The trials began gradually. It happened so slowly, over a number of weeks, that the residents didn't even notice. Night came a little sooner every day. Only a few minutes, nothing that would cause alarm. When the Dusks went out to cull their prey, the streets were still empty, as they would have been if night had fallen naturally.

It wasn't until night came a full hour early that the world took notice. The one hour warning bells didn't ring until the sky was already black. The days should have been getting longer in Spring, not shorter. The first casualties were reported, people who depended on the bells to signal the end of their work day, the time for them to return home safely.

The next time Roxas awoke in Sora's shadow, it was to find him cutting down Dusks with a weapon almost identical to Roxas' own.

'On your right!'

There were three people on the station plaza, the highest point of the town. Sora was at the heart of the battle, breathing heavily as he knocked away claws. He'd been caught once or twice, a few tears in his clothes, but was otherwise unharmed. If anything, he seemed elated, eyes bright as he fought.

The others were less enthused.

A blond man with a cigarette pinched between his teeth spun what looked to be some sort of lance, cutting through a group of Dusks in one go. More took the place of the fallen, giving him no respite.

'Incoming!' a dark haired woman yelled, tugging on the cuff of her gauntlet. Sora and the blond man jumped into the air as she brought her fist down onto the paving stones. The force rippled outwards, scattering the Dusks back, winning the trio some ground.

'Some vacation!' Sora laughed. When his keyblade cut through the Dusks, they evaporated into a fading black mist. Though Roxas tried, he could not feel their presence anymore. Just as his keyblade could control the Dusks, Sora's could destroy them. 'Thought Twilight Town was a guaranteed safe zone!'

The man and woman took longer to dispatch any of the Dusks. Sora was a one hit kill, but their weapons required more to do damage. Their exhaustion was plain to see. The Dusks just kept coming, the perpetual sunset of Twilight Town eclipsed by the Organization's manufactured darkness.

'Take it up with HR, kid,' the blond man grumbled, spitting out what was left of his cigarette.

'There's a bin right there,' the woman sighed.

'Yeah, Cid. Littering's bad.'

The man skewered the cigarette end with his lance and flicked it in the direction of the bin. Sora and the woman paused mid-fight to watch it bounce off the rim.

'So close!'

'Too bad.'

'Shut it, both of ya.'

The wave of Dusks intensified and any conversation died out. Even Sora was beginning to flag, his footwork becoming sloppy, his swings wide.

Roxas looked up to the sky. He had been getting used to the blend of pinks and yellows of the town's sunset. The unending black that had taken its place was not nearly as beautiful.

Was that the sky the Organization was working towards? Was that the sky Roxas was helping to create?

There weren't even any stars.

Roxas couldn't like stars. Axel was right. Sora must have liked stars in order for Roxas to believe he himself did. Yet even if the feeling wasn't his own, he still felt a writhing discomfort in the pit of his stomach at their absence. It just didn't feel right.

Experimentally, Roxas' shadow hand twitched. He found Oblivion was grasped in his fist, in the same position Sora held his keyblade. Yet the black shape upon the floor was subtly different. Sharper edges, longer, the shadow inching further from Sora bit by bit.

Roxas gripped Oblivion tight and rose his arm. Sora's shadow moved, and the Dusks all looked to him. Cid and the woman were forgotten. The Dusks stilled.

'...Am I doing that?' Sora took a tentative step back, leaning to the side. 'I don't think I'm doing that.'

The woman leapt forward, her fist striking one of the motionless Dusks into the ground.

'Well, whatever you are or aren't doing, keep it up,' she said, and her and Cid continued the assault. Sora seemed too wary to move in case he broke whatever spell had come over the Dusks. He didn't notice that his shadow's arm didn't drop to its side when his did. Even when his keyblade disappeared into nothing, his shadow's didn't.

Before long, the swarm was gone. Roxas could feel more within the shadows of the plaza, but he kept them contained, refused to give them permission to roam.

