Xehanort mumbled and shifted in the hammock. His fingers intended to curl around a lock of Sora's hair, but ended up grabbing netting. He shifted around some more, mumbling in his slumber and dreamily feeling around for his partner. Sora had been wrapped up in his arms just last night, where was he? Xehanort ended up flipping out of the hammock, landing flat on his face and abruptly awakening to the fact he was unable to find Sora.

Xehanort brushed back some of his hair and rubbed his smarting cheek. He looked around the small shack. No Sora. No sign of him. Xehanort scrambled to his feet. A sign of anyone else coming and taking him? No, there was nothing.

His mind was going at hyper speed. What happened to him? What happened to Sora? What if the older Xehanort had taken him as a bargaining chip? What if his friends had deemed his love to be a side effect of trauma or brainwashing and returned him to his rightful side of the conflict? Xehanort didn't want to think that maybe Sora had just decided to leave without telling him.

He ran out of the shack, "Sora? Sora!" He was relieved to see those caramel spikes hanging around the paopu tree, "Oh there you are!" Sora looked back as Xehanort tackled him, "I was so worried."

Sora awkwardly smiled with his cheek pressed against Xehanort's chest. "I-I'm fine, you know." He stammered out, "I just wanted to think for a little bit."

Xehanort patted his head, "I keep telling you, Sora, you shouldn't worry. I'll keep you safe here if it's the last thing I do. You don't need to worry your head over our situation." Something crept at the back of Xehanort's love and concern addled head. A new observation, to return his thoughts to their normal, cool and rational operations.

Sora wasn't returning the hug.

He backed away, holding Sora's shoulders and tilting his chin up slightly, "Sora? Are you feeling well?"

Sora shrugged and looked away, "I guess." Xehanort's frown was a lot more guilt-inducing than Sora thought it would be. He dragged Xehanort's hand from his chin to his cheek and held it there with a small smile, "I'm fine, okay? Just continuing to not listen to you."

Xehanort rubbed Sora's cheek. He knew Sora was holding something back, he could read the boy like he was an open book with large font that you could understand at a glance. "We're safe here." He said firmly, "Sora, you don't need to be so worried-"

"Just because you say it doesn't mean it's so." Sora cut him off. He then backed completely out of Xehanort's tender grasp, "I can worry, I can be scared, I can be confused, and you can't stop from feeling that."

Xehanort lowered his hands, and began fiddling with them in pensive silence. For some reason he always felt the need to be more tactful with his responses to Sora. That train of thought lead him to recalling how hesitant Sora could be around him in return, and then to a paranoid conclusion, "Sora, do you not trust me?"

Sora folded his arms, equally silent. He shrugged, "I want to say no, but... Maybe." His blue eyes met gold, "Are you just playing along so I'll get distracted? So I won't fight... You?"

Xehanort stepped forward, "Sora that notion is-"

"Well, what do you want me to think? Whatever it is you can't control my head!" Sora snapped at him. His voice continued rising with hysterical yelling, "You've been steering me away from the struggle every time I bring it up! Like you expect me to just play along with our little paradise while my friends are out there struggling against a darkness that'll consume everything!" Sora paused and wiped at his eyes. He was a fool to let himself fall so head over heels, "Is this all a lie?"

Sora felt Xehanort wrap himself around him, "No, no it's not a lie. I swear on Kingdom Hearts itself it's not." Xehanort pressed Sora's ear to his heart, "I love you very much. I just have trouble showing it." Xehanort laid his head on top of Sora's while he calmed down.

A thought came to him, "Was this spurred on by... last night's activities?" He could feel Sora's cheeks getting warmer, but the boy remained silent.

"K-kinda..." Sora reluctantly divulged. He seemed grumpy because of embarrassment as he muttered, "That was far more of a distraction than anything else you'd given me."

Xehanort kissed his hair, "You needed to relax and you opened up the opportunity." He then added, "If I went too far, I apologize."

"N-no, I don't think you did." Sora replied. Xehanort was pleased to feel Sora's arms shakily wrap around him, "It was... nice. Just a little overwhelming and badly timed."

"Then that would be too far. You should have informed me you were feeling overwhelmed." Xehanort sighed. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart."

Sora hugged Xehanort a little firmer, "Accepted. I'm sorry, too, for not trusting you." He whispered, "I still kinda don't. Just a small corner of my heart."

Xehanort's hands wound down to rub Sora's back, "That is perfectly alright. Even if you are perfection in my eyes, no one is wholly perfect."

After a moment to let the words sink in, Xehanort picked Sora up (to his protesting embarrassment) and began heading back to the shack, "Nonetheless I do believe we have... Fondling, to finish."

Sora folded his arms, "Can't you talk normally? It's cuddling or snuggling, smarty pants." Still, he didn't protest when they settled into the hammock, Xehanort spooning around Sora. He closed his eyes with a small sigh at Xehanort's caress. Sora didn't feel like sleeping- he'd already been up for an hour or so -but he was certainly lethargic enough to stay like this for a long time.

"Hey, Xehanort?" Sora asked.

Xehanort responded with an amatory peck, "Yes?"

"Do you really think he'll just call it off? Give up and let it all go because we're not in the game anymore?"

