A/N: Hmmm... been quite a while since I last updated. It's going to be weekly, you see. So sorry, but I'm kinda thinking whether I should post two chapters at once. Anyway, I've gotten fed up with the stupid posters; I'll try finishing the game in Proud Mode. Heaven help me with Xigbar and his hyperactive lances. Oh yeah, I'd really follow with the Trinity fic if I were you. You'd understand this story better. So it's kinda compulsory (I'm a sneaky little git, aren't I?).

Summary: They think and feel as they can only remember. Does he really love her, or is it only because he loves her? How much of one's emotions can be borrowed?

Disclaimer: So yeah, I don't own Kingdom Hearts like the million other fanfic writers out there. Unless Tetsuya Nomura's writing somewhere here.

II: Borrowed

"Hey, Nam, wait up!"

"You should've woken up earlier. Just because we can get anywhere in a second doesn't mean you can get up, like, five minutes before we leave."

"C'mon, sorry already!" Roxas made one of those huge puppy-eyed looks he was notorious in the Organization for as he followed the blonde-haired Nobody out of the Hall of Empty Melodies.

Axel rolled his eyes as he leaned on the balcony, unseen by the people below. Not that he was spying (only that tattletale Saïx did that) , he was just... observing. Observing was something Axel was good at; it was handy when you're part of a group of thirteen heartless people. (Were they even considered people? That was something Vexen tried to explain in one of his unbelievable lectures during meetings. The boredom, and so Demyx, without fail, always disrupted those kind of long-winded meetings.)

Thirteen heartless people...and one memory witch.

Oh no, he wasn't the one who said that, it was that mummified guy called DiZ. Some of Xaldin's snipers spread the word that this DiZ guy was really Xemnas' Other's mentor. (Huh?) In short, the guy Xehanort's Heartless got his name from; Ansem the Wise. And so he figured not so wise because he was destroyed by Kingdom Hearts, underestimating the power of the most colossal heart in existence. Shouldn't the term most colossal be a clue?

He sighed at the surrealness of it all.

Which, brings Organization XIII (okay, plus one memory witch, remember that) to mind.

He'd very much like to go out himself and find Sora and ask him why the hell he brought them back. Was guilt such a strong feeling?

How would he know? He's a Nobody, after all. Nobodies can't feel, they can only remember how to feel.

And again, which brings us back to a certain memory witch. Oh no, he wasn't obsessed with Naminé Dalmasca (borrowing her Other's name? He deemed it insulting.), he was just... wondering what she was doing (and what she was going to do). To repeat for further emphasis, Nobodies can only remember how to feel, and as far as he knew, Naminé knew she was feeling Kairi's feelings for Sora who was now Roxas. (So he sighed, it was a bit complicated, how the heart works with memory.)

And Roxas has Sora's feelings for Kairi, who's Naminé's Other.

Go Axel. Try understanding something you don't have.

Roxas was his best friend. (Friends, not that perverted thing everyone else thinks He was the only one that made him feel like he had his own heart. So naturally he'd want him back as his best friend. (and it also helped having someone to watch your back when Larxene's chucking knives at you) Go figure.

Minus a memory witch.

I'm not jealous!

----------

"What? Is there someting wrong with my face?" Roxas asked the brunette beside him.

She blushed deeply and hastily tore away her (strangely glassy) gaze from him. "S-sorry."

He shrugged as he turned to glance at the wall clock. Just a few more minutes of Worlds History. Just a few more minutes of enduring stares from his classmates. Well, for the girl population. If looks could kill (and those looks some of the guys directed at him were frightening) he would've been dead at least a month ago.

The blonde boy on his other side snickered as he elbowed Roxas in the ribs, pointing discreetly behind him.

"Stop it, Tidus," he hissed, knowing that he was pointing at the group of girls giggling behind him. It was a miracle that the teacher still hadn't noticed.

"Lover boy," Tidus shot back, snickering again.

"Shut it, or Yuna'll get an earful."

That shut him up. (not counting the occasional malicious grin.)

"Class, the principal told me to remind you of the Halloween Dance this coming Sixth Day," the professor, a wizened man named Radius, legendary for his impeccable memory, said. "Partners are allowed, but no forcing someone to be yours." (and for some unknown reason the prof glanced at Roxas.)

Whispers broke out all over. Roxas' blood ran cold with the number of times he heard his name whispered. The bell rung, loud, clear, and blessedly on time.

"Starts at six, ends at exactly one. Costumes are required. Class dismissed."

He stuffed his textbook into his book bag hurriedly, then followed Tidus outside (carefully avoiding anyone else's eyes) into the crowd that was present every dismissal. He tried staring straight ahead, ignoring the high-pitched giggles behind him.

"What're you going as?" Tidus asked him, snapping Roxas out of his evasive maneuvering.

