Crazy blonde spikes rose from the comforting bed. Unsure of what to do after forcefully being woken up by his loud and alarming phone, the youngest of the Strife family decided to let his phone ring just a bit longer.
Whoever it is, if they really need me, they'll call back a second time...
He convinced himself, pushing one of the side buttons to let his phone silently ring, while he tried to go back to sleep. A mere minute later, the phone started up again, feeling louder than it did before, and the blonde groaned all the same.
"CLOUD! COME ANSWER MY PHONE!" The youngest of the brothers called for the oldest, hoping to get the quiet young adult to cooperate with him. "C'MON, PLEASE!" He yelled a bit louder, knowing that eventually, Cloud would wander into his room to do so.
Which, he did, after a few seconds of shuffling around in the hall, trying to figure out if it was Ventus or Roxas wanting his attention for the moment. The moment he went over to Roxas' room, the phone had stopped ringing, but the older brother just stood and stared at Roxas with a small grin. "What's up, Rox?"
"Someone was calling me again, go answer it next time." Roxas mumbled, hiding his face in his pillow and looking away from where his older brother stood.
Cloud rolled his eyes and turned around, softly closing the door behind him as the middle brother, Ventus, came out of his room to greet the brother rather ecstatically.
"Hey!" Ventus greeted, "I'm about to head off to work, you sure you don't wanna see Tifa?"
"I'll... Visit Tifa some other day, it's okay, really, Ventus." Cloud shook his head with a small chuckle. "Really, I will." He added when Ventus gave him a doubtful look.
"Tifa really misses you, and I know she wants you to start working again, but you gotta stay by her side and help her out too. I think it'll be nice to see some old friends hanging out with each other all the time again. It's like how Tifa was so happy to see Zack again–"
"Wait, Zack? Black hair," Ventus nodded, "blue eyes?" Another nod, "looks like a puppy?" Ventus nodded again.
"That's a... Weird way to put it but yeah... I guess you could say that he looks a bit like a puppy, why?"
Cloud shook his head and dug in his pockets for his phone, ready to call up an old friend.
It's been a few weeks since Cloud decided to call Tifa, and she's been filled with grins and joy, knowing that he would eventually join knowing that his old flame was still around, and working alongside her. He wanted to work alongside the male once more, but something was forcing him to stay back, and of course, Cloud never knew what. So Tifa convinced him to come one morning, one early morning, to come and see the old flame that he had, just for old times sake.
So that's what Cloud did, standing outside the secondary building, waiting for The Seventh Heaven Bar to be completely renovated, right down the road.
It's not too late to turn around. I can still leave.
Cloud shook his head. Surely he looked like an idiot in the middle of the sidewalk trying to contemplate going into a rather popular shop.
"Carry on
Every one of us every soul inside is bleeding
Finally the broken silence begins to slip away
Every pain every tear every breath I take
Stolen by the darkness but I'm hanging on
For a morning that will never dawn~"
Cloud heard the familiar voice singing, unsure of what to do, he turned to run away, but ran straight into his old friend, Tifa.
"Hey Cloud!" Tifa grinned, dusting off the invisible dirt that may have appeared on Cloud from the collision that she seemed to not be affected from.
"T-Tifa, you–!"
"Tif–" There was a momentary pause, "CLOUD?" Zack practically screamed out of his lungs, "What are you doing here?!" Zack yelled, grabbing onto the blonde's shoulders, "You shouldn't be here! Go home!"
Cloud gave the raven a blank stare, then after a few seconds, it was washed over with complete confusion.
Why in the world was he trying to send me away?
"So why exactly is he here?" Zack found himself asking his female friend. It wasn't that he didn't want Cloud to be in the same area as him –again–, it was just that it's been so long since the last time they've actually been around each other, and it seemed so strange to have the oldest of the Strife brothers beside him again.
Cloud turned his attention to the female in front of him, then over to the raven beside him. "I told her that I wanted to come and visit. I didn't think that it'd bother you much.. And besides... I didn't even know that you were the one that started working under Tifa. I thought it'd just be Aerith and uh.. Terra or someone else." Cloud pointed out, half-lying. Of course he knew Zack was there, and that was the main reason why he wanted to come and visit, but he would have never guessed that Zack would decide to work under Tifa, despite the old friendship that broke so many years ago.
