A/N: Oh what's up hella goddamn long overdue unedited update, how you doin' ?

Disclaimer: All Kingdom Hearts & Final Fantasy characters used belong to their respective owners. The song is also not mine. Everything else is, though.

Depth Of Sky
KAIRI: A Little Vanity
(The Hush Sound — "Molasses")

"Why are you meeting him?"

Kairi pulls her hands through her hair, magic pressing against the tips of her fingers. Auburn fades to black, hair sliding up past her shoulders, to her chin, shorter than before. "He has a right to know, Riku."

"So does Xion," he snaps, but it's not angry, just confused. "So does Ven. So did Vanitas. But we don't tell them anything, do we?"

"Roxas is different," she says simply. The faint green tinge to her skin disappears; a truck's horn blares up on the highway. Riku snorts.

"You're just making this personal because he saw you the day we took Sora. Because of who he was." He looks at her patiently while they wait for the bridge to stop shaking. "You can't make this personal, Kairi."

She scowls. "Why not?"

"There can only be one on each side, remember?" Water slides down the slope of his nose. "Those are the rules."

She stands slowly, brushes the dirt off her jeans. Her hip cocks. "What if I said I'm not playing the game anymore?"

Riku blinks, like he hasn't considered that. "Ansem would —"

"Would what? Kill me?" She flicks her now-dark bangs back. "He's more likely to get rid of Ven and let Roxas come home, you know that."

"Is that what you want?" She hates how he sounds so disappointed, how low his voice is. She shakes her head.

"God, no." Fingers curl against her sides. "I just want everyone to be exactly where they belong. Where they really belong."

"He won't let you."

Kairi smiles, gently. "I have to try."

Riku's hand drags over his face. "You always do."

The upper floor of the shop is a mess — the ends of the curtains are singed, rows of books charred. A painting on the wall has been burnt from the middle outwards. There's a pile of ashes sitting in the middle of a desk near the back window.

Kairi steps out of the bookshelf, skin tingling and shifting back into place, and rolls her eyes. "Axel, you're stupid."

The ashes sweep upwards and swirl together until a mess of awkward, stilted angles sit against the desk. Axel's lips curl. "What's up, Princess?" He clicks his fingers, elbow snapping out. "Nice hair, by the way."

"Thanks," she deadpans. "I'm waiting for someone. Why are you here?" She gestures to the chair still smouldering next to her. "Besides the obvious."

"Conveniently enough, I'm also waiting for someone." His expression twists in a way that is all too familiar, right down to the slightly exposed tip of his canine. "Does Xion know you've been stealing her face yet?"

Kairi fingers the short hairs that brush the nape of her neck. "I don't plan on telling her anytime soon. Do you?"

He shrugs, sneer fading. "Roxas is on his way."

"Oh." She tilts her head. "What do you want, Axel?"

He kicks off the desk and saunters towards her, chin tipping upwards. "You're not the only one who wants him back, you know." The pad of his thumb slides against the inside of her wrist. "Just because he went and forgot doesn't mean that I have."

Kairi chews the inside of her cheek. "We have to get Ven back to the iron side."

"I thought you weren't playing the game anymore?"

She jerks, teeth clamping together, and tastes metal. His grip tightens. "How did you —"

He shushes her and points to the doorway. "Blondie's here." Swearing drifts up from the floor below. "Kid always did know how to make an entrance."

Her tongue presses against the scrape near her molars. She turns away, wrist sliding out of his hand easily. "Riku's afraid Ansem will find out."

"And you?" His breath fans across the shell of her ear. Spider-leg fingers splay over her shoulder. He's so close, her back feels warm. When she thinks about it, he had always been that close. "Are you scared, babe?"

She shrugs him off. "Is personal space such a foreign concept to you?" A pause, then, "and I think we should be cautious about this."

"Since when," Axel mutters, and she can sense his hands hovering over her, "have you ever been cautious?"

Kairi glances away. "Since now."

She makes it into the hallway before she hears him. "I didn't realize 'now' and 'Roxas' were synonymous."

She doesn't look back.

The first thing Roxas says when he sees her is, "What the hell. Your hair."

She blinks, hard. "Yeah?"

He puts down the doll he's been eyeing with vague disinterest and looks confused. "Uh, never mind. Where's Sora?"

"You'll see him soon enough, I promise." She presses her tongue against the roof of her mouth at the rush of pain flickering across her skin. The window near the front door is wide open and all she smells past the damp pavement is iron, hot and burning. "How's Naminé doing?"

