Disclaimer: We don't own Kingdom Hearts only the events that occur in this story.
Warnings: Language

Gift of the Heart
Chapter Five

Lost

"What?" Sora muttered in disbelief. This was probably the last place in the worlds that he wanted to be lost in. What was worse was the fact that his other seemed to currently be acting like two separate people. It worried Sora a bit that he had no clue what had gone on with his other half. The brunette took in a deep calming breath.

"Uh ok…" What was it that Kairi had always told him to do if he got lost? "Hey Roxas, Kairi is always saying to go back to the last place that I knew when I get lost. Do you remember which way we came to get to this point? Maybe we can go backwards and try again?" Sora asked hopefully. He certainly hoped Roxas did because he was currently clueless as to even which way they had come from.

Blue eyes lit up slightly and the boy nodded a meek 'yes'. "Uh, yeah. I can get us back to where we were," Roxas said with his head tilted down but still looking up at Sora. His posture dropped as he shyly took the boy's hand and lead them through the corridor of hallways until they were looking over the lake once again. "See, I don't know how to get out though," he paused looking around after letting go of the boy's hand. His eyes scanned the area slowly hoping that something, anything would jog his memory and make him remember or snap back to whatever it was that got them here. After a few minutes of silence, with his back to Sora, Roxas's shoulders dropped as with the rest of his small frame. "I'm so sorry Sora."

Sora was busy looking around an attempting to ponder a way out and barely heard Roxas's muttered words. Yet when he did he turned and immediately enveloped Roxas in his arms. "What are you sorry for Roxas?" he asked with a brilliant grin on his face. "I get us lost all the time! You're half of me so it's only natural that you would get us lost some time or another! Besides, it's beautiful here and defiantly worth it!" He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Roxas forehead.

"I'm just sorry Sora." he said back keeping his head down. He blushed slightly at the feeling of the boy's lips on his forehead. He held his hands up to rest them on his other's.

"We can always swim across the lake!" Sora exclaimed declaring the first thing that came to his mind.

Roxas let out a sigh and smiled only slightly when the boy gave the suggestion of swimming across the lake. "Sora, you don't even know how cold the water is. And besides how do we get down there?" he said looking down towards the water they were talking about. It was a good drop from the ledge they were on.

Sora stepped back grinning. "Please Roxas. I'm an island kid. I was born, breed, and raised in the water. You should feel how cold it is early in the year! I bet this is nothing!" Sora glanced at the water and couldn't see any rocks in the immediate area. Besides that it looked deep enough that it wouldn't kill them… hopefully. Turning back to his other he declared boldly, "We dive!"

Roxas stared at his other like he was insane." Sora!? Are you insane?! YOU may be an island kid, but I'm not," he declared feeling his heart drop and his sullen mood drop to disbelief. "Besides Sora, you don't even know where to go. If we do swim across the lake where do we go from there? Have you thought about this at all Sora?!"

"Uh…Well…" Sora said lightly as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. His actions spoke of a resounding no. "Well… ummm… what do you suggest we do?" he asked dropping his hands to rest at his side again. With his brilliant plan shot down Sora wasn't sure where to go from there. Roxas didn't say a word. He walked towards the ledge and balanced there for a moment. He looked around the vast lake and surrounding area.

Soon he merely looked over his shoulder with the same glint in his eyes that he had when he had pulled Sora back to their current place. "Trust me." he said with a confidence behind his tone, as he let his feet tilt until he gracefully fell forward and towards the water before with total calmness covering his form. His eyes closed slowly and the smirk stayed on his lips as he extended his arms as he plummeted downward.

Sora nodded immediately. He had no trouble trusting Roxas at all, right up until the moment where he fell off the edge of the ledge. "Roxas!" Sora exclaimed as he looked over at the falling blond. Hadn't the blond just said he wasn't a swimmer and it was a really bad plan?! Sora didn't wait another moment. If he needed to save his other half he could do so better by being down in the water with him. Without further thought Sora launched himself from the ledge, his body instinctively taking the position of a much practiced graceful dive towards the water below.

Cool water splashed from force of the blond plummeting into it. His body was pulled under before he opened his eyes quickly swimming to the surface. He pulled in breath and waded there for a moment looking up to see the quickly falling brunette. He smirked. He was just like him. So he'd get the picture quickly. ... No perhaps he should wait.

