I'm sorry for the wait, guys!! ::sighs:: For some reason, this part of the story just doesn't want to cooperate with me. Bleh... I think I know why, though. It's because I'm getting used to writing something that isn't so centered around self-injury. It's new, but I want to get away from writing SI so much... Hopefully I'll be able to get a handle of this new stuff soon...

Anyway…because I know most of you probly don't even read this thing…onto the chapter…

Enjoy!!…

WARNINGS: language…

Disclaimer: the characters and worlds of Kingdom Hearts belong to Square Enix and Disney…

"…Now sit there and judge me
For the things that I say
But you don't understand pain
And I pity you anyway
But for those of you who hear me
We are strong
So come and follow me
Somewhere else

Wasting I can't be found again
Wasting I know I'll see you someday
Wasting I know be found again
Wasting I know…
Somewhere else…"

—"Getting By" The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus…

Chapter One:
Getting By…

Within darkness there is always light, or so they say. According to Akarian lore, even the darkest heart holds at least a glimmer of light within it. Akarians…always so damned optimistic about life. If it hadn't been for the corruption Ansem had caused once he had been named as an Elder, the people of Akari would probably still trust anyone they saw. Not that I had ever known a time of such trust. Ansem had long since taken his place in the hierarchy of Akari by the time I had been born.

If only the people had seen through Ansem's kind disguise before he had been able to come into power. If only they had looked into his deep golden eyes—such a foreign eye color to those of Akari—and seen the malice that had resided in their depths. If only they could have realized their gullibility before Ansem had started to feed them lies about Kurai. Before he started to trick them into believing every single word that fell out of his mouth.

Saying these things makes me a hypocrite, I guess. Roxas and I had been Ansem's apprentices of sorts and had spent more time around the eccentric blonde than we had around our own older brother. If anyone, we should have been the ones to see the darkness that lingered within Ansem, the shadow that would one day lay itself over the people of Akari and hold them under its control for thousands of years. Yet, we never had.

It could have been the fact that Ansem blended in with the people of Akari so well that helped them to trust him so much easier than anyone else. Fair hair wasn't an uncommon sight in the kingdom. Blondes and brunettes of many different shades roamed the busy streets, all with stunning sapphire or emerald eyes. One healer in the castle had even been blessed with both eyes colors. Such eyes were seen as a gift from the Source and she was praised as the most skilled healer in the land.

Kurai was the complete opposite of Akari's plain normality. The beings who lived there sported every hair color, from black to white and red to violet. Even eye colors carried the same variety, though it was often eye color that determined the strength of the demon. If a demon had gold eyes, he was instantly given a high rank in the kingdom. Eyes of the palest green were the only competition against gold eyes. Most would think that red would be the eye color to kill the rest of them. Unfortunately, a being born with red eyes was seen as cursed and sent immediately to Kōryōtaru Jimen to rot, along with beings of mixed blood.

Shadow seraphs, or hybrids from both worlds, were more than naught born insane. The child didn't develop in a way that was normal for other children, and when they came into their powers the magick held more control over them than they had over it. Terrified of what the mad child would do, the higher-ups demanded that the children be exiled the moment they came of age.

Some Shadow seraphs, however, managed to hold onto their sanity and gain the ability to control their powers. Cloud Strife would be one such example. Not only was he the product of "cross-breeding," but he was also illegitimate. The Angelic genes in his mother's blood had dominated over the Dark genes in his father's blood and gave him the looks of a normal Akarian boy. The only signs of his father's blood had come later in his life. Cloud had been infatuated with song and dance at a young age, something that was uncommon for one of Akari. Both were almost seen as sins. The songs spoke of a past that never existed and the dances were too racy for the proper people of Akari to partake in. Song and dance in Kurai, however, were revered as highly spiritual practices that brought one closer to the gods and goddesses. Because of the link to Kurai, Cloud's love of song and dance was feared and he was exiled…

But the rest of his story is for another time.

