Disclaimer: I don't own anything, just my inappropriate ideas.

Unexpected Events

Chapter 1

Sora groaned, tossing the last boulder over the side of the ravine trail. He heaved a sigh of relief and wiped sticky sweat off his brow. The keyblade bearer's work was done for the day and he could finally get a bit of rest. He looked up at the blazing sun in the sky, cringing from the overall brightness and covered his face with his forearm to protect his eyes from the deadly radiation.

The reconstruction of Hollow Bastion was underway and all the committee members had been asked to participate, even him. Although Sora was busy fighting the Heartless and Nobodies on other worlds he dutifully set aside time to drop by and help his friends out here.

Sora blasted an ice spell right in front of his feet and reveled in the cool air that blew past him. He closed his eyes and relaxed his muscles, letting them take in the blessed cold. His euphoria didn't last long since the ice melted completely a few minutes later, leaving him in the blazing heat once more. Just as soon as he was about to cast another blizzard Yuffie's voice filtered across the canyon, becoming increasingly louder as she called his name.

A few moments later he caught sight of the familiar short black hair as Yuffie suddenly appeared in front of him in a cloud of smoke.

She beamed him a mega-watt smile and gripped his shoulder, "I finally found you! I need help over in the Bailey. Do you mind helping me out? Thanks, bye!" She teleported off with a wink.

Sora stared at the spot Yuffie just stood, dumbfounded. He let his head drop in defeat and he groaned softly. There went his break. He took a step forward and paused when his pant leg felt unusually lighter than he remembered it being before. Sora patted his legs down and paled, eyes widening. She stole my munny and potions! He took off at a run towards the Bailey.

When he climbed the last few remaining stairs and entered the Bailey Yuffie greeted him with a nod of approval, "That didn't take you long at all. You worried I'd spend your munny or something?" She grinned and tossed him his coin purse, "Take better care of it next time. I was really tempted to buy things for a while there." She laughed, taking in his shocked expression, "Now, I have a favor to ask of you. There are three support beams underneath the Bailey here." She patted the wall, "I am going to dangle you out of that overlook there and I need you to blast each of the seams with a Fire spell. I placed this super adhesive glue along the seams so it should be easy to spot but I can't use magic and Merlin and Donald are busy at the moment so they can't help." She smiled, clapping her hands together, "So! Let's do it!" She held out her arms.

Sora simply stared at her as if she were insane. He walked over and looked out of the overlook towards the ground, unaware of his costly mistake. The Keyblade bearer backed up slightly, "Nuh-uh, there is no way that I'm-" The world suddenly spun upside down and Sora frantically gripped the smooth brick that had appeared in front of his face, "Yuffie!" He shouted, totally terrified for his life as he dangled practically in midair.

"Aww, stop being a baby and just blast the seams already! You aren't light." She commented, gripping his ankles tightly as she dangled him out of the Bailey.

That one sentence had Sora in motion. Summoning his keyblade and looking around for the seams that he was supposed to hit, Sora tensed as a particularly strong gush of wind pushed past him, causing him to waver and freeze up again, clenching his eyes shut as Yuffie moved to accommodate the change in positions, "Hurry Sora!" she grounded out.

He gulped and opened his eyes again, smiling as he spotted all three seams. The wind must have moved him in the perfect position to spot and shoot his targets. He held up his keyblade and aligned it up with one of the three bars, "Fire!" he shouted, watching as a burst of flame shot from the keyblade's tip and hit its target head on. He shifted slightly and blasted the second seam with a bout of flame before finally focusing on the last metal support beam remaining, "Fire!" he yelled once more. Just when the ball of flames was about to hit his target another stronger wind came through, causing the flame to veer off course and disappear into thin air.

The young man's breathe was becoming labored as he was running out of enough magical stamina to keep up using his magic so much in one go. He gulped and focused intently on his target. Sora couldn't afford to miss this time. He waited silently for a few minutes, studying the pattern of the wind and when he felt the time was right, "Fire!" he ordered.

Sora yelled in happiness as the fire stayed on course and gave a thumbs up to Yuffie who quickly swung him over the ledge and onto solid ground. He felt no shame in kissing the dirt covered stone. That was one of the most traumatizing moments in his entire life and he never wanted to have to go through that again.

Yuffie tapped her foot impatiently but couldn't help the grin that threatened to break out across her face, "Are you done?" she asked.

Sora chuckled, a blush coloring his cheeks, "Y-Yeah." He got up, but instantly wobbled, Yuffie having to grip his arm tightly to keep him upright.

"Whoa there! You okay?" She stared at him worriedly, wondering if the experience had been too challenging for him.

Sora just shook it off, "It's nothing. I think I may just have lost my land legs for a moment." He gave her his goofy smile and it reassured Yuffie enough to let him go gently, "Alright, well I better get going. I have to check up on the other worlds. Do you know where Donald and Goofy are?" he asked, rubbing his eyes wearily.

