A/N: Crazywill, hello! Thank you for your review! Yes, updates have slowed down because of my work schedule, but also... I'm a perfectionist and tbh, these next ten or so chapters have been a BEAR to edit because of their complexity, and because SO much of the rest of the story depends on them. Believe it or not, this installment is winding WAY down. I really hope to finish it by Christmas, but Sora's going to do a little world visiting first... Hope you guys liked the Land of Dragons...

~X~

Chapter Thirty Eight

~X~

After wiling the day away in Yen Sid's basement dodging anthropomorphic brooms with buckets of water, Sora boarded the ghost train and returned to Central Station. As soon as he crossed through the glass double doors to the patio, he met Hayner and Pence. Olette was apparently lounging in the trio's Usual Spot with Kairi, Neku, and Joshua. The moment Sora heard she was around, the exhaustion clinging his limbs disappeared. Everyone gathered in the local soul food bistro on Market Street, Sora telling the story of how he and Joshua had chased Soddy to the train station before being attacked by King Mickey and saved by Yen Sid. Joshua seemed particularly interested, due to the fact that he had been asleep for the entire episode. Hayner's gang had found him five hours earlier, sprawled on the Central Station steps as they prepared to ride to the beach. He was forced to endure two hours on the details of struggle competitions from Hayner before Kairi and Neku saved him. After dinner, Olette begged everyone to go to the premier of some movie about a kid falling in love with his father's doctorate student. After that, everyone went clubbing. Though they were underage, Hayner snagged some liquor from his mother's pantry for pregame. Sora reached a level of intoxication comparable to the night on Avenida, only this time, save for Joshua, he was surrounded by people he trusted. When Neku offered to take suggestions to the DJ, he asked for 'Formation,' "in honor of Ari." But when the opening bars began, he found he barely had the strength to stand. As he wrenched on a plastic smile and bounced up and down on his heels, screeching the lyrics until he couldn't feel the tug of the lump in his throat anymore, Olette stumbled up and whispered in the DJ's ear. The woman smiled. Then, she took her microphone in hand.

"Who likes Sufjan Stevens?" she called. There was understandable silence. When Olette screamed at the top of her lungs, Sora and company joined in. The rest of the club glanced towards them in suspicious irritation. But the DJ clapped and called out, "this one goes out to all you weirdos who watched that movie premier tonight, including me!"

There was scattered laughter. Then, the lights took on an unearthly blue glint, the disco ball drilled into the ceiling center spiraled like moonlight across dark waves, and the melody of one of the best songs from the movie sailed across the speakers. Sora moved from Neku and Joshua to Pence, Hayner, and Olette in manic glee. When he found himself standing before Kairi, he jolted to a stop. His smile wiped from his face. Kairi's did as well. Their hands jumbled and bumped like puzzle pieces trying to figure out how they fit. Kairi's hair glowed purple, her face turquoise. Her eyes sparkled a deep, iridescent blue, little fireflies hidden in beach grass. Before Sora could reach out to touch her arm, Hayner grabbed him around the shoulder and pointed towards the bar. Everyone "ooed" as Joshua disappeared towards the stools with an attractive older man, peeking and giggling at him like schoolchildren for the next two hours. It was three in the morning by the time everyone was kicked out. Sora, Kairi, Neku, Olette, Hayner, and Joshua all stayed the night at Pence's. At five, just as the sun began rising, Hayner led anyone who felt like going to the top of the clock tower to see it come up. As he dozed in the stairway door, Sora and Kairi watched the dawn in silence, blisteringly awake for having endured two exhausting days of travel in a row.

When Sora told her what Yen Sid had said about darkness, being in love, and the man Sora had chased to the train station being Riku despite moving and fighting like Soddy, Kairi pursed her lips and pondered in silence. When Sora asked if she was any closer to catching him, she shook her head. Changing the subject, she asked if Yen Sid's fairies had given him an upgrade, too. After Sora gasped and stuttered in shock, Kairi told Sora that she had visited the old master the day before.

"I gave Neku the slip in the tram common," she giggled. "Then I played dumb when I got back and told him I'd been exploring the Seven Wonders of Twilight Town."

"Twilight Town has seven wonders?" Sora deadpanned. Kairi threw back her head and laughed, nodding that it did, and that they were as boring as they sounded. Sora smiled as he watched her.

"Did you catch any more dark boils?" Kairi coughed. Sora hesitated. Then, slumping, he shook his head. When he asked Kairi if she had found any, she nodded, saying there was one in Yen Sid's basement and another under the train tracks at the railway station.

"Neku and I snuck in at night," she explained. "A little dark cloud spun around and possessed the train cars. Gods, it was a mess..."

Sora tried masking his envy as Kairi spoke about defeating her first "boss" heartless. When she offered to swap bestiaries with him so he could copy her notes, he grinned in weak acquiescence and brought out his broken tablet. For the next thirty minutes, Kairi did his homework as Sora stared at the ground far beneath his feet. When Hayner snorted and mumbled in his sleep beside them, wincing unconsciously at the sun peeking over the horizon, Kairi snickered and shook her head.

"I guess that's what being a normal teenager looks like," she sighed. Sora chuckled and shrugged. When Kairi caught his eye, he whipped away, curled into himself, and set his cheek on his palm. For a moment Kairi stared. Then, returning his tablet, she pursed her lips and clasped her hands.

"Sora?" she whispered. Sora glanced up.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Sora's brows furrowed as he reeled back. Snorting, he murmured, "why wouldn't I be?"

Kairi shrugged and stared at her feet. "I don't know." She whispered. "Sometimes, being at this school, with everything... I don't feel okay."

Sora blinked at her, frozen. The breeze blew her fringe into her face. When he reached out and swished it away, Kairi blinked in surprise and stared at him again. What felt like a thousand years passed. Then, Sora stared away. Soon after, Kairi did the same. Eventually Hayner awoke and returned them to his house. After sleeping in for another five hours, everyone ate breakfast, wished each other tearful goodbyes, and trekked to their gummi ships by noon. Now, as Sora fought sleep below while Joshua piloted the vessel to their next location, his mind returned to Yen Sid. He should have been reviewing what the old man told him about his darkness, but all he could think about was the story about his old lover. The lyrics of the song Olette had requested in the club, the way Kairi had looked beneath the sparkling, turquoise club lighting, and the feeling of her shoulder on his as they watched the sunrise returned to his heart along with a deep well of regret. He should have told her he loved her. Just like he should have told Naminé. Roxas. Riku. Ari. His mother. His father, so many years back the pain felt dull as a distant storm.

