Chapter 1
The Move-In Tango

"There's the University."

Sora looked up from his sketchbook at his father's voice. The dark haired man was pointing to the area that stretched out to the left of their van. It was a wide expanse of trees and brick buildings, like something right out of the movies. But it was something that would probably be his home for the next several years.

"That's Kingdom University?"

Sora barely spared his twin brother a second glance. "Geez Rox, did you ever look at Cloud or Yuffie's pictures?" He asked, poking the blonde teen with the butt of his pencil.

Roxas gave a noncommittal sound, brushing the offending utensil away before turning back to inspect part of their new home. It was one of the larger universities on this side of the world, and made up a good part of the city of Hollow Bastion. Besides their dueling team, it was also a school well known for it's academics rather than it's athletics. Roxas wasn't necessarily concerned with the proverbial aspects of the university though, in fact, while he sometimes enjoyed school, he wasn't exactly excited about the whole thing like his twin, who had bounded and yelled with excitement when they received their acceptance letters.

"-called Cloud about an hour ago, he said he had already arrived at the house and was moving the furniture in." The twins mother was saying, answering the curious Sora's many questions. Roxas and their older brother Cloud, had inherited a majority of their mother's looks, while Sora had their father's dark hair. All three siblings, however had Adrianne Strife's bright blue eyes. Sora was the only one that had Adrianne's bright and bubbly personality, when Cloud had their father's, Night Strife's, cool and protective character. Roxas however, had more of a combination of the two, with a rather temperamental twist.

"What is the house that you got for us look like? Is it far from the school?" Sora questioned, his sketchbook falling out of seventeen year old's lap, forgotten.

Adrianne laughed, patting Sora's hand that had reached forward to poke her shoulder. Roxas and Sora's parents had decided, rather than obligate them to stay in the dorms their first semester (and pay for three different housing fees), that it'd be easier to get all three of their children a house to share. "You'll see soon enough Sora."

Sora sighed, nearly whining with impatience, and leaned back, crossing his arms with a well defined pout. "Sora, pouting won't get you anywhere this time. Really, you'll see within the minute." Roxas looked up at his father's voice, meeting the man's amused brown eyes in the rearview mirror. Roxas and Night were the only two people who Sora's pout continued to remain ineffective for. "See look, not even thirty seconds!" Night continued turning into a circular drive.

Roxas quirked a brow, but Sora's jaw seemed to drop halfway to the floor. "Um… dad. Don't you think that's a little much?" he asked, starring at the white brick house that stretched before them. It wasn't huge, but it definitely wasn't small either. It had to hold at least four bedrooms, and maybe two living rooms.

Night chuckled, unbuckling his seat belt as a blonde headed figure appeared at the door. "Nah, besides your mother picked it out. On top of that it was the closest thing to the school that we could fit you three boys in." he replied moving out of the car stretching. Even after sending his oldest son to school two years before, and making the trip frequently for work, he still wasn't used to the three hour drive and thirty minute boat ride from Destiny Island. Though for work, he often flew to Hollow Bastion.

"Besides! Only the best for my boys!" Adrianne stated happily drawing Roxas into a enveloping hug the moment he stepped foot out of the car.

Roxas grunted with a roll of his eyes, glancing warily at the house. "Yeah… only the best." He repeated sarcastically as Cloud approached the car.

Sora gave an almost horrified look. "But it's soooo big."

Cloud gave a slight glare, slapping him open handed on the top of the head, making Sora squeak. "Stop complaining Sora, It's not like you aren't used to it." He followed up, before allowing his mother to hug him tightly. Roxas nodded, their house at home was twice the size of this house.

Sora sighed. "But all the cleaning we'll have to do."

"Cheer up son, it builds character!" Night encouraged, opening the trunk and shoving several boxes into the brown headed boy's arms. Sora stumbled back with a grin, but followed Night as he lead the way up the walk to the bright red front door. "You three always managed while your mother and I were out of town, I'm sure you can handle a home on your own." He continued to lecture, pushing open the door with one booted foot.

