Ugh, the exams finish, then they give us more exams! Damn school…. Anyways, I hope this chapter makes up a little for that God-awful chapter 3 – I'm very sorry about that.

A big thank you to LadyKittania and girly-girl12345 for reviewing and making me smile in a stressful time and thank you to everyone who favourited, alerted and read this. And, as always, thank you to Just-in-4-da-fan for the support and being generally amazing (the songs are for you lol).

By the way there is an IMPORTANT NOTE at the bottom that requires your help. Please read it and answer.…pretty please?

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Mortal Instruments or any Final Fantasy characters. If I owned all of them I would be richer than Bill Gates.

Roxas POV

Who the hell does this guy think he is?

Well, 'Axel' apparently but within less than thirty seconds of conversation he has proved himself to be the most arrogant arsehole I have had the unfortunate 'pleasure' of meeting!

"Got it memorized?" Did he think I had amnesia or short-term memory loss? I had the strong urge to punch him but before I could act on it, the memories of his chakrams and his skill with them rushed back to me.

Ah, maybe not, then. I settled for a full-forced glare instead, which to my further irritation he did not seem to be scared by.

He looked down at me expectantly.

"Ya know," he drawled, "When someone introduces themselves, the other person typically introduces themselves out of politeness and generally making things easier for the other guy so he doesn't have to say 'Hey, you!' when he wants your attention."

"I don't think I should give my name out to strangers." Yeah, that sounded stupid but at that moment it was the best I could come up with.

"I'm not a stranger; you know my name and I saved your goddamn life."

"That was your choice."

"It's what any decent person would do. Forgive me for not realizing you wanted to die, especially after you gave the message so clearly when you defended yourself against the Heartless when it was trying to kill you."

That's right….I managed to pull a giant sword-like key out of nowhere…how the hell did I do that? And what was that thing – the 'Heartless'?

"Hey, you. What's your name?" Axel asked impatiently. I had gotten lost in my thoughts, forgetting about the bantering.

I decided to give in; maybe if I gave him an answer he would shut up.

"Roxas."

"S'cuse me?"

"My name is Roxas," I snapped.

He grinned, satisfied at getting what he wanted.

"Little Roxie, eh?"

At that moment, I was able to conclude the reasons why I would not be getting along with Axel:

-He was a jerk

-He implied I had bad memory (I memorized a whole page of French for my French oral damn it!)

- He was one of those people who didn't stop until he got what he wanted

- He called me 'Little'

-And he called me 'Roxie', the bastard.

I immediately ran through my mind for insults I could throw at him.

"So, Asshole, was it? Care to tell me what the hell happened at my house?" I asked, accomplishing the insult and asking the question I wanted answered.

He smirked that damned smirk of his.

"Oh dear, I knew there was something wrong with your brain. My name is Axel. Do you want me to write it down for you?"

F***, that backfired.

"Answer the question," I said. I really did want to know what was going on.

"I did. You asked if my name was 'Asshole' and I told you it wasn't."

"The other question," I ground out.

"Which was…?"

"What the hell happened yesterday?" I nearly yelled but my throat hurt a bit too much for any extreme amount of noise. This guy deserved to be yelled at though; he was so irritating. Oh dear Lord, I sound like a girl again.

A look of confusion spread on his face.

"Yesterday," He said slowly, "You were still unconscious."

"What do you mean?" I honestly had no idea what this guy was talking about. Would I never be answered?

"I mean, you were knocked out still. That Heartless really knocked you out good – you've been unconscious for around three days. But anyway, what happened yesterday, you were here, asleep and I was arguing with Dem and-"

"Three days?" That would explain why I felt so awful: I had been lying down for three days straight because that 'Heartless' had knocked me out.

Aerith was probably worried sick!

"I have to go," I said and tried to get out of the bed but a wave of dizziness stopped me from getting further than swinging my legs over the side.

"No, you don't. There's unfinished business with you."

Okay, that sort of sentence is something you only expect to hear in movies.

"Well, it will have to remain unfinished. I need to go."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Why?"

"It's none of your business."

"I'll make it my business."

"Go away."

"….Why?"

