Notes:

Song of the arc: Your Affection by Shihoko Hirata

Song of the chapter: Afternoon of Konoha by Musashi Project

"You guys doing okay?" Roxas asked, worried about the former Nobody. He was in his bed inside his room. It was early morning and instead of training with his master he was trying his hardest to even reach him.

"Mmm," Naminé confirmed over the gummiphone. Roxas did not want to note her new dress or how happy she seemed even though she was stuck there. Away from them. "Sorry Riku didn't pick up. I'm sure he was busy."

"Nah, it's fine, I didn't mean to reach you over Kingstagram about it. Tell that guy to handle his own duties, you shouldn't need to help him out." Roxas said annoyed over his master who was barely older than him.

Naminé giggled, "Some guys are just hopeless, Xion would understand if I told her."

Roxas' cheeks grew a shade of pink. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

Naminé gave her trademark smile. "Nevermind, tell everyone I'll see them soon. Okay? Be good and don't get into trouble."

Roxas lingered on the call not wanting to say goodbye but he did need to start his day. He had plans, after all. Exiting his room he found Demyx was strumming his sitar in the main room of the Old Mansion. He seemed unable to find the right tone of song he wanted so he kept starting and stopping. Demyx noticed Roxas at the foot of the stairs and gave him an unenthusiastic wave. "Hey Rox."

"Hey Freeloader," Roxas replied. Demyx seemed to not mind. Not working was his specialty after all. "Lea already leave?"

"Yeah, I think he's out with Isa." He finally found a sound he liked and kept the pace of his fingers. "You know, I think Xion is in the kitchen. How about asking her about breakfast?"

Roxas sighed, "You're the real hopeless one," he said under his breath as he went to the kitchen. The kitchen was plain, just a fridge and several cabinets on the floor and some on one of the walls and a cupboard. He saw various ingredients on the table as Xion inspected them. "Uh Xion? What are you doing?"

She noticed him and smiled, "Lea said he'd take care of dinners but, well, do you think we've relied on Naminé too much?" Roxas Turned his head in a questioning manner. "She was making dinners, doing the bulk of the cleaning, she even helped manage the munny."

"When you say it like that it makes us all sound like freeloaders." Roxas indignantly.

"So I had an idea! We obviously have to keep up with the chores while Naminé is away and when she gets back we make her dinner! It's the least we can do!" Xion shined as she spoke. He felt like he could do anything when she was like this.

"Okay, so you're starting with learning how to cook I guess?" He looked out at all the ingredients.

"Well, I guess. To be honest… I'm kind of lost on what to even try to make." She put her index finger and her thumb across her chin and sighed. "And it's not like we can ask Naminé for pointers." Xion snapped her fingers. "I've got it! Remember the first thing Naminé cooked for us when we first started living here?"

"Um, no."

"Geez, you're hopeless." Xion said, shaking her head with a smile. For some reason it felt… different coming from her. Less bad? Roxas couldn't explain it as she went to separate what she needed. "It was a whole roast chicken, roasted potatoes, steamed vegetables, and a salad!"

"You're gonna try and make all that? I don't know, it seems really complicated to roast a whole chicken. Shouldn't you try to make something a little easier first?" Roxas tried to reason with her but her mind seemed made up.

"I want to show her that she doesn't have to be here for us all the time. That, you know, we can pull our own weight." Xion beamed another smile. "Heck, what'll we do if she's ever gone again?"

"I'd definitely rather not live off of takeout for the rest of our lives. Alright but what about the chicken? It's not like we have a raw one in the fridge." Xion took another look as Roxas thought about what he could do elsewhere. "I'll go do some laundry. That should be easy right?"

"Probably? Naminé said she was "glad Ansem paid for a washing machine this time" so it's probably easier however she had to do it before." Xion looked in the freezer section of the fridge. "Eureka!" She pulled out a bag of frozen assorted parts of a chicken. "This'll be good enough for a test run!"

