-Chapter 7: Stupid, Stupid Sakura-

One thing you should know, Sora and Sakura are VERY big fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You've been warned. Now, here's why they like it so much: Sakura's into the engaging storylines and hard core romance…while Make Out scenes just make Sora horny. Sora likes to get horny. Besides that, he loves to watch things burst in to ash, especially at the hands of a blonde chick.

Throughout the entire season one DVD collection, I had to endure Sora and Sakura's oohs and ahhs. Eventually, season one ended, and Sakura immediately popped in number two. Sora starts to yawn half way though, a couple seconds later he's asleep.

Sakura stares at Sora's spiky haired head for a minute, until she hears the soft snores, light as feathers.

"He's asleep," Sakura laughs to herself, before looking up to me. I don't answer her right away, or at all. I just Sora, his mouth partly open, air whistling between his teeth.

"I think…I'm going to go…" Sakura finally says after the moment of silence. For some reason my stomach clenches and disappointment explodes through me. I realize, as she gets up and looks down at me, that I don't want her to leave; not now, not ever.

She walks towards the door, but hesitates as her hand touches the knob. "Hey, Riku, do you…?"

"Huh?" Another short pause.

"I need to…ask you something."

"What is it?" beneath my question is a feeling, a strange lightness and expectation that warms me. What is it?

"Do you…?" hope, I realize, that's what the feeling is, complete and utter hope. I want her to say something…but I don't know what it is.

"Do I what…?" I ask, anticipation now, oh so deceptive anticipation.

"I…" she closes her eyes; letting dark locks of hair block her face. Her mouth moves, as if she's asking me something, but no words come. She bites her lip, letting the small pause become an eternity of silence. "Never mind…" she whispers, "it wasn't important."

She slams the door behind her, and I close my own eyes, letting the darkness welcome me back. For the first time in months I see "The Dark Place". That cold corner of sadness that I'd crawled into when I first moved away.

There is a single feeling that reconnects me with the light; that banishes The Dark Place to the deepest parts of my mind. One feeling, a familiar feeling: disappointment.

-Namine'-

Kairi left an hour ago, to go home and enjoy the comforts of her house. But then, that's probably not the most demanding reason she has for leaving. No, she yearns to get away from Sora…I can feel it.

Destiny agrees with me.

But…I shouldn't talk about that.

After all, if anyone found out about what I see, they'd just think I'm crazy. Ever since I was five I could see a world of arts and sketches, of lies and truths that define us all. I see shadows and lights, fire and water. I know what the world is, it is destiny, and, until today, I thought that only I could see it.

But that could be a VERY wrong assumption.

After all, hadn't I seen Roxas with that same star struck expression as he stared around the room; that same expression that I used to have whenever I saw Destiny?

I told one of my friends once, about the visions, about the strange intricate web of thoughts and feelings, emotions and deaths that made up Destiny. No one believed me…except for Sakura. Even though she could not see this world, she always believed in me. She always knew that I was telling the truth.

I wonder if she still does. I wonder if she thinks about it at all.

But even though Sakura believed me, I still tried to avoid Destiny all together. Strange…I'd almost forgotten about it. Almost.

I sigh, watching as Roxas tip toes his way towards the door. We pulled an all-nighter accidentally. Me falling asleep on Roxas' chest, luckily my parents are on a month-long vacation. And Roxas spends the night at Sora's a lot, his parents have two homes, one on The Islands and one in Twilight Town. Roxas chose to stay permanently on The Islands instead of switching schools every other month.

Roxas isn't too happy with the situation…he thinks his parents should just stay in one spot, to grow roots and become healthy parental plants. I agree with him.

"Hey…Roxas?" I whisper, making a quick decision.

He turns back to me, an eager look on his face. "Yeah?"

"Do you…want to see my room?" his eyes grow wide and a huge smile appears on his face. I've never shown him my room before…for certain reasons.

"That'd be great!" he runs past me, towards the hall way. Now he's going to see my room, for the very first time.

My door is all white, unlike the rest of the house, which is painted various colors of tan and yellow. Behind that door is a room, just as white as the entrance, and I can see Roxas' wide eyed expression as he enters. There are pictures every where, small sketches pinned to every wall; some paintings hang around, suspended by metal nails.

One picture has fallen though, and it's the one picture I don't want him to see. But before I can get it, Roxas snatches it off the ground, his amazed expression still present on his face.

His expression changes, first to one of confusion, then realization, shocked amazement, and then a huge smile. "Is this us?" he asks, turning towards me. I stare at the paper for the first time in a long time.

It depicts us, Roxas and I, our faces connected by our lips, my hand stroking Roxas' cheek. There are special red shadings to our faces, to emphasize blushing.

It's one of the best pictures I have ever done, full of detail and intricate design. I wonder if he sees these details. I wonder if he sees Destiny in my art.

I smile absentmindedly at the picture; "Do you," a real blush crawls up my neck, "like it?"

"I love it! I never knew you were an artist! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was…" I search for the right word "embarrassed about my pictures. And I was scared…I was scared that you wouldn't like them. I thought you'd think I was… untalented."

"I could never think that," he says, gesturing wildly to the pictures, "they are all great."

"Really…well…I have one more question."

"Shoot."

"Can you see…it?"

His eyes close, and I see him smile, "Can I see Destiny? Is that what you're asking?"

"Yes."

"Then yeah, I can see it…and it's…amazing."

"Good, because I can see it too—"I can't finish my sentence, because in five seconds Roxas' lips are glued to mine. Heat flows between us, blind, unchained flames. Destiny is all around us, pushing us fourth and presenting our choices. In the end we are all its slaves…slaves to fate and its many twists and turns.

