May 17, 2010

It was clear warm spring afternoon. The birds were humming to whatever their little heads thought of and the sun was warming up all of Earth's inhabitants. Plants and trees were sprouting up with flowers and the grass was as green as ever in Radiant Gardens. Nothing could ruin this day.

At least, that's what Roxas Hikari thought when he woke up this morning – correction – afternoon.

You see, everything was fine the first couple of seconds he awoke from his deep slumber. He opened an eye to the bright sun that flooded his room with light from his skylights in his bedroom. Then he had turned to the side to see the time it was.

1:05pm

From that point on, everything went downhill for the rest of the day. You see, he was supposed to go to work today – which started at 9am – and talk to his best friend Axel and discuss their daily grown men problems until it was time to go to lunch. Then after work, Roxas thought he'd go visit his older brother, Ventus, and see if Aqua had killed him yet. Finally ending the day, he'd go home and call his younger sister by a year, Naminé, and discuss what they did today. Okay boring, the only reason he was going to call Naminé was because she was seeing this older dude named Terra. Roxas did not approve of him.

His day was all planned and ready to go. That was until he saw the time though. Now, half of the day is already ruined. He hoped Mr. Xemnas – his boss – could understand. Most likely he wouldn't though, because Mr. Xemnas was like the perfect human being. He spoke etiquette at all times, dressed proper, and would occasionally – repeat occasionally – smile at everyone he saw.

Except Roxas…

Xemnas – or Mansex as Axel calls him – disliked Roxas with a passion. No one knew why the silver – gray - haired man disliked the quiet blond; he just did!

Since half of the day had already slipped past Roxas as he slept, there was nothing left to do except call Ventus and tell him he'd be over there in a few.

"Um… hey bro," Roxas could tell Ventus was nervous. He never called him "bro" unless he was nervous about something.

"Hey, um… I'll be over there in a few-"

"Ha, you see Rox, about that… can we cancel today? Aqua's not feeling too hot right now… and I think she needs the alone time. Y'know how pregnant women are…"

No. No he did not.

"Yeah, I know… they're all um… moody?" Roxas hoped Ventus didn't notice his statement was more a question.

"Yeah, very moody."

"Okay… I guess I'll see you… um… later?"

"Maybe not…" Ventus sighed on the phone as he heard his wife yell something about chocolate covered fish from Italy.

Roxas laughed in sympathy for his older brother. "Okay, talk to you later then, Ven."

"Bye."

Roxas sighed. Guess the only thing he could do now was call Naminé. His younger sister always had something to say. Whether it was about art, her best friend Kairi, or Terra, Naminé had a comment about everything. How Roxas loathed Terra. He was bad news and Roxas knew it for a fact!

"Hi-"

"Nami!"

"You've reached my voicemail! I'm not available to answer my phone right now, but please leave a name and number and I promise I'll call you back… unless you're one of my brothers! Love you guys! Bye!"

"Unless the brothers you meant were Ven and Sora, then I don't think I count. But anyways, call me back Nam," Roxas sighed as he hung up the phone.

Great, what possible could he do now? It was too late to go to work and Axel probably went over his monster's – girlfriend – house for another "Wild Frantic Night" as he would put it.

That left only one thing for the dirty blonde to do and that was to get ice cream.

~!~!~!~!~

Radiant Gardens was fairly large and crowded. You see, many people came here to make something out of their lives, which explained all the tall office buildings you'd see every corner you turned and frequent traffic jams. The only "garden" part of the city was the small – more like tiny – park they had. To everyone else it was just a waste of space that could be used to make something better. But to Roxas, it was so much more. It was the only area that reminded him a little of his home town, Twilight Town.

You see, Roxas never meant to come to this horrid place and leave his home town; but he had no other choice. He was offered a job as soon as he graduated college and he just couldn't turn down the offer of 70 bucks per hour. You would have to be dumb not to take up that offer.

Ventus was offered the same thing – different job – when he graduated college, which caused him to move to some town near Radiant Gardens called Traverse Town. Naminé was a complete different story though. She was offered numerous job offers for $200 an hour. Unlike her older brothers though, she decided to go start her own art company in Destiny Islands.

Now the girl is on the "Top 50 Richest People in the World" list.

