The great blazing apple of heat and light commonly known as the sun ambled across the sky in an unhurried stroll through the late afternoon. Far below this mass of gaseous energy, down where the turmoil and indigestion erupting in that massive plasma belly appeared little more than a placid bulb of light, sat a very smug man and a very distressed cat who were embroiled in a bit of turmoil of their own.

The man was insisting on talking to the cat despite the fact that doing so would make any casual passerby think he was insane, as well as the knowledge that the cat obviously wanted nothing to do with him. If the man felt any hesitations about continuing his conversational ambitions because of either of these deterrents, however, he showed no sign of it.

"You know, there's no need to be so upset," he was saying. "Really, I'm the one who should be angry, not you—I'm actually quite offended by all this running-away-from-me-business. It's rather insulting." By his tone, of course, it didn't sound as if Axel was insulted in the least. He had seated himself down against the wall of the mechanic shop beside an increasingly unnerved Roxas, with his limbs stretched and folded in spidery angles.

Roxas huddled further in on himself and said nothing. His eyes narrowed in sour suspicion and his ears flattened defensively. He tucked his feet carefully beneath him, ready to spring up and away as soon as he deemed it necessary, and resolved not to utter a single word to the gangly maniac beside him.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, already. What's the big deal? I just wanna talk to you. It's not like I'm trying to collect your taxes or anything."

Roxas only scowled.

"Hm, silent treatment, huh? You really know how to hurt a guy. Cuts real deep. Well, at least you aren't running. I'd say that's a start. I really do hate it when people run away from me, maybe more than your average person. Abandonment issues or something, I guess. And chasing is so much work. Some people love the chase, they say it's half the fun. Not me, though. No way. I don't buy into that crap and neither should you."

He shifted against the wall to fish something out of the deep pocket of his dark coat and produced a slim cigarette.

"But I guess if you don't want to talk, that's fine. I usually talk enough for two people anyway, so it works out. I have a lovely speaking voice, if I do say so myself. And I'm not the only one who says so—Do you mind if I smoke? No? I'm gonna take your lack of response as a go-ahead. That's the drawback of not speaking up, I'm afraid."

He'd already placed the cigarette between his lips, and it bobbed like a conductor's baton as he spoke. When he snapped his fingers, a small flicker of flame appeared over his thumb like a match which he used to light accordingly. He took a leisurely drag and gave a slow exhale. The loose smoke took a life of its own once released, forming intricate spirals that danced away in acrobatic loops and twirls to join the clouds above.

Roxas blinked at the bewitched smoke, surprised.

"You like that?" asked Axel, his wily eyes bright as he grinned down at the cat. "If you can't use your magic for amusing parlor tricks then what's the point? That's what I always say. But that's nothing—Watch this." The next exhale brought a succession of smoke rings that changed from gray to red to blue to green before they dissolved into colorful wisps. The third go evolved into a vaguely dragon-shaped stream with a long, snake-like body wriggling up past the roof of the mechanic shop.

Roxas gawked, but when he noticed Axel watching him, he scowled once more.

"Nothing? Not even a peep? Tough crowd." He flicked ash off the end of his cigarette and sighed. "You know, I'm not a bad person. At least, I like to think not. Frankly I think you're being a little unfair here. I just want to talk to you."

"You don't want to talk, you want to lecture," snapped Roxas. And just like that, his vow of silence melted in the heat of his sudden fury, a burst of rage not unlike the fiery explosions occurring within the seemingly solemn sun high above them. "That's what you tried to do last time. I don't need you telling me I'm wasting my talent or that something's wrong with me. What would you know about it, anyway? Fuck you. Leave me alone." His heart raced with the adrenaline of indignation.

"Fair enough," Axel granted with an apologetic nod. He accepted Roxas' outburst with the patience of someone aiming to be forgiven as soon as possible, palms turned upward in humility and face drawn with meek guilt. "I realize that the last time we spoke, I may not have been the most understanding. I may have said some things that could be interpreted as offensive, even if I did not intended them to be, and for that I am truly—"

Roxas gave a derisive snort.

Axel's teeth clenched at the interruption of what would have been a moving and excellently worded apology. "I guess I deserve that. I was pretty condescending, wasn't I?" He offered a self-deprecating smile.

"'Who in their right mind would prefer to be a cat?'" Roxas mimicked an unflattering impression. "That's what you said. I don't need to hear that kind of shit from some con-man transient. You don't know me." Roxas turned his head away sharply to glare at the dirt-crusted cobblestones beneath him.

He hoped Axel didn't catch on to the fact that Roxas remembered word-for-word everything Axel had accused him of that night in the forest after their fight with the Nothing Man. Or that Roxas had replayed that interaction over about a million times in his head, alternatively constructing brilliant arguments for every way Axel was wrong or agreeing with him completely, until his head pounded and his stomach ached.

"You are perfectly right. I shouldn't have said that." Axel's self-criticism was eager and enthusiastic. The easiest way to be forgiven, he knew, was to let someone accuse you of everything they could think of and then to agree with them wholeheartedly. "I hate when people try to tell me what to do, and yet there I was, doing the exact same thing to you. Doesn't it always happen that you end up becoming the very thing you despise most? I'm really quite ashamed of it."

"Good."

