Disclaimer: I do not own KH or KHII. I don't own Sora or Riku or Axel... you get the picture.

Comments: hanakitsunechan7 I am not even always so sure what will happen next. I figured with the club scene it wasn't so much what happened there that was so important, just that Sora went with him. ChaosHarbor Riku has always thought that Sora is hiding something, but he is still confused on whether he thinks Sora is a fake or not. B-nothing thanks, and I agree that Sora is way to innocent. Or maybe I just can't write him as innocent as he is potrayed in the games. He wasn't an innocent in my other story either. To everyone else that reviewed thank you very much. Really, it inspires me to write. This would have been posted sooner but the site was having problems and would not take it.

Chapter 13 The Problem With Seifer

Monday morning Sora walked to school wishing he did not have to go. He wasn't looking forward to seeing Riku and that smirk he almost always seemed to have on his face. He also had not seen Leon since he had kissed him and worried about that situation. And he was already in a bad mood. Axel had not called him yesterday like he said he would. Even though Sora had went out with Tidus and Wakka he had his cell phone, which is the only phone Axel would have called him on, with him. He didn't miss the call because there was no call.

He doubted that Axel would be meeting him after his session today either. But maybe Axel would surprise him and be there. Unless Axel called and left a message during the day, he wouldn't know until later.

Sora walked to his locker and opened it, taking out the books he would need for first period. When he shut it he was met by the smiling face of Seifer. Sora thought the smile was scary. Seifer leaned towards him and Sora compensated by leaning back.

"Hey twerp. You turned me down on Friday, so why don't you make it to me today? Meet me after school, I'll take you out." Seifer said, although it seemed more like a demand to Sora.

"You know, if you are going to ask someone out you probably shouldn't call them names. But sorry, can't today either." Sora told him. Seifer flashed a glare, but it was so quick that Sora barely caught it.

"Aren't you one busy guy. Or maybe you are just making excuses not to go out with me." Seifer said as he moved closer. Sora started to panic, Seifer seemed to be getting mad. He had already seen that he had a quick temper and he had seen the fight between Seifer and Axel. Neither one had actually one the fight and Axel normally won fights he was in quickly. Sora knew if Seifer started a fight with him, he would be in trouble. But that didn't happen. Sora felt arms wrap around his waist and he hoped it wasn't someone that was trying to help Seifer.

"Is there a problem here?" Riku asked from his place behind Sora. So it was Riku who was holding him, but would he help him? Sora didn't know. He did know that Seifer and Riku were friends though.

Seifer looked up at Riku and shot him a glare, "No, there's no problem."

To Sora's relief, Seifer walked away. He did manage to shove into both of them as he was doing so as a sign that he was not happy. For once Sora was actually glad that Riku was there.

"Um... thanks." Sora told Riku. He pulled out of his arms and moved to face him. Riku smiled and reached up to tug on one of Sora's spikes, just like he had done two days before.

"He looked pretty mad, I didn't want you to get hurt. What was that about?" Riku asked. Sora decided to ignore the hand that was playing with his hair. Riku had rescued him, he would let him play a little longer.

"He asked me out, but I said no. I already have something I have to do after school so I can't. He thought I was just giving him excuses. But it was the truth." Sora explained. Riku seemed to believe him.

"If he gives you any more problems just let me know. I'll take care of it." Riku said. This confused Sora. Why was Riku going to help him against his own friend? That didn't make sense.

"I mean it Sora. He shouldn't be giving you a hard time like that. So tell me if he does anything else." Riku had a serious look on his face and Sora believed he did mean it. "I have to go now, but I'll see you later. Have lunch with me?"

"Ah, okay." Sora agreed to the lunch. He figure he owed Riku a little for helping him. It wouldn't kill him to have lunch with the guy. Sora watched Riku walked off then headed off in the opposite direction towards his class.

Riku POV

Riku looked around until he found Seifer. Grabbing him from behind, Riku pushed Seifer up against the near by lockers.

"What is your problem, Riku?" Seifer asked, anger appearing in his voice. Riku glared hard at him.

"What the hell were you doing back there?"

"I wasn't doing anything."

