Author's Notes: Another fast update, slightly longer chapter. Things are starting to settle in a little bit.

Now I must contemplate on how to further this lovely relationship.

Chapter 27

"The Phone Disconnected"

Insanity was the main course that evening. With two more kids to feed, Cloud was a little unprepared to give them seats at the table and enough food for them all. He managed to make it so that Riku and Sora could share rations (he apologized that they would eat so little, and said if they got hungry again, they could help themselves to the snacks), though they also sacrificed a real seat at the table for being squeezed in at one side. Afterwards, Riku went straight away snatching the DDR—he didn't talk much with the other teenagers, but he still participated in minimal socialization. And Sora busied himself playing Twister and board games with the kids in generally the same room.

Then around the time the little ones went to bed, Sora occupied himself watching Riku dance. So did most of the envious boys and girls who watched on in awe.

Riku had just finished up the most fast-paced song on the game at Hard and landed several perfects, so the living room exploded in cheers. "I like him already!" exclaimed Zell. He threw a few shadow-sparring punches. "Maybe he can teach me how to fight, too!"

Riku just shrugged and stepped down from the platform, wiping off some of the sweat on his brow. Sora stretched out on the only empty couch in the living room and smiled.

"You're really good at that."

Riku grinned. "Country Boy likes?"

Sora glowered at him and lowered his head with a pout. "Stop trying to catch me. That's mean. Tidus did that to me once, I won't fall for it again."

Riku turned his eyes away with a haughty smirk. "Just open your mouth and insert your foot." He teased.

"You wish," Sora scoffed. "Selphie might fall for something like that, but—" Sora stopped. Then he shot up. "Oh, crap! Selphie…Dad…Mom!"

"You're not flaking out on me already, are you?" Riku groaned. Sora jumped up off the couch, and yanked on Seifer's arm when he passed by, making the older blond blink.

"Where's your phone? I want to call my parents…they have to know I'm okay."

"Are you joking? This house is a beacon center for wire taps and paparazzi." Seifer shook his head. "You're not going to use our house phone."

"Then can I borrow a cell phone? Do you have one?" Sora clapped his hands together in a prayer position. "Pleeeease!"

"It's not very smart to call home at this point," Seifer said. Riku just shook his head.

"Country Boy misses his family."

Sora glared at him, but then quickly turned to Seifer. "I won't tell them where we are. I swear. Besides, they live in the Stone Age. Dial-up, no cable or satellite, and no caller ID."

"Ouch!" Riku winced. "How do you live in that cave?"

"Like you would know!" Sora protested, but he stopped and looked guilty instantly after, remembering Riku's living situations with Ansem.

"At least we had cable and DSL." Riku replied, not even thinking about it. "Even in my old home. You probably don't even get Cartoon Network."

"Show-off," Sora grumbled after a pause. Seifer sighed.

"...I'll give you five minutes. Five." Seifer pulled out his cell phone and handed it to Sora. Sora beamed.

"Thank you! I owe you one!"

"Sure, sure, just call them already." Sora did so, dialing up his house number and cradling the phone to his ear as he went into a corner of the room where nobody else was. The phone rang for several moments before someone picked up.

"Hello? Is this the police?"

Sora paused, hesitant. "...Mom?"

"...Sora? Oh, God! Honey, it's Sora!" Lisa sounded like she'd been crying. She sniffled and her voice was choked-up. "Oh God, sweetheart, are you okay? We're so worried about you!"

"I'm okay, Mom." Sora said gently. "Calm down...are you okay?"

"Oh," his mother laughed, "Dear, you know how I am—waterworks!" Sora smiled.

"Is Selphie alright?"

"Oh, Sora, Selphie is so upset about you. She keeps asking when you're going to come back. Baby, where are you? The police are looking—"

"What about Dad?"

"Frets every hour, and I think he's paced a ditch into the floor." his mother chuckled, still sniffling. Sora nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds like Dad."

"Sora, where are you?"

Sora shook his head. "I'm sorry, Mom. I can't tell you that."

"What? Why! Is Riku making you stay quiet? I can't believe it—that boy—he's so reckless! He's not making you do anything, is he, Sora?"

Sora blinked, not sure what she meant by 'making him do anything'; however, the first thing that came to mind...he recalled Riku teasing him for being so tense when he checked the slash wound, which was now properly patched and cared for.

