Four Ice Cream Bars

A Kingdom Hearts fanfic

YAJJ

Date: 1/30/2014 12:20 am.

A/N: Hello, all! No, I'm not dead... just busy... Anyway, my parents got my sibs and I a nice PS3 and Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix (AWESOME by the way) so naturally, I've delved back into the KH fandom. This is my first finished Kingdom Hearts fic in several years, and I guess I deleted all of my others (but I so wanted to reread F is for Family... grr!) so technically it's my "first" KH fic. Yeah me! But I was inspired by lots of other fanfics, but mostly the KHII manga. I swear to god, at least three chapters before Roxas says "looks like my summer vacation is... over" I was already basically sobbing. And many times when he was mentioned as well, the poor darling. So I started writing this about four hours ago and... ta-da! Unbeta-ed, but I really like it! And I hope you do, too!

Summary: It would take them a long time to stop buying four ice cream bars.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. If I did, I would bring back Roxas all over the place and just smother him in love, because if anyone needs it, he does. God, I love him.

Okay, please enjoy!

Pence caught up with his friend one summer day, practically skipping to catch up with the only girl in their trio. "Hey, Olette," he said cheerfully.

"Hi, Pence. You want an ice cream?" asked Olette with a smile, holding out the bag she was carrying to him.

Pence chirped with delight and took the bag, reaching in to claim his favorite treat. He felt all of the bars in there, all four -was that even right?- but he couldn't snatch at one. "Hey, 'Lette?" he asked, finally snatching one up and freeing it from its friends. He tore the packaging off and sucked on the treat.

"What's up?"

"Are we having a guest today 'r something? Is Sora coming back today?"

Olette peeked at him over the book she was reading. "What? What do you mean? I don't know."

"Well, you got four ice creams," Pence argued, lifting and bouncing the bag.

Olette stared at the bag, trying to see through the thick white plastic. "Hmm. I guess I did." Funny, she faintly recalled walking up to the counter, and now that she thought about it, she had said four because there should be four… right? No… right? "Hey, you got that mini fridge in there, right? We'll just save it for a rainy day, I guess."

Pence shrugged in reply, sucking again on the ice cream. "Whatever. Your buy." He looked up at the sky solemnly. "I wonder if Sora's okay."

"I'm sure he's fine. Probably too busy hanging out with his girlfr—whatever she is. You know, to come see us. He hardly knew us, I mean."

"I know. But it'd be nice to know if he wasn't dead, you know."

"Mhmm. Maybe we'll save the ice cream for Sora when he shows up. Start collecting, you know. Shove it in his face when he gets here, for worrying us. But keep one to actually give him, 'cause we're not that mean."

Pence laughed. "Yeah, sure Olette. Let's."

It didn't matter that it was rainy out, and it didn't matter that Mom had said not to go out and aggravate his cold. He had promised to meet Olette and Pence at the Usual Spot one more time before high school "officially" started, and he didn't break promises, unlike someone else that he -thought he- knew.

Mrs. Kaliman the ice cream lady tutted at him, handing over his bag of ice cream and stating that he looked pale, but he just thanked her and left, heading toward the Usual Spot with brightness in his step and wetness in his hair.

"There you are!" cheered Olette when he pushed aside the curtain, stepping into the little nook. A tarp was thrown up between the roofs, blocking out the drizzle.

"Here I am," he agreed, holding up the bag. "And I brought ice cream!"

"You're the best!" Pence shot to his feet and dropped the darts he'd been tossing. "Ice cream on a rainy day doesn't seem like it'd fit, but I think it tastes better."

"You don't even care as long as it's ice cream," said Hayner playfully, shoving his dark-haired friend. He reached into the bag to hand an ice cream to Olette and Pence, and then took one for himself. His fingers hovered there for just a moment, before he actually opened the bag and peered inside, confusion lighting his handsome features. "...Oh. I guess I bought four."

