Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me except for the ideas in this story.

Warning: BOY x BOY CROSSING. PLEASE USE CAUTION.

Summary: It all started with a simple statement:

“You’re running faster than usual today, Sora.”
And then it all quickly ended with another simple statement:
“My sex education teacher just tried to have sex with me.”

Author’s Note: It’s really amazing how time flies. I didn’t even notice a year had passed since the first chapter. Good Lord.

Paint it Black

•••
Chapter Two: Kids
•••

“I don’t like him.”

“And just why not? He’s gorgeous and he makes sex ed not so… creepy,” teeth sunk into her sandwich and Kairi chewed for a moment, making a small face before lifting the bread on top of her sandwich and finding mustard all over the inside. “Oh, gross. Trade me?”

A frown and Sora offered her his peanut butter and jelly.

“Thanks,” a small smile, “I hate mustard.”

“Lucky for you. I hate grape jelly,” the brunet offered Kairi a little smile and he took a bite of her sandwich, finding the mustard was better suited for him than grape jelly. Personally, he liked preserves. Maybe strawberry or raspberry or –

“Sora!”

“What?” a growl and he laid back on the top of the picnic table, staring at the treetops and sighing slightly. Mouth was full of sandwich and he chewed for a moment before setting his lunch on top of his chest and placing both arms behind his head. “What, Kai? What’s the big deal if I don’t like him?”

“It’s not,” she smiled at him. “I just want to know why. I mean, okay, liking him because he’s gorgeous is dumb, but you can’t tell me you don’t think he’s a good teacher,” legs were brought up onto the top of the picnic table and she crossed them underneath her body, sitting towards Sora as she happily ate his sandwich.

“It’s sex ed, Kairi. How hard can that be to teach? All you do is tell kids what they already know or have already done,” Sora ran his tongue over his teeth and let a yawn pass his lips. “I think you’re just giving him too much credit.”

The auburn haired girl shrugged her small shoulders, “I’m just saying that he’s a lot better than Mr. Strife. Mr. Strife mumbled a lot and I always got the impression that he was really embarrassed about sex, but it was hard to tell because maybe he really was just mumbling.”

Sora sat up suddenly, tossing the sandwich off his chest by accident and throwing it onto the ground. “Wait, why are you in sex ed again?” a frown when he realized the sandwich had been discarded by mistake and he grabbed Kairi’s apple, taking a bite from it and eyeing her.

“I was in health, silly. There’s always like a small portion of sexual education and health in the health syllabus,” another smile and she offered Sora the rest of the peanut butter and jelly, but he merely shook his head.

“I will take your fruit roll-up though, if you’re offering.”

A small laugh and Kairi handed her friend the silver-packaged fruit snack, watching as Sora bit the apple again and pocketed the fruit roll-up for later.

•••

“Ugh,” Axel stretched his limbs, “back to the grind house, huh? Since when was thirty minutes enough for lunch?” a lazy scratch to his stomach and he followed Sora into Riku’s classroom. The rest of third period always took place after lunch and the brunet had been dreading it since the beginning.

Riku had been coming on to him, hadn’t he?
And wasn’t that against the law?
Even more so, wasn’t there like some code of ethics that was ground into everyone’s minds when they were born?

“It’s not even like you eat lunch,” he muttered, taking his seat in front of Axel and pulling out his notebooks and pens. “You just go and fool around with Roxas for thirty minutes and then complain that you’re hungry afterwards. Why don’t you just eat lunch really fast and THEN go and do whatever with Roxas?”

“Have you seen your brother? How could I possibly wait for that sweet swe—“

“Stop, please. That’s gross, Axel. Forget I asked.”

Sometimes it sucked being a twin. It sucked even more when the boyfriend of your own brother was heavily mouth breathing behind you. Well, Sora supposed it was better than the alternative which was to hear about what Axel and Roxas did. Honestly – the brunet figured most of it was made up because some of the stuff Axel said happened, Roxas would deny.

So it was made up or Roxas was embarrassed.

Still, Sora knew his brother and he knew if Roxas was embarrassed, he would’ve told Axel to stop spreading around their private life.

But he hadn’t.
Because Axel had yet to stop.

“Why are you so tense? I can see it in your shoulders,” eyebrows furrowed and the redhead had leaned forward slightly. “You need to chill, Sora. Could be worse. The teacher could be all over you.”

A laugh and Axel leaned back, unable to see the pink blush that had covered the brunet’s tan cheeks.

Something told Sora that now was not the time to mention Riku’s blatant coming-on to him. Something told the brunet that Axel wouldn’t be too pleased with the news.

It was one thing to joke.
It was completely another thing to actually have things happen.

“All right class, hope lunch was pleasant. Now flip open your text books to page 67,” Riku had stepped into the classroom just as the bell had rang and he grabbed the textbook from his desk, holding it in one arm and grabbing a dry-erase marker in the other. “As you can see, page 67 gives you a variety of STDs and the symptoms for each one.”

