After much Haitus, Chapter something! --Goes to check the chapter number--

"Namine!"

Namine stopped to watch Ashe bend over and catch her breath, not for the first time envying her friend for her high-born status. The pile of birthday presents intended for Sora to open the night before lay unopened in the hall as of yet, but Ashe's had been easily recognizable. After all, who could mistake the package for anything but a kayak, and who else had the ability to buy one?

"Um… Ashe, I'm glad to see you, but…" Namine held open the door to the shower room as an explanation.

"That can wait!" Ashe pressed forward and grabbed Namine's hand, "You've got to listen to this before Selphie arrives!" With no other ulterior motive, she began pulling her friend towards the wing of the manor designated for the men. Holding Namine outside an out-of-the-way bathroom and motioning her to silence, Ashe held her ear theatrically to the door, Namine followed suit and made out Irvine and Riku talking in a hush on the other side of the door.

"I saw them going in together, and they were both looking a little… you know… flushed…" Ashe winked.

"What were you doing here anyway?"

"Looking for someone." Ashe again waved the young blonde into stillness.

Namine heard nothing more than a few grunts and a slight bang before they started conversing again.

'So, Riku, you've never done anything like this before?'

'Yeah, you have a problem with that?'

'Well, no, but I kind of imagined you would have started this way before I did…'

'Well, even when I was with Sora, it wasn't really noticeable… But now… there's no hiding it, I guess.'

'Okay, well, I'll get you started on technique. First, grip this thing by the handle.'

'Whoa… Feels a little weird.'

'Nothing like a keyblade, huh?'

'Yeah… well, this is softer.'

'Cool, then let's get the white stuff on you, pretty boy…'

'Hey, what, you're doing it too?'

'Man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.'

Namine and Ashe detached from the door, with the Nobody clamping her hand over her mouth to stifle the combined sounds of utter shock and insane giggling from emerging through her lips. Whereas the young 'princess' was simply kneeling on the floor doing goldfish impressions, before turning to Namine and whispering, "Do you think Selphie would mind?"

"Would you?"

"Good point…" Ashe flashed a grin and put her ear back to the old wood.

'Hey, Riku, softer strokes, man. You ain't cleaning no onion, that's a tender area.'

'Sorry, Irvine. But it's hard to control the urge to go faster, you know what I mean? I just want to get this over and done with.'

'That's true, but when I first practiced on myself I ended up doing a lot of damage, now lets go for the mouth!'

'I dunno if I can do that yet…'

'Don't be stupid! You've got good control!'

Ashe's face was blooming into a brilliant crimson as Riku or Irvine began making puffing noises at irregular intervals. Namine simply pressed her ear harder into the wood.

'That's good, Riku, real good.'

'Mmph.'

'Okay, now, a few more strokes and… hang on, lemme just finish that bit for you.'

'Fffpt, right.'

A few seconds passed in silence.

'Ow!'

'Dammit! Sorry Riku!'

'Watch where you're waving that thing, you almost put my eye out!'

'Heh, my bad. See? Apart from your face getting covered in gunk, you're fine!'

'This stuff tastes like crap!'

'Better get used to it, man. Now wash it off, put on the scent, get toilet paper for my little accident, and you're fine till tomorrow!'

The door burst out, sending Ashe to land neatly on her rump with Namine in tow, leaving Irvine standing shirtless with a few splotches of shaving foam covering his face and astonishment radiating from his eyes.

"What are you two doing here? You get lost or something?" He finally blurted out.

Ashe gave a look to Namine before pointing an accusatory finger at the Cowboy's chest, "Don't you ask us questions, we heard everything!"

"Everything?"

"That's right! You can't just go and fool around with Riku, you've got Selphie!"

"Huh?!"

"Don't you 'huh' me! Admit it, he was sucking your-!"

"Irve? Who's making the racket?" Riku's voice rumbled from around the door as he circumvented the edge, frowning as he caught sight of the girls. "Do you mind?"

"Your-… your-…" Ashe's indictions petered out as her eyes ran up and down Riku's form like an elevator.

"My what?" Riku cocked his head, his curtain of silver hair flicking over his shoulder and hitching up his leaf-green board shorts. Namine noticed that the boy had rather larger streaks of foam adorning his chin and upper lip, and there was a thin cut under his chin that hadn't yet finished bleeding.

That; and the razor that he was twirling in his right hand caused her to doubt the entire episode entirely.

"Your first time shaving?" Namine inquired, her features beginning to fall.

Riku simply nodded, before turning back to the basin within.

