A/N: Back again after another long wait. This time...we're getting back with the plot bunnies. The last filler chapter I had planned...well, I couldn't continue it so I'm saving it for a rainy day (may become a remix of M.A. or a sidestory. Just depends how I feel about it). Now, I had been asked several times before about the situation between Riku and Sora. You know, how I never seem to write about them that often or how I never really went into great detail about Riku's family issues. So...I waited for the perfect moment. And here it is. The start of another story arch for Soriku. COMPLETELY DEDICATED TO THEM. Akuroku will get their own as well. I have a good plan for them. As for Cleon, Zemyx and the elusive pairing of Namine and her partner (still haven't figured out who it is? -insert evil laugh here- ), they'll probably get shared chapters from now on. Zack and Aerith may or may not get a chapter of their very own and Tifa...well, if there are any suggestions for a pairing even during Magnetic Attraction or it's sequel (name still will be undisclosed), let me know.

Now, we're nearing to my absolute favourite time of year...second to my birthday in the summer. Christmas. I'm praying for a white one this year. I love snow. And my lil' Louie looks so cute when he's out and about in the snow...although, if he's clean, he's difficult to spot so we have to put one of his brightly coloured collars on so that we don't lose him. God knows what he'll do if he manages to escape...

One thing though: I hate a cold house (buries herself in her duvet and blankets). We've got no heating for a week and I'm already freezing. The hope is that we get a new boiler by next week before Christmas...otherwise we have a long drive up North to my grandparents. And it's no fun with three kids, two adults and four animals, two of which will be yowling the whole way there and one will be trying to climb into my mom's lap (sweatdrop).

OK, so thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed. Honestly, I don't know what to say to you guys. You keep me going. So I hope you all get what you want this Christmas (and I say this because I have no idea if I'll get another chapter up with all this work I have to do in my holiday). Please read, review and enjoy this chapter and if I don't post another chapter...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


Riku's Strife

March was rolling in but Sora had noticed a rather subtle change in Riku's behaviour. All of a sudden, he seemed under more stress, snapping at the littlest of things but always immediately regretting them. And although Sora enjoyed those begging embraces, and always forgave Riku, he couldn't help but think…what's going on?

The last time he asked, Riku gave him a blank look, a forced smile and said that it was just exam stress. He shouldn't worry. But Sora did. Sora was a worrier of the worst kind. That much was obvious when it came to Roxas' well being when they were younger.

To be honest, Sora was beginning to wonder if his Riku was kidnapped and replaced by this slightly fragile impostor.

"What's bugging you Sora?" his twin asked, taking a couple of photos of the view outside the window. Professor Aeon had seen some of Roxas' photography works and requested him to do a small project on it. Roxas only too willingly complied. He was more of a photographer than an artist; he enjoyed it.

"It's Riku," Sora replied, knees drawn up into his chest. "I'm worried about him. He's been a lot less…Riku-like."

Roxas looked over to him. "Exam stress?"

"I think there's something more to it."

"You don't think…"

"I was beginning to wonder that myself but you know what Riku's like about it. If we even mention the Islands, he changes the topic as soon as we try to talk about his mom and…well…him."

Roxas sighed. The knowledge of the twins' father running off to be with their childhood friend's mother was quite a painful cross to bear and Riku…they got the feeling that Riku felt like he could've done something to stop it but didn't act. They didn't blame him; they knew nothing could possibly have been done. Their father was selfish. They knew that.

"What should I do?" Sora asked quietly, despair in his voice. "Every time I try to talk to Riku, he snaps, we get into an argument, and nothing gets solved."

"He just wants to protect you," Roxas whispered. "Axel does the same."

"But Dad hasn't run off with Axel's mom has he."

"True enough," Roxas smiled. "But Axel doesn't like talking about his folks. I asked him about them once. You want to know what he said?"

Sora nodded slightly, curious but not seeing how this would help.

