C04

LOCATION: Hallway of Organization XIII headquarters, The World That Never Was
DATE: Friday, November 23rd 2X60
TIME: 1501 hours

It feels like a hot second, but Sora checks and realizes they've been arguing for 10 minutes.

The point of this trip was to get away from stress at home and avoid screaming matches with Kairi. Now it seems like he's shifted to screaming matches with random girls (who kinda remind him of Kairi. Hmm, he might be onto something there).

You working through some deep-seated feelings about me? Conscience-Kairi smirks.

It's true that he's gonna have to do something about this anger he feels everytime he thinks of Kairi.

But the screaming match with this random girl isn't completely his fault—she's from LOD, for god's sake. He'd thought the rumors of LOD were exaggerated, but she's proving each of them to be true. She's a stuck-up snob. She has no sense of humor, probably because she just works all day. She didn't appreciate his joke about not realizing he'd winded up in the girl's bathroom because she looked like a guy from behind.

It was obviously a joke! He feels the need to explain before Conscience-Kairi makes another appearance.

Anyway, the point is, she's a disrespectful snob who wouldn't know how to have fun if her life depended on it.

"Sora! What the hell are you doing?"

The screaming match comes to an abrupt halt when he hears his superior's voice. Slowly turning around, he feels a certain dread in his stomach at the sight of Captain Tifa Lockhart.

"...she started it!" he complains, jabbing a finger at the true offender.

"Seriously? What are you, five?" the girl—what was her name again?—scoffs and crosses her arms. "Plus, you were the one who started it. You barged into the wrong bathroom."

"It was an honest mistake, okay? You made a big deal about it—"

"—didn't even check before you walked in cause you're an idiot—"

"—wouldn't give me a chance to explain before hurling every insult you know —"

"—you deserve it, that's why—"

"SORA!"

"NAMINÉ!"

In the back of his mind, he registers the girl's name: Naminé. But his attention quickly refocuses to his captain.

"We're leaving, now," Tifa commands. Without another word, she turns around and walks off, which prompts Sora to follow. He looks over his shoulder and catches the girl—Naminé's eye. She shoots him a glare, to which he responds with a very mature eyelid pull taunt. Ha, how's that for getting the last (metaphorical) word in?

The moment they round a corner, Tifa faces him and whacks him over the head.

"Oww!" Sora complains, cradling the wound. Everyone in HBRC knows that despite appearances, Tifa is probably one of the strongest captains in terms of raw strength.

"Seriously, Sora? We're representing Hollow Bastion. I don't know why you're here without your team, or I'd ask them to hold you accountable. But get your act together."

Sora gulps. "Sorry, Captain Lockhart. Just please don't tell Squall—err, Captain Leonhart." It'd been hard enough getting him to sign off on Sora coming on this mission solo. It might've involved a lot of cajoling till Squall had agreed just to get Sora to stop.

Tifa smirks. "Squall should be the least of your concerns. If you get on my bad side…" She trails off ominously while cracking her knuckles. Sora gulps and immediately gets the hint.

"Yes ma'am! I'm sorry, ma'am! Good day!"

He runs off before he can imagine how Tifa would punish him. It's still day one of the mission and he's already got one strike? Well, it's not his worst record...but certainly not promising.

He quickly rejoins the HBRC agents in a lobby-esque area, noticing that everyone's standing with their teams. Of course, most agents had signed up for the mission with their teammates. Everyone is engrossed in their cliquey groups, and though Sora recognizes a handful of people, he can't bring himself to interrupt their conversations.

"Come on, everyone," someone calls out, "they're giving us a tour!"

Aww, yes! Sora thanks the gods for a timely save from loner status. Falling in line with everyone else, he eagerly looks around as a guide leads their group through the facilities.

The World That Never Was (what a mouthful) is surprisingly nice for a world that only recently had people settling down. The landscape is desolate with largely abandoned urban buildings, but Sora catches details hinting at the world's vibrant past. The residents have mostly congregated in one community for living and working, and every other person seems to be somewhat involved with Organization XIII.

