Warnings: Shonen-ai – a nasty and addicting phenomenon that I have embraced ever since I entered into the domain that is Fanfiction.
Pairing: Purely Cloud x Sora – although there is a hint of a Cloud x Aerith
Although I am a full supporter of the Sora x Riku pairing, I cannot deny the fact that CloudSora is becoming one of my favourite pairings. Why is that? Is it because I just like to pair up the prettiness of Cloud with the adorable-ness of Sora? Is it the matching hairstyles or eye colours? Is it because of my determination to defeat Sephiroth in the game so I could finish Cloud's story and get him to finally accept Sora (unfortunately, even after several attempts of confronting the guy, I keep dying because Sephiroth is like, IMPOSSIBLE, to beat because he moves so fast and he has like a gazillion lives).
Anyway, I must humbly thank my brilliant partner-in-crime, suika's wind of the celestial (anyone who's into YGO and a Prideshipper i.e. SetoYami, go check out her stories – they are good), for giving me an idea on how to initiate this story. In addition, the title of this story is based on the song 'Chow Chow' by the Korean band, DeliSpice. Again, credits to suika for giving me this break.
Disclaimer: "Kingdom … Hearts …" Xemnas breathed as he stared lovingly at the monstrous pink-amber heart shaped object floating lazily in the dark sky, "belongs … to me…"
You heard the man. NoriKo-chan does not own Kingdom Hearts. And despite what Xemnas had said, he doesn't own it either. Disney and Square Enix hold all the ropes. The lucky, lucky people.
Chow Chow
(Chorus 1- repeat)
The booth was much more clearly described as a large rectangular box standing stiffly against a section of wall located next to the dance machines. In the permanently crowded arcade, there were only around five karaoke booths that could function properly compared to the extra two ones that were placed aside, a notice paper on their doors blaring out the words 'OUT OF SERVICE'.
At the same time, two booths became vacated as their occupants bustled out of its domains, flushed in the face from bawling out this week's most popular tunes, their eyes shining brightly with excitement. It was a signal for the queue to move of course and as expected, the line shifted as the customers in the front made their way into the cubicles. Sora caught hold of the door handle of a particular booth at the end of the row painted in orange and white colours and decorated with cute little animated characters dancing alongside colourful music notes. A liquorice stick was held between his lips as he stood aside to let a glum-looking Tidus abandon the waiting queue of karaoke-interested arcade-goers and join him inside.
As he chewed on the end of the stick, he noticed the expression on his companion's face before he slapped Tidus heartily on the back, "Hey, stop looking so glum! Have a bit of my liquorice!"
The half-eaten liquorice stick was pulled out of his mouth and humbly offered to the other boy. Tidus took one look at the candy, his mind acknowledging the fact that the end of that stick was coated in Sora's saliva, before shaking his head hastily in an effort to hint at his companion on what he was exactly offering.
Unfortunately Sora didn't get the message and instead, placed the stick back between his lips, "Cheer up, will ya! Go and sing something – you'll feel much better extinguishing that grief of yours with a feel-good song!" The brunet turned to meet the plasma screen of the booth where the words, 'Insert 2 Tokens for 3 Songs' flashed across the silver surface.
Tidus merely sighed and ran his fingers through his sun-kissed blonde hair. "I dunno, Sora–"
"Come on, Tidus! I'll even let you pick out the songs," he chirped, tilting his head playfully to let his brown bangs fall across his eyes. Extracting two red tokens from his pocket, he slipped them into the machine's slot, hearing a muffled 'thunk' sound emitting from within the contraption. As the flashing words on the screen disappeared to be replaced by a song track selection, the machine's opening music filled the hollow silence of the booth with a dance-like number.
Facing the screen were three small stools. Sora sat down on the stool at the end and motioned for the other to join him. As a disgruntled Tidus plopped down next to him, Sora reached out to curiously touch the screen and select a song.
Tidus' eyes widened when he realised exactly what song had been picked.
"NO!" he snapped, pulling Sora's fingers away from the screen and leaning over himself to cancel out the chosen track. The screen returned back to displaying the song track selection. Tidus glared at a wide-eyed Sora, who was shrugging his shoulders as if he hadn't made a mistake in his life.
"What do you think you're doing?" demanded the older of the pair as he continued to glare at the other. "I don't like that song."
