No, the brunette hadn't planned to do anything involving work, and such a thing never came across his mind until the day that his parents stared at him with stern eyes, telling him nothing but just a few words. "We're no longer planning to pay for your things, you're going to learn to manage your own money." So, with that, the hyperactive –sugar filled– brunette was off to find a job, his blonde friend accompanying him the whole way.

"So wait... Did they just like... Kick you out of the house? Or are they just insisting that you have to start working along with school?"

"I have to... Manage college and work, apparently..." Sora sighed, clinging onto his blonde haired friend and groaning with feigned anger. "I really don't want to do that though... I have so much work to do, and I was already planning on looking more into one of the clubs that the college offers, you know? Why would I want to work..."

"Well, you're technically an adult, you know." The blonde pointed out, petting his friend and ruffling the messy brown spikes. "So why don't you just... You know.. Focus on work and school, and if you can get that situated then you can focus on finding a club?"

"No, Rox!" Sora practically screamed, gaining attention from students on the campus that were walking to their next class, work, club, or dorm room. Sora sighed again and shook his head, lowering his voice, "I really wanted to look at a club. Like Chess or the Video Game club or something! I'll work around that schedule after I have a club so that I can get a job."

"I barely handle my club and college work as it is... Sora." Roxas groaned, "I don't think you'll be able to do as much as you really think you want to–"

"I'll do it. I promise you that I'll do it. If I don't... I'll give you my PS4 and... all of my gaming accounts."

"I don't even play games."

"Which is why I'd give them to you! So that I won't get distracted and you won't play anything!" Sora grinned to his friend and gave him a giant bear hug. "Should we start heading home? I can't remember if you had any more classes after your first two today. It's uh... Wednesday, right?"

"I'm free, but I told Cloud that I'd go by the Bar to pick up Ventus so that he can do his doctors thing, apparently. That guy hasn't gone to the doctors in forever."

"You're... driving him there?"

"Ventus doesn't know how to drive." Roxas stated, raising his eyebrow in question as to why the brunette questioned him for his driving expertise. "I'll drop you off by the Bar and come to pick you up later?"

"Oh, yeah sure. I'll be cool with that."

In the end, Roxas dropped Sora off at his house before going to pick up Ventus, since the brunette was freaking out too much over his parents.

"Black, black. Black and blue, beat me 'til I'm numb,
Tell the Devil I said 'hey' when you get back to where you're from,
Mad women, bad women, that's just what you are
Yeah, you'll smile in my face and rip the brakes out my car.
Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash,
You tossed it in the trash, yes you did.
To give me all your love, is all I ever asked
Because what you don't understand is–
I'd catch a grenade for ya–"

"Okay Zack!" Tifa yelled as she slammed her office door closed and made her way over to the raven that could never neglect his daily singing. "Tell me, Zack, what's that song you were singing?"

"Grenade." Zack huffed out, pausing his music and turning on the radio next to him and putting the sound on really low so that it wouldn't interrupt their conversation. "The Pop goes Punk version though. The group that sings it is Memphis May Fire, thank you."

"Oh, you sound sassy today, Zack. Tell me, what's up?" Tifa asked, pulling a chair up to the raven and sitting, giving the man her undivided attention. "You seem a lot less... Happy about what you're doing, you know? Were you dating someone?"

"This uh... This chick I was with, she just kinda fucked me up this morning, you know? I really don't know how to feel because I feel like I should care, but at the same time... I don't want to–"

"You were dating? WHO?" Tifa pressed for the one answer.

"She–... You remember that girl that works with Reno and Rude..?"

Tifa raised an eyebrow and shook her head, "Cissnei?"

"No.. Not Cissnei. She never agreed to go out with me." Zack sighed, "It's Elena, the one that barely paid attention to me–"

"You fucked up, Zack. She's in love with Tseng. I didn't even know that she knew that you existed."

"Jeez, thanks." Zack shrugged and placed his head on the counter, the feeling of defeat washing over him hopelessly.

"Zack..." Tifa sighed and shook her head, "You're a helpless bundle of goo right now. Break ups are normally really easy for you to get over. Why are you so screwed up now?"

"I don't even think that I honestly cared about her. I might have, but there's a high chance that I didn't. I can't... Tell.. You know?"

"I can tell you something, but I want you to figure it out for yourself, Zackary."

"How do you spell my name, that whole thing?"

"I know you like your name with the 'k'... But I know that it's supposed to be spelled with an 'h', right?"

"Well... Actually, legally, it's supposed to be Zax, but let's not get into that." Zack pointed out, shrugging and closing his eyes. "My parents do some weird things."

