What's this? A Valentine's Day fic? And a Sora/Riku, too. Who would have thought?

Title: The Rose Wars

Author: Akane Arihyoshi

Disclaimer: I'll own it when we have a flying pig as out presidential candidate. The day is coming soon, soon...

Warnings: Boy love, quite obviously. If you don't like that, you probably should have stopped at the description. There's some kissing, and that's about it. Not to mention roses, clichés, a sappy Sora, a ditzy Riku, some mild door abuse, the upset of a delicate social hierarchy, and a LOT of AkuRoku.

Enjoy.

It all started a few days before Valentine's Day. I know what you're thinking, but that's not it. This isn't a sappy lovey kissy story about how I met the girl of my dreams and fell in love with her on first sight, insert-lame-clichéd-metaphor-here, and lived out the wonderful dream that is high school.

No. This is the enlightened, real, respectable story about how I managed to stumble across my brother and his boyfriend being complete and utter saps and later turn into a bit of one myself as I fell into a state of disorientation with the man who was once my best friend, and is now just a little bit more, all while bringing about the complete destruction of the delicate social ladder in my school's community.

See, doesn't this story sound much better already? Of course it does. No story is complete without a protagonist, an antagonist, and some sort of hormonal confusion. It's what makes the world go 'round. Some might call it love, but hey. You say tomato, I type 'tomato'. Because really, there's no good way to type that saying when tomato is spelled the same either way.

What was my point in the first place? It must not have been very important.

Our scene opens on a small high school's main hallway, banners advertising a Valentine's day fundraiser strewn across every possible available surface. Locker doors are plastered with the same type of notices, completely filled with cheesy catch phrases and mushy slogans. Students are milling around, opening lockers and fumbling with books, desperate to get away from the perpetually gloomy atmosphere high schools always present and fulfill their afternoon schedules. Backpacks are thrown on, doors are pushed open, and students leave by the dozens.

Our gaze is drawn to a group of four students lazily hanging around the door to what appears to be a chemistry classroom. They stick around long after the halls are completely empty of other students, waiting for something not quite clear yet. A teen with outrageous red hair suddenly steps out of the classroom, cussing quietly. A shorter blond boy steps up and slings his arm around the waist of the redhead.

"Detention again, guys," the taller one says sheepishly. Reactions are varied around the group. A silver-haired boy rolls his eyes. Another blond, female, this time, shakes her head sadly.

"Axel, you really shouldn't keeps doing this," she says quietly.

This is where I stop in my story and add a few things into the mix. An intro to the characters seems to be first in the line of things needing to be said.

The tall, redheaded one is Axel. He's loud, he's trouble, and he's also one of the nicest people I've ever met. The only thing that's really wrong with him is his addiction to chemistry. If you think that's a good thing, stop it. It's not, by any definition. He only cares about the science because it affords him an educational opportunity to cause a dramatic explosion. Pyromaniac to the bone, truly. That guy's got more burn scars than wood does after you throw it in the fireplace for half an hour. The day in question here is really just like any other day. Axel's got detention maybe three out of five days a week.

The blond is Roxas. He's Axel's boyfriend, my brother, Naminé's best friend, and Riku's constant annoyance. We're twins, but it's not like you could tell except for the obvious age and eye color similarities. Although, when we were little, there was this one encounter with a gypsy who swore up and down and sideways that we were two halves of the same person. It was a creepy thing, but I digress. Not much to say about Roxas. Axel's completely in love with him, and they're just about the 'it' couple in school by now. He's kind of quiet, not really the type of person to use words to describe how he feels. He's more likely to show something by actions (which, let me tell you,is not a good thing when he's mad.), like a hug or something.

