Time for another update. And this one didn't take forever. It isn't my longest chapter, but hopefully it should amuse at least a few people.

An unexpected and unforeseen development that no one could properly explain was the local trio suddenly growing more welcoming of Lea to their group. More specifically, Hayner occasionally invited him to join them. Pence didn't understand the change any better than Isa did, but he was perfectly willing to keep the man updated whenever he came to the Old Mansion to help.

And he came to help quite often. Especially considering how much time school and hanging around with his other friends took. But he kept appearing underfoot, helping with repairs or poking at the computer systems while talking about what the teenagers had been doing recently and asking Isa all types of questions. His curiosity was never fully satisfied and he had an investigative streak that was almost admirable. Isa honestly couldn't say which was more surprising: the fact that he'd apparently befriended the local boy by accident or that somehow he'd been dragged into participating in gossip with him.

But it was certainly entertaining to hear Pence's description of Lea joining them to watch one of the silent movies or when they tried to teach him to skateboard. Which involved a lot more crashing than Lea's version of the story. They'd finally admitted defeat on the lessons. Thankfully before Lea set something on fire out of frustration.

Isa knew it shouldn't be as amusing as it was. But Pence talking about all the ways that Lea failed at learning the relatively simple skill reminded Isa of the time that he tried teaching his friend how to swim. With equally pathetic results. Lea just seemed to have the buoyance of a brick and was better off avoiding deep water. Skateboarding was simply another activity that was not within Lea's capacity either.

But despite Pence including him in all the gossip about their recent adventures and Lea still attempting to spend time with him, Isa hadn't expected to be invited along with everyone else. But apparently everyone was invited that day. They wanted to have an impromptu Struggle tournament between the various kids. And somehow Lea and Isa were volunteered to seer as referees and keep things from being completely one-sided.

Pence explained that while he and Olette weren't as enthusiastic about Struggle matches in general, Hayner was excited to see how well his "lessons" for Roxas and Xion turned out. He wanted to really push himself and see how good he was against some proper opponents. Hayner was always the most competitive, but everyone would be trying their hardest. The losers would guy the winner ice cream for a month. Very high stakes.

The plan, as far as Isa had been informed, involved him meeting them at the kid's usual spot under the train tracks. Their little hideout from the other adults who weren't invited. Once everyone arrived, they would gather their Struggle bats and head over to the Sandlot for the competition.

What he didn't expect was to find Lea leaning against the wall while Hayner, Pence, and Olette crowded together on the couch. With Roxas and Xion demonstrating their Keyblades while Lea talked.

"—and while the older Keyblade wielders can do some cool tricks with their Keyblades to reach those other worlds, most of us use Gummi Ships to travel," he explained.

"Or we can use corridors of darkness," added Roxas, spinning both his Keyblades in his hands.

"Right, but that's more dangerous. Try it near the World That Never Was and you might run into some lesser Nobodies since they travel that way too. Not as many as there used to be though. No one's there ordering them to guard the pathways to the world now. But if you try using dark corridors without proper protection, the darkness can swallow your heart. Not the safest option if you don't know what you're doing."

"Lea," hissed Isa, trying not to think about darkness swallowing hearts.

Turning, Lea said, "Hey, Isa. Just in time. You want to help describe Atlantica when we get to that part? I didn't spend time there on missions, but I know you read all the reports."

"Lea, what are you doing? What are you telling them?"

Secrecy concerning other worlds was one of the constants. From Organization XIII with the orders to avoid the locals to the Keyblade wielders trying not to interfere. Isa could practically hear the duck wizard squawking about protecting the world order.

Smirking briefly, Lea said, "Roxas? Xion? You two can handle the next part while I talk to Isa."

"Are you going to talk about the white squiggly things soon?" asked Hayner.

"We'll get to that part," he said, waving dismissively. "Lots of stuff to cover."

