Murphy’s Law
Everything that can go wrong, will.

Chapter Four:
Caught

It took a while to escape Seifer, but Hayner had accomplished it when standing near a crowd of people. What they were crowded around for Hayner didn’t know, but he wasn’t about to complain. People could stand around in huge groups if it floated their boat—and especially if it helped Hayner escape Seifer.
           Hayner had been making his way to the staircase to get downstairs when he’d seen a glimpse of what he thought was Sora. The blonde had slipped into the crowd and made his way over to the brunette, escaping the mass of students to talk to his friend for a while. As far as Hayner knew, Seifer could still be chasing him, but that wasn’t what he was thinking about. Hayner’s mind was focused on Sora with curiosity. “Didn’t think I’d see you topside!” the blonde started, “What’s new?”
           Sora smiled. He didn’t seem to notice Hayner’s odd clothing choice, or maybe he just didn’t care or didn’t want to know. Hayner didn’t mind the other’s acceptance and just smiled back at Sora.
           “Oh hey, Hayner. Nothing really, I was just going to use the shower up here,” Sora explained.
           “What’s wrong with the basement one?” Hayner asked. As far as he knew there was nothing wrong with it. Still, the basement shower was known to burst its pipes every once in a while and be rendered useless. It wasn’t entirely uncommon.
           “Roxas/Namine make-out central.”
           Oh. Well that explanation worked too.
           Hayner frowned, partly because he was upset that Roxas was STILL making out with Namine, and partly because he could hear Seifer calling him from behind. Hayner hadn’t gotten down the stairs quick enough—or at all—before he’d been found. His freedom only lasted minutes, if not seconds. “Well, I’ve gotta go,” Hayner said with a glance behind himself, “See you later.” He ran away from Sora and Seifer, though only one chased him.
            Sora lingered there alone for a moment to watch the retreating forms of Hayner and Seifer. Apparently Hayner had spent the night topside—he definitely had not gone downstairs in a while. Sora guessed that his friend had most likely been with Seifer for an entire night, which was strangely amusing to the brunette. Sora knew right away what was probably happening and smiled to himself. He liked the idea of Hayner and Seifer together—they just fit together in his mind; they made the perfect couple. Perhaps Hayner was taking Sora’s advice more than he thought he was.
            Sora went into the boy’s bathroom after getting lost a record of only three times in the large school. Sora hadn’t gone topside in ages, but he really had no choice if he wanted to shower. Plus, he had another thing in mind; he was going to shave his legs.
            He’d always wanted to know what it felt like. He’d never had silky-smooth legs and just for once he wanted to. He’d stolen Namine’s razor specially to complete the task, deciding that his mission required one. He could have snuck off of campus and gotten a professional wax, but Sora had heard that they hurt a lot. He didn’t want to hurt himself, he just wanted smooth legs.
            Sora sat down comfortably in one of the showers after changing into his swimming trunks. He had some issues about public showers, and had to wear some sort of clothing so he didn’t feel totally exposed. The brunette pulled out the soap and the razor he had brought, quite peaceful as he began applying the soap to his leg. Sora knew how the process worked because he’d witnessed Namine shaving her legs on a few occasions (Not on purpose, he’d happened to walk in while she was in the boy’s downstairs showers doing it. The girl’s downstairs showers were in dire need of constant repair.)
              It came as a slap in the face when none other than Riku walked in at the exact moment Sora was dragging the razor up his leg for the first time. Sora had only been curious and wanted to try it once, and who walked in on his experiment? None other than A-Team leader, superstar of the school, hottest guy in existence, lady-killer Riku. ‘Bad Luck’ couldn’t even begin to cover it.
          “What are you doing?” Riku asked in his relaxed tone, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.
           “As if you don’t already know,” Sora retorted, glaring at the other. He continued shaving his leg though, because it wasn’t as if Riku didn’t already know what he was doing. He figured that it made no difference if the silver-haired teen was there or not—the damage had already been done.  
           “Do you shave your legs often?” Riku asked. He was very amused, and it showed in the smirk on his face.
           “No. I don’t. This is my first time,” Sora told him pointedly. He didn’t want Riku to think that he was girly enough to shave on a regular basis. What purpose would that serve?
           “Then why are you shaving?”
           “No reason,” Sora said, “I was just curious.”
           “So you’re not shaving them to please anyone?”
           “Uh....no, I’m not shaving my legs to ‘please’ someone.” Sora replied. Who was there to please by shaving his legs? No one cared whether his legs had hair or not, did they? Would shaving his legs make people happy?
