[Disclaimer: ...we obviously don't own Kingdom Hearts...if only we were that good... ;) ]

CHAPTER ONE

So It Begins

The walls of the castle seemed as bleak as the lifeless white they were painted. The rooms empty, the halls motionless. No hope, no life, no joy. Holding many secrets in its day, the castle stood silent as though it had never been inhabited.

A black and purple smoking portal appearing in one of the rooms broke the quiet and desolate atmosphere. Stepping out of the portal, a man with red spiky hair smiled as he took in his surroundings. "Well, it's almost like home here…" he said, stretching his arms slightly.

A girl followed him out of the portal, frowning. "But it doesn't look like anyone's home, Axel…" she pointed out, brushing aside a lock of her long, brown hair.

"What is that?" The girl that walked out behind her and the red haired man followed her outstretched finger. "It looks like they left a note! I wonder what it says… Judging by the handwriting it looks like they wrote it in a hurry… Why don't you read it Chelly?" the girl suggested, her green eyes lit with excitement.

Reaching out and taking the note, Chellexim, who was known as Chelly by her friends, glanced over it. "It looks like Demyx's handwriting…"

Axel looked over her shoulder. "Yeah, definitely Demyx. I can't read a thing on here…"

"Pish posh," Chelly dismissed. "I can read it perfectly. It says 'Raccoon to walrus that never wore'. Hm…never wore what I wonder…"

"I'm pretty sure that's not what it says…"

"Well, if you're so smart, you read it," she said, thrusting the note into his hands.

"Maybe it's a ransom note… or suicide? Oh dear…"

"I'm pretty sure if one of the Organization members wanted to commit suicide, they'd just try to leave, Leximy. They'd be a Dusk in no time," Axel pointed out, glancing at the note. "Okay, that first word is 'returned' not 'raccoon'."

Chelly snatched back the letter. "Okay, I got this... 'Returned to…the World…that Never…Was…?' Oh! They just went back home to the castle. Silly me," she said, opening a portal. "We're going to have to give Demyx some penmanship lessons when we get back…"

Axel nodded. "Agreed."

Sighing Leximy slumped her shoulders. "All this teleporting is making me light headed. Can't we just stay in one place?"

Chelly smiled. "Too bad!" she said, pushing her into the portal.

"That's more like it," Axel said, walking through the portal.

Giving the room a quick glance over, Chelly followed suit and walked through the portal, leaving the quiet, white room in silence.

Walking out of the portal, Leximy found herself in the middle of a large room with tall chairs; everything was white, minus the black robe wearing people sitting in them. "Oh hello…am I interrupting something? Excuse me, I'll just…"

"What is this nonsense!" one of the men shouted, frowning; he had a large 'X' shaped scar in the middle of his face.

"Hey, Saix, don't be rude to our guest!" Chelly said with a wag of her finger.

"We found your note, Demyx," Axel said, opening a small portal and placing the note inside it.

"I'm glad you guys came!" the man with the light brown mullet said with a large grin.

Another member, the only other girl in the room, rested her chin on her fists. "I'm surprised they could…your chicken scratch isn't legible…"

"Hey! I spent time writing that note, Larxene! It looked beautiful, man…" he retorted, crossing his arms. "I'm sure Chelly could read it!"

Chelly opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a snort.

"What?" Demyx asked, glaring at Saix.

"You called her 'Chelly'. Does she look like a Somebody to you?"

Chelly smiled slightly. "It's just a nickname Saix! It's similar to my Somebody name back in my home world with magical alchemy..."

Demyx smiled smugly at Saix as the blue haired man looked around, obviously having lost interest in the topic. "Where's Xemnas…? He's never late…"

Feeling a bit out of place, Leximy opened a portal and appeared in one of the two empty chairs in the room. "So…what are you guys doing in here? It's so…clean and white…"

Before anyone had a chance to respond, a man with long silver hair and slightly tan skin appeared next to her in the same chair. "And who is this?"

"Oh…is this your seat? I didn't know anyone was sitting here…" Leximy replied without moving.

"Yes…that would be my seat. Please, remove yourself so we can commence with this meeting."

"Oh, alright…" Leximy mumbled. "Anything for the old man with the bad tan…"

Xemnas frowned and looked at his other Organization members. "Who brought her here?"

