Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. They belong to Tetsuya Nomura, Square Enix and some to Disney

Author's Note: I lied when I said I was going to post 3 chapters at once. I'm posting 4 instead. Don't expect this to be the norm. Thanks to Maxie, my superb beta who catches all my stupid typos and more. Set sometime between the present and not too distant future, mostly in Chicago, lying somewhere between reality and pure fantasy. Rated M for sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

Chapter 2: Warm Winds of Santa Ana Feel All Right

"I know I've seen about three hundred different Mickey Mouses since we started working there, but you'll never guess what happened today," Sora said excitedly to his friends as they sat at two tables pushed together inside Vito's Pizza. "I was taking a break, and when I looked up from my pop, Mickey was approaching and he had his hand in a fist. I was worried for half a second and then BAM! his fist connected with mine. Mickey Mouse brofisted me. It was so cool. And then he just walked away like it was nothing." He looked at his left hand reverently. "I'm never washing these knuckles again."

"I wonder if he was at our set last night?" Kairi replied. She'd already heard the story four times since it happened that afternoon, the first over the phone, again in front of Selphie, then again when Tidus and Wakka showed up, and once again now that Riku was with them.

"That's cool," Riku said flatly.

"Don't sound so down about it. Geeze," Sora replied, poking Riku in the arm.

"Maybe he's jealous," Tidus piped in, teasingly. Riku glared, his cheeks taking on a slightly pink hue.

"Oh my god, he is!" Selphie said, giggling.

"I am not." Riku crossed his arms, and slouched back in his seat.

"It's okay if you are, Riku," Sora said, laughing. "Why didn't you apply to work at Disneyland, too?"

"And risk getting banned from there for life? No thanks."

"How are things going at... wherever you're working now, brah?" Wakka asked, reaching for a slice of pizza from one of the two half empty pans in front of them.

"McDonalds?" Riku rolled his eyes. "Got fired."

"What did you do this time?" Kairi asked, shaking her head.

"I dumped a triple thick chocolate shake on some douchebag's head then told him it complimented him, that it brought out the bullshit in his eyes," Riku said, smirking as he thought about how satisfying it had felt.

"What did he do?"

"He was demanding his money back, saying 'I saw that silver hair faggot spit in it.' Which I didn't."

"Sounds like he deserved it." Kairi frowned, twirling her straw around in her glass, the ice clinking against the sides. Sora gave Riku's hand a comforting squeeze.

"Man, don't worry about it. In less than a month Paopu could have a record deal and then you wouldn't have to worry about service jobs ever again, you'll be a rich rock star!"

"It's not that easy, Tidus. They won't be rich for a long time, and only if they make it really big," Selphie said.

"Ice cream sounds good..." Sora thought out loud, still thinking about the milkshake. Perking up he looked around the table, "Let's go get some after we leave here. My treat!"

"Can't, man. I've got two tests to study for and a paper to write and I won't have any time tomorrow because it's my long day for classes." Tidus slumped just thinking about it.

"And we've got a water polo game," Wakka added.

"Yeah, that, too."

"Oh. Well, we'll see you at the gig Thursday, right?" Sora asked.

"Of course, man. Wouldn't miss it for the world. It's the last one before you guys take off for Chicago, right?" Selphie, Sora, Kairi and Riku all nodded.

FedEx Kinko's probably wasn't a good choice in hindsight. The customers tried left and right to get discounts, to argue their way into a better shipping price, anything and everything to get their way and annoy the living hell out of Riku. So, he couldn't exactly be blamed when he shoved some punk ass acne ridden teenager's face onto the glass plate of the copier and began photo copying it as he grilled him about his crime. He had it coming for trying to steal 500 pages of double sided copies. Riku's manager commended him for stopping a theft, but fired him for not following protocol in dealing with it.

He didn't want that job anyway.

"Kairi, hurry up already." Selphie played with her purse strap as she waited for Kairi to finish getting out of her Rosette costume. "Why does it always take you forever?"

"Because they insist we pile on the glitter for optimal fairy effect. I really wish I'd gotten the part of Ariel, but I wasn't tall enough for the costume."

"I know, you've told me a thousand times. Would it kill you to leave the glitter on today? We still need to grab Sora before he gets distracted by video games." Selphie started tapping her foot impatiently.

