Late again...

Chapter 7: Story


"This is going to be bad, y'know?" Rai said nervously, pushing the tips of his fingers together as he walked alongside Seifer. Seifer, conversely was fuming, angered by the dread that was creeping up his spine.

Axel, Luxord, Lexaus, and Xaldin had left, meaning he had to handle speaking to his supervisor with Rai, which, as far as he was concerned, was just as bad as doing it alone.

"Maybe he'll be lenient on you, y'know? After all, you were provoked." Rai mused out loud. "Maybe you'll even get a reward for getting rid of a pest?"

Seifer kept his gaze even as he walked up the corridor, working tremendously hard to keep his temper at bay. It wasn't long after the small vessel reached headquarters, and as Seifer expected, the organization's supervisor found out in less than half an hour of their return.

He had been summoned to the leader's chambers, which Axel took great pleasure in informing him. He was in the process of making his way there, Rai in tow. "I used a company boat to deliver packages that weren't even ready to be shipped out until next week. I bribed the aid of four of our best men to help me stage a street fight. We killed him, and now there's a dead body lying at the harbor, poorly concealed by a few boxes. The combined hours and money wasted on this venture far exceeds what would be considered reasonable, and to top things off, Axel was the one who told on me. Please Rai, tell me where you think there's room for a reward!"

He spat the last word so loudly that it rang down the corridors, frightening Rai into a crouched position against the walls. Apparently he had ended up losing his temper, and had stopped walking as well.

"Sorry, I was just trying to be optimistic," Rai muttered, eyes drifting to a throbbing vein in Seifer's forehead.

"Well your optimism isn't appreciated. Just keep quiet and let me think." He collected himself and resumed walking, satisfied when Rai's footsteps fell in line with his. "I have to make a good case for our supervisor, because if I don't, I can kiss my position here and my life goodbye."

Rai's eyes widened. "You think he's going to…have you executed?"

Seifer shrugged. "Well no, but consider this: you and I aren't even full fledged members yet. You remember what happened to Demyx when he was still training?"

"Ah, you mean that guy who delivered a shipment to the wrong people? That was pretty stupid, y'know?"

"Yeah, I know," Seifer muttered. "He was stuck doing clean up for the Saïx, and you know how much of a mess that guy makes when he gets a hit."

Rai wrinkled his nose. "You don't take me as the kind of person who would handle that well, y'know?"

"Of course I wouldn't! I'm suited for high profile missions like being a hit man, or reconnaissance. I'm destined for so much more than pickup and delivery." He rubbed his eyes with a gloved hand. "Now I'm doomed to be demoted to cleanup, and my full membership status will be postponed indefinitely! All because…" Suddenly, he turned to Rai, whose eyebrows lifted.

"All because of what?"

"Because of you!" Seifer shouted, grabbing Rai's collar and shaking him. "If you hadn't been so adamant about getting revenge for a black eye, I never would have been provoked to fight him, and subsequently kill him. This is all your fault!"

Rai's face assumed the color of chalk, and his eyes widened. "It's my fault? But that's not fair!"

"Oh it's fair alright," Seifer said, shaking him again. He sighed and resumed his steady walk down the corridor. "I'm telling the supervisor all about how you made me kill him. Then he's sure to give me a lesser punishment, and I can be back on the road to getting the recognition for my criminal mastery. Let's go."

Rai looked uncertain as he began walking, but remained a few steps behind Seifer. "I don't think I want to go with you anymore."

"You don't have a choice," Seifer snorted. "You have to prove your case to the Supervisor. This is your fault after all."


Riku's eyes had lit up when Sora offered to help, but he should have known that Sora wasn't going to be as cooperative as he had let on. He told him he'd have to wait until after he got off work the next afternoon in order to fully concentrate.

"I still have to make money," he had said in his scolding tone, the one that made Riku want to start another fight down at the harbor just out of spite. He remembered that he was at the mercy of Sora's generosity though, so he resisted the urge to float down to the place where all of this had started.

