So, the games FINALLY begins! At least, all the elements are together. The 'house' idea comes from Page of Cups, again. I seem to be really influenced by her. If you haven't check out some of her stuff. Any way, now that we're here I REALLY need feedback.
I did this as a double. Let me know if this works better for y'all.
"So how much time did you actually spend here?" Al asked, taking a drink of water.
"Not a whole lot, I guess. I stopped here to rest between worlds while I was searching for Riku." Sora laughed. "Of course, I really didn't get much rest with all the Heartless and Nobodies. But I didn't mind. I was protecting my friends and that was all the mattered."
"Know the feeling." Harry murmured. Louder he added, "There's little in the world that feels better than knowing you helped your friends."
"Yeah." Sora grinned mischievously at him. "On the subject of friends, how are things with Kairi?"
Al looked over in surprise. "Wait, Harry's going out with Kairi?"
"Yep." Sora nodded.
Harry glanced away. "We're fine."
"And?" Sora prodded.
"And that's all I'm saying. Why don't you ask her if you want to know so badly?"
"Cause she's a girl." Sora rolled his eyes.
"So are you." Harry laughed back, knowing it would get Sora off the subject.
"Hey!" Sora jumped up just as Harry knew he would. "I'm not a girl!"
"Riight, we all know you're the girl in the relationship."
He would have said more but a portal opened and Riku and Ed appeared. Sora immediately turned and nearly jumped his boyfriend. Ed quickly stepped away to avoid the stumbling couple. He went to stand by his brother.
"You'd think they'd been apart for days not an hour." He muttered.
Al chuckled.
"How'd things go?" He squatted next to where Al sat.
Al handed him his water bottle. "Good."
"Al saved us in the shop." Harry detailed. "If he hadn't figured out the obvious solution for us, we would have been stuck there a long time."
Ed gave his younger brother a proud smile. "Well, Al's a smart guy. He's just cursed with a stubborn brother."
Al blinked a moment, trying to wrap his mind around Ed's off-handed compliment. He really didn't hear things like that very often. He grinned a tiny bit, taking the bottle back from Ed.
"So what's next?" Harry asked on the odd hope that Ed had been given inside information.
"No idea. Riku will tell us whenever he's done making out with Sora."
"Jealous?" Riku smirked, moving away from the smaller Keybearer. Said other boy looked a bit disheveled.
"Of course not." Ed retorted snidely. "So what's next?"
"We all go back to the castle." He checked out his surroundings. "Wow, this place looks good."
"I hope so." Sora went to sit on a table. "We worked hard on it and Merlin never did keep the place organized. Least Seph coulda done is clean up the place."
"Do you guys want to walk or you think you can handle a corridor?" Riku asked the crowd.
A collection of shrugs and nods answered him. "Corridor it is. We'll plan the next step there."
Opening said portal, he took Sora's hand. "Everyone grab on to one of us. I don't want anyone getting lost."
"Oh, yay. Group orgy." Ed spoke sarcastically.
"What's wrong with you?" Harry questioned.
"Nothing. I'm just being stupid." Ed apologized without apologizing. "Let's get out of here. I'm getting bored."
"Wow. This is bloody brilliant." Harry settled himself in a chair. He threw his head back, looking like he was going to take a nap.
Al ran his hand along one of the other chairs. "My stuff is never going to look this nice."
"Sure it will." Ed sat on a table. "I've got a few years practice on you."
"I guess." Al's voice was uncertain.
Sora was standing next to Riku, who had placed himself at the other table and taken up a pen and notebook. He began sketching out a map which was quite detailed. Sora looked on, a slight frown tugging at his lips. He waited for Riku to finish.
Riku finally put the pen down and leaned back. Sora reached over and ran a hand through Riku's silver locks. He gave a light smile, then called the other three over. "We're ready for phase two."
Surrounding the table, they all focused their attention on the defacto leader. "All right, I was almost certain HQ was bugged so I didn't say anything there. Given the location of this place, it would be extremely difficult to plant anything that would work in here. However, they did know we would come here. A pulse emitter was planted in one of the upper chambers, most likely by Vash."
"He's being a diversion for Dante?" Harry asked.
"It's likely. As I said in the beginning, these were the two obvious places for us to go." He turned the notebook so everyone could see what he had drawn. It was incredibly detailed for the short amount of time he spent on it. "This is going to be our real base."
"Over by the river?" Sora looked confused. "That part of town's still messed up pretty bad. It was the last area they tackled."
"I know." An odd tone had crept into Riku's voice.
Sora studied him a moment. Suddenly, understanding lit his blue eyes. "This is where Cloud was staying, right?"
"Yeah. The three of them don't know anything about that."
The others didn't get it but decided it wasn't something they needed to. It was obviously personal to Riku. Sora simply squeezed his shoulder and motioned him to continue.
"It's a relatively secluded house in a dead part of town. Assesablity should be easier for us; it's a more central location. What we need to decide is who's going with me to set it up. It might be better if we all go but I was thinking we might want to start some scouting missions to locate the enemy."
"Yeah, at this rate we'll be doing this for days." Ed agreed. "I can go on a search alone. Check out in town."
"I will, too." Harry volunteered. "The two of us can back up each other, keeping about a block between us so if there's trouble the other won't be too far."
"Why don't we all go to Zero District so everyone knows exactly what it looks like and where it is?" Sora suggested. "Then Ed and Harry can do the first rounds. Al and I will do the second and Riku can oversee and process the information we find."
There was a series of nods of agreement. It was a solid plan, and as good of one as any at this point. Until they knew the others' location, they would simply be wandering blind. That wouldn't get them anywhere.
"Fine." Riku folded his arms. Despite the standoffish position, they all knew he was content with Sora's idea, if not proud of it. Sora really could be a leader when needed. "Are we ready?"
"Yep." Sora slipped his arm through Riku's. "Let's go, guys."
The others made various faces at the couple as they grouped together. Riku concentrated a moment, opening the dark corridor and as one they stepped through.
