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It all started with an innocent game of Uno.
Well.
As innocent as a game of Uno could be, anyway.
It was a Tuesday evening, and they had somehow all miraculously found themselves free from the burdens of homework and projects for the evening. Unsure of how to deal with the sudden bout of free time, the group had gathered in the basement lounge of Sora and Roxas’ dorm building.
“We should play a game.”
Some digging around produced a deck of Uno cards from the building’s front desk, and so the tradition was born. It was then nearly killed that same night when Kairi attempted to strangle Demyx over whether or not +4 cards could be stacked with +2 cards as the game quickly devolved into nearly unintelligible screaming over the validity of the house rule.
After a stern reprimand from the RA on duty, they calmed enough to resume playing a semblance of a civil game. Every Tuesday after that, they continued to get together in the lounge, playing a different game each week. They even began to purchase their own games when they ran out of ones to check out from the desk (and were yelled at one too many times for returning said games in less than pristine condition).
(They tried to play One Night Ultimate Werewolf once, but it quickly turned into a chaotic shouting match (to absolutely no one’s surprise). Roxas would not stop making werewolf jokes, and after Riku’s third real-life assassination attempt aimed at the cackling mermaid, which garnered yet another noise complaint from the RA, they collectively decided to only play that game on special occasions. Nothing said “Happy Birthday” or “sorry for your loss” like accusing your friends of being murderous werewolves.)
At this point, everyone knew to clear out of the basement lounge on Tuesday evenings. Ever since the infamous night when they played Risk and Axel lit the board on fire after Riku flipped the table, effectively setting off the fire alarm and forcing everyone outside to wait for the fire department to arrive, the other residents knew to keep clear of the warzone that was sure to break out in the basement without fail each week.
Tonight’s battlefield: Monopoly.
Kairi’s phone buzzed where it was lying on the table.
“Pizza’s here. It’s your turn to go get the food, Sora.”
“No, it’s not, I got the food last week,” Sora whined, unwilling to leave the table in the middle of the game. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the others, it was just that he definitely didn’t trust the others. Kairi huffed and pulled something up on her phone. Every week they ordered food for game night and every week someone felt the need to fight with her about it not being their turn to meet the delivery person outside the dorm and collect the food.
“No, Demyx got the food last week, and Roxas got it the week before him, and Axel got it the week before him. I have the list, and the list doesn’t lie. It’s your turn,” she insisted firmly, voice leaving no room for argument. On her phone was a list of all their names and when they last got the food, proving that it was, in fact, Sora’s turn to do so.
Grumbling under his breath as he put on his shoes, Sora stood to leave the lounge and head upstairs where the pizza delivery person was undoubtedly waiting, when he paused briefly. Thinking it over for a moment, he snatched up the plastic bank of Monopoly money from where it rested in front of Kairi, who was this week’s banker, before heading toward the door.
“Uh, Sora, I’m not sure how things work under the sea, but here on land you can’t tip the pizza delivery person with Monopoly money. It doesn’t work like that,” Axel called out, putting a voice to everyone’s shared look of confusion. The mermaid only huffed an irritated sigh before spinning around with a glare.
“If you all think that I’m going to leave this table with the bank unguarded so you can all steal money while I’m gone, you’ve got another thing coming. It’s coming with me, so I can keep it safe,” he declared fiercely, tone and expression daring anyone to argue with him. He turned to leave again but paused after pulling the door open. “And I know exactly how much money I have in my stack, so don’t even think about it, Nam.”
Naminé, who had been side-eyeing Sora’s abandoned stack of bills with interest, looked back at Sora innocently.
“Who, me? I would never! I am wholly appalled that you would think so little of me, Sora,” Naminé pressed a hand over her heart, as if such an accusation hurt the very core of her being. Sora just gave her a flat look and left the room, plastic bank full of Monopoly money clutched tightly to his chest.
The group fell silent as they waited for Sora to return, taking the opportunity instead to organize their own money and property deeds. The game was officially paused, and gameplay could not resume until Sora was back in the room.
When game night had originally started, they hadn’t observed such a rule, and people would continue to take their turns even if someone stepped away. The rule was implemented after Axel went to the bathroom in the middle of Ticket to Ride one evening and came back to find that he’d missed about four turns and the cross-country route he’d been trying to build was now blocked.
