“Cheater!” Sora’s index finger was pointed directly at Naminé. Her sapphire shaded eyes were crossed, staring directly at the finger the spiky-haired brunet had pointed at her. “Cheater, cheater, cheater!” he continued shouting, only now he was wildly waving his arms about.

“It seems number one, Sora from the boys’ baseball team, is losing his mind out there,” Yuna said with enthusiastic seriousness into her microphone. Sitting next to her was Paine, nodding her head slowly in agreement. “Apparently, they are having some issues with the sudden appearance of the girls’ shortstop.”

“So, for now, folks,” Paine sighed into her own mike, “we’re going to take a short intermission before the ninth inning starts up.”

As if on cue, the crowd got up to stretch their legs for a bit. It was at that moment that Axel tried to make a run for it. Instead, his four poker buddies grabbed him by the arms and held him down against his will. While Axel was busy pleading in a sobbing manner to his friends to let him go, Olette was out on the field standing next to her best friend and listening to Sora rambling on about cheating.

“Cheater, cheater, cheater!”

“We heard you the first million times,” Naminé exasperated while throwing her arms in the air. “And it’s not cheating. What? Do you think I was just waiting behind the fence to catch any homerun that I came across?”

Sora jabbed his finger at her face again, causing the blonde to step back in surprise. “Exactly!”

“Well, I wasn’t,” Naminé defended.

“If that wasn’t your plan, then,” Sora huffed as he now crossed his arms, “then it should at least count as interference!”

“What?” Olette snapped as she stepped forward now. “Why?”

The girls stood around behind both the brunette and Naminé, just as annoyed with the sudden call for timeout as the other two girls were. Standing behind Sora was his entire team, a majority of the boys wearing defensive looks on their faces. Roxas stood next to Sora, rolling his eyes every so often when his cousin would yell, “Cheater!” However, while the boys were in agreement with their captain, the girls had different ideas.

“Because!” Sora said frustratingly. “She just popped out of nowhere and caught the ball! That’s just… not fair!”

“It’s not our place to call,” Olette informed him, also crossing her arms. The two glared at each other for a moment before she continued. “We’re not the umpires after all.”

That was when everyone from both teams turned and faced Tifa and Pence. The two blinked with deadpanned looks for a moment, completely caught off guard by the sudden change in subject. Tifa rubbed the back of her neck out of bewilderment while all Pence could do was smile anxiously. The lot fell silent as the players were at a loss of words. The only noise could be heard from the breeze passing over the lot and the crowd mingling amongst themselves. Tifa cleared her throat, gesturing for Pence to say something.

Pence looked back at the boys on his team, not too sure what to say. “Um…”

“Um, what?” Sora snapped as he raised his chin in the air and glowered at Pence. The poor catcher chuckled nervously and looked away.

“Well,” Tifa said a bit more confidently, staring Sora down quite literally. “Naminé was still technically on our team. While she was gone for some time, we never officially removed her from our team. That hardly counts as interference.”

Sora’s eye twitched, unable to believe the words he was hearing. “What?”

“See! We still even have her jersey!” Rikku giggled as she held up the softball jersey with the number zero on it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Sora grumbled angrily to himself. He ran his hand through his thorny hair roughly and glanced away from the girls. Olette could make out the look of aggravation clear on his face. “Interference! I call interference!”

“Now listen here, you little, bratty, no-good—” And Naminé was off, throwing out as many insults as she could at the boys’ captain. Sora gladly returned her insults with rude remarks of his own. Not only were the two shortstops arguing with each other, but the girls and boys from both teams decided to break out into a fight with each other. Roxas and Olette stood back, watching in awed amazement, as the argument grew loud. Olette caught several colorful and descriptive insults, most likely coming out of Naminé’s mouth.

