"Hello, Outlaw." Clipped, staccato strikes of high heel against tile and a to-go coffee pressed into his hand as the owner caught up to him greeted Axel on the first floor during his mad dash to the elevator as he tried not be late on his first day, even after being betrayed by an off-schedule commuter train. Catching up couldn't have been easy when he considered the shorter legs and tight skirt of the woman that had run after him, excitable as soon as she caught sight of him and evoking inside jokes with a clashing enthusiasm of voice and hesitance in her eyes that said she'd debated with herself of whether he'd remember his own words ("If in-laws doesn't fit now, I guess we can be out-laws").
That was Naminé.
Naminé carried the same mixed aura Axel remembered from their few in person meetings. Shy and uncomfortable in her own skin one moment; glances from under lashes that would have been flirting from anyone else reading from her as if it were a tremendous feat to make eye contact, slight hesitation between opening her mouth and making any sound as if she had to remind herself how to speak. It was a look that suited the awkward teenager Kairi had first introduced him to than the idea of a successful advertising firm agent. Then, when she did speak and flashed a brief glimpse of a smile after identifying you as a friend (Axel always wondered if everyone she met was instantly a friend by default or if it was just him she unfolded for like a flower before he had a chance to even speak, confusing the image of painfully timid with the immediate, genuine excitement and affection shining out of the eyes that found it so hard to keep more than momentary contact with his) you were bowled over by her warmth and found she was the type to hug strangers, though she looked almost as surprised and amused as the strangers did by her actions. Then, you'd see the way she seemed to glide instead of walk with almost ethereal effortless elegance and you'd see her as some should-be unapproachable creature from a higher plane and become nervous yourself.
Axel shot a finger gun at her as he spun toward her and stopped in his tracks, and felt immediately lame for it, despite her playing along gamely and reeling back slightly when he did so. "Naminé! How are you? You look fantastic!" He swallowed any protest of needing to dash or confusion over what she was even doing here except checking up on him, and gave her the expected old friend hug, adjusted to a one arm grip with the second arm kept aloft, lifting coffee far above where it was in danger of being spilled all over her pure white outfit (Wasn't her second child under a year old? How did she make it out the door in the morning immaculate?) though he wasn't even entirely sure he knew the name of her second child or her husband and their primary bonding experience had been a family funeral.
She deserved a hug and more. She'd been the one to bring his name up to Xemnas after all-or to bring his name up to Marluxia who brought him up to Xemnas. It was apparently the order to follow if you wanted to get things done; it had been part of the briefing she'd given him. Never expect to speak directly to Xemnas or even set eyes on Xemnas outside reading about him like everyone else (That was if you were his employee. She saw Xemnas regularly, and from the way she said it, more regularly than she'd like) but if you had a suggestion or a question, take it to Maluxia, as long as you didn't mind not having credit. If you did need credit there was a certain email among the different supposed direct lines to Xemnas that Naminé knew for a fact Xemnas's husband, Saïx, kept on top of for him, and that was the one to use. At least it had been before. With the separation, that might not be true anymore.
Naminé had been just as blase gossiping about what details she knew of Xemnas's failing marriage as she was about how best to get his ear in work matters in her emails and texts to Axel. She said she didn't see a reason not to be if Axel was going to be working at Kingdom Hearts. She'd also rationalized that the separation was common knowledge if you were paying attention to the right sources. Though he didn't exactly qualify as celebrity news, still just an upstart to watch take off like a rocket or burnout on launch, Xemnas had a reputation far more interesting than tech moguls who had done much more and were worth much more than he.
Axel hadn't given her the reason that hearing about Saïx and Xemnas had been more than a little awkward. He didn't want to be part of the next series of important facts to know added to Naminé's web.
Not that he thought she gossiped freely with everyone. He just couldn't be sure. Kairi's cousin was an enigma, which was probably why she was the favorite of them both.
"Thank you! I'm a little self-conscious actually." Naminé lowered her voice conspiratorially and smoothed her fingers over the front of her blouse. "This is a De Vil. Bought before the controversy of course, but as soon as one person notices it and comments then I'm sure I'll never hear the end of it from anyone. It was too expensive to just throw out. Enough about that though. Enough about anything, really, you're nearly late. We have to get you to the fourth floor." She took hold of Axel's arm by the elbow and dragged him toward the elevator as if he'd been stalling instead of pausing to say hi to her.
"I could have made it on my own. Despite what you might have heard, I do not need constant supervision to go about daily life."
"Kairi made me promise when you and Reno moved." Naminé tapped the up button on the wall with a perfectly manicured finger that again made him wonder if he was wrong about the infant at home. Maybe she and whatshisface only had Prompto.
