All the Wrong Colours

I. All the Right Friends

The mansion at the end of the street looked like a white castle, complete with turrets and narrow windows. It had three above ground floors and a basement, and had been abandoned for several years. No one wanted to touch it; the town was full of superstitious folk, and they all claimed it was haunted. A house that beautiful couldn't come without at least one bad thing.

That was why no one expected Cloud—silent, brooding, rude Cloud Strife—to buy it from the town and clean it up.

Within three months, with the help of a few of Strife's out-of-town friends (a restoration committee of some sort) the mansion was turned into a boarding house. They called it Castle Oblivion. A fitting name for such a majestic residence as that.

Years later, the residents of the Castle stumbled across their youngest member to date.

"CLOUD!" Sprang a voice from the marble entrance hall, awakening the resident night-owl and alerting anyone else within the vicinity of the panicked presence of Demyx. "CLOOOUUUUUDDDD!!!!"

"Demyx, Cloud is at Leon's right now. Can I help you with something?" Zexion's soft speech could be heard across the hall, the shorter man standing in the open door of the library. He'd obvious just gotten up, hair dishevelled and glasses askew on the top of his head. There were light purple circles under his eyes, which only ended up making Demyx feel guilty for waking him.

If it was anyone else, the blond probably would have laughed at their misfortune. If it was any other circumstance, he probably would have made a crack at his friend's appearance.

"Zexion! Help! I dunno what to do, I just found her and she wasn't waking up so I—,"

"Start at the beginning, please, and lower your voice."

"Sorry! Well, uhm, I went to the beach and I found this girl and she looked cold but she was sleeping so I tried to wake her up but she didn't so I called Xigbar *breathe* 'cause he was heading to Marluxia's for something—he told me before I left—then I carried her in here after he dropped us off and I dunno what to do and Zexion, she's bleeding!"

"…How many breaths did it take to say that?"

"Uh, two? No, three!"

"You might want to work on that." Zexion turned his gaze from one blond to the next, ending up staring with concern at the unconscious girl, wrapped in Xigbar's and Demyx's coats and leaning against the wall. Spots of red dotted her cheeks and the occasional bare patch of skin (what was she wearing under those coats? It looked like a small dress of some sort! You just don't wear that kind of thing in Autumn!).She was a skinny little thing, as if she were more of a pile of twigs—it could easily be compared to Axel, with the amount of meat she had on her bones. But unlike Axel, she was tiny, too, would probably only come up to Zexion's chest, and that was saying something, because Zexion was short for twenty-one.

"Take her up to my room, I'm not using it—,"

"Right, 'cause you sleep on books in the library. She's going in my bed."

"I'll start on the spare room, then. Get some band-aids for her cuts, and there should be something for bruises in the bathroom cabinet. "

Demyx lifted up the pile of sticks—er, the white-blond girl—and carried the poor thing up the stars to the second floor, Zexion following at his own pace. The two went opposite ways, Zexion turning left rather than right, and they disappeared into opposite rooms.

Once Demyx had successfully buried the girl in only more blankets, and had done something with the small scattered wounds, he found Zexion across the hall in an incredibly white, incredibly empty room.

"Zex, she's got these weird bruises on her arms, they look like finger marks or something," said Demyx, surprisingly quiet.

Zexion looked mildly concerned and made a note to look into it. In the meantime, he requested his younger friend's assistance with cleaning the room of dust and whatnot.

When Cloud came home that afternoon, he didn't expect Zexion to be up, or talking to Xigbar, OR sitting next to Demyx at the dining table (such occurrences NEVER happened), but the curiously concerned or sad expressions on their faces did more than force him to drop all possible teasing remarks.

Something was up.

"What's going on?" he asked, experience letting him know that with people such as those occupying Castle Oblivion, socialization between the likes of these three just didn't happen calmly like this. For one, although Zexion and Demyx were friends, those two talking to Xigbar civilly? No. Second, Zexion was awake before five P.M. (the time dinner is usually placed on the table). In fact, it was two hours until then. And as a third and final point, Demyx was speaking quietly—that was, until Cloud asked his question.

Then the blond burst into a cry of the landlord's name, saying something that logically should have taken five breaths but managing it with only two, and something about a girl.

Strife placed a hand on Demyx's mouth (effectively getting the 'SHUT UP!' message across) and looked to Zexion; the sleep-deprived but most collected and trusted of the three. "We're going to be interrupted in the dining hall. Sora will be home soon, probably with his friend, and he usually gets a drive from Larxene. Who drives Axel to and from work. Not the best combination."

