I know. I'm horrible for making you guys wait this long. I'm an awful person, and if it weren't 4:32 in the morning and I didn't have to be at work at 11 I'd probably sound more sorry. As it is here's a good 11 pages worth of chapter six.

Disclaimer: ….I think fan fiction speaks for itself don't you?

There were certain perks to being a dog that Goofy had come to understand. For one thing he'd found out that if he laid underneath the kitchen table with his head permanently nuzzled against Dad's leg it was a guarantee that Dad would pass him a good handful of tidbits. For another being a dog meant he was an excellent secret keeper as not only did people know it was physically impossible for him to go blabbing all their secrets, half the time they assumed he couldn't understand them anyway. Plus there was that lovely white bowl located in the room where he had to take those awful baths. That thing had the most interesting flavored water and he and Max seemed to be the only ones who knew of its wonders. Despite this and all the other amazing things to be had living a dog's life Goofy did crave to had one human ability. He wanted to talk.

Something was wrong with his boy. A fact he'd come to realize when Dad barged through the door, Sora lying limp in his arms and frantically calling for Mom. Although he'd caught fragments of conversation and probably could piece together the details of the last few hours Goofy wanted real answers. He wanted to ask questions. What happened? What's wrong? What could he do to help? He wanted so bad to know and yet he was and would always be a dog incapable of human speech and as it was such he could only do what little information permitted him to do. As soon as he was allowed the dog perched himself on the foot of Sora's bed. He would maintain constant vigilance over his boy until he was feeling better, Goofy vowed to his self while staring mournfully at the messy pile of blood stained bandages sitting on the bedside table. They would be removed once Mom finished redressing the wound on Sora's head, of this the dog was sure, but right now they bothered him greatly.

Aerith leaned back from her work, smiling tiredly at Goofy when the dog let out a low whimper. "He'll be all right." She said, patting the dog's lumpy head. Goofy huffed and stood to adjust his position so that he was now laying besides Sora. When was the last time she'd had a scare this bad? Oh yes, it was about five years ago when she found out that Cloud had taken her ten year old babies shopping for back-to-school supplies...On his motorcycle. She'd never screamed so loud or long at Cloud before in her life.

"Mom?" For the first the time that night Roxas stepped into his room. His eyes immediately sought out his brother's still form.

His father had drove like a madman to get them home. It really was a miracle in itself that Cloud hadn't killed them all. "He's going to be okay, right?" Goofy growled and rested his head on Sora's steadily rising and falling chest. Roxas raised a brow. "O-Kay."

"He was like that with you too." His mother chuckled at his puzzled look. Even as a puppy Goofy had been extremely protective of the twins. "That week you caught the chicken pox. I'm surprised you've forgotten." Aerith stood, gathering the dirty bandages into a plastic bag and kissing her sleeping son on the forehead before stepping away from his bed. Goofy watched her like a… well like a watchdog that was actually good at his job. "You were a few months passed seven and he only left your bed to eat and go outside." As she passed Roxas, Aerith gave him a small kiss of his own on his right temple and tapped him on his left. "Your brother's fine, but you might want to wash this off." The blond smiled a lopsided grin and scratched at the dried blood crusted in his hair and on the side of his face before his mother slapped his hand away. "I said wash it off not sprinkle it on my carpet!"

-/-

"Going somewhere?" By sheer force of will Riku kept himself from leaping three feet into the air. Cloud tossed a cell phone to the silver haired teen and collapsed on his couch. "Call your father. You shouldn't try walking home in this rain."

"Um.." My that man was huge. Really Diz was probably just as tall as Roxas and Sora's father, but Diz had that regal professor look to him while Cloud had this 'I bench press Harleys,' look about him. "Thank you, Mr. Strife." Riku flipped the phone opened and quickly punched in his home number. The tall blonde starred at Riku over his shoulder, frowning slightly and turning to the plasma flat screen hanging on the wall.

"You don't need to be so formal." Cloud said as he picked up the remote and flicked on the television. "You are my favorite nephew." On the third ring the cell phone hit the floor. Its battery flew off to the right landing underneath the coffee table and abruptly ending Riku's call. "You want to sit down?" Cloud asked motioning to the empty space besides him on the couch.