"Specifically, we're a research group interested in deciphering the mystery of Heartless," the tour guide explains. "We operate independently, but since we recently came across some valuable findings, we thought it was in everyone's interests to share it with your worlds."

"Yeah, who invited the LODers?" someone in the HBRC crowd sneers. That sets off a bunch of boos, and Sora chimes in too.

"Since Hollow Bastion and Land of Departure are the largest and most organized worlds right now, we thought it made sense to invite both parties," the guide explains. "Applying our research to real-life settings would require a lot of resources and—well, I'll save the rest for one of our researchers to explain."

That piques Sora's curiosity. And unfortunately, he can't refute her words. Currently, to his knowledge, Hollow Bastion and Land of Departure are the last strongholds on the frontlines of the war against Heartless. While Hollow Bastion has its top-tier defense system to assist in fending off the enemy, Land of Departure is known for its remarkably organized military ready to bear arms at a minute's notice. They're a particularly militant world, and Sora's not surprised all LODers are a little psycho.

Speaking of Land of Departure...he catches sight of that girl, Naminé, from across the hall. She's obviously on a tour with the other LODers, who all wear emotionless masks and stand ramrod straight. Like little robots, Sora thinks.

The two groups walk towards each other and inevitably cross paths. Sora meets Naminé's eyes, which narrow suspiciously upon seeing him. He smiles innocently, and maybe she feels a little bad because she blushes and turns away.

The words fall out of his mouth as he thinks them. "Hey, Naminé, you okay? You're almost as red as my friend Kairi's hair."

Conscience-Kairi is scolding him, but he tunes it out as his fellow HBRC members cackle at the reference. It's nice having a sense of camaraderie with them.

Naminé raises a brow. "I don't know your friend Kairi, so that doesn't mean anything to me."

"Wow, you're even redder than her hair now!"

She flushes a deeper red, and the HBRC members around him laugh. Hey, if she doesn't mind the comment, then there's no harm done, right?

"I'm surprised no one's compared your hair to a bird's nest," Naminé returns.

"Ooh," someone in the background jeers. Sora can't back down now.

"Your face is an apple!"

"Your hair's messier than a bird's nest!"

They remain opposed in a glaring contest, which only breaks up when someone from their respective groups calls out that they're moving on. Sora dashes off to keep up with the HBRC group, sneaking a peek back at Naminé who's eying him suspiciously once more. He settle things with a very mature eyelid pull taunt because serves her right—

WHACK

"Oww!" Sora exclaims, cradling his head in a familiar position. Hey, it's the same place where he was hit on the head earlier, by…

He turns around and grins at a scowling Tifa. Hesitantly, he waves. In response, she cracks her knuckles.

"I told you what'd happen if you got on my bad side, right?"

"I'm sorry ma'am!" he exclaims. "We were just joking! I was trying to lighten the atmosphere for everyone!"

Tifa definitely wouldn't have noticed if the LODer hadn't completely overreacted. She's really too uptight for anyone's good.

"At the expense of the poor girl? Haven't you bothered her enough for a day?" Tifa levels an even stare at him. "Are you doing this to score points with the others cause you feel left out?"

"What?" Sora balks at the sliver of truth ringing in her words. "I mean, I just thought it'd be funny!"

Tifa sighs. "Okay, even though you signed up for this mission by yourself—I'm still not sure why you did that—I do feel a little bad for you."

"Hey!"

"You're officially on probation. You can clean the gummi ship tonight. I'll have someone bring you dinner. Unfortunately you're gonna miss out on the welcome feast."

"What?" The thought of losing dinner privileges hits harder than anything else. "Captain Lockhart, I'm sorry, I didn't mean for things to turn out this way—"

"I told you, no more messing around. Get it together, Sora, before I start asking around why you're on this mission."

"...yes ma'am," he murmurs as Tifa walks off with a huff.

