AHHHHH! So, I'm not dead! And in honor of AkuRoku Day [8/13], I updated this chapter fooooooooooor you! haha. I hope to finish this story, even if it takes me forever and a day. I hope you enjoy this updated chapter! And Happy 8/13 everyone!

Disclaimer; yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't own Kingdom Hearts or their characters

Chanterelle was one of the nicest restaurants in Twilight Town – it always got outstanding reviews and was always a head of the curb in new trends. It was also the place where Ven's nightmare was about to be realized.

The place smelt like exotic flowers, and looked like something out of a movie from the 1940s. The lights were dimmed to give the venue a sensual feel, but it also made it very hard to see. Maybe that was a good thing. If the lights were dimmed just enough, Aqua might not recognize Ven. However, he knew that was doubtful, since Aqua had been working at Chanterelle for two years, and her eyes had probably become well adjusted to the lighting.

Naminé quickly led Ven up to the desk where the hostess usually was stationed, almost too quickly for his taste. Surely enough, there was Aqua organizing papers and answering the phone, scribbling down names and time slots for reservations. Ven was in deep shit now. Knowing Aqua, she'd be able tell that he was here rather than some random rich , if Ven stayed quiet, maybe he'd go unnoticed.

"Table for two, please" Naminé said quietly, her hand still squeezing Ven's like she was afraid that he'd run away if she let go, which he probably would. If Namine wasn't holding his hand, Ven would be out of that restaurant in three seconds flat.

Aqua looked up from her work, hung up the phone, and looked at the pair before her. She recognized the girl as Naminé, a regular customer there. Aqua guessed that she'd finally wrangled the guy who kept on ditching her for the past week, poor girl. But the boy looked oddly familiar and very uneasy. Cute face, pale skin, blue eyes staring directly at the ground. Aqua stared at him for a little while longer, until her thoughts clicked and she put a name to the boy with the spiky blonde hair.

It couldn't be Ven, he was with Xion, and since when does Ven hang out with girls like Miss Naminé? She'd have to make sure it wasn't Ven.

Aqua stopped staring at the two and ran her fingers through some papers to make it seem like she was looking for their reservation, "Oh, yes. We have your table all ready for you," she said with a smile.

Since when does Aqua know Naminé? Ven wondered. But then he realized that she must come to this restaurant all of the time. People as wealthy as her must go a lot of places all the tame

Naminé took Ven's arm as Aqua led them to the table. She didn't know just what was going on, but there was something troubling Ven greatly. Once they reached the table, Ven pulled out a chair for Naminé while anxiously watching Aqua through the corner of his eye. Her brow furrowed as if she were trying to solve a hard puzzle. Knowing Aqua, she'd see right though Ven's act. His sister was always good at seeing people ultimate motives. After Naminé was seated, his eyes never leaving Aqua's, Ven gingerly took his seat.

Aqua quietly walked over and gave the two their menus. She smiled and said before she left, "I hope you enjoy your dinner here Miss Naminé and Ven."

With that, the blonde stiffened and his blue eyes shot open. Gotcha, thought Aqua as she triumphantly walked back to the main entrance of the restaurant with a smirk on her face.

Oh shit. This is it. She knows. And Roxas, oh my God, Roxas! He's going to be dead, Ven silently concluded. He'd told Roxas about his sister's verbally abusive streak. But when it came to Xion, Aqua sometimes resulted to more...extreme measures of discipline.

"Is everything alright, Roxas?" Ven quickly cleared his mind of the nasty thoughts when Naminé addressed him. Her big blue eyes staring at him with concern and a frown stained on her face.

Ven put on a reassuring face and sputtered, "O-oh yeah, everything's just fine. Nope, nothing's wrong here! I'm enjoying spending time with you." What a load of bull crap. But Ven had no choice but to feed Naminé lies. If he told her the truth, well, the results wouldn't be good for him or Roxas.

Naminé fiddled with her hair and bit her bottom lip. "Okay. Well, if you're uncomfortable here, we could go somewhere else to eat. Would you like that?"

Oh hell no, that'd make matters worse! The last thing Ven wanted to do was leave and make Aqua even more suspicious. "W-what? No!" Ven practically shouted, startling Naminé. He could not afford to leave now. Aqua already saw him and if he left, it'd only give more weight to her theory that Ven wasn't with Xion after all.

