Who does this loud, pompous, stuck-up badass with a fake accent think he is?! His name's Axel. That's who he is. Got it memorized? Axel x Roxas.

Er…Yes…I'm well aware that I have…unfinished stories…But you know…them things called plot bunnies wouldn't go and leave me be…Lawls.

Anyways, the one-shot sort of starts off slow, but give it a read ok? You know how that saying goes; good things take time. Lawls.

At least I HOPE this is a good thing...


It was a lazy Saturday night. With the blond lyinfg on his bed, his music blasting into his ears through a set of stylish headphones with designs on the outside of the earpieces and all around the plastic, his eyes closed, his foot tapping away in some sort of rhythm and sometimes, if he knew the lyricfs, he'd mouth along with the song.

The whole day had been spent at home, along with any other weekend, but today was extra special. Extra special.

For reasons he did not know. Yet.

His brother came intof his room with a loud bam with the door slamming right into the back part of the wall, the blond jumped and quickly sat up on his bed to stare wide-eyed and lips slightly open in wordless shock at his big blond brother who merely said, "We're going out to dinner."

There was a bit more staring before the younger blond on the bed realized that he couldn't lip-read what his brother just said, "Say what?" Roxas stared at the other blond incredulously as he pulled away his headphones that blasted out heavy punk music.

"Get changed, we're going out to dinner." he spoke as he made a move to get out of the room.

"What?!"

"Get changed dammit!" Cloud shouted as he slammed the door behind him and stomped away to some other part of the house. Probably to his own room and get changed himself.

Roxas gave a frustrated growl as he threw his arms up into the air and then threw his headphones onto the bed still blasting out loud music, not even bothering to switch off his mp3 player, "Fine!"

You'd think it's such a chore to get out of the house for a good, nice dinner…What, with the way that Roxas was reacting.

The younger blond of the family had never been too good with fashion. Actually, scratch that, he'd like to think that he had a pretty good sense of fashion, trendy, chic, modern and completely his own thing, but only if he had been given ten minutes or so prior to look through his cupboard and closets to decide what would fit and what to wear.

By the time he felt that he was decent enough to go out in public, his big brother decided to honk the horn and yell at him to hurry up.

"I'm coming!!" he called out as he muttered a curse under his breath while he stuffed his pockets with his wallet, his mobile phone, his house keys and his mp3 player which he had yet to switch off.

After he slipped his shoes on, keyed in the code into the alarm system, and locked the doors behind him, he moved on over to the passenger side of Cloud's car, opened the door and hopped on inside. And as soon as he closed the door, the driver immediately pushed the gas pedal and they were making their way out of their small driveway.

It took a couple weeks of practice and getting used to, to be able to drive that fast down a pretty cramped and long driveway.

"Where are we going anyway?" Roxas asked as he pulled his seatbelt on and settled into a more comfortable position.

"Dinner with the parents."

"Couldn't you have, oh I don't know…Told me earlier?" he snapped as he turned his head to stare at his big brother.

"They called like fifteen minutes ago and told us to go to this restaurant for dinner, it's not like I was fully prepared too you know?" he reasoned as he slowed to a stop at the roundabout.

The younger blond let out a soft noise of slight frustration and agitation, "They could've at least given us a half hour heads' up." he mumbled out as he turned his head to stare out the window at the blurry passing scenery as he folded his arms in front of him.

"Look," he started very slowly, "Mum and dad just got out of a hectic business deal with the company merges, we could at least meet them halfway and go to the city instead of them driving all the way back home to pick us up." he spoke as he flipped his indicators on, moved onto the roundabout, did a slight turn of the steering wheel and then drove straight. "Gas is pricey sure, but we gotta compromise a bit."

Roxas eventually sighed, having lost the battle, "Ok then." since the news of the merge between two companies were out in the news, he had seen less and less of his parents. Probably too busy with loads of paperwork and meetings and what not. "Any idea where we're going?" he asked curiously as he pushed the button for the radio to come on.

Their ears were filled with music of a heavy rocker metal mixed with classical instruments type of music.

Cloud made a move to lower the volume as he kept his eyes on the road, "Some Italian restaurant on Collins Road."

The younger blond wracked his brain and scoured through his memories to find the restaurant that his big brother was talking about, and then it clicked, "Oh, you mean Gina's?"

