Wow! Chapter three already! I really like this chapter, and I hope you do to. Read on!
I don't own the characters, I just like to play with them.
Chapter Three: Unbroken Mirror
Marluxa's deep voice did not match the man who stood before him. Jagged, pink hair brushed Marluxa's shoulders and an upturned nose and assuming eyes made him seem downright petulant.
The man's sudden appearance made all worlds flee from Sora's mouth, but it seemed as if Marluxa was in no such position.
"Ah, Sora. You're back, I see. I trust that you've settled down from that previous incident, and are ready to accept your punishment so that the whole household can move on," Marluxa snapped.
"You've got the wrong guy, I've never seen you before," Sora glanced behind his shoulder at Riku and Selphe, "and I have no idea who either of you are."
Marluxa frowned and made an offensive little sniff of contempt. Affronted by this open act of dislike, Sora's eyes narrowed. Normally he would avoid conflict, but with everything that had happened…
"Look, if all three of you don't start leaving by the time I count to three then I'm going to march up to my house over there and call the cops. One…"
Marluxa made a small girlish giggle and then burst out laughing, "I would love to see you try," and then, too quick for Sora to register what was happening, Marluxa snatched him by the hair and started tugging him up to the house.
Sora caught off balanced, let out a small gasp of pain and surprise, "Let go of me!"
"Not until you learn to stop this foolishness," Marluxa growled.
The struggling pair were half way up to the porch steps when Riku caught up to them, "Marluxa, he doesn't remember what happened."
"Like hell he doesn't remember! This is just another one of his pranks, and it is just like you, Riku to go along with his devious little plans," Marluxa gave Sora's hair a yank every time he referred to him. Sora's own hands were clasped to his offender's arm trying to loosen the hold, but it was like trying to fall up the stairs, impossible.
"I'm serious, Marluxa. I overheard Sephiroth and Dr. Vexen!" Riku seized the wrist of the hand that was gripped in Sora's hair.
Marluxa paused, but did not release Sora, "What did you overhear?"
"That- that the bump on his head made him forget," Riku whispered, and Sora was surprised to see how wet Riku's eyes were as he said this. He decided not to intervene, hoping that Riku could get the jerk to let go of him.
Marluxa and Riku stared eye to eye silently challenging each other and Sora let out a thankful gasp when he felt his hair being released, signaling Marluxa's defeat. Riku in turn, relinquished his own hand.
"Where is your father now?" Marluxa snapped.
"With Namine," Riku answered. Marluxa pointed a finger that shook with anger at Riku and then lowered it. He gave a final death-chilling-look at Sora and then rushed up the stairs and into the house.
"Riku, what is your father telling Namine?" Selphe laid a hand on Riku's shoulder, but he shrugged it off and turned to face Sora. He offered Sora a hand off the ground, and without thought, Sora took it.
"Marluxa tends to overreact when it comes to his sister," Riku said as a form of an apology.
"Thank you for intervening," Sora rubbed a hand through his hair trying to sooth the sting. His eyes widened when his fingers came across a large bump and he winced in pain. When did that get there?
A sudden dark sinking feeling dropped to the bottom of his stomach. Was Riku right? Had he hit his head and forgotten everything? No, no, no. Roxas was real. There was no way that his brother could be anything but. All those memories he had were proof that he didn't have some form of amnesia.
"Roxas!" Sora called out the name expecting an answer.
"Sora, please…" Sora ran into the house before Riku could get the rest of his words out. He would find Roxas. He had to!
-xxx-
Roxas would not have run after Sora regardless of the fact that his grandmother had warned him to let Sora be. He had been so fucking angry at his grandmother, at Sora, at his life, and at himself. If he could go back to that night he would have run after Sora. It had been two and a half days since Sora had run away, and Roxas wasn't sure how Sora could take it, all this waiting.
"Stupid. That's my job, running away," Roxas mumbled to himself.
He didn't blame Sora for running away. Roxas had a lot to apologize for, and maybe when Sora came back, just maybe he would tell Sora about…
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaggrah!"
"What the hell?" Roxas snapped. He knew it couldn't be the crazy bitch as she was at the police station, so that must mean it was Sora!
Roxas practically leaped down the whole flight of stairs in his mad dash for the door. He would tell Sora that he was sorry, that he had waited for him to come home just like Sora did for him, that they should forget the bitch and leave together, and most importantly he'd tell Sora the secret he had been keeping from him since forever…
Tearing open the door, Roxas met ocean blue eyes…that didn't belong to Sora. Instead a sandy haired kid looking as if he had been caught red-handed looked back at him.
Roxas could not keep the disappointment from showing on his face, "Who the hell are you?"
The kid blinked his owlish eyes, and pointed to himself as if to say 'who me?' Roxas merely raised his eyebrows.
"Why, hello there neighbor. I'm Tidus and…" Roxas slammed the door in his face.
Roxas was so pissed with himself. How could he have gotten his hopes up so quickly? Damn it!