"I was just surprised, is all. A bad reaction, yes, but I'm trying to apologize here." Axel paused a moment to give Roxas an opportunity to accept the apology, but Roxas' silence was firm. He refused to make eye contact, and therefore did not see the perfectly constructed expression of regret on Axel's face.

"And you're right," Axel tried again. "I don't know you. Which makes me entirely unqualified to judge any and all life decisions you make. But I'd like to know you — Not so I can judge you, obviously. That's not what I want. I just want to get to know you." He scratched his head just for something to do to cover his floundering and nearly forgot the burning cigarette between his fingers. He frowned and continued smoking instead. Perhaps this would not be as easy as he had anticipated.

"Why?"

"Why do I want to know you? Well, you're a fascinating case, that's why. A shape-shifter mage who lives as a cat. It's almost like you're a shape-shifter cat who can turn into a human rather than the other way around. It's unusual, it's an oddity. And I am all about unusual oddities. They make life worth living, I think."

"I'm not some natural phenomenon for you to gawk at. Just go away already," Roxas growled.

"You're right, you're right, of course not. You're a living, thinking, feeling being. I phrased that badly, I guess," he backpedaled, hands waving. Words were Axel's best tool, and he normally excelled at convincing people of anything he wanted through a clever twist of phrase. Now, however, he seemed to be stumbling at every turn.

"I guess what I mean is that it's impressive. I know quite a few shape-shifter mages, see, but I am absolutely certain that none of them can hold their non-human form for as long as you can. A couple hours, max. Maybe a day, but that would be considered amazing in most academic circles—lots of praise and awards and people congratulating each other, yadda yadda. And yet here you are, making those great mages who've been training all their lives look like rookies still figuring out the difference between their ass and their thumbs. You know? So I just wanted to talk to you, get to know you maybe, see what's what. I'm intrigued. And when I'm intrigued, I tend to keep at it 'til I get to the bottom of things. I'm a meddler. I meddle. It's both a strength and flaw, depending on your perspective."

"Definitely a flaw, then," said Roxas. But it was spoken with more snark than anger, softened faintly, if unwillingly, after such compliments.

Axel barked a laugh and grinned at the sullen cat. Roxas had relaxed his hostile crouch just slightly, resigning himself to the conversation, and Axel meant to stretch the inch he was given as far as he could.

"So tell me, what's the story? Where did you train? What's the secret?" He was poised with anticipation like a taut rubber band. His cigarette had burned down to a stub but Axel was too engrossed with the promise of answers to notice the embers nearly at his knuckles.

"I didn't train anywhere. There's no secret. Sorry to disappoint."

A creased formed between his brow. "What do you mean you didn't train anywhere?"

"I mean I didn't train anywhere. Simple as that. Not everyone is privileged enough to go off to fancy academies, thank you very much," Roxas snarled. He had tensed again with furious resentment, tail twitching and hair raising, the warning look of a cat just before it struck an unwelcome hand. Whatever leeway he had relented retracted as quickly as a snake's flickering tongue.

"So who taught you, then?" Axel was left more baffled now that his question had been answered. Which he should have predicted, really; Answers rarely leave one as satisfied as expected, and instead usually generate more questions to ponder, propagating exponentially in a mathematical loop driving humankind mad in its quest for understanding. He blinked with open surprise at the cat, who was beginning more and more to resemble a spiked sea urchin.

"It doesn't matter," snapped Roxas viciously. "And what makes you think you can just ask me invasive personal questions, anyway? Who said I have to tell you my life story just because you asked for it? I don't care if you're intrigued. I don't owe you shit. So get your arrogant, smooth-talking, fucking fancy-educated ass back to whatever social experiment you crawled out of and leave me the fuck alone!" Roxas sprang up from his ball and sprinted off down the alley, away from the mechanic shop and the things he didn't want to think about.

"And now we're back to the running," sighed Axel. He noticed his spent cigarette at last and crushed it into the pavement with the toe of his boot before standing up.

Unfortunately for Roxas, Axel's legs were long, and he caught up to him easily now that there was no speeding bicycle aiding his getaway. He walked beside the cat as if the two of them were taking an afternoon stroll rather than engaging in a chase.

"Okay okay, I get it," he said. "It's a touchy subject. I'm sorry, alright?"

Roxas continued his purposeful stride, refusing to acknowledge his unwanted companion.

Which, again, was a fairly predictable reaction that Axel might have expected. But the same arithmetic conundrum of answers producing questions instead of the other way around, which has caused many a great mind to explode in exhaustion, is also the process by which creative discovery and scientific invention are born—Another instance in which the journey is more interesting than the destination. And with such a fascinating buzz of mystery surrounding the subject, Axel couldn't help but wonder what extraordinary things he might learn while on the quest to figure out what sort of wonky clockwork made Roxas the Moody Cat-Boy tick. The fact that Roxas seemed immune to his persuasive charm just made the challenge all the more compelling.

Although, if he thought about it, Axel was pretty sure he knew quite a bit about Roxas already; As he followed the silently fuming cat along the sidewalk, it occurred to him that Roxas reminded Axel of himself when he was younger. Furrier, obviously, and less talkative, but he recognized that pain and hatred—unwieldy and terrifying, directionless and therefore directed at everything and so heavy a burden that it consumed in a raging fire.

And of course with that realization, there was no way Axel could give up on him now.

