Title: Stitched Up Heart
Summary: A Fashion major at Traverse Arts University, Roxashas everything going for him. That is, until he meets an idiot redhead. With a partying Sora, an overprotective Riku, and no Naminé, can Roxas survive the new semester? And why does he hate guys so much?
Rating: T for teen
Disclaimer: Sooooo…Kingdom Hearts does not belong to me. Come on, if it did, we all know how much of a bajillionaire I'd be. 8D
A/N: Hey kiddies, I'm back with a brand new story! :D Yeah, don't remind me about the 'A Night of Sin' one I didn't finish…I'll do it! I promise, I will try! I may change this to M later – I'm still not sure about it. Depends on how dirty Roxas wants to get… :D
Oh, yeah, and I was contemplating adding in music to every chapter, but I'm still not sure about it, so I didn't do it for the first chapter. Comment if you think there should be some songficness to this or not. I'm still iffy about it. Besides that, I hope you like it!
Chapter one: Red Heads that Get You Fired
A young looking man, blonde hair and blue eyes shining in the dull window, sighed as he continued fixing the window display at the front of the fashion clothes store in which he worked. He'd worked at 'Noir' for about two weeks, and began to further realize just how demanding the fashion world really was.
It was a ritzy place, filled with designer clothes that flew off the racks when some celebrity or another would wear one of their designs. The job was tiring, and he'd often have sore feet by the end of the day. Working at a store where people bitched all of the time to be waited on did take a lot of energy, especially when pompous rich accents hurt his ears and puppies named 'Paris Hilton' peed on the floor.
It was cold as hell by the window too since it was winter, but he couldn't help it. Besides, even though he felt like he was doing the grunt work now, he knew this job would get better. It wasn't as if he minded it terribly, yet he was itching to do something more challenging instead of fixing window displays and making sure everything article of clothing was in its proper place. He'd just started too, of course, but had been very lucky to work at such a high end place. Heck, he'd been lucky to even be accepted to the Traverse Arts University, which was one of the most prestigious universities for art and fashion.
When his brother got accepted, he knew applying there was necessary, because just knowing Sora and Riku were going to the same school without him felt lonely. He didn't expect to get in considering he was aiming for the fashion school, but he persevered in his designs and patterns and loved every outfit he ever helped make, so he thought perhaps that would be just enough to get him accepted. Apparently it was. With his acceptance letter, he thanked his lucky stars and moved up to New York.
Even if he'd got accepted, he learned very fast that paying off loans would really be a bitch. So, last semester he went looking for a job, and thanked God when he got one because he wasn't sure how much more ramen or Riku's awful (sad, but true) cooking he and his brother could live off of. Hell, he and his brother didn't even have enough to move out of the dorm they lived together in, let alone be able to pay for bills. Hopefully that would change. However, that big fat paycheck may not arrive at the end of the week, because for right now, work was the last thing on his restless mind.
Sighing, Roxas tried to focus his attention to outside the window, but his vision blurred. To no avail, he attempted to distract himself, but he inevitably recalled what had happened last night with a grimace.
God, how could he of screwed up so badly?
Cringing back to the memories of last night, the older teen named Roxas held his head in his hand, shielding his puffy red eyes from the passersby's on the street. He could already recall the event with an untimely horror, because just as he remembered the fumbled, completely stupid event, he managed to trip over his feet and take down the nearest male mannequin with him.
Once the unfortunate tumble was over, Roxas sighed in exasperation, laying there as he let the memory wash back over him.
"Roxas, we're through!" Naminé held her head as she looked over the blonde haired teen that was sitting on the floor, encompassed in rose petals and vanilla scented shampoo. Roxas had screwed up again in pleasing his girlfriend, and for her, that was the last straw. One does not mess up an anniversary evening, especially when it dealt with flowers and bathtubs.
"N- Naminé! Wait! What do you mean? You…can't! I…"
"You're too clumsy, Roxas! You can't do anything right, and it's so frustrating!" She wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, looking away angrily. For him, that little movement cut him deeply. Their lips had been touching just moments before he slipped on the open soap bottle that was leaking on the floor and brought her down with him…Did he taste bad? Is that she was wiping the kiss away so nonchalantly?
