Just a quick note, and the only one, I swear: I'm going to write this with a headline of the month and, possibly, the week to help give an idea of how much time is passing. The rest you're going to have to figure out for yourself ;)

-Atty

Full Summary:

Life is great for Sora and his two friends, Riku and Kairi. And when Roxas starts at a new school after loosing his memory, he's quick to make friends and soon finds himself falling in love. But falling in love is difficult when it's with someone known for being a pyromaniac-troublemaker and when the whole school is homophobic. And when Roxas starts have weird dreams on top of the school gossiping about him, he starts to realize there's something more to his lost memory. Who is Sora and why does no one know what really happened to him? The only way he's going to find out is by asking Sora's two friends. But how is he supposed to get close enough to the ones that resent him the most, in order to ask, when Riku refuses to let anyone in and hides Kairi behind the same barrier?

Roxas doesn't want to give up his friends just to get close to two strangers, because that also means giving up Axel. Who knew the result of his actions could mean something even worse?

THE BEGINNING

--

MAY

--

A shadow fell behind Sora as he stepped towards the light while words echoed in his head.

"Just remember that the closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes."

Sora faltered and glanced over his shoulder at his growing shadow. It started to writhe and bulge and the lack of light around him grew denser with darkness. Where was he? What was happening?

The shaft of light grew brighter against the black, but it did nothing to push the dark away. All of Sora's attention was on his growing, breathing shadow as it lifted off the ground and faced him. Sora stared at it, unsure of what to do – of whether or not he should run.

He felt a tug on his foot in a grip of something that felt like water. His eyes shot down and he saw a black pool of liquid below his feet, pulling him into the darkness.

"No!" he cried out, his voice seeming to echo within himself as he looked back up to his shadow. He was met with glowing red eyes and his panic grew. Sora tried to struggle against it and reached his arms out for something, anything, but he felt out of control of his body.

"No!" he cried again. "Let me go!" He was unable to describe what had all the elements of a dream and yet felt so real. He choked when the darkness reached his mouth and he tilted his chin up to breath in stale air, not daring to cry out again and waste his little breath left.

Before he had time to think or take in another breath, he was submerged, with only a feeble hand still reaching out in desperation.

First he felt warmth and then a soft, comforting grip was holding his hand, pulling him back out as if it was no effort at all. He was just able to see blinding light radiating from a slender hand before he was pulled entirely out of his reverie.

--

"Sora!"

He heard the bubbly laugh of his best friend, Kairi, above him, and felt the familiar tickle of warm sand beneath his arms and back. He was vaguely aware that the only sound he could hear was the sound of her voice, and it sounded out of place when it didn't echo. He opened his eyes and squinted up at the girl.

"Slacking off again?"

"Hey!" Sora protested, sitting up and pouting at her as all sound came crashing back to him in an instant. He was very aware of heavy waves crashing against the sand further down on the beach and the ever present screech of seagulls came from above. "And what exactly is it you're doing to help?" he teased, now fully awake and already pushing the dream aside.

"Riku sent me to find you," she smiled innocently at him, with her legs bent and her hands on her knees in order to make eye contact with him.

"I knew you'd be asleep," came the very male voice of his other best friend behind him.

"Riku?!" Sora panicked, jumped up and spun around. He found Axel smirking at him and he smiled sheepishly. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"I came to find you two slackers," he said, giving Kairi a playful glare this time instead of Sora. She smiled innocently and giggled lightly when Sora turned to look at her.

"Hmph." Sora turned to her, putting his hands on his hips. "And there you were trying to pin all the blame on me." He could hardly hold his stern look before his face broke into a grin. He could never be mad at that smiling, innocent face. He turned to Riku without warning and said suddenly, "I'll race you!" He ran past him, not missing a beat as he gave Riku a playful shove on the shoulder.

"Hey! Cheater! Get back here!" Riku laughed and chased after him. Sora and Kairi laughed with him, Kairi's laugh coming out as more of a bubbly giggle, as always. She started into a jog and chased slowly after them, only smiling as her two best friends continued their competitive antics.

