Greetings, readers. Do forgive me in the delay of this chapter. I have been extremely busy with loads of things. Anyways, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Initially I had come to a writer's block at one part but when I eventually continued, I just couldn't stop! It was fun to write. xD Please do leave a review. It drives my motivation!

Review replies for chapter 3;

xXAwesomnessKiraXx – Thank you! xD

KENZI-CHI– Haha! Well, that's Sora for you! xD Super friendly to the max!

Colds

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Sora stirred groggily at the sound of his alarm clock, his eyebrows scrunching up as he mentally cursed the clock for disrupting his slumber. He rolled over to the edge of his bed to lie on his chest and slapped a button, making the alarm stop. He sighed, feeling a slight satisfaction with the annoying beeping sound gone. His eyebrows smoothened out as the silence gave him peace. The tranquillity didn't last long though as his alarm clock went off once again.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

The boy groaned and whacked his clock again, accidentally causing it to topple down onto the floor and creating a loud 'thud'. The beeping stopped. Sora jolted upwards from his sleeping position to sit up on his bed.

"Damn it," he cursed as he peered at the floor where his clock had fallen. He picked it up carefully and narrowed his eyes to take a close and clear look at it, his drowsiness getting the better of his eyesight. It wasn't broken. Sora sighed in relief and placed it back onto his bedside table, silently telling himself to be more careful with it. It was his second alarm clock this month and his mother had sworn that if he'd broken this one, he'd have to use his own pocket money to buy his own. And god knew that he didn't have that much pocket money. Well, maybe enough but he definitely didn't want to spend it buying an alarm clock. Sora fell back onto his pillow, shutting his heavy eyelids. He felt exhausted. He definitely didn't want to get up. But today was a Wednesday—and that meant school.

School…

The brunette groaned to himself and pressed his hands onto his face, rubbing it. He had to get ready for school. Reluctantly, he got up from his bed and dragged himself to the toilet to wash his face. He cupped the cold water from his tap, flinching at the touch. He then washed his face, the cold water getting rid of the drowsiness. He then looked up to his mirror. Sora's hair was dishevelled and spiked up messily in many different directions and he had light, purplish bags under his eyes. He sighed, switched off his tap and grabbed a small towel to wipe his face. As he started to fully awake, his mind started to clear and getting rid of his daze.

Suddenly, the events of last night came back to him and he tensed up, his eyes widening.

Terra.

In a blink of an eye, Sora was rushing out of the toilet and into his room where he started to search for a certain older brunette. He glanced around quickly, swirling himself as he searched for another figure other than himself. There was no Terra in sight. The boy stared blankly at the place where Terra had sad the night before—the edge of his bed. He walked over to his bed and sat at the same place where his fate had the night before. But this time, he felt oddly unsure about a few things.

Had it all been a dream?

Had meeting Terra and finding about fate and everything been just a figment of his imagination? Had he been dreaming about it? Despite his denial on being unable to think up such crazy events, could he have underestimated the sanity of his mind? That was when his eyes shifted slowly towards his desk and saw tray of an empty cup and a plate with cookie crumbs lay. Nope, it definitely wasn't a dream. And he definitely wasn't insane. There, right there on his desk, lay the evidence. He had eaten the cookies after Terra had left and the crumbs still laid there. Evidence. Proof. Undoubtedly, he had seen a spirit last night. As it started to sink in that the events weren't just his imagination, he was starting to find the entire thing hard to believe.

But then Sora wondered; where was Terra anyways? He had left, going past Sora's balcony door and his curtain, and disappeared into the night. There was no trace of him anywhere. He had told Sora that he would continue his explanations today but that wasn't really going to work if Sora couldn't find him. Sighing, Sora resigned from his thoughts and went back into his toilet. He'd just have to look for Terra later, he thought. Right now, he had to get ready for school.

After a quick shower, Sora changed into his uniform and headed downstairs. He entered the dining room and noticed that his father was already up and was sitting down, reading the newspaper. "Morning dad," Sora greeted.

His father glanced up from the papers, nodded and gave a smile. "Morning Sora," he replied. He then resumed reading when Sora plonked himself on the seat across his father.

