A/N: Hey! It's me again, updating this ficcy. Trinity has so much of a gloomy mood at this point in time that I decided to make this Nobody's Perfect chapter a bit happy...and violent. Hey, Organization XIII and violence go hand in hand, right?

Summary: It's the little things that hurt the most. Between love and duty is a decision he will regret for the rest of his existence.

Disclaimer: If I wanted to I could bore the hell out of you by listing all the reasons why I should own Kingdom Hearts. There.

IV: An Ordinary Day

"I want to see your hands."

Axel rolled his eyes; Saïx was such a stickler for gestures. He grudgingly held his hand out and kept himself from using it to throttle Marluxia as the latter shook hands with him. Not as if Marluxia really wanted to; the glare he shot Axel made him flinch. Badly.

"There, Saïx." Marluxia said loudly. "You happy now?"

"As long as I don't hear you two killing each other, fine with me," the berserker said irritably before portalling out of the corridor into the Castle's Left wing, where numbers one to seven resided.

Honestly, Axel didn't think Saïx's hearing was that sharp, thank you very much. He was just getting started on his Kill-Flower-Boy campaign when a very annoyed Number Seven forced them apart. Well, true to his reputation as Xemnas' little tattletale, he threatened to tell the Superior about their supposed disobedience of the truce the whole Organization agreed on. Forget Castle Oblivion; the simple statement that comprised a very, very controversial rule for living (yeah, as if Nobodies really lived) in the Castle That Never Was.

"Stupid, stupid truce," he could hear the once-lord of Castle Oblivion mutter as he portalled to somewhere Axel didn't care to know, the singe on the back hem of his coat obvious and glaring. He grinned; a very well timed Firaga was sometimes your best friend. And those sakura petals caught fire really easily. Grinning even more widely he walked down the hall, wondering what else he could do here.

The door nearest to his left burst open and he was confronted by a vision of yellow. He could hear lightning crackle as a seething Number Twelve stormed out of her room..

Good. Larxene's back.

"You!" she snarled, throwing a kunai in his direction (which he dodged; teasing Larxene required perfect reflexes). "Out of my frickin' way!"

"What's the hurry, Larx? (This time he dodged a Thundaga, the spell searing the floor where he had been standing seconds ago)" he snickered, standing in the middle of the corridor and effectively blocking her path.

"Some wise guy thought it would've been funny to steal my stuff," she hissed, showering him with kunais as she attempted to get past him. "That idiot Demyx chose the wrong person to annoy, I swear, he's dead!"

Axel forced down the smile that was threatening to work itself into his face. He knew what she was so angry about. What? He had just...borrowed her Marquis de Sade novel for a bit of...light reading. (So fine, he wanted to give her a dose of her own medicine when it came to pain).

"You look like you've got a dirty little secret, Axel. Wha---" The look on Larxene's face was priceless when she realized who the culprit was. "You!"

He tried to look innocent but miserably failed. A grin spread across his face again as he summoned both his chakrams, spinning them in his fingers. "Larxy Larxy she's gonna kill me..." he half-sang out, dodging a blizzard of kunais (really, how many of those things has she got up her sleeve?) that was aimed at his head. The kunais hit the wall behind him instead, the golden blades lodging themselves into the marble walls. Yes, Larxene was that strong.

"My book!" She screeched as she dodged the chakram he threw (darn missed her!) and counterattacked with no less than a dozen kunais.

"Who cares about some stupid book, Larx?"

"You are a dead Nobody, Axel."

He rolled his eyes. How could he be dead if he wasn't even living?

"That's the stupidest threat I've ever heard!" he laughed as the encounter turned into a full-fledged battle between fire and lightning.

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Roxas collapsed on his white bed, throwing his book bag into the other side of his room. He watched it hit the wall and slide down the wall with a loud thump. Man, Destiny Academy was working him hard.

He stared at the white (Nobody-symbol-engraved) ceiling, thinking about the girl he had just laughed with before portalling back to the World That Never Was. Kairi Dalmasca was a fun girl to be with. There was something about her that drew him.

Sora's feelings for Kairi. Not his.

And there was Sora. He had never seen such a drastic mood swing in his entire existence. The morning after the dance, where he saw with his own two eyes Sora in a very distraught situation, the Wielder had returned to his normal goofy self. There was no indication of whatever had transpired on the eve of his return to Destiny Islands. The only noticeable difference was Kairi was studiously ignoring him. Roxas had talked to Riku about the psychotic (no-one changes emotions that fast; at least, no-one normal) Keyblade Master; however, the platinum-haired boy only shrugged and explained that the brunette rarely talked whenever they were home. That was a huge change, Sora always liked to have his presence felt in the loudest way humanly possible.