"I've got an idea," he said. "In order to prove my apology and show you how truly sorry I am for crossing your obviously very strict personal boundaries, let me make it up to you. Do you like ice cream?"

Roxas dared a disdainful look up at Axel, and in a single glare conveyed all the contempt it was possible for a person to contain and then some. Axel considered this a good sign.

"Of course you like ice cream. Who doesn't like ice cream? Let's get come ice cream! I've heard Scrooge's has the best sea salt in town. I'm buying. What d'ya say?"

Blue cat eyes narrowed. "You like sea salt ice cream?"

"Well it's only the best flavor, so how could I not? Salty, yet sweet. What a notion! I live for contradictions, and you can't get much more contrary than that, am I right?"

"Fine," Roxas grumbled resentfully. "Buy me some goddamned ice cream."

"As you wish, my fine furry friend." Axel's grin was wide enough to crinkle the diamond tattoos on his cheeks.

Two bars of sea-salt-flavored ice cream were purchased as soon as possible, and they sat on a deserted street curb to enjoy them. Axel held his own dripping bar in one hand and Roxas' in his other, lowered for a cat tongue to reach. It seemed Axel had found the key to Roxas' acceptance—or at least the path to his better mood. As the two of them consumed their cold treats, Roxas' own icy exterior eased and relaxed until he hardly seemed to mind Axel's company at all.

"You know, this would probably be easier if you turned into a human and held your own ice cream," said Axel offhandedly. His arm would get tired soon from holding Roxas' bar out for him.

"Fuck you," Roxas offered reasonably.

"Right," Axel nodded.

"Sora always gets me a bowl."

"Ah, the noble Sora. Thoughtful and true. How he comforts and provides for those in need. Bowls galore! Well, I'm too lazy to walk all the way back there and ask for a bowl—I am but a common mortal to his holy light, after all." Axel gestured dramatically with his ice cream and a few melting drips splattered quietly on the street.

"And so here we are. You get to hold my ice cream for me."

"Here we are indeed," Axel smiled. He took an ambitious bite of his bar and was rewarded with the uncomfortable zing of cold teeth that went straight to his brain. He must have made a face because Roxas chuckled at him.

"Oh, you think that's funny, do you? My pain amuses you?"

"You should be used to it," said Roxas with a sly cat-smile. "You're a clown, aren't you? People laugh at clowns."

"I'm not a clown, I'm a performer," Axel sniffed in pretension. "There's a difference. My craft requires finesse and talent. My acts depend on the flare, charisma, and ability of my skill. I do not simply honk a horn and take pies to the face. The art of entertaining is much more complex than that."

"How long have you been a traveling performer?"

"Oh, it's hard to say," he hummed vaguely. "I've been performing since I could combine walking and talking, I suppose, or maybe before even that. When I was young, my life and livelihood depended on my charm and wit. I had to get by with what I could manage to provide for myself—a flashy trick could grant me a good meal maybe, or a clever joke a room for the night. The harsh life of a dedicated entertainer looking for fortune and fame, traveling the world in a whirlwind of crazy dreams."

"No, really. How long have you been a traveling performer?" Roxas repeated. "And don't lie this time."

Axel's eyebrows raised but Roxas met the surprise with his own look of expectant defiance. Axel's lips thinned.

"About a month."

Roxas nodded with satisfaction.

"How could you tell?" Axel asked through a braced, jaw-clenched grimace.

"I can always spot a liar when I see one," Roxas answered simply before continuing with his ice cream. "Don't feel bad," he added at Axel's tight expression. "Almost everyone's a liar."

"Almost everyone?"

"Everyone but Sora, I guess."

"Back to the heroic Sora." Axel permitted himself an eye roll.

"My brother wasn't a liar, either," Roxas continued quietly. Axel's head snapped down to look at him, his irritation replaced with burning interest. "Or my dad, really. And my mum only lied when she thought it would protect us."

"I'm noticing some past tense verbs there," Axel said carefully.

"Past tense," Roxas agreed. There was a silent stretch of minutes in which Roxas provided nothing more and Axel wondered whether it would be a good idea to push this newly granted confidence a bit further or if more questions would cause Roxas to shut down on him again.

"They're dead," Roxas clarified eventually, just when it seemed neither of them would ever speak again.

"I'm sorry," offered Axel. He examined Roxas' ice cream, uneaten and oozing sticky melt all over his hand. Roxas did the same, though the option of eating it no longer seemed to occur to him. "Do you mind if I ask how they—"

"Yes. I mind," Roxas cut in.

Axel blinked in surprise. Roxas was surprised, too, confused that he had offered information at all. He couldn't decide whether or not he wanted to tell this stranger about himself. What he did know was that he didn't want Axel asking him about any of it. Which didn't really make sense. But few things made sense to Roxas about the way his own head worked these days. The logical, calm part of him was at odds with the irrational, crazy side once again—only he couldn't tell which side wanted to confide and which side wanted to keep it locked up forever.

"Alright, no problem. Sensitive issue, I get it," said Axel, soberly returning to his dessert. "I notice you didn't exclude yourself from the general group of liars, there."

"Of course not. I'm the biggest liar of all — I lie about my own species."

