Ĉђąρτεŕ Sεṽεη » Väηḯʟłα Mḯʟkśħαḱε
Vanilla: (noun) A flavouring obtained from the extract of the long, narrow podlike fruits of the tropical orchid of the genus Vanilla that sports fleshy leaves and clusters of highly fragrant white or green or topaz flowers.
Milkshake: (noun) A frothy drink derived from cold milk, flavouring (such as banana, vanilla, caramel, chocolate, strawberry, blah-blah-blah), and usually ice cream, blended together via mixer or shaker.
Vanilla Milkshake: (noun) The only drink that Rinoa Heartilly (a.k.a. I'm blue, if I were green I would die if I were green I would die) would ever order from any café. Like she says: "I want my stimulating pick-me-up à la vanilla style, with lots and lots of milk". 'Nuff said.
"This Must be Where the Deer and the Antelope Play."
Friday morning came rather quickly for Axel Onér. Totally zoom, y'know? Which was not to say that it came equally as nippy to Cloud Strife. In fact, Cloud was currently, in all his furious glory, busily (and quite passionately) cursing God within the mental recesses of his mind and demanding to know why in the blue hell this entire week was going by so damn slowly. Of course, God didn't reside in a corner of the mental recesses of said mind, so he didn't quite get an actual answer. Not that it mattered anyways, because the blond was for all eternity tied down to his career as a lowly full-time Caffeine Fixation employee.
Nevertheless…
He stormed into The Fix that morning, glaring guns and daggers at no one in particular (due to the obvious fact that there wasn't anyone to glare at). He was only ten minutes late this time around. Leon Leonhart (fucking idiot with the stupidest pseudo name ever) hadn't clocked in yet. Good. Great. Fucking brilliant. And was it so weird that the blond secretly wanted to look at his boss' face? His stormy eyes? His fucking awesome, totally permanent scar? Gah! Cloud shook his head and cleared it of awful thoughts like those. No, no, no! This was not happening! He, the young and almighty manly twenty-two year-old Cloud Strife, was not, most definitely not, I repeat not falling for that aristocratic, arrogant, revolting prat.
Axel, the only occupant of the bar at the moment, eyed him from behind the counter for all but 1.38 seconds before continuing to whistle in tune to the song playing on the radio.
I believe the world is burning to the ground, oh well, I guess we're gonna find out, let's see how far we've come, let's see how far we've—
"Flip the fucking channel, moron. I fucking hate this song and—" Cloud tramped over to the radio and glared at it menacingly (it was amazing that the contraption didn't just blow up on the spot and shower them in shards of plastic and wires), "—I fucking hate this station." He proceeded to tune the radio until he located his favourite station, upped the volume more than was reasonably necessary and soon, symphonic power metal enveloped the entire bar like the lava in a lava lamp.
Axel tsked and shook his head, expression just a tad incredulous and on the what the hell is up with you this time? side of the amused spectrum. "Either you're feeling particularly suicidal right now for some very-much-unknown-to-me reason, or some asshole stole your wallet on the way here."
"Neither," Cloud bit back moodily. "So shut up."
Axel shrugged. "Hey, don't bite my head off. I don't know why you're so friggin' pissed—although it is 7:14 in the morning—that might have something to do with it, but I highly doubt that. Hmm…" the redhead took a closer look at Cloud's terrifying face. Dark circles, red-tinted eyes, evident puffiness, drooping eyelids.
Biiiingo.
"Didn't get any sleep last night?" he asked innocently; artlessly.
Cloud growled and didn't bother giving the redhead an articulated response. He figured the redhead didn't deserve one.
Nope, the blond sure as hell wasn't about to let Axel (of all people in the universe, oh gods no) know he'd been up all night trying to come to terms with a lot of things that no, he'd so rather not think about right now thankyouverymuch.
He was saved further embarrassing questioning when a tall, self-imposing man walked in, all serious and business-like, as though it was of the utmost import to get a steaming cup of coffee from this godforsaken place. Pfft. Cloud snorted at the thought and went over to stand beside Axel behind the counter.
"Oh hey, I've seen him before!" Axel stage-whispered to Cloud as the customer made a beeline towards them. "I think he's a regular."
