NOTE: CHAPTERS 2-4 HAVE ALL BEEN EITHER REVISED OR REWRITTEN, THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ THESE CHANGES PLEASE DO SO NOW,

THANK YOU.

Plus I worked really hard on them, so please do check them out!

Disclaimer: See first two parts of this fic: a.k.a. DO NOT OWN…

Keep Tryin'!

+--Ghosts, shopping carts, and whatnot…--+
a.k.a. When I first met you, I fell unconscious…

"Why are we doing this again?" Kairi inquired, with an almost bored expression on her face as they neared the gate to the infamous Zanarkand Manor, "this has got to be one of your less brilliant ideas, and you supposedly are top in our class."

"Oh ha, ha, "next to her, Riku, her best friend since they were in kindergarten and foster brother, scrutinized the huge iron mammoth monstrosity that was currently mocking them, he tapped his chin, then sea-green eyes brightening noticed that the gate was left slightly open, "if you're so scared Kairi," he easily slipped thru the gap, "go home."

"No way," Kairi followed, albeit a bit more slowly, "if I you get hurt, somehow I'm going to get it even though I was the one who warned you. Why do you let Tidus and Wakka bug you so much?"

The silver-haired teenager narrowed his eyes, continuing down to the driveway that looked actually refurbished, totally ignoring Kairi's comments.

"Go and bring back the door knob from the old Zanarkand house if you're so brave," Kairi didn't bother lowering her voice for her Tidus impersonation, with a small cocky smirk she remarked, "heh, I knew his voice was going to squeak when he reached puberty, I just didn't know this badly…"

The driveway wasn't that far away from the famed building and soon both stopped to admire the surprisingly crisp and clean looking house.

Riku frowned.

Now this didn't make sense, supposedly the place had been abandoned after a series of unexplainable events occurred, so why did everything look so…new?

Drawing closer, he gingerly walked up the steps to the front door—the wood was strong and sturdy and on closer inspection, the door was also brand new.

He glanced down.

A pristine freshly new, barely even touched brass door knob mocked him.

Tidus and Wakka would never believe that this was from the house…he didn't quite believe it really either, but, a dare was a dare and with little reluctance reached for his Swiss-army knife.

"Hey, Riku…is it just me, or is this house totally different from what it used to be?" Kairi murmered more to herself, as she noted that the so-called 'scary haunted manor' actually looked warm and inviting, "I heard rumors that someone had bought it, but to think they actually got this far into renovating it…"

"Wait, what?" Riku paused in his search of the screw-driver attachment to blink at the brunette girl owlishly, "what do you mean 'renovating'?"

Suddenly as if on cue, a scream rippled through the air, and forebodingly the front door opened at the exact same time…

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Sora stared wide-eyed at the brunette woman before him.

He gulped, blinked, and opened his mouth to take in a huge amount of air to repeat.

"Erm, hello, I'm sorry about this," the woman dressed in an old traditional muted outfit of the twenties' classical belle, she gave him a worried glance, "are you alright? I'm sorry to have startled you, it's just since we're now going to be room-mates, I thought it would be best to introduce myself, " she gestured her transparent hands around the grand study, "this was where I spent the most time at."

Sora just continued to gape at her as if she had grown a third head. The woman took no mind to it, and extended her hand in an Aerith-like stance, "I'm Yuna. What's your name?"

Sora's eyes still stayed the size of saucers.

He let out another scream.

Yuna looked a bit deflated at the action.

There was a sudden crash and soon enough, a handsome boy with long silver hair followed by a shorter girl with shoulder length mahogany locks came rushing in.

Present parties blinked owlishly at each other.

"Uhh…someone needed help in here?" Riku was about to ask but stopped to take a good look at the shorter brunette boy currently backed into wall. Beautiful sky blue orbs, perfectly supple-looking peach skin, full cushiony lips, all on an wonderfully sinew frame. He couldn't help but drool a little…ok, or a lot.

Nevertheless, of course, for some odd reason, his Adonis suddenly closed his eyes, going pale and fell to the floor.

For some odd reason or another, Sora fainted at the sight of one of the most beautiful guys he'd ever seen.

It could've been love at first sight…or the overloading of one's senses, either way, Riku ended up rushing forward to catch the other…with timing only a cheesy soap opera could hope to reproduce…

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Roxas rushed downstairs as quick as his legs could take him, hovering next to him, a blond women with braids rushed as well.

"Oh, I hope Yunie is ok!"

Roxas was just slightly more concerned for his brother.

As expected, Namine was already opening the door as he spotted the room Sora had picked out. Behind her was also another woman, this time clad in black and with short brown hair.

The four collectively paused at the sight.

A transparent brown haired woman and a reddish-brown haired girl both watched on worriedly, as a guy with longer silver hair and slightly effeminate features held their brother.

To say that Roxas is over-protective is just slightly an understatement, like calling the atom bomb a 'tiny burst of air and chemicals'. So with that knowledge in mind, it was pretty apparent by the way he acted to wards earlier actions at his brother's expense, that nothing short of World War III was about to be unleashed.

