Thank you for reading and continuing! I am deeply grateful for the reviews being sent!

Special thanks (and dedication of this chappie) to the following people: Kingdom Lyoko of fedual heroes, Supper, The O.C. Addict and suika's wind of the celestial (you don't need to review, you know. Plus, stop being so cruel to si Tommy). I will give you all Sora plushies as late Christmas presents. I'll even throw in a Riku plushie if I get more reviews for this chappie.

While reading, take note of the personalities of the characters and their relationships featured here. It took me a while to come up with the content of this chapter so I hope that you all will like it. I certainly did. This story was originally set for only four chapters but since everyone says that my chapters are too long, I have to extend the number. Thus, my previous notation about the appearance of "sugar satchets… text messages and swaying bangs" etc. will happen next chapter. Right now, I'm introducing everyone else and yes, this chappie is already around 5000 words. I really can't cut it down anymore.

Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix (and Disney). Reno from FFVII belongs to Squaresoft.


Chow Chow


(Chorus 1- repeat 2X)

He flinched when something poked onto the plaster covering the bruise on his left temple. Lifting his head from the book he was currently reading, Cloud cast an irritated stare at his perpetrator whom, having induced a reaction from his victim, decided to interrogate the matter further by continuing his aimless poking onto the plastered wound.

The blonde recoiled from the prods, intensifying his glower and physically holding himself back from lashing out with his book, knowing for a fact that if he did indeed do something rash to oppose this sudden attack of poking fingers, Reno would only see this as an invitation to annoy him even more.

His red-haired co-worker smirked in seeing the deep blue eyes of the other fixed on him in attention and thankfully, he ceased his poking for now and began to speak, "About time I got you back to Earth."

Instead of poking, Reno flicked his finger onto the front cover of Cloud's book as a reference to his words. Apparently, it was a well-known fact to anyone who knew Cloud that whenever the blonde buried himself into any reading material, he focused all his attention on the current article thus becoming cut off from the outside world. Not even an elephant dancing in a tutu in front of him could pull him out of his reading reverie.

Reno adjusted the gleaming pair of sleek sunglasses resting on the crown of his head, "That must be one heck of a blow to have a bruise bandaged like that, eh Cloud? How did you get it again?"

As usual, Cloud chose to ignore those words. Instead, he folded the top of the page of the book and placed it aside before plucking the files Reno was carrying out of his grasp and instantly burying into its contents.

The action brought a frown to cross into the red-haired man's face as an obvious indication that Reno disliked having his words (or perhaps his own existence) ignored. So, he tried again to coax a verbal answer from the supposedly cold, silent blonde.

"Hey, I'm talking here. I said how did you get the–"

Somewhere behind them, there was a tinkling sound of keys. The pair of sunglasses that rested on Reno's crown vanished from its place, having been abducted by a quick set of small fingers. Reno cried out in panic at the disappearance of his precious shades, whipping around to locate where they had gone off to.

A young woman with short, black hair had somehow sneaked her way into the office cubicle without making any sound to alert the two occupants about her arrival. A keychain hung out of her jacket pocket, attached with several plastic character models from Naruto. In her hand she held Reno's sunglasses and in her large brown eyes, there held a small gleam of mischief.

Reno instantly fumed and extended out an open hand, "Oy! Give those back, Yuffie! Hey, I mean it!" he added when Yuffie merely stuck out her tongue at him before placing the shades onto the crown of her own head. They were slightly bigger for her size and they threatened to fall from their support. She had to hold it in place as she twisted her face into a particular expression, speaking in a deep voice that mimicked Reno's own.

"Oh look at me, I'm Reno! Check out my so-called long hair!" Yuffie exclaimed, flicking her short hair with her fingers. Reno's fuming intensified and he pounced at her in an attempt to retrieve his stolen shades. However, the young woman was quicker; dodging away from the other's flailing arms.

"–And don't forget my cheap sunglasses!" she continued, winking teasingly at the red-haired man as she tapped on the shades' lens.

"They are not cheap!" came the ferocious retort and Reno swiped at her, missing her by an inch as she dodged away again in a fit of giggles, all before an immature chase began to take place around the room.