"No shit," Cloud muttered uncaringly.
The man wore a black suit and tie, totally immaculate and professional-looking. He had a pair of expensive shades on, which made him look like some top-of-the-range guy from the Men In Black. In all honesty, he would have looked almost intimidating to Axel if it weren't for his oddly-coloured hair. This must be Agent P. Y'know, P for Pink. And damn, those shades looked sooo boss.
"Hello, my fellow acquaintances," the man stated in a regal, I-Am-So-Totally-Awesome tone as he came to stop at the counter, taking his dark glasses off, folding them neatly and placing them in his pocket. "How fares the café on this fine day?"
"Very lacking in clientele but otherwise quite fine, your royal mafia-ness," Axel replied solemnly. Cloud elbowed his co-worker in the ribs less-than-discreetly for his lack of tact.
The customer laughed (and even his laugh seemed… cool… somehow), expertly flicking his awesome hair over his shoulder with pomp and grandeur. Cloud raised an eyebrow at how impressively pretentious that one action seemed and was honestly astonished as to why glitter and sparkles and radioactively glowing flower petals hadn't randomly materialised and fluttered explosively about the man's head when he did that.
"Just call me Marly, or Lord Marluxia, but I'm perfectly fine with Marly," Pinky was saying as Cloud busily eyeballed his outrageous hair. "I'm here to order a triple shot espresso. And also," he leaned forward and said quietly, as though not wanting anyone to eavesdrop sneakily, "is Leon around by any chance?"
Axel looked startled. "Er, no. Not at the moment. Why do you ask?"
"I just wanted to talk to him about… well, my step-daughter, whom he is currently dating."
"Whoa. So… Rin—Rhianna—Rinini… eh, that Rinyaya girl is your step-kid?" Axel asked, proving (once again) his inability of simple name recall. Still, the redhead was surprised that this dude was personally looking for his boss because Leon was dating his little girl. Well, the man didn't look like he wanted to destroy Leon… which was a good sign.
Cloud cleared his throat loudly. "I'm gonna go make his drink," he said darkly, brushing past Axel. "Charge him an extra twenty bucks," he whispered into the redhead's ears before disappearing through the kitchen door in a cloud (ha ha) of ice and hoarfrost.
Marluxia was still speaking, as though Cloud never interrupted. "It's Rinoa, actually. But that's okay, we always call her Rin." He glanced around curiously, as though checking the place for bombs or something. "So, your boss isn't in? Why not?"
Axel waved a hand in the air casually. "Oh, he doesn't come around till later cuz he lives a fair distance away. So he leaves his minions like me and Strifey to open up the bar and take charge until he gets down here."
"I see," the man sighed dramatically. "Well, when he comes in, please tell him to get in touch with me. It is imperative that I speak to him."
"Speak to him? About the relationship he has with Rinona—er, Rin?"
"Yes."
"If you don't mind me asking… why?"
"Oh, don't get me wrong! It's not about Leonhart. I think he's a great guy and I have no qualms with my step-child going out with a responsible young man like him. The problem is the girl. Rinoa's very—to put it kindly—indecisive when it comes to men…"
"Ah… She's one of those fickle ladies, you mean."
"In a way."
"Right, right. I get it. Sorta."
"So you understand that I must talk to the boy, at least for the sake of cautioning him. I really don't want my little girl breaking his heart. Sturdy men like Leon will probably kill himself if something goes wrong in the relationship."
Axel was pretty surprised that this Marloolee Lord guy would actually go behind his own kid's back to go talk to the boyfriend of said kid. In fact, this was the first time he'd ever heard of such a bizarre thing before. "Alrighty then. I'll pass him the message. No worries."
"You have my thanks," Marluxia nodded and glanced around furtively once more, which made Axel believe that maybe this guy really was some sort of secret agent. "Now, how much do I owe you for the espresso?" the man asked, whipping out his wallet.
"Eight ninety-nine," Cloud's voice cut in coldly as he barged past Axel and unceremoniously dumped Marluxia's coffee in front of him on the counter.