“For crying out loud,” Roxas sighed out of irritation, craning his head back and glaring up at the sky above his head. Casually waving his hand, the blond walked off away from the fight. Olette stared after him but quickly looked back at the fight. She flinched back when she saw both Tifa and Larxene holding Naminé back, attempting to lunge at Sora. Both Riku and Seifer were holding Sora back, who was also trying to dive at the blonde girl. Smiling fretfully to herself, Olette spun on her heels and followed after Roxas to the pitcher’s mound. He looked up at her when she approached his side.

“I wish Sora would just get over himself,” Roxas groaned, spinning his throwing arm around in a circle. “At this rate, we’re never going to finish.”

“I don’t know,” Olette admitted as she kicked at the dirt at her feet. “He kind of does have a point. I think what Naminé did counts as interference.”

Roxas looked back at Olette with alarmed surprise on his pale face. “But I thought Tifa said—”

“You don’t honestly buy that,” she exasperated, “do you?”

The blond grinned anxiously, giving away the fact that he might have bought that load of bologna that Tifa gave for a moment. “Point taken.”

“I think I’m just going to call interference, too,” Olette sighed as she turned her back on Roxas, preparing to make her way back over to the fight Sora and Naminé were currently having.

However, she was interrupted when she heard Axel’s familiar voice ringing in her ears. The fire-haired man called out to both her and Roxas. Swiftly, Olette whipped her head up only to have her green eyes land on the Roxas’ red-haired guardian. Axel was up at the fence, waving his hand excitedly in the manner he usually did. Demyx, Marluxia, Xigbar, and Luxord were standing around the man, waving as well. Olette heard Roxas swear to himself under his breath. She quickly glanced over at him to see his face burning red suddenly. The girl looked back up at Axel and, while smiling anxiously, waved back with less enthusiasm.

“Roxas!” Axel sang in a teasing tone. “Why don’t you bring Olette over here and introduce her to my pals!”

“Run, before he rips your dignity to shreds!” Roxas ordered, whispering his word of advice to Olette so Axel wouldn’t be able to hear him.

“I’m sure Axel’s friends aren’t as bad as he is,” Olette laughed while dragging Roxas up to the men behind him.

“Olette! Wait—”

It was too late, though. Olette had successfully dragged Roxas over to Axel and his poker buddies by the fence against his will. Axel grinned down at his godson mischievously, a warning sign that he was going to embarrass the blond boy to no end. Olette quickly scanned Axel’s friends, instantly noting their odd appearances. A mullet? Pink hair? An eye patch? Was that man wearing earrings? Suddenly, Olette was starting to think she should have listened to Roxas.

“So this is Roxas’ girlfriend?” Demyx chimed, leaning over the fence to get a good look at Olette’s face. Her nervous grin grew in size, wincing back slightly as the guy quickly scanned her face. “And I thought she was pretty in the picture. But she’s a lot prettier looking in person!”

“What… picture?” Olette demanded slowly, glancing from Demyx, to Axel, then to Roxas.

“All right, let’s go!” Roxas ordered hurriedly, grabbing Olette’s hand in an attempt to drag her away.

“Isn’t she just the cutest?” Axel cooed, reaching over and tugging on one of the girl’s cheeks as he did so. “You know, she was the cause of a fight between Sora and Roxas.”

“You don’t say?” Luxord chuckled when he noticed Olette’s face burning bright pink. “Were punches thrown, or was it just an exchange of words?”

“Oh, no! There was punching. Lots of punching!” Axel sang, positively beaming.

“That’s enough, Axel,” Roxas warned through tightly gritted teeth.

“Ah, look! Now I’ve gone and embarrassed him!” the red-haired man laughed, swishing his hand through the air. While Axel’s friends chortled loudly amongst themselves, Roxas stood where he was glaring his guardian to death.

“Seriously,” Olette asked with anxiety laced into her voice, “what picture?”

“You know,” Marluxia began, his voice just as teasing as Axel’s was. “Roxas was never one to make a move. He’s always been such a shy little boy.”

Upon saying this, all five grown men broke out into childish giggling. Olette couldn’t help but compare them to schoolgirls. In fact, she was slightly disturbed.

