prompt: pineapples

Grocery shopping was mundane and normal. Everyone had to do it, which meant there was really nothing special about loading up your cart (with one wheel broken) with cookies and bread. Axel personally found it particularly unpleasant, especially considering he ate constantly and so had to grocery shop every couple of days. This meant getting in the car (or walking, but he'd rather waste gas than energy), getting the groceries, waiting in line, paying a small fortune, loading the car, going home, unloading… ugh. Some days he wished he had the money to just buy a personal shopper.

One could imagine his distaste, then, when he had to go grocery shopping one chilly Sunday morning.

Axel entered the store, lifting his hand to block his eyes from the sudden onslaught of garish fluorescent lighting. The door made a cheery DING DONG~ sound as he grabbed a hand basket, grumbling as he made his way to the bread aisle. He'd been woken up this morning by his growling stomach, but when he went to look for sustenance, he'd found only a head of lettuce and a week old spoiled jar of mayonnaise. So now here he was, dragging his feet through the bread aisle in his bright green pajama pants and a baggy sweatshirt. He pulled a loaf of bread off the rack, causing another few loaves to tumble to the ground. He scowled and left them there.

Making his way through the canned goods aisle, Axel found himself somehow looking at the canned fruits/vegetables. He began contemplating what he could do with a can of olives when an intense pain shot up through his toe. He yelped and dropped his things, coiling over to examine his smarting foot. There was a rush of "Oh my god oh my god I'm so so sorry" 's before an extra set of hands were helping his gather his things. Axel looked up from his pained foot (his eyes weren't tearing up, he swore) to see a busy head of blond hair whizzing around him.

"What the fuck," was all he could manage. The head looked up at him worriedly and picked up a dented can of pineapples. Axel vaguely realized that's what hit him in the foot. Maybe flip-flops weren't the best idea today.

"I'm so sorry I was just trying to get a can in the back and you know how these shelves are and are you okay? Oh god I think you're bleeding." The boy never stopped once for breath. Axel hadn't realized he was staring at the kid until then, so he chose that moment to look down and notice that his toe was indeed bleeding. "Shit." He said.

"Oh god here let me help you up." The kid went to grab his arm, but Axel got up on his own. "Nah, it's okay. It doesn't really hurt all that much." He had to grab onto the offending shelves to keep himself upright. "What's your name kid?"

The boy looked surprised. "Erm, Roxas." Axel bent over to pick his things up but Roxas got them for him. "Well Roxas, I'd say you owe me."

Roxas' eyes bugged ('How could they even get bigger?' Axel thought.) as he stuttered "Uh I uh…"

"Buy me a coffee and we're even." Axel grinned. Roxas smiled a relieved smile, "Yeah sure, I can do that." They headed towards the in-store Starbucks (with Axel limping, of course) and began chatting, the former awkwardness slowly melting away.

So maybe grocery shopping wasn't all that bad.