• X-X
    Do
    Always make sure that the pin you are exchanging is witty and funny, but most of all, prevalent to something you both know.
    The Do’s and Don’ts of Pin Exchanging
    X-X
    Sora had just finished playing Go one dreary winter day, slate falling in sheets outside. He could never quite grasp the game, and it didn’t help that he had to practice against on of the strongest Go players in the country.
    He was disgruntled to say the least, when he went to retrieve his shoes from those… shoe cubbies? What were those things? Well, whatever they were, they had Sora’s shoes.
    The brunette grabbed one of his black and yellow sneakers and shoved it onto his foot. He proceeded to grab the other pour soul and shoved it on too… which is probably why he howled in pain instead of just whimpering. He cursed inwardly as he pulled the sneaker off, wincing slightly. A tiny blotch of scarlet flowered before Sora’s eyes, staining the underside of his sock with the colour. Needless to say, Sora’s mood did not brighten.
    “What the hell?” He peered curiously (not apprehensively, no, no, no; Sora wasn’t worried or anything about what had drawn his blood) and saw the gleam of metal. Sora hoped it wasn’t rusty as he stuck a hand in to pull it out.
    Even if the voices aren’t real… they still have pretty good ideas.
    Sora gazed at the pin. It was ebony with powdery script. It was plain. It was boring. It was annoying. And utterly amusing. If anyone but Sora had found the pin, they would have chucked it away. But, as with all good clichés, Sora was enamoured with pins.The brunette smiled giddily at the circular piece of paint-covered aluminium and flipped it around to write his name on the unpainted side. His grin quickly fell.
    With his expert eyes, Sora saw the wear on the pin’s clip, the chipped away rust on the edges, and the shine of a recent greasing on the clip hinges, the swipes of oily fingers on its surface to clean the last batch of fingerprints… It was a loved pin indeed. And Sora felt utterly guilty for taking such a, a, a… worshipped pin.Sora looked lustily at the pin, and then back at the cubbies. Should he indulge himself in this little pleasure? Or leave the pin for its rightful owner?
    The brunette slowly opened one of the overly filled, red pockets on his black yellow-belted capris and quietly picked through each and every pin in there, looking for one of his loved pins. He chuckled to himself as he read the plain white script on the simple coal paint. The brunette smiled to himself. Perfect.
    My imaginary friend thinks you have serious problems.
    The owner would surely love this pin. Sora chanced a glance at his new pin again as he slipped on his shoe, ignoring the sopping sock. The pin was much more important. For, in all its blandness, the teen figured that it was quite special. Maybe even hand made. He would have to take special care of it just to preserve it. Oh, and better wipe that blood off of it too.
    With that thought, Sora left the Go café, a noticeable spring in his step (despite the slight limp) and the clack of aluminium with each bounce.
    X-X
    Don’t
    Never exchange inappropriate pins, or pins that insult the recipient. How do you expect to make friends that way?
    The Do’s and Don’ts of Pin Exchanging
    X-X
    It was Wednesday again, and Sora just couldn’t wait to get to that Go café on the corner of the street where all the Anime Cons were being held (why Sora didn’t know, but he wasn’t complaining). It wasn’t as dreary as last Wednesday, but it was a close rival. There was hail on the horizon and Sora didn’t want to get caught by the falling ice from hell. Not that he wanted to see if there was another pin in his cubbie or anything… His pants swished in the slush that had fallen down a week before. Normally, that would have annoyed him, but for some odd reason, he thought, no, somehow he knew, that there would be another pin in his cubbie, and he couldn’t wait to see what it said.
    The glass door into the café was foggy from the heat inside and the cold outside and Sora eagerly went into the warmth, fingers tinged pink from the sudden flow of blood. He quickly slipped off his shoes and stood on his tiptoes, gazing with much impatience. There was nothing in the dark confines of the cubbie. His heart sunk with a resounding crash in his chest, a small hybrid of a frown and a pout marring his features. What had he expected? The owner was probably mad at him for selfishly taking a beloved pin. His pin probably didn’t even begin to cover the sentimental value of the other, more worshipped button.
    “Seriously Sora,” He ran a hand through his chocolate locks, brushing off the ice that had formed at the roots, “what did you expect?” He sighed to himself.
    “Ahem.” Someone cleared his throat rudely from behind the brunette. Sora moved to the side and muttered ‘sorry’ while the other, much older man, mumbled about the troubled youths of today. The stout man had much difficulty reaching the cubbie below Sora’s, trying to stand on his tiptoes – which gave the teen a clear view of his balding head – but loosing balance quite frequently, and when he finally managed to put his shoes in; he 'ahem'ed again, muttering about the indecency of the youths today who don’t help their elders. Sora merely ignored the man while reaching for his shoes, this time a simple pair of white and black chequered converses, and was about to place them into his respective cubbie when he noticed… a glimmer of sorts.
