-.Good Morning Sunshine.-
Chapter Four.
.just point and laugh.
-x-x-x-
"What do you do when you're scared?" asked the girl quietly, the rough bark of the tree beneath her scratching her legs. She was staring absent-mindedly out to sea, the waves crashing roughly around the small isle they were occupying. She was counting to pass the time – counting the rumbling sounds of thunder echoing away in the distance. There was going to be a storm, but she didn't really care – she was a child and didn't understand that they probably should be at home. Storms didn't scare her – she liked the thunder and lightening and the rain and the wind.
"I … dunno…" answered the boy softly, his voice barely carrying over the ominous sounds. One one-thousand, one two-thousand, one three-thousand, BANG. It was coming closer, the wind blowing their hair roughly. He thought of all the times he had been scared. It was funny – most of those times centered around Sally in some way or another. Not because she was scary, but because … She never seemed to be exactly … She wasn't normal… She was badly injured after falling out of a window a few days ago. And two people in a family weren't enough. Their parents were always away on business meetings and Sally was three years older than him so she and the occasional babysitter took care of him. And if something serious happened to Sally he wouldn't really have any family to turn to. His parents didn't care about them enough.
"I like watching the storms," she said, getting up from the tree, turning her head to look at the yellow fruit hanging from the branches, her hair glistening with the rain water. "They're … pretty, you know? They stop me being afraid… I know that sounds strange." One one thousand, one two thousand, BANG. Getting closer and closer.
"No, not really," replied the boy, looking up at the sky. It was angry, dark and swirling around. It didn't look like the sort of thing somebody would look to so they wouldn't feel afraid – it didn't look like the sort of thing that would comfort somebody.
"No, but the weather's always there. Always. It never gives in," smiled his friend, the conflicting colours reflecting in her eyes. They looked red. Like blood. One one thousand, BANG. Closer and closer. It didn't seem to worry her in the slightest.
"I think we better go now… The storm'll come over the island and our boats will get thrown into the rocks at sea. C'mon," he said, but she shook her head, and he found it hard to say no to her. They were friends, and if she wanted to stay then he figured he had to stay with her. But they could get hurt, and friends weren't meant to let each other be harmed either. He chewed his bottom lip worriedly. What if something happened? Nobody knew they were even there.
"You worry too much," she said with a laugh. Saying something like that obviously angered the storm and provoked it – it was far greater than the stupid little girl.
There was no counting needed this time. The storm was over the island, and there was a bang, and a scream, a loud scream. And then it stopped, a dull thud being heard as a head hit the ground with a sickening crack. And it didn't matter how many times he shook her because it was obvious she wouldn't be getting up again. So he had to run. Sometimes he felt bad, because friends were meant to stick together.
It was ironic that something she claimed to make her feel better when she was sad had been the thing that killed her.
o.x.o
"Wake up, Axel!" cried a chipper voice, shoving him roughly in the shoulder, making him blink, yawning slightly. The first thing he noticed was how weird Sally looked before she brushed her hair in the morning. It sort of looked a bit like his now – all stuck up in various angles. It suited her, thought Axel with approval, because if everybody wore their hair like his the world would be a much happier place. Or something like that… He had no idea what he was thinking, really, because it was too early in the morning to be woken up by an annoying sister. It was too early in the morning to even classify as 'morning' in Axel's language.
"Wha'?" he responded, sounding amazingly smart in his 'i-want-to-go-back-to-bed' voice, that would be best left not described as it sounded like a bear being strangled.
"It's a lovely day, the sun is shining, the birds are singing!" declared Sally merrily, her voice cutting into him like a chainsaw, making him want to throw a pillow – full of rocks – at her. But that was far too childish an action for the 'great Axel' to do, so he contented himself with trying to ignore her highly caffeine-ated voice. "And it's so beautiful I think I'm going to sing! Tra la la la la la!"
Fuck. Axel moaned, shook off any remnants of sleep, and launched himself at his sister, attempting to hit her with his pillow that was sadly rock-free. And it never even got anywhere near her, anyway, as she stepped back, making him tumble out of bed in an undignified heap. "Sallywhatthefuckgetlooosstttt!" he moaned, proving he was not fit to talk too until he'd had his early-morning sugar rush and Dr. Pepper.
