DIPS

-

From the outside, the Destiny Island Paranormal Society appeared rather ordinary – calm and professional, with a simple white door in a brick building accompanied by a long white-paned window. For months, they'd taped a blue and white sign to the glass that read DIPS, until one of their more sarcastic investigators, Riku, had coolly pointed out that labeling themselves as dips probably wasn't the most profitable way to present themselves. And so the acronym had come down and was replaced with the longer version of their name, resulting in an almost immediate influx in business, and therefore an additional member to the team. All in all, the Destiny Island Paranormal Society had a very successful appearance.

On the inside, however, it was nothing less than chaos, which Sora learned almost instantly after being recruited.

"New case debriefing today!" Yuffie yelled as she burst into the headquarters, hefting a clipboard and a rather impressive-looking file of papers over her head. "Move it, newbie," she said, playfully elbowing Sora as she flounced into Cid's office.

Cid was the head investigator of the organization and basically ran everything there was to run. He seemed to like bossing people around, Sora thought, so it was natural that he should be in charge. He was tough and honest and didn't take shit from anyone, and Sora had overheard from someone that he'd even witnessed a full-body apparition once.

"So, what've we got?" Cid asked as he exploded into the room, clapping his hands to catch everyone's attention while dropping into the black leather swivel chair behind his desk. He looked intense and ready to go, like he'd downed at least three Red Bulls before coming to the meeting, and Sora couldn't help but shrink back from his stare.

"New cases," Yuffie chirped and slid a folder onto his desk. Cid opened it and began flipping through the case summaries the dark-haired girl had typed up earlier that day, making intrigued noises and rubbing the stubble on his chin with one hand.

Curious, Sora leaned forward and tried to catch a glimpse of the files, but Riku placed one hand on his shoulder and gently pulled him back.

At Sora's annoyed look, Riku merely narrowed his eyes and explained, "Cid always get to read cases first."

"Damn right I do," Cid said, tossing the files down. "Yuffie, when did this one come in?" He tapped the top sheet of paper importantly.

"This morning," she replied.

"Hmm." He drummed his fingers on the table for the moment. "Unexplained fires, moving objects, and voices from the basement. Family's scared shitless." With a sharp grin, he swept his eyes across his team and asked, "Who's in for a road trip to Twilight Town this weekend?"

Everyone made varied noises of agreement except for Sora, who meekly raised his hand and said, "I've got work on Saturday."

Beside him, Riku palmed his forehead and hissed, "Wrong move."

"Huh?" Sora asked with a confused look, but it was too late. Cid was already glaring at him murderously, pointing one finger under the brunet's nose and looking rather intimidating overall.

"Newbie," he snapped. "Do you think the rest of us don't have jobs?" the blond asked in a biting tone, waving his hand to indicate everyone else in the room.

"Yes," Sora answered, then grimaced and furrowed his brows, rushing to correct himself, "I mean, no. I mean, I think you do."

Cid nodded approvingly. "That's right. And do you think some of us might be scheduled to work sometime this Saturday?"

Hesitantly, Sora nodded.

"That's right." The blond leaned back in his chair and opened one of his desk drawers, digging around for a moment to produce a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

"Um," Sora said, looking at the smoke detector directly above Cid's head, but Riku jabbed his elbow into the brunet's side before he could say anything to further incur Cid's wrath. Sora yelped and clutched his side in pain, frowning at Riku, who just shook his head and glared while Cid placed a cigarette between his lips and lit it with one hand. He inhaled, then blew out a steady stream of smoke as he pinned Sora with a serious look.

"So what it really comes down to," he continued, somewhat muffled by the cigarette in his mouth, "is how dedicated you are, and whether or not you're willing to make the time." Exhaling a cloud of smoke in Sora's direction, Cid raised his eyebrows and asked, "So can I count on you to be there this weekend, newbie?"

"Yes, sir," he squeaked.

"Good." The blond flipped the folder shut and tossed it back to Yuffie. "Let's just go ahead and do both of these this weekend. Make it happen."

"No problem." Yuffie grinned, then bowed and bounded eagerly out of the room. Sora, assuming the meeting was over, turned to follow her, but Riku grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back again.

"Not yet," Riku whispered, as Cid squinted at the ceiling and rubbed his chin.

