"Alright, I didn't sign up to eat with a bunch of dudes on my precious Saturday night."

Xion stands with a plate of hot chicken wings in one hand while the other hand rests on her hip. She stares with a blank expression at the four masculine figures who sit on the round table at the corner of the bustling restaurant. A spot is even made for her between a certain spiky-brunet and a spiky-blond, something she would have appreciated if she was informed about who her company was beforehand. Her eyes immediately shoot themselves at Axel, who only gives her a sheepish smile in response.

"One thing led to another, so," Axel attempts to offer as an explanation. "It was intended to be only you, me, and Roxas, if the intent makes a difference." Because she wants to start devouring her food, she lets it go and nudges right in between Sora and Roxas. She sits across Riku, who is not as pleased as the others to see her, but keeps it from showing on his face too much. He isn't the type of person to hold a grudge, but the girl really pushed all his buttons last week.

"No celery sticks?" Sora jokes as he eyes her lack of veggies on her plate. "That's surprising, 'cause—"

"You make fun of my last name one more time, and ooo, I'll give you celery sticks alright," Xion growls as she picks up a chicken wing and begins to rip the meat off the bones with her teeth. Sora chuckles as he holds his hands up in surrender before digging in as well.

Riku observes the tomboy. Not only is it her fashion and her manner of speaking, but the way she eats her food also screams nothing feminine about her. Even with a table full of masculine young men, she fits right in.

No, Riku, you're supposed to treat every single girl like a flower. Don't be mean. He watches as Xion talks to Axel with a mouth full of chicken. Women are delicate flowers. He observes how Xion takes a paper towel and just swipes it across her mouth instead of dabbing it. Riku, you love all types of women.

"Riku, you okay there, buddy?" Roxas's voice snaps him back to reality. The blond waves a finger at his untouched chicken wings and questions him with a brow. "You gonna eat? If not, I'll gladly eat them for you."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm good," Riku replies back with a roll of his eyes before he joins everyone in eating.

"Maybe I should've brought Namine," Sora comments as he surveys the people sitting with him on the table. "I think this is the first time we've ever hung out together as one group despite hearing so much about each other. Axel, I'm always hearing about you from Riku and Roxas, but I don't really see you around much."

"Same but with Xion," Roxas hums. Xion's ears perk up at the mention of her name. He smiles cordially at her. "Always hearing about you from Axel. Friends since high school?"

"Yup. Brother since freshman year?"

"You bet'cha."

"Likewise, Sora. Roxas and Riku are always bubbling about how much of a hottie you are, inside and out," Axel smirks as he scans the boy from top to bottom. He even looks underneath the table to complete his evaluation. He blows a low-whistle as he nods his head in approval. "They aren't wrong. You don't know how gay they can get when you're the topic of interest."

"Not true," Riku and Roxas simultaneously retorts back. The two share a look however—Axel isn't wrong. There were so many times where the two young men had to send telepathic signals to each other in order to keep each other from melting from Sora's smile. He truly has a dangerous power, this kid.

"Please," Sora laughs, embarrassed that his friends would ever think of him that way. Guys don't call each other hot, or so he thinks. He should read Roxas's and Riku's messages to each other someday. "Riku's the real MVP here in the looks category. Can't possibly compete with him."

"He already knows that. I don't think he needs an additional ego boost," Xion butts in right when Riku is about to thank Sora. His eye twitches by the slightest—did this girl have some sort of problem with him? Despite jokes concerning his "womanizing" activities, Riku dated all his past partners wholeheartedly, and he is quite modest about his looks. Hence, he does not have an ego.

"Don't worry about it, dude," he hears Axel say quietly only to him. The flame-head must've seen his eye twitch or the imaginary fumes coming out of his ears. "It's all friendly banter. She's just like that. No harm, my man, no harm."

"Gotcha," Riku mumbles beneath his breath. He doesn't want to ruin the dinner for everyone else, so he keeps his lips sealed from roasting back. However, when he sees her take out her phone to take a selfie to send to friends, he accidentally slips out, "Oh, so you can be a girl sometimes." Thankfully, he had said it underneath his breath, for Xion does not catch it.

"You have something to comment about, hm?" she challenges him, eyebrow raised. Riku shakes his head and sips his drink.

"Nothing, nothing."

