In this chapter: Roxas jumps off a cliff.
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Ballad
Chapter Thirteen
"A Beautiful Mistake"
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Roxas woke up with a start. He shot up in the bed and had to bite his lip to keep from screaming. All this simply from the pain radiating inside his head. It was still dark outside, and he couldn't see a thing. His one motive was clear: find a bathroom and quick. He reached over to the bedside table for a lamp, but found nothing but a stack of papers and an old can of beer. He accidentally made all of it to fall over, causing a loud thud. Roxas cursed softly when he couldn't even see the mess he had made. His eyes widened when he heard another person sighing in their sleep, a deep husky sound, and felt them roll over in the bed.
This wasn't his bedroom. That sure as hell wasn't Namine.
Suddenly, Roxas wanted to move very quickly to get as far out of the room as possible. The misadventures of last night, or very early that morning, were slowly starting to leak back in. They were at a karaoke bar, Roxas sang some Beatles, everyone was gone for some reason, then he and Axel started… on the table…
Roxas paused and tried to remember everything.
They kissed in the private karaoke room, which was a private place but still very public, and ran off to get his birthday shots together without the others. Roxas' hands immediately shot to the pockets of his pants. It was comforting that at least his slacks and underwear were still on, although the belt being undone and fly pulled down did very little to console him. At least there wasn't- No, strike that. There was definite cum on his underwear. In his deep front pocket he was able to find his cell phone, and he flipped it open quickly to create a makeshift spotlight. He winced at the light on the screen, it providing minimal help for his growing hangover.
Roxas shined a light on the bedside table he had just knocked the papers off of. There was an old-fashioned double bell alarm clock stating that it was five-thirty in the morning; the sun would be rising soon. He gulped nervously and pointed his phone towards the bed he woke up in. During the night Axel had somehow kicked all the covers off towards Roxas' side, and he wasn't as gifted in the art of keeping your pants on as the blond was. Roxas' face paled. He was sober enough to remember exactly what went down last night, but the early morning headache was making everything blurry.
"Shit." He'd drank a lot last night, but sometime after the fourth dive bar where Axel insisted the biggest ska-punk band in Bastion was going to perform the redhead stopped buying him shots and started giving him water. After the ninth bar Axel said they should go somewhere. Go home. Go to Axel's apartment. Under more scrutiny with his cell phone flashlight, he noticed that Axel was clutching his white undershirt in his hands. Finding the black shirt he came with would be like finding a needle in a haystack, so this shirt was his last line of defense. He crept as silently as he could around the bed, almost breaking his neck over a pile of dirty laundry right by the door. The floor was like a minefield of sound. With every step Roxas had to avoid soda cans, sheet music, and the rogue CD lying out in the open. He finally got to the other side of the bed and tried to pry the shirt from Axel's grip, but there was no easy doing. Once he was able to loosen the punk's fingers, Roxas noticed to an awkward horror that his shirt was sticking to Axel's hand.
The shirt was remaining in a clump and refused to fall straight. Once he was able to pull it apart, having to stick his cell phone in his mouth to still give him proper light, he noticed, to his alarm, what exactly was causing his shirt to be so crusty and gross. He and Axel were making out on the laundry pile, they dry humped on the bed, and Roxas remembered one of the many ways the punk was able to put his big mouth to good use. The blond groaned pathetically to himself and reached down into his boxers and could feel the evidence of last night's play on him. Axel moaned in his sleep and rolled over to his side.
Roxas had a feeling that he would notice that he was missing and would wake up soon. He had to get the fuck out of there. The fall frost was starting to come in and there was no way he could escape outside without some sort of shirt. He turned quickly and shined his light across the room. The sun was starting to rise through the blinds and it was beginning to become unnecessary for him to use it anymore. He took extra caution to close his phone extra quietly and he tiptoed around the field mines once again to where he figured Axel's closet would be. When he opened it, to add insult to injury, a large stack of CD jewel cases fell from inside and scattered loudly all over the floor. "FUCK!"
Axel definitely stirred at the noise. "Zssncht—Hmn?" Roxas panicked and grabbed the first shirt he saw hanging, noticing that the closet was more of a storage for music rather than for clothes. He would have been better off with one of Axel's smelly leftovers on the floor. "Wuzzgoin'on?" Axel slurred, probably still drunk, Roxas wasn't sure. He would never forgive himself if he was. He felt rotten. Roxas pulled the shirt over his head, taking strides across the room, not caring what he stepped on anymore. "Rossas?"
Roxas stood at the door, pulling the long-sleeved shirt down and turning to glance at the redhead. He had the decency to cover himself up with the sheets, at least. There was something about him that was so incredibly sexy that Roxas didn't want to leave the room. The redhead scratched his scalp and his facial jewelry was glittering in the morning light. The tattoos looked like a second skin, a decorative shadow in the sun. "What time is it?" he mumbled.
"…Early," Roxas whispered, a fond smile creeping to his features. "Go back to sleep."
Axel, still not completely in the right mind, simply nodded back and let his head collapse back onto his pillow. He rolled over and wrapped his arm around the comforter. Roxas rolled his eyes as the sheet Axel had used to cover himself had shifted when he rolled over and now his butt was exposed to the cold. The blond walked over to the side of the bed and got another good look at the tattoos on his back. The memory of the flame-scaled koi was just as permanent in Roxas' mind as it was Halloween night. Figuring that now was as good a time as ever, while Axel's breathing was a slow and steady pace, he kneeled and tried to read some of the words that made up the water the fish was swimming against.
"Living with me, I don't think it would be so bad. This is the first time this year that I'm not going to make you mad. I'm tired of my conscious always telling me to stop sleeping in, but I can't waste a second on dreams that will never begin."
Roxas wanted to continue, but another sleepy grunt from Axel reminded him that he was supposed to be leaving. He pulled the sheet to cover Axel's entire body, hoping that it would stay that way so the redhead wouldn't catch a cold in his drafty bedroom. He turned to leave the room as quickly as possible, but stopped when he saw something that he would have never noticed if it weren't for the sunlight slowly starting to leak in. It was a photo of his brother.
Roxas paused, doing a classic double take and snatching the picture from its thumbtack on the wall, holding it closer to the window to make absolutely sure. It was a picture of Axel, Sora, and Riku with Destiny Harbor in the background. Sora was standing in the middle, and there was big red transparent sharpie 'X' over his glossy face. Roxas looked back to where he got the photo and there was a small list also tacked to the wall. The blond took a moment from his detective work to hum softly at the idea that Axel really liked to make lists.
"Things To-Do – August 6 200X
Kill Sora
Find Riku
Fix the band"
Roxas was only moderately terrified that Axel wanted to kill his brother. The tattoos did little to help Axel lose his tough-guy image, but Roxas knew him well enough to know that he had no real penchant for violence in him. The blond folded the photograph and shoved it into the back pocket of his pants. Right under Axel's to-do list from last year was a sheet of paper with notes scrawled on it. On the top, in red ink, it said "Roxas' Song." The young man paused and read the music notes, which may as well have been written in Sanskrit because it made little sense to him. There were some comments, however, about the lyrics.
"Under this heart's spell, you cannot defend. It's the simple truth the night brings. You would never want this rendezvous to end, if only she stopped pulling strings. From the beginning you were the answer, the solution to the unspoken word. But for all of the times you left me for her, it seems my lonely heart feels the sting."
The lyrics ended there, in a rather simple rhyme scheme compared to Axel's normal lyrics. It was a somber song that definitely seemed to define their relationship in the most heart-wrenching way possible. Roxas looked back to Axel's sleeping form, knowing that this could never work. He had to marry Namine. It was just the way things are. He decided to label this night as a mistake, and she would never have to know. Axel would continue on with his life like they had never met, and Roxas would convince Namine to hire a DJ for the reception. Quickly, he took the music off the wall and crammed it in his back pocket, making his way towards the door.