"You-you… You know-?"

"Sit." The blond interrupted. Riku slowly circled the couch before sitting down on the cushion farthest from Cloud. His eyes remained trained on his friends' father, watching the man as he calmly poured himself a drink. Three fourths of the glass' contents were downed in one huge gulp then Cloud turned his head to properly address the teenager. He opened his mouth to speak, but Riku beat him to the punch.

"How long have you known?" The teen blurted. Cloud shook his head, smiling slightly and not at all surprised with the outburst. No, he really hadn't expected Riku to remain quiet.

"For a very long time, actually." The blond pulled his wallet from his pocket, retrieving a small photo from it and handing it to Riku. It was a picture of a baby, maybe a few months passed a year old wearing a little blue and white silk outfit and smiling a huge toothless grin. The baby had a crown of neatly combed silver locks and a pair of clear green eyes. He didn't even need to ask. Riku knew the baby in the photo was him. "It was at a gala, mostly family and close friends, and your mother was there as Sephiroth's date. She handed these out to anyone she managed to snag in a conversation long enough to tell them about you." Cloud rifled through his wallet a second time, his fingers emerging from its folds with several more pictures of his nephew. "Up until her divorce from Wise your mother sent me at least one picture of you a year." Riku flipped through the photos, noting that he could remember taking some of the more recent ones, more specifically the ones were he had all his teeth.

He grimaced when he got to a particular picture he remember all too well taking. It stood out in his memory so because it had been the first time he'd seriously doubted his mother's love. The day he'd taken this picture only hours before his mother had come to pick him up Maleficent had gotten angry with him for some reason he couldn't even recall now and hit him across the face with her cane. It was one the few times she'd ever struck him somewhere visible and even with all the make up his mother had applied to his face that day the bruises and swelling were still obvious in the picture. It was unbelievable. The woman had beaten him with a cane for Christ's Sakes and all his mother had done was cover it with make up and send him back to her! What kind of mother did that to her son?

"Riku," Cloud spoke, startling the teen out of his memories. "I don't pretend to know how my brother's mind works." Actually he was very certain that all his half siblings were a little touched in the head, especially Yazoo who's maturity seemed to regress with each passing year. Seriously what ever that had been wrong with his father's second wife had definitely been passed on to all four of her sons. "Before Yazoo had Demyx he liked to drop hints and brag in his own subtle way to our father that he was his only child that had an heir." He shook his head when Riku opened his mouth to inquiry about the twins. There was no rushing need to inform him that Cloud hadn't found out about his own heirs until eight years after their birth. "After our father willed the majority of the company to me your existence dropped from everyone minds. Sephiroth never mentioned you again, but your mother kept sending me pictures. On one of the few times that I talked to her face to face she told me that once she divorced her husband she'd marry my brother." Riku frowned, starring hard at the carpet as thoughts swirled around his head.

"You mean my parents never married?"

"No," Cloud sighed. "When I gained ruling power over Strife Enterprise Sephiroth lost interest in you and your mother. Without him backing her your mother lost the custody battle over you to Ansem Wise."

"That's not true." Riku whispered. Slamming a fist against the couch's arm rest he said more forcefully, "No! My mother didn't want me! She didn't give a damn about me! She traded me for a penthouse!" It wasn't true! His mother never loved him. The only people who had ever cared about him were Diz and Xemnas. "Do you know the kind of hell she left me in? I didn't mean anything to either of them other than some-some kind of bargaining chip for my father!" He stood up so fast he nearly blacked out. "Maleficent was right." He was the result of a broken condom, an unfortunate accident that his parents had tried to get rich off of and then quickly discarded when it became apparent that he was useless. "She was right about everything." Riku mumbled, his head down and hands clenched so tightly his nails were biting into his flesh. Two arms suddenly enveloped him in a tight embrace. Riku instinctually jerked away before settling in the hug.

"No child's birth is a mistake, Riku." Standing there encircled in his uncle's arms the silver haired teen finally let his resistance crumble. Right there in his best friends' and cousins' living room he felt it was finally okay to cry.

