This will probably be the only long A/N of this story, but I wanted to explain a little before I post the other chapters.

I've been working on this story on and off for nearly three years, and have finally decided to post it. This is an AU story, like the summary said, and I have over half the story written. Since I've been posting Kuroshitsuji stories, it made me think of this story and all its pairings (probably only one of two KH stories that I will post that will have yaoi in it), and made me motivated to actually put up the first chapter.

I hope that this story isn't too close to any other stories posted, as it is difficult to look through all of the stories posted. I will attempt to keep this story T. For the story, most of the characters will be the same age, except for a few of them. I'll put that at the end of the next chapter. The first chapter is more of a prologue, introducing some of the main characters (Demyx, Leon and Cloud). Weird title, but oh well.

Disclaimer: I own nothing from the Kingdom Hearts series.

1212

Radiant Garden was very quiet and serene at night. The town's public library also had a calm feeling about it, though it could have just been the pleasant breeze that had picked up. It was nearing midnight, and the town was asleep in their homes, though movement could be seen within the library.

The only person left in the library was a young man with an odd hairstyle, somewhere between a mullet and a mowhawk. Demyx let out a soft sigh and glanced around the main area of the library. He was the last employee there, as he had opted to stay behind and catch up on some work. As the head librarian, he felt the need to do it himself (although he would have much preferred to go home as soon as the library had closed). Demyx had allowed himself to be convinced to stay by Lexaeus and Kairi (a part time worker), as she had needed to go home and work on homework.

Shaking his head, Demyx began to check the books again. The sooner he finished, the sooner he could go home to his apartment...although...Demyx didn't want to wonder at the moment if Marluxia and Larxene were still awake. Demyx set aside another book and sighed heavily. Why he had agreed to let those two rent from him was a mystery. It just suddenly happened one day. While Marluxia and Larxene shared an apartment with Demyx, it didn't mean that the three of them got along.

Marluxia and Larxene both worked from morning until evening, though neither of them would tell Demyx where they went or what they even did as a job. Not that Demyx had really pressed the matter. As long as they payed rent and weren't too rowdy, Demyx didn't mind. Though he did have some trouble sleeping at night, when Marluxia and Larxene would...

Thunk. Ca-THUNK!

Demyx looked up sharply, startled by the sudden noise. What had that been? Demyx glanced around the otherwise now silent library. Had the sound come from the library's basement? Demyx shook his head. That couldn't be. he knew for a fact that he had been the only one to stay behind, and that all the doors had been locked. Feeling slightly better at this thought, Demyx resumed his work, hoping to be done with it soon.

The sounds, however, persisted.

Ca-Thunk.

Thud.

Bang...CRASH!

Demyx jumped involuntarily, turning in the direction of the basement, heart racing from the unexpected noise. Had someone broken into the library though the basement windows? Against his better judgment, Demyx approached the door that led to the basement,and opened the door carefully. Demyx stood still at the top of the stairs, and when he didn't hear anything moving down there, slowly went down the stairs. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, peering around the room anxiously.

The basement of the library looked as it always did, where it housed older books out of any humidity, to preserve them and avoid damage.

Demyx approached the only window of the basement, and was immediately relieved to see that it was unbroken. Only half the dark night sky was visible, as half the basement was underground. Demyx shook his head once more. He didn't need to get so paranoid this late at night. At this rate, he'd never get to sleep once he got back to his apartment. Demyx started to head back up the stairs, when his attention was caught by something hitting the ground with a dull thud.

Sighing, and wanting nothing more than to go home and to bed, Demyx turned and walked back down the stairs, heading in the direction that he had heard the sound. After a quick search, Demyx found a book lying on the ground. Demyx picked the book up and examined the cover to see what section it was from. The title red: 'Ghosts of the Past.' Demyx frowned, wondering why a paranormal book was all the way down here in the basement, when it was supposed to be up on the second floor.

Demyx headed back for the stairs, wondering vaguely why he kept finding ghost/spirit books down there. It was the fifth book that week. A slight chill went down Demyx's spine, and he quickly glanced over one shoulder, stopping himself from running. He thought he had seen something move in the dimness of the room. Demyx stiffened when he thought he saw something lurking in the far corner of the basement. Demyx jumped slightly when he made out a shape heading in his direction, moving from bookcase to bookcase and getting closer.

Demyx made a little 'eep' noise and rushed up the staircase, slamming the door shut behind him. Demyx hurried over to the front desk and deposited the book there, before moving toward the front door of the library at a fast pace. Demyx exited the library and locked it after him, before he set off at a brisk walk down the sidewalk in the direction of his apartment, which was about a five minute walk. Demyx reached his apartment in record time, and got inside, making sure to lock doors as he went. Demyx hastily locked his own apartment door behind him and set the keys down on the counter, calming down slightly and feeling better now that he was home.

Demyx was relieved that his roommates were already asleep. Normally they would have probably been up lounging on the couch and watching a movie and being loud about it. He turned away from the counter, not seeing a letter laying on it addressed to him. It was from Marluxia and Larxene, announcing that they had managed to earn enough money for an apartment of their own. They had left some money to pay for several months rent, as they had left so abruptly, and had only taken their own property, leaving furniture. The note ended with thanking Demyx for renting out his apartment to them. Demyx wouldn't find the note until the morning.

Demyx went to his bedroom, really hoping that he had just been tired and had been imagining things back at the library. Demyx flopped down onto his bed and drifted to sleep, unaware of something flickering in the dark corner of the room, eying the sleeping from curiously with one eye, the other eye obscured by hair. It was the same presence that had been in the library.

121

Across town, someone else was up late at night, moving with purpose.

