pleather

ashes to ashes,
dust to dust,
my hate for you,
defines my lust.

for constance greene's contest.

She's dreaming constantly. She's dreaming about dusty windows and antique wind chimes and crumbling concrete and rotting wood. She's dreaming about a stage and a crowd and a song and a star. She's dreaming about coffee and vintage and rainbows and crashing so hard it (doesn't) hurt. She's dreaming about falling and losing and stumbling and stuttering. She's dreaming about dancing and strobe lights and leopard print and purple (pink, green, blue, orange, black, yellow, color, color, color). She's dreaming about green eyes and red hair and loose lips and cigarettes and Axel, Axel, Axel.

She's dreaming, dreaming, dreaming (crashing, crashing, crashing) and it's never ending (it's ending, oh, it's ending).

She meets him downtown one foggy (polluted) afternoon, while she's walking to work and he's leaning against the front window of the Sushi Shack, cigarette loose between his lips.

"Got a light?" he asks, slouching down the wall a bit more.

"I don't smoke," she says simply and he seems amused by this, or maybe she's just a little bit (a lot) paranoid and she keeps going, pleather boots and all, and he keeps slouching, cigarette still loose between his lips, and she vaguely wonders why he'd ask her a question like that when he's got a lighter in his hand.

"C'mon, Kairi," Sora begs, grabbing her hand. "It's a fireworks show! How often do we get one of those?" And Kairi finds it all too hard to resist his big blue eyes and his contagious enthusiasm.

"Well…" she says, cleaning up a table, "I suppose it could be fun…"

Sora grins widely and Riku shakes his head, because they're really (not) quite predictable.

"Kairi, Riku, I'm going to go buy us some sea salt ice cream!" Sora yells over the excited chatter around them, red jacket and brown spikes disappearing into the crowd. Riku glances at her and she just shakes her head and smiles a little.

"Go make sure he doesn't buy more than he can afford, 'kay?" And Riku nods, blending into the mish mashed group of people. She stands there, all rainbows and stripes and polka dots and chunky jewelry and he walks over, all ripped jeans and loose lips and cigarettes and Zippo lighters, tapping her on the shoulder with this kind of sideways grin on his face.

"Got a light?" he asks, slouched over a little (a lot), and she shakes her head, wondering why he doesn't ask someone else or just use the lighter in his hand.

"I don't smoke," she says again and he seems amused again, but she knows she's not just a little (a lot) paranoid, because he's actually chuckling a little, and she's got déjà vu, but then Riku and Sora come back and when she glances over her shoulder, he's gone.

She passes that spot where he was slouching that one day, loose lips and ripped jeans and black sweatshirt and cigarettes and thinks that space by that trash can seems oddly empty without him standing there.

She gets to work on time and as she slips on her apron and name tag, a customer says "Got a light?" to Yuffie, and Kairi finds (catches) herself mumbling an "I don't smoke." under her breath.

"So, I hear there's this great spot where all these graffiti artists go and, uh, paint stuff, and I was thinking of taking Naminé there as a birthday present since I'm completely broke. Do you think she'd like it?" Sora asks, taking a sip of his hot chocolate. Riku shrugs and bites into his muffin while Kairi pulls on her (green, yellow, blue, purple, black) boots and nods, smoothing out her skirt.

"I'm sure she'll love it," she says, and Sora grins and Riku keeps eating (mutilating) his muffin and Kairi wonders if maybe he's just a little bit jealous.

"I want to show you guys this place! It's so cool!" And then the three of them are racing out the door, Sora holding their hands as he drags them along, Kairi trying to pull her jacket on and Riku trying to not drop his breakfast while trying to smack Sora.

It's a nice place, behind an old antique store, full of tints and shades and logos and trademarks and paint cans and tinted flecks of the rainbow on the ground. Sora doesn't pay (much) attention to the group near the back exit as he pulls his best friends towards the mural of color splotches and splashes and stripes and strips. Riku jerks his arm free and flicks the brunette in the nose.

"You could've at least let me finish my muffin, Sora," he says, but Kairi can see he's just as awestruck as they are by the bricks in front of them, even if he's all mysterious black trench coats and smirks and, well, Riku. Sora beams, because he sees it too, and if Riku likes it, Naminé will (obsess over it) too.

