#And ive just seen fire island and it's So Freaking Clever and Good i loved that

[valentinaonthemoon]

So far the pride and prejudice adaptations I've seen are:

Pride and prejudice 1940

Pride and prejudice 1995

Pride and prejudice 2005

Pride and prejudice and zombies

Bride and prejudice

The Lizzie Bennett Diaries

Bridget Jones's Diaries

Fire Island

Lost in Austen

Austenland

Death Comes to Pemberley

But it's NOT ENOUGH

[complicatedandstained]

The Other Day at Hot Topic: Sea Salt

The unlikely pair approach a tiny, circular wooden ice cream kiosk strung with tiny rainbow Christmas lights and frosted with fake cotton snow. As they join the brief line, Axel explains to Roxas his lifelong mission to sample every single flavor, of which, a glance to the wall-length menu, tells Roxas there are upwards of twenty-five.

It doesn’t seem humanly possible for such a skinny man to consume that much ice cream, but Roxas is reluctant to divulge this and crush Axel’s dreams.

“They only have a box of each kind and then you’re S.O.L. until their next shipment,” Axel is saying. “I’ve been trying to get my paws on a paopu one for months, but, well,” he waggles his eyebrows, lips pursing, “you know the legend.”

“Ugh.” Roxas nods. “Yeah, my little brother’s kind of the hopeless romantic type. We used to go looking for paopu trees all over the play island.”

It’s adorable, like everything else about Roxas’ younger brother, but Roxas would never admit it to Sora.

“Not your thing, huh?” Axel’s gaze shifts from the ice cream stand to his new companion, curious.

“Eh, I dunno. It’s a bit much, right?” Roxas frees a hand from his pocket to gesture vaguely, “Destiny. Like, I want to control my own fate, you know?” Roxas can feel his intensity thrumming in his throat but can’t seem to deescalate it. “I don’t like the idea that my path is set and I can’t change who I am, what I do, who I love. Isn’t that the entire point of it all?”

Axel’s takes this in, his colorless clothing redirecting Roxas’ attention back up to thoughtful jade green eyes. “Atta, boy.” His hands clasp Roxas’ shoulders again, squeeze. “Fuck destiny. Blaze your own trail, Roxas.”

It sounds teasing, almost condescending, but when Roxas glances up, there’s a look in his eye like he means it and a purr to the way he says his name like nobody else says it. Like he likes the taste. Roxas’ head goes fuzzy.

 Shit. Because a day one crush on a manager is just what any new Hot Topic employee needs.

The line moves forward and Axel and Roxas follow.

Axel’s still watching him, so Roxas searches for a less existential conversational thread. “Uh, so, what’s been your favorite flavor so far?”

Axel laughs at the abrupt shift, his fingers smoothing a gelled red spike of hair. He grimaces like Roxas asked him to name his favorite band or hair product. “Well.” Then he has a thought, smirks. “You’ll see.”

Roxas feels his nose crinkle. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll like it. You’ll see.”

The line moves up again and before Roxas can ask for more details the ice cream saleswoman is hanging out her window waving with both hands. “Axel! Hey, babe!”

“Hey, Yufe! Shop looks cute.” Axel smiles and nods toward the lights, the snow. “Very festive.”

“Thanks!” Yuffie claps her hands together, her tone and expression so super charged with enthusiasm Roxas feels like he’s standing next to Sora. “Put them up myself.” She rests her arms on the counter. “Haven’t seen you in a while, red! What gives?”

“No, well…” Axel rubs the back of his neck, frowning and flipping open a worn wallet. “The boyfriend is on a diet, so...”

Boyfriend. Of course. Biting at his bottom lip, Roxas tries not to visibly deflate. Axel had flirted with Demyx, Luxord, and Saïx, so, of course he was comfortable with himself and in a happy relationship.

Boyfriend. Of course. Good for him.

Yuffie blanches, brows drawn up. “Neither of you studs needs a diet. Tell him I said so.”

Axel brushes this off with a flick of his wrist like he’s too polite to argue. “Nah, it’s important. But, not to worry, I’ve nabbed a new ice cream hostage.”

Taking this as a cue, Roxas tentatively steps up beside him, “Hey, Yuffie. So, what’s good here? Axel’s been cryptic.”

Axel places a hand over Roxas’ mouth midway through, “Just two of the usual, please.”

Yuffie jumps a bit, grins. “Hey, it’s Roxas from AP Bio! How’ve ya been, Rox?”

Axel drops his hand as Roxas bats at it, gaze shifting between the two.

