Finally a new chapter :) We know it took awhile... We had issues.

Demyx: Sora can't hear what I say on the other side of the phone :) He wishes he could... I'm a fucking blast.
Brooke: Shut up Demyx... let them read.
Alesia: You know what sounds delicious?
Demyx:... What?
Alesia: Cheese curds! You know, from a&w!
Brooke: YEAH!
Demyx: I'm lactose intolerant.
Brooke: Beggers can't be choosers Dem-dem.
Alesia: Sounds like a personal problem to me.

Disclaimer: I hate doing this!

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A sudden click from the doors brought Riku back to reality. His eyes blinked back from his daze at the television set back down to the clock, 5:53, then to the hall. He just stared there, waiting to see what or who made the doors click or if he had actually started losing it. Then a short, brown haired lady made her appearance with a gasp.

"OH! Riku… you gave me a fright."

"Oh, hello Mrs. Devane," Riku said, repeatedly blinking his eyes to make sure she was truly there. "Aren't you rather early? Compared to what I was told, at least."

"Call me Shirin, dear. Yes, I caught an earlier flight than expected. Why are you up?" she said finally making her way into the room from the hall way, dropping her things to the floor and kicking her heels off, then plopping down next to Riku to examine what he was watching on TV.

"Oh, if you insist Shirin, but me… I had trouble sleeping. Well, I'm glad your back home. How's your husband?" Riku asked, shifting his weight to sit properly on the sofa, feeling embarrassed from his previous situation on the sofa… legs propped up and spread across 3 cushions and perhaps the armrest.

"Huh, thank you. He's content, he will be home soon enough… Oh, the boy isn't up, is he?" she said nonchantly, flipping her hair down from its proper bun.

"No… Sora is asleep upstairs. He doesn't have to get up for, uhh, another hour." Riku's thoughts circled around the events of the day before and considered letting little Sora skip today, but now that his mom was home, he figured it was a bad idea. He just hoped Sora got enough sleep. His gaze began to drift back into the abyss of his mind as his eyes started to stare blankly at the television once again.

"So you couldn't sleep, huh?" Shirin said, turning her body to face Riku. She placed an arm on the top of the sofa and let her hand dangle down behind Riku.

"… Yeah…" Riku slowly slid his gaze to the corner of his eye to catch what it was exactly she was doing. She glided her hand up to twirl in Riku's long silver strands.

"You have nice hair."

"Uhh… thanks." Riku felt his muscles tense at her presence now, but only because he could swear she started moving closer and closer to him, slowly entering his personal bubble. Sure enough, he soon felt her breath on his neck, her hand still entangled in his hair. He froze. What was he to do? She was his employer, his boss, what was she doing, why was he considering the worst? Why… probably due to the first impression they left on him and their small son's inability to express himself around them or anyone else for that matter, but that was okay. In the last couple of weeks, Riku felt he had given Sora something he lacked, confidence and compassion, which seemed to be lacking in the rest of his family as well.

"It gets lonely in this house and I have nights where I can't even get a wink of sleep due to it. It's natural to want something… or someone," Riku's ears twitched at her hot breath slipping their words in and crawling all over his ears while still lingering on his skin. "Just remember, you're not alone… when I'm in town. And this way, I won't be either." She stood up and grabbed her things then gently slid her shoes on two fingers, then walked away. Not as much as a goodbye or a chuckle. She just disappeared into the halls of the house, her steps couldn't even be heard when she stood up. She was very good at what she did.

Kicking his leg out further onto the other side of the bed, an unfamiliar chill caused him to roll towards where his caretaker once rested. When he rolled once and did not find the warmth he was looking for, he kept rolling until soon enough he rolled one too many times, smacking the floor. Jerking his eyes open, Sora sat up and began rubbing the back of his head where it had made contact with the hard floor. He looked up at the bed and began searching for Riku and when he wasn't found, Sora stood up to glance at the clock. When he read the bright 6:32 flashing at him, he laid back down on the bed, tightly squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to get an extra 30 minutes before he had to get ready for school only to fail. Slowly, he began making his way down the stairs until he caught sight of Riku who seemed to be in his own world.