They had another brother, Sora. His story is a mystery. Sora never really stayed around the family since he felt like an outcast. He was the only brunette in the house. The boy would often think he was adopted. Ventus tried numerous times to explain to him that their late mother, Aerith, was a brunette like him. Sora accused him of being a liar and a stupid head.

He was 18 at the time.

The Hikari was fairly large. The order of siblings is Ventus, Sora, Roxas, and Naminé. Sora is 2 years older than Roxas and 2 years younger than Ventus. Their mom, Aerith Hikari, had died when Ventus was 12, Sora 10, Roxas 8, and Naminé 7. The reason Sora thought he was adopted was because when Sora was around 3, Aerith dyed her hair blonde for God only knows why reasons. So basically, the brunette has no memory of his mother with brown hair.

Anyways, let's get back to the story.

Roxas sat in the small park on one of its stone benches. The park had 1 tree surrounded by different types of flowers, a couple of stone benches, and a small wired fence around the entire area. It wasn't much decorated and had trash splattered everywhere, but it was a nice quiet place to come and think.

Across the street from the park was Scrooge's Ice Cream Shoppe. Some short old pale man who had a strong Scottish accent when he spoke owned the run-down place. Roxas already knew it was rundown when he first discovered it a year ago. The place didn't get much business, but it had the best low-fat ice cream in town!

Roxas guess that was his next stop on his ruined day. Maybe he could get a sea-salt milkshake and call it a day.

~!~!~!~!~!~

The first thing Roxas smelled when he entered the place was a mixture of fresh ice cream being made and the awful scent that was pouring out from the restroom. The tiled white and blue floors were peeling away and some were even chipped enough to show the wooden floor beneath them. The striped blue walls were slowly coming down and the red booths that were in the store all had the yellow foam spilling out from its cuts and holes.

Then he saw her.

The most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

She was leaning in front of the cash register, resting her head in her hand. It seemed as if she was chewing gum very impatiently. Her red hair was pulled into some messy bun and her blue eyes looked like they were dying of boredom. She wore a blue apron that had Scrooge's on the front in big gold letters. There on the upper left corner was her nametag. Roxas slowly made his way over to the girl.

"Hello, welcome to Scrooge's, can I help you?" She said in a bored tone and didn't even glance up at Roxas once.

"Um… a sea-salt milkshake please…" Roxas smiled at the girl; half knowing she wasn't paying any attention to him.

"Sorry, we ran out a few minutes ago when some blonde chick ordered it," The girl popped her gum, still not looking at Roxas.

Roxas let out a heavy sigh. There goes his day. It was completely ruined now. Nothing else better to do now but to go home and sleep the rest of the day away, even if it was only 3:40pm.

"Hey, you look upset…" The girl finally looked up at Roxas. "Cheer up, dude! There's always tomorrow!"

Roxas stared at the girl as she grinned at him with most perfect whitest teeth he had ever seen. The girl's attitude had completely changed. Why so fast though?

Then before Roxas could figure it out, she had thrown off her apron and underneath revealed a red tank top and some khaki shorts. She pulled a green hat from her back pocket and let out her red hair that swooped down to her shoulders. She then placed the hat backwards on her head and hopped over the counter without fail.

"HEY SCROOGE, I'M OUTTA HERE!" She yelled.

"See you tomorrow, lad!" A Scottish voice called back.

Roxas watched as the girl washed her hands off at the sink outside the bathroom and came prancing back.

"Hey, kid, we're closed now!" She said as she was suddenly in front of Roxas.

"I'm not a kid…" Was all Roxas could say to the pretty redhead.

"Oh yeah? You look around the age of 15 to me," She smirked at him. "I bet you your sea-salt ice cream that I'm older than you!"

Roxas smirked at the bet. "Okay, so how old are you?"

"I'm 22!"

"23."

"You suck," she pouted. "Okay then, sir, come back tomorrow and I'll give you your sea-salt ice cream for free. Don't tell Scrooge though, he'll have a cow."

"Ha, you got a deal."

She grinned as she ran towards the door and pushed the glass door open, causing a small bell to ring that hung above it.

"Oh, before I leave, my name is Melanie. You can call me Mel, though!" She grinned.

"Okay, I'm Roxas…" Roxas introduced himself.

"Roxas, eh? That name is awesome. Well, see you later, dude!" With that, the girl skipped out the door, causing it to slam shut.

Roxas laughed slightly.

Melanie seemed very interesting.