Sometimes it's painful to think of a place I have never seen but in memories, to remember people I have talked to but never heard their voices… Less than a year before, I would have thought myself crazy, but now I only knew that they were only the remnants of my awakening. And I had so much more remembering left to do. I remembered the people, I remembered the places, I remembered the times, I remembered the struggles…but there were so many dark, empty spots in my memories that it hurt. It hurt to try and touch them sometimes, but I knew that I would have to delve into them sooner or later.

Knowing that Roxas was with me was the only thing that managed to keep me sane. Riku and Leon, my other two pillars of support, were gone and all of my weight was resting on Roxas. I hated knowing that most of my burdens were resting on Roxas' shoulders, but it helped knowing that he was there. Just knowing that I had someone there to help me up whenever I fell made all the difference in the world.

o-o-o-o-o

Maho pulled to a stop in front of the house with the second to last carload of belongings that we had to move in. She cut the engine and climbed out of the car, Roxas following closely in her wake, but I couldn't bring myself to move. The old off-white house seemed to loom ominously over the car.

A sharp knock made me jump and pulled me violently from my thoughts. I blinked a couple of times to clear my head and noticed that Roxas was standing outside my door with a small frown on his face. I made sure to throw him a good glare as I opened the door and climbed out, ignoring the almost silent grumbles that came from his general direction.

I walked around the car to the trunk and grabbed one of the two boxes that were back there. Still ignoring Roxas, I trudged my way through the slushy snow on the sidewalk and made my way into the house. I kicked my shoes off at the door before I walked up the stairs and down the hallway to what was starting to reflect Roxas' room. It had been a rarely used guest bedroom before, but now that it had all of Roxas' belongings in it, it looked a little more homely.

I sighed heavily and dropped the box I was carrying onto the floor, coughing as the action made a plume of dust explode into the air. A small chuckle behind me brought my attention to the blonde who had just walked into the room, carrying with him the last box from the car. Placing my best scowl on my face, I turned and glared at Roxas with my fists propped on my hips.

Roxas laughed and rolled his eyes, setting his box on top of the table beside the door. "You're such a chick."

I stuck my tongue out at him, and just like that, my annoyance was gone. Smiling, I turned away from him and tore the box open. It was filled with all of his CDs and PlayStation games. I grabbed a CD from the box and searched the room for Roxas' stereo, silently cheering when I found it. I quickly found a socket and plugged the stereo in before I popped in the CD and hit play. Mindless Self-Indulgence blasted from the speakers, and I heaved heavy sigh. Roxas laughed and rolled his eyes, tearing open his own box.

We unpacked together in our companionable silence until Maho burst into the room with her hands pressed to her ears. She was shouting, but we couldn't make out what she was saying. Roxas and I stared at her in amusement for a few seconds before she went to the stereo and turned the volume down to a safer decibel level with a frown on her face.

"People on the other side of town could hear your music!" she huffed. "And what was that crap, anyway? It sounded like a dying squirrel on acid or something."

Roxas laughed loudly and I followed suit. Maho stood by the stereo with a scowl on her face and her arms crossed over her chest while she waited for use to finish our insane giggling. When we were finally able to get control over ourselves, she sighed heavily and shook her head, muttering something that sounded like "boys" while she walked out of the room.

Roxas snorted and shouted, "It's MSI, not a dying squirrel on acid!" as he went to the stereo and changed the CD. When the calmer sounds of Three Days Grace started to play, I quirked an eyebrow but didn't say anything. I heard Roxas sigh but wasn't expecting him to say anything, so I was surprised when he spoke up.

"They were one of Axel's favorite bands," he muttered. "It hurts to listen to them for too long."

I nodded, completely understanding what he was talking about. There hadn't been a time yet that I hadn't changed the radio station or switched to the next song on the CD whenever the opening sounds of "I'll Be" started to play. It was too painful to listen to the song. It called forth too many memories.

