Author's Note: I'm hoping to improve my writing as this story goes along. Any feedback is appreciated, like always. Roxas goes out on a "friend date" and dinner with the Leonharts doesn't go so well thanks to Vanitas.

Warning: excessive use of parenthesis (i'm not sorry)

Entertainment / Phoenix

Back when Sora was more of a family friend, Roxas recalled that the brunette and Riku were inseparable before Kairi moved to Radiant Garden. Sora, being the friendly kid that he is, wanted to talk to her when she did move in. He had said that she deserved to make friends and didn't want her to be lonely. Riku had apparently scoffed at the idea and stated that being friends with a girl was lame. He then preached about how a girl would only slow them down and want to do boring things. No one was sure how but the three ended up becoming best friends. Kairi even rebutted all of Riku's girl logic when she'd compete against him in races and wrestling matches and even won at times.

The point was that they've always been good friends. The relationship between the three might've stayed platonic if only hormones hadn't begun to whirl around inside them whispering evil wants like kissing and all that stuff parents try to keep you away from. The dynamic between the three had changed very subtly, and it centered around a sixteen year old brunette.

"Damn, I need to study," Sora murmured thoughtfully and frowned as he fiddled around with the buzzer the restaurant provided for him. They were at a burger joint in Radiant Garden that was well known for its buzzers that would flash red and buzz when a customer's order would be ready. Supposedly, it even gave an old lady a heart attack once. Rai, the typical football player with a pea-sized brain, claimed to have been there but no one really believed him.

From the corner of his eye, Roxas saw Kairi open her mouth to respond to the brunette, but was interrupted by Riku. "I'll come over tomorrow and we'll study then," He said lazily, sipping at his milkshake. Kairi was convinced that Riku's milkshake arrived first because the girl at the counter had a thing for him; she had giggled a little too loudly when Riku ordered.

"Alright."

Pretending to look at the salt shaker, Roxas caught the wine-red haired girl glancing at the two boys then gazing out the window thoughtfully. As he glanced back down to his phone which rested on the table, Roxas saw that Namine also witnessed it. As two pairs of blue eyes glanced at each other, Namine gave him a soft smile. Her straw-blonde hair was going over her right shoulder as usual, but tonight it looked curlier? Her lips were a darker shade of pink compared to how he'd seen at school, too. Nice, very nice. Kairi shifted slightly, her blue eyes still gazing out the window. Oh right, the weird love triangle.

Things with Sora, Riku, and Kairi have been a little weird lately, so Roxas was glad that Namine was there to even things out. To be caught in the crossfire of a weird love triangle was something Roxas didn't want to go through alone. Especially when the love triangle was between a tight knit circle (or triangle, really) of friends.

Roxas remembered back in freshmen year when Sora had an awkward crush on Kairi (awkward as in it came out of nowhere and no one knew how to react to it). Back then, Sora was too shy to do anything about it and Kairi was too busy getting used to being in cheer to notice at all. Riku used to tease him about it but now he was the one crushing on the brunette. To those who didn't know the three closely, nothing would seem out of place besides a platonic friendship. Only those who've been around Riku for years would notice how he'd nonchalantly jump at the chance to spend time with Sora.

It honestly looked like Kairi and Riku were currently competing for Sora, who was oblivious (no surprise), yet Sora was currently taking an interest in Riku. Or so it looked like it, because no two guys agree to study together on a Sunday. Roxas tried asking Hayner to study for their first set of finals in freshmen year and Hayner smacked him. His excuse for smacking Roxas was "for saying such horrible things" and "finals are a test on instinct, so don't study and just figure out how much you actually know on the day of the test" which was typical Hayner logic.

Looking back, Roxas vaguely realized that he had gotten stoned and attempted to study on his own. Anyways, the blonde made a mental note to ask Sora if he was interested in Riku or not or if it was all a trick of the light.

Roxas was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Kairi jumping up from her seat from the corner of his eye. Holding a hand over her chest, Kairi glared at the square buzzer which was flashing a bright red and vibrating violently as she got up to get her order. The counter girl looked more smug than friendly, Kairi noted irritably.