“So, tell us,” Xigbar said when he finally calmed himself down. “What won you over? Was it that forceful kiss he planted on you?”

Just Olette’s reaction alone caused the five men to start chortling among themselves again. Bewildered, she quickly glanced over at Roxas. The blond only shook his head, sighing as he did so, and shrugged his shoulders. Olette looked back up at the men to see they had been laughing so hard they needed to lean on each other for support. Axel slapped his thigh, Demyx wiped a tear from his eye, and Marluxia was currently choking on his spit from laughing too hard. Luxord and Xigbar had their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders, laughing like they had heard the most hilarious joke around. For a moment, Olette suddenly found it difficult to not think of these men as friends. They certainly acted like each other, that much she gave them.

“And… how is it… you… know about… that?” She was much too shocked to speak in full, complete sentences.

“Axel was the one who took the picture with Sora,” Roxas admitted, his head hung low so he could hide the red tint on his face from Olette. “And then he printed out copies and gave them some.”

With her jaw hanging open and an angry look on her face, Olette snapped her head around and sent her most furious expression up at Axel. However, instead of striking fear into him, the man only broke out into more loud peals of laughter upon glancing at the young girl’s expression. Not only did it cause Axel to continue laughing like an idiot, but it also caused his friend to crack up at something they thought was hilarious. Axel resumed slapping his thigh, simply taken over by laughter.

“Why you… little…” Olette growled, glaring dark daggers into Roxas’ guardian. The blond boy stood back, fully aware of what Olette was capable of when she was angered.

However, Olette never got her chance to unleash her wrath on Axel. It was because at that exact moment, the men’s laughter was interrupted by one voice. As Axel continued giggling to himself, his four friends gasped at the sight, stopped laughing, and even took a few steps back. Roxas and Olette simply stared confusingly at Axel’s friends’ reactions as the red-haired man went on laughing.

“Well, well. If it isn’t Axel.”

That one feminine voice caused Axel to instantly stop laughing as his face was suddenly drained of color. Her voice alone was able to strike the very fear of God into the man, something Olette wasn’t able to do with her dark glower. Axel’s teal colored eyes flickered up and landed on the woman standing before him. The poor man looked like he was silently suffering from a heart attack, the fear on his face so intense Olette couldn’t even describe it with mere words. Larxene stood in front of Axel with a smooth smirk, her arms crossed together with one blonde eyebrow arched up. Roxas and Olette glanced up at Larxene curiously, wondering why Axel had changed suddenly in mood upon her arrival. The fire-haired man’s jaw went slack and he was suddenly speechless. Behind him, Luxord, Marluxia, Xigbar, and Demyx were discreetly snickering to themselves.

Axel finally gave a pitiful yelp and spun on his feet. He tried to make a run for it, anything to escape the woman’s wrath. Unfortunately, Larxene was too quick for him. Just as Axel was about to sprint away, she reached out and grabbed a fistful of his shirt’s collar. Axel yelped when she pulled back forcefully on his collar. His four friend’s had a hard enough time trying to contain their laughter, but watching him finally face Larxene after who knows how long was enough to have them laughing for hours. Larxene pulled Axel over the fence as far as she could and brought his face close to her own. He smiled anxiously up at her, his smile quivering and his face turning completely pale.

“H—Hi Larxene…” Axel tittered, the awkward position the blonde woman had forced him into painful for his back. “How’s it going…?”

Meanwhile, Olette and Roxas could only stand back and watch, slightly confused as to what was happening. All their questions were about to be answered, though.

“Long time no see, Axel,” Larxene purred, the sadistic smile on her face only causing Axel’s face to turn whiter. “And how’s your mother doing?”

Roxas tilted his head to one side. “Nana?”

“She’s just fine… thank you for asking…”

Olette was more than surprised that Axel hadn’t died on the spot by now.

Larxene titled her head slightly, smiling sickeningly sweet down at Axel. “Has she asked about me lately?”

