Family Ties

That morning Sora woke up in a strange place with a odd wet pink thing in his face. It took him a moment to remember where he was and to figure out that the wet pink thing was Luna's tongue.

"Pah-ple-ph GET OFF! Yikes." Near by he could hear Riku's deep laughter. "Yeah, laugh it up. How would you like to be woken up by a big wet pink tongue in your face, huh Riku." This just seemed to make him laugh harder. He rolled his eyes and went to sit opposite Riku at the table where they apparently were eating without him. He dropped himself dramatically into the chair next to Kairi, accost from him was Riku and next to him was Alex. They each had half eaten plates of homemade chocolate chip pancakes. He was just about to steel some from Riku when Alex's dad dropped an extra large stack in front of him and he immediately started poring a generous amount of maple syrup on it. Riku rolled his eyes as Alex told him how they were going to go take a look at their 'ride' and see what kind or repair it needed.

"I'd come too but I have to go into work today." Alex's dad told them as he started to eat his pancakes, he was the one who made them so he was eating last. Alex seemed surprised and troubled to hear this.

"Is someone else missing?" She asked her eyes burning into her father's

"Missing?" Kairi asked, a concerned look on her face. She exchanged glances with Sora and Riku.

"Yes, and it was closer to town this time" He said absently poking his pancakes with a fork.

After they finished eating Alex's dad drove to town and they headed out to the gummi ship, Luna romping in the grass behind them. A few yards from the ship Alex stopped and looked at it in awe.

"I've seen pictures of my dad's ship and it was less than a quarter of the size of this ship."

After she finished looking it over she gave them her diagnosis. "Well," she said patting the side of the ship as she got up. " One of your Navi G's is missing, all of your weapons systems are ether damaged or crushed, all of your shield gummies have been ripped off, the ones we could find seem to be in alright shape but your still missing quite a few, one of your main wings broke off along with some of the smaller ones. I think that's it, there's no serious damage to the engine that I could see. It'll run but for now it still won't fly."

Sora shook his head sadly, "Is there anywhere we can buy those?" Riku asked.

"There's a place in town you can get the shield gummies and maybe the weapon systems, but I wouldn't count on it. As for the Navi G I think my dad's got an old one kicking around his garage from his old ship." She walked off, following the trail gouged out by the gummi ship. Riku started after her and Sora went over to sit in the grass with Kairi who was petting Luna.

"So, what do you think of Alex?" She asked him as he sat down.

"Um, I think it's nice of her to let us stay with her and to help us fix our ship." He said laying back in the grass. "You?"

"I think her and Riku would be cute together."

"What!" He bolted up and looked at her questioningly.

"Yeah, look at them." She said nodding at where they were walking away from them, side by side talking and what seemed from this distance to be laughing.

"Wow, she's actually getting him to laugh. He usually only does that when I hurt myself or something." He was happy for his best friend and yet oddly jealous.

"Yeah, they look happy." She said discreetly taking his hand. "I think when we leave we should ask her to come with us."

"Really?" he asked stifling a blush at her grabbing his hand.

"Yeah, don't you?"

"Yeah, it'd be good to even out the numbers." he agreed.

"So what are we going to do about the wings?" Riku asked when he'd caught up to her.

"Easy." Alex said as she ran off to something glinting in the grass.

"What's that?"

"A peace of an Aero gummi."

"How is that going to help us get a new wing?" He asked eying the small white gummi in her hands.

"If we can find enough of these I can make you a new wing." She said running over to another peace of flashing gummi in the grass.

"You can do that?' He asked following her.

"Of course. My dad used to be a pilot. He taught me everything about gummi ships."

"So what does he do now?"

"He's a police officer."

"Why did he decide to settle down?"

"I don't know." She seemed to be caught up in her thoughts. "He had me I guess."

"Where is your mom." At this Alex stopped.

"Hey, let me show you my tree."

"I'm sorry" He said softly. "I didn't mean to pry, I know what it's like to not want to talk about it. My Mother died eleven years ago."

"Don't apologize, and I'm sorry about your mom. I really do want to show you my tree." She gave him a small smile and led the way toward the forest.

She slowed down a bit as they entered the trees. "So which one is it?" This made her laugh. "Did you just giggle?" he asked quirking an eyebrow.

