Right, so I'm trying to uphold my promise of as many updates as I can possibly manage, given the fact that I now have almost twice the ammount of homework that I had last year. I'm really sorry if I leave readers in suspense for a week, but I swear that that's the longest I'm going to try to go without an update. Anyway...you don't want to listen to me crapping on do you? Of course not! You want the juicy story about the beloved BHK, here known as Aori (but to me, always Aori-chan...please don't ask why...-.-;;;)! So without further ado...

Disclaimer: Think for a moment...if I owned Kingdom Hearts why would I be writing this fanfiction? I'd be in a Japanese skyscraper getting flooded with fanmail! Yet alas, it is not so...T-T

So...on with the fic!

Meeting

"In life there are meetings which seem like a fate."-- Lucile, Lord Lytton.

"Hello-o!" she exclaimed, waving a hand in front of my face. "Twilight Town to Aori, anyone there? Hello? Am I just talking to myself?" I looked at her blankly, not quite able to process the information laid out in front of me. Maybe I would see the bigger picture...just not yet. But for now...

"Where are we?" I asked her.

"Finally! We're in Twilight Town. How can you not know? I mean, how else could you have got here if you didn't know what it was called?"

"Easily, apparently."

She sighed exasperated. "So...how did you get here anyway?" I shrugged. I had absolutely no idea. I didn't even know how much time had passed since...since I had first truly been awake. Since I could really remember something. Maybe if I went along with the way this was going, the current would carry me somewhere. Somewhere with answers.

"Have I lost you again?" the girl asked, bending down so we were on the same eye level. "Well, I shouldn't leave someone I've just met on the ground! You should come with me!"

I found myself looking into her eyes for the first time, finding myself almost drowning in a sea of blue-green. "Where?"

Her smile got wider. She must have been happy about the aspect of showing someone else where she lived.

"To our secret base, of course! Not even they come to disturb us." Her face became grave. "At least not yet. But," she continued, brightening again ,"it's so cool! You can see all of Twilight Town from there. Come on!" She grabbed my had and began to lead me, dashing to some unseed finish line at the end of the race. Who was she? And what was wrong with this town? There wasn't anyone on the streets. It seemed somehow empty without the crowds dashing off to various destinations day and night. And who were 'they'?

I'll ask her the questions when she's calmed down a bit.

"Here we are!" she said, stopping at the foot of the tower I had seen only a short time ago.

"You live here?" I couldn't help asking. It seemed improbable that someone as young as her could live here...although her parents could own it. Somehow that thought struck me as bitter. Parents?

"As long as we can," she said cheerfully. "No one here really cares what we do. No one even goes outside anymore. It's 'dangerous'."

"Dangerous?" I hadn't really seen anything to be afraid of apart from Twilight Town itself. But she wasn't listening anymore. Instead she was knocking on the door that towered over her like some sort of warped giant.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when someone answered the knocking with a gruff, but still young voice. "The shadow streaks across nothingness."

"And the light shines through the curtains."

"Come on in." With almost agonising slowness the door creaked inwards and we entered.

The door led almost directly on to stairs, curling too high to see the end. A small flash of green darted out of view in the corner of my eye, but other than that we were completely alone.

"The stairs won't climb themselves, you know!" the girl shouted, waving from about five steps up.

Sighing inwardly, I began to climb the stairs.

Note to self: cloaks are not the best thing to wear when climbing up stairs.

We had been climbing for what had felt like ages. I was breathing rather heavily by this time but that girl was breathing absolutely normally, as if we hadn't been climbing for ages and ages and ages and ages...

"Here we are!" she said, stopping so suddenly that I crashed into her. Sure enough, to the left of the stairs there was a small door. She pushed it open slowly, producing a small creaking sound. Stepping aside, she stretched her arm out, gesturing at the shabbily decorated room. "It's not much, but it's all we've got!"

She walked inside, and I followed tentativly after her. The room was actually quite large, I realised. The ceiling rested far above us, and crates containing various things were scattered everywhere. Despite that it had a strange feeling that I only vaguely remembered from another's memories. A feeling of home.

"Oh yeah! I have to introduce you to the others!" Sure enough, sitting on two upturned crates were two boys, once again around the same age as me. One of them was dressed in dark green army-type clothing, without any sleeves. His sandy blond hair was spiked, a little like mine. He was talking animatedly to the other, who was wearing a redshirt without sleeves on top of a white shirt.Hissmoothshoulder-length black hair swished slightly. As she spoke, they almost immediately stopped talking to look at her. But their gazes were quickly redirected at me and my strange attire. And who could blame them? If I was in their shoes I would probably be doing the same thing.

"Aori, this is Eirin," the boy in green ,"and Beni," the one in red. "Ah! I haven't introduced myself yet either! How rude of me. I'm Rinkei. Everyone, this is Aori. I found him."