Once out of the room, he found his shoes by the couch. Figuring socks would be a lost cause at this point, he slipped them on and left the apartment. Once outside, the biting cold air nipped at his cheeks. This was the first morning he could remember where he could see his breath. The strong blowing wind was sending fallen leaves in every direction. He gripped at the arms of his borrowed shirt and quickly made his way downstairs. By the time he reached the streets he tried to come up with a game plan. He wasn't terribly familiar with Axel's part of town or the tram system in this area. The neighborhood looked different from all the times he had walked around in the night with Axel leading the way.
Roxas continued walking down the road until he reached an intersection with a familiar street. He checked his cell phone again and noticed he had two missed calls from Hayner and one from Namine, but no voicemails. This was odd behavior for Namine, but Roxas decided not to question good fortune. His choices were variably slim pickings. Hayner didn't have a car, and Pence was at the party last night so he'd probably want to ask questions about where he went and what he did. The only person who wasn't around last night was his brother. Roxas felt his back pocket where he stored the photo and the sheet music. He returned his focus to his cell phone and found his number in the directory.
Five rings into the call, Roxas was expecting to land voicemail and have to walk back to his apartment. Maybe he could camp out across the street from his building and wait for Namine to leave, since she usually visited Tifa on Saturdays. On the seventh ring he got an answer. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" Sora groaned angrily. "Someone better be dead or I'll break your kneecaps."
"I need a ride," Roxas said flatly. Normally when a sibling calls at the crack of dawn asking for a ride, it should be known that something terrible has happened. Sora seemed to catch on right away.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Roxas could hear him shift and sit up in bed.
"Nothing, really." Roxas wasn't going to explain what was really bothering him over the phone. "I'm sorry if I woke you and Kairi up."
"Oh, no, it's alright. Kairi's not… She's a really heavy sleeper." There was a breath, a hesitant pause that made Roxas wonder if Kairi was even there with Sora. This wouldn't be the first time his brother was forced to sleep on the couch. While Sora didn't own a car, he had the keys to his wife's. "Yeah, I'll come and get you. Where're you right now?"
Roxas told him the intersection and Sora promised a hasty pick-up. By the time Sora arrived the sky had lost its morning rainbow and was now a pleasant soft blue. The crisp morning air contrasting with the bright orange leaves left for the perfect complement; the perfect fall day. It seemed so simple for all the complicated and far-from perfect feelings Roxas was experiencing as he fiddled with the handle of Kairi's small navy blue hatchback. Sora always forgot that there weren't automatic locks on this no-frills ride and had to lean over to unlock the door for his little brother.
"You look like shit."
Roxas raised his brows, giving a small grunt in response as he landed heavily into the passenger's seat.
"That's a sign of a good night! I remember my twenty-first birthday. Or, well, I don't, actually. But I don't think I was sober until the next week!" Sora said with a laugh, changing gears with a mind-breaking screech that made Roxas want to throw up. Purging sounded like an awfully good idea right about now, but for the moment he was content with simply having Sora for himself. "So what all did you do last night? Did you have a good time?"
Roxas tried not to laugh. What didn't he do? What kind of fun was Sora talking about? He tried his best not to be so paranoid and answered the question. "It was pretty cool. Hung out with the guys at the karaoke place. The night was a blur after that…" Which wasn't a total lie, and thankfully your twenty-first birthday was one of those few excuses where vagueness was acceptable.
"Do you want breakfast or something?"
The very thought of eating made Roxas gag. "No, just… I want to clean up before I go home. Is Kairi at your place?"
Sora tightened his fingers on the steering wheel. "Uh… Yeah? Why?"
"I was wondering if I could take a shower and wash my clothes…" Roxas bit his tongue and tried to fight back the embarrassed blush crawling onto his face. Sora was too busy focusing on driving to notice. "…But if she's still sleeping I didn't want to bother." They would be approaching a familiar intersection soon, and Sora would have to turn around to start heading in the direction of his apartment.
"Why? Can't you use your apartment?" Sora asked with a laugh, obviously not catching the tone Roxas was trying to set.
"No, Sora, please. Can I just crash at your place for a few hours?"
Sora blinked, and for the first time glanced over to his little brother once they reached the red light at the intersection. His twin blue eyes widened. "What's that on your neck?"
Roxas wasn't expecting that reply. Giving his brother a quizzical stare, he reached up and rubbed his neck, trying to find any sort of problem. His fingers traveled down to the small dip caused by his collarbone and he felt it. His eyes nearly exploded out of his skull and he tore down the sunblocker attached to the ceiling of the car. The small mirror confirmed exactly what he feared. There on his neck, as bright as the morning sun, was a giant fucking hickey.
"Shit."
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Kairi and Sora's apartment was slightly larger than Roxas and Namine's. It was a three-bedroom apartment in which they had turned the two extra rooms into a study and entertainment room. Roxas was always jealous that Sora and Kairi had that kind of money to throw down on an apartment, but after graduating they didn't have classes throughout the day to clog their normal nine-to-fives. The benefit of having a three-bedroom apartment was having a full guest bath.
Sora entered the apartment and left the door open for his brother. "Kairi might still be asleep," Sora whispered. "But go ahead and use the one in the hall," he stated, referring to the bathroom wedged between the study and the playroom. Roxas didn't say anything as he bulleted towards the bathroom, being extra quiet.
As soon as the door was shut he threw his clothes off of him like they were covered in spiders. Remembering the papers in his pocket, he took them out and glanced at them, not really wanting to read them again. He hid them in the cabinet under the sink. He looked at his chest-up reflection in the mirror for a moment, trying to hold back tears at what he saw. Along with the flaunted, impossible-to-hide love bite on his neck, there were trails of small nips and spots of red sprawling all the way down to his trail. To top it all off he could even see the faintest of pink scratches on his shoulders and arms, even on his thighs. Although blurry, he was able to remember enough of last night to know that he and Axel didn't go all the way, which offered the smallest of comfort, but not nearly enough for him to know that he wouldn't get in deep shit about this.
Not wanting to spend any more time over a self-inspection, he hopped in the tub and turned the water on. The cold weather outside helped make the cold shower all the more frigid. Letting the water berate on his back, Roxas tried to bite back tears. He was starting to feel confused and desperate for an answer or a reason why he was feeling this way. He loved Namine, but he couldn't deny his feelings for Axel.
The first chill sent quakes through Roxas' body. It felt excellent. The cold water closed pores and emotions from any sort of outside force. Roxas turned and faced the water, letting the cold blast away the grease and grime from his face, creating rapids down his stomach to his legs and effectively washing way any natural evidence of last night. The chilliness became too much and he began to feel a nervous itch in his nose, finally releasing a thundering sneeze. All this cold water was probably going to make him ill.
He turned off the shower, feeling effectively cleansed. Except for the part about the hickeys and the scratches, he noted after seeing his reflection in the small mirror when he pulled back the shower curtain. Roxas sighed and pulled open the cabinet under the sink for a clean towel. He wrapped one around his waist and the other around his shoulders, for some sense of warmth. After getting the aching cold he had been craving, he suddenly felt the urge to get as warm as humanly possible. He wadded his clothes under his arm and traveled into the den. Sora was on the couch watching television.
"Hey. Is it okay to use the washer?" Roxas asked. Sora jumped in his seat and turned around, studying his brother carefully.
"Yeah, sure. Of course."
Roxas walked through the kitchen to the door next to the pantry, where the washroom was. After throwing his soiled clothes into the machine with some soap, he walked back through the kitchen, deciding to stop and get some water to drink. As he reached up for the cupboard by the refrigerator for a glass, he noticed a message on the counter in front of him.
"1:30am.
Sora – I really wish you would leave notes whenever you plan on being out for the night. If you make it back home before I get back, Namine's picking me up to hang out at her place. Apparently she's having some crisis again so I'm over there if you need me."
