Marluxia had just set his bag on his desk when a knock came at his door, which was surprising because he'd arrived nearly thirty minutes early. He supposed, however, that since he usually came in that early, his colleagues and coworkers would know about it by now.

"Come in," he called just loud enough for whomever it was to hear, and the door opened to reveal none other than Mr. Fuseiai, and Marluxia immediately straightened before bowing slightly out of respect.

"Good morning, Mr. Fuseiai. What can I do for you?"

The white-haired man smiled slightly as his employee straightened once more. "Good morning, Doctor. I came to let you know that a new child will be joining you in your sessions starting after lunch today."

A new child?

"Really?" Marluxia asked, his curiosity flaring to life.

It had been barely a month since Namine had started joining them for sessions, and Demyx had only arrived seven months before that. It was unusual that a new Silent would join them so often. Even Namine's arrival had seemed unusually soon after Demyx.

"Yes." Mr. Fuseiai held out a manila folder that no doubt contained all the information they had on the new child. "Use the morning session with the children to let them know he's coming so that they'll be prepared to meet him after they have their lunch."

Marluxia accepted the folder. "Of course, sir."

"I'll stop by to see how he's doing during the afternoon. Good day, Doctor Shizen." With that, the yellow-eyed man was gone, leaving the doctor alone in his office with the file of the mystery child.

Forgetting the other paperwork he had to look over that morning, Marluxia returned to his desk, sat, and leaned back in his chair comfortably with the manila folder in hand. He opened it to reveal several sheets of paper, the first of which held basic information and a description of the child, along with a photograph.

Name: Riku Fudoushin

Age: 9 years old

Eyes: Teal

Hair: Silver

Height: 49 inches

Weight: 61.6 lbs

Parents: Deceased

Cause of Death: Killed when home collapsed due to earthquake. Son Riku, age 7 years at time of incident, survived with minor injuries.

Marluxia registered that the child, Riku, was a healthy height and weight for his age and appeared to be well taken care of in his photo, though his expression was decidedly unhappy. Skipping to the next page, he learned that he'd been taken by the state and put up for adoption, having no family to go to. For the last two years, Riku had been passed from foster home to foster home. The file contained reports filled out by the families that had taken him in, and each said approximately the same thing.

Riku is moody and unsociable. He doesn't interact with the other children without encouragement and gets into fights. No matter what we do, he refuses to speak and rarely makes eye contact.

This boy threw a temper tantrum and broke several dishes by throwing them at our other foster children. Two of them had to be taken to the hospital for stitches as a result.

He attacked another child and had to be restrained by two adult men. Refuses to obey the rules of our home and doesn't appear to listen to anything we say. Attempts to communicate with him are ignored or met with angry responses that are nearly impossible to understand.

Each report was worse than the one before it. Riku, it seemed, was extremely aggressive, had a short temper and didn't hesitate to take his anger out on those around him. That was certainly a cause for worry—the Home's Silents were peaceful, friendly and occasionally shy. A child like Riku could easily turn the play room to chaos and disrupt their sessions, maybe even cause him to lose the precious progress he'd made with the other children.

Why would Mr. Fuseiai allow a child like Riku to come into the Home where there were dozens of other children for him to pick fights with and potentially harm? Of course, Marluxia knew that he, Xaldin, Lexeaus and Xigbar were fully capable of restraining a nine-year-old boy, but he really hoped it didn't come to that. With any luck, he'd be able to make Riku feel welcome and manage to calm the boy down before he got upset enough to start fights or break things. If worst came to worst, there was always the Safe Room. Marluxia really, really hoped it never came to that. The Safe Room was a last resort for dealing with violent children, and he hadn't had to use it yet. Hopefully, he never would. He didn't even like to think about it.

Worried now, the doctor glanced over the rest of what was in the file until he got to the last page, the report of what exactly had happened to Riku's parents.

"Oh, no…"

It was difficult to fight the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes as he read. According to this, Riku had only survived the earthquake that destroyed his home because his parents shielded him with their bodies and were killed in the process. It took them three days to find him under the rubble, and he'd refused to be separated from the bodies of his parents when they tried to put him in the ambulance. Even after they'd been put in body bags, Riku had clung to them and had to be sedated just to be taken to a hospital and treated for his injuries along with dehydration and malnourishment. At their funeral, he'd sat completely silent throughout the ceremony and didn't respond to anyone who tried to console him.

"And he hasn't spoken since," Marluxia sighed, setting down the file and looking at it as if it might come to life and tell him the story all over again.

No wonder Riku was so troublesome. Even though the other Silents and many of the other children at the Home had lost their parents in traumatic ways—really, when was it not traumatic for a child to lose his or her parents?—it seemed that Riku's experience had been one of the worst. Determination made Marluxia straighten in his chair. He was going to help this child whether Riku wanted him to or not, and he wasn't about to let the boy's past interfere with his future.

