Story: Family Dollar.

Chapter: 4 out of ?

Main Characters in said Chapter: Axel from Kingdom Hearts II, Vincent Valentine and Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII, and Dante and Vergil from Devil May Cry 3.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Axel, Vincent, Cloud, Dante, or Vergil. They belong to their highly respected artists. Square Enix, Capcom and probably a few others.

Second Disclaimer: I don't own the character Miyakai. Miyakai Valentine owns her role play character.

Copyrightations: I own the character Takara. She is indeed my role play character.

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Random Author Notes: I apologize about the character-point-of-view switching, and yes, I realize that Axel was the main in the first chapter, Taka was mostly the second, and Taka pretty much the third. This is probably because I know my role play character better than I know the others. Or it's the Mountain Dew going to my head. Which ever. I'll be fixing the point-of-view-ness to focus back on Axel. Though. This chapter will start out on Axel, and then move to Taka. She does everyone's laundry.

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Warning: This chapter of Family Dollar contains material that may not be suited for Vincent Valentine fangirls. The Author apologizes to said fangirls, but will not remove said content. So. Said Fangirls will either get over it now, or not read this chapter. The Author does not stand accountable for deaths resulting in random killed in the fangirls' rampages, though she'll feel pretty bad about it.

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Thanks for reading!

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That work day sucked. Cranky people, Cranky Co-Workers, Ugh. Well. Didn't matter now. He was on his way home, away from that dreaded waste-of-strip-mall-space. He could've gotten a serious ticket if he'd been caught going home. He didn't look down at his speedometer once, and had kept wondering why everyone was going so slow. It never occurred to him that he was excessively speeding down the streets. Well. He didn't get a ticket, or into an accident, so it doesn't matter anymore. He was pulling into the parking lot of their apartment building, pulling into a parking spot, and hopping off his bike. He stretched slightly and started for the building. He unlocked the security door, and stepped inside. He faced the stairs, frowning. He'd forgotten that he still needed to get up them. With a heavy sigh, He started up the first set, turned, went up the second, turned, went up the third, turned and went up the last. Ugh. The fourth floor. He unlocked the door to their apartment and walked in. He turned, shut the door and turned back. He paused, looking into the living, to his left. Piles and piles of clothes. Small piles, but piles none the less. He'd also forgotten it was his sister's deemed 'Laundry Day'. He frowned, turned right and sat down at the dining room table. He crossed his arms on the table and buried his face into them.

Takara came down the hallway, carrying a white laundry basket full off stuff. She turned right, and headed into the living room. She set the basket down in the middle of the floor and sat down next to it. She started going through the clothes. She held up a t-shirt. White pile. She tossed to her left and watched it land in a pile. She continued on like this until the basket was empty. Those clothes happened to be the second basket of her own. She stood up, grabbed the basket and head back down the hallway. Straight to the end, the door on the left. Her room. She tossed the basket in, watching it land on her bed. She then turned to go back down the hallway. She stopped at a door on her right, where there was a black basket full of dark clothing. Vincent's, that he had set out for her. She grabbed it and walked back down the hallway. She sat on the living room floor and repeated her sorting.

Axel looked up from his arms and watched her for a second. He stood up and walked into the living room. He sat down in a spin chair that was in front of the 'community computer'. It was the computer in the living room. That was all. But Taka, Vincent, and Axel, himself, each had computers in their rooms. So. This one was, technically, Cloud's. If he had ever used it. Anyway. Axel watched Taka continue her sorting. She was humming softly. He raised an eyebrow.

"Hey Taka. What are you humming?" he asked. Taka continued her sorting. He frowned. She couldn't hear him, and he knew why. He stuck his left thumb and middle finger into his mouth and gave a loud whistle. Taka paused. She'd heard something, but was not sure what it was. She brought her right hand to her ear and pulled a set of headphones off. She looked around in front of her, then turned towards the computer--

"GYAH!" she jumped. She hadn't realized that Axel was home. She calmed herself and half-glared at him. "Axel! Don't just randomly appear like that!" she shouted. He laughed.