Speaking of things that call forth painful memories, I wasn't looking forward to returning to school. Roxas and I had never planned on returning since my release from the hospital, but it seemed that the school had caught onto the fact that I was well enough to return to the government form of Hell and if that was the case then Roxas didn't need to stay home and take care of me anymore, either. They expected us to be back at the beginning of the week, which gave us three days to prepare ourselves. We really didn't want to go back, but seeing that Maho would get into quite a bit of trouble if we didn't, we didn't have any other options. And it wasn't like we couldn't use the distraction. Returning to the hustle and bustle would help to keep our minds out of the depressing corners they tended to wander into whenever we had down time at home.

Sighing quietly, I started to look around the room for something to do. When I found nothing, I settled on going OCD on a lamp. I turned it back and forth repeatedly, sighing when it was perfect. A laugh from Roxas' direction drew my attention to him just as he was pulling yet another poster from the dwindling stack on top of his bed. He pulled off the tape and unrolled it so he could see which one it was. He crinkled his nose slightly at whatever image was on the front and let the ends go so it would roll it self up before grabbing another and repeating the process.

After about half an hour of barely paying attention to Roxas when he asked me if the poster was straight or if he needed to raise or lower a corner, I slipped away to my bedroom and fell onto my bed with a heavy sigh. I lay on my stomach for awhile with my face turned to the side so I could stare out my window before I rolled over and grabbed a worn book from my nightstand.

I stared absentmindedly at the cover of A Millennium of Pain, losing myself in the beautiful painting that had been used in the design. It was to be understood that the creatures in the painting were supposed to be semblances of angels and demons, yet they were so beautiful. The only way to tell the difference between the two races was the color of their wings. The angels' were white, and of course, the demons' were black. I couldn't help but wonder if Riku had wings. I knew that Roxas did, but I had never seen Riku's wings in the six months that we had been together. I would have to find out next time we saw each other.

Would there really be a next time? Both Riku and Axel had promised it before leaving, and Roxas promised it everyday, but I couldn't help but think that there wouldn't be a next time. I couldn't help but think that I would never again see Riku's deep, complacent eyes or witness another one of Axel's spastic moments. And was it really irrational to be having the thoughts? The only time lapse I had to judge from was the one between our past and present encounters, and that had been more than a thousand years.

Sighing heavily, I dropped the book back onto my bedside table and rolled back onto my side so I could stare out the window. It was starting to get dark outside, but I could see the dark clouds that were starting to gather on the horizon. Lightning flashed in the clouds and made them look even more threatening than they already did. A distant boom of thunder rumbled in the distance and made the windows rattle in their frames. This wasn't going to be a very pretty storm.

'You okay, So?'

I jumped slightly at the sudden sound of Roxas' voice in my head. I blinked away my surprise quickly, though, and answered him with a quiet mental sigh.

'Yeah, I'm fine. Why?'

He sighed and I could picture him shrugging. 'You just left without saying anything. I thought you went to the bathroom or something, but you never came back, so yeah…'

'Yeah. I just needed some time to think by myself.'

He gave my mind a small nudge that made me smile. 'Okay. Well, you know where I am whenever you feel like having company again.'

'Thanks.'

He laughed, but it was the only answer I got before he dimmed our connection and left me to my own devices again. Yawning loudly , I snuggled down into my bed and closed my eyes to give into the sudden exhaustion that clouded my mind.

o-o-o-o-o

'It's almost time.'

o-o-o-o-o

I snapped awake and sat up in my bed, letting my eyes gaze around the room wearily. I couldn't see anything, even after I rubbed my eyes and blinked and tried to clear my vision. Everything was black. Almost immediately, I started to panic. I patted the area around me and felt the softness of my blankets and bed, but it didn't help to comfort me. A scream started to bubble up in my throat but I forced myself to swallow it. I didn't know what time it was and I didn't want to wake anyone up if it was late.

'Breathe,' I told myself and took a second to calm down and a take a nice deep breath. 'Now count to ten. 1…2…3…4……'

When I made it all the way to ten, I took another deep breath and rubbed gently at my eyes. Holding my breath, I let my eyes slide open and sighed when I could see. I was in my room. Everything was in order and no one was out to get me. Well, at least not at that precise moment.

