Author's Comments: Hello! Hope your week's been going alright. Here's the next chapter-enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy VII. I own Imani.

As the students from her first class for the day left the room, she flipped open her planner and reviewed her to-do list for what must have been the fiftieth time that morning alone. Zack was still set on holding the wedding at the Castle of Dreams so she'd have to confirm plans with the hotel soon to secure the date. Axel's friend Marluxia already helped her with the flower arrangements. Cake and dresses and tuxes were out of the way for now…the guests were RSVP-ing…the wedding party was set…

She nibbled on her lip and tapped the tip of her pen on the paper. A gnawing sensation nagged her brain. Something was missing.

Setting her pen down, she leaned back in her chair and counted off the wedding elements with her fingers: wedding party (bride, groom, bridesmaids, groomsmen, maid of honor, best man, minister, ring bearer, flower girls), wedding venue (Caste of Dreams, according to Zack's insistence), wedding cake, dresses, tuxedos, flower arrangements and bouquets, catering (a la Castle of Dreams staff), hair and makeup (a la Divine Rose's Luxord Atkin Downes), the bridal shower (Tifa and Yuffie insisted on taking care of it), the bachelor party (Cloud and Xigbar's responsibility)…

Oh! Music! And an emcee!

Quickly she scribbled the elements down at the bottom of the list. How could she have forgotten? She was going to dance with her father and with Zack, after all.

She tapped the tip of her pen to her chin. Who would be a good emcee? He (or she) had to be entertaining, comfortable in front of audiences, and able to think on his (or her) feet. There had to be someone she knew of who fit the description…

His phone vibrated in his jacket pocket. As he rounded the corner on his way to class, he drew out his phone and glanced at the caller ID. A smile grew on his face as he answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi Demyx, this is Aerith."

His book bag bounced off his leg as he jogged down the hall. "Hey! What's up?"

"I wanted to ask a favor of you."

"Anything for the bride."

She hesitated a moment on the other side of the line. "Will you be the emcee for our wedding?"

He skidded to a halt both at the request and upon arriving at his classroom. "I'd be honored!" he cried, throwing his free hand up and ignoring the sting as it slapped against his thigh on its way back down.

"Great! Zack and I still need to draw up a rough draft of the script, but one of us will call you and let you know when it's done so we can talk about it later."

"Sounds good!"

"Thanks, Demyx. I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, bye!" He hung up on her and pocketed the phone. Aerith wanted him to emcee the wedding! That would be so awesome!

He strode into the classroom, humming the wedding march under his breath.

With a smile on her face, Aerith checked the emcee item off the list. Demyx was perfect for the job. She knew he'd do great.

Now she had to think of someone to manage the music…

A slight groan rumbled in her throat. Demyx would be perfect for that job, too! From what Imani's told her, he practically breathed music and romance. She couldn't possibly ask him to manage the music and emcee the wedding. That would be too much!

Maybe there was someone else who could do the job…like…

Oh! Like that DJ who hosted the radio show Imani always listened to!

Her smile widened. Perfect! She was sure Demyx and the DJ would get along just fine. They seemed so similar, after all. Both were heavily involved with music and both knew a lot about romance and relationships…

Hmm…When she really thought about it, Demyx and Myde were so similar they could be the same person. She'd only listened to Arpeggio 101.3 a few times, but Myde's voice and Demyx's voice even sounded alike…

Oh! It was time to start class!

She shut her planner and placed her phone on top, rising from her seat and stepping around the desk. "Good morning, class."

Zack grabbed the paper bag with his breakfast in it and headed out the door of Happy Mushroom. He wasn't supposed to be eating any fast food, but he was starving and Happy Mushroom was the closest place around and he needed to eat fast because he had a class in fifteen minutes. Following a training diet was hard in a society like this and this would be the first time he'd eaten any fast food in months.

Yeah. He was sure Captain Hewley wouldn't mind. The guy was turning into an older-brother-maybe-father figure for him. A breakfast burrito wouldn't permanently damage that, would it?

Would it?

"Zack."

He jumped, whirling around to the voice…and sighing in relief at seeing his younger cousin and her silver-haired friend sitting at one of the umbrella tables.

Hmm? Imani and…Riku?

