Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: This is a story of four men, and how the world is indeed a small place.
It's a Small World.
A story of four men.
「Yo, kid, my schedule update was late again. Leonhart was at my door with Seifer at 1PM, which was the time I saw your schedule update. Seriously, get a laptop and some internet connection or I'm going to have to fire your sorry ass and kick you out of my apartment. Don't be home later than eight or you don't get your food.」
「Not my fault you always sleep in,」 was the response muttered by Roxas, listening to his phone messages. He flicked the phone off with a click, slid his right leg over his bike in one smooth motion and kicked off onto the busy road. His mouth forming into what most people would call a pout. 「And your cooking sucks anyways.」
Storm clouds could be seen looming above him. A heavy grey atmosphere was forming and forcing its way down to earth's surface. He could taste the humidity in the air as it fell heavier and heavier. His pants were creating sticky friction with every movement, every paddling of his bike. This weather promised rain, and he wished the clouds would just get it over with and rain already. The anticipation and foreshadowing was driving him to irritation. It was stuffy. It was unbearable. A rainstorm in the summer was the worst weather, and it would be impossible to study in this weather without some cooling device. Knowing how cheap both his roommate and himself tend to be, Roxas doubted his roommate would have the air conditioning on in their apartment. Not that he would ever consider studying in their apartment even if there was air conditioning; it was far too busy with customers and his roommate's chattering – he was talented at talking to himself – and the loud music he liked to leave on while working.
He needed some air conditioning, and he needed them now – was what he decided after feeling a large piece of pant fabric gluing itself almost permanently onto his thigh.
Thunder cackled loudly as it cut through the thick atmosphere. He scanned quickly around his current surrounding to find that the city was boring and grey – that was the one thing that didn't change, the city always seemed grey no matter the weather. Desperate to find a dry and cool shelter, he paddled on as fast as he could manage without being a safety hazard to the traffic. The typical grey and barren scenery of the city blurred and tumbled over him: If only he could find a bookstore, or a quiet coffee shop, all he was asking for was a quiet, dry and cool environment where he could study in peace!
Thunder roared again from above, and as if on cue, he felt the first raindrop on the bridge of his nose. The rest followed quickly, leaving spotted patterns on his back, and immediately swallowed the pattern into a large piece of soaked fabric, much like the rest of his body.
He only hoped that the coffee shop he had just located not far ahead of him wouldn't kick him out for soaking their seats.
Quickly paddling over, he parked and fumbled with his bike lock; Cursing when he entered the incorrect combination for the second time, and rejoicing with a happy sigh when the lock finally let him have his way as he pulled out and pocketed the key. Re-adjusting his school bag and finally taking a good look at the location, his brows creased as he suddenly realized what a shady looking café he had just chosen to spend his next few hours in.
His hand had also absent-mindedly reached his school bag to find that it was soaking wet: And getting wetter by the second.
Far too soaked to really care, and fearing the fate of his books and papers he rushed to the heavy wooden door and pushed without giving more thought to the suspicious looking cafe. The dark wood gave a rusty creak quickly accompanied by the crisp sound of bells, and he shuddered as cool air-condition scented air blew at his wet form blissfully.
Fifteen minutes left.
Cloud's blonde and meticulously spiked hair peaked over from his computer screen. The second hand on the office clock wasn't moving fast enough, he thought, the minute hand was even slower, and the hour hand wasn't moving at all; Cloud felt that at the pace they were going, they might as well be moving backwards.
Which would be a bad idea, Cloud thought. Considering his luck, the clock probably would start to move backwards just to spite him.
「Cloud, come to the front desk please. Your wifey is here with your lunch-」 Yuffie's bright sing-song voice rang through the phone line and into Cloud's ears, ending with a click that nearly cut off her own sentence. He wondered why Yuffie always had to do this, it's like she enjoys bullying him. Why does she insist on calling Axel his 「wifey」? Does she realize the horror and violence that may occur if Ms. Gainsborough were to hear that? Last time she nearly bankrupted a rivaling company just because their CEO's secretary invited him out for an innocent drink! Imagine what would happen if she found out he was living with another person. But of course Yuffie doesn't care, since Aeris' wrath wouldn't reach her and would only land on him.
