Osculation

Sora woke with a sense of dread hanging over him. Both Roxas and him tried to talk his mother out of inviting the two older boys to diner on Friday. They practically begged. But she was relentless in her good hostess skills. Both Riku and Axel were coming over and that was final. The only solace that the twins had was that Riku and Axel would have to suffer their mothers cooking. Speaking of his mothres cooking Sora could smell something delicious from down stairs.

He grunted and rolled over. He had promised her that he’d he’d have a sensible breakfast this morning. Which would mean that she was cooking. Or rather, trying to cook. But then why does it smell so good?. Abandoning his bed Sora made his way downstairs still in his PJ’s. Surprised, and thankful, that it was Roxas at the stove and not his mother. Sora grunted his appreciation and Roxas understood. “No Fruit Loops this morning?” Sora asked, falling into a chair at the table. Roxas’ eyebrows drew together in apparent disgruntlement. “ What’s that face for?” Sora continued to pry.

“Axel took them,” he muttered into the frying pan.

“What? How, I didn’t even know he had them,” Sora replied.

“Neither did I, but who else would take them? I mean Namine doesn’t eat sugary cereal, and Riku wasn’t even near me!” Roxas seemed lost in thought for a long moment and Sora started to wonder whether the pancakes were going to burn. “Ah ha! He took them when I fell off the counter, I was so – distracted by falling he took the chance to take them!” Roxas raised the spatula in triumph. “Dirty little bugger…”

“Why the hell would he take your Fruit Loops?” Sora asked, now getting hungry.

“How should I know? All I know is that he’s going to get it when I get to school today!” He stood with a hand on his hip and the other pointing the cooking tool directly at the stove.

“Roxas, the pancakes!” Sora cried.

“Oh damn!” He hissed, grabbing the handle of the frying pan and jerking it up so the pancake would flip. While the front side was golden brown, the opposite was completely black. He grimaced lightly and grabbed a plate from the cupboard, slipping the pancake hockey puck onto it and handing it to Sora.

“…” Sora stared at the ‘food’ in front of him, up at Roxas, then back at his plate.

“What?” He grunted.

“I’m not eating this Rox…” he said, poking it with a cautious finger.

“Why not?” The blond asked earnestly, a slight frown on his face.

“Hm. Maybe the fact that it’s burnt?” Sora suggested a smiled.

“It’s not burnt. It’s…toasted,” Roxas retaliated with his own grin, heading back to the stove and turning it off. “Besides, black has a taste Sora.”

“But not a good one…” Sora mumbled into the supposed to be fluffy breakfast.

“What was that?” Roxas hissed.

“Nothing, nothing,” the brunet reassured his brother. “You’re not eating?” He asked, fetching a fork from the drawers along with the syrup. Roxas turned to his brother cheerily.

“Nah. Don’t wanna risk it,” he said rooting through the lazy susan for other breakfast. “Oh hey! We still have one of those tiny boxes of Corn Pops!” He exclaimed proudly, pulling out a small cereal box and tearing it open. “Well, it’s not Fruit Loops. But it’s still covered in sugar,”

“I wouldn’t trust those Roxas,” Sora noted, smothering his breakfast in liquid sugar.

“I wouldn’t trust that either…” Roxas snorted, his cheeks full of Corn Pops. Sora took a dramatic breath and cut a small piece with his fork, stealing a sideways glance at Roxas before bravely putting it in his mouth. His eyes shut tight, he chewed harshly, gnawing on the elastic like food and hearing bits of it crunch. The blond covered his mouth as he tried to hold down laugh.

Sora shot up like a bullet and rushed over to the kitchen sink, spitting anything he had in his mouth and turning on the cold water. “Roxas! That was so gross,” he told him with a disgusted look on his face, taking handfuls of the water and slurping from his hands. The blond just giggled and scooped up his bag from the doorway.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Sora yelled after him, Roxas coughing out crumbs and racing out the front door, trailing behind him.

