P a r t n e r for L i f e

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Written by oathk33p3r

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IVChapter FourIV
Day Two

Organizations IV: VEXEN
Original name: EVEN

Vexen has the ability to create replicas of others with his knowledge of hearts.

Author's Notes: I'm so sorry for the long delay!

IVfourIV

The morning sun lit up the room, its rays reaching for every corner of it. It caressed the girl who was lying on the beaten couch with her arm dangling limply from the side of it. A boy around her age was slumped on the ground with his arm bent in an awkward and uncomfortable position.

The light nudged Olette awake, making her blink open her eyes while a yawn made its way up her throat to say good morning. She tried to rub her eyes, but obviously, she wasn't strong enough to lift an entire body of a full grown boy. A flash of annoyance crossed her face as she sat up and looked down at Roxas. She gave the chain a strong tug, causing the boy to abruptly exit that wonderful room filled with warm food and a nice blanket to snuggle in.

"Mm, wha-?" he mumbled in his sleepy state.

"Give me the keys."

Roxas slowly and stiffly sat up, grimacing from his aching limbs; it wasn't comfortable sleeping on the ground with one arm hanging in the air.

"What keys?" His words were slurred and his eyes didn't bother widening.

Olette looked up at the ceiling and let out an exasperated sigh. She noticed that there was going to be a leak if it ever rained. She drew her eyes back down and fixed them on Roxas, trying to decide what to do. Finally, she gave Roxas a stern look and tugged at the cuffs once more.

Roxas looked down.

"Oh."

Olette smiled in a sarcastic manner and nodded. She even managed to applaud.

"I don't have it," he said flatly. He ignored her sarcasm.

"What?" Her face fell.

"Xemnas is the one who gave this to me. I was simply following orders." Roxas paused to let out a yawn. "And it's not like he's going to trust me with the key. He doesn't trust anybody. Not even his wife."

Crestfallen, Olette sunk lower into the couch, her mouth slightly open and her eyes glued to her wrist. There was a slight red tinge on the surface of her skin parallel to the cold metal.

"So, I'm going to be stuck with you for five days?"

"Actually, it's six including today."

Roxas caught the girl ready to pull her side of the cuffs again and quickly stuttered, "N-no!"

Surprised by his sudden alertness, Olette stopped. She then noticed that Roxas's wrist was ringed with a slight red as well. Only, his seemed like somebody messily painted his wrist red.

He gave Olette a quick grin as he wiped away the blood with the end of his shirt.

"It's no problem. But let's go get something to eat."

Olette was unusually silent as she obediently followed Roxas to the kitchen. Her eyes were glued onto the corner of his shirt and occasionally darted towards the cuffs.

Their first stop was the refrigerator. The sudden cold air sent chills all over Olette's body as the blond swung it open. Roxas didn't seem to notice as he pulled out a carton of milk. He shut the fridge with his bare foot and then turned towards some cupboards. He shoved the milk into Olette's hand, seeing that he only had one he can use at the moment. After pushing away a couple beer bottles and plates of unrecognizable matter, Roxas managed to pull out a tattered box of Fruit Loops.

Finally, they arrived at the table with their milk and cereal. Bowls and cups of utensils were waiting for them.

"The others use my cupboards, so I had to move them here," Roxas explained as he grabbed a bowl and placed it in front of Olette. She allowed him to pour both the cereal and milk into it. She even let him put the spoon in her hand.

As soon as he put the milk carton down, he dug his spoon into the cold mush and hungrily ate.

It wasn't until he was halfway done when he noticed that Olette's cereal was untouched and getting soggy.

"Why aren't you eating?"

Olette was looking at the cuffs that were preventing her from scooting away.

"I am at the breakfast table with a complete stranger right now. Do you realize that?"

Roxas raised a brow and placed his spoon down.

"Um. Well, we're not complete strangers anymore…are we? I mean, we even slept next to each other…OW!"

"First of all, we did not sleep next to each other," Olette snapped. "I was on the couch and you were on the floor. How is that sleeping next to each other?"

Not noticing that her question was rhetorical, Roxas opened his mouth, but quickly shut it when he saw that the girl had more to say.

"Second of all, I don't know anything about you. All I know is that you're some stupid blockhead named Roxas who decided to ditch his family and join a whole bunch of gangsters with no lives. And now, you're living in this dump and obviously being picked on for being such a coward. They come and dump all their crap here, don't they?" Olette kicked a few beer bottles with her foot, "which is also why I ended up being dumped here, too!"

She balled her fists and brought them down on the table. Only her heavy, annoyed breathing filled in the silence.

Roxas coughed and then looked down at his empty bowl. He chewed on his lower lip and glanced at the angry a girl a few times.

"Olette," he said softly.

"What?" Olette snapped.

"You are the first complete stranger I've met who knows so much about me."

Olette scowled and looked like she was about to hit something, but let her shoulders relax in defeat as she gulped down a spoonful of soggy, colorful mush.

X

Heavy, rude knocks followed as soon as Olette drank the rest of her milk, which had turned pink.

Seeing that the knocks seemed to hold more authority than them, Olette followed Roxas without a word to the door.

"Boss! What are you doing here?"

Xemnas stepped inside with Zexion and Axel right at his heels.

"I wanted to make sure that the girl was still here," he said gruffly.

He made his way towards the sofa. Roxas immediately ran towards it and started to clear up the area, poor Olette tumbling behind him.

"S-sorry. I thought you were going to come in three days…" Roxas stuttered as he picked up a few more shirts and threw them behind the television.