And then Lea slung his arm across Isa's shoulders and he was guiding him back to the side street. As if they were still a pair of teenagers getting ready to get into trouble. Any moment now his friend would start describing the latest idea that he'd had. Isa wanted to grab Lea and shake him until sense returned.

"Why are you telling those three everything?" he asked sharply. "At what point did you decide to dismantle the world order for Twilight Town?"

"Isa," said Lea in an incredibly patient voice, "there is no chance that those three won't be dragged into more trouble. They're friends with Roxas, Xion, Sora, and Kairi. They've already run into Heartless and Nobodies. They've seen dark corridors multiple times. And they were already figuring everything out. They knew about the possibility of other worlds because of the digital simulation of Twilight Town. Which they figured out without any outside help. They've noticed that Roxas and Xion don't know all the things that kids their ages should know by now. And Pence isn't as subtle with his questions as he thinks."

Now that he mentioned it, Pence did seem oddly curious when he came to see Isa. And his inquiries did seem rather targeted in hindsight. He asked questions about Isa's childhood, how he met Roxas and Xion, where he used to be before moving to the Old Mansion, and where dark corridors led. Pence was not one to stop until he found the answers that he sought.

"I already discussed it with the half-pints first. It'll be easier to catch the three of them up on at least some of the basics rather than try to hide everything. I'd rather give them some info on other worlds, on the dangers of Nobodies and Heartless so that they don't try anything dumb, and give them a general explanation of where Roxas and Xion came from instead of just coming up with more and more flimsy excuses that they aren't going to believe. Besides," he continued, "the way that I figure it, they'll be getting Keyblades of their own soon enough."

Blinking briefly, Isa asked, "What?"

"They are too tangled up in this stuff and have too many friends who are Keybearers. You can't avoid it, Isa. There's even three of them."

"And what does that have to do with anything?"

"The Keybearers always seem to come in threes," said Lea, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Haven't you noticed? You've got Terra, Aqua, and Ven. Then there's Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Or Riku, Kiru, and King Mickey, if you want to go for a different trio."

"Then you, Roxas, and Xion," said Isa, not completely certain if his friend was serious or not.

Nodding with a grin, he said, "Exactly. And if you go back far enough, then apparently Master Xehanort, Master Eraqus, and Master Yen Sid were a trio before things went wrong."

"Lea, that's ridiculous. Just because there's three of them doesn't mean they'll end up with Keyblades."

"Maybe. Or maybe not. All I know is that Keyblades seem to be contagious and those three spend a lot of time with Roxas and Xion. It seemed smarter to be prepared."

Isa studied him a moment. Then he narrowed his eyes, crossed his arms, and scowled slightly.

"And?"

"And what?" asked Lea.

"And why else did you decide to tell them?"

Lea glanced away while dragging a hand through his hair. Which confirmed that Isa was right about him hiding something. He was always good at it and spending about a decade without a heart improved his acting skills, but Isa could still sometimes catch on when Lea hid secrets.

"Look, Kairi called the other day," he said slowly, "and she's worried about Riku. She thinks he's getting too obsessed with the search for Sora. These kids never do things halfway. She asked if we could help distract him for a bit. So I thought we could head to Destiny Island in a week or two for a beach day. And I figured that with more people, Riku and Roxas are less likely to go after each other. Or at least they might hesitate before coming to blows."

"And since you plan to bring Hayner, Pence, and Olette to serve as a buffer, you needed to let them know about other worlds first," said Isa.

"I mean, you're coming too. But yeah, I'm tossing them in a Gummi Ship when the time comes and letting them loose on the island."

"This is your idea of inviting me?"

"I planned to ask you about it later, but I guess now's as good a time as any."

Isa chuckled and said, "Fine. But when Donald finds out, I'm not helping you. You'll have to sit through his entire lecture."