"It didn't look that way. It looked like you were about to punch him because he told you no."

"What do you care if I punch him?"

"That can be seen as a threat, which is against the rules remember."

"Right, the rules. The rules of the game. You do remember this is just a game? So why are you getting all up in my face just because it looked like I was about to punch him?" Seifer asked.

"Yeah, I do remember it is just a game. You are the one that seems to be forgetting that. I know you don't like to lose but that is no reason to hit him."

"I don't see why you care. You said he could be amusing, but right now it seems like you actually like the twerp."

"Shut the hell up. Nothing has changed. I just don't see any reason for you to pound on him. You agreed to the rules so play by them."

"What is going on here?"

Riku looked away from Seifer to Roxas who had just asked the question. Roxas looked concerned over seeing his friends at each others throats. Behind him was Leon and Cloud.

"Nothing." Riku said. Releasing his hold on Seifer he pushed passed them and walked away. Seifer looked at Roxas.

"Your boyfriend is getting a little too protective of his toy. Not very healthy if you ask me. Not very good for you either." Seifer told Roxas then, like Riku, walked away.

"What was that suppose to mean?" Roxas asked. Cloud and Leon shrugged. None of them had any idea of what had just happened.

Sora pov

Sora sat through his first period class wondering why he had to be here. The day had not started off good and since he had agreed to the lunch with Riku, he doubted it was going to get better. There were so many other things that he could be doing. Things he wanted to do. Spending more time with Riku was not one of them.

No, he would rather be finding out what was going on with his lover. Why he had not called him and if he had been telling him the truth. He wasn't likely to do any of those things sitting here. He wished he was back in his old school. About this time Axel would be texting him, telling him about how bored he was, or offering to accidentally burn down the school.

He had not been at this school very long, but he already misses his old one. If what happened with Seifer this morning had happened at his old school, Axel would have punched first and asked questions later.

Sora was glad when the bell rang indicating the ending to the period. His next couple of classes were a lot like the first. Sora was happy when the lunch bell rang, until he remember who he would be eating with. Hopefully it wouldn't be so bad.

Sora found Riku after he had gotten his food. Riku led him to a empty spot in the yard. They were sitting under a big tree. This was the first time Sora had eaten outside since coming to this school. The location was a pretty good one. It was shaded and away from the mass population of the school. As Sora looked around he wondered if the other students were avoiding coming closer for a reason, like they knew that it wasn't allowed to come any closer. Shrugging off the thoughts Sora started eating.

"Have you had any more problems?" Riku asked.

"Other than the fact that I am about to die of boredom from my classes. No."

Riku laughed lightly, "I can't do anything about that."

Sora looked at him, his eyes widening slightly, "What? You mean you're not some kind of defender of justice? Because classes that boring should be illegal."

Again Riku laughed, "Yes it should be, but I think it is actually some kind of requirement."

Sora pouted and Riku couldn't help but think it was cute.

"A requirement, huh? That is so not good. That means I'm doomed."

"But you're not alone. We all are doomed. And the sad thing is there is nothing we can do about it."

"There has to be something. There is always something." Sora said, pouting once again. Riku smiled.

"If you figure out what it is, let me know. I don't like being doomed either."

To Sora's surprise lunch didn't go too bad. They spent the rest of the time joking around. Since no one else came over, it was just the two of them the whole lunch period. The rest of the day went pretty quickly with no more run ins with Seifer. Although he did spend one period with Roxas glaring at him most of the time. He had no idea what that was about, but didn't worry about it too much since Roxas had always seemed to hate him. Which was too bad because Sora figured they could probably be pretty good friends. When he saw Roxas when Roxas didn't know he was around, he seemed like the type of person Sora likes to be friends with.

Sora waited by the bus stop after his therapy session hoping that Axel would make a surprise appearance. But to his disappointment that didn't happen. He was not going to just go over there either, not after what happened last time. He would just have to wait for Axel to call him.

Sora boarded the bus and rode home. Not wanting to think about things he listened to his music on the way. Drowning himself in his music always worked at least for a little while.

Before Sora could walk into his house he was approached by Leon. At school he had only caught glimpses of him between classes. He also didn't see him at lunch like he usually did.

