A/N: Dun dun dun. So now we're at chapter 4 and I just wanted to thank the people that have reviewed this so far. I love you guys, seriously. If I was Xenmas, I'd gladly give all the hearts that created Kingdom Hearts to you (You know, before it exploded)

We're reaching the end of the small trip to the beach during their spring break. After this mini-arc, plan on seeing alot more characters popping up as they'll be diving right back into school life. Fun.

Disclaimer: Axel threw light bulbs at me when I was sneaking into a certain blond-headed keyblade wielder's room. Curses, foiled again. ):

Axel, unlike Riku, liked to look on the bright side of things. The redhead wasn't the most optimistic person in the world, no, that reward belonged to Sora, but he was optimistic to an extent.

So when Axel's plan had backfired, he just shrugged it off and slapped on a happy grin. Riku stared at him like he was psycho, but the way Axel saw it was that this wasn't a set back, but rather, a step forward.

"Riku, if you keep angsting in that corner over there, I may have to slap the 'Emo' label on you."

No response.

"Riku. Don't ignore me. Stop sulking and come play some Halo."

Again, no response.

Axel sighed.

"I didn't want it to come to this but," A smirk. "Oh what's this? No more room left on the memory card for a new game? I guess I'll just have to erase some of Riku's saved files!"

"Do that and I'll make your death even more painful."

Grinning, Axel dropped the controller and walked over to Riku.

"And for your information, Axel", Riku spat out bitterly. "I do not angst or sulk. I think."

"Whatever, emo kid."

Riku grabbed a butcher knife and stabbed Axel repeatedly. Of course, this was all inside his own head. Poor boy.

"Dude, Riku, look," Axel began as he crossed his arms over his chest proudly. "My plan didn't completely fail. I mean, I got blondie's attention, didn't I?"

Riku would really like that butcher knife right about now.

"Negative attention, Axel. Negative. And not only that," Riku bit his lip. "But he probably hates you even more now. You can forget about being friends. And Sora...Sora will probably never forgive me."

Axel rolled his emerald eyes.

"Right then. Stop acting like the world is ending, drama queen." Riku squawked and was about to say something but Axel cut him off. "Are you going to let one failed plan get you down? C'mon, you said it before, right? Sora's the forgiving type. He'll understand."

Riku thought about this for a minute before bowing his head into his hands.

"What? Am I wrong?" Axel asked. Riku shook his head. "Then what is it?"

"Axel, you said Roxas was Sora's opposite, right?" The redhead nodded. "Then that means that Roxas will probably somehow convince Sora that we're the evil pranksters from Hell. Sora is naive. He'll trust anything his brother tells him. Do you know what that means?"

Axel chuckled.
"That you're love life is royally screwed?" Riku spluttered and Axel cut him off again. "Riku, ever heard that song that goes, 'I get knocked down, but I get up again.You're never going to keep me down'?"

"I can't believe you memorized that song..."

"I'm good at memorizing things." Axel said proudly. "That's not the point. The point is, Riku, are you going to get back up? Or are you going to stay knocked down?"

"What a corny line. Get that from a fortune cookie?"

"Nope!" Axel grinned. "Thought of it all by myself just now!"

Riku rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatingly.
"I guess I have no choice but to keep moving forward, right?"

"That's the spirit! And don't worry, everything will work out!" A playful expression was plastered on the pyro's face. "And if all else fails you could always just send the kid flowers and wussy apology notes."

Riku wondered where the nearest knife store was.

"Those no good, idiotic, trouble making-"

"Roxas, calm down, dude."

"-annoying, trashy, filthy-"

"Stop it!" Sora cried.

"-grimy, pieces of-"

"Roxas!" Hayner and Sora both yelled in unison.

Roxas whipped his head around to stare angrily at Hayner and his brother.

"I told you, Sora, I told you that those two were no good, perverted pieces of trash!" He snarled.

"They must of had a reason if they did do it, Roxas!" The blonde made an annoyed 'Tch' sound. "Why don't we go talk to them?"

Oh no. Oh no. Sora did not just suggest that.

"Talk to them? Talk to them!" Roxas roared

"You've done it now." Hayner whispered to the brunette.

"I will not talk to those creatures that tried to hurt us by making the light bulbs in our room explode. Explode, Sora! We could have been seriously injured! And you know what else?"

Sora gulped.

"I'll tell you what else! Not only did they get away with almost injuring us," Roxas's face was turning red with rage. "But we are the ones that will have to pay for repairs because there was no solid proof that they did it!"

