Lucid Reveries
IIBreathless
::.x.::

The first day of school and I had met the man of my dreams. Literally.

I took the window seat, and Roxas took the Axel seat. My twinflirtingwas too weird, so I watched the palm trees speed by instead. Riku's face, clearer than ever, plagued my thoughts. Did he know me before, or was he playing games with my mind? That wasn't too improbable, with what Roxas and everyone else thought of him…But did I trust my dreams more than tangible people? I grew up with Riku, in a sense.

Axel didn't get off at his stop, because Roxas refused to move and Axel didn't seem eager to let him go, either. I wondered if my mother would even care if we brought Roxas' massive group of friends over too, as long as they didn't interrupt her work. Or was she even home? It didn't matter to me. I felt uneasy around her.

Axel didget off our stop, although Roxas blandly refused to be carried again. Instead he walked in the middle of us, his hands stuffed meaningfully in his pockets. Axel pouted. I ignored them. The walk(more or less a hike, you could call it)was taking forever, and I'd prefer not to watch Axel struggling for Roxas' hand on the way there. Were they dating or really really really reallyclose friends? I couldn't say for certain, nor did I want to think about it all that much.

We collapsed onto the gigantic sofa in front of the widescreen plasma TV. Axel, who wanted to watch All My Children, and Roxas, who wanted to watch football, fought over the remote while I tried to brainstorm flash fiction ideas for creative writing. Marluxia could at least teach us to write before giving an assignment! I folded my arms and grumbled, "what's the biology teacher's name anyway?"

Axel pulled back from mercilessly tickling Roxas. "Which one?" he asked.

"The dark and brooding one, blond guy." Roxas said.

"Oh! It's—"

I clamped my hands over my ears and screamed.

"Sora!" Roxas smacked me upside the head. "Stop it! Let's look for your stupid schedule, not get the police called on us."

Axel removed his fingers from his ears. "Yeah, it sounded like someone getting murdered."

"Sorry, he told me to do it so I—"

"If everyone told you jump off a bridge, would you do it?"

"Depends on the circumstances. Like how high the bridge is, if there's a calm river beneath it—"

Axel and Roxas had left the room by then. I sighed and followed them around the gigantic house, and then, after about two hours, we split up outside. We met at the gigantic Dumpster, plugged our noses and surveyed the swarming flies with squinting eyes.

"You can tell me now." I said minutely.

"Strife!" They declared and left me staring, disgusted, at the garbage. Half of the world's pollution must've accumulated from our family alone. I stalled on the steps that lead through our perfectly boring garden. The flowers weren't scented. I reached in my pocket and rubbed the neglected piece of paper between my fingers. Calling Riku didn't reallymean anything, didn't it? I had an excuse.

I don't remember anything before the age of ten. It's something I've learned to deal with, because I'd been under the impression that it was the same for everyone. I figured I'd be able to find some photo albums or home videos, but I hadn't tried to look for them. Something was holding me back, like in the back of my mind I knew I wouldn't find anything. I had to learn another way, and maybe Riku was the answer…

Our room was locked, and I twitched when I heard a pleasured gasp. I took refuge on the couch and clicked off the television. I tossed the phone between my hands for a bit before getting up enough nerve to dial the number. It rang once, twice, and thrice when a female voice answered; "Hello?"

"Uhm, hey. This is Riku's…friend, Sora."

Silence full of quickened breath. "Oh! Hello, Sora! This is his mother, lemme get him for you." There was some excitement that she held back when speaking, but when she hollered for Riku it was coupled with pride. I'd never heard my mother speak with pride, unless it had to do with Shinra. The phone was tossed to someone else, and then carried to another room. A door shut.

"Hey there, So-ra," Riku hummed happily. That rare emotion from him threw me off. "Are you yearning to find out about your past, or to get to know me better?"

Honestly, it was both — possibly morefor the latter, but I didn't say that. "So you'll help me?"

"For something in return, of course."

"…like what?"

"We'll meet at the ice cream parlor tomorrow and discuss it."

"Wh-where's the parlor-thingy?" stupid jitters were plaguing my nerves.

"Meet me at lunch outside of school."

"O-okay."

"You sound nervous."

"I'm not!"

"…right."

"Really!"

"Just be there. Bring some money, it's not like a date, if that's what you're thinking."

Click.

"Date!" I slammed the phone down. "Like I'd want to go on a freaking datewithhim."

"Him?" Axel cooed. His rumpled clothes were on backwards. At least Roxas had managed to throw them back on correctly. "Who'shim?"

