Author's note: We have reached the third chapter. It took freakin for ever to write this one because I kept getting side tracked. So much for getting chapters up fast. And thanks for all your reviews. Can't tell you how exited I was when I saw that I had one!

The Boarding House

Chapter 3

Riku was feeling really awkward. What if Aeris was pissed? She couldn't have been. She'd smiled. What did that mean? Did she like it? These questions zipped back and forth through his head. Sora busted into the room which he and Riku shared.

"Hey! What did you do with my stack of penthouses? I've been looking for them all day. I now what you're going to say. I have plenty of other stacks. But it's not that. It's the principle of the thing. Don't take my porn without asking. I know it's weird to ask but-" Sora looked at his friend and saw his motionless expression. "You ok?" Riku just sat and stayed silent.

"Huh? Oh I'm ok."

Sora could see something was wrong. "What's up?"

Riku looked at Sora. "I can trust you right? If I told you something…private you wouldn't tell anyone would you?"

"No, what is it?"

"You swear you won't tell anyone?"

"Yeah, relax. I'm not Tifa. What is it?"

"Ok. Earlier today when we were going home and Aeris was riding in the car with us and she was sitting on my lap something…happened."

Sora raised his brow. "What?"

"I… got hard." Sora's interested face turned to a shocked face.

"Are you serious? While she was on your lap?"

"…yeah."

Sora barley knew what to say. "How come she didn't do anything?"

"I…I think she liked it."

Sora was speechless. He stared at the bewildered Riku in awe. "Aeris? Aeris liked it?"

"It's driving me crazy! I can't stop thinking about her! Now that this has happened I'm so attracted to her! And that ass! Oh God, what a sweet ass!"

"Yeah, she does have one hell of an ass."

"You're not helping Sora! What if she likes me! WHAT IF SHE LOVES ME!"

Sora stared at the blabbering Riku.

"I'm really freaking out! I've never been a one woman man. Rinoa even started her one night stand phase by picking it up from me! If I start something with Aeris I'll only end up hurting her! Sora help me!"

Sora knew he had a duty to help his best friend. If Riku started a long term relationship with Aeris he would never be able to resist being with other women. When it came to getting with girls, Riku was weak at heart and never really thought of what would happen in the long run. Sora wouldn't let him be drawn in. "Don't worry man. I'll make sure you stay away from her."

"Thanks, but I'm sure staying away from her will be the easy part. I can probably handle that myself."

The door opened and Tifa entered the room. "Hey. Me and Aeris are going out. She wanted to know if you guys wanted to come."

"OF COURSE!" Riku blurted out.

"Dammit Riku! Uh, I mean no we need to get some sleep since we have to get up early for our community service."

"NONSENSE SORA! WE SPENT THE WHOLE DAY WORKING! WHY DON'T WE HAVE A LITTLE FUN!"

Tifa stared at the two. "Uh, yeah. Well hurry up cause we're going like now."

Sora let Tifa leave the room before saying anything. "Wow you really handled that," he said as he closed the door behind her.

"Shut up Sora! Look we're just going out. How bad could it be?" Sora sighed and left the room with Riku not far behind him.

"I am so excited!" Tidus screamed out for the eighth time that night. "It's so awesome! She'll be back in two days! I'm not gonna be able to sleep until then!" He sat on the floor of Wakka's living room. He'd been standing and getting up for hours.

"I know," Wakka said once again. "You've been saying that for four hours. I now your excited but give it a rest man."

"I can't! If you go to the house you'll see that no one can!"

"Well ya I'm sure they're excited but not as much as you. And why are we still here? Let's go out and find some girls ya?"

"I don't really feel like it. I'd rather go home and clean some more."

Wakka rolled his eyes and left. Tidus was getting pretty annoying. If he kept this up Yuna would think he was a stalker which wouldn't be far off from the truth.

Kairi was completely and thoroughly confused. She had just finished her meeting with Laguna and did not know at all what to think of him. For the first part of the conversation he had been nice. Welcoming her, telling her how glad he was that she was there. Then he started talking about something else.

Something that had made her wonder. Obviously he didn't have a clue about it, but she could tell what had happened. She needed to find someone to reassure her fast but she searched around and found that there was no one was in the house but her, Seifer and Tidus and he had for some reason decided to become a neat freak. As for Seifer. Well he was just an ass. Maybe she just needed some time to think it over.

