Disclaimer: Ya know? Idk why I'm putting this here. I feel like it won't save any of us should we all spontaneously get sued... but these characters ain't mine. I just own the plot.

Chapter 1: Initiation

I hadn't meant to break into Xion's house like this; it kind of just happened. Honest.

We used to be really good friends—best friends. Heck, even our dads were best friends up until three years ago. Her dad's name was Zack Fair, by the way, and he was a SOLDIER in the military.

My dad's name is Cloud Strife; he's still a SOLDIER…

I guess this goes without saying, but Mr. Fair… well, he… he died three years ago. He'd been murdered on the battlefield, and apparently, my dad had witnessed it, because Mr. Fair had saved his life when my dad was unable to protect himself due to Mako poisoning—whatever that is.

Not a day goes by without me secretly thanking him, because if it hadn't been for Mr. Fair, my dad wouldn't be here. He's the only reason my father came home that day. Zack was—and is—a true hero.

But dad… he really didn't take his death well. I never blamed him for his behavior afterwards, though, because seriously, who would? This was Zack—everyone's hero, their friend … but my father had been the only person to call him "best friend."

Dad never talked about how Mr. Fair died, either, and no one knew what his body looked like because Xion's mother, Aerith, had requested a closed casket for the funeral. There was even a rumor going around that he'd been struck with hundreds of bullets, but he made sure that my dad didn't have a scratch on him—and he even managed to kill all of his enemies. However, on the day that he died, seconds before his death, Mr. Fair handed my dad his sword. Dad didn't go into detail about what else was said, but he said he made a promise to Mr. Fair.

And that sword… it's a cherished item in our house, and it's usually displayed on a large pedestal in our living room…

But um… see, thing is… Okay, I'd stolen it about an hour ago. There. I said it.

I already knew Dad was gonna freak when he found out.

Which brings me to the reason as to why I'm here, at Xion's house. We weren't friends anymore, because sometimes people just drift apart, you know? –Wow, now I sound like Rai… I'd been hanging out with these guys too long. Back on topic here, I personally think Xion and I's falling out had more to do with her and the loss of her dad…

I knew for sure that she'd never speak to me again if she found out what I was about to help Seifer do, though.

This was my initiation into his group, and the Fairs had gone for the weekend. Their house was the perfect choice to do something this… this—

Stupid, I thought. This is crazy stupid… What am I doing here?

"Get over here, Chicken Wuss," Seifer commanded me.

I always wondered why the heck I wanted to be friends with him, but I'd seen him beat up Hayner enough times to know that sometimes it's best to keep your enemies close to you and stay on their good side, than to be on the receiving end of their wrath. Plus, destroying property was kind of a stress reliever if you lived at my house. Dad had never been the same since Mr. Fair died. He was kind of scary to be around because he was so quiet and on edge all the time—a living legacy of the term 'walking on eggshells.'

We were all wearing black—Seifer, Rai, Fuu and I—to blend with the night sky above us, and we were standing right in front of the Fair's house. It was a large house, pale blue in color, with red shudders and a white door. The lawn was freshly cut and there were two rows of hedges on each side of the white porch with flower gardens surrounding each. The pathway that led to the sidewalk was made of tan cobblestone.

"I'm coming," I griped, struggling to bring the sword forward. The steel item was making a small scraping noise as I slid it along the pathway, and I felt a bead of sweat dripping down my face from straining all this way with it.

I'm amazed we got the damn thing out of the house without waking anyone, but Seifer had done that for me after I let him in. I wasn't anticipating him handing me the item back after we had successfully gotten it out of the house…

Seifer came up to me and grabbed the buster sword like a pro, even if he played off his wince with a smirk. "Can't you ever do anything by yourself?" he asked.

He always sounded so condescending when he talked to me—like he did everything himself. He had two goons to help him do his bidding, and if he wasn't complaining about my spiky, dirty blond hair, he was complaining about my strength—or lack thereof. It was always something.

I'm pretty sure he kept me around because of who my father was, though—the only reason. My dad had become somewhat famous in this town after Zack's death—mostly because of his military achievements afterwards. It was as if he finally had the chance to be his own person without shadowing his best friend... That's kind of sad, but true.

"Hurry," Fuu said in a clipped voice. She was standing on the front porch, brushing her blue hair behind her ears, and she easily picked the lock on the front door. No alarm was heard as she twisted the silver knob and pushed the door open. "Done." Every time she talked, I thought of poetry night at a bar and how whenever a poet would put emphasis on a syllable for dramatic effect, the drummer would lightly tap their instrument. Then, there was the moment of finger snaps after said poet finished… Fuu would be perfect for a place like that.

"Let's do this," Rai said as he followed her into the home. They both placed on their black ski masks, and Seifer did the same.