"Oh... Really." Zack nodded slowly, letting his eyes wander to the floor somewhat shamefully. He was never sure of Cloud's actions, and he still had yet to catch on to half of the things the blonde boy has ever told him. "Well... It's nice to see you here though... Wouldn't you agree?.."
Cloud gave an awkward nod and a small smile to his old friend.
"Well! Isn't that good, at least you two aren't arguing or anything with each other. That lets me know that you two got over a lot of problems or whatever you guys went through before, and you're both ready to work with each other!" Tifa chuckled, pulling the pair into a bear hug before running off into the kitchen, leaving the pair of young adults to converse amongst each other.
"So..." Cloud mumbled after a moment of silence, "What...Were you singing earlier? It sounded pretty interesting."
"Oh it was uh..." Zack leaned back in his chair in thought of what he was listening to earlier. "Hmm... What exactly was I singing?" He rubbed his chin in thought, "I think..–Oh! It was 5150 by Nano. It's really interesting of a song. You might actually like it."
"Oh.. I see. I'll uh, I'll look into that sometime later on today." Cloud nodded, looking down to the ground, "So, um.. Ventus works here, right? Where is he?" He questioned after another awkward moment.
Zack could feel his leg begin to bounce up and down in either anxiousness or anxiety, but whatever it was, was definitely kicking his ass. "Ventus? Ventus... Ventus is ups–..." Zack shook his head and sighed heavily to give himself a moment to think and calm down a tad, "Ventus is in the kitchen with Riku and Axel. They're preparing for the lunch rush.. You know, it's really harsh at that time and all–"
"Yeah I.. I remember." Cloud whispered rather quietly. He was just as disturbed as Zack was, though he didn't show it the same way, the raven's constant leg bouncing seemed to have rubbed off on the blonde himself. Since he wasn't completely sure of how to react, Cloud gave an awkward laugh and shook his head, "H-hey, Zack?"
"Hmm?"
His leg started to bounce even more.
"How's everything going?"
"It's good."
The table that they were sitting at began to shake.
"Oh.. That's good."
"Yeah.."
It felt like either Zack's chair was moving, or the table had begun to shake, but now both of Zacks legs began to shake simultaneously.
"Ah..."
God someone save this..
"Hey, Zack, you mind helping Riku and Ventus in the back?" Axel –Zack's new savior of the day– came and patted the raven on the back. "My hands are starting to hurt, and I'm supposed to take the shift at the register today. So.."
"Y-yeah man, I'll take the job." Zack quickly stood and stretched his –somehow aching– bones and waved to Cloud as quickly as possible so that he could get out of there without any other problems.
"I'll see ya in a bit then." Cloud mumbled, waving to the raven as he nodded and ran off. "Man..." Cloud whispered to himself as he looked off to the opposite direction.
"That.. Was painful to watch. You two are horrible to each other." Axel commented, fixing the table the pair were sitting at, and sitting in the seat Zack had not too long ago stood from. "Someone needed to be saved from that, and since you don't work here yet... I decided to get Zack out of that. Ventus told me to call you over, but the three of us all knew how bad that was going to be. Damn..."
Cloud sighed and laid his face onto the table, "It's been horribly awkward between us for ages now. I came to see him, to be honest with you..." He slowly let his eyes close. "Though.. We didn't really end on a good point.."
"What happened, exactly?" Axel raised a curious eyebrow, "Or is that something that I can't really find out about?"
"I'd... Prefer not to tell you, you know? It's... It's just something that happened between him, Tifa, Aerith, and I... And a few others but.. Well.. It's not really secretive but it's just really awkward. I don't know why Tifa would leave us alone like that."
"Do you like Zack?"
Cloud quickly lifted his head to stare at the redhead in front of him, wide-eyed and too startled to answer the question properly. "W-what..?"
"Do you like him?" Axel asked again.
"I-I..."
"It's obvious that someone likes someone between the two of you, and the other doesn't want to admit something, so... Do you like Zack, Cloud? Or does Zack like you? Did he confess to you and you turned it down? Or did you confess to him and he turned you down?" The redhead continued to ask, leaning in with every new question he could think of.
