Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Asleep again?" Roxas asked. Face buried in his arms on his desk, red hair sticking out in all directions, Axel's only response was to snore. Roxas dropped his backpack right onto the pile of papers Axel was supposed to be grading with a wham.

"YAAAGH!" Axel screeched, jerking upright. He groaned and rubbed at his face when he saw it was Roxas. "Geez, you wanna give me a heart attack?"

"You're the worst TA ever," Roxas informed him, re-shouldering his backpack. "Exactly how much of this office hour were you even awake for?"

Axel flipped through the small stack of papers he'd been sleeping on. "Three…ooh, four essays! A record! Listen, it's not my fault freshmen write the worst article reviews in the universe, they don't know any better." Yawning, Axel scooped up the papers and jammed them in his messenger bag. "Gosh, look at the time, let's get you home!"

"I'm an hour early." Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so excited about that?"

"Uh, because you live above a coffee shop," Axel answered, shooing Roxas out the door to the TA's office. "And I'm best friends with the owner's brother so he usually doesn't charge me."

"it's weird to have my TA call me his best friend," Roxas said, although he didn't say it wasn't true. "And quit scamming Sora, he's too nice to tell you off."

"But I'm so tired, Rox! And so poor!" Axel rifled the pockets of his oversized black hoodie, and then his jeans. "Also sometimes he gives me cookies. Yo, did you memorize where the heck I put my keys this morning?"

Twilight Town College was pretty now that it was late spring and everything was green again. The wind was still a little cold on Roxas's face, riding on the back of Axel's Vespa, but it was only a couple blocks off campus to Dream Drip, the tiny coffee shop Sora and Roxas ran and lived above.

They came in the back, through the kitchen, and found Xion trying to organize a tray of cookies. Sora's penchant for unusual cookie shapes made it difficult for any organization to stick.

"Xion, up high!" Axel called cheerfully, holding his hand up ridiculously too high for Xion to high-five him. Xion elbowed him in the stomach instead "Oof!"

"You're back early," she said to Roxas.

"Fricking Professor Even didn't show up again," Roxas complained. "Too busy with his little lab group of teacher's pets. We waited for fifteen minutes, that's all he gets."

"You hate that class, so I don't know why you're complaining," Xion said. She thwapped Axel's hand with her spatula as he reached for a cookie.

"It's the principle of the—" Roxas paused as Sora's voice carried through the door, laughter pitched higher than usual. "Who the heck is Sora talking to? It's usually dead in here for another hour."

"Ohhh, you haven't seen yet." Xion chuckled. She headed for the door, waving for Roxas and Axel to follow her. "So there's a new delivery guy? He's really cute."

They hadn't changed the house much to turn the bottom floor into the coffee shop, just added some extra chairs and odd tables and beanbags around the front room. Across the room from the kitchen door, they'd built a large service counter and a display case for baked goods. Sora was standing behind the counter, and another guy was standing with his back to Roxas, wearing the bright red ball cap and windbreaker of the Twilight Town local package delivery company.

Sora was chattering on at him, too quickly, grinning brightly and starting to lean just a bit more than usual across the counter.

"Awww," Axel cooed. "That's adorable."

"What the heck," Roxas grumbled. Sora often talked too fast when he was overexcited but this was ridiculous even for him. "Oh my god, look at his face."

"So, no filters, huh?" the courier said.

"Oh gosh, what?" Sora cut off mid-sentence, going pink. "Did I say that out loud? What did I say?"

"He's delivering the coffee filters, Sora!" Xion called. Sora flushed pink all across his nose and stuttered something unintelligible. The courier turned, and Roxas scowled as he recognized Riku.

"You! What are you doing here?" Roxas demanded. Crossing the room, he ducked under the counter and shouldered Sora back a little, crossing his arms.

"You guys know each other?" Sora asked, looking from Roxas to Riku.

"He's in like half my classes!" Roxas said. "I told you about him, he's the jerk who always asks some complicated question like five minutes before the class is about to end."

"So sorry for coming to college to learn," Riku said, face expression going to blank neutral. "Aren't you the guy who came to class in Moogle pajama pants for a week straight?"

"Don't you have a job to get back to, pretty boy?" Roxas snapped.

"Roxas!" Sora scolded. "Be nice!"

"No, he's right, I have to finish my deliveries." Riku picked his clipboard up off the counter and nodded at Sora. "See you later, Sora."

"Bye, Riku!" Sora waved a little. He kept on waving as Riku turned and went out their front door, eyes tracking him walk down the porch steps and climb onto his bike.

Roxas eyed Sora critically. "Every dude on this campus, and you've gotta pick that guy?"

"He's so nice," Sora sighed. Xion and Axel were snickering openly, but Sora didn't even seem to notice. "And so tall. And ponytail. And soooo tall."

"For the love of…would you stop waving, he's gone!" Roxas slapped Sora's hand down. "Get a hold of yourself, seriously."

"Well, I think it's cute!" Axel said, leaning on his elbows on the counter from the customer side. His grin was sharp, obviously encouraging Sora just to wind Roxas up tighter. "Crushes are fun, right? Loosen up, Rox."

"Yeah, Roxas!" Sora agreed, putting his hands on his hips and sticking his tongue out at Roxas. "Axel, you can have a cookie, for supporting me in my distress."

"For fucking serious," Roxas muttered, tying on his apron and trying to ignore Axel casually pumping Sora for all the details. Sora was only too happy to have someone to gush to about all the developments since Riku had replaced their last delivery person, and Axel was happy to be a friendly ear so long as his coffee kept getting refilled.

Riku's appearances in the next few weeks were regular enough that Roxas became somewhat inured to him, and to the hour of dopey, distracted Sora that followed every Riku delivery. After a week of it, Roxas started sending Sora to the kitchen to bake immediately after Riku left, just to get him out from underfoot. The flavors and shapes of cookies he came back with afterwards were always a bit odd, but they still tasted good.

"What even are these?" Roxas asked, watching Sora ice three dozen cutely rounded animals in blue with little pink hearts on their chests. "Are these cats or dogs?"

