I'm writing another AxelRoxas fic! And this time it's RikuSora too! Whoot!
This idea has been running around my head for quite a while now, so I decided to catch up to it and tackle it down on paper…or keyboard…whatever.
I've got another story too. "How Close is Close Enough?" It's another akuroku, I thought it was cute, lol. (Again with the TBS obssession.)
Disclaimers: I own nothing…...really, I don't.
Cereal vs Radio
xXxXx
The brightest of rays penetrated through Sora's bedroom window and shone against his cinnamon colored hair. The 17 year old pulled his blanket up over his head to block the sunlight, but his alarm clock told him otherwise.
"When you, are out there on that road..."
Alright time to get up.
"...For several weeks it shows, and when you scan the radio..."
Sora extended a handout from beneath the bundle of blankets he was underneath and hit the button on his alarm clock gently.
"...I hope this song will guide you ho-"
The clock stopped and Sora was almost reluctant to hear the song end. It was a nice peaceful piece of music, with soft soothing beats in the background. Sora's twin brother never understood his choice of listening (but that was okay, because Sora didn't understand Roxas' punk metal either.)
Especially with his alarm choice. Most people would rather fall asleep to the Postal Service then wake up to them. But Sora was usually long awake before his clock would start up, and he liked to enjoy the peaceful music at the start of each morning. Something Roxas would never understand
The brunet got out of bed and carefully picked out his clothes. Too baggy jeans, some chains, a belt to hold them up, some more chains, a red sweatshirt, and more chains and belts, totally within his school dress code of course.
As he pulled his favorite hoodie over his head, it got stuck in his hair, which he never combed, and Sora spent a good few seconds freeing it. But good thing too. The cotton pressed against his ears muffles the sounds of very loud music playing, which Sora guessed to be coming from Roxas' room.
"YOUR LIPSTICK, HIS COLLAR, DON'T BOTHER ANGEL..."
As Sora got his sweatshirt fitted down, he was able to hear the lyrics loud and clear. However, 'loud' might have been the understatement of the year. Roxas' alarm was blaringly, excruciatingly, painfully, ear-bleeding loud.
It meant nothing that Roxas room was all the way at the other end of the hallway and his music could still be heard in Sora's room. The brunet was pretty sure he would still be able to hear it downstairs in a soundproof basement with earplugs. Let alone his neighbors and people 10 blocks away could almost hear it.
ALMOST being the keyword here. Because Sora was pretty sure that when he reached his brother's room, Roxas would still be sound asleep.
xXxXx
Roxas had a sure fire plan on how to wake up every morning. You see, Roxas was a late sleeper and if no one woke him up, he'd likely be sleeping until the end of the world. It didn't help that he was a heavy sleeper too. And here lies the problem for no amount of noise on the volume notch of his alarm clock would help.
So even though the noise didn't wake him, it woke Sora, who would then wake him. And that's how his plan was executed. It was a daily routine that Sora never saw through, and Roxas merely kept the radio for that reason. In better detail...
Every morning his alarm clock would play a song he loved (and knew Sora hated), at an ungodly volume. The disturbance would then trigger Sora to wake up, then anger him, which then have him come storming down the hallway to his bedroom, which would cause Sora to break down his door, followed by an angry disheveled Sora to drag Roxas out of bed, thus...waking him.
It was a very complex wake-up system, which called for much work on his younger brother's behalf, (and a very high tolerance level from their neighbors.) But it worked for the past three years and Roxas wasn't about to change it. Something that Sora would never understand.
"Well which would you prefer?"
Roxas vaguely heard footsteps as his wake-up caller stormed down the hallway to his room.
"My finger on the trigger or..."
A pounding noise cause by Sora's fist contacting with his thin wooden door told Roxas that he would have to wake up soon.
"Me face down, down across your floor."
Muffled sounds of his younger brother calling his name, followed by the breaking down of his door.
"Roxas! Get the hell up! And turn off you stupid radio, it's driving me crazy!"
With his bedroom door still acting as a barrier Roxas turned over in his slumber, figuring he still had a good 20 seconds left to sleep. Bringing his pillow up across his head to drown out the death threats of his brother, even though he was already awake. He would have gotten up by now, but this was his favorite song...
