A.N. Chapter One. Enjoy!

Disclaimer. I don't own the rights to Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, yaddayaddayadda...

Story. Roxas and Cloud are shipped off to Radiant Garden. As they attempt to survive the summer all manner of things will occur. I really haven't come up with much of a plot to be perfectly honest.

Warnings. Boyxboy/yaoi/shounen ai. All the junk like that. Pairings include but not limited to AkuRoku, SoRiku, Cleon, Zemyx and whatever else I can concoct.

Spanners in the Machine

Sora

According to the weather man on the morning breakfast show the weather that day was going to announce the start of a great summer. The humid heat had yet to descend, and there was still a cool breeze coming in from the west to keep the sky blue and cloudless. Temperatures were set to rise around mid-afternoon, but by the evening things would settle off into a comfortably warm evening. All he really should have said was that it wasn't going to rain because that was all that really mattered to Sora. If it rained it meant he'd be stuck indoors where he'd sit by the window and stare out gloomily at the wet and dreary weather. Since the guy in the pressed mauve suit had announced that it was going to be sunny Sora could hardly sit still.

It was the perfect weather to welcome his cousins, too. They were city boys that knew only of smog and car fumes. They probably had espresso pumping through their veins and couldn't function for more than two hours without a cigarette. Pasty pale skin hidden under old sweaters and neither of them would know how to wrangle a lamb from its mother without getting kicked in the face. It didn't matter to Sora that the two boys had visited before; neither of them had spent time working with his father in the fields. Cloud had come up alone a few times over the years, but he had spent barely any time around the house, choosing instead to go gallivanting off with friends he'd made with some of the people in the town. Sora had seen him a few times, lurking on a street corner with that thug of a woman named Tifa. Hopefully Roxas wouldn't be like his older brother and would actually want to hang out with him. The last time Sora had seen Roxas he was nothing more than a scrawny little thing who held onto his mother's hand like it was the only connection between him and the world. Well, with no mommy to hold hands with, Roxas was going to have to deal with Sora to keep him connected with the world, and Sora had many, many plans in mind for what they could do over the summer break.

The wood of the porch swing seat creaked under his weight as Sora used his toes to sway back and forth while he eagerly awaited the arrival of his cousins. Eyes searched the horizon for any sign of his father's car bringing the pair to him. His father had driven out earlier to pick the two up from the airport. Surely they should be here by now – unless his dad had chosen to take the scenic route. Roxas had been so young since his last visit that perhaps his father had decided to show him what things had changed and to remind him of where things were. Radiant Garden was a bustling little town, but certainly no sprawling city like Twilight Town. Compared to Hollow Bastion neither Radiant Garden nor Twilight Town were very big, but there was a higher population of people living in the close, cramped quarters of Twilight Town. In Radiant Garden people were spread out much more, separated from one another with farmland or woodlands. There was a main central area with shops and small businesses, but the people preferred to live much more secluded. Maybe that was way they were friendlier here than in other places. Since they people didn't live so cramped together they could actually enjoy the presences of other people. Whatever the reasons, Sora certainly liked it here more than anywhere else in the world.

Lost in his own thoughts, Sora didn't hear the front door open and then close behind a small blonde girl. She tucked a few stray locks of hair behind her ear as she made her way over to where Sora sat. Looking up to acknowledge her, he shifted over to make room on the seat. "When are they gonna get here?" he asked her, returning to watching the horizon.

Naminé sighed softly, smiling a small and gentle smile. "They'll get here when they get here, Sora." That cool breeze the weatherman spoke of swept over them both, playing and dancing through her hair, forcing her to tuck it behind her ear again. "Roxas is a lot older than he was last time he came to visit. He may not want to hang out with you," she said. "He was scared to leave his mother; maybe he'll be nervous about leaving the farm." She shifted her weight on the cushions, causing the wood to creak and groan, the chain links scrapping over one another. "And Cloud will probably just go and hang out with those friends of his. Roxas might go with him, just to be with someone familiar. You never know what's going to happen."