            “Hm.” Riku’s smirk grew. “Come see me in my room tonight and we’ll come to some sort of a deal.”
            “Deal about what?” Sora asked. He finished shaving his leg and rinsed it off, shifting in his position on the shower floor. He moved so he could better access his other leg and shave it, too. He might as well do both legs and be symmetrical.
            “Unless you want the entire school to know you shaved your legs,” Riku said, “I suggest you come.”
            Sora glared at Riku’s back as he retreated, cursing the other’s existence. The nerve of that A Team scum! How dare Riku threaten him!
            Still, Sora was going to show up at Riku’s room that night. Even if he lived in the basement, he had a reputation to keep. Boys just didn’t go around shaving their legs; it wasn’t something that went down. Sora had to make sure no one found out, and that meant striking a deal with Riku somehow.
             Sora finished quickly, throwing the razor away afterward on his way out the door. He’d dried his legs on a towel and changed into a pair of jeans for his walk back downstairs—there was no need to show the world his smooth legs. He had to keep them a secret.
            Well, except from Riku. Sora could wear shorts to Riku’s room that night and it wouldn’t matter because the teen had already seen Sora’s legs. Not close up, but he’d seen them. Riku knew, and that was all that counted.


Of course Seifer still had longer legs. Hayner didn’t know why he bothered running from the other—resistance was futile. There was no logical way he could have escaped.
         So of course once Seifer had caught him again, the bully wanted to make Hayner pay for running away. Seifer had wasted no time in pulling Hayner over to a nearby girl, engaging in conversation with her only to make up things about Hayner. The girl was more than willing to talk to Seifer and did her share of flirting, too. Hayner decided that he greatly disliked her, whoever she was.
         “What’s your name?” the girl asked Hayner. It was about ten minutes into the conversation, and she’d only just noticed that Seifer was not alone. Hayner sneered at her and was about to answer when Seifer cut him off.
         “His name is Penelope,” Seifer answered.
         The girl snickered, “You’re funny,” she told Seifer shyly. Hayner resisted the urge to slap her as she giggled once more and looked at him. “But really, what’s your name?”
         Hayner shot Seifer an unimpressed look, but he had to go along with whatever the bully said, so... “Penelope.” He spoke in monotone, not offering any warmth in his voice. He was not enjoying himself and the situations Seifer seemed intent on putting him in. What had he done to deserve such humiliation?
          The girl laughed and left, thinking that the boys were joking. She would have stayed longer—she’d probably sleep standing up if she got to stay near Seifer—but her boyfriend had pulled her away angrily. She’d had to say a quick goodbye before she got yanked away, to which Seifer had smiled and also said goodbye. Hayner had glared at her, hoping to explode her head with his mind or some such event of awesomeness, but he was sadly disappointed when the girl hadn’t even glanced at him. Her focus was completely on Seifer, like it had been throughout the whole exchange.
          You’d think she’d notice that Hayner was wearing a girl’s uniform, but apparently that fact came second to Seifer’s presence. Hayner didn’t mind too much though—if no one paid attention to him, he wouldn’t be as embarrassed. He could only hope no one noticed him for the rest of the day—that way he’d get off easily without too much embarrassment.
          Not that it wasn’t already embarrassing—it most definitely was—but Hayner was able to tolerate a certain level of embarrassment every once in a while. It was one of his special gifts. Still, Seifer was pushing his buttons in all the wrong ways; a thing that only Seifer could accomplish. It drove Hayner insane, and not in a good way.
         But not in an entirely bad way, either.
         At lunchtime, Seifer ditched Hayner to eat with the A-Team and bask in the glory of being a celebrity. Confusing enough, the blonde found himself missing the bully’s presence for some reason. He didn’t understand why, and he didn’t care to think too much about it, but it was a strange sense of longing that he noted to consider later. It probably didn’t mean anything, he could just be hungry too (it was lunch) but Hayner would explore it when he had time. He was busy tugging at the skirt to disable the breeze from brushing against his thighs. He didn’t know how girls could handle skirts—it felt so wrong and disgusting.
            Lunch ended soon enough and Seifer found Hayner again—the blonde hadn’t bothered going downstairs, instead opting to sit by the fountain in the courtyard. Hayner had only rarely been by the fountain, but found that he seriously enjoyed it; there were no fountains downstairs, so being near one was quite a treat.
           The two adolescents walked around together yet again, strutting across the grass with dignity... or in one case, what was left of it. Hayner wasn’t so sure he was cut out for such endeavours as going along with whatever Seifer said—how had he agreed to it? Oh right; it was his idea...