    The brunette took a sharp intake of air and gazed at the gleam in the back of his cubbie intently, grasping at the wood for balance with one free hand. Sora looked at the shine for a few more intense seconds, willing it to disappear, and when it didn’t, he placed his converses onto the floor and got onto his tiptoes again. He had more balance this time and reached for the glimmer in the dark with his right hand. The metal was small and oval. It could be a pin, Sora figured, but that was an odd shape and size for a pi-… The teen looked at his palm gloomily, a stay-tab opening smiled back at him in the fluorescent lighting. Of course it was foolish for him to think that the owner of the other pin would have left another…
    Sora grabbed his converses and repeated the tiptoe-and-place procedure again for what felt like the one-hundredth time. He walked dejectedly to the Go rooms, his sock covered feet dragging on the floors.
    X-X
    Always make sure to have the pin you wish to exchange with you on the day of exchanging. How else are you supposed to exchange pins if you don’t have a pin with you?
    The Do’s and Don’ts of Pin Exchanging
    X-X
    Sora had been talking to a friend when his cubbie so rudely decided to give out from underneath his hands. Maybe he should have been more concentrated on the cubbie instead of the flaming pyro in front of him…
    Whatever the reason the cubbie decided that today was the day to throw Sora at the floor, it wasn’t just going to let him get away with just a face plant. Oh, no. The inanimate wood had more planned for the brunette’s face, all including a falling piece of wood and a pin to the forehead, respectively. Now you may be wondering, why didn’t the pyro over there help poor little Sora? Well, the pyro over there just wasn’t that nice of a person, despite what everybody else thought. Maybe he was just a tad sadistic too.
    That, or he had horrible reflexes and didn’t want to move that far. Besides, one metre is a very large distance.
    Sora landed with a resounding thud on the floor and then was hit by the promised piece of wood and, thankfully, the paint-covered side of a pin, the clip facing the air. Axel stood laughing in his little corner, a single hand held up to his mouth casually to perhaps filter some of his snickers from Sora’s ears.
    “That. Wasn’t. Funny.” The brunette snarled through gritted teeth. The redhead took one - just one, mind you – stride to stand above the other teen.
    “Need some help, my fair little princess?” Sora grunted in response, getting up without the help of Axel’s outstretched hand. The clatter of aluminium could be heard as a certain pin fell onto the linoleum pin floor. The brunette’s ears visibly perked. His head snapped towards the ground, his senses tingling. “See something, my fair little princess?”
    Said princess could only nod at Axel, too busy staring at the white painted face that gazed at him, the red words upside down on the circular piece of aluminium. A single black sheep stared at a group of three white sheep, the black seemingly inching away from the trio. Sora moved his head to the side, trying to read the messy print.
    Normal people frighten me.
    “Huh.” The brunette stared at the pin for a few more moments, contemplating whether or not the pin was funny. “Hey Axel. You should read this.” He said, deciding that yes, the button was rather indeed, funny.
    “Ye-ees?” Axel asked in a singsong voice, watching Sora as he bent down to pick up the pin.
    “What do you think of this?”
    “Well I can’t really tell, since your head’s in the way ‘n all.” The brunette blushed slightly and ducked his head, muttering a small ‘sorry’. Axel’s breath was practically in the younger teen’s ears as the older of the two read the pin with careful deliberateness. He knew that Sora didn’t like waiting for answers.
    The pyro let out a barking laugh and looked at the brunette, a goofy grin on his face. “Hey, this is pretty funny.” He ruffled Sora’s hair. “Who’s is it?”
    The younger teen looked at his feet, contemplating what he should say. “It’s a friend’s.” He replied, returning Axel’s carefree smile.
    “Why do you get all the amazingly cool friends?” The pyro whined, flailing his arms above his head. “I mean, I can’t be my own friend!” The redhead mock cried and looked towards the sky- well, ceiling. “POURQOUI?!?!”
    Sora patted Axel’s shoulder before smacking him upside the head. “What about me? Huh?” Axel looked back down at the mess of chocolate locks and gave him a toothy grin.
    “I’m sorry, you must have escaped my notice ‘n all ‘cuz your wa-ay down there,” Axel motioned a hand towards the ground and past his knee, “and I’m a-all the way up here.” He motioned with his other hand a good third of a metre into the air above his head. Sora pouted in response. “Well,” Axel looked at his wrist-watch, “I gotta jet. My job isn’t going to do itself.”
    “What? Professional ogling?” Sora asked innocently.
    The pyro chuckled a little and winked at the brunette. “You know it. The eye-candy isn’t just gonna look at itself!” And with that, the demanding presence that was known as Axel was gone. Temporarily, of course.