Is this what it feels like to be free?

-Sakura-

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

God Sakura, you are SO stupid.

Why didn't you just tell him that you like him? Huh? Why couldn't you just DO that? I mean, you've never been shy before. Why now? Why the hell didn't I tell him…?

I sigh, slamming my "new" bedroom door behind me. I'm in Namine's house (of course), and for the past five minutes I've been mentally kicking myself.

I mean, why the hell didn't I admit my feelings to Riku? I mean…just…WHY? It makes absolutely no sense to keep these feelings to myself. I've never been shy, never been skittish, I've always been able to tell guys what's what and then some. But Riku…pretty, pretty Riku brings me to my knees. He turns me from the Super-mega-mistress-of-Bad-Assery to a shivering pile of empty "idiot-ness". I hate how he makes me feel, like a pile of slowly rotting Jelly.

I laugh at myself as I kick off my fancy boots. Slowly rotting Jelly…now there's an analogy you don't see every day.

I collapse on to my bed, loving the feeling of the sheets against my neck.

Stupid, stupid Riku why do you have to ruin everything?

'I don't usually care this much about a guy,' I note dryly. 'I wonder what's different about him…'

-Axel-

I stumble into Roxas' apartment with clumsy feet. I feel like my head's about to split apart…this hang over is a BITCH.

"Hey Rox?" I hiccup.

"Axel?" a voice responds from somewhere in the house. "Is that you?" A spiky haired boy trips his way into my line of vision. He wears only a pair of boxers, and there's a bit of drool on his chin. I'm oddly coherent for someone with a hell-fire headache…

"Kill me…" I whisper, falling to my knees.

Roxas runs towards me, calling my name. I feel pressure on my shoulder—probably his—it hurts, just like the rest of my body. "What's wrong, Ax?"

"Stop it, Rox," I choke out, a tiny bit of tears falling down my face. I haven't cried in such a long while. "It hurts…please stop Roxas!" I beg, feeling the pressure recede from my shoulder. But the pounding head is still there, and my achy arms and legs.

"What's wrong?" he asks again, keeling down in front of me, so our faces are level.

"Nothing…it just hurts, that's all…" I mumble; it's hard to talk now, as if all of my senses are slowly failing me. I wonder, is it possible for a girl to steal your feelings, to make you go numb? Or maybe that was just the alcohol.

Roxas sniffs, then lowers his face closer to mine, and sniffs again.

"What the hell are you doing?" I ask, but it comes out jumbled and wrong, the words not making sense together. And the pain…the pain in my head is terrible.

"You've been drinking!" he suddenly explains, his mouth gaping.

"No I haven't."

"Yeah you have."

"Haven't."

"Have."

"Haven't"

"Have so."

"Have not!"

"Don't deny it, your breath smells like year old beer mixed with vomit."

"Um…thanks?" I look around his house, noticing how his parents are absent, again. It looks like they didn't come back this month. Damn, Roxas must be sad about that…and I haven't paid ANY attention to him. God…I've been so selfish.

"Why were you drinking?" he asks, interrupting my jumbled thoughts. The flames inside my head are still ravaging, I feel like my red-as-fire hair is going to burst into actual flames if I'm not careful. I hate this feeling…

"Larxene…I think better when I'm drunk," I hiccup again, "but the hangover thing is a bit of a drawback."

I laugh.

He doesn't.

"You promised you wouldn't drink anymore."

"What are you, my mother? It's either this, or I set random shit on fire—"

"Don't cuss."

I glare at him some more before sighing. "Larxene…she's still with Xemnas. And it's like he's holding her hostage, and there's just…there's just nothing I can do…there's no plan…there's no nothing," I let a tiny tear escape my eyes, before wiping it away.

Damn it, this is no way for a pyromaniac to act!

"It's okay Ax. You can't be expected to save everyone. I mean, everyone always thinks you're the bad-ass emo slash spiky-haired-hero, but even you need a break."

"I thought it was just 'bad ass emo'".

"It was. But now you've reached hero status. Don't worry; Sora and I will find a way to save Larxene…and get Kairi to apologize…and find out what's going on with Sakura…"

"We have a lot to do," I smile to myself, doing my best to ignore the terrible pain that's searing my eyes.

"Yeah, do you need a hug?"

He looks at me seriously, and I almost break into girlish giggles. "Yeah, but can we wait for you to get some clothes on?" I flicker my gaze down to his boxers for a second, then back to his face, hoping he gets the message.

"Oh," blushes explode over him in frenzy.

"Yeah oh," I laugh as he practically knocks his door over in his haste to cover himself. "You shouldn't be so modest…its unhealthy. Besides, I wouldn't leave me alone in your house…there is highly flammable content in your kitchen!"

Hey, guys gotta have his hobbies.

A/N Okay, well I promised a "Late night visit" for Riku, but decided to put that off until the next chapter.

I'm glad to see that a lot of you like this story. That really boosts my confidence. After all, what would we writers do if we didn't have reviewers? Burst into flames of course. Thank you all for giving DD a chance, and exploring the sequel. I feel like I've gone a long way since that first humor-filled chapter of DD. And now look where I am? On chapter seven of the sequel! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO proud of myself right now. Allow me to bask in my own gloating…ah that feels good.

Next time on ROCKY RELATIONSHIPS: Sakura visits Riku after hours (for real this time), will she admit her feelings, or will it all blow up in her face? Kairi and Sora avoid each other, and Axel searches for a way to save Larxene, before it's to late.

R&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!