"Peace," Sora says with two fingers raised as he leans close enough to be in view of her camera. He does this because he heard what Riku said and wants to quickly change the topic since he doesn't want the two of them to suddenly start brawling. Sora makes a mental note to ask Riku later about what the is deal between the two; he never knew that they were acquaintances. Sora does not know that he has another thing coming for him.

Xion snaps the picture right when he comes in, causing a small scowl to appear in her face.

"Didn't know you had a habit of photobombing, Sora," she mutters as she puts it on her twenty-four hour feed away. It is a nice picture of her with the perfect lighting even with Sora ruining it, so she isn't going to retake it.

"But I do know that you're a carnivore," Sora states as a genuine comment as he looks at her plate of well-finished chicken wings. She is the first to finish in the table with squeaky clean bones. "Carnivore Kales. Crap, I just made the best nickname ever."

The whole table does not hold their laughter in as Xion gives Sora a glare that could kill. She is indeed undergoing the rite of passage in becoming one of Sora's targets. Once again, it is an unexpected trait of Sora's—to poke fun at his friends from time to time despite being the nice guy. The jokes he comes up with are actually funny too, so combined with his reputation as a gentleman, he is excused from all accusations of being a meanie. What a double-edged sword, Roxas muses.

"Spring break's in two weeks. You know what that means," Axel says to everyone with a suggestive wiggle of his brows, but it is mostly Riku who understands the context. Sora scrunches his face slightly in mock disgust. When Axel and Riku are on the same page about something, it could only mean one thing—party.

"I've heard things about you, Axel. Many, many things," Sora repeats his earlier statement, this time meaning something completely different. He has seen many things on Riku's feed whenever he goes out to party, and boy, the flamehead becomes something else under the influence of alcohol. The last thing he remembered seeing was Axel twerking on a door.

"Oh, have you?" Axel grins mischievously as he picks up another wing to devour. "You in?"

"Oh, I'll pass. I don't party," Sora lightly chuckles with a shake of his head. He takes a wing and casually places it on Xion's plate, not wanting her to just sit there while everyone continues to eat. He does it as if it's a natural thing to do, so he fails to notice how Xion gives him a slightly confused look. Nonetheless, she accepts it. "Well, I can be your DD. I'm always the DD since I have one of your species as a housemate."

"That's right—you don't party, Sora," Roxas says, finally realizing that fact. "Oof, considering you're Riku's best friend, I would've expected the opposite."

"I mean, he used to accompany me. But then he said something about not liking alcohol one day and just stopped," Riku clarifies with a shrug of his shoulders. "Which I respect. No problem there."

"Yup," Sora responds, popping the "p." To be specific, it isn't the alcohol; it is just the party setting that he isn't fond of. He vaguely begins to remember the sole reason as to why that is and mentally sighs. Wouldn't want to repeat the same mistake. He notices Xion's empty glass of water and grabs the pitcher to fill it up before pouring some for himself.

"Um, what are you doing?" Xion blurts out her question, catching Sora off guard. She feels uncomfortable by Sora's seemingly-kind gestures. It is not something people usually do for her, so she is not used to it.

"Huh? What do you mean?" he asks, not at all catching the hint of what she is talking about.

"He likes to take care of people, don't mind him," Roxas grins, knowing what Xion is referring to. He knows because he has been there before. When he first ate with Sora and Riku at a local burger joint, he was completely stumped as to how his plate of fries seemed to get restocked every time he looked down. It was until he saw Sora doing the same to Riku that he realized that it had been him that kept the supply coming.

"Oh, sorry. I do it out of habit," Sora sheepishly grins as he places the pitcher back over to the side. "Sorry if it made you uncomfortable."

"You're good. I won't complain about getting more meat," she says as she sticks out her tongue. "Give it all to me."

Because of Sora's initiation, everyone donates Xion one wing for the fun of it. Of course, except Riku. He plops his last one right into his mouth without a second thought. No one comments on this since no one wants to spark another fire between the two.

"Speaking of drinks. Y'all down for tonight?" Axel suggests. "We are at the heart of bars in this area of Twilight City. Would be a shame if we missed out on a rare outing like this with all of us here."

"I finished all my exams, so I'm down," Roxas says as he leans back onto his chair. With a stomach full of chicken, he wouldn't mind a drink.

"Chicken always goes with drinks for me," Xion agrees as she chugs her glass of water.