"Cloud and Leon," he said slowly. "You two drive down together with the equipment. Yuffie and I will go down early to meet some people and make some arrangements, and Riku and Sora can go down together, too."

"Fucking no way," Cloud said before anyone could stop him. He glared across the room at Leon, who was glaring back with equal intensity. "I'll go with anyone except him."

"Shut your spiky ass up and deal with it," Cid growled. "You two gotta learn to get along sometime, and Sora needs to learn the ropes from another investigator, not a couple of punkass tech bastards."

"You drive with him," Cloud argued, and crossed his arms stubbornly. "I'll drive with Riku. Yuffie and Leon can handle driving the equipment down."

Cid actually seemed to consider this for a moment, and Sora nearly fainted right there on the spot. A six hour drive to Twilight Town with that guy? Holy crap. He'd rather walk.

"Aw, hell," Cid said, waving his hand at Sora, who had paled rather dramatically during Cid's contemplative silence. "Look at the poor guy, he's about to piss himself!"

Thanks for pointing that out to everyone, Sora thought unhappily as he inched closer to Riku, trying to hide behind the silver-haired boy's superior height.

Narrowing his eyes, Cloud challenged, "And whose fault is that? Stop scaring him and he'll be fine."

"Or," Cid said, leaning forward to grin maliciously, "why don't we follow my original plan so I don't have to kick your ass off my team?"

"You wouldn't."

"You don't think so?" The lead investigator jerked his thumb at Leon. "I think Leon here is really all the tech support we need."

"Leonhart," Cloud growled, "is an asshole."

On the other side of the room, Leon crossed his arms and stonily looked off to the side. "Whatever. So are you."

"Ladies," Cid snapped, "quit bitching. You're driving to the case together, and if you can't handle that, then you can get the fuck off my team."

Cloud clenched his fists and glared, obviously holding back some other comment, but he miraculously managed to remain silent. Leon said nothing.

"Meeting adjourned, then," Cid said, unfolding from his chair to leave the room. "Yuffie and I will leave tomorrow morning, and I'll expect to see the rest of you on Friday."

Everyone nodded.

"Glad to hear it." At the doorway, Cid paused to clasp Sora on the shoulder. "Welcome aboard, newbie."

Sora tried to ignore the smoldering cigarette hanging just inches from his face. "Thank you," he mumbled nervously.

"Just don't fuck up." Grinning around his cigarette, Cid smacked Sora on the back, hard, and left the room.

While Sora was regaining his balance, Riku turned to Cloud and burst out, "What the hell was that, Strife?"

The spiky-haired blond frowned. "What do you care?"

"I care because this is my team, and Cid's my boss, and he's your boss, and now he's going to be pissed off at all of us the entire weekend."

"He treats me like shit anyway, and I could care less what he does to you guys. I'm only in this for the experience, anyway."

Narrowing his eyes, Riku hissed, "Why are you such an asshole? You're not better than any of us."

Cloud just shrugged and forcibly pushed past the silver-haired boy on his way out of the door. "Stop complaining. You guys wanted someone with experience, and I was part of ShinRa's team before this, so I'm the best you're going to get."

"Um, wow," Sora said once Cloud had turned the corner and was safely out of earshot. He glanced through his bangs at Riku, who was absolutely seething, and he poked the taller boy in his side. "You never told me about this in my interview."

Snorting, Riku watched as Leon pushed off from his place against the wall and sauntered out of the room as well. "Would you have still come if I'd told you half our staff was completely dysfunctional?"

"Probably not," the brunet admitted after a brief silence.

"Well," Riku smiled and clapped him on the back, "then I suppose it's a good thing I didn't tell you. Stick around for a while before you give up, okay?"

"Okay," Sora agreed, although mentally he couldn't help but wonder exactly what the hell he'd gotten himself into.

-

"That was really scary," Sora confided to Riku later that day in the equipment room, where the older investigator was attempting to teach Sora how to use an EMF detector with very little success.

"What was?" His aqua eyes flicked up to meet Sora's for a split second before he looked back down at the equipment in his hands. Somehow, Sora had managed to get the On/Off button stuck within mere seconds of touching it, and it had been up to Riku to fix it before Cloud and Leon found out, mainly because they both had some kind of freaky attachment to all the technology here and could totally kick his ass. Privately, Riku would have been impressed that Sora had broken it so quickly if he weren't so busy being frustrated and fearing for his life.