Namine grabbed Ashe's shoulder, shaking her to attention and dragging her out to the female wing, leaving Irvine to scratch his head in confusion.

Ashe was grinning when Namine left her in her room, only electing to speak about 'sexy guy-on-guy bathroom action…' when questioned.

Half an hour later, Sora and the crew were seated around the huge oak table, trying to both cram in as much breakfast as was possible and recollect the series of events leading up to their defeat in T'en.

"… and then this huge flash of red shows up; and our bodies feel like they've caught on fire…"

"There was this lady in a golden toga…"

"This guy called A'si starts bragging to her…"

Feni and Barret listened intently, with the darker man occasionally making notes on a holographic PDA that he called up from his wristplate. Feni remained silent, for the most part, only asking questions when she felt something was missing from the story.

The others, Penelo, Tidus and the rest would comment every now and again, only to be angrily silenced by Roxas or Barret when they opened their mouths.

"… And your brother cut his head off, I felt I was going to throw up!"

"… They talked…"

"Something about an… 'amnesty', wasn't it?"

"Yeah, and then he told Riku to 'seek the Jive' or something."

"… Did something weird…"

"And here we are."

Silence reigned, until Barret threw up his hands in frustration and turned to Feni, "Sorry, pipsqueak, but this old man is finding all this really hard to follow."

Feni steeped her hands and rest her forehead against them for a minute, before electing to draw out a sigh and held her eyes at Riku. "What was the last thing he said?"

"Seek the Hive." Came Riku's curt reply.

"What's with your attitude?" Feni narrowed her eyes.

"You're hiding something."

"What would I hide?"

"His past. Why is he a wanted man?"

"I don't know anything about-"

"The news broadcast in T'en claims that he's a murderer and a rapist." This was followed by a short gasp from Penelo and a much louder yell from Barret. "I should've known!" He shouted into Feni's face, whereupon she jumped from her seat, backing away slowly until she bumped into the wall.

"We don't want a monster like that looking after our children." Barret growled, advancing with malice in his eyes.

"He was justified in it!"

"Nothing justifies murder!" Barret roared back. "And no excuse is good enough to cover for a killer!"

"Barret! Calm down!" Sora appealed from the table, rising and hurrying over to position himself between the two before the larger man brushed him out of the way, continuing to advance.

"You lied to us."

"No, the broadcast was nothing but propaganda." Feni's lip was trembling, her fists were balled and her stance was low. "He killed to avenge my honour, and I will stand by him for that."

"Where's your proof?"

"You want proof? Here!" Feni lifted the bottom of her t-shirt above her chest, unabashed at her exposed undergarments. Not that any were staring, all looked at the grotesque strip of scar tissue that curved from the sides of her abdomen, misshapen and obscenely pale.

Feni glared into Barret's eyes, her voice low and terrible. "When I was captured and interrogated, A'si was obliged under the HIST reconversion act to use any form of torture he saw fit to reform me to the Sylvaen construct, to use me as a tool against my brother. So he took my innocence from me, made me beg for forgiveness like a dog."

Her jaw tightened as she continued, "He toyed with my maiden-right before he violated me to the utmost limit, while his men watched and laughed and cheered. There was no orifice of mine that he did not subject to his sadistic pleasures, that did not bleed, and he ripped out my womb with his bare hands after he was spent, that no man could ever have me. When my brother heard of this travesty of jurisdiction, his rage was so complete that he lay the entire building they held me in to waste and escaped to the outer parameters of the dimensional boundaries to evade pursuit. Two hundred innocents died, but so did A'si, or so I thought until today."

"That was eight years ago, wasn't it?" Riku softly spoke from the far end of the table, "I first met Naba when he moved here eight years ago, he said that the air here would help his sister get better. And you don't look like you've aged a day since then, is that because…."

"That's right. And thanks for noticing." Feni smiled sadly, looking for all the world like her brother the night before as she let down her shirt, "He was not trained in body-order craft, so I clung to life by a finger, feverish and near-dead for a month before I could reassert my magicka augments and restore my body."

Her eyes lit up. "I am glad that he slew A'si again. May the bastard die a thousand deaths for what he did to me." She grinned. "What's done is done. Come, let us celebrate your birthday, Sora, before the moonshine corrodes through the bottles!"

This wasn't received well, as the revelation of the nature of the brutal world that the strange brother and sister came from began to dawn on the occupants of the room.

"What about…?" Kairi began.

