The sharp buzzing of the alarm pulled Xehanort from his sleep after continuing for about five mintes. He tiredly reached over and pressed one of the buttons on the alarm though it seemed to do nothing. With a slight grumble, he continued to mess with the clock until he found the right button and ultimately silenced the alarm. Xehanort left his hand on his alarm clock for a moment only to pull his arm back and rub his face with both hands, finally opening his eyes and staring upwards towards the dark ceiling overhead. Morning had finally come and though the night felt so long, he felt as though he had gotten no sleep. "Damn," he mumbled as he rubbed his face again to try to force himself to wake up more so. He managed to push his sheets off of himself, the blankets were at the foot of his bed as last night seemed to become rather hot though the thermostat had indicated the air conditioner was working fine.

Xehanort forced himself to sit up and swing his legs over the side of bed, letting his feet touch the cold floor though it felt good to him considering he had been rather hot during the night. He rubbed the back of neck, the clammy wet warmth of his neck was rather disturbing to him. He shook his head slowly and rose from the bed and wandered down the hall and towards the bathroom, fetched a towel from the closet as he passed by it and slung it over his shoulder. He finally walked into the bathroom and hung the towel on its holder before catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror: his hair was a total mess and now had faint black rings starting to form under his eyes. "Jeez," Xehanort muttered as he leaned closer to the mirror and looked at his eyes. "This is just pathetic," he sighed looking at his rather red eyes. "I should really get more sleep." He shook his head and started the water for his shower, waiting for it to warm up.

Within a half an hour of climbing out of his bed, Xehanort felt more awake, clean, had fixed his hair, and for the most part was dressed. "Perhaps I'm simply over thinking things," he muttered to himself while running a brush through his hair, afraid to look unkempt. "But look at Dilain and his dreads," he said attempting to convince himself not to worry. "Those things are rather. . . dirty," Xehanort continued, finally pulling himself away from his bathroom mirror. He walked down the hall and into his living room, buttoning his shirt up carefully as he wandered about, missing a table and walking around a lamp before walking into the kitchen. Finished with his shirt, he reached out to turn on his coffee pot though stopped himself: he now had a place where he could go and have some coffee with others, did he not? He withdrew his hand and turned away from the coffee pot with a faint smile worn.

Finally he put on his shoes, some nice boots which apparently all the apprentices wore while working due to the non-marking and non-slip soles on the boots. "I think that's it." He gave another look around his living room, searching for anything that he might need: his wallet was in his pocket, keys in hand, and Ansem had told him that journals and logs would be provided for him. Then that was everything, was it not? Again, Xehanort slipped his hands into his pockets and checked his keys and his wallet. Giving a slight nod of approval, he pulled his hands out and glanced towards his left wrist, expecting to see a watch though found that he was not wearing one. He gave a quiet sigh only to return to his living room, fumbling with his watch and deeming that it was time to go.

The morning air was crisp and fresh and the clouds towards the east were reflecting the sunlight with a metallic orange color while the night sky from the west faded from purple to a rosy pink while the sun was still hidden by the horizon. A slight breeze would blow occasionally and made the morning feel slightly chilly. Xehanort took in a deep breath, enjoying the air as he walked down the street with his hands in his pockets. For some reason this morning felt different to him. Was it the a new wind for a new beginning? Was it a sign of good things to come? He could only hope so. The scent of the morning dew was slowly over powered by the smell of coffee as Xehanort neared Radiant Café. Finding the smell to be somewhat soothing, a soft smile came to his lips as he turned and entered the café, the bell above the door jingling as he entered.

He stood in line for a few moments before finally placing his order of black coffee, the same as yesterday. However as he waited for his order, Xehanort noticed a thin book left on the counter – apparently the last customer had left it.

"Here's your coffee sir." Xehanort looked up from the book and accepted his coffee with a smile and nod before taking it along with the book and going after who had apparently been standing in front of him.

"Excuse me," he called after the woman, her familiar hair making it easy to find her once again: that blue hair with a gray tint to it should have made him realize sooner who it had been standing in line right in front of him. "Naida, was it?" She paused and turned around, coffee cup in one hand and a stack of books in the other arm once again.

"Oh! Xehanort – is that my book?" She asked noticing the rather old book his hand. "Thanks. I thought the load felt lighter. Just slide it on top-" Naida was silenced as Xehanort shook his head and pulled the books from her arms.