Cloud could only watch from his desk, his lips pursed impatiently for his two co-workers to stop this ridiculous fiasco that was taking place in his workplace.

"What's going on in here?" A cool, deep voice enquired with a tone lacing with curiosity. As if on cue, Leon strolled into the office to join the sudden rendezvous that always seemed to end up being in Cloud's office cubicle.

Seeing Leon in the room, Yuffie immediately hid behind him, tugging onto the older man's sleeve while pointing an accusing finger onto the startled Reno. "Squall! Reno's chasing me! Make him stop!"

"Yuffie, you–!" Reno growled in response before pouncing at the young woman who squealed behind Leon's back. The oldest of the group caught Reno by the shoulders to avoid any bodily collision. Yuffie stuck her tongue out at Reno, who was writhing in Leon's grip as his arms extended out in a frantic attempt to reach out and grab the smirking young woman who expertly twirled the sunglasses around with two fingers.

Leon sighed, letting go of one of Reno's shoulders so he could pluck the sunglasses out of Yuffie's grasp.

"Squall!" came the shrill cry followed by a stubborn pout.

This was returned by a hard look, "It's Leon." With that, Leon handed the waiting red-haired man by his side back his sunglasses as he shot words over his shoulder at the pouting young woman behind his back, "Yuffie, refrain yourself from teasing Reno so much. It's usually you who starts a charade loud enough to attract unwanted attention. I'm doing you both a favour here."

"Eh?!" Yuffie shrank away, both from the allegation and the look that Leon was giving her. She bounded over to Cloud's side, tugging onto his sleeve urgently.

"Cloud! Tell Squall that I didn't mean to do it! Reno's the one who made me start it! Go on, Cloud! Say it!" she whined, tugging on the sleeve a couple more times before Cloud jerked his arm away from her grasp. He had seen the way Leon's hands were planted on his hips in such a maternal way that he no doubted silently agreed how the four's bond resembled.

Instantly, an image crossed his mind – in an old fashioned living room with a roaring fire, a suit-wearing Cloud sat on a leather armchair smoking a pipe and reading a hardcover book, ignoring the tugs of a whining Yuffie who cradled a doll in her arms. Leon stood a little distance away, clad in a lacy apron while brandishing a scolding finger onto a frowning Reno, whose baseball cap tilted to the side of his head. This was their relationship after all: Cloud, the father; Leon, the mother; and Yuffie and Reno, the children.

He shuddered slightly, not liking the image at all.

As Yuffie took a step back to release an annoyed huff at the unenthusiastic response she was getting (jingling her Naruto keychain in the process), Reno sneered at her as he placed his sunglasses back on his head, "Ha-ha! Got ya there!"

"And Reno," Leon lay a hand onto the jeering man's shoulder, halting him in his actions. "You know it's against regulations to wear sunglasses during office hours."

Reno stiffened at the words, obviously looking as if he was caught doing something illegal. A weak smile formed on his lips as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head in an effort to think up some words to explain his discreditable actions. However, it was already predicted by everyone else that Reno wouldn't give a damn about following office regulations set by their department supervisor, Auron. Reno even dressed out of place in the office, being clad in a simple jacket thrown over a white open-necked shirt, sleek sunglasses perched on his head and long red hair held back in a ponytail. He looked more like a gang member than one of the employees of the car business company they worked in.

"Furthermore," continued Leon when Reno wasn't quick enough to shoot back a retort. "Male employees are not to have their hair too long. Remember that?" He gestured towards the bright red ponytail that flowed to the middle of his back.

Unconsciously, Reno touched his hair, frowning as he pointed towards Leon's own shoulder-length brown locks. "What about you, eh, Squall? With hair like yours, you look like some Nancy-boy."

Leon coughed into his hand in an effort to cover up the blush that was spreading across his face. However, unlike the red-haired man, he was quick for a remonstration. "Ah-hem, according to Auron, the maximum length of hair a male employee could keep in the office is down to their shoulders…" he paused to let Reno form a look of horror on his face at the information before continuing, "So technically, you've exceeded your limit."

