Well. 3 weeks. I like to think of it as being better than over 3 months ^.^
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, if I did; I doubt I'd be writing this. I doubt that anyone would be writing anything about it. Yeah. That's how bad it'd be. XD.
Warning: Eh, there's shonen ai, and swearing, and a crazy ninja! (I'll bet you'll never guess) :D
I like this chapter, actually. I hope you guys do too! :3
O . . . o . . . O . . . o . . . O
19: The fine line.
O . . . o . . . O . . . o . . . O . . . o . . . O
"Well, I think it's locked," The brunet proclaimed, and the blond beside him smiled wryly. Though, on the other side of the door, a certain ninja was losing patience. Fast.
"Well no shit, Sherlock," Yuffie practically screamed into the door.
"Language, Yuffie," Cloud reminded her, rather smugly.
"Mine as well swear my freaking ass off if you two just plan to harass me behind this door," There was a child – like whine. "I'm gonna lose my mind!"
Leon then pulled a ring of keys out of his pocket, "You can't lose what you never had."
"I HEARD that!"
Cloud watched curiously as Leon went through the keys, both ignoring the full out rants that the girl was going into.
"There must be a hundred in there," the blond was amazed. "How are you going to find the right –"
"Right here," The brunet grabbed a silver key out of the bunch, and was about to open the door, when he stopped.
"What?" Cloud asked.
"Do we really want to let her out?"
Cloud smiled, "Of course not. But poor Aerith and Olette have been in there with her for nearly an hour."
Leon shook his head, "I honestly think I'd kill myself."
Cloud laughed, and Leon unlocked the door, and swung it open. Yuffie was simply standing there, ranting away, as if she barely took into notice that she had her freedom.
"This is just like the time in fifth grade at the valentine's party and you all locked me in that closet with Vincent and I knocked him out with a broom! But it was SO not my fault! It was pitch black! And then I tried to do CPR but I ended doing it to a teddy bear! What the hell was a teddy bear doing in a storage closet anyway?! And of course, YOU had to open the damn door and Vincent HAD to wake up just in time! And then everyone thought I was making out with a teddy bear! You ruined my chance! You-"
"Yuffie, you never had a chance with Vincent Valentine," Leon claimed. "You creeped him out ever since you stole his shoe . . . right off his foot."
"He wasn't using it," Yuffie defended herself, crossing her arms. "It was a sign of affection – but all you guys in my class were a bunch of idiots who of course made it seem "creepy"! Psh, Vincent was only misguided by you fools – especially YOU, squall!"
"Oh really?"
"Yep."
"Now, would an idiot or a fool," Leon asked. "Unlock the biggest idiot of them all out of HIS library?"
Yuffie scoffed, "I don't know what you're talking about – I'm brilliant!"
The brunet rolled his eyes, "Yuffie."
"What?"
"Step out."
Yuffie kept her eyes shut, and snorted, "Oh yeah, what? So I can disfigure my face and you can laugh at me as an I die a disfigured weirdo?!"
"She . . . really won't believe you," Cloud nearly laughed as he whispered to Leon. "What are you gonna do?"
Leon scoffed, "Nothing. I'm not wasting my time on this."
He motioned to the two brunettes, who were behind Yuffie, watching the situation, very amused.
They moved past Yuffie, toward the two boys. And they all stared at the so called Ninja. She was facing the wall, eyes closed and arms crossed looking too proud and too determined than anyone should be when in this sort of situation.
"Well, at least you survived," Cloud said wryly.
Aerith and Olette looked at each other, and laughed, "Barely," They both said.
Aerith looked over to Leon, "Did you guys get back okay?"
Leon looked over to Cloud, who blushed severely, and then sighed, "Not really, but hey, we made it."
"I'm guessing you guys are wondering where everyone is?"
"That, and a lot more."
Aerith sighed sadly, "We split up to look for Roxas and he ended up finding US and stealing all our contact and locking us in here. It REALLY upset Yuffie."
She looked over at Cloud cautiously, "How're you doing?"
The blond seemed caught off guard by the question, even though it was a simple and expected thing to ask, "Huh? Oh, um, fine I guess. I just . . . wonder if he's okay."