"Oof, I want to go too, but I—"

"I'm always DD, remember? I also don't mind the bar setting, so. Go crazy. I'll drive everyone back home." Sora interrupts Riku. "Hope you guys didn't go by car here though, or else you would have to leave it here over night."

"Bussed here," Xion answers.

"Subway," Axel and Roxas answers as well.

Sora laughs. "Perfect."

~.~.~

"Huh, I didn't know Xion knew Sora well enough to hang out with him on her precious Saturday night," Selphie mutters mostly to herself as the girls do each other's hair and make-up just for the fun of it. It is another girl's Saturday night out again, but this time at Selphie's apartment. "She always complains about hanging out with me on a Saturday night."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Namine asks as she curls Olette's hair. Everyone pulls their attention over to Selphie's phone. Lo and behold, it's a picture of Xion and Sora at some sort of restaurant. Sora is a bit blurred though. He must've just popped in last minute. His smile is ever still radiant though.

"Surprising duo, mhm," Selphie says with a nod.

"Oh, he said something about eating out with Axel and the dudes tonight," Namine explains, fluffing up Olette's hair with her hands. "Xion probably just got dragged in."

"Wow, Axel and Sora together? Unlikely duo. Isn't that guy known to be super crazy? Heard he likes to play with fire a lot." Selphie shivers. "Fire no good. Almost burned my house down before when I was young. I got too curious with a lighter."

"He's fine when he's sober, is what I hear from Sora, who hears it from Roxas," Namine assures, using her index finger to trace the path of connection in the air.

"Hey, that's analogous! Sora is to Riku while Roxas is to Axel. They both have their own handful with those two wild boys," Olette notices, amused about the similarities between Sora and Roxas. "They're both really nice too. Sora's just a tad bit nicer, but while Roxas is more on the silly side, but he's still quite a guy himself."

Kairi is over on the floor as she does a few light yoga stretches. She smiles as she hears her friends talk. A girls' Saturday night out is never complete without some sort of boy talk.

"Ooo, I don't know Roxas that well, but I can assure you that I wouldn't mind tapping that," Selphie giggles, earning many rolls of the eyes. "What? I speak truth! Sora would be too, but uh, someone already called dibs real early in the game."

Kairi almost loses her cool for a second as she nearly chokes on her saliva. She clears her throat instead as everyone's attention is on her.

"Tell me why you guys haven't hung out since the BGC social," Namine deadpans, signaling for Selphie to come to her and have her turn of getting her hair done. "Tell me why he's having a boy's night out plus Xion when he has a girlfriend now. He has all the time in the world with the dudes!"

"I second this," Olette agrees. "He's really close with his friends, I see." She stretches out "really" for the dramatic emphasis.

"We never got to it," is Kairi's simple answer. Everything about the redhead and her relationship is a mystery. That night at the social, the only thing she disclosed was the fact that they were finally an item. However, she gave nothing on how they even met, how they got together, or what even happened outside. None of the girls push it either. The auburn-haired is scary when she goes silent.

"I can't even imagine Sora as a boyfriend. Xion legit thought he was asexual for the longest time ever," Namine laughs, finding that super, super funny. "Something about how a person would explicitly want to get inside his pants and he still wouldn't get the hint."

"Yup, I was there when she said that," Kairi chuckles, standing up so that she could stretch her legs. She easily does a split and stays in that position for a while, never failing to impress her friends with her athleticity. "I don't think he is."

"You don't think? Girl, you should know," Selphie exasperates. Kairi only shrugs. None of them know how their relationship is just a test, but Kairi doesn't plan on explaining to them either. She whips out her phone and scrolls through the short messages he sent her throughout the week. She had told him to text her, but she doesn't mind the online messages either. She specifically reads through the messages he sent her today.

How was your morning today? Hope it went well. 12:38 p.m.

A lot of studying to do for finals? Good luck :) 3:45 p.m.

Out with a couple of friends today. Hope you have fun with your friends tonight too. 8:12 p.m.

She mentally sighs. His messages are always brief and simple. There isn't a lot to them.

Going on her online stories, her eyes catch onto Riku's feed. The young man had randomly added her last week after the social on the day she popped in their apartment for a brief visit. She saw no harm to it, so she accepted it. Rather, it was good; she is getting somewhat acquainted to Sora's friends.