"No one!" I turned the other cheek. "It's not important. Go back to…whatever you were doing."

"Awwww, the little virgin's blushing!" Axel squeezed my cheek, and yelped when Roxas smacked his hand away. "What?! It's adorable! Careful about your blushing problem around Ri-kuor he'll jump 'ya!"

"Who?!" Roxas yelped, part of which might've been from the smack he received in the rear. Kinky pay back. The thought made me want to barf.

"C'mon, Roxy! You of all people didn't see the way he was looking at Sora?" Axel flicked his hand. "Totally wants to jump him."

"No he doesn't!" I snapped.

"You've only known him for a day, Sora," Roxas rolled his eyes. "Riku canandwilljump you if Axel says so. They're…buds." Roxas grimaced at that last word.

"Yup. Watch your back, someone might be looking to penetrate it."

"Ew!" I slammed my face into a throw pillow and gagged. "Bad images…bad images…bad images!"

.x.

Dreams within a dream. I woke to another pure- blue sky with little fluffy clouds floating around a blinding sun, and a redheaded girl's face. Her eyes were vibrant blue, like the ocean that licked at my yellow-clad toes. I leapt to my feet and cried, "Kairi!"

"Sora, you lazy bum!" She teased with and giggled. Riku came walking behind her, a log slung over his shoulder. He smirked and shook his head.

"Slackers," he chided, "help me with the raft."

And the three of us raced to our clouded future, laughing.

I sat straight up, my breathing labored. "Kairi…" I mumbled. She was a lot younger in my dream, and I might've not recognized her without those brilliant eyes. But I'd never met Kairi until she was much older, and matured and very pretty. I would have to find older pictures of her to determine if it wasn't my imagination playing tricks on me, but with it already predicting Riku…it didn't sound too far-fetched. Before, my dreams had been a scattered story, now I began to wonder if they were trying to tell me something that I couldn't quite yet make sense of.

I couldn't fall back asleep. I thought of the characters that had appeared in my dreams, that I remembered more clearly than my real past. Riku, Donald, Goofy, Ansem, and The King. Only Riku and Ansem would make sense in the real world. Maybe I could find Ansem. He had played the major antagonist in the first set of vivid dreams. I defeated him, and my sleep was a big blank void afterwards, except for the dream I'd had before my first day of school…With a Riku that looked like the one I knew now.

I carefully and quietly clambered down the latter, and though I knew that it couldn't wake Roxas, Axel was a different story…I logged onto the computer and waited for it turn on with a major headache beginning. It was, after all, three in the morning and the screen made my eyes burn.

At first Google came up with nothing, then I added 'dreams' after Ansem. There was one crudely made site that showed the Ansem Reports, which were sort of like underground philosophy and science theories. I scrambled to turn off the sound when eerie, crackled music came from the embedded MP3.

The first, number 0, was written by a scientist whose theories on dreams predicting the futures were labeled as superstitious rubbish. Then number 1 through number 8 were compiled by a different man, claiming to be Ansem, who experiemented, illegally, on specimen's dreams by monitoring their entire body reactions. By number 8 he claimed that using a baby monitor[? over the bare eyeball can see into a person's dreams and subconscious thoughts, and combining both thereof gave an important message that could either warn them not to go the grocery store for ham on rye because there'd be none left, or there'd be a violent burglary. The specimens'(always human)memories were wiped out, and the side effects he found irrelevant. Out of the thousands he experimented on, only one person's dreams correctly predicted a catastrophe on Destiny Islands. A ten-year-old boy. He didn't provide a name.

I closed the laptop and folded my arms on the desk, and rested my pulsating head. The information made me dizzy, and I couldn't explain why. I was missing something. I couldn't think properly enough to say what two plus two was, let alone figure out what these Ansem men had to do with my dreams.

.x.

Someone was shaking my shoulders. "Wake up, sleepy head," Axel whined in my ear. I lifted my head, glaring against the hazy sunlight filtering into the room through half-drawn blinds. Dust particles floated leisurely. "Roxas said you were a morning person. Let's make pancakes and sausage and eggs and hashbrowns and coffee and orange juice!"

"We won't have enough time for that. Saturday would be better…" I rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock. Four o'clock. I groaned. "I'm not thismuch of a morning person." Still, I couldn't help but muffle laughter at the puppy-eyed look Axel gave me. I returned it right back, ten fold.