He paused and read the note again. It looked fairly fresh, right on the counter and untouched. Roxas had been home all week and not once had Namine been so upset that he had to call Kairi for support. The fact that Kairi liked to keep a relatively clean kitchen seemed to heightened his suspicions.
"Sora," Roxas called from the kitchen, "is Kairi home?"
"Uh… No, I remember her saying that she had work to do today, so I guess she went back into the office while I was out to pick you up."
Holy shit. Sora was lying to him. He stepped away from the kitchen into the entryway of the den.
"Are you sure she isn't at my place?"
Sora gave him a confused look. "Uh… Maybe? I don't keep tabs on her twenty-four seven. That's not the sign of a good husband."
Roxas could tell that Sora was trying to change the subject. His brother had caught the hickey on his shoulder and knew that he fooled around last night with someone who wasn't his fiancée, and that obviously didn't make Roxas a very good husband-to-be either. But in Roxas' book Sora already had a mysterious past and there was no way he was going to wheedle his way out of this one. He whipped out the message and flashed it to Sora from across the room.
"She left a note at one-thirty this morning saying that she was going over to my apartment to console Namine. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, huh?"
Sora shrugged, trying his best to let the question roll off his shoulders, but Roxas knew better. He may not have forged too deeply into Sora's life as children when they shared their parent's house, but they were still siblings and he knew all his tricks for getting out of trouble. The brunet rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the television.
"She must've left while I was sleeping."
"But she said you were out for the night. Where were you?"
"Who are you? Mom? Butt out."
Roxas was about to bite back when a familiar tri-tone jingle started playing, muffled through the sounds of fabric. Sora's cell phone was ringing from the pocket of his jacket he had taken off and left on the hook by the door. Both brothers turned their heads towards the coat, and Roxas glanced towards his brother and nodded towards the noise.
"That could be Kairi. You'd better get it."
When Sora made no obvious movements to answer the phone, Roxas stormed across the room and took the phone out of the front pocket.
"Hey! Stop it, Rox! Quick being such a dick!" Sora growled, leaping from behind the couch to try and catch his brother, but he was too slow. While trying to fight the phone away from Roxas, the damage had already been done. Roxas had seen the name on the caller ID and was left absolutely stunned.
It was Demyx.
Why on earth was Demyx Skönstedt calling Sora this early in the morning? What was he doing even talking to his brother at all? Roxas didn't like where this was going.
"Why were you lying to me?" Roxas grunted, forfeiting the cell back to Sora so his older brother would stop wrestling him for it. "Where were you last night?"
"Where were you last night?" Sora spat back, having pulled the towel off of Roxas' shoulders in their tussle. "Who did that to you?" He pointed to all the markings going down his body, and Roxas felt unnecessarily exposed. He had more dirt on Sora than the brunet could ever hope to dig on him. As long as he kept his mouth shut, of course.
"Why was Demyx calling?" Roxas asked.
"Does he need a reason? You've met Demyx… He was probably high or something and just wanted to chat." Sora angrily shoved his phone in his back pocket where Roxas wouldn't be able to take it.
Roxas knew better. Demyx had explained to him on Halloween about how he was straightedge. If he was a friend enough for Demyx to be calling at seven in the morning, then Sora should at least know that. Sora was lying again.
Before Roxas could accuse Sora of anything, he had some more research to do. "Do you have some clothes I can borrow?"
"What? Why?" Sora asked, still defensive with the sudden change in topic.
"Namine's obviously upset over something and I feel like I should be there for her. Can I just borrow some clothes, please?"
Like it or not, Sora still loved his brother no matter how much he pissed him off. It was obvious he wasn't going to get anywhere today, and it would be for the best to just let him go. "Fine, whatever. You know where the closet is."
Roxas didn't know when the moment occurred that he would acknowledge Demyx's word over his brother's, or when his brother would suddenly start to flat-out lie to his face about Kairi, but it raised some startling revelations. Sora wasn't at home last night. Roxas tried to think of any friends Sora might have, but the only ones he could think of were out of town. It seemed like ever since Sora got married, his group of friends dwindled. Why did that happen? What exactly was he up to now?
He picked a green polo shirt and jeans from the closet. In his sock and underwear drawer he found a pack of unopened briefs Kairi had gotten him last Christmas. Sora was always more of a boxers kind of guy. So was Roxas, but beggars couldn't be choosers at this point. He ripped open the bag and removed his towel, getting dressed quickly before leaving the room. Making a quick trip back into the bathroom, he grabbed the sheet music and the photo and shoved them in the coat pocket.
Once he had entered the den, Sora was already waiting, leaning against the couch and tossing his keys nervously in his hand. "You ready? I'll take you back to your place…" he mumbled, trying humbly to be back on good terms with his brother. Roxas shook his head, rejecting the offer and any attempts to make amends so soon.
"It's okay. I'm taking the bus." He breezed past his brother towards the door.
"You can't do that, it's cold outside and your hair's still wet. You'll get sick for sure and then Namine'll really be upset."
Roxas wasn't one to get sick easily, so he just gave Sora a blank stare and pulled the hood up on the jacket he was borrowing. "I'll be fine."
Doing little to stop him, the brunet let the blond breeze past him and walk out the door. Out on the streets, Roxas started a brisk pace to the nearest tram stop, trying desperately to gather his thoughts. Every voice in the back of his consciousness made a unanimous decision that last night never happened. He would return home claiming that he stayed the night at Hayner's, as was the original plan.
After taking the cold shower and escaping outside with his hair still damp, the weather was a lot chillier than Roxas remembered. As he waited by the post for the tram to come by, he crossed his arms and felt his teeth chatter together vexingly. Once the tram finally arrived, five minutes late according to the timetable next to the bench, it was just seven short stops to his apartment.
He had left his keys with Pence since he was the designated driver, and for a moment was worried that he'd caused even more trouble for himself, but deciding not to turn around this time, he checked the doorknob and realized that it was unlocked. As soon as he opened the door and stepped inside, he caught Kairi walking from the kitchen to the den. When she caught sight of him opening the door, she jumped in panicked surprise and almost dropped a bowl of cereal, successfully spilling most of on her toes.
"Roxas!" she whispered in surprise, gripping her chest. Gathering her bearings, she glanced at the clock on the DVD player in the living room. "It's earlier than I expected."
Roxas followed her lead and continued whispering. "I couldn't sleep well." Which was sort of the truth, because he always had a hard time staying asleep after getting drunk. "…Where's Namine? Sora picked me up from where I was staying and took me to your place."
"Sora was at home?" she asked. The blond thought it was interesting that she seemed surprised at this. Kairi didn't usually keep Sora on a tight leash, but even Roxas felt pretty secure that he knew where to find Namine at any point during the day. If there's any place one would expect their spouse to be overnight, one would hope it would be at home.
"Why wouldn't he be?" Roxas asked, daring to raise his voice a little bit. Kairi instantly shushed him, bringing a manicured fingertip to her lip.
"Nami's sleeping," she whispered even quieter than before. "I just got her to go to bed."
Roxas was reminded of the startling note that was left by Kairi late last night. "What happened?" Roxas asked, starting to grow warm in the central heating of his apartment, but not daring to take the hood down. Right now it was the only thing shielding his hickey from the world.
Kairi shook her head. "I-It was nothing, really," she stumbled with a shrug. "Just normal pre-wedding jitters. She's worried the florist might have to cancel on her. Apparently there's another event at the area she's rented out for the reception later in the evening which doesn't leave much time to celebrate. Some of the sample china for the reception were delivered shattered and now she's horrified that all of them will be broken when they arrive…" She took a short moment to pause and sigh. "You know, normal wedding stuff."
Roxas stared briefly at the closed door to their bedroom, deciding not to interrupt his fiancée's sleep. He took a seat on the couch in the living room while Kairi laid claim to a chair at the dining table, and he discovered just how exhausted he really was. The stagnant silence was broken as the redhead started slurping and munching the cereal away.