When they all got their orders was when the weird subtle tension eased and they went into a conversation about all of the upcoming sports events. Their school provided a variety of sports teams and Riku was either in most of them at one point or the head coach wanted him on their team, no matter what it was. He was the typical star athlete who was also on the honor roll. Sora was following into his footsteps, even though the brunette only stuck to two sports and had a decent GPA but higher than most.

"I'm honestly making the most out of this weekend," Kairi was saying. She dipped a fry into the ketchup dip she created at the corner of her tray and took a small bite. "Starting next week we're gonna be working our asses off for the upcoming football games." She sighed, and gazed blankly at the wooden table as if looking into the future and seeing all she'll have to go through. "Can't wait to wear a skirt on cold nights and sit through long bus rides." She huffed as she popped another fry into her mouth.

Roxas, who had been quietly enjoying his burger, turned to the red haired girl. "Why don't you quit then?" He had no say in these athletic talks because he never once bothered to care for any type of school activity. He only went to a handful of football games and that was mostly to figure out where the after parties would be. Roxas and Hayner were anti-school events and opted to skate (or play guitar), Olette was more into the academic side of school and focused on after school hobbies, and Pence only cared for his photography class and was anti-school events along with Roxas and Hayner.

"Because it's fun, Roxas." Namine spoke up from across the booth. When she got his attention she waved her fork around (because she apparently ate her fries with a fork) while finding the right words. "It's tiring and brutal at times but at the end of the day there's no better feeling than the accomplishment. The 'we made it through the season' or simply 'we made it through this week' feeling."

Sora gave a hard clap. "That's exactly how sports are!" He exclaimed, shaking Riku's shoulder slightly. The silverette grunted at the sudden shaking and frowned when the motion made him drop his burger. The top sesame seed bun splayed out of place slightly, but the burger was fine besides that. Riku mentally sighed in relief. Sora went on, ignoring Riku's grumbling. "Blitzball season was so brutal last year, no lie. We were all pretty over it even though we were winning and everything but then once we played our last game, Wakka threw this awesome pizza party and gave this speech about—" The brunette paused. His hand was still on Riku's shoulder, even though he was no longer shaking the older male. Riku looked pleased at this and continued eating. "Well—I forgot what he said but it was pretty uplifting and he made us all turn off our alarms for weekend practice. It was pretty relieving and I ended up missing everything about game season and here I am, ready to do this again."

Kairi was nodding along in agreement throughout the whole thing, Namine was listening intently, Riku was happily finishing up his burger, and Roxas couldn't sympathize with his long rant-thing.

"Jocks," He muttered.

Kairi then smacked him upside the head, Sora leaned forward and punched his shoulder, Riku still wasn't paying attention, and Namine giggled.

x x x

Roxas had never been out on a date which was actually kind of sad. According to Tifa, Roxas had gone on his first date with Olette in freshmen year. It was true, sort of. Roxas and Olette pretended to go out on a date to fool their parents into letting them out late. Instead, the two met up with Hayner and Pence and the four attended their first highschool party. Roxas hadn't drank then, and was slightly scarred at the amount of hormones going around the crowded house. Shudder. Still, he hadn't been out on an actual date and he figured tonight probably didn't count. It obviously didn't considering the fact that Sora planned all of it and they were out as friends.

Even though he had officially known Namine for only a week, he wanted to try and ask her out eventually. He was going to take his time with it simply because he didn't want to seem like a dork and he also had no idea how the blonde girl even felt about him. Yeah she was sweet and tried to spend time with him, but maybe she was just a nice person. Sora and his eyebrows (which constantly wiggled suggestively) weren't helping. He could also go without Kairi's bad winks. Even so, Namine was the first girl so far to really catch his attention (and she was a cheerleader, which was weird) so he wanted to make it right. Or something lame and cheesy. Luckily, Hayner couldn't read his mind and try to scrap with him for thinking "such things".

