Sora had not forgotten about his Roxas experiment. He was as curious as ever about Roxas' strange behavior. Now that his relationship status was in question, Sora was not only determined to find out what made Tidus attractive to Roxas and himself not, and whether or not Roxas actually batted for the other team.

"I have a question," Sora said, as Axel handed him a peach smoothie. Sora had called him out specifically. He was a scientist after all, and scientists gathered information from all known sources.

"Yeah?" Axel replied, letting Sora know he was ready for whatever he threw at him. They sat down at one of the tables in the little smoothie shop they were in.

"What's Roxas' orientation?" Sora asked, staring directly at Axel while sucking unnecessarily hard on his straw.

Axel lifted an eyebrow. "Uhh…" he didn't quite understand what Sora was asking. "Vertical?" he answered, thinking it was pretty logical.

Sora made a face, then laughed as he got it. "No, you're dumb," he said, laughing at him additionally.

Axel kicked him under the table. "What? Was that not right?" If Roxas happened to be sleeping right now then he guessed his orientation would be horizontal.

Sora rolled his eyes. "I meant what is his SEXUAL orientation," he had to remind himself to be patient with those who were still adjusting.

"OH," Axel exclaimed, suddenly feeling sort of lame. "Does he like boys or girls?"

"That's what I'm asking you!" Sora replied. Scientific data gathering was harder than it seemed.

Axel sipped at his lychee smoothie and thought how he should handle this question. When they were nobodies, they couldn't really like or love anyone, so not much of that really counted. Roxas didn't really seem interested in looking at girls or guys when they were out together, and the only person Axel knew that Roxas was for sure interested in was sitting right in front of him. "Roxas' sexual preference is you," Axel decided aloud.

Sora choked on his smoothie, and Axel reached over to pat his back. He laughed, mostly because it was completely true and yet Sora would never know he wasn't joking. "Okay, seriously. I don't know. He doesn't seem highly interested in much of anything."

"Don't tease me like that, you jerk!" Sora pouted as best he could, biting down moodily on his straw. "So…so he's asexual?" He pondered the implications of this discovery.

"I wouldn't label him sexually dead or anything," Axel warned him. "He asked me what hormones were yesterday."

Sora sort of laughed. "Really? Did you even know?" He imagined Axel and Roxas talking about hormones and it was amusing in his head.

"We looked it up on the internet," Axel said, shrugging. Thank goodness for the internet. Axel made it his personal goal to read all of Wikipedia before the year was out.

"Hmm…" Sora said, going back to his smoothie.

Axel carefully threw his empty cup at the wastebasket and it bounced off the rim and landed on the floor. The girl that was cleaning the table nearby chuckled and picked it up for him. He called thanks to her and she just smiled. "Why do you want to know anyway? Got a crush on him or something?" Obviously.

Sora avoided looking directly at Axel. "Or something. I think he's interested in Tidus, though. He's a kid from school."

"He?" Axel asked, not really surprised that it was a guy, but surprised that Roxas was showing signs of interest in someone that wasn't Sora. Maybe Axel still had shot after all? "What gives you that idea?"

Sora shrugged. "They were getting really close at lunch. They practically ditched me to eat by themselves outside." Sora hadn't seen it as a ditching at all until he found out what it was they had been doing outside.

"Did you ask Roxas about it yet?" Axel inquired. It could be a misunderstanding.

Sora shook his head. "Selphie told me and I told Kairi who told Riku and Namine, who probably told Yuffie, who likely told everyone in the school. I think it'll be back around to him eventually."

"High school sounds stupid," Axel felt the need to comment. He was glad he didn't have to endure it. "I bet there's an explanation, anyway. Roxas is reserved. He doesn't just DO stuff. He thinks real hard about it first."

Sora pushed back his chair and stood, walking over to the wastebasket to throw his stuff away. "I guess I'll take this information and go home and process it," he said decisively. Another way that Roxas wasn't actually like him. Sora didn't think about anything before he did it.

"And you should ask Roxas about it," Axel pointed out. Maybe then the two would confront each other about their feelings, since it seemed just about everyone knew that they liked each other, except for them.