"Yeah, Nancy-boy," Yuffie chimed, leaning over to sneer at Reno's speechlessness. The look on the red-haired man's face was just priceless. A few seconds passed before Reno opened his mouth to deliver a reply but what came out was a squeak. Instantly, he closed his mouth, looking desperate for a way out to avoid the prodding stares of his colleagues.

Having really no choice now, he whipped around to address the remaining occupant left. "Cloud! Help me out here!"

The blonde in question maintained his blank stare on the wide-eyed Reno before turning away, pretending to have heard nothing.

"CLOUD!" was the red-haired man's response as he fumed on the spot. Seeing that the blonde still ignoring him, Reno scanned the man's desk for something to use when his eyes landed on the sleek black and white flip mobile phone lying conveniently by the PC desktop monitor.

With one swipe, he snatched the phone from its perch and held it in the air. Cloud, finally acknowledging the fact that something of his possession was taken from him, snapped his attention back on Reno, who waved his phone from side-to-side, letting the device's black cover shine in the office light.

"Heheh, how do you like it now?" Reno snickered as he waited for some emotion to surface from Cloud's blank façade. "Got your attention, didn't I–?"

Reno's words were cut off when the gleaming mobile phone disappeared from his hand, only to end up cradled in Yuffie's palm.

"Yuffie, you little snitch! I got that first!"

"Come and get it, Nancy-boy."

"Why you–!"

Thus began another chase around the room.

Cloud could only stay where he was; his eyebrows furrowed slightly, lips pursed into a frown. Leon, catching this look, guessed instantly what Cloud's mood was. Right now, it was painfully obvious that the blonde was very displeased at the presentation that was taking place right here in his office. Especially one that involved the use of his mobile phone.

It was time for Leon to step in and do his job.

"Okay, break it up! Break it up!" he called out, snatching the phone out of Yuffie's hand and ignoring her protests. "I think we should all go back to work now. If Auron decides to check up and sees us in here again, he'll have a fit."

"Tch," Reno snorted, recalling Auron's deadly glares whenever the supervisor caught him smoking at his desk. "Grumpy old man."

"Hey, he isn't that bad," Yuffie said, slapping Reno's back and knocking his sunglasses askew. "Squall's right. We really should get back to work. Which reminds me – I gotta go downstairs and see Yuna about some sales reports. In the meantime …" she planted her hands on her hips and surveyed her colleagues with a gleam in her eyes. "…I'm generous enough to get you all drinks. Squall, coffee with two sugars and lots of milk as usual?"

Leon allowed a small smile to crawl up his lips, "Coffee with two sugars and lots of milk, as usual. Plus, it's Leon."

Yuffie pretended not to have heard the name-correction as she glanced over at Reno who beamed as he delivered his drink order, "I want coffee too – no sugar, no milk at all. I don't want to be as pansy as Leon is when it comes to his taste buds."

"Give it up, Reno," Leon spoke, folding his arms together as he let a sigh escape his lips. "We all know about your sensitivity towards bitter things like coffee. You did that sham last week remember? When you ordered plain coffee? Do you want us to take a picture of you squirming at the taste this time?"

Reno reddened when he recalled the incident and muttered over Yuffie's high-pitched laughter, "Fine! Give me one with just two sugars."

Yuffie ceased her laughing to address towards the silent blonde by the desk, "Cloud?"

"Glass of water." It was the first time that they had heard him answer verbally that day.

"Water?" Reno echoed in astonishment. "Who drinks water in this office anymore– Owowowowowowowowowow...!" his words lapsed into painful howls as Yuffie pulled him out of the room by his ponytail, the Naruto models of her keychain clinking into each other with every step she took. The two remaining males stared after them, their bickering continuing as they disappeared through the door of the office.

"Yuffie! Why do I have to come with you?"

"Who's going to carry all those drinks, eh? You're the Department's delivery boy, Reno! Now stop complaining!"

"Hey!"

There was a pause just after the two people's voices faded into the distance. Cloud, finally getting the peace he had been waiting for, turned on his PC and patiently waited for the desktop to appear on screen. In the meantime, Leon strolled over to Cloud's desk and deposited the black and white mobile phone back on its original spot.

"It's funny how you could carry that thing without ever answering or making any phone calls," Leon commented in an amused tone, gesturing towards the portable device by the PC monitor.

