You don't want to see this, if you did you'd surely disbelieve it.

[gotitmemorised]

The days that followed Axel, Saix and Aerith's return to Rabanastre had been sombre ones.

The news of what had befallen Midgar had spread throughout the world via news channels, both visual and radio, and by here-say and would-be accounts, like wildfire.

The death toll was being counted in untold thousands and, according to most broadcasts, there were no survivors. It was being readily compared to the tragedy of Nabudis that had taken place nearly a decade ago. Aerial photographs and video showed what Midgar looked like in the wake of the disaster in comparison to the earlier pictures of it finally nearing completion.

The damage to the city was extensive. The iconic Plate had collapsed almost completely and fires raged across great portions of what was left. An entire district was still alight, even days after. The telltale pale green glow of burst Mako pipes was visible in some areas and Mist obscured some of the visuals to such an extent that entire sectors were hard to make out. Teams were struggling to get inside the city in order to fully assess the damage. Bancour's division of the Gotei 13, Squad Seven, had been drafted in as an emergency measure and the surrounding areas were on high alert regarding its potential to turn onto a Necrohol. Reports assured viewers and listeners that such a thing had not yet occurred, and may not, but tensions ran high.

Travellers were being advised to steer clear of the entire Centra area as a precaution.

Officials had not yet managed to ascertain the cause or motive behind the attack, if it even was one. Theories regarding the method used for the wiping out of an entire capital city varied almost widely as the reasons. Some theorised that it was accidental -- a chain reaction of Reactor malfunctions. Others were convinced that it was down to eco-terrorism from anti-Mako power groups. That it could possibly be an enemy nation that was responsible was not an uncommon suggestion, either. This last one had thrown the entire political state of Ivalice into turmoil.

As a result, political debates made up a heavy portion of the current programming.

The ambience of even Rabanastre, Dalmasca's usually bright and bustling capital, had been considerably more subdued than it was prior to their departure. Numbers were down in the East End and in the Muthru Bazaar. People were still shopping, but the carefree spark had been, if only temporarily, doused by numb shock.

Comments

[hearstheplanet]

"I've been telling him he's not as grumpy as he likes to act, but he doesn't believe me," Aerith chimed in, cheerfully. "He can hide out and be antisocial in this bar all he likes, we know better." She grinned, brightly, as Saix rolled his eyes and didn't make eye contact.

"Which is why I want your help with something, Saix," she said, smiling at him sweetly. "Just a teensy little favour?"

[gotitmemorised]

Axel disagreed slightly. Saix was, as far as he was concerned, every bit as grumpy as he liked to act. It was barely even an act. Even so, he knew full well that he had a lighter side that showed itself every so often, albeit dimly.

He grinned when Aerith brought up the favour. He knew that it wouldn't be well received, but it would serve to get him out of the pub for a while. He had a feeling he'd get roped into it for moral support or Saix wouldn't do it, but it did promise to have some comedy value ...

[goldengolem]

Timcanpy crept slightly closer to Saix.

It was only by two steps, but the movement was slow and calculated.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith smiled brighter as Saix only looked at her, expectantly. "See," she said, "I want to sell the flowers I've been growing, and you're at a loose end around this city, so it might help both of us if you help me sell some." She flashed her brightest smile at him. "It's got to be better than sitting in this pub listening to that radio."

[innatelunacy]

Saix raised an eyebrow, very slightly, and lifted his glass to drain the last of his beer.

Very suddenly, he slammed it upside down over Timcanpy, trapping him inside the glass, and keeping his hand pressed down over it to hold it down.

Then he turned to Axel. "Was this your idea?"

[gotitmemorised]

Axel didn't jump as the glass was slammed over Timcanpy's entire body, but his eyes widened at the noise and the speed of the movement. It surprised him just enough that he stopped with his glass an inch from his lips.

He raised his eyebrows at Saix.

"Slightly excessive, don't you think?" He asked, a bemused expression on his face. "My idea? No, no, no... Timcanpy did it him-- oh, you mean the flower selling?"

He shrugged and took a lazy sip of his drink, waving a hand as though that absolved him of his involvement.

"I may have had a bit of input," he said, taking another casual mouthful. "It's not like I expected to get out of it either, you know."

[goldengolem]

Timcanpy made a vain attempt to scuttle away as the glass came towards him, but ultimately failed.

