Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts
Chapter: 4 "5 Days, 19 Hours, 12 minutes, 57 seconds"
Author's Notes: First off, thank you to all that reviewed, favorited, or followed! I'm glad that you all are enjoying it so far! :) And I'm sorry that things are progressing slow but hey, it's all just leading up to a fantastic meeting, right? Follow me on tumblr for fun posts, Akuroku, and the ranting I do as I write this fic! hellfirepheonix . tumblr .com
Thank you to Fireotaku18, sakurasapprentice7, Azurela, meeka-eela, Formidable Rain, mangamichelle12, NobodyWriterXIII, mudkipluvr4ever, and Hinata's Shadow for reviewing! You all rock and I just love you all. I love everyone that reads though :)
"Damn, school was brutal today." Roxas cursed out as he leaned back against the brick wall that enclosed his school. It had been a long day but thankfully, school had just ended. He was alone today since Sora was away at a cross country meet with Riku. He couldn't hang out with Hayner either for his best friend was grounded after having been caught fighting Seifer on school grounds. Crossing his arms, he looked up at the grey, cloudy sky. "I had two tests today; Chemistry and AP Psychology all on the same day." He wasn't too worried about psychology, it was still just the first unit and it was basically all general terms. Chemistry was something he was a bit nervous about; stoichiometry just wasn't clicking in his head right now. It all didn't make sense in his head. He had to convert things, figure out moles, cancel out stuff, and well, he was struggling a bit. "I don't think I failed but I don't think I did that great either." An image of his parents popped up in his head and he paled slightly.
He could see them now; Leon looking at him with a stern expression and Cloud frowning angrily. He wasn't all looking forward to their wrath should he bring home a failing grade. "Seriously, school started last Monday, why is it that I already have two tests the second week of school?" Suppressing the need to scoff in annoyance, he picked himself off of the brick wall and threw the skateboard he had in his hand to the ground. "I guess I could always go home." He murmured to himself as he put one foot on the skateboard. Adjusting the straps of his backpack, he kicked off with one foot and began skating down the sidewalk. Knowing that if he went home now, he'd be forced to do chores, he hummed. 'I'm not really in the mood for chores right now though.'
Where should he go now then?
Winding through walking pedestrians on the street, Roxas agilely made his way towards his unknown destination. He suddenly stopped. "Actually wait, I still have time to kill, maybe I'll go to that café in the middle sector." With a small grin, he nodded determinedly and began skating towards the middle sector. It wasn't relatively far if he took the railcar. After a quiet half an hour of traveling, he found himself outside the café. Pushing the glass door open, he looked around and saw a few tables being occupied by people his age. They were all spread out relatively evenly throughout the café looking at ease as they chatted away. Walking up to the register, he slipped a hand in his back pocket to pull out his wallet. He ordered a Chai tea latté and floated over to a seat after receiving it. Roxas propped his skateboard up against his chair and leaned back in his chair.
Closing his fingers over the plastic cup, the blond brought it to his lips and sipped gently, not wanting the heated liquid to burn his tongue. He reveled in its sweet taste, his eyes closing a little happily. 'This sure calms me down; nothing like a little tea to relax the body.' Roxas grinned as he placed his tea back down. Pulling down his checkered wristband, he turned his attention towards his timer.
5 Days, 19 Hours, 12 minutes, 57 seconds
5 Days, 19 Hours, 12 minutes, 56 seconds
5 Days, 19 Hours, 12 minutes, 55 seconds
5 Days, 19 Hours, 12 minutes, 54 seconds
'Five days left, huh? That means I'll get to meet her on Saturday.' Somewhat of a dreamy expression covered his face as he began to lose himself in his thoughts. In his mind, he began to envision a short girl with a full waist – not thin but a little curvy – and an average sized chest. At the moment, she lacked a coherent face but the more and more he thought about her, the more her face began to take shape. He felt like an artist; illustrating bits and pieces of the masterpiece that was indeed his soul mate. Little by little, she became more and more real to him. She would have a soft, kind voice that chimed like bells and small hands so he could eclipse them in his. She'd have soft hair so he could his fingers through them when he held her and most importantly, she'd love him and he'd love her. 'I wonder what she looks like, blond maybe?'