"You disappeared at lunch today." Leon said.

"I ate lunch with Riku."

"With Riku? I heard you went out with him Saturday night too. Anything I should be jealous about?"

"Huh? Jealous? Why would you be jealous? And it was nothing. What I had planned on doing Saturday night fell through and the lights were off at Cloud's so I figured you guys were probably out. He just caught me before I could make other plans. And lunch, well, he helped me with Seifer this morning."

"What do you mean he helped you with Seifer?" Leon asked looking concerned.

"Seifer got mad when I told him I had plans today and couldn't go out with him. See he had also asked me for Friday night, but Cloud had already asked me to come over. So when I said I was busy today, which wasn't a lie, he thought I was just making excuses. He looked like he was about to hit me. Then Riku was there and Seifer left."

"I see. So Seifer scared you. That explains a lot." Leon said, confusing Sora.

"What do you mean it explains a lot?"

"It explains why I saw Riku with Seifer pushed up against the lockers looking like they were about to kill each other this morning."

"What? I didn't know anything about that."

"He probably didn't want you to know, but it happened. When they were asked what was going on Riku said nothing and walked off, but he was pretty mad. Riku doesn't normally get mad like that."

"Oh. He told me to tell him if Seifer gave me any more problems."

"You can tell him or me. If Seifer and Riku fight, I don't know that Riku would win. But Seifer doesn't like to fight with me."

"Have you to fought before?" Sora asked, looking up at Leon. Leon nodded and pointed to the scar on his face.

"This scar and Seifer's too, is the result of that fight."

Then it hit Sora. He remember why Leon had seemed familiar to him. He had been with Riku and Seifer on the bus that day. He remember because he had noticed both of their scars and wonder about them. And now that Sora thought about it he realized that Cloud, Roxas, Tidus, and Wakka had also been there. So was there a reason that they were all butting into his life now one way or another?

Riku had clearly mention about seeing him at the club, not that Sora had needed him to, he remembered him. But that meant he wasn't trying to hide it. But no one else had said anything about it. Was that because they were trying to hide it, or maybe they figured he remembered them so they didn't say anything. Or maybe they just didn't recognize him like Riku had. The only people he had talked to that night were Riku and Seifer. And Zexion had been with Seifer at the fight, so maybe the others just didn't recognize him. Or maybe it just didn't matter. Maybe the only one it matter to was him.

They had been loud and annoyed him, but he hadn't done anything to them. He hadn't like them because they were loud. But it was Axel, not him, that had yelled at them and threatened them. So maybe they just didn't hold it against them like he had.

But how could he do that now? He had become friends with some of them. He didn't want to hate Cloud or Leon. He didn't want to hate Tidus and Wakka. The rest he was fine with hating.

He must have been quiet to long and Leon started waving his hand in his face. Sora came out of his thoughts a smiled apologetically.

"Where did you go?" Leon asked.

"Sorry, I just remember where I knew you all from. I remembered Riku, Seifer, and Zexion but I didn't recognize the rest of you from the bus. Not until you talked about your scar."

"The bus? What are you talking about?" Leon asked.

"I saw all of you on the bus on the other side of town before I moved over here. You were all being pretty loud and the guy that was sitting with me got mad. He started yelling at all of you."

"Oh right, you're talking about that red headed pyro guy. The one Seifer fought with later. I forgot your were on the bus with him, but I remembered seeing you at the club."

"I felt when I met a few of you that I had seen you before, but I just didn't place you. I tend to be forgetful at times." Sora said, feeling slightly guilty that he had forgotten them.

"Doesn't matter. It's not a big deal that you forgot where you had seen us before. Anyway, about Seifer, let someone know if he does that kind of stuff again."

"Okay. But I'm not sure that that will do any good. If he wants to hit me, he will probably just do it and not really give me time to get help. He seems to have a quick temper."

"He does. Always has."

"He scares me. I wish he wouldn't keep asking me out. I don't want to make him mad, but I don't want to go out with him either." Sora said, unsure if he should really be telling Leon this.

"I'll see what I can do about that. Just be careful, okay."

