The Other Side isn't so Green – Chapter 1

"Sora, what are you looking at?" Roxas walked into his brother's room to find him kneeling on his bed with both hands and face pressed against his window, unmoving. "Sora?"

"Oh…uh. That kid with the weird hair, he goes to our school. He keeps running up and down the street. He seems…excited." Sora said amused.

Roxas walked around Sora's dirty clothes to reach his bed and plop down next to him. Looking out the window he said, "Weird hair? Do you mean Demyx?" His question was answered when Demyx's half Mohawk half mullet hair flew past their house. He was closely followed by a silver haired and a slate haired teen.

"Hmm…that's new. Riku and Zexion weren't with him the last fifteen times." Sora turned his head to see Roxas giving him a strange look. "I'm not exaggerating. I started counting." He gave his brother a light punch and grinned widely.

Roxas gave Sora a punch in return, "Looks like they're heading to the house next door."

"Why? It's been for sale for years…" realization lit Sora's face. "Do you think it was finally sold?"

"Mm…Maybe, why else would they go over their? We can go check it out." Roxas stated casually, hiding his slight excitement. However Sora was practically jumping up and down in excitement.

"Roxas…Sora…Breakfast." Their mother's voice rang through the house.

"Or not." Roxas stated blandly.

"We can still go out after breakfast." Sora said bouncing off his bed to head to the kitchen.

"False hope, Sora." Roxas said to the empty room.

oOo

As usual when they entered the kitchen Mom was sitting in her usual chair and Dad was nowhere to be seen, probably at work like always. Roxas sighed and looked to his mom again. It looked like she wasn't staying long, that was different.

"Not staying for breakfast, Mom?" Roxas asked glancing at the keys in her hands.

"No sweetheart," Always with the endearments. Roxas hated it, "I gotta go to work early, and I might get home late as well." His mom continued in an exhausted voice. "I'm sorry. Greta will cook you two lunch and dinner alright."

"Whatever." Roxas grumbled watching their maid Greta doing dishes.

"I have to work in order to provide for you two. Your father and I have to work." She said. "I try to be here for breakfast and dinner everyday." Mom sighed. "Did you two finish your homework?"

Sora and Roxas exchanged uneasy expressions.

"Its Sunday boys, it should already be done. Hayner called to hang out but you can't now. You're not to leave the house until all your homework is done." She sighed again shaking her head, "When you're done show Greta so she can check it. Then you can call me at work for permission to leave, okay?"

"Yes Mom." Sora and Roxas muttered together.

"I mean it boys." She glared at each of them in turn before getting up and walking over to give each of them a kiss on the forehead. "Remember I do it because I love you. See when I get home."

"Bye Mom."

"See ya." Sora chimed. "Guess that ruins our plans, we got a huge paper to write." Sora groaned.

"'We' not we Sora, I told you to finish that before the day before it was due. In one ear and out the other it seems. Although, seeing as Mom and Dad are never around, they would never know." Roxas smirked.

"Oh, yes they will Roxas; you two are doing your homework." Greta scolded them. With one hand on her hip and one shaking a finger at them, the older woman gave an air of authority. She was not one to mess with.

"Yes, Greta." Sora mumbled bringing his empty plate to her, "I'm doing it now."

"Good boy. Roxas?" She raised her eyebrows at him.

"I'm going." He grumbled leaving his plate on the table for her.

oOo

"Come on you guys! Zexy! Riku!" Demyx half whined half squealed at he two friends. "Axel was my best friend back in Hollow Bastion. I want you to meet him."

"Don't call me Zexy." Zexion grumbled.

"Dem, there are people staring at us." Riku stated as they flew past a rather large two story house. But Demyx ignored him and continued sprinting towards the next house, which had a moving truck in front of it.

"Axel!" Demyx shouted excitedly running towards the truck. Inside the truck Riku saw a teen straighten up with a box in hand and look towards them. When his gaze landed on Demyx his brilliant green eyes lit up and a loud crash was heard as he dropped his box and ran out of the truck toward Demyx yelling back excitedly, "Demy!"

The incredibly tall, thin redhead and the blond ran towards each other looking like they were planning on glomping each other. As you would expect they met mid glomp and toppled over, embracing each other in a friendly hug on the ground.

Riku couldn't suppress a laugh at the two friends. Then he looked to Zexion when he heard him growl a bit. He was surprised to see anger on his usually expressionless face. "You okay, Zexy." Riku teased, laughing a bit more.

"Shut up!" Zexion glared and quickly wiped all emotion off his face as Demyx dragged Axel over to them.

"These are my new friends Riku and Zexion. They've always lived here and were really nice to me when I moved here." Demyx made a gesture towards them and without taking a breath he continued. "And, you guys, this is Axel we went to school together in Hollow Bastion, and were best friends. He was always sneaking into my house and sleeping over." Demyx ended with a huge grin.

"Yeah, well you always left the window open for me, even when it was raining, true." Axel countered with a wicked smirk.

"Who could deny you?" Demyx smiled hugging Axel again.

"What's with the red hair, punk?" Zexion calmly asked with malice.

"What's with the blue hair, emo?" Axel asked innocently meeting Zexion's glare.