Roxas' jumbled thoughts were interrupted when he heard soft footsteps coming up behind him.

"I never learned how to swim," Namine said, kneeling down onto the sand beside Roxas. He was currently sitting down at the shore and wondering if a shark would pop out.

After eating, Riku drove them over to the beach and they set up a bonfire and roasted some s'mores (because Sora said it wouldn't be a bonfire without s'mores). The beach wasn't as deserted as Roxas had thought. Then again, it was a Saturday. A few groups of people littered around in various fires and a group of what looked like freshmen girls were cooing over Riku who was murmuring quietly to his two friends.

"Why not?" Roxas asked. He figured that twins would have many similar skills since parents often lumped lessons and hobbies on both without thought. Kairi loved swimming and would also go surfing with Sora, Roxas, Hayner, and Riku some summers.

Glancing over to the blonde girl, Roxas felt his face heat up slightly at the close proximity. Namine had her hands placed delicately on her lap, and she had a peaceful expression towards the ocean. The moonlight only made her look paler, but it made her skin glow and she was just the cutest girl he's met. He wondered why he never got around to talking to her before.

Tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, Namine's eyes lit up as a cloud passed and the full moon was completely in sight. "I was too scared," she chuckled. "The thought of the water holding me down only made me feel trapped. What feels comforting at first makes me feel trapped right after. It's hard to explain, but it made sense back then."

"I guess I kinda get what you mean," Roxas shrugged. "I mean I—oh shit a seal!"

Past the shore, but still too far from the two sitting down was a seal flapping around. If it hadn't been so quiet it might've gone unnoticed. Roxas stared in awe while Namine yelped. The blonde male turned to her quizzically while Namine covered her mouth in embarrassment.

"I thought it was—you know…here," Namine mumbled, covering her entire face. As Roxas began to snicker, the blonde girl buried her face in his shoulder. He decided to enjoy the close contact and ignore the catcalls from his best friend and Kairi coming from far behind. It was early September and the warmth from summer was lingering on even into the night. Even so, Roxas didn't mind the extra body heat snuggled up to him.

x x x

Sora and Kairi were either being obvious on purpose or accidentally embarrassing Roxas when it came to Namine. Both were pretty bad and Roxas began to think they were being obvious on purpose.

When Riku dropped off the twins, Sora basically pushed him out of the car to "walk them to the door" and "them" should've meant both Namine and Kairi. Yet once the three were out of the car, Kairi all but fast walked over to the front door and slammed it shut before the two blondes could even register what happened. Roxas turned back to see Sora gazing expectantly from the corner of his eye. As he narrowed his eyes at the brunette, Sora faux-innocently began to whistle and turned up the volume to Fearless by Pink Floyd.

"Um," Namine stammered, looking over to the front door quizzically. Roxas took a step forward and the blonde girl followed his lead over to the large mahogany door. The two girls lived at the very heart of Radiant Garden—at the Wise mansion. Kairi and Namine were the adopted daughters of the mayor, Dr. Ansem Wise. As the two walked quietly, Roxas paled as he realized that he'd have to meet Ansem eventually if he wanted to pursue any type of relationship with Namine.

He must've gulped dramatically or something because Namine turned to him once they walked over to the door. "You okay?" She asked, placing her hand lightly on his arm. Roxas nodded stiffly and tried to focus on the colorful flowers that littered the well-kept garden.

"Yeah—I'm just—Sora's an idiot and I'm just trying to process that," he chuckled nervously. He was only half-joking. Sora was an idiot for busting all this shit but he wasn't contemplating that. He had learned long ago what a dork his best friend was. At the moment, he was currently realizing just how quickly his curiosity for Namine turned into a full on crush…in only a week.

He was lost in his thoughts (like always, it seemed these days) that he managed to catch Namine nodding along sympathetically. "Yeah, Kairi is pretty weird when she wants to be," She sighed. "I also blame Sora."

Before Roxas could even reply, Namine nervously tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and interrupted whatever he was going to say. "Roxas," She began, quickly. "I'm glad I got to officially meet you this week. I—I hope I can get to know you better soon." She breathed. She hadn't meant to interrupt him but she knew that if she didn't get that out now, she'd never get the guts to say it.

