Tifa goes up the stairs, doing her routine check-up-on-Roxas-every-two-minutes. However, this time, Aerith comes to stop her.
"Tifa...don't go there." She warns.
Tifa tilts her head, curious.
"Why?"
Aerith looks down, a guilty look in her face.
"Cloud and Roxas are talking...I overhead a bit of their conversation." Aerith looks up pleadingly into Tifa's eyes. "Now wouldn't be the best time to interrupt..."
Tifa bites her lip, hesitant.
(She wants to know what they're talking about. She wants to know what made Aerith ask her to not go. She wants to how it's even possible to have a conversation with Cloud. She wants to know...)
She relents.
"Alright," She says, sighing.
She looks at the stairs, for some reason, suddenly feeling worried.
"I won't go."
Roxas comes down alone.
"Roxas, you're awake!" Aerith exclaims, noticing him. "How are you feeling? You were sleeping for such a long time..."
She stops talking, seeming to search for something behind him.
She's looking for Cloud, he realizes.
"Cloud's still upstairs." Roxas explains. "He...just needs some time to relax."
Aerith nods, though her eyes still betray her worry. She then brightens up.
"Oh! Your friend was looking for you! Demyx, I believe?" She smiles. "You know, someday you're going to tell me how the both of you ended up collapsed on the doormat. It was quite the scare, believe me. Now go on.. I think he's outside in the--."
Screeeeeeeeech.
Roxas grimaces.
"I can hear him. Thanks."
And he runs out the door.
"Demyx!"
The blond looks up, the music stopping. He grins.
"Roxas! You're up! Here, let me play something I devised recently..."
"Play one note and I'll stop being angtsy." Roxas threatens.
Demyx freezes and looks up, horror in his eyes.
"You wouldn't..." He gasps out.
Roxas doesn't stand down.
"Try me," He challenges. "I'll smile."
They stare each other down.
Seconds pass by.
Finally, Demyx looks away, a smile on his face.
"Alright, alright, you win. Can't have our Roxas smiling now, can we?" He teases. "You'll always be my little angster."
"That's ganstaa to you." He says, putting up a peace sign.
And then in unison, they say: "Got it memorized?"
They pause, almost waiting.
Silenced air.
"Axel's not here." Roxas finally says. Demyx nods, a half-smile, a half-grimace on his face.
"...Kinda always thought that he would be the last to go..." Demyx turns to Roxas in nostalgia. "You know, I used to fantasize that my final moments would be saving Axel, and that his face would be over mine, crying and complaining how he was supposed to be the last to go...Che. He took that dream away from me."
"What an Axel-like thing for him to do." Roxas snorts. "That bastard."
Demyx mirrors his expression.
"He died a death that fit him. Unfair, really."
Another tensioned silence, as the both of them reminisce.
"Roxas...I think I'm going to travel the worlds for a little while."
Roxas head flashes up.
"What? You're not staying?"
Demyx snickers.
"Me? Stay still in a place for more than two days? You're joking, right?" He raises an eyebrow questioningly.
Roxas gives a little smile.
"You're right...I forgot who I was talking to. Where are you going?"
Demyx shrugs.
"I don't know...Anyway, everywhere..." Demyx hopelessly grins. "Maybe I'll even find someone who likes my music."
Roxas tries to smile.
"Don't kid yourself."
"Tifa...how do you face someone's you've let down?" Demyx hesitantly asks.
He walks on, waiting for an answer. When she remains silent, he stops and turns around.
"Ti...fa?"
She stands still, frozen. Her face is wide, her mouth open in deep inhale. Her eyes are faraway and distant, almost as if she's living in another world...in a memory.
Then, the spell breaks, and she looks down.
With a bitter smile, she responds.
"You don't."
"Hey...Roxas..."
"Yeah?"
Demyx awkwardly looks to the side.
"I'm sorry..."
It's a moment where you don't have to understand the other to understand them.
Roxas looks down.
"You know what?...I'm sorry too."
"Hey, Demyx..."
Tifa pauses, hesitating.
"Eh? What is it?"
He pokes her, prompting to respond. With a nervous expression, she looks away.
As she speaks, her voice is quiet, small, unsure.
"Did you...perhaps...know someone by the name of Dyme?"
"Well...I guess this is goodbye then..." Demyx attempts to break the silence.
Roxas nods.
"Yeah...see ya." He says weakly, raising his arm in a goodbye.
He feels so down, so disheartened to see Demyx go...
But...
Deep down...he's grateful.
(He doesn't know he would have been able to live facing him everyday...knowing that he should have been there to help Axel, help Demyx...Traitor.)
Demyx opens a portal, the dark passage springing up. With slow steps, he walks towards it.
When he's in front of it, he stops and turns to look at Roxas.
"...We'll see each other again..." His words are determined, but his voice wavers.
...Right?
Roxas attempts to give a reassuring smile.
"Yeah...Of course."
Demyx just continues to look at Roxas, almost searching for something. Almost looking like he wants to say something...but...
He turns around.
Roxas blinks...and he's gone.
"We'll meet each other in the next life...Got it memorized?"
"Hey Roxas...Oi, where's Demyx?" Yuffie asks, looking around.
The sun has set. It's night when he comes back.
"He left...looking for adventure, I guess." Roxas explains. Yuffie takes no notice of his saddened countenance, simply huffing in annoyance.
"Damn, just when I thought someone cool was coming to live with us..." She pouts, before turning to Roxas, a stern look on her face. "Tomorrow, we set our revenge plan into action, got it? Don't screw it up, or I'll..."
