Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.

Mall Duty 2

2. A New Summer

Part 2

When Irvine's father first told him he had to get a job that summer, he thought, "Okay. That's not such a big deal." However, when he found out that the only place hiring was the small Dip 'n Dots stand in the middle of the food court, he was less than pleased. That was not his idea of a good summer job. There was only one reason he accepted the job and that was the fact that he'd get to work with two pretty girls. (Not to mention his dad threatened to kick him out and take away his phone.)

Unfortunately, one of said pretty girls was very obviously a lesbian and the other held an intense dislike for him, as he very quickly discovered.

And that was how Irvine ended up with, in his opinion, the crummiest summer job ever.

Not much had changed in the cramped, smelly store since the summer before. There were still bottles everywhere and Marluxia was still prancing around trying to make people try on different scents. In fact, the only thing that was different was that Larxene didn't work there anymore. Instead, she had switched places with an eye-patch wearing guy named Xigbar, who used to work on a different shift over at Spencer's.

Zexion sighed heavily, almost choking on the air. Marluxia had pranced past him just moments before and had spritzed something flowery in the air near him. He coughed, raising his blue-gray eyes to glare at his pink-haired friend.

Marluxia waggled his fingers back at him before he went back to his usual routine of restocking the already crowded shelves. It was almost as if his personal goal was to fit as many of the bottles on the shelves as physically possible.

"Hey dude," Xigbar said, popping up out of nowhere. "When's my lunch break again?"

Zexion sighed once again. It was the fifth time Xigbar had asked him that question and he was starting to wonder if the man was on drugs. "When I get back from my break," he said, "which is usually around one. Then you have a half hour to eat before Marluxia's lunch break."

"Okay, cool," Xigbar said. "So, uh, when's his lunch break again?"

'I miss Larxene…' Zexion found himself thinking. "One-thirty," he said.

"Okay, but what if I don't get back until one-thirty-one?" Xigbar asked.

"I suggest that you don't," Zexion said coldly. "You don't want to see what happens when Marluxia has to go to lunch late. And Xemnas prefers to have things run on schedule. If you are even a second late, he'll be out here to stand over you and make sure you do your job for the rest of the day."

"Dude, that sucks," Xigbar said. He looked around for a second and then leaned on the desk. "So when's my lunch again?"

Zexion's carefully controlled temper snapped and he slammed his hands down on the counter. "At one fucking o'clock!" he snarled angrily. "And if you can't keep that easy little time memorized in your head, I will gladly beat it into you!"

Xigbar blinked at him in surprise and then grinned and then, to Zexion's mortification, patted him on the head. "You're a funny little dude," the eye patch-wearing man said. "Later."

Zexion watched, aghast, as the man walked away while humming a little tune. He was probably going to talk to Marluxia. He swore that the two were trying to make him go insane and for no other reason than that they were bored. And he was not being paranoid, thank you very much; he had come across the two talking in the storage room one day talking about how he needed to loosen up.

'Whatever the hell that means,' Zexion thought irritably, 'The only thing they've done is piss me off and interrupt my time with Demyx.' A smile tugged at his lips at the thought of his often-clueless blond boyfriend. It seemed that whenever he was having a particularly shitty day, the boy would be right there with something to cheer him up. It was amazing to him how sweet Demyx could be. He didn't know what he'd do if the blond had a bad day.

Speaking of his favorite blond… Zexion looked up just in time to see his boyfriend walk through the entrance of the store with his usual blinding smile in place. The older male skipped over to him and hopped up onto the counter before planting a kiss on his cheek.

Zexion's face flushed with color as Xigbar and Marluxia began catcalling.

"Dem…" he murmured.

"I just wanted to come say 'hi' before I have to start working," Demyx said. "And I think I left my moogle hat at your place last night. Did you see it?"

Zexion nodded. "It's in my bag. I'll go get it."

Demyx beamed and planted a second kiss on his boyfriend's cheek. "Great! Reeve would kill me if I lost that thing again. It's weird how protective he is over these hats… Zack tried to take his and put it on Cloud's head yesterday and he spazzed out and snatched it away and clutched it to his chest- It was really funny. Selphie took pictures if you want to see them."

