A/N: Thanks to the bunches of people that reviewed. As promised, a new chapter.

This chapter, though not important to the bulk of the plot, is a brainchild of my roommate and I, rambling on about crazy things in the middle of the night. I hope it's entertaining... and semi-plausible.

On to the fic!

Chapter Three:

I noticed last night that a little bit of moon light had filtered in through a small window in the ceiling, illuminating the small room barely enough to see the outline of things. I didn't realize that it would allow enough light to actually wake me up. But it did. Apparently, the window faced the east too, so the first morning's sun was enough to brighten the room and wake me. Not that I wasn't used to waking up at the crack of dawn for farm duties, but I kind of hoped that would end once I left.

I wasn't the only one in some state of consciousness though, and for a few milliseconds I thought I was being robbed. Yet, as happens with memory, scenes from last night dropped slowly into mind and I remembered.

An Extractor.

Scary!

And I had to live with him for my stay at this... place. Ack! And I thought he was attractive. That was going to make things uncomfortable.

"You're being louder," Riku said. "That must mean you're awake."

"Uh," I blushed and seriously hoped it was more of that incoherent yelling and not my actual thoughts. "Yeah, I'm awake."

"Good, you were having some weird dreams."

I sat up and quirked my head at him. He could see my dreams?

"What do you mean? You could... hear... or see my dreams?" I asked.

"No," Riku said, putting the book he was holding down on the table, crossing his arms, leaning back on the same table, and looking at me. "You talk in your sleep."

He laughed clearly. It was nice. It made me frown. I didn't want to have a crush on a guy.

"You said my name a few times, and you barely know me," Riku said. He pushed off the table a bit and walked slowly toward me, until he had reached my bed and sat down beside me. "Did I really make that much of an impression?"

My eyes widened, hopefully imperceptibly, and I blushed, again, hopefully imperceptibly. Then it occurred to me that I should do something to dispel this image of me in his head. I furiously shook my head.

I didn't stop either. Until fingers slid up either side of my face and held my head still. I stared at the bed sheets underneath me and gulped. He was touching me! Invading my personal space. Three foot bubble around me!

But... that wasn't it. The other hand came up and brushed the loose hair from the side of my face and I felt the bed sink close to me. I involuntarily tilted a little to my left, right into Riku, who was leaning into me. I felt his lips press against my already burning cheek. I was nervous, I had the weirdest feeling that I wanted to cough or giggle or puke, or maybe all three at the same time. Was that a tongue I just felt?!?!?!

But he pulled away and got up, and I was thankful for the air that suddenly rushed into my lungs. I still had the weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, but managed to prevent any of the symptoms from occurring. Any of them would've been terribly embarrassing.

"Oh well, I like you, and I'll have more chances to make an impression," he said, smirking and vanishing through the door before I could get my wits about me.

It was only when I was completely alone in the room that I started in a fit of giggles. It was more of a coughing giggle, and not because I was extremely happy. Well, I was happy that I didn't puke up bile, but it was not the cause of my giggles. It was all adrenaline. That was my first kiss! Did it count though? He was male, I wasn't really a willing participant... and it wasn't on the lips. But it wasn't from a family member either, so did it count still? That was the first person to kiss me--anywhere--that wasn't related to me. Oh, this was all so confusing. My head hurt. And my stomach growled.

Okay, I could focus all my rampant attention on something else now! Like tracking down food. That was an important task, and one that would consume most of my energy, considering I didn't know where I was in relation to anything, and definitely didn't know where the kitchen was.

I hopped out of bed and ran through the door to the hallway outside. Hm, could I remember which way I had come? No. But I went to the right. If I hit a dead end, I could always turn back around. The halls were pretty much like I remembered them. Stone. Cold. That phantom drip threatening to drive me crazy. It almost succeeded, except I heard talking coming from one of the rooms farther down the hall. People! They could tell me where to go, if it wasn't the kitchen already.

I ran down to the end, accompanied only be the sound of my bare feet slapping against the cool stone. Too late did I realize I was still in my pajamas. I skidded outside the doorway and smiled to whoever the occupants may be. I was happy, and there was a distinctly bacon smell emanating from the door.

"Morning!" I started. Then I saw who was in the kitchen... or more importantly, what he was wearing.

There was Cloud, Tidus–looking a little wore out, Riku, Leon and a girl I had never seen before sitting next to Tidus. Leon was at the stove. That wasn't so unusual, though I didn't peg him for the cooking type. No, the weird thing that made me stumble backward and suppress a laugh was that Leon was in a sort of frilly pink apron. I was sure there was a perfectly logical explanation for this that I was just overlooking. I figured that he would beat anyone who presented him with a pink apron into a bloody pulp and stuff the apron... where it shouldn't be.

Leon must've been reading my thoughts, though, because he hung his head and covered his face with his hand, immediately going back to cooking. Cloud and Tidus snickered at him, then Tidus looked over at me.

"Morning, Sora," Tidus said. "Wanna hear the story about Leon and his apron?"

I heard Leon growl, a sort of growl that started deep in his belly and ripped its way through his throat. But he continued cooking.