"Who the fuck are you?" he growled through gritted teeth, advancing on the offending person, "what the fuck are you doing to my brother? Why the hell is he knocked out?"

His tone promised swift punishment for the wrong answer.

Riku glared back, immediately clutching the unconscious brunette closer just to tick off the blond some more.

The situation grew tense, and silence reigned until:

"What was that?" Sora with amazing speed, sat-up as if he had just taken a peaceful little nap, almost akin to a kitten, he pawed at his eyes with his fists, glancing around the room confused, "err…what just happened?"

"Good question," Roxas glowered promising painful death to the silver-haired menace whose lap Sora was still on, "what did just happen? We—" Naminé looked speculative at the situation, "left you alone for an hour to finish unpacking and then look what happens!"
Roxas's brow furrowed, "Sora, you should've picked a closer room!"

Sora frowned, pouting cutely, oblivious to the fact that his seat cushion was now studying him carefully.

"Roxas, I'm not a kid ya know. We are the same age," he insisted, sighing, used to the tiring routine of his brother's, he paused as if noticing Riku for the first time, "who are you?"

"My name is—" the taller boy began, looking him seductively straight in the eye.

"—Riku!" Kairi suddenly interjected, and reached over to smack her foster brother across the head(the murderous intent from Roxas was hitting her in droves), she rubbed the back of her neck and let out a nervous giggle, "and I'm his adopted sister Kairi. We live two streets over. We heard screams coming from the house."

"Isn't the gate at least half a mile away?" Roxas pointed out, brow twitching.

"R-right, but the scream…was uh, really loud!" Kairi finished in a rush, she gave a weak smile, "yup, really loud."

"I did not scream." Sora huffed, crossing his arms, then he blinked as Yuna floated past to talk towards the other two female spirits who had appeared with his siblings, "I was just surprised….and I…uh…yelped. Who are they anyway? What are they?"

Naminé gave her brother a kind smile, helping him up of Riku, who looked a lot sadder at the motion.

"They're spirits, don't worry they aren't bad," She gestured to the three women, who had now paused and faced the teenagers, "they just had the mis-fortune of dying here."

"I'm very sorry about before, " the one Sora remembered as Yuna bowed as she looked him up and down, "are you alright?"

Yuna's Aerith-like qualities quickly enamored her to him and over-rode his fear (at least fro the time being) and he nodded, mumbling, "Sorry I scre—yelped."

"Don't worry it was sorta creepy that no one else did," the transparent blond to Yuna's left informed, she gave a trickster's grin, "I'm Rikku by the way, Yunie's cousin. And I haunt the room your brother stays in."

Roxas rolled his eyes.

The brunette woman with short hair nodded: "Paine. I haunt the hallways."

Naminé placed a hand on Roxas's and Sora's shoulders in the same fashion that a mother does of her children, "I'm Namine, this is Roxas," she tapped the blonde's right shoulder, "and this is Sora," she repeated the action with Sora's left, "and we're triplets."

"What are you doing in this old place--" Kairi paused, giving an appraising glimpse around the room, "though it's not so old anymore I guess."

"We moved here from Twilight town with our family," Sora chirped a broad smile making its way back onto his face, " we just got here today."

"Family?"

"Yes, our cousin Cloud and some friends of his," Naminé elaborated, "we haven't even registered for school yet, actually…in fact we haven't gotten the chance to leave the house," another calculating look graced her blue eyes, instinctively Roxas and Sora backed away from her a little, "actually, I'm feeling quite hungry, the others probably won't be back for two hours," she gave Kairi a knowing look, "would you mind terribly escorting us to the nearest supermarket?"

"Hmm? Oh, no ma'am," Kairi agreed catching on, she clapped Riku on the back good-naturedly, "would we Riku?"

Outwardly he shrugged, mentally he thanked the higher powers for such a perceptive friend.

Sora beamed at the prospect of exploring with new found company.

Roxas just bit on his lip, scowling…

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WHAM

"Oops, my bad," Roxas stated inspecting his finger-nails as he easily maneuvered the shopping cart into the store, completely un-apologetic for that fact he had just run over Riku's foot, "these things are just so hard to control…"

"Roxas, that was mean," Sora chastened next to him, before slowing to check on Riku, who was attempting very hard not to hold onto his injured foot and hobble behind them.

Kairi and Naminé were behind the lively trio, talking about seemingly innocent girl talk.

"Sora, get over here this instant!" Obediently the brunette appeared next to his brother, just slightly confused at why he kept summoning him then dismissing him as soon as Riku was far enough away.

"You know, Riku's really not such a bad guy," Kairi informed watching the antics before her with a smug smirk, "it's ironic, cause usually people are mooning over him, its nice to see the other way around for once."

Naminé had a sneaking suspicion that Kairi seemed to be talking from experience, yet wisely decided not to ask.

