Stomach full of ice cream and mind at ease, Axel makes his way up an escalator and back toward Hot Topic. Saïx is already upset about his absence, but that's nothing Axel can't handle. Probably. Hopefully.
As the stairs ascend, Axel finds himself gazing over the banister, scanning the crowds for Roxas' strange, swooping golden halo of blonde locks.
The day they met, Axel had wondered why Saïx had even hired the quiet, adorable, petite blonde punk. He looked easy to break. Like a goldfish cracker in a sea of literal sharks.
But the more he spoke to Roxas, the blonde cracking him up with stories of his crazy-ass coworkers, the more apparent it became that he knows how to crack a verbal whip. His wit reminds him a bit of Saïx's: casual, unassuming, sharp as a switchblade. It's like Saïx found someone else who speaks his exact dialect of sarcasm and signed him right on. It's... well, it's a little bit terrifying, actually.
Or it would be. Except Yuffie wasn't wrong. The guy is mostly just a total sweetheart. Face of an angel. Heart of mush.
Surprising, yeah, but sweet. Like Pop Rocks.
Sure, Saïx would have his own rationale for hiring the kid. Some bullshit about approachability and pop culture knowledge, but Axel knows better. Saïx tends to hire people like Saïx: pretty, gay, kind of an asshole. And Roxas is like almost those things.
Well, okay, gay is up for debate. He hadn't said he was. But the kid hadn't flirted with Yuffie. Perfect, adorable, spitfire, absolute ray of golden sunshine, Yuffie, had asked if she could have his number to hang onto, and he had told her she might as well just hang out with his brother instead and then not given it to her.
Kid hadn't even blinked when Axel mentioned his boyfriend. And when Axel thoughtlessly brought out the flirty jokes, instead of laughing or lashing out, Roxas'd flirted back. Licked ice cream off his fingers with a dainty pink tongue like a damn cat and fucking flirted back.
Cute, quiet little Roxas.
I mean shit.
It was worth further investigation, anyway.
Axel's almost reached the next floor and is ready to abandon his search, when just out of the corner of his eye, he catches sight of the tiny blonde clad in black and white. Roxas glances left and right before ducking into Build-A-Bear.
Wait. Axel does a double take but the view vanishes as the escalator climbs.
Build-A-Bear?
Cute and cuddly is as cute and cuddly does?
Well. That was worth further investigation too.