Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Also, I do not own the rights to use a certain character from TWEWY, even if he could have been hidden somewhere in this chapter...
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 19: No Name - Part 1
And finally, Roxas' fears became real: the 'No Name' was standing there, in front of them. Despite being quite early, a consistent group of people was already lined outside of the club, waiting to enter.
"This place looks great, can't wait to see how it is inside." Sora exclaimed, as excited as a kid visiting Disneyland.
Riku observed him curiously. "Now, seriously, I didn't take you for a guy who liked clubs..."
"Really? Well, what can I say? Guess I'm full of surprises, too..." Sora answered winking at the upperclassman.
Roxas' guts twisted uncomfortably, but he wasn't sure if it was for what was waiting for him or because of the feeling that he had suddenly become the third wheel.
"Hey, guys!" Sora suddenly exclaimed, waving his hand and walking towards a group of six people not far from them. Roxas observed Riku stiffening at the sight of Seifer's group. With Sora out of range, the silver-haired boy shifted his attention to the only other person close.
"Roxas." Hearing Riku pronouncing his name made the small boy shiver a little. "Did you know that Seifer would have come too?"
"Uh... didn't Sora tell you?"
"I wouldn't be here, if he had." he growled.
An uncomfortable silence fell upon them, prompting Roxas to take on a discussion that he definitively wasn't ready to face. "Listen, Riku, about what happened..."
"Save it!" Riku cut him short. "Don't think that just because Sora forced me to bear with your presence, everything will be like before!"
The coldness in his words froze Roxas in place. "I... I just wanted to say..."
"Whatever you have to say, I'm not interested." Riku answered, and that was final. He started walking away from Roxas and Seifer's group, leaving the blond boy with no other choice than to reach for Sora.
"Hey, look who's finally here. How are you, Sora?" The moment Axel saw the brunet walking towards them, he greeted him enthusiastically. He then suddenly lowered his voice when he was out of ear's reach from the rest of the group. "So, did you manage to persuade Roxas to come?"
Sora smiled widely. "Sure, he's over there with Riku."
He observed the redhead taking a peek behind his shoulder and observing the two boys. "How in the world did you manage to make those two stay together for more than a minute without killing each other?" he finally asked, incredulous.
"Riku is all bark and no bite as for Roxas... well, it's Roxas."
Axel looked at him, scratching his cheek. "It's impressive how quickly you've managed to figure those two out."
But Sora couldn't answer, as he caught sight of Seifer and Saïx getting closer to them. The former was smiling. "You're finally here, Sora! I was starting to think that Riku had raped you."
Sora looked at him with disdain. "Was that a joke? When I have to laugh, light a bulb." Seifer seemed taken aback by the cold answer, not used to someone not laughing at his jokes. Sora then lowered the volume of his voice to avoid being heard from someone else. "Oh, and our bet is over!"
That sentence alone seemed to be enough to make Seifer regain his usual cocky attitude. "I don't think so. The terms were..."
"I know the terms!" Sora answered, a little too quickly not to betray a certain uneasiness. "But Riku is here, in the end it's all the same."
"You know, for some reasons, I feel like you want to end this bet as soon as possible. Is there a particular reason for that?" Seifer asked maliciously.
Sora didn't want for that conversation to be overheard. So, when he saw Roxas walking towards them, he decided that it was best to cut it short. "...all right, we'll keep going."
Seifer grinned.
The inside of the No Name was... majestic.
That was the word that came to Riku's mind when he finally got in, all by himself. He had spent a good part of the time in the line waiting for Sora to reach him, vainly: the brunet had preferred to spend those long minutes with the people Riku hated the most.
And now he was there, standing at the entrance of the main dancing room, whose size was big enough not to see the opposite sides' walls. All of the room was immersed in a deep blue light, giving it a surreal atmosphere. The music was loud, but not enough to be a nuisance. And in the middle of the room, he could discern a squared bar counter, accessible from every side.
He walked straight there.
"A tequila."