"Well, lying isn't always bad. At least not when it's not hurting other people, right? Sometimes lies can be better than the truth—or more interesting at least. Take me, for example. So I haven't been a traveling performer all my life. So what? No one was ever hurt by a bit of creative embellishment. I can still juggle and tell stories and breathe fire, and that's what makes people happy. The truth is so repulsively boring. Who wants to hear about a middle-class, bourgeois kid whose loving, if somewhat eccentric parents sent him off to a mage academy close to home, where he earned average marks and never did or ate anything particularly extraordinary? Nobody wants to hear about something as dull as the truth."

"That's why you lie, then? To make yourself seem more interesting?"

"Now now, don't get me wrong. I'm not exactly Mr. Joe Average or anything. I'm still absolutely amazing and hilarious. My life may not have been terribly gritty, but it's been a pretty interesting one, I think. You know, what with all the unusual oddities I seek out and meddle with. It's just that those stories would contradict parts of the persona I've built for myself. Stories of sticking it to the man in an uptight middle class world wouldn't exactly make sense coming from an apparent transient performer, you know? So I spin some tales, embellish a bit. People want to see a street performance from a genuine, bona fide vagabond, you know? So what harm does it do to give them one?"

"You're lying again," Roxas pointed out as he returned casually to his dessert.

"What!" Axel balked. "How can I be lying about that?"

"I dunno, but you are. You wouldn't lie about being educated just to make an audience think you were more authentic. You're hiding something still."

"Tch, obnoxious kid," Axel muttered, annoyed at being thwarted yet again.

"So what's the deal, then? Why do this at all?"

"What, you get to ask me personal questions, but I can't ask you anything? Seems unfair," he scoffed.

"Life's not fair." Roxas was particularly pleased with himself over that line.

Axel made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a sigh and bit off the last chunk of his ice cream. He chewed it over grumpily, and when that was finished, he fished out another cigarette from his pocket and settled it between sugar-coated lips before lighting it with his thumb again. He took a long drag and let the smoke billow from his mouth and nostrils in a thoughtful cloud. He glanced over and found Roxas watching him steadily with those blue, blue eyes. Expectant. Unnerving. He took another drag of his cigarette.

"Alright," he said at last through an exhale of smoke, "I'll tell you my story, and then maybe you'll feel like you can let me in on a few of your secrets. Huh? How does that sound?"

"Mm, I'll think about it," Roxas hummed, head tilted with the kind of haughty boredom that all cats have perfected.

"It's pretty confidential, though. I don't exactly go around confiding in every stubborn kid with angst issues I meet. But I guess it's not like you're going to spill the beans on me, seeing as it doesn't seem like you talk to all that many people. You know, with the whole cat thing you've got going on."

"Exposing you would risk exposing myself," agreed Roxas. "But I'll probably tell Sora. And who knows who he'll tell. So maybe you shouldn't trust me."

"What, you don't want to know my secret after all?"

"Hey, I'm just telling you how it is. I pretty much tell Sora everything, it's kind of impossible not to. So if you don't want to risk it, I'd understand. Besides," he added quietly, "if you don't tell me yours, I don't have to tell you mine."

"Aha. So we've come to an impasse. Either we resolve to keep to ourselves, despite our obviously burning curiosity to discover what the other is hiding—and don't try to tell me you're not dying to know what I got—or we open up, let ourselves trust someone else with our secrets, and risk exposure. What a situation we have, a real knuckle-biter indeed." Axel gave a crooked grin and Roxas returned it just a bit.

"So if I tell you my secret, you'll tell me yours, right?" Axel asked.

"Maybe."

"What! Maybe? Come on, I need more than that. I'm not going to tell you anything if I don't have a guarantee on a return."

"What do you want, a contract?"

"Don't be a jerk."

"A jerk? What kind of insult is that?" Roxas snorted.

"An apt one, in this case," Axel insisted. "Come on, you going to tell me or not?"

"If you tell me yours, I'll tell it to Sora."

"Yeah, well I've heard Sora trying to tell people things and I'm not exactly worried. He has a way of making the truth sound like a poorly translated absurdist play. It's because he always tells things exactly as they are, I think—he gets to the real core of reality. And of course when you get down to the exact heart of anything, it starts to sound insane. And thus he is cursed with always telling the truth and never being believed. An interesting situation by all accounts."

Roxas chuckled. "That's Sora, alright."

"So? Do I hear a promise from you? An equal exchange? A trade of personal mysteries?"

Roxas sighed. "Fine," he said. Which felt crazy. The kind of impulsive, radical decision you make when you detach yourself from the implications or consequences. He couldn't decide which part of him, the crazy or the logical, had spoken those words. It was exhilarating.

Axel's eyes lit up like a child receiving a long-awaited present. "Really? You'll tell me?"

"Keep asking and I'll change my mind." Roxas flicked his tail testily.

"Excellent!" he beamed. He sobered slightly after a pointed glare from Roxas. "Right, right. Ah, well, I guess I better start then. Hold up my end, huh?" He ran a hand through his drastic mane of hair and looked around nervously. "Maybe we better, ah, you know, move to a more private location."

"There's no one here," said Roxas. He glanced around the street, but found it as empty as it had been when they'd sat down. It was almost eerie how quiet it was, really.

"Yeah, well, you never know who might be listening. I could get in some deep shit if unwanted ears caught wind of what I'm about to tell you." He stood and craned his neck to further examine his surroundings, apparently searching for spies in every window.