"And the last thing I heard about Sora was Kairi screaming about a bag being the only way to save him and she ran away . . . actually, she went there," Leon looked over towards the white room, which was across the way.
"Should we . . .?" The question was left in the air, and everyone was looking over towards Leon, as if only he could decide.
"It's worth a shot," But then he looked over to Yuffie. "But we have to take her with us, or else her parents are going to kill me- literally."
It was true. The Kisagari's thought Yuffie was an Angel (which is probably where she got the idea) and were willing to literally kill anyone or thing that hindered her happiness. That usually was Leon.
"Hey, Yuffie," Cloud tried. "We opened the door, if you haven't noticed."
"I'm not moving," That was the true determination of a complete and utter idiot.
"Yuffie, we're going to leave."
"You do that," She said stiffly. "Daddy will just go kill Leon at my funeral."
Cloud just stared at her, unsure of what to do. Leon sighed, "Come on, Yuffie."
"What did I just- Ah!" Leon grabbed the ninja by her hood and started to drag, for a couple moments her fought to stand up, but soon she fell to the ground, crying her heart out.
"This is harassment! Harassment, I say! Let go of me, you- you ninja hater!"
Leon pulled her out into the hallway, and then dropped her on the ground.
"Leon," Aerith said. "I think if you treat her like that, her father, will for sure, murder you."
"What? I'm knocking some sense into her," The brunet replied, monotonously.
Now the ninja was complaining about the "pain", "Oh! The pain! The hideous, horrible PAIN! I'm starting to fade into oblivion! Goodbye, my fair friends. Cloud –"Suddenly her voice didn't sound so distant anymore. "Make sure to tell my PARENTS who exactly is responsible for their tragic loss, Cough Leon Cough!"
"You're supposed to cough, not say the word 'cough'," Leon added in smugly.
"I DO NOT need any nasty remarks from my murderer!"
"Fine, if you're dying, I'll just return your birthday present," The brunet said casually.
As if that hit a switch, Yuffie popped up, eyes wide and sparkly as she latched onto his arm, "Really?! Oh squall, I KNEW that you wouldn't just give me a pencil! Oh, oh, when can I get it?"
"If you act somewhat normal tonight, I'll give it to you tomorrow."
"That's easy," The ninja grinned. "Normality is my fourth middle name!"
"Fourth?" Aerith nearly laughed.
"Yeah, right after awesomeness, coolness, gorgeousness and ninja – tacularness, of course!"
"Right."
"What should we do?" Cloud asked, once they had finally gotten somewhere. "I need to find Roxas . . ."
"Yeah, and then I can beat the brat for being so rude!"
Cloud glared murder at her, and Aerith warned, "Yuffie."
"God, I was totally kidding!" She hugged Cloud. "Besides, he's possessed – it wasn't really him."
"But not anymore," Cloud muttered, not even bothering to push Yuffie off. "After that white light – whatever it was – he disappeared and there was that creepy ghost who attacked us."
The girls eyes widened considerably, "Wait," Yuffie said. "Something actually happened?"
"A lot happened, actually," Leon said. "But, since, we've seen no one since Kairi, and there has to be a chance that she's still there."
"But wait – WAIT! I've been stuck in there for nearly an hour, and I want answers!" Yuffie demanded.
"We all want answers," Leon told her. "But, there's no time, and they can wait."
"Squall! C'mon! No fair!" There came the rants again.
Leon sighed. They'd been so close.
"Hey, I think you have a new middle name."
Yuffie's eyebrows furrowed, "What?"
"Silence. I don't want to hear a word from you until tomorrow, and if you say anything – no present."
She gasped, "You wouldn't!"
"I would."
At first she looked like she wanted to argue, but then her expression shifted to one of determination, "Okay, fine! I'll show you! From this moment on, I'll be miss silence! Starting . . . now!"
She crossed her arms, and everything was silent. After, at the most, 10 seconds, she burst.
"Why the heck are you all so quiet? Stop it! Only I'm quiet! ME – Oh shit – I mean shoot – AGH! Fine, fine, I shall be quiet starting . . . now!"
And then, silence. It was a miracle.
"Well," Leon said. "Let's go."
They all followed him across the way to the white room, opened the door, and . . .
