His breath came in hushed pants and his chest thudded painfully. Nuts. This was nuts. He hesitated, pausing in Riku's opulent kitchen with its marble topped counters and glass cabinets and its giant chandelier of a fan whirling lazily above. Sora strained to listen to the sounds the two Organization members were making in the room just beyond the kitchen. Their hasty movements had stopped and Sora could hear their whispering. Sora looked back, saw Tidus standing just outside, shifting from foot to foot, watching him with weary and nerve-wracked eyes. Such a stupid idea.

Sora peeked his head around the open doorway and stared into the room. Larxene and her companion were speaking, heads down, quiet. Riku was nowhere in sight they hadn't found him upstairs he must be upstairs. Sora forced himself to breath. His mind was racing. He would do no good to anyone if he couldn't think. There was a way upstairs without going through the spacious party room, an open doorway from the kitchen that opened into a hall and arrived at the other side of the staircase. If he could just make it-

His phone blared and he jumped, startled. He quickly shoved his hand into his pocket and grabbed it, flipping it open and shut again. It was too late. The whispering had stopped. All was quiet. They had heard, he knew it deep in his bones and yet he hoped it wasn't true. He didn't know how he was going to explain any of this if he was caught. Sora moved quickly, gliding over the floor and rushing into the back hall. He heard footsteps entering the kitchen and knew he had stepped away from the edge at the last moment. He was still in the game.

Sora followed the hall and came to the stairs. There was nobody in site. He could hear the kitchen being scoured and an irritated sigh. He heard them speak.

"He's not here."

"Upstairs probably. C'mon, we have to make this quick."

Sora ascended the staircase and winced every time the steps creaked under his weight. Too much noise. He was making too much noise. He picked up the pace and reached the second floor. They were coming. He could hear them. Sora surveyed the hall and saw no stragglers from the party lying around. Everyone had left, at least from what he could see.

He got to work, opening every closed door, sticking his head through open entrances, scanning the musty corners for any sign of Riku. There was nothing. Sweat trickled down his face. Now he could hear the stairs creaking behind him. The heavy black boots of the Organization beating heavily upon the wooden floor. They were coming.

Finally, he reached the door at the end of the hall. It was nondescript, same as all the others, except for the gleaming silver handle. Sora grabbed it and pushed the door open. He stood in the doorway despite the menacing sounds that sounded ever closer just behind. A strange feeling overcame him as he stepped into Riku's room, as if the weight of all history before him was suddenly bearing down upon him. Sweetness tinged with sadness.

The silver haired boy lay sprawled out over his king sized bed, sound asleep and snuffling. Sora guided the door closed behind him, taking care not to let it slam. The room was lined with desks and there was a giant flat screen television hung from the wall directly across from his bed. He was well stocked, it seemed. Numerous pictures stood on Riku's desks and when a flash of red caught Sora's eye he could not help but examine them closer. He lifted one and stared. It was a picture of Riku and Kairi, her hands pulling at her cheeks and her tongue stuck out teasingly and her eyes scrunched closed and Riku – Riku grinning and giving her bunny ears. Sora could see the sparkling ocean behind them and the tropical trees bent in their primordial ways and Sora felt pain unlike any he had felt before. Sadness tinged with sweetness.

The sound of slamming doors drew him away from his dreamy examination. Putting the picture down, he grabbed Riku gingerly by the shoulders and shook him. He reeked of alcohol.

"Riku. Riku. Wake up."

The boy mumbled something in his sleep and attempted to roll over.

"C'mon Riku, I need you to wake up."

They were getting closer, Sora could hear them now. Sora shook the unconscious boy harder.

"Please wake up."

"'mmou have to go…" Riku yawned and fell still once again.

"Riku, they're going to kill you."

Nothing.

The jig was up. They were just outside now. There was no way out of this. Fear and a hot sense of shame were coursing through him and he listened in despair as they stopped just outside the door.

In that moment he sprang into action, compelled by some primal improvisational force that he wasn't quite certain he truly had. He opened the door fast, flashing a wide goofy smile at the two stunned Organization members and slipped out into the hall, slamming the door shut behind him as quickly as he had flung it open.

"Hey guys! What's up?" he asked cheerfully. Maybe too cheerfully.

