"So what you're trying to say is…" Roxas paused, trying to collect his thoughts. His mother was crying. His father had his arm around her but his jaw clenched in anger. "You have another son?" Saying it out loud didn't make it seem more real but more like he and his parents were acting out some bizarre play.

"Yes," His mother took a rattling breath, her eyes beseeching, "It was a mistake I made a long time ago when I was very young and very, very depressed. He's a little younger by you, less than a year, I think. I haven't had much contact with him."

"Dad," Roxas said, his mind still spinning around the thought that his mother could have done such a thing, "is it true?"

"Roxas. I forgave your mother years ago. She was so depressed, all of the time… she never wanted to be in the house. She hated being around me… I know she wasn't thinking clearly."

"And now you want this kid to come live here?" Roxas didn't know what upset him more, the fact that he had a secret brother or that he was expected to welcome his new brother into his home. His own room, no less.

"His father just died. He has no other relatives. The social worker didn't think it was ideal but… I couldn't abandon him again."

Roxas tried to separate himself from the situation, put himself in his half-brother's shoes. He pictured his father dying and suddenly being asked to move in with the mother who never wanted him before. It wasn't a nice feeling. "What's his name?"

"Sora," His mother said, "His father named him."

"He can come live here, if he agrees not to bother me, and if we don't talk about it until I can get my head around everything." Roxas said firmly.

His parents exchanged a look. "Roxas, you can't just ignore it…" His mother started to say gently, but his father spoke up, interrupting her.

"I think he's incredible to agree to it so quickly. He must still be shocked. Let him get his head together. Let's not try to force him to accept everything yet." His father said.

"Thanks, Dad," Roxas said gratefully. "If I'm honest, I think I'm going to get really, really angry later on but all I feel now is… numb."

"Go and hang out with your friends and uh, avoid that Seifer kid. I guess he'd just make things worse, huh?" His father slipped him a lot of munny when his mother wasn't looking, "Have some pretzels too. On me."

Glad to be given a chance to escape, he muttered a quick thanks and dashed out of the house, grabbing his skateboard on the way.

If he thought getting out of the house – with a pocket full of munny – would make him feel better, he was sadly mistaken. He trudged down the pavement, sulkily kicking out at cans and mulling over the events of the afternoon. He still couldn't understand how his mother could have cheated on his father. It was just… so unlike her. This was the woman who adored cats, spent most of her life in a daydream and liked nothing more than to watch daytime television with her son. Except, now she had another son to watch T.V with. Roxas' face darkened at the thought. He was beginning to regret his rash decision to let Sora move in. Permanently, if Sora liked it there and the Social Worker thought it was suitable. He wasn't even the tiniest bit excited about suddenly having a sibling. He'd been an only child all his life, and he knew that Pence and Olette, who both had brothers, thought it sucked. But he liked not having to share his room. He was used to being the only son.

He was so busy thinking he didn't look up as he turned a corner.

He collided with a hard chest and flew backwards. The little pouch of munny fell out of his pocket, along with his I.D. The person he collided with made a little hiss of pain.

"Ouch, that hurt, what is your head made of, kid?" The guy said. Roxas looked up, angry retort already on his lips. The guy was skinnier than any size zero model Roxas had ever seen. He had flame-red hair with orange highlights, spiked up. His eyes were piercingly green and he had little teardrop marks under his eyes. He looked like a punk-ish clown who'd been set on fire.

"I am not a kid." Roxas glared at him. His left foot had landed in a puddle, annoyingly enough, and now his shoe was soaking.

The guy tilted his head, amused. "Ooh, touchy? Lemme help you up." He bent down to offer his hand, but Roxas jumped up on his own, grimacing and shaking his foot dry.

"Thanks but no thanks." Roxas snapped, still royally pissed off about the whole Sora thing.

"I think I like you. Name's Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorised?"

"Already forgotten it." Roxas said with a scowl, pushing past him furiously. "And I don't like you."

"Aw, give a guy a chance!" Axel shouted at his retreating back earnestly. When he'd gone, Axel bent down and scooped up the little pouch of munny and a laminated card. Roxas' face glared back at him. He read the name on the card and grinned. "Roxas, huh?"

Twilight Town was so named because, obviously, it was almost constantly twilight. Hayner figured it was just a weird nature thing, like how some people could use Cure without potions or how Roxas' hair looked the same everyday, with or without gel. Hayner got through tubs a week so, naturally he was envious. Hayner was trying to quickly cut through the Sandlot without bumping into Seifer, though he knew it was a lost cause. Seifer seemed to manifest his evil presence wherever Hayner was, so, hoping that Seifer wouldn't be at his favourite place to hang out whilst Hayner was there was basically trying to defy nature.

