Accidental Infatuation

Accidental Infatuation
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Chapter Nineteen

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The next three days just fly by so fast that I barely notice. Roxy has begun his recovery here after being released from the hospital yesterday. It’s going well so far, though he is under strict doctor’s orders that he is to rest and have no strenuous activity for the next week or so, and I think that includes no sex. So because of that, I have to listen to him go on and on about how he and Axel haven’t had sex for three days and he is just dying to get laid. Yes, he really needs to learn that twins don’t need to share absolutely everything. Seriously. As for the fact that we think that Sephiroth caught Riku and I kissing that day, he has never actually said anything to Riku about it, and Riku hasn’t actually brought it up, so we are kind of hoping that it really wasn’t that that had gotten him into a mood that day. I think that Riku is a little nervous that if he does bring it up, it might drive an even bigger wedge between the two of them. After all, they really aren’t very close to begin with, and my boyfriend is worried about putting even more distance between them.

But despite the worry that Riku has been feeling, lives have been going on as normal. Right now, I am sitting here in the cafeteria with Demyx and Naminé, just hanging out. I’m so glad that there is at least some form of normalcy in this place. Riku is at fencing practice, and Roxy has been ordered to get some rest. And who knows where Axel is, but I have the oddest feeling that he might be in my room, trying to molest my brother, claiming that Roxy won’t be able to relax unless he is spent.

“So, where is Kairi tonight?” I ask the blond girl, feeling oddly at ease around her, same with her twin. How can I feel so comfortable around two girls that I only have known for a month, yet a friend at home that I have known my whole life still causes me to freak out?

Naminé just giggles. “Tidus is calling her tonight. She is going to try and convince him to come up and visit her, I think. Now that she has given up on all of you guys, accepted that you’re all gay and taken, and the fact that Tidus has broken up with his girlfriend and is starting to act more interested in her, Kai is going to try and sink her claws into him as soon as she can.”

“You make her sound like she is some sort of animal on the prowl or something.” I laugh, before taking a bite of my tuna wrap.

“You know what? Kairi would look so cute if she had cat ears and a tail. She could totally pull them off and not look completely slutty.” At the statement, both Naminé and I stop in our movements, turning to look at Demyx with astonished looks on our faces. “What? What did I say?”

At his obliviousness, I burst into laughter, followed quickly by Naminé. And judging by the look on his face, Demyx finally understood what he said and why we are laughing. “Dem, do you ever think about what you say before you actually say it?” Naminé questions, her voice still laced with laughter.

“No. Why do you think that I have a brainy boyfriend? To do all of my thinking for me of course.” His grin is wide and contagious as we all burst out laughing again at the statement. I take another bite when I’ve calmed down at little as we continue to joke and laugh, trying to decide on what animal all of us are most like.

“Roxy and Axel are totally confused rabbits.” I add my contribution to the list. We’ve already come up with a Silver tiger for Riku, a Lemur for me and a white dove for Naminé. Don’t ask. I think that we shouldn’t have had that chocolate cake before dinner…

“Eww!” Naminé giggles. “But totally true. Man, I’m always afraid that I am going to walk in on them!”

“Afraid, Nam? Just yesterday you asked me if I thought if they would pose for you so you could ‘practice drawing male anatomy’. And if they decided they wanted to move on to a love scene that you would be okay with it!” Demyx exclaims through his own laughter.

“Details, details.” She giggles. “But, Sora. Isn’t it gross that Roxas lets you know every single time that he and Axel have sex? And they didn’t exactly wait long before jumping into bed. I mean, you guys have only been here for a little over a month, and they are always sneaking off in a not so secretive way.”

I just shrug. “The reason he tells me is because of a promise that he made to me before. Roxy has always been a very sexual person. He has had boyfriends all the time since he was thirteen. And frankly, Axel is very much the same as him. So that’s probably one of the reasons that they were so attracted to one another in the first place. I could tell that they would be as soon as I met Axel the first time. After all the bad relationships that Roxy has been in lately, it’s really good to see him in a relationship that is actually good for him, it really does make me happy.” I trail off and find myself smiling at the thought of Roxy finally finding a good guy that is a great match for him.