Trying again to please her, he took the broken rose petals and gathered them in his hands. "But! Naminé …I really do love you. You're the nicest girl I know." With a plea, he held them up quietly. When her glare pierced through him, he dropped the broken rose petals and just stared at her with a sinking heart.
"Roxas, I'm sorry, I just don't have the patience anymore."
"You don't…have the patience for me?" His big blue eyes stared up childishly, and he wondered if, all along, she had really felt this way. When did it get to this point?
"I may be the nicest Roxas, but I know you don't have it in you to love me all of the way, and that's just frustrating. I'm sorry…"
And she left Roxas there, confused and bumbling as ever. He hadn't seen her since last night, though she still had to come back to pick up her stuff sometime.
Remaining where he fell, Roxas inhaled sharply to hold back a shaky breath. His eyes stung again and his chest tightened, but he held back the pain. She was right – he was a failure that hadn't even been able to make her happy. He failed at making anybody happy except for when he was designing, and even that led to many disappointments. Sometimes he wondered if he was really just letting everyone down lately, or that he was just letting himself down.
"Ughh, I can't get anything fucking right," Roxas whispered.
"I'm sure you're not all that pathetic!"
The blonde man, hiding his face in his hand from shame and sadness, let his vision crack through for just a few moments to get a good glimpse at the fiery haired man now leaning down to him. Out of old habit, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration at the flaming red hair. He did not need this specific customer asking a stupid question while he was obvious busy. Forcing a smile, Roxas removed the one hand from his face all of the way and reminded himself, once again, that if he did not please the customer, they would submit bad reviews about him; even if the customer was a harassing idiot who came back every day to annoy the living hell out of you.
"Oh, don't mind me. I did have a question, but if you're busy with that mannequin…" Grinning, the flame haired man let a small smirk curl on his lips slowly.
First, confusion, then realization occurred when Roxas noticed that his hand was resting on a bump of some kind. Looking back, Roxas mentally slapped himself. Of course it would be laying on the male mannequin's imaginary package! Dammit it all! And of course his hand couldn't of been anywhere else when this customer so happened to approach him with a – probably stupid – question.
"Well, he probably wouldn't make that good of a lover, but at least you could touch whatever you wanted without any type of protest…."
What the hell as this guy's problem? This was the third time he'd come to bother him this week! It wasn't even like he came in to buy anything. Ha, he probably couldn't even afford anything in here. Roxas snorted at the thought, but then frowned when he noticed Axel continue to talk. He really did not need this right now.
"And if you get a kick out of it…"
Roxas, just about seething with frustration now, removed his hand from the mannequin. Sadly, it was frozen sinfully while he listened with a horrified expression at the idiot's comments, which didn't go unnoticed by other customers now watching the situation from afar. Roxas could see it on the news now, 'young teen fired for assaulting a valuable mannequin'. He got up to fix his now wrinkled clothes and sighed slowly.
"Or if that doesn't satisfy you, there's always my…"
Glancing over towards the blabbering customer, he took an extra long breath to help him get through this one. He knew he had to quickly calm himself and the customer down, or other customers would get offended. Just the man's fiery red hair and wrinkled clothes made customers offended. Actually, any kind of clothes that weren't designer were looked down upon in this store, and Roxas was sure his managers were hoping to get the loitering customer to leave soon. Nicely, of course.
Interrupting the man's train of thought with a forced, "hello sir, how are you today?" Roxas tried, one more time, to tell himself not to lose his temper with this guy.
"How am I? Well, ya know…" And the one-sided conversation began.
Oh, God.
Would this ever end?
Smile faltering, Roxas managed to find every way possible to maim this guy in his head while ignoring what he was saying. Ahh, if dreams only came true. Hopefully he would leave soon, but Roxas could tell his bad mood was getting the best of him. That was very bad, because sometimes he got a temper that was difficult to control.
"And I gotta say, those blue eyes of yours…"
WAIT! When did the subject of his blue eyes come to light? Suddenly, the man actually did have his full attention, and with each passing moment, Roxas felt himself grow more disgusted. He was just sitting there listening to his compliments without ever saying anything! Damn, he hoped he hadn't been encouraging anything by not saying a word.
"And I can't believe that you're just sitting there watching me with that dumbfounded face. It's so stupid looking its cute!"