"Please, don't flatter yourself," Roxas scoffed. "I'm sure you're not that important."

"Okay, well, still. I'd like to avoid trouble, if possible." He fidgeted uneasily with his cigarette.

"What kind of trouble?" Roxas asked, a shade more serious when Axel's nerves didn't prove to be the dramatic act he'd assumed they were.

"The kind that lands you in jail, thank you very much. Come on, follow me." With that, Axel started off down the street at a brisk pace, hands shoved into his coat pockets and cigarette trailing smoke in cloudy bursts.

Roxas rolled his eyes and followed after him. He found, with some surprise and a small bit of alarm, that he was grinning.


Sora was not particularly worried when Roxas was nowhere to be found outside the mechanic shop that afternoon. Roxas had a tendency to sometimes slip off without announcement to do his own thing for a while and was usually back in their apartment by dinner time. Sora figured it was part of the healing process and didn't question him much (though a note would have been nice). So when he and Riku left Cid's, entrusting Oathkeeper to Tidus' capable hands, it was just the two of them. Which was perfectly fine by Riku since it meant there was no cat to snicker at him on the back of a bicycle.

The conversation about where the bike would take them next probably should have been discussed before they started riding it. The small search for Roxas could arguably have been the culprit, distracting them for a few minutes from their goal, but the fact of the matter is that it was just natural for them to arrange themselves on the red contraption and start off without a second thought.

"So, where are we going now?" Riku asked about ten minutes into the more or less aimless ride around town. He had to shout into Sora's ear to be heard over the rushing wind of their velocity, and a bump in the road made him jolt so that his lips ended up much closer to Sora's ear than he intended. He jerked his head back and blushed, hoping Sora did not realize how close Riku had been to biting his ear.

"Mm, I dunno. Where do you wanna go?" Sora answered, looking at him over his shoulder (which meant he wasn't watching the road and they were heading straight for a parked automobile at a million miles an hour and oh god they were going to crash and Riku opened his mouth to shout—but Sora gave a casual lean without even looking and the bike swooped around the car easily with a wide berth, and actually they hadn't been that close at all).

"Wh—where do I want to go?" Riku spluttered (heart definitely not pounding and breathing totally under control). "You mean, you don't have a destination in mind? We're just riding around and not actually going anywhere?"

"We're going lots of places. We're just not stopping at any of them," Sora shrugged, turning back to the road in time to jostle them down a short flight of stairs.

"Semantics," Riku scoffed around rattling teeth. "Alright, we'd better figure out what to do next. We have a shadow mage to destroy and a city to save. We don't exactly have time for a sight-seeing bike tour, lovely as it is."

"Very true," Sora agreed. They swerved past a pair of green-clad soldiers marching shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk and earned themselves a sharp reprimand to slow down.

"So what kinds of things did you do yesterday that led you to finding the fireflies? Maybe we could do something similar."

"Um, I dunno. I just did whatever I felt like doing at the time, I didn't exactly have a plan. I figure it's best to live in the moment, go with the flow, you know? The universe tends to work things out on its own if you don't stress too much about it."

Typical Sora logic, Riku thought with a frown. The issue was that there was quite a lot to stress about. It was all well and good for Sora to talk about going with the flow, but unlike Riku, he didn't have disturbing shadow monsters attempting to eat his heart every few nights. However, Sora's easy outlook seemed to work pretty well for him—it had led them to the dagger, after all, as well as the discovery of the evil plot in the first place.

So perhaps Riku could learn a thing or two from living in the moment. It would certainly ease his blood pressure, at least.

"Okay then, where does the moment seem like it's taking you right now? Any special universe tingles leading you one way or another?" he asked.

"Nope, no tingles. Well, my leg itches a little, but that's more of a bug bite issue," said Sora.

"That's too bad."

"It doesn't itch that much. It should be gone in a day or two."

"No, I meant it's too bad you don't have universe-tingles—God, I can't believe I just said that sentence."

"You were the one who called it 'universe tingles' in the first place," Sora chuckled.

"That's beside the point!" Riku said through a smile.

"Is it, though?"

"It is. Because the point is that we are following your whims and intuition in order to stop us all from suffering a premature and rather horrible death. And if your whims and intuition aren't leading us anywhere besides a scenic ride through town, then we are in trouble."

"Ah, yes, good point."

"So? How do we remedy this?" insisted Riku.

"Let's go wherever you want to go," Sora answered.

"Me?" Riku blinked in surprise.

"Yeah! Right now, the moment has brought me you. So I think we should go wherever you want to go. I've decided."

"You've decided?" Riku repeated flatly.

"I've decided that the universe has decided that you have to decide." Sora gave a punctuating nod.

"Oh really? That's how it's going to be, huh?"

"Hey, I don't make the rules."

Riku snorted, and though he could only see the back of his head, Riku could tell Sora was grinning, too.

"Fine. If I really have to choose, then… take a left here."

Sora did as instructed, and Riku proceeded to direct them through the city with seemingly arbitrary decisions to turn this way or that, to keep straight for a while, and, hm, maybe turn around and go the other way, actually.

