The debriefing room was full of color, and joy. Ventus slung Roxas piggy backed before Dilan stole the wobbling Nobody up into a hug, offering a slice of birthday cake to his maw. It vanished in a blink, but left icing near the opening of his hood, which Xion reached up and wiped clean for him.

"Guys." Axel's boom silenced the party. "Where's Sora?"

"Bathroom?" Ventus asked.

Axel frowned, but let it slide, slinking out the way back to the ops room.

He heard near-silent crying.

"Sora?"

Axel peeked inside. Sora was doubled over on the operating table the Dusk that now contained Roxas had been laying on, crinkling up the paper roll atop it.

He looked… broken.

"Hey, hey, kiddo," Axel hissed, trying to shift into his 'relaxed and soothing' tone.

He didn't ask if Sora was okay. That was an extremely stupid question, given the circumstance. Instead, he silently sat next to Sora, without touching him.

"What do you need right now?"

Sora uncurled just a little, and stared up at Axel. There was no light in his eyes; the irises had turned a dusky yellow-gray all the way through to his sclera.

"Okay, nonverbal," Axel muttered. "Can you nod?" he asked, voice only loud enough to make sure Sora could hear.

Sora nodded, hiccuping between sobs.

"So, you and Roxas are alike right now," Axel said with a small grin. "A friendly game of charades, then?"

Sora shook no, and a cough rattled his frame. He wobbled in a way that almost reminded Axel of the Heartless. He didn't want to even entertain what that meant.

"Let's start with some tissues." Axel went to get up, but Sora hooked his hand in his belt in a death grip with strength Axel didn't realize he possessed.

"Hey, hey, kid. I'm not leaving the room. There's tissues under the sink. Right there, see?"

Axel pointed to the sink on the far end of the room. Sora let go, slowly.

Axel dutifully retrieved the box, sliding back next to Sora. Closer, this time, so they were touching side to side. The brown-haired boy began blowing his nose in loud, uncoordinated honks, and Axel took the grabbing as a sign that maybe he should be a little more… huggy with the kid. Loosely, he placed an arm on Sora's back. For a moment, Sora shuddered, but he didn't try to slough it off.

Axel sighed deeply, and pulled Sora into a bear hug.

"Breathe with me, kid. Inhale… exhale, you've got this. Just… breathe."

Axel wondered if he should be letting Lea do this, at the very least for a heartbeat. Axel could feel Sora's, weak and erratic.

The boy was listening and responding to a degree, but Axel wasn't quite sure he was actually there. The only saving grace to let him know he hadn't accidentally ripped out his own heart when giving Roxas a body was that ragged thump coming from his chest.

'Ax.' Lea had been fairly quiet this whole time.

"Mhmmm?" Axel murmured, trying to concentrate on Sora's heartbeat.

'I have a really stupid idea.'

Axel scratched his ear, it meant he was listening but didn't want to talk back aloud. The two had developed a much more sophisticated system than Sora had for communicating in public without looking like they were crazy.

'I'm going to need Ienzo. And one of those oxygen tanks.'

Axel spied the tank, and rubbed his left eye. The thing I'm looking at? it meant.

'Not that one.'

He scanned the room again, and saw a second one, with a breathing apparatus attached. Again, he rubbed.

'That's the one.'

Axel clenched his jaw. "Kid. I'm going to help you, okay? But I need Ienzo. I want you to count down from ten to one, really slowly. In your head if you have to. I'll be back before you say one."

Carefully, Axel detached himself, and pushed Sora into a better position on the table.

Sora just shook, and did not move, his eyes glossed over like a non-human Dusk. Or a Heartless.

Axel strode back to the debriefing room, and the party silenced.

"Sora is notokay," he boomed, grabbing Ienzo by the wrist a little too sharply.

The rest of the group followed, with Riku scooping up a panicking Roxas as they left.

"Sora." Ienzo said, soothingly. "Hey, hey, hey."

The group stood on in shock, except for Roxas who was trying to wriggle out of Riku's grip.

"Do we need to put Roxas back inside?" Riku asked worriedly.