"I.. We.."
"You two dated and one of you thought that it wasn't good so you broke up?"
"No–! It... It's not like that.."
"So what happened?"
"We were just really close friends that did some stupid things... That's all."
"Did you jack each other off?"
Cloud sighed at the persistent redhead in front of him and nodded slowly, "It was something along those lines."
"Oh, if you both know that you're gay, there's nothing wrong with it." Axel shrugged and stood, stretching like a cat, "Besides, we're all adults here. You're old enough to talk over the problems that you two had with each other, right? It's nothing too hard with just sitting down and talking t–..." He paused and looked over to the kitchen, then back to the blonde. "Well... With you two... Talking to each other is like asking someone to shoot you. And it's really painful to watch." He shrugged again, "And– hey, do you have another sibling or something? I really like Ventus but... He's way too giddy for me. I wouldn't be able to want to date him with him going all 'teehee!' every time we talk."
Cloud felt his eye twitch without hesitation, "Roxas is the youngest out of us, but he goes to college. That one that's nearby. Roxas is like... The polar opposite of Ventus, but he's not really one for relationships? I guess..?"
"Sounds like Roxas is gonna be another Kasai family member." Axel grinned to the oldest Strife and gave him a subtle wink. "I gotta start getting the cash register ready, I'll talk to you in a bit man."
Cloud watched as the redhead walked away, and looked down to the table, somewhat upset. What the redhead had said was very true, but the blonde didn't know how to go about any of the actions. He'd honestly love to go and talk to Zack randomly, but after the little game of 21 questions that Axel decided to play, he began to think less of his actions. No... I'll do it. I'll admit everything all at once, so that Zack doesn't have to worry about me anymore.
"Hey, Cloud? How much longer are you staying? I could use some help cleaning up the tables and all, while the rest of the boys are cleaning the kitchen." Tifa asked, holding two rags and throwing one into a bucket of water. "Wanna help?" Cloud gave a small nod and reached for the rag in Tifas hand. "Thanks Blondie~."
"No problem..." Cloud felt himself helplessly mumble. "How big is the kitchen that you need 4 people to clean it, anyways?"
"It's uh... not very big at all. Pretty small to be honest. But Riku and Axel are kinda lazy, so Zack and Ventus cleans up after they clean up."
"That's a shocker. Ventus is really lazy... To be lazier than him..."
"Yeah, right? That's what I said. Both Ventus and Zack are lazy as all hell and they still do more than the other boys." Tifa chuckled as she picked up and rinsed out the rag from the bucket before wiping a the table next to her. "Boys will be boys though, after all. You can't force them to do what they don't want to do. Unless it's really needed. You know?"
Cloud nodded without a second thought as to what she could have been saying. Half of his mind was stuck on the fact that he was helping her out for free and it felt like he was letting so much stress go while he was wiping each table with his life long friend from Nibelheim. "Yeah, definitely. Definitely." He found himself agreeing with the girl.
"So? You gonna clear things up with him or not?" Riku asked Zack as he stuck his hand in the oven to check how clean it was. Sure it wasn't the traditional way, but that's how he's been getting the job done.
"No. Or... at least not now. I need more time to figure out what I really want to say to him. You know... I just– It's Cloud and–"
"Cloud is reasonable. Cloud is mature, and you're in love with Cloud." Axel pointed out, washing off forks and spoons before putting them on the dish-rack. "Cloud really likes you too, so lets end this stupid... Whatever... You two got going on, and get things done, why don't 'cha?"
"I'm going to beat you." Zack grumbled, glaring at the redhead as he threw the sponge into the sink and looked at all the machinery to make sure it was all clean. "I'd love to talk to him, but like I said, I really want to figure out exactly what I want to say to him before I make myself look like a fool."
"You already are a fool!" Ventus laughed out, leaning on the counter conveniently placed next to him. "Besides, do you really think Cloud would care? He loves you way too much and all. It's crazy." He pointed out to the raven.
"He loves me... that much?" Zack felt his face flush a bit too much, and he turned to pull his hair back into a messy ponytail. With his hair the same length as Axel's, they tend to have similar hair styles, but they both normally planned to never have them on the same day.
