Words: 2072

See Chapter One for Standard Disclaimers/Warnings

A/N: This is another short chapter that I really don't like all that much. So, there it's not as descriptive as usual, and you can use your imagination to make the scene as you want. I do like the end though, even if I didn't actually plan for it to end the way it did. In the end it all worked out anyway!

On the Ninth Day....

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Thursday, January 2nd

...Or, return of the bird's, and they have friends.

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Riku and his three older brothers, a set of triplets by the name of Yazoo, Loz, and Kadaj, had been orphaned when Riku was around eight. They're parents had died in a car accident: A head on collision with a drunk driver. The children had been left in the hands of their father's brother, their Uncle Sephiroth. Sephiroth was a powerful man who had immense business sense, and had made a great name for himself as well as his company.

The New Years Get-Together was a tradition started by him, and was, in fact, a two-fold party. While Sephiroth hosted a fund raiser of sorts up in one of his manor's fancy ballroom/dining room combinations, the boys had eventually gotten it into their heads to invite their own friends over. So, while their uncle's rich friends rubbed elbows up above, the younger silver haired set had begun having their own little get together. It'd been that way ever sense.

Over the years, though, the older silver haired trio had drifted away. Kadaj had followed his Uncle into the fold, and the other two had moved out of the city to pursue their own careers. As a result the secondary gathering had been over taken by Riku's and his friends. His two best friends being Kairi and Sora meant that it had spilled over just as the Gift Exchange had. It had been that way for a few years now. Riku was a generally level headed individual, and instead of bothering the staff at the manor, he just got a few of the friends to help annually. As such, the party had reached what it was now: A comfortable get together between a group of friends.

The guests were arriving now, and Roxas had spent the time between talking to his friends as they arrived checking to see if the insane redhead had shown up yet. By the time things were in full swing the only vivid red head he'd seen was Reno, who was nearly being force fed his own pony tail by Tifa for some reason.

Riku glanced toward Sora and Kairi standing nearby and gave a nod to the red head, who giggled cheerfully and disappeared into the crowd.

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Kairi maneuvered her way around several people as she hurried toward where she knew Axel was situated. As she caught site of the red head she lifted her hand to give an A-okay gesture, "Every thing's go. He's right over there."

Axel had, of course, arrived with Reno. However, he was currently sequestered amongst a group of girl's going over a few last minute concerns. He followed Kairi's pointing hand to the blond target of his plotting sulking near a wall and being harassed by, who Olette told him were Pence and Hayner, two of Roxas' closest friends. "Are you sure she can do it?" He didn't want to doubt her, really, but the scowl of Roxas' face made it pretty certain he wasn't exactly in the mood for revelry.

"Trust me," Selphie said from his left. "If Rinny can't do it, no one can."

Axel shot her a glance, "What makes you so sure?"

Aerith, standing to his right, laughed softly, "Well... she did get Leon to dance."

"Yeah!" Yuffie chirped from beside Aerith. "At one of these very parties a few years back. It's how they met!"

Axel looked over to where the sullen brunette was reclined against a wall, Cloud was standing nearby. Together they seemed to make a sort of set of two cranky statues, "Okay, yeah, the girl's a miracle worker. Whose up last?"

"That'd be me." came Namine's soft voice, as she lifted a hand to catch his attention.

"Right." The red head handed over a red envelope. "Well, we're all set. Go ahead and give her the signal."

Yuffie whooped, and Selphie did a little jittery dance before lifting her hand and waving frantically. Across the room Rinoa looked up, and flashed a smile before turning and making a beeline toward the unsuspecting blond man.

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"You look bummed, Roxas." Hayner teased as he slung a friendly arm around Roxas' shoulders. "Did your cat die or something?"

"I don't have a cat." Roxas responded dryly.

"Exactly!" Hayer exclaimed, and jostled the shorter blond.

"You know Roxas... He and the holiday season just don't agree." Pence put in, smiling faintly.

Hayner sighed loudly and shook his head, but before he could say anything more they were interrupted by a polite voice, "Excuse me." The three looked up, and Rinoa beamed at them, "Hi there."

"Uhh..." was Hayner's contribution.

Rinoa laughed, "I need to steal Roxas."

Roxas had, by now, had plenty of experience with females and the theft of himself, "What for?"

She pouted at him, her hands clasped behind her back, and rocked on her heels, "I was hoping you'd dance with me."

"I don't– " he started to say, but Rinoa cut him off.

"Yeah, I know." she sighed. "You don't dance. They never do. Don't make me try my hypnosis on you. I might have gotten better since Squall." she winked at him, smiling cheekily.

"I think I'm fi– " Roxas should have known he didn't have a choice in the matter because Hayner and Pence shoved him forward, and Rinoa grabbed his wrist. He was unceremoniously towed into the midst of the dancing crowd.

Rinoa laughed, "I'm having an eerie sense of deja vu here." She came to a halt and manhandled him into position before dragging him into a moderately paced dance. Poor Roxas was too busy trying not to kill himself to notice the way things were being maneuvered around him.

By the time that particular song was winding down, and he was hoping for an escape he was already caught in the little web and didn't even know it. So as Rinoa grinned at him, and said, "Thanks! I think it's time for me to go drag Squall away from the wall!"

