Holy snap, check that out! I actually updated twice in one week! –Le gasp- that never happens!

Okay, Dorothy, so if you're looking for Kansas *points* it's back there, like two or three chapters back. If not, buckle your seatbelt, kiddo, 'cause this shits about to get bumpy! In other words, my wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous readers, things are changing. And they ain't going back.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand by popular vote, there will be Zemyx in this story ^^

Disclaimer: DUDE YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHAT MY MOM GOT ME THIS WEEKEND—

*door busts down and men in suits bust in* There she is! Get her!

-five minutes later-

*sniffle* never mind T.T

Now that he was out of immediate peril, it dawned on Roxas just how awkward this situation was. Axel walked with Leon; Cloud, Roxas and Xion all walked in a tight knit group, and Demyx just trailed behind them in the back, with his arms crossed. Roxas could almost feel the tension between the three of them. That is, he, Demyx, and Axel. It lingered heavily in the air.

He wondered if Demyx hated him. He didn't hate Demyx, because what had happened certainly wasn't his fault at all. He'd been left in the dark just as much as Roxas had. But being the "other boy" was a much more degrading and guilty status than the "it" boy. Roxas hadn't done anything wrong, either, but Demyx didn't necessarily know that.

The halls that Leon led them through were empty. And they echoed eerily with each footstep. If Roxas didn't know any better, he'd say they were inside a castle of sorts. Windows donned every empty, gray wall, but their purpose was unknown to Roxas. There was no visible sun, nor stars, nor a moon. Just darkness. He wondered if there was any kind of outdoors included in this place. Unlikely, as space was void of an atmosphere. How gloomy...

It was quiet now, and Roxas had a moment to think. He was here, in a place that doesn't exist, because his home was bombed, and his girlfriend was dead. Tears began to well up in his eyes all over again. He wondered about his other friends; about Hayner, Pence and Olette. And about his parents. Would they be safe? What if Twilight Town got bombed? He'd already lost Naminé…

"Leon," he asked in a choked voice. He knew everyone could hear his tears, he didn't care. "Are any of the other worlds in danger too?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Leon replied, "What they want is only in Hollow-well, was only in Hollow Bastion."

Xion gave his wrist a reassuring squeeze. "I'm sure they'll be fine, Roxas," she whispered.

Leon pushed through a set of double doors, and presented them with a small cafeteria. One of the walls was completely made of glass, showing off the nothingness all the more. There were four tables stretched across the room, but only one of them was full of people. Roxas was shocked at how many of them he knew.

Eight people were seated altogether at the table, and all eyes had been fixed on the television mounted on the wall before Leon had interrupted them. Now, all sixteen, pardon, fifteen eyes were on Roxas.

Zexion was seated among them, as well as Lexaeus. "You got him!" the young male exclaimed happily to Leon. "Huh. Got quite a few tag-alongs, don't you?"

Since when did he talk so much?

"That's enough, Zex," said a silver-haired man that Roxas recognized to be Riku, "they're obviously scared to death."

"That's him?" said a redheaded girl that looked shockingly similar to Naminé, "but he's like four feet tall!"

Angry chatter erupted at the table, led mainly by Riku and the redheaded girl, while the five newcomers stood awkwardly at the entrance, exchanging looks with one another. Leon leaned up against a metal column and just groaned. The din rose louder and louder until a scruffy blonde man that looked to be about Leon's age pulled a six-shooter from his back pocket and fired it towards the ceiling. The bullet just bounced right off. What was this castle made of, titanium? The loud bang that erupted through the echoing halls was enough to silence the table temporarily.

"Shut the fuck up, ya bunch o' little bitches!" he yelled in a raspy southern accent, "If y'all would just pipe down for twenty goddamn seconds and let the boss talk, maybe this crowd here wouldn't be so scared shitless!"

Honestly, Roxas was more afraid of this man than he was of any of the others. Put together, for that matter.

