A.N.) Hope you guys enjoy. I'm personally having a lot of fun writing this.

Also, the chapter is named after the song if heard recently that help inspire a lot of the chapters events. It's "Because You Live" by Jesse McCartney, and I will say, his voice itself is what makes everything work for me. Half my IPod consists of music in languages I don't understand, so the sound itself makes the most of it for me.

Disclaimer) I do not own Kingdom Hearts. (I've been doing this disclaimer. Always will do it.)

At First Sight

Chapter 6: Because You Live

"Are you sure you're not going to regret this later, Roxas?" Lea edged, skeptically eyeing the teenage boy who couldn't stop grinning. He went back to the Destiny Islands and got the paopu fruit, as promised, and met up with his best friend in the Tram Common, as planned.

Just watching the kid lean on a building wall, clinging a clenched fist to his heart like it was written vows for matrimony, Lea's pupils narrowed. It was starting to finally show how serious Roxas was taking this new girl he'd found. Lea still was reluctant to say it was love, but he feared to call it obsession. Either of those things was going to have some rather bad drawbacks for his friend; there was no girl alive who was going to take something this earnestly in less than a night. His poor best buddy was going to get his heart crushed into pieces.

"Of course, no matter what happens, I know as long as she's with me, I'll get by. It's like knowing she believes in me, I can believe in myself. Like the stars in the sky have doubled; like my future with her will be infinitely rich—"

"No more talking. I get it. Just know that… uh… if this doesn't work out, I'm here for ya, Buddy. (Flings do happen.)"

"Thanks Lea, but you're worrying over nothing."

"Even you have to admit that what you're doing is pretty sudden! Just try to slow yourself down at least. Flings do happen, Roxas."

"Trust me, what Xion and I have isn't as sudden as you think."

"Roxas!" a light note bellowed to the two.

Lea saw the gaze of the XIII-th focus on something behind him and ignite with serenity. Odd that it was mostly serenity, and not just passion like he'd assumed he'd see. Passion was there but not dominant. "Here comes the 'Lady'," he sighed.

"Axel!" the same soft voiced called after.

Lea spun. "Axel? Listen, kid, whatever he told you, my name is—Ugh!" he grunted as a runty little girl charged him with a glomp.

"Hi," he said through his teeth, trying to loosen the girl. "Hard to breath." His head was starting to feel light and funny.

"Oh," she squeaked, backing up. "Sorry." She moved her dark hair to the side and finally, Lea saw the girl face-to-face. And… his head was starting to hurt. A rough rush of weight was being ripped from his chest as one by one, his memories were becoming sharper, and some were barely appearing. Like windows being wiped of filth, memories of Roxas and him were turning into memories of Roxas, him, and this girl. Missions that were once solo now had her with him. And now the echo of his voice screaming, "You gotta think for yourself. Cuz I know you're not just a puppet. We're best friends. You, me, and Roxas that is. Got it memorized?" finally had the face it was directed at.

He remembered how, with no strength left, he collapsed at the Castle that Never Was and was forced to watch Lord Xemnas carry her away like a beaten sack—knowing that that would be the last time. It would be the very—last—time. He'd never see her again. Memories or no memories.

But that wasn't a thing, or a tool, or doll, despite everyone treating her like such.

That was Xion.

A best friend he failed to protect.

A best friend he failed to remember.

A best friend he failed to keep a promise to. "Go on, you just keep running. But I'll always be there to bring you back!" He pledged he'd always be around to drag her butt back to them from whatever depths of darkness and troubled messes she'd find herself in, and he didn't. He couldn't.

He really did forget her. His best friends were whom he treasured most, yet he forgot one.

But on the bright side, it seemed Roxas was able to find her. Fitting seeing Roxas was the Key that brought to them in the first place.

And that meant… Roxas really did know her before. And from his newly recalled memories, maybe it was safe to say the two might actually be in love with each other.

For the first time in a long time, Lea was left speechless.

He turned to Roxas for some clarity.

But all Roxas offered was a cheeky smirk. An "I told you so" struggling to be voiced, but never was.

"What's the matter with you, Axel?"

Lea turned back to the sweet Xion fidgeting with her pale skirt.

Man, was his head in pain.