"Something like that." he shrugged as he stared down at his speedometer to make sure that he wasn't over the recommended speed limit. He got caught once for doing a 62 at a 50k zone.

Long story short, the brunet policeman who pulled him over had a scar diagonal on his face. He was crude and clipped, his uniform was neat and not a speck of dirt on his shoes. He gave Cloud a fine of 180, a cut-down of 30 driving points and a suspension of his license for 2 weeks. That did not go too well with Cloud. But somehow, in the middle of their heated argument, swear words thrown about, fists held out and so on, they ended up exchanging phone numbers. Weird huh?

They reached their destination within fifteen minutes, but it took a good ten minutes extra to find a parking spot close by and then an extra five minutes (probably less) to walk to the restaurant called Gino's.

'Opps…' but Roxas shrugged it off; the name of the restaurant he had thought of was just one letter away from the real thing.

They walked past the front, open part of the restaurant, where some diners gave them a passing glance before they returned their eyes back to either their food or the person who they were talking with and then as soon as both blonds walked in through the front door, they were greeted with a hearty welcome from a waiter and the bar waitress.

"Ciao! Benvenuto!" they all called out with a loud and noticeable Italian accent.

"Hi." the taller blond smiled a little as he walked up to the counter, "We have a reservation for four? Under the name Strife."

"Ah of course! Please give me just one moment! And I will take you to your tables!" the tall burly, balding waiter spoke as he called out to another man and motioned him to go to some other direction within the restaurant. "Just five more minutes please." he smiled as he motioned for them to sit down on the waiting seats by the entrance, "Somebody will come soon ok?" and it wasn't until both blonds took a seat down that the older man walked off into the busy restaurant to attend to other patrons.

The air smelled like a mixture of herbs and tomato sauce, and suddenly, Roxas started to feel more than just a little hungry.

On the surrounding walls, there were various pictures of Italy, sports pictures and Olympic pictures, even a flag of Italy hanging above on the wall. All sort of pictures, even paintings of the Italian version, 'Please don't drink and drive' with comical drawings.

Barely a minute later, another waiter, a tall red head this time, came out with two food menus and something extra in hand.

"Ciao! Benvenuto!" he greeted happily with a slight Italian accent, "Welcome to Gino's. This is our menus and here is our list of drinks and wines and other beverages." he spoke as he handed a worn laminated menu to the two of them and the beverage list to the older blond, "We are almost done with cleaning up the table, so if you give us just one more moment ok?" he smiled as he walked off and headed straight back to work.

The younger blond stared as the red head walked away and couldn't help but let out a soft noise, "Huh…"

"What was that?" Cloud asked as he peered at his little brother.

"Nothing." he shook his head as he stared down at the menu and tried to decide what he wanted to eat.

About two minutes later, a small crowd of people came out into the waiting room of the restaurant and then shouts and calls of "Grazie!" were heard from nearby waiters.

After the patrons paid their bills, they exited the front doors and the waiters continued to call out either "Grazie!" or "Arrivederci!" to the exiting guests.

And soon after the other people were gone, the two blonds were ushered by the tall, almost balding waiter towards a clean table for four at the far end of the small, crowded and popular restaurant.

"Thank you for being so patient with us!" he smiled as he clapped his hands together, "Would you like anything to drink while you wait for the others?" he asked as the two blonds sat down in their seats.

"Just water please." Cloud spoke while Roxas stared at his new surroundings. From the uneven surface of the walls, to the shapes of the lamps, the wrinkled table clothes and the size of the two joined up tables that they sat at.

"Of course, of course! I will be right back." he smiled as he went on his merry way towards the kitchen and disappeared behind the doors.

"What do you wanna order?" the taller blond asked as he peered down at his menu and left the drink list on the table for his parents to have a look at later.

"Dunno," he shrugged, "Guess I'll go for the steak." although everything on the menu looked delicious by the sound of their descriptions.

"Yeah, I'm hungry." he finally looked up from his menu and spotted their parents by the entrance, "Mum! Dad!" Cloud stood up and waved for his mother and father.

Their mother happily waved back as the father motioned at them to the waiter and saying something like, "We're with them." or whatever before they were allowed passage into the restaurant to go sit at their tables.