Cloud used his mouse to open up a particular document before starting his workload by typing on the keyboard. Leon watched the pale, slender fingers of the other dancing frantically across the black keys without pausing.

"I keep missing them," Cloud replied suddenly that Leon had to blink a couple of times before he realized that the blonde was actually answering his earlier question.

"Hmph. Liar," Leon huffed with a playful smile. "You always keep your phone on every minute of the day. Plus, whenever I try to call you, I have to leave a voicemail in order for you to get back to me."

Cloud paused from his typing for a while to examine what he had written on screen. Lifting a hand to tuck a blonde strand of hair behind his ear, he murmured loud enough for Leon to hear before he resumed his typing.

"And don't I always get back to you?"

Leon, impressed that he was getting straight responses from his usually quiet co-worker, raised an eyebrow at the comeback. "Well technically yes. And it's always through text messaging," he paused to let his words take effect. "You know how a pain it is to know that the only way to communicate with you is through text messages? Very displeasing for me."

Something like a smile crawled up the corner of Cloud's lips at the information. "That's because you can't text."

Leon wrinkled his nose at the bluntness of the answer and leaned against Cloud's desk, watching the concentration melded in the blonde's features as he continued his rapid typing. "You know people will find it less troublesome if they hear your oh-so-melodious, sweet voice on the telecom waves," he added with a grin.

Cloud stopped typing to give Leon a blank look that silently told the latter that he wasn't in the mood. In response to the stare, Leon merely tilted his head sideways, causing the brown strands of his hair to fall across his grey eyes.

Cloud resumed his typing.

"Out of complete and utter interest," Leon continued, reaching over to flick a lock of blonde hair away from Cloud's face to further expose the plaster on his temple. "How did you get that bruise again?"

The truth was that Leon already knew about the incident that happened on Cloud's birthday when the blonde took Aerith out to the arcade for a treat. But Leon took any opportunity he could grasp just to get Cloud to open up more in the office. Thus, here he was at it again, encouraging responses out of the aloof blonde's mouth with his questions.

Ignoring Leon's earlier actions (no matter how casual it was since Leon had a habit to be a bit too casual when it came to him), Cloud simply replied, "It was a door."

"A door? Hmm…" A thoughtful look crossed the brunet's face as he grasped his chin between two fingers. "So you got hit in the face by a door? Was it by a twist of fate that it happened on your birthday? Could it be some sort of hint?"

Again, Cloud stopped typing to give Leon something like a look of suspicion, knowing the fact that Leon believed in events that were predetermined – or in other words, Fate.

Yes, it was such a strange coincidence that Leon, of all people, could believe in nonsense like that.

The corner of Leon's lips lifted up a notch, "Do you think that the opening of that particular door could be a sign to the unravelling of an upcoming change of unusual events? A door of destiny?"

Cloud could only stare. "It was a door of a karaoke booth," he said pointedly. "Besides, your 'door of destiny' didn't exactly open up for me." He was obviously referring to the plaster on his head.

Leon released a sigh before trying again, "Okay, maybe not the opening door bit. I was thinking that it was whatever lies beyond that door."

Cloud found himself considering this statement. The only thing that lay beyond the door of the karaoke booth was, if he could still recall, an energetic boy with sky blue eyes. Was Leon saying that the door slamming into his face some sick twist of fate? Will this incident open the doorway towards something? Lead him towards destiny, perhaps?

Cloud shook his head, clearing away those ridiculous thoughts.

Nonsense.


Sora peeled off a reminder note from its pad and stuck it onto an empty space on the wall where the fish-shaped blue memo joined in with the rest of the sea of multicoloured, multi-shaped sticky notes plastered all over the wall of his desk.

Slipping a couple of books and a packet of Pocky sticks into his bag, he dragged the satchel out of his room where he met with the sight of an untidy apartment. Piles of rubbish littered all over the floor, dirty plates stacked in the sink, empty cans of coke and other soft drinks lying abandoned on the dinner table, discarded shoes, socks, clothes thrown and tossed everywhere. It was like a mouse den from hell.