Close contact with a girl was so new to Roxas that his brain shut down once again. He settled for a shy smile. "Yeah—me too," He smiled weakly, rubbing the back of his head nervously. Placing his hand on her shoulder, his smile became more genuine. "Goodnight Namine."

On the ride home, Riku and Sora were laughing at the whole thing. Riku began to tease Roxas and called him a pussy for not making a move when he had the chance. The blonde smirked and sent the silverette a knowing look, nodding off to Sora who was burying his hands in his face to try and control his laughter. Riku's face went from looking like a taunting bully to a lovesick puppy in half a second. Sora could only wonder why Riku suddenly stopped with the "Roxas is a pansy" jokes so suddenly.

x x x

Having dinner with the Leonharts was mostly Yuffie and Tifa talking more so than anything else. When asked a question, Cloud and Leon would just grunt and continue eating. Roxas noticed he and Vanitas were inheriting that trait from their fathers.

"Roxas, are you enjoying school so far?"

"Hn."

It was honestly a little unsettling, Roxas thought. He glanced over to his father who was currently frowning while chewing his food. Cloud was a serious man who only spoke more than a few words to his close friends. That was honestly how Roxas was becoming. Shudder. Leon was just as quiet but a bit more open with his emotions and all that. Glancing at the Leonhart brothers, it seemed like Vanitas inherited the quiet part while Sora obviously had the compassionate trait and his mother's exuberance.

As he drowned out the chatter going on around him, Roxas leaned forward to grab more steak for himself. His mom only made the really good steak when there was company over and he decided to take advantage of it. Ventus beside him was being his usual charismatic self and Sora was adding his own charming lines along with it. Sometimes it seemed like those two should've been the brothers. He looked over to Vanitas and caught his golden gaze. The raven rolled his eyes I hate it when they all talk too much. Roxas smirked and elbowed Ventus to stop talking, me too. In rare moments like those, Roxas got along with the older Leonhart simply because the two dreaded the constant questions being sent their way. The two also shared the desire to try and get their brothers to stop talking.

Roxas' natural instinct caught a change in subject (even if he hadn't been listening at all) and managed to hear his mother speak up to properly address Yuffie and Leon.

"Has Vanitas showed you the apartment yet?" She asked while taking a sip of her lemonade. "Ven refuses to show us anything until everything is settled." She rolled her eyes playfully.

It was a little weird how the entire Leonhart family suddenly went quiet. Eerily quiet, even though Leon and Vanitas weren't talking to begin with. The air stilled and it was like the moment before the deadly showdown. The moment where the two enemy parties contemplate the life they are about the give up. Or some dramatic silence like that.

"What are you talking about?" Yuffie asked. It looked like she had an idea what Tifa could be talking about only she didn't want it to be true.

Vanitas didn't look calm and collected like usual. He looked only slightly apprehensive, which was actually a big deal. Sora, beside him looked like he was about to see the epic fight scene in a movie. His hands were itching for some popcorn to nibble on.

"That Ven and Vanitas are moving out," Tifa stated uneasily. Cloud was finally looking up from his food and watching the scene unfold.

And oh, did the scene unfold.

Leon's stormy grey eyes narrowed over at his oldest son, Yuffie looked completely surprised, Vanitas scowled, and Sora was biting his lip to conceal his grin.

"Were you planning on telling us?" Yuffie and Leon asked in unison. While Yuffie sounded hurt, Leon sounded absolutely livid.

Tifa and Cloud were frowning at the raven. It was things like this that made them uneasy about Ven's relationship.

"I was gonna let you guys figure it out," Vanitas shrugged, scowling at everyone in the room.

Before Leon could completely explode, Ventus cut in. "Why didn't you tell them?" He asked curiously, almost cautiously. When Ventus spoke in that cautious way it meant that he was trying to keep his emotions (usually angry ones) in check.