    Sora looked back at the pin. Did he have any buttons to response to this? He didn’t think so. He looked through his pant pockets carefully, shifting through silvery gold. What if he didn’t have a pin that related to the one he was currently holding? The teen didn’t even want to think about that.
    “Where… is it?” Sora poured his pins onto the floor, the spectacle similar to that of a child pouring their entire Lego collection onto the ground, the sound mimicking plastic rain. The people sidestepped the teen and Sora flipped through each pin, quickly reading each face with disinterest.
    “YES!” He reread the button in his palm, this time much slower, and began to pocket the others.
    Normal is overrated.
    The brunette paused. Was this good enough? He looked at the pin he had just found and then at the button that had fallen onto his face. No… He’ll need something much better.
    Sora put each and every pin back into his pockets while searching for the perfect second button to accompany the first.
    A single one lay face down on the ground, Sora’s name sorely faded on its aluminium clip. He picked the pin up gently, as if it would crumble in his very grasp. There was a tuxedo in the top centre of the pin, pitch black with an equally dark bow tie, and a purple, butterfly covered skirt on in the lower centre of the pin, bloody script splayed across both articles of clothing.
    Don’t be afraid to push the boundaries.
    The brunette’s face was blank, thinking of how the button would be received. He flicked both of his pins into his cubbie, deciding that it didn’t really matter if the second button wasn’t all that relevant to the other two. As cliché as it was, he figured that it was the thought that counted.
    X-X
    Don’t
    Never give a half-assed pin just because you can’t be bothered to figure out if the receiver will like it or not. THINK PEOPLE, think! Would you like it if someone gave you a half finished pin or one that didn't look like it was worth anything?
    The Do’s and Don’ts of Pin Exchanging
    X-X
    “Hey, Sora, why do you still go to that Go café if you can’t even play the game?” The silvette had turned his attention to the brunette, the one currently going to his annual Wednesday practice. His electric blue eyes trained on Riku’s glaucous green ones, and was quiet for a few moments.
    “I have a friend… who I can only see there.”
    Riku snorted, “Some friend that is if they won’t take the time of day to be with you.”
    Sora looked dejectedly at the silvette. What should he say? “He… has a medical condition.”
    Riku looked at Sora for a moment before pinching both of his cheeks. “I know you well enough to know when your lying, Sor.” The brunette’s cheeks were red from the pinching and he whimpered in protest. “So what is it?”
    The younger teen did not reply, but merely looked at the ground, a pout on his face accompanied by rosy cheeks. There was silence as the two stopped walking.
    “Sor…?” Riku cupped said teen’s cheek and lifted his face up so that he could look into those blue eyes and he repeated his nickname for the brunette again. Unknown to him, Sora was trying to find some excuse to get out of this situation.
    “I, um… well; you know. Eh, I…” Riku tilted his head and grinned as he looked into Sora’s eyes, placing their noses together.
    “You found a girl, didn’t you!” The silvette patted the other’s chocolate locks and whistled. “I’m impressed Sor. Is she hot?” Sora blushed in response, grateful that he didn’t have to say or think up of an excuse for himself. Riku laughed. “No worries, no worries. I won’t steal her.”
    Riku left the bumbling brunette with that at the corner of the Go café.
    “Lu-ucky!” Sora whistled to himself. Wait… he paused, door to the café already open. “How am I supposed to explain to him that I didn’t find a girl…?” Nobody answered his question, and he guessed that this was fine, perfectly okay, he had garnered a reputation here as, well… you know. A tad… eccentric.
    The teen made his way to his cubbie, slipping off his shoes and placing them into the wooden death trap, not even bothering with looking into the cubbie. He figured that he would be dying with curiosity by the time practice was over, but this time; it was like the gods had left this knowledge upon his shoulders that the receiver of the pins was just as fanatical as him, and that there would be a pin in the cubbie. And that it could wait a little longer before he stained its face with his fingerprints, replacing the old with the new.
    He sat on his knees at the Go board, waiting for his practice mate to come, but he never did. An hour went by and the brunette sat dejectedly at the board, being consumed by the wildfire in his heart, unknowingly playing a Go game with himself.
    It was the first time that Sora had ever played Go correctly, and many of the people around him stopped to watch as he mindless placed the stones down, playing a near perfect game with himself. They were astonished at his sudden prowess.
    “Good job kid.” Said the older man next to the brunette, snapping him out of his revere for the emotion known as curiosity. It had been three hours since he had stepped into the room. Three long hours of endless torture.
    And now, he wasn’t so sure if he should leave the room and find out if the pin was in his cubbie. It was as if the gods had retracted their wisdom within him and given him endless torture and the ability to play Go instead.
    Sora got up, albeit slowly and unsteadily. His legs wobbled and pain shot up them in pin like daggers, knifing him down with each step towards his cubbie, his shoes… the pin. He continued on, and eventually, the pins and needles went away as he gazed up at the cubbie that he had to tiptoe to reach. He had never quite understood why they had assigned him a cubbie that was almost too high for him to reach, but that was the least of his worries now.