Larxene and her bulky friend with dreadlocks stared down at Sora with a mixture of awe and annoyance.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, bearing down on him with narrowed eyes. Sora resisted the urge to draw away. He had ceded all control to impulse now.

"Didn't you hear? There was a pretty wild party here last night," he said, looking around the hall nonchalantly.

"You're supposed to be on the job," Larxene growled. Her eyes moved from his face to his bulging pockets, and her face scrunched up in some inscrutable expression. The man with dreadlocks stood watching him, unmoving.

"I just got done. Came by to see if it was still on. Too bad nobody's here," Sora forced out a laugh and scratched his neck. He wished he felt as confident as he sounded.

Larxene said nothing and looked at the door he had just exited from. "What's in there?" she asked.

"Oh, there?" Sora looked at the door as if he were mulling some vexing problem. "Nothing really…thought it was a bathroom."

"A bathroom," she snorted. She moved to push it open and Sora tried to step in her way, but her friend shuffled in front of him.

"Larxene, wait," he said, trying to come up with some excuse, some distraction, anything to get them away.

She smirked and opened the door. Sora felt himself go numb. It was all over.

Only it wasn't. Riku was not where he had been. The bed was devoid of any human persons, as if it had been untouched all along. Sora looked around wildly, thinking he had perhaps rolled onto the floor in his dozy drunken stupor. But there was nothing to be seen, nothing to be found.

"Hm," Larxene hummed and stepped through the room. The burly man stood in front of the door, blocking Sora's access.

"Are you hiding something from me, little one?" she asked in a sing-song voice that made Sora's stomach swim uncomfortably.

"Other than a toilet? No."

The half-smile never left her face as her eyes swept the room, past the television, past the desks and the closets and the windows and the bed and then finally turning back on Sora. Her eyes locked onto his and he fought to keep his face devoid of any emotion other than cavalier comfort.

His phone sounded off again.

His eyes widened and that was enough. Larxene's smile grew wider and she crossed her arms and looked at him with a satisfied gleam of triumph.

"Answer it."

Sora stood still as his phone buzzed in his pocket. He knew, deep in his heart, that it could only be one person.

"Go on. I wouldn't want to spoil your fun."

Sora pursed his lips. He extracted the phone from his pocket and looked at the caller ID. His heart sunk when he saw it: Demyx.

"It's nobody."

"Answer it."

Reluctantly, he hit accept and pressed the phone to his ear.

"Speaker, please," Larxene asked sweetly and Sora could see the malicious glint in her eyes, as if she had been waiting for this all along. He did as bid.

"Hello?"

"What the fuck, Sora? Where is the munny?" Demyx's angry voice carried out from the speakers and Sora flinched. Larxene and her associate watched like vultures about to swoop in on their wounded prey.

"I-I've got it with me," Sora stuttered, "I got hung up, I promise I'll get there soon."

"I don't like waiting," Demyx said and the implicit threat was as clear as it would ever be. Sora gave a small nod, as if he Demyx could see him in such a terrible position.

"I know. Just give me twenty minutes, please," Sora begged. He needed this call to end. He wondered offhand if they might not just kill him right there.

"Kid, if you're not here-"

"I will be," Sora said, and at last he could at least pride himself in finding some strength to project, "I will."

Demyx muttered something incoherent and hung up. Sora let his arm drop to his side. He looked up at Larxene.

"Well, well," she said and her grin was unimaginably smug, "I wonder what little Sora was really doing here. What do you think, Xaldin?"

Xaldin grunted and continued to bore holes into his head with eyes as hard as diamond.

Larxene padded across Riku's room and leaned down so her mouth was to Sora's ear. He felt her hot breath tickle him as she spoke, "I would be very careful from now on, if I were you." Then they were gone the way they came, disappearing down the stairs and leaving him alone in the hall.

Sora took a step forward and realized he was shaking.

He was too tired, too anxious to even hide the munny that close to spilling from his pockets when he arrived back at the apartment that night. The place smelled of bacon and smoke and Sora was surprised to see Roxas tending to something on their stove.

"I didn't know you could cook," Sora smiled wearily. Roxas turned to look at him and huffed.

"Naminé taught me a bit," he said, taking a piece of bacon out from the pan and biting into it.

"A little late for that, no?" Sora asked, making sure to push his munny deeper into his pockets as he entered their small kitchen.

"I got hungry," Roxas said defensively. Sora picked up on the dullness that still weaved its way through every word his brother spoke.