Zexion nodded, and they abandoned Demyx and Xigbar (who disbanded—Xigbar headed for the den in the basement, Demyx to the kitchen), Zexion being led into Cloud's office.

If one were to stand just inside the large oak doors that made up the Castle's entrance, Cloud's office would be the first door on your right. The one that was slightly curved. The one that led into a circular room—the base of the right-side turret. Cloud liked his office. It was also… very quiet. A great place to discuss without being overheard in any way.

Zexion explained the first scene, when Demyx had come in with the new girl, until the moment when Cloud had walked in, with that ever-present look of concern on his face. The man was in deep thought, something left unsaid, something to be investigated and researched.

"She didn't wake up?"

"No, not yet. Demyx will probably check on her soon."

"Alright then. A few of the others should be here about now—go get some sleep before dinner, you look like you'll need it."

Zexion nodded, rubbing a hidden eye, and left. Cloud awaited the return of Larxene-and-passengers.

Zexion heard a voice coming from Demyx's room.

"—and Zexion actually looked worried about you, but that's kind of strange since I can't remember when he looked so concerned—not even when we first got Sora. The kid was so beat up, then. Or, not even when Luxord came back completely smashed and almost puked on Zex's favourite book—no, wait, he was pretty pissed, then, and Luxord hasn't been allowed in the library since."

"Demyx," Zexion said, opening the door just a little bit more, "what are you doing?"

"ZEXION! Uh, hi!"

"Demyx."

"See, Xigbar said something about unconscious people hearing you even when they're, uh, unconscious, or was that in a coma? But, I just…thought it would help?"

Demyx's shy honesty melted Zexion's heart just a little bit, and the man ended up sitting in a second chair in the far corner, dozing and listening to Demyx tell the girl about the first time he ever surfed, until dinner time.

"Hey there ladies, we're baaack!" Larxene sang from the entrance hall, dimly alerting anyone within the castle of the noisy presence. It wasn't just Larxene—though she actually had the courtesy to greet (read: warn) the others—four more people spread into the hall.

The first two had been Larxene and Luxord, the second of which was only there for dinner and then planned to steal the woman's car and go back to work at the casino. Following them were Sora and his close friend Hayner, chatting about some video games. Axel came last… blatantly staring at Sora's ass. Not exactly something you'd want to get caught doing.

"Hey," Cloud called from the doors to the dining hall, "come here—and keep your voices down. You too Hayner, you're almost always around here anyways."

Five seats were taken up at the large table, and Cloud closed the door, standing behind an empty chair. "Demyx brought home a girl—,"

"Woot! Go Dem! Knew he had it in 'im!" called Axel, with a few commentary whistles from Larxene.

"Axel, shut up."

"Sorry. Continue."

"Dem brought in a girl who was unconscious, and pretty badly hurt. He and Zexion did what they could to fix her up; she's sleeping in Dem's room until tonight, I think Zexion made up a spare room." Cloud paused, pulled the chair out from the table, and sat down, resisting the urge to put his head in his hands—the stress was getting to him.

"Is she alright?" Luxord asked, sipping from—when did he get that? Never mind.

"I'm not sure. Nothing was broken, but it looked like a rib or two could be bruised or cracked. We need her to wake up to tell us if anything hurts."

"Uh… if—no, when she's awake, anything we should be mindful of?" Asked Axel thoughtfully, earning a surprised and nearly impressed glance from Sora, who usually hated the redhead.

"…She's a possible rape victim."

There were hisses of sympathy and pity, and most residents at the table winced. "Shiit, man, your family's real messed up," Hayner whispered to Sora, even though everyone could hear. Axel was slightly pleased that he was considered 'family' to Sora—oh, the blond was speaking.

"That's 'cause we all come from different situations—I don't think one problem here is ever the same," Sora explained, not bothering to lower his voice. The hall was quiet and echoing, it wouldn't do any good if he tried. Instead, he brushed blond hair out of his face and leaned back in his chair, brooding.

A knock at the door, and the handle turned, sliding to reveal a sliver of Leon's face. Leon—family doctor, Strife's friend, and Zexion's favourite teacher. "Cloud, what room?"

"Demyx's."

The door slid shut and the hall was silent.

"Leon totally looked like a creeper right there," commented Hayner.

Sora and Axel cracked up. Larxene smirked.

A/N: This is a prototype, if nothing else. I'm not sure how far this story will go, but clearly, my writing style has improved and I'm willing to test it out on the Kingdom Hearts fandom.

Thanks to Micah for the minor feedback.

-Sarii