. Aqua turned to her, anger ridden in the crease of her brow.
"You can't go through with this. It's ridiculous, and borderline assault. Honestly, its only time before he finds out that you're making all of this up anyway."
"It doesn't matter if he finds out, Aqua," Van paused, turning around in his chair. "He's already in pain. He's never going to be able to fully trust Axel again. Now it's time to just kick back, watch the finale unfold, and enjoy," he smiled, standing up, and walked over to his blue-haired friend.
"Exactly," Aqua exasperated. "Kick back and enjoy for ruining his year. Don't make a fucking movie about how he failed at killing himself, fucking Christ Vanitas," Aqua scoffed, throwing her backpack into the chair to the left. "You're fucked up, Van. He did nothing to you."
"He did everything to me Aqua," Van grabbed her arm, clenching his fingers tightly around it. "If it wasn't for him, I'd still be with Terra. But no, that fucking slut had to steal him, making me second best." He let go of Aqua's arm, throwing it slightly as he stomped back to the computer. Larxene scoffed, and followed her leader, sitting to his right.
"Like how you made Ventus second best?" She questioned, earning a shocked look from both Vanitas and Larxene.
"That's not the same, and you know it," Vanitas pressed, waving Aqua off.
"Right, of course, I'm so wrong," Aqua spoke. "Ven was just head over heels for you, and wanted to give his life to you. I'm sorry Vanitas, you're so right, that's not the same at all."
"Aqua, let me remind you of something," Vanitas spoke condescendingly. "You were the one who convinced me to give that thing a chance. I didn't want to be with him, and you know that," Van fired, Larxene silently nodding.
"Sometimes I wonder how you don't hate yourself…" Aqua whispered, trailing off. Sometimes, Aqua wondered how she didn't hate herself. Ventus and her had been best friends since they could remember. Growing up on this island wasn't easy, and they were genuinely lucky they found each other at such a young age. They relied on each other for practically everything, until middle school, where they met Vanitas and Larxene. Back then neither of them were cold-blooded. It's no wonder Ventus fell for him.
Ventus would talk to Aqua on the phone till all hours of the morning, begging and crying for her to find out if Vanitas even liked boys. Of course, Aqua already knew Vanitas did, and even more specifically… Aqua knew Ventus didn't stand a chance.
She shook her head lightly, silently wishing she had had the courage to tell him straight to his face, so they could have avoided this entire debacle. But with Ventus, Aqua could never say no. She eventually got Vanitas to agree to date Ventus, hoping that either Ventus's feelings would go away, or Vanitas would actually start liking him back. Unfortunately for her, neither of those things happened. Vanitas had become more… Sour, over the years. She had hoped that would help Ventus's feelings disappear. She couldn't have been more wrong.
"Are you going to help, or not?" Larxene prodded, breaking Aqua out of her trance.
"With what?" Aqua questioned, cringing at the violent look Larxene threw at her.
"Winter Formal, for fucks sake," she spat, turning back to Vanitas and the computer.
"No, Larxene, I won't," Aqua decided, a warm feeling encompassing her stomach and chest. "Van you can't do this," Aqua paused. "You've ruined his life, don't ruin it anymore," she reasoned. "And who even knows if he's going to formal?"
"Oh he'll be there. And I can't wait to see his face when we show this video in front of the entire school," Van laughed, hand moving the mouse sharply, making edits, and adding lewd text to the video.
"I won't have my name anywhere near this. You have your fun, I'm done."
"Aqua," Larxene spoke, an annoyed tone to her voice. She turned her chair around and smiled condescendingly. "You're way too uptight for your own good. Loosen up, prude."
"I said I'm done."
"Then fuck off," Vanitas spat, not tearing his head away from the computer screen for even a second.
"Fine," Aqua said lightly, grabbing her backpack, walking quickly towards the door. She stopped just before exiting and turned around, both 'friends' engrossed in their latest conquest of writing the words 'filthy cum-slut' across a picture of Roxas and Axel kissing. There was no way she could let them do this, but there was no easy way to stop them either.
Aqua stormed into the hallway, making a beeline for her locker. If there was no way she could stop them, then maybe there was someone that could. She didn't want to have to do this, but if she needed to go to the administrative staff, she would, even if they dragged her down with them. She paused, hearing a familiar voice coming from the main hallway.
"Whatever I can do to help you bring Roxas and Axel back together. That… That would break Vanitas, and maybe it would help him realize that he has some issues to work out."
Ventus?
With… Selphie?
Aqua turned around, noticing an absent-minded Larxene heading straight her way.
"Fuck…" she whispered to herself, hiding her face slightly as she walked straight to the other side of the hallway, and towards her next class of the day. Whatever it was Ven and Selphie were talking about would have to wait.
But Aqua couldn't keep the smile off of her face as Ventus's words echoed in her head.
