Fragmented Memories

Chapter 4: A Boy Gone Rogue

"Heart! Wait up!"

A woman in a short pink dress and a mask which only covered her eyes stopped walking and half turned to face a yellow-clad woman who was running toward her. The woman in yellow had coppery brown hair that bounced with every movement and wore a mask just like the woman in pink.

"Is something wrong?" Heart asked, her stance going from relaxed to alert.

The other woman shook her head as she came to a stop next to Heart. "Everything's just fine. I wanted to ask you about training, that's all. I heard we're going to be working with the guys again tomorrow."

"That's right," Heart said, turning to continue walking.

The woman in yellow easily fell in step next to her. "Any reason why? I mean, usually it's just us. Seems a little strange that we're training with them two days in a row. What do you think it means?"

"All it means is that we need to better cooperate with them. It's not like we haven't talked about this for weeks, Passion. The goal is to get to know each others strengths and weaknesses, which will lead to more efficient combat," Heart said, sounding as though she was reciting something that had been repeated to her many times.

Passion hummed thoughtfully, but didn't offer her own opinion or ask anymore questions.

Heart glanced over at her sunny companion. "Is there a reason you came to me for this?"

"Just wanted your thoughts," replied Passion. She hesitated a moment, worrying her lower lip, and then plowed on. "Actually, what I really wanna know is if you wanna go down to the bar with me tonight. Some of the others are going to and I want you to meet some of my Centran friends!"

Heart sighed. "I'll consider it. There's still a lot I have to do today."

"Well, as long as you actu-"

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Kairi rolled over with a miserable groan, pulling the covers up over her head. She didn't know what time it was, but she knew it was too early.

"Rise and shine, princess!" Axel yelled through her door, his voice obnoxiously cheerful. "Get your shit together so we can go! Sora has already called me three times asking me where we're at. Twice with Roxas's phone!"

Kairi curled her legs closer to her body, trying her best to ignore him and sink back into blissful sleep. She was aware that she was being childish, but were a few extra minutes really too much to ask for? It wasn't like Axel hadn't pulled the same thing on her a dozen times.

Axel banged on the door harder. "Seriously, Kairi! Get up or I'll call Sora and let him know the reason we're running late!"

"Fine! I'm up!" Kairi shouted, throwing off her covers in frustration.

"You better be!"

She heard Axel retreat and entertained the idea of going back to sleep anyway, but decided it wasn't worth whatever punishment her brother would think up. So she got up and went about her usual routine, letting her mind wander.

She felt like she'd had another odd dream, but once again couldn't remember what it was about or who was in it. More than the strangeness of the dreams, it was the not remembering that was worrying her. Normally she could recall bits and pieces of them, even if they made no sense.

"Kairi! Hurry up! Sora's calling me again!" Axel yelled.

Kairi tied her hair back into a ponytail and grabbed her slim wallet to slide it into the back pocket of her light pink shorts. She tugged down the hem of her white tank top and then left her room. "Alright, I'm ready," she said, rolling her eyes at his impatience. She grabbed his phone before he could say a word to Sora and put it to her ear. "Yes, we're on our way. Please stop calling Axel."

"Well it took you long enough! It's almost nine!" Sora exclaimed, not sounding annoyed at all. "But I'm glad it's you this time and not Axel. He was rude."

"Maybe next time you don't yell into the phone," Kairi suggested.

"He sounded sleepy. I just wanted to help him wake up. Roxas suggested it. Anyway, we'll meet you at the main entrance, but you need to hurry up! Riku has class at ten."

"With Axel's driving, we'll beat you there," Kairi joked.

"Don't die," Sora unhelpfully suggested before hanging up.

Kairi gave her brother back his phone so he could text Demyx to see if he needed a ride and then hurried downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat. She managed to snag a granola bar before Axel caught up to her and practically dragged her to the car.

After a quick stop to pick up Demyx, they peeled off down the street, leaving a faint trail of smoke in their wake.

"Never again," Demyx vowed, giving Axel a dark look. "No, seriously. If you're driving us home, I'm walking or hitching a ride with Riku. Curbs are not there for you to drive over!"

"You go right ahead and do that," Axel said, unconcerned.

