Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

Mall Duty

4. Togetherness

Zexion was once again stuck sitting behind the register, mainly because he was the only one who didn't get pissed off at customers. However, there was a second reason why he was there. All week Marluxia had been up to something. He could feel it in the air around him.

Okay, maybe he couldn't feel it, but he could tell that something was up by the way the pink-haired man kept looking over at him and smirking. One time he even caught him muttering to himself in the storage room. He passed it off as Marluxia once again talking to the pink bottles, but then he heard his name in one of the sentences. And then there was the fact that Larxene kept giving him her infamously smug I-know-something-you-don't-know-and-it's-about-you smirk.

Zexion yawned and rested his head on his arms. It was a slow day - a Monday - and there wasn't very much to do other than sit there and stare out at the sea of plastic smelly bottles. How he loathed the job. But he promised his father to stick to one place for the whole summer, so that was what he was going to do.

"Hey, Zexion," Marluxia said, slipping up behind him with a bright blue bottle. "Check this out! It's called 'Ocean Breeze'. Pretty cool, huh? They've got some other ones too. There's 'Waterfall Mist' and 'Serene Waters' and- huh? How'd 'Blue Moon' get in here?" He frowned and put it back in the box before rummaging around for a different scent.

Zexion sighed and tried to inconspicuously cover his nose with his long sleeves.

"Anyway, there's also 'Azure Beach' and 'Misty Sapphire' and--"

"Is there a point to this?" Zexion finally interrupted. "Don't you have a job to do?"

Marluxia pouted in disappointment. "I just wanted to show you all of the new water-based scents we have. None of them are very strong so I thought you might appreciate them. I guess not…" he said with a sigh. "Very well. I'll just go set them out."

Zexion wearily watched him walk away. 'That was too easy. Now I know he's up to something. But what is he doing with a bunch of water-scented bottles? He's always said I was more of a clean linen person,' he thought, wrinkling his nose. 'Which is ridiculous. Clean linen is a very strong scent. I like vanilla much better.' He groaned and shifted so he was facing down. 'Why is it that everyone has gone crazy lately?' he wondered, recalling everything else he had seen earlier that week.

First there was the Cloud and Squall incident, where he walked into the bathroom to find the two of them making out against the wall. Talk about unhygienic. The day after the next was the Cloud and Reno incident, when the two accidentally collided with his table while making out and made Demyx squeak and run away. The next day was the incident-heard-'round-the-mall when Squall put his own skills to the test and kissed and groped Seifer in front of everyone while they were getting lunch. The brunet got punched for it, several times, but by the grin on his face everyone could tell he thought it was worth it. The next day Cloud announced his interest in the brunet again by attacking him during work and kissing him the rest of the day. It was a first in the history of Cloud's deviance - never before had he gone after the same person twice in one week.

'Of course, the only reason I heard about that was because Marluxia kept whining about how disappointing it was to not see them with their shirts off,' Zexion remembered, rolling his eyes. 'There are times when I sincerely doubt my own sanity for choosing Marluxia as a friend.'

"Umm, excuse me?"

Zexion slowly lifted his head only to blink his eyes at the bright light which suddenly assaulted his vision. When he eyes adjusted, he found himself looking straight into the beautiful sea-blue eyes of his favorite waiter. His breath caught momentarily in his throat before he snapped out of it and sat up straight. "How may I help you?" he asked.

Demyx ran his fingers through the back of his hair as he held out one of the small blue bottles Marluxia had just minutes ago. It was then that Zexion realized he was seeing the blond's hair for the first time. Every other time he had seen him the boy had been wearing that nonsensical moogle hat, but now he could clearly see that the boy had his hair styled into some sort of mullet.

'It suits him…'

With a grimace, Zexion took the little bottle and quickly rang it up, dropping it in the bag so he wouldn't have to hold it for too long. As he put it away, he caught sight of the name of it. 'Melodious Brook'.

"Three-seventy," he spoke almost without noticing it. Saying the cost of the item or items had become so habitual for him that his mouth usually spoke up before his brain could register it.

As Demyx fumbled for his munny, stammering apologies and such under his breath, Zexion caught sight of Marluxia hiding behind a table watching them with interest. He narrowed his eyes at his friend and he ducked down behind the table as if that would protect him from Zexion's wrath.

Zexion took the munny from Demyx and separated the thin golden squares into different slots on his register before tugging free the receipt and handing it over to the blond. He paused as he lifted the bag to hand it over, his eyes locking with Demyx's once again.