Opening the story, she blinks at what is being shown.

"Chug, chug, chug!" Riku's voice screams in the background.

Shown in the video is Sora in the middle looking very unamused yet amused at the same time while Xion and Roxas are by both his sides downing a heavy shot of liquor. When they finish, they instantly take a hefty exhale. Roxas scrunches his face in pure discomfort as he lets the liquor sink in while Xion simply fans herself. Sora laughs at her as he fans her with both his hands in a silly manner. She simply swats it away and says something about not being weak, only making him laugh even more. The camera abruptly moves to the side to show Axel, who asks for a "real challenge" instead of these weak dares. It then moves back to Sora, who can't stop his atrocious laughter at a joke he made. Roxas also joins him in his howling. The target must've been Xion, for she shoves Sora by his shoulder in mock hate. Roxas is also harshly pushed by the domino effect as he bends over Sora laughing.

"What the hell are you watching, Kairi? I'm hearing monkeys over there!" Selphie exclaims. Kairi shuts her phone and puts it face down on the ground. She shakes her head and gives a small smile.

"It's nothing. It's also getting late. I'll probably head home in an hour."

~.~.~

"Okay, it's time for the honesty game since we got a good load of alc in our system. This is more fun with more people, but five people is good enough. Point to whoever you think fits the category!" Axel grins menacingly. He obviously enjoys exposing how judgmental a person can be.

"I hope I don't get the bad fingers," Roxas mutters. "Sours the confidence levels, you know."

"Don't worry. I think you're great, Roxas. No game can change that," Sora says to boost the blond's spirits up. Riku and Roxas at this instant shoot each other a look in order to keep their hearts from melting. God damn it, Sora Hikari, god damn it.

"Let's start with something easy then. Point to who you think… is the cleanest person. Three, two, one…"

Everyone suddenly points to Sora while he points to Roxas.

"What? No, that's not true. Well, okay, it's not like I'm not clean," Sora corrects himself, "But n'aw, I have a few things laying around on the floor too. Roxas here looks spiffy though. No lie!"

"I think people are pointing to you not only 'cause you're clean physically…" Xion attempts to explain to the clueless guy. He doesn't understand what she means by that. To mess with him, no one bothers to explain anyway.

"Most likely to fail at scoring a date with a girl—or guy," Roxas adds in the end to include Xion. "Three, two, one."

Two fingers point at Axel, one points to Sora, and the other two points to Xion.

"Discrimination!" Axel roars with a bang of his fist onto the table. Of course, he keeps his voice low enough to not attract attention. "I'm a freaking hottie here, man!"

"Not after they see you twerking on a door," Sora muses, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

"He's right on that one," Roxas agrees, having pointed his finger at the pyromaniac as well. "I think you should tone it down on the red hair too—it's too intimidating."

"And what are you trying to say with this here, missy?" Sora questions as he gives a joking side glare towards Xion and her finger.

Xion simply rolls her eyes. "I'll admit—you're a nice guy, but I don't think you got the emotional capacity to ask a girl out right. You're just that 'one nice guy.' I ain't feeling any type of romantic aura from you."

"Why do I feel like she is making a great point?" Axel sides with Xion after Sora's accusing finger.

"I should be offended, but I'm not. Gee, I wonder why," Sora laughs. It's probably because he is the only one who is not intoxicated. He could tell the others were with their slightly slurred speech.

"What I'm truly wondering about is why these two knuckleheads are pointing at me." Xion turns her attention to Riku and Axel, who still had their fingers pointed at the raven-haired girl.

"Because the Xion I know doesn't score the date. She accepts it," Axel lets out a hearty laughter. Xion shoots him a finger gun and clicks her tongue in approval.

"That's my bestie. Knows me too well."

Riku visibly cringes, something he doesn't usually do, but since he's almost half out of it, Xion is able to spot it with her keen eyes.

"Got something to say to me, buddy?" she challenges.

"How could a tomboy like you score a date?" he laughs, his buzzed self somehow finding it funny. No one really laughs with him though as he lets his mouth run. "Well, maybe you would dress a bit nicer by then, but."

"Is there something wrong with how I dress?" she asks. Her voice is cool and calm, which spells bad news for Axel.

"Nothing, nothing," Riku smirks as he downs another shot.

