Wow, guys. I had no idea it's been this long. Sorry about that though I did say this was a side project. I promise it won't be so long for the next bit.

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Sora had to beg his mom for nearly fifteen minutes before she agreed to let him go back to Riku's. He had to promise to get his homework completely finished and be back home by ten. As they walked to the other's house, Sora kept giving Riku pleading looks.

"I'm not doing it for you."

"Oh come on! It'll be easy for you. You're like a freakin' genius and you've done it already."

"It's your homework, Sora." Riku wanted to laugh. The younger one was so totally hooked to the game now. "I told you before, we play until the next save point. That's it. I have homework too, you know."

Sora sighed. "Fine."

They walked into the house, Sora tossing his backpack on a chair. Riku shook his head and began digging in his satchel for his Literature book. Once removed, he settled himself on the sofa and began flipping pages.

The brunette threw himself down on the floor after turning the television back on. "So off to Radiant- I mean, Hollow Bastion? You know that is kinda confusing."

"Yes it is."

"Wow, Goofy's the master of the obvious, isn't he?" Sora commented at the doglike creatures fighting comment.

"Hey, you were asleep for a year. It's not like the three of you really know the status of things." Riku didn't look up from his book.

"You realize you just defended Goofy."

"I like Goofy. Donald's the irritating one."

"Yeah, he kinda is." Sora agreed. He ran himself through the streets. Abruptly he stopped and cylinders of light began popping up randomly. "You know, the town defense mechanism was the most pointless, stupid thing in the worlds. It never worked and didn't keep the Heartless out."

"I noticed that." Riku muttered absently. "And there was no logic to its placement. It should have encircled the town not be scattered randomly within it. If the Heartless are already within the city walls, it's game over for the people."

"Well, they weren't totally defenseless." Sora disagreed. When the older one said nothing, he returned to the game. "It's Yuffie!"

"Notice she does absolutely nothing to help you, either. Nice friend."

"Well, uh." Sora fought off the group of Nobodies. "Hey, you know you're right! She did just stand there and watch! What the heck? She coulda jumped down and helped."

"And now she acts like she was making sure you could still fight."

"Ooh, if I see her again…" Sora frowned. "What a sec, why am I asking her about you and the King? None of them ever met you. How would they know who you are?"

Riku made a noise but Sora didn't get the chance to ask about it. "Oh, my Leon impersonation is way better than that! I don't like the guy they got playing me."

"Who would you prefer?"

"I don't know." Sora thought for a minute. "Oh, that guy from those hobbit movies! The tall guy."

"Aragorn?"

"Yeah, him."

Riku snorted. "He doesn't sound anything like you!"

"So, it'd still be cool."

Shaking his head, Riku flicked a few fingers toward the screen. "Go follow Yuffie."

The younger did as told and after a minute entered a large wooden door. Once the initial pleasantries were over, Sora frowned. "Is Leon's voice really that nasally?"

"You spent more time with him than I did."

"Yeah and he doesn't sound like that. This Leon is kinda annoying."

"I can't stand Aerith's voice." Riku commented. "It just drones on with no inflection or anything. She's like a robot or something."

"Oh, Cid's being kinda scary now. He wouldn't do that. He'd just say to fucking do whatever without even looking at us."

"I can't believe you just swore."

Sora shrugged a little in embarrassment. "Well it's Cid. You kinda have to say it like that."

Riku raised a silver eyebrow but did not say anything.

"Oh, jeeze!" Brown spikes bounced a bit along with their owner. "I hate when Merlin does that! He just pops up and begins talking like he's been there the whole time!"

Having never met the wizard, Riku didn't really have an opinion. Well, actually he had a lot of comments to make about all of these random people Sora had met along the way but wisely kept him mouth shut on most of them. "So do you still have that card?"

"Card? Oh! Yeah." He paused the game and jumped up, digging around in his oversized pockets. He pulled out his wallet and opened it up.

"Do not tell me you carry it around with you."

"Well of course I do!" Sora stated as if Riku should have already understood this. He removed a small rectangle from the wallet and held it out to Riku. "See? I'm a card-carrying member."

The older boy took it and looked it over. "Leon has really girlish handwriting."

"He didn't write it!" Sora snatched the card back. "Aerith did. He just told her to made one for me cause he likes me."

"I've read that in a few places."

"Huh?" Sora cocked his head in confusion.

"Nothing." He was not about to try explaining fan fiction to the boy. It would completely freak him out in not traumatize him for life if he heard about some of the things Riku had read and seen. "Hurry up with the game."

"You don't really wanna do homework instead of this, do you?" Sora whined.

"Well unlike you I don't have a career as hero of worlds to fall back on if I fail out of school." There was a trace of bitterness in his voice.

Sora turned to face him. "Riku…"

"Play the game, Sora."

With a deep frown he turned back. He took himself through town and met up with Leon. The group looked out at the canyon surrounding the castle, which was filled to capacity with Heartless. Leon pointed to them and then mid-sentence the screen went dark and there was a very long silence.

"Uh, did the game freeze up?" Sora looked like he was going to hit the console.

"No, there's just a ridiculously long pause here." Leon's voice and the picture returned. "See?"

"Huh."