Axel shook his head quickly, his head nothing more than a red blur. “N—no…”

“You still owe me my money, Axel,” Larxene snarled as she finally lost her sweet tone of voice. The sharpness of her tone caused all of the men standing around to wince, even though no pain had been inflicted on any of them.

Roxas now slapped the palm of his hand against his face, which earned him the attention of Olette and everyone else. “Were you gambling again, Axel?” he sighed disappointingly.

Smiling, Axel shook his head. “Of course not!” he chimed rather nervously.

“Quite the contrary,” Larxene butted in, now finally letting go of Axel’s collar. He retreated to the other side of the fence and scurried behind his poker buddies for shelter. “He just owes me some money for a favor I did for him.”

“Favor?” Roxas turned to face his guardian, an eyebrow raised in suspicion. “What sort of favor.”

“That’s not a story we need to get into!” Axel laughed, his voice thick with nervousness, as he waved his hand nonchalantly.

“You mean he didn’t tell you?” Larxene inquired, glancing away from Axel so as to stare down at Roxas.

The blond boy darkened the glare he had directed at Axel. “Tell me what?”

“Funny story!” Axel chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck. “You see, my mother wouldn’t stop bugging me. She kept going on and on about how I needed to find myself a good wife. Even kept trying to hook me up with complete strangers! It was starting to get annoying.”

“So then one day Axel came to me, his good old buddy, Larxene,” she continued for him, shooting him a dark look as she did so. Axel flinched back, yelped, and went back to hiding behind the other men. They all sighed and shook their heads in disappointment. “He said he would pay me a good sum of money if I pretended to be his fiancée so as to get his mother to leave him alone. That old bag bought the entire ruse, too.”

“You lied to Nana?” Roxas asked childishly, looking back at Axel with actual hurt in his eyes.

“I’d hardly call it lying,” Axel now laughed smoothly, once again coming out from behind his friends. “As long as she left me alone, why should I care?” Roxas was clearly not amused.

“The only problem was,” Larxene continued as her voice turned dark, “afterwards I lost all contact with Axel. Funny how his phone number changed the very next day. Apparently, he also moved to a different house.”

Roxas tapped his index finger against his chin, staring up at the sky in thought. “So that was why we moved that one day!” Axel shrugged with his anxious smile still sitting precariously on his face.

“And now…” Larxene chuckled in a low and maniacal tone as she cracked her knuckles. This earned her Axel’s full and undivided attention. “I want my money.”

“About your money…” Axel laughed, still as nervous as ever.

He was interrupted when Larxene reached over and began strangling him, screaming about the money he owed her. She began shaking him vigorously back and forth from the opposite side of the fence as Axel’s friends stood back and watched in amusement, even placing bets. All Olette and Roxas could do was slowly walk away, Roxas shaking his head tiredly as Olette glanced every so often over her shoulder. Inwardly, she admitted she worried slightly about Axel’s wellbeing. If Larxene didn’t control herself, she was going to kill him.

“At least that got us away from them,” Roxas murmured under his breath, his arms folded behind his head as he craned his neck back and continued staring up at the sky.

“There’s still that problem,” Olette sighed aggravatingly while pointing over at the corner of the lot. Naminé and Sora were still at it, him calling her a cheater and her calling him a plethora of colorful insults.

Both the teens sighed and hung their heads. Olette rolled the idea over in her head and figured the absolute best thing to do now was quit and give up the idea of joining the boys’ baseball team. It was starting to become a real hassle, and the headache it gave her just wasn’t worth it anymore. Then again, she would have loved nothing more than to rub the fact that she could play on a team with boys in Sora’s face. Still, there was the headache to worry about. The look on her face contorted slightly as the brunette frowned to herself, now lost in thought. Roxas glanced her way and took notice of the look, reading her mind with just one glimpse.

“You’re not considering quitting now, are you?” he asked, a serious tone hinted in his voice.

Olette jabbed her thumb over her shoulder towards the fence where Larxene was still stripping Axel of whatever was left of his life. “Is it even worth it?” She then gestured towards the heated argument going on between Naminé and Sora. “Is that worth it?”