"And how's that working out? Not even one family dinner in the past year." He pouted over the tragedy until the elevator ding cut him off and he ushered Naminé inside ahead of him. "I was promised a roast chicken that would make me cry. I've just cried about the lack of Grandma Ava's family recipe in my life...and you of course. I only started getting emails because you wanted brownie points with your client by finding him the best anti-hacker this side of Twilight Town."
"That was of course it. You didn't benefit at all. I'm sure you were happy heading the IT department for Replika. You and Dr. Vexen got on so well." Naminé pressed four and eight.
Axel's head snapped to her "How do you even...?" He was entirely certain he'd never even mentioned Vexen once, especially not since they emailed and he knew better than to have written records of some things.
"I read minds," Naminé said, so straight-faced he could almost believe it. "Kairi. You talk to her. She talks to me."
"Oh." The explanation was simple but jabbed at him in ways he didn't want to acknowledge.
"It's sweet."
This was the slowest moving elevator ever.
"Me and Dr. Vexen?" he asked wryly.
"You got Xion her own phone to make sure you could talk every day but you and Kairi still talk a few hours a week, and that's what she admits. It's sweet." Naminé's eyes were far too knowing but her tone was matter of fact, not teasing.
"We're friends. We've always been friends"
"I know." Again, matter-of-fact, like calling them sweet was just supposed to be face value commentary.
He was sure she did. Naminé knew everything. Apparently. That was the picture he'd started to get in recent emails and it had definitely been reinforced this morning. He hadn't encountered that side over the years-except, in retrospect, he did remember Naminé at his side, arming him with the best way to try and make good with every member of her and Kairi's extended family when he first met her and they forged their eternal friends who only speak once every few years and usually by accident bond.
The elevator dinged its arrival.
"Have a good day. I got a few floors to go. I'm bringing Marly coffee too." She held up the cup Axel would have assumed was hers if he'd bothered to think about it. "I need to keep his staff guessing on whether we're having a torrid affair." Again, the straight-face, and she paired it with a soft, almost wistful tone like she was actually confessing a secret affair instead of joking about manipulating office gossip.
Axel waved the coffee he still hadn't drank from in a vague goodbye that played off the dozens of questions he had now, starting with how Naminé still didn't have a reason she wasn't at her own office building and moving on to what her relationship was to the infamous Maluxia. She'd only mentioned him as her former boss when she'd started out as his secretary before getting the ad job, and the connection that was the only reason she'd been able to pitch to Xemnas instead of one of the more senior agents and now ran the Kingdom Hearts account for her firm. She'd mocked a version of her own tagline about Kingdom Hearts being connections, and told him since she'd been a favor for a friend and then gotten him hired as her own favor, Axel needed to find someone to make her make Maluxia make Xemnas hire as soon as he got settled. "You still owe me a chicken."
"If you bring dessert. I'll text you, Outlaw."
The elevator door cut them off before he could agree. Axel steeled himself a final time and turned to face the wolves.
The decor of the fourth floor was the same as the lobby, which was to say only slightly less jarringly sterile than an Apple store, pale silver geometric shapes and quotes in various languages painted in seemingly random patterns on stark white walls. Glass walled offices that were a little more than glorified cubicles. A lot of chrome. It fit. There were two prevailing aesthetics when it came to tech based businesses: stark and modern or forced free spirit. Axel would have put money of free spirit after seeing the interview Xemnas did for The Grid last year that was accompanied by a photo of him shirtless in leather pants wielding a pole-arm on the first page beside the title of "The New Ansem?" and dressed in what appeared to be a take-off of the design that had caused the De Vil controversy, a ridiculous zebra print coat on the next. A smaller picture of Xemnas with Saïx and their adopted daughter, Ashe, had appeared inlaid in the article further along that showed him dressed rather sedately, but that wasn't a shot anyone but Axel would have memorized as a take away.
"You lost or are you the new caulk?" The speaker didn't fit the typical profile of a tech professional, especially one that worked behind the scenes with the coders. Mid-fifties judging by the lines on his face with thinning blond hair so light you could hardly tell where some parts had gone silver combed to stick up as a compensation for where it threatened to recede and leather skin that said he'd worked outside in some decade past, paired with a southern accent that seemed stronger than it was with the effect added by the toothpick precariously balanced in the corner of his mouth. He'd rejected business attire in favor of cargo pants and a dark blue flight jacket that looked like they'd been bought in the last century, and the look in his eye was so fierce without prompting that Axel had to wonder if he was a failsafe for the air conditioning breaking down.
