FINALLY! You have no idea how long it took me to write this chapter! I mean, it took weeks! And it's not that I'm struggling with the story, I swear I know where I'm going with it and what's going to happen, I just don't have the time to type it out anymore! Between Creative Writing short story, Journalism magazine, Drama Club practices extending until 8 at night, and the multiple journal entries and essays my American Lit teacher sincerely thinks my class needs, I just don't have the time or energy to type anymore! But I finally skipped Drama and homework tonight just to finish and post this chapter! I really hope you like it! It's not beta-ed, and I haven't gotten the chance to re-read the second half, so there are probably a bunch of mistakes, point them out to me and I'll fix them!

The song used is All To Myself by "Marianas Trench," and before people comment, this will not be a sad story. It will have a happy ending, I just have to get the time to get there!

6 :: S.O.S.

I don't patronize,
I realize I'm losing and this is my real life,

Roxas was nothing less than pleasantly surprised when he found Kairi and Naminé were home, with their older sister, Xion, too. It was a surprise, but there have been plenty of those today, so they were starting to sort of lose their shock.

Fiancé?

He was outside by their pool in no time, shoes off, shorts rolled up a bit, feet soaking in the cool water. Kairi was sunbathing in a chair to his left, Naminé sketching in the chair to his right, Xion was doing laps around the pool. Guess she is the athletic sister, Naminé the artistic and Kairi… the engaged one?

The redhead cracked open one eyes, letting her gaze rest on the blonde teen between her and her twin. He sat quietly, staring at the water with furrowed eyebrows. When he had suddenly shown up at their front door, he seemed a bit out of it, like his mind wasn't completely there. She was concerned, but she wasn't exactly sure if it would be a good idea to start asking him about it. It could just upset him more, after all…

And wasn't he suppose to be in school anyways?

"Roxas," She spoke softly, not needing to really raise her voice any as the only noise disturbing the silence would be Xion's smooth swimming, Naminé's pencil sketching, and a couple birds in the surrounding trees and bushes.

The blonde still flinched like he was gonna be punched though, looked like he nearly fell in the water he was so shocked by it.

His head spun around and his baby blues locked onto the redhead, going from surprise to outright desperate confusion, and Kairi found it hard to not feel some sort of sympathy for the teen, "Hey, um, today is Monday, correct? Why are you not in school?"

The blonde's eyes widened and his gaze snapped back to the pool, making Naminé look up in slight surprise as she seemed to suddenly realize what her sister was saying was correct. Was Roxas trying to cut school by hanging out with them? How did he even know they would be here? They never told him they were home-schooled now.

"I'm not going," He shrugged and his eyes caught onto Xion's movements. How long had she been under water now? Geez, she could seriously hold her breath.

Kairi raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean? You can not just skip school, Roxas."

He sighed and let his head tilt back so he could look up at the sky instead, "Nah, not that, I'm not 'allowed.'"

"Excuse me?"

"Exactly."

Kairi frowned and shot a worried look to her twin just as Xion finally stopped for some air, gasping for breath, the black haired girl leaned against the side of the pool and turned her attention to the conversation before her, wondering what caused her younger sisters to become so worried so quickly.

Kairi gave a confused glance to Roxas and waited for him to speak up, but he didn't appear to have any plans to go into further detail without provocation, "What do you mean you're not allowed?"

He sighed and bit his lip, "I'm not allowed to tell you, I'm not even allowed to talk to you anymore."

"But you are talking to us," Naminé butted in quickly, giving him a sneaky smile, "Right now, you are talking to us in our own backyard. So what would be so bad about telling us why you are not suppose to talk to us?"

Kairi nodded quickly, beginning to become more upset, "You are our friend Roxas, we have a right to talk to you, just as you have a right to talk to us."

Xion blinked for a moment, "And isn't it law that you have to go to school anyways?"

Naminé nodded quickly, "It is!"

