Ballad

by skinnedkneedmisfit

All Namine wanted was a cover band for her wedding. All Roxas wanted was to make his fiancee happy. All Axel wanted was to be heard.

14. B-Side: Losing Streak

"You only know what you've been taught.
You'll never stop' til you get caught.
You control the future and it's looking bleak.
Seems like we're headed for another losing streak."

She walked down the sidewalk, looking at the face of her cell phone. In the glint of the fall sun, she could see her broken reflection on the screen. A big debate hung over her head. Should she be the bigger person and admit she had done something unforgivable? Should she call her fiancé, or call… him.

"And the fire's burning bright
And still we act like everything's all right
'I guess if we ignore it, it'll probably go away.'
If you believe that bullshit please see Exhibit A."

This was the beginning a big, inevitable end. It was expected. Like a garment with shoddy stitching, it wasn't meant to last. There were too many holes. That didn't make the loss any less painful. "Are we agreed?" she asked him. She was sitting on the couch, absolutely confident in their decision. "Yeah," he said. And that was it, over. The only thing he could think to do was the call his best friend and hoped he would still talk to him…

"Forget about friendship, hey!
Let's destroy the enemy.
Well if there's one thing that I've learned
My enemies are just as close to me."

He smiled when his cell phone vibrated on the desk. Saying goodbye to his business associates, he stepped out of the office and grinned at the hesitant breathing he heard at the end of the line. "Hello, gorgeous."

"You keep your problems deep inside.
You always play that game of run and hide.
Even though they told you to see is to believe,
It didn't take you long to know that looks they can deceive."

He skipped down the sidewalk with his headphones on, completely oblivious to the world around him. He was especially unaware to the loud cell phone ringing from his pocket and annoying the other pedestrians as he swam against the tide on their way to class.

"Don't give up fighting 'til nothing else stands in your way.
Don't give up talking until there's nothing left to say
But no matter what you do.
Don't ever compromise what you believe."

He stared up at his blank ceiling, an incredibly annoying slate of white against the black, poster-covered walls of his bedroom, and tried to gather his thoughts. He closed his eyes to tried and block out the headache-inducing whiteness. He tried to ignore the biggest mistake of his life.

"Sometimes you gotta stop and remember
That you're not gonna live forever.
Be young, think smart, stay true
And just follow your heart."

-The Ataris-
"Losing Streak"

"And you're absolutely sure you have everything?" Roxas prompted one more time.

Sora laughed rubbed his knuckles against his little brother's scalp affectionately. "Yes, yes, and for the trillionth time: Yes." Sora stood by the car, his rusty sky-blue El Camino, with his hand placed over part of the rear window. He had thrown his duffle bag into the opened trunk, laughing nervously.

"Are you sure…" Roxas started loudly. He paused, turning to make sure the coast was clear of any redheaded fiancées, before continuing quietly. "Are you sure that Kairi's okay with this? I mean, the wedding's only a couple of weeks away…"

The brunet rolled his eyes at his little brother. "You worry a lot. Besides, it's perfectly normal for a couple to take a break right before the wedding. Kairi has a lot of last minute planning to do, anyway. She said she'd rather have me out of her hair," he finished with a faint chuckle, hand still not moving from its spot on the window. It was just too awkward of a moment for the young blond to pass up.

"What are you hiding?"

Pretending not the notice, the young man beamed. "What're you talking about?"

Roxas snatched his brother's wrist and pulled it away from his car. Hidden under his hand was a small, square sticker of the cover art for Adam and the Ants' first single. The blond stared at the thing with a hint of bitterness. "Sora, Dad warned you that putting stickers on your car lowers the resale value… Does Kairi know about this?"

Sora just laughed again, throwing all of his little sibling's nagging out the figurative window. "So what? She, like, dictates my life now?" His snicker slowly died down when he realized his brother wasn't laughing along. If it was one thing he knew Roxas took very seriously, it was commitment. "I'm just kidding," he sighed. "She doesn't care. She actually likes them, isn't that rad?"

Roxas just rolled his eyes, but this kind of behavior was expected of his brother. The sticker wasn't terribly tacky, as long as someone was a fan of Adam Ant, which he was. But before he had a chance to question Sora on where he got it, Kairi came out of the small duplex she shared with her roommate, another friendly redhead named Ariel. Sora's fiancée grinned happily as she approached the brunet with a small basket. "What's this?" Sora asked.

A quick peek inside revealed the answer before Kairi could reply. "Sandwiches," she said with a smile. "In case you get hungry along the way."

"It's only an hour drive," Sora reminded with a sheepish grin.

"Well, in case you get hungry once you get there," she stated, leaning forward and giving her fiancé a quick peck on the lips. "Call me once you've settled in with Tidus and Wakka. It was so nice of them to share their condo with you!"

Sora placed the basket in the passenger seat of his car. "What're you gonna do for two whole weeks without us?" Roxas asked.

The brunet stood outside his car and shrugged. "Haven't really thought about it. I guess just chill. The condo backs up right to a beach that's been told to have the best waves, so I was thinking about learning how to surf."

"You? Surfing?" Roxas tried not to laugh. Sora rolled his eyes and as punishment rubbed his fingers through his brother's perfectly gelled hair. He knew the little bastard had a date with Namine later.

"I think the real question is what you guys are gonna do with two weeks without me?" he asked with an impish smile.

"Ariel, Namine, and Ella are going to try on their bridesmaids gowns. I'll be busy talking to the wedding planner about seating at the reception," Kairi explained. "I think there was a problem with the color of the table covers so we might have to go with plain lavender instead of pink to match the roses on the flower arrangements."

She sounded so upset, but Sora couldn't help but not care at all about her predicament. No real man wanted pink tablecloths at his wedding reception, but Kairi had been apparently dreaming of this day since she was four, so who was he to ruin her fun. He'd do anything just to see her smile.

…o…o…o…o…o…

"I bitch about my life.
I bitch about the scene.
I hate this fucking town
and wish that it was all a dream."

…o…o…o…o…o…

"And you're absotively posolutely sure that you didn't drop anything?" Axel asked, taking one last glance towards the inside of The Organization. The club had been kind enough to give them a slot in a marathon of performances lasting the whole weekend, but 13 Hearts had to leave the festival early because their drummer and lead guitarist had work at four. The rhythm guitarist and vocalist both agreed it was awkward finishing a show with the sun still up.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure," Riku grunted, slamming the back door to the cruddy wood-paneled van.

"Pretty sure? Pretty sure doesn't sound very absotive."

Riku rolled his eyes and turned to the blue-haired guitarist. "I'm posolutely sure." He reached a hand out and flicked Axel's forehead. "Quit being a douche and see me off."

"You're going home. It's hardly epic."

"I dunno man. You read The Odyssey in high school, right?" the bleach-white-haired man asked. He bit on a rubber band around his wrist and pulled it off, using his hands to try and trap his unmanageable locks behind his face. While wrapping the band around his hair, he sighed and gave the van door one final kick to seal it shut. "We need to weld, like, a bar to this thing and chain it shut so all our shit won't come flying out on the road," he grumbled.

"Aw, c'mon, be nice to Isobel," Axel said sweetly, rubbing his calloused fingers over the faux wood paneling. "She's gotten us thorough all of high school. Don't doubt her skills."

"The thing was built in the seventies," Riku scoffed, making his way from the back to the driver's seat. Axel followed close behind. "So what's the plan, then? You're heading out tomorrow afternoon?"

"My mom wants me to stick around and hang out. She said she hardly gets to see me anymore since I moved down to he harbor."

Riku rolled his clear aqua eyes and opened the van door. "You are such a mama's boy."

"It's not my fault my mama actually loves me," the blue-haired punk replied snarkily.

"Dude, too soon."

Axel just laughed. "There's no such thing as too soon." What would have normally been a traumatizing moment for the other man was snubbed immediately. Riku hadn't heard from his mother in ten years and had been living with his aunt on his father's side ever since. The man took two tries to start the van before it started chugging away.

"Okay, ass-hat. I'm heading out. Will you be back for practice tomorrow?"

"Come hell or high waters. Try not to get yourself killed until then."

"No promises." Riku took the sunglasses clipped on the collar of his shirt and slipped them on his ears. Without another word, he drove off. The trip from Hollow Bastion to Destiny Harbor was a straight shot down the highway that dead-ended at the expansive beaches.

Normally after a show at The Organization, Riku liked to get out of Bastion like a bat out of hell, but Axel's mom liked him to stick around. She lived in Traverse Town, named for all the highways and byways that intersect nearby, and was just a short forty-five-minute drive outside of Bastion's limits. Traverse was where Riku and Marluxia went to high school, and both had it cemented in their heads that they would never return to that childhood torture pit anytime soon.

While Axel stayed at his mom's for the night, the rest of the band had already left right after the show, before they even had a chance to wipe the sweat off their backs. Marluxia had a job at a flower shop by the bay that sold roses and gardenias to tourists. Xigbar was the breadwinner of the band, working at a music store and abused his discount for the help of the entire group. Luxord was a rich douche bag who didn't have to work. Riku and Axel had their jobs at the video rental store, but Riku didn't have to work until later in the evening, and Axel pretty much clocked in whenever he felt like it.

Once on the highway, the drive to Destiny Harbor was one of the most relaxing feelings Riku could even cherish. Turning off the A/C and rolling the windows down, blasting mix tapes from the old dusty deck, and taking sips from a gas station Slurpee combined to make the best summer ever. There was nary a cloud or car in sight as the bleached beach bum decided to kick it up a notch and set the cruise control a few miles above the limit. The faster he went, the sooner he'd be home.