I grumbled quietly under my breath, wondering what had woken me so suddenly, and ran a hand back through my hair. I could only sigh when I cast a glance at my alarm clock to check the time. It felt like I had only been asleep for a couple of minutes, but it had really been about three hours. I sighed again and rubbed at my eyes in agitation, finally opening my ears to pay attention to my surroundings.

The storm I had predicted earlier was raging outside. Rain pounded angrily against my window pane as a bright flash of lightning lit up the sky and my room, making it seem strangely eerie. All of a sudden, I wanted to be anywhere but locked up in my room at the moment.

Casting a glance toward my alarm clock to confirm that it was only one-thirty, I grabbed my light brown stuffed dog from my bed and hugged it close to me as I climbed out of bed, sighing fondly. I had been surprised to find Patches lying on my desk chair the day we had started moving into the house. I hadn't seen the silly stuffed dog in years. Actually, I had thought that my mom had thrown it away, and when I saw his little black plastic eyes staring at me from my desk chair, I wanted to scream and cling to him, all whilst crying. Unfortunately, though, Roxas was with me and who knew how he would have reacted to that sight. He probably would have called me a pussy or something and rolled his eyes.

Being lost in my thoughts, I didn't realize that there was a threatening trunk in the way until my foot connected with it and a sharp pain shot up my leg. I hissed quietly and glared at the offending trunk with the best "I freaking hate you" glare I could muster before I stalked past it and pulled my door open.

The hallway seemed infinitely long in the dark and even creepier than it usually did because of the waves of rain that reflected from the windows and danced across the walls and floor. A shiver rippled through my body when I stepped into the hall and I walked down to Roxas' room as quickly as I could, trying not to pay attention to the wind that was beating against the side of the house.

And did I ever mention that I hate thunderstorms? No? Rain was all fine and dandy with me. Hell, I loved the rain. It was fun to play around in and it almost always seemed to match my mood. But thunderstorms… I don't know what it was about them. It had been so long since I had been "aware" during a storm that I couldn't remember why I was so afraid of them in the first place. Two years of living in an apathetic world can do that to a person.

I knocked lightly on Roxas' door when I reached it, pressing my ear to the faux wood surface to listen for a response. When there wasn't one, I knocked again and listened harder, grumbling when there was still no response.

I frowned and pressed my ear further against the door and listened as hard as I could. The barely there sounds of music pouring from headphones along with Roxas' whispered singing drifted across my ears and made me smile fondly. Roxas and his music. They sure were a pair.

Foregoing the knocking this time, I quietly opened the door and tiptoed into the room, closing the door just as quietly behind me. Roxas didn't hear a thing. He was sprawled out on his bed with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head, tapping a foot to the beat of the music that was blaring into his ears. He was as vulnerable as he would ever get.

With a smirk on my face, I dropped Patches onto the floor beside the door and tiptoed to the side of the bed. When Roxas still didn't sense that anything was different in the room, I pounced. A rather loud shout and string of curses ensued and made me erupt into a fit of giggles, even as Roxas punched me hard on the arm.

"Sora, you ass!" he grumbled, ripping the oversized headphones from his ears and pressing the stop button on his MP3 player. "You could have knocked."

I snorted. "I did. Twice. When you didn't answer, I decided I would have a little fun…at your expense, of course."

He glared at me, but I shrugged it off. We were so used to each other's glares and mood swings by now that nothing could get to us anymore. It wasn't often when we were genuinely angry with the other. There wasn't enough time in life to waste it on anger, or so I was starting to believe.

"Sorry," he muttered, "but don't you think the glomping was a little over excessive? A nice poke in the side would have been sufficient, don't you think?"

I shrugged. "Poking causes pregnancy. Didn't want to risk it. I mean, how would we explain that one to Maho?"

He snorted and rolled his eyes, but I couldn't help but grin at the small smile that twitched at the corners of his lips. "You are such a moron," he sighed.

I grinned and nodded happily. "Sure am. Would you love me if I was anything else?"

