Kingdom Hearts Academy: Marluxia's War
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy or Disney all rights go to Square Enix and Disney
Chapter 1: First Impressions
"Traverse Town, eh?" a young man said looking up at the town entryway. "Looks promising, what do you think?" he said turning to the one behind him. The second one inclined his head towards the town in silent response. "Yeah, maybe you're right, we should find the bar the masters' told us to." he said rubbing his head in confusion. "Now if only their map was as clear as their instructions." he said as he looked at the "map" that had been "drawn".
The streets had been drawn crooked, and were most likely mislabeled as well. Upon further inspection the directions were interrupted by written side conversations that had, somehow, turned into an argument over whose directions were the most accurate. "Leave it to them to screw up something as simple as a map." he said as he rubbed his head in indignation.
"Well let's just keep moving maybe we'll happen upon it knowing our luck." From there we walked not knowing where our luck would take us. First street, Third Street, after awhile it just felt like the people who made it just got lazy with the street names. Somewhere around Fourth Street we stopped, frustrated at ourselves and our masters.
"Stupid map...stupid masters...stupid...streets!" Arcos said as we stopped at the crossroads of Fourth and Sunset road. "Man we really need to ask for directions, problem is nobody is here...literally."
Looking around the street it did look deserted, although the shopkeepers could clearly be seen inside their stores, none had opened. Most likely their hours were only during the end of the day when everybody was coming home. Arcos continued grumbling under his breath about stupid things, meanwhile across the street I had noticed two people crossing.
Both of them were girls although one was obviously older, if you looked closely they held some similarities so they were probably sisters. The older one had blue hair and eyes, smooth face, and a nice figure, the younger one had black hair and blue eyes.
From what I could tell the conversation was mostly the younger sister telling a story to the older one. Tapping Arcos on the shoulder I motioned to the duo when I had gotten his attention. "What now you want to talk to girls, seriously man get your priorities straight." After that I was about ready to smack him upside the head had he not started laughing, "Relax dude I know what you meant, ask them for directions right?" Still glaring at him I nodded, irritation still at the forefront of my mind.
"Alright then let's get this over with." he said as we started towards the duo. The younger sister had stopped and was watching us, she must have told her sister to because she was also looking in our direction. Looking over at Arcos I could see nervousness plastered across his face, couldn't really blame him either, first time talking to a girl is never easy.
Sighing I reached to my side and unzipped my duffel bag searching for either my pda or my pen and paper. Unlike Arcos I can't really talk, thanks to a major jerkwad my voice box was pretty much destroyed so now I have to write everything down.
Anyway back to the matter at hand, directions. "Excuse me" Arcos said at the same time as the older girl said "Pardon us". My palm met my face as I sighed inwardly, awkward could not begin to describe this situation. Chuckling lightly and rubbing the back of his head bashfully Arcos gestured to the girl and said "Ladies first."
Smiling the older girl stepped forward bowed slightly and said "Hello, I'm Aqua and this is my sister Xion." she said as she looked at the girl behind her. Xion looked out from behind her sister and gave a small wave.
Arcos waved mechanically as if spellbound by the girl. I returned the gesture with a two-fingered salute, to which he gave me a look of you did not just do that. Rolling my eyes I leaned back and folded my hands, eyes at the sky. "I'm Arcos Lux, this lazy jerk is Aidan Tenebrae." as he said my name his voice turned into the blandest tone he could possibly manage.
Giving him a withering glare I made a circling motion with my right hand making sure it was exaggerated to convey my annoyance. "Ah right, uh sorry this is gonna sound a little odd, but we re looking for the bar 7th Heaven, could you point us in the right direction?' he said making sure to send an annoyed glance my way.
"Why are you looking for a bar?" Aqua said her stance and gaze becoming uneasy. "That s a long story so I ll try to abbreviate it as much as I can." Arcos said folding his arms. "The owner is apparently old friends with our respective masters , they told us she d give us a place to stay while we go to school." he finished.
Her gaze softened a little. "Oh ummm well in that case you two are fairly close 7th Heaven is just down this street." She said pointing to her right.