"So, how was it?" she asked between mouthfuls. Roxas, having lain down and hoping to go back to sleep, crack opened his eyes and glanced at the ceiling. The back of couch faced the table, so Kairi couldn't tell he was trying to rest.
"How was what?" he mumbled, sitting up and slouching over the back of the furniture.
"Your birthday, duh," she said with a giggle. "You got really wasted, huh?"
Roxas clenched his eyes and went through a quick rewind of the morning's events. It was difficult to believe everything that had happened in eight short hours. "Yeah, we got bombed."
There was another pause, and Roxas softly sunk deeper into the couch cushions. The soft, fluffy pillow wrapped around his head and slowly cradled him back into an easy doze. "…Did you strip and go down?" Roxas' eyes burst open and he sat back up to glare at his sister-in-law.
"…What did you say?"
"I asked what strip did you go down?" she repeated. "I like going by Creek Street or the Warehouse District, myself. That's where all the cool clubs are. You can at least remember what bars you went to, right?"
Roxas smooshed his eyes between his fingers and grumbled. "I'm sorry, Kairi, I'm really sleepy. Do you mind if I just go to sleep and catch up for a little bit?"
The petite woman gasped softly and covered her mouth. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," she muttered. "Of course, go to sleep."
The blond nodded absently and returned to his comfortable position on the couch. Sleep was inevitable and welcomed, but the dream born from stress and a hangover was unexpected.
Roxas, wearing his workout outfit, was running down the street. He knew this was a dream because he could see himself running, and he could observe himself watching himself running, and it continued into an infinite loop. As he was keeping up a nice pace, Demyx suddenly ran up next to him and started jogging by his side.
He said, "I was lying, you know? About getting high." The punk wrapped his fingers around the stud piercing in his lip, grabbing both ends and ripping it out of his skin. Blood started pouring from his wound, but instead of it dropping to the sidewalk it faded up into the air like a hazy cloud. The stud in his hand had transformed into a blunt, and he handed what was left to Roxas. "Try it. It'll make you fly." Demyx laughed the way wasted people do and tripped down a sewer main.
Roxas, without any better judgment to go against, took a long hit from the blunt and started to hover in the air. He was flying just as Demyx promised. It was a very nice feeling, and he was starting to feel like Superman as he weaved through the clouds. The puffy white clouds started to get darker, though, and he began to get tangled inside. He wound up getting trapped inside the bangs of Fuu's silver hair. Her giant cinnamon eyes started down at Roxas as if he were nothing more than a pest.
"Promised," she stated loudly, the breath coming from her words feeling like a hurricane that sent Roxas flying away. The blond continued to fly, hoping to get as far away from the giant girl as possible. After looking forward, he noticed on the horizon the sun was starting to rise. He would have to go home soon.
Roxas jolted awake and was immediately aware of a warm body pressed against him. Axel was spooning him, and he could feel the butterflies in his stomach making him feel like he could fly again. He took a moment to study the bedroom. This was his first time ever being inside with the lights on and not being terribly drunk. The walls were covered with band posters and flyers taken from the streets. Notes and various lists decorated the small crevices of plain white walls that weren't already covered. On the bedside table was a stack of papers and an old can of beer blocking the time on the face of the old-fashioned double bell alarm clock.
The man hugging his back murmured and shifted in his half-asleep state. He subconsciously tightened the grip on the blond's hips. "Hmm… Rox, you alright?" Roxas lazily picked the alarm clock off from the bedside table and held it over his shoulder to show it to the front man.
"I have class. I over slept…"
Axel moaned whiningly and constricted his hold on the young man even more. "School's so lame. Why can't you just skip?"
Roxas rolled over in bed so he could face Axel. The poor musician had double shift with the tram service and a show last night that left him exhausted. The minute he stepped into the bedroom he stripped his gig clothes off and collapsed on the bed. His makeup from the show had smeared and gave him the look of a zombie, especially with him lying canted with his eyes half open gazing at Roxas.
"I skipped the last two times," he reminded with a suggestive raised brow. The post-gig high was usually gone by the time the happy couple got home, but it was always when Roxas had to get ready for school that the perky redhead was suddenly more than prepared to have a little bedtime fun. The exhaustion from last night had even started to tax on Roxas, who felt like he was living a double life as a student and a roadie. He rested his head on Axel's arm and closed his eyes again.
This was nice. The sun was started to sprinkle in through the window by the bed. The only sounds were the birds cawing, and the occasional car starting and passing through the parking lot outside. It was such a delightfully pleasant contrast to the loud and raucous atmosphere of the previous night. The steady rhythm of Axel's breath brought Roxas' heart rate down as he prepared for another lazy day.
He wasn't sure how long he was asleep before Axel shifted him again. "Hey, Roxas, wake up." Roxas moaned and turned over in the bed again.
"I am awake."
"No, Roxas, really. You're drooling."
Blue eyes shot open and he looked up at Kairi looming over him. "You were dreaming or something," she explained. "And drooling on my pillow. Sorry." She reached beside his head and snatched the pillow out from under Roxas' head. He winced when his head collided with the armrest of the couch, but Kairi seemed more concerned with the state of her pillow cover. "Was it a good dream?" she questioned.
Roxas blinked and tried to remember. He recalled flying, and a mountain, and an overall feeling of happiness, but he couldn't retain much. The more he tried to grab blindly for answers, the more the dream dissipated. "Don't know," he muttered, rubbing his hand through his hair and pulling back the hood that was still covering his head. "How long was I out?"
"A couple hours. Namine's already up and left."
"She's what?"
Kairi nodded, shucking the pillowcase off her pillow. "Had a meeting with Tifa. You just missed her. Do you mind if I use your washer?"
He shook his head and sat up on the couch. "Go ahead."
Kairi paused before going back to the laundry room. "…Are those Sora's clothes you're wearing?" Roxas paused and glanced down at his clothes, remembering that he had borrowed his older brother's clothes before heading out.
"Oh, yeah, sorry. Mine got kinda messy from last night so while I was at your place I washed them. Once I found out Namine had some sort of episode I left while they were still cycling."
The redhead hummed some sort of pitch of approval as she walked towards the washer. "That's cool, just be sure to return them to him before he throws a hissy fit."
Roxas caught himself shivering and decided that he should change clothes, or at least take another, warmer, shower. He stood up in a dizzy state, catching himself on the back of the couch. Perhaps he was more hungover than he thought. He waltzed his way into the bedroom where the bed was unmade on Namine's side. The rumpled bed was already starting to look amazing as Roxas craved another nap, this time to thwart the oncoming migraine away.
He tried to keep his stomach from boiling as he sat on the edge of the bed. He suddenly felt too tired to even attempt at another shower. Making sure the door was closed, he stripped himself of all the clothes he had borrowed from Sora and replaced them with his own comfortable pajamas. Before hitting the hay, he traipsed back over to the door. "Kairi, I'm going back to sleep. Lock the door when you head out, okay?"
"Sure thing, honey. I need to get back home anyway. It's been a long day." Roxas wondered if Kairi had gotten any sleep since last night when she came to her sister's aid. The blond felt sorry for her if she hadn't. Kairi gave Roxas one last confirming nod before she paused and glanced down him. "Oh, wow, nice lovebite. I didn't know Nami had it in her," she laughed.
Roxas' eyes widened and stared down, trying the see the hickey that was on his collarbone, but it was impossible. His shirt collar was hanging too low and Kairi had seen. Obviously his sister-in-law didn't know everything about his and Namine's sex life, but his fiancée had never condoned any sort of necking since high school. Roxas laughed nervously and pulled the collar of his shirt up a little higher to hide the mark. "Just a little fooling around," he mumbled.
"Well, promise me you'll hide it next time," Kairi giggled, walking over to the couch so she could fold up the blanket Roxas had used to sleep with. "PDA no way. God, especially if it's my sister's…"
Roxas chuckled and started to close the door. "I'll keep that in mind. Good night."
