Binary -- Chapter Three
Title: Binary
Author: Lost Forevermore or Woebegone121
Rating: R for swearing and themes. (as of now. Rating is subject to change.)
Pairings: Sora/Riku, Axel/Roxas, and various other random scatterings
Genre: Mystery/Romance
Disclaimer: If I owned it, Kingdom Hearts would be a musical.
Warnings: Slash, language, possible adult content, eighties metal music, Motley Crüe, Guns 'n Roses, Savage Garden, fat cats, Roxas' mouth, Axel's lighter, Sora with a motorcycle license, crappy apartments, and excessive amounts of randomly named bands that may or may not have anything to do with each other.
Summary: Detective AU. It all started with a motorcycle accident, a missing blond, and a stolen computer disc. Now Riku's tracking his so-not-boyfriend and a hotheaded blond down with the help of his rock-obsessed, pyromaniac, partner-in-fighting-crime and his secretary who still hasn't figured out that she works for him, not the other way around. Not to mention the gang that's trying to kill them. And poor Riku's mop still isn't magical.
And the formatting is evil, but I'll fix it later.
Also featuring a cameo of my favorite pairing.
Or, at fanfiction.net.
Links to previous:
One: Kickstart My Heart Two: Surrender
Chapter 3: I Can’t Drive 55
At the young age of sixteen, Axel had a dream. In order to achieve his dream, he worked a good number of crappy jobs throughout high school and college, saving every penny that he could and mooching off of Riku for things that were generally considered necessary, like food and shelter. He only managed to achieve his goal so soon thanks to a well-played five dollars and a lucky scratch-off ticket. After jumping around, waving his arms, screaming at the top of his lungs, and nearly throwing out Riku’s back when he jumped into his arms, he immediately stole Riku’s car and went out to chase his dream.
He returned three hours later with his dream achieved.
To Riku, this posed a problem.
“I would like to point out, for the hundredth time, that detectives are supposed to be subtle,” Riku pointed out, for, as he mentioned, the hundredth time that Tuesday morning. “Tell me, Axel, how is a bright red Firebird inconspicuous?”
“Technically,” Axel corrected, “it’s crimson.” He ignored Riku’s eye-roll and went on with the same argument that Riku had heard every time he’d brought this up. “And do you really think I’m getting in that awful thing you drive after riding in this?”
“Spoiled brat,” Riku replied, leaning back against the black leather seat and silently agreeing with the redhead. He reached over and drowned out Axel’s reply with the melodious voice of Axel’s namesake. Three songs, two nearly-ran stop signs, and a crimson light later, Axel turned the music down.
“So I was thinking,” he began.
“Don’t scare me like that, man,” Riku deadpanned.
Axel ignored his comment. “The blond kid, Roxas? He looks familiar. His name sounds familiar too, but I can’t place him.” He thumped the heel of his hand in time with the bass line of ‘Welcome to the Jungle,’ going on as the light changed. “And honestly, how many Roxases - Roxii? - do you know? It’s not a common name.” Frowning suddenly, he leaned back in his seat. “Man, what’s possessing parents these days? What the hell kind of name is ‘Roxas?’ How come you don’t meet any, I dunno, Roberts or anything? What happened to good ol’ ‘Bob’?”
“Axel.”
The redhead ignored Riku. It was something he was very good at. “I don’t know any Roxas other than the one, so I have to remember him from somewhere. I know a lot of Cids, tho-“
“Axel!” Riku interrupted before the redhead could get too far off-track. “Back to Roxas. And you missed Third Street.”
Axel swore and did an illegal u-turn, resulting in a good number of honking horns, angry shouts, and Riku’s first near-death experience of the day.
“Jesus Christ, Axel!” Riku gasped when he felt his heart start beating again.
“Where?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Riku closed his eyes, reminding himself that he didn’t want to wind up a prison bitch. “Just find the goddamn building.”
“You’re grumpy today, man. You forget to take some Midol?” Axel frowned again, thinking. “…What were we talking about?” he asked as he turned the wrong way down a one-way street.
“Just. Drive,” Riku ground out through gritted teeth as he held on for dear life and prayed to whatever god was listening.
