Your Presence Is Always Present

Authoress: Ehh Rah Jhoy

Chapter Title: Your Absence Leaves Marks

Rating: T

Pairing: Kingdom Hearts; Roxas/Sora – Yes, me likes SemeRoxas. Deal.

Disclaimers: I do not own the characters of Kingdom Hearts. Square Enix and Disney owns them. Although, I own Nagisa Irino.

Warnings: Shounen Ai.

Summary: They say moving on from losing a loved one is always hard – and Sora believes it. But what makes it harder is when someone who looks like said loved one appears before him.

A/N: Yahoo! Finally finished it! This chapter is freaking difficult for me to start – and I'm still on the prologue! I wrote about 5 failed drafts before this one.

Anyway~ Enjoy!

The Start.

On May 29, XXXX, Roku Irino was declared dead after a one month disappearance.

A woman who wanted to remain anonymous had found a pile of bloody clothes on the shores of Destiny when she was on her daily walk. "It was really bloody, almost that I thought it was a mutilated body, chopped to pieces or something," said the woman. "I panicked and immediately called the police."

The pile of clothes were taken to the CSI to be identified and they found out that the blood on them belong to the missing Roku Irino. The boy had been missing for one month after the day of a family reunion in the boy's family's house. The boy's family was immediately informed of the discovery.

"It's his clothes! I remember that checkered pattern anywhere!" confirmed Nagisa Irino as she wept for her lost son.

As of now, the local police, with the help of the CSI team, are looking for the kidnapper and murderer of one Roku Irino.

That cut-out piece of newspaper should have been thrown – crumpled into a grey paper ball and inside a paper basket where it was going to wait until it come to the garbage dump, either burned or recycled.

Sadly, it was still in one of Sora's many folders, straight and only mildly creased.

And Sora, as much as he loathe the paper piece, had no will to cast the old newspaper that wrote about his dear older brother.

As Sora gazed blankly at the piece, images of his brother showed themselves to his mind – an older blond holding his smaller hand as they walked down the mall's marble floor; a grouchy blond glaring for being woken up early by their sweetly smiling mother; a sweaty blond in a Struggle match against a grumbling and steadily losing foe; a smug blond grinning at him as they played a round of arm wrestle after the brunet already lost the first few ones; a pouting blond grumbling as Sora won another round of Mario Kart for the millionth time – and more.

Sora smiled a fond yet sombre smile at the memories.

It had been almost three years now since Roku-nii's death and May 29 was nearing. It was almost time for another day of mourning for a loss of a loved one and wishing of good luck to said loved one where ever they were now.

At the start, they weren't sure when his brother had really died – the blood on the collected clothes was already and surprisingly dry when found – and since the murderer was never found – something Sora wanted to strangle the police for sometimes – the official day for the death remained unknown. At the end, they recorded it on May 29 as it was the time they found the bloody clothes.

Sora frowned, a crease appearing between his brows. Now that he remembered it; no body was also found. Only the clothes and the blood. The police and CSI agents had searched all over Destiny shores but no signs of a dead corpse was found.

But they were sure that the blood belonged to Roku Irino.

Sora decided to stop himself from continuing to think about his brother's mysterious death and concentrated on his current task – the dark clouds of loss and longing and 'what-if's were beginning to surround him and Sora didn't like them one bit right now.

Closing the red folder and placing it back inside the shelf, he wondered idly for what did he had that folder for. It held only that piece of paper and a few school tests and assignments from before. It held no significance whatsoever, except for the newspaper piece.

Sora pulled out another folder – this one being in a bright blue colour. Opening it, he skimmed the papers it contained and let out a small sound of triumph. Sketches, designs and art doodles made up the whole pile of paper – just what he wanted.

Pulling himself up from where he was squatting down in front of the bookshelf, Sora clutched the folder to his chest and walked out of his room. Through the hallway and down the stairs, he went. On the way to the backyard, he passed by the kitchen where his mother was.

Nagisa Irino was a thin woman who possessed a long, messy mass of light brown hair and bright blue eyes – a feature that was graciously passed down to her children. Despite her frail-looking form, the woman had a strength that purely showed her prowess in karate and Sora was always proud to call her his mother – especially after she showed said prowess to one Riku Miyano, playfully of course.

"Hey, Mum!" the brunet chirped, leaning up to place a short kiss on the woman's cheek. Nagisa replied the greeting with a bright smile of her own.

"Hello, dear. I was wondering, who's going to drive you to Twilight Town next week? You are going to watch that Struggle match thing with your friends, right, on Friday. 'Cos I can drive you guys if you want before I–." said the woman as she wiped her wet hands on the apron around her waist.

Sora let out a chuckle and interrupted her, "That's tomorrow, Mum –Tuesday. And I already told you yesterday that Riku has a driver's permit so we're riding with him."

Nagisa blinked. "Oh." Sora chuckled once more; his mother might be a black-belt but her forgetfulness of simple things was her flaw. "Ah, well. At least, that means you'll be free on Friday. It's–"

"–May 29. I know, Mum. Like I would forget that."

Seeing the sudden woeful expression on her son's face as the brunet looked away, the woman felt a tug at his heartstrings. Nagisa leaned down and pressed her thin lips on Sora's forehead in a comforting and, at the same time, apologetic peck. Sora closed his eyes, releasing a quiet sigh, before he opened them again, smiling up at his mother – he continued to look a bit bleak but his smile told her not to worry.

Nagisa smiled back. "We have to bring some sea-salt ice-cream on Friday. It's his favorite even though I still don't understand why." she commented after a small pause.

Sora chuckled.

The sharp sound of ringing startled them from their moment and after ruffling her son's spiky hair which Sora retaliated with a poke on the stomach, Nagisa hurriedly moved towards the source of ringing – the house phone. Before the woman could disappear into the living room, Sora exclaimed, "I'll be at the backyard if you need me!"

With that, the sixteen year old brunet walked out of the kitchen and into the grassy yard; he was in the mood for sketching under the sun.

The End.

Next Chapter: Trip to Twilight Town – Sora gets lost and confused.