Arcana Tales - KH Edition

Pairing: Demyx (seme), and Sora (uke).
Grade: Shonen-ai.
Tarot Card: 0. The Fool, Trust.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?”

“It’ll be fun, trust me.”

“But what if someone comes in and we get in trouble?”

“We won’t get caught if you’re quiet. Trust me.”

He still wasn’t sure. “But… Someone might find out, and tell our parents, and then…”

The other male put a finger to his lips and smiled seductively. “They’ll only tell if you go blurting it out. I’ll keep it a secret.”

“…Promise?” the uke pouted.

“Promise.”

Sora’s eyes snapped open to the darkness of the midnight hour. Outside his bedroom window, the wind was blowing faintly, making about as much noise as his quiet-sleeping twin brother, Roxas, across the room.

It had been two months now since that horrible incident; not that the deed itself was terrible, or anything – the sex thing didn’t go as terribly as it could have. It had been rumored that Riku was a pro in bed, and that much had been true. What had been bad about the whole thing was that Riku had promised he wouldn’t tell anyone at school, but the platinum blonde had seemingly told the whole school the next day.

Riku had lied. Roxas had heard that his brother was gay, and in his worried, shocked state, he’d gone to their parents, and now his whole family was making a big deal out of it.

Just as Sora had predicted.

^I need to go for a walk.^ he decided, slinking out of the bed. He tiptoed out of the room he and Roxas shared, grabbed his coat and boots, and slipped out of the house without waking anyone up.

Usually walking for mind-clearing was Roxas’ thing, but tonight – and many nights prior – Sora had taken a leaf out of his brother’s book as night after night he worried about what kind of talking he’d have to put up with the following day. People were saying he was easy, and he kept getting all sorts of weird offers at school. Riku had lied about being in it for the long run; yet another way he’d betrayed Sora’s trust.

Ever since the incident, Sora had clammed up and stopped talking to other people. Those he had thought were his friends had succumbed to the gossip about him, so he didn’t want to risk anyone else betraying him in the way his former pals or Riku had. He just wanted to be left alone; he’d even dropped out of all the sports teams he was involved with at school to avoid talking to people.

^Dear god, I’m becoming Roxas…^ he thought to himself as he made his way to the park. He sat down on a swing, gently swaying back and forth as he stared at his feet with the same sadness as a kicked puppy.

He sure felt like a kicked puppy. He had had a crush on Riku for a long time, even though he never showed it. Sora was always jumping on other people with from-behind hugs, or running up and grabbing the ticklish spots in other peoples’ sides. He was openly affectionate with everyone, and he had thought he’d treated Riku the same as everyone else.

But somehow Riku had found out. Who knows, maybe Sora spent just a tad more attention on Riku than others without realizing it, the way any normal person did with someone they liked. But they had been best friends, too, so of course Sora was willing to go the extra mile for him, or paid Riku more attention! He had lost many a night’s sleep the last two months wondering how Riku had found out, and why he’d done this to Sora, his oldest friend…

His affection and trust had been exploited. He saw that so clearly that he felt like an invisible hand had grabbed his heart in its chest and was trying to drag him down into the very earth itself so he could truly be in Hell.

Tears formed in his eyes as he bit his lower lip, trying not to cry. God, how he was tired of crying over the same things night after night, but the whole situation was so stressful and overwhelming that even now he couldn’t wrap his brain around the fact that this whole, awful situation wasn’t a nightmare he could wake up from no matter what he did. This was life, and he was just going to have to bite the bullet and continue through it all alone.

“Hey? You okay, Sora?”

Sora jumped, having been so wrapped up in his own little world that he hadn’t even noticed Demyx occupy the swing next to him. The guy was about two feet taller than him despite being only a year older, and had long been the nicest, coolest person anyone ever knew. He had always been like a big brother to the younger grades; he’d missed the last whole school semester going to visit family in another country, and Sora now realized he’d missed him terribly, since Demyx never thought badly of anybody without a really, really good reason.

“Demyx! When did you get back? Did your road trip go okay?” Sora asked quickly, smiling wide as he swiped at his eyes instinctively.

The dirty-blonde wagged a finger. “Huh-uh, I know I saw you crying. Don’t try to dodge the bullet. What gives? I drove by the school on my way back in to town and saw the team at soccer practice, but I didn’t see the star player.” he pointed out, sounding like a cross between stern and worried.

“I just…” Sora started to lie, then sighed and looked at his feet sadly. “It’s Riku’s fault. He lied to me.”

“Riku? Lied to you?” Demyx was slightly surprised. “About what?”

“He said he wanted to be my boyfriend. He said he loved me, and he wouldn’t tell anyone if we had sex.” Sora’s face darkened slightly. “He told everyone and now he won’t even return my calls.”

Demyx blinked, eyes wider than before when they reopened. “He did what?!” He stared at his feet too, now, shocked beyond words. Sora and Riku had been friends since day care, so how could Riku…? “Sora…”

“And now no one at school will even talk to me unless it’s to tell me what a sleaze I am. I was… just another notch in the belt.” The tears had returned in greater numbers now, the pain magnified by him audibly admitting it. His lower lip trembled until he sucked both in and pinched them between his teeth. “I just want it all to stop.”

The tall blonde regarded his younger friend for a moment, then said, “And now you don’t trust anyone because you think they’ll just hurt you, too.”

