Morning turned out…unpleasant. Roxas couldn't call himself an early riser, but he didn't sleep late unless he was really tired or sick, so crawling out of bed at eight to find that Riku was still out and the loft was just dark enough to made walking across it difficult without the curtains open was not a good way to start things off. There had been no time for grocery shopping the day before- the nearest grocery store was three blocks down and two blocks over, though there was a small market nearby- so he didn't have many option for breakfast. Chewing listlessly on a slice of cold pizza, he shoved a juice box into his pocket, hauled his bike out the door, and proceeded to drag it down all six flights of stairs, pausing on landings to have a few more bites of his pizza. At the bottom, he chugged his juice, mounted up, and wobbled off at barely a crawl, comparing the sketchy map Riku had drawn out for him to the street he was on.

It took him nearly twenty minutes to get there, as Riku's north turned out to be west and Roxas pedaled merrily off in the wrong direction. He wound up asking for directions and made it to he grocery frustrated and muttering.

Shopping time. Riku had said his brother was going to take them to one of the big bulk stores that afternoon, to stock up on essentials, but for the most part, things like fresh fruit and milk had to be bought and taken home in small batches that could fit in the panniers and crate on his bicycle. Roxas had looked the stores up briefly before bed- his family never shopped in places like that- and checked a few sale flyers, so he ad an idea of what he did or didn't need to buy. It didn't keep him from being more than a little paranoid about everything that went into his basket, though; he'd never done real grocery shopping on his bike, and was convinced that he was going to forget something important.

He did forget something important: the crate that strapped to the little platform behind his bicycle seat. Roxas wound up going back inside and buying a cheap sling back bag from the rack beside one of the registers and carrying a few things home that way, digging into his spine and making his back ache.

No elevator on the way up. Muttering under his breath, he left the groceries in the panniers and hauled the whole bike back up the stairs, stopping to pant and curse his life on the landings.

Riku wasn't awake. Roxas threw the cold items into the fridge, took the empty notebook they had designated for shared shopping and a pen, and stormed back downstairs. One advantage to the otherwise horrible new living space was that residents got a discount in the coffee shop if they presented their key. There might be discounts at the other shops too, but all Roxas cared about was coffee.

The Grounds was quiet for that time of morning, but Roxas supposed that was because school wasn't in session yet. It would probably get a lot busier once there were more than just commuters and soccer moms rushing their kids to camp or whatever. There was a bit of a line, but nearly everyone went right back out when they got their drink, leaving Roxas to scope out a comfortable-looking corner while he waited.

"Caramel latte," he murmured when addressed by the barista. "And...um...a Danish, please. Oh, and I live upstairs." He dug his keys out of his pocket and held tem out.

"So you must be Riku's new roommate, huh?" The barista checked the key and grinned. "Yup. That's his number alright."

"I am. You know him?"

The barista shrugged, handing the keys back, and turned to the espresso machine. "He comes down here a lot. How do you know him?"

Roxas scowled. "He was a friend of my brother's when we were kids."

"Uh-huh. And not yours?"

"Hell no."

Laughing, the barista set the machine to whistling while he filled a pitcher with milk. "He seems to have that impression with a lot of people. Never figured out how he managed to pull it off. And I suppose you're not gonna tell me."

"It's personal."

"Fair enough. I'm Demyx, by the way. I work the morning shift down here, so if you're anything like Riku, I'll be seeing you a lot."

"Roxas. Does he actually make it for he morning shift?"

"Barely. I get out at eleven thirty, and he usually makes it in between eleven and then. On the good days I might even see him by ten thirty." Demyx chuckled over the scream of the steam wand, pausing to brush dark blonde hair out of his face with the back of his arm. "He's...well, he's interesting. Artists are supposed to be eccentric, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." Pleased to have finally found someone to talk to who wasn't a nightmare from his childhood or a nearly silent bookworm he'd met on the stairs, Roxas moved around to the other side of the curved bar to watch Demyx finish making his drink. He was taller than Roxas, but a lot of his tallness was impression. Comparing Demyx's height and his own to the espresso machine suggested that Demyx was just a little above average. He was just long and lean, all long legs and long hands and hair gelled up a little bit, with a sweet face and a sunny grin, and everything was lengthened a little bit more by the solid black length of his apron.