Leon stayed close to the shadows of the building, momentarily setting aside his current mission to observe a man with spiky blond hair and a black outfit walking along the sidewalk opposite of him. Leon's frown deepened as he eased his gunblade into its sheathe. The way the blond man walked down the street unconcernedly intrigued Leon. It was what? Two in the morning? Leon heaved a faint sigh. This guy was in his way, heading right int the direction of where his current target was. Leon ran a hand across his face, one finger grazing the scar across the bridge of his nose while he thought.

No helping it then. Leon would follow the blond man at a distance. He'd decide what to do once he could tell for sure where the blond man was going. Leon began to walk, careful to keep his footsteps silent, and to stay hidden in the shadows. At least it seemed as though the blond was oblivious to being followed. Leon knew his senses would be screaming at him to notice the potential threat. Leon hoped he would get his mission completed without having to take out an unfortunate blond should he get anywhere near the target.

121

Cloud walked down the sidewalk, closing his eyes momentarily as he enjoyed the cool night breeze and quiet night. When he opened his eyes again, Cloud kept them trained on the night before him. He was being followed, and was unsure whether to be worried or not, as he had just picked the presence up a few seconds ago. What did bother Cloud was that he didn't notice the presence sooner. It was a little disconcerting, which left Cloud wondering what he should do about the trailing presence.

Whoever it was obviously didn't want to be noticed, so there was a good chance that Cloud wouldn't even catch a glimpse of his stalker. It left Cloud curious, however, as to why someone was out so late at night. The only reason he was out late at night was because he had just gotten out of work and had stopped by a grocery store to grab a few items before heading home, which he was sharing with Sora and Roxas.

Cloud sighed, wondering why he had agreed to let two teens stay with him. He supposed it was because of Aerith's friend, Demyx, practically begging him to let the two teens stay at the house until he could get a home of his own. The apartment Demyx lived at was small and already crowded in the two bedroom apartment. Cloud had agreed, wanting to stop the other from begging(and clinging to him tearfully), but was now wondering if he should have included more rent, as Sora and Roxas ate a lot of food. Cloud frowned again. He didn't have to worry about that right now.

Cloud needed to pay attention to who was following him, as that called for his immediate attention. He could worry about his living arrangements later. Cloud pondered whether or not to take the long way home, not wanting whoever was behind him to see where he lived, just in case.

So, the question at the moment was, did he keep walking and hope the person would leave him alone, or did he want to try and confront whoever it was?

121

Leon followed the blond-haired man for five more minutes, before deducing that he was walking away from where his target was. Good. He didn't feel like killing any innocent bystanders this early in the morning. Leon backtracked a block or so to a building where his target was located. Scouting around the entire building, Leon leaned against it, staying in the shadows as he reviewed his instructions mentally. He was to enter the building undetected, take out any guards if they interfered, and take out the target.

If he failed, he was to get out as fast as possible and wait at the rendezvous until further orders arrived. That was, as long as Leon didn't die because of any mistakes. Leon snorted softly and unsheathed his gunblade. He didn't intend to make any mistakes.

Leon closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, before blowing it out slowly. He was ready. Leon knew that he was already waited a long time, and if he put this off any longer, he wouldn't have another chance for quite some time. By then, his target could have found ways to make his crazy ambitions become reality. Leon had to take Xemnas out before then. Shaking his head, Leon moved quickly and silently, stealing into the building. He stayed close to the wall, senses alert as he picked his way along a memorized layout of the building.

As Leon made his way around the building, he was getting more and more suspicious that he hadn't needed to sneak past any guards. A thump and a laugh sounded from a nearby room, and Leon stilled, listening for a moment. After that, Leon was able to deduce that there were a few people in the room, apparently drunk and messing around, playing some kind of game. Poker, perhaps. Nonetheless, Leon gave the room a wide berth, making his way to a staircase. Leon's target was in the first room to the left at the top of the stairs.

Leon grasped his weapon tightly, readying it as he walked up the stairs, careful to not make any noise. At the top of the stairs, Leon swept his eyes around the landing, before training his eyes on the closed door to the left. Leon couldn't help but think that it seemed too easy. There should have been more security...

The door suddenly opened, and Leon leapt to the right, crouching against the wall in the shadows.

Nothing happened.

Leon frowned. No one had come out of the room. Was the door warped...? Leon suddenly dropped to the ground and rolled to one side, barely missing being impaled by a sharp blade. Leon got back to his feet and dodged a barrage of knives, gritting his teeth as his dodging caused him to go in front of the opened door. Leon tensed, blade up, ready to defend himself from the attackers behind him and potentially in front of him. Leon saw a shadowy figure standing just inside the room.

In the room, a silver haired man smiled humorously, orange eyes glittering in the darkness, "Well, well, what do we have here? An intruder so late? I suppose I should show you some hospitality..."

Leon tensed as he felt as he felt people preparing to attack him from behind and from in front of him. It happened quickly. Leon twisted to block an attack from more knives, but not from what he could now see was a scythe. It slashed him across the back. It hurt, but Leon ignored the pain, and trained his sight on the man who was his target. If Leon didn't take him out now, he would be unable to go after him again, now that Xemnas had seen him. Leon picked up the silver haired man finishing a sentence.

"...Kill him."

A blue-haired man stepped forward, approaching Leon, yellow eyes nearly glowing, the moonlight highlighting an X-shaped scar.

Shit. This had gone from simply a mistake to him being totally screwed over. If he survived this, Leon was going to demand a pay raise.

1212

First chapters are hard to write. Ugh. I was going to have Zexion as the librarian, but it seemed too obvious a choice, so I picked Demyx instead. I wrote this to try and get away from writer's block of other stories, and I think it's helping. I've already started typing chapters of other stories, so I'll update them along with this.