“School. Or else we’ll be late again!” Roxas choked out, halfway down the driveway, looking back to see his brother at the doorway with a ‘yeah-right’ look on his face. Sora rolled his eyes and stalked easily back inside, but hurriedly glancing at the clock to see if his brother was right.

Which he was…

“Dammit!” He shouted in the empty house, rushing to the kitchen and dropping all his books and papers into the mouth of his backpack. Great, he’d be late again…

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“Pop quiz!”

A unanimous groan could be heard from Ms Rogers’s first English class of the day. Sora banged his head on his desk in apparent defeat, his face still red from running the whole way to school, flopping into his seat just before she came in. She refers to the she-devil at the front of a class, a smile on her make up covered face as she instructed them in the routine of a pop quiz. She placed double sided papers down on each of the student’s desks.

“There will be no talking during this quiz,” she glared at Sora here. “No snickering or passing notes,” this time at Tidus. “And there will be absolutely no daydreaming or faking an illness. No one can leave the classroom until the quiz is over-“

“What if we have to go to the washroom?” Tidus asked honestly.

“Your perfectly capable of holding it until it’s over,” she smiled softly.

“But what if we need the washroom for other needs…” the perverted bland suggested, and the class snickered.

“What other uses could there be for a washroom?” She replied; did she not catch his drift? “Now, number two pencils at the ready?”

“Well, that certainly lost it’s effect…” Tidus whispered to Wakka, causing the red head to smirk.

“And, you may now start,”

Sora stared at the sheet in his hands. Transitive verbs, proper uses of conjunctions and pronouns; he didn’t know any of it. Where were the definitions Namine and he had studied? The brunet just held the pencil in his hand as his mind shut off completely, and if he really thought about it, he was sure his brain was ticking and tick and very close to blowing up. Spontaneous combustion was a valid reason for leaving the classroom, was it not? Hm, if only he could – no, blowing up would be much worse than failing another quiz.

Sora absentmindedly sucked on his bottom lip. Well hell, he might as well try right? Well a verb is an action, and the root word looks like transit…and if that has anything to do with ‘public transit’ then it must be something like moving? He reasoned in his mind. The subway is public transit right? But I don’t think anyone can ‘subway’. Sora laughed to himself, trying to picture someone ‘subwaying’ themselves down the street. How would one ‘subway’ anyway? Maybe it was like a walk, but scooting both feet at the same time without moving your legs. Okay, I’m getting off topic here.

He narrowed his blue eyes at the sheets, forcing himself to focus. He could do this, he would just have to sneak at peek at Namine’s paper for…leverage. He looked up to see Ms Rogers concentrating on grading some essay or something. He casually leaned back, stretching his body to see her paper, but it was impossible. She had it covered. Curse her. The blonde lifted her head and frowned, shaking her head. Sora pouted and held up two fingers.

She mouthed the word ‘no’ and returned to her quiz, unlike Sora who proceeded to star at the ceiling as if it held all the answers. He taped the eraser on his desk and frowned at the tiled roof. Who tiles ceiling anyway? Tile belongs on the floor. Where you can walk on it. In my world, there are no schools with tiled ceilings. In fact there are no schools. No schools, no quizzes. End of problem. If only it really worked that way.

He sighed heavily and tore his eyes from the colourless roof, looking around the room to see a few classmates already finished. Sora looked down at his own paper, which was – blank. His lined paper had no answers on it, and compared to others who had words scribbled down that filled up almost the whole page, his seemed very…dull. Seems? Sora, it is dull…You haven’t even tried

That wasn’t true, he was trying. He was just very bad at it; that’s all. He shook his head and turned over the page, deciding the first one was to tough to even half attempt anymore. Definitions! There you are! He never thought he’d be so thankful to see that word ever. Okay, he knew a few of these, and with Namine’s help from last night, he was able to get a few more. He scribbled down answers quickly and sloppily since there was only about five minutes of class left. He had wasted the whole quiz daydreaming and wondering how people ‘subwayed’ their way to work. Sora snickered loudly and earned himself a glare from Ms Rogers and a few suspicious glances from Tidus and Namine.