"Okay. Thanks."

"Sure." Leon said. He looked at his watch before looking back to Sora. "I have to get going, but I'll see you tomorrow."

Sora said goodbye and walked the rest of the way up to his house. After getting a snack he settled down in front of the television. A little while later he felt his phone ringing.

"Sorry, I didn't call you yesterday like I said I would. I can't talk long now either."

"What's going on Axel?"

"It's some things with my parents. They showed up suddenly and things aren't going well. Before you ask, I know about the rumors that have went around school about them. They are business people that own their own company. A few years ago they decided it would be in the best interest of the company to move it out of the country. I didn't want to move and they didn't make me."

"So why are they back now?"

"They didn't completely close the company here, since they didn't know how things were going to go over there. But things are going fine, so they came back to tie up things here. But it is not going as quickly or as easily as expected, so they are stressing."

"When they start stressing they take it out on each other, so I have been trying to make sure they don't hurt or kill each other. So that is what is going on. I didn't want you to come in the other day, because things weren't good at that time. I didn't want to put you in the middle of it. You could have gotten hurt."

"Sorry that I jumped to conclusions."

"Well, I can't say that I blame you. I am not known as being the most loyal person. Hopefully this will be over soon. I want to see you."

"I want to see you too, but I understand and I will wait."

"Thanks Sora, for understanding. And thanks for trusting me. You had me a little scared the other day when you said not to bother calling you."

"Yeah, I had me a little scared there too. I don't know where that came from and I didn't mean it."

"Good. Sorry, I have to get off now, I hear things breaking in the other room. I will be lucky if there is a house still here by the time they leave."

"Good luck."

Sora hung up the phone feeling better. Knowing the reason Axel was avoided him helped a lot. It wasn't because he had someone else or was bored with him, he just had a lot going on. He also like finally knowing something about Axel's private life. Sora smiled to himself, thinking he was glad he hadn't screwed things up with Axel.

Riku's pov

"So Sora wants Seifer to leave him alone?" Riku asked. After Leon had left Sora he had went over to Riku's to talk about the things he had heard from Sora. He had been a little mad Riku hadn't told them what had happened that morning, but he didn't press it. Riku had handled the situation at the time and Sora had not been punched.

"That's what he said. Seifer scares him."

"What are we suppose to do? Tell Seifer he is out of the game when he still has a week and a half left. With things like this he will be out next week without a doubt. But he isn't going to like being forced out early."

"No, he won't. Seifer hates to lose and he refuses to quit. There's no telling what he'll do it we say he is out now."

"He might tell Sora. If he doesn't beat him up." Riku said.

"Riku, let me make something clear. I like playing our games as much as you do, but our game isn't worth Sora's safety."

"What are you saying Leon? You want to end this?" Riku asked.

"I'm not saying we have to end it, but I don't want him in danger because of it either. If we are going to keep playing we have to make sure he stays safe."

"The only danger to him is Seifer. We keep him under control until next week and Sora will be fine. Even Seifer won't do anything if he is out based on the preset rules of the game."

"I know, but that means in order to protect Sora we have to let Seifer keep playing."

"For now. I'll talk to Zexion, have him keep an eye on him. I know Sora wants Seifer to quit asking him, but there's nothing we can do about that. Not if we want to keep him from getting hurt."

"So we, what? Try to make sure Sora always has plans with one of us or Cloud. Tidus and Wakka will help too."

"That's about all we can do. But that is going to make Seifer mad, that is what did it today."

"We can't make Sora agree to go out with him."

"Then we keep an eye on him. If he punches Sora he will definitely be out, nobody will let him keep playing if he does that."

"If he punches him, he'll have a lot more to worry about than getting kicked out of the game." Leon said. Riku knew what he meant and he agreed with him.

TBC

So it may seem a little strange, Riku's reaction to Seifer almost hitting Sora, considering his intentions with the game. Yeah, Riku does want to hurt him. Emotionally, but not physically. He doesn't want

Sora to end up in the hospital or anything. Anyway, the fact that he does want to hurt Sora at all makes him seem like a hypocrite. Then again perhaps there is more to it than that.