SlippingSanity : Here's the next chapter! Oh, and I've decided to change the summary. I did not think that it was working with the way this story is going...

Disclaimer : I do not own. Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix and to those who contributed to its creation...

Chapter One

There were a lot of things in the world the he did not understand though he tried his best to do so. Why did he and his mother have to move from Twilight Town to Destiny Island? Why did they trade in their comfortable home for an apartment so far out of the way that he had to get a ride of catch the bus to school? Why did some of the kids at his school tease him for being the new kid? Why did some of the more immature (or were they mature but stupid?) students tease him because someone found out his father was an absent figure in his life? He had spent many recesses sitting on a bench alone thinking his self to tears trying to figure it out. When some kids stopped and asked what was wrong he ignored them in favor of thinking, and when other kids laughed at him for crying he would think about it as he punched anyone in his warpath.

He would sit, scrapes on his knuckles and body drumming with pain as his teacher and principal spoke in loud voices to him, and wonder. When they would ask him "Roxas, why did you fight those kids? Why didn't you come get an adult?" The addressed boy would reply without blinking "I don't know. I. just. don't. know."

His mother, his beautiful, wonderful mother sat down on the couch next to him and played with a lock of his hair that was the same blond as hers. In her most soothing voice said to him, "Sora."

Roxas' eyebrows furrowed and his lips pursed. "Sora? That boy in the other room?" Roxas looked his mother in the eye and met her assuring stare with a questionable one. The sounds from the television faded into white noise as the young blond found himself once more with something he did not understand. Why was he like that? Why didn't he get it? "What does he have to do with anything, mommy?"

"Roxas, honey," she slowly ran her fingers through his hair and smiled at him. It was still beautiful to him even if her smile never reached her eyes the way he had witnessed did with other mothers, "that little boy has to do with everything. Your life," she poked his forehead and giggled when she made him smile. "my life," she pointed to herself and slowly the giggling ended and smile began to fall, "and your father's life." A sad expression made its way across her face and made her beautiful smile so sad it hurt her son to look at. The tips of her eyebrows were pointed to her hairline but they slid down at an angle. Her eyes were moist and vulnerable; her cherry red lips were parted and trembled.

Standing on the sofa, Roxas reached out and hugged his mother close and patted the back of her head. His little fingers lifted and flattened shimmering strands of gold, his dry white shirt now cold from the dampening wetness strained from his mother's eyes. Long ago but resolve grown anew, Roxas thought that hated to see his mother this way. He hated hearing the sobs she smothered into his little chest and the way she clung to him so desperately.

His father…his mother loved him so much but he had left her and him alone.

His mother may want him back, but Roxas wanted his father gone from their lives forever.

And what the little boy in the other room had to do with any of this? Did he know Roxas's father or something?

Whispering any of the comforting words into his mother's ear that he knew and ignoring his thoughts, Roxas closed his eyes slowly and rocked them back and forth. She wailed and pleaded to nothing for something. She wanted him back; Roxas knew his mother was saying through crying. She did not want to be abandoned.

"It's alright, mommy. I'm here, so don't cry." Roxas smiled fondly at the top of his mother's head. Tears leaked from his eyes and fell into her curly hair. "I won't leave you."

She let out a watery chuckle. "I know. You're a good boy." she whispered as she released his waist and gave him soft pats on the back. "You're such a good boy…" She deflated, pulling her son down to sit on the couch. Resting her head on his shoulder she smiled soft, but not sad. "Thank you so much, Roxas."

Xoxoxox

"Sora…Sora…" The mother shook in her chair and her feet bounced anxiously beneath the table. She sat at the kitchen table with tears pouring from her red eyes. The saltine moisture fell from her face and splashed down on a picture of her little baby boy. "Sora…Sora…" she repeated, "He's g-gone. M-My precious baby boy…gone." She could not believe it. Not Sora, not the little boy smiling up at her from the tear stained photo, not him… "He-He was there one mi-minute, and then…and then…"

She could hear her husband screaming curses into the telephone demanding that something be done because, dammit, that was his son out there! and recalled his arrival at the mall. He had been frantic, his eyes darting back and forth between his shaking and sobbing wife collapsed on the floor, security and officials, and at the monitors hoping against hope that he would spot their child. He had screamed in fear, his voice worried when he demanded to know how this could have happened. It was rage that sent him punching a security guard in the jaw when they explained that kids tend to run about and get lost. Misery made the punch strong enough to strike, weak enough to be dangerous.

Officials restrained him to a chair and forbade him to stand for a while, at least until he calmed down enough to listen. The said that they would do everything in their power to find Sora- bring him home safely.

A mother could only hope…

Whatever was said on the phone did not help calm her or his nerves but she felt a little hopeful when he began to speak gruffly yet civilly. Hopefully, something was being done- something had to be! Her son was missing! Her son…he was…

"Sora…" she repeated as the tears that had slowed sprung forth anew. He was gone. He was gone. "Sora!" She fell limp onto the table, catching the green tablecloth a vice grip as she screamed and sobbed.