"I have a question," Zexion said smoothly, although he felt anything but. His heart was pounding so loudly that he thought for sure that Demyx was able to hear it and he had to fight to keep his arm from shaking as he handed over the bag.

"You wouldn't happen to not have plans for the day after tomorrow, would you?" Zexion asked.

Demyx's eyes widened. "W-what? I mean, no! Well, that is, I was going to go over to Reeves to look at the baby Tilapia but I think he'd understand if I couldn't make it, I mean, he's really nice about stuff like that and I'm sure if I told him I couldn't go then it'd be okay and I'm sure that me going over there almost every day is a more of an inconvenience to him and all but--" He stopped rambling and looked away as he blushed. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I, um…"

Zexion chuckled.

Demyx looked at him, first in alarm and then in amazement. "That's the first time I've heard you laugh…" he whispered.

"My apologies," Zexion said after a moment. "I don't know what came over me."

Demyx shook his head, the look of amazement still on his face. "N-no! It's okay, really. It's a nice laugh. Even if you were laughing at me. It's okay, I'm used to it."

"But I wasn't laughing at you," Zexion said.

Demyx swore his heart skipped a beat. "But everyone laughs at me!" he exclaimed without meaning to.

"I…" Zexion swallowed and looked away, feeling his cheeks begin to burn. "I think it's cute…" he said softly.

Demyx fell silent.

Zexion continued to look away, knowing that his cheeks had to be bright cherry red by that point. For once, he had no idea what he was doing. He had never asked out anyone before, mainly because the girls (and guys) in his class didn't want some under-aged, short teenager as a boyfriend. Also, he had never before seen the point in asking someone out, since he had to stay focused on his studies.

Neither of them said anything for several agonizingly long minutes.

Marluxia was about to vacate his hiding place to beat some sense into one, or both, of them when Demyx finally shifted his weight and bit his lip.

"H-hey, um, I was wondering if, well not wondering so much as hoping, that um…" he paused and took a deep breath. "Would you like to go see a movie on Wednesday? I know it's a little weird, but there's this one romantic comedy that I really want to see and it came out over the weekend but I didn't get to see it but I really want to so, um, do you?"

"My Moogle and I?" Zexion asked, finally looking at him. "I'm familiar with it."

"O-oh," Demyx visibly deflated. "So you've already seen it?"

"No."

Demyx looked hopeful and surprised all at once. "No? But I thought you said you were familiar with it!"

Zexion chuckled, beginning to relax around the blond. "I meant that I have heard of it. Perhaps a little too much, as my friend has gone to see it three times already," he said, trying his best not to glare in Marluxia's direction. "I am curious to see it. I have heard that it is a 'must-see' movie of the year."

Demyx beamed. "Great! So we'll meet each other there after work? I get off at five."

Zexion nodded. "Same. You're talking about the movie theater next door, correct?"

"Yeah," Demyx said. "So, um, I gotta get back to work! See you later?"

Zexion gave him a rare smile. "Of course. Where else will I get my lunch?"

Laughing, Demyx happily bounced out of the store, pausing by the exit to turn around and wave to Zexion. Then he was gone.

Zexion let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and let himself collapse over the counter, exhausted from the encounter. 'Now what am I going to do?'

"Wow, way to take the reigns," Larxene said sarcastically as she came out from her hiding place a few tables away. "I never took you as a chicken, Zexion."

"Go away," Zexion muttered miserably.

Marluxia chose that moment to pop up from his hiding place and hurry over to his friend. "Hey, what's the problem? You've got a date, you're going to see a great movie, and your date is a cute blond! Not as cute as my blonde, mind you," he said, winking at Larxene, who rolled her eyes.

"Get over yourself, Marluxia," she growled.

Marluxia laughed and turned his attention back to Zexion. "So, what's wrong?"

Zexion slowly raised his head and, in a completely serious tone, asked, "what am I suppose to wear?"

Marluxia's raucous laughter could be heard all the way across the mall.

"Axel, take these back to storage for me," Riku said.

The redhead looked up from the shelf he was attempting to fix. It had suffered an unfortunate accident thanks to Riku and Roxas's last fight, one that ended with Riku slamming his head against the wall and almost getting a concussion.

"Yeah, sure," he said as he got up. He languidly stretched, paying no mind to the fact that his shirt rose several inches to show off his belly. Roxas was nowhere nearby to admire the sight.

Riku shoved the box closer to the redhead with his foot. "Just be careful of the door," he warned. "It's tricky."

Axel raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "A tricky door?" he repeated. "Right. Yeah, I'll watch out for the tricky door." He rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue ring against his teeth as he picked up the box and walked off with it.