So it was no surprise when a deep voice called out, "Hey! Lamer!"

Hayner quickened his pace, intent on getting to the Usual Spot unmolested. By that he meant unscathed, nothing weird. Though Seifer was really intense and weird.

"Hey! I'm talking to you, punk!"

Punk. Honestly, who uses the term 'punk' anymore? Seifer, that's who.

"Disrespectful." He heard Fuu comment disapprovingly. Yeah, well. At least I can use complete sentences.

"Oi!" Two hands suddenly placed themselves on his shoulders and spun him roughly around. Hayner was dismayed to find Seifer's face so close to his own, golden tanned skin, jagged scar that somehow didn't mar his good looks and piercing blue eyes, "I was talking to you, Lamer." Seifer breathed out.

Hayner rolled his eyes. "You want to get my attention, try using my name, idiot."

"I did. Lamer. Wanna Struggle?"

"Really, really not."

"Good, glad you agree." Seifer smirked, passing him a bat.

"Man, I just wanna go meet Pence, why do you always have to be so annoying?" Hayner moaned.

"Hey," Seifer jabbed him with his own bat, "Quit being a whiner and let's Struggle."

Hayner truly believed Struggle was named after him. It wasn't so much a fight and more a… struggle to break Seifer's grip, flee, get caught, struggle again in a never ending cycle. It grew dull.

Seifer landed on him heavily, knee in his back, struggle bat at his neck. "Crap." Hayner said half-heartedly. Seifer always got mad if he didn't act like he cared.

"Looks like I win again, Lamer." Seifer said triumphantly.

"I'll try to contain my crushing sadness."

Seifer's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to reply.

Roxas came skating into the Sandlot, a seriously pissed off expression on his face. He spotted Hayner and changed direction, leaning hard. Hayner resisted the urge to run. Roxas stopped abruptly, nimbly hopping off his skateboard.

"Hi Hayner." Roxas nodded at his friend, "Seifer. Struggle. Now." He turned to face the older teen, his tone firm.

Seifer quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? And what if I don't want to Struggle?"

"You always want to Struggle." Roxas said flatly.

"And you just forced me to Struggle." Hayner muttered.

"True, true. Hm, I'm always up for crushing losers." Seifer laughed and threw his bat up and down, catching it and tossing it up fluidly. Hayner watched in awe. He'd always wanted such coordination.

"Hayner! We've been waiting at the Usual Spot for a whole ten minutes!" Olette complained after running up to them. A few seconds later, Pence came trotted after her, panting.

"Seifer's fault, not mine." Hayner shrugged.

Olette turned her frown on Seifer, who merely smirked in response.

"So, are we Struggling or what?" Roxas demanded. He wanted to hurt someone, preferably now, preferably not a friend. Seifer would do nicely.

"Are you alright, man?" Hayner asked, concerned.

Seifer made an odd face. He shoved Hayner's shoulder, fairly randomly, then turned to Roxas whilst Hayner was in the middle of shouting, "Oi!" incredulously.

"Grab a bat." He said confidently.

The match was long and vicious. Roxas seemed intent on murdering Seifer, not just grabbing his orbs. Seifer was mostly on the defensive, which wasn't his usual style of fighting, which threw him off guard. Roxas threw a hard swing at the other's face.

"Yeah! Get him, Roxas!" Hayner cheered. Seifer's head snapped round to stare at him angrily.

Roxas took advantage of Hayner's unintentional distraction by tripping Seifer. The older teen smacked into the ground, hard, and lay there, dazed. Roxas wasn't finished, though, and he knelt down to deliver a few punches.

"Roxas! Stop it! The match is over!" Olette called.

Roxas ignored her.

Hayner dashed over, pulling at the other's wrist. Seifer's eyes flickered open in time to see Roxas' fist in the air, Hayner hanging on for dear life. A little smirk swept over his face and he easily pushed Roxas aside. He got up and brushed himself down.

"Call it a tie?" Hayner said hopefully.

"Not a chance." Seifer snorted.

"Never!" Roxas growled.

"Oh fine, stay here and pound each other till night time, me and the others are gonna go eat pretzels." Hayner threw his hands up exasperatedly.

"I still say I won." Seifer sniffed, stalking back to Fuu and Rai, who patted him on the back.

"In your dreams." Roxas said, his rage slowly seeping away. He hurried to join Hayner and the others as they ran off, already talking about the next Struggle Tournament.

None of them saw Seifer stare at them as they left, or a redhead push himself off the wall he'd been leaning against. He examined the pouch of munny with a grin. "Roxas," He murmured, "Fight, fight, fight."

