A/N:

Tasha: Yeah, turns out Issy's not big on the whole Author's Note thing. So I'll do it! :3 I know, I rock. Um, yeah, the idea of the personant comes from a manga called Personant by Komi Naoshi. You can find it on One Manga. Google it. Also, I will only do this once, so listen up:

DISCLAIMER: We do not, nor will we ever (T-T) own Kingdom Hearts. Don't sue us. We will cry.

Now, on with the story.

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Riku POV

So.

You want to know when the trouble started for us, huh? I guess it must be the day Sora nearly got fired.

Oh, who am I kidding? I remember the exact moment the trouble started, but this came a little bit before. I think I just want you to understand our way of life.

I worked at the Radiant Garden Café. It was a warm little place, full of families, and people sheltering from the cold. It sat in a small corner of the main square in the Luxury Area of the city where I lived. I was working on the floor that day, I remember because I had to run the farthest after Sora's accident. I'd been lounging for a moment, sharing a joke with Tidus by the window as he cleaned up the little litter that made its way to the area on which our humble building sat. Tidus' golden hair hand been bouncing in the sunlight, casting tiny flecked reflections on the walls of the building.

We could hear the boy humming in the storeroom, the regulars were chuckling slightly behind their masks, pretty much used to his tuneless-ness, but some snobbish old woman sort of huffed and left. Marluxia was laughing at her before Cloud turned and Looked at him. Cloud's Look is deadly, and Marluxia practically dived under the counter when he saw our boss's face. He always was a sissy.

If you were intelligent, you'd be wondering how Cloud can Look at people, yet you can't really see his expression. Well, I don't know if you've ever seen a Look (if not, you are the luckiest person alive. Go away and count your blessings, you know some very nice people, and have obviously never met Cloud), but you don't need to see their face. You just know.

It's exceedingly creepy, which is why I never get on Cloud's bad side. Or, if you listen to Roxas, and by default, Hayner, why I suck up to him. But I don't, I just don't deliberately annoy him (like most) nor do I have something in my genes which causes Cloud to be irrationally irritated (like Sora).

Anyway, Sora was humming, Marluxia was hiding and all was good in the cafe. Until Sora pulled the dishes down on himself.

That boy.

Give him a round of applause, people.

I'm his best friend and even I think he's an idiot. Poor Roxas, having to deal with that for his whole life, though he must be used to it by now.

I'm pretty glad it's common knowledge that I'm Sora's best friend, otherwise the fact that I ran faster than his twin brother and vaulted over the counter to get to him could have given people the wrong idea. Like, we were going out, or something equally ridiculous.

Yeah, as if.

But Sora was pretty much okay, though his personant was a little cracked. He was a little dizzy though, so I helped him sit down.

It wasn't until he was actually in the chair till I noticed he was bleeding through the crack in his personant.

Yeah, I admit it, I panicked. What was I supposed to do? Take off his personant? That was punishable by law. I wouldn't worry about it now; I'd rip the thing off of everyone I knew, just to get back at those bastards. Back then, I actually had a little respect for the system. You know, before Axel shattered it.

I miss that guy sometimes.

Sorry, I'm wandering. I'll try not to do it again, okay?

So, Sora was hurt, I was having a moral dilemma, and Roxas had just come in. Wait, did I say that already? Ah well, now you know.

Roxas took one look at his twin and hissed at me, "What did you do?!"

"What!?" I squawked quietly. I don't know why but Roxas doesn't trust me at all. It's never been a problem, really, but this was not the time for an argument, I mean, his brother was hurt, and he immediately thought I had committed whatever heinous crime he had imagined? I was the guy's friend. And I jumped over obstacles for him. What more could Roxas want from me?

I don't know, maybe he was jealous or something. I don't really give a damn. But there is one thing we agree on. Heck, everyone in the cafe agrees on this, except the person in question. There is only one person in the whole of the city who you should call in a crisis.

"AERITH!" we yelled. Roxas glared at me, disgusted at having the same thought at the same time.

I humphed.

Aerith, the caring soul who I now fully appreciate, having only Yuffie to be the caring lady in my life, and that's not saying much, considering the last time I cut my finger, she told me to stem the bleeding by sticking it up my nose. Charming. Larxene doesn't count. She is not a lady. She's some sort of human/sadistic-hyena hybrid who makes me want to run for the hills… Anyways, Aerith, the caring soul who I now fully appreciate came running into the storeroom, sort of flustered, and followed by the Girls.