The blond sure as hell didn't sound like he was joking, but Marluxia laughed anyways (which made Cloud's glare increase tenfold).
"The menu says four ten," he said with a sly twinkle in his eyes. "But oh well, whatever." Marly handed Axel a fifty. "It doesn't matter. Keep the change." He flashed them both a charming smile. "Have a pleasant day, gentlemen. And remember to give Leon my message."
And he took his drink and walked out with a careless wave.
"Son of a frisbee! That guy is fucking loaded," Axel exclaimed once the man was out of earshot. He waved the fifty dollar bill in front of Cloud's face. "Leon's dating a millionaire's daughter! This is fucking awesome!"
Cloud felt like ripping Axel's voice box out of his throat.
We shall now take some time to formulate reasons as to why our poor blue-eyed blond is acting like a sullen, murderous bitch this morning.
Número uno: Cloud wasn't, in fact, a millionaire. Nowhere remotely close. And now, he found himself becoming increasingly jealous (whatthefuckno!) of this Rinoa Heartilly woman who came from a far more superior class in the societal hierarchy ladder than he. Which sucked big time. And why the hell was he jealous in the first place? Oh, right. Rinoa was dating That Aristocratic, Arrogant, Revolting Prat.
Número dos: Cloud was always a sullen, murderous bitch anyway.
Número tres: Axel was an asshole.
Cloud really wanted to believe that it was the third option. But for some reason, he had a sickly feeling that it was the first (and a little of the second).
Goddammit.
Ten minutes later…
"Man, you're booooring. Can we maybe have a decent conversation?" Axel whined.
"I listen to shit on the radio," Cloud replied immediately, mind focused on pointlessly rearranging cookie jars (you know, those little jars with various cookies in them on display for customers to observe and scrutinise).
The redhead blinked. "What?"
"Well, you keep telling me to stop listening to crap music on the radio," Cloud said, shrugging nonchalantly.
Axel realised that Cloud's radio station was still blaring music in the background.
"Pfft. When I said 'a decent conversation', I meant, 'don't start stating the obvious', you douche bag."
Cloud rolled his eyes and popped a cookie into his mouth. One of those triple chocolate fudge ones with an extra dousing of chocolate chips.
"Oy, stop eating the cookies. Leon will—"
"— murder you when I tell him you were giving out free mochas the other day."
"You wouldn't!"
"Yeah? Try me, Onér."
Axel sighed in defeat. "Okay." The redhead tapped his heels together in semi-bored fashion, thought for a moment, then turned to Cloud once more. "I think Roxas is fucking hot and I really wanna have sex with him."
Cloud's cookie went down his windpipe. He ended up choking and hacking out crumbs and chocolate chips for the next few seconds. The rest of the thing went straight to his lungs.
"This is what you call a decent conversation?" the blond coughed weakly.
"Uh, yes?"
"Roxas is like, ten."
"He is not!"
"He may as well be!"
"Hey—!"
"Change the damn topic already! Otherwise, shut the fuck up about how you want to sleep with little children."
"Spoilsport," Axel muttered. "Okay, fine. But for the record, he is fucking hot, okay? Got it? Good. Now… I have a question. A purely hypothetical one of course. If you had a kid, what would you name it?"
"I thought you wanted a fucking decent conversation?! What is with you?!"
"Dude, just answer the damn question!"
Cloud huffed.
"Box."
Axel stopped short. "The hell? Box? You serious?"
"Yeah."
"… Is that a girl's name or a guy's name? Because it sure as hell sounds like something you'd name a pet parakeet instead."
"Hell if I care. My first kid'll be Box. And that's that."
"You're fucking weird."
About eight minutes later, Leon stepped in quietly, only alerting his two employees of his presence when he barked at Cloud to turn the blaring radio off lest he chucked the stupid thing out the window.
Who the hell are you to tell me what to do, why to do, why bother. Leech in a mask of virtue. Such waste, to ever think of you again…
"Cloud, please turn the radio down a little."
Okay, close enough.
Cloud garbled incoherently. It could be because he really liked the song that was playing at the moment and didn't want to turn it down at all, or it could be because Leon's appearance sparked some kind of fuse within him.
