"Roxas, meet me at the clocktower today, I wanna talk about something with you.

You know where, dork.

-Sora"

Roxas read over the small letter again as he climbed the almost infinite steps to the familiar haunt. He'd stepped on these stairs so many times the pace was like breathing to him now. He wondered what surprise Sora had for him. It wouldn't be a surprise if Sora decided to tell him outright, so the letter was a clue to what was in store for Roxas. He closed his eyes; this better not be like that time Sora thought using the exploding balloons of Balloonaga to "officially" celebrate his first birthday.

Roxas paused in the doorway leading outside. His shoulders rose and sank with his deep breath. The wind skipped through his hair, danced across his closed eyelids. The top of Twilight Town's clocktower was always his "happy place", his home. Sure, some terrible things had transpired here, but it was always where his heart was at peace.

He walked forward to see Sora sitting on the edge, watching the sunset patiently. He turned around and smiled, "Good! You decided to come!"

Roxas's greeting was less welcome, "Sora I swear if this is anything like last time-"

"Jeez Roxas!" Sora snapped, "Gimme a break! I wanted a lot of balloons for you-"

"Balloonaga is a spell similar to Mine, idiot. The balloons explode." Roxas sighed. He sat down next to Sora anyways, "So cut to the chase, what do you want from me?"

Sora's bouncy air became somber. He turned back to the sunset while fishing a familliar set of blue bars out of his pocket, "Here."

Roxas accepted the sea salt ice cream, chuckling, "Of course, you do know how to bribe me." Sora laughed before biting down on the treat himself. The silence that followed was only filled by the continual wind. Roxas was half finished with his treat before he asked, "Did you just wanna hang out with me? You know, I can arrange somethin'. You don't need to do the whole message dealio."

Sora chuckled, "Nah... it's not that I wanted to be with you." He then cleared his throat, which Roxas knew was only a move Sora made when he as uncomfortable. Sora's lips moved in muttering experimental phrases, and eventually he said, "You got a place to stay here, right?"

"Yeah," Roxas confirmed, "what about it?"

"Just a small apartment, just to yourself, right?" Sora asked him again.

Roxas nodded. Namine and Xion got to stay with Kairi as adoptive siblings, but Roxas decided to stay in his beloved town before anyone extended such a gesture to him. It was lonely, he knew that, but it wasn't any different from his old life. He could bear it. It took Roxas a moment to realize Sora had paused to consider his words again.

Roxas sighed with a laugh, "This is really important, huh?"

Sora nodded. He waved his stick of ice cream around as if it would help him make his point, "You... You... You don't really have... a family, do you, Roxas?"

Roxas sucked on the last salty sweet juices lingering in his stick. "Suppose not." He whispered. The thought had always lingered at the edges of Roxas's mind. A damp fog reminding him that often the world didn't care about him, that he was alone.

Sora suddenly stood up as the wind gained speed, "You know what, this isn't the place." He began leaving, either oblivious to Roxas's confusion or expecting him to tag along, "It's better we talk about this at your apartment. I'll see you there."

Roxas watched him with nothing but surprise at Sora's audacity. He stood and followed after him, muttering, "It's my apartment, I'm the one puttin' all the munny into it, ya know."

About a half hour later he waltzed in to see Sora sitting on the couch. Roxas expected him to be sprawled on it like some kind of cat, snoozing away the wait, but he was pensively watching the coffee table across from him. Roxas sat on the couch across from Sora, expecting him to make a move to resume what he was saying. Sora was very clearly lost in his thoughts. Typical.

Roxas stood and proceeded to make himself some hot chocolate (he wasn't a coffee person, yet) and sat back down to sink into the couch cushions to indulge in how quiet Sora was being for once.

"The circumstances of your... Birth." Sora stated, hesitantly. His voice was suddenly so much more somber than the ball of sunshine Roxas had come to understand. "Leaves you with technically no true relations."

"I'm aware," Roxas responded, "and..." He had trouble finding his own voice as his fingers gripped his small mug to find its warmth and steal it. "... I can deal with it."