Before he knew it, the bell rang and they had to hand in their papers. Sora walked out of the classroom with a grin on his face. Okay, so he might not have exactly aced it. But he was sure he did a bit better with Namine’s help and all.

“What are you so happy about?” Namine asked lightly, catching up to her friend.

“I knew some answers,” he gloated, smirking at her.

“Good for you! So the studying helped?” She questioned.

“Yeah, it was,” Sora said. “I don’t think I got an ‘a’ though, maybe not even a ‘b’. But I think I got better than my last mark… By the way, what’s a transitive verb?”

“Uhm. Well, it means ‘incomplete with an object’… So I guess it’s like ‘the shelf holds three books,’” she tried to put it in simplest terms.

“Oh!” Sora said surprisingly, and then laughed out loud, clutching his stomach. “Oh gosh, I almost wrote down ‘subwaying’…” he told her in between laughs. Namine raised her eyebrows and shook her head; she didn’t want to know.

“Do you think it’ll be better then your thirty four?” Namine inquired innocently.

“Well… maybe not a whole lot better maybe a forty.” Sora finished.

“But that still not a passing grade Sora.” Sora sighed, and he was feeling so good about this one too.

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Roxas walked out of the school, heading for the community centre. He had a spare today and was spending it volunteering. He watched as other students hurried to their classes, already late. Turning a sharp right, on the path he was confronted with the sight of three tall men. One of them could easily be mistaken for a girl, another with blue hair. The last, the only one that Roxas recognised, had a toque on as usual. The three were smoking, and had failed to notice Roxas’ intrusion on their hiding place. Thoughts came rushing into Roxas’ head. Oh no, they’re going to hurt me. Wait, are they smoking? Is that allowed? Hey, Axel has my Fruit Loops! That guy with the scar looks seriously disturbed. Maybe I’ll just ask about it later. Roxas decided it was best if he let the three alone and turned around to take the long way to the centre. He knew it would take longer but it was better than getting ‘roughed up’. He thought he had got away until he heard light footsteps behind him. He turned around to see Axel grinning at him.

“What do you want?”, Roxas asked angrily. He really wasn’t in the mood for Axel especially since he had taken his Fruit Loops.

“Oh just came by to say hi, and wanted to tell you how nice your mom is.” Axel continued to grin as he fell into step beside the younger boy.

“If your going to make ‘your mom’ jokes please don’t I get enough of those from Demyx.”

“Yeah he’s the kinda guy who won’t let that kind of thing go.” Axel chuckled as he said this. Taking another drag from his cigarette. Roxas scrunched up his nose at the sight of it.

“Why do you do that?” he asked looking at the smoke.

“Do what? Smoke?” Axel asked.

“Duh,” Roxas replied rolling his eyes. “You obviously know it’s bad.”

“Yeah ‘duh’ I do. Just started when I was a kid, and never bothered to stop. Does it bother you?”

“No, not particularly, it’s just bad for you that’s all.”

“Well if you’re so concerned for my well being I’ll put it out.” Axel threw the rest of the cigarette onto the ground and stepped it out. Pulling his backpack from over his shoulder he started to rummage through it.

“What are you looking for now?” Roxas asked generally curious.

“Oh something snack on instead of smoking.” Axel pulled a Ziplock bag out of his backpack and Roxas’ eyes widened.

“Hey! Those are mine!” Roxas yelled pointing to the bag, which were full of Fruit loops. His Fruit Loops.

“Oh?” Was all Axel asked, raising a slender eyebrow.

“Don’t ‘oh?’ me!” Roxas yelled a little louder this time. “You know that those are mine.” Axel put his hand back into the bag and started to munch on the dry cereal. Roxas made a grab for the bag but Axel was much quicker and lifted it above the boy’s head. Grumbling Roxas jumped, but still couldn’t reach it. Now standing directly in front of the taller male, he watched as Axel started finishing the loops in his hands. Roxas put his hands on his hips. This guy is infuriating Roxas thought to himself.