"Roxas why are you not allowed to go to school?" Roxas just stared back at Kairi for another couple minutes, his thoughts buzzing all around his head. He couldn't just sit here so normally anymore, not with the knowledge that she is ENGAGED to SORA.

He still couldn't believe Sora would be able to get a fiancé, he seems much too busy to do something like that. Maybe Axel was lying? Not with a bad intentions, just as a joke? Maybe he was just joking and wanted to see Roxas's reaction?

The easiest thing to do would be to just ask, ask Kairi herself if she was engaged to Sora. Turning his attention to the redhead, he looked up into her concerned gaze and felt an uneasy turn in his stomach.

What if she really was engaged to Sora? What if Sora really did love her? What would that mean for him? That it was an even smarter idea not to fall for him, that he was right, that it was stupid to even think about a straight guy like that, that…

It was too late and he knew it.

He hadn't been aware of it, he never saw it coming, he didn't even see him that much. There was the initial meeting of him, when he first arrived in the house, and there was their conversation that one night, and breakfast with his parents, and then when Sora told him that he could no longer leave. Other than that, he didn't really see or talk to him that much, but it felt like he had. That those moments together were stretched out forever in his mind. Not to mention he and Axel talked about Sora nearly non-stop during that day they spent together.

Roxas was curious, and Axel had a brother-complex.

Somehow, for a reason he couldn't fathom, he fell for Sora. Hard and fast. And now, realizing that Sora loves Kairi, that they're engaged, he was too afraid to even confirm this, to confirm that Sora was out of his grasp before he could even get a chance… He bit his lip and quickly turned away, glaring down at the water.

This wasn't like him, he didn't get upset like this, he didn't get this confused about things, he didn't get scared. He would have never hesitated to ask a girl her connection to a guy he was interested in, he wouldn't get upset if he found out a girl he kind of liked was with someone else or not interested in him. He felt like he wasn't himself anymore.

Why was he trying to hold on to an identity that didn't exist here? Maybe, in Hollow Bastion, he wouldn't be caught dead talking to these girls, he wouldn't care that Sora's dad said he couldn't go to school because he would do what he wanted in the end, which was probably not go anyways, and he wouldn't give Sora a second glance.

… Possibly.

Why was everything different here? Why was he so different here? He hated it, hated this place, hated everything here.

"Roxas?"

He pushed himself off the edge and let himself slip into the water, the chill shocked him to the bone, rattling his conscious mind, his clothes kept the water at bay for only a second, and the rest of him was also attacked with the icy tendrils. His mind stopped, went numb, blanked, the only things he was aware of was when his feet touched the bottom, and the noiseless screams ripping from his throat.

I'm half asleep,
And I am wide awake this habit is always so hard to break,

Sora felt himself become awake, and he turned onto his back to stretch, just to slip off the bed and fall to the floor. Groaning in pain, he blinked open his sapphire gaze to find out why the hell he just fell on the floor. Well, that is to be expected when sleeping on someone else's couch, is it not?

In a second, it all rushed back to him. He was in Roxas's room, he had fought with him, Axel walked out, Roxas disappeared like Axel, he didn't want Roxas to leave him too.

He jumped up from the floor and glanced at the clock quickly, feeling his heart skip as he realized it was three in the afternoon. How on earth did he manage to sleep for so long?

He jumped off the floor and ran to the hallway, looking up and down it to only see Yuffie battling a vacuum by the staircase, he ran past her without a second glance and sprinted for his father's office. The first thing he had to do was find Roxas and apologize, so he would have to make some calls around town to locate-He ran into Riku.

Flying back, hit just managed to steady himself with the wall before he was sent to the ground. Thankfully, for the preservation of his pride, Riku stumbled back quite a bit too, then looked up with a calm but still questioning look.

Sora's mind stuttered, spinning from the sudden jolt from his thoughts, blinking up at the silver-haired man in blank shock for a couple of seconds, leaving Riku to raise an eyebrow at the brunette teen. Silence reigned over them for a couple moments, before Riku broke it, "What?"