XXX

The play room was uncharacteristically quiet, even considering that the only voice ever heard there was Doctor Marluxia's. Usually, the sounds of toys being played with or the doctor's music would be in the background, replacing the voices and laughter one would usually expect to find in a play room. Not today. Today, the music was off, and the children had forsaken their toys in favor of the ring of cushions and now sat there, waiting.

As he'd been instructed by Mr. Fuseiai, Doctor Marluxia had used his morning session with the children to let them know a new child would be coming to join them after lunch. They'd bombarded him with questions, but all he'd told them was that it was a boy and he was nine years old, and that they shouldn't crowd him when he arrived because he was shy and might get upset. He didn't like lying to them, thought it wasn't exactly a lie. He just hadn't told them that Riku might become angry with little to no provocation and that they needed to be careful. But the Silents were already quiet and cautious so he was fairly optimistic about how the introductions would go. The homes Riku had been placed in previously hadn't had any other mutes in them and the other residents had only rudimentary sign language skills. Hopefully, being with other mute children, Riku would feel more comfortable and wouldn't be as aggressive as the reports made him out to be.

Finally, there came a knock at the door to signal that Lexeaus had arrived with Riku, and Marluxia calmly went to open.

"Remember what I said," he signed to the children, his hand on the doorknob, and they nodded. The doctor smiled then opened the door. "Hello, Lexeaus." He looked down at the boy standing just behind the Ward Father and smiled. "Hello, there."

"Dr. Shizen, this is Riku," Lexeaus introduced the boy, stepping to the side so that Marluxia could kneel and extend his hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Riku. My name is Doctor Marluxia Shizen."

Riku regarded him with wary green-blue eyes, his hands shoved into his pockets in a clear display that he had no intentions of shaking the doctor's hand. Undeterred, Marluxia waited until the boy rolled his eyes and yanked a hand out of his pocket only to thrust it into the doctor's and shake his hand with a glare.

Still smiling, Marluxia released Riku's hand and straightened. "Thank you for bringing him, Lexeaus. Feel free to stop by and visit whenever you have time."

"Will do, Doctor. Take care, Riku." With a nod, Lexeaus cast a discreet glance at the surly boy before leaving, and Marluxia shut the door after Riku had slowly moved forward into the play room.

With his hand hovering by Riku's shoulder but not touching him, the pink-haired doctor guided him farther into the play room to where the other children sat waiting. They smiled at Riku, a little uncertainly, but smiled nonetheless. To everyone's surprise, it wasn't Kairi that was the first to move to greet the new boy.

Abandoning his usual place at Roxas' side, Sora stood and approached the silver-haired boy. His customary smile was missing, and he blatantly ignored the looks the other children were giving him to tell him to sit down. Blue eyes met teal, but Sora didn't appear intimidated by the threatening glare on Riku's face. Everything about the new boy's posture and expression said get away as Sora stood before him, a little shorter than Riku and calmer than Marluxia had seen him in over a year.

The brunet lifted his hands. "My name is S-O-R-A."

Curiosity and surprise began to mix in with the slow-burning anger in Riku's eyes as if he hadn't realized these new strangers would know sign language.

"You can't talk?" he asked, signing slowly as if he wasn't sure Sora would understand.

"No. None of us can." Sora gestured at the other children and smiled slightly. "We are like you."

Riku shook his head. "No one is like me. They don't understand." He indicated Marluxia, meaning that the adults he'd dealt with since losing his parents didn't know what he needed.

"Doctor understands. He knows. He is helping us turn our voices back on," Sora explained, then smiled a little wider. "Will you be my friend?"

"I don't have any friends. The other kids don't like me."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't talk. They picked on me and made me mad. Then I got in trouble and no one wanted me." The admittance looked like it hurt Riku, and he dropped his gaze to the floor until Sora reached out and touched his arm to regain his attention.

"I can't talk either. Can I be your friend?"

Teal eyes darted around the room, looking at each silent, friendly face then up at Marluxia's encouraging smile.

"No one will pick on you here, Riku," the doctor signed without speaking. "I promise."

Riku hesitated, and Marluxia could almost see the thoughts running through the boy's head.

Was he lying? Were these other children really like him? Would they be nice to him when the other children had been mean, or were they tricking him?

Slowly, the silver-haired boy nodded and hesitantly held his hand out to Sora. His usual smile making its appearance and putting a happy gleam in the brunet's astoundingly blue eyes, Sora took the offered hand and led Riku over to where he'd left Roxas. The blond looked up at Sora with a pouty expression, his arms crossed.