EXP Delivery was located in a small group of warehouses on 23rd Street. The lobby was through a door in the very first, and from the moment Riku walked in, he could hear Kairi’s voice in his head. “Their receptionist gets a fax machine. And that’s a real plant!”
He shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of his secretary’s voice, failed, and walked up to the counter where the pretty brunette sat typing at the computer. She hit enter and turned in her chair, smiling at them. “What can I do for you?” she asked.
“We need to speak to…” He glanced down, pulling the business card out of his pocket. “Tifa Lockhart, if we can.”
The girl nodded and stood, moving to the door behind her. “I’ll see if she’s busy. Just a few minutes.”
Axel grinned at her. “Thanks, honey.”
She vanished behind the door and the pair took a seat in the not-cracked fake leather seats. Riku looked around at the spotless room, complete with a TV in the corner. It put their lobby to shame. Axel, meanwhile, was flipping through a magazine uninterestedly.
“Well, here you go, man. ‘Twenty-Five Ways to Please Your Man.’” Axel held up the magazine and Riku quirked an eyebrow.
“I’m not the one who needs help in that department,” Riku replied.
Axel flipped him the bird, but said nothing more than that, turning the pages of the magazine without really reading them. Finally, he abandoned it and took out the lighter he always had with him, flipping it open and shut, an annoying habit he’d developed after he had quit smoking. Riku generally kept his mouth shut about it, though, ultimately choosing the sound over the smell of cigarette smoke.
“Alright, I’ll bite,” he said a few minutes later. “What’s bothering you?”
Axel shook his head. “That kid’s driving me nuts. I can’t remember him for the life of me, but I know I’ve seen him before.” He lit the lighter one more time before sliding it back into his pocket, choosing instead to take out his Memo pad. Flipping through it, he just frowned. “…Damn.”
Riku glanced at the pad as well, but couldn’t make head or tails of Axel’s strange method of note-taking beyond the odd boob-phone. And that was only because the redhead had explained it to him. “You don’t think it was any of the undercover crap we did awhile back, do you?”
Axel shrugged. “Might’ve been. I dunno. That was a long time ago and we met a lot of people.”
“It wasn’t a ‘long time ago,’” Riku replied. “A year is not a ‘long time ago.’”
“Nor is it a galaxy far, far away.” Closing the Memo pad, he slipped it back into his pocket. “I’ll remember it if it’s worth remembering.”
Riku blew out a sigh, leaning back in the fake leather seat, ignoring the ghost of rope burn along his wrists and inwardly not blaming the redhead for forgetting. The door behind the counter opened again just as he was about to say so aloud, jolting him from the past and back into the present, thankfully.
“You’re good to go!” the receptionist said cheerfully, her bouncy curls just bouncing away on her shoulders. “Go ahead and go on back, she should be around somewhere.”
They stood, pasting on smiles and thanked her, walking past, through the door that led to the chaos of the warehouse. Immediately upon crossing the threshold, they were in someone’s way and being shouted at to, “Move your asses, lamers!” They did, stepping back against the wall, and eyeing the busy warehouse. Riku decided that this was probably what Frogger felt like.
“Alright,” Axel said, looking around at the mass of people, all dressed in the same EXP Delivery uniform. “What’s this Tifa chick look like?”
Riku shrugged. “I don’t know.” He found that he had to shout over the noise of the workers. “What would you look like if you were Tifa?”
An odd look crossed the redhead’s face. “…Man. That’s an… interesting image.”
Riku glanced over at him and smirked. “Nah. You’ve got the hips for it.”
“Makes my Saturday nights interesting,” Axel replied. “Hey, I found Tifa.” He pointed out the only woman who wasn’t wearing a bright blue uniform.
“How do you know?” Riku asked. “She looks like just another chick to me.”
“I’m psychic, of course,” Axel answered with a look that clearly said, ‘Duh.’
Tifa turned and Riku saw her name in bright orange letters on the back of her shirt. “Liar,” he said.
“Am I, Riku?” Axel looked over at him, a thoughtful look on his tattooed face. “Hm. I wonder.”