"Sora, Sora, Sora," he whispered, imagining he was someone else, and that Sora was above him, pinning him down with confidence. As blood rushed between his legs, Joshua called down to ask if he was alright. Sora jumped and hit his head off the ceiling, croaking up the ladder that he was fine.

"Mind still on that movie?" Joshua chirped. "I thought it was a little vanilla."

"Hm," Sora sighed, rubbing the bags under his eyes. He crawled to the ladder and clambered to Joshua's side, staring at the map on the tablet before him in curiosity.

"Poignant reflection on the many faces of love, though," Joshua murmured. "The title of the song Olette requested in the club was appropriate." When Sora failed to respond, Joshua peeped at him with narrowed eyes.

"Who's your Elio, Sora?" he asked. Sora slumped into the passenger seat, fiddling around his tablet to see if there were any games on it. But he only had his assignments and his Jiminy Journal.

"You know that assignment for Journalism?" he evaded. "I'm trying to come up with a project that will satisfy as many classes as possible."

"Roxas loves dancing," Joshua returned. Sora stifled a choke and slumped lower, snuggling into his shirt collar to hide his bushing indignation. "How's dancing connected to interworld languages and technology?" he grumbled. Joshua shrugged. "Language is communication. Talk about how different cultures communicate and adapt through dance."

"That sounds advanced," Sora muttered.

"Write your preliminary report," Joshua continued. "Then learn a bunch of dances. You'll have every major project done, and you can impress Kairi, Roxas, or whoever else you want to fuck whenever he gets found."

"Joshua, stop!" Sora snapped. After several minutes of pouting, though, he narrowed his eyes and leaned forward.

"How do you know Roxas likes dancing?" he asked. Joshua looked over his shoulder in satisfaction, cooing that it was an educated guess. Sora's eyes dilated as he cocked his head like a puppy. Joshua giggled in remembrance, sighing that he'd gotten to know the blond during their first and second year.

"From the first day of school, I locked on," he explained. "We hooked up probably ten times."

"You, buh, be..." Sora stuttered in horror. "You mean hook up as in..."

Joshua stared at him without expression, waiting for Sora to finish the sentence. When Sora stalled, the peroxide blond raised an eyebrow in goading. "Sex?" he said without apology. Sora winced and gulped, nodding. Joshua nodded in return, adding, "yeah, we fucked quite a bit."

"O-oh gods," Sora squeaked, gasping, "when?"

"When did we have sex?"

"Y-yeah!"

"Till after this year's drag show."

"O-oh," Sora gulped, crushed. So Roxas was honest when he said he had fucked multiple people while kissing Sora. Groping through an emotional cesspit, the brunet asked in a croak why Joshua had stopped seeing him.

"You mean like dating, Sora?" Joshua snorted. Before Sora could respond, the blond shook his head and curled his lip, muttering, "as far as I know, Roxas doesn't 'date.' And I let him go because it was pulling me down a dark path."

"Oh?" Sora breathed. There was silence. Joshua furrowed his brows, pulling his pursed lips back and forth over his teeth. Then, he chirped, "Roxas exists in this weird dichotomy between superiority and subservience. He always has to feel like he's doing you a favor because you need his help or you need him, never because he needs or wants you. That's why he clamped onto you. Your whole existence screams, 'put a collar on me and I'll be your puppy.'"

Sora silenced in shock, unable to say or even think a thing. When Joshua saw his expression, he snorted and rolled his eyes as if to say 'come on, now.' Then, he continued, "so the first time we fucked, I let him top, and it was one of the most tender experiences of my life. He looked after me. And then every once in a while we'd run into each other and it would happen again. But I'm a total dom, so the damsel sub act was getting really old," he scoffed. "It didn't help that I had this growing feeling it was all an ego boost for him, because I couldn't complain. Bedding Roxas was a total ego boost for me, too. But he courts that, Sora. He works very hard to keep this air of untouchability around him, like seeing him in any human capacity is this privilege granted by the gods."

"Well-" Sora tried protesting, but Joshua pinned him with a goading stare that made him shrink.

"How often did you see him eat? Sleep? Practice? Do his homework? Taking a fucking shit?"

"I-"

"Hear about him fucking someone? Hear about someone fucking him? Occasionally? Never? Exactly," Joshua sang, forefinger up in gesticulation. "Because Roxas is perfect. Roxas never asks a favor of anyone. Roxas is always cool and in control, even when he's not. And I know he spun out of control mid semester, because after the drag show he came to me and asked if I could top him." When he saw Sora's expression, his eyes twinkled.

"I know, right?" he whispered as Sora gaped. "He was crying. Saying he needed some tenderness. So I comforted him. We both agreed to meet after an hour and I cleaned myself the fuck up. I felt like I'd hit the jackpot. And then..." Joshua trailed off with a scowl.

"What?" Sora goaded. Joshua sniffed and shrugged.

"He was a monster," he murmured. "Ice cold. Never even made eye contact with me. Looked pissed off and bored from the moment I opened my door. Every time I spoke or touched him, he cringed as if he were disgusted. Did he want a rim job? No. Kissing? No. Licking? No. Blow job? Sure, whatever. Silent the entire fucking time. Didn't want to be caressed. Before I penetrated him I asked if he even wanted to be in the room. He said if he wanted an argument instead of a fuck he would've dated me. I was furious. I mean, this is me we're talking about. I know I'm good. So I go in and start nice and slow, and I know he's heating up, I can see it. And then he wants me to go harder. So I go harder until his dick starts falling and I slow down until he feels good again, but no. He wants it harder and harder until I'm pumping his fucking brains out and his teeth are wailing they're grinding so hard. Even then, it's not good enough. And for the rest of the month I'm in limbo until I hear he's moved onto Vanitas. Then I understand," he whispered, eyes glimmering as if the realization had just dawned on him that moment. "He didn't want tenderness. He wanted it beat out of him."

Before Sora could open his mouth, Joshua chuckled in bitterness, shaking his head as he sighed, "when he feels low... he gets someone to kick him back to the top."

"That's not," Sora whispered, "none of that is the Roxas I know."

"Oh, yeah?" Joshua chirped. "So you don't believe me?"

Sora faltered, picking through his next words with care. "He..." he started with a swallow. "Roxas never made me feel... like I was..."

