Riku returned to the living room and flopped down beside Cloud. The blonde man rubbed his thigh affectionately in an absent manner. He gave himself a moment to enjoy the feeling before looking to the other two. "So have we decided what we're doing, if anything?"

"Naw," Wakka waved a hand.

"All right then." Riku pursed his lips for a moment. "So I guess it's entertain yourself night."

Leon came out of the kitchen, holding Sora's hand. He did not stop to say anything or even look at them as he towed Sora toward the stairs. Sora did not seem to be seeing anything but Leon's backside. They went up the stairs and disappeared.

After a minute of silence, Cloud muttered, "Finally."

"What do you think is going to interrupt them this time?" Riku chuckled.

Seiya shook her head. There was an odd look on her face, "Hopefully nothing."

Riku glanced at her, "You all right?"

"Oh, I'm fine." Riku swore there were tears in her eyes. "It's just…"

"You're little boy is becoming a man?" He smirked.

"Oh, you've both grown up so fast!" She wailed suddenly. "All of you kids have."

Wakka shifted uncomfortably when she looked at him. "Now are you going to tell me about these girls you and Tidus are so hung up on?"

Riku and Cloud turned their attention on him also.

The blitzball player rubbed the back of his head. "Well, it's complicated, ya?"

"We've got time," Riku commented in an easy tone. "Your story can't be any worse than Sora's and mine."

Wakka gave him a pointed look. "Tidus and I don't actually know your story."

Riku bit his lip. That was true, and it was not exactly fair of him to demand to know what happened to them when he had flat out refused to speak to them about his. "I promise to talk to you both about it later."

The redhead nodded slowly, obviously collecting his thoughts. "Ya, well, I don't know how it all happened. The night of the storm Tidus and I were walking home from practice, it got pitch black out and we starting running. Something about it just freaked us, ya?

"As we ran we saw these weird shadowy things, Tidus stumbled and I tripped over him and next thing we knew, we were on the beach with the sun shining down and everything looked normal." Wakka blew out a breath. "Only it wasn't normal, mon. We figured we had some how ended up on one for the other islands but it was none we'd ever seen before.

"Then we were approached by some people from the nearby village and we knew we weren't on Destiny Islands anymore. Man, did Tidus freak. I mean, I about flipped out too, who wouldn't, ya?"

Riku and Cloud both nodded. They were both familiar with waking up in a strange place. At least Wakka and Tidus had managed to stay together.

"We were taken in by one of the families and told we were in a place called Besaid and the world was named Spira." Suddenly Wakka's eyes lit up, "And they had blitz, man! I think that helped more than anything, something familiar, ya. So, we joined the team and did a tournament with them.

"That's when we met Yuna and Lulu. Yuna is a summoner; their job is to stop Sin from consuming the planet. Lulu is one of her guardians, along with a guy named Kimahri."

"What's Sin?" asked Seiya, blue eyes wide as she listened to the tale.

"Sin is… it's hard to explain." Wakka leaned back, placing both hands behind his head. "Actually, Tidus really knows a lot more about this."

"Tidus isn't exactly being rational about it right now;" Riku noted.

"I know. That's the only reason I'm doin' this. Tidus is goin' to go ballistic when he finds out."

"He's that worried about messing things up?"

"Auron and Lulu were very clear that this wasn't to be talked about."

"Well, just give us the basics." Seiya said soothingly. "Obviously we're not going to say anything."

"I know." Wakka collected his thoughts. "Sin is a dark power, a monster really that tried to destroy the world. It was stopped every fifteen years or so by a summoner who had collected Aeons, which are special powers. Once the summoner got the Final Aeon, it was used to destroy Sin. Only Sin never actually died, it only went away for a while."

"Well that seems pointless," Cloud commented. "Why didn't someone try to find a way to kill it?"

"Because the cycle had gone on for so long it was believed that there was no way to kill it," Wakka explained. "Yuna was the current summoner and she traveled with us for a while, searching her last few aeons. Tidus and her grew really close."

"…And you hooked up with Lulu," Seiya surmised.