"He's getting drunk, don't take what he says seriously," Sora informs Xion quietly next to her. He could see how she's bothered my Riku's comment. Surprisingly, she heeds Sora's words and doesn't add fuel to the fire.

"Alright, next! My turn," Roxas calls out, taking a small sip of his drink. "Most likely to… be left out on a trip."

This one goes to Axel.

"Looks good in anything they wear," Riku says next.

A good majority points to Roxas, catching him off guard.

"Really?" he questions.

"You're sixty-five percent legs. Good shit, dude, good shit." Axel winks at Roxas.

Sora nods in agreement. "He's right. It's the legs, man. Huge factor."

Roxas rubs a finger underneath his nose modestly. "Gee, thanks guys."

"Alright, it's time for the true test of masculinity," Xion smirks, gulping down another shot. She isn't kidding when she says she isn't weak. "Most likely to fit the cute concept. Three, two, one."

Sora wins majority votes for the second time that night since they started the game.

"Excuse me?" he coughs out. His finger is the only one that points to someone else aka Xion. He looks at everyone in disbelief, not understanding how he basically got a unanimous vote in the cute category. "Alright, now I really deserve an explanation for this one. C'mon, guys."

"I don't know, there's something about you that isn't as manly as everyone else here," Axel gives his explanation first. He waves his hands around Sora's figure for emphasis. "There's this gentleness to you that I cannot pinpoint. I swear I'm not bullshitting you."

"I just think you fit more on the cute side than the hot side. For hot, my vote obviously has to go to Riku," Roxas says with a nod to confirm his thought. "Yup, you're more cute than hot."

"I mean, I wouldn't mind going by handsome either, you know. There's a middle ground for everything," Sora complains. Being called cute by girls is alright since their definition of cute basically means he's good-looking, but not by three males. "I'm the one getting his confidence levels soured."

"You're like, that high school heartthrob that every girl needs to have a crush on at least once in their life," Xion pitches in. "But that's high school. You know how people peak in high school? Yeah, that's the image I'm talking about right now."

"Peak?" Sora repeats with a flat tone. "What the hell, are you saying that I peaked in high school? Dude, you didn't even know me back then!"

"But I know you now, don't I?"

"…"

"You're cute, Sora. Take it or leave it," Riku sniggers. Sora narrows his eyes at the silver-haired jokingly before accepting his fate. Roxas points at Sora and then at Xion.

"Want to explain your vote for Xion? Wow, she doesn't even seem phased that you voted for her," Roxas whistles.

"What's there to be phased about? He's obviously shitting," Xion says with a roll of her eyes. "I mean, who else is he going to vote for? Are any of you cute?"

"Hey, don't speak for me here," Sora chuckles. He gives Xion a casual look over—Xion tries her best not to show her discomfort at this notion—and shrugs. "This is totally not a sexist comment, but c'mon. She's a girl, and all girls fit the cute concept more than any of us here on this freaking table. I'm surprised you guys didn't vote for her."

"Gentleman Sora always has to make an appearance at the party, huh?" Roxas muses.

"Ugh, stop saying weird things. You're creeping me out," Xion attempts to laugh off, but this only catches Sora's curiosity.

"What do you mean 'weird'?" Sora furrows his eyebrows.

"Please, the girly image doesn't fit me. Stop saying things that aren't true."

"What's not true? That you're a girl? Okay, I'm not that blind," Sora defends. He has been called blind so many times by so many people. He isn't that bad of an airhead! "I don't think fitting a girly image or not determines your gender, silly."

"Y-yeah?" Xion stutters, not sure on how to respond to Sora. This is the first time anyone has ever said any of these things to her. She gulps another shot to avoid speaking and lets out a super huge exhale as she feels her throat burn from the liquor. Man, alcohol really heats you up.

When Sora opened his mouth to play the next round, Riku decides to join in on the discussion at this moment.

"Man, she might be a girl, but she sure doesn't look like one. She has tomboy spelled all over her," Riku decides to join at this moment. Sora shoots him a look to warn him about his drunk mouth, but he doesn't see it. Riku is honestly a nice guy, but he starts to become a major asshole whenever alcohol gets into his system. "Sora, you're just too nice sometimes, you know."

"Hey, maybe you should lay off on the drinks, dude. You're getting kinda wobbly," Roxas laughs nervously as he steadies the guy in his seat. It was his attempt to change the subject, but this time, Xion isn't going to have anymore.

