A/N: Yes, it's been four months. And this chapter took so long to write but in the end, I managed to finish it, read it, edit it, re-read it, re-edit it again and again just to make sure everything flows well. A thanks to suika's wind of the celestial for checking it. At the moment, it's around 8000+ words – longest I've done for one chapter. So please don't be put off by the length.
Lovely, lovely thanks to these beautiful people who have made the effort to review:
Higuchimon (I'm a sucker for slow romances), Riku Love, CxSLover, katgirlofthenight (love you!! -), G (Step away from the doors –grins-), XxTypoMasterxX, Neko Roxas, Black-Dranzer-1119, Metal Chocobo, Dijah (i.e. Weirdette – thanks for your review! And thank Jibby for threatening you –laughs evilly-), Kingdom Lyoko of fedual heroes and The O.C. Addict.
Enough of my rambling for now.
Let's get started.
Disclaimer: The Kingdom Hearts game series (Square Enix), Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds, Teen Titans Theme (both by Puffy Ami Yumi) and Chow Chow (by DeliSpice)songs -- ne-uh, not mine.
Chow Chow
(Chorus 2- repeat)
It was difficult to describe the café, Le Blanc, really. To be honest, it was simply too grand to be called a café. Cosy square tables sitting between puffy cushioned armchairs overlooked walls decorated with exotic tapestries of flowers and multicoloured folded fans. The furniture was elegant and sophisticated – its design merging tastes of the Italian and the Arabic. Windows were draped with long, sweeping curtains and the marble floors were decked with a variety of outlandish rugs. At the far corner of the café, love-seats and sprawling couches occupied the domains.
Sora took all this detail in as he carefully pushed the glass door (that was adorned with tiny folding fan trinkets that tinkled into each other) open and stepped into the cool surroundings of the café. His lips curled slightly when he realised that the techno disco music flowing from the unseen speakers around the café did not match with the place's interior design. Sure enough as he made his way across the many occupied tables, he heard a small squeal emerge from beyond the café counter and a high-pitched female voice whined out:
"But Paine! I want to listen to this CD! I bought this from Disco Leez just this morning!"
"No, Rikku. I want you to put Le Blanc's CDs back into the sound system now."
"Can't I just finish listening to this song first?"
He avoided colliding into an old woman who was making her way towards the exit, carrying a shopping bag bulging with many cat food tins. Sighing heavily for the near miss, relieved that he hadn't made someone else fall over and bruise their head; he cast his mind back on the task at hand (which happened to be choosing whether he should have waffles or the mushroom soup) and turned towards the currently empty counter.
"Kyah!"
A meaningless word fumbled out of his lips when his side bumped into something soft and warm. Staggering slightly to regain his balance, he turned towards the object he had bumped into while mumbling a small apology for his careless actions.
"Sorry, I-I didn't see you–"
His gaze lifted towards the man whose spiky blonde tresses framed his naturally pale face, his slender nose and his deep, deep blue eyes.
"–there."
It was strange how, at that precise moment, everything in Sora's mind vanished the moment he laid eyes on the man standing beside him: clad in a work attire consisting of a red, unbuttoned shirt under a loose tie with sleeves folded up to his elbows and exposing a rather elegant black strapped watch that embraced his pale wrist. Dark pants and a sleek black briefcase sitting by his leather loafers completed his look.
And as for Cloud, an emotion of astonishment slipped out of his features with unambiguous obviousness, showing that he, too, was surprised by this unanticipated meeting. In a few seconds they merely stared at each other, their forms frozen in place, before Sora decided that he should break the silence that they had somehow sunk into unconsciously.
"Um, hello."
The greeting instantly snapped the blonde man out of his brief state of surprise and at once, his features settled back to its usual blank exterior.
And then came another moment of frozen stillness as Sora's greeting lingered uncomfortably in the air above them. The man standing before him remained silent with lips fixed in an impassive straight line. Immediately, Sora felt a certain feeling of uneasiness rising up his chest. Why hadn't Cloud said anything to him yet? Was it the way Sora had greeted him? Did it sound a little weird? Perhaps Cloud couldn't remember who he was…
As the awkward silence between them stretched on, Sora's shoulders began to shift uncomfortably.
"AAAIII!"
From beyond the marble clad counter, the high-pitched female voice returned to deliver another whiny squeal, shattering the awkward atmosphere between the pair. Two pairs of blue eyes averted away from each other's, somewhat relieved.
"Owww…Paiiiinne! Okay, alright! I'll change the damn CD, jeez!"
"Never mind that now. You're supposed to be at the counter. Now get your butt out there and tend those customers."
"Right! Right! Geez, Paine – you don't need to shout." There followed the low muttering that was too incoherent to make sense of.
"I heard that, Rikku."
"Tch – Myehh!"
A girl burst out of the curtain of beads that decorated the doorway leading out of the staff lounge. Her blonde hair was braided and tied with colourful beads that swayed about her face whenever she moved. Her uniform took form in a tight maroon and white bodice sewn with frills and a few sequins, tucked into an extremely puffy skirt that swished from side to side as she walked. Pinned to her bodice was a nametag that spelt out her name ('Rikku') in curly letters. As she bustled to the front of the counter, rubbing a small bruise on her wrist (someone must have pinched her quite hard there), the sweet smell of her perfume (a mixture of tropical fruits) lingered into their nostrils.
"Good morning!" the counter-girl, Rikku, chirped with a grin and a twinkle in her eyes, despite having been pinched by her colleague not just a second ago. "Welcome to Le Blanc's! What would you two gentlemen like to order today?"
