Prologue:
Day 1: In Which Boys are Boys
Despite Roxas's big hopes for their fact-finding mission, it seemed like the shopkeeps who had been victimized had as little information as Hayner did. They didn't know who had stolen their possessions, they didn't have any evidence, they didn't have any clue about motivation -- except, their silent stares said, that which pointed to Roxas and his friends. For reasons no one would explain to them, everyone seemed to consider them the obvious suspects.
The armor shop merchant said crossly, "Seifer was right about you kids. You'll stoop to anything, huh?" and closed the shutter on them.
Seifer was with his gang when Roxas found them: Fuu pointed wordlessly at the new arrivals, and Seifer turned around to greet them with an all too familiar smug smirk on his face. Roxas tightened his jaw automatically. It felt like he'd seen that smirk a thousand times -- like there was nothing in the world more pressing than wiping it off his face. And it felt like that every time.
"You!" Hayner snarled.
"The one and only," Seifer drawled. "Are you kids done playing robbers already?"
"Us?! Why, you--"
Roxas grabbed Hayner's arm when the taller boy would have charged at Seifer. "You're not helping," he hissed under his breath. "Calm down a little."
Hayner bit the inside of his cheek, acknowledging the point without really letting go of his agitation in the slightest. "...whatever," he muttered.
Seifer's smirk only hitched higher. "Well, well. I guess we can see who the mastermind here is." He ignored Hayner, pointedly looking past him to Roxas, and he asked, "So, tell us, Roxas. Why'd you do it?" His amused expression didn't make him seem very eager to get his question answered.
"Roxas didn't, you--"
Olette piped up from behind the boys, asking reasonably, "What makes you so sure it was us?"
Seifer lost some of his smugness, expression hardening a little. "Who else would steal that [_____]? Just tell us where you hid it."
It was hard to keep cool in front of Seifer, despite the soothing words he'd mustered for Hayner. Roxas clenched his teeth and snapped, "I didn't hide anything from you! Why would I care about your stupid [_____]?"
Rai braced his hands on his hips and retorted, "You can't fool Seifer like that, ya know!" with Fuu on his heels, stating firmly, "DEFINITE MOTIVATION."
"What motivation?" Olette demanded,
"You guys telling everyone lies about us, maybe?!"
Seifer continued to ignore Hayner, not even deigning to listen to him despite his sneered question. The older boy only talked around him at Roxas. "But who'd tell lies when the truth is so much more convenient?" He lifted his chin, almost daring him. "You had to resort to thievery-- We couldn't settle this like men."
Roxas was getting really tired of being singled out on Seifer's ridiculous crusade. "I'm totally capable of settling anything between you and me."
As if she'd been waiting for him to say something like that, Fuu immediately kicked a struggle bat in his direction, her blank expression never wavering. "REPLAY."
Hayner's hands clench convulsively into fists, clenched so tight that they were almost shaking as he broke away from glaring at the trio to give Roxas a grim nod. "Yeah-- go for it!"
Roxas glanced at Seifer's gang, not liking the way they were all grinning at one another, smug as if they'd already run. Rai caught his gaze and puffed himself up, drawling, "You're in for it now. Seifer's been buffing up for the tournament, ya know!"
"Roxas has been training, too!" Pence said stubbornly, giving Roxas an expectant look. The blonde couldn't quite muster the confidence that his friend was probably hoping to see -- he'd almost forgotten about the tournament until just this moment, he certainly hadn't been practicing.
But he wasn't going to let Seifer beat him.
Not ever. Especially not now, when their reputation was on the line, and in some small way, beating Seifer was like proving by right of arms that they weren't the thieves.
That he wasn't useless--
That he was alive.
"It won't matter how hard he's been training," Seifer said, resting his own bat on his shoulder and smirking. "We both know what's going to happen."
Roxas didn't say anything to him, didn't give away his half-formed thoughts with words. He kicked at the bat, knocking it into the air the same way he'd kick up a skateboard, and snatched it by the hilt nimbly without every breaking eye contact with the taller boy. His glare would say everything he wanted to say.
He really had no idea how Seifer managed to bother him so much -- it almost felt unnatural.
"Kick his ass, Roxas," Hayner said, and something inside Roxas tightened, hot and intent.
Seifer almost swaggered into place across from him, holding his struggle bat casually in one hand. He raised it to point straight at roxas, challenging. Roxas waited for him to draw back into a ready posture before lunging -- they'd fought before, he remembered well that Seifer never made the first move, never. The first swing had to be his, even if that guaranteed that it would never hit.
Sure enough, Seifer leapt back, smirking, and swooped back down eagerly with the bat poised to strike. Roxas rolled back and seized the moment instead, swinging the bat into Seifer's midriff. He grinned broadly as the older boy's breath hisses briefly from between his teeth, hearing his friends already cheering a little from the side, but the padded bat probably didn't even sting Seifer. It only took him a beat to stagger and recover, lashing out and catching Roxas on the shoulder before he'd quite recovered from the swing.
Ow, fuck! That definitely hurt, Seifer's superior strength almost numbing his arm for a moment. Roxas managed to lift his bat to block the next blow.
"Isn't this romantic?" Seifer jeered.
"Shut up!" Roxas heard Hayner howl.
Seifer lunged at him again, a broad overhand swing, and Roxas blocked again and then ducked, swinging his bat at Seifer's legs and bringing the taller boy hard to the ground. In a heartbeat Seifer had rolled and spun himself to his feet, glaring, but Roxas hardly even noticed.
He wasn't uncertain anymore -- something instinctive had taken over, muscle memory driving him in for a series of quick, sudden blows, one after the other. From the right, the left, the right, gaining speed as he sank into the motion, forcing Seifer back. Roxas could recognize (not from his face, but from his posture, the tension in his frame and his grip) the exact moment when Seifer realized that he was losing, Roxas's momentum overwhelming him.
The next moment he misstepped, and Roxas's bat caught him square on the side of the head, the impact vibrating with satisfying force through Roxas's arm. He smirked triumphantly as Seifer staggered back and then fell back, landing hard on his back.
There was a beat, and then suddenly cries of "Yeah!" and "Way to go, Roxas!" came from behind him, bringing Roxas back to the lot with almost startling suddenness. He straightened, rubbing the side of his neck.
Fuu raced up to them, ducking down and getting an arm around Seifer's shoulder; Rai sputtered, "Se, Seifer's been wearing himself out with all that practicing!"
"Yeah right," Hayner scoffed, clapping a hand on Roxas's shoulder and grinning from ear to ear.
"Why don't we capture this moment for posterity," Pence said with satisfaction, hurrying alongside them and pulling out his camera. "Smile, Roxas!"
Hayner was smiling more than enough, beaming like he'd won a prize, and Roxas mustered a smaller smile himself. He felt sort of disoriented, but -- well, probably it was just oversleeping catching up with him.
The camera clicked, and its insides churned loudly, but before Pence could turn it around, a strange silvery creature slithered around him and snatched the camera from his hands. Pence let out a startled yelp, fumbling for it, but the creature whisked away and fled, wriggling out of the Sandlot.
Startled, Roxas cried, "Hey!"
Still dizzy, Seifer looked up at Roxas reflexively, and then followed his gaze, frowning. Pence was staring at his hands, brow furrowed. "What..."
"It's the thief!" It made perfect sense -- or whatever kind of sense it made. Roxas darted off after the silver thing quickly, feet pounding on the pavement and carrying him farther from his friends.
"Roxas!" he heard Olette call after him, and then murmuring, "Where is he going?"
NEXT >>> Prologue (Part 3)