Sora's eyes stared up at his own, the sky blue irises sparkling with mischievous glee. "It's 'Jump!' by Girls Aloud," he promptly stated in a matter-of-factly tone. "It's a happy song that will surely flip over those nasty downturn smiles. Plus, I wanna sing it as well!"
"The only thing that will be flipping over is my head when that song starts playing," groaned Tidus as he cast his gaze back onto the screen to scan the selection. "Oh, why did I let you talk me into this?"
Of course, it was genuine fact that Sora was perhaps Tidus' cheeriest of friends. At university, no one could turn down the smiles delivered by the brunet or return a casual wave of greeting. Seeing Sora was almost like seeing the speck of sunshine on a colourless winter's day. The sight of cinnamon-coloured spiky brown hair, a pair of bright sky toned eyes and an exultant smile was ninety percent guaranteed to bring just a slit of happiness into your form.
And as for Tidus, that statement proved true when Sora's lips curled into a smile, making him release a sigh of submission. He shouldn't act so harshly towards the brunet. After all, it was Sora's idea for attempting to cheer him up from his disastrous break-up with Selphie which had ended not a few hours ago.
"Okay, okay," he surrendered and resumed scanning the selection tracks for three probable songs to waste the two tokens on.
Once three choices were made, the song track selection dissolved into the landscape of a park where a line of ducks swam across the surface of a pond. The song began in a slow steady curve of guitars and Sora, instead of picking up his own microphone to join in the singing, plucked the liquorice stick from his mouth and leaned over to Tidus' microphone to sing alongside him. Tidus merely rolled his eyes, knowing for a fact that Sora always helped himself to things without acquiring consent. It was in his nature after all.
On signal, the opening vocals of the song commenced and as Tidus grumbled into the tune, Sora gaped in surprise at the screen, realising that the song exceeded a mood that was just far from happy. And as the chorus came on, he almost cringed at the painful whining in Tidus' voice and chose this moment to interrogate. He spoke into Tidus' mike, drowning out the other's voice.
"Tidus? What exactly is this?"
Tidus jerked the mike well away from Sora's mouth to frown upon the boy's verbal intrusion, "It's 'Everybody Hurts' by R.E.M. Unless you want to sing along, please don't disturb me."
'Everybody Hurts'? thought Sora with a small uneasy look flickering across his features. But that song will just sadden you even further!
Truth be told, Sora did not particularly favour anything that was sad, much less miserable. With a small pout, he quietened in his stool, putting the liquorice stick back into his mouth and watched Tidus belt out his sorrows in long crooning tunes while on the screen, the ducks began scattering all over the lake as if the tune playing was upsetting their peaceful swimming.
Did he mention that Tidus sang terribly at this song? Poor Sora.
"That's a bit of a hassle, don't you think?" huffed a slightly annoyed Aerith to a slightly frowning Cloud as they moved away from the Token Exchange counter of the arcade where a long queue of potential arcade-goers lined impatiently to collect their red tokens.
Cloud chose not to answer to her comment, reaching up instead to tuck a blonde strand of hair behind his ear while absent-mindedly counting the number of red tokens rested on his palm. Ten coins of Munny in exchange for just seven red tokens – how outrageous was that? Other arcades would probably have cheaper prices than this one … not that Cloud had ever tested out this hypothesis before anyway. He rarely ever ventured into the land of arcade games, not with work and everything.
But tonight, Aerith had just happened to insist it and Cloud, being the nice guy he was, granted her request to accompany her in attempting to achieve a high score in some of the games.
The arcade was as crowded as ever with rowdy teenagers, screaming ten-year-olds and the occasional romantic couple or two. Cloud realised that he should have spent those delayed two minutes at the house waiting for Aerith to change into something more appropriate to wear. While everyone else decked out in fashionable trendy outfits in a variety of colours, Cloud stood out like a sore thumb - being dressed in his formal blue shirt, tie, black pants and shiny shoes. He looked like a distressed father in this sea of youngsters despite not showing any signs of distress in his façade. No, the majority of the time his expressions were generally blank and absent with emotion regardless of the situation.
A delighted Aerith pulled him towards one of the Whack The Mole machines situated at one end of the arcade and she swiftly took one token from Cloud's hand to insert it into the slot.