Riku took his time writing each STD on the dry-erase board and then a vertical and horizontal line under each word. On one side of the vertical line, he wrote ‘female’ and on the other, he wrote ‘male.’

“Now, Sora, Axel, you two come up here and choose two STDs to write the male symptoms for. Selphie, Olette, you two come up and choose two STDs to write the female symptoms for.”

A blush crossed Sora’s cheeks and he hesitated, watching as Axel got up, grasped a red marker, and chose gonorrhea and herpes as his two STDs. A smirk crossed his features and began to write the words ‘delicious discharge’ under gonorrhea.

The brunet stood and watched as Olette and Selphie passed him, grabbing the other two markers and picking out their own STDs. Each person had their textbook except Axel who appeared to be winging it. For herpes, he was writing ‘tasty sores to snack on’ and ‘crusty goodness’ next to that.

“Sora?” Riku eyed him. “You look flushed. Feeling all right?” eyebrow was raised and a little smirk lined the teacher’s lips or… Or Sora thought he saw a little smirk there. Something, anyway, because he began to feel panicked. A teacher had never come on to him before. Hell, teachers were seldom even nice to Sora and now this one was, he was sure, trying to… to make a move.

“Uhm… Yea. No, I… I’m fine. Just…” he shrugged and lugged his textbook into both arms, searching for a marker and then feeling his heart sink when he realized Riku was holding the only available one. “Can I borrow that?” he muttered, holding his hand out for the green dry-erase marker.

The sex education teacher placed the marker in Sora’s naked palm, gently rolling his fingers across the tips of the brunet’s fingers and then trying to hide a smirk when he saw the poor boy go absolutely red and stare at his shoes.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Riku teased. This was a little game between him and the brunet and this was merely the beginning.

“Yea, I’m fine,” and this time, Sora said it a little more defensively. He suddenly felt very… Upset with Riku. Was this man teasing him? Was he playing with the brunet’s emotions or was he really flirting with him? Why would he tease? Why would he play with a student like that? More importantly, if he wasn’t teasing, what in the world was he honestly thinking?

Sora could tell.

The student’s word was always taken seriously. At first, anyway. There was no telling what would happen after an investigation was done and Riku turned up clean.

It was hard to prove someone was flirting with you.

Because maybe it wasn’t flirting and Sora was just freaking himself out.

Below Chlamydia, he began to write the symptoms for male, copying the words directly form the textbook. He noticed Axel had already sat back down and he felt his heart drop slightly. Part of him felt like the redhead could protect him and maybe Riku would stop his game if he thought Sora had someone to protect him. Or to at least scare Riku enough to get him to back off.

Selphie sat down and then Olette and the brunet panicked and began to write much more quickly. Chlamydia symptoms were done and he went over to HIV and scrawled the symptoms for male, feeling very embarrassed he was the last one standing and even worse, he was directly in front of Riku. Riku, who was leaning against his desk and watching Sora make a fool out of himself.

“Almost finished?” a purr and Sora dropped the marker. Quickly, he bent over and grabbed the marker only to drop his textbook and then drop it again after he tried to pick it up. God, his own teacher was turning him into a nervous wreck and he was beginning to feel like a little girl. He wasn’t crushing on his teacher, but his teacher was certainly crushing on him. Or, that’s how it seemed anyway.

“I’m done,” marker was capped and given back to Riku and Sora shuffled to his seat, taking a seat and practically jumping out of his skin when Axel whispered a small ‘hey.’

“Whoa, calm down, Sor,” he placed his hands on the brunet’s shoulders. “What’s up with you? And was it just me or was Riku staring at your ass when you bent down?”

Heart sunk and face turned a bright red and he swallowed, “don’t call him by his first name. It’s Mister Leonhart.”

“… Him and Squall related?” a brow was raised.

“I… You mean Mister Leonhart? I think so. I don’t know.”

“Sora?” Riku had turned to the brunet and Axel and cleared his throat. “Am I interrupting a private conversation? Would you like me to stop so you two could continue your tea party?”

Axel’s eyes narrowed. Sora blushed and sank into his chair.

“No, dude, it’s cool. We’re done,” Axel glared slightly, daring Riku to test him.

And lucky for an embarrassed Sora, Riku merely turned back to his lesson and continued to teach. Between Axel and Riku, Sora wasn’t sure how much more embarrassment he could take. He had never spent so much of the day feeling flustered and out of breath and absolutely terrified of what might happen next.

His nerves were working him for all his worth.

•••

“Sora, may I see you for a moment?”

As the words left Riku’s mouth, the brunet reached out and grasped Axel wrist so tightly, the redhead grimaced in slight pain. Nails accidentally dug into the exposed skin of his friend’s arm and Sora looked so panicked, Axel quickly stopped his trek to the door and offered a look of concern.

“What’s up?” eyes danced over Riku’s face and Axel dropped his voice, “you okay? You look like you’re about to jump out of your skin.”