She moved to the couch and began to recap what he'd said. First that he and her mother had been lovers for a small period of time which was about sixteen years ago, her age. He said he knew he wasn't her father because of a DNA test that they had taken but this still didn't sit well with her. And she couldn't exactly ask her mother.

Now that she'd really thought of it they kind of looked alike. (A/N I know they don't really but just work with me.) She didn't know what to do. All she could think of was to leave the house and that wasn't going to happen any time soon. She sighed and walked up to her room.

She tossed herself on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. And everything had been going so well. She was making friends, settling down, and know all of a sudden she had this bomb dropped on her. This seemed to happen all the time now. Something good would happen to her and then something worse would happen and cancel it out.

Rinoa sat staring out the window of her friend's car watching the rain bead down the side. She glanced at the brown haired woman next to her. She was pulling up to the drive through window of the burger king they were at. Apparently Selphie thought that fast food would cheer Rinoa up. Unfortunately, she was far from correct since Rinoa despised fast food. But Rinoa still knew that it was the thought that counts.

"Can I have a whopper, two packs of chicken fries, an angus, and two large Sierra Mists. What do you want Rinoa?"

Even after all these years Rinoa was still amazed that Selphie eat so much and not gain an ounce. "I'm not really hungry."

Selphie rolled her eyes. "Fine, suit yourself. That's all please." Selphie moved the car up and waited for the food.

Rinoa continued to stare out the window until Selphie broke the silence again.

"You know, I'd like to help you but you have to put in a little effort too. So what if you like Squall. Why is that really a bad thing anyway?"

"It's not bad that I like him it's bad that I can't get up the nerve to tell him. I am so stupid!" Rinoa made an effort to bang her head against the window but hit her hand which was resting there instead. "OW! DAMMIT!"

"Rinoa please just calm down. How can something as stupid as this actually get you depressed? It's got to be something else. Now tell me what's really wrong."

Rinoa hesitated for a moment. In reality she was scared about what Squall was thinking of her because he had seemed to be avoiding her for weeks. The only reason she wasn't telling Selphie this was because if she did Selphie would come up with some half ass scheme to get him to notice her that would probably involve a make over. She couldn't get the theories she had out of her head. Was there something wrong with him? Did he know what she thought of him? And the worst theory she had, did he not like her?

"Hey! Rinoa! What did you forget I was here?"

Rinoa jumped. The truth was she had forgotten, but she wouldn't tell Selphie that because then she'd get pissed. "I was just thinking. And what I told you was what I meant ok?" Rinoa made an annoyed face she hoped was convincing.

Selphie rolled her eyes. "All right fine. I guess you'll tell me when your ready."

Rinoa made a relieved sigh in her head now that the subject had passed, but that was vocally. In her mind she would be thinking about it for the rest of the night.

Sora stared at Riku out of the corner of his eye. He new what his friend in the passenger seat was thinking. He was thinking of how disappointed he was that Sora had made him sit up front with Tifa instead of in the back seat with Aeris. Riku had been disappointed but Sora had a duty to his friend. He would not let him get involved in something he would regret. He could see him up front pretending to shift in his seat for comfort and "accidentally" catching Aeris' eye in the process.

They were pulling up to the night club now and Riku was sure now that he would have to dance with Aeris at some point while they were there. Tifa was pulling into a parking space way to far from the door, which also meant that he would be forcing small talk while they were walking. Normally that was easy but for some reason with Aeris it was a lot more uncomfortable. Riku scoped out what was behind him as they were walking through the parking lot. Sora was in the midst of a conversation with Tifa.

"…but why is it that it would be such a problem if they really did taste like apples? Wouldn't that appeal to an adult audience? Think! They would buy it for their children because it was healthy!"

"Sora, why are we even talking about this? You always come up with the most pointless things to say."

"What are you saying? That this is a bad topic?"

Sora was completely preoccupied. This was his chance. He tried to casually move to his left were Aeris was walking. "So," he said trying to sound as normal as possible. "How long have you and Tifa known each other?"

Aeris turned to face him. "Since we were kids, but I thought you knew that."

The truth was that he had known and just forgot but he wasn't going to say that now. "I haven't gone out in a while," he said quickly changing the subject. "I've been kind of stuck at home with Sora since he broke his ankle a couple of weeks ago."

Aeris giggled obviously knowing that he changed subject. "I know what you mean. I've been kind of broke because of something I won't mention. All I've been able to do for a while, is work so I could earn money. I'm glad to be able to just relax and have fun for once."

Riku made a mental sigh knowing that Aeris had passed up his stupidity. "When I was a kid my dad made me work all summer every summer. I wasn't able to party my whole life until two summers ago."