"Alright, dude, if you have something to say to me, then say it directly to my face instead of dicking around like this," she snaps, slamming the shot cup in her hand harshly down onto the table. This spooks Riku immensely—he didn't expect her to snap in half.

"Hey, I should be saying that to you," Riku hisses, slamming his cup in the same manner she did. "Wanna tell me why you're bitchy only to me? Girl, I don't even know you!"

"Alright, I think it's time for me to drive you guys home," Sora nervously says as he checks the time on his phone. It is already past midnight—a good time to go home anyway. "I think we've had enough fu—"

"Wait, scratch that. I accidentally called you a girl, tomboy."

Slap!

Sora and Roxas had to steady Xion the moment she stood up to prevent her from falling limp onto the floor. Riku stared into her raging eyes, awestruck as he felt the numbing pain on his right cheek.

She had slapped him across the face.

"You think because you're so hot that you can just label girls like that?" she hisses. Sora holds onto one of her arms while Roxas holds on to the other. They swear that the moment they let her go, she will just climb over the table and beat Riku up. "Well guess what—"

"Xion, it's just his alcohol talk, don't take him seri—"

"Just because this punk's drunk, he can just speak shit? Let me go!" She roughly rips out of Sora's and Roxas's grasp and holds her ground. She gives one last snarl at Riku before she wobbles her way out of the bar on her own two feet. Sora looks between Xion and Riku, wondering who to take care of first, before patting Roxas on the back.

"Take him back to the car along with Axel. He too doesn't look too hot," Sora advises. Roxas had watched himself the entire time, so he isn't gone as the other two.

"Yeah, we'll be right out," Roxas assures before Sora chases after Xion outside.

"Okay, okay, let's not go anywhere far," Sora says once he catches up to her. He grabs her by her elbow to stop her from walking. He puts a little bit too much force behind it and almost swings her into the pole of a streetlight. "Oops, sorry."

"Where the hell is your car? Take me home!" she demands. She is barely able to stand on her two feet without the help of Sora holding onto her elbows.

"You walked past it. It's over here," Sora calmly explains as he leads her slowly to his car while walking backwards.

"Your friend is a fucking bitch," Xion curses as she allows Sora to lead her. "He's the biggest dick I've ever met in my life."

"Yeah, I know that what he did was a dick move, but he honestly and usually isn't like that," Sora tries to defend Riku, but he doubts it'll go through her drunken mind. He'll talk to both of them later about it. Separately. Not together, or else they'll claw each other. "Maybe cut him some slack?"

"You're too fucking nice, you wimp," Xion spits. "Watch. You're going to get exploited one day because of how nice you are. Don't come crying to me when scammers raid your house in the near future."

"Exploit me," he chuckles to humor her. "Alright, watch out, there's a step here." Sora feels like he's walking a toddler as he helps her pass by the uprooted sidewalk. "Man, you really walked far despite how drunk you are. How many shots did you even drink?"

"Only weaklings keep count."

"…Right."

"…Thanks."

"Hm?" Sora likes how she just totally changed the tone of her voice. "For what?"

Before she could answer him, they are already by the car with the guys waiting for them.

"I got her," Roxas says as he takes Xion off of Sora so that he could unlock the car. Xion bumps into Roxas's chest during the exchange, briefly giving him a nice whiff of her shampoo. She unexpectedly smells nice.

"Roxas, put her in shotgun. I don't want them to suddenly start brawling when they see each other," Sora instructs as he helps Riku and Axel into the back seats.

"Gotcha."

Getting them home is easier than getting them inside the car. The moment all four take their seat in Sora's car, they nearly knock out. Sora decides to drop Riku off first despite living with him since the guy is near puking, and he doesn't want anymore puke in his car. It has happened way too many times.

"Hey," Sora reaches over to Xion's side during a redlight to pull out a paper bag from a pocket of the car. He tosses it over to the back. "Make sure he doesn't throw up."

"Gotcha," Roxas slurs as he puffs the bag up and holds it near Riku.

Once Sora dumps Riku inside their apartment, he drops off Roxas and Axel at theirs.

"Seriously appreciating you for being the designated driver, bro," Roxas sleepily mutters as he claps the brunet on the back.

