Another chapter~ YAY!

I don't own Kingdom Hearts or keyblades.


The hand holding mine tightened and pulled me forward, a strong arm wrapping around my waist. I could immediately tell that this wasn't Seifer; this was someone else entirely.

"Now, now. No need to get angry, Almasy. He'll be completely unharmed with me." It was a smooth, low voice, tinged with cruel delight. "Or should I maybe just make a little mark?"

"Don't touch h-Gah! God, that hurts!"

"I would quit squirming around so much if I were you. If you continue, I may just have to make the dear prince suffer the consequences."

I could not believe that I was being held hostage right now. Irritation prickling through me, I shoved my elbow into the stranger's ribs, a satisfying grunt coming from my holder. The arms vanished and left me free to escape…if I knew which way to go.

"Seifer, where are you?" I shouted.

"Here! Over here!" His voice sounded strained. "Damn, this hurts."

Hoping I was going the right way, I ran through the darkness, unsure on where I was going. I could only hope Seifer would pull me in the right direction as I wandered aimlessly around.

"You're a feisty little prince, aren't you?" A strong hand came around my neck and held me there, choking me. "You certainly have more spirit than most of the other Hearts of Light, but I can certainly understand why."

"Let. Him. Go!"

I wasn't sure what happened, but I felt the man release me and begin to wheeze in pain, cursing under his breath. A warm, familiar hand grabbed hold of mine.

"Come on. We need to get to through this realm before he starts sending more after us."

"Wait…more what?"

He didn't explain and yanked me towards him, forcing me to run alongside him. He was panting, which I could only guess meant he was wounded from whatever had occurred earlier.

"Get back here!" The man from before was now chasing us down. "Give me the prince!"

Seifer muttered something under his breath and abruptly picked me up in a bridal fashion once more. I peeped out a murmur of surprise, caught off guard all over again.

"You're very lucky you're light, Hayner." He grunted, slightly stumbling. "Damn, that really hurts."

"Hand him over!"

We ignored him. A light then went off in my mind and I awkwardly reached down and trailed along his belt, hoping he wouldn't think this to be too disturbing. Thankfully, the pouch was where I hoped it to be and opened it. Sticking my hand in, I felt cool glass; a bottle. I pulled it out and successfully uncorked the bottle.

"Drink." I said, holding the bottle towards him.

"You'll have to give it to me. My hands are kinda being used at the moment." he replied sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes and used one of my fingers to feel for his lips, internally shivering when I found them. Tipping the bottle into his mouth, he swallowed quickly, downing it in seconds.

"Throw it back in the pouch; we may need it later on." I did so. "Close it up, too."

I let him hold me, secretly savoring the moment in my mind so I could never forget this. His arms were strong, comforting and oddly gentle. Was this how he would carry me if we were lovers?

"I can see the exit. We're almost there."

I strained my eyes up ahead, but I could only see…nothing. "Where? I don't see anything."

"We're close. Just trust me."

"Give him to me!"

I pretended not to hear behind us, still unsure how to respond to something like that, seeing as Seifer was a jerk to me 24/7. He chuckled quietly.

"Is it that hard to put your faith in me, Lamer?"

"If you can't even call me by my actual name, then yeah." I snapped back. "Use that last ounce of decency I know you have and say my name."

"Heh. I'll keep that in mind, Lamer."

I groaned in annoyance, to which he laughed. That's when I saw the light up ahead, glimmering through the darkness. Seifer didn't stop to put me down, running faster. The sliver of light grew, like a door was being opened.

"The Heart of Ligh-"

And Seifer stepped into the growing, blinding light, both of us shutting our eyes as it harshly fell upon us.

Our bodies pressed together, we fell forward and rolled on the ground before stopping, silence enveloping. I was taking in deep gulps of oxygen, ignoring the way my lungs stung as If I had swallowed mouthfuls of salt water. Seifer shifted with a grunt, making me aware of the way he was holding me.

"Damn…that was too close." Seifer sighed. "Never wanna do that again."