"Agh! Stop it!" He closed his eyes and blindly pulled me off the chair. I went along with him to the kitchen, and began to prepare the gigantic breakfast that my mother might actually show expression towards. If there weren't three growing teenage boys eating it, it'd take an army to complete. The aroma was amazing, and probed at my growling stomach and slapped my senses awake. I joined in Axel with singing merrily.

"I got Roxas to make enchiladas with me last year." he said after we only had coffee left to make. It had taken two hours to put everything together.

"How'd you manage that?"

"Foreplay," he laughed as I flushed and hid my face. "It's how we got together."

"So you aredating." I sat on one of the barstools, and Axel sat beside me. "How come you didn't come around during the summer?"

"You guys needed to get acquainted. Plus, it was fun helping Roxas sneak out in the middle of the night."

"Not that our mother would have cared."

"No, but it was like we were little kids again, playing make-believe."

I poured out a cup of coffee, smothering it in cream and sugar before taking a sip. I surveyed Axel from the rim of the cup. Even though he was silly and a tad bit crazy, he did have a good heart. I approved of him, and thought maybe we could be friends. I couldn't say the same for Roxas. There was a rift between us that I wasn't sure I could repair, because I didn't even know why it was there, but it was another goal I swore to accomplish.

My mother was first to drag herself to the kitchen. She didn't notice Axel, just piled some food on her plate, got coffee, and mumbled a thanks. She returned to her office and passed Roxas and neither of them exchanged a word. Axel went up and kissed Roxas good morning, and I raised an eyebrow. My twin responded briefly, but was more eager to eat than make-out. Axel seated him and got the food that Roxas liked the most, then finally got his own, and didn't complain that it was cold.

We munched/gobbled, and silverware scraping on plates were the only sounds that interrupted our hunger-influenced silence. Roxas finished first, sighing as he patted his bloated tummy. Axel was second by a minute, only because he set fire to his food, probably not accidentally, while playing idly with his lighter. I took the time to enjoy my food, which was twice as much as their amounts, so I won the undeclared eating competition anyway.

We waddled, groaning about heartburn and diarrhea, while getting ready. Axel and Roxas took separate showers(there was about five of them altogether)for my sake. But I was subject to teasing afterwards, and even Roxas took part in poking fun at my virginity. I covered my ears on the way to the bus, but that didn't stop them on the drive to school. They got all the girls giggling and cooing and 'awwwing' with their endless jokes(Roxas built up to them with his sardonic humor and Axel provided the punchline), and the guys either laughing at me or looking uncomfortable. If I had asked them to stop, they would've, but I didn't because I was neutral about the whole sex thing. I'd thought about it and stuff, but there wasn't anyone particularly special to do it with. So I sat there blushing madly and wishing everyone else had the same thought pattern as me.

I waited for everyone else to leave before grudgingly going down the aisle. Standing at the door was Riku, his face taught and crinkled. I avoided his eyes and ran as he burst into laughter. Stupid stupid stupid stupid STUPIDRiku! For some reason I cared that he was the one laughing, and everyone sniggering as I passed by didn't effect me at all — or, at least I didn't get all flustered. Riku was being a total ass! He didn'tdeserveto embarrass me! I huffed into biology and collapsed into the desk, ignoring everyone, especially the teacher. There was a divert spark in his dull eyes as he asked me what his name was, and when I moaned "Strife!", I thought I heard some girl go 'o-m-g! Yaoi!!!', but I could have been hearing things.

Kairi and Selphie stood at either side of me, grinning like maniacs. "You're such a cutie, Sora!" Selphie pinched my cheeks, something everyone thought to be a fun activity but was really making me sore.

"What's the big deal?" I mumbled.

"It's not," Kairi shrugged, "a load of us are virgins, it's just that not everyoneknowsit."

"Yeah, and girls would sobe all over you if you weren't obviously gay. Like, that 'love is love' shirt yesterday totally put a damp on girls' hopes. But everyone figured you'd be like your brother, so whatever." Selphie ran a hand through her hair over and over. Nervous habit, I guess.

I wasn't sure how to respond, because it was something that people shouldn't be interested in unless they were, you know, interested. So I shrugged off-handedly.

"Not that we're interested," said Kairi, "it's kind of silly that girls don't even know you but they're in love. Guys aren't the same, I don't think. The media makes it look like gay guys make everything romanticized like girls do, but it's not true. They'd rather get to know you better."

"Yeah!" Selphie nodded vigorously. "Like I heard that one guy Kairi doesn't like, R---"

"Shhhh!" Kairi put a finger over Selphie's lips. "We're not supposed to say anything, silly!"