Many plastic trains were massacred that night.
Roxas glanced surreptitiously between his game piece’s position on the board and his friends’ faces, making quick eye contact and giving a small nod to each of them in turn before his gaze landed on Riku to his right. Riku was too busy counting his money to pay attention to the actions of the other group members, so he really only had himself to blame for what was coming.
“Hey Riku, could you get my drink for me? I think I left it on the table behind you,” Demyx asked sweetly, eyes wide and earnest. Riku looked up and frowned slightly in suspicion, but everyone had busied themselves just enough to not look guilty.
“Sure,” he agreed slowly, getting up from his seat to go and fetch Demyx’s drink.
The moment Riku turned his back to the game board, everyone silently jumped into action and began shifting their pawns into more advantageous positions. The only one who didn’t move was Roxas, who relied on Axel to move his little metal cannon back a few paces in hopes of being able to add another red property to his collection next turn.
A split second later Riku was back at the table, drink extended toward Demyx. Everyone had quickly resumed their earlier inconspicuous activities, deftly avoiding Riku’s wary gaze.
“Thanks, Riku!” Demyx chirped, taking a sip of his drink before setting it down next to his fanned-out properties.
“Ah, ah, Dem, you know the rules,” Naminé chided, effectively cutting off whatever inquisition Riku was no doubt about to start.
“Yeah, yeah,” the water witch grumbled while moving his drink to the table behind him.
That was another rule they had learned the necessity of the hard way. After Kairi dumped her drink on Roxas during a heated argument over a missed payday in Life, it was unanimously decided: no drinks or liquids of any kind were allowed anywhere near the game board, no exceptions.
There had been a moment of shocked silence at the time of incident as Roxas blinked up from his newly transformed tail, before realization hit and he lunged after the auburn-haired werewolf. Axel, thinking quickly, grabbed his hissing boyfriend around the waist in an attempt to keep the mermaid from gouging out Kairi’s eyes, but it took the addition of Riku and Sora to fully hold him back.
Roxas spent the remainder of that game sitting in Axel’s lap, muttering death threats and waiting to transform back to enact his plans for revenge, not that Axel was complaining at all.
There was even a special clause in the rule that prohibited Demyx from conjuring or manipulating any water on game nights, for fear of dire consequences. (The consequences being that the next time someone forced a mermaid to shift, no one would hold them back in their quest for retribution. Demyx always made sure to keep his powers to himself.)
At the reminder of that night, Roxas narrowed his eyes and growled at Kairi, who only stuck out her tongue in response. He only stopped when Axel ran soothing fingers through his hair.
Sora chose that moment to reenter the lounge, a stack of pizza boxes precariously balanced in his hands as he wove between chairs and tables.
“You know, I think the pizza delivery guy actually thought I was going to tip him with Monopoly money. You should’ve seen his face,” Sora laughed, placing the plastic bank back in front of Kairi.
Once everyone had helped themselves to generous servings of pizza, gameplay finally resumed.
“Wait,” Sora frowned, pausing in his act of rolling the dice, “wasn’t Kairi over there? And I know Roxas was farther ahead than that.”
Roxas shrugged his shoulders noncommittally.
“What’re you trying to say, Sora?”
The brunet mermaid narrowed his eyes at his twin.
“You moved the pieces.”
“Why do you automatically assume it was me? There are five other players at this table, you know.” Annoyance was quick to color Roxas’ voice and countenance in the face of his twin’s insistent, not to mention completely unfounded, accusations.
“Roxas.”
“It wasn’t me! I swear I didn’t move them!” Sora couldn’t hear any deceit in his brother’s tone, so he turned to his boyfriend for confirmation. Riku frowned.
“His heartbeat is steady, he’s not lying. He didn’t move them.” Riku sounded perplexed, like what he was observing didn’t match up with what he had expected to happen.
“Well someone must have!” Sora exclaimed, undeterred and indignant.
“Just go, Sora. You can’t interrogate everyone, and not everyone is out to get you,” Kairi sighed.
“Besides, don’t act all innocent and woe-is-me,” scoffed Axel. “You took the whole ass bank with you, who’s to say you didn’t take the chance to steal some money for yourself while you were gone?”