An ash-blond young man behind the counter looked at him, curiosity and mischievousness painted on his face. "Silver or gold?"
"Silver, make two of them." Sora's voice startled Riku. "It also fits you." he added, flicking slightly his friend's silver mane.
Riku shook the hand away. "What's the matter? Already got bored with your friends?"
"What's the matter? You jealous?" Sora answered back sarcastically.
As an answer, Riku turned his head on the other side.
Sora didn't like that.
"Look at me when I'm talking!" he exclaimed. And the tone was so decisive, so unlike his usually cheerful one, that the thought of disobeying didn't even cross Riku's mind.
"Listen well! I know you've been through a lot and it must not be easy for you to deal with people, especially those people, but -keep it well in mind- I'm. Not. Your. Girlfriend!"
Riku's brain froze, immediately losing the ability to formulate a coherent sentence.
"I... I know that... I've... I've never thought..." he finally blabbered a few seconds later.
"Then..." Sora interrupted him, more serious than ever. "...do not treat me that way. I can spend my time with who I want. And if you're not ok with that, you can stay by yourself, alright?"
"Your drinks." the barman interrupted, bringing the two boys two small glasses accompanied by a saucer with salt and lemon.
"Thanks." Sora quickly answered. He then smiled widely at his friend, like nothing had happened. "Don't make that sad face, all is forgotten if you're ok with that. Try to just enjoy the evening and, for once, try to forget about that baggage of resentment and hate that you always carry with you."
It took a whole minute for Riku to get back in the right state of mind. He did it when he realized that Sora was holding his glass in front of him and urging him to do the same. "Cheers?"
He gave up and smiled weakly.
"Cheers."
From his position, Roxas had a perfect view of the club.
He was sitting on one of the bar stools, on the opposite side of Sora and Riku. He was observing them carefully while they were discussing, pretending to study a drink menu.
"It's good to have you with us in a place like this, for once: we've got to celebrate!" Axel exclaimed, throwing an arm around Roxas' neck, managing to startle him.
"Sure is. I think it's the first time that you manage to get past the age check at the entrance of a club." Saïx added, reaching them from behind.
"That Sora's friend really did an impressive job with that fake ID, I wonder if I could ask him to make me a fake driving license..."
Roxas looked at the two of them, glad to be able to focus on someone else than Sora and Riku. "Axel, for the sake of the rest of us, I'll pray Sora not to put a weapon like that in your hands."
"I'm with you on that one." Saïx granted.
It was at that moment that Roxas realized that that was the first time the blue-haired boy was talking directly to him since their last discussion about Riku. He was still not thrilled about that conversation, but he thought better to let that slide. For the moment, at least.
"Whatever." Axel shrugged the insults off. "What do you two want to drink? My treat."
Roxas stiffened at those words. He knew he had a quite low alcohol tolerance and he certainly couldn't allow himself to get drunk: what if some of his inner feelings would inadvertently slip out? With Riku there, no less? "Just a beer, thanks."
"Same for me."
"Barman!" Axel called, getting an answer and being served a few minutes later from one of the multiple barmen behind the counter. He drank his beer in less than thirty seconds.
"Well, back to the dancing floor, coming with us, Roxas?" he asked, pointing at the small group not too far from them where Seifer, Kairi, Larxene and Hayner were moving frenetically at the notes of one of those songs that everyone knows but none remembers the title.
"Later." he answered elusively, taking his beer and drinking it. Really slowly, determined to make that drink last until the end of the evening.
Once Axel and Saïx out of sight, his focus shifted back to Sora and Riku. But, much to his horror, the two of them were not sitting anymore at the counter. They had stood up and were, in fact, dancing.
Sora and Riku were dancing! Together!
Nothing suggestive, of course, they simply looked like a couple of friends that were moving to the music. But that more than enough to made Roxas mad with jealousy. For a second he thought how good it would feel to go there, separate them and kissing Riku in front of everyone, not caring about anything else.
But a second later he realized that he simply didn't have the balls to do something like that. And that thought depressed him the most. He left his glass still half-full on the counter and walked away.
