Chapter 10: Upon the Clocktower

"Hey, Sora!" Joseph said, plopping himself down on the couch next to Sora. "How are things, now that you've remembered everything?"

Sora frowned, unsure of how exactly to respond to that, considering it was Joseph who had been asking. He knew how he felt, he just wasn't quite sure if he wanted to tell Joseph. Joseph, upon not receiving and answer, also frowned, as if pondering something.

"You look like you need ice cream," he stated after a moment, grinning. He hopped to his feet, and then stared at Sora expectantly. "Come on!" he said, sounding excited. "I'm going to take you to get ice cream!"

"Okay…" Sora replied slowly, rising to his feet.

"Oi!" Joseph called, grabbing the attention of the nearest Vexen Replica. "If anyone asks, let them know we're getting ice cream."

The Vexen Replica nodded. "I'll be sure to inform Master Riku where you've gone," he replied.

"I wasn't necessarily referring to-" Joseph began, but sighed. It was pointless. "Whatever," he muttered, opening up a dark corridor.

Sora glanced at the corridor with wary eyes. Joseph watched him for a second, not getting it at first.

"Oh!" Joseph exclaimed, laughing. "I forgot that you don't like corridors." He closed the corridor, and then quickly felt around in his pockets. After searching for a second, he produced a star shaped object.

"I knew it was in this pair of pants!" he said happily, grabbing Sora by the arm.

Before Sora could question what was going to happen, the two of them disappeared in a flash of light. For the next few seconds, it was like they were bouncing from one world to the next, before being violently spat out into Twilight Town. Sora frowned, as there was now an annoying buzzing in his ears. Joseph quickly shook his head to clear the buzzing.

"Sorry," Joseph muttered, pocketing the star. "It's been a while since I've done that. At least we ended up in the right world."

Sora nodded, even though he only caught bits and pieces of what Joseph had said, due to the buzzing. Finally, it had died down enough that he could at least hear properly.

"Come on!" Joseph called, running off. "Ice cream's over here."

xxx

Approximately two minutes later, Sora and Joseph sat on top of the Clock Tower, happily enjoying their ice cream. Sora hadn't bothered to question why Joseph had insisted on sitting up here, but mainly because he didn't mind. He wasn't sure how he felt about interacting with the Worlds at the moment. His darkness was quiet at the moment, but he was sure it could act up at any moment.

Besides, this town had enough painful memories, and the Clock Tower was far away from all of them.

He glanced at the sunset, and slowly smiled. The view from up here was amazing.

I should bring Kairi here sometime, he thought, and then sighed, smile fading. If she'd ever forgive me… after all I've done. I wouldn't be surprised if she never wanted to see me again, let alone eat ice cream with me.

"What's on your mind?" Joseph asked, noticing something was up.

Sora shook his head. "Just… thinking about Kairi…" he muttered.

Joseph, who wasn't really well informed on matters such as these, asked: "Who?"

"She's… a friend of mine…" Sora replied slowly.

"You miss her?" Joseph asked, taking a bite of ice cream.

Sora nodded. "Yeah, but that's not what I was thinking about…" he said. "How much did Riku tell you about what happened to me?"

Joseph shrugged. "He mentioned you fell into darkness, but that's it."

"Really?" Sora asked, a bit surprised. He would have assumed that Riku would have mentioned more about what happened. Obviously, Riku was serious when he said that he honestly didn't care.

"Well, during that time, I said a lot of things I wish so badly I could take back," Sora continued. "And… I did a lot of things I don't think I'll ever be able to make up for." He sighed. "Riku got most of the insults, but Kairi… was forced to watch me fall into darkness first hand. And… I hurt her so badly-" he paused, quickly wiping the tears from his eyes. "I feel awful about it, and I'd give anything to be able to fix it. But… she probably hates me…"

Joseph paused, considering that. "Well, I'm sure if you tell her how awful you feel, she'll forgive you!"

"You think?" Sora asked quietly.

Joseph nodded.

"Still…" Sora muttered.

"Anything else you want to talk about?" Joseph asked quickly, in hopes to change the subject.

Sora pondered that, eating his ice cream as he did. After a moment, he thought of something, and asked: "Why do you call him 'Master' Riku?"

"It's a sign of respect," Joseph replied simply. "Like… We called Vexen: 'Master' Vexen. And, technically we should be calling Saix 'Master', too… but no one wants to do that." Joseph shuddered slightly. "I don't call Riku 'Master', though. He said he didn't like it."

"You call him 'sir', though," Sora pointed it.

Joseph shrugged. "I still want to show him respect. And he hasn't mentioned that it bothers him."

"Why do you need to show him respect, though?"

Joseph shrugged again. "I don't think we have to, it's just a choice. I mean, he is sort of a legend, for killing a third of the Organization in two days. That, and he's kind of in charge of the Rebellion. And he's a heck of a lot nicer than Saix."

Sora laughed. "Of course Riku's in charge of the Rebellion. I'm sure he just loves that." There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice, at which Joseph laughed.

