That evening, Roxas made his way to the Clock Tower to meet Axel and Xion. He stopped abruptly at hearing Isa's voice. Roxas, despite his better judgement, stayed in the shadows listening intently to the conversation. He felt the sun on his back and hoped the light would continue to dance around him, providing cover.

"So what kind of training is Yen Sid putting you through exactly?" Isa was asking."You've been gone for months and you have to go back?" Roxas couldn't help but feel some solidarity with Isa and it annoyed him to no end. The last person he wanted to empathize with was Isa.

"Just Keyblade training," Axel replied lazily. Roxas's eyes narrowed at the answer and he wondered if Isa detected the discomfort in Axel's tone. He was lying.

"You're not being honest with me," Isa replied in an even tone. "What does Yen Sid have you doing for months on end? If it was truly just Keyblade training, he could just put you in that timeless place, right?" Ah, straight to the heart of the matter. Roxas felt a surge of appreciation at Isa's perceptiveness, but more irritation rose up within him as well. He just couldn't truly make himself like Isa no matter how hard he tried and he knew that was the jealousy coloring his judgement of the man.

Axel stretched his arms out over his head and shrugged at Isa's words. "Hey, I'm just doing what Yen Sid wants me to do. Who am I to question his methods? If he wants me to Keyblade train a different way, I'm going to do it."

Isa was silent for a moment before murmuring softly, so softly Roxas almost didn't hear him, "You always question methods, Lea." He turned to look Axel in the eyes. Roxas backpedaled further into the shadows, narrowly escaping Isa's scope of vision. "It's not like you to just do something because someone said so."

"Isn't it, though?" Axel asked with a frown, bringing his arms back down to his side. "Didn't I do what you always asked?"

"That's different," Isa said with a sigh.

Roxas nearly jumped a foot in the air when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He whipped his head around so fast, heart thumping wildly in his chest, sure that Axel or Isa had caught him. Instead, Xion stared at him, a quizzical and disapproving look on her face. She pointed at the ice creams Roxas had been holding loosely in his hands. They were melting and dripping quietly on to the clock tower, splotches of the bright blue obvious against the pastels of the tower. She noted with gratitude he had managed to get four after she'd texted him that Isa might show. Didn't want this to get any more awkward with just three ice creams.

Roxas went to open his mouth to try to explain what he was doing, why he was just creeping on their two friends instead of joining them, but Xion waved his words away and swiftly took two of the ice creams from him. She shot him a brilliant, reassuring smile and walked confidently towards their friends. "Axel! Isa!" She greeted them while waving the ice creams at them, Roxas following behind, trepidation in his bones; was she going to tell them what he'd been up to. He'd melt right back into nonexistence on that tower ledge if she did.

"Xion!" Axel responded right away, returning her bright smile with one of his own. He spotted Roxas trailing behind her. "Roxas!" Roxas could have sworn his friend's smile was even brighter than it had been a second before, but it also could have been his mind playing tricks on him. Maybe it was just Roxas hoping he had more of an effect on Axel than Xion.

Isa was quieter in his greeting than Axel. "Good evening, Xion, Roxas." He nodded to each of them as he spoke their names. Xion held out an ice cream for each of them.

"Sorry, we got a little distracted so they melted some," she explained sheepishly as they took the ice cream. Roxas handed Xion the extra one he held in his hand and was about to take his seat in his usual spot between Axel and Xion but the next words from Axel left him too stunned to respond or move.

"Oh, were you kids fooling around before you got up here?" He teased them, completely unaware of how everyone tensed around him at his question. Isa's eyes shot straight over to Roxas to gauge the reaction. Axel went on, "Buy the ice cream afterwards next time, okay?"

Xion felt herself go a bit red at what Axel was hinting at and her stomach dropped a little. She was sure Roxas must feel like he'd just been punched in the gut. He stood rigidly where he was, blinking hard, unsure what to say in response. Xion let out a nervous laugh, hoping it didn't sound too fake even though it was the most forced laugh she'd ever let out in her short life. "No, Axel, we weren't flirting," she tried to correct him as Roxas finally sat down stiffly. "There is someone I flirt with and it's not Roxas."