He rolled his eyes and settled back down onto his bed. He moved his MP3 player and headphones onto his bedside table and patted the open space on the bed beside him. I wasn't going to take the offer, but a bright flash of lightning followed by a loud crash of thunder was the push I needed and I dove into bed with him. Roxas laughed and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me close to him with a quiet sigh.

"I forgot that you hated storms so much," he muttered, rubbing my back softly in what I guessed was an attempt to get me to stop shaking.

I shrugged slightly and hid my head in his chest as another boom of thunder rattled the windows. "I don't even remember why they scare me so much. They just do."

He laughed and hugged me close to him, continuing to rub my back slowly and gently while the storm passed along.

o-o-o-o-o

'Wait for me.'

o-o-o-o-o

I don't remember falling asleep, but I do remember waking up the next morning. It's kind of hard not to remember, seeing that my ass was viciously attacked by a damp bath towel at seven-thirty in the morning. I yelped loudly and shot up in bed, at once realizing that I wasn't in my room and that a half-dressed Roxas was laughing on his knees on the floor.

"Asshole! What was that for?" I hissed, giving him the best death glare I could.

"It's time to get up, So-chan!" he said in a sickeningly sweet voice. He leaned in close as he pushed himself up off the ground. "And payback's a bitch, isn't it?"

I glared at him coldly, then glanced once more at the clock to make sure that it really was seven-thirty like I thought it was. "No way. Uh-uh. Not at this ungodly hour it's not. Try again around nine or ten."

I snuggled back down into the blankets and was only met with yet another strike from the towel.

"Gods dammit, Roxas! I'm trying to sleep!"

He frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "We gotta help Maho finish moving the rest of the stuff out of the apartment, remember? They're gonna show it tomorrow and don't want any of our stuff to be left there. Kinda shitty if you ask me, but what can we do about it?"

I groaned and peeked up at him from over the top of my blankets. "Go back to bed?" I muttered with mock hope.

Roxas laughed, but one more surprise hit from the towel got me out of bed and chasing him around the room. Only when Maho stuck her arm into the room and clothes-lined Roxas did we stop, and that was only because I had collapsed on the floor from laughing so hard. Roxas gagged and sputtered and glared up at his mother with the fiercest look I had ever seen on his face. Maho just smiled at him sweetly before she turned her attention to me.

"Get off the floor and get dressed, Sora, before I have to do something worse to you."

I jumped up from the floor with a loud gulp and ran out to my own bedroom without needing any more encouragement from Maho. After seeing what she had done to Roxas, I knew that she could beat my ass if she wanted to. She was a strong woman…and scary. Yeah, don't forget about scary. Oh, yes, and spastic.

After grabbing whatever T-shirt and pair of jeans I got my hands onto first, I was ready in the record time of five minutes. I ran downstairs and gulped down a quick glass of orange juice and stood patiently by the door while I waited for Roxas.

I started to get worried when they didn't get downstairs as quickly as I had been expecting, but after a loud snap and a pained shout from Roxas, Maho was downstairs in no time, a pissed off Roxas following closely on her heels.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" I asked with a glare.

Roxas just returned the glare, but the soft rub he gave his backside was the only answer I needed.

Maho slipped into her shoes by the door and grabbed her purse and jacket from the rack beside the door before she turned to us with a big smile on her face. "There's not much left to move so I was thinking that we could go out for brunch or whatever after we get done."

Roxas seemed to perk up at the mention of food and he looked up at his mom with a cold face but soft eyes. "Sounds good. What do you think, So?"

I nodded, excited about eating out, even though we did it almost all the time. Needless to say, Maho wasn't the greatest cook, but she wouldn't let Roxas or me close to the stove unless we were making ourselves ramen for lunch. I don't know what her problem was, seeing that Roxas was a great cook, but I just learned to live with it. And if it made me fat in the process…well, who cares?

The three of us left the house in silence. We would have made it all the way to the apartment in silence as well if Roxas and Maho hadn't have spent a good chunk of the drive arguing over what station they wanted to listen to. Maho wanted 102.3 because they played "whatever from whenever," but Roxas wanted 104.3 because they played all different kinds of rock music. Just in spite of Roxas, I offered that we listen to 96.5, but that offer was shot down quickly. None of us liked rap music and refused to put up with it, even if we were using it to torture someone else.