Riku's the silver-haired one. Never, ever, tease him about that hair. He's kind of vain, but it really takes years of constant friendship to notice it. He's not as loud as Axel, but he talks as much as any other person. He's been my best friend for…well, for forever, ever since we were little kids. We used to know this girl, Kairi, but then she moved far away, and we just kind of grew together. He doesn't really like Roxas, reasons unknown. I guess they just sort of clash personality-wise. They've been in this constant fight ever since grade school. Axel thinks it's hilarious. Whenever they looks at each other, he says, you can almost see the sparks coming out of their eyes.

Naminé…not much to say about her, because she never really has anything to say about herself. Roxas found her in third grade, and they've been best friends ever since. I haveno idea how it works, since, from what I can see, neither of them talk at all to each other, but sometimes, you'll see her touch his arm or something, or they'll just look at each other, and know what the other is thinking. It used to drive Axel crazy, but he got used to it after a while. We all did. It's just part of what makes them special. Naminé's never really been interested in anybody that I can tell. She's usually just a bit of a loner. She always seems sad, like she's lost something, but she hasn't, and she isn't. It's just weird that way.

And then there's me. And you'll get to know me later anyways, since, hey, I'm kind of the main character. I'm Sora, brunette, friend of all these lovely insane people in the scene we've momentarily abandoned. Nothing much to tell, except what I'm about to write, and if I tell you now, you'll spoil your appetite. Or…whatever. Spoil the ending or something. You gotta wait until after dinner for the cookie. Same basic principle, no matter what your English teacher tells you.

But anyway, this is a pretty regular thing for all of us. So when Naminé spoke up, she really meant it. Roxasobviously agreed with her.

"I mean, come on, Axel. Resist the urge to blow stuff up," he sighed. Axel looked a little miffed.

"They let me just do lines, though, and they're gonna let me do them at home."

Riku eyed him suspiciously. "Yeah, sure they are." Axel swatted at him, but missed.

"S'true, damn it…" he growled. Roxas patted his hand reassuringly and dragged him towards the entrance to the school building. None of us really wanted to stay there any longer than we had to. The gloomy Monday atmosphere was suffocating, just like it was every week before that one and will be forever after. The doors were violently shoved open, and we stepped out into the perpetual sunlight Destiny Islands offers in all four seasons. (Most kids here have never seen snow outside of the television.)

"It's almost Valentine's," Axel said suddenly. We all turned to look at him. He was staring off blankly into the distance, almost like the thought unnerved him, but then his head snapped back to regard us cheerfully. "Sounds like fun," he said innocently. Roxas nodded, not looking at Axel.

"Sure."

Naminé spoke up shyly. "They've got that fundraiser going on, sounds like fun."

"Hey, yeah," I said. "That one thing with the roses?" Riku nodded.

"It's called 'The Rose Wars,'" he said. "Something to encourage friendly competition. It like, the point of it is to send as many roses to people as you can. The person with the most at the end wins, I guess. And they keep tallies on who gets how many, so that you can't buy roses somewhere else."

Axel's face split into a grin. Roxas nudged him playfully. "What're you planning?" he asked cautiously. Axel didn't say anything for a moment, but pulled out his wallet and looked forlornly at the meager contents. He paused, thought about something, and then turned to Riku.

"Hey, how much do these roses cost, anyway?" he asked. Riku looked at his suspiciously.

"Two bucks a flower. What, you aren't thinking of…?" he trailed off. Axel pulled Roxas closer.

"It would just be fitting for the most popular couple in school to win, wouldn't it? In fact, we're almost expected to, mustn't upset the delicate social structure we have going here," he said cheerfully. Roxas laughed and leaned into Axel. Naminé looked thoughtful.

"This could be a fun contest," she said carefully. "They'll probably give you a prize, too."

I nodded. "It's a trip to the big city, I heard. Radiant Garden."

Axel's eyes lit up. "We could do this, Roxas! I've got a good twenty bucks to contribute to this, right? We can do this." Roxas kissed Axel on the cheek happily.

Everyone laughed. This really did have the potential to be fun. We had two weeks until the actual deadline. Two weeks, and this would be a fun thing to do.

And who was I to know that those two weeks would change my life completely?