"I… don't know," Ienzo replied. He was gently trying to uncurl Sora. "His eyes are like a Nobody's but he has a heartbeat."

"That sucks," Xion cut in.

Roxas was still trying to escape Riku's grip, but the white-haired boy shushed him. "We aren't going to force you to lose your freedom until we are sure that's the only solution, Roxas," he said sternly. "I don't care if you're offering."

Roxas stilled, crossing his arms over his chest in an exaggerated display of annoyance.

"Lea has something he wants to try, first."

'Tell everyone to step back to the furthest point in the room, and bring over that tank from earlier.'

"Lea wants you to stand as far away from the middle of the room as possible. You too, Ienzo."

'No, no, don't give that to Sora,' Lea whined as Axel dragged the cart towards the boy. 'That's for us.'

Axel stopped moving the cart, staring at it. It was just oxygen, not an anesthetic, so it wasn't for knocking people out.

'I'm going inside Sora.'

Axel flinched for a moment. He didn't like having conversations out loud with Lea in public, but it wasn't like their situation was a secret here.

"You what?"

'Lay down on the other table. If Ventus could put his heart in someone else, I should be able to do it too. Kairi and Riku have.'

"No."

The rest of the group stared.

"I'll tell you all what we are doing once Lea sorts this out," Axel added to clarify.

'What do you mean, no.'

"We go together. One of us takes over his body, then the other can corner him inside his heart. If only one goes, he could still be partially in control, and fragmented," he hissed low.

'So, you arepaying attention when I'm working on my research.'

"You're operating on Nobodies, of course I'd be interested."

'Fine.'

Axel took the oxygen tank, and put on fresh plastic sheeting around the mouthpiece while addressing the group. "Short version. Watch Lea's body. We're going inside Sora."

"Are you nuts?" Riku asked, as Roxas pointed at Axel with one hand and spun his other around the side of his head.

"It's his idea, whine at us later. On, Ienzo? Have that third Dusk prepped for me just in case. I may have to eject to that instead of Lea."

Ienzo made an exaggerated sigh.

'After we eject, idiot! You don't want to end up inside Ienzo, right?'

"Oh, after we're out," Axel added hurriedly, as he fitted the mask on. "Stay back unless you want me accidentally in yourheart."

The rest of the group pressed themselves against the wall as Axel flopped back on the other table. Axel closed his eyes and met Lea in their own heart space- a decent sized Radiant Garden styled bi-level home. Lea was sitting at his desk, papers floating everywhere with calculations, and three whiteboards filled with scribbles hovering around him. The familiar scent of coffee wafted from the nearby kitchen.

'How do we get in there, anyway?' Axel asked, arms crossed. 'Didn't everyone else enter because they were joining back up with Sora or in extreme distress?'

'Pretty much,' Lea replied with a grin, drawing his Keyblade on Axel.

'You have to be shitting me.'

Lea lunged, missing Axel and flung himself into the wall, leaving a solid crack in the plaster. He shook himself off and aimed again.

'Sloppy,' Axel replied, drawing his chakram.

'I'm a scientist, you dolt,' Lea replied, barely dodging a strike. He was pretty sure Axel was pulling his punches. 'I'm only a fighter at all from the years of you.'

'You're going to trash our house!' Axel spun back around, setting himself on fire and blasting it towards Lea.

'Who is going to trash our house?' Lea replied, jumping on the coffee table, knocking over a bottle of wine and a coffee cup. He landed a hit right on Axel's ribcage, sending the Nobody through a wall with an undignified shriek.

Before he could blink or the plaster dust settle, Axel was at his throat, knocking him to the hardwood and yanking on his hair. 'Fucker,' Axel growled, a bony knee pressed into Lea's windpipe.

And then the floor fell out from under them.

Axel coughed hard and stared at the ceiling. His nose felt clogged.

Carefully, he sat up, and saw Lea's body next to him. He looked down, and realized he wasn't just in Sora's body, but in charge.

Axel shuddered a little, almost afraid to talk. Gently, he put a hand on Sora's chest. No heartbeat.

"I'm in Sora," he said slowly, testing his voice. "It's Axel. I don't know if Lea is here too yet."