Ugh! This was infuriating! I tried again to get out of the bed.

In my mind, I had the image of me coolly getting out of bed and storming off. What actually happened was my legs giving out under me as soon as of put my full weight on them.

Then, in my mind, I had the image of me face-planting on the floor much to Axel's amusement.

That didn't happen either.

I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around me to stop my fall and then felt myself being drawn against that person's chest. It felt…nice…to be held. That was until I remembered who the arms belonged to.

Holy hell, I was being hugged by Axel! We stood awkwardly in that position for what seemed like eternity; well at least it did for me.

Axel pushed me back until my legs hit the bed. I promptly sat down and Axel drew his arms away.

"Clearly," Axel said evenly, "You are not fit to go anywhere."

"…Shut up." I wasn't really paying attention; I was just hoping I wasn't blushing.

We both stayed silent for a minute until I asked:

"Axel…what exactly are you?" There was something different about him; the way he fought that 'Heartless' thing and the tattoos under his eyes were something in themselves.

He didn't say anything for a moment. Then he spoke.

"I guess you deserve to know…" His jade eyes locked onto mine. I felt like they were drawing me in with their intensity. "Ok, basically, I'm-"

'Oh, I'm a Gummy Bear

Yes, I'm a Gummy Bear!

Oh, I'm a Yummy, Chummy, Funny, Lucky Gummy Bear.

I'm a Jelly bear, Cuz I'm a Gummy bear,

Oh I'm a movin', groovin', Jammin', Singin' Gummy Bear!'

I gawked at the noise coming from Axel's jean pocket. Oh dear Lord, please say he hasn't.

"Do you have my phone?"

He let out a bark of laughter.

"You have some weird music on your phone."

"It's not mine, not really, I mean, Sora-" I was babbling like a fool so I shut my mouth, willing the right words to somehow find their way to Axel's ears.

He pulled out the phone – my phone – and raised his eyebrows.

"Speak of the Devil, Sora's calling you. Is he your boyfriend?"

I spluttered at the question. We were just friends, for crying out loud!

"Ignore," he murmured as he presumably pressed the button which ignored the call. Great, Sora was going to give me hell over that.

He tossed the phone back to me and I caught it. I slipped it into my jeans pocket. The normality of the motion calmed me a little.

"Oh, by the way, you've been in those clothes for about four days now. You might want to take a shower and change," Axel said and pointed to a door that probably led to an ensuite. Huh, I hadn't noticed it before. "I left some of Demyx's spare clothes for you to change into. Hopefully they'll fit but they might be a little big…"

I knew that was another jibe at my height but I just managed to ignore him. I was about to get up when Axel moved forward and lifted me into his arms.

I squeaked and clung onto him, afraid of falling. He carried me over to the adjoining bathroom with me blushing the entire way.

"I could have got here myself," I muttered pathetically as he shouldered the door open and set me down.

He smirked and said, "Sure you could." It was in the sort of way that said he clearly didn't believe me.

He left and shut the door, leaving me to shower and change.

~City of Smoke

(Still Roxas POV)

I wiped some of the steam off the floor length mirror and looked at myself in the clothes Axel had left for me. They felt and looked too big but to be honest I was glad to be in something clean. My other clothes were currently sitting folded on the white tiled floor.

Now, where the hell was my rucksack? I dreaded to think what might be happening if Axel had taken it. He would probably go through it. It wasn't like I had anything embarrassing in there but I didn't like the thought of someone – especially someone like Axel – going through my stuff.

The shower had made me feel much better; I could now walk without getting dizzy or collapsing, which was a great improvement.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror one last time, taking in the way the sleeves of the baggy blue t-shirt went past my elbows and the darn jeans that had to be rolled up several times so I could walk without tripping.

Yup, it looked awful but for now I would have to make do.

I picked up my clothes and went back into the bedroom. Axel wasn't there which left the room in an eerie sort of silence. I felt suddenly very alone and actually missed Axel's somewhat annoying presence.

Damn, that was hard to admit.

I walked steadily back to the bed and put the clothes on it. I perched on the edge of the bed and briefly wondered what to do. Should I wait here, go find Axel or get out of here?