So he had been feeding the flames. Great. Well, fuck. What does one say to this? And stupid looking? He was not stupid looking! Taking in a deep breath, Roxas bit his cheek and ground his teeth together. If he could just get through it one more time, perhaps the guy wouldn't come back.
"Sir, is there something I can help you with?" he asked with clenched teeth and a forced smile.
"Help me?" Axel raised an eyebrow and smirked, causing Roxas to shudder. "There's a lot you could help me with." The arrogant asshole was just egging him on and on, and Roxas didn't know how much more his ears could take.
Suddenly, Roxas felt am arm around his shoulder and an odd grin at his right. He could already trace the outline of the man's teardrop tattoos and his tall figure towering over his petite one. Roxas eyes widened with surprise and the contact was very unwelcome, but he stood there, frozen. He couldn't move, couldn't think, and he didn't exactly know why it made him so uncomfortable. Damn, he should really pay attention to his surroundings. Maybe that was what Namine was talking about…Finally after a good half a minute, Roxas reacted.
"W-what are you doing? Don't touch me! Stop harassing me! I swear, touch me again and I'll have charges against you!" Roxas flinched at the touched and pushed him off violently, as if the reaction was already programmed in his brain. And as far as Roxas knew, it really was – he hated random strangers touching him, but he hated men touching him even more.
"Jeez man, what's wrong with you? Jumpy much? It's not harassment if I say you're cute! Oh…wait." The red head thought to himself, but unconsciously rested a hand on Roxas' shoulder as he did so.
"Just get off!" Roxas yelled, slapping the man's hand away, and then making an 'oh shit' face as he realized he just physically hit a customer. He could already feel his palms getting sweaty in nervousness. He realized he was on a one way road to getting fired now, so he pulled his hands back as quickly as he could. Luckily, though, the red head just crossed his arms and examined Roxas with a puzzled face.
"Tsk, tsk, now that's not very nice. Aren't employees supposed to treat customers a certain way?"
"Aren't customers supposed to actually buy something and save idiotic questions for themselves?" Roxas cringed at his spiteful comeback, hoping to the shred of an ounce of his dignity that something or someone out there would give him a break and that this idiot wouldn't report him or try to get him fired.
"Oh, so you can actually say something feisty, eh Blondie? Pretty short for your age, too, huh?"
"Why do you keep bothering me?"
"How old are ya anyway?" He asked, poking the blonde's cheek with one of his slender fingers. "I'd guess…ermmm…'bout 18, huh?"
Roxas, already at his wits end, slightly pushed the man back with a snarl forming on his face. "I'm 19!" Now customers were really gathering around the scene, and Roxas' pent up emotions flew out from last night. Hearing the customer's whispers around him, Roxas temper slowed as he tried to regain composure.
'Did you see that?' one customer whispered to another.
'He pushed that poorly dressed customer!' her friend responded.
'How very rude!'
'Hmph, I think I'll leave. I don't shop here to see this trash!'
The two left the scene and walked out with their heads held up in distaste. Oh shit, they really were leaving, along with a few others who put down the clothes they thought about purchasing. However, the red head didn't even notice, and so he continued on.
"Really? Man, I bet you get people asking if you're 16 all of the time!"
"What does it matter?" Roxas snapped back more quietly this time, eyes narrowing. Hell, he didn't even care if he got fired anymore, his life was already traveling down to shit anyway – his girlfriend left him, people still thought he was 16, and customers were apparently turning more bitchy by the minute. Oh, and he forgot to mention that he had a major paper due on Wednesday that he hadn't even started. How did that even happen? Oh yeah, because his professor was a douche who assigned a reading assignment over Christmas break and then required a whole paper be written over it in the first week of school. Why the hell did he put off the damn English credit anyways to next semester anyways?
"Hmmm, I guess it really doesn't matter, now does it?" he nonchalantly asked, the grin on his face growing so wide that Roxas' hand jerked violently, the incomprehension of the man's stupidity finally frying Roxas' brain.
"I just- I don't even…Why mention it, then?" Roxas burst out. His voice rose to the loudest it had been all day. However, the best this seemed to accomplish was the red head to laugh. Roxas was going crazy – bat shit, mad, fucking insane. That was it. This was all a bad dream – it had to be, because he had never met such a pestering person in his entire life.