"A puppy who needed house training?" Joshua offered in a coo, trying to ruffle Sora's hair. When Sora shied away, the blond froze and sharpened.

"He never made me feel... subordinate..."

"Oh really." Joshua said, furrowing his brows in mock thought. "Wasn't he always 'teaching' you something?"

"Uh..."

"Who was in charge of all your interactions?"

"Well..."

"When he kissed you, who was the one taking their clothes off?"

"Well, I..." Sora started, faltering.

"Gets you wondering, doesn't it?" Joshua warned. "But don't let my horror story scare you away. You have a very strong light, like a kind of 'welcome home' mat. Roxas relishes giving and you're a natural receiver, so you never know, you might strike gold."

"Receiver?" Sora hissed, reeling back and wrinkling his nose. "If you're going to put a label on me, at least pick one. Am I a stray, a receiver, or a 'welcome home' mat?"

"Sora, you're taking this completely the wrong way," Joshua said flatly, turning away. But Sora stood and blocked his view. After checking that autopilot was on, Joshua met his eye with a lazy stare.

"I think I get it, now," Sora whispered. "Are you saying I'm a slave in my daily life? Wait a- are you assuming I'm the, the girl of the relationship?"

"What?" Joshua snapped. "What the hell does that even mean? I just mean that in life, you're a receiver. You like people pampering you, helping you, and doing things for you. You're drawn to it! You're like a puppy following its master for pets!"

"I'm not a dog!" Sora cried. "I'm my own master and I decide everything for myself!"

"Sora," Joshua scoffed. "I can't name a single decision you've made on your own. Someone is always telling you what to do, and you're always listening."

"That's just cause I value the professionals in my life!"

"But you have such a strong inferiority complex. What a wild juxtaposition..."

"You know what, Joshua?" Sora spat. "If I do everything everyone tells me to do, why am I here? I should be back on Destiny Islands crying about how stupid and useless I am- but I'm not, you wanna know why? Because I'm a hero. I know I'm a hero, because everything I do, I do for my friends. And if I've become a 'receiver' or whatever the nut you want to call me, then that's just because out here, I never know who to trust!"

"Sora, that's not even what I mean-"

"No one's gonna fuck me-!"

"Sora, calm down," Joshua sighed. "Bottoming doesn't make you a 'woman,' or whatever you think it does. It just means you enjoy receiving pleasure in a different way than some men. Take tops, for example. Good ones are rare because the best balance their own pleasure with their partner's-"

"Well, isn't that what couples do?" Sora railed. "Balance each other out? Do equal work? What you're talking about doesn't sound equal at all! I don't even know what the nut-"

"I'm not saying you're a girl, or a slave, or whatever, Sora, and I'm not saying you like being penetrated either, though I'm sure-"

"You're not sure of anything-"

"It's not my fault that you're a total child in every capacity-"

"I'm not a child!" Sora shrieked at the top of his lungs, balling his hands into fists, shutting his eyes tight, widening his mouth, and stomping his foot on the carpet as hard as he could. When he relaxed and blinked his gaze up again, his shoulders sagged in embarrassment. Joshua stared at him through raised eyebrows and a dull glance. Then, shooting out his palm in a slicing gesture, he said, "fine, Sora. Forget I said anything." Before he could turn to pilot the ship again, he added, "and tops can be immature, too. So if the bottom lifestyle doesn't suit you and you feel like learning how to top like a real man, just ask."

"I don't need your help for anything!" Sora snarled a little more passionately than he had intended. Blind with indignation and shame, he stumbled around the cockpit blubbering and muttering to himself. When Joshua said he was distracting his driving, Sora tore down the rope ladder with his broken tablet and snuggled under the single remaining sleeping bag, typing, "sex top," into the search engine. This just brought up a bunch of porn videos. He scowled and typed in "bisexual top," which brought up a very strange thread of comments concerning a married man's curiosity about sexual preferences in other bisexual men.

I was with a woman in missionary, while a man enjoyed me from behind, one commenter said. It was divine!

Suddenly Sora's mind snapped to an image of himself clutching onto Kairi with Roxas draped over his back. He slapped himself to make it go away.

"Now that is just completely un-gentlemanlike," he muttered.

"What's un-gentlemanlike?" Joshua drawled from above.

"Nothing," Sora spat, scrolling further. The deeper he dove, the more boggled he became. Checking over his shoulder, he typed in "gay top." Slathering the results were articles on "are you a top or bottom?" along with stereotypes associated with each label. As Sora feared, "effeminate" and "submissive" swarmed the bottom qualities. When these keywords brought him to an article called, "how to spot a twink," with a near carbon copy of himself in the thumbnail picture, he nearly wet himself.

"Do I have a high voice?" he called up the ladder, trying to deepen it a little.

"No, Sora, I think your voice is maturing nicely," Joshua sighed.

Sora sat up in satisfaction. Then he flexed his arms. He could do better. Deflating, he wondered if the next world on their list had some kind of protein powder. As he scrolled again, he realized that for researching all these sex labels, he did not even know what sex looked like. Blushing and glancing over his shoulder for the umpteenth time, he took a deep breath and typed in "what sex looks like." Then, bracing himself, he waited for the results to pop up. He reeled at some of the thumbnail images. When his finger hovered over the first one, an image of a woman with her legs spread and a man's penis awkwardly curved inside her so that the audience could get a full view, a giggle rose uncomfortably close to his ear. When he turned and saw Joshua's shining face inches from his own, Sora screeched and nearly catapulted into space through the window behind.

"I-I thought you were piloting the freaking gummi ship!" he wailed, burrowing under the sleeping bag covers. Joshua cackled above him.

"Oh, relax, Sora, it's on autopilot. If we get anywhere near a meteor or foreign body, a warning light and buzzer will go off."

"I feel very uncomfortable knowing that no one is in the cockpit," Sora croaked, slipping around Joshua and clambering up the ladder.

"And I feel very uncomfortable inhabiting a space ship with a kid who doesn't know what sex looks like," Joshua tried to say seriously, breaking into a snort before he could finish. Sora scowled in humiliation, savaging his way to the pilot seat, plopping down, and centering all his attention on the route to the Land of Dragons. Soon Joshua traipsed up behind him and set his chin on the boy's shoulder. Sora decided ignoring him would be more mature than shrugging him off.