She pauses, her face in deep thought as thinks of a good threat.
Seconds pass.
"...Well?" Roxas asks, almost tiredly.
Yuffie whacks him on the head.
"Shut up, I'm thinking! ...Okay! Don't screw it up or I'll set my army of moogles on you!"
Silence.
"...I'm scared." Roxas says blandly. "Really."
She narrows his eyes.
"Shut up, you boring little angsty boy! Moogles are scarier than they look."
"Speaking from experience?"
For some reason, he couldn't work up the energy to be his usual quiet self...Perhaps he just didn't care anymore.
Yuffie this time opts for glaring at him.
"You..." She stops talking for a moment, and takes a deep breath. "Aerith says dinner's ready."
And she walks away stiffly into the dining room.
As Roxas moves to follow, he's stopped by Tifa, who is hanging by on the wall. A bitterly ironic smile is on her face, like a 'should have known' look.
"So...he's gone?" She says in a resigned way.
Roxas nods, confused as to why Tifa would be asking him, especially it it sounds like she knows the answer.
"Yeah..."
Tifa takes the information in and leans off the wall.
"Figures."
"Cloud...dinner's ready."
Cloud looks up to Tifa, standing in the room. She has an almost expectant look on her face.
"Ah...thanks."
He makes no move to get up. Tifa narrows her eyes at him, her mouth opening as she figures out what she wants to say to him.
"If you're going to run away again..." She begins.
Cloud is silent. Still. Statue.
He waits.
She sighs.
Such disappointment was laced into that one moment. Like something had suddenly changed because nothing had changed at all.
"I won't chase after you."
She leaves the room.
"Tifa...how's Cloud?" Aerith asks.
Tifa shrugs.
"Angsting, thinking, brooding, the same." She starts to get a plate of food, as if honestly not caring.
Aerith starts to rise.
"Are you sure? Maybe I should—"
"Aerith." Tifa gives Aerith a serious look. "Leave him alone."
For a moment, Aerith seems unwilling and hesitant. But then after a moment of contemplating, she sits down with a reluctant sigh.
"...Alright. If you say so."
Dinner goes on.
"Oh, Roxas, you're free tomorrow, right? Do you think you can help me with something?" Merlin asks.
However, before Roxas can say anything, Yuffie's already jumping up and protesting.
"No way, old man! Roxas's mine!"
Silence.
A blush colours Yuffie's cheeks.
"Er...I mean, I'm taking Roxas on a tour around Hollow Bastion so...yeah, he won't be free tomorrow..." With each word she says, her voice becomes smaller and smaller, until she's nearly sinking into her seat.
Leon smirks.
"Well, someone sounds possessive." His eyes narrow and his smirk widens. "You must be really looking forward to your little date tomorrow..."
Yuffie freezes, suddenly sitting up straight, shock filling her features.
"What the—date!?" She screeches. "That's disgusting! That's just...yuck! Grossness! Boys have cooties you know!"
Cid, chuckles, a grin on his face.
"Why, our little Yuffie's growing up..." He drawls.
"What? NO!"
Even Aerith can't seem to resist in joining the little "let's bully and tease Yuffie" fest when she sings, "Yuffie, it's okay. We'll allow you to date. Just remember, be home by nine."
Yuffie looks at her betrayer in horror.
"Aerith, not you too!" She whines out. "I thought you out of all people..."
Surprisingly enough, it's Tifa who quiets everyone down.
"Alright, alright, people," She injects. "Let's not bully Yuffie, okay?"
Yuffie punches a fist into the air.
"Yes! Tifa, I knew I loved you!" She exclaims in victory.
Tifa ignores Yuffie, and goes on.
"Besides...aren't you curious about how Roxas asked her out?"
Dot dot dot.
Suddenly, everyone's attention is one Roxas, their eyes all glittering scarily. Roxas can practically hear the, "Hahaha, it's a new target for us..."
And for some reason, the only thing that Roxas can think is:
Thank god Demyx isn't here.
The sound of night fills the dark room.
"I'm sorry...Roxas."
And with a little click, he leaves the room.
A moment passes.
Roxas gets up and follows Cloud.
He confronts him outside.
"Leaving them in the middle of the night?" Roxas calls out. "Isn't that a bit cowardly?"
Cloud stops, pausing.
"...You wouldn't understand." He says quietly.
It's a lie.
"You know I would...Try me."
The challenge is left unanswered, the sound of nothing filling the air in between..
It's a new moon tonight.
Shadows fall upon all.
Shing.
The Buster Sword is drawn, pointed at Roxas dangerously. Cloud's face is stone, his blue eyes so dark that they look black.
Roxas narrows his eyes, looking upon the glinting blade.
"So this is what it's come to." He says, feeling himself oddly disappointed. With a little twinkle the Oblivion and the Oathkeeper and in his hands. He draws back into fighting stance. "You really will fight me?"
Cloud follows suit, his other hand coming to his sword's grip as he too goes into into fighting stance.
"If I must." He replies simply.
Roxas closes his eyes for a brief moment.
Axel...is this what you felt? ...Sorry to put you through the trouble.
When he opens them, his eyes are clear. Focused.
Determined.
He's lost so much family already.
Hayner, Pence, Olette, the Landlady, Luxord, Xigbar, Zexion, Lexaeus, Demyx...Axel...
He's not going to lose another.
"Cloud...who is it that you can't face?"
The heartless don't dare come near such creatures of darkness.
The square is empty, only the two of them there.
The answer is fleeting. It's a whisper on a wind that's already gone.
"Everyone."
Then he attacks.