During my employment at the ice cream shop, every morning I would lift a box of popsicles onto the counter, opening it up. The old lady who owned the place would catch me going through these motions and scold me. "The sun will have them all melted before you sell one!" she said, but I had a system. I dumped the popsicles into a cooler full up with ice and kept it under the counter so I never had to turn my back on the cash register. Not that there were things for me to be suspicious about around this town. I just didn't want to miss anything because there was always something to watch.
For example: every once in a while, a boy named Hayner would come by and buy ice creams for him and his friends. The amount and type of ice cream—three sea-salts—never changed, but he would always provide me with entertainment for the day with the spats he got into and the complaints he would be grumbling under his breath. And every time he left, he made sure to compliment me and promise to see me again soon.
It was a day like any other.
"Shove it, Seifer!" Hayner said, slamming a Struggle bat into the other boy's chest. "You'll be eating your words when the Struggle Tournament comes along."
Seifer scoffed, tossing the bat aside and walking away. "Keep dreaming," he said. "After all, you wouldn't want a repeat of last year, would you?"
"Hayner!" I chimed, waving him over. Distracted, his face was relieved of anger and replaced with curiosity. When he saw me motioning him closer, he threw one final glare at Seifer's retreating back and jogged to me. Once he reached the counter, he leaned against it and sighed and I said, "At it again, are you?"
"That Seifer," he complained, frowning so hard his mouth looked as though it would fall off. "He's just—"
"None of that here," I interjected, pushing three popsicles into his face. "You know the cost."
Hayner rolled his eyes, but smiled and dug through his pockets for money. "Thanks, Ari," he said, taking the ice cream from my hands. "Have I told you yet how lovely you look today? It's almost inhuman."
I grinned. "You're a charmer, Hayner," I said, taking the coins from him and dropping them in the register. "Say hello to Olette and Pence for me. And I'll see you tomorrow."
"Count on it," Hayner promised with a wink. He stepped aside and I watched him make his usual route back to his friends, where they met at the spot under the tracks, and was jolted when someone said, "Two sea salt ice creams, please."
I turned to face the customers and was alarmed by a flurry of fiery red hair. A man in a black cloak stood before me, his eyes green like foliage to fuel his hair. Behind him stood a boy with an identical coat and a head of spiky, sandy blonde hair. And eyes like the bluest skies.
"Uh," I started. "Right." My next moves were automatic, the lifting of the cooler lid, the grabbing of the popsicles. But my thoughts were in overdrive and I was wondering who these people were, where they were from, why they were dressed so oddly in what looked to be stifling clothes when the heat outside could kill a man. There weren't many people in this town I didn't know. And they didn't appear to be the type to have any roots to a place like this.
"Here you go," I said, handing them their items. "That'll be—"
The man dropped a small coin bag on the counter and slid it over. "That should be enough," he said. "Keep the change. Let's go, Roxas."
"Ah, wait," I said. The boy hesitated, like he wasn't sure which order to obey, but the man paused, turning back to me. The boy seemed to take this as a cue that it was all right for him to stop too and turned to blink at me.
"Is that not enough?" the man asked, gesturing to the coin purse which I hadn't even opened yet.
"That's not it," I said, and then flushed red because my next words would make me sound like an absolute fool. "It's just—are you guys from around here? I've never seen you before, is all. My name's Arisa."
"We're visiting," the man said. "Sorry, but we only have so much time for a breather, so we have to get going. Right, Roxas?"
The boy blinked at me, but at his friend's ushering, he picked up his feet and left. But I swore I knew him from somewhere.
In a world of words.
A/N: I always thought I would finish, refine, and publish this story after I had finished with BOUND, but being that BOUND doesn't look like it's going to be finished any time soon, I don't think I'll ever get around to having this story the way I want it to be exactly. I also have another version of this story where we start off knowing right off the bat who and what Arisa is (although that statement should have given it away immediately), and where Ari was sour and Demyx's best friend, but I don't even know if I'll ever get around to finishing/continuing with this, much less publishing that.
I thought I would post this anyway because it was one of those stories I held very dear to my heart before Ren came along and took up all my time and creative energy. I started off writing fanfiction for Kingdom Hearts, so I know the fandom pretty well! But this story is one that I wrote a few years ago, so the writing is immature and lackluster, but I love it anyway because it was going somewhere good.
I hope you liked this snippet! And who knows: Maybe I'll get around to it again one day.