"Oh…oh…" Selphie smiled apologetically. "Forget I said anything, Sora. It was nothing, erm,tooimportant."

Roxas had been listening to our conversation. His pencil snapped.

.x.

I felt heavy going to creative writing. Kairi was stiff, too. There are loads of guys whose names start with 'R', but not a bunch that Kairi doesn't like, because she doesn't dislike too many people. At least, I was assuming such. I watched her fidget as Riku looked up at us both. He went back to typing on his laptop like I meant nothing to him. A girl, unbeknownst to Riku, was reading over his shoulder. She went "GROSS!" and scurried back to her desk. He looked over his computer and raised his brows at me. My cheeks grew hot and his lips twitched upwards.

Marluxia was watching the whole affair with fascination. I quickly got to my seat and pretended to be working on something, worried that a teacher would actually start rumors about his students. With Marluxia, that wasn't too unlikely.

He let us work the entire period and played music. I was one of the only kids not writing furiously, because I had nothingto write about. The theme of dreams sounded good, but I couldn't do it. Abstract things don't come to me. Hell, does anythingcome to me? Apparently not. For an hour I stared blankly at the sheet of paper until the lines became fuzzy and began to blend.

I was dozing off when someone came hovering behind me, their palms pressed on my desk and arms locking me in by the shoulders. I froze and considered head-butting whoever this person was, but their stomach felt like steel. "The bell rang, So-ra­," Riku whispered in my ear, "did you not hear it?"

We were alone. Even Marluxia was gone from his perch at the chaotic war zone he called a workspace. "No I…fell asleep."

"Fell asleep during class? Tsk…tsk…tsk. I should punish you." He brought my knuckles to his lips. "How many lashes? Two, three…ten…" I shuddered as his tongue briefly darted across my skin.

"We're going to be late," I yanked my hand away.

"Screw Xemnas, he's a lunatic." Riku gripped my sides and fluently pulled me to my feet with ease. "Let's go get ice cream."

"…I don't want to skip the second day of school…"

"Lame." Riku, without my consent, snuck us out of the school. How no one noticed a head of shimmering silver and porcupine hair, I'll never know, but we got to his car without any trouble. I was going to pay the consequences later and should've said 'NO!' and ran away, but with Riku blasting annoying boy band music and getting me to sing along…that was way too fun to pass up.

We got lunch at the cheerily decorated ice cream parlor and sat near the window and watched cars pass by and couples argue and makeup and kiss and women push baby carriages along while talking on the phone and a car chase, Riku was rooting for the poor guy who was stealing so he wouldn't go another night starving, and all the entertaining people of Destiny Islands.

"Let's go to the beach," I suggested through ravenous bites of a humungeos cheeseburger.

"Didn't bring a swimsuit,"

"Who cares? We could walk on the shoreline, listen to the waves and all that stuff…"

"That's what summer's for, isn't it?"

I chewed on a yellow straw. "Nah, not my summers."

"We can go tomorrow. Bring loads of sunscreen."

"Right, sunscreen. Good idea."

Riku chuckled — it was a nice, deep sound. "You never change," and he motioned for the waitress. "I'll be paying, and two extra large banana splits with ten scoops of vanilla, please." Her gaze dropped over our thin builds and her eyes widened, but she took the order and made no comment.

"That's my favorite," I admonished quietly. "Tell me how you know everything about me."

Riku leaned back in his chair, and didn't get snapped at for it, possibly because he was too good-looking and intimidating because of it. "I'm not a stalker or anything, if that's what your thinking," I shook my head no. "Good. Have you heard of the disaster that struck here six years ago?"

My stomach muscles tightened. "Yeah. I dunno exactly what happened, though."

"I suggest you look it up later tonight, then," Riku said. "It's kinda like your homework."

I groaned, in a totally not juvenile way. "I already need to make a stupid compilations of short stories for creative writing."

Riku looked surprised at that. "You, Sora, not liking to write? That's new."

"I don't like writing," I wrinkled my nose, "never have."

"You were always scribbling in that damned notebook," Riku's eyes glazed over, "and wouldn't have looked up even if a bomb went off. I did have my methods, though."

"Methods?"

"Yeah," Riku didn't elaborate more, just watched me placidly. "Here it comes." He gestured to the waitress who was struggling to carry the massive plates of ice cream. I leapt up to help her, taking the smaller one, and shrugged when she thanked me graciously, and nodded sympathetically when she complained how her arms were killing her. Riku watched her in a disgruntled manner when she sat next to him on the booth.

"Name's Amber," she said, "you're Sora and Riku."