He doesn't quite meet her eyes, but gazes off in her general direction instead. "She's… fine. She won't stop drawing you." His eyes flit to her hair briefly. "Well, the you from before."

She lets the glamour fall long enough for the red to show completely. Through her bang she sees his surprise. "I'm still me. It's just a disguise."

Roxas frowns, crosses his arms. "Why do you need a disguise?"

"So I don't stand out."

"Why would you stand out? You look like everyone else." He cocks his head. He only ever does that when he's lying. "No one would notice you."

"You did," she points out. He looks at her, deadpan.

"You had wings," he snorts, "of course I noticed."

"Humans aren't supposed to be able to see them," she says purposely, and tries to gauge his reaction. She has to get him to remember — she can't play with his memories, not the way Nam — "You noticed me for another reason, then saw my wings. I can't risk anyone else seeing me the way you did, so this is the face I use to blend in more."

He's quiet for a while, fingers tapping against his jeans as he frowns at a grandfather clock. Then, "everything about you is familiar."

Kairi's lips twitch. "Really?"

His scowl deepens at the edges. He watches her play with her hair with his blank blue eyes. "I know you somehow, don't I?"

"Well—"

"That's cold, brat," Axel cuts in, suddenly at Roxas' shoulder. Kairi's been wondering when he'd decide show up. "You remember her, but not your best friend?" His sneer is laced with something like hurt. "How rude."

Kairi's lips thin and Roxas, who'd barely flinched at his sudden appearance, glares. "What the hell, Axel."

Axel beams. "You remember my name."

"Well, no shit," Roxas grunts. "You told me it a few hours ago. Dumbass."

They all pause. Roxas' eyes widen and Axel folds his arms smugly. Kairi twists her hands in her skirt; what if it's all too soon for him? Or too late. "Um."

"What," Roxas goes, then stops, like he doesn't know what he's trying to say. She watches the muscles in his throat work. "Why did that feel—"

"Natural?" Axel suggests, fangs curling over his lower lip. "Take a wild guess, kid."

Roxas is silent, eyebrows furrowing. Kairi always knew Axel would be better at kick starting all the things forgotten in him, but didn't think he'd be able to do it so easily; Roxas' mind had always been more complicated. "That day you saw me, the day Sora vanished, why did you notice me?"

Roxas' head snaps towards her. "You were just standing in the middle of the street," he explains. She hears him grind his teeth. "I just… saw you."

"You were looking for her," Axel goes, all shifty little habits he can't control — he's snapping his fingers now. "You felt something familiar — someone familiar, and you found her."

Roxas stares at her, tips his head towards Axel, glances back. "What are you—"

"Remember," Axel urges, taking the lead. "Naminé draws Princess here over and over, has been drawing her for years, but says she's only seen her twice, right?" Roxas nods, and Axel, who shouldn't know anything about Naminé at all, grins his wide, sinister grin. "They look alike for a reason, Rox."

She can see the wheels start turning, and maybe it's the nickname, or maybe it's just the words, but Roxas is relaxing. She can feel the bit of magic in him he'd had to hide slowly crawling its way back up under his skin. "Humans can't see fey wings," she goes, repeating old lines. They're running him in circles for a reason. If they can just get him back —

Axel leans in close, and taps Roxas' forehead. "Got it memorized?"

That's the catalyst.

"Well," Roxas steps back, expression falling flat, and inhales hard. His lips curl and his chest hitches, and she thinks, hopes, prays he's starting to smell the iron again like they do. "Well, shit."

"Yeah," Axel drawls, the sharp shadow of his jaw working back and forth. "That just about covers it, I think."

Roxas starts, and Kairi moves forward, desperately waiting for him to realize who he used to be, who they used to be, what they'd almost been, and for just a moment he looks at them like had once before, before he'd decided to leave.

(like he —)

The back door crashes and Axel runs his bony hands through his hair with a laugh tugging up at his lips because he'd seen it too, seen that look and Kairi—

(— needed them)

Kairi smiles.

She tells Sora.

"So he really doesn't remember anything?" Sora swings his legs over the edge of the library roof and perches his head on his hands. He doesn't get serious very often, but when it happens, people always listen. "Do you think you two managed to get through?"

Kairi sighs into the crook of her elbow. The plaster is cool against her stomach. "I think we might've scared him more than anything else."

Sora laughs. "Roxas doesn't get scared, you know that."

