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Ice: (noun) Frozen water; water in its solid state. I'm not talking about the drug.
Blended: (adj.) A word that describes something that has been mixed or combined to achieve a state whereby the constituents are indistinguishable from each other.
Mocha: (noun) A coffee beverage infused with the flavourings of milk, sugar and chocolate.
Ice Blended Mocha: (noun) Zexion's very first order at The Fix. And no, he does not want whipped cream, kthxbai.
"Excuse me? We're not giggly pre-teenage females here."
To go over current events, no, James Bond and Remus Lupin did not just walk in through the immaculately polished glass doors of The Fix. In actuality, two young gentlemen with ridiculously pretty (and exceptionally shiny) hair did. And by the gods, their hairstyles were breath-taking works of art. They practically radiated. Axel stared at them for awhile as they approached the counter, and the redhead silently observed the way the sunlight shining through the windows hit their tresses at perfect angles, bouncing and reflecting off their heads prismatically. Self-consciously, Axel ran a hand through his own mop of crimson hair, a feeling of unsatisfactory inadequateness taking over him, leaving a strange emptiness in his chest.
His eyes were green with envy. Figuratively.
Anyway, the customers had walked up to the counter. It was an odd thing that the two weren't engaged in some sort of pre-order banter. I mean, usually, if people came in twos or threes, they would be asking each other useless time-consuming questions such as: 'hey, what do you think I should get?' or 'what are you having?' or 'I heard their iced lattes taste like sewage water. Are you, by any chance, ordering one?', etc. But the two emokids weren't deep in such a conversation. They were silent, like the epitome of emo. Either that or they already had some kind of scheme to rob the place.
Despite that, Axel, being the barista (or whatever the hell he was), gave them a dashing ear-to-ear grin.
"And how may I help you two fine youngsters today hmmm?" he asked brightly. And from somewhere behind him, he heard Cloud's what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you voice emanate from beyond the kitchen door. The redhead had to resist the impulse to roll his eyes. Poor Demyx.
Anyways, there was no reason for Axel to call the two individuals before him 'youngsters', because they looked to be about the same age as the redhead. But then again, Axel always did enjoy belittling the masses.
The shorter guy, with the slate-coloured hair that hung down in front of his face so that it hid one of his dark, stormy eyes spoke up first in a neutral tone of voice, acting completely oblivious to the weird noises in the kitchen. "Yeah, hi. Uh, I'd like a small ice blended mocha, thanks," he said, casually sweeping his hair back with a hand in one fluid motion so that Axel could finally catch a tiny glimpse of his other eye (before the hair fell back into place again like a stage curtain). "And no whipped cream," the guy added hastily, as though he believed whipped cream was cancer-inducing and tasted like paperclips.
Axel took in the young man's too-thin, too-tiny frame and smirked with an all-knowing nod. Yeah, how else would McEmo fit into his black skinny jeans if he didn't make sure that his Body Mass Index (BMI) was somewhere below 'super severely underweight'? Ah, the trials and tribulations of the young adult community. Some battle with obesity, others battle with anorexia. What the hell has this world come to?
He turned towards the other customer expectantly. This second dude had silver hair that cascaded down his back like a waterfall. Pretty, pretty silver hair that was more pale blue-ish-white than silver (if we're gonna be using table cutlery as a comparison). He also had sea-green eyes. Axel kind of had second thoughts about whether this guy was of the same subculture as McEmo. Because it was very obvious that Silver-Haired Guy worked out at a gym. He was lean but distinctly muscular. And he was tall. Taller than Slate-Haired Guy.
"I'm having a large hazelnut macchiato. With whipped cream."
Large-sized drink with whipped cream. Okay, Axel nodded decisively, not quite an emo then.
"Anything else for you gentlemen? Something to munch on while you enjoy your drinks? Chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips? We also have Strawberry flavoured Pocky!" He winked at them. "Or maybe you guys want some blueberry muffins? Chicken pie? Pie's good! We sell good pie. Seriously."
The two customers gave Axel a blank stare.
"Aw, c'mon!" Axel waved a hand around in the air. "It's not like I'm trying to make you guys squander your cash on completely unnecessary foodstuffs." There was a slight pause of comprehension that reigned for a few moments. "Okay, maybe I am," he conceded, "But hello? How could you resist the almighty tastiness of chicken pie?"
Silver-Haired Guy made a weird are-you-done-with-upselling-us? face and muttered, "Uh, that's okay. We'll be fine with the drinks. I don't exactly like pies anyway. They're totally overrated."
Axel sighed dejectedly, his marketing ploy deflated. "Fine. So one small ice blended mocha without cream and one large hazelnut macchiato with cream," he keyed the relevant information into the register. "Great. Will that be to go? Or are you two havin' it here?"