"How are you doing?" Sora asked, and Roxas said nothing. "Seriously."

"I'm fine," he shrugged.

Sora contemplated his next words. He tapped a finger on the edge of the table and stared down at the wooden patterns that lined the rest of it. "You ever think about maybe talking?" he asked.

"Talking?"

"Yeah, like how you could talk to me…or Naminé…but maybe something – I don't know – professional?"

"Like a shrink?"

Sora shrugged. "Whatever."

Roxas continued stirring his pot. After a minute he shut the stove off and leaning against the counter, turned to face Sora.

"You know what I don't get?" he asked and when Sora said nothing he continued, "You keep going around acting like your mother didn't just die too. Oh Roxas, how are you doing? Oh Roxas, where are you going? Oh Roxas, do you want to talk to a shrink?" he gripped the sides of the counter with trembling fingers. "What about you, Sora? How do you feel?"

Sora looked at him tiredly. "It was just a suggestion."

"What did you say to me once? Oh yeah, you can keep your suggestions wherever the fuck."

Sora nodded and looked down. His temples were beginning to ache and he rubbed small circles into them with his fingers. He listened to Roxas leave for his room and sighed when his door closed and took comfort in the sounds of downtown Brooklyn echoing wildly through urban air.

He locked their door and all the windows that night.

Kairi wouldn't even look at him.

All day he had been trying to get her attention. All day he had been waiting to catch her at her usual haunts. But by seventh period History it had become abundantly clear to Sora that she was consciously evading him. He sat in his seat and kept his eyes trained on her dark red hair and wondered where it was all going. One step forward, five giant leaps back it seemed to him was the perfect way to summarize their relationship. She was a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Or maybe she was just too confused, maybe the sweet trappings of youth, too powerful to resist, were pulling her every which way like it did with the entirety of their generation. They were traveling different paths.

Riku, on the other hand, he had managed to catalogue as among those still in existence. Sora wasn't sure what precisely had occurred that day, but the Organization had not caught up with him. He had wanted to talk to Riku, get him alone, ask him if he remembered anything about that day, but any such notion quickly proved to be an impossibility. He was still Riku. Loved and adored by the world at large, although that world seemed to be steadily closing in on them. Their fates, for better or for worse, were intertwined now.

Sora sunk into the chair in Aerith's office and ran a hand down his face. Usually he didn't drop by so late in the day, but so much had occurred in so short a time that he realized that he had actually begun to crave coming back to the place.

"So…" Aerith began expectantly.

"So…" Sora repeated.

"What do you think of my decorations?" she queried, gesturing to the numerous red and green bulbs hanging from the room and the walls and the tiny tree in the corner.

"Oh…" Sora stared at them. "Is it really almost Christmas?"

"It is," Aerith grinned, "Are you excited?"

Sora exhaled. "I haven't been paying too much attention to dates, I guess."

"I'm sure," Aerith nodded sympathetically. "How are things are at home?"

"Fine…" he replied. "Roxas is a bit hard to talk to."

Aerith nodded. "It's going to take some time. These things are never easy. It's something I've been working with him on."

Sora looked at her, alarmed. "Working with him?"

Aerith tilted her head, as if confused. "He's come to see me. We have semi-regular meetings."

"You do?" Sora asked, his confusion growing.

"Yes," Aerith nodded. "I figured he would have told you."

Sora shook his head. "What do you talk about?"

"You know I can't tell you that."

"Does he talk about me?"

"Sora."

"Sorry, sorry," he waved a hand at her. "I just didn't think he'd do something like that…by himself."

"He was fairly eager to talk. Sometimes all it takes is someone who'll listen."

"Right," Sora felt a flash of irritation course through him and he struggled to keep it submerged.

Sora rubbed the arms of the chair and the cool leather was a comfort on his heated skin. "What do you do when someone you want to talk to doesn't want to talk to you?"

Aerith considered the question. "May I ask whom this is about?"

"Let's keep it hypothetical."

"Usually it's best to wait until that person is ready to talk to you, although I can't speak for every individual case."

Sora nodded. "Yeah. I guess you're right."

"Thank you," Aerith smiled. "It is what I'm here for."

"To be right?"

"To be helpful."

The dour expression on his face did not go unnoticed.

"What is it?"