"Sora's a sweetheart himself," she let out a small giggle, "and don't worry about Roxas. He's usually not like this, I guess he's afraid his brother will leave him, they're quite the pair. Although," Naminé hesitated as if finding trouble putting what she had to say in words, "Sora never acted this way when he came. So I wonder why when it's the reverse, Roxas is quick to get angry? Maybe its because of the way Sora acts…?"

"Who?" Kairi felt like Naminé wasn't talking to her anymore.

"Oh, um, no one. Just something about someone…" Naminé waved her hand idly, and then called out to those in front of her, "Sora, not too many sweets now! Roxas, please stop ramming Riku with the cart!" Just then, her eyes glimmered and she got a wicked smile on her face, she turned back towards Kairi, "what do you say we test how much Riku likes Sora?"

Kairi blinked in confusion as Naminé rushed forward and took some very expensive, pure chocolate death, fudge brownies, and tossed them in Roxas's battering ram/ shopping cart. Roxas's eyes lit up at the prospect and he searched around to find something of equal or more value. He reached over for a pack of gummy bears that cost almost as much as a dinner at a fast food place. Two devious expressions made themselves known as the two began to fill the cart up with over-priced goodies.

Kairi watched the two, caught between amusement and pity as she realized just how these two would test Riku.

"Oh no, Sora!" the shorter of the triplets looked back at his sister, not noticing (in reality he just decided to play the oblivious party to whatever madness his siblings were concocting) the huge pile of expensive food items in the plastic blue shopping cart.

"Yes, Naminé?" he asked in reply.

"Did you bring your wallet? Me and Roxas forgot ours," predictably Sora looked at her slightly panicked as well, "you did bring yours right?"

"No, I thought you guys would, you're the responsible ones!" he shot back, looking very much agitated as he checked his pockets again, and again, and again, "I haven't even picked anything out yet!"

Kairi observed the scene carefully.

It was well known that as much as Riku was a player, he was also a tight-wad when it came to spending money on people other than himself.

"Frugal" he called it, "cheap jack ass" is what Kairi and many others easily translated it.

So, imagine Kairi's slight shock, when he agreed to pay for the snacks and with an 'non-chalant' attitude shelled out more than eighty dollars for food that Sora himself didn't even pick out…just so that he could see the look of gratitude on the brunette's face.

It would've been cute, if not for Roxas smirking up a storm behind them, knowing perfectly well that this was just the beginning.

All the while, Naminé just continued to beam serenely next to Kairi, remarking thoroughly amused: "O'aka's, huh? We don't have these back in Twilight Town... I think...I'm begining to like it here"

Getting her stingy foster-brother to happily spend money so trivially as well as getting him to act like a mooned over school girl, Kairi couldn't help but laugh.

Man, these triplets were good!

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Meanwhile, back at the house…

"We're home, sorry we took so long!" Yuffie called out as the group piled into the house, " we had to go pick up the food! Guys?"

"In the kitchen!"

"Oh, you guys couldn't wait, huh?" Yuffie ran in to the kitchen and flipped on the switch, she stopped smiling and just gaped, "who…are…you?"

"Yuffie, don't run of like…that…" Cloud's words died in his throat at the sight of three transparent women sitting at the rickety wooden table easily, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, "…right then…"

"Ah, you two, stop being rude," Aerith hit the dumb-struck pair playfully as she walked past with some of the take-out in her arms, "these are the spirits who reside here. They're the reason the house was so affordable—" she nodded toward Yuffie, "you should thank them you know."

"So you're telling me," Yuffie jumped at the icy-ness of Cloud's words, "that you practically spent all we had on renovating a house, and that even then, we could only purchase the house because it was haunted!" Cloud's blue eyes glowed green, "well?"

"But they're good ghosts, right?" she turned to Aerith and the ghosts, "right?"

"Oh quit over-reacting the both of you," Sephiroth remarked slightly annoyed, as he helped Tifa set some more of the take-out down, "honestly, how old are you two to be afraid of harmless ghosts?"

Cloud turned his color-changing eyes at Sephiroth who just shrugged easily, unfazed by the malicious intent of the gaze.

"Cid's going downtown to set up plans to move his shop down here," Leon stated as he carried in the last of the groceries, "where are the kids?"

"They went to buy some snacks," a ghost with brown hair and regal clothes reported, "they had an interesting…experience…"

"What happened, Yuna?" Cloud and Yuffie were just a little spooked (no pun intended) at how Aerith could easily converse with the spirits as if they were the baby-sitters reporting on their charges to their employer, "did they get into any trouble?"

"You'll see, they should be coming back soon, they have a few new friends with them," Yuna informed, enigmatically.

Cloud sighed, great, knowing his luck, that probably wasn't a good thing…

--Tbc—

Ok, well, revision for chapter two up! This was actually sorta fun, and I got some points out of the way and junk….work's been keeping me busy so, the last and final revision for chapter three should be short and sweet, then we're making headway…till next time guys!