Olette glanced to Pence; hadn't they experienced this before? Olette still bought four ice creams whenever she paid. "That's okay," she said cheerfully. "We'll just stash it in there with all the others! Honestly, we don't even need to buy anymore ice cream; we've got enough stashed to last ages."

"Yeah…" Hayner said offhandishly, bringing the treat over to the mini-fridge to throw it in. They'd decided in the middle of summer last year that they wouldn't be shoving ice cream into Sora's face when -if- he came. Instead, they would just save the ice cream. See how long they could do it. After all, if they could save ice cream as well as they were, who was to say that they couldn't save munny even better?

Pence shrugged and dropped to lean against the side of the couch. "Whatever, dude. We all make mistakes. And it's not like it's a bad one!" he laughed.

"I guess. It just seems… weird. Do you guys ever get the feeling that something's missing?"

Dark looks crossed Olette and Pence's faces, and he got a feeling that they thought the same thing. They didn't bring it up again.

If there was ever a time for ice cream, Pence decided one day, it was today. A week before the first finals of their first semester of their high school sophomore year, when Olette—who was taking all hard classes—was cramming in her studies and Hayner—not exactly brilliant but not stupid either—was trying to catch back up. They all hung out and did their homework in the Usual Spot, same as always, and they'd spent the past week doing nothing but that. It was time for a break.

And who cared if it was winter? No one cared. Ice cream time was when anyone wanted ice cream, so ice cream time was all the time. Meaning it could be in the middle of the afternoon, just before dinnertime, in the beginning of a harsh winter.

The trek, though slightly chilly, was totally worth it. Pence arrived in ten minutes, the bars in the bag still perfectly chilly. He tossed the curtain aside and thumped the bag in front of Hayner, who studied at the broken coffee table. "You can thank me later."

Hayner looked at him, looking slightly amused, slightly perplexed, and slightly annoyed. Then he glanced down at the bag and his focused frown turned into a great big grin. "Ice cream?" he guessed, already opening the bag and reaching for one.

"Damn right it's ice cream. Take a break, eat up. You too, Olette!" Pence insisted. He picked a bar up and walked it right over to Olette, who gave a grateful, tired-looking grin, thanking him.

"...So it looks like you're doing it, too."

Pence looked toward Hayner, who had spoken almost solemnly.

Hayner responded by shoving his bar into his mouth and holding out two unopened packets of ice cream. For a moment, Pence was confused. Then, he understood. Hayner managed around his bar, "there's four."

"Yeah, I guess so. You guys are doing it so it must have rubbed off on me…" Pence laughed, taking the two bars so Hayner could actually enjoy his treat. He walked over to the freezer, which was actually not the mini-fridge that they had before; they had too many extra ice creams that they didn't want to eat to fit in the little mini-fridge, which was now sitting beside Olette, filled with sodas. He tossed the extra bar into the freezer, closing the lid and sitting on top of it.

"That's fine. I wonder if those things are still good?"

Pence and Olette made a face at the thought; even if they were, the thought of eating almost two-year old ice cream, that something had kept them from eating in the first place, was downright revolting. "No, thanks," Olette said, scrunching her nose. She sucked happily on the blue popsicle. "Wouldn't it be cool if we could stay like this, forever?" she asked dreamily, her eyes wide with wonder.

"Yeah…" Pence agreed.

Hayner snorted, dropping his finished ice cream stick. "We can't. We'll have to grow up some day, instead of hanging around in a dorky little clubhouse." He stood and tossed the stick toward the trash bin, smirking. Two points! "And besides, nothing really stays the same anymore, does it?" He nodded pointedly toward the filling freezer, in which sat nearly two hundred extra bars of ice cream, labeled for someone that they couldn't remember.

Pence looked at Hayner, and then to Olette. Olette only shrugged and tucked back into her studies, ice cream now finished and forgotten. Pence removed his own homework as Hayner went back to his homework, and sat down to prepare for something as unimportant and short-lived as next week's tests.