"It's Zachary, but with a 'k'!" Tifa argued.

"Aw fuck, Tifa. Jeez." Zack awkwardly chuckled, "Yeah, I guess so. I just like... 'Zack', it sounds a lot better."

"I think it would be pretty cool being called Zax, don't you agree?"

"Zack."

"Zax."

"Zack."

"Zax."

"Zack."

"Zax."

"Zackary." Ventus interrupted the raven pair and rubbed Zack's back as he did so. "Lets stop this stupid argument about your name and figure out something better for you to do."

"Oh, Ventus!" Tifa looked up to the blonde from her seat with a huge grin, as the other raven refused to move from his spot. "I hope you're not leaving all of the work to Riku and Axel, back there!"

Ventus awkwardly chuckled and shook his head. "Is Cloud coming in today?"

"Cloud doesn't work here." Tifa and Zack stated in unison.

Zack opened his eyes a bit to squint, and sighed heavily, "He probably doesn't even want to work here. Or he'll try to work here when the regular Bar is open, but for right now, he's not here. He's not working here."

Tifa raised an eyebrow at the male and shook her head, "It's true, he doesn't, and Zack might be onto something. Cloud might ask me to work here in the future or something." She nodded and grinned to the blonde, "Don't worry your pretty little head with that now, okay? We'll take care of Cloud."

And take care of Cloud, she did. Cloud found himself looking at the building where he was at, and –now recently forced– to work at for some extra cash that he knew his family didn't need. The blonde opened the door to find the workplace filled with workers taking orders and people occupying the seats. He took in a deep breath to the sweet-smelling aroma and gave a small smile.

This is where I'll be working from now on, I guess.

Cloud's bright blue eyes lead him to a familiar path, the one that lead to the staff room, to go and familiarize himself with his friend Tifa, once more. As he walked by, he took notice of Axel and Riku who were both taking care of making drinks and sending them to their proper tables, while Ventus stayed at the registers with his goofy and welcoming grin. Zack must be in the back then..

"Hey bro! You took the acceptance, I take it?" Ventus greeted as he eyed his older brother walk by. The older blonde made his way past the register with a small smile.

"Yeah, I'm going to go talk to Tifa for a minute, before I come and take up working with you."

"Hopefully you can work the registers with me?"

"I'd hope so." Cloud replied with a chuckle. He made his way back into the staff room to greet the raven haired female with a smile, "Hey, Tifa. Where should I start working at?"

Tifa looked up, completely shocked at the voice asking her to work. "MY GOD!" She screamed, jumping up from her seat. She took a moment to clear her throat and go back to her calm demeanor. "You can start working whenever you wish, I don't mind you working in the kitchen, or helping at the registers for right now. It's the lunch rush so–"

"I got it. I'll help Ventus out then." Cloud nodded, turning on his heels once he received a confirming noise from Tifa. "I'll see you later, Tif."

"See ya later Cloud!"

Cloud made his way out of the staff room and over to where his brother stood, taking an order with a giant smile still plastered on his face. "Thank you, your drink will be at your table in just a few minutes. May I interest you in a dessert to go with that?" He questioned rather innocently, not even faltering the moment the woman told him that she wasn't hungry, "Oh, okay then. Thank you for your time!" The woman nodded and retreated to find a table.

"Hey, Ventus." Cloud greeted, taking his stand next to his younger brother, "Mind showing me what I have to do and all that? Just to get used to being at the register again?"

Ventus chuckled and nodded to his brother, "It's really easy, I gotta admit. All you have to do is push a few buttons that matches the order that they want, it'll automatically do the counting and all of that-"

"Yeah I know that... But when do I ask for the money?"

"After they're finish making their order, silly. We're not overpriced, so you shouldn't get people freaking out about how much they have to pay. These guys are all regulars right now."

"Oh, okay. That's cool."

Zack stared at the door to leave his favorite job. As much as he knew that he didn't want to leave work because he's used to working with everyone here, he felt so awkward having to open up the shop with his long lost friend -Cloud- at the beginning of the day tomorrow. The unwanted feeling that Zack had for whatever he was going to do, left him completely speechless when his boss -Tifa- told him that he'd have to suck it up and meet the blonde outside the shop to open up and get ready for the day. His attitude towards the girl wouldn't help his situation any, so he decided to suck it up and get the next day over with.

"Hey, Zack, c'mere." Axel called from the other side of the door, the raven had been standing there staring off into space for the past few minutes, and Axel was getting impatient. "I gotta close up shop and you're in the way man."

Zack jumped in his startled fashion and gave the redhead an awkward laugh as he ran out the building and watched the other male close up the shop for the night. "Sorry man... I just don't... I'm really not focused right now."