He peered out of his little glass prison. Slowly, and confusedly, he put his tiny hands up against the barrier between him and the outside world and turned to Saix, managing to look somehow surly.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith jumped when the glass slammed down, and then bit her lip as she bent down and peered in to see Timcanpy.

She sat up again when Axel said that he hadn't expected to get out of the flower selling either and grinned brightly. "Nope," she said, brightly, "you have to come along, and so does someone else," she said, standing up from the table. "I'll be back in a moment, and you'd better say yes," she said, pointing a finger at Saix.

She then poked Axel in the side of the head with that same finger. "And don't make it sound like selling flowers with me is such a chore."

She didn't wait for a reply and headed off down towards the bar, and Demyx.

[innatelunacy]

Saix ignored Timcanpy now he was safely imprisoned, and he ignored Axel's suggestion that it was excessive. It was, as far as Saix was concerned, exactly what was required, and fell short of what he'd like to do, which was to slam Timcanpy into a thick metal box and drop it into the Ridorana Cataract.

"She's tenacious, isn't she?" He observed, when Aerith moved away from the table. He kept his hand over Timcanpy's glass, and relaxed back, picking up his fresh drink and pulling it closer, but not drinking from it yet.

"She certainly got you under thumb quickly," he added, with a faint smirk.

[gotitmemorised]

"Whatever, Saix," Axel said, looking at him with an expression stuck halfway between offence and amusement. "I'm only helping out to see what you," he jabbed a finger at him, "look like selling flowers."

Well, partly. He did think it would be a good idea to get Saix out of the pub for a while and doing something productive, and it didn't hurt that the gil made by the flower sales would be going to help him and his apartment in this time of scant Hunts, but the comedy factor was definitely part of the appeal.

"I don't have to do it."

He would, though. He would to ensure that Saix did, and for Aerith herself. Not because he was thrilled at the prospect of selling flowers on the hot streets of Rabanastre, but because it gave her something to do, something to take her mind off what had happened at Midgar, and he was all for helping with that.

[innatelunacy]

Saix flashed Axel a sceptical smirk, saying, "No, of course you don't," in a matching tone of voice.

He slid Timcanpy's containment glass along the table to one side, and weighted the heavy ashtray on top so that Tim didn't simply escape. Then he relaxed back in his seat.

"You've come down with a severe case of the noble recently, Lea," he commented, with some amusement. "Rescuing her, putting a roof over her head, selling her flowers... Anyone might think you had a crush." Saix liked her, too; she had a spine, and a sweet way of twisting arms until people did what she asked. Axel, or Lea, whichever one he was feeling more like today, very definitely had his arm twisted.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith got to the bar, and folded her arms on the bartop, leaning on it heavily as she stood on tiptoes.

Xigbar was there too, she noted, hovering in his way. She'd never seen him outside of the Sandsea, and something about him just made Aerith... wary. He was chatty, and not polite, exactly, but he didn't seem as if he was any harm, but then there were moments, things he said, or the way he looked at something or someone, which just didn't sit quite right with the harmless old timer routine he played.

Demyx, conversely, was fun, and funny, and sweet, and Aerith liked him. "Demyx?" She asked, smiling sweetly. "Can I have a little moment of your time?" She held one hand up, with her thumb and forefinger held very close together, to indicate how littl a moment.

[gotitmemorised]

"Hey, I wasn't even going to help sell her flowers," he said, leaning forward to jab a finger at Saix before he settled back in his seat once again. "I volunteered you and Demyx."

He grinned at him. He didn't really want to go out there, onto the swelteringly hot streets of Rabanastre, and sell flowers, but it was going to have to happen if he wanted Saix to do the same. While he was sure that Aerith would have bullied Saix into it regardless of Axel's participation, him being there would help. Probably.

He deliberately did not address the crush comment.

[princeofawesome]

Demyx who up until now had been amusing himself and killing time by putting freshly cleaned glasses under the counter for the next lot of customers, turned around when Aerith addressed him.

"Mmm?" He wiped his hands on his trousers and tilted his head at her smile.

He made his way over to her properly when she asked for a moment. Well, he wasn't doing anything else, was he? He was pretty bored. He'd even arranged the crisps and peanuts behind the bar into colour order.

"Of course you can, Aerith. What's up?" He asked, smiling back at her.

He, much like Aerith herself, looked rather innocent for someone so bizarrely devious.