He did take Roxas aside and asked him how Organization XIII was doing, and whether they had plans to kill him the moment he set foot inside the Castle's gleaming white halls. Of course, he couldn't guarantee that he'd stay alive if the others caught as so much as the sight of his yellow-sneakered foot. Sora just shrugged and said that he was happy that they were alright.

Would you be happy if your would-be murderers were all good and fine?

Strange, how Sora's heart worked. Wait, he didn't even know how Sora's heart worked, in spite of sharing it with him for a little over a year.

He snapped out of his thoughts when a very loud, very violent something crashed inside the room beside his.

Oh boy. Axel and Larx are at it again.

He was glad he had never been chosen for this Castle Oblivion thing; from what he had heard, most of his fellow Nobodies had a very...bitter working relationship. Of course it could be seen everytime Marluxia, Larxene and Axel saw each other. As far as he knew Vexen was involved in it too, he just declared that the fighting was just too 'childish' for him to take part in. For all he knew Vexen was just scared of fighting.

It kind of sounded like the walls were actually cracking from whatever the two were doing. Didn't they take Xemnas' truce seriously?

Who does?. Organization XIII was actually even more violent than this since time immemorial. Roxas found himself on the sharp end of the weapons most of the Org more than once (one dozen times, more like), most probably because of the pranks he and Axel would usually pull. Xemnas' hair gel was just classic (and Marluxia's flowers came a close second---Demyx always took care of messing up Vexen's potions), he and the pyromaniac liked to pull that one at least twice every week.

What the hell...? It really sounded like the two were killing each other in the most violent way they could. Which was the usual order of things around here. Irritate the wrong Number and you could end up in the infirmary for the rest of your existence (or scrubbing Castle toilets, if you annoyed Xemnas enough). There was only one member he still hadn't gotten on the wrong side: Zexion. Well, that was understandable, Zexion wasn't exactly famous for his emotions.

He could hear a very mad Larxene's muffled exclamations (good thing they were muffled; some of the things she was screaming was almost too insulting to think about) through the wall separating his and hers' living quarters.

Screw the stupid truce.

He grinned as he summoned his dual Keyblades. Training was always good for you. Especially if your housemates are heartless, frustrated beings. Roxas tightened his grip on the Oathkeeper and Oblivion as he portalled out to join the fun.

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Zexion looked up from his Sudoku puzzle and sighed, setting down his pencil (chewed at one end because of one impossible box). Such chaos (plaster floated down from the now-shaking ceiling) was commonplace once, but now... after almost two years of silence it was distracting.

He looked around the library and watched random books fall out of their shelves. Sometimes the Castle was more like a mental asylum than a haven for Nobodies like him.

His favorite room in the Castle was the Castle Library and Archives, during times which Larxene was either absorbed in reading or when she wasn't in a violent streak. Actually he preferred anywhere that silence reigned, because he always worked better in silence, or more accurately, in hidden silence. That's why he's termed the Cloaked Schemer, right?

He ran a hand through his bangs that covered half of his face, trying to ignore the scent of Axel and Larxene coming from the floor above. Now that he thought about it, number Thirteen had just portalled in between the two. What was up with those people? Castle Oblivion was now just a memory. Well, for him, a very unpleasant one, though he did his best to conceal said fact.

He always concealed what he felt. Thus Demyx's label 'The Emo Kid'. An ironic label. He was stuck with twelve other heartless beings in this excuse for a Castle. Of course you had to protect yourself. And so that's how Zexion came up with the emotionless image.

Although there were times that he'd gladly some fellow members. He watched tiny little pieces of cement land on his puzzles, knowing that his hair was most likely speckled with plaster right now.

Huh?

He noticed a pile of neatly folded clothing nearly buried under a slew of hardbound books (Hearts and the Heartless 4th Edition). His brows drew together, trying to remember why the heck it was there.

Oh, yeah. Naminé had tried to cram the whole night earlier for some examination she had to take (her voice still rang in his ears for hours after she had left), and she had seriously failed, screaming at Zexion for not waking her up when she had dozed off behind the piles of books on the table. He had just shrugged at her and went back to the white pieces of paper in front of him.

A very loud crash sounded from above and the mythril crystal chandelier jolted dangerously above his head.

He glanced at the folded clothes. The pillars behind him was slowly being populated by hairline cracks. He gathered the girl's clothes up and portalled out, keeping the pencil and the Sudoku puzzle firmly clamped in his mouth.

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A shudder rocked the walls of the Hall of Empty Melodies, causing Xigbar to jerk back and miss his favorite target. Demyx whooped with glee as he rose from his crouching position and removed his hands covering his head. The boy retaliated with a deluge of ice-cold water that drenched him, in spite of his black coat. He's gonna kill the Nobody who told him this was waterproof.