There was a small, apologetic knock from the other side of the door. Feeling like a jerk, Roxas opened the door once more. This kid deserved an apology, he supposed.
"As I was saying, I'm Tidus and my sidekick is Axel. I thought it would be quite neighborly to come and visit the…"
"We don't have any neighbors, unless you live out in the woods. If you haven't noticed, this house is out in the middle of nowhere," Roxas interrupted.
"Oh, we noticed all right. It was quite the adventure getting here, and all," Tidus smiled and put fisted hands on his hips.
Roxas looked up on 'we', and noticed for the first time some punk with wild red hair standing uncomfortable by the porch steps. The guy was tall, thin and were those tear drop tattoos under his eyes? Didn't murderers do that kind of thing? Roxas said the first thing that came to his mind, "What's a punk like you doing with a kid like this?"
Both Axel and Roxas ignored Tidus' protests about being called a kid, and Axel strode up to Tidus' side.
Roxas was shocked to see eyes so green and so cat like (?) from this towering boy, but he was not intimated. Not in the least.
"He's my brother," the punk, Axel said smoothly.
"You're lying," Roxas said equally as smooth.
"Half."
"You're still lying."
"Yeah, stop lying Axel!" Tidus scolded then turning his head back to Roxas, Tidus held up three fingers, "Okay, fist off. I'm not a 'kid'," Tidus ticked off one of his fingers then continued to the next, "Second, Axel is my sidekick and that makes it alright for him to hang out with me, got it?"
Roxas failed to respond, and so, Tidus continued on, bending down his third finger, "Lastly, you haven't introduced yourself yet, and if we are all to become friends then we need to know your name."
A silence fell. Tidus had his eyes squeezed shut and his mouth hanging open with misplaced pride, Axel was waiting for a bomb to drop, and Roxas was unreadable.
Roxas opened his mouth and Axel held his breath, "I'm Roxas."
And just like that the silence lifted.
"Hey Roxas, that's a cool name," Tidus chirped happily.
"Ah, thanks," Roxas rubbed his brow, "So, eh. What are you really doing here?"
"Well, I heard about the boy who went missing and I guess I just wanted to help out," Tidus said. The conversation he had with Axel earlier was at the fore of his mind, "I'll do my best!"
Tidus looked to Axel to see if he had any objection, and was thrilled to see none on his face, but rather a small half smile.
Roxas was taken a back, but was careful to hide it. They wanted to help? Why? Roxas peered hard in each of their eyes and Tidus began to twitch uncomfortably.
"So?" Axel prompted.
"Do you know your way around town?" Roxas asked looking from Tidus to Axel.
"Of course. I've lived here all my life," Tidus hummed.
"Tomorrow then. Meet me here at 8:00am."
"Alright!" Tidus pumped a fist into the air, and Axel whacked him on the back of the head, "Ow! Hey, what was that for?" Axel rolled his eyes.
"At 8:00," Axel agreed.
"It was nice meeting you, Roxas," Tidus saluted.
"Yeah, bye," Roxas concluded rather coldly, and for the second time that day he slammed the door closed.
-xxx-
Sora ran up the stairs, down the hall and into the room that he had chosen as his own with Roxas' name on his lips.
He collapsed onto the bed too exhausted to do much of anything else. Squeezing his eyes shut, Sora buried his head in the crook of his arms. Downstairs he heard a door opening and the muted voices of Riku and Selphe. Not ready to face the world Sora ignored them when they called his name.
It was a while before reality awoke Sora from his stupor, and silently he counted to ten, opened his eyes and lifted his head.
His bedroom hadn't changed, the bed that he was sprawled upon had light blue covers, and a little wood dresser was shoved up against the far side of the wall, just like it was supposed to be. Even the mirror that hung above it was perfectly whole…
"No," Sora groaned, and pushed his body off the bed and over to the mirror to view it under closer expression. He traced a finger where the largest crack in the glass should have been. The lost looking boy in the mirror stared at him, and Sora stared back.
"So, this is where you ran off to."
Badly startled, Sora whipped around, facing the intruder.
The man was tall with his head just a centimeter lower than the arch of the doorway. He had silver hair like Riku, but his hair went past his hips. He was clad in complementing black clothes that hugged all the right places. A frill of snowy lace peeked out from the neck. His face appeared to be sculpted from ice, and despite his cold eyes he was one of the handsomest men Sora had ever seen.
"Come with me, we need to talk," the man's voice was like dark velvet chocolate, and Sora knew that refusing was not an option.
Sora followed the mysterious man out of the room, down the stairs and into what he supposed was a sitting room, although all the furniture looked too hard to be comfortable.
The man took a seat in the most uncomfortable looking chair of the lot, and Sora followed suit choosing to sit on the loveseat across from the man.
"Riku tells me that all you seem to remember is your name and this house. So, I will start off with introducing myself," The man rested a hand against his chest, "I am called Sephiroth. I am charged with your well being in the absence of your father, and as I am a very busy person, I have sent you to live here along with my son, Riku."