Sora flinched again, jumping up to stand in front of the other man nervously. He couldn't let Riku know that Roxas had run off, he was supposed to be here to watch Roxas, him and Reno were suppose to make sure he was safe and well-taken care of in the Taylor household and…

Sora and his father had completely forgotten about them. Why had they been so easy to overlook? The entire time they've been here, it's like they haven't been here at all, they sure knew how to blend in to the background, that's expected of a good Shinra agent.

"N-nothing, I just have to speak to my father. Sorry for, uh, running into you."

Riku nodded, still staring down at the teen suspiciously as he shuffled around the Shinra agent and quickly walked the couple more feet to his father's office. He immediately shut and locked the door behind himself the moment he stepped inside, sighing to himself quietly as he glanced around the room.

The phone caught his eyes immediately, and he was next to it in seconds, grabbing the phonebook in the second drawer of the desk it sat on. Collapsing in the leather chair he had seen his father sitting in less than 24 hours ago, he began flying through the pages looking for the number of the first person he could think of to call.

He dialed and winced when the bubbly voice began to half-shout through the phone at him, "Hi! Gull Wing Restaurant-"

"Rikku! It is Sora, have you seen Roxas?"

"Sora Taylor? Wow! Two calls in two days! Are you just using Roxas as an excuse to talk to me?" One annoying giggle and some silence from Sora's end, and then she spoke again, although a bit more awkwardly, "Um, no, haven't seen him, but I would call the Howards, I mean, he was talking to them so much yesterday and everything. Why are you looking for him, is there any trouble or something?"

The HOWARDS? Again? Was she seriously telling the truth about Roxas having talked to them yesterday? Damn it, of all people for him to talk to, he just had to find the worst family to interact with! Kairi is probably telling Roxas all this crap about him, while he's freaking out over where the hell that idiot could have gone.

"Thank you, Rikku," He hung up before she could reply, then immediately began flipping through the phone book, praying to God that the Howards number would be listed, because there was no way in hell he would be able to remember it. If he did know it, he would try to forget it.

Quickly punching in the numbers, he hesitated on the last one, thoughts suddenly coming to a screeching halt. He was calling the Howards, he was calling Kairi to find Roxas. What if Rikku wasn't serious, or what if she was just being a ditz again and was mistaken? He couldn't screw up his family's relationship with the Howards, again, his father would kill him. And he was pretty sure calling them, asking them about a teen that his father explicitly said to make sure they didn't know, that probably wouldn't be the smartest thing to do.

He hung up the phone, falling back into the chair, feeling dread well up in the pit of his stomach. There was only one way he could think of to find out if Roxas was really at their home, but the last thing he wanted to do was see Kairi again.

Hell no.

She was probably the one and only person on this earth that he would rather jump out in front of a speeding semi than talk to (not counting his 9th Grade Biology teacher, Vexen). So the option of going there himself was totally out of the question, besides, he doubted Kairi would be at all happy to see him either.

He would just ask Naminé or Xion, as he got along much better with those two sisters, but they would definitely tell Kairi anything that involved him, and he didn't want Kairi to find out about it, because she would probably run to her "Daddy" and tell him everything, everything about Sora going on some crazy search for some guy she has never heard of.

Okay, so he couldn't go to their house himself, he would just have to ask someone else to do it for him. Axel couldn't, not after this morning, he couldn't even think about calling his brother, he didn't want to be reminded that he wouldn't be coming back. Demyx, Axel's best friend, was out of the question, too, because Axel was most likely there right now.

What about his own so-called friends? He couldn't really think of any that he could rely on, or trust enough, so most of his contacts were out of the question. Did he have anymore relatives? Not really, everyone he was related to was a royal bitch—Larxene.

Larxene would do it, she would definitely do it, she loves getting involved with Sora and Kairi's relationship, has ever since Axel publically came out of the closet. Plus, she's far enough removed from him now that Kairi and her sisters wouldn't even think to connect it to him.