"If there was no solid proof then maybe-"

"No!" Roxas barked. "No! I know they did it, Sora. And you know too. Stop denying the truth before you get into trouble."

Sora sighed and rubbed his tired eyes irritably. The whole night Roxas had been going on and on about how much he hated Axel and Riku and how they would get what was coming to them. Hayner was starting to regret letting the brothers spend the night in his room.

"Roxas, if you keep stressing out about this, you're bound to get sick. I've seen it happen. Stress related illness, you know?" Sora muttered. "Why don't we try to get some-"

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Huh? Who could that be?"

"Oh, I wonder, Sora." Hayner replied in an annoyed tone. "Blondie here only kept us up the entire night."

"Hayner!" A voice shrieked from the other side of the door. "Wake up! Roxas and Sora are missing and their room is completely trashed!"

Hayner stood up with a less-than-happy expression on his face as he opened the door.
"They're not missing, Olette. They spent the night in my room because someone destroyed the room they were staying in."

Roxas huffed indignantly. Sora forced a cheerful smile on as he got up from the floor and walked over to Olette.
"Sorry we worried you. We're fine, really."

"I'm glad." Olette said, smiling softly. "I was scared that you two had gotten into a bad fight and had to go to the hospital or something."

Sora laughed nervously. "No, nothing like that."

"So who trashed your room?" The girl asked curiously.

Roxas narrowed his eyes and bit his lip to keep himself from screaming as Sora shot a frantic glance at him.
"We...um...we don't really know yet for sure," Roxas snorted. "But we have an idea. I don't want to name anyone though until we do know for sure. Sorry, Olette."

Olette shook her head.
"No, it's fine, Sora. I understand." She grinned, happily clapping her hands together. "So! You two wanna go see if Riku and Axel are ready? We're eating breakfast with them today, right?"

Sora choked on air, Roxas made a low, growling noise and Hayner did the best he could to contain his laughter.

"What?" The girl looked at the three with a puzzled expression.

"Um, Olette," Hayner said, grabbing her hand. "I don't think these two are in the mood to be eating right now. They're kind of still in shock about what happened last night."

"But I'm hung-" Hayner elbowed Sora who frowned and stared at the floor. "I mean, yeah. Hayner's right. Sorry, Olette."

"Oh, alright then." The brunette girl said, a troubled look in her eyes. "I hope you both feel better soon. Hayner, would you like to join me instead?"

Hayner grinned.

"Sure!" "Anything to get me away from these two bickering boneheads." He thought. Sora shot him a glare that said, "If you don't bring me back something, I swear I'll tie you down to a chair and force you to listen to Roxas rant for 5 hours straight."

"Okay." Olette giggled as the two left the room. "Cya boys!"

"Bye!" Sora called as they walked away. "Have fun!"

Shutting the door, Sora immediately fell to the floor and made a low, whining noise."Because you're so stubborn," The brunette whimpered. "I have to skip breakfast!"

"Well excuse me." Roxas muttered. "I have such a kind, understanding brother."

The brunette sighed and crawled next to Roxas who was currently burning a hole in the ceiling.
"At the risk of sounding like Hayner," Sora chuckled. "Keep making a face like that and it's bound to get stuck that way." Roxas made an annoyed huffing sound. "C'mon, Rox, what's wrong? Don't you think you're overreacting just a tiny bit? And don't make that face at me, mister, you know it's true."

Roxas groaned.
"Sora, you don't seem to understand the gravity of what they've done."

"Sure I do!" Sora interrupted, sounding almost a bit too happy. "They pulled a prank on us. Got us good. And you know what, Roxas?"

Roxas stared blankly at his brother.

"We probably...well...deserved it."

"What?!" The blonde spluttered. "What do you mean deserved? Sora, they went too far!"

"It was a prank, Roxas. A prank!" Sora sighed and tousled his brother's hair affectionately. "The world's not going to end just because we fell for one of their traps. I don't know about you, but brooding over something that was supposed to be a joke is not my style."

"Little Mrs. Sunshine and Lollipops, I swear, Sora." The blonde mumbled irritably.

"Maybe." Sora chuckled. "But you haven't exactly been the nicest to them. Maybe this was their way to get back at you."

"How immature." Roxas growled.

"Yeah, I know you've been acting immature."

"I meant them."

Sora smiled.

"But you can't really say that you've been Mr. Mature either, right? I mean, you're complaining right now about some prank they pulled on us. That's pretty childish if you ask me."

