I'm so tired... Gah... Anyways, I update... Aaaaaaaand... Yeah. Originally, I had wanted to use "Because of You" by Kelly Clarkson for this chapter, but most of the lyrics only matched one section (Sora's fight with his father) so I couldn't use it for Roxas's scenes. So I had thought of using two songs, one for Sora and one for Roxas, because it would also signify how they are seperated, too. But I didn't want to mix song lyrics like that, because then they might get confused. So I decided on "Let It Happen" by Jimmy Eat World. Honestly, one of my favorite songs ever.

I hope you like this chapter as much as staring at a computer screen gives me headaches. I love reviews extremely very much, please send me love. Because I'm sending you mine! 3

7 :: Nothing

I have a ringing in my head

And no one to help me answer it

"Roxas wants to return to Hollow Bastion? Alright, I hope he hasn't been any trouble for your family. My secretary is telling me that the next flight is in three hours, would that be alright for you? Short notice, I know, but if he wants to leave, then he wants to leave, right?"

That went… much easier than Sora had expected. No questions why?

"Sora, you're a good kid, I could tell from the moment I met you… Take care of yourself."

What was that supposed to mean?

I must look like I'm running away

To you at your faster pace

Roxas slung one duffel bag over his shoulder, and just dragged the other behind him, walking down the stairs to the foyer quietly. The entire house had fallen silent.

About ten minutes ago, Reno came to his room and told him to get ready, that they were leaving on a plane in about three hours. Sora really was letting him go home, giving him what he wants, he should be overjoyed to go back, to see his friends again. But why did it feel so wrong to look around this empty room, to see only Reno and Riku at the front door, waiting for him.

The weight of his camera, hanging from his neck, felt like a familiar comfort, and as he walked through the door, down the walkway, to the waiting car, he just repeated to himself, again and again, that this was what would make him happy.

That just because it didn't feel like it right now, that didn't mean that it wasn't true. Hollow Bastion was where he was happy, he would be happy again the moment he was back in the city, back with his friends, back with his family.

The car ride was strangely silent, and as Roxas finally tore away from his own thoughts and looked around, he noticed Riku rapidly messaging someone over what looked like a PDA or Blackberry or something. He had never been that good with technology, it was more of a Pence thing.

Turning his gaze over to Reno, he noticed the man smirking at him. He scowled in return, furrowing his eyebrows in irritation, "What?"

Riku looked up quickly, taking in the scene, then seemed to shrug it off as he just returned to his conversation on the small machine. Reno, on the other hand, seemed to just let his smirk become even more obnoxious, "No one noticed, did they?"

Roxas raised an eyebrow, "Your lack of thinking? No, I think you escaped another group of people thinking you're a complete moron."

Reno started to crack up, then lifted a small suitcase off the floor, dropping it into his lap with that smirk still plastered all over his god damn face, "I like you, kid, so I think I'll let you in on a little secret, yo. See this case?"

Roxas just humored him by not saying anything insulting.

Reno didn't miss a beat, "Well, this is your uncle's ticket to the good life, and because of this, me and Riku, we're gonna be seeing a couple more zeros on our paychecks."

Riku's head snapped up with a glare burning into Reno's forehead, "Shut up, moron."

Reno's laugh boomed all over the car, making Roxas's brain feel like it was going through a blender. He just wasn't in the mood, he never was, but today was the worst possible day for Reno to open his mouth.

"Just shut up."

He only whispered it, but the whisper was loud enough for them. The rest of the ride would be silent. As silent as the plan ride, and the car ride after that.

I'm the evil one who said,

"Gonna let everything just happen,

Just like my chest, my ears are proud

And collision is such an ugly sound."

Sora rolled over in his bed, staring out over to his alarm clock. Midnight, so Roxas was home by now, probably seeing that family of his, and talking with his friends about this place. Would Roxas mention him?

Would he want Roxas to mention him?

Would Roxas really have anything good to say about this place at all? Probably not. So he probably wouldn't have anything good to say about Sora either. Even so, Sora found that he hoped Roxas would mention him anyways, that even if Roxas said he was a puppet under his parent's thumb, that there would still be the fact that he made an impression of him. That he was an impression on Roxas's life.

He didn't see him off, he had stayed in his father's office and just told Aerith to tell Reno and Riku they would be leaving. He hadn't wanted to see Roxas leave him, too.

This would just repeat itself over and over again. How did he drive these people away? It wasn't even him, though, it was his parents who made him do these things. Because of them, everyone he found important in his life would end up leaving him, or force him to drive them away.

It started with Kairi. If they had treated him just a bit like her parents treated her, maybe he wouldn't have gotten jealous and ruin their relationship.

Then Axel. If they knew how to care for a child, maybe they wouldn't have driven him over the edge, maybe if they even just tried to be a bit more understanding and accepting, maybe Axel would have found Sora enough reason to stick around.

And now Roxas.

Everyone would leave him, in the end. The path his parents were putting him on, he felt like he was staring down it, looking into the future. And it looked empty.

He didn't want that, he really didn't want that, he wanted to be happy in his future, he wanted to live the life he has.

Like Axel, he was starting to realize why he swerved off the path.

Every minute is arranged

Every moment lasts a day

And thinking about it can't help me let go, I know.

The store was locked, making Roxas feel relief as he dug into one of his duffel's zipper and realized he did remember his key. He turned around and nodded to the car, watching as Reno smirked again, more teasingly this time, then drove off. Roxas just ignored him, he wasn't in the mood to deal with assholes.