Seeing that service was now available (and a chance to escape from Cloud's presence), Sora made a move forward towards the counter, not anticipating that the other man had the same intention as well. The two individuals bumped stiffly into each other's sides again before Sora immediately jerked away from the touch, and at the same time, looked up and met with Cloud's deep blue eyes again.
A naturally pale hand gestured towards the counter in one graceful sweep, "After you."
It took a while for Sora to realise that the deep, quiet voice that spoke those two words had belonged to Cloud.
Suddenly, he found himself blushing.
"Oh no, please! After you!" the brunet blurted out, flustered in the face as Cloud blinked at the reaction. And before the blonde man could have any chance to reply to this, Sora backtracked a few steps in order to give the other space and Cloud had no other choice but to take the first order.
As the blonde man pushed his briefcase forward with the tip of his loafer, his blonde bangs fluttered about his face and for the first time, Sora could finally spot a white square plaster bandaged onto his temple.
Oh.
He backed away a few more steps, his front teeth digging into his bottom lip and his entire form stiffening at the discovery.
Oh gosh, were the words that floated across his mind. Maybe the reason why Cloud hadn't said anything was because of that karaoke booth. He's still mad at me about it…
A sinking feeling of guilt caused him to look away. He was recalling how those deep blue eyes, usually void of emotion, had been intense in irritation and anger on the night at the arcade. What should he do now? Sora could never tolerate a sour mood if he could help it. Should he leave the café and run away from Cloud's presence (and his hostility)?
If that were to happen, he knew he would regret it for life. Just recalling the fact that one person could cast hating eyes onto him was enough to haunt Sora for the rest of his days. No, he knew he shouldn't. There must be a way to turn this thing around. He should at least apologise properly for that unfortunate accident on the night at the arcade. It was, after all, the most obvious thing one should do …
"Next please!"
The high-pitched, shrill voice of the counter-girl snapped him out of his thoughts and averting his eyes back onto the counter, he was surprised to see that Cloud was not there. The blonde must have collected his purchases and went on his way.
The counter was bare and welcoming and the distant smell of something cooking inside made his stomach complain loudly.
"Heh," came a sheepish, embarrassed grin and he firmly decided he had no choice on the matter. He had come to Le Blanc's to eat some late breakfast, didn't he? So there was no need for second thoughts just because the man he had crashed the karaoke booth door into happened to be there as well.
He cringed at those thoughts and stepped up to the counter.
"Good morning! What would you like today? Our delicious pastries or perhaps our deluxe super-mega-deli sandwiches? Maybe you prefer something sweet like our Caramel Bon Bela-whatchamacalits? Or soup in a bread bowl? Come and take your pick, sir."
Sora only smiled at the energy that the counter-girl possessed and looked up at the menu board to enunciate his order.
"Can I have the–"
"I'd like to ask your opinion," interrupted Rikku, brandishing up a finger in emphasis as her grin grew even wider. "What do you think of the Le Blanc's dress uniforms? A crafty masterpiece? A trendy catwalk hit? Or maybe an adorable party dress? What do you think?"
As she said this, she twirled around, causing the frilly, puffy skirt to swish from side to side and Sora wondered how on earth could anyone wear such a skirt that puffed up so stiffly like that.
"It's–" he began.
"Cute, isn't it? Is that what you wanted to say? I think so too! I think so too!" Rikku exclaimed, clapping her hands together happily all before she began to do a little jiggle on the spot and further swishing the puffy skirt from side to side.
Sora doubted he'd ever deliver his order in time before he had to run and see Kairi later.
At this point, the curtain of beads parted to let another girl saunter out of the staff room. Taller than Rikku with stern features, ruby eyes and short, cropped hair slicked with strands of silver, Sora noticed she also wore the same frilly uniform as the other girl, with the addition of fishnet stockings and high-heeled black buckled boots. The nametag pinned to her bodice blared out her name: 'Paine'.
Seeing Rikku still jiggling on the spot by the counter, she quickly strolled over and shoved her aside.
"Hey! Paine!" came the blonde girl's whinging. All before the taller girl sent the other a look.
"You're doing it again, Rikku. No asking customers about the dress uniforms."
"But Paine! I want to know that everyone likes this dress too. It's such a shame that you don't appreciate how hard it is for Le Blanc herself to think up this design. Why can't you be more like Yunnie and just agree with me?"
"This has nothing to do with Le Blanc or Yuna. Your little survey is scaring the customers."
"Tch. You know what your problem is, Paine? It's 'cause you're–"
"Rikku, no."
"Can I just order?" Sora finally found his voice again. He felt exhausted in someway. Listening to the girls bicker somehow took the energy out of you.
Paine snapped out of her personal situation, averted her firm ruby eyes on Sora and addressed him in a much more professional tone (perhaps a more droning tone) than Rikku could manage.
"I apologise about my co-worker's behaviour. She tends to get carried away sometimes. Enough of that, what would you like to have today?"
"Rikku, don't eat the customer's food."
"I can't help it, Paine. I love waffles too, you know."
Emerging from the depths of the kitchen were Paine and Rikku, the former carrying a tray supporting a plate of thick, fluffy waffles with cream and honey on the side along with a small jug of syrup. Next to the plate was a white teapot, a cup and a saucer.
"Here," said Paine, holding out the tray to a very hungry Sora who noticed that her fingernails were painted black and tattooed with white skulls. Taking the tray gratefully and hearing Rikku's chirping tone of "Enjoy your meal, sir", Sora eagerly turned to face the rest of the café.
It was only then when he realised that the majority (if not all) the square tables had all been conveniently occupied.