Sora just grinned. "I've got so much stuff planned that he'll forget that he was ever scared of this place," he announced gleefully. "It's going to be the best summer vacation Roxas has ever had!" he called out, spreading his arms high and wide, swinging his legs childishly in front of him, causing the chair to swing with more force. Naminé's hand shot out to clutch the armrest to keep from falling off, shocked by the sudden swinging motion.

"Sora..."

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry!" Placing his feet carefully on the floor, Sora slowed the swaying of the seat and looked sheepishly at Naminé. "Sorry," he said again. He shuffled over on the seat, wrapping his arms around her thin frame. After a few moments of silence stretching between them, Sora slipped back and looked directly at her face. She had the family eyes; big and blue. Sometimes Sora thought it was the only thing that related him to the rest of his family. He took after his mother while Naminé (and Roxas and Cloud) took after his father's side of the family. Blonde, blue eyes and a paler skin tone that could burn in too much sunlight. Growing up in Radiant Garden meant Naminé's skin wasn't as prone to burning as it was while she was growing up, but Sora had to wonder just how many layers of suntan lotion were going to be needed to keep Roxas from turning into a burnt tomato the moment he spent any time under the hot summer sun.

She smiled sweetly at him, shaking her head apologetically. "Don't worry about it, Sora. You just startled me." She tucked some of her blonde hair behind her ear. "Swinging makes my stomach feel funny."

Sora grinned back at her. "I love that feeling – its like butterflies dancing in your tummy. Like that feeling you get when you love someone."

"What a strange metaphor," she said, sliding off the seat and standing up. She looked down the driveway. Their father's car was pulling onto the dirt track that was the driveway. Stones crunched under the wheels of the car as it rumbled along, finally pulling up outside the house. "Looks like your wait is over."

Hopping to his feet, Sora moved to stand next to her on the front porch, grin wide on his face as he eagerly awaited the doors to open and reveal the family members he rarely ever saw. First came Cloud, slipping out slowly and taking each step with caution and care as he exited from the front passenger seat. Letting out a heavy breath of air, the older male leaned back against the car, head tilting back. His expression looked relieved, and the whisper of a breeze brushed through the spikes of blond hair on his head. Rounding the car from the other side was Roxas. His blond hair was also in spikes, although styled more in a swirl of spikes rather than protruding in all directions. He was taller than Sora remembered, but no taller than himself. He wore khaki pants and a black t-shirt. The sleeves of a black and white striped hoodie were tied around his waist.

"Welcome!" Sora announced, waving at them both.

Cloud pulled his eyes down from the heavens to look at him with little expression on his face. He glanced over to his brother who had now come to his side. "You remember Sora and Naminé, don't you Roxas?"

Roxas frowned and looked over at his cousin. Sora shifted his weight from one foot to the other, hopping on the spot. Naminé smiled sweetly at her cousins, giving them a small wave. Roxas didn't say anything. "Do you want a drink?" Naminé asked, looking rather uneasy under Roxas' silent stare. "I've made some lemonade."

"I want some lemonade!" Sora announced.

Cloud pushed away from the car and climbed the steps of the porch. Sora looked up at him. "Lemonade would be nice, thank you," he said politely, smiling down at Naminé. "I don't like travelling in cars,"

"Oh, I know how you feel," she replied, and giggled when Cloud looped their arms together and lead her into the house leaving Sora to help his father and Roxas to unload the car.

"You sure brought a lot of stuff," Sora remarked as he carried one of the cases inside, trying his best to make conversation with his cousin. "Did you enjoy the flight?"