"Yes," Sora answered, giving them some cute yellow spots.

"Look, just ask him out already," Roxas ordered, making Sora squish the pastry bag too hard, yellow going everywhere.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sora sniffed, picking up his tray of cookies and sashaying back to the kitchen dramatically like a heroine in a daytime drama.

"You aren't subtle!" Roxas yelled after him. "Everybody knows!"

"Oh, leave him alone," Xion chided, bringing a tray of mismatched cups and mugs back to the counter. "It's sweet that he's shy. He's your brother, can't you be nice?"

"You don't understand what Sora's like," Roxas said flatly. Xion opened her mouth, but Roxas cut her off. "Shut up and listen. He's always like this, he never goes after something he wants for himself. He just smiles and says he's fine, don't worry about him. He wouldn't sign up for college with me because he's afraid of wasting our parents' money. I've begged him to apply for culinary school, to apprentice at the Bistro or something, anything! He won't do it, even though he's paying our entire rent just with cookies alone. He's just…" Roxas heaved a frustrated sigh. "Always like this. He won't make a move, ever, I promise you. Even if Riku came in here in a stripper version of that delivery uniform and yanked it right off."

"Stooooop," Xion wailed, cracking up so hard she had to lean on the counter. "Gross! How am I supposed to keep a straight face when he's in here next!"

Eventually Sora came back out of the kitchen like nothing had ever happened, and Roxas dropped it. They set up a tray of his weirdo cookies in the display case, and even though Roxas mocked his silly name of Meow Wows, they were almost sold out of them by the end of the afternoon.

"See? And you made fun of me," Sora gloated, leaning with his back against the counter. "Your big brother! Show some respect, kid."

"Yeah, yeah," Roxas answered. Sora was so occupied boasting that he didn't notice Riku come through the open door behind him, a large box tucked under his arm. Roxas nudged Xion, and muttered, "Watch this." Raising his voice, Roxas said, "Hey Sora, there's a guy with a really nice package behind you."

"Ha, ha, Roxas." Sora rolled his eyes. "Would you quit teasing me already about th—"

"Um," Riku interrupted, making Sora freeze with his mouth open. Eyes wide, Sora turned slowly to see Riku standing there awkwardly. "Hi."

"Hi!" Sora squeaked. "I uhhhh have to go. Away. To the back! To get things from the back bye!"

Sora fled so quickly that his sneakers squeaked on the hardwood, leaving Riku, Roxas, and Xion all staring at each other.

"You're kind of a dick, you know," Riku said, setting the box down on the counter and handing Roxas the clipboard to sign.

"Takes one to know one, delivery boy," Roxas retorted. "Feel free to man up anytime."

"Shut up and give me one of those cookies." Riku pointed to the Meow Wows. "Are those dogs or cats?"

"Yes," answered Roxas.

As predicted, Sora did not make a move, even when it was patently clear to everyone in the coffee shop and probably also to people on the moon that Riku was also interested. Riku began doing school work in the coffee shop a few afternoons a week, bringing a sleek silver laptop and with dork glasses perched on his nose. He didn't even like coffee that much, and soon Sora had pots of looseleaf on the menu and was having Riku taste-test lavender buttercream.

"I'm going to actually murder him," Roxas complained to Xion during Saturday afternoon rush. The whole place was full, customers spilling out to floor cushions tossed out on the porch in the fair weather, and Sora was hovering around Riku's table, chattering with him and the friend he'd brought instead of wiping down tables like he was supposed to be doing. "I'm gonna ban that guy from the building during peak hours."

"Don't you dare, his friend is super cute," Xion said. "Her name's Namine, and she's an art major." Xion wiggled her eyebrows; Roxas had no idea what, if anything, saying "art major" like that was supposed to imply.

"You and blondes," Roxas crabbed, past his limit. "Don't you even start! There's no way I'm putting up with two of you at once!"

"No worries about that," Xion said, giving Roxas a wink. "Unlike your brother, I have no trouble telling someone cute what I'm interested in."

"I hate all of you!" Roxas called as Xion strolled away. "You're all the worst!"

It all came to a head during mid-term week. Sora always kept the shop open late during midterms and finals weeks; they'd learned first semester it was an easy way to take a lot of extra money from a lot of desperate college kids. Roxas spent hours on two take-home essay exams in between Axel trying to help him cram for his psychology exam, and then had to pull an all-nighter on Thursday when Riku accidentally revealed an assignment in one of their shared classes that Roxas had missed on the syllabus.

So Roxas was not at his best on Friday afternoon when he came home from his grueling psych final and found Dream Drip an absolute disaster area after their afternoon rush. Xion had gone home with a miserable cold just after the rush had ended, leaving Sora to reset on his own. Instead of putting anything to rights, Sora was leaning on the counter wiping off the same mug over and over, watching Riku type on his laptop with a schmoopy, lovesick expression.

Roxas lost his entire temper all at once, but it all happened on the inside, quietly.

"Sora," he said, voice deadly calm, "I need you to go grab some cups from the pantry."

"Hmm?" Sora asked. He dragged his gaze away from his beloved delivery nerd and blinked at Roxas. "Oh, yeah. Cups. Sure."

There had to be three full sleeves of cups sitting on the back counter, but Sora drifted by them, preoccupied. Roxas gave him to the count of three after reaching the kitchen to lean across the counter. "Hey, Riku!"

"Me?" Riku asked, looking up from his laptop.

"Yes, you." Roxas pointed to the kitchen. "Sora need some stuff off the really high shelf in the pantry, go make yourself useful."

"Sure?" Riku looked a little dubious, but he got up and went. Roxas gave it another count of three and followed.

The kitchen had an enclosed pantry big enough for maybe two adults to stand in, barely, and as Roxas came into the kitchen, Riku was standing just inside the doorway of it, asking Sora what he needed help with.

"Me? I don't…" Sora noticed Roxas over Riku's shoulder. "Roxas, what—"

Roxas gave Riku a hard shove between the shoulder blades, making him stumble further into the pantry, into Sora, and then Roxas shut the door on them with a satisfying slam and turned the lock.