"'Ma is probably rolling in her grave when she's not trying to seduce the man upstairs and Pop is a cold bastard who could care less about what the fuck I do.' His words, not mine."

Sora gave a small chuckle. It was a typical Axel response. "He really doesn't like them does he?"

"Said he hates them with a passion and he's glad that he was disowned, though Ariel doesn't agree with him."

"And Reno doesn't give a rat's ass," Axel's voice cut across them. Roxas jumped.

"I hate it when you do that," he growled.

Axel smirked. "You don't seem to mind it at times."

"Oh yeah?"

"Hmm…I can think of a few times that you were very happy to get jumped like that."

Roxas blushed. "You know, what you do sometimes could be classified as rape."

Axel widened his eyes. "Really? I call it 'surprise sex'."

Roxas blushed hotly. "Axel!"

Sora looked between the two, staying silent.

"Though, I hope you don't react the way you do when it's me with people like Sephiroth."

"Eww! No!"

"You blush way too easily and you wear a skirt most days because of that job you've got. Maybe I ought to request for your resignation."

"Axel! That's my job! I decide whether I quit or not!"

Axel grabbed Roxas, pulling him flushed against his chest, looking right into Roxas' eyes with an intense stare.

"I don't like sharing things that are mine. You should know that by now."

Sora coughed at this point. "If you guys are going to start humping, could you kindly do it in your room? I don't want to see my twin at it."

Axel gave him a flat look. "We are in our room. You go to your room."

Sora blinked…and then realised that he was indeed in Roxas' and Axel's room. "Oh…er…sorry…"

Axel than gave him a thoughtful look. "Unless you want to do a threesome…that would be interesting…"

"Axel!" the twins chorused, Sora looking appalled, Roxas looking annoyed. Sora immediately left, leaving the two alone but he heard the voices behind the door.

"You idiot! That's my twin you're talking about having three-way sex with!"

"A man's greatest fantasy. Doing it with twins."

"But not with my twin!"

"Looks like you're not keen on sharing me either."

"…"

"I take that silence as a yes then."

"You-!" Roxas was silenced, and then began moaning quietly. "Axel…not there…idiot…!"

"Hmm? Shush. I'm enjoying this."

"Ahhh…! Ax…el…!"

Sora went beetroot red, scurrying away quickly. Although jealous that their relationship didn't seem to have cooled down, Sora didn't want to hear just how good their relationship was.

He felt like the gods were mocking him by doing this on purpose.


"You're not your usual cheery self today," Cloud finally said after a lengthy silence prevailed over Sora's botched up line. Sora was not looking up, angry at himself. Instead of saying 'My lord Hamlet', he said 'My lord Riku'. Yuffie, playing Gertrude, had gently, if not teasingly, reminded him that Cloud was not his boyfriend to which Sora had no comeback for. The actors noticed this, worrying about the usual upbeat freshman.

It was a good thing that Xehanort wasn't around. He'd be going on a rampage at this point.

Irvine put a hand on Sora's shoulder. He had the part of Guildenstern while his partner in crime Rosencrantz was being played by a young sophomore from Leviathan House called Larsa. "Hey kiddo, something going on between you and your boyfriend?"

Sora nodded his head. "I'm sorry…I shouldn't bring it in to this…"

"Have you tried talking to him?" Cloud asked. Sora nodded.

"But he's not saying what it is, is he."

"No…he just snaps then regrets it."

Larsa gave him a very sympathetic smile. "Try and not think about it. We need our Horatio."

Sora took a deep breath. They were right. He had to not think about it now. It would affect his performance. "Sorry. Let's try that again."


If it wasn't bad enough, Sora was now beginning to think that someone was trying to mess with his mind on purpose. Every time he swore he saw Riku, it turned out to be his imagination, another person that just so happened to have had silver hair or, once or twice, the actual person but he just smiled and turned away, calling to him that he was a bit busy and would see him later. Sora honestly just felt like part of him was getting ripped to pieces. He just wanted to be with Riku no matter what but said silver-haired sophomore was making it so difficult to do just that. In the end…he needed someone to talk to.