Axel began to chuckle as he saw the frustration level on Roxas face rise. He’s gunna blow his top soon, well maybe I can push him a little farther. “C’mon Roxas, is that all you got?” Axel strode past the blond, bag still high in the air.
Uhg, this is not going well. And I‘ll be late if I don’t hurry up! “I don’t have time for this!” Muttered Roxas and he was about to give up entirely, I mean he could always get more Fruit Loops, right? However, just as Roxas was stalking past the taller boy he made a final leap for the bag. He missed, but his hand latched onto something woolly. Roxas fell onto the ground hard. He sat up and rubbed his back. That wasn’t smart.

“Hey Kid, you wanna give me that back?” Roxas looked up from his position on the ground, looking at someone who was most definitely wasn’t there before. Vibrant red hair filled his vision; it was wild, sticking up in several different directions, the sun tinting the ends of it orange. Awe struck, Roxas stared at the boy; there was no way that that was natural. A familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. Axel was still standing there, looking rather uncomfortable.

“You gunna give me my hat back? You can have the bag, fair trade, ‘kay?” Roxas watched as Axel shifted his weight from one foot to the other, turning his head this way and that, glancing over his shoulder. He’s really uncomfortable Roxas noted silently before pulling himself to his feet. Roxas extended the hand that still held that toque to Axel. It was quickly snatched up and replaced with his precious bag of half eaten cereal. Roxas watched as Axel quickly tucked his wild red locks under his hat, making sure none of it was sneaking out. Sighing with relief Axel stuffed his hands into his jacket and began to walk away.

“HEY WAIT” Roxas jogged to catch up to him, still surprised to see Axel so self conscious.

“What?” Axel snapped. “You gunna say something smart ass about my hair now?” He was angry, Roxas shied away a little.

“Why would I? It’s pretty…” the words left Roxas lips before he could stop them. The ground suddenly became very interesting, his face heating up. It was Axel’s turn to blush, but thankfully the boys attention was on his shoes.

“Oh,” was all Axel managed.

“Is that why you wear the toque… because of your hair?” Axel paused for a moment. What was the harm in telling the kid? He seemed nice enough.

“Mostly,” Axel finally answered.” But I’m still always cold, so it worked out. Anyway enough of this heart to heart crap. Where were you headed?” Roxas was a little disappointed at the change of subject but didn’t push it.

”Oh I usually volunteer on the days I have spares,”

“Community hours.” Axel suggested.

“It was but I just liked it a lot so I kept it up.” Roxas finished shyly.

“Weirdo,” Axel said with a chuckle. “ Where do you volunteer?”

“Oh a few places around town, but today it’s the Community Centre.” Axel nodded he could see the Centre from where he was walking, but he had other places to be. Roxas could see it too and was a little disappointed. Wait what? Why am I disappointed? This guy took my Fruit Loops! But Roxas couldn’t bring himself to be angry anymore. Not after seeing Axel so unnerved.

“Oh hey! I still have the rest of your Loops at my place, you can come by tomorrow and get them.”

“I’m sure I can get another box, don’t worry about it.”

“Oh Hey! No way,” Axel waved a hand in the air, “You got a pen?” Roxas rummaged around in his pockets for the marker he kept with him. Producing it with a grin on his face Axel took it from him. Rolling the boys sleeve up he turned his arm to face him. Holding his wrist Roxas could feel how cold he was through the fabric of his gloves. Axel finished writing his address in girly writing, and what appeared to be his number. “My cell,” Axel explained, “Just in case.”

“In case of what?” Roxas asked.

“You never know,” Axel shrugged handing the marker back to Roxas. “ Anyway, I have to shove off, things to do people to,” Axel grinned, “do.” Roxas frowned but kept his mouth shut. “Later Rox,” Axel said as he turned back the way they had come. Roxas made his way to the community centre, not quite as concerned about being late as he was before.

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Sora’s head was about to make a very big dent in his kitchen table. Seeing as it was solid wood, that made it ever more impressive. “Sora you’re just killing brain cells, you won’t remember anything that way.”