"He's not that bad. Just give him some time. Took me awhile to get along with him okay, and I like people. Here ya go- one caramel latte." He handed the tall cup over to Roxas, and with it the neatly counter bills and change that Roxas had paid with. "First drink's on the house. Welcome to the building."

Roxas tried to protest but was refused and went to sulk in his corner for a bit.

Riku didn't wake until noon. Roxas had returned to the apartment to put the notebook away and start digging through the classifieds in search of a job, and he was deep into his second newspaper when something behind the curtains in the corner groaned.

"It's already noon, you know," Roxas informed it, circling another ad. "Normal people get up in the morning unless they work a night shift. Which you don't.

"Fuck ooofffff," Riku groaned. "I was up late."

"It's still noon and you're still in bed. Aren't we going somewhere with your brother this afternoon?"

"That's not until two. Leave me alone."

"I bought coffee."

"Good for you."

"I was going to make a pot."

The curtains twitched, then parted, and Riku poked his head out. "Are you sharing?"

"I might if you get your lazy ass out of bed."

"Slave driver." The curtains closed again and there was a lot of rustling around before they opened and Riku shuffled out, yawning and stretching. "I'll make it. What grind is it?"

"Hell if I know. It's what we used to drink at home."

Riku picked up the bag on the counter and leaned heavily against the cabinets while he read the label.

"Mmh. Better for the press than the drip machine. Figures."

By the time Riku's brother showed up, Riku had drunk most of a pot of coffee by himself, eaten two slices of cold pizza, and was behaving more like a human being. Which meant that he was curled in a ball on a couch and scribbling busily away in a sketchpad, which Roxas wouldn't have found half as creepy if he hadn't also been looking up and examining Roxas every few minutes.

The last time Roxas had seen Riku's family, there had been seven of them: Riku, his four brothers (he was the second youngest of five), and his parents, though Roxas secretly believed that the greasy older man hadn't been their father at all, and that either the oldest was a lot older than he looked or their mother, Lucrecia, had had another man on the side. All five boys had hair in varying shades of silver and white, and similar green to bluish-green eyes, though Riku's were more blue than the others. All had perfectly pale skin that tanned lightly in the summer, and they had all been creepy as fuck.

They hadn't changed. Roxas opened the door to roughly seven feet of solid muscle and calf-length silver hair. His natural response to this was to slam the door and flee, but a heavy black boot jammed itself in the doorway before the door could close.

"Riku? Your new roommate is having a coronary. You should probably do something about that."

Riku looked up. "What? Oh. Hi. Jeez, Roxas, it's just Sephiroth. What's your problem?"

"He was barely six foot the last time I saw him!"

"Oh." Sephiroth looked down. "Hn. I grew."

"NO SHIT!"

"Are we brining him along or not? I have other things to do today."

"He's coming. Aren't you, Roxas?"

"I...yes?"

Sephiroth snorted. "Then get your shoes on and get moving. Riku, Loz wants to install-"

"Not again!"

"He got permission from your landlord, actually. And I think you'll like it when he's finished." Sephiroth gave the loft a disdainful once over. "Clearly having a roommate hasn't encouraged you to make this place a little more livable."

"He just got here yesterday afternoon. W haven't had time to change anything except where things go in the bathroom."

"Mmm. You need to do something more. This place is a dump."

"Of course it's a dump! It's an empty space at the top of a seven story building!"

"Keep yelling at me and I'll just stuff your roommate in my pocket and do without you."

Roxas cringed. Men as big as Sephiroth made him uncomfortable. He was normally good about the jokes and teasing that came with being less than five foot six in his socks, and he was used to the normal sort of big guys, the ones that were around six feet tall. But the ones like Sephiroth- the freaks of nature- who were too damn tall or muscular enough to be in a bodybuilding competition or a combination of both...those men terrified him.

