-o-x-Chapter 13-x-o-

Roxas tripped and almost fell flat on his face as his three best friends forced him into his bedroom.

They made him sit on the bed and began their interrogation. He was just glad they didn't turn off the lights and shine a torch in his face. Bright lights made his eyes water.

"What was it like?"

"Aren't ya happy with what we did for ya?"

"Do you know if you defiantly like him now?"

He blinked at them all, feeling slightly intimidated at the way they were all looking at him.

"Umm, well. It was okay…"

Naminé raised her eyebrows at him doubtfully, "Only okay? It must have been more than okay, you were out there for at least four minutes."

Roxas frowned at her, "Were you timing us or something?"

Rikku clicked her tongue impatiently and Yuffie looked at him in what she hoped was a sinister way. It didn't really work, but he decided to make them happy and tell them anyway.

"Alright, alright. It was good. Really good."

They all 'aww-ed' and grinned at him. He was unable to keep a shy smile off his face.

"So, do you know if you like him for definite now?" Rikku asked, tilting her head to the side and picking at his deep blue duvet cover.

Roxas blushed and nodded without hesitating, causing Rikku and Yuffie to squeal and Naminé to smile fondly at him.

"Excellent, Phase One of Operation: Get Roxas His Little Boy Toy- who's not really not little he's actually really tall but that doesn't matter because Roxas likes tall guys and he's really hot, is complete."

"Operation what?" Roxas gave them all a confused look, though he found it rather amusing.

Yuffie crossed her arms, "I told you my name for it was better…" she muttered.

"What was it?" Roxas asked, intrigued.

Operation Get Roxas into Ax-"

"You really don't want to know," Naminé interjected, scrunching up her face and wrinkling her nose, "It was worse. Much worse."

The dark-haired girl pouted, "Hey! It wasn't that bad!"

"Whatever," Rikku held a hand up to silence them, "Phase Two begins on Monday."

They all nodded in unison, with the exception of Roxas who looked worried and was trying hard not too imagine them forcing him to declare his undying love in an extremely embarrassing way. Like over the school radio system.

"Um… What is Phase Two?" he asked them, looking at them all in turn nervously.

"Do a Hawaiian dance in front of him!" Yuffie said, bursting into a fit of laughter and shaking in her seat.

Rikku smacked her over the head and Naminé rolled her eyes, "Don't he stupid. That's Phase thirty-two." She said primly.

"What?!" Roxas exclaimed. There was no way he was going to do a Hawaiian dance in front of Axel. He'd only ever done that on New Year's Eve when he was drunk. Very drunk.

Naminé patted his shoulder in a reassuring way, "Don't worry - it won't come to that. Our guess is that he will crack somewhere in the twenties, though it will probably be earlier due to the way Phase One went…"

This made him feel slightly better, but not much.

"So… what is Phase Two?" he asked, unsure if he really wanted to know.

Rikku cleared her throat and puffed out her chest in the manner of someone who was about to make a very long, boring and important speech, "Ahem. Phase Two of Operation Get Roxas His- well, The Plan is the easiest stage. All you have to do is bump into Axel accidentally. But, of course, it will not be an accident. It is of vital importance that he does not realise that you did it on purpose and you mustn't bump into him too hard. Comprendé?"

Roxas smiled. He could do that easily. No problem what so ever.

"Yes, sir!" he mock saluted her and she coughed at him, "Oh… Yes, ma'am!"

She grinned, "Much better. Now." She resumed her serious expression, "You must keep us up to date with what is going on with you and Axel. For example, if he winks at you; you tell us. If he drags you into a store closet and shags your brains out, you tell us. Though, I'd expect you to tell us if anyone did that and they'd get to see the bad side of my right hook… but anyway. You got it?"

He nodded, a little surprised by how blatant she was being and the fact that she managed to keep a straight face through out her little speech, but then he remembered that – oh yeah – this was Rikku.

"Excellent!" she flung her arms around his neck, "Ohh! You make such a good gay best friend!"

Roxas smiled contently and held his arms out to Yuffie and Naminé who also fell into them cheerfully.

He was lucky to have such great friends. He could trust on them to always be there for him when he needed them. They were trying their very hardest to set him up with a guy he really liked, and if it didn't work out he knew he could rely on them to be there ready and armed with consoling words, hugs and hot chocolate.

.x.X.x.

Sora grinned at the sound of laughter coming from his cousin's room. He was glad that Roxas had his old friends here at such a hard time, because they would be taking his mind off all the drama that had happened recently. He had half a mind to walk right in and join them because he was worried that when he got to his room there would just be a stilted conversation with Riku during which he would probably make an absolute idiot out of himself. Or fall asleep. Which would actually be quite a good excuse for not having an awkward conversation.

He looked behind him to see Riku shaking his head in amusement.

"What?" the brunette asked.

"I'd never have imagined Roxas to have such… well, energetic and loud friends. Though, Naminé is pretty quiet so I guess she balances it out."

Sora chuckled lightly, "Yeah." He opened the door to his bedroom and flopped onto his bed.

'Oh my god. He fancies Naminé doesn't he! He was just thinking about her. And he told me. He was hinting at the fact that he fancies her! That is really not fair. This is just a bad idea, Kairi. Riku is just too damn straight to be gay. I mean, he practically got off with Yuffie in Spin the Bottle! He'll never like me because I don't have boobs!'

He slapped his forehead, telling his imagination to shut the hell up. Thinking about his low self-esteem.