"Cause it's not a big deal," was the apathetic reply.

Yuffie balled up her napkin and threw it at her son. Leon pinched the bridge of his nose. Sora made a choked snorting sound.

Ventus was never really upset. He was very easygoing, friendly, and kind. That's not to say that he's a pushover, not at all. Even though Roxas was the short-tempered one, Ventus was just as vicious when he finally got angry.

"It's not a big deal?" Ventus scoffed. His blue eyes were narrowed into slits and Vanitas crossed his arms defiantly.

"That's not what I meant, idiot." He spat.

"Don't talk to him like that!" Yuffie and Cloud snapped at the same time.

It was clear that Vanitas was only digging a deeper grave for himself the more he talked (this was probably why he chose to stay quiet). Meanwhile, Sora was having trouble containing himself and began to make a noise that sounded like sputtering choking laughter.

"Shut up, brat!" Vanitas barked over to his younger brother.

"Watch your mouth." Leon stated in that calm-pissed off way he somehow perfected.

It looked like Sora was about to tackle his brother into the ground and start a full out brawl, so Roxas jumped out of his seat and dragged Sora upstairs. He caught his mother mouthing a thanks as the drama unfolded downstairs.

"Serves him right," Sora scoffed as he landed on Roxas' bed. "I would've kicked his ass too." He grinned, folding his arms behind his head and staring up at the ceiling.

On good days, Sora would tell Roxas that he's grateful for Vanitas toughening him up as a kid. He'd say that that was the reason that he could handle a violent sport like blitzball and a competitive sport like cross country. It was probably true considering the fact that in sophomore year Sora knocked out a football player for trying to grope Kairi.

The two stayed like that for a while as the murmurs downstairs got louder. After the two agreed that they should've grabbed some of that steak, Sora pulled out his textbooks from his backpack and began to finish up his homework. Roxas decided to play some Black Flag while he read a chapter for his English class and realized Sora was pretty cool for not complaining about the music being too much for homework like others have (cough cough, Olette).

After finishing up the chapter, a mental reminder rang inside the blonde's head. It was probably his natural instinct kicking up again telling him to procrastinate.

"Hey Sora."

"Hm,"

"You uh," Roxas paused and wondered how to word it. "You like Riku?" Might as well be blunt about it.

At this, Sora sat up and looked up from the textbook. He looked mildly surprised for a second before shrugging and continuing to write something down. "Yeah, I guess I do."

"Is it weird?" Roxas asked, setting his book down.

Sensing a conversation, Sora closed the textbook. "Cause he's a guy?" Roxas nodded. "I mean…yeah. I've never liked…a guy before." He shrugged, only a bit uncomfortable.

Roxas thought this over. If it wasn't for Ventus, Roxas didn't know how he'd react to someone close to him being into guys. When Ventus came out, he didn't talk to his older brother for a couple of days while he thought about how it'd affect him or why he should even care. In the end, he realized that sexuality didn't make a difference and realized he didn't care who someone liked. The only reason this was so odd was because it was Sora and Riku. It'd be like him and Hayner or something…

How does a person suddenly like someone who's been with them for most of their lives? Does it happen suddenly or gradually over time? Looking over to Sora, he saw that the brunette looked a slightly confused about the whole thing himself. It was one thing to consider it hypothetically, but to experience it first-hand must be something else. It then occurred to Roxas if Sora knew that Riku probably felt the same or the tug-o-war that was going on over him. Looking at Sora, who was thoughtfully staring at the bed sheets, it was easy to tell he was too busy worrying over all the conflicting emotions to notice anything.

No one was sure when, but eventually Vanitas drove off (by sound of his engine) and Ventus' voice was missing from the murmur downstairs so it was a safe guess the two left who knows where together. Soon after, Yuffie called Sora down and the Leonhart family apologized for what happened that night. Cloud grunted (as usual) and Tifa waved the whole thing off and hoped they worked it out.

The best way to sum up the rest of that Sunday night is: math homework doesn't look so appealing when there's a pretty blonde cheerleader texting you full into the night.