Realizing what he'd done, Ven quickly calmed down. "I mean, n-no, it's okay. Here's fine." He'd blown it with Naminé for sure. She probably thought he was some bi-polar, paranoid freak.

But Naminé simply seemed to do what she did best: smile, and say reassuringly, "Okay, I don't want you to be uncomfortable. It's your dinner too you know." This girl was way to nice to be real.

Roxas exhaled, letting his shoulders slump in relief. Maybe he could test the waters a little more. "Thanks Naminé, may I call you Nami?"

No one had ever called Naminé anything besides, well, Naminé. None of her friends ever tried to make a friendly nickname for her. Everyone usually thought that she was too refined for that sort of thing. Roxas' sudden casual gesture took Naminé back for a second.

"Uh, sure?" She offered the best smile she could, in spite of herself.

"Cool," Ven smiled back. "It fits you well. A cute nickname for a cute girl."

Naminé's face started to turn a light shade of pink, and her ears followed suit. Even when he was pretending to be someone else, Ven was quite the charmer.

By and large, the dinner went pretty well. Once Ven broke through to Naminé, he found out that she was a very funny and sweet person. It turned out that Naminé was the national tennis champion at age 1ten, but had to stop due to a knee injury and all-around fragile health. That didn't come as a shock to Ven though, she looked like a ghost anyway.

They shared some laughs and Ven even forgot that he was Roxas, until Naminé addressed him as such. It made Ven wish for a moment that he could tell her who he really was, but then he remembered that if he wasn't Roxas, Naminé might not even have talked to him.

When they left the restaurant, Ven tried to look for Aqua, but she was no where to be found. It made his stomach sink. He hoped Roxas would be alright. But hoping will only get a person so far. Ven quickly forced the thought out of his mind and led Namine to the limo. Maybe some more time with Naminé would take his mind off of his fortune at Roxas' expense.

Peas.

Roxas had never liked peas. They would always feel and taste weird in his mouth. Whenever Roxas had to eat peas, he'd take a bunch of them in his mouth and swallow them whole, with the help of water of course. But today Roxas didn't even bother - he seemed to lack even the energy to care. Roxas used his spork to push the peas from one side of his plate to the other, making sure they didn't collide with any other food he had on his plate.

"Ven?" Xion looked at her brother, who hadn't touched any of his peas. Ven usually loved his peas and thought of them as the best part of his meal.

"Huh? Oh, what?" Roxas snapped out of his trance and addressed his (Ven's) little sister.

Xion looked down at Roxas' plate. "You haven't touched your peas. Is there something wrong? Was it something I said?" Her eyes started to water. Screw little kids and their ability to cry on the spot.

"W-what? No, not at all," Roxas patted Xion on the head reassuringly

He sighed and uttered, "I'm just thinking about something, that's all," Roxas' gaze started to move toward Axel, who was now serving Ven's father his dinner with a smile. Even in frumpy kitchen worker clothes, Axel still managed to look very... striking.

Amid his reverie, Roxas noticed a commanding figure by the entrance of the soup kitchen: tall woman, with short bluish-grey hair, who was dressed far too nicely to be going to a soup kitchen. Her eyes were intense, searching until they finally landed on Roxas.

Aqua had driven like a mad woman just to get to the soup kitchen before the Ven lookalike could. She made sure she left once their dinner was served and so that she could go unnoticed. However once she entered the kitchen, she saw Ven sitting with Xion, staring at the guy who was serving Dad. Aqua rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't imagining things. She hoped that once her vision came back, there would be no Ven sitting at that table, but no such luck. There was Ven, who was now staring straight at her.

Huh? What! I was sure that was Ven back there! This is impossible.

Aqua swiftly walked over to Roxas and Xion's table and snapped Roxas out of his daze by slamming her hands down on the table, causing his plate to jump and spill some peas on the ground.

Roxas' eyes shot open. There were suddenly peas in his lap. Roxas jumped from his chair and started to wipe his (Ven's) already stained pants. Gross!

"What did you do that for? Roxas almost shouted as he wiped the peas off his lap and onto the floor. Aqua's face looked confused, like she wasn't sure if he was really there.

Aqua narrowed her eyes. Playing dumb are we? "You know exactly why," she said

"Um, actually, I don't." Roxas crossed his arms as he addressed Aqua.

"Well if you don't know, then why did I see a boy that looked exactly like you at my job? Do you have anything to tell me Ven? Because I really would love to hear you get out of this one," Aqua snarled, arms crossed as well.