Opening my eyes, I blinked as my eyes adjusted. Seifer was on his back, myself laying atop him. His arm was wrapped around my waist and I could feel my shirt riding up, his hand touching on my exposed skin. My heart sped up in hopeless joy, thoroughly enjoying this moment while I could. Sadly, it was much too short.

"Get up, Lamer." I glared at him. "Fine, fine. Get off me, Hayner."

"Better." I replied, regrettably pushing myself to my feet.

Seifer hopped up and rolled his shoulder, wincing slightly. That's when I remembered what had occurred back in the Realm.

"You okay?"

"I'm fin-" He cursed when his shoulder cracked, shutting his eyes in pain. "Damnit…"

I didn't hesitate to move behind him and see the damage that had been afflicted. The wound was worse than expected.

"Holy…" I stared in horror at the large claw marks that had shredded his coat and pierced his skin. "I thought I gave you a potion. Shouldn't this have healed?"

"Is it really that bad?" he chuckled.

"You need another potion." I reached for the bag and undid the cord so I could grab one. "Here."

"God, that tastes so bitter."

"Bitter?" I took the empty bottle from his hands and sniffed it. It smelled wonderful. "What're you talking about?"

"The stuff is no better than that nasty pink medicine I used to have as a kid. I don't care what those labels say, that didn't taste anything like bubble gum."

"Shut up and drink it, you big baby." I ordered, shoving the bottle in his hand.

He bristled with anger, but downed the potion in one gulp, his face puckering in distaste. He stowed the empty glass back into the pouch and closed it, then turned around.

"Better now?"

The wound was fully gone, his exposed skin clean and fresh, as if it had never happened. Potions certainly made an effect. His coat and shirt, however, were a different story.

"Yeah, you're good as new. But I'm afraid things might not be the same with your clothes…"

"Yeah, I figured as much. Damnit…" He flipped off his coat and assessed the damage, his scar crinkling in annoyance. "This is my favorite coat, too."

"We'll figure out a way to fix it later."

He slid it back on, grumbling curses under his breath like a pouting child would, getting me to roll my eyes. But I was beginning to notice that I was getting to see the different faces of Seifer as we went deeper and deeper into our unknown adventure. That small revelation made me a bit happy, to say the least.

"Well, this must be Traverse Town." Seifer huffed, hands on his hips as he looked around. "For the first world I've been to, I'm not very impressed."

I had forgotten we had just traveled to a new world. Spinning slowly, I took in the scene and committed my first new world to memory. The place was quaint, but nice for such a small town. The place was filled with bright lights that contrasted with the night sky, which was a new sight for me. Twilight Town lived up to its' name and the result lacked the stars and moon to ever come out and show itself. It was an amazing change of pace for me here, where there was an overabundance of the orbit above. The sight nearly took my breath away.

"It's…beautiful…"

"Eh. I was expecting something more." The older male began to walk, ignoring the fact that we now stood in unfamiliar territory. "Let's go see if anyone is in that shop over there."

I looked to see that he had pointed across the courtyard we stood in, which led up some brick stairs and right up to the doors of a store that had two large signs plastered high above, one reading "Accessories" and the other saying "Jewelry".

"There's another one over there." I pointed out to our left (the sign stated "Items"), noticing it was stationed beside an open café place. "Think we could talk to someone from there?"

His blue eyes surveyed the area, calculating something within his mind. He appeared to be on edge, standing protectively beside me. Then again, I was just on edge from that whole previous experience I had had in the last…what, three hours? Four? Man, this was turning out to be a very long day.

"It looks deserted…and it's quiet." Seifer met my gaze. "Too quiet."

I rolled my eyes. "Axel sent me here to keep me safe, so relax. Come on."

"Yeah, well…you can never be too cautious."

Deciding it was best to just ignore the paranoid freak that was Seifer Almasy, I went up the stones stairs to the door of the Accessory shop and grabbed the doorknob, intending to open it.

