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Here's Ch.3, I hope you guys like it.

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The funeral started off as every funeral should. With one of the pallbearers bursting into tears. Most of the uncles were carrying the three coffins, but they had had to get some of the guests to step in, as well as Roxas. The teenager couldn't understand why some people were crying as Kairi, Sora, Cid, and he spoke to them, telling them how they knew each of the crash victims. The priest came up to the altar and spoke some prayers into the microphone while the chorus sang from their pit. And after about an hour and a half the service was finished. Men and women dressed in black moved to the parking lot to grab their cars, their children following, some quiet and some not.

Roxas took a little longer to move to his respective limosine, the one that would follow the hearse over to Midgar Cemetary where his mother and father would be laid to rest and Namine would be right next to them, with his own plot of land next to hers.

The priest, a squat little man that seemed to have taken one too many dips in the wine, wanted to offer his condolences. He went on about how he remembered Aerith from when she and Leon would sometimes show up just to light a candle for their parents. The old man even let a tear drop fall, but Roxas remained unmoved and the old priest realized that and dissappeared saying he had 'things' to tend to.

When Roxas left the stain-glass cathedral and slowly made his way to the limo where Sora, Kairi, Uncle Leon, and Aunt Tifa were waiting for him, a motorcycle went past him. The rider was dressed in all black and wore a helmet that was shaded so that you couldn't see who the driver was. The driver seemed to be looking at him, but his mind ignored that fact and continued on his way towards the black limo.

Sora, Roxas noticed, was whispering with a tall, silver-blue haired guy, not much older than himself. They seemed pretty close, given the fact that the silveret had his hands palm down on the car on either side of Roxas' cousin. Sora's face looked like a wreck from all the crying he had done during the funeral, but the silveret didn't seem to care as he gave the brunet a quick peck on the cheek before moving around to another car.

"Who was that?" Roxas asked softly, a bit tired from sitting still in a church. Sora jumped when he heard his cousin's voice and quickly swiped away a few more tears.

"Uh, my boyfriend, Riku Hanatsuki. I'm not sure if you two have met yet." Sora replied, trying to sound cheerful through another small bit of tears again.

"No. We haven't." Roxas murmured before quickly getting into the car. The limosine was large enough for all of them to have full arm length and a seat to themselves, but Kairi and Tifa were sitting close together while Leon sat furthest from everyone and Roxas and Sora ended up sitting near each other.

"So, dear, what did Riku want?" Tifa asked, trying to make small talk.

"Nothing, he just wanted to say hi." Sora looked away from everyone and out of one of the tinted windows.

On the way towards the graveyard it seemed as if they came across everyone that didn't want to stop for a funeral procession. A couple of times Roxas thought an accident of some sort had happened, but the police tried to move as quickly as they could to move folks out of the way. Leon and Tifa didn't have much to say, not that Roxas wanted to say anything, but Sora and Kairi still tried to make some polite conversation.

"S-so, Kairi, have you finished Mr. Duck's assignment yet?" Sora asked self-conciously.

"No, was that why Riku wanted to talk to you?" teased Kairi.

"N-NO! Of course not! Um, so, have you?"

"No. I've gotten most of it done though. How 'bout you?"

"I-,"

"Who's Mr. Duck?" Roxas broke in.

"Uh-," Sora and Kairi looked at each other a bit nervously.

"He's our math teacher. You might have him, too, when you . . . start . ." Kairi felt the awkwardness of the conversation grow and grow. The three of them stayed silent while the limosine drove further and further out of the city, towards Cloud's, Aerith's, and Namine's final resting place. The forest outside got denser and denser as the procession made its way up the hills of Destiny Island.

"All right. We're here. Come one guys." Leon finally stirred from his position at the head of the limo and opened one of the doors. The rest of the family and Roxas made their way out of the same door. The meadow that lay outside the black limo was overflowing with flowers, some bright and soft yellow, others a soft pink hue.