“Nam why does it matter, you saw that quiz today. I knew nothing on it. Can you honestly tell me I passed?” Sora raised his head and looked at her sternly. Namine bit her lip. No she couldn’t. “Please Nam we’ve already been though half of the ‘c’s that’s two letters! My brain is full!” Sora knew very well this wasn’t true but he didn’t feel like being taught tonight, much alone being with anyone. He just wanted to sulk. Namine looked frustrated as well. Her usually well-kept hair was frizzy and her face was flushed. Was it anger or exhaustion, Sora didn’t know. “Look Nam just head home and get some rest. It doesn’t matter how much I study tonight, it won’t change the grade on the test tomorrow. Namine sighed but packed up her books regardless.

“Look Sora, please study tonight even if you don’t think it’ll do you any good. You’ll retain something.” Sora agreed and helped Namine with her books. He walked to the door and waved her off. Sora walked back into the kitchen and stared at his study books. Namine had left the ‘mini-dictionary’. Sora grabbed the blue book and made his way to his room. He’d study if only for Namine and the lack of anything better to do. But his heart wasn’t in it and he knew that. He turned on the light at his desk and absorbed himself in his ‘studying’. He was so caught up that he didn’t register that his twin had entered his bedroom. Sora was mumbling something about extraditing when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around quickly to see a muddy Roxas grinning at him.

‘Good to see you’re studying bro.”

“Trying is more like it,” Sora mumbled still not in the mood for company even if it was his brother. Roxas must have caught the vibe because he theft with a quick “at least you’re trying’. Not before grabbing a pen from Sora’s desk. Sora looked back at the book t find his concentration lost. Giving up he turned off his lamp and fell onto his bed. Maybe he’d wake up with all the answers.

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Sora was up before his brother, which was unusual. He had made his way downstairs early in the morning, finding his mother heading off to work. “Didn’t see you much last night Hun. Feeling okay?”

“’Fine,” Sora muttered, half asleep.

“Oh, well that’s reassuring,” she said sarcastically. “What’s wrong?”

‘Same as usual,” Sora sighed into his arms. Resting his head on the table, he closed his eyes.

“Another test then?” she guessed.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I failed this one too,”

“Did you try though?” His mother asked gently, moving a chair to sit beside her son. She patted his back lovingly and Sora relaxed a little.

“I tried more than usual,” he said honestly. “I just get so distracted when I try to do anything,”

“Anything Sora?” His mother questioned. “I don’t think your giving yourself enough credit,” she continued, “Remember when you and Namine won last years Science fair?” Sora perked up a bit, it was true. At least he was good at something. He’d worked hard on that project, both Namine and him had. They had stayed up late to make it perfect.

“Yeah,”

“It’s just English hun, you have to work harder at it.”

“But I’ve tried all year.” He complained. Sora had been trying since the beginning of grade nine, he had barely passed English in middle school. He had good intentions of studying but it never actually worked out, and he gave up after his first failed test.

“Well that’s all I’ve ever asked for,” she said, and headed to the cupboard for a granola bar. Sora sighed he knew she must be at least a little disappointed in him.

“I’m off hun,” she smiled, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before swinging her purse over her shoulder.

“Alright Mom,” Sora replied half-heartedly. “I love you, have a good day at work,”

“I will,” she called back and shut the front door. Sora looked at the clock, the hands ticking away the minutes. Seven thirty Sora thought, way to early. The brunet sat at the kitchen table for what seemed like hours, half asleep. Staring at the half-empty cup of coffee that was presumably his mothers. At least this way, he wouldn’t be late right? He’d be just in time to see his failed mark in angry red ink.

“Hey Sora,”

“G’mornin’ Axel,” Sora grunted, lifting his eyes to rest upon the boy now helping himself to a cup of coffee. Wait, what? “Axel, what are you doing here?” Sora asked slowly.

