Disclaimer: I do not own nothing.

A/N: Go Marly, Dem, Zexy and Axel! :D And sorry for the delay, I got distracted – by Kuroshitsuji. Gawd I luv Undertaker~! XD I have a weakness for crazy guys like him.

Chapter song: Sound the bugle by Bryan Adams (This song fits so perfectly to this chapter! Just saying… And I like to think that this is Roxas' theme song in this fic.)

And thank you for reviewing! *Hugs*

Chapter Three: Strangers in Death

– / –

How long I had been awake? Two minutes? Half an hour? Maybe. It was kind of hard to tell.

I was lying still. My head was pounding with a rhythmic pain, like some sort of massive ice-breaker.

Cloud sat on a little chair close beside my hospital bed, holding my right hand. I was trying not to cry, but I could feel the tingling behind my eyelids. "I'm – I am not crazy, Cloud." I finally said. "I know what I saw! The corpse man attacked Kairi and I just tried to protect her!"

"Of course Roxas, don't worry. You're safe. You're both safe now."

"My head hurts." I reached up and felt the place on my head that was sore, and my fingers found the prick of stitches.

"Yeah, when they stunned you with a needle you fell so quickly that they didn't have time to catch you before you hit the floor. You're heavier than they thought," Cloud said, smiling a little.

"Oh, so I'm short and heavy. Great."

Cloud sighed, rubbing the back of my hand gently. "You know that was not what I meant."

"Sorry," I said, rubbing my left hand over the covers. "I just…I'm scared, big brother. I don't wanna leave."

Oblivion, a group home for disturbed teens. There Cloud was going to send me. Because I was crazy.

"Rox." Cloud's hand clenched around mine. "I'm sorry – but you struggled with teachers. You need help."

So of course he was sending me to Oblivion. 'Cause it was a home for crazy teens.

– / –

The next time I woke up, Sora was sitting beside me in my bed. His tears were brimming in his eyes and running down his face, flowing silently. "Sora?"

"Oh God, Rox." He shifted to face me. "Are you okay? I was so worried. I saw you screaming and kicking the teachers on the lobby and then these men in uniforms came– "

"Wait!" I interrupted Sora's rambling. "You – You saw it? You were there?" Then I remembered. When I had struggled, I had heard a familiar voice. "You were the one who shouted to me," I stated aloud.

"Yeah," Sora smiled sadly. "I was standing next to Hayner. He's really worried about you, too, by the way. As well are Olette and Pence."

"Oh, brilliant! So the whole school saw?"

"Not everyone... But you know, you were in the lobby and cafeteria is quite close..."

I groaned. So now almost everyone knew that I was crazy. Maybe it was a good thing that Cloud was going to send me to a group home. 'Cause even if they let me return to school, I didn't think I'd ever have the guts to go back. After all, they probably thought that I attacked Kairi–

Kairi. Her unmoving body lying on the cold floor. "Sora… How's Kairi? Is she – Is she alright?" I stared Sora, scared. Cloud hadn't told me anything about her condition, even when I'd asked. I wasn't even sure if she was alive. "Sora?"

"She's…" Sora looked like he was going to start crying again. "She's alive. That's all I know. I tried to go look her before I came here…but…"

"They didn't let you see her." I finished for him. So at least she wasn't dead. That was good news…right?

"Oh but Rox, Cloud said he's going to send you away so you can get help!" Sora said, blue eyes shining, changing the topic. "I don't want you to go! You're my baby brother and I love you! Cloud can't send you away, just can't!"

I felt my own tears starting to flow. "I-I love you too, Sor." It didn't matter how annoying Sora was able to be sometimes, all that mattered was how precious he and Cloud were to me. They were my family. With them I felt I was safe. I loved them so much that it hurt. I didn't want to go; because it meant I was going to leave them behind. Or they were going to leave me behind. "Don't be angry at Cloud, he's just thinking what's best for us. Best for me." My words would probably have been more powerful if my voice hadn't broken in the end.

"Shhh, please don't cry Baby Blue. Don't mind me; everything's going to be okay, you'll see. Go back to sleep. When you wake up tomorrow, I'm gonna be here, promise." Baby Blue. My Mom used to call me in that nickname before…well…she 'left'.

With Sora smoothing my hair with his right hand, I fell asleep.

– / –

I woke up several times that night. The third time, Cloud was standing his back toward me, watching out of the window. The fourth, he and Sora were sitting beside my bed (well, Cloud was sitting and Sora was sleeping). When Cloud saw my eyes open, he reached over and squeezed my hand. "It's going to be okay," he murmured. "Everything will be all right."

I fell back to dreamless sleep.

– / –

Cloud was still sitting beside my bed the next morning. His eyes were blank, clothes wrinkled and he looked older than ever.

"Where's Sora?" I asked as I sat up.

