This is just something I whipped up to cheer myself up. My gramma finally passed and I decided today was a bad day for angst. I'll work on updates tomorrow.

Thanks to those who have been putting up with my personal drama. Least it's over now.

DRIVE

Sora sighed, sitting on yet another broken wall. It was beginning to seem like restoring Radiant Garden was never going to end. He admired the other for their commitment to the project but he was getting tired.

Lately, he'd been wondering move about what he would be doing if he had chosen to stay on the Islands.

"What's the matter, Sora?" Leon leaned against the wall beside him. He folded his arms, Gunblade braced on the stone beside him. "You've been quiet all day."

The boy shrugged a little. "Just been thinking a lot lately."

"About what?" Sora was the only one Leon talked to like this.

"Life, I guess. I mean, now that it's all over and peace is back what am I supposed to do? I can't go back to who I was, too much has happened. Do I want to go back and if I do, to what? Go back to school? Pretend none of this happened like Kairi did? I can't do that."

Leon glanced at him. "That's a lot to think about."

"Riku had it easy. He found Cloud. He made a whole new life for himself." Sora blew out a breath. "I'm only sixteen and I feel like I've already used up my life."

The man had no answers for Sora. Comforting and reassuring people was not his thing. Maybe Aerith could do something….

"Hey!" Riku jumped up on the wall to sit beside Sora. "What's with the face? This is supposed to be a good day."

Sora shrugged dismissively.

The older teen frowned heavily. "Now don't be getting all emo on me."

"I'm not." Sora slid off the wall. He walked away with his hands in his pockets, passing Cloud without so much as a look up.

The blonde joined the others with a worried look. "What's wrong with him?"

Riku was still looking down the road his best friend had wandered down. "I'm not sure…"

Cloud rubbed the teen's leg reassuringly before continuing down the street.

"Where are you going?"

"The garage."

Suddenly, Riku's eyes lit up. He hopped off the wall and jogged up to his boyfriend. He'd just had a brilliant idea.

Leon found himself worrying about Sora the rest of the afternoon. He really disliked seeing the boy distressed and had no idea what the cause was. Riku seemed to have an idea but had taken off with Cloud before Leon could ask.

He gave up trying to get anything else done and started the walk home. Everything was so slow going right now and he was getting frustrated. Now on top of the normal headaches, he had Sora to worry about.

Said boy was sitting on the step outside of Merlin's, hands folded before him.

He looked up as Leon approached. A small smile crossed his face but he still looked sad. "Hey, Leon."

"Hey."

"I'm sorry for walking off like that."

"…….."

"I don't know why I'm all… weird today." Sora explained. "I guess it's just that I'm realizing how different my life is from normal kids. I mean, back home I'd still be in school. I'd come home and Mom would be fussing over me and probably have baked a huge cake and ordering me to find all my friends to come over. Course, they'd probably be there already cause they're just like that."

Leon was frowning in confusion. What was the boy rambling about?

Sora glanced up. He tilted his head. "Riku didn't tell you, did he?"

"Tell me what?"

"Today's my birthday."

Leon's grey eyes shot open. It was? Well, that explained a whole lot. No wonder the kid was being so introspective.

He settled his expression and sat beside him. With only the barest trace of hesitations, he placed a hand on Sora's shoulder. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks."

They sat in companionable silence for a minute.

"Anything I can do?"

Sora shrugged. "Not really."

A low rumble in the distance gradually increased. Sora donned a confused expression but when he looked at Leon, he didn't seem startled. "What is that?"

"You turn sixteen today, right?"

"Yeah."

Leon chuckled. He had a feeling he knew why Riku had run off with Cloud. If he was correct, he didn't want to know what the teen had done to convince him…

The noise became almost deafening and sure enough, Fenrir rounded the corner.

And Cloud was letting Riku drive it.

The motorcycle slowed to a halt and Riku grinned wildly at his friend, cutting the engine. "Whatdya think?"

Sora stood, clearly awed. "Wow. This is… awesome!"

Cloud glanced down and wiped at some invisible scuff in the black paint. It didn't hide the proud little smile. "She needs to be polished again."

Riku rolled his eyes as he climbed off. He stepped beside Sora and threw an arm around him. "This is Cloud's true love, his little baby. I come second to Fenrir."

"She never argues." The blonde stated casually, sliding forward in the seat. He glanced at Sora. "Well, come on."

A huge smile lit Sora's face. "I get to go for a ride?"

"Better." Riku grinned. "He's gonna teach you to drive."

Sora turned to him and somehow those blue eyes got even brighter. "What?"

"Happy birthday."

Sora threw his arms around Riku then pulled away. He bounded over to the bike and hugged Cloud. "Thank you, thank you!"

"Get on."

Sora scrambled up behind him and held on. Cloud restarted the engine and with a quick wave they drove off. Riku and Leon stood on the step listening as the sound faded away.

"You realize you have made it impossible for me to get him anything that will come close to comparing to that."

"Oh, I don't know about that." Riku smirked. "He's still waiting for his first kiss."