Enter the Kingdom Hearts version of the Zuka Club!

Chapter 7 -- The Other Club

"Ooh, Roxas! You're so cute!"

Once again, Roxas had succeeded in charming a new customer in the Twilight Town base. He was now entertaining five customers at the same time. He looked over at Axel, who was happily charming the blonde Twiligh Town native who had been their first customer. Her friend, Olette, tended to prefer Roxas, but the blonde girl absolutely loved Axel.

I wonder how long it will be before we start stealing these girls' hearts, Roxas thought. Unless he just added that part to make Zexion and Xaldin join...

Xaldin had suprisingly become very popular, due to his amazing cakes that he baked. He never said much, but somehow girls thought the mysterious silence was attractive. Zexion, on the other hand...

"Zexy-kun, why do you let all your hair hang over that one side of your face?"

The Cloaked Schemer looked at the girl in confusion. "What do you mean? It just does that, I suppose."

"Well, I mean..." she blushed. "My friend was laughing at me because she thought you were, you know... an emo kid."

"'Emo kid?' What on earth is that?"

The rest of the day went as usual, with women swooning all over the place. Axel led the others back to the World That Never Was, and Roxas headed back to his room. He was walking through the hallway when a suave voice came from behind him.

"So, where are you wandering to this late at night?"

Roxas turned to see a man with short blonde hair and a close-trimmed beard standing in front of him. The man was holding a deck of playing cards in his hand. He smiled slyly at Roxas.

"I'm on my way back to my room. I'm tired," Roxas replied.

"Sure you're not up for a bit of poker?" the man grinned. "It's a good way to kill time!" He pulled Roxas closer. "I'm Luxord, by the way. Number X, the Gambler of Fate."

Roxas pushed the gambler away. "Thanks for the invitation, but I'd rather get some sleep."

"Hmph, fine. But I'm going to bet that by tomorrow you'll be ready to do a little poker," Luxord said in his awesome British accent. Then he turned and walked down the long corridor.

What the heck what that all about? thought Roxas. He finally got to his room and fell asleep almost instantly. The next morning the club assembled in the break room once again. Roxas yawned as he walked into the room. He was greeted with a big hug from Axel.

"Good morning, lovely daughter!" he shouted. "You look so sleepy!"

"I'm not your daughter. Stop calling me that," Roxas groaned as he pushed the red-head away. He was not in the mood to deal with Axel's obnoxious behavior.

"Mom, Roxas is putting on an attitude!" Axel whined at Zexion.

Zexion continued to look over his clipboard. "That's nice. Stop making so much noise," he said as he ignored Axel once again. Axel replied by moping in the corner.

Roxas flopped down in the nearest chair, next to Xaldin. He felt like going back to bed. Xaldin did not seem to notice him, as he was looking through a recipie book. Then he glanced over at the blonde Nobody.

"Did Number X approach you last night?"

Roxas opened an eye and looked at Xaldin. "Yeah, he was saying something about poker. How did you know?"

Xaldin sighed and pointed at the ceiling. Roxas looked up to see an Organization member walking on the ceiling, as though he were sneaking around. His hair was black with grey streaks, and it was tied back in a long ponytail. He had a long scar on one side of his face, and an eyepatch rested over his left eye.

"Isn't that Number II, Xigbar?" Roxas whispered to Xaldin. Xaldin grunted in affirmation. Suddenly, pink shots erupted from the creeping Nobody, causing the lights to go out. Roxas looked around in suprise, wondering what had just happened.

"We have come for Number XIII!" came a familiar British accent.

A spotlight appeared in the middle of the room, shining on Luxord. He was flipping the cards in his hand expertly. Xigbar appeared behind him, brandishing a strange-looking gun. Another Organization member named Lexaeus with reddish-brown hair and a tough, ugly-looking face appeared at Luxord's other side.

Axel quickly lit some candles with his flame power. "What do you guys want?" he shouted.

"It isn't quite enjoyable playing poker with only three people," Luxord replied. "Little Number XIII seems like a promising card player." He grinned slyly at Roxas.

"No! Roxas is too young to be gambling his life away with you creeps!" Axel protectively hugged Roxas. "You can't take him away from the Host Club!"

Luxord stared at Axel. "What if he wants to leave?" He looked back to Roxas. "So, Roxas, do you like the Host Club?"

"Eh, it's okay," Roxas replied.

"Did you want to join the club?"

"Not really."

"Do you feel like you're getting anything out of the club?"

"No."

Luxord grinned. "You could get lots of cash if you win our poker tournaments."

"It's a lie! Luxord cheats!" Axel protested. "He'll take all your money and force you to play strip poker!"

"Strip poker gives you more of an incentive to win," Luxord replied. "And I do not cheat." His eyes said differently.

"Xaldy! We've missed you at poker these last few weeks!" Xigbar exclaimed, walking over to Xaldin. "I miss my old partner!" he said with a wink.

"Poker gets boring after a while," Xaldin replied. "And you drink too much."

"I do not!" Xigbar protested. Xaldin ignored him and continued flipping through the recipie book. Lexaeus remained quiet.

"The poker tournaments are much more beneficial than wasting your time with brainless girls," Luxord said. "Did you know that your idiot leader is just a rip-off of a character from Final Fantasy VII?"

"You'll never get any hearts by being nice, dude," Xigbar added.

"Mm," was Lexaeus' comment.

Roxas stood up straight. "Maybe I am wasting my time, but Axel's not a rip-off character. He's an original character created for Kingdom Hearts."

"Actually, Axel has a strong resemblance to the character Reno from Final Fantasy VII," Zexion noted.

Roxas sighed. "Well, we're still pretty close to getting our first hearts from our customers. They're totally obsessed with us!"

"The only way to get a heart from a person is to extract it via Keyblade, or turn the person into a Heartless," came Zexion's voice again. "Neither way is particularly nice."

"Stop it, Zexion!" shouted Axel. "You're just giving him more incentive to leave!"

Roxas turned to Axel. "You mean we could have started getting hearts a long time ago?" His eyes were beginning to show anger.

"Well... yeah, maybe," Axel admitted. "But isn't this way more fun?"

"Ugh." Roxas quickly walked out of the room and went into his own room, shutting the door behind.

"YOU!!" Axel angrily pointed at Luxord. "You made him leave! Why I oughtta --"

Demyx and Marluxia quickly restrained Axel from getting out his chakrams. "You can't go around killing people just yet, Axel!" Demyx shouted.

Luxord laughed evilly. "Dear little Roxas will make an excellent opponent in poker," he said, smiling. "Maybe even strip poker..." He disappeared in a black portal, along with Xigbar and Lexeaus.

Axel stopped struggling and slouched down to the floor. "We have to get him back!" he exclaimed. "He's too young to be getting drunk with Xigbar!"

"We'll get him back!" Demyx shouted. "There are five of us and three of them!"

"Lexaeus doesn't even do anything!" Marluxia added.

Zexion put his clipboard down. "Yes, I suppose we should get Roxas to stay with our club. After all, he is one of our most popular hosts, besides Axel. Losing Roxas means losing a large chunk of our profits."

Axel stood up straight. "All right! We're going to launch a plan to stop the Poker Club and rescue Roxas from their dirty schemes!"