But then Sora went back to bed for the next couple of hours, and when Riku found that he was unable to sleep himself—it made sense; he was a ghost with no body that needed rest—he was starting to reconsider how he was going to keep himself entertained for the hours it took Sora to return home.

His anxiousness only increased as the sun rose and spilled light through the curtained windows. Sora had gone off to shower while he hovered about the living room, contemplating the likelihood of keeping himself out of trouble, and more importantly, sane while he milled about the house with nothing to do.

Sora emerged just as Riku mulled this over and didn't look pleased. He looked as though he was hoping that Riku wouldn't be there the next morning, and that everything from the night before really was an elaborate dream.

No such luck. Riku was hovering there, ghostly and transparent.

"Alright," Sora said running a towel through his hair. "I need you to stay put while I get to work. I'd tell you not to touch anything, but given the circumstance, that's kind of unnecessary."

Riku made a face at him. It didn't seem like the appropriate time to be making light of his unfortunate circumstance. Sora ignored him. "You already know where everything is since you've crashed here enough times. I'll be back this evening."

Riku folded his arms. "Are you really going to make me stay here all afternoon? It's going to be completely boring."

"What do you usually do during this time of day?"

"Sleep!"

"Well go pretend to do that."

Riku made another face at him. "I can't just wander around all day. I'll go crazy."

Sora narrowed his eyes. "Don't you think you've had enough excitement for one lifetime? Oh wait, you're—"

"I get it," Riku muttered, folding his arms. "But that's how I got into this mess in the first place. I was bored. Imagine what would happen if I was bored enough to get myself killed a second time. You should be more sympathetic."

"And you should be more considerate, but it looks like neither of us are going to be winning any prizes for thoughtfulness, now are we? You keep yourself here where it's safe, while I go to work and worry about how to fix your problem."

"But what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know," Sora fumed, walking over to the door to retrieve his shoes. "You're a ghost now. Experiment."

"I'd rather not get too comfortable in this state, if it's all the same to you. I much preferred having my feet touch the ground…and having a circulatory system."

"I did too," Sora said, refusing to look at him. "Which is why I think you should stay here, out of trouble, and away from people." He felt his eyes burn, and forced himself to stay focused. If he started getting weepy now, Riku would tease him, and the last thing he needed was a reason to leave Riku to wallow in his own well-deserved misery. "There's a sizeable stack of comic books for you to read in the kitchen, and if you get tired of that, the cookie jar is full of toys for you to play with."

"What am I, eight? And why are there toys in the cookie jar?"

"You're actually seven, and I don't have any cookies to put in there." Sora frowned at him and gripped the doorknob. "I mean it. Stay here out of trouble. If I find out you've left, and got yourself into even more mischief, you'll have to seek shelter from my wrath."

Riku's lip twitched into a grin, but he nodded in spite of how insulted he was at the prospect of having to entertain himself with tattered comic books, and toys meant for someone a third of his age.

Sora took a final moment to glare at him before slipping out the door and locking it behind him, as if it would keep Riku from slipping through.

Riku stared at the door for a long moment, then glanced over at the kitchen where the stacks and stacks of rubbish were shoved; buried underneath were supposed to be enough comic books to keep him entertained for an entire day.

Riku pursed his lips and considered the comic books, then he adjusted his gaze back to the door. Really, if he just stepped out for a little while, just to get the anxious jitters out of his weightless limbs, and cast a little sunlight through his transparent body, then maybe he would be able to focus better on solving his current predicament. Besides, he reasoned, if Sora had suggested that he experiment with his new state, and while he had at first been against getting too familiar with his new body, if such an argument allowed him the loophole he needed to escape, then so be it. Grinning triumphantly, he waited a few moments to make sure Sora had indeed left the premises, and pushed himself through the door.

