I jumped into this story without giving much thought as to what direction it was heading in, so I apologize if this first chapter doesn't offer much in terms of plot. I've had the chance to discuss and brainstorm ideas with a friend after writing this chapter however, so I now have some kind of mental compass to guide this fic. I can almost-probably-maybe promise it'll pick up within the next chapter!

Rated M for sexual themes, coarse language, and violence.

Perspicacity: keenness of mental perception and understanding

Pellucid: transparent, clear in meaning, expression or style

Penury: extreme pover

The pen came to a stop mid-word as the sound of a light knock – the kind that was distinguished as two polite taps using the knuckle of one's forefinger – against the open door, pulled Roxas's attention away from his notebook. Looking up, his eyes met with the familiar black and white attire that was required of all staff members while in the house.

"Your parents request your presence, sir. Dinner is prepared."

Dinner? Startled, Roxas's eyes darted down to the luxurious metallic black watch adorning his left wrist. The time read 6:05 p.m., indicating that his parents were undoubtedly gathered downstairs, waiting for him to start their meal. Realizing he must have lost track of time while writing, Roxas quickly placed his pen down and closed his notebook, leaving the last two letters of the word "poverty" for a later time.

Recording new and challenging words had become a bit of a hobby for the blond over the years. Of course it didn't start off that way; his parents, being the exceedingly affluent people they were, expected a level of well-learned sophistication from their child. Even – or rather, especially when he was only the tender young age of three, and had only just started to string together sentences that were longer than three words. For this reason, Roxas was forced to memorize difficult, rarely spoken words (like insisting that a dish had a very piquant flavour, for instance, instead of simply calling it delicious) from a young age, and had to regurgitate them in the presence of his parents. This chore eventually turned into a compulsion; whenever Roxas would encounter a word foreign to his sizable vocabulary, he could not go on with his day until he figured out what it meant. And henceforth, he would record these newfound words down on paper to ensure he would never be caught off guard if he ever crossed paths with that particular word again. He had thus accumulated dozens of notebooks filled with small ramblings, the occasional record of the day's events in chronological order, and a plethora of words with their definition – along with an example of the word used in a sentence if he thought it was necessary. He enjoyed most, coming across new words by chance, but he also took pleasure in flipping through a dictionary and absorbing anything and everything unfamiliar to him. This by no means meant that Roxas spoke in the well-read manner of his cultivated mind, in fact he reserved these grandiose words only to impress guests and other well-spoken individuals, as per his parent's request. The rest of the time he spoke in a minimally polite manner. And according to his friends, many would say he was often quite crude.

As Roxas hastily made his way down the long, winding corridor of his house, he silently cursed himself for not paying attention to the time. Dinner always started precisely at six in the evening, no matter the occasion. Furthermore, Roxas was not the type to be late for anything. His parents had instilled the importance of punctuality from the time he could start crawling. He couldn't remember the last time he wasn't already seated at the table, spooning himself a well garnished soup by five past six. Being aware of such a fact only made him more unnerved, as if he had deliberately disobeyed his parents.

Maybe they'd given up on waiting and had already begun eating dinner… Maybe they didn't care at all, and he was just overthinking the whole thing. It was unlikely, but filling his head with maybes was the only thing that kept Roxas calm. Like for instance, maybe if he had more empathetic, encouraging parents, he wouldn't suffer from a constant feeling of inadequacy. It was just a theory, but he never voiced it, of course. As he reached the bottom of the stairs and circled around to the dining room located on the first floor, past the foyer, he felt the wishful maybes sink right to the pit of his stomach, where all good feelings went to die.

His parents were both in their respective seats at the dining table. Aoelus, his father, was seated on the left end, and his mother, Betrice, was to the right. Aoelus was distracted by what appeared to be a document, likely something to do with the business, but Betrice was staring with careful concentration at the clock hanging on the wall across from her. She had her arms crossed, the index finger on her right hand was tapping incessantly against her upper left arm. Neither of them had any food on their plates. As if Roxas's presence had pulled her out of an entranced state, Betrice's tapping ceased, and her gaze shifted to the left where her son was silently making his way to the table.

"I see you've decided to join us." She snapped her fingers once, which signaled to the two maids – who were standing against the wall with such trained stillness they would hardly be noticed if one casually glanced around the room – that they were ready to be served. The two young women immediately began grabbing dishes from the serving cart, issuing them around the table.