Xigbar swore loudly as another crash broke his concentration, making the bullet that was aimed for Demyx's head swerve right to the gargoyle statue behind him. A water form then crashes its sitar over his head. He winced (no matter how Demyx tried to tell him it was just water, it still hurt) and fired off another round, none of which hit the intended stupid target.

"AXEL! LARXENE!" he bellowed as he portalled out, leaving a very happy (water-soaked but not so much bullet-riddled) Demyx behind him.

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Vexen's brows were knitted in concentration. This potion required concentration. Not because the Castle would go up in flames if he mixed this one wrong (that other one did that, the one that almost found its way into Roxas' hands), but because of the fact that Xemnas was almost breathing down his neck as he watched him.

"Superior, I would advise you to stay back a bit, the potion's a very corrosive one." Not that it wasn't true (it was acid), but he didn't like those orange eyes trained so much on him. Those eyes sometimes glowed with a manic...he didn't know.

"Oh. Sorry, Vex--"

Crash.

A sudden explosion startled him, making him drop the test tube he was holding onto the gleaming (everything here gleamed) white laboratory table. The glass shattered, and the potion's contents scattered along with it. His eyes widened as most, if not all of the acid found its way onto the Superior's black coat, which had now started to hiss and burn.

"Eight and twelve." Xemnas said quietly. Whenever he said something without the melodramatic effect, it meant only one thing.

Superior's pissed off. VERY pissed off.

"Continue with the experiment," he said before vanishing into strands of darkness, his tone of voice ominous. Vexen shrugged. There have been incidents like this even before the...event at Castle Oblivion. Those incidents were much more violent, particularly the one involving Xemnas' hair gel. He highly doubted the Superior would actually kick someone out. But then again (Axel's face flashed in his mind), hoping couldn't hurt, right?

He hummed as he cleaned up the shards of glass, carefully stepping over the places where the acid had eaten away holes in the floor.

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Naminé bit (more like chewed) her fingernails nervously as she sat on the bleachers, watching other auditionees strut their stuff. Why did she accept the invitation for tryouts? She had no aptitude for dancing (none that she knew of, she never had danced before), and found absolutely no point in shouting out cheers for people who couldn't actually hear them (blitz players play underwater). Well, some of them could, but in a very muffled sort of way, Riku told her. Well, he was a varsity player.

She smiled at the memory. Riku had actually walked her here to the gym hall, giving her advice on staying alive in the cheerleading circle of rabid girls (and from the way they reacted when they saw her and Riku walk through the double doors together, they acted like rabid girls, even if for just three seconds.) She could swear something bad had happened between him and Kairi, but she didn't really care, as long as Riku continued to...well...be with her. She quickly buried her face in her hands, trying to hide the blush in her cheeks, giggling.

"Laughing for no apparent reason? You're turning into one of us."

Her eyes widened at the familiar voice and she looked over her shoulder. Zexion's one eye was crinkled with amusement as he stared at her. Wait. Zexion was actually happy?

WAIT. HOW DID HE GET IN HERE?

"Zexion did you just portal in here!" she hissed, jumping down from where she was sitting. The blue-haired Nobody nodded his head. "Are you insane (he probably was)! Somebody could've seen you?"

"Well, nobody did," he snickered in reply. Naminé rolled her eyes before she could stop herself.

"Did you just make a joke?"

"Naminé, Naminé, I never joke about things," he sniggered. She stared at him.

"Are you losing your emotionless streak?"

"Maybe." He held out a paper bag. "Your gym clothes."

She gasped, she had forgotten about her clothes in the frantic whirlwind of studying in World's History she had done in the library last night. She'd never cram again, because she had almost failed the exam.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank---"

"Naminé! Who's this?" the head cheerleader asked, giving Zexion the once over. Naminé was silently thanking the fact that Zexion had not worn his Organization XIII coat, if he did, someone would start asking very awkward questions. Memory witch that she was, she couldn't tamper with someone who wasn't that close to Sora.

"Zexion." number Six said, crossing his arms.

More and more girls started coming around, in the usual fangirl way Naminé noticed them act around boys of a certain...caliber. She snickered at the darkening look in Zexion's face.

"Soo..Zexion...tell us more about yourself," one of them purred. The Nobody's mouth twitched.

"Yeah...you studying here in the Acad of Destiny...?"

Her breath froze in her throat as she saw Kairi run up to them. She knew Kairi had been imprisoned in the Castle That Never Was, and in all likelihood, she might recognize Zexion from his portrait hanging in the Corridors where Saïx had most likely passed through with her. Zexion must've thought the same thing and tried to wave the girls off, trying to make a hasty exit.

"Hey Nam," For one endless moment of insanity, time stopped as the princess of light stared at the Cloaked Schemer, her violet eyes widening.