He wasn't sure why. It seemed the human thing to do.

'Sora?' Cid leaned on his lance, frowning their way.

Roxas let his arm drop. The Dusks had been given the order to stay, so even without the keyblade holding them back, they wouldn't be able to move. Twilight Town was safe, even if the sky was black.

'Sora?' The woman pulled off her gloves, striding over. 'You okay?'

'I'm fi -' Roxas wobbled as Sora's knees buckled beneath him. His eyes fell shut before he even hit the floor, and Roxas found himself back in his room, staring up at the ceiling. Twilight Town didn't fade so much as it flickered out of his mind.

For a moment, he could still hear their voices, as Sora could.

'This is why he needed a break!'

'He'll be fine.'

'It can't happen again, can it?'

'Of course not! You can only make one o' those things...'

The next morning, Roxas returned to his room intent on slipping back inside Sora's shadow. The way he had keeled over the day before had nagged at Roxas. Sora's passing out had thrown Roxas back into his own body, though it wasn't nearly as long as he usually slept for.

Could Roxas only inhabit Sora's shadow when Sora was awake and he was sleeping? Did that mean Sora could do the same when Roxas was awake? If nothing else, Roxas had confirmed a lingering suspicion that Sora was one of the Organization's enemies. It would be bad if he could slip into Roxas' shadow and see what they were up to.

Or was it?

It was a thought that kept returning, one he tried not to entertain. The Organization's plan was still in its trial stages. It was as fragile as it could possibly be. If the opposition, those knowledgeable about and capable of fighting the Dusks, discovered what the Organization were doing, they could stop them. At least, they could stop them now, at their current stage.

Would that truly be such a bad thing?

Roxas shrugged out of his coat, hanging it over the back of a chair. He was about to throw himself onto the bed when he stopped short.

Resting on top of his unmade sheets was a large seashell and a coconut. The shell was marbled white and pink, spiralling in on itself, smooth to the touch. The coconut had a red and blue striped straw jammed into one of its holes. There was no note, but there didn't need to be.

'If you hold it up to your ear,' Axel said from the door, 'It'll tell you something.'

Roxas picked up the coconut, pressing it to his ear.

'I think it might be shy.'

Axel tried not to smile, but the way his lips pressed together gave him away. Roxas picked up the shell. There really was a noise there, though not a voice. It sounded like the wind before a storm, whispering past his ears.

'He's really sorryyyyyy,' Axel muttered, not particularly quiet, behind his hand, 'He was in a bad mooooood. Kick hiiiiiim.'

'Am I listening to the ocean,' Roxas asked, 'Or a ghost? Because it's talking like a ghost. A b-movie one, at that.'

'It's the ghost of week old regrets.'

Roxas put down the shell and coconut, though he did eye the straw thoughtfully, before walking over to Axel. For all his bluster, Axel couldn't seem to decide how to stand, whether to slouch against the doorframe or not, whether to smile or be serious, whether or not he wanted to look Roxas in the eye.

It was that last one more than anything that led Roxas to drive his boot into Axel's shin.

'Ow! Fuck, Rox.'

'The ghost told me to.' Roxas smiled, butter wouldn't melt. 'What were you in a bad mood for?'

Axel hopped over to the bed, rubbing his knee.

'I don't know. Just was. Leader was rambling on, and... ahhhh, I don't know. Guess I've just been in a bit of a weird way lately.' Axel scratched the back of his neck, shrugging. 'No excuse for taking it out on you, though. Even if we disagree on that stuff, there was no need for me to be so... nasty about it.'

'Maybe you're right, I don't know -'

'And maybe you're right.' Roxas came to sit next to Axel, shoulder to shoulder. 'It'd be much nicer if you were right. A bit of optimism never hurt anyone, eh?'

'Not that the optimists have let on,' Roxas replied, picking up the shell again. He wondered if it was the same one Axel had picked up, back when he'd been able to go to a beach. 'Though they wouldn't be the sort to complain, I'd imagine.'