At once, the machine started flashing red and yellow lights and a set of numbers shone out of a black strip, showing the machine's highest score. Music filtered out of the speakers of the contraption followed by an electronic voice whose tone was filled with overwhelming enthusiasm:
"WHACK THE MOLE!!"
There were two mallets hooked against the side of the machine and Aerith took both of them, handing one out to an astonished Cloud, who would rather not join her in these games. But this was Aerith, of course, and Cloud had to once again succumb to her wishes and perform the inevitable. After all, he was the one treating her.
A plastic mole popped out of one of the many circular holes embedded on the surface. It looked horrendous – a sausage-shaped, caramel coloured rodent with large black eyes, a button nose and a pink bow circling its neck. One of the small ears was dented in as a result of the many blows of the mallet delivered by previous players.
Just one glance of the creature disgusted Cloud. Before he had the chance to move, Aerith had already slammed her mallet onto the mole, the force inflicted probably denting the ear, if not the entire head, even further.
Soon, Cloud found himself motionless over the contraption, staring at the many moles popping in and out of holes faster than he could blink. The mallet lay poised in his hand, ready to strike at the precise moment – well, technically speaking, he wasn't cut out to things like this. The only thing that floated into Cloud's mind at the moment was how ugly those moles (would they even be called moles?) looked as they flashed in sight and disappeared, their tiny faces gleaming hideously in the dim lights above them.
Aerith called out to him, her voice unsteady from her concentration on the moles, "Cloud, come on and hit something!"
Her voice managed to convince himself that he must remain composed for Cloud did not like to show fazed expressions on his façade. Tightly gripping the mallet in his hand, he braced himself for the appearance of a nearby mole that would happen to pop out of its hole to intimidate him with its appearance.
When that finally happened, he reached over to whack the creature – only to find a solid object pummel hard onto the back of his hand. The sudden sting made him drop the mallet and Aerith jumped back when she realised the damage she had done.
"Oops," she said as a red welt appeared on the ivory skin of Cloud's hand. Cloud cast his stare onto the cringing Aerith who was able to accurately speculate his inward feelings despite the blank exterior. Everyone knew the well-known fact that Cloud hated it when people attempted to guess what he was thinking so he cunningly disguised it through stoic expressions. Because of this, people have misjudged him as cold and aloof – a fact that was severely mistaken to those who didn't know him so well.
"Aerith …" came Cloud's response, calm and controlled as it was. Aerith merely smiled apologetically and reached out to tenderly rub the swollen hand.
"Sorry about that. How about we go and shoot some basketball hoops?"
Cloud fought off the thought that involved the possibility of basketballs being hurled unintentionally at his being, knowing the amount of energy Aerith put into when participating in any ball games. After all, if one little accident could happen at one place, what were the possible chances of two?
Oh how he didn't know.
Sora winced when he found that the next song track that Tidus sang along to was a tear-jerking duet that was even more depressing than the last.
He was even more horrified at the video clip that came along with the track. Tearing off the wrapper of a new liquorice stick, he stared at the plasma screen where a long-haired woman with outrageously thick make-up posed vigilantly among a garden of flower blooms with heavy lidded eyes that made her look as if she was about to fall asleep any moment. With one twist of her body, she stilled in her latest stance and rested her chin onto her knuckles, at the same time flaunting a not-so-very classy wristwatch in such a way that one would wonder whether the woman knew if she was either modelling for a photograph picture or being filmed for a karaoke video clip. If it was for the latter, she was doing her job quite unprofessionally if it was to capture such a tearful mood for the clip did not go well with the song. At all.
Just looking at the screen was enough to make his heart ache from the unattractiveness.
The maniacal, unsteady throbbing of a music beat could be felt from underneath his feet. The stage he was standing motionless on shook slightly from the fierce vibration waves that exceeded from the stamps coming from the platform next to his. He didn't need to glance to his side to see who was causing such a disturbance. Aerith was much too distracted at the screen to bother and receive any remarks about the force she was inflicting onto the directional buttons on her stage.
"Wow, look at her go!"
Behind them, a small crowd had gathered to watch their performance. It was yet another reason why Cloud regretted forever succumbing to Aerith's wishes. He knew he should have put up more of a fight, even if it was in the form of a stubborn tug away from her grip or the acute shooting of a small glare. Anything to stop him from ending up with this fate.
"Aw, he's letting his girlfriend win! Kinda cute!"