Riku laughed softly at the way the brunette exhaled heavily and clutched the duvet around him. He went over to Sora's desk and sat in the comfortable blue computer chair. His eyes wandering over to the massive notice board that covered almost a whole wall, it was filled with photos mainly of Sora, Kairi and himself. He relished the memories and couldn't prevent himself from laughing at one particular photo.

Sora looked up from his pillow and gave Riku a questioning look, "What?"

"That photo…" he said nodding in the direction of it.

"Which one?" the brunette asked, following his gaze, "Oh, that one. That was a seriously weird day." He said, shaking his head and laughing.

Riku grinned. Kairi had dared Sora to go to school dressed in 'rapper' clothes when they were about eleven. She'd insisted on taking a photo, despite the brunette's protests that he didn't want anyone to remember that day. He'd eventually given in and Kairi had pushed the button just as Riku had nicked Sora's hat so he was pouting like crazy.

'He always looks so cute when he does that…' Riku thought with a small smile. 'Wait. Where did that some from?' he shook his head, screwing up his eyes quickly to try and get the thought out of his head. He should not be having those thoughts. Especially about Sora.

"What's wrong?"

Riku snapped his head around to see the brunette looking at him with his eyebrows slightly raised.

"I-err… nothing." He said, grinning awkwardly.

Sora flipped onto his back, staring up at the ceiling with his hands cushioning his head, "Whatever."

Riku looked down at his hands, picking at a hangnail on his right thumb, "Sora… Do you know why Kairi broke up with me?"

The brunette mentally screamed: this was not good. He hadn't had a chance to discuss with Kairi what he should say if Riku started a conversation like this and he was terrible at making things up on the spot.

"I… um, what did she say exactly?" he said, buying himself time to come up with a half decent reason for Kairi's actions. One that wasn't the real reason.

"Well, she just said stuff like she didn't really think of me in that way and she preferred me as a friend. That kind of stuff."

"Uh, I guess that's the reason then…?"

Riku shrugged, "I guess… But she never showed any signs that she wasn't happy before."

Sora shuffled, 'Could this be anymore awkward?'

"Maybe she just, uh, changed her mind… I don't know…"

"Yeah, you're probably right…" he said, looking downcast.

'He must have really liked her to be acting this, well, sad. Riku doesn't really get sad.' The brunette thought, 'I should never have agreed to let Kairi do this… it's not fair on either of them.'

"You're… really cut up about this, aren't you Riku?"

He heard the slivery-haired boy sigh, "I dunno… I mean, I really like Kairi but it didn't really upset me when she dumped me like I thought it probably would. It was like something else was just stuck in my mind. I just wanted to know if there was another reason she did it, other than the one she gave me."

Sora bit his bottom lip; he wondered if this was a good time to tell Riku. The slivery-haired boy must have noticed him hesitating he gave Sora a funny look.

"Sora… you would tell me if there was another reason, wouldn't you?"

"I…err…" he rubbed the back of his head self-consciously, before letting a fake grin take over his whole face, "Of course I would! We're bes..." he gulped, slightly, his smile faltering. "We're best friends; we tell each other everything."

Riku observed Sora carefully. He was lying and he knew it. This was it, their friendship would go downhill from here, Riku could tell. "Yep," he said, his throat suddenly dry. "Everything." Funny what a bit of love does to your life.

.x.X.x.

Author's note: Aww… Poor Sora. BLESS 'IM. How little he knows…

Review replies:

Cloaked Nocturne XV - I also wish that Axel could have been a bit better to him. Damn that boy. But, alas, it is the plot.

UberBex - Yes, the Mexican band. They are totally awesome. :D

SporkFilledDeath345 - First, I just want to say, I loved your review! There, done. :D Yeah, the Mexican band is totally awesome. It really is kick ass! I'm trying to make everything as realistic as possible and I really like the whole 'gay best friend' thing. I have one too! It's quite funny really, because what Rikku, Yuffie and Naminé are doing reminds me of what me and another friend did to him. And, may I say, it totally worked! The "Mr. Yes-I-Did-Steal-Your-Name-And-Get-Rid-Of-One-Of-The-Letters" part made you laugh? That is good, because I intended it to. It's just what I thought Rikku would be like towards Riku cuz she's cool like that. Oh, that's for the constructive criticism as well! It actually made me happy that someone was trying to help me get better. xD

DarkHenrych - Yeah… It prolly was over-used, I'm like that. So sue me! Lol.
THANK YOU for pointing out that mistake! I've fixed it now. Thank you so much, I hate having mistakes, they annoy me so much…
Wow, the grammar nazi? That sounds pretty good. I really need to find myself a cool name like that. XD I hope your muse uh… fixes well? Hahaha.
Roxas is so blind to the truth. But it's so fun. It really is.

Don't worry, I won't take offence! I never do. I'm always just happy that there is a review and I snaffle it up before anyone else can take it away. Okay, that sounds really weird. o.O Forget I said that.

EriNicoleAndUKnowIt - Thank you! I really don't like Miley Cyrus either… but, you know, if the song fits and all that… Also, a very special thank you because you have reviewed almost every chapter! Which makes me really (reaaaallllyyyy) happy. :D

Lamatikah: Hehe I didn't review, so I shall now berate myself. Yes, this is lamie. All the others are by Nirii. THE COOL FACE. That is who she is. Well, -berate, berate- There. My work here is done. Xx

Author's note: Okay, so, I am wayyyy ahead of myself here. I've already finished chapter fourteen. And I totally know what's going to happen in chapter fifteen. God, you guys are gonna love it. Well, I HOPE you are. Otherwise I shall cry. (not literally…)

So! Read, review, party, enjoy life…

nirii xx