"Yay! You're awake," smiled Sally, reaching down to help Axel up, who stubbornly pushed her hand away, tried to get up, and fell over again. Very gracefully, of course, because he was Axel and he was always graceful. Unless it happened to be 7:23 a.m. and Sally was singing merrily. "Anyway, I knew my lovely voice would wake you up properly. So, that … Demyx … boy … annoying brat …" she hissed, "woke me up at 6:37 by ringing the damned phone asking if you wanted to go and get an ice-cream or something. Because we all know that ALL the shops are open at this hour and EVERYBODY who is SANE is obviously awake. I told him to fuck off," she grinned. "And that you'd go and see him at about 8. Okay?"
"Sally. Stop trying to control my personal life because you don't have one of your own!" yelled Axel angrily, picking up his pillow and throwing it at her, as it made contact with her face, making a delightful noise that was like music to his ears. It sounded better than her singing, at any rate.
"I'll have you know I have a lot of friends! I'm going out to see Emily later today," she declared brightly, backing away from Axel's room in case he tried to throw something more dangerous than a pillow at her next,
"The freaky freak who looks like she's crawled out of a grave? With all the blue hair?" he asked, wrinkling up his nose in distaste. "At least I hang out with friends who haven't signed their death warrants, Sally."
"Lalalala I'm not listening!" she sang, making her merry way to her room to comb her hair so it didn't look like she'd paid a visit to Axel's salon. She thought her brother needed a hair-cut, anyway. Not that she'd tell him that in fear of being thrown into the sea with multiple bricks tied to her feet.
x.o.x
"Guess what, Roxas?" asked Yuffie in happy tones that he deemed far too bright and happy for so early in the morning. That was surprising – he was usually greeted with a mental slap and a 'where the fuck were you, you're late.' But something had made her very happy today, obviously, judging by the way she had been singing animatedly to a song playing on the radio. It managed to morph into the ice-cream theme tune in Roxas' sleep-deprived brain, making him feel like stabbing himself or throwing a brick or a grand piano at the next passing stranger on the street. If he had a grand piano or a brick. Damn. His perfect plans, foiled by … something … and a lack of torture tools.
"Wha?" he asked, jamming on his stupid, stupid hat. Maybe he could stab somebody's eye out with the pointy corners of it he thought darkly, as he managed to impale his finger on it. It reminded him that life hated him and he should crawl in a grave and die. Hopefully before Riku blew him up with strange-smelling chemicals.
"I hired another person to work here! So now you can have a few more days off," she said happily. She was probably happy because she hated Roxas and wanted to get rid of him. It was all Rikku's fault he worked there anyway – she thought it was her role to teach him about earning his keep. Obviously Paine had told her that on the phone a few weeks ago. And Yuffie pressed play on the radio again, resuming her awful, awful rendition of some song that was being badly murdered. In cold blood. Roxas pitied the song and his ear-drums.
"So who's the new guy working here?" asked Roxas wearily, making his way behind the counter so he could resume another wonderfully fun day of sterilising ice-cream scoops.
"Hmn? Oh, a friend of a friend of a … cousin … I dunno, but the point is somebody said they'd be willing to work here," giggled Yuffie happily, styling her hair in the mirror. Roxas wondered idly what Yuffie actually did in the store anyway, apart from manage its finances and harvest most of the money for her good self. Not there was that much that was good about her. Oh, and it was her name that was displayed on the sign outside. 'Yuffie's ice-cream parlour'. A very catchy and unique title. Roxas should take his (ridiculously gay) hat off to her for thinking up such a good name some time.
"Oh, right," replied Roxas lazily, stifling a yawn as he thought fondly of that nice 'kill-Riku' game had played yesterday at Selphie's house. Sora had looked surprised when he shot him several times, not that he had anything against Sora. Apart from the fact he obviously had no taste going out with Kairi, who was …
Who was standing right in front of him, actually, with a calculating smirk on her face.
"Hello, Roxas," she said evilly, prompting a 'crap' from the boy. "We do seem to keep running into each other recently, don't we?" she giggled, making Roxas scowl.
'La la la, look at me Kairi, I'm being a big, strong boy and ignoring you. How does that make YOU feel? Huh? Huh? Huh? Bring it on, PUNK! I'm not listening to a word you say! Nope! I most definitely am not, hahahaha! Do your worst, oh, there's Demyx, I DON'T CARE! And there's Axel and … CRRAAAPPPP!' Roxas thought, his grand plans of ignoring Kairi and her friends in ruins. He blamed Axel's stupid hair. Not that it was stupid… Kairi was stupid. Yes, that was it. And the odd hat Axel was wearing was stupid too, and … CRRRAAAPPP.