They all raced up the beach, Kairi coming up behind them, heading back to a little seaside shack that the three always hung out in. Today they were using it as a location to work on their science project. They were supposed to make a contraption that could float and move quickly across the water, so they figured their usual place on the island just off the shore of their hometown was a good place to do it.

Sora and Riku collapsed into the sand once they reached their little hut, breathing heavily.

"I… won," Sora panted, falling onto his back with a grin.

"As if!" Riku breathed. "It was a tie and you had a head start so that makes me the winner."

"Whatever," Sora laughed. "At least I beat Kairi."

"Hey!" Kairi chuckled, catching up to them. She wasn't out of breath and merely came to a slow stop. "That's not fair, I wasn't even trying!"

"That's exactly why it's a good thing I beat you," Sora smiled up at her and all three broke into laughter again.

It was just another typical day for the three friends – it was like their own paradise island where no one got angry and nothing could ever go wrong.

--

JUNE, WEEK 1

--

Just great. Roxas hated this part. Even though he didn't remember ever doing it before. But he was dreading his first day of school. He'd come from a therapy to try to regain his lost memory straight to the orphanage he now lived at. He hadn't remembered any personally memories in the end – just basic stuff like writing, eating and a lot of his education. And they had taught him how to do all the rest in rehabilitation.

With no parents left after the accident, and no siblings to begin with, his therapist and he had decided that the best thing to do was to start over in a new town where he didn't have to worry about people already knowing him when he failed to remember them, and when he didn't even know himself. In the end it had been his decision, and so he left – with a new therapist of course, just in case.

Roxas had hardly moved into the orphanage, having just arrived on Saturday, and he was already off to school for Monday. All the paper work had been sorted out before he had moved and the last thing he wanted was to sit around and do nothing. He'd kept to himself the past few days and hardly saw any of the other orphans – the only name he could remember was his roommate, Pence. He figured getting the first day of school over with would be better than unpacking his last few boxes of stuff, which he didn't have much of to begin with. If Pence hadn't offered to help him around the school on his first day, it would have been unbearable walking through those intimidating school doors.

But it was bearable – just. That didn't mean he had to like it.

--

"Let's see your schedule," Pence said, swiping it from Roxas' hand as soon as he'd gotten it from the school office. At first Roxas had gotten annoyed whenever Pence was so blunt and carefree, but it hardly took him an hour before he found out it was hard to stay mad at a boy who always had a smile on his face. He was finding out quickly that it wasn't so bad to be friendly, and Pence was so easy to get along with that it felt natural.

"Hmm…" Pence thought for a moment as he looked over the schedule. "Well the good news is we have first period homeroom together. That's on the third floor," Pence said, heading for the hallway and ushering Roxas to follow. "We can get a locker assigned to you while we're in that class. After that I'm going to have to drop you off at your math class while I go to Chem. I'll come get you again for lunch," Pence continued his banter as they reached a staircase and started heading up it. "I can introduce you to my friends then, they'll love you. You'll probably like them too.

"But it says here," Pence said, pointing to his period after lunch, "That you have a sophomore science course, so I'll have to show you to the science lab on the second floor. Second floor is for sophomores, third is for us, the juniors, and the fourth is for seniors. That obviously leaves the bottom floor for the freshmen. The school probably stuck you in a sophomore class because they're not sure of your science level yet." Pence turned to him as they ascended their third flight of stairs. "You're not saying much."

Roxas smiled and sighed. "I'm just trying to take all this in before I get carried away. It all seems so new to me. Though it probably isn't." Pence shrugged and concentrated on going up the steps, his long explanation over. He knew of Roxas' memory situation. He'd been informed before Roxas had moved into his room, and they'd talked about it a bit yesterday because Pence was just itching to know more. Roxas didn't really mind telling him about it since he had to live with him, but he didn't want it getting around the school. He didn't want that kind of attention.