"…Excuse me." A broke cut in through his thoughts. He blinked and turned his attention to his right and saw three young girls hovering beside him. "We were wondering if you were using that other chair. Could we borrow it?" The blonde one asked kindly. Her eyes were big and blue and he was vaguely reminded of the ocean. Beside her, the other two girls smiled.
"Oh yeah, sure." Roxas replied back distractedly, hurrying to his feet so he could assist. Cloud and Leon had taught him well, he never hesitated to help when he could. They all smiled graciously at him as he picked up the vacant chair and brought it over to the girls' table. Upon setting it down, he turned back to bid them farewell before pausing, having just noticed their clothes. They were all wearing plaid skirts and short-sleeved collared shirts with ties around their necks. "Do you guys go to that all-girls school in the middle sector? Our Lady of Radiant Garden?"
The girls settled into their seats and nodded. This time however the raven haired girl answered. She smoothed out her plaid blue and white skirt, "Yep! We're all Lady Garden girls." She gestured over to the girl on the right. "This is Naminé." She then moved onto the girl with the red hair. "That's Kairi." She then pointed to herself. "And my name's Xion." The private school girls all looked up at him expectantly, seemingly waiting for something.
Not even a second had passed before Roxas blushed, having forgotten his place. He quickly got his stuff from his table and moved his chair over to join his new friends. The blond pulled up his chair a bit so he could sit beside Xion. "My name's Roxas. I go to Radiant Academy."
"That's in the military sector, right?" Kairi asked, tucking a strand of auburn hair behind her ear. She leaned an elbow against the edge of the table and cupped her face in her hands, watching for his reaction. At his nod, Kairi hummed. "I thought so. What's it like? Is it nice?" Knowing that these girls had probably never been to a public school before, he answered truthfully.
"Yeah, it's a pretty nice school. We've got a top-of-the-line cross country team but we're pretty well known for our athletics program overall. I think we're like the number two ranked seed in the whole city." Roxas then blinked. 'Holy shit, I sound like I'm bragging.' While he knew that all schools were opened to any kind of student, he didn't want to seem like he was showing off. In all honesty, Roxas would rather they didn't know about his famous family line. He then cleared his throat, "I'll be graduating at the end of spring term."
"Oh wow, that's something. We're all juniors ourselves." Naminé replied back. "Our school's not that bad. It's a nice school; it's opened to all families, not just ones in the middle sector." She then laughed a little. "You'd think it'd be an expensive kind of school but they're really sympathetic. They'll let you attend even if you don't have an ounce of munny or gil." The blond immediately nodded at that, it sounded nice.
Xion drank from her cappuccino and licked her lips. "So tell us about yourself, Roxas. Do you have any brothers? Sisters?" Before he could open his mouth to reply, she cut him off again and spoke instead. "I've got an older brother myself, but I was adopted so we're not blood-related. He's a senior at Radiant Garden University over in the middle sector."
"I've got an older sister." Naminé spoke up.
"And I've got an older brother." Kairi too explained.
Roxas nodded. "I see. I have a younger brother who goes to Radiant Academy with me. We're the same age but we're not twins or anything like that." At their perplexing looks, he rubbed the back of his head, a trait he picked up from Sora no doubt. "Yeah, he and I were adopted too. Our parents left us after the war and we were adopted by a couple of retired military soldiers." He flinched almost inwardly, not wanting them to know about Cloud or Leon. It wasn't that he was ashamed of his parents; no, quite the contrary, it was just that he didn't want to be seen as another prize in the eyes of these three girls. He liked them; they were nice and seemed to genuinely like him for him.
"That sounds nice." Kairi said with a smile. Roxas' lip curved upwards to return her smile when he suddenly stopped himself. He noticed how sad hers looked and couldn't find it in him to smile. Did she not have parents? He managed a weak smile and shrugged his shoulders a bit. "Parents are always good to have." He admitted reluctantly though she didn't seem fazed by his words. The four friends lapsed into a somewhat comfortable silence before Naminé hummed softly and turned her attention towards her wrist.
"Hey, look at this." She extended her thin arm forward and placed it wrist side-up on the table. "It's really going down, isn't it?" Kairi and Xion gasped a little in awed surprise as they both nodded. "It won't be long now, will it?" Not wanting to be rude, Roxas averted his eyes slightly, moving to sip his tea. Noticing his detached self, the blonde giggled a little. "It's not that big of a deal, Roxas. You can look too."