Why didn't they want me? Riku wondered as Cloud pulled him closer.

-/-

"He's our..our cousin." Roxas rolled over with some difficulty, Donald and Max were such bed hogs, to look at his prone brother. "Can you believe it, Sora? We're related to our best friend." His brother of course said nothing, but Roxas hadn't expected him too. The pain killers Sora had been given would keep him out until at least tomorrow afternoon. "Yeah, I know, Riku looks nothing like us and yes I know that neither does mullet boy, but that weirdo doesn't count." He turned over again so that he was laying on his back with Max softly snoring in his ear. Donald ruffled his feathers in his sleep, snuggling a little closer to Roxas's side before the blond spoke again. "You can't tell anyone that we know though, okay? Overcooked cabbage lies better than you so I know how difficult that's going to be, but just try to act cool about this." Their parents weren't aware of the fact that Roxas had been eavesdropping on their conversation just outside the door and what a conversation it had been.

-/-

Kairi fiddled with her spork silently wondering what had possessed her to agree with Namine. She's your sister. You love her. Hayner would only make her more uncomfortable. She glanced down at the 'Get Well' gift her sister had stashed under her the cafeteria table. Oh who am I kidding? I'm going to hate Namine by the time this day is over. She should have never dated Seifer in the first place, though Kairi was willingly to admit that the senior was...Well… attractive and when he wasn't acting like the conceited, pompous ass that he was she could easily see why Namine had started a relationship with him in the first place. Of course after two months she could also see why her sister had ended her relationship with him. Just because he wasn't a conceited, pompous ass all the time didn't mean he wasn't one the majority of the time and the guy had such power trips. He seemed to think having a police officer for a father gave him the right to harass anyone he didn't like. Plus he..why were they visiting him again?

"I found it!" Selphie yelled, slamming a magazine on the table in front of her. Namine laughed outright at her startled look before getting a well placed kick in the shins.

"And what exactly have you found?" Kairi asked, picking up the magazine and ignoring the enraged glare her sister was sending her way. "Selphie, this magazine is dated nearly four years ago." The younger girl snatched the article out of her hands, frantically flipped through the pages, and slapped it back down on the table.

"Look! I knew those guys were rich, I mean what Institute boy isn't, but I didn't know they were that wealthy!" Honestly if they didn't attend the Institute and hadn't been picked up in a limo she never would have pegged the Strife twins as being so well off. They didn't dress like they were loaded, they lived above a clinic, and one of them worked at a fast food restaurant for crying out loud!

"Billionaire bachelor Cloud Strife is finally off the market." Namine read. "Okay, you lost me." She said clearly not understanding all the fuss Selphie was making about the old article.

"It's dated nearly four years ago. The guy's been off the market for a while and in any case I doubt you would have had much of a chance with him to begin with. What is he, like thirty?" Kairi pointed out again. Poor Selphie felt like ripping her hair out.

"Would you two work with me here? I'm talking about your boyfriends!" She took a moment to revel in the sisters red faced denials before continuing on. "See I knew I'd seen the both them from somewhere before and at first I didn't really think anything of this. Strife isn't that much of a uncommon name, right? Then I took a closer look at the ring bearers in that picture." She urged the sisters to do just that. The focus of the article was the newly wed bride and groom, but if you were really looking for them you could see the two little ring bearers standing to the side of the groom with ear to ear smiles.

"Oh my God." Selphie grinned in triumph.

"Looks just like them, don't they? If you read the whole article it tells you that Cloud Strife married Aerith Gainsborough, his high school sweetheart and the mother of his children; twins Roxas and Sora Strife. You guys are dating the heirs to Strife Enterprise!" She screamed for everyone in the cafeteria to hear. Which Kairi was sure they did as every head in the vicinity had turned to stare at their table. Namine turned a lovely shade of apple red and tried unsuccessfully to sink into the tile floor.

"A little louder next time, Selp, I don't think they heard you in detention." She acquired her own interesting color as a thought suddenly occurred to her. "We're not dating!"