Hesitating slightly to tell himself that it just wouldn't be possible that all tables were occupied, he carefully scanned the café again, taking note of all the tables and in the end, he had to agree with the fact that yes, all the tables were indeed taken.
A disbelieved Sora stupidly stood there with his tray balanced in his hands and a sinking feeling in his stomach. Now there were no places for him to sit down at! What should he possibly do now? The thought of strutting back to the counter and asking the two cashiers to wrap up his food sounded displeasing (as Sora was the type of person to instantly devour any meal he happened to purchase at that time).
It was all before his eye caught hold of the pale blonde spikes belonging to a man sitting on one of the tables by the window, stirring a tall glass of thick pink liquid. His table consisted of four chairs, one in which he had already occupied. Out of all the sitting places in the café, Cloud's table looked far the emptiest.
A strange thought invaded into Sora's mind and somehow he had a sudden urge to march up to Cloud's table and sit on one of the unoccupied chairs, regardless of the fact that he wanted to stay as far away from the blonde man as he possibly could. And it was in just a few seconds that the sudden compulsion to face the man who had glared daggers at him grew stronger and at once Sora understood the new task at hand. Apart from finishing up his waffles before seeing Kairi later, he mustfind enough guts to apologise to Cloud. He must apologise to the man who supported the bruise acquired from the violent slamming of karaoke doors unintentionally caused by him.
With one final nod towards himself and a few heaving breaths, Sora strolled across the café and reached the particular one by the window where the occupant carefully turned over a page of the broadsheet newspaper and resumed his reading, oblivious of the subsequent re-encounter.
Sora, who was gripping the edges of his tray with whitened knuckles, stopped just a few metres away from Cloud's table and with a rising agitation in his chest, cleared his throat for attention.
Cloud did not stir.
Sora cleared his throat for a second time and then a third time when a few seconds passed. Seeing no response whatsoever from the man, he nervously nibbled on his bottom lip, unsure of what to do now. Why didn't Cloud hear him? Was he still a bit too quiet to attract his attention? Or was Cloud ignoring him on purpose?
The last thought worried him a lot and with mustered audacity, he bent his back, leaned over and tilted his head in order to peer up Cloud's lowered face.
"Um, hello? Excuse me?"
Halfway reading through an article about crashed market dealers and corrupting businesses, Cloud suddenly became aware that someone was leaning towards his face. As blinking blue eyes hardened in irritation for the disturbance of his peaceful reading, Cloud lifted his gaze from the paper onto the perpetrator – only to find the face of a boy peering up at him.
Cinnamon brown bangs fell across eyes of sky blue that was silently asking permission to speak. Even though it was unseen, there was no doubt that Cloud could guess that this boy had a vibrant, lively nature.
His bruised temple throbbed slightly and ignoring this, Cloud simply maintained his stare on the boy as an implication that he finally had his attention.
Sora felt his breath catch in his throat when he discovered that the deep blue eyes, just several inches away from his own, were actually faintly tinted with a small hue of bright green. It was only obvious if one had enough courage to stare right into those piercing blue orbs and maintain their gaze until they spot it.
He pulled away with flushed embarrassment and bent down his back into an automatic bow, unfortunately forgetting that he still held his tray in his hands and his carelessness knocked his cup off the saucer with a loud crack. A small yelp escaped his lips as he reflexively steadied the tray in his hands all before a sigh of relief was released when he found that nothing had been damaged much.
He was aware that Cloud was still watching him, waiting for his enquiry.
"I…" he started and gulped down the lump in his throat which had somehow oddly placed itself there. "Sorry to be bothering you. Is it okay if I sit here… I-I won't be any trouble, if that's what you're thinking. It's just that …there are no more empty tables out there."
Smiling weakly for his attempt, he emphasised his point by stepping aside to let Cloud observe the rest of his surroundings. He was inwardly glad that his words were very true. Every table (if not seat) in the café was occupied. And Cloud's table happened to have the only available seats left.
Cloud pursed his lips slightly at this sudden intrusion to his privacy. He was normally a reserved individual, keeping to himself and rarely socialising with others. And he would be damned if he agreed on sharing his table with some stranger. Literally, this act of sharing tables was like an opening into his personal space. And like the incident with Sora grabbing onto his nose for some apparent reason, he hated it when people decided to intrude into that space.
"So is it okay? I really won't be any trouble, I promise, promise, promise! Please?"
Sora's eyes widened with hope as he gingerly bit on his bottom lip. He was aware that the tray was becoming heavy in his hands.
Cloud lips pursed even further.
"Please?"
Deep blue orbs finally closed in surrender. With a final nod, he averted his attention away from the boy standing by his table onto the broadsheet newspaper in front of him.
With a small, satisfied smile, Sora placed his tray onto the table and plopped down onto the seat opposite the blonde man.
As more techno beats flowed out of the speakers in the café (it turned out Rikku's CD was still playing despite what Paine had demanded), Sora began to muse upon the task ahead (no, not the late breakfast consuming). He needed to find a right, precise moment to finally blurt out what needed to be said. By the end of this little unexpected rendezvous, he must have Cloud's acceptance of his apology. After all, if one got hit in the head by a karaoke booth door, they should at least receive an apology of some sort, right?
But then again, there was the question of whether his apology would be accepted or not. Even if Sora did summon up enough guts to spill, if Cloud rejected his apology, what would happen then? He would feel hated for life! He would regret it for life! He would start avoiding doors from now until end! What happens if the next door he opens ends up killing the person behind it?
No, he told himself. If he had to beg for Cloud's forgiveness then he will beg. There was nothing stopping him at all. Nothing.
With newfound determination, Sora looked up in preparation for his announcement.