The sun was indeed pleasant, and he was pleased to see that it didn't set him on fire, or force him through some dark portal, as he belatedly thought it might. It seemed as though even if he was now some kind of wayward waif, at the very least he wasn't some kind of demon. He looked skyward towards the tops of the trees, and then at the ground towards the grass and dirt. He had kind of expected things to look different, maybe even see things in a different tint, given his own washed out appearance, but everything remained the same.

He looked around for a few more moments, then decided that standing around was critically the same as standing around indoors, and was immediately on the hunt for something else to do. Sitting around like some kind of animal didn't suit his fancy in the slightest.

Then a thought struck him.

Sora was probably going to go to work, then croon to Kairi and Roxas all about how he had obtained a new pet ghost. Then, while all of them were sitting around making fun of his unfortunate position, Riku's body would rot at the harbor, and nothing would get fixed. Riku would be the first to admit that all of this might have been his fault, but he wouldn't stand for anyone else—other than Sora—to know that. Maybe if he just poked his head into the café for a few minutes, just to check in and see what kind of discussions were going on, he would be able to prevent the spread of any possible misconceptions.

Another, less mischievous thought crossed his mind, and he wished that it hadn't. He was a ghost now, but there were no guarantees about his continued existence as one. He hadn't seen any other apparitions in the area, a good indication that his time might be limited. If it was…if he and Sora couldn't come up with a solution to restore him back to the world of the living, then each precious moment he had was well worth spending it with people he liked. He couldn't stand the thought of wasting the last of his existence in the front lawn of Sora's apartment.

The thought made his eyes burn, so he immediately stopped the train of thought and focused on causing trouble. He was good at that.

If he was going to make the trip all the way to The Filter, he had to remember to be careful. He wasn't planning on doing much talking to Sora, but if Sora happened to come home and hear his neighbors shrieking about seeing a ghost wandering around, then Sora's wrath would be unleashed, and even transparency wouldn't be able to save him. He gritted his teeth, making absolutely sure that it was worth risking a second death for an entertaining afternoon.

It was.

A quick survey of the nearby area produced no people, so he scampered down the walkway, towards Sora's place of employment.


Sora sucked in a deep breath before pushing the door open to The Filter. His head was throbbing from a headache that had sprung the moment he had first laid eyes on Riku that morning, and he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before either. He couldn't imagine that he looked very pleasant, so he thought it might be best if he voluntarily confined himself to the back rooms for the day. The fewer people to lay eyes on his sunken face and dark eyes, the better chance he had of making it through work without snapping at anyone, or worse, revealing what was giving him so much grief to begin with.

The bell rang above his head as he entered the cafe, and he offered a half hearted nod to Kairi before disappearing to the back room to retrieve his apron and some semblance of a pleasant expression.

He should have known better.

Wincing as he heard the door swing open again behind him, he knew before he even turned around that Kairi would be there, hands on her hips, and left eyebrow quirked upward questioningly. She was always able to pick up on things that were amiss, especially when they concerned him, and especially when he was trying to hide it.

"You alright today, Sora?" She said, concern dripping from her voice. Sora knew better though. Behind the worry and compassion drenching the words, there was a tenacious ferocity hidden. She wasn't going to let him escape the following interrogation without the truth, or at least a creative and realistic lie. Kairi could always read him like an open book—highlighted and stamped out in bold. If she wanted to, she could weave every negative thought he had ever held since birth out of him as easily as the wind pulls sound from a wind chime, so unless he could think of something quickly, he was doomed.

He cleared his throat and threw his apron over his head. He practiced grinning a few times before turning around, then addressed Kairi with the enthusiasm he should have thought to use earlier. "Hey Kairi," he said a little too loudly. "What's up?"

Her eyebrow disappeared behind her reddish brown bangs as the arch steepened. "Nothing. Eh, what's up with you?"

"Nothing," Sora said and brushed past her, careful to remain smiling. "Just getting ready. Full house this morning?"