Roxas swallowed thickly as he took his seat in-between both his parents. It was a long enough table that he never had to make direct eye contact with the cold unwavering expressions of his guardians, but it also made him feel small, as if the distance from his parents revealed how insignificant his existence was to their lives. It was a feeling he could never quite explain when he tried to convey it on paper, but it was something he felt very strongly nonetheless. He especially hated having to sit in this seat when he was a child.

"I apologize. I was distracted by my homework and lost track of time."

"Hm." Betrice commenced eating her soup without looking at Roxas, as if pondering whether his excuse was worth a response.

Aeolus, who was finally finished with the documents in hand, removed his reading glasses and handed both items to one of the maids readily waiting by his side. His eyes, the same blue as Roxas's, but seemingly dulled with age, looked tired, but otherwise his expression was almost always inscrutable. He unravelled the cloth napkin on the table and smoothed it over his legs. Roxas's eyes were easily his fathers, as was his blindingly blond hair, but the rest of his facial features belonged to his mother – particularly his small pointed nose and sharp chin. He always felt he looked far too feminine and childlike with his big eyes and small face, but as his mother appeared refined and without a single naive feature on her face, Roxas was hopeful that he too would grow into his looks. Or at least taller. He was far too short for his liking.

"Your mother and I will be leaving town tomorrow for a business trip." Aeolus said it so suddenly, and without even peering in Roxas's direction that the blond had to take a moment to register what had been said.

"..Oh. What time tomorrow?"

"Early, before sunrise."

Roxas felt a strong desire to snort, but knew better than to actually do that. Of course his parents would announce their departure hours before they left. He liked the idea of throwing a tantrum over something like this, but that wasn't the kind of person his parents had raised him to be, and he was far too used to their absence to react with anything more than detached acceptance. In fact, he actually preferred it now.

"I see. When will you return?"

"A week, a week and a half at most."

Roxas nodded, mostly to himself. "I understand. I will be diligent while you're away". He said these same words almost every time his parents went away, and he meant it for the most part. After all, there was nothing else for him to be. Thinking this was the end of the conversation, he returned to his soup.

"Yes, diligent. Try to keep those distractions of yours at bay, will you?" The phrase itself could have been interpreted as a joke, but the tone in which his mother spoke held no humour.

Roxas felt the familiar clench of his teeth upon his cheeks. The butternut squash soup seemed thicker than usual.

Sure enough, Roxas's parents were gone by the time he woke up. Even though he spent little time with them while they were in town, the blond felt much more at ease knowing he wouldn't be reprimanded for something absurd, like breathing the wrong way, which had actually happened before, believe it or not. The two typically went on business trips overseas at least once every other month, but this time they had stayed in Twilight Town for over two and a half months, which was beginning to feel like a jail sentence to Roxas. Their present absence was refreshing to say the least. After getting dressed and eating breakfast, Roxas went to school as usual where he was a senior, and met up with his best friends who also happened to be his neighbours.

Riku Eansworth lived next door to Roxas, in an equally mammoth sized house. While Roxas's family owned the rail line and public transportation in the city, Riku's family owned the largest contracting business. This naturally meant the two family's areas of work often overlapped with one another. For example, Central Station, the metropolitan gateway into and out of the city, was built by the Eansworth family, and housed all of Reis Railway trains. At the end of the day, it meant good business for the two families to get along, which is why Roxas's parents never objected to his friendship with Riku, and vice versa.

Kairi Ambrose was a different story, however. Kairi had been adopted at a young age by the owners of the top newspaper company in the city, Twilight Tribune. Roxas and Riku both found her fascinating, because one, they were mystified by the concept of giving one's child to another adult, and two, she was the only girl their age who lived on their street. As it turns out, they were right to be curious, since Kairi, unlike most of the girls from their side of town, didn't breathe posh. She had a lot of spunk as a kid, and because her parents weren't the time-honoured rich snobs that fed their children disapproval and embellished lies, Kairi kept a lot of that spunk and good nature as she grew up. As one would guess, Roxas's parents were not thrilled by the prospect of their son's friendship with the spirited young girl, but they were painfully aware that the Ambrose family had a lot of leverage over companies like theirs, being the press and all. So much to their dismay, they had no choice but to allow the quirky-cute redhead remain in Roxas's life.

In terms of their personalities, there was no rational reason why Roxas, Riku, and Kairi would get along. But they did. Kairi was confident, sweet, and spoke her mind no matter the whispers and appalled looks she'd likely received when she did. Riku, who had a cooler disposition and a refined air about him without having to try at all, nearly had the entire student body fawning over him. It was something about the way he pulled off long silver hair; he was almost always the inspiration for new trends around school. And Roxas… well, he was Roxas. He was the baby faced blond who excelled in school and most everything he tried. But he resented many aspects of his lifestyle.