"Too scared to open up the shop with Cloud tomorrow?" Axel raised an eyebrow as he turned and tossed the key to the raven. "I think Cloud was supposed to have this key, but you'll be the one actually opening it, to save you some struggles or whatever."

Zack sighed heavily, "Do you think we'll be able to get over all the shit that we're going through?"

"You're not even going through a lot of shit, man. All you have to do is just talk to the guy, Cloud is really fucking reasonable."

"Well... Yeah but-... I feel like I'm going through so much right now."

"What exactly happened?"

"Several different things... I-I'd hope that you heard at least something from Reno?"

"Reno told me about your confession to him and him flirting with Leon that same day in the same classroom or something like that. He was really blocky about it."

"I told Cloud that I really liked him, that day... That was the start, really. He just awkwardly nodded at me and ran away to Leon." Zack commented, letting the other name unwillingly slither out of his mouth. "A few days later, after him avoiding me, he came to find me at one of the clubs that I participate in, and I have no clue how he got there, but... He told me that he'd want to consider us as a thing. The moment that he told me that though, I got so pissed off and told him that it wasn't even worth it. A week or so later, I went to apologize, and he did the same to me. Then it just went back and forth like that for... Months, really. To the point where we'd only argue with each other about things and.. things got really awkward.. We'd stop talking to each other, we wouldn't look at each other, that type of thing."

"So why did Cloud tell me that it was similar to you guys jacking off to each other that caused awkward shit?"

"Well... it did. Kinda.." Zack sighed and shook his head, "Look man... That's another conversation for another time, I'm not planning to talk about that."

"Oh... Well, okay then man." Axel shrugged and ran a hand through his hair, "I'm gonna head home before it gets too late. You uh-... You do your thing, Zack." The redhead gave one final wave before he left the raven standing there in shock, and of course, Axel cared. He loved both Zack and Cloud, despite only meeting the two through Reno -at two separate times- so he was pretty warm with both. Of course he has no clue as to why he's even bothering with their relationship, since he has nothing to do with either of them. It probably would make him feel better if they were actually a thing rather than arguing all the time.

Following said redhead home, he ran into Kairi and Reno who both looked completely tired -more like pissed off, but he couldn't care less- and hopeless as they both leaned against the house door.

Looks like someone forgot their keys.

Axel chuckled and pulled out his keys from his bag that he carries everywhere, and stared at his siblings, "No one was going to come stop by the shop to ask for the keys? Or call me at the very least? How long were you two sitting out here?"

"4 hours. 4 fucking hours, Axel. Don't give me your fucking 'full-of-shit' tongue and just open the door, yo." Reno growled, standing and pulling Kairi up with him. "We bonded while you were out doing your shit, yo. I'm fucking tired and I have work in the morning."

Axel sighed and raised a defensive hand, "okay well... if you'd kindly move away from the door, I'd be more than happy to open it for you." He stated, watching his older sibling move out of the way, and open the door, he did! The siblings wandered into the house, the girl being happier than the oldest, and Axel casually closed the door behind him.

"Thanks Ax." Kairi grinned cleaning off her short pink dress and began to untie her shoes. "So... how are you so awake right now, Ax? You look so happy? It's not... unusual, per se. It's just... a different look for you, you know?" She questioned the brother that was tossing his bag onto the couch near the door.

"We need a dog or something, man." Axel stated, dismissing his sister's question completely. "I'd like a... uh... Sheepdog, maybe? They're pretty big dogs, and hella adorable."

"Did you just say 'hella'?" Kairi instantly asked, ignoring her own question that she made a mental note to bring up again soon.

"Yeah, some type of big dog. I was just thinking that it would be awesome to wake up or come home to a fucking kickass dog or something, you know? I might be a cat person though, maybe. Then again, when I think about it, I'd probably start hating that cat after a while."

Kairi chuckled, "is this why you look so happy right now? Because you're thinking about dogs and cats?"

"Not really.." Axel shook his head and sighed, "It's better to smile when you're upset. Y'know?"

"Why are you so upset then?"

"I... can't figure out what I want to do. I'm stuck between wanting to help someone, and wanting to meet their family."

Kairi stared at her brother with that 'are you serious...?' face. "Ax. Let me tell you something, something that I think will help you..." She cleared her throat and sat for a moment, thinking of the right way to put her words. "Handle one thing at a time, but it's your choice on if you would rather assist someone else before yourself. Or yourself before others. Selfless or selfish, grief or clarity. That's all up to you. So before you do anything else, do what your instinct takes you, regardless... everything gets worse before it gets better."

