A/N Everything belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

Chapter 14

~Day 97~

Sitting on the couch opposite a sitar playing Demyx was everyone's favorite No. XIII, who was pretending to study the paper Saïx had given him concerning his mission. Heartless collection in Agrabah. Nothing too exciting, aside from the fact that it was his first day working alone in three weeks. He was not too concerned about his productivity when he was on his mission, and so to those who only cared about such, he seemed to have no reason to wait. He, however, found seeing his old partner off as a very good reason.

"I could reeeally use a break." Demyx sighed, sadly strumming his sitar. His hand slipped from the strings as he quickly sat up. "Heeey, Roxas, you wanna-"

"No." Roxas had been well trained by Axel for how to react to Demyx's requests.

"Drat!" Demyx exclaimed, and he unceremoniously plopped back down onto the couch. His defeat was hardly mourned, however, because as soon as he saw Kairi, who did not have Axel's training on such matters, talking with the Moogle- "Hey, No. XV! Come over here!"

Kairi gave him a cautious glance, then excused herself from the Moogle and jogged over. "What is it?"

"I'll give you a Mythril-something if you do my mission today."

Roxas sat up straight, almost falling off the couch in his rush. "You didn't offer me a Mythril!"

"You didn't let me finish my request!" Demyx reprimanded. He turned back to Kairi, flashing a smile that would make all girls knowledgeable of their hearts swoon. "It's in Twilight Town. I have to scout out Sunset Hill."

"Am I supposed to buy you Poptarts, too?" she asked. Seeing that he had clearly lost any chance at the Mythril, Roxas fell back onto the couch, dejected.

"I'll give you the munny," Demyx assured Kairi.

Kairi rubbed the back of her head. "I don't know... I already did a double mission yesterday, so I-"

"Two Mythril-somethings!"

"Only because I'm already in Twilight Town for today." Kairi held her hand out to Demyx, and they shook on it. "Anything in particular I'm scouting for?"

Roxas heard no more, because Xion came in at that point. He rushed over to her before she could make it to Saïx. "Hey, Xion!"

Her eyes widened when he dashed in front of her, but then she composed herself. "Hi, Roxas."

"Ready for today?"

Xion glanced down at her hand and rolled her fingers into her palm, tightening them into a fist. She looked back up at Roxas and smiled. "Yep!"

"You're doing an assessment of luck today." She raised an eyebrow at this, so he quickly explained. "Saïx told me that I have one tomorrow, and he mentioned about you doing it today. You just have to break a bunch of jars or something like that. But since he said it has to do with luck..." He reached into his pocket, raising her excitement with the suspense. Finally, he pulled out- "An Elven Bandanna. Luxord said the Elves are very magical, so wearing the bandanna brings you good luck."

He held it out to her, and she gladly accepted. Her smile did not falter as she asked, "How do you wear it?"

He had not thought about that. He examined it for a moment, then gently took it back from her. "Hold out your wrist?" She did so, and he pushed her sleeve up before wrapping the cloth around her pale skin, tying it comfortably. When he was done, Xion pushed her sleeve over it. The sleeve covered the bandanna so that one could not tell it was there without knowing. Xion cradled her wrist to her chest and smiled cheekily at Roxas. "Thanks! I'm sorry I don't have anything to give to you, but, I wish you good luck all the same!"

He laughed, then opened a Corridor of Darkness. "Thanks, Xion! See you on the tower afterwards!"

Just when Kairi had been becoming neutral to the other members, this happened. She was still tired from the day before, but figured it was worth it since she was getting paid two Mythril-somethings (Demyx never did specify) for it. Unfortunately, no missions had ever been conducted in Sunset Hill before by any members of Organization XIII, so she had no designated place to start from. A basic layout of the area seemed good enough, and it would also give her the chance to look for all the Heartless. But when she heard something about six wonders, she knew Saïx would get on Demyx's case (she was doing it under Demyx's name, after all) if she did not look into it, and then Demyx would get onto her for it. She did not want that to happen while they were on a good page, so she looked into the six wonders, which took quite some time because they failed to show. All of them. She could not put that on the report because Demyx would complain to her that it made him look like he was losing his recon skills to look into something so dumb. An entire day of work for next to nothing. That did not even begin to cover the weird Heartless she found there.

By the time she was finished, she was ready to drop. Her writing on the report was completely unreadable - as if crayon was not bad enough when she was coherent - and she almost tripped multiple times while attempting to walk towards the clock tower. It was decided very early on that walking was not worth it. It won't kill them if I take the tram, she thought to herself. I might kill Demyx if I pass out before I even make it to the clocktower. I have to go there at least long enough for them to open a corridor for me to RTC... that better be some good Mythril.

Passage to the Tram Station was for free, thank Kingdom Hearts, so she wasted not a second getting onto the tram and collapsing onto one of the benches. Maybe I can take a nap before I get there...

This plan was alright until just before the tram left, when three rambunctious voices interrupted her journey to sleep.

"Hayner, give it back!"

"Do you really want it, Olette?"

"Yes!"

"How badly?"

"Just give it!"

"Guys, hold still so I can take a picture!"

"Be sure to get my good side, Pence!"

"Hayner, you don't have a good side."

"Geez, thanks."

"Excuse me." Tapping on Kairi's shoulder as the train set off. She held back a sigh - no need to leave unnecessary impressions with these people as their only memory of her - and cracked open one eye. A boy with brown hair held up by a headband was leaning over her. Kairi quickly sat up. "Sorry to bother you, but, do you think you could take a picture of me and my friends? I've been trying to get one of us all day for us to remember our weekend here, but they won't hold still."