His mother then emerged from the kitchen, carrying a tray of food—a bowl of rice, a bowl of miso soup, rolled eggs, fish and much more. "And honey, I forgot to mention, Sora wasn't feeling so good yesterday so I—" She stopped, mid sentence when she saw her son, not only awake but dressed up in his uniform. Then, her expression changed, showing how appalled she was. "Sora!" she exclaimed, surprised by his presence. Reina placed the tray onto the table, crossed her arms and frowned at her son. "What do you think you're doing?"

Sora shrugged confusedly, a little alarmed at her sudden change in behaviour. One minute she was setting the table calmly and the next minute she was frowning at him with her arms crossed. That meant one thing—he had done something wrong. But then, what had he done wrong? His mother sighed when she recognised that innocent look on Sora's face—he hadn't the faintest idea what she was talking about.

"I told you to rest today, Sora," she said quietly, no longer aggressive with her words. "You're not going to school today, remember?"

The boy with cinnamon spikes just stared at her blankly for a few minutes. Then, his eyes widened in recognition. "Ah!" he exclaimed. "Oh yeah…" He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

His mother sighed again and gave him a small smile. "My silly son, forgetting things all the time."

"Hey! I don't forget things all the—" Reina gave him a look and he forced back his words. "… Okay fine, maybe I do tend to forget a lot," he admitted.

Reina looked at him a little anxiously. "Are you still tired?"

Even though he had been groaning about getting more sleep earlier, after getting up and taking a shower and everything he didn't feel so tired anymore. He was completely wide awake now. "Nope," he said, grinning.

"I still think you should rest today, though, Sora," she said as she started to arrange the table.

"Umm… but mum, I'm—" Reina paused once more and looked at him, raising one eyebrow gracefully yet somehow it seemed menacing… Okay," he replied, knowing that it'd do no good to argue with her.

She tilted her head downwards and resumed what she was doing. "Your dad will be going for work soon and after breakfast I'm going to go to your aunt's place for a while—she said she needed some help fixing up that new apartment she bought in town. And so you'll be at home alone. Will you be alright?"

"Yeah," the boy said, smiling. His mother's concern over him never ceased to amaze him. "Oh, err… I'll just be going to the convenience store a little after breakfast, mum. I kind of want to buy some drinks and stuff." It was an excuse. He hated lying to his mother but he had to look for Terra. Besides, he wasn't feeling sick at all so he didn't think it was much of a big deal.

"Do you want me to buy some for you? I can buy some quickly and bring it back before I go off to your aunt's."

Sora quickly shook his head quickly and gave her his usual grin. "Nah, it's alright. Thanks anyways, mum."

Soon enough after breakfast, Sora's mum and dad were out of the house, leaving the young brunette by himself. He quickly changed out of his uniform and was once again downstairs, fixing himself up in a woollen sweater and putting his boots on. Just as he was about to open the door to leave, a question struck him.

Where would he go search first?

There was no telling how far Terra had gone off after that many hours. In addition, he could somehow go through walls—or well, from what Sora had seen; his balcony door. However, the older brunette had mentioned that he'd tell Sora everything else 'tomorrow' which meant today, Tuesday. That was if Terra hadn't been lying…

Never mind, Sora thought. He'd just have to search high and low to get his answers. And having no school meant that he could search the entire day for Terra. Well, perhaps not the entire day but a good solid 5 hours before his mother would return because she had gone all the way to town and that meant a ferry trip back and forth, driving a few minutes back and forth and of course, chatting with his aunt. Definitely at least 5 hours before she got back, maybe even more.

Heading out, Sora felt the cold bite of the outside temperature. It was definitely much colder than yesterday in his opinion. He shivered and rubbed his arms to warm them. He exhaled onto his palms, his breath letting out a misty fog due to the condensation. He had underestimated the weather, thinking that it wasn't going to be so freezing cold. That was exactly why he had only worn a long-sleeved shirt, jeans, a woolen sweater, his gloves, socks and boots. He then decided that it was probably best to get his coat. However, just before he turned to go inside to get it, something caught his eye. A few metres across the road, under a withered tree there was a figure, standing there and looking at the bald branches—a tall, muscular figure with brown hair.