"You go to our school?" I asked.

"Nah, public. Everyone knows Roxas, though, and now Riku because you two are dating and all that."

Helllo, Akward Silence. Riku cleared his throat awkwardly, I fidgeted awkwardly, and Amber, who I noticed was incredibly pretty and checking out Riku waytoo much for comfort, was awkwardly oblivious. "We're not dating," I denied, trying to keep my tone passive.

"That's not what everyone else says," she pouted indignantly, obviously not believing me. "It's totally cool! You don't have to keep it secret or anything!"

"We're not," Riku seconded, and there might have been a catch of disappointment in his tone, I couldn't tell for sure. "If you want to date the kid, ask him." Her mouth dropped open, then she shut it. Riku was too observant to think that Iwas the one who caught Amber's attention, but when I saw the way he was watching me for my reaction I realized he was testingme. Somewhere in the back of my mind I hoped he was doing it for his own benefit, not to compare me to who I had been in the past.

"I'm not —" I glanced at Amber as I stumbled over my words.

"Straight, I know," she patted my shoulder. "I should get back to work." She did so, and threw back a quick glance at us. I shifted and avoided looking Riku in the eyes, though he was trying to find mine.

"Do you want to know my method?"

"Huh?"

"What I did to get you to stop writing," Riku leaned forward, using one finger to tilt my chin upwards. My eyes went wide and my heart skipped a beat. Hot breath tickled my cheeks, and soft lips brushed the sensitive skin on my neck. I involuntarily pulled away, heat shooting up from my neck to my face. Riku kept his gaze glued to the floor as he stood to his feet, and took me out by the wrist. I didn't complain that I wasn't finished with my split, because the situation was too…difficult? It felt good, I think, but it was uncalled for…

I hopped into his car and looked at the time. It was too early to go home, although it was questionable whether my mother cared that I skipped or not. My grades were going to be hurting, so I quietly asked Riku to take me back to school. It wasn't too implausible that I got lost for the entire period on my way to the bathroom. It was only the second day, after all. Riku didn't get out of the car with me.

The students were pouring out of the dining hall when I arrived, and I allowed myself to be swept up by Roxas and company. Questions were thrown at me left and right, nearly at the speed of light. Roxas was quiet, seething beneath his cold gaze. Demyx saved me from the expanding crowd, brandishing his sitar at anyone who dared to get too close. Zexion gave his platinum 'death glare' and departed once we reached the music room. We slammed the door and locked it, breathing hard from the lack of oxygen.

Aireth watched us with her head tilted in mock curiosity. "I believe there are students still arriving." That was confirmed by the pounds and hollers at the door. I hid behind Demyx as Aireth let them in, and, thankfully, the newcomers had the same attitude around me as before. Bored.

"We are going to do some learning today," Aireth informed us in a way that almost made me eager to get started, but that was before names and years and notes and themes and rhythms and meters and terms that sailed over my head were thrown at me. Demyx seemed to be the only one who wasn't lost, which was weird because it was usually the way around. I would have to ask him to explain it to me later, and thought he could come over after school. I had a feeling Axel would frequent my home from then on, and it would be nice to have company while he and Roxas locked themselves in my room.

"Want to come over?" I requested of Demyx once class was over.

"Sure!" he put a finger to his chin and then grinned. "Can Zexy come over too?"

"…I guess," I lingered at the doorway and watched the gloomy Zexion dawdle over to us. I noticed that his shoulders were hunched defensively, like he expected someone to come out and jump him, which was a crazy notion because he was seemed well-liked enough, even with his strange antics. He had another thick novel clutched to his chest.

"Zexy!" Demyx sprinted over to his friend and put a lanky arm around his shoulder. "I'm going to So and Roxy's house after school, you should come along." Zexion blinked, then slowly nodded, which probably would nothave been his answer if it wasn't for the warm, inviting grin that covered Demyx's jovial face.

Our group of five made it on time for the last class, and, like the day before, Mr. Leon did not acknowledge our existence. I took the same seat, but it was strange without Riku smirking next to me. Instead I caught up on notes ­— there was a generous amount of volunteers — and jotted down the drawl that Mr. Leon, despite Yuffie's best efforts, chose to use.

It seemed like forever by the time I departed for the bus, Roxas and company right on my heels. I feared I'd never get used to their watchful presence, and figured I'd have to reveal why I was gone during lunch some time to lessen their paranoia. They might get even worse, and unleash loads of spies on Riku, who would get suspicious and annoyed, but it was worth a try.