A quick glance in his rearview mirror proved he wasn't the only person with this line of thought. A sky blue car was approaching fast from behind in the left lane. While Riku was accustomed to passing cars on the highway, he almost never had a moment where someone was cruising faster that he was. A challenge, he thought, and wondered if he should speed up to prove to this asshole just who the king of this interstate was.

He couldn't make out much of the driver as he slowly crept past him, but his feelings were doused when he saw a small sticker on the back of the car. 'Well, if they like Adam Ant, they can't be that bad of people…' He decided to let the car continue its drive unchallenged.

…o…o…o…o…o…

"Oh, sure I strive for a better life.
But is that so fucking wrong?
Change in my pocket...
Girl by my side...
Perfectly happy."

…o…o…o…o…o…

"Sora!" Wakka said happily. He jumped the railing around the deck of the condo and ran up to his old friend, giving him a big bear hug. "I haven't seen you in years, man!" He laughed while shaking the young man's shoulders. The older man was almost exactly the same as Sora remembered him. Skin tanned, hair outrageously orange, and he had the same build of the blitzball player he was in high school. "I can't believe you're getting married!"

Tidus, being a fraction calmer, bounded down the small stairs to greet his best friend. "This summer is gonna be so cool. We got tickets to a blitzball game! It's gonna be great!" he grinned. Sora was happy to notice that his old friend was the same as the last time he saw him. Though the evenly tanned young man had a smaller build than his partner in crime, he still carried himself proudly.

"Look at that ring, too! Silver, nice! Or is it platinum?" Wakka laughed taking Sora's left wrist and showing off the basic silver band to Tidus. The brunet laughed and withdrew his arm.

"It's silver, remember it's me we're talking about," he chuckled. "But how are you guys? It's been-"

"Since graduation, man," Wakka said, looking slightly unhappy but keeping the same dazzling smile.

"Since winter break," Tidus added for himself. "You've been so busy with Kairi that we…"

"I'm sorry, guys," Sora said, meaning it. "But these next two weeks are just us, okay? No balls and chains, just good times. What's first?"

"You unpack, then we're gonna rent some movies!" Tidus said happily. The brunet boy took his duffle bag out from the back of his car. "Is that all you brought?"

"Swim trunks, underwear, and a toothbrush," Sora said, holding the bag up and shaking it. "What else do I need?"

Tidus laughed loudly and led Sora into the condo. "That's my boy." It was always nice to know that some things would never change.

He showed Sora into the third bedroom. The room was small and white with a single twin bed near the bay window. There weren't any decorations on the wall, save for a little black clock. Next to the bed there was a small table with a lamp, and a chair in the corner next to the window. The brunet rushed up to the large sliding glass door that opened to a balcony overlooking the beach. "This room is mine?" he asked, not believing it.

"It's the smallest one, ya? That's what you get for arriving late," Wakka said with a laugh. Tidus laid claim to the master bedroom, stating that he would have the most girls out of everyone coming to visit and he'd need the space and privacy. Wakka wasn't much concerned otherwise, since the largest bedroom had a terrible view that faced the parking lot of the complex, and took the second largest with a view just as nice as Sora's. Outside the beach was vacant, and there were palm trees and tropical ferns and shrubs swaying in the wind just like in a Bahamas vacation commercial.

"Can we go to the beach?" Sora asked, already eyeing the waves with much anticipation. He could imagine himself riding them like a pro already.

"Later, you bum. Wakka has some overdue movies at the store and we need to return them," Tidus explained. "The sun's gonna set in, like, an hour. The beach isn't safe after dark," he insisted. "Do you want to drive or walk?"

"Walk?" Sora asked. Not that he wasn't unaccustomed to walking to class, but from his drive to the condo he didn't really notice any stores.

"The boardwalk is a pretty short walk that way," Tidus supplied, nodding toward the sands. "There's a bunch of cool stuff there. We discovered this awesome restaurant that has live music! We should check it out."

Sora couldn't even bother hiding an unabashed grin now. He was convinced that this would be the best vacation ever. "Lemme just wash up real quick." The door to the restroom Sora would be sharing with Wakka was directly across the hall from his bedroom. Wakka had already staked his claim on his half of the countertop with his toothbrush and a razor.

After using the restroom, Sora removed his wedding band and washed his hands. He used a little bit of Wakka's acne bar to wash his face. He could hear his friends laughing and talking loudly from the living room. "Sora, hurry up!" The brunet quickly wiped his face on one of the hand towels and joined his friends on his first excursion to the boardwalk.

…o…o…o…o…o…

"You're not punk, and I'm telling everyone.
Save your breath I never was one.
You don't know what I'm all about,
Like killing cops and reading Kerouac."

…o…o…o…o…o…

"You're late. Again." He was seriously unhappy this time, Riku could tell. However, it wasn't exactly in the aqua-eyed punk's character to care.

"Whatever. Nobody's even here," Riku sighed, replacing his coworker's seat behind the counter and tossing his backpack on the floor. Zell was probably the most impatient kid he'd ever have the pain of dealing with. The back of the teen's head was shaved completely, and he let his long blond bangs dangle in front of his gray blue eyes, which were currently in a state of hollowed panic. "Seifer's gonna kill me."

"Doubtful," Riku sighed, reaching into his bag and pulling out a new comic he had picked up in Bastion. Zell rushed to the door, making the old Christmas bells tied to the ceiling above jingle. He looked across the street to a restaurant that was already gaining its large evening crowd. The blue-eyed boy instantly recognized that crappy, dented Voyager covered in band stickers waiting in idle by the front doors.

"Fuck," he drawled, rushing to the rental store's office to grab his guitar and strapped it to his back. "Are you coming tonight?" He turned to look at the bored platinum blond bum as he lazily flicked a page of his comic.

"I'll see what I can do," Riku replied, which was as good as a 'no.' Zell sighed and readjusted the guitar on his back.

"Fine. If you need anything, I'll be right across the street." Without saying anything, Riku just waved at his blond coworker without moving his eyes from the pages. Zell huffed again and left without saying goodbye.

Ever since the boy found out that Riku had his own band, he was always trying to wrangle them into collaborations with Seifer. Riku always said 'no,' because Seifer had a more metal sound that wasn't what his band was going for. Riku could smell the annoyance on Zell and slice it with a knife. Zell wanted Riku to let him into his band because Seifer was a dick and treated all his bandmates poorly, but 13 Hearts already had two guitarists. Xigbar was godly with his machine and Axel was his best friend so there was no way either were getting replaced. However, next to Seifer's band Bloodfest, they were the only bands making a profit so Zell had to stick with someone.

Riku turned the page read for a moment, chuckling. "Cyclop's such a dick," he mumbled to himself and the empty store. There was so much to do in his small town that people rarely bothered to stay inside and watch movies. Even on Saturday nights the video store was empty. Most kids would be out on the beach having parties, or across the street listening to live music.

Riku cast a short glance out the window when he started to hear people shouting. Zell had arrived late and was now getting chewed out by Seifer. The large, muscular boy slammed the kid against the van and continued shouting, flipping him off, and then left. Riku didn't exactly like Seifer, because he was a hotheaded snot tampon, but he didn't hate him as much as Zell seemed to. Riku had Seifer's respect from having his own successful band, even if the personalities did clash.

They had made an arrangement with Mr. Kisaragi, the owner of the restaurant where live bands played, that they would switch Saturday night spots every other weekend. It was Bloodfest's turn now, and even though Riku just got back from playing a show in Bastion, his feet and fingers were itching again to get up onstage and play another song.

He started drumming a pattern onto the front desk while returning his focus back to the comic. The owner of the store wasn't concerned about the politeness of the employees as much as he was concerned about getting every video known to existence in his store. The shop was relatively famous for being rumored to have every VHS, every DVD, every laserdisc ever created on its shelves. The owner also kept it a point of pride that he hired local celebrities for his store if they needed extra cash. Although Riku was about as asocial as musicians got, it didn't hinder the manager from hiring him without a second thought. There was more than one instance where Riku would be asked for his autograph by cute girls in bikinis and cutoffs. Although he personally thought it was annoying, the owner said he should consider it one of his 'perks.' In reality, the owner was just happy that Riku's appearance brought customers into the store, but even that didn't stop the people from deciding to go across the street to the live show instead of renting. Riku was so drowned out of the world around him that he didn't even bother to blink when the bells jingled again as the front door opened.

…o…o…o…o…o…

"So here I am
Grown up at 23
Will someone tell me
What it takes to be happy?"

…o…o…o…o…o…

Sora's jaw was left slackened when he saw the inside of the rental store. He was used to the popular, clean cut, multimillion worldwide rental stores like the ones in Bastion. This store smelled like fish, and the shelves were literally overflowing with movies. Literally, there were stacks of rentable films lying at the end of shelves for people to peruse. The front counter looked like it was made out of rotting wood, and the particularly rotten bits were hidden behind warped movie posters. Even the clerk at the front of the store made a non-committal welcoming grunt while hidden behind a comic book. It all seemed delightfully unprofessional.

"Badass," Sora declared, already starting to traipse down the aisles and picking out movies he had always wanted to watch. Wakka laughed and walked up behind him.

"Don't get too much, ya?" Although while saying this he placed a video he wanted to watch in the brunet's arms as well. "Do you like horror movies?" he asked.

Sora shook his head. "Nah, they just don't do it for me," he muttered, looking through his stack of manly action movies with one or two art films sneakily shoved in. Tidus had walked up behind him and placed the Evil Dead trilogy on the top of the pile.