    He repeated the procedure that he had done so many times before and pulled out the shoes that had started it all, the black and yellow sneakers, and gazed into each of them.
    Nothing.
    He placed them down on the floor and got onto his tiptoes again. Placing both hands on cubbies on opposite sides of his own, wanting to avoid the face plant that had happened last time. There was a glimmer in the back of the wooden trap.
    The younger teen’s heart raced in its ribbed cage, his breath stalling. He slowly reached in, fingers clasping a rectangular piece of cool metal. Surely it was a pin, what else could it be-…
    Sora gazed at the powder coloured face, hungrily eating up the words.
    Can we be friends?
    There were two stick figures, one in the top left corner and the other in the bottom right, pins in hand, and the words Can we be were printed messily on the top of the pin, Friends in the very centre, made of newspaper and magazine clippings, and a huge question mark was underneath all the script, next to the bottom stick figure. The pin face was shiny with a recent lamination. The pin smelt new and had a hint of cologne and an underlying scent of sweat. The owner had taken the time to make him, Sora, a pin.
    He had to make a pin in response, but how? HOW? The brunette ran out of the store, shoes hurriedly slipped on –one comically falling off of the teen’s foot, heel poking out of the fabric - and scoured the streets for a shop with a Polaroid camera and a stock of circular pins. It was imperative that he found a shop NOW.
    He ran past store after store, panicking because he just couldn’t find a store with cameras and pins—
    Of course. He gazed into the windows of The Captured Button; shiny cameras and whatnots and stands and pins and buttons of all shapes gleaming at him with infectious smiles and happy go-lucky price tags. Perfect.
    He opened the door carefully, a tiny bell tinkling as he stepped into the petite store packed with Polaroids galore in the front and buttons and pin-adorned clothing in the back of the store. It was heaven… He was in heaven… There could be no other place more perfect or needed than this AT THIS MOMENT.
    “May I help you?” Sora jumped in surprise eyes becoming glued on the figure in front of him. The teen must have been around his own age, maybe a bit older, and he had gravity defying hair that was a sand-straight-from-the-beach-that-everybody-goes-to colour.
    His eyes were slightly squinted against the sun that streamed into the store, eyes sparkling from tiny tears that formed from the shock of the sun on the irises, the cerulean blue dark and specked with light reflections; long, wispy black eyelashes framing the gorgeous blue orbs. His skin was paler than the brunette’s, but extraordinarily captivating in the way that it captured the sun like a milky glass. He wore coal sneakers with dark cochineal laces, sable skinny jeans with knee-high gunmetal coloured leg warmers – pinned to his knees by colourless pins – and he wore an elaborate sleeveless ebony turtleneck under his ivory and jet-black chequered waist-length jacket and a matching wrist band.
    Sora could only stare for moments, rolling the words around his mouth. He liked this person already, and he had only heard four simple words.
    “I need to find a few pins and a Polaroid…” He licked his lips, his mouth suddenly dry.
    The other teen laughed. “Well then, you’ve come to the right place…”
    “Sora.” The brunette said while smiling. “Name’s Sora.” He pointed to the other teen’s shirt where a single nametag lay. “I’m guessing your name’s Ventus? Can I just call you Ven?” Sora placed a hand under his chin and looked expectantly at Ven.
    “Oh, woops. Sorry, this is my brother’s nametag.” He waved a hand aimlessly in the air. “I sometimes put his stuff on. Always happens.” He went on, ranting in embarrassment. “Dunno why. Maybe it's a twin thing?”
    Sora stopped picking up a random camera, mouth ajar. “I wish I had a twin!” He jumped towards the blonde, nearly throwing the camera in his excitement. “What’s it like having a sibling?” The brunette asked, invading the other’s personal space and most likely crossing all boundary lines that the boy may have ever had.
    The other smiled. “Fun. You always have a best friend around.”
    A frown marred the brunette’s features.
    “Anyways, I suggest these Zazzle produced pins,” the blonde picked up a packet of ten white pins. “They’re ordinary pins, but Zazzle never cuts corners to have cheaper production costs. Good quality.” He handed the pack to Sora. “As for the Polaroid…” The blonde disappeared behind a stack of boxes and shouted back, “Gimme a sec, kay?”
    It was mere moments before the spikes of blonde poked their way out from behind the vast majority of boxes, a powder blue camera in his hand.
    “If I’m right, which I probably am, then you want a camera that will give you instant gratification.” The camera reminded Sora vaguely of those big, bulky cameras that you would have gotten in the 30’s, the ones that gave you black and white pictures in seconds.