Roxas remained silent. His brows creased and rose on his face with each question Sora asked. Whatever was going on inside his head, Roxas obviously didn't want to share his thoughts with Sora; which annoyed Sora to no end. He could hear Cloud chatting away with Naminé in the kitchen, but the younger sibling was harder to crack than a hard boiled rock. Sometimes it looked like he didn't even want to answer him. This summer was going to become exceptionally boring if Roxas remained mute. He would have to figure out a way to get him to open up.

"We can go see the horses later if you want, Roxas," Sora suggested, leaning against the landing banister while Roxas sorted through the bags of luggage for the ones that were his and separating them from his brothers. "Or go into town. What do you normally do during the holidays? We can probably do it here too." He folded his arms behind his head and beamed at Roxas.

Roxas didn't seem to like that. He glared at Sora and tossed the bag he was holding onto the bed set up in the spare room. "I can't do what I normally do at home because I'm here!" he hissed through his teeth. "Stop trying to make me want to be here, Sora, because I don't want to."

Shocked by Roxas sudden outburst, Sora stared at him open mouthed. His cousin seemed so calm – to see him turn red faced and angry was quite the shock. Looking at the floor sheepishly, Sora felt bad. His cousin didn't want to be here, and he couldn't understand why. Sora loved living in Radiant Garden. To meet someone who didn't instantly love the place was a rarity. Bringing his gaze back up to look level with Roxas, Sora tilted his head to the side and smiled as brightly as ever. "I'll be downstairs." Pointing in the direction he was going to leave, Sora flashed him another smile and was off, thundering down the stairs.

With arms still folded behind his head, Sora strolled into the kitchen. Naminé looked up at him when he entered, worry plain on her face. "I heard shouting..."

"What did you say to Roxas, Sora?" Cloud asked, looking over his shoulder from where he sat at the kitchen table.

Sora stuck out his bottom lip in thought. "I didn't say anything bad. I just thought we could hang out and he instantly snapped at me."

Cloud chuckled. "Roxas didn't really want to stay here, so its only natural he'll be feeling a little resentful," he explained. "Just let him settle in first before you go dragging him off around the town."

Sora looked up at the ceiling where the spare room was, and where Roxas was hiding out. "How long will that take?"

Cloud stood up and walked over, clasping a hand on Sora's shoulder. "As long as it takes," he said before slipping out. Sora glanced back to watch him go – obviously heading off to talk with his younger brother.

"Cloud is such a cool older brother," Sora remarked as he slumped down in his vacated seat, pouring himself a large glass of the lemonade that Naminé had set out.

"Unlike some," Naminé replied with a small smile.

Guzzling his drink, Sora didn't hear what she said. "What did you say?"

Her sweet little smile brightened. "Nothing Sora, nothing at all."

Sora snorted and took another gulp of the refreshing drink. "So how long is Cloud hanging around before he runs off to hang with Tifa and her friends?"

"He said he's going to stay close to Roxas for a while first," she replied, relaying the information she had gathered while Sora had been helping Roxas unpack. "Offer support for him for a while, but he said he might go out tomorrow. He lied and told Tifa he wasn't arriving until tomorrow. If she knew he was here she'd come straight over and drag him out."

Nodding as he listened, Sora leaned forwards on his elbow, propping his chin in his hand. "We should do something tonight to make Roxas feel more comfortable here."

"There's nothing we can really do, Sora."

He pouted at her answer, not liking her defeatist attitude. It was strange that Roxas wasn't jumping with joy at the chance to spend all summer here, but Sora was adamant that by the end of the summer break he's have convinced Roxas to spend every year here. "Lets have a bonfire!"

"We're not having a bonfire."

"But Naminé...The weather is going to be really nice tonight – the best weather for a bonfire."

"We are not having a bonfire," she repeated. Rising gracefully from her seat, Naminé cleared away the glasses and returned the jug of lemonade to the refrigerator. "Mom and Dad won't let you after what happened last time."