"Here," one of them replied monotonously.
"Sweet. Paying together? Yes? Then that's eight dollars and eighty cents in total."
When the transaction was complete, Axel pointed over their shoulders towards the tables.
"Grab a seat, boys. Your order will be ready in like, I dunno, five, eight, ten minutes or something."
And without further ado, the redhead made a flourish and swept away towards the back kitchen. He subsequently found Demyx and Cloud huddled in a corner, very much engaged in a hushed conversation. Which was very odd. The two ceased their chatter as soon as they spotted Axel coming in through the door.
The redhead arched an eyebrow inquiringly, then turned and gave Demyx his full attention. "Hey, new guy. Why'd you scream like a little sissy girl and run back here?" he grumbled. And here I thought you were some tough guy hardcore punk with your black nail polish and twenty thousand piercings and copious amounts of jewellery. Axel blinked. Oh. Wait. Nevermind.
Demyx cleared his throat uncertainly and tried on an expression of nonchalance. "N-no reason," he stuttered in what he deemed was a manly voice.
Cloud, who was standing beside him, snorted and smirked a vicious smirk of smugness. "Apparently those two out there go to UT too," the blond said artfully. "And I do believe our new colleague here has a little boy crush on one of them. Aw, isn't that cuuuute?"
Axel could practically see the mocking sarcasm coming out of Cloud's mouth. But he couldn't be bothered to tell the silly blond to cut it out. Cloud was irritatingly bitchy that way. The redhead just looked at Demyx with a grin and said, "So you are gay! I so totally knew it!" He gave the kid a quick thumbs up and proceeded to busy himself with making the two orders.
Demyx seemed to be having a hard time stopping himself from blushing madly. "It's not that I have a crush on him!" he defended with a slight pout. "It's just that he's – he's so… pretty!"
Cloud choked on his tongue extravagantly. Axel kind of just beamed in amusement.
"Sooooo, which one is it?" the redhead asked with an air of innocence as he blended the iced mocha.
"Huh?"
"The short, scary one-eyed one or the tall, well-developed, supermodel material one with the big guns?"
Demyx made a strange strangled noise like a cross between a dying cow and a suffocating yaoi fangirl. It sounded quite bloodcurdling and terrifying.
"Does he even know you exist?"
Another strangled noise. This time it sounded more like a kangaroo being run over by a fast-moving vehicle. Very macabre. Yet pitiful.
"Have you ever even talked to him before?"
Finally, Demyx opened his mouth to reply. "… I've only ever seen him around; at some of the college gigs. I… I've never said anything to him before…" And then he added a little sheepishly, "But I do kind of stalk his online blog a little…"
"What?! Dude. That's just tragic," Axel clucked his tongue reproachfully. "I mean, you can't stalk someone on the internet! The fine art of stalking has to be done in the reality of our physical world."
Cloud, who had been trying to block out the ridiculous conversation, shot the redhead a dirty look. "Oh yeah, trust you to know how to successfully stalk someone," he scoffed. "Mr. I Love Jailbait."
Axel ignored Cloud entirely (it was something he enjoyed doing). He capped the mocha and started to work on the macchiato. And then a split-second later, PING! An imaginary light bulb lit up and quite suddenly, Axel had an idea.
"Demyx?" he smiled broadly at the new co-worker. "You, my friend, are bringing out the orders to them."
"WHAT?"
"Just do it, kiddo."
"… Do I have to?" he whimpered softly.
"I'll do it," Cloud muttered apathetically. His was getting increasingly annoyed, not that his face actually showed it.
"No, no, let Demyx do it. He needs to learn that a crush will go completely nowhere if you don't take it somewhere!"
Cloud sighed. Oh yeah, heeeere we go again with Axel's idiot logic. The blond individual began to wonder if God hated his guts. I mean, he was currently working in this hellhole with a bunch of crazy retards (Leon not included – but that was debateable).
Seven minutes later, Axel was done with the beverages. He carted Demyx out the door with them in his hands and bade him good luck. Cloud accompanied the redhead and they stood by the counter, watching intently as the following drama unfolded itself like an epic episode from some epic television show (such as Invader Zim, Fullmetal Alchemist, The Simpsons or CSI: Miami – one of them, take your pick).
So, our wonderful newly-employed University of Twilight scholar set off on his short journey, trotting towards his fellow UT associates with drinks in hand and an uptight expression on his face.
"Ice blended mocha and hazelnut macchiato," Demyx recited robotically as he finally arrived at their table, avoiding eye contact with both seated customers, as though doing that would somehow make the other two think he were completely invisible.