"At school." Cloud watched me closely. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," I lied. So Sora wasn't beside my bed like he had promised. I was not surprised. Cloud smoothed nervously his jeans, lowering his gaze on his own lap. "So, I'll drive you to Oblivion tomorrow. I know you don't get along with people easily, but the place itself is small and private so there shouldn't be many patients. Month goes quickly, you'll see."

Why they kept saying that? 'You'll see'. Maybe I didn't want to 'see'.

"Hey, buddy, look at me."

My tearful eyes met with Cloud's. He gave me a small smile. "I love you. Sora loves you. You'll be alright, I promise."

"Cloud– " I swallowed. Cloud didn't usually show his emotions.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," I finally whispered.

– / –

Sound the bugle now... play it just for me

As the seasons change... remember how I used to be

Now I can't go on... I can't even start

I've got nothing left... just an empty heart.

It was raining hard. Cloud hummed to himself, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. I knew he just tried to be positive for my sake, even though it was raining.

I'm a soldier... wounded so I must give up the fight

There's nothing more for me... lead me away

Or leave me lying here.

I listened my new MP3, trying to block the sorrow out of my mind. They'd given me some medicine before I left the hospital and it made me sleepy.

Sound the bugle now... tell them I don't care

There's not a road I know that leads to anywhere

Without a light, I fear that I will stumble in the dark

Lay right down and decide not to go on.

I was thankful to the medicines…Thanks to them I had slept well in the hospital. No nightmares.

Finally, after three hours of driving, we arrived to Oblivion. It was a huge, gray-colored Victorian house. It was so big, that it could have been a castle. So that was what Cloud called 'small and private'. Private? Yes. Small? No.

The rain had already stopped when I stepped out of Cloud's car. Evening fog blanketed the world in gray as I stared the house. We had passed many small towns on our way to Oblivion, but none of them were very close; and despite the hillside views and the thick forests, nobody had built a house nearby.

Well, I couldn't blame anyone for not wanting to be near Oblivion; it was a home for crazy teens, after all.

A tall, beautiful black haired woman with a narrow face was coming toward us. Something about her got me on my toes. When she reached us, I noticed how cold her eyes were. Even her smile was cold. "Welcome to the Oblivion. My name is Mrs. Rose, and you must be Mr. Strife and Young Mister Strife, am I right?"

Lovely, even the staff was from a different era.

Cloud smiled politely at Mrs. Rose. "Yes, Mrs. Rose. I'm Cloud and this is my little brother Roxas." He squeezed my shoulder gently. "He'll be your patient."

That made Mrs. Rose to turn her cold black eyes on me. "Yes, of course. We're going to take good care of the Young Mister Strife, please do not worry Mr. Strife."

Cloud turned to look at me as well. "Rox, be safe, okay? Don't do anything stupid. Trust me; the time will go faster than you think." I hugged him quickly, pretending not to see the tears in his eyes.

And then he left. Leaving me with Mrs. Rose.

She guided me up a long narrow flight of stairs, talking about something my fuzzy brain couldn't follow. We didn't meet anyone else, even though I kept peeking nervously around, expecting someone to jump over me from the darkness that surrounded us. Mrs. Rose showed me my bedroom; three white and one light green wall, decorated with bunch of flowers, faint aroma of cinnamon and roses floating in the air.

On the other side of the room, there was a metallic bed with light pink sheets. The walls over the bed decorated with pages ripped from gardening magazines. The dresser was covered with some tubes and bottles.

My side of the room was a sterile mirror image – same bed and same dresser. But only wiped clean of personality.

"You can decorate your side whatever you want." Mrs. Rose turned her head towards my new roommate's side, scowling. "But please, Young Mister Strife, do not follow your roommate's examples." And with that, she left.

Then from on high, somewhere in the distance there's a voice that calls,

Remember who you are... if you lose yourself,

Your courage soon will follow,

So be strong tonight... remember who you are

I crawled at my new bed. The room was quite dark, even though I could see the moon in the sky from the little window. I closed my eyes and fell asleep in seconds.

Yeah, you're soldier now,

Fighting in a battle,

To be free once more.

Yeah, that's worth fighting for.

– / –

When I woke up I saw a tall boy with feminine features flipping through clothes that I was pretty sure were mine. His blue eyes seemed concentrated and he was apparently eating his own pale-pink lower lip as he stared at my T-shirt.

"Umm…Hello?" I said.

He turned and smiled. "Oh good morning, cupcake. Your clothes are –how should I put it– extraordinary! Little bit of punk and little touch of emo-ness."

"Uh, thanks?" Oh my God, my first encounter with a crazy teen, and he was calling me 'cupcake'. What was he, a food maniac? Or even worse, a hippie?