"No." Roxas said. "No, it's not childish. It's logical. Sora, you don't seem to get it. They pulled a dangerous prank on us, one that could have seriously gotten ourselves hurt, and what did they do?" Sora frowned. "They laughed in our faces! If anything, they deserve a taste of their own medicine. But I'm not going to go that low. I'm not stooping down to their level! I'm not going to pull a childish prank on them just because I'm mad!"

"Right." Sora rolled his eyes. "You're just going to sit here and cry like some teenage girl that just got dumped." Roxas shot a death glare at his brother. "Roxas, I'm sure if you apologize to them, then they'll apologize too. You know, assuming they even did it."

Roxas narrowed his eyes.
"I hope you realize that I'm not doing that stupid dare anymore. Not after this."

"Then I won't do mine either." Sora retorted. "Look, Roxas, can we please just put this war to an end before it gets too far? I really don't feel like dealing with the bail charges if you're sent to jail for murder."

"I told you, didn't I?" Roxas spat. "I'm not going to pull a stupid prank on them. I'm above that level of stupidity." Sora grinned, some hope lingering in his eyes before Roxas shot it down. "They'll get what's coming to them. Maybe not from me, but I trust that fate and karma are on my side and they'll eventually regret doing what they did. Which means I am not apologizing."

Sora let out a frustrated sigh.
"Avoiding them might not be the best solution either though, Roxas. I mean, that's probably why they did this in the first place."

Roxas sighed. Well damn, Sora did have a point.
"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"Well," Sora smiled gently. "If it was up to me, I'd apologize, but you're obviously not doing any of that anytime soon."

"There's no reason for apologizing to them anyways, Sora. I didn't do anything wrong."

"You ignored them and pretty much stomped on their ego and male pride right in their faces."

Roxas chuckled bitterly.
"Maybe they deserved it. They can take their male pride and shove it right up their-"

"Roxas!" Sora cried. "Fine...why don't I apologize?"

Roxas's eyebrows shot up.

"Why would you apologize? You didn't do anything."

"I meant I'd apologize for you." Sora stood up. "Since you're too proud to step down from your soap box, I'll step down and apologize to them and end this stupid game."

"Why would you do that?" Roxas shouted. "If anyone should be apologizing, it should be me!" Sora chuckled mischievously. "I mean, not me, but them. Wait...I mean...ugh.."

Sora patted Roxas on the head.

"I'll do it because you're too stubborn." Roxas squawked, about to protest until Sora continued. "But I love my stubborn brother so I'll do my job as the older brother and apologize for your mistakes."

"I don't want you talking to them either!" The blonde cried.

"Too bad." Sora remarked. "Because I'm old enough to decide what I want to do."

"Sora, you shouldn't have to do this though! It's stupid!"

"Exactly. So why don't you start acting like a man and do it yourself?"

Roxas froze, eyes widening. It was very rare for Sora to lecture him, but when he did, he did it well.

Sighing, the blonde stood up and scowled.
"I don't want to apologize, Sora. I really, really do not want to apologize. I hate Riku and I hate Axel."

The brunette sighed disappointingly. Well that didn't work. Roxas was really stubborn sometimes.

"Stop making that face, Sora. I can't stand it." The blonde winced painfully. "I...I'll do it." Roxas swallowed the lump in his throat.
"I'll...apologize. But that doesn't mean I'll like it or that I'll be friends with them. And I'm only doing this because I don't want you to have to do it for me. "

Sora's face lit up as he tackled his brother and hugged him tight. "Good boy!" He said, ignoring the chokes and wheezes coming from Roxas.

Roxas mentally threw spears at his brother. He could be so...frustrating sometimes

It was sometime around noon that Axel had successfully cheered up Riku by "letting" him kill him. Of course, he was doing it via Halo, but still, killing Axel's character was strangely satisfying.

"Damnit, Riku!" Axel howled. "I'm on your team!"

"I know." Riku grinned menacingly. Axel made a low whining noise. Everytime Axel had respawned, Riku would shoot him in the head. It was getting really irritating, and Axel was about to throw the controller at Riku's head until a soft knock came from their door.

"Did you order something from downstairs?" Axel asked.

"No. Did you call room service?"

"No." Axel laughed nervously. "You don't think that they found proof that we did it and now they're going to kick us out, do you?"

Riku paused the game and shot up from where he was sitting.

"Oh shit. It's probably the police! I knew your plan was illegal somewhere!"