Why was the world against him? What did he ever do to deserve all the depression and sadness in his life? Why did he always end up being responsible for things that were not in his control? All he ever wanted was a quiet life in a faraway land where he can raise chocobos and live a carefree life, was that too much to ask? But circumstances always declared him the fault, or the source, of all difficulties in life.
「Hey Cloud.」
Nearly jumping and knocking over his chocobo figurine collection, he turned to see Axel leaning over his makeshift cubicle wall, smirking. 「Oops, did I interrupt your hourly brooding session?」
「Do you have any idea what might happen if Aeris saw you?」 Cloud gripped his desk and glared at Axel.
「You need to stop being so paranoid. I'm here everyday, she'd be as dense as you if she doesn't already know.」 Pulling down his backpack, Axel took out a small red lunch bag. 「Here, your lunch.」
At the sight of his familiar red patterned 2005 Chocobo-racing collector's bag, Cloud quietly let out a happy sigh. The only happiness he ever found in his depressed and his woeful life were 2 things: chocoboes, and Axel - his personal chef. His expression was unchanged as he peeled open the red bag slowly to reveal a full course meal, complete with desert. If one looked carefully enough, one would see that his face was tinted with a faint happy blush much like the one he usually carried when the topic of chocobo came up. At least there was something in his life that always remained unchanged. He was happy to see lunchtime arrive everyday and remain blissfully delicious.
So much that he'd even risk Aeris running into Axel - it was miraculous that she hadn't yet - and the potential danger of Aeris inflicting bodily harm on his precious personal chef.
「Are you busy today?」 Cloud mumbled inappropriately in between mouth-fulls of delicious homemade seafood paella.
「Not busy enough to skip making your dinner,」 Axel shifted to lean on Cloud's armrest. 「Just the usual stuff: slave for Xenmas, deliver your lunch, slave for Xenmas some more, make your dinner, and slave for Tifa. Exactly like yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that-」
「I'm going out with a friend tonight, skip dinner.」
「... Mr. I'm-too-emo-for-the-world is going out with someone?」 Axel's eyebrow rose in mock surprise, then paused dramatically, 「oh wait, let me guess, it's your ex-girlfriend's ex-boyfriend again. If I didn't know better I'd suspect you broke up with her because of him.」
「I'd really rather not think about that,」 the implications of the possibility alone was enough to make his stomach churn, and nearly enough to make him spit out his precious food. Axel did not know his friend was not only Aeris' ex-boyfriend, but also his ex-ex-girlfriend's older brother. Cloud felt like he should really reconsider the continuation of this oddly situated, and highly dangerous friendship.
「Hey don't worry, not like it's true,」 Axel slapped Cloud loudly on his back, the sound causing various co-workers to turn their heads.
Haha hahaha... was Cloud last bitter thought before shoving spoon fulls of rice into his mouth vigorously, as if the rice were able to wash the thought away.
The streak of blonde hair stood out awkwardly. It was flaunting itself in front of him, as if daring him not to see it. It was an oddity Axel should not be used to. Yet the moment those blonde hair passed through the wooden door that is the entrance to his little cafe, something click comfortably in his head. Like a jammed door that wouldn't shut into its frame had just slid easily into it. Axel knew this person, like the door knew its frame.
「Roxas.」
The two syllables slid out before he could remind himself strangers aren't supposed to know one another's names.
「... Excuse me, could you please go away so I can finish my readings?」 unwilling to give up on his readings – they were required the next day, Roxas glared up from his papers, intent on ending this one-sided staring contest that Axel seemed so keen on having. 「I don't feel quite comfortable being stared at.」
Axel was not in the habit of staring at random strangers, not even the attractive ones – and no, he did not think Roxas was attractive, just… familiar. Yet he felt as if something bigger and larger than his existence was grabbing hold of him. Something was welling inside of him, and something important was supposed to click in his mind, but the metaphorical button was flickering instead of doing any clicking. A warning told him that he would never figure out what this important message was if he diverted his vision, and somehow convinced himself that staring at the boy's face was the way to solve the mystery.
「… Have we met before?」 Axel spoke from his seat across Roxas. Not caring at the moment for the consequences of seating with a customer.
