Alas, all good things must come to an end. No matter how much Sora enjoyed being blissfully responsibility-free during the summer, life very much existed beyond dozing off on the couch with the BF (Sora still thought the acronym quite clever) and attending anniversary parties of the twin brother.

Namely, the fact that school was a little over a week away, and that fact was generally met with a plethora of groans and eye-rolls.

Roxas likened the end of summer vacation as death of the individual. Because the school curriculum stunted creativity, forcing those who went through to think alike, priming them to work as drones in the grown-up world. Or something. He'd have to ask Roxas about that, since Sora didn't exactly care for the school curriculum except for the handful of subjects he found fun.

Riku, on occasion, would glance at the tacky real estate calendar that was stuck to his fridge with a magnet, each time with subtly increasing amounts of dread.

Xion would try to get as much sleep as possible.

But Kairi, she just had to be the odd one out. She actually rather liked going to school, and Sora couldn't even begin to fathom why. However, it certainly explained why she chose to go through an internship instead of wisely wasting her summer on the beach.

And unfortunately for Sora, who routinely blocked all school-related thoughts from his head when school wasn't in session, Kairi had this amazing, one-of-a-kind talent of being able to drag him and Riku along to shop for school supplies no less than five days in advance of the start of a new semester.

This year though, it was just Sora. After the close call at Xion's house, he and Riku came to the agreement to spend more time with Kairi individually, just in case Kairi picked something up between them, like lingering touches or Sora leaning too close to Riku for too long, whenever they were together as a trio.

As he helped Kairi lug home a bag of empty binders and notebooks in one hand and a presentation board in the other, he silently cursed his rotten luck in rock-paper-scissors.

Or maybe Riku was just too good at reading his face.

The presentation board was slipping from his hold, so he stopped for a moment to heft it back into place under his arm. "Geez, why do you even need a board this early in the year, Kairi?"

"It's for my internship," Kairi replied, readjusting the box of books in her arms and wrinkling her nose a little. "I have discuss all this researchy stuff I did while I was away at some panel. The internship was fun and all, but sheesh, here I thought I was done."

"That sucks," Sora said, mirroring her expression. "You need any help? I don't think I can really do much, but yeah."

Kairi brightened and brought up a hand to tuck some off her hair behind her ear, the box she was holding balancing precariously on a single arm for a moment. "Really? That'd be great! I have all my notes, but we might have to a bit more research, then design the board and maybe even a slideshow."

Sora nodded. "Cool. When's it due?"

"Second day of classes."

"Seriously?"

"I know, right? You want to get started once we get back to my place?"

"I—um. Sorry, Kairi, but I'm going with Riku to the movies later today."

"Hm," Kairi said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "So, like a date or something?"

Sora nearly opened his mouth to say 'yes' in reply, only to clamp his mouth back shut.

Hold it right there. Did Kairi just say date?

A date typically meant an outing between two people. And it implied that there was some sort of romantic thing going on.

Oh no. Oh no no no. That wasn't the right idea for Kairi to have. Absolutely not. Alarm bells were blaring full blast in Sora's head, kicking his brain into high gear in the single-minded goal of keeping Kairi blissfully unaware.

"No, no. I mean... uh, no! What gave you that idea?" Sora said, forcing a laugh. "Riku and I aren't going to the movies!" At Kairi's questioning stare, Sora hastily added, "Well, we are going to the movies. Just not together. Yeah. We're… we're going to different showings!"

"Really," Kairi said. Was that a sarcastic undertone there, or was he just imagining things?

Well, whatever. What mattered now was coming with up a mildly reasonable explanation for Kairi as to why he and Riku were going to be at the same place at the same time tonight, just not together.

"Yeah! Keyblade Master IIIand The World Begins With Youare both airing this week, so Riku's gonna watch one while I watch the other." In hindsight, maybe Sora should have mentioned specifically which one he'd be watching just to make everything sound more convincing, but he pressed on. "Then we're going to talk about which one sucks more. Yup."

Except they totally were going to be together, in the sense that they were going to occasionally make out in the back row with Keyblade Master III onscreen while the speakers behind them played epic sounds of trains blowing up and all that. But Kairi didn't need to know. It would be best that she didn't know.

He plastered one of his winning grins onto his face and made a show of pulling his phone out of his pocket. "And would you look at the time! I almost forgot that I promised to help my mom fix the shed today, so I gotta get going. Seeya!"

Total lie, that was, but he gently shoved the supplies he was carrying into Kairi's arms and scurried away all the same.

"Hey, Riku," Kairi began conversationally, stretching her legs out alongside the length of the boat Riku was rowing and inspecting her flip-flops.

"Hm?"

"How was Keyblade Master III?"

Riku offered her a shrug, the best he could with both his hands occupied with oars. "Not bad, I guess. I'm pretty sure Quadrilateral's writers are just making stuff up as they go along at this point, but at least the CGI is nice."

"What did Sora say about The World Begins With You?"

"The World… Begins With You? We're watching that next week," he responded, puzzled.

"Oh. So you watched Keyblade Master together, then?"

"Mhm," Riku hummed in confirmation. "I mean, what else were we going to do?"

Kairi shrugged, a little smile on her lips. "Just wondering. Say, did you guys do anything… fun?"

Fun. Said with the kind of slight lilt in the voice that Riku's generally overanalytical brain wasn't sure if it liked. Like it implied that he and Sora did… things together.

Oh god, was she catching on? Shake her off the path, Riku, and quick.

He settled for the innocent route. "Well, isn't usually watching a movie is usually something fun to do?" Riku said, trying to smirk and keep his voice even, despite the suspicious tingling on his cheeks. Dammit.

How awkward. And Riku really didn't deal with awkward.

"Well, aren't you a smartass," quipped Kairi. The boat reached the jetty, and thankful for the excuse to pretend not to hear her, Riku immediately hopped off and began tying the boat.

"Are you free all Saturday?" Kairi asked, once both her feet landed onto the dock with a thump. Riku swallowed.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "Why?"

"We're going to finish up my project over at Sora's."

Oh. Riku thought for a bit. Even though he and Sora agreed to spend as little time together with Kairi just in case they gave themselves away, it wasn't like that'd happen if they were busy working, right?

"Sure," he said. He raised a hand to bid her goodbye, before somewhat hastily sliding his hands into his pockets and walking away.

Yeah, great job as always, Riku. That wasn't subtle at all.