When they finally settled on 102.3, the car finally calmed and got quiet. I stared absentmindedly out the window, mouthing the words to the Goo Goo Dolls song that was playing, while Roxas was slouched down in the seat in front of me with his eyes closed. I could just barely hear him singing along to the music and it made me smile.

What felt like an eternity later, Maho pulled into the parking garage and the spot for apartment number 127 for what would most likely be the last time. She turned the car off and led the way to the small apartment that looked so much bigger than it really was now that almost all of their belongings had been removed.

We took our time in clearing out the rest of the boxes from the apartment, each of us giving our silent goodbyes. It was sad that we had to leave the place, but it was time for something bigger. There was just one thing that refused to stop nagging at the back of my mind. Sure, it was time for a bigger place because Roxas and I were too big to share a bedroom, but was it really the right thing to do? Roxas and I had no idea how much longer we were even going to be living in the house. Was it really fair to Maho for us to leave her alone in such a large place? The only thing that helped to quell my misgivings about the move was the fact that Maho knew that we didn't know how much longer we were going to be there and she had still agreed to the move.

By the time I was jolted back into reality, Maho was pulling into a parking place in front of a restaurant and the sweet smell of food made my stomach growl in hunger, forcing me to forget about my minor blackout. Maho giggled as we unloaded from the car and headed into the restaurant. It wasn't too busy, seeing that it was already close to noon and the breakfast crowd had long since dispersed, so it didn't take long for us to be seated by a hostess who took the orders for our drinks with a sickeningly sweet smile on her face.

I grabbed my menu from the table and started to look through the different entrees to find something to sate the angry beast that was my stomach. The pancakes looked awfully good in the picture, but the French toast sounded awfully good. Then again, a ham and cheese omelet sounded pretty good too. I sighed. Which was better? Something that looked better or something that sounded better? Decisions, decisions.

"You boys know what you're going to order yet?" Maho piped up, tearing me from my deep thoughts.

I looked at her over the top of my menu and wasn't surprised that she had already closed her menu and had her locked hands sitting on top of it. I thought about getting her help with my serious decisions issues, but decided that it was better to leave it alone. She probably would understand my logic behind it anyway.

"No. Everything looks wonderful," I muttered.

She laughed and shook her head. "Sorry, but I don't think I can afford everything, Sora."

"He would eat it if he could," Roxas joked, elbowing me playfully in the side.

"Are you suggesting that I'm fat?" I exclaimed indignantly, crossing my arms over my chest with a pout.

Roxas rolled his eyes. "No. We would never do that, would we, Maho?" He winked at his mom and Maho covered her mouth with her hands to stifle her escalating giggles.

"Tubby McLardPants!" she shouted through her fingers and gave herself over to the giggle fit. Loudly.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and a small blush played over my cheeks when people started to look at us in curiosity. I kicked Roxas in the shin and gave him a look that blatantly said "Shut her up!" when he threw a glare in my direction. He sighed and pretended to drop something on the floor. When he bent over to pick it up, he kicked out a leg and nailed Maho in the shin. She yelped loudly and grabbed her leg with a pout.

"Hey! What was that for, Roxas?" she grumbled.

He shrugged and took a casual sip from his glass of orange juice. "I figured I would save you from embarrassing yourself any longer."

She narrowed her eyes at the blonde, but with one quick glance around the restaurant, a blush bloomed across her face and she sunk down into her chair. If she could have crawled beneath the table without looking any stranger than she already did, I think that she would have.

"Oh," she whispered. "It was still mean, though."

He shrugged and took another sip from his glass as the waitress sauntered up to the table to take our order. We ordered quickly, even though Roxas and I still weren't quite sure what we really wanted. Maho proceeded to pout throughout the wait for our food, so Roxas and I made small talk to keep the silence at bay for as long as we could.

"Are you ready to head back to school, So?" Roxas muttered.