The Girls scare me.

Cloud makes me nervous, Roxas makes me paranoid and Tifa makes me anxious she's going to break something, but the Girls scare the shit out of me. They, admittedly, straightened my hair for me once...and maybe layered it.

And I am eternally grateful, because Sora told me it looked good. But they're like fucking piranhas. You give them a little bit of blood and they never leave you alone.

Sora should take it as a sign of our friendship I didn't run away as soon as Selphie, Naminé and Kairi walked into the room. Aerith immediately rushed to Sora's side and began to agonise. Her hands fluttered delicately over his face, her forehead wrinkled slightly.

Good to know I wasn't the only one having a moral crisis.

But as great as companionship was, I think I'd have preferred it if Aerith had had an actual solution to our problem. The Girls (yes, I know I keep capitalising, but if you knew 'em, so would you) started fussing. You know the deal, 'Oh, is he okay?' or 'What happened?' or 'Oh, look, he's bleeding!' and even, "Ohmigosh! My nails would look awesome in that colour red!"

Yes, let us applaud Selphie's powers of observation.

Marluxia wandered in, flicking his pink flowing hair over his shoulder in a feminine manner. He stopped in shock when he saw Sora.

"What the hell?"

"Eh?" said Kairi eloquently, one hand resting on the hip of her white waitress outfit "Marly, didn't you hear Sora shriek like a girl?"

A slurred voice sounded from the chair in the corner, "I didn't shriek, Kai. It was a manly yell." I don't think that Sora had fully grasped the situation he was in. I'm sure he didn't know he was surrounded by a pack of female wolves.

"Sora! You're awake!" screamed the red head, flinging her arms around his neck, cutting off his air supply, and causing him to faint again.

"And now he's not," I said snidely. I felt a bit guilty for that actually, but then Naminé kicked me in the back of the knee, smiling benignly as she did so. I was really hurt, and my leg stopped working properly. I collapsed to the floor and hit my head unceremoniously on the tiles.

"Oww," I moaned, "Nami, what the hell?"

Roxas was grinning smugly with a hand on Naminé's shoulder like a proud father who has seen his daughter use the wisdom he was bestowed upon her.

Just for that, I slammed my fist down maliciously on to his foot.

He howled in pain, and I was triumphant for the thirty seconds it took him to get over the pain, reach down and grab my hair.

My eyes narrowed. I remember thinking, oh, don't you dare, pretty boy!

He dared.

He yanked me all the way to my feet actually, which was a BIG mistake on his part. I growled and kneed him in the gut. He double over, and I discovered my hair was still in his fist.

Then Cloud walked in.

What a picture we must have made, Roxas doubled over, with my knee still in his stomach, and my head bent back in agony because Roxas was still tugging at my beautiful locks of hair (silvery-white is such an original colour, way better than blonde. Tidus, if you're reading this: I am NOT prematurely stressed dammit! Do I sound stressed to you?!). Cloud was a bit pissed, according to his body language. The crossed arms and impatiently taping foot said it all. I was feverishly thankful I couldn't see his face. It would've made the Look so much worse. Like, it could've caused death by spontaneous combustion. Seriously. That's how powerful the look is.

"Anyway," said Marluxia in an irritated tone, "Don't call me Marly, KaiKai. And I didn't hear dear little Sorarah. I just came in to get some cheese."

"Marluxia," said Cloud in a monotone that sounded distinctly more flat than the monotone everyone else used during speech. "Shut up."

Our boss, the King of monotone, and our chef, the King of annoying the King of monotone.

Aerith flapped her hands at Cloud, her pretty eyes stretched wide. From what I understand, Cloud and Aerith go a long way back. Otherwise, you are not allowed to flap in Cloud's personal space, (that is why Selphie got passed over for promotion last year.)

"Cloud!" she said in her patented help-me-I'm-helpless tone, "What am I supposed to do?"

If Cloud was a normal person, he'd be biting his lip now. But Cloud... I don't know how to explain it. Cloud would be one of the people campaigning against personants one hundred and fifty years ago, just because he doesn't need one. I'm guessing his face would be as expressionless as his ultra-expressionless voice.