"Wanna join us?" Imani asked, nodding to the empty seat next to her.

After a pause, he was at her side in two long strides and plopping down next to her. "I'm not interrupting anything?" he asked with an arched eyebrow, taking out his breakfast burrito.

She glanced at her friend before arching an eyebrow at Zack. "What do you think you might be interrupting?"

"What could I be interrupting?"

"You tell us."

He nearly bit his tongue as he chewed. You tell us? Us? Us?

"Is there something you haven't told me, Imani?" he said after swallowing.

She propped up her head with her elbow on the table. "Like what?"

He shrugged, shooting a look at Riku and biting into the burrito again. "Anything."

"Zack, just say it."

Ah, enough beating around the bush. He asked before taking another bite, "Are you two…?"

"Are we what?" she sighed. When he arched an eyebrow at her again, her eyes lit up. "Oh! No! No, no, no." She laughed. "We're not going out."

Riku finally spoke for the first time since Zack joined them: "You thought we're dating?"

"Really, Zack? Me and him?"

"Going out with Imani would be like going out with my sister."

"Alright already." Zack held up his hands after crumpling the burrito wrapper into a ball and tossing it into the paper bag. "Just asking."

And it was the truth. He was just asking. He didn't really mind Imani and Riku going out. She'd known the guy since…what, middle school? Thus, Zack felt he knew Riku pretty well, too.

Yeah. Better Riku than that flirtatious punk Axel.

"So how's life?" Riku asked casually, changing the subject with ease.

"Eh." Zack scratched his chin. "Same old, same old. Training, Seventh Heaven, wedding in less than three months. You know."

Riku smirked. "Ah."

"Zack, I've been meaning to talk to you about something."

The grave tones in Imani's voice peaked his attention. He turned to her and asked, "What is it?"

She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and quietly declared, "We need to help Tifa and Cloud get together."

Zack was glad he finished his breakfast burrito before hearing her say those words. Maybe she was waiting for him to finish because she knew he might've choked if he was still eating? Still, his little cousin was full of surprises today, wasn't she? She really wanted to interfere with Tifa and Cloud's friendship? Conflict-avoidant, leave-me-alone-and-I'll-leave-you-alone Ima—

Wa-a-a-a-ait.

"Did Tifa or Cloud do something to you?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

She answered so promptly she almost cut off his question. "They teamed up on me to get me alone in the bar with Axel."

His eyes widened. "They. Did. What?"

"Cloud lied to me to get me out of the kitchen and then Tifa abandoned me in the bar to supposedly get whisky and scotch and left me alone with Axel for ten whole minutes," she elaborated.

What. The. HELL?

"Did he do anything to you?" he demanded, grabbing her shoulder.

"No."

"He'd better not have. God, I told them to—"

"So you'll help me get back at them, right?"

"Hell yeah!" He snatched the paper bag and squashed it into a tiny, tight ball. "They think they can play matchmaker behind my back? They're dead wrong!"

Imani's face broke into a grin and she turned to her friend across the table. "You wanna help too, Riku?"

"Sure."

"Great! I'll ask Demyx after class to see if he wants to help, too."

Class?

Zack groaned, scrambling from his seat and dashing to the sidewalk. He was going to be late! "I gotta go we'll talk more later thanks for telling me about this Imani!" he rushed.

"Anything for my favorite cousin!" he heard Imani call after him.

He waited until after Zack's car rounded the corner to state bemusedly, "I thought you said you enjoyed the date you had with Axel Flynn last night."

"It wasn't a date," Imani rolled her eyes,"and I needed some sort of excuse to get Zack to step up his game."

"Sneaky."

"Zexion's rubbing off on me. I'm surprised you didn't bother scheming to get Kairi and Sora together before Nam and Roxas did."

She had a point, he supposed. He saw Zexion at least four times a week for at least three hours at the library. Logically, he should've been the one to bring up Tifa and Cloud's mischief to Zack to get him to "step up his game."

Well. Maybe he could try his hand at scheming.

He took a sip from his coffee before carefully noting, "Funny how Zack thought you and me were going out."

"Yeah," Imani snorted, rolling her eyes at her cousin's thinking.

Here it was. The moment. "You know…" he trailed off, arching an eyebrow at her.