Axel sighed.
"Just act normal, idiot, and maybe we can get out of this." Slowly, the redhead opened the door, eyes scrunching up in fear, and then-

"Hey Axel!"

Axel blinked, opening his eyes to see one cheerful Sora and a moody looking Roxas. He glanced over the brunette's head worriedly and then looked back at the two standing infront of him.

"What are you looking for?" Sora asked curiously.

"The police." The redhead thought.
"Nobody. I was just wondering where your other two friends were."

"Oh, them?" Sora laughed. "They're probably still at the diner. That place takes forever to make food."

Axel nodded and Sora coughed nervously.
"Roxas wanted to say something."

"Oh great. Round one: Fight!"
"Yes?" Axel asked, sounding almost too innocent.

"Sorry." Roxas whispered.

Axel blinked. What, no punching? No yelling? Nothing? Was he hearing things correctly? Did the kid just...apologize?

"Sorry?" The redhead fidgeted nervously. "For what?

Roxas glared at him and Axel could have sworn he saw his life flashing right infront of his eyes.

"What do you think?" The blonde snapped, taking everything in himself not strangle the man infront of him. "For being rude to you this whole time. I'm sorry."

Axel blinked again and then grinned stupidly.

Inner Axel was doing a little dance and cheering, "I knew that my plan would work!"
He smiled slyly.
"Oh? I hadn't noticed." Roxas flinched. "It's alright though. No skin off my nose, right, Riku?"

Riku had dived behind a chair and was currently shaking as he stood up.
"R-right." Slowly, the aqua-eyed teen walked up to the other boys and scratched his head nervously.
"It's alright. And...and I'm sorry, too, Sora." Roxas snorted. "And you too, Roxas."

Sora's eyes widened.
"So it was you?" To be honest, both Roxas and Sora had expected this, but the brunette was easily surprised.

Riku fiddled with his hands and stared at an interesting piece of the floor. Was that spot a slightly darker shade than the rest of the carpet? Interesting.
"Y-yeah. It was us." He bowed his head apoligetically. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Axel stomped on his foot and the boy made a small yelping sound as Sora grabbed Roxas's hand to keep the blonde from tearing Axel and Riku apart.

"See, Roxas? They apologized too, just like I thought they would."

"Yippee." Roxas thought. "Now let go of my hand so I may continue ripping their eyes out and feeding them to a dog."

"So no hard feelings?" Axel chirped.

Riku and Roxas shot daggers at the redhead.

"No hard feelings." Sora said, nodding his head excitedly. "Now you'll have to excuse us. Olette called earlier and asked if we wanted to go hang out at the beach." He tapped his chin. "You two wanna come?"

Axel shrugged.
"Sure. We'll be down there in a little bit."

"Great!" The brunette replied as he pulled his brother away. "Bye guys!"

"Cya." Axel said as he shut the door.

"See! That wasn't too hard, was it?"

"Sora...they did do it."

Sora choked on air.

"I-...I know. But they apologized, too, didn't they?"

Roxas sighed frustratingly.
"Yes, but I didn't like that one bit. Don't expect me to be friendly with them now."

Sora nodded and pat his brother on the back.
"I know, I know."

"And I did my dare so now it's your turn."

Sora went white as a sheet as Roxas smirked.

"What? Didn't think I'd do that without some benefit, did you?"

"They forgave us!" Riku cheered. The boy was in heaven. Not only had Axel's plan worked, but now Roxas seemed to have lightened up a bit.

"Axel, you're a genius!"

"Heh, did you ever doubt me?" The redhead replied cooly.

"For a while, yes, but with the way things worked out, maybe I should trust you more often!"

"You should." Axel stated matter-of-factly.

"I feel like I could kiss you right now!"

"Woah, woah." Axel grimaced. "Save that for Sora."

Riku's cheeks burned.
"Will you stop teasing me. It's getting old."

"Then stop acting like some adolescent girl."

Riku ignored him. He was too happy right now to defend himself and prove that, yes he was manly, and no, he never acted like some sissy little girl.

The aqua-eyed teen giggled madly.

Nope. Riku never acted girly in his life.

Too bad his heaven was about to be filled with storm clouds.

A/N: Roxas is an evil brother, yes he is. So I struggled on this chapter a bit because at first, I didn't want Roxas to apologize so soon, but then I realized that if he didn't, it would probably be hard to set things up later, so there you go! I hope I didn't make the characters to OOC here.

I love reviews. Review and I won't make Roxas kill Axel. Or maybe I will anyways. It might be amusing.

Suggestions/Any kind of feedback is loved