'I am.' The voice was weak, but it was Lea.

"He is. You should all be okay to step closer. He's going to find Sora's soul. And… um.. can I get some wipes to clean Sora's face?"

Lea woke up in a startlingly familiar location.

'This was… Roxas's room. In the simulation,' Lea realized, shaking out the dazed feeling. He saw evidence left behind of both Roxas and Xion- Roxas's favorite jacket and Xion's black blouse draped on the bedpost, a few tacked-up photos. Nervously, he looked out the window. The whole of Twilight Town stared back at him, with some stark differences.

Lea whistled. 'Roxas did make a city in here. Shit.'

Lea carefully made his way out of the house. There were a few places to check for Sora first, the beach he saw just south of the train courtyard probably the best place to start.

Lea pushed off the ground, and shot towards the beach like a rocket.

It was dead quiet.

'Ax, ask them where Sora's part of his heart is. It's not the beach in here, I don't think.'

Ienzo turned Sora's face in his hand. "Well his eyes aren't Nobody-like anymore."

Axel flinched under the touch. "I mean, that's great but this isn't my or Lea's body. Sora needs it back."

Ienzo chuffed. "Tell Lea what you're doing is both extremely stupid and brilliant."

"Well, the stupid half was me," Axel deadpanned, crossing his legs and allowing Riku to help clean off all the gunk on his face.

Roxas screeched, and reached out, trying to wriggle free while Riku was distracted.

"Rox, chill. I'm sure Sora is- oh. Lea wants to know where his part of his heart is."

Kairi and Riku looked strangely at him. "His part?"

"In Castle Oblivion," Ventus chimed in. "The inside is his, outside was mine."

"Weird, but okaaay."

"Wait, what does Sora's heart look like?" Riku asked. "Is there a whole world in there or?"

"Yes," Xion and Ventus said in unison.

Ienzo balked. "Lea, this is probably extremely selfish to ask, but I hope you're taking notes."

Lea shot up, over the forest, and landed with a thunk on the grass leading up to the castle.

Gingerly, he knocked on the door.

'Anybody home?'

Carefully, Lea pushed it open, to no resistance. Inside, the room was small and stark white. When the door shut behind him, it disappeared completely.

And then Lea looked up. A writing mass of black was on the ceiling, gold eyes staring hungrily at him.

'Axel, if you can hear me, there's a shadow of Sora in here.'

Axel panicked.

"Lea found a shadow in Sora."

"He what?" Ienzo asked, gripping Axel's shoulders.

Riku passed Roxas to Dilan and pushed forward. Ienzo stepped aside, and now Riku had his hands on Axel's shoulders, looking straight into Sora's blue eyes. Axel flicked them downwards to look away.

"Axel, look at me. What does that Heartless look like?"

Axel evened out his panic, relaying Lea's description, without making eye contact. "Gold eyes. Black. Tentacle vine things. Vaguely Sora shaped."

"Don't draw your keyblade, Lea." Riku admonished. "Just hold out your arms and let him come to you."

Lea slowly raised his arms in the air, and the frantic, crazed shadow that was flinging its head to and fro froze, sniffed, and dropped down to the ground. Not that groundmade much sense in this place. Erratically, the beast jittered closer on all fours. Lea was almost reminded how Axel would move. Above the common Dusks and other Nobodies, but… not so much one couldn't see the similarity.

'Hey,' Lea said softly. The shadow perked up, and bounded a little closer, curious. It sniffed Lea's hand and snarled.

'Sora! Sora, hey.'

The shadow grunted, and bounded, flattening Lea on his back and creasing his lab coat. Sora snarled in his face and sniffed again.

Lea very cautiously slid an arm out, and showed it to Sora, then slowly reached to smooth down the shadow's flickering purple black hair.

The beast blinked, confused. 'A….ax….el?'

'Hey, Sora.' Lea didn't bother correcting him, it wasn't worth the trouble. Sora edged back, and let Lea sit up. He shucked off his lab coat and goggles, and pulled out his ponytail. He put his hands to his face, and willed Axel's marks on his cheeks, then dropped his arms.