-/-

"Oh, thank God it's Friday." Yuffie sighed resting her head on the desk. Just one more class to go, then she'd be free for the weekend, and hopefully Mrs. Potts would be back. "It'll be over soon. Just keep saying that to yourself." She felt a tap on her head and looked up to see Roxas leaning on her desk smirking at her.

"You know what they say about one's sanity and talking to yourself." He let a cheeky grin slip across his face as he dodged a half-heated attempt to catch him in a headlock. "You look like crap."

"Oh thanks Roxas, you know how hard I try to look good for you." Of course she looked like crap. After spending these last two days running back and forth between the schools she was dead on her feet. Oh God, please let Mrs. Potts be well enough to return Monday. I can't take another week of this. Yuffie was actually quite sure she'd have a breakdown of her own if she had to continuing subbing for Home Ec. "Hey," she sat up fully and glance around. There were still a few minutes left until the tardy bell rang so students were slowly trickling in, but something was striking her as out of the ordinary. "Where's Sora? I know a certain someone who's really excited about seeing you two again and I can't surprise you both properly if you both aren't here!" Roxas gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, Yuffie see there was-" The ringing of the tardy bell cut him off mid explanation. "I'll tell you after class." He said shuffling his way to his desk or at least he tried to before someone jumped on his back and wrapped two slender arms around his chest. The person behind him leaned forward, lips brushing against his ear as they whispered.

"Guess who." It had been so many years since he'd heard that voice, but he'd recognize it anywhere. Roxas went rigid and turned a shocked wide eyed glance at Yuffie. She gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up to show him he'd correctly identified the voice. He quickly spun around in the hold, his hands resting on the person's hips as he gave them the once over.

"Holy cow, I can't believe it's you." Roxas breathed barely above a whisper. "Aw man, Yuna it feels like forever since I last saw you!" Any student who hadn't been watching before was now intently staring at the two. A few guys nudged each other knowingly while some girls giggled. Roxas didn't notice any of it as he wrapped his arms more securely around the girl's waist. "You have no idea how much I missed you!" Yuna laughed loudly, standing on her toes to place a kiss on the blond boy's cheek. "I missed you too and speaking of missing people where is my favorite little big brother?" Before Roxas could get a single word in Yuffie placed her hands on their shoulders and pulled them apart.

"Okay it was getting real cute, but I do work here so I have to enforce that no PDA on school grounds rule." She turned the blond around and pushed him off towards his seat. "Plus class does need to get started. To your desks!" Yuna tried to sneak away to an unoccupied chair. "Not you!" Yuffie snagged the younger girl by the elbow and pulled her back in front of the class. "All right everyone I want to introduce our new student, Yuna Kisaragi. Yeah we're related. This is my little sister so treat her nicely." An angry flush rose on the girl's cheeks.

"I hate you."

"I'm your big sister. Embarrassing you is kind of in the job description."

-/-

"You can stop staring at her at any time you know." Namine growled into her partner's ear. Roxas turned her way with a genuinely surprised expression on his face. Oh great he doesn't even realize that he's behaving like a lovesick puppy. She pressed Hikaru into his chest until he finally got the hint and took the egg into his arms. Argh, I'm not going to let Selphie's words get to me. We're not dating! Roxas can stare at that girl until his eyes fall out for all I care. Namine was painfully aware of how badly she was lying to herself. She wasn't sure though if she wanted to call what she was feeling jealously. She had only known the boy for what? Three days? It was impractical to be feeling as such so early on, wasn't it? He's really cute, I'll admit that, and kind of funny.

Roxas now with something else holding his attention was delighting in the fact that their egg baby responded well to people making silly faces at him. The blond was contorting his face into various expressions discovering which ones elicited the most giggles from the egg. And a little sweet. Roxas suddenly looked up. His soft blue connected with her own holding for a meager five seconds before Namine realized she'd been caught staring and quickly adverted her eyes. Oh lord, I was jealous. Roxas blinked a few times in confusion pondering the girl's strange behavior.

