Viewpoints (chapter 1)
by Ky

Summary: Hayner's perspective on the strange events occurring in Twilight Town, during the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II.
Genre: General
Rating: G
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts II.

Summer vacation was drawing to a close, and I was misearable. It couldn't be over already. It was impossible. Roxas, Pence, Olette, and I had hardly done anything yet. I felt that if I let this summer pass me by, I'd be letting something really big and important just slip away.

I was not about to let that happen.

After the incident with the photos, I knew something weird was going on. Some… Some thing had stolen photos from people all over town. It wasn't human. It was white and silver, with odd markings, bending and shifting in ways no human ever could. To look at it was unsettling. Not only did it steal photographs, but it also stole the word photo.

I know: too weird. Sounds like something from one of those late-night TV shows your parents wouldn't let you watch when you were a kid because they thought you would get nightmares, right?

Well, it's all true. Ask anybody. Until we got the photos back, no one in Twilight Town could say the word "photo."

But after the photos were returned, that was when things started getting really weird.

When Olette, Pence, and I looked at the photos, we realized immediately that they were all of Roxas. Every single one.

"I wonder if those things weren't trying to take the photos. I wonder if they were after the real Roxas," Pence commented.

Everyone knew Pence loved mysteries and often made up conspiracy theories just for the fun of trying to prove them, but the laughter that followed his little joke was anxious. "Nah, who'd want to kidnap a knucklehead like Roxas?" I exclaimed, giving my best friend a punch to the shoulder.

Roxas hardly even noticed. He just kept staring at the photographs in his hands as if the whole world depended on what he made of them.

And maybe it did.

The nagging feeling in the back of my mind, telling me that I was about to lose something, had now found something in the real world to fixate itself on.

Roxas. Roxas was going to disappear.

The next day, I decided we needed to go to the beach. After all, we hadn't been all summer. As I told Roxas when we arrived at the train station, "We won't always be together like this. So why not make the time we have special?"

Olette handed Roxas the munny for our train tickets, and we headed towards the ticket counter. Halfway up the steps, Roxas tripped and fell flat on his face. I turned and saw how he awkwardly, almost unnaturally, pulled himself to his feet. One of his arms was poised in the air, and he gazed intently into empty space. Thinking he was just shaken from his fall, I hollered, "Three minutes, Roxas!" and headed towards the ticket counter. C'mon, we're gonna miss the train.

Moments later, Roxas caught up with Pence, Olette, and me.

"All right, let's get tickets!" Olette exclaimed. I could just taste the big soft pretzel I was going to eat as soon as I got to the beach.

Roxas's hand reached towards his pocket and the pouch of our hard-earned munny. Then his expression became concerned, and he began frantically going through his pockets, patting them, turning them inside out, checking them for holes.

He lost our munny.

"That guy… He must have taken it!"

"What guy?" Pence asked.

"That guy I was talking to. The one in the black coat. 'Do you feel Sora?' That's what he said to me. He was right outside the train station, but then he disap…" Roxas trailed off when he saw our faces.

"Roxas…" Olette began.

"There was no guy," I said.

Roxas didn't argue. He just stared at the ground.

"Well, let's go back to the Usual Spot, I guess," Pence said.

Olette nodded, and, with a slight backward glance at me and Roxas, followed Pence out.

"Don't worry about the munny, Roxas," I told him. "We'll go to the beach tomorrow. I'll take care of it."