Riku scowled and returned to his work. "Stupid redhead," he muttered. "He thinks he's so sexy just because he has tattoo's and a stupid tongue ring. I could have one too if I wanted to! I just don't want to…" he glared in the direction of the storage room. "Why the hell am I helping him and Roxas get together anyway? This is stupid."

"What's stupid?"

Riku jumped and looked over at Roxas as he arrived back from his lunch break. "Nothing!" he said quickly. "Just thinking about how stupid it is that we only get half-hour lunch breaks here."

Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Right," he said sarcastically. "Look, where's Axel at? I need to tell him I'm back so he can go to lunch."

Riku hid his smirk. "I sent him back to the storage closet."

Roxas glared at him. "I bet you didn't tell him not to close it behind you, either! Damn it, Riku! You're such a fucking idiot!"

"I warned him," Riku said lightly. "I told him the door was tricky."

Roxas stared at him in disbelief for a moment and then groaned. "That's not a warning," he said.

"Yes it is," Riku replied. "It'll be his own damn fault if he doesn't listen to me."

Roxas scoffed and smacked Riku in the back of the head before he rushed off to the storage closet.

Riku stood there for a moment longer before smirking and trailing after the blond. All he had to do was conveniently bump into the door while Roxas and Axel were in there and his work would be done. And of course he would have to let them out later, but for the time being he wasn't too focused on that.

He tried his best to not whistle the theme to Mission Impossible, a favorite movie of his and Sora, as he snuck past the door. He waited until he heard both of them talking in the closet and then he walked back past it and swung his hip into the door. He heard it click shut and then began whistle as he walked back to the front. Now all he had to do was leave them in there for an hour or so and everything would be perfect. In the meantime, he was going to play some of his favorite music.

Roxas cursed when he heard the door click shut, followed by the sound of Riku whistling. "Valentine!" he yelled as he ran over and began banging on the door. "Get back over here and open this door, you asshole!"

Axel chuckled and sat down on a box. "So, looks like you're stuck in here with me now. What are you going to do? Have your way with me?"

Roxas glared at him. "Shut up. I told you not to trust Riku, but noyou didn't believe me. I'm your boyfriend! You're suppose to listen when I tell you shit like this!"

"So protective," Axel teased. "Are you always like this or is this something new?" He chuckled again when Roxas scowled and looked away from him. "Come now, don't be like that. How about you come over here and I make you forget all about that bastard?"

Roxas ignored him.

"Jeez, where'd my flirty Roxy go?" Axel asked. "I think I'd like him back now. He's more fun."

"Do you… hear something?" Roxas asked.

Axel fell silent and listened to see if he could pick up on what Roxas was talking about. And then he heard it.

I'm bringin' sexy back! (yeah!) Them other boys don't know how to act!

The redhead snickered as soon as he recognized the song. Roxas, on the other hand, growled and began pounding on the door again. "Fucker! Get back here! Stop playing your shitty music!"

Axel got up from his box and slowly made his way over to Roxas. Instead of saying anything or reaching out to touch the angry blond, he leaned up against the wall and stared at him until he finally looked over at him. He smirked and reached out to brush Roxas's bangs to the side. "There's my Roxas," he said.

Roxas blushed. "Oh, shut up. Why do you say things like that?"

"'Cause I like you," Axel said frankly. "Say, I seem to recall a certain blond wanting to throw me in this here closet to ravish me. Now's your chance. I don't think we'll end up locked in here together again."

Roxas didn't have to think twice about that.

Yuffie glared at Sephiroth.

That was all. She didn't say anything. She didn't make any movements or obscene gestures. She simply stood behind the counter and glared at him.

In hindsight, it probably wasn't his most genius ideas to bump into her so she'd spill her favorite chicken noodle soup, but it was the only thing he could think of at the time. He had to get her to change clothes somehow and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

At that moment, Yuffie was not dressed in her usual boy jeans and Nintendo hoody. Instead, she'd been forced to wear one of her old black tank tops with a white Hawaiian flower print, as well as a black and white plaid skirt she had (somehow) dyed because she hated her school's red plaid skirts.

To say the least, she wasn't a very happy ninja.

"You shouldn't glare so much," Aerith remarked as she made her usual rounds to check up on them. "You'll scare away all of our customers. Besides, you look cute."

"I don't want to look 'cute'," Yuffie grumbled. "And I swear, if one more guy looks at me with that perverted gaze, I will jump over this counter and castrate him!" she yelled, glaring at a teenage boy who had been doing just that.

He gulped and went back to browsing the games.

Aerith sighed. "Yuffie…"

"Today is the day you die, Valentine!"