"Hey!" Sora shouted. "Quit fooling around!"

"No!" Roxas shouted back. "I can't take it anymore! You can't come out until you say you like each other!"

"What?!" Sora demanded. There was a muffled thump, probably Riku trying to shoulder the door, but it didn't budge. "Roxas, you jackass, open this door! I'm telling mom on you!"

"Confess or I'm leaving you in there!" Roxas roared. There was some muffled muttering, then silence. "Have it your way! I'll be back in an hour, so you two better make out or hook up or I don't care what, or I'm leaving you in there all night!"

Ignoring the yelling and banging on the door behind him, Roxas strolled out of the kitchen and went to start cleaning up the wreckage of their coffee shop. With Xion and Sora out of commission, there was only one other place to turn for help; fortunately he was already curled up the big armchair in the corner, napping.

"Rox, buddy, best friend," Axel groaned when Roxas shook him. "Please let me sleep."

"Get up, shitty TA," Roxas ordered. "Sora and Riku won't be out of the closet for at least an hour and this place is a wreck! I'll pay you in cookies."

Axel cracked an eye. "I didn't think either one of them was ever exactly in the closet—"

"AXEL!"

"Ok, ok, geez…"

It was only about forty-five minutes before Roxas started feeling guilty for his meltdown. Leaving Axel to finish washing the last tub of mugs and plates, Roxas went back into the kitchen and listened for a second at the pantry door, but didn't hear anything incriminating.

"Hey, guys?" Roxas knocked on the door, then flipped the lock. "I'm gonna open the door."

He had planned to apologize too, but when he pulled the door open, Sora and Riku were both looking sheepishly in opposite directions, both a little pink and hair mussed. Sora was retying his apron quickly, and Riku's button-down was off by one button.

"Uh-huh," Roxas said dryly. "So we're all settled then, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, we like each other and stuff," Sora said, grabbing Roxas in a headlock and mussing up his hair. "But you're still a jerk!"

"Soraaaa." Roxas took his punishment, knowing he deserved it. "Also I told Axel he could name his price in cookies for helping me clean up."

"Whaaat?" Sora groaned, releasing Roxas. "Oh well, whatever." He offered Riku a shy smile. "Should we forgive him?"

"He doesn't look very sorry," Riku said, grinning back. "As his barista, I think you should ground him."

Chapter Text

"Ask him," Roxas ordered, grabbing Sora by the shoulders and dragging him out of Dream Drip Distance's doorway and out onto the porch.

"Ask me what?" Riku asked, head tilted and the box of season flavor syrups Sora had ordered balanced against his hip like it weighed nothing. Late afternoon sunshine caught in the flyaways sticking out from under Riku's red delivery cap, turning them gold.

"Err," Sora faltered, distracted and wretched under Riku's attentive gaze. "It's nothing, just, here, come in and put that down, you can, um, it's heavy right?"

"Not really?" Riku said. Sora pivoted on his heel as if Riku had agreed, then had to hop back a step when the cafe door shut in his face.

Roxas gave him a threatening look through the glass panel in the door, and flipped the deadbolt with a loud click. "Ask him."

"Roxaaaaaas," Sora whined. Roxas flipped the door sign to "Closed" and crossed his arms. Huffing a sigh, Sora turned back to Riku, who was looking puzzled but amused. "You know how the Arts House has a party? This weekend?"

"Sure," Riku said neutrally. "The Arts House does a Halloween party every year."

"Oh! Well…" Sora trailed off as Riku continued just staring at him. Why was forcing words out so hard when Riku was looking at him! "Do you ever go to it?"

"No," Riku said. He and Sora stared at each other some more.

"Oh my god," Roxas muttered, muffled by the door. "RIKU, WILL YOU GO TO THE ARTS HOUSE PARTY WITH ME AS A NON PLATONIC DATE ACTIVITY."

"Riku," Sora repeated miserably as Riku's mouth twisted in an effort not to laugh, "will you go to the Arts House party with me as a—"

"Yes, yes, ok, please stop," Riku started laughing openly. "Roxas, open the door already, these are actually heavy as hell. How many flavors did you even order?"

"All of them," Sora muttered, cheeks on fire. "I meant to order just pumpkin but they had campfire marshmallow and cranberry and maple syrup. If you don't want to go to the party, you don't have to."

"No!" Roxas scolded as they shuffled in the doorway past him. "No takebacksies!"

"Naminé put you up to this, didn't she?" Riku asked Roxas critically. He hefted the delivery box onto the counter with a heavy whunk. "Oof. She's been trying to drag me to that thing ever since we were second years in high school."

"Naminé, shmamine," Roxas said airily. "I'm just tired of watching this guy emo bake bat cookies because he can't man up and ask you on a date even though you already defiled the pantry with your kissy cooties."

"Are you five? Shut up!" Sora shoved at Roxas's shoulder, pink creeping up the back of his neck. "Who locked us in there, huh?!"

"Your mom," Roxas retorted, shoving back.

"YOUR MOM," Sora hollered.

"The bat cookies are very cute though," Riku said loyally, interrupting their slapfight. A tray of them was sitting on the counter from when Sora had been interrupted by Riku and Roxas's arrival, iced in colors no bat had ever been even at Halloween. "What flavor are they?"

"The pink and yellow ones are lemon thyme," Sora said. "The purple and blue ones are chocolate mint. Wanna try one?" Riku picked up a yellow one, examining it's cheerful grin before biting off a wing. Smug warmth filled Sora's chest at how Riku's expression melted at the taste; Sora was partial to the lemon version himself. "Naminé ordered a couple dozen for the party, but Roxas says my flavors are too experimental for drunk Arts House kids. Axel says they're not experimental enough."

"They're really good," Riku chuckled. "I think you've got the art major stoner market cornered with these." He popped the last bite of the cookie in his mouth and dusted his hands off. "All right, I have to go finish my deliveries. But I'll see you this weekend?"