'I shouldn't have come!'
Sora was satisfied: somehow, he had managed to make Riku relax a little and enjoy himself. And that despite the fact that he had lashed out against him. He had felt pretty bad at what he had said, but he wanted for him to drop that emo-attitude of his.
And now the silver-haired boy was dancing with him. And, man, he was a sight: Riku moved perfectly, sensually and manly at the same time. And Sora felt himself captured by how much beautiful the boy was.
"What's wrong?" the upperclassman asked when he noticed that Sora was staring at him.
"You're... perfect." Sora accidentally spat out, conscious that a slight red tint was painting his cheeks. Damn, it was rare for him to get caught blushing. Riku's pale complexion, of course, didn't help at all hiding his own blush, perfectly clear despite the neon light.
"Uhm... want to reach the others?" Sora asked, starting to feel sincerely embarrassed while not completely understanding the reason behind that.
"Su... sure." Riku answered. Well, his mind had to be pretty fucked up for him to accept joining the group of his ex-friends. They quickly moved towards the five people dancing there.
"Where's Seifer?" Sora asked the second he realized that a certain someone was missing.
"He's over there dancing with that girl." Kairi answered in the most uninterested tone one could manage to use. Sora immediately noticed that her focus was on someone else: more precisely, he noticed the cold glares that she was giving to her ex-boyfriend, but pretended not to notice it.
Riku, for his part, looked like he was perfectly managing to ignore Kairi. Well, from what he had seen the past few days, neither Axel, nor Saïx or Larxene were holding a grudge against Riku and, with Seifer out of the games, Kairi was the only one not liking him.
He could work around that.
Sora started moving towards the girl, effectively dancing in front of her. She didn't lose time and quickly took the invitation, putting his hands behind his neck. That was perfect, now he just had to bring her away from Riku and talk to her.
Riku silently observed Sora and Kairi getting away and quickly decided that keeping on dancing and trying to ignore the fact that his ex-girlfriend and his new-best-friend-maybe-but-only-maybe-romantic-interest were dancing together somewhere in the crowd not too far from them was the best course of action.
Though, the moment the brunet had disappeared, he had started to feel a certain uneasiness. Not surprisingly, considering that he was spending time with his ex-crowd that had ditched him just a year ago. What had happened for him to end up in that situation, by the way?
Oh, right... Sora had happened.
"You're too stiff, boy! Just try to relax a little, we won't bite you."
What was going on? Larxene was giving him support. Larxene -most certainly the most abrasive person in the whole school- was giving him support!
"Don't patronize me!" he warned her, in all seriousness.
"Don't give me any excuses to patronize you." she answered back, and Riku could swear that half of a smile was outlining on her face.
Suddenly, Saïx started walking away from the group, eliciting a: "Where are you going, man?" from Axel, screamed over the crowd.
Saïx didn't answer, but he turned his head a little and did the gesture of drinking with his left hand. Riku couldn't help but notice that the blue-haired boy had still not said a single word to him.
"Not a bad idea, let's go take something too." Larxene replied, following Saïx towards the bar counter in the middle of the room.
Left alone with Axel, Riku thought that that was as good as any other moment to silently disappear. The redhead had different programs, however. "Not coming, Riku?"
"You wouldn't miss me anyway." he answered drily.
"Well... I would." Axel muttered, his words muffled by the loud music. "It's cool to have you back with us!"
Riku pretended not to have heard that corny line and started walking away. And Axel grabbed his arm, effectively forcing him to turn towards him. "Come on, just a drink. How bad could that be? After that, if you still want to leave, I won't stop you from doing it."
Riku looked at him suspiciously. "Just one." he finally conceded.
Axel smiled.
End Notes: The party chapter was reeeally long in the beginning, so I decided to split it in two. The best for last, of course ;).
Preview: Sora dancing with Kairi, Riku spending time with his ex-friends... and Roxas getting one too many. How could it end?
Next Chapter: No Name - Part 2