At least Axel looked as pissed off as he was.
o.x.o
"I think that was why Sally was so damned happy this morning. Because Demyx asked her if it would be OK if I worked here and she obviously said yes because she wants to make my life hell," growled Axel angrily, looking like he wanted to murder the little girl who had dropped her ice-cream cone and started crying loud enough to wake the dead. Or Emily – she classified for all the dead. "And she didn't give me the proper message – just said Demyx wanted me to come and get an ice-cream with him. Fuck, I thought Kairi was only an evil sadist to Demyx!"
Roxas knew the name Sally. It was the 'less-than-lovely' girl who had picked up the phone when he had tried to call Axel and he wasn't there. She didn't sound like a very good sister if she thought Demyx and Kairi's ideas were good. For it was obvious that – move over, Maleficent – Kairi was the new mistress of all evil. A title to be proud of, Roxas was sure. His title, according to Naminé as of this morning, was Clayton. Or maybe she had watched Tarzan and had been trying to describe the plot to him. He didn't really care, to be quite honest.
"Why didn't you just say that you didn't want to do it?" asked Roxas, feeling like he was going to pass out on the cold, hard floor from lack of sleep. Stupid, stupid Naminé and her assorted collection of Disney dolls that she had thrown at him to wake him up. Well, it worked – he had the bruises to prove it. She used the plastic ones. To cause maximum pain, obviously.
"Because Kairi said she'd give me some munny and if I didn't she'd make me walk her damned dog instead of Demyx," said Axel darkly, poking his hat like it was some sort of unexploded bomb, wincing as the sharp edge sliced into his finger.
"Yeah, you got to watch out for them," said Roxas dully, holding up his hands. He had been scarred for life from those damned hats, too. "It's just child cruelty. If something goes wrong, live by my personal rule and blame Yuffie."
"I'll remember that…" said Axel, his voice trailing off. Everybody was conspiring against him. Even his damned HAT was conspiring against him, if that was even possible. He poked it again, and came to the conclusion that yes, it was possible for a hat to conspire against you. Very possible. Painfully possible.
Roxas smiled, and turned his head as the happy little tinkling tune heralded the arrival of somebody else … In fact, quite a few people, that he had taken great delight in killing yesterday.
Selphie, Sora and … the horror that walks the earth in the guise or Ri-ku, more formally known to his enemies (and he had plenty of those) as Clown-man. Cue thunder and lightening crashing.
"If I have to listen to that damned tune one more time I'm gonna RAWR," said Axel quietly, feeling like soothing his anger by setting something on fire, preferably the hat. Or having Roxas say something funny or smiling – that might make him feel better. Hopefully. Because Clown-man sure wasn't going to, he soon realised, as the clown guffawed and pointed at Roxas with mirth etched onto his face, looking like a yokel.
"Huh huh huh," he grunted. "This is funnier than the time I stole your cookie in Kindergarten and the time I tied your shoelaces together and the time you fell over Sora and … wait, I didn't bring the pain upon you that time. Oh well, this is still very, very, very amusing! Huh huh huh! Hilarious, if you will!"
Axel's eye twitched involuntarily. He'd just found a new target to set on fire. He probably knew that kid and his friends from school somewhere. Well, Roxas certainly seemed to know him. And how dare that clown/yokel/big-foot/pant-clipped-over-pant-man/bastard dare insult Roxas like that! In an ice-cream parlour, of all places, where any little kid could be watching – not that they were.
"Riku, SHUT UP!" yelled Selphie in annoyance. "Go and insult some pigeons outside with your large feet or muscles or something. Roxas is my friend, dummy!"
Ah. So 'R-I-K-U' was the name of the brat. Well, he would form some elaborate plan involving an ice-pick and a biscuit and humiliate him in front of everybody one day. One happy, happy, happy day over the rainbow.
"But he looks so stoooopid!" guffawed Riku, making Roxas cringe. Even Sora didn't find it amusing anymore, and that was odd.
Roxas felt like stabbing Riku in the face with an ice-cream cone, but Axel, however, was several steps ahead of him, as he picked up a scoop of the frozen treat and hurled it with expert aim into the mindless drone's face. That shut him up.