"You could always get Reno to tap into the security camera's," Zexion said, wondering if it was bad that he knew Reno could do that. He swore to find some way to blame it on Marluxia and his gossiping.

Demyx's eyes went wide. "Seriously? Do you think he would? That would be so cool! Oh, but… Reeve probably already deleted that section. It has something to do with him not liking the way he looks on camera."

Zexion raised an eyebrow. "He's on commercials all the time since he owns Moogle Garden and Kung Pow Wutai. If anything, he deleted it so he wouldn't look like a fool."

Demyx laughed. "Yeah, that makes better sense. So, my hat?"

Zexion nodded and said that he'd be right back. Demyx nodded and remained in his spot on the counter, waggling his fingers at Marluxia while Zexion left to retrieve the moogle hat. When Zexion returned with the hat, Demyx smiled and kissed his lips before taking the hat and waltzing out of the store.

"Dude, you're almost as red as this Strawberry Mist!" Xigbar crowed in delight.

The shade of red coloring Zexion's face darkened, resulting in Marluxia and Xigbar howling with laughter. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white and then he grabbed the nearest two bottles and chucked it at their heads. He smirked when he heard the clunk of the bottles as they hit their mark as well as the twin cries of pain. But that all vanished when he registered the presence standing right behind him.

"Mr. Shade," Xemnas drawled. "I do believe we have had a chat about co-worker abuse before. Is it necessary to go through this again?"

"N-no," Zexion stammered. Never again did he want to sit through one of Xemnas's two-hour long rants during which he'd randomly delve off into a completely unrelated topic.

"Then do not let me find you doing this again," Xemnas said with the air of a parent gently lecturing a young child. And then he was gone.

Zexion breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the counter.

Irvine sat in complete misery at the Dip 'n Dots, watching as his redhaired co-worker, Kairi, rubbed noses with her energetic girlfriend. If it weren't for the fact that he was bored to tears and had jammed his thumb exactly sixteen times trying to work the slushie machine, he might have been able to enjoy the sight.

Scooping out a cup of the ice cream balls was his other co-worker, a quiet girl named Fuu pointedly ignored him and carried on with her work like always. It seemed to him that she went out of her way to ignore him, the way she would always walk around him to retrieve something sitting right beside of him instead of asking for it to be handed to her.

'Hyne, does nothing interesting ever happen around here?'


Squall Leonhart wasn't a man to be trifled with, especially when he was on a mission, but that was exactly what Cloud was doing at that very moment. Oddly enough, the blond man hadn't pulled him aside to molest him for once. Instead, it was to talk.

Squall wasn't sure what to make of the serious side of Cloud. The only time the blond was like that was whenever Zack had done something particularly dumb or was trying to strip (again). For him to be keeping his hands to himself meant that something was really bothering him.

"What's this about, Cloud?" Squall asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Cloud regarded the brunet for a moment, letting no hint of what he was thinking grace his handsome face. It wasn't until Squall began shifting uncomfortable that he finally spoke. "I need your help," he said.

Squall blinked in surprise. Of all of the things he thought the blond might say, that wasn't one of them. "… with what?" he asked cautiously.

Cloud sighed and leaned against the wall. "My brother," he said tiredly.

It was then that Squall realized just how exhausted his co-worker looked. He hadn't noticed it before, since Cloud carried himself in a very professional manner while he was working. Now that he thought about it, Cloud had been a little distracted that week. He hadn't been as enthusiastic in his molestation as usual, which should have been Squall's first clue that something was wrong.

"Roxas?" Squall questioned, imagining that the younger blond could easily cause as much trouble as his older brother.

"Sora," Cloud corrected with a light shake of his head. "He and Riku have broken up over a fight they had. He won't admit it, but he's absolutely miserable and he's dragging the rest of us with him. He keeps waking me up at night with his crying and I know Roxas isn't faring much better."

"How am I suppose to help?" Squall asked. "It seems to me that Zack would be more adept at helping you with this. He and Sora get along very well."

Cloud shook his head. "Zack's plans get too complicated and Sora knows all of his tricks. I need something simpler. I need your help."

Squall looked at the blond in front of him for a moment, debating whether or not to help him out. It didn't help that part of him wanted to take the older man in his arms and hold him tight.