Axel playfully punched Roxas on the shoulder. "Aw, man, Roxas, gotta step up your game." Roxas only shook his head and shrugged Axel's hand off, taking a bite of his ice cream, trying to ignore how bitter it tasted in his mouth. Isa finally decided to take pity on the younger duo and change the subject since Axel was way past the point of tactless. Axel really had no clue.

"Did Little Chef stop to ask you about the ice cream?" Isa asked, giving Roxas and Xion a way out of the hole they were digging themselves deeper in. Roxas gave a short nod and relief was on every feature of Xion's face at Isa's words. She nodded gratefully at him.

"Yes, we were stopped about the ice cream." They all knew Little Chef had been working to duplicate the recipe as a dessert at the bistro since it was so popular. They had offered to buy the ice cream shop out a couple times but the owner didn't want to sell. Isa himself suspected the ice cream shop might be influenced by Maleficent so he was hoping Little Chef would be able to create a recipe that duplicated or even improved upon the ice cream. Xion finished off her ice cream. It'd been a quick treat since so much of it had melted. "What have you two been up to?"

"We were just talking about Lea's Keyblade training," Isa filled them in. Roxas's hands gripped the ice cream stick a little tighter at the name, Lea. He knew that was Axel's given name, but he hated it when Isa said it. It didn't bother him when Ven said it, but it irked Roxas to hear Isa say it and he knew it was that jealousy showing it's colors again.

"How is that going?" Xion inquired, full attention on Axel. Axel rolled his shoulders again and Roxas saw that flash of discomfort in his posture, his tone slightly defensive when he responded to Xion.

"It's going fine. Just a lot to learn," Axel tried to keep his voice as casual as possible but they all knew he didn't want to talk any more about it.

"Well, if you need help training, we're here!" Xion assured him, indicating her and Roxas. "I'm always up for a spar and I'm sure Roxas is, too."

Axel's eyes brightened at this. "Oh, cute! I wouldn't want to interrupt your sparring dates!"

Roxas stood up suddenly, losing his grip on his ice cream stick and it fell unceremoniously down the tower. Xion bit her lip. Axel looked up at Roxas in surprise. "Are you okay? You just lost your stick. What if it was a winner?"

Roxas took a sharp intake of breath and shook his head. "I doubt it," he muttered. "I have to go. I just remembered something."

"Oh!" Axel looked around, taking in the setting sun. "Hope everything's okay. Do you need help?"

Roxas shook his head. "It's fine." With that, he left the group. Axel shot Xion a questioning look.

"Trouble in paradise?"

Isa shook his head at Axel's words. Xion's eyes widened and her mouth dropped. "Axel!" she exclaimed. "We're not seeing each other, dating each other, or any of that. It's nothing like that."

"But you guys look so cute together!"

"Oh, dear god," Isa murmured as Xion also stood, looking at a loss for words.

"I, uh, I. Naminé texted me. I actually need to go and see her and Riku. They had a couple questions about Sora." Axel perked up at this, eyes turning serious at Sora's mention.

"What kind of questions? Are they getting somewhere with their search?"

Xion wanted to kick herself. She really was just jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. She'd just made it all up on the spot and heaven help her if Axel really asked Naminé and Riku about this.

Isa rescued her again. "They're just asking general questions. They've been asking everyone." It was only partially a lie. The two and Kairi had been asking everyone a lot of questions. The group was in town for the week. Isa just knew that Xion was lying to get away.

"Okay, catch ya later then," Axel gave her a wave and watched as she walked off. He looked over at Isa, a bit puzzled. "Do you think she and Roxas were just trying to get away? They really would make an adorable couple."

Isa hung his head. "Oh, poor fool."

Axel had enough grace to be offended. "Who's a fool?"

"At this point, any one of you three. I'm not sure who the poorest fool even is, but you're all poor fools."