"Cid's right!" a brunette teenager next to Riku piped up, "At least give Leon a chance to explain to Roxas what's going on!"

With all the other traumatic and life changing events that Roxas had just experienced, he wasn't all that fazed by the brunette knowing his name, and he found himself warming up to the teen immediately.

"Thank you, Sora," said Leon, addressing said teen. "Now are we all going to have to go around the table and play name-games like first graders or can you lot shut up for long enough for me to talk to this bunch?"

An agreeable and slightly shameful murmur spread across the table, and those seated fell silent.

"Sit," Leon instructed. Roxas caught eyes with his brother, and they each nodded, as if to give the other the okay to do so. They started as a group to a table separate to the one everybody else was seated at.

Roxas sat down nervously at the very end. All of these people, they knew something, something concerning him, something about him, that he didn't know himself. Some of them even went about it behind his back. Even with his brother seated reassuringly next to him, he felt alone, betrayed, and put right in the spotlight. All eyes—other than Demyx's—were on him, as though they were waiting for something.

"Okay, Roxas," said Leon, seating himself beside Riku, who was closest by distance to Roxas, "What is it you'd like to know first?"

What didn't he want to know first?

"What is this place?" he asked, "Why is it here, why is my city being bombed, and why did you bring me here?"

"That's a pretty long story…" said Leon, "Are you sure you want to hear it all now? You should rest, and get your hands treated. They're probably getting infected—"

"No," said Roxas automatically, "I want to hear it now."

His hands could wait. The pain was manageable. The uncertainty, the sick feeling pooled in his stomach, that anxious feeling of not knowing a secret had built up to the point where he was about to burst—he needed to know now.

"Okay… but I'm not really sure where to start—" Leon began, but he was cut off by a deep, powerful male voice echoing through the room from the direction of the double doors they'd entered through.

"Start at the beginning," the owner said. He spoke with a ring of authority, leadership. A voice you could just hear the wisdom in.

Looking around to see where it came from, Roxas saw a tall figure, shrouded completely in red and black clothing. He wore an intricate black robe, and over it a deep maroon colored cape-like garment. What appeared to be an ace bandage of the same color was wrapped completely around his entire head, revealing only one bright, amber eye. Roxas could tell immediately that this man was important, from the way everybody stiffened and straightened in their seats.

"DiZ," Leon whispered.

The room was silent, until the brunette teen spoke up, "What's with the getup?" he asked lightly, meaning that obviously the man didn't always dress like that.

"I do not yet know whether or not there is a traitor among us," said DiZ, as if it were the simplest concept in the world, "That being said, it is in our best interest as a group that they do not know my face until they can be trusted, thus limiting the amount of information that could be leaked."

His voice made the hairs on the back on Roxas' neck stand up. Wow… this shit is for real, he thought to himself, Completely insane, of course, but they're all definitely taking this seriously.

"Why don't you start?" Leon suggested to DiZ. Nobody looked particularly comfortable, but they all seemed to be nodding him on.

"Very well," the old man murmured with a resigned sigh. He moved closer to the group and seated himself at an adjacent table, separate from the rest of them. He sat as close to Roxas as possible. Roxas was relieved that at least only one eye was on him now instead of dozens, regardless of how intimidating and frightening that eye may have been.

He began. "The men and women you see here make up a resistance group, called the King's Men," said DiZ, addressing Roxas.

"We formed several thousand years ago, during the Bastonian Revolution." He spoke with a strange accent; he especially put emphasis on the pronunciation of his R's. "Under King Mickey the first. Have you ever heard the legend of the three Keyblade Wielders of Light?"

Roxas shook his head. What the hell was a Keyblade?

"I have," said Xion. Roxas turned to face her in surprise.

"You have?" he questioned. She nodded solemnly, not turning her gaze to him. She stared at her feet instead.

"Would you tell the story, my dear?" DiZ asked. Apparently he disliked being on the spot and talking out loud as much as Roxas did.