Kairi thinks her sister's (un)lucky to have Sora fawning over her (secretly) and Riku pining after her (just a little). She thinks it'll be some kind of disaster when she has to choose.

"Got a light?" someone says, long fingers curling around her upper arm as the two boys bicker and stare and joke. She glances over her shoulder, bangs falling to the side.

"I don't smoke," she says, just like before, and the déjà vu is back, but he doesn't laugh, just quirks and eyebrow and long fingers glide up her arm and over her shoulder and Kairi thinks she might just be enjoying his touch a little too much.

"Kairi, c'mon! We're going to go get something to eat; Riku's still hungry!" Sora calls and the fingers trailing (ghosting) across her skin vanish and as she walks (stumbles) towards the two teens, over the screeches of "You little fucker! I'm going to rip your fucking balls off!" coming from a blond girl near the back door, Kairi can hear the faint 'click-clack' of a lighter.

Kairi wonders if she's losing her mind when she falls asleep at night and dreams of that sienna wall with its rainbows and cigarette butts and broken beers bottles. She wonders if she's losing her mind when everything becomes jade green and bright red and all she can here is 'click-clack' and all she can taste is kerosene and metal. Kairi wonders if she might be a little (a lot) obsessed, a little (a lot) curious, and a little (a lot) wistful. Kairi wonders quite a bit when she's sleeping, when the lights are out, when she can just stand there and let the image (ghost) of him trail his fingers up her arm.

"Got a light," he asks, but the question comes out more a statement and Kairi's beginning to think he means more by it then he's letting on.

"I don't smoke," she mutters, trying to ignore the shivers that run up her spine as his fingers (don't) glide across her hip.

"Well," he says, lips so close to her ear she can hear him breathe, "maybe you should start."

And then she's awake in bed and maybe it's a good thing she doesn't remember half the things she dreams about in the first place.

"Kairi, are you feeling okay?" Sora asks, when she walks (stumbles) into work one day, a little flushed and a little breathy. "You don't look so good." And he puts a hand to her forehead, and she looks (but isn't) feverish and Kairi doesn't quite feel comfortable telling him that she'd just had a run in with an incredibly sexy redhead who could quite possibly be stalking her.

She spends the rest of her day taking orders and serving coffee and daydreaming about jade green and Zippo lighters and at the end of the day, when she walks out of the café, she sees him standing there, still slouched over and dangling a cigarette between his loose lips and still smirking that slightly crooked smirk at her.

"Got a light?" And this time his fingers reach out to her a bit and Kairi doesn't answer, just bolts forward, because all she can think about is those long fingers running up her arms (legs, thighs, cheeks, stomach) and she wonders what he would think if she grabbed his hand and never let go.

"That's fucked," Yuffie says, leaning back on her heels as Kairi finishes her tale of a slouching smoker and not-so-coincidental encounters (but of course she leaves out the ghosting, ghosting, ghosting fingers). "He's a friend of the family's. Ale or Axel or something. He's like, twenty three I think."

Kairi moans quietly and puts her head in her hands, multicolored bracelets jangling together as she wishes she could just vanish off the face of the earth and never see loosely lipped cigarettes and Zippo lighters and ripped jeans and red hair and green eyes ever again. Yuffie sips her bubble tea and scratches her green-nylon covered leg and tugs at her lip ring and does about a hundred different little things she does out of habit when she's thinking or nervous or stressed.

"Wait. That's like…a seven year difference. Isn't that illegal or something?"

Kairi's shoulders droop a little more as she drops her hands onto the counter and stares down at her coffee cup blankly.

"I don't think so," she mutters helplessly. If there's no law protecting her from Ale or Axel or whatever his name is, there's no law keeping her from doing something stupid.

Yuffie ruffles the redhead's hair sympathetically (only one who can make it sympathetic) and hands her a doughnut as she piles several more precariously on top of one another on the swiveling display.

"You're screwed."

Kairi groans and takes a bite of her chocolate glaze.

"Thanks, Yuffie."

Two weeks come and go and Kairi hasn't seen Ale or Axel or whatever his name is since that day he reached out to her (almost). Sora talks about asking Naminé out and Riku broods over the fact that he's too worried about hurting Sora to ask Naminé out himself. Sora talks about the upcoming Movie Festival and Riku wonders if he can bribe Yuffie into making him muffins every day. Sora smiles and Riku ponders and Kairi actually forgets (almost) about whatever his name is for a while.