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

The next day, Axel went to the small booth on the side of the cafeteria, and bought Roxas a rose. One a day, he said, twenty dollars for nine days of school. Two on Valentine's Day. Roxas was completely mollified. Everyone in our school thought it was just the sweetest thing. Even some of the teachers smiled when Roxaswalked in with a rose in his hand. It was just cute.

I started looking more into the fundraiser itself. It was actually a really cool thing, half the proceeds were going to the drama department (oh, how fitting.), and half were going to a local charity. I quickly decided to join in and give some money.

The only roadblock was, obviously, who I was going to send a rose to.

I hadn't had a crush on someone since middle school, back when Kairi was still here. I was completely stumped. It took a lot of thinking and some mild screaming into my pillow to realize that I was probably the only boy in the entire school who didn't at least have a mild attraction to someone. So I did what I usually do when I'm stumped on something.

I went and banged on Riku's front door until his mother finally let me in to go see him, and repeated the process on his bedroom door until he opened it. Simple.

In retrospect, maybe that wasn't the best thing I could have done. Rikutripped all over himself when I asked him to help me with the girl problem. Once he finally stopped laughing, he told me it meant I was doomed to be single for the rest of my life. Jerk. But then he shook his head and looked at me seriously.

"All it means is that you're a really sensitive guy, Sora," he said. "A really sensitive guy who just hasn't found the right girl yet. Or, hey, maybe you have, and you just don't know it. Try thinking about the people you know. You know a bunch of girls, Sora. You're bound to like one of them, right?"

In the end, he said that if I still didn't find someone, I could always contribute by giving Axel some of my money and helping them win the prize. Somehow though, the thought of helping Axel seduce my brother made me more than a little sick.

I needed a crush.

And I needed one fast.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

So, a couple days later, I took Riku's advice. Because, frankly, he's had way more dates than I have, and he's even got his own miniature fan club at the school. I started to think about all the girls I knew.

Selphiewas way out of the question. She was Tidus' girl, and if there's one thing guys can't do, it's flirt with someone else's girl.

There was one of Axel's old friends, Larxene, but I didn't think I could get past being absolutely terrified of her long enough to actually go on a date.

There was a girl named Xion in my math class, and we spoke sometimes. I pondered that for a moment, until I realized she was one of the girls who regularly came into class late because they'd been in the bathroom applying heaps of makeup and had lost track of the time. Out.

Naminé had some potential, but I couldn't imagine us dating for too long. She was just too quiet, I'd feel like I was going to overpower her in conversation. Besides, she's never interested in anybody. If I asked her out, she'd probably have a heart attack and die.

Feeling a little miffed, and starting to realize that maybe I didn't have quite as many female friends as I would like, I decided to switch to the other gender. Just in case. Hey, lots of people aren't straight. It's a totally cool thing.

It's just that if I turns out I am, I might have to hurt myself. No worries.

So, a little grossed out, I started to think about some of my guy friends.

Tidus, that was a no. Blitzball was his life, there was no room for anything else. Can you imagine the conversations? "Hi honey, how was your day?", "Well, I got some amazing moves in on our last game, and in the third quarter of the game…" God, please no.

Quite obviously, Axel was dating someone. Rule number two of the guy code: Don't steal your brother's girl. I imagine it applies to the opposite gender too. I stopped that train of thought right there.

Still flipping through the lists, I ran through everybody I possibly could. Feeling dismayed, I flopped back on my bed and tried to remember if there was anyone I could have possibly missed. Then I remembered.

Riku.

That's when I felt my heart skip a beat.

Alarmed, I sat up and rubbed at my chest. That was weird, I thought, and I sat back and continued the exercise. I started thinking of Riku again and what it would be like to date him, and everything went fine for a second, until…

My heart skipped another beat.

Annoyed, I just kept thinking about him, and thinking, but my heart would keep doing that, and I was getting so annoyed, and every time I thought of him, it would dothat thing, and it would almost hurt. Finally, I sat up, slapped myself across the face a few time, and buried my face in my hands.

