o-o-o

III.

o-o-o

Cooking with Kairi was quite the ordeal. Roxas had to watch her every move, because according to him, she was bound to mess up at some point or another. Sora's birthday was today, and she wanted to make it special by making his favorite: spaghetti and meatballs.

But even the simplest of meals had its complications.

"How long do you cook the noodles for?" Kairi asked, flipping the box over several times and skimming through. Roxas snatched it from her hands and found the directions almost off the bat, and then pointed at them.

"Read it. What does it say?"

"Eleven minutes? How long has it been?" She inspected the time on the stove top.

"Thankfully, I've been keeping up with the time," Roxas said with a roll of the eyes. Kairi gave him an apologetic smile.

"I'm not good at cooking, but that's what you're here for!" she said, nudging him. "You make the best dinners. Teach me!"

"First, you need to learn how to read directions," Roxas said as he moved away from her. "Then, maybe you'll actually be able to follow along."

"What should I do, master Roxas?" Kairi asked, coming closer to him than he was comfortable with. Roxas avoided her once again as he hurried over and pulled the bag of meatballs from the freezer. He shoved it into her hands.

"Do what it tells you to do."

Kairi pouted, but Roxas wasn't about to give in. He took a seat at the table and grabbed the closest thing to him—a newspaper and pretended to read over it. He glanced up at her every now and then, watching as she read the words on the bag. Now, whether they were registering with her was a different story. She pulled a plate from the cabinet and began pouring the meat balls onto it.

"How many should I make?"

"However many you think will suffice for all three of us."

"But Riku and Namine are coming."

Roxas set the newspaper down and stared blankly at her. "What?"

"Yeah, I invited them yesterday. We're going to surprise Sora."

"Thanks for letting me know," he groaned, hurrying over to put another pot on the stove.

"What are you doing?"

"We're going to need more noodles. We have two more mouths to feed, now."

"Make that… four."

Roxas gave her a staggering look as he adjusted the knob on the stove. "Who else is coming?"

Kairi set her hands behind her back. "Xion and Olette. Olette is picking up the cake for me."

Count to ten. That was what he was told.

"Okay, is anyone else joining?"

"Nope, that's it. No one else RSVP'd."

Roxas set his sight back on the stove in front of him. "Right."

He hated having so many guests. It made him feel like he had to please everyone, and that wasn't exactly Roxas' forte. However, if it was for Sora, he may deal with it, just for tonight.

So long as it didn't turn into some huge party. Knowing Kairi, four guests should always be multiplied by two, and then multiplied two more times. With this new information in mind, Roxas rummaged through the cabinets for extra sauce and noodles, but turned up empty. He was about to leave, when he noticed that the other noodles were still boiling.

"What time will everyone be coming?" he asked, hoping to some sort of deity that she had a decent answer. His hopes shattered with a shrug of the shoulders.

"I don't know. Just sometime before nine."

Roxas' mouth ajar, he hesitated before responding, and then decided against it. Instead, he went to put his shoes on.

"Where are you going?" Kairi came after him.

"Do not touch anything until I get back. We need more food. Kairi, I swear, if I see fire trucks here…"

"I won't ruin anything! Geeze, do you think I'm that stupid?"

Roxas gave her another blank stare before exiting.

o-o-o

A record-breaking fifteen minutes later, he returned. The house was still intact, thankfully, and he could rest assured that they would have enough to accommodate all of the supposed guests. With a heavy sigh, Roxas made it to the front door. A silver Hyundai was parked on the side of the road, presumably Riku and Namine's.

At least he sort of liked them. Kairi's friends on the other hand, well, he had other opinions. Continuing to remind himself that this was all for Sora's birthday, Roxas put on a smile and tried his best to be polite.

"Well, look who it is!" Riku said, waving his arm in the air. Next to him was Namine, his wife of only one year. She watched as Roxas kicked off his shoes and avoided her gaze.

"Hey," he said, waving. "Let me get these noodles started. Kairi, you now have the task of entertaining the guests. I'll take it from here."

Anything to avoid this, he thought.

"But I wanna—"

Roxas paid her no mind as he entered the kitchen and immediately got to work. He made sure to boil the noodles a little bit more than before and then strain them as he waited for the other pot to finish. He added a dab of vinegar to the boiling water, a trick he learned from his father growing up that made the noodles not stick together as much. Spaghetti was Sora's favorite meal, but he preferred Mozzarella over Parmesan, so Roxas was sure to get that. His mother used to make it all the time. Cutting up the meatballs into four even pieces, Roxas laid them out in a separate bowl.