"You need to watch more scary stuff. I promise there won't be any monsters under your bed." Sora flicked Tidus' forehead as retribution, and the beach bum squawked awkwardly, grabbed his head and taking a step backwards. "Hey. That hurt!"

Sora looked down at the movies and decided that they probably weren't scary, but campy. They had a total of eleven films in their pile, and the young man was seriously looking forward to watching his movies. From outside there came a loud sound that seemed like feedback from a microphone. Tidus looked up from the shelves, through the patchwork front window of the rental store, to the restaurant across the street.

"It looks like the show's gonna start soon," Tidus said, making a move to take the videos out of Sora's hands. "We should check out now."

Sora clutched the movies closer to his chest and shook his head. "It's my treat. Consider it a 'thank you' for letting me stay at your place for free!" He grinned and turned quickly before they had a chance to disagree, making his way to the front counter almost hidden under movie posters and old Hollywood star cutouts. He placed them on the counter with a loud enough thud to get the attention of the extremely bored looking clerk.

…o…o…o…o…o…

"A star up in the sky goes slowly passing by,
The lights below... they spell out your name."

…o…o…o…o…o…

Riku almost jumped with a huge pile of movies almost crushed his precious comic book. Deciding not to make a big deal of it, he calmly put his issue of X-Men aside and went to work, ringing up the movies and making sure to separate the oldies from the new releases.

Fight Club. Rollerball. Sin City. Baseketball. Wayne's World II. The Longest Yard. Braveheart. Riku paused while shuffling through the pile. "…Brothers Of The Head?" he asked, glancing up at his customer.

The young man smiled and shrugged his shoulders. His teeth were perfectly symmetrical in every way, encased between two of the most flawless tanned lips he had ever seen. His eyes sparkled and glittered like water in a rushing stream, and when he grinned the smallest of dimples formed right under his left eye. He was absolutely, breathtakingly gorgeous.

"I've heard good things about the soundtrack so I thought I'd give it a shot," the man said, reaching into his back pocket for his wallet. When he brought his hands back up where he could see them, Riku searched his left hand for any sort of ring. Yes! He was unmarked and had good taste in music.

"So… you like this kind of music, huh? Like the old school Sex Pistols and The Clash kind of stuff?" he asked with a wide grin, leaning on the counter and dismissing his job of ringing up the videos.

"I've never listened to this," the brunet admitted. "But I do like some of the more underground seventies and eighties stuff…"

"Fuck off," Riku laughed, although the man seemed absolutely horrified as if Riku had actually intended on insulting him. "I love that kinda shit. I even have some of the original LPs in my collection. Vinyl, man, it doesn't get better. You should totally stop by my place sometime and check it out!"

Before the young man could give him a response, a short tanned guy came up from behind him and playfully punched him in the shoulder. "Hey Sora. This guy giving you a hard time?" he asked, laughing jokingly. The nervous smile on the brunet's features faded into a genuine one. He was even more sensational when he didn't hold back.

"No, just an invitation." He turned back to Riku and nodded. "I think-"

"You'll need my license, ya?" Another man, apparently friends with the brunet, came up and handed Riku his driver's license. All of the customer information was stored in a computer under license number. Riku snatched the card from the taller man and typed in the number, tossing it back on the counter. So apparently the young god had pestering friends, but no matter. He would just have to find some time alone.

"So are you guys visiting?" Riku asked, gritting his teeth and baring it all just to hear him speak.

"Yeah, for the next couple of weeks," the squatty tanned blond responded. "I'm Tidus."

"Wakka."

"Sora… Sora Strife."

Riku gave him one of his special smiles, the one guaranteed to make their knees turn to jelly. "Riku Kuroyama."

…o…o…o…o…o…

"When's the right time?
To use a stupid pick up line?
'So how's the weather?
Do you wanna spend the night together?'"

…o…o…o…o…o…

Sora tried to focus on the set. This kind of place was totally his scene, but the music wasn't his style at all. The kids, no more than twenty of them total filling the small dance floor, were dancing and moshing to the band's heavy music. They were the type of kids that memorized every line to every song even though there was no EP released. The ones that would sneak out of their bedroom windows to go to show.

He tried to focus, but his mind was roving to the little rental store across the street. Riku Kuroyama, what an odd boy. Sora had never seen anybody with hair like his. It looked so fluffy and soft he almost had to stop himself from touching it while waiting at the register.

"Sora, do you want anything to drink?"

The brunet nodded his head and looked to Wakka, who was holding an empty drinking glass in front of him. A drink was exactly what he needed to drown out this nauseating music. He nodded to his friend and mouthed 'yes'. He wasn't about to try and yell over the speakers. Sora turned back to the act on stage and looked at the musicians. There was a lead singer, a huge guy with short and spiky blond hair, screaming his death lyrics to the crowd while doubling up on rhythm guitar. The lead guitarist, who seemed to have the fastest fingers on earth, whaled out the next solo. Then there was a bass player who seemed oddly melancholic, simply standing in his corner halfway out of the spotlights with his umber hair hiding his face, strumming quickly along with the tempo. Lastly there was a drummer, whom Sora almost couldn't see because of the buckets of sweat reflecting the spotlights back into his eyes. It was a simple metal band setup, but it seemed like all the kids thought they were the shit. Sora decided to take a 'When in Rome' perspective and enjoy himself with a facet of music he would have never considered before.

Wakka returned with his drink and Sora quickly downed the whole thing in one breath. When he slammed the glass back down on the table, he blew off his friend's equally stunned faces and stood up swiftly. Three drinks of whatever-the-hell kind of Red Bull mixes hid the taste of alcohol and twenty minutes later Sora was feeling pretty confident he could take on a bunch of teenagers. "Where're you going?" Tidus asked, still only on his second drink and waiting patiently for their food to arrive at the table.

Sora shook his head dismissively, emptying his pockets of his cell phone, with the missed call light flashing rapidly, keys, and wallet and placed them on the table. "Watch my stuff, will you?"

Tidus cast a worried eye towards the modest crowd in front of the band. Even if there weren't lots of them, they were vicious. "What're you doing?" he asked with the same nervous tone. Sora stumbled down the small set of stairs to the pit below, stopping on the last step so he had a bit of leverage. He gripped onto the banister and flung himself into the crowd. "Sora!"

Nothing his friends could have done would have saved him anyway. Sora threw four punches into the moshing crowd, two of which actually landed. He survived a few kicks to his shins, but an unexpected head-butt, along with his swirling alcohol-riddled mind, caused him to pass out in the middle of a mosh pit.

…o…o…o…o…o…

"Everybody wants me dead.
I think the club is up ahead.
It feels good to be alive!"

…o…o…o…o…o…

Foggy blue eyes opened and tried to focus into a murky, forest green.

"Okay, he's awake," Seifer said, tenderly slapping the brunet's cheek. "Way to kill the mood, brah."

The young man blinked, sitting up and instantly gripping his aching head. "What… happened?"

"You collapsed in the pit, yanno?" Bloodfest's drummer, Raijin, commented. "You nearly got crushed."

Seifer interjected again. "Our fucking bassist had to make a stage dive to rescue you." The brunet's eyes traveled to the mysterious man standing behind Seifer, his arms crossed and staring out the window feigning disinterest. "The set's over with, anyway," Seifer sighed, standing up and stretching. "You scared off the parents and they took their kids home. Mr. Kisaragi had to close off the area to give you room."

"H-How long was I out?"

"Ten minutes, yanno? We were about to call the hospital…"

"At least you're sobered up," Seifer drawled. "Try not to drink like that when you're around a bunch of minors, okay? Squall!"

The bassist glared at the leading man and he stepped forward. "What?"

"Find Riku and tell him we want his set for next week. Tell him Drunkie McAss ruined everything and we only got to play, like, five songs." The bassist rolled his eyes at the blond, but left before the disorderly young man could stop him.

Once the brunet was able to gather his senses, he scowled and stood up. Everything was still swirling, either an effect from the head wound or the alcohol, but he still managed to point a very vengeful finger at Seifer. "Listen here, brah," he slurred, picking up the same connotative speech Seifer had used on him earlier, "I'm usually not a Drunkie McAss, but when it came to listening to your fucking terrible music I had to go out of my way to make it as fun as possible." He laughed crookedly, and Seifer couldn't believe his ears. He could even hear some snickering of people who had still stuck around after the show. "Blacking out was probably the best part of the whole show!"

"Sora!"

Seifer looked past the drunken brunet to two newbie tourists, one of them holding an ice pack and the other with a sickly worried expression. The short tanned boy ran up to Sora and looked at him, gripping his chin and staring directly into his eyes.

"He looks disoriented… Should I be worried?" he asked, looking to the nearest person who might hold answers, which was Seifer. "…Because I am."

Seifer glared at the brunet and rolled back the sleeve to his shirt. "Yeah. You should be worried." He drew back his large arm getting ready to punch the daylights out of Sora. A kid with that big of a mouth had no business attending a Bloodfest show, and then insulting the band members after he crashed the set. Before he had a chance to throw a decent punch, two strong hands held him back.

"Hoooold on a second there, champ." Seifer growled and turned back to Riku standing behind him, making sure that fist wasn't going anywhere. "What's this I hear about you canceling our set next week? You can't do that. We've been rehearsing new songs for weeks."

"Don't lookit me," Seifer spat, thrusting a thumb over his shoulder to point at Sora. "Talk to the drunk kid that ruined our show." Seifer stormed off and gave Zell directions to pack everything up. The younger blond whispered a few obscenities in his direction before starting to pack up the guitars.