'Last time' had been only last year when Sora had invited his friends over and they'd started a camp fire in the field behind the house. The little fire had turned into a blazing inferno and their mother had called the fire department to put out the flames before they reached the house. Those involved were lucky not to suffer any terrible burns, although Sora's friend Riku had lost a large chunk of his hair in the blaze. The damage had been so extensive that Riku cropped the silver strands quite short. Luckily for him his hair grew quite quickly. In a year it had grown from chin-length to shoulder-length.

"But it'll just be us," Sora whined. "The fire won't get out of hand this time."

Naminé looked at her brother sternly. "No means no, Sora. You know Mom won't let you anyway."

Sighing in defeat, Sora rocked back and forth on his chair, weight only on the back two legs. "You're no fun," he retorted.

She gave a wry smile. "Sucks to be you then, doesn't it?" As she walked past him, she pushed on his back, jolting the seat down onto all four legs. Sora's jaw snapped shut and he cried out as he bit his tongue. She was only laughing at him for a few seconds before Sora flew out of his seat and chased after his sister.

As he was racing after her, she ducked behind the taller form of Cloud that had returned from upstairs. Sora collided with an outstretched hand. Falling back with a cry, Sora rubbed his head where he'd run smack into Cloud's palm. "Cloud can't protect you forever, Naminé," he threatened, glaring up from under his bangs at his sister who was grinning wickedly from behind Cloud. Ignoring her as she waggled her fingers at him, he looked up at Cloud who was frowning down at him. He shared a similar frown to his younger brother. "How's Roxas?"

"He's calmed down a bit," Cloud replied. "Don't be so quick to try and get him out of his room just yet though. You could always just try hanging out with him in his room."

"But that's boooooring," Sora whined. "The weather is too nice to be cooped up inside."

"You're not going to change his opinion by dragging him to somewhere he doesn't want to go, Sora. Roxas is stubborn. He'll come around eventually though. Until then you'll just have to be patient."

Sora didn't want to wait until Roxas was ready. He wanted to go out now. They could go anywhere in all of Radiant Garden; have any adventure possible. But no, Roxas wanted to stay cooped up in a stuff old bedroom. No wonder Roxas had held onto his mother's hand whenever he visited. He wasn't scared, he was after an excuse to not come and play. Well, not this time. Roxas was a teenager now. Teenagers in Radiant Garden did not sulk in bedrooms. Teenagers in Radiant Garden went out and enjoyed themselves. If Roxas didn't have that kind of mindset, then Sora was going to just drill it into him.

Leaving Naminé in the protection of Cloud, Sora stalked past the pair and bounded up the stairs. As he reached the closed door of the room that Roxas was sharing with his older brother, Sora could hear the faint sound of music coming from the other side. Pausing at the door, Sora pressed his ear to the wood to listen in. The music inside the room was a keyboard. There was no definitive song – more like someone testing out different melodies to see what fitted together. Pauses occurred every now and again.

Instead of knocking, Sora pushed the door open and peered inside. Roxas was lying on his stomach on the floor, sheet music scattered all around him. A keyboard was on the floor in front of him, and he was playing notes with one hand while noting things down on a music sheet with the other. Hanging on the door, Sora listened to his cousin develop a song. Sora had no musical talent whatsoever which meant whenever he came across someone who could play an instrument he was instantly fascinated. From what he could gather, Roxas was pretty good. "I didn't know you could play the keyboard," Sora announced when there was a lull in the music and Roxas wasn't noting anything down.

Jolted by the sudden intrusion into his privacy, Roxas rolled over onto his back and glared at Sora, obviously not pleased by the fact his privacy had been invaded. "How long have you been there?"

"Not long," Sora replied. "Can I come in?"

"You're not going to try and get me to go and hang out with you are you?"

Sora shook his head, now swinging on the door. "What are you doing?"

Roxas scratched his temple with the base of his pencil. His brows creased together in thought. "Just messing about," he replied before rolling back over onto his stomach. "You can come in, but shut the door behind you."