Okay, none of this is supposed to happen. He came on this mission to get away from home for a bit. Now, he's benched on the very first day because of some LODer who consistently blows things out of proportion? Also, Tifa's not-so-subtle threats to confront Squall about signing off on this mission are making him nervous. Squall knows he's not exactly the gunner type, and with enough prompting, it won't be hard for him to make the connection between 'going on a solo mission' and 'having problems with his team.' Then he'll actually be in deep shit.

This trip is supposed to help get away from all that, goddammit.

This is all Naminé's fault.


LOCATION: Waiting room of Organization XIII headquarters, The World That Never Was
DATE: Friday, November 23rd 2X60
TIME: 1844 hours

This is all Sora's fault.

That's his name, right? The idiot from HB. He doesn't look much older than her, but he sure acts like he's five-years-old. Of course, cause everyone from HB is always resting on their laurels and doesn't take anything seriously.

They're done with the activities for the day and are waiting for dinner now. The buffer times make Naminé restless, because that's when she's reminded she's utterly alone on this trip as the stand-out audit. At least the instructor in charge had agreed to let her tag along without extra questions.

While she sulks in a corner, a familiar trio approaches.

"Hey. You look a tad...upset."

Naminé glances up at Xion, accompanied by Axel and Roxas as always. Staring at the three of them, she isn't sure how to respond to Xion's statement.

"We shouldn't make assumptions about how she feels," Roxas mumbles. "Let's just leave her alone for a bit."

"If that happened to me, I'd be pretty mad!" Xion exclaims.

"If something like that happened to me, I'd wanna be left alone," Roxas returns.

"Alright, let's not talk like Naminé isn't right here," Axel points out.

"He's right. For once," Xion comments, ignoring Axel's spluttered protests. "Naminé, are you okay? That guy was super mean. Why's he picking on us?"

"I don't know why he's picking on me," Naminé corrects, because though she usually appreciates solidarity, Xion certainly wasn't just called out in front of everyone.

"How do you know him?" Axel asks.

"I don't," Naminé insists. "I bumped into him in the bathroom earlier. He somehow ended up in the woman's one."

"What? Pervert!" Xion exclaims.

"That's real creepy," Axel agrees. "Even creepier than Bossman."

"Bossman's not creepy," Xion says. "He's just a little peculiar."

"Which is a nice way of saying creepy," Axel points out.

"Bossman's not creepy—shit, now I'm calling him Bossman!" Roxas complains.

"He is our boss!" Axel points out. "And a man. Hence, Bossman! Speaking of bosses, Xion, didn't you say Zack wants to check in with the two of us?"

"Yeah, he said at 6:30, which is in—oh shit!"

Axel and Xion run off, tossing a 'See you at dinner!' to the last member of their trio. Naminé wonders why Roxas isn't invited to this check-in. But that thought disappears as she realizes it's just her and Roxas.

A prolonged silence settles. Somehow, without school as a commonality, their relationship dissolves into an awkward acquaintanceship. There isn't even a reason for them to bicker over contrasting mission styles. Not for the first time, Naminé realizes she doesn't know much about her classmates outside of their fieldwork habits.

Finally, much to Naminé's relief, Roxas speaks up. "I'm gonna go...rest in my room until dinner," he says.

"Mhmm. I hope Axel and Xion don't get in trouble for being late."

"They'll be fine. They're only idiots like that with each other."

Naminé looks at Roxas' nonchalant expression. She giggles at the thought of him thinking he's not also an idiot around them.

"Again, not to assume or anything," Roxas continues, "but it's not good holding your feelings in. If you're mad, or sad, or whatever—just express it." He pauses, as if hesitating to say more. "At least that's what our instructors say. You should know—you're the overachiever in class."

Naminé can hardly conceal her shock, barely registering the weak diss at the end. Somehow, Roxas, the most emotionally constipated boy she knows, is telling her to express her feelings? Oh, how the tables have turned. Have things really gotten that bad for her?

Roxas leaves before she can say anything, not that she knows what to say. Thinking about his words, Naminé realizes he's right. It's not good for her to bottle things up. She did absolutely nothing to this guy from HB who's been screwing with her for no apparent reason but his own amusement. What's his problem? She doesn't deserve this. Cause yeah, let's be honest: she's pissed.