"Hello boys." she smiled as she sat down, "Did you have a hard time finding this place?"

"We had a hard time finding a park." Cloud spoke with a small rueful smirk.

"That's Hollow Bastion for you. One minute, there's a park, the next second, its gone." their father let out a soft sigh as he sat down next to his wife.

After a couple of minutes of trying to catch up with one another, a red headed waiter, the same one that handed them the menus before, soon came up to them with two more menus in hand and a jug of water, "Sorry to have kept you waiting." he smiled as he placed the cool jug of water down on the table and offered the two menus in his hand to the late comers, "Would you like to order any other drinks?"

"No, no. We're fine." their father shook his head and waved his hand in a negative to the waiter. "Just water is fine."

"Of course," he nodded his head in understanding, "I will come back to take your orders later ok?" he stayed for another two seconds before he made his way to the other part of the restaurant to attend to some other patrons.

Roxas stared at him as he left and let out another soft noise, "Huh…"

"What was that?" his mother asked as she looked up from her menu.

"Nothing mum." he spoke as he picked up the jug of water and proceeded to fill up the cups with nice, cool, lemon-hinted water.

After they chose what they wanted, talked about the progress of the company merge, tried to catch up and fill in on each other about their lives before a different waiter, one with a very heavy Italian accent, came by with a pen and a pad and took their orders.

Their father went first, saying something and then pointing to something on the menu.

The man nodded, "Which beef cut would you like?"

Roxas had a bit of difficulty understanding this, but his father seemed to understand straight away, "Scotch fillet please."

"And how do you like it cooked?" he asked as he scribbled down onto the pad.

"Medium please."

"Alright then, what about you ma'am?"

And after his mother told the waiter what she wanted, and when Cloud had a go with giving his order of what he wanted, it was Roxas' turn, "Um…I'll have this one please." he spoke as he raised the menu and pointed out what he wanted, only because he didn't know how to pronounce it and he didn't want to say anything wrong or insult them or anything.

"Ah of course." he nodded as he scribbled down the order onto the pad, "Scotch fillet too?"

"Yes please."

"And how do you like it done?"

"Medium rare please."

"Ah, excellent choice. We Italians like to have it cooked that way, because it's soft and juicy." he spoke with much passion, "Because the more you cook it, the harder it is to eat it, yes?" he asked as he took back the menus from the other patrons while he kept his eyes on the youngest blond.

Roxas agreed with a nod of his head and a polite smile, "Yeah, that's why I like it cooked that way." he smiled as he handed the menu back to the waiter's outstretched hand.

"Sometimes, we Italians even like to have it rare. But not many people like to see blood." he laughed at himself before he heard a call for him and then he waved back at whoever it was that shouted for him, "I shall come back with your orders soon." he spoke and noticed the empty jug of water and picked it up for the table, "And a new jug of water." he smiled as he walked away back towards the kitchen.

As they waited for their orders, the family continued to let everybody catch up with the events of their lives, ranging from high school, to college, to work meetings and overseas trips. They were interrupted halfway, however, when their ears were suddenly greeted with very loud singing in a very familiar tune, "Buon Compleanno, buon compleanno!" people clapped with the tune and laughed as the waiters sang the song for Happy Birthday to a very embarrassed looking female patron as she tried to hide her face while a familiar looking red head brought out a complimentary chocolate ice cream sundae with a birthday candle stuck on top, "Buon Compleanno, buon compleanno!!"

Then came a round of the regular 'hip-hip-hoorahs!' and then the compulsory shout of. "Congratulazioni!"

Roxas felt a little deaf after that. The small restaurant made the noise bounce off all around the walls and even amplified it as the noise reached them. He could hear a ringing in his ears now.

It was about a ten more minutes wait before their orders came in batches of two.

His mother ordered something with seafood sauce and prawns on top of her scotch fillet. His father ordered something with capsicums, mushrooms and tomato sauce. He wasn't too happy with it but eventually switched with his wife.

Cloud ordered the same thing as Roxas, except done with a different degree of cooking.

The presentation of the dish wasn't quite what the youngest blond had been expecting. But hey, the steak was cooked perfectly, so he didn't feel the need to complain. Not that he ever did.

