Working Sucks.

[Kairi]

Kairi was once again on the job. She really hated her job as a waitress at the 50's style diner in town. It was complete with pink poodle skirts and roller skates. They even had a black sleeveless shirt with a pink ascot around her neck. Unfortunately, however, the outfits had taken a bit of a pinup flair, the skirt was much shorter than it would have been and the top didn't cover her navel, not even close. Work was work though, and this was the only place in town that would hire a 15 year old girl that was living in her own apartment illegally, not that many people knew that but all of the other job options knew that the parent signature she forged was fake. She had no idea who her parents were, let alone who she really was. The only thing she could remember was her first name. Kairi.

Tonight she had the late shift, she'd be in from noon until 11:30 working and most likely until midnight or later cleaning up afterwords. She knew her feet would be killing her in the morning and she'd fall at least once later on in the evening if she did not ingest enough caffeine throughout the night. She hated her job but she needed to pay her rent and buy new school clothes, what she had been wearing was becoming stained and torn. She also needed food and books. It cost so much to live and she was working for minimum wage, part time. She was living paycheck to paycheck.

She wished she could spend more time with people, or even with a good book or a pen and paper. She always had a hard time with keeping her thoughts in her head that sometimes she needed to write about fantastical worlds and people. She skated up to a table that had just settled in. "Welcome to Kaylie's retro diner here are your menus would you like anything to drink to start you off?" Kairi asked, putting on a face and voice that made it seem like she wanted to be there, even though she was really loathing it.

(sorry could not find an anime version of what I was looking for)

[Roxas]

Skating across town, Roxas was on his way to getting his pay, as he had spent a good hour delivering the posters his boss put him out to do. Afternoon was here, which meant it was time for him to get a well deserved lunch. Skidding to a stop he kicked the board up, catching it with a swift right hand and tapped the older gentleman on his shoulder. Wearing a smile he held out his hand, knowing that the man had other people to tend to, as soon as he thought that, he noticed the rag tag group, the leader of the group he held no fond feelings for. Once he was paid he shot the older boy a disapproving look, but the other boy paid no heed to his grudge, as he walked over and pushed him back. Grinding his teeth, Roxas figured he wasn't worth his time, and seeing how he didn't want to lose his job over a little fight, he pushed on, jumping onto his board and spinning past a couple so entangled in one another. Feeling the wind brush his face as he crouched down, he wondered which place would serve the purpose of filling his stomach today. I hope it isn't something where I'll spill my drink, he thought with an amused smile.

Nearing the side walk he jumped into the air and held onto his board, catching some air before settling down again. Ok, so he should've respected the sign and just walked, but, traveling by skateboard was all he knew. When amnesia, as it was commonly called, filled one's life, one of the few solutions resulted in allowing it to come day by day. So far he abided that rule, only on account of hospitals did little to keep him calm. Nearing a diner like restaurant he noticed people sitting at tables, and girls with short skirts and nice voices. Holding his board under the crook of his arm, Roxas walked over to a table, one that wasn't occupied by anyone at the moment. Steeling his fingers together, he let his blue eyes go downcast, observing the table. Sighing he wondered more on his identity, why he was alone, when he knew something was calling for him to just lift his head. He soon found out as he noticed a bright eyed girl skating on, well, skates.

"Ah yeah, could I have a, er, mountain dew?" Roxas sighed, this was sure difficult to get used to. Though, if he ignored the cola that spilled on his lap, he would be just fine. The people around him cast him some looks, most of which he could tell were silent whispers of curiosity. The outfit he wore was one that seemed to be taken out of a manga or game, which the only one he managed to afford was this one called Final Fantasy. "Sorry if I sound uncertain, I just sort of began out on my own, and well, sorry." Roxas sounded really pathetic just now, seeing how he couldn't even go into detail as to why he was so weird. Why waste this pretty girls time? After all, to pay attention to all these people, she had to be at the top of her game.

[Kairi]

"It's not a problem, but if you don't mind me prying what do you mean by you 'just began out on your own?" She asked curiously. If he did they would be extremely similar. She cringed when she saw the manager come out from the back, he rarely did so but when he did it was usually hell for all of the employees.

"Katie I'm not paying you to chat, I'm paying you to get the costumers their orders get back to work!" The older man yelled.

"My name isn't Katie, it Kairi" She grumbled under her breath scowling for half a second before pulling on her fake perky smile. She had gotten used to the man's lack of acknowledging her name but it still got on her nerves. It was one of the few things that she actually remembered, why couldn't other people?