"I'll take them to your table for you," he offered tucking the pile of books under his arm for the time being.

"If you insist," Naida said giving a slight shrug though she was quick to pick out the nearest table for him to set the books down. "Thanks," she said as Xehanort placed the books on the table only for him to give a nod in reply. "Why don't you sit for a little bit? Or do you have to go?"

"Well," Xehanort paused and looked down at the watch on his hand, only now noticing he had put it on backwards so the six was at the top of the wrist instead of the twelve. He shook his head, sighing at him messing up putting on a simple watch.

"You don't?"

"Oh – No. I do, I just…" Xehanort sighed and finally held out his arm for her to see the watch. "Can't seem to get a watch on correctly, anymore," he said forcing a chuckle, feeling his face becoming flush out of embarrassment while Naida laughed quietly at the upside down watch.

"Well, sit down for a little bit, and fix your watch while you're here?" She asked tapping the table lightly with her hand. Finally Xehanort sat down in the chair and set to fixing his watch. "So, excited?"

"About?"

"Your first day as an apprentice, what else?"

"Oh. Well, I didn't know what you meant," Xehanort sighed only to have to take a moment and think over the matter of if he was excited or not. "Not so much excited as I am nervous," he admitted. "I don't know what those five have in mind for the day, but I get the feeling that I'll be facing certain hell if they have their way."

"You'll be fine."

"Says you," He said quietly. "But let's face it, Braig brought up a great point yesterday: I don't have any training in the science field and even if I did I certainly don't remember it."

"I already told you, didn't I? If he picked you that's because he sees something in you. Ansem knows what he's doing, even if he is such a kid at heart."

"What do you mean?"

"That man loves his ice cream and his games, at least that how he seems to be. He always has his sea salt ice cream when he's walking the streets," Naida laughed. "There have been occasions where he has come down to the school to speak with the children and it never fails that when he arrives, there will be a wooden popsicle stick in his hand."

"Oh wow," Xehanort muttered, slightly taken back by the new image of Ansem the Wise which was forming in his mind. He managed to shake the image after a moment and decided it was best to change the topic. "You said you were a teacher, didn't you?"

"Yes," she replied with a nod. "I teach, or at least try, the fifth graders a natural science class."

"And what does that include really?"

"Nothing too complicated. Basically water cycle, basics for photosynthesis without delving too deep into the chemistry of it – the basic stuff about our world."

"I never would have thought you to be a science teacher," he commented as leaned forward on the table, placed an elbow on the table and leaned his head on the back of his hand.

"Really? And why not?" She asked, mimicking him while giving a smirk. "It's because I don't have glasses, isn't it? Or the lab coat? It's the lab coat."

"No – it was the books. You had so many of them that I figured you were teaching them how to read better."

"They're all books that I borrowed from Master Ansem's library. Since the city doesn't have its own public library established yet, I have to go to Master Ansem's library at the beginning of every year. All of them so the kids can do their research and so some fun projects and games."

"I see."

"Well, I actually better get going before it gets too late. I need to finish setting up the classroom still and I've only a couple hours to do that."

"School starts soon?"

"Today actually." Naida rose and gathered her books up in her arms again only to pause. "It was nice talking to you again. We should do this more often."

"Yeah. It's really good to have someone to sit and talk with."

"Oh. I don't know if you know much about this place, but you may want to start getting some heavier clothing. Near the end of fall, it gets rather chilly." Xehanort nodded towards her:

"Thanks for the advice, Naida." He smiled softly as she gave him a final wave and started out of the café. When she left, he glanced down towards his watch only to have to take a double take: he needed to hurry down towards the castle. "Crap!"

- - -

"He's got two minutes."

"What a shame to late for the first day," Ienzo sighed quietly after Dilan announced the remaining time. "Well, he'll learn the hard way now, won't he?"

"If he sets us behind by being late, then he won't hear the end of it! I'll make sure he starts coming into work earlier if I need to in order to get him here at normal time."

"Oh calm down, Even," Braig sighed as he slouched in his chair, rocking back and forth in it, causing it to squeak ever so quietly as he did so. "He'll be here."

"And what makes you so sure of that?!"

"Just a feelin' that I have. Just…Listen." Silence finally overcame the room and the muffled thud of feet hitting the ground quickly could be heard. "Poor guy's running to get here on time."