He continued staring blankly at his own monitor screen where a set of arrows rolled upwards like the ending credits of a film. As they reached a stationary row of the similar pointers at the top of the screen, the word 'BOO!' flashed repeatedly as a comment to his progress.
The machine even vocally expressed its concerns for his apathy: "Don't be careless now!"
He could have at least frowned or even sulked on the spot, just to express how much he was not enjoying this. Perhaps he should have attempted in doing a couple of steps just to score some points. And why was the machine saying that he was careless? He hadn't even moved an inch from his place since the song started.
"Oh no, you're in danger!"
To be blunt, Cloud simply refused to dance on the dancing stage. Instead, he stood completely still on the spot, his stare fixed solely on the number of 'BOO!'s that kept popping up on the screen.
"Did you eat breakfast today?"
He almost scoffed. What kind of a comment was that? Firstly, it was well into the early evening for any meal to be called breakfast. His cereal bar and orange juice had long ago been digested into his system. And what was up with the remark itself? Had the company that designed this game run out of snazzy commentary to add into the machine?
He wondered how the people in the crowd reacted as they witnessed this unusual performance. They'd be watching a brunette girl who practically stomped all over the stage with enough force to possibly break the machine and a blonde guy who simply stood still on the other stage without moving a muscle, ignoring the blush that stained the paleness of his cheeks. Oh, and don't forget the 'BOO!'s that kept flashing across his screen for his 'effort'.
It was quite a fascinating sight really.
Sora watched a man and a woman stroll hand-in-hand across the plasma screen of the karaoke booth. Foreign characters of an unknown language ran across the base of the screen, occasionally lighting up to signal Tidus to sing along the last song of their selection playing. As Sora gathered, the tune was a strange continuous melody that ran on electric guitars. The vocals itself were incredibly droning, its tone flat and monotonous, the chorus repeating over again and again.
It was a perfect song for a grieving Tidus.
Chewing on the end of his liquorice stick, Sora sighed to himself. Usually Tidus was a contented character, always ready for a challenge and a bit of a teaser. As one of Sora's close friends, they hung out quite a lot together since the beginning of university. Then Tidus began dating Selphie Tilmett, the university paper's columnist, and they became quite inseparable by then.
He still remembered how the two lovebirds found each other. It was quite an incident really. Being a member of the university newspaper, Selphie went around the college exploiting the latest news ranging from small rumours to big-time events. And it was one day when she witnessed the university's blitzball team losing that she decided to write a criticizing column in the paper about how badly the players had played. Tidus, being a member of said team who was outraged by the criticism, decided to confront the matter face-to-face. The result was a bizarre outburst of flying insults and snide remarks continually exchanged between the two. Whenever one of them appeared in the other's sight, there was always the search for an uncanny reason to start off another fiery argument. And it went on for weeks on end – until one day, the news of Tidus going out with Selphie bloomed forth – and the rest followed afterwards.
Although Sora wasn't one to wander upon such grounds, he did accept the idea of how precise Tidus' and Selphie's initial meeting took place. Who could have expected that one criticizing column on the paper could blossom a relationship between two people?
The scene on the screen changed. The man and the woman were now gazing into each other's eyes, smiling wondrously as they leaned over to kiss. They moved ever so slowly that it took almost ten seconds for their lips to finally touch.
Sora mused upon the situation at hand. What had convinced Selphie to demand a break-up? The brunet raked his brains for an answer, remembering something that Tidus had told him. Something about the couple's 'thing' not working out.
The brunet shook his head slightly. With such a vague reason like that, it's no wonder that Tidus is feeling as low as he is. Plus, what on earth is a 'thing' anyway?
Alas, for it could not be denied that when it came to subjects like these, Sora was a little oblivious on the matter. Especially with things that spoke from beneath the surface.
As Tidus' voice dissipated into the closing guitar riffs and the welcome screen reappeared back, the blonde placed his mike back onto its handle. Their turn in the karaoke booth was over.
"Oh Tidus," Sora said sadly, placing a gentle hand onto Tidus' drooping shoulder. "I told you that you should've picked happier songs instead. I know for a fact that songs can vary people's moods, see. I guess that when you become sadder, I'll be sad as well. I'm so sorry."
Tidus suddenly sprang up from his stool, stretching his arms over his head as if he had just woken up from a peaceful doze.