"I'll get that for you right away. " Kairi told the boy and skated away, she crouched down low to make it under the flip counter without having to stop the momentum she had built up with her skates. She easily grabbed a glass, filled it with mountain dew and made her way back to the boy's table. He was an interesting looking guy, not tall not short with spiky blond hair. He looked like he just hopped out of an anime cartoon or a video game, not that she minded. It was a lot better than most of the pervs who usually sat at her tables. When she reached the boy's table again she glanced over her shoulder to make sure the boss had retreated back into his cave of an office. She knew he'd be out again to check on her every now and then though. It seemed like he was in a particularly bad mood today.

"Sorry about him, he can be a real jerk. Here's your Mountain Dew, are you ready to order?" She asked the boy as she set down his drink. She hoped he would not be put off by her rude boss. There were only a few people sitting in the tables and there were two other waitresses on duty. It was a slow day and she could use a little conversation so long as her boss didn't find out.

[Roxas]

Roxas sat there, amazed at her courteous like behavior. It is either the job talking, or it is the real her just restrained from having any personality of her own, he mused silently. When he was on the job, he couldn't really socialize because he was on the clock constantly. Just like bike messengers, they had to rely on short cuts, ticking off a few drivers to deliver the mail or package then get back to receive yet another order. A bike wasn't as manageable as a skateboard, he thought. For one, a bike couldn't handle the flips he did, and they couldn't be airborne long enough to slap a poster on the wall. Serving people seemed like a punishment to him, to be stuck in a costume and being someone you weren't. Then again, far be it for him to openly admit...what he couldn't even think of for himself. Sighing he scratched the back of his head.

"No you aren't prying, it has been a while since I talked to someone my own age. By striking out on my own, well, I mean to say-." Roxas was cut off then as the older gentleman came by. He was rather tall with a looming look of dominance, if anything, he would guess this guy was her boss. Looking to the side, even though he felt a strong urge to give that man a shove, he resisted any said urge to give that man a good lesson. She was just doing her job, if anything, she was supposed to make the customer feel welcome, rather then be heartless. Now that, nah, he thought with a silent chuckle.

"I'll be here...Kairi," he said with a smile. While his other hand was still behind his head, the other trailed down to the necklace that he wore. The necklace was a symbol of some kind, for a while he thought it might be the key to finding out who he was. The only thing that people could tell him was that it was a ninja star, much like the ninjas of old used. Renting movies he brushed up on the ninjas, thinking he could be one himself. Alas, if it were that simple, then why weren't there late night scares of burglary to be concerned about? Watching as Kairi skated back he accepted the drink and pushed his straw around, watching the bubbles. Returning his attention to her he smiled pleasantly.

"Trust me, I know jerks. With my job, you can't help but meet competitors, rivals, they are the type of people that really push you over the edge." Roxas said solemnly. Jerks could help who they were, all they had to do was look deep down and see that pang of guilt, if any, and all would be resolved. Picking up the menu, he thumbed through, browsing through the meals that were presently available. "I think I'll have a cheeseburger, yeah, that sounds...right." Roxas scooted the menu over to her and lifted his head so she could see his blue eyes.

"By the way, I'm Roxas. And if you're wondering, yes, I am on my own. I have a place, an apartment that I manage to pay for with the hours on my job. The money isn't incredibly great, so luckily payment on my rent isn't incredibly demanding." Roxas sighed and looked around at the other people. Each one had an identity, something to go by. What was he to go by other then a name? Kairi was a nice name, and hopefully that jerk of a boss didn't give her any more trouble.

[Kairi]

"Yeah so what would you like on that? And it's the same for me. The landlord is pretty lenient at the apartments I'm staying at but he still needs the rent and that means I will be eating nothing but Raman and the free meal I get for working here every day. Which isn't particularly horrible but if I eat another burger I'm going to have to kill myself." She said, the last bit was in a joking tone.

"Ah yes, the working world. Always about getting ahead no matter whose throat you have to hypothetically slit to get there. It's hell. The dinner manager always tries to get me and the other girl's fired. She thinks that if we keep our job too long we'll, and I quote, "overthrow" her Unquote. It's the same with school too. No matter's whose grade hangs in the balance. I've been cheated off of, had my homework stolen, bribed, even threatened! I just don't understand how people can live in a world like this!" Kairi said, sometimes she wished the world could really be like it was in her dreams. Going off with her friends on an island, building a raft to explore a world they had only seen before.

"It just seems like the world could be so much better than this, that there is something we are missing." She said dreamily. Only then there were her nightmares about her magical island. Those nightmares were the only reason she didn't start to believe her dreams were memories. The black little yellow-eyed shadow creatures that attacked that island gave her the creeps. She knew that, that world couldn't possibly be real. Sometimes she wished it was though. She wished she really knew the lazy brunette boy and his silver haired friend.