Sora hit the water head first and properly maneuvered his body to use the most of his moment coupled with strong strokes of his arms and legs to get him to the surface quickly. He only took a second to reflexively shake his head before he looked around for the blond. As his legs began to automatically and leisurely kick to keep him surfaced, blue eyes focused on his other with much relief. Immediately he swam through the water to Roxas. "I thought you just got done saying that you couldn't swim that well and this was a bad idea?" he asked with only the barest hints of his previous scare coloring his voice.

The smirk never faded, and the firmness behind the blue eyes glistened off the water's surface. "Of course, it was a stupid idea. You're an idiot. That's why you have me," he grinned at him with a cocky smirk pulling a hand out of the water. "Now just, trust me and follow my lead." he said as if it were a friendly order. "Aero," he spoke lowly letting a small ball of air swirl in the 

palm of his hand. He held the hand to his mouth and dove under the water. He figured the brunette would follow him so he looked back at him, and made a pointing motion as if telling him "I'm going that way." and then proceeded to head in said direction.

Sora could only blink after his other. Sure Roxas was cocky and teasing of him but ordering like that. He didn't think he had ever heard Roxas do that. What puzzled him more was his use of magic. The brunette had never thought to use his magic like that and the idea that Roxas knew that spell well enough to control it like that and to think to use it like that was a bit odd. There was no way he wasn't bringing this up later.

Sora held up his own hand and muttered "Aero." A few tries later he had formed a sufficient ball of air. His however he had played with until he had gotten it to stay over his mouth and nose without him holding it there. He knew that swimming without both hands would be very weird.

Once he figured he had the spell under control to the point that he wouldn't get a lung full of water he dove under to join his other half. His eyes which were normally accustomed to salt water had no trouble peering through the fresh water to locate the form of the blond. With a slight grin despite himself at how much fun he was having, Sora swam towards him ready and willing to follow.

The blond form stopped only momentarily to look behind him and see if the boy was following. Good. He pointed with his free hand to his left which had an odd glow of light coming from that direction. Sora nodded that he understood and followed just far enough back not to get kicked in the face.

Soon enough he was powering himself again with the strength of his legs alone. After a while he moved up and brought them to a seemingly underground cave. It was here that the boy let the spell fade and he began to look around. There was a ledge of land, so he swam over to it in an ungraceful fashion and pulled himself from the water panting.

Sora surfaced shortly after Roxas and let his own spell fade before swimming to the ledge to join the blond. Sora pulled himself up with strong arms and the moment he was out of the water he shook himself almost like a dog. That done he turned to his other, with his hands on his hips, to get some answers. "Roxas, how come you never told me you knew that spell let alone how to do that. That would have been helpful every now and again." Even though he was pressing for information, Sora's tone was still light and almost playful.

Roxas removed his jacket and twisted it to ring it dry. Drenched to the core he pulled himself up to his feet and stood there for a moment wobbly to get his balance on his tired sore legs. His eyes narrowed and his eyebrows knitted into a confused anger. "What the hell are you talking about Sora?!" he spat back confused as to what the boy was getting at. Last he knew he was yelling at the boy for his idiotic craziness.

Sora blinked in utter confusion before taking a step forward and placing a hand on Roxas arm. "Roxas you just dived in the water and we swam all the way here underwater breathing through Aero spells. Don't you remember that?" He asked worried at the reaction of the blond. Roxas words seemed like he was utterly confused not just ticked that Sora was bringing something up.

Roxas raised a blond brow at the boy before he finished ringing out his jacket and moving his hands to his zipper pull. He shook his head before answering to ring out the water in his hair, not caring that it spattered all over Sora's face. He looked the boy as he unzipped his shirt, with a huff. "No Sora. I don't." he removed his shirt and began to ring that out as well, letting the water pool at his feet. "I don't know half to spells you do. Where in the world did your mind come up with that idea?!" he spat twisting the black fabric tightly to take out his frustration out on it instead of his other.

Eyes widening in shock Sora grabbed both of Roxas wrists to still his hands. "Roxas you're wringing water out of your clothing," he breathe quietly. "And we are on a completely different ledge. You led us here. Roxas what is going on?" he asked with worry coloring his voice.