"ROXAS. GET. UP. NOW!"
The blond rolled over with his back to the door. With the pillow still covering his head and his eyes still shut, he sang along to his favorite line...
"Well just so long as this thing's loaded..."
A crash was heard as Roxas' door collided with his bedroom wall. An angry Sora stormed in and marched over to Roxas' bedside, pulling the covers off and removing the pillow.
"Roxas, I said wake up! You're going to be late for school! And you know how important school is!"
Sora did a double take.
"Actually only your school is important, because it's the smart school. I don't even care about school. But you should! Because if you're late then you'll miss all those tests and then you'll fail high school and never make it into college and become a lawyer like you wanted to ever since you were four and saw that law and order show, and then I'll have to support the family. Except I can't because I'm suppose to fail high school before you do. And do you have any idea how weird this all sounds coming from me? And hey! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING ROXAS?"
Noticing that his brother had paid absolutely no attention on his "how one morning can ruin your life" speech, he walked over towards his brother's bed stand and turned the offending alarm off. This earned his an immediate reaction.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Well at least that got his attention.
Seeing the blond scramble from his comfortable bed to turn the radio back on, Sora quickly pulled it out of his reach. He dangled the alarm clock, unplugged in all it's glory.
Sora gave his 'older brother' a disapproving look.
"Rox, why do we have to go through this every morning? Do you even have any idea what time it is?"
"6:45" replied Roxas. The blond gave up on rescuing his radio, and made for the bed as if he were to go back to sleep again.
Sora sighed. "If you want this back, go get dressed and meet me downstairs."
And with that he left, taking the prized possession with him. With nothing left to do but get ready for school, Roxas began to gather his scattered school uniform. Secretly envying Sorafor his school's lack of a dress code.
It was folded neatly on a dresser. After getting his buttoned up shirt and pants on, an idea struck him. Two can play at this game....Sora might have taken his radio, but he still had his voice. Which mind you was worse than anything you've ever heard before.
Roxas grabbed his tie and started singing at the top of his lungs.
"And will you tell all your friends, you've got your gun to my head?"
Now where were his socks?
"This all was only wishful thinking..."
Roxas looked under his bed. Oh, there's a sock...
"This all was only wishful thinking…"
No where was the other one?
"ROXAS I SWEAR! IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP RIGHT NOW I'M GOING TO THROW THIS THING. OUT. THE. WINDOW!"
The blond thought about this for a moment, then shouted back his reply.
"But you're on the first floor!"
He was then met with silence, then...
"Oh look! I see a car coming by. I wonder what the sound of tires on plastic sounds like?"
Roxas took this as a cue to shut up and stop pushing his brother further down the line. Pulling on his newfound socks, he grabbed his coat and ran down the stairs.
Moving along the hallway, Roxas made it into an empty kitchen. (The Katsurada boys never ate there, it reminded them too much of their mother...) Making a quick trip to the cupboards, Roxas pulled on the handle and grabbed a box of cereal. Fruit Loops. Sora's favorite.
The blond walked outside into the living room, where his brother was seated on a couch watching the early morning cartoons. Roxas stepped behind him and tapped the top of his spiky head to get him to turn around. Sora diverted his gaze from the TV and was met with his older brother's outstretched hand, holding the box of cereal. Roxas muttered the object of offering.
"Cereal."
Sora reached behind him and pulled the alarm clack from beneath the couch cushion, and handed it over to Roxas in the same manner.
"Radio."
And thus the early morning trade-off ritual was complete.
Roxas jumped over the back of the couch and landed next to Sora. The brunet stuffed his hand into the cereal box and began to eat the fruity goodness. Roxas usually skipped breakfast, something Sora disapproved of. Not like there was anything good to eat here though.
The only sounds that could be heard was the occasional crashes and laughter from the TV set and Sora's munching. The younger of the two took this moment to observe his brother and hopefully better understand their relationship. The morning activities that occurred every day was the furthest their brotherly rivalry ever went. But even with their friendly fighting, Sora couldn't help but think that Roxas was only doing it on Sora's behalf. He had never been able to connect with his older brother.