So far, none of these people had been a direct threat to me but there was definitely something strange going on. There was still a faint hope in me that I was dreaming but the more time went on, the more the feeling faded.

I decided to go explore a little and leave my next course of action to chance; if I ran into Axel first, I would have to go with him and if I found an exit first, I would get out of this place. Simple as.

Before I left, I quickly searched the room for my rucksack. Its checked pattern wouldn't have been hard to miss against the pure whiteness of the room. To my dismay, it was nowhere in sight.

Sighing, I made my way down the hall, not really knowing what to expect.

Unsurprisingly, the hallways were white as well. Ugh, I felt like I was in a mental institute; everything was white, there were weird people (i.e. Axel) and I felt like I was going mad. All that was missing was the straight jacket.

I walked on, searching for either a red haired idiot or an exit. I think part of me actually wanted to find Axel but I tried to push it down – waaaay down.

The place was completely silent, excluding my slightly echoing footsteps. My heart nearly leapt out of my chest when I heard a voice, getting closer.

"I've got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you the key!

Come on now let's get together in perfect harmony!"

I could now hear footsteps as well and judging from the sound I could tell they were running.

"Oh I got 20 acres and you got 43!"

What the hell was that person singing? It was getting louder; they were probably just around the corner.

"Now I've got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you the key!

I've got a brand new-"

Something collided with me which sent me crashing to the hard, unforgiving ground. I yelped as the thing that hit me fell on top of me.

My brain caught up with the sudden events that had just happened and was able to conclude it was a person – a person with a mullet.

His sea-green eyes locked onto mine and I saw recognition wash into them.

Wait, this guy….he was at the nightclub with Axel! We both stayed still for a moment before both hastily trying to get up. Well, my struggle was limited because he jammed his elbow into my stomach in his rush to get off me.

I wheezed a little and scooted way from him before getting up. He was regarding me with an odd expression, as if trying to place something.

"Wait a sec….Roxas?"

"Huh?"

"You're Roxas, right? The kid at the nightclub?"

Normally I would have protested against anyone calling me 'kid' but I simply nodded.

I awkwardly stood there, wondering what to say or do. This guy had been with Axel at the nightclub. I remembered him holding a big blue guitar or something like that.

"Oh right, how rude of me, I'm Demyx by the way," he said. I acknowledged it with a nod and had another phase of awkwardness – what should I say? He already knows my name….

"Oh yeah, you're s'posed to go meet Xigbar, I think, well Axel is in charge of you and he told me…."

He babbled on and my attention slowly wavered. I started thinking about home, my mum and Sora. I wondered if they were missing me, if they were worried….

"Roxas?" The sound of my name brought me out of my gloomy thoughts and back to whatever the hell Demyx had been saying. Crap, what had he said?

"Um, yeah?"

"Quit spacing out, I said I'm gonna take you to Xigbar now." With that, he stalked off and I guessed I was supposed to follow. I had to walk fast to keep up with his large paces – why was everyone here so darn tall?

"Who's Xigbar?" I asked as we walked down more white halls.

He looked back at me oddly.

"Our tutor. Dude, seriously, I just told you all that. Were you not listening to anything I said?"

I looked down and mumbled a quick,

"Sorry." I wasn't sure if he heard it but I figured I should shut up before I made my first impression on him any worse. I silently followed him through the halls, quickly giving up on remembering the way. My mental mapping skills were seriously lacking.

We reached a set of huge double doors which Demyx stopped at. I waited behind him as he knocked on the door.

I heard a muffled, "Enter." Demyx opened the door into another (you guessed it) white room. There were several sofas arranged so they formed a sort of circle. In one of them sat a man with long black hair tied back in a ponytail. What really stood out about him was the eye-patch that covered his right eye and the ragged scat across his cheek.

He wore a black coat, the same sort that I had seen Axel and Demyx and the other girl wearing at the nightclub.

Across from him, sprawled in one of the other sofas was Axel. Both of them looked towards us as we went in. I tried not to stare at the man with the eye patch so I ended up turning to look at Axel. He grinned at me and I decided maybe I shouldn't look at him – I was meant to hate him darn it!

