Here it is, at last! Chapter 2!!

Umm...Yeah. Rox is a coffeholic anorexic secretary. -shrugs- I don't have much else to say about this chapter. ...It seemed longer before it was typed. And, all together:Roxas isn't nearly as desperate or weird as everyone probably thinks he is right now. He just has...issues...which will be explained throughout the story later on. Please enjoy!!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters used in this fic

The irritating scream of an ancient alarm clock pulled the blonde from his short hours of rest. Slamming a curled fist down on the off button, he sat against the wall and rubbed his shadowed eyes. Drawing his legs up, Roxas Pierce looked around the dusty room like he did every morning; like he didn't know it; like he'd never known it. He wondered faintly, as he always did while dressing for work in the early hours, if the previous night had been real or not. Dismissing it for a later date, he shuffled to the kitchen.

The smell of coffee and burning wheat bread filled the stale morning air. Roxas paused long enough to glare at the very dead toast, before abandoning breakfast and toting his coffee (now in a styrofoam cup) to the living room. Yanking the tan blazer from its hanger, he stepped outside, locked the door with a click, and began the long trudge down to the bus stop.

He boarded the large red bus with faded paint sullenly, sat in the back, rejecting all conversation. He started to run a hand through his messy hair, but stopped with a jolt. The smile that came, instead of lighting his face with its presence, darkened it. He switched his thoughts casually to work, and left them there until the tall, shimmering office building came into view.

After giving the surly-looking bus driver who stank of smoke and alcohol a few silvery coins, Roxas leapt over the metal steps and jogged calmly toward the blinding skyscrapers. Pushing open the glass door and checking to make sure his tie was straight, he flashed the burly security guard his ID and headed for the stairs.

"Less chance of getting trapped in an awkward conversation," he told himself, warily eyeing the twin elevators as he began to ascend. Several minutes later, he was settling himself at the familiar desk in the familiar cubicle on the seventeenth floor of the huge building he'd worked at since he was nineteen.

He reveled in the few moments of comfortable, familiar semi-silence as his coworkers tapped lazily at keyboards or sipped coffee, not really awake or alert. Letting out a soft sigh and relaxing, just a bit, Roxas leaned back in his jet black swivel chair and closed his eyes.

At the other side of the long room, main lights were just clicking on. He could hear Demyx walk in, footsteps lightly dragging, but energetic all the same. Someone started up the shiny new coffee machine, renewing the warm scent already present, but fading. A tiny bird pecked gingerly at the large window to his left, and the corner of his mouth twitched. He hadn't felt so relaxed in years.

And then it happened.

--

"You'll be working with Marluxia and Larxene this week," the head of the company drawled in his deep, authoritive voice. Roxas stared at him. Perhaps he hadn't heard right. The gossippers?

"Sorry?"

Xemnas sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I want you to accompany Marluxia and Larxene on their exploits for the next five days, Pierce. Do not make me say it again." A long pause. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes...yes, sir."

"Good. Get out of my sight."

--

The long trek from the boss' quarters to his own familiar cubicle on the seventeenth floor, to the dreaded Fourteenth Department was absolute hell for Roxas. Dragging his feet with growing hopelessness, he stopped in front of the large silver door emblazoned with a golden 14. He swallowed hard, raised a trembling hand to knock twice. Footsteps could be heard shuffling behind the barrier, and for a crazed moment he considered running.

Just as he began to turn, the door swung open to reveal two pairs of eyes, heavy with confusion. For all of ten seconds he was paralyzed, and the three simply stared at eachother. But then, laughing gleefully, the twin residents of the Fourteenth Department grabbed the terrified young secretary and dragged him into the room's flowery-smelling depths. No man ever came out of there the same as when he entered.

Oh, what had he done to deserve this?