Work Text:
***
No one quite knew how it started or who, only that it had started and that no one complained or stopped it. It was as though they had all collectively, but without communicating with each other, decided that Roxas needed a buddy system. Olette would always slip her hand into his when they walked places while Pence would ensure their hands brushed whenever he passed Roxas something. Xion made a habit of brushing Roxas’ hair out of his eyes or tucking stray bits behind his ears. Lea perpetually had an arm slung around Roxas’ shoulder whenever there was conversation to be had.
But at the top of the list was Hayner. Hayner may as well have been glued to Roxas for all the space he gave him. Not that Roxas ever complained. He borderline encouraged the contact, Hayner pressing their legs together whenever they sat down, bumping shoulders as they walked, guiding Roxas’ head onto his shoulder whenever they watched movies or played video games. And Roxas was like a sponge, soaking up all the contact. It made sense, really. He’d been denied things as common - and necessary - as human contact for so long that he was desperate for it now. Desperate for touch, for connection, for signs that what he had was real.
“You’re spoiling him,” Isa had warned once, but Lea had paid no mind.
None of them thought about it any further until it was, rather abruptly, shoved in their face and they had to.
***
Lea hadn’t recognised the signs at first, waving away oddities all weekend until Roxas stumbled into the kitchen Monday morning looking like death warmed over and paler than even Namine, which was no easy feat. He was staring into the depths of the toaster as if it contained all of life’s secrets. Then he coughed...and sniffled. Okay, Lea got it now.
He laid a hand on Roxas’ shoulder, gently steering him towards the stairs. “Alright mister, back to bed with you.”
Roxas blinked twice before digging in his heels, Lea stumbling at the sudden change in momentum. “What? No! I have school and we have a science presentation-”
Roxas couldn’t finish for cough, Lea arching an eyebrow. “Aha, yeah. No presentations for you, you’re sick.”
“Sick?” It was, perhaps, the most scandalised Lea had ever heard him. “I’m not...I don’t-! I’m not even capable of getting sick.”
“I’m sorry, when did you stop being human? You’re in a human vessel with human capabilities. That includes, getting sick. Which, you have. And hey, it’s probably nothing more than a cold. Just sleep it off.”
“But I have to go to school,” Roxas repeated firmly.
Lea groaned. “Roxas, for once, how about you don’t fight me? I can call your friends if you want.”
Finally, Roxas seemed to realise he wasn’t going to escape, sighing heavily. He grumbled something about calling them himself before stomping back to his room. He made it as far as the top of the stairs before whirling around to flip Lea off. The sharp movement, however, made him lose whatever colour was left and throw up all over his shoes. Great.
***
It turned out, Even’s vessels were less than perfect and their immune systems were...shit, to put it nicely. Although Roxas did just have a simple cold, he was down for a week solid and Lea had made it clear no one was to go into his room. He didn’t need anyone else getting sick and Roxas needed to rest. Xion understood while Hayner said he was overreacting. Maybe so, but Lea wasn’t keen to clean up anymore vomit so he didn’t budge. The less Roxas moved, the less chance there was of upturned stomachs.
He checked in on Roxas every so often though, dosing him up on medicine or ladelling out a bowl of soup but that was about as far as their contact went.
Which was, really, where it all went to shit.
Because come Friday afternoon, Roxas was feeling better, the most alive he’d looked in days. His eyes were clear, his skin was no longer grey and ashen, and the layer of sweat gone from his forehead. He also wasn’t hacking up a lung every couple of minutes. Unfortunately, it was also the day Hayner, Pence, and Olette had decided to come around and Roxas must have been lucid enough to sense them but completely not lucid at all because he came down the stairs so fast Lea could barely track him. But he could sense danger and Lea was just as fast, snapping up Roxas just as he hit the ground floor. What he got for his troubles was a snarl and Roxas attempting to literally tear at his arms.
“You three, out!” Lea barked.
“What’s wrong with him?” Pence asked as he backed towards the door.
“I don’t know,” Lea ground out.
He adjusted his grip again and finally got his first look at Roxas’ face. It was disconcerting, terrifying, really. His eyes were feral, rabid, and his incisors were a tad longer than usual and okay, that was definitely not supposed to be a thing. Of course, Lea knew it was, he’d seen it before but never on Roxas, or any member of the Organization, to be honest. Monster-like traits tended to be more found in the lower level Nobodies after all.
Then, of course, Hayner was stepping forward. “You know, he kinda looks hungry. You been feeding him?”
Lea wanted to know on what planet the gremlin in his arms looked like a hungry child but he was still indignant enough to say, “Of course I’ve been feeding him!”
Hayner frowned, peering closer. “Like, people food?”
Lea stared. “What the hell does that mean? He isn’t an animal!”
“No but…” Pence awkwardly shifted his weight, “Isn’t he, you know, in part...still a Nobody? What do, uh…”
Pence couldn’t finish but Lea got it. “I mean, Nobodies eat hearts if you wanna get technical. But Roxas isn’t that-”
“So he is hungry,” Hayner surmised. “Maybe being sick wore away at him or something? He could have used all his energy.”
Lea would love to have this discussion, really he would - and preferably with someone more qualified - but he would have loved to have had it at a time when he wasn’t madly trying to keep a furious teenager under control. One that, might he add, had tried to bite him several times and hopefully didn’t became aware it could summon two Keyblades if it wanted. If Roxas reached that point, they were done for.