Sora relaxed a little, but still sat on his haunches like an animal.

'What's up, kid?' Lea asked, trying to mimic Axel's demeanor.

Sora just huffed. 'Gone.'

'What's gone?'

'All. Me.' Sora didn't talk so much as gurgle out his answers.

'You're right here.'

'No.'

'Sora you just almost knocked the wind out of me.'

Sora clutched his heart. 'No.'

Lea edged closer, and with a quick movement, grabbed Sora by the scruff. The heartless shrieked, but didn't fight him. Lea sat there, in the white featureless room, and just held the beast calmly.

'Heart,' it growled out. 'You have. But you nobody.'

'And I have a heart.'

'Hungry.'

'No, you can't eat it.'

'Hungry,' Sora repeated louder. 'Nothing else can eat.'

Lea materialized a pair of ice cream bars in his free hand. One sea salt, and one coffee. Sora inhaled them both.

'How.'

'We're in your heart, Sora. You should know.'

Sora screeched and skittered along the white nothingness until he ran smack into an invisible wall. He tried to tear and rend it with his hands.

'Are you trying to… eat your own heart?' Lea asked, standing up. He looked down at his clothes, sighed, and changed them to Axel's organization attire with a flourish. Might as well attempt to exert some authority over the wild piece of Sora he was dealing with.

He strode over to Sora, boots clicking echoes on the white, and grabbed him by the scruff a second time, lifting him away and off the ground. Sora kept pinwheeling his arms like a cartoon.

'Sora. If you're hungry and you want to eat, make your own food.' Lea flicked his fingers, and two more ice creams appeared in his hands. 'Now focus. You're a heartless. What do you want?'

Sora growled, teeth bared, and another Sora materialized, a human. Heartless Sora drooled, grabbing out for it.

Lea snorted, and smacked the shadow Sora's shoulder, letting him go back on the floor. He skittered, and jumped, and dove for the body…

…and vanished. The human-Sora sputtered, coughing.

'What… what happened?' Sora looked up at the white walled space. 'Where… Axel?'

'In order, your heart, and Lea.' Lea made the marks disappear and walked to Sora, his clothes changing back to his own lab attire in a shimmer. He tied back his flaming hair, and offered a hand up to his friend. 'We are in the Castle Oblivion of your heart, and I'd like to go back to my own body, thanks.'

Sora gingerly took the offered hand, and a doorway appeared. 'I… did I hurt someone? You?'

'Your shadow's pretty well behaved, actually,' Lea said, laughing, as they exited back to the forest. 'He asked me if he could eat my heart. Asked!'

'I didn't know he could talk. I guess Ansem did, too, though, so it's possible…' Sora frowned.

'Any ideas why your shadow came out? You weren't under stress.'

'I.. was.'

Lea breathed out, understanding. 'Sora, your friends don't have to physically be here to be in your heart.'

'I guess… I was just scared.'

'Come here,' Lea ordered, and mussed up Sora's hair before grabbing him by the waist and shooting them both up the clock tower.

Lea settled, sat, and looked out on Roxas's creation, Sora uneasily sitting next to him on the ledge. 'People change. They move on. We make friends, and sometimes we lose them,' Lea continued as they looked out at the sunset before he squinted, confused. 'Why the fuck is my house here?'

'I guess our hearts are linked now?'

Lea snorted. 'Proves my point more. Roxas isn't here but the city still is.'

'And the clocktower was Xion's,' Sora added helpfully. 'The inside of Oblivion is mine but the outside was Ven's.'

'See? You're doing my work for me. They're not in your heart, sure, but that doesn't mean they didn't leave a mark. You don't have to come in here to see them. You can just… hang out. And if they leave and go off and do their own thing, well… everybody but Ven can use corridors. They'd be by your side in minutes, if you asked.' Lea held up another pair of ice creams, and Sora quietly took the coffee pop.

'I promise you, Sora, you will never be alone.'

'Yeah,' Sora smiled softly. 'I… thanks Lea."

'May I take over so I can put Axel in a Dusk? If our house is here, I worry he won't have anywhere to go back in my own heart. And then I can kick myself out.'