"Serves him right! Running the risk of causing us to start lat-"

"I'm sorry I'm late!" Xehanort called as he burst through the doors of the office area.

"Hmph. You better be-"

"He had half a minute left," Dilan said, stopping Even short. "Congratulations, you arrived on time. Your first of many tasks for the day has been completed."

"Time to get to the real stuff then," Ienzo muttered. "To the library we go." Without another word, Ienzo, followed by the other four, exited the office and left Xehanort in confusion. Finally, Xehanort turned and followed after the others and they filed into a large two story room with bookshelves lining every wall and jutting out and yet every single shelf had books packed on very tightly except the few gaps left which were obviously from someone removing a book.

"This place is massive," Xehanort whispered in awe as he looked at the library, turning around as he walked along, completely stunned by the collection of books he had just been led to by the others who seemed to be unfazed by room and that which it contained.

"Alright, we've got to get our research done before we even begin," Dilan called over his shoulder as he cleared off a few books from the large table in the library. The group slowly split up in different directions except Xehanort who was left rather confused about the whole situation until Braig pulled him along.

"So here's the issue, buddy – we're attempting to investigate something that's been bothering Ansem for a good long while: it's really hard to get flowers to grow in Radiant Gardens, within the city is fairly easy because we can process the soil but beyond the city the land's pretty barren. There aren't any plants out there."

"But what does that have to do with library?"

"We need to do some background research so we can start on the experiments. We need to make sure we know the composition of the soil beyond here and the soil which we use to grow plants, identify the differences between the soils and attempt to understand what it is which prevents the plants from growing naturally without our care."

"Then why are you so spread out if you need to just figure out this one thing?"

"My man, think about this. We need to know all of the common species of the plants of Radiant Gardens in order to determine the best one to use in our experiments. Then we need to make sure we understand the soils, and the components to the best of our abilities and. . .All that stuff. So, we've fanned out to looking at our plants sections throughout the library and all that jazz. Just calm down, stop drooling over the size of the place, and just focus on the thing we got to do."

"Alright.-"

"Good."

"But-"

"But what?!"

"I don't even know the layout of this place!" Braig sighed and shook his head at Xehanort.

"Alright. Consider this your first and last tour of this place. You better get to know this place well enough quickly. If not, you're going to be in a world of trouble down the road." Braig waved his hand to tell Xehanort to follow.

After a about an hour spent in the library, the group had gathered at the table with one chair having a stack of paper and a couple of pens. However, Xehanort was quick to notice that the others avoided the chair and ultimately left it for him. He wandered towards the chair without much of a choice only to hear Aeleus muttering quietly as he passed by:

"I hope I can read it at least." What came afterwards, Xehanort had half expected. For the next hour or so, a discussion of their findings from their research began and he was to write down what the group declared to be important facts which would be used in the experiments, such as properties of the soil which was naturally occurring beyond the walls of Radiant Gardens and a list of plants common to Radiant Gardens which were grown inside the city walls. It was only in the first thirty minutes when Xehanort felt the joints in his hand beginning to lock from holding the pen for too long and his wrist beginning to cramp as he was not used to writing for such an extended period of time.

"I think that's enough to begin," Ienzo finally said, rising from his seat. "Xehanort, go give our findings to Master Ansem so we can get his approval to begin. When that's done, bring us back the papers so we can create a list of the needed materials." Xehanort merely nodded and forced himself to release the pen only to rub his hand carefully. Noticing the multiple sets of eyes on him, he figured it was best to get moving before the group became impatient. He gathered up his papers and hurried out of the library, barely catching the words of Dilan before the door closed:

"Let's see how long this takes."

Xehanort found himself walking the halls of the massive castle in a rather confused manner. He was unfamiliar with the route he was taking though and ultimately passed by the hall leading to Ansem's office more than a couple of times. He eventually wandered down the hall which only had a lone door decorating it at the very end. Only after he opened the door did Xehanort find out he had at last gone to the correct place as Ansem was seated in his large chair with his head on the desk.

"M-Master Ansem," Xehanort called quietly though Ansem the Wise did not budge. "Master Ansem," he called again, louder this time and apparently loud enough to wake Ansem from his nap. Ansem raised his head rather quickly, blinking his eyes rapidly, and finally looking over towards the door and spot Xehanort with papers in hand.

"Ah! Xehanort! What can I help you with?"