"It's a date!" Sora said cheerfully. He snuck a quick hug from Riku before his awkwardness could kick back in, butterflies filling his stomach at Riku's quick ruffle of his hair. The butterflies stayed even after Riku had gone. Sora grinned goofily at Roxas, making Roxas roll his eyes. "It's a date!"

"Flipping finally," Roxas said, but he smiled back, self-satisfied. "Now help me come up with some weird monster pun drink names, since you bought all these weird syrup flavors."

"Watch the master at work, little brother," Sora declared, plucking the little chalkboard slate off its stand to wipe it clean. "I think we'll start with a little Blackberry Magic, and then Death by Hot Chocolate, obviously. Campfire Marshmallow can be…Vampire Marshmallow. In Transylvania, marshmallows bite you!"

"Oof," Roxas groaned at Sora's puns. "I think I preferred the emo baking."

*****

Four days and dozens of bat cookies later, along with some pumpkin cream cheese cookies Axel had talked him into, Xion was helping Sora carry the boxes of cookies over to the art house. The sun was just setting, everything washed in pinks and purples, leaves crunched under their boots, and the air was pleasantly crisp. Xion was in high spirits and rather dashing in her Prince Charming costume, plastic sword swinging at her side and cape fluttering in the wind as they strolled across campus. Even the gold crown circlet nestled against her dark hair, cheap plastic though it was, suited her.

"I look silly next to you," Sora said, frowning at his homemade vampire costume. He'd been too busy baking and serving people pumpkin spice coffees to sort it out properly, so he and Roxas had thrown his costume together that afternoon. Sora had streaked some red food dye down a white V-neck and shredded the arms off an old black hoodie, while Roxas sacrificed his compact foldable umbrella to make him a little pair of batwings. Axel had insisted Sora needed some makeup to make the look pop; Sora had had some misgivings but had to admit, Axel did draw a mean pair of wings, and the smoky eyeshadow job ringing his eyes made their blue wide and luminous.

"You look great!" Xion assured, bumping her shoulder into Sora's. "Riku'll definitely let you take a bite out of him."

"Xion!" Sora laughed. "When did you get so spicy anyway? Namine's a bad influence."

"Mm, she can't help it." Xion winked. "She's an art major."

"Nobody knows what it means when you say 'art major' like that," Sora protested, but Xion only laughed and explained nothing.

The Art House party was already well underway when they arrived even though it wasn't full dark yet; pregaming was a time-honored Arts House tradition before any Friday night party, all the more so when the Arts students didn't have to go anywhere else for the party. They passed plenty of costumes more half-assed than Sora's, some barely a quarter of an ass, and skirted around the cluster of people sloshing water everywhere as they bobbed for apples in a clawed bathtub.

"Xion!" Naminé called over the throb of the music, waving from the other side of the room. "Sora! Over here!" Sora and Xion made it across the room by weaving this way and that around people trying to decide if they were drunk enough to dance yet. Finally they found Naminé clearing a space on a chaotically painted beer pong table for Sora's cookies, in between a huge punchbowl of crushed-oreo dirt and a white sheet cake that said "LET'S GET SHEET-FACED" in dripping red letters.

"What are you supposed to be?" Sora asked, eyeing Naminé's costume curiously. She was wearing a lime green sundress with no obvious ornamentation, and a headband with two big googley eyes.

"You can't guess?" Naminé asked, smiling sweetly. She tapped her cheek, and Xion leaned in to kiss it with exaggerated smooching noise. "Hm, anything?"

"Nope," Xion sighed, hand on her hip. "Not a princess yet!"

"Darn, we'll just have to keep trying," Naminé said, tugging Xion's arm around her waist.

"OH! Oh my god, you're the frog!" Sora cracked up when he realized; Naminé preened, pleased by his reaction. "Man, you two are way funnier than me!"

"Oh, tell him he's cute, he's having the vapors over it," Xion chuckled, shaking her head.

"You're a very adorable vampire," Naminé assured easily. "Even if you let Axel do your makeup, poor dear. Riku will love it anyway; I sent him to get drinks a minute ago, so he should be right back."

By the time the three of them had set the cookies out from the boxes, Riku did indeed appear, holding two plastic solo cups, and wearing his Twilight Delivery red cap and jacket.

"Riku!" Sora groaned, regretting worrying about his own costume for even one second. "What the heck kind of costume is that?"

"Oh, well, I had work all afternoon so I didn't have time for much, but…" Riku ducked his head sheepishly and turned around. The back of his jacket had a new label affixed over its usual logo, reading 'Pizza Planet.' "The guy in the room next to Naminé's does screen printing and made it for me. Apparently now I make deliveries to infinity and beyond."

"I guess that's acceptable," Sora allowed. Somehow even the shittiness of Riku's costume was charming, which was how Sora knew he had it bad.

"Here, take this one," Riku said, handing Sora one of the cups in his hand, and passing the other to Naminé. "I have no idea what it is, my choices were red or green."

Sora took a long sip; the drink was sweet and burned all the way down, dangerously smooth. After another swallow, he handed the cup back to Riku. "How drunk do you have to be before I can get you to dance?"

Riku considered the inside of his cup, then looked over his shoulder at the people already drunk enough to dance. "Maybe two of these." Riku threw back the rest of the drink; Sora's eyes tracked the bob of Riku's throat as he swallowed. Riku grimaced. "Maybe just one. Your wings are very cute."

"You like them?" Sora asked shyly. The knot of warmth in his stomach was only partially due to alcohol. "We had to murder Roxas's umbrella in an arcane black magic ritual."

"They match your bat cookies," Riku said seriously.

"Are they flirting?" Naminé asked Xion in a loud whisper. Sora shot her a dirty look. "They're so bad at it, it's almost cute."

Sora stuck his tongue out. "Come on, Riku, let's get you another one of these." He hooked his arm through Riku's and pulled him in the direction of the kitchen, trying not to be too obvious about how he was feeling up Riku's bicep through his jacket. How was this guy even real?