"Whoa, can all people who are fun sized scream that loud?" the red head asked, putting a hand over his ear. All the while, even though the blonde had literally just yelled in his ear, the red head still had a smile on his face.
Roxas broke, then and there. A dam of his pent up emotions traveled up to his face and it slowly became red. Finally, after a few moments, his mouth opened slowly and his face began to shake with a built up response ready to explode. To any passerby, it was one of the scariest sights they had seen all week.
"Leave me alone! You fucking come in here every day and touch me and tell me weird things and, God, it's an absolute must to compliment me all the damn time! So, please, please, just stop."
Finally, for the first time that day, Axel appeared confused. "Why not report me, then?"
Roxas, voice hoarse, replied with a slow, "what?"
"If you hate me so much, it probably would have been smarter to report me for bothering you, huh? Silly blondie," the red head mentioned, another sly smile forming on his lips.
Roxas stared, and stared, and then felt like a dumbass. Just before he could respond, the red head interjected.
"Oh, hey, looks like you'll be busy in a moment…Sorry, man. Name's Axel by the way. Got it memorized?"
Before Roxas could even begin to comprehend what this Axel was saying, he felt a light tap on his shoulder and almost uncontrollably peed his pants when he turned around. Almost.
One of his manager's, a light brunette with a sweet face named Aerith, shook her head slowly at him. Aerith had a sad, sallow look on her face, and the fact that she kept shaking her head disappointedly made Roxas' entire face pale.
"Roxas, we saw the whole thing. I'm so sorry…"
Well…shit.
"Cloud wants to see you in the back room, Roxas," she whispered. Oh, fuckity, fuck. She just looked like someone died and was having their dead body dragged around mercilessly. It was sad because he actually liked Aerith, and that look she gave him made him made him feel guilty.
Instantly, he grew quiet and nodded, knowing the inevitable was about to come. Damn, he should have just kept his mouth shut. He should have reported the red head before it got out of hand; that would have been the sensible thing to do. Slapping his hand to his face, he dragged it down, replacing his wide eyes with narrowed eyes.
"See you later, blondie!" Axel waved as the blonde began walking, but that didn't stop him from turning around and giving the tall man a glare. If he hadn't lost his cool, maybe the red head would have disappeared and he would have kept his job.
As Roxas walked slowly into the back office, and had a burning rage still bottled up inside to kill a certain red head, he could feel his already cold fingers get colder and his small form shake. He knew what was to happen - it was inevitable. When he finally opened the door and saw his manager, Cloud, he felt his stomach drop.
"Roxas," Cloud said slowly "do you know why you're back here?"
"U-ummm, yes?"
"Good, then I hope you understand my decision on the matter," Cloud said slowly, and Roxas could feel his world cave in.
"What! Y-you can't! You saw what that guy was doing, didn't you?"
"Roxas, I'm sorry, but we can't keep you around. Customers saw – some have already complained – and we can't let you behavior reflect on the store. You should have reported the incident earlier instead of taking it in your own hands and harassing the customer. We can't have someone who can't communicate well to the customer. "
"Y-you don't understand! I need this job!"
"Perhaps you should learn to control your temper more, as that behavior was very unacceptable for this type of environment."
Cloud shook his head, stood up, and put a hand on his shoulder. "There's nothing I can do. Roxas, I really am sorry," he mumbled, and then got up and walked out of the door with Aerith following close behind while wondering how in the hell he was going to please the disgruntled customers. Roxas stood there for a moment, and felt his body shake as he realized he dug his own grave.
"Why does everyone keep apologizing?" Roxas asked, standing there with a dumbfounded expression on his face. He couldn't believe anything that had happened to him these past few days – harassment, getting fired from his job, having a butt load of homework, and losing the most important person to him…his girlfriend Naminé
A/N: Done! Pweeeease, review! I shall give you a cookie and a banner that says 'AkuRoku' on it! :D You know, maybe you can hang it in your room or something? ' Oh, and I'll let you in on a secret…I wrote ahead a few chapters because I knew it would keep me from quitting this story, but new ideas are welcome anyways if you feel like it.