Sora was the happy-go-lucky one. Being the younger of the two, he had less responsibilities. With not a care in the world, Sora kept an upbeat attitude and loved to socialize with anyone in sight, whether they wanted to or not. This being the case that morning. Even though Sora had spent a whole one-side conversation with Roxas this morning, his brother hadn't bothered to speak more than 10 words to him (minus the singing of course).
Roxas wasn't always like this. He wasn't sure when it had happened,maybe sometime around the divorce of their parents. After their mother had left them, Roxas seemed to be a bit more reserved and colder to everyone around him.
Although not Sora, never Sora.
He remembered that one night when it had rained really hard. Hewas lying curled up in Roxas' bed, because he was too afraid and lonely to sleep alone that night. But not because of the thunderstorm. Roxas had been standing next to the window, looking out into the rain. Not hearing the drops on the window pane, but the sound of their mother's car as the engine started up.Followed bymore shouting, the last they would ever hear of her voice, and then she was gone.
Sora had burst out crying. But he felt Roxas grab hold of his shoulders gently but firmly. Telling him it was going to be okay. That he should stop crying because tears weren't going to solve anything. That Sora had to be strong, because their dad was going to have to work two jobs now to support them, so all they had left was each other. Sora believed every word his brother told him and hug him. Roxas had let him do it, but Sora faintly remembered that he never hugged him back.
That was the night that Roxas had become serious.He wasn't unfeeling and unemotional or anything, Sora was sure there were some emotions still left in him. But he had became more detached to everything around him, to the extent that others had noticed it and taken concerntoo. So Sora took it as his responsibility to watch over his brother and take care of him when he decided to look for help.
"Sora, pass the remote."
Yes, 14 words! Sora mentally thought and did as he was told. He watched as the blond took the remote and flipped through the channels. His blue eyes, lighter than Sora's, stared intently at the screen. The morning light and TV illumination reflecting patterns of light across Roxas' semi-stoic face and dirty blond hair.
xXxXx
Roxas noticed as Sora went back to watching the TV. His brother had been observing him again. He hated when people did that. Stare at him like he had problems. Like he needed help, their help. As if anyone could fix him. He thought irritably, but didn't let it show on his face. I'm not broken, so there nothing to fix.
Roxas mentally checked himself. He couldn't be mad at Sora. Because Sora was all he had, and he was all Sora had. Or at least that was what he tried to deluded himself into thinking. Which was probably why he didn't have many friends. But only because he didn't need them...kind of.
But it always wasn't always like this. Roxas had plenty of friends back then. When they still lived on that island. Before their father lost his job there and made them move to Twilight Town and attend separate schools. It was suppose to help them, give them all a new start.
He saw Sora sneak another glance at him. Roxas let his brother delude himself into thinking that he had fooled his brother with his oh-so-sly antics, even thought he was quite obvious about it. But Roxas would never confront him about it. He didn't mind so much when Sora tried to help. But it was starting to get annoying now as Sora had convinced himself that his 'help' was working and tried to 'help him' more often.
Roxas settled on a channel and watched it until he noticed something about Sora. His pants...they were too big for him.
"Sora."
The brunet looked over, delight shone in his dark blue orbs at being addressed for the second time that morning. A smile plastered his face.
"Those are my pants aren't they?"
His eyes widen and the smile faded into a nervous curve as he stumbled over his words.
"Um...no...they're..."
"Yes they are, look! They're white at the bottom and black at the top. You know those are my two favorite colors!"
Sora clung to his jeans protectively.
"They're my favorite colors too!"
"No they're not! You like red!"
Sora whimpered. "But I have a pair too...because...uhhh"
"Don't try and fool me Sora. Look, see that cut? That's where I fell off my skateboard and skinned my knee. It's the exact same spot!"
The brunet whimper another sound of defeat. He knew he had lost that round, but he wasn't expecting the next comment.
"Give them back."
"WHAT?"
"Urgh, no. I meant as in go upstairs, take them off, put your stupid old ones on, and then give those back to me."
"Oh."