Grinning at the acceptance to be allowed inside Roxas' personal bubble, Sora slipped inside the room, taking careful steps not to stand on anything important and squatted down beside Roxas. "You're really good."

Roxas pushed a few keys with the pencil, clinking out a couple of notes. "I don't really like keyboards – I like pianos better, but you don't have a piano so I brought this with me instead."

Looking around the room, Sora noted just how quickly Roxas had settled in to the spare room. Some of his clothes weren't put away yet and were still strewn about on the bed. He'd taken over most of the floor with paper and his body sprawled out. "I'm sorry if it seemed like I was trying to get you to do something you didn't want to. I just thought you'd rather be outside than cooped up in here."

"Well you thought wrong then, did you?" Roxas snapped in reply. "I don't see what the fuss is about this place. There's nothing to do here."

Sora sat down properly on the floor and leaned back on his hands. "There are loads of things to do when you know where to look."

"Well, I don't want to look," he responded.

"I can show you instead."

"I thought you weren't trying to get me to hang around with you?"

Roxas had him there. Chuckling, Sora shook his head. "Not right now – but you have to give this place a chance. You can't spend your entire summer in here."

"I'm not going to spend my entire summer in here. I have to go to the bathroom sometime."

Sora frowned. "I meant outside."

"Is the bathroom outside?"

Sora gasped. "We're not that old fashioned!"

There was a chuckle from Roxas. He was still focused on his work, noting things down and stroking the keys every now and again. "You could have had me fooled." With a sigh, he placed his pencil down and looked at Sora. Despite such differences between them, Sora could note a thousand and one similarities they both shared. When they were much younger people used to note how alike they looked, and how it was almost like they could have been twins. Their faces were similarly shaped, and their eyes were exactly the same, although Roxas' blue pair were a much more sombre when one looked deeper inside and noted more than just the colour. Then there was the frown. Sora rarely ever frowned, while Roxas seemed permanently thinking about the trails and tribulations of surviving in the world and weighing up his options on what would be the easiest way to suffer through it all. The difference in how 'deep' each male was could be described in such a way that Roxas was a vast ocean compared to Sora's puddle of a lake.

Sora's lake was prettier though. The ocean had nothing but endless rolling waves. Lakes had things like trees and grass and in the distance there could be mountain rangers with snow capped peaks, beyond which lay an endless world of adventure just waiting to be explored.

"You're thinking about something stupid, aren't you?" Roxas asked, snapping Sora out of his thoughts.

"We should go to the lake!"

Once more Roxas frowned. "That involves going outside, Sora. We've already established that I don't want to go exploring your little town." He turned back to his keyboard and his notes. "I want to stay here," he mumbled

Chewing on his bottom lip in thought, Sora stretched his legs out in front of him and began tapping the toes of his sneakers together. "I'm sure I can think of something that could persuade you to go outside."

"I bet you can't."

That spurred him on. Grinning like a madman, Sora decided he would take up that challenge. "I bet I can. If I can't, I leave you alone. Deal?" He shuffled forwards and held out his hand for his cousin.

Roxas looked between Sora's smiling face and the hand offered out to him for several moments before giving in with a heavy sigh, shoulders sagging in defeat. "Deal."

"Wonderful!" Sora announced cheerfully, punching the air with his fist. Scrambling to his feet, he looked down at his cousin who stared up at him with confusion written plainly on his face. Giving him a bigger, toothier grin, Sora folded his arms behind his head and strolled out of the bedroom in a manner that looked like he owned the place. He knew exactly how to get his cousin to relinquish his need to be hidden away in the bedroom, and then Roxas would be his for the rest of the summer. At the thought of having his own personal slave Sora chuckled manically, imagining the sound to be similar to that of a mad scientist who was breaking all the rules to create a humanoid monster out of bits of dug up corpses and k'nex.

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A.N. So that's the official first chapter (: Hope you enjoyed it, and reviews and such are greatly appreciated.