I surveyed the room which was slightly more interesting than the other rooms, mainly because there was more furniture. However the room was still monk-like; everything was perfectly in order and strikingly clean.

"This is him?" The scarred man asked, looking me up and down. I felt very self-conscious at that moment and looked at my feet, hoping no one would see the blush that had crept across my face.

"Yup, his name is Roxas," Axel replied coolly. I felt a pang of annoyance at having someone else introduce me – it made me look incompetent! –and sent a glare at Axel but he wasn't looking at me. Great, it had gone to waste again.

"Strange…" the man, who I presumed was Xigbar, murmured as he got up and walked towards me. I unconsciously moved back a little as he came closer. When he reached out I tensed all over, fearing what he would do.

It turned out he wanted to inspect my right hand. He turned it so the palm was facing down in his grasp. He lightly ran his thumb over the back of my hand, while making 'hmm' noises.

"Are you right-handed?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah?" I honestly had no idea why that mattered. He released my right hand and grabbed my left and did the same thing.

"Strange…" he repeated. Okay, I was starting to feel like some weird test subject now with him touching me and muttering things.

"See?" Axel called from his spot on the sofa. I noticed that while I was being poked and prodded Demyx had gone to sit next to him. "He has no marks yet he can see us."

"Yes…" Xigbar said as if deep in thought. He walked back over to the armchair and sat down. I briefly wondered if I should just stand still or go to sit down. "Please, sit." Xigbar gestured to an unoccupied sofa to which I sat down in. I sat on the edge so I could get up quickly – I still didn't fully trust these people.

I realized everyone was staring at me, even Demyx, who seemed not to like me. I looked at my knees, pretending to ignore them and I actually just didn't know where to look while I was being observed by three people.

"Roxas, do you know what a Nobody is?" Xigbar asked.

"Um, what do you mean? You mean like a person who has no status?" I was seriously confused. 'A nobody'? Who asked something like that, and for what purpose?

He didn't answer my question; he just kept staring at me, as did the other two.

The scarred man inhaled deeply and looked as if he was caught in a moment of indecisiveness. Axel and Demyx were now looking at Xigbar.

"Ya know, I think we should tell him," Axel said. I felt myself liking Axel for about a nano-second before remembering what a jerk he was before.

Demyx piped up, "No way, if he doesn't already know, he shouldn't know."

"I think he already knows too much, it wouldn't make much difference if we just fill in the gaps."

"Axel is right, the kiddo has the Sight so there must be some trace of Nobody or Downworlder within him."

He looked towards me and I stared back, trying not to look at his scar or eye-patch. I shifted slightly, anxious for him to finally explain what was going on. He started:

"A Nobody in our world is not the same as what it means to be in your world; a Nobody to you is, as you said, someone at the bottom of society. However in our world, a Nobody is pretty near the top."

He stopped for a second, collecting his thoughts. "We have the name 'Nobody' because we are invisible in our work, well at least to Mundies-"

"What's a 'Mund-dee'?" I interrupted.

"Basically a boring, regular mortal person – it comes from the word 'Mundane,'" Axel chipped in, his answer being surprisingly straightforward for once.

"Anyway, we are 'Nobodies' because we are invisible in our work and we don't have hearts."

"What?" I was horrified at how serious he was being. How was he even alive if he didn't have a heart?

"It's a little complicated," At this Axel snorted; I guessed this was the sort of thing he would have learnt when he was three so it was practically baby talk for him. "We have hearts for biological use but we can tap into and out of the emotions from our hearts." Xigbar observed my blank and most likely still horrified face. "Think of it like this: when in the heat of battle we can become the perfect warrior and stop feeling. That way we can totally focus on fighting and forget about everything else."

I mulled over that for a minute, waiting for it to sink in. Part of it made sense but…..how?

"How do you…stop feeling?" I asked.

"It just takes deep concentration, a bit like meditation actually."

Even though they were talking about it as if it was as normal as getting up in the morning, I remained sceptical about whether they could do that. It was unreal; I couldn't imagine not being able to feel fear or hate or happiness.