"I didn't 'randomly appear'. I was sitting at the table while you sorted your clothes. And was there when you brought Vin's out too. It's not my fault you blast your music." he shrugged. She kept her frown. She mumbled something that could've either been 'Asshole' or 'Fish Bowl' but it wasn't exactly understood.

"Whatever. Did you make that noise?" she asked. Axel nodded.

"A whistle." he nodded again. She nodded once. She paused to see if he would say anything else.

"Oooookay. Why?" she asked. Axel laughed.

"I wanted to know what you were humming." he replied. She raised an eyebrow.

"Music." she said simply. She knew that wasn't the answer he wanted, but she couldn't help her smart-assy additude. Axel frowned and she laughed. "It's just one of my trance songs. You wouldn't like it Mr. I-keep-to-Rock-only." she shrugged and turned back to the basket of Vin's clothes. There was only a pair of black dress pants left. She tossed them into a pile of other dark clothes. She stood up and grabbed the basket. She turned to go down the hall, but stopped, facing Axel.

"Go gather your clothes, please, Axel-kun." she said, before walking down the hall. She set the basket down in front of Vincent's door, knocked twice and turned around to face Cloud's door. She knocked twice on his door, ignoring Vincent pulling his basket into his room. She received a 'The door's unlocked!' from behind Cloud's door. She twisted the handle and walked inside. She looked around. She raised an eyebrow, not seeing Cloud.

"Hair Gel, I need your basket." she said, a little louder than normal. A yellow basket slid toward her, from Cloud's closet. She bent down and picked it up, refusing to ask. She shuffled out. "Thanks." she said simply. She balanced the basket on her left knee, closing his door. She grabbed the side again and walked down the hall. She resumed her sitting position on the floor of the living room. She put her headphones back on, ignoring Axel getting up and walking down the hallway.

She hummed quietly and started sorting through Cloud's clothes. She held up a pair of jeans before she set them in her lap. She rummaged through the pockets. She pulled out two pens, three quarters, three hair binders, a small stack of Post-it notes and a pair of tweezers. Ignoring the strangeness of Cloud's pocket-contents, that now sat beside her, she went on searching the other pocket. Thank God that there was nothing in there. She would've either been seriously weirded out or burst out laughing at what possibly could've been in that pocket. She tossed the now-empty jeans into a pile that held a few more pair of jeans. She resumed sorting through the basket.

She came across another pair of pants. They were black pants, a bit dressy but not enough to be called 'dress pants'. These were the pants that Cloud had been required to wear to work. Taka paused. Cloud barely left for his job at the Go Cart place. And who would hire an insane person? Or. Had Cloud been different at work? Normal? She'd never been to his work. Just knew where it was, and past it on her way to work. She set the pants in her lap and started rummaging through the pockets. She mentally vowed to visit the next time he had to work. She pulled four paper clips, five Tootsie Roll wrappers, two pop can tabs, and a hair binder out of the right pocket. Sighing, she added it to the pile from the previous pants. The contents were always a little weird, and what the heck did Cloud need with so many hair binders? Oy.

She went onto to go through the other pocket. All that was in there was a folded up piece of paper. She was tempted to unfold it but felt it would be an invasion of privacy. She added it to the pile and tossed the pants onto the pile with Vincent's dress pants. She went back to sorting the basket.

Axel came back down the hall, carrying a bright red basket. He sat down in the computer chair and set the basket on the floor in front of his feet. He leaned forward and grabbed a shirt off the top. He held it up, looked it over then tossed it into a colorful pile that Taka had started. Taka paused, seeing the shirt land on the pile, out of the corner of her eye. She pulled her head phones off and looked over her shoulder, toward Axel at the comp. She raised an eyebrow.

"I can sort them myself, you know." she said. Axel shrugged.

"I'm not allowed to help?" he paused. "Not even once in awhile? Jeez." he laughed. She keep her straight face.

"Well. It's not that you can't help." she said, leaning toward the pile he threw his shirt onto. She grabbed the shirt and held it up. "It's that you have no idea how to do laundry." she tossed the shirt onto a different pile, across the room. Axel laughed.

"Alright. Fine. Sit on the other side of Cloud's basket, leave your headphones off and tell me where to throw them." he said. She paused, then did as he said. She crawled around Cloud's basket and sat down, making herself comfortable. She looked back to him as he held up a green t-shirt.

