Yakusoku [log]

[lingers]

Who: Axel [roxascomplex], Roxas [oathtooblivion], and Sakura [adversarykills]
Where: Roxas' house, of course.
When: Wednesday 15th August, around 6:30pm.
Summary: Sakura's back, and is busy making something for Roxas' return from training with Kairi. Roxas' attempts to stay angry with Sakura, but as usual, things don't quite turn out like that - resulting in a rather playful bantering session.
Notes: Yakusoku is japanese for 'promise'. The food Sakura is making actually does appear in Tsubasa Chronicle.

The clock in the corner of the kitchen chimed in with the busy sounds of cooking, ticking away the hours of daylight until twilight came early over the windows. Sakura payed it no mind, only pausing to wipe her brow, before picking up the wooden spoon once again, steadily warming the chocolate in its container over the gas fire. True to her original thoughts, she'd ventured straight to the kitchen, set on making Axel and Roxas something - partially, in an apology for clearing off, and also as a 'wecome back' gift.

The sweet smell seemed to attract a visitor into the mess she had created, who eyed her with curiousity. "What are you making?" Axel stood in the doorway, upon deciding that entering the room was not the best of ideas.

"Fondant au chocolat," Sakura replied simply, turning round to look at him briefly, before checking the heat. "I've seen it once, a-and my friend taught me, a-and..." in truth, Sakura had been given it as a gift once, when she was with her friends - it held great meaning for her. "I wanted to make onii-san something..."

"He'll be back soon," Axel mused - not that he could be sure, Roxas hadn't been quite specific that morning when he'd muttered something about not being home till late. "Best hurry up."

Sakura nodded. "Y-yes... everything's almost done, just got to finish it off.." she lapsed into silence, in which Axel left her to return to the living room, watching the clock there with interest.

What are you doing, Roxas? he thought irritably, before sighing and placing his arms securely behind the back of his head, listening to the sounds outside.

Wearily, Roxas fumbled with his keys, jamming the correct one into the lock of the front door and entering. As was routine as much as habit, his schoolbag was as always immediately left in the hallway as he closed the front door behind him and sighed, unmoving for a moment. Today had been a long day, what with the combination of school and then a long training session with Kairi, which he had a few scrapes and bruises to show for. Still that had been worth it: they were making progress.

Pocketing his keys again, he turned, but something made him freeze. Sakura's presence was here, there was no mistaking it. He didn't need any kind of supernatural sixth sense to notice as much, either, because a delicious smell was floating from the kitchen that certainly couldn't be from Axel's so-called 'cooking'. He wasn't all that sure he wanted to talk to Sakura just yet, however, and settled for finding Axel first instead.

And predictably, Axel was found lazing about the living room as always. Poking his head around the door, Roxas called, "Hey, Axel. When did Sakura get back?"

It took Axel a few seconds to respond, gradually lifting his head upright, and a grin formed on his face as he saw the familiar blonde spikes. "Hey, Roxas. She got back this afternoon - said she had to work first."

Stepping fully into the room, Roxas hesistated before he spoke. If Sakura's return was supposed to be good news, his expression looked like he thought otherwise. "...Oh, right. So she's not leaving again?"

Axel shook his head sternly. "No. She said it was a false trail - so she came back."

"Oh," Roxas replied again, folding his arms with a pensive frown. "Have you told her anything?"

"About your memories?" Axel confirmed, his eyes fixed firmly on Roxas. "No. She's been in there," he flicked his head slightly to indicate the kitchen, "all afternoon anyway - it's a state. Besides...that's your story to tell, not mine."

"And that would depend on if I wanted to tell it in the first place," Roxas replied cryptically, looking slightly apprehensive as Axel incated the kitchen. "Well, I suppose I'd better go see her."

"Guess you should," Axel replied bluntly, pushing himself to his feet and walking over in Roxas' direction. "Don't overly surprise her, mate. She'd probably drop something."

Roxas raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm not going to sneak up on her or anything, am I?" Unlike Axel's disconcerting habit of silently vanishing and reappearing around the house when you least expected it. Half the time he probably didn't even realise he was doing it. "I'm just gonna talk to her."

"I know you won't. Just fair warning," Axel shrugged. He had a nasty feeling that no matter how Roxas annoounced to Sakura he was back she was going to drop something anyway. He inclined his head again in the direction of the kitchen. "Best go see her, then."