Riku wrestled his shoes on, snatched his wallet, and looked expectantly at Roxas. "Well?"

Roxas sighed and joined him.

Several hours later, Roxas was sitting in the back of a very large black pickup truck in the middle of a sea of bags and boxes. What Riku had failed to mention was that Sephiroth's wasn't just driving them to the store and back: he had offered to take them on a single stocking up run, to get them set for the coming semester and make it easier to tote groceries back and forth. And he was buying.

Roxas was mortified. He had argued and tried to weasel out of it and attempted to donate money to the cause and had ended up being picked up by Sephiroth and deposited in a cart so he couldn't escape. Sephiroth had pushed that cart, handing things to Roxas to hold until Roxas gave up and asked to be allowed out.

Sephiroth had bought them a lot of things. Frankly, Roxas knew he should be grateful. Having Pop Tarts and detergent and cereal and flour and pasta and bottled coffee in bulk was a lot of food that would have cost him a lot of money he didn't really have to spend right now, and all that had come before they'd hit the fresh and frozen foods.

Another hour and an ice cream run later, Roxas was sitting in the middle of the loft floor, reading the instructions for assembling a small bicycle trailer. Sephiroth had located a second hitch for it, so both he and Riku could use it.

"So I don't have to take you shopping every few months," he'd said. Whatever the reason was, Roxas was grateful. It would make carrying groceries a hell of a lot easier.

"So…didn't you and Sora move in with your uncle?" Riku asked. He had been given the task of putting everything away while Roxas, who actually understood basic tools and their use, put the trailer together. He'd whined, but admitted that he didn't know the different between a Phillips and a flathead screwdriver, so there wasn't much else he could do but organize.

"Yea. What's it to you?"

"I was just curious. I think Seph knows him. He does deliveries, doesn't he?"

"Mmhm."

"What kind?"

"Any kind, so long as it'll fit in the truck, the van, or on the bike." Roxas squinted at the instructions, frustrated by the lack of decent illustrations.

"Well he delivers something to the agency and Seph sees him now and then."

"Agency?"

"Yeah. Sephiroth models."

Roxas snorted. "Figures."

"He doesn't do full body, or anything that would get him noticed on the street, but they love his hands and body, so they keep him around for all of that. You've probably seen a few ads with him in them, you just didn't know." Riku cut a flat of bottled coffee open and began slotting bottles into the fridge door. "So why did you move out of Cloud's place? You were so excited about it when we were kids."

"Didn't have a choice."

"Yeah? How come?"

"We moved in with his fiancé. In her house."

"We?"

"Sora and Cloud and me."

"Okaaayyyy…..and what happened?"

"They broke it off and we didn't have anywhere to live. Cloud lives in the back room of his office right now. I'm here."

"And Sora?"

"I don't know. He told Cloud tat he's got an apartment and a couple of roommates that he likes."

"What happened between you and Sora, anyway?"

"That's none of your business."

Riku poked his head out from behind the cabinet door and gave Roxas a pointed look. "Hate me all you want, Roxas, but I was Sora's best friend when we were kids, and I want to know that he's okay. I never stopped being his friend."

"Like hell you didn't," Roxas snapped, brandishing a wrench.

"I stopped being allowed to talk to him," Riku reminded him. "I never stopped…liking him."

"Don't say it like that. It's creepy."

"Why? You don't want me to like your brother?"

"Not when it sounds like you want to fuck him, no!"

Riku blushed.

Roxas stopped dead.

"You…you want to…to Sora?"

"He was growing up to be gorgeous when we were kids. I just…I figured he'd be…be…" Riku swallowed. "And then you showed up and you turned out hot, so…"

"So you're gay?"

"No."

"But you think me and my brother are hot. You think Sora's fuckable."

"Well, yes, but I don't just think boys are attractive. I like everyone, genderwise. As far as other aspects of people go, not always, but what's between their legs or on their chests doesn't really seem to be that important, you know?" Riku smiled faintly. "Don't tell me you're going to hate me all over again because I like guys."

