Shades of Grey Chapter 2: Things That Go “Thunk” in the Night, a kingdom hearts fanfic

AN: Sorry about the lateness, life was busy, school was busy, blahblahblah, whatever. xD THIS CHAPTER ISN'T BETA'D, FYI.

Things That Go "Thunk" in the Night – Or was it "Stabbity stab?"

Chapter 1

All was quiet in the peaceful city of Radiant Garden, and it was no different on Twilight Blvd. Considering this was at about 2 o'clock in the morning, the silence wasn't all that surprising. The full moon was luminescent, lighting up the sky with a faint radiance as well as the earth below it. The light fell on a three story house, the windows shining gently in the soft light. Not a single thing stirred, not even a chocobo. However, this would soon be a different story.

In the house, something moved in the darkness, a shadow detached itself from the wall, and crept, cat like, towards a door in the darkened hallway. The silence was loud in the empty hallway, and the figure made no sound to add to it. Said figure was none other than Roxas. Roxas, who was wearing all black in a rather ninja-esque fashion, and armed to the teeth.

The blond paused for a moment in front of a door, before reaching into his pocket and unscrewing a bottle of oil, and oiling the door hinges. Nothing ruined a surprised attack like the door squeaking. After replacing the bottle, he grasped the cool metal of the handle and twisted it open, darting through the doorway, eyes alert and form tense. Nothing stirred in the dark room. This did not make Roxas any less wary however, as he stalked closer to the bed, a loaded gun in his hand. He peered at the sleeping figure to check if this was indeed the target. Admittedly, the blond had a morbid curiosity which entailed of seeing the face of his targets before they died as well.

Dark hair, Roxas thought. Maybe…red or brown? Roxas couldn't quite tell what shade it was through the green tint of his night vision goggles. He flipped them up onto his forehead in an attempt to check out the target's hair colour. Red, for sure. Red, like fire. His eyes flicked downwards towards the unsuspecting sleeper. Small, dark, triangular tattoos were located underneath the person's closed eyes. He had a sharply angled, face, with high cheekbones. The photo from the file was quite a decent and accurate shot.

Target confirmed, the blond was bringing his gun arm up to shoot the redhead when there was a flash that briefly blinded Roxas. Luckily he hadn't had the night vision goggles on, or it would've more than taken out his eyesight for a few moments. Someone, presumably the target, had a death grip on his wrist. What had the light been though? Fuck. Blue eyes met green. He briefly considered shooting the redhead who was probably awake now in the wrist, but the stranger read the intention in his eyes, and casually batted away the handgun. It landed with a soft thump, onto the carpeted floor.

"Well, what the fuck." said the red-haired stranger. "Who the hell are you?"

Roxas did not reply, instead, he opted to wrench free of the grip on his wrist. Then, despite all appearances of being slight, thin, and smaller than the redhead, Roxas flung the man off him and onto the other wall. Yes, the laws of physics do love Roxas like a brother. Roxas grasped the two short swords strapped across his back, pulling them out of their sheath. The blond lunged forward with the two blades, and the stranger had recovered by that time and met him halfway. Roxas was pleased to feel the motion of the blades ripping through skin on the man's chest, even if it was only shallowly, as the man failed to move fast enough to block.

"Dammit, what the hell! Hasn't your mom ever told you that pointy things are dangerous?" The target cried, ducking Roxas's hastily drawn and thrown knives. The knives barely missed his head, spearing the poster on the wall behind him instead as he ducked. He lunged forward, and Roxas leapt back.

The redhead swore darkly, the fiery wheels that vaguely resembled shuriken in his hands parried Roxas' second blow with his swords, with a crash of metal on metal, sparks flying as the two weapons locked against one another. The edges of Roxas's weapons started to melt. The blond swore quietly, easing up on his lock.