He sighed when he accurately guessed who the perpetrator of this incident was. Normally, Riku was a neat person – scratch that, Riku was a perfectionist. He was quite organised, athletic and hard-working when it came to his studies. He persevered at maintaining his high grades by staying up late, occupied with textbooks and papers on his desk.

So judging by the state of the apartment, Riku's grades must have dropped in the latest test. And Sora knew, since this sort of thing happened all the time, that whenever Riku's goal to maintain perfection (especially involving his grades) shattered, he would undoubtedly be thrown into a brief state of depression. Substantially, he would then spend the next few days grieving miserably for his failure, skipping classes to waste those valuable hours in bed or at the TV.

Basically, when Riku was down, the whole room would go down with him.

Yes, Sora could see that as he picked his way across the messy apartment room they shared.

He found Riku by the TV watching a program rerun. His silver hair stuck out in every direction, his clothes ruffled and dirty and there were bags under his eyes. Even though Riku spent more time in bed than Sora did, he still appeared more sleep deprived than the other. Cradled in his arms was a large packet of potato crisps.

Sora stood in front of his roommate, blocking his view, and planted his hands firmly on his hips.

Riku grunted displeasingly at the obstruction and chucked a crisp at Sora, hoping that it would move the brunet from his view. Unfortunately, the crisp missed him by a few centimetres and landed onto the floor, joining the other scraps of rubbish that Riku had carelessly discarded.

"Riku," Sora said in a stern tone. "Have you seen the state of this place? And who's going to end up cleaning afterwards?"

Sea-green eyes locked onto his sky blue ones, "Sora, can't you see I'm trying to watch some TV here? You're blocking my view."

"Riku," Sora repeated with an exasperated huff. "Are you listening to me? Hel-loo?"

Riku merely crunched on another crisp loudly.

Sighing exasperatedly, Sora decided he should use his last resort.

Crossing his arms, he pouted.

In a few seconds, he saw Riku cringe at his actions and he turned his head away with a moan. "God, don't give me that – hey! Stop it, will you!" the silver-haired individual snapped when his brown-haired roommate maintained the infamous, stubborn pout that no one could resist. "Sora! You know I hate it when you use that against me!"

Finally, Riku seized the remote control and pressed a button, instantly switching the TV off. As the room lapsed into silence, Sora finally stopped pouting and grinned in satisfaction at the other's submission. Plopping himself beside his grumbling roommate on the couch, he reached over to help himself to the other's crisps, "Come on Riku, you should start going out more. You know I don't like it when you're like this. You slop all over the place."

Riku's eyebrows furrowed even more with displeasure, "Dammit Sora, I do not 'slop'."

When Sora's hand crawled into the packet to steal another crisp, Riku wrenched it away from his reach, earning another stubborn pout from the brunet.

"Riku, don't be stingy. I just want another one!" Sora protested, grabbing hold of the crisp packet and pulling it towards him. His free hand came up, ready to plunge into the packet to extract a couple of potato crisps to soothe his taste buds.

The packet was viciously tugged away as a pair of sea-green eyes fixed into a defiant glare. "You want the whole thing, more like! Get your own crisps!"

"How could I? You finished them all!" The brunet made a grab at the packet and when Riku dragged it away from his reach; he was climbing onto the other boy's lap, his hand grasping out to seize the crisp packet hovering above their heads.

"Riku, give it!"

"Idiot Sora! Get the hell off me!"

As the two boys on the couch continued their fierce struggle for domination over the crisp packet, the forces inflicted to attain the snack caused the contents to fly out of their packet and shower all over their forms. Sora found himself seeing the golden forms of potato crisps raining down his vision and he was the first to snap out of his reverie.

"Riku, stop! The crisps–!"

His silver-haired roommate gave the packet another forceful tug and Sora found himself being pulled forward by the momentum. Crashing into Riku's chest and making him lose balance; they both tumbled off the couch and landed onto the floor with a thump. Sora found himself on top of Riku, who looked displeased at their previous performance. Both boys did not say a word to break the sudden silence, instead settled this incident with a simple exchange of stares.

It was a while before Sora noticed that apart from the grim expression melded on his roommate's face, there were potato crisps sticking out of Riku's unruly silver hair, giving him quite a ridiculous appearance. Without thinking, he began to laugh at the sight.