Roxas shrugged as he turned his back on the green-eyed brunette, simultaneously folding his arms behind his head. “And here I thought you were determined,” he commented quietly.

Olette blinked, slightly surprised to hear the words that just came out of his mouth. The blond kept his back towards the girl as a momentary silence fell over the two. Before Olette had a chance to open her mouth and respond, someone called her name out from behind her. She whirled around, only to see Yuffie, Kairi, and Selphie hurry towards her. Peering around the oncoming girls, she saw her best friend and rival were still arguing, neither of them letting up. Yuffie was the first to approach Olette, a frantic look of panic stricken across her face.

“Um… I don’t think either one of them is going to give up anytime soon,” she informed Olette of what she was already aware of as she gestured back towards Sora and Naminé.

Selphie appeared by Yuffie’s side, knelt over as she tried to regain her breath. “I’m tired of this!” the chestnut-haired girl complained, her tone of voice whiney. “Olette, do something!”

Kairi soon joined the group, glancing back towards the two still arguing from over her shoulder. She glimpsed back at Olette, her cobalt eyes widened. “What are we going to do, Olette?” she gasped. “If we don’t convince Sora, we’ll never win!”

Olette blinked back at the three girls standing before her, at a loss of words. Quickly, she cast Roxas a glance even though he refused to face her. She inhaled deeply before facing the three again. Her green eyes landed on Kairi first and remained glued to the redhead as she momentarily stared, thinking. The corners of Olette’s lips slowly curved up into a devilish smile instantaneously, finally realizing the easy solution to their problem. Kairi tilted her head to one side when Olette’s smirk frightened her suddenly. An uncomfortable feeling began churning in the pit of her stomach, warning her of her oncoming doom. Even then, she couldn’t make an escape for it.

Selphie and Yuffie glanced back and forth between the redhead and the brunette, slow to catch on to what Olette’s intentions were. When they finally realized the plan the emerald-eyed girl concocted, however, the both of them also joined in with the smirking. Roxas glanced curiously back at the small group of girls when their conversation grew quiet, only to take notice of the three smirks directed at Kairi. A strained grin appeared on his face, also aware of what Kairi was in for.

“Are you two thinking what I’m thinking?” Olette questioned, finally prying her eyes away from Kairi and directing them towards the other two girls.

Selphie bounced up to Kairi and linked her arm with the redhead’s. “It’s absolutely perfect!” she squealed. “It’s bound to work!”

“Smart plan, Captain,” Yuffie snickered, earning herself Kairi’s worried stare. “Don’t know why we didn’t think of it before.”

“Kairi, of all people, doesn’t deserve that punishment, Olette,” Roxas tried convincing playfully, winking at the redhead.

“What?” Kairi looked at each of their faces bewilderedly, the nervous churning still twisting her stomach into tight and uncomfortable knots. “What punishment?”

Olette leaned forward with her hand cupped around her mouth and winked back at the redheaded girl. “How good are you at flirting, Kairi?”

- x - x - x - x -

“Oh, come on!” Naminé growled, throwing her hands up in the air out of frustration. “I was still technically part of the team! It’s not cheating!”

“Interception!” Sora hissed back venomously. The boys surrounding the two groaned in agitation, wanting nothing more than to continue on with the game. “It still counts as interception!”

Paine sat at the announcers’ table behind the fence, completely asleep. Yuna drummed the tips of her fingers against the tabletop, totally silent for once in her life. She sighed heavily into her microphone, quickly growing tired of the fight taking place out in the lot. The people in the audience were also becoming bored. The only thing entertaining them was the blonde woman strangling the redheaded man over by the fence. Yuna swiftly looked away from the scene Larxene was creating when she noticed Kairi timidly making her way towards Naminé and Larxene.