    “The Polaroid One600 Classic. Instantaneous photos and captures motion better than the digital ones. Definitely worth your time.” ‘Ven’ grinned at the brunette.
    Sora looked at the Polaroid closely, inspecting the finish and the overall presentation of the camera. “How much does it cost?” He looked up at the blonde expecting a digit in the ten thousands.
    “Two thousand, four hundred and nineteen yen.” Sora blinked a few times, looking back at the pins in his hand and the camera in the blonde’s hand. Waste all his money on the camera? Or buy the pins and leave the Polaroid?
    “Hey, um, is it possible for you to take a picture of me and let me just pay for the picture instead?”
    ‘Ven’ looked at Sora for a few long seconds, lifting the camera up to his face and back down to his side. “That’s… quite the odd request.” And yet the blonde promptly blinded the younger teen with a flash of light and the click of a button. “Here.” A laminated square of inky blackness was shoved under the brunette’s nose, the colour slowly filtering onto the picture. Sora’s eyes were squinted shut in the photo because of the light and a goofy grin was plastered onto his face. His right hand lay limply by his hips, pins in hand, and his other hand was perched onto his waist. “Don’t worry about paying.” The blonde said, a small grin sprinkling his words.
    “THA-AKNS!” Sora sang at the top of his lungs.
    “So who are the pins for?”
    “A friend at the Go café.” The brunette replied mindlessly, placing the photo on one pin while leaving.
    “What a small world.”
    X-X
    Do
    Try to make pins personalized. People tend to like that.
    The Do’s and Don’ts of Pin Exchanging
    X-X
    The pin was absolutely perfect (or, so Sora thought it was). The background was still a laminated white, but that was beside the point. The picture that ‘Ven’ had so graciously taken had been shrunk and fitted so that it would actually fit on the button, and skittle-like bubbles floated off to the right of the photo, spelling ‘Sora’ in different coloured candy script.
    The brunette in said photo was currently sitting on a linoleum floor, propped up against a row of assorted crafts products. He had barged into the store with a mission. A mission to find glue and crazy font and a printer that did what it was supposed to do – obey your every command.
    None of the store workers bothered him, nor were they even perturbed by his strange actions. They had all seen it before. And besides, they had struck up a deal with the brunette. ‘You can use our products for free, we get to mass-produce your pins to sell to the general public.’ It was a win-win situation. And everyone was content in following suite.
    “Perfect!” Sora hopped up and knocked down a cascade of colourful products, two employees casually walking over to clean up the mess. One of them turned to Sora when they were done.
    “Is that pin done?” The young woman asked, her eyes looking at the button suspiciously.
    “Of course!” Sora held out the pin with as much pride as a child that had just finished their mother’s birthday present, and grinned happily at the green-clad employee.
    “We can’t use that.” She said in a monotone, pulling out a simple 27 cm by 20 cm sheet of paper. “No personal information should be put onto products.” Sora’s face was blank.
    “And this affects me ho-ow?” The employee shrugged her shoulders, orange locks swaying with the movement.
    “Just means that your pin there’ll be one in a kind. Is all.” And with that, the two employees walked off, leaving Sora with his one-in-a-kind button.
    “And how does this affect me?” The teen asked no one in particular. His eyes found the button and widened instantaneously as he realized that he didn’t know what time it was, and he didn’t know if he was going to be able to put the circular piece of aluminium that he had slaved over into his cubbie. The brunette ran out of the crafts isle, looking at the clock that was placed right above the exit.
    “Owowowowowowow!” The younger teen hissed as he bumped into a slightly taller than him person, the other offering a hand to pull him up. Sora looked up at the other and saw the same blue eyes and gelled blonde hair that he had seen just – was it minutes or hours ago?
    “Ven?” The other looked at the younger teen with confusion as he helped Sora up, looking at the brunette with surprise.
    “How do you know my name?” Sora looked at Ven closely.
    “I saw you earlier today. Y’know, at The Captured Button?” Ventus chuckled a little before ruffling Sora’s delicately placed locks.
    “You must be mistaking me for my brother.”
    “Huh.” The brunette gave Ven a once over.
    His clothes were similar to his brother’s, but they had an almost medieval take on the other blonde’s modern gothic look. Ven had a half-white half-black hoodie on with a red collar turned down and two criss-crossing ebony belts on his chest. He had a silver and gold studded belt around his waist and shorts that were looser than skinny jeans, puffing out as they reached his knees; odd looking combat boots finishing off the look. How had Sora mistaken him for his brother?
    There was also something… different about Ven’s face. Perhaps it was the angular chin and… his eyes… his eyes were a darker colour than his brother’s; almost a navy blue. Ventus’ face was almost more… more rugged, if that was even possible. Sora didn’t like this take on the face that the other’s appearance held, finding that Ven lacked the sheer… glow of his twin; like, even though this one had a considerably lighter style of clothing, it was like he had more harboured, he was somehow older by years compared to the other blonde. It didn’t make him look as attractice as his brother. Ventus looked a tad off, like he needed a bit more innocence in his life to offset his over powering eyes, and the strong cheek bones were definitely different from his brother’s delicate ones.