"Come on now, be nice." Demyx stepped between them. "Axel's hair is natural." Demyx smiled at each of them.

"Aw, Demy, ever the peace keeper." Axel smiled. "I got to continue unpacking. Make sure it's done before the parents wake up." Axel stated indifferently.

"Why aren't your parents helping?" Riku asked while Demyx shook his head vigorously. Riku immediately backed up a little because the moment he began speaking Axel's eyes were on his and never moved.

"Because," Axel's face twisted into one of complete rage. When he spoke again he was using a deeper, more menacing voice. "They had to drive the goddamn fucking car all the way here while I sat on my ass in the back being the lazy piece of shit I am." With that he turned and stalked back towards the truck.

Demyx gestured for Riku and Zexion to stay while he went after Axel. "So things haven't improved, Axel." He said all excitement out of his voice.

"Life sucks, as always, it won't change. There's no reason for it to change, Dem. But at least I have you again." Axel smiled and grabbed a box.

"Can we help you unpack?" Demyx asked.

"It's best if you don't Demyx." Axel set the box down on his front porch, "Thanks though." He smiled briefly and looked over his shoulder at Riku and Zexion. "Go hang out with your friends I'll see you at school tomorrow, you can show me around."

Demyx grabbed Axel's hand and took a marker out of his coat pocket. "My window is still open Axel." Demyx gave his friend one last hug and ran towards Riku and Zexion.

Axel glanced at his hand memorizing the address before wiping it off on his pants, lest his parents see it.

oOo

"Today's not a good day, but you'll see, tomorrow you'll see how fun Axel is." Demyx sang. "And Zexy you should be nicer to him. Axel doesn't deserve this behavior and I want him to hang out with us." Demyx pouted.

"I'm sure Zexion will try harder to be nice, right?" Riku glared at Zexion.

"Yeah, I'll be nice." Zexion said.

"Oh good!" Demyx flung his arms around Zexion in a hug. Riku smiled as he saw a faint blush crawl up Zexion's face.

"Come on lets go to Dem's house." Riku said as he started walking away. Glancing back at Axel bringing another box into his house he asked, "Demyx, does Axel have abusive parents?"

"Let's not talk about Axel when he's not around." Demyx's face became serious, "Please."

"Okay." Riku said unsure and glanced at Zexion's emotionless face.

"Yeah let's just go hang out." Zexion stated and Demyx gave them each his beautiful smile.

oOo

Much later that day Roxas lay on his bed reading a music magazine while Sora was sprawled out with his homework all over Roxas' floor. "You know, if you cleaned your room you could do this in there." Roxas stated glancing down at his brother.

"And miss quality time with my twin brother. Besides, I'm terrible with math, this way your closer." Sora beamed at Roxas.

"I'm no genius." Roxas said smiling back at his brother. The truth was he enjoyed hanging out with his brother, even if they weren't talking.

"But smarter than me, at least with math." Sora went back to doing homework. Roxas smiled as Sora stuck his tongue out in concentration. Then he heard the door open downstairs signaling the return of one of his parents, probably his mom.

Soon after that his bedroom door opened showing his mother. "Hey, I'm gong to be able to eat dinner with you two. Five minutes okay."

"'Kay." Roxas and Sora said together.

Five minutes later they found themselves sitting down for dinner with their mother, Dad no where to be seen. Surprise, surprise. Roxas hated that his parents were always gone and yet insisted on strict rules and perfection.

"So did you guys know the house next door was sold?" Mom asked cheerfully.

"We thought so and were going to investigate but we got grounded." Roxas complained.

"I didn't ground you. I just wanted your homework done." His mom raised her voice.

"Roxas you finished, you could've gone out." Sora joined in the conversation.

"And leave you here all alone?...No thanks." Roxas dropped the conversation and started eating.

They stayed silent for a while; it was beginning to border on awkward when Mom spoke again. "They have a son. He's older than you but only a year or two. You'll see him tomorrow I'm sure."

"Well that'll be cool." Sora said conversationally. "Did you meet him?"

"Mm…Just his parents. They seemed nice though, maybe you guys will be friends."

"Yeah…maybe."

After dinner Sora and Roxas went back to their spots in Roxas' room.

"I've been thinking," Sora said, "He might be weird."

"Everyone is weird, Sora, but who are you talking about?" Roxas inquired.

"The neighbor…duh." Sora answered.

"Why would you say that?" Roxas asked lazily.

"Well that Demyx kid is a little weird, and it seems like he might know him." Sora stated.

"Or he's really weird and makes a habit of running up and down the street like a jackass." Roxas laughed.

"Language, Rox." Sora said taking fake offense.

"To be fair we've never gotten to know Demyx, and I don't think it's nice to call other people weird when you've never met them. "

"That's true. He moved here two years ago right?"

"I think so."

"Maybe we should introduce ourselves tomorrow. He sits with Riku and Zexion at lunch.

"We can do that if you want," Roxas said sleepily, "but right now I'm going to bed." Sora picked his things up to go to his own room, saying goodnight to Roxas. As Roxas and Sora fell asleep in their warm beds, Axel was sneaking in a window down the street.

oOo