"Okay…" she said, turning to face Roxas. She cleared her throat, and started to recite as though she were reading from a storybook. "The story goes that a very long time ago, an angel fell to earth. This earth. And that she broke her wing during the fall. A man saw her hit the ground, and he immediately wanted her beauty for himself. So he took her in, and he did his best to heal her. Over time, she began to trust him, to love him. She wanted to be with him, always. But angels couldn't stay down here, they did not belong. Soon she began to deteriorate. She still did not return to heaven, and before she disappeared completely, she gave him one last gift; her angel powers, and the secret to summoning her magical weapon called the Keyblade, so that he could protect himself and his loved ones."

"But the man was cunning. He'd tricked her. He was an evil, power-seeking man, and he wanted to use the powers he'd obtained for evil. He began to build an army, and he shared her very cells with all the soldiers. He had three special soldiers, who were stronger than the rest, as skilled with a blade as any man or woman could be. Their names were Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. When they fought as a team, even he could not defeat them. So he shared his secret with them, and gave them Keyblades of their own. With their help, he forged a special blade called the X- blade, and it was more powerful than any other. But when they found out about his plan to take over the world, they rose against him. What he didn't know, was that the Keyblade was a weapon of the light, used only to extinguish evil and do good. After many hard battles, one of the three, the eldest, sacrificed his own life, his own body, to stop him for goo. To destroy the power-drunk monster the man had become, and to restore peace to the universe."

She finished, and looked around at them all; they'd become entranced in her tale. "Was that right?" she asked timidly.

"Yes, that is how the legend goes," said DiZ, "but there's more to it than that."

Roxas cut in, "I'm sorry, but how does a bedtime story help explain to me any of this?"

"Because this legend is real," Said DiZ, "It actually happened. The 'angel' in the story is actually an entity, a goddess, if you will, that we refer to as Jenova. You are familiar, I presume, with Xehanort?"

"Xehanort, sure," said Roxas irritably, "The one in our history books. Didn't he lead Hollow Bastion like a tyrant before the revolution?"

"Precisely. He is the one in the tale, the one who found Jenova. He found her, took her cells, and mass produced an army's worth of people with them. They and their descendants, they can do special things. The cells give them a tremendous amount of psychic energy."

Roxas decided to humor the man. "What kind of special things?"

"Zexion!" DiZ called sharply. The indigo-haired man rose from his seat and approached DiZ. "Show him."

"Yes, sir," he said, nodding nervously. He took a deep breath and shut his eyes, looking as though he were in deep concentration. Then suddenly, he duplicated. A second Zexion shot right out of the first, causing Demyx to jump from his place and shout in horror. The second Zexion gracefully, almost eerily so, approached Roxas. Roxas did his best to edge away, but there wasn't really anywhere to go. When the young man was an arm's length away, and leaned down and whispered, "I'm an illusion, Roxas," and disappeared as if blown away by the wind.

"Are you okay?" the real Zexion asked him, approaching cautiously, "It can be a bit unnerving at first, I know. But it wasn't real. I made it with my mind. I can make all kinds of things, anything, really."

Roxas just nodded, breathless. "So you have Jenova cells?"

"Yep," Zexion replied, sitting back down, "About half of us here do."

"Who's attacking the city?" Roxas asked suddenly, "Can someone tell me that?"

DiZ said blandly, "They call themselves Nobodies. Riku can tell you about them."

Riku stood up and moved to sit near DiZ. "I'm a direct descendant of Xehanort himself," he started, the regret shined in his bright eyes, "My brothers and I, we were raised as Nobodies. They're what's left of him. They're his followers, if you will. We, the resistance of King Mickey, have been fighting them over this soil since it all happened, because Xehanort isn't dead."

"How is he destroyed, but not dead?" Axel asked hoarsely.