"Yeah, yeah, stop nagging," Roxas grumbled irritably, heading for the kitchen. He was half-wondering whether he should just act the same as usual or demand to know just where the hell she'd cleared off to for so long - which was cut short when he found himself in the kitchen, looking immensely awkward. "...Hi Sakura."

Fortunately Axel's fears were unfounded, as Sakura was merely putting the finishing touches to her handiwork - as she heard her name, she glanced over her shoulder, before doing a double-take, releasing it was Roxas. "O-onii-san!" she said, smiling widely.

At this rate, Roxas wasn't going to manage angrily demanding anything with her smiling at him like that. Shifting uneasily, he stepped a little further into the kitchen, possibly interested in what she was making. "...It's sort of late, but..." He paused uncertainly. "Welcome back?"

In a split second, Sakura had covered the distance of the room, throwing her arms around Roxas' shoulder and squeezing him slightly in an embrace. "Thank you... I-I'm so sorry, onii-san..."

Roxas did not return the embrace, although he still allowed her to hug him. "--Wait, um, about that... Why were you gone so long?" It was a casual enough question - or at least Roxas hoped it was. He wasn't willing to let on that he missed her, perhaps just out of childish spite.

Her hold on his shoulders seemed to tighten momentarily at his question, before she answered, her tone drowning in sadness. "It took a while to find it, and when I did... it could have been there, then there was some problems, so I helped to fix it, and then I had to get back home again... I'm so sorry for leaving like that..." she insisted, biting her bottom lip to stop herself from crying, even though she was overjoyed at seeing him again.

"It's fine," Roxas replied, and although his words were sympathetic, his gaze was hard and cold. Even if it couldn't be helped, they'd both left him when he needed them most, and he felt a little resentful for it. Living alone was all well and good; you couldn't miss company you'd never had. But living with these two for months and months, getting attatched to them... Perhaps that had been a bad idea.

"N-no. It's not nice.. waiting by yourself..." she said heavily. Sakura knew that well - so, so, so well. All those times she'd had to wait, wait for Syaoran to come back, knowing nothing at all, only being able to sit by herself... it was horrible. She never wanted that for anyone else... yet she'd found herself doing it to Roxas. Even though the hold on her lip was firm, it didn't stop a solitary trail of tears falling from her eyes in silence, and before she could wipe them away, they fell from her face onto Roxas' clothes.

Surprised, Roxas managed to detatch himself from Sakura, taking a step backwards almost like he'd never seen anyone cry before. "You're crying," he pointed out in alarm, adding rather feebly, "C-calm down..."

Upon him pointing out, Sakura only seemed to manage closing her eyes, though the tears still came. "I-I was so worried..." she said quietly, pointing her face to the floor.

Girls crying was clearly not something Roxas was good at dealing with, half the time because he seemed to be the one that made them cry in the first place. Uneasily, he watched her, replying, "You were worried? Why?"

Sakura looked up at him, her eyes clear, now - still swimming with bright blue tears, so much that the green was almost lost. "For y-you... alone... by yourself."

"I was fine," Roxas lied, unable to meet her tear-filled eyes any longer. "I've always lived alone before you and Axel came about, it's nothing new."

"It's not fine!" Sakura said, her tone uneven, looking sideways at the wall. It was perhaps the first time she'd ever raised her voice in the prescence of Roxas, and her cheeks flushed in response to it, her voice lowering. "I've had it.. it's h-horrible, waiting, not knowing anything, and I put you through it..."

Once again surprised by her reaction, he blinked, unsure of what to say for a moment. Did she really think he'd been that worried? Perhaps he had, but she was still just jumping to conclusions. "Y-you're being overdramatic," Roxas swallowed, managing to look back at her now she'd looked away. "I'm sure it wasn't as bad as whatever you went through. You weren't gone that long."

"I-it's still bad..." Sakura said quietly - the sudden increase in volume on her part had only served to make her usual voice quieter. In a slight movement, she lightly grasped his left hand. "I'm sorry..." she repeated.

A part of Roxas wanted to continue to be mad at her, but rather like Axel it was it hard to keep it up. The crying wasn't helping. She still had no idea of what happened, even if she could relate to it... but Roxas wasn't about to enlighten her. "If you're really sorry, just leave it at that."