Sora was too nice. That was Roxas' first impression, and it immediately raised his suspicions. He was too nice, too cheerful and too damn goofy to exist in the real world. He had chocolate brown hair that stuck up in spikes, big sky-blue eyes and a seemingly permanent grin. He also looked disconcertingly like Roxas. They both evidently looked like their mother, same nose, same big eyes – though Roxas' were usually narrowed suspiciously and Sora's were innocently wide.

They'd both been nervous for their first meeting. Their mother had put the front door key in the lock and Roxas, who had been expecting them, jumped violently, suddenly very uneasy. Sora had come through the door, hanged up his coat like it belonged their, and started politely wiping his feet. He'd looked up and met Roxas' hard stare.

"H-hey." He said goofily, rubbing the back of his head nervously. He held out a hand for Roxas to shake. He took it reluctantly and shook it.

"Hi. Want to see your room?" Roxas had said, in the nicest voice he could manage, which sounded venomously angry with a dose of deep dislike.

"Uh, yeah."

"C'mon then."

Their mother had looked worried.

Roxas' room wasn't much, but at least it was his own. Until now. Glowing blue stars covered everything. He had a lamp with dolphins swimming around it. His ceiling was painted to look like the night's sky, as it so rarely happened where they lived. Sora went around in awe, touching everything without permission. Roxas sighed and jumped on his bed, watching his half-brother examine his personal belongings.

"What's this?" Sora asked, picking up what looked like a dark tree statue.

"It's my Struggle tournament trophy from last year." Roxas answered, staring at the painted stars glowing above him.

"Cool." Sora said happily, and seemed to mean it.

Roxas' phone began trilling out a melody. He flipped it open and held it to his ear. Sora silently pointed at the door, questioning if he should leave. Roxas shook his head.

"Roxas, Yuffie's very upset about something. I tried to get her to talk to me but she's a little… incoherent at the moment." Namine's cool voice breezed down the phone. Roxas swore her voice was so soothing it could knock out an elephant.

"Is she with you?"

"Yes, I'll put her on."

There was a click and a tiny pause, and then Roxas' ear was assaulted by the sound of tiny sobs. "Yuffie? What the hell's wrong?" He asked, protective side kicking in.

"I think I like someone!" Yuffie sobbed out.

"...wait, what?"

"I know! Someone who is not Squall-shaped! Do you know what this means?"

"Yeah, it means you scared me half to death for no good reason."

"No good reason? Did you not hear me?" Yuffie shrieked, outraged.

"I think only dolphins can hear you when your voice goes that high. Who is this man of mystery?"

Yuffie was silent for a while, "His name is Vincent. He's hot, broody and much too old for me."

"Sounds perfect."

"I know! But why do I always have to fall for guys like that? Tall, dark and boring! Vincent doesn't even talk! He just sits there and broods. I'm not even sure if I like him or not."

"Still in love with Leon?"

"Looks like it, yeah. False alarm, sorry Roxas."

"That's fine, no worries. By the way, I have a new baby brother." Roxas turned on his side to watch Sora's reaction. He mouthed "Baby?" disbelievingly. Roxas nodded firmly.

"What?" Yuffie squealed.

"I know. His name is Sora. I know. I know. Blue. I don't know… he looks exactly like me, OK? Like Namine and Kairi similar. Yeah. Spooky. OK. See you later. Don't sweat it about the Vincent thing. Bye."

Yuffie Kisaragi despised English class. The teacher, Aerith, was a personal friend of hers, but her soft breathy voice was just so irritating when she was in Teacher Mode. Also, why the hell did every book they studied have to be analysed so much? Yuffie was sure when Tennessee Williams wrote that play thing and made Blanche wear red, it was cause she liked red, not cause she was lusty or dangerous or whatever. Shakespeare was the worst, every word was poked and prodded until it lost all former meaning and became a mess of symbolism, metaphorical language and Ye Olde English.

Out of sheer, mind-numbing boredom, Yuffie looked at the guy sitting next to her. And then felt her insides liquidate and turn to mush. He was so much taller than her, with long shiny black hair and blood-red eyes. He didn't appear to be paying attention to Aerith either, and was instead doodling in the margin of his notebook. Yuffie looked closer, and saw a sketched woman with ink blue lips and eyes, smiling with a glowing heart in her hands. For a doodle, it was drawn with the expertise of an artist. The woman was surrounded by shadowy creatures, each with glowing eyes and mouths, all looking hungrily at the woman's heart. Yuffie had never appreciated art before, but now her mouth dropped open in awe as she gazed at the drawing. It was then immediately blocked from her vision as a heavy hand dropped over it.

Yuffie jumped and turned guilty eyes up to the owner of the drawing. The man brushed back a long lock of hair from his shoulder, and glared at her. "Do you mind?" He asked, his voice as deep as she imagined it would be.