"Nothing's wrong with him, Xi-Xi," Roxas spoke softly, gliding to her side. "He's just getting his memories of you back. It's giving him a huge headache to get everything in order. I was lucky for my memories to appear to me in a bursting sweep, real quick. Then again, I never truly did forget, so maybe that made everything easier." When he felt justified in his explanation, he wrapped one arm around the XIV-th and leaned to kiss her, but she turned her face away, and received a peck on the cheek instead.

Lea watched his this, and immediately knew what was going on.

A dramatized "Welcome back!" doesn't seem to be my style, he reasoned when decide his next move.

He waved his hand at Roxas indicating that he back away from the uncomfortable Xion, then waved a finger. "Tsk-tsk, Roxas, Roxas, learn to listen to your lady if this whole 13-14 pairing is going to last."

"Huh?" Roxas gaped, letting his arm around Xion fall.

"You see here, tiny Xi—glad to have you back by the way—"

"—Thank you. Glad to be together—"

"—Yes. Tiny Xi, here, has…" Lea picked Xion up by her upper arms and shook a little in good humor. "… Has eaten a good pound and a half of ham—no—cheeseburger. And now, she's afraid you won't find that very lady-like," he confirmed, placing her back down with her giggling at his antics. "But what's your response, lover-boy?" he teased, grinning at smiling Roxas.

"I'll say that I'm disappoint I couldn't see that!" Roxas laughed. "You probably looked adorable, Xion," he comforted his blushing maiden, stealing a kiss.

"I am so relieved!" Xion sighed. "I also thought you wouldn't remember me, Axel!"

"Whoa there! Axel is old news. My name is Lea. Got it memorized?" he pressed in a very tired tone, poking the girl's temple as if to shove it through her skull.

She only giggled at him. "Okay, okay! I got it! Lea it is."

From behind, Xion felt a surge of warmth envelope her in a loving embrace. Resting his chin on her shoulder, Roxas wrapped his arms around her torso, secure enough to lift her off the ground and held her pressed to his chest.

Funny how he didn't said a word, considering since their reuniting, he'd been very vocal in his affection. Sweet nothings and poetic sentiments were the gifts he had been choosing to bestow on her with his velvet voice that never failed to send pleasurable chills through body and heart, manifesting into a swelling gasp. So charming… She'd tried to meet him back with her own sentiments, but so far, Roxas demonstrated to being much, much more suave with words. She couldn't help it; he left her virginally breathless.

"Well aren't you the blushing bride, Xion?" Lea laughed.

The burning on her cheeks tipped off that she really was flushed, but a bride? The thought only made her embarrassment flare like alcohol in flames.

"You think so?" Xion asked, trying to stay focused on Lea and not Roxas almost purposefully cuddling her in the most overwhelming sense.

"Well you are blushing, thanks to Roxas."

"Glad to help such a cause," Roxas whispered to her, sporting a mischievous grin.

"And you're dressed in all white. Quite a switch from your previous all-black attire."

"Oh…" She never knew the color white had anything to do with brides. She'd only known marriage at all because Xaldin had mentioned it once when she was on a mission with him a long time ago.

Stretching, Lea observed Roxas with particular distaste. "Yo Roxas, are you going to continue exercising PDA with your girlfriend, or are you going to use that fruit?"

"That's right!" The blonde of the gang kindly placed the girl in his arms to her feet again and held up his hands. "Toss it."

Picking out of his jacket, Lea pitched a star-shaped, golden fruit Xion recognized all too well from the Destiny Islands. Roxas picked off the green leaves on the edges and split it in two. Some of the thin juices that saturated it from the inside fell quietly to the brick road, leaving Xion to peacefully mourn how that was a drip by drip less that could have helped strengthen an eternal bond.

Roxas's smile was lustrous and gratified. He held one half out to her.

"Since having you entered my life again little over two hours ago, I've gained the heart-straining fear of losing you again. I've promised to protect you and make sure to never hold back how much I love you, Xion. I just want you. You make everything seem much more infinite as if the sky has twice as many stars now. With you I feel strong enough to survive anything, do anything. As long as I have you—"

"This isn't a marriage, Roxas. Just eat the fruit," Lea groaned in the background, completely ruining Roxas's train of thought and Xion's engrossment in his speech.

Not even bothering to cover how annoyed he was, Roxas glanced to Lea and wondered if it'd be in his best interest to do something that would bother him as much as he was them. Deciding it wasn't worth it, he looked back to his "blushing bride" and instantly felt passion surging through him once again.

