[AU: Refreshing Notion]

[Hinted Lea X Ventus, Roxas and Sora as friends]

Lea frowns at his older siblings. "Come on, Axel! Reno! Why won't you let me play Xbox with you?"

"Because Halo Reach is a brand new game that must only be played by experts on the Halo series," Axel replies curtly. "Go find Ven and play something on his Xbox, if you want to play so badly."

"Yeah, what he said," Reno adds mindlessly, his eyes completely fixated on the plasma-screen television.

In a huff, Lea turns and storms out of the house, venturing across the yard to his neighbor's house. Cloud answers the door. "What can I do for you, Lea?" the tall blond asks with a slight smile. In the background, Lea can hear Zack (Cloud's friend, but Lea knows better; those two have to be more than friends) chatting with Roxas.

"See, I've got a little problem, Cloud. My brothers are being dickwads and refuse to let me play Halo with them. So I actually took their advice when they suggested I play video games with someone else. So, I was wondering…?" the redhead explains, his young face twisted into a hopeful, shy grin. Lea is hardly shy otherwise, but when it comes to Cloud, he's a bit unnerved. The guy has this aura about him…

"Say no more. I'll get him," Cloud says, and with a waving motion, permits Lea inside the house. "Ven!" the tall blond hollers. "Visitor!"

There is a quiet crashing, and then the sound of someone rushing down the stairs. As soon as Ventus spots Lea waiting with a grin in his doorway, the younger blond smiles. "Hi, Lea. Was wondering when you'd show up again."

"Well, you know. I got no one else to bother; Isa lives halfway across town, and I doubt Saϊx would appreciate me dropping in unannounced anyhow." He chuckles. "So… you're my second choice."

"Gee, thanks," Ven chuckles sarcastically. He finishes going down the last two steps before joining Lea in the living room. "Insults aside, shall we venture downstairs?"

"We shall," Lea muses, and follows his friend to the family room, where the best entertainment system in the house resides.

Ven's twin Roxas and his best friend Sora are already on the system, playing a duo round of the Watchmen video game. Roxas bites his lips in concentration as he tackles a thug as Rorschach, and Sora yelps in surprise and a different thug springs up behind Nite Owl, his playing character.

"Aw, come on you guys, we wanted to play," Lea whines, and hangs his head. "Is there no justice in the world?"

"You could always use the other TV and take the Wii with you," Roxas says without taking his eyes off of the screen.

"Yeah," Sora pipes up, cheerfully pausing the game and sending the two other boys a smile. "You can play Super Smash Brothers Brawl if you want."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Lea remarks with a wave of his hand. "I realize that I'm a lazy bum anyway. So, Ven," he says, turning to his friend, "Would you rather do something daring?"

The blond tilts his head and eyes the devious smirk making its way across Lea's lips. "…Like what?" he asks cautiously.

Lea snorts a laugh and grins wickedly, his eyes closing for a moment. "Oh, I dunno… maybe like a prank call or two?"

"You wouldn't!" Ventus fake-gasps. He knows all to well that yes, Lea would.

The redhead laughs and puts his arm around Ven as he leads them up the stairs again, toward the other staircase that leads to Ven's room. "I would. And I think it'd be fun to prank some of our other friends, since they're good sports."

Ven frowns. "This could go totally south, you know," he warns. "Especially if you plan on pranking Terra or Aqua; they have college work to do. Semester finals are coming up!"

"I know, I know," Lea assures, brushing the remark aside. "That's why I was planning on pranking some of our other friends, like Demyx and Myde, Xion, Kairi and Naminé, and of course Ienzo and Zexion."

Ven stares at the redhead for a moment before replying, "You're going to get me into a lot of trouble, aren't you?"

"Got that little factoid memorized, I see," he lightly teases in return. "But yes, I am. For the rest of your life, too, I might add."

"Great," Ventus shoots back with a roll of his eyes. "What a refreshing notion that is: someone sticking with me for life only to ruin it."