Riku glared at Seifer as he left the building, dragging his little reluctant bassist with him. "Snot tampon," he sighed, turning back to the problem at hand, which turned out to be not a very big problem at all. A familiar brunet was sitting on one of the wooden chairs strewn about the pit with his head looking up towards the ceiling while his friends tried to administer some crude form of first aide.

"Sora Strife?" he called out, making the brunet jerk his head forward and spill the ice pack on the floor. His friends panicked and tried to collect all the ice, but Sora just sat clumsily in the seat and smiled.

"Riku Kurosawa!" he giggled.

The platinum blond gave an appreciative nod. "Close, it's Kuroyama. Not bad for a first try, though. Drunk, even." He took a few steps closer and examined the impressive lump forming on the brunet's forehead. "Wow, yeah, that's gonna be killer tomorrow." He tapped the wound a few times, trying to garner some sort of reaction from Sora, but he was gone. Sora just kept giggling and swinging his legs in his chair.

"Are you aware that you have a piercing between your eyes?" he slurred, taking advantage of Riku being so close and gripping the back of the punk's neck to get a closer look at the two metal studs poking out the bridge of his nose. Riku blushed noticeably and stuttered, glancing over to Sora's friends who were distracted by helping to clean the spilled ice off the floor.

Once they had gathered all the ice back up into the bag, Tidus and Wakka tried to place it back on Sora's head. "Oh, you're that guy from across the street, ya?" the redhead asked, holding his hand out for Riku to shake it. "Thanks a lot for getting rid of Seifer. He seems like a real dick, ya?"

"Oh, you have no idea," Riku laughed, looking for the first aide kit. He found it on the floor next to the chair, opened with most of its contents out of place from a stint of panic. He found some gauze and started rolling it around Sora's head. "It kinda sucks because he's drunk, but you gotta keep him awake. Y'all should take him home. Where's your car?"

"We walked," Tidus sighed, not looking forward to having to lead the brunet all the way back to their condo.

Riku simply shrugged and helped the brunet to his feet. Sora instantly swung his arms around Riku's shoulders and laughed heavily. "Where're we goin' Ri-ku?"

"You're going home!" Riku said with equal enthusiasm. Tidus and Wakka laughed at his good nature as the two boys quickly tried to clean up the floor before leaving. The foursome stuck to the main roads, not wanting to try and drag the tipsy brunet across the sands of the beach. Later down their trek, to help save Riku's energy and sanity, the boys helped Sora onto Riku's back. The brunet's scrawny legs flung back and forth through holes made with Riku's arms, and he affectionately let his head rest on Riku's shoulder.

"Hey, buddy," Riku cooed, not liking how Sora felt like he was dozing. "We need you to stay awake, okay?" Thunder softly rolled in the background, hinting at a summer shower heading their way. "So tell me more about yourselves," Riku prompted, trying to pick up the pace. "What in the name of God's green earth brings you to Destiny Harbor for two whole fucking weeks?"

"You don't like it here?" Tidus asked, getting the impression that everyone and their dog loved it at the harbor. "Well, Wakka's grandma's filthy rich and owns a condo by the bay that she lets out during the summertime. She didn't have anybody living in it for the next couple of weeks, so she let us use it."

"That's cool of her."

"We're trying to make this the best summer of our lives, ya?" Wakka said. "We want beach parties, concerts, surfing, the whole nine yards. We're trying to make it the best for Sora here, especially."

"Oh really? Why's that?"

"He's really busy right now," Tidus interjected. "Lots on his plate, that-"

Thunder struck again, this time louder and closer to the shore. Riku swore he felt a small raindrop fall on his arm. "Crap, we should hurry. The last thing he needs is to get rained on." Riku tightened his grip on Sora's legs and started jogging at a fast pace, following not too far behind Tidus and Wakka. The rough ride woke Sora up and he started laughing.

"Ri-ku! This is fun," he giggled while readjusting his hold around the bleached punk's neck. Riku hummed softly and enjoyed the gentle feeling of Sora's hushed breath on the back of his neck. "Ri-ku," Sora whispered.

"Hm?"

"Are you… gay?"

Sora softly kissed the lobe of Riku's ear, and the punk promptly tripped over his own foot, landing face-first into the sidewalk.

"Woah! Buddy, are you okay?" Tidus asked, rushing over to them and lifting Sora up off of Riku's back. The man laughed nervously and ignored the scratches on his hands and knees.

"Yeah!" he cried, coughing nervously into his fist. "I mean, totally. Just stumbled over… something." There wasn't even a crack in the sidewalk, but the boys didn't call him on it and Wakka gave him a hand up. Riku glanced down at the hiccupping brunet laughing wildly at Tidus. He had a feeling his hands were going to be kept awfully full the next two weeks. Riku grinned cheerfully as he anticipated every moment.

…o…o…o…o…o…

"A game of cat and mouse that curiosity has killed.
Just call it pointless... call it what you will."

…o…o…o…o…o…

"Sora?" Tidus called, knocking on the brunet's door. "Sora, c'mon, wake up."

The tanned boy heard a faint groan from the other side of the door. "Go. Away."

"It's past noon. Didn't you say you wanted to try out surfing? It's a beautiful day, as good as any!"

"Leave me the fuck alone!"

Tidus scoffed, rolled his eyes, and marched into the kitchen where Wakka was eating lunch. "How's our little ray of sunshine, ya?" he asked with a wry smile. The younger man scowled and ripped open the fridge to make himself a sandwich.

"He's hung over. You know how he gets." He got some luncheon meats from the drawer and slapped them on the counter. "I was hoping to hit the waves today, but I know he'll bitch about it if he finds out I went without him. I guess I'll-"

A knock at the door interrupted him, and the two men both gave each other expectant glances. When it became apparent that Wakka wasn't going to budge from the table, Tidus sent him a glare. "Well, don't get up," he grumbled, putting the bread back down on the counter and walking towards the door. "Who'd be visiting us anyway? We don't even…"

Tidus trailed off when he opened the door and found a rather skittish Riku. "Hey," he said nervously.

"…Hey," Tidus said. "What brings you around here?"

Riku glanced towards the wooden deck and shifted some of the sand around with his Converse-clad toe. "Sorry to bug y'all," he muttered. "Is Sora home?"

Tidus glanced next to himself, and around the door, even behind him where Wakka was eating lunch. "Sorry? Do I look like his mother?" he scoffed sarcastically as he kicked the door open and walked back to the kitchen so he can finish making his lunch. "He's in his bedroom, first door on the left. Warning, though, he's hungover and a whiney bitch."

Riku took a step inside the condo glanced down the hallway, eyebrow raised. "I wouldn't have him any other way." He stepped down the hall, first door on the left, and opened it slowly. Through the crack of the door he saw a lump in the bed, covered with bed sheets and comforters. The long plated blinds for the bay window were twisted as tightly closed as possible. In the corner by the closet, Sora's suitcase was left open with clothes strewn nearby. Riku stepped inside and silently closed the door behind him. He noticed Sora's clothes he was wearing yesterday in a small pile by the bed; his red board shorts, black tee, and blue boxer shorts with little green stars on them. Riku bit his lip at seeing the brunet's underwear on the floor. Maybe this meant that his hung over new friend liked to sleep in the buff.

"Sora," Riku whispered with ultimate softness. He could barely hear himself speak. He stepped closer to the breathing lump at the head of the bed and tried again. "Sora."

With a sudden snort, a body shot up from the foot of the bed and hit Riku in the face with a pillow. "Tidus, I swear to GOD, if you don't- oh." Sora stopped complaining when he saw Riku holding the pillow, looking confused. "H-Hi… Riku, right? From the video store?" Sora asked with a brief pause, uncomfortably clutching the bed sheet to his chest. "…What're you doing in my bedroom?"

"Tidus showed me in. He also told me to watch out because you were hungover. Wish I listened." He tossed the pillow back on Sora's bed.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Sora grumbled, tastefully smacking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Can you hand me the water over there?" he asked, reaching towards the cup on the bedside table that was out of his reach. Riku hurried over to place the cup in the brunet's itching hand. Once he had it, Sora downed the cup of water in three massive gulps. "Ugh. Thanks, I had to get that pukey aftertaste outta my mouth." Riku watched as Sora collapsed on his back once more and clenching his eyes shut while groaning. "I feel like shit. And you never answered my question," he added, pointing a finger blindly in Riku's general direction. "Why are you here?"

"I just thought I'd check in," he sighed, looking at the cut on Sora's head. There wasn't even a bump anymore, or even a scratch, just a small bruise. The redness had obviously gone down and it didn't look a tenth as bad as it did last night. "I had to carry you all the way back here from the show, you know."

Sora gasped and shot up in bed again, gripping his hand to his forehead. "That was you?" he cried, not liking that Riku was laughing at him one bit. "I remember riding on someone's back and they fell… That was you?" Sora glanced at Riku once more, looking at the bandages that were covering the man's elbows and knees. "Shit."

"Don't worry about it," Riku laughed, enjoying the brunet's antics far too much for his own good. "I have the perfect way for you to make it up to me, and it's also a great cure for a hangover."

Sora leaned back on his arms, willing to listen. "Okay… What's the deal? Just to let you know, I'm a terrible cook. Just putting that out there."

"Well, lucky you. I'd like someone to come surfing with me today."

The younger man perked up at this. "Surfing? Like…" he glanced towards the blocked window, where they would have been able to see the beach had the blinds been opened, then back towards Riku, "…surfing?"

