Sora groaned and put his head on the table.

"Roxas, I don't get this at all."

Roxas sighed and walked around the table to lean over his cousin's shoulder to look at the math.

"Oh come on Sora, this is basic, you should be able to do this by now!"

Sora smiled up at him. "Yeah but I can't, that's why I have you to help."

Roxas shook his head, sighing. "Come on, I told Hayner and the others we'd meet them today."

Sora rolled his eyes. "They just want to get back at Seifer for last time." He grinned. "Let's go."

Roxas sighed and smiled. "You're as bad as Hayner." He pointed at the work on the table. "You are going to do that when we get back aren't you?"

Sora grinned. "With your help, race you."

Roxas didn't respond, he sprinted for the door, grabbing his skateboard on the way out before Sora had even stood up, though he wasn't far behind.

"You haven't beaten me yet!"

Sora jumped on his own board and sped down after Roxas. "Yeah but that's not going to stop me from doing it!"

They came to a stop in the side alley where Roxas and his friends had created their clubhouse, Roxas was in front still.

Sora frowned. "I'm going to beat you."

"Yeah good luck," Roxas put his arm around Sora's shoulders.

"Hey, where've you been?"

Hayner sounded impatient, just like he always did. Roxas smirked.

"Mr. Math Genius here is having some issues with the homework."

Hayner waved his hand. "Why bother? Just have Pence do it for you."

"Gee thanks Hayner, like I need to do more homework." Pence muttered with his usual cheery smile.

Hayner led the way into their hangout; Ollette greeted Roxas and Sora with hugs and pointed to the cooler.

"There's ice cream in there."

Sora made a run for it and retrieved two sticks; he tossed one to Roxas before plugging his own mouth.

Roxas smiled at Ollette. "Thanks, you don't have to buy it every time you know."

She smiled mischievously. "Of course I do, none of you ever has any money."

"Hey are you calling me a deadbeat?" Hayner demanded.

"Hayner you are a deadbeat." Pence grinned.

"What?"

They all burst out laughing, except for Hayner who looked a bit miffed at being the icon of everyone's mirth.

"Alright, alright, I didn't exactly work hard over the summer I admit, now stop laughing!"

Ollette smiled fondly at him. "We know Hayner, you let Sora and Roxas do all the work."

"Did not, besides I helped them find the jobs didn't I?"

The others snickered, Sora and Roxas just smiled at one another, each enjoying their ice cream.

"So what did you want to meet for?"

Hayner's mood immediately changed, he was in command again. "It's that jerk Seifer, he's down in the Sandlot right now saying that now Leon and Cloud are gone he's the top dog!"

Ollette sighed. "Let him, it's not like it matters."

"It does matter!" Hayner cried.

Besides Roxas, Sora nodded in agreement. Roxas sighed; he was inclined to be on Ollette's side in this matter. If Seifer wanted to be an ass, there wasn't a lot to do about it. Not that he liked it anymore than anyone else; he just didn't see much point in contesting the point with Seifer's gang again.

"All I'm saying," Hayner continued, "is that we go down there and show him we haven't lost our muscle."

"Uh, Hayner, I don't know if you've noticed, but none of us can take on Ryu. That's why we had Leon and Cloud."

Hayner scowled at Pence. "That's what Seifer wants! He wants us to just bow down and lick his boots whenever he says. We need to show him we're on par with his gang. Besides we outnumber them anyways, what's to worry about?"

Roxas shook his head, smiling half-heartedly at Sora. They both knew where this was going.

"I'm going down there, you guys coming or not?"

Hayner headed out the exit, Pence and Sora followed a moment later.

"Boys," Ollete sighed.

"Come on Ollette." Roxas called, "Hayner might have a point."

She looked at him like he'd grown another head. "I didn't things could get that bad without Leon and Cloud."

They both laughed as they hurried to catch up with the others.

"What are you loser's doing here? Didn't I say that this was our place?"

Seifer jumped off the wall he'd been sitting on, the rest of his gang didn't move but they all watched as Roxas, Sora and the others entered the Sandlot.

"Yeah we're here to change that Seifer."

"Oh and where are your big brothers huh?" Seifer spread his arms out. "I don't see them, you guys?"

Larxene leaned over Zexion's shoulder and played with his hair.

"Hmm…no I don't think they're here anymore. Just you little punks," she smiled. "Don't worry, we'll be gentle."

"Hey Roxas, why don't we let them fight? You, me go get some ice cream or something what do you say?"

"Back off Axel," Sora growled, stepping up besides Roxas.

Axel frowned. "Aww, you're never any fun Sora. I just want to treat him."

"I'll pass thanks." Roxas replied.

Axel smiled coyly. "I'll get you one of these days."

Zexion closed the book he was reading and glared at no one in particular. "Can we get this over with? I'm getting bored."

Seifer waved him off, "right, right. We're going to teach you guys a lesson. You don't mess with the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee."

Hayner was entirely unphased, never mind the fact that it was just himself, Roxas, and Sora against Seifer, Axel, Larxene, Zexion, and Rai.

"Bring it on Seifer, we'll show you we've got just as much muscle even without Leon and Cloud"

On the sidelines, Demyx began playing his guitar, smiling nervously. Ollette sat down next to him and he flushed.