They arrived eventually at Crescent Park, a pretty patch of nature nestled between the northern and western districts, carpeted by tall grasses dappled with wildflowers and watched over by broad oak trees. The park sat on cliffs overlooking the bay not too far below, and benches were all angled for a good view of that vast expanse of blue on blue. A low wooden fence kept all but the most determined from falling over the edge, though the cliffs themselves were neither dangerously steep nor particularly tall. Meandering footpaths snaked their way through the park and around a bean-shaped duck pond in the center.

"Crescent Park, huh?" Sora said with an appreciative look around as he pulled up.

"It's one of my favorite places in the city," said Riku. They dismounted and set off along the path.

"You like it more than your library?"

"I don't spend all my time in libraries, I'll have you know," Riku sniffed. "I am a man with many interests. I happen to love the outdoors."

"You didn't seem to love it too much when we were in the forest last night," Sora said with a cheeky grin.

"Yes, well it was dark and there was mud—not to mention the ghost. Not exactly nature at its finest."

"So you only like nature when it's nice and calm."

"Don't go putting words in my mouth! Anyone would react poorly to being lost in a haunted forest at night, it doesn't mean they can't enjoy being outside under normal circumstances!" Riku scowled, offended, but he softened when Sora gave a good-natured laugh.

Riku led them to an oak tree which had grown at a pronounced angle with broad branches that dipped low enough toward the ground to reach about Sora's chest height. As expected, Sora took to the tree instantly. He leaned his bike against the trunk and proceeded to climb up one of the low, mostly horizontal limbs. He arranged himself into a comfortable sitting spot and swung his legs below him in satisfaction.

"You know, there is a bench," Riku sighed, gesturing to the bench beside him.

"Why sit on a bench when you can sit in a tree?" was Sora's sound reasoning. "Come on up, the view's better from here anyway."

Riku sighed before hoisting himself up to sit on the branch beside Sora. He perched gingerly, like a bird contemplating flight, trying not to let his clothes snag on the bark.

"The view isn't all that much different than it was four feet lower," he said.

"It's the principle that counts," Sora insisted. "Hey look, you can see a boat way out there!" He pointed out a small white triangle floating atop the otherwise featureless mass of water. "It'd be cool if we saw a whale or something, but I don't think there are any that migrate around here this time of year. And dolphins are probably too small to see from way over here."

"Probably," Riku shrugged. He didn't know much about marine life.

"When I was a kid, I used to see whales all the time—well, maybe not all the time, but often enough, you know. And dolphins, too. So many dolphins! There was this one time I was in my dad's boat and this pod of 'em came right up to me, jumping around, almost crashed into the boat!" Sora smiled with hazy nostalgia. "Anyway, there was this one that just kind of stopped and stared at me for a bit, and I was staring at him, and we had, like, a connection."

"Did you live by the ocean when you were young, then?" asked Riku.

"Oh yeah. I grew up on a little island waaaaay out there," he said, pointing again toward the sea and squinting as if he could see the island from where they sat. "Just a tiny speck of land no one's ever heard of, part of the Destiny Island Chain. I come from a long line of fishermen."

"Really? Wow, I… didn't know that," said Riku, surprised at the sudden insight into Sora's history. He'd assumed that Sora had grown up in Nomura, due to Sora's expert knowledge of the city streets, if nothing else. Riku was slightly perturbed at the realization that though he had confided more or less all of his own past to Sora, he had completely neglected to ask anything about Sora's in return. He had a feeling that Mr. Eraqus would not have approved of this self-centeredness, and he resolved to get to know his only friend a little better.

"When did you start living in Nomura?" he asked.

"Hm, I guess about a year and a half ago… or maybe it's closer to two," Sora answered with astonishment. "Wow, has it been that long already? Eeh time sure does fly!"

"What made you leave home?"

"Well, islands are nice n' all, don't get me wrong. But they're small. And kind of boring unless you really like fishing. I got tired of fishing. I wanted to explore, and I'd already finished exploring the island. The Continent blew my freaking mind!" he laughed, eyes bright and smile wide. "It was so big and there was so much to do! And the roads just kept going. They don't do that on islands— they go around in loops, or else they just kinda stop. Well, I wandered here and there for a while before I eventually found Nomura and decided I liked it here. Then Cloud hired me and the rest is history!" He swung his legs and their branch bounded slightly.

"What about your parents? They just let you leave like that? They didn't try to stop you?" Riku's uncle surely would never have let him set off on his own into the unknown world, but he supposed not everyone was as strict as Sephiroth Jenova.

"Nah, they were fine with it. They could tell I needed to roam. A lot of young people are like that on the island, and they usually come back after a while. And maybe I will too, someday, who knows. I guess they were a little nervous about me going off on my own, but I write them pretty often so they don't worry anymore. Besides, it was one less mouth to fish for, you know?"

"Don't you miss them?" asked Riku, frowning. With no parents of his own, he was surprised that someone would leave theirs behind so willingly.

Sora sensed what lay behind his question and his smile turned soft and a little apologetic. "Sometimes, yeah. But like I said, we write all the time. And I could always visit them if I wanted, they're not really that far. Get on a train, then a boat or two and there they are. But for now I'm having a good time doing my own thing."

Riku nodded thoughtfully and looked off toward the ocean where, somewhere out there, the people responsible for the crazy kid beside him went about their business, surrounded by picturesque palm trees and the smell of fish. He swung his legs beneath him a bit, too, and there was a rustle of leaves from the movement of the tree branch.