"I'm sorry I was drifting off wasn't I?" She asked snapping back to reality. She also realized she had started ranting at him previously as well. "I'm also sorry if I'm starting to bore you. I didn't mean to babble." She said looking at her feet waiting for the rest of the boy's order, while taking quick notes on what he already told her he wanted.

(sorry it's a bit shorter than what you wrote...)

[Roxas]

((No need to apologize Kairi, your post was great.))

Roxas nodded his head as he heard Kairi speak. There was hardly anything wrong with the way she spoke, nor on the manner in which she held herself just a little above him. He'd invite her to sit down, but with her job already in the balance, he didn't want to push either of their luck. Thinking of what else he'd want on the cheeseburger, he stirred his mountain dew with his straw and closed his eyes, thinking of the perfect burger that would make his stomach content. Opening his eyes again he ran his hand through his hair.

"Oh, I figure some pickles and onions could work perfectly on the burger, maybe some lettuce on there as well. Though as far as an order of fries, I'll only order some if...well you'd like to hang with me and talk?" Roxas knew he was pushing his luck, but honestly, she looked like she needed someone to talk to her, and maybe if she had a break coming up, convenient enough.

"Yeah, school can be rough," Roxas noted, "though it isn't much of the homework angle on my part. I get decent enough grades, don't get me wrong, I'm not a lazy bum or anything, I just tend to slip away from the normal. Have you ever had a day dream, like something that seemed taken right out of a fairy tale? Well what I see, tends to be lenient at times, sure it seems normal, but something lingers in the darkness that makes the dream seem real. Sometimes I figure I should see a shrink, on account of the images and what they can be interpreted as. I want to keep my apartment, so my health should come first over images that can be swatted at with the visible hand. Though, at times I also feel like being on my own, with no one who understands me, well, makes it all the more unpleasant."

Roxas lowered his head so he could sip his drink, enjoying it. The coolness did some good on his throat, as it felt like it was just burning up talking.

"The world we live in can do for some improvements," Roxas said, his blue eyes noting how far off Kairi was just then; rather then how close she stood. There was no point in flicking some of his drink onto her, or saying her name over and over again, teasing her with the echo effect.

While he did day dream during class, he had glasses drawn on his face, even a lightning bolt, which took days just to get off. There were days where his hair had weird string tied around, making him seem like a circus was vacationing on his head.

"Not at all Kairi," Roxas said with a pleasant smile, "if you'd bore me in the least possible way, I'd still be in your company...at this table. The boring chatter is far better then the none that I usually get." Laughing lightly he placed one hand on the back of his chair and balanced it slightly.

[Kairi]

"Umm sure I have a break coming up." She told him writing down his order, "Yeah I know the feeling, in fact I'm guilty of having many of...strange daydreams. Usually I keep to myself as well, lemme go put your order in I'll be right back." Kairi told the boy, skating back behind the counter, mirroring her actions from before, it was a quick habit you picked up her for fear of the bruises you get across your stomach from slamming hard into the flip counter, she did it three times before she took the older waitresses word for it and started ducking. The momentum you caught skating back to the counter was hard to slow down when you got right up to it, which almost never gave you enough time to flip the counter over.

"Ella I'm going to take my fifteen" She yelled, she technically got one 30 minute break but she usually split it up to two fifteens because of the potential damage to her feet. She would eat dinner later but right now she could go for a sundae, writing it down on the log she needed to keep her meals in so they could deduct her pay properly, she made herself a large banana split and ordered herself a small order of fried a large pickle and a chocolate shake. it was her favorite snack, no one could seem to understand her strange tastes. Both hers and Roxas' orders were finished rather quickly, she brought them back to Roxas' table and sat down across from him.

"Why don't you talk to people a lot? You seem nice enough, and you've got the innocent puppy look going for you, girls at school have got to be all over you." Kairi mentioned, she had to admit he was attractive enough, most girls loved the blond-haired blue-eyed thing, she on the other hand tended to prefer brunettes. He didn't seem anti-social from what she could tell....did he have some sort of a problem?

She almost hit herself for even think of this. Here was the first person who talked to her outside of school and she was already being critical. Maybe he was just shy or something? Why did her brain always have to go to the extreme. She shook the thought from her head, feeling guilty for even thinking of it. People told her she was too nice for her own good, if they could only see their thoughts they'd know otherwise, but that didn't matter it isn't the thoughts but the actions that make a person.