I grudgingly trailed behind Seifer, wondering how much trouble I'd be in. This went against everything I stood for—every moral my parents—and Mr. Fair had taught me… "Why Xion's house?" I hadn't exactly meant to ask it out loud, but it needed to be explained to me. I didn't understand why I was willing to do this. It wouldn't make my problems go away… but it… I just…

There's nothing I can say to validate this…

Seifer grunted. "Why not?"

"Did you really need to use that sword to do something like this?" I hissed. It was dumb of me to be asking about it now—after we'd gone through the trouble of bringing it out here. "If it gets scratched—"

Seifer whirled around, glaring down at me. "Do you want to be part of our group, or not? It's not everyday a sophomore gets to hang out with us."

There was a glower on my face as we had a standoff, but eventually, I nodded and pulled out my ski mask. "Let's just get this over with." I quickly put it on as we entered the Fair house, and I took a deep breath.

This was it.

I couldn't believe I was doing something so reckless—something so cruel to the one person who'd always stuck by me…

I'm sorry, Xion…

But the moment we entered the living room, and I saw Mr. Fair's picture, I knew I couldn't go through with it.

I just couldn't do it, you know? It wasn't right; it wasn't in me. Disrespecting the Fairs like this…

I shouldn't be here…

Slowly, I began to shake my head. "I can't do this," I whispered. "Not to this house—"

Seifer was about to say something malicious to me, until Fuu began destroying the coffee table with a metal bat, while Rai began cutting up the couch. He eventually pulled out a spray can from the pouch attached to his jeans, and he started spray-painting the right wall, while I looked on with horrified eyes. My jaw was dropped and my eyes wide. The beige shade of paint was now covered in red words of slander, courtesy of Rai.

"Too late to stop now," Seifer said with a smirk. He shrugged it off, lifting the sword. "May as well finish what we started." Before I could say anything, he stepped forward, swinging the weapon against the left wall. The vibration echoed like someone had taken a mallet and smacked a gong, because the wall shook from the force. Seifer even paused to gaze at the damage before he nodded and began making several holes that tore through the thick material like butter.

The way he laughed about it, as if this were actually fun…

If that sword hit anyone, they were done for… It was about four inches thick and it weighed quite a lot. A buster sword... Zack's buster sword…

What've I done?

"Why are yew hewrting our howse?!" Marlene, Xion's adopted, two-year-old sister asked us in a horrified shout.

I thought the Fair's were supposed to be gone for the weekend!

This changed everything.

Marlene looked confused as she stood in the entryway of the kitchen and living room, wearing her red pajamas. Her brown hair was in ponytail and her bangs were shielding her brown eyes, which were now watering. The glass of milk she'd been holding was now at her feet, spilled all over the wooden floor.

"Marlene?!" I heard Xion call from upstairs. Her voice sounded frantic.

Xion…

I glared at Seifer. "You said they weren't home," I whispered, throat dry.

He swore as he chuckled. "I thought they weren't," he admitted. He sounded smug, like he didn't care that we'd been caught.

"You're not seriously thinking we should continue this," I said. "Are you…?" Lunatic.

"Yew hewrting our howse!" Marlene screamed again, tears welling in her brown eyes.

"Oh boo-hoo," Fuu said, bashing the picture of Mr. Fair with her bat.

"Yew hewrting daddy!" Marlene shrieked, rushing towards Fuu. She started throwing tiny punches on Fuu's leg—although it was clear to see that the two-year-old wasn't strong enough to take her. I flinched when Fuu easily kicked her to the floor.

"Are you crazy?!" I asked in a frantic voice, hearing Marlene burst into tears and wails. "She's a little kid!"

"Tough," Fuu answered, shrugging.

I heard rushed footsteps coming from upstairs, and I wondered why Aerith hadn't come to save her child earlier. If my mom, Tifa, heard me crying she'd have been here in a heartbeat.

Everyone, except Seifer—who was still hacking away at the wall—was stunned when Xion appeared in place of her mother, wearing blue pajamas and a black night robe with silver keys on it. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" she screamed at us.

The way she stopped breathing when she saw the picture of her dad being destroyed made my heart stop. I felt like I'd tried to swallow it.

I couldn't believe I'd been apart of this…

Marlene was crying her eyes out while she lay on the floor. She was holding her stomach as if she were in unimaginable pain, and I hoped to God that Fuu hadn't kicked her too hard… Wasn't this technically child abuse?

I shook my head, panicking while my eyes darted towards Xion.

It was then that I noticed the object in her hand. There was a cordless, black house phone in her right palm, and I could hear the operator asking her if she was still there. Xion didn't put the phone to her ear, though, opting to rush forward in a fit of rage—or maybe she was trying to get to Marlene…

But Seifer, he was preparing to attack the wall again.