Sometimes, Riku did too.
He put Axel’s possible extrasensory perception aside for the moment and carefully approached Tifa, dodging people and generally feeling like a moving a target. She turned and gave them a once-over, a twice-over in Axel’s case, before smiling at them and sliding her pen behind her ear.
“You must be the boys Olette mentioned,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Riku said. “I’m Detective Ito, and this is Detective Kearney. We’re here to ask you a few questions about Roxas Martel.”
Tifa frowned. “He’s a thief.”
A movement in the corner of Riku’s eye told him that Axel was pulling out the Memo pad and a pen. “Why do you say that?” the redhead asked.
“A delivery goes missing and an employee doesn’t show up for work afterwards?” she replied. “Suspicious.” She shook her head, nearly losing the pen behind her ear. “It’s probably nothing to get worked up over, just a blank CD, but I don’t want a thief working for me.”
“How long did he work here?” Axel asked.
Tifa thought for a minute. “A year, maybe more. You’d have to get the exact details from Olette.”
“She’s the receptionist, right?” Axel questioned, jotting the name down in his pad. Tifa nodded.
“Do you do background checks on your employees?” Riku asked.
The woman nodded again. “A lot of them have minor things, fights and such when they were kids. I remember Roxas’ though. He checked out completely clean, there was absolutely nothing on his report. The whole stolen CD business was unexpected, to say the least.” She sighed. “He had an attitude, but he was a hard worker and he got the job done well.”
“Did he have any friends around here?”
“Olette, a couple of guys in packing,” Tifa replied. “And he and Hayner Elliott were nearly inseparable.”
A loud crash sounded somewhere, and the three looked toward the noise.
“Well, that’s my cue,” she said, smiling at them. “You can probably find Olette and Hayner in the break room. They have lunch right about now.”
Axel nodded, closing his pad. “Thank you, Ms. Lockhart.”
She grinned at him. “You’re welcome, weirdo.”
Clipboard in hand, she walked away, her name in bright orange on the back of her shirt. The redhead stared after her, dumbfounded, an odd mix of shock and righteous anger on his face.
“I am not weird!” he finally exclaimed indignantly.
Riku gave him a sideways study, taking in the porcupine hairdo, mismatched accessories that had defined Axel since high school, and the Beavis and Butthead tie.
“Of course not, Axel.”
Axel didn’t catch the sarcasm practically oozing from Riku’s ears.
They wandered around for about ten minutes, getting in the way and being yelled at for it before they finally found the break room hidden in the very back behind a bunch of empty crates. Olette, the receptionist, was sitting on a crate on one side of the door, next to a brown-haired kid with a goofy grin. They were looking at each other in a way that reminded Riku of junior high. On the other side of the door stood a pair of people who, very frankly, looked like they could have kicked Riku’s ass from 23rd Street to Timbuktu. They were standing close enough to touch, looking away from each other in a way that reminded him of senior year.
“We’re looking for Hayner,” he said bluntly.
They all glanced over at the closed door to the break room. Axel raised an eyebrow and smirked.
“Well, um…” Olette looked back at them, a finger on her cheek as though thinking of a way to break the bad news to them gently without having to get up and leave the smiling boy behind.
The burly guy on the other side of the door spoke up. “He’s kind of busy, y’know?” The girl beside him studied them for a moment, her visible red eye pausing to take in Axel’s appearance.
Riku moved forward, hand outstretched to open the door. Suddenly, the girl had him by the arm, and Riku found her much stronger than she looked. “Busy,” she reiterated.
“Look, miss,” he said, “I need to speak to Hayner Elliott.”
The girl released his arm with a shrug that clearly said, “Suit yourself,” and stepped back, her arms crossed. The detective watched her for a moment before knocking on the door. It didn’t open, so he tried the knob, only to find it locked. This inspired him to knock a little harder.
The door was suddenly ripped open to reveal a slightly disheveled and royally pissed off platinum blond. “What the hell do you want?” he growled at Riku, who was dismayed to find the guy an inch or two taller than him.
“Are you Hayner?” he asked.