"Sora," the blond's voice whispered, "if you want to know what sex looks like-"

"I am not having sex with you, Joshua," Sora interjected. "I'm saving myself."

"Oh, Minerva, you're not one of those guys, are you?" Joshua groaned. Sora shrugged and cooed that maybe he was. Conflicting images of Kairi, Riku, and Roxas returned to his mind again, along with the ridiculous arguments he and Riku used to have about paopu fruit back on the islands. Was Kairi waiting for the right one, too?

"But I wasn't asking for sex, anyway," Joshua sighed over his thoughts. "I was just going to ask if you wanted a demonstration of what sex looks like externally."

"And how is that any different from having actual sex?" Sora barked. "Is there another person in this avionic vehicle who's going to join in, or something?"

"No, Sora, just... just come here," Joshua insisted. Sora's curiosity got the better of him. He padded over one step at a time, kneeling down at Joshua's side. Joshua backed away and told him to lay down, prop himself up with his elbows, and spread his legs. Sora blanched and blushed at the same time.

"Come again?" he squeaked.

"Do this," Joshua said, demonstrating. Sora nodded and copied him. When Joshua crawled between his legs, Sora snapped for him to quit the funny business. Joshua tried not to laugh.

"Sora, if it helps you, let's treat this as if we're doing a judo position."

"Judo?" Sora asked. He struggled to remember what judo was.

"It's a martial arts form, Sora," Joshua murmured. "Didn't you learn a martial art in first year when you didn't have a key blade?"

"Uh... no," Sora gulped. "I just practiced with a rod on my own."

"Oh," Joshua scoffed. "Well, then... forget it." He pushed Sora's knees apart and snuggled between his thighs. Immediately, Sora's penis poked up in his shorts. When Joshua saw the tenting fabric, he "awed." Sora scrambled away and fiddled with his pants, slipping his budding erection into his waist band just in case it decided to rise any higher. Joshua was still railing about how cute he was by the time he got back, making him rancorous. When he jammed himself on the cockpit floor and slumped his knees to his sides, Joshua chuckled and scooted between again.

"Now imagine this," he explained, cupping the fingers of his left hand into a point. "This is my penis," he indicated. Then he pinched the thumb and forefinger of his right hand in a circle. "This is your sphincter, the ring of muscle controlling what goes in and out of your asshole."

"Uh huh," Sora croaked, fidgeting in ill ease. As Joshua pushed his left cupped palm through the ring he had made with the thumb and forefinger of his right, Sora's eyes widened to the size of billiard balls. "The penis is going in. Now, picture that image, and I am slowly going to press against you."

"Oh gods," Sora croaked, blinking up the cockpit glass as if it would be the last thing he ever saw. Joshua tapped his cheek to get him to pay attention. Sora nodded and glanced down, wiping the sweat from his brow. Joshua set his palms on either side of Sora's hips. Then, he rolled his hips forward and tapped Sora's backside. Sora giggled without helping it. Joshua grinned.

"See? Totally weird, right?" he said. Sora nodded and split into a grin again. Joshua leaned on his right palm and rose his left hand. With it, he pointed an inch above where Sora's penis started. "That's kind of where your bladder is, okay?" he intoned. Then his finger hovered a centimeter above where Sora's penis met his balls. "This should be where your prostate is, but it's different for everyone. It's about the size and shape of a walnut."

"Oh," Sora whispered in his best objective, academic tone. "And- and that's what makes you o-o... orgasm?"

"Yep," Joshua responded. "So during anal sex, if you're bottoming and I'm topping, I am thrusting my penis into your anus to hit your prostate." As he began rocking his hips back and forth against Sora's backside, the brunet's breath caught in his throat. He could feel heaviness spreading through his pelvis, meaning soon he would start weeping frosty liquid like with Ventus. Self conscious, he fidgeted and scooted away. Joshua blinked up in suspicion.

"S-so, c-can something like that be d-done, i-in, well, uh, in... different... ways?" Sora evaded in a wheeze. To his surprise, Joshua nodded and beamed. Then, he told Sora to get on his hands and knees and look at their reflection in the glass. When Sora did, Joshua rocked against him from the back.

"You can have sex in lot of positions," Joshua said. "this one is called doggy style-"

"Oh! That makes sense!" Sora interjected, remembering laughing with Riku at a pair of alley dogs copulating on the pier in Destiny Islands. Joshua rolled his eyes and crawled to face him, adding that the first position had been missionary. Before Sora could ask why, Joshua said that some people also did it from the side, or with the bottom sitting on the top. When Sora asked if it could be done with both people sitting up, Joshua raised a questioning brow.

"Like, uh..." Sora started. Then he caved and sat on Joshua's lap, with his back to his chest. Joshua blinked in shock.

"Can, can it be done like that?" Sora squeaked. "And, m-maybe, without a penis... inside?"

"Well if the penis isn't inside it's just called grinding, or dry humping if you're wearing clothes. That's what we're doing right now!" Joshua added in a coo, close to Sora's ear. Sora could feel something hard pressing against his back. It made his cheeks flush.

"A-and so, so if you were, but you were naked... it would still be grinding?" he gulped. Joshua furrowed his brows and pierced him with a strong side eye. "... Yeah," he said slowly.

"And, and so does the hip movement, the, uh, the grinding, or whatever, that's what happens in sex, too?"

"Yeah..."

"So if you're in a sexual position, or whatever, does the grinding just come subconsciously, like if you're, uh, receiving the penis, in or, uh, slightly out, do your hips ever kind of just, do it without you even having to, well, think about... it?"

"Sora," Joshua intoned. "I don't know if this is a question or a confession. Are you saying you ground against someone, naked?"

Sora glanced over his shoulder into Joshua's eyes. Then, guiltily, he gulped. Joshua's mouth burst open with glee. Before he could cheer or wrap Sora in a hug, the warning lights and buzzer at the control panel started going off. Dashing away from each other, the boys scrambled to the pilot seat and glanced out of the hemispherical window. Approaching their gummi ship from distant space, where a horde of colorful building blocks with sparkling lights shooting out of them. When one of the sparkling lights sailed forward and rammed into the forcefield surrounding the cockpit glass, Joshua and Sora were thrown back against the carpeted floor. After scrambling to their seats and buckling in, Joshua roared for Sora to operate the lasers. Nodding with vigor, Sora whipped back and forth in search of them.

"The button is in front of your seat!" Joshua shrieked. "Sora, it's a flap in the floor!"