"Nah, it's none of my business." He laughed.
Naminé only shrugged, the small smile never leaving her face. "I've got 11 days left."
"Five for me." He found himself saying back before he could stop himself. Xion and Naminé laughed at his quick response, causing him to blush cutely. They proceeded to coo at him, ultimately making him blush even more. With his attention occupied however, he hadn't noticed Kairi's piercing gaze. She was studying him silently, her brows furrowing a bit.
'Five, he said? How very interesting.' The auburn haired girl mused. Thinking about to her brother's timer a few days before, she began to count. 'It's close.' Kairi thought slowly, hiding a small smile. 'Could it be?' With an eager smile, she giggled to herself and joined in on the conversation. The four friends conversed and conversed, losing themselves to the serenity of their meeting.
5 Days, 18 Hours, 45 minutes, 25 seconds
5 Days, 18 Hours, 45 minutes, 24 seconds
5 Days, 18 Hours, 45 minutes, 23 seconds
"Good morning, Axel!" Kairi cried out happily as she flung herself onto her brother's unconscious form. He groaned in reply and shifted so that she was sitting on his chest and not anywhere else lower. Despite her wake-up call, he turned his face away, wanting to sleep a bit more. It was an early Wednesday morning and she was about to head off to school but not before waking her older brother up. It was something of a routine but she was glad to do it; he did after all work many hours into the night in order to support them both. "Wake up, you lazy bum, you'll be late for your 10 AM." She reminded, playfully slapping him across his bare chest.
"…Go away." The crimson haired man groaned back, trying to turn on his side but being physically unable to since his sister was sitting on top of him. Truth be told, he could easily flip over but he didn't want to hurt her. He knew he had a 10 AM class, hell, he signed up for that months ago. Axel really badly just wanted to skip and sleep the day away. If he could, he'd sleep all day. Sleep sounded real good right about now.
"Axel…" Kairi warned, her tone a bit stern. Vaguely, he was reminded of his mother's sharp tongue and he couldn't help but smirk a little. She reached forward and pulled on one of his long red spikes. "I'm not telling you again, get up." Kairi tugged at it again when he didn't reply and it was only after she saw a flash of annoyed green eyes that she relented. Giving her brother a cheeky grin, she leaned forward and kiss his cheek. "There's breakfast on the table, okay? I'm going now."
Before she could pull away, he extended a long arm out and wrapped it around her waist, crushing her to his chest. Kairi squealed in surprise but relaxed visibly as she took in his smoky scent. She didn't approve of his smoking habits but the smell did remind her of him and that was always comforting. Axel touched his lips tenderly to her forehead before smoothing out her bangs with his thin fingers. "Have a good day, little sis. Be good for me." And with that, he allowed himself to fall back asleep, his arms falling limp.
She slipped out of his embrace and gave him her best smile. 'I'm not really sure who your soul mate is Axel but if it's who I think it is, you're going to be so happy and so loved.' From her time with Roxas, Kairi knew she could trust him with her brother's heart, if it was him anyway. Roxas had explained how he was very eager to meet his soul mate and she herself couldn't wait. Her brother deserved so much – he really did. Kairi closed the door to her brother's room gently behind her before making her way out of the house. Pulling her school bag closer to her, she hummed a distinct tune Axel had once sung for her. 'I just hope that those two can look past certain things like their sex for example.' She hopped down a step and stopped, berating herself slightly. 'Be realistic though Kairi, Roxas said he had 5 days and in all honesty, it's probably someone else.' She let out a sad sigh. 'It's not like they're really synced up but still…It'd be nice if they were.'
More than anything, Kairi just wanted her brother to be happy.
'I can't fill his void forever.'
3 Days, 23 Hours, 31 minutes, 49 seconds
3 Days, 23 Hours, 31 minutes, 48 seconds
3 Days, 23 Hours, 31 minutes, 47 seconds
3 Days, 23 Hours, 31 minutes, 46 seconds
Author's Notes: And alas, it is done. We're at Day 3 now. The next chapter is the day of reckoning, I can't wait. It's going to be amazing for all of us. That's right guys, next chapter Axel and Roxas finally meet :) Leave a review if you liked it! New chapters come out every week! Until next time!