'Nah. They leave that to us grumps. And don't we do it well.'

Axel lay back on the bed, picking up the coconut. He sucked at the straw.

'How is it?'

'Not half bad.' He held it up for Roxas to try. 'Better than it looks, anyway.'

Roxas took a sip too. It barely touched his tongue before he cringed, choking it down with a cough. Whatever was in the coconut, it wasn't milk, and it was definitely past its expiration date.

Roxas threw the shell at Axel, but he only laughed, catching it easily.

'Your apologies suck!' Roxas strode over to his bathroom, bending down to drink from the tap. It took far longer than it should have to rinse the taste out of his mouth, Axel sniggering all the while. 'I hate you.'

'Worth it.' Axel tossed the shell into the air, catching it as it fell. 'Love you too, Rox.'

Roxas drifted off, and when he awoke, it was in an unfamiliar bedroom. A nice bedroom. Bright colours and weird furniture. The desk chair's back was shaped like a star. The clock was shaped like an owl. The lamp had fish swimming around its light.

Roxas reached out to touch one of the fish, unsure how it was connected to the rest, then froze.

His hand was real. It wasn't a shadow hand. Its nails were blunt, the skin frayed around the nailbeds. It was his hand.

He looked around wildly, too much to take in.

He was in the room. All of him. Full bodied, his own clothes, not attached to Sora at all. Sora was asleep in the bed, casting no shadow. Outside, the sky was black, though it was day.

Roxas took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He wasn't sure how it had happened, but he had manifested fully, either free of Sora's shadow or taking over it completely.

He walked backwards slowly, eyes on Sora the whole time, until his back hit the far wall.

Sora didn't stir. Roxas didn't flicker or fade or anything. Even further from Sora, he was still... whole.

Roxas ran out of the bedroom, heart soaring. There were so many places he had seen in Twilight Town that Sora never explored. Back alleys and alcoves and shops. Where did the train go? What was it like to ride the tram? What did all those posters say on the walls of Tram Common?

Roxas could see them now. He could climb onto the tram and read them all. Him, not Sora, not anyone else.

The streets were empty. Though no Dusks roamed, the townspeople had learned their lesson from day before. Windows were locked, curtains were drawn, shop shutters were pulled down. It was impossibly quiet, just Roxas and the tap of his shoes on the ground, wandering down Market Street.

'Help wanted...' Roxas scanned the notice board, hands in his pockets. That woman Sora had asked for directions, the one with the bag bulging full of letters, one of the ads was definitely from her.

Roxas had never received a letter. Maybe he would try writing one when he woke up. He wasn't sure who to, though. Axel would probably find it a bit silly, sending letters when they could just talk face to face.

Leaving the sign, Roxas walked down one of the side paths he had seen. He'd never been down this way with Sora. There were some more posters pasted on the walls. STRUGGLE! An oddly shaped bat was held aloft, proclaiming 'fight!'

'A game?' Roxas had never really played games, either. 'Cool.'

'Oi!' The hand came out of thin air, grabbing Roxas by the collar of his shirt. He instinctively moved his hand to summon Oblivion, but managed to stop himself. 'You got a death wish?!'

The boy had wild blond hair and honey eyes, dressed for the sun he had always known. In his hand was one of those strange bats from the Struggle poster, the other fisted in the back of Roxas' shirt. Despite his aggressive tone, the bat wasn't directed at Roxas. The boy looked about himself anxiously, bad at the ready.

'No?' Roxas wriggled free, straightening his shirt. 'What are you doing outside?'

The boy looked at him in disbelief.

'You're asking me that? I saw you from my window, prancing around like an idiot! You do realize there are monsters out here, right?'

Roxas gave a pointed look to the empty street.

'They must be shy,' he said, 'But you should go back inside. Just in case.'

The boy blinked, clearly trying to summon some patience. When he next spoke, it was in a painfully slow way, the way one would talk to a child.

