Thanks a lot to the people who reviewed! I really, really appreciate it and every single one of your comments cheers me up for days.

Thanks to: Beutelmaus (by the way, I love Perfect Match), Malik's Bunny Mika, Gray-Rain Skies (Rushing Wind is pure genius. I adore your Roxas), Riku-stalker, Ichixrenji-smexy love, ChaosHarbor, Bubblegum Head, Mourir, GROTESQUEpanda, Tuli-Susi, DarkLuminescence, FlamingDoritos and all the people who put this story on their favs.

Important! I won't be home all of next week because my class makes a trip to Berlin. I won't be able to update for a while, but I hope you won't abandon this story.

Now, without further ado, on to the story.

Have fun reading, and please review!

Shiruy

Mirage

"It contains a misleading impression, not a lie. It was being economical with the truth." – Robert Armstrong

"ROXY!"

I squeaked and jumped behind Axel, narrowly avoiding Demyx' tackle hug. Immediately, the blond pounced again, but this time on my readheaded shield, who wasn't fast enough to get out of the way.

"And Axel! I'm so happy you two are here! My mom went to visit Aunt Tia, that means we have the flat aaall to ourselves! We can watch some movies and have a Smash Brothers tournament and then we can show Roxy how freakish the people in the block across the street are!"

During his speech, Demyx had managed to drag us both into the small hallway of his apartment and then went on into what I assumed was the living room, talking all the while. Axel kicked off his shoes and followed his friend, but I hesitated. Maybe I should just turn around and leave?

"Come on, Roxy!"

Too late.

I slowly entered the room, feeling awkward and totally out of place. Axel and Demyx were lounging on the couch and watching TV, apparently completely at ease, and I uncomfortably settled into the lone armchair.

"Axel told me you're staying here, too! We only have one guest room, so you'll have to take the couch. Is that alright?"

I blinked at Demyx and nodded, shifting in the chair. I was the one imposing here and he was asking me if it was alright? Weird guy…

I knew from the start that this was a bad idea and if Axel hadn't been there, I would have turned around as soon as I caught sight of the apartment block Demyx lived in. It was closer to downtown, but also in a part of the town that was pretty run down and with every step I took, the urge to just turn around and go to Tifa became stronger.

Axel noticed and tried to reassure me, and for a moment I even thought that this wouldn't be so bad… then three old men wolf whistled at me and all I wanted was to be home, hiding in my bed.

"Whoooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea? Spongebob Squarepants! Absorbant and yellow and porous is he! Spongebob Squarepants!"

I cringed as the other two started to sing along with my Most Hated Theme Song Ever, obviously enjoying themselves. Why did everyone I knew love this stupid, sense-deprived series? It's a sponge, for goodness' sake!

"Spongebob Squarepants, Spongebob Squarepants, Spongebooob Squarepants!"

Well, if I had any say in this I was not going to watch this.

"Can we please change the channel?"

Immediately, two aghast and accusing stares were leveled at me. Oh boy.

"What? But it's Spongebob Squarepants! I love Spongebob!"

"How can you not love Spongebob Squarepants?! The guy's pure genius!"

I glared first at Demyx, then at Axel.

"It's a sponge. Who lives in a pineapple. It's stupid."

Demyx adopted a look like a kicked puppy, while Axel tried the 'I can't believe you just said that' look. (Although it rather resembled the 'I'm stupid, please kick me' look…)

"So… you don't want to watch Spongebob?"

Demyx' lower lip trembled and he looked like he would start crying any second. I glared harder.

"No, I don't want to watch Spongebob."

Axel pointed a finger at me and sputtered, "But! But you're a guest! You can't make us change the channel!"

I frowned. Damn, but Axel was right. It was incredibly rude to make them watch something else, and I was a guest here.

…whatever.

Before the other two could protest again I snatched the remote off the floor and changed to a rerun of Friends. Immediately, the whining started. (In synch and dolby surround.)

"Roxaaaaaanne!! We wanna watch Spongebooob!"

I withstood their persistent complains all of three (extremely long) minutes, then I gave up with a disgusted snort and changed the channel back. Seriously, these idiots were like little children.

"Yay! Thanks, Roxy!"

Demyx looked like he was about to jump me, but my glare kept him seated and he laughed nervously. Sighing in annoyance I stood up, went out on the little balcony, which was barely big enough for four persons to stand next to each other, and closed the sliding door behind me. They could watch that crap if they really wanted to, but I would avoid brain damage if I could, thank you very much.

The view out here could have been nice, after all, Demyx lived on the fourth floor, but directly across the street stood another apartment complex identical to this one. (Didn't Demyx mention something about showing me the freakish people there? Whatever…) Therefore, all I could see where lots of grey concrete, a few curtains and the one or other clothes horse. Boooring.

