Last of the series, guys. (Some of you are gonna read this one and be "........."; if your familiar with my universe, it'll make more sense.)
Thanks so much for reading and keep reviewing, kay?
Sora: 22
Riku: 23
"Zack, down." Sora commanded the young dog as he walked into the house. He held the box he carried to the side to avoid having it knocked from his hands.
"Zack." Sephiroth stated softly and the canine immediately put his head down and trotted into the living room. The winged man continued coming down the stairs, followed closely by his girlfriend, Natalia. "Hello, Sora."
"Hey, Seph. Hey, Talia." Sora greeted. "Where's Ku?"
"In the kitchen," replied Natalia. She and Sephiroth entered the small foyer and Sephiroth retrieved her coat. "We were just going out to get a few more things that it looks like we're going to be short on for dinner."
"The market was pretty empty when I passed through." The brunet informed them as Sephiroth held Natalia's coat out for her to shrug on.
"Good." Sephiroth nodded.
The couple left and Sora made his way to the back of the house. He stepped into the dining area of the kitchen and dropped his box on the table. Riku was tossing bags of vegetables on the counter near the refrigerator and did not seem to notice that Sora was there. "Hi, Ku."
"Hey, Sor." Riku sounded distracted but considering the past few days the silver-haired man had experienced, it was understandable. "You brought the back-up turkey, right?"
Chuckling, Sora began unpacking his box. "Yep, though I really don't think we'll need it. Both Cloud and Zack sound really confident about this frying the turkey thing."
"Yeah, well, the fact that they never mentioned it until this year worries me. How come they didn't decide they wanted to do it till now?"
"Showing off?"
"Yeah." Riku stood up straight and closed the fridge. "Which tells me they don't really know what they're doing."
"Oh relax, Riku." Sora advised, hauling out the back-up turkey that they were going to hide in the spare freezer outside. "Irvine knew what they were talking about so between the three of them it should be fine."
"Yeah, I know." Riku sighed. "I guess I've just gotten so used to be in charge of all of this that I'm having a hard time trusting others to do it."
"You are a bit of a control freak like that."
"It's gotten better!" Riku protested, flicking his lengthy bangs. "Two years ago, Sephiroth did a lot of the work and last year your mom handled most of dinner."
"Because she made you." Sora laughed. He set the turkey on the table. "It's okay, Ku. We all expect it from you and we know how much doing Christmas means to you."
The older young man glowered a little but he knew he had no argument. It had come to mean a lot to him to have his house as the focal point for the group's holiday activities. He was pretty sure that even if he and Cloud weren't the resident happily married couple, he'd still want to be the home that everyone came to. It probably had to do with his isolation as a child.
"Christmas always has been really important to me. It was the time of year I was happiest and that hasn't changed. Actually…" Riku smiled a little in embarrassment. "It means more to me now that I have a family of friends to share it with."
Sora pouted with humor. "Oh, so just me and Mom aren't enough, huh?"
"Oh, you know you're always enough." The taller one turned away from the pile of vegetables on the counter. "Christmas isn't Christmas without you. We did that once and I'm never doing it again."
"Me neither." Sora seconded. "And I'm glad Mom likes coming here every year. I miss her a lot more than I let on."
"I miss her, too. She's the only real parent I've ever known."
"Speaking of Mom, she's been baking cookies all morning with Axel." Sora removed a few tins from a plastic bag. "It's a little scary how well they get along."
"She still hinting that the two of you should get together?"
"Yes," muttered the spiky-haired male. "Apparently, since we're the only single guys around, we should totally hook up."
"Well he is a really good fuck." Riku noted with a smirk.
"If that ever happens, I'm the one doing the fucking." Sora smirked back. "You're the uke, not me."
Riku snorted. "It's funny how opposite we are."
"Not really." Sora shrugged as he opened one of the cookie tins and brought it over to his best friend. "Two halves of a whole, remember?"
"Yeah." Riku took a cookie. "Stuck together forever… good thing we like each other."
"Yeah," agreed Sora. "It would really suck to have this kind of bond with someone I hated."
"Definitely."
"All right." Sora nabbed a cookie before tossing the tin on the counter. "Let's get this Christmas dinner going. Whadya want me to do?"
