Disclaimer: If these characters belonged to me, Roxas and Sora would be chained to my wall… Naked... -checks wall- Nope, don't see 'em...

I have to thank Kayu Silverfor her wonderful review! Made me smile like a fat kid with cake. Thanks to everyone else who reviewed! Mm… reviewy goodness…

Now, I'm aware that quite a few of you guys are lost. Well, I want to begin the story this way. Things will become clearer as it moves on, but there may be spoilers in this.

I don't want you guys complaining that I spoiled the game for you, 'kay? Roxas is a character from KH2; who was in the first chapter. This should at least hint that there is a possibility that this fic will have spoilers in it.

.:C h a p t e r II:.

"First on our agenda: Find Naminé."

"The witch?" Axel looked over the rack of clothing to see Sora looking at a pair of dark navy-blue shorts.

Sora didn't look away from the clothing displayed. "Don't call her that. She can just manipulate memories is all."

"A witch in other words." The redhead rolled his eyes, leaning down to check the price tag on a black ribbed turtleneck. "And you're wrong. She can only manipulate the memories of people you've had contact with, kid."

Sora scowled, though it came out as more of a pout, "I'm not a kid anymore." He whined. "I'm probably older than you…"

'Overall, that was really childish.' Axel thought, sniggering, tapping his fingers over the hangers of each article of clothing hanging on the rack as he moved down. He eyed the price tag on a top. "Whatever. Anyway, we don't know if Naminé can still manipulate memories or not. We may just find her and she'll file a restraining order."

"Still; it's worth a shot. I mean; how else are we gonna stay here? If Naminé doesn't change a few things, people are gonna be suspicious about why two people --who they have no record of, what-so-ever-- show up out of nowhere."

The kid sounded mature…

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Quit sounding mature. You're supposed to be the 'arrogant foolwith the Keyblade'." Axel drew himself up to full height and furrowed his brow together, slowing his words till they almost sounded like they were slurred together.

Sora turned around. He eyed the redhead, a lopsided grin creeping onto his face. He had to admit; it was a pretty good impression of Xemnas… "Is that what I was to the Organization?"

"Well… to Xemnas, anyway." Axel snickered. He crossed his arms and grinned crookedly at Sora. The Keyblade Master rolled his eyes and continued to look around.

'How Axel-ish…'

The pyromaniac gestured with his hands, moving them around in the air as if trying to convey his memory into a palpable form. "Vexen saw you as another test subject to study... Xigbar thought you were the funniest thing other than Demyx to pick on… Saïx thought you were adorable…"

Sora did a take, nearly tripping over his own feet trying to turn around. "W-wha? Wait a sec. Saïx thought I was cute?"

"Hey… did you know that if you move the letters around in Xemnas's name it spells out mansex?"

0-0-0-0-0

…tic…

THUNK

…tic…

THUNK

…tic…

Head resting on the countertop, Roxas glared at the clock on the wall as it happily ticked away above the vending machine. The urge to chuck something at said happy clock was becoming much harder to resist as it gave another '…tic…' like it had been doing for the whole day.

Moving his glare from the clock --really, it was quite unfair to take it out on an inanimate object-- he turned to glare down the aisle to his left and at the door that was Cid's office.

After the silver-haired asshole had gone in to reason with Cid, Riku had come running back out, barely dodging the stapler thrown at his head. Cid had been hot on his heels, though. Grabbing the nearest thing (which so happened to be a Vault energy drink) and chucked it at Riku. It had missed and the top had broken off, spilling the sticky green drink all across the floor. Following this was a long string of curse words --some of which, Roxas had never head of--, and something about shoving something unpleasant up Riku's ass.

It was an odd relationship between the two; one of those: "I scratch your back, you attack mine with garden rake" kind of relationship. Roxas didn't need (nor want) to know how Riku got along with the rest of his family.

This had continued for roughly ten minutes before Cid had finally resigned to let Riku park in the back. Really, Roxas didn't see why Cid was so protective of the back of the shop…

The whole aisle was a wreck. Bottles, bags, and containers had been littered about the floor, contents spilled and scattered up and down the aisle.

Roxas frowned, remembering how, after the animal crackers and soaked up the liquids on the floor, they had stuck to the tile like glue. He had had to get down on his knees and scrub the sticky mess by hand… The ones he had been able to peel off… well, let's just say the Vault, by then, had reduced itself to some sort of 'goo'.

Overall, he was tired as fuck and waiting for Yuffie to show up so he could go home and likely pass out somewhere.

…tic…

"RRAGH!"