Riku was looking down at him, a smile lurking just at the corner of his mouth, as if he was thinking the same thing about Sora. "Lead the way."

Chapter Text

“See you later!” Sora paused loading mugs into his bus tray to wave at the last of the regulars going out the door. He heaved a sigh of relief as the door swung shut. “Whew! Man, why do we even have open mic night?”

“Uh, because we service a college campus,” Roxas replied, distracted while cleaning the espresso machine. “And you love open mic night.”

“I really do,” Sora chuckled, hefting the tray mugs back up and lugging them over to the counter. “And we always sell a million brownies.”

“Because you told everyone they were special brownies!”

“They are special! I put cinnamon in them.” Sora grinned at the exasperated look Roxas threw over his shoulder. “Hey, is Axel ok? He’s been staring at his laptop since before open mic started. He didn’t even look up when beat poetry guy started up, and he loves heckling that guy.”

“His advisor told him he has to have two chapters turned in by the end of winter break,” Roxas said. Both of them looked across the room, to the corner where Axel had his head in his hands. “He’s just in the zone, he’s fine.”

Xion came up, finishing sweeping up. “His laptop isn’t plugged into anything. He’s been staring at a black screen since kazoo Wonderwall.”

“Yikes,” Sora said, he and Roxas grimacing. Sora patted the pizza box on the counter left over from their rushed dinner earlier. “Axel? Buddy? Want some pizza?”

“Oh, stop feeding him, it’s why he never leaves,” Roxas said, fitting the cover back on the machine.

“Shut up, he’s not a stray cat.” Sora shook the pizza box, the last few slices rattling inside. “Axel! Pspspsps!”

“Oh, give me that,” Xion laughed, taking the box out of Sora’s hands and shoving the broom into them. “Snap out of it, Axel, it’s not that bad.”

“I’m never going to graduate! I’ll be stuck here forever!” Axel wailed, snapping back to reality suddenly. He blinked at his dead laptop. “AHH! MY FOOTNOTES!”

The jangle off the bell over the door could barely be heard over Axel’s breakdown, but Sora’s head snapped up anyway. A wide grin spread over Sora’s face at the sight of the bright red jacket and cap.

“Hey,” Riku called, pulling the door shut. “Oh, am I too late for the lesbians with the bongos? Darn it all.”

“One of these weeks I’m gonna get you here for open mic night,” Sora insisted as Riku came over. He pointed imperiously at his cheek, beaming with delight when Riku leaned in dutifully to kiss it. “Namine told me you play the guitar.”

“That traitor,” Riku said, rolling his eyes.

“Shoud’ve come tonight and had some of Sora’s special brownies to take the edge off,” Roxas said.

“The cinnamon ones?” Riku asked, sharing a grin with Sora when Roxas groaned at both of them. Axel’s noise rose in pitch, apparently not placated by cold pizza. “Is he ok? He doesn’t usually take open mic night that hard.”

“I’m worried we’re only five pages away from him living in our dumpster like a coconut crab.” Sora nudged Riku with an elbow. “Help me carry these mugs back, hm? Use your package carrying muscles.”

“What on earth is a coconut crab?” Riku asked, obligingly picking up the bus tray. “Do crabs really live in dumpsters on the Islands? Here it’s raccoons.”

“They pick through the trashcans at the beach, and sometimes they fight seagulls for french fries,” Sora explained, scooping up the last few mugs from tables on the way by. “What’s a raccoon?”

Fifteen minutes later found both of them sitting on the kitchen counter, lights out, Sora on his knees to peer through the blinds out at the back alley where they’d scattered half a dozen stale bagels liberally smeared with peanut butter.

“This is the worst date I’ve ever taken you on,” Riku muttered, eyes glued to his phone as he scrolled pictures of coconut crabs with growing horror. “Oh my god, why are they so huge? And blue? I’m cancelling this, coconut crabs are cancelled.”

“Uh, this is a great date, first of all, and secondly I would love to see you try and cancel a coconut crab, like, to its face.” Sora whacked Riku in the arm. “Quiet, I think one’s coming!”

“You’re the only person talking!” Riku hissed; Sora shushed him again.

Sure enough, a raccoon of fairly significant size was lumbering up the alley, sniffing the air. When it waddled into the dim circle of light from the porch light, Sora punched Riku in the arm again.

“It’s like a round little bear with a burglar mask!” Sora gasped in delight, voice squeaking as he tried to keep it to a whisper. “He’s washing his little hands in the puddle! His little manners!”

“Mmm, delicious,” Riku said, wrinkling his nose. Hands clean, the raccoon grabbed the first bagel half and started stuffing it into its mouth; Sora cooed, pressing his nose against the glass.

“GEE, I HOPE NOTHING’S GOING ON IN HERE!” Roxas hollered, flipping the kitchen light on and making Riku and Sora panic freeze. Roxas frowned. “Wait, what is going on in here?”

“We’re watching the burglar bears eat bagels!” Sora pointed out the window.

“The…bears?” Roxas repeated.

“I got this!” Axel declared from behind Roxas, shifting him to the side and marching towards the back door. “Being mauled by a bear has to buy me a week’s extension at least!” Throwing open the door, Axel marched outside. “All right, do your wor—oh it’s just a raccoon. Hi, buddy, whatcha got there…whoa! Hey!”

Roxas leaned out the doorway, filming the whole thing. “This is going right on the TA Problems message board.”

“Date spot upgraded to three stars,” Riku admitted. “No privacy, but the live entertainment is good.”

“Want to come see one for yourself?” Sora asked. He glanced down at Riku’s phone. “Coconut crabs. I’m going home for a few days around new year’s, but Roxas is staying here to start spring semester reading and keeping the shop open with Xion. And keep Axel out of our trashcans, apparently.” Riku blinked at Sora. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine! You probably have work, and the train ride’s long for just a few days…”

“I want to!” Riku interrupted. “If that’s ok. Not for the crabs, those are terrifying. Just for…um…”

“Me?” Sora teased, leaning in. Riku muttered a yes, the tips of his ears turning pink. “Good, because my mom has been bugging me about meeting you ever since Roxas sent her the video of you trying to help me bake.”

