26.

Riku's brothers were… interesting. To say that they had grown up since they moved out one by one would be a serious overstatement.

"It's just as less-than-room-temperature as I remembered!" A man with shoulder-length silver hair swooned, dropping the luggage in his arms to the floor and basked in the 20.5° temperature Sephiroth maintained religiously.

A more built silveret carrying twice as many bags stumbled through the doorway. "Yes, Yazoo. Leave your stuff right in front of me. I'll just wait."

"Sorry, Loz." The man said airily, dropping his arms to retrieve the bags in his brother's path. "'Daj. Leave those two alone and get your stuff from Loz."

Kadaj didn't budge. Minty-green eyes were fixated on Riku and Sora, the latter trying to force his elbow through the twisted sleeve of his shirt. They attempted to sit up on the couch as gracefully as they could, but with Riku's hair dishevelled, light panting from both and Sora trying to hide behind the older boy, it was a blatant declaration as to what they were doing five seconds ago. Riku narrowed his eyes at Kadaj.

"Oh, but look! Riku finally got the balls to crunch that Sora-kid from next door! And since they're still in high school… Loz!" He called down the hall. "You owe me 50 bucks!" The eldest brother groaned either out of irritation or under the weight of whatever the third child decided to bring home. Kadaj laughed when the youngest boy on the couch flushed a bright, cherry red.

Then his jaw dropped.

His eyes widened at the sight. It was the last thing he'd expect to come home to that day. "OH MY GOD! I just saw Riku's fly," he shouted over his shoulder, "which means Yazoo owes me another 20!" Sora's eyes clenched tightly as Loz's thunderous laughter mingled with Kadaj's. This was beyond embarrassing!

"Get. OUT." Riku took one of the white couch pillows beside him and plowed it over his brother's head. "All of you!" He yelled to the rest of the house. "Leave!"

"But brother, we just got here." Kadaj, who had landed ass-first in the black, leather recliner, pouted and slouched to make himself look sad and a little pathetic. (It always worked.) "We're tired." He went for the exact timing and pitch by Marie in Aristocats.

"And hungry!" Loz said on his way to the kitchen.

"And in desperate need of a shower…" Yazoo's voice became even softer as he glided up the stairwell.

"And how often do you get to see your magnificent brothers?" Riku looked back to Kadaj. "Whom you love ever so dearly?" Bottom-lip-trembling, eye-lash-batting, Kadaj.

Riku gritted his teeth and growled in his throat. This was not how he expected today to turn out. What he and Sora were doing a while ago wasn't how he expected today to go either, but at least they were alone! "How long are you staying?" They had better not be here the whole frikking weekend!

"AW, brother! I knew you loved me!" Kadaj leapt from the La-Z-Boy chair, roughly grabbed Riku's face and kissed him full on the lips.

Letting out a disgusted grunt, Riku pushed him off violently but Kadaj kept his balance and just laughed a toothy chuckle. Riku wiped his face violently, his nose crinkled. "EW! What the hell are you wearing?"

Kadaj pranced into the kitchen to join Loz. "It's called 'Aqva' by Bvlgari. Maybe you should try it. See if Sora puts out any faster." He winked before ducking, the white pillow smacking the wall behind him.

"You know if dad saw you, you'd be dead." Loz said, from the table, fork raised with a bit of scrambled egg and ketchup on the end.

"Dad's not here, and put that down! That is not yours! Put it down." Riku said sharply and pointed a finger at Loz's open mouth.

The man's lips quivered. The fork began to shake, dropping the ketchup-stained egg back onto the plate. Loz's eyes began to get very wide and very… moist.

Kadaj looked disappointedly at Riku. He should know better than to take that tone with Loz! "Riku…" he started, shaking his head slightly.

"Oh my God, fine!" Riku said exasperatedly, dropping the finger pointed at the eldest. "I'll just make more…" he grumbled.

"GREAT! And you know; if you happen to come across two slices of French toast, just leave it out." Kadaj smiled cheekily after Riku spared a sorry glance at Sora, rose from his seat and walked around the couch to the kitchen. "With butter and syrup?" he added. Riku glared, passing him.

« Quelle est la problème? » He asked all too innocently. « Le pain perdu est délicieux! »

"You're insane, 'Daj."

« Je t'aime avec tout mon cœur, mon frère~! » Kadaj took Riku's seat on the couch next to Sora. "I'll just get reacquainted with your new boy toy."