"Good afternoon," Kairi corrected. "Sleep well."
Roxas nodded absentmindedly and softly closed the bedroom door. He started walking to the bed and replayed the horrifying conversation in his head. "Promise you'll hide it next time. Promise you'll hide it. Promise. Promised."
The blond paused mid-step and eyes burst open, as if he was suddenly having some sort of a surreal moment where he could see into an alternate dimension. Fuu was there, and she seemed really angry, like he broke a promise. He hadn't seen the bleached-haired girl in weeks, not since they had gotten into a fight in the convenience store. That was when she had slipped an issue of Magic Train into his hands.
Roxas had never read that issue. It was still shoved in his light jacket pocket that Namine had stored when the colder weather started to sink it. Instead of collapsing into bed like he would have absolutely loved to do, he dashed quickly towards Namine's huge walk-in closet. Hanging on the rack near the very back was Roxas' old clothes that she would take away on occasion whenever she gave him new clothes. Once every season a trip to the Salvation Army was in order, and apparently his favorite light jacket was going to be part of that trip after winter. He liked that sweater too much to simply give it away, so he grabbed it off the hook quickly.
Reaching into his front pocket, he felt the small flyer immediately. He walked out of the closet with it and sat on the bed, looking at the cover. It was completely black with a white outline of the heart with the fleur de lis. In bold white letters across the bottom it read 'The End of 13 Hearts?' Roxas checked the date when this issue was released, and it was just over a year ago.
Roxas flipped to the main story page. Instead of in the past where there were usually pictures of the band playing and having fun, there were no images. Across the top of the page was a quote in big bold letters.
"This isn't going to be the end. Promise. We just needed a little break." – Axel Rose
There was that damn word again. Roxas briefly looked at the expanse of the article and started reading from the top.
"The lights dimmed with the usual anticipation at the Organization on August 21st. The crowd hummed with eagerness and started chanting for 13 Hearts to take the stage. After a month long hiatus the locally heroic punk band was finally making a comeback. It promised to be the kind of night memories are made of. In a way, it was.
"I get a lot of expectations from being the front man's little sister. However we're family, we're not exactly friends. He never tells me anything and nothing could have prepared me for this."
Roxas couldn't help feeling mutual to Fuu's feelings. Even though he and Sora were brothers, it was never as if Roxas needed him at every turn in his life. Especially now that he knew he was being lied to.
"13 Hearts is known for playing weekly, and repeatedly amazing, sets at local clubs at Destiny Harbor. Their shows are never redundant and always worth the cover. However, dedicated fans were left with an anticlimactic beginning when Riku Kuroyama did not take the stage. The fabulous five-some was left one band member short, and eclectic rhythm guitarist Axel Rose was left to carry the torch.
"As he stepped on stage, adjusting the microphone to his level, he told the audience 'There's been a change in plans tonight. We're going to play some cool new songs for you.' Without another word, 13 Hearts altered from their pop-punk king status into a strange, twisted, screaming and catharsis-driven hardcore riot. There is no doubt that Rose wrote these songs, and the crowd welcomed the great transformation openly, but most die-hard fans were left wondering where exactly was Kuroyama?
"When the end of the night drew closer: 'This isn't the end. Promise. We just needed a little break. We've been through enough strife as it is.' It can be assumed that this message was about Kuroyama's absence at the night's show. When asked, the band replied that they wouldn't answer questions at this point in time."
The article ended as such, and Roxas was left to assume that the band carried on just fine without Riku and still held the same kind of local success status as before. However, it did prove that something terrible did happen. Roxas was at the cusp of a great adventure, he could feel it.
Kairi left about five minutes after he finished the article, assuming he was asleep when really he was flipping through the rag looking at the pictures. There were more photos of bands he had never even heard of, and some that he remembered being advertised on the radio or a light post. As soon as he heard the front door click and lock shut, his mind was free to wander. Similar to when he spoke on the phone and had to walk in circles, he had to do the same now.
It was like he was on the edge of a cliff. At the bottom there was a pool of water. Behind him there was safe and solid ground. There was a chance he could jump off the cliff into the water and not survive the fall. There was a chance that he'd live to tell the tale and have the most amazing time of his life. He had two options, and the only one that promised survival was taking the safe side. Don't take a risk. He told himself not to take a risk.
Then he looked away from the window where he was lost in thought to the small amp and guitar that Axel had let him borrow. The decision seemed to be made. If Namine asked, he was doing this for his brother.
He called her first, after realizing that he hadn't spoken to her since yesterday and she would probably want to talk. He tapped his cell phone nervously against the side of his ear, waiting for her to answer. Very surprisingly, he got voicemail. Even though he knew that Namine was probably meeting up with Tifa it wasn't like these meetings with the wedding planner were so formal that she wouldn't take his call. She always took his call. In the end, it was probably for the best, because Roxas had no idea what to tell his fiancée anyway.
"Hey, Namine," his voice shook after the beep. "Just checking up on you. Sorry I missed you earlier when you left… I think I might be- Well, I'm not sure but just… Gimme a call when you get this, alright? I might be out of town. Love you."
Almost cutting himself off by snapping his phone shut to end the call, he opened it again, then speed dialed the fourth name on his list. After a few rings, fearing that his friend wouldn't answer, he was greeted with a pathetic moan. "What?"
"Hayner. Do you want to go to the harbor?"
"…What?"
oooOOOoooOOOoooOOOooo
Hayner was angry. He was livid. Roxas was beginning to reconsider having him along as a road trip buddy. At the time, however, Hayner was the only person he felt completely comfortable with.
"How are you not hung over?" Hayner asked. Those were the first words to pass his lips an hour after Roxas picked him up on the side of the street outside his apartment. The disgruntled student had stood on the curb and threw his duffle bag in the back as he reclined his seat so he could sleep. Roxas had spent most of the drive in silence, without the radio or stereo to keep his mind from rambling.
Roxas looked over his shoulder to the duffle bag Hayner had thrown into the back seat. For someone who seemed so prepared for their little day trip, he certainly seemed angry. "What's in the bag?" the blond asked, returning his eyes to the vast, empty stretch of highway in front of them. There simply weren't that many people interested in going to the harbor at this time of year.
"Swimsuit," Hayner mumbled, reaching to the seat handle to return his chair to an upright position.
Roxas laughed. "Swimsuit. You brought a swimsuit." Repeating this information seemed to have little affect on his sickly friend. "It's forty degrees outside."
"What exactly were you planning to do at the harbor?" Hayner asked. It wasn't exactly rocket science. When you go to the beach, you swim. Unless Roxas had some sort of ulterior motive, which wouldn't surprise him. "Is this an… Axel thing?" Just uttering the red head's name sent an uncomfortable shiver down the single man's spine. He even held his hand out and wiggled his fingers.
"No, it's not an Axel thing," Roxas grunted, imitating his friend's immature behavior, but not saying much for his own. "I mean, kind of." He glanced towards Hayner who was glaring at him, brow raised. "You know, not really, but kind of."
"Care to use your words?"
"I'm going to find Riku."
Hayner nodded and hummed in understanding. "Who's Riku?"
It occurred to Roxas that Hayner didn't know anything about the band at all. "13 Hearts' old front man. There's something about him that people aren't telling me…"
"Have you bothered asking?"
"What? I- Of course, you- It's not that simple. Nobody wants to talk about it, so I'm going to have to do it myself."
"So you're playing a little bit of Sherlock now?"
"Whatever, Watson."
"So what happened back there, anyway?"
Roxas glanced over to Hayner, who had slouched in his seat and started using the dashboard as a footrest. "What happened where?"
"When you and Axel started making out in the karaoke room?"
It took a lot of self-control not to swerve into the off-ramp, but he did succeed in running over a few bumpers. "You saw that?" Roxas sputtered as he tried to drive straight.