"Yeah," The redhead grinned a bit. It quickly fell. "Tidus is the one who found out what happened to those who went up against Sin. Auron explained it to him after Luca…"

"What happens?" Riku asked quietly.

"The Final Aeon is obtained by sacrificing someone close to the summoner. When it's used, the summoner dies and the person sacrificed eventually becomes the new Sin."

Both Riku and Cloud leaned back. Cloud blew out a breath. "Wow; that's…"

"…Really messed up," Riku finished.

Seiya sighed, looking like she wanted to get up and hug the teen telling the story.

"Yeah; Well, Tidus wasn't going to let that happen. We came up with a plan after talking to Lady Yunalesca to not get the final Aeon and attack Sin head on."

"What made you think you could?" Cloud asked.

Wakka shrugged. "Again, you'd have to ask Tidus about that. All I know is that's what we did. We somehow ended up inside of Sin and fought the spirits within it, releasing them to the Farplace."

"Farplace?"

"Basically, heaven…Or Hades…The afterlife," Wakka clarified. "This in turn sent Sin there and ended the cycle."

Wakka stared down, dropping his hands into his lap. "After that, Auron explained what he believed happened to us and that we needed to go back to where we belonged. That the worlds were not meant to be connected and that if we stayed, it could lead to terrible consequences."

"…And so you were returned here;" Riku bit his lip.

"Yes."

The group was quiet for several minutes, letting what they had just heard process. There were several holes in the story, but they all knew enough now to understand Tidus' recent behavior. They did not need to know any more.

Riku looked at his friend sadly. "I'm sorry. If we had known…"

"We should have told you, ya." Wakka waved his apology off. "I mean, you're the Keybearers, man. The normal rules don't apply to you, ya."

Riku seemed very distraught about all of this. He sat tersely and continued frowning. Cloud silently rubbed Riku's back.

A loud banging from upstairs broke the silence and the entire room looked up. Another thump followed, along with what sounded like Sora giggling. Then it was quiet again.

"Do we want to know what's going on up there?" Wakka asked.

Seiya sighed and shook her head. "He's going to be a virgin forever."

"That or he's going to be the kinky type." Riku smirked. There was suddenly another bang, followed by a series of thumps. "I'm starting to think the latter."

Wakka snickered but that sad look was still in his eyes. He turned toward the window. "Hey, the rain stopped."

"Oh good;" Seiya stood and went over. She placed a reassuring hand on the redhead's shoulder as she looked out also. "Then you'll be able to go out tomorrow."

"Kairi's dinner thing is tomorrow." Riku noted.

Cloud groaned. "I like Kairi but can we just… skip that. I really hate even semi-formal affairs."

Seiya glanced over her shoulder with a curious smile. "Oh, I hear a story there."

Cloud shrugged.

"There is!" She fell to the floor beside Wakka. "Oh, tell!"

Riku leaned back into the arm of the couch. "Yeah, I want to hear this too."

The blonde man sighed. "I've never been comfortable with social settings. When I went to Midgar, I kept to myself and only interacted with those necessary. Then Zack found me."

"Found you?" Seiya raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, literally;" Cloud's lip curled a bit at the memory. "A few of the other recruits had really taken to ganging up on me. They would taunt me until I lost my temper and then when I'd lash out, they would jump me. Individually I could have taken them but as a group, there was no way, at least at that time.

"After one of these attacks, I managed to drag myself to the roof where I always went to fix myself up. I had a stash of medical supplies stored in one of the vents. I never went to the infirmary because obviously I didn't want any one to know about it. They had been rather through and I was having a real hard time focusing.

"Then all the sudden there was someone there, wiping the blood from my face. Zack didn't say a word as he took over fixing my wounds. I knew he was one of the SOLDIERs that were charged with preparing us but he had been assigned to the more advanced group.

"When he finished, he only told me his name was Zack and from that day on I was stuck with him." Cloud shrugged a little.

"Now, who exactly is Zack?" Seiya asked, tucking some hair behind her ear.

"His ex;" answered Riku.

"Oh." She nodded slowly. "Well, continue."