His eyes narrowed at his other when he grabbed a hold of his wrists. "Let go of me Sora." he warned. He looked into the other boy's eyes and saw the worry there. He sighed. "Look Sora." he started firmly. "I don't know where we are. I don't what is going on, and I'm just a little touchy right now. Ok? Can we just go please?" he snapped finishing his sentence with a softer voice.

Sora released Roxas wrists upon his request and nodded. "Ok. We can go. Lead on," Sora said lightly. He still needed Roxas to lead since he still had no clue where to go to get out of this mess. The brunette swore to himself that he would press the issue later when they were out of this mess and had some time. It was very unsettling and he found he didn't like it one bit.

With that the boy whipped his shirt loose and replaced it on his shoulders refraining from zipping it up. He looked around the area and saw a small pathway. "Let's go." he said walking forward down the small curved tunnel. Soon enough the boy's were overlooking the vast valley that Sora had fought in on his past journey. Roxas stopped and crossed his arms. "There. I don't have a clue where I am Sora. So it's all you now."

Sora, who hadn't bothered to wring out his own clothing, left a trail of water in their wake. He nodded as soon as he saw the area and recognized it. "Come on," Sora ordered in an unusually quiet and calm tone. He turned and took off in the way he knew the small settlements of houses lay without another word to Roxas, expecting that the blond would follow. Sora wasn't sure what was worse. The fact that he knew something was going on that was odd or the fact that Roxas wouldn't say anything about it.

Roxas chased after his other the wind colder on his skin now that he was sopping wet. Soon enough the two boys were back in the city's limits and Roxas heaved a sigh of relief. "Well I think we're set on adventure for a while Sora." he breathed out in a tired voice. "Let's go back to the others and see if they have a place I can crash. I don't know about you, but I'm tired," he said looking to his other with eyes that spoke the truth, still he was trying to avoid the previous topic.

"Yea," Sora responded quietly. He led them right back to the house and walked through the front door as if he belonged there. As far as many of them were concerned he did belong there. Aireth greeted him with a smile which he returned minimally. "Do you have some place Roxas can rest?" he asked her.

"Sure," she replied kindly.

"Thanks," Sora said quietly. Then he turned to his other and offered him a smile. "I'm gonna go see if Riku needs any help, ok? You rest." Without another word and leaving no room for Roxas to respond, Sora walked past the other half of his heart and back out into the city leaving Aireth standing there alone with Roxas.

Roxas smiled meekly at the woman, standing in a slumped position. He zipped up his shirt quickly realizing it was still undone. "Sorry for the trouble." he said shyly. "Where do you want me to be? I don't want to be in the way or anything." he continued positioning his hand s behind his back as he entwined his fingers within themselves to at least give him some form of comfort that someone was with him. Stupid Sora. Why did he just have to leave?

Aireth offered a gentle smile to the blond. "You're no trouble at all," she told him gently. "This way," she led him down the hall to a small room which was obviously a guest room. "You can use the bed in here if you like. Or you are welcome to wander the house. I'll get you a towel and some of Cloud's things to wear until yours dry," she told him before moving off to do just that.

"Well I um..." before Roxas managed to utter a full sentence the woman was gone. He felt like he was being such a bother. He heaved a large sigh and slumped his posture. All he could do was wait for her to come back.

After a few moments Aireth returned. In her arms was a large fuzzy towel and what appeared to be several articles of clothing. "Here," she said gently. "I didn't know what you would like so I got a variety of things. Cloud won't mind you using them. You can just set your wet clothes on the towel outside the door when you are done and I'll take care of them," she instructed in her kind and gentle way.

"T-thank you very much." he said taking the clothes from her. He smiled at her with the same meek smile and headed to the room she told him he could rest. He slipped in himself inside and dropped the garments on the bed. Soon after he removed his own clothing and dried himself off with a towel. Moving to chose clothes from the ones offered he paused. Now would be a good time to see these markings Sora was so fascinated with, without having to worry about the other boy being perverted -not that Roxas minded. He looked himself over and took in the sight of many trails of faded off flesh colored text all over his body. "Huh. I bet it's because of you," he said speaking to the crystal hanging from his neck. His slender fingers pulled long black pants and a sleeveless black turtle neck from pile and slipped them on. He zipped up the shirt, and placed his wet clothes outside the door as instructed.