"You know it's sad that Leon had to ask you what's going on."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Listen to yourself!" Riku gestured. "That has to be the most uninformative explanation I've ever heard. 'Well's there's this Pete guy but no one cares about him'. Then why bring him up! Focus on the Organization!"

"You called?"

"And on that subject…."

"I wanna know how they do that!"

"I can do that." Riku rolled his eyes. "Anyone who can access dark corridors can do that. You just project your voice through the darkness."

"Really? But how- Oh, crap! I'm gonna die!" Sora began frantically fighting off Nobodies.

"Now see, at least Leon helps you!" Riku had given up trying to study. Sora could have saved back at Restoration Headquarters but, well, Riku hadn't been paying attention and he really did not want to be doing homework. "I want to know what's up with some of these attacks they came up with. I mean, why the heck is the Gunblade now like three times as big? Wasn't it big enough?"

"I don't think I've ever seen it do that." Sora bit his lip in concentration. "Man, Dusks are a pain."

"Weren't they always?"

"Finally!" Sora exclaimed as the last Nobody disappeared. Then the he on screen ran out to a platform and the disembodied voices started up again, teasing him. "You know, I just took out their little… minions or whatever and they're still making fun of me!"

"Riled you up though, didn't it?"

"Oh, whatever!" The brunette shook his head in annoyance. "They're dead now."

Wow, that was harsh. Riku narrowed his eyes at the back of Sora's head. He had no idea where that comment had come from.

"And what was he raising his hands to?" Sora shouted in exasperation. "You know, the more I think about it the less sense it makes!"

"So stop thinking about it."

"But I want to think about it!" Sora protested. "I want to understand it!"

"Trust me, Sora." Riku spoke softly. "You're really better off not knowing."

"You keep saying that!" The younger one whirled on him. "Is it really that terrible?"

"I don't know." Riku studied his hands a moment. "Maybe it isn't but… I don't know. Maybe I'm just too close to it."

Sora clearly did not understand what Riku meant by that statement. He wanted to ask but the closed off expression on the older boy's face prevented him. Riku was obviously not able to discuss this. With a sigh, he turned back to his game.

The Organization members disappeared but one reappeared to block Donald. He started on a small rant, sounding amused at the whole situation. The guy was cocky as heck but then again, Sora was right back at him.

"Was that Xigbar or Luxard?" Riku asked, all earlier sign of melancholy gone.

"Xigbar, I think. Luxard had an accent." Sora frowned. "Do you have any idea how annoying it was having all of those guys continuously talking to and about me as if they knew me? They didn't know me. They knew Roxas. We're not the same."

Riku snorted. "Do you know how many times I heard Roxas say the same thing about you?"

"Really?"

"Really." The coat disappeared. That was weird. "That was completely pointless."

Sora grinned. "Yeah, it was, wasn't it?"

Riku laughed. "I love how you say 'only one me' and then have to whip out your card as if you have to confirm it."

"I just this urge to look at it."

"Yeah, I figured that when it started glowing and you used it to open the gateway." The silvered one was still chuckling. "It's still funny."

"I guess." Sora agreed. "You know, I do feel bad about how I was always running off on them."

"You had things you needed to do."

"I know and I know they knew but it still was kinda rude." Narrow shoulders shrugged. "So where do we go now?"

"Pick a world."

"Am I gonna have to dogfight again?"

"Yep."

"Great. Okay…. We'll go this way." He picked a route and rather quickly got through the ship fight. "All right, where are we…. Oh! Land of the Dragons, cool."

"Yeah, cool." Riku hated that world. Not nearly as much as some others but it was definitely up there.

"Ooooh, I hate that guy! He was totally evil. He just burned entire villages for no reason!"

"I'm sure there was a reason. Maybe not a good one or one you understand but he had to have one. No one just burns down villages for the heck of it."

"Sephiroth did."

"Did Cloud tell you that?" Riku snorted. "Figures."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"In his mind, Sephiroth had a perfectly good reason to burn Neibleheim down. He believed that the people there were holding Mother prisoner and he had to free her. If Cloud spent any time trying to understand Sephiroth, he'd get that."

Blue eyes narrowed at Riku. "How come you know so much about Sephiroth?"

"Curiosity." He replied simply. "Go play with Mushu. We really have to stop soon."

"Okay." Sora returned to the cutscene. "I feel really stupid for jumping them like that."

"You should. Those kind of tactics will get you killed." Riku commented. "I can't believe Goofy is the only one who noticed 'Ping' was a girl. I mean, how unobservant are you people?"

"Hey, she did a really good job!"

"Whatever." Riku waved it off. "I also can't believe they let a couple of wise guys like you in the Imperial Army."

"Hey! I'll have you know-"

"Save point." Riku called out.

"Huh? Oh." Sora completely forgot whatever he was going to say. He saved the game and placed the controller on the console. "I can play again tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah but we do our schoolwork first." Riku glanced at the wall its nine-thirty already.

"It is? Crud." Sora yanked his backpack to him by one strap. "You gotta help me with this chemistry assignment. I'm gonna be up all night!"

"Who's fault is that?"

"Shut up!" Blue eyes glared and Riku swore he had a flashback of Roxas. "You gonna help me?"

Riku shook himself of it. "Yeah. Set it out on the coffee table."