"The Roxas we knew didn't get scared, you mean," she mumbles, and gazes at the sunrise from under her eyelashes. "He was so… blank when we found him. So empty."

"I was pretty blah when you found me," Sora says, watching her from the corner of his eye. "These things happen gradually, you know."

"You remembered." She rolls onto her side and stares right at him. "You knew all along who and what you were; you just played the part until…"

"Until Vanitas died," he finishes quietly. "His parents…"

"Always had a feeling," she says softly. He shifts towards her, eyes questioning. "Parents always know, even if they don't realize it. They were more devastated those couple of days he went missing, when Ansem had us take him, then when you disappeared."

She almost regrets telling him, but he doesn't look sad, just faintly nostalgic and maybe a little content. "I'm glad," he tells her, with an open honesty only he knew how to convey. "I never wanted to hurt them."

"None of us did." She fiddles with her charm bracelet. He sits patiently, not watching her, but waiting. "We have to give them back."

He turns to her, the left side of his mouth kicking upward. "I'm glad you're finally starting to see things my way."

"… What?"

He leans back on his elbows and straightens his legs out in front of him. "I've been trying to figure out a way to get Xion and Ven out of here for years." He shakes his head. "We have to trade them back."

"They won't let us," Kairi breathes, "not without Ansem's permission, and you know he won't want to lose his two most prized test subjects."

Sora's eyebrows quirk and he grins, wide and mischievous. "So what's the one and only option we have left?"

Kairi stares, swallows, squeezes her eyes tight. "We find a new court King."

Sora touches her hand, fingers curling around her own gently. "You don't have to do this," he says solemnly. "You've done so much already, Kairi, and he raised you. It's okay if you can't keep going."

"I don't," she loses her thought and tries for a better one. "Sora, it's Roxas."

"You know," Sora muses, watching the sky turn a dusky shade of orange, "Axel told me you'd say something a little like that."

"Because he'd say the exact same thing."

Sora's expression turns sheepish. "I… I always did remember, you're right," he cracks his neck, "But I was happy there, on that side. The iron didn't hurt, and Roxas was there. There was no magic, no pretending. Just living." His eyes close. "It was enough."

Kairi bites her lip. "I'm sorry I took that from you."

"Don't be." He touches her palm. "It wasn't worth the price we paid. Roxas chose to leave because he thought he needed to. I left because I had to. But Xion and Ven never had that kind of choice." She sits up and sits on the edge of the roof next to him, hip to hip, and the resolve in his voice is firm. "I'm exactly where I need to be," he murmurs, "and so should everyone else."

"Axel wants to go find him tomorrow." There's a scrape on her shin she doesn't remember getting. "Try and see if he's remembered anything. We can't bring him back until Gran — Ansem's gone, though."

"Me and Riku will handle that." She looks at him, wide eyed. "Riku already has an idea of where to look."

She gawks. "How? I only just told him about the whole thing today!"

"You know how he is," Sora says loftily. "Persistent and awesome to the core."

She giggles. "Alright. We'll stick with Roxas, then. See if we can get any of his powers back." She pauses, then, "he… he knows Naminé."

Sora tenses slightly. "Xion will want to meet her, I think."

"And you?" She cocks her head. He groans. "You can both see her."

"Assuming Xion doesn't try and kill us for keeping this from her," he grumbles. "Ven, too."

"I could take 'em," she says sweetly, and grins at the elbow he digs into her ribs. "So, I'm feeling very optimistic right now."

"Riku tells me I'm contagious," Sora says flatly, lips trembling. Kairi nods, and thinks of how the tone of his voice is so much like how Roxas sounds. But Sora is pretending, and Roxas wasn't even aware part of him was a lie to begin with. "I think we can do this."

"Axel will complain if we don't," she gripes. The back of her shoe scrapes the wall. "Forever."

"Got it memorized?" Sora goes, sounding pained, and she snickers into his shoulder. "We'll keep in touch how we always do, alright?"

"Alright," she says, and wonders if Roxas will one day remember that, too. Sora nudges her and raises his eyebrows.

"You think about him a lot more than anyone realizes, don't you?"

She blinks a few times, and the sun finally rises past the hill, pink and orange and bright. "Yes," she says truthfully, feeling very much like she did once back when she was sixteen - really sixteen, not the glamoured sixteen she had to be until things started to break - "yes, I really do."

She wonders how Roxas will feel once she tells him he hasn't been seventeen for a very long time.