Chapter 4-Interrogation

Axel and Roxas took a moment to catch their breath as they approached the very end of the staircase on the third floor. A short hallway stretched out in front of them, leading toward the door to the roof. Once they reached it, the redhead pulled on the cold, steel handle and the door swung open, a wave of summer heat washing over them and into the stairway. Roxas followed his best friend to where they and their other buddies ate lunch every day.

Hayner, Pence, Sora, and Riku already sat on the roof's ledge, eating and laughing and, he assumed, telling inappropriate jokes as was their lunchtime custom. As the pair made their way over, the small group looked up from their food to stare at them. Axel plopped himself down next to Riku, who regarded him with a trademark nod. Roxas chose to take his usual place on the wall ledge opposite everyone else- partly to avoid any contact with his comrades until they were done eating and ready to roast him with questions, and partly just because this particular side of the wall was facing the sun more than the other.

While his friends seemed to enjoy being within the shade of the big trees in the courtyard towering above the whole building, the boy personally preferred feeling the soft warmth of the sun on his face. He gently peeled the wrapper from his vegetable bun and bit into it. The cooked vegetables inside left a bitter taste on his tongue, dulled slightly by the soft doughiness of the outside bun. It wasn't his favorite, but it would do. As he munched, he readied himself for the interrogation he was inevitably about to recieve.

Hayner usually wasn't the type to grill people with questions, especially not those within his group of friends. However, when it came to Roxas the subject of Aqua's class, Hayner's personality would often take a sudden shift, his suspicion level rising steadily. Roxas had always figured that since he and Hayner shared that class, his friend could do the reconaissance himself and just ask about things later. However, he then started to notice that whenever he looked in Hayner's direction, he was either on his phone or staring off into space. No wonder Aqua enjoyed teasing him so much. And, aside from topics surrounding a certain blonde girl, he guessed that having questions bombarded at him whenever something even remotely out of the ordinary happened was better than his friend not caring about him at all.

The sounds of chewing had finally begun to cease, signaling to the boy that the time had come for him to brave the inquisitorial barrage. Clearing his throat, he stood up and walked his wrapper to the trash can, dropping it in and then slowly trekking back to his place on the wall. Five almost creepily eager faces awaited him.

"Sooooo," Hayner began, "what took you so long today?"

Hayner, with his scraggly mess of curly, beige-blonde hair, leaned on the wall beside Roxas and propped himself up on his elbow. His goofy smirk and unnecessarily raised eyebrows made it hard to take him seriously, as per usual.

"I had to stay back after class. Aqua needed to talk to me." Roxas answered, managing to successfully keep a straight face.

"Did she, now? What about?" His friend prodded.

"Nothing in particular. Paying attention in class, mostly." Well, he wasn't lying.

"You're not paying attention in class? Why?"Pence piped up, "Something wrong? I thought you liked Aqua's class?"

"Nah, I just got distracted. It's nothing."

"Distracted? Dude, you're the most focused guy I know, other than Pence. This doesn't have anything to do with anyone else, does it? Someone of the female gender, perhaps?" Sora smirked from Roxas' other side, poking his target in the arm.

"What?" Roxas said quickly, batting the hand away. "No way. If there was a girl, wouldn't you think I would have told you guys about her? Or introduced you guys? Or, I don't know, even mentioned her existence?"

Hayner's eyes narrowed at his friend and his mouth opened, probably getting ready to persist, when a soft and bored-sounding voice rose from the back of the group.

"Guys, just leave him alone. He's fine, okay? If he stayed late, he stayed late. It's not really any of our business." Riku said, in an impassive but firm tone.

Roxas hadn't known Riku for very long and didn't know him too well yet, since they had only just met at the beginning of the year when he had befriended Sora, but he had grown to like the silver-haired boy quite a bit. He was very soft-spoken and was often kind of distant, but during the short time he'd been in the group, he had quickly come to be the much appreciated straight-man who constantly kept Sora and Hayner in check. Before he had arrived, Roxas was the one who always had to stop the two from going too far, but such a feat was difficult when he often was the reason for the antics in the first place. Riku was much better suited for the job with his quiet but strong aura, and he didn't seem to mind doing it, either. Roxas appreciated that.

Finally giving up, Hayner sighed. "Fine, you're right,' A grin formed on his face, and he added, "but if there ever IS-"

"You guys will be the first to know." the blonde finished.

His friend gave a satisfied nod and turned his attention back to the rest of the group, who had gone back to sitting in their original places, talking and joking. He interrupted with a loud joke about something involving plungers, vaccuum cleaners, and jars of mayonnaise, causing Roxas' clear blue eyes to close with a sigh of relief. The interrogation was finally over. A hand patted the boy's shoulder, his tall, redheaded best friend joining him on the wall ledge.

"You'll have to tell them sometime. You can't keep this from them forever." Axel said.

"I doubt they'd even know who she is."

"Maybe not, but Hayner's in the same class as you. He may be an idiot, but he's a pretty observant idiot. You know that. He's bound to figure something out sooner or later. Addicted to his cell phone or not." He suggested, his hands digging into his pant pockets.

Roxas sighed, staring softly down at the cement beneath him. "Yeah."

"Not saying you have to spill your guts right now, buddy," Axel continued, "I'm just saying it's better to just tell them and deal with them being weird about it now, than have possible issues when one of them starts noticing her later. Sure, Hayner's got a girlfriend, but the rest of us are all single and ready to mingle, y'know? You gotta claim her before Pence does." The redhead lightly elbowed his friend in the side.

Roxas let out a chuckle. "Pence, huh?"

"Well, you never know with those Pence types, bro. Seems harmless and lovable and squishy on the outside, but on the inside he just might be a romantically adept king cobra-anaconda hybrid with pegasus wings or something." Axel laughed.

"Yeah, sure. I'll believe that when he actually kills a spider for once instead of moving about a hundred feet away from it and screaming for Hayner to kill it. I get it, though. I'll talk to everyone about it soon." The other boy said, his mouth stretching into a grin.

The pair split themselves off from the wall and joined the others, entering the conversation right after Hayner started talking about something involving his father, six batches of snickerdoodles, and women's winter clothing.

"Whaaaaaaaat? Roxxy's got other friends besides Axel?! Blasphemy!" XD

Hey, everyone! How have you all been~? I finally got to update chapter 4! XD I'm sorry it took forever. This chapter's actually been done for a while, but I never got the chance to post it. I also apologize for it being so short, but don't worry! Roxas' other friends will all come back sooner or later! X3 School's started up again, too, so I don't really know how long chapter 5 may take to write and get put up here. I'm sowwieeeeee, please be patient with me! ;.; anyway, I'm thinking about starting a new story, as well! The new one may or may not be as long as Tastes of Sea-Salt, I'm not sure right now. I'm really excited for it, so please look for it coming out sometime in the future! :D The only spoiler I'm willing to give is that it takes place in the same universe as Tastes of Sea-Salt. c: Anyway, I hope you enjoyed chapter 4! Have a great day, everyone! OH! And before I go, a shout out to Twilight AngelDemon for insisting that I update. I'm sorry it took so much longer than I originally thought it would, but you gave me a lot of motivation to write more, so thank you! Everyone, please look forward to the next chapter!

~WaywardWayfinder