Author's Note: Thank you to anyone who is reading this! I tend to have trouble with the first chapters/introducing stage so bear with me. I'd appreciate any review that could help me better it, it is for you guys after all! Tell me what you like, don't like, or what you'd like to see. There are so many things I'd like to incorporate into this story and I'm trying to get through the beginning chapters.
xTheLostEdenx: Thank you for reviewing! I was honestly so happy when I got the alert and your overall review. The whole Ventus/Tifa/Cloud thing will be a very minor and short conflict. I was honestly thinking of having a scene where Yuffie invites the Strifes for dinner and the whole moving out thing comes out (because Vanitas was planning on just leaving without a word). Anyways, thanks for reviewing, I'd like to hear from you again!
Enter Sandman / Metallica
The rest of the week was uneventful, or so Roxas thought it was. On Wednesday, he was on his way to get some pizza afterschool with Hayner and Olette (even though they had pizza at lunch, but you could never have too much pizza when you're sixteen), when they decided to find a shortcut to the hole in the wall pizza parlor that they often went to. Taking a turn from Market Street, they went through a small alley and ended up in a completely different block.
Roxas, Hayner, Pence, and Olette knew Twilight Town so well by the time they were in middle school, but Radiant Garden was a different story. The city was large and even if they went through the whole city, it would take a long time to really memorize where everything was and only so few actually knew the large city well. This small business-like street was different and Olette was ready to keep on walking when she turned back to see Roxas and Hayner frozen in spot, facing the entrance to a courthouse.
"Hayner, no fucking way!"
"Man, how have we not seen this before?!"
Olette raised a brow and turned towards the building. She didn't see anything unique or particular about it. It was a standard brick building with tall windows, a large white pristine door and big, wide, stairs leading up to it.
"Okay, what's going on?" She attempted to ask, but failed to capture the two blondes' attention. Hayner was bouncing in place out of excitement while Roxas was walking closer to the stairs.
"Six, seven, eight, nine…" The blonde murmured then grinning back to Hayner. "Nine stairs! C'mon we gotta skate this soon."
A dramatic sigh escaped Olette's lips. Of course this was skating related. The four of them had very different interests, despite how close they were. Olette was into volunteering in the city (she was currently volunteering at the hospital), Pence was into his photography, Hayner was into skating and boxing (or struggle matches), and Roxas was also into skating and attempting to learn how to play more on his guitar. Even so, they were as close as ever even if they could never really get the others' interest. Like how a set of stairs was beneficial to skating. She rolled her eyes as Hayner began to jump around and make plans with Roxas about when they'd come back. Roxas was nodding along and talking animatedly, and it reminded Olette of two girls talking about their school crushes.
Holding back laughter, she walked over to the two boys and grabbed their wrists to drag them along. It was no surprise that they didn't notice and kept on talking about the tricks (skate trick names were always weird for Olette, words like "nose" shouldn't be involved?) they could do over nine stairs.
Olette spent most of that afternoon trying to shut the two blondes up by stuffing their faces with pizza. Hayner then began to complain about having homework already and Olette went into mother hen/nerd mode. After that, she completely forgot to mention to Roxas how Namine had told her that she thought he was really cute.
x x x
On Friday, Roxas was taking his time in dropping off Namine at the school gym. Every day after that first day, he'd walk her to the gym for her cheerleading practice, and she'd give him a cute smile before departing. That smile was something to look forward to, Roxas thought embarrassingly, and realized that he'd be going two whole days without seeing Namine and her pretty blue eyes.
"So what're you doing today, Roxas?" Namine smiled, swinging her arms around slightly. Roxas had the bag over one shoulder and his board tucked under the other arm. The blonde began to hold her duffel bag for her since Wednesday. If Tifa had been around to see it, she'd be cooing over the whole damn thing and Cloud would be smirking at Roxas' expense.