Axel stared at his sister as if she had turned into the prophecy herself. Of course he'd have to think about it first, and taking things one step at a time seemed to work out just fine. But which step does he really want to take first? If he chooses to help Cloud first, he'd feel awkward asking about the blonde's youngest brother again. Yet, if he asks about the blonde's brother now, the blonde might be too distracted or upset to even pay attention to his question.

Unless...

"Ventus!" Axel cried out, with an even happier grin.

"Ventus?" Kairi raised a curious eyebrow, "Cloud's little brother?"

"I won't need to ask Cloud at all, I can ask Ventus!"

"Why...?"

"They have an even younger brother, your age. His name is Roxas, if I remember correctly-"

"OH! HE ALWAYS HANGS OUT WITH SORA, AND DRIVES A NICE CAR!" Kairi looked as if she had just hit a goldmine, now happy with the clear response. "I know them! I love those two! They're really close with me, and I heard from Sora that he's going to start looking for a job-"

"Wait really? So... if we can hire one..-"

"The other definitely will follow so they can stay together-"

"-I'll get to see Roxas-"

"-I'll be able to work with both of them-"

"-and he'll love me for who I am-"

"-and the whole group can get together there, like a local hang out-"

"-and we'll get married and adopt kids-"

"-and we'll have so much money to spend on each other-"

"-then we'll happily die together-"

"-then we'll be the cool crew at the bar-"

"-It'll be perfect."

"-It's gonna rock."

Kairi and Axel found themselves staring at the other questionably, having no clue what the other was spewing about for the last 2 minutes. The awkward feeling washed over the two of them as they were unsure as to what exactly they should say to the other.

"Uh..." Kairi mumbled, putting her shoes off to the side and giving an awkward shift to her brother, "were you saying that you were going to try and marry Roxas?"

"NO!" Axel shook his head, "I don't even know what Roxas looks like-"

"Roxas looks like Ventus, stupid. They look like twins but Ventus is what... 2 or 3 years older than him? Something like that."

Axel nodded slowly, "So... I'd be hitting on a younger version of Ventus?"

"Pretty much."

"Damn."

"- And when all your cards are on the table,
pray the floor is still and stable.
And when all your cards are on the table,
Pray the floor is STILL and stable,
And dance your life away.
And this war,
It don't determine who is right
This war just determines who's left standing tonight.
Stop handing me lights.
I can see what you are in the dark just fine,
and I'm not blind, I'm bending the blinds.
Peeking through to get a glimpse of your anguishing lights
You're hiding like a vampire,
here comes the strife-
This won't hurt me because I get a thrill-"

"Fame over Demise by Woe, is Me. Acoustic version, right?"

It was the first time someone interrupted Zacks' songs of the morning, to actually give him the title of the song, or the band for that matter. He wasn't familiar with someone actually having the same taste as him, or knowing the lyrics to some extent, but the moment he turned to Cloud, everything fell into place. "C-Cloud..."

"I remember you showed me them, some years ago. That group and a few others... I uh... I still remember them, and I still listen to a lot of them. That's why that song was really familiar and I was able to-... Y'know..."

"Are we going to play a guessing game?" Zack grinned to the blonde, "I think a daily song and a daily guess at the song would be really fun, to be honest with you?"

"Why do you like to sing at work, may I ask?" Cloud questioned, pulling up a seat to sit next to the raven that was half leaning on the counter next to him. He used that spot as a hangout within a hangout, always leaning on the counter that was closest to the cash register. It was his favorite spot, and honestly no one knew why, but they never bothered to question why he'd always pull up a chair up to the counter next to the cash register and sit there to sing. Sing, out of all the things this one raven could do.

"I just-..." Zack shrugged awkwardly, "Hey, so, remember when I asked Reno if he was gay or not?"

At this, Axel, -who was just a few feet away, cleaning tables to make sure they looked presentable, with Ventus assisting him at the other side of the shop- perked his head up in question and stared at the pair as they went on to talk about his older brother.

"Oh, yeah, I do remember you asking that, why?"

"I asked him that in high school. Only yesterday did he tell me that he was, and that he's dating Rude."

"I FUCKING KNEW IT!" Axel screamed, throwing his rag onto the ground, "WOW! HE NEVER TELLS ME A THING ANYMORE!" He added, earning an awkward stare from the pair. "Oh..." Axel cleared his throat and reached down to pick up the rag, "My bad... I'll uh... I'll just go into the kitchen to make sure that Tifa and uh... Riku are okay."

