More than Haunts really.

There's a surprise in here, I swear there's an explanation.

Sora: That sounds... interesting?

Oh maybe to the readers but I don't think you'll enjoy this chapter too much Sora.

Sora: ...

:)

I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Sora: ...

Oh shush.

Chapter Two: Haunts From The Past

'You know they are important… but just how is that so?'

Sora had been trying to work out how to approach Ven for about half the day now, he wanted to find out if the blonde knew anything about the missing six months, but he couldn't just go up to him and ask him it out of the blue, could he?

Sora turned to the most responsible person in their group, "hey, Atsuko, if you wanted to ask someone something, but it was something that that someone might find somewhat weird, how would you go about leading up to that something if you've never spoken to that someone in your life?" The brunette blinked very deliberately at Sora's confusing choice of words, "for some reason, I get reminded of Winnie the Pooh when you say it like that," she muttered, before raising her voice to answer his question, "honesty is usually the best answer, isn't it? Trying to manoeuvre around the truth will rarely get you anywhere."

Sora frowned, "I'm not sure this is something I can just come out and say to him," Atsuko sighed, "well, I can't really give you any proper advice if I don't know what it is you want to talk to him about, sorry, I guess, if that doesn't work, you could just start off with introducing yourself, talk a bit about yourself and try to lead the conversation towards the topic you wanted to initially talk about."

Sora thought about that, "then what topic should I start with?" Atsuko gave him a look that clearly stated 'I don't know unless you tell me what you want to actually talk about'. Sora chuckled sheepishly, "right, never mind, I'll figure it out, thanks."

The bell rang for lunch and the teacher dismissed the class; Sora got to his feet and gathered up his stuff, after putting it all in his locker, he thought about what Atsuko had said, "I guess just trying to make friends with him would be a good start." He muttered to himself, that decided he went to go find Ventus.

After talking to the blonde for about five minutes, Sora decided that he probably didn't know anything about his past. He was disappointed, but he enjoyed talking to Ventus anyway, so it wasn't a total lost, it just meant he'd have to find out about his past a different way, 'maybe certain things will trigger it? When I first saw Ventus I remembered a few things, namely a boy who looked just like him, but acted differently… what was his name, I wonder?' without thinking, Sora pulled the necklace out from where it had been tucked into his shirt, like some subconscious part of his mind had identified a connection between the two.

Before he could think about that, he heard a strange, half-strangled noise come from Ventus. Confused, he glanced up at the necklace to see a somewhat shell-shocked expression on the boy's face. He moved to tuck the necklace back into his shirt, intending to check what was wrong, but before he could, the blonde reached and grabbed his hand, the one holding the necklace out.

Sora looked Ventus in surprise, the expression was ignored as the other boy gazed intently at the necklace, examining it, in a soft voice, he asked the brunette, "Where did you get this?"

Sora pulled away, confused by the other's reaction, "I don't remember," he told the other, "something happened six months ago and apparently I disappeared, but I don't remember what happened, I think I must have come by this in those six months because I didn't have it before then."

Ventus stared at the boy for some time before pulling out a chain and showing it to Sora, he instantly zeroed in on the key that hung from the chain. He looked at the two keys on his chain in confusion, though they each had a different design, it was easy to tell they had been made by the same person, or at least, with a similar style.

"I had a twin, younger than me by a few minutes, he went missing many years ago, as it is, I've forgotten a lot of things about him, and I wish I remembered more, I've missed him a lot. It's different to just losing a brother, I think, at least, for me it was, we had always been exceptionally close. The one time our dad came to visit us; he decided to make us both a present. He carved out two keys of unique design, before hanging them on a chain and giving them to my twin. He carved another key for me, but ended up leaving before he could do a second. There isn't another key like the three he made for us, they're each unique and one-of-a-kind, he had said so himself."

Sora looked down at the necklace again, he could guess where this was going, "this… is your twin's necklace, isn't it?" he asked softly, hesitantly. Ventus tightened the grip on his necklace, nodding, "yeah, I'm fairly certain it is."

Sora shook his head, "I'm sorry, as I said, I don't remember what happened, so if you're going to ask me if I know what happened to him, I won't have an answer for you." Ventus sighed, but before he could reply, someone pushed past them, affectively cutting off their conversation. The boy stopped and turned back, "oh, sorry about that!" he called out to them, Sora glanced over at him, he looked to be in a few levels higher than them, he had- oddly enough- bright, red hair, green eyes and two teardrop tattoos, one under each eye. As the boy turned and walked off, Sora felt a piercing pain attack his head, he bent over and clutched at his chest, 'why do I feel like I want to cry?' he wondered, screwing his eyes shut, 'do I know that guy?'

"Hey, are you okay?" he heard someone ask, he straightened a little and saw another red-head- this time a girl- looking at him worriedly, "do you need to go to the nurse?" she asked, and just like that, the feeling increased, Sora wanted to vomit, 'maybe I should go to the nurse,' he wondered dazedly, but he had a feeling it was like what had happened to him when he had first seen Ventus, he wanted to sort through the images flashing through his mind, but he couldn't do that with her standing there, so he waved her off, "I'm fine, don't worry about me," he forced out and after a moment's hesitation, the girl nodded and ran off after the other boy.

