Accidental Infatuation

Accidental Infatuation
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Chapter Fourteen

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After us blurting out that we knew, Leon started gasping for breath, as if he was choking on something, and Aerith suddenly became very red in the face. I think that we have embarrassed her! Well, I guess there really is a first time for everything.

“Well, lets head outside and get some fresh air, alright?” She stammers along, and stands up, pulling Roxy with her. Oh, I love it when she gets all flustered like this and can’t function. “It is a little stuffy in this room, don’t you think?” we get a grunt of agreement from Leon, as she moves behind me to place her hand so the hands of my chair.

Roxy and I share a look and figure that Aerith just wants to wait until we are outside of this small room before talking about it. I watch as Leon holds the door open and my sister pushes me through, Roxy following right behind us. There are no words between any of us, except as we point out the directions that will get us back out to the lovely gardens. Since going out there a week ago, the gardens have become a favourite spot for the four of us, Demyx even joining us sometimes as we do a nightly stroll of the property. But I think it is funny that since the time after my first panic attack, I have yet to see Zexion again. I understand that he is gone somewhere this weekend, but still, Roxas hasn’t met him yet. But with the amount that Demyx talks about him, it feels as if we know him just as well as we know everyone else.

When we finally get to the gardens, as expected, Aerith is blown away. “My heavens. This is amazing. Certainly puts my little shop to shame.” She smiles gently, and I think that being surrounded by something that she is so passionate about helps calms her nerves a little bit. “How large are the gardens?”

“Riku told me it was like 6 acres. And we met the guy who maintains it the other night. He’s awesome…strange, but awesome.” Roxy laughs, sticking close to Aerith. Leon is walking on my other side, acting as if he wasn’t even here. Man, I still can’t believe that they are going to be parents soon.

“I’m glad that someone cares enough about a place like this to so something so wonderful for it. And that he cares enough to do a good job about it too. I wonder if I talked to him if we could set up a cutting exchange or something.” The whole time, she has this wistful smile on her face, and it reminds me why I love her so much.

“So, Aeri, are you going to tell us more about your baby? We want to know!” I smile, really eager to hear about everything.

“Yeah! We want to know everything! Have you had any morning sickness yet? Why haven’t you told Mom? How far along are you? We want details. Well, except about conception, because that is just wrong.” Roxy rambles, earning laughter from both me and Aerith, and surprisingly enough, a small single breathed laughter from Leon.

“Well, we’re 9 weeks along. So, it happened just before your accident. But we only found out about 3 weeks ago. It was a surprise, but a good surprise.” Aerith is happy about all this, I can tell. And strangely enough, I can tell that Leon is happy about it too, even if he doesn’t show it.

“So, why didn’t you tell us about it? Like when we were still in the hospital? And why haven’t you told Mom yet?” It is my turn to ask all the questions that are just racing through both mine and Roxy’s heads. We come to rest next to a large weeping willow tree that has a stone bench underneath it. Roxy and Aerith take a seat on the polished rock, turning me to face them, while Leon goes behind them and leans up against the tree behind them. I never understood why he always chooses to lean against something rather than sit. Freak. I have to wonder if his knees actually bend some days.

Aerith lets out a sigh, yet we both know that she isn’t frustrated or anything. Just a little afraid that she would hurt us with her reasoning. “I didn’t want the two of you to know right away, because Sora, you need to be here to help you get better. I guess that I was afraid that if you knew, you wouldn’t want t come here, and that would hinder your chances of recovery. And I was waiting until I found out how Mom was going to take the situation of you being gone before telling her.”

“You wanted to tell her to get her out of this funk, Aeri. I want her to be alright.” Roxas whispers, grabbing tightly onto her arm.

“I will, don’t worry. I plan on telling her after telling her that you are both doing just fine here. Because even though you both talk to her every night, she is having a hard time understanding that you are both doing okay.” She smiles, rubbing Roxy’s good shoulder in a comforting movement.