Sora’s narrowed gaze and lack of answer told the group everything they needed to know about that particular accusation. Scowling, he snatched the dice back up and finally proceeded to take his turn. Underneath the table, Roxas and Axel shared a silent fist bump before twisting their hands until their fingers were intertwined.
The game progressed slowly and chaotically, with no small amount of yelling and death threats thrown about the room.
“Pay up Nam, with three houses that’ll be $750,” Roxas cackled gleefully as Naminé’s hat token landed on Illinois Avenue. Naminé just sighed before counting out the money and handing it over.
Taking the time to sort his new money properly, Roxas frowned at the orange $500 in his hand. Something wasn’t quite right with it, it felt… off. Wrong, somehow. Holding it firmly between his finger and thumb and concentrating intently, he gave the bill a single, quick flick, like he was shaking off errant droplets of water. Suddenly, he was no longer holding an orange $500, but a crisp white one-dollar bill.
“Naminé,” Roxas all but growled. The witch in question blinked innocently back at him.
“Oops,” she giggled, taking the offending money back quickly before handing Roxas a different $500. “That must’ve gotten mixed up in there by mistake, sorry.” No one called her out on her very obvious lie, but every piece of money that touched Naminé’s hand after that was thoroughly inspected for forgery.
Axel’s next turn had him landing on Pacific Avenue, one of the last properties that was still available for purchase. Rubbing his hands together in excitement, the redhead was quick to fork over the money.
“Only $300? I’ll take it, gimme!”
“Alright, hold please.” Kairi spent a moment verifying that Axel had paid the correct amount before reaching for a box below her. Sticking her hand in, she pulled out a few different cards.
“Alright, would you like Italy from the game of Risk you and Riku destroyed,” Axel frowned at the disastrous memory, but still reached over Roxas to share a begrudging fist bump with Riku, “or perhaps the policeman card from that time you got mad because you were stuck being the entertainer during Life and burned half the career cards, or how about a destination card from San Francisco to Atlanta from the night of the great train massacre?”
Axel crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the offending cards held in Kairi’s hand. Everyone snickered quietly, which only served to deepen the redhead’s pout.
“C’mon, Ax, you’ve gotta pick one. It’s either that or Nam’s gonna write it out on a sheet of notebook paper, and I don’t think you want that,” Demyx needled between laughs.
Axel pouted harder.
“It’s not that bad, babe,” was Roxas’ attempt to comfort his boyfriend, although the effect was slightly lessened by the amused grin stretching across his face.
“Yeah, just wait until you inevitably melt your token and are stuck being Miss Scarlet for the rest of the game.” Riku, on the other hand, was all too happy teasing his best friend and delighting in his humiliation.
“Fuck off Moon Moon,” Axel shot back while flipping off Riku.
Seriously, you accidentally light half of your cards on fire one or twice while flirting with your boyfriend (who definitely deserved to be flirted with, have you seen him?!), and suddenly you’re relegated to playing with fake game pieces, money, and cards in order to minimize any future “accidents.” The audacity, really.
“I’ll take Italy,” Axel finally relented with a grumble. He already had the lead pipe, the split-level house, and +4 Uno card, might as well add a country to the mix.
“One Italian Pacific Avenue, coming right up!” Pulling a sharpie out of the box of orphaned game pieces, Kairi went to work quickly scribbling the details of the property on the back of the Risk card. Once finished, Naminé couldn’t help but add a few doodles of her own to the masterpiece before handing it over to its new owner.
Roxas had to kiss Axel quite firmly to distract him from the angry mini-Axel’s lighting fires that served as the decoration for his newest property addition.
(Demyx also had a habit of inundating his cards and pretend currency with water, but he was much less volatile than Axel was, and, thus, the group was much more lenient about letting him play with the actual game pieces.)
A few rolls of the dice later had Riku wincing as his tiny thimble token landed on a heavily developed Boardwalk. His meager pile of brightly colored bills was absolutely weeping at the thought of the astronomically high price he’d be paying to stay there. Except wait, that wasn’t quite right.
“Wait a minute, when did you get that many houses there? There definitely wasn’t that many before, and I don’t remember you buying them.” Riku narrowed his eyes dangerously at Naminé, who met his gaze with a heated one of her own.
“I bought them last turn while you were busy waxing poetry about all the shades of blue that make up Sora’s eyes. It’s not my fault you weren’t paying attention, lover boy,” she snapped indignantly. The table was silent for a few long moments.