"Remember how in the story, the one student—Terra, his name was—had to sacrifice his body? Well, he literally did. The three masters performed a ritual with their blades, a possession ritual. They tore Xehanort from his body and sent his could into Terra's, where they would battle; like an infection fighting a white blood cell. We don't know who won or lost, because in the midst of this battle, the Nobodies destroyed the temple. It collapsed upon all of them, crushing them. He—whoever it is that won—is still buried there, underneath the ruins past the great maw of Hollow Bastion; underneath the, well, the hollow bastion," he laughed dryly, "and it's been up to the King's Men to keep them from getting out, or being let out, by the Nobodies. Because the ritual was incomplete, Xehanort is neither dead nor alive. It's the Nobodies that attacked our world today, we're sure of it."

Roxas nodded for what he felt was the millionth time that day. "So let me get this straight: and angel bibbity bobbity booped Xehanort into a power hungry moron, who made an army, then his prodigy or whatever fucked him in the ass with a voodoo ritual and now he's hanging about like a zombie underneath the ruins? And now his cult's trying to undig him?"

"Pretty much," said Riku.

"But that still doesn't explain why Leon showed up at myapartment to get me!" he exclaimed, "Why carry the extra weight? Why involve me, as opposed to pretty much any other goddamn person you know!"

"They were trying to kill you," said Leon, "they were targeting you. They went through the city and bombed every place they thought you might be."

"But why!"

Sora stood up and exclaimed, "Because you're the reincarnation of Ventus!"

He recoiled after receiving angry looks from both DiZ and Leon. "Sorry…" he mumbled, "I thought it'd be best to just tell him."

"Keep your thoughts to yourself next time," DiZ snapped.

"Sorry, I'm what!"

Leon slumped a bit in his seat. "I apologize, Roxas. It wasn't supposed to come out like that. But it is true, you are him. You have Jenova cells in you; you can wield a Keyblade. You were prophesized to come back, rise up, and destroy Xehanort once and for all. Once they found out who you were, they started planning to kill you, to stop the prophecy from coming true. Coincidental, isn't it? How I, merely a model, hired you to become my photographer at the base of our operations. Strange, don't you think? How mere week after you arrive, our cover base burns down? It's because of you, it's always been about you—"

"ENOUGH!" Roxas bellowed. "I am ME! Nobody else!"

DiZ stood up.

"Roxas," he stated, calmly but firmly. "You do not need to regard any of this. You may not believe us now, but in time you'll know the truth. Whether you are ready to accept that right now is irrelevant, but what is, is that the only safe place for you is here," he spoke majestically, like a King. It was easy to see how he'd become Mickey's successor. Every single word was accented. "Leon, I leave you in charge of sorting out living arrangements for the new group."

With that, he stood up, and with a swish of his coat he exited the room through the doorway from which he came.

A low murmur spread across the table, particularly the end with the members of… what was it? The Resistance?

"She can share our room," piped up the redhead girl that had called Roxas short earlier. She was pointing to Xion. "I know you don't know me and Tifa well now, but you will! We're the only girls here and god knows you don't want to sleep with the boys."

Xion looked terrified. The redhead's welcoming smile faded just a tiny bit, but she pointed to herself and said, "Well, I'm Kairi. And this is Tifa," she gestured to the slightly older girl next to her. "Leon can show you our room when you're ready. Can we go?" she addressed Leon.

He nodded his head curtly, and she and Tifa rose to leave the room. "Don't worry, we're nice," Tifa supplied, "And we're sorry for your loss."

A man who had previously remained silent stood up from the far corner of the table. He had a very large build, almost as large as Lexaeus. Admittedly he was a little creepy. He had jet black dreadlocks that were surprisingly well-kept, and thick sideburns lined his square jaw.

"I'd like to be excused too, if you don't mind," he said blandly to Leon.

"Certainly, but could you do us a favor and fetch Merlin?" The scarred man asked. Even here, Leon seemed to be a boss.

"Hey, yeah, where is that crazy old coot anyway?" the southern blonde man asked loudly, "Ya sure you want 'im workin' on this lot? That wrist there's lookin purty bad," he eyed Axel's twisted forearm.