Today was an exception. Their hair both in messy ponytails and that single strand of hair that neglects even being pulled back into a hair tie of sorts.
"You sure as hell got that right. Anyone can see it, you're not that blind you know." Riku agreed, sighing and picking up his phone from off the counter next to the dirty bucket. "Look, I know your struggles or whatever, but get this job done. Honestly." He shook his head and walked out of the kitchen without another word.
Oh, have we ever introduced Riku properly? I don't believe we have. So we'll do it now, the familiar silverette with the somewhat quick tongue's name is –well, you guessed it– Riku Nagato, age 21. Or as he loves to say, he's forever 21, and ever so clever this man is. Riku's a subtle hardworker, to be honest. He's the three C's to the extreme –calm, cool, and collective–, and tries his hardest not to let things get too over the top for him. Riku also grew his hair to a comfortable length –it's getting to around mid-back– and his eyes are a wonderful aquamarine green set of orbs that makes you feel like you'll get lost just looking at them. Similar to Axels' bright jade green eyes.
Anyways, Axel looked over to one of his best friends strange reactions and shrugged as well. "Yeah just uh... get it done. No one is gonna hate you, puppy." He nodded to the pair before grabbing his phone and keys and running out to keep up with Riku.
Ventus stared at Zack questionably, "Should I invite you over to the house? Cloud has the biggest room, and you can take that time to talk to each other properly. Whaddaya say?"
"No it's... too early for that. Give it some time. I need time." Zack gave an awkward laugh and reached over to pat Ventus on his shoulder. "You leave with Cloud first. I'll stay back with Tifa so that I can talk to her for a bit."
Ventus nodded and pushed Zacks hand off of him politely. "Just don't fuck up. We're all rooting for you, man."
After that, Zack hadn't been able to talk to Cloud again. He couldn't remember where the blonde family lived, or the oldest blonde's number. He was in a complete standstill and it bothered him that he hadn't accepted Ventus ' request to sleep over so that he could do all of that.
However, our new focus is on a pair of teens, one that's already rather familiar in the story, and another, the best friend of this familiar Strife.
Roxas Strife, age 19, and an honest boy. He's the youngest out of the Strife brothers and he's the most real out of the three. He's not hyperactive, like Ventus, and he's definitely not a brooding person, like Cloud. Roxas is a short tempered boy with an arrogant attitude, and little patience but very intelligent. Although, the blonde does have a generous side, as he is sweet to his friends and his siblings, there's still the chance that he doesn't put them before his own actions.
As for his friend, Sora Aeur, also at age 19, he's the lesser of the pair, not quite as smart, he still manages with the blondes' help. He's the kinder of the two, and isn't as easy to irritate, though they both contain rather rash attitudes to people that come off rude. The only difference is that Sora has a kind heart, and he's willing to forgive a lot easier than Roxas is. Which makes people approach Sora before they'd think of approaching Roxas, it becomes a slow and steady process.
"Hey, Roxas, can I come over tonight? My mom and dad are being really weird and all... I don't know if they're going to break up or not but... You know.. Either way, I'd love to see them both happy." Sora awkwardly chuckled, shifting his bookbag on his back and turning to his friend who had just finished putting his books into his messenger bag and searched another compartment for his keys.
"Huh?" Roxas lifted his head to look at his best friend, "You want to what now?" He asked, taking out the car keys and holding them tightly in his hand as he fixed himself up to go outside.
"Can I spend the night?" Sora shortened his earlier question, hoping that his friend would be reasonable, knowing that he's the only one that knows his family problems.
"Oh. Is Vanitas being an ass again?" Roxas questioned, turning on his heels to go outside, Sora in tow.
"N-no, not this time.. Vanitas is off doing his druggie deals and all that..."
"Vanitas is going to get someone killed." Roxas grumbled.
Sora gave an awkward chuckle and shook his head, "It's not that bad, I promise. Vanitas will get better once he finds something that he wants to do with his life–"
"He's not going to find anything better to do with his life. I'm sorry but, I can just tell that that dude's going to be a complete failure–"
"Don't talk about him that way!" Sora frowned, defending his foolish older brother. "Look.. Can I just come over or not?"