“Nam,” Sora said slowly, “you do know that literally everyone at this table can tell that you’re lying, right?”
“Dammit.” Naminé deflated instantly, waving a hand in front of her as if lazily swatting away an annoying fly. Half the houses in question collapsed immediately, leaving only doodled scraps of paper in their wake.
“Nice try, though,” Demyx offered apologetically, flinching slightly as the weight of her answering glare was immediately directed at him.
As the night wore on, feelings and friendships began to wear thin. Such was the curse of Monopoly.
“C’mon Riku, you know it’s a good deal. If you had the Electric Company, then you’d have both utilities and you’d be able to charge 10 times the number on the dice. You don’t need New York Avenue, you don’t even have any other orange properties,” Roxas drawled. His eyes were wide and innocent, and there was honey in his voice.
“Roxas,” Sora growled warningly through clenched teeth. Roxas ignored him.
“Just say yes, Riku. Say yes, and all the utilities could be yours. You’d have a monopoly on utilities,” he purred smoothly. Riku sat transfixed, eyes glued to Roxas and mouth opening and closing in a silent imitation of a fish. Sora turned his murderous glare on Axel.
“Doesn’t this bother you?!”
Shrugging his shoulders, Axel leaned back in his chair with a grin.
“Not really. It’s hot when he gets all bossy and charming. Even more so when it’s not directed at me.” The fire witch waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Roxas tore himself away from his negotiations with Riku long enough to blow a kiss over his shoulder to his boyfriend. Axel’s grin grew as he caught the kiss and cradled it to his chest. Kairi gagged at the display.
“So, Riku, what do you say? Don’t you wanna trade with me?” Roxas asked softly, earnestly, putting just the barest hint of a suggestion in his voice.
“Yes, yes, anything you want,” Riku nodded vigorously, pushing all of his properties toward Roxas. The blond mermaid crowed victoriously, snatching up New York Avenue and throwing down the Electric Company before Riku could change his mind. With this addition, he finally had all three orange properties and could begin to build houses.
It wasn’t an official rule to not enchant other players because it was implicitly understood that neither Sora nor Roxas would ever attempt to influence their friends in such a way. Roxas had always enjoyed playing a little dangerously, though, especially when victory was at stake.
“Pleasure doing business.” Roxas smirked with a wink.
And was promptly tackled to the ground by a snarling Sora.
Roxas was immediately on the defensive, hissing dangerously as he engaged in a supernatural wrestling match with his twin. The rest of the group heaved a collective sigh, each of them knowing better than to attempt to break the brawling mermaids apart.
“I’ll start the timer,” Demyx said with an exasperated tone that spoke volumes about the frequency of such events. He pulled his phone out and set a two-minute timer.
That was another one of their rules, one that rarely occurred but required strict enforcement, nonetheless. Because both Sora and Roxas were incredibly competitive individuals, usually manifesting in exceeding volatile ways, it was often simply easier to let them work out their differences physically then try to keep them separated.
Or as worked out as they could be in two minutes, at least.
Soon enough, Demyx’s phone began to quack incessantly, signaling the end of the two-minute period. At the sound, Axel put his own phone down, having used the two-minute break to scroll aimlessly through social media, and stood up. Riku, too, rose from where he was seated, the last remnants of Roxas’ enchantment having worn off long ago. They looked at each other and nodded determinedly before moving to separate the fighting twins.
Deftly avoiding pointy teeth and sharp claws (he liked both those things, but this was neither the time or place), Axel grabbed his boyfriend around the waist and dragged him bodily off of Sora, grunting slightly at the added weight. Sora, seeing an opportunity, scrambled to lunge after Roxas, only to find himself similarly wrapped up in Riku’s arms.
“Okay, contestants to your corners. Five-minute break before gameplay resumes,” yelled Demyx dramatically as he set another timer on his phone.
Axel struggled to drag Roxas to a corner of the room, the mermaid as slippery in his arms as a bar of soap in the shower. The blond turned to his boyfriend and snarled something angrily in that ancient language.
“Now, now, Aqua Lad, none of that,” Axel hummed, unbothered. “Don’t make me restrain you.” Roxas stilled in the redhead’s arms as the words were all but whispered in his ear, a shiver dancing up his spine. The rest of the group groaned in unison and proceeded to tune out the whole ordeal as Axel effectively distracted Roxas with not-quite-whispers of filthy promises.