He struggled with his words, unsure of how to articulate the swirl of emotions vying within him.

"There are so many people…people who need my help. I don't think I can save them all," he said. He felt and heard his own fear.

"It's not your job to save everyone, Sora."

He held his head in his hands. "Things are spinning out of control. I think I messed up. I think I've been making things worse."

"How have you been making things worse?"

Sora shook his head. "Bad things are going to happen and it's going to be my fault."

She paints in broad strokes. Holds the brush with a loose grip and shaking hand. Breathes and presses on. It all comes down, one stroke, two. A pattern emerges, messy and confused. Her sister was always better than her at art. The teacher comes around and peers over her shoulder. He nods and mumbles to himself.

"Very good, Kairi. Can I ask what you're trying to say?"

Her uncertain smile dampens into a puzzled frown. "Well…"

The teacher smiles. "That's alright. Sometimes we have to do a little thinking to figure out what our heart is trying to tell us. Right?"

"Right," she agrees and he moves on to the next person. She looks across the room and sees Aqua struggling with her own painting. She glances towards the teacher, too engaged with her peers to pay attention to her movements. She gets up and moves to the other side of the room, occupying an empty seat at Aqua's table.

"Hey," she greets. Aqua flashes her a smile and continues with her painting. Frankly it's a bit of a mess, Kairi thinks.

When Aqua says nothing more, Kairi takes it upon herself to continue. "You weren't around the other day," she notes.

Aqua sniffs the air. "Wasn't feeling up to it."

Kairi nods. "Oh." She eyes the bruising on Aqua's arm. "Did Vanitas do that?"

"Wow Kairi, you really know how to start off with the hard hitters," Aqua deadpans. Kairi sighs and looks down at the table.

"Sorry, I just – do you wanna talk about it?"

Aqua turns to face her. "Do you want to talk about Sora?"

Kairi blinks. "What about him?"

"I saw you go into that room at the party and I saw you leave without him," Aqua says, as if she's a doctor listing off facts.

"I…I couldn't – things got…kind of awkward."

"Kind of?" Aqua looks at her and for the first time a hint of a smile crosses her face.

Kairi shrugs. "I messed up. I made myself look completely stupid."

"So what?" Aqua shrugs. "Do you like him?"

Kairi feels her face go hot. "I don't know. Why are you asking?"

Aqua is quiet as she paints her picture. Violet brush strokes. She puts the brush down and looks at Kairi. "People around here treat the kid like he's dirt."

"I know," Kairi bites her lip and looks at the floor.

"I never understood that," Aqua comments. "He's good," she smiles.

"He is," Kairi agrees. "I just don't know how to tell him about…about all this."

"Have you tried?" Aqua asks.

"Well…" Kairi rubs her arm, "It's hard. It's really hard."

"There isn't a single thing worth doing that's easy," Aqua says.

"Wow, where'd you steal that one from?" Kairi says snidely and the two girls laugh.

"Just be honest," Aqua says and her voice takes on something more serious. "Maybe he can help."

He left the school and descended the front steps. The sky, which had started off bright and blue, was now pale and overcast. Thunder rumbled off in the distance and jittery ravens took flight and made wary circles over the borough.

Sora had stepped onto the sidewalk and had begun to make his way home when something reached out and grabbed a fistful of his shirt, pulling him into the alcove beside the stairs.

This is it oh god this is it

He screwed his eyes up and prepared for the worst. When nothing happened, he warily opened them. It was Riku. Sora opened his mouth to question and found he was unable to speak.

"Sora," Riku said, and it occurred to him that he had never heard the other boy say his name without some measure of disdain or derision until now. "Are you alright?"

"Am I alright?" Sora asked, astounded. "What happened to you the other day? Do you remember anything?"

Riku nodded grimly. "I know. I heard everything. I heard you distracting them. I knew what was going on as soon as I did and I hid. I wanted to – " he swallowed, "I wanted to say thank you."

Sora nodded. "What are you going to do?"

Riku leaned against the alley wall and he visibly deflated. "I can't stay here. They've got people in this school. It was probably stupid of me to even show up, but I had to talk to you."

"Go to the administrators, go to the police, go to anyone."

"It won't matter," Riku shook his head, his eyes resting on the floor in resignation, "if the Organization wants you, they'll get you."

Sora wracked his brain for something, anything. There had to be some alternative. It didn't have to end like this.