Sora didn't answer. Did he really want to ask Roxas about it? I mean, Roxas didn't know Sora liked him so…it would be totally normal to talk about stuff like that. Wouldn't it?

"What are you, a Rocket scientist? Who says 'process this information'?" Axel wasn't socially perfect yet, but he knew how to speak normally.

"Uh, a Roxasologist?" Sora joked.

"Ooo, can I be on your research team? Especially the physical research," Axel asked in a rather suggestive manner.

Sora frowned at him and gave him a push. "No, only I can be on my research team."

Axel held up his hands. "Okay, okay. Go for it."

Riku's pretend love life: Aerith

Riku knocked on Kairi's door two hours before his supposed date with Aerith. It was true that Riku had only just turned eighteen, and Aerith was a legal twenty one, but it didn't bother him and now he had the extra added reputation of courting the college cuties.

Sow why was he at Kairi's house? Riku had visited Aerith's flower shop Monday after school and told her about his predicament. He had plucked a pretty flower from one of her pots out front and presented it to her while asking for her help. Being the sweetheart that Aerith was, she couldn't really resist. They'd both agreed that it would be safer and more comfortable to go in a group, so that it was a date and not a date at the same time.

This is how Kairi, Namine, Sora, and Roxas got roped into going to the theater with Aerith and Riku.

"Hi," Namine said, as she opened the door. She swung it wide enough for Riku to come in. "Kairi's in the shower so you'll have to wait."

"Cool," Riku replied, slipping his shoes off just inside their door. "She has to make me look like a suave young gentleman. What are you going to wear?"

Namine shrugged a little. "I don't have a lot of really nice clothes so Kairi said she'd pick something out for me." They hadn't really had time to go shopping for anything, either. Namine kindly took Riku's bag off his hands and started leading him up the stairs.

"Oh, so both of us are in her hands. I hope she has mercy," Riku muttered, catching the sound of the shower running as they passed the bathroom.

Namine placed Riku's bag lightly on Kairi's bed and sat down. Riku leaned against her desk. Namine swung her legs a little, trying to think of anything to say to make the moment less awkward. She really didn't have much in common with Riku after all. "So the fundraiser for the new field sounds kind of cool."

Riku nodded. "I was thinking about being in it. You know, as a service to the school," he smirked. "Actually, I could be the only one in it and that'd pay for the field by itself." They had some pretty rich kids at their school.

"How…safe would that be?" Namine asked skeptically. "I mean, I perfectly well imagine a group of highly questionable girls buying you. You've read the rules, haven't you?" The participant belonged to the buyer for one entire Saturday between the hours of 10am and 10pm. They could make the participant do what they wanted within legal and moral limits.

"You make a really good point," Riku replied. There was silence again between the two of them, and Riku pushed off the desk and headed for the door. He opened Kairi's door and made to head out into the hallway. "I'll go see if Kairi's out of the sho-"

Riku ran directly into her as he blindly stepped out of her room. She stumbled and clutched at her towel, and Riku caught her around the waist. "Woah, sorry," he apologized, realizing that he now had several wet spots on his clothes.

"Riku!" Kairi hoped to goodness her towel was covering everything. What was he doing in her room?!

"Let go you pervert and get OUT," she removed Riku's arm from around her and shoved him out of the room, practically slamming the door behind her.

Riku stared at the closed door, unable to grasp what had just happened.

"You're red," Namine told Kairi from her spot on the bed. Kairi reached for her bathrobe, heart beating a million miles an hour. So embarrassing.

After a few minutes, when he was absolutely sure that there wasn't going to be any blushing or anything totally stupid on his part, Riku knocked on the door politely. "I'm sorry! I didn't see anything!" He shook his head for suddenly thinking it wouldn't be so bad if he did.

Kairi opened the door again and pulled him into the room. She was obviously at the tail end of being flustered.

"You're such an idiot," she told him. She was standing there in just her slip and bathrobe, not wanting to put her dress on yet. Namine was picking out shoes in Kairi's closet, already dressed.

Riku sort of stood there awkwardly, not sure what he was supposed to be doing. Should he apologize again?

"Well, what have you got? Show me." Kairi demanded, placing her hands on her hips as if she were waiting very patiently to do him this favor.

Riku scrambled for his bag. "Yes sir!"