It's hard to rely on the weather forecast when it's wrong almost 100 percent of the time. Axel x Roxas. – Birthday Dedication to Kiki Lelsissia -
Happy Birthday to youuu, Happy Birthday to youu!! Happy Birthday, Happy Birthdayyyyyyyyy!!!!
(Falls off chair)
Happy Birthday to you!!!!
(Is Drunk)
Don't you just love Birthdays??
(On Milk)
Roxas hated the rain. Well, actually, hate was too strong a word, so maybe he just really disliked it. And he only disliked it because something always goes wrong when it rains.
And today, it was raining. It wasn't just raining, but it was raining hard. And that was already considered to be something wrong in Roxas' opinion.
Not to mention that the services for buses suddenly stopped for some ungodly reason and he forgot to bring an umbrella with him on that particular rainy day.
'Why…?' he cursed exasperatedly in his head as he ran down the soaked streets wet from the pouring rain. It didn't look like it was going to let up anytime soon.
Weird…the weather report called for sunny days today and tomorrow. Trust the weatherman to get every single weather prediction completely and absolutely wrong.
The only time that idiot was right is when he predicts for rain and hail and it comes true.
It's hardly ever sunny in Hollow Bastion though, but when it is, a few people start to think of Global Warming and start to prep up for the apocalypse. His mother was no exception.
He slowed to a stop, stood under a small shelter and waited for the right moment to run back out into the rain towards his house. But when it got worse, he sighed tiredly and continued to wait.
The skies had darkened considerably in the last half an hour. The streets were lit from the multiple light posts and the shop lights and displays illuminated the wet road. It was only 6pm but it looked as though it was past 8pm or some time later.
He grabbed the bottom hem of his hooded jacket and wrung out the excess water. He widened his eyes in surprise at the amount of water that dripped onto the wet concrete floor.
He continued doing this, never once paying attention to the people who passed by, as he tried to get as much water out, even though it probably won't help much since he'll be going out in the rain again soon.
A few more people passed by, but he paid them little to no mind, too busy trying to decrease the weight of water on him, his eyes sheltered by his hood.
He could hear the tinkle of key chains that jingled with the pitter patter of rain drops, the shuffle of clothing and the foot steps of people passing.
Somebody walked passed, then stopped. Weighed his options and finally back tracked back to the hooded boy.
"How far do you live?" the person under the umbrella spoke, not once peering at the blond.
Somewhat surprised and shocked by the question, the words went in one ear and out the other before he could grasp what the other person said. "I'm sorry, what?"
A soft sigh, "How far do you live…?" he tried again.
The blond tried to look into the eyes of the speaker but didn't really want to be rude, although the question completely had caught him off guard, "Why…?" he asked cautiously.
"I was gonna offer to walk with you under my umbrella, but never mind." He shrugged and thrust the umbrella into the smaller boy's arms and bolted away in a rush while the rain calmed down for a few blissful seconds.
"H-hey wait! What about-" he stuttered in shock and called out to the retreating red head.
"My house is just around the corner! Keep it!" he continued running back to his home.
The blond looked down at the umbrella and looked back at the red head and managed to shout out a word of thanks before the stranger disappeared around the corner. The red head merely threw a wave back and then he was gone.
Roxas continued to stare at the spot at which the stranger previously occupied. Even though minutes have already passed since the stranger left him with the plain, black umbrella, the blond couldn't help but just stare at the item in his hands and back to that spot.
He realized he probably looked stupid to some other people who passed by and some shop keepers and finally decided to walk back home, another five minutes away.
The blond was already soaking wet, but the umbrella kept him from getting anymore rain water drenched on his water-logged clothes. And he felt grateful towards the stranger.
He sneezed when he entered the warm, heated house.
It was a few days before Roxas finished his classes at university early enough to take the early bus home and wait for the red headed stranger. The past couple of days, his classes finished at around about 5pm. He hated taking the bus home at peak hours, so he waited another half an hour for another bus to come before hopping on and riding it back home.
The blond waited under the shelter with the neatly folded, already dry umbrella in his hands. Fifteen minutes passed and he waited. Half an hour passed and he waited.
He checked his watched and noticed an hour had already come and gone and he let out a somewhat tired and irritably sigh. But he decided to wait just a little bit longer.
And soon, one hour of waiting accumulated to two and he got fed up. He lowered his head and raised one hand to pinch the bridge of his nose to think out his next move.
To stay and return the umbrella or not.
Roxas' ears perked up to a familiar jingle of key chains and he wondered if it was who he thought he was.
Somebody stopped walking not too far away and he hazarded a glance.
It was the red headed stranger.
The stranger quirked up an eyebrow in surprise, as though his brain just clicked as to who the boy was, looked out at the sky and turned back in confusion, "What are you doing here? It's not raining." He pointed out bluntly.
"Yes, I know." He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "I wanted to return this." He held out the umbrella towards the red head.
"Oh, cool." He grinned and stepped forward to retrieve the item, then halted. "I thought I told you to keep it." he suddenly remembered and paused with his hand half way.
"I have one, it's in my bag." He shrugged his shoulder where his messenger bag strap rested.