Empty.
They all sighed, except for Yuffie, who pouted silently.
"She could be anywhere by now," Cloud said. "I hope she's okay too."
"Hopefully."
"I think she said Sora was in here too," The blond said. "What is this room anyway?"
"Sora called it the white room," Leon explained, walking in. "It was like this when we got here and we figured we leave it as is."
"It's kind of . . . pristine," Cloud observed. "Don't you think that's kind of weird for a house that has been abandoned for about a century?"
"Very," Leon agreed, but shrugged. "But, there's nothing else to do but wonder – wait."
Leon did a once over of the room, and noticed a new addition – the many pictures, the many familiar pictures.
" . . ."
Cloud noticed the pictures too, and a particular one caught his interest. He walked towards it slowly, as if being cautious. And he started at it. Just stared.
"Is he shaking?" Aerith whispered, honestly worried. Everyone watched the blond for a moment, before he finally said something.
"What . . . is this suppose to be?!" His voice was raised to a shaking yell.
He turned to them, his face attempting to be unreadable, but he was obviously too upset for it to be.
They could now see the picture. It was a blond – with a red X across his blurry face.
No one knew what to say (well, Yuffie was free of that) everyone, once again looked over to Leon, who watched the blond with curious eyes. His attention flickered to the picture.
"It's Roxas?"
Cloud turned angry, "Of course it's Roxas! Who . . . who drew this?!"
"I don't know-"
Then, the blond ripped the drawing off the wall, fists clenching the paper, "What is this even suppose to mean?!"
This caught Leon off guard. He'd seen many sides of this blond through the night, but this was new. He looked over to Aerith who could only shrug helplessly, and Yuffie who could only smile smugly. Olette watched the situation with curious eyes; unsure of what was happening or what part she even had.
Leon sighed, "Hey, let's go find him then."
"What's the point if this," Cloud held up the picture. "Has already happened?"
The brunet raised a brow, "So you're not even going to try? What happened to 'I've got to save him, no matter what!'"
"I'm not giving up," Cloud muttered. "I don't know WHAT to do, or what I'm going to do – and I HATE not knowing whether or not my little brother is even alive!"
Leon simply shrugged, "Well, like I said before, go find out."
Cloud stared at him, expression wavering, "How can you be so calm, when everything is completely falling apart?"
"Because I plan to fix it."
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"I don't know – all I know is that if something's falling, you don't just stand there, thinking about the consequences . . . you catch it. It's logic, Cloud."
Cloud smiled, finally, somewhat back to normal. But, not quite, because suddenly the blond ran over and hugged the brunet. This really caught Leon off guard, and he awkwardly hugged back. It actually wouldn't have been as awkward if Yuffie hadn't been silently taunting him, and Aerith hadn't been hiding a smile behind her hand.
"Thanks, Leon," He muttered.
For what? He wanted to ask. But he knew.
The door suddenly burst open.
"Leon?! Cloud?!"
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
They'd been expecting to find Kairi and Namine, and while, they were nowhere to be found – Sora had opened the white room to lead them all to find 5 others. They were all, startled by what they found.
Cloud and Leon . . . they were, err, hugging. At least were, until they quickly pulled apart. Sora blushed red – both at confusion and embarrassment. For one, Leon barley hugged HIM, and second, the brunet felt he had walked into something he shouldn't of.
Cloud was blushing furiously and Leon, just stood there and smirked, "What? Sora, you're not even going to greet me?"
Sora retaliated, "Well, I figured you were busy."
That got to his brother, and for once, Leon could find nothing to say.
" . . . Fair enough."
Sora grinned and ran over and gave his brother a hug, so happy that he'd made it back okay. But, then again, it was Leon – He was just the kind of person who didn't get hurt and never disappointed anyone.
"Hey Sora," Cloud asked. "Have you by any chance seen Roxas?"
Sora smiled at the taller blond, "I'm glad you asked, but isn't he right –"
Sora turned around to find neither Roxas, Axel, nor even Riku even there. What? No way, they were RIGHT there!
"No way! He was right there!"
"Is he okay?" Cloud then asked.