Class had ended, as had school, and the bell had rang only a minute ago. Everyone, with the exception of Sora and Axel, had hustled out of the classroom, excited about the end of the day and the upcoming weekend. The fact that today was Friday hadn’t even crossed Sora’s mind. The prospect of getting away from Riku and being able to have time to clear his head and sort out the details of this very strange day hadn’t even began to process in Sora’s very confused head.

“Sora?” Mr. Leonhart was leaning on the edge of his desk, “may I speak to you?”

“Don’t leave me,” he whispered to Axel and before Axel could ask why, Sora dragged the redhead over to Riku’s desk and tried to look as neutral and normal as possible. He didn’t want his teacher to know he was getting to him. Despite the fact Sora wore all his emotions on his sleeves, the brunet was still very determined to stand his ground and face off with Riku, not crumble under his gorgeous face and body and gentle touch.

“… May I speak to you privately?” a glare was offered to Axel.

Axel glared back. Things were going downhill rather quickly and Sora caught the nasty looks they tossed at each other. Normally, Axel was quite the charmer for male and female teachers alike. He smiled his charismatic smile and he talked smoothly and he did well in his classes and it was extraordinarily rare for a teacher to dislike him. Though, Sora could easily see Riku and Axel were going to have a nasty relationship. Their teacher didn’t care for the playful redhead and Sora was unsure why.

Everyone liked Axel.

Something Roxas pretended he wasn’t jealous about.

“Uh… No. Axel, he… He’s my ride home and… I… we should make this quick,” Sora looked down at his feet and dropped Axel’s wrist, unaware that he had still been holding it. The redhead rubbed the nail marks Sora had left in his wrist and frowned slightly. Hehad almost drawn blood because he was so panicked and flustered and Axel couldn’t quite put his finger on what was wrong…

Did Sora like Riku?

Oh, duh. That must be it. He liked Riku. That’s why he was so flustered. And Axel figured his jokes weren’t making anything any easier on Sora’s little crush.

“Oh, no,” Axel smirked. “It’s cool, Sor. I’ll wait for you at the car.”

At the moment, the redhead thought he was being exceptionally helpful and kind. Considering he didn’t much care for Riku and he wanted what was best for Sora, Axel truly figured he was doing a friendly thing. Giving his boyfriend’s brother a little alone time might be just what he needed to stop acting like a school girl with a crush on the star quarterback.

“No! Ax—wait…” but the redhead had gone and Sora swallowed thickly, turning to face Riku once more and staring down at his feet.

“Sweet friend you have there,” sarcasm and Riku rolled his eyes (or maybe he didn’t, it could’ve been the Sora’s imagination).

But before he could stop the train wreck that was to follow, Sora stupidly blurted, “friend? He’s actually my boyfriend.”

The look of shock that crossed Riku’s features surprised Sora, but then the shock faded after a moment and a smirk curled his lips upward.

“Oh, my apologies. Boyfriend, hm? How interesting…” Riku purred and he reached up a hand to touch his chin. “How long?”

A blush crossed Sora’s cheeks and he knew he had bitten off more than he could chew. Riku was trying to force him to worm out of his lie now that he had said it and even worse, he was going to have to play boyfriend-boyfriend with Axel while in class while Axel was dating his twin brother. A thick swallow and he took a breath, trying to calm down.

“Oh like… four months. We just… We keep it on the lowdown in case, you know… uh… the gay thing…” he winced at how stupid he sounded and he looked around the room, coughing nervously and feeling very vulnerable. This was going to be hard to swing, especially because Axel figured Sora liked Riku when, in reality, Sora was feeling rather frightened of his cruel advances.

“I see,” his smirk was still lazing about on his face. “A boyfriend, hm? He’s got a bit of fire to him. I’ll have to be more careful around you when he’s around.”

Blue eyes went wide and Sora took a step back, “y-yea…” he muttered, “well, I have to go, I –“

“Sora?”

“I… huh?”

“You’re a nervous wreck. You should get a bit of rest during the weekend.”

With that, Riku stood and walked over to the door and out of the classroom, leaving a very befuddled and nervous Sora behind him. He didn’t really believe Axel was his boyfriend, did he? Did he know Sora knew he was flirting? And why had he said ‘I’ll have to be more careful around you when he’s around’?

Sora gripped his bag and flew from the classroom, running down the empty hallway and having a very suspicious feeling that Riku’s comment about resting this weekend wasn’t exactly what he had wanted to say. Sora had a feeling his lie about Axel being his boyfriend had stopped Riku from saying whatever it was he had wanted to say.

So maybe Sora did have a bit of protection from Riku now.

Maybe… Maybe Axel would stop their teacher’s mild flirting and this whole problem would end before it really began.

Sora hoped so anyway.

It was a long way before the end of the school year.

Author’s Note: I tried to make it longer because I took so long to update. :] Huzzah!