"Cid," the brunet elaborated, staring at Riku like it was obvious. "I had no idea he took this so seriously."

Riku rolled his eyes. "What, did you think this was just a hobby or something?"

"Well, yeah." Sora hopped off the chair he'd been sitting on and walked over to check Riku's progress on the EMF detector. The other boy instinctively turned away to guard the pricey piece of equipment and ignored the pouty look the brunet gave him.

"Not a lot of people lease a building and recruit a team of people for just a hobby," Riku pointed out somewhat sourly. "This is a business. We investigate claims of hauntings and help people when we can. We're not just some—" he pursed his lips and waved the broken EMF detector vaguely in the air "—some kind of crazed ghost hunters or something. If you think of it like that, you'll never have a place here."

While Riku spoke, Sora almost completely deflated, wilting further and further against the wall. Head bowed, he toed the carpet and jiggled his hands in his pockets, generally looking unfairly depressed for someone who had practically bounced inside the doors not two hours prior.

Riku suddenly wanted to throw something at him.

"Look," he sighed, annoyed that he was feeling so guilty. "I'm sure you'll fit in fine. Why don't you go get a drink or something while I finish this?"

And just like that Sora bounced back, smiling at Riku with something achingly sweet that Riku couldn't quite define.

"Thanks," he said cheerfully, brushing Riku's shoulder with his fingertips on his way out, and Riku couldn't help but smile back.

"No problem," he said to the brunet's retreating figure, then shook his head at his idiocy, because he needed to finish fixing this stupid thing before Cloud and Leon found out that it was broken.

It wasn't until he heard the yelling that he realized he'd forgotten to warn Sora about the tea.

-

"Who touched my goddamn tea?" Cid boomed from the next room.

Sora had just enough to time to think oh shit! and look down at his mug, which was thankfully full of coffee, but he didn't want to take any chances. So he downed his entire mug in one gulp, scalding his tongue quite badly, and his eyes were watering with pain when he eventually looked up to see Cid storming into the room. And then his brain stopped.

Cid, in his grungy DIPS jacket and dirty black pants, rough-faced with stubble and an impressive scowl, complete with a lit cigarette dangling from his snarling lips, was hulking in the doorway with a dainty little flower-print teapot clutched in his hands.

It was all Sora could do to keep from laughing. The sudden fear of Cid crushing all of his bones one by one probably helped.

"What?" he asked numbly.

"My tea," Cid growled dangerously. "Did you drink it, newbie?"

"No, sir," Sora quickly responded, eyes darting to the side. He was in the main room between Yuffie's desk and the door, and he guessed he could probably run outside and find somewhere to hide before Cid could kill him if things went down badly. "I just had some coffee," he elaborated and held out his empty mug.

"Lemme see that damn thing," Cid snapped.

His hand was poised to snatch the mug away and inspect the lingering remnants of liquid at the bottom, and Sora had just shifted his weight to bolt for the door when Riku swept into the room and calmly plucked the mug out of Sora's hands.

"There you are," he said, taking Sora's elbow to herd him from the room. "Sorry for letting him wander, Cid. He was supposed to get me some coffee."

"Supposed to get you coffee?" Sora turned to him cluelessly. "I thought I was supposed to get something for me."

"You must have been confused," Riku laughed a little nervously.

Cid eyed them both with suspicion.

"What?" Riku asked as he caught the other man's stare.

"You two are up to something," he said gruffly. "You drank my tea." He took another swipe at the mug, but Riku deftly tugged it away.

"You're paranoid, Cid. Besides, out of everyone here, who do you think is the most likely to steal something?" The silver-haired boy raised his eyebrows meaningfully.

The scruffy blond's cigarette fell out of his mouth. "Yuffie," he hissed.

"I'm not saying I saw anything," murmured Riku. "But you know her as well as I do…"

Scratching his chin, Cid cast them a considering stare and said, "If I talk to her and find out it was you two…" he trailed off with a threatening look.

Riku snorted. "Like Sora would want to piss you off any more than he already has on his first day."

"Whatever," Cid grumbled, shaking the teapot in their direction. "I'll let you off easy today and drop the subject. But I swear to Christ, if my tea goes missing again while you two are around, there's gonna be some serious fucking pain."