“Great, well,” Roxas reflects on the past month. If he could have put coffee in an IV, he would have. “Okay. College, finals, you know, exhausting, so, okay. And you?”

They exchange a couple more pleasantries about Sora and Yuffie’s sports medicine program and mutual friends, as Yuffie rings up two ice cream popsicles, and Axel makes good on his offer to pay.

“Well,” Axel accepts the popsicles and presses Yuffie’s hand in parting, “looks like you know my ice cream buddy better than I do. Guess I better work on that.” He leans back from the counter and Roxas follows suit.

“Hey, go easy on him, Axel,” she calls as they turn to go, “he looks like a punk but he’s a huge sweetheart.”

“Yuffie,” Roxas all but growls, ears flushing, fingers dropping halfway through fixing up his hair. She just laughs and waves them off.

Axel salutes her with a popsicle. “I’ll be a perfect gentleman, as always.”

Roxas bumps Axel in the shoulder as they walk and Axel grins again, passing him an ice cream.

Roxas examines the dessert through its packaging, tilting it up toward the light. “Blue, huh?”

“Blue.” Axel peels away the soft paper as they walk, exchanging with Roxas and doing the same to the second. “Like the ocean.”

They settle themselves on a seat shaped like a ten-person ottoman with a hideous print. Axel’s lanky legs hang over the edge, and Roxas sits cross-legged, examining the light blue sheen and savoring the gentle scent of vanilla.

Roxas takes a tentative bite and finds the consistency softer than expected.

“Well?”

Roxas sees that Axel hasn’t touched his, distracted, waiting to gauge his reaction.

“It’s salty,” he frowns twirls the stick in his hand, smiles, “but sweet. Like you said. Like the ocean. It’s…”

“Yeah?”

“It’s kind of amazing.”

“Yeah.” Axel smiles, stares up at the glass panes in the ceiling two stories up where the sun floods in. “It is, isn’t it?”

Roxas looks up as well, face warming, throat blessedly cool. “Thank you.”

“Ah,” Axel shrugs a shoulder, flutters his hand, “it’s just ice cream, Roxas. Gees.”

And saving me this morning, and coming back, and not treating me like an outsider, even though you know everybody in the place.

“Yeah,” Roxas mumbles, “still.”

Ice cream finished, Axel leans onto his back and stares up at the sunlit windows. He asks Roxas about the rest of his first day, and Roxas shares Demyx’s antics, Saïx’s freak out, Luxord’s clever, early exit.

Roxas lays back beside Axel, and Axel tells him about the rest of the staff, the good and the bad. Larxene who eats grown men for breakfast, Zexion, a diehard biology student, never without a textbook, Xaldin and Lex the strong, silent types, Aqua, mom friend extraordinaire who can still kick ass, Vanitas who would be fired a thousand times over if his uncle didn’t run the place, his uncle, Xemnas, the sexiest man alive.

As Axel pulls out his phone to prove this final point, he winces at several rows of missed messages.

It occurs to Roxas he hasn’t asked or learned much of anything about Axel—let alone the name of his man.

Roxas pushes himself up, throat a bit dry, “I should probably get going too.”

“Oh.” Axel turns to him, a bit wide-eyed, or it might be the sheer amount of eye makeup he’s wearing. “Alright.” He sits up as well, watching Roxas adjust the laces of a combat boot, and smiling. “Just know that if you continue to drip ice cream all over yourself like that, I’m going to continue making you my ice cream buddy just so I can make fun of you for it.”

“Hey.” Roxas wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, leaving behind a self-conscious frown. He’d had no idea how fast the thing would melt, but he’d licked most of the blue streaks off of his hands and lips after a cackling Axel refused to do a napkin run.

But the kiosk is all the way over there, Roxas. Just be a man and use your tongue.

“C’mon,” Axel looks up from the message he’s tapping out, lips tipping up, “you don’t know how to say no to ice cream.”

God, his eyes are pretty.

“Damn,” Roxas doesn’t want to smile back or agree, but he feels himself doing it anyway, “you’re right.” He forces himself to get to his feet, and then to check his own phone, nothing from his brother yet, though he should be off by now.

He glances up to find Axel thumbing through his own, mumbling, “Yeah, I am definitely penning ‘ice cream with hot mess’ into my calendar. When’s your next shift?”

Roxas’ arms cross and Axel stands, smile sweetening, phone tucking away.

“You’re a dick.”

“You’re welcome, Roxas.”

“Thursday.”

“Okay. See you Thursday, Roxas.”