"No," She replied goofily, still staring, unabashed, "Who is it? Do you know her? Is she real? What are those monster thingys? Are you a vampire? No? Do you like vampires? I do. My name's Yuffie. What's yours?" She blurted out a series of questions excitedly.

The man snorted and turned his page over, flipping his pen over in his hand, starting to draw again.

As Yuffie watched, her face began to appear on the page in blue ink, skilfully drawn to look just like her. The man flicked a glance her way and then, to her embarrassment, shaded a blush on her paper cheeks. She had childish features, Yuffie noted, a great big goofy grin on her face and huge dark eyes. The man tore the page out of the notebook and put it in front of Yuffie. She gave him a confused look.

"You can keep it, if you promise not to talk." The man said sternly.

Yuffie instantly opened her mouth to give an awed thank you but the man glared her into silence. She clamped her mouth shut with difficulty, and stared gleefully at her picture. I look hot, she thought immodestly. She turned back to the man and mouthed thank you, giving him a massive grin. He tapped his pen against the desk thoughtfully, and only nodded in response.

"Mr Valentine, Miss Kisaragi, is there something you would both like to share with the class?" Aerith asked softly. The rest of the students turned in their seats to gawp at them.

'Mr Valentine' gave Aerith a measured look before replying, "No."

Yuffie, remembering 'Mr Valentine's' deal and afraid he might confiscate her picture if she talked, merely shook her head violently. Aerith sent her an inquisitive look.

Sora was sitting in on the wall outside the train station, looking out at Twilight Town, ignoring the rain. His hair, now sodden, no longer supported his signature spikes, and instead drooped morosely. He sighed and put his head in his hands, wiping away droplets of water that had collected in his eyelashes. His new brother, Roxas, obviously hated him. Sora was supposed to cheerfully move in with the woman who abandoned him. His father had died. His 'step-father', when he returned from work, was obviously going to resent him as much as his son. Despite all of his worries, he felt a real connection with Twilight Town, the near-constant beauty of the setting sun, the Struggle tournaments and the friendly faces of the people who lived there all appealed to him. He looked out at the city sprawled out before him with a hopeful smile. Maybe he really could live here.

He heard the tiniest cough behind him. He spun round reflexively, and nearly toppled over the edge of the wall, had the front of his shirt not been grabbed. The guy who had grabbed him yanked him forward, and Sora stumbled into his chest. "Whoa! Oh my God, thank you so much." Sora babbled, hugely freaked out from the near-death experience. Then he looked up at the guy who had saved him, and felt a twinge of something in his stomach. The guy had silvery long hair, pale skin and blue-green eyes. He smirked, and Sora realised that the guy was holding him lightly by the shoulders.

"Ah! OK, thanks again, gotta go!" Sora blurted out, turning to run.

"Hey, wait." The guy said softly, "Don't I get a reward?"

Sora's face was blank. "Er…" He turned out his pockets, "I don't have any munny on me, sorry." He said apologetically.

The guy smiled, seemingly amused. "Your name will do."

"Oh! I'm Sora. Hi." He said belatedly.

"Riku." The guy replied. Before Sora could blink, Riku rushed forwards and grabbed his face. Sora recoiled backwards in shock, but Riku was having none of it, "And now, for my reward." Riku said, eyes dark and resting upon Sora's mouth. A hot flush swept over Sora's face.

"You said my name was your reward!" Sora protested, struggling in Riku's arms.

"True." Riku sighed, releasing Sora, but not before playfully blowing on his lips, "I don't get any enjoyment from forcing things so…" He looked up, a mischievous glint in his eyes, "I'll have to persuade you somehow." He purred.

"Um… I really do have to go." Sora said honestly, fairly freaked out. He ran off, slipping on the wet ground.

Riku watched him go with an intrigued look on his face. "He looks just like him..." He mused.

The reasons for Riku's instant interest in Sora will become apparent later on…. Promise. Anyone else not liking Roxas' mom? Me either, and I sort of made her. For my own purposes. I don't own anything, not Kingdom Hearts or any other copyrighted thing. Or Roxas' mom. OK?

P.S. Yuffie will be goofy but not irritating (hopefully), Riku will be mysterious but not too enigmatic, Axel will be entirely Axel and all the more awesome for it, (I hope) Roxas will be a little meaner than Sora but, hey, cute little puppies are meaner then Sora. Sora will be almost as goofy as Yuffie, but still capable of defending himself. But not capable of defending himself from falling off walls, or onto mysterious men's chests. Bad habit. Kairi and Namine will be… present. As will a few other characters.

P.P.S. Seifer will be hideously jealous of the non-existent chemistry between Hayner and Roxas. Bwahahaha.