"Uh, yeah. My buddy's driving back from Bastion and won't be back until later tonight, and he's usually the one that surfs with me. But I enjoy your company, so…?"

"Yeah. Yeah! I'd like that," Sora said with an enthusiastic nod. He threw off the sheets and marched back towards his suitcase by the closet. Riku was unfortunately displeased to find out that the brunet slept in pajama bottoms. Seriously, who wears pajama bottoms to the beach? Sora pulled out a pair of red board shorts and turned to Riku. "I'll be ready in a few minutes, okay?" Riku nodded, taking this as his leave and exiting the bedroom. Once outside, he walked back into the dining-slash-living room area where Tidus and Wakka were sharing the table eating lunch.

"So how'd it go in there, ya?" Wakka asked with a full mouth.

Tidus added, "I thought I heard Sora scream."

Riku shook his head and leaned against the frame to the front door. "Nothing terrible. I was expecting like Mount Vesuvius or something." Sora's door opened and the peppy brunet came scampering out into the common area.

"Hey guys!" he said happily. "Riku's gonna teach me how to surf. How awesome is that?" Without waiting for a reply, he grabbed a backpack by the door and the picnic basket Kairi had packed him yesterday. "All set!"

"Okay. See y'all!" Riku hollered out to Tidus and Wakka as he opened the door quickly and ushered the brunet outside. The two men left behind gave each other similar suggestive glances. Sora had no reason to be that perky after he yelled at Tidus, but neither of them cared enough to question it. Their munching lunches filled the void for the rest of the hour as they later argued which movie they rented last night to watch first.

…o…o…o…o…o…

"My life is changing so rapidly.
I'm not sure what I wanna be...
But I understand I've still got a lot to learn."

…o…o…o…o…o…

"This board is mine?"

"For the week, yeah."

"I have my own board…"

"…For the week," Riku completed. "Then you have to return it to Xigbar or else he'll rip your head off."

"Well, he sounds mean," Sora stated as they walked along the sands of the beach. "Who is he, anyway?"

"My guitarist."

"Oh! You're in a band? That's totally cool! What's the name?"

Riku smirked. "We're called 13 Hearts. I thought up the name. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Totally! What instrument do you play? What kind of music?" Sora asked rapidly.

"Well, we don't necessarily like to stick our sound to any particular labels," Riku tried to explain. "There's Xigbar the lead guitarist. Axel, my best friend, on rhythm guitar. Luxord, some crazy bastard we picked up a year ago in Vegas on bass. Marluxia, our drummer since the beginning. And then there's me, and I sometimes pick up acoustic guitar, but I'm the singer."

"You sing?" Sora asked, jumping up and down quickly with a spastic grin on his face. "Sing me one of your songs!"

"No. Trust me, you don't want to hear me sing. At least not without my band backing me up," he laughed, kicking a small mound of sand as they got even closer to the water. He started to tug on the hem of his shirt, pulling it completely off and dropping it in the sand next to the picnic basket Sora brought. "We have a show coming up next Saturday, though… I'd like it if you'd come and see us."

"Woah… I, uh… think I'd like that, too," Sora muttered, totally entranced by Riku's chest. Hidden on top of perfect pecs and amazing abs was a tattoo of a spiraling green dragon, like the ones from fairy tales. Its tail seemed to trail off over his shoulder and down his back, while the head rested silently on his right shoulder. Every scale was inked in, including shading with white highlights and the whole nine yards. Sora couldn't imagine how much it must have hurt to get a tattoo like that.

"Like what you see?" Riku asked with a grin.

"Yeah," Sora answered immediately. "When did you get that?"

"A few years ago, right after I turned eighteen and moved down here. You like it?"

"Totally! What does it mean?"

"What does it mean?" Riku asked, looking down at the design on his chest. "Sora, it's a dragon, I don't think there's any deep meaning behind it other than its badass."

"But isn't a green dragon supposed to protect the earth?" Sora asked, tapping his finger on his chin. "Yeah… it's part of this ancient Chinese myth I read a blurb about in my World Histories class. The green dragon protects the earth, blue protects the sky and brings rain, yellow protects the people with health and money, and red protects the soldiers during wartime."

Riku raised a brow and looked down to his tattoo. "Well, I didn't get it because of an ancient Chinese myth or anything, but…" Sora didn't miss the faint, embarrassed tinge of red that was starting to creep up on Riku's cheeks. "Never mind."

"No! C'mon, Riku!" Sora cried, jumping in the sands. "Tell me! That tattoo looks awesome either way. I'd just like to know your personal history. That's what's really important."

Riku let out a sheepish grin and scratched the back of his head. "You're gonna think I'm, like, a crazy person." He lowered his voice as if he was about to let Sora in on a huge secret, which, in a way, he was. Sora took a few steps closer so he could absorb every word. "I had this dream before I left for the harbor. There was this green dragon that could never leave the ground and there was a blue dragon that could never leave the sky. They wanted to be together but they couldn't."

"So like… destined lovers or something?"

"I don't know. But I felt like the dragon stuck on earth, wanting to move on from my old life being stuck in Traverse. They say a dragon tattooed on your chest will bring you safety, and I kind of felt like I needed it once I left home." There was a tinge in his voice, hinting that maybe Riku's home life growing up wasn't as secure as Sora's. The mood of the day was instantly dragged down, and Sora tried to think of a way to brighten it up again.

"But hey, it's cool now, right? You're in a band with your best friend and you live in this awesome place!" he said with a grin, motioning towards the beach and the exotic greenery surrounding them. Riku looked up from the sand to Sora, who was working so hard to lift his spirits again. "C'mon, let's go surfing!" he shouted happily, starting to sprint towards the waves. "This is so cool! I haven't been to the beach since I was a kid…"

"Well there's a few things you gotta learn before going in the water. The first thing you need to know is that you're gonna fall off your board, and you're gonna look stupid doing it. You wanna keep this," he commented, pulling on a Velcro pad strapped to the surfboard in Sora's hands, "attached to your ankle. When you do fall it'll help tell you know which way is up."

"Okay!" Sora said happily with a determined bite to his lip. He plopped down on the sand, letting Riku hold his borrowed board up for him as he strapped the Velcro pad around his ankle. "Now what?"

"You go into the water," Riku said slowly, like he was explaining the steps to a child. Sora didn't seem to catch on the playful sarcasm at all, though. He snatched the board from Riku's hands and started sprinting towards the water. Once he was about knee-deep he threw the board onto the water and started paddling on it like a boogie board. The brunet sat up in the middle of the surfboard once he was deep enough and waited for Riku to catch up. "You're good at paddling, at least," he said with a smile once he was situated. "You sure you weren't a fish in a past life?"

"If I were a fish I wouldn't be breathing right now," Sora stated, looking past Riku to the waves behind him.

Riku looked at Sora, wondering if he knew what he was talking about. "No, you see, that's not exactly how-"

"How about that one?" Sora cried, pointing towards a particularly large cresting wave. He clumsily turned his board around so the nose faced the bay.

Riku looked back at the wave with a half-hearted expression. "Nah, not that one. I need to teach you how to- Sora!"

By now the brunet was beyond help as he tried to stand up while the wave was still cresting. It ended up breaking right at the tail and kicking the nose upward. Sora promptly lost his balance and fell backwards into the ocean. Riku wasn't terribly worried as he waited patiently on his board for Sora to come back up. A moment later, brunet spikes peeked through the water and his large mouth ripped open trying to catch as much air as possible. "Ohmigosh! This is a lot harder than I thought!"

"Let's start with the basics. That's a funboard you're riding."

"Funboard? What a stupid name," Sora laughed, climbing back on the board and softly tracing the outlines of the hibiscus flowers that were painting on it.

"It's not stupid, it's for beginners," Riku explained. "Firstly, you can't expect the wave to pick you up and you simply ride it. You have to paddle with the wave and try to match its speed." Riku went on, describing how to catch the perfect wave, some of the science behind the maneuvers, and how to fall gracefully so Sora wouldn't get too terribly hurt. "Okay, now let's try it again. What do you do?"

"I watch the water to find the perfect wave," Sora said, turning all of his focus to the horizon. A wave was starting to crest nearby and was heading straight towards them. "Oh! What about that one?"

"Looks groovy. Go for it." He watched as Sora patiently turned his board and waited for the wave to approach behind him. He started paddling with the wave as it broke, sending him forward. Sora's eyes widened and he turned back to Riku, making contact with those amazingly teal eyes and crying out.

"Oh, shit! What do I do?"

"Keep your balance!" Riku shouted back. "Stand!" Maybe the wave was a bit too big for Sora's first try. Riku watched with bated breath as Sora balanced on his knees on the board and slowly tried to gain his footing. The lanky body collapsed as the board slipped from under him, and he fell in the water again. Riku paddled over to where Sora's funboard was floating in the water, and as soon as he arrived Sora scrambled out of the water and onto his board.

"This is a lot harder than it looks…"

"Keep trying. I didn't become perfect overnight."

Sora laughed and spit some rogue salt water back into the sea. "Oh? And you're perfect?"

"Of course," Riku declared, smiling with his perfect teeth, perfect body, not even a strand of wet hair out of place. "All I'm saying is that it takes practice."

Sora rolled his eyes and noticed they got caught staring at the scrapes on Riku's knees from last night. "Doesn't it hurt to be in the water right now? With your elbows and knees all cut up?"

Riku glanced down at the little red gashes on his knees, poking at them to prove to the brunet they weren't half as painful as they would seem. "Hardly. You don't get a tattoo like this and then cry when you trip on the sidewalk." Although Riku was putting on a tough-guy act, Sora would hazard a guess that his salty wounds were probably the reason why he wasn't going out of his way to give him examples on how to surf perfectly.