"Zack was very much the opposite of me. He was outgoing and friendly, you couldn't help but like him. Most people could not believe he was a First Class, let alone Sephiroth's second-in-command. Zack made it his goal to socialize me properly, so he was constantly getting me assigned to Shinra's social events. I don't remember how many balls, award ceremonies, and unveilings I had to attend.

"…And Zack, he wasn't content with me simply being there doing my job. I had to participate and if I didn't, he found some way to horribly embarrass me." Cloud frowned. "I don't know why I put up with it."

"Because you loved him;" Riku shrugged. He was totally comfortable saying that too. "Why do any of us put up with crazy people's antics?"

"...Because we're all secretly insane?" Leon's voice sounded from the bottom of the stairs. He was bare-chested and his hair was totally disheveled. He continued walking toward the kitchen.

"So?" Riku watched him curiously.

When Leon turned, he found all eyes on him. He only smirked and when into the kitchen. He got the item he came for and returned to the stairs, ignoring the stares that were following him.

"Cloud?" asked Riku slowly. "Was that what I thought it was?"

"Yes."

Riku chuckled. "Guess I called it on the kinky thing."

"What did he have?" Wakka feigned disinterest but was clearly as curious as Seiya.

"Whipped cream."

--0—0—

Leon shut the door behind him. He made his way to the bed, where he laid out beside Sora. With an amused smirk, he handed over the can of whipped cream. "That was genius."

The younger one grinned. "I bet they're going nuts now."

"Definitely;" While they had originally come up here with very different intentions, it had become obvious to Leon rather quickly that Sora was still uneasy. They had fumbled through some intense making out but after Sora fell off the bed, they had decided to cool it down.

The couple had instead decided to play mind games with the group downstairs.

Sora bit his lip, sitting up. "Wait, did you notice if Riku had any cherries?"

"He had chocolate syrup."

The boy's blue eyes lit up, "Oooh."

"If you want it then you go get it." Leon laid flat on his back.

"If I go down there, Riku's gonna totally know we're messing with them!" Sora protested. "He can freakin' read me like a book!"

Leon glanced at him. He took hold of Sora's shirt and yanked him down. Engaging the younger one in a passionate kiss, he brought his other hand around to caress Sora's lower back dipping his fingers below the waistband of the smaller one's shorts. After a moment, he leaned up switching their positions and pressing his body down.

Sora moaned and Leon pulled away. He returned to his position. "Now go."

Sora was clearly flushed and it took him a second to gather his wits, "Uh, yeah."

He got up and with a heated glance over his shoulder, slipped out the door. He padded downstairs, trying not to look at Riku. Not that he really had to worry; his best friend was clearly preoccupied with Cloud's neck.

In his quick sweep of the room, he noticed his mother was missing. He went to the kitchen but she was not there either. He went back to the main room. "Where's Mom?"

"She left with Wakka." Riku took a moment to answer before reattaching himself to his lover's neck.

His mom was gone…? Sora bit his lip and glanced upstairs. He knew that her presence was what had been making him so awkward. Just having her in the house had made him horribly nervous but if she was gone…

He felt Riku's eyes on him. The older teen had again paused in his efforts to give Sora an encouraging smile. "It's never going to be perfect."

Sora half-smiled back; "Right…"

He then returned upstairs. Pausing outside the door, he knew he had to make a decision. Riku was correct, there was not going to be a perfect moment. If he wanted this, he was going to have to make it happen.

He opened the door enough to dart on, shutting it softly behind him. Leon was still lying on the bed, eyes shut. It looked like he had fallen asleep. Well, that figured.

He blew out the candles lighting the room, leaving the small electric lantern in the corner on. Striping off his clothes down to his boxers, he laid down beside the taller man. He supposed he could have gone back to the smaller room he had been using but it did not feel right.

He snuggled up against Leon's warm body, draping an arm across his waist. Leon shifted a bit, pulling Sora closer and wrapping him in his arms tightly. With a light sigh of contentment, Sora let his eyes fall shut.

This was where he wanted to be.

--0—0—

Okay, I know it seems this has moved away from the original intention. But this is a full visit and it can't be all fun and games. The fun stuff will be returning next chapter, I promise. Thanks for sticking with it.