He stopped.
Cloud was unmoving, his head bent down, his blonde bangs swaying slightly about his face and his eyes – two hard, deep blue (with that tiny tint of green) gems – solely focused on the newspaper in front of him. It was then when Sora realised that speaking up now was not a really good time.
When it comes to reading, Cloud is completely zoned out from everything.
It was then when Sora realised that he had been staring at Cloud for bit too long. Blinking at this realisation, he looked away, dismissing the thought with a slight shake of his head. It was all before he told himself that he should at least start on consuming his late breakfast.
After all, cold waffles didn't taste nice.
Ssszccchhhtttt!
The sound was sharp and loud enough to be heard over the steady beating of the disco track playing from the overhead speakers. It was loud enough to throw Cloud out of his reading reverie. Deep blue eyes stared at the article, wide with bewilderment. Which paragraph had he been on? Something on consumer products? Or had he been examining the picture of smiling businessmen shaking hands to please the camera?
Lifting up a hand to tuck a blonde strand of hair behind one ear, Cloud fixed his eyes back on a random paragraph, hoping to resume the sentence he had been cut off from.
Szch..cccchhhhhttttt!
He lost himself again and at the same time, without looking up from his paper, he recognised that the noise that threw him off his concentration was a tearing sound of paper. Half-conscious of his surroundings, a faint sound of something being tipped into porcelain followed afterwards.
SSZCCHHT!
His eyes finally darted themselves away from the newspaper article and settled onto the sight ahead of him. The boy sitting opposite had loudly torn off the top of three sugar sachets and was, at the moment, tipping the sugar into his teapot.
Cloud's eyes widened.
The teapot?
Looking back down at his paper, he frowned at the thought. Wasn't it customary to tip your sugar into your cup and not your teapot? What was this boy thinking, tipping sugar into his teapotanyway?
Clink! Clink! Clink!
Once again, he couldn't help but this time, raise his head from his paper to shoot a glare at the boy opposite about the noise he was making. And his mental rants on sugar tipping into teapots and not cups were still lingering in his mind.
His glare faded into that of surprise when his eyes landed onto the boy, whom at the moment, was distracted in stirring his teapot with a spoon. There was a delighted twitch of a smile highlighting his lips and his sky blue eyes were filled with glee as he eagerly peered into the pot. That particular smile lit up his entire face, giving the impression of childish innocence.
Cloud could only blink at the strange sight.
He likes to watch the sugar swirl in his tea.
It was then when he realised that his looking had quickly turned into staring when the boy looked up from his teapot and acknowledged his attention. As eyes of quizzical blue clashed with those of astonished blue, there was a dramatic pause of held gazes – all before Cloud's eyes were the first to break away from the other's.
They were back on their businesses. As the brunet poured himself a cup of tea before starting on his waffles, Cloud sipped his tall glass of pink liquid before continuing his reading.
He began to realise that he was continually reading the same paragraph again and again without taking note of the facts. How much percentage was the sales loss again? What were the factors which could have influenced the loss? Why couldn't he concentrate as much anymore?
His eyes were absent-mindedly straying away from his article to settle onto the brunet opposite him.
Then he found himself gawking.
The boy had just emptied the entire mini-jug of syrup onto his honey and cream covered waffles. The once attractive-looking meal of fluffy waffles was transformed into a sloppy, sugary mess. He was glad he didn't pick anything to eat today.
Cutting a small piece of his sodden waffles, Sora manoeuvred the fork into his mouth – all before his eyes caught hold of Cloud's staring ones.
Feeling a little humble, he pulled the forkful of syrup-covered waffle out of his mouth and held it out to the blonde man.
"Would you like some?"
When he spoke those words, a string of gooey syrup broke off from the waffle and dripped messily onto the table.
Cloud cringed and quickly shook his head with a small air of politeness.
In response to this, Sora popped the waffle back into his mouth and leaned back slightly as the sweet taste of syrup mixed with honey and cream washed over his tongue. Goodness, was it delicious! Munching on the sloppy piece with a little grin, he acknowledged the fact that Cloud's eyes were still fixed on him from over the top of his newspaper.
At once, a small feeling of embarrassment rose in his chest and he fought off the urge to blush. His eating performance must look a little too animated if Cloud's attention was diverted away from his article.
He swallowed his waffle and, clearing his throat in order to make sure his words came out right, addressed towards the blonde man's pink drink, "Are you not eating anything?"
He was glad that his voice came out poised with courtesy, void of any shaking nerves or uneasiness. Watching Cloud taking his query in, the man answered in an almost nonchalant yet equally polite tone that mirrored his own, "I'm not hungry at the moment."
Sora smiled slightly at the response before averting his eyes away from Cloud's, absent-mindedly settling on the tall glass of pink liquid sitting beside the broadsheet. As he raked his brains to think up another ice-breaker, he realised that he wanted to hear more of Cloud's voice. The train of thought continued to run across his mind as his eyes examined a small piece of pineapple stuck on the rim of Cloud's glass.
That voice …
It just has … an interesting ring to it.
"Cinderella."
Sora snapped out of his reverie and realised that Cloud was still looking at him. The blonde had just spoken again, shattering the silence that always rested between them.
"I-I'm sorry?" Sora said, his expression puzzled.
Cloud began to absent-mindedly stir the contents of his pink drink with his straw. "The drink is called Cinderella," he spoke with that same quiet volume that was audible enough for Sora to hear. "It's a combination of strawberry puree and pineapple juice ice blended together with a bit of fresh milk. Quite nice."