They sat in silence for a bit after that. Joseph had finished his ice cream, and had pocketed the stick. Sora was still trying to finish his.

"Can I ask you something?" Joseph said.

"Go ahead," Sora shrugged.

"How much do you know about Namine?"

Sora paused, ice cream half way to his mouth. That wasn't one of the questions he had been expecting. He wasn't sure what question he had been expecting, but somehow it hadn't been that. "What exactly do you want to know?" he replied.

Joseph shrugged, yet again. "Riku just mentions her a lot, and it's not like I've met her or anything. And since Riku won't talk about her at length, I gotta find out somehow!"

Sora laughed a little at that.

"Well…" Sora said, slowly, not sure how to put Namine into words. "She's kind of quiet? Likes drawing a lot. A lot. And… I dunno."

She lived with Kairi. She liked Kairi's music. Liked Sora's stories. There were so many memories—laughing on the beach with her and everyone else, staying up 'til 3am on Kairi's couch trading ideas while Kairi's dad complained they hadn't gone to sleep yet. So much that was hard to put into words, hard to say to Joseph.

So Sora finally shrugged, sighed, and finished with: "I mean, she's a good friend? I miss her a lot, too…"

"Oh good, you're friends!" Joseph burst into the widest grin, and turned his body so he was completely facing Sora. "Then I can ask you the question I really wanted to ask: D'you think Riku loves her?"

Sora stared at Joseph a moment, and then burst out laughing.

Something about Joseph's earnestness, the way he leaned into the question, a burning desire in his eyes to know the answer. Sora remembered caring similarly about similar things when he was Joseph's age—which, hadn't really been that long ago. It just felt like an eternity, after everything that had happened these past couple of months.

"I mean, I wouldn't be surprised," Sora said finally.

Joseph laughed too. "I think he does," he said, bouncing with his excitement. "He just won't admit it. I've brought the subject before, like flat out asked him if he does, and he didn't say no—"

"He just tells you to shut up and quickly changes the subject," Sora finished.

They both laughed again.

Joseph paused after a moment. "You know…" he said slowly. "He may not even realize it… I mean… he's only… how old is he?"

Sora frowned at that question. "Same age as me, right?"

Joseph laughed and shook his head. "I didn't mean that, exactly. I was referring to how long he's been… alive, I guess. Do you know when he was created?"

Sora shook his head no. "I know he's been in this universe for… umm… eight months." Sora paused, thinking about that. It had been eight months. It felt like forever ago, though. "Wow…" he muttered. "Anyways, I have no idea how long he spent in the other universe. I'm guessing a month, maybe less."

"See?" Joseph said. "Think about that, Riku's technically only eight months old. He may not even understand what love is, exactly. It just depends on how much knowledge he was programmed with to begin with, and how much he's learned since then."

"What are you saying?" Sora asked, not quite getting it.

"I'm only saying that for him… maybe he doesn't fully comprehend the thought that him and Namine could be more than... whatever they already are."

Sora laughed. "So, if we were betting on how long it will take him to realize he loves her, it wouldn't be smart to bet on sometime in the near future."

Joseph laughed. "Are we betting?"

"Do you want to?" Sora asked.

"Sure!"

"Alright…" Sora took a second, thinking about it. "I'm guessing… a month."

"Two months," Joseph replied, grinning.

"If I win, you give me half your winner sticks," Sora said.

Joseph's grin widened. "If I win, you buy me three ice creams."

"Deal!" they both agreed.

Silence passed for a moment.

"What about you?" Joseph asked suddenly. "Have you got anyone special?"

Sora shrugged, smile falling. "I guess… I've got Kairi. But… I don't know, after what happened."

"Can't you go home and apologize?"

Sora shook his head. "I can't go home, not like this," he said, clutching his heart. "There's still darkness inside of me. I can't go home until I've got it under control. And I still need to figure out how to do that."

Joseph scratched his head. "Do you have any ideas?"

"I need… to be stronger," Sora replied. "If I'm strong enough, then I'll be able to fight the darkness if it tries to take over me. But… I don't know if there's a way for me to get any stronger…" he sighed.

Joseph thought about it for a second. "You could always travel the worlds," he suggested. "You gain strength through experience. If you just keep fighting the monsters that are scattered throughout the worlds, you can become stronger."

Sora glanced over at Joseph. "You think so?"

Joseph nodded. "Sure! I mean, why wouldn't that work?"

Sora's smile fell again. "I can't really travel to other worlds…" he muttered.

"Yeah you can!" Joseph exclaimed, pulling the star shaped object out of his pocket again. "All you need is one of these!"

"What is that?"

"It's a star shard," Joseph explained. "They're a bit hard to control, but you can use them to get to other worlds once you've mastered how. I can teach you how to use one, if you want."

Sora nodded. "That would be nice!"

"Okay, we'll get started on that tomorrow."

"Alright," Sora agreed. "Thanks!"