“So, Roxas is a really sexual person, and you aren’t?” Demyx’s head cocks to the side as he looks over towards me and I can’t help but laugh. He has a really confused look on his face that makes him look adorable in a ‘pinch my cheeks’ sort of way.

But the statement makes me blush. “Well, I guess. It’s just always been that way. Even though we came out at the same time, Roxy was always the one to have boyfriends lined up at the door. And it wasn’t because he would put out. In fact, know for certain that he has only gone all the way with 3 other guys other than Axel. So it’s not like he is a slut or anything.”

“Man, I’m learning more and more about twins every day. They are so much different then I thought. I always thought they were just people who looked alike and could read each others thoughts. I never thought that your bonds would run so deep. It’s really quite endearing,” Demyx says, leaning forward on his elbows and propping his chin up with his hands. “And it’s amazing how different the bond is between Sora and Roxas then the one between Naminé and Kairi.”

“That might be because Roxy and I are identical, and Nami and Kai are fraternal,” I point out.

“I don’t think that that is it,” Naminé whispers, her voice suddenly losing the laughter and merriment that it previously held. At the change of tone, I quickly turn to look at her, noticing that Demyx has done the same thing. And to our surprise, she has a really sad look on her face.

“Naminé?” Demyx asks, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Letting out an obviously fake laugh, the blonde female reaches a hand up and wipes away a few vagrant tears that are leaking out of the corners of her eyes. “I’m sorry guys. I don’t need to bring you down because of my drama and inner demons.” Looking up at us, she has a sunny smile on her face and I can see right through it.

“But, Nami. We’re your friends. We want to help,” I whisper, reaching my hand placing it on the table next to hers, hoping that it isn’t shaking too much. I know that Demyx is sitting right there, but who knows how severe of an attack I might have without Roxy right here with me. Especially because I am still technically in recovery from the other day.

“Sora is right, Nams.” My vision quickly jumps over to Demyx as he speaks, only to see him pull a tissue out of his pocket, reaching up and dabbing it against the moist corners of our friend’s normally bright blue eyes. “We’re all here for you no matter what. Me, Sora, Roxas, Riku, Axel. All of us. You are the little sister that most of us will never have.”

“Letting out a short laugh that I know is real and not another fake one, Naminé takes the tissue from Demyx and uses it to blow her nose. “Thanks you guys, but are you sure that you want to hear all this?”

“Of course. We wouldn’t have asked if we didn’t mean it.” Taking a really deep breath, I gently place my quivering hand atop hers, squeezing my eyes closed tightly, and so many thoughts running through my head at the action of coming in contact with a girl that is not Mom, Aerith or Tifa. But I know that Naminé needs me right now, so I just push every painful memory and malevolent fear to the back of my mind, hoping that just for this moment, I am able to being some comfort to someone who has become one of my dearest friends. And when I feel my heart rate being to rise, my breathing sharply follows suit. Feeling the tremors flowing through my body, I force myself to hear Roxy’s voice in my mind, counting to five, holding my breath for another five counts before exhaling and repeating.

I continue like that as I try and regain my composure before my eyes fly open in startlement as I feel a warm hand slip into place over top of my own. My eyes dart over to see Demyx looking over me with a slightly worried shine to his jade eyes. Oh, right. He knows. But that little bit of contact is enough for me to get a rein on my emotions as I squeeze the hands of both blond’s. Luckily, Naminé seems to have been too busy trying to get a hold of herself and calm down, so I don’t think that she noticed anything.

“Well, this is kind of the reason why Kairi and I are both here,” she whispers after a few moments, sniffling once, and I can’t help but snap my head back to look at her once again. Even after all this time that we have spent together, I still have no clue as to why the girls are here. It’s nothing that I felt necessary to ask, and neither Nami nor Kairi have been very forthcoming with the information. It just has never seemed the important to find out.

Even Demyx lets out a gasp at that. I guess that Dr. Vexen has never enlightened his son as to why the twins are here either. But that probably has to do with patient confidentiality or something like that. “Are you sure, Nams? I mean, from what you’ve told me, it is really personal.”