'What about Seifer?' a part of his brain nagged. 'What happened to trying to get his attentions? Or do you not like him anymore?'

Squall shook his head to clear his thoughts.

Cloud took that as a sign that Squall wasn't going to help him out and visibly deflated. As he turned to walk out of the room, Squall realized what he was thinking and reached out and grabbed his shoulder.

"I'll help you," he said without another thought. "What do you need me to do?"

A relieved smile graced Cloud's lips for a split second, sending shivers down the brunet's spine. He looked so - dare he say it? - cute when he let down his guard. It made him wonder how innocent the blond would look asleep.

'Now's not the time,' he thought, furious with himself. 'Focus! You're suppose to be helping him not ogling him!'

"First, I need a place where I can get them together where they can talk without anyone interrupting them," Cloud said.

Squall thought for a moment and then said, "I think I know just the place."

Yuffie slammed a tray of bowls and plates into the sink, not paying any mind when dirty, bubbly water splashed all over herself, the floor, and the dishwasher. "This job sucks!" she declared loudly, ignoring the desperate cries of the poor dishwashing boy as one of the plates collided with the metal sink and shattered.

"Kisaragi!" roared the head waiter Tseng.

Yuffie winced and dove for cover under one of the racks to hide from the man. If he found out that she had broken another plate, she was going to be in big-time trouble. She pulled her legs in under the metallic rack just as the tall Wutaian approached the sink with his usual frown firmly in place. She childishly stuck her tongue out at him. 'Ha! Try to find me now, Mr. Grumpy! My ninja skills are the best!'

A voice in the back of her head (which sounded strangely like her friend Aerith) chastised her for hiding and letting someone else take the blame for something she did. She was able to ignore it before a second one chimed in (that one sounded like Sephiroth) and mentioned how disappointed Kairi would be if she were to find out about the plate.

Cursing her consciences, Yuffie crawled out from under the rack and shoved her hands into her pockets. "I'm right here," she muttered.

Tseng turned away from the dishwashing boy to face her. "So, you were hiding again."

Yuffie scowled and looked away. "Yeah, so."

Tseng looked at her for a moment longer with no expression on his face. Then he sighed and walked over to her. "It's coming out of your paycheck," he said as he took her by the shoulders and began steering her back out into the front. "Now get back to work, Wutaian brat."

Yuffie skipped forward a few paces before she stopped to turn back and stick her tongue out at him. Dissatisfied with the lack of reaction, she huffed and grabbed a few menus before carelessly waving on a group of four diners to follow her.

'I am never having children,' Tseng thought to himself as he went back to work.

Irvine stared off into space in boredom. Kairi had left to go eat lunch with her friend a while back, leaving him all alone with Fuu. Needless to say, Fuu wasn't very pleased, but then neither was he.

'No wonder this was the only place with a position open,' he thought.

"Wark?"

Irvine blinked as a yellow face with blue eyes invaded his vision. It warked again and he blinked once more. Then he screamed and toppled backwards in his chair.

"There it is!" he heard a girl shout. He sat back up just in time to see the large bird wark in alarm and then take off running. Then came along the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. His breath caught in his throat as she came running towards him, her copper-brown curls bouncing with each footstep and her bright green eyes radiating with spirit.

"Hi, Fuu!" she yelled as she ran past. "Bye, Fuu!" she finished with a giggle and kept chasing after the bird.

So enraptured with the beauty of the brunette, Irvine never saw it coming.

It was a second chocobo, one with white and black feathers and violet eyes. It gave no warning before it craned it's head over the side and grabbed onto Irvine's ponytail and yanked.

His cries of pain could be heard throughout the entire mall and from that day forward, Irvine swore he would one day have his revenge for what those annoying birds did to him.

End Chapter

Ta-da! It took me forever to finish, but here it is! The second chapter of Mall Duty 2! Now that I've gotten around to the main stores, I can actually set the story into motion.

Oh, and as for the completely random chocobos, I realized I had Irvine say something along the lines of "does anything ever happen around here?" and so I just had to have something bizarre happen. I thought of a moogle first but then decided that a chocobo would cause more chaos. And then one chocobo became two.