Sora pulled his legs closer to himself and hugged his knees. He brought his face down and looked up from his stolen-jean-clad knees. Trying to imitate a kicked puppy look, complete with watery sapphire eyes looking up from beneath his brown bangs.
"But they look better on me..."
"No. They don't." He said deadpanned.
"But you can't wear them anyway! Your private school doesn't let you!"
Roxas opened his mouth to say something. But stopped and closed it again. That part was true; unlike the jeans looking better on him comment. After moving to a larger city, their father thought it would be nice to let them attend the schools they wanted to. The ones that accentuated their talents.
Roxas attended Oblivion High. The gifted and talented magnet school. The teachers were strict and most students were too busy studying, this left little room for socializing. Just the way Roxas liked it.
His brother on the other hand, could never handle a school like this. Instead, he was good at sports. Quite the athlete really, and his positive attitude made for a great team atmosphere. So he attended Destiny High School.
"Fine."
Roxas was about to give up when he noticed something else.
"Sora, you're wearing my belts too!"
"Um...I need them to hold up the pants..."
"BUT ALL FOUR OF THEM?"
"Well see, the first two were kinda loose and I neede-"
"Never mind."
Roxas waved off his brother's strange behavior and started to get read to leave for school. But then his untapped brotherly instincts kicked in.
"Sora, why do you even dress like that? That's hardly your style."
In fact, everything that Sora ever wore to school were his. And it was really weird to see your younger brother dress like you, wear your hair like you, and attempt to act like you at times. And besides, Sora could not pull off the emo look. It just died on him.
"All the guys at my school wear clothes like these." Sora paused a bit to contemplate it "And I need to blend in, because Axel always makes fun of my oth-"
"You shouldn't care what your friends say about your clothes."
Roxas was about to go into a speech of how peer pressure shouldn't effect a sweet little kid like Sora (even thought he was a junior…). That he shouldn't give a damn about how his friends want him to dress. But the clock on the wall told him that if he didn't get moving now he would never make it to school on time, so he settled on a different choice of words.
"You shouldn't care what Axel thinks either."
Roxas had never met this guy. But Axel was all the Sora ever talked about, he does this, he does that, he likes to beat those people up. He sounded like the type of person Roxas loved to hate.
The older of the two opened the door and threw his skateboard on the ground. He headed towards the right of the sidewalk. If he took the shortcut he still might make it on time.
Sora on the other hand started to make his way towards the left.
xXxXx
"Sora!" A leather clad hand was clamped on his shoulder and Sora turned around in his seat.
"Hey Axel, what's up?"
"Nothin' much. How did it go with your brother...Roxor...Roxy..."
"My brother Roxas is fine." said Sora sternly. He wasn't sure if the redhead was just playing with him, or if his memory was seriously screwed. But he got rid of that thought as the events of that morning popped into his head.
"I got him to talk more today!" said the brunet beaming.
"Oh, that's great! Did he open up to you more?"
"No..."
In truth, all that Roxas said to him that morning were scolds, insults, and demands for his clothes back. But Sora didn't mind, it made him feel like their brotherly connection was back. Not that he was about to tell Axel of course.
"Sora!"
The brunet faced his other speaker.
"Hayner, Pence, Olette. Hey you guys!"
Sora was reluctantly swept up in a conversation with the trio before he could explain the improvements of his brother with Axel. He figured he could talk to these three too, since they actually knew Roxas. Before they went to separate High schools, they all attended Dual Middle School. That was where Sora had befriended them, Roxas on the other hand looked more like he barely tolerated them.
As Sora was about to end their conversation about the latest Ice Cream Shop opening he noticed their teacher walk in. 20 minutes late of course. Ms. Yuna gave the class a quick greeting and started to write out a problem no one has bother to do for homework the previous night.
"Now class, there are going to be taking exams next week. The final exams are very important and I hope you all do well on them."
She turned around and gave the class a stern look. "Failure to pass may result in repeating a grade."
Behind him Sora could hear Axel give a snort. The redhead had already repeated a grade. He was 18 and was suppose to be a senior but had failed his freshmen year...not because he didn't pass his exams, but something to do with setting the school on fire.