"I, um..."

"Sora, if he's making you do things you don't want to do, you have to say 'no'!"

"Mooom!" Sora turned red. "Riku's not—he's not doing things, okay? He's not that kind of guy..."

His mother laughed nervously. "Sora, he kidnapped you—twice, as far as I'm concerned!"

"He...He doesn't mean to..." Sora frowned, knowing his defense was very weak. He wasn't sure how to back this up...it would be difficult for his mother to understand. "Look, Mom...I know Riku's kind of weird, and I know this whole thing is tough, but..."

"Honey, please come home. Any way you can. Please. I don't care if Riku threatens to—"

"That's just it!" Sora cried, a little angry. "Mom, he didn't make me come with him." (That was a white lie; technically, at first, he had been reluctant.) "He's not threatening me, or anything...I mean, if anything, ever since he took off, he's had a level head on his shoulders for once."

"I won't believe it. No boy who kidnaps my son has a level head!"

"Mom, try to think about this from Riku's perspective." Sora reasoned.

"Riku's perspective? I don't give a damn about his perspective! Don't get me wrong, honey, I sympathize for what that bad man put him through—but that doesn't give him any right to take you away!"

Sora sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Maternal instincts were hard to win over.

"I'm sorry, Mom. It's a 'whatever, whenever' thing."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Sora bit his lip. "I...I kind of want to stay with him."

Lisa shrieked. "Are you out of your mind!"

"I want to make sure he's going to get better...I don't know...it's hard to explain." Sora sighed again. "Just, please...if the police ask...I never called. Please, Mom."

"Sora—!"

"And tell Kairi I'm okay, too. She's probably scared right now."

"No, Sora, listen to—"

"I love you." Sora hung up before his mother could argue. Then he returned the phone to Seifer, who took it with a nod and put it in his pocket. "Thank you. I just needed to let them know I wasn't hurt."

"No problem." The blond went back upstairs, where Fuujin and Raijin were retreating from the masses, and Cloud was talking with his friend Grievers on the computer.

Riku sat down next to Sora on the couch when the brunet took a seat. "Blew over well?"

"Not really," he groaned. "Mom's upset. She's pretty much lost all trust in you."

"I'm not surprised." Riku shrugged his shoulders. "She's your mother. All she wants is for me to give you back to her."

Sora smiled a little bitterly. "Moms...right?"

"I guess so." Was Riku's indefinite reply.

They watched the teenagers playing their video games for a while, and then Sora glanced at Riku. "How did you get so good at DDR, anyway?"

"I don't know." Riku shrugged again, staring at the plasma flat-screen. "It's not that hard...follow the arrows and let the beat move you. That's it."

"Arrgh," Sora groaned, "You make it sound so easy."

Riku smirked, looking at him. "Well, that's because it is."

Sora shoved him. "You show-off! I've played that before, like, once. I sucked."

"Well you're not going to get anywhere just playing it once." Riku chuckled. He went back to watching some of the kids play Mario Kart Double Dash. "Maybe I'll versus you sometime. Might do you good to get some practice in, just like everything else."

"You'll kill me," Sora complained. "I have two left feet. I'm a horrible dancer."

Riku shrugged his shoulders again. "What's dancing? Listen to the beat, pick up your feet. Wave your arms, move your hips. Bend over, stand up; crouch down, jump up. All it is is music moving your body."

Sora grinned mockingly at him. "Heyyy, you should be a poet."

"AHA HA HA...how about no."

Cloud sighed and rested his head on his computer desk.

"And now I have two extra mouths to feed."

"You adopted two more?" Grievers didn't sound so sure. "I don't remember this, but isn't there a limit to how many children you can have?"

"Well, I adopted them from multiple agencies and orphanages..."

"Christ." Grievers muttered. "How do you afford it all?"

"Good question." Cloud leaned back in his seat and sighed. "At any rate..." he trailed off, pausing. Grievers waited several seconds.

"...At any rate...?" he questioned.

Cloud didn't respond. Grievers fell silent.

"...How are things with your boyfriend?"

Cloud groaned again. "Rocky. I called and told him about the two extra kids. He wasn't happy about it."

"He doesn't like what you do?"

"He's just not good with kids." Cloud shook his head. "He can't understand why I feel the need to take care of so many."