"Riku?"

"Huh?" Riku suddenly turned around to look at the boy. "Why are you up?" Riku searched the room quickly, looking for any evidence that Sora's mother was there.

"I woke up and you weren't there… and then I rolled off the bed." Jumping up off the couch and walking over to Sora, he kneeled down to his level laughing.

"Fell off the bed? What were you doing, kiddo?"

"I told you…" Sora mumbled. "Looking for you… I got cold…"

"Well, I'm right here, okay? I just woke up really early and couldn't get back to sleep. Didn't wanna wake you up!" Riku looked down at Sora, the smile on his face spreading throughout his entire face and into his eyes. "How about we run you a hot bath to start the day."

After getting Sora ready and sending him off to school, Riku stumbled into his first class, late as usual. Taking his seat at the back of the room, he shrugged his bag off his shoulders and slumped against the desk. Squinting to focus on the board, he soon found himself drifting to sleep.

"Riku?" A distant voice said. "Riku, man, wake up." A familiar hand began shaking his shoulder, causing him to wake up.

"Huh?"

"Dude… Class is over."

"I slept through calculus?! Again?!" Riku jumped out of his seat and began mumbling something about copying Demyx's notes again when he felt someone grip his shoulders.

"Are you okay? You've seemed out of it lately, especially today."

"You don't want to know what's going on."

"Try me. We've been best friends since we were what? 5? 6? I think I can handle any shit you get yourself into." With that, he turned around and walked off, but not before facing Riku once more and calling back to him. "Call me tonight. You know I'm here for you man." Riku gathered his things with a smirk reply back at Demyx, a silent thank you.

"DUDE!" A strangely high pitched voice came from across the room, making Riku shudder at the shrillness of it. "HEY man… Riku, GUESS WHAT?!" the tall red headed man asked, nudging Riku's shoulders over and over again.

"…W.H.A.T?"

"PAR-TAY… this weekend, my house!" Axel said with both his pointer fingers taking turns popping Riku's personal bubble. "BE THERE or BE SQUARE!" Taking his fingers now in a shape of an "L", he created a box around his face. "Huh, you going again… Right?!"

"Oh yeah Axel, I'll try…" Riku said rubbing his eyes.

"RIKU! What's up with you?" Axel's sudden good mood seemed to stop with his question. He brought out his seemingly serious voice. "You're acting… weird."

"You too?… Man you guys are worry warts. Ha-ha, I'm gonna get some lunch and head to work. I'll talk to you guys later." Suddenly, Riku caught a drift and was smiling again. He had other things and people on his mind now.

"PARTY RIKU! BE THERE LOSER!" that shrill voice repeated again with a laugh, followed by another softer yell.

"CALL ME!"

"Dude, Demyx that sounded a bit gay…" Axel punched Demyx's arm.

"Oh, don't worry, you're still my pumpkin, Axel baby. RIKU, YOU BETTER CALL ME, BEAUTIFUL," a final shout was sent across the parking lot to their best friend, who with a chuckle shrugged his shoulders and waved a hand in the air.

"Alright, alright my plans now say 1. par-tay and 2. call my lover." Riku said.

"Reverse the order!" Demyx called after having Axel hit him for wanting to be first.

Riku's day seemed to fly by after he finally woke up. He got to Sora's school just in time to meet him at the gates. It wasn't long after the walk home had begun that Sora was running his mouth about his day. Soon however, Sora got on a subject that caught Riku's attention.

"Riku… What's a sleepover?" Sora questioned curiously.

"Uhh, where a friend stays at your house for the night. Why Sora?"

"Well, there was this girl in my class and she was talking about having a sleepover this weekend so I asked her what it was and she told me if I didn't know then I was just a loser 'cause that meant I didn't have any friends. I mean, I told her that you were my friend but she said you didn't count, so I just told her she was a wench and walked away."