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"No way in hell!" Roxas yelled, dodge-rolling the Thunder spell Larxene sent on his way and using the Oblivion to block a follow-up kunai.

"Firaga!"

"Reflect!" The Savage Nymph defended, the hexagonal blocks of light blocking the Fire spell. "No fair! Roxas! Whose side are you on!"

He reversed around her and tried to sweep her off her feet, but she quick-ran to the left and sent a lightning bolt at Axel, breaking his concentration for another Fire spell. The pyro threw his chakram at her; she quick-ran again and sent a kunai flying at Axel's spine.

"Reflect!" The Key of Destiny cast on his best friend, making the knife bounce harmlessly off. Axel huffed a very muffled "thanks" before getting tackled to the ground by Larxene.

"Larx! Geroff me!"

"Shut it, Axel!"

Roxas rolled his eyes as he stopped to watch the two roll on the ground. No matter how hard they tried to show it, he knew they would never bear to kill each other, because they actually needed the other's violence to balance his and her violence out. Huh? There he went again, saying something even he couldn't understand.

"Axel! Leave Larx alone already!" he said tiredly.

"What! You're on my side, Rox!" he yelled out, trying to keep Larxene's outstretched hand from plunging a kunai to his chest.

"The damage," he said pointedly, poking a piece of what was a bookshelf a few minutes ago.

Almost half of the Right Wing had completely been decimated, walls and doors and assorted other things crumbled into rubble by an assortment of kunais, chakrams, Keyblades, and very violent elemental spells. Both his, Naminé's and Larxene's rooms had degenerated into piles of broken marble, some of which were still smoking, others which were still crackling with electricity. Plaster still floated down the hallway, creating a misty atmosphere of sorts.

"Oh. My. Frickin' hell." Larxene looked up, staring at what they have done to the hallways. Axel took this moment of opportunity to take control and pin Larxene under his hands.

"Never ever lose sight of your opponent. Got it memorized?" he snickered as he resummoned his fire wheels.

"If I'd memorized all the things you've said to get memorized, my head would explode!" The blonde screamed, struggling to get out of his grasp, her booted feet scrabbling on the marble (now littered with anger-induced rubble) floor.

"Oh c'mon you two, stop fighting for a while until at least we figure out how to clean this mess," Roxas said loudly, trying to clean the plaster off his right foor. "Guys?"

He snickered at the sight of the Savage Nymph pinned under the Flurry of Dancing Flames, struggling violently as Axel threatened to behead her with a rapidly spinning Chakram-of-Death (another one of Demyx's labels, which always ended with the words of Death).

A portal coalesced in the middle of the ruined corridor, revealing a very mad Xigbar.

"NOBODY MOVE!" (and at this point Roxas bit his lip too keep from laughing; the pun was just too much) the eye-patched, black-coated, and drenched number Two roared, directing both guns at each of them. Axel stopped trying to kill Larxene, but still held her under (and he has a sneaking suspicion that he was actually enjoying that).

"Yeah, right," Larxene said sarcastically, relaxing in Axel's grasp as she rolled her eyes at Xigbar. "As if I can move."

"You three are in big trouble," he said roughly as he walked up to them slowly. "Why, I ought to---"

He never had the chance to finish his sentence as a very large, very solid claymore knocked him out. A very berserk Saïx was wielding said claymore. Roxas could swear he saw steam come out of his ears.

"AXEL!"

The pyro winced at the roar; Larxene giggled. Probably because she knew Saïx might just kill Axel for her.

"I-told you to keep the TRUCE!" he yelled, swinging his claymore over his head.

"You did, but not with her!" Axel howled, trying to dodge the claymore and hold Larxene hostage at the same time.

"Enough of this."

They all fell silent as Xemnas' dangerously quiet voice spoke. The Superior stood in front of them, freshly portalled from what Roxas supposed was Vexen's laboratory, judging from the still-smoking acid holes charred on the front of his coat.

"All of you, to the meeting room. Now." he glowered at them. Axel finally let Larxene get up but still kept her hands together as they both portalled out, but not before Roxas shot the both of them a glare.

If Xemnas had his way, the three of them would probably be scrubbing toilets for the rest of their existence. That, added to what Naminé's reaction would be if she found her white room in white pieces. He shivered involuntarily at the thought.

Oh joy, he thought, borrowing one of his Other's catchphrases, as he opened the Corridors to the meeting area.

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So, what do you think? Is violence really the answer to the questions of life?

Read.

Review.

Flamers, go ahead. I accept whatever consequence of my writing this fanfiction (oooh.. so wordy).

Poll! Tell me whether you like a tragedy or a happy ending for the joint conclusion of You Don't Miss It 'Till It's Gone, so that I can start picturing the story flow. Yeah, Chapter 10 of Trinity will be up most likely tomorrow morning.