Yuffie stared at him critically, "Yeah, they're with Merlin down in the Borough helping with construction." She pressed the back of her hand against his cheek, "You sure you're alright? I didn't know you were so terrified of heights." She muttered apologetically.

Sora laughed and shook off her hand, "I always have been since my friend Riku decided to dangle me off the top of a tree when we were kids. Although, truthfully, it's never usually this bad." He smiled sadly, remembering the good times, "Well, I'll leave them with you guys since you need the extra help. I'll be back for them as soon as I get done patrolling. I can't let the Heartless get too much of a head start on me, ya know." He laughed, rubbing the back of his head, "Well, see ya later!" Sora took off into the Borough to teleport to the gummi ship.

Yuffie sighed and shrugged her shoulders when he was out of sight, jumping slightly as soon as she remembered something important, "Oh! His potions!"

Sora gasped as he was knocked flat on his back, his keyblade skidding across the ground a few feet away from him. A horde of Dragoon nobodies surrounded him, a few leaping into the air one after the other, positioning themselves for their attack. Sora barely had time to dodge roll away before four spears embedded themselves where his body used to be. He summoned Guardian's Soul back to him and he groaned, falling forward on one knee. His body was so tired, he needed a serious break or he was going to collapse. The Dragoons didn't really seem to care that their enemy was at a disadvantage and sprung once again to attack. Sora stared up at them and willed his body to respond. He heard the familiar swooshing sound with their descent and clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the end.

A loud growl echoed throughout the ballroom and the Beast charged in, tackling Sora out of the way of impending doom, "What is wrong with you? These trespassers are nothing but weaklings!" the burly beast growled, backhanding one of the Nobodies without even batting an eye, "You've grown weak." He observed, tossing a potion his way.

Sora laughed softly and scrambled to his feet, "S-Sorry Beast. I…I just haven't had time to rest is all." He smiled. The recovery effects of the potion helped to give him enough energy to continue fighting and he raised his keyblade.

The friends faced their enemies and charged at them, clawing and slicing them till there was only one foe remaining. The dragoon looked liked it had seen better days and stumbled along towards them, waving its spear as menacingly as possible with what little energy it had left.

Sora and Beast looked at each other and activated their special limit, Howling Moon. In a flurry of claws and light the Nobody diminished once again back into nothingness, leaving the two males alone in the Ballroom.

Sora collapsed back onto his butt and gulped in mouthfuls of air, feeling wiped from the usually easy battles. He stared up at the grand ceiling of Beasts' Ballroom and sighed. Finally, he was able to take a break.

Beast walked over to where he lay on the floor and growled at him, "What is wrong with you today?" He swung his arm out to his side, "You usually don't require my assistance on such enemies."

Sora smiled off-handedly and shrugged, "I don't know really. Maybe I'm just having a bad day." Suddenly there was a loud beeping sound and Chip n' Dale's voices resounded in the room,

"Sora! There's something wrong with The Land of Dragons! They need your help!" Chip squeaked. There was a slight shuffling and Dale's voice filtered through,

"Head to the save point and we'll pick you up!"

Sora sighed and smiled, "Alright, alright. I'll be there soon." He jumped up and stumbled, laughing slightly as the world spun for a bit, "Whoa." He ran towards the huge double doors, waving back to Beast who stared at him angrily, "Well, duty calls. I'll see you later Beast! Let me know if you need anything else, okay?" He left when he got no response.

Sora groaned and relaxed in the cockpit of the gummi ship, putting it into auto-pilot.

It had been a week since he had left his teammates back in Hollow Bastion to help the committee members with construction and he was starting to miss his rambunctious friends/partners. With the worlds back in order for the time being he could swing back and check up on them to see how they were doing. The brunette still hadn't received his long overdue break and it was now finally catching up to him to the point where he had to rely heavily on his friends to defeat the Heartless that swarmed their planets. Sora knew he needed to take a break soon but he could never find the time in his ever growing work schedule to do so.

The alarm went off in the gummi ship and Chip n' Dales' voices crackled over the intercom, "Hollow Bastion is under attack! Sora! They need your help!" The two chipmunks squeaked worriedly.

Sora sat up hastily, instantly worried for his friends, "Let them know I'll be there as soon as I can!" The teen shoved away his problems into the back of his mind to be dealt with later and set course for Hollow Bastion.

When the Keyblade bearer set foot into the tiny market place everything was in chaos. Heartless and Nobodies were fazing in and out of buildings and screams could be heard throughout the town. Sora drew his Gaurdian's Soul keyblade and took out the weak Shadow and Soldier Heartless in his way, making a beeline for the Borough and Merlin's House.