'Yes. I should. And so should you.' The boy blinked again. 'Hold up. Who are you, anyway? I recognize everyone in this town, but you're a new face.'

Roxas hummed thoughtfully. Should he give a pseudonym? There wasn't any reason to tell the boy his name, but there also wasn't any reason not to.

'I'm Roxas.'

The boy pulled a face.

'That long a pause and Roxas is the best you could come up with? Alright, Rucksack. And who are you, apart from your name? Look a little young to be a drifter. Count yourself lucky it was me who found you and not Almasy. His lot don't take kindly to outsiders.'

'If you're the friendly one, then I definitely wouldn't want to run into Almasy.' Roxas shifted uncomfortably, noticing that the bat was pointed more in his direction now. On a whim, he asked, 'Do you know Sora?'

The change was instant. Bat lowered, scowl dropped, posture less intimidating. The boy beamed.

'Shit, you're one of those guys? I've seen them around but I've not spoken to one of them before.' The boy suddenly leaned in close, only inches from Roxas' face. He moved back instinctively. 'Now that you mention it, I do see the resemblance. You guys brothers?'

Roxas hesitated only briefly.

'Sure.'

The boy laughed, clapping his hands together around the bat.

'Aw, man, sorry for the attitude. What with all this weird stuff going on the past couple of days, everyone's on edge, and seeing some random guy wandering the streets... No hard feelings, yeah?' The boy held out a hand to Roxas. 'I'm Hayner.'

This time, Roxas didn't hesitate at all.

'Hi, Hayner,' he said, shaking his hand, 'So what's this Struggle thing?'

Hayner wasn't at all similar to Sora or Axel. Roxas' social circle was admittedly more of a triangle, with one point not knowing Roxas existed, so his frame of reference was desperately slim. But it was all he had to compare to.

Hayner was funny. Not in the same way Axel was, who was often mean in his wit, and not in the same way as Sora, who was goofy and happy to be the butt of the joke. Hayner told jokes like he thought Roxas already knew the punchline, dissolving into snickering long before he could finish.

Hayner was friendly in an awkward sort of way. Axel had been distant back when Roxas first joined the Organization, but the ice had quickly melted, and then he had treated Roxas as though they had known each other forever. Sora, Roxas couldn't speak for, though he imagined Sora was a friend to all until proven otherwise. Whereas Hayner was eager and embarrassed by turns. He would throw an arm around Roxas' shoulders without thinking, then apologize. Roxas wasn't sure what he was apologizing for. Sora put his arm around his friends all the time.

Hayner was good at games, and good at teaching them. Roxas didn't know whether Axel was, they had never played anything together, and he couldn't picture Axel spending an afternoon in front of a darts board. Sora was definitely good at games, or liked them at least. Roxas could picture Sora and Hayner playing together in the little alcove Hayner called the usual spot.

'You don't have to keep your arm so straight, that's why you keep hitting the sides.'

Hayner was perched atop some sort of water tank, ignoring the empty couch only a few steps away. He'd traded his struggle bat for some darts, balancing the flight of one on the tip of his finger.

'Like this?' Roxas asked, bending his elbow bit by bit until Hayner nodded. Then he let the dart fly, succeeding in hitting the board this time.

'See, you're a natural. Now let the master show you how it's done.'

He hopped off the water tank, taking his place at the chalk-drawn line on the floor. He held the darts much more loosely than Roxas did, and all three hit the triple twenty in quick succession.

'Nice.'

'Thanks.' Hayner grinned. 'So where have you been hiding, anyway? We've all met Cid at some point or another, and Tifa comes and goes pretty often. Practically everyone's bumped into Sora at this point. Especially after the sky went dark, you guys are kind of like celebrities around here. Did you only just get into town?'