Demyx looked to Kairi for help, but she just shrugged and said: "Nothing is more terrifying than riding with Selphie behind the wheel."

The three of them slowly approached the designated meeting stop with Demyx pouting over the fact that no one was agreeing with him. None of them were too surprised to see that Roxas, Sora, and Riku were already there waiting for them.

Sora jumped up and down and waved his arms to get their attention the moment he spotted them, a wide smile stretching across his face. Roxas stood and reached out a hand to rest on Sora's shoulder to try and get him to stop acting so childish. Riku fondly shook his head and made no attempt to help Roxas.

Kairi waved back, abandoning her brother and Demyx to run over and join her friends. She let Sora pull her in for a tight hug and then stepped back and greeted Roxas and Riku.

"So who's ready for the grand tour?" Axel asked loudly. He stepped up next to Roxas and slung his arm across his boyfriend's shoulders, tugging him in closer.

"Me!" Sora responded.

Axel grinned at him. "I knew there was a reason I like you. C'mon, we'll start in the main building and I'll show you all of the cool hangouts. Riku can show you the boring stuff later when he gets back from class."

Riku gave the redhead an annoyed look. "It's not boring, it's useful. The campus is huge and we should give them some idea of the best way to get from building to building."

"See?" Axel asked, leaning down to whisper to Roxas. "Super boring."

Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Alright, lets get this 'fun' tour over with," Riku said. "We'll end it in the Lounge, right? So I can find you all later."

"Yeah. Sure," Axel said flippantly. "Get us started, Demyx!"

Demyx grinned and strode forward, pulling open the double doors. "Welcome to East Destiny Community College! To begin our tour, we'll be walking through my personal favorite building, Art Hall! Directly to your left is our gymnasium, where yours truly has taken several dance classes and would gladly recommend them all."

They followed him into the building and down the hall, barely listening as he rambled on about the different classes offered and the teachers he liked. Axel was clearly bored and kept trying to draw Roxas into conversation, but the blond was doing a phenomenal job of ignoring him. Sora and Riku held hands as they walked side-by-side and playfully bumped into one another. Kairi was the only one paying any attention she she followed along after Demyx and occasionally asked questions.

Demyx glanced back and narrowed his eyes at the stragglers as he stopped walking."And here's where I once battled a fire-breathing dragon with nothing but a guitar pick and my fabulous hair," he said, raising his voice. "After it ate Axel and Riku whole because they're buttheads."

"What was that?" Axel asked, only hearing the last part of the story. He removed his arm from Roxas's shoulders to menacingly step forward.

Riku released Sora's hand to cross his arms over his chest and raise an eyebrow.

Demyx laughed uneasily and slowly backed up, raising his hands to fend off attack. "I-I was just joking around! Like, ha ha, very funny? Guys? Stop looking at me like that!"

Kairi and Roxas laughed as Axel grabbed Demyx in a headlock and vigorously rubbed his carefully style hair until Demyx's shrieks rose to such a volume that teachers stepped out of their classrooms to shush them. Axel let go of his friend after the first admonishment and grinned as the blond frantically tried to fix his hair back the way it belonged.

"Alright, now I'll continue the tour. Time to get the fuck out of this building," Axel said.

Demyx pouted as his hair refused to stick up and flopped over the second he took his hands away.

"Lets hit Humanities and West Hall and then take them down to the Lounge," Riku suggested. He double checked his watch to ensure they had enough time. "I've got twenty-five minutes until class. Sora, I'll- Sora?" He frowned when he turned around to find his boyfriend missing. With some dread, he asked: "Where did Sora go?"

The others looked around as well, but none of them could see the brunet anywhere nearby.

Riku groaned in frustration. "Damn it, Sora..."

"Wow, twenty whole minutes. I think that's a new record," Kairi said with a heavy sigh. She frowned at Riku. "What were you thinking, letting go of his hand like that? Now we're going to have to spend the rest of the day looking for him!"

"I know, I just..." Riku paused to sigh heavily, more angry with himself than anything. "I didn't think he'd run off like that. Not again."

Roxas rolled his eyes and unsnapped his messenger bag. He dug around in it for a small stack of papers, which he handed out to each of them. "Lucky for you, I came prepared this time. These should make our search easier."