“Good.” We both agree in unison. A thought then runs through our heads, both Roxy and I turning to face each other with large smiles on our faces. “We’re going to be uncles!”

“And there is to be no spoiling our child.” Leon all but grunts from his spot on the tree.

“Aw, you’re no fun.” Roxas just glares at him, and I attempt to swallow my laughter, and Aerith just smiles.

“Does Tifa know?” I ask, turning to my sister. She definitely has a slight glow about her not that I take the time to notice. I am so happy for her.

“Not yet.” She laughs.

“You know that she is going to be super jealous and most likely attack Cloud until he agrees to get her pregnant just so that you the two of you can be pregnant together, right?” Roxy grins, completely forgetting his need to be pissed at Leon right now.

“I don’t think that she is going to be like that.” Aerith laughs.

“Wanna bet?” both Roxy and I raise our eyebrows and look at our sister with disbelieving looks on our faces.

“Tifa and I don’t do everything together. I’m sure that she won’t try and convince Cloud to do that.” Shrugs Aerith, the smile still on her face. To her response, even Leon lets out a snort.

“See! Even Leon agrees with us!” I point out, pointing over at my brother in law who just turns his head away from us.

“You do know that the since the day that he proposed to you, Tifa has been dropping no so subtle hints. And even Cloud isn’t that dense. He knows what she is doing, but he just isn’t acting on it. But you know, I think that he has something planned. I bet by the time that we are released, they will be engaged.” Roxas nods at his own statement, opinions that are shared by me.

“Squall, do you know about any of this? Cloud is your best friend.” Aerith looks over at her husband, and we all just watch him shrug.

“He hasn’t said anything to me.”

I giggle at the though of Leon and Cloud actually speaking, and try and cover it with a cough, knowing that it is useless with Roxy being right there. “Haven’t you noticed Tifa is being a little more…wedding focused in the last year and a half? I mean, she and Cloud have been together forever, but I think that she is eager to go that extra step forward and claim Cloud as hers once and for all. I mean, you’ve seen the way that the other girls look at Cloud. And we all know how jealous Tifa can get. Not to mention that Tifa attracts just as many lookers as Cloud does.” I put in my two cents worth, and the comments earn a thoughtful look from Aerith. Placing her index finger against her cheek in a thoughtful manner, looking up at the sky, we lose our sister to her thoughts for a few minutes.

“Well, then. If we want a wedding to celebrate your release from this place, I might have to start helping then. Besides, if Cloud tries to say no to me while I am pregnant, I might be able to claim anything I do on hormones, right?” her smile is innocent, but the words hold very little mischief, and it almost scares us.

“You’re going to blame everything on hormones, aren’t you?” Roxy laughs, Aerith wrapping her arm around his shoulders once again.

“Of course.” She laughs. “Besides, it’s not like he can say no to a pregnant woman, let alone his only sister.”

“He always had a soft spot for you, hasn’t he?” I smile, squeezing her hand lovingly.

“So, have you thought of any names yet? Are you going to find out if it is a girl or a boy? And if so, when can you find out?” Roxy seems to be on a bit of a rampage with the questions at the moment and I can’t help but notice the eagerness in his voice. I mentally note that this might be just as good for Roxy as it is for Mom.

“We’ve got an appointment with the doctor in 2 weeks, and we’ll find out a lot of things then, including my actual due date. But in general, we are not going to learn what it is. We want to be surprised.” Aerith will make an incredible mother. That’s the only thing that is going through my mind right now, and even though Leon is action somewhat withdrawn from the situation, I can tell he is just as proud and excited that he is going to be a daddy. And he will be just as good a father as Aerith will be a mommy.

“We’re so happy for you guys.” Roxy and I tell them, allowing the four of us to lap into a comfortable silence that only lasts a few minutes.

“Say, Sora. I have an odd question for you.” I look over at my sister with a raised eyebrow.

“Alright…”I trail off, somewhat sceptical of the question.