This really was too much, in his opinion, but he didn't mind. Kairi had been pushing pretty hard to make this happen, so he might as well help out. Eventually, her friends, Xion and Olette showed up. They came into the kitchen and set the cake on the table. Roxas looked over at it.

"What kind of cake is that?" he asked, weary of the answer.

"Double fudge with white icing. Kairi told me to get it."

His expression softened. At least she got that right. Roxas went back to what he was doing and proceeded to ignore them, that is, until he received a much unwanted slap on his behind. He nearly jumped out of his skin as the laughter escalated from a certain raven-haired girl.

"Geeze, Roxy, chill," Xion jested, batting her eyes at him and smirking. Roxas grimaced at the sight of her.

"If I could kick you out, I would. Actually, you know what? This is my house. Get out."

"Aww, don't be like that," she said and giggled. "Kairi may not give in to your advances, but you know I'm always available. Why don't you ever call me, sweetie? Don't you still have my number?"

"No, I never saved it in the first place. I don't want you."

"Xion, stop it. You're making the man uncomfortable," Olette defended. Roxas mentally added a few cool points for her in his head. Kairi's friends were hit or miss, and Olette and Xion were examples of both. Thankfully, Xion decided to listen to her friend and leave him be. He wasn't sure how he was going to get through the rest of the night.

Roxas waited around for the noodles to finish as he listened to the laughter and constant conversation coming from the other room. They talked about an entire range of topics without him, all in which he didn't mind being excluded from. Life updates were things he only had a feigned interest in.

Roxas wasn't one for small talk, but unfortunately, that always happened to him.

"How's it going in here?" a soft voice asked from behind as Roxas stirred the noodles a little.

"It's going fine. Don't worry, Namine. I've got it."

"I can see that," she said, her curious eyes watching as he set everything needed on the counter. "Do you mind if I get a glass of water?"

"Yeah, go ahead. Cups haven't moved."

"Thank you," she, standing on her tip toes to reach for her glass. Eventually, Roxas had to step in and help. She thanked him once more as he poured a glass for her and sent her back to the living room where the others were. He wrapped up the last of the dinner preparations and allowed the noodles to simmer so that they wouldn't get cold.

Sora would be home within the next ten minutes.

"Okay, everyone! Gather around," Kairi announced from the living room. Roxas figured that this meant him as well, so he made sure everything was ready in the kitchen before heading over to the doorway. He leaned against it and waited for Kairi to speak. 'Now, you know how these things go. Sora doesn't have a clue that you guys are here—"

"Won't he know by seeing the cars?" Xion asked, earning a sarcastic genius award of the day from Roxas.

"Yeah, but he won't know what awaits him inside!" Kairi answered happily. "Now then, when he walks in, we'll all be like surprise! Or whatever, and then… I guess we'll eat. I don't know. That's all I got."

Roxas chuckled in response. No matter how dumb she came across at times, Kairi's heart was always in something. He saw the lights flash in the window, and then went back into the kitchen.

"Guys! Hide!"

"Where?"

"I don't care, anywhere!"

"I'm not hiding," Roxas called from the other room.

"You'd better fucking hide!" Kairi called back. Roxas shook his head and laughed as he turned off the stove instead and set out the plastic forks and paper plates. The living room light was switched off, but the light from the kitchen didn't help it much as Sora walked inside.

"Surprise!"

"Holy smokes," he heard Sora say. "What is all this?"

"Happy birthday, baby!" Kairi exclaimed. Roxas remained by the stove as the exchange went on.

The others talked with Sora as he got settled. Eventually, Roxas' name was brought up, and the mystery of his whereabouts was revealed. Sora came into the kitchen, taking in the aroma of his favorite meal in the world. He nearly drooled as he stood over the counter, ready to get his hands on it.

"Roxas, did you make all of this?"

"Yeah, but it was Kairi's idea, and Olette brought your cake."

"There's cake too?!" Sora asked, the astonishment not faltering on his face.

"Well, what would a birthday party be without cake?" Roxas asked, shaking his head at Sora's dimwitted moment.

"Wow, babe, this is the best birthday present ever," Sora said, planting a huge kiss on Kairi's cheek.

"Don't thank me, thank Roxas. He did all the work… as usual. I was too dumb."