"My brother? He'll be fine. Djava's on his side, and there's no stronger, wiser, more powerful Sylvaen in the history of ever!" She waved her hands around, "Plus, I wanna see what you…" here she jabbed a finger at Kairi's nose, "… got your boyfriend. Unless you've given him something already…?" and here her eyebrows waggled suggestively.

Sora's cheeks began to shade towards a cherry complexion as he remembered last night, and what might have happened had Roxas not interrupted so soon. "We're just good friends…" He muttered embarrassedly, so the general disbelief of all concerned and the immense amusement of Riku. Kairi didn't comment on the matter, instead showing an intense interest in the texture of her waffles.

The rest of the breakfast was finished in relative silence, with Roxas' almost mechanical chewing counterpointing with the tinkling and scraping of cutlery on plate, although Riku seemed to have a small matter on his mind as he toyed with his bacon. As Roxas and Selphie began clearing the table, Sora allowed a chuckling Wakka to blindfold him while Lulu and Quistis levitated the majority of the presents from the hall into the ballroom, leaving them in a great heap in the middle as Tidus and Vaan began ferrying the remaining gifts with glee.

Everyone took a seat at the mound, Sora the last to park himself of the polished marble. He removed his blindfold and could only gape in what could be charitably described as childish abandon. He reached forward and grabbed a fair-sized one at random, before realizing that it was stuck to a much smaller box with glue, about the size of a ring case. To spiky, from a much sexier spiky and a handsome spike-head. He read aloud, puzzling over the words for a second before inspiration clicked and he laughed, "Tidus? Wakka? Sexier? Yeah right!" to the chagrin of the two.

He opened the larger box, looking with curiosity at the crafted leather items within, "Gloves?" he looked over at Wakka.

"Ya man, Grip gloves! We figured we could use a goalie!" Smiled the Blitzball fanatic in reply.

"Nice! Thin, but they fit really well, cheers!"

"Yeah, well, with ten players in the blitz sphere, it gets warm pretty quick anyway, ya!"

"Not to mention yellow, heh heh heh…" Vaan chuckled as Penelo cuffed him from behind and Ashe pulled a face.

Sora gave him a warm smile before looking with caution at the smaller box. "Um, Tide, is this what I think it is?"

"Yes, oh, Sora, I just can't hold it in any longer! Marry me, you fool!" Tidus held a hand to his forehead in a melodramatic fashion, his other outstretched in supplication to the birthday boy as the others laughed in appreciation.

"A simple 'no' would have done." Sora remarked sulkingly as the lid came off; revealing a pendant similar to the one Tidus wore around his chest. Carved in sterling silver and shaped to represent a crown with a stylized key attached to the bottom of a chain, it looked like a masterpiece.

"I made it in metalwork, it's called Brotherhood, cause, you know…" Tidus' voice trailed off as he rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed at the attention he was receiving.

"Tidus, this is awesome. Really, seriously, this is fucking incredible. Thank you." Sora couldn't say much more, he had always thought of the boy as his sibling, so alike were they.

"Well, uh… Don't stop now, got a lot of presents, right?" Tidus coughed, then pushed another forward, where the tag proclaimed it Roxas'.

It was well wrapped, if slightly oddly shaped. Thought you needed a new look. Roxas.

"Clothes?" He asked, to which his nobody only shrugged.

Ten seconds later, the room was in an uproar as Sora held up his new item with equal parts confusion and growing dismay. It was not that the present was bad, as per se, indeed, it was considered extremely fashionable on the right people. How it would be considered on Sora, however, was open to debate, seeing as Roxas had given him a shocking black dress with a very provocative neckline.

"Eh… Roxas, is there something you should be telling me?" Sora's mouth was twitching at the edges, trying not to laugh.

"I must have put the tag on the wrong present…" Roxas slapped his forehead in the universal sign of absentmindedness.

"Then who was supposed to get this one?" Namine prodded him in the side, prising only an embarrassed chuckle from Roxas as he gathered up the offending article and folded it gently back into its protective bag.

"If you ain't too busy…" Barret tossed a small package at Sora's head, bouncing it off his forehead. Further unwrapping revealed a chrome-black cellphone, cruelly efficient in its curves and design.

"Isn't this…?"

"Yeah, it's the same make that Cloud uses. Make sure you actually answer the damn thing, fool! Chicken-head's a problem in that department." Barret growled, but his eyes were soft.

"Knowing the place you'll stick this if I didn't, I wouldn't dare!" Sora beamed.

The next gift was tagged We'll get you to visit through blackmail or bribe, you can't win! V + A & P.