“No, come on,” Riku protested. “Not cool!”

“Aw, buck up, nerd,” Roxas said, eyes still fixed on his screen. “After meeting our family, not even open mic night will scare you. Oh shit, I think the bear’s friends just showed up. Come on, Axel, at least put up a good fight!”

“Their center of gravity is too low!” Axel hollered back. “Tell Professor Evan I died bravely! And that he has to edit his own indexes!”

“That’s indices!” Riku called back helpfully. Lea looked up to flip Riku off through the window. “You really aren’t going to graduate.”

Chapter Text

“You have a lot of faith in me,” Axel said, hands on his hips and looking up at the underside of the roof of Dream Drip Distance’s porch. Roxas and Xion had scraped of as much of the old, flaking paint as possible yesterday, and that had not improved its look, for sure.

“We really do not,” Roxas said casually, making Axel frown. He was popping the top off a can of bright blue paint. “You’re just tall.”

“And we’re all short!” Xion agreed, rolling up the sleeves of her Twilight Town College sweatshirt. Beside her, Naminé was tying back her hair, her overalls already spattered with paint from a hundred portfolio projects. She handed Axel a roller.

“Have a blast, friend,” she said, slapping Axel on the shoulder. “Hope you stretched.”

“I can’t believe I’m giving up the first weekend of spring break for this,” Axel sighed, stretching his arms over his head to judge how high up his roller could reach. “I could be on the beach with Demyx and Larxene right now, coconut drink in one hand, pretzel in the other…”

“Who the hell eats pretzels at the beach?” Roxas demanded, stirring his paint a little too vigorously and frowning when a few drops sloshed onto his sneaker. “Anyway you’ve eaten roughly seven thousand of Sora’s cookies. If he charged you one paint streak per cookie you’d probably have to paint him five porches.”

“Fine, fine, let’s get it over with,” Axel said. He bent down to tip some of the blue paint into one of the roller trays Xion was peeling apart from each other. “You’ll sure be a street landmark after this, yikes. Nobody but Sora would pick this color for sure.”

“He’ll be so surprised when he and Riku get back and it’s all fixed up!” Naminé said. Sora had wanted to repaint the porch before the weather got nice again so they could set some extra tables and chairs outside, but the timing had gotten away from him. The best time to shut the coffee shop and do it was spring break anyway, when most of the college kids were off-campus, but Sora had promised his parents a visit home and taken Riku along with him. “Assuming they don’t both get eaten by coconut crabs.”

Roxas snorted. “Sora’s more likely to join a colony of coconut crabs and start living in their undersea commune.” He popped the stubborn magenta paint lid off with a grunt. “Chairs first or railing first?”

Xion looked over at Axel rolling his first stripe along the roof and cursing as paint dripped back on his face. “Uh, definitely chairs first.”

It was a long afternoon, the spring sun warm enough for everyone to strip off their sweatshirts once the manual labor got serious. Xion and Roxas painted some second-hand Adirondack chairs loud magenta and gold for the front yard while Naminé repainted Dream Drip Distance’s sign and Axel struggled through his first coat of the porch. The railing didn’t take long with several of them working on it, and then the hardest part was waiting until the first coat was dry before starting the second. Axel had stretched out on the scrubby grass to try and stretch out his back and had to be revived by the promise of lemonade.

In they end they were all sore and paint-covered, but the result was worth it, according to everyone but Axel.

“I’m dying,” he informed Roxas, flat on his back again. “Just leave me here to be reabsorbed by the earth.”

“Aw, think of all the cookies Sora will give you after this,” Xion said. She was holding a ladder steady on the porch for Naminé to add pink-swirled clouds and gold stars to the roof in between the wood slats, to match the stars she had painted on their new sign logo.

Axel huffed. “I’m pretty sure the siren song of free cookies is how I got sucked into this pyramid scheme. You know I have to finish two chapters this week? TWO? My arms are gonna fall off.”

“You’re such a baby,” Roxas said, sitting next to Axel in the grass and offering him a bite of ice cream to shut him up. “At least this is a practical life skill to put on your resume when you graduate with a PhD in baby-crying.”

“Yo, you twerpy undergrad, I am gonna take that ice cream stick and—“

“We brought pizza!” Olette interrupted, hollering out of the window of Pence’s beat-up car as they pulled up to the curb to park. “Sorry we couldn’t help out this morning, but it looks great!”

“Thanks!” Roxas hopped to his feet. “Come around back, we can’t step on the porch for a couple of…” Roxas frowned, patting down his pockets. “Uh. I might have locked my keys inside the house.”

“Your bedroom window’s open,” Olette said, pointing up. Sure enough, Roxas’s second-floor bedroom window was open, curtain fluttering in the breeze. Everyone looked from the window, to the ladder, down to Axel.

“I hate every single one of you,” Axel informed them. “No cookies on earth are worth this.”

Chapter Text

“It’s a promise, then. No take-backs.” Roxas listened, phone cradled expertly between his ear and shoulder while he stacked cookies. “Perfect! Yeah, you too. Bye!” Pulling the phone away from his ear, Roxas thumbed the disconnect button and grinned at Sora. “See? Was that so hard?”

“Don’t gloat,” Sora said, frowning into the bowl of brownie batter he was stirring. “He always says yes to you. He’s just gonna back out at the last second, like usual.”

“Oh, lighten up. Stop scowling at those brownies or they’ll taste like your angst.” Roxas stacked the last few cookies in the container and snapped the lid on, giving it a little shake to make sure they wouldn’t rattle around too much while traveling. “You haven’t been home all year, I know you’re homesick.”

“I’m fine,” Sora insisted, sitting the mixing bowl down harder than he meant to with an incriminating thunk. Roxas gave him a knowing look. “Are you sure you’ll be fine running Dream Drip for a whole week? I can come back in a few days, the trip isn’t that long.”

