A blinding light shines through the window. Silence fills the room as I sit up in bed, stretching my arms out. I look to the right of my bed, my digital clock reading 11:30 A.M. "Shit!" I curse as I rush out of bed & into my normal dress-wear. Zipping the front of my robe & fixing my hood, I walk into the long empty halls of the castle. I pass the rooms of my fellow Nobody acquaintances seeing all their lights off. -Saix is gonna be pissed that I'm late- I thought to myself as I walked into the Grey Room looking as awake as I could. I'm greeted by Xigbar who is shaking his head at me, smirking. How I'd love to punch that smartass mouth of his. "Well, if it ain't sleepin' beauty! Saix is waiting for you. He looks pretty ticked. Try not to piss him off anymore than he is." I continue to walk forward & stop as I am now in front of the scar-faced Nobody. "Morning Superior..." I say apologetically looking down. He gives me a glare & clears his throat while shifting his papers around. "Ballex, today I have paired you & Marxwell together for a mission in Twilight Town. You both have Heart Collecting & Recon for today. Do not screw up or both of you won't be doing much except scrubbing the castle floors." I gulped & looked around as he walked away, probably to tell Xemnas he's done for the day. I threw my hood up as soon as I saw Marxwell walk over to me. We've been partners in missions many times, but I haven't gotten to know her that well. Most members don't know this about me, but I'm bi. Axel is the only one I've told. Roxas soon figured it out, & surprisingly Demyx did too. I've been wanting to spark conversations with this rebellious Nobody, but what should I say to her that won't make me sound stupid!? I get so nervous when she's around me. I look up & notice she is smiling with a glint in her eyes that showed excitement & strong determination. "You ready to collect hearts?" She asks me happily, reminding me of a cute puppy ready to play outside. I smiled & nodded shyly as she grabs my hand making me blush. She summons a portal to the town & we walk through it together, hand in hand. I decided that I'm going to try to talk to her this time while I have her alone with me. Maybe we can make this a bonding experience if it goes as I plan. We get through the portal & end up in the middle of town by the main shop. I take my hood down & look around. It's surprisingly peaceful & the clouds float by in the blue sky. She cracks her knuckles & turns to me, "Let's get this done with 'kay?" She asks as I nod & start to walk with her. -Alright, conversation Ballex. You can do this!- "So Marxwell-" I get out & a bunch of big Heartless show up. "Hold up! We got company." We both get ready to fight as the Heartless launch themselves at us. Saix said to collect hearts & do Recon, but I didn't think we would have to face Heartless like these! To be honest, I'm kind of a coward when it comes to fighting. I'm not very strong. I'm more of the defensive type, strength wise...it's a burden. But Marxwell, she just seems so strong when I see her fight. And she's so brave, always jumping into battles & fights like it's no big deal. I've admired that about her for so long. My thoughts get in the way as I forget we are being attacked & I look up to see a Heartless latch onto me, along with 5 more. I can't fight them off! They're too strong, & I'm too weak. "Ballex! Leave her alone!" Marxwell yells. Suddenly I am being yanked up off my feet by a strong yet gentle hand. I'm shaking a little from being attacked, but I try to calm myself. "Come on, let's find somewhere safe for now until you're ready to fight." Marxwell says as she pulls on my arm. I didn't budge when she told me to walk. She looked up & saw more Heartless appear. "Come on! You'll get hurt if you don't go!" She shouts at me, trying to get me to move. Instead I charge toward the group of Heartless & pull out a long chain-whip, slashing at them. They all fade away as I watch their hearts float towards the sky. I start to walk in search of any more Heartless we need to get rid of as Marxwell runs to catch up. "Hey! Wait for me!" We continue walking but end up seeing nothing in town. "Why don't we do some Recon since we can't seem to find more Hearltess around this area?" She asks & I nod shyly, wrapping the whip around my shoulder. "That's a pretty cool weapon you got there." She says smiling at me. "Thanks." I reply with a smile. -Alright! This is going well so far- I think to myself. As we examine anything suspicious we find in town, I find myself falling to the ground by the impact of a fireball. Marxwell rushes over to me helping me up. "Are you ok?" She asks looking worried. I look around to where the fireball came from. Hovering in the sky staring at us was a giant wyvern looking Heartless. I gasp & Marxwell nods at me confidently. I nod back & take my whip back out. To be honest, I'm scared shitless. But I can't be a coward! We both rush forward & she lands a kick to the Heartless's snout. -god the way she kicks is so awesome. I could watch her all day. Wait! Focus! I have to help beat this thing.- I now have a flaming chain-whip after casting Fira on it & try to hold back one of its arms from slaughtering our bodies with one slice. "Damn this Heartless is strong! We need a strategy to beat it Ballex." She keeps attacking as I think of something to beat the Heartless quickly. For fuck's sake! I hate situations that make you think quickly because you're about to die if you don't. Too much pressure! "Ballex you're smart! I know you can think of a plan! Please hurry!" I quickly look up to see her trying to fight back. -did she just say I'm...smart? Oh my god, she did!