"Wow, that felt good!" A large grin formed on his face as he cracked his knuckles one by one, the sound echoing throughout the hollow silence. Sora was startled in seeing the bright expression on his companion's face. Wait a second! Shouldn't the blonde continue being sad after singing such miserable songs like those?!
"Tidus," he managed to blurt out after partly recovering from his initial shock. "Are you alright–"
Come on. You just broke up with your girlfriend. And sang sad songs. Now you've become so energetic? Did I miss something here?
"Never felt better," Tidus cut in, folding his arms behind his head – one of Sora's moves he liked to imitate once in a while – "Thanks to you, I guess. How about I treat you to a smoothie, eh? How's that sound?"
Sora blinked, "Okay, I guess."
"Meet you outside then!" Tidus flashed a toothy grin before disappearing behind the booth door, leaving Sora still sitting there, dazed.
The queue was moving as groups of people got out of the different karaoke booths only to be freshly replaced with those waiting in line. Cloud and Aerith shuffled to the front of the line as a group of five teenagers squeezed their way into one of the vacated cubicles regardless of the obvious rule that the maximum number of persons allowed inside was only three.
Aerith flicked up her wrist to gingerly peek at her silver watch. "It's been three minutes," she commented, casting her eyes over the karaoke booths filled with teenagers before landing back onto her companion. "Cloud," she began. "Wait here for a while? I'm just going to go to the Ladies', okay?"
A definite shrug was enough to deliver the message. But before she moved away, the door of the orange and white booth located at the end of the row opened to let a blonde teenager emerge with a toothy grin on his face as he made his away past the queue to a smoothie stall situated outside the arcade in the Food Court.
"Bother," came Aerith's utterance when she realised their turn to occupy a booth had come. She looked up at Cloud again, "Wait for me in there then? I'll just be a second."
"Okay," this time Cloud managed a verbal reply as he watched Aerith's form submerge into the sea of arcade-goers. He turned back to the recently vacated booth and reached for the doorknob.
After Tidus' departure a second earlier, Sora kept staring at the plasma screen where the words 'Insert 2 Tokens for 3 Songs' flashed across the surface. Unfortunately for our poor naïve Sora, he hadn't fully grasped what had just happened. One moment Tidus was sulking in the corner and then the next, he was grinning like a maniac. Was it the magic of the karaoke machine that had altered the youth's mood regardless of the vibe of the tune?
It was only just a few seconds later that the brunet decided that he should just accept the situation. There was no need to further perplex his thoughts. He had already achieved what he needed to do. After all, the fact that Tidus was successfully enlivened by Sora's brilliant solutions was enough to satisfy the brunet for a while.
Holding the liquorice stick in place between his teeth, he got up from his stool and involuntarily brushed off the imaginary dust off his pants. He cast a final look onto the screen, feeling slightly sad that he hadn't had a turn on the microphone and experience the magic that had been cast upon Tidus. Perhaps he'd be luckier some other time.
But first – to the smoothie!
Even thinking about the soft fluffy substance in a cup made him skip in his steps as he bounded towards the door. Oh how he loved smoothies! What a brilliant invention it was to concoct a drink that could tickle your taste buds senseless with its taste and pleasure your tongue with its remarkable smooth texture!
Oh god! Did Tidus pause to enquire to him on what flavour he would like? Sora felt his heart gave a little jump when he realised that the blonde youth hadn't. Whatever happened, he must warn Tidus not to get him the chocolate flavoured one! He had tried it once before and resented the foul taste. It seemed that somebody must have put something unpleasant in that recipe to ruin such a favourable taste…
With his mind distracted on the images of rainbow coloured smoothies and the liquorice still held between his lips, Sora's energetic form burst out of the booth where he sensed the door collide into something solid.
Just as Cloud's fingers touched the surface of the doorknob belonging to the karaoke booth, the door suddenly swung open and crashed into his form. The solid plane of the door slammed into his face with such tremendous force that he was thrown off his feet. The next thing he knew, he could see stars and cartoon animated characters dancing across his vision.
Sora was faced with a queue of startled and shocked people when he emerged from the booth. He was aware that the girl in the front of the queue had her manicured fingers placed on her lips and her companion, a guy with a mop of thick hair, had both eyebrows raised so high that they disappeared into the mass of locks. Behind them were similar expressions of shock plastered over different faces. Passing arcade-goers paused to see what the commotion was about.