It was like a dance. A beautiful, dangerous, and deadly dance. Weapon against weapon, neither of the fighers faltered, and the most they could get on each other were bits and pieces, cuts and bruises. Neither let their guard down, for a moment would be all the other fighter needed to deliver a possibly fatal blow.

In an incredibly quick and fluid motion, the stranger slashed opened a long cut from Roxas' right shoulder to elbow, the causing the blond to drop one of the pair of swords. The redhead swiped again with his chakram across Roxas's chest. The force of the blow smashed Roxas against the bedpost, and the wind was knocked right out of him. Something had cracked. Maybe it was his shoulder, or collarbone. Whatever it was, it had hurt. Roxas gasped, and dropped his remaining sword, wheezing.

The target, Axel, had him pinned down, wrists above his head, not caring that he was aggravating Roxas's injury. "Who sent you?" he growled, staring into Roxas's eyes. The blond averted them, head bowed and teeth clenched tightly.

"Well?" Axel sounded angry. That was bad. Very bad. Things had been known to combust terrifically when he was in a rage. Roxas winced, as the redhead's grip on his wrists tightened painfully, nails digging into flesh. There was a sound of impact, as Axel backhanded Roxas. "Cat got your tongue?"

This would be kinky if it weren't so dangerous. The blond thought dazedly. He then shook himself mentally. THINK, Roxas, THINK! And his thoughts ran at 100 km/h. Then Roxas had a flash of inspiration. Just because his arms were useless didn't mean he didn't have other body parts. Of course, use my head.

"I…" The mercenary whispered. That fiery mane of hair leaned down, trying to hear Roxas. Yes, lower! cheered Roxas despite the pain.

"What?"

There was a loud crack, and Roxas slammed his forehead against the green eyed stranger's. The blond chortled inwardly, before slamming a knee into the redhead's stomach, and backing away quickly. Use your environment to your advantage… "Gotcha bad." He grinned viciously.

The model by day looked around wildly, and spotted his abandoned gun. He lunged for it, and had snatched it off the floor when he was tackled by a much larger body mass. The blond panicked, and fired his weapon blindly, the shots reverberating loudly. His target screamed in pain, and Roxas struggled blindly out from under him, hoping that he had hit him somewhere vital even though his arm had probably thrown his aim off. Struggling to his feet, his whole body protested in pain.

While Roxas was regaining his stride, the stranger, with incredible stamina that was probably amazing in bed got up. It seemed that a "mere shot to the shoulder" wouldn't stop him. With a speed quicker than before, Axel got under Roxas's guard and slammed his weapon – chakram – Roxas' mind whispered into the aforementioned blond's stomach.

Roxas didn't manage to completely avoid the blow, but had dodged it enough so nothing vital was hit. There was sure to be a bruise though. He spat out blood, into the redhead's pale face, straight into the green eyes. The man yelped, and was open for but a moment. A moment was all Roxas needed. One hand shot out to grab the chakram and shove the man, the blond tugged away the chakram and stabbed Axel with his own weapon. He aimed his gun between the two bright green eyes, and pulled the trigger. Click. No bullets.

That was when Roxas had a change of plans. While it would be harder to come back and kill the man since he would be on his guard, the sword wielder decided he'd rather not bleed out and die. The blond staggered towards the window. He yelped when a hand grabbed on to his leg tightly. Roxas wrenched out of his grip. Leaving the chakram rammed through the target's leg, he quickly took the moment to run to the large bay window, smashing open with the butt of the useless gun, and jumped out of it.

Roxas did not look back.

Roxas Strife, being the ultra-talented guy he was, somehow managed to drive home in the car he had hidden a little ways from the target's house without losing consciousness and one handed. Not to mention the fact that he was sure he was hallucinating because one did not normally see giant flying books and red bells floating around on the streets. He was also pretty sure that his fingers weren't responding. The keyblade wielder had attempted to use a potion to stop the bleeding. Most of the bruises and cuts had cleared up, but the tummy cut wouldn't close. He stumbled out of the car, one hand holding the bloodstained cloth of the shirt he had used to staunch the blood, and into the house. Things were starting to swim before his eyes, and the pain was so sharp and stinging and present. Roxas gritted his teeth, eyes closing. Spots of vague, blurred colours were dancing around in his sight.