"However," Sora added a small condition, "Being composed of, well, me-"

"And Ventus." Roxas corrected him, "Remember King Mickey asked Ansem the Wise to run the DNA tests. Roughly 85% Sora and 15% Ventus, that's who Roxas is, and that's what King Mickey said Ansem the Wise drew from the data." Roxas took another burning sip.

He still kept his copy of the results, stashed away like precious gold. He'd bring them into the dusky light to read them over time and time again. The data printed on this paper was Roxas. This was him. For some reason it brought him peace that he wasn't 100% Sora or Ven. It made him a chimera of the two, and thus a technically unique being for having such a blend. Himself. Not one person identical to him. Roxas was Roxas, even on paper, and the thought was amazing. He remembered the anxiety that racked his body while the testing was happening; was he a flat out clone? He had such a good chance of such that he remembered throwing up from the fear- his ultimate fear, really -that ravaged his body: what if Roxas... Wasn't Roxas?

His navy eyes trained themselves upon Sora, "What're you getting at, dork?"

Sora was very clearly uncertain about what he was proposing. He rubbed the back of his neck for a moment or two, his eyes darted away repeatedly. Just when Roxas was going to snap at him to get on with it or get out, Sora reached into his jacket and pulled out a paper.

Slowly, shakily, the official document settled onto the coffee table by Sora's unusually trembling grip. Roxas read it over:

"I, the mayor of the Destiny Islands, do hereby recognize that (there was a blank here, with a small prompt for the siginature of the participant) is the adoptive relative of (Sora's signature in this blank, and judging by the font his hand was shaking as he wrote it) and their family."

There was a few other signatures: Sora's parents as witnesses, Kairi's father- being the official who sanctioned the document -and there was even the official seal of the islands sitting in the corner. Roxas almost dropped his mug. Instead, he spilled some of the hot chocolate on himself before setting it down on the coffee table.

Sora's fingers still lingered on the edges of the paper. "You have no family, officially." Sora said simply; his voice cracked a bit, "And I am offering... To be your family." His voice slowly escalated and grew into a guilty yell, "To be your brother, to be by your side when you need me, t-to just fucking be there! I was never there the first entire year of your life a-and I just..."

Sora's voice trickled into an almost agonized whisper, "I-I don't want you to suffer anymore, okay? Everyone needs a family, a real one. Friends are and can be family, yes, but brothers, mothers, fathers... Those are important, too."

Roxas stared at the adoption document. He leaned forward and covered his mouth with one hand.

"I know, I know." Sora sighed, "Y-you keep saying you can do without a family, but..." He rerouted his verbal train of thought, "I've explained it all to my parents. Every detail." He looked Roxas dead in his eyes, sharp baby blue against blue-tinted black, "You just sign it, and this will be a family. You'll be part of my family. It'll be OUR family. One family with no secrets between us."

Roxas covered his face, brushing aside his bangs while his head dipped lower, towards his legs.

Sora began retracting his offer, stammering, "F-fine I understand you don't wan-"

Roxas grabbed Sora and pulled him into a tight hug. Sora laughed, and patted Roxas's back. Roxas only squeezed him tighter, hoping Sora wouldn't notice the pitiful sniffling noises Roxas was making. Sora eventually began rocking Roxas back and forth, driving himself into the embrace with complete satisfaction.

"I take it that's a yes, then?" He laughed through a few choked tears.

Roxas nodded, unable to say anything but a few gasps himself.

Sora smiled despite the saltwater on his cheeks, "I'm the older one, then. I'll set it up like that at Christmas, okay?"

Roxas pulled out of the hug. "Christmas?" He asked with a giggle.

Sora nodded, "Of course! Duh! Like I'd let my new little brother miss out on Christmas!" He then snapped back to the paper, and grabbed a pen out of his jacket, "Well, you gotta sign it first." Roxas's fingers grabbed the pen, and soon he was Sora's brother alongside a few tearstains.

Roxas grabbed Sora again, not sure how else to express his thanks. Sora only held him tight, like the brother he'd always wanted.

This happens. No be quiet this totally happens Sora gets everything set up to adopt Roxas as his bro officiaLLY THIS HAPPENS OKAY ;3;