Then, Sora brings him up in casual conversation, oblivious (but not quite) and confused (but not really).

"Hey, Kairi, some guy was asking about you today, when me and Riku—"

"Riku and I."

"—went back to the antique shop with Naminé on Sunday. She loved it, by the way. I think she might go back to add to it sometime soon. But, anyways, there was some guy with red hair and these tattoos under his eyes asking if we knew where you were."

They both look at her expectantly, as if they think she'll have all the answers to their unasked questions. Maybe she does, she muses, as she adjusts the lens on her camera and watches the office workers go by in their cars, waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect shot. Riku is looking at her from over the top of his book as he leans against the front of Hearts, black trench coat sticking out against the pale green and pink exterior. Sora rocks back and forth on his heels, arms behind his head as he glances between the helicopter going by and her, all amusement lost.

"I don't know who you're talking about. The only redhead I know, besides myself, is Ariel. And we all know she's back east right now, getting married to Eric."

Kairi raises the camera eye level and tries to ignore the worried look Sora shoots her way as he brushes his gloved fingers through his hair and the scowl that appears on Riku's face as he goes back to reading his book. She almost feels bad about lying to them, almost feels bad about not telling her best friends her biggest problem (desire).

There's the perfect shot.

Click, click. The shutter flickers a few times as she hopes she caught the moment before it drove by and into the polluted air and office buildings. The awkward silence that follows, as she lowers her camera and straightens out her green and orange shirt, is enough to make her sigh (almost).

"Who's up for a movie? My treat."

And her two boys agree, because after knowing each other since they were in diapers with chubby cheeks and prodding fingers, they know a peace offering when they see it, even if everything is still shaky afterwards, so shaky she almost considers spilling her guts, just so she doesn't feel like there's a volcano between them that's ready to explode.

Kairi wonders when everything she did began to involve 'almost'.

Kairi doesn't forget about the redhead, even though it's been five weeks, three days, seven hours and fifty two (fifty three, fifty four, fifty five) seconds since she's last seen him, and she thinks it's kind of pathetic that she's counting the weeks, days, hours, seconds she goes without him. She hasn't slept in three (four, five, seven, ten) nights, because she dreams about him even though she wants nothing to do with him (liar) and when she's not dreaming, she's counting, and Kairi still doesn't know when he found his way under his skin and into her head.

So, when Kairi walks to work on a drizzling afternoon, with bags under her eyes and a slight curve in her posture, and he shows up out of nowhere, with his slouch and his jeans and his eyes and his lips, she's almost thankful.

"Got a light?" he asks as he sits down this time, legs bent, elbows on his knees, green eyes staring at her so hard she wonders if she'd even notice if she fell forward.

"I told you," she mutters, tired of thinking about him and tired of being tired of thinking about him (but not really), "I don't smoke."

And as he opens his mouth, Yuffie comes jogging down the street, blue bangs falling over her eyes, eyeliner smudged at the corners, and glares at him, arms crossed over her chest as she sizes him up.

"Axel," she says curtly (coldly, rudely, like she wants to kill him), brushing her hair back. He nods in her direction, eyes still on Kairi. Yuffie's glare gets a little harsher, then she grabs Kairi by the arm and hauls her off towards Hearts.

"For crap's sake," she grumbles as the bell rings over their damp heads and Sora looks at them from his perch on the countertop. "You keep looking terrified like you did back there," she whips around and, despite her short stature, still manages to loom over Kairi, "And you're bound to get stalked by ephebophiles."

Kairi can't bring herself to look at either of them, because she knows Yuffie's right and she knows Sora's hurt and she knows it's all her fault. She doesn't say anything, and yet another silence looms over them, this one more uncomfortable then the last.

"…how do you know what ephebophile means?"

And Yuffie, being Yuffie, grins that semi (really) psychotic grin of hers and says:

"Contrary to popular belief, The Great Ninja Yuffie does in fact read. What I read, however, shall not be discussed because there are virgin ears in the room."

Kairi giggles a little and Sora snickers a little, and everything is a little bit better, so they all sit down and Riku comes in minutes later, looking for muffins and the reason some redhead just asked him if he'd seen Kairi yet again on his way there, and they all sit down and eat doughnuts and muffins and drink hot chocolate and coffee and talk and laugh and eventually, they get to the point.