I sighed. We had had this conversation at least three times already, but it was something to divert my attention from darker thoughts so I sighed and answered. "Not really. I mean, it's been almost four months."

Roxas snorted. "Tell me about it. You would think that they would keep us out until next year and make us repeat the year."

I nodded. "Yeah. Thankfully they're not, though. It would be nice to graduate."

Roxas nodded, but I knew that he was thinking the same thing that I was. We weren't going to graduate. Hell, we would be lucky to make it to next month without being hounded by Ansem to return home.

It wasn't fair! And even though I knew from the beginning that it wasn't going to be fair, I couldn't help but hate Ansem even more for doing this to us. Roxas and I had already lived difficult lives. He had spent the greater part of his life going back and forth between foster homes until he had been placed with Maho when he was fifteen. And the gods know how difficult my life was from the beginning. Why couldn't Ansem just grant us the one thing we had both dreamt about for years? Our high school diplomas. Why couldn't he let us feel like we had actually achieved something in our dismal lives instead of making us feel like failures for the rest of our lives?

Thankfully, our food came soon after, and my thoughts and all attempts at awkward conversation were silenced as we started to stuff our faces with food. Even Maho seemed to loosen up a bit, as she was the first one to talk while we were eating.

Maho dabbed at the corners of her lips with her napkin and took a sip of her coffee, then propped her elbows on the table with her face in her palms and looked between us with a small smile on her face.

Roxas flinched and furrowed his brow. "You can stop that anytime now. It's creepy."

She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Well…I was wondering if you boys knew what you wanted for your birthday. It's coming up, you know?"

I tensed and sighed when I heard Roxas sigh from beside me. We were well aware of the fact that our birthday was coming up, and while most teenagers would be counting down until the day that they turned eighteen, Roxas and I were dreading it. Roxas had his mind set that that was when Ansem was going to send the request for our return to Akari. It wasn't going to be a day for celebration and presents if he was right.

When I realized that Roxas wasn't going to say anything in response to Maho's question, I sighed and shrugged, taking a rather large gulp from my mug of cooling hot cocoa. Maho looked expectantly between the two of us for a few more seconds, happiness sparkling in her bright green eyes, before she sighed and dropped her head. She fidgeted briefly with the way her mug sat on her placemat and looked up at us sadly.

"I know that you're not going to be here for much longer, but…" She sniffed quietly, and I braced myself for an onslaught of tears. "…but I want to do something for you. You both are very special to my heart and I want you to remember me when you're gone. I don't want you to forget about me."

Roxas sighed and patted Maho's arm softly. "Don't worry," he said softly. "You're not the kind of person that'll be easy to forget. You're amazing, Maho. I'll never be able to forget everything you've done for me since you took me into your home."

I nodded in agreement. "He's right. You've done so much for us that not even words can tell you how thankful we are."

Maho smiled and her eyes sparkled with happiness and unshed tears. "Thank you," she whispered.

Roxas and I smiled brightly and the three of us dove back into our food. The rest of the brunch was full of friendly banter and laughter. I wish things could have stayed like that forever. And man…I was really starting to sound like a broken record.

TBC…
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A/N: Oookay…so is it sad when the first chapter of a fic is a filler chapter? ::sighs:: Yeah, I know it is, but it's pretty much downtime until they get the letter from Akari to return. Well…next chapter will be a little more interesting, with them returning to school and all…only to find that some others have disappeared as well. ::winks::…

I already miss writing Riku and Axel!!!! ::cries:: I can't wait until the first ((AS, AS)). They're such fun characters to write…

Anyway…I apologize for the length of this chapter. It's only 8 pages. Two pages shorter than usual, but I thought that would be a good place to end and I couldn't think of anything else to write. I'm sick of forcing myself to write. Hopefully things will go better when I start work on the next chapter…

Sorry for any typos and stuff…

As always, thanks to any and all readers and reviewers. You all are amazing, especially for sticking in with me through those other two crappy prologues. Hehe... I really thank you all from the bottom of my heart…

Until next chapter, adieu…