Sora blinked in confusion when he realised that the so-called 'commotion' seemed to involve him. Several pairs of eyes had cast accusingly onto his form and others strayed onto the area behind the open door. Finally, a hushed voice from the queue emerged from the crowd, their tone laced with blame, "So careless! How could he not see where he's going?"
Where I'm going? Sora echoed it in his mind, trying to see the meaning behind those words. Or rather, he decided to peek behind the open booth door to see exactly what the queue of people were staring at.
He didn't expect to see someone behind that door, lying eagle-spread on the floor. Startled at the sight, he felt his mouth drop open, letting the liquorice stick fall onto the floor.
Behind that door, there was a naturally pale face with high-defined cheekbones, a long slender nose, pliant lips and deep blue eyes. There followed the blue shirt, tie, the sleek black pants and shoes forming an individual highly out of place in an arcade like this. Wild, spiky blonde hair adorned his head, complimenting his rather subtle features.
Forgetting everything around him, Sora crept even closer, suddenly becoming aware that the area around the man's left temple had turned a flamboyant pink colour which, in a few seconds, faded into a rosy red shade. His eyebrow twitched upwards in bewilderment as his mind tried to accept to the actual fact that yes, indeed, the man's temple was changing colour and he was definitely not seeing things.
The vivid red tinge began to darken in tone and Sora could've sworn he saw the skin begin to move – or rather, as he inched even closer – it was actually swelling in size. Wait a second –! Swelling?!
He whipped his head back to stare at the door that he had just swung open, vaguely remembering the feeling of the door banging into something solid. He froze when he was struck with realisation.
He had slammed the door right into the man's head.
Sora collapsed breathlessly beside the still body where he leaned his face over the other's in order to examine the outcome of the damage. Dazed, out of focus blue eyes stared straight back at him. Appearing in vision, those eyes started to blink sporadically in an effort to ward away the numb shock that had taken over his entire form.
Sora waved his fingers rather agitatedly over the man's eyes to see if he could get another response. "Are you okay? Can you hear me? Oh god, what have I done? What have I done?!" Out of the blue, he started to flail his arms wildly in the air – an obvious sign that the first thing Sora would do in situations like this was panic.
Someone leaned over his face and Cloud found himself staring at a hazy combination of skin tainted in a healthy bronze shade, messy tufts of spiky cinnamon brown hair and large sky blue eyes. A pouting mouth. And stars – yes, there were still stars and strangely, animated cartoon characters dancing across his vision. In addition to that, a terrible throbbing sensation was hammering against the side of his head, feeling much like hideously disfigured plastic moles being pounded into his skull by Aerith's mallet.
"…you okay … hear me …?"
A voice was forcing its way into his paralysed consciousness but it was distant and faint.
He blinked continuously for a second or two. Was it him or was that boy leaning over him dancing? The youth's arms waved frantically in the air in such energetic moves and Cloud foolishly wondered if the pounding in his head was actually a music beat that the boy was dancing along to.
"What have I done?!"
The voice was too loud, trying to bring him back to full consciousness. It seemed that remaining in a daze was somewhat peaceful. Perhaps he should just sleep just to remove that shrill voice and that awful pounding in his head away.
Cloud began to shut his eyes in order to surrender to nothingness.
Sora stopped flailing his arms when he saw the man's eyelids begin to slide shut slowly. On the verge of absolute panic and fear, he grabbed the man's shoulders and began to shake it, intending to snap him out of that objective.
"Stay awake! Please stay awake!" he pleaded desperately, even though the dazed blue eyes that had blankly stared at him had already disappeared behind closed lids. Prodding thoughts of funerals, lawsuits and court for murder haunted his mind. What had he done to deserve such a thing? He was too young to experience such harsh encounters!
Seeing that his fruitless shaking proved not to work, he decided on another objective. As roughly as he could he slapped the man's face with hopes that he would stir from his slumber.
"Come on! Open your eyes!"
Nothing. The slaps did nothing but colour the pale cheeks with a burning red shade. At this point, Sora was almost lost with ideas. And suddenly without consideration, he randomly, I repeat– randomly reached over and grasped the pale, slender nose with two fingers.
No –seriously.
Darkness was all that he could see. Numbness was all that he could feel. It was peaceful in a way being in a place distanced from the chaotic reality of his hectic life. What had happened to him just now? He couldn't really remember much. He was just floating in the abyss of black, black, black darkness.