Searching for something to do, I looked around me. Ash tray, old magazine, binoculars, trash, a pen… Binoculars? I cocked my head to the side and stared at them. Huh. Then, slowly, I smiled.

Ten minutes later I was still people-watching. I knew that it was morally wrong to spy on others, invasion of privacy and all that jazz… but did you know that on the third floor in an apartment on the right, there was an old lady dancing with her cat? No, really! She had the cat in her arms and was twirling through her living room! Poor little thing looked a bit sea sick.

I left the cat and its master to look into the next flat… and nearly had a heart attack. There on the balcony sat a guy with weird silver hair, looking back at me with his own pair of binoculars. Okay, what the fuck?

I took a closer look, but no, this guy really was looking straight up at me. So now I had two options. Either ignore him and continue people watching, or hurry inside and pretend this never happened. I took option three and waved at him.

For a long moment he did nothing – then he waved back. What now? It would have been weird if I just ignored him now, but I couldn't exactly talk to him, either. I lowered the binoculars and stared at the floor beside me, pondering the problem. Maybe I could go back inside… but judging from the laughter, Spongebob still wasn't over. I could just sit here and stare at the trash. And the pen. Pen!

Before I could second-guess myself and wonder why I was doing something so stupid I wrote my name (or rather, Roxanne's) onto my hand, and went on to wave at the other till I had his attention. For a long moment he just stared up at me, and I was sure he was thinking something along the lines of 'What a weird freak', then he suddenly jumped up and vanished into his apartment.

I sighed in disappointment, now once again without anything to do. Oh well, at least I could go back to people watching… I let my gaze rove about, searching for something more interesting than the dancing cat-lady, when I caught side of a flash of silver. I blinked in surprise. He was back?

I took a closer look, and indeed, binocular-guy was back and waving at me with a… ballpoint? He went inside to fetch a pen? Cool, now I felt a bit less like a weird freak. I watched as he wrote something onto his hand and then held it up to show it to me. He wrote relatively small and it took me a few seconds to decipher his name, and when I did, I blinked in bemusement.

Riku. What kind of girly name was that?

Anyway. I didn't have that much space left on my hand, because I had written my name in large letters, but I managed to produce a rather legible 'Why?'. I held the hand up and hoped Riku would understand what I meant – I wanted to know why he was out on his balcony spying on others.

'Bored. U?'

Wouhou! He did understand! I felt more elated than I had any right to, but these days it was pretty rare that I was in a good mood, and so I didn't care. 'I don't want to watch Spongebob' was way too long to write out and so I limited myself to 'Hate SpongeB.'

Riku laughed as he read my message and answered in a way that immediately endeared him to me.

'Me 2.'

I pondered what to write now, but came up with nothing. I didn't know the guy and I never was a very good conversationalist. Sooo… tic-tac-toe? I drew the necessary cross on my arm and showed it to Riku, who immediately copied my action. Guess he really was just as bored as me.

"Roxanne?"

I jumped and blinked up at Axel, wondering where he had suddenly come from. Riku and I were in the middle of the fifth match and I had been forced to acknowledge him as a rather vicious opponent. The score stood 2:2, and I was determind not to lose. It looked pretty good for me, I needed only one circle more and I had the perfect double bind… that is, until a certain redhead appeared and broke my concentration.

"Axel, please go away."

He stared at me, looking almost hurt at my blunt brush-off, and I sighed in defeat and motioned for him to sit down beside me. Immediately, he smiled again and settled down.

I ignored him for a moment and stared through my binoculars at Riku, biting my lip as I saw that he had noticed my trap and deftly went on to throw a wrench into the works. Damn.

"What are you doing?"

For a second, I glanced at Axel, but promptly went back to my game.

"Playing tic-tac-toe."

If I made my cross there, neither of us would win and the game would end in a draw… but if I-

"What? Against whom?"

Annoyed at the redhead for interrupting my train of thought, I bit out,"Riku." Where was I? Ah, okay, but if I put my cross here then I'd have a chance at winning, provided that Riku overlooked his opportunity…

"Riku? Who's that? And sorry to tell you, but we're the only ones up here."

I rolled my eyes and pointed at the balcony Riku was sitting on, staring up at us and waiting for my next move. I drew my cross and held my arm up, ignoring Axel's weirded out look.

"…are you trying to tell me that you're playing tic-tac-toe with a stranger who lives in the building across the street and is probably a crazy rapist or something?"

I nodded.

"You're the strangest girl I've ever met."

I blinked and looked at him, now having the time to, seeing as Riku was still thinking. Was that a compliment or an insult? I shrugged and cocked my head to the side. "Thanks, I think."