It occurred to Roxas that his fists were clenched, and that his nails had been digging into his already horridly injured palms. Though the idea of a possibly incompetent medic working on his wounds didn't excite Roxas too much, any medic would be better than none at all at this point.

"My name is Xaldin," the dreaded man offered, before following the others out of the room to find the one called Merlin.

Leon stood up from his seat and faced the five newcomers.

"How many of you are hurt?"

Axel, Roxas, and Xion raised their hands. Demyx wobbled his hand back and forth as if to say "not really."

"Only a few scratches, nothing serious," he said passively, "I'll be alright."

"I'm fine," said Cloud, "Just shaken, is all."

He didn't appear to be shaken at all, but that's just how Cloud was. Leon regarded him curiously for a moment, then moved on to Xion, who looked to be in the best condition out of the injured folks.

"Your ankle, right?" he asked.

"I think it might be broken," she supplied.

Zexion stood up from his seat, with Lexaeus trailing close behind him. "Lex and I don't mind sharing a room with somebody," he said, "I know there's only one free room, so one of you can come with us. There's a cot in our closet, I think."

"I'll go," said Demyx immediately. Roxas could understand why; he would hate to be in Demyx's position and end up stuck in a room with Axel. In fact, he'd hate to be stuck in his own position and end up stuck in a room with Axel. Unless… unless he and Demyx had gotten back together? Roxas wasn't sure what happened between them after he left the apartment. What was Demyx even doing here?

Zexion offered his hand for Demyx to shake, "My name is Zexion," he offered warmly, even though DiZ had very obviously called his name out already, "And this is my brother, Lexaeus."

"It's nice to meet you," said Lexaeus in a deep baritone, those five words possibly being the most that Roxas had even heard him speak at one time.

"Hey," said Demyx anxiously, shaking Zexion's hand, "I-I guess I'll just go with… with you guys?" He said it like it was a question, though there wasn't really anybody to verify it for him. He wasn't asking Axel for permission, in fact he seemed to be extremely interested in looking at the floor, and not Axel. That was a good sign, right?

No, Roxas thought to himself, That is absolutely not a good sign, because I don't care what Axel does, or who. He can go play with whomever the hell he pleases, not my problem. I don't want anything to do with him. I don't care. I don't care… I don't care.

"Follow me," said Zexion, leading Demyx away from the group, leaving only Riku, Sora, and that scary blonde guy in the room with them and Leon.

"Well then I guess that settles it," said Leon, "It's not broken, by the way," he added to Xion, "Just sprained. Anyway, you three can take the free room. It might be a bit cramped; we weren't expecting so many extra people."

Roxas' heart sank. What if it had been just him that Leon had rescued? He should probably consider himself very lucky to have his brother with him. And Xion, even though they'd never really been particularly close before. He only knew her really because of Naminé.

"Oh, God, Naminé…" he whispered. Maybe they did hear him, maybe they didn't. Maybe all eyes were on him, he didn't care. He wasn't looking at any of them. His hands were fisted again, and it hurt. White hot tears streamed from his eyes, down his face. Maybe he was sobbing. His chest hurt, so he probably was. A warm hand ghosted over his clenched fist, was it her? Stupid to think, of course it wasn't her. But he had to be sure. He looked up…

"You're going to hurt yourself." Axel. It was Axel in front of him. Axel, who'd betrayed him and broken his heart, had the audacity to touch him while he was crying over his dead girlfriend?

"Don't," he hissed, and Axel retracted immediately. Roxas tried to stand up to leave—where the hell would he have gone, anyway? Somewhere away. Somewhere he could cry by himself, where people weren't shoving fairy tales down his throat and telling him what he was supposed to be. Maybe he'd go back the way he came. Back to find Naminé, in the rubble of their old home, where he could go die properly with her, and all of this would go away.

But alas, the world began to swim, and he became very light-headed. The stench of coppery blood stung inside his nose, making him very nauseas. He could feel the trickling crimson substance flowing from his wounds again, and he was becoming increasingly away of the sound of it dripping on the floor.