Kairi’s face was almost as red as her hair, though she tried to hide it from the rest of the world. The poor girl tried to control her shallow breathing as she slowly, ever so slowly, made her way towards Sora. The world around her began to slowly spin and disappear, and her head turned dangerously light. Inside her chest, her heart was pounding loudly against her ribcage. Olette’s plan reverberated back and forth against the walls of her mind, and she had to swallow down the lump that formed in her throat. Olette was crazy! This was insane! Why did she have to do it? Sure, Olette was technically captain of their team, but that didn’t give her the right to force people to flirt against their own free will.

And with Sora, of all people!

The last thing Kairi wanted to do was give Sora the idea that she liked him. Even if there was a small, slight possibility that she did. But… why did it have to be her? Despite how Kairi looked, she didn’t know the first thing about flirting. Olette was better off asking Selphie to do it! Or maybe even Yuffie! Her lightheadedness increased tenfold, and by the time she was finally standing in front of Sora, poor Kairi was on the verge of fainting. She stood in front of him, trembling uncontrollably and breathing rather loudly. It might have seemed like a silly thing to freak out about, but she just wasn’t the girl for this job. Still, the fate of their team depended on this. And, unfortunately for Kairi, it was up to her.

Just convince him otherwise with a bit of flirting.

Kairi scowled for a moment to herself when Olette’s voice rung in her head again. What a stupid plan. It wasn’t going to work! Sora was just too stubborn to listen to otherwise, even if Kairi was thrusting radiating hormones on him. Nevertheless, she swallowed down the fear that overtook her and stared Sora straight in the eye. The fight between him and Naminé grew silent when Kairi appeared and they stared back at the redhead. Everyone surrounding them also gawked at Kairi, waiting for anything. Not too far off, Olette was also watching with Yuffie, Selphie, and Roxas right beside her. She clenched her fists together and inwardly encouraged Kairi onward. If anyone could do this, it was her.

“Sora…” Kairi allowed her straight posture to go limp slightly so that she was hunching in a way she had seen Selphie do before when she was flirting. She tucked her knees together like she remembered seeing and brought her hand to her mouth, flashing Sora a pair of puppy-dog eyes.

Sora straightened up quickly when he saw what was going on. Even then, that didn’t stop that light patch of red from crawling onto his face. Naminé smiled cunningly to herself, impressed by the plan the other girls came up with. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? A cute girl and some flirting was any boy’s one true weakness. The spiky-haired brunet cleared his throat and frowned slightly when he heard the boys behind him snickering. Over by Olette, Roxas had to stifle his own snickering with his hand.

“Y—Yeah, Kairi?” Sora said as confidently as he could.

Kairi’s eyes flickered back over towards Olette. When they locked eyes, the brunette waved Kairi to go on, along with Selphie and Yuffie. The redhead returned her frail gaze to Sora and tried to remember the other tips to flirting Selphie had quickly briefed her on. She batted her eyelashes and tilted her head slightly, though she felt silly when she did so. Still, it looked like it was working judging by the red color that overtook Sora’s entire face.

“Can you not count Naminé’s catch as an interception?” Kairi requested with a sickeningly sweet tone of voice that was so sugarcoated, it almost made her gag. “And let the girls have this one point?” She batted her eyelashes again, just in case.

Sora broke their eye contact for a moment so as to glance down at his feet. He quickly locked eyes with her again, only to see she wasn’t letting up the cute act. The boy could feel his face burning, but tried to make it not so obvious. The snickering coming from behind him told Sora that the other boys were aware of his weakness. Sora cleared his throat as he brought his hand to his face, breaking their eye contact yet again. He tried to deny Kairi’s request, but found it impossible when he looked back at the girl. The redhead tilted her head to the other side and folded her arms behind her back, peering upwards at him as she tilted her chin down slightly. The brunet boy inwardly groaned and admitted defeat.

“I—I guess we can let you have the point,” Sora muttered, staring down at his feet in shame. “Just this once.”