He laughed and shook his head, then leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms behind his head. "So why exactely are you here?"

"Here?"

"In Hollow Bastion. I mean, it's pretty rare that someone just changes school in the middle of the year."

For a moment I wasn't sure what to tell him. I didn't really want to lie to him, but I had already told Zexion that I was here because of the divorce… Oh well, I would just have to hope that he and Axel never talked about that.

"I'm actually here because of a bet my twin made. I have to stay one full month at Hollow Bastion High, then I can go back to Twilight High. If I win our cousin has to get us a car, if he wins… well, something bad will happen."

There, that wasn't a lie. Just not the whole truth.

"A bet?" His voice sounded strange, but when I looked at him he was staring at the sky, refusing to meet my eyes. "So that means, when your four weeks are up you'll disappear again, huh?"

I threw a quick glance at Riku, but he appeared to still be thinking about his next move.

"Yeah, of course. My friends and Sora are back at Twilight High, and when the bet's over I have no reason to stay here. So I'll go back."

Riku was waving at me and I looked where he had made his circle. Right upper corner… wait. No! Damn bastard! No matter where I put my cross, he'd win. I hated losing.

I glanced back at Axel, who still hadn't answered me, and found him still staring at the dark sky, and unusually serious expression on his face. Inside, I heard Demyx talking to someone.

"Axel?"

At first it seemed as if he hadn't heard me, but then he slowly turned to me and smiled. It felt as if my heart skipped a beat, only to then go on twice as fast as before.

"If you have no reason to stay here… I'll give you one."

I didn't know what to say, my mind a total blank. What did he mean? And why was he looking at me like…?

"W-what?"

His sincere smile turned into a relaxed grin, but I still couldn't tear my eyes away.

"I'll make you want to stay here. I like having you around, and besides, Demyx would be sad if you left us!"

Demyx would be sad if Roxanne left them, but… I wasn't Roxanne. She didn't even really exist. She was nothing more than an illusion that was bound to vanish sooner or later. I couldn't stay here, no matter if I wanted to or not.

"Axel, I-"

"Hey you two! Zexion'll be here in five minutes and guess what? He's bringing PIZZA!"

Immediately, Axel jumped up and followed Demyx back inside. "Pizza? What kind? From where? And he's paying, right?"

As I slowly stood up to go back inside I couldn't decide whether I was angry or thankful that Demyx had interrupted us. I wasn't sure what I had been about to say, but I knew that it would have been important.

I sighed and waved at Riku, receiving a wave in return, and then slowly shuffled inside. I wasn't particularly eager for Zexion to arrive. In fact, alone the thought of pizza made me feel rather sick.

"Roxy? Zexion's bringing pepperoni and cheese, that alright with you?"

Demyx beamed at me happily, and because I didn't have the heart to burst his bubble I nodded silently and took a seat on the couch. I didn't know what movie was on and honestly, I didn't care. I was tired, cold and my good mood had evaporated.

"Roxanne?"

Axel plopped down next to me and gave me a concerned look. I smiled weakly at him. "Yeah?"

He frowned. "Are you alright? You don't look too well…"

I grinned playfully and asked, "Are you insinuating that I'm ugly?"

"W-what?" It was almost comical to watch how his face lost all color. "N-NO! I just meant, you looked kind of sad, and I wanted to cheer you up and I didn't mean that you're ugly, because you're very pretty, and, err…" He blushed.

I laughed and leaned back into the couch, closing my eyes. The door bell rang and I heard Demyx greeting Zexion enthusiastically, the smell of pizza wafting through the air. Damn, but that smell alone was enough to make me feel slightly sick.

"Hey." Axel poked my shoulder, but I refused to open my eyes.

"Hm?" I was more tired than I had thought, and now, with my eyes closed I wished I could just stay right here.

"Do you plan on falling asleep like that? You should at least lay down."

"Mhm…" I didn't resist as he carefully tugged at my arm and helped me lay down, too exhausted to really care. So what if he was being really nice and considerate right now? He was still an idiot. (Mostly. Sometimes.)

"Roxanne?" I snuggled against what I guessed was the headrest and made a noncommittal sound to show that I was still listening. A hand gently weaved through my hair and I sighed softly. That felt nice…

The last I heard was a voice saying quietly, "You really are the strangest girl I've ever met…"

Yay! Riku's finally here! And he's good at tic-tac-toe.

Next chapter: Roxas has this bad habit of forgetting to eat. No wonder Axel can pick him up like it's nothing.

Thanks for reading, I'd be more than happy if you left a review!

Shiruy

edit: Oh god! I just noticed that my chapters are getting shorter! I'm not doing it on purpose, I swear. I'll try to make the next one longer again.