“No,” the blond snapped. “Hayner’s…” He smirked suddenly. “Hayner’s a little tied up right now.”
Riku scowled right back at him. “I need to speak with him.”
The blond rolled his eyes. “Okay, look,” he said. “I have a twenty minute lunch break and a very willing Hayner on my hands, so you’re going to have to come back-“
“Seifer Almasy, if you don’t get your ass back here and finish what you fucking started, this is never happening again!”
The blond smirked at the interruption. Riku handed him a business card from his pocket, ignoring the fact that his face was burning for the umpteenth time in two days and Axel laughing his ass off behind him.
“Just have him come by later or something,” he said. The blond took the card and slammed the door in his face. Riku turned to face Olette.
“Okay,” he began. “I’m going to need to ask you a few questions about-“ He was suddenly cut off by his cell phone ringing in his pocket. “Excuse me, miss.” He flipped open the phone. “No, I don’t have your donuts yet.”
“Forget the donuts,” Kairi replied. Riku’s brow furrowed. Now, that just wasn’t right.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. Axel glanced over at him, closing the Memo pad. He mouthed Kairi’s name to the redhead before asking her, “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “Okay, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I just renewed your car insurance about an hour ago.”
A bad feeling began weighing down like a stone in the pit of Riku’s stomach. “…What’s the bad news?” he asked, even though he didn’t really want to know.
“Well,” Kairi said, and he could see her pursing her lips in his mind. “I really don’t know any way to break this to you gently, so I’m just going to tell you very frankly. Riku, your car blew up.”
“…Kairi, I don’t think I have good service in here or something,” Riku said. “It sounds like you just said that my car blew up.”
“Oh, sorry!”
Oh, good.
“What I should have said is that your car spontaneously combusted. It’s now a burning fireball in the parking lot. The police are already on their way. Don’t forget my donuts. And your insurance covers this.”
Riku wanted to scream. He wanted to throw the phone to the floor and shout obscenities at the top of his lungs. Instead, he asked one simple question that probably kept Kairi from killing him for scaring her further.
“What kind of donuts do you want?"
Chapter Four
Author: Lost Forevermore or Woebegone121
Rating: R for swearing and themes. (as of now. Rating is subject to change.)
Pairings: Sora/Riku, Axel/Roxas, and various other random scatterings
Genre: Mystery/Romance
Disclaimer: If I owned it, Kingdom Hearts would be a musical.
Warnings: Slash, language, possible adult content, eighties metal music, Motley Crüe, Guns 'n Roses, Savage Garden, fat cats, Roxas' mouth, Axel's lighter, Sora with a motorcycle license, crappy apartments, and excessive amounts of randomly named bands that may or may not have anything to do with each other.
Summary: Detective AU. It all started with a motorcycle accident, a missing blond, and a stolen computer disc. Now Riku's tracking his so-not-boyfriend and a hotheaded blond down with the help of his rock-obsessed, pyromaniac, partner-in-fighting-crime and his secretary who still hasn't figured out that she works for him, not the other way around. Not to mention the gang that's trying to kill them. And poor Riku's mop still isn't magical.
And the formatting is evil, but I'll fix it later.
Also featuring a cameo of my favorite pairing.
Or, at fanfiction.net.
Links to previous:
One: Kickstart My Heart Two: Surrender
Chapter 3: I Can’t Drive 55
At the young age of sixteen, Axel had a dream. In order to achieve his dream, he worked a good number of crappy jobs throughout high school and college, saving every penny that he could and mooching off of Riku for things that were generally considered necessary, like food and shelter. He only managed to achieve his goal so soon thanks to a well-played five dollars and a lucky scratch-off ticket. After jumping around, waving his arms, screaming at the top of his lungs, and nearly throwing out Riku’s back when he jumped into his arms, he immediately stole Riku’s car and went out to chase his dream.
He returned three hours later with his dream achieved.
To Riku, this posed a problem.
“I would like to point out, for the hundredth time, that detectives are supposed to be subtle,” Riku pointed out, for, as he mentioned, the hundredth time that Tuesday morning. “Tell me, Axel, how is a bright red Firebird inconspicuous?”