"Not that I'll understand half of it." Smiling, Lea said, "Come on then. We have an official Struggle tournament to referee. Remember the rules. No magic, only basic combos, no Keyblades, no gliding…"

Shaking his head, Isa followed Lea back into the hideout while listening to the extensive list of limitations. Xion was demonstrating a very weak Blizzard before sliding along the ice to her friends' impressed cheers. Even with the extra rules, the other children were going to be struggling hard to beat the Keyblade wielders.

Hayner crashed hard on his back again, knocking the wind out of him. He knew that he should roll out of the way, but his body had decided to surrender. He could only lay there, struggling to breathe and wondering how many bruises were on him now.

"Okay, I'm calling time," said Lea.

Part of him wanted to argue that he was fairly certain that he still had another thirty seconds left. But considering that he was still trying to get his breath back and was currently incapable of speech, it might be best to accept his loss.

In hindsight, maybe this entire thing wasn't his best idea.

With five people competing, they'd needed to be creative with their rounds. Pence and Olette fought the first match, with her winning with some clever moves. Then she went against Hayner. He won that round. But previous sparring matches had taught him that while Roxas and Xion could go against each other, they always seemed uneasy about it. They were overly cautious and uncomfortable facing each other. As if terrified of hurting each other. Hayner's solution was simple: he'd take them both on.

Not both at the exact same time. Hayner wasn't completely crazy. It was a tag-team arrangement. Since Hayner was the one with the most experience at Struggle matches, he would fight them in one-minute intervals. Roxas and Xion would share points and trade out. It seemed like the perfect solution.

At least until he actually tried taking on both of them.

"You okay?" asked Lea when Hayner still hadn't managed to get up.

Groaning, he said, "Do you know how much ice cream that we'll be buying? Roxas and Xion eat a lot of it in a month."

That earned him some relieved chuckles. Isa offered Hayner his hand to pull him back to his feet. Roxas grimaced as he scuffed his foot awkwardly on the ground and rested the Struggle bat on his shoulder. He couldn't look more sheepish.

"Look on the bright side. You lasted longer than I did against Olette," said Pence.

Olette nodded, spinning her preferred Struggle bat. Her technique always made her a more complicated opponent. She didn't fight as often, but she could always throw a few unexpected curve balls.

"Sorry," said Roxas. "I should have been more careful."

"It's fine. It just means that I'll have to train harder," he said. "We'll keep working on it. By the time that the official Struggle tournament comes around, Seifer won't know what hit him."

"At least let me make it up to you," said Roxas.

He handed his Struggle bat over to Xion, the girl offering her own apologetic smile. Then Roxas summoned one of his Keyblades. The colorful one that he'd identified earlier as Oathkeeper. Despite Pence's questions, they didn't get a good explanation for why Roxas had two Keyblades. They'd learned a lot of complicated and strange things like other worlds, Kingdom Hearts, Nobodies, and replicas, but Roxas having two of the weapons was one of the few things that they didn't have an answer for.

Not that Hayner could completely understand everything that they told him. Like the crazy guy with the black coat and the monster bodyguard having about a dozen other versions of himself or how weird time travel apparently was. Or how Roxas somehow used to be part of Sora and how Xion was connected to both Sora and Kairi in a complicated combination of memories and science. Hayner only understood the basics of what they'd told him. But he didn't need to understand the weirder parts. He knew that Roxas and Xion were his friends and that was enough.

Though he should really figure out if the whole Nobody and replica situation made the two of them siblings or not.

Holding Oathkeeper in front of him, Roxas said, "Hayner!"

A cool green glow washed over him, soothing away the pain from the forming bruises. A bit like a high-quality potion. Hayner grinned at the sensation. Magic was pretty amazing.

"All things considered, you demonstrated a reasonable amount of skill," said Isa. "Even with the agreed upon limitations, holding your own against either Roxas or Xion is quite an accomplishment. Take pride in that."

"Wow," muttered Roxas. "That almost sounded like a compliment. Didn't know Isa could even do that."

Xion nudged him in the ribs, earning a quiet apology. Isa shook his head slowly.