Sora told himself that this was perhaps the first time he had heard anyone as less-spoken as Cloud speak out a long sentence. And he was right about his aforementioned opinion. There wassomething nice about listening to Cloud's voice, even if it was quiet and blasé and even if the topic had just been to compliment a certain drink.
He realised that his silence probably meant that their attempts at a conversation had failed because Cloud, looking somewhat flustered at the thought that he had just blurted out something as random as a drink called Cinderella to a stranger sharing his table, returned back to his article. Absent-mindedly, he reached up to tuck a stray strand of blonde behind his ear and ignored the wide-eyed, curious look the boy was giving him.
The atmosphere between them felt lighter somehow after their very few exchanged words and Sora, nonetheless, felt a bit more comfortable that they seemed to be in much better terms.
Every scrap and drop of food on his plate had been consumed by his mouth, leaving the empty platter facing him astonishingly clean. Sticking his syrup-coated fingers into his mouth, the brunet licked off the last of his breakfast, a small smile breaking out of his lips. It had been a delicious meal, of course. He would've gladly complimented the waffles to the café staff if he were to sacrifice his being to Rikku's wrath of gushing over her dress uniform, in which she was currently doing so to an unfortunate customer by the counter.
His fingers came out uncomfortably sticky and Sora rummaged around his side of the table for some spare napkins only to find none. It turned out both Rikku and Paine had forgotten to slip in the most important object after every meal into his tray. He sighed wearily and wondered if the café had a washroom hidden somewhere in the back.
A white sheet suddenly materialised in front of his face and he blinked as his eyes distinguished the patterns of dancing pink elephants in tutu skirts, balancing on large beach balls imprinted upon its surface.
What on earth…?
There was a bewildered and very still pause.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
In the background of this frozen scene, the counter-girl, Rikku, twirled past their table, her puffy skirt making swishing noises as she moved.
"Lucy in the sky with diamonds … Lucy in the sky with diamonds…"
Humming a song under her breath, Rikku, taking no notice of the unmoving figures of her customers, swooped up Sora's empty plate into her arms and twirled away, her skirt swishing elegantly from side to side.
The still atmosphere broke when Cloud waved the wet tissue (the aforementioned white sheet in Sora's point of view) imprinted with pink elephants in Sora's face and the brunet snapped out of his trance and blushed hard at his immobile behaviour not a second ago. How an idiot he must have looked to Cloud! What had he just been doing, sitting there transfixed, still and looking awfully stupid?
"Th-Thanks!" he squeaked, taking the wet tissue from Cloud, who withdrew his hand and proceeded to seal shut the open packet of baby wipes he was holding with his other hand. Sora, surprised as he was that an individual such as Cloud could even carry things like this, noticed that the baby wipes packet was printed with dancing zoo animals in tutu skirts. A ribbon-wearing monkey was hanging from the corner of the letters of the logo: Zoo Friends - soft & scented baby wipes.
Fighting off the urge to smile, he busied himself with wiping his sticky hands with the wipes and instantly, the scent of artificial strawberries drifted delightfully up his nostrils.
And before he knew it, he was blurting out a query with absolute excitement, "You like strawberries, don't you?"
Cloud found himself blinking. "Huh?" came the stupefied and shocked utterance.
Sora cringed in his seat, realising that he had blurted something random out in the open, and thinking that his exclamation was rude, he frantically waved his arms in an apologetic manner, "N-not that it's a bad thing or anything, I mean, from what you're drinking then it must be obvious …that you like strawberries… but then the Cinderella is blended with pineapple juice which probably means you like pineapple too so I might just be jumping into conclusions. But then again, your wipes are strawberry scented – and you're kind of drinking a strawberry drink so you must like strawberries so –"
He paused when he noticed the absolutely stunned expression on Cloud's face and recoiled his words with the emergence of a single-handedly hard blush, "Oh no, I'm- I'm rambling, aren't I? I shouldn't have …I …"
And like the incident at where the two had crossed paths for the first time, Sora bowed his head low, letting his brown spikes cover his features, "…I'm sorry!"
Cloud could only stare at the boy, feeling slightly taken aback by the exaggerated bowing and murmured out a, "No, it's alright," because he could not find anything else to say.
Sora felt the muscles holding his form up relax and he lifted his head up in relief at the acceptance of his apology. As he pretended to busy himself with pouring his cup of tea while Cloud sipped his drink, he cautiously disturbed that polite silence between them again.
"So which is it?"
"I'm sorry?" Cloud said.
"Which one do you like more?" Sora asked, gesturing towards the Cinderella. "Strawberry or pineapple?"
After a rather long hesitation which consisted of nothing but exchanging pointless glances, Cloud finally spoke in that same quiet, nonchalant tone, "… Strawberry."
Their gazes were still held on so firmly after this utterance that it was somewhat obvious that the atmosphere between them thickened again, but at a different light. It was like they wanted nothing more but to stay like that in each other's company and ignore the rest of the moving world that surrounded them – from the frustrating demands of office paperwork to the rushing social meetings with chattering friends.
But then their gazes broke and once again, they were back in their individual businesses – Sora taking a sip of his sweetened tea and Cloud diverting his attention back onto his broadsheet.
Seconds … minutes passed as they stayed in their polite silence. Sora was pretending to study the scene outside the café window but nothing interesting was noted down and his eyes had taken on an annoying habit of straying away from the window to settle on–
The breast pocket of Cloud's shirt began to flash blue and before Sora wondered how the man's garment could have miniature lights installed in it, something vibrated from within the pocket and it was then that the brunet realised that Cloud's mobile phone was ringing.
Scratch that, it was merely vibrating continuously to indicate that someone was calling him. From this information, Sora's attention perked up. He was going to hear more of the entrancing quality of the blonde's voice.