“Nope, none of that, we’ll be fine,” Roxas said firmly. “You’re going to take an actual vacation and relax and NOT call me obsessively three times a day to check on what’s going on here.”

“I’m the older brother here, I’ll do what I want,” Sora said sulkily. He started pouring the batter into the baking pan, apparently having nothing else to contribute to the argument.

Roxas looked him over more thoughtfully. “Are you worried about taking Riku home? Mom’s going to adore him, he’s like some tall, polite honors student fantasy right from her brain.”

“Ew! Roxas!” Sora exclaimed, wrinkling his nose. He shook the bowl to jostle the batter out faster. “No, I’m not worried about Mom, it’s just…well, like I said, he’s going to bail as always, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Have a little faith,” Roxas advised, handing Sora a spatula. “You’ve been gone a whole year, your own twin must miss you at least a little.”

*****

“You have a twin?” Riku asked in surprise, cookie frozen halfway to his mouth.

“Uh-huh.” Sora kept his eyes focused on the scenery outside the train window, trying not to look at Riku’s reflection.

“I thought it was just you and Roxas. You never mentioned any more siblings.” Riku took a bite of his cookie, giving Sora a minute to add more information, but Sora stayed quiet. “Are you identical twins?”

“Fraternal.” Sora turned back to Riku, forcing his voice back to light-hearted. “So no hot twin fantasies for you.”

“Sora!” Riku spluttered, nearly dropping his cookie. The tips of his ears always blushed before his face, which Sora found hopelessly adorable. “Is there a reason you don’t talk about him? It’s just, you talk about Roxas kind of ceaselessly, so…” Riku trailed off uncertainly.

“We…we used to be really close.” Sora decided to just get the story over with, to force the words out quickly without thinking too hard about it. “But then in high school, things were harder, and he wanted to be alone all the time. He even moved out of our room. Everything I did or said was wrong, so I just…stopped trying." Even talking about it made hurt ache in his chest, so Sora brushed over the rest of the story. "And then Roxas got accepted to Twilight Town College, and I decided to go with him.”

“Hm,” Riku said. Sora waited for Riku to pry, but Riku asked, “What’s his name?”

“Van. Vanitas.” Sora offered Riku a smile he hoped was convincing. “Don’t worry about it, he probably won’t show up while I’m home.”

“I’m not worried. I want to meet your family no matter what. Even your sinister, secret twin,” Riku teased. Sora snorted, the tension in his chest easing a little. Riku dusted cookie crumbs off his hand and took Sora’s, threading their fingers together. “You’ve been gone a whole year. Isn’t absence supposed to make the heart grow fonder?”

Sora rested his cheek against Riku’s shoulder, eyes sliding back out the window and away. They were getting close to the shore, the water a glimmer right at the edge of the horizon. He wasn’t getting his hopes up. “Wish in one hand and spit in the other, see which fills up first.”

*****

Sora’s mother, as predicted by Roxas, thought Riku was the most delightful person that Sora had ever brought home.

“Mind you, you’re the only person he’s ever brought home,” Sora’s mother added in an undertone to Riku, who bit his lip to hide a smile.

“Mom, please!” Sora protested. “Don’t tell Riku that stuff!”

“I’m just saying, I never understood it,” his mother continued breezily, no shame at all. “You’re such a sweet boy, with those big blue eyes, and your eyelashes are a mile long, I thought I’d be fending off questionable suitors left and right as soon as puberty hit. Your brothers, on the other hand…well, I supposed you’ve always been shy for that sort of thing.”

“Shy?” Riku asked, perplexed. “Sora?”

“MOM!” Sora wailed. “Maybe the reason I never brought anyone home is that you’re way too embarrassing!”

“Is that any way to talk to your own mother?” Sora’s mother cuffed Sora lightly in the back of the head. “Go take you and Riku’s things upstairs, and we’ll be in the kitchen. I made up you and Roxas's beds for you two. Riku, do you like iced barley tea?”

“I’ve never had it,” Riku said, shooting Sora an apologetic look over his shoulder as he was herded into the kitchen.

“Honestly,” Sora grumbled to himself, hefting Riku’s duffle bag onto his shoulder over his own backpack straps. He wobbled a little before balancing himself, and then started trudging up the stairs. “Serve both of them right if I fell down the stairs to my doom.”

He made it to the second floor landing safely and to his old bedroom. Pausing for a second, Sora examined the old wooden letters still spelling out his name; Vanitas had pried his off the door when he’d bullied Roxas into switching rooms, some of the nail holes still visible in the wood where Roxas’s name didn’t reach long enough. Swallowing a sigh, Sora turned the door and pushed the door open.

To his surprise, Vanitas was there, lounging on Sora’s bed, scrolling on his phone. Sora froze, hovering the doorway.

“Gonna just stand there?” Vanitas asked, flicking a quick glance at Sora before looking back at his phone. “Nice hello.”

“I didn’t think you’d come,” Sora said, shuffling in the rest of the way to drop Riku’s back and his backpack with relief. He looked around the room, noticing that his mother had changed the sheets and comforters on his and Roxas’s beds for Riku’s visit, but not done anything else to the room. It was strange not to see it cluttered up with his and Roxas’s stuff. The big window was open over the window seat, as if Vanitas had come in that way and might escape back out it any moment. “Does Mom know you’re here?”

“I live here, dumbass,” Vanitas said. That was news to Sora, since it hadn’t been the case the summer before Sora and Roxas had left. Vanitas sat up, sticking his phone in his hoodie pocket, and looked Sora over critically. Sora stared back, not sure what was happening here. “Got a problem with that?”

“Of course not,” Sora said, frowning. He hadn’t seen Vanitas face to face in a whole year, cataloguing the differences. His hair was shorter, undercut up the back a little, and he had a new cartilage piercing. He still wore chipped black nail polish, but his jeans were blue; every pair he’d owned in high school had been black. “I missed you.”

“News to me. You seem fine without me, having your little Twilight Town adventure with Roxas to baby,” Vanitas said, lightly, like it didn’t matter to him.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t miss you.” Sora swallowed the little spark of anger, not wanting to fight. “I have to go rescue Riku from Mom. You coming down?” Or are you going to avoid me all week? he resisted asking.