"We're closed." a gruff voice snapped.

I turned my head to the right, feeling foolish for not paying attention to my surroundings more often. A tall, older man stood against the wall, a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth, watching me with narrowed eyes.

"You own the store?" I said without thinking.

"Yeah. Now scram before I kick your sorry ass into the Third District."

"The…what?"

Seifer rushed to my side and angrily pulled me away by my arm a few feet before I could ask the stranger anything else.

"Are you that stupid? We know nothing about this place, so quit talking to random people like you're on vacation."

"Since when were you allowed to go mouthing off at me? I'm the prince here, not you."

"I don't care if you were a god, so don't try using that card on me." I sneered in reply. "Look, I came with you to make sure nothing happened to your pathetic head, so do us both a favor and don't do that again. Got it?"

Despite feeling like I had just been scolded like a child, I rolled my eyes and nodded, which seemed to satisfy him enough to not say anything more. He looked behind me, then around the area, calculating something in his mind.

"Come on." He grabbed my hand (it seemed to be a normal occurrence as time went by) and tugged me a different way. "Let's go find some shelter and keep you hidden as best we can."

I followed behind him, but we immediately realized we had come into an alleyway, leaving us with no choice but to turn back. The man from before was now standing in front of the store, a smug grin on his aged face.

"Figured you two would be coming back soon." Seifer slightly moved me so that I was hidden from his line of vision. "Relax, I'm no enemy of yours. In fact, I probably might be able to help you. He turned and opened the door, gesturing us inside. "Come on in."

"…we can't trust you." Seifer growled.

"Nope, but that's only 'cause you're too stubborn to. Try not being so aloof and we might get somewhere. Now get inside."

I sighed as Seifer stayed put, untangling my hand from his and stepped into view. "Sorry, he can be an idiot the majority of the time."

"I can tell." The man chuckled. "The name's Cid, by the way. Where did you two come from?"

I blinked. "You…you mean that you know there are…" I broke off mid-sentence, unsure if I should finish it.

"Other worlds out there? Hell yeah! Been to a few, in fact. Of course, you would need the right stuff to get to those places, so I doubt you two are travelers…are ya?"

"Where we're from is none of y-"

"We aren't traveling, but we were sent here by a friend…for certain reasons."

"Good enough for me."

I walked into the store with Seifer right behind me, still keeping as close as possible. It was ridiculous how serious he was about keeping me safe, but it was also getting to the point where I wanted to tell him to knock it off and give me room to breathe.

The store was small, with a few glass cases that held sparkling items inside and a large brick fireplace that was brightly burning, giving the place a warm, cozy feeling to it. And behind the L-shaped counter was…

"Is…that a floating teddy bear? Or an alien?" I asked.

"That's a Moogle. They're adorably stupid, aren't they?" Cid laughed as he closed the door.

"Does it talk?" I was intrigued now. "Or does it have a different language?"

As if it had heard me, the little thing produced a series of rambling babble, sounding somewhat angry. I stared.

"Oh, get off your high horse, will ya? He's new here." Cid grumbled, getting behind the counter. "Now where did you put the keys?" The Moogle responded. "I swear…your brother does a better job in Radiant Garden for a reason, you know. At least he keeps his stuff in places they should be."

Seifer and I exchanged confused looks, wondering what was being said between the two. It was even weirder that the Moogle could understand English and Cid could easily reply to the thing in turn. After rummaging around in a few drawers, he threw his hands in the air and cursed.

"Damnit! You always misplace the keys!"

Seifer and I awkwardly stood there as the two began an odd argument, both shouting out words and rambles at one another.

"Think we should just leave?" I whispered.

"I'm not even sure what's happening right now."

"Good point." I turned, intending to leave.

That's when the doors of the shop burst open, causing me to jump back and Seifer to reach forward and yank me towards him, wrapping me in a protective hug of sorts.

"Hellllooo, Traverse Town! Man, it's been a while, hasn't it?"


And now they're in Traverse Town! Wonder who that was at the door?