"What that was funny. She's this way." She grabbed his hand and started off deeper into the forest.

After a while they reached the base of a huge maple tree. I couldn't even reach all the way around it if there were four of me. Riku thought with awe.

All of a sudden a hand reached down from above him and he heard Alex say "Are you coming or what?"

"I don't see how you'll be able to help me up." He said doubtfully as he took her hand. He was surprised by how strong she was, she took at least half his weight as he scrabbled up the side of the tree.

It took them a while to get to where Alex deemed 'high enough'.

"So why did you want to show me this?" She was perched on a branch a few feet above him and he was leaning on a branch looking up at her.

"I don't know," She paused. "This is where I come to think. To get away from the lies my dad tells me."

"But you and your dad seem to get along great." He said confused. He watched her as she looked up at the sky. The set of her jaw seemed hard, but he could see sadness in her eyes.

"We do, but he's been feeding me lies about my mom ever since I can remember. He told me she died a few years after I was born, but I can feel that that's not true. That she's out there somewhere, alive. I can still kind of remember living in a house somewhere with both of them, my mom and dad, and some one else. I remember It was warm and smells like the beach."

"Yeah, I can still remember my mom. Her smile, her laugh, her long silver hair. That's probably why my dad's always yelling at me to cut it, because it reminds him of her. That might be why I won't cut it too, like it's a peace of her that's always with me." He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes but he was determined not to cry. It had been years since he had cried over her. It surprised him to see a single tear stream down Alex's face, but she had a small smile on her face too.

"Do you remember what she looks like?" She asked him quietly.

"Yes, she was beautiful." He looked up at her a smile spreading accost his face too and a tear leaked out of his eye.

"You're lucky, never loose that picture of her. I don't remember and I doubt I ever will." She was looking up again but he could see more tears running down her cheek.

"Where are they? They disappeared into that forest like an hour ago." Kairi said impatiently

Sora rolled his eyes at her impatiens and then looked at where they entered the forest. They had been in there for a while and he was starting to get worried, just then he saw them walking back. As they got closer he saw something glint on Alex's face but Riku quickly wiped it away and she smiled at him. "You're right, Kai, they do seem to like each other."

"I never said they liked each other, I said they would be cute together." She said, giving him her usual smile.

He stood as they approached and helped Kairi up.

"Hey, Alex said she could build us another wing if she can get enough Aero gummies." Riku told them as they got closer.

"Really you can do that?" Sora asked impressed.

"That would be really great." Kairi said happily.

"Yeah, but so far I don't have anywhere near enough so if you guys could help me find them that'd be awesome. They look like this and will be scattered around behind the ship." She said holding up a white shard of gummi.

They spent the next three hours searching for the small white gummies. When they decided to stop and rest they had a pile that almost came up to Alex's waist.

"So will this be enough to build a new wing." Sora asked absently playing with Kairi's hair. She was resting her head on his stomach. Alex was kneeling nest to the pile of gummies fiddling with some in her hands and Riku was laying on his side next to her.

"It should be enough to build the one large on but not the smaller ones. You should be able to buy those at the shop in town though."

"When can we go?" Riku asked.

"We can go today if you guys want to, though I'm going to warn you now that its going to be expensive."

"That's fine we should be able to cover it." Sora said confidently, but Alex eyed him doubtfully.

"So are we going now?" Kairi asked getting up.

"We can if you want." She said standing. They headed back towards the house so Alex could grab her bag and put Luna inside.

"So which direction is town?" Sora asked while they waited for Alex to lock her front door. Her front yard was fairly small, just about ten feet of grass to separate the house from the road.

"Its about three miles north of us, and its all basically down hill." She said hopping down her front steps towards them.

A little less than an hour later they reached the outskirts of town.

"So where is the gummi shop?" Kairi asked as they reached town.

"Well its on Second street in between North southeast street and East street." She noted the odd looks on their faces when she said the street names. "Oak Valley is the only town I've ever heard of that's in the shape of a circle. So the Streets that go out of the town all have compass directions as their names, and the ones that circle the town all have numbers that increase the farther you get from the center of town. We're on 6th street and South Street is right over there." She said pointing to their right.

