For two reasons. First, because what kind of fanfiction author goes three whole years without writing a single coffee shop AU? And secondly, because Christmas crept up on me and I forgot to throw something together and I happened to have this lying around. So yeah. This will probably consist of two or three parts. The majority's already been written, but you guys know how great I am at posting stuff when I'm supposed to. So yeah.

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals.

When Roxas, soaking wet, late for work, and extremely irritable, first stormed into Nature's Java on 115th and Broadway, he didn't realize that he would be coming again every week day for the next several years. He never even knew that he was going to come back at all.

As far as Roxas knew, the celestially designed Nature's Java, so different than the contemporary-chic style he was used to, was nothing but a crappy Starbucks substitute, brought to him by an inconveniently placed traffic detour. If he were ambitious enough, Roxas probably could have navigated his way around the detour and still gotten his Starbucks. But as was mentioned earlier, he was late for work, and Nature's Java had front door parking in downtown traffic. Which could be viewed as good or bad, depending on how you looked at it.

But Roxas was just not in the mood to fight destiny anymore. It was one of those mornings that were just wrong. As though a piece of the universe had fallen slightly out of place and become misaligned with everything else. Due to a monstrous storm the night prior (which was probably also responsible for the traffic detour), Roxas' alarm clock reset, and so he'd slept a half an hour later than he'd meant to. The toast burnt while he was dressing himself. The battery on his key fob died, and so he spent five minutes wrestling with a long-jammed door lock in the pouring rain. The list went on and on, and Roxas was certain that Nature's Java wasn't going to have his skinny white chocolate mocha latte.

Roxas, who was already wary of any coffee shop not called Starbucks, was not comforted by the hanging moon figurines. Or the nebula patterns sprayed on the walls. Or the sun carpet that smiled up at him. Or the numerous exotic plants potted near the window. Or the fact that the doorway that led to the back storage was closed off not by an actual door, but by a colorful, hanging rug.

The whole place looked like a weird cross between a hippie store and his grandma's attic. And it smelled like incense. On another day, a sunny day, maybe, he might have been able to appreciate it. But today, it was as off-putting as everything else that had happened to him.

"Hello! Welcome to Nature's—oh. Are you okay?"

Behind the counter stood a tall, good looking barista, with long, bright red hair tied back into a ponytail, which stuck out from underneath a black NEF hat that Roxas was sure would be against the dress code where he worked, and a lanyard with about 30 buttons on it. He also had two teardrop tattoos on his face, one on either cheekbone. His carefree appearance bothered Roxas greatly. Nobody, he thought, should look so comfortable with themselves on a day like today. It just wasn't fair.

But Roxas wasn't an asshole, and taking his frustration out on this guy wouldn't have gotten him a skinny white chocolate mocha latte, anyway.

So just sighed and pushed his sopping, dripping bangs out of his face. "No, not really," he replied dully, approaching the counter, "It's just one of those days where nothing goes right, you know?"

The barista nodded sympathetically. "You're the third Starbucks convertee I've seen this morning. I'm supposed to deliver you this whole schpeel about how we only use organic ingredients and how everything can be made vegan and blah blah, but you really don't look in the mood so just tell me what you usually get and I'll try my best to remake it."

Roxas cracked a little smile at that. He'd come in prepared to check out the menu a bit first, but this way was quicker, he supposed.

"White chocolate mocha?" he supplied weakly.

The barista chewed his lip in a quick moment of contemplation. His face lit up almost immediately. "I got just the thing! Uh—you allergic to anything?"

"No," Roxas replied. It hardly mattered, the guy was already whirling around like a madman behind the counter. He moved himself and pushed down all kinds of milks and flavors and foams seemingly at random, the way someone only could after they've been doing something so long that knowledge becomes muscle memory.

Not 30 seconds later, the barista was scribbling something on the cup, which was already capped, leaving a small little sip hole for dancing vapors to swirl up from. Roxas reached into his pocket for his wallet and found some lint and a gum wrapper.

Eyes widening, Roxas began a frantic patdown, turning out all of his pockets even though he already knew he wouldn't find anything there.

"Fuck!" he hissed. All of his pockets combined produced him 83 cents. "I left my wallet!"

He wanted to kick something. Why couldn't just one thing go right!? He wouldn't be able to go back home for it now, he was already well on his way to being ten minutes late to work if the traffic was cruel, and he knew it would be. Which meant he was going to have to go eight hours without food or coffee—"

But the barista was already printing a receipt. He handed it to Roxas, along with the drink and a croissant.

"On me," he said kindly.