Sora turned back to Cloud, "Yeah, he was completely back to normal – and me, him, Axel and . . . someone else, were coming back here to find Kairi . . . but, apparently their gone."
Sora wasn't sure whether to be angry, confused, distraught or even hopeless. Even when they promised not to separate, it still happened. It was ridiculous, especially that Sora hadn't noticed.
"I can't believe it – did they seriously ditch me?!"
"Well, I wouldn't blame them."
The younger narrowed his eyes at his sarcastic older brother, and let out a sigh – now what?
"Relax, Sora."
The brunet widened his eyes, and wiped around to find the ghost standing there, with a blue popsicle. He let out a huge sigh, and gave Riku a 'What the heck look' with arms out and wide eyes and everything.
The ghost licked the Popsicle casually (how . . .?) and asked, "What?"
Sora just stared, and the ghost just licked that stupid Popsicle – seriously, could he be that oblivious?
The ghost then got irritated, "What?"
" . . ."
"C'mon Sora – what? What?!"
Sora sighed, and walked over and grabbed the Popsicle – "Hey!" – And looked at it, "Where did you get this – wait, how can you even eat this?!"
Riku laughed, "That's the typical assumption, but I've still got all five senses, so it's nice to taste something after about a century," He then eyed the blue popsicle, "Now if you excuse me, can I please have it back?"
But Sora held it even further out of reach, "Why'd you completely ditch me to get a stupid Popsicle, and where are Axel and Roxas?"
"Relax," Riku said. "You were practically running, so we were behind you and Axel brought up that case Roxas brought and He said it had sea salt ice cream – Sea salt ice cream, Sora, do you realize how hard it was and still is, to get that?!"
"No," Sora replied. "I've never had it – it's just a Popsicle, either way
Everyone besides Leon stared at him, shocked. Yuffie even stopped spazzing out silently to gawk. They all seriously found the aspect of him never having this ice cream more shocking then Riku.
"Sora," Cloud started. "Have you seriously never had sea –salt ice cream?"
"No, I've never heard of it," Sora replied, not realizing how big an impact his words had on everyone. "I mean, they never had it on Destiny Islands."
"It's a Twilight Town special," Riku explained, still eyeing his own that Sora had taken. "And I was barely had the chance to get one before you started throwing a fit. Axel and Roxas are downstairs still."
"Really?" Cloud interrupted, the only thing on his mind was his brother and it didn't even seem to matter that this was a ghost.
"Yeah," Riku nodded. Cloud then ran out of the room, mind running on the concept that Roxas was still okay, and even better, alive.
Sora smiled for a moment, and Riku took the chance to snatch back his popsicle.
"Hey!"
"Well it was mine. Get your own."
"Fine. Let me try it."
Riku smirked, "Fine."
Suddenly, another appeared in the ghost's hand, and he handed it to Sora. The brunet grabbed it and stared at it.
"Yes, Sora, it is indeed a popsicle."
Sora stuck his tongue out, "Well, with a name like sea salt ice cream, who knows."
Riku laughed, and Sora licked the Popsicle and his expression scrunched up.
"It's . . . salty," He stated blankly, but after a moment, he looked confused as the taste changed . "Wait, no . . ."
"Sweet," He said, and everyone else did simultaneously too and laughed afterward.
"This is so weird," The brunet muttered.
"See," Riku leaned down, face to face with Sora. "Not poison."
Sora smiled, "Well I'm glad you're not out to kill me."
Then he turned around, toward his brother, "Err, Leon. This is Riku – he's been helping me out."
His brother merely smirked, "As long as you weren't talking to yourself."
Sora stuck his tongue out at his brother, and then looked over toward Yuffie, Aerith, and Olette. Aerith and Olette seemed fine with it all, but Yuffie . . . well she was a different story.
" . . ." She was doing all sorts of hand motions, exaggerated ones, and was completely spazzing out again over Riku. The ghost just stared at her.
"Is she okay?"
"She's taken a vow of silence for the night," Leon explained. "So I'll give her a birthday present."
"It's her birthday?" Sora asked.
"Was. I got her a gift, but apparently it wasn't enough, so," His brother shrugged. "Mine as well make a deal."
"Should we . . . just ignore her?" Sora looked back over to the spazzing out ninja.
