The Number Thirteen

- the first six -


"…Sora?"

Roxas blinked a couple of times, waiting for his eyes to get used to the whiteness. He had heard that name before – Sora – he just didn't know when, or who had said it. But he was sure that this Sora wasn't him, and in order to retaliate, he put down his hand and looked for the person who called him.

He was surprised, to say the least, that a girl like her was living in a place like this. A place where a group of (most probably) deranged people ran around with large weapons at hand, all dressed in seemingly nothing but black cloaks, throwing death threats and insults every minute of every day. To him the place was utterly chaotic, filled with insane morons who apparently had nothing better to do but battle each other in hallways. He was actually surprised that no one seemed to stop them from their daily melees.

To see someone like her in this place was something out of the ordinary indeed.

"…do you live here…?" Roxas found himself asking, once he had reached the high table the girl was sitting by. "I haven't seen you before."

The girl put a crayon she was holding and looked at him – she was at his eye level, with her bright blue eyes peering into his. She had paused for a moment, seemingly trying to find the right words to use, dangling her legs over the edge of the high chair.

"I…haven't seen you before, either." She said. Her voice was soft and quite small, but it fit her just right. She then looked at him closely, as if examining his face. "Are you new?"

"New?" Roxas asked. "Er…I guess you can say that. I arrived here a week ago."

The girl picked up the crayon and went back to her sketchpad, which was lying before her on the tabletop. She went back to work and started to ignore Roxas, who was beginning to get curious of what she was drawing, and had decided to take illegal peeks.

"Hey," he said, now standing on his tiptoes to get a better look. It was getting a bit too silent for his taste, and the continuous dashes that the girl's crayons made against the paper weren't really able to ease his disquiet. "What are you drawing?"

"Nothing." the girl answered, voice quiet, keeping her eyes sharp on the paper.

Roxas stood there, silent. Obviously, the girl wasn't drawing 'nothing' – how stupid did he look for her to believe that he'd take that as an answer? From the small glimpses he managed to scrape together what appeared to be a beach – that definitely wasn't 'nothing'. Getting the feeling that he was unwanted in the too-white room, he took a step back from the table and ran a hand through his spiky blonde hair.

"Look," he said, shifting his gaze to the walls. He squinted for a moment, trying to find the right words to use without sounding too rude. "I'm sorry if I barged in here like this, I really didn't mean it – it was just, it's dangerous downstairs and this tower sort of intrigued me –

He wasn't able to continue what he was supposed to say, though.

"Oh no, I'm really sorry." The girl said, again in her soft voice. She had put her crayon down again and hopped off her high chair; she walked towards Roxas, barefoot, a small sheepish smile etched on her lips. "It's just that…I rarely get visitors… I… I don't really know –

Roxas rubbed the back of his head and laughed nervously. His heart beat fast against his ribcage. Now why didn't he think of that? "No, no, it's okay. It was my fault, after all –

"But you're new," she reasoned, twiddling with her fingers and looking down at her bare feet. Apparently she left her sandals under the table and didn't bother to put them on. "It's not your fault, maybe they didn't inform you yet –

"…inform me of what?"

Right at this moment, Roxas peered down at her, blinking. The girl took a step back – she placed a hand near her chest and looked away, a light blush racing across her cheeks. Roxas straightened himself up and looked at her, waiting for her answer.

"…that I'm a witch."

o o o

"Where have you been off to?"

Roxas turned around to see a redheaded man marching down his way. The green marks on his face were disrupted by two small gashes, both having a small amount of blood trickle down his cheeks. He definitely looked pissed off, judging by his furrowed eyebrows and his narrowed eyes, with the addition that he had a straight line for a mouth.

"What happened to you?"

"Demyx apparently got hold of Larxene's book and told her I stashed it somewhere." He grunted, catching up to the blonde boy after a few long strides. His black cloak joined Roxas's as they headed towards the dining room. "She charged down at me and did this –" he motioned towards his face, "—with her kunais."

"Oh, I see." Roxas replied. Axel getting into a fight wasn't really surprising. "What did you do to Demyx, then?"

