Okay, I did it. I decided to do a Roxith themes challenge. Go me. It's probably gonna be one-shots rather than drabbles or sentences (because Roxith is SO FREAKIN' CUTE I can't limit it to a paragraph or what-ev.) so prepare yourselves for some Roxith spamming. Also, please provide feedback on whether you prefer I post these as chapters, or seperately. Thanks.

Oh, by the way, I'm using the list of theme's that starlit irisdescence used in 'Valse Triste'. To see what those are, go READ it! It's yummeh Zexiri goodness. :D

Anyways, the first theme is...Quarrel.

(because writing Roxas and Aerith bickering is just too fun)

Disclaimer: I do not own FF, KH1 or 2 or any of these entirely innocent characters. We're just playing.

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"Shopping?" Aerith was wearing a look that would've meant 'Are you freaking SERIOUS?!' if she'd been the type to use the word "freaking" in her daily vocabulary. It was honestly not a look Roxas had seen too terribly much. The two were sitting on one of the many conveniently placed benches that dotted the First District, discussing possible plans for the day.

They'd decided that, after coffee and awkward chitchat at her dinner table grew sort of old, that they should start going places, seeing things and finding new topics for discussion. The weather and sports scores were getting old. So, Aerith and Roxas had mutually agreed to alternate days, with her picking the activity one day, him the next and so forth.

It wasn't dating, each one told themselves repeatedly, it was a way to liven up the conversation. That was all.

Thus far, they'd toured the entire city (an activity that had left Roxas's feet aching from having to walk through every single side street that made up one of Aerith's 'shortcuts'. She just wondered why he'd collapsed to his knees and thanked her profusely when she agreed it was time for a rest.), gone to the movies (Roxas couldn't remember what they'd seen. After he accidentally bumped his fingers against hers in the jumbo tub of popcorn he kinda forgot about everything else – including breathing, for a moment, which had concerned Aerith slightly.) and visited a flower shop, tucked into a remote corner of the second district (if Roxas never had to be consulted whether he preferred lavender or purple pansies for a garden border again, he could die happy. Well, fade happy. Whatever, he'd be HAPPY. Aerith had just been patiently vexed by yet another one of the male species who didn't know the subtle differences between various colors.).

Now it was Roxas's turn to choose and he'd sprung this shocker – 'Let's go shopping today!' – which had left Aerith wearing her best 'what-the-crap' face. He had to admit though, for a 'what-the-crap' face it was still fairly sweet and polite, if completely and utterly puzzled.

"You...want to go...shopping?" Aerith repeated, tilting her head slowly to one side and blinking her large pale green eyes very slowly at Roxas.

"Yeah." he said, clearly wondering why she seemed so confused. "You told me there were some great shops in the Second District and you'd show me them someday. Well, today's the day."

Aerith still wore a faint frown as she reached up and absently brushed her long sienna-brown bangs out of her face, hoping her expression didn't belie her thoughts – Yes, but I thought I'd have to drag you in there. I never thought you'd VOLUNTEER...

"Well." she began slowly, folding her hands in her lap and taking a deep breath. "You do know you can pick whatever you want, right?" she ventured, a little hesitantly, trying to pick up any sort of clues from his expression as to what on earth was going on under that impossibly spiky golden hair. Aerith had always been modestly proud – if such a thing existed – of her ability to read people. But Roxas was severely trying this talent of hers.

Roxas blinked at her, brow furrowing slightly at the weird, searching look she was giving him. "Yeah..." he said slowly, starting to feel a little uncomfortable under her piercing gaze.

"Because, well, if you're picking that for me, you don't have to." Aerith said gently, but earnestly, trying to figure out if that's what he was trying to do. "I mean, if I really want to go shopping, we can go tomorrow, or the next day it's my turn to pick."

"I know. I wanna go." Roxas said matter-of-factly, with a cheerful, breezy smile.

Aerith faltered slightly under the smile (which somehow almost reminded her of something she'd forgotten). He did seem happy about...shopping. Well, of course it was perfectly acceptable for some men – boys, guys, males, whatever – to enjoy shopping. But she hadn't really expected Roxas to be one of them. Something about his slightly alternative style (mostly black on white clothes and elaborately gelled hair) and his almost brooding expression made it hard for her to imagine him wandering around the Second District with a bunch of shopping bags. It wasn't that him liking shopping was wrong, exactly. It was just...unexpected.

"Well." Aerith said again, taking a deep breath, then shrugging her slight shoulders. "If that's what you want, we'll go. You have enough munny?"