"This is R-O-X-A-S," Sora introduced him, still smiling despite his friend's obvious displeasure with having been abandoned so easily. "He's my best friend. You can be his friend, too."

Doing his best to smile in a friendly way, Riku waved at the blond but stood mostly behind Sora as if the brunet offered protection. Being called Sora's best friend seemed to appease Roxas somewhat and he uncrossed his arms, smiling back in a neutral way. Riku stayed where Sora had led him as the brunet fetched a yellow pillow for the new boy to sit on, dragging it over with some trouble and putting it beside his own.

"You can sit here," he signed then pointed at the pillow before sitting on his own blue pillow. Immediately, Roxas latched onto his arm in a display of possessive affection and gave Riku a pointed look as if to say mine. Unfazed, Riku settled onto the yellow cushion and once again took hold of Sora's hand.

Obviously confused, Sora looked between Roxas and Riku as if trying to understand the competitive vibe passing between the two boys. The other children looked on in amusement—they realized, even if Sora didn't, that the brunet had inadvertently made himself the center of a competition for the position of "best friend" between Roxas and Riku. Doctor Marluxia shook his head, smiling, and went to his place at the head of the circle.

"Now, why don't we all introduce ourselves?" he suggested, and the session began.

XXX

Xemnas Fuseiai approached the door to the play room, knowing full well that Dr. Shizen and the Silents were inside enjoying an afternoon together. Lifting a hand, he knocked quietly and waiting for the familiar voice to call, "Come in." When those words sounded, he opened the door and entered the playroom. Within moments, all of the children except two moved towards him and signed their hellos, smiling.

"Hello, everyone," the tall man greeted them, smiling. "How are you doing?"

A round of "goods" and descriptions of what they'd been doing that day answered his question, and Xemnas responded to each one in turn until the children were satisfied with interacting with him and returned to their games.

Marluxia, who had been waiting patiently, moved forward once the white-haired man looked towards him. "Mr. Fuseiai."

Silent, the Home's owner gestured for the pink-haired man to join him on the far side of the room, out of ear shot of the children before speaking. "How is our newest addition fitting in?"

"Surprisingly well. I assume you read his file."

Xemnas nodded. "Thoroughly. It made me wonder if he would do well here, but he seems to be getting along with the others."

Both adults turned and watched Riku interacting with Sora and Roxas. The silver-haired boy wasn't as enthusiastic as the two younger boys, but he did seem to be making an effort to participate in the game and readily communicated with Sora.

"What have you learned about him?" Mr. Fuseiai asked, topaz eyes unreadable as he watched the children play.

"He didn't want to shake my hand when he arrived, but I waited long enough that eventually he did, though he definitely wasn't happy about it. I worried he wouldn't want to interact with the other children at all, especially considering how persistent Kairi can be. Sora managed to get through to him within his first few minutes of joining us."

"Really." Xemnas examined the brunet with renewed interest. "How did he manage that?"

"Judging from what Riku said to Sora, the foster homes he was placed in during the last two years weren't really qualified to help him. The reports in his file say that he's aggressive and fights a lot, but Riku told Sora that the other children he lived with picked on him for not being able to talk and he got in trouble for fighting back. He seemed surprise that the children know sign language."

Tsking his tongue, Mr. Fuseiai shook his head. "It's terrible how so many children are mistreated like that."

"I agree. He hasn't been any trouble at all, though he sometimes hesitates before participating in group activities and didn't want to join in on the discussion during the after-dinner session. The others have been a bit calmer than usual so as not to overwhelm him." Proud of how well the Silents were doing with helping Riku become part of the group, Marluxia allowed himself to smile a little.

"Good, good." Xemnas watched the children play for a few moments longer then shifted as if he meant to leave. "Fill out a full report before you go home and leave it in my office, please."

"Of course, sir."

Marluxia watched the other man leave before returning to his desk. A full report could take him up to an hour, especially if he was as meticulous and detailed as he knew Mr. Fuseiai would want him to be. It wasn't exactly a problem, since arriving early every day meant he had a bit of free time in his afternoons after the children were turned over to Lexeaus to work on homework and get ready for bed, but he wasn't particularly fond of paperwork. Still, he was actually rather eager to add his own observations to Riku's file and prove that he wasn't the aggressive child the foster parents had made him out to be. But he would have to note that this was an early speculation—he would need to spend more time around the boy before he could adequately judge his personality and temperament.

Watching Sora show Riku how to operate one of the many hand-held games that were available to the children made the doctor smile. He felt silly for worrying that the new child would cause trouble and disrupt the peace that generally filled the play room and even a little guilty for thinking that he might have to use the Safe Room if things got too out of hand.

So far, it seemed that Riku would fit in perfectly at Fuseiai's Home for Troubled Youths.