"Not really." She eyed him warily, and followed him as he walked through the door again to the counter. She was watching his back as he idly moved things about, shuffled around the tip jar, and played with the receipt paper.

Kairi pursed her lips. "You alright? You seem like you're in a weird mood this morning."

Sora swallowed hard, and ran a hand through his hair. If he could give anything, he would make himself less easy to read. Consciously adjusting his face so that he smiled more naturally, he turned toward her and made a noise in the back of his throat that he hoped sounded like a scoff. "Me?"

"Yes, you. Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay," he said matter-of-fact. "Why do you ask?"

Kairi tilted her head to the side, an indication that she knew something was wrong, and that Sora was going to have an impossible time trying to convince her otherwise. "Well, for starters, you look a little bit like you're having a nervous breakdown, but your face is trying to convince the rest of you—and me—that you're not."

Sora tossed his head back and laughed, unnerved at how close she so quickly hit the nail on the head. He may have been coming apart at the seams, but he was determined to keep as much of that to himself as possible. "Nervous breakdown? That's absurd. I'm fine."

Kairi rolled her eyes at him. "You're hardly convincing. You can't hide anything from me, Sora."

"I'm not hiding anything." Sora said, holding his hands up in defense. "I'm just tired today."

"Who's hiding?" A familiar voice filled Sora's ears, and he felt his stomach drop, and an icy chill sweep through his body.

Roxas had shown up.

"Sora is," Kairi said folding her arms. "So to speak." She moved to the side so that Roxas could slip behind the counter to retrieve his own apron, but as far as Sora was concerned, he was merely preparing to co-interrogate him.

"What are you hiding form?"

"Nothing."

"Me."

"No I'm not!"

"Then tell me what's wrong!"

Roxas shrugged himself into his apron quickly, then dashed back to Kairi's side with a smug grin across his face. "You are not about to leave me out of a good story, are you?"

Sora slapped a hand over his face and dragged it down his chin. "There is no story to tell."

"There is if you're hiding something."

"I'm not hiding anything!"

Roxas looked at an increasingly panicked Sora, and Kairi who drummed her fingers across her upper arm.

"Yeah, I believe her."

"Of course you do."

"Only because she's usually right."

"Well, she isn't this time. There's a first time for everything."

"Not when it comes to Kairi," Roxas said leaning against the counter, patting a sympathetic hand on Sora's shoulder. "Sometimes it's better to admit defeat, just in case your enemy is a sadist and doesn't believe in a merciful, bloodless resolution."

"What are you talking about?"

Roxas placed a hand on Sora's head and slowly turned it to meet Kairi's eyes. "She's mere seconds from feeding you to the lions. Might as well come clean. Don't worry, I'm here for you."

Kairi rolled her eyes and swatted Roxas on the shoulder. "I am not. I'm just worried, that's all. You should have seen Sora when he walked in this morning. He looked like death."

"Nah, that's not really necessary." Roxas said, eyeing Sora. "He still looks like death, so I get the picture."

"Cut it out!" Sora said. "And comments on my appearance are really going to make me feel better."

"So there is something wrong," Roxas pointed out, and Sora found himself unable to respond. He and Kairi—and Riku for that matter—were all too good at making him uncomfortable, as well as bringing out his how unfortunately honest he was. If he didn't think it would drive him mad, he might consider hanging out with Riku and Roxas more often, in hopes that their emotional control would rub off.

Instead he stood there staring at both Roxas and Kairi with his mouth hanging open; his hopes of victory dashed against the ground, crumbled around his feet like the crumbs from the cookies behind the glass.

Kairi recognized her victory, but in true Kairi form, she kept her smile mild, and her eyes warm and encouraging. Roxas however, was not so kind to Sora's pride and wore the grin as though he had just marched through a finish line at an athletic event.

"We've got a few minutes until Cid shows up," he said, looking for a place to sit down. "If you hurry through the story without trying to convince us that you're not hiding something, I may be able to get a few laughs in while Kairi tries to blubber out one of her solutions."