Kairi beamed at him, still going along with the flirting plan. “Thanks, Sora!” That was when she threw herself at him and pulled him into a friendly hug. The red color returned to his face, and Sora only started breathing again when Kairi promptly let go and released him from the embrace. She skipped back over towards Olette, still completely surprised that the brunette’s plan had actually worked. Naminé sniffed victoriously as she cast a triumphant smirk down at Sora, who was still refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

“Well,” the blonde girl chuckled mockingly, earning herself and irritated groan from Sora. “I guess that’s that.” She trotted her way towards Olette with the other girls trailing right behind her.

Hayner hurried to Sora’s side, giving the brunet an astonished and somewhat disappointed look. “What the heck was that, Sora?”

Sora sighed and hung his head, greatly ashamed in himself. “I was weak.”

“I don’t believe it!” Kairi gasped quietly as she hurried up to Olette. “It actually worked!”

“What did I miss?” Larxene sighed aggravatingly when she finally rejoined the group. The taller blonde woman flipped a few strands of hair out of her face, a noticeable scowl settled precariously on her pale visage. Roxas looked around and realized Axel was nowhere to be found. He was most likely sprawled out on the ground, knocked unconscious. Still, Roxas wasn’t about to ask Larxene what became of his godfather.

“The boys are letting us have the point!” Rikku chirped, bouncing on the heels of her feet.

“You don’t say?” Larxene smirked down at Olette, clearly impressed. “And how did you convince them?”

Kairi groaned and hung her head, concealing the blush on her face with her red bangs. “Don’t ask…”

“Hormones,” Fuu murmured as an answer for Larxene when the blonde woman sent Kairi a baffled look.

Selphie leaned over towards Yuffie and whispered loudly into her ear, “She secretly enjoyed it.”

Her statement earned her a quick glare from Kairi.

“Well, folks,” Yuna chimed into the mike, so loudly in fact that it abruptly woke Paine from her deep slumber. The apathetic girl snorted as she hurriedly jerked up, only to slip out of her seat and tumble to the ground from sitting upright so quickly. “It looks like the game is back on! It would seem the boys have allowed the girls to count number zero, Naminé’s, catch as an out! This means it is now the start of the ninth and final inning with the girls up to bat!”

Axel groaned loudly to himself and heaved himself up off the ground by using the fence he fainted nearby as a support for his weight. He hung over the fence, staring bleary-eyed out into the field as he tried to regain his sense. He wasn’t sure exactly why it was difficult for him to breathe, but the memory was there. Vague, but it was there.

“Is the game starting again…?” Axel asked himself before slumping back into a heap on the ground.

- x - x - x - x -

The boys had gathered back into their dugout before the start of the ninth inning. Sora stood alone in one section of the dugout, fuming. They were ahead by seven points, but with the way things were going, the girls were sure to quickly catch up. It didn’t help much that they were going to be last to bat. That, and the fact that Olette had regained her shortstop. It seemed no matter how many bumps she came across down the road, she always seemed to overcome them by some short miracle. Sora growled to himself, glaring at the girls from across the lot. Kairi was somewhat to blame as well. Or maybe it was him. After all, he was the one who harbored a tiny, itsy bitsy crush on her. Realizing that he was also to blame, Sora hung his head. No matter how he looked at it, winning now seemed near next to impossible. The graying sky above matched perfectly with his current mood. Sora’s head perked up suddenly, a desperate but effective plan spawning in his head.

Roxas watched his cousin from the other side of the dugout in disturbed curiosity. As he sat on the metallic bench, he watched his cousin switch between three moods in under a minute. First infuriated, then depressed, and lastly mischievous. The wicked smile that popped up on Sora’s face was unnerving to Roxas, and only meant emanate doom for Olette. The changing weather that the blond had finally noticed didn’t help out much either. He didn’t want the game to have to be postponed yet again due to rain. Olette wasn’t going to be the happiest of the bunch if that were to happen again. Roxas decided to risk it and briskly made his way over to Sora.

“I don’t like that look on your face,” Roxas said when he appeared by Sora’s side, earning himself his cousin’s full and undivided attention. “What are you scheming?”