After a few minutes, when I was sure I'd calmed down, I tentatively lifted my face out of my hands and resumed my previous train of thought. I sighed in relief when nothing happened, and kept going, when suddenly…

…no.

This wasn't happening to me.

I coolly got up, dusted myself off, and ran a hand through my hair. Then I took a deep breath. I was in love with my best friend. And, I told myself firmly, I could definitely handle that. Yes, yes I could.

I found myself on the way to Roxas' room. I calmly opened the door, and sat on his bed. Regarding him with solemn eyes, I sighed. "Roxas," I said sadly. He looked at me, more than a little confused. I took his hand.

"There's just no way around it. You're going to have to kill me."

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

The next day at school I was prepared. I was going to take this like the man I was, armed with the courage that comes with knowing that your brother has completely laid out a fool-proof plan for you.

I strode over to the student booth and purchased two roses. Shaking slightly, I reached down for the small note card that came with them and began to write. Two simple words.

"Find me."

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

When I started the rose giving, there had only been six days left. Now, there were only three. I'd sent him six roses so far. Two for each day. One rose for me, and one rose for him. I felt like a complete sap whenever I sent them, but I was pretty confident in the knowledge that he'd figure it out soon enough. Riku wasn't stupid.

Or, you know. So I thought.

He was so dense sometimes. He just kept assuming that it was one person from his little fan club, tossing it aside as something of little importance. By the time three days had passed, I wanted to smack him.

But I also really, really, wanted him to figure it out.

My two opinions clashed continuously. For days I had been trying to figure this thing out. Roxas was pretty cool about helping me through it. Even Axel helped some, they told me about what it was like for them when they first met, when they fell in love, all the weird feelings that came with it. Of course, Axel laughed at me a few times, and Roxas all but giggled when I told them about Riku disregarding the roses, but that was to be expected. We're guys, after all, if not completely and totally gay guys, but guys have to retain some sort of pride, and we chiefly acquire that pride by laughing at the misfortune of others. Hey, it has to be done. Manly men, and such.

But really, it was quite a long time before Riku got it through his thick head (which, of course, I loved, which made me even stupider) that it was not, in fact, his fan club, but someone very serious.

Here comes the part I'm pretty proud of. Because when Rikuwas faced witha problem that he couldn't figure out, especially one that deals with emotions, he came to me. And this time wasn't any different at all. He came over to my house and started banging on my bedroom door directly after school.

I let him in, calm, cool, and totally collected, and we proceeded to put our heads together to attempt to find his mystery lovein a wonderful conversation that I'm positive was heard by Axel and Roxas with their ears pressed against the door.

He strode into my room and flopped down on the bed, something he felt completely comfortable doing, since we'd known each other for about fifteen years. I crawled over his legs and sat down on the other side of him, leaning against the wall.

"Sora, someone has been sending me two roses everyday, and I think it's the same someone, and I don't know who they are. That bugs me," he said. Riku isn't anything if not completely down to the point.

I sat back carefully and attempted a go at being surprised. Apparently it worked, because Riku took one look at my face and sighed. "I know, weird, right?"

Yeah, absolutely inexplicable that the hottest guy in school would get two roses a day. Frankly, I was expecting he'd get more than that.

"But it's just your fan club, right? All those screaming girls that used to stalk us around so that they could get pictures of you. Nothing to get so worked up over," I said coolly. He nodded.

"That's what I thought too, at first," he said worriedly. "But then I heard three of the girls talking about how their club leader or something--trust me, I don't even want to know what goes on in those girls' heads,--told them it was against the rules to send anything to me, since this was a school wide contest and it wouldn't be fair. Which means it's someone who's serious, Sora! What do I do?"

He looked so worried right then, and I knew I had two options. One, I could come clean, tell him everything, watch the look of either extreme disgust or mild discomfort, and give the eavesdroppers at my door something to really listen to.