"That'll be five munny please," said Axel in a bright voice laced with pure evil, as Selphie, Sora and Roxas laughed and Riku snorted, trying to look dignified. Although any scraps of respect he may have had quickly melted with blue gunge on his face, as Selphie hopped forwards in her chipper way – yes, you CAN walk in a chipper way if you're called Selphie Tilmitt – and willingly gave Axel the munny.
"And I'll give you some more if you'll hit him in the face again for being such a heartless bastard," she smiled brightly.
"I … need … some … paper … napkins," said Riku darkly, as he stalked off to the bathroom, prompting more giggles from Sora. Roxas found this strangely disturbing, because it was a rather high-pitched girly giggle, but he guessed that was just Sora's 'thing' and it was best not to question it. The truth may be very disturbing.
"So, why did you guys come here? To mock me?" asked Roxas in a tired, resigned voice. "Just so you know, people have insulted my hat so often I could stab myself with it. Infact, that's not a bad idea. It's pointy enough."
Axel looked at Roxas curiously. "Uh, Roxas, I dealt with Clown-man, he won't be bothering you any more. Unless of course he's really, really annoying and keeps showing up like evil characters you're meant to hate do in bad fanfiction. In my mind I see a game called Kingdom Heartless where a guy called Riku keeps appearing trying to kill the main character that should be called Sora because it sounds right."
Sora gave him a rather disturbed look. "Hey, I thought about making up a game like that! Wow! That's really cool!"
"And you call Riku Clown-man too…" said Roxas brightly to Axel, not feeling so depressed anymore, as said 'thing' emerged from the boys' bathrooms – although it may have been the girls', nobody was quite sure at the time – with a face now ice-cream free and peachy-clean. He had his evil look back as well. Roxas idly wondered if he carried around an 'evil look' with him in a handbag and could re-powder it on his face whenever he wanted to. An alternative to blusher that would frighten the hell out of anybody.
"I think we should go," said the 'thing' that was obviously sulking now having being treated to the mouthful of unwanted ice-cream. "Let's leave them to be alone together," he said darkly, wanting to get in a few more digs about Roxas while he had the chance.
"Spoilsport! I never got my ice-cream, s'not fair that you did!" said Selphie, poking 'it' with a finger angrily, making 'it' shoot an annoyed look at the shorter girl. "AND I paid for yours, you ungrateful scrounger! Stealing my good munny!"
Sora appeared to be several miles away, staring fixatedly at Roxas' hat like it was about to come alive with a battle cry of 'DEEEMONS!' and eat everybody. It reminded him of Wakka's hair – he always had to look at that whenever he saw it to check the spike wasn't really a life-form attached to his head ready to kill everybody.
"Fine, fine, we'll get you a damned ice-cream and go, alright?" grunted 'it' in annoyance, as 'it' marched back to the counter, using 'it's' munny this time to pay for two ice-creams of Selphie's choice – because she insisted Sora's favourite flavour was hers' and she'd eat it anyway if he didn't want it.
Sora was staring at the hat, still not sure whether it would stalk him in his dreams in the form of a heartless or not. Yes, the idea of a game called Kingdom of Hearts was a truly cool idea.
And so 'it' took the ice-creams from Roxas and handed them to Selphie, and 'it' made it way to the door, flanked by 'it's' minions. But not before 'it' slipped on thin-air and fell back, cracking 'it's' head on the cold, unforgiving, merciless floor.
And Axel, Roxas, Selphie and Sora proceeded to laugh at 'it'. And 'it' was very annoyed indeed.
-x-x-x-
A/N: Yay! A very fast update… Yes… My friend forced me to write it. It's good having somebody read what you're writing because you can tell how good 'it' is from the amount of laughs you get. The beginning is angst, not humour, but it's relevant to the plot… Guess who the two kids are, I DARE YOU. Haha. Chicken. So, anyway, the Rikuyokel reference refers to a large inside joke: "Some folk'll never turn into Ansem, but then again some folk'll, like Riku the Jamaican yokel!" And why he's Jamaican? He spoke to Wakka too much. Yes, we all have unhealthy obsessions with Wakka's demon hair. This was a HAPPY ending chapter, but that will change soon .. Anyway, please read and review and you get … a … TRIANGLE! Yes, my dear friends (?) a TRIANGLE. Thank ye and bye byes! Will be updated when this chapter gets at least four reviews .