Soon he slipped himself into bed and pulled the blanket up. All he could think of was the lack of warmth lying next to him. "Stupid Sora. Stupid Sora running off and leaving me all alone." he grumbled glaring at the wall. "Stupid Sora. Stupid Stupid Sora."

0o0o0

Sora stalked out of the house and into the city. For a while he simply wandered around just to be wandering. Once he spotted Riku perched up on a wall overlooking the city, he decided to join his silver haired friend. Minutes later he was settling by Riku ignoring the curious looks that the teen was giving him. Shrugging Riku returned to gazing at the city figuring that when Sora was ready to talk he would. Sure enough 3 minutes later Sora heaved a large sigh and began to speak. "You would think that the other half of your heart would tell you anything," he muttered. Wisely Riku chose to stay silent and simply listen.

0o0o0

Kairi and Namine had been wandering the city streets for some time now when they spotted the backs of Sora and Riku. "S-" Kairi moved to shout at the two before Namine placed her hand over her other's mouth and shook her head at her.

"No, Kairi. Let them talk. Besides this is a perfect opportunity," she grinned flipping open her sketch book to a new page. "I haven't had a live model in a long time."

0o0o0

Sora took a breath before continuing. "I mean I know something wrong and there is something he isn't telling me. He keeps having all these flashes of things he shouldn't know because he's not supposed to know things that I don't. But then he gets angry and won't talk to me about it. I can feel that it bothers him and it bothers me too but I just wanna talk about it and see if we can figure something out!" Sora declared as he let out an exasperated sigh.

"Perhaps," Riku said in his calm and quietly assured voice. "All he wants is for you to be there with him. Neither of you have any idea so talking will do no good. Maybe all he really needs is for you to be strong for him."

Sora pondered Riku's word for a minute before sighing again. "I'm an idiot aren't I Riku."

The silver hair teen let out a chuckle, "Only every now and again."

Sora smiled and elbowed his friend in the side before turning his head to look at him. Blue met emerald and a quiet understanding passed between them. "Thanks Riku," Sora muttered softly. Then he was breaking the eye contact and vaulting from the way to flip midair and land lightly on his feet on the ground before taking off at a run.

Riku simply shook he head and couldn't help but smile. "Namine," he said quietly, yet loud enough the young woman would be able to hear. "If you wanted to draw me all you had to do was ask," he told her without turning to face her or moving in any sort of way that even indicated he knew where she was.

"Riku!!" Namine shouted at the boy playfully. "Why'd you have to do that?! Now I have to totally erase Sora!!" she joked flipping her pencil to work on the picture more. Kairi let out a small chuckle at the two. "Here Namine, you can draw us instead," she offered climbing up on the ledge where Sora was. "Riku what did you say to him? Is everything Ok?" she asked her sliver haired friend

A light chuckle bubbled forth at Namine's words before Riku could stop it. Calming himself once more he answered Kairi's question without out looking at her choosing instead to gaze ahead of him. "He was just having a slight issue with Roxas," Riku told her. "Nothing they won't be able to work out. They are halves of the same heart…" the silver haired teen let his words trail off figuring that Kairi would understand what he meant.

0o0o0

Sora ran all the way back to the house and skidded in the open front door. "Roxas?" he gasped out while taking in deep breaths of air.

Aireth, used to the oddities of the people she lived with, wasn't startled too much by Sora's sudden appearance. "He's down the hall in a guest room," she told him rising to show him the way.

"Thanks!" Sora exclaimed as was moving down the hall before she could really show him. He stopped outside the door that had Roxas's clothing lying outside and thought about knocking. Quickly he gave that idea up and he opened the door and slipped inside instead. "Roxas?" he called very softly incase the lump under the covers was sleeping.

Still glaring at the wall Roxas merely clenched onto the pillow he had pulled into arms tightly. Without moving much or turning to face the other boy, he threw said pillow at him in an angry fuss. With that he let out an angry groan and pulled the blanket up over his head.

Roxas had a mean aim and Sora, despite all his ability with a keyblade couldn't avoid a pillow. It smacked him straight in the face and flopped loudly to the floor. "I guess I deserved that," Sora mumbled as he toed off his shoes and began the process of removing slightly soggy clothing. Once it was laying a wet pile on the floor he tip toed over to the bed and lifted up the edge of the blanket to squirm his way under. "Roxas," he called out. "I'm sorry."