Sora sighed and started paddling back to the deeper side of the bay. He turned his board back forwards and waited again for another decent wave. He enjoyed the uneven rocking of the board under him and the steady sunshine counterbalancing the cool water. Sora lay on his board and started resting on his back. "This is nice," he stated, looking at the clouds as they floated loftily above them. "A fella could get used to this."

Riku copied Sora and laid on his longboard, backpedaling to get the where the brunet was resting in the water. He let his hands dangle in the water and enjoyed the rocking motion given to them by the waves. He hummed in concurrence with Sora and started to simply relax. "This is nice."

After minutes of simply lazing in the sun on the boards, Riku turned his head and peeked an eye open to glance at Sora. He had his fingers laced and resting on his stomach as his long legs dangled off the edge of the short board. It was the most picturesque summer day Riku could ever imagine, and he couldn't imagine it with anyone other than him. "Are you gonna keep surfing?" Riku asked, almost afraid of breaking the serene silence that had grown between them. "Because if not, we're as good as frying fish out here."

Sora smiled, lazily opening his eyes and canting his head towards Riku. "Frying fish? I like the sound of it." His body had since grown dry after lying in the sun, and he rolled off his board and into the water to cool off. Riku simply turned around on his board and started paddling back to shore. As soon as Sora was back on his and balanced, he started following the tattooed man towards the sands. Once they were able to walk without the sound of crashing waves, Sora's stomach started growling to the point where even Riku could hear it.

"Geez, Sora. Are you starving?"

"I guess I should eat something today," he muttered, waddling over to the picnic basket he had brought.

"You mean you haven't eaten yet?" Riku asked, not wearing a watch, but assuming it had to be at least after three in the afternoon.

"Well, you were the one who woke me up and told me we were going surfing. Isn't it a rule that you're not supposed to eat an hour before getting into the water?" Sora shrugged and turned to Riku. "I didn't want to wait." He paused to consider. "Come to think of it, my headache's gone! I guess surfing really is a cure for hangovers!" He pulled back the blanket covering the food and revealed ten neatly wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, along with juice boxes and a small bag of chips. "Jesus, how hungry did she think I'd get?"

Riku walked up from behind him and marveled at the delicious feast. "Wow. Who packed this, your mom?" he said with a laugh, snatching one of the sandwiches from the top of the pile and unwrapping it. It was the kind of peanut butter and jelly sandwich that was warmed in the sun and the jelly had soaked up into most of the bread. In Riku's opinion, the best kind of PBJ in the world.

"No," Sora scoffed, taking one of the fruit juice boxes out from the basket. "I haven't had one of these since I was a kid." The brunet tossed one of the boxes to Riku before plopping on the sand. He poked a straw through the top of the box, Riku doing the same with a half-eaten sandwich dangling from his mouth to free his hands. Once they were done, Sora held his juice box up as a toast. "To the best summer of my life." Riku took a bite of the sandwich to free his mouth and hastily swallowed.

"To the best summer of our lives."

…o…o…o…o…o…

"Our last day of summer, 1979
Gotta live it up one time before it's over
We will make history tonight."

…o…o…o…o…o…

"So where were you all day, little surfer girl?" Tidus asked as Sora walked through the door past eleven that evening. The brunet had hoped that his friends would be as exhausted as he was, but judging from the pile of movies in front of them they probably spent the whole day in front of the television.

"Riku took me out and tried to teach me how to surf," Sora commented, placing the empty picnic basket next to the door. "And then later he took me into town and showed me some of his regular hangouts. The harbor is a really cool place, y'know that?"

Wakka turned his attention back to the screen, shoving a fist full of Cheetos into his mouth and mumbling, "That's cool." He took a harsh swallow and pointed at the television with his remote control. "We're about to watch Weird Science. Want in?"

Sora slowly shook his head. "…Nah, I'm gross and smelly from the beach. I'm just gonna rinse off and go to bed."

"Suit yourself," Tidus sighed. "But you're gonna be spending way too much time on your perfect summer vacation sleeping at this rate." Sora scowled at his friends, wondering if they were seriously giving him this sort of lecture after spending the whole day in the condo watching movies in the dark. As he walked towards the bathroom he decided to let the issue drop once he remembered just how far up that sand was in his butt. He shucked off all his clothes in the bathroom and turned the shower on to a refreshing cool temperature.

While he scrubbed all of the salt water out of his hair, he remembered all the cool tourist traps Riku took him. He gave him a grand tour of the video store, even showed him the back where they kept all of the free promotional items from movies. Sora walked away with an old triple extra large tee shirt for 300. They ate dinner at a restaurant on the docks where Sora had the most delicious shrimp imaginable. After window-shopping for the perfect Hawaiian shirt until dark, they made their way back to the beach and sat on the sand, gazing up at the stars. The stars were so much brighter at the harbor than they were in Bastion.

Riku was such an amazing person. He was totally phenomenal and the sweetest human being he had ever met. Everything about him was just spot-on perfect. He had a dashing smile, a charming face, and his rock-hard body was flawless even with the tattoos and piercings. Sora wasn't even aware that people like him existed in the real world, only in his daydreams back in high school. See, Sora had a small problem that he had kept mostly to himself since the fourth grade.

He was queer as the day is long.

…o…o…o…o…o…

"If only I had one wish,
I'd want a million trillion lifetimes
That I could spend with you...
Fall in love with you again and again."

…o…o…o…o…o…

Sora sat on his bed the next morning waiting patiently. He could hear Tidus and Wakka shuffling quietly outside his door, making their way in and out of the bathroom and clinking around in the kitchen, under the assumption that Sora was still sleeping. The brunet had woken up before the sun had even risen, and used this extra time to sort through his clothes in his duffle bag to try and pick out the most impressive outfit he could wear. He frowned and wondered what he was thinking when he was packing, because he didn't have anything nice to wear at all. It was all ratty old shirts that he liked to wear lounging around the apartment, not while trying to impress-

There was a loud knock at Sora's bay window and the brunet jumped in shock, clutching a tattered boy beater to his chest. He quickly turned around and saw two silhouettes by his window, one of them swaying side-to-side anxiously. Sora knew who it was the moment he saw the outline of that body and rushed to his window, pulling back the blinds to reveal Riku and a rather eclectic blue-haired boy.

"Good morning," Riku said with a grin, his voice muffled through the glass. He nodded over to his friend. "I brought company. He insisted on coming."

Sora unlocked the door and allowed the two men inside his bedroom. He bit his lip wishing that he had spent a second to throw all his clothes he had plundered through back in his suitcase, but they didn't seem to mind.

The blue haired man walked up to Sora and smiled. "So you're Sora Strife, the boy Riku ditched me for." He playfully pinched the brunet's cheek and laughed when he tried to squirm away. "He was right, you are cute."

Sora stopped spazzing and glanced to the man. "What?"

"Sora, this is my friend Axel Rose," Riku said as a more formal introduction. "He's a guitarist in my band and my best friend. Axel, I swear to God if you don't take your hand off of him I'll saw it off." The thinly veiled threat was hidden behind a creepily toothy grin, and Axel was quick to release his hold on Sora's cheek.

"So this is your condo?" Axel asked, taking a brief walk around the room. "Ni-ice. Riku told me you had some pretty sweet digs." He looked down and noticed the green starred boxers Sora had worn the other day. Chuckling, he picked them up and stretched the elastic. "Too cute. Sora, do you have a brother?"

Instead of acting embarrassed and flailing to Riku for answers, Sora simply turned to the bleached punk and pointed to the taller man. "Is this jack-off really your best friend?" Riku didn't reply, but looked towards Axel and laughed at his friend's put-off expression.

"Burn. Oh, dude, I'd try to cool you off there but you were already hosed. Fucker. That's what you get." He reached out and knocked the boxers out of Axel's hand. The man frowned and shrugged, turning his lazy grin towards Sora.

"What-the-fuck-ever. So, Mister Strife, what plans did you have today?" he asked calmly.

"It's a Monday," Sora reminded, as if this had some sort of meaning to the two punks standing by his bed. The brunet paused and waited for them to say something, but they remained silent. "…I mean, I know I'm on vacation and everything, but don't y'all have work?"

The simultaneous barking laughter between the two of them was enough to warrant Tidus opening the door to check on Sora. What he hadn't expected to find in his friend's room were two punky men standing around the brunet while his friend stood shirtless in his pajama bottoms.

"…Hey Riku," Tidus said, noting the open bay window from the porch and figuring that was how the two men got into the condo. He gave a nervous glance to the blue-haired man giving him a non-sequitur grin. "Sora, is everything okay?" His friend nodded to him and Tidus nodded back. With all three of them looking at him, he started to feel rather awkward, so he smiled nervously towards Sora and left.

"You don't quite understand our rock star lifestyle," Riku said. "We pretty much pick up shifts at the video store whenever we feel like it."

Sora's eyes seemed to shine at the idea. "You guys only have to work when you feel like it? That sounds awesome."

"Well, hey, it's not like playing a show isn't real hard work either," Axel shrugged. "We have practice tonight at Luxord's place. You should come check us out. Bring your friends."

"I don't think Tidus and Wakka are really into the same kind of scene you guys are…" Sora stated, turning towards the door where his friends were probably sitting in the living room just down the hall watching movies.

"Well…" Riku mumbled, "I didn't really think you'd be into the same stuff I was, but you're a really cool guy. I wouldn't mind getting to know your friends."

