Author Notes: I have come to find that some of my KH fics don't really fit into the 'time-line' laid out by Square Enix. 358/2 Days pretty much tells that a lot of things happen in merely the span of about one week after Roxas' 'birth'. But for the sake of our love of the Organization let's pretend that these aren't literal days. Let's pretend they were together far longer than they were allowed. I try to keep things according to the facts, and you know I try to keep everyone in character... but on this one point... let's turn a blind eye. Call it slightly AU if that helps ^_^

I also have been playing with Namine's background, since I haven't finished the latest game I don't know the truth on Namine... so keep that in mind too.

Thank you Darkblade for your hard work editing this!

With that said, I hope you like the story!

Wish Upon a Dying Star
Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction
By Dragonnova

Do you know what a star is? Do you know what really happens when you see one flying so freely across the expanse of a deep velvet sky? What is this brilliant and beautiful display in the stillness of night?

It is death.

The death of a world.

The death of a people.

That is what we lay our wishes upon from the comfort of our covers as we gaze out the window panes. We watch with uncaring hearts at the beauty of a world falling and wish for good things to happen to us.

She, too, had looked up at many stars, watching quietly as yet another would blinked, flicked faintly, and then fall from its perch in the velvet abyss. This small blonde child would place a wish upon those dying worlds speeding across the highways of space on their way to inevitable destruction. She wished with all her might for a hero that could save her; no, that's not right. She wasn't wishing for something that grand, all she wanted was a friend to comfort her. However, no matter how hard she wished for this to happen, it simply wouldn't come true. It seemed as though the wish would fall in brilliant glory and die slowly with the world she had placed it upon.

She felt so alone in this world... surrounded by blind uncaring people and the visible deaths of all the worlds. Silently waiting for the lurking talons of 'the grim one' to visit the very planet she stood upon, pulling its heart from its core and bringing destruction to herself and those around her.

Just when she became accustomed to the endless days of loneliness, fear, and confusion, it seemed her wish was suddenly remembered and finally granted. A mysterious stranger, a shadowy and beautiful figure, had appeared beside her with a gentle hand on her shoulder and a silky, kind sounding voice.

This man wove tales of a land with others just like her, beautiful songs of a place she would be needed and loved. He spoke of a wondrous world that never truly existed and never really did, a place sleeping on the border of light and darkness; of reality and nothing. She could be happier there; it was where she was meant to be; she was needed there. This "World that Never Was", the perfect place for someone who should never have come into existence.

She had looked up into those sparkling dark blue eyes framed by wispy layers of cherry colored hair peeking out just beneath his dark hood. Perhaps he was the knight she had been waiting for? His words were soft and tender, filled with a hopeful truth, and yet she couldn't quite ignore the darkness that tinged them, sullying their beauty.

Nobody and nothing, it seemed strange to think of one's self as something that shouldn't be. Yet despite the darkness-tinged fear she felt, she couldn't help but long to follow him. Perhaps she could finally find what it was she was looking for? It would be nice to be needed, even though it meant accepting her non-existence in return, and so she followed him into the darkness.

However…

Beautiful packages are sometimes filled with spoiled and ruined dreams, reeking of death and destruction.

This turn of events was not what she had expected when she heard his call; she soon learned the bitter truth. She soon found she was not really needed, at least not in the sense that she had hoped anyway. No one could love her or want her. All they really wanted was her power; they merely wanted to use her for her gift. They wanted to inflict pain on someone special, use her power to break his heart and remold it into what they wanted him to be.

She had refused. She wanted a life and happiness, she wanted to be whole again, but not at the cost of someone else's happiness.

She couldn't live a lie.

So they decided to convince her. She was secluded once more, cut off from contact in a different sort of way than before. All she could do was sit in the room she was locked in and wait for the time when she would have to use her gift to destroy a pure heart. Finally understanding what she was.

She was a little sad bird in a cage… songless, loveless, lifeless.

She was nothing…. Nobody.

IOIOIOIOIOI

Namine was sitting quietly, surrounded by nothing but blank white. She couldn't help but find herself staring out the only window in that barren room, out into the dark clouds, pondering how she had gotten to a low place like this. She was praying more than ever for that little wish she had made so long ago would come true, yet the hope she could feel deep within was no longer there.