Roxas blushed when he noticed that Namine was gazing up at him expectantly. "Oh," He choked out slightly, irrationally getting mad at his mom for intruding his thoughts. "I'm skating with Hayner. The other day we found these stairs and nine stairs is pretty cool cause with five it's too lame and fourteen is…" He trailed off, looking down at the blonde girl beside him. Her head was tilted slightly, curiously. It was obvious that she was confused. Rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, Roxas chuckled nervously. "Sorry, didn't mean to bore you or anything."
He jumped slightly when Namine suddenly laughed. She often giggled or chuckled, and now she was laughing? "Don't worry, Roxas! I'm glad you're talking more now." She smiled, placing a hand on his arms. The gym was now within eyesight, Roxas noticed sadly.
"Yeah?" He chuckled. "I get that a lot."
He focused on one of the many trees the school had, taking pride in the greenery that Radiant Garden was famous for. The light grip Namine had on his arm tightened slightly, as if to get his attention. He turned back and her lips were quirked up into a sweet smile.
"I like your voice, actually."
Wait, what?
Roxas stopped walking, hoping his face didn't look as dorky and shocked as he felt. Namine…liked his voice? He personally thought that he sounded like some boy pop star or something but if Namine liked it then…
Before he could make some type of response (his brain was shutting down because a cute girl just complimented him and Roxas was horribly shy, unlike his older brother) a familiar figure ran up to him.
"Nams! Rox!" The two blondes turned to see Sora jog up to him, in his track pants. He was holding a water container with the Nike logo on it. Typical.
When Roxas turned to his best friend, he found Sora wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. Roxas smirked and looked him over. "Nice pants, loser."
Sora flushed and shoved a laughing Roxas back. "Hey Nam, you still up for the party tonight?" Namine nodded and softly thanked Roxas back as he handed her the duffel bag back. "What about you, you coming Rox?" Sora asked.
The blonde in question groaned. "Nope," He muttered. "I have work tonight, I close."
"That's too bad, it would've been nice to see you," Namine pouted.
Roxas tried not to blush because Sora would no doubt make fun of him for the whole school year over it. Luckily, Sora didn't notice and began to brighten considerably. "I got it! You and Rox should come with Riku, Kai, and I on Saturday! We don't know what we're doing, but we're doing something. Come with us!" He beamed, sending Roxas a "subtle" wink that looked like a bad twitch caused by some horrible eye infection.
Namine was taken aback by Sora's sudden excitement. Roxas narrowed his eyes at the brunette for being so obvious.
"That's a great idea!" Kairi exclaimed, running over to them in her cheerleader uniform. Roxas suddenly got the feeling that this was all planned or something. "It'd be so fun, right Nam?" Namine was now glaring at her twin. Roxas managed to catch one of Kairi's very own bad winks.
Sora and Kairi began to plan things out while Roxas mumbled an apology to Namine in the background. Namine giggled and stated that she understood what he went through in having an overly social best friend.
When the two girls finally went inside the gym, Roxas shoved an overly smug Sora.
He was now spending time with Namine that weekend.
x x x
"Fuck, that was awesome!" Hayner exclaimed, panting and out of breath.
Roxas scowled up at him, shoving his bleeding arm in his friends face. "You think this is awesome?!" He exclaimed. Hayner was unfazed at the large bleeding gash on Roxas' arm.
It should've been expected, but Hayner grinned and nodded enthusiastically. "Hell yeah, that looks pretty cool. Namine's gonna wet herself when she sees that tomorrow."
"Dick," Roxas laughed, shoving Hayner. "I can't believe we outran the cops, now that was pretty cool."
An old woman who was passing by snootily, grimaced at the blood dripping down from Roxas' arm and their overall sweaty appearance. Roxas stuck his tongue out at her, resisting the urge to give her the finger.