After two and a half years, the first ice cream bar that was pulled out of the bag was always the one tossed into the freezer, to make sure that one was saved for the one that they couldn't remember. It never failed; over four hundred bars of ice cream were nestled in the overflowing freezer, and they had yet to touch any of them. It was like an unspoken promise: Four hundred bars of ice cream for the "friend" who would eventually return. A present of sorts.

They liked saying that they were buying for four people, not three. Sometimes, Hayner would sit on one end of the couch and place the extra bar beside him, like it was for a person at his side. Olette liked to imagine that, sometimes at night, the person that they were saving the bars for came in and took one. Pence always made sure to grab the first ice cream and either pass it to Hayner, to set beside him, or to put it right in the freezer.

An odd group of people though they were, with memories that they didn't have burdening their hearts, but they'd have it no other way. After all, who ever said you couldn't have three best friends?

On a good day, Olette could look at the poster that she'd put up, point at the yellow bit of it, and say "that's the color of his hair," whoever their mysterious non-friend was. And Hayner and Pence would agree, and say how he styled it. Because they were certain, by now, that the mysterious non-friend that they could-but-couldn't remember was certainly a boy. They could sometimes look at the sky or sea and decide, "those are his eyes" and no one would protest. Because a boy with bright yellow hair and endless blue eyes just seemed to fit in their group.

Unfortunately, by the time they hit the middle of their senior year, those "good days" happened less and less, and slowly the non-friend slipped from their minds. Never completely, but… it still hurt, somehow, to think that they could forget someone who was clearly so important. It wasn't possible, right? Their hearts told them 'no', but their heads screamed 'yes'. And somehow, that was a lot scarier than moving on past high school.

On the eve of their high school graduation, Olette walked into the Usual Spot with a bag of ice cream. Her two friends were already there; Hayner splayed across the couch and playing with the marble he got from Sora, Pence leaning against a wall and tossing darts at the dartboard. "Hey guys, treat time!" she said, tossing the bag onto the table.

Hayner shot up, the tie around his neck swaying eagerly in his excitement. "Yes! You always come through, 'Lette!" He cheered loudly in victory and made to grab for it.

Olette rolled her eyes in amusement. "My treat, guys. To surviving twelve years of school, and to surviving many years beyond that!"

Pence staggered to his feet and accepted the ice cream, ripping off the package. Then he reached back in the bag after Olette grabbed hers, reaching for the extra one that was always there to toss into the mini-fridge, alongside three years' worth of other ice creams accidentally bought.

...His hand met nothing.

"Olette?"

"Yes, Pence?" asked Olette around her ice cream, settling onto Hayner's lap once the blond relaxed on the couch.

"...You only bought three ice creams…"

Olette and Hayner both stiffened at the words. It had been common practice, and was always one hundred percent accidental, that Olette, Hayner or Pence would order an extra ice cream when they bought for all three. Now, Olette had just purchased three ice creams… One for Hayner, one for Pence, and one for Olette… leaving out the little friend that they'd always imagined was there to take the last.

Olette's fist clenched around her stick as she leaned back against her boyfriend. "Yeah… I guess I did. Took three years to figure it out, huh? Ha…" Her laugh was fake, almost broken. She had no reason to feel bad for not buying the last ice cream that would just sit there in the mini-fridge and freezer. But if that was so, why did it ache?

And judging by the looks crossing Hayner and Pence's faces, it was clear they felt the same way.

So why was it that after three years of buying four ice creams and abandoning one to the freezer, only now they felt like they'd lost a good friend?

So, I don't know why, but I really like the last section (I had that finished before anything else!) except for the last line. Any thoughts?

Hey guys, um... please review? I need feedback on this since it's been so long, and I'm 97% sure that they were OOC and I'd just really appreciate it if I could get some help. Please and thank you! All review will be answered via PM.

Until next time,

~YAJJ