"Terra," he breathed. Immediately, Sora ran over to man, yelling his name. "Terra!"

The older brunette turned away from the tree and turned his gaze in the direction of which his name was being called. When he saw Sora, his expression didn't change but with the look in his eyes, the boy could somehow tell that Terra was acknowledging him.

"Man! I thought I'd have to look all over for you," Sora said as he panted to catch his breath. It was much too cold to be running. He could already feel the frost prick at his lungs.

"I didn't go far," Terra replied and beckoned to the tree beside him.

"Thanks for that," Sora said sincerely. He really didn't want to go around searching for someone despite his determination to get answers. It wasn't like Sora hated exploring and searching. For him, it was quite adventurous and normally he'd love it. Except in this weather, he wasn't too sure he'd manage for as long as he wanted and with the icy coldness on his cheeks, he definitely didn't want to be out here searching for someone.

Terra just shrugged.

"So err…" Sora said, not knowing where to start. At that moment, one of the adults from Sora's neighbourhood was passing by looked him oddly. She gave him an unsure nod before walking off, clearly confused. Sora vaguely knew that lady as he'd seen her a few times. She talked on and off with his mother and sometimes gave brownies to them. But why was she looking at him so weirdly…? That was when the younger brunette remembered something—others couldn't see Terra. They'd just see Sora and it'd seem like he was talking to the balding tree. "Oops," he mumbled, feeling a little awkward.

Terra chuckled at this, quite amused. Sora grimaced at him. It was Terra's fault if people started thinking he was insane, not Sora's.

"Maybe we should go somewhere where people can't hear me talking to you," Sora suggested, wanting to avoid questioning stares.

"Fine by me."

"I know just the place," the younger brunette said, grinning.

And that he did. The beach was always deserted during winter, especially during school hours. After all, the only people who would bother coming to the beach in weather like this where there were strong winds and icy waters were the 'deranged kids who have nothing better to do'—or so his dad used to say.

When they had finally reached their destination, as Sora had predicted, it was in fact isolated. It was unimaginably cold too. Sora hugged himself providing himself warmth. The two of them stood in front of the murky seas, the strong waves rushing against the shores. Grey clouds hovered in the skies, preventing any light or warmth from the distant sun to reach them. Without the light, the normally peach-like sand appeared to look brown and rocky. Even the salt water looked murky. Silent, it was. Beautiful, it was not.

"No offense or anything but your island's beach looks horrible," Terra commented.

"It's winter," Sora retorted. "It's not supposed to look great in winter."

The older man shrugged. "If you insist."

Sora dropped onto the sand and curled himself into a ball, hugging his knees. He needed all the warmth he could get, being underdressed and all. "Just start talking," he pleaded, wanting to get his mind off the cold.

Terra sat beside him, and looked completely unaffected by the freezing weather. The boy beside him narrowed his eyes, feeling a little envious of the soul who was not getting his skin bitten by the frost in the air. "What do you want to know?"

The younger brunette pondered over the question. "Who's Aerith?"

Terra's eyes looked slightly amused. "I didn't think you'd remember her name."

"I don't forget names easily."

"Seems to be that you forget everything your mum says quite quickly though," Terra chuckled.

The boy with cinnamon spikes flushed at this. Then, he paused. "Wait a minute," he mumbled, remembering his mum's appalled face when he had forgotten that she wanted him to skip school. His blue eyes narrowed suspiciously at the older brunette beside him. "You were watching me this morning?"

"Ah," was the reply. "So you aren't as blur as I suspected."

Sora frowned at Terra's teasing. "If you were there in the first place you could've at least shown yourself. I thought I'd have to go around the entire town looking for you."

"I only stayed around for a short while after you came down for breakfast. I left soon after. I got bored listening to your mum talking about your aunt." Sora laughed at that. He had gotten bored at his mum's rant as well. "I didn't go far though, Sora."

The younger brunette froze for a moment at the sound of his name. He still hadn't gotten accustomed to Terra saying it. It wasn't like he was uncomfortable with it; it was just that it sounded… Oddly… Nice.

"Oh," Terra mumbled as if in realisation. "Seems like I've gotten us off track. Sorry about that." He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "You were asking about Aerith weren't you?"

