Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Also, I do not own the rights of a certain time-travelling anime with mad scientists and perverted genius girls, even though I will definitely reference it somewhere along this chapter. Because this is the choice of… I mean, my choice, this is my choice.
Warnings: This fiction contains and is not limited to boy/boy moments, the use and abuse of stereotypes, hints at original pairings, very despicable people, emo-Riku, lustful teenagers, underage drinking, a mix of the last two points, questionable situations, morally ambiguous choices and a few, occasional and really shy attempts at humor.
Chapter 33: The Party - Part 3
Roxas knew very well that he was being stupid, what's with him running away that way?
But finding himself dancing with Riku had just made his legs turn into jelly. The rest of his body followed behind the moment he heard Riku calling for him, just when he had reached the balcony on the first floor, at that moment the quieter place in the whole mansion, with just a few people there smoking quietly.
"Roxas, wait!" He couldn't help but obey, but he didn't turn to face his friend. "Did something happen? Why did you run away like that?"
There wasn't a trace of teasing or mockery in Riku's words and Roxas, for a moment, felt like he was facing once more the shy silver-haired thirteen years-old boy he had first met in the courtyard of the school many years ago.
"I... I told you, I just needed some fresh air." he finally said, finally turning around and outlining a forced smile.
Being the smart guy that he was, Roxas had immediately realized that since Axel, Saïx and Larxene were still back to the dancing floor, he was finally finding himself face to face with Riku for the first time since his little confession at Sora's house. All of a sudden, all of the insecurity and uneasiness came back, resurfacing from the pit of his stomach.
And it seemed like Riku had realized the same thing, at least judging from the way he had started to suddenly looking away nervously, despite the confidence he seemed to have possessed until that moment.
"So... here we are." the silver-haired boy said after a long, uncomfortable silence, scratching awkwardly his head while stating the obvious.
"Yeah... so it seems." Damn, since when was talking to Riku this difficult?
His attention then fell on the bottle of wine that Riku was holding and must have snatched at some moment on his way there.
"...I got the feeling that this night I'll need it." Riku answered snickering, without waiting for a question.
Roxas said nothing, and the two of them sat on the wooden floor of the balcony.
It had been a few minutes after the arm-wrestling match between Sora and Seifer had ended, but Kairi hadn't moved from her place. She had observed carefully all of the scene, from when the people who had moved Seifer's body on the sofa were gone, to the moment Sora had walked away.
And now she was observing Hayner, who had just arrived to discover the scene and was desperately checking on Seifer. She calmly finished the glass she was drinking and placed it on a small table.
"Pathetic!" She spat out mercilessly while looking down on Seifer, who was still laying unconscious on a couch while Hayner was unsuccessfully trying to make him come back to his senses.
"He is not!" the younger boy cried. "He's not feeling good, we must help him and…"
"I was talking about you!"
Hayner stopped for a moment, glared at the redhead girl and then went back to his efforts of waking up his friend. Kairi couldn't help but wonder if he would've tried to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
"Oh, for the love of... He's just drunk, let him rest for a while and he'll be back on his feet in no time." she finally said, exasperated. "Unfortunately." she added a second later.
Hayner seemed to understand that. He slowly stood up and took a couple of steps away from Seifer's body. He then looked at Kairi interrogatively. "Drunk? But it's not even midnight, how could he have reduced himself in this state in so little time?"
"Sora." Kairi simply answered, betraying just the slightest trace of irritation. Normally, she would've hidden it better, but the alcohol in her body was drawing out her worst side. "He challenged him to a drinking challenge."
"And Seifer lost?" Hayner seemed to be unable to grasp that concept. "He had to be tricked by that fucking faggot, Seifer would never lose to..."
"Hayner? Shut up!" she cut him short. Her voice was cold and she was clearly getting frustrated: why people around her didn't understand what she was feeling? Riku had played with her, Sora had rejected her… she just wanted to make those two pay for the way they had treated her. She then focused back on the blond boy, who was looking at her, waiting for permission to talk. "Why did Sora challenge Seifer?"
Hayner looked surprised, as if the answer to Kairi's question was obvious. "What are you talking about? He wanted to square off with the best, isn't that clear?"
"Stop fanboying around Seifer, it's ridiculous!" she dismissed it quickly. "And use your head for once: wasn't Seifer plotting something against Riku this evening?"
Hayner seemed to suddenly realize something. "Oh, that? Yeah, but how do you know? He didn't tell anyone." She didn't even bother to answer. "We… we were planning to dump some chemical junk on him during the night."
Kairi couldn't help but burst into laughter. Hayner seemed taken aback by that reaction.