Drip, drip, drip… the sounds echoed through his hears, and everything started shifting out of focus. The edge of his sight became blurry, and the room started rocking, back and forth, back and forth. It all became too much for him to bear. He barely made it two steps before he fell to his knees, vomited on the floor, and let everything go black.

"Hey, hey guys! I think we got him! Roxas? Roxas, can you hear me?"

No. No I do not. Go away. He didn't want to open his eyes yet. I see what you're doing, sneaky. You're flashing those stupid lights in my face and talking real loud. Whyyy, why do you need me to get up?

His thoughts made no sense and he knew it. So, rather unwillingly, he cracked his eyes open to try to find the owner of the voice, so he could glare at him.

What he saw was a man who looked like he might be older than Roxas' Kodak Brownie. His crooked nose was the size of a tomato, his eyebrows curled out even farther than said nose, and he had wrinkles underneath his wrinkles. The geezer breathed out a sigh of relief, revealing an incomplete row of yellowing teeth. Gross.

"He's up!" said the man, followed by a consecutive sigh of relief from several other voices.

Roxas looked around the unfamiliar room. Aside from the bed he found himself lying in, there was another bunk bed, a dresser, a wardrobe, and a work desk. Sitting on the bottom bunk was Cloud, who was hunched over with his fingers interlocked, and on the swivel chair near the desk Axel was perched, staring intently at Roxas with eyes full of worry. Leon was present also, pressed against the wooden doorframe.

"What happened?" Roxas asked. He didn't mean that, specifically, because obviously he'd fainted. It was like when people woke up and asked "where am I?" even though it couldn't be clearer that they were in a hospital. No, what he'd meant was what happened between the time he'd passed out and the present. Why was he in this room, who was this old fart crouched over his bed?

"You passed out," Leon informed him. No shit, Einstein. "And Merlin here did what he could to fix you up."

"That's right," said the old guy that must be Merlin, "gave us quite a scare, you did. I did what I could to fix your hands, but you probably won't gain full use of them for a solid month or so. Maybe more."

Looking down, Roxas could see that his hands were indeed heavily bandaged. Experimentally, he tried flexing them, but they didn't move. Either they were numbed my medication or they were molded into place. Shit, this was going to suck.

"Thanks," he croaked. Why couldn't they all just leave him alone?

Merlin straightened up, adjusted his round spectacles, and turned to leave. "If anything else is bothering you, Axel and Cloud both know where my room is."

With that, he and Leon both left the room, leaving him alone with his brother and the redhead.

"What happened?" Cloud asked him seriously. "One minute you were fine, and the next you were hyperventilating and crying." He didn't know.

"Naminé is dead," Roxas said stoically. Cloud and Axel both blanched.

"But she was out… out shopping…" Cloud began to argue.

"She got back," said Roxas miserably, "She got back before all the shit started. Then Xion came in and told us things were blowing up, then the building got hit and sh-she… she didn't make it"

Surely he hadn't cried this much in one day since he was a small child. But just when he thought he'd run out of tears, there they were again, flowing shamelessly. He didn't even deserve to cry. He'd betrayed her. And for what? The selfish, insensitive redhead that was sitting over there… crying?

Yes, he was definitely crying. Albeit he wasn't doing it very loudly or noticeably, the tears were definitely there. His eyes were bloodshot, and two itty bitty tears were sliding gracefully down his perfectly angled cheekbones, leaving a glistening track in their wake.

"Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry, kid," said Cloud, crossing the room to do something very strange and Un-Cloud-like. He brushed away his bangs and kissed Roxas on the forehead. Looking his brother in the eyes, Roxas could see pity and misery, and that he was holding back tears as well. "I'm really—" he sniffled noticeably, "gonna miss that girl."

"I'm sorry," said Axel pointedly, gaining the attention of both Cloud and Roxas, "for your loss. I-I didn't know her well, but I know she was really special."