She just shrugs, that sad smile still on her face. “I think that you guys deserve to know. Anyway, as you probably noticed, Kairi and I aren’t nearly as close as you and Roxas are, Sora. But it hasn’t always been that way. In elementary and middle school, we were. The whole inseparable, dressing alike, the whole twin thing. But once we entered junior high, we both started to develop our own personalities. I became the nerdy art geek, and Kairi became the popular cheerleader. We still remained close though. And we still shared a lot of the same classes and friends, so we didn’t notice the changes that much. We just thought there were a few small changes. Nothing major.” Stopping to take a deep breath and sigh out, I can’t help but squeeze her hand once more in support.

“You don’t need to continue if you don’t want to,” I tell her.

“No. Now I’ve started, so I might as well keep going,” she answers; looking at mine and Demyx’s clasped hands over top of hers on the table, but doesn’t comment on them other than a brief sparkle in her cerulean eyes. I really don’t know what is going on in through her mind to cause that little gleam, but it is gone as quickly as it appeared. “Anyway, last year, when we started high school, everything changed. Our new personas became more prominent. We rarely hung out together anymore, and frankly, there were a lot of days that we barely said more than a few words to one another. I missed the closeness that we had before, but it seemed that Kairi moved on and didn’t even notice that she left me behind. Well, until our Sixteenth birthday.” She pauses again and I watch as Demyx removed his arm from around her shoulders and pulls out another tissue, patting her eyes dry once more. Man, I had not expected to have to deal with this today. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to be learned about Naminé and Kairi’s past, but I never thought that it would be like this.

“Continue whenever you feel you’re ready,” Demyx tells her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder again.

“It’s alright. Thanks for being so patient guys.” That smile is on her face once again, and I silently resolve that by the end of the day, I want to be able to give her back her true smile in anyway possible. She deserves that much at least.

“So, the big day comes, and our parents throw us this huge sweet sixteen party and invite all our friends, and leaving us to our own devices. They left to give us the chance to have a good party without them, as long as we promised that there would be no sex, drugs or drinking. And of course we agreed. Come on, we had a parent free sweet sixteen. It was going to be a party that people were going to talk about for years to come. So we had a great time, my friends mingled with Kairi’s friends and vice versa, not caring about social circles. But that’s when I noticed it. My friends. Kairi’s friends. We had no mutual friends anymore.

“We had grown so far apart that we had nothing in common anymore other than some DNA and our family. And that realization really hurt. I hadn’t imagined in a million years that we could be so different. I mean, we are twins. Maybe not identical, but none the less, we were still conceived at the same time. We weren’t supposed to be strangers to one another.”

“Oh, Naminé,” Demyx muttered, compassion in his voice as he hugged her tightly and I attempted to blink the tears forming in my eyes away. I remember the first morning that Roxy was here and Naminé first confessed to be jealous of what Roxy and I have. I can hardly believe that this is what she was referring to. I didn’t realize that it went this deep. My heart goes out to her so much.

“Let me finish, okay?” Her voice cracks with unshed tears, and it just sends a pang of guilt through my chest.

“Alright,” I answer, hoping that the tight grip I have on her hand is helping her a least a little.

“Well, after I realized that, I didn’t exactly feel like partying anymore. So I snuck upstairs to my parent’s room, and even though I promised, I took a bottle of vodka with me that I stole from our liquor cabinet. Everyone else was obeying the rules completely that my parents set; no one spiked the punch or anything. And I was always a goodie two shoes. I never smoked, drank, anything. So, after a few shots of vodka flavoured with a little cola, you can imagine just how wasted I was. I mean, it was my first time even tasting alcohol, and there isn’t exactly much to me. And just as my luck would have it, my parents have a balcony off their room and that is where I somehow found my way to. One of the guests was outside having a smoke and saw me. She went and got Kairi. All I remember is Kai busting onto the balcony. I guess that we started yelling and arguing and one thing lead to another, ad we started to shove each other. Then I remember I pushed her hard against the railing, then rushing towards her. But that balcony wasn’t made for that. When I slammed into her, it broke the railing and we fell over the edge. And my parent’s room is on the third floor. Kairi’s scream is something that I am going to remember for the rest of my life.” She pauses again and Demyx wipes even more tears away and I squeeze her hand in comfort. But neither of us says anything, knowing that we shouldn’t interrupt her. After she catches her breath again, she takes in one last deep inhale before continuing. “But despite the fact that we were falling, her hand found mine, and I sobered up instantly. We had enough time to tell each other that we loved each other before we hit the ground and blacked out. I woke up three days later, and she was still holding my hand. Apparently the piece of balcony had fallen across our bodies and broke both of our backs. But despite all of that, and the fact that our arms were broken too, we continued to hold each others hands.”

