airplanes

On summer days, Roxas was prone to sitting around the house, waiting for entertainment to come to him. Hayner had dragged Pence and Olette off to the city for some big struggle tournament that he'd managed to buy three tickets for, leaving Roxas alone. Tidus had blitzball conditioning, and was never NOT busy.  It seemed to take a week of internally bemoaning his utter boredom and self-pity before Sora had stormed up to his younger brother and thrown an old-fashioned electronic airplane kit no bigger than his own forearm, complete with the handset, first aide kit, and instruction booklet.

Sora had then proceeded to shove Roxas out of the house, vehemently stating. "I'm sure the park civilians can tolerate your emo rants much better than I can." Which was Sora's way of telling Roxas that he was getting some alone-time with Riku, whether the blond brother liked it or not.

Roxas stared at the closed front door of his house for a few more minutes, clutching the supplies to his chest as the wind-chimes that Aeris had hung up began to tinkle merrily in the mid-morning breeze that often reached their island. There were the sounds of the television turning on, blasting rock music from whatever CD Sora had slipped into the DVD player, and Roxas sighed in irritation. He may have been only sixteen, but Sora was eighteen and did little more than spend his weekends at home with Riku and whatever latest band happened to be his favorite one. Roxas himself took pride in spending a good ten minutes grooming unruly blond hair into some semblance of mild-chaos. He also actually paid attention to what colors his particular outfit of the day happened to be- just in case he ran into someone he planned on impressing.

He had soft blue eyes that always seemed to lack the energy that shone in the eyes of most kids his age, and his small lips were never far from a downturned scowl. It wasn't that Roxas was unhappy; it was just that he never found a reason much to smile whenever he wasn't with Hayner and the others. He hardly ate unless forced - which was probably the reason for his short stature and thin, nearly girlish frame. Roxas knew that Sora probably just kicked him out in hopes that Roxas would go to the park and make new friends - ones that didn't vandalize things or hack into the school's computer to get better test scores.

Roxas turned around, picking up his skateboard from where it leaned against the wall beside the door and dropping it to the ground. He rolled down the sidewalk, stopping his board by his older brother's car and dumping the plane and supplies onto the hood of it so that he could rifle through the random junk piled in the passenger side. Cloud was a senior at the nearby university- living at home and choosing to drive back and forth whenever school was in session.

Roxas looked more like Cloud than Sora - though Cloud did a lot of weightlifting and sparring in his free time in order to have a decent level of self-defense and to rid himself of that effeminate flair that all three of the brothers seemed to posess. Roxas supposed that Cloud wasn't too fond of Sora because the brunet was a polar opposite of both blonds. Sora had dark brown hair, a lanky body, big, happy blue eyes and a bubbly attitude that left Roxas and Cloud with something to be desired. Brushing aside those thoughts, Roxas tugged out Cloud's messenger bag that he used during college. Disregarding the notebooks stuffed inside, he proceeded to somehow cram the airplane kit inside along with Cloud's homework.

Shutting the door to Cloud's car, Roxas kicked up his skateboard again and took off down the sidewalk.

The park wasn't very busy whenever he reached it. Most people were either at work or sleeping in, considering it was barely ten in the morning on a Tuesday. Roxas slowed his board down whenever he reached a particularly kind looking section of grass, taking off Cloud's backpack and setting it down. He took out the plane kit, observing it silently before looking up and around him to the rest of the park's patrons. There wasn't much, just an elderly couple sitting on a bench with their small dog, and a guy in his twenties sitting down on the edge of the large water fountain, reading a newspaper and tossing bread crumbs out to any ducks that flew by to swim inside of the ring of water behind him.

The wind outside was enough to keep Roxas cool- allowing him to keep both his jacket and his shirt on without getting hot. He glanced back down at the plane kit, turning the small airplane over and catching sight of a small switch on its belly for turning it on. He did so, and then lifted the handset to turn that on too. The plane sputtered, small propellers winding up. Roxas placed it on the ground and stood back. He observed the controller for a moment, and slammed his thumbs on both of the switches at the same time, jumping whenever the plane shot off into the air. Roxas couldn't help but lean to the left as he attempted to make the plane turn away from hitting the elderly couple. He leaned to the right to avoid a tree, his heart rate picking up and the tiniest of smiles quirking onto his pale lips.

A gust of wind blew up and Roxas's grin fell as the plane was caught, jerking to the side and effectively ignoring anything Roxas did to try and stop the plane as it went straight for the guy sitting on the fountain edge. He dropped the controls, barely yelling "Heads up!" before the plane smacked the man in the head. There was a startled shout as the guy flailed his arms, teetering and falling back into the fountain, sending water up in a large splash as all of the ducks flew off with a series of startled quacks.