Pence reached the classroom he was looking for and walked swiftly through the open door without missing a beat. Roxas followed him in and found that the seats for the students got higher as they went further back, and there was a step every few feet. Pence instantly took a left and went up one of the walkways about half way before sliding into a row and dropping his bag. Roxas moved in as well and sat down beside him, dropping his own bag.

"Hayner and Olette are in our homeroom as well. Those are my two best friends," Pence started explaining. Roxas watched students file in and sit down but kept an ear turned to Pence as he talked. "I'm actually glad I have you here with me this morning, otherwise I'd be a loner."

"Why?" Roxas asked, glancing his way.

Pence sighed. "Olette has a doctor's appointment and Hayner normally sleeps in on days we have homeroom first period. You're supposed to show up, but they don't really do anything about it if you don't. But yeah, that's why you won't get to see them until lunch."

"Hm," Roxas murmured. "Well right now I think that's a good thing. I'm not quite ready to get bombarded with new people. I just got here."

"I know what you mean," Pence said. "I can't imagine starting at a new school. It must be worse for you. Oh!" Pence almost jumped and leaned closer as a teacher chewing on a toothpick entered the room and sat down at the desk. "That's Dr. Cid, our homeroom teacher. It's actually just supposed to be Mr. Cid, but one of his classes used to call him Dr. and it kind of stuck. Most of us just call him Cid now though. We've tended to drop the whole Mister and Misses thing. Only a few teachers are still addressed that way."

"You just want me to call him Cid?" Roxas asked.

"Sure, he doesn't mind," Pence said, shrugging. "He's a pretty cool guy."

The bell rang and everyone quieted down. "Good morning class," Cid said enthusiastically. He got a few, much less enthusiastic 'hellos' back but he paid no mind. "To start things off, we have a new student in class today." Roxas groaned as Cid's gaze turned to him, indicating where the 'new kid' sat. "Everyone, this is Roxas. Be good to him. He's knew to this whole school thing."

A few people in the class snickered at Cid's choice of words while a couple others said hey, and Pence gave him a playful shove. School thing? Roxas thought, smiling at the others to satisfy them as Cid continued talking. What a weird teacher.

"Hey," Pence hissed, leaning over to Roxas again. "Can I borrow a pen?"

"You've got one behind your ear," Roxas hissed back. Pence smiled sheepishly.

"Oh. Right."

They ended up not writing anything down, but a few handouts and a newsletter were passed around. Within fifteen minutes, another bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom. After most of the people had left, Pence finally stood up.

"Come on," he said, getting Roxas to follow him down to talk to Cid.

"Hey there, kid," Cid smiled cheerily up at them, still with a toothpick in his mouth. "What can I do you for?"

"Roxas needs a locker," Pence said, using the nickname he gave Roxas and shouldering his bag.

"Yes he does," Cid agreed. "Do you know of any free ones, Pence?"

"Well there's one just a few down from mine," he offered.

"Perfect! Show him where it is," Cid said, clapping his hands together. "And here," he said, reaching into a drawer and pulling out a lock with a key ring attached. "The keychain on it's got the code. Don't loose it – keep it safe."

"Thank you, Mr. Cid," Roxas said, taking the lock from Cid's outstretched hand.

"Please, call me Cid. Everyone else does."

Pence smiled innocently, flashing his white teeth. "Come on then," he hollered, already at the door. "Let's go or we'll be late for next class!"

--

Pence showed Roxas to his locker and swung it open for him.

"All clear," he said, indicating the empty space. "Mine's just here." He pointed and walked down about ten lockers before stopping and opening one to shove his bag into.

Roxas started unpacking his bag, making the locker his own, and finally grabbed a notebook and pen for math. Pence came back over with his own stuff, still holding onto Roxas' timetable.

"You have math now. Hmm," he thought about it and glanced down the hall while Roxas dialed the combo into his lock, unlocked it, took of the key ring with the combo on it, and locked his locker. As he did this, Pence kept talking and Roxas noticed a slightly taller boy open the locker beside his. "My class and your class are on, like, opposite sides of the school," Pence was saying. "You have the room number. Do you think you could find it on your own?"