"Who the hell are you?" Cloud inquired grouchily.

"Name's Axel," the redhead grunted, looking back at the floor, "What about you, Cloud? Let me guess, you're actually some kind of spy instead of a bartender?"

Roxas wasn't even going to bother asking how it was Axel knew Cloud; he was much too tired to care, and much too angry at Axel to swallow his pride and ask.

"Nope," Cloud deadpanned, flopping back down onto his bunk and settling into the sheets, "In case the obvious resemblance in appearance and personality wasn't a big enough hint for you, I'm the kid's brother. Now, other than the fact that he's clearly pissed at you for some reason or another, and that you like to bum cigarettes off of people, is there anything I should know about you?"

Wait, Axel smokes? Roxas had never seen him smoke before, nor did he ever smell of tobacco. It seems that Demyx wasn't the only thing he'd lied about.

"Nah," said Axel bluntly, "I'm boring. Speaking of which, you got any smokes on you?"

Cloud gave him a look as if to say "Are you fucking serious? Right now?" but then shrugged nonetheless. He pulled from his pocket a pack of shorts.

"Here," he said emotionlessly, tossing one and a lighter over to Axel.

Roxas really didn't want to fall back asleep, because already they'd been talking about him like he wasn't there, who knew what kind of things he'd miss if he fell asleep? But sleep was really starting to overtake him; they probably had him seriously medicated, and cigarette smoke had always made his mind go fuzzy and hazy. It was becoming a struggle to hold his eyes open. He was beginning to lose his sense of being; he didn't know how much time had passed before somebody talked again.

"Hey," said Cloud, snapping Roxas out of whatever sleep he actually may have been experiencing. When had he closed his eyes, anyway? Seconds ago? Hours ago? Surely Cloud wasn't talking to him, since Axel grunted a response. The smell of smoke lingered in the room, but Roxas couldn't tell if a cigarette was still lit.

"I don't, specifically, know what's going on between you two," he heard Cloud say, "But the last I heard about it, he seemed to believe that you cared about him. 'S that true?"

Axel didn't even take a second to think about his answer. There wasn't a bit of hesitation, not a falter, not a stutter, not a waver.

"Yeah. I do."

It was a curious thing, meeting the parents. Not that Cloud was a parent, but he carried the demeanor of one. He was obviously asking him all these things on Roxas' behalf. Admittedly, Axel was very nervous. It Cloud was anything like his brother, it was clear that Axel would have to watch what he said, because even though Roxas was too small to beat him up, Cloud sure wasn't.

"Probably a lot more than he does me," he added quietly. Next, surely, he would be asked what he had done to make Roxas angry with him in the first place, and then he'd have to tell the truth, and then certainly Cloud would not approve of him after that.

The older blonde glance over to his little brother's sleeping form, "I wouldn't be so sure of that," he said thoughtfully, "Just this morning he had his panties up in a bunch, because he's practically head over heels for you." He smirked, "Don't tell him I told you that, though. He'd never admit it, 'specially since his girl's gone…"

A tense moment of silence passed between them. Things were certainly complicated for everyone, now. On top of being "outed" about Demyx in a way he absolutely didn't find preferable, Naminé was dead now. And while Roxas had told him that he didn't love her anymore, he'd obviously lost someone very dear to him. And Axel, of all people, knew all the symptoms of the mourning stage.

"I let him down, Cloud," said Axel. He wasn't sure exactly why he was coming out with this, because Cloud probably didn't care to hear his pathetic story, "I had a boyfriend, and I just let things go on until it was too late. I was a goddamn coward, and now he's probably going to hate me forever."

He tensed in his chair, waiting for the blow. It never came.

"Well," said Cloud, "Congratu-fucking-lations, that makes you even more of a dumbass than him," he jabbed a thumb in Roxas' direction, "But behind that stubborn-as-fuck shell, he's a big softie. I give it a week or two before he comes around and starts talking to you again."

"Yeah?" said Axel hopefully. Two weeks wasn't that bad.