As promised, Hayner and Roxas went back to the courthouse with the amazing steps and skated it. The building was so big that they were sure that they wouldn't be noticed, and they weren't. Not for an hour at least. When someone from inside noticed that Roxas almost hurt a man who was walking by when he skidded down the asphalt in a failed trick attempt, the cops were called and came immediately. The cops came quickly, and Roxas never got the chance to attend to his wound. He and Hayner quickly grabbed their boards and began to skate out of the area with the cops trailing behind them. Only a few blocks ago did they manage to lose them.
"Don't you have work right now?" Hayner laughed, looking in the direction of Roxas' job which was within eye distance.
Looking back at the small café, Roxas groaned. "Yeah, in like ten minutes," He cursed internally. "We have this new temp manager, too. What an impression I'm gonna make when I go in…" He mumbled, looking at the gash that was absolutely disgusting.
"That courthouse was worth it, man." Hayner grinned, looking down at his own pants which were dirty and slightly ripped.
Once again, Roxas looked down at his bleeding arm. He smirked and looked up at his blonde friend. "Hell yeah, let's go back next week."
Hayner's loud bark of laughter attracted attention like usual.
"See you later man."
x x x
Roxas was standing beside the café, nervously contemplating. He tightened the grip on his board, and tried to peek inside, seeing nothing visible. He had known that Yuna would be leaving for some type of emergency and that there'd be a temporary manager covering for her. He also knew that he'd be meeting the new manager today, but Roxas opted to skate instead of caring about his well-being.
Since he was sixteen and still in highschool, he didn't work all that much compared to the older employees. He only worked Friday nights, and Saturday and Sunday mornings. Even so, he usually worked four to six hours so it wasn't all that bad. The money mostly went to food or new boards since his tended to snap very month.
When he finally walked inside, he absently walked through the shop and over the counter, automatically ignoring everything. He went inside the break room to put his skateboard and backpack away in its designated area, then looked over to the work schedule that was posted in the room. He groaned internally when he saw that Xion wouldn't be in today. Xion went to his school and was one of the only ones he liked from that job. Roxas glanced up at the clock and saw he had a good seven minutes to change clothes and clean his wound before clocking in. Maybe he could do it without anyone noticing…
"Whoa kid, you okay?" A deep voice asked.
Roxas turned around to look at the new person and had to do a double take. The guy was tall, lean, with broad shoulders and a handsomely structured face. His bright red hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and Roxas felt the guy looked a bit familiar.
The guy also did a double take when he noticed Roxas. "Whoa, Ven?" He asked, with wide bright green eyes.
"I'm not Ven!" Roxas shouted automatically, scowling up at the guy. People who knew Ventus often misrecognized Roxas as him and it became one of the younger blonde's pet peeves.
The guy smirked at Roxas' pouty reaction. "No need to scream," He laughed, shaking his head and inspecting Roxas carefully. "You're Ven's kid brother right?"
Was this guy trying to get on his bad side? "I'm not a kid," He huffed, crossing his arms. Big blue eyes narrowed to get a better look at the guy. "Are you Reno?"
The guy clicked his tongue and leaned against the doorframe. "Was comparing me to my idiot brother a form of revenge? You always were a mean kid, Roxas." He smirked.
Roxas blushed at the light insult and completely forgot about the wound on his arm. The guy looked at the clock and made way for Roxas to step out of the break room. "Better clean that up before you're late," He said, gesturing to Roxas' arm. "Wouldn't wanna be late on your first day under my shift, would you?"
It then occurred to Roxas that he had just yelled at his new manager. Groaning, he made his way to the bathroom.
x x x
Working with Axel was much more different than Roxas was expecting. He vaguely remembers Axel from when he'd come over as a kid to play with Ventus and Axel was always very wild, reckless, and a bit of a troublemaker. The Axel that Roxas worked with that Friday night was a good leader, laid back, witty, and almost serious.