"Yes, it would. I'm almost done. Just wait a minute." Kairi scrubbed at her face, giving up on getting the last of it when Selphie's foot tapping started getting on her nerves. She looked herself over in the mirror, deciding a little glitter couldn't hurt. "Okay, we can go."

"Finally."

"Oh shut up. It's not like you don't take forever fixing your hair after your shifts."

Selphie pursed her lips and led the way out of the employee locker room, Kairi a step behind. They made their way towards Starcade where Sora worked, weaving in and out between all the tourists.

"How'd your shift go?" Kairi asked.

"I got some decent tips. I'm starting to get tired of the pirate music though. It's the same song over and over all day. I don't know whose bright idea it was to put a restaurant on the side of a ride, but I'm starting to wish I had picked a different one to work in. It sounded so cool at first."

"At least you'll be getting a break from it soon. Even longer of a break if we win." The girls grinned.

They arrived at the Starcade to find Sora slumped behind the counter looking like he wanted to die. "Ugh. Guys, I can't go. The guy who is supposed to be replacing me hasn't shown up yet."

"Can't you find someone else to cover for you?" Kairi asked.

"I tried, no one else who's trained in this area is available. Or if they are, they're not answering their phones. I know I wouldn't want to on a Friday especially when there's a big party going on."

"Lame. Give us a call when you get out of here? We can meet up then?" Selphie suggested.

"Yeah..." Sora sighed and slumped even further. "Apologize to Riku for me when you see him?"

"Of course." Kairi smiled.

"Cheer up or you're going to scare away all the kids," Selphie chided.

"You're doing a good enough job of that on your own," Sora teased.

"Bye, Sora," the girls said, waving as they headed back out into the warm sunlight. It was the hottest it had been all winter, perfect weather for a party at the beach.

It was ten to eleven when Sora finally arrived at the beach, the party already in full swing, music blaring from a stereo, loud enough to drown out the generator powering it. He scanned the crowd, looking for his friends. As he walked toward the bonfire, he bumped into the kid whose shift he'd just covered. "Thanks a lot," he grumbled and knocked his shoulder as he walked past, the kid spilling his beer down his shirt. Sora kept walking as though oblivious to what had happened and kept looking for any sign of Riku - he'd be the easiest to spot.

"There you are!" Selphie shouted, running towards him and engulfing him in a hug, her breath heavy with the scent of beer. "We thought you weren't coming."

"The kid never showed up, I had to cover the rest of his shift. Guess where he was?"

"Here?" Kairi asked and Sora nodded. "What a jerk. But you're here now, so cheer up!"

Riku handed him a beer and wrapped an arm around him. "Tidus and Wakka are down the beach a bit starting a smoke circle."

"That sounds really good right now." Sora took a long swig of his beer before taking Riku's hand and leading him down the beach, Kairi and Selphie a step behind them.

"Sora, my man," Tidus said, grinning widely as they sat down in the circle. "Thought you were gonna be a no show."

"Nah, had to work late. What've you got?" Sora sat between Riku's legs, using him like a living armchair.

"It's good, brah. Not that skunk shit like last time," Wakka said from across the circle, flanked on each side by a hot girl as he took a hit off the joint, passing to the left and exhaling into the girl on his right's mouth. When the girl on his left passed off she did the same for Wakka, exhaling into his mouth.

The joint continued through the rotation, Selphie getting it and passing it to Kairi before she passed it to Riku. He smirked at Wakka as he took a hit, quickly passing to Sora, who took a hit and passed to Tidus before crushing his lips to Riku's in a kiss, fingers sliding through his hair. Both opened their mouths to exchange the smoke, tongues sliding across each other, not pulling apart until they'd zeroed the hit.

"That was hot," one of Wakka's girls said. "Do that with me."

"No, with me," the other girl piped in.

"How about both? Plenty of me to go around."

"Man, Wakka, learn to share," Tidus grumbled.

"You know I don't swing that way, brah."

Selphie erupted into giggles, "Poor Tidus, all by his lonesome."

"How about it, Selph?"

"Believe it or not, I have standards."

"Ouch, Tidus," Riku said, sympathetically.

"You know if you're going to hit on Selphie it's gotta be before you hit on anyone else," Kairi said, laughing as Selphie lightly smacked her shoulder.