“Technically,” Axel corrected, “it’s crimson.” He ignored Riku’s eye-roll and went on with the same argument that Riku had heard every time he’d brought this up. “And do you really think I’m getting in that awful thing you drive after riding in this?”
“Spoiled brat,” Riku replied, leaning back against the black leather seat and silently agreeing with the redhead. He reached over and drowned out Axel’s reply with the melodious voice of Axel’s namesake. Three songs, two nearly-ran stop signs, and a crimson light later, Axel turned the music down.
“So I was thinking,” he began.
“Don’t scare me like that, man,” Riku deadpanned.
Axel ignored his comment. “The blond kid, Roxas? He looks familiar. His name sounds familiar too, but I can’t place him.” He thumped the heel of his hand in time with the bass line of ‘Welcome to the Jungle,’ going on as the light changed. “And honestly, how many Roxases - Roxii? - do you know? It’s not a common name.” Frowning suddenly, he leaned back in his seat. “Man, what’s possessing parents these days? What the hell kind of name is ‘Roxas?’ How come you don’t meet any, I dunno, Roberts or anything? What happened to good ol’ ‘Bob’?”
“Axel.”
The redhead ignored Riku. It was something he was very good at. “I don’t know any Roxas other than the one, so I have to remember him from somewhere. I know a lot of Cids, tho-“
“Axel!” Riku interrupted before the redhead could get too far off-track. “Back to Roxas. And you missed Third Street.”
Axel swore and did an illegal u-turn, resulting in a good number of honking horns, angry shouts, and Riku’s first near-death experience of the day.
“Jesus Christ, Axel!” Riku gasped when he felt his heart start beating again.
“Where?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Riku closed his eyes, reminding himself that he didn’t want to wind up a prison bitch. “Just find the goddamn building.”
“You’re grumpy today, man. You forget to take some Midol?” Axel frowned again, thinking. “…What were we talking about?” he asked as he turned the wrong way down a one-way street.
“Just. Drive,” Riku ground out through gritted teeth as he held on for dear life and prayed to whatever god was listening.
EXP Delivery was located in a small group of warehouses on 23rd Street. The lobby was through a door in the very first, and from the moment Riku walked in, he could hear Kairi’s voice in his head. “Their receptionist gets a fax machine. And that’s a real plant!”
He shook his head in an attempt to rid himself of his secretary’s voice, failed, and walked up to the counter where the pretty brunette sat typing at the computer. She hit enter and turned in her chair, smiling at them. “What can I do for you?” she asked.
“We need to speak to…” He glanced down, pulling the business card out of his pocket. “Tifa Lockhart, if we can.”
The girl nodded and stood, moving to the door behind her. “I’ll see if she’s busy. Just a few minutes.”
Axel grinned at her. “Thanks, honey.”
She vanished behind the door and the pair took a seat in the not-cracked fake leather seats. Riku looked around at the spotless room, complete with a TV in the corner. It put their lobby to shame. Axel, meanwhile, was flipping through a magazine uninterestedly.
“Well, here you go, man. ‘Twenty-Five Ways to Please Your Man.’” Axel held up the magazine and Riku quirked an eyebrow.
“I’m not the one who needs help in that department,” Riku replied.
Axel flipped him the bird, but said nothing more than that, turning the pages of the magazine without really reading them. Finally, he abandoned it and took out the lighter he always had with him, flipping it open and shut, an annoying habit he’d developed after he had quit smoking. Riku generally kept his mouth shut about it, though, ultimately choosing the sound over the smell of cigarette smoke.
“Alright, I’ll bite,” he said a few minutes later. “What’s bothering you?”
Axel shook his head. “That kid’s driving me nuts. I can’t remember him for the life of me, but I know I’ve seen him before.” He lit the lighter one more time before sliding it back into his pocket, choosing instead to take out his Memo pad. Flipping through it, he just frowned. “…Damn.”
Riku glanced at the pad as well, but couldn’t make head or tails of Axel’s strange method of note-taking beyond the odd boob-phone. And that was only because the redhead had explained it to him. “You don’t think it was any of the undercover crap we did awhile back, do you?”