0-0-0-0-0

I hissed when I reached down to touch a nicely forming bruise on my hip, courtesy of Cid and a nicely aimed box of cashews. For a guy who's nearly forty, the old man had quite an arm on him…

"Come on, Riku!" Selphie let out a long sigh, her small shoulders slumping.

Of course, the battle in the store had done nothing to deter Selphie and her mission in the mall…

Selphie swung her skinny arms back and forth, occasionally stopping to press out a wrinkle in her yellow blouse or adjust the bow tied loosely.

I stood from my spot on the bench, sighing as I trudged over to Selphie, carting a few shopping bags on each arm. I now despised Abercrombie & Finch. For one, we were in the shop for three hours. Two, almost every girl working in the shop had come over to ask if I needed anything; one girl had actually come over to ask if I needed help three different times... and she didn't even work there.

"Let's go there next!" Selphie pointed to another shop.

I paled.

"I will not go with you into Build a Bear Workshop. There is no way you are getting me to go in there."

"Pleeeease, Ri-ku!" Selphie pleaded, grabbing my arm. She held on tightly, small hands slowly clenching around the skin and pinching it. "You promised."

Translation: "And I promise that, if you don't go in with me, I will tell Seph who ripped his favorite leather jacket."

"Can't I just sit on a bench and wait?" "I would rather gag myself naked from that sign than go in there."

"But I want your opinion." "…On how I should tell Seph about it."

There was a moment where we just locked eyes: mine, smoldering into hers, telling her that I would not move. Her eyes, however, reflected differently. It included me, gagging on my own blood from the kitchen knife-like cut across my neck, Seph standing over me, while Selphie was behind him, laughing.

"Fine." "Where's God? I want a refund on my life, now!"

"Booyaka!" "I win."

0-0-0-0-0

Roxas winced as the front door of the shop burst open, the handle slamming into the wall behind it. He was pretty sure he was going to be fixing that later…

"The Great Ninja Yuffie, reporting for duty!"

At least he could go home now…

The teen behind the counter sighed and inclined his head to look at raven-haired girl standing in the doorway. "Please tell me you haven't been shoplifting 'free' samples from the drugstore again?"

Yuffie ignored him and dropped her green duffle bag on top of the counter. She ruffled through it. "So, where's pops?"

"In the back… probably still sulking." Roxas watched her pull out various items; including a wallet, a large wash-worn T-shirt, and a pair of flip-flops.

Yuffie didn't look up as she pulled out a few other things. "Did Riku park in the back again --Where is it?" The girl pulled out more things, and began unzipping the pockets on the sides of the bag.

Roxas merely watched, just wanting to go home already.

"Whatever it is, Yuff, you can show me tomorrow. I'm heading home."

Yuffie stopped her search, looking up and placing her hands on her hips. "Nonono! You have to see this picture I took of this totally hot guy at the mall! "

Roxas got up, walking over to the hangers in the back and untying his red apron as he went. "Show me later. I'm going home." He removed his carrier bag off the post and slipping the apron on in its place.

"Oh! Here it is!"

He returned to the front to see Yuffie slide her cell phone out from her back pocket and begin to punch the buttons, no doubt looking for the picture she had taken. The girl took so many pictures –of mainly hot men- and she always always showed them to Roxas.

"Squall… Squall… Squall… Squall…" Roxas winced. Leon would kill her if he ever found out how many different photos she had of him. He'd probably smash the phone, too. Just for good measure. "Squall… Squall… Riku… Squall…"

Roxas shook his head and cast a glance toward the backdoor, wondering if he could make it by without the odd girl noticing him.

Inching toward the stack of Lays Sour Cream and Onion potatoe chips, Roxas slid around, risking a peak back to see Yuffie still scrolling.

Moving back around and quickly walking to the door, Roxas quietly turned the handle. He pushed it carrier bag past when the door was open with just enough room for him to squeeze through, and then followed suit.

"Squally… Squally… Squally… Hey!" Yuffie turned around, smiling brightly. "Here he is!"

And was met with no Roxas.

"Roxas? Heeey!"

Giving an indignant huff, Yuffie slapped her cell phone down on the till and moved toward the microwave. She grabbed the dispensable cloth resting the counter and began to clean up the stains of chili and nacho cheese. Yuffie opened the door to the microwave --muttering something about Roxas and gouging out his eyes with a plastic spoon-- and she paused.

"Why's the clock in the microwave?"

0-0-0-0-0

Pale fingers held the red pastel between the thumb and ring fingers. The hand moved in a brisk, short, motion, lifting off the paper and returning to the starting point quickly. The proficient motion depicted hair on paper.