The joint continued making its rounds until Sora dropped the roach while trying to pass to Tidus. "Shit, sorry," he said, laughing at his blunder.

"It's cool, man. It was done for anyway." They sat around enjoying the sound of ocean and their buzz, Wakka and his girls slipping away unnoticed at some point, the others who'd joined mid-rotation leaving when it became apparant that was the last of it. Sora and Riku slipped away a little later and Tidus found himself alone with Kairi and Selphie, "So, how about it, ladies? Who wants a piece of me?"

The girls stood up, giggling and walked away. "Niiiiight, Tidus~" they sing-songed. Tidus sighed and flopped over on his back to watch the stars. He'd been kidding anyway. Mostly.

Mondays inevitably sucked. It was a fact of life, and one Riku wished he could forget. He stood at the Wal-Mart entrance, greeting the customers as they walked in. It was easy enough to smile, but he was only half through his shift and his jaw already ached from the fake smiles. The cheerful greetings were sounding more forced by the minute and if one more kid kicked him in the leg as they walked past he was going to kick them in return.

He really shouldn't have put down "any" for the position he was interested in. But when you're desperate for a job, you take what you can get. Why he never had the luck to get a position with minimal customer interaction was something he was still trying to figure out. Maybe it was a karma thing and he was paying off the debts of his previous life as well as his own.

It didn't come as a surprise that when a rambunctious elementary schooler walked past and punched him in the stomach and he yelled at the kid's mom to learn to control her child, his manager walked over asking for him to punch out and hand over his badge and vest. He grumbled something about not having wanted the job in the first place as he handed everything over to his manager.

Tomorrow, he'd call the temp agency and see if they had anything for him. Maybe he'd luck out and get a job that could see him through until their trip.

Sora lay sprawled out on the couch, legs draped over Kairi's and his head resting in Riku's lap. Tidus, Wakka and Selphie were spread out on the floor in front of the big screen tv in Sora's parents living room, pillows propping them up into comfortable positions.

"What're we watching tonight?" he asked, prodding Kairi in the leg with his foot.

"You'll see," she shared a smirk with Selphie, tipping off the boys that it was probably some chick flick they'd have to pretend to hate in order to preserve their masculinity. The girls were generally good about not picking anything too boring or sappy. Wednesdays were the crew's traditional movie night, and had been since the summer before their freshman year of high school. During the school year, it happened before dinner, and ostensibly before they even started their homework. But during the summers and ever since they graduated high school it had been at 9pm every Wednesday. They rotated who picked the movie each week. Having it at Sora's parents' house had been the tradition for the past eight years - as long as the event itself had been taking place.

Because his parents thought it was silly for him to move out while Paopu was still trying to get signed, Sora still lived with his parents, paying rent and helping out around the house. He was pretty sure the real reason had more to do with his mom not wanting to lose the Wednesday night tradition. She treated them all like family, even going so far as to demand they call her mom and giving them an open invitation to dinner any night of the week. It took a while for Tidus and Wakka to stop calling her by her name, but the others seemed to catch on quickly.

"Oh come on, Kairiiiii," Sora whined, dragging out her name. "Just tell us."

"Stop being so impatient," Selphie scolded, laughing after.

A half hour into the movie - an old chick flick about surfer girls - Sora's mom poked her head into the room, holding a tray with mugs of hot cocoa and a plate piled high with brownies. "I thought you kids might be hungry."

"Thanks, Mom," everyone said in unison as she set the tray down on the coffee table next to Selphie. She quietly slipped out of the room and everyone lunged for the snacks.

"She made the good hot chocolate, man," Tidus said after sipping the peppermint schnapps laced beverage.

"I'm still waiting for the day she laces the brownies with something," Wakka said, dodging the pillow Sora threw at his head.

"Sorry, Wakka, but you missed it. She made them once," Riku said with a smirk.

"Really?"

"No, dumbass." Everyone laughed and Wakka flipped Riku the bird. "That's what I've got Sora for." He winked and Sora hid his face behind his mug as he took a drink, lightly jabbing Riku's leg with his foot.

Tidus pretended to gag. "Dude, spare me the deets on your sex life. I'd rather watch Anne Marie's in this movie."