"With you, the future, though vast and unknown, doesn't scare me. Will you share this paopu fruit with me, and become apart of each others' destinies forever?"

Lost in a fog colored of bliss, Xion took the fruit and waited for him to eat it with her. She knew her actions meant a lot to Roxas at this point, and there was no point trying to reciprocate his amorous words. He was the master at speaking from the Heart, and Xion felt she needed some more time in her own before she could even hope to recite her feelings as well as he did.

To be entwined with Roxas's destiny evermore… evermore… How could she say no to that? It was too perfect!

"Okay, Xi, on the count of 3. 1…"

"2…"

"3!"

Simultaneously, they bite down on and tasted an overpowering burst of exotic spiciness, overriding the senses and simulating the feeling of fiery craving.

The second bite was more of the sweet delightfulness like bubbly-joy, cotton-bliss, blossoming-ecstasy. It was so wonderful the two lovers were glad the taste of wholesome love persisted for the next few bites.

Then, strangely, the subsequent bite was bitter. It gave the two a sickening feeling of emptiness, like their cores were being frozen over. These feelings were not new to them, and it pained them dearly. The flavor reminded them of all the horrible things that they'd once felt involving one another at one point: resentment, stubbornness, loneliness, jealousy against others, confusion, betrayal, heartbreak, raw anger. These feelings weren't always directed at each other, for instance, you better believe Roxas was in a horrifying combination of jealousy and rage at Riku who once tried to take Xion away, and Xion had once wallowed in depression and heartbreak when she'd look for Roxas only to never succeed in locating him at an appropriate time. But those feelings came up as a result of their friendship, and looking back, a romantic relationship was bound to bring those feeling back one way or another, perhaps even stronger than before.

Despite that downer, they still kept eating. Eagerly.

It'd flip back and forth in the next bites between the spicy passion, honeyed happiness, and bitter disdain, and even mixed into combinations. Even with tastes that were alien, and a struggle to grasp on.

And then the final bite came. They looked at each other and knew to eat the last bit together.

It was salty… and sweet.

And it was done. They ate the paopu fruit. According to legend, they were interwoven into each other's lives. Not even death would keep them apart.

"From your guys' faces it probably tasted nasty," they heard Lea, chuckling, knowing he'd killed the moment. Again.

They were best friends and everything, but Roxas had just about had enough.

A spark of his deviant side proposed a way to get back at Lea.

And Roxas gladly took it.

On the craving of his instincts, he grabbed the innocent, unsuspecting Xion, dipped her, and proceeded to heatedly kiss her with every once of passion that sprung from his only darling. For some moments, Xion resisted from being startled at his brazen actions and the fear that he'd drop her, but gradually became more comfortable and safe in Roxas's arms and enthusiastically joined in the act. While she stroked his hair and lightly moaned, Roxas would occasionally break away, take a heavy breath, and then immediately begin another kiss. Whether it was wrong or not (they were in public after all), Roxas didn't seem to care one bit, caressing Xion's back and legs.

"Oh—Man! Why, Roxas?" Lea exclaimed, completely turned off by the sight of his best friends' prided intimacy.

Sustained in more ways than one, not to be confused with satisfied, Roxas picked up his lady and helped her back to balance.

"Wow," was all she had to say for it.

"I'm not a huge fan of open affection, or at least to the degree you're dishing out, so I'm just going to catch you two later…"

"Okay, we'll meet you at the Usual Spot."

Settling that, Lea practically ran away, forbade he witness them kiss again. Too awkward!

"Behave yourself, Roxas! Don't get too handsy with your new girlfriend!" he shouted back to them before disappearing beyond the horizon.

"How mean of you," Xion playfully chided.

"You helped," he countered, smirking at her blush.

Not even denying that, she refused to meet his gaze but still smiled.

"Considering you already ate, do you want to go play at some stands?" Roxas offered, taking her hand.

"But did you eat? Beside the paopu fruit I mean."

"No, but I'm not really hungry."

Tightening his grip, he tugged her to one of the nearby stands. A ring toss stand. Roxas suspected it to be the one he was at before heading to the very dance hall where he found his true love waiting for him to find her.

They both tried, and Xion was the only one victorious. Taking the approach to throw the rings gently with more attention to accuracy attested as a more effective strategy than Roxas who always threw the rings too hard. Her prize was a teddy bear with a pink bow around the neck, to which she immediately presented to Roxas.