Sora nodded and padded around in front of him. When he saw the flap, he flipped it up and brought up a small platform with a screen and buttons on it. When he pressed "on," the screen fizzled with a target in the middle and several approaching red dots surrounding. As the gummi ship shook with another strike, Joshua roared for Sora to start shooting. Sora nodded and bit his tongue, looking for the "fire" button. Then, he rammed onto it and held down, swiveling the wheel this way and that until he hit as many of the creatures as possible. Little diamonds fell from their exploded forms. When he exploded a meteor by accident and a glittering golden star erupted from it, Sora snapped for Joshua to collect it. He did so. After it registered, he screamed in delight.

"The stars are like a power source!" he sang. "It just brought our defenses up full!"

Sora grinned and furrowed his brows in concentration, shooting as many of the creatures and meteors as he could by swiveling the wheel in circles and holding the "fire" button. By the time another planet rose ahead of them, the warning lights were going off again, this time to tell the ship that it's laser was running out of juice.

"Fuck, Sora, if it goes out, we'll be sitting ducks!" Joshua screeched. Sora wiped his brow and whimpered in consternation. When he tried aiming his shots, they flew right over the enemy ships' shoulders. Abandoning all efforts, he begged Joshua to go faster and dodge as much as he could. Joshua scowled and swung the ship this way and that, swerving around meteors and laser fire as quickly as possible. When Sora lost control of the laser completely, he said that they had to land now.

"AAAAHHH!" Joshua screamed in frustration, jamming on the acceleration until they hit the next world's atmosphere. As he ran through the usual landing routine, he roared for Sora to look up their landing location.

"But PUT AWAY THE LASER FIRST!" he commanded. Sora nodded and shut the firing system off, pushing it down and flapping it shut under the carpet again. Then he clutched his tablet and brought up the new map, scrolling through it to find their destination. When he did, he shrieked that it was a clearing in a forest.

"What forest, Sora?" Joshua hissed.

"Right at the base of the mountain," Sora gulped. "Yucheng County, Shanqui Prefecture, Eastern Henan Province, thirty kilometers south of the county seat, courtyard with hall at the center is at the village entrance, oh, IT'S A CLEARING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST, LOTS OF BAMBOO AND A HUGE PILE OF STONES."

"I think I see it," Joshua gulped, steering towards a forest near a mountain range and village with a bald patch at its center. "Does the forest end in a cliff on the other side that leads to an army camp?"

"Y- YEAH, YEAH, I THINK SO!" Sora squeaked, wiping the sting of sweat from his eyes.

"You better be fucking right," Joshua snarled.

Fire burst around the ship's edges. Joshua pulled back the throttle until the engine shut off completely. Then, they were spiraling towards the forest. Sora clutched his seat and gritted his teeth. Joshua hissed with tension. The warning lights blinked off again. They were two hundred feet from the ground. One hundred. Fifty. Twenty. When they were ten feet away, they were gliding comfortably in circles. Then, touching down, Joshua plunged on the breaks and brought the ship to a halt right before hitting a massive, engraved stone. Sora was glad he was buckled in. His heart nearly flew out of his mouth as he jammed forward. When the ship stopped completely and Joshua hovered into park, he sat back. Then, he and Sora gave a collective sigh and closed their eyes. When Sora opened his again, Joshua glared at him.

"I can't believe you've lasted a year and a half without knowing how to fucking aim," the blond snarled. "Didn't you practice fighting Riku in Destiny Islands?"

"I fought with a wooden sword!" Sora croaked, jumping out of his seat and collecting his tablet to mask his tear stained cheeks. "I wasn't used to throwing things or any crap like that and I didn't play blitzball like Tidus or Wakka."

"That's apparent," Joshua muttered. Sora sniffed and slipped towards the sleeping bag, tearing around for his duffel bag and backpack. Soon, Joshua clambered down after him. When Sora tore off his t-shirt and sleeping shorts and reached for his combat gear, Joshua scowled.

"Sora, this is the Wei Dynasty," he said. "If you go around looking like an alien, you'll get killed. Remember, we're not supposed to mess with the world order."

Sora scowled and glared into Joshua's disdainful lavender eyes. "Then what the heck am I supposed to wear?" he snapped. "This is my combat gear, my only protection!"

"So there's a uniform for heroes, now?" Joshua cooed sarcastically. Sora hissed and scrambled up, shoving his backpack under the mattress, changing his clothes, and opening the gummi ship exit. As he leapt from the rope ladder to soft ground outside, he glanced around him at a loss of what to do. No way was Joshua stopping Sora from wearing his magical upgraded clothing. As he stared down his front, he pursed his lips and set his hands on his hips.

"Well?" he snapped down at his crown shaped necklace for no apparent reason, as if it were the translator for the rest of his outfit. "Yen Sid said you'd come in handy when you were needed. So what do I do now that I can't wear you?" he barked. As if it heard him, the clothing disintegrated like sand and disappeared into the air. When Sora glanced down again, he was naked.

Yelping and clutching his fists around his crotch, he cowered and looked around him in horror, as if a ghost would crawl out of the ground at any moment and snatch him up. Instead, a whistle rose behind him. When he swiveled on his heel, Joshua was giving him a slow once over.

"So where'd your combat outfit go, Sora?" he cooed. "I thought you couldn't go without it."

"I- I got an upgrade from the Magical Armory in the Land of Departure for my birthday," Sora said. It wasn't really a lie if he forgot to specify when he got it, right? "So I guess one of my new powers is becoming nude upon will."

"Nice power to have," Joshua chirped, winking and chucking Sora some kind of burlap sack as he passed. When Sora unfurled it, he realized it was some kind of clothing. When he looked at Joshua, he saw he was wearing a brown tunic that opened and crossed in the middle, with a sad, yellow sash tied like a belt around his waist. Baggy trousers bound his calves in leather. Hard soled, ballet style slippers covered his feet. When Sora glanced from his clothing to Joshua's, he furrowed his brows.

"Sora," Joshua warned, "I know you like running around naked, but this isn't the time."

"Why does my uniform look different than yours?"

Joshua glanced to Sora in consternation. When he got a good look at the billowy layers of skirts, pants, and dress in the brunet's hands, he burst into laughter. When Sora demanded to know what was wrong, wondering if his costume was a more noble version of Joshua's, Joshua sputtered that his dress was for a woman.