That settled everyone down, the rest of the movie playing out with no further conversation, Sora cuddling up to Riku once they finished their cocoa. When the movie was over they sat around chatting, the conversation touching on how they eventually needed to take a trip to Hawaii and hit the waves there. A little past midnight everyone aside from Riku headed home, thanking 'Mom' for the delicious snacks on their way out.

"You staying the night?" Sora asked, tilting his head to look at Riku.

"That was the plan."

"Good." Sora shifted, Riku's arm still resting on his hip, and kissed him only to be interrupted by Sora's mom clearing her throat.

"You two are adorable, but would you mind taking it upstairs? It's getting late."

"Sure thing." Riku nudged Sora to get up first, both of them giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, saying "Good night," as they exited the room and headed upstairs.

The temperature was barely above sixty when Sora, Riku and Kairi hit the pier at Huntington Beach Thursday morning for dawn patrol, wetsuits on and surfboards tucked under their arms. The swell was the best there'd been all week, and it was likely their last chance to catch waves as good as this before they left for Chicago on Saturday. Wakka and Tidus had tests to take and couldn't make it and Selphie hadn't answered her phone when Kairi had called to tell her about the conditions.

Hardly anyone else was at the beach, a rarity even in the winter months. The three friends grinned at each other before racing off into the water, nearly unphased by the cool temperature of the water. They paddled out to join the lineup, a few locals they'd seen countless times. Greetings were exchanged and one of the guys filled them in on what they'd missed and what to expect.

Riku was the best surfer out of the three - only Wakka was better than him in their crew - but neither were good enough to even be considered by sponsors, though it never stopped them from entering contests when they could. Sora, Kairi and Tidus were all decent and could keep up with Riku and Wakka on their best days. Kairi usually hung back with Selphie when she was around, hitting the easier waves. Selphie hadn't got into surfing until they were teens and she wanted to use it to impress the boys.

They took turns catching waves as the sun continued to rise, the sky changing from soft pinks and yellows into clear blues. Riku managed to only wipeout twice, while Sora and Kairi didn't bother to count, just having fun trying to catch the waves. Sora managed to catch an exceptional wave mid-session, his fingers skimming along the face as the swell curled overhead. He'd almost managed to make it out before it crashed down on him, pushing him deep into the water. His hand hit the sandy bottom and he used the force from it to push himself back to the surface. When he came up he was all smiles as he paddled back to Riku and Kairi.

Their fingers were pruned by time they left the line and went back to shore, conversing animatedly about the waves they caught and the ones they didn't, how they'd catch even better ones the next time, and how it was too bad the others hadn't been able to join them.

Riku was pleased that he'd managed to hold down a job through the rest of the week. It was physical labor - mindless grunt work - but it paid well and didn't involve customer service. He was disappointed that he'd finally got a job he'd be able to hold down but couldn't keep because he was leaving tomorrow morning. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to get this one again when they came back.

That night Riku, Kairi, Selphie and Sora sat in Sora's living room, going over travel plans and eating pizza.

"So from O'Hare we're going to catch the train into the city?" Kairi asked.

"Yeah, and then we're checking in at the hotel," Sora said.

"Which one?"

"Uuuuh..., Riku, you've got that info, right?"

"It's just called 'Hotel'. It's on Lincoln Ave."

"No it's not. Gimme that," Selphie said, yanking the paper out of Riku's hand. "Huh, he's right. It really is just called 'Hotel'."

"Weird," Kairi said.

"I thought that, too. But when I called the receptionist said that the email hadn't been wrong." Riku ran a hand through his hair and leaned back against the couch.

"Doesn't that make it hard for people to make reservations there?" Selphie handed the printout back to Riku.

"Nah, it's a pretty exclusive place. If we weren't going for the competition, there'd be no way we'd be able to stay there. The buzz on the net is that it's the place where every 'Somebody' gets to be a 'Nobody'. They can just kick back and not have to deal with fans trying to sneak into their rooms, and there's no crowd when they head out to their cars. Top notch security to give celebrities peace of mind when they're in the Windy City."

"I can't wait, it's going to be so cool," Sora said, grinning.

Early Saturday morning Kairi, Riku, Selphie and Sora lumbered out to Sora's parents' mini-van, their equipment and luggage already loaded and Sora's dad behind the wheel. They piled into the backseats, barely coherent as they buckled up. "What am I? Your chauffeur?" he asked, turning the keys in the ignition.