"I can't take that, Xion! You won it!"

"But I know you would be doing the same thing."

"True," he sighed and accepted the gift, playfully calling it Xion II.

"Roxas?" Xion perked as the two walked across the Tram Common for another stand that didn't have a long line.

"Yeah?"

"I think we should separate again later."

"Huh? Why?" he exclaimed, stopping in his tracks.

Xion stopped a pace ahead. "I've decided that the longer I keep us a secret from Seifer and the others, the worse the situation will become when the truth finally does come out," she answered holding her hands out as if that'd help get her point across. "So I think while you go to the Usual Spot later, I'll go and tell them. They'll probably be mad at me, but at least if I do it sooner than later maybe we can still be friends of some sort."

"That makes sense…" he agreed, yet saddened that they'd have to part again due to their control-freak groups. "Do you want me to come with you?"

She shook her head. "That'll probably tip them off before I have a chance to say."

He sighed. "If that's what you want, I'm with you. I'll go find Hayner and the others and tell them too."

"Later though?" she asked, holding out her hand.

"Later." He grinned, receiving her touch.

They walked along, hand in hand, and Roxas carrying Xion II. Eventually they found a neat game where the objective was to throw darts at these balloon with targets on them in a course. Xion took much delight watching Roxas demolish the track with a crazed zombie look, well-trained precision, and the ability to throw the darts as hard as he wanted. Soon, Xion had her own Roxas II bear.

Content on the even score, the sat on a bench and huddled close.

"So I'm your… oh darn, I forgot the term again!" Xion huffed, clenching her teddy to her chest.

Roxas chuckled and smoothly snaked his arm around her, laying his head on the white hat over her own.

"You're my girlfriend, Xion. And I'm your boyfriend. We're a couple."

"Oh. You're my boyfriend, and I'm your girlfriend," she recited, smiling at how the sentence rolled off the tongue.

"That's right," he grinned.

With a muffled sound of indulgence, Xion circled one of her arms around him and held him tight. "I love you."

"And I love you," he answered. "Have you thought about coming with me to the Destiny Islands?"

"Even if Seifer's gang disown me, I'll be just as destitute there as I am here. I'm not going to intrude on yours and Sora's family or wherever Lea stays."

"Then how about we run away together?" he pressed, holding her stricter.

"Where would we go?"

"Wherever you want to go. I'll take you anywhere you want."

"That's not a very solid plan."

"I know," he groaned. "I just want us to stay together."

"Same here. I don't want to think Fuu would desert me for this considering she was okay with our relationship the last I saw, but when it comes down between me and Seifer, it's hard to think she'd side with me. Seifer and Rai were her very first friends. Sort of like how you and Lea were my first friends. Except on special circumstances, I'd never want to abandon you."

"Speaking of that time you left the Organization… I vote we hold off introducing you to Riku anytime soon."

Xion teasingly swatted at him. "Riku was just a friend, Roxas."

"I trust you… I don't trust him…" he growled at the memory of Riku dodging him through Twilight Town, purposefully trying to keep him from finding the hidden XIV.

"You're so silly," she giggled. Glancing at the sky, she noted, "The fireworks are going to start within the next hour or so."

"You think? How can you tell?"

"Vivi said they'll do it when the moon has reached its highest point in the sky."

"After we tell our secret to our friends, let's get Lea and go there!"

"Fuu said it's mostly a romantic scene though."

"I know!"

Xion rolled her eyes. "Behave yourself, Roxas. Stop trying to mess with him!" she snickered.

"He asked for it when he kept butting into our moments!" he laughed.

Xion had a lighthearted smile gracing her features. "He's not here now though…"

Catching on, Roxas re-dawned that cheeky smirk on his lips. Slowly, he leaned his forehead to hers. "We're all alone, my girlfriend," he whispered before kissing her lips.

A.N.) I'm in a bit of a crossroad, and I thought a good way to help decide the best course of the story is to get other opinions. The question: Should the ending be… "happy" or… "non-happy"?

If you don't know the actual conclusion to Romeo & Juliet—Spoilers, if that matters to you—Romeo and Juliet both die at the end.
Do you believe that the ending should follow the source material, or should I let these two finally get a break and make it at the end? I had already planned the ending, but as I'm getting closer to it, I'm questioning if it's fitting for what's needed.

Please review and have a wonderful day! ^_^