"What are you? Ten years old?" she spat out mercilessly. "This was Seifer's plan? Bullying Riku by drenching him? During a party with a pool, moreover?"
Hayner seemed shocked by those words, unable to fully process the way the girl was making fun of them. "It... it's not like that! You make it sounds easy, but there was more!"
But Kairi had had enough of that, and so she simply started walking away.
"Do you think it was easy to get Riku here? Seifer started planning everything from the beginning, this was the real reason behind that bet! Can't you see how brilliant it was?"
Hearing those words, Kairi stopped. She slowly turned just her head, offering Hayner a profile gaze. "What bet?" she then asked, nearly mechanically.
"Seifer struck a bet with Sora. The terms were that he had to bring Riku to this party." he started telling gladly, pointing at the unconscious boy next to them. "Can't you see how brilliant it was? He manipulated them both like a boss!"
Kairi's eyes shone, a malevolent thought making its way through her mind. "When?" she simply asked.
"When?"
"When did Seifer made a bet with Sora?" she asked again, forcing herself to keep her cool, certain to have gotten her hands on a very useful -not to say exploitable- information.
"I already told you: since the beginning!" Hayner was talking enthusiastically, just like every time he had the chance to praise Seifer. "The only reason Sora started talking to Riku was because of that bet!"
Kairi didn't answer. She gave a quick glance at the unconscious Seifer, then she turned her attention back on the other boy. "I can't believe it…"
"Right? Seifer really is a genius, after all!"
"I can't believe how idiotic you two are!" she finally exclaimed, facepalming. "You don't even realize it, do you? Seifer planned some stupid prank when he already had them both in the palm of his hand!"
Hayner looked at her, and he seemed... scared, like he was seeing a certain side of Kairi for the first time. She noticed his look, but she didn't really care. She didn't even bother to add anything else, instead opting to simply walk away, leaving the dumbfounded blond boy to assist his unconscious friend.
On the large balcony on the first floor, a couple of boys were sitting on the wooden floor. The blond one had his back against the railing and was smiling fondly, while the silver-haired one was facing him, sitting against the wall of the mansion, ten inches top between them. And they were conversing amiably.
"No way, for real?"
"I swear, I can't go into more details without spoilers, but it's the best anime I've ever seen!"
"No, really, I can't believe it. 'Time-travel' is such an abused trope…"
"Ah, but that's just the setting, its strength is the relationship between characters!"
If someone had told Riku just a couples of weeks ago that he would've spent (part of) an evening sitting on a balcony with Roxas, talking about geek stuff, he would've never believed it.
Then again, if someone had told him a couple of years ago, he wouldn't have been surprised at all.
He had kind of forgotten how much Roxas had meant for him in the past, having always supported and encouraged him to keep going, back when complicated matters like 'social life' and 'public image' were things the two of them didn't care about, both being kind of outcasts, Riku with his passion for arcades and Roxas for anime.
He took another sip from the over half-empty bottle of wine before offering it to Roxas, who promptly refused it.
"Come on, Roxas! Just a sip!"
Roxas looked at him hesitantly. "You know, I've got to confess you something. I..."
"...have a low-alcohol tolerance, I know." Riku ended the sentence in his stead, surprising him. At his interrogative look, he kept talking. "Everyone knows about it, Roxas! Do you really think that people are that dumb not to realize it?"
As an answer, Roxas laughed. He then shrugged and brought the bottle to his lips.
Only then Riku noticed how good Roxas was looking that evening: he was wearing tight bleached jeans and a bright light-blue polo, which synergized very well with his deep blue eyes.
And all of a sudden, he remembered why he had fallen in love with him at first sight.
A short, comfortable silence ensued, then Riku finally asked the question that was on his mind since the moment hehad heard Roxas confessing that he liked guys.
"Since when have you known?"
"Oh, an imprecise moment during a very long shower when I was fifteen." Roxas answered in an unfittingly direct way, immediately catching on Riku's question and surprising him. "What about you? When did you realize that you liked guys?"
Riku thought about it for a moment, then he answered in all sincerity.
"Since the day I met you."
He didn't know why he had been so honest in his answer, but the further the night was proceeding, the less daunting the prospect of opening up to Roxas seemed to Riku.
Another silence ensued. Riku had expected a laughter from Roxas, something to tone down the mood a little bit. Instead, the blond boy looked straight at him and he couldn't help but blush at the intense look in his friend's eyes.
"I must have been a really bad friend!"
That sentence surprised Riku the most.