“Why exactly is Riku here? I mean, at the centre. You have never told me.” Aerith cocks her head at to the side, and I can’t help but laugh a little. Of all the questions…

“Well, his brother is the head physiotherapist here, and their parents died many years ago. So, Riku lives here with him and volunteers as a peer counsellor.” I answer kind of skirting around the actual answer that I know that she is looking for. I’m not ashamed of it, no, never that. I just don’t know if it is my place to tell.

Roxas just looks over at me and gives me a look. “Sora…” he trails off, not in a condescending tone, but in a compassionate one, like he is trying to help me figure out a solution.

“Oh, but it just seems that he wouldn’t meet our eyes for some reason. And just wanted to make sure that he wasn’t hiding something that would end up hurting you.” I hear a grunt in response to Aerith’s statement from Leon, and Roxy suddenly bursts into laughter. And that sound is contagious. I guess it wouldn’t hurt anything to tell them.

“No, its nothing like that.” I laugh. “Riku is blind. That’s why I had to guide his hand to yours, and why he wouldn’t look you in the eye. He goes towards the sound of your voice. And he doesn’t like people seeing his eyes, it’s a self-consciousness thing.”

And for once, our surprise proof sister looks completely taken aback. I guess because I have been around him so often of the past week, I don’t realize anything different. And maybe the fact that he had to come right out and tell me he was blind the moment that I met him has something to do with the fact that I tend to forget that others probably won’t notice right away.

“Oh. That’s something that I wouldn’t have expected. What about Axel? Roxas, do you know anything about why he is here?” she continues, turning her gaze from me to my twin.

Once again, Roxas and I burst out into laughter at the same time. “We’re not allowed to know yet.” Roxy laughs.

“We’ve been told that his story is rated R and that you have to be 18 to hear it.” I add in, watching as Aerith raises an eyebrow at us.

“He’s told us that several times, and he never lets us know anything more than that his brother was there at the time.”

“But give Roxy another couple of days, and I’m sure that he will be able to coax anything out of him.” I add my laughter to the mix, and instantly, Roxy’s face lights up with a bright blush. Score one for me. And Aerith might have caught onto something.

“Roxas, are you and Axel not together yet?” As soon as the question leaves Aerith’s mouth, the blush drains from my twin’s face as fast as it came. Man, Aerith is hitting it good with the questions today.

“Well…you see…” My brother trails off, kind of turning his head away from our sister, as if he is ashamed or something. Damn, this wasn’t supposed to happen. It was all just suppose to embarrass him or something.

“What Roxy is trying to say is that he is still a little apprehensive of jumping into a relationship so quickly again because of what happened last time. We both want to make sure that Axel will treat him properly.” I supply, feeling Aerith squeeze my hand. I tear my eyes away from my brother to look up at my sister. Her bright green eyes are lit up with compassion, and through her smile, I see her mouth the words ‘thank you’ to me. What does she mean by that?

“Oh, Roxykins.” I can almost feel Roxas’ wince at his most hated nickname, one that only Aerith can ever get away with, and even that is a rarity. “You’ll find a guy soon enough. Don’t you worry. There is someone out there who is right for you. Give it time. You are only 16. Don’t worry about being in a serious relationship right now. Enjoy your time being a teenager. But never forget, you will always have me, Sora, Cloud, Mom, Squall and Tifa. And remember, none of us will ever leave you, so you will never be alone.” At Aerith’s words, Roxas’ head shoots up, almost like out sister has hit a real soft spot. Alone? Roxas has fears of being alone? Why didn’t I know this?! He’s my twin for heaven’s sake! I am supposed to know these sorts of things. I can’t believe that I have never picked up on that. The constant boyfriends, the always wanting someone to be there with him, never wanting to be separated from me, the clinging and not wanting to let go. All of it somewhat making sense now, but once again, how did Aerith pick up on this, and not me? I know that Aerith has always had an ability to sense these sorts of things, but how could I have never noticed something this serious?

“Roxy?” I ask, reaching out a hand to rest it on his leg.

