Tidus woke up early, at 8am on Saturday. He shuffled downstairs into his kitchen, and pulled a bottle of orange juice out of his fridge. Tidus sat down in one of the stools at the island in the middle of the huge, metallic kitchen. His father, President and owner of 'Stiff-Oh!' walked past, lifting his keys off the small rack near the fridge.
"Good morning, son. Your Mother and I will be gone at the conference all weekend," he informed Tidus. "What're your plans for today?"
Tidus grinned at his bottle of juice. "Today, I'm going to sadistically manipulate people, thus making their lives more happy and the world a better place."
His father patted him on the shoulder. "That's my boy."
Sora leaned out of his car at Tidus' front gate, and pushed the button. "Hey, its us!" he called, and the gate started to roll back to let his car in. Roxas was half asleep in the passenger seat. He'd gone to wake up Sora that morning, only to find his room empty and Sora already up and eating breakfast. He had been highly disappointed to have to disrupt his morning routine, not to mention that the two hadn't spoken a word to each other all morning.
Sora parked his car in front of Tidus' garage and climbed out, waiting for Roxas to exit so that he could lock the car and shove his keys in his pocket. The two boys approached the front door of Tidus' house almost cautiously. Roxas was staring up at its huge size, two floors above ground at least, and spread wide, way bigger than Riku's house.
Sora rang the doorbell and they waited. Tidus could be heard shouting from the balcony of his room up one floor to their left. They looked up and saw him waving at them. "Good morning! Door's unlocked, just come on in," he instructed, and Roxas tried the handle. Sure enough, it swung open. He shrugged at Sora and they both went in, immediately removing their shoes in the entryway.
"Hey! Where are you, Tidus?!" Sora called, wondering why he hadn't bothered to come meet them.
Tidus' voice came from the small intercom on the wall in the entryway. "So, this is what I've got to work with today? Guys, can I see some smiles on those cute faces, at least?"
Sora lifted an eyebrow and looked at the intercom. "What're you doing?" he asked. "Where are you at, anyway?"
"Is he talking through that box?" Roxas asked, peering at it a little. He didn't understand the concept quite yet, but it wasn't too horribly weird, so he'd go with it. "And how does he know we're not smiling?"
"Oh, Sora. I'm sure that you'd like to know. Unfortunately, that would be a luxury and seeing as how I've given all the hired help the day off, I'm afraid you're going to have to earn that luxury." There was a pause in which Roxas and Sora looked at each other, trying to get what Tidus meant. "Oh, and Roxas? See that mirror behind you? Look up at the top and wave!"
Roxas turned around. He didn't see anything but his reflection in a regular hallway mirror. He lifted his hand and waved at it awkwardly. "I don't get it," he whispered at Sora.
"He probably has a security camera up there or something," Sora said, shrugging. "Tidus, you are so nerdy. What are we supposed to be doing?"
Tidus, in his undisclosed location, spun around in his desk chair. "Well, the house needs cleaning, so why don't you guys go on down the hall to the right and find the maid's room? The door should be unlocked."
"Uhhh…right," Sora said, starting down the hall. It looked as if Tidus wanted them to clean his house, which wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't a two story mansion. When Sora noticed that Roxas wasn't following him, he stopped. Naturally, he would've just retraced his steps down the hall, grabbed Roxas' hand, and dragged him off. However, this time he thought about it. "Come on," he urged, turning and continuing down the hall.
The two boys turned the corner and followed the hall, checking the rooms along the way until they found what looked like the maids room. It was fairly large, with shelves along the perimeter, stocked with various supplies. Sora entered the room and Roxas let the door shut behind him as they both surveyed the area.
"So uh, what are we supposed to be doing in here?" Sora asked, picking up a duster.
"Good question!" Tidus' voice came from an intercom situated between a couple of vacuums. "Look at that table there, those will be your uniforms."
Both Sora and Roxas' eyes wandered over to a brown table where two maid uniforms were neatly laid out. Roxas flipped at the frilly skirt. "You put out the girl ones on accident," he said.
There was a chuckling from the speaker.
"Tidus, seriously," Sora said, picking one of the dresses up and letting the apron fall off of it. "Where's the guys uniforms?"
They both waited for a response, and Roxas walked over to the door and jiggled the handle when they got none. "Its locked," he told Sora, looking at the ceiling and sighing. He supposed this is what he got by signing himself up for something stupid like a person auction. Roxas just hadn't known Tidus was going to be such a sadist, or that houses could be so high tech.
Roxas looked over at Sora after a minute, who was standing there shirtless and currently unbuckling his belt. "What are you doing?!" he demanded, looking around the room. "Did it not occur to you that this is the stupidest thing in the entire world?!"
Sora didn't even look at him as he started unbuttoning his pants. "Did it occur to you that you agreed to this? Geeze Roxas, maybe you should THINK more before you just DO stuff," he said, almost bitterly.
Roxas glared at him. "Fine!" he proceeded to angrily strip down to his underwear, and picked up the maid dress, putting it on clumsily.
"Its on backwards," Tidus' voice came over the intercom and it made them both jump. "Haven't you ever seen a dress before, Roxas?"
Roxas look around the room and backed up, directly into Sora. "Tidus, you pervert! Is there a camera in here, too?"
Tidus only laughed.