The sentiment that Riku wanted to get to know even more about Sora made the brunet happy, and it showed when his blue eyes glanced down towards the carpet and he tried to hide his red cheeks behind his hair. "Yeah, I'll let them know." He glanced back up to Riku and smiled. "But I want to get to know your friends, too. Like Xigbar, and Luxord, and Marluxia."

Axel smiled and looked towards Riku. "Marly's working at the flower shop right now. He probably wouldn't mind if we bugged him."

"Then it's arranged," Riku said, clapping his hands together and backing up towards the bay window. "Sora, we'll let you get dressed and meet you outside. Get ready for a tour of the town."

…o…o…o…o…o…

"Sneak out of your window, darlin'
Let's live like outlaws, honey
We'll never look back."

…o…o…o…o…o…

Tidus watched from the window by the front door, where he had a perfect view of Sora's bay window from the outside. Riku was chatting with his blue haired companion who took a cigarette from a carton in his back pocket and attempted to light it in the sea breeze. Tidus was a fairly open-minded individual, and it wasn't in his way to pass judgment on very obviously creative and unique people like Sora's new friends, but there was something about them…

Perhaps the extreme hair colors, or the outrageous piercings, the fact that they were sneaking in through Sora's window instead of coming to the front door. Sora was a very trusting person, and while his first impression of Riku was as a fairly cool person, he still didn't know Riku. For all he knew, he could try robbing the condo late at night. Since Wakka's grandmother didn't live there and usually rented the place out to anyone, there weren't any valuables to keep track of or a security system installed. Still, he couldn't help but worry for his friend.

Sora slid open the glass door and stepped out wearing day clothes and a smile, saying something to the punks before they all stepped off the porch and towards the boardwalk. Tidus glared at the blue-haired man as he flicked the cigarette onto the deck and stomped it out with his heavy boot, leaving it there to get blown away. As soon as the three were out of sight, he went outside to pick up the cigarette carefully, like it was infested with some foreign plague, and brought inside to the trash bin in the kitchen.

"What's up with you, ya?" Wakka asked from his place on the living room couch. He had his arm wrapped around the back of the couch and was sitting at an angle so it wasn't difficult to see Tidus' antics during the past minute. "You were practically boring holes into the windows. I'm surprised you didn't burn the curtains."

"I don't know about those guys…" he muttered, having already told Wakka about the two mysterious men he had found in Sora's bedroom. "The blue-haired freak smoked on our deck and didn't bother to throw away the butt," he commented, pointing towards the trashcan for emphasis. Since Wakka and Tidus were both heavy blitzball players in college, they obviously refused to smoke and spent time with company that followed similar habits. "And I can't help but feel like… I think Riku's targeting Sora. He wants something from him. Nobody who just meets someone would want to spend so much time with them like this," he mumbled to himself.

"Do you think he's going after his money? Sora brought an awful lot of dough with him for the trip."

"Maybe," Tidus said, tapping his finger on his chin. "We'll just have to be extra careful around them and let Sora know what's up as soon as he comes home." He screamed like a girl when the loudest cell phone ring he had ever heard interrupted his line of thinking.

…o…o…o…o…o…

"Being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up:
These are the best days of our lives.
The only thing that matters
Is just following your heart
And eventually you'll finally get it right."

…o…o…o…o…o…

"C'mon… Saaaaay it-!" Riku cooed teasingly.

Sora had never been inside a place that smelled so sweet. He was surprised when he found out one of their band members worked at a flower shop, because it didn't exactly have the same punk rock tang like working in a video store had. However, the shop was plenty alternative in its own right. The bouquets on sale in a glass door refrigerated display were rated on a scale of how much play the person would get in a night. A small bouquet negated a good-night tongue kiss, while the largest, most elaborate bouquet would honor the giver with an orgy, so said the corresponding cards. Sora wondered if they were true. Dried up roses were stabbed into the ceiling and left to dangle, setting a very strong and potent aroma in the small shop. All around the walls were gardenias and bright hibiscus flowers, even flowers that Sora had never seen before.

"No."

Marluxia seemed like an odd gentleman. He wore a simple white button up shirt and jeans, nothing really outrageous like what Riku or Axel wore on a daily basis, it seemed. Sora couldn't tell if the pastel pink apron was a uniform of the store or by choice, because Marluxia's true alternative nature was shone like a beacon with his painstakingly bleached and dyed soft pink hair.

"We're paying customers, you know," Riku said, shifting his attention to a bucket of mixed roses by the register. He pulled out a single rose that had tinges of yellow and red in it. "So say it."

Marluxia looked at the rose skeptically, glancing at Axel who had the same vacant smile as usual. He then turned his attention to the new person that had arrived with his band mates and raised a brow at him. "Seriously?"

Riku grinned. "You'll be losing a sale if you don't."

Marluxia sighed and rolled his eyes. Opening his mouth slowly and letting the words come out as quickly as possible. "'Welcome to Pansies, where we love to lose our precious flowers to you.' Asswipe."

Riku dropped two wadded dollar bills on the counter in front of him, joining the others in laughing as Marluxia had to straighten them out before he could ring up the register. "Is there a reason you're harassing me today, Riku?" Marluxia muttered.

"Just showing Sora the sights," he answered with a charming smile, turning behind him and tossing the rose to the brunet. The younger man seemed to flinch when he instinctively caught the flower, and seemed mildly surprised when he discovered that the thorns had already been shucked off. "Xigbar's next then we're going 'round Luxord's and starting practice. What time do you get off today?"

"In a couple of hours, but it depends on when Zexion decides to clock in. I'll call you if he comes in early so we can get started."

Riku nodded and Sora joined them in waving goodbye to Marluxia as they headed out the door. They turned away from the boardwalk and started making their way down to some larger stores further away from the beach. "C'mon, we'll introduce you to the others," he explained. Sora nodded at Riku and looked down to the rose in his hand. The brunet was never one for flora or fauna, but this rose was just plain cool looking. The red the seeped through the veins of the yellow petals and made the bloom look like a small flame rather than a flower. While admiring the bright colors that he had never seen on a rose before, Sora also noted that it was quite cumbersome to carry it around with him in his hands, so he stuck it in one of his large board short pockets instead.

"Okay, this is Silly Symphonies, and it's the only music store worth knowing at the harbor." Riku pushed through the smudged glass door inside. The first thing to hit Sora's senses was the sound of a lady playing a piano with an upbeat, classical melody. The second thing that caught him was the smell. Rather than smelling like flowers, it had the pungent scent of antique wood and dust. Most of the large floor room was filled with old pianos and sheet music, with a small selection of brass instruments in the back corner. Sora embarrassed himself by almost tripping over the water-warped carpet.

Axel smiled and slipped past Sora and Riku to the chestnut-haired woman who was the one playing the piano when they stepped in. Axel sat on her seat and nudged her aside so he could play the lower notes, and almost instantly they started playing a duet.

"That's so cool," Sora cooed, not wanting to take his eyes off the epic grand piano. "God, I wish I could do stuff like that. I don't have a musical bone in my body…"

Riku chuckled. "Does it run in the family?"

"You'd think," Sora sighed, pulling away from the piano scene slowly and meandering around the rest of the store. "My dad's pretty tight-lipped and my mom's one of the those ladies that likes to sing, but that doesn't exactly give her the jurisdiction that she should…" Riku laughed a little louder while following a few steps behind him, and Sora decided that he really did like his laugh. It wasn't a snide chuckle, there wasn't too much of an emphasis on inhaling or exhaling sounds, it wasn't too loud, it was perfect. "Oh! But my brother's a really good singer. He was a soloist in our high school choir."

"So you do have a brother?" Riku asked, seemingly very interested. The punk smirked and glanced back to Axel, continuing to play with their friend Rinoa.

Sora nodded as they started venturing down the sheet music aisles. He had never seen so many books before for so many instruments. The shelves reached so high that it blocked the light from the floor room, leaving it very dingy and smelling like old paper. Sora smiled and looked down towards the aged and worn carpet. "I like it here," Sora stated, noticing a book of sheet music for Adam Ant songs, of all musicians. His grin widened as he reached up to grab the book from one of the higher shelves, but realized he was too short. He would have to get one of those library stools he had seen in one of the other aisles before he could reach.

"Oh, hey, let me grab that for you." Tall, tall Riku leaned over Sora and was able to grab the book easier. The short brunet felt his heart leap into his throat when he felt Riku behind him, his chest against his back, hips against hips, their legs brushing together slightly, and Sora almost collapsed. Riku seemed to have noticed Sora's buckling body and backed off quickly, handing the sheet music to him. The embarrassed man held it up and used it as shied to block his blushing face. He tried to make it seem like he was just really interested in the cover.

"I love Dandy Highwaymen!" Sora chirped, wishing he didn't sound like such a middle school twat. "I mean The Dandy Highwaymen. The music. Th-the Ants, because- Y'know…"

Riku had to stop himself from laughing for a moment. He took a small step forward, which in the crowded aisle meant the difference of being in a different country to invading personal space very quickly. He lowered the book and coerced those river-blue eyes to look up at him. "Sora, you're very-"

"Riku!" a gruff man's voice shouted from the floor room. The punk nearly jumped out of his shorts and his head whipped nervously towards the aisle entrance. He immediately calmed down and backed away from Sora. The brunet followed Riku back towards the floor room, clutching his book nervously towards his chest and trying to compose himself. Riku approached an older man with long, black hair talking to Axel who sitting next to the lady at the bench of the grand piano.

"Hey Rinoa. Hey Axel. Have you guys seen-" Before he could finish his question Riku tapped him on the shoulder. The man looked over curiously and jumped when he saw the punk had snuck up on him.