"Couldn't find him," Axel answered, annoyed. He took a gloved finger and wiped the blood off his face. "I bet he's slinking around the upper floors so that I won't be able to attack him. 'Ch, I can kill him any time I want to, actually."

"Then why don't you?"

"Too messy. Don't want blood all over my cloak."

Roxas laughed. If you actually ignore his rather short temper and his impatience, plus the weird green marks on his face, Axel was a pretty nice guy.

"Speaking of upper floors…where have you been off to?" Axel suddenly asked, turning to the boy with an inquisitive look on his face. Roxas looked up at him, surprised that the redhead would actually care.

"…nowhere, really."

Axel made a derisive sound. "Really. You know, you can't really hide anything that happens in this castle, you know."

"You said 'you know' twice."

"I know." The man grinned and placed his hand atop Roxas's head, giving it a nice ruffling, before heading to the door.

Roxas didn't really know why he didn't tell Axel about his little visit. There was nothing to hide from him, after all – he just met a girl on one of the estate's many towers, who apparently wasn't used to people that much. He only met a girl that had bright blonde hair and bright blue eyes, a girl who looked so frail and delicate that he was afraid that she'd break when touched. A girl who liked to draw and liked to dangle her feet over edges of high places and leave her sandals behind…

He stood there in front of the dining room door, staring at his hands. He ticked off his fingers one by one. So far, from his first visit, he already knew six things about this mysterious girl.

But because of his somewhat rampant vagueness, he forgot to ask what her name was.

o o o

The sunlight blared through the many windows that lined his bedroom. Waking up to the warmth of the sun wasn't really that bad, but when it was matched with the screams of hatred and pain that came from the other side of the wall, Roxas preferred to not wake up at all.

"Will you just stop about the stupid book!"

"I was already nearing the end, you bastard! Now tell me where you put it or else I'll cut your –

"Why won't you just search the castle yourself! I told you, I don't have a fricking – damn it –

A clap of thunder roared through the castle.

"You're going to wake up Saïx if you continue this!"

Roxas ran a hand through his hair. That was Axel.

"If you'd just give me my damn book back, you won't get clobbered!"

The boy sighed. That was Larxene.

He got out of bed and tried to ignore the battle cries and grunts that came from the other side of the wall. He dressed himself up in his usual cloak after refreshing himself with a shower and tried to think of his plans for the day, all the while messing up his hair with a free hand. But even after going through his morning routine, the two outside were still at it, hurling strings of profanities and insults at each other, often accompanied with booms and bangs.

Deciding that it would be nice to get the girl's name today, Roxas headed to the door.

"What is it with you today!" he could hear the swishing of the wind that probably came from Axel's chakrams. "PMS-ing!"

"Shut the hell up, you son of a –

Before Larxene could finish her string of insults, there was a loud bang – apparently Axel had run out of places to step back to, and he collided with Roxas's door as soon as Roxas had stood up and opened it. In came Axel, tumbling, followed by a Larxene who had been running after him, apparently unaware that Axel was going to fall down to the floor.

Roxas looked down at the pair, all lying in a heap of black cloaks.

Axel grinned. The slashes on his cheeks were gone.

Larxene looked up at him, hand pressed against Axel's chest, pushing herself away from the redheaded man.

"Er…" Roxas started, not knowing what to say.

Axel grinned wider.

"'morning."


Author's notes: yeah, I know the Roxas/Namine's starting off in a slow pace – I promise more things will come. As for the Axel/Larxene…well, I do like the pairing, and if you don't and you'd prefer the Roxas/Namine one, just…er, ignore them. Also, rating's changed to T due to Axel's dirty language. heeheehee.

Plenty of thanks to my first reviewers and the people who put this story in the C2s and their fave lists:D

P.S.: Apparently (after talking with many KH fans), this story can happen with all the Org members alive and well. But Namine would have no idea who Sora was (maybe an inkling) – if put into the canon KH timeline, this will happen before CoM. So...er, yeah.

…I'm thinking too much. Thank you for your support and please review :D