A horde of Bookmasters and Samurai Nobodies were attacking the front door of Merlin's House, both sides seeming to have put aside their differences to achieve their separate but similar goals. Leon and Yuffie were the only one's protecting their home base and both looked as if they've been worn thin. Yuffie noticed him first and waved cheerily as she sliced apart another Bookmaster, "Hey! It took you long enough to get here!" She greeted before returning her attention to the fight at hand. Leon glanced over at him and nodded,

"I'm glad you're here." He whipped his eyes back onto his opponent and blocked a pretty strong Fire spell, shooting back one of his own.

Sora rushed over and covered the gunblade wielder's rear, knocking back a Samurai that had crouched to strike, "Glad to know that I can be of service!" He shouted, swatting away the weaker heartless while subtly letting Leon and Yuffie deal with the stronger ones. Sora felt disappointment and disgust wriggle its way into his chest and he glared angrily at his opponents. He couldn't let his friends down by taking the easy way out. He had to do this!

Sora knocked away a shadow heartless that had slithered into the battle and charged at a particularly healthy looking Samurai Nobody. It regarded him calmly from and raised its sword in acceptance to his challenge. Sora raised his keyblade in turn and stared at its masked "face".

The teen didn't know how long they stood there, staring at each other when finally it sprang forward and twirled it's sword in a series of thrusts and jabs, Sora blocking every single one. He knocked the Nobody up into the air, following pursuit and sliced his keyblade through the Nobody in a series of twists and combos.

It disappeared into nothingness before Sora even touched the ground.

The fight was soon over and the three fighters did their customary winning stances. Sora stared over at Leon and smiled slightly. He was glad that he had been able to help out the stoic gunblade wielder. Truth be told he had had a major crush on the older man for quite some time. It had started ever since he had followed the man to the Bailey all those months ago. Just seeing Leon's face with a look of contemplation sent his heart rate skyrocketing. He had wanted to confront the man and tell him his feelings but he didn't know how the other man would take it. What if he didn't like guys? What if he didn't want to be friends anymore because it would be too awkward? He didn't want to lose what they had now so he restrained himself to liking him from a distance…always watching…

"…Sora…SORA!" The teen jumped, looking around for the impending attack.

"Wha- what?" he blurted out of his mouth. Yuffie laughed and tilted her head to the side,

"You were spaced out for a little while there. Leon was calling your name for five minutes!" She winked, patting him on his back supportively. Sora smiled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, a slight blush tingeing in his cheeks.

Leon approached him, staring at him critically, "You don't look that good, Sora." He stated seriously, leaning forward to poke him square in the forehead, "You look sick. What's wrong?"

The teen twitched, smiling instantly to reassure him, "What are you talking about, Leon? I'm fine! Your eyes must be playing tricks on you." Joking around to lessen the other man's worry. He liked that the older man cared about his well-being but there were more important things to worry about than his health.

Leon didn't seem to think so, "They're not." He stated seriously.

A loud explosion resounded to the left of them, near the Bailey, causing the ground to shake beneath them. Sora's mind instantly went to his friends and he took off towards the Bailey, shouting over his shoulder towards his two friends, "They are Leon! Take a break, alright? You need it." The two fighters disappeared from his peripheral vision as he turned the corner, heading towards the stairwell leading to his destination.

When Sora reached the top of the stairs he couldn't help but to freeze, stop, and stare. The nearly completed Bailey had been set aflame and was currently infested with Crimson Jazz. He was suddenly glad that he had reinforced those beams a few weeks earlier or that Bailey would have collapsed from the sheer heat radiating off of it in droves.

Sora summoned his keyblade and casted a blizzard at the center point of the flames, trying to douse their core. It had little to no effect, like dropping a speck of water on a growing forest fire. It reared back for a moment before coming back even stronger than ever.

Another explosion rumbled through Hollow Bastion, causing the warrior to lose his balance and fall back onto his butt, wincing as the damaged buildings around them cracked slightly on their frames. The stone buildings couldn't take much more of this and if they collapsed tons of villagers would become homeless.

With this in mind Sora jumped up, just in time for the Crimson Jazz to notice his presence. They swarmed out of the Bailey and into the air around him, just out of reach for physical attacks.

They swirled around him, leaving behind giant orbs of flame in their wake. Sora counted at least forty balls of flame before they all plummeted towards him in a colossal wave of fury.

He dodged rolled his way out of the way of most of the fire and they dissipated but a few hit their intended mark and he shouted out in pain as he felt his flesh burn and somewhat char instantly from the intensity of the heat. Sora gritted his teeth and countered with a few blizzards, effectively weakening a couple of them and giving him a chance to recover.