The brunet leaned back in fear as Riku's brother invaded his personal space. Kadaj looked so much like Riku. The faces were almost identical. Their hair colour was almost on par. However, Kadaj's eyes were an icy green while Riku's was a cool aqua. Plus, Riku's hair was longer like Yazoo's but had layers unlike any of his brothers. And Kadaj definitely reeked of some strategically ethnic-focused spelt brand of European cologne. Riku was different from the rest of his brothers, which made Sora smile a little on the inside.

"So, Sora, have you lost your cherry to my brother yet?"

Sora gulped. What facial expression implies neither? He could say 'no' and be setting himself up for being put into situations where the timing would be perfect; like they were magically alone in the house with rose petals and sound proofed walls and doors with a specifically designed silk tie for the door.( And of course video cameras hidden everywhere, rendering all other paraphernalia useless.). Or he could say 'yes' and be ambushed by a hoard of more questions on where it happened, what position they used, how long Riku lasted and then be sung the theme from the Trojan man commercial.

Staying silent was also an option. But it was the light in Kadaj's eye that made him feel completely transparent and that ultimately, his innocence, still being there, making him silent for this amount of time, was a clear indication of the truth.

Sora's head hurt.

Frigid green eyes pierced through the haze, "Hello, anybody home?" as well as a familiar, feminine voice resonating from the foyer.

Sora looked around the silveret's feral smile to see who it was. "Kairi!"

"Hey, Sora." She walked towards him. "Whatcha doin?"

"Apparently, letting more people into this house than wanted." Riku said with his head dipped in the fridge.

The girl walked haughtily down the rest of the hall to where she could see her classmate from around the corner in the kitchen. One arm akimbo, the other pointed at his head, she spoke roughly, "Don't you take that tone with me, Riku David Shima Miyano Crescent! It is 9:30 on a PA day and I am conscious. You do not. Want to mess. With me."

Riku silently opened the carton of eggs. Kairi hmm'd in approval, taking her nose out of the air and turning towards the back of the couch, and acknowledged the other male on the couch. "Oh crap, you again."

Smiling, Kadaj stood up, held his arms out like he should have been wearing a robe, billowing into the wind and because everything else about him wasn't dramatic enough, closed his eyes while saying, "Why, yes. Yes, it is." He reopened his eye only to wink at the auburn-haired girl. "Shall we throw a massive party in the middle of town and invite everyone we know?"

"Or we could just skip to the drunken streaking in the next county," she shrugged and inputted casually. Kadaj leaned in and dropped his voice.

« J'aime la façon dont vous pensez que. » And Kadaj deftly sidestepped the teen and dashed up the stairs.

"Is he going to get ready or something?" Sora asked as she sat down beside him.

"Probably going to find the best source of alcohol able to be delivered on such short notice." Kairi was in such cahoots with Riku's brothers, it was disturbing. "Okay so," she slapped her lap with both hands, "why I'm here: Xion and I finished our parts last night. Are you done with yours?"

"Yeah, I finished that days ago." Their challenge and change project was due on Thursday and somehow he and Xion had roped Kairi into their non-procrastinating routine and got it done early. "My USB is at home, I'll go get it." They both stood up and Sora looked around. "Where is Xion?"

Kairi leaned against the hallway. "In the car with Namine. We were gonna go hang out after we were done combining our work. Probably going to the party later."

"The more the merrier!" Kadaj shouted from the second level.

Sora laughed. "Get them in here. You brought Nami's laptop with you anyway, right?" Kairi smirked. Ever since hers broke, she'd been stealing Namine's It didn't matter that she was the one who spilled grape juice on the keyboard three weeks ago.

"Yeah, alright." Sora walked out first, and Kairi was about to follow, when an annoyed Riku appeared behind her, beating a bowl of eggs at warp speed.

"Oh yes, invade my house, bring your friend and sister with you, encourage my brother and kick Sora out. Wow, Kairi. Have I told you how much I love you recently?" His words shot out to the beat at which the whisk hit the bottom of the ceramic bowl.

"No, but make me and the girls some of that," she pointed to the yellow mixture, "and I'll know just the same." She made for the door once more, but halted mid-step. "And Sora's coming right back. Keep your pants on. –unless it's too hard!"

Loz choked on Riku's orange juice with laughter.


French-speaking Kadaj gets me hot xD
Annoyed Riku makes me giggle ^^

Sorry for the wait once again :\
It's not that I don't know what's gonna happen, it's that I have so many little parts to include, it's hard to connect them without being too all over the place.

Well, I hope this one was good :]

Thank you for reading, and bigger thank you if you review~!
And I love specifics! "The specifics were the best part!" It shows me that the little things I include aren't in vain xP

Oh yeah, I hope some of you who have me on story-alert saw my new one-shot.
'This is How to Break' was for Axel day. Too bad he was pretty much a dickwad in it x]

YHS
xDelfin