Sora felt sapped of strength. A puppet had more life than he did at this moment, and he found that all he could do was sit and listen to the man who commanded attention with every fiber of his being.
"Marluxa and his younger sister, Namine have inherited this house from their father, Ansem upon his death. All I ask is that you treat them with respect, and reframe from creating… disturbances, no matter how great the temptation," Sephiroth paused as his eyes flew to the doorway.
Sora didn't turn his head to look at the intruder. He didn't care who it was, Marluxa, Riku, Selphe or someone new. It didn't matter.
Sephiroth must have deemed the other's presence acceptable, because he continued on, "In time, I'm certain that you will regain the memories you lost from when you received that bump on your head."
"I have memories," Sora croaked out suddenly feeling very much awake, "I have seventeen years worth of memories. I already have a life and I don't need you making one up for me!"
By the end of his speech, Sora was breathing so heavily that his body was shivering. He was also standing with his hands clenched into tight fists.
Sephiroth's eyes rested almost lazily on Sora, and when he opened his mouth Sora flinched as if he had been slapped, "They're dreams Sora. That's all they are."
"They're not dreams, they're real! I live here with my grandmother who can be extremely lazy, but who loves me, and I have a twin brother named Roxas who I've sworn to protect!"
"They are all you have now, Sora. And, they may seem real, but they are just a part of an elaborate dream that you've woken up from."
"Roxas is not a dream!"
"Calm down and stop this nonsense about a brother that only exists in your mind," While Sora's body shook with passion, Sephiroth was as composed as he was at the start of their conversation.
"My brother is real!"
"You do not have a brother."
"Stop saying that!"
"Sora, I will not play pretend with you, and I grow tired of this conversation. We will continue to educate you about your past when you let go of your illusions-"
"He's not an illusion!"
"-and are ready to listen to the truth," Sephiroth stated without batting an eye to Sora's outburst.
"I'll never be ready to listen to your lies!" Sora took a few steps back as he shouted this, and when he was finished, he ran towards the door. He ran away for the third time in two days.
He collided with Riku in his escape, knocking them both to the floor. They ended up as a knot on the ground and Sora landed on Riku's chest, while Riku's head slammed onto the floor.
"Sora," Riku gasped, little breath caused his voice to come out as a whisper.
"Let me go! I must find my brother," Sora untangled himself from Riku, and dashed to the front door. He rattled the handle and finding it locked his hands desperately hunted for the switch to unlatch it.
The second his fingers found it he twisted the latch and burst open the door. The light from a setting sun briefly blinded him, but he didn't let this stop him as he took off towards the maze like garden.
"Sora!" Riku called out, but Sora ignored him too, and as he entered the pressing green walls of the garden he shouted Roxas' name over and over again.
-xxx-
The trip back to town was deserted of everything except trees. They stood dark and imposing just a few yards from the road. Roxas' house really was in the middle of nowhere.
"So, that went over well," Tidus hummed. He led his bicycle by the handle bars in courtesy of the fact that Axel had to walk.
"I guess," Axel shrugged.
"Why are you guessing?" Tidus asked innocently.
Axel glared, "Why do you have to ask it like that?"
Tidus didn't answer instead he contented himself with observing Axel with large, blue, expecting eyes.
"We'll see how it goes tomorrow," Axel concluded.
-xxx-
After the punk and the kid had left, or rather he had shut the door in their faces; Roxas was at a brief lost. He didn't know what to think of their enthusiasm at helping him find Sora. Why did they care?
The bitch had gone to the police sure, but after that she had continued on as if everything was normal. Snapping at him at every opportunity and contenting herself with unpacking and phoning repair men. Roxas hated her, if Sora was here then he would see just how fake she was and he'd have taking Roxas' side.
Taking a deep breath, Roxas wearily hiked back up the stairs and went into the room with the broken mirror. The bedroom was small, but Roxas found this oddly comforting.
He fell upon the bed like a deflating balloon, and as he lay on his back he imagined that the water-stained ceiling was actually a sea of stars.
"See that one? Now trace it to there…"Sora held a finger to the sky, tracing the shapes of the stars.
"I don't see it. What is it suppose to be?"Roxas peeked at his brother, who was resting in the grass next to him.
Earlier, Sora had convinced Roxas that he had found the best place to observe the stars. Roxas had followed Sora to a grassy hillside and the two had plopped down on their backs side by side.
"The handle of the Big Dipper, see this star is the point, and it leads to this star here, and then…"
"I still don't see it," Roxas squinted his eyes, and tried to follow Sora's finger, but to no avail.
Sora took a hold of Roxas' hand and moved it along with his own, "Here to here to here…"
Roxas felt stupid when he still couldn't make out the alignment of the Big Dipper, he didn't really care about some Big Dipper anyway, and so he simply nodded to Sora then said, "Oh, there it is."
Now, Roxas wished that he really did see it.
"Sora, where are you?" he whispered to the empty room.
-xxx-
Next is Chapter Four: Reality Chrashes!
Thanks for writing, and please leave a review as I would love to know what you think!