The second option was, obviously, to pretend I had no idea what was happening while carefully pushing his mind in the direction it should have been going on its own. This plan would require poise, precision, and planning. I was the class klutz, had ADD worse than a moth faced with a light bulb, and I was going to implement this in five seconds.

What could possibly go wrong?

I sighed. "What do you want to do about it?" I asked carefully. "If you want to leave it, fine, but know you're seriously going to hurt someone. If you want to figure it out, more power to you. But it's not gonna be easy."

Perfect. I'd said something that made sense, and it was in English. Step one, check. He lifted his head up and looked at me.

"I dunno. I guess I don't want to leave this hanging."

Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

"Well, then you have to figure it out. Did you get anything with the roses?"

Something seemed to dawn on him. "Yeah. I did. You think that might have anything to do with it?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "No duh, Riku."

"It was a note…" he trailed off. I watched as he fished it out of his back pocket, a little pleased despite myself. He actually carried it around, and that said something. He looked it over, and handed it to me.

I read it for the fiftieth time since I'd written it, and I couldn't help smiling a bit. I'd agonized over him finding me out too quickly, been so nervous at my choice of words, fearing that they were to conspicuous, but there they were, shown to me in complete confusion. It was really comical.

"What're you laughing at, So?" Riku asked, a little offended.

Right. It wasn't supposedto be comical to me. Focus, Sora.

"Well," I said. I thought carefully about what to tell him next. This could make or break this whole thing. "I guess the writer's pretty close to you."

Riku looked really confused. "What? You can tell that from two words?"

Oops. Carefully, Sora.

"It's just," I fumbled a bit. "There's only two words. Obviously someone was afraid you'd recognize their handwriting or a specific way of speaking if they wrote too much, right?"

At this point, I was mentally patting myself on the back. I was actually using logic to make up a totally convincing lie. That's not normal for me by anyone's standards. Rikuthought this over, then laid back down, apparently fine withthis explanation. I let out a quiet breath of air. Thank god.

"Guess I just have to think of people I know, right?" he asked. "Fine. That's a lot easier than I thought."

I nodded, not totally trusting myself to speak right then. It'd all gone so well, I could hardly believe it.

And as Riku got up to leave, I could've sworn I heard frantic footsteps away from my door, followed by random snickering coming from Roxas' room.

Nosy creeps.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

I hadn't counted on Rikubeing this totally oblivious to everything around him. It was maddening, each day feeling my heart race with something akin to dread that he would find out, be disgusted by me, but he never did. I got to the point where I didn't even care if he found out, just wanting him to know, to feel something, disgust, elation, dread, anything. It was so annoying, those last couple days. I still don't know how I got through them all with a smile and a totally calm face. I guess I'm stronger than I thought.

Of course, then it was finally Valentine's Day.

Imagine you're looking at a picture of Destiny Isle High School. The crowds are full to bursting of kissing couples, couples holding hands, couples hugging, couples furiously attempting to get to class on time, and those few students who stand by their lockers forlornly because they happen to be woefully single. Now take that picture, and dump it in a vat of pink dye.

That's what the school looked like on February 14th.

I swear, I thought it was illegal to have that much pink in one place. I felt my eyes burning whenever I looked at someone or something. It was amazingly hard to pay attention in class, everywhere I looked there were shiny cut out hearts made of pink tin foil, and the whiteboard was stuffed full of them.

But even this hardly bothered me, because at the time, I was seeing green.

All those couples in the hallway, kissing, hugging, holding hands, being cute, it all just made me think of Riku, which made me think of the stupid roses, which made me think of how he was never going to get it, which made me insanely jealous.

Finally, I ran into Axel and Roxas in the hallways, and, having had my fill of disgustingly lovey couples for the day, I proceeded to take out all my frustration on them. Roxas just kind of waited until I was done screaming, then calmly dragged me to the cafeteria, pointed Riku out to me, and told me something I'll probably never forget.