Demyx practically stuffed his fist in his mouth to choke back his laughter at the sight of the colored fliers. Each of them had a photo of Sora with his mouth wide open as he went to bite into a hamburger. Above the photo were the words: "Have you seen me?" The words beneath it read: "If found, please return to Roxas (my way more handsome twin brother)."

"I helped make them," Axel said proudly.

"Of course you did," Riku muttered.

Kairi bit her lower lip to try and hide how much she wanted to smile at the goofy photo. She could only guess that it was a moment captured by Pence, whose skill at getting great moments on camera was second to none.

"Now we'll split up," Roxas said. "Kairi with Demyx, and I'll go with Axel." (The redhead suggestively wiggled his eyebrows, prompting Roxas to elbow him in the stomach.) "Riku, go with whoever you want until you go to class. Whoever finds him texts everyone else and we'll meet up in the Lounge. And for the love of everything good, don't let go of him."

The others murmured in agreement and then they split up to search.

"So who do you think will find him this time?" Demyx asked.

He and Kairi had been roaming the halls for fifteen minutes, looking for their missing friend and asking everyone they came across if they'd seen him. No one had.

"Riku, definitely," Kairi replied. "But, y'know, just for once I'd like to be the one who tracks him down and give him a piece of my mind. He makes me so mad when he does this!"

Demyx hid his amusement well. "What do you think he saw this time?"

Kairi shrugged. "It could be anything. Last time it was because he saw a cat. The time before that he said he thought he saw Riku, even though he was right next to him. Though at the time Riku's cousins were visiting and they all kind of look the same, except Loz, and the one Sora saw was Kadaj..." She paused to sigh heavily. "None of his excuses ever make sense and this time won't be any different."

They made their way around a small crowd hanging out in the hallway while waiting for class to start, and briefly paused to ask several of them if they'd seen Sora. There were some amused responses thanks to the photo, but none of them had seen him before.

Disappointed, they continued on and talked about whatever they could think of to pass the time. As ten o'clock rolled around, they saw fewer and fewer people.

"We could head down to the Lounge and relax for a while. There's probably more people there too," Demyx said.

Kairi thought it over for a minute. She didn't want to give up so soon, but with the sparsely populated halls she knew they wouldn't have much luck tracking him down. The campus was so big that with so few of them looking for him, they would probably have better luck staying in one place and waiting for him to wander by.

"We'll ask one more person and then we'll go," she decided. "How about whoever comes around that corner next?"

As if on cue, a dark-haired girl wearing a tank top and shorts turned the corner. Music played from the green headphones around her neck and was just loud enough to be heard from several feet away. She stopped when she saw them staring at her and reached down the ipod in her pocket and paused the music. "Hey there!" She greeted cheerfully. "You guys look a little lost."

"Actually, we lost a friend of ours. He ran off while we were distracted and we haven't seen him since," Kairi said, holding out her copy of the flier for the girl to see. As their fingers brushed, a static charge jumped between them. Kairi jumped, a little startled.

"Sorry, I've been doing that all day," the girl said with a little laugh. She took a look at the paper and laughed a little louder. She calmed herself quickly, but couldn't wipe the smile from her face. "This is the greatest picture of Sora I have ever seen. Did Roxas make this? And can I keep it?"

"You know Sora and Roxas?" Demyx asked in surprise.

She nodded. "Uh huh. I'm friends with their brother, Cloud. And I'm partners with Riku in Chem, so I hear stories about Sora all the time. I'm Yuffie, by the way."

"I'm Demyx. And this is Kairi!"

"Nice to meet you both!" Yuffie said, sounding genuinely pleased. "I wish I could tell you I've seen him, but I haven't. I'll help you look for him though! My first class was canceled for the day, so I have some extra free time. Where did you lose him?"

"Over in Art Hall," Demyx told her. "But he's long gone from there by now. We were just about to go down to the Lounge and ask around there, since just about everyone's in class now."

Yuffie hummed thoughtfully. "That's a pretty good idea While you do that, I'm going to run over to the courtyard and ask around there. I'll take a look around West Hall and the library while I'm at it. Either of you wanna go with?"