"Ha! All parents are the same aren't they? My parents have to be the most protective people on the planet."

Riku grinned. He could feel himself loosening up. "I know what you mean. And by the way your wrong."

"I am?" Aeris said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah my parents are. My mom hired a private i to follow me at my first school dance."

"Oh yeah?" Aeris said with a sly smile. "My dad actually got a second job as a teacher to make sure no boys talked to me in my school."

Riku looked back to make sure Sora was still in conversation before he continued talking. Judging from Tifa's confused and frustrated face, he was.

"…all I'm saying is that if King Kong was real he would probably be gentle even though he was huge! He'd be the new gentle giant! It would be a nice change from whales. Those smug bustards are always taking credit from other sea creatures! You know what I-"

"Wait, wait, wait! What does this have to do with George Clooney?"

"Nothing. Why?"

"BECAUSE YOU SAID IT HAD EVERYTHING TO DO WITH HIM! That's it! Were switching conversation partners! Aeris you're with me! Sora you're with Riku, got it?"

Aeris giggled. "Sorry," she said and smiled at him as she walked towards Tifa. He watched as Tifa kicked at Sora for him to go up to Riku.

"Man is she touchy!"

Sora continued to go on but Riku wasn't listening. He was thinking of the reluctant face Aeris had made when she had gone back to Tifa. She hadn't wanted to leave.

"Hey wait a minute! What were you doing talking to her? Your supposed to be trying not to screw her!"

Riku whipped his head around at Sora in horror as he realized how loud he'd just said that sentence.

Sora clapped his hands over his mouth as he realized the same thing. He knew he only had a few moments to turn it around but he could think of nothing to say. All he could do was look back at Aeris and see if she had heard.

Riku saw him begin to shift his head to look at Aeris. If he did it was all over. What Riku did in that next split second he still does not believe he could have done it. All in that split second he reached in his pocket, pulled out a rubber band, and flicked it at Sora before he could turn his head.

Sora felt the sting of the rubber band against his head and knew immediately what it meant. He turned back immediately, just before turning enough for Aeris to really notice.

Riku knew he wasn't out of the fire yet though. He had to make it sound different. "I talked to her last week and we're done dating," he said trying to make himself sound natural.

"Oh yeah. I forgot," Sora said trying to sound the same way.

Neither of them would dare turn back to see if Aeris looked convinced. They just continued towards the line to get in the club in silence.

Squall sat an the park bench thinking to himself and staring up into the stars. He knew that he had been lying to himself all night. Trying to convince himself that he didn't like Rinoa and she didn't like him but he knew he was lying. So at this point the was just reflecting on what he had heard the day before. Just sitting in the park waiting for Cloud to return with his hot dog.

Cloud walked up and sat next to his friend and handed him his food. He watched as Squall indulged in his hot dog, clearly needing it for brain food. "So continue," he said.

Squall gulped down the half of his hot dog that he'd already finished. "Where was I?"

"Seifer was being an asshole."

"Oh yeah. So he's doing his whole intimidation thing…"

"Uh huh."

"And he says that he over heard Rinoa and Tifa talking…"

"Uh huh."

"And he says that Rinoa said that she seriously liked me."

"Uh huh- wait, what?"

Squall sighed. "Just like I said. She likes me. And you know what? I think I like her too."

"WHAT! Are you serious?"

"OF COURSE I'M SERIOUS! YOU THINK I'D KID AROUND ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THIS?" Squall leaned back and put his hands on his forehead in despair. "I hate this crap. I decided a long time ago that I wouldn't get involved with anyone in the house. If we broke up do you know how awkward it would be?"

Cloud stared at Squall in disbelief. He had never seen him like this. Squall was usually the most calm and collected person in the house. But he knew where he was coming from though. "You know… I had the same thoughts when Tifa and me were at the beginning of our relationship. And when we broke up that time, you remember when we broke up for that week right? Well when we broke up it was just how I thought it would be but it passed in a couple of days."

Squall sat up and looked at Cloud with a stern look. "What are you implying?"

Cloud hesitated at first. He didn't know what the out come would be but he did know that the two of them would make a good couple. "Why don't you go on a date or two with her and see what happens? You don't even have to tell her that you know what she said. You can just ask if she wants to go out some night?"

Squall looked at him in confusion and then looked back at the sky. Cloud kept eating his hot dog and let Squall think.

There's chapter 3. Chapter 4 will be up soon, and I mean it this time.