Xehanort paused. Anxiously his fingers tapped against Sora's side. No, his older self always found ways to contort the situation in his favor. Even if they were pawns who refused to play along, he'd use that to his advantage. Still, it would probably at least unnerve Sora to have a confirmation that the conflict would still continue. His drumming became quicker; what if Sora couldn't bear to stay out? He was hoping to ride out the conflict as neutral as they could possibly be.

"Who am I kidding," Sora sighed, "he won't, will he?"

Xehanort reluctantly agreed, "No, he won't. This is merely another road for him to take." He brushed aside Sora's bangs and kissed his forehead, "But I swear he won't hurt you, not in any way."

Sora seemed only mildly reassured, "What about my friends?"

Xehanort hesitated. Juggling Sora's needs was trivial; those of his friends would be troublesome. Still, Sora experienced duress if anyone he cared about was in danger. So Xehanort warily agreed, "I cannot promise anything, but I will try."

Sora seemed to be consoled by the remark, and snuggled in closer. Xehanort held him close, but couldn't shake his uneasy feeling that things weren't going to be peaceful for much longer.

...

Riku paced. He muttered under his breath and held out his fingers, "So, myself, Mickey, Kairi, Roxas, Aqua, Ventus, Lea... That's seven..." Even if it was seven Lights to counter Xehanort's thirteen Darknesses, it felt like it wasn't supposed to be that way. The whole initiative felt hollow without Sora.

He continued pacing. Well, Xehanort didn't seem to be speaking for both of them. Sora seemed reluctant about the idea of being neutral. Maybe they had a chance to get him back... Who knew if Sora went back on that opinion though. He didn't know where either of them had gone. He hadn't seen Sora in what felt like forever.

"Riku, you need to relax." Kairi said, her head following him turning back and forth on his heels on dimes. Riku gave her a frustrated grunt of reply. She folded her arms, "Don't take that tone with me. Keyblade Master or not I'm still your friend and I'm not taking that kinda garbage from you. As I said, you need to relax. You're taking all of this way too seriously."

"Who else will?!" Riku snapped back at her, "We don't have a leader and I'm the next best thing!"

Kairi stood and held Riku in one place, "Leaders get stressed, but nowhere near these levels, okay? Take a chill pill, calm down, and then you can start worrying."

Riku avoided her gaze, "But what are we gonna do? It's us seven versus thirteen. A ragtag 'army' mostly consisting of teenagers who can barely fight against men who've had more than one lifetime to find all of our flaws."

Kairi held his chin and turned him to her, "We have hope, Riku. We have love, and have hope, and we have all the light those provide. They can't take the most powerful weapon we have away from us."

...

Xehanort was still tightly curled around Sora. Their hammock swayed slightly with their quiet rhythms, trying to lull them into false security. To be honest, no matter how loudly Sora snored. Xehanort was lying awake.

He rubbed Sora's shoulder in an attempt to ease himself. He could feel every muscle in his shoulders tying themselves in knots, his brow knitting into grooves that guided cold sweat down his face. He still couldn't shake the shadows in his mind. They're coming, his inner voice whispered, they're coming to take you and him away and into the darkness it doesn't matter what you do. You'll lose him, Xehanort, if you don't do something. You of all people should know how devastating loss is.

Sora mumbled in his sleep. Something about a friend in danger, a nightmare. Xehanort rubbed his shoulder some more and kissed his head. Sora sleepily murmured some kind of reassured phrase netted with the drug of slumber. Xehanort pressed his cheek on top of Sora's. This boy was his sunshine. His only sunshine to shake away the gray clouds of realizing what he had done. If this person, only two years junior to him, had yet to become corrupted and sickened with the world, then that was something that made his hard heart soften.

But it was still hard. Still doubting. Still a nagging little voice telling him that this wouldn't last. But fortunately a trait he shared with his older self is that he was selfish and incredibly good at detaching himself. It bothered him at times, but he could.

Sora wiggled himself a little deeper into Xehanort's embrace with a murmur. Xehanort was surprised when Sora leaned over and kissed him, "Mornin', I guess..." He yawned, "Or is it afternoon now?"

"Afternoon, my little sky." Xehanort replied.

Sora nodded, "Okay." He asked, "Can we do something?"

"We can swim," Xehanort suggested, "race around the island, spar, explore, what do you wish?"

Sora turned to him, "I want to try and end the war before it begins." He sighed at Xehanort's expression, "Never mind-"

"Sora, what you ask is going to be incredibly difficult, and inadvisable, but I'm not rejecting it." Xehanort said, "I may be Xehanort, but I'm only here as a pawn." They both sighed. Xehanort then said, "If it does achieve what you wish... There is an easy, yet difficult route-"

"I'm not killing you." Sora snapped, "I don't want to."

"But what you want, for now, is going to be a Herculean-" Xehanort stopped himself and sat up.

Sora- after recovering his balance -looked up at him, "Xehanort-"

"Get your things together." He snapped. He threw on his coat, "We need to leave."

Sora then felt it. The tense presence in the air. He recognized the tingle on his neck that signified a dark corridor had been used. He quickly pulled on his jacket, "They're here?! After all we did?!"

"Afraid so." Xehanort summoned his Keyblade, "We rendezvous at-"

Sora summoned his own, "Hold it! If you're fighting, I am too! I am not... Whatever you said."

"Rendezvous." Xehanort sighed, "It means that we meet up."

"Which means I have to leave you and that's not happening!" Sora yelled at him.

However, that was the last thing he said before the shack exploded.

Aww how adorable they're gonna die together and the relationship is getting uneasy