Special thanks again to my Beta reader Xanmas
Also warning ignore canon, canon in this story is gonna be beaten and bruised to all hell
Sora tossed around and rolled in bed until he gave up, sighed and decided to just get out of his bed. Yesterday's events were weird and confusing, not to mention worrying. "At best weird creatures exist and Roxas and I can summon giant Key weapons that can fight them. At worst Roxas and I are going insane."
Sora headed towards his brother's room, hoping to see Roxas. That way at least one of them would be keeping their sanity. When he opened Roxas's door however, he saw his brother hunching over his desk with a pencil in his hand moving. Roxas was drawing again, and suddenly Sora's worry increased.
Roxas can draw, amazingly, but he usually never does unless Sora asks him or in this case, when he's in need to calm down.
"Roxas?" Sora whispered, going closer towards his brother. Roxas glanced behind his shoulder at his brother before going back to drawing. "Morning, Sora," he whispered hoarsely.
"How long have you been awake?" Sora asked worried as he reached his brother's side. Roxas shrugged without looking at his brother.
"A few hours," Roxas answered. Sora noticed his brother's half layed eyes looked lifeless.
"Roxas…"
"Do you remember coming home?" Roxas suddenly asked.
"What?" Sora asked not expecting that question.
"Do you remember coming home? Cause I don't," he said turning to his brother, "All I remember is sunlight shining in my eye, and suddenly I'm bed." Roxas turned back to his sketch not meeting his brother's eyes. "I'm… We're losing all sense of reality, Sora."
"I know you're worried about what's been happening, I'm worried too," Sora said putting a hand on his chest, Roxas stopped sketching, but his eyes never moved. "But I know that it's gonna be okay. We have each other. Roxas," Sora turned his brother's chair towards him, and put his hand on Roxas' face, his thump caressing Roxas' cheek. "I'm not gonna let anything bad happen to you, I promise."
"Okay," Roxas said.
"Good. Now give me a big smile." Said Sora, giving his little brother one of his sunniest smiles.
"Sora," Roxas mock whined.
"Come on, give me that smile. After all, this ship…"
"Only runs on smiles," Roxas said closing his eyes and getting a small smile on his face, before taking a big breath and giving Sora his silliest smile he could muster, which made Sora burst laughing, Roxas joined him seconds later.
"How about this?" Sora suggested, and Roxas looked up at his brother's face. "Tonight and all day tomorrow, we'll make it about ourselves. Just play video games and watch movies and not get out of the house. We forget everything and everyone and just focus on ourselves. What do you say?" Roxas' smile became truly genuine and blinding and nodded enthusiastically, loving the idea. Sora's heart filled with glee at finally making his brother happy again.
"You know," Roxas started to suggest, "How about I draw you something? Whatever you want," he shrugged, not sure what Sora would answer.
Sora smiled happily, "Draw the four of us. You, me Kairi and Riku, back at the Island. You don't mind do you?"
Roxas smiled, "I'd love that."
Sora's eyes moved to the drawing on Roxas' desk. "So what were you working on?" he asked, and Roxas turned his attention back to his sketch.
"You know, I'm really not that sure," Roxas said, and raised the sketch up. Sora wrapped his hands around Roxas' shoulders and rested his chin on top of Roxas' head. "He looks like you, but he's not you. That's definitely not your smirk." Sora hummed in response.
"What?" Asked the blond boy.
"He's familiar," responded the brunet.
"Well yeah, that's our face," Roxas laughed.
"Not that." Sora removed his head from on top of his brother's. Roxas arched his neck backwards, and Sora looked down. "I mean there's something familiar about him, something, real. Kinda like the sketch of the one who isn't you."
"The one you called Light?"
"Aha," Sora said and nodded. Roxas hummed.
"Hey, it's 6:30. We can either go back to bed, or we can try to beat each other's high scorers in Mario Kart," said Sora wiggling his eyebrows playfully.
"You're on!" Roxas yelled before dashing out of his room to the living room, Sora tripping over himself to catch up with him.
Hours later, both boys recently saved the game and went to the kitchen to make themselves breakfast as usual, whatever Roxas wanted this time, since Sora couldn't decide. They ended up making a lot of pancakes and to add to all of that a cup of cocoa.
"We're gonna regret this," Roxas said with a laugh as he watched his brother chug the huge cup down.
"Why should I worry?" Sora yelled as he slammed his cub down, wearing a moustache of cocoa which made Roxas burst laughing so hard he fell to the ground.
"Why should I care~?" Roxas carried on, which made both of them burst laughing. The blond boy got up from the floor to drink his own cup.