"The pile where you threw your other one." she said, picking a pair of underwear out of Cloud's basket. Axel threw it where he was told, as Taka tossed Cloud's underwear onto a pile of under garments. Axel held up a pair of jeans. "The pile of jeans behind me. Check your pockets." Taka said, without looking up. Axel rolled his eyes and started digging through the pockets of the jeans. Taka hummed quietly as she tossed another pair of underwear onto the under garment pile. She ducked as a pair of jeans went flying toward her. She sat back up straight and continued sorting Cloud's things as if nothing had flung itself at her.

They continued on like that until both baskets were empty. Axel stood up, holding his basket, while Taka thumbed through the pile of Cloud-Pants-Pocket-Content. Axel watched her with mild interest. He put the basket on the computer chair and leaned over her. He snatched the folded up piece of paper from the pile and started unfolding it. Taka glared up at him.

"Axel. That's Hair Gel's. You shouldn't read it." she frowned. He shrugged.

"He was going to let it get thrown through the wash. He obviously doesn't care that much. " he said, unfolding it for the last time. Taka kept her frown.

"Maybe he'd forgotten about it, huh? What then?" she gather up the rest of the pile and stood up. Axel stood, looking at the paper, silently. Taka made sure she'd picked up everything before turning to him. "Well. What is it then?" she asked. Axel folded up the piece of paper. He shrugged.

"Nothing important. I'll give it back to him." he nodded. She paused. He was hiding something but she didn't really care what.

"Fine. Then give him these as well." she filled his hands with the pocket contents. Axel frowned at his now-full-hands. Taka grabbed the edge of Cloud's basket, and then grabbed Axel's too. "I've got your basket." she said, walking down the hall. She walked straight to the end and walked into the door on the far left. Axel's room. She tossed his red basket onto his bed and walked back out. She leaned in Cloud's just-opened-by-Axel door. She neatly set the basket down, watching Axel dump his handful of things onto Cloud's bedside table. She leaned back out, and Axel walked out past her. She leaned in and pulled Cloud's door closed.

She turned and stopped, mid-step. Vincent was standing in his open doorway, looking at her. She put her foot down and blinked at him. She opened her mouth to say something but he spoke first.

"I have an engagement." he said simply. Taka stared at him for a second, mentally translating his words into normal vocabulary. She tilted her head.

"You mean--" she paused. "Like a date?" she asked. Not sure if her translation was right. Vincent slightly raised an eyebrow.

"Yes and no." he said a little quiet than normal. Taka kept her head tilted. Vincent rolled his eyes. "Yes, Takara. I have a date this evening." he said. Taka blinked and un-tilted her head. She took a step toward her room, backwards, making sure she wasn't blocking the hallway.

"Well. Don't let me keep you." she said, slight surprised tone in her voice. She held out her arm toward the front door. He gave a slight nod, took a step out of his room and shut his door behind himself. Taka heard a click, telling her that he had locked his door as well. He gave her another acknowledging nod and walked down the hall. He walked out the front door, Taka still watching him. Axel's head leaned into her line of vision, looking at the door. He turned to look at her, a confused expression on his face. Taka blinked. "Vincent." she said simply. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Why for?" he asked. Taka stood where she was, still surprised.

"He has a date." she said, as simply as before. Axel blinked, surprised.

"Like. A date-date?" he paused, giving her time to nod. "With human interaction!" he asked, a little louder than his previous comment. She nodded again. Axel turned back to the door. There was a moment of silence before Axel said anything.

"Damn."

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Chapter Five Teaser:

A noise caught Takara's attention as she stirred the eggs. Was that a door? She looked toward the microwave. 5:30am. No one was ever up right now. Well. Other than herself. She leaned out of the kitchen, just in time to see Vincent come into view, from coming down the hallway. His hair was a bit messed and he only sported a pair of black silk pajama bottoms. He paused in mid-step as Taka stared at him, oblivious of the egg-mixture dripping from the bowl she was holding, onto the floor. Vincent spoke first.

"I was--" he paused. "Hungry." Taka hesitantly nodded once, confused, because Vincent never really ate.