"I can acknowledge his skills as well as the two of you," said Isa. "And I may not have told you before, but I have never doubted your skills in combat."

Slinging an arm over his friend's shoulder, Lea said, "Isa's in such a generous mood today. Next thing you know, he'll be talking about how he's always known that I would be the most dangerous fighter in multiple worlds."

"Yes," said Isa dryly, "you've always seemed dangerous, Lea. Especially that time you hit yourself in the head with your own frisbees."

Hayner couldn't help snorting as Lea groaned, rolling his eyes up. And he wasn't the only one struggling to smother laughter.

"Come on, Isa. Spill it," said Pence. "I've got to hear more about that."

"—and if you arrange the taller Stargazer, Tiger Moon, Starlette, Rosella's Dream, and Heartstring lilies together, they will provide some shade for the smaller species that cannot thrive in full sunlight. As long as you keep in mind that with the sun remaining in the same direction on that world at all times, you will need to place the later specimens on the far side to ensure their protection from the light. That arrangement will ensure the best outcome, yes. The differing points at which the various lilies bloom will also provide color and fragrance over an extended period of time along with an assortment of different shades over the course of the flowering season."

Xion nodded as she wrote down the names to her growing list. She had a few memories about flowers, but they were tropical plants from Destiny Island. Twilight Town wasn't nearly as humid. Not to mention that Sora hadn't ever spent much time learning about growing plants. He'd seen them and maybe learned a few names, but he rarely thought about them. Or if he did, those memories to linger with her. She needed some suggestions.

She'd considered asking Lea for help, but she wanted to surprise him by planting a small rooftop garden. Her own project. One that she was doing because she'd decided to do for herself, not because it was expected, ordered, or simply necessary. It was something that she wanted to do and decided to work on by herself. Xion had already been sneaking various pots, planter boxes, and bags of potting soil up there. And she'd asked Lea not to go up there until she was ready to show him. That meant that she needed to ask someone else. And while she'd considered talking with Isa about picking out some plants, figuring that he would know about what kind of flowers that Lea might like since they were friends and Radiant Garden's weather was similar to Twilight Town, Xion wasn't ready to take that step. She was trying to give Isa a second chance, but she wasn't ready to approach him alone.

Instead, she called someone that she didn't know very well, but knew all about her.

"And ensure that you select a few tall and sturdy shrubs to offers some greenery and a windbreak," continued Even. "You want to protect the flowers from damage, yes. Strong winds can knock over flowerpots if there is nothing to block it. Once you select some plants from my recommendations, let me know. Different species require different levels of nitrogen, potassium, and moisture for optimal health and growth. It is a delicate science."

Smiling at the Gummphone, Xion said, "Thank you, Even. I appreciate all the help."

Nodding towards her on the small screen, he said, "Growing up in Radiant Garden ensured that I collected a wealth of information regarding botany and horticulture, whether I intended to learn about such topics or not. At least that knowledge is being put to good use."

"I should probably finish picking out the first few plants," she said. "Roxas and Axel won't be grocery shopping all morning and I told them I'd meet them at home in an hour. I'll need to sneak the plants up to the roof before they get back."

"If you have any questions about a specific plant's viability, be certain to ask me." Hesitating a moment, he added, "Or if there is anything else that you wish to discuss. I have rather enjoyed getting to know you as a proper individual, Xion. I could have never imagined the bright girl that you have become."

"Thank you," she said, ducking her head briefly. "I'll remember that. And good luck with helping Naminé."

"I appreciate the sentiment, through my intellect ensures that luck is mostly unnecessary for success. We are making good progress. The development for her replica is perfectly on schedule, yes. I should get back to work, however. Ienzo should be returning shortly."

Xion nodded as they ended the call. Then she turned her attention back towards the rest of the store. The rows of seeds, bulbs, and young plants seemed less intimidating now that she had a list of recommendations. With the munny that she'd saved, she should be able to manage a decent start to the rooftop garden.