With that, the redhead ran away to retreat into the kitchen, leaving the Strife siblings and Zack alone, once again in the familiar silence. However, within a few minutes, Ventus finished doing the last minute cleaning before the first customer of the day came in, asking for someone to assist them on how exactly to order their first drink and meal without a parent.

To be fair, the first customer of the day looked like they shouldn't even have money, and they had to have been at least fourteen at most. Though, the boy had steele blue hair that covered a single eye, -his right eye- and had to be no longer than chin length. This guy was oddly way too short, and he didn't look like he really knew what he wanted.

"Hey there little guy." Zack greeted, pushing his chair back to the nearest table, and running around the counter so that he could stand behind the cash register to start his job properly, "What can I get 'cha?"

"Uh..." The small boy looked around at the menu, unsure of exactly what he wanted to order from the shop. "I... Don't know."

"Is this your first time ordering stuff without your mom?" Zack questioned, leaning in rather curiously. "Here, let me suggest something for you. We sell a lot of different foods and drinks so... Do you like coffee at all?" The boy shook his head, "so is tea more of your interest?"

"Do you have milk tea?"

Zack jumped at the question, "We sure do! What flavor would you like? Do you want Bubble tea or Pearl tea?"

"Um...Do you have blueberry?"

Zack felt his eye twitch, but maintained his grin none-the-less. "I don't think these types of drinks come in blueberr-"

"Grape. I want a Grape Bubble tea... To go?"

Sigh. "Grape Bubble tea to go, any specific size?"

"Small.. Please."

"Okay, and do you want any specific flavored bubbles?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like uh... Tapioca bubbles or-"

"Yes, Tapioca bubbles as well."

"Okay, that'll be $2.25 please." Zack tried to force himself to grin at this point, but the boy's indecisive choices and responses irritated him in just the slightest. The boy took his moment to dig into his back pocket for his wallet, and gave the raven a raggedy - old 5 dollar bill to pay for the drink. "Would you like anything else? Anything to eat? Yes, no?"

"Oh uh... Do you have any sweets? Anything that adds up to a full 5 dollars, I guess."

Zack stared at the boy for a moment, glancing over to the sweets and other bakery items that were just placed there a few minutes ago. "Lets see.. we don't add tax, so you'll still get some change back, if you don't mind?"

"You don't add taxes?"

"I don't add taxes when people buy stuff from me. Don't tell my boss that though." The boy looked over to Cloud, who had innocently looked away from the situation to pay attention to outside. "He doesn't count though, because he's always on my side, silly." The raven commented, turning the boy's attention back to him. "Do you like muffins? Or red-bean buns? Maybe even cupcakes or a slice of a cake? Do you wanna go French and grab a croissant? Or do you want to go Japanese and grab su-"

"Just a regular sandwich would do. Ham, egg, and cheese."

"Oh, okay... well then. That comes up to $4.50, so-"

"Keep the change."

"Okay then. You can sit in wait, it'll be a minute."

"Sure.." The boy looked around to sit at the closest table, "this is to go, right?" He asked after settling himself down in his seat.

"What?" Zack turned around to look at the boy as he was pouring ice into a cup for the drink. "Yeah. It's to-go."

"Okay."

"Cloud, come here." Zack called pointing to the kitchen as most of his focus was on the drink preparation, "let them know what he wants to eat, please and thank you!" He grinned to the blonde that finally stood from his seat and followed the direction of the pointing finger.

"Yeah sure. No problem." Cloud nodded as he disappeared into the back.

"Are you two a thing?" The boy questioned, the moment Cloud left. Zack instantly jumped and shook his head, looking over to the boy. "Oh... well.. you see, in the college that I go to, there's this guy that I like and... I wanted to be able to make him notice me more-"

"For one.. you're really short." Zack started, letting his eyes go completely bug-eyed the moment he heard the boy say college.

College? He's old enough for college? To be a part of college? How old is this kid?

"How old are you?"

The boy shifted in his seat. "I'm... turning 20 in a few weeks."

"Wow. Really? You're not going to grow at all! Clouds youngest brother is taller than you!"

"Ah..."

The pair stayed in silence until Cloud came back holding the breakfast sandwich that the boy has ordered, passing it off to Zack and returning to his normal seat. The raven happily made his way over to the boy and handed off the meal of the day, "I really thought you were a child-"

"-It's okay.. a lot of people do-"

"-so sorry about that... I uh. Well... good luck on trying to get the guy to notice you and all. Let me know how things go!" Zack grinned, full of joy, as the smaller male nodded and made his way to the door.

"Y-yeah.. sure... and thanks for the help."

Zack nodded subtly and watched the younger boy walk out of the store, signaling for more customers to come into the shop to order some of their favorite drinks and start on for ordering their favorite meals.