She blinked…blinked again…and her jaw dropped. "You're not seriously…"

"Well you have to wonder what they'd think if they saw us like that," he said with a shrug.

"But it's gonna turn into a huge misunderstanding!" she hissed. "They're gonna get the wrong idea and they might distance themselves from us and if they find out the truth they might not trust us anymore—"

"Or they might realize what they're missing and fight for it with all they've got."

"But how are we going to explain everything without having them blow up at us? Either way, it's going to end ugly."

"You'd rather lie around in your comfort zone, wondering whether or not he feels anything for you?"

"I'd rather protect whatever friendship I have with him than risk losing him because of a stupid, senseless lie." She gathered her books and shouldered her bag, getting up from her seat with a sigh. "I gotta go. I'm sorry. I can't do something like that."

His retort died on his tongue as he watched her stride away back to the HBU campus. All he could manage was an incredulous breathless laugh. She was okay with muddling in someone else's relationship but not in her own? Really? How selfish.

Steadily the cloud of indignation in his brain dissipated as he thought about her words. She had a point…again. Plus, when it came to Tifa and Cloud, it was going to take all the scheming possible to get them to realize each other's feelings.

Huh. That scheme backfired before it could even take a breath.

"Popcorn?"

Sora's hand shot up. "Me!"

Kairi laughed. "You and I are going to go get everything, silly." She turned to the pair of blonds and told them, "We'll go get the snacks. Save our seats, 'kay?"

"You sure?" Roxas asked after glancing at Namine.

"Yeah. You want anything to drink?"

"Coke, I guess."

"Me too."

"Alrighty. We'll meet you inside, then."

They stepped into line, eyeing Roxas and Namine as they headed down the hall towards the theater room. Once they disappeared inside, Sora and Kairi stepped out of the line with identical smirks. "Good work, Agent Ess," Kairi told him.

"You too." Sora shoved his hands into his pants pockets. "How long do you think we should hang around out here, Agent Kay?"

"Well, the movie starts in half an hour so maybe…" she glanced at her phone for the time, "fifteen minutes? I wanna talk with Nam before the movie starts."

"And I should talk with Roxas, too."

"Fifteen minutes should be enough, right?"

He shrugged. "I think so."

She nodded once and turned to the menu hanging above the popcorn makers and the soda machines. A grimace weighed down her smile. Why did movie food have to be so expensive? "So…popcorn, coke…should we get candy, too?"

"Nah. No need. You're sweet already."

A blush sprung onto her face. She ducked her face to make her hair fall and hide the redness. "D-Do you come up with these sayings on your own?" she laughed.

"Nope." Arms wrapped around her shoulders from behind and pulled her into his embrace. "You're my inspiration."

She leaned back and closed her eyes in content.

"You don't think they'll ditch us, do you?"

For a moment Namine's heart stopped. She hadn't thought of the possibility…but when she considered Roxas' question, she shook her head. "I don't think so. Kairi's really wants to see this movie. Sora too. I doubt they'd waste money just to get into the theater with us and then leave. Why would they ditch us, anyway?"

"I dunno." She heard him shrug even though he sat a few seats away. "To get back at us for ditching them last week, maybe?"

"Well they owe us for ditching them. If we really did show, they probably wouldn't be together now."

"True."

The picture of a pristine castle-like building surrounded by flowers popped up on the screen—the Castle of Dreams Hotel. That was where Imani's cousin and professor were probably getting married. Namine received an invitation in the mail recently, but she'd held off on sending the RSVP immediately like she usually would've.

She was allowed to bring a guest with her…

She glanced from the corner of her eye at Roxas. She'd been meaning to ask him but something always interrupted them and her courage always failed her whenever they were alone. Could this be a good time—

"What's up?"

Heat raced to her face when she realized he was looking back at her with smiling blue eyes. "N-Nothing," she stammered, flashing a grin and whipping her focus back to the screen.

Thanks for making Arpeggio 101.3 the number one station with the most listeners! the screen said.

Arpeggio 101.3…Myde…What would he advise her in a situation like this?

"Go for it!" she imagined the DJ telling her enthusiastically.

Ohhh, but part of her didn't want to go for it…

"You might never get a chance like this again."