"What?" Sora bleated in terror. Joshua fell to the ground, crying from laughter, sputtering that Cid Haze must have packed clothing for a boy and a girl by accident.

"Aw, Cid..." Sora groaned, glancing down at the dress again. Blushing, he demanded that Joshua trade clothes with him. Joshua scoffed in indignation. "Fuck, no," he snapped. "You've been a pain in my ass this whole trip and you expect me to change clothes just to satisfy your self image problems?"

"I'm not a woman!" Sora wailed.

"Treat it like the drag show!" Joshua tried.

"This is different. The Drag Show was fun and entertaining, this is our lives we're talking about!"

"Listen closely, Sora," Joshua snapped, advancing on Sora with a dangerous glimmer in his eyes. "I felt shaky for a whole day after our landing in Twilight Town. Just when I start feeling myself again, we're attacked by King Mickey after chasing down a fugitive that isn't even ours. As soon as I recover and we're on our way to our next location, you're screaming me down and asking me what sex looks like. Then, you lose all our gummi ship fire power because you can't aim worth a damn. We're going to have to wait, at minimum, two weeks for it to recharge. That means, in addition to being a day behind, we're now a day and two weeks behind."

"Well what the hell does that all translate to?" Sora said bravely. In return, Joshua glowered inches from his nose.

"It means you're putting on that dress, Sora," the blond whispered. "And if I decide to prance you around this Chinese village wearing nothing but a flower up your ass, you'll do it." With that, he marched ahead, leaving Sora to dress himself in his robes and wide brimmed bamboo hat alone. They walked side by side, Sora maddened by the sensation of loose skirts around his privates along with the fear that they would come across a civilian at any moment. By the time night fell, they were trailing the forest edge near the outskirts of town, close to a small, walled estate with horse stables, a pond, a shrine, and a tree filled with falling magnolia blossoms. Before Joshua could march towards it, Sora stopped him.

"Joshua-" he squeaked. Joshua pierced him with a look of veiled fury.

"Sora..."

"I just want to know how we're going to talk to them if we don't know Chinese."

"Sora, you were supposed to learn basic Chinese for Interworld Languages."

"I- I know, but it was such a nightmare I don't know if I'll remember it-"

"Then I guess I have to babysit again..."

Sora grimaced and scrambled near Joshua's side, wondering how Xemnas and the rest of the Organization expected them to traipse from world to world and just learn every single language imaginable. He barely knew Al Bhed, and he'd been studying that on and off since he was five.

When they reached the wall, they jumped over it with magic, Joshua with some personal innovation, Sora with a badly carried out "aero" spell that shot him forward rather than up. To break his momentum, he lolloped up the wall and flew through the air like a rocket, splashing into the lily pond at the estate's rear and scaring the carp inside. Joshua hissed for him to shut up, lest the family inside discover and attack them. Sora apologized and sloshed to dry ground. Thunder sizzled above. When he asked what they were supposed to do next, Joshua hissed that they had to find their life jacket.

"Life jacket?" Sora barked.

"It's the name of a person established in this world that we know," Joshua whispered.

"Mulan!" Sora gasped.

"Yes, Sora," Joshua chirped as if surprised. "Thank gods you've done your research on something-"

"No, she's right there, going towards that temple with the red gates!"

Sure enough, the girl was trudging up the stone steps past the bridge to the pond, towards a small pavilion with what looked like black stones inside. She was dressed to the nines, decked in a pink and purple number with long billowing sleeves that trailed around her ankles. Her hair was askew, sweeping in a black, sodden sheet down her back. Her feet were bare. Absent of thought, Sora dashed towards her, not bothering to wait for Joshua to catch up. He squelched with each muddy step. Mulan failed to notice a thing. As she disappeared under the pavilion roof, smoke from candles billowed through its open sides. Lights glowed within. Sora hunched forward and squelched over the bridge, resting his hand on cold, carven stone. When he glanced up its side, he gasped and stifled a scream. A massive, stone dragon leered down at him. He gulped and slipped past it, up the stone steps until he hung behind the pavilion entrance. Mulan was lighting an incense stick, setting it in a hanging bowl with a spindly dragon engraved over its sides. When Sora recognized the dragon's shape, he nearly had a conniption.

"Mushu?" he gasped, remembering the creature as a summon from his vision quest. Mulan choked and whipped around, glancing back and forth. Sora ducked to the ground, clapping his hand over his mouth. For a moment the girl froze. Then she returned to her prayers. When she was finished, she bowed, tore from the pavilion, and ran down the stone steps and over the bridge towards her home. Sora watched her go in stupor. As she slipped inside the hole in the wall guarding her estate, Joshua emerged from its shadows and peeked from her, to Sora. He gesticulated. Sora furrowed his brows in confusion, raising his palms to ask what he wanted. Joshua's fists railed in the air. Then he stomped towards Sora until he was ten feet away.

"Did you tell her we were here?" he snapped. Sora opened and closed his mouth. Joshua groaned and stomped away.

"Joshua, I'm not the one who knows freaking Chinese!" Sora barked.

"Mulan knows english, you idiot!" Joshua snapped. Sora furrowed his brows and winced in remembrance. When Joshua scowled and stomped back within the estate, Sora scrambled up and followed, still squelching from the falling rain overhead. He thought he noticed a cricket bound behind him through the grass, but he lost track of it. Soon he was inside the hole in the wall again, whipping around feverishly, hoping he would not wake Mulan's family. When Joshua reached his side, Sora suggested they split up.

"Fuck, no," Joshua hissed. "Every time we split up, something goes wrong."

"Well..."

"Okay, something goes more wrong when we split up than when we travel together."

Just then, a horse neighed from the stables. Joshua and Sora stared at each other through the rain with widening glances. A black stallion with a white belly and startling blue eyes tore from the stable gates and bounded through the estate wall's entrance with a slight, armored being on its back. Soon, it was gone. Sora and Joshua stared after its hoof prints aghast.

"Do you think that was..."

"Fuck you, Sora."

"Nuggets..."

Just as Sora contemplated crying, the candles within the main house blazed as its inhabitants hurried around calling someone's name, whispering and wailing in a language Sora could only pick bits and pieces from.

Where did she go?

The seal.

Mulan!

Oh, ancestors...