It was as if someone had turned off a light. Their moods darkened. The boy in green began to shout. "You know how dangerous that is, Rinkei! Who knows what he's up to! It could be one of them in disguise! You could have endangered us all!" He took a deep breath, calming himself, but not by much, since I could still see his frame trembling with anger.

"Wouldn't he have already attacked her if he was one of them?" The other boy spoke in a voice that sounded like it was trying to calm his friend.

Eirin said nothing, but seemed to have stopped trembling. Suddenly he stood up and walked straight over to me, looking directly into my eyes, almost like he was trying to see inside of my soul. The action took me by surprise and I stumbled backwards. After what seemed like a small eternity he leaned away. I realised that I had been holding my breath, and breathed at last.

"We'll trust you," Eirin said. "But you'd better be careful. If you give us one reason not to trust you, then you're out of here. Like that!" he said, clicking his fingers in my face. And he stalked away, back to the crate.

"Eirin..." Rinkei called after him, almost like she was trying to make him calm down. It wasn't working. Upset, she walked slowly off to a crate of her own.

And silence reigned.

After a while conversation resumed, but no one tried to talk to me. There didn't seem to be any available crates either, so I just sat on the ground, watching them and looking around. I had taken to looking at the wall opposite, which was covered with gears of all shapes and sizes. Each gear pushed eachother to make the clock itself on the outside work. As they would until this place met its demise or they rusted and fell. And something told me that would be a small eternity in itself.

"Hey!" Rinkei said. I thought she was talking to one of the others, but when I blinked again, there she was, leaning down at me just like before. In her hands was clutched a crate. "Put these on. I told you you didn't have to go around in that bathrobe!" She smiled at her own joke. She shoved the crate upon me. "There's ascreen there." She stood up and pointed to an old wooden screen set in the corner.

"Thank you," was the only reply I could think of. However, her back was already facing me and she was too far away to hear my faint response.

I emerged from behind the screen. A mirror had been placed there. Despite the small spiderweb of cracks that adorned one corner, it was still usable.

I couldn't help gasping at my appearance. Someone that was, and yet was not me stared back. I didn't recognise the face. I had never seen it before. The blue eyes whithin the mirror stared back at me, mirroring my surprise. The blond hair spiked upwards, simmilar yet different to what I remembered. The small details were also off. This face was hardened slightly, not as free or as happy as what I remembered.

I sighed inwardly. I would just have to get used to things being different than how I remembered them.

Rinkei appeared from behind the mirror, leaning out and grinning. "You just have to love it! Put these on too!" She thrust a black and white checkered sweatband into my hand, along with two rings that might well have been sweatbands themselves. One black, one white. I put them on slowly, not wanting to disappoint Rinkei.

I had to admit that I liked what I wore now much more than the cloak. I woretrousers that werebaggy and grey at the bottom, but black near the top.A white jacket with half-sleeves and some black stitching was worn over a black shirt with a zip down the front. The collar curled outwards slightly, black and a little red as well. The zipper was rather like one of those shuriken...throwing stars that ninjas tend to use.

Ninja? Now where do I remember that from? But before I could remember, Rinkei shouted my name. "Aori! You're zoning out again! I know how we can solve that. We can go outside and walk around a bit. This place is so...dark. It drives me insane!"

"You know you shouldn't go outside! Who knows what will happen!" exclaimed Eirin.

"I'll be fine!"

"No you won't! I'll come with you to make sure."

"Aw...alright then." She pretended to be upset, but the fact that she was smiling broadly didn't help conceal her joy.

"I might as well come too," Beni said, standing up at last.

"Come on, then!"

For the millionth time today, I sighed inwardly and resigned myself to running down a long, long, long flight of stairs.

Meeting: End

I can now apologise for the kind of rubbish chappie.Sadly it's also necessary! So, again, I apoligise. I'm sorry! Anyway, without further procrastination, here are the review replies!

Crisis Haylo: Good to know you like it :) And I definately agree. Somehow the BHK's mysteriousness makes him rather attractive...I MUST KNOW MORE! And I'll try to have Axel appear again, but sadly no guarantee. Then again, I haven't thought of every little thing that's going to happen, so there's still time to add him in again. Come to think of it, it would be pretty cool having him coming back at some point! Now the question is, how...?

IceKitty: Wonderful to know that you liked it too :D It's so good to know that somewhere I have some fans (if you would call yourselves that...). And it's sweet that you think that more people should review :) All I can do is hope. But I'm definately happy that I have reviews in the first place. Always a good thing...

Stuck in the Shadows: Sorry that I didn't reply to your first review! I'll try to put more detail whithin the fanfic, but sometimes vague is the way to go! It means that I can draw things out slowly (but not too slowly, I hope...). And you're right...that is scary O-O But I am pretty sure that it's a coincidence...

Right, I think that's everything...if you want to know what the names in this chappie mean, just say so in your review and if people request it, I'll put it up with the next chapter. But you must review, or I won't be able to tell what you want!

Until next time!