"Mm… Yeah."

"Aerith is an angel," the spirit said matter-of-factly. "She was the one who told me about this task and sent me down here."

Terra watched as Sora's eyes widened and his pupils dilated for a split second. "Angels… Exist?" the younger brunette breathed.

"Seems like it."

Sora stared at his fate in disbelief.

A perfectly shaped eyebrow arched on Terra's face. "What? You believe in my existence but you don't believe in angels?"

"I'm an atheist," Sora said defensively. His expression then faltered, his eyebrows scrunching. "Although I'm starting to wonder if I should jump ship onto a religion now."

Terra chuckled at that. "Maybe so."

Sora smiled. He then tilted his head curiously at Terra. "Did you have a religion?"

Terra's eyes widened at this. The older brunette then averted his gaze to stare at the waves. His blue eyes darkened and kept quiet for a moment. "Maybe so," he repeated, all the humour evident in his voice earlier gone, sounding a deeper and a little bitter.

At the tone of Terra's voice, the boy with crimson spikes instantly felt an obligation to not pry into the other man's past. So instead, he just said, "I see," and that was that.

A silence then followed, leaving Sora to become more aware of the cold that was making his body feel a chill. He breathed onto palms again, trying to get more warmth. It really wasn't a wise decision, coming out into this weather with very little clothes. He mentally cursed himself for not getting his coat. He could really use it right about now. Sora wasn't quite used to the cold. He wasn't one who really liked the low temperatures. He knew that Riku did, though. His best friend was never really affected by winter. In fact, Riku would always tease Sora for being so awfully weak against the temperature. Sora smiled at those memories. Of all the times that had happened. How they would argue and Sora would sulk, being called 'weak'. In the end, Sora's best friend would give him a hug, transferring his heat. However, that was when they were kids. Nowadays Riku just gave Sora his jacket. Riku was always strong against the cold, unlike him. For him, he liked summer despite its blazing hot sun and boiling heat. Ah, the sun… How he missed the sun right now. The heat and light it provided was something he always accepted…

Suddenly, a voice broke Sora out of his thoughts of the warm summer. "So, what else do you want to ask me?" The younger brunette turned to the older man. Terra didn't seem to notice that Sora had been daydreaming.

"Huh? Oh, umm…" Sora paused, a little distracted. He then pondered over it for a moment. "Have you been my fate ever since I was a kid or something?"

"… No. I was sent down just recently, actually," Terra said, his way of speech suddenly sounding reserved, as if he was being cautious with what he was saying. Sora noticed but just shrugged it off.

"So how come I haven't been able to see you until yesterday?"

Terra went silent for a moment. It wasn't as if he went silent because he didn't know. Terra knew; he definitely did. Telling Sora, however, he felt reluctant to do so. After all, why would he want to tell another person something he felt mildly ashamed of. Why was it embarrassing? It was actually quite a simple reason, really.

The older brunette was sent down to earth four days ago with the knowledge that normal humans wouldn't be able to see him. He knew that. However, he wasn't used to being invisible. He kept feeling uncomfortable when people 'stare off into space' in his direction. It felt unnerving for him even though he wouldn't openly admit it. That's why he kept moving out of the direction of their stares. For Sora however, it wasn't so… Simple.

Terra knew—or well, thought—that Sora couldn't see him. But being entrusted with the boy's fate, he couldn't help but feel a little conscious of the younger brunette. He kept thinking what if Sora could see him? He would just appear to be some sort of creepy stalker who just follows the boy around. That was exactly why Terra had come to a conclusion—to avoid Sora. Not altogether though, of course not. He had to keep the boy under his eye and make sure that he gets his task done. But to do avoid the boy's sight while keeping an eye on him was proven to be a challenging job.

It was bizarre, the things he did. Hiding behind bushes, under the tables, behind other humans, around the corners, in the roof and once even in the dust bin. His spiritual body was also quite helpful in hiding inside the walls and retreating by going through the walls or ceilings to hide. It was also useful by allowing him to poke his head through the ceiling to sneak on Sora when he was in the roof…

Eventually he managed to convince himself that the things he was doing were awfully ridiculous and finally stopped. He told himself that Sora was not able to see him and even if Sora could, it didn't matter to him. He was just doing his task. That was when he finally stopped doing trying to avoid Sora—which then led onto the younger brunette to actually see him… And that led onto them talking to each other right now.