I still didn't really understand some of it either, like how they could go in and out of emotions but I remained quiet. That was partly because of my pride and also because I knew it was subject matter everyone else in the room was very familiar with. It was like when I refrained from asking a question in class because I knew everyone else would think I was stupid for not knowing something so simple – well at least simple to them.

"Would you like a demonstration?" Axel suddenly asked. I looked at his grinning face and feared he was actually serious.

"N-no," I stuttered. I did not want to see someone lose all emotion just to be able to fight better and at this moment he wasn't even fighting!

"It's no trouble, really, I'll-"

"Don't, Axel," Xigbar said sternly.

"Aww…" Axel moped. Why the hell was he so desperate to show me? Oh right, he was probably a show-off.

"I have an idea," Demyx said, startling me (he hadn't talked for a while). "Why don't we see if Roxas can tap out of his emotions? If he can, then he's a Nobody."

"What? No way am I doing that!" I blurted. I would not be doing something so freaky like that!

"Wait…he's done that before…" Axel said, getting this deep look on his face. "When he summoned a Keyblade – you can only do that when you tap fully out of your emotions."

If I was punctuation at that point, I would have been a question mark and an exclamation mark (?). What were they talking about? I had never 'tapped out' of my emotions. I remember when I summoned the shiny sword thing – a 'Keybalde' apparently – I remember feeling confused and scared. Scared! Fear! An emotion!

"How on Earth could he do that….and not realize what he was doing?" Demyx asked, giving me a slightly dirty look. I swear he was all chummy when we first met but now he's like a bully! Weird guy….

"Could you…..do it again, Roxas?" Xigbar asked, with this weird look of complete anticipation – the type of look when someone knows they are about to see something good. Okay, I'm really scared now.

"I don't know…"

"Please try." It sounded like an order, with the way he said it and I chose to humour them and try to summon the key thingamajig again.

I sighed slightly and closed my eyes and held out my right hand. I tried to remember what it looked like. Part of it had looked like a star…and it was mostly white-silver….what else was there?

I tried to remember how it felt as well, the chill of the metal in my palm and its semi-heavy weight. Against my closed eyes I saw a flash of bright light and felt the same cold metal in my hand.

I opened my eyes and couldn't help but smile a little at having done it. For some reason a feeling of pride well up in my chest, making me smile even more.

I suddenly remembered where I was and looked at everyone's face. They all held the same look of awe and…disbelief?

That was when I realized they weren't looking at the Keyblade, they were watching my face. I blushed a bit, embarrassed by their staring.

"You…can feel?" Xigbar asked slowly.

"Yeah…" I was sure of that; it was only moments ago I had felt pride and happiness and embarrassment – I would say that's 'feeling'.

"He-he smiled!" Demyx said shakily. Beside him Axel grunted in confirmation.

I looked over at Axel and saw he had recovered from his initial shock and was now looking at me as if I was missing out on some big joke.

He spoke when I turned my attention to him,

"I doubt you know that you are the first person who has summoned a Keyblade and can still feel emotion."

No, I did not know that.

And there you have it! I hope this chapter was a lot better than the last one and I have redeemed myself.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Okay, basically I would like to know how far people want this fic to stick to the original plot of Mortal Instruments or if people would like more of the Kingdom Hearts universe in there. Just tell me in a review or PM me if you have anything to say on this matter or any other matter for that…matter. (Inner voice: You absolute twit, no one words things that badly!)

IMPORTANT NOTE 2: Would people prefer if I replaced Larxene (who is filling in for Isabelle) with Riku so I can put in SoraxRiku? Or would people rather I keep Larxene? Or would people prefer another character entirely? Once again, tell me in a review or PM me to let me know.

I don't think I really got Demyx right as he is filling Alec's shoes and their characters are quite different. This really annoys me as Alec is one of my favourite characters so I hope I didn't totally butcher Alec for any other Alec lovers – sorry! Tell me if you have any suggestions

I haven't decided whether I will update this fic first or go back to This World but either way, I shall remain focused. Oh and I might be starting a joint Mortal Instruments fic with my friend so look out for that!

Wow, this is a long author's note.

Thanks,

Cipher.