Disclaimer: I don't own any Kingdom Hearts characters.

--

Roxas woke up to his alarm clock at exactly 7:15 in the morning. He quickly brushed his teeth, ate breakfast and kissed his mom on the cheek before grabbing his skateboard and heading out to school.

"Have a good day, honey! Be careful!" she yelled after him.

"I will, Mom! Don't worry!" Roxas yelled back.

--

He met up with his three buddies at the station just as the train pulled up.

"Hey Roxas," his best friend, Hayner, called out. "We're getting together to practice for the next Struggle tournament after school. Don't forget," he reminded.

Roxas smiled. "Like I would ever forget."

"We can't let Seifer win again this year," said Olette, with her eyes shining with determination as they stepped on board the train and sat down.

Pence chuckled. "You know, Olette, you sound almost more motivated than Hayner. But only almost."

Olette just rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I just think he's been sort of an arrogant jerk lately, and it would do the whole town some good if either Hayner or Roxas beat him this year."

"Don't worry! We will definitely win the tournament this time. Won't we, Roxas?" Hayner supplied.

"Of course," said Roxas confidently. And then, "Hey, this is our stop," and he stood up to get off the train.

--

School went by pretty uneventfully, as it did every day. Throughout the day, Roxas tried hard to concentrate in his classes and not to think about the upcoming Struggle tournaments that were coming up. Even though he had assured Hayner that one of them would win, in fact he still had doubts. Seifer was, undeniably, a difficult opponent. Roxas had learned that the hard way last year. But surely their extra practice this year would pay off? But hadn't he and Hayner always practiced hard? What was to say that this year would not just be a repeat of last year? If Seifer had gotten stronger over the course of this year as well…

His thoughts were interrupted by the school bell ringing, signifying the end of class. Finally, thought Roxas, even if he felt a little guilty for not listening to the teacher that day.

"Roxas! You coming?" Hayner was waiting by classroom door impatiently.

"Yeah!" said Roxas.

They spent the afternoon honing their skills. Roxas hoped that he had improved, at least a little, during the practice. That way he would have something to show for his hard work, since the tournament was coming up in only three days.

"Roxas! Heads up!" Hayner shouted right before lunging over with his bat. Roxas grinned, gripping his own bat to parry Hayner's attacks.

--

Tired out from practice, he sat on the great clock tower overlooking Twilight Town watching the sunset with his friends. Olette had treated them all to sea-salt ice cream, the perfect way to end the day. Now she and Hayner were chatting away about the Struggle tournament, while Pence was sitting by and agreeing to everything they said. A peaceful smile spread across Roxas's face as he slowly licked the sweet-salty-ness off his popsicle stick and stared off at the reddening sky. He wouldn't have given up this moment for anything in the world.

--

The next morning, Roxas woke up at 7:13, two minutes before his alarm clock went off. Hm? That's strange… he thought. It was only two minutes, but what had woken him up? He glanced around the room for anything out of the ordinary, but found nothing. Oh well, he thought, slightly uneasily, before getting up to run through his morning routine.

"Have a good day, honey!" his mom called out to him.

"I will, Mom! Don't worry!"

--

"Hey Roxas!" Hayner, Olette, and Pence greeted him as he skateboarded over to the train station. Roxas gave them a greeting in return as he made to step onto the train.

And tripped on the steps…

"Woah there! Are you alright?"… and crashed into a body.

"Yeah, thanks. Sorry about that." Roxas said as he got up and looked over at the sound of the new voice to see the person whom he had crashed into. But he wished he hadn't looked because now he just couldn't stop gaping. Hayner, Pence and Olette followed Roxas onto the train in confusion.

"Hey Roxas wh-" but Olette didn't finish her sentence. She was also staring, now. "Who are you?" she asked the stranger, cautiously.

Roxas was still staring. It was a boy. He had messy brown hair, blue eyes, and a nervous smile. "Me? I'm Sora." He said, still smiling. "Umm…And you are…"

"Hayner. Roxas. Pence. Olette." Hayner pointed out as he spoke.

Sora nodded. "I see…"

"Well… haven't seen you before," Hayner said suspiciously. "What part of Twilight Town are you from?"

"Umm. O-other side of town." Sora said. He looked worried. Roxas could tell by the way he was biting his lip, and he had never seen this guy before.

What's with this guy?

Olette smiled at Sora. Roxas could tell that it wasn't forced, but it wasn't completely natural either. "So Sora, what brings you over to Westside? Did you come to see the Struggle Tournaments or something?"

Sora looked…confused? "Maybe… something like that," he said, carefully. "I mean, I'm excited for the Tournaments, I guess, but that's not the main reason I'm here. But I mean it's definitely one of the reasons, just not the only one. Well actually, it's a combination of reasons, really, and part of that is definitely because of this Struggle tournament…" He was starting to talk really fast and really repetitively, and he was fidgeting and tugging on his shirt. Definitely nervous.

Hayner chuckled. "Well then, care to tell us why you're here, if not for the Tournaments, Mr. Mysterious? Or do you have to kill us if you tell us?" Hayner was teasing, but it was all in good fun. Sora saw this, and visibly relaxed.

"Actually, I'm looking for my friends. They, um, disappeared a few days ago. I've no idea where they went."

"What do you mean? You mean 'disappeared' like… vanished?" Pence spoke up for the first time.

"Well, not exactly…"

"Nah, Pence. Sora just means that he sort of lost contact with them, and he thought maybe they came over to this side of town, right Sora?" Roxas said. But he had a nagging feeling that it really wasn't what Sora had meant at all.

"Um," was all Sora could say.

The train screeched to a stop.

"Aww," said Hayner. "Look, we gotta go. This is our stop. C'mon guys. See you around, Sora."

They quickly got off. But Roxas hesitated, and turned around, noticing that Sora was looking pretty miserable. "Sorry again for crashing into you earlier. And… I hope you find your friends, Sora," Roxas said, honestly.

And then Sora smiled. It was a small smile – not one of those dazzling smiles that the popular kids at school always shine your way when they want something from you, or one of those fake smiles that you direct at a camera when you say "cheese", or even one of those real smiles that Roxas gave his mother each morning. Roxas didn't know how to describe it; it was unlike anything he had ever seen before. All Roxas did know was that Sora had a very beautiful smile.

--

School was pretty uneventful again. Roxas sat in his seat, trying to pay attention but ended up looking out the window, eyes wandering as much as his mind was. His thoughts were in a jumble today, as he thought about the boy from the train earlier. Who was he? He was Sora, but who was he? It was actually somewhat frightening not to know.

Roxas couldn't help but notice that Sora had looked confused when Olette brought up the Struggle Tournament. What? Everyone knows about the Tournaments… Plus, something fishy was going on with Sora's search for his friends. It definitely was not just a simple search. Sora was hiding something – a malicious secret?

And then there was the obvious thing that they had all – Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Roxas – avoided mentioning after meeting Sora. Well, at least Roxas thought it was obvious…

He looks just like me. Roxas felt a strange feeling that he had never felt before. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't think he liked it. The bell rang, and Hayner called out to him, but Roxas didn't want to get up. He just wished that the world would stop for a while and let him gather his thoughts.