"MOMMA! CAN WE GO YET?" A high pitched voice belted out from one of the cars a ways down. Roxas knew that as soon as the kid had said 'momma' the brat was one of Sephiroth's. Even as everyone around him turned to look over at the family of five Roxas didn't feel bad for them.

"Come on Roxas, let's go." Sora took one of Roxas' shoulders and wrapped his arm over it rather protectively. The brunet proceeded to walk forward into the graveyard as the hearse continued to trundle up the rocky road and towards the graves. They weren't very far from the sites when Roxas couldn't move anymore.

"Roxas? What's wrong?" Sora asked, a bit surprised that his cousin had halted in the middle of the pathway.

"Uh, j-just go ahead without me. I'll be there before . . . before it happens." Roxas told his cousin, trying to walk away from his grip.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's not like I'll be killed." A dark chuckle escaped him, before he started walking over to some patch of tombstones.

"Oh, ok then, if you say so." Sora continued over to the three great holes in the ground, wondering what could have happened to Roxas to make him so shaken up. 'Well, his family did just die.' Sora played with that thought and tried to imagine what he would do if Kairi, his mom, and his dad died and he lived. After a moment a couple of tears dropped from the corner of his eye and he realized he'd at least have Riku.

"Sorry." Roxas muttered to himself. He was ashamed of himself for acting like such a fool. He'd left his family's funeral! God, why did he have to be such a cry baby sometimes? Couldn't he just get over the accident and move on. Hayner and Pence had been trying to get in contact with him for the past couple of weeks, but whenever they called at Sora's home he'd tell them to say he wasn't there and now they were blocked on his cell phone.

"Dammit," Roxas muttered to the weatherbeaten grave before him.

Relatives and friends of the family were showing up at the grave sites still, piling in around the coffins, giving everyone hardly enough air to breathe. With so many people no one would notice he wasn't there, Roxas reasoned as he slowly left to wander among the graves. No one would mind if he stopped and examined some tombstone and if they did he could say he was their relative. A really, distant relative. As he wove in and out of the mausoleums and tombstones he realized he could no longer hear the burial ceremony.

Oh well,

Roxas thought to himself as he brought his cell phone out of his pocket. He sent a quick text to Sora saying he'd be home before dark tonight and to tell his aunt and uncle not to worry before wandering around even further back.

It was about an hour after that text that he arrived near the graves again. He figured that after so long that when he returned he would have the graves to himself, but when he saw a black motorcycle parked on the path he wondered who was still there. Roxas walked further down the path, following some footsteps that looked too large to be Sora's or Kairi's. Who else would want to visit?

As the blonde moved closer and closer to his family's tombstones he heard someone's voice. As he turned a small corner around a mausoleum he caught sight of a bright, red mane. The person was wearing a black outfit, a bit of a cross between casual and formal as he had a tuxedo coat over some black pair of jeans that seemed attacked by a couple of belts.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Strife, Mrs. Strife, Namine, I know you might not hear me, but. . . but I should have tried to stop him. He-," The man choked back something before going on. "He would be really sorry, too, if he was here. I know he would. I know Reno would." The guy choked again as he stood watching over the parents and sisters graves.

"Excuse me, but, what are you doing here?" Roxas asked, trying to sound a little unafraid. The red-head swung around to face the blonde. In his arms, the man carried a black helmet that looked sort of familiar.

"Sorry, I- wait, who are you?"

"I'm Roxas Strife," the man blanched at the name.

"So, then your . . . your parents are-,"

"In their graves alongside my sister. Why? Who are you?" Roxas was getting snappy, annoyed that someone was disrupting his time with his family.

"My name's Axel Egan. I came to apologize for my brother," the spiky red-head paused a moment to compose himself. "He was the drunk driver." It was Roxas' turn to blanche at the name.

For those who want to know why Axel's last name is Egan, it's because I couldn't think of anything else and the name means 'little fire'. It's Celtic/Gaelic and it's more of a first than last name, but I know someone with the last name Leslie.

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