Riku's reaction was, at first, disbelief which quickly turned into annoyance. As he watched the merriment dancing across the brunet's sky blue eyes (not to mention listening to the funny quality of his laughter), he soon began to realise the hilariousness of the situation and started to laugh at the crisps nestling in the strands of Sora's brown hair. Soon, their laughter echoed around the room, enlightening the previous glum mood that had exceeded from the apartment's state.

Once it died down and lapsed back into silence, Sora climbed off Riku's chest and settled back against the foot of the couch. As Riku got up to lean against the brunet's side, Sora reached over to pick out a potato crisp from his silver hair, stuffing it into his mouth afterwards. Shortly, they were doing nothing but eating the crisps off each other's hair and clothes.

"Riku?" Sora said as he looked at the blank screen of the TV. "How about I try to cheer you up a bit, eh? Wanna come to Le Blanc's around the corner for breakfast?"

Riku rolled his eyes at the offer, knowing full well that the café, Le Blanc, had a reputation of selling the best sugary treats in town. "Sora," he began with a frown, "you know very well that I don't eat breakfast."

Technically, this was true. Riku just couldn't make himself eat anything early in the morning. An exception was today, of course, when his mealtimes were all over the place. During this state of brief depression, Riku mostly ate anything out of packets and cans rather than on plates.

The brightness contained in Sora's face did not falter at the statement. Sora continued as if he hadn't heard what Riku had said, "Le Blanc's got waffles today! I heard they're pretty good. Why don't we try some? I heard they serve their mushroom soup in a bread bowl, can you believe that? Imagine drinking soup and eating the bowl! Sounds pretty weird, huh?"

Riku merely smiled as he reached over to ruffle the brown spikes of Sora's hair, "Sorry but I just don't feel like having waffles today. If you want to go, just go then."

"Ehh! It won't be fun without you," Even with Riku's hand in his hair, Sora turned his head to protest when his offer had been turned down. His eyes took on a wide, pleading hue, "Look, if you can't stand the sight of food in the morning, I'll even hold your hair back once you start throwing up–"

Gripping the top of the brunet's head with his hand, Riku turned Sora's head away from his direction towards the TV opposite them. "Nice try but I don't think it's gonna work. Maybe some other time, okay? Now don't you have your committee meeting thing with Kairi this morning?"

"It's an Organizing Committee," Sora said to the TV even though it was obvious that he was actually addressing his roommate. Brandishing a finger into the air as an emphasis to his statement, he continued, "And it's not really a meeting. Kairi is just going to give me the ideas paper about the upcoming campaign event we're planning in a few weeks."

"Really?" Riku said, raising an eyebrow in interest. "What kind of campaign?"

"It's a 'Save The Turtles' campaign."

"Uh? Turtles?"

"Kairi decided to point out the issue about the illegal trading of turtle eggs," Sora explained as he brushed off Riku's hand from his hair. "And you know how Kairi organizes everything when it comes to campaigns."

"And you took this because …?"

Sora huffed as he crossed his arms, "She forced me into it."

Riku placed his hand back on top of Sora's head and ruffled his hair again, "Poor Sora. Still holding onto Kairi's hand, eh?"

"I can decide for myself!" Sora protested with wide eyes. "It's just when it comes to Kairi … she just has her ways."

They paused for a second to let the image of Kairi to cross their minds. Knowing the red-haired girl's keenness for wildlife, there was a high chance that this campaign would to take form in marched protests. Sora could imagine Kairi forcing him into a turtle suit as they marched down the street, holding up banners and signs and shouting for justice. With Kairi, anything was possible.

"Well," Riku said, interrupting Sora's thoughts. "If you're planning to go to Le Blanc's and meet up with Kairi on one very late morning, then I suggest you go now. I'm sure you're familiar with her dislike for late-comers."

"Guess you're right," Sora sighed as he stood up from the floor, brushing the dirt off his trousers. Without acquiring any consent, he bent down to help pull the other boy on his feet before casting a look around the apartment. "Do me a favour," he added with a smile. "Clean this place up afterwards, okay? I'll make us both dinner tonight, how's that?"