Sora threw his arm around Roxas’ shoulder and pulled him closer, still smirking deviously. The brunet pointed upward towards the sky, directing his index finger up at a bundle of grey clouds.

“You see that?” Sora snickered. “Those grey clouds? Do you know what that means?”

Roxas hitched an eyebrow. “Rain?”

Sora waved his hand like the answer his cousin had offered was incorrect. “Nah, more like drizzle.

“You do realize that counts as rain, don’t you?”

“Either way,” Sora continued, directing his smirk back at Roxas. “It’s still going to rain—”

“That’s what I said.”

“Which means,” Sora went on, increasing the volume of his voice when he became irritated with Roxas’ interruptions, “that there’s the possibility of this game getting postponed.”

“Olette won’t be happy about that,” Roxas sighed. He looked back up at the clouds, cursing them for literally raining on their parade.

“And knowing her,” Sora sniggered, “she’s not going to allow this game to be postponed again and continue playing, despite the weather.”

Roxas narrowed his sapphire eyes at his brunet cousin, starting to pick up on where this conversation was going. “I still don’t get what you’re ranting about.”

Sora snickered again and removed his arm from Roxas’ shoulders. He trotted over to the end of the dugout and glowered at the girls in their own dugout. The brunet spun back around on the heels of his feet to face his blond cousin.

“This gives us the perfect opportunity to use our secret weapon, just like they did!” he laughed to himself, a sort of evil glinting in his eyes.

“What secret weapon?” Roxas crossed his arms and glared his cousin down. Though, he somewhat had an idea of what Sora was talking about.

Sora skipped back over to Roxas and leaned forward so that only the two of them could hear what he was about to quietly utter. Leaning forward with his hand cupped around his smirking mouth, Sora whispered, “Hormones!”

“Oy.” Roxas rolled his eyes, at first thinking his cousin was just being an idiot. But it then soon clicked in as to what exactly Sora was talking about. “Hold on. I don’t like the sound of that.”

“But I do!” Riku laughed suddenly, looming over Roxas as he leaned against the blond with one arm propped up on Roxas’ shoulder. The blue-eyed blond yelped in surprise, shocked at the taller boy’s sudden appearance. Riku simpered down at Sora with an equal amount of mischievousness before inquiring, “What’s the plan, Sora?”

Roxas backed away from the two, fully aware of what the two were capable of when they combined their diabolical minds together. Hayner casually approached his side, oblivious to Roxas’ stunned horror. He watched Sora and Riku scheme together for a moment before turning to Roxas.

“I predict shirtless boys in the near future,” said Hayner with a shrug of his shoulders, almost like it was nothing to worry about.

For a moment, Roxas kept his sapphire eyes glued to Riku and Sora. But when Hayner’s words finally sank in, he ripped them away from the two and stared dumbfounded up at his dirty blond best friend and exclaimed, “Wait, what?”

TO BE CONTINUED…

- x - x - x - x -

A/N – I swear to the good Lord above I’m not this bad with updates! I swear… I’m not… Okay, I am a little. I apologize for not updating this in… forever, practically. I’M. SO. SORRY. My excuse is my friends took me hostage and forced me to write a Pokémon story, which I’m not even sure about posting up on here. The main reason being because people would question our sanity greatly if I did. But hey, you never know. I just might. Maybe… Anyway, I was FINALLY able to get to this now that I have gone on vacation. Sorry that this sucked, though. What happened was by the time I finally got around to writing this, I basically forgot everything I was going to do with this chapter and just winged up to the very end. SADFACE. Kairi’s flirting scene was supposed to be MUCH more promising. But wasn’t. Again, SADFACE. But now I can get back to the baseball game. GASP, I’m actually almost done with this story! And then I can concentrate on What I Hate About You and my other roxette story I’ll have to post on here some time soon. Anyway, if you’re still actually reading this, please let me know with a review. I hope I haven’t lost any readers with my lack of updates… Next chapter, shirtless boy fan service! –insert evil laugh here–

–is shot–