She stifled a sigh. He had a good point. The line for the snack bar looked pretty long so Sora and Kairi wouldn't barge in anytime soon…

Right. She'd do it.

She breathed in deeply, swallowed down the nervous waver in her voice, and began, "Uh…by the way…"

He turned to look at her again, arching an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"You said you met Imani, right?"

"Right."

Quickly! She had to spit it out before her courage disappeared or before Kairi and Sora came! "Well her cousin's getting married in a few months and I got invited and the invitation said I could bring a guest with me and it's on November eleventh and—"

"Namine."

Her tongue skidded to a halt and she clamped her mouth shut.

Roxas blinked with a smile. "Are you asking me to go to the wedding with you?" he asked.

Thank goodness the room was dark. She hoped her blush wasn't too noticeable when she nodded.

"November eleventh, you said?"

She nodded again. Please say yes please say yes please say yes!

A dazzling smile broke out across his face. "I'd be honored to go with you."

Yes! Yes yes yes!

"Okay, great!" she tried not to squeal. "I'll let you know more about it later."

"Okay." He nodded.

"Okay," she murmured, turning back to the screen just as the ad for the Castle of Dreams Hotel popped up again.

Demyx felt like stabbing his textbook with his pencil. Damn homework! Sure, he'd always wanted to visit Bhujerba, but the people spoke English there too, right? And how was it that Zexion could nail the grammar and the accent perfectly? He wasn't even studying Bhujerban!

Demyx would've ranted in his head more if his phone hadn't gone off. He snatched it off the bed and grinned at the caller ID. Aerith. "Hello?" he sang into the phone.

Aerith paused before asking with a hint of confusion, "Demyx?"

"Hello, future missus of Zack Fair," he chimed, leaning against the side of his bed. "Need something?"

"I…I called Arpeggio 101.3 and asked the manager for Myde's number…"

His heart skipped a beat and his grip on his phone tightened. Oh crap.

"And he gave me your number…"

Oh crap.

"Are…A-Are you Myde?"

Crap crap crap crap crap crap—

"Demyx?"

"Aerith, please don't tell anyone!" he blurted, scrambling to his knees and clutching the phone with both hands. "Please, please, please don't tell anyone! I'll pay for the wedding! I'll pay for your honeymoon! I'll pay for both! Just please don't—"

"Demyx, don't worry," Aerith cut him off patiently. "If you don't want anyone knowing, I'll keep your secret."

He blinked. "Really?"

"Really. I understand why you'd want to keep your job a secret. If word got out that you were the great love guru of Arpeggio 101.3, all kinds of people would be flooding to you with questions about relationships. I can imagine that'd be quite overwhelming."

Demyx jumped to his feet and hopped around the room, waving an arm excitedly and beaming. "Thank you so much! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Of course! Well, I was going to ask you to be our music DJ for the wedding, but I've already asked you to emcee…"

"Hmmm…" He frowned, hunching his shoulders and racking his brain for a solution. "How about I ask one of my coworkers to do it?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm sure I can get someone to do it. It's the least I can do for you."

"Thank you, Demyx. Could you let me know as soon as possible?"

"Of course!"

"Alright. I'll talk to you later."

"Okay! Bye." He hung up on her, tossed the phone onto his bed, and sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I love Aerith," he told his unfazed dorm mate.

Zexion sighed and returned to his homework. "Who doesn't?"

Sora peered around in the dark room for the two blonds with a frown on his face. Even when he spotted them and led the way up the stairs to their row, his frown deepened. The theater wasn't crowded at all. There went that part of his idea.

"Hey Nam?" Kairi began, placing the drinks she held in the cup-holders. "Can you come with me to the bathroom?"

Namine nodded and got up. "Sure."

His girlfriend winked at him, backing out of the row. "We'll be right back."

"Okay." He winked back, plopping into the seat Namine was sitting in and pouring himself a box of popcorn. So the debriefing session began.

He waited until after Namine and Kairi disappeared from view before commenting offhandedly, "S' too bad the theater isn't crowded. We could've split up."

Roxas turned to him, arching an eyebrow. "You're really gonna help me?"

"Dude, I was the one who came up with this movie double-date thing."

"Really?"

"I told you before, Roxas." He handed him a box of popcorn across the two seats separating them with a grin. "I got your back."