He picked the phone up again, dialing the number automatically, straight from his memory, his foot tapping under the desk as he waited impatiently during the rings. After what seemed like forever, a voice, much less bubbly than Rikku's picked up, and Sora felt his hopes rise just a little bit.

I don't want to be the bad guy,
I've been blaming myself and I think you know why,

Roxas sighed as he fell back onto the couch in the girl's living room… one of them, at least. A fuzzy and extremely soft pink towel was thrown over his head, covering his hair and falling over in front of his eyes, some baggy green boy shorts (courtesy of Xion's interesting wardrobe) and a dark purple tank top (tight, "snug," fit, with love from Kairi) and some comfy white flip flops that loudly smacked the bottom of his foot with every step he took (Naminé lent them to him).

With three pieces of clothing from three different teenage girls, giving him the color-coordination of Barney, he felt… well, gay. Seems he was finally dressing the part, but if any kids started dancing circles around him singing, he was gonna choke a bitch.

"Honestly! What the hell were you thinking? Jumping in the pool like that! With all your clothes on, too! You're lucky you're so damn skinny, or else we would've never been able to lend you clothes. And don't you dare complain about any of them, either! 'Beggars' can't be choosers,' right? Well, those are the biggest things we have, you're lucky we even still had them, because we usually donate that kind of stuff to The Salvation Army."

Just guess who that is. Yep, Kairi.

Hands suddenly grabbed the towel over his head, making the cloth completely cover his head as they viciously rubbed his hair dry. He felt like crying out in pain when he felt a couple small cracks in his neck, that couldn't be healthy. Soon enough, the hands flew off, leaving him dazed, confused, and bit dizzy.

Groaning, he pulled the cloth off his head and let it fall in his lap, sighing to himself and leaning back as Kairi marched off to the sofa across from him. The TV a couple feet away from the end of his couch was on, Xion playing some video game involving giant keys being used a weapon, and Naminé stood by the window behind Kairi's sofa, looking out it anxiously.

The redhead glared at him angrily, her lips turned down into a grimace, "Just what were you thinking, anyways? At least tell me that! We ask you a simple question, you get all weird, and suddenly you're in the pool! Just please tell me you aren't trying to drown yourself, because, trust me, you very well would have drowned if Xion didn't swim as fast as she did!"

Naminé glanced over at Roxas, concern shadowing her eyes, but then she turned back to look out the window quickly, her eyes growing a bit wider. Maybe she saw a puppy? He wished he could see a puppy, he would much rather be by that window watching a puppy than sitting in front of Kairi, especially when the girl was glaring at him like this. What did she expect him to say?

"What do you want me to say? I slipped, that's it."

"You did not slip! That was not a slip! You were sitting, you pushed yourself over the edge! We all saw you Roxas, you can not deny that!"

He sighed, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, he turned his gaze down to the cleanly polished hardwood floor. Letting his baby blues run over the lines in the wood, his thoughts managed to somehow form groups in his head. The biggest groups being the ones with Sora's supposed engagement to Kairi and Sora himself. The imprisonment and his pure desire to just go back home already didn't completely fade away, though, as it screamed at him from the back of his skull. But, at the moment, he just couldn't take his mind off of Sora.

It just seemed so wrong, for Sora and Kairi to date or anything. It didn't make sense to him, he couldn't fathom the thought. He didn't think it could be possible for Sora to have a life outside all that work he did, it's not like he's seen him interact with people.

Arms wrapped around his shoulders, and he found his head fall into a comfortable spot between Kairi's shoulder and neck. He blinked a coupe moments in slight confusion before she spoke, "You look ready to cry, Hon, please just tell us what is the matter."

He glanced over to Naminé, just in time to see the girl hurriedly turn back around to not be caught staring, he even heard Xion pause her game for a moment, the background music lowering in volume only slightly. Sighing slowly, he worried his lip and let his gaze travel to the corner of the sofa Kairi had been sitting on only a minute ago, locking onto the corner as he let the thoughts and emotions rush over him for a moment, just a single moment.