"Jesus, dude, don't do that. Seriously," he gasped, grabbing his heart like he would have an attack. One thing that surprised Sora was the heavy California surfer dude accent from the man. His skin may have been tanned, but with the extremely long black hair and… scarred face. Sora instantly forced himself to look at the carpet instead of the man's face. He had huge, jagged scars running across his skin, and he was even wearing an eye patch where it seemed one of the worse ones crossed over his eye. "I have Lux over and we had a question at the bridge you were telling us about…"

"Telling you about? Axel wrote it down. Didn't you read it?"

"Yeah, he did," he grumbled, holding up a sheet of music that was crumpled and stained. "This doesn't make any sense. Can't you just make him draw tabs?"

Axel was still sitting behind them playing the piano with Rinoa. "No, I can't, you uncultured swine." There was something humorous about a man saying this while he had blue hair and a lip ring and numerous tattoos swimming down his arms. Sora laughed, and this seemed to be enough to garner attention from the scarred man talking to Riku.

"Who's the kid?"

Riku turned to Sora and smiled warmly. "Sora Strife. He's visiting the next couple of weeks. Sora, this is Xigbar, our guitarist."

"What happened to your face?" Sora asked, gripping his music book tighter to his chest. It wasn't that he was terrified of Xigbar, it was just that the man looked extremely terrifying.

The guitarist sneered and rolled his eyes. "Got into a fight with a shark and won."

"And last week it was the sky-diving incident," Rinoa said laughing. She stopped playing the piano with Axel and rested her elbows on the keys. "I just love your stories, you know?"

Xigbar turned to her with a cheeky grin and a nod before turning his attention back to Riku. "Yeah, whatever. So are you gonna teach us or not? Luxord's in the back so we can just do it here than his place."

"Jeez, you work at a music school teaching music," Riku grumbled.

"It's not my fault I'm like a prodigy when it comes to playing by ear," Xigbar retorted. He was like an acting teacher that didn't know how to read scripts.

"You're something all right. Just don't expect me to go easy on you." He replied in good nature, snatching the sheet music from Xigbar's hand and bopping him on the nose with it. He turned to Sora and motioned him towards the back of the music store where the lesson rooms were. "C'mon. Looks like practice is starting a little early."

Sora followed them down a dingy hallway to an open door revealing an incredibly small room. The brunet figured it must have been a broom closet at some point in time, but the boys had managed to find space for three guitars and a drum set to practice. Along with Xigbar and Riku, there was a third man sitting cross-legged on a shoddy speaker, fiddling with a bass. He had short, cropped blond hair and a frizzy beard.

"Kindly tell Mister Rose that he's a fuckin' idiot, please?" he spoke with an accent, something British that seemed out of place for the setting. At least Xigbar's was somewhat fitting to a beach environment. This guy sounded like he came straight out of a Charles Dickens movie. "This is a band for fun, not school."

Riku rolled his eyes to the blond gentleman and picked up an acoustic from the wall rack. "Guys, it's simple. Follow, okay?" Riku started noodling on his guitar. Sora was almost expecting a couple of power chords that the others were just having a hard time deciphering in the form of sheet music, but this was something much more complex. Sora glanced at Xigbar and Luxord who were staring at the punk's fingers with utmost concentration. Their eyes never blinked and their bodies barely moved as they instantly soaked up the fingering. The silverette was almost playing for a solid minute before stopping and turning to the others. "Okay, you go," he told Xigbar.

The man sighed as he plugged in his guitar to the amp Luxord was sitting on. Practically note for note, he copied the same notes Riku had just finished. While the song had a nostalgic feel when playing on an acoustic guitar, on an electric guitar it was something different. Sora couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it definitely carried a much happier tone.

Riku pointed to Luxord and motioned for him to follow along. "Okay, now you, just like it sounds. Dun-Dun, dada-dadada-dun, da-da-dundada-dun!" Although it wasn't technically like he was singing a song, Sora was impressed at Riku's ability to capture notes. He liked that the punk tried methods of learning that was easiest for them, even if it wasn't easiest for their songwriter Axel. Xigbar replayed his solo, this time with Luxord joining on bass, and it made the song much more poppy, like the style Riku had told him about. Once they were finished, the young man turned to the brunet with a hesitant smile.

"So, what'd you think?" he asked nervously. "It's a new song, still some kinks… We haven't got any lyrics to go with it, though, but Axel did a really good job-"

"That was amazing!" Sora said with a large grin. "Xigbar, you did awesome work on that. I don't know how you can just follow along and play exactly what you hear! They make movies about people like you!" The infectiously happy behavior caught on with the ebony-haired guitarist and he chuckled lowly to the carpeted floor. "And Luxord really added the pop to the pop-punk. Did Axel really come up with all of this from scratch?"

Riku shrugged his shoulders. "Usually I give him lyrics and he models the song off of that, but in this case it's the opposite. Obviously, he can't finish the song until I've come up with the words. I'm a little worried about what to write," he sighed.

"You don't have anything to be afraid of," Sora said. Although perhaps he spoke too soon, because he had never heard 13 Hearts play a song before. If Axel was talented enough to create this type of melody, he had little doubts that the song would pass with mediocre lyrics. But if Riku was really hurting that much for ideas… "You should make it a love song," the brunet suggested.

Riku raised a brow. "Love song, huh?"

"Most pop-punk songs are about breaking up, and girlfriends or boyfriends that are annoying, and it gets repetitive, you know? Try to go for something different. Make this an anthem for puppy love."

"Puppy love?" Xigbar scoffed. "Who the fuck sings songs about-"

"Nobody in the Harbor, obviously," Riku replied, his eyes narrowing like he had an idea. "The only other band we have any direct competition with is Bloodfest, and they don't do anything about love." He smiled towards Sora and took the Adam Ant book out of his hands. "Thanks for the tip." Xigbar groaned when Riku insisted that the sheet music would be on the house. There went three hours of work down the drain.

"We can't stay in here too much longer. There's a tuba practice at three," the guitarist stated.

Riku's eyes bugged out slightly. "Tuba. Huh. Okay." He turned to Sora. "Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?"

"Well, the guys had said something about going to the beach, and Blitzball…" Sora sighed, reaching into his pocket. His face looked confused when he didn't find what he was looking for. "That's weird… I must've left my cell phone back at the condo."

"Do you need it?"

"Maybe. I was going to call the guys and-" Sora cut himself off, suddenly looking really pale and very embarrassed.

"Sora, is everything okay?" Riku asked. He couldn't help but feel a little uneasy as the young man raked a shaky hand through his hair.

"Fine, yeah, everything's fine. I just gotta get back to the condo and find my cell." He turned and walked out the door. Riku bounced slightly on the balls of his feet before turning to his friends.

"Okay, so guys, I'm just gonna, uh…"

"Go get 'em, puppy," Luxord sighed, playing a ditty on his bass while Riku dashed out the practice room. "He's got it bad. How long did he say the kid was staying here?"

"Two fucking weeks," Xigbar grumbled, unplugging his guitar from the amp and practicing the solo again. "I bet he gets his heart broken."

Luxord paused playing for a moment to stare at him. "…Care to make that bet interesting?"

xxxXXXxxxxXXXxxx

Man! I love the beach! My gramma used to live near the shore but it's like a four hour drive away, and since she passed away I haven't been back since (this was back in high school). It'd be nice to go back. My friends and I are discussing a beach trip possibly this year, just to get away for the weekend. I miss the smell of the salt and sand. We'll see what happens. Most of my friends are going to TCAF in early summer, but I can't make it this year, and later this summer I'm supposed to go to Colorado to visit an old friend, and we all can't take time off for a weekend getaway so close to our trips, so our window of finding free time is somewhat limited… BUT SOMEDAY I WILL GO TO A BEACH. I BOUGHT A CUTE SWIMSUIT THIS YEAR AND IM GONNA WEAR IT DAMMIT.

In game news, I finished Ventus' story! It was! so sad! My plans for Friday were to finish Ven's story and go straight into Aqua's, but after finishing up with Ven I just… had to sit down for a while. I was so bummed. I started Aqua's story on Sunday and like holy shit she dies like really easy? or i'm just really bad at playing her? I died like five or six times in the Cinderella level that I just had to power level over and over again in the same room. I'm used to this happening at some point in the game but not in the first freaking level. AND ALSO THE STEPMOTHER AND THE STEPSISTERS DIE?! OR SOMETHING? I haven't gotten any further than that, but I'm looking forward to her story. I really like her voice actress and it's such a breath of fresh air being able to play as a girl… although… lbr, I kind of hate that the girl is always in the high-magic low-defense type. Whenever I rp in like D&D and stuff I'm always the tank, so that's how I like to fight. It's frustrating only using magic. I hope if Kairi ever becomes a playable character that she isn't forced into that position…

Anyway, all the B-Sides are basically one big mixtape for The Ataris. I loved this band when I was in college writing this. All the lyrics featured in the chapters are from their songs. I feel bad because I haven't listened to them as much recently, but whenever I hear their cover the The Boys of Summer, I still smile a little bit…

(lol whenever i read/write for Riku in this story, even though the character didn't exist at the time of writing this, he reminds me of Chris Traeger from Parks n Rec…)

A reminder: There's a two-week break between B-Side updates, so the next update will be April 20th. Thanks for hanging in there for me!

ALSO! PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! I LOVE REVIEWS! THEY'RE BASICALLY THE BEST. also follow/favs! I got a ton of follow/favs with the last chapter and that's awesome too!