"Has he touched you?" Riku asks as he holds his muffin out of Sora's reach. Kairi swirls a finger in her coffee and wonders if she should tell them about Axel's ghosting fingers and feather light brushes. She wonders, until she sees the way Sora sobers up and scowls a little and looks very much the way she remembers him looking when he was about to go kick Wakka's ass back when they were ten.

"No," she says, flickering her gaze from her steaming mug to Riku's aquamarine eyes for just a moment. Yuffie fires off a couple of her own questions, prying (badgering, pleading, whining, begging) until she gets a satisfactory answer out of her. Then Sora, who's remained eerily silent the whole discussion, speaks.

"Do you mind?"

And the question, so utterly vague (but not quite) as it is, is the most important one anyone has asked, and as Yuffie looks between them confused and Riku eats his muffin indifferently because he knows better then to interfere, Kairi tells herself she can be truthful just this once, because it's Sora and Sora's the most truthful person she knows and Sora's the only one who'd truly know and understand.

"No."

Six weeks, four days, seventeen hours and ten minutes since his fingers first ghosted (fluttered, brushed, skimmed, touched, touched, touched) across her skin behind a dusty antique shop and he's back slouching against the wall with his hands shoved in his pockets and a Zippo pressed against his palm. She still hasn't slept and she still doesn't smoke and he still won't ask someone else for the metaphorical (she thinks) light.

"I don't smoke," she says wearily, pulling her hair up into a ponytail as she goes by, a multitude of color in a dreary downtown subsection. He doesn't say anything, just watches her and her lime green high tops shuffle down the street.

"Maybe you should start," he calls, and when she whips around to look at him, he smirks a sideways little smirk and pushes off the wall, disappearing into an alleyway with a one handed salute.

Kairi starts getting a ride with Yuffie to work.

"You know, for someone who is obviously stalking me, you sure don't seem to want to actually talk to me."

"Maybe I'm just waiting for the worst possible moment to try."

"Kairi, you look like crap."

The redhead in question glances up from her notebook, the bags under her eyes more profound then before, her hair a disarray of tangles, her face gaunt and pale. Riku sits down next to her, muffin in hand, and stretches his legs out, deciding to simply sit there and wait for her to talk to him. He always was better at listening then Sora, prone to waiting until the very end to ask questions, questions which were few and far in between.

"I haven't slept in a while," she mumbles, raking her fingers through her hair, wincing as she combs out knots painfully. Riku closes his eyes and nods, waiting for her to continue (begin).

"I've been having weird dreams. Ones I can't remember, but don't want to keep having. It's just a feeling I have, like, the more I have them, the more I'll depend on them; or something like that. I've been having them ever since Axel started….doing whatever it is he's doing. I think they're about him, but I don't know, since I can't remember. I ran into him the other day, after five weeks of not a word, and I almost did something I now know I would've regretted. It's just…everything is weird right now."

Riku smirks a little, the tiny smirk he used to have when they were younger and he knew something they didn't and wasn't about to tell. Kairi looks at him, waiting for questions or a scolding or some kind of cliché advice best friends give one another. She doesn't get any of that though; she gets a one armed hug, her head pressed against his shoulder as he takes another bite out of his muffin.

"Don't you feel better now?" he mutters and she nods into his trench coat, grinning a little.

"Why are you so collected all the time?" she asks, looking up at him from the corner of her eye. He shrugs, the movement making her head shake, and picks up her notebook, leafing through the pages. She'd been in the process of writing her English essay on 'Macbeth', occasionally jotting down ideas for future paragraphs in the margin.

"Because I'm not a total sap like you... and Sora," he adds as an afterthought, and Kairi punches him in the arm lightly, smiling.

Yuffie's shift gets changed and Kairi ends up going back to walking to work, back to passing him and his Zippo and his green eyes and his red hair. He doesn't mention her absence, but she can see the way his lips quirk upwards, the way his eyes narrow, the way he slouches a little more.

"Miss me that much?" he says, over enunciating, cigarette dangling loosely between his lips. She scowls at him and flicks a stray strand of hair out of her eyes.

"Oh yes, terribly. How could I not miss the only person causing me heavy anxiety and deep annoyance?"