Argh! What are you doing to me, Leonhart?
The question echoed desolately in his mind and there was no apparent response.
"Don't make me repeat myself," Leon droned, eyes boring a hole into Cloud's face.
The blond winced and trudged over to the radio and turned the thing off altogether.
Leon nodded approvingly. "Better." He looked over at Axel. "It's gonna be a full house tonight."
"Full house? Oh, you mean Dem and Roxy and Sorry are comin' in later?"
Leon nodded. "Yeah… and it's 'Sora', by the way."
Axel seemed to have ignored the last bit of Leon's sentence. "Shweeeeet, this is gonna be so aaawesome."
Cloud scowled at Axel. "For you, maybe."
"Hey, with the—one, two, five—six of us, we'll have so much less work to do!" the redhead crowed rather triumphantly. Miraculously, he had a rapid-fire mental ability to count to numbers that went beyond the five fingers of one hand.
"Don't give me that crap. You just want to grope Roxas."
Axel smiled devilishly. "Naw, what makes you say that?"
"That creepy paedophilic grin of yours, maybe?"
"Oh, the kid likes it. I can soooo tell."
"Likes what? The fact that you want to molest him? Or your stupid face?"
"Both."
Cloud wanted to bash his head into a wall. Actually, no, he just wanted to bash Axel's head into a wall. Yeah. Número tres. All the way.
When Demyx stepped into the bar at some time past three in the afternoon, he greeted everyone with a giant 1000-megawatt smile.
"Guess what, guys! Oh man, you'd never guess!" he exclaimed excitedly once he got two feet past the front door. "I got myself a new piercing! On my freakin' tongue!" And he stuck his tongue out as far as it would go.
"Whoa. No kidding!" Axel looked amazed as he eyed the metallic stud that glinted in the light. "Did it hurt?"
"Nah. Well, kinda. But only for awhile. Then it just felt all numb and weird for a few hours. But oh my freaking god, it was great!"
Cloud wondered if Demyx liked pain. Pleasure via self-mutilation or something. Maybe he was one of those obsessive compulsive piercing go-getters. Maybe he had chronic congenital analgesia. By the looks of the retard's ears Cloud had no doubts. I mean, come on! There had got to be at least ten studs and rings on each ear. It made Cloud squirm uncomfortably by just looking at them. What was wrong with this guy? He needs major psychotherapy.
"I am never getting any part of my body pierced," he muttered.
Axel chuckled. "'Course not. You're afraid of pain."
"Shuddup," Cloud snapped vehemently.
"You seriously need to work on those people skills of yours…"
"Yo, Leon! You've got a piercing too, right?" Demyx asked over their bickering. "I remember you telling me about it."
"Oh. Yeah, I do," Leon replied absently, attempting to fix up the cash register drawer that Axel busted five minutes ago.
"Are you for real?" Axel goggled at Leon. "How come you never bothered divulging this little bit of info to me? Haven't we been best buds since the good ol' uni days? You meet this guy—" Axel gestured at Demyx, "—at a silly concert and you tell him everything!" The huffed crossly for a moment. Then, curiosity got the better of him. "So… where'd you get it? I don't see it anywhere."
"I don't think—" Leon started, but Demyx cut him off with insane giggling.
"'S cuz it's a nipple piercing, silly."
Leon sighed. "Thanks, Dem. Thanks a lot."
Axel never looked at his boss the same way again. And Cloud found it fucking annoying that a goddamn visual of Leon with a pierced nipple remained burned into his mind for the rest of the day. For that matter, the blond couldn't really focus on very much for the rest of the day either, because following Demyx's appearance, people just kept streaming into the bar. Including Sora and Roxas.
"Holy bubblegum wrapper! You didn't tell me we had newbies!" Demyx all but hollered when he spotted the two kids entering through the door with their black Caffeine Fixation uniforms on.
"Dem, you're a freaking noob yourself," Axel pointed out.
Demyx didn't seem to hear the redhead as he half-pranced, half-bounced towards Sora and Roxas.