The silver-haired youth merely raised an eyebrow at the offer. "You? Cook dinner? Forget it. The last time you volunteered, you set the lamb chops on fire and in the end; we had to eat white rice with burnt meat. Nasty." He patted the top of Sora's head with his hand, "I'll clean up and cook dinner. You just stay out of my way."

"Riku!" Sora whined, slapping the other's hand away and leaving his brown, spiky hair tousled.

In response to this, the silver-haired youth just smiled before reaching down to lift Sora's satchel from the floor and pick his way across the apartment towards the front door.

Sora hesitated for a tad second, startled at first at Riku's sudden actions. It was all before he realised that the other boy was merely carrying his bag for him, perhaps as a gesture of apology for his grumpy behaviour. Knowing this, Sora felt the blush return to his cheeks as he shyly made his way to the door where a patient Riku waited for him.

"You know you don't need to see me out," Sora murmured as his bag was deposited into his arms. The fact was – it was customary for them to show caring gestures towards one another in the form of simple, small acts. Even as Sora found this deed quite embarrassing for him, he couldn't help but feel somewhat flattered.

Riku simply rolled his eyes before taking hold of Sora's shirt and straighten it in the process. "I need to make sure that you don't trip over all the crap I left around the house," he said as he swept off the debris that clung onto the other's clothes. "Plus, you're feeble in carrying that bag of yours," he then added, brushing off the potato crisp remains that still resided within the brunet's hair.

"Hey!" Sora blushed darkly at his roommate for fixing him up. Embarrassed, he backed away from the other and hoisted a strap of his bag over one shoulder. Giving the other one glance of appreciation for his concerns (however sarcastic Riku made it sound), Sora reached for the doorknob.

The next thing that happened made Riku blink with surprise. As Sora turned the doorknob, he then pushed the door open just a crack in order to peer outside. When his eyes took on a confirming hue that no one was standing outside, it was finally then that the brunet opened the door a little wider to let himself out.

Puzzled by this odd performance, Riku caught hold of the door before it closed and leaned against it as he gazed at Sora's form. "Since when do you open doors like that?" he asked curiously, knowing the fact that Sora usually burst through a door with enthusiasm. So why the wariness? Suddenly, Riku's eyes grew wide when he finally figured it all out. "Don't tell me," he said as sky blue eyes took on a guilty hue. "You rammed a door right into someone, didn't you?"

You could call it a habit if you like. Whatever Sora did wrong to make him feel guilt-ridden, the brunet would become overly cautious about it in order to prevent the same incident happening again. In this case, Sora was being wary about the force he used to open the door and in addition to that, the question of the presence of any persons who stood behind that door. It wasn't really the brunet's fault really for acting in such strange ways. It was simply so he wouldn't repeat his mistakes all over again.

Sora nodded slowly to verify the accurateness of his roommate's answer before hanging his head with shame as he recalled the incident in the arcade.

To be honest, he had never encountered with such an intense glare before. Especially one from a pair of deep blue eyes.

"Who was it?"

"Huh?" Sora said, blinking when Riku's words went straight through his head. The silver-haired youth tilted his head to the side as if he was trying to see the brunet better from his place against the half-open door.

"I said," Riku repeated at a slower pace. "Who did you slam the door into?"

Sora hesitated before replying:

"His name was Cloud."


End (Chorus 1 –repeat 2X)


Notes:

I love Cloud's relationship with his three colleagues in the office because they remind me a bit of the Twilight Town gang – despite the fact that the four's bond resembles that of a family. I took the idea of Cloud not answering his mobile phone from Advent Children and placed in an uncanny talent in rapid text messaging instead. I do like the idea of Cloud typing up a text message on his phone.

Furthermore, I really liked how I portrayed Sora and Riku's relationship, especially the part when they eat crisps off each other. The act of Riku carrying his bag for him to the door just so he could see him off is an obvious indication of how the two really care for one another.

Well, I can tell you that the next chapter will definitely contain the Le Blanc café reunion scene. I'm very excited for this chapter and I hope you stick around to read it.

All reviews sent to me will be valued, polished and put up on display. Feedback is very much appreciated. I need to know how I'm doing.