They changed out of their pajamas into their usual outfits and ran out of the door slamming it behind them, before remembering they should probably lock it.
The two reached the back alley, but before they went in Sora reaches for a wooden stick on the ground. The older brother started waving it around.
"... Sora what are you doing?" Roxas asked.
"Trying to fight with the Keyblade again,"
"Sora that's a stick." Roxas paused for a second.
"What is it?" Sora asked with a raised eyebrow.
Roxas shrugged, "Something just felt familiar about what I just said."
"Huh," said Sora blinking. He glanced at the stick one more time before throwing it behind his shoulder. The stick landed on a still cloaked figure.
Sora and Roxas winced. "Sorry!" Sora yelled, but the figure simply turned around with no words.
"That was weird," Roxas commented, but shrugged it off and turned around to go inside the usual spot, he walked a few steps before noticing Sora not following, the blond glanced at his brother to see him still looking at the spot where the strange man was.
"Is something wrong, Sora?" He asked.
"He just seemed familiar, that's all. You didn't think so?"
Roxas shrugged shaking his head. Sora sighed and followed Roxas inside the alley.
The two of them entered the usual spot, to see Hayner, Pence and Olette eating ice cream. Their blond friend offered them both some, and the brothers smiled at him in thanks then went to sit down.
Minutes passed, and Pence said, "Do you guys think we'll always be together like this?" A bad feeling came over Roxas, but he ignored it and made sure not to show it. Sora gave him a look asking him if he was okay, his brother just smiled and nodded.
"I sure hope so," Olette answered back.
"Huh? Where did that come from?" Hayner asked.
"Oh well you know, just thinking out loud," Pence replied.
"Well I doubt we'll be together forever," said Hayner, and a strange buzz started in the back of Roxas' head. "But isn't that what growing up is all about? What's important isn't how often we see each other, but how often we think about each other. Right?"
Pence laughed, "Get that off a fortune cookie?"
"That's it, no more ice cream for you!" a few seconds past before Hayner started again, "Man, today's turning out to be such a drag."
"Maybe because of yesterday's memory thief." Olette suggested.
"Nuh-uh, you know what it is? We don't want summer vacation to be over, that's all." Hayner countered. Pence shrugged at the other four.
"So, how about this," Hayner began again,"We all go to the beach!" Sora's head snapped to Hayner and he got the sunniest smile on his face that the three new friends had seen yet, and started nodding enthusiastically. Roxas chuckled; his big brother could be really adorable sometimes.
"I guess we haven't gone to the beach this entire vacation, which is weird with Sora around," Roxas commented.
"Yeah!" Sora jumped up happily, "Let's just get on a train and go!"
"Maybe you two forgot, but we're broke," Roxas said amused.
"Maybe you forgot, I'm smart," Hayner contedred pointing at himself. With a smile Hayner ran off. Pence and Olette shrugged and followed the blond. Sora ran too catching up with the other three quickly. Roxas gave an amused sigh and followed his friends and older brother to whatever hairbrained schemes were in Hayner's head this time.
Roxas reached the other four who were looking at an ad for the struggle tournament. "Only two days to go," said Hayner, "The three of us will for sure make the finals. That was whoever wins the five of us split the prize."
"Okay, you're on," said Roxas.
"Yup, we're going to kick everyone's ass," said Sora excitedly
"You three are gonna clean up!" exclaimed Pence.
"Go get 'em!" Olette cheered.
Hayner got the idea of everyone doing odd jobs in order to get some munny and the five agreed, each going their separate ways to earn what they could.
After a long day of doing so, the five reunited at the front of the train station giving the munny to Olette in order for her to see what they had, and to put it in her bag.
"Nice work everyone. Added to what we had before, we now have... Tada!" Olette said, revealing the bag from behind her back, "7000 Munny."
"Sweet!" Hayner exclaimed, and Olette gave the bag to Roxas.
"Let's get tickets," she said, running towards the ticket booth, Pence following her immediately. Roxas smiled looking at the two, and Sora was ready to sprint in order to follow the two before Hayner spoke.
"We can't be together forever… so we better make the time we do have something to remember."
The brothers looked at Hayner in confusion and a bit of worry if they were honest.
"Huh?" Roxas finally asked confused.
Hayner rubbed his nose before playfully punching Roxas and exclaimed "Gotcha!" then running off before Roxas could say anything more, or Sora could react. The brothers looked at their running friend with more confusion.
"What was that about?" the blond asked Sora with a raised eyebrow, who shrugged with a little frown on his face.