Terra stared at Sora for a moment, his thoughts circulating in his head. After a while, he shrugged as a reply. The younger brunette furrowed his eyebrows but he didn't press on.

"Anything else you want to ask?"

Sora's face lit up at this. There was something he had been meaning to ask. "Oh, actually—"

Suddenly, a vibration in Sora's pocket caused him to instantly flinch, and a loud tune soon followed it. It took him a moment to realise that it was merely his phone—it was ringing. He smiled apologetically to Terra before taking his phone out and scanning through the caller ID.

"Huh," he mumbled. It's Riku. His eyebrows then arched as he looked his phone confusedly. "Isn't he supposed to be having lessons?" Sora then shrugged and rejected the call, deciding that he'd call Riku back later. After all, it was rude to ignore Terra—especially when they were in a conversation.

"Not answering it?" Terra asked.

"Nah, I'm talking to you now. It'd be rude to." Sora gave the older brunette one of his usual grins. "Anyways, about what I wanted to ask…"

"Hmm?"

"Since you're my fate, do you know things like when I'm going to die and who I'm going to marry and stuff?" His eyes were shining with curiosity.

Terra kept quite for a moment, pursing his lips. "I can't answer that." As he watched Sora's face fall, he felt a pang of guilt. It wasn't like he was at fault or anything but to see such eyes filled with adventure and excitement; he didn't really feel right to let the boy down.

"Aww, why not?" the younger brunette asked, his curiosity still nagging at him.

Terra sighed. "If I knew and I told you, then you wouldn't get the thrill of finding out later in the future, right?"

"But—"

"I can't, Sora."

Sora's bottom lip jutted out a little as he lowered his gaze. Terra inwardly sighed when he saw the disappointment in the boy's face. It wasn't like he was close to Sora or anything but the boy seemed like a really nice, cheerful chap. He didn't like making the boy upset.

There was another momentary silence before the older brunette gave a soft chuckle. "You're pouting."

Sora looked up at this, alarmed. "I-I'm not!" he denied immediately, his face flushing.

"You were," Terra pointed out.

"I—I—" The boy with cinnamon spikes instantly lay on the sand and placed his arms over his face to cover it. He stopped trying to deny it, knowing it was true. Riku had told him many times that he pouted but he had denied it initially. It was until his best friend found it futile trying to debate with him and instead shoved a small mirror in his face when he was pouting when Sora realised that it was true. He had a tendency to pout—without even realising it. And it was in fact, bloody embarrassing.

Terra just stared at him for a moment, watching him desperately trying to hide his embarrassment. It was useless, though. Terra could clearly see the shade of red of Sora's ears even though he was covering his face. The older brunette chuckled inwardly at this before getting up from the sand. "We should get you somewhere warmer."

The younger brunette lifted his arm a little to look at Terra. The redness from his cheeks started to fade at the topic change. "Warmer?"

"Your knuckles are white," the older boy commented. "Doesn't seem like you're wearing much either. It's best to get you someplace warm before you get a cold."

Sora grinned as he completely removed his hands from his face and got up from the sand. His blush had completely faded. "Ah, I won't get a cold," he said confidently. "I rarely get colds." His eyes then narrowed and added, "Admittedly, Riku always says 'idiots don't get colds'…" He gritted his teeth irritably in a playful way, thinking back at the times Riku had said those words.

Terra chuckled. "What if he was right?"

"Hey!" Sora yelled, sounding offended. "Whose side are you on here?" The older brunette merely chuckled in response. "Grr… Damn it, you and Riku both…"

"You're pouting again."

Sora's face flushed once more and his body tensed up. "I—I—" He immediately turned around to hide his embarrassment. He then started to walk away, ducking his head. "L-Let's just go. It's freezing." Terra chuckled but didn't say anything. If he could say anything for sure, it was that Sora was much more than he'd predicted. And that fulfilling his task was going to be interesting—or so he thought.

xooooxoooooxoooox

Come Thursday however, Sora's prediction had been wrong.