'I got here today.' It wasn't technically a lie, though it was silly to be getting hesitant about lying now. Roxas had already lied about being Sora's brother. Still, he didn't particularly want to lie to Hayner. He liked him, and darts was fun. 'You all don't need to worry anymore. The Dusks won't come here again.'

'Wish I could believe that, man,' Hayner sighed, tugging the darts out of the board, 'It's never happened here before. The sun doesn't go down in Twilight Town, everyone knows that. Then the next thing we know, the sun's gone, and these monsters we've only ever heard about or seen on TV are at our doors. I didn't know many of the people who died personally, but still...'

Roxas suddenly found his hands very interesting, sitting down on the couch.

'I'm sorry people died.' A part of him wanted to ask if they had cried or not, but he had the presence of mind to know that wasn't appropriate.

'Shit, man, sorry. I'm not putting it on you guys. We were lucky you acted as fast as you did. Christ knows the casualties could've been worse.' Hayner came to sit next to Roxas, patting him on the shoulder. 'Can't imagine it's an easy job, fighting those things.'

Roxas wouldn't know. It was easy to control them, that much he knew. They obeyed the call of Oblivion in a way the rest of the Organization's members couldn't emulate, despite trying. What would Xemnas say when he found out Twilight Town's invasion had been halted? There was only one person who could have done it.

'Cheer up man!' Hayner misinterpreted Roxas' silence, squeezing his shoulder. 'It's not the end of the world - yet, anyway. And if you say those things aren't going to attack here again, I'll believe you, so long as you come save my ass first if you're proven wrong.'

'I'll do my best to save the rest of you as well,' Roxas replied, a begrudging smile pulling at his lips.

'I'd appreciated that. Hey, what time is it?' Though he asked Roxas, Hayner checked his own watch. 'If things were normal, we'd be eating some ice cream right about now. Fancy some?'

Roxas wondered at the we.

'Aren't the shops closed?'

'We have a stash. Shh, don't tell anyone.'

Hayner hopped up off the couch and went over to the far side of the room. Behind a low hanging curtain was a cooler. An assortment of cans and snacks were piled inside, teeth-rotting just to look at. He pulled out two things with blue wrappers and tossed Roxas one.

'People aren't as keen on this flavour, so we get 'em nice and cheap.'

Roxas tore off the wrapper to find that the ice cream inside was equally as blue. He took a tentative bite, letting it dissolve on his tongue.

'It's... salty,' was his verdict.

'It grows on you.' Hayner smiled, sitting back on the water tank. 'You're probably pretty busy with saving the world and all, but whenever you've got free time, swing by here. Pence and Olette'd love to meet you. Pence is crazy about you guys.'

Roxas wasn't sure he'd ever manifest again after he woke up, and he didn't much like the thought of making a promise he couldn't keep, yet he still found himself nodding.

'Yeah, I'd love to meet your friends.'

Sora slept for a month, and for that month, Roxas discovered what it was like to live as a human.

At night, he continued his work as the thirteenth member of the Organization. He received his orders through Saïx, travelled to the designated towns, and unleashed the Dusks upon the citizens. With night lasting longer and longer, Roxas' job became much easier. He simply watched as the Dusks attacked.

Day was his refuge. He slept as soon as he could, for as long as he could. Every time, he woke up in Sora's bedroom, fully manifested. He fled the house before anyone could find him and ran to the Usual Spot.

They were always there, waiting for him. Hayner, Pence and Olette.

Pence was warm and ever curious. The second Hayner had introduced him, Pence had begged to see Roxas' keyblade. It was true he was, as Hayner phrased it, 'a groupie for you lot.' But when Roxas had hesitated to summon Oblivion, Pence had been quick to apologize. Roxas wasn't sure what he was apologizing for, but he appreciated the sentiment.

Olette was friendly and easy-going. As soon as Hayner called Roxas his friend, it seemed like Olette considered him a friend too. There was no tentativeness or easing in. She just treated him as though he had always been a part of their group, and Roxas liked her for that.