"Tifa threw us out because she found out Cloud had had a boyfriend before she came along," Roxas murmured. "And that they got together again for awhile when she and Cloud were having a huge fight. I think what she did wasn't right, since Cloud wasn't seeing him anymore and he hadn't cheated on her or anything…and the way she said it, we knew. It wasn't that there had been another person. She threw us out because Cloud slept with a man. It was an awful thing to do, and she had no right, but…here we are."

Riku paled. "Oh, god, Roxas, I'm sorry. I…I didn't-"

"So I don't care if you like guys," Roxas continued, tightening a bolt so he had a reason not to meet Riku's eyes. "I do care that you want Sora, but that's…that's different. And you don't have to be sorry. Tifa had no right to act the way she did, but it's over now, and we're all settled in." He sighed. "Maybe it's better this way. I never thought Cloud was ready to marry, and it might….hell, it might even be good for Sora."

"Why do you say that? That kind of trauma sucks for everyone involved."

"Sora's living on his own now. No one's reminding him to wash his sneakers or anything."

Riku looked around at Roxas again. "He's still got that innocent thing going?"

"Last I checked, yeah. He wants to believe everything's alright and sunny and good, and no matter how often you tell him that it's not always that good, he just keeps reaching for the shiny things and you keep slapping his hands out of the way and getting burned, and he's never thankful because he doesn't understand and you can't be mad at him because he doesn't know, and…" Roxas swallowed. "It's none of your business. You don't want to hear about this."

Riku shrugged and padded over, offering a can of espresso and cream. "I don't mind. I've wanted to know what was going on with you guys ever since we moved, so…go ahead and rant if it makes you feel better. 'S not like I'm going to be telling anyone."

Roxas took the can, nibbling uncomfortably on the edge of it for a very long minute.

"He just…he said that he agreed with Tifa throwing us out," he said at last. "He thought she was justified. Like Cloud had really done something to hurt her."

Riku made a startled sound and sank down to crouch beside Roxas.

"He said that? Seriously? That…that doesn't sound like him…"

"He's gotten stubborn," Roxas mumbled. "When he decides he likes or believes in something, there's nothing you can do to change his mind. We were already upset about having to move and leave Cloud and everything…I yelled at him, and he started screaming back…two days later he said he'd found his own place and wouldn't be moving with me like we'd planned." He sighed heavily and sipped at the coffee, trying to calm himself. "We haven't spoken since."

"How long has it been?"

"Since he stopped talking to me? About two weeks. I guess it's good, in some ways, but I just know he's going to get hurt and there won't be anyone to help him."

"Sora's a lot stronger tan you think," Riku said quietly. "He was even when we were little."

"I don't worry about him being strong enough, Riku. I worry about…hell, I worry about everything else. Everything he gets himself into. H' strong enough to get out of almost anything, but I wish he wouldn't get into things in the first place. He puts himself in harm's way and doesn't even realize until it's way too late and that's going to hurt him some day."

"You know you can't protect him forever," Riku said quietly. "Trust me."

"How would you know?"

"I've been trying to teach Seph and everyone that for years."

"Seriously? I never thought…"

"Mom's death made Seph really paranoid, and he pretty much mothered me and Loz and Kadaj through the rest of school and everything…he's still mothering Kadaj. Loz still lives at home, and Yaz and Kadaj, and then there's me…living downtown in a loft, first by myself and then with a roommate he doesn't know very well…he tries really hard to take care of me just as if I was home. We've had some pretty awful fights about it, and he's starting to learn, now. He knows I know I can call when I need help. He doesn't call or drop by as much anymore." He smiled faintly. "Sometimes I almost miss it. But the point is that if Sephiroth can understand, you should be able to. Sora won't even be able to get on with his life if you keep trying to run it for him, okay?"

Roxas made a noncommittal sound and chugged half of his coffee in a few long swallows.

"Good enough. Need help with this thing?"

He shook his head and took up the wrench again. Riku went back to his sorting.