Super sorry for the delay. No excuses (except for school and part-time work, but who's making excuses?). Read please!

Roxas had been raised a good, normal boy. He wasn't the type of child to have fits or act spoiled. His late parents had adored him and never scolded him. He did relatively well in school and was athletic enough. No one ever had anything bad to say about him either. When he was a child, he went to church every Sunday and sometimes on the weekdays when his mother had dangled him along. He wasn't sure exactly what that entailed, but he supposed it should have given him some minor good luck or something. He wasn't asking for any salvation, but just a little good luck now or then couldn't hurt, right?

But, Roxas had given it a great deal of thought and had come to a conclusion. Unfortunately, his supposed good luck wasn't really working out too well. First, he couldn't properly walk anywhere without feeling a fifty ton weight on his back or some odd groping here or there. Two, his hair was constantly in bed head mode (that didn't really count as horribly bad luck, but it did have some sort of bad luck attached to it). Third, and lastly, he was the new recruit of TTIP.

That, in itself, was just as worse as item number one. That was his logical thought. His boss, Leon/Squall hated him. He couldn't be absolutely sure as his boss wasn't the most active speaker of the group, but he had been given subtle, slight hints. Roxas didn't know much about his boss, but he deciphered the to hints to mean his boss had made an effort to show his dislike when the man showed little emotion for anything, except for his rules and his name.

"Where should I put the boxes Squall?"

"Leon."

"Um…Leon, where should I put them?"

The longhaired brunette strapped in leather barely noticed him other than a point in the general direction of the kitchen as Roxas dangerously wobbled with a box at least half his weight.

"Anything else, Squall?"

"…."

"Erm, Squall?"

"…."

"Leon?"

"Um…Squalleon?"

Rikku had unceremoniously jumped on him before his question had been answered, but Roxas knew his boss wasn't going to answer it anytime soon, if at all. That's when he began to call Squall/Leon 'Boss'. It was shorter and saved Roxas the trouble of fidgeting with the problem of which name to use.

Roxas set the box upon the round table in the kitchen. Come to think of it, Roxas thought, he hadn't even met all of the members of TTIP. There was the silent Boss, the happy Sora, the super happy Rikku, the Kairi (Roxas still didn't know every much about her), the short-tempered Cloud, the Cloud-loving Tifa, and the enigma that was Namine. He was sure that Rikku or Sora had mentioned other members, but there had been no appearance of the elusive characters yet.

He slumped down on a wicker chair and wiped his brow. Sure, the job was supposed to do with the paranormal and otherworldly, but at the moment it was nothing other than hard, monotonous labor. Then again, his job was more of the male damsel, but there was some interaction with the supernatural (like getting smushed by them).

"Good job, newbie!" Rikku exclaimed enthusiastically, handing him a soda. She pulled herself on the table and rested her arm on the box. Her legs flailed on the edge of the table.

"…Thanks." Roxas reluctantly mumbled.

"You don't sound very happy."

"Really."

"You know…" Rikku moved her fingers on Roxas' arm, her manicured nails lightly trailing down his arm. "I would have helped you, but, you know, I just did my nails so that would be a big no-no right now."

Roxas sighed before answering. "Then where is everyone else? Or why didn't Boss help me?"

"One: Boss does NOT help. He observes. He whines about his name or whatnot. He does not, and I repeat, does not, help." Rikku waved her colored nails in front of his face. "Two: Boss is not in the building at the moment and nor do I think he will be for the rest of the day." Roxas leaned over and looked out the door. The couch was intact, but there was no trace of a brown-haired man on it. He must have left right after I spoke to him, Roxas thought.

"And third: everyone else is out doing cases, so you're the one who has to do the heavy duty work, so to speak." Rikku said.

"Then why are you here?"

"Obviously," Rikku drawled, "I'm here to protect you."

The man stood in the darkened street. The stars twinkled overhead, shedding dim lighting over the dark area. He flicked his lighter out and pulled a cigarette to the faint light and pocketed the lighter again. He inhaled.

He examined the shoe prints leading along the street. They faded as he observed each. He looked overhead to a mansion in the distance, lights illuminating in each window. He exhaled; there was going to be a long night ahead of him. His thoughts barely brushed over a slight concern on his new employee. He idly wondered if his other, more exuberant, employee was harassing said employee. Better safe than sorry, he rationalized.

"Thought you weren't going to make it." A man said, appearing from the shadows. His hair glinted under the light of the street lamps as the lights wavered, unseen by the two men. He raised his hand to the older man. "Shall we go?"

The man passed him, avoiding the outstretched hand as he brushed him. "I'm not paying you overtime."

The other, younger man smiled. "Didn't think you would."

The two walked in silence, the mansion shining on their path.

His pickles looked morose to him. If pickles can do that. He didn't know, he didn't like pickles. Yet there they were, increasing in number on the side of his place. His pickles were still neatly packed into his burger. He had specifically asked for no pickles, but there they were, contently tucked inside the blanket that was the burger buns. He yawned.

A thin finger placed another pickle on the edge of his place. A face pouted at him. "I'm sorry. I just don't like pickles."

The face belonged to Tifa.

Cloud wasn't sure why Tifa was sitting across from him in the yellow plastic booth, or why she was putting pickles in his plate. Oh, she didn't like them. Cloud thought that was strange; he didn't like pickles either. He picked up the limp pickles and folded them into a napkin with his own pickles. Tifa gave him disapproving look.

"That's a waste of food."

"….what?"

"There's like millions of people in this world without food, and here you are, stuffing precious, life-sustaining food into a napkin, and thus, wasting the napkin. Which wastes trees…" Cloud zoned out. Or at least he thought he did. He could see Tifa's lips moving up and down, but he couldn't hear what was coming out of them.