Even from the counter, Axel and Cloud could tell that the newbie was nervous and edgy.
And then, much to Demyx's utter horror, the guy with the slate-coloured hair looked up and spoke directly to him. "Hey…" he murmured, his single visible eye boring a hole into Demyx's face. "I know you. Aren't you from Mismatched Thirteen? The one on the guitar?"
Demyx blinked rapidly as he set down the hazelnut macchiato in front of the Silver-Haired fellow. His mouth was suddenly dehydrated, his tongue felt like it had shrivelled up like a prune, and his heart was beating in his chest like the drums at a System of a Down concert. After a few agonizing seconds, he allowed himself to turn and face the guy who had spoken, giving him a slow nod.
"You guys play at almost every single one of UT's cultural events. Demyx… right?"
At that, Demyx's brain screeched to a complete halt. OHMYGODHEKNOWSMYNAME! HOW?! SHITSHITSHITSHI—! Uh-oh.
The mocha fell to the floor, the icy contents in the cup splashing everywhere. The three at the table, plus the other two at the counter, watched the cup's descent in slow-motion – like how they do it in the movies. The way Demyx's fingers slackened just a fraction and let the cup tumble to the ground, colliding with the tiled surface, its plastic cover (along with its purple straw and all) giving way and spewing its cold sweet yumminess all over the place, making an interesting splat noise.
It was awesome.
"DAMN IT! Oh, man!" Demyx's face went from Holy Crap mode to I Am Now Extremely Mortified Please Kill Me On The Spot mode in 0.14 seconds flat. "Shit. I am sososo sorry!" he yelped loudly, hastily grabbing a handful of napkins from the table and throwing them onto the floor, getting on hands and knees. He was thankful to see that the drink had only splattered onto the floor and not onto both the customer's shoes (Converse chucks and Nike JUSTDOIT trainers respectively).
"Hey, uh, do you need some help?" Silver-Haired Guy asked with a frown as he looked down at Demyx.
"Noooo. I'm fine. It's cool!" Demyx gave a weak giggle, his voice a little high-pitched, as he scrubbed at the floor. But no matter how hard he tried, he only managed to make the squidgy mess even worse.
From the counter, Cloud both mentally and physically slapped himself on the forehead in exasperation while Axel just sighed and shook his head sadly. "That was one hell of a blockbuster failure right there," the redhead muttered under his breath. Then, he turned to Cloud. "Go get the mop and a bucket of water."
"ME? You were the one who sent him out to deliver the order!"
Axel rolled his eyes. "You get the mop and bucket, I'll clean the mess." He glanced over at Demyx and raised his voice, "Yo, Dem! Chill, bro. I've got it."
Demyx stood up quickly, expression a little wild, stray strands of his dirty blond hair fell into his eyes as he looked around at Axel with an expression of relief and gratitude.
"Hey, Demyx."
Demyx froze. Then turned back to the guy whose drink he had just obliterated. He was relieved to see that he didn't look pissed off or murderous (that was how Cloud looked, actually). In fact, the guy was just giving him a weird look.
"Um… y-yeah?" Demyx stuttered, voice hushed for some unknown reason.
"Could you maybe… well, y'know, get me a new drink? Please?"
Demyx turned red, his hands making restless butterfly motions in the air. "Of course! YES!" he squeaked and apologised profusely once more before making a run for it, straight back into the kitchen from whence he came to make another ice blended mocha.
Axel came to clean the mess a few moments later.
"Sorry about him," the redhead said as he swabbed at the floor, not making very much of an effort to avoid jabbing and nudging at their legs. "It's his first day and all. Kind of a spaz if you ask me. Don't hold it against him. He must've been awed by your good-looks." He winked at them. "For this slight inconvenience, could we maybe offer you two fine young gentlemen some completely unnecessary foodstuffs?"
For the rest of the evening, Demyx was wrapped up in his own little ball of depression. Leon had noticed this when he stepped back into the bar about an hour later ("Yo, boss man! That was one hell of a long-ass important phone call!"). So, somewhere around 7:00PM (two hours before closing time), Leon decided that maybe he should lock up early. This very much reinforced the previous suspicion Cloud had that Demyx could possibly be closer to Leon. Mere acquaintances? Pah! More like kith and kin!
"Soooo, we're shutting the bar early. Hmmm, well, how 'bout we hit the streets and have a boys' night out? Like, the four of us?" Axel twittered excitedly. "I mean, we should totally cheer Demyx up before he turns into some suicidal emokid… Which might not be a bad thing if he wants to be McEmo's best friend." Axel scrunched his face up animatedly for a few moments, then shrugged, "Whatever. Let's go somewhere and have some coffee. My treat!"