Sora and Joshua scrambled behind a tree outside the gates as a man hobbled on a cane outside. "Mulan!" he called in anguish, following the horse's hoof steps with fiery determination. As his foot slipped against a jutting rock, he gasped and fell, gaining a wail from the woman hurrying behind him. As she gathered him in her arms, he cried against her shoulder. It took everything in Sora not to go over and give him a hug. He decided that a random, crossdressing stranger who wanted a cuddle would do more harm in this situation than good. The man and woman traipsed inside the main house together, followed by an older woman with a lantern attached to a staff. She murmured something out loud. Then, she disappeared as well, and all the lights except one flickered off.

"Shit," Joshua groaned, wiping the rain from his sopping brow. As he stood, Sora bit his lip and stared over the estate's back, towards the pavilion with the black stones. Something was nagging at him...

"Sora," Joshua said flatly. "Let's go. We either start tracking her or we pretend to be peasants and get information from the family."

"Whatever works for you," Sora muttered without listening. He yelped when his shoulder was wrenched back.

"Sora!" Joshua commanded. "Start fucking taking these missions seriously or I swear, I'll make sure you never see a gummi ship again! You are not going to ruin my grade because you're too childish to follow directions."

"I'm not childish!" croaked Sora. Joshua scowled. Then he muttered for him to wait while he talked to the family. "It's going to take ages to find her without information. Maybe I can squeeze something out of them." He snapped his fingers and pointed to the stable. "You stay hidden under the hay in there-"

"I don't want to sit in horse poop-"

"You stay hidden under the hay in there while I talk to the family. I will come get you when I am ready to go. Clear?"

"Well, I don't really..."

"CLEAR?"

"...Clear."

Sora stuck his tongue out as Joshua strolled to the front door. Then he scrambled to the stable, wrinkling his nose as he shuffled inside and plopped down on the hay. As soon as he sat, something squeaked up at him. He yelped and jumped. Beneath the hay glistened a shaking, purple cricket. Sora "awed" as he glanced down at it, tickling its stomach as it shimmied up to him.

"You an outcast, too, little guy?" he cooed. The cricket looked almost melancholy. Sora's heart broke a little as its feelers drooped depressingly low. He scooped it up in his hands and nuzzled it to his cheek. "It's okay, buddy. Fellow outcast at your service. Nice to meet you. Name's Sora. Yours?"

The cricket responded by bounding from his grip and out the door. Sora gasped and faltered towards it, gritting his teeth as he remembered Joshua's warning. When the cricket peeped back through the gates in expectation, Sora groaned, cut his losses, and followed him. The creature bounded across the estate courtyard, past the magnolia tree through the hole in the wall, across the bridge, and up the stone steps to the pavilion, which now glowed an unearthly blue as purple smoke billowed from its tresses. Sora gasped as he glanced towards it, whispering for the cricket to come back to him. Was this the effect of a dark boil? Sora mustered every last bit of courage he could and dashed towards it, snapping for the cricket to return. When it draped itself along a hexagonal window sill indented in the pavilion's side, Sora hissed that it was way out of line.

"She gets it from your side of the family!" railed a bloated, nasal voice from inside the pavilion's walls. Sora ducked and bit his fist. When he glanced inside the open chamber, his eyes widened to saucers.

Upon every black stone sat a translucent, sea blue man or woman whose waist slipped down into a sort of mermaid tail without legs. They thrust their see-through necks towards each other in gesticulation, summoning random staffs, abaci, or even food without qualm.

"Not to mention, they'll lose the farm!" a man with a three pronged pitchfork warbled.

"My children never caused such trouble!" a thin, sharp woman railed from the other side. "They all became acupuncturists!"

"Well we can't all be acupuncturists."

"No! Your great granddaughter had to be a cross dresser!"

Suddenly the ghostly gathering erupted in a full on brawl. Translucent beings of all shapes and sizes punched, slapped, and whacked each other with ferocious swipes as a great spirit between them boomed for them to be silent.

"Let the guardian bring her back!" suggested one man.

"Awaken the most cunning!"

"No, the swiftest!"

"Send the wisest!"

"Silence!" boomed the center spirit again, causing the rest to quiet in curiosity.

"We must send the most powerful of all..." the great spirit rumbled, casting his gaze out the hexagonal pavilion window with stateliness. When the point of his finger fell upon Sora, the spirit screeched. Sora screeched back. When a red, serpentine face bounded between them, Sora shrieked and tumbled backwards, stopping himself just short of rolling down the hill into the carp pond again. As the dragon in the window stared down at him, the spirits murmured behind.

"Youth!" the voice of the largest spirit boomed. "Approach!"

"Knew I should've listened to Joshua..." Sora groaned, trudging into the pavilion entrance and standing before the spirits in dejection. They stared back with suspicion.

"Few humans encounter the spirit world," the center spirit growled. "Fewer live to tell the tale..."

"I was just looking for my cricket-"

"He doesn't look like a Fa!" whispered the nasal voiced spirit.

"He looks like a bandit!" hissed his companion.

"He's a cross dresser!" gasped another. Soon the spirits were arguing again, this time over what to do with the intruder. When Sora stamped his foot and summoned his key blade, they all shrieked and shrank, dipping behind their stones in terror.

"Enough, young man!" the center spirit boomed. "Didn't your mother tell you never to draw a weapon on a deceased ancestor?"

"Uh..." Sora gulped. "...No?"

"Why are you here?" the spirit demanded.

"I'm, I'm here to talk to Mulan!"

"Well, good luck with that," snorted a female spirit. "She's off to join the imperial army in her father's place."

"She's joining the imperial army?" Sora gasped. When he attempted leaving, the spirits stopped him.

"Are you going to save her?" they asked.

"Well, yeah," Sora snorted. "I'm a hero, for crying out loud."

The pavilion shook with ghostly laughter.

"Maybe you should join the army, too," snorted one spirit. "At least they'll make a man of you!"

"What the nut do you know-"

"Child," the center spirit gasped, pointing to him with wonder. "Are you Nomura Sora?"

Sora blinked in shock. Then he nodded.

"Mulan spoke of your courage to us," the center spirit whispered. "Spoke of your kindness to her after she escaped to that... school."

"If the school churns out people like him," muttered a voice behind, "I don't think it was an institution of moral means, if you catch my drift-"

"Sora, there has been a disturbance in our world," the center spirit whispered. "Dark spots have started appearing. Jiangshi and armored beings with the bodies of horses follow."

"Heartless?" Sora gasped. He nodded with vigor. "My weapon can defeat them."