From beyond the abyss, something reached over to him and grabbed hold of his nose. Unfortunately, it was a genuine fact that even as Cloud hated it when people tried to read the expression on his face, he hated it even more when someone decided to intrude into that personal space.
So when those fingers touched his skin, Cloud snapped his eyes open.
Eyelids snapped open, revealing furious deep blue eyes.
Sora screamed.
Aerith emerged, invigorated from her trip to the bathroom with a fresh application of makeup. She had been gone from Cloud's side for a full two minutes now but she ensured herself that the blonde male wouldn't mind the delay one bit. She could perhaps catch the small flicker of annoyance on his face once she arrived into their karaoke booth. When the blonde was around her, his feelings tend to slip accidentally out of his façade where she easily read them like a book. It was one of the qualities which told of how close the two were in actual fact.
As she blew away a curling lock of brown hair from her face, she squeezed past the jostling crowd in order to get to the row of karaoke booths at one end of the arcade. A small, inquisitive crowd had formed there and for a second, Aerith merely assumed that these people were queuing up to have a go at the popular booths.
A scream erupted above the overlapping noises of chattering tongues and game music. It was not a scream of fear and terror that could induce ripples of panic and distress to spread. It was merely a scream of astonished shock which stretched out continuously, bringing more and more heads to turn away from their game play toward the source of the noise.
Feeling something like alarm clutching in her senses, she quickly shouldered her way through the crowd where an astounding sight lay for her to see:
Cloud lay on his back on the floor, his eyes opened in a ferocious glare directed at a screaming boy who crouched beside him with two fingers pinching his nose.
Eyelids snapped open, revealing furious deep blue eyes.
Of course, Sora was familiar with this colour before the man lost consciousness. Those eyes had been out of focus, appearing so far away in that state of dazedness. He had promptly accepted the fact that his slamming the booth door open had been a little – alright then, a lot – powerful than he had expected. And because of his recklessness, he had caused a massive golf ball of a bruise to swell out from the poor man's temple. Thank god the force wasn't too brutal enough to draw blood – or he'd be in even bigger trouble.
But this time, as those eyes directed straight on him, he found that the colour became too intense for his liking. All traces of stupor had vanished and was replaced by a cold fury that pierced right into his being. He found himself shuddering slightly as he stared into the pools of intense blue.
The next thing he knew, he was screaming.
The man visibly cringed under his grasp (for Sora still held on to his nose) and his refined eyebrows furrowed with annoyance. With mustered strength, he harshly slapped Sora's hand away from his face where his nose changed colour from naturally pale to a rosy pink.
Instantly, Sora stopped screaming.
A brown-haired woman suddenly appeared by his side, her attention solely focused on the man lying before her, "Oh Cloud! Are you okay? What happened?"
Sora stumbled back, aware that the colour had drained from his face ever since he unwarily screamed in shock at seeing Cloud's – that was the man's name, right? – eyes snap open and scare him with its intensity. His heart pounded frantically in his chest as the aftermath and breathlessly, he answered her enquiry with gasps and muddled apologies.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry – it was an accident and I didn't know that he was behind the door so I opened it and hit him by mistake … but then it was my fault as well since I should've paid more attention to what I'm doing instead of thinking about smoothies all the time and … oh god, I've done it this time – I really did it now… I…" he bowed his head low, letting his brown spikes cover his features before crying out again, "I-I'm sorry!"
The woman stared at him hesitantly as if she was giving herself some time to assimilate Sora's explanation. Finally, she offered him a reassuring smile and a pat on the shoulder, "It's alright, dear. Catch your breath for a moment. You just need to be more careful next time, okay?"
She spoke this with a sincerely kind tone, unlike the ones he received from the other people lined up in the karaoke booth queue. In response to this, he merely hung his head in shame and guilt, now aware that the colour had returned to his face and spread over his cheeks in a red flush of mortification.
The woman helped the man, Cloud, stand up on his feet. He staggered a bit but quickly regained his balance as he leaned against her side. It took Sora almost all his courage to raise his head in order to fully express his sincere apologies to the man.
What he met with instead was a pair of deep blue eyes narrowed in a well-maintained glare of genuine, explicit anger. The fierce cold glower coupled with the golf-ball sized bump on his left temple was enough to send Sora shuddering unintentionally again.