"High school kids, right? You guys totally look the part," the musician was saying animatedly and he started to introduce himself. "I'm Demyx. Demyx Aeco. But just call me Demyx. Weird name, I know. My parents were drunk when they came up with it. I think they derived it from 'damn it', but I'm not a hundred percent sure. Is this your first day here? Or were you guys here yesterday? Pro'ly yesterday. I wasn't here yesterday. Aw, bummer. Man, I missed your initiation. Or whatever. Eh, I'm from UT. Like, The University of Twilight. Awesome place. You should go there when you graduate. Also, I'm majoring in music. But I currently have a minor in French. And Spanish. And Chinese. And Italian. And… well, I can speak a few languages pretty well. But French is like, sooo the coolest language ever."
The man stopped to gasp for air.
Roxas was staring at Demyx like he was just a liiiittle bit afraid if him. No, seriously. The boy had an expression on his face that clearly read: GET HIM THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME.
Sora's face however, totally split into a huge grin. He had found his other half. His soulmate.
"Daaaayuuum. That was super-fly, yo!" Sora exclaimed. "You an' me are sooo gonna get along like bros. I can tell."
Cloud wanted to stab himself with a spatula. Repeatedly.
Business picked up after that. By the time the sun started to set, the bar was teeming with people from all walks of life. There was even a guy in a black-white mime costume who walked in and tried to order from them via the fine artistic technique of miming. Which just pissed Cloud off. So the idiot gave up and started speaking in English when the blond behind the counter threatened to smash a cookie jar over his head.
There was some commotion between Axel and Roxas in the kitchen that everyone else tried to overlook (read: ignore). The redhead had been sticking to the blond like glue (of the super variety). Epoxy resin. Bonding agent. High-quality adhesive. You get the picture.
Roxas was getting slightly annoyed. Just slightly. Well, okay, he was starting to get a tad sadistic.
"Hey, man, liste—" the boy started, but the redhead didn't even let him finish.
"It's Axeeel. A-X-E—"
"Axel," the blond grated edgily. "I know you're supposed to be supervising me and everything, but could you please give me some space to breathe here? I don't want to 'accidentally' drop this knife on your foot and 'unintentionally' sever your toes off."
"But babe, you've got me lovestoned!"
"I. Am. Going. To. Fucking. Stab. You. THROUGH THE HEART."
"Ouch." Axel scooted a little distance away with a grimace. Roxas looked serious with the way he was wielding that sharp blade. "Okay," Axel muttered lowly under his breath, retreating from the love of his life (the love of his life being someone who did not, in fact, love him). "Okay, Roxy. So, you wanna play hard-to-get, huh? Well, I bet I can get you to fall in truly, madly, deeply in lust with me by next week. Heh."
The redhead laughed rather conspiratorially for a few moments just before Sora ploughed right into him with a jug full of water by accident.
"Hey! Watch it, Sour!"
At around 7:00PM, a pretty, dark-haired girl in an elegant blue dress and black platform boots walked in through the glass doors. She cheerfully ordered a vanilla milkshake and then started looking for her boyfriend. That was when Leon emerged from the back and came out to greet her.
"Hey, Rin. You didn't tell me you were dropping by." He seemed genuinely surprised, and he was smiling.
The smile looked very strange on his face. Of course, people weren't used to him smiling. It was somewhat of a privilege to see him smile. It also gave people nightmares.
"Oh, I just wanted to see you so badly!" his girlfriend twittered. "And I haven't actually been to your little hidey hole and met your friends yet!"
And so, that evening, everyone got themselves acquainted with Leon's girlfriend (who seemed to have migrated from the front of the bar to the back). It was pretty cool.
"So… you actually do have a real girlfriend!" Demyx exclaimed to Leon. "Awesome possum!"
"Ahah!" Axel piped up smartly. "You must be… uhhh… hmm…" There was quite a bit of thinking going on in his head, for he did not want to butcher the girl's name. He gave up on it quickly. "Who are you again?"
"Rinoa Heartilly, of course! Pleased to meet cha! Squall's told me all about you guys!" Rinoa beamed.
"Waitaminute. You call him Squall!?" the redhead blurted.
"Umm, yeah." The girl tilted her head inquiringly. "Why? What's the problem? I think Squall's a great name!"