'You can move Axel, but I'll kick you out,' Sora countered, taking a bite out of the ice cream. 'Someone is going to have to help haul a second Dusk home.'

'I was hoping to not have to do both at once,' Lea admitted. 'But hey, a week of babysitting hell back at Yen Sid's tower and then we don't need to worry again, right?'

Sora gave a genuine smile. 'Right.'

Axel blinked, tumbling into Roxas's bedroom, having ungraciously switched with Lea. 'The fuck?' he muttered. 'Could have warned me first.'

He straightened himself out, and heard the door creak. Sora smiled, offering him a hand up.

'What gives, kid? You okay?'

'No, but that's okay,' Sora replied. 'And a minor change of plans, you're going to be a Dusk tonight too.'

'Wait, what?' Axel cried. 'Come on, Lea and I were learning sign language so-'

Sora yanked on Axel's arm, guiding him down the stairs and out to the street. 'You'll be talking in two, three days tops,' he said with a grin. 'You can suffer with Roxas.'

Axel made a giant exaggerated display. 'Fiiiiiine. Whatever.'

'Drama queen.'

'Damn straight, pain in my ass.'

Sora let go, and he could hear Lea asking from the outside if he was ready in his own voice.

Axel grinned, flipping up two middle fingers to Sora as he disappeared.

"Hey, buddy," Lea said softly, putting down his own Keyblade on the crinkling paper. It wasn't like he could use Axel's chakram as a substitute, but it still worked in pulling the final Nobody from their host. Ienzo held the Dusk upright as Axel shifted and adjusted, clumsily trying to use what little sign language he had already committed to memory.

"Hey, Ax," Lea said, with a gentle smile. "Chill out, I'll be back where I need to be soon enough. Oh, hold this for me?" Lea held out his Keyblade to Axel, who pawed at it nervously for a few moments until he got a good grip.

It didn't sheathe.

"Maybe you can use it too," Lea commented. "When you're fully formed, we should try."

Axel just nodded.

"Okay, last switch of the night," Lea said, flopping back on the operating table.

Sora coughed twice and shot up, flexing fingers finally taking stock of the situation. "You're all… here."

"Hey, Sora," Xion said sheepishly. "Thank Axel. He's the one that noticed. We're all idiots."

The Dusk holding Lea's keyblade just shrugged, and offered it to him.

"Wow is this thing heavy," Sora groaned. "Thanks Axel."

Axel just pointed at Lea's body, laying comatose on the other table, a breathing apparatus strapped over his mouth.

"Okay, Lea," Sora said quietly. "It's time to send you home."

Ienzo had set them all up in Ansem's castle for the night. It wasn't worth the effort to try and send them all back when so many were exhausted.

What Sora wasn't expecting was for both Roxas and Axel to be dumped in his room.

Worse, he didn't know which one was which.

"Come on," Sora whined. "I've had a day."

"So have they. And Lea said you needed some company," Riku said grinning. "Don't worry, Ienzo is just next door if they start trying to eat your heart."

The two Dusks looked at each other, almost knowingly, then screeched in unison, wiggling fingers at Sora.

"Not. Funny," Sora huffed.

"Seriously though," Riku said, looking at the two of them. "I'm chaining you two up tonight. Just in case."

Both of them offered their arms out to Riku, who cuffed them and ran links through a heavy metal safe that had been dragged in to anchor them. "It's not like you two can walk, anyway, but..."

One of them reached up and messed with Riku's hair.

"Really?" he asked, sighing. "I swear, I'll spray paint numbers on your heads. And not with chalk."

Sora laughed a little as one of them sat behind Riku, making exaggerated hand and upper body gestures to match Riku's annoyance.

"Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dumber over here are your responsibility tonight. May I?" he asked one of them as he scooted either Roxas or Axel out along the floor until the links went taut. "This is as far as the chains go. If you step outside of here, Sora, you're fine. In that area, and prepare for these two assholes to torment you."

They both nodded vigorously at that.

Sora rolled his eyes, and scooted his cot to the side of the room the chains could reach.

"Your funeral," Riku said, jokingly.