He wiped his milk mustache with the back of his hands and tried to fix his hair as he stood before Xemnas. Olette confidently stood by him and wore a face that was unusually nonchalant.

She tried to ignore the fact that the man's crimson eyes were following her every move as soon as he entered the apartment.

Zexion and Axel stood on either side of Xemnas as if they were his body guards.

Olette looked down at her cuffs and noticed that Roxas's side was shaking.

Why was he so nervous?

"I met your daddy at the bar the other day. He was gambling." Xemnas said softly.

He leaned back on the sofa and spread out his arms. A smile was slowly working its way to his lips.

"First, he bid a few hundred, harmless munny. He lost it in a few minutes. Being the daredevil, he then bid a few hundred thousand. He lost that too."

Olette tried to look as if she didn't care.

"Then he had to be impulsive and bid his house deeds."

Xemnas's eyes twinkled as he let his last words sink in.

"Your father is a real amateur when it comes to gambling, isn't he?"

The man stood up and started to pace around the room.

"Now he's living by that new Japanese cuisine. I haven't been there yet, but I heard it provides really good service. I talked to him, of course. After all, we have quite a strong relationship, don't we? We talked about the weather, the taxes, and what not."

Olette's eyes started to sting.

"Hm…what else did we talk about? Oh right, we mentioned you in our conversation once in a while. I don't remember what, but we definitely talked about you."

Xemnas stopped pacing and faced Olette.

"That's all. I just wanted to give you a report on how your father is doing. He's alive and well, don't worry. Just a few bruises here, couple broken ribs there."

Xemnas smirked before walking towards the door. Axel and Zexion followed; they didn't make eye contact with neither Roxas nor Olette the entire time.

"Oh right," Xemnas said before stepping out. "Your dad wanted me to tell you that he's sorry. See you in a few more days."

X

"I think you should give up. You've bent all my knives already."

Roxas winced when his best fruit knife screeched in pain as Olette roughly tried to saw through the metal chain with it.

"Ugh! Do you have anything else?" Olette asked as she threw down the knife in frustration.

"Hey, watch it! You almost got my toe!"

The brunette was too busy trying to squeeze her hand out of the cuffs to apologize. Her wrist was scarlet and her brow was drenched with sweat. She grabbed for the dish soap and poured the thick, green liquid all over the metal chains.

"My gosh, why isn't this working?" she exclaimed, finally giving up.

"Let's go wash your hands," Roxas suggested. He took Olette's right hand and put it under the running tap.

"It must've been hard trying to use the knife with your left hand."

Olette scoffed and pushed Roxas's hands away.

"I can wash my own hands, thank you."

She started to rub her hands together, using the dish soap left over on the chain. Roxas's hand was also under the water, seeing that the chain connecting the two was only a few inches long.

"Well, I obviously can't, so will you please wash mine, too?"

"No."

Olette shut off the tap and dried her hands on her pants.

"Hey! My hand's still soapy!"

The girl ignored him and started to walk out of the kitchen, but was pulled back when Roxas refused to budge.

"Hold up, I need to finish washing my hands."

"Then go wash your hands. Why must I wait for you to wash your hands?"

"Because we're obviously stuck to each other."

"Exactly!" That's why I want you to call your freakin' "boss" and tell him to bring the keys so that we can go our on with our separate lives again. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Roxas sighed.

"This is the fifth time we had this conversation today."

"So glad of you to be keeping track."

"I can't let you go, Olette. I already know that you know that I know you're going to run for it as soon as I release you."

Olette finally faced Roxas. Her eyes were filled with disbelief.

"Wait, hold up. As soon as you release me? So what, I'm your hostage now? No, this is insane."

She glared into Roxas's blue eyes.

"I am not your hostage, I am not your prisoner, and I am definitely not your pet. Right now, I'm just-I'm just really unlucky. Yeah, that's it. I was living my life and it was, well, it wasn't perfect, but I was satisfied with it. But you and your…people had to barge into my house, take me away in some stinky van, throw me in here and tie me to you."

Olette's lower lip trembled and her hands started to shake.

"And-and now you're saying that you're the one who has the power to release me. Don't forget that you're being held captive by me as well as I'm being held captive by you. Don't go saying that you're the one who can do the releasing, okay?"

She said a few more after that, but her sobbing muffled her voice as she dug her head into her hands.

Shocked, Roxas frantically looked around for help. He started to panic when he felt warm tears splashing onto his still-soapy hand.

"D-don't cry. I didn't mean to say that. I-I should've said "as soon as we're freed." My mist-take. I'm sorry, Olette. Please, don't cry. Don't-"

Olette's cries took a crescendo.

"I'm not being held hostage right now! I'm not! This is all just a big joke. Tomorrow, I'll be back at home, in my bed, and I'll never see these people again. I'm not a hostage…a-and Dad…he'll be okay…"

She was scared.

Her dad was out there in the streets, probably dying. These men, these stupid men, were dangerous. Up until today, Olette didn't really believe that her dad owed an unbelievable amount of money and that she was trapped in a stranger's home. She always saw Roxas as a cowardly loser, but now she realized that he was actually the chain that kept her from running away.

She was the prisoner, and he was the guard. He was the one who opened and closed the bars while Xemnas was the one who gave him the orders.

She hated them.

Olette abruptly stood up, causing Roxas to fall flat on his back.

"I'm going to find my dad."

Roxas scrambled onto his feet and stared at Olette. She returned his stare with eyes filled with angry tears.

"And you're not going to stop me."