There was a sudden rush around 8:30 which was a half hour before closing, so at that point there were only three of them working. Normally, Yuna would have the place a mess and kind of make it through. Paine, another manager, would snap at the employees under the stress. Axel worked quickly, kept things clean, and kept his cool while everyone freaked out over having tons of orders and being understaffed. By the time they closed, Axel sent the last person home and had Roxas clean the tables and mop the floor while he counted the registers (a responsibilities the rest of the managers dumped on the employees) and took inventory.
"You're…different," Roxas mused, moving the chairs for better space to mop. "I don't remember much about you since I was little, but you weren't, well," He gestured his hands vaguely in Axel's direction. "Like this?" He ended lamely.
The redhead raised and amused brow and smirked at Roxas. Placing the clipboard down, he leaned back against a counter. "It's called growing up, kid." When Roxas rolled his eyes playfully, Axel gave him a small smile. "Nah, that's just me as a manager. Spend more time with me, and you could see if I'm the same or not."
Roxas grinned.
x x x
As the two prepared to get things ready for the morning people, Roxas asked how Axel ended up as a manager. Apparently, Axel had started off at a part time job in high school, like Roxas. By his senior year he was promoted to manager and it apparently came easy to him. His store manager suggested that he get his Associates in business management as something to fall back on or a steady job while he worked on whatever he really wanted to do. So Axel did that. When Axel heard from a friend that Yuna would be needing someone to cover her for a month, the redhead took it as a good opportunity to head back home and finish his bachelors, especially since things weren't going well with him in Traverse Town (where he was studying). The redheads mood darkened as he mentioned that part and Roxas wanted to pry out of curiosity but chose not to.
The whole thing stressed Roxas out about what he'd want to do with his own life and cringed at the thought. Axel laughed at the reaction and gave a hard pat to the blonde's back. "Don't think too hard, it'll come to you."
As they finished up, Axel turned to Roxas. "Hey, does Ven still live with you?" He asked, closing up the manager's office.
Roxas was putting on his jacket and had to pause in thought. "I don't think so," He murmured. "I mean he's moving out but he's still at the house right now." The whole Ventus moving in with Vanitas situation was becoming a bit of a bother. Ventus and their parents often had a really good relationship but that week was filled with tension between them. Roxas never thought that they disapproved Vanitas that much.
"So you mind if I come with you?" Axel asked, suddenly at Roxas' side. "I ran into him a while back and he gave me his number. Never got to call him cause my phone caught on fire." He chuckled.
"How?" Roxas asked, giving the redhead a strange look.
"Don't worry about it," Axel smirked darkly. "So, what do ya say, Roxas?"
Roxas looked past the café entrance and gazed at the black Toyota Corolla parked outside. "Sure," he shrugged. "Beats taking the train at this hour."
x x x
Music was very important to Roxas. The music that people listened to kind of determined how well he'd get along with the person, in his opinion. Sora introduced Roxas to Led Zeppelin and Hayner introduced him to NOFX. Sometimes Roxas believes that that's the reason those two are his best friends. So the blonde didn't know what to think when Axel turned his car on and hear a Metallica song ending only to have Slayer begin playing.
Axel had pulled out a cigarette and began to curse when he looked over his pockets then various compartments and came empty-handed. Knowing the signs, Roxas dug into his pocket and pulled out a black lighter and held it in front of the redhead.
After skeptically looking at the small bic lighter, Axel shrugged and sucked in a breath as Roxas lit it for him. "You smoke?" He asked lazily, focusing on the road.
"Not cigarettes," Roxas smirked.
Pulling the cigarette out of his mouth, Axel let out a loud laugh. "Oh man, I miss high school."
As Kill Again by Slayer began to pick up, Roxas leaned back into the seat as Axel slowly picked up speed. Roxas looked over and saw he was going 90 miles per hour and grinned as the redhead began banging his head to the song. As the two thrashed around to the song and speed, Roxas felt that maybe the redhead hadn't changed all that much.
x x x
"You totally fucking elbowed me in the face," Roxas laughed as he stepped out of the car. Lightly placing his fingers on his cheek, yep it stung a bit.