Roxas was floored, temporarily snapped into a daze and out of his panic induced craze. "I—are you sure?" he asked, feeling very thrown off and humbled by the strange act of kindness, "I mean you didn't have—I mean… thank you. Thank you."

"Consider it an investment," the barista joked lightly. "Detours are wonderful for business."

"Well… thanks," Roxas said. He took a moment to observe the nametag hanging from the lanyard, "…Axel."

"You're welcome," Axel replied, grinning.

Roxas glanced down at the cup, only just then realizing the name that Axel had chosen for him to go on the cup was Cutie xx. He jumped a little, nearly spilling it. "Well, t-thanks," he stuttered, "I already said that, I'm an idiot, I mean, see you-um, have a good one."

Before he could embarrass himself any further, he turned away to leave. Behind him, Axel called, "Hope your day gets better!"

"Yeah, you too," Roxas said. "I don't know why I said that, just have a good day."

Roxas felt his ears getting very hot as Axel's laughter followed him out the door and back into the rain. In fact it was several minutes before Roxas even remembered that he actually did have some sort of nice-smelling coffee in his cup holder. At the next red light, he tried a little sip.

He couldn't believe it. It tasted just like a white chocolate candy bar. There was another flavor in there too, subtle, but distinct to someone who had been drinking a similar drink for years. He couldn't quite put his finger on it. Was it strawberry? Pomegranate? Whatever it was, it complimented the flavor magnificently.

Roxas checked the receipt. Axel had given him a large and it was still cheaper than Starbucks.

~o~

The traffic detour was still there the next day. Roxas was not nearly so grumpy about it this time. In fact, he may or may not have put a tad bit of extra product in his hair, just in case.

When he walked into the shop, the sun streamed in though its many windows, some of them stained glass, others reflecting the light spectrum like rainbows. The incense-mixed-with-coffee smell was somehow not so off putting this time. Roxas noticed a shelf full of delicate teapots for sale. He didn't take a moment to go and inspect them, however. Axel was waiting for him, draped over the counter in a smug, relaxed sort of fashion.

"Well hello there," he said, a satisfied grin on his face. "Welcome to Nature's Java. How are you this morning?"

"I—I remembered my wallet today," Roxas blurted lamely. He knew Axel was more likely referring to his mood, but all his words seemed to fall away before they could reach his lips. He gave a nervous chuckle, perhaps under the idea that it would help to convey what his words couldn't.

Axel was wearing a maroon hat today instead of black. It clashed with his hair something terrible. It was such a violent shade of red, Roxas was almost certain it had come out of a bottle. Yet somehow, he couldn't imagine it being any other color.

The barista laughed a little too. "What can I get for you today?"

"Um… whatever it was you made for me yesterday?" Roxas asked, uncertain. "It was really good… what was it?"

"White chocolate raspberry truffle," Axel replied, with a small, don't-look-too-pleased-with-yourself smirk. "Extra pump of raspberry. M'kay, what size?"

Roxas was so used to ordering from Starbucks, he replied, "Vente," without thinking about it.

"This is a normal coffee shop," said Axel, his grin showing through his teeth now.

Normal was the last thing Roxas would have called it. The only time Roxas had ever seen anything like it was that time his mom forced him to go shopping at an artisan village with her. Normal coffee shops didn't offer vegan substitutes and use beads instead of doors and decorate the walls and floors with suns and stars. Normal coffee shops didn't sell candles, teapots and incense, and they certainly didn't employ stupidly attractive baristas that wore face tattoos and beanies.

But Roxas didn't think to point that out. Instead he began getting flustered again. Why could he just act like a normal human being? He never had this problem in the many years he'd been going to Starbucks. Why weren't there other baristas, anyway? It was like six thirty in the morning, there should have been at least three.

"I mean large," he said. After a pause, he added, "S-sorry. Force of habit."

But Axel was already tossing together the ingredients with just as much practiced ease as he had the day before. "Did you know that there's a type of lobster with regenerative cells and a constantly reforming exoskeleton?" he chatted loudly over the whirring roar of the foam maker. "Assuming they're never killed by an external force, potentially they could be immortal."

Slightly taken aback but also intrigued, Roxas replied, "I did not know that. They should use them for scientific research. It could be medically groundbreaking."

"That's… a really nice thought," said Axel, writing another name onto the cup, once again without bothering to ask Roxas for his. "You're a nice person, aren't you? I can tell."

And you are a total mystery, Roxas thought, handing over his card. He was careful to avoid reading today's name until he was out of the building. There were too many stands, rugs, and knick knacks for him to trip over; he didn't need a repeat of yesterday. "Thanks. Have a good one."