"Am I the what?"
"Caulk." The toothpick switched sides of the man's mouth with a roll of his bottom lip. "Fixing the leaks? The cybersecurity specialist? Axel Lea?" His impatience mounted by the moment. Working on the fourth floor would certainly be interesting.
"Yes, sir. That would be me." Axel tried to smooth the way with deference and the easy smile that rarely steered him wrong. "Does that make you...?"
"Cid Highwind. I'll be showing you the ropes. Now that you've seen fit to grace us with your presence." Cid continued to stare him down and Axel wasn't sure if he was supposed to apologize or bare his teeth and smack his chest like a gorilla to challenge the alpha.
"Secl dni wosg tyzr, Cid," a long-suffering sigh came from one of the desks occupied by a woman youthful looking enough Axel would have still classified her as a girl if he wasn't so aware how annoying it was to be the youngest co-worker and automatically talked down to by your peers. "Train was probably late. Happens at least once a week." The top two buttons of her blouse were popped open and she wore her hair half in small braids and half twisted up in a haphazard bun that gave the impression she'd ran out of time getting ready and ran in at the last minute herself, so she probably wasn't the best person to have back him up, but Axel appreciated it nonetheless.
Cid's disdain turned in her direction. "I already told you that just because I share your old man's name doesn't mean I speak Al Bhed, pixie."
"Calm down," Axel's ally shot what was either a clarification or a new order at Cid before addressing Axel. "Cid's grumpy because he can't chainsmoke. He used to work remotely in what I can only assume was a cloud of toxic fumes so thick it lingers to this day. I'm Rikku. Two Ks, not like the author of Way to Dawn. Your desk is over there."
"My ex-wife is a friend of his, Riku Gallagher. They share the same editor," Axel offered the information as an ice breaker even though a moment of reflection would have said Rikku Two Ks probably didn't care. "Look forward to working with you, Rikku. I'm Axel."
"Axel will do for now," Rikku hummed like his name was a debate.
"If you two are done flirting..." Cid gestured for Axel to take a seat at his desk. "Let's get to work. Unless you have something that needs to be refrigerated, then we'll do the whole nickel tour now and I'll show you the break room." The toothpick was spat in a small trash can with startling accuracy, and Cid produced gum seemingly from thin air to chew as if it had done him personal harm. Axel shook his head to indicate no lunch that needed a fridge and followed his direction, committed himself to learning what systems and software he would be working with, and whatever other context Cid wanted to give him.
He soon fell into a comfortable rhythm as he oriented himself. He'd always been better at learning by doing and raced ahead of even Cid's explanations, fingers dancing over keys and checking out how the datalert system Cid had worked on for Kingdom Hearts differed from the Varonis and Lepide versions that had been the standard in his past few jobs. Luckily, this seemed to earn him some measure of approval from the older man who showed it backhandedly, telling him, "I thought you might be the usual idiot, but you're just a cocky son a bitch who thinks he;s fine on his own and doesn't need to listen to me," said in a tone that said cocky sons of bitches were his favorite type. There wasn't much conversation made besides orientation though Rikku seemed like she was suffering from it, small sighs and absent popping noises emanating from her direction like a child unable to stand not being the center of attention. Once Axel even heard her mumbling something to the motivational poster of Cornelius Robinson taped to her transparent cubicle wall. If it weren't for the clacking of keys as a somewhat reassurance that she was at least halfway trying to be productive herself, Axel would have started to wonder if Rikku was another beneficiary of connections over resume.
Time passed in the arbitrary way it tended to favor, remaining half past ten for a good ten hours, and then a minute later becoming quarter til two and prompting Cid to remind Axel that he was required to take a lunch even if he was leaving early. The redheaded man blinked himself out of the half trance of focus he'd fallen into, and brought up the timeclock to mark himself out. Lunch was ramen that he could see Cid judging him for as he fished it out of the satchel he'd stashed under his desk, but Axel thought the fact that he had also brought in a mini microwave steamer pot-the good brand, the one with endorsement from the chefs at Le Grand Bistro as a cook at home product-to cook it in elevated it somewhat. There was a day when he just microwaved his noodles in cheap, generic plastics.