Roxas had balled his form under the blanket, pulling his knees to his chest. Small whimpering sounds which sound more like tears were coming from the blond boy who said nothing to his other. He merely wrapped his arms around his knees, and held them close to chest. He clenched his eyes tightly and didn't move a muscle. He kept himself quiet and hoped Sora wouldn't notice the tears.

The brunette didn't need to see his other to know something was desperately wrong. They were, after all, still connected. Without further thought Sora moved forward and curled himself around Roxas's body. "Roxas," Sora entreated pitifully as he felt tears of his own well up. "You were mad and upset and I thought maybe you just wanted to rest alone. I'm sorry. I never should have left you."

The dam broke and Roxas rolled in Sora's arms to bury his face into the other boy's chest. "Sora!" he said sobbing on the bare flesh of his other. "I'm so scared. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm just so scared," he said in a confused crying mess.

Sora immediately pulled the blond as close as he could and twined them together beneath the blankets. He couldn't stop his own tears as he echoed Roxas's confusion and fear. "It's ok Roxas," Sora soothed running his hands over the blonde's fabric covered back. "Don't worry we'll figure it out. I bet it's no big deal in the end." Sora continued to mummer soft words in efforts to comfort and calm his other half.

"But...But.. What if something's wrong with me?" he spat back through a tear soaked voice. "I mean what if it's because I'm here and not... and not..." he started to trail as if he didn't want to say the next few words. In fact his eyes even trailed away from the young keyblader, hoping that that the topic could just be dropped.

"Nothing's wrong with you Roxas," Sora declared fiercely. "There is no reason why being here would be a problem right?" the brunette said softly as he continued to smooth his hands over Roxas's back in effort to sooth.

Roxas drew in a breath in a failed attempt to stop himself from crying. However he kept doing so and continued to look away. "Sora..." he trailed off. "Stop," he said softly not giving a reason why. "Please don't make me think about it."

Sora blinked in confusion. He had thought Roxas was upset about the fact that he had led them out without knowing it, but now the brunette wasn't so sure. "Roxas? Think about what?" he asked with confusion showing clearly in his tone.

"Sora Stop." he said his voice urging. "There are plenty of reasons why I shouldn't be here so please don't make me think about them." he spoke again his eyes dropping and he looked off to the side so that Sora hopefully couldn't see his face.

"Roxas," Sora began. "You have plenty of reason to be here! You have just as much a reason as I do! The heart thing in Atlantis thought so. Why do you think any different?" he pressed in attempts to convince the blond that he really did have right to exist.

The blonde's tongue reacted before his mind could stop him. "Sora! Listen to yourself! I'm a nobody! I don't have the right to exist. I'm half a person! Half of you. I shouldn't be here. I probably keep snapping in and out of it because of that. That's probably why I have spots of black in my memory. I'm not supposed to be here Sora! I'm not me! I'm half of you. Half of this!" he shouted setting up slightly and resting his hand down on Sora's heart with his last words.

"Do you understand Sora?! I'm half of this and nothing more, this is where I'm supposed to be." it was then that the words he just said settled in his mind and the tears raced faster. Before he could do anything there was a blinding light between the two boys. "Sora, I'm so sorry."

Blue eyes widened at the light, he had seen that before in a waking dream. A dream where he remembered seeing Roxas for the first time and then the blond had been gone because he had been pulled inside of Sora's own being. "No!" Sora screamed reaching out as if to grasp Roxas and hold him in existence, but his hands felt nothing. Tears flowed freely down his cheeks as his hands were unable to do anything to stop it. He could feel. He could feel the things inside him, his heart and soul, sighing as the other half slowly slid into it. A sigh as things finally became whole. At the same time his mind felt nothing but panic. This couldn't be real. It couldn't be happening. Not when they had only just begun to taste what life could be like for them.

A/Ns:

Kira: MWHAHAAHAHAHAHA! Keep reading kiddies! XD

Kat: grins So yeah. There you have the next part. I think Kira and I are getting pretty good at the cliffies if I do say so myself. As always thanks to our kind reviewers TheUnnaturalDisater, bcz, KiraLacus Forever, and GothChika07. We love to hear from you and we would love to hear from any of those silent stalkers out there too!