A moment was all that was really needed, though.

He felt the first warm drop fall from the corner of his eye, and his heart clutched painfully as his chest caved in embarrassment. He didn't want to cry, it was too humiliating, he didn't want to cry in front of them. But then another burned across his cheek, and another and another, and he swore it was like lava pouring down his face.

Kairi held him tighter as he started to shake, like she was afraid he would fall apart, and she whispered something to him, but he couldn't hear her over the screaming in his own skull. He still said something back though, he definitely said something, he could feel his lips moving, and he could feel the relief swimming into his lungs as he spoke.

"I wanna go back home! My friends are fighting over me! And Sora's parents are assholes! And they won't let me go home! They won't let me leave their house! And they're making Sora make me stay! And Sora's too nice, he tries to make it better, and I can't hate him for it, I can't blame anything on him, he's too good! And Axel said that you were engaged to him! And that doesn't make sense, it just doesn't! I don't want it to, I don't want Sora to be engaged-"

A door slammed open, making everyone jump from the sudden intrusion. Roxas threw his head up, nearly missing Kairi's chin as her shocked expression stayed mostly the same when it turned to see who had entered the room. Larxene was across the room in only a few, quick, steps, smoothly grabbing Roxas's arm and tugging him up into her arms.

The blonde boy swayed in confusion as the woman wrapped her arms around him and cooed something about a "poor midget." His mouth open and closed a few times, no noise managing to make it out, no sense managing to form sanity in his mind, before he even realized it, she was half dragging him out of the room and towards the front door.

Taking the steps two at a time, just to keep up with her incredibly fast pace, he stumbled along after her, hearing the sisters behind him run out after them in moments. They wouldn't catch up until they were already at the door, standing there was a man with some crazy pink hair, the likes of which Roxas hoped he would never have to witness again, and a guy almost as short as him, with some short, extremely emo hair.

Like it was some kind of relay race, his wrist was passed to the pink haired man, and quite against his will, he was thrown over the guys shoulder and carried out the front door with the other guy following behind him. Leaving Larxene to smirk and turn to face the girls behind her.

Kairi scowled as her gaze snapped from her to Roxas and back, "What are you doing! This is kidnapping! I will call the police, Larxene, you will be arrested!"

She smirked, "I'm just bringing him back to his rightful guardian, I was asked to do that. He's not 18 yet, he has to listen to his guardians still."

Naminé's eyes widened as she stared at the blonde woman, quickly moving back to stand closer to Xion, the girl looking decidedly bored as she waited for her sister to become overly dramatic once again. Kairi never failed to disappoint, "This is trespassing! I could have you arrested! You will go to jail, Larxene, I will make sure of it, so bring Roxas back this minute!"

"I'm only taking him back to his little boyfriend, his lover, don't you know? I'm sure he will be much happier there, anyways." Her smirk turned sinister as she watched Kairi's face twist into confusion.

"Boyfriend? Who is…"

A gleam in Larxene's cat-like eyes appeared, full of malice and mischief as she leaned forward as if to whisper a little secret, "You know, his boyfriend, Sora."

She walked out, leaving the redhead in shock as she replayed Roxas's teary confessions and Larxene's little "secret." A deep shock was setting into her bones.

Cause I want you all to myself,
I can try and suck it up,

Roxas was thrown back onto his bed, grunting in frustration as he jumped off it to face the pink-haired man. The guy just laughed at him and walked out of the room, calling out in a voice that sounded too manly for his hair for Larxene. The emo stood by the door with a raised eyebrow at him, watching as the blonde glared at him. The guy stared for another moment, shrugged, and also walked off, making him sigh in relief just a bit.