Axel shrugged. “Might’ve been. I dunno. That was a long time ago and we met a lot of people.”
“It wasn’t a ‘long time ago,’” Riku replied. “A year is not a ‘long time ago.’”
“Nor is it a galaxy far, far away.” Closing the Memo pad, he slipped it back into his pocket. “I’ll remember it if it’s worth remembering.”
Riku blew out a sigh, leaning back in the fake leather seat, ignoring the ghost of rope burn along his wrists and inwardly not blaming the redhead for forgetting. The door behind the counter opened again just as he was about to say so aloud, jolting him from the past and back into the present, thankfully.
“You’re good to go!” the receptionist said cheerfully, her bouncy curls just bouncing away on her shoulders. “Go ahead and go on back, she should be around somewhere.”
They stood, pasting on smiles and thanked her, walking past, through the door that led to the chaos of the warehouse. Immediately upon crossing the threshold, they were in someone’s way and being shouted at to, “Move your asses, lamers!” They did, stepping back against the wall, and eyeing the busy warehouse. Riku decided that this was probably what Frogger felt like.
“Alright,” Axel said, looking around at the mass of people, all dressed in the same EXP Delivery uniform. “What’s this Tifa chick look like?”
Riku shrugged. “I don’t know.” He found that he had to shout over the noise of the workers. “What would you look like if you were Tifa?”
An odd look crossed the redhead’s face. “…Man. That’s an… interesting image.”
Riku glanced over at him and smirked. “Nah. You’ve got the hips for it.”
“Makes my Saturday nights interesting,” Axel replied. “Hey, I found Tifa.” He pointed out the only woman who wasn’t wearing a bright blue uniform.
“How do you know?” Riku asked. “She looks like just another chick to me.”
“I’m psychic, of course,” Axel answered with a look that clearly said, ‘Duh.’
Tifa turned and Riku saw her name in bright orange letters on the back of her shirt. “Liar,” he said.
“Am I, Riku?” Axel looked over at him, a thoughtful look on his tattooed face. “Hm. I wonder.”
Sometimes, Riku did too.
He put Axel’s possible extrasensory perception aside for the moment and carefully approached Tifa, dodging people and generally feeling like a moving a target. She turned and gave them a once-over, a twice-over in Axel’s case, before smiling at them and sliding her pen behind her ear.
“You must be the boys Olette mentioned,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Riku said. “I’m Detective Ito, and this is Detective Kearney. We’re here to ask you a few questions about Roxas Martel.”
Tifa frowned. “He’s a thief.”
A movement in the corner of Riku’s eye told him that Axel was pulling out the Memo pad and a pen. “Why do you say that?” the redhead asked.
“A delivery goes missing and an employee doesn’t show up for work afterwards?” she replied. “Suspicious.” She shook her head, nearly losing the pen behind her ear. “It’s probably nothing to get worked up over, just a blank CD, but I don’t want a thief working for me.”
“How long did he work here?” Axel asked.
Tifa thought for a minute. “A year, maybe more. You’d have to get the exact details from Olette.”
“She’s the receptionist, right?” Axel questioned, jotting the name down in his pad. Tifa nodded.
“Do you do background checks on your employees?” Riku asked.
The woman nodded again. “A lot of them have minor things, fights and such when they were kids. I remember Roxas’ though. He checked out completely clean, there was absolutely nothing on his report. The whole stolen CD business was unexpected, to say the least.” She sighed. “He had an attitude, but he was a hard worker and he got the job done well.”
“Did he have any friends around here?”
“Olette, a couple of guys in packing,” Tifa replied. “And he and Hayner Elliott were nearly inseparable.”
A loud crash sounded somewhere, and the three looked toward the noise.
“Well, that’s my cue,” she said, smiling at them. “You can probably find Olette and Hayner in the break room. They have lunch right about now.”
Axel nodded, closing his pad. “Thank you, Ms. Lockhart.”
She grinned at him. “You’re welcome, weirdo.”
Clipboard in hand, she walked away, her name in bright orange on the back of her shirt. The redhead stared after her, dumbfounded, an odd mix of shock and righteous anger on his face.