No one took education in this school seriously. The only reason this school was still standing was because of it's outstanding athletic department. Who has time for studying when there's practice to be attending? In fact a lot of people usually did skip class…
From the corner of his eye Sora could see a stash of red slowly inch its way closer to the door. But before Axel could reach it, another teacher opened it. One hand on the doorknob, the other holding a cup of coffee.
"Ms. Yuna? There's a...'meeting'...at the teacher's lounge."
The brown-hair teacher tore her gaze off the chalk board she had been writing on and faced the being that interrupted the lesson at the doorway. Although she was a teacher, she had complete disregard in setting a good example for her students concerning dress limits. Her outfit was anything but revealing and her hair made one dizzy. Braids and bead galore, which she probably spent all her time fixing instead of teaching.
"It's urgent."
Half the class noticed the wink the blonde gave to go with the comment.
"Oh!" Their math teacher quickly replaced the chalk and turned towards the class.
Sora never tried to look at her directly because he always found himself staring at her mix-match eyes in a very unromantic way. Then would begin his investigation of which one was the color contact. The green one with swirls definitely looked like something you could buy at a thrift store. But then why was the teacher always rubbing the eye with the blue one? Hmm, maybe they're both color contacts. I mean, why would you just wear one?
Sora saw but didn't hear their teacher mutter an apology for her absence. With a quick note that she'll be back and that everyone should behave, Yuna left the room to follow Rikku.
"Alright! So Sora, what did you want to tell me again?"
In truth, Sora hadn't mentioned anything about wanting to talk to Axel. But he must have given off vibes and Axel had noticed them. The redhead was particularly good at that.
All thoughts about his brothers were lost at the news.
"Axel! How am I gonna pass those exams! I barely passed last years!"
The should-be senior behind him gave a 'hmfp' and crossed his arms, leaning back in his seat.
Sora knew that grades weren't important to people in this school. After all, the only ones who it mattered to were at Roxas' school.
"Ughh, I wish I could trade places with Roxas and he could take theses exams for me..."
The redhead raised a delicate eyebrow, a smile twitched into place. Usually the first signs of a scheme...
"Then why don't you?"
"Huh?"
Upon seeing the puzzled look on Sora's face, Axel decided to explain his plan a bit better. He took a dramatic intake of breath before he began.
"You..." he pointed his finger at Sora "...and your brother Roxit..." ("Roxas!") he used his other hand to point else where, "...switch places!" and he transferred the literal meaning to his fingers to emphasis it.
"Axel! That only works in movies!"
The redhead gave a shrug and gave a nonchalant reply. "Just give it a try."
Sora sat back in his seat and pondered it a bit. Well, it could work. Roxas and him really did look alike, a part from the hair color. But they could always lie and say they hade it dyed or something...
"Hey Sora."
Axel had joined a group of his friends across the room and they were now heading for the door, planning on skipping school while their teacher was away. He gestured with his hand that he wanted Sora to come along.
"You coming or what?" He said with a smirk.
Sora got up to join them. Thoughts of how he would introduce the idea to Roxas running through his head. And after a few minutes, he had a perfectly laid out plan. It was sure to work.
xXxXx
Indigo: I slacked off on the second part of this chapter, was it obvious? Did you noticed a difference? I also had originally planned for Roxas' school scene to be part of chapter 1. But this just got so long! So check in next chapter, that's where the fun really begins. -wink-
Omigosh. Sora trying to get into Roxas' pants…..AND THEY'RE BROTHERS! Or at least in this fic, I hadn't really planned on it turning out like that. But I did enjoy writing their brotherly scenes together. Older brothers are fun. I annoy mine all the time. XD
Song Credit goes to "Such Great Heights" by Postal Service and "Cute without the 'E'" by Taking Back Sunday. Ahh, Roxas singing along to TBS, that totally completes my life. And I learned from experience and my friends that if you don't like TBS, their songs can become very painful to listen to in the morning…
And in case anyone is wondering...Where does the name Akuroku come from? I think people took it from their Japanese name. Roxas' name is Rokusasu in Jap, and Axel's is Akuseru. Put it together and it's Aku+Roku. No X's in Japanese. (Hope that clears things up.)
Review!