Sora looked up and nodded, watching Demyx gently swing back and forth. “H-How’d you know…?”

“Once upon a time, I was friends with Axel, and I told him I had a crush on someone. It was just a kid thing – we were in grade school, ya know? But the very day after I told Axel I had finally mustered up the courage to tell the person how I felt, I came to school and found out that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Everyone made fun of me afterwards, calling me a dummy and an idiot for not moving in sooner.” Demyx shrugged. “I still don’t talk to him much, even though I’m not as mad about it. He forgot all about the event, and so did she, and when I realized that, I also realized that people do stupid things, but you shouldn’t take it out on the rest of the world. There are still people worth trusting out there. High school’s just a meaner version of elementary school; everyone will still forget in time, and you’ll be okay.”

It was true, Sora knew that much. He just looked at the ground, still appearing hurt, and said, “I just wish that they’d stop now, and that they’d believe me when I said I wasn’t easy. But everyone believes Riku… it’s not the same as you and Axel, ya know?”

“Yeah… I was just hoping that it’d make you feel a little bit better.” Demyx began swaying from side to side on the swing, bumping into Sora’s seat. “You know, so you and I could relate to the whole ‘betrayed’ thing. I’ll tell you what, though…” He smiled at the brunette. “I bet if you had a boyfriend to vouch for you, and say that you weren’t a tramp, then people would believe you.”

Sora chuckled slightly. “That’d probably work, but I don’t want another pretend boyfriend.” he said.

“Alright! I’ll be your real boyfriend, and seeing as everyone believes me, and I like you anyways, then people will stop talking bad about you.” Demyx said, giving Sora a smile that made him blush slightly. “But for now, you’ve got some serious bags under your eyes. Let’s get you home and you can go to sleep.”

Large, summer-sky blue eyes regarded cool, oceanic eyes for a moment, and Demyx could tell that Sora was wondering if he should risk any sort of human attachment at the moment. Demyx just smiled, pretended to ignore the suspicion, grabbed Sora’s hand, and led the younger male back to his home.

“It’s alright, Sora, I understand that you don’t think you can trust people, no matter how much you really want to right now; and I didn’t mean to seem disrespectful if that’s how I came across by pretty much saying you could ride on my coattails. I just don’t like the thought of other people saying bad stuff about nice guys like you, and I was trying to help.” he tried to explain, even though he knew his thinking always sounded really half-baked when said aloud.

“No, it’s okay. I know. I just…” Sora sighed. “I’m scared I’d lose another friend if it didn’t work out between us. That’s all.”

“I’d still be your friend. You’re too likeable.” Demyx stated simply, smiling at the shorter brunette.

This managed to pull a small smile to Sora’s face for the first time in eight weeks. He hugged onto Demyx in his affectionate manner – something he hadn’t done in way too long – and felt some small form of comfort at long last.

Demyx stopped at Sora’s house and smiled down at his endearing friend. “I’ll give everyone the real story tomorrow, so don’t you worry. Just kick back and relax; call in if you can, and I’ll come by after school with your homework and to hang out for awhile, okay?” he said.

“But… What if everyone thinks I’m ducking out…?” Sora asked.

“I just really don’t think you should come to school when everyone’s auto-pitying you or anything. Trust me, okay?” Demyx’s smile softened, and the look in his eyes told Sora he was sincerely trying to restore the brunette’s pride and honor.

“Okay.” Sora smiled back.

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Demyx said, leaning down and kissing Sora on the forehead.

Sora flustered up at him, and as Demyx turned to leave he reached out and grabbed the dirty blonde’s sleeve again. Demyx turned, just to get pulled down so Sora could give him a quick-yet-affectionate kiss on the lips. No sooner had he released Demyx, when Sora’s ears and cheeks turned bright red and he dashed into the confines of his house.

Demyx stood in the wind for a moment, before chuckling and shaking his head. “And they think you could be a slut…”

_________________________________________________________________

“…And that’s Sora’s side of things.”

The students of Xigbar’s period 3 gym class stood in silence, taking in everything that they’d been told by Demyx. They felt bad about how mean they’d been to Sora the last two months.

“Why didn’t he tell us?!” Kairi asked, stamping her foot in anger at herself.

“Kairi. Please, we’re teens. We don’t exactly listen to both sides until we’re older and graying.” Zexion pointed out, “People like Riku know that and make sure to get their side in the grapevine first. And Sora’s so trusting about people, and he and Riku were friends for so long…” He sighed, a hand on his forehead.

“The emo’s right! We gotta get Riku back for pulling our strings like that!” Axel said, cracking a fist; off to the side, Marluxia actually nodded his head in agreement with the redhead.

“Well…” Lexaeus spoke up, “Today’s game is dodge ball…”

The gym doors opened and slammed shut, drawing everyone’s attention as Riku walked toward the group. “Hey guys! What’s up? Did I tell you that Naminé chick asked me out yesterday after school?” He pulled out his cell phone. “I got the text here somewhere, it’s hilarious…”

He didn’t notice sadistic smiles creep to everyone’s faces.

.........................................................................................

In this story, the theme of trust was conveyed, technically in three ways. First off, Sora's ability to trust was taken away by Riku, restored by Demyx, and then everyone else found that they couldn't trust Riku.

Hooray for conveying moral messages! Wee!

...I eat a LOT of gummi worms. -w-;;