Sora just shrugged. "I'm a Heartless, I can take 'em," he shot back.

Riku just smiled, and closed the door.

One of the Dusks motioned for Sora to come, and he sat down in front of them. They smothered him immediately.

"For the… Axel I didn't take you for being so huggy." One of the two crossed his arms in protest, and Sora barked a laugh.

Axel realized he'd been played, as Sora quickly slapped a sticky note to the top of his flat head. Axel brandishing a middle finger, tried to pull off the marker.

"Good luck, I used Magnet."

Axel made an exaggerated huff, then relaxed his shoulders. Sora sat between them, as each slid an arm behind Sora's back.

"Thanks."

When Lea found them the next day, Sora was snoring, sitting upright, sleeping nestled between Roxas and Axel, holding him possessively, blue and green eyes respectively peeking out from under Dusk hoods.

They were all going to be okay. Not perfect.

But that was okay.

The following evening, while Roxas and Axel were moaning partial drawled out words and thwacking each other with pillows, Sora closed his eyes on the cot, and entered his heart. He tidied up Roxas's house, Ventus's, and rebuilt his own inside of Castle Oblivion, before trudging to the new out-of-place architecture.

Sora fixed the damaged wall, repaired the floorboards, and plastered the cracks with a gentle wave of his hands, smiling at his handiwork.

He hoped these buildings would never need to be used again, but there they were, just in case.

Sora stepped back out of the building, into the city square, and looked out at the beach one last time. He clapped his hands, snuffing out the streetlamps, sun and stars, dropping his heart into silence and darkness. Not the kind that brought out the things that went bump in the night, but merely a peaceful slumber.

Sora opened his eyes just as Axel flung a pillow square to his jaw.

"Sooooooraaaaaa… Rooooooox huuuuuuurt meeeeee," Axel whined, exaggerating his movements like a toddler.

"Just because your body is new doesn't mean you have to act like it," Sora sighed, jolting back to reality. Axel didn't have a face yet, but Sora would swear he'd be sticking out a tongue if he could.

"Nooooot liiiiike yooooou," Axel whined, as Sora grinned, swiping the pillow he'd just been laying on and smacking Roxas in the head with it.

"Not like me?" Sora asked, smacking Axel and dodging a thrown plush projectile. "If you want to hit me back you'll have to stand up."

"Fuuuuu youuuuuu." Axel grabbed the bedpost, wobbling on spindly legs, and Sora noticed with no small amount of pride that he'd grown about a foot in the past day. He heard one crack, and another, as Axel's feet snapped like Xion's had done a few weeks earlier.

"AAAAAAaaAAaA!" Axel cried in surprise.

"Any pain?" Sora asked, rushing over, all worry.

Axel bent down and took a step forward to reclaim his squishy weapon of doom, flinging it with his own momentum as he stood up to wind Sora right in the chest with it.

Sora coughed, and regained his breath. "You… tricked me!"

"Yaaaaaa."

"Don't be so smug, Axel, I'll peel your hood off."

Roxas took the opportunity to bash Axel from behind, and both of them toppled on the floor, screech-laughing like children, if children were five and six feet tall, and a creature that would, in normal circumstances, be trying to eat people.

Sora sunk to the floor, too. "Just… don't make me get Auntie Xion."

"Noooooooo…" they whined in unison.

"Or Uncle Lea."

"Kiiiiiiilljooooy."

"Weeeeee blankeeeeee."

"Act like that and I'll tell Ienzo that you get baby food for dinner." The two of them moaned again.

Sora smiled. He needed his friends, sure, but they needed him, too.

Notes:

I just want to thank you all for reading! Shoutout to the following people for leaving comments on either FF or AO3: LanternJawedStudmuffin, Pilinonamae, booping_the_snoot, Zilleniose, WyvernSpirit, allykeegan, Josh Spicer, DreamlessAshes, Kat, Peruse, rynoa29, invaderhorizongreen, princesseru10, Maya Chain 23, superwin, FusionCore, and hnh058513, and anyone else who replies here!

This was my first ever KH fic and I hope it was ok? If I were to write another one shot or short, would you want one? I might take a request or two if the topic interests me!