His eyes quickly jump to mine, and it strikes me as soon as our eyes meet, I see a lingering fear there. What on earth has been going on with my twin that is causing this fear? He quickly his hand up to cover his eyes, almost ashamed of letting me see into his eyes.

“Don’t worry about it Sora.” He whispers, once again averting his gaze.

“Like hell I am not going to worry.” I answer without missing a beat, standing my ground. “Aeri, do you and Leon mind giving us a moment alone?”

A sad smile replace the genuine one of only seconds ago on my sister’s face, and it makes me a little upset that our visit is now ruined. “Not a problem, Sora. Squall and I are just going to explore the gardens a little more.” I nod my own thanks to my sister, not saying anything else as both Roxy and I receive a small kiss on the top of our head as she stands up.

Leon is right there next to her, taking her hand in his as she urges him away from our bench. I can hear them as they walk away, Leon asking how on earth we could have known that she was pregnant today, but when we saw her 2 weeks ago, we didn’t. She just laughs and tells him that it must be a twin thing and that he shouldn’t worry about it, because if he isn’t careful his ass will get worry wrinkles. Normally their banter makes me smile, but not today. Not until I find out what exactly is going through my twin’s head.

“Sora, I told you not to worry about it. It’s not that big of a deal.” I hear Roxy whisper again, my head snapping back to stare at him wide eyed.

“What do you mean, I don’t need to worry about it?” My voice is just as quiet as I reach over with my now free hand and take his empty one, trying to convey all my love and compassion to him through the contact. “Of course I am going to worry, Roxy. What’s going on?”

“It’s stupid.” His face automatically turns away from me and I let out a deep sigh of frustration. Of course he has to be the stubborn one. Now my problem will be trying to get this out of him.

“I’ve never thought that anything you have said is stupid, Roxy. I’m only trying to help you. It hurts to see you this sad and upset. Please. Talk to me.” I use the hand still on his leg to squeeze gently, ready to try and get him to talk to me. I really hate when he is trying to hide something from me.

“I know you are, Sor. But…”he trails off.

“There will be no talk of buts unless it is about the really cute one that my boyfriend has.” I tell him with a slight grin. I get a small chuckle from Roxas and I am glad to see that he is coming around. I knew that he couldn’t hide anything from me once I get on his case. “Come on Roxy. We both know that you won’t be able to last much longer.” My own smile widens as I feel the hand in my own squeeze just a little bit.

“Promise that you won’t laugh?” Finally Roxas turns back to look at me, and once again I am surprised at the emotions that are running through his eyes.

“You know that I do.” I reply, moving the hand I have off his leg, using it to pull myself closer to him and the bench, knowing that deep down, Roxas wants to be as close as possible right now.

“Man, I knew that there was reason why I tried to keep this from you.” He mutters quietly after a few minutes of silence. I give him as much time as he needs to be comfortable talking about this. I don’t want to force him into anything. Hearing him take several breaths in as false starts, I mentally try and calm him down, knowing that is was pretty much the only thing that I can do at the moment. And that is probably the thing that frustrates me the most. It’s like he has me shielded against reading those particular thoughts. “I don’t know why, but since everything happened back when they were keeping you in the hospital when we were 5, I have always had a slight fear of you leaving me alone.” With a shrug of his shoulders, Roxy turns away from me, but doesn’t attempt to pull his hand out of my grip. I hope that is a good sign.

I remember vividly the time that he is talking about. Back when they were trying to officially diagnose my gynophobia, I was forced to spend several days in the hospital without my twin, as the doctors thought that it would be better if there was no “outside influence” on their testing, and that was the longest I have ever been away from him in my entire life.

“But I always came back. And I haven’t left you since. So why do you still feel like that?” I receive a single chuckle from my twin, and I can’t help by worry.