Although he wasn't sure if he was supposed to eat the olives in his garden salad on the side of his dish. After he tried to cut them in half with his knife, he found that the seeds were still inside. He decided to leave them alone.

Halfway through their meal, the red headed waiter came back, "How are your meals? Are they ok?" he asked as he looked at each one of them before he eyes fell on Roxas again.

"We're fine." their mother smiled as she nodded her head and everybody else spoke their agreements.

The waiter smiled, "Is there anything else you'd like? Cheese? Chili flakes?"

"Oh, can we have some cheese please?" she asked as she leaned over a little bit to get her voice across the loud atmosphere.

"Parmigiano cheese? Of course!" he smiled as he walked off towards the kitchen and was back half a minute later with a small bowl of fresh, grated parmesan cheese and a bottle of chili flakes, even though they didn't ask for it. "Anything else you'd like?" he asked again before he heard himself being called away by some other waiter.

"No, we're fine. Thank you." their father smiled politely and then the red headed waiter finally left them alone to attend to another patron.

Soon, loud voices and calls echoed through the walls and another round of birthday carols was sung by the waiters and kitchen staff of the restaurant.

Roxas' hearing was probably shot to the ground now.

Well…the staffs were friendly; he had to give them that.

The rest of the dinner went by without another birthday shout from anybody else and once they were finished, a waiter came by, the tall, almost balding one, and picked up all of their plates and brought the dishes over to the kitchen.

Not a minute later, another waiter, the one with a very heavy Italian accent, came by with another set of menus and handed it to each of them, "Tonight's dessert special is the ah…" he quickly whipped out his trusty pad and flipped to a separate page, "The white chocolate passionfruit cheesecake and the raspberry chocolate fondue."

Their mother made a noise of absolute delight at the sound of desserts, and Roxas had to admit, the passionfruit cheesecake sounded damn nice…

He had a bit of a sweet tooth. So did his mother. He probably got it from her.

His mother decided that they could share the passionfruit dessert. Although the raspberry chocolate fondue sounded really nice too…

And after their order was placed, and a couple of minutes of waiting later, their dessert came by, along with two spoons, and they each took a bite of it.

It practically melted in their mouths.

"Honey, you have to try this." she smiled as she sliced a portion of it with a spoon and brought it up to her husband. He reluctantly gave in after a bit of coaxing.

And Roxas, being a little bit of a selfish bastard, wouldn't let Cloud have a try of it, but that was fine, Cloud wasn't a big fan of sweet stuffs. Just like their father wasn't either. He probably got it from their father.

The youngest blond eventually offered though but as predicted, Cloud declined with a shake of his head and settled for his glass of water instead.

After the plate was cleaned up, they got up from their seats and made their way towards the front of the restaurant as the many waiters continued to say "Grazie, grazie." to them as they passed by.

The youngest blond did not see the red head anywhere, so he guessed that the waiter was probably off his shift and decided to head on home.

"Roxas honey, you can go wait outside if you want." their mother spoke when she noticed a small crowd building up at the waiting part of the restaurant. Cloud had gone off somewhere to find a bathroom.

He stepped outside to be greeted by a soft breeze carrying strong hints of smoke. The blond walked away from the main entrance until he was in the safe zone. Close enough to be half associated with the restaurant, but not close enough to block the entrance way of the place.

Roxas stuck a hand in his pocket and pulled out his mp3 player. And after a couple of tries, he recalled that he didn't switch it off before.

The batteries were probably dead. Dead as in; needed to be recharged. The batteries he used were those rechargeable ones that cost a little extra but they could last up to a thousand uses.

The blond had a count of two-hundred and forty eight so far.

He let out a soft sigh as he stuck his mp3 player back into his pocket.

"Hey, blondie."

The blond furrowed his eyebrows a little and turned around, his eyes searching for whoever just dared to call him 'blondie'. His blue eyes fell upon the red head who hadn't gone home as he had first predicted, but was standing a short distance away with a smoke hanging from his mouth.

He was probably on his break or something.

Roxas was just about to brush him off and continue his search when the red head brought up a hand to take the cigarette away from his lips, "Yeah, you." he spoke again, the same voice that called out to him just seconds ago. The same guy who spoke with an Italian accent back in the restaurant when he gave them menus and whatever.