"If he won't do his part, you do it for him."

And that's how I found myself stalking over to my best friend with the intention of telling him I'd fallen in love with him. I don't know what made me do it. But I did.

I tapped him on the shoulder and waited until he turned around. "We need to talk, Riku."

His eyes widened. For good reason, too, I probably looked like I'd gone insane, glaring down at him like that. He pretty much thought he'd done something to make me mad, and started stammering.

"S-Sora, m-maybe this isn't the…the time for this…?" he managed. That's when I officially lost it.

I rolled my eyes, grabbed his shoulders, leaned down, and kissed him. I heard some whistles and shouts from the rest of the people at the table, but I barely registered them. After a second, I pulled back and looked at him.

The look in his eyes was priceless. I'll remember it perfectly until the day I die. His eyes widened in complete shock, his mouth moved noiselessly as he tried to process everything. Finally, he swallowed and regarded me with an expression of major confusion.

"On second thought," he said, his voice a little higher pitched. "There's no time like today for a little chat with your best friend."

Damn right.

-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-.:.-

"So," he said carefully, as he closed the door to the unused classroom I'd conveniently located. (I know, cliché, but it worked out that way.) I coughed.

"You obviously weren't getting it," I explained. "So I sped up the process."

He gaped at me. "You…you were…"

"I was…what, Riku?" I said carefully. I wanted to hear him say it, finally.

"You gave me those roses," he said, not even looking at me now. He leaned against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor. "You gave them to me, and then when I came to you for help…oh god…when I came to you for help, you told me…"

He looked absolutely furious, but I wasn't sure where it was directed. Finally, he buried his face in his hands.

"I've been so stupid."

Well, yeah. He really had been. But I was going to be nice and not point that out. I sat down across from him and crossed my legs, thoughtful.

"Nah, you're fine. At least you figured it out eventually, right?" I said cheerfully. He looked up at me in total disbelief.

"Sora…you had to literally kiss me in the middle of the cafeteria for me to get it."

I shook my head. "No, if I'd kissed you anywhere else, you still would have got it." He laughed then. I smiled, then pulled off my backpack and reached inside.

"I actually asked them to let me hand deliver these today," I said carefully, pulling out two roses carefully. I fingered the paper thoughtfully, then looked up at him to see him staring at me. I dropped my eyes again. "But obviously, you're perfectly free to not accept them," I clarified, felling my heart go faster and faster.

This was it, the moment I'd been waiting for. He could either accept the flowers, and me along with them, or he could tell me to go away and take my stupid flowers with me.

It was a long time before he said anything. I didn't move, just listened to him breathing, felt my heart beating erratically. The moment just dragged on, and I prepared myself for the rejection he was inevitably preparing, when suddenly he stood up, and I saw a hand in front of my face. I grasped it on reflex, and he pulled me up to stand beside him.

I was blushing furiously by then, so sure this was all going to turn out badly. I held* the poor roses in a death grip, and felt one of the thorns going into my hand. Ouch. I wouldn't move my hand though, refused to bring attention to myself. Suddenly, I felt his hand on my shoulder, and I looked up at him.

"Sora," he said carefully. I waited for him to say more, but he didn't. Instead, he leaned in and kissed me. When he stopped, I looked at him in shock, but he was just smiling.

"Sora, give me the flowers."

And I don't think my heart has worked properly ever since.

A/N: My god, this idea just wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it! Finally I got it done last week, and then I had to go through the torture of having to wait to post something, which is just not fun. I wanted to post it on Valentine's Day, though. Probably along with about fifty billion other authors....but hey, whatever. I'm willing to go with the trend just this once.

I did a Destiny High fic. God, I'm a little ashamed of myself...I'm turning into a Mary-Sue author bit by bit, I just know it...but I think it came out well and free of any unnecessary clichés, so...I'll be okay. I'll get back to writing something mildly depressing, that'll make me feel better. (I know, it doesn't make any sense, does it?)

Review.

~Akane