"Whatever I can do to help you bring Roxas and Axel back together."
"Let me get this straight," Demyx spoke slowly. "Selphie actually did something right and dug up some good dirt?" He asked, earning a curt nod from Kairi.
"I didn't believe it myself, but you'll want to hear this," Kairi smiled, not missing the brunette's shocked expression.
"Guys!" Selphie yelled. "I'll have you know that anything is possible when you set your mind to it," she cried.
"Still shocking that it was you to find the lead," Zexion whispered, hiding his smile by turning his head towards the opposite end of the hallway.
It was the end of lunch, and students littered the hallway. Luckily Roxas had been keeping a low profile all day, which made it easy to openly talk to Ven about the plan they had been forming. He stepped forward, and began reciting everything that he had previously told Selphie. The brunette would interject every once in a while, re-explaining things, clearly butting in to sound more intelligent. He talked about Vanitas, and he informed everyone about the true reason that Vanitas is even doing this. He could tell that everybody was clearly getting upset, especially Kairi, so he did his best to assure everyone that he most definitely could find more information out.
"So you're saying we're dealing with a fucking sociopath?" Tidus gawked, earning a strong slap from Selphie. "What? It's true."
"He's not a sociopath, he just has some issues…" Ven paused, watching humorously as Tidus rubbed the spot where Selphie had hit him. "That's not the point though," he stated, staring forward at Kairi and Zexion, who he decided were the clear 'brains' of the group.
"The point is that we don't have a plan," Kairi sighed. "Obviously mere words aren't proof enough because Roxas has himself overly fixated on the rumor. We need visual proof. Something that shows him that Axel didn't cheat, no questions asked," Kairi spoke, leaning against her locker harshly.
"I wish I was still friends with Larxene and them. I'm sure there's some way I could find visual proof," Ven spoke, earning a wide-eyed grin from the redhead in front of him.
"That's it!" Kairi yelled. "We can't be the only ones sick of their shit. What about Aqua? She always seemed like the type of girl who rolled with their punches just because."
"It's worth a shot…" Demyx shrugged, leaning gently into Zexion, a warm pink tint darting across his cheeks as the slate-haired boy wrapped an arm around his waist.
"Let me handle it," Ven spoke, hearing the final bell ring. Picking up his backpack and swinging it over his right shoulder, he smiled.
"Meet out front after school and we can walk home and talk more," Kairi spoke, slinging her bag over her shoulder before running arm in arm down the hallway with Selphie.
"What are we doing after school?" Sora asked curiously, quickly jamming his locker open to retrieve a book he needed.
"Ven, why don't you fill him in on everything?" Zexion replied, pushing Demyx down the hall slowly. "I need to get this one to class on time."
"Ven?" Sora turned around quickly. "Oh!" He began to laugh lightly, shutting his locker harshly. "I thought you were Roxas," Sora smiled, his head tilting slightly.
"I get that a lot."
"You are not going to believe what I just saw," Larxene spoke, walking quickly back into the media room after shutting the door behind her. "I just saw Ven hanging out with Kairi and her pussy posse. What the fuck is that about?" She spat, falling into the chair to the right of Vanitas.
"And why should we care?" Vanitas spoke absent-mindedly, pausing only slightly to turn and look at his blonde haired friend.
"Because Ven is a slimy mother fucker. Who knows what shit he's telling them," she spoke, sounding just slightly worried.
"He doesn't know anything about this Larxene, chill the fuck out," Vanitas scoffed, returning his full attention back to the video editing.
"Van, don't be stupid. One fuck up and we're both going down," she warned, suddenly taking caution to Aqua's words.
"And how are they going to know it's us? Hmm?" Vanitas paused, turning his full body to Larxene. "The media team will have no idea that we swapped out the senior slideshow with our video. And when we wipe the entire system of this computer, there will be no evidence. They can't catch us."
The plan all along had been to volunteer for the set-up of the Winter Formal, which happened the day before the dance. They planned to sneak into the school the night before and swap out the DVD for their video. The hard part would be steering the rest of the people away from 'double-checking' that the slideshow was working, but Larxene had assured him that that wouldn't be a problem. She was awfully convincing.
"I'm just saying to tread quietly…" Larxene warned, casting her eyes downward.
"Don't you dare tell me you're backing out too?" Vanitas gawked silently, tearing his eyes away from the computer screen.
"Oh fuck no," Larxene paused. "That little shit's had this coming for far too long."
"It's fucking freezing," Tidus spoke stiffly, crossing his arms and tapping his foot lightly.
"I believe the phrase you're looking for is, 'colder than a witches titty,'" Selphie cooed, wrapping her arms around Tidus's neck loosely, swaying gently back and forth.
"Whatever, I still don't see why we have to be a part of this plan. Kairi and Ventus are clearly the ones who are going to be handling this," he scoffed.