"Well, I'm glad you decided to stay in Nomura," he said quietly. He glanced at Sora from the side of his eye and gave him a small smile.

"Me too." Sora returned his smile tenfold, and his blue eyes sparkled with mirth.

The directness of Sora's gaze and the openness of his expression made Riku flush, and he decided the bark beneath his fingers needed a close examination. His heartbeat seemed a lot louder in his ears than it had any right to be, and he felt suddenly warm, though it was rather cool in the shade of their tree. He was not used to blushing so much, and he cursed his pale skin for betraying him so easily.

Riku wondered if perhaps it was Sora's pure heart that was affecting him so, making him feel off-balance and inexplicably nervous. His stomach gave an uneasy lurch at the thought.

Pure hearts were supposed to be the only cure for his curse, after all—the original curse, that is, the one he had suffered from since he was a small child. He had always dismissed it, as pure hearts were widely regarded as non-existent, something to live in stories and myths but not in the real world. Yet here was Sora beside him, pronounced pure of heart by a mythical ghost who shared his distinction, as real as the tree he sat on.

If he and Sora were to love each other unconditionally, his curse would be broken…

Riku shook his head to banish the errant thought. His long hair fell over his face, which was now a color a tomato would envy.

It was just the revelation that pure hearts really existed that made these wayward thoughts buzz around his head, that was all. Freedom from his curse was abruptly within the realm of possibility, and a hope he had long thought dead was emerging from the depths without his permission. He repressed this hope as much as he could.

Just because he was pure of heart did not mean Sora would break his curse. It meant only that pure hearts existed.

He gripped the tree branch hard enough to turn his finger tips white, frowning.

"Hey, you okay?" Sora's voice interrupted his troubled whirl of thoughts.

Riku looked up to find Sora watching him, his brows pulled together in concern.

"Yeah, fine," he said. His voice sounded husky in his ears so he cleared his throat. They were sitting rather close together on the branch, Riku noticed — Their hands were nearly touching.

"Okay, well I gotta pee," said Sora. "I'll be right back." He launched himself from their perch and landed with boyish grace on the grass below. Riku and the branch bobbed madly from the force of his departure and they were showered with a litter of dead leaves shaken loose.

"Oh," Riku blinked, jolted out of his frustrating introspection by the simplicity of Sora's overfull bladder. "Um, I don't know if there are any public toilets close by, actually. There's maybe a shop somewhere that will let you use theirs."

"Nah, it's okay. I'll just go behind this tree here," Sora replied easily. He walked off behind the tree as Riku gaped after him, scandalized.

"Wh—what! You can't just—just urinate out in public! You have to use facilities! This—this is a public park!" Riku squawked.

"No one will see, it's not a big deal." Sora was behind the tree now, out of sight near the bushes at the base of the oak. Riku heard him unbuckling his belt.

"This is indecent!" he exclaimed, eyes wide with horror.

Sora snorted. "Whatever. Just don't look, ya pervert." The sound of an unzipping zipper, then the unmistakable trickle of liquid.

Riku swung around to stare resolutely at the view of the ocean, blushing furiously. "I'm the pervert? You're the one peeing in public!"

Sora guffawed and appeared from behind the tree after a minute, apparently finished with his business. Riku gave him an incredulous glare, which made Sora laugh even harder.

"I can't believe you just did that," Riku hissed.

"You mean you've never peed behind a tree before?"

"No! Of course not!"

"You know, that really explains a lot about you," Sora nodded, so seriously and thoughtfully that Riku couldn't help but snort. Then Sora's expression spread into a mischievous grin.

"Race ya to that sign post over there!" And he took off sprinting.

"Wait!" Riku sputtered. "Which sign post!" He sprung from the tree and chased after his friend. "You cheated!" he cried.

Sora laughed maniacally, but it turned to a yelp when he saw Riku gaining on him.


In a small dark storage room on the second floor of the east wing of the Jenova Mansion, Kairi and Namine sat crouched around a small vent on the wall near the floor, bickering in hissed whispers.

"Move over, I can't see anything."

"There's nothing to see, just a bunch of feet."

"A bunch of feet isn't nothing, we can tell who's in there by their shoes."

"We can tell who's in there by listening. Which I can't do seeing as you keep talking in my ear."

"Alright, well you still need to move over because I can't hear anything."

"You can't hear anything because you keep talking."

"You keep talking too!"

"Shh!"

"You shh!"

"Let's both shh!"

"Fine!"

"Fine."

They traded glares, then shut their mouths in firmly pressed lines and concentrated on listening to the conversation occurring within the conference room on the other side of the wall. The small vent offered a thin, serrated view of several pairs of feet, mostly clad in dark boots or shined dress shoes.

"Sir, If we don't act now, we will be at a distinct disadvantage," the owner of one pair of boots was saying. "Brahn's mage draft has more than doubled her mage forces, and if she attacks first, we may not get the chance to retaliate effectively. Our advantage has always been that our army was larger and better equipped, but that much more magic on her side tips the scales heavily in her favor."

"And what do you suggest, Lieutenant Terra?" asked a deep silky voice belonging to pristine dress shoes.

"My Lord, I think we should attack first, and quickly," said Lieutenant Terra. "One swift major blow, before Brahn expects it. Her mage force may be large, but they are still green. Attack before they are better trained, take as many out as possible, and take our military advantage back."