"Neither do I," admitted Grievers. "Want to enlighten me? Just for the sake of discussion."

The blond thought about that, and then closed his eyes, seeing Sister Rosalyn open up that closet door and seeing the police carry away the dead bodies of his parents, and the scattered mess all around the house. He could still remember how they questioned him about what had happened, with Rosalyn, a child counselor, and a lawyer present.

"...It's kind of uncomfortable...for me to talk about."

"...Something from when you were young," Grievers guessed. Cloud got a light smirk on his face.

"Grievers, when did you get to be psychic?"

"I'm just a good guesser. Always have been."

Cloud fell silent, breathing deeply and then letting out a heavy sigh.

"Stressed?" asked Grievers.

"Tired," he corrected. "Thank you, though. I enjoyed the talk."

"Not at all." Grievers added after a minute, "But you know, it's like I'm suddenly becoming your therapist. Just to let you know...I make a bad therapist."

Cloud laughed. "I'll keep it in mind," he said tiredly. "I'll talk to you later, G."

"Night, Riddlez."

Cloud nodded and turned off the Voice conversation, then closed out of MSN Messenger. He stared at the computer screen in front of him, sighing. When had life suddenly become so difficult? Was it when Sister Rosalyn took him in? When he landed his job as a model? When he began sleeping with Sephiroth? Or was it now, when things suddenly didn't make sense anymore...?

The blond turned his computer off and got showered and in his pajamas before telling the teenagers to go to bed, reminding them they had school tomorrow. Then he gave Riku and Sora a room to borrow in the basement which was vacant (ironically to the boys, it was the same one where Riku had checked Sora's cut).

"I'm sorry about the setup," Cloud apologized. "I'm afraid you'll have to share the bed, but it's a Full, so it should be able to fit you both comfortably."

Sora didn't look too happy about it. Riku glanced sideways at him.

"I'm not going to molest you," he said.

"Shut up!" the brunet whined. Cloud shook his head.

"There's a bathroom connected to it—" Cloud swung open the door to said bathroom and clicked the light on. "—shower, toilet, sink, toothbrush and toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body wash. It's a little cramped, but it's what you get."

"Do we really have to share a bed?" Sora groaned. Cloud thought for a moment, then put his hands on his hips.

"Well, if you're really uncomfortable about it, you can ask to borrow someone's sleeping bag, but I warn you that the floor isn't very comfortable."

Sora didn't say anything to that, so Cloud just left it to sit on his mind and went out the door. "Goodnight, you two. Oh—" he turned around. "Wait, I forgot. While you're living here, we have rules. Keep the house clean, put away what you play with, and don't answer the door. Ever. Tabloids sometimes stop by and try to get information. Raijin will usually answer it—just let him do that. Keep the curtains shut, keep all the doors and windows locked—"

"Jesus Christ, it's like a jailtime lockdown." Riku grumbled. Cloud shrugged, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry. That's how it is. Unless you want someone to find out I'm keeping you here and report you to the police..."

"Good point," Sora said quickly, before Riku could open his mouth. Riku glared at him.

"One last thing. Don't pick up the phone. Now, about clothes—I guess you won't have much to wear except what you have for now, but I'm pretty sure Zidane can share clothes with Sora, and Riku, you might be able to wear some of Seifer's old duds. I'll ask them to scrounge a few things up for you."

"Whatever," said Riku.

"Thanks so much, Mr. Strife."

Cloud blinked. "...Just Cloud is fine."

Sora smiled nervously. "Heh heh...um, Cloud." he corrected himself.

The model nodded his head courteously and began to shut the door behind him as he left. "Goodnight," he said to them, and then he let them get settled in on their own as he went upstairs and retired to bed.

After brushing their teeth and stripping down to their boxers, Sora and Riku stared at the Full-sized bed. Sora blinked at it, crinkled his eyebrows, pouted, crossed his arms—while Riku simply hopped right in and flung the covers up to pull them over him.

"Bed or floor?" he asked.

Sora stared at the hardwood floor. Most of the kids were already asleep. It was a little late to ask for a sleeping bag.

He grumbled about his bad luck and crawled in under the covers, staying as far to his side of the bed as possible without falling off. Riku snickered.

"Homophobe."

"I am not homophobic!"