Upon hearing what was typically interpreted as the cliché pick-up line, Roxas' blonde brows creased with awkward confusion. The combination of irritation and an effort to be polite resulted in a faint pout. For a moment he was convinced Axel was hitting on him, and he was sick of being hit on by older men. For once he'd like to hear a cute girl say that. He replied with the fastest negative answer he could think of towards unwanted advances. 「No.」
Axel's tongued clicked at the instant refusal, still staring at the boy's suddenly irritated expression. Great, the answer to his mystery was lying with a big, walking déjà vu with an attitude. He was going to have so much fun solving this puzzle. He didn't think he had a choice of giving up, not when images and voices were still hovering over the edges of his memory. He felt like he was being constantly prodded and poked at, and Axel did not like being poked.
「Are you sure, kid? Cause I could've sworn…」 that I got a strange buzz in my head with information overload that disappeared without a trace the moment I took notice of it, and the world seemed to swirl when I look at you. And I don't mean romantically – Axel mentally added.
「Positive.」 He gritted out of his teeth and his pen made a swirl over his thumb and index finger. He was going to ignore this persistent man and get on with his readings.
Which was when he noticed the approach of a third member.
「Axel, go prepare his cheese croissant, and…」 Xenmas' voice sliced in between them, along with a glass of iced green tea, 「… no hitting on customers.」 His point emphasized by the loud thud of heavy glass hitting wood, voice just as stern and lacked emotion as he did so. The tone contained warning and promise of punishment or worse – a wage cut.
The single drop of ice tea that had landed on Axel's bare elbow when glass impacted wood had snapped Axel out of his concentration on the boy. Xenmas' subtle yet audible threat registered, and he took half a second to adjust to the return of reality. He then mentally cursed himself for being ridiculous. Nearly knocking down a chair as he stood, he turned his back to the boy and sauntered back to the kitchen with a small wave to the pair behind him. 「Yeah yeah, fine, whatever you say Superior.」
「Please do forgive him, I guarantee that his skills as a chef more than makes up for his rudeness.」 Xenmas bent down to an angle where his face was politely leveled to Roxas' height and spoke as he wiped the droplets of ice tea off the table. 「Do allow me to treat you to your drink and food today, as a form of apology.」
Axel's eyes rolled upon hearing bits and pieces of Xenmas' customer service skills from his location in the kitchen.
「I'm going to be a knight!」 Seifer looked out to the far distance through Zack's window. His normally devious eyes suddenly sparkled with excitement.
Golden strands of sunshine filtered through the metallic window of Zack's 5th floor apartment. It wasn't the greatest nor the safest apartment you could find in the downtown area, but then again no place in downtown would really be considered cheap. It was the price that had to be paid for convenience, and it was a price that Zack was more than willing to pay. After all, who would want to travel all the way to an inconvenient location for mere haircut?
His current customer, Seifer Heartily, was one of those customers that came regularly due to his easy location.
「Yeah but in order to do that you need to stop squirming and sit still.」 Zack pulled at Seifer's hair in order to return Seifer to his original sitting position. 「Unless you want to be a knight with patches of hairless holes on your head.」
「I wasn't squirming! Squirming is for weaklings!」 Seifer then proceeded to squirm under Zack's determined grab at his short hair.
「You can stop shouting too, or I'm going to give you a chunky Mohawk.」
「You can't do that! I'm a paying customer!」 Seifer hurried to cover his head with small hands, voice laced with fear and panic from the possibility that Zack might actually carry out his threat, and hands coming dangerously close to Zack's scissors.
「Try me.」 Zack smirked. 「And your daddy over there is paying, not you.」
「He's not my dad!」
「I'm not his dad.」
「…」 Both heads turned over to said paying customer sitting in the corner in varied degrees of surprise. It wasn't very often that Leon wasted words over something so trivial. In fact, Zack was pretty sure Leon was never the one responsible for phoning Roxas for a haircut appointment.
「You're getting married with his mom in 2 months, tell me how you're not his dad.」
「Doesn't matter, he's not my dad!」 Seifer jumped up and down dangerously on his stool, furious. 「There's no way my dad would be weaker than me.」
Seifer crossed his arm over his chest and gave Leon a haughty smirk that could rival Zack's own. Zack was surprised to see a flash of heat flicker within Leon's usually emotionless eyes. The kid was damn good at pressing Leon's right – or rather, wrong – buttons, and proud of it too, as he was smirking in satisfaction at what he had successfully drawn out of the usually cold man.