"I would."
Sora laughed a little at the ordeal, but then sighed, remembering the big problem that needed to be solved.
"Leon . . . I – we need to find everyone," Sora explained. "And then come up with some sort of plan . . . but I don't know what to do or how to do it and now I'm some sort of hero and I just can't – I'm not -."
"hey," His brother leaned down to get to eye level. "You look like you're going to cry.
"What?" Sora looked away and blinked. God, he was . . . why was he crying?! He tried to wipe them away, but that just made them come down more. He cried too much and he hated it. But then again, he was scared, and he couldn't push that back.
"It's okay to cry," Leon said. Like he was one to talk – he never cried. Never.
"You don't."
"That's the point," Leon stood up. "That's a fault for me."
Sora wanted to ask why that was a fault, but then Riku stepped up.
"Your brother's right," He said. "And Sora, you're not alone in this. I'll never abandon you, got it?"
Sora smiled at the ghost – he knew he could trust Riku. Even when he was practically idolizing a Popsicle, "Yeah, I know."
"Well," Leon said, looking at everyone. "Let's get the others and find everyone else and make a plan."
Everyone agreed, and Sora felt a million times better that he wasn't alone in this. He had his brother, his friends, Namine, and Riku too.
And somehow, having all that support made him forget to be scared.
They were all ready to finally start their search when someone cried,
"What are you doing to my brother?!"
Leon sighed, "Cloud."
They all ran out.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
The thought that his brother was okay was all that Cloud needed to pull himself together. He ran out – and he was half way down the stairs when he froze as his eyes widened.
There was his brother, blond and blue eyed . . . but the fact that he was lip locked with none other than Kairi's cousin, Axel, now that was a petrifying scene for Cloud.
How long had this even been going on?! The fact that his brother was, err, that way didn't bother him as much as whom it was with. For one: Axel was two years older, two: he had been suspended like three times and three: . . . the redhead was a self proclaimed pervert.
Cloud knew Axel for being Kairi's cousin and that his brother Reno once knew . . . his friend awhile back.
The blond shook his head, No, I'm not thinking about him now.
He finally found his voice, when he noticed where the redhead's hands were going. He clenched his fists and yelled out as he marched down the rest of the stairs,
"What are you doing to my brother?!"
They immediately broke apart as Roxas pushed the red head away, wide eyed. Blue locked on blue.
"Cloud, I, um, I-"
"How long?"
Roxas blinked, "Um, what-"
"How long," Cloud repeated in the same tone.
Roxas sputtered some more, when Axel smirked and ruffled his brother's hair, "C'mon Rox – he deserves as much."
Then Green locked on narrowed blue and Axel said with a smile, "Thirty – two minutes and eight- No, nineteen seconds!"
Cloud blinked, unsure what to think. Just then, everyone who was in the white room came out, confused. Sora came down first, and ran over to them.
"What's wrong?"
"Um," Cloud bit his lip. What could he say when his brother was practically making out with a pervert he got together with less than an hour ago?
Roxas sighed, and scratched the back of his head, "Cloud, I'm sorry . . . I just, I don't know, I really like Axel and I . . ."
Roxas sighed, what more could he say? It was an extremely awkward situation, for both brothers.
"It's okay."
Roxas looked up, and grinned, "You're okay with it!?"
"Yeah, but," Cloud shot a look at Axel. "You'd better watch where you put your hands."
The redhead put his hands up, "Okay okay! Promise!"
"So are we all okay now?" Sora asked. Cloud scratched the back of his head and sighed, but smiled, "Yeah, I'm just happy Roxas is safe and, err, gun less. "
His brother blinked, "What?"
Everyone suddenly looked away, unsure of what to say.
"What?!" Roxas asked again, now extremely curious. But no one was saying a word. He looked from Axel, to Sora, to his brother. Nothing.
"Err, like Leon said," Sora remembered. "Questions later! We've got to find Kairi, Hayner, Pence, Zexion, Demyx, and, um, Namine."
Everyone nodded in agreement until the young girl ghost's name was uttered. Cloud, Roxas, Olette, and Axel were shocked and Leon, Aerith and Yuffie seemed confused. Riku and Sora were the only one's sighing, knowing that this explanation could not be put off.