Across the room, Riku was also working to coax Sora into forgetting his anger with his brother, with a slightly more innocent approach and similar levels of success. When quacking signaled the end of the five-minute break, both parties stumbled back to the table, Sora with a bright flush high on his cheeks and Roxas with a new bruise coloring his neck.
Kairi rolled her eyes and threw the dice at Axel.
“It’s your turn, dipshit.”
The game continued, but the atmosphere in the room was much more tense after that. Fighting always tended to have that effect.
Demyx was one bad landing away from being completely bankrupt, and Sora was in a constant state of buying houses and then having to sell them back almost immediately to keep his head above water. Kairi was sent back to jail on the same turn she was released, much to her delight. She laughed when Riku tried to bargain a rent payment with a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.
Axel wearily took the dice when Roxas’ turn was finished. His last turn had landed him on Boardwalk with a hotel on it (legally acquired this time, they checked), and he was barely hanging on after forking $2000 over to an entirely too gleeful Naminé. Needless to say, he was looking forward to the brief respite passing go would provide.
Shaking the dice in his hands, he threw them on the board, not even flinching when they took out a few recently repurchased houses on Sora’s Virginia Avenue. They’d probably be sold off next turn, anyway.
A six and a two.
Counting out the spaces, his racecar token came to land on the Chance space. Chance cards were relatively safe, in Axel’s opinion, so he was almost happy when he snatched the top card off the deck.
All his happy feelings vanished instantly.
Staring blankly at the card, the redhead took a moment to reevaluate every single life choice that had led him to this moment.
He blamed Riku.
“What is it?” Roxas asked when Axel had been unnervingly still for far too long, leaning over to try and read the card himself.
“Take a walk on the Boardwalk. Advance token to Boardwalk,” Axel intoned lifelessly.
A beat of silence, and then the entire table exploded in raucous laughter.
Such was the way of Monopoly.
Naminé positively cackled at the prospect of stripping Axel of what little remained of his money and properties, effectively kicking him from the game.
Axel, though, didn’t move his token, only stared at the card in his hand, silent and considering.
“Babe?” Roxas asked softly with a hint of laughter still in his voice, concerned at his boyfriend’s sudden shift in behavior. Without bothering to respond, the redhead gently set the Chance card down in front of him and smoothly got to his feet. Reaching over the table, he quickly snatched up the Boardwalk property card from its place in front of Naminé and held it aloft between his index and middle finger.
In the next second, smoldering ash rained down on the board.
Axel’s face remained a picture of calm serenity as the rest of the group erupted into noise. The fiery remains of what used to be the Boardwalk card floated in lazy downward spirals before landing on the few bills stacked in the middle of the board for Free Parking, instantly catching them alight.
Before anyone could blink, the entire board was engulfed in flames.
The noise level in the room increased tenfold.
Panicking at the prospect of setting off the fire alarm again , Demyx did the only thing he could think of: he summoned a wave of water and sent it crashing down on the blazing board game. Water cascaded everywhere, thoroughly dousing the fire and each of the room’s inhabitants in turn.
In the next instant, two sopping wet mermaids sat where Sora and Roxas had previously been, surprise and a hint of annoyance painting their faces.
For a long time, everyone stayed as they were, frozen in place as they tried to process the rapid-fire events of the past few minutes. Nodding once as if in acceptance of the evening’s turn of events, Axel turned and slung his backpack over his shoulder before bending down and scooping up Roxas in his arms. Lingering shock was the only thing that kept the blond mermaid from putting up a fight over being manhandled so suddenly.
The sound of the lounge’s door swinging shut behind the pair seemed to startle the remaining group members out of their suspended silence. Riku peeled a half melted and rapidly cooled wheelbarrow off of his forearm while Naminé removed the remnants of some soggy bills from her hair, both of them glaring fiercely at Demyx.
“Sorry, I panicked! Besides, Axel should be the one you all are mad at, not me! He’s the one who set the board on fire!” The water witch defended, shrugging helplessly under their heated gazes.
“Well that definitely settles it,” Kairi muttered, wringing excess water from the hem of her shirt, “no more Monopoly.”