"SORA!" the blond shouted hoarsely, trying to navigate the steps. He flinched as the world tilted, and Roxas crumpled against the banister. He vaguely wondered how in the hell everything had suddenly turned out so wrong right then, like, how had the redhead woken up, and why the hell getting hurt always hurt so much, and…

There was the sound of a door opening, and a panicked cry, which Roxas barely heard before the world went black.

Axel wasn't doing so hot. First off, his day had been completely shitty. On the way to RGU, he'd run a red light and gotten a ticket, which resulted in him being even later than he had expected for his class, and just when he thought sleep would be his one salvation, a ride into a better day, that got ruined as well. By the fact that someone had stabbed him through his leg with his own bloody weapon, and he was lucky only in the sense that he had a hi-potion in the drawer by the bed, or he might've lost use of the leg. Not to mention he had been shot at as well, and got his ass kicked.

So understandably, Axel was rather pissed off. He also hurt as well. But mostly, he was pissed off. The tin cookie jar on the kitchen counter burst into flames, and somewhere, a kitten did as well. So he snapped at Demyx who was trying to bandage his wound, and slouched in his chair, knowing fully well that he was behaving like a child, and not giving a damn.

"Rrrrgh!" Axel gave a wordless scream of rage, before plunking his head down on the table.

"Uh, Axel, you still haven't told me what the hell happened." Demyx said idly, closing the first-aid kit and propping his elbows on the table. A pair of blue eyes gazed at him expectantly.

Axel slowly lifted his head up. "Let's see, I had a crappy day, and just when I thought it would get better, I wake up in the middle of the freakin' night and there's some short guy standing there with a GUN pointed to my HEAD, about to shoot my mother fucking brains out. I knock the gun away, and THEN, he had some freaking short swords that looked so totally anime fan boy-ish, except I don't think a fanboy would know how to use one half as well as that guy did, and he puts up one hell of a fight, and stabs me through the fucking LEG with my chakram! Which hurt like hell, and the worst thing is, I didn't even get to gut him properly! The bastard just took off like a bat out of hell through the window." He paused in his rant. "My third floor, bedroom window. Serves him right if he's squashed!" Axel growled. "Or dead from the poison."

The redhead took a deep breath, running a hand through his messy locks. "And YOU! You didn't even wake UP!"

At least Demyx had the decency to look ashamed. "You know I'm a deep sleeper!" he whined, before closing his eyes. The blond musician re-opened them and looked at him. "So basically, someone managed to sneak into the house and tried to kill you." Demyx looked contemplative, before breaking out into a grin. "Too bad he didn't manage to do it! Did you see what he looked like though?"

Axel ignored the last part, and stood up, wincing a little from the still sore leg. "I don't know, he had a toque on, I only saw his eyes. They were blue." He stretched. "I want to go see if the drop killed him." was all he said before marching towards the door and outside, under his window. Bright green eyes surveyed the area, the full moon illuminating the green expanse of lawn well enough to forgo the use of a flashlight. No body. There was blood though. Blood was leading off his lawn to the street. Axel followed the trail, Demyx following behind him. It stopped abruptly after a block or two.

"I guess he took off in a car?" Demyx mused to the air. "We might as well go back, there's no point in following a phantom car. You can always stay over at my place if you need somewhere to hide out."

"He had some luck to get this far, considering the poison." Axel grumbled, but followed Demyx obligingly. As nerve-wracking as almost being killed was, sleep was always more important. More so especially at three o'clock in the morning.

And Roxas ran after the white rabbit Cloud, only to be stopped by a miniscule door set on the ground of the kitchen. He frowned in frustration. What was Cloud doing, leaving him behind? The blond wheeled around, surveying his surroundings, and suddenly, he was shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, until he was the proper size to fit through the door. So Roxas entered.