"I-I.." The words of apology vanished from his mind, leaving him spluttering for a response. He had suddenly realised that this was perhaps the first time that someone was truly angry at him and that he was not quick enough to ask for forgiveness directly from said person.
"Cloud?" the woman supporting the blonde man enquired with surprise. She looked astonished at the way Cloud was glaring at Sora with such fierce intensity. It was as if the brunette was seeing the angry expression on his face for the first time.
She glanced back at Sora and seeing the guilty expression on his features, she quickly gave him an apologetic smile, "Don't mind him, he'll be alright. I'll take care of him."
Sora finally found himself gasping out, "A-Are you sure? Do you want me to call an ambulance just in case? Um, I… I could get some band-aids for you …I think my friend has a supply of them but then again I think they're a little too small and Tidus only carries them in his sports bag when he goes to the gym so that won't help so … um, um …" Once again, the brunet bowed his head again as he cried out his next words, "Is there anything else I could do to help?"
The woman could only stare at him for a few seconds before she finally made sense out of the words. Another kind, reassuring smile was given. "It's all under control, there's no need to worry. I'll take care of him."
As the two made their way from the booths towards the bathrooms, Sora staggered away from the accusing stares of the queue whom, after the incident now passed, then resumed their turn-waiting.
A horrible feeling of remorse had enveloped his form and his mind cast back to the incident which had not ended a few seconds ago. How could a harmless trip to the karaoke booth end disastrously like this? After all, if it weren't for his thoughts on flavoured smoothies, he wouldn't have stirred from his daze with enough energy to forcefully slam the door open with such impact that it could send a man sprawling onto the floor, a bruise forming on the spot where the door made contact with his head.
Out of nowhere, a smoothie was thrust up to his face before the hand that held it jiggled it from side to side. A grinning Tidus stood in front of him, carrying two smoothies.
"Waited that long?" the older of the pair asked before his face changed to that of a concerned one. "Sora? Are you okay? Did something happen?"
Sora stared at him with guilty eyes before shrugging his shoulders a little, "No, it's just …" absent-mindedly, his gaze trailed back to the karaoke booth where he had recalled the discovery of someone lying on the other side of the booth door. "It was an accident. I slammed the door into someone…"
A flash of furious deep blue eyes.
"… I didn't mean to do it…"
A glare that pierced right into his soul.
"…I couldn't say sorry to him."
"Oh, Cloud! Are you okay? What happened?"
Cloud … his name was Cloud …
Tidus released a sigh on behalf of Sora's expression. Truth be told, seeing Sora in such a state was not a comforting sight. After all, Sora was the one with the sunshiny personality. Just a few minutes ago the boy was bouncing excitedly while queuing up for a go at the karaoke booth. So the sudden change was a bit upsetting.
"Cheer up!" Tidus preened, slapping Sora's back and knocking the grim expression off his face. "Drink your smoothie – you'll feel much better."
Sora inserted the straw into his mouth and slurped the creamy concoction. Then he grimaced.
Tidus had gotten him the chocolate flavoured one.
End (Chorus 1 –repeat)
Notes: Tidus singing/wailing in a karaoke booth? Sora slamming the door right into someone? Aerith's energetic wrath when it comes to playing arcade games? Cloud attempting at Whack The Mole Dancing Stage? Plus, imagine randomly grabbing some stranger's nose, screaming hysterically at his face and finding out later that he was the one for you?Tidus singing/wailing in a karaoke booth? Sora slamming the door right into someone? Aerith's energetic wrath when it comes to playing arcade games? Cloud attempting at Whack The Mole Dancing Stage? Plus, imagine randomly grabbing some stranger's nose, screaming hysterically at his face and finding out later that he was the one for you?
You know what? What I had written sounds so random. Everyone, embrace the Randomness.
I was supposed to post this chapter up ages ago but as I developed the story a bit, I had to go back to the first chapter, re-edit and re-read it until I got properly sick of it. So I hope those endless hours of re-reading finally paid off.
Next chappie: After the explosive mishap of slamming doors into unnoticeable strangers and randomly grabbing hold of slender noses, an unexpected encounter at the local café brings forth the introduction of sweet delicacies and sugar sachets, colourful sticky notes and bookmarked newspapers, text messages and swaying bangs! Plus, the return of the monotonous karaoke song track! Gaack, I have revealed too much! Please review!!