Dad's right, I'll never understand women. First she seemed angry that he was staring at Yuna and now when he looks at her she's too embarrassed to meet his eyes. It was a fortunate thing Hikaru was easier to understand. After all if she refused to even glance in his direction he was probably going to spend this class period conversing with his egg. "Uncle Sora'll be pretty upset that he didn't get to see Yuna." This was, oddly enough, the last straw for his partner.

"What's so great about her?" Namine snapped. The boy sitting next to her was understandably startled.

"Well.." Perhaps afraid of the throbbing vein on the side of the girl's head and its possible promise of a painful outcome if he did not provide a suitable answer Roxas spoke slowly and carefully. "It's not so much as-as what's great about Yuna. It's um..you see neither me nor Sora have actually seen her since we were seven." Taking a deep breath he proceeded to tell her all he could about Yuna which really wasn't all that much. Yuffie and Yuna's grandmother had been a very old fashion woman who was set in her beliefs in what she thought a proper young lady should behave like. Needless to say Yuffie with her tomboyish ways was certainly not the prime example of one and Mrs. Kisaragi believed he and Sora were to blame for that. After months of constantly badgering her son six year old Yuna was tearfully shipped off to live with her grandmother and to attend an all girls academy. "That mean old bitty must be on her death bed or something to let Yuna transfer here." He sighed happily. "She was like our baby sister. She-she still is actually."

-/-

While Roxas spilled his guts out to Namine, Kairi sat at her own desk absently rocking Sayu in her arms and wondering where her own partner was. It wasn't like Sora to be late to class or to not show up at all, or was it? "Kairi?" The calling of her name pulled her from her thoughts and she swiveled in her seat to face the teen talking to her. "I doubt Roxas has told you yet." Biting his lip he found that he missed the eraser bits that had bounced off his head yesterday. "Last night Sora and I ran into some trouble on the way home-"

"What kind of trouble?" Kairi hurriedly asked. "Was that why Roxas-" This time Riku interrupted with a shaking of his head. "Sorry, I'll let you finish." She mumbled.

"To make a long story short we got in a fight and Sora was hurt, badly. He's okay now!" He rushed to explain. "But I don't know how long he'll be out of for. That asshole nailed him hard with that bat." Oh shit. Watching girl's face pale at such an alarming rate Riku questioned his choice of words and telling her in the first place. "Look he's fine now, right, but see the reason I told you is because I know how much he likes you and I'm sure a visit from you would cheer him up. If you talk to Roxas I know he can get you to Sora's bed in.. a… heartbeat… Why is your face so red?"

"He-He likes me?" Kairi asked, pointing a finger at her chest. She knew he was attracted to her, as proven from the hair flipping incident, and she was positive that he enjoyed her company, but she hadn't dared to hope that he might like her in that sense.

"What you mean you didn't know?" The teen snickered. "Oh come on this is Home Ec. I can count on one hand the number of boys, especially the rich ones, who honestly want to take this class and still have fingers left over. Trust me Sora is not one of the honest ones." Rather than sit there and listen to anymore smart remarks from him Kairi decided to do something productive, standing up and shoving her egg into Riku's hands. "Hey!"

"Hold Sayu for me, okay." She stated, walking over to her sister's desk and leaving him gaping at her retreating back. "Roxas." Ignoring all the blood rushing to her face she asked, "I want to see Sora." Well it was more like telling than asking. "I know about-" Aware of the nosy ears listening to them she leaned a little closer and lowered her voice. "About the fight and about what happened to him and I just want to see him for myself." Roxas smiled brightly, a mischievous light sparking in his eyes.

"Kairi, I'd bet all the munni in my trust fund that my brother wants to see you too. I can get you to our house after school, no problem." Letting a relieved sigh pass her lips Kairi straightened, obviously happy with the settlement. Then she remembered her promise to her sister and the smile dropped right off her face.

"Oh crap, Namine, I forgot. I'm so sorry!" Her sister wave it off.

"No big deal. I can find someone else to go with me." What was once an understanding face turned to one more playful. "It's not like you wanted to come anyway, now you have a good excuse."