Most days they just stayed in the Usual Spot. The people of Twilight Town became more confident in leaving their homes, but the streets were still mostly empty. Though Roxas assured them the Dusks wouldn't come again, the trio still felt safer staying indoors.

Even that was fun. Just sitting around talking, or playing games, or even helping each other with their homework. They were the sort of days Roxas would have thought boring in theory, but actually living them, doing those things and being with those people. Roxas didn't want to wake up.

Unfortunately, Sora did.

At first, Roxas didn't notice anything amiss. A month of waking in that bedroom and leaving as fast as he could meant that he didn't even think to look over at Sora. If he had, he'd have found an empty bed.

Roxas made for the bedroom door and felt the press of Sora's keyblade at his throat.

'Sit down.'

There was no smile, no warmth in his voice, and no mercy when Roxas didn't immediately comply. The keyblade smashed into the side of Roxas' face, sending him to the floor. He could feel the skin of his cheek part, the trickle of blood, but for the first time, he also felt the pain.

Roxas' breath left him in a panicked wheeze.

It hurt.

It hurt.

Nothing had ever hurt before.

'Sit down and stay there.' Sora paced in front of the closed door, knuckles white around the handle of the keyblade. He was still in the same bedclothes, his hair all mussed. He must have only just woken. 'I saw you. I could see you the whole time. What were you doing? Just... hanging out with those three. Why? What do you want with them?'

The entire left side of Roxas' face felt as though it was on fire. Or at least, how Roxas imagined that would have felt. His skin throbbed hot, blood soaking into his collar. He had never bled before.

'How are you even doing this?' Sora was just as panicked as Roxas. His breaths were coming too fast, faster than even his words. He held the keyblade less like a weapon and more like a shield, his only defence against whatever threat he thought Roxas posed. 'I know what you are. You shouldn't be able to do this. I don't understand.'

Roxas sat up, hand coming to rest over his torn cheek. The blood was slick between his fingers, the skin just as heated to the touch as it had felt.

'I don't understand either,' he said, lost, 'What am I?'

Sora stopped pacing and lowered the keyblade. Roxas couldn't identify the expression on his face. He wasn't sure he wanted to.

For the first time in a month, Roxas wanted desperately to wake up.

'You're...' The words wouldn't come. Sora had never seemed short of words in all the times Roxas had been his shadow, but he was then. The keyblade disappeared from his hand. 'What do you think you are?'

An echo of you. The thought was spoken with Axel's voice. Just an echo, nothing more. But Roxas couldn't bring himself to say that. He didn't want to make it real.

'I'm... Roxas.'

Sora stared down at him, fingers clenching and unclenching where his keyblade had been.

'You're Roxas,' he echoed, more to himself than anything, 'Your name is Roxas.'

Roxas didn't know what else to say, so he stayed quiet, letting Sora process what was happening. He kept his hand pressed over the gash on his face, wondering when it would stop hurting. Did humans always feel pain for this long? Was this the sort of pain humans felt when the Dusks claimed them?

No wonder they cried.

'Here.' Roxas jolted, lost in his thoughts. A roll of toilet paper dangled in front of his face, Sora eyeing the cut with a frown. When Roxas took the roll from him, Sora walked over to sit down on the bed. 'Sorry, I guess. Kind of. I don't know yet.'

'...Thanks.'

Roxas wiped the blood from his hand and face, probing gingerly at the cut. He kept his eyes on Sora, and Sora did the same. Neither of them quite knew what to make of the other. It was a confused sort of stalemate.

'Roxas, what were you doing with those kids? I kept waiting for you to... do something but you never did. I don't get it. What are you after? What do you want?'

What did he want? Roxas had never thought about that. He wasn't doing any of it with an end result in mind. Not consciously, at least.

'I... want to be like them.' Roxas let himself think out loud, as unaware of the truth as Sora. 'I want to do the things they do. I want to go to your beach. I want...'

Sora's hands were fisted in the bed sheets.