However, Cloud merely ignored his phone.
More seconds passed as the blonde man opposite him let his phone continue vibrating in his breast pocket. Before Sora could make a decision on whether or not it was wise to verbally inform the man that someone was trying to call him (he was humbly concerned if the call was important), the device stopped its vibrating and lay quiet.
Sora released a heavy sigh and continued taking sips of his tea, his mind racing with many questions about the vibrating mobile phone in Cloud's breast pocket. Was Cloud merely refusing to answer the person who was calling him?
A few moments later, Cloud stirred in his seat, carefully folding the top of the page of the broadsheet newspaper he was reading before closing the paper.
Sora blinked at the peculiar action. Who bookmarks their newspaper – let alone a broadsheet?
As he was left to muse upon this matter some more, he watched as Cloud cast a glance at his direction (in which Sora shamefully looked away) before he pulled out the still-flashing mobile phone buried within the depths of his breast pocket.
A sleek black and white flip phone was revealed and with one flick of his thumb, Cloud flipped the cover up and a small 'trring!' noise followed afterwards as the device indicated that it was ready to be used.
From the corner of his eye, Sora watched the calculating Cloud scrutinize the small screen of the phone, regularly taking more sips of his tea and refilling it once his cup sat empty.
The blonde frowned slightly at the number of missed calls he had and opened his voicemail box to find a number of voicemails waiting to be noticed. So, pressing on a button, he placed the phone to the base of his ear and listened to the demands, reminders and pointless greetings from the people he knew.
From across him, Sora still watched Cloud, silent as he was, as he sensibly listened to the muffled voices exuding out of the speaker. And this went on for another couple of minutes (and Sora was becoming worried that his tea was quickly running out) all before Cloud pulled the phone away from his ear and started fiddling with the keypad, his thumb swiftly jabbing this key and that with amazing speed.
It was after a small beep emitting from the phone and a brief blue flash that Sora realised that Cloud was sending a text message.
And this cycle, again, went on for several minutes.
From this point on, Sora was openly staring at Cloud as the man continued not to stir, bent over that small black device which kept beeping and flashing blue (indicating the arrival of a text message) and almost unconsciously tucking his hair behind his ear. It was not that Sora was in any way being rude, he just couldn't help noticing it… To him, it was awfully clear…
Cloud doesn't call people, he told himself with wonder. He texts them…
To him, this man was perhaps the most astonishing person he had ever encountered. There was just so many little things about Cloud had that made him such an interesting individual. And oh how he wondered what else was there behind the man who spoke so little?
He realised that he had been too careless with his staring because Cloud had stirred slightly from his reverie and slid his eyes up to meet his own. Now caught red-handed on his crime, Sora blushed and knowing that Cloud was watching that tinge of red spreading wildly across his face, he blushed even harder.
To his astonishment, the corner of Cloud's lips twitched upwards and he almost fell off his chair. Although it was very faint and very vague, this small action was enough to be classified as a small, no– tiny, amused smile.
Cloud – smiling? At him?
He couldn't understand how his already blushing cheeks could further intensify their colour than it already had now.
There was something – just something addicting about staring –no, looking at Cloud.
He was forcefully telling himself to keep his gaze onto his empty cup where the small sediment of tea floated lazily at the base of the porcelain. Twice he found his gaze wandering off and he silently told himself off for this. After all, he didn't want to further embarrass himself in front of Cloud again. Cloud probably thought him to be an idiot anyway.
But as Sora heard the small exasperated sigh escape Cloud's lips, his eyes tore themselves away from his cup for a second and glimpsed at the preoccupied blonde man, who was still endorsed in his text marathon. A pair of earphone pieces had magically popped out of nowhere and one of the pair had been inserted into his ear, telling Sora that he was currently listening to the mp3 player built-in into the device.
He quickly averted his eyes back to their supposed position (in the inside of his cup) and pretended to take note of the swirling tea sediment as an attempt to distract his attention from the man sitting opposite him. Still, he told himself the quickest way to solving this was to quickly leave the café and meet Kairi later. At least that way he had other things to think about (like worrying if Kairi had plans of putting him in a turtle suit for the campaign) instead of trying to disturb more of Cloud's privacy with his pointless babbles about strawberries.
There's still a little bit of unmixed sugar in here, he told himself as he took note of the extra sugar crystals that had not yet properly dissolved in his tea. Perhaps I should stir it again just to–
He blinked when he found all the objects on the table (including Cloud's glass) gone, having been swept up onto a tray by a grinning Rikku, who was humming another song as she twittered away, and he was now left staring at the very, very emptysurface of the table.
It was then when he realised that both he and Cloud remained motionless in their seats.
There was a horrible, stagnant air of waiting. A drifting ambience of expectancy wavered steadily, awaiting for the first signs of movement to break the stillness that descended upon them. But none of them made that first move at all. Rikku's act of taking away Sora's finished tea had been an obvious indication that the brunet's work here, at the café –at Cloud's table– was done.
And in spite of this, Sora found himself not wanting to leave yet.
It was much too soon.
Finally, after what seemed to be almost a minute of stillness, there was movement as Sora reached into his bag to pull out various notebooks, scattering them across his side of the table. At once that motionless air snapped – and from the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Cloud's shoulders relax before the blonde resumed his maniacal text messaging, absent-mindedly tapping a finger against the surface of the table to the beat of the muffled rocky tune playing in his ear.