It was at that point, just as he was about to go and talk to 'Roxanne' at her work when something crashed into him.

"Shit! I'm so sorry! Let me help you up!"

"No, it's OK. I wasn't looking."

"Sora?!"

The brunet looked up, eyes wide when he saw a very familiar face. "Hayner?! What are you doing here?!"

"Working," Hayner grinned. "I got a job with the student delivery service while I'm still training."

"Still racing?"

"Duh."

"Figures. So which delivery service is it?"

"Strife-Lockhart."

"You work with Cloud and Tifa?!"

"You know them?"

"Know them! They live in the same dorm as me!"

"No way! I could've seen you and Roxas sooner!"

Well, you kinda did, Sora thought, but he decided it was best not to say anything.

"How's everyone else?"

"Kairi's gone back to Destiny Islands as a gap year student. Staying at the school there I think. Pence is doing OK at TT college and so is Olette."

"That's great," Sora smiled. He did miss them.

"Oh yeah, and Kairi said that she saw your dad with that old friend of yours' mom."

"Yeah, Riku told me."

"You found him! That's great Sora! What's he like?"

"Well…"

And so the happy banter continued, the two friends catching up with each other.

However, Sora was unaware that a certain silver-haired man had seen the two, watching them for a few moments before moving away with a heavy heart.


Sora spent most of his time with 'Roxanne', Naminé and Yuffie, waiting for the three girls to change back, or in Roxas' case revert back to being a boy. It was their turn to close up the shop tonight.

"So do you think you can try and pry it out of Riku what's going on?" Naminé asked the older twin. Sora just merely gave a defeated shrug.

"I have no idea."

"Ooooooooo!" Yuffie fumed, waving her arms frantically. "When I get my hands on that boy, I'm going to slap some sense into him! How dare he make his lil' cutie worry like this?!"

"Lil' cutie?" Sora quirked an eyebrow.

"Sorry about this," Namine whispered. "She gets like this from time to time."

"So I noticed…"

Yuffie went deathly quiet all of a sudden… "Wait a minute. Why is Axel dragging Riku here?"

"Huh?"

True to Yuffie's words, Axel was indeed forcibly dragging Riku, cigarette firmly in his scowling mouth, immune to the protests and violent methods of trying to get out of his grasp.

"Fuck it Axel! Let me go!"

"Shut up…"

Sora blinked, wondering why on earth Riku was so…obvious about not wanting to be here.

"This is none of your business so let me go!"

"If Sora's unhappy, Roxas is unhappy, and I get the brunt of it." He turned his jade eyes at Riku, staring at them with the fire he only saved when he was angry. "And personally, I don't do 'comfort'. I do 'solution'." He tossed Riku right towards Sora, the silver-haired guitarist barely managing to stop himself from crashing into his younger lover.

"Hey, what's going on?" Roxas asked as he came out of the changing rooms, seeing Riku and Sora in close quarters, Namine blushing, Axel leaning against the counter smoking heavily and Yuffie just watching those two. Roxas raised his eyebrows uncertainly. "Did I miss something?"

"Oh no," Axel grumbled. "You're just in time to see the show."

"Shut up Axel…" Riku growled.

"Why won't you just tell the kid what's been bothering you?" Axel questioned, eyes blazing with annoyance. Riku didn't reply. "What happened to you Riku? You're not the blunt silver-haired idiot I know."

Riku turned angrily, marching over to Axel, forgetting Sora completely. "You shut up! Don't act like you can solve something like this! You can't! This is my burden to bear! I'll solve it by myself!"

"By keeping quiet? Yeah, great strategy," Axel said sarcastically, blowing smoke into Riku's face. The other sophomore started coughing violently.

"Oh and you think you're so perfect. Well you're not!"