Xoxoxox

'Wh-Where am I?' Sora inhaled and exhaled deeply through his nose. He was still tied up around his wrists and his ankles tightly, his wrists behind his back. They refused to loosen even when he pulled at them with as much strength as his confused and terrified body could muster. He couldn't scream for help or demand to know where he was- his mouth was still covered. The worst was that he could not see. His eyes still had the blindfold over them, preventing him from looking at anything but the light that shown through the dark cloth. He was cold and hungry and, though he could not physically see it he could feel it. The spaces around him felt colder than the draft and darker than the blindfold over his eyes.

He was alone. Again.

Sora whimpered as he pulled his knees to his chest. He was all alone again; just like he was the time he hid at his father's workplace.

"C'mon Sora! You're it!"

"What? I-I don't wanna…"

"What? Fine, just don't cry! Geez…"

"I-I'm not crying!"

"Sure… Anyway, you go hide. I'm it, okay? You got till the count of ten. One…Two…Three…"

Sora ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, praying that he would not fall down and scrape his knee again. He had had enough owchies his mother had told him.

"I'll hide in here!" Sora giggled in a whisper, tucking himself in a well hidden space between a paper covered desk and a large pile of boxes.

He was not supposed to be in the room, he knew, but he figured that it would be the last place anyone would look for him. He did not know how right he was until the security door slammed shut and locked automatically. It had been minutes that seemed like hours before his father ran in, pulling the hysterically crying child in his arms and bouncing him up and down in an attempt to calm him.

'I don't wanna be here. I don't wanna be here!' Sora chanted in his mind, his covered eyes clenched tightly and body rocking back and forth. 'Help me, mommy! Daddy! Please! He cried hysterically, begging desperately for just one person to be near. Even that crazy lady would have made him feel at ease. But no one came. They had left all alone.

Behind the gag, Sora opened his mouth and, muffled though it was, screamed as loud as he could for someone- anyone to help him.

Xoxoxox

Roxas jumped, his eyes flying open wide at the sudden noise. He and his mother had fallen asleep on the couch again with the television on mute, so when he gently lifted her warm arms from around his shoulders and rolled to the floor he was not surprised. The sound- the scream he had heard, however, was the biggest surprise.

'What is that kid doing in there?' Roxas shook his head and looked back at his mother. She was still asleep, he observed with a smile. She must have been exhausted.

Making his way to the door along the hallway that was closest to the living room, Roxas glared. The stupid crybaby was going to wake up his mother with all his screaming. Roxas wanted to yell at him to shut up, but his mother had two padlocks on the door and had made Roxas promise not to try and go in. The boy on the other side of the door was bad, and if Roxas went inside without her permission then he was bad too.

Roxas promised to be good, which was why he only leaned against the door. He could not make out the words the boy behind the door cried, but he felt as though he recognized the source of his loud choking sobs. Sora was in the room all alone bound, gagged, and blindfolded. His mother told him that Sora was secured for their protection because Sora was a very, very, very bad boy and could make them bad too.

Roxas begged her to do more. Get some chains or something- anything! because he understood that his mommy did not like bad children. He did not want her to hate him, and he really did not want her to punish him. It looked like it hurt. His mother did not tell him what she did, but when she took a bad man into the locked room she would come out with bad hair and red on her clothes. He did not know what was going on, only having known his mother to have punished bad men twice, be he knew that he did not want to be punished like the others. He was a good boy.

She ruffled his soft hair and laughed telling him it would be alright. As long as Roxas stayed a good boy, she would keep Sora from making him bad. Sora just had to stay behind the door.

'But…' Roxas shuffled his feet on the carpet. Sora was crying. The two bad men his mother brought in didn't cry- the yelled at her and screamed bad words, but not once did they cry. And the way Sora was crying, 'It sounds just like me.' Roxas's expression became troubled. Did Sora get lonely like he did? Was he crying because he was all alone in the room? Did he feel abandoned and scared like Roxas did whenever he sat in a corner by himself at lunch? Was that the feeling?

Roxas did not like the thought. It hurt too much to know that he was no better than the stupid kids at school that spread rumors about him. He scowled and shook his head. He could never allow himself to be like them. They were mean to him for no reason ever since they first laid eyes on him. A year later and they still treated him the way they had from the start. It was disgusting, annoying, and far too old.

Checking to make sure his mother was still fast asleep on the couch, Roxas made his decision. He would not be like the other kids in his class. He would be better than them, even if he had to be nice to someone as bad as Sora.

"Hey!" Roxas hit his fist on the locked door once. Immediately the sobbing on the other side silenced. "I know you can't talk so shut up and listen." He was tense as he spoke, praying that his mother did not wake up and get mad at him. He did not want to be labeled as a bad boy in his mother's eyes. That would hurt worse than the loneliness he felt at school.

"I can't come in there with you- no one can." The boy in the room let out a loud whimper and Roxas sighed. It hurt to hear the sound. It was so similar to his. "But, Sora, I'm here outside the door. You probably can't see it, but you should be close. Mommy set you down below the wall with the vent, so you should be right across from the door. I'm over here…" Roxas finished softly as his gaze fell to the floor. He gave a startled yelp when he heard the sounds of shuffling and grunts followed by a dull thud of someone hitting the door. Did Sora really make his way to the door just because he was there?