There was some murmuring among the room's occupants.

"Sir," spoke an irritated feminine voice from a different pair of boots, "a preemptive strike is extremely unwise. Besides the fact that doing so would be a direct violation of the Balamb Treaty, there's no way we'd be able to stage an attack that would surprise them enough to counteract their strength. They'd know if we were to move on them and they would be prepared for us. We'd be leading our forces to slaughter, no matter how swift we tried to be."

Another smattering of murmuring broke out at this, but the woman raised her voice determinedly above them. "We should focus our efforts on defense. Our troops are strong, no matter the number of mages Brahn has. We'd be able to defend our borders easily if all our efforts were aimed at keeping her armies out. Let her defy the Treaty first, and we will be justified in any subsequent retaliation."

"You want to let them bring the fight to Nomura? Excellent defense or not, the city itself would suffer incredible damages," said a different voice.

"All due respect, Lieutenant Aqua," said still another voice. "We cannot simply hide behind our walls and let Brahn do whatever she pleases. Where is our pride? We must stand and fight! We must be on the offensive, show Alexandria we will not back down, that Nomura is not a city to be trifled with."

"So you'd rather send our troops to be destroyed in reckless battles in the hopes that it will make a dent in the enemy's army?" Lieutenant Aqua responded heatedly. "That'll only serve to weaken our numbers until we can neither attack nor defend. What good will Nomruan pride be when we are soundly defeated?"

"Not unless the attacks are well-planned," insisted Lieutenant Terra. "We draw them out to strategic locations where we hold the higher ground, ambush them, scatter them, then retreat before they can adequately respond. If we can separate the Alexandrian army into smaller sections, cut off communication, and pick off troops little by little, we stand a much better chance."

"That sounds like a coward's way of fighting, Lieutenant," spat the voice who had criticized Lieutenant Aqua. "Do you take us for a band of brigands?"

"No, Lieutenant Xemnas," said another man from an out-of-sight corner, "I take us for an army that thinks before it acts, who uses what we can to our advantage." Though he had not spoken loudly, his words had cut across the rumble of argument in the room with the weight of authority. The room quieted as, presumably, everyone turned to look at him. "Does preserving the lives of Nomuran soldiers seem cowardly to you?"

"No, General," Lieutenant Xemnas said through gritted teeth.

"General Leonhart, what are your thoughts?" asked the smooth voice in the dress shoes.

General Leonhart paused a moment before answering. "You know how I feel about this war, Lord Sephiroth," he said, a hint of impatience leaking through his calm. "It is pointless, there is no reason for it other than the fact that Nomura and Alexandria have been stepping on each other's toes. And Alexandria has not, as of yet, made any direct aggressions against us—"

"And what would you call their presence in Nibelheim! That's a blatant violation of the Balamb Treaty—" someone cried out before they cut themselves off, perhaps at a sharp look from their General.

"I agree," the General spoke evenly, hardly needing to raise his voice. "Their move on Nibelheim is a technical violation of the Balamb Treaty. It is not, of course, a direct attack, and it is clearly a reaction against the attack Nomuran soldiers perpetrated without order on Mi'ihen Road. However—" he stressed, cutting through the muttering arguments that had begun to erupt. "No matter how idiotic I personally believe this war to be, it is nevertheless time to act. Brahn is buying her time, waiting until her recently recruited mage troops are more mature. If we wait for her to make the first move, we are lost."

"But if we attack first, are we not ourselves violating the treaty?" insisted Lieutenant Aqua. "If we are in the wrong, then justice is not on our side. Other States may back Alexandria against us if they perceive us as the aggressors. Nibelheim is almost insignificant! A full-out assault is not! If Midgar and Besaid form an alliance with Alexandria, we stand no chance. Brahn wants us to attack first, so that she seems the victim and gains the support of the region."

"They nearly invaded Nibelheim, it's not like they were there for a wine-tasting tour!" snapped a gruff voice. "They broke the treaty first. The time for peace talks is over. If Midgar and Besaid choose to take sides, we are just as likely to gain their support."

"I agree, Commander Auron," said General Leonhart. "Peace is no longer a viable option, no matter how flimsy an excuse Nibelhein may seem. Either we attack first and risk enmity with other States, or we wait for her to attack once her armies are too strong for us to take on. Given the two, the former seems more agreeable."

Lieutenant Aqua huffed in anger, for it seemed Leonhart had been her last ally in the bid for peace.

"Lieutenant Terra and Mage Lieutenant Aqua both have good points," Leonhart continued. "Protecting our city should be our primary goal, and we need to strengthen defenses. However, it is also important to draw fighting away from us, to minimize our losses. For that, Lieutenant Terra's suggestions to divide and ambush seem like a good start until our forces are more evenly matched." (Xemnas scoffed, but was ignored.) "We need to decide how to ensure Nomura is well-fortified in case of attack as efficiently as possible so that our offensive forces are not too depleted."

"Very good," said Lord Sephiroth. "I take it, then, that our declaration of war is now official?"

There was a more or less unified agreement throughout the room.

"Mage Lieutenant Aqua?" Lord Sephiroth asked. There was a tense pause. "Are you in agreement?"

"Yes My Lord," she replied, more than a little bitter.

Back in the storage room, Kairi and Namine exchanged grim expressions.

"Looks like things are getting serious."