- I take a deep breath & an idea comes into my head. "Marxwell, I got it! Run to that opening over there and lead it inside!" I shout to her. She looks at me wide-eyed. "What!? Are you serious!?" I ran to where I pointed & stood by the entrance. "Trust me! I know what I'm doing!" Marxwell runs towards the opening leading the wyvern there as well. We both halt at the middle of the clearing & wait for it to come through. "So what exactly are we doing here?" She asks me out of breath. "That Heartless is obviously big, so we can use that to our advantage. We simply lead it in here, it'll try to claw its way through to get to us, we will quickly jump out of the way when it gets closer, and its claws will slash through the trunk of this giant tree making it fall over on top of the Heartless. We won't need to do much." I said a little too confidently. You know I'm not even sure this plan will work. I'm just sort of winging it here. Hopefully it'll work otherwise, we're screwed! I look over at her & she had the biggest smirk on her face that I had ever seen. Except I actually like her smirk. It makes her look sexy & evil all at the same time! Xigbar's smirk just makes me want to kick him in the gonads repeatedly. We step back as we see it smash through the little crack in the wall. Please let my plan work...As I expected it to, it clumsily crashed its way through getting closer to us. Just a little closer & this Heartless's heart is ours! I used my chain-whip to piss it off and sure enough, it sliced its razor sharp claws through the biggest tree as we quickly jumped out of harms way. We stood there in awe as the tree came tumbling down on the wyvern, crushing it until it let out a last final screech of death. I did feel a little bad. It seemed like such a horrible way to die. Oh well, it won't feel pain where its going anyway. Slowly it faded away as well as its heart. "See!? I knew you could think of a plan! That brilliant mind of yours! But, how did you know the Heartless would follow us in here?" She asked surprised. "Easy. They're too predictable. Not to mention their brains are like the size of walnuts." We both laughed together & composed ourselves. "Hey, we should get some ice cream while we're here. Axel won't take me up to the clocktower." Marxwell pouts as I giggled at her. "Then we'll just have to find our own spot here, won't we?" I held out my hand & to my liking, she took it. We got our ice cream & sat at the edge of the walkway by the forest opening. "Sorry its not as good as a spot as Roxas & Axel's spot." I said as we ate our ice cream. "No way, its perfect here! From now on, this is our spot. Right, partner?" I smiled taking the last bite & nodded. "Right!" After we finished, we sat there together quietly watching the sky as it got darker & filled with stars. "So beautiful." Marxwell said calmly, staring into the stars. "You sure are." "Hm?" She looks questioningly at me & I just now realize what I said. "Uh…the stars, I mean. Hahaha..haha...ha…." Holy hell I must look like an idiot right now! My face probably looks like a fucking tomato. I look down at my feet thinking of something to say that won't make me sound even more stupid. "Ballex? Something wrong? Your face is really red. Oh! Do you not feel good?" She asks me, her face getting closer to mine. Clearly worried about me. "N-no! I'm fine, really!" -its just really hard for me to talk to you…- I said more to myself, but she overheard it & looked like someone just killed her puppy. "Its hard to talk to me? Do…*sniff* do you not like me?" Her eyes start to water as I'm now mentally facepalming myself. Christ, now I HAVE to tell her! "Well actually...its quite the opposite." I said shyly pulling my hood back on. "What do you mean?" She asks innocently. I took in a deep breath, looked her right in the eyes as best as my hooded face could, & blurted it out. "I'm in love with you. Ever since we've been partnered together, I've always admired you & instantly fell in love." She didn't say anything at first so I looked away in pure shame & embarrassment. It caught me off guard & hadn't registered what happened until after when she turned my face towards hers, pulled my hood off, & kissed me gently. -Did that really just happen or...am I that lonely and illusional that I'm fantasizing things?- I blink out of shock and finally pull myself together. "M-marxwell? What was th-that for?" Oh boy the nervous stuttering I had gotten rid of a while ago is now back! "What do you mean "what was that for"? I think it was pretty explanational, don't you?" She chuckles & my heart nearly leaps out of my chest. Does this mean she...returns my feelings? She actually likes me back?! "But...why?" I ask quietly. She bursts out laughing and tackles me in a warm comforting hug. "W-what? Did I say something weird?" Now I'm just confused. "You always say weird things. I like you, silly, because you are one of the kindest Nobodies in the organization. Not to mention you're also really creative and smart." I smile at the nice compliments. Its not like its a gift or anything. I just worked hard with everything I did to be this way. "I'm not as smart as Zexion." I stated matter-of-fact. She shakes her head slowly at me. "I don't care if you aren't as smart as bookboy. I care about who YOU are. Your personality, that's what I like. Do you remember when I came into the organization? I wouldn't talk to anyone except Xemnas when he gave me orders. I didn't want anything to do with meeting the other members or even being in the same room. However, one Nobody was the only one who could pull me out of my shell & they never quit on me when they tried to get me to talk. You know who that was? That was you, Ballex. You were nice to me, and treated me like I was one of you. In fact, it's because of you that I'm myself today & from now on. You helped me learn to trust and care again. Thank you." She hugged me tighter & I felt tears roll down my cheeks. Instantly I wrapped my arms around her and hugged back. I felt strange, but a good stange. I felt, whole again. Like when I was a person. Now, I'm sure that we have hearts.