"Hi Ollette," he said nervously strumming on the strings.

She frowned at him. "You really should stop hanging out with them."

He shrugged looking apologetic. "I like 'em, besides, who else am I going to hang out with?"

"You could hang around us." She offered.

He shook his head, "nah, I'd get beaten up."

She scowled and looked back at the two groups distastefully, "coward."

He shrugged; Fuu came over and glared at Ollette. "He's ours."

Ollette moved away from the pair and joined Pence just as Seifer rushed at Hayner, the two collided and ended up wrestling on the ground. Larxene and Zexion rushed at Sora and Roxas who stood their ground and began tussling with them. Rai seemed at a loss for what to do as he couldn't seem to find an opponent for himself. He simply looked around helplessly wondering what to do next.

"Yeah Roxas, fight fight fight!"

Axel stood by cheering, though he'd acted like he was going to get involved in the fighting, was now just watching Roxas; Fuu came up next to him and stamped on his foot.

"Moron."

At some point during the melee Roxas and Zexion ended up on their own, leaving Sora with Larxene pinning him beneath her.

She smiled down at him as he struggled. "See? I told you. Without big brother here you're not much against us."

She leaned down and bit his ear, Sora yelled as she giggled. "What, you don't like playing wi—"

She didn't get to finish as she was kicked off of Sora, she rolled away holding her gut groaning. Sora looked up at a familiar face, his jaw hanging.

"Riku?"

Riku smirked at him. "You haven't changed one bit."

Rei, finally seeing someone that he could fight with, charged Riku like a bull, Riku dropped down and swept his foot across the floor, cutting Rai's feet out from under him, he landed with an earth shaking thud and just lay on the ground staring up at the sky.

Sora stared at Riku. "Where did you learn that?"

"My aunt."

Hayner was on the ground being pummeled by Seifer, Roxas had beaten off Zexion who was now helping Larxene, and she was still holding her stomach where Riku had kicked her.

Seeing that his side was losing, Seifer backed off of Hayner. "Alright, let's go guys. We'll let them go this time. Someone get Rai."

Demyx and Axel did just that, between the two of them they manhandled Rai to his feet and carried him as the group moved off.

Axel smirked at Roxas, waving fondly. "See you next time Roxas."

Fuu kicked him in the shin.

"Ha! We showed the—ow!"

Ollette scowled at Hayner. "You didn't do anything," she continued to dab at the bruises on his face despite his protests. "Seifer was kicking your butt."

"I had him right where I wanted him!"

"On top of you," stated Pence with his ever present smile.

"Be quiet!"

"Who do you think he is?"

The trio looked at Roxas, he was staring at Sora and the boy who'd come to their aid. He hadn't bothered to introduce himself to any of the others, as soon as the fighting had stopped he'd taken Sora off to one side and now he and Sora were chatting animatedly.

"Probably a friend from the islands don't you think?" Ollette supplied.

Roxas frowned; none of Sora's old friend's had ever written him or anything, they'd just disappeared for the last two years. That one would just suddenly show up was a little annoying.

"What have you been doing all this time?"

Riku shrugged, leaning against the wall. "My aunt and uncle are both in the army; they've mostly been teaching me; when I'm not doing that I see Kairi and Namine from time to time."

"You still see them? How are they?"

Riku eyed Sora coolly. "What do you care?"

"What?"

Riku nodded over at Roxas and the others. "You've done pretty well for yourself. New friends, new family, did you forget all about us?"

"Of course not, Riku how could I forget about any of you?"

Riku snorted, blowing off Sora's protest. "I came here because my aunt is Leon's trainer. He told me where you were. Though now I'm not sure why I bothered."

"Don't say that Riku, I missed you. I still miss you, and Kairi and Namine. I always think of everything we had together."

"Remember the raft?"

"Of course, the one we were going to sail to the mainland with."

Riku nodded. "We got to the mainland without the raft Sora. Now what do we do?"

"Riku why are you acting like this," Sora frowned. "You aren't being yourself."

Riku glared at Sora, "because while you've been here living some goofy life with your cousins, the rest of us are in Hollow Bastion wondering if you're alright."

"I wrote to all three of you! I never got any responses so I stopped writing!" Sora protested.

"I'm catching an evening train Sora. Don't see me off, I'll tell Leon that I saw you."

Riku walked away, leaving Sora by himself, at a loss.

Roxas came up besides him. "What was that about?"

There were tears in Sora's eyes. "He blames me."

"Huh?"

"He blames me for losing touch."

Roxas snorted. "That's stupid, don't let it bother you. Just tell him you couldn't reach him."

"I did, he didn't care."

Roxas frowned. "Sora? You're crying."

Sora reached up and wiped at his eyes. "No I'm not."

Roxas put his arms around Sora. "Hey, we might be cousins but we're more like brothers right? We can cry in front of each other. I'm sure he'll get over it."

Sora shook his head. "He's leaving on the afternoon train."

"So we'll go meet him and say goodbye. You can't just let him be a jerk and walk off."

Sora nodded, smiling at Roxas now. "Thanks."

"We're family, what else are we for?"