「…」 Leon closed his eyes, and paused. When he opened his eyes again they were back to his usually machine-like nothingness. 「I'm not his dad.」
「Right, and I'm not a hairstylist.」 Putting his scissors back to work, Zack dropped the subject as Seifer dropped back happily onto his seat.
Zack's days were eventless to say the least. His days were marked by his appointments -which his kid manager Roxas somehow never manage to inform him about on time – and occasionally whatever happens to be going on with Cloud.
Which were too scarce in his opinion, but friendships were about two people, what he wanted was not the only thing that mattered. And Cloud obviously did not want to see Zack more than he's already seeing him
Zack often wondered why Cloud was putting up with him, considering their complicated situation. Heck, Zack often wondered why he himself was putting up with Cloud. It was not easy maintaining a friendship with the supposed bastard who not only dated your ex-girlfriend and dumped her, but also dated your precious baby sister and dumped her too.
To tell the truth Zack still felt like punching Cloud through the wall whenever he thought about it.
Which led to the question: why were they going for dinner tonight at – of all places - his little sister's restaurant?
Oh right, because they were supposed to have put all these issues in the past. Therefore it shouldn't matter whether they were eating at his little sister's restaurant alone or not. Especially not when he had an odd hunch similar to a woman's sixth sense that the reason why Cloud dumped both Aeris and his little sister were not as simple as it seems.
Not that the reason Cloud had presented was simple at all. Cloud was never the type to go for simple.
A quiet creak disrupted Zack's thoughts, his hands paused half way into trimming Seifer's hair. It took only a second for Zack to register the creak as the sound of his very own wooden door.
「Roxas!」
Zack could feel Roxas jump at the sound of his own name. The little bastard was trying to pretend he didn't exist again. Zack gave himself a mental pat on the back for once again succeeding in dragging Roxas out of his introverted tendencies. 「Get over here or you don't get dinner tonight.」
「You're not making dinner tonight anyways,」 Roxas' voiced came muffled from the other side of the door in his room.
「Right.」 Zack did a double take, 「hey how did you know I'm not making dinner tonight?!」
「He's your friggin' manager, of course he knows.」 Seifer snorted, still sitting impatiently. 「Stupid.」
「No name calling, kid, or I'm telling your mom.」 Zack pointed his scissors at Seifer momentarily. 「He's my manager for business appointments, doesn't mean he should know about my personal appointments too.」
「You always go out with Cloud on Monday nights.」 Came another muffled yell from the other side of the door.
「Zack and Cloud sitting in a tree-「 Sefier swung his legs happily, singing slightly off tune, 「K-I-S-S-I-N-「
「Whatever.」 Zack cut off, attempting to avoid the subject, patted Seifer's head not so gently. 「You're done, now go home and run to mommy.」
「I'm not a kid!」 Seifer jumped off his stool angrily, and ran over to Leon. Zack waved the two of them off, and proceeded to clean up the area.
「Zack and Cloud sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.」 came Roxas' sing-song voice after Leon and Seifer had left. He leaned on the frame of his door.
「Would you like me to give your cactuars a nice haircut, Roxas?」 Zack turned to smile at Roxas. The smile did not reach his eyes.
「Don't you dare touch my cactuars!」 Roxas yelled. His door slammed with an audible click indicating he had locked himself in.
The first thing Zack had learned about Roxas after the kid moved in was his unhealthy obsession with cactuars. Much like how the very first thing Zack had learned about Cloud when they were first introduced was his unhealthy obsession with chocobos. Proven by the fact that Cloud styled his hair meticulously every morning to resemble the look of a chocobo, the end result being Cloud's hair always reduced to looking like polygonal blocks.
Which was a shame really, underneath all that gel, Cloud had very soft hair.
Not that Zack would know from experience or anything, it was merely a professional observation.
And that's what I'll keep telling myself.
Zack sighed as he looked at himself in the mirror. It was time to get ready for his dinner.
Note: A little testing here. First chapter maybe edited in the future.