"Did I ever say that I was?" Axel asked him, slightly amused. The other four just watched this happening, unable to say anything.

"If you think you can handle something like this then go a-"

In a matter of seconds, faster than anyone could blink, a large -thump!- sounded in the air. Riku was facing away, a large red flush marking where Axel's closed fist had contacted his pale face. The hand itself was in front of Axel, clenched tightly.

"Shut up and tell the damn kid what is going on or else I will tell him myself."

"Riku…" Sora started quietly. "What's going on?"

Riku wouldn't budge, as if still shell-shocked by what Axel had done.

"Dammit Riku, don't make me do it," Axel growled. Roxas went over to him, trying to calm the raging beast that was stirring inside his flame-haired lover but Axel was getting beyond irritated.

"I won't say anything with all of you here," Riku muttered stubbornly.

"But-"

Axel felt himself get dragged away by three pairs of hands. Roxas looked at him pleadingly. "Just leave them alone. It's the best policy." Axel just growled but let himself be guided out. After all, Riku's refusal to say anything was beginning to piss him off.

"Riku…" Sora whispered once they were the ones left alone. "What is going on…?"

Riku wouldn't answer him, but the eyes said everything. There was pain of knowing, the agony of not being able to say anything and the sheer struggle to not just blurt it out. Sora couldn't handle seeing his silver-haired lover in so much suffering. He simply threw himself at Riku, clutching onto him tightly.

"Tell me! It's obviously hurting you not to say anything so tell me!"

Riku slowly wrapped his arms around the smaller freshman, pulling him even closer to him, searching for the comfort he had barred himself from.

"…want me to go back…"

"Huh?"

Riku didn't look at Sora, pained. "They want me to go back home. My mom…and your dad…"

Sora went mute, just looking at him. He knew that Riku had refused to go home for over a year since coming to RGU but now, it sounded like he was going on a death threat or something that was just forcing his hand to follow their wishes.

"You don't want to go though, do you?"

"I'm just going to end up miserable and trying to kill your dad for what he did to you guys."

"What about your mom?"

Riku sighed. "I can't decide who she falls in love with. I can understand that. It was like that time when I fell in love with you. I couldn't help and I didn't choose to. So, I'm in the same boat as her." He tightened his grip on Sora as he said those words, burying his head into his smaller lover's hair. "I just wish it wasn't with him. Technically this is incest since we're stepbrothers in theory."

"When was this decided?" Sora asked. "I didn't go with him and nor did Roxas. We're not under his care. We're not part of his family anymore. So…" he looked up, those sapphire blue eyes looking at him with assured confidence. "We're not stepbrothers and we are not having incest. So stop worrying."

Riku blinked. Not that he wasn't unsure of Sora's intelligence –Sora was far from stupid- he was just taken aback by the pure logic of Sora's words.

In the past, Sora and logic never mixed. It just went to show just how much growing up Sora had done ever since their childhood promise that star-streaked night on the playground island.

"Sora…I want you to come with me…"

"Hmm? To the Islands?"

"That was what was bothering me. I want to take you with me, but I didn't want to upset you…so…"

"I'll go."

Riku blinked in disbelief. "Come again?"

"I said I'll go," Sora smiled, leaning up and chastely placed a sweet and loving kiss on the silver-haired man's lips. "If he isn't happy to see me, then that's his problem. But I'll go with you. Doesn't matter where or how, but I'd go with you anyway."

"It's going to be difficult."

"I don't care."

"I heard that your ex-girlfriend is there."

"I don't care."

"Your dad may kick us out of the house if he doesn't like it."

"Unlikely, but I still don't care."

"I may not be able to kiss you while we're there."

"Now that is something worth caring about." Sora feverishly kissed Riku following after that, opening his mouth to utter, "If that's the case, better make up for the time we'll lose."

"Best thing I've heard all day," Riku smirked, dragging Sora's small body to the door and doing the staffs' jobs, leading Sora into the back.