Roxas grinned at his older brother who couldn't help but smile and shake his head as Sora's shouts of amazement followed upon entering the house. "So any special features?" He asked, following his father's suit in picking up several other boxes from the back of the van.

Cloud shrugged, grabbing a few bags of his own. "A pool, oh and a dishwasher. That's a nice change from the University apartments." He replied leading the way into house.

Roxas whistled softly at the doorway. He could tell why Sora was yelling now, the house was slightly impressive, or at least for something that was supposed to belong to three teenage boys. He had no doubt that it wouldn't take long for Cloud and Sora to add their own twist to the interior appearance, much to their mother's ambivalence Roxas was sure it would only take a matter of time before Sora found a paint brush and started painting murals on the plain white washed walls. The front door opened into a short entryway where there was a large coat rack, but that lead the way down into a large den-like room. There were a few old couches and a large tv already in place. There was a hallway that twisted to the right, and to the left there was a large dining room and a pair of swinging doors that he had no doubt lead into the kitchen.

"Don't forget to step down." Cloud warned moments before Roxas stepped forward into air. He stumbled forward, nearly dropping the boxes he was holding, but was steadied by warm hands.

Roxas swore under his breath, "Who the hell that decided to place one stair there should be cut down with blunt key blades." He muttered angrily as the hands took the boxes out of his arms. He shook his arms with a sigh turning to look up into cool stormy gray eyes. Roxas gave a start, last time he checked his older brother had blue eyes and blonde hair. It only took a few more moments for the image to click. The man he was starring abashedly at was tall, with shoulder-length, soft brown hair and a scar that ran across the bridge of his nose.

The brown-headed teen infront of Roxas quirked a brow. "That would be a horrid way to go." The stranger responded coolly.

"Oooo Cloud are these your friends you were telling us about?"

Roxas blinked and looked away from the stormy eyed youth at his mother's question, mentally berating himself for not paying more attention to his family's discussion in the van. Cloud gave a nod. "That's Leon," he jerked his thumb in the brown head's direction, "of course you know Yuffie" before pointing at a short girl with chin length black hair and big brown eyes who was stretched dramatically across one of the couches, though she jumped up cheerfully and waved when Cloud mentioned her name.

"Hey Auntie Adrianne! Roxie!" Roxas gave his cousin a weak wave. The only reason he let her get away with that name was because she was family, and wouldn't stop no matter what he did.

"Aerith," he pointed at another girl with long brown hair braided over her shoulder and kind eyes who was sitting straight with her legs crossed on the other couch, "Cid," a rather gruff looking man with short red hair who was chewing on a long toothpick and leaning against the back door, "and Tifa." A tall girl with long black hair and a fierce grin that was sitting on the fireplace.

"I've heard so much about you all, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." Adrianne directed in Cloud's four friends, and her niece's, direction. "Where's Zack, I wanted to see how his mother's doing?"

Cloud shrugged, but grinned at the concern for his best friend in his mother's voice. Zack's mother had been one of Adrianne's friends in high school before Adrianne got married and moved away. "He'll be around sometime I'm sure."

"This fierce little one must be Roxas." Leon stated matter of factly inspecting the blonde pointedly.

Roxas blushed and nodded taking the boxes from the older boy's hands and carrying them to the right down the hallway, looking around. There were two doors, and a set of stairs. He shuffled the boxes under one arm and opened both doors. One opened to another set of stairs that led down. A basement. He sighed and went to the next door. It was a large bedroom, but the bed was already made. Obviously Cloud had claimed it as his own. "Rox! Come on! Look upstairs, it's cool! There's like three bedrooms up there! Dad said we could use one as a studio!" Sora, appeared at the base of the stairs pulling on his twin's free arm.

Roxas took a deep breath and climbed up the stairs after his brother. It was going to be a long and interesting year, he could already feel it.