[innatelunacy]

"So it was your idea," Saix said, flatly. Axel played fast and loose with the definition of 'a little bit of input'.

"Fortunately for you, I'm at a loose end." He picked up his drink and muttered, slightly grumpily, "Between sitting here and annihilating the indigenous species, I have more free time than I'd like, and even the local wildlife is starting to steer clear."

He eyed Axel. "So I'll sell her flowers, but you have to come too." A smirk twitched the corner of his mouth, "And if I sell more than you, I get to put that thing in a lead box and drop it into the Ridorana Cataract," he said, indicating Timcanpy with a point of his finger.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith grinned brightly, still leaning on the bar. "I was wondering when you get a day off," she began, "because I might have a little something you can help me with."

[notjustanyolddude]

Xigbar nearly choked on his beer for a second before he looked over at Aerith, and then at Demyx.

"You're in there, squirt," he said, in a harsh, choked undertone, while he forced himself to swallow properly.

[gotitmemorised]

"Only partly!" Axel maintained, nevertheless shutting up when Saix continued and proceeded to agree to help.

He gave him a flat look regarding his plan for Timcanpy. He then took a moment to give Timcanpy himself a sympathetic one as he pressed his little hands to the side of the glass again. With his lower lip jutting out in a jib, Axel petted the side of the glass closest to Tim and received a prison-nuzzle in return.

He turned his attention back to Saix.

"Yeah well, that's never going to happen, is it?" Axel said brightly. "I bet I sell way more than you without even trying. Your face could scare a Chocobo from its Greens, so I don't think you're in any danger of winning."

[princeofawesome]

Demyx opened his mouth to respond to Aerith, but shut it again when Xigbar spoke first.

He threw a damp bar-cloth at him and tried very hard to ignore both the awkward blush creeping onto his cheeks at the comment, and Xigbar in his entirety. He kept his attention on Aerith.

"What's that?" He asked, his mind shuffling over a number of equally improbable things that she might need his 'help' for.

That didn't help his slowly pinkening face at all.

[innatelunacy]

Saix looked amused, "If we were selling to Chocobos, perhaps you'd have a point," he replied. "Since we're selling flowers to people, you shouldn't get complacent, or you risk losing your annoying little friend."

He cast a glance towards Timcanpy then, and flicked the glass with his nail.

"Don't forget who had the better success with girls when we were younger," he added, with a smirk, as he turned his attention back to Axel.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith put her hands on her hips at Xigbar's comment, but she refrained from scolding him as she turned back to Demyx and gave him her sweetest smile. "I need someone with a pretty face and a bit of free time to help me sell flowers," she said. "I'm making Saix help," she explained, "but he might scare customers away, so I want someone who can make up for it, too."

She grinned, brightly and briefly, at Demyx, and then fixed Xigbar with a look, adding, "I'd ask someone else who's always propping up the bar, but I want someone with a face you might actually buy something off," as she turned back to Demyx again.

[notjustanyolddude]

Xigbar chuckled, meanly, as he removed the soaked rag from his face. Demyx was fun to torment; the kid reacted easily.

He held up both his hands as Aerith explained why she wouldn't ask him, though. "Wouldn't do it anyway," he said, "I'm too busy to be selling posies; there's beer to be drunk."

[gotitmemorised]

Axel looked at Saix with an expression of pure indignation. He spluttered for a moment, hardly able to speak, or at least affecting such, and then shook his head.

"You may have had more luck then, Isa, but I bet I have more luck now." He said, refusing to believe that he could lose. "It is on, got it memorised?"

[princeofawesome]

Demyx blinked at the job description. Flower selling..? He ... might be able to do that. He usually spent his days off doing boring day-to-day things, like food shopping, or playing music in the square, but he was halfway sure that he might be okay with selling flowers... maybe.

"Flower selling..?" He looked thoughtful, but shrugged and nodded. "All right," he said, smiling. Well, she did call him pretty. Even so... "But what do I get out of it?"

He wasn't that daft, despite all appearances.

[innatelunacy]

Saix laughed, the sound low and quiet, and extremely rare. Lea had always been fun to wind up. Axel was no different. They'd always had a competitive streak.

"What's the penalty if I lose to you?" He asked, still looking terrifically entertained by the whole thing. "Not that I will, you understand?"

Perhaps selling flowers wouldn't be such a chore after all.