"Sure, I don't really care." Roxas pointed out, not noticing his friend's somewhat angry tone as they walked outside and to Roxas' somewhat old Audi –technically it's Cloud's that was a hand-me-down from their parents– and unlocked the doors, hopping into the front seat and tossing his bag in the back. "C'mon, Sora."
Sora nodded and followed Roxas' lead, then leaning back in the passenger seat with a heavy sigh, "Lets just not talk about Vani or my parents or anything, okay? Just normal conversation would work right now."
Roxas chuckled and nodded, putting the key in the ignition and setting the car in reverse, "Yeah, yeah. Sure." He mumbled, looking at the rear-view mirror and placing his free hand on the head of Sora's seat so that he could back the car up properly. "Since this is Cloud's car, he checks every day to make sure that I take care of it. Even though he has that stupid motorcycle that Zack gave him." He groaned, putting the car in drive and turning the wheel so that they could now leave the parking lot. "Sometimes I can't with that guy, y'know? Cloud's just kinda weird sometimes. He does things that bothers me."
"Like what?"
"If you're in love with someone..." Roxas started, glancing over to his brown haired friend for a moment before checking the crossroads to see if the road was clear. "...If you love someone, you should tell them, right? Not fuck them up like how he did."
"What did he do, exactly?"
"What did he–.. Ugh, are you serious?" The blonde groaned, putting the car in second gear, "He went out with your Aunt-Uncle-Cousin-Brother-Sister thing.–"
"My cousin." Sora interrupted.
"Whatever, anyways.. It was the day that Zack confessed to him. But he asked Lion–"
"Leon."
"–...Or – whatever the fuck he wants to name himself, out right across the room, the same room Zack was in. Zack was fucking heart broken. It was the stupidest thing that Cloud could have done, because he felt like he liked Lion–"
"Leon.."
"–Instead." Roxas attempted to finish, sending a quick glare Sora's way before letting out an annoyed noise. "Who does bull shit like that anyways? Lion isn't–"
"Leooonn."
"– even a cool person. He looks like a dork, and he's not cool enough for my older brother. No offence to you, of course. Sora." Roxas shrugged off the correction and pulled to a stop at the stop light.
"But, Roxas, it's not like Leon had it all jolly and dandy himself. He was really torn too, after he and Cloud finished whatever it was that Cloud wanted to do. If you want to put the blame on anyone, shouldn't it be on Cloud? He's kinda the one that caused all of this." Sora pointed out, frowning as he caught Roxas' glare his way. "Honestly, Cloud went and called out Leon, 'wanting' to date him..." Sora added emphasis with air quotes, "But that's probably because Cloud wasn't ready to face Zack, wouldn't you think?"
"No. Well... I wouldn't really say that Cloud's the one that's at fault here.–"
"He is! He obviously is! You don't even like how he acted with this situation anyways! You said it yourself!" Sora felt like jumping in his seat, though he wasn't sure if it was in anger or not, but he really felt the need to get out of this car.
"Sora, damn it. I know what I said." Roxas growled, pulling over in front of his house and setting his bright blue orbs on to Sora's face. "We're here." He whispered after taking a deep breath. It wasn't his best intention to try and piss off his best friend.
"Oh." Sora looked around and grabbed his bookbag out of the back seat before quickly undoing his seatbelt and jumping out of the car without a second thought. Roxas sighed and followed after the brunette, leading him into the familiar smelling Strife home.
"Hey, Cloud, Ventus?" Roxas called, hoping for some sort of answer.
"Hey Roxas–" Cloud replied after a moment, shuffling through something up the steps, "can you bring me the broom, please? Oh– and a wet rag?" He called.
Roxas sighed and handed his bag to Sora, pointing to the couch with a reassuring smile, "Sora's here!" He yelled as he went to go do what he was told.
"Oh! H-hey Sora!"
"Hey Cloud!" Sora chuckled out a greeting, knowing how awkward it must be for the older boy. Yet for some reason, he wished that Cloud never tried to date Leon, and left his life out of the other blonde's. He knew that things were going to change, but it was best that even the closest of his friends would not be able to find out the things he's been thinking.