"Uh," Roxas breathed, completely unsure of himself. "I-I guess."

"If he's near room 305, I can show him where to go," said a somber voice beside them. Pence jumped and turned to the boy that had just finished with his locker.

"305? That's right where he's headed. You have math now, Riku?" Pence jabbered towards the taller student.

"Yeah," he said simply, as if his mind was somewhere else. "Come on." He turned and headed down the hall without waiting for a response. Roxas looked to Pence for reassurance and Pence nodded to him.

"Hey Riku!" Pence called quickly as he started to walk backwards and Riku glanced over his shoulder. "Cheer up, man. He'll get better."

"Yeah," Riku said quietly and kept walking.

Pence waved to Roxas before turning around and running off in the other direction.

Roxas turned and jogged to catch up with Riku. The guy's hair was a striking silver that went past his shoulders. Roxas was amazed at how well he pulled it off while still maintaining a tough, competitive exterior.

"Uh, thanks," Roxas said awkwardly.

"Don't mention it," Riku said without glancing at him. "You're new here? I haven't seen you around before."

"Uh, yeah," Roxas answered without really knowing what else to say. What could you say when you didn't remember anything about your past?

"Where are you from?" Despite Riku's sudden string of questions, he still seemed like his mind was deep in thought elsewhere.

"Twilight Town," Roxas said, trying to show more confidence than he had been doing so far. "It's about five hours away to the north. There's not much to say about it."

"Do you…" Riku paused as if he wasn't sure he should ask, before finishing his question. "Do you have any cousins? Or something like that?" Riku stopped outside a closed classroom door and turned to look at Roxas. Roxas felt his heart skip a beat. He didn't want people asking about his family so soon. He didn't want people talking about him and yet he couldn't lie about it either.

"Um," Roxas stalled as he tried to find a way to word it without sounding pitiful. "I'm not really sure. I live with Pence at the orphanage."

"Oh," Riku sighed and turned to the classroom. It read 305 across the top. He didn't say anything else and just opened the door. Maybe there were a lot of orphans at this school? Roxas followed in after him and everyone in the class turned to see what was going on.

"Sorry we're late, Leon," Riku said, looking only at the teacher and ignoring the stairs from the class. "Roxas needed help finding his class." Roxas rolled his eyes mentally when Riku tried to pass up his late as him being a good student when he would have been late anyway.

"It's okay Riku, have a seat," Leon said as if he was aware of the situation. "Roxas, welcome to grade eleven math." Roxas smiled weekly at him and gave a sideways glance to the rest of the room. "You can take a seat beside Riku, since you two already seem to be acquainted."

Roxas turned and headed up to his seat as Leon continued his lesson. He glanced at Riku and then at the guy sitting on the opposite side of his designated seat to find him grinning mischievously at him. Roxas quickly looked away and sat down, dreading any possibility of being picked on as the new kid.

--

After class he followed a bit behind Riku in order to find his locker again. Riku hadn't talked him since before they had entered the math classroom and he didn't want to be the one to start up the next conversation. When he reached his locker, Pence was already waiting for him with a guy, about the same height as Riku, only with a bigger build and he had short, light brown hair.

"There he is," Pence said as Roxas walked up to them. "Roxas, this is Hayner."

"Hey," Hayner said with a short wave.

"Hayner, Roxas," Pence said, motioning to each in turn.

"Hey," Roxas said this time, also with a short wave.

"Hayner and I are best buddies," Pence threw in, wrapping an arm around Hayner's shoulders, which was not easy considering their height differences. "He's a bit of a dunce, but he's cool."

"Hey!" Hayner said, this time in defense, shoving Pence off him. "Who got a higher score on the last bio exam?"

"Olette, our other best friend, she's gone down to the cafe to save us our seats," Pence said, ignoring Hayner's comment. "So hurry up and get your stuff so we can go see her!"