What? There's no way that she could have seen Ven. Unless… oh no. His date with Naminé. Roxas quickly composed himself and simply responded, "Look, I've been here with Xion all night. She can vouch for me, right Xion?" Roxas turned to look at Xion but she stayed silent, holding on to her father's shoulder as he ate his dinner. Damn brat.

Aqua gave Roxas a look that made his skin crawl. Her eyes were now slits and her mouth slipped into a smirk that would make the Cheshire Cat run and hide.

Roxas' face started to go pale as Aqua uttered, "Oh Ven, you're so bad at lying." She reached out and grabbed Roxas' shirt and pulled him up to eye level.

Aqua spoke through gritted teeth, "Ven, I want you to stop fucking around and tell me. Were you, or were you not, at Chanterelle toni—"

"Excuse me, is there a problem here?" Aqua's face froze as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Axel's hand. Aqua dropped Roxas from her grasp and snapped around to look at Axel.

Aqua sighed. "No, there's nothing wrong at all."Axel's face was calm and his lips were turned up in a slight smile as Aqua glowered at him.

"Good. Because if there was something wrong, I'd have to ask you to leave," Axel said in a polite tone. Aqua looked at Axel, who was smiling cordially at her, then at Roxas who was now positioned slightly behind Axel. She decided it wasn't worth it to try and get Ven for this now. Her time would come later, when this Axel guy wasn't in the way. With a huff, Aqua stormed off to the dinner line to grab a trey even though she'd already eaten dinner.

"Hey Roxas, are you okay?" Axel asked as he moved closer to Roxas' face. "You look pale."

Roxas looked at Axel with wide eyes. Oh, man. If Axel hadn't come here I'd be in deep shit...

He was getting closer, extending out his arm to touch Roxas' face, "Um, I'm fine. Really. Don't worry about me." Roxas quickly positioned himself so that Axel could not get any closer. The blonde rubbed his cheek nervously.

Axel retracted his hand. "Okay, I was just wondering. You know, if you want a break from your house, you could always stay at my place for the night. I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind. We have a spare room so it would be no trouble at all." He smiled slightly. "Also, I really don't think that, for you, going home tonight would be the best idea." His eyes diverted over to Aqua who was receiving her dinner.

The idea of staying over at Axel was very tempting, but sooner or later, Roxas would have to face Aqua, and he was the kind of person who liked to get confrontations over and done with.

"Thanks Axel, but I'm going to have to pass on this one," Roxas answered bitterly. It was going to be a long night.

Ven was pacing in Roxas' large room, thinking about the possible consequences of Aqua's violence towards Roxas. What if she hits him? Would I be liable for that? Shit, I can't afford a lawsuit. Maybe she just yelled at him. God, I hope that's all she did. But, knowing Aqua and her anger, we can't count on that.

"Excuse me, Master Roxas?" a voice called from the doorway. Ven stopped mid-pace and whipped his head around to find a tall, young-looking guy with brown hair. Roxas never told Ven that they had hired help, but then again, Roxas was a member of one of the wealthiest families in the city. Those kinds of perks were expected, Ven supposed.

Ven cleared his thoughts and replied. "Yes?"

"Your mother is on the phone, and she wants to talk to you. But, I can see that you're preoccupied with other matters... I'll tell her you're busy," the boy said with a nervous laugh and swiftly turned away to start walking down the hall.

Huh? What? "Wait!" Ven called as he stretched out his arm making a stop signal with his hand before the kid could walk away completely.

The brunette boy's head was back in the entryway of the door. "Yes Master Roxas?" he said in a formal tone, eyes questioning.

"T-thanks." Were the only words that Ven could communicate to the confused housekeeper.

"No problem?" the kid answered with a slightly raised eyebrow. His head soon disappeared from the door, and his footsteps gradually grew quiet.

Soon after he left, Ven leaped onto Roxas' bed and crushed his head into a pillow and started to scream. Tears were soon streaming down his face and soon the pillow was wet from crying so much. Ven's mother always told him the best way to relieve stress was to shout out all your troubles into a pillow. As of now, Ven had a lot of troubles that he needed to get off of his chest and onto the pillow.

Author's Note; So, I've been having trouble with separating parts in my chapters, but now I've finally found a way to do it. So, I hope there's no more confusion on where Roxas' thoughts start and Ven's end.