    “Woops, sorry. Didn’t mean to mix you two up.” Not that he would anymore.
    Ventus chuckled. “Yeah, everybody gets me and Roxas mixed up.” Sora waved goodbye to Ven, walking out of the store, careful to avoid any people, mind in a haze. Roxas. What a nice name. It rolled off the tongue in a smooth and carefree manner. The brunette started humming to himself, mood not dimmed that he had forgotten what time it was, and walked with a little spring in his step. He passed by business women hurrying to their next meeting, college students walking aimlessly around for something to do, older men walking with their grand kids, couples walking hand in hand. He ignored all of them as much as he could, pace quickening though when he saw a lock of light hair, the sun reflecting off of it in waves. He couldn’t get the blonde out of his head.
    “Roxas, Roxas, Roxas.” He repeated to himself, walking by each of the stores in a hurry, slowing down when he saw the familiar array of Polaroids and buttons in a store window. He didn’t go into the store, just merely walked slowly by it, watching for a glimpse of the flaxen locks to saturate his need for them. His desire to see those bright eyes full of life, that contradicting style of clothing. He continued to walk slowly by, pausing as he got the end of the store window. Standing on tiptoes, he tried to peer past all of the sale items that dared to block his view.
    Click! There was a bright flash as a camera went off and Sora gazed in a daze into the store, eyes catching the powder blue Polaroid that had produced the flash. A hand came off of the button and waved to him, his heart stopping as he looked intently back, hand waving weakly by his side.
    His eyes were even brighter than Sora had remembered, his hair even more golden and sandier. The brunette felt the inexplicable urge to go into the store and to take a picture of Roxas, to preserve him in all his entirety, as if he was going to just disappear if Sora didn’t keep his eyes on him.
    Instead, the younger teen plucked his pin out of his pocket and placed it up to the window, goofily smiling when the blonde mouthed something that looked like ‘nice’.
    ‘Bye’ he mouthed back, waving his hand and pin at Roxas, the older teen lifting up the camera and pretending to take a picture of the brunette. Sora would have sworn he heard a camera click as he walked away, urges not completely fulfilled nor saturated.
    He eventually found his way back to the Go café, and opened the door in a flurry. A pink-clad employee looked up at Sora, auburn braided hair falling over her shoulder.
    “Hello Sora.” Aeris’ soft voice floated over to the teen as he walked over to the cubbies and repeated the procedure that had become a religion to him. “Still trading those pins I see.” Her tinkling laugh sounded throughout the café.
    “Yeah.” Sora was all smiles as he walked up to the counter full of sweets, gazing into the decorative array of the delectable foods.
    “Would you like some calissons?” The brunette gazed at the pale yellow candy, finally deciding that he really wasn’t in the mood for almonds and oranges.
    “Hey, Aeris, can I have a slice of clafouti?” The older woman delicately smiled at the teen, nodding her head.
    “I just baked one with pitted cherries. Oh and I have some crème caramel, if you’d like?” Sora bobbed his head eagerly, pulling out his wallet to pay for the desserts.
    “You don’t have to pay Sora. This time it’s on me, okay?” She looked at the brunette with smiling green eyes and went back into the kitchen, returning moments later with a large helping of the cake and flan. She attentively placed the desserts into their own little boxes, trying to preserve the sweets from being ruined. She then placed them into a plain white paper bag and tied it shut with a handkerchief that smelled strongly of apples. “I hope you enjoy it Sora.” The green eyes found his blue ones and looked earnestly at him.
    “I always do.” Aeris giggled and straightened her dress as she sat back down into her chair.
    “You’re too kind.” She smiled at the younger teen musing to herself as he walked out of the building, sweets in hand. “The wonders of being enamoured.” She began to whistle quietly to herself as she closed her eyes, smells filling her nose.
    The aromas of chocolate and strawberry and fruits and sweets followed Sora like a hungry dog, clinging onto him as not to lose him. He walked past all the houses, trying to pretend he hadn’t heard what Aeris had said. Besides he wasn’t one to believe in lo-
    X-X
    Don’t
    Never put too much on a pin. Keep them simple but have them express you wholly. If you ever want to befriend the person you’re exchanging with (if you ever actually get out there and meet them) then you’ll need to give them time to digest your personality in small, bite-sized pieces.
    The Dos and Don’ts of Pin Exchanging
    X-X
    “Hey, Sor, why didn’t you tell me you could play Go?” Axel looked at the brunette from across the Go board, the war quickly turning into a one-sided battle.