Silently, I let go of Demyx’s hands to reach up and wipe the tears away from my own eyes, and wiping my nose on the back to my wrist. I never believed that so much had happened between the two of them. Obviously, this is still something that bothers Naminé, and even though it doesn’t involve me, I can’t help but feel for both Naminé and Kairi and wonder what I can do to possibly help them. Her hand is suddenly ripped from where it was on the table as Demyx pulls her over to wrap both arms tightly around her and allowed her to freely cry on his shoulder. Honestly, I think that this is exactly what she needs right now. Who knows how long she has held this inside for?

Feeling useless at the moment, and lost as to how I could be of some help, I really wish there was someway I was able to comfort her. But the thought of a panic attack and Dr. Vexen’s warnings and cautionary advice makes me think twice. But as soon as I hear the quiet sobs that are falling from Naminé’s petite body, I know exactly what I need to do. Panic attacks and gynophobia be damned. I have a friend who needs me right now and I will give her the support she needs.

Wheeling myself over so that our chairs are as close as possible to one another, I lean forward in my chair and wrap my arms around her and Demyx, effectively pulling the three of us tightly together, creating a Naminé sandwich. Taking and holding in a deep breath in an effort to keep myself from hyperventilating, I try and focus on Demyx’s presence. I really can’t afford to have a panic attack right now. Naminé needs me. I need her to know that she can count on me.

It takes some time, but eventually the sobs finally subside to hiccups and then there is finally a silence between the three of us. I am still counting my breaths when I finally hear an almost musical sound that I was positive that I would not hear again for a long time. Naminé’s giggles can be felt through her entire body as both Demyx and I look at each other with confused looks in our eyes.

“This is totally every fangirls biggest fantasy.” She giggles and it causes both Demyx and I to pull away.

“What is?” Demyx questions, cocking his head to the side.

She just grins the real smile that I have come to know and truly appreciate. “Being caught between two incredibly cute gay boys.” Letting out a loud groan, I can’t believe that we fell right into that one. “Anyway, thanks so much for listening guys. I’m really lucky to have friends like you.”

“It’s no problem. We’re the lucky ones,” I insist. “I’m sure that you would have done the same for any one of us.”

“And I totally meant all of what I said about being our little sister. And gay or not, we need to protect you, even if it is only from yourself,” Demyx adds with a charming smile that comes off as being totally cute and adorable on him. And it does its job as the warm smile spreads onto Naminé’s face and reaches her eyes finally.

“Aww, Demy! You are so adorable gay!” she giggles and I add my chuckles to hers as well. But as soon as our laughter begins, there is a sound that silences us all instantly as our vision is drawn to where the sound came from. There, standing in the doorway to the cafeteria is Riku.

Instead of the smile that should have come to my lips as soon as I see my boyfriend, I can only gasp. And judging by the similar reactions I hear from Naminé and Demyx, I’m not over reacting. Although his cane is extended in front of him, it’s obvious that he is leaning heavily on it, and when he takes a shaky step forward, my suspicions are confirmed as he limps noticeably. But aside from that, he has one arm wrapped around his torso, holding tightly onto his side. Also, he has a split lip, and what looks like a quickly blackening eye.