'You want to be human,' he told Roxas, and Roxas realized that was what he had been trying to put into words. He wanted to be like Hayner, Pence and Olette because they were human. When he was with them, he could let himself believe he was too.

But he wasn't.

'You shouldn't be able to do this, you know. To be here. I knew I'd...' Sora ran a hand through his hair, leaving it even messier than before. 'Coz I've got the keyblade, I'm kind of the go-to guy to fight the Dusks. Especially when I first became able to summon it, I went a little over the top. I wanted to save everyone, y'know? I didn't know then that the keyblade takes its power from me as much as I get power from it. So when I overused it, it took so much from me that...'

Roxas looked up.

'That I was created?'

Sora nodded, an almost apologetic look on his face.

'They all warned me not to overdo it, but I got all these big ideas in my head about what a hero I was and that I had to do it all myself. I didn't think about the consequences of that. Next thing I know, I wake up and they tell me I've been asleep for a whole year. I'd just keeled over one day and bam, a whole year gone. If I wasn't a keyblade wielder, they reckon I might've turned into a Dusk myself.'

'No, that's... That's not how Dusks work,' Roxas said, pressing a square of tissue to his cheek and letting the blood hold it there. 'Dusks are made when someone with a lot of darkness in them is killed by a Dusk. You can't just turn into one. I don't think so, anyway.'

'Really?! Coz that's been, like, my biggest worry since waking up!' Sora exhaled loudly, letting himself fall back onto the bed limply. 'The amount of sleep I've lost over that. I could kill Riku, telling me that.'

When Sora didn't say anything else, Roxas fell silent too. The bleeding had more or less stopped, but it still hurt. It probably wasn't even a bad hurt, by human's standards, but for someone who had never felt pain before, it wiped his mind blank. He could feel every heated sting, the pulsating throb, uncomfortably aware of the split skin pulling when his mouth moved.

'Sora, do you bite your nails?'

Sora pushed himself up on his elbows, frowning.

'Nah, don't think so. See?' He held out one of his hands for Roxas to look at. The nails were unmaintained, but they were also unbitten. A little too long, if anything. Roxas held out his own hand, showing his stunted nails. Sora pulled a face. 'I hear putting vinegar on your fingers can stop you doing that.'

'Vinegar?'

'Yeah. Something about the taste making you aware you're doing it. I don't know if it really works, though.'

Roxas nodded, then asked another question.

'Do you like stars?'

'Of course I do. Who doesn't like stars?' Sora glanced out of the window. 'Not that you can see any around here anymore...'

'I like stars too,' Roxas replied, 'And I don't think it's just because you like them, because you don't bite your nails, but I do.'

It came out more than a little desperate. A plea for validation from the one person who could give it, though he had no reason to do so. Sora stared at Roxas thoughtfully for a minute.

'That night on the plaza, before I passed out, that was you who made the Dusks stop, wasn't it?' he asked, moving off the bed to sit cross-legged on the floor in front of Roxas. He reached out to take the tissue off of Roxas' face, eyeing the cut with a wince. 'You made them stop attacking us. I don't know how, but... why?'

It took all of his self-control not to cringe away from Sora. It wasn't that he expected another hit, but rather, Sora was something of a fiction to Roxas. He knew Sora was real, otherwise Roxas wouldn't exist at all, but they had never existed in the same world before. Sora was of the day, and Roxas was supposed to be restrained to night. To have him sitting there, able to touch him, actually talking to him, it was overwhelming.

'I don't really know why I did it.'

'You know what I find really interesting?' Sora waited for Roxas to nod, then continued, 'You've been manifesting for longer than I was aware of it, right? All this time, you've known where not just me, but a number of us were located, and you didn't tell your leader. You could've caught us unaware and gotten rid of at least three enemies, but instead, you stopped the Dusks from attacking Twilight Town.'