"Come back with me."

"What?" Riku looked up at him in surprise.

"I can hide you in our apartment. They won't think to look there. You can stay until we figure something else out."

Riku seemed to consider the offer, and then he looked Sora square in the eyes.

"Why are you working with them?"

"What?" Sora asked, caught off guard.

"Why are you with them?" Riku repeated.

"I'm not with anyone," Sora protested. "Why do they want you dead?" he countered.

"Because they found something better."

"Better?"

"You," Riku said.

"I-" Sora's mouth hung open. Of course. He had been told as much before. He had always known. There was no use in pretending otherwise.

"We should go," he said, unable to keep the bitterness out of his tone. Riku kept quiet and followed.

This is how it starts, Sora thought and now he felt the tendrils of fate begin to wrap themselves around him. O God, this is how it starts.

They arrived at the apartment as the sun began to set. Sora threw another look over his shoulder and entered the building, Riku followed close behind. They halted at the foot of the stairs leading to the apartments.

"I don't know how to explain this to Roxas," Sora admitted.

"Does he know anything?" Riku questioned. Sora shook his head.

"Well," Riku sighed, "Lead the way."

Sora climbed the steps and together they entered the apartment.

"Roxas?" Sora called, "You home?"

No response. They took cautious steps forward. Nobody was home.

"Guess we're in the clear for now," Sora said and he could not help the relief flooding his body and mind. "Close the door."

Riku shut the door and locked it. They stood there uncomfortably, uncertain as to what to do or say.

"Want something to drink?" Sora asked.

"Sure," Riku nodded and sat down on the couch. He looked at the broken television. "Uh…does this thing work?"

"Don't even bother," Sora called from the kitchen. He brought Riku a glass of sparkling water and sat next to him. Riku looked at the glass with skeptical eyes.

"Seriously?"

"What?" Sora asked.

"Sparkling water?"

"I like it," Sora asserted defensively. Riku sighed and kicked back on the couch, leaning into its hard cushion. His eyes roamed the apartment.

"So…what do you guys do around here?" he questioned.

"Eat, sleep, drink…" Sora listed.

"Great," Riku nodded. "Just great."

They sat in silence, Riku sipping his sparkling water and Sora nervously twiddling his thumbs. The world just kept getting stranger, he thought. Riku in his apartment, sitting on his couch, drinking his water. What was next?

There was a knock on the door. Four sharp raps. Both Riku and Sora froze and stared at the door. Sora relaxed and stood to get it. Riku shot up in a panic and grabbed Sora's arm.

Sora looked at him quizzically. "What?" There were another two sharp knocks and Sora looked at the door.

"Not yet," Riku shook his head and spoke in a low voice. "Ask who it is first."

Sora turned to the door and cleared his throat. "Who is it?" he called.

For a while there was no response and the two boys remained in place, waiting for something, anything, to happen. "Roxas?" Sora asked and there was no response. He begun to understand that something was seriously wrong. The stuffy apartment air suddenly became freighted with unspoken desperation as all potential realities converged upon one frightening conclusion.

"There's a debt that needs to be paid," came a voice from beyond the door and Sora knew now that the end was indeed beginning. With sickly recognition he knew the voice to belong to Xaldin, whose angered whispers had kept him moving at Riku's.

Now there was nowhere to run.

"And I've come to collect," Xaldin said. Riku had edged towards the window and looked out with eyes round with panic, as if to search for some possible lifeline. What he saw instead drove fear deeper into his heart.

"Sora!" he whispered frantically and Sora looked at him. Riku pointed out the window and Sora shot over quickly to peer out. It was Kairi. Kairi. Kairi coming up towards the apartment projects. Kairi with her pink dress and loose hair and determined face. She was heading right into the abyss and she didn't even know it.

"We know he's in there," Xaldin called from behind the door. "We followed you home."

Sora wilted under dual pressures. This had to be some terrible dream, some terrible nightmare reserved only for the worst of nights. This couldn't be happening.

"Listen," Sora responded for the first time and he struggled to get the words past his rapidly drying throat, "we can work something out."

"I don't think so," Xaldin rendered his verdict and the clock tick ticked towards doomsday. There was a tremendous crash and Sora realized in growing horror that he was trying to kick the door down. The wood cracked.

Torn between the possibility of life and the tragedy of death, Sora faltered.