"I mean, you had to keep your feelings bottled up for so long... and I was so bad that you couldn't trust me at all!" Roxas let out a sad chuckle, a forced smile appearing on his face. "And in the end, you were right: what did I do when you finally decided to trust me? I ran away!"
And if Riku had some residual doubts about the possibility of Roxas having outed him, those vanished completely.
"For what is worth, I missed talking with you."
"I missed you too, Riku."
For a moment, Riku got the feeling that Roxas was getting closer to him. And for a moment, Riku felt the need to close the gap between them and kissing him.
But then, he remembered. And realization hit him like a ton of bricks.
Roxas liked guys, but that didn't mean that he liked him. He probably never had, but he certainly didn't now. He couldn't forget the moment he had walked in on Roxas and Sora kissing at the No Name. A burst of jealousy ran through his body.
But, immediately after, he realized that he couldn't hold it against Roxas: after all, it wasn't like he and Sora were together to begin with. Well, not yet, at least. Still, he needed to clarify something.
"I've got to ask you something, Roxas!" The blond boy seemed taken aback by the sudden shift in tone of his voice. "What is precisely going on between you and Sora?"
Roxas looked at him, innocently. "What do you mean, Riku? We're friends, you know that." Riku wondered if he was playing dumb or if the alcohol was slowing down his brain processes.
"But the two of you kissed, am I right?" he asked unusually boldly, like his restraints had been lifted.
It took a few seconds for Roxas to take in the information, but when he did, his face quickly flushed red. "Uh... yeah, I guess we did, even though..."
"Even though... what?"
"Uhm... It's not like I actually remember it..."
Riku made a superhuman effort to stop himself from slapping him: he kissed Sora and he didn't remember about it? How was that possible? He would've never forgotten about it... "Yeah, I remember you saying something along those lines... Just... I need to know if something happened between you and Sora after that."
"Nothing happened." Roxas simply answered, looking at the starry sky over them. "I don't think Sora ever saw me as more than a friend. In fact, I kind of assumed that you two were dating."
Riku's heart skipped a beat: he looked at his friend, incredulous, for a long moment. He started opening his mouth, but closed it before talking; he then grabbed the bottle of wine and took another huge sip, feeling like he needed it to go on. "You... really thought that we were dating?"
There was a hint of sadness in Roxas' look, Riku just wasn't sure what the reason behind it was. "Well, yeah, at least until this morning. You were always together and you seemed to share some kind of... special connection, what with your witty banters and everything. And I was happy for you, really... even if, to say the truth, I've always loved..."
"Wait, wait!" Riku interrupted him the moment he realized that something was wrong, forcing Roxas to look at him. "You said 'until this morning'? What happened this morning?"
Roxas didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked away. "It's... complicated, I just... I don't want to hurt you again."
"That explains nothing!"
"I know, I just..." It seemed like Roxas was going to say something, but then he finally looked back at Riku. "Listen, just forget what I said, how about we simply enjoy the rest of the night as it is? It was nice, we were having a good time, let's just have fun. Whatever I have to say can wait until tomorrow, right?"
Riku hesitated, but Roxas was looking at him in such an innocent way that it made impossible being mad at him anymore. He sighed. "Alright, I guess so." he simply answered offering him what little was left of the bottle they were sharing. "So, what do we do now?"
"How about going back to the party?"
Sora's voice surprised both of them: Riku was the first one to greet him, standing up and hugging him. The brunet seemed a bit surprised by that reaction, but didn't push him away.
"Whoa, whoa, what's going on? Since when were you so expansive?"
"Alcohol can do miracles, I guess..." Roxas, who had not even bothered to stand up, answered in his stead, a strange bittersweet tone that Riku didn't really catch.
Sora looked at the blond boy for three long seconds, then he reached him on the ground and put an arm around his neck. "Aww, little Roxas is still made at me? What can I do to make you forgive me?"
Riku observed them curiously. "Uhm… did you two have a fight or something?"
"Or something!" Roxas answered quickly. Riku couldn't help but think that the way he was pouting was incredibly cute.
"Come on, Roxas, you literally just said that you wanted to have fun tonight. Can't we just put off everything to tomorrow?"
Roxas' eyes darted from Riku to Sora. Then, he sighed. "Alright, I don't want to be the party-crasher."
Sora patted him on the back and stood up, while Roxas followed close. And just at the stroke of midnight, the three boys were back at the party.
End Notes: ...and the third part of the "Party Arc" is done! Riku and Roxas heart-to-heart was long overdue, even though their discussion ended prematurely... Also Steins;Gate is one of the greatest anime ever! ;).
Preview: Swimming pool party time! Also, everyone is there!
Next Chapter: The Party – Part 4