Roxas cursed loudly, snatching up his skateboard and bag and running over to the fallen man. He dropped his board on the sidewalks, his bag following suit as the man struggled to lift himself out of the water. Roxas grabbed a flailing arm, helping his poor victim to sit upright once again. Red hair was the first thing that caught Roxas' attention. It was everywhere, hanging in the man's face and dripping wet. A few strands had already dried and flipped up in the air, while the rest was slung back into a ponytail that was gathered at the nape of his neck. The next thing Roxas noticed was the deep gash on the man's head from the propeller of the small aircraft that was floating in the water. Guilt instantly attacked the blond in a large wave, and apologies stumbled from his lips, hands hovering nervously over the man's bony shoulders. There was a hiss of pain from the redhead, who lifted his gaze to look at Roxas through squinted eyes.

Roxas was mildly startled to notice two identical black streaks under the man's eyes - one for each. They resembled icicles, almost, in the way they were large at the top and grew into a small point at the bottom - which was just above the edge of the man's long nose. His chin was pointed, eyes lined with a faint hint of red makeup and his thin lips drawn into a grimace. "It's all good, kid. Just watch where you're aimin' that thing." Roxas' hand hovered over the man's wound, drawing back as years of medical must-knows came back from all his summer lifeguard classes. He scowled.

"You're bleeding; I have band-aides, let me get them." Roxas moved to retrieve his backpack whenever the guy grabbed his wrist. "That's wonderful kid, but do you think you could get my newspaper out of the water first? I kind of needed that." Roxas turned to see the aforementioned paper floating around in the water; various red circles around what Roxas assumed were job positions. He scooped the soggy paper up, along with his waterlogged airplane, and set them on the ground beside the man's feet, standing up again and running his hand through his hair nervously.

"I'm really sorry about that, honest. I've got a first aide kit in my bag, let me get it." Before he could be stopped again, Roxas jogged over to Cloud's bag, rifling through it and pulling out a little box with a red medical cross on the front. He opened it, snatching up a handful of band-aides and tossed it back onto his bag, returning to the redhead. The man was still in the same position as before, though he was slicking his wet hair up and out of his face, adjusting his ponytail full of wild red hair and looking at Roxas expectantly. Roxas knelt down in front of the man.

"I really am sorry; I didn't mean to hit you. My brother kicked me out of the house this morning and I didn't think anyone would be at the park, and I didn't think the wind was gonna be this bad..." Roxas rambled apologetically as he unwrapped the first bandage, placing it over the man's wound. There was still some uncovered area, and Roxas started to peel off the wrapper for a second band-aide when he felt a pressure against his backside. He froze, glancing up at the red-haired man to see a lazy smile slowly drawing across his lanky features. Fingers grabbed his bottom, giving a gentle squeeze and Roxas turned his head in shock to see a set of thin hands groping him firmly. Flustered, Roxas fumbled with the band-aide and squeaked out something resembling, "H-hey!"

"Hey there." Roxas looked back up at the red-haired man, eyes widening as the hands groping him began to pull Roxas closer. "I don't think you can put the bandage on when you're that far away." The man's voice was coy, his eyes lowered in some form of seduction. "The name's Axel, commit it to memory." Axel purred, his lips unbearably close to Roxas' own. Roxas stuttered, feeling his face heat up and hurriedly unwrapping the second band-aide and slapping it onto Axel's wound none-too-gently. The man winced, though it broke into another smile soon after.

"So shy." The hands gripping his behind squeezed again and Roxas reacted instantly, his hands shooting out and shoving Axel back. Axel squawked in a very undignified manner and fell back into the water again. Roxas hurriedly gathered up his things, ignoring Axel's shout for Roxas to wait. He stuffed the airplane into Cloud's bag again, toeing his skateboard back onto the sidewalk and hopping on it. Axel called out to him again, a shout of, "Hey, kid, wait! I was just kidding!" and Roxas turned his head back, glaring at the man.

"My name is Roxas, you pedophile!" The blond shouted, his face a burning red. He ignored the handful of papers that flew out of Cloud's bag in his hurry, skating off down the sidewalk in a flurry of embarrassment.

Axel couldn't help the laugh of amusement that left him, standing to approach the pile of papers. Most of them were labeled with someone else's name, except for a small yellow note. Axel flipped it over, one hand shoving itself into his pocket as he made his way back to the fountain.

Roxas,

Cid called, he said you're on call at the ice-cream parlour until he can hire some more full-time workers besides Demyx and Vexen. Keep your cell phone with you.

Sora.

Axel couldn't help keep smile from breaking out onto his face yet again.