"Got it." He automatically shot out a hand to steady Sora, who had swayed dangerously backward at the mention of pain. The taller boy kept his hand there even after the brunet recovered his balance, maintaining a comforting pressure on Sora's bicep. "So, if you're done, I'd like to finish Sora's orientation before lunch."

Cid unexpectedly barked out a laugh, and the two investigators stared at him with varying expressions of bafflement.

"Good luck with that," the society leader said by way of explanation, then snorted and turned to leave. "I'll see you ladies later. Just don't touch my goddamn tea."

"Sorry," Riku muttered almost sheepishly once Cid had left. "I forgot to tell you about that." He glanced down into Sora's mug, relieved to find a few grains of slushy coffee at the bottom. "Thank god you didn't actually drink any."

"Um, yeah." Squinting, the brunet turned to him and scratched his head in confusion. "What's that about, anyway?"

"Don't ask," the silver-haired boy laughed, ruffling Sora's hair on a sudden impulse. "I think I've almost got that EMF detector fixed, so why don't you get yourself a drink of something that isn't Cid's tea and meet me back in the equipment room?"

"Sure," Sora agreed with a blinding smile as he reached up in an attempt to fix the brown spikes Riku had mussed. Watching the other boy walk away, the brunet prided himself on waiting until Riku was completely out of earshot before he shut the door.

"Roxas," he called out angrily, whipping around to look for a sign of his twin. "I know you're there, so come out already!"

"You're no fun," grumbled the ghostly specter of a pale boy with wild blond hair and watery blue eyes.

"You just almost got me fired!" Sora clutched one hand in a fist and gesticulated violently with the other. "What were you thinking, messing around with the tea like that? And don't even try to lie, because I know it was you."

Roxas snorted and folded his arms, leaning against the counter with a stubborn scowl. Sora could see the coffee pot through him. "How was I supposed to know your new boss was crazy?"

Anger melting in the face of Roxas's sulky indignance, the brunet let out a sigh and rubbed the side of his neck. "Yeah, okay. That's a good point. But try not to mess up this weekend, okay?"

"Whatever," his brother snapped. "You're wasting your time here, anyway. They seem totally unprofessional."

Glancing through the small window in the door toward the equipment room, Sora said, "I kind of like it here."

Staring moodily at a point beyond Sora's shoulder, Roxas offered a shrug. "Just be careful what you tell them, okay? Not everyone has been very accepting of… this." He gestured to himself with his hand.

"I will." He hesitated at the door. "You know, it might be better if you stay in here while I'm in the equipment room. I can't go breaking everything he shows me before it can sense you."

"You didn't have to do that," the blond grumbled as he floated to perch atop the counter. "You could have made something up to explain it."

"I'd rather not have to lie my first day on the job." Twisting the knob and opening the door, Sora dropped his voice to a whisper and begged, "Please, Roxas. They seem nice. I'd like to do well here."

"Oh, whatever." Roxas frowned a little and idly played with a few coffee filters left on the counter. "I'll just sit here and do nothing, then. For hours. Every day."

Sora rolled his eyes. "Don't be dramatic. You can come out as soon as we're done, okay?"

"Fine," snorted Roxas. "But keep your eye on that Riku guy. I don't like him."

Balking, the brunet said, "My boss has threatened me with bodily harm at least twice, and you're worried about Riku?"

"He keeps touching you." Roxas flicked one of the coffee filters onto the floor, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "Just watch out for him, okay?"

Sora looked torn between embarrassment and anger. "He wasn't… I mean, yeah, sort of, but he was just helping me. And besides, I can take care of myself."

"I know, you're your own person, blah blah blah." Roxas threw a coffee filter at his head. "Just hurry up, will you? I'm bored already."

"Yeah, okay," Sora agreed, feeling a smile resurface as he dodged the filter. "See you in a bit."

As he turned and left for the equipment room, where Riku was already waiting for him, Roxas spat back bitterly, "If in a little bit means four hours, then, yeah. Sure."

"No, by in a little bit, I mean three and a half hours. You know what I meant." Sora stuck his tongue out with one last whimsical glance in Roxas's general direction before entering the equipment room.

The ear-splitting sound of breaking glass was the sole testament of the DIPS team's coffee pot shattering against the door.

-

A/N: Mm, yeah, that's all for now. I hope you guys like it. Reviews, please:D