"Go, then, Nomura Sora," the center spirit said, "go, awaken the great stone dragon. Ride it to Mulan. Mushu will follow. Save her, and you shall be rewarded by the ancestors."

"Cool. Summon stone dragon," Sora repeated, glancing out the window to the sculpture standing beside the river. Emboldened, he bowed, slipped from the temple, and sauntered towards it. Soon, two reptilian feet padded at his side.

"So, uh, Sora?" the little red dragon attached confirmed. Sora nodded. After the red dragon took full inventory of him, he nodded and held out his hand for Sora to shake. "Mushu," the reptile greeted. "Nice to meet you. You know how to summon a stone dragon?"

"I have an idea," Sora grinned, gripping his key blade tightly in his hand. "Dragons like fire, right?"

"Hell, man, I don't know, I just spit it every once in a while-"

"Then let's find out," Sora crooned, reclaiming the devil may care grin he had first tried on last year as he sauntered down the stone steps, past the bridge, and to the stone dragon's side, its frozen snarl a reflection of Sora's innermost desires. His face fell with grim determination as he examined it from all sides, squinting against the horizon's dawning eastern glow. Then, he backed ten feet away, told Mushu to hide, and centered his key blade and closed his eyes.

"Ancestors," he whispered, "great stone dragon of Mulan. Aid me. Show me what I'm made of. Come forth!" he bellowed. Then, gritting his teeth, he flung his eyes open, roared "ignite!" and watched in awe as seven balls of fire erupted around the stone dragon's base. As he watched them, he screeched in delight, jumping up and down.

"Mushu!" he cried. "I did it! I finally aimed right!"

As the ignite spell erupted into a full on flair, a sickening, exploding sound erupted behind Sora's back. Sora was catapulted off the ground and back into the pond. When he burst to the surface and dodged a hurtling stone, he stared towards where the stone dragon had once stood in confusion. Then he spotted its head flying through the air to the forest beyond the estate. As it landed with a distant thud, he felt his knees go weak.

"Oh, you did not just do what I think you did," Mushu drawled behind him. Sora whimpered. Hiding his key blade and sloshing back up the stone steps, he hunkered down and listened as the spirits in the pavilion receded.

"It is near dawn," the center spirit said. "I see by the purple smoke in the sky that the great dragon has taken flight. Now, we wait in rest." With that, the blue haze disappeared, the sun rose, and Sora was alone once more. Groaning, he slumped against the pavilion side and tore his fingers through his hair. When he felt something putter down beside him, he peeped one eye open.

On one side of him sat a dejected Mushu. On the other sat the cricket, equally glum. Sora stared forward and slumped as well. When he saw a bobbing blond head burst out from the hole in the wall and fling past the magnolia blossoms, his stomach sunk lower. Joshua blazed forward like hell on wheels, teeth gritted and curls flinging madly over his back. When he spied the strange assortment of creatures clamoring around Sora's sides, he scoffed and set his hands on his hips, reaching a distance ten feet before them before he asked what the hell was going on.

"Well, stranger," Mushu greeted. "Mr. Dumbass No-who-ha here just exploded Fa Mu Lan's great temple guardian. Now she gon' go to war without a damn dragon. She gon' die. I can't do a damn thing about it. Fa Mu Lan gon' die. Then I'm gon' die. Oh, lord..." he collapsed against the pavilion side and hyperventilated. Sora rubbed his slim back. The cricket crooned and snuggled against Sora's leg. Sora patted him as well. Joshua stifled a howl.

"We're going," he hissed. "Mulan's family said she's-"

"Going to join the imperial army," Sora responded, jumping up. "I just heard it from the ancestors. They said there are dark boils with weird new heartless coming out of them disrupting the spirit world."

Joshua blinked in surprise. Then he cocked his head to Mushu and asked what he was. Mushu jumped up immediately to introduce himself.

"Oh, I'm just-"

"I think he's like the ancestor awakener or something-"

"Well that's, um, well, that doesn't really catch the complexity of my line of work-"

"Do you know where Mulan is?" Joshua asked. When Mushu nodded Joshua added, "How well do you know her?"

"Hell, I been around before she was even born, man," the dragon responded in a snort. Joshua nodded and wrenched him up by the neck, trudging ahead without qualm as the reptile struggled under his grip. Sora gasped, collected Mulan's cricket, and followed, commanding Joshua to put Mushu down.

"We can all save Mulan together!" Sora insisted. "The dark boils are here for a reason! Maybe if we join the army and see where they're going, we'll find out what to do next!"

"Our mission is to find Mickey," Joshua growled.

"But if this world is going to war, wouldn't Mickey want to be a part of that?" asked Sora. "Wouldn't he want to save it?"

Joshua faltered in thought, releasing his grip on Mushu. In an instant the dragon scampered and hid behind Sora's back. Sora took a bold step forward.

"Joshua, we're stuck for two weeks anyway. What's a few weeks more? A lot of physical arts originated in this world. If I go through boot camp, maybe I'll become a better warrior. I'll learn to aim. I'll become stronger. I'll know the language. I won't be a pain in your neck!"

"Sora, you want to stay here so you can do a boot camp?" Joshua scoffed. Sora stared at him with determination. Joshua stared back, ponderous. Then, face smoothing over with a grin, he nodded.

"Fine," he chirped. "We'll join the army. Study the heartless. Look for Mickey. Save Mulan."

"Great," Sora breathed in delight. Joshua turned to Mushu and bowed. "I apologize for grabbing you. I was under duress." Then he turned for the woods. "I'm afraid we need to leave now, or Mulan's family will figure out Sora destroyed her ancestral statue and have us arrested. Can you lead the way, Mushu?"

Mushu glanced around in shock, looking over his shoulder before pointing to himself. "Me?" he squeaked. "Me... lead the way?"

When no one objected, he yipped and flipped through the air. "Oh, yeah, baby!" he cried, kicking and punching ahead of him. Then he slithered up Sora's back and sat atop his head, pointing past the forest with the gummi ship towards the army camp they had passed on their way to landing. "Let's get ready to save China!"

Joshua snorted. Sora hurried forward in excitement. He was about to join a real, live army fighting a real war. He would learn martial arts, Chinese, and military tactics, but most of all, he would finally learn what it meant to be a man. Or at least how to act like one.

~X~

A/N: Please follow, fav, and review! I can't reiterate how much the support means. I seriously love hearing from you guys, even if you just leave a guest review.