"Huh? Go with you where?" To say the poor boy was confused would be an understatement. Kairi smirked right back at her sister as an imaginary light bulb flicked on above her head.

"Why don't you take Roxas? I'm sure he'd love to go with you." Said boy was looking back and forth between the sisters no less confused than when the conversation started.

Is she out of her mind? Exactly what makes her think taking him with me to my ex-boyfriend's house is a good idea? Namine wondered while Roxas raised his hand into the air just as one would do to call their teacher's attention. Not surprisingly Yuffie glanced up and addressed him.

"Oh no, not you." The sub rolled her eyes and went back to reading her comic book. "Question: Where are you going and why do you need to take me?" Namine panicked and waved her arms around wildly.

"Nothing, nowhere! I don't need to take you." The blond was not convinced or deterred.

"I'm going with you." He spoke, narrowing his eyes suspiciously in a way that dared her to challenge him. Namine sighed in defeat knowing she couldn't win against both him and her sister. Kairi did a little victory dance in her head.

-/-

"I'm serious Roxas. You don't need to come with me." She wanted to find a convenient pole to bang her head against. Trying to change this boy's mind was about as easy as squeezing water from a rock. It just wasn't going to happen. "You really don't." Her persistence was something to be admired though.

"I'm going with you." The fifteen year old stated firmly. Apparently his was something to admire too. As if he'd never heard the agonized groan coming from her he pulled a sleek cell phone from his pocket and made a quick call. "Okay Kairi, I got you ride."

"You did!" She didn't bother to make the effort of hiding the excitement in her voice.

"Yep. He should be pulling up right about…Now!" The second the word left his mouth a solid black convertible made a jerking stop in front of them. The boy behind the wheel slowly turned towards them. For a brief moment Kairi entertained the thought of asking him how exactly he was able to drive with only one eye. His choppy blue bangs completely covered one half of his face. "Right. Let me introduce you two to Institute 13 second year Zexion Leonhart and no his hair is not natural." Zexion made no sound to disagree with him. The older boy simply retrieved the Starbucks Styrofoam from his cup holder and took a few sips from it. His eyes moved at a snail's pace from Roxas to the girl he'd be chauffeuring, staring intently at the egg and thermos cradled in her arms.

"You getting in or what?" He finally spoke in even and calm voice that matched his demeanor perfectly.

"Um right." Kairi climbed into the passenger seat and buckled in. "Have fun Namine." She couldn't help but teasingly toss over her shoulder.

I hate you, Kairi! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! She wanted to screamed at the car fading in the distance.

"So where are we going?" She also wanted to strangle that boy.

-/-

"Here you go." Zexion said in a tone that suggested he was extremely bored. Kairi doubted he could speak in any other tone. "Think you're going to need a ride home?"

"Thank you for driving me here and for offering, but no. I think I'll be fine from here." He nodded in agreement and waited until she was out of his car and inside the clinic before tearing off down the road. "Wow." The clinic was a rather modest little building though this sight was only what could be seen from where she was standing. About six purple plastic chairs lined the wall to her left and there was what appeared to be a kiddy's corner on her right. Her inner child was sorely tempted to run over and play with the impressive collection of Lego's. You're here for a reason girl and it's not to fool around with colorful blocks! Shaking the silly thoughts from her head she stepped up to the empty front desk. "Hello?" Kairi slightly leaned across it, peering behind and around the desk in search of any sign of life.

"Just a second!" Someone, she guessed female from the sound of the voice, called from the back. Moments later a woman in a white lab coat was standing before her. She smiled pleasantly while removing the glasses from her face. "Hello, I'm Dr. Strife, how may I help you?"

"Strife?" Was she related to Sora? Wait a minute! She looks just like-! Oh my God! "You're Aerith Gainsborough! You're Sora's mother!" Startled, she nodded.

"Actually I'm Aerith Strife, but yes I am Sora's mother. I'm guessing that you are one of my son's classmates?"

"Ummm..Yeah." Kairi said to her toes. Her common sense had finally caught up to her leaving her well beyond mortified at her earlier actions. "I was worried when he didn't show up for class and then Riku told me-He wasn't hurt that badly, was he?"