The blond continued to stare at the other a short while before his lips finally decided to work, "Aren't you supposed to be Italian?" the blond asked, even though he knew it couldn't be true.

The red head shrugged as he walked up closer to the blond, "It's just something I do for work."

Roxas fought back a snicker but managed out a neutral, "Oh."

"Why?" he smirked, "Disappointed?" he spoke as he blew out a stream of gray smoke from his mouth.

The blond watched as the smoke dispersed into the air, "No." he shook his head as he stuffed his cold hands into his pockets, "I was just thinking how bad it sounded." he reasoned, 'And a little fake.' although he kept that part to himself.

"I'll have you know that I had to take lesson for a few weeks to get it right."

"Really?" he raised an eyebrow up in incredulity.

"No, not really." he shook his head and continued to smirk as he brought up the half-cigarette to his lips.

Roxas scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Faker."

The red head chuckled, "That's me."

"So you put up a face just for a restaurant?" the blond asked as he peered at the tall red head and he noticed that there was about a head or so of height difference.

"It's the theme. Gotta be authentic." he shrugged, "Besides, I like this place. I can scream and yell all I want when it's somebody's birthday, which is practically every night. Great stress reliever." he reasoned as he let out another stream of gray smoke while he raised the hand that held onto the cigarette to his lips again, "It's not very often you'd find a job like this. And besides, its damn fun." he grinned as he took one last inhalation of it and breathed it out as he dropped the item to the floor then crushed it beneath his waxed, black leather shoes, "And some of the patrons are hella cute. Like you, for example."

He rolled his eyes at the red head's advances, "And I bet you say that to all the girls you see."

"Who said I was straight?" he smirked as he peered down at the blond with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Roxas quirked up an eyebrow at the red head whose name he still did not know, "Who said I was gay?"

"Oh, touché." he winced but quickly recovered, "But I saw the way you were staring at me."

"I never stared at you." he quickly defended himself.

"Oh right, you weren't staring at me per se, youwere staring at my ass."

The blond glanced away for a moment, his lips tugged up in a very unnoticeable disbelieving smile, and his face a little dead-panned, 'Touché…'

The red head laughed, "I was right, wasn't I?"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't flatter yourself." the blond scoffed as he turned his head away.

Before the red head could get another word out, he spotted the other people that the blond came along with and promptly shut his mouth.

"Roxas. Let's go home." his mother spoke as they started their short walk towards their parked vehicles.

"Ok mum, you go on ahead." he surprised himself when he said those words, but he mentally brushed the comment aside as he watched them walk away. He knew where Cloud parked the car, and he was certain that his big brother wouldn't leave without him. And well, if he did, Roxas could always catch the bus home. There was a stop across the road not a minutes' walk away.

In fact, there was his bus leaving now. But there was a ride every half an hour or so.

The blond and the red head stood a small distance away from each other in mutual silence before the older teenager had to go and ruin it, "I'm Axel by the way. And I take it you're Roxas?" he smirked as he glanced at the blond with another smirk.

"Mmhmm." he nodded, "And now that I've got your name, you better watch out for any complaints."

"You're gonna complain?" he raised his eyebrows in mild shock and surprise.

"Not me, maybe from other people. Something about a loud, pompous, red headed gay waiter."

"I never said I was gay."

This time, the blond slowly turned his head to the red head, whose name he now knew was Axel, and slowly raised an eyebrow at the other, "Oh?"

"B-I. Got it memorized?" he smirked as he brought up a hand and tapped the blond on his forehead.

"Whatever, jerk." he pushed the arm away as he started his walk towards his brother's car.

Axel followed until about halfway, and after a bit of coaxing, he managed to get a number out of the blond.

"Expect a call from me tonight. Something about declined credit cards." he smirked as he brought up a hand to make a salute.

"Not my problem." he threw a wave back as he walked away towards his brother's parked car. He heard a soft chuckle carried by the gentle breeze that passed him by.

Roxas didn't even know he had a smile on his face until Cloud pointed it out to him.

He got a call later that night. Nothing about complaints or declined credit cards. But for an invitation to a newly released movie.

Something about action and comedy.


I think I have a sudden love for titles in other languages. Lawls. It's nice and it's exotic. Don't you think?