Sora groaned, and wished that Cid would show up unceremoniously early to drag him out of this misery. The older man was nowhere in sight, and so Sora was forced to tackle both Roxas and Kairi by himself. He cleared his throat and tried to come up with a suitable lie, one he could tell with little hope of the truth accidentally slipping through.

He couldn't tell them that Riku had died.

He swallowed hard at the memory of Riku's incredibly blunt tale about his own death, and how he had done exactly what Sora said was going to happen and gotten himself into more trouble than he could handle.

Aside from getting over that hurdle, how could he tell them that Riku had actually left his physical body and was now floating around his apartment reading old comic books while Sora worked and figured out how to get him back into his body (assuming of course it was even possible at this point).

A lie or two would definitely be better than that.

He swallowed again, and tried to push a grin on his tired face. "I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night, that's all."

"Are you stressed out?"

"Yeah," he breathed. So far he didn't have to do much lying. Riku—true to form—never really showed up at the most opportune times of the evening, and having a best friend somehow turned into a ghost wasn't exactly akin to a relaxing summer vacation. "I've just got a lot on my mind."

"Did you talk to Riku?"

"…Yeah," he said slowly. "More or less."

"You don't have any bruises, so obviously he didn't try to punch you. What else could you possibly be worried about?"

"Eh…" Sora racked his brain for anything that could possibly cling onto in order to dance around the real problem. "I'm not worried that he's going to hit me or anything. Besides, who said it was about Riku anyway?"

Roxas rolled his eyes. "You just did. Denial is like telling us point blank. Out with it."

"Roxas, just let him talk. It's obviously not so easy to get out, am I right?"

Sora really wanted to point out that Kairi had no idea how hard. "Well, you know how he likes to go down to the harbor and cause all of those problems every night."

Kairi put her hands up to her mouth. "Don't tell me something bad happened. Is he okay?"

"Yes, yes, he's fine. Sort of." Sora said quickly, awkwardly. "It's just that…ugh, this is complicated."

Roxas gripped the counter, and pushed himself on top of it, swinging his legs back and forth like a child at a candy store. "Say no more, Sora. I know exactly what happened!"

"You do?"

"Yup. I can tell just by looking at you. Something horrible has happened. Something wonderfully horrible."

"Somehow I think you're going to be wrong," Kairi muttered. "And get off the counter."

"Wait, just hear me out." Roxas started, rubbing his hands together and kicking his legs even faster."Riku went down at the harbor last night and got into a brawl."

"That's what I just said."

"And he probably crashed at your house for the night, too. I bet he went straight to your apartment for some of your canned vegetables or whatever. Then, you both went to sleep thinking that everything was over."

"Okay…"

"But then!" Roxas shouted, making Kairi jump, and Sora wish that he was anywhere else in the world. "Disaster struck."

"Disaster?"

"Yes, disaster. Riku may have beaten up those chumps down at the harbor, but he didn't realize that those people were merely the pawns to an even greater entity of bad guys. The sentries, if you will. A far greater evil lurked just beyond the tide!"

Kairi pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "You've been watching too many movies. And they're obviously movies, because you clearly don't read."

Sora, however, felt his breath leave him and his knees weaken at the accuracy of what Roxas was saying. Kairi was right, this whole thing was like something straight out of a horror movie, and Sora just wished it would end already.

Roxas pressed forward, ignoring Kairi and taking delight in the pained expression on Sora's face. "While you two were sleeping in your cozy little apartment, a storm was brewing. Riku should have finished off the sentries, tossed their bodies in the harbor and walked away, but no. He left them breathing, left them capable of sending a distress message to headquarters."

Sora's mouth hung open. "What…what are you?"

Roxas' eyes lit up brighter than spotlights. "I'm right, aren't I?!"

Kair's eyebrow lifted. "He is?"

"No! I mean…no. He's not!"