Finally, our boss spoke. "Aerith, take it off."

"What?" gasped the whole room in unison, me included. Cloud had asked Aerith to break the law our society was founded on! Was he mad? Well, more than I had thought before? They might be friends. But surely not...

"Okay," Aerith said, head already bowed over the clasp at the back of my best friend's head.

Okay, so I was wrong.

I don't think anyone could understand what it was like, seeing his face. I guess you can kind of compare it to seeing somebody naked, in a way.

Yeah, personants are that important.

People outside Sora's family will have never seen his face. You walk down the street and all you can see are hair colours, no faces. Everyone is wearing the same type of clothing, and nobody can choose their future.

Yeah, it all made sense at the time. They said it took all the difficult decisions out of life, and this way, no conflicts could arise, no discriminations.

All that really happened is no-one has individuality anymore.

I see that now, but when we removed Sora's personant, it felt kinda...dirty.

As the clasp came off, time seemed to slow down. I loved Sora… like a brother, mind you. But, would his face look anything like I had imagined all those times? Would his lips be full and pink or disappointingly thin and cracked?

I already knew Sora's hair colour, a light chestnut brown that glinted cheekily off any light available, but I had never known how well it offset his face. He was kind of pale underneath a bit of a tan, probably from loss of blood or something. But he was really...beautiful. And the breath I hadn't known I had been holding whistled out between my lips quickly.

I mean, he was my best friend, but suddenly I wished he wasn't. I wished he was some sort of stranger in the street, who I'd come in to help out. But he wasn't. I wasn't.

It's for the best.

But his eyes were closed. I couldn't believe it. Old literature, in paper books, said the eyes were the window to the soul. But I didn't need to look into his soul. Just his eyes

I want to know what colour they are.

I think Naminé noticed how uncomfortable Roxas was at first. I was really bewildered at first. I mean, he was Sora's twin, right? He must have seen his brother's face before. Then it hit me with a jolt. Sora told it to me himself, not even two weeks ago.

Roxas and Sora were identical twins.

It must have hit the others around the same time, "Ha!" crowed Marluxia, "You got nothing to hide, Blondie."

I know Marluxia disliked Roxas. I know he had a sort of twisted sense of humour.

But I never knew he had a death wish.

The Girls and Roxas leapt forward, but to my surprise, I got there first. My body moved on its own as I slapped him round the back the head. "Shut up, Marly!" I said venomously. And then, half out of shock, and half because they were all staring at me, I ran out of the storeroom.

The rest of the day passed in a blur, with me walking around in a daze. I mean, why was I disappointed that I hadn't seen Sora's eyes? I'd already invaded his privacy enough. I completely zoned out once or twice, which led to Tifa yelling at me and trying to hit me.

That girl has anger management problems.

It was soon closing time, as the waning sun sunk low onto the horizon, and I was hurrying to the exit, desperately wanting to just leave. Sora had already gone home, sent away by a very angry Cloud. Sora could have gotten us all in trouble. And Cloud wasn't about to let him forget that.

I needed to think. I couldn't wait to get home take off my personant and have a very long, very hot bath. I have hot baths when I'm confused. Get over it.

I bet Roxas chose then to work up his courage and talk to me just then just to spite me.

"Umm, listen, Riku," he said, shuffling his feet, tugging at his hair and generally looking nervous and embarrassed. "Thanks for, you know..."

"Slapping Marluxia?" I said dryly.

He nodded sheepishly.

I shrugged one shoulder casually, trying to downplay my actions. "No problem, Roxas."

I was turning to leave when he yelled after me, "Hey, Riku!"

I turned back, glad he couldn't see my expression.

"You're...okay, man."

It would have totally ruined the moment.

I nodded once, curtly, the personant equivalent of a small smile. Then I walked back to my apartment, the sun glinting artistically off my hair (as per usual), feeling warm and totally happy.

That day is still one of my best memories. Sometimes, late at night, I relive it in my mind, replaying it moment by moment, over and over. The happiness comes back for a moment, and it's like nothing ever happened. I stop feeling so cold and I smile quietly in the dark, hoping the smothering blanket of black can hide what my personant used to. I'm so glad that Sora hit his head, vindictive as it may sound.

Because the next day, it all went to hell.

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Yeah, brownies for reviewers. :D