"Thirty-eight point five degrees," Reina mumbled as she looked at the thermometer. Sora stared at her with glazed eyes while he lay in his bed, his duvet covering him up to his chin. His face was flushed. His mother then lifted her gaze to meet his and she frowned. "I don't think you'll be going to school today, either," she said as she gently patted her son's head. "You've got a cold."

"A… Cold?" Sora mumbled, his voice hoarse.

"Seems like it."

There was a long silence as the boy with cinnamon spikes tried to progress this through his extremely tired brain. The first one to break the silence was a certain brunette who was older than Sora. Terra had broken out into a loud chuckle.

The redness on Sora's cheeks darkened as embarrassment swept over him. Terra was laughing because he was wrong about not getting a cold. And his confidence the day before just made things all worse. He pulled the duvet over his head to drown out Terra's chuckles and hide his embarrassment.

"Sora?" Reina called.

Terra was chuckling.

"Sora?"

Terra was still chuckling.

"So—"

Damn it.

"Shut up!" Sora yelled as he jolted up into a sitting position on his bed, his duvet now on his lap. He glared at Terra who was leaning against the wall nearby his bedroom door, his eyes still glazed and his face extremely red from embarrassment.

Terra stopped but was still smiling. "Sorry," he said. "It was just ironic." The younger brunette was pouting now but Terra chose not to mention it, knowing that it would only embarrass the boy further. It wasn't a wise idea to get the boy worked up when he was sick, after all. "You should keep in mind of who is in the room when you talk, by the way." Terra gestured over to Sora's mother.

"Wha—" The younger brunette turned towards his mother, only to find that she was staring at him at a bewildered expression.

"She can't hear me," Terra said calmly. "She probably thinks you told her to shut up."

"No!" Sora immediately protested. "I meant you!" When he saw his mother's eyes start to widen further, he looked at her helplessly. "No, mom, not you! I meant—argh!" He scratched his head nervously and sighed. "I—I… Sorry." He ducked his head.

Reina pursed her lips and gave her son a worried look. "It's alright," she said slowly. "Do you want to go to a doctor?"

He shook his head. "No," he sighed. "I'll just get some rest at home."

"Okay…" Reina said unsurely. "I'll go make you some porridge and I'll be back with some medicine." She kissed Sora's forehead and patted his hair gently before leaving the room.

There was a short silence after Reina left the room. Sora then resigned back to his bed, lying down on it, feeling a little better with his head on his pillow. His body felt extremely weak and his head was hurting. He didn't normally get colds and wasn't used to this sort of feeling. His entire body felt warm and despite of it, he didn't want to take his duvet off. He wasn't too sure when he'd start feeling better since he felt completely horrible now. There was something Sora was sure of, though, and that was that he definitely did not like colds.

"Why do you get so embarrassed when you pout?" Terra asked suddenly. Sora turned to lie on his shoulder so that he could face the older brunette.

He furrowed his eyebrows and said, "It's not manly at all."

"Then why do you do it?"

"I don't do it consciously," Sora said defensively. "I don't seem to realise when I'm doing it either. It's not cool at all."

"Cool?" Terra asked, arching a perfect eyebrow.

"Cool, manly, whatever. It's just not something a guy should do."

"Hmm…" Terra mused.

There was another momentary silence.

"Well, about that cold of yours…" Terra began.

Sora interrupted him with a sulking tone. "I know, I know, I was wrong about not getting a cold."

Terra just smiled. "It's not that. It seems like you've proven Riku wrong."

"What?" Riku was wrong? What blasphemy was this about?

"You're not an idiot."

There was a short pause before Sora remembered their conversation the day before about idiots not getting colds. He then burst out laughing. "So I'm not," he said with a cheerful grin.

xooooxoooooxoooox

"Sora, honey!"

Sora stirred at the sound of his mother's voice. It was only when he got up that he realised that he was sleeping. He hadn't realised when he had nodded off; he just remembered eating the porridge his mother had given him and talking to Terra after… He sighed and shifted uncomfortable under his duvet. His body didn't feel much better and he still felt extremely warm. He shoved the duvet off his upper body and relaxed as he felt the colder air touch his skin. It felt good.