"How very nice, Rhapsodos. Kindly move so I can put this up."

"No!"

"Yes."

"No!"

Aerith gave up on gaining any control of what happened in the store and vanished back into her office. Things quickly degraded further the moment she left.

"Genesis, what are you doing in here again?! I told you to come find me where I work! Not where Sephiroth works!"

"Kick Sephiroth's ass, Gen!" Yuffie encouraged. "C'mon! You can do it!"

Kairi turned to face her with her hands on her hips. "Don't enco--" she broke off when she realized who she was talking to. It was then she noticed something very different about the 'boy' she had been crushing on. "You… you're a… girl."

"Well, yeah," Yuffie said. "That's kind of obvious. Wait, you thought I was a boy?"

Kairi blushed and looked away. "Yeah…" she said quietly.

Yuffie couldn't help but start giggling. "I can't believe it! Someone really thought I was a boy! You mean no one told you? 'Cause, c'mon, you had to of said something to someone, right? And you work with Fuu! She knows I'm a girl."

"But this is great!" Kairi blurted out, looking back over at her.

Yuffie blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"See, I promised myself that I wasn't going to date any more guys and Namine and Fuu started teasing me when I first saw you because I thought you were a boy and said you were cute!" Kairi said. "And um…"

"So, wait, since I'm a girl, you want to date me?" Yuffie asked, still confused.

Kairi's blush spread further across her cheeks. "Y-yeah."

Yuffie was silent for a moment before she giggled and tapped Kairi's nose. "I was wrong. You're not only cute, you're adorable."

"I-- what?"

"I'm free tomorrow night," Yuffie said. "If you're free too, we could go bowling or something. You know, just get to know each other better."

'Is she serious?' Kairi wondered, looking at the raven-haired girl in surprise. Realizing that Yuffie was waiting for a reply, she nodded. "I'm free. Bowling sounds perfect."

"Perfect," Yuffie said. Without warning, she grabbed Kairi's hand and scrawled a phone number across it with her purple pen. "That's my number. Give me a call later and we'll finish making plans, okay?"

Kairi nodded. "Sure. Sounds good."

A crashing noise alerted them to the fact that Genesis had just jumped on top of Sephiroth and had knocked him over while trying to get a reaction from him.

"You get Genesis and I get Sephiroth?" Yuffie asked.

"Deal," Kairi agreed.

Marluxia and Selphie stared each other down as they stood outside by their little orange car, waiting to see who would make the first move for the spare key they kept under the back of the car. Once again, one of them had accidentally locked their usual key in the car, which meant they got to fight over who would get to drive home.

Both of them hated it when the other would drive. Marluxia thought that Selphie drove like a maniac, the way she swerved in and out of traffic and always went at least ten miles over the speed limit. Selphie hated Marluxia's driving because she felt he always went too slow and took too long pulling out into traffic.

Selphie made a move for the rear of the car and Marluxia reacted just as quickly by whipping out the spare key from his pocket, jamming it in the driver's side door, and then hopping in.

"Cheater!" Selphie yelled, stomping her foot. "You said you left the key in the car!"

"I did," Marluxia replied, happily running his hands over the steering wheel. "I came out and got the spare during lunch. Which means I win." He started up the car as Selphie grumpily got into the passengers seat. "By the way, this isn't the only thing I have once again won," he said happily. "Guess whose genius plan got Zexion and Demyx together today."

Selphie gasped in shock. "No!"

Marluxia smirked. "That's right. Mine. Which means I have once again won, making me the official king of matchmaking!"

Selphie glared at him. "It does not! Plenty of my ideas have worked better than yours!"

Marluxia hummed as he turned up the music.

"Are you ignoring me?" Selphie demanded. "Marluxia!"

"Ooo! I love this song!" Marluxia said with a happy sigh. "It's so romantic."

"You're an ass."

THE END

So, this ended up actually being the last chapter. Demyx and Zexion's moment worried me for a moment, since it lasted three whole pages. I thought for sure the others would too.

So, yeah... About Roxas and Axel, I'd say they got together a day or so after Selphie rounded up everyone to do the matchmaking stuff. So it wasn't at all necessary for Riku to get involved. Poor thing. I almost feel bad for him, since I'm sure Roxas beat the crap out of him the moment he got out of the closet.

There is one good thing about the end of this story. It means I get to start work on another one. And that other one just happens to be a sequel to this story. It'll be called "Mall Duty 2". I've already started gathering ideas for it. It may be a few days before I post it though, since I go back to school tomorrow.

So that's it. Just keep an eye out for Mall Duty 2.