"Nami – Namine . . . she's here?" Roxas looked straight at Sora, eyes hopeful.
"Is . . . she really?" Olette looked hopeful too.
"Yeah," Sora smiled slightly. "She's a ghost and she's been helping me."
"Of course she would," Axel grinned. "Even helping others in the afterlife."
"We've got to see her – Ghost or not, she's still got to be the Namine we knew," Cloud said, and the four looked so happy that Sora grinned himself. Then he turned to the other three, specifically his brother.
"Namine was Kairi's sister, and she died her a while back," The brunet explained as best as he could. "She's been helping me this past week, in . . . more ways than one," He glanced at Riku. "And the white room is technically hers. She was just there, with Kairi, too."
"Thanks for the explanation, but we didn't ask," His brother replied, and Sora shrugged.
"I'd figured you'd want to know – besides, one answer can't hurt."
"True."
Then the brunet turned to Riku, "Where do you think they went, Namine and Kairi, that is? I mean, they were just there!"
"I know," Riku said. "But I have an idea."
The ghost disappeared and reappeared in a split second and returned with a piece of white paper. It was one of Namine's drawings.
"Uh, Riku-"
The ghost held a hand up, and placed it back on the paper, "Oh look," He said rather loudly and Sora cocked his head to the side. "It's one of Namine's wonderful drawings, I wonder what would happen if I were to rip-"
"Riku Hikaru Katsuya Miori! Don't you dare even put a crease on my paper!"
Riku smirked as the blond ghost appeared in front of him and easily let her snatch the paper out of his hands. Kairi had appeared too, but looked disoriented. Sora had never traveled like the ghost's had but apparently it was possible and Sora could only imagine the awkwardness.
Namine checked the paper and finally, let it disappear. She glared murder at Riku, who could only raised his hands in defense, "Nami, relax, I would never do anything to one of your pictures."
The blond opened her mouth to ask something, but then her eyes softened and she smiled, "Very nice. Only you would know that, ku."
"Of course," Riku grinned. "Now if you're done with your bout of anger, I think that there are some old friends you need to catch up with."
The ghost turned and smiled brightly. They all ran up, grinning. Roxas looked like he was going to hug her, but stopped, awkwardly smiling.
"Err, Sorry –"
Namine hugged him, "I missed you Rox."
The blond seemed surprised but he hugged back, "Same here, Nami."
They pulled apart and Olette took her turn and ran up and hugged her friend, they squealed and Roxas groaned.
"But I did NOT miss that."
Cloud laughed and ruffled his brothers hair.
"Oh god, Nami, so much has happened!" Olette said, grinning.
"Well you've got to catch me up," Namine grinned back. "On everything!"
"Of course."
Cloud stepped forward, and ruffled the little blondes hair, "How's my little Picasso doing?"
"Picasso? I'd say I'm more of a Da Vinci."
Cloud grinned, "Of course."
Namine gave the older blond a hug; he had been like an older brother. And, He still was.
Finally, Axel came up, with a smirk, "Well, where have you been hiding?"
Namine smirked right back, "Oh you know, A haunted house, hanging with some ghosts. The usual."
"I had a feeling you weren't really gone," Axel smiled, and suddenly a tear fell onto his cheek. He didn't really care.
"You know me," Namine started to cry too. It was odd, her eyes seemed to glisten and the tears seemed like silver. "You always have."
The two hugged, and suddenly, Roxas started to cry, so did Olette, and even Cloud. Tears streamed down Kairi's cheeks and she ran over to the two.
And for some reason, Sora started to tear up too. He didn't even bother to wipe them away. This was phenomenal, all these old friends, reunited with no hate or fear. The fine line between ghosts and humans didn't matter at all. The brunet's misconception had broken when he found his feelings for Riku and now, because of this, they were completely gone.
"Sora, you're amazing," Riku suddenly said, and Sora turned to face the ghost.
"Huh?"
"You made this happen, you brought Namine back to all her friends and too her sister," Riku explained. "To see her so happy, you don't understand how much this is."
"Wait, Kairi and Namine are sisters?"
Riku blinked and then laughed, "You didn't realize?"
