Hey guys! :D

Man, I am super happy today. Dunno why!

Hey, I'ma be at Santa Monica pier this Saturday with my friend Moni and my husband. COME CHILL WITH US! I'll be wearing a white and black plaid skirt and a black Misfits tank top and my swim suit will be black and white zebra print with hot pink straps. I also have a tattoo on my left ankle and I have red hair. Moni will probably be in all black and my husband is super tall with a weird mohawk thing. You can't miss us! COME HANG OUT WITH US! I'm serious, I won't think you're weird or anything. It'd be cool. We'll ride the rides together and eat tacos on the pier!

Anyhow, enjoy this chapter! Poor Roxas, man... he can't win for lose.

"Who was that young woman, Roxas?" It was what everyone had been asking me since we got home but the person asking me now had me trembling in my seat. Xemnas stared at me, his almost inhumanly bright eyes piercing right through every wall of defense I had up. Behind me I could feel Saïx's gaze burning just as intensely. There was no lying now. I couldn't get away with it.

"She's my sister." I replied quietly. "My older sister."

"And how did she find us?" Xemnas asked. There was little emotion in his voice or on his face but I could tell that the question was a skeptical one. He was accusing me of being in contact with her without just coming out and saying it.

"It really was just a coincedence." I said. I was starting to panic. I didn't know what would happen if I couldn't get them to believe me. "I haven't seen her in over ten years. Then she just pops up out of nowhere and steals my wallet! You can ask Axel. He was with me the whole time."

I heard Saïx scoff from behind me before he made his way into my line of sight. "Coincidence indeed. You can't really expect us to believe that. We all know that Axel would lie to protect you in an instant. He has his little fondness for you. I personally find it hard to believe that you made no effort to contact your sister and inform her of your whereabouts."

"I believe you, Roxas." Xemnas said cooly. It should have relieved me but for some reason, every time he spoke it put me on edge. "From the time we arrived at the hotel to the time of the alleged incident, you were never alone. Saïx was with you most of the day and it would have to have been under his watchful eye that you would have made contact with your sister. Unless Saïx is willing to admit responsibility in his lack of ability to keep tabs on you, I have no reason to believe you contacted your sister at that time." Xemnas gaze flew to Saïx, but the menacing man only stood with lips tightly shut. "Xigbar has already assured me that you made no such efforts while in the hotel room either. I have verified this with the hotel. No calls were made from your room that day at all, minus one call to room service placed by Axel."

"But that doesn't mean he didn't do it." Saïx protested. "It's the only thing that makes sense! He had to..."

"It seems clear to me," Xemnas interrupted. "that Roxas is a victim of circumstance. Certain things occur for certain reasons and it just so happened to occur to our boy here. Perhaps it was a way of showing Roxas that his true home is here and this is where he belongs. This is where he wants to stay. He could have easily chose to go with his sister. He chose us, however. His true family."

I smiled as Xemnas said this. A genuine smile. He made a good point. I did choose them and not only that, they chose me too. This was my family.

Unfortunately my smile was short lived as Xemnas followed his previous statement with "However..." Xemnas folded one hand over the other and stared hard at me and I nearly pissed my pants. "you do understand that this means you will have to lay low for a while. You can't go outdoors and you can't go on retrievals for an undetermined amount of time. This includes Xion as well."

My face fell at this news. Trapped in my home? "Seriously?"

"I'm sorry, but until we know how your sister will handle the situation, there is no way you'll be leaving this home. She has a fresh image of you in her mind, Roxas. She may report you missing. A state wide search could go into affect. The last thing we need is for you to be spotted during an Amber Alert." Xemnas let out a long sigh but it seemed forced. "Until further notice, Roxas, you're grounded."

Grounded. Awesome. Grounded. I stared at Xemnas blinking calmly, trying to run this all over in my head. I was grounded. This totally and utterly sucked. I didn't want to be in the room with him anymore. "C-can I go, now?"

Xemnas nodded. "Yes, you may be excused."

I stood slowly and made my way to my room. Grounded. Fucking grounded. This was so lame. I stormed into my room and slammed the door closed but of course, I couldn't sulk like I wanted. I flopped down on my bed but Axel was in my room in an instant and he was a nervous reck. He sat down at the foot of my bed and stared at me. I looked back at him in irritation. "What?"

"Well..." He said slowly. "What happened?"

"Uhg! It's terrible!" I groaned as I pulled my pillow over my face. "Fucking terrible!"

I could feel Axel grip the sheets at the foot of the bed and he seemed hesitant to ask his next question. "H-how terrible?"

"It's the worst possible thing!" I let out a loud grunt and squeezed the pillow tighter over my face. "I'm fucking grounded!"

"You're what?" I felt Axel shift lightly as he said this. I could tell he was uneasy. "I couldn't hear you."

I grumbled and pulled the pillow away from my face. This was seriously annoying. It was embarrassing enough to be grounded. Having to tell Axel on top of it was just too much. If he wasn't so worried I wouldn't have bothered but I knew I couldn't keep him in the dark. "I said I'm grounded."

"Rox..." It was at that moment that I heard Axel burst into hysterical laughter. I was instantly offended. How could he laugh? This wasn't funny! Then in a moment of sheer awkwardness, he pounced on top of me and hugged me tightly. "Don't fucking do shit like that! You had me worried it was something serious!"

"This is serious, Axel! I'm grounded. I can't leave the house." I replied in irritation. Of course this must have sounded ridiculous to him because he only squeezed me tighter and laughed harder. When I thought about it though, this really wasn't that serious after all. They could have killed me or kicked me out. They weren't doing that. Thinking about it now did bring a small chuckle to my lips. "I guess I did get off kinda easy."