"Your words wound me." He clutches his chest dramatically and makes gasping noises. Kairi snorts.

"Well, it's nice to know I can cause you pain in some form or another. I'll be sure to use my advanced articulating skills as a weapon more often."

And as Axel quirks an eyebrow and remains silent as she passes by, Kairi realizes she probably should've started retorting to his teasing and provoking a lot sooner.

It's a Saturday and for once, Kairi doesn't have to work. It's been a week since she's last seen Axel, and she's thankful Naminé asked her to join her on her expedition for art supplies. She thinks some quality time with her sister will help take her mind off everything.

"So, how are things with Sora and Riku?" Kairi asks casually as they browse street vendors, Naminé occasionally (constantly) picking up a paintbrush or a paint can or a set of pastels to glance over. The blond looks up from the sketchbook she's flipping through, cheeks tinted pink.

"Things are fine," she mumbles, tucking some of her hair behind her ear.

Kairi's eyebrow shoots upwards.

"What did they get you for your birthday?" she asks, even though she knows the answer and she has a feeling Naminé knows she does too. She doesn't miss the way her sister's big blue eyes light up as she talks about the rainbow of color she'd been shown and how she'd been so grateful and awed and everything in between.

"And, Sora says him and I should go back there sometime soon. He was so excited…" Naminé trails off, smiling a little (a lot) as she puts the sketchbook back down. Kairi sighs and decides to play older sister for once.

"What about Riku?"

Naminé freezes, tightening her grip on the paintbrush between her hands.

"Riku…he's different. He got mad for no reason the other day. One second, the three of us, Sora, Riku and I that is, are eating ice cream and the next…he just exploded."

Kairi scowls, because she knows there's something more to it. Riku doesn't just explode, though Kairi has known for a while that when it comes to her sister, he's a little more touchy (emotional, soft, talkative, in love) then normal.

"What happened right before he got mad?"

Naminé's cheeks turn a dull red as she stumbles and stutters over her words, dropping the paintbrush and busying herself with fiddling with the end of her paint splattered skirt. "Well," she mutters, bottom lip between her teeth, "Sora told me I had ice cream on my cheek and swiped it off with his finger…" She blushes harder. "And then Riku just snapped. He started saying things like Sora and I would be better off without him or how he doesn't seem to exist and how I should just marry Sora and I don't know what to do!"

Kairi rolls her eyes and hugs the blond.

"I'll talk to the idiot next time I see him, okay?"

Naminé mumbles something resembling a 'thank you' into Kairi's patch covered shirt and neither girl mentions it for the rest of the day.

"Riku, stop being a moron and go apologize."

Riku glances up from his book, silver bangs falling to the side, and quirks an eyebrow at his best friend since the age of two. Kairi stands next to him, attempting to loom much like Yuffie had that one dreary day. A few people stop and glance their way, before resuming to the counter to buy a coffee. Even on their days off, employees at Hearts ended up hanging out there anyways.

"Hello to you to, Kairi. How are you on this fine morning?" he drawls, and Kairi glares at him, poking him in the nose with one finger, her other hand at her hip. Riku's eyebrow goes higher, if possible, and the two of them fail to notice the stares they're receiving from fellow patrons.

"Apologize to my sister, you jerk, before I beat you."

Riku's eyebrow falls back alongside its significant other as his incredulous look turns into a frown.

"Oh, that," he says, closing his book and craning his neck to look up at the agitated (angry, frustrated, glowering) redhead above him. Kairi's glare doesn't falter.

"Oh, that? You're lucky I don't smack you upside the head and drag you over to her apartment."

Riku snorts.

"You sound like Yuffie."

Kairi looks horrified for a moment, then scowls at him. She'd been doing a lot of scowling as of late.

"Shut up and go talk to her."

Riku's eyebrow shoots back up again. Kairi resists the urge to follow through with her previous threat and smack him across the head.

"I really don't think I should be taking advice from you of all people."

It's Kairi's turn to look disbelieving. Riku opens his book back up and takes a bite of his ever present muffin.

"Why's that?"

He doesn't even glance at her as he responds, opting instead to turn to the next page of his novel.

"You have a stalker, yet you fail to report him to the police, don't tell us about him until we pester it out of you and you won't tell him to back off. If anything, I should do the opposite of everything you say from now on."