"Ok then." He took back his umbrella and stared at the blond. He didn't know the kid was blond, on the count of that his hood covered it. The red head could've sworn it was brunet or something.
They stood and watched each other for a while and then the red head finally opened his mouth to speak, "How long have you been waiting for?"
"Erm…not long." He reasoned with a slight shrug. 'Not long my ass, I waited for two fucking hours.' He complained to himself.
The red head quirked up an eyebrow but didn't prod any further, "Ok then, guess I'll see ya around." He waved and walked away.
"See ya." He gave a curt wave and watched as the red head sink further and further into the distance. It wasn't until the stranger turned the corner before the blond followed after him, but instead of turning the corner, he kept on walking straight ahead to his own home.
Although he couldn't help but shoot a glance at the red head that continued to walk away.
For a few days, the weather in Hollow Bastion had been blissfully warm and sunny. And then when it rained, it was a bit depressing. The good sunny days were gone and wasted on hours spent at university. But lucky for Roxas, he had his umbrella with him, so he arrived home pleasantly dry from head to knee. The bottom of his pants got soaked from absorbing a little bit of the water that splashed from the soaked pavement.
But the next day, he accidentally left it at home again. He had left it out in the garage to dry up, and he forgot to take it with him in the morning before he left to take the bus up to campus.
It had been pretty sunny that morning, and the weatherman had reported sunny days for the rest of the week, but he should've known better than to assume it would be that way throughout the whole day, or the rest of the week. Hollow Bastion was infamous for its crappy and almost unpredictable weather.
The blond let out a tired sigh as he stood under the shelter again and tried to wring out the rain water from his hooded jacket.
'Damn…I just washed these.' He frowned at the puddle that formed at his feet. 'Next time, I'll put in two umbrellas in my bag. One to leave at home by accident and one to keep as a back up.'
Too busy in his mission to keep himself as dry as possible, he never noticed a person pass by and do a double take.
"Wow, you never learn, do you?" The red head chuckled and took a step backwards to the frustrated blond, "I'm starting to think you like getting caught in the rain."
It took a moment for Roxas to realize who it was before the blond drew in a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh, "I left it in the garage to dry up and I forgot all about it in the morning." He reasoned and gave up trying to get his clothes semi-dry.
"You should make it a habit to leave it out to dry and then go back to check on it. And then when it's dry, put it back in your bag."
The blond didn't really like the idea of constantly going into the garage to check on his umbrella which he hardly ever used due to it being always left behind.
The red head seem to get the idea that the boy didn't really like his suggestion, "What about a sticky note instead?" he offered with a slight shrug.
'…Why didn't I think of that?' he nodded, "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."
"Ok, good." He grinned and then handed the umbrella to the blond, "Here, you can borrow it again."
Caught off guard for the second time by the same red headed guy, he couldn't help but express his surprise, "Wait, what? I can't-" but before he could even finish what he wanted to say, the umbrella was shoved into his hands and the stranger ran off faster than an Olympic runner.
And for the second time, he shouted his word of thanks to the retreating red head who merely turned around and gave him a salute before turning the corner.
Roxas sighed again and stared at the umbrella. Really, what was the point of two people getting wet and caught out in the rain when only one person should suffer through it because of their stupidity?
But still…Roxas couldn't help but smile at the generosity of a certain red headed stranger.
He found himself waiting for the red head again the next day, under the same shelter, standing in front of the same store. But instead of waiting for two hours, he ended up only waiting for about half an hour.
The red head grinned as he casually walked up to the blond, "Come to return the umbrella?"
"Yeah, sorry, I really hadn't been expecting rain yesterday." He reasoned as he handed back the umbrella.
"Always expect rain my friend." He chuckled as he reached out for the neatly kept item, "And always keep one in your bag handy for situations like those."
The weather was unpredictably sunny again today despite its horrible onslaught of rain yesterday.
"I had hoped that the news guy would be right for sunny weather like today." He peered out at the sky. Not a cloud in the sky.
The red head laughed, "When is the weatherman ever right."
The blond smiled and nodded, "True." And he snapped his eyes back to the stranger, "Oh, the sticky notes helped a lot."
"No problem, everybody needs a little friendly reminder."
They found themselves staring at each other again.
"So, this is like the fourth time we've met." The red head pointed out.
"Yeah." He sniffed and brought his hand up to lightly brush his nose.
"Axel."
"Ax-what?"
"My name, it's Axel. Commit that to memory." He smirked, "Or use a sticky note, whatever floats your boat." He shrugged as he gave a carefree smile.
"Sticky notes, right." He rolled his eyes at the red head, "I'm Roxas."
As the days passed and the sunny days came and left, they continued to meet each other under the shelter.
Roxas found that he actually liked the rain. Sort of. Sure they can bring a bit of bad luck and some sort of trouble, but there's always a silver lining, or a speck of red, on every cloud.
Bleh, I kept on changing between present tense and past tense, boogers man, just boogers. I'll fix that eventually...But other than that, any other critiques or comments? Feel free to say so.
And one last note…Happy (belated…) Birthday Kiki Lelsissia!!! Hope you liked.