“Oh,” Axel turned to him before adding sugar to the rainbow mug he had found. The cup had ‘mom’ written on it in childish handwriting. One, two three – four spoonfuls. “Thought that Roxas might want his breakfast,” he shook the box and placed it on the counter.

“How’d you get in?” Sora further pestered him.

“Met Mom on the way,” he said, taking a seat across from Sora, reaching into his forest green jacket. He pulled out a ring of keys that were the decorated with charms and the like. There were a lot of them. Sora dismissed the fact that Axel had talked about Hannah with such an affectionate nickname.

“She gave you the keys to our house?” Sora asked. Axel nodded, putting the keys back into his pocket.

“Why?”

“Dunno,” Axel shrugged, wrapping his gloved hands around the steaming cup of coffee. “Is it cold in here, or is it just me?” He said and sucked air in through his teeth. Sora raised an eyebrow as a shiver racked the others body.

“It’s just you,” the brunet nodded at him.

“Dontchya wish your girlfriend was hot like me, dontchya wish your girlfr-“ the pair heard Roxas’ voice fill the kitchen as he padded his way down the stairs and stopped in the doorway. His mouth was open, eyes glues to the toqued boy, a pair of blue drawstring pyjama pants hanging off his hips.

“Pinch me, I better be dreaming,” he grumbled, putting his hand to his forehead and making his way past Axel who happily obliged, pinching his bare stomach with a smirk. Roxas hissed and swatted at the red heads hand. “What’s he doing here Sora?” The blonde grumbled angrily. His twin opened his mouth to answer, but Axel beat him to it.

“Good morning to you too, buddy!” Axel chided cheerily. “What happened to your singing?”

“He brought back your Fruit Loops,” Sora interjected as Roxas glared at the grinning redhead. But his mood lifted significantly when he heard his cereal had returned.

“Hey, thanks a lot,” he said and snatched the box from the counter. “It’s full,” he noted.

“Yeah, new box. I finished the other one this morning,” Axel laughed, taking another large gulp of coffee.

“That’s nice,” Roxas sighed happily, the ‘tings’ of the cereal against the bowl obviously distracting him.

“No problem Roxas,” he replied, shivering once more and taking another sip off his coffee. Roxas sat himself beside Axel, a large bowl of cereal in front of him. “You gunna eat all that?” He stared at the bowl incredulously. This time Sora spoke.

“Are you kidding me? Roxas is a human vacuum,”

“Am not,” the blond protested. His brother snorted.

“Liar,” Sora stuck his tongue out at Roxas who in turn just rolled his eyes and stuck his spoon in his cereal. Axel stood, the chair screeching against the tiled floor as he made his way back to the coffee machine, refilling his empty mug. By the time he sat back down and folded his legs neatly in the Indian style, Roxas was halfway done.

“Holy smokes, I see what you mean Sora,” Axel laughed at Roxas and lapped at his drink. The blond’s only response was a low growl in which the other just snickered at.

Sora smiled, yawned and helped himself to his feet, heading for the open box of Fruit Loops. Roxas grumbled and snatched the nearest thing he could – an empty plastic cup – and threw it at his brother. “Ack! Roxas,” Sora whined, rubbing the back of his head. Instead he opened the lazy susan to look for the breakfast bars.

“Pretty territorial about them Fruit Loops aren’t you?” Axel asked, more so stating. The blond drank the rest of his milk and licked his lips.

“I love Fruit Loops,” he sighed ad smiled, and got up to put his empty bowl in the sink. “Sora, it’s eight o’clock,”

“Relax, we’re not going to be late this time,” Sora calmed his brother. “C’mon, let’s go get ready,”

‘Yeah, can’t go to school half naked,” Roxas yawned.

“Sure you can,” Axel said suggestively, earning himself a scowl from the blond.

When Sora and Roxas had made their way back downstairs Axel had already left, his coffee mug in the sink. Roxas shrugged as they both grabbed their backpacks and headed off to school.

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Akuroku Love noted the Rikulessness of this chapter but fear not! For the next chapter will have much Riku.. in fact I don;t think Axel is in it at all?