Setting down the coloring instrument, the hand ran up and brushed a lock of blonde hair behind the owner's ear.

Naminé smiled.

"Done."

"Let me see!" Kairi pushed herself up from the where she sat, walking over to stand behind Naminé. Her cerulean blue scanned the page as she stood behind Naminé. "You're getting better at drawing hair you know!"

"You think so?" She asked softly, running her fingers across the spirals at the top of the sketchbook.

Kairi smiled, "Of course, silly." She looked back at the picture. It was depicted as a portrait; Kairi sitting on the lip of a large potted plant, smiling in her blue jeans and brown silk strap dress over a pink quarter-length sleeved shirt. The light from the large ceiling windows of the mall directed a sunny light down on her hair and the leaves of the plant, giving her an almost delicate, warm, glow.

Really, Naminé was amazing at drawing; the girl was just sometimes too reserved about her talent.

"Mm…" Naminé hummed, staring at the picture.

"But… What's that right there?" Kairi leaned over from behind the blonde, pointing at the people in the crowd behind her.

"Oh… I saw this guy… with red hair pass by… and a guy who kinda looked like Roxas… I just thought it would add some color to the back."

"Roxas?" Kairi looked down at her friend, blue eyes questioning. "Who's Roxas?"

But Naminé only smiled, shaking her head and pulling Kairi toward the movie theater.

She didn't need to worry Kairi. Naminé thought, listening half-heartedly to Kairi while the redhead pointed at the nearby poster of a new movie. She didn't want Kairi to worry.

Because she didn't need to know that Naminé would be the one to make her forget the name…

0-0-0-0-0

"I feel like a fuckin' stalker." Axel grumbled, looking at the display case of clothes with no real interest. The reflection was wavy and smeared, but he could just make out the blots that were the two girls sitting adjacent to children's center.

"Then quit looking at them every ten seconds. Then maybe you wouldn't seem so suspicious." Sora laughed. It really was Kairi… and Naminé. Now that he thought about it, Sora really had missed them both.

Axel was about to snap at the Keyblade master, ready to tell him that, with his hair and tattoos, he looked suspicious no matter what, but he noticed the other's unfocused gaze, and sighed, putting a gloved hand on Sora's shoulder. When Sora looked up to Axel in question, the redhead smirked. "What now capt'n?"

Seeing the two girls head toward the movie theater, Sora didn't miss Naminé stuffing her sketchpad into her backpack hurriedly, almost shoving her pastels into its case and into the side pocket.

"We say hi."

0-0-0-0-0

The bright yellow colors and childish art scared me. And I mean scared as in disturbed.

I looked away as Selphie stood in front of a long line of kids, clutching that silly red heart to her chest and dancing around like she had been instructed to.

It was childish, and almost embarrassing just to watch.

The man at the stuffing machine seemed to be thinking something along the same lines. "Zexion" (as his nametag read) held the hose in one hand and watched with an almost mortified expression as he told Selphie the instructions. When Selphie was done parading around, she handed him the cream-colored bunny she had chosen and he --rather violently-- stuffed it onto the hose and began to fill it up with stuffing.

"Here you are," he deadpanned, holding out the bunny by the ear, like it carried some infectious disease. "Now, go choose some clothing for your rabbit. You can then go over to the naming center and give your rabbit a unique name and receive a certificate that he's yours."

"She!" Selphie announced, stomping her foot.

"Whatever…" Zexion's visible blue eyes glared, daring her to say something else. Really, I never thought I'd see the day where an emo was working at Build-a-Bear.

I spent the next half hour 'giving advice' on what her rabbit would wear and, after we had finally left --Selphie swinging the cardboard box with Lady Flufflesty in it-- Zexion was now working by the door, handing out stickers and looking just as miserable as earlier.

Selphie waved goodbye to him, taking Lady Flufflesty out of her box and making the stuffed animal wave bye, as well.

While Selphie was busy putting the rabbit back in its box, I was the only one who saw Zexion flip the insult (not the offer) and a few mothers shield their children's eyes.

.: E n d C h a p t e r:.

Author Ramblings:

It's true… screwing with the letters enough, you can get 'Mansex' out of Xemnas…

Sora: That's twisted.

Sorry if this chapter was a bit rushed. A storm blew in and I rushed to finish it since I was afraid I would lose my inspiration... and possibly my computer… I've been kicking at the idea of Zexion working at "Build a Bear" for quite some time. Haha… little emo Zexy working at such a bright place… X3 Made me giggle…

Music: The Living End: "The End Of the World"