The headache and nausea gradually cleared and Sora stood up straight again, leaning against the wall, "what happened there?" Ventus asked him worriedly, "are you sure everything's ok?" Sora nodded, "yeah, I, uh… I sometimes get headaches now," he paused, wondering how much he should tell the blonde before explaining briefly, "I think it might be old memories coming through."

Ventus nodded, "so, do you want to go the sickbay or anything then? I can take you if you feel it's necessary," Sora hesitated, he didn't want to end up going to see the nurse on his first day of school, but he didn't exactly feel up to lessons at the moment, and the bell was about to ring. He nodded his head, smiling sheepishly, "I think I will, but you don't have to take me or anything, I can go by myself, Ventus." Then he paused, remembering the necklace, "that's right, do you want the necklace? If it belonged to your brother then-" he was cut off by Ventus shaking his head, "nah, it's okay, I don't mind taking you to see the nurse, and regarding the necklace, well, I'd like to believe that my brother gave it to you himself, at the least, you have it for a reason, so I think you deserve to get to keep a hold of it. Just make sure you take good care of it, and try to remember if you ever met my brother, 'kay?" Sora nodded, then paused, "actually, I do remember sitting on a clock tower at sunrise, with a boy that looked a lot like you, but he seemed a lot more quiet and sad, I have a few other vague memories about him, but not really anything specific, like when or where I saw him, sorry."

Ventus' eyes widened and he stilled, before a soft smile spread across his face, leaning back against the wall and covering his eyes with his hands, he whispered in a voice filled with utter relief, "so he really is alive, huh? My little brother's still alive, after all these years, th-thanks… Sora," the brunette hesitated, unsure what to say to the blonde, they were both silent for a few moments, then the bell rang. The two looked up towards the sound, and students started heading to class. When Sora turned back to the other boy, he was his smiley, cheerful self once more, "let's take you to sickbay then, Sora." He told the brunette, before grabbing his arm and dragging him off towards the end of the building, "and Sora?" said boy glanced over at the blonde, "yeah?" "Just call me Ven, all my friends do."

Sora lay on one of the beds in sickbay, the mattress wasn't exactly soft, and the lights were bright and hurt his eyes, but it still helped a little, and he was able to sort out his thoughts.

'So I met Ven's missing twin, huh? Does that mean that whatever happened to me, happened to him?' Of course, trying to work out how he knew Ven's twin was just one problem, it explained why he had thought the blonde had looked familiar, but what about those other two? The red-heads, he felt indescribably sad when he thought about them, and he had a feeling that seeing them at school was meant to be impossible, though he didn't know why.

He thought of fire, when he thought back to the boy, and when he thought of the girl, for some reason, his heart constricted and he felt kind of… strange. He didn't understand what either of those two things meant, and trying to think about it was making his head ache worse.

"So what are you in here for?" He heard someone ask him, and he looked up to see a silver haired boy laying back on one of the other beds, he hadn't noticed him when he had come in. Judging by his uniform, the boy was two years above him, since he had been kept back a year because of his disappearance, Sora guessed that he was a year older than him, or they might be the same age and the other had simply been moved up a year.

That sense of familiarity overcame him once more and he wasn't surprised when his head began to ache and he began to feel sick. He squeezed his eyes shut, turning away from the boy, "I've got a bit of a head ache," he muttered, trying to push down unexpected feelings of friendship and trust and sadness- why always sadness?- in the hopes of maintaining a normal conversation.

"Oh?" he heard, glancing back, curious now as the older boy seemed to be perfectly healthy, he asked, "Why are you in here?" The boy shrugged, "hmm… why indeed? I guess I was just a bit sleepy, so I came in here for a lie down."

"Oh, are you going to go back to class?" he asked, he heard the other sigh, "nah, I don't think so, this is my first day back and I'm feeling a bit too lazy, I'll just get the work off my teachers after school and deal with it then, I don't wanna do anymore classes for the day, don't really feel up to it."

Sora nodded, before curling up slightly, he closed his eyes and tried to get too sleep, with his eyes aching and his mind tired, it wasn't long before he began to feel drowsy and started to nod off, "my name's Sora," he told the other boy, before unconsciousness took him. "… I know."

The bell ringing woke Sora out of his doze, his mind felt clearer now after his short nap; though he was a little worried he wouldn't be able to sleep very easily that night because of it. He turned around, lying on his back, gazing up at the white ceiling above him, he remembered a boy that looked a lot like the boy he had just spoken to- rather, identical to the boy he had spoken to before going to sleep. He had a few vague memories of talking to the older boy, along with that red head girl too, and he seemed to remember a pretty blonde, had he been fond of her? The silver haired boy, that is.