Roxas watched him carefully for a few moments before returning the grin gratefully and accepting the popcorn.

"Okay." Sora set down the half-full popcorn bag and started eating from his box. "So my best friend saw this move already and told me that it's not that scary but there are some kinda freaky parts. You could reach for her hand or wrap an arm around her shoulders or something. Be creative, I guess."

"What if I pretend to get scared at the wrong part?"

"Don't worry about it!" Kairi reassured her, running her fingers through her hair to smooth it out. "Just flash him that pretty smile of yours and voila!"

Namine's brow creased uncertainly. "Voila."

"Nam, just try it. Please? For me?" She stuck out her lower lip and clasped her hands together, staring at her cousin in the mirror pitifully.

She glanced away with a sigh. "O-Okay…"

"Oh-kay! Let's go!" Kairi grabbed the girl's wrist and began pulling her out of the bathroom. "The movie's gonna start soon!"

Without glancing down, she reached into the open cracker box, pulled out a crisp, and slipped it into her mouth, chewing slowly while staring at the screen of her laptop. There was no way the great ninja Yuffie Kisaragi would fall to Tifa Lockheart. Staring contests were her specialty. And she'd grabbed her favorite flavor of crackers. She could go at this all night if she had to.

But she wouldn't have to.

Tifa blinked and sighed. "Yuffie…"

"HAH!" Yuffie jabbed a finger at the screen—right on Tifa's forehead. "I won! Now you have to tell me what went down with Spiky."

"Nothing happened."

"Lies!"

"Yuffie—"

"Tell me or else I'm logging off and blocking you and you'll have to plan the bridal shower all by yourself!"

That stopped Tifa in her tracks. Yuffie watched as the woman stammered and opened and closed her mouth like a fish before sighing long and loud. "Honestly," she began, propping her head up with her elbow on the table, "I don't really know what happened."

Yuffie popped another crisp into her mouth. "Whaddya mean?"

"He…He was acting strangely."

"How?"

She took a deep breath and rushed out, "I think he was about to kiss me."

The girl choked on her cracker. "WHAT?"

"I said I think! That doesn't mean I'm right! Maybe he was going to whisper the name of whoever he liked when he and Aerith broke up—"

"Teef!" she spat, thumping her chest and hacking harshly. "I'm so confused!"

Tifa cradled her head in her hands and moaned. "I asked him who he liked when he broke up with Aerith since he and Aerith had feelings for other people and realized that when they were dating…okay?"

"Okay? Okay?" Yuffie threw aside the box of crackers and gripped the screen. "Teef, he was going to kiss you after you asked him that?"

"I don't know!"

Yuffie's head spun. Cloud was gonna kiss Tifa! He was gonna confess that Tifa was his one and only! Gah, they were so close to getting together! Who the hell interrupted them? Why, if Yuffie ever found who did such a horrendous thing, she'd smash his face in! She was sure it was a guy 'cuz a girl wouldn't interrupt something like that—

"Yuffie?"

She had to tell her! She had to spell it out for her! The sooner she knew the better!

"Yuffie?"

"Do you know what this means?" she cried, shaking the screen with her crumbly fingers. "He liked you! You were the one he had feelings for when he was going out with Aerith!"

Tifa blinked, blinked again, then laughed. "Right."

Yuffie's ears twitched at the sarcasm. She shook the screen with more fervor as if trying to shake some sense into Tifa. "I'm serious, Teef!"

The woman on the screen shook her head and laughed again before saying, "So I'm thinking of holding the bridal shower at a place called Graceful Dahlia—"

"No! We're not done talking about Cloud!" Yuffie protested.

"Yes we are," she said firmly. "Your Cloud talk can wait. We have to plan Aerith's bridal shower."

"But—"

"I was going to ask the staff if they could help with decorations—"

"Teef—"

"If you keep shaking the screen like that, you'll break your computer."

Immediately she released the computer, leaving behind dusty fingerprints. Vinnie would get on her case if she broke another computer. But she had to convince Tifa! The woman just didn't get it! "Teef…" she groaned.

"Later." With a stern look the subject was tossed to the side and chucked into the garbage can.

Yuffie resolved to dig around in the trash later. She would not let this go.

Author's Afterthought: Please leave a review! Thanks for reading!