It had never even occurred to Roxas to tell anyone. The thought didn't enter his mind of betraying Sora - and what a strange way to consider that scenario, as betrayal, as though Roxas was in any way indebted to Sora. Yet it was the only word he could think of. It was one thing to use Sora as a proxy to experience life in the sunlight, but it was altogether different to use that ability to bring about his downfall.

Roxas liked Sora. From that first time he had awoken in Sora's shadow in the palm tree, he had liked him and been jealous of him in equal measure. Even if they were enemies, he didn't want Sora to die.

But he didn't say that. Even as the realization took root in his mind, Roxas couldn't bring himself to put it into words.

'I hate carrots,' Sora stated when the silence drew on, 'Mum puts them in everything, thinking I won't notice, but I do. It's the way they crunch. Goes right through me! Do you like carrots?'

Roxas looked back up at him, confused.

'I... don't really mind either way?'

'What's your favourite food?'

Roxas thought about it, then said, 'I like the sea-salt ice cream here.'

'Really? That stuff?' Sora stuck out his tongue. 'Ick. Mint choc chip all the way.'

'I've never had that one.'

'You haven't lived, man. It's beautiful. Better than that sea-salt stuff. Who thought putting salt in ice cream was a good idea?'

Roxas bit his lip tentatively before saying, 'Probably related to the person who thought putting mint in anything but toothpaste was a good idea.'

Sora grinned and Roxas' heart soared. He made Axel smile a lot, and he could even make Hayner, Pence and Olette smile, but Sora seemed like a victory, for some reason. It was a far cry from being hit in the face with a keyblade.

'I... don't really know why I stopped the Dusks. You all seemed tired, and it's partly my fault that they were attacking Twilight Town at all, so it seemed the right thing to do,' Roxas found himself saying, the tension in his shoulders easing.

'How is it your fault they were attacking?' Sora asked, nothing accusatory about the question. Now that he had Roxas at ease, he seemed eager to keep him there.

'Well, it's my keyblade that made it possible for the Organization to make the sky black. When the Dusks I control kill people, Oblivion takes the darkness that was within them, and makes it real. I never really understood what that meant until the trails began.'

'So that's what happened.' Sora stared out of the window again, the sky impossibly dark, not a star to be seen. 'And if the sky is always black, day will never come. That's what your Organization wants, right?'

Roxas shrugged, uncomfortable again.

'Leader says that we shouldn't be forced into the edges of life. It's not our fault we can't exist in the sun. He says we deserve to be as free as you are. But he also blames you guys for us being the way we are, and I'm not sure I agree with that.'

'You don't?' Sora's smile was tinged with pity. 'I think, if I were you, I'd blame me an awful lot.'

Roxas met his eyes.

'I don't think I'm something that anyone needs to be blamed for.'

Sora looked taken aback, from the force in Roxas' voice if nothing else. Before he could respond, there was a faint noise from beyond the bedroom door. They both looked that way, the noise growing louder. Footsteps up the stairs.

'Damn! Quick, hide! Under the bed!'

Roxas let himself be steered towards the low bed. It was a tight squeeze, but he managed to get beneath. Sora pulled the bedsheets over the edge of the mattress to better hide him just as the door opened.

'You might be right about me being a lazy bum, huh?' Sora greeted whoever had come through the door. There was no response except the clatter of something dropping to the floor. Roxas couldn't see, but he had a feeling the person had rushed forward to hug him. Maybe it was one of those two who had been fighting with Sora on the plaza.

- Roxas?

Confined in the narrow space between the bed and the floor, Roxas felt a hand gripping his chin. Phantom fingers holding his face tight, tight enough to hurt a little.

- Rox?!

That voice overrode Sora's and whoever had come into the bedroom. The hand left his face and he found himself being roughly shook, the soft pressure of a mattress beneath him, Axel looming above him.

Sora's bedroom disappeared and Roxas woke up.

AN: thanks for reading! next week's chapter will prob be up late since it's the first day of animenext.