"Oh, right!" Roxas fumbled with his lock, finally opening his locker and shoving his notebook and new textbook inside. He grabbed his bag and shut his locker. "Okay, let's go."

"Awesome!" Pence hollered and turned to head to the closest staircase.

"Don't mind him," Hayner said to Roxas as they followed after Pence. "He's a little loud but you get used to him."

"A little?" Roxas laughed. "You don't share a room with him."

"True, that. Though I've had my fair share of slumber parties with him." They reached the stairs and headed down them, Pence completely oblivious to their conversation. "So where are you from?" Hayner asked. "You look familiar."

"Uh, well," Roxas breathed. "I came from Twilight town, which is five hours away, so you wouldn't know me."

"Oh. Pence told me about your memory loss, but I didn't know you'd come from so far away. I thought maybe I'd seen you around," Hayner laughed at himself. "For a minute there I thought I'd be able to help you with your memory."

"No, don't worry about. I've left it all behind so remembering now I think would be a bad thing," Roxas explained as they reached the bottom floor. "Besides, I like it here. I don't need my memory."

"Heh, well Roxas, you're one strange person. I've never even heard of someone loosing their memory the way you have. Didn't know it was possible, really," Hayner smiled down to him. "I guess you're stuck making new memories with us and this crappy school."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Roxas said defiantly. Hayner shoved him playfully and ran to catch up with Pence as they entered the cafeteria. Roxas jogged after them and caught up once they reached a table with a lone girl.

"Olette! Hey, thanks for saving our seats," Pence said as he dumped his bag on the table.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Olette said, looking up at all of them. "Oh, is this Roxas?" she asked as she beamed up at him.

"Oh, yeah! Roxas, this is Olette," Pence said excitedly. He seemed to love introducing new people.

"Hey," Roxas said, sitting down across from her.

"Hey Roxas, what's up?" she asked with a bright smile.

"Not much."

"Hayner and I are going to get some food," Pence said. "You want to come?"

"No, I'm good. Didn't you bring anything, Pence?" Roxas asked as he began to take out his lunch.

"Nah, that orphanage stuff gets old," Pence said before heading off with Hayner.

"We'll save you seats," Olette called after them. She took a bite into her sandwich and Roxas took his own sandwich out of his bag. "So how do you like it here?" she asked after she finished her mouthful. Roxas had to finish his own before he replied.

"It's good. My teachers a pretty easy going and it's not like I've had to be a loner at lunch. I was afraid of that before I moved here and met Pence." He took another bite out of his sandwich.

"Yeah, Pence is great at making people feel welcome. He wouldn't shut up about you all last period. He thinks you're great," she said, pausing to take a swig from her coke can. He told us about your memory. I think it's pretty neat, even though it must suck for you."

"Well I've gotten pretty used to it actually," Roxas said. "It was pretty bad back home when everyone knew who I was, but here it just feels like I'm a normal new kid at a school."

"Well I'm glad you've got a positive look on it. I can't stand people who are all caught up in themselves and constantly beg for the world's pity. You're a cool guy, Roxas."

"Thanks," Roxas smiled down at his food. "You're not so bad yourself."

"You know," she said. "You remind me of one of the sophomores that I've seen around. You look just like him and he's known for his excessive amount of optimism."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Roxas pouted and Olette laughed.

"It's not a bad thing, don't worry."

"Hey guys, what did we miss?" Pence said sliding in beside Olette as Hayner took a seat beside Roxas. "Are you guys well acquainted now?"

"Well enough," Olette giggled. The conversation took up into a new topic but Roxas was distracted right from the beginning. He had glanced away from the table just in time to see a girl with red-brown hair staring at him in astonishment. She looked completely awestruck and confused and worried and zoned out all at the same time, and she didn't even flinch when Roxas noticed her. Roxas noticed Riku walk up to her and say something, and only then did she shake her head to clear it and look away. Just as Roxas was sure she hadn't been looking at him at all, she glanced back at him once more before walking off with Riku.