It took them another twenty minuets to reach the shop. The sign above the door said 'Clyde's Laundromat'.

"You sure this is the right place." Riku asked doubtfully.

"Yeah, I'm sure, I had to pick up some stuff for my dad here once. Come on." She said opening the door and motioning for them to go in, after they had all filed in she headed over to the girl at the counter. She was reading a magazine and ether didn't notice or didn't care that they had just entered.

"Hey, We're here for some gummies."

"I don't know what you're talking about." She said not even glancing up from her magazine.

"Fine," Alex pulled something out of her pocket. "I'm looking for some of these." She held the small red gummi in the girls face."

"Clyde's in the back." She sighed motioning to the door behind her. Alex headed over to the door rolling her eyes, Sora sighed and Riku just shook his head as they passes the girl.

Behind the door was what seemed like a huge warehouse filled with gummies. "HELLO!" Alex called.

"OVER HERE" A deep scratchy voice answered. "JUST KEEP GOING FORWARD I'LL MEET YOU AT THE COUNTER"

"He sounds kinda like Cid." Sora commented quietly. Riku and Kairi nodded. They followed the voice's instructions and arrived at a large counter. Behind the counter handing on the wall were winds of all shapes and sizes, and underneath the glass of the counter were all kinds of weapon systems. Behind the counter was a tall buff blond man wearing a white shirt and an orange vest.

"Hey, Clyde. What's going on?" Alex asked.

"Nothin' much, how's yur dad." Well he sure does talk like Cid. Sora thought.

"Good but he's been working a lot with all the people missing and all."

"Yeah, well what can I do for ya?"

"Well I need two small wings," She pointed at two of the wings hanging on the wall behind Clyde. "And a ton of shield gummies."

"Well, you go pick out yur shield gummies and I'll get those wings down for ya." She nodded and motioned for them to follow her through the endless shelves. She piled Sora and Riku with boxes of gummies as they walked, by the time they were done they guys could hardly stand.

"Hey Clyde, do you know a guy by the name Cid?" Sora asked after they had dropped the boxes on the counter.

"Cid, yeah he's my big brother. How do you know him?"

"He's a good friend of ours." Riku said with his arms crossed reminding him a lot of Leon.

"He did alot of work on our gummi ship and helped us out of a couple spots."

"Yeah, that sounds like him." He said ringing up the boxes "Anything else?"

"Yeah, we need some weapon systems too. Guys you want to pick them out?" They nodded and picked out ten new systems.

"You have your pilots license?" Clyde asked them. Sora pulled out his license and Clyde nodded. "Alright that'll be 200,000 munny."

Alex was shocked to see Sora just nod and hand him the munny.

"Um, Alex how are we going to get this all back to your house?" Kairi asked.

"I'll have one of my guys drive it up for you, kay Alex?"

"Thanks Clyde. That'd be awesome." She smiled and waved as they left.

An hour and a half latter they were back at Alex's house. They let Luna out and went out to the back yard. Standing there waiting for them was the strange woman from before.

"You again!" Alex exclaimed. Sora was about to call Oblivion when Kairi shook her head.

"She's not a Nobody or a heartless. I'm not sure what she its." Riku told them.

"Ah, well if it isn't the two keblade twins. They've finally had their reunion."

"Who are you?" Alex shouted at her angrily.

"Yes I guess it is rude of me to not introduce myself. Fine, I am Kurai. I guess I should go I've got things do do, almost done though bye." She laughed and it almost looked like she blew away in the wind.

"Who was that?" Sora asked.

"I'm not sure, she showed up the other day and said 'you and your friends aren't safe.'"

"What did she mean by reunion of the keblade twins?" Riku asked.

"I don't know what she meant by reunion but she might have ment keblade twins becuase...I've got a keyblade too." She said surprising them by calling Deceit to her. Sora silently called Oblivion and held it up to Deceit. They looked very similar except the chain going along the length of Oblivion rapped around the length of Deceit, and Deceit was covered in fire.

"I know what she meant by twins." They all looked up as Alex's father approached.

"Dad When did you get here?"

"Right as she left. She said the twins where reunited because you really are twins"

Yay for cliffhangers. I really couldn't figure out how to finish this and then I wrote that ha c(X