          “How do you two know each other?” came the dreaded question from the latest girl they were talking to. Hayner braced himself mentally for the answer Seifer was about to cook up; the bully’s answers were getting progressively worse and worse as they talked to random students. Hayner was left wondering just how many kids were in the school—he didn’t remember there being as many as he was talking to that day. Or maybe he was just hoping against all reason that they’d run out of people to talk to and Seifer would have to stop embarrassing him.
            “Well he used to be Riku’s slave but then Riku got sick of him and gave him to me. You’ve probably never seen him before but that’s only because Riku kept him chained up naked in the closet.”
            The girl ran away to tell her friends and Hayner slapped his forehead.
           “You do realize you probably scarred her for life, right?” the smaller blonde asked.
           “It’s not my problem she doesn’t enjoy the thought of you naked in a closet chained up.... I wish people would talk about you like that more often.” Seifer leered at the younger blonde, a lustful expression on his face.
            Hayner hissed, “You tell anyone something like that again and I’ll lose on purpose. 200 bucks isn’t worth this torture.”
           “Can’t handle it? It was your idea... you shouldn’t put yourself in situations you can’t handle.” Seifer’s arm locked around Hayner’s waist again and they were walking. Hayner stayed annoyed for a little while but eventually found himself leaning on Seifer as they walked. The bully didn’t mention it so Hayner didn’t feel the need to stop. Besides, Seifer smelled good and was quite warm. It felt nice leaning against him...


Roxas really reminded her of a cat. Normal people shouldn’t be able to bend like he could, she reasoned. Roxas was probably the most flexible guy she’d ever met, which was strange because he never did any stretches or dances or anything to maintain that flexibility. Namine supposed that the boy was just double-jointed in a bunch of places—she couldn’t think of any other explanation.
            Roxas also liked to use his tongue a lot, which wasn’t a bad thing, but was mildly animalistic. She wondered briefly if he’d always been like that—back in the day, when he had been with Axel, was he like that? Or was it something more recent than that? The whole Axel thing had gone down a year ago and Namine didn’t know much about it. She didn’t ask, either, but she’d considered it a few times. Whatever had happened left Roxas hating Axel with a fiery burning passion, and Axel was still in love with the blonde. It didn’t make much sense, and no one had told her anything of what went down. Namine had asked Sora once, but he’d lied and said he didn’t know. It was times like those that Namine wished she were in a higher grade. Had she been in the school at the time of the incident, she would have known what went on.
            Or perhaps nothing would have gone on because Roxas wouldn’t have been with Axel in the first place—maybe he just would have been with Namine. After all, he did like her better, right?
            Whenever Roxas looked at Axel, Namine was able to note a certain spar in the blonde’s eyes. It was like a strange feeling in the boy that only Axel could evoke. Namine figured that Roxas probably had never noticed it, but for someone who watched him as closely as she did, it was blatantly obvious. Ro
             Roxas was fun to watch, though. He was oh-so amusing and Namine loved spending time with him...At least, she used to. She wasn’t so sure anymore though; was there more out there for her rather than her cute boyfriend? Was there more to her high school life than the C Team? Could she get more than just the basement and a bad reputation? She didn’t mind being with Roxas or being in the basement, but she didn’t like it as much as the other blonde did. Roxas seemed comfortable in the stale basement; a place she was beginning to see as a cage. She wanted out.
           Namine and Roxas had taken their shower together—with sufficient underwear, of course—and Roxas was sitting cross-legged on the floor in her room, drying out his hair by messing it up with his fingers. He’d taken a few minutes in his own room to get changed, but had gone into hers after he was finished. After all, there was no one else to hang out with anyway. All of his friends (Sora and Hayner) were no longer in the basement. He’d checked the security camera room to find that out before heading to Namine’s. Where had his friends gone? He wasn’t too worried about it, but he was curious.
         Stray droplets from the blonde’s hair flew in all directions and the boy sighed as he ended up shaking his head to get the moisture out. Namine beheld the sight with slight amusement and when Roxas sent a smile her way, she raised a hand and wiggled her finger. She silently beckoned the boy to go over to her and he got up without hesitation, headed over to Namine, and stood in front of her questioningly.
          Namine reached forward and grabbed Roxas’ shirt, pulling him slowly toward her until Roxas took the hint and climbed onto Namine’s lap. Namine caught the boy’s lips in a kiss and ran her hands through his wet hair. At the touch, Roxas started purring in delight.
          Roxas really reminded Namine of a cat.
          But she had never been too fond of cats.