"Sora?" she called again. It sounded like her voice was coming from the stairs. Then, with a softer voice the brunette heard, "Sorry, he might be sleeping." It sounded like she was talking to someone else. He heard her footsteps approach his room and a knock on the door. "Sora, are you awake?"

"Yeah," he said weakly.

"Tidus is here to see you," she said as she opened the door. Behind her stood a tan boy with blonde hair wearing a high school uniform.

"Yo!" he said as he entered Sora's room, lifting his hand up in a gesture of greeting.

The brunette slowly lifted himself to sit up. "Tidus," he greeted.

"I'll go make some tea," Reina said with a smile before she shut the door behind her.

"Damn, Sora, you look like shit," the blonde boy said as he placed himself to sit on the floor, crossing his legs. There was a small coffee table between where Tidus sat and Sora's bed.

The brunette gave a dry laugh. "I'm not surprised. I feel horrible."

"You haven't been in class for two days now," Tidus commented. He and Sora were in the same year, same class. They were pretty close albeit not as close as Sora was with Riku. They would often goof out together during class hours but the brunette would go to have break and lunch with Riku and Alice most of the times.

"I'm sick," Sora said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, I realise."

"Did you come over to bring me homework or something?"

Tidus shook his head. "Nah, we haven't been doing much for the past few days. Everyone's been busy preparing for tomorrow night's Christmas party. So that means free periods and no homework." He gave a thumbs up.

"Oh yeah, we've got Christmas holidays starting next week," Sora recalled.

Tidus' expression changed to shock. "You—You forgot that we have holidays?"

Sora narrowed his eyes. "Yeah." Tidus' shock was not surprising to him. He knew that it was shocking that he had forgotten about the upcoming holidays. He never forgot about holidays. He liked school, sure, but holidays were bliss to him. He loved them. The cheerful atmosphere floating in the airs, everyone excited for the holiday events… How had he forgotten about all of that? The answer was simple—Terra. And well, there was this horrid cold of his too. But it was mostly the unexpected appearance of his fate which, even though he didn't show it, had caused the natural flow of his life to be disrupted for a moment. He was sure that he'd get used to it. After all, he was one who could adjust well to changes.

But… Speaking of Terra, where was he?

Sora's eyes scanned his room quickly. No sign of Terra—again. Perhaps the older brunette had gone off to look at that balding tree or something. Not that it really mattered... He'd just see Terra later, then.

"Wow," Tidus said, drawing Sora out of his thoughts. "To forget the holidays. You must be completely knackered."

"Damn the cold," Sora said with a playful grin.

Tidus laughed. "Yeah! Nothing good comes from a cold."

"There is one thing, actually." A mischievous grin formed on Sora's lips.

The blonde boy raised his eyebrows at this. "You mean like being pampered?"

"Even better."

"Yeah? What is?"

"Do you remember how Riku always that I'm an idiot?"

Tidus frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Idiots don't get colds, right?"

"Yeah, but—" Then, the blonde-headed boy's eyes widened—and his face lit up. "Oh!" he exclaimed when he finally got it. "You can shove in his face! Awesome!" He shot his arm into the air. Sora laughed cheerfully at this.

It wasn't much, really. It wasn't as if Riku had made such a huge blunder or anything but for Riku to ever be wrong, now that was rare. Any opportunity to shove the fact that he had gotten something wrong in his face was going to be such fun to the both of them.

"You have to let me know how he reacts," Tidus cheered.

The brunette grinned. "Will do."

Tidus' eyes widened as he remembered something. "Oh, speaking of Riku…"

"Hmm?"

"He's been coming to class to look for you these two days."

Sora's eyes widened. "Really? Why?"

"The first day… He did say something about your scarf, I think."

"Ah, I left it at his house…"

"Mm, well, today he looked a bit worried though. Said you haven't been answering any of his calls or texts."

Crap. I forgot about that. "Oops," he chuckled awkwardly. "Slipped my mind."

The blonde-haired boy just shrugged. "It's not a big deal. Maybe you should just send him a text or something."

"Yeah, I probably should…"

There came a sudden knock from the door, causing both boys to turn their heads towards it. "Sora sweetie, I've got some tea." It was Reina.

