A/N: Well here we go once again. Time for another update. To all those who correctly guessed that Rachel had come from FF6, congrats! You get a mountain of my special homemade cookies!

Now, this story arch is mostly to give the pairings a good swift kick in the arse so that they get a move on. Don't know what I mean? Check out Cloud's cousin. But anyway, it's time for review replies:
Aura of Twili: You'll find out here who it is. You may be pleasantly surprised...or squealing like a fangirl.
Conductor of Darkness: Don't worry about worshipping. I'm cool with it. It just means that the story is good enough to have a cult following or something like that lol.
Tenadara: Thanks for saying that...but what does the 'but' mean? (looks at you with a confused puppy dog face)
Euriko Akikuro: Wow, thank you. Don't worry, we're nowhere near the end. I actually haven't got a clue where it's going half the time so even I get surprised at what I write.
fullofmisery: (happy to know that your happy)
Heartless-Girl: Yep, FF6. Don't worry about it. Rachel's quite a common name in games. I guess I kinda hoped that you guys would find out where she was from just by her (altered) story alone. (sweatdrop) Guess I needed to throw Locke's name in there. Like I said before, this story arch introduces the pushing force for the pairings.
Shadow of Darkness 22: Correct guess on all parts. Gold cookie medal!
SUFFERINGLOSTSOUL: I'll try not to let you down on the Akuroku part.
Aryna.Tahashi: Yep. Completely OOC from her real character in FF6 but...well, it pisses me off that she remembered Locke just before she died and she just fell in love with him again. I would've been pissed off with him for not being a man and running away instead of helping me try to remember everything. And yep, Leon and Cloud are back to normal alright.
Indie Rockin' Emo: LoL. I fear for Rachel's safety...not really!
Ally Montgomery: Rachel's gone, everyone's fine, all is peaceful...that is until someone makes his appearance.
ONiONLADi777: We're getting there with the other lemons. I think Soriku is next in line but I'm not sure. It depends if Axel co-operates or not.
phaz: Correct guess! Gold cookie medal! And here is your pair of harisens. Protect your OTP! And what will happen? Well, all hell is gonna break loose now that a certain someone is around.
Chocola Emo Shizzle: LoL. Good to know you love this.
Lavender341: Well, the old guy is just an OC. He hasn't got a name yet. As for Cloud's cousin, you'll find out who he is here. Sora is such a naive cute little boy. That makes him so molestable and endearing! Makes me wonder how he's managed to keep Marluxia at bay (speaking of whom, we haven't seen lately) Well, loyal reviewer or not, it's still nice to hear from. Do your best!
Faye Silo: Haha. Will this chapter have the same reaction I wonder. As for boyfriends, well it's really all about looks and if your loud enough to push your bust up at them. I have more self respect than some girls I know. Unfortunately, boys are not the most logical thinkers at times lol
ToetalNnyfanatik: Well, free stuff is always nice. Poor Axel. I feel for him.
AnimeDragonofFire: Don't worry about randomness. It just shows your eccentricity. And hey, I got random outbursts from time to time (I blame my dad, the king of random outbursts)
TheFoxGirlKitsune: Well, I'm gonna introduce you to him now! I think Rachel's ponderings on how a guy can love a guy was from me when I was first introduced to homosexuality. Cloud and Leon's answers had been my answers to it.

Anyways, cookies to everyone reading and reviewing. And I have come to the conclusion that, yes, I'm gonna try a competition again. Wait for the 28th (my birthday) to get the details to all those thinking about it. Please read, review and enjoy.

Family Reunion

The November air felt cool and crisp against Roxas' face. He was walking back to Shiva from the art department, fully recovered from the Halloween ordeal. He pouted slightly at the memory. After that, Axel seemed a bit more distant than usual. Maybe he was still having a hard time trying to accept that the supernatural did exist.

The only good thing that seemed to have come out of the ordeal was that Riku seemed to be keeping a better eye on Sora now. Well, that's what the sophomore called it.