Axel and Chelly were the first to react; they both pointed accusingly at Larxene.

"I did not!" she exclaimed, clenching her teeth and shooting them a glare.

"Just kidding," Chelly said, magically creating, or transmuting, two new chairs for her and Leximy. "There we go!"

She opened a portal for them both, and walked through her own. "Hey! Mine's next to Axel's!" she said, waving at him; Axel turned and waved back.

Leximy sighed as the portal in front of her opened. "Another portal? You've got to be kidding me…" she said, but went through it anyway. "Hello," she said turning to the man next to her who had long, pink hair. "You smell pretty."

The man smiled and ran his black gloved hand through his luscious hair. "Thank you…I wash my hair with rose scented shampoo."

Axel rolled his eyes. "She's the one who bought it for you for Christmas, Marluxia."

"Well…she commented on how I smell, so I was giving her the reason why I smelled so lovely!"

"Can we get back to the matter at hand? Xemnas grows impatient," Saix said, glancing at Xemnas who was gripping the arm rests of his chair impatiently.

"What? The Mad Hatter?" Leximy asked.

Saix turned to give her a puzzled look.

"Oh, I think I heard you wrong…. Matter at hand…gotcha…sorry…you may continue."

Saix held back a smile as he turned to listen to the Superior.

"Thank you for your…permission," Xemnas said, a little unsure.

Chelly clapped. "She's so kind…"

Xemnas cleared his throat. "So…because this is the first day of the new year, I've decided we'd all do something special to celebrate…"

"Are we going to get puppies? I could use one in my room!" Chelly interrupted, looking hopefully at them.

"We will not have those abominations in the castle," Saix said.

"Is Saix afraid of dogs?" Axel said with a smirk. "I'm sure you could knit them a pretty sweater."

Saix widened his eyes slightly at him before turning to Leximy with a glare. She responded with a sweet smile.

Xemnas cleared his throat once more, a little loudly this time to regain the floor. "Anyway…as I was saying… I thought it'd be fun if we-"

"Can we decorate the castle?" Demyx suddenly exclaimed.

"That'd take a long time to decorate and even longer to take all the decorations down! …make Larxene do it!" Chelly said, pointing at her.

Larxene turned and glared at her. "Bite me."

"No thanks. You wouldn't taste that nice… you're too bitter," she responded, challenging her glare with a smirk.

"Cat fight?" Axel suggested with a smile.

"Oh! Oh! Let's have a jello fight!" Leximy suddenly said. "Xigbar, you can cook right?"

All eyes in the round room turned to the man with the eye patch and a pony tail, who smiled. "I have been known to dabble in the art of cooking…"

"Why in the world would we have a jello fight? This room is white, and it's going to stay that way," Saix ordered.

"Whoever participates has to clean it up?" Chelly suggested with a shrug.

"Is flaming jello accepted?" Axel asked.

"Only if it's thrown at Larxene!" Demyx said, quickly ducking as a knife was thrown at him.

"Why always so violent, Larxene?" Leximy asked. "Always with the knives and the throwing…why not pillows? No one gets hurt with pillows…"

"That gives me an idea," Marluxia said. "How about we have a slumber party! I just got these great flower print pajamas…with footies!"

"That sounds like a great idea! I vote p-jays and stuffed animals…" Leximy agreed.

"I'll bring the cake," Xigbar added.

"It is a full moon…I am feeling a bit crazy, why not? Let's have some fun," Saix agreed with a cough.

"Yay! This'll be fun!" Chelly said.

"We'll have to have marshmallows," Axel said, holding up a flame in his hand with a smile.

"I'll sit back and play my Sitar while you guys eat, it'll be like dinner with music!" Demyx said.

"It will be dinner with music, not like," Larxene said, rolling her eyes.

"That reminds me of dinner theater…" Chelly said.

"Dinner theater?" Saix repeated.

Chelly nodded. "It's just like it sounds. People eat and watch other people perform."

"We can have a talent show, too! Chelly and I can sing a duet, Axel, you can eat fire, and Saix can sew the costumes, and Larxene can do standup comedy!" Leximy exclaimed.