Which, naturally, was why Hayner brushed off Olette’s warning hand and slowly walked forward. Lea went to stop him but Hayner just waved him off, dodging a swipe from Roxas before stepping fully into his space. He let their eyes meet before pressing their foreheads together, trapping Roxas’ arms at his side with a tight hug.
“Hey, you can’t eat me, but you can feel me, right? And that’s gotta be pretty damn close, don’t you think?”
Lea thought it was more like waving a steak in front of a starving lion but Roxas...Roxas stiffened before leaning into the touch. Hayner grinned, bringing a hand up to press Roxas’ face into his shoulder.
Lea wasn’t sure how long they stayed there. It had to be almost an hour before Roxas “awoke”, blinking in confusion before Hayner tugged him into the living room and onto the couch. Pence flipped on a DVD while Olette made popcorn and soon they were all tucked up together, Roxas nodding off, still firmly pressed into Hayner’s side.
“How did you know that was gonna work?” Lea asked once absolutely sure Roxas was asleep.
“I didn’t,” Hayner admitted with a shrug, careful not to jostle Roxas too much. “I just figured he wouldn’t hurt me.”
Pence rolled his eyes. “That and, we’ve kind of been working on a theory.”
“Theory?” Lea repeated.
“Yeah,” Pence continued excitedly. “Roxas made it pretty clear to us when we became friends that he was a Nobody, and explained a lot of what went with that.”
“Sometimes he has different needs,” Olette said in turn. “We’ve kind of been studying them.”
“Way to sound creepy,” Hayner snorted, only to yelp with Olette tugged on his hair.
“We’ve been watching Roxas and a lot of the time, if he’s grumpy, you can make him better by touching him,” Olette said. “In a way, I think he...feeds off contact.”
“He’s like a plant,” Pence said, Lea’s eyes swapping to him. “But instead of absorbing sunlight and making it into food, Roxas absorbs the warmth from people’s hearts and transforms that into food. It’s like a workaround.”
“We’re pretty sure he does subconsciously too,” Olette tacked on.
“But we proved it right though,” Hayner cut in, voice a tad more tense than usual and hand lingering in Roxas’ hair. “Keeping him alone...He was cut off from his food source.”
That seemed to be the end of that and Lea just stared at them incredulously for several more minutes. He then declared them all crazy and stormed out. An hour or so later, he was back and sheepishly apologising, a scolding from Even to go with, reminding him he really should have paid attention when he’d explained what living with Roxas and Xion was going to entail.
But hey, Lea learnt something new: keep Roxas and Xion in the company of humans as required. Easy.
***
“Hayner, you wanna go?”
Sora watched Hayner mull over that decision, torn between his competitive side and the side of him that literally had Roxas leaning against it. Roxas hadn’t lasted long after they’d all met up, Hayner assuring Sora he was fine, they’d just all had busy weeks. Between Olette being sick, Pence pulling extra hours at the bistro, and Hayner having to mind his siblings while his parents did overtime, it had left Roxas alone for a lot of the week and with no one to help him with his studies. Or, rather, no one that wasn’t as fresh to high school as him and Xion were.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Sora said, offering Hayner a bright smile when he still looked undecided.
That seemed to do it though, Hayner huffing and assuring Ven and Riku he’d be there in a second. He then oh so carefully shifted Roxas onto Sora’s shoulder, grin a little too wide.
“H-hey!” Sora protested, only to wince and immediately lower his volume. “Don’t...Just wake him up.”
“Nope,” Hayner said, popping the ‘p’ and jogging over to the start line.
Sora huffed, Olette sending him a commiserating look. “For what it’s worth, Roxas probably won’t move. He’s still pretty low.”
Sora paused. “Low?”
“Energy wise,” Pence explained, waving a hand. “He’s still, you know, making up for a week with limited human contact.”
There was a moment where Sora was still confused before he remembered. Right, he’d heard something like that from Lea awhile back. He craned his neck down, smiling at Roxas’ peaceful expression. “Well, if he really does need light to recharge, you should pass him over to Ven. He’d work like a super conductor!”
“Surprised you even know what that means,” Riku teased, holding onto first place with a little too much ease.
“I mean sure,” Hayner drawled, “Except for the fact that Roxas always tries to keep a good distance between them.”
Sora was as surprised as Ven. “Wait, he does?” Ven asked, hurt.
“We don’t think it’s personal,” Pence said quickly, hands flying up. “I think...maybe you’re too tempting.”
“Oh, cause he’s all light,” Sora murmured. “That would actually make sense.”
Hayner scoffed, stepping between them all and giving Roxas a firm shake. “Okay, can we all stop talking about him like he’s a rabid animal? This is Roxas,” he reminded sternly, just as said boy opened his eyes. “Well hey sleepyhead.”
Roxas frowned at being surrounded, Sora seeing his walls rise immediately. He was already scrambling to his feet, Hayner’s hand on his arm the only thing stopping him from summoning his Keyblades. “Hayner?” it was a whisper and a demand all rolled into one.
“Hey, can I help it if people wanna look at you? Though, stars only know what they see in you.”
“Hey!”
And just like that, Roxas and Hayner were tussling through the sand, all laughter and smiles. Sora wouldn’t have them any other way.
***