A/N: Finally! I told you updates would be weekly, natch. Anyway, I'm still deciding whether to put up only one or two chapters per week. I sometimes write fast. So anyway, if you want to hear the Nobodies' side of the story read the companion fic, Nobody's Perfect.

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: Oh, the deal didn't go through. Stupid bouncing check, I told them to make sure no one would... oh, Kingdom Hearts is still Tetsuya Nomura's.

VII: Routine

"So... let me get this straight," Kairi said over her glass of paopu juice. "Roxas. You just kind of woke up with Sora gone."

"Why do I always have to repeat myself?" Roxas rolled his eyes, at which Naminé shot him a glare. He quickly clamped his mouth shut.

"Then you find a place there (he nodded) and then you catch a Gummi Ship here to take Naminé (he nodded again). You got a job as a..."

"I told you, called King Mickey and told him, well, what happened."

"And then..."

"Kai, please. You three are just repeating yourselves," Riku sighed as he stirred his iced tea (no longer iced, the time it took them to explain). It was pretty clear that the two already told them everything they remembered. "So Sora did something to separate himself and Roxas, and Roxas pulled Naminé out of Kairi. Now you two live in Twilight Town."

"That was what I had been trying to say for the last fifteen minutes, Riku," Roxas said loudly, his blue eyes reflecting acute irritation (oh, was it really irritation? As far as he knew Nobodies could not feel any emotion whatsoever).

"And you have absolutely no idea where Sora is?" Kairi asked, the hope in her voice almost too painful to bear.

"Sorry, but no."

Naminé bowed her head, apparently lost in the depths of her glass of sparkling grape juice.

"Well, I guess we really just have to keep looking for him..." he shook his silver bangs out of his eyes, catching what he thought was a slight nod of Naminé's directed at Roxas. Must've been my imagination, he thought.

"That was a bit... selfish of Sora, to go and leave just like that," she suddenly spoke up, her cerulean orbs staring straight into his aquamarine eyes. "He should've---"

"Should've. We're not him, so why even bother thinking what he should've done?" Kairi cut across her curtly (which was a very far cry from what she was feeling earlier).

Naminé bit her lip. "Uh, Kai, that's a bit too--"

"Oh, I just remembered, I have to talk with my Spellcasting teach," Riku stared as the redhead stood up abruptly and walked away without another word.

"Yay. Somebody else hates Sora," Roxas muttered.

"What was that?" Riku asked. "Somebody else?"

For some reason Naminé shot Roxas another look. "Ignore him, he was kinda caught up in the whole walk-out thing."

"Oh."

He stared at the door where Kairi had walked (more like stormed) through earlier. She really took Sora leaving and breaking their promise hard; Kairi was a girl who liked promises kept. She'd most likely throttle Sora on sight.

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Throttle him.

Yes, that's what'll she do when she sees him. While she was not known for being so violent she will most likely throttle Sora. She loved him, and she knew he loved her, so why would he go off like that? Saving the world against saving your love...!

Throttle him.

Or maybe he has another girl. Not so impossible, considering how Sora's spent almost three years of his life wandering around some random world (some of which no Gummi Ship could possibly reach in the near future).

Throttle him.

She brushed her hair and stared at herself in the mirror. She was usually perky in the mornings, but after a highly unusual dream last night, she... was kinda tired. Dreaming of Sora was something normal to her now. This particular dream had Roxas and Naminé in it too.

Sometimes she had the feeling that Roxas and Naminé were hiding something. Well, she didn't try to ask, because some of the things they related were too...horrifying to digest. Like how DiZ rivaled them for being heartless. (She figured the two hated DiZ badly from the way they said his name) That and what happened in this... Castle Oblivion. She shuddered. Stop thinking about that.

The two Nobodies were fitting in perfectly. Well, she figured that from the legions of admirers the two had acquired. Naminé had even scored an invite to try out for the cheerleading team (of which she was a member), and, Kairi suspected, she would pass with flying colors if she accepted.

Well, Naminé and Selphie accompanied her around most of the time, they had almost every class together. Having Naminé meant having Roxas around, too, but lately, he had been hanging out with Riku and the other boys.

She found that a relief. Seeing Roxas was like a reminder that Sora was gone. She missed him. She really did. But life went on; and she was slowly getting used to going around without Sora's presence. It was slowly getting like the time Naminé broke apart Sora's memories (She still hadn't gotten over that and the fact that Naminé manipulates memories); she was slowly forgetting him. No, she wasn't forgetting him! She was just...moving on.

And that scared her the most.

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"I was going to wait for Naminé.. we go home together."

There was something in Roxas' voice that tipped him off. He was hiding something.

"Home...?"

He watched as the blonde scratched his head. "Yeah, we catch the Gummi ship to Twilight together."

"Why not study in Twilight Academy?" he asked.

"Uhhh... We... we're drawn here, you know, being Sora and Kairi's Nobodies and everything..."

"But the Gummi Ship takes about an hour to get to Twilight, Roxas."

"Time management?"

Riku stopped walking and turned to him. He smiled. "You portal out, don't you?"

"Us? Uh, portal...?"

"I wielded darkness once, you know. I know how the Corridors work."

Roxas sighed. "Yeah. People panic when you appear out of nowhere, so me and Nam agreed on a hidden place to portal out. It's basic Organization rules."

Something twinged in Riku's memory. Organization XIII. Sora's Nobody.

We have to convert Roxas into data and return him to Sora.

Poor thing.

"Uh, Roxas? Sorry for...well... you know, taking you down and---"

"I know you're sorry, Riku. You just did what you had to do to save a friend." he looked away.

"And I'm going to save him again. The trouble Sora gets into..."

"What do you mean?"

"Where's Sora?"

Roxas grinned. "Funny, I was the one asking last time. I told you, I don't remember."

Riku smiled back. "You're hiding something. Come on, as long as he's not dead, I swear I won't kill you, whatever reason you have for hiding him."

Cerulean peered up into aquamarine. "Has anyone even succeeded in lying to you?"

"No. No one."

"Bother. Fine. Just don't tell Kairi, Sora made me promise that."

"You're lying again."

"Okay, he didn't exactly make me promise... it's kinda what he wanted all the same."

"What shouldn't I tell Kairi?"

"One: Sora not only separated from me, but he brought back Organization XIII."

Riku jerked back involuntarily; he resurrected Organization XIII! What was Sora thinking? "I'm presuming there's a two."

"Two: He's locked inside Kingdom Hearts." Roxas laughed weakly.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, Roxas Hikari."

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The beach was always a welcome sight. Especially inside Kingdom Hearts.

"Finally!" he yelled as he ran down to the water. Heartless didn't dare tread on Nobody territory (or so he thought, from Roxas' memories, this was where he and Xemnas met face to face); that was a relief, he was tired from fighting Heartless anyway.

He grinned as he dabbled a hand in the water. At least the waves sound the same. On said waves light shimmered.

He looked up as his door to the light (as Key to Kingdom Hearts and Wielder of light, there was a lot of things he could do here.) opened.

Laughing out loud he ran into the water.

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That was the shortest chapter I had ever written. It's kind of like an interlude of sorts; a major event is in the next chapter, see? Speaking of next chapter, as in Nobody's Perfect, I'm not posting until I have reached a certain number of reviews. Call me evil, but hey, a writer needs her critics (or something like that). Flamers, here's the welcome mat.

Is Sora really going to get out of Kingdom Hearts? Review and you'll find out soon enough. Next chapter's about the Halloween Dance and is titled "Masquerade". Bit tragic. though.

Love you all! See you!