“Riku! Holy shit, what happened?” I exclaim, wheeling myself quickly over to him, Naminé following quickly behind me. I hear Demyx get out of his chair, his crutches clicking on the floor behind us, but not coming over to us. Uncaring of that for the moment, I am relieved when Riku finally allows Naminé and I to help him over to a chair at our table, especially because he whimpers, hisses or gasps at every single movement he makes. Demyx chooses that moment to reappear, this time with several ice packs and a roll of gauze. Why do I get the feeling that this isn’t the first time that this has happened?

With a few quite instructions, Naminé and I are helping Riku position over top of the worse of his injuries, Demyx coming behind us and securing them in place with the gauze. When most of them were attached, our older blond friend asks Naminé to go get a glass of water and some pills from the on call nurse and let them know it is for Riku, by authority of Demyx. The entire time, I wonder exactly what happened to him, but I don’t dare break the tentative silence with such questions, especially when I’m sure someone will answer them soon enough.

“What on earth did you do this time?” Demyx mumbles, looking at the swelling that surrounds Riku’s clouded aqua eye.

“I’m not sure, Dem. He’s never been this bad before. It was as if he was everywhere, yet nowhere. He was completely ruthless; I never got the chance to defend myself whatsoever before he would attack.” Riku voice is the quietest I have ever heard it, and that just about breaks my heart. I take an uninjured hand into my own, stroking my thumb along his knuckles, unsure of how else I am able to comfort him right now.

“He hasn’t been this bad since you and Axel interrupted his last poker night with those firecrackers and paintballs. What do you think brought this on?” Demyx questions, finally sitting down once he is satisfied with his patching up job.

“Um, what exactly happened here?” I ask, feeling a little left out. “All I know is that my boyfriend has just shown up, beaten to a bloody pulp and no one is telling me what is going on. Hello, concerned boyfriend here!”

Riku sighs, squeezing my hand, trying to calm me down. “Whenever I do something that Seph isn’t exactly pleased with, he hands me my ass in a platter in fencing as a punishment. It’s kind of childish if you think about it.”

“And completely stupid. It totally pisses me off. And don’t even get me started as to what Dad thinks about it. Man, Riku, this could almost be considered child abuse! He has no right what so ever to beat you to a mushy mess because he has his panties in a twist. What gives him the right to take it out on you?” Crap. I’ve never seen anyone, let alone Demyx of all people so upset in my entire life. His face is flushed and his normally smooth voice is hard with anger, and I decide right then and there that I never want to be on the receiving end of that rage.

But to my surprise, Riku just turns away from both me and Demyx, his sightless eyes focused on the floor next to him. “I think that I might have actually deserved it this time.”

“What do you mean deserved it?! No one deserves this kind of beating, and certainly not from their own brother!” Demyx exclaims, pushing himself up from the table in frustration.

Letting out another sigh, Riku finally turns back to face us once more. “I am pretty sure that Seph found out the nature of mine and Sora’s relationship.”

The quite words caused me to freeze in place, my eyes going wide. Wasn’t his brother the one that he was the most adamant about keeping our relationship from? And the sound of Demyx falling back down in his chair confirms that suspicion.

“What are we going to do?” I whisper, squeezing his hand tightly.

Feeling him squeeze back, it gives me the slightest amount of relief. “I don’t know, Sora. I really don’t know.” Although his movements are comforting, the words do little to calm the worry that I feel churning inside me.

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Lookie! Lookie! Its only been a couple of weeks, and I’m already updating again! Aren’t you proud of me? Aren’t you? Hehe. This chapter was already half written when I posted the last one. I really am trying to stick to my goal of getting one more chapter out in the next couple of weeks. I think that 20 chapters by the end of 2009 would be so cool. And I really think that I can manage to do it. And thanks to everyone for all your wonderful support for the last couple of chapters! All of your wonderful words and comments always make me smile and are what keeps this story going!

And to my Pahoyhoy, almost love, almost! The time is coming again soon for us to be in the same place, the world should be afraid, hehehe. And to Tifa-san, thanks so much once again for betaing while Pahoyhoy’s computer gets better.

And I am hoping to have the next chapter out by the end of the month as I mentioned, but I am also trying my darnest to get out a couple of one shots by months end as well. Lets keep our fingers all crossed! Until next time (which I hope will be soon)!