"Yep, you too," said Axel. He winked.

Determined to leave without stuttering or making a fool of himself, Roxas exited the shop, reading Sexy Hair wrapped around his cup in slanted writing.

The next day, there was no traffic detour to take Roxas past 115th and Market.

He found himself going that way anyway.

~o~

"Did you know that there was a tree planted in dedication to Ringo Star that got devoured by beetles?" Axel asked cheerfully as he wrote some embarrassing name on Roxas' peppermint tea. He was wearing a knitted scarf today, and rightfully so. December had come, and winter was crawling up fast.

Roxas was about to compliment it when he realized that out of three months' worth of random facts, this was the only one he'd known before Axel told him.

"Yes! I did know that!" Roxas shouted triumphantly. "They had to take the whole thing down and replant another one. I read it on CNN last year."

Roxas had learned more useless information from Axel than he'd ever cared to. He learned everything from, "I bet you didn't know that bubble wrap was first invented to be a wallpaper" to "isn't it cool that whale calls are almost as complex as human speech?" to "Y'know, during the scene in Return of the King when Frodo leaves Middle Earth, Sam inexplicably loses his vest. Sean Aston forgot it when he took a bathroom break."

Yet every morning he found himself looking forward to the fact of the day. It never ceased to amuse him that Axel hadn't run out yet. He wondered occasionally if Axel had to look one up every night, or if he was just so full of weird facts that he didn't have to.

Without missing a beat, Axel took his card and swiped it. "Really? Well then did you know that as of today, you've been coming here for exactly three months and I still don't know your name?"

"Well, if you've been trying to guess you're doing a piss poor job… Snickerdoodle," he said, taking note of the ridiculous name Axel had given him today. "It's Roxas…"

~o~

From that day on, every random fact of the day began with 'hey Roxas.'

"Hey Roxas, did you know that July and August were named after Julius and Augustus Caesar, respectively?" "Hey Roxas, did you know that the first vending machine ever produced holy water?" "Hey Roxas, bet you didn't know that Elsa from Frozen is a lefty."

The names on the cups, however, remained quite as imaginative and complimentary as ever. Roxas had to give him credit for creativity; they were almost always different and never repeated less than two weeks apart. The only time Axel incorporated his name at all was for 'Foxy Roxy."

The shop, which had still not yet taken down its Christmas decorations, was filled with the warm smells of marshmallow, gingerbread, peppermint, eggnog, and all those other seasonal flavors. But even all the festivity could not quite mask the incense smell. Roxas barely even noticed it anymore. The scent filled his nose when he walked in and that was it. It was like coming home. Aside from a few warm lights behind the counter, all of the lights in the store had red and green filters on them, which left the shop quite dark in the early winter morning. It was so cozy, that Roxas began timing it so that he arrived fifteen to twenty minutes early, just so that he could bask in the sweet warmth, enjoy his morning cup, and have small conversations with Axel.

Then, on the Friday of New Years' Eve, Axel's fact was very unlike the rest of them.

"Hey Roxas, did you know that I would really like to take you out tonight?"

Roxas' vanilla chai sprayed all over his hands, the counter, and his cup. 'Adorable porcupine' ran down the sides of the cup in blackish-purple rivulets as Roxas took in what he heard.

"No? I mean not no!" Roxas added quickly, "I meant no I didn't know, no like no I don't—I mean—really?"

Axel nodded. "Me and my buddy always go to this one place, they do a 12 cent wing special and these really great countdown shooters. Cept he recently got in a relationship, so now it's gonna be awkward and I'll be third wheeling and that's not cool I mean it's not like he does it on purpose but when they're together," he made a 'pshoo' sound as he launched one hand off the other in a mock of a rocket shooting into space. "It's like they're in another world. So I figured, I should probably bring someone so that they don't feel bad about ditching me like I know they will, cause I get it. And the thing is, I really want it to be you."

He chewed his lip. It was the first time Roxas had ever seen him look so nervous. Roxas felt an evil sort of satisfaction in knowing that he made Axel feel as nervous and Axel made him.

"Sure, I mean yeah, I'd like to," Roxas said. He knew it would cost him; he'd made plans with his brother to watch the xmen trilogy, drink and eat hors d'oeurves till the ball dropped. But opportunities don't come along like this every day. Or even every year. "Where should I meet you?"

Axel lit up like the Christmas Tree still sitting in Roxas' living room because he and Sora hadn't taken it down yet. "Here? Eight o'clock?"