Roxas laughed as the two got to their feet and started towards Aerith's house, down the street a little, for her own cash to finance this shopping spree. "Believe me, I have plenty." he said, arching his eyebrows in a way she didn't quite understand.

"O-kay. One moment..." Aerith quickly stepped into her house, shutting the door almost too quickly, then leaning against it, with a deep frown. Had she been hallucinating? Or had Roxas, quiet, thoughtful, sometimes even dark Roxas actually just invited her to go...shopping?

"Odd." Aerith remarked to the hung-up coats and carefully arranged boots by the door. Then she sighed softly, trying to remind herself that she really barely knew Roxas. For all she knew he could be obsessed with penguins or, worse, have a secret addiction of some sort that he was taking care to hide from her.

When she thought about it that way, shopping didn't seem like such a big deal.

"Okay then." Aerith said in what she hoped was a bright and carefree tone as she pushed open her door and flashed a brilliant smile at the waiting teenager. She slipped her wallet into one of the carefully hidden pockets of her pale pink dress and carefully straightened the matching bow that held her hair in place. "I'm ready."

Roxas had apparently been studying his feet very intently, but upon hearing her voice, glanced up and offered a half-smile, pulled out of whatever thoughts he'd been burying himself in. Aerith absent-mindedly smoothed inexistent wrinkles from her skirt, a light furrow etched between her delicate brows. Sometimes he seemed so introverted, so withdrawn inside himself that she'd suddenly hear a voice that sounded suspiciously like hers, prattling on and on about the most nonsensical things, for the sole purpose of getting a reaction out of him. It was like she periodically needed to reassure herself that it was still possible to get him out of whatever contemplations he was constantly steeped in.

Sighing softly, Aerith glanced down at her feet as she fell into step with Roxas, noting with vague interest that her brown boots and his black sneakers were almost the same size (maybe he could even wear her shoes...all right, that thought had just wandered into the peculiar zone). Deep down she was almost becoming weary of trying to understand the moody, contemplative blond males in her life.

"All right," Aerith began on a whim, trying to make herself forget the other golden-haired young man who tended to stray into her thoughts. Roxas glanced up at her, hands buried deep into the pockets of his black jacket, both eyebrows arched expectantly. Steepling her fingers, Aerith cleared her throat and began, in a thoroughly business-like voice, "There's the Hatter's for starters, which is very nice, even if the owner is a bit odd, and the styles there are more designed for the general public, so it shouldn't cost too much. However, if you want quality, there's always Reno's, next door, but they have a lot of women's-wear, so you might be bored. Then there's O&M's, which is very classy, but ridiculously expensive. My personal favorite is Hayden's Formal, but..."

Aerith trailed off as she suddenly noticed the very confused, wide-eyed look Roxas was giving her, hardly paying attention to where he was going, so involved in giving her his own version of the infamous 'what-the-crap' face. He actually looked almost frightened by her elaborate explanation of all the stores in the Second District, head tilted to one side, brow furrowed, an extremely bewildered, rather uncomfortable half-scowl on his face.

When she finally looked at him, he blinked once or twice at her, then, cleared his throat as if to buy time. "Aerith." Roxas began, very slowly and carefully, as if speaking to a clearly deranged person, "Can I please ask: what in the name of all that's holy are you freakin' talking about?"

"What do you mean?" was the flower girl's puzzled reply, face falling as she realized this wasn't going to be as easy as she first imagined. She was learning that nothing was easy when you were interacting with Roxas. Not even a simple, ordinary, everyday shopping trip.

Roxas stopped abruptly, a few yards from the gate to the Second District, crossing his arms and raising one eyebrow – it was always the left one, Aerith had noticed by now, and it always quirked at this funny angle – at her. "I mean, why did you decide to abruptly start rattling off the names and descriptions of every single clothes store in the Second District?" he inquired.

His tone wasn't exactly sarcastic, but it was slightly flat and Aerith felt herself starting to get a little irritated with him. He really didn't need to act so dry with her. After all, this wasn't like shopping with Yuffie or another girl. She didn't know how she was supposed to explain the stores to a newcomer – a MALE newcomer – or what he was expecting by way of a summary of his options. She just didn't know what to do. And anyways, Aerith thought with a very mild frown, HE was the one who had wanted to go shopping.

