AN: First chapter! Woo! All Kingdom Hearts characters belong to Square Enix. I only own the plot. Huge thanks to the lovely Mipiko for being an awesome Beta. On to the story. . .

"Roxas? Ven?" Two blonde teenagers stuck their heads around the corner of an upstairs room. "I have to get going to work. Will you be okay to do your school shopping on your own?"

"We'll be fine, Dad. Will you be home for dinner?" asked Ven. Cloud sighed before running a hand through his hair.

"I'm sorry boys, but I won't get home until late at night." A small sigh escaped his lips before he could stop himself. "I really wanted to be able to eat as a family tonight. I was going to cook and everything, but my boss is being an ass about my work schedule," Cloud replied. He looked pleadingly at Roxas and Ven.

"If you tried to cook anything, we would no longer have a house. Remember last time?" Roxas asked.

Cloud flinched at his son's accusation before huffing in aggravation. "That was only once! And I didn't burn down the house, the walls in the kitchen just got a little dark . . . pasta is hard to make!"

Roxas' lips quirked upward slightly before he returned to being straight-faced. Ven snorted. "You made the stove explode in your attempt to boil the water for pasta. You are the only person I know that has actually managed to burn water. I wonder what would have happened if you had put the noodles in . . ."

Cloud's jaw dropped open at Ven's retort. "That stove was ancient! It would have died soon anyway. If I had managed to put the noodles in before the damn thing broke we would have had-"

"Food poisoning?" Roxas retorted.

Cloud glared at Roxas' response. "No. We would have had-"

"World War III?" Asked Ven.

"No. . . We would have had-"

"A zombie apocalypse?" They both answered.

"No!" Cloud sighed in exasperation. "Never mind. I have to get to work. There's a shopping list of all your school supplies on the kitchen table. I've also left enough money for everything you need."

Roxas crossed his arms in front of his chest before responding. "Alright. You're still taking us to school tomorrow, right?"

"Of course. I wouldn't dream of missing the first day of your junior year of high school. Do you want a ride to the store?"

"No thanks, Dad. We'll walk. The store's just a block from here, so it shouldn't be too much trouble," Ven replied as he and Roxas walked down the stairs and into the living room. Cloud quickly hugged them goodbye and made his way out the front door.

Roxas went into the kitchen and returned with the shopping list and the money that Cloud had left them. "Hey, Ven. Looks like dad left us enough money for there to be a little extra after we get all our supplies. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Ven grinned at his twin. "Chinese takeout for dinner!" They both left the house laughing.

~ Ten Minutes Later ~

Roxas and Ven entered the small store located near their house. Roxas grabbed a shopping basket as Ven led the way to the section that held school supplies. Ven looked over the shopping list before turning to Roxas. "It looks like the only things we need to get are pens, pencils, highlighters, post-its, binders, and college ruled paper. I guess we get our books in class."

"Seems like it. The paper and binders are right . . . Er, Ven? Why is that store employee darting up and down the aisles while humming the theme to 'Pink Panther'?" The two boys watched as the store employee pressed himself as close to the shelf as possible before he darted down their aisle.

Ven shrugged. "I don't know . . . Let's ask him!" He took off after the employee.

"Wait! Ven!" Roxas called before pushing their cart after his brother.

Ven tapped the store employee on the shoulder to get his attention. "Excuse me. My brother and I were wondering why you were darting around the aisles while humming the theme from 'Pink Panther'."

The employee laughed. "Well, there aren't very many people here today and I was bored. I would have asked Axel to keep me occupied but he's on register duty today. My name's Demyx by the way," he said offering a hand to Ven.

"Ven! Are you insane? You can't just go running up to random weirdoes!" Roxas exclaimed from beside his twin.

Ven turned to his brother with a small frown on his face. "That wasn't a very nice thing to say Rox. You shouldn't call someone weird when you don't even know them. You need to apologize to Demyx."

Demyx laughed and turned his attention to Roxas. "It's alright. Being 'normal' is overrated. Did you two need help finding something?"

Roxas gave a small smile. "I think we're okay. We were just getting supplies for school. I picked up everything we needed as we were coming over to talk to you."

Demyx grinned. "Awesome! That means you're ready to check out. Come on, I want to introduce you to Axel." Roxas and Ven followed Demyx to the front of the store where the registers were located. He led them over to register eight where a tall redhead was placing a price sticker on his forehead. "Hey, Axel! I found some people that I'd like you to meet. These are . . . er . . ."

The redhead raised an eyebrow at his friend's antics. "You forgot to ask them their names, didn't you?" he asked in a monotone voice.

Demyx scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Eh heh . . . Maybe . . ." He quickly turned his attention to Roxas and Ven. "So what are your names?"

Ven grinned at Axel and Demyx before responding. "My name's Ventus, but I prefer to be called Ven. And this is my brother Roxas."

Axel nodded to each in turn as he scanned their items. "So you two are new? You're going to Oblivion High, right? What year are you in?"

Roxas handed over the money that Cloud had left for them. "Not that it's any of your business, but we're juniors. Can I have my change so we can leave?"

Axel laughed and handed over Roxas' change. "Feisty. I like it. And just so you know, Roxy," Axel paused and leant over the register to whisper in Roxas' ear, "I'm making it my business." Axel leaned back in his seat and winked at the now flustered blonde. Roxas glowered at him before snatching up his shopping bags and dragging Ven from the store.

Demyx watched the pair leave before turning to Axel. "You know, Axel, that was almost smooth."

Axel scoffed at his friend's statement. "What do you mean 'almost'? That was smooth."

Demyx snickered. "No, it wasn't. It would have been if you didn't still have that price sticker on your forehead when you were trying to flirt with Roxas."

Axel's hand flew to his forehead and he peeled off the price sticker that was, indeed, still stuck to his skin. "Shit."

AN: Please take the polls on my profile page. The results will determine part of the plot for the rest of the story. I will remove the current poll on 2/02/12 and replace it with the second poll which will be removed on 2/09/12. Thank you!