-"He's going into convulsions! Grab him!" someone said, and Roxas was thrashing -

"Guards! Seize him!" yelled the Queen, except the queen was not a queen, for the queen was the redheaded target, Axel, and queens were supposed to be female, were they not? Unless Axel had something he wanted to tell everyone, that is.

Roxas stared in confusion. "I didn't do anything!" he protested as the cards pinned his arms back and marched him to the podium.

"That doesn't matter." And Axel smirked.

"It's gotta be some type of poison," Roxas felt his eyelid being pried open, and he tried to protest, to move, but he couldn't-

Rabbit Cloud looked nervous as he gazed forlornly at his pocketwatch, fidgeting immensely in his seat.

"-burning up, his temperature is almost at 41 degrees, we need to coo-" Roxas didn't feel like he was burning, quite the opposite in fac-

Sora was the Chesire cat, except he couldn't possibly be. The grinning visage was all that Roxas could see.

"Do you-"

-"Why won't he wake up?" Sora. That was Sora, Roxas knew it. He tried to reassure him, but his voice wouldn't work, so he gave up, and drifted back into the cool darkness."-

Alice-Roxas ran and ranandrandanrand until he was out of breath and collapsing on the green, green grass, and then the sun went out.

"There's nothing else we can do, he has to sleep it off."

And then he was with the redhead again, not Rabbit-Cloud, nor Cat-Sora, on the clock tower. Lights were rising around him, and Roxas felt a curious warmth engulfing him. He said something quietly.

The redhead looked at him with an expression with millions of emotions swirling in it and replied mutely.

Then Roxas woke up.

When Roxas came to, he felt pain. To be more accurate, he felt oodles and oodles of pain. Groaning, he lifted his head up, irritably blowing a few errant strands of hair out of his sight. A vaguely familiar sight greeted him, the walls a blessedly neutral and light colour. He was in Aeris's sick room, and Sora was slumped on the couch that had been manhandled next to his bed.

"Hey…" Roxas said somnolently. "Hey Sora." Sora stirred, mumbling. "Sora, weren't you the Chesire cat?"

"Wha-!" Sora shot up and looked around frantically, before his gaze landed on Roxas. "Roxas! You're awake!" Sora lunged and hugged his brother tightly.

"That hurts, Sora." Roxas whispered. He felt some parts of the cut reopen, and blood seeping through the bandages on his stomach.

Sora let go immediately, while grabbing the first aid kit that was on the low table next to his bed. "I'm so sorry but I was so worried when I found you and there was just so much blood and it wouldn't stop bleeding and Cloud called Aeris but when she got here she said that she thought it was poison so we had to call Yuffie and then we had to wait for her to make some kind of crazy Wutai antidote which had really gross stuff like frog guts in it but it kind of worked but it still wouldn't close up and it didn't close up for days 'til Yuffie and Aeries finally figured out how to stop the bleeding, but after it stopped bleeding, you still didn't wake up and they said it was 'cause you were riding out the effects of the poison and you've been sleeping for days, I was so scared-!" He stopped talking all of a sudden, probably because he had to breathe. The brunet gasped spasmodically, like a goldfish flopping out of water.

Roxas frowned in contemplation. "Poison? Days? Exactly how many days?" He obligingly lifted his arms to let his bandages be changed, wincing.

"Yeah, poison, and all we knew is that it's angel's trumpet, maybe some hemlock, and something else, mixed together." Sora chewed on his lip, arranging the material on Roxas. "Just that it wouldn't let the wound close, which isn't an effect of the two plants, but we didn't know if it is because they're mixed, or the other thing. Yuffie and Aeris are working on a better cure though, and most of the poison's already flushed out from the other stuff." He grinned. "So, sleepyhead, you've been drifting in and out of La-La Land for about a week. How are you feeling?"

x x x

TBC.