"A nap would be nice," Xehanort sighed, earning a drowsy chuckle from Ansem. "But no, we finished the research in order to begin our work. They told me it needed to be approved by you before we could compose our list of materials and such."

"Well then, let me see your research," Ansem said, holding out his hand. It took him a while to read over the papers, occasionally he would nod in agreement with what was written down and other times bob his head side to side as if debating on if it were an important matter to focus on during their experiment. "It seems that maybe we'll be onto something. I'll set the budget at ten thousand. That should be enough for multiple trial and errors, don't you think?"

"Well, it sounds like it should be. I don't really know though. I don't know the cost of the things we're going to need."

"It should be plenty. If not, then we'll simply have to delay it until we can afford to spend more funding on it." Ansem signed the papers and included budget written at the bottom of it. "The only reason I'm really putting this much forward to this is because I think that'd do the world a great deal of good. Could you imagine walking in a field of flowers with friends or family, loved ones, instead of what we have beyond the city limits?" Xehanort tilted his head to the side and finally gave a nod towards Ansem. "Well then, off you go. Have some fun with the others."

"Master Ansem?"

"Yes?"

"If you're tired, I think a bed would be better than a desk."

"So true," Ansem sighed as Xehanort left the office, his papers in hand once again.

After Xehanort returned to the library, the group set to work establishing a list of materials though Xehanort found his mind wandering towards what Ansem the Wise had said. Walking through a field of flowers with friends, family, or loved ones. Why did it keep coming back to his mind? It was becoming rather distracting. Maybe some coffee would help him? The thought of coffee and the café ultimately led him back to thinking about Naida.

"Xehanort!"

"What?!" Xehanort jerked his head around, hearing his name being called.

"We're leaving," Braig called from the doorway. "You coming?"

"Uh-Yeah," Xehanort said as he rose from his chair.

"Off in dream land there, buddy?"

"I guess you could say something like that," he admitted.

"Let me do the friendly thing and give you some advice here."

"Advice on? Did I mess up or something earlier?"

"You're going to have to pick in the end. Your job? Or her?"

"Pardon?!" Braig gave a smile and shook his head somewhat.

"Your job or her. With this job, it's basically impossible to manage a relationship. You'll learn eventually."

"Ho-How did you…?"

"Know? Well, it was rather obvious at the café today, don't you think?" Again, Xehanort felt his face become flush: was it really that obvious.

"Just-"

"I don't plan on telling anyone. Don't worry," Braig reassured. "Now come on, we've got some shopping to do!"

After gathering the materials for their experiment, Xehanort was charged with the task of making copies of the discussion, the list, and getting all of that into the journals of his fellow apprentices and calculating what remained of the budget down to the last cent. Throughout the day, he was kept busy with nothing more than paper work the others decided to through at him. Occasionally, Braig's warning would come back to his mind: would he really have to choose?

He sat alone in large office of the apprentices, writing out the materials and the planned procedures in journals and logs of the others. Xehanort glanced up towards the clock and noted the time: a quarter after three. It was at that time that the door opened up with Aeleus standing in the door.

"Master Ansem wishes to see you," he said in a, shockingly, somewhat louder voice. "Hurry to the laboratory." Confused, Xehanort could not truly object to being summoned and followed after Aeleus into the laboratory where everyone was gathered.

"Xehanort, this is for you," Ansem the Wise said as he stepped forward with a folded pristine lab coat was held in his hands, offered towards the newest apprentice.

"We hereby dub thee a scientist so that thee may use the laboratory. I also say that lab coats are pretty awesome wear," Braig laughed quietly as he watched Xehanort timidly unfold the coat, only to hold it out in front of him, examining it.

"Try it on," Dilan encouraged with a sly smirk while Ansem gave a nod and folded his arms, waiting for Xehanort to do so. Finally the new apprentice slipped his arms into the coat, the fabric and creases still stiff from it being brand new.

"I-I don't know what to say," Xehanort said quietly, looking down at himself with the coat hanging on him. "Thank you."

"You're one of us now that you've got the coat," Braig said walking to stand next to Xehanort. "Wearing that coat makes that decision we were talking about earlier. Remember that," he warned quietly only to leave the room with the other apprentices following behind him. Xehanort watched the five file out of the room only to feel a firm hand fall onto his shoulder. He turned to find it was Ansem the Wise with a hand on his shoulder.

"Keep up the work. I know today was probably pretty bad, but you did your job well. Keep it up."