"Sora, you know you should probably stop saying that."

"Saying what, Riku?"

"… Wench. Where did you even hear that?"

"My daddy calls my mommy that all the time!" Sora said with a cheeky smile.

"To her face!?" Riku was surprised that the boy had caught the habit from his father. From what he had seen, the man was a good role model for his son.

"Oh no… Only to me. He told me it was a secret," Sora kept smiling before a sudden look of shock took over his face. "RIKU, YOU CAN'T TELL ANYONE! IT'S A SECRET!"

"Okay, okay, calm down kiddo." Quickly trying to change the subject, Riku resorted back to their previous conversation. "So why don't you have your own sleepover? Was there someone you wanted to invite over?" Blushing, Sora looked up at Riku shyly.

"I was kind of hoping that maybe… me and you could have a sleepover…"

"Well technically we have a sleepover everyday."

"NO Riku! A sleepover is on the weekend with sleeping bags in the same room and popcorn and movies and we stay up all night!"

"I thought you didn't know what sleepovers were…?" Riku said with a chuckle.

"So you don't wanna have a sleepover with me?" Looking down, Riku saw the sad look on the small boys face. Sighing, he gave in.

"Okay kiddo… This weekend me and you will have a sleepover. A real sleepover, sleeping bags and popcorn and everything."

"Really!?" Jumping up and down, Sora began to giggle. "Don't worry Riku, it'll be so much fun and I promise you won't wake up feeling bad like you do when you hang out with your other friends!"

"Shit, I mean shoot! Axel's party!" Riku said and then mumbled to himself. "I'll figure something out later."

From the time Sora and Riku got home until later the evening, all of Sora's thoughts seemed to revolve around their sleepover this weekend. Even when it was time to go to bed, the little brunette's mind was still rotating around the thought of this weekend, coming up with different games to play. Laying in bed, Sora suddenly got a "great idea".

"We should play a board game!" Sora announced to himself. Jumping out of bed and rushing down the hall to Riku's room, Sora stopped himself at the cracked door. A small sliver of light was coming through the cracked door. Peeking an eye in the room, Sora saw Riku pacing back and forth on the phone, and began straining to hear.

"I don't know man, I kissed the kid the other night," Riku spoke into his phone. "I mean, I guess I was drunk."

"What about Kairi? You know she was all over you."

"Yeah, I guess Kairi kind of wor--…"

"Yeah, she had you going, huh?"

"No! I wasn't thinking about her when I kissed him!"

"Hey, chill out man, I'm just sayin'. Was she there when you kissed him?"

"I don't think so, I remember kicking that bitch out…"

"You kicked her out!? That bitch plays dirty, you might wanna make sure you watch your back."

"Nah, she doesn't remember that part, or anything at all actually. I saw her the other day… I gave her a hug and a kiss on the check and then she bounced off with some other chick giggling."

"Why'd you kick her out in the first place?"

"That bitch fucking insulted the kid! She called him a spoiled brat! You haven't even met the kid and you know that's not true."

"You picked the kid over a good lay…?"

"I don't care if Kairi's a good lay or not, Sora's a good kid."

"So you kissed him 'cause he's a 'good kid'?"

"Yeah, shut up, I already told you I don't know why exactly!"

"Maybe it was just a comfort kiss, ya know, like the kind you give your kid brother. I mean, you were drunk right? You might not remember exactly."

"No, it wasn't like a brotherly kiss, it was like a kiss."

"Dude, you were drunk, like COMPLETELY wasted, not to mention horny. Don't be so hard on yourself, how were you supposed to know?"

"Demyx…" Riku sighed into the phone, "you can't get drunk enough to kiss a 10 year old kid and not mean it…"

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Demyx: Brooke and Alesia get really upset when they don't get reviews. It's their motivation to do more than write... to LIVE.