Ice Cream

I do not own Kingdom Hearts. It is the property of Square Enix and the Walt Disney Studios. This is a creative work that I do not profit off of in any way.

Like I couldn't have a vignette focused on ice cream? Enjoy, my dear readers!

"Welcome, welcome to Twilight Treats!" The little old grandmotherly lady who ran his favorite ice cream shop smiled at Axel. "How lovely to see you again."

"Hey, Granny," Axel said. That was the only thing she ever actually answered to. Axel was fairly certain he had never heard her real name before. But Roxas and Xion loved her, and she loved them in return.

"Three sea-salt ice creams, please," Xion said, pulling out her little money pouch. "It's my treat, today."

"Sorry, dear," Granny said. "I'm afraid I'm down to only two bars."

"Oh…" Xion said. "Well, in that case…two for Roxas and Axel, and I'll go without today."

"Absolutely not!" Roxas protested. "I'll go without. You can have the bar of ice cream."

"Actually, dears, I don't know if you want sea-salt today anyway," Granny said. "Didn't you hear? The Clock Tower is closed."

"Gah!" Roxas and Xion said in unison. "Closed?!"

Axel was more concerned with just how common knowledge it was that the three of them ate ice cream on the Clock Tower than the fact the Tower was actually closed. Technically speaking, it wasn't trespassing (Axel had checked) but he didn't want them to get in trouble for it either. It was alright that the Clock Tower was closed; there was more than one way to eat ice cream. And for that matter, more than one flavor of ice cream to have. Over in Disneytown, they had some really weird flavors that were more fanciful than anything Twilight Town had to offer.

"Yes, closed," Granny tutted. "So you won't be watching the sunset from there, I'm afraid. But that's alright…I have something special that I think you'll like very much."

Without another word, Granny lifted up a large sundae dish and began scooping ice cream into it. Roxas and Xion stared with wide eyes as Granny added flavors they weren't that familiar with. Axel recognized raspberry and banana ice cream and his stomach began to grumble. His stomach grumbled more when she added butter pecan and triple chocolate chip…his favorite after sea salt.

"Marshmallow filling, fudge bits, caramelized apple pie filling, whipped cream…" Granny said to herself. "Banana slices, strawberries…chocolate, caramel, butterscotch…that should do it then."

It was a veritable mountain of ice cream, with at least one scoop of each flavor that Granny offered for dishes and cones. Plus one of every sort of topping…Axel's stomach grumbled more and he thought he heard Xion's munny pouch begin to cry.

"Granny…" Xion said. "How much?"

"Oh, the same price as usual, dearie," Granny said. "Three bars at twenty apiece would be sixty munny."

That wasn't nearly enough to cover the cost of the ice cream mountain, and Roxas and Xion both knew it. When they tried to offer to pay more, Granny insisted otherwise and threatened to lower the price. Axel couldn't imagine what her justification was.

"These are the last bits from each container," Granny said. "Really, you're doing me a favor to be rid of them. Waste not, want not that's what my great-grandmother always used to say."

Axel nodded to Roxas and Xion and while they paid the offered price, they also emptied the entirety of the contents of their munny pouches into Granny's tip jar. Which up to that point had had only a handful of coins in it.

The ice cream dish was far too heavy for Xion to carry by herself, so Axel wound up carrying it to a nearby table where all three of them could sit.

"Alright," Axel said. "Let's dig in."

The first bites were almost cautious, especially since so many of the flavors Roxas and Xion weren't familiar with. After the first few bites, they began eating with gusto.

"Roxas, you've got to try this—I think it's blueberry!"

"Xion, this flavor…it tastes salty and sweet, but it's not sea-salt."

This went on for quite a while—there had to be over forty individual flavors of ice cream, and that wasn't factoring in the toppings. Axel felt a great warmth in his belly and he wasn't sure that was just the ice cream. Watching Roxas and Xion…heh, Roxas had a smear of ice cream on his nose and there was a streak of caramel sauce on Xion's cheek. This…this might actually be better than sea-salt ice cream and the sunset.

Though he could already tell he was going to be in for one monster of a bellyache.

Hey, I never said it was gonna be focused on sea-salt ice cream, now did I? Ha, ha, ha.

Thank you for reading my dear, dear readers. Leave a comment if you're so inclined! I appreciate each and every one of you!