--

"I'll be in the studio next week, so I'll come by and see how you three are doing." Night informed them towards the end of the day. Between them, the twins, Cloud, Yuffie and their friends, they had managed to get the house into some small semblance of order, and now Adrianne and Night were getting ready to leave.

"I left some cash in the kitchen so you can go to the grocery store." Adrianne added, hugging Roxas to her tightly.

Cloud chuckled hugging his father. "Relax mom, we can handle it." He told her as she finally released Roxas, who wheezed for breath, and moved on to crush Sora.

"I think that's what she's afraid of." Night laughed.

It took almost thirty minutes for Night to convince his wife to get in the car so they could get home before it got too late. Finally with one last crushing hug, they were driving away. "She's probably crying now." Cloud sighed, crossing his arms, light blue eyes trained carefully on the disappearing car.

"She always does." Sora grinned.

"Sounds like someone we know." Roxas responded quirking a brow at his twin who had gotten teary eyed himself.

Sora stuck out his tongue and turn to run inside of the house, wiping at his eyes. Roxas exchanged a grinning glance with his older brother, then followed his twin in. "Cloud! Help me out!" Yuffie yelled when the brother's entered the house again. She was hanging on Leon, pulling at his white t-shirt insistently. "Who would win in a fair one-on-one fight? Professor Auron, or Professor Sephiroth?"

Cloud snorted sitting down on the couch beside the annoyed brown headed teen, who was shooting Yuffie an angry look. "What makes you think that that COULD be a fair fight?" he asked quirking a brow in Leon's direction, who rolled his eyes in reply.

Yuffie pouted. "Assuming that there could be silly!"

Cloud gave a one sided shrug, glancing at Roxas who was in the corner of the room, shifting through some backs. There was one guitar case slung over his shoulder, and he emerged with another case, and a rather exasperated look. Obviously Sora had brought in those bags, and had just slung them in a random corner. "I don't know, it depends on several different elements."

Yuffie gave a well pronounced 'hmph' and crossed her arms dramatically. "You two are no fun. If Reno were here-"

Cid clamped a hand down on top of her head, making the short girl squeak. "But your boyfriend aint here, so there's no use whinin' about it." He ordered, receiving a glare in response.

"When is Reno coming anyway?" Tifa asked as the animated conversation that she and Sora were having fell away, Sora at full attention. Reno was someone he knew, after all he always accompanied Yuffie on one of her rare trips home.

Yuffie cheered instantly. "He and his little brother got an apartment, so they're moving in tomorrow."

"So we finally get to actually see the little brother?" Tifa questioned.

Sora tilted his head. "He has a little brother?"

"I swear he's the invisible, non-existent brother." Cloud insisted.

"He's been here a year, and we have yet to meet him?" Leon agreed with a nod.

Yuffie giggled. "You probably have, just don't know it. They're exactly alike."

"Anyway, he said he'd meet us for lunch tomorrow." Cloud sighed, shaking his head.

"So what ARE we doing tomorrow Cloud?" Sora questioned as Roxas leaned against the armrest of one of the couches.

Cloud opened his mouth with the intention of giving a sarky retort, but sighed when two sets of deep blue eyes regarded him expectantly. "I'm going to make sure you know the campus intimately, so I don't get frequent phone calls about being lost." He replied with a slight grin.

Sora blushed lightly in response while Roxas tried to hide a snicker behind his hand. "Will you two ever let me live that down?" he snapped pouting and crossing his arms.

Both brothers burst out laughing at that as Cloud's friends watched with curious amusement. "What happened?" Tifa finally asked as Yuffie gave an awkward giggle.

"Sora got lost during a vacation to Twilight Town, and ended up wondering into the Red Light District." Cloud explained, attempting to calm down his laughter.

It only served to turn Sora redder. "She was a very nice lady." He huffed, crossing his arms with a pout.

Roxas snorted. "She was a prostitute."

Sora rolled his eyes. "She was a very nice prostitute."