Truthfully, Axel wasn't expecting much of a response to his suggestion. After all, Demyx was acting all semi-pathetic, Cloud was looking at him like he was insane and Leon was frowning with a look that clearly read: Hello? Do you not realise that we're currently standing in a coffee bar?
But surprisingly, Leon started to nod his head, playing along. "Alright. That's a good idea. Let's go somewhere tonight. The four of us. Any suggestions?"
Axel grinned. Cloud didn't, but he didn't quite disagree with the proposition either. Demyx snapped out of his look-blankly-into-space phase and turned to the other three. "Hey, I know of a pretty great place!" he quipped. "And it's not that far away either. I can take you guys there!"
"Awesome! Let's close shop and get outta' here!"
Ten minutes later…
"Uh, Demyx?" Cloud's voice was disbelieving as the foursome walked into the very familiar café two streets down (it only took them like, five minutes to get there, so Demyx wasn't kidding when he mentioned that it wasn't too far away). The blond threw a look at Leon, who was tight-lipped and silent. "What are we doing here?"
"What do you mean 'what are we doing here'? It's Starbucks! They sell awesome coffee here!" Demyx replied with a small, happy smile, some of the memories of this afternoon's horrid mishap finally leaving his mind.
"Exactly," Cloud hissed. "Don't you know The Fix and Starbucks have been rivalling in the coffee business since… since forever?! Leon hates Starbucks! Don't you?" he rounded on Leon, who still remained silent.
Axel shrugged. "Well, I suppose it can't hurt to just try their inferior products."
"Whatever," Leon muttered and headed towards the counter where a very petite-looking lady with bright blonde hair stood, ready to take their orders.
No, actually, she stood, sneering at them in a very condescending, holier-than-thou manner. "Well, well, well," she mocked in a very high-pitched, wicked-sounding voice. "Look who we have here. Come to drink our coffee, eh? What's wrong? Your coffee not good enough?"
"Oh my god. Larxene's working at Starbucks!" Axel stage-whispered a little too late. Which was kind of pointless anyway, since only Leon knew who the hell this Larxene woman was. Cloud hadn't been working at The Fix when Larxene was there.
"Duh, Starbucks is only about a million times superior to TCF."
"TCF?" Axel looked confused.
"It's what we people here call your little substandard coffee house," their former co-worker (who, as mentioned briefly back in chapter one, quit working at The Fix because she found it unsatisfactory and well, she didn't like Axel's face very much) said derisively.
Leon, at the moment, was only giving Larxene a level stare (the type of stare that could probably, y'know, level buildings and shit). He knew it wasn't a good idea to come here. But now that they were actually standing in front of the counter and engaged in idle chitter-chatter with one of the staff members, they weren't just going to turn tail and walk back out. That was a very un-Leon thing to do. And thus, Leon was so not going to do it.
"Right. Whatever. We'd like to order some drinks please," the Leonhart countered dryly.
Larxene laughed as though it were the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. And Cloud wanted to slap the bitch. Thankfully, said bitch had realised that she was holding up the line, so she nodded with a grin. "What'll it be, fellas?"
Ten minutes later, the four sat themselves down at a table with their drinks. And boy did they pick their table wisely, choosing to sit as far away from Larxene's insolent gaze as possible.
Then, Axel muttered something like, "Jesus, that cow has problems."
"Tell me about it."
"Whatever."
Cloud and Leon stared at each other for a moment, both shrugged in unison and then drank deeply from their beverage cups.
"Hey, I know! Let's play a game!" Demyx said excitedly out of the blue. "Truth or Dare!"
That was when Axel decided that Demyx was either one of those types of people who cheered up real quickly and moved on fast, or one of those types of people who got sidetracked easily with thoughts of self-entertainment and games that were high on the immaturity scale.
Leon sighed. "Demyx? Do I look like I'm ten years old?"
"Huh? Er… weeeell, if you squint a little and tilt you head at an angle—"
"I'm serious."
"Then no."
"Yeah, exactly."
"Aw, c'mon Leonhart!" Axel clapped his friend on the back good-humouredly. "What harm could a game of Truth or Dare do?"
"I would prefer not to lose what's left of my precious dignity out here in public… In Starbucks out of all places."
"Pfft. You're just too much of a chicken to play."
Leon gave the redhead another one of his level stares (even though it's been more or less established that Axel has some kind of immunity to them). "Am not."
"Oh, you definitely are!"
Two seconds ticked by.
"Fine. I'm in. Let's roll."
Author's Note: Well now, Leon may have just done the most stupidest thing he's ever done.