"No idea... you?"

"Kinda thinking I'll go as a pirate..."

A grin spread across his face. "So.. you gonna ask Yu--" He was cut short by a very violent foot stomping on his own.

"Er, hi Yuna," He choked out, seeing the girl in question standing in front of him.

"Is everything okay?" She said softly (no surprise--she was always soft-spoken) as she peered up at him, her one long bead earring (it wasn't as heavy as it looked, she said once) clinking. "You look like someone just stepped on your foot or something."

"Yeah, everything's fine... Tidus here..." another grin spread across his face as a (decidedly evil) idea came to mind.

"Hey, Yuna," the blonde grinned (no doubtedly thinking that she's the most beautiful girl he's ever seen, hey, he told Roxas so), scratching his head.

"Yes, Tidus.. you feeling a bit.. feverish? You look really red, you know. You might want to step out of stuffy places like---"

"Tidus," Roxas cut across her, "You wanted to ask Yuna something, right?"

Yuna smiled. "Really..?" (Roxas had the feeling, okay, remembering the feeling that Yuna knew what this was about.)

Tidus shot him a look that could melt steel. He grinned back as he spun on his heels and walked as fast as he possibly could without looking that he really was walking as fast as he could.

That...was kinda fulfilling. He laughed out loud, ignoring people's stares (so what, he was used to those now) as he walked to the place (actually, it was the elementary department's treehouse) where he and Naminé agreed to meet and portal out together (people might freak out if they were seen appearing from apparently nowhere). He and Naminé... well, they were...Nobodies born of two people who loved each other. So naturally, they would love each other too. But Naminé had, actually, fallen hard for Riku Alcaia. Not that Nobodies couldn't feel, that wasn't what bugged him the most, but it was the fact that Naminé had fallen for somebody else than him, when they were the ones who were supposed to be with each other.

As Vexen said, the heart is a complicated thing.

"Hi!"

He stopped walking, startled. Huge mistake. He was soon surrounded by girls. What was it with girls in this school!

"You're Roxas, right?"

"For a transferee, he sure is hot!"

"He looks just like Sora!" (said comment was accompanied by high-pitched squeals).

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"I bet that girl Naminé's his girlfriend?"

"Already taken? Oh man!"

"Uh," Roxas said loudly. "Nam's not my girl." he shifted his weight from left to right. "Do you gu--girls need something?" That started a cacophony of voices. It was driving him nuts.

"Hey, Roxas!" a familiar guy's voice called. The girls parted right down in the middle as they stared at Riku almost reverently.

"Whoa."

"Could you...lay off him for a bit?" Riku asked a random girl. "Thanks very much, Gabrielle."

Gabrielle looked ready to faint. "O-of course, R-r-riku."

"Jeez... they looked like they were ready to eat me or something," Roxas sighed with relief, staring at the girls' retreating backs. He had started to regret leaving Tidus with Yuna; he could've used some backup with those rabid people.

"Don't worry, they'll stop sooner or later." Riku laughed, shaking his platinum hair out of his eyes (That was something Riku was very touchy about, never talk about his hair. Ever. He learned it the hard way.) as he walked with Roxas. "Where're you going?"

"Uh," he paused. He couldn't tell Riku that he was going to portal out sooner or later, and The Castle that Never Was was impossible to reach on foot (for humans, anyway). "I was going to wait for Naminé.. we go home together." That was technically true.

"Home..."

Roxas hated lying.

----------

The air smelled of burned something.

Which meant either two things.

Demyx was again attempting to cook unbelievably complicated recipes. Or that Axel had just passed through.

Larxene wrinkled her nose. The smell of a traitor. Maluxia had told her that. The little (okay so fine, Axel wasn't so little anyore) bastard turned on their alliance by releasing the memory witch Naminé, who was central to their plans. And that happened after the Keyblade Wielder killed her.

She died because she trusted Axel. That pissed her off.

Superior had granted them amnesty, all of them, and they started all over (or so he said). With thirteen Nobodies, emotionless and morality-less, conspiracy and violence were very much common.

She chucked a kunai at some random door she passed. The Castle That Never Was still wasn't finished, after all this time. Some of the Dusks had refused to work (she even saw a group of those white jumpsuits rallying outside the Superior's door) and demanded more rest hours (Like Nobodies could feel angry and be demanding). A few light sabers aimed at the right places quelled said rebellion and resulted in more than a few scorched Dusks.

Should she be feeling pity? No. She was notorious as the most merciless when it comes to pain. And when she gets her hands on Axel, he'll know why.

She leaned over the railing of Naught's Skyway and stared down (and when they say down, they really mean endless void of the World That Never Was), imagining she was throwing Axel over the edge. She grinned. That's why they call her a sadist. The random thoughts she has always have something to do with pain. She walked on (why was she walking, anyway? She could just portal anywhere) into the Hall of Empty Melodies, and spotted the very object of her disdain.