Demyx shook his head.

Kairi bit her lower lip. Part of her wanted nothing more than to go with the other girl, to spend more time with her and find our how she met Sora and Roxas. She didn't seem like someone who would be friends with Cloud, who was quiet and had the tendency to keep to himself, but then again she didn't know that much about the oldest Strife brother or what kind of people he spent time with. After some internal debate, she decided it was best if she stayed with Demyx.

Before they split up, they exchanged numbers so they could call each other if either party found Sora. (Kairi blushed a little when Yuffie added a little heart after her name in her contacts page. She couldn't help it; Yuffie was charismatic and undeniably cute.) Yuffie set off on her own with a bounce to her step while Demyx led Kairi around the corner and down the flight of stairs to the first floor and then through a pair of double doors.

"So it's a cafeteria," Kairi said, looking around the room.

Most of the tables were round and accompanied by brightly colored plastic chairs. Some were raised up high and others had pieces of paper or cardboard jammed under a leg to prevent the table from wobbling back and forth. Pushed up against the windowed wall was a series of square and rectangular tables. On the opposite side of the room were cheap but comfortable vinyl seats and couches and low square tables. Flat-screen televisions were mounted on the walls, playing shows ranging from the news to children's cartoons. Directly across from the entrance were two places to get food – one was the college cafe and the other was a Pizza Palace.

"Basically," Demyx agreed. "C'mon, lets ask a few people and then sit. My feet are killing me."

Kairi raced down the hall after Demyx, tossing apologies over her shoulder as the zipped past people. They'd been sitting in the Lounge for nearly twenty minutes before they got a call from Yuffie saying she found Sora and Riku on the third floor of West Hall, but that she couldn't stick around and wait for them because she had something she needed to go take care of.

They took the stairs, praying they weren't too late and that their friends hadn't left the hall.

"What was it this time, Sora?" They could faintly hear Riku ask.

"I thought I saw the prince."

"Sora..."

"I know it sounds crazy, but I really think it was him this time! Riku, you've got-"

"Sora! Riku!" Demyx yelled, interrupting whatever Sora was about to say. He panted loudly as he ran over to them, exhausted from their crazy dash through two buildings and up several flights of stairs.

Kairi jogged over to them, a little worse for wear than Demyx, and mildly annoyed that she didn't get to hear all of the conversation. What was Sora talking about? What prince? There was only one way to find out. "So what was it this time?" She asked, unintentionally copying Riku's earlier question. "Another cat? Or was it a dog this time?"

Sora laughed. "Nah, just thought I saw someone I know. Turns out it was just someone who looked like him, but by then I was lost so I just kept walking around. I figured I'd run into one of you again at some point. But how'd you two know we were up here? They way you came running over, you must've known."

"Yuffie told us," Demyx said. He was starting to breath normally, but still wasn't ready for longer sentences.

"Yuffie's here?" Sora asked, craning his neck to look up and down the hall for her.

Demyx shook his head. "Not anymore. She called to let us know where you are and then said she had to go do something. Oh, um, she has a message for you! Well, actually it's for Cloud. She said for you to tell him he better not forget about tomorrow."

"Alright, thanks. I'll remind him," Sora promised. "So where's Roxas and Axel? We have a tour to finish, don't we?"

Rolling his eyes, Riku made sure to hold tightly to Sora's hand as he guided them back downstairs where the remaining two members of their party were waiting for them.

Kairi let her mind wander as she quietly walked behind them. It wasn't the first time she'd overheard a strange conversation between Sora and Riku and she was sure it wouldn't be the last. Why had he told Riku he thought he saw a prince? And what was he a prince of? There wasn't any royalty on Cardinal. Why had he covered it up when she asked the same question? It wasn't like him.

It wasn't the right time to ask about it. She would have to wait.

End Chapter

I rewrote the ending for this close to four times before I was happy with it. There was something about finding the right way to introduce Yuffie that posed a challenge for me, but I think I overcame it. (Even though it took nearly 3 weeks.)

Honorary mention:

Kadaj and Loz - from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. (Also Yazoo, though he wasn't mentioned.)

Next Chapter: Darkness Begins to Rise