Both of them started walking towards their friends before something hit Roxas from behind and made him fall. Sora went to help his brother up but froze, seeing the same cloaked figure grabbing his brother roughly and whispering something.
"What?" Roxas asked.
"Hey!" Sora shouted, "Let him go!" Both the cloaked figure and Roxas glanced at Sora, and in a second the man in black disappeared.
Sora ran to his brother's side, and examined where the man had grabbed his brother. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" Sora asked concerned.
"No, I'm fine. He just…"
"Hey! Sora, Roxas come on!" Hayner shouted cutting Roxas off.
"Tell you later," Roxas whispered, and Sora nodded.
"Five students," Hayner told the booth lady with a smile.
"Roxas, the munny," Pence called.
"Wait," Roxas exclaimed, and Sora looked at him with a frown as he patted himself looking for the munny. "No!"
"He took it," Roxas said. Sora opened his mouth before a look of outrage colored his features. Both him and Roxas started heading outside to look for the strange man.
"Where are you two going?" Olette asked.
"That guy must've took it when he grabbed me off the ground."
"What are you talking about?" asked Hayner.
"What?" Roxas asked confused, Sora giving Hayner a disbelieving look.
"There was no guy," their blond friend said.
"But he.." Roxas started saying, Sora frowning in confusion and a little anger.
"There wasn't? Really?" Roxas looked at his brother in confirmation only to see Sora both glaring at nothing in particular, which usually wasn't a good combination for whoever that look is directed at but at the moment Roxas will take solace that he wasn't going insane, at least not alone.
"There was someone," Sora whispered angrily looking at the ground his eyes narrow, and crossing his arms.
The train whistle blew, snapping both brothers from their thoughts.
"Oh boy..." sighed Pence in disappointment.
The brothers exchanged a meaningful look, "We will talk about this later," seemed to be said between them.
The five of them left the station disappointed, and in Sora and Roxas' case; pissed. They compensated however slightly by buying some seasalt ice cream and heading to the clock tower. The five of them spent it in relative silence with Sora and Roxas refusing to talk about it until they were alone.
The day ended and all of them heading their separate ways. When the two brothers entered their home, Roxas immediately punched a wall.
"What is going on?!" He yelled, "First, an actual word gets stolen, a thief that doesn't even look human, actual Keyblades, and now this! Invisible people. Invisible jerk people who steal your munny!" Roxas gave a tired sigh and sat on the couch, covering his eyes with his hand. "Are we going insane, Sora?" He whispered finally looking up at his brother, who came closer and kneeled in front of him.
"I don't know," he whispered with a shrug. "But both of us saw the exact same thing, and that has to mean something, right?" He asked with an encouraging smile as he put his hands on his little brother's shoulder. "Whatever the case, Roxas, you're not alone. Remember that. We're together in this, and that's all that matters."
Roxas gave his brother a smile and hugged him, grateful for having him in his life.
"Come on, I promised you a marathon tonight didn't I?" Sora said with big grin on his face.
Roxas laughed and both of them started making preparations for said marathon of movies and video games: making popcorn, getting drinks, and setting up mattresses to lie on, locking their door and sending a message to their friends of their plans, in which the three of them told the brothers to enjoy themselves. Roxas and Sora told them that they were grateful for letting them both do this. .
While watching one of their favorite superhero movies, Roxas giving his sarcastic commentary as usual, he turned to his brother.
"You know, it really vexes me when the hero just tells the bad guy that their loved ones wouldn't want them to do this. Like nah, nu-uh. If I was killed in some collateral damage bullshit thing, I'm giving you a 52 steps list. You avenge me like the best brother that you are!"
Sora laughed. "Okay, you make the plan, and I promise to execute it."
"You got it," Roxas said with a laugh, he high fived his other as they continued to watch the movie.
As promised the two spent the night playing all the games that they had at home, and rewatching their favorite movies. Roxas sketching the picture Sora asked for that morning while watching some boring scenes in a few movies.
Sora had tried peeking at his brother's work several times but Roxas kept running away from him and hiding his sketch, even jumping around on the furniture after the other.
The two spend the entire night and into the next day just goofing off, until both of them just passed out playing Mario Kart 8.
The two finally woke up at twilight. They sent their friends a message that they were feeling better now and that they'd definitely meet them the next day. They cleaned the place, putting everything back where it belonged and throwing out the trash, which admittedly was a lot of trash for two people but then again they had spent almost two days playing, so they didn't complain much.
The two brothers finished by finally taking a nap so that they would be able to wake up in the morning to meet their friends.