Demyx and Zexion loaded the bus with us, with the latter a polar contrast with the approachable Demyx. Nervous and giddy girls made room for the pair in the seat across the aisle from us, and Zexion chose to stare out the window while Demyx chatted up anyone who would listen, which was basically the entire bus. I took to making conversation with Roxas and Axel, although it was like talking to a brick wall what with them staring deep into each other's eyes like that. Girls, and some guys, took pictures of this occurrence. I sighed and submitted to the eager girls wanting my opinion on their fashion choices. Even though it was a painful activity, it made the time pass by much quicker.

The path was smaller with the wider group advancing up to our home, and it was brighter with the combined exultant energy radiating off of Demyx and the dampened energy oppressing from Zexion, and it brought along a bizarre but comforting sense of yin and yang. I suddenly craved to spend more time with the rest of our company, and inviting the entire bunch of them didn't seem all that bad of an idea, as long as they didn't trash the place.

We entered the silent estate, and Demyx let out a long whistle. "You've never been here before?" I asked, startled.

"Lots of times," he gave me a disarming smile, "but never in daylight."

I tilted my head quizzically, but he didn't continue. In the corner of my eye Roxas was shaking his head, lips drawn into a tight line. Axel, for once, looked uncomfortable and Zexion a tad bit vexed. In an explosion of dust they high-tailed it to our room, and locked the door. I pressed my ear against the polished wood but couldn't hear anything. Sound proof? A car blared outside while I stood mulling over their eccentric reactions. I peeked out the main window — which made up the entire north-side wall and, in my opinion, served only as a hazard — and there was Riku, leaning against the sleek black car with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes slid up to meet mine, and another slight smile twitched on the corners of his lips. The sun, inching closer to the horizon, glowed on his pale skin. I had a very strong urge to touch it. Would he feel like silk?

However tempting my distracting fantasies may have been, the main priority was to figure out howhe knew where I live in the first place. On some level I wouldn't mind having a smexy stalker, butstalkers tend to be dangerously obsessive, and no matter how smexy this stalker is, dangerously obsessive people are not to be taken lightly(I repeat; stalkers are dangerously obsessive, and this is not to be taken lightly, no matter how smexy this dangerously obsessive stalker tends to be.) Then again, believing that a smexy person could even possiblybe dangerously obsessive might have been a tadbit arrogant(and by "a tad" I mean "a lot") On another note, my mother wasan important person, so getting through me might have been a ploy to get to her.

Either way, I answered the door.

"How can you stand living here?" was Riku's manner of greeting me.

"A simple 'hello' would've been nice," I snapped, yet didn't bother defending the place. Riku was right. The house was too lifeless. Describing it as my "home" sounded wrong.

"For the record, I'm not stalking you." Riku flopped onto the sofa and patted the spot next to him. I felt like the innocent girl with massive hair in those dumb 70s' movies, warily sitting close to the designated "bad-boy" and stiffening as he slings an arm around her shoulders. "I used to come over here all the time, but back then it was warm and inviting. You could always smell cookies."

"Must've been nice," I murmur. There was only one place that I'd ever had that feeling. It was stored in the crevices of my mind, teasing me because I could only touch bits and pieces of it. I wondered if Riku's home was nice like that. I couldn't help but noticed how…buff, for lack of a better word, his arm was. However did he burn off all those cookies?

"Aren't you wondering why I'm over here?" his breathy voice was close in proximity. I suppressed a pleasant shudder. "For one, I was hoping some cookies would motivate us to figure out your cliché amnesia situation."

"Cliché?" my nose wrinkled at the word. I'd rather not think that my life was simply a repetitive 'situation'.

"Duh," Riku tugged at my ear pointlessly, or maybe it was some secret-agent sign. I involuntarily glanced behind us, and standing there was the very paranoid Roxas and company. Even when I motioned them to go away, they still lingered there with their arms crossed. "But since your dearest brother would prefer to keep you in the dark, I can't frankly lead you on to any palpable conclusion." How low did he think Roxas and company's IQ levels to be?...Must've been pretty low, because they visible relaxed at his words.

I sighed, like I was giving up on my 'cliché' quest. "Maybe cookies will tempt you?"

"Cooooookies," was the chorus that rang from everyone.

"Yup," I hopped up and ignored a flailing Riku. He followed me into the kitchen, and, surprisingly, Roxas and company lingered in the living room, conversing in low voices.

::.to be continued.::

A cliff-hanger? Nay! Lack of inspiration? Yay! Review or die! Dx