It was all normal. Until that Mako plant fucking exploded.
The day was like any other, for everyone.
Yuffie was filtching Cid's cigarettes and replacing them with miniture Astrology scrolls.
Vincent and Cloud sat in unpetrubed silence with each other in Seventh Heaven as Tifa bustled around, sending coffee and shot glass of scotch and vodka to a table of oh-so familiar turks.
Aforementioned Turks sat poking fun at Tseng, Reno slipping his shots into Rufus' coffee when the man's gaze would turn toward Rude as he spoke. Elena giggled, but smacked the redhead's hand anyway.
Axel flicked his clove ashes at a certian's blonde's feet, getting punched in the throat for his efforts.
Sora grinned till it hurt as the bubbly, dirty blonde drug his choking friend away from him and his cousin.
Roxas rolled appathetic eyes and tried to ignore Marluxia and Larxene's sneering, horrifing comments from behind him.
A group of kids with books sat talking, poking pens at each other's notebooks, studing hard. Alternativly, a group of jocks sat, smoking pot and catcalling. Except for one, watching the nerds.
Just another, boring day.
The screaming was everywhere, surrounding Riku as people in flames ran from the wreckage, and sobbing leaked from buildings. The explosion shook the windows of cars, and made Riku slip in his footing as he ran toward the flaming, decimated building.
"Riku, no!" The young man shook the hands from his shoulders, jerking away from the screaming woman. He had to get to his brothers, his father. His everything was trapped inside, or somewhere near, that exploding, flaming wreckage.
"Riku, please, I can't find Zack!" That statement shook RIku from his blind, raging stupor. Aerith...
"Get the babies out of here, Aerith. The smoke could-" He screamed over the roaring noise, but another booming explosion cut of his words. Windows of the cars around them shook and shattered, and Riku turned and ran at Aerith to wrap his arms around her. He shielded his face as small chunks of debris flew toward him and ashes lodged in his hair.
"I need help Riku! You do too!" The ground trembled as Aerith whispered his ear, and Riku closed his eyes.
"Let's go!" He pulled away from her and slung an arm over his waist, leading her quickly and carefully through the streets.
* * *
Roxas weaved and bobbed through the crowd of students trying to get out of thier classroom and either to the front door or office. Teachers tried to hold everyone off, telling them to go back to class. But the screaming coming from outside the double doors was saying otherwise, and louder.
He jumped as a body appeared next to his, arm linked with the one not shoving people out of the way. Pence smiled grimly, turning Roxas down a hallway on thier left.
"Oh my god! The mako plant blew up!" At that scream the two friends turned to each other with wide, frightened eyes. The hallways exploded then, everyone running out of thier classrooms and shoving past each other.
"The girls are at Hayner's locker! Meet me there!" Pence shouted toward where Roxas last stood, moving away slightly with the swell of kids. Roxas nodded and continued his steady push through the crowds.
A small, petite hand, connected to a small blonde that always liked Roxas, shot out and grabbed his arm.
"I heard the explosions may travel. We hafta leave, what are you doing?" Roxas pulled his hand away, shaking his head. The girl barely looked offended though, and continued on her way.
Roxas spotted Pence waiting by a locker when the crowd cleared, and Roxas jogged his way over, continuing past his friend when the brunette nodded. A small group of kids stood by a familiar locker, and Roxas ran straight at a spiky brunette.
"Sora!" His cousin turned and hugged him tight, blinking off sadness. Roxas spotted his friends, and Kairi, standing behind them.
"We need to find someplace to group together, find out what's going on." Olette wrapped her arms around Hayner's, glancing around the friends.
"Seventh Heaven?" Kairi spoke up, glancing at Roxas for confimation. "Definatly, let's go there, now." The blonde nodded, helping Kairi up from the floor. His not-quite-kinda-sorta-more-or-less Aunt's bar was always a good meeting place. He figured most people he knew would head there.
"I need to go home, though. Check on my grandparents." Olette clung tighter to Hayner, and Pence looked away.
"Both my parents work at the Plant. I think I'm gonna go with Hayner and Olette, then we'll head to Tifa's." Pence clapped a hand on Roxas shoulder, and they all split ways.
* * *
"I'm fucking scared, Axel." The sobbed words huffed onto his neck made Axel scared, too.
He clutched his best friend closer to his chest, covering Demyx's back with his hoodie to protect him from burns. They were crotched behind an overturned truck's bed, explosions sounding off from all around, those bloodcurdling screams bledding with Demyx's sobs. The redhead blinked back tears, himself, when he pictured Demyx out here by himself, or worse, up in flames.
"It'll be okay, Demyx. Think of beautiful music and twirling ballerinas. It'll all be over soon, I promise." Axel felt the heat agiasnt his back and pulled Demyx further onto his lap and curled around him. Demyx seemed content with these words and left a lingering kiss on Axel's cheek.
Neither knew how wrong he was.