Axel turned to Leon incredulously. "You let her call you Squall?"
"Yes."
"Huh. Something tells me this is some sort of restricted inter-secret-society thing. Only people from Leon's super-secret cult are allowed to call him by his real name."
Rinoa laughed. "That could very well be true. Anyways, yes, Squally-poo's told me a lot about you. Axel Onér, right? The tall guy with the red hair."
"Yeee-up. At your service, my lady," Axel bowed grandly and winked.
Rinoa turned to Cloud. "And you must be Cloud… Strife?"
Cloud shrugged. "Yeah."
"And the one with the mohawk must be Demyx."
Demyx flashed Rinoa a thumbs up.
Finally, she looked at Sora and Roxas. "Now, you two must be the new kids on the block! I don't think I know your names yet."
Sora waved. "I'm Sora Vaïve!"
"So-raaa. Oh, what an adorable name!" Rinoa reached forward to ruffle the brunet's hair, causing him to giggle a little. And then she straightened and looked over at Roxas, leaning forwards and peering into his face. "And who's this other little cutie?"
"Roxas Montana," the young blond replied evenly, hoping against hope that she wasn't going to try to ruin his painstakingly-styled hair.
She didn't. Instead, she reached out and shook his hand formally.
"Well Roxas! You look like the intelligent, serious, no-nonsense sort of person. It's no wonder Leon said you've made a good first impression on day one!"
Roxas smiled slightly at the compliment. Rinoa was a really likeable girl. Leon was lucky.
Whilst Rinoa and Leon sat somewhere at one of the tables in one of the more secluded corners of the bar, chatting away (effectively making Cloud want to yank them apart and wring The Evil Girl's neck) Sora was put on serving duty, because he was just so clumsy in the kitchen that he technically didn't belong back there. His current job entailed getting drinks from the counter and delivering them to the right table.
"Yo, Sora!" Demyx called from the counter. "Small iced latte for table seven!"
Sora grabbed the latte from Demyx's outstretched fingers and brought it over to the table with the lopsided '7' placard hanging from its receptacle. When he placed the drink in front of the pudgy little man who ordered it, the man stared at the cup for five seconds, looked at Sora, stood up, drawing himself to full height (which wasn't very high, actually), and screamed at the poor boy.
"I SAID I WANTED A LARGE LATTE, NOT A FRIGGIN' TINY-ASS SHIT CUP!"
Sora very nearly pissed his pants.
For a guy who looked so damn round and stout, he had a big Sergeant Major voice. Spittle flew from his huge mouth and the brunet had to move back a few steps to avoid the globules of saliva. Oh yeah, and there was no doubt that the dude looked positively livid. Sora was suddenly apprehensive. Oh noes, he's going to kill me! Quick! Try to reason with him!
"But – but…!" he stuttered uselessly, mind drawing a complete blank, all composure leaving him in an instant.
"I'M NOT DRINKING THIS. GET ME MY LARGE ORDER!" The Dumpy Angry Man yelled, looking ready to hurl the plastic cup of latte at Sora. Either that or he was very close to dropping to the ground and having an epileptic seizure. It almost seemed to be the latter, judging by the disturbing rate at which his whole face was turning a deep shade of purple.
Sora suddenly wanted to burst into tears. And no, it wasn't because he was worried that the pissed off customer might die from manic convulsions or a heart attack. Everyone around them was staring. It was embarrassing as hell.
And then, much to Sora's wonder, someone stepped in and intervened.
This someone had a calm, listen-to-whatever-the-fuck-I-say voice. And also, he had very nice silver hair. Like, Herbal Essences Shampoo Ad kind of hair.
"Sir, I think it would be in your best interest right now to pipe it down for the sake of the other customers in this café."
The man rounded on the newcomer, eyes narrowing. But then he took in the newcomer's noticeable build and height. "Oh yeah?" he barked a little falteringly.
His new adversary crossed his well-muscled arms menacingly with a threatening glare. "Oh yeah. And I insist that you step away from him," he nodded towards Sora before looking back at the furious customer, "before you do something stupid that you might live to regret."
"Who are you to tell me that?"
