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“It’s stuck.”
“What?”
“The…moving tag part. It won’t go up.”
This (priceless) kid will be the death of you.
He’s hunched over, legs awkwardly parted and bent as he grabs at the zipper of his cloak, struggling to pull it up. It’s kind of ridiculous that something as simple as working a kink out of a coat is enough to stump him, but it’s just baffling that he’s sitting there still trying to do it.
“It’s a zipper, Roxas,” you remind him, for the third time. You swat his hands out of the way, and kneel down to work on the stupid thing yourself. Though, thanks to Roxas’s handiwork, he’s fucked the zipper up pretty nice; it’s not even straight on the teeth anymore. You give it a nice hard yank, which sends Roxas tumbling forward, bracing himself dumbly on your shoulders and you smirk. He mumbles out an apology, but you pat his thigh in assurance.
“Maybe if you didn’t go jerking around with things you don’t know how to do, this wouldn’t be such a strenuous task.” You’re half joking, but half not. Roxas doesn’t see the joke, anyway, and just kind of looks at his boots like a scorned child. It’s pretty sad, and you sigh, focusing on fixing his coat. You yank the zipper a few more times until it’s free and back at the bottom of the track of teeth before you try to get Roxas’s attention again.
“Hey, watch this time, alright?”
He nods down at you.
“Alright. You take the other part, and you have to put the end into this little hole right here, or it’s not going to work.” You narrate your steps as you continue, slowly; it’s very, very hard to do this in slow motion, you notice. “And then you pull the zipper up. Got it memorized?”
Roxas stares down at your hands, watching them pull the zipper up to his neck. Then, his perfect cerulean eyes fall upon you, hopeless and blank. Zombie-like. He still doesn’t understand; you’d know that kind of look from a mile away.
“Let’s do it again, then.”
You tug the zipper down, and make sure you undo it all the way. Roxas is giving you this look of “you are the biggest douchebag ever why are you doing this to me why why why” but you can only find it in yourself to smile, and pat his thigh gently.
“You’ve gotta get this one memorized, Rox. This coat’s all we have to protect us from the darkness.”
Silence. You smile a little bit more. For him.
“Alright, you do it this time. Remember the first step?”
His gloved hands reach down, holding each side of the coat. Blonde eyebrows furrow and twist in deep concentration as he tries to remember. Slowly but surely, he remembers this time, carefully hooking up the bottom of the zipper, then tugging it up. When he hears the “ziiiip” from his coat, he blinks in wonder, before his lips twitch up in a faint smile. He looks at you, for approval, to which you nod quickly, grinning ear to ear.
“That’s it! You keep giving me that stupid look, and then you do it just fine. Definitely uncool, Roxas.”
Again, his lips flicker up in an unsure smile. It’s really just a twitch of his lips, only you know that he’s actually trying to give you a genuine smile. It passes, for you. You hoist yourself back up to your feet, slapping his shoulder approvingly.
“Ready to go?”
Roxas is too busy making the zipper go up and down on the track, smiling that same, near-invisible little smile at the “ziiip!” it makes in his fingers.
This (adorable) kid is going to be the death of you. Your cheeks might just rot from how hard you’re grinning.