Well, Howdy.

It's kinda short, and it's been a while so it might be disjointed but Hey! it's a chapter! Hope you enjoy.

Squall Leonhart

"You can't just pretend nothing ever happened," Roxas announced, tone frustrated. "If you pretend nothing ever happened, then nothing will have ever happened and nothing will ever happen, get it?"

Not really.

I sat at the large, round kitchen table with a beer in hand and a throbbing in my temples that didn't want to go away, I rubbed my eyes for about the hundredth time in the last hour and thought seriously about firing Roxas. It couldn't be too hard to replace him, could it? Find another kid that would happily work nearly every shift under the sun without complaining and practically run the place by himself so I can have a nice summer? Not too hard right?

I sighed and settled a glare on Roxas, because the kid is too good at his job.

Right now the twins were sat opposite me, their legs stretched out in front of them, crossed at the ankles, and their arms folded over their chests, mirroring each others pose and setting me with duplicate stares. I'm pretty sure it's something they've pulled off a cop show and I almost smiled. Riku was sitting on the arm of the sofa a little way away; he was half listening to us, I knew, but he'd put the TV on when he got here, telling me this was none of his business and he was just Sora's ride. I was thankful for that.

Sora's idea of being a Cloud expert seemed to involve saying partly philosophical things under the guise of them being Clouds 'troubled thoughts and emotions'. I rubbed my eyes again - one hundred and one - and wished I had something stronger than beer in the apartment.

"See, here's what we've concluded," Roxas started, legs moving under his chair, arms unfolding as he leant them over the table – Sora changing position in synchronisation "Cloud likes you-"

"We think," added Sora.

"But he doesn't know he likes you-"

"Because he's dumb,"

"But now we know you like him-"

"Because it's obvious,"

"So now Cloud needs to know how you feel, so he can realise how he feels. And then all our feelings are shared. See?" Roxas grinned and the twins leant back in their chairs and folded their arms again. Case closed.

I stared. "Wouldn't it be better to just forget it ever happened?"

Sora made a noise like he was about to choke and Roxas threw his arms in the air, mouthing to the sky and shaking a fist.

"No," Sora had recovered, but sounded exasperated, "Because Cloud is planning to forget it ever happened"

"How do you know what Cloud is planning?" I asked tiredly.

"We know," The twins replied in unison. Roxas continued, "So like we said, if you pretend it never happened, what exactly are you going to achieve? No kissing, that is what."

"Exactly." Sora picked up with a grin, "if Cloud is going to forget it, Leon you need to man up and do the reminding,"

"But wait until Cloud has had time to cool off," Rox added with a smirk.

"But…how do I go about…reminding him," I asked, awkward because I suddenly realised how very childish this all was. Asking Cloud's brothers for help. His younger, deranged brothers.

The twins looked at each other and paused. A glorious stretch of silence that I hoped might last longer, but eventually Roxas said "Oh. Yeah, that could work,"

I got the distinct impression they had decided something without me, something that might not have been said out loud. My expression dropped into a deeper frown as I realised I was being left out of the loop.

"What might work?" I asked, and my voice sounded annoyed and dangerous even to my own ears. I blame the twins, this is the affect they have on Sundays.

Roxas quirked an eyebrow in amusement and I thought about firing him again, "Pretend it never happened."

Silence.

"Pretend it never happened? You have spent an hour in my apartment giving me a headache to tell me to carry out my original plan?" My voice rose but I just sounded tired now. The twins are exhausting at the best of times, I glanced towards the bedroom and thought longingly about going back to sleep.

"Well not exactly," Sora started with a pleasant smile, "You let him forget about it for a little while, get yourselves back on the ol' friendship train tracks," he did a strange elbow wiggle that might have been a train impression…somehow, "and then - now that his big dense brain has a big smoochy clue about how you feel about him- you gently remind him of those few seconds of passion. Bring it up carefully though, don't want to scare him away."

I didn't know why Sora finished of his statement talking like a hill-billy, and I chose not to ask. Roxas was nodding along sagely and even Riku's expression seemed to say it was probably the best choice. And to be honest, I didn't have any better ideas.

While I knew full well that by myself my conclusion would have been to never mention it ever again, or simply find a new best friend, I didn't feel the need to tell the twins I was grateful for their help, even if all they did was expand on my own idea. I'd have probably come up with this eventually. Way down the line. One day.

I winced, "Thanks?"

Roxas' jaw dropped, "Good Got in Himmel"

"And also Dios mio" Sora added. "He thanked us."

"He did,"

"For being only marginally helpful,"

"We were."

"And he thanked us,"

"For practically nothing,"

My face deadpanned. "Get out."

Sora smiled while Riku stood and fished his keys out of his pocket. The twins jumped up and Roxas gripped my shoulder, "I'll keep you up to date on Cloud."

I gave a small nod and waved my hand in the general direction of the three of them. I heard Roxas heading down the hallway on his skateboard, and yelled at him over my shoulder, he yelped and laughed and then the door slammed shut behind the two stooges and Riku.

Why was I left with a very, very bad feeling about it all?

Cloud Strife

I took full advantage of the fact that both twins had left the house. I climbed into my sweat pants and an old t-shirt, lined up as many glasses of water as I could along the coffee table - so I wouldn't have to get up for a while - and nestled myself down against one of the couch arms, resting my head on a pillow and wallowing in my hangover.

Demyx and Zexion joined me, none of us felt like going outdoors - "That's where the sun is waiting to hurt us," was Dem's take - having already exerted ourselves enough for one morning. We put the chick flick we'd rented on again and the three of us were laid there drifting in and out of consciousness when Namine appeared beside me, stroking my hair briefly and dropping two headache tablets on the table next to my twelve glasses of water.

"How was your evening?" Demyx asked, possibly for the second or third time that morning, chipper tone covering what might have been suspicion. Which in itself was suspicious. I slid my gaze to Namine, but she didn't seem to hear the same tone I did.

"Very pleasant, thank you," She replied, eyes on the film as she nestled into her favourite arm chair with a new art book.

"Oh yeah? What did you do?"

Namine shrugged, a motion that she still managed to pass off as graceful, "Watched films,"

I slid my gaze back to Demyx - without moving my throbbing head - he was nodding thoughtfully, seemingly satisfied with this answer. My eyes went back to the TV.

"You know," I said quietly, "If Rox or Sora were here, they'd put the headache tablets in my mouth and feed me the water…"

Namine smiled but didn't look up from her book, "Well that will be a nice treat for them when they get home, wont it?"

I sighed dramatically and shuffled into an upright position, grabbing the tablets and a glass of water, the whole process feeling far too strenuous. I was just laying back down when I heard a beep from somewhere.

Sticking a hand under the sofa and groping around, my fingers brushed my phone, I pulled it out and unlocked the screen where a cheerful blue message told me I had one missed call from about one-fifty-three that morning. Leon. My thumb hovered over the Call button for a minute, but then I closed the message and laid myself back down on the sofa.

Leon could wait until my head wasn't pounding. But even as I thought that my heart had picked up speed and a little bubble of panic nestled in my stomach. This is ridiculous, being scared of my friend just because we had some sort of…misunderstanding. I'd probably got completely the wrong end of the stick and Leon is furious and worried that I disappeared without a word.

But then again why would he wait until almost two in the morning to ring?

I'd call him later. Probably. Eventually. And maybe the best thing to do would be to just pretend that nothing had ever happened.