Damn it, I thought. I began running towards the two-year-old when Seifer decided to give the wall a final hack. The angle at which he leaned back to strike caused his body to arch backwards as well, and the sword was going to drop directly on Marlene.

Marlene was going to be cut in two, from her skull to the floor—a gruesome sight in my head. Aerith and Xion had already lost Zack; they didn't need to lose little Marlene, too.

My body went into defense mode after realizing this, and without thinking, I dove forward.

"GET AWAY FROM MY SISTER!" Xion yelled at me.

Wasn't anticipating that, though…

And then, it happened.

A worst-case scenario happened… but not one that I would've imagined.

Xion had taken a dive and pushed me to keep me away from Marlene, making my body collide, arm first, into the glass end table. The pieces shattered into my right arm, but it didn't initially hurt from all of my adrenaline. By some chance of luck, I'd managed to drag Marlene with me, and I made sure that I'd taken the brunt end of the fall to keep her out of harms way.

But Xion…

Xion…

The angle at which she'd lunged was directly into the blade—kind of like seeing a bullet smack you between the eyes before it actually happened—except her body was in a vertical position. I didn't witness the impact, opting to close my eyes half a second before, but… the sound of skin slicing was so strange, like… like hearing road kill getting ripped open by a car tire. It was swift and unbelievable.

Cringing—chilling—unforgettable… I'd never get that sound out of my head.

With a shrill shriek, Xion fell to the floor, and I opened my eyes to see her covering her hands over her face while she began squirming around in a frenzied panic. It looked like she was on fire by her frantic movements, or having a seizure.

I silently wish she'd have gotten her head spilt open and died a quick death instead of seeing her in prolonged torture like this. She must've been in indescribable pain—all because of me.

Seifer swore and shook his head as he turned around, finally noticing that he'd hit someone. The way his eyes widened, you'd swear he'd seen a ghost. "Holy…"

"Cops should be here in five," Rai spoke up, motioning towards the door.

"Leave," Fuu suggested. She pointed towards the exit.

Rai and Fuu rushed out, while Marlene got up and ran to her sister. "Xion!" she whimpered, lips quivering. She looked hesitantly at Xion's jerking form, hands hovering near her as if a mere touch would make the situation worse.

I started to get to my feet, only to have Seifer toss the sword on me. I was thankful that it landed on one of it's flat sides, but it was way too heavy for me to move in my damaged state.

"Take one for the team," Seifer said, giving me a thumbs up as he began to retreat. Bastard.

"What?!" I asked as he bolted out the front door. "Seifer!"

"See you at school, Chicken Wuss!"

As I heard the cop sirens, I looked down at my right arm. There was a lot of blood coming from the wounds, and some glass shards were sticking out. The sound of wailing made me glance over at Xion and Marlene, who were weeping together.

"Damn it..." I whispered. I had to get up; sitting here wouldn't change a thing.

It took all of my willpower to push that sword off me, and when I had, I immediately rushed over to Xion, reaching for her—only to have Marlene smack my hand away. She carefully lay on Xion's shoulder—almost as if she were shielding her from me.

"Weave my big sista awone!" she commanded me.

"Marlene," I said in a hoarse voice. "I'm—I'm so sorry."

Xion paused her writhing, but her hands remained over her eyes. There was blood seeping between her fingers, and smearing her face. "R-Roxas?" She sounded so broken, just so dead…

"It's me," I said, nodding quickly. My eyes were shifting back and forth between her and Marlene. "Xion, I'm so sorry—"

"I… c-can't see," she whispered.

Again, I nodded. "Xion—"

"I CAN'T SEE!" she screamed at me. Even as the cops entered the room and pointed their guns at me, I didn't even flinch. I just kept nodding, staring, blinking to make the problem go away.

It didn't.

Xion was still on the floor, Marlene beside her…

All this because I wanted some seniors to like me…?

I was a pathetic excuse of an existence. This was my proof.

…

A/N: I can rarely find any fics on here about visually impaired romance situations, so I thought I'd make own. I absolutely love slow romances, so I'm sorry if this might be uninteresting to anyone for a while. Romance for this fic takes time to me, and jumping in—especially with this pairing for this particular situation—it seems doubtful to throw them into that whole 'I love you instantly,' type of romance. Realism is everything to me. As I'm writing this, Xion will be out of character for the first half of the fic, with little tidbits of herself along the way.

I'm thankful that anyone's who is reading has taken the time to glance at this fic. The idea has been in my head for a while after I replayed KH2 (and saw the scene where Riku takes his blindfold off). Aside from some of the obvious KH and Crisis core references, I also threw in some 'blink and you miss it'/'read between the lines' type of references for both games, too—the last lines being one of them. ;)

I'd love to know your opinions about the concept and the overall writing, the good the bad and the ugly, so if you have time can you spare a review?