While Riku could handle almost anything after spending the last couple of years running around multiple worlds and clawing his way back from where he'd fallen into darkness, that didn't mean that he couldn't be caught off guard. And after spending every weekend searching for Sora, he was tired enough that he wasn't ready for a sneak attack. Not on Destiny Island. It came out of nowhere.

He'd intended to head for the Gummi Ship as soon as school was over for the day. That plan didn't last very long. Kairi's surprise tackle hug caught Riku at just the wrong moment, knocking him to the ground. But she didn't continue the hug afterwards. She moved to pin him in place on the ground and Kiru appeared out of nowhere, his foot perching on Riku's chest.

"Kairi told me to help," said Kiru with a shrug, as if it explained everything.

Kiru didn't have on a school uniform that Riku and Kairi currently wore. Nor did he wear the skin-tight outfit that he did back in his original body or the black coat that came with his new one. Instead, Kiru wore a sleeveless yellow-and-white jacket with navy-blue detailing at the bottom edges, dark blue pants with black belt-like bands around the legs, a yellow belt, and navy-blue wrist guards with yellow detailing. Similar to Riku's tastes and some of his old clothes, but still distinctively different. Unique to Kiru instead of an exact copy of Riku.

Glaring down at him, she said, "Sorry, Riku, but you've been running yourself ragged. You're taking this weekend off. I already called Axel and the others. We're hanging out with them tomorrow on the play island. You're coming too."

"And if you try to get out of it, I get to help Kairi drag you back," added Kiru, sounding far too amused and interested in the idea.

Blinking in surprise, Riku asked, "Are you threatening me into having a good time?"

Grinning down at him, Kairi said, "You better believe it. And Axel said he's bringing Hayner, Pence, and Olette with them, so Roxas probably won't try to fight you."

Riku wasn't quite certain that would be enough to stop him, but Roxas did deserve to confront him about everything that happened. He hadn't done so in the middle of the Keyblade War chaos. There were bigger issues on the line. But Riku knew it was coming. He did a lot of things to help Sora after everything that happened at Castle Oblivion and Riku would never regret getting his friend back, but he knew that he caused a lot of collateral damage. That part, he regretted a lot. If Roxas needed to lash out at him, he would understand. He would be ready when that happened.

If Roxas wanted to fight it out, so be it. If he decided to keep the peace a little longer, Riku wouldn't complain.

Kairi was right. Riku owed Roxas a proper apology. And he couldn't put it off. Not anymore. Time to face the consequences of his actions.

Though maybe he should check and see how much munny that he'd saved. In case he needed a small gift to help smooth things over. A tiny gesture of apology.

"If I promise to join everyone tomorrow," he said slowly, "will you let me up?"

"We all know that you can knock us off at any time," said Kairi.

Smirking, Kiru said, "I don't know. There's two of us and I haven't fought him in a while. Not since I got my Keyblade. The two of us together might be able to stop him."

Matching his replica's expression, he said, "We'll spar again someday."

After Sora was back. After everything was right again. After Riku stopped dreaming about his best friend disappearing and waking up with the awful guilt that he should have done something more to save him.

Perhaps Kairi was right. Maybe a weekend off would be good for him. Sora wouldn't want him to run himself ragged or to emotionally tear himself apart. And he wouldn't be able to help Sora if he didn't take care of himself.

It was hard. He knew that Kairi was right and that he was allowed to be happy, but it was hard. But Riku was used to doing things that were hard. Even if what was hard was spending the day at the beach with his friends and people who were friends of his friends.

"I really would like to get off the ground now," said Riku. "Will you let me up or do I have to make you get off?"

"Will you come to the play island tomorrow?" asked Kairi, not yet moving.

"Yes. I promise."

And so next chapter will be the obligatory beach episode. What kind of fun things will happen then? I guess you'll just have to wait and find out. Thanks for reading and I hope that everyone is still having fun with this fic.