“I am not weird!” he finally exclaimed indignantly.
Riku gave him a sideways study, taking in the porcupine hairdo, mismatched accessories that had defined Axel since high school, and the Beavis and Butthead tie.
“Of course not, Axel.”
Axel didn’t catch the sarcasm practically oozing from Riku’s ears.
They wandered around for about ten minutes, getting in the way and being yelled at for it before they finally found the break room hidden in the very back behind a bunch of empty crates. Olette, the receptionist, was sitting on a crate on one side of the door, next to a brown-haired kid with a goofy grin. They were looking at each other in a way that reminded Riku of junior high. On the other side of the door stood a pair of people who, very frankly, looked like they could have kicked Riku’s ass from 23rd Street to Timbuktu. They were standing close enough to touch, looking away from each other in a way that reminded him of senior year.
“We’re looking for Hayner,” he said bluntly.
They all glanced over at the closed door to the break room. Axel raised an eyebrow and smirked.
“Well, um…” Olette looked back at them, a finger on her cheek as though thinking of a way to break the bad news to them gently without having to get up and leave the smiling boy behind.
The burly guy on the other side of the door spoke up. “He’s kind of busy, y’know?” The girl beside him studied them for a moment, her visible red eye pausing to take in Axel’s appearance.
Riku moved forward, hand outstretched to open the door. Suddenly, the girl had him by the arm, and Riku found her much stronger than she looked. “Busy,” she reiterated.
“Look, miss,” he said, “I need to speak to Hayner Elliott.”
The girl released his arm with a shrug that clearly said, “Suit yourself,” and stepped back, her arms crossed. The detective watched her for a moment before knocking on the door. It didn’t open, so he tried the knob, only to find it locked. This inspired him to knock a little harder.
The door was suddenly ripped open to reveal a slightly disheveled and royally pissed off platinum blond. “What the hell do you want?” he growled at Riku, who was dismayed to find the guy an inch or two taller than him.
“Are you Hayner?” he asked.
“No,” the blond snapped. “Hayner’s…” He smirked suddenly. “Hayner’s a little tied up right now.”
Riku scowled right back at him. “I need to speak with him.”
The blond rolled his eyes. “Okay, look,” he said. “I have a twenty minute lunch break and a very willing Hayner on my hands, so you’re going to have to come back-“
“Seifer Almasy, if you don’t get your ass back here and finish what you fucking started, this is never happening again!”
The blond smirked at the interruption. Riku handed him a business card from his pocket, ignoring the fact that his face was burning for the umpteenth time in two days and Axel laughing his ass off behind him.
“Just have him come by later or something,” he said. The blond took the card and slammed the door in his face. Riku turned to face Olette.
“Okay,” he began. “I’m going to need to ask you a few questions about-“ He was suddenly cut off by his cell phone ringing in his pocket. “Excuse me, miss.” He flipped open the phone. “No, I don’t have your donuts yet.”
“Forget the donuts,” Kairi replied. Riku’s brow furrowed. Now, that just wasn’t right.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. Axel glanced over at him, closing the Memo pad. He mouthed Kairi’s name to the redhead before asking her, “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “Okay, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I just renewed your car insurance about an hour ago.”
A bad feeling began weighing down like a stone in the pit of Riku’s stomach. “…What’s the bad news?” he asked, even though he didn’t really want to know.
“Well,” Kairi said, and he could see her pursing her lips in his mind. “I really don’t know any way to break this to you gently, so I’m just going to tell you very frankly. Riku, your car blew up.”
“…Kairi, I don’t think I have good service in here or something,” Riku said. “It sounds like you just said that my car blew up.”
“Oh, sorry!”
Oh, good.
“What I should have said is that your car spontaneously combusted. It’s now a burning fireball in the parking lot. The police are already on their way. Don’t forget my donuts. And your insurance covers this.”
Riku wanted to scream. He wanted to throw the phone to the floor and shout obscenities at the top of his lungs. Instead, he asked one simple question that probably kept Kairi from killing him for scaring her further.
“What kind of donuts do you want?"
Chapter Four