"We have to be a part of this plan because I'm nosey, and have a constant need for validation," Selphie smiled, dropping her arms at the sight of Kairi, Ventus, Sora, and Riku walking out of the front door. "Now listen, we just have to be here to make sure everything runs smoothly. You don't even have to participate."
"Good, because I'm not-"
"Has anyone seen Roxas come outside yet?" Kairi asked, hiking her backpack further up her shoulder.
"He said he needed to meet with a teacher after class so we didn't have to wait for him," Selphie spoke, walking towards the group and away from Tidus.
"It's like he doesn't even know any of you," Riku sighed, linking his fingers with Sora's and pulling him away from the group slowly. "However we have other engagements to attend to."
"We've had holiday shopping planned for weeks and we both finally have time to get it done. We'll see you guys later maybe? Tomorrow?" Sora smiled, swaying back and forth from the excitement of potential gift giving.
"Sounds great," Kairi spoke quickly, shooing them away gently. "I need everyone acting natural for when Roxas comes out."
"I don't know why I thought you'd all be gone," Roxas spoke, walking out of the front door to the school, stopping in front of his friends. "You'd think I'd know better by now."
"We thought we'd wait for you so we could all walk home together," Kairi spoke, walking forward to link arms with Roxas. She smiled, squeezing tightly. "And besides, we have to talk about formal."
"I kind of wanted to walk alone," Roxas spoke, slowly trying to remove his arm from Kairi's grasp, sighing lightly in the process. "And I don't know how many other languages I need to tell you in, but I'm not going to formal."
"Nonsense on both counts!" Selphie replied joyously, dragging Tidus along the walkway.
"And is that any way to treat our new friend?" She motioned to Ventus, who was slightly tucked away behind the group. He stepped forward, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
"… Okay?" Roxas responded, cocking his head to the side. Sighing, he shook his head side to side. "Okay, fine, sure. I'll bite."
"Mhhm, yes you will," Kairi responded, finally succeeding in dragging Roxas down the sidewalk.
The walk to their neighborhood wasn't a long one, only taking about ten minutes. The crisp winter air nipped at them incessantly, allowing no comfort in the lightweight sweaters and jackets they were wearing. They managed to keep a conversation going the entire way, including Ventus into the mix as if he had been there since the beginning.
"Not to be rude or anything, but-"
"Why am I here?" Ven asked, laughing lightly as Roxas's face flushed.
"I mean," Roxas paused. "Well, yeah."
"Selphie was interviewing me for her psychology case study and I had nothing else to do."
"We have a psychology class?"
"Anyway!" Kairi bellowed, squeezing Roxas's arm tighter. "You can fight all you want about formal, but you're coming with me. I don't have a date, and I will pull the best friend card if I have to."
"You wouldn't do that."
"Roxas, I know that you had in your mind that you wanted Axel to take you, which, if you still want to, be my guest-"
"Kairi."
"But since I doubt that is going to happen, you have the next best thing!"
"Kairi."
"That's it. I'm pulling the best friend card. You have to now. I haven't pulled this in years, but you leave me no choice. You're dramatic and it's gross. You're going."
"Wow look at that, already home," Roxas spoke, a small smile on his face. The look on Kairi's face was worth the entire agonizing walk home. He walked up the sidewalk quickly, waving back to his friends quickly. Opening the front door, he walked into the warm house, shutting and locking the door behind him.
"Roxas, thank god you're here," Ayumi spoke, walking into the hallway with a wooden spoon in her hand. "I got Kairi's text to get your suit dry cleaned, but I need you to-"
"You two are impossible," Roxas threw his backpack onto the floor and rubbed his forehead with his hands.
"Yes, I know," she spoke. "But I need you to try it on so I can make any alterations."
"When will I learn that I don't have a choice in any aspects of my life?"
"I don't know sweetheart, and frankly it's getting tiring," she sighed, placing her hands on her hips. "Now-"
"I'm going, I'm going," Roxas spoke, grabbing the garment bag out of the closet. "Text your little bff that I'm all nestled into my chastity belt and ready for the ball."
"I could have died without hearing that sentence come out of your mouth."
AN: I'm really sorry for the wait. I've been going through some things, and I think it's beginning to get better. I'm leaving New York City, because it's making me miserable, so hopefully I find some inspiration where I'm about to go. Review/Favorite/Follow, just please don't give up on me. Every chapter is outlined or typed, and I need to edit and finish other ones, but give me time, I'm trying my hardest. Also: I don't know if any of the readers are interested in this, but I'm going to be posting a link to my Archiveofourown website, where these stories will be posted, plus more. Also, I'm going to be starting a Rean Schwarzer/Jusis Albarea from Sen no Kiseki/Trails of Cold Steel fic soon, a Zack/Cloud fic soon, and a Yuri! On Ice fic.