Kairi glares at him for a minute, then gawks, then slumps into the seat next to him and groans, head in her hands. The familiar feeling of déjà vu overcomes her as she realizes she was in this position with Yuffie not all that long ago. The corner of Riku's mouth twitches just a little, a sign that he's trying not to smirk or grin. Kairi's words are muffled by her hands, some of her hair slipping out of its ponytail.

"…oh God."

"Reality just set in?" Riku inquires, chewing on his muffin slowly. Kairi nods.

"Yes."

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Riku swings an arm around her shoulders and pats her right arm comfortingly. Kairi leans on him and grumbles in response:

"Well, duh."

"Would you stop asking me if I have a light on me? I told you already; I don't smoke."

One week, two days, one hour and thirty three seconds after their seventh (first, second, fifth, eighth, she was never good at math) encounter and the first thing Kairi does when she sees him is back herself up against a wall as he quirks an eyebrow at her and steps closer; a rather stupid (intentional) mistake on her part. This was her chance to make him leave her alone, her chance to move on and maybe get some sleep for once. This was her chance to prove Riku wrong. Axel's lip twitch upwards in something that's akin to a smile, and not quite a smirk. His Zippo glides up her arm, and her breath hitches just a little. He steps closer, until they're almost touching, but not quite (too close, too close, back up, back up) and she feel the warmth radiating off his body.

"Would you stop acting like you don't enjoy this?" he teases, lighter gliding over her exposed collarbone. "It's not all that bad, you know. It doesn't bite. Not like me." And he smirks at her in this feral sort of way, teeth slightly exposed. Kairi's brain is on overdrive, every scenario possible running through her head as he leans a little closer (not close enough, not close enough, not close enough) and the lighter slides a little lower.

"You're too old for me," she breathes, eyes fluttering shut for just a moment. She wonders if he'll take advantage of that fact and kiss her. She wonders if she'd mind. She wonders why it's always raining when they meet. She wonders when she's going to wake up and realize how wrong this all is, because she barely knows him, barely knows his name, barely knows what she's doing.

"I'm not too old for you. You're too young for me," he says, and she opens her eyes and looks at him and his tattoos and his green eyes and his (not so loose) lips. The rain falls harder and his lighter is starting to disappear beneath the collar of her shirt, his other arm next to her head, flush with the dirty brick of the Sushi Shack.

And she realizes, standing there, with a complete stranger, that what she wants might not be what she gets if she continues what she's doing. Ducking under the arm next to her head, she picks up her canvas bag, the one she dropped when she hit the wall, and walks away, not bothering to look back.

"I have to go to work," she calls over her shoulder, telling herself she'll never see him again, because she isn't ready for spontaneity quite yet and he's everything but routine.

(liar)

"You're avoiding him." Yuffie looks at her pointedly as she dries off a plate and stacks it on top of another. Kairi scrubs at a bowl, the hairnet she's wearing making her head itch.

"Of course," she says, rinsing the bowl out and handing it to the ebony haired girl next to her. "I can't keep living like this."

Yuffie looks thoughtful for a moment, scratching at her leg with one hand while the other places the bowl on the counter. "Has it gotten any better? Since you started avoiding him, I mean."

Kairi sighs and rinses off a spoon.

"Yes, and that's the worst part."

Months after her meeting with Axel, the one she still occasionally (constantly) dreams about, Kairi comes home to apartment and finds Axel lazing around on her couch, casually flicking through channels on the television.

"What are you doing here?" She stands there, keys halfway to the shelf next to her, shopping bags on the ground next to her feet. Axel glances over his shoulder at her and waves mockingly, before turning back to her TV.

"Well, after it became apparent that you were avoiding me, which wasn't very nice by the way," he says, false sorrow lacing his words, "I decided to stalk some of your friends and find out how I could talk to you. Eventually, that short, spastic one, Luffie or whatever, told me she'd give me your address, so long as I didn't rape, maim, kill or harm you in any way. Really, Kairi; I think you need new friends."

Kairi stands there, processing everything he's said. Yuffie had sold her out and he'd gone looking for her. Kicking off her shoes, she finally speaks.

"I don't have a light, if that's what you're going to ask."