Hayner slouched even further down. "S'no big deal, I guess…" he muttered. "But Pence saw."
"Aw, jeez," Roxas hissed. "What did he say?"
His friend shrugged again and sat up straighter in his seat. "He's sort of with me on this one. You know an engagement is never set in stone…"
"Are you serious? The stone is set in a gold band on her finger. It's not something that you just call back whenever your mind changes."
Roxas was way too conservative to be queer, Hayner thought. "I think your mind changed the second you thought you'd be okay with making out with- Y'know what? Okay. Whatever. Change of topic starts now. Who's Riku? Why do we have to find him?"
"So back in the day… I mean, I guess it was just a couple of years ago, but 13 Hearts used to have a front man named Riku. He's Fuu's big brother."
"Fuu has a brother?" Hayner perked up a little bit, interested in knowing more about this enigmatic young woman.
"And apparently something happened the summer before last that was so bad that it caused a falling out with the band and now he doesn't play music anymore."
"And why should we care?"
"Because Axel's obviously really upset about this. And Sora has something to do with this, too. He was at the harbor the same time the old 13 Hearts was there. Everyone in the band knows about Sora, and they all seem to hate him. Nobody wants to talk about it, so I gotta figure this out for myself."
"Alrighty, let me rephrase that. Why should I care?"
"You're my friend and you've already stood up for me this long. Who else would I take on this magical jet-setting adventure?"
"Pence?"
"He talks too much."
Hayner rolled his eyes like an over-dramatic teenager. "Olette?"
"She goes to college seven counties over, she'd never be game for this. C'mon, keep guessing."
"Fuu."
"What? No."
"How about Namine? The love of your life."
Roxas frowned. "Now you're just being spiteful."
"Axel? The love of your life?"
"…Fuck you."
Hayner laughed in sadistic way. Although he was sure Roxas had already noticed, a sign they had just driven by announced that they had just Destiny Harbor was only 20 miles away. "Hey, check it out. We're almost there. I remember when this drive used to take forever when I was a kid."
Roxas nodded along. "Yeah, me too…"
"I can't believe how there's nobody on the roads. So where does Riku live, anyway?"
When Roxas didn't answer right away Hayner started to grow nervous. After a long pause, and some gentle prodding to try and get a straight answer out of him, it never became clear where exactly Riku resided at the harbor.
"You don't know?"
"It's not the end of the world. The harbor has, like, what? A population under a thousand? I'm sure somebody there knows where he lives."
Roxas hadn't been to the harbor in many years, and of course he didn't do any real driving around, so finding any sort of 'downtown' shopping area that was bound to have a lot of people proved to be difficult. The easiest way to spot the heart of the city was finding its skyline, which consisted of only one building, a dilapidated five-story Holiday Inn, peeking out from above the massive amounts of greenery. Roxas felt more like he was driving through a jungle than a civilized neighborhood.
Once they found the beach, the boardwalk was simple. Roxas parked in the designated beach parking lot, which had all but two cars in it. When he and Hayner stepped out, they noticed a man shouting from the ocean, riding the waves in the bay.
"What a psycho," Hayner muttered, pulling down on the sleeves of his hoodie so they covered his hands. Roxas locked his car and continued down the boardwalk. It was reminiscent of old spaghetti westerns. The only difference was dried seaweed rolling across the road instead of tumbleweeds. Destiny Harbor turned into a ghost town in the autumn after the first chill. There was nobody on the sidewalks, no pagodas in the middle of the street, and even the lights in all the shops looked like they were turned off. The fall clouds were looming and casting a dark, desolate shadow over the whole town.
Roxas gave an uncertain glance towards Hayner. His friend simply shrugged his shoulders, not sure what to make of this strange phenomenon. The blond remembered back when he visited with his family how lively the town was. His stomach made a hesitant flip as he decided which run-down store to visit first.
The first shop they stopped inside was a small florist. There were dried roses hanging from the ceiling, and the powerful punch of sickly sweet honeydew hit their noses. A bell strung to the top of the door jingled to announce their arrival, but nobody seemed to be behind the front counter.
"It's like that movie where the government set off a bomb that killed everybody in a city and nobody knew about it," Hayner whispered, afraid to break the sacred silence of the shop. "Do you think they're all dead?"
Roxas shushed him and approached the counter, wondering if it would be allowed to step around the small stand and check in the back area to see if there was anyone around. "Hello?" he called out hesitantly.
There was a loud crash coming from the backroom, causing Hayner to make a sound that wasn't exactly a scream and jumped back towards the front door. Roxas stepped back as a small flurry of flower petals lofted to the doorway and were immediately crushed by a pair of high-heeled sandals. The shoes belonged to a young woman with long blonde hair pulled back into a frazzled bun. Her eyes were wide in shock and hiding behind a pair of thin-framed glasses.
"Oh my God, you scared me," she cried, gripping her chest. "I thought I heard the door bell ring but sometimes if the wind's strong it'll hit the door and make it ring on its own." She let out a hesitant laugh and wiped her hands on a neon pink apron tied around her neck. "What brings you to this side of the state, huh?" she asked, laughing hesitantly. "Sorry the selection really isn't that great this time of year. Spring is when all the big flowers bloom."
Roxas nodded, taking a look around the store for the first time, apart from the roses on the ceiling. There was a refrigerator to the side that looked like it was supposed to be used for preserving pre-made bouquets, but the machine was empty and unplugged. There was a small vase of roses with different colors next to the cash register and, other than some small vases of multicolored daisies, that seemed to be it. Roxas wondered how to shop was even able to survive.
"Actually, we're looking for someone. We're pretty sure he lives in the harbor, but we're not exactly sure where."
"I haven't been living here that long," she said, "but I'll give it a shot."
"Riku Kuroyama? He was in a band called 13 Hearts about a year ago."
The lady, who had been busy focusing her attention to the hem of her apron, turned her gray-blue eyes to the boys. "…I know who you're talking about." She seemed uneasy at first, casting a worried glance to the side. "But I don't know where he lives. Ask at the pizza parlor or the video store down the walk. They'd definitely know."
Roxas nodded and thanked the woman. Hayner waited for his friend to pass before he followed him out the door. They both turned towards their left and continued down the strip. The wooden planks of the boardwalk echoed weary creaks under their feet. The town was still in its harsh silent state like when they first entered. Halfway down the boardwalk they came across the video store and the pizza parlor across the street from one another.
"You go to the rental, I'll take the restaurant, okay?" Roxas stated. "Just ask if they know Riku Kuroyama and if they give an address write it down."
Hayner nodded and they split paths. Roxas walked into the pizza parlor and was slightly relieved to see that it wasn't completely empty. There was an elderly couple in the corner with an empty pan of pizza in front of them, not even paying attention to each other and instead watching the afternoon report on the television bolted to the corner of the dining area. In the hallway next to the bathrooms there were two arcade style games, and a child was playing one of them. Roxas approached the front counter, which was once again abandoned.
He could catch a glimpse of the kitchen where there was a small, petite Asian girl chatting amicably with a large, bearded black man. The man glanced to the side and noticed Roxas standing there, and motioned for the girl to go to the front. Her eyes turned to him and widened as she jumped off the counter and rushed to the register.
"Sorry about that. Slices don't start for another hour yet, but we can make you a fresh one if you don't wanna wait."
Roxas shook his head. "I'm not here for pizza," he commented. The reply seemed to make the girl sulk slightly. "…But I probably will be later," he added, hoping that would make her a little bit happier. "I'm actually here on business." At this news, the girl raised her eyebrow skeptically.
"Business? At Destiny Harbor?" Her tone rang with doubt.
"I'm looking for someone, actually. Riku Kuroyama. Do you know where he lives? I really need to talk to him."
Both of the girl's eyebrows disappeared past her bangs. She canted her hip and crossed her arms. "And what business do you have with Riku?"