Nodding, Sakura let go of Roxas' hand, before fiercely wiping any of her remaining tears away. "Onii-san? I.. made something.. to apologize..." she trailed off.

"You didn't have to do that..." Roxas replied quickly, at the same time looking slightly relieved to have regained his hand. "...What did you make?"

She didn't answer straight away, instead turning around, and lifting up the tray steadily, holding it out in front of her, before returning to her prior position in front of Roxas. Three small, dome shaped pasteries with chocolate oozing out of the cracks sat there on seperate plates, each with a small covering of more chocolate sauce. "Fondant au chocolat," she said, smiling despite her tear-stained face. "One for each of us... and t-there's more, too..."

"Wow," Roxas' face lit up, their conversation from mere seconds ago seemingly forgotten already. "You made those? They look really nice. I wondered what smelled so good..."

Sakura blushed innocently, debating on arguing against that fact, but decided to not be so modest. "Thank you, onii-san.." she looked around. "Would... would you like one?"

"Of course, I'm starving. I'll go get Axel first," Roxas nodded, half-suspecting Axel had been lurking behind the kitchen door this entire time anyway, listening to their conversation.

"Okay.." Sakura nodded, turning sideways to the table. There was something.. refreshing about laying it again for the three of them, as she placed the plates in the corredsponding places. To think, if she had found her feather, she might not have ever done this again... she pushed the thought aside. She'd done enough crying for one night.

Roxas paused with one hand on the door, about to leave in his search for Axel, but he hesitated and glanced back at Sakura. "...Thanks for coming back. It wasn't the same without you."

Sakura paused, laying a hand gently on the table. "It wasn't the same without you, either."

At the slight movement of the door, the lurker that often went by the name of Axel twitched. He hadn't been listening in - or not for long, anyway, he'd only grown curious when it sounded like Sakura was yelling, and besides, he couldn't hear much when they were talking quietly - and now that Roxas was coming, it'd be best to just... seemingly disappear back in the living room.

However, it seemed his escape for freedom was too late, as he heard the door open fully as he reached the frame of the living room. Uh oh. Too late.

"Caught you red-handed," Roxas said instantly upon seeing Axel's retreating figure. Surprisingly, he looked more amused than annoyed, however, and said good-naturedly, "You know, if you wanted in on the conversation, you could've just asked to join us."

Axel looked all set to prove his innocence as he spun round, but from seeing Roxas' face, it just seemed to disintergrate. "Eh, well. It was just er, you wanted to talk to her and all," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, trying not to appear too guilty. A smile seemed to creep onto his face, however. ".. is that an invitation?"

"Yeah," Roxas said, even more amused if possible. Suddenly he was in a decidedly good mood, and he wasn't sure why. "Sakura's made us all something, if you're hungry."

"Like hell I am," his eyes widened, seeming to bound back down the corridor. It was a weird thing - after reluctantly (more like being sternly told or else he'd get Keybladed) been made to eat Sakura's food, and with the lack of it for the past couple of weeks, it was certainly something welcome. Axel didn't know when he'd quite got used to it, but he did. "No offense, but neither of us are exactly brilliant cooks," he mused as he came to stand alongside Roxas.

"At least I try to cook," Roxas replied in mock offense, still grinning and turning to head back into the kitchen. He was still partially wondering what on earth was wrong with himself: it felt like he hadn't smiled like this in a long, long time. "You can never resist burning anything you cook, Axel."

"Hey! I don't see why I can't use the fire-power to assist it when I have that fire power," Axel replied, weakly poking Roxas in the shoulder as he went past him.

"I'll take that as a confession. You just like burning things," Roxas rolled his eyes as they entered the kitchen, taking his usual place at the table and mock-glaring across at Axel. "You can easily cook as normally as anyone else."

"Of course, I'm a pyro," was Axel's reply, as if because he had reign over fire, it gave him the absolute right to burn things. "Says you," Axel replied, staring straight across the table opposite where Roxas was sitting, but his smile gave the game away - he was more amused than annoyed. "You just can't leave yours alone. You hardly cook normally."

Roxas, who had begun to eat, comically half-choked on his mouthful and had to swallow it forcefully before spluttering an indignant reply, "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Axel said pointedly, the grin broadening slightly, as he picked at the food with a fork, placing a little in his mouth. "You can't cook," he said, amused, jabbing his finger at an invisible point in the air on each word.