"Axeeel," she said in a little singsong voice (Demyx really was a master of annoyance) and grinned at the expression on the pyromaniac's face. "I'm going to kill youuu." She aimed no less than four knives at his face. Not surprisingly, he portaled out.

"Coward!" she called. "Scared of a girl?"

"You know," she froze," when you go and kill someone, you don't usually announce that you're going to."

"Well, at least you know who killed you!"

"What? Is that supposed to make me sad or something?" A chakram flew past her head, missing her face by inches (and burning the top of her nose in the process). She spun around and threw knives at him, following his footsteps in a wide circle.

"When I kill you we'll be even. You are so dead!"

"I didn't do anything; you just pissed Sora off badly. You kinda dug your own grave."

She cast a lightning bolt, singeing only the back of Axel's coat as he ran across the balcony.

"Shut up! You killed me and you know it! You traitor! We had an alliance!"

"You and Marluxia were turning on the Organization! You got what you deserved!"

"Hah! You admit it! Killer!"

"Aren't we all?"

----------

Plick. The lead broke, smearing the white paper of the sketchpad. Nothing that an eraser can't fix.

Haha. Nothing that an eraser can't fix.

Naminé, you're pathetic.

The blonde sighed as she drew her hair to one side and continued drawing. She couldn't concentrate; Roxas' face kept popping up in her mind. Nobodies don't have feelings to hurt, right?

Then why was she almost ­dying of nervousness now? (and why was she even feeling nervous?)

"Drawing again?"

She jerked her head at the boy in question, leaning against the doorframe of the treehouse (chosen in a momentary lapse of sanity).

"Um," She hated DiZ right now for telling her and not telling Roxas.

"What? Something bothering you?" he sat (more like collapsed) beside her. "Fanboys kissing up again?" (he grinned at that, perverted person that he is.)

"Actually, something is bothering me." She averted her gaze from Roxas' cerulean eyes; she might not be able to do this if she didn't.

"Something about us, right?" he said quietly, his face wearing that look he was famous in the Organization for.

Oh, why hadn't DiZ told Roxas at least before he had merged with Sora? She took a deep breath.

"What do you see me as, Roxas Hikari?"

He bit his lip. "Naminé... You're... you're..." he looked away.

Do Nobodies really have no feelings to hurt? Well, if she had a heart, it would be breaking right about now.

"Listen. You love me, don't you? Roxas, please..."

He nodded weakly, the blonde shards of hair bobbing up and down.

"...and I love you too, but because we're only borrowing our Other's feelings." She said all that in one breath, praying that Roxas would not go all violent on her (Organization XIII members seemed to do that a lot). "DiZ told me that. I'm from Sora. You're from Kairi. They love each other, and because of their feelings, we love each other too."

"So we're just feeling borrowed emotions?" he sighed belatedly. "I..."

"Some things are better left unsaid, but this one really has to get out. We can't go on living borrowed lives, Roxas."

He stood up and Naminé moved back. "So what can we do, huh? We're Nobodies, if you haven't noticed; we weren't even supposed to exist, we're just a huge, stupid mistake!" He yelled, breathing hard.

"Everything happens for something---"

"But we're nothing, Naminé! Nothing at all..." he sank back down beside her, head down.

"Roxas..."

"It's okay, Nam. I'll try not to love you because I'm only Sora's Nobody."

"Ro---"

"But promise me we're still friends, okay?" he grinned.

She stared at him. He was having one of those violent mood swings Sora always had. Burning mad one second, happy as hell the next. Who cares, she thought. As long as he knew, well, that lifted off the guilt. (and again, she asked herself: could she even feel?)

"You're the weirdest Nobody I know, Roxas. Of course we're still friends."

"Buddies."

"Best friends."

"Study mates."

"Advisers to each other."

"You're still my partner at the Halloween Dance, right? Don't leave me at the mercy if those...those maniacs they call girls here."

"I'm a girl, Roxas."

"Please please please," he made one of those huge puppy-eyed looks.

She laughed. "Just don't get me killed or something."

He laughed too. "As if anyone would try."

Laughter is a good thing, Naminé decided. Even if it's only borrowed.

----------

Da-dun! Roxaminé guys, spare me the lashing! Will Roxas and Naminé stay friends (only friends) forever? Keep up with the chapters then!

Also, I decided to be evil today, so I'm waiting for a certain number of reviews before posting the next chapter. Trinity works that way too. So please, please, review! Flamers, go, take your best shot; don't worry, I won't send you death threats or anything.

Go! Read! Review! You get a free cookie (or tons, it depends on your server). See ya!