"Too late! I've already received confirmation!" Roxas laughed. "Wait, now let me get to the end. This is seriously the best day ever!"

Sora wanted to crawl into a corner and fall into a deep, dark hole.

"Anyway, the sentries sent a distress signal to headquarters, and they're coming back…for…"

"For?"

"For…you!"

Sora's jaw hung open even farther, this time with confusion. "They're coming for me?"

"Yes. They followed Riku to your apartment, thinking that your home was his home. Now you're both caught up in an underground crime league, with no hope of escape except by the power of your own fists and a dim promise of a brighter tomorrow!"

Sora stared at him silently. Roxas had gotten so worked up that he was panting, and Kairi's gaze was darting back and forth between them. That last part was distinctly incorrect, but all things considered, the truth would have been a far worse conclusion. Sora supposed that if he let Roxas make up what had happened instead of risking making up something himself, he could avoid accidentally telling the truth.

Things had actually turned out even better than expected.

"You're absolutely right," Sora said simply, making Roxas punch a fist into the air, and Kairi, stare at him incredulously. "How did you ever guess?"

"I told you I knew what I was talking about. You guys need to start listening to me more."

"I'm completely impressed," Sora said, clapping his hands together. "I should have known better than to try and hide things from you guys."

"I'm pretty sharp!" Roxas laughed, then jumped off the counter, patting Sora on the shoulder. "Man, I am jealous. Why do you get to have all the fun?"

Kairi looked skeptically at Sora. "Sora, is this really true?"

"Every word. People are really after me." He put his hands on Kairi's shoulders for emphasis. "I have no idea what I'm going to do. Leave it to Riku to drag the lowest of the low from the harbor. Now he and I have to figure out how to get them away from us so that I'll once again feel safe going to my house."

Roxas nodded enthusiastically. "I know what you mean. You never know with those types. One minute you could be walking home, and the next, you're being dragged away in a body bag. You must be terrified."

Kairi looked ill, and Sora—gladly—had Roxas to thank for that. If this story would satiate Kairi's questioning, and Roxas' need for a good show, he was certain he would be able to dedicate more time to concentrating on the real problem, and getting his best friend back into his body. "What should I do?'

"Well, the important thing is to stay calm," Kairi tried, sounding drained. "I'm kind of at a loss here. People are really, really after you?"

"Yes," Sora said pointedly. "I'm a marked man."

"This is so cool!" Roxas cheered.

Sora nodded, trying hard to convey nonexistent fear for his own life, and then rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand to finish the performance off. "Listen, I really appreciate your support, guys. We really need to get to work before Cid shows up, though."

"Ugh, and this was getting so good. This is almost worth getting fired over."

"Not for me," Sora wailed. "I need to continue to make money, especially if these people chasing me are willing to be bought off."

"Sora, you're a genius. I'll let you clean up all the napkins this afternoon, if it'll help."

"…Eh, thanks."

Kairi eyed him again before wandering off to the back of the cafe, while Roxas grabbed a handful of sugar packets and began tossing them into the holders as though he were assassinating invisible enemies with throwing stars.

Sora had to hand it to himself. This was a pretty impressive feat if he said so himself. Now he could work, try and work through some kind of plan, and get back to Riku in his apartment without dealing with much more meddling from his well-meaning friends. He put his hands on his hips, and sighed contentedly, before hunting around for a broom.

He gripped a nearby broom and dustpan, then began shoveling napkins and other debris into it, his heart fluttering with lightness that he hadn't felt since before Riku had shown up on his doorstep. He almost felt like whistling, if it hadn't been against Cid's stringent rules.

Then suddenly, his heart was knocked out of the sky by a flaming meteorite just sneaking outside beneath the window, slamming it back down into his chest where it shattered into a thousand unsalvageable pieces.

That meteorite was transparent.

It was weightless.

And it looked a lot like his recently friend-turned-ghost who was supposed to be back in his apartment.