Cloud smiled, a very satisfied smile, and leaned back into the chair he was sitting in. I crept my way into the kitchen and sat on the other side of Tidus, across from Riku. Ah, Riku. He was sitting there with his hand wrapped around a mug of coffee, slightly slouched... but we weren't thinking about Riku. This was about Leon and his apron.

"Sure," I replied to Tidus. "Tell me a story."

Tidus took a deep breath, like a professional orator, and begun. "It was, oh, three years ago? Leon had just come here, and detested the food we served him. Said he could cook better than us. We dared him to show us. It didn't matter that he was older than all of us and probably could cook better, or, for some reason, that thought didn't enter our mind."

He stopped, looking over at Cloud, seemingly for help in the story.

Cloud got the hint and continued. "So he started cooking. Days went on, the meals steadily increased in quality, and he unofficially got the title of cook," he said, smiling devilishly.

Cloud leaned a little forward over the table, I leaned in closer to him.

"He kept getting things on his clothes, food, grease," he whispered. "So he bought an apron. Just a normal apron, I think it was dark blue. I was stupid enough to bring up in a Blackjack match between me and Tidus that it would look funny if Leon wore a frilly pink apron. That soon became one of our bets, who would buy one for him and then present it. And at that point, Tidus decided to show that he was a champion Blackjack player at thirteen years old. I lost, so I bought the apron. And presented the gift to Leon."

Cloud sat back and smiled again. "It was really something you had to be there to truly appreciate the horror on Leon's face," he resumed in a normal voice. "It was even worse when I told him it was for him."

Tidus nudged me in the ribs again. I was going to bruise if he kept doing that. "I was there, it was priceless," he added.

"We couldn't get Leon to wear it though," Cloud said, almost disappointed.

"That's where I helped out on Cloud's part," Tidus said. "Whenever Leon would wear an apron that wasn't the pink one, I'd use my helpful elemental powers to make the stove fire flare up and catch the apron on fire. Sometimes I would just start a fire on the apron, if he wasn't using the stove."

"And now we have him trained. He cringes every time he thinks of putting another apron on," Cloud said.

"In your dreams," Leon said, walking over to the table. "I wear this one because I was sick and tired of buying new aprons. It's just a piece of cloth, I don't care what it looks like."

It seemed to me like it bothered him a lot. But I was hungry and he had set a plate of food down in front of me. It was at times like these where my tunnel vision kicked in, all I saw was food. And I really didn't even see that. I had no clue what I was putting in my mouth, just that it tasted great and calmed my roaring stomach down. I prayed to whatever divine beings that no one ever tried to poison me... I'd be dead before I ever figured it out.

I looked up from my plate of food once, and that wasn't, possibly, the best thing for me to do at that moment. Riku, on the other side of the table and with his mug of coffee, was staring right at me. His expression was unreadable but soft. We stayed like that until I could feel the blush burning my skin, and returned my sight back to the food. But, for whatever reason, I wasn't hungry anymore. I pushed the plate away from me, and decided I needed to do something to get my mind off of my roommate's gaze.

"Hey, guys," I called for attention, and waited until I got everyone's. "Am I still screaming?"

"You know, I've either gotten used to it, or you're quieter," Tidus replied. "Leon, what do you think?"

The dark brunet turned to face us and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's still the same to me," Leon said. "But I'm a lot more sensitive to it than you are, so it could be true."

"I can barely hear you at all," Cloud said. "So I think you're getting better."

I smiled widely. I was trying really hard not to be so loud, and it was working. But I had always been a very persistent guy.

"But you still won't last five minutes on the street without attracting a few Heartless," Cloud said, taking a sip out of his own coffee cup. "Even in the daylight."

"But why didn't they attack me yesterday afternoon? I was here in the daytime and didn't get attacked," I said, pouting.

"They didn't know you were here," Cloud elaborated. "Now that they know what you smell like, you're not safe."

"Oh," I said.

"So until we can teach you to become invisible, you're gonna have to lay low here," Tidus interjected.

"Invisible?" I asked.

"Yep, well, not literally," Tidus corrected. "It shouldn't take too long, but since you don't have an offensive attack, you're going to have to take one of us if you want to go anywhere after dark."

"But you said I could learn to become invisible to them, why would I need to take someone with me?" I asked the question, but didn't think I'd ever really need it, why would I want to go somewhere after dark?

Leon appeared, sans apron, and sat down next to Cloud. "Because you're strong. Even silencing your voice wouldn't be enough."

"So when do I learn this valuable technique?" I asked.

"Right now, if you want," Riku replied, breaking the silent streak he had going. "I'll be your teacher."

It had to be him, didn't it? But I should've guessed, with how bad my luck had been recently. I nodded shyly at him.

"Well, let's get going," I said, determined to do well and get this whole screaming situation out of the way. I stood up and Riku led me out of the room.

A/N: The actual training is giving me issues, but I'm almost done with the next chapter.

Oh, and please review. I almost fainted when I saw that I had more than two reviews in my inbox... so you guys wanna go for a full on faint?