Axel sniggers from his position on the couch, flicking off the TV and sitting up to stretch. "I'm surprised. I thought that by now, you'd have assumed me asking you for a light was some kind of metaphorical bullshit." His t-shirt rises up a little as he lifts his arms over his head and arches his back.

Kairi tries (attempts, struggles, fails) to not stare and instead blinks rapidly and looks at the back of his head, confused (but not really).

"It wasn't?"

He smirks and saunters over to her, looking a bit like an animal about to pounce on its prey.

"Nope; just me messing with your head."

Kairi flushes as she once again finds herself pressed up against a wall (or door, in this case), Axel practically towering over her.

"How anti-climatic," she breathes and he chuckles, blowing in her ear.

"I know."

And he leans sideways, like he's about to kiss her, and Kairi pushes him off, because her mother always told her to not start things she can't finish and she knows for sure that she can not finish this (liar, liar, pants on fire).

"Get out." She pulls the door open and doesn't look at him. He's already got his shoes on, he didn't bring a coat, he can get out and she can move and she won't start back at square one with him. She won't.

He leaves without a word, footsteps echoing down the hall, down the stairs.

Kairi slumps down and wraps her arms around her knees.

She should've moved to the suburbs.

"I can't believe you told him where I live."

"Yes, well, it gets worse."

"How could it possibly get worse?"

"I hired him to work here."

"…I hate you and I quit."

"I figured you'd say that."

Kairi, though she wants to (yet doesn't), can't bring herself to quit working at Hearts, and instead makes sure that every shift she works never has her running into Axel at any point. Yuffie says she's ridiculous. Riku says she's in (so much) denial. Sora, who is still (not) oblivious and (not) confused, constantly asks her if she's okay. Kairi tells them she's just being cautious, but even being cautious can't save her when she's stuck covering for Yuffie on nightshift one February evening. Not even being cautious can save her from working with Axel, because Axel has a tendency to break all the rules and tear down barriers.

It's awkward, for Kairi at least. They don't say a word as they serve the occasional customer, mainly spending the evening cleaning up spilt sugar and cream and mopping up the floors. Axel doesn't even ask her if she has a light as he flicks his Zippo open and inhales his cigarette. Kairi has half a mind to tell him not to smoke inside, but also has half a mind to never speak to him again. So she resumes her mopping and pretends he doesn't exist (and fails, fails, fails).

"This is utterly retarded," he mutters behind her and within seconds, the mop hits the floor and he spins her around, hand on her wrist, green eyes brighter then she last remembered.

"Axel, what are you—"

He cuts her off with his mouth, his tongue pressing against her lower lip, one hand coming up to tangle in her hair. Kairi stands there, stone still, then pulls back, eyes a little (a lot) glazed over, breath coming out a little quicker. Axel smirks at her and leans in to kiss her again when she doesn't do anything.

"Axel," she mutters, backing up and shaking her head. "I can't do this."

"Why the hell not?" he hisses, advancing on her. His Zippo 'swish-flicks' repeatedly in his hand and Kairi side steps him. She's not going to be backed up against a wall again.

"Ever heard the saying 'Don't start something you can't finish'?" she asks, staring him down. He nods and stops walking towards her, shoving his lighter into his pocket. Kairi pushes her bangs out of her eyes and looks at him seriously.

"I can't finish this."

Axel looks at her, like he understands but doesn't, and Kairi doesn't blame him because it makes little sense to her but she thinks that's the only way to put it without darting around the subject excessively.

"Well," he begins scratching the back of his head. "Of course you can't."

Kairi looks at him and thinks he probably has a better clue to what she's saying then she does.

"Because, you didn't start it," he continues, smirking at her in that sideways sort of way. "I did though."

Kairi inhales sharply as he steps towards her, but doesn't try to avoid him.

"So I'm going to finish it."

Then he kisses her again, his hands on her hips (arms, sides, cheeks, thighs) and his tongue in her mouth and it doesn't matter that he's years older then her and that what he's doing is probably illegal and that he's probably had sex with a hundred woman while she's barely been kissed. None of it matters, even when his hand slips under her shirt and his lips press against her collarbone.

Because, for once, Kairi doesn't want to push him away.

Kairi is very glad she didn't move to suburbia.

Very glad.

a/n : my first axelkairi. you have no idea how much i love this pairing. seriously. if it were a man, i would sex it up and marry it. standard disclaimer applies.