Axel walked around the car and over to him. "No way," He chuckled, leaning down to Roxas' face to inspect it. Grabbing the kids face, he tilted it towards his own to get a better look from the moonlight. Sure enough, there was a small red mark on his cheekbone. "Whoa, sorry Roxas."
The blonde shrugged and grabbed his board. "It's not a big deal," He said as he walked over to his front door. "I crowd surfed at this show once and got thrown into my first mosh pit. I got punched everywhere and it was pretty awesome."
Since he was turning the key into the lock, Roxas missed the way Axel's green eyes lit up. "You're pretty cool, Roxas." As a kid, Axel spent most of his time with Saix, Ventus, Demyx or other kids his age. He only saw the younger blonde a handful of times when he'd go over the Strife house. Roxas was a pouty crybaby who had mean tendencies. Honestly, Axel had found the kid kind of annoying. The Roxas he met tonight was much better company and a pretty cute kid. The skater punk thing really worked for him.
Roxas didn't get to reply though. As the blonde opened the front door, he was met with a cringe worthy sight. From the front door, he got a clear view of the kitchen table. On said table was Ventus with Vanitas on top of him, currently buried in the blonde's neck.
"What the fuck Ven!"
The older blonde whipped his head off, knocking the dark haired male off of him. "I thought you were at that party with Sora!" He yelled.
Blue eyes trailed down his older brother and Roxas grimaced as he noticed that the button on Ventus' pants was unbuttoned. "I had work." He mumbled, feeling his shoulders slump at the horror he walked into.
"Uh well—Axel?"
Roxas glanced back and sure enough, Axel was now beside him. The redhead leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms. "Hey Ven, hey Van," He smirked with an amused look in his eyes.
Vanitas straightened up and strode confidently over to the two at the door. "Told you I'd get into his pants," the raven smirked as he held out his hand.
After seeing such a scene, Roxas avoided eye contact with Vanitas. He managed to catch Axel reached into his pocket and slapping the raven's hand with a twenty dollar bill.
x x x
That Saturday morning turned out to be pretty slow, so Roxas, Xion, and the other employees were prepared to lounge around and do nothing. When it'd be slow, Yuna or Paine would just shut themselves out in the managers office and the rest would stand around and talk. With Axel, he had them all do "detail cleaning" such as cleaning walls, cabinet shelves, and overall random things that tend to be overlooked.
Even so, Axel stayed out front with them and did his own cleaning and also helped around with the orders that they did have. He was an impressive manager so far and was fine with them all talking, as long as they were doing something.
"Hey Xion," Roxas called out from cleaning one of the door handles (which was a weird thing to clean). The dark haired girl hummed in response as she cleaned the straw container. "You wanna do something with Sora and them later?"
The blonde turned to the girl for a response so he managed to catch the light blush on her face. "Um, I can't…I have this dog party to go to."
Wait, what? Even Axel, who was cleaning the counter turned to her curiously.
"A…dog party?" Roxas asked, wondering if maybe he misheard her.
Xion nodded and fiddled with the cloth in her hand. "Yeah, this lady that I met at the dog park invited Pluto and I to her dog's birthday party," She murmured. Her pale face was red now.
It took a lot for Roxas to hold in his laughter, but a few sputtering chuckles escaped his lips. Axel smiled and looked over at the short girl. "You have a dog?" Xion nodded, still flushed at the cheeks. "What's he look like?" The redhead asked curiously.
After that, Xion went into dog owner mode and pulled out her phone to show Axel her many pictures of Pluto. Axel went from looking curious to completely overwhelmed by all the pictures Xion was showing him all while talking a mile a minute about her dog.
Roxas had one more hour of an easy day at work and he was seeing Namine later on. The first week wasn't so bad after all.
I'm hoping to improve my writing as this story goes along, so any thoughts on how things are going will be greatly appreciated!