Two knocks on the wood confirmed it. Roxas gave a small smile and slid along the door until he sat on the floor. "I'm right here, Sora, okay? I'm just behind the door."

Roxas sat silently as he heard Sora crying again. The sound was different this time- calmer and less desperate for attention. He closed his eyes, listening as the choking slowly began to subside, replacing the gasps with words Roxas could barely make out.

One word, or rather, a name had reached Roxas's ears and he had to wonder who the person was.

'Who is Axel?'

xoxoxox

No one would tell Axel what was going on. There were officers all over Sora's place and when he had snuck around to the back and peeked into the kitchen window he saw Sora's parents crying. The police that caught him and escorted him off the premises refused to tell Axel anything, replying that he should go home. His parents did not say much either, denying that they knew anything about Sora's family current situation even when they shook their heads sadly at the mention of Sora.

It was infuriating. Which was why he was spending the night over at his friend Demyx's place. Demyx lived closer to Sora than he did, so it would be easier for him to find out what exactly was going on. No one kept him in the dark.

"Axel, are you sure this is a good idea?" Demyx asked his red headed friend as he nervously rung his hands. "I mean, won't we get in trouble if we're caught? I really don't feel like being grounded again…"

Axel turned to face his blond friend, his bright green eyes piercing through the dark as he smirked. "You think we'll get caught? Please, Demyx, you should know better than that. I've snuck into Sora's place plenty of times." Axel boasted and puffed his chest out, a fist mock slamming into his chest. "It's easy!"

Demyx gave a puzzled frown. "Why do you sneak into Sora's place? I mean, isn't that a little odd?"

"Huh? How so?"

"Axel, you're an eleven year old kid sneaking into a five year olds room. Doesn't that seem just a little off to you?"

When Axel gave no reply, he was not surprised. Demyx had not expected to hear much from Axel about his actions. The red head never seemed to give anyone a direct answer, even his parents had to ask a series of questions just to get a simple two-or-three word reply. It was one of the few things that made Demyx both want to be Axel's friend and want to punch Axel. The kid was an enigma, and as they made their way over to Sora's house, the blond decided that Axel was also terrifyingly good at planning. They ducked into bushes and dove around corners just as officers exited the house. They ran at top speed to the side wall of the house and leapt onto the nearest tree branch, then proceeded to climb up a well worn path until they reached Sora's bedroom window.

Demyx stopped behind Axel. The moon cast shadows on the surroundings though the trees and the thin curtains were closed, obscuring their view but they could still see the woman crying inside. Her brunette hair was a stringy mess, her eyes red as she sat near her son's bed and held one of Sora's many action toys to her chest. It flashed lights and whirled with movement when she gave a button a push but no joy crossed her features.

Axel pushed the window open quickly and parted the curtains forcefully, surprising both the sad woman and Demyx. "Mom, what's wrong?" Axel asked as him and Demyx were running to her side as soon as their shoes touched the floor.

"Why are you crying?" Demyx held one of the hands that dropped the plastic toy. "What happened?"

She looked at them curiously, her eyebrows knitted and her bottom lip sucked into her mouth. The two boys in front of her were somehow friends of her son and had taken to calling her and her husband their mother and father. It was so adorable and sweet, but the truth was that they were not her children. She would not risk telling them something that would hurt them, she couldn't! …or could she? They would inevitably notice what happened when one of their friends did not show up to play with them… She was contemplating whether or not to tell the two boys when Axel cleared his throat.

"I'll find out one way or another," Axel stated, Demyx nodding in agreement in the background, "So tell us, mom."

She choked on tears and shook her head from side to side. "I can't! I just can't!"

"Mom," Axel and Demyx stood in front of her, "we look like kids, but we are stronger than that. You know that, right?"

She nodded her head as tears that once dried began to fall anew and gathered the boys into a tight embrace. "I know, boys, I know." There was a moment of silence after Demyx insisted she tell them why she was crying, and another minute of tears after that before she found the strength in herself to repeat what the officials told her and her husband. "Axel? Demyx? I'm afraid that…you won't be able to see Sora for a while…"

To her surprise, Axel stiffened and pulled away from her. Glared angrily as he demanded to know why. "Why can't we see Sora? ! What's wrong? Wh—"

"Axel, shut up!" Demyx stomped on his friend's foot, removing his own only after Axel calmed down enough to pay attention.

"Sorry…" Axel apologized, walking back to her and being once again wrapped in her embrace. She nodded her acceptance and sobbed before continuing.

"Sora…he's been taken," She cried over their shocked gasps. "I-I thought he'd ran away to another store or to look at toys, but…" her voice was high pitched and raw with desperation, "but they looked back at the security tapes and…and…and someone had taken him! Sora, my baby, gone!" She cried and pulled them closer.

Axel held the woman he considered another mother close. Sora…was gone? No… Glaring at the wallpaper, Axel swore he would get Sora back.