“Sure, let’s meet the boy wonder,” Vanitas said, brushing past Sora. “I want to see what all the fuss is about.”

Chapter Text

“Know how I keep them so puffy when they bake?” Sora asked, in the middle of scooping balls of brownie cookie dough. Scooping wasn’t exactly the right word for it, since he wasn’t using a scoop or even a spoon; Sora was using his bare hands to gouge out chunks of dough and rolling them between his palms. Chocolate was everywhere, all over his hands and smudged up his cheek, but somehow the balls were all exactly the same size and perfectly round.

“Nope,” Riku said, occupied trying to stir the peanut butter cookie dough that had sent Sora’s hand mixer to an abrupt, smoking grave. Sora absolutely did not mind the way that struggling to force the wooden spoon through the thick dough was making Riku’s biceps flex. “Last time I baked a cookie was in first year home ec, and they turned out like cafe coasters.”

“Appetizing!” Sora laughed. He smooshed the last ball in place gently, completing the last neat row on the tray. “The trick is to put the whole tray in the fridge for like ten minutes before you bake them. If the butter’s hard, the outside of the cookie will bake before it has a chance to melt too much.”

“And you say you aren’t smart,” Riku said, setting the bowl down and rubbing his tired arm.

“Riku,” Sora protested, like he did anytime someone complimented him directly. “Baking cookies isn’t like rocket science or something.”

“I sure can’t do it, and I’ve almost got a whole college degree,” Riku pointed out. “Plus you stick together crazy flavors like cinnamon and basil and they always turn out amazing. You’re like a cookie mad scientist.”

“Stop!” Sora laughed awkwardly, pink spreading over his nose. “It’s nothing.” He turned to take the two trays he’d filled to the fridge and then checked that the oven was still preheated.

Riku waited patiently until Sora ran out of minor distractions and turned back to the table, used to this.

“W-what?” Sora asked when Riku caught his eyes again with the same even stare.

“You are smart,” Riku said earnestly, looking Sora right in the eye. “I think you’re amazing.”

“Noooo,” Sora whined, flushing darker. “Quit it! I’m not—“ Giving up on the verbal method, Riku interrupted Sora by cupping his cheeks with both hands and kissing him soundly.

Riku loved how kissing Sora was always made of tiny, surprising sensations, still new enough to make his heart race. There was sugar gritty between his fingers and Sora’s skin, the heat of Sora’s flushed cheeks, and the way his mouth tasted like the bitter chocolate of the brownie cookies that he’d eaten more than a few pinches of. It tasted amazing after the too-sweet of the unbaked peanut butter dough, and Riku leaned in, chasing more of it, until Sora was pressed flushed against him, fingers twisted in Riku’s shirt.

Sora broke the kiss finally, breath unsteady, and blinked up at Riku with liquid, bright eyes, looking like he was about to murmur something intensely romantic. Instead he said, “Dark chocolate peanut butter cookies.”

Riku grinned, a little light-headed, fascinated with the deep blue of Sora’s eyes, and entirely unbothered by the chocolate Sora was smudging into his Twilight Town College T-shirt. “See? Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

Chapter Text

“He’s a really amazing guy,” Axel said, leaning against the doorway casually and making absolutely no move to help Roxas heft the bus tray of muffin plates and coffee mugs up to the counter next to the sink.

“You don’t have to be sarcastic about it,” Roxas scolded. One mug made a break for it, but Roxas caught it with a lucky grab. “Sora’s fed you so many cookies, you ingrate.”

“I’m not being sarcastic!” Axel protested. “I mean it! It’s just one of those things that always sounds sarcastic when you say it. Like ‘that’s great.’”

“That’s not a thing for anyone else but you.” Roxas turned on the sink to warm up the water and started rolling up his sleeves.

“False! Go on, try it, I’ll tell you some good news and you say ‘that’s great’ and see what happens. Ready?” Axel didn’t react to the dirty look Roxas threw over his shoulder. “I sent Professor Even chapter four this morning!”

“That’s great,” Roxas said, immediately wrinkling his nose. He tried again, forcing his voice to inflect up. “That’s great! Ugh, what the fuck?”

Axel just laughed, abandoning the doorway to come help with the dishes. “I told you so. I also struggle with ‘good job’ and ‘thanks a lot.’”

“So you’re free the rest of break?” Roxas asked, handing Axel mugs to rinse off one by one as he washed them out.

“All two days of it left, sure.” Axel shrugged. “Why do you ask? Wanna ask me to sleep over, gossip about boys, watch a movie that’s too scary for you to sleep alone after?”

“Ok, first of all, you are the BIGGEST scary movie weenie in the ENTIRE world,” Roxas interrupted loudly. “Xion sneezed in the middle of the The Ring and you screamed like a koala!”

“I screamed like a what?” Axel asked.

“And SECONDLY,” Roxas plowed on without stopping, “we ran out of muffins this afternoon and Sora won’t be back until late tomorrow, so I need you to help me bake some for tomorrow morning. Maybe some cookies. Scones are absolutely out of the question, I’m on a lifetime ban.”

“You’re on a lifetime ban from…no, actually, go back to ‘I screamed like a koala,’” Axel amended. “Do koalas scream where you come from?”

“Koalas scream everywhere.” Roxas shook a plate at Axel impatiently. “Will you hurry up and dry those? You’re holding up the assembly line here.”

“Fine fine, but we’re coming back to the koala thing, and I demand the muffins have blueberries and the cookies be shaped like dinosaurs.”

“You have a lot of demands for the guy who ate the last muffin and can’t even take a raccoon in a fight,” Roxas commented, handing over the last mug and pulling the stopper out of the sink.

“I beg your pardon,” Axel sniffed, “there were at least three raccoons, and that fight was a draw.”

“Uh-huh.” Roxas looked Axel dead in the eye, sarcasm dialed up to 100. “Good job, buddy.”