He started in surprise, realising he hadn't gotten the other's name, he looked to his left and saw that the boy was in fact still there, dozing peacefully, 'well, he's sleeping now, I can't wake him just to ask him his name.' that decided, he sat up and thought about what he knew, 'I've met Ven's twin- at least, I'm fairly certain it was Ven's twin, and we must have been close or something, since he chose to trust me with his necklace. I've met someone identical to that red head boy, who I associate with fire for some unknown reason. The red head girl is someone I've met to, or someone identical to her, she didn't act like she recognised me at least, and when I think of this girl, I get these strange feelings. Then when I think of that silver haired one, I've either met him before or someone who looks identical- but once again, he didn't seem to recognise me- I must have had him as a friend or something, or he was at least someone I trusted.'

He frowned, leaning back again the bed frame, 'they can't really all have had twins… maybe they forgot their past, just like me?" Sora considered that, it was a plausible explanation, but then, wouldn't they get headaches like him when memories started to rise?

Sora sighed, wondering how he was going to get through a year of school when the very first day was this eventful and stressful.

What was more, he still couldn't seem to remember any names.

He heard a door open, and he looked over to see that a few of his friends had come to check up on him, Ven was there, Atsuko too, he could also see a girl with long brunette hair that was held in two, thick plaits, that was Tomomi, or Tomi, as she had told Sora to call her. The last person in was a blonde girl who had her hair up in a low ponytail, she shut the door behind everyone else.

The first to reach him was Atsuko; she placed her hand on his forehead and looked at him in a speculative manner, "are you feeling better now? You don't seem to have a fever," Sora smile, "I'm feeling fine now," he told her assuredly, turning to the other's to smile at them as well. "Well, try not to go to sick bay too often, you don't want to miss out on too much school, it would be bad if you got behind." He turned back to Atsuko and nodded sheepishly, "yeah, you're right."

"Just so that you know, the others didn't come because we got a whole heap of homework- even though it's only the first day," Ven said in slightly whiny voice, "and they wanted to get it done quickly." Sora shrugged, "I can understand that, it's not like I'm dying anyway."

"Who's dying?" The five who had been talking all turned to the sound of a slightly sleepy voice to see the boy Sora had spoken to recently sitting up and scratching his head tiredly.

Tomi grinned, "no one's dying," she probably would have added something else but Ven started talking before she could. "Yeah, everyone's fine, I'm Ventus by the way," he smiled that friendly, open smile of his as he introduced everyone one by one, "that's Tomomi-" "Tomi," she interrupted, Ven smiled, "yeah, Tomi is what we all call her," he pointed to Atsuko who was looking at Riku oddly, before Ven could say anything she told him quietly, tucking some of her short, brunette hair behind her ear, "my name's Atsuko." Ven nodded, "yup, and that's Sayuri," a point behind him to the unknown blonde girl, "and that's Sora," he finished pointing at last to Sora.

The boy nodded, "yeah, I know Sora, my name's-" "Riku!" All the inhabitants of the room turned to the door to see a short, raven haired girl walk into the room, behind her were those two red heads from earlier. Instantly, Sora's head started hurting at the sight of the new girl and the red heads, he had been avoiding looking at Riku so that he didn't start getting a headache again, but now it was back in full force.

The blonde girl- Sayuri- being the closest, noticed his pained expression, she bent down, "is everything okay?" she asked him softly, placing a hand on his forehead in a similar fashion to Atsuko, her hands were really cold. She paused, frowning, "what? Do I have a fever now?" Sora asked her, wondering why she was being silent. She took a few moments to answer, "um… to be honest, I don't know how this works, I just figured you'd be able to tell, your forehead does feel hot to me, but I have cold hands all the time so… I actually don't know," she removed her hand and looked at Sora thoughtfully, "at the least, I think you should take some Panadol when you get home, or maybe some nurofen, personally, I can't take stuff like that because swallowing pills is really difficult for me. But if you don't have that problem, then you should be fine, if you do then you can always crush it up and mix it with some honey, though that tastes really ick, it's still better than jam though, I tried that once, I wouldn't recommend it." Sora nodded, smiling slightly at the strange girl and her random speech- though he did feel a little better for the small distraction- before tuning back into the conversation everyone else was having.

He stayed focused on Sayuri's face though, he didn't want to look over at the visitor's, he really didn't want his headache to get any worse. "So who are you guys, then? I don't recall seeing you before," he heard Ven ask curiously.

The raven haired girl replied- Sora could tell it was her by her voice- in a flat tone, "well, we're all adopted, by Mr. Darke." Sayuri's eyes lit up in comprehension, "oh, I heard something about him adopting a bunch of kids, and wanting them taught here since he was such old friends with our current mayor. I think he was called Xemnas Darke, I'm not really sure though, because I don't really pay a lot of attention to the news."

Sora's eyes widened at the name, 'why does it seem familiar?' he wondered, dread settling in the pit of his stomach, 'and why does it make me feel so afraid?'

"In regards to our names, well you know Riku's now, I'm Xion, that's Kairi, and that's Axel."

So yeah, they're alive again now, yay.

Also, Darke is literally the best last name for Xemnas, nothing you tell me will persuade me otherwise.

*laughs into eternity*

Sora: My... head h...urts...

That's nice I'm sure...

Who knows, maybe Sora's headache will go away if we get some reviews, *hint hint nudge nudge* ;)