"I think its safe to assume the entire house is bugged," Sora said pushing Roxas away and finishing tying his apron. He really did look silly in it. Sora hopped up on the table and sat there, watching Roxas zip up his uniform. He tried very hard to remember he was still mad at him, but Roxas looked so cute trying to put his apron on, he had to look away to not crack a grin.
"You mean there are bugs everywhere?" Roxas looked around on the floor and wondered why such a nice mansion would have an infestation problem. "What kind? Like cockroaches?"
Sora stared at him for a second before laughing. "No! Bugged like he has cameras and speakers everywhere!"
Roxas pouted, not favoring being treated like he was dumb, and marched over to the door to leave.
Tidus sipped on a glass of sprite as he pushed a button to unlock the door to the maids room. It really was a shame that the two of them liked each other so much, and Tidus himself could have neither one. Roxas, all cute and flustered in his maid's outfit, and Sora, unable to hold back a small smile. Tidus shook his head and sat back in his chair, reminding himself he was doing such a good thing today that karma would bless him in the end.
"Boys, the day is only beginning. To start off, I'd like you head over to the stairs where you'll start your first project for me," Tidus instructed, and the two walked silently out of the room and down the hall. They were confronted with the spiral staircase that dominated the center of the house. There were a variety of plants, standing on tall columns and suspended from the ceiling, that circled the staircase. "It's kind of like a jungle!" Sora said, almost excitedly. He looked over at Roxas, who looked away, refusing to share in his enthusiasm.
Sora frowned. "Tidus! What are we doing?" he asked nowhere in particular. It was clear that by now Tidus had no plans of showing himself to them.
"At the end of the hall, there is a bathroom. There are some paper cups on the counter there. Use them to water the plants," he instructed. Roxas had already disappeared and came walking down the hall, holding a tiny cup full of water. They both looked at the cup, then at the spiral staircase at what must have been at least twenty large plants flanking the staircase as it wound upwards.
"You've got to be kidding me. Tidus, you asshole," Roxas muttered, gritting his teeth. He dumped the entire cup into a plant he was standing next to and it barely wet the soil.
They both went back to the bathroom to get new cups of water, and headed back to the staircase. Sora dumped his in one of the plants and laughed. In fact, he laughed practically every time he 'watered' one of the plants. He sort of found it amusing, not really minding the fact that they had to walk from the staircase down the hall to the bathroom, back to the staircase, up the staircase, dump the water in, back down the staircase. Not to mention it took at least five cups of water to water one plant.
Halfway through, Roxas turned to Sora. "Would you stop? How can you think this is funny?" he asked, clearly annoyed.
Sora shrugged. "I'm just trying to make the best of the situation," he said, starting back down the stairs.
Roxas followed him, irritated. He crushed the little cup in his hand. "I still don't see how you can laugh about how he's making us do this stupid shit for no reason." Why did nothing irritate Sora, ever?
Sora filled up his little cup, having a brilliant plan and filling up two that he could take at the same time. Roxas copied his idea and they were on their way back to the staircase in a few seconds. Sora stopped halfway up the stairs and turned towards Roxas. "I think you take things too seriously."
Roxas just stared at him. He did NOT take things too seriously! "I do not! You just always think everything is fun and games."
Sora rolled his eyes. "And you can't do anything spontaneous. I bet you don't even have impulses," he challenged.
"I do too," Roxas argued.
"Do not," Sora replied.
Roxas reached out and knocked one of the cups violently from Sora's hand, and it flew over the banister of the stairs, splashing water everywhere. "Do too."
Sora smirked, lifting his hand and dumping his other cup on Roxas' head.
Roxas frowned fiercely and threw both his cups over the banister. He stooped down and picked Sora up over his shoulder with a little wobble, carrying him down the stairs and back to the bathroom. Roxas turned the sink on full blast and put Sora down, forcing his head under the sink. "How's that for spontaneous?!"
Sora flailed as he was doused with freezing cold water, and tried to get his head back up, though Roxas was holding it down. "Say 'uncle'," Roxas demanded.
"No!" Sora gargled stubbornly, through water rushing into his mouth.
"Say it, Sora!" Roxas demanded again, attempting to push his head further into the sink.
"FINE! UNCLE!" Sora yelled, and Roxas let him up, sputtering. He watched Sora moodily stomp off down the hall, water dripping from his hair and onto his shoulders. Roxas was satisfied for a second, but Sora glared back at him looking slightly like a drowned cat, and Roxas grabbed the towel from the rack and chased after him.
"Come back," he said, catching Sora's arm as he tried to storm away again, and plopped the towel on his head, rubbing gently. "You were asking for it," he said, lifting the towel enough to see at least one of Sora's eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. You're just a jerk," Sora muttered, pouting in the way that meant he wasn't really mad. Roxas continued to dry his hair for him, and used the corner of the towel to carefully pat his face dry. "All better now?" Roxas asked, rubbing a little water off his cheek.
Sora smiled a little, and Roxas was thrilled to see his smile directed at him again. "All better," he repeated. They stood there for a moment just staring at each other, sort of relieved that it seemed like maybe they wouldn't be fighting forever, until there was a distinct clearing of a throat from nearby.
"Okay, you two. Break it up. The plants have been quenched. And since you seem to have such a desire for water activities right now, I'd like you guys to head over to the pool next."