He left Xion to her work, sitting around would not get his chore done any faster. There was a basket of used towels in the bathroom he could use so he brought those to where the washer and dryer were and stared at the washing machine after he loaded it. A knob for time and a knob for soil level? He thought to himself, well, it's a heavy duty, so that makes sense to make sure they're clean and a long time as well. There was even a slot for detergent so he filled it to the brim.

Roxas should have asked Naminé how to work this before she left. Honestly, he felt bad about leaving so much to her. They've been so wrapped up in training and Roxas personally wanted to spend as much time with Lea and Xion as he could that he pushed so much work on Naminé. Not anymore, he thought, now Xion and I are gonna help out more so she can relax.

Which would have been fine until bubbles started coming out of the washer. Roxas tried to stop the machine but he barely knew hot to start it. Crap, crap, crap! Soon the floor filled with bubbles as the washer started to shake as water overflowed from it. He also heard the fire alarm go off. Xion! He rushed off back to the kitchen leaving the mess.

Xion had panicked and taken out the tray she had put the chicken on and it was currently on fire. "I thought if I turned up the temperature it would save time!" Smoke filled the room as the two panic on what to do until a stream of water burst forth from the hall as Demyx still strumming on his sitar had taken a look at the damage.

"Yeah, you two should probably ask for help next time. Rox, you've also flooded the place." Roxas and Xion rushed towards the washer and found Demyx had turned it off but left the suds lie on the ground with all the water.

"I guess we're both hopeless," Xion said dejectedly.

"Maybe, Lea knows how or Isa? I guess this proves we should ask Naminé how to do more chores." Roxas was also bummed out they tried to clean up their mess from trying to clean up.

Lea had a fine day, a fine day indeed. He personally never had such a care to train every day so this unexpected break had been fine. Spending more time with Roxas and Xion was something he never had to think twice about and now that Isa was back to being a somebody he started dating him. Life was comparatively much better than the long, lonely years in the organization.

After some much needed quality time with Isa today at his apartment and getting some burgers and fries from a locale spot he decided it was time to go back to the mansion. He and Isa were walking through the underground conduit as Isa spoke up, "We should really petition the town to replace part of the wall with a proper way to walk through to the forest."

"I know what you mean, luckily areo spells cut the smell down considerably." Lea said. "But you know what would be even better?"

"For the last time, Lea. The answer is still no."

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

"I will not be moving in with you."

"Okay, so you did."

The blue haired man with the x scar sighed. "How many times do I need to tell you? It's fine, I like living alone."

"Isa your flat has the toilet literally in the kitchen." Lea said immediately.

"Which is why I eat at your table."

Lea pouted. "Can you at least give me a real reason then? You come over all the time, you eat with us, heck you do your laundry at our place." Isa looked away for a moment. "Is it about Xion?" Isa did not even try to answer. "Nail on the head?"

"I was… not a very nice Nobody. Especially to her." Isa face contorted as he recalled some of the things he said about the girl.

"Hey come on, you know she's better than that. She'd never hold any of that against you." Lea's reasoning made sense. Their little friend had the most emotional intelligence out of all of them and definitely knew the kinds of pain not truly having a heart has on a person.

"I know she wouldn't." He said it so casually as he cast another aero spell. "You don't think that's the problem?"

"Well if you want I'll bend you over my knee and I can spank you until you feel like you've repented."

"Ew, keep your fantasies to yourself. You'll spoil my appetite."

"Can you fault a guy for trying?"

"Yes, absolutely."

Lea did not know what to say, usually a good bit of joking around made things better but this time… "Man, don't make me get serious." He said under his breath. "Look, how about you start off by saying you're sorry." Isa's face turned a shade of pink. "What? You haven't even said sorry yet? Geez, you're a hopeless kind of guy."

"Shut up, like it's an easy thing to do. Oh, Xion, sorry I called you a puppet and took away your personhood. I can't just say something like that."

"You literally can, you just did." The two bickering fools nagged at each other all the way to the Old Mansion. Going through the gates they opened the door and let out a cloud of black smoke. "Oh good, it looks like they've been having fun all day."