Half-listening to the mp3 track, Cloud took note that Sora flipped through his notebooks rather boisterously, causing the leaves to crumble slightly from his touch. Curiously, he peeked over his phone to glimpse this view and instantly, his eyes widened as he assimilated the sight of an enormous assortment of sticky notes (all in different sizes, shapes and colour) plastered all over the brunet's papers. Every single page of his notebook seemed to be covered with them.
From this distance, he could make out several of the notes scribbled across the various shaped memos. A green leaf-shaped note was scribbled with the words 'Read pages 143-147 in Green Textbook'. A yellow pineapple had 'See NGeo channel 54, 2100 hours' scrawled across it and a white sheep blared out the scribble 'Tell Kairi that Riku wants his shoes back'. Realising that he was beginning to 'glimpse' a bit too long, he returned back to his phone before the other boy could begin to guess what he was doing.
Just as Cloud finished sending another text message, he could see from the corner of his eye that Sora had carefully reached into the depths of his open bag to extract a rather squashed pink marshmallow from a crumpled plastic packet before popping it into his mouth. There was a bulge in one of his cheeks indicating the location of said marshmallow and a silent message that the boy was keeping it there so it would slowly melt in his mouth.
He's obsessed with anything sweet, this one.
The blonde was obviously referring to the squashed marshmallow and the fact that the waffles had been sickeningly smothered with too much syrup.
Cloud snapped his phone shut (earning another 'trring!' as the device indicated it was now locked) and slid it back into his breast pocket, deciding he had enough of text messaging. Now left with nothing to do, he merely reclined back to his seat with arms crossed and sat listening to the mp3 track playing in his ear.
Hearing the snap of the phone and the 'trring!' that came with it, Sora glanced up from his notes and watched as Cloud leaned back against his seat with crossed arms before his eyes fluttered shut. His head was slightly bent down, letting his blonde bangs sway about his face and obscuring the white square bandage on the man's temple. The earphone continued its muffled blaring (the drone of electric guitars) into his ear.
Suddenly he thought he felt a tug of familiarity.
"Hey, what are you –" he paused briefly when Cloud lifted his head up to look at him with deep blue eyes. " –Um, listening to?"
As those blue eyes continued gazing at him, to his utter surprise, Cloud picked up the spare earphone piece and held it out to him.
Sora flushed red at the unexpected act.
"Er, thanks," he mumbled, taking the earphone from Cloud and telling himself off for voicing such a ridiculous enquiry. Inserting it into his ear, he tried to ignore the look that Cloud was giving him and instead, focused his gaze on a random spot on the table.
His eyebrows furrowed slightly as the sound of the droning guitar playing in his ear. Then, the vocalist resumed his singing (the language was foreign, he noticed), his voice flat and monotonous.
Wait a second…
Liquorice … Tidus … microphone...
Wait a second!
His mind was suddenly filled with the image of Tidus singing.
This is …!
His voice flat and monotonous.
"This is…"
"Chow Chow," came Cloud's voice, breaking into his thoughts. "It's Korean – sang by a group called DeliSpice. A friend gave me this song."
"Chow Chow …" Sora echoed, finally recognising how the song sounded so familiar. "I know this song! Tidus sang this back at the arcade – when we were in the karaoke…"
His words trailed off as Sora's expression changed to that of horror. With wide eyes, he automatically recalled his very energetic swinging of that particular door onto the angry stranger standing behind it.
The stranger who was, at the moment, sitting just right opposite him, supporting the white plaster bandaged over his temple.
Without warning, he jerked his entire being back from the table with such force that both earphones tore away from the listeners' ears. Cloud startled at the sudden act and stared at a flustered Sora, who gripped the edges of the table with such force that his knuckles turned white.
"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was really an accident, I promise, I really am … but then again it kind of was my fault because I can't help it when I open doors and that time I wanted to tell Tidus not to get the chocolate smoothie – because I wanted a strawberry one since the chocolate ones are horrible – and because of that, I was in a rush and I didn't notice anyone was behind that door and – and … oh god, I nearly killed you, didn't I? When I saw you on the floor, I thought you fell over but then I saw that bruise going pink, and then red, and then purple and I first thought your skin had this weird ability to change colour like a chameleon but… but then I realised that I crashed my door right into you and I d-didn't know how to wake you up so I tried this… but… but then you did wake up and you looked really mad and I was kind of scared…wait, no, no, no! I was really scared and I thought you were going to shout at me but then you didn't say anything and I thought maybe it was because you were too mad to say anything– oh no, you're mad now aren't you? Oh god, I really screwed this up again, didn't I? I… Th-the reason why I came over here was to a-ap-apologise to you and because I'm here now and … so, um, I...I …"
A final inhalation of breath and then, "I'M REALLY SORRY!"
And with that, Sora's head dipped down into a firm bow, letting those brown strands to cover his features. From his seat, Cloud sat completely frozen with utter shock at the muddled outburst for apology and it took almost thirty whole seconds for him to assimilate all that information. Down to the last word.
There was a long pause before a breathless Sora hesitantly peered up from his bow, waiting for a response – any response – from the still stunned blonde opposite him.
"Don't…" came a rusty voice from Cloud's lips. He cleared his throat again and tried to ward off the shock that still lingered in his being. "Don't worry … about it."
At the sound of these words, Sora's face brightened up with relief and a grateful smile stretched across his lips. All before he gave another short polite bow.
"Thank you for accepting my apology," he said, his tone contented with breathless reprieve. "It means a lot to me."
Cloud maintained his gaze on Sora's bright eyes and a very small, fragile upward twitch of a smile formed in his lips as he murmured back, "No problem."