“I don’t know. I guess that seeing as every time that we would make friends, they tended to gravitate towards you, and I felt left out. I think maybe that’s why as son as I was old enough and found someone willing, I started to sleep around so much. It made me feel…needed I guess is the proper term. I’m not going to say that you ignored me or anything, because you didn’t, and none of this is your fault, don’t get me wrong, but it just seemed that you always got more attention than me.” My twin is rambling, and my only reaction is to let my jaw drop. How on earth could he keep something like that from me?! How the hell could I never see something this important right in front of my own freaking face?! Holy crap! I am a blind idiot!

I feel the tears begin to well up in the corners of my eyes, and as soon as I close my eyes to blink them away, it causes them to fall down my cheeks, matching the twin trails running down Roxas’ face. “Holy poo, Roxy. I never knew.” I whisper, my voice broken with tears as I lean forward in my chair, however awkward it might be, and wrap my arms around Roxy’s shoulders, pulling him against me in a tight hug, his single mobile arm wrapping around me as well. “I never knew that you feel that way.”

“I know, I know.” He answers, his own voice just as broken as mine with the tears that are falling like raindrops.

“Why have you never talked to me about this though?”

I receive another shrug which I more so feel than see. “Cause I thought that you would laugh and not believe me, and then leave me.”

I just squeeze him tighter. “And to think that I was jealous of you.”

“Why were you jealous of me?” there is surprise in his voice, and I can’t help but chuckle at the thought that we had both been keeping such secrets from one another. Some twins we turned out to be.

It’s now my turn to laugh humourlessly. “Come on, Roxy. You have had a boyfriend almost all the time since you were 14. And who does the gang as out to have fun? Not me, because they are always afraid that I will take an attack. How often do you have to tell them only if Sora comes too? And I don’t think that they gravitate towards me. I always felt that you pushed them to me, wanting them to like me so we would still have the same group of friends.” I mumble out, still not believing that this is actually happening. Quietness falls over us as we both try and figure out this new information.

“Man, we are so screwed up.” Roxas laughs, reaching his hand up and wiping the tears away from his eyes, before moving it up to wipe mine away as well.

“At least we are screwed together.” I grin, before we both meet our eyes together and burst out laughing at my slightly perverted comment.

“Holy shit. I am so glad that Axel wasn’t around to hear that, he would be on us with a video camera so fast trying to get some twincest on tape.” The laughter in his voice is a musical sound that I have missed so much over the past 2 months, and I don’t think that I will ever grow tired of hearing it.

“You know that I love you, don’t you Roxy?”

“Yeah, Sora. I know. And you know I love you too, right?”

“Of course I do.” I grin. “And I promise that I will never leave you alone.”

“Good.” He returns my gentle smile. “And I promise the same thing.” I give my twin a small peck on the cheek which he returns before we are interrupted once again.

“Man, Axel was right. This gay twincest thing is hot stuff!” The giggled voice from a certain blonde fan girl causes us both to groan before turning to look at the pair of twins that are only a few feet away from us in their wheelchairs.

Wanting to make sure that Kairi isn’t going to freak out completely at even more proof that I am gay, I meet her violet eyes, only to see something strange hiding in their. Uh oh. I really am scared now. It seems as if Naminé must have been trying her hardest to convert Kairi into the world of fangirlism, because I swear, there is a little fangirl squealing and jumping up and down inside those eyes, and I just know that this is probably not going to turn out well for any of us.

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Well, there really is no excuse for the lateness of this chapter. I’ve just been so lazy, and busy at the same time, not to mention that I was more focused on getting some other things posted. I’m going to try and get the next chapter out sooner, but I don’t want to make any promises. I will tell you that I am not abandoning this story, I just need some time to figure out where it is going and all that junk.

Once again, thank you so much for my twin for betaing this for me, and to Pahoyhoy just for being you! And yes, I did use your phrase in there, hehehe.

As for the next update, don’t expect anything from me over the next two weeks, as I am going on vacation to visit Pahoyhoy! And no, I’m not excited about that, no never, hehehe. And if you didn’t catch the sarcasm in that, you should be shot, lol. Anyhoo, thanks so much to everyone and their continued support on this story, and I hope that you all continue to read, review and all that wonderful stuff, I look forward to reading your comments! Until next time!