Disclaimer: If I owned KH, Roxas would eventually be in complete control of Sora's body, and the Organization would win. And all the Disney characters would be dead. Or under mass mind control. That's always fun.

Author's Notes: Technically I should be working on Acting on Impulse. But I was halfway through the second chaper typing when kena-san brought up a triangle to me because I asked the wrong question. So I had to make it work. It's a different style of writing for m though, so I'm not entirely sure it worked out. Read and find out?

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Hayner could easily claim that his world started to change with a few simple words from a guy he barely knew.

"Roxas never showed up earlier."

It hadn't crashed or been turned upside down. The blond might have been one of his friends, but not his closest, and he could remember a time before him. Other people had greater reactions. Still, that had helped it to start spinning the other way. Slowly at first, but it wasn't going the same way anymore. Nothing was without Roxas.

"He's not here in Twilight Town, or we'd have found him by now."

They'd all tried to find him somewhere everyday. Pence and Olette alternated between the station and the beach. Sora was normally waiting at home for news, while Riku and Kairi went where he called to suggest.

And Axel? He just never stopped looking. Everywhere, he seemed to show up. Anywhere people thought of, the redhead had already been, out all day looking around the area, asking everyone for information. He had quit work even, becoming thinner for always moving and never eating. There were dark circles under his eyes and his vibrant eyes were becoming maniacal with every hour. Olette had questioned whether he'd even slept since Roxas's disappearance or if he kept running on pure adrenaline.

Her answer came when a group of his Organization friends carried him into Sora's place and tied him to the bed. Rubbing at his eyes, Demyx explained that they'd had to sneak sleeping pills into a bottle of water to do it, before he killed himself.

Hayner himself had given up on finding the blue eyed teen inside the town by the sixteenth day. Maybe he was just a pessimist by nature, but there didn't seem to be for him to do that would help. It was pretty much hopeless by then, he reasoned, though he gave up trying to convince anyone else of the same. When he had, a pair of sobbing girls had fled, and they'd barely known his friend. Once his friend's brown haired twin heard that it was unlikely they'd find him themselves, he'd just stared blankly ahead. Saying anything more would only break him.

Twenty days after Roxas was gone, they'd had to sedate Sora for the first time. Going for groceries, he'd nearly been hit by a car chasing someone with blond hair.

On the next day, Hayner had chosen to head towards the old mansion. There hadn't been a real reason for choosing that direction. It wasn't as though no one lived there. Friends of Axel and Rox- those weird Organization people- had owned it for years. Nowhere there made a good hiding spot, or the area nearby. Marluxia combed the woods a few times a day for his friend. They'd always been close, and now when he was needed, the pink haired gardener was doing what he could to return the favour.

Walking between the old trees, Hayner tried to convince himself he was searching for his friend, and not running away from memories of him. And, for a moment, he believed it.

Then a moving figure heading through the area towards town caught his eye and made him remember painfully. Running after the person, he shouted, hoping to get their attention. "Roxas!"

Grabbing an arm and tugging them around, his growing smile vanished. Of course he'd been wrong, crazy enough to get his hopes up. Maybe practicing what he preached would be a good idea? Staring into the girl's watery blue eyes, Hayner groaned, contemplating throwing himself on the train tracks. "You're not Roxas."

It was easy to see now he was close to her. The long locks framing her face were too fair, the skin too pale. She was shorter and nearly as skinny as the pyro had become. Still, at his observation, the powder blue lit up with her small smile. Rotating her captured arm so that her hand was on his wrist, she beamed up at him. "You know Roxas? He came to visit me two weeks ago. It was strange, so I came to check up on him. Is he… okay?"

The dumbstruck look on his face was probably laughable, seeing how calm and quiet her voice was. Once she'd realized he was unlikely to answer, she took a hesitant step backwards, letting go of him. Light bag bouncing off her shoulder, the blonde put her free hand to her chest. "I am Naminé."

Watching her distrustfully and dropping her arm to copy the gesture, the boy nodded to her casually. "Hayner," he answered slowly, thinking through how to explain what had happened, "I think you should probably come with me, if you've seen Roxas."

"You are going to sleep in that damn bed and then you will eat, or so help me, I will make you do it."

Larxene's fury filled up the room. Her anger towards the redhead was understandable. Upon finding out that Roxas had been in another city on some quest to 'find himself', it had taken Lexeaus nearly five minutes to carry him back to the bed he'd slept it for weeks. Axel had bolted twice during the story, Naminé staring as the four Organization members that were present pinned him down and handed him a bowl of soup.

Even then, they were struggling to convince him to at least sleep before going off on a search for Roxas. Hayner couldn't understand why he was losing it so much when the boy's own flesh and blood was just sitting there, leaning into his best friends and hanging on to the visitor's every word.

They'd all started to discuss where he could have gone, plotting out places to stop and tossing in money for the trip. Axel could go now, it was agreed, before he actually killed himself trying. An actual plan was being created, everyone getting tossed out some sort of task. But still, Hayner couldn't begin to understand how he'd got saddled with the most mundane job.

"Babysitting?"

Later, Sora would claim to have witnessed that when Naminé's hand caught the blond in the head, it had slipped. Upwards.

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And that's the end of this chapter. The next one will mostly be Naminé and Hayner, but that'll get the actual plot going. Leave a review or something, okay?

-Josiy x