"Of course. Anytime." Sora helps him swing Axel's arm over his shoulders before bidding the two farewell. He climbs back into his car and makes his way towards his final destination. "Where do you live, Xion?" The instant he asks that question out loud, he remembers exactly where the girl lives and begins to get nervous.

"You should know," Xion's barely-audible voice sounds. "Radiant Bridge Apartments."

"Ah, that's right. Just sleep. It's probably going to be another ten minutes, so."

Xion follows his advice and is quick to fall into slumber.

Sora lets out a long breath as he waits for the red light to turn green. Kairi is going to get a surprise, unplanned, nightly visit from him. He struggles to make a decision on whether he should message her beforehand to inform her about the horribly drunk Xion or not, but since he is driving, he apologizes to her in his mind instead.

He had not told her about Xion's sudden company tonight. He had mentioned the guys, and that was it. Her bewildered expression the moment she opens the door to him and a half-dead Xion pops into his mind, and he feels even worse. It's literally one a.m. in the morning. Is she even still awake?

Sora feels guilty for being a little bit eager to see her despite the unruly time. He had not seen her all week since the social, simply because they had just been busy. Messages couldn't beat real time interaction either, so those didn't do much to spark anything exciting between them. To make the situation even worse, he didn't even know what to say in those messages either. They were brief and general messages, something he regrets sending. But he couldn't help it—she was just so hard to talk to. Deep down, he knows he's not playing the boyfriend role quite correctly—not with the way he becomes a little bit shyer than usual whenever she's involved.

"Fuck, relationships are difficult," he curses to himself as he turns into her apartment complex. He parks at an empty spot and hopes no security guard will give him a ticket for the lack of a permit.

"Are we here?" Xion mumbles as she opens the door and takes a foot out. Sora circles around to assist her before shutting the door closed and locking his car with a press of a button.

"Yup. Want to show me where your apartment is? I forgot."

In less than a minute, the nervousness inside him grows at an alarming rate as he rings the bell to their apartment. I hope she doesn't freak out.

Within ten seconds, the door opens, revealing a Kairi clad in a pair of shorts and a plain white tee. The sleepiness that is evident on her face quickly gets replaced by surprise as she looks between Sora and Xion. However, it doesn't last for long, and she takes a step back inside to make space for them.

"Come on in," she greets, sounding completely normal. This was not the reaction Sora was expecting. The redhead doesn't look at all taken aback by his sudden appearance nor by Xion's drunken self. It is almost as if she knew and expected this to happen and simply waited for Xion to come home.

"Sorry for the intrusion," he says with a weak smile as he takes off his shoes and helps Xion take off hers.

"I'm good, dude, I'm good. Thanks for driving me back," Xion slurs as she swats Sora's hands off of her. Sora lets her go once she seems stable enough. Grumbling incoherent words underneath her breath, the raven-haired girl doesn't spare the two anymore attention as she wobbles past the living room and into her bedroom. She closes her door with a harsh slam, telling Sora that she is still moody over what happened. Sora sighs and places his two hands on his hips, already feeling a headache at the thought of somehow solving the issue she has with Riku. Drama is the last thing he wants, but if its for his dear friend…

"Thanks for bringing her home safely," Kairi's quiet voice breaks him out of his thinking. His eyes come back over to Kairi, who is rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. He spots a blanket and a closed laptop over by the sofa in the living room; she must've fell asleep there while waiting for Xion to come back home. Guilt encompasses him.

"Sorry for not shooting you a message about it. I was kind of, er, occupied with other things," Sora apologizes, feeling bad for making her stay up while not knowing exactly when Xion was going to come home.

Kairi shakes her head and covers her yawn with a hand. "It's fine. I fell asleep only ten minutes ago anyway, so."

"Sorry about the unplanned visit too. Everything tonight was kind of spontaneous."

"It's fine."

"Oh, and I'm sorry for not—"

"I said it's fine," Kairi cuts him off, preventing him from finishing his thoughts. He shuts his mouth and stops his incessant apologies. She sounds pissed. He then looks directly at her face. And she looks pissed too. Not wanting to bother her even more on this late, late night, he takes a step back and shoves a foot into his shoe.

"I'll make my way out now," Sora announces his leave as he shoves his other foot into his other shoe. "It's quite late. You can go to sleep easy now." Just when he is about to bend down, tie his shoelaces, and scram right out of her apartment to escape her very intimidating gaze, her hand stops him.