Kairi glanced over at his two companions, a brunette girl and blonde boy. The boy had his back to the girl and was holding something away from her as she struggled to reach it from behind him. A book.

"Hayner, I need that! I have to read it and have it summarized before school tomorrow!" The girl, from what Kairi could gather, was Olette. And if the blond was Hayner, that left the one holding the camera as Pence.

"If you really care so much, why didn't you do it over the weekend instead of waiting until last minute?" Hayner asked, holding the book above his head when Olette tried to dive around him to grab it. She was too short to reach it when he held it up.

"Because you took my book and told me I couldn't study while on a break!" She tried to jump onto the seat to gain a height advantage, but Hayner did so as well. The same bench, Kairi noted. It's a game.

"This is probably as still as you're going to get them," Kairi said. She accepted the camera from Pence, and gave him a thumbs-up. Pence returned it, then ran to get in front of the quarreling two. Kairi quickly held the camera up, waiting until Hayner and Olette had somewhat opened their bodies up to the camera, then quickly hit the button. The camera flashed, and a photo came out of the dispenser.

Hayner and Olette were momentarily distracted by the fact that their feud had just been immortalized, but quickly resumed. He still had her book, after all. Pence jogged over to Kairi and accepted the camera and photo from her, grinning at the photo as the image formed. "Wow, you two look fierce! We could probably sell this for a Struggle poster!" When he looked back up at his friends, they had gotten off the bench, and Olette had jumped on Hayner's back to try and recover her stolen property. Satisfied with her attempt, Hayner handed her the book and let her slide off his back before they both flanked Pence on either side, looking at the photo. They started laughing when they saw it, and then Pence handed it back to Kairi for her to see. They did look nearly ready to kill each other.

"Thanks, um..."

"Kairi," she finished for him, assuming he was waiting for her name.

"Thanks, Kairi! I'm Pence. These are Hayner and Olette."

"Nice to meet you." Even if I'm missing out on my nap...

"Are you from Sunset Hill? I've never seen you in the Tram Central before," Olette said, claiming the spot beside her. Hayner and Pence settled on the bench across from them.

Before she could think of a way to respond, Hayner did for her. "Listen to her accent. She's obviously from the beach."

"Are you transferring over here?" Pence asked before she could confirm or deny. "Or are you just visiting? I guess even the beach people have to vacation somewhere!"

Kairi racked her brain for a possible answer. This would be where those recon skills she had burned out on all day would come in handy. School, weekend... Sunset Hill, Tram Central, beach... accent... "Yeah, I'm from the beach. I was visiting my... grandmother. For the weekend." It sounded reasonable. What else, what else? "They don't have any lines to the beach from Sunset Hill, so I was going back to Tram Central to catch a tram back home for school tomorrow." A perfect excuse. She would have to use it again.

"Have you had to read this for your school yet?" Olette held up the book she had been fighting Hayner for. The Chain of Memories. Not something they had at the castle.

"Not yet. Is it any good?"

"I read it last week," Pence stated proudly. "It was great! It's about this witch..."

"How was your luck, today?"

"Great!" Xion winked at Roxas as she rubbed the wrist of her coat's sleeve. "I passed in just a few minutes."

A red eyebrow rose at her behavior, but Axel dismissed it and took another bite of his ice cream. Xion and Roxas were a mystery he could not even hope to one day figure out. "Don't you have the test tomorrow?" he asked Roxas.

"Yeah, but I still haven't figured out what luck has to do with it..." Roxas put a hand to his chin as he thought. "Did you figure it out, Xion?"

"Sorry. It was pretty direct to me."

"Hey, guys," Kairi droned as she came around the corner and sat beside them. She immediately laid her head down on Xion's shoulder, half-asleep. "I met some kids on the tram ride over here... they thought I was from the beach... Axel, how much do watermelons cost?"

Add her to the list of 'What the heck are you thinking about?' "I dunno... a few hundred munny, probably."

"Oh." She yawned. "I told those kids that they were two thousand a piece. Oh well."

Xion reached beside her and grabbed the unopened ice cream stick. She waved it in front of Kairi's face, nudging Kairi with her shoulder so that she would open her eyes to see it. "Maybe this will help you wake up?"

"Thanks." Kairi accepted the ice cream, numbly biting into the corner of it.

Several seconds of silence before Roxas chose to break it. "How was your mission, Axel?"

"I had recon in some whack place called Splash Island. It was... interesting. There were merpeople there."

"Merpeople?"

"Like humans, except, with fish tails." He could practically see the gears turning in Roxas's and Xion's heads as they tried to imagine it. It was one of those times where he wished he could get inside of their minds to see what they saw. "So, Roxas, your mission?"

"Heart collection in Agrabah. It was easy. I'm more concerned about tomorrow..."

"If it'll make you feel better, we can train tomorrow morning before the assessment," Xion offered. "If it will help you relax about it..."

Roxas nodded excitedly. "Sure! Care to join us, Axel?"

"Nah, I've gotten way behind on my reports and need to finish those up before Saïx gets on my case. Again. You guys feel free to do it on your own, though."

"What about you, Kairi?" Roxas leaned around Xion to get a look at his final companion, but she had lain back and fallen asleep, half-eaten sea-salt ice cream in her hand. "Hah, nevermind. Guess it's just you and me, Xion!"