"I don't do comedy," Larxene protested.

Chelly, Leximy, Axel and Demyx responded by bursting into laughter.

"She's so funny…" Chelly giggled.

Axel pretended to wipe a tear away from his eye. "Gets me every time…"

Larxene sat back, crossed her arms and sulked in her chair.

"Why isn't anyone listening to me?" Xemnas shouted, before sighing. "I guess that'll work…"

Another member with long, black dreadlocks crossed his arms and scowled. "How childish…"

"Someone should challenge Xaldin to a frowning contest!" Chelly said, pointing at the man.

"I want to sword fight Xigbar!" Leximy said.

"Sword…fight? I don't do swords, Luv Pea."

"But you're a pirate… All pirates can use swords, don't be silly."

"…pirate?"

"Save your breath, Leximy," Demyx said. "We've already tried to get him to admit it, but he just won't!"

Xigbar turned to Demyx with a confused expression. "I'm not sure what you mean…"

"Well…we'll just give him a sword and see how he fares," Chelly said.

Xigbar smiled. "Good luck with that."

"Let's get going. To the bed room!" Leximy said, striking a super hero pose. "I've got some horror movies that'll really get this party started." She laughed. "Like, Twelve Ways to Fix a Carrot. It gave my friend Vaughn nightmares for weeks!"

Chelly laughed. "Sounds like a real scary movie…"

"Carrots? That's not scary…" Axel said, looking at the two girls in confusion.

"The way Larxene uses them is!" Demyx said before whisper really loudly, "She hides knives in them!"

"Okay, everyone get their pajamas on and…wait, which bedroom?"

"I believe Xemnas has the largest room," Axel said.

"Who, me? You can't be serious…my room isn't suited for all of you and…really…?" Xemnas said.

"Is it just me, or is he hiding something?" Leximy asked, raising and eyebrow. "Whoa! Did you see that? I didn't know I could do that…"

"What Xemnas is trying to say is…his room is very…messy…" Saix said.

"Saix! How could you betray me in such a way!"

"I – I don't know…she used some kind of power!" Saix said, pointing accusingly at Leximy. "What ARE you?"

Leximy smiled innocently. "I didn't do anything, honestly, I think you just wanted to tell me…"

"Let's just use Lexaeus and my room, we can push the beds together! You don't mind, do you?" Demyx asked, turning to Lexaeus.

Instead of talking, Lexaeus stared at him.

"Then it's settled! Their room is the next largest, so it should be fine," Chelly said with a nod.

"I've never understood why they got the second largest room in the house…" Axel said.

"Because we're special," Demyx replied with a proud smile.

Larxene rested her chin on her fists once again, clearly showing her boredom. "You can say that again…"

Marluxia suddenly turned to glare at Saix, who glared back.

"Staring contest, yay!" Leximy said happily. "Whoever wins gets to take my hand in marriage!"

"What?" Saix and Marluxia said in synch, turning to look at her.

"Awh, you both lose…I guess I'll have to marry Chelly… sorry Chelly…"

Chelly snapped her finger and frowned. "Drat, I was hoping for Lexaeus," she said, turning to him. "He has such a way with words…"

Lexaeus made no expressions, nor sounds; he just stared at her, without saying anything.

Axel looked around. "Someone please tell me she's kidding…"

"Wait, I say we get a do-over!" Marluxia said.

"Yes, that seems fair. We were…caught off guard!"

"Never let your guard down!" Chelly scolded.

"Let's get going, you two can have a death match later, don't worry," Leximy said, smiling and disappearing.

Chelly gave Axel a wave goodbye before disappearing in a flash of black.

As soon as the black disappeared, Lexaeus let out a breath of relief. "Ah, now that they're gone, I can start talking again…"

"Please tell me she was kidding, Lexaeus!" Axel said.

Lexaeus smiled at him before disappearing. Axel frowned, rolled up one of his sleeves and disappeared as well.

"Slumber party, slumber party," Demyx sang happily before disappearing.

Marluxia turned to glare at Saix. "I'll see you. Lexaeus's room. Be there."

"We all will be there…" Saix pointed out.

"Well…good…"

"Good."

"Good!"

"Good!"

Xemnas shook his head. "This is not good…"