The silver-haired individual cracked his knuckles loudly. And that action alone pretty much spoke for itself. It exuded the kindly proposition of 'mess with me and you will surely die'.
The man backed off immediately. He shot Sora a dirty look and finally made a hasty exit out of the bar, grabbing the small latte and taking it with him as he went.
Everyone else around them, disappointed that there had been no climatic physical combat involved in the incident, went back to their normal chitter chatter.
Sora, pretty glad that he hadn't been assaulted, heaved a sigh of relief. "Thanks for that," he said to his saviour quietly, face tinged pink with humiliation and embarrassment.
"Hey, no worries. That spineless jackass totally had it coming."
The brunet looked up and smiled. And that was when he finally took in the guy's face.
He looked gorgeous. Really, if you were to look in fashion magazines and stuff, you would not find this dude in them because he would probably be on the damn front cover. He seemed almost feminine, what with the long flowy hair. But his well-toned body suggested otherwise. His sea green eyes were framed with long dark lashes, and he had a really attractive-looking face and nice cupid-bow lips. Oh yeah, and did I mention his well-toned body? Because it was smokin'.
"So, you're one of the new guys?"
Sora mentally shook himself. Concentrate, concentrate on conversation. Not pretty face. "Y-yeah. How'd you know?"
"Oh, I have my sources," the very pretty dude replied airily with a dismissive wave of his hand, then smiled slightly. "I'm Riku by the way."
"M'Sora," Sora mumbled, head bowed. For some unknown reason, he found himself blushing slightly.
"You in high school, Sora?"
Sora nodded, unable to formulate proper words.
"That's cute."
Cute? Really? "Um, um… what about you?"
"Second year at UT."
"Oh. That's… very cool."
Riku grinned. "Well, not really. It's real tough." He sighed dramatically. "Med school is so not what I signed up for. Anyways, I would really love to stay and chat, but you've got work to do and I've spotted your boss. Gotta go talk to him." He clapped Sora on the shoulder in a friendly manner. "I'll see ya around. Hopefully."
And with that, Riku walked off in the direction of Leon (who was still with Rinoa and had shown no signs of actually registering the fact that a customer had just yelled and stormed out of the bar).
Sora stared after him almost forlornly and was left to wonder why Riku had such awesome hair and such a nice butt.
Yeah, he had a hella nice butt…
"HELLOOOO? SORA, TABLE FIVE, TEN, THIRTEEN AND TWO!"
Quite soon, it was fifteen minutes to closing time. Leon announced to his employees that he was going to take Rinoa home via his chariot of fire (i.e. his Volvo). Yes, Rinoa had stayed by her boyfriend's side till 8:45PM and had got along pretty well with the others (apart from Cloud, for reasons that the blond cared not to disclose).
"Guys, I'm gonna drive Rinoa home, alright? Ax, could you close up for the night?"
At 9:00PM, when all the customers had more or less trickled out of The Fix, the five remaining bar staff started to pack up. Sora, Demyx, Axel, Roxas and Cloud were all in the kitchen, cleaning out the dishes and mugs and stuff.
"I think Rinoa's really nice," Roxas was saying rather off-handedly as he emptied the remaining contents of a jug of full-cream milk into the sink and doused it in water. "I can see why Leon's in love with her."
Nobody saw it coming. He moved like lightning, or something equally fast (too fast for the naked eye—Sonic the Hedgehog style). Cloud's fist connected loudly with the left side of Roxas' face sending the unfortunate boy stumbling a good few steps backwards.
Demyx shrieked. Sora gasped and tried to get to Roxas before Cloud decided to land another punch on his friend (the man seemed to be seriously contemplating it by the way he was about to raise his fist of doom once more). But Axel, valiant knight in shining armour and all, got there first.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Axel yelled, shoving Cloud away from Roxas (who was now leaning heavily against the kitchen sink, staring wide-eyed at his assailant with a hand to his sore cheek) in a rather vehement fashion. "God. What in the hell is your problem, Strife?" the redhead grounded out, suddenly furious, which was pretty damn unusual. "Don't fucking take it out on Roxas. You got a problem, you deal with me."