Though, it seemed that Cloud and Leon's habits of keeping everyone awake at night seemed to have increased, much to Yuffie's happiness.

All in all, things were getting back to normal. Roxas smiled to himself, stopping at McDuck's and grabbing sea salt ice cream for the journey home.

"Well, seeing as Cloud's giving up his night job, maybe things will quieten down a little bit."

He took a lick at the salty treat, unaware that he was being followed. He then stopped by the fountain at RGU Square, deciding that, since he had time to kill, he'd sketch a few things that he saw in the square.

"Damn, won't that kid just hurry up," a man in sunglasses grumbled. His companion, also with sunglasses nodded silently.

Roxas sketched the happy scene of two squirrels play fighting with each other, taking every movement into detail. Movement drawings weren't his forte but he was good at it. His smile seemed to brighten. For more reasons than one. He and Sora had gotten back in touch with everyone on Destiny Islands thanks to Riku so now they were going to visit them at some point during the winter vacation. He then noticed a sudden shadow come across the ground. He looked up.

"Looks like rain," Roxas murmured, finishing his ice cream and putting his sketchbook away. "Better get moving before it starts."

He stood up, tossing the stick into the trash can nearby and running down the streets, his pursuers ever at his heels. As he turned into a nearby alleyway, he started to get chills. He turned quickly, seeing his stalkers.

"Can I help you?" Roxas asked, trying to hide his hesitance.

"We need you for a moment."

Now, living at Shiva who were fiercely overprotective of the freshmen, Roxas read this is two ways. One: They needed help with something like knowing where a place was. Two: They were going to brutally rape him if he didn't start running. Looking at the apparel, he had a feeling it was the latter.

"Sorry. I'm in a rush." Roxas turned and ran but his pursuers caught him by his shirt and pinned him against the wall. Well this is becoming quite common…

"Let's just say if we don't do it now, we'll have to attack that freshman girl friend of yours."

Roxas saw red. "You touch her and you die!"

"Knew you would see things our way."

Roxas did the only thing he could do. He kneed his captor in the groin and elbowed the other man harshly in the gut when he got too near to him. Just as Roxas was about to run again, the man he kneed on the floor grabbed Roxas' foot, making the freshman fall to hard concrete. Roxas struggled out of the grip.

"Hey," a new voice called. "Picking on a kid isn't very brave of you."

The men stood up, dragging Roxas up to his feet and holding him by the arm. "What's it to you? This is none of your business."

"Sorry, but it's against my morals to let any girl or pretty boy get taken advantage of when I know it's happening."

Roxas hardly had a chance to see who this stranger was when he felt his captor being pushed away and then himself being tossed into a corner. A large sword that was quite similar to Cloud's own was placed in front of him as a shield.

"You stay there. The only one who can move that is me," the man told him, a slight grin on his face. He stood ready, fists out in front of him in a Chinese martial arts stance. His grin turned into a confident smirk at the two men with shades. "Bring it on, bozos."

The taller of the two men came charging at him with a flying punch but the stranger simply duck and high kicked the stalker's jaw. The other came in with another punch but the stranger countered this by grabbing the punch in midair and tossing the body it was attached to into its cohort. The men struggled to get up, their faces contorted into a look of fear of the tall stranger. They ran away without a word. The stranger still had a grin on his face.

"Weaklings. All bullies are weaklings." He then turned to face where Roxas was. Roxas had to admit that the stranger was stunningly handsome. He was kind of like Cloud, with the same build and face if not slightly more muscular but he had tanned skin, jet black hair that seemed to fall to his shoulders in sharp spikes and deep blue eyes that most would get lost in. He knelt in front of Roxas, his white shirt tugging slightly at the well built chest. "You OK kid?"

"Yeah," Roxas nodded, lost for words. "But just…who are you?"

The man stood up, picking up the large sword and clipping it to his back. He then yanked Roxas up to his feet.

"The name's Zack Fair. How about you kid?"

"Roxas Akegata," Roxas replied.

"Akegata? Hey, then do you happen to know a guy called Cloud Strife? He's my cousin."