Roxas tried to approach the situation delicately. "Just some questions. I know some of his friends in Bastion and I-"
"Like who?"
"Uh… Like Axel, Marluxia, Luxord…"
The girl rolled her eyes. "Please. They are not Riku's friends."
Roxas was surprised. He wasn't able to gather much information about Riku from the others, but they had never mentioned a falling out. And Axel still spoke of him so fondly. "I may not know exactly what's happened, but I know they're worried about him a lot."
"So they sent some stranger to spy on him?"
"What? No, that's not what-"
"Listen," the girl interrupted, holding her hand up. "I don't really care who you are. The fact of the matter is that Riku's personal information is privileged. We were given strict instructions not to just dish it out like pizza."
Roxas sighed with exasperation. "Is there anything you can tell me? I've seriously got nothing on him other than old photographs."
"If I were you I'd just go back to Bastion and continue hanging out with your big-time friends. These two worlds are completely different now."
To add the final period to that statement, the man in the kitchen stood in the doorframe and glared threateningly at him. "Yuffie is the guy ordering a pizza or what?"
Roxas knew he wouldn't get any more information from this group, so he nodded and smiled anyway. "Thanks, I guess." He turned and left the restaurant hoping Hayner had more luck that he did.
oooOOOoooOOOoooOOOooo
The bell tied to the top of the door jingled as Hayner stepped through the door. He considered this common practice for the shops at the harbor, seeing as they obviously didn't make enough revenue to afford a more modern security system. The man behind the counter had a mostly shaved head, save for his bangs that looked like they were dyed yellow instead of a natural blond. He didn't even bother looking up when Hayner walked through the door, and instead devoted all his attention to a book he was reading at the front counter.
Hayner approached the checkout slowly, wondering if the clerk was really that oblivious to the world around him. Hayner figured he could have walked out with all of the movies stacked on the new releases shelf without him noticing. Before he tried to test his boundaries, he decided it was best to finish what he came in there to do.
He cleared his throat loudly to get the clerk's attention, which he succeeded. Dead blue eyes looked up at Hayner through the bangs. He appeared very irritated that he had to dog-ear the page of his book and set it aside. All of his movements were very slow and deliberate. Hayner had a moment to look at the title of the book he was reading. Moby Dick. He wondered if the punk was reading it for a class, but the man had a face that was too old for high school, and he definitely didn't seem like the college type.
"What." It was spoken like a statement, not a question.
Hayner peeled his eyes away from the book and looked at the man, who now seemed more hopelessly bored than anything.
"I'm looking for a guy…" Hayner trailed off in a test of the man's patience.
The blond rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue, revealing a silver barbell struck through it. "There're lots of guys here."
Hayner hummed thoughtfully and quirked his lips. "So I guess we're in the right place. The man I'm looking for is Riku Kurosawa."
"You mean Riku Kuroyama?"
"Whatever. I just need his address so a friend of mine can check on him."
The punk stood up a little straighter. He was shorter than Hayner, but was still able to carry a sinister look. "And what makes you think I'd tell you where he lives? I don't even know you." The man took a threatening step forward like he would jump the counter and attack Hayner. The younger man held up his hands cautiously.
"Hey, woah. Slow down there, champ. I'm just asking around as a favor. Can't you help a guy out?"
"Hardly."
"Oh, come on," Hayner whined, dropping his hands and pathetically slouching his shoulders. "I wanna go home tonight and there's no way Rox'll let us leave until he finds him. He's like on a fucking mission."
"What kind of business does he have with Riku and I'll consider helping."
"That's just the thing. I dunno. He wouldn't tell me anything. If you just-"
At that moment, the bell at the door the sounded and the two men turned to see Roxas walking into the store. "No luck," he mumbled towards Hayner, turning his attention to the video shop clerk his friend seemed at odds with. His eyes immediately perked at seeing the punk man. "Hey…"
"I know you," the man said, pointing at him. "The taqueria a few weeks ago. You were there with Axel Rose. Roxas, right?"
Roxas cracked a grin and walked to the front counter, giving the punk a hardy handshake. "Yeah, you were Zell with Demolition Ammunition. You guys rocked. Roxas, yeah. Roxas Strife."
Zell's hand froze for a second at hearing Roxas' name. At this point the blond was so used to receiving this reaction from people he was almost inclined to ignore it. Zell nodded grimly and released the hand. "Strife, huh? Related to Sora?"
Roxas nodded. "I'm his brother."
The punk puckered his lips in thought and glanced towards the door outside. "So… you know, then?"
Roxas grimaced, acknowledging the sinking feeling in his stomach. "No. It's why I'm here. I want to find out."
Zell bowed his head, not speaking for a solid ten seconds as he continued to think. "I haven't seen him around lately. Riku's… been sort of a recluse since… Well, I'll let him explain to you. You're, like, family, so to speak." He mumbled to himself and pressed a button on the cash register to feed receipt paper. Grabbing a pen, he scribbled down an apartment name and number. "Here you go. Continue down the boardwalk, turn left for a couple of blocks. It's like the only apartment complex you'll see. Trust me. Can't miss it."
Roxas took the slip of paper from Zell and smiled gratefully. "Thanks a lot."
The punk tilted his head to the side and shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, think nothing of it. I think it's sort of cruel that nobody's told you anything yet, but whatever. It's not my place to tell."
"Every little bit helps," Roxas replied with a final gracious nod towards Zell. He turned to Hayner and motioned for him to follow. "Let's get going."
The two boys left the rental store and turned left to continue their trek down the boardwalk. The trip continued in silence and was only interrupted by the occasional crunching leaf or small roll of thunder in the distance. Hayner looked over his shoulder at a very apparent storm rolling in from the bay.
"It looks like it's going to rain," he sighed.
"There it is."
Hayner turned back to the building in front of him. It was a series of complexes that lined the road before them. There was a white stone sign that read 'Seaside Acres,' only someone had tampered with the letters so it appeared to read as 'Seasick Aches.' The building itself looked like the last time it received a paint job was in the eighties. The paint, which probably used to be a bright and sunny yellow, was washed up and muddied after years of wear. All of the windows had wrought iron bars in front of them, including windows that weren't on the ground floor. It looked more like a prison than a living place.
A sudden burst of lightning flashed through the clouds, followed closely by a muffled but very loud rumble. "Yeah, it's definitely going to rain," Hayner grumbled, pulling up the hood to his jacket as he started to feel some droplets landing on his hair. He looked at Roxas who was still scanning the expanse of the cruddy apartments that seemed lost in the harbor marsh. "Do you still want to go through with this?"
Roxas remained silent for a moment. He looked down at the paper he had fisted and crumpled in his own hand. Hoping the message Zell wrote didn't disappear in his sweaty palm, he double-checked the apartment number. "We came all this way, didn't we?" He was in apartment D306.
"Well… I'm going to let you go at this alone, okay? Give me your keys so I can get the car and bring it over here before it pours."
Roxas nodded and fished into his coat pocket, pulling out his keys and the issue of Magic Train that Fuu had given him along with the creased photo. He tossed the keys to Hayner. "I'll give you a call when I'm finished here," the blond stated grimly. His friend caught the keys and sighed.
"Okay. Stay safe, man." Lightning struck again, and before the thunder had a chance to catch up, Hayner was already gone. The rain was slowly growing from a hesitant trickle to a steady mist. Roxas figured he should book it to Riku's apartment before he got too soaked. The way the buildings were set up was that each row of buildings had its own letter, so row D would be at the end of the block. Roxas pulled his hood up and got ready to run.
Once he finally reached the D buildings he was completely soaked through his hoodie. A cold gust of wind celebrated the start of the storm and made Roxas chatter to the core. The apartment was on the third floor and since the doors opened to the outside, there weren't any elevators. He drudged up three flights of slick cement stairs in the downpour before he reached the top floor.