"Well, I don't know! It's been a busy night!"
"They look exactly alike."
"Nuh – uh! They've got different hair!"
"Sora," Riku said. "You can be such a brick head – "Hey!" – but that's one of the things that I love most about you."
The brunet blushed and turned away. Riku laughed at him (again) and pecked him on the cheek when no one was looking. The ghost walked away, and Sora's face had to be burning red.
He walked over towards Namine and the others, where he caught Namine say, "So you two are finally together! Jeez Axel, way to take a year."
"Shut up Namine," The red head said through gritted teeth, obviously not feeling the love anymore. Roxas cocked his head to the side.
"We just met less than a week ago."
"Ah, yes but my dear cousin has known you for quite some time," Namine smirked. "And not in the innocent way."
"Wait – you had a crush on ME?" Roxas grinned. "And for a year?! I only liked you starting in summer!"
"Thanks Namine," Axel rolled his eyes.
"You're welcome," The blonde smiled, ignoring the sarcasm.
"This is perfect!" Roxas laughed. "So you actually pretended to meet me?"
"Hey, it worked out, didn't it?" Axel smirked, putting his arms around the blond's waist. "If you keep rubbing it in, I just might have too-"
Cloud then did a loud cough, and Axel quickly let go, " – Run away from your brother so he doesn't murder me."
"Do I really want to know what you were going to say, Kasai?"
"No, not really, Strife," The red head replied airily and Cloud glared murder at him and turned back to his conversation with Leon and Aerith.
"You know, I think he doesn't like me."
"Really."
"Yeah! I know, right? Who could actually NOT like me?"
Roxas scoffed, and walked away towards the cooler to get another sea salt ice cream.
"Oh so I see how it is," Axel said. "You care more about ice cream than me!"
"Pretty much."
But despite the joke, they were both grinning. Axel ran over to Roxas and Sora smiled as he watched them, and this is what he expected from the party. Except the crying part, but in its own way, it helped a lot.
Suddenly Namine hugged him, "This has been amazing Sora, thanks."
Why does everyone think that I did all this? "Namine, I really didn't."
"Stop," She put a finger to his lips. "It was you – don't try to hide it."
Sora smiled, "Okay, okay. Thank-"
The doors to the hall way slammed open and Marluxia and Larxene came bolting through.
"They're coming! Xemnas has got his whole army and their coming, right now!"
Everything went silent, and Sora froze for a second too. But then his keyblade appeared in his hand, and he jumped up on the couch.
"Well C'mon!" He yelled. "Let's fight – they are NOT gonna drive us out!"
Then weapons appeared in all sort of sizes, many were keyblades, some swords, Axel had Chakrams, and Aerith and Olette's hands were glowing green. Namine stood up beside him.
"Aerith and Olette, come with me," She told them. "You've got healing powers, and I'll help you use them."
The two girls nodded and ran after Namine into the white room. Sora jumped off the couch. And braced himself but then he remembered- "Wait, what about the other's?"
Riku was beside him, "Odd's are they've got weapons too – besides, there's no way but to fight them off right now."
Sora nodded, but still felt a little sick. He trusted Riku, he really did, but he had no clue what he'd do if any of them got hurt.
Then, there was an uneasy rumble that got louder and louder – the room seemed to shake and the lights flickered.
"You ready, Sora?"
"Y-yeah," Was he really? But, either way, he had to give it all he had. He was given this key for some reason, and he wanted to find it.
Then, there they all were – but two more additions made them so much more horrifying.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
"Hayner? Olette? Roxas? Anyone?"
Pence sighed and continued to walk down the halls. It had to have been an hour since that huge flash and Hayner disappeared and he got some weird camera. He was lucky, though, because nothing had attacked him since . . .
But he was seriously lost and he hadn't seen even one person at all. He was sort of scared, sort of sad and sort of confused. No – scratch that, VERY confused.
The brunet turned a hallway only to find it too look exactly like the last. He wondered if everyone was okay, and what happened with Roxas.
Pence rounded another hallway and found a stair case. It was leading up, which Pence thought was better than down, and he decided it was worth a shot. He had his flashlight, anyway. He walked up the stairs, and he winced when they creaked violently but kept moving. He reached the top – an attic.