"You're damn straight you did." Axel smiled and sat up slowly but his smile sort of faded. "Roxas, there's something you should know. Something I never told you about before."

I cocked an eyebrow at Axel. Suddenly so serious, the change bothered me. "What's up?"

"I never wanted to mention it because, well, I don't like to think about it." The redhead sighed and looked down at the floor. Whenever he was this serious, I was nervous. Axel was almost never serious. "I have an older brother named Reno."

"Wait, wait..." I suppressed a chuckle at this. "Reno? Like the city?"

"Shut up, my mom was a druggy and that's the city we were born in. What more do you expect? Anyway, he's four years older than me." Axel said quietly. "He went through a lot of the same stuff I did when I was little. Lucky for him though, our grandparents took him in soon after I was born. We hardly saw each other except for when my mom needed money from my grandparents. I barely knew him. Hell, there were even times that I forgot I had a brother. Then one day when I was twelve we ran into each other. I didn't know him but he recognized me right away. I tried to avoid him but he followed me all the way back here."

I looked up at Axel curiously. I didn't know where he was going with this story but he had me curious. "What happened?"

"Well, he demanded to know what I was doing with these people. He said he was looking for me all the time and that he was glad he finally found me. Xemnas explained the situation and Reno understood. Still, he was determined to pay off our mother's debt, so he did. Pretty soon I was free to go." Axel smiled and shook his head. "It didn't matter though. I didn't want to be free. I loved living here. This was my family. Sure, I had a brother and grandparents that loved me and were worried sick but I didn't know them. They weren't my family like these people are and I had to make a choice. Reno took me back home with him and my grandparents showered me with love and presents but I only stayed there about a week before I decided to run away and come back here. Basically I'm telling you this because the same thing will probably happen to you, Roxas. If your sister finds you again and she decides she wants to bail you out, you'll have to make the same choice. Xemnas won't refuse the money. It will come down to whether you want to go or stay."

I looked down at my feet in thought as Axel's words rolled around in my head. It was a lot to think about. I was certain that I'd already made my choice about where I wanted to be but I couldn't help but wonder how I might feel if Yuffie actually wanted to buy me back and Xemnas just agreed to let it happen. It seemed to me in that moment that perhaps I'd made the wrong choice. Yuffie wanted me back in her life but to Xemnas, I was still collateral and this was still his business. Ultimately I wasn't really family. Not to Xemnas anyway. That brought a question to my mind. "Axel, doesn't it bother you that Xemnas was willing to let you go for the money?"

"Well..." Axel took it upon himself to lay back down beside me as he thought about his answer. "Yeah, I guess. But I understood. First and foremost, Xemnas is a business man but the welfare of his family is still important to him. I don't think he would have let me leave if he thought I might be unhappy or in any sort of danger. Then again, I could be wrong."

I looked over at Axel but he seemed miles deep in thought. "And what about your brother? Do you ever feel like maybe you made the wrong choice? I mean, if you think about it, Xemnas got you and the money. Your brother got nothing. Doesn't that seem a little unfair?"

"I write to my brother from time to time. Let him know I'm doing okay. We see each other every once in a while but we're not close. Not like I am with the people here. They're the ones I love. The ones I'm close to. My brothers and sisters. My family. You can't have both worlds, Rox. Sometimes you have to choose. It isn't always biology that makes a family. It's heart." Axel paused to look over at me with a smile. "You know that old saying, "Home is where the heart is?" I think that's true. Any place can be your house but it's the place where your heart is that becomes your home. I could have stayed with Reno and that would have been my house. But this place... this place will always be my home. This is where I belong and I think it's where you belong too. You're my little brother and I love you."

I desperately wanted to make fun of Axel but it was hard when what he was saying made me feel... well, happy. I felt him ruffle my hair as I thought over what he had said. "Yeah, I guess you're right. The only question now is what do I tell Yuffie if she finds me again?"

"What did you just say?" Xion said in a demanding tone. I froze in fear, realizing a little too late that my sister had entered my room unannounced. "What do you mean "again," Roxas?"

I sat up and stared at my sister. I couldn't lie my way out of this one, she'd already heard enough. The best I could do now was damage control. "Xion, look..."

"You ass hole! You lied to me! That girl wasn't just some stranger! That was our sister!" Xion stormed over to me with clenched fists and I was sure she was just going to stomp and throw a tantrum but I was sadly mistaken. She slapped me across the face and I won't lie, it fucking hurt. "You dick! I can't believe you!"

I stared up at my sister. She had tears pouring down her face at this point and I felt really bad. My voice was quiet as I tried to respond but my heart was pounding in my ears so loudly I could barely hear myself. "Xion, I'm sorry. I..."

"You're sorry? I don't want to hear that you're sorry! Did you ever stop to think that maybe I would like to see my sister after ten years? No! You didn't because you were too damn worried about yourself!" Xion narrowed her eyes at Axel. "And you, you're just as bad as he is! Why is it that I am kept in the dark about this?"

"Xion, listen." Axel started as he stood up but she wouldn't have it.

"No, you listen! You had no right to keep that from me! I hate you! I hate you both and I'm never speaking to either one of you ever again!" And just like that, she ran out of the room in a burst of tears.

Axel looked at me and I looked back at him. We didn't need to speak to know that we were both very bothered by what had just happened here, not just because Xion might run and alert Yuffie of our whereabouts but because we had upset her and neither one of us wanted to do that.

I didn't know how I was going to fix this but I knew I needed to try.