"You can stay a little bit more if you want. Are you… completely sober?" she asks.

"I didn't drink," Sora quickly corrects her. He isn't sure why he feels the need to definitely correct her on that. He figures that he doesn't want to leave a bad impression and cause her to think of him as some wild alcoholic, especially after that one night between them. "If I wasn't, I wouldn't be driving."

"Ah, of course," she lets go of his shoulder and lets her arm fall back to her side. They enter an awkward silence, and that is when Sora realizes how he didn't even address her offer about staying.

"Um, I think I'll just head home," he says. To him, he doesn't say anything wrong. It's late, she looks tired, and he's tired; he doesn't want to cause any more of an inconvenience. So, when Kairi's expression seems to harden a tad bit, he wonders what he did wrong.

"Alright, then. Good night. Drive home safely," she says. Sora has a hard time deciphering the tone of her voice. A part of him believes that it is just the weariness seeping through her voice, but his gut believes something else. He doesn't know which part is correct, but he does know one thing now: he doesn't want to leave feeling like this.

"Actually…" he slips his feet out of his shoes and checks the time on his phone. "I'll chill for a while. If that's okay with you."

Sora swears her eyes light up by the tiniest bit as she tilts the ends of her mouth into the smallest of smiles.

"That's okay with me," and she leads him over to the living room where the sofa is and sits him there. He could hear his heart beat steadily in his ears. The whole setting is intimate with the way the apartment is dead quiet with only the shuffling of their movements being heard. Alone in the peaceful apartment with her, Sora wonders what he is even going to do here.

"Did you have fun?" Kairi starts to ask as she takes the blanket off from the armrest of the sofa, wraps it around her, and plops right next to Sora. He notices how she decides to sit really close to him despite the huge amount of space available to her—he doesn't complain.

"Yeah, I guess," he answers half-heartedly, remembering how sourly it ended. "It was nice to hang out with everyone after exams." Of course, he doesn't go into the details with Kairi. Maybe another time, but not now. "Other then that, it wasn't that eventful. How was your day?"

Sora mentally kicks himself in the shin when he asks that question. Why couldn't he ask a better question other than the same old "how's your day?" He feels bad for Kairi; she must've found it really boring to talk to him. He always tried to expand their online conversations outside of what the other did in their day, but he never found good timing to do so. He blames it on the fact that he barely knows this girl at all, so he finds it unnatural to just suddenly dive deep into hearty topics.

"It was fine. Just a regular Saturday." Her short responses do not help either. He wonders if this girl actually likes him. She hasn't really shown any major signs of it, making him believe that whatever happened between them last weekend was all a lie.

"Ah, I see," is all he can come up with.

The two simply bask in each other's presence for what Sora deems as an eternity. His body is squirmish from the awkward atmosphere as he begins to wonder why she even invited him into her home knowing fairly well how it was going to turn out. She too is just on her phone, tapping away to something probably more interesting than him.

Maybe this isn't going to work, Sora dares to think. Yes, it has only been a week since they started their relationship, but at the rate they're approaching it at, he doubts much can be done. Conversations are hard, and even being around each other is uncomfortable; there seems to be almost no room for him to learn more about her. He finds himself an easily-approachable guy, so being this awkward with someone is a new experience for Sora. The potential he saw last weekend dims away as he mentally sighs.

"I think I'm going to head home now," Sora announces once again after another five minutes of near silence. "It really is getting la—"

"I'm sorry, I'm just nervous," Kairi blurts out, effectively cutting him off once more at her sudden declaration. "Don't leave like that." Sora widens his eyes by a bit. The way her eyes look deep into his causes him to stay rooted in his seat. He shifts on the sofa so that he could face towards her direction a little bit more.

"Don't leave like what?"

"Like you're done."

Okay, I didn't intend to end this chapter here on this kind-of cliffhanger (I don't think it's a cliffhanger but I'm the writer, so idk, correct me if I'm wrong LOL), but I realized this chapter was getting a little bit too long and voila, I'm staying up past 3 am once more so THIS GOTTA END HERE HAHA. Thank you to the ones who have left a review, and thank you for those who are continuing to steadily read this fic! I see the stable numbers of readers! Much appreciate, so hehe.

Other then that, I'm ready to knock out, as I type this, so hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

PEACE