Roxas found himself pulled into a final dance move full of flourish. The next thing he knew Rinoa was gone and Selphie was grinning at him, "Hi, Hi Roxie!" she cheered.

He found dancing with Selphie to be fast paced, and wild. She seemed to like whirling around a lot as well, and he had no choice but to follow along. Selphie was something like a force of nature, and that Irvine could put up with her... Well, the guy had to have guts, that was for sure.

It was as Selphie disappeared only to be replaced by Olette that he realized there was no escape. At least she was a lot calmer than Selphie, and kept it to some simple foot work at the most. She smiled sympathetically at him.

"Olette, what the hell are you all doing?"

"That would be telling." she laughed. "But, I'm sure if you think about it, you'll understand."

A few moments later she was replaced by Tifa who was, in Roxas' opinion, rather intimidating. She laughed at the look on his face, "Don't worry I'm not going to bite your head off."

Next came Yuffie who was as bad as, if not worse than, Selphie. However, it was during Yuffie's wild, squeal filled spectacle that he spotted a flash of red off to the side.

Aerith was next, and for that he was infinitely glad. She chuckled at the sight of him, ruffled and out of breathe, "We tried to pace it out a bit so that you'd get a break before the... ah, more excitable girls." Roxas nodded, feeling a bit winded still, "Time for me to go. Don't worry, you're about done."

Kairi stepped up next with a giggle, "Having fun?"

"I'll let you know when the room stops spinning."

"Yuffie is kinda crazy isn't she?"

"Understatement."

"Well, pull yourself together soon, 'cause theres one more crazy one after me."

"Oh god, can't you just knock me out and tell them I fainted or something? Anything would be better."

Kairi laughed out right at him then, "If you're well enough to turn on the melodrama you can take it!"

Rikku was next, "Don't worry, I'll take it easy on you. I don't think anyone can outclass Yuffie!"

Dancing with her was still enough to leave him wanting to hack off his own legs. At the very least if anyone told him he needed to exercise more he could point this day out and tell them they were insane.

If he was keeping count properly there was only one left, and Namine stepped up to the plate so to speak. She smiled at him, "Well, you survived."

"Barely. I'm going to feed him his own hair, or make Tifa do it. She seems to have experience with that."

The blond girl just smiled at him. When her dance ended she stepped back and offered him the red envelope she'd been given earlier. Roxas took a few moments to savor the feeling of being stationary for several seconds, before he opened it:

You've danced nine dances with nine ladies,

And while I'm no lady, true

Dare I ask you to dance once more?

Axel

Roxas looked back up to find that Namine had slipped off. Axel, however, was standing just a few feet away, hand extended. The blond stood there for a moment, hesitating for a second or two then reached out to take the red head's hand, "So long as it's nothing energetic." he said dryly. "I'm about dead here."

Axel laughed jovially, and tugged him in closer, "No worries, we'll take it easy."

The red head was true to his word, and Roxas let him lead them without a fight. He was too wiped out after the chaos that was the nine women to really put any thought into it. As the music wound down again Axel nodded toward the edge of the crowd, "I'm going to go find Demyx. He was hording water bottles earlier, and I'll grab you one."

"Yeah. I'm going to go sit down before I die."

Axel snickered and disappeared into crowd to ferret out the elder blond while Roxas drifted over toward the set of doors that lead out onto a balcony. They weren't open, but at that moment the chilly air sounded rather inviting. The blond stepped out, and after a moment of looking, located a stone bench to one side. He dropped gratefully onto the bench, and slouched down. The cold air, and cold stonework was a shock after being inside, but he wasn't planning on staying out for too long. Just enough to get his pulse down from rapid fire to livable.

Axel reappeared shortly with not only the bottle of water, but both their coats slung over his arm, "Cloud saw you duck out and brought me these." he sounded amused.

Roxas tugged his coat on with a snort, "Yeah, Cloud's a bit of a worrywart. Probably because he's been looking out for all of us for years." He took the water bottle Axel offered, and took a long gulp. "I hope I never have to do that again."

Axel grinned, looking a bit evil, "Yeah, well I couldn't help myself."

Roxas swatted at him ineffectively, and Axel sat down next to him only to have Roxas smack him upside the head, "You deserved that."

Quiet fell, and the main sounds came from the music inside as it switched from song to song. When Axel spoke again his tone was uncharacteristically serious, "I really like you, Roxas."

Roxas didn't even bother looking up from his contemplation of the water bottle, "I know." He looked up then, before Axel could go on and smiled faintly at the red head. "I mean, the Twelve Days of Christmas? True Love? Sora even called you my 'secret admirer' once."

Axel flushed slightly, "Yeah, well..." then shaking his head he grinned. "You're a practical guy, aren't you?"

"And you're extravagant, but it's a good kind of extravagant."

"Hmm, we should date then." Axel teased.

Roxas stood up and gave a laugh, "I think we already are, if you think about it. I should probably go collect my brothers. Anyway, I'll be looking forward to tomorrow." Without another word the blond wandered back inside to leave Axel gaping after him in surprise. Well, until the red head started laughing anyway.

As for Roxas? He was grinning as he hunted down his siblings.