"Yeah, but if you even think about pulling shit like that again, I will kick your ass," he said in a big boy voice.

"Okay," said Axel, hiding a smile. Suddenly it occurred to him that he'd made his decision. Oh.

Cloud shuffled around until he'd managed to cover most of his body with the blanket he'd been provided. "I doubt I'll be able to sleep through all of this shit, but I'm gonna try. Get the light, please?"

"Sure," said Axel in a monotonous voice. He rose from his chair slowly, taking extra care not to hit his broken wrist on anything. Thankfully it was his left wrist, and it didn't hurt too much unless he clumsily whacked it against something, which had already happened twice since he got the damn cast on.

Immediately after getting into bed, he decided that Cloud was a bastard. Climbing onto the top bunk with a cast on was hard enough, but doing it while being nearly six and a half feet tall was next to impossible. He hit his head on the ceiling, twice. Dick.

"I get the bottom bunk tomorrow," he hissed. He knew that Cloud definitely could not be asleep yet.

"Never thought you were the type to bottom, Axel," said Cloud, the smirk practically dripping from his voice.

"Ha ha. Goodnight Cloud."

He did not receive a reply from the bottom bunk, he simply heard the man shuffling about.

"Goodnight Roxas," he uttered under his breath, even though he knew Roxas wouldn't hear him.

To the surprise of both himself and Cloud, Roxas mumbled, "Mrmph Assel."

Whether he was attempting to say, "Shut up, asshole," or, "Goodnight, Axel," he didn't know, but honestly he was pleased to have gotten any response whatsoever.

In the quiet of the night, Axel actually had the time and silence in which he could think. There was so much to go process, like the fact that his home, and probably several people that he knew, were gone; that he was in a place that technically never existed. The events the day reeled through his mind over and over again. After thinking them through so many times, he began to doubt that they even happened. The memories were so fuzzy in his exhausted mind that he was starting to doubt they even happened. He had to open his eyes periodically just to be sure that he wasn't at home, curled up next to Demyx; or he had to poke at his cast to be sure that he really did have a broken wrist.

No matter had many other things may have happened that day, his mind invariably traced every stream of thoughts back to Roxas.

…but none of that explains what Saïx of all people was doing there. And that thing! And it was all for what, a picture of Roxas? Why Roxas? Poor Roxas… I hope he'll be okay…

…maybe that Yuffie girl drugged my drink and now I'm on some kind of psychedelic trip. Never been on one before, do these things normally happen? Nah, if this were a hallucination, Roxas probably wouldn't be wearing anything.

…and shit, man, Demyx is right down the hall. This is gonna be so awkward now, especially if I end up dating Roxas eventually. There will be an eventually…right?

…can't believe that she's dead. She was such a sweet little girl; no wonder Roxas hates me…

I wonder if he heard me talking to Cloud earlier. Part of me really hopes he did, just so he'd know I'm serious about him. But fuck, that still doesn't atone for what I've done.

Gradually Axel ran out of Roxas-related things to think about, after he'd gone through pretty much every memory he had between the time he met Roxas to the present. The last thing he could remember before he finally let sleep take him was the sound of a coffee grinder somewhere within the depths of the castle.

Okay, guys, I promise to be nice to Axel and Roxas from now on. Well… maybe not. Not INDIVIDUALLY, but as a pair. Yeah. Yeah, let's go with that. As a couple, things are gonna get better. I'll leave you to chew on that while I devise a new chapter. Also, I did that thing again where I was in such a rush to get this up, that I didn't edit it :/ so it's probably full of errors again, and holes and things like that. I don't mean to mistreat you guys, I'm just SO IMPATIENT.

REVIEW! Please oh please oh please oh please review for me, I really want to hear what you guys are thinking of all of this. I never played BBS or FFVII, so I don't know in what ways the story is canon in comparison to the games. Not that I care, I just wanna make sure it's flowing nicely. PLEASE tell me what you think! *blows kisses* thank you :')