"I'll make a mental note never to cook your ungrateful hide anything again, then," Roxas grumbled. "At least be polite about it."

"You were the one who asked," Axel said in his defense. "Hey, don't give me that face," he said, frowning at the look that had appeared on Roxas' face.

Now leaving his food untouched so as not to instigate another choking session, Roxas replied innocently, "What face? I'm not giving any faces."

"Yes you are," it was Axel's turn to grumble, his eye twitching. "That one right now. Stop it," he said with semi-irritance chewing on a piece of fondant au chocolat.

Roxas covered his face with his hands, peering at Axel through a gap between his fingers. "There, better?" he half-laughed. "Sorry, I didn't realise my face annoyed you so much."

"No!" Seeming to run out of counter arguement for it, Axel finished chewing, and went for the first, most childish action that came into his head - that being, to stick his tongue out momentarily at Roxas.

"If this was your cooking, I'd throw it at you right about now. But it's Sakura's, which would make it a waste," Roxas replied with the best sickly-sweet, honey-coated voice he could muster, lowering his hands and resuming eating his cake to make his point.

"You wouldn't even touch mine to begin with," Axel bluffed, but his face showed irritation. Enough irritation, apparantly, to lift his foot from where it was resting on the floor, and stomp down on Roxas'. Not overly hard - but hard enough, and offered a similar smile to Roxas' in return - except it seemed more eerie than anything else.

"Ooow," Roxas instantly yelped dramatically, leaning fowards as if to rub his injured foot under the table, despite the fact it didn't actually hurt at all. Suddenly he turned on Sakura, intent on gaining a possible ally in this argument. "Sakura, Axel's being mean to me," he whined.

Sakura seemed surprised at being brought into the conversation, blinking a few times whilst looking between the pair of them, her smile wide across her face - till, slowly, a small fleeting hint of a laugh came out. "He.. he..." After a few seconds, it was followed by a whole hearted laugh, her shaking her head and covering her mouth, almost being unable to look at the pair of them.

Roxas let up his act long enough to grin at the sight of her smiling, but he was back to it in an instant, determined to get another laugh out of her. "You think me being in pain is funny, do you?!"

"No!" Sakura said in response, but her face told otherwise, as she was laughing all over again - she hadn't laughed like this in a long, long time. Or truly let live and let live for the moment, either... "It's.. just you and Axel-san!" she said inbetween laughter. "Everyone's together..."

"Yeah, we are," Roxas agreed, smiling. "So, how 'bout we all promise something? I've realised more than ever that time together is precious, and..." he looked immensely embarassed for going off on such a sentimental route, but continued determinedly on, "I think we should promise. Even if we won't always be together, we'll make the most of what we do have?"

"I think so, too..." Sakura smiled innocently. "I don't think I could leave either of you behind anymore, without knowing we'd truly... made the most of it," she added as an afterthought, looking over at Axel.

Axel seemed interested at Roxas' sudden emotional route, but he sighed and smiled none the less. "Y'know? I never pictured you saying anything like that," he mused, but he nodded regardless. "But then I guess I'm just a big stupid idiot too, because I agree with you." Weirdly enough.

Still looking continually embarassed and unable to quite meet Axel's eye, Roxas said quickly, "I-it just seemed like the right thing to say," he laughed slightly, "We both went soft after all..."

"I think..." Axel started, folding his arms as he did so, looking absently over at the girl sitting at the head of the table. Slowly, he continued. "She's the one who turned us soft."

Nibbling thoughtfully on a piece of cake, Roxas eventually replied, "Probably. But you know what? Times like now I don't really care."

"Heh," Axel leaned back in his chair. "Me neither."

Sakura looked flustered at the sort-of-compliment (if it could be called that) that she was recieving, but she only said quietly, ".. s-so... let's promise?" Hesitating, she placed her hand on the center of the table, looking between the two of them to do the same.

Moving the remains of his fondant out of the way slightly, Roxas followed suit, placing a hand on top of Sakura's. "It's a promise. Axel?" he looked pointedly at him.

"Yeah," Axel slowly placed his hand over Roxas', and said another word he never thought, in his entire nobody-existance, he'd say and actually mean. "Promise."