"Yeah, Dad, you are," Sora replied with a yawn and leaned his head on Riku's shoulder.

"Got your tickets?"

"We're picking them up there."

"Got your passports?"

"Were not leaving the country," Sora sighed.

"I know, I was checking to make sure you were actually awake."

Sora stuck his tongue out at him and Riku chuckled. "Well, it worked. I'm awake." He looked behind him at Kairi and Selphie who'd managed to fall back asleep before they even pulled out of the driveway. "This isn't fair," he mumbled. Riku wrapped his arm around him holding him close the whole drive to the airport.

Twenty minutes later found them at the Santa Ana/John Wayne Airport entrance for Southwest Airlines loading their luggage onto a cart. They walked up to the airline's ticket counter, Sora giving his driver's license so they could pull up his account.

"What needs to be checked?"

"Whatever of this we're not allowed to carry on."

The customer service agent looked at the cart of luggage. "Are those musical instruments?"

"And sound equipment and merch."

"It's going to cost extra to check all of that."

"Kind of figured it would." Sora leaned against the counter as Riku began unloading the luggage from the cart. Their clothing was packed into dufflebags that were small enough to carry on. Luggage tags were printed out and the four of them split the work in getting everything tagged, placing it all onto the conveyor.

"Credit card that the reservations were made under?" Sora pulled out a credit card from his wallet and handed it over. A few moments later their tickets were placed on the counter and the agent pointed to the right. "Security is that way and to the left. Your flight leaves in an hour and a half. Enjoy your flight." His credit card shoved back into his wallet and ID in hand, he passed out their tickets before grabbing his carry-on bag and walking in the direction of security.

"Come on guys, hurry up!"

"What's the rush? She said we've got an hour and a half," Selphie said with a yawn.

"I'm hungry and I know there's restaurants once we get past security."

"Food sounds good," Riku agreed.

"Boys," Kairi and Selphie said together, shaking their heads and rolling their eyes. "Then carry our bags."

"We can't until after we get through security." Sora hoped they'd forget by that point. A few minutes later and they were at the front of the line to go through security, the guards checking their IDs against their tickets and ushering them through to the checkpoint. Shoes were taken off and pockets emptied, or mostly emptied in Sora's case, into the bins and bags placed behind them on the conveyor. Sora was the first through the metal detector, Kairi and Selphie coming out a moment later.

"Where's Riku?" Kairi asked, turning around to look at the checkpoints.

"There he is," Selphie said, pointing to Riku who was being patted down by security personnel.

"Ugh, he needs to hurry up," Sora said, his stomach growling. None of them were worried, it was nothing out of the ordinary to see people thoroughly checked at random, their bags opened and leafed through. That and they knew Riku didn't have anything illegal on him.

A few minutes later Riku joined them. "You're so lucky that wasn't you, Sora," he whispered, taking his hand and leading them down the hall.

"I know," he whispered back. "They must have decided you looked more like a terrorist than the rest of us."

Riku playfully shoved him, all the while shaking his head and laughing.

Half an hour later they were seated in the McDonald's across from their gate, crammed into a booth along with their luggage, digging into their greasy breakfast.

"So, what were those whispers about back there?" Kairi asked.

"Nothing," Sora said, looking anywhere but at Kairi.

"He's holding," Riku said.

"Sora!" Kairi looked at him in shock. Keeping her voice down she added, "What are you thinking? What if they'd picked you instead of Riku to check?"

Sora had the decency to look ashamed. "I won't bring any back with us."

"Damn right you won't. You are so lucky." Selphie nodded in agreement with Kairi. "And you better share."

"Duh. It's for the victory party." Sora grinned and went back to eating. They sat around talking and enjoying free drink refills until the announcement came that business class and first class would be boarding their flight soon.

"We should head over now," Selphie said, pulling out a mirror from her purse and running her fingers through her hair to make sure it looked nice despite knowing it would wind up messed up again by time they landed.

Fifteen minutes later they were in their seats, Kairi and Sora with the window seats, Selphie and Riku taking the aisle seats. Sora leaned past Riku to look at the girls across the aisle, giving them a big grin and a thumbs up.