"Yeah. He lives in the same house as me."

"I knew that the name sounded familiar. See, I…er…kinda got lost."

Roxas cocked his head. Lost? Was he embarrassed by it?

"It's kind of embarrassing because I'm supposed to be the best tracker back home and I can't even find one particular building. Damn, I'm getting rusty…" and so Zack continued to ramble and Roxas began to question the older man's claim of being a relation of Cloud's. Must be just the looks to a certain extent. "Oh. Sorry. Must've rambled again. Anyway, do you think you could give me directions to Shiva House?"

"Well, I'm going that way myself so we could walk together," Roxas offered.

"Walk? Who said anything about walking?"

Roxas looked at Zack, wondering if the older man was indeed as crazy as he thought.

"We're riding!"

"Riding…what?"

"My motorcycle."

"Wha?!"

OK, he was definitely questioning Zack's claim to being Cloud's cousin. Cloud wouldn't even let a bug touch his precious motorcycle! He felt himself being dragged and plonked onto the strange man's motorcycle. He then felt a helmet placed on his head.

"Since you're the passenger, my helmet will be used for your own safety while I try to kill myself as gramps would put it," Zack said with a huge grin. "Hang on tight."

Roxas didn't have a chance to scream as they zipped away from the alleyway. He clung onto Zack for dear life.

God, I pray for my soul to be kept.

Axel was busy angsting –per usual– on the porch, inhaling on his cigarette deeply. He didn't know why, but that whole scenario on Halloween threw in into the deep end of his own sanity. He would never tell anyone this but if a vengeful spirit such as Rachel could come back from the dead to wreck havoc, what was there to stop his own personal demons from coming back. After all, Fate and Karma were manipulative bitches.

Speaking of which, Karma and Fate had decided to throw yet another spanner into the works as a motorcycle pulled up in front of Shiva. Axel watched with slight interest, not paying attention to Aerith or Cloud who had come outside. Aerith had tea. Cloud looked like he had been persuaded to come outside. He then looked at the motorcyclist in shock.

The cyclist helped his helmeted passenger off. "Thanks kid. I owe ya one." The helmet came off, revealing a slightly disorientated if not pale Roxas. Axel tried his hardest not to laugh at the sight. Cloud seemed to have stiffen for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Aerith asked him.

Cloud didn't seem to have heard her. "Zack?"

The cyclist turned, grinning up at the blond. "Long time no see cuz."

Cloud frowned. "Why are you here?"

"Well, the old man wanted me to drag you kicking and screaming back to Niebelheim but hey, I'm here now, I think I'm gonna take my time with that order."

"Take your time?"

"Dude. It's been too long that I've been stuck in Niebelheim with nothing to do! You can't have all the fun! And anyway, I kinda wanna piss the old man off like you had. I'm telling you Spiky, the old man had quite a fantastic reaction to your letter."

"What did he do?"

"Went about the dojo screaming 'what', praying to the gods that you would see the error of your ways, perform curses on you that can only be broken if you come back to Niebelheim and partake in the ceremony and then he sent me to collect you," Zack listed, grinning all the while. "You always did know how to piss the old geezer off."

Cloud pursed his lips. "And how exactly are you my cousin when I took my decision seriously and you think it's all one big joke?"

Zack looked at his younger cousin with shock. "You're serious?!"

"So glad that you've believed in every serious decision I ever made in my life."

"God, I really thought you were joking. I mean, you were so determined to inherit the dojo as a kid."

"Ahem," Roxas coughed. Cloud looked at him oddly. "Maybe you could invite your cousin in. It does look like he's been travelling for sometime."

"Actually, I was going to ask you about that. Why didn't you just take a train?" Cloud asked his cousin.

"Where's the fun in that?" Zack countered. Cloud sighed.

"Typical you."

All the while, Axel looked on at the black-haired man, thinking nothing of him, while Aerith seemed to have become even more silent. For her, this was a very important man that had waltzed into her life. For Axel, he was going to become a pain in the ass.