"Oh, come in."

Reina entered and place the tray of green tea and Japanese cakes on the table. "You look a little better after talking to Tidus," she said with a smile.

"What can I say, Mrs. Takano? I just have that sort of charm," he said with a smirk. "Especially on Sora." His smirk was instantly wiped off his face when a pillow came flying at him. "Oof!" he yelped when it hit him.

"What do you mean especially on me, you git?" Sora laughed. "Don't make me sound like a queer."

Tidus took the pillow off his face and smirked playfully. "You know you want me," he said seductively.

There was an immediate silence between the three of them at the sound of Tidus' seductive voice. Then, they all burst out laughing. The first one to stop was Reina. "You boys, seriously," she sighed with a smile. "Don't get to heated up in here, alright?" she joked. "I'll be going down now."

By the time she had left the room, Sora and Tidus were still laughing. The two of them always had a tendency to act a little gay as a joke at times in front of a crowd but Tidus' seductive voice was as far as they had gone. And even then, Sora never expected Tidus to do that voice in front of his mother.

After a while, their laughter died out and they just sat in their positions, smiling. "So," Tidus began, "are you going to the Christmas party at school tomorrow night?"

"Don't know," Sora said as he stretched his arms. Man, my muscles ache. "I don't know if I'll feel well enough to go. Plus, I don't have a date."

"If it's about a date then don't worry about it! The seniors have done the party up in a cool way this year."

"What do you mean?"

"They're going to pair us up with others." Seeing the blank look on the brunette's face, Tidus knew he'd have to explain. "The people going as singles have to gather at outside the hall an hour before the party," he said. "They give you some time to buy your tickets in case you haven't bought one yet and they get everyone to write their names on a piece of paper. Apparently they'll be putting the boys' names into a box and the girls' names into a separate box. And each person will have to pick out a piece of paper from the boxes and the name you get will be your partner for the night—or well, something like that. They said that they'd explain it properly on the day itself."

"Huh," Sora mumbled. "That sounds pretty fun."

"It does, doesn't it?"

"Are you going single?"

Tidus laughed. "Sure, unless you want to go with me."

"Don't screw with me," Sora said with a grin and threw another pillow. The blonde boy caught it in time before it hit him. "What about Yuna?"

The blonde's face turned pink at that question. "It's not like I'm going out with her or anything."

"Sure you aren't," Sora scoffed. "But you like her don't you? Ask her out."

Tidus sighed. "Damn it, Sora, it's not that easy. I don't want her to turn me down."

"Then just ask her for the Christmas party."

"Nah, it's tomorrow. I don't want it to be so last minute. It's not romantic."

The blonde's friend started laughing. "Romantic? I didn't know you were into romance!"

"Sora, you're sick and all, but if you don't can it, I'll throw this pillow back at you."

The brunette went silent for a moment. "…That was an extremely lame threat," he said, stifling a laugh.

Tidus joined in. "I know. Anyways, I'm going single tomorrow night. If I'm lucky then I'll get paired with Yuna. If not, then…" He shrugged.

"Fine, fine," Sora said, resigning from trying to get Tidus to ask Yuna out.

"Besides, if I didn't go single, who would you hang out with?"

"There are many others to choose from," Sora replied playfully.

"If you mean Riku then he's out of the picture, isn't he? He's going with Alice, right?"

Riku… And Alice… Sora's eyes darkened. Of course they'd be going together…

"Sora?" the blonde boy called when the brunette didn't reply.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. He should be."

"There you go."

Sora grinned playfully. "Of course I could still hang out with Hayner or something…"

Tidus sighed. "Sora, seriously, I'm not going to ask her out for tomorrow night."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Was just fooling around."

"So, are you coming then?"

"Hmm… Yeah, sure, why not?"

"Awesome!" Tidus cheered.

And so, Sora had decided to go to the Christmas party. It was not a big plan or anything, just a party. An event to enjoy the energetic, cheerful atmosphere of Christmas and the food that was prepared during the specific holiday. It wasn't much. Little did he know, however, that it was exactly this action which was going to make the wheels of fate start moving…

And that's the end of this chapter! Do leave a review to let me know what you think of it! xD