    The younger teen smiled deviously at the redhead, moving a white stone.
    “No, Axel, why didn’t you tell me you can’t play?” The pyro looked sourly at Sora.
    “Haha. Very funny.”
    “Well it must be, if you’re laughing over there.” Axel reached over the board and ruffled the chocolate locks affectionately before turning to get up.
    “Gimme a sec, kay?”
    “Kay.” The brunette got up as well, swiping the pieces off the board and placing them back into their homes. “I’ll meet you by the cubbies.” Axel made a noncommittal sound as he hurried off to who-knows-where.
    It was Wednesday again, and Sora had taken to waiting until he could no more to see what button was in his cubbie. This ritual of his usually drove him insane in the three hours that he had of practice, but it was all worth it for that little moment of reaching into the cubbie and his pulse raising and his hands becoming clammy and he’d wonder if he was just kidding himself in thinking that there’d be another pin in the there. And then a button would find its way into his palm, and Sora would die if he didn’t look at it right then. Anyone but him would have found this tradition to be just a tad unnerving. But that’s what made it real to the brunette, that it was actually a part of life that wasn’t strictly under his control or part of a video game where everything happened the way you predicted it. When Sora made himself wait, he had to trust in someone he didn’t personally know and he had to be there to see if the pin had been placed there, to see if life would keep surprising him with the unexpected. You would think that with this predictability, the brunette would have gotten bored with this tedious game, but his taste for the emotions that coursed through him were just as essential for him to function normally as it was for thrill seekers to have thrills.
    And so he found himself walking through the halls lined with white plaster and the accompanying plod of socks on linoleum, mind racing ahead so that mentally, he was already by his cubbie, reaching in. It took him the better part of fifteen minutes to physically reach his, in which he had already looked into the cubbie ten times over in his mind. Sora just couldn’t wait to see what was in his cubbie this time.
    He plucked his shoes out of the cubbie, grasp weak on them causing them to fall to the floor, and reached into the cubbie eagerly, palm enclosing on a deathly chilly pin; but a pin nonetheless. The brunette closed his hand on the button, starring at the back of his hand a mere five seconds before his fingers slowly creaked open.
    “Yo!” Axel bounded up to the brunette, the latter scared out of his wits by the sudden explosion of noise that was around him, heart fluttering wildly in his chest. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something, Sor.” The younger teen gave the pyro a weak, faint smile, hand above his chest, gasping for air.
    “Just startled me, that’s all.” Axel grinned.
    “Hey, what’s that in your hands?” The redhead pointed at the enclosed fist by Sora’s side.
    “Just a pin. Nothing big.” The older teen’s eyes grew wide with excitement that was normally unknown to him, and he clasped his hands together.
    “Can I see it? Can I? CanIcanIcanIcanI?”
    “Yes,” Sora let out a rather large sigh, “Axel, you can.” The brunette’s palm was faced towards the sky, button in hand. The background was a plain white, and a blonde with a slightly, but not overwhelmingly, angular face was on the pin, large sunglasses hiding his eyes. He had a small smirk on his features, and a name was scrawled onto the sunglasses in script that matched the background.
    R O X A S
    Sora’s heart stopped, gazing at the familiar creamy tan skin, the perfectly gelled up hair that looked as soft as feathers, and the slightly puckered rose petals of lips that haunted his dreams. It was the same Roxas from the store… The Captured Button.
    At some point, the teen must have began to breathe regularly, and he had somehow left the café, walking slowly with the pin in his hands. Turning around whenever he caught sight of the powder blue Polaroid in the window display. His thoughts were erratic at best. Most things didn’t make much sense to him as he gazed upon simple things like ‘Dead end this way’.
    Life had somehow pulled a fast one on him. And it had been utterly, and totally unpredictable.
    The brunette eventually found his way to that store that let him use their things for free, and went in, grabbed two sharpies – a red and a black one – and went up to the cashier.
    It was the first time he had actually bought anything from that store to make a pin with.
    He pulled out a simple white laminated pin and uncapped the vermilion sharpie and drew a sloping cap, almost like a Mickey Mouse cap, and attached a triangle to the bottom of the cap. He pulled out the black sharpie and scribbled a single question mark inside of the red. He walked out of the store, the green-clad employee from the last time he was there gazing intently at him as he walked out of the store, a small, almost unnoticeable
    (smile)
    frown on her face.
    Sora’s strides were languid and drawn-out, his face set in a scrunched concentration. He was a man on a mission. If anyone were to actually look at the brunette, they would say that he was creating a speech all in his head, mouthing the words as he walked along, hands clasped onto something obviously important for he gripped it so tight.
