Hello. This is my first fanfiction that I've posted here. I hope it is well-received. My writing style tends to be harsh realism. Please enjoy at any rate. AkuRoku won't show up for a few chapters but bare with me. I want to set the scene first. I promise it's coming.

--Chapter 1--

Blue was the color of his eyes, his favorite ice cream, the infinite sky, the ocean he had never visited, and the sapphire he had kept from winning the Struggle tournament. Such a pure color. Also, a sad color. People drew tears as blue and said they felt blue when they were depressed. He knew this best of all and when he got time so sit alone and look inside himself, he only saw blue. An empty, hollow, deep, dark, almost-black blue. And he knew he was alone.

Roxas sat on top of the clock tower alongside his three friends; Hayner, Pence, and Olette. His legs swung lazily over the quiet streets as he watched his sea-salt ice cream melt droplets that fell to their peril below. His friends were talking about his Struggle victory against Setzer again… He half-listened even though his mind was elsewhere.

"Bang! Right down on his head. He spilled so many orbs, musta' been some record! We didn't even need to collect them! He couldn't even stand!" Hayner exaggerated often.

"We? Roxas won the thing!" Olette, always fair in everything she did.

"Roxas, you feeling okay?" And then there was Pence, with his annoying eye for detail.

"What? Yeah… My mind just kind of drifted off." Roxas licked the base of his melty ice cream to keep it off his hand. Getting frustrated, he bit a chunk out of it. The rest fell away onto the street and he tossed the stick after it. His friends were now talking about Seifer, Fuu and Rai, their enemies.

"The way he calls us names really ticks me off. 'Wanna fight, chicken wuss?' Ugh! I hate him!" Hayner completed a fairly accurate Seifer impression, then grabbed fistfuls of his hair and pulled in agitation. Yeah, Seifer was a pain but he wasn't a big problem. He and Hayner just had some age-old rivalry issues. Actually, Seifer's glare kind of reminded him of-

His mind was blank from there. He hated this. Sometimes he'd be thinking about something so trivial, then he'd hit a wall like this one. It was like forgetting the word for cat. It made him feel so stupid! He buried his face in his hands.

"Dude, something's seriously up. Pence's right. Why don't you talk to us anymore? It's like you think we don't care."

"I know you care but I don't know if I can explain it."

"You could try and who knows? Maybe there's something we can do." Olette smiled and bit off the final tip of her ice cream.

"Well… Have you ever felt like you've forgot something huge but no one's telling you what it is?"

"Dude, I do that all the time. Yesterday I went shopping with my mom and we got there and she was like, 'Get the clementines this time, Pence, not the oranges.' But when I got to the fruits section, I'd totally forgot why I'd come and had to go back and ask." Roxas laughed. Pence's mom was scary but he imitated her very well.

"I guess it's kind of like that. But instead of not knowing why I'm here, I feel like I'm being left out of a huge secret."

"No holds barred here, Dude." Hayner held up both hands, right fist still wrapped around his ice cream. He was always the last to finish because he refused to bite it.

"Maybe you're just bogged down with the thought of the independent study and school coming and stuff…" Olette pulled her hair into a ponytail, then let it go over he shoulder like girls do. It hit Roxas how he was suddenly noticing trivial things about his friends as school neared. He hoped this didn't mean they would grow apart like Hayner had said.

"I bet you're right but I know I'm not forgetting that study. It's been haunting me. Wanna do it all together tomorrow?" Hayner groaned, causing Olette to giggle. It was too obvious that they liked each other. Pence suddenly brightened.

"I have an idea for the topic! How about the seven wonders of the Terrace?" They all nodded in unison.

"That'd be cool. I bet there's loads of creepy stuff on the Terrace, Like, no one lives there!" Hayner looked a little happier.

"Okay, tomorrow then," said Olette as she stood up and fixed her shirt.

"Help me up." Hayner held out his hand to her and she pulled him onto his feet. Roxas lifted himself up and unfolded to his true height. He was glad he had friends that cared about each other. He really did feel better.