At that everyone erupted into laughter, even Sora couldn't help but grin sheepishly. "You know… I'm still not sure that she WAS a she." Cloud commented, as Roxas pulled himself to his feet and made his way past to the hallway, which gave Sora an opportunity to throw the attention off of himself. Not that he minded attention, he'd just prefere it when it wasn't for the sake of his embarrassment.

"Rox! Where ya going?" Sora piped up.

Roxas looked back, sighing inwardly. He had been hoping to just sneak by unnoticed while everyone was distracted. Not that Cloud's friend's annoyed him or anything, but he just wanted to be alone, get settled in for a bit. He held up one guitar case with a quirked brow. "I see that Roxas must have gotten some of the music genes in your family." Aerith commented with a bright smile towards the blonde twin.

Sora's laughter turned into a snort. "Some? No, Roxas got ALL of the music genes." He exclaimed.

The other blonde brow quirked to match the first when his gaze shifted to Cloud who grinned and nodded. Roxas sighed, of course his brothers would deem him the musical one, his family never left him alone about it, especially their father. It wasn't like he tried. "Cloud can play too." He offered with a wave of his hand towards his older brother.

Cloud laughed slightly, and judging by the looks that his friends gave him, he didn't show it off often. "Sure. Somewhat. But nothing like you." He countered with a roll of his eyes, waving off his friend's questioning gaze. Only Leon sat passively by, watching the exchange with a hint of amusement.

Sora's laughter died off slightly, giving Roxas an almost evil grin. "Yeah, Roxas is a musical genius!" he gushed. "I however can't carry a tune if my life depended on it!"

"Tsh," Roxas turned his back to his twin, "You can't complain, none of us can draw like you can." He shot back, climbing the stairs without another word towards the group behind him. He knew that Sora was giving one of his sheepish grins, judging how Tifa and Aerith jumped on him to see some of is artwork.

He took a deep breath when he reached the top of the stairs, looking around at his new home for a moment before moving into the room Sora and their father had designated their studio. He gave a start when he crossed the door way though. The surprise on his face didn't last long however, slipping into a pleased grin. Now he knew where his father had disappeared to earlier that day. The room was divided cleanly in half. On the left, Sora's wide and slanted artist's desk was set up underneath the window, along with his well used office chair that he always spun around in. In one corner there was a tall easel, and a tall shelf of art books and supplies. In the other corner sat Sora's computer, complete with his scanner and tablet.

On the opposite side of the room, his father had set up all of Roxas's sound equipment, his keyboards, computer, and stands for his guitars. Both setups were arranged neatly with a precision of professionalism that only Roxas's father could have accomplished. He sat down and gingerly unpacked his guitars, and setting the cases neatly to the side before turning around to play on the keyboards a bit.

By the time he had only reached the third chord of a song he had written a few years back, Sora strolled into the room with his hands behind his head. "It's amazing isn't it?" He asked throwing himself into his chair and giving it one good spin. "Father said it was a birthday gift."

Roxas nodded sitting back in his own chair and stretching his arms out. It was a great gift, even if their birthday was still a month from now. It was a far cry from anything they had at home, where Roxas either had to borrow his father's studio, or cramp everything into his own room. "It's going to be weird… different from home." He stated glancing at his twin.

Sora shrugged, standing with a grin. "Of course, but that's what makes this half the adventure… who knows what will happen." He exclaimed throwing his arms out in exaggerative gesture. "Now let's go to bed! I WILL get you and Cloud up early."

Roxas scowled but followed his twin out of the room, turning the light off as he left. "Do that and you'll die a horrible premature death." He threatened good-naturedly.

Sora laughed, poking Roxas's side far too used to his twin's threat and grumpy morning moods. "Good night Rox."

The blonde twin sighed and reached up to flick Sora's forehead. "Night Sora." He replied turning into his room, the door falling shut behind him with a click. With one glance around the room, he changed into his pajamas and threw himself onto his bed with a yawn. Sora was probably right, his naïve way of life and beliefs had always, to everyone's constant surprise, been accurate. Who knew what would happen now.

His father had warned him that college would be a new experience.