"Sorry…"

Tifa's eyes bulged for a moment. Then they popped right back in with a squelch noise. Or maybe Cloud was hallucinating. He had been doing a lot of cases recently…when was the last time he slept? Two…three days ago? His eye unconsciously twitched to affirm his sleep depravation. Cloud's eyes blinked open when he felt a cool presence under them.

Tifa's forefinger was tracing the darkening bag under Cloud's left eye. Cloud, again, wasn't sure (he hadn't slept in awhile, after all), but it seemed that Tifa looked sad. Her eyes were downcast and even her gentle fingers seemed to hesitate on his skin.

"Cloud…I…I…" Her fingers lifted from his face. She looked serious and her fingers were awkwardly placed at his wrist. Cloud noticed she was a lot more colored than he was. Not to say that her skin was dark, but rather that her skin had more color in them. Cloud's skin was almost bloodless; he had not trace of blush or tint on his pale skin. Her voice abruptly changed. "You need some sleep Cloud, you don't look so good. Your face is so thin and white…"

Cloud stretched the edges of his mouth and smiled. Not the kind of smile where you can feel the muscles on the sides of your mouth stretch, but the kind where it comes naturally; you don't have to try or think about it. You just smile.

Tifa still looked serious though. "I know…I haven't been with you as long as …well as long as childhood friends usually do, but I want you to know that I care for you. I want you to be healthy … and happy." She retracted her hand and crossed them together. "You don't look happy."

…That sounds familiar.

"Thank you…Tifa. I will get some sleep…"

"..later." Tifa and Cloud's voices chorused. Tifa half-smiled. "Like I haven't heard that one before."

Cloud's phone rang. He answered. "Yeah…food. Tifa. Now? But—" The phone beeped as the call disconnected. "He's just like Squall. He has no patience."

"Yeah, but unlike Squall, he shows it," Tifa commented. She stood up. "I'll pay. Squall just gave me my paycheck."

"Sure? You haven't even eaten your burger…" Cloud eyed Tifa's burger.

Tifa asked the cashier for a box and placed the burger within it. "Well, someone always gets hungry after the job."

"Yeah he does." Cloud agreed.

Tifa lightly laughed. "I was talking about you."

"..Oh." Cloud stated, his plate resting on the table, sparkling clean.

Sora lounged on the couch. Namine sat on the floor, distantly gazing at her cards.

"Hey Nam, do you know when the others are going to come?"

Sora flopped up as Kairi walked through the door. Her hair was mussed and her sweater reached down to almost her knees. "Hi guys."

"Whoah, Kairi."

"Shut up. I've worked all day and I want to be lazy."

Sora put his hands up. "I meant to harm. Good look, I swear." Kairi sat down next to him and watched Namine. Who watched her cards.

"Kairi?"

"Yeah?"

"No."

Sora looked down to see Namine staring directly at him. "We're going to them. Now." She held up a card.

"What does that mean?" Sora blankly asked, scratching his head.

Namine's voice rang clear. "The Wheel of Fortune."

"That's not a bad card though, is it?" Kairi asked. She scooted closer to Sora and clutched to the sleeve of his shirt.

"Not always. But…" Namine picked several cards from her deck again. "With this alignment, the card symbolizes unexpected events, inevitable fate, bad luck, and failure. Tonight…is unclear." Namine finished, her eyes void of emotion.

"Ahh, my back," Roxas grumbled, collapsing onto the couch in the front room. Boss wasn't there so he didn't have to worry about 'warding' off customers.

He had accomplished the feat of carrying all the boxes into the kitchen (a.k.a. back room) and arranged them into a neat corner. His back, however, was aching and Roxas swore he could feel a blister on his foot. To make it worse, he was tired and hungry. Rikku had left several hours earlier and promised to return with food, but there was no sign of the hyperactive blonde. He turned on his side and faced the interior of the couch. And closed his eyes and gradually fell asleep.

The phone rang. Roxas jumped up from his sleep and pushed his messy hair form his face. He scrambled up and tried to remember where Boss had said was the office phone. He caught the glimpse of something beeping under the table next to the couch. He ducked down and saw the telephone. He answered. "Hello, this is the Twilight Town Institute of Psych, how may I help you?" Roxas was astounded by the tone of professionalism in his voice.

"Roxas?! Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me…Sora, are you okay?" Roxas quickly replied, surprised that Sora could be so upset. Sora answered and the line disconnected.

"Sora! Sora! What happened to Rikku?" Roxas shouted into the receiver. He began to search the drawers of the cabinet for Sora's cell number, but a thud sounded at the door. Roxas cautiously opened the door.

"Roxas, we have to go." Kairi stood at the door. She wore a long sweater that seemed to be tattered at the ends, as if they had been burned or slashed off. Her hair was plastered to her face and tears pricked down her panicked face.

"What happened?" Roxas asked again, frustrated at the fact that no one would answer him. "Where's Sora and Rikku?"

"Rikku…" Kairi repeated, her eyes seemingly lost for a second. She grabbed his hand with a look of determination. "No time. We have to go."

Kairi dragged Roxas down a path that he couldn't recognize. He knew the town inside and out, but the particular road was abandoned and…different. He couldn't see anything, except for a mansion at the end of the road, lights radiating in each window.

End of the 2nd chapter! This is almost like an arc, in which this would be called…can't tell yet. For now, the 'mansion'. Its real name will show up. I will try to keep a more regular schedule, sorry. Oh and still no Axel. Or is there? . Next chapter, I swear.

(0 0) -- if that strange smiley could talk, it would say "review". Seriously.