"Aww, don't call yourself that, sweetie," Sora said, ignoring the mix of heartfelt and disgusted looks coming from his friends as he kissed Kairi again. Roxas set the spatula into the pan and tried not to pay much attention.

"Well, that's enough work for the week. I think I'm going to turn in early," Roxas said, receiving baffled looks from the rest of them.

"What? Oh, come on, Roxas! You can't just ditch us," Sora said. "It's my birthday, and I'm going to be selfish and ask that you stay with us."

"Please, Roxy?" Kairi begged, clasping her hands together. He bit his lip and looked into their pleading eyes, knowing all too well that they were going to win. They pulled these stunts on him all the time, and he always went along with it.

Sometimes, Roxas felt that he was too nice for his own good, but other times, he knew that he could be a total jackass. However, as conflicted as he was, they always had a way of reeling him into their shenanigans. He didn't care too much for Riku and the others.

"Yeah, how can I look at your beautiful face if you're locked away in your room? That is, unless you want me to join you," Xion said, sending him another flirtatious glance. Roxas cringed at the thought and turned back to Sora. He eyed their locked hands for a moment before responding.

"Fine, I'll stick around for a little bit, but only because it's your birthday."

"Awesome!" Sora cheered, hurrying past him to grab a plate. Roxas hung his head low. "Let's eat!"

Roxas stepped back and allowed everyone to serve themselves. Once they cleared out, he got a little bit for himself and then joined them all back in the living room. He took a seat on the floor in front of Kairi and Sora, the place where he was the most and least comfortable.

He would rather be here than anywhere near Xion, at least. She was still watching him from afar as she slurped the noodles into her mouth, as if it were suggestive of something, but it only came across as creepy.

Roxas really didn't like her.

"Sora, long have I known you now? Fifteen years?" Riku asked with his mouth full. Namine got after him for his poor manners.

"Uh, let's see. I met you a year after I met Roxas, so… fourteen years?"

"Wow, really?" Olette asked, twirling some spaghetti on her fork.

"You met me when we were seven, Sora," Roxas recalled, "and then you met Riku two years after that. Not one."

"Oh, wait. You're right. Sorry, I forget sometimes. It's hard to keep up with those things. So… thirteen years, then."

"Still, that's a pretty long time," Namine added. "I wish I had friends like that."

Kairi was pretty quiet about this, focusing more on the food in front of her rather than the conversation. Roxas could tell that it was upsetting her, but for Sora's sake, she held it in. After her drunken fiascos a few weeks ago, the last thing she wanted to bring was drama. To Roxas' knowledge, she hadn't touched alcohol since.

"How long have you two been together again?" Namine asked the couple. Roxas paused before taking another bite.

"Gosh, what's with these questions?" Sora joked, wrapping his arm around Kairi. "Uh, we've been friends since eighth grade, and dating for four and a half years, right Kairi?"

Kairi nodded in response. Roxas set his plate beside him and said nothing.

Four and a half fucking years, he thought.

"Aww, high school sweethearts? That's so cute," Xion noted. Sora blushed.

"Okay, enough about us. Who thinks that this is the best meal ever? Seriously, Roxas, this is great. Thank you."

Roxas snapped out of it and looked back to him, giving him a less than enthusiastic smile. "No problem." Sora noticed something was off, but didn't push it in front of the guests. Instead, he changed the subject and started an entirely new conversation. Roxas practiced selective hearing as he continued eating, not really up for contributing. Kairi didn't leave Sora's side the entire time.

It had always been that way… for as long as he could remember.

Several minutes later, Roxas decided that he couldn't eat anymore. His introverted ways were kicking in, and he felt a strong desire to retreat. The others focused on him as he stood. "Well, I've given more than enough time here. Goodnight, everyone, and happy birthday, Sora."

"You're not even going to stay for cake?" Kairi asked, but was interrupted by Sora.

"I'll save him a piece. Goodnight, man. Thanks again."

At least someone understood… but to Roxas, that only made it worse. He ignored the protests and set his leftovers on the counter. He'd mess with the dishes later.

He hated hearing about how long this, how long that, because that was just a reminder of how pitiful he really was. Roxas locked his door and sank into his bed. Headphones were the only way he was going to get through the night. He plugged his ears and shut his eyes, allowing the background noise to fade away.

Regret was a terrible thing.

o-o-o
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A/N: Obviously, I love spaghetti. Do you?

Please leave a review. Those give me life. Not really, but they're nice. :D