    In reality, the young teen was trying to keep himself from turning around and hiding in his bed, receding into his dreams. And when he woke up, that would be when he’d want to go finish what he had started; but he would most likely find some way to crawl into the holes on the floor, hiding from the world. Alas, Sora ploughed on, tiny flecks of snow falling from the sky and the wind was bitterly cold. The teen’s chocolate locks blew in the direction of the breeze, and his winter jacket felt thin and defenceless against the knifing weather. And the brunette figured that this was just another way that life was surprising him, urging him on to do something that he wasn’t sure he had enough will to do. He wasn’t even sure that he wanted to go into that little store by the Go café anymore. Hell, he wasn’t sure what he wanted anymore.
    “Mommy! Mommy!” A tiny boy ran past Sora, sunshine yellow jacket flapping in the wind. “Look at the funny blue camera!” The black haired boy was pointing at a powder blue camera in a window display, his mother agreeing that yes, the camera did look odd. It was then that Sora noticed where he was. He steeled himself a glance at the pin in his hand, his heart in his throat. Never before had he felt so helpless, so… so indecisive. He couldn’t help but feel like he had heard a click of a camera has he walked into the array of Polaroids and countless numbers of pins.
    “Welcome to The Captu- yo. I think I know you; Sor, was it?” Roxas’ eyes twinkled despite the artificial lighting, Sora’s nerves calmed by the velvet quality of his voice and the sight of his silken sand locks. It was odd, the younger teen realized introspectively, that he should feel so calm and accepted here of all places; somewhere he had thought would be harsher than the weather outside.
    “Um, yeah. That’s me.” Sora licked his lips, mouth quite inexplicably dry. His eyes travelled down Roxas’ frame, trying to preserve the image in his mind. An oversized red hoodie – that somehow showed off the blonde’s litheness – accompanied a simple black and white chequered wrist band and ebony skinny jeans, that were flecked with dark umber, skimmed lightly over the blonde’s legs. The brunette had to look away to stop his roving eyes. Besides, it isn’t polite to stare.
    Sora walked over to an extra pack of Zazzle buttons, the plastic reflecting the light so that he couldn’t quite see the products inside.
    “So…” Roxas placed a powder blue Polaroid into a box and crossed his arms over his chest, resting his weight on the front desk, “what brings you here?”
    “I got a pin today.”
    Roxas smiled. “Cool.” One of the older’s teens hands went to fish a mint from the little container on the counter, popping the candy into his mouth. “What’d it say?”
    Sora picked up two packets of the pins and made his way to the counter, stopping in front of the blonde.
    “Rox-as.” The brunette drew out the words and looked up at the older’s face, keeping his blank. The other fished another bitter sweet and placed it on the younger teen’s nose.
    “Mint?” Sora continued to look at Roxas for a few more long seconds before taking the candy and placing it on his tongue, marvelling at the instantaneous bitterness. He moved to the blonde’s left and picked up another of the mints.
    “What a small world.”
    Sora gazed back up at the older teen, taking in the other’s profile, the jutting of his nose, the curve of his voluptuous lips, the crease above his scrunched brows... “Roxas isn’t a common name.”
    “Oh, I know.” Roxas turned his head to the brunette, returning his gaze. “I’m well aware that it isn’t a common name.”
    The younger made a small sound of surprise, looking away from the other. “I have a pin.”
    “Yes?” The blonde placed a hand under Sora’s chin, turning his face towards him. “If you’ll allow me, I have something that I want to do first.”
    “Oh?” The brunette blinked in surprise, looking quizzically.
    “Don’t hate me.” Roxas whispered. And quite suddenly, in the space of a few more surprised blinks, Sora was no longer in control of the situation, and the blonde’s hair was in his face, the lashes closed on his eyes; and the brunette had never been this close to a person before. He quickly placed his pin up to his lips, blocking Roxas. The older’s eyes fluttered up, staring intently at the pin, red heart and black question mark and all.
    His cerulean orbs searched – or perhaps drank in – Sora’s features before and taking the button and placing it into his breast pocket, popping another mint into his mouth. He moved over so that his and the younger’s legs were melded together and he placed a lazy hand over the other’s shoulders.
    “Always will.” Life had pulled yet another fast one on Sora, and he wasn’t at all annoyed or surprised, heart already full to the max to wax psychological wonder over the unpredictability of the world. The world was fine the way it was, no one needed to change it.
    And they both would have sworn that right then, they had heard a tiny…
    Click!
    X-X
    Yo
    This is the author speaking. If you somehow manage to meet the person that you were exchanging pins with, don’t blame your friends for wanting to make you both somehow fall irrevocably in love. I mean, it’s not MY fault that you decided to actually change your sedimentary life and break the mould and go out there. Right? Right?
    Anyways, congratulations you two! It’s not like I had anything to do with you two hooking up. I mean, it wasn’t like I was the one who slipped a pin into your shoes!
    The Do’s and Don’ts of Pin Exchanging by Axel Firaga
    X-X
    F I N