Axel rolled his eyes and tsked with his tongue. "Well, takes one to know one."

Isa folded his hands in his lap and a sadness flickered in his eyes, making Axel immediately regret his words. Isa nodded. "Yes. Maybe I'm the poorest fool of them all."

"Isa…"

o~0~o

"Roxas!" Xion cried out in relief as she found Roxas by the old mansion. She had been searching the last hour for him. He hadn't responded to any of her gummiphone texts and she was worried. He was sitting just outside the grounds, perched up in a tree. She had honestly started to fret he might just vanish into the night, never to be seen again.

Roxas sighed and dropped from the tree, landing gracefully next to her. "Xion, I really hope you didn't leave right after me."

Xion grinned sheepishly. "Well, we are basically a power couple in Axel's book so it's not like it matters. I didn't leave right after you, though. I tried to stay, but it just got even more awkward. I told them I had to see Riku and Naminé." She let loose a sign of her own. "I guess I should go visit them so I'm not a complete liar." A few moments of silence lapsed between them. "I'm sorry," she offered meekly, unsure what else to say.

"Not your fault," Roxas was quick to assure her. Xion knew that, but she still couldn't help but feel badly about it all. He leaned up against the tree and stared up at the stars. "I just- I gotta find a way to make him see me differently. For him to realize that…"

"To realize what?" Xion prompted, wondering if Roxas would admit what she suspected. That you're in love with him?

Roxas shrugged his shoulders, still having trouble splicing through all his emotions despite the last year and a half of adjusting to them. Sometimes, he wondered if he'd picked up on too many of Sora's feeling from that merger he'd forced. Other times, he wondered if he'd accidentally picked stuff up from Ventus and, still, other times, he wondered if he shared more feelings with Xion than he cared to.

He just wanted to be his own person, outside of everyone else he had these intense connections with.

Ven. He straightened suddenly. "I think I'm going to visit the Land of Departure."

Xion frowned. "You want to visit Ven, Aqua, and Terra?" She was surprised. Even though they'd made a few trips, usually the other three visited everyone at Twilight Town or Destiny Islands. Plus, while Roxas was always willing to visit with them, she knew he still felt a bit odd around Ventus. The first couple meetings with them had been extremely awkward especially on Ventus's part. Ven was already naive and a little too innocent for his own good so he was confused how Roxas had taken on his appearance.

It was an understandable thing to be concerned about, but Roxas had been understandably defensive. However, Ven also liked to get along with everyone so he quickly learned to roll with the punches and begged Roxas to switch places with him a couple times to trick Aqua and Terra. It was cute how they acted as Ven's parents despite not being old enough to have a child his age. After being encouraged by Xion and Axel, Roxas had agreed and had actually had quite a bit of fun switching with Ventus. They had even done it a couple times with Xion not even realizing. She'd been a bit jealous that Axel had known right away.

"Yes," Roxas confirmed with a nod of his head. "Maybe I can talk this out with Ven, too. See what he says. Also," Roxas frowned, mulling over how exactly to say the next part, "Axel said he hasn't aged since we last saw him." A part of Roxas wondered if Axel saw the two together, if it would change anything. Not to mention, Roxas was growing more concerned about Ven. A visit would help settle some of the worry.

"That was nearly five months ago!" Xion exclaimed. "He still hasn't aged any?" There had been a few awkward moments at Destiny Islands beach when they'd all met up and everyone had realized Ventus still hadn't aged. Aqua and Terra were protective and defensive of him and Xion suspected that's why they had been visiting less and less over the last several months. Ventus was creating too many questions among everyone. Aqua blamed herself, but Xion had seen sleeping spells before and it didn't seem like this should really be a side effect. At least, not after the person had awoken. "Can I come to?" She always enjoyed learning from Aqua and visiting with Terra and Ventus. Ven was like Sora in some ways, much more than she or Roxas and Xion appreciated the familiarity that Ven provided.

"Might as well."