It was filled with boxes, and Pence wondered if he should search through them. He found a light bulb with a string and pulled it, and it actually worked. Pence looked around – this room really wasn't that creepy. Just a lot of boxes, just a lot of memories.
Pence's curiosity took the best of him and he opened a box that was off to the side. Letters, so many letters. He was going to open one, but it felt wrong. He pushed the box to the side and walked around, unsure where to start (or where was the safest to start).
A box fell to the floor behind him and he froze. He then sighed and figured it was nothing. But then, another box fell over and he HAD to turn around, and there IT was . . . some black thing with huge yellow eyes. Pence screamed and fell backwards, right into the boxes, conveniently enough.
All the thing did was blink at him, innocently. Pence gathered himself together and stood up – he leaned down and stared at it.
"Um, hi."
Two blinks. Pence just guessed that meant hello. Maybe.
Actually, it seemed pretty harmless. This one wasn't like the others; it actually seemed to have a mind.
Pence then dared to pet it on the head, and its antennas twitched around and its eyes narrowed in a happy, easy way. Pence grinned, "Hey, you're a lot like a puppy. I think I'll call you lucky."
Hey, it seemed like a good enough name. Besides, this was sort of lucky for him to meet this thing.
It seemed to like the name and Lucky then started to jump over somewhere, motioning Pence to follow. It went over toward a chest, and jumped up and down. It was dusty and dirty and Pence really didn't want to open it but he felt like he had too. Once he opened it, he really wished he hadn't.
Guns. So many silver guns. What was worst of all was that they were covered in dark, red and dried blood. It smelled disgusting and Pence slammed the chest down and stared wide eyed at Lucky.
"What was that?!"
It merely blinked and hopped over to another box. Pence reluctantly followed. This box contained only dusty newspapers. Pence picked up the first and scanned it.
MIORI MANSION MASSACURE.
On October 31, 1920, famous billionaire, Xemnas Miori, his Son, Riku and all of his assistants disappeared. The house was found in a wreck when investigated, and two of the detectives sent disappeared. Investigations have shown that dark things were happening in the house, such as illegal experiments and murder. Detective Kauri told us, "It's hard NOT to get lost in such a house, but in the farthest room we got too, it was like a lab. But it was sickening, there was blood everywhere, and the dead body of whom we believe to be the college, Marluxia Looms. We don't know what they were doing but I believe it was by far out of laws range." Detectives also found a journal entry in the son's, Riku's room. It could not be correctly identified, since half was ripped but they've found, "He's been doing these things in that room. It's creepy. I went in their once and almost got sick. There are tubes filled with vile liquids and there was a bathtub dripping with blood. I don't know what he's doing but I can't take it much longer. If anyone reads this, you need to help me – I think my father's a murderer and I'm next." Could it be that Xemnas would potentially murder his own son? Friends of Riku claimed they could not see anything bothering him so was the young victim hiding all of this? But no one dares to go in since the disappearances of two detectives and the building has been scheduled for demolition.
The whole thing was sickening for Pence, but the most disturbing was Riku's letter – a bathtub . . . of blood? That was horribly creepy. Pence put the paper down and looked down at Lucky.
"Do you know where this room is?" It nodded and Pence shook his own head. "Promise to never take me there."
It nodded again. Pence sighed and asked, "Could you get me back to my friends?"
Lucky jumped up and bounced toward the door. Pence gladly followed, trying to forget the guns and the image the article left in his head.
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I had to do a scene with Pence. I feel like he completely disappeared. = ( It's kind of like that with all the characters that haven't had contact with Sora. Oh Sora, you damn story hugger. Lol.
Lol, heartless pet. I actually think their cute when there aren't a bazillion of them trying to maul you.
So, yeah, I'm hoping the next chapter will wrap the night up, but when everyone's in a different place – it's really hard!
AN- oh, the whole blood in the bathtub thing was an idea taken from Ghost hunt, this anime I LOVE – it's really creepy, especially blood stained labyrinth, where this came from.
-.- ah, I'm tired. I don't want to go to school tomorrow. Blegh. At least I have next Monday off too! Yay! ^-^
Before~I~Fall