Once he got to the break room, pointed in the right direction in the literal sense by Cid who didn't spare a second for words, he pulled out his phone while his noodles were heating. There was a message from Kairi letting him know that Xion was safely on the train and that she was on the way to the airport and would call him when her and Sora's flight landed in Arendelle. There were three messages from Xion, one almost a carbon copy of her mother's with only names changed down to the same series of emoji's to end it: heart, smile, and then thalassa shell. The second was asking if they could have ice cream for dinner and an admission the train was boring, and the third was a video of a mound of slightly squashed gummy bears melded together into a vague spaceship and "flying" against the backdrop of the train window with Xion's voice declaring that, "the gummi ship is getting closer." Sora had texted him as well, a brief but loaded single word. Blessing. Four question marks and prayer hands followed.
Axel fired off replies quickly. Kairi got a lazy sequence of emojis, thumbs up and a heart, to acknowledge he'd gotten the message, since she may not be seeing the reply until she landed now, and, if she followed her promise, she'd be calling him shortly after. Sora at first only got a single word back, yes, but then a second message was added to stave off the inevitable repetition of the question and whining about whether he was sure, "You've already asked me three times and three times I said yes. Even the first time was weird. You don't need my blessing anyway. Be happy. Got it memorized this time?" Xion got, "Gummies for lunch and ice cream for dinner? What kind of father would I be if I said yes to that?" and then was left to suffer. He'd wait until she spammed him with sad faced selfies to tell her he'd already planned on ice cream dinner. It was tradition after all.
E-mail came next as he retrieved his pot from the microwave and nudged the door closed. He had a handful of new messages, mostly spam, but there was a "RE: Team Schedule" from his assistant coach, who he hadn't failed to notice had provided the bold yet questionable choice of illroxasyourworld as his official contact email, and, even more interesting, a message titled "Welcome to the Team" from a notabarbiegirl at of all hosts. He drained his noodles and mixed the sauce packet absently and one-handed as he opened Roxas's e-mail. There was no return of the pleasantries about being eager to work together that Axel had worked in his own message, and getting straight to the point didn't stop there.
If you're just playing games the first practice, do I have to be there? Dribble relays and Keep Your Yard Clean are going to be boring even for the tiny humans. Don't make me sit through it too. How many practices are you going to need me at anyway before you'll sign my community service forms?
The kid was ballsy. Axel had to give him that and he'd expected no less when he had been told his assigned assistant coach was a "boy who lost his way," some high schooler nabbed for graffiti and assigned clean up and some soft community service for a first offense. Axel guessed the idea was to get this Roxas out in the fresh air and rediscovering his love of wholesome sports under the direction of a former lost soul or some cliche, and he only mildly resented the idea of being placed into the box of cool mentor that could speak to "the youth" on their level. Mostly, he just resented that he couldn't have Xigbar for his assistant like he'd planned, though his gut said Xiggy would have just found a way to slither out of it and left him with no help. Axel replied to Roxas's message even more brief than the younger man had been and forsaking any greeting or closing.
You have to be there for every hour you want me to sign off on. Sorry.
What would you suggest we play for an ice breaker and skill assessment?
The email from the unknown sender came next. He had suspected it was someone on the league coordination team despite the email seeming unofficial, but from just a quick skim it seemed one of the parents for his team had already found out his email, which was slightly disconcerting.
Hello! I hope this message finds you healthy, happy, and thriving! I know the first practice is on Monday. My DC (dear child) and the DCs of my friends are so excited to meet you! As am I! I hope you won't hold it against me that I am so excited to start this season off on the best foot possible that I had to find a way to shoot you a quick message early so nothing gets forgotten on practice day!
A seemingly endless list of questions followed, all set off by bullet points to give the appearance of increased organization. Axel scrolled past them all, shock numbing the instinctive outrage to a dulled amused annoyance. A link to a pinterest board was provided at the bottom after a closing that voiced the wish that "we'll find ourselves sympathetic souls and have a harmonious season that optimizes every DC sunbeam's hidden potential!" There were also attachments. Axel was frankly a little afraid to message he wouldn't reply to until he could find something more to say than asking if this was Xigbar pranking him. The signature said the sender's name was Aqua Zahn, and he vaguely recognized the last name enough that the slim hope that Xigbar had read a parenting blog while drunk and decided to aggressively mock them again was difficult to hold onto.
There was already a new message from Roxas and several texts from Xion to serve as distractions. Xion's texts were the picture spam of devastated poses and gummy bears arranged in a frowning face that Axel had anticipated. He sent back a shot of himself, mouth open in a parody of a scream and a hand clenching his chest, and then, "ok ice cream for dinner it is so you don't need to die of despair." Her reply, an "I thank u and my gummies thank you" came back faster than seemed humanly possible. Roxas's email was almost as short as a text itself.
Soccer dodgeball. Half kickers, half runners. Everyone likes a chance to possibly hurt others. See you Monday.
It was going to be an interesting season.