Roxas greeted the two at the steps of the school, in front of the colossal, yet delicately embossed words "Cypress Academy". The institution was private, of course, and destined for the most privileged individuals in the city. It was likely that the man who found the school named it after the many thickets and greenery surrounding the area, particularly cypress trees, which, ironically, were commonly known for enduring harsh climates and poor growing conditions. He had built the school decades before it became the top ranking choice for socialite, intending for it to remain a public school where children of all kind could convene and pursue knowledge. His later descendants thought differently however, and turning it into a business, they revamped the entire school and started accepting only those who could afford the "highest caliber of knowledge". The school presently had no resemblance to the original building with all the renovation and expansion that was constantly ongoing. Riku's family practically raised it from the ground up; it was their own little concentrated gold mine.

But unlike most individuals who regarded the word cypress as a long withstanding force, Roxas preferred reading into different interpretations. He liked the idea that cypress trees were related to death and mourning, an image he connected quite strongly to the school. His dislike wasn't directed at the advanced curriculum or the emphasis on all things in excess. He was actually fairly thankful for the abundance of resources in the school, particularly the literary texts amassed over the years; he spent more time than he was willing to admit running his fingers along book spines in the library, as hardly anyone ever went into the sections he found interest in. What he hated were the people who attended the school. They were shallow, took pleasure in being wasteful, and most importantly, they were unforgiving. Anyone within a clique was welcomed under the following condition: The prestige of their family name. If in any way this status was tarnished, or their wealth declined, they were immediately rejected from the group and became social outcasts. This ruthless way of thinking suffocated the blond. Whenever he entered the school he felt like there was a noose wound tightly around his neck.

"Morning!" Kairi's beaming smile seemed more contagious than usual.

Roxas smiled back with ease. "Morning. Ready for the history test today?"

"Oh my god, don't remind me, pleeease." Kairi puffed out her cheeks slightly and furrowed her brows, which only made Roxas's smile widen as he watched.

Riku, who's attention was on his phone until now, raised an eyebrow as he peered at Roxas's unusually upbeat expression. "You seem oddly chipper today… New antidepressants?" The last part he meant as a joke, but truthfully he suspected over two thirds of the students in their school could likely benefit from psychiatric help.

"Better, the Phantom Duo left town this morning." The Phanton Duo was Roxas's nickname for his parents, which he had coined because their presence in his life was so fleeting and inconsistent that he sometimes liked to imagine they were illusive beings he had conjured with his mind.

Kairi's eyes immediately lit up, and her hands balled up in front of her face. "Yes!" Her reply was so abrupt and unlike her that Roxas blinked twice, first baffled, and then further confused when he noticed Riku was gritting his teeth with a look of defeat.

" - What's going on?"

Riku groaned. "Kairi and I were betting on how long your parents would stay in town. For some idiotic reason I thought they'd make it a full three months…"

"Buuut they didn't, so I win. Pay up Eansworth." Roxas watched, mouth slightly agape, as Riku removed the watch from his wrist and reluctantly dropped it in Kairi's anticipating hands. Money was never worth betting over around these parts, simply because everyone already had more than enough. So instead, people would typically stake their belongings or whatever else was worthwhile to them. The watch Riku was giving up had been a very limited edition model; he was likely one of the only few people in town who had managed to get their hands on it, if not the only one. But that point was moot, as it belonged to Kairi now.

Kairi grinned in victory and commenced to slip the shining object onto her forearm, next to the watch she already had on. It had been custom made to wrap snuggly around Riku's wrists, so needless to say it was too large for Kairi's dainty limbs, but she didn't care. It was a badge of victory she would proudly wave around just to piss off Riku. She was also bound to get some spiteful looks from Riku's groupies today, so that would be fun.

"What the hell? Are you two actually making bets at my expense?" Neither Kairi nor Riku seemed perturbed or apologetic in the face of Roxas's exasperation. They both shared a look and nodded. "You do realize how fucked up that is, right?"

"I think your incessant crying as a child and socially impaired behaviour suggested as much," Riku replied calmly. Roxas waited for Riku to continue, perhaps lead into an apology, but there was nothing.

Kairi placed her hand, the one that was adorning her newly won prize, on Roxas's shoulder in a comforting manner. "Look Roxas, we love you… But you just make it so easy. To tease, I mean. You've got to admit, this is at least a little funny, isn't it?"