When she had been promised a place where she would be accepted and wanted she had followed that man happily, blindly. "I'm so stupid…"

A soft thud echoed in the room as her forehead connected with the window pane, followed closely by a sigh. It had turned out quite the opposite here. She had been locked in this room for a couple of weeks now, and everyone stayed away from her, ignoring her very existence. Loneliness can kill, but being shunned was even worse than being lonely, it was downright maddening.

She shifted her head on the cold windowpane, her warm breath fogging the window, revealing the little doodles she had rubbed onto the glass with her finger that morning when they were clouded over. The loneliness was almost more than she could take; even when she was wondering Twilight Town alone, she at least could stop and talk to people on the street. She could shop, read books, go for walks – ANYTHING to occupy her mind.

But that was not the case here. She had nothing to distract her from the long seconds that ticked off into minutes, which slowly turned into eternity. She soon found that she had a new little side-wish for something to keep her mind from shriveling up in boredom and dropping right out of her skull.

"I wish I had some paper…" she whispered to nobody in particular, watching the steam on the window spread as she spoke to no one.

Almost as an answer to her sigh the door handle to her room rattled, startling her from her wanderings, forcing her to back into the corner near the simple white bed that was one of the few furnishings in the small space. She then heard the key turning, her mind raced as her breath caught in her throat.

It wasn't time to eat, and that was the only time anyone ever entered her room. A dark figure in a black hooded cloak would open the door and set the plate on the small table and then leave with out a single word to her. So who could this possibly be? What could they want?
She gasped, breaking her wildly running thoughts back to the present happenings. She watched the door handle turn; her only thought now was if this was the day she would be forced to destroy someone's most precious memory?

The door cracked open, as a blonde man cautiously peeked in and glanced around until his bright aquamarine eyes fell upon her in the corner. He jumped as though he was every bit afraid of being seen as she was. Namine thought for a moment that he would bolt and run, yet he managed to pull himself together and tiptoed into the room.

He was much taller and appeared to be older than her, but not so much older that it would be hard for them to talk to each other; he also seemed a little timid the way he hunched over as he inched closer. His hair was... interesting. A sort of rocked up mullet of sorts that strangely seemed to compliment his looks perfectly.

"I, uh… saw you this morning… Over by the window." He nervously pointed at the window, then a strange worried look crossed his face. "I mean, not that I was spying on you or anything! I'm not like some sort of freakish pervert that was peeking in your window or anything... I uh, I just was walking by with Axel and there you were… doodling on the window..." He rambled, his cheeks burning with each word that fell from his lips. "So I thought that maybe you would want this…"he quickly held out a spiral bound drawing book and a pencil. Resisting the urge to just toss it and run.

Namine smiled, carefully taking a few timid steps closer, still slightly afraid that this strangely kind gesture was a trick of some sort, or maybe some sort of delightful dream that might vanish if she were to touch it. He certainly seemed like an angel, one that might disappear at any moment because he and his gift was simply too good to be true. She took hold of the paper, taking notice of the faint smile that played across his lips as well as the sadness in his eyes. "Thank you, um?" she asked, pondering that sadness she had just seen.

"Demyx…" He paused, scratching the back of his head. "Can't keep an artist from their work, that's one of two things I can think of as being the worst thing that could possibly happen."

Namine tilted her head, a gesture almost like that of a little bird. "What would the other be?"

Demyx's smile faded just slightly. "I think you already know the answer to that…" he whispered.

There was a faint creaking noise outside that pulled them both back to reality, Demyx suddenly shifted emotional gears becoming extremely nervous. "I have to go before I get caught. I can't get in trouble again." He quickly turned to leave, stopping for just a second when he felt a tug on his coat sleeve.

With lightning quick reflexes Namine had bolted after him, gripping his sleeve. Even she was unsure of what ever had possessed her into such a thing, but here she was clinging to his coat trying to keep him from leaving.
"Must you leave?" She held on tightly to his sleeve, wishing he would stay and talk to her just a little bit longer. Even though she didn't know him, she wanted someone to stay, and unlike the one or two hooded beings she had come in contact with, he seemed genuinely kind.

"I have to go…" He never turned around; he didn't want to see her face. He didn't want the look he could feel was there on her delicate features to be burned into his mind forever. He pulled away from her now weakened grip and left her to the silence once more.