Then he heard footsteps rushing towards his room, and he tensed again, gasping as a tan blur rushed around the corner and into his room, slamming into his body and knocking him back onto his bed. He groaned as he could definitely feel a bruise forming on his stomach where the crazy flying mass smashed into him, then he glanced down to see the mass was Sora.

Sora, hugged him tightly for a moment before jumping off again, a light pink dusting across his cheeks, "Sorry! I'm so sorry, Roxas! Please do not leave! I will talk to my father, and if he does not drop this entire thing, then, uh, well, we will ignore it, alright? You are completely free, you can come and go as you please, but please do not be angry!"

"Stop!"

The room went silent as Roxas, still half on the bed, holding his head and shoulders up with his elbows, stared at Sora, the teen fidgeting nervously in front of him, a frown on his gentle face. Again, Roxas found his thoughts spinning, the only thing that stood out through all of it being, "This is too much for one day, just too much."

"It's too much."

"E-Excuse me?" Sora blinked a couple times, fear and anxiousness turning in his ribcage, he took a deep breath and swallowed, "Roxas, I just do not want you to… to feel unhappy here. I do not want you to…" To hate his parents like Axel? To rebel against them all the time like Axel? To leave like Axel? He didn't want to lose him, plain and simple, "I do not want you to dislike being with me here."

"I don't! I just—I don't dislike you! I like you—I mean—I like being here—But I don't! I don't want to be here—But I like being here—with you, I mean. And I just—I… I give up."

A deep sigh rushed out of him and he rolled over, turning to bury his face in his pillow. Sora felt a vague dash of déjà-vu, realizing this was the same position they were in this morning. Sora trying to talk to Roxas, and Roxas burying his head in a pillow and trying not to hear him.

They were getting no where, all this effort, and they were going around in circles. But what else could he do? What else could there to be done? Could he really do anything to make it stop, without having to fear for Roxas's feelings? Probably not, well, not the last one, at least, but he could definitely do something to break them out of the cycle.

Do something that he wasn't willing to do with Axel, something he should've done with Axel from the very beginning.

"If you want, I will call your uncle tonight, and I will ask him to… send you home, if you wish it, that is," That's it, right? Roxas doesn't want to be here, it's obvious, that's why he snuck out. He still doesn't want to be here, because Sora's parents tried to do the same thing to him that they did to Axel. And he won't ever be swayed into wanting to be here, whatever made Sora think that he could actually manage that?

A baby blue eyes peeked out between pillow and golden blonde hair, staring straight into Sora's sapphire eyes. There was a moment of hesitation, but this was what he wanted, wasn't it? From the very beginning, he just wanted to go back home, and this is what Sora was offering, to get him home. Of course he wanted it, there should be no hesitation.

Then why was it so hard to say?

"Yeah, please."

Sora nodded silently, his eyes glazing over with an emotion Roxas didn't want to recognize, and then he stiffly turned and marched out of the room, down the hall, pass Larxene's piercing gaze and the disinterested gazes of Marluxia and Zexion, he headed towards his father's office once again.

Roxas slowly lifted himself up from the bed, picking up his sketchbook and walked over to his bag. Stuffing it inside, he reached over to his photo album to find it lying open on the table, glancing at the page, he saw it was the picture of Wakka, Lulu and Vida. Sighing, he felt a frown tug at the corner of his lips.

He wanted to see them again, he could feel it, he knew it, but at the same time. Something felt wrong about it, leaving here, that is. He didn't like this place or anything, he didn't think he ever would, but something wouldn't settle right if he left. However, the decision was already made, he would be leaving, whether it would settle right or not.

The burning behind his eyes returned, threatening to tear across his face again, but he swallowed it down, he wasn't usually this much of a pussy. Reaching for his camera, he held it up to himself and quickly snapped the picture, grabbing the small square as it came out. He waved it around as it developed and then stuck it inside the next free page.

Not even daring to glance at the picture of himself, for fear of what he would see there, he took out the pen and wrote on the tag beneath: S.O.S.

I just can't suck it up,
Make me feel like someone else.