It was, to a degree, but it also annoyed Roxas knowing he was the butt of their jokes. Even though they were his closest friends, he often felt like Riku and Kairi had made a secret pact to tease Roxas whenever the opportunity arose. It went as far back as he could remember. A small part of him suspected they did it to lighten the severity of his off-putting childhood, but he was, no doubt, too sensitive and stubborn to laugh along with them.

"…You two are seriously disturbed, you know that?" With a scowl, he pushed past the pair and made his way through the polished doors of the school, ignoring their quiet snickering.

"Welcome to suburban hell, Roxas!" Riku's exclamation followed him into the building, where he was in fact, in a hell of sorts.

The rest of the day passed by in a fairly normal fashion. Roxas's history test went well, Tidus – his only friend in P.E. – told Roxas about his typical weekend exploits in great detail (this time he managed to steal one of his dad's yachts for a boat party), and by the time lunch rolled around, Kairi already had, much to Riku's dismay, plenty of stories to tell, starring her new beloved accessory. She even exclaimed, at one point, "I think the blonde haired girl actually wanted me dead," to which Riku muttered sullenly to the passion tea lemonade he had raised to his lips, "She's not the only one."

Roxas returned home an hour later than he usually did, seeing as how his parents weren't around to object. He ate dinner alone precisely at six, showered, and then retired to his bedroom where he spent the rest of the night finishing his homework. It was still pretty early by the time he was done, so he decided he'd crack open his notebook and record some new words.

Roxas's mind was always focused and utterly intrigued when he started writing, so much so that he didn't bother to check the time at all. It was only when he finished writing the definition for the word "dereliction", the act of abandoning something, that he realized the muscles in his fingers were starting to cramp up and sleep was calling to him. Exhausted, Roxas put down his pen, turned off his desk lamp, and rolled onto his bed without bothering to put anything away. He'd worry about it in the morning.

Though he fell asleep almost instantly, Roxas was also a very light sleeper; even the tiniest of sounds could wake him. This was unfortunate because it meant he had to prepare in advance to avoid any sort of disturbance. His door and windows had to be close to keep any noise from entering, and his phone couldn't even be on vibrate, as the rumbling was enough to disturb him.

It didn't dawn on him until later that night that he'd made the mistake of sleeping too soon, when the familiar chime of his phone rang out, indicating he'd received a text.

Awake and disgruntled, Roxas turned his head to the right, where his phone laid obnoxiously on his nightstand, the light glaring from its screen. The digital clock next to the loathsome device read 3:16 a.m., which only proved to fuel his irritation. Who was texting him at this time? Probably Kairi. Squinting, he leaned over and reached out to grab his phone so he could turn it on silent, making a mental note to scold his friend tomorrow when he saw her, who had probably sent him another live stream of cats napping. She would always insist it was cute.

His hand had only just wrapped around the cellular device when he saw it. Movement. Roxas froze, his hand remaining on the nightstand as his eyes shot frantically around the expanse in front of his bed. His vision was still slightly clouded from being asleep, but he was almost certain he'd seen something. Roxas didn't own any pets (his parents weren't very fond of the idea of animals running rampant in their house), so seeing dark figures moving around in his room in the middle of the night was enough cause for alarm.

He looked some more but saw nothing, and was almost ready to cast away his concerns as a hallucination brought on by his sleep induced state, when he heard it – the quiet creak of his window being opened. His eyes flashed over and he could see... Something? … Someone?

The dull moonlight pouring in through the windows aimed down diagonally across the intruder's face. Roxas couldn't make out all their features, but he didn't have to, the features he could see already stood out more than enough in their own unique way. Their eyes were large, and appeared almost cat-like. And there was some kind of mark on their cheeks. His eyes locked on to the other's, and for a moment they simply stared at each other in silence. Roxas could hardly process what was going on in his dazed state, but when he finally opened his mouth with the intention to say something – anything, the intruder's lips curled up, and they… Winked? Then without warning, the intruder slid quickly and soundlessly out of the window, leaving Roxas and the bewildered collision that had occurred in his mind, alone.

It took him more than a few seconds, but Roxas finally collected his scattered thoughts and shot out of bed, dashing to his window with haste. When he looked out, however, there was no one, just an empty trail and the tall brick gate that surrounded it. His eyes remained vigilant, hoping he'd catch something if he stared long enough. It wasn't until the phone in his hand chimed again that he pulled his eyes away from the window and down to his device.

He sighed. It really was Kairi.