After a few moments of heavy breathing, Cloud seemed to have finally realised his mistake and lowered his fist, an expression of complete regret blossoming across his face.
"Fuck," he muttered. "Fuckfuckfuck."
And he shook his head and walked out through the back door, slamming it spitefully as he went.
Silence reigned in the kitchen for a moment until Demyx let loose a low whistle.
Axel turned to Roxas.
"You okay?"
"Just peachy," Roxas replied, flinching a little when the redhead moved closer and tried to take his hand off his swollen cheek to inspect it. "Ow, hey! Ax, don't touch it!"
Sora winced at the redness on his friend's face as soon as Roxas' hand was removed.
"Jeez, you want some ice for that? I'll go get you some, bro."
"Wow. Why did Cloud do that?" Demyx was questioning aloud as Sora raced towards the mini-freezer and started to dig through the drawers for ice cubes.
"Hell if I know," Axel muttered, straightening. "Goddammit. I'm gonna go talk to him, and maybe find out what the hell's gotten into him. He's been acting like a bitchy little bitch all day." He walked towards the door that Cloud had left through, turning the handle and jerking it open. "You guys lock up in front."
The redhead found Cloud leaning against a flickering lamppost along the back alley just a few paces away. The blond looked wretched and depressed, as though someone had just told him that the world was going to end in five minutes and that he was still very much a virgin.
Axel approached the man vigilantly.
"Hey."
Cloud looked up wearily and spotted his co-worker in the darkness. "Hey," he mumbled back, looking away pointedly.
"Why'd you hit Roxas?"
"…" Cloud replied. Okay, so it wasn't a legitimate reply. But still.
"Cloud."
"He was talking about her," the blond spat out after a long pause.
Axel raised an eyebrow. Not the answer he was expecting. "Her?" he questioned.
"Ri-no-a," Cloud enunciated sardonically.
"What? Leon's girl?"
"How many other Rinoa's do you know?" Cloud snarled.
Axel took a moment to think this revelation through. Was Rinoa the reason why Cloud had been acting like a ticking time bomb all day? And then it hit him (after awhile) like a freshly baked cream-filled cake to the face.
"Holy hole in the ground! No waaaay. You're jealous of her?! You're… you're falling for him? You… and Leon?"
Cloud opened his mouth to rebuke the redhead for coming up with such a ridiculous thing, then thought better of it, hung his head in disgrace and nodded semi-despairingly.
Axel tilted his head quizzically. "Did you hit your head on something? Something extremely hard and akin to a concrete wall for that matter? It was of my understanding that you hated the bossman's guts as much as you hated his… his… face." The redhead concluded lamely.
"I don't know," Cloud groused miserably, wringing his hands. "Maybe."
There was a slight pause, after which it was totally ruined when Axel started shrieking with uncontrollable laughter. "HAHAHAHA. OH MY GOD. WOOT! Gotta hand it to you, this is freaking priceless! Man, I thought I'd never see the day! HAHAHAHEE! This is un-fucking-believable."
The blond made a disgruntled-like noise and shot Axel a withering death glare. "Take your damn happy face and go shoot it to hell with a semi-automatic, asshole," he hissed.
Axel tried to calm himself down (which took maybe a minute or two… maybe even three), and then, phenomenally, his expression went back to being grim-and-serious. "Right. No need to get all defensive on my ass… or offensive, for that matter."
Cloud blinked at the man's abrupt change in demeanour, then sighed as though he really didn't care if the world exploded right about now. "You know what? Whatever." He seemed to have had enough of this disgusting conversation and pushed himself away from the street lamp, starting down the alley. "I'm goin' home."
"Strife?"
"What?" Cloud bit out, whirling around. If the redhead was going to crack a joke at him being oh so madly in love with Leon, he was going to scream bloody murder.
"Hit the kid again and this friendship of ours might not last very long."
Cloud stared at Axel for a moment. Then churlishly turned away once more. "It won't happen again," he muttered darkly, heading down the street, kicking an unobtrusive, already semi-abused Coke can to the side of the road as he went.
Author's Note: Oh Cloud, you rotten little emo. Hitting little boys is so not your thing.