Dinner was a more…lively affair for lack of a better term. For one, the house had learned a couple of things about Zack that they should be wary about.

One: Zack was a flirt but only to the girls. Zack had made it pretty clear that he would never in his life view any boy, no matter how pretty or effeminate they were, as attractive.

Two: He was a trouble maker. Add him to Yuffie, and Leon was beginning to get a throbbing vein on his temple and Cloud was beginning to give off evil vibes of doom.

Three: He liked his weapons. Cloud had called for an inspection before Zack even sat at the table and the numerous amount of small shuriken, kunai and even his own sword were now lying on the counter, glistening in the lamp light.

Four: He seemed to be even more devious than Yuffie. He was already dropping hints to prospective couples (much to Yuffie and Naminé's joy) though when he looked at his weapons longingly, Cloud and Leon sent him a joint murderous look that just dared him to.

All in all, life in Shiva House was going to get interesting to say the least.

Right now, Aerith had the pleasure of his company as he so kindly offered to do the dishes with her. Apparently the rest of Shiva were going to have a meeting. She didn't mind so much. They'd tell her later. She preferred cleaning anyway.

"So what're you studying?" Zack asked.

"Ancient Studies," Aerith answered.

"Wow. Heavy going. Back at school, I barely got a C in History."

"I like it. It opens up a door to the past and makes you learn from our ancestors failures and successes."

"Well, the only piece of history I have to learn from really is my family's," Zack mused.

"So what are your hopes for the future?" Aerith asked.

"Huh?"

"Mine are to start teaching and maybe start a family."

"Starting a family? That's strange coming from a twenty year old."

"Well, I come from a foster family. They were kind to me but they never had any other children so I felt quite lonely. I guess starting my own would be a way of curing that loneliness for me."

Zack nodded, understanding. He came from quite a close knit family. Cloud and he were practically brought up as brothers so he guessed what it would be like being an only child. Cloud leaving for RGU had been a blow to him.

"Well, I guess there's inheriting the family dojo if I succeed and the other candidates fail but I guess I could join the bodyguard business or something. Fighting's the only thing I can do."

"That's not true. You can be good at anything if you just try your hardest."

"That so?"

Aerith nodded firmly. Zack couldn't help but grin at the brunette who was just a little bit shorter than him. Definitely the motherly type and also had a strong will. He could see her having kids.

In the living room, there were arguments over about where Zack was staying.

"Why can't he stay in one these guest houses?" Cloud demanded.

"Because since he's here and he's made himself at home, we might as well let him sleep here for a couple of days," Roxas countered.

"Personally, I don't think I'd feel safe if some weapon-happy idiot was in the house," Axel muttered.

"But you're perfectly OK with Cloud and Leon having blades in the house?" Sora questioned. This had silenced the red head for a while who muttered in true Leon-style "…whatever…"

"As much as it pains me to say this, but the twins have a point," Larxene said. "And it seems that Aerith's getting a little cosier with him."

They all turned to the kitchen, seeing the happy chatter and laughs between the two. The face on Cloud signalled the beginning of the end of his hope to have his cousin far away. He still hadn't told him about his relationship with Leon.

"Fine," Cloud muttered. "He can stay."

If there was one weakness in Cloud, it was Aerith. He cared for her as if she were his sister since she was the first to befriend him at RGU. Plus, he always came to Aerith if there were problems and she would just listen to him, never asking anything more from him.

"He sleeps on the couch then," Leon finally spoke. No one dared argue with the alpha-male of the house.

Zack had pretty much made himself at home alright. He now knew of everything that was going on (even Cloud's relationship with Leon though he wouldn't tell Cloud. The blond was still being very cautious about it) so when he heard that Roxas was having a bit of trouble with trying to get Axel to open up a bit (thanks to Yuffie and Naminé) he decided that it wasn't going to do.

He was going to have to play matchmaker along with Yuffie and Nami. And let's just say his ways were a bit more…forceful.

Axel didn't know what was coming to him.