When he approached apartment 306, it looked just like every other door on the building. Iron numbers were placed on the frame above with a peephole right at eye level. A small window was next to the door, and Riku's in particular had crooked and snapped blinds. Taking a deep breath and holding it in, Roxas stood up straight and gave the door three loud knocks. A fourth one for good measure.
He let nearly thirty seconds pass before he tried again. After his third attempt, his mind was plagued with doubt. What if Riku wasn't there? It wasn't beyond doubtful that he could be anywhere, perhaps at the bank or grocery store. He sidestepped back to the window and tried to peek through the broken blinds. It was an absolute sty inside. Roxas thought back to what Zell had said about not seeing Riku around for a while, and he started to wonder if perhaps his apartment had be broken into. What if he had gotten hurt, or the robber had done something drastic when he caught them looting his meager belongings. Roxas rushed back to the door and lifted his hand to knock again.
A loud cough from behind him made him stop.
Roxas looked over his raised arm and saw a man standing by the stairs looking at him skeptically. He was wearing a white undershirt that had been soaked through from the rain, revealing a distinctive dark dragon-shaped tattoo stretched across his chest, and a pair of yellow board shorts. In his hand was a blue surfboard with two white stripes down the middle. His hair was wild and untamed, and a peculiar shade of bleached silver that reached down past his shoulders. His blue-green eyes narrowed at Roxas as the blond nervously glanced back to the surfboard gripped tightly in the man's hands. Was this Riku? Was this the insane surfer they had spotted at the beach earlier? On top of that, his neck and arms seemed skinnier than in the pictures, and his face very gaunt.
"Who the fuck are you?" Riku asked, his voice booming over the sound of rain clattering on the tin roof of the apartment. Roxas was speechless and couldn't hold his own against him. He stuttered over his words for seconds trying to come up with something intelligent to say, but his nerves coupled with the near freezing chill of the rain made it nearly impossible. Riku continued watching with an almost amused expression on his face. "…Shit."
Without saying another word to him, Riku brushed past the blond and unlocked the door. "Fuckin' little… little shit why the fuck d'ya even… ah, hell…" he muttered to himself, pulling a chain off from around his neck that had his house key on it. Once the door to his apartment was open, he tilted his board so it would fit through the frame and marched inside. Roxas remained outside, at a completely embarrassing loss for words, before Riku's voice echoed through the complex, "Well, get your ass in here!"
Roxas jumped and scurried into the apartment, immediately stumbling on a stack of old surf magazines. Once he garnered his balance, he tried to find Riku amongst the towers of beer and energy drink cans. He could hear him shuffling through a doorway to the kitchen, so the blond decided it would be better for him to stay footed in the one clear spot in the entryway. There were bags of garbage next to the door that had grown gnats and were flying around. The smell was so putrid that Roxas' olfactory senses almost shut down completely. He stepped past the wall of trash to the den area and tried to find a couch, or even a dining chair he could sit at, but every available surface was covered in filth. The last straw that truly horrified Roxas was what he saw on the dining table. Sitting on top of the piles of old mail, newspapers, and greasy paper plates was a tin tray with an unmistakable white powdered substance. There was even a cut-up fast food drinking straw next to it.
Riku's frame filled the doorway and blocked the light coming from the kitchen window that Roxas was using to look around. The older man seemed to have caught the terrified look on the blond's face at the cocaine at the dining table. "Ah, shit. Sorry, I should've put that away," he mumbled, embarrassed, and trumped over the dirty clothes and papers to hand Roxas a plastic cup of water. He held a can of beer in his other hand for himself. He took the tray off the table and disappeared into his bedroom, the door blocked by so much garbage he had a hard time opening it.
Riku was an absolute mess.
"Sorry," he said softly. "I don't spend a lot of time here, y'know?"
"Obviously," was Roxas' first spoken word to Riku. He tried to glare at the man, but had a hard time when he kept such an unbelievably guilty and hurt visage. Roxas immediately dropped the ticked tough-guy act and sighed.
"…Roxas, right?"
"It's nice to know someone knows my name for once," the blond replied with a hesitant laugh. He averted his eyes to the cup in his hands. It was one of those cheap promotional plastic ones that radio stations give out, filled with warm tap water. Riku traipsed past Roxas so he could get to the light switch for the den.
"Here, lemme make a spot for you…" He walked over to his couch and moved a mountain of laundry to the floor and revealing an old pizza box underneath. When he tossed it to join the garbage on the coffee table, Roxas knew he saw at least three cockroaches scatter and it sent a shiver down his spine. "So what brings you to Destiny Harbor?"
"You," Roxas sighed. "Do you know anything about me?" he asked, wanting to gauge exactly how much he should tell Riku.
"Marly and Lux stopped by the flower shop a couple of days ago," Riku stated while dumping the pile of papers on one of the chairs at the dining table off on the floor and moving it closer to Roxas' seat on the couch. "They came to check up on me, or whatever. Mentioned something about meeting up with Sora's little brother… You look just like him…" His voice quaked when he spoke this, like he was talking about a dead person, and Roxas tightened his hold on his cup. "…But, no, they didn't say much."
"Well, I'm getting married next month, and 13 Hearts is going to play my reception," Roxas stated evenly. Riku had popped the tab on the can of beer and was letting it fizzle down before he started drinking.
"Huh. So the band does weddings now? What kind of reception is this?" he asked with a raised brow.
"It's not like their normal music. They're also a cover band. My fiancée really likes those old classic rock love ballads and stuff. It was her decision."
"So 13 Hearts is a cover band, now?" Riku laughed, taking a swig from his beer.
Roxas paused for a moment. "…Do the guys tell you anything when they check up on you?"
"They don't really say much of anything. Mostly they just drop some takeout off for me and leave. Whatever. They did mention something about the shit hitting the fan." Roxas didn't like the way Riku was smiling at him. It wasn't a friendly way like the other islanders.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Riku laughed and drank more of his beer. "It means that another little Strife snaked is slithering his way into a band member's heart." Ah. So Riku knew. Which meant Luxord or Xigbar had stopped by to check on him at least within the past few weeks. Somehow, looking at the state of Riku's apartment, it didn't make him feel better. Did anybody ever see the inside of this place? Did they know how he was living? The look in Riku's eyes made it seem like the man was about to go ballistic.
"Okay, calm down," Roxas tried to say very slowly and calmly. "What's going on between Axel and I is none of your business." Riku appeared like he wanted to scream but he didn't know what to say. The punk sighed, blowing his long, damp bangs out of his eyes and sitting back down.
"God, you are Sora's brother."
"…What exactly happened between you and him? It was a couple summers ago. I mean, I noticed him acting really crazy when I drop certain names. I didn't have the heart to ask him about you because I thought he would go insane."
Riku perked up at this. "…Seriously?" he asked with a smirk, a window to a true and honest smile, but it faded away as quickly as it came. "But he's still… married, isn't he?"
"Riku," Roxas sighed, "Please tell me what happened that summer?"
The punk frowned and looked up towards the water-stained ceiling. "Okay, fine. If you really must know… I'll tell you a story."
xxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxx
ANNNNNND THE B-SIDES START NEXT WEEK!
Chapter title "A Beautiful Mistake" is a b-side from The Ataris' So Long Astoria album.
There's a new 8tracks playlist! You can find the link in my profile. If you follow me on tumblr or 8tracks you've probably already seen it, but just letting everyone else know…
Also! I realized I'd had asks off on tumblr! (Apparently that's the default I guess when you make a new blog?) Anyway, I fixed it so you can submit asks or whatever now.
And I think I'm gonna have to do that thing I talked about earlier about stretching out updates so I can get caught up on all the other stuff with this story. The first B-Side will go up next Monday, as usual, but the other B-Sides will go up every other week (so there'll be a two-week gap between updates instead of one). There are only three B-Sides so it won't be that long. Thanks for putting up with me!
And please remember to leave a review! Follow/Favs! They're my life blood.