And they stayed like that, another moment of stillness, staring and silent wishing. Even as the environment that surrounded them buzzed with activity, they were in a silent, mutual world of their own. Sprawled across the table were the two earphone pieces, their wires tangled together as 'Chow Chow' continued to blare out of its tiny speakers.
Like the whip of a crack, a new musical tune cut through the silence to shatter this moment. A whirl of electronic keyboards and then …
"When there's trouble, you know who to call…
"…Teen Titans!"
Something erupted into vibrating buzzes and Sora jumped in his seat, scrabbling into his pocket to pull out his silver mobile phone, plastered with small photo stickers, before pressing a button and holding the device to his ear.
At once, a loud and very cross female voice erupted into his ear, "SORA! Where on earth are you! I've been waiting ten minutes for you at the Leisure Centre. Selphie, Demyx and Roxas are already here! I hope that Riku isn't holding you up and –no, don't put that there, Demyx!– if he is, bring him over so I could speak to him about people having specific timed meetings. Never mind all that now, where exactly are you to be so late like this?"
"Hello Kairi," said Sora, glumly into the phone.
"Don't 'hello Kairi' me, Sora," the girl huffed. "Whatever it is you are doing now –I said don't put it there! Demyx, I swear if that turtle drops into that jug I will seriously kick you out of here and I don't care what Zexion will say –Sorry 'bout that. You need to get here in seven minutes – seven minutes, Sora. No questions, no protests. I had to ask my Gran to sew up a turtle costume and I want you to see it. We don't have much time borrowing this room so come over here quick! "
There was a click in the other end of the line and the phones disconnected.
With a sigh, Sora lowered the phone from his ear and slipped it back into his pocket. It was then when he realised that Cloud's eyes were still on him.
"Going now?" mumbled Cloud, his tone light and casual.
With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Sora grinned sheepishly and nodded, "Got a meeting to go to. Sorry about the … um," he paused when he realised that there was nothing to really apologise about. "…The, um, yeah."
Clearing his throat, he gathered up his notebooks and stuffed them into his bag, feeling quite awkward and low somehow.
W-Wait …
He hoisted up his bag quite slowly because his mind was racing, nagging him about something.
I have to…
And he hesitated by the table, not noticing that Cloud was staring quite intensely at the earphone pieces that still lay sprawled on the surface of the table, his jaw clenched tightly.
…I have to do something.
Sora had a sudden notion and quickly unzipping his bag, he rummaged through one of the pockets in order to pull out –
A raspberry-red-coloured sticky note pad, brand new and unused, in the shape of a strawberry.
With a small blush in his cheeks, he held it out to Cloud with both hands.
"For you," was what he simply said.
Cloud stared up at the blushing Sora, and feeling warm around the cheeks himself, reached up to take the unanticipated gift.
And then their fingers touched.
A spark sizzled between their fingertips as they brushed against the others'. All before two pairs of blue eyes widened dramatically and then became fixed on each other in absolute, utter surprise.
And then –
A pause.
There came another moment of frozen stillness held by gazes of blue shades and the gentle grasp of fingers touching warm skin. And a faint sound of two heartbeats racing – frantically, excitedly racing – against time.
Could this…
Their breathing ceased.
Could this be…
A pair of unconscious fingers delicately curled over the other's.
…Destiny?
Bump.
"Ah!"
"Whoops! Sorry!"
Just behind them, a twirling Rikku was passing with a tray in her hand and her shoulder had jostled against the small of Sora's back with enough force to jerk him out of his trance. His fingers slipped away from Cloud's and then they were back in the café, the many customers now leaving the tables with their possessions.
Sora suddenly realised that he had been holding his breath all this time.
Ignoring the warmth radiating from his face, he gave another quick bow to Cloud and finally turned away from the table as he joined the line of leaving customers who were making their way towards the door.
And as Cloud was left sitting in his chair, his table now feeling very empty and his hand holding the strawberry-shaped sticky pad, he couldn't help noticing as he watched Sora's figure disappear through the glass café door.
His hair actually bounces when he walks.
And he found this very amusing.
End (Chorus 2-repeat)
Notes:
It's true what Cloud just said at the end of this chapter. Ever notice it when you play KH2, you go into the main menu and up comes Sora and his group just aimlessly walking? Look carefully and you will notice it – Sora's hair realy does bounce!!
Anyway.
There are a few things I must mention about this chapter. Firstly, the Cinderella drink featured here does exist – invented by a co-worker of mine at a restaurant near the local Mall (so the idea doesn't belong to me, boo). I tried drinking it once and straightaway I decided that this little piece of work will be sampled by Cloud in this chapter. It took a while to come up with the content of this chappie and it's mostly on the two discovering each other's – what I'd like to call – "little things". For example, Sora has an obsession with sweet things and has a giant collection of sticky notes plastered all over his notebooks while Cloud bookmarks anything he reads (even newspapers) and has a habit of tucking his hair behind his ear.
The Le Blanc dress uniforms were a figment of my imagination, heavily based on the dress uniforms in the café featured in Tokyo Mew Mew. I needed a dress with a skirt so puffed up and stiff that even Rikku herself would swoon over it.
So, what have we found out here? That Cloud has the very song that Tidus sang back in the karaoke booth whose door crashed into Cloud? And I've noticed there were so many frozen moments where Cloud and Sora just sat still in their chairs! What have I done!
Next up: Leon giving Cloud a free massage? Kairi swooning over Korean dramas? Romantic little sayings, small elevator shafts, a count-down from five to one and 'My Girl' soundtrack songs as mobile ring tones? Just wait and watch as Destiny takes its toll in the next instalment of 'Chow Chow'!
Questions? Comments? Review my good readers and I will love you forever!
-NoriKo-chan XD