So Naminé decides she'll take Roxas' advice and express herself.


LOCATION: Dining room of Organization XIII headquarters, The World That Never Was
DATE: Saturday, November 24th 2X60
TIME: 0734 hours

Sora doesn't remember the last time he was so satisfied with breakfast.

The food's average at best—cereal, fruit, select pastries, and a handful of beverages. But after last night's manual labor and a pathetic dinner of cold leftovers, he savors the bland oatmeal and bitter coffee.

The presence of LODers barely puts a dent in his good mood.

Each world has wordlessly settled on one side of the communal dining room, and for the most part, everyone minds their own business. Sora doesn't care, because he's determined to enjoy his hot meal. He's doing well ignoring the existence of the other world until a particular LODer greets him first.

"How's your morning going? Found some poor soul to mess with yet?"

The hostile greeting feels like it's coming from nowhere, until Sora realizes it's of course Naminé, the problem LODer. He's a little surprised at her taking the initiative when so far she's leaned more towards being reactive. He's ready to break into a full-fledged argument but knows Captain Lockhart is only a few tables away, and he really can't afford getting in trouble again.

Nonetheless, he summons a forced smile. He can fight civilly too.

"I'm having a great morning actually. Glad to see you slept well and your face isn't an apple anymore."

"I slept like a baby, thank you for asking," Naminé returns with a cold glare. "Cause I believe in karma, and what goes around comes around."

"Did your lame dictator come up with that dumb saying?"

"He's the fricking prime minister. Get his title right."

"Okay. Did your fricking prime minister come up with that dumb saying?"

"You—urgh. You're so annoying," Naminé hisses, grabbing a pastry for herself. "They're wasting this delicious food on you."

"First of all, your standard for food is really low. This stuff is average at best."

"Of course you're a food snob. They even have Double Stuf Oreos—they're my absolute favorite."

"What? I didn't see any Oreos!"

She smiles unashamedly. "That's because I took the last ones."

"You're a monster! Hoarding Oreos is a new low, even for you."

An idea comes to mind, and Sora makes a face at something behind Naminé. She quickly notices and looks over her shoulder, which gives him the chance to swipe her spoils. When she turns back, she notices too late that her Oreos are gone.

"Hey!" she protests. "Did you seriously steal food off my plate?"

"Your fault for leaving yourself exposed," he states. And just to rub it in, he decides to eat an Oreo right in front of her. "All's fair in love and—"

A tingling sensation burns through his throat, and he immediately recognizes the minty taste. His mind quickly puts together what just happened as he looks up to see Naminé wearing an evil grin.

"You're right, Sora. All's fair in love and war," she declares before walking off. Sora watches in disbelief.

She tricked him. She fricking fed him an Oreo filled with toothpaste.

Naminé the LODer has started a prank war.


A/N: Sparks fly, and not in the conventional sense! These two have a lot of hurdles to overcome before they'll even be on a regular speaking basis. But isn't that process what we're looking forward to?!

While writing this chapter, even I snickered to myself after I wrote Sora interpreting Naminé's actions as starting a prank war. We'll hear more from Naminé in the next chapter, but I think/hope it's obvious that isn't Naminé's intention per se. BUT we'll have to see what the results of her actions are. Despite the plot-heavy chapters, I hope you're enjoying these more lighthearted moments between characters!

If you're following along the story, I would love to hear what your thoughts are on the characters, the plot, what you like or dislike—anything! Writing and posting fics sometimes feels like tossing my words into an abyss, so any sign that someone is reading (and hopefully enjoying) this story is very much appreciated! Special shoutout to Queen Mudracles and Is Og Ild for your consistent and thoughtful reviews, I appreciate both of you!

Anyways, what does the prank war mean for our leads? (Spoiler: it probably means exactly what you're thinking, so yes—shenanigans await next chapter!) Till next time, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and have a beautiful rest of your day!