[Roxas]

Roxas watched as Kairi went to go fetch their meals. He figured she would get something for herself, as most places allowed a supplement or small reward system of the very food made there. While biding his time he thought of the dreams she mentioned. Lately he had been having strange dreams as well, though they were vivid in detail, so vivid that he could just reach out and touch them. One dream had him on the beach, just looking out at the great blue ocean, seagulls crying out as they hovered along the rifts of the wind, while clashes of wooden swords could be seen just a little above him.

Another dream had him wearing black clothing, two heavy weapons claimed in his hands, his hood was up and a constant downpour of rain fell upon him. Walking up to a strange building, he mumbled some words, it was hard to tell. Then huge masses of black creatures began to form a circle around him, his attention had been not on them...but a white haired male with a blind fold, when he pulled it off, a sudden recognition hit him. It was then that he figured he had to meet this person, so he fought his way through, cutting up the creatures and defying gravity, climbing a building like Spider Man.

There was this trust between the two of them, as he had tossed a keyblade up to him, while he was falling down. Dreams could lie, they could tap into his brain when he was restless and conjure up nightmares. One such nightmare had him standing before some console, a image or screen having sent his body into overload, and the same weapon from before appeared in his hands as he smashed away with all searing anger and lost hope. Noticing Kairi come back he shook his head as he listened to her, in all that time, how was it that these images played out in the open, when they were just meant for his privacy of his bed?

"Girls think I'm weird," he said with a laugh, "it seems they'd rather date jocks, guys who have confidence in themselves. Can you blame them though Kairi? What if I do date, and they want to know more about me? I won't be able to just reach into my memory, which could be stubborn, and pull out the first place I had ice cream, or who my best friend was, it's impossible. I tend to keep away from people on account of I have nothing to say.

I work for a man who has me put up posters of odd things up on the wall, and most of it is done while skateboarding. I live alone in an apartment that seems to surround me with loss, like I had something far greater from before, but just like the ocean blue that seems uncrossable, I shall never get across for my boat is unavailable."

Roxas picked up his burger then and begin to chew thoughtfully. The one thing he didn't understand was why a beauty like her was not attracting so much attention. He imagined that she was the beauty queen at her school, it was obvious the attraction level was way above normal there. Though he also picked up some kind of warning sign in his head, like someone was telling him that he wasn't meant to be with her.

Not a good time to have an argument with my head, he thought with shake of his head. Sipping his drink to allow the food to travel down he thought of a question to ask Kairi. "Um Kairi, tell me more about these daydreams of yours, perhaps if you tell them to someone, it'll all make sense you know?"

[Kairi]

"I've noticed you've had plenty to say when you've found someone who will listen. Anyways the girls at school are sorta bitchy anyways. I mean not all of them but... never mind. You'll find someone worth it eventually, I'm sure. So you have memory problems?" She asked curiously at the statement he made about it being impossible to remember where he first had ice cream. What were the chances of someone else being in the exact same position as her? Maybe they knew each other before they lost their memories and they were targeted because of that?

Kairi shook her head lightly scooping a small spoon of the sundae placing the spoon in her mouth upside-down as not to cause a brain-freeze. She was making it sound like her situation was some kind of attack. That would be silly, why would someone attack a couple of random teenagers? It just doesn't make any sense. Maybe it was some sort of sickness? Maybe they lost their memories because they got sick or something. Or maybe she was just letting her imagination get away from her again.

Kairi rolled her skates back and forth on the floor, thinking of the best way to answer the boy. She never really talked about her dreams before, sure she wrote them all down in her dream journal the school psychologist made her write, it was to see if maybe some of her memories came back through her dreams, but she never actually showed anyone the journal. Not even the shrink. They were too personal, her dreams, too weird. She took a breath and began to speak.

"Well they are all very similar, at least they usually have the same people in it, not that I know if they really exist though. There's a tall boy with long, silver hair, and there's also a shorter brunette with crazy spiky hair that should not even be physically possible. Anyways they are both much taller than me. In my dreams, well in at least most of them, we're friends very good friends. Most of the time we're on an island, it's amazing nicer than even what you see on postcards! There's a small part off the main island that the kids usually hang out at with a lot of home-made bridges and stairs, even tree-houses. In one of the dreams i keep having we are trying to get off the island, we built this silly little raft and are trying to find new worlds. Adventure. Although, I don't see why we would want to leave such a paradise." She said fiddling with the straw from her shake. She kept her gaze away from the blond boy's hoping he wasn't laughing at her.

"Then, after the day ends and we all go back to our homes, there's a storm and these little black, yellow eyed creatures are infesting the island. And everything goes dark and I wake up." She told him, it was the nightmare that kept reeling in her head. It was the only reason she didn't mistake her dreams for memories. Those evil little creatures couldn't exist could they?