Sora opened the lid, withdrawing free-booking airship tickets to Rabanastre, a voucher covering a year's subscription at the local gym-slash-dance-club and a book entitled Synthesizing for dummies. The Kayak in the hall was being left until the river twenty kilometers east ceased to flood.

"Heh, cool! But seriously, guys, I'll make a trip as soon as the midsummer is over! What should I expect?"

"Sun!" Penelo cried happily.

"Sand!" Ashe called out.

"Sexy chicks!" Vaan slapped Sora on the shoulder, earning glares from Penelo and Kairi.

The mound of presents had shrunk slightly, but yet again the brunette dove into the remaining pile with gusto. He withdrew a flat, neatly wrapped gift with the writing Because you need it. With love, Nami.

A calligraphy set, all fine nib pens and soft, firm paper with a small repetition booklet faced the light of the room, resulting in thanks and a small hug for Namine, of whom Sora was rather fond.

Selphie and Quistis bought a couple of Dvds, Shrek the Third and the Ring trilogy most prominent in their selection. Feni's present was a watch that, for some reason, told the phases of the moon in an inset. Lulu's gift was a stuffed moggle doll that could fetch and carry on command, so long as the materia within was kept charged. While Riku…

Riku stood forward, holding a small, wooden sword. A child's weapon, useless now in his hands, but Sora held it with a reverence that made his knees tremble and his eyes brim with half-shed tears.

"This is…"

"Leon found this outside the castle library in Hollow Bastion. I've been keeping it safe till today, brings back memories, don't you think?" Riku gave a twitch in his mouth that might have been a smile.

"Yeah, I can still play hero with this, I think." Sora gave his sword an experimental swipe and hung the hilt over his shoulder. "Thanks, man."

"Anytime. Oh, and Leon said that that finding it was his present. Says its payback for when you stumbled into… what did he call it? His little Rinny-poo reunion?"

"I don't remember anything about that."

"Perfect." came a voice from the doorway. Further inspection in that direction revealed a man in his mid twenties, lean but well-proportioned, tall and slightly imposing. His smile was like the appearance of an angel, and just as rare, while the scar crossing the bridge of his nose was the perfect identifier.

Summed up in single words, this man was a warrior, a loner (With the possible exception of 'Rinny-poo') and a leader.

"Leon!" Sora leapt up from his place in the ripped piles of wrapping paper and bounded towards the gruff man, giving him a playful punch to the shoulder. Until a hand blurred from the chest and intercepted it, the fist might have actually made contact.

"Amateur." Leons face did not change as he twisted Sora's arm behind his back.

"Give the kid a break, Squall." A young, ebony-haired woman with a scrawny figure covered in leather stepped next to him and placed a finger down Leon's spine, the upshot being the release of Sora and the slight giggle from Penelo.

The woman, who we shall assume has the name of Yuffie Kisaragi, even if she does not, then proceeded to grab Sora's cheeks and pull slightly, to which the sounds of 'Whawhawhah.' came from his mouth.

"Hey, Yuffie." Sora finally spoke once her fingers had been prised from his flesh. "Cloud and the rest can't come?"

"Sorry. They wanted to, but something came up."

"That's fine."

"Sora, would you mind introducing us?" Kairi appeared at Sora's elbow, nudging him to refresh his memory that he was among friends that his other friends had no idea of him even knowing, and that his friends likewise did not know his other friends in the slightest manner whatsoever.

Kairi was extremely talented at nudging, and could input vast amounts of information into her elbows.

"Um, okay, Kairi, this is Yuffie Kisaragi…"

"This is Kairi? The one who you were moaning about in your sleep when we met?" Yuffie shook Kairi's hand as she ran the line into the air, ignoring the wolf whistles from Tidus and Wakka.

"I guess I am." Kairi smiled slightly, before shifting around with an open gesture and brining Yuffie to the full sight of the others, idly wondering when Sora would find the Paopu fruit on his pillow, it had taken all week to find. "The one with the Jimmy Neutron haircut is Wakka, the one picking his nose is Vaan-"

"I'm scratching it!"

"-Whatever, the one with all the black is Lulu…"

Kairi continued the introductions, while Riku slipped behind the horde and met up with Sora and Leon, who continued to talk about the progress of the restoration at Radiant Garden.

The events of the previous day forgotten already, and surrounded by the companions of his life, past and previous, Sora was glad, there on his birthday.

Unfortunately, none could forsee the events of the next few days…

Right, on to the next one!