He just kept smiling. "I'm Marluxia. Marluxia Fulmer. But you can call me Marly; everyone else does. Well, except Maleficent. She really hates me."

"Roxas Strife. And sorry, who's Maleficent?"

"Oh, that's our nickname to Mrs. Rose. You know Sleeping Beauty? Well, Mrs. Rose and Maleficent are really similar, you'll see!"

Okay, that didn't sound too good. I knew Maleficent; she was the Disney villain number one.

Marluxia – I mean, Marly, continued talking, but I didn't hear it because all I could think was, what really was wrong with him? If Oblivion was a home for crazy teens, there was something wrong with him. He didn't look crazy, any other that he had called me 'cupcake', but that wasn't sign of mental illness – that just told me that he wanted to eat me.

And Marly didn't look crazy. His ruffled rose pink shoulder-length hair was brushed into a loose ponytail, and he wore a light blue jeans and a green T-shirt with pink flower patterns in front. If I didn't know better, I'd think I'd woken up in a boarding school.

But he kept talking. Maybe that was a sign.

I really wished that it wasn't.

But if it was, then, maybe it was a good thing. He couldn't kill me with his words, now could he?

Hope not.

"Are you hungry? I bet you are – besides, breakfast is in ten minutes, and they don't like it at all if you're late, trust me." Marly tapped his nose. "You can wear the clothes you're wearing now, no one cares. The girls eat lunch and dinner with us, but they have breakfast before, so they're already eaten."

"Girls?"

"Yup. Naminé, Larxene and the newcomer, Kairi."

I almost choked. "K-kairi?"

Marly hummed. "She came yesterday. Apparently she was hospitalized couple days ago and her doctor ordered her to rest, so her brother sent her here."

Oh, my God. Someone shoot me. Someone please shoot me.

Marly walked out the door and I followed after him, still terrified. So Kairi was here too. Great.

Marly kept up talking as we headed downstairs; he told me more about Mrs. Rose (aka Maleficent) and how horrible she was. He also mentioned two other "nurses", Miss Jasmine, who apparently was the youngest one and pretty nice, and Mrs. Blackbird (aka Hydra), who was, Marly whispered, not so nice. But Mrs. Blackbird worked only on weekends, giving Mrs. Rose and Miss Jasmine each a day off. They all lived in Oblivion and looked after us.

At the bottom of the stairs, I noticed that the walls of the lobby were painted in same pale green color as our room. The living room next to the lobby was like my Grandmother's; clean, old stylish and…well…old. Two wooden rocking chairs, little coffee table, brown sofa and fireplace. Every table held a vase of different flowers. It all looked, well, normal. But maybe that was the point; making you forget this house was a place for disturbed teens.

Marly stopped me outside the kitchen so we could peek in.

First thing I saw was a green-eyed boy with an odd dirty-blond mullet-like styled hair. Several individual bangs had fallen over his face. He was standing middle of the kitchen, apparently shouting to someone.

"…It's true! My biological clock is ticking and you're mean, Axel!"

"Dem, you're a man for the love of – YOU DON'T HAVE A BIOLOGICAL CLOCK!"

"Yeah-duh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"You're both being immature right now."

On one side of the little wooden table sat a boy with steel-blue hair, his messy bangs completely covering the right side of his face, reaching about an inch or two past his chin. He had a book open before him on the table, but he wasn't reading it at the moment. "That's Zexion. He's cool, but little moody, so make yourself a favor and don't mess with him." Marly nodded his head toward the standing mullet-like hair boy. "That's Demyx. He's little…how you would say it…bipolar. But he's really nice, especially to cute guys like you." Then he jerked his chin toward the other person at the table – one I couldn't see very well from the door. "And the redhead is Axel. He has this 'thing' for fire."

Oh my God, was he a pyromaniac? If he had 'thing' for fire, did that mean he set fires? I was so ready to run away.

"Come on, cupcake. Let me introduce you."

…I've got you, Little One…

My, my, ain't I evil? ;D But you can't claim that Axel wasn't in this chapter!

Oh, and one thing: please if you follow this story, could you please leave a comment that says "hey" or just something simple like that? It doesn't have to be a huge review, I'm just curious as to how many people I'm trying to please. XD But it's not that I don't luv you who favorite(d) this story, it just would be nice to hear something from you.

Reviews make me write/update faster. Just saying…

And of course, you can tell me if there are mistakes. 'Cause English is not my native language, it's just natural that I make mistakes. Besides, no one's perfect. XD Like my T-shirt says: I know I'm not perfect but I'm so close it scares me! *Laughs* God I love that T-shirt. :D

Also one question for you: do you want short chapters and faster updates or longer chapters and not-so-fast updates? :D They're both fine with me, I just want to know what you guys want. And when I say 'shorter' I mean this chapter lenght. 'Longer' means longer than this chappy.