Aqua then looked behind her as her sister pulled on her jacket. "Oh right we need to get going don't we?" she said as Xion nodded. "Well we need to get home or our house guests will complain endlessly." she said as the two of them started crossing Sunset Blvd. to the right.
Waving our goodbyes we started down the other way of Fourth Street. All the while Arcos had a sloppy grin plastered on his face. Rolling my eyes I turned to the signs above the sidewalk, keeping an eye out for our destination.
The sign for 7th Heaven was inactive as that it was still the afternoon, at night that would change as her customers came in. Hitting Arcos on the shoulder to snap him out of his daze I pointed to the bar. "Was that really necessary?" he said in indignation.
Giving him a you did not just ask that look, I followed suit with a flashy display of clasping my arms near my neck and blinking in a lovelorn fashion. "I hate you sometimes you know that." he said in response. I nodded in response to his answer as we made our way inside.
The inside of the bar was actually pretty neat. Multiple wooden tables dotted the large open floor, and at the bar itself was a woman. Long black hair, reddish-brown eyes and a very nice figure. She wore a black leather jacket and gloves, in all likelihood she was who we were looking for.
"Excuse me are you Tifa Lockhart?" Arcos said as we approached the bar. Looking up at us she raised an eyebrow before responding. "Sorry we don't serve minors and we're closed right now." her tone was of disgust and her demeanor said she was ready to throw us out if necessary.
So to avoid a long explanation and to grab her attention I reached into my duffel bag and brought a fairly big bag. Putting it down on the bar I then reached into my jacket and brought out a letter labeled Tifa .
Reaching out she took the letter and opened it. When she started reading however her hand began to tremble and her face took on an angry expression. Arcos and I exchanged glances as she continued reading. After about 20 minutes she put it down and turned to us.
"So you both were trained by those two idiots?" she said her voice strained in annoyance. Arcos responded "He was trained by Garland, I was trained by Jecht." Her knuckles tightened and our gazes were drawn to them in fear. Both our masters had spun tales of the monstrous bartender for 7th Heaven, well Jecht more so than Garland.
Her gaze softened as she started towards the back. "First things first, follow me." she said with no room for arguments. Leading us to the top of a set of stairs she turned right and stopped about two feet into the corridor. "Alright the gil in that bag was for you master's tab, so I expect you two to find some jobs because I don't take in freeloaders." she said her hands on her hips as if she were scolding children.
"Do either of you have any particular skillsets other than fighting?" she asked. Arcos put his hand to his chin in thought. "Well we're both equals in terms of cooking and Aidan is better at heavy lifting than I am." he said. "Cooking?" she said.
"Yeah we both learned how to cook, since most of his life was spent traveling and Garland didn't know how. I learned from a housewife." he said as she turned and unlocked the doors on both sides of the hallway.
"Well then I'll ask around see if anyone has any openings, in the meantime you ll be across from each other, and since we never introduced ourselves I'm Tifa Lockhart owner of 7th Heaven." she said as she extended her hand.
Arcos took it first "Arcos Lux, part-time blitzball enthusiast and struggle competitor." he said as he shook her hand. When she moved her hand to me I shook as well as Arcos said "This is Aidan Tenebrae, struggle enthusiast and full-time sword nut." As he finished Tifa gave a quizzical look.
Removing the bandanna from around my neck I revealed the large scar on my neck. Her eyes widened at the sight and her hand covered her mouth. "Yeah he can't talk at all, and despite his pda and notepad it still limits his speaking ability." Arcos explained.
Regaining her composure Tifa smiled and said "Well I hope you two settle in nicely here, and before I forget I've got some kids staying here and a guy who bunks here from time to time." she said as she walked back towards the stairs. "Welcome to Traverse Town." she said as she headed back downstairs.
"So who gets the room with the view?" Arcos said as I prepared my hand. Ok then on 3, 1.2..3...Rock, Paper, Scissors! and the end result was.
Arcos=Paper,
Aidan=Scissors, result=Aidan wins!
"Damn it!" Arcos said as he took the room to the left. As I headed into mine I heard "Oh I guess it doesn't really matter they both have views." Smiling to myself I put my duffel bag at the foot of the bed and looking out the window, laid down and let sleep take me away.