The door clicked and the key turned, sealing her inside once more. Demyx slipped the key into his pocket, standing at the door and just staring at the handle. He slowly turned to leave; he didn't want to bolt on her, leave her to the demons of her own mind, but he had to sneak that key back into Marluxia's room quickly before the other man found it missing.

"I hope you aren't planning on sneaking in there…" a voice whispered into his ear.

Demyx let out a strangled yelp, jumping nearly out of his skin. He turned to find a red headed man comfortably settling back to leaning against the wall. "Or is it too late already?" the newcomer added.

"Axel..." Relief filled Demyx's voice when he saw the familiar face of a friend, but the relief was short lived when he remembered his friend was a jerk that caught him doing the forbidden. "What are you going to tell?"

"Why should I? I don't care what you do or don't do." Axel chuckled.

"It's mean, what they're doing here… I don't like it. Why are they treating her like this? They didn't do this to any of the rest of us, so why her?" Demyx glanced out of the corner of his eye over at the other Nobody.

"Because… I think she's more powerful than we are, and she has a stronger sense of what is right than we do. She has to be broken because someone who's broken is easy to control." Those words were as cold ice, dripping with bitter malice. But the hard expression in his emerald eyes softened when they shifted from the hallway toward Demyx. "We chose the Organization, she didn't. It's as simple as that."

There wasn't even a moment for Demyx to answer before the bitterness returned to the other Nobody's words. "And what do we care anyway, Demyx? So who gives a Moogle's butt what happens to her? She's nothing to us, and we're nothing to her..." Axel stated coldly, pushing off from the wall and walking away.

Demyx lowered his head. "Yeah, I know… We don't have hearts so we don't feel anything for anyone. So why do I still feellike this is wrong."

For just a moment longer Demyx hesitated by the door before he let out a sigh and walked away, knowing it would be best for him to leave before he got caught by someone who didcare that he was hanging around with that key in his pocket.

Axel had only taken a few steps before he paused in the middle of the empty hallway, listening to the sounds of Demyx's hurried steps across the marble floors. When the last "thump" faintly echoed he turned, looking back down the opposite hallway and then over to the door. There was almost a strange sort of sadness behind his emerald eyes as he stared at the door handle.

"You know... you can come out from around that corner now. I know you've been lurking there the whole time." Axel glanced out of the corner of his eye; a faint playful smirk began to tug at the corner of his mouth.

Silence greeted him.

"Fine... keep hiding then..." Axel shoved his hands in his pocket, turning back around and walking back over to the door to Namine's room. "I'll just knock on this door here and let that young lady know that she's got a stalker..." Axel raised a fist to knock lightly on her door as he spoke. "I mean, I should do my duty as a proper gentleman and warn her that she should be careful and not change in front of that window 'cause there's a little pervie watching her constantly and she might give him a show if..." his words caught in his throat as the air was nearly knocked clean out of his lungs from the sheer force upon impact.

A smaller blonde Nobody had scrambled around the corner, panic in his wild blue eyes as he launched himself at the one that was threatening his honor. He landed square in the middle of Axel's back, wrapping one arm around his neck in an attempt at a strangle hold while he clamped the other hand over Axel's mouth to shut him up. "Don't you DARE! Or I'll tell Xigbar it was YOU that planted that fire cracker in his toilet!"

Axel stood for a moment with the little Nobody hanging off of him like small lemur clinging to its mother, a bemused look sparkled in the fire users eyes just before he made his move. "Bllllaaaaaauuugh..." Axel slobbered the hand that was covering his mouth.

"UUGH, GROSS!" His friend fell to the ground shaking his dripping glove and trying to get it off before it soaked through to his hand.

"Well, Roxas, that's what you get for attacking me. Now let's go before we freak her out anymore than she already is..." Axel leaned over, snatching Roxas by his hood and dragging him down the hallway, nearly choking the life out of him.

Namine stood in front of the door, hugging the new paper close to her chest as she listened to the odd noises on the other side. This was the first time in a couple weeks were she was actually HAPPY the door was locked. She was quickly finding herself pondering what exactly the Organization was, and why it would let nut jobs like that in.

She really would have to be careful where she changed her clothes now...

~End Part I