With an exasperated sigh, Aerith crossed her arms and gave Roxas a patient, but bordering on vexed look. "I was simply trying to explain, Roxas," she began in her best reasonable, but firm voice, "Which stores carry what, so you'd know what you're dealing with. If you'd prefer to simply find out for yourself-"

"Clothes stores." Roxas interrupted, raising both eyebrows now, and pressing his lips together in a way that was decidedly annoyed.

"Yes." Aerith said, frowning slightly, not used to being interrupted by anyone.

"Stores that sell clothes." Roxas repeated, pronouncing the last word with at least four syllables, as if speaking to a very young child.

Through with being condescended to, Aerith just sighed wearily and, with a helpless, sort of 'what-can-you-do' shrug, said again, "Yes, Roxas. Clothes stores."

"Why?"

He sounded so genuinely confused and indignant that Aerith frowned slightly and eyed him. "You said you wanted to go shopping..." she said slowly, not quite understanding him now. Though really, when had she ever completely understood everything the blond boy said and did?

Roxas stared blankly at her for a moment. Then it was like someone flicked the light on, because a look of comprehension replaced the blankness and he nodded once or twice, slowly, with an understanding, "Ah, I see..."

"See what?" Aerith inquired in a mostly good-natured tone, really wishing he would enlighten her too. This entire conversation – well, it was more of an argument now, wasn't it? – was bordering on ridiculous.

He gave her that cute – did she just think cute? She meant, uh, CHARMING – crooked grin and, almost laughingly, said, "You thought I meant clothes shopping."

"Well." Aerith said, taken aback, but still vaguely relieved that their quarrel seemed to be over. He was smiling. That was always good. "Yes." Truthfully, to Aerith (and probably every other female in existence) 'shopping' equaled several hours wandering around buying clothing. It had never occurred to her that he might mean something else.

Roxas laughed for real this time, shaking his head and raking his fingers backward through his hair. "Well, I guess that's my fault." he remarked, glancing down and examining his shoes. Aerith glanced at his feet briefly, wondering why he was addressing them rather then her, then sighed in a fond way and rolled her eyes. No use trying to understand the peculiar boy. Every time she thought she knew him, he surprised her.

Now, clearing his throat rather awkwardly and sticking his hands in his pockets, Roxas met her eyes again and said, almost sheepishly, "I mean like, stuff-shopping. You know. Touristy...junky...weird...crappy... stuff. Like dumb plastic keychains and lame t-shirts."

"Oh." Aerith said, considering this for a moment with her lips pursed, giving her a very cute almost pouty look that (though she was unaware of this) really didn't help Roxas's nervous state too terribly much. "Well, I suppose that makes more sense." she said with a little laugh of her own, that beautiful, happy smile back on her face.

"Yeah..." Roxas said slowly, looking back at his feet. They were getting a lot of attention today. "Sorry if I...didn't make that clear."

"It's fine." Aerith said with a little shrug, tossing her braid back over her shoulder. Then she cleared her throat, touching his shoulder briefly, then gesturing at the gate to the Second District. "In that case, we should try Moore's. It's a sort of novelty shop, it has everything."

Roxas nodded, though really he hadn't heard a single word of it. He was too busy trying to make his legs move, every bit of his brain centered on the spot where she'd just touched him. Aerith smiled again, softer this time, pausing in the midst of opening the door to look over her shoulder and motion him over with a graceful – how could she make even THAT graceful? – jerk of her head. "C'mon, before the moogles buy all your plastic keychains." She said with a little laugh.

Forcing himself out of his dreamy, dazed thoughts (which included, but weren't limited to never washing his shoulder again) Roxas gave an apologetic grin and hurried after her.

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Okay, first of all, to explain - I did not decide, in my perpetual daze induced by playing KH too many times, that I was going to make Roxas a shopaholic. You may not believe me, but it's CANON.

Manga canon, yes...but CANON NONETHELESS!!

Seriously, in the KH2 manga, the reason Roxas doesn't have enough money to take the train to Sunset Hill (or whatever it's called) is because he bought an Easter Island tissue dispenser.

I'm not lying. AN EASTER-FREAKIN'-ISLAND TISSUE DISPENSER!!!!!!!! (the tissues come out of the nostrils. XD I'll provide a link to the scan, if you don't believe me)

If that's not a sign of severe shopaholicism, nothing is...oh, by the way, the next ficlet is sort of a sequel to this one. But, because I'm a mean little writer (and I'm exhausted and have to get up in about 6 hours) I'm gonna post that one tomorrow...hope you all enjoy!!

(by the way, all the shop names have special significance. PM me if you figger them out...)