The Heartless swirled around him faster, obviously angered by the sudden freeze. They surrounded themselves in fire and charged at him one after the other. Sora leaped out of the way of the first barrage before perfecting a one hand handstand to avoid a few that came after. They seemed to become smarter and came at first one at a time, waiting for him to dodge the first one before charging all at once when his guard was down.

This tactic seemed to work as Sora was knocked around like a rag doll in a washing machine. He collapsed face first on the cobble and groaned in pain, all the weariness of the past month returning at once. Sora struggled to his feet and teetered precariously before slouching but standing upright, "Hah…hah, you guys just don't know when to give up, do you?" He wheezed.

"They aren't the only one that refuses to give up."

Sora looked back to see Leon charging up the stairs, laughing slightly as the taller man stood next to him, "You should have taken a break Leon. Your stubbornness will only cause you problems."

Leon smirked and raised his gunblade up in front of him, "I was talking about you, idiot." He jumped into the air and with a blurry of slashes and jabs, half of the heartless count deteriorated as hearts floated up into the smoke-filled sky.

Sora stared awestruck, totally enraptured at how fluently Leon moved while fighting. The way his body twisted and bent to dodge attacks and how, even though he was obviously tired, he kept pace and finished off his enemies quickly and efficiently. But what caught his eye the most was the serious face Leon would sport when he was dealing with something that was important to him. Those fierce stormy blue eyes that could hold so much emotion but yet be so icy and detached at times.

He sighed and smiled slightly when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a Crimson Jazz charging up to strike the taller man from behind. He turned to shout out a warning to the other warrior but instantly paled when he realized that the other man had no way to defend himself, at the moment, from the attack. Leon was currently dealing with six Crimson Jazzes and was currently surrounded by said enemies in a sort of crescent shaped barricade.

Without a second thought Sora took off, watching as the Crimson Jazz charged as well. There was no time to defend when Sora got in the Heartless's line of attack, just barely enough to tense before he was sent flying from the monster's brazen attack. He let out a quick groan of pain before he felt himself bust through the chain link fence lining the walkway and a searing pain erupt across his whole back before nothing but air as he fell off the side of the cliff. He heard a loud shout from above before instantaneous darkness engulfed his mind.

Sor…wa…up! Sora…ple…se! (*1)

I'm…gon…tak…yo-r...munny! (*2)

Com…on, bra…! Git…laz…ass…moving! (*3)

You…stron…than…this! Wa…up , m'boy! (*4)

SOR…! We…got…ge…goin', SORA! (*5)

We…haft…protec…worl….border! (*6)

WORL…ORDER…YO…IDIO…! (*7)

Something's there…something warm…

Sor…I'm…so...sor…please…don…die…me… (*8)

Leon…

Sora opened his eyes groggily and took in all of the anxious and eager faces of his friends, his eyes and mind focusing in on a single brunette that was gripping his hand tightly, "Le…on…" He wheezed, chest hurting from that single effort to speak.

The gunblade wielder's head shot up and his heart clenched when he saw the single tear that was threatening to escape. Leon shot up and leaned closer, "Sora! What were you thinking you idiot?! Why did you get in the way like that?" There was so much anger in Leon's voice that Sora visibly flinched from his tone.

Leon clenched his jaw and looked away, trying to get his emotions in check, "I…I didn't mean to shout at you…" He muttered apologetically, clenching his hands tightly in front of him. Other than a few scratches here and there, the older man looked perfectly fine and it raised Sora's spirits to see so. Even though Leon was mad at him now, he wasn't hurt. That was all that mattered.

Sora raised his free hand and touched Leon's cheek, barely able to hold his arm up, "I'm…glad...that I was…able to protect you…if only…for just that one time. I'm glad…I…" His arm fell and he slipped back into darkness.

TBC

Author's Note:

Well, this was a story that I have owed to my Wifey since Frebruary '09. It's gotten so long that I have decided to change it to a chapter story. I don't know how long it's going to be but I know that if I don't get it done soon my wifey may very well kill me. Lol. I hope that I kept it mostly in character. I know The Beast was a bit iffy but I could not get it to sound right. Don't kill me for it! Thanks!

On another note I am still going to finish my other stories! I am going to get my lazy butt back in gear and start writing again. I hope to finish off this story real fast so that I can get back to finishing up my other stories so please don't give up on me yet!

As always, review! I love replying to all the comments, good or bad.

Momo

*Translation for broken dialogue: (If anyone needs or wants to read this)

1. Sora wake up! Sora…? Please! = Aerith

2. I'm going to take your munny! = Yuffie

3. Come on, brat! Git yer lazy ass moving! = Cid

4. You're stronger than this! Wake up, m'boy! = Merlin

5. SORA! We got to get goin', …SORA! = Donald

6. We hafta protect the world border! = Goofy

7. WORLD ORDER, YOU IDIOT! = Donald

8. Sora…I'm so sorry… Please don't die on me… = LEON!!! YAY!