"He was lucky." Knowing that the girl hadn't come to just talk about her son she pointed out the staircase on the far right. "He might still be asleep, but he should be waking up soon. Go to the third floor, second door on the right."

"Thank you."

-/-

Aerith had been right. Sora was still sleeping, had been actually for the past twenty minutes that she'd spent sitting at his bedside. "This is great. I go through all this trouble to see you and you're not even awake for me to enjoy it." She picked Sayu up and held her out to the bed. "This is your Daddy. A regular lazy bum, isn't he?" She placed the egg on the pillow next to the brunette's head and went back to staring/poking at the boy. "I even made you this chicken noodle soup in class-Aaah!" It wasn't only scary it was ridiculous how fast Sora shot up and awake in bed at the mention of food. "Gees, if I'd known that's all I needed to do to wake you up I would have said it a half hour ago."

"Kairi? What are you doing here?" His eyes crossed as he followed the girl's movement, grinning when she lightly flicked his forehead.

"You weren't in class today. Why wouldn't I be here?" He shrugged, his goofy little smile that seemed a permanent fixture for him whenever he was with her on his face.

"Aw, were you worried about me?"

"Of-Of course not!" She was not blushing. She wasn't! "Sayu missed her Daddy." The little egg was blissfully unaware of their conversation, snoozing happily away on Sora's pillow.

"Just admit it Kairi. I had you worried and you made me soup!"

"Yeah, so what if I did?" She griped, chucking the soup filled thermos at the boy. "You aren't the first person I've ever done that for."

"Exactly how many weren't related to you?" He slyly asked. She was saved from answering when someone knocked on the door. "It's cool, Mom, I'm decent."

"And you better stay that way." Aerith said. She walked in carrying a tray with two glasses of lemonade and two little pills. "Don't forget to take them or the pain will come back." She warned before leaving.

"Kairi." Sora was holding the opened thermos in his hands. His upper lip wet from taking a huge gulp of the soup inside. "You really made this?" The girl wrung her hands on skirt not all too sure or willing to accept why she was nervous, but feeling it nonetheless.

"Yes. Does it taste bad? Because I can understand if it does. I didn't really have much time to make it and-"

"Kairi!" Sora laughed. "Are you kidding me? This is the best chicken soup any girl has ever made for me!"

"Just how many girls have made you chicken soup, Sora Strife?" At her icy tone the brunette gulped and sunk into his covers.

"Only my Mom, I swear." He set the thermos aside on the tray his mother left and picked up his painkillers and lemonade. "She brought one for you too." Sora gestured to the second glass and then popped the pills in mouth. Kairi grabbed her own glass and took at sip from it. Sadly that sip was all it took to send her into a coughing fit. "Hey you okay? Maybe Leon was right when he said Mom's lemonade is an acquired taste." He patted her back and passed her the thermos to help her clear her throat.

"What does she put in it?" Kairi quaffed down the soup, not caring that she was drinking after Sora. Getting that taste out of her mouth was more important.

"Salt. Why? What does your mother put in it?"

She puts sugar in like a normal person! Sighing she gave him back the thermos. "Nothing, here, drink your soup." Sora eagerly did so. A comfortable silence fell over them. With Sora it lasted all of three minutes.

"So are you going to ask? Do you want to know how it happened?" Kairi reached up, her fingers softly brushing the faint red staining the bandages wrapped around his head.

"You're alive, you're healing, and you'll be back in school Monday helping me take care of Sayu, flicking erasers at Riku's head, and fighting with Roxas. That's all that matters. It's all I care about."

"So you were worried about me." He grinned.

"Sh-Shut up!" Maybe she was blushing… But if she was it was only a little.

-/-

I wanted to put more scenes in this chapter, but it was getting a little long.

Heheh all right 10 guess on who's life Yuna will play a fun part in and the first nine don't count. Some pretty good interaction planned for Roxas and Namine in chapter 7 (I'm throwing Seifer in the mix, it'll fun for me at least). I think I may even bring in Demyx (I do love the weirdo). I left I few loose ends in this chapter, but don't worry they'll get tied up.