The Little Shop on Sky Avenue || Serah & Sora AU
Money was always the common denominator.
Sora never asked questions about what his mother and the other relatives talked about late at night when they expected him to be long in bed. To be fair, he was in bed, but the fact that they spoke in the roof directly below him with open vents didn't really stop him from catching bits and pieces of the conversation. The stocks had fallen far too much, some nights. There was nothing reliable for them to fall back on, that was a constant. A few nights before he was given the news, Sora even thought they heard him talking about his nice little private school-- the only good school within an hour of their house-- and how the owners were excessively greedy.
Upon remembering those scattered words, the sixteen year old didn't rebel as much as his age usually warranted, because his mom looked teary eyed at the thought of him moving, and he wasn't going to make this harder on her than it already was. So a few days before fall classes started up again, Sora packed a fraction of his life up in his mom's hatchback and set his stare out the window for the hour and a half drive into the city.
"Now remember, Sora," his mom piped from the driver seat, "Serah is very busy, so try not to interfere with her too much, okay? The family's being very nice in letting you stay there with her while you go to school. Don't get too destructive, because it's just a tiny apartment now, not a whole big house to yourself." Sora hummed in acknowledgement, his mind already back with his friends at his old school, preparing for the year ahead that was never going to happen. Stupid money.
Finally, the car pulled off to the side of the road, and Sora jumped out to collect everything-- it wasn't much, two duffel bags full of sports gear and clothes-- and looked at the tiny shop they had pulled up in front of, confused. Hesitantly, he followed in his mother's footsteps, edging just inside the door.
"Serah, sweetie?" his mom called as she wandered in the door, "Are you in?"