He jabbed the key in the lock and twisted it harshly, pushing the door open. Huffing, he picked his bags up and carried them into the kitchen, placing them on the floor as softly as he could, hoping to not wake Wakka, Lulu or Vida up.

A quick glance at the clock told him it was midnight, making him sigh to himself, this day felt like weeks, it was absolutely torturous, he was exhausted. Turning, he left his bags on the floor, figuring he could be as noisy as he wants carrying them upstairs tomorrow, but he just wanted his bed tonight.

About to step on the first step, a glint of moonlight caught on the lens of the camera still around his neck, making him remember something. He quietly turned and zipped open one of his bags, searching it until he pulled out the Moogle doll, creeping upstairs, he tip-toed up to the outside of Vida's door and placed the doll up against the wall outside of it.

He smiled to himself, slowly, knowing Vida would freak when he saw it. So he moved as quietly as he could back to his own room, thoughts feeling peaceful, finally, as he made his way to his bed. He collapsed on top of the made covers, breathing in the familiar scent and then…

He thought of Sora.

Damn it. He really did like him, didn't he? If it was freaking midnight, and he was exhausted, it had to be some fucking crush to make him unable to sleep.

Why did he feel so bad? It wasn't like he did anything wrong! It was clear from the moment he got there that he wanted to go home, Sora knew that, and it wasn't like he really owed Sora anything. Did he? He couldn't think of anything, really, except that he arranged going home for him and everything. And also took care of anything that had to do with him while he was around.

That didn't explain why everything felt so wrong though, why it felt like something horrible happened because he left. Whatever it was, he just wanted it to go away and let him sleep, to just let him drift through the rest of this night in unconsciousness.

Thankfully, his body let him have that break.

All the petty scenes

And all the pretty things

"She broke off the engagement!" Sora's father roared at him over the phone, making the brunette wince at the man's tone, "What the hell happened? What did you do? I just got off the phone with Mr. Howards, and he told me that, because of Kairi's 'strong feelings on the matter,' that the engagement between the two of you would be called off. Sora! Are you listening to me? What the hell happened! Tell me this minute, and, Lord be my witness, if you-"

"I do not know, do not ask me, I do not care, I did not want to marry her anyways. Roxas went back to Hollow Bastion. I am going to see Axel, good bye."

"WHAT?"—click.

As Sora lifted his finger off the "END" button, silence never sounded so sweet to him.

Talk, talking a lot, but its still talk

Gotta love how it's somehow all on me

Lulu smiled as she watched Roxas and his group of friend at one of the tables in the bakery, it was his break, and he so he sat eating a strawberry strudel between Hayner and Seifer, each of them trying to talk more than the other to the shorter teen. Meanwhile, Roxas had a glare set on his strudel that would make even the coldest of hearted people shudder a bit.

Seifer smirked, gaze going straight past Roxas and flitting over to Hayner's narrowed glare, "Bet you missed Bastion while you were gone, right? Must've been hard not having me around for so long."

Hayner snorted, rolling his eyes at the remark, "Don't grow a bigger ego, he probably took a break from you as a vacation. What he probably-"

"What he probably thinks," Roxas interrupted, snapping his gaze from Seifer to Hayner and back, then sighing deeply and glaring back down at the table, "What he probably thinks is that you two are completely idiotic retards. Just admit you wanna fuck each other and leave me alone."

With that, he left his strudel, the table, and the idiotic retards to stare at each other in shock, before Hayner averted his gaze, speaking the first words to break the awkward silence.

"I'm just gonna…"

"No," He flinched as Seifer's hand wrapped tightly around his arm, pulling him back into the seat, Seifer's eyes pierced his fiercely, making Hayner gulp and look away again, "We… Hayner, we need to talk, now."

Say whatever you want

'Cause I can laugh it off.

"You can stay here for awhile, if ya wanna, man, but, uh…" Demyx looked around his apartment slowly, gaze landing on Axel, Larxene, Marluxia and Zexion all lounging on the couch and watching them.

Sora shook his head, "It is alright, I am not asking. I understand your situation."

Axel's jaw was still slack, eyes wide as he continued to stare at his little brother, "You really said that to him? You can't go back home, Sor! He's going to-"

Sora just shook his head again, averting his eyes to the floor, "No, it is alright. I just came to tell you that…" He felt the air catch in his lungs before it even got a chance to be used, but he recovered quickly, "Roxas, he, uh, he went back home."

Axel frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Hollow Bastion… He told me, after Father had said some things, I asked him if he wanted to go home. And he said yes, so… I called Mr. Shinra, and he, and Reno, and Riku, they all left. They are gone."

The room was quiet, leaving Sora to shift awkwardly for a moment. He glanced up, seeing Axel lean forward a bit, then he crossed the room in the time it took him to blink, and his arms were thrown around his brother. Sora relaxed immediately, burying his face in the redheads chest, returning the embrace by wrapping his arms around his hips.

"Hey, it'll be alright, just tell me what happened. I'm here for you, I'll always be."

'Cause I can laugh it off.

I can laugh it off.

Roxas stared down at his sketchpad blankly, the bakery buzzing around him with the usual morning customers who stopped in on their way to work, he blindly let his pencil run over the paper, lines materializing of their own free-will.

A thump on the seat next to him snapped him out of his daze, making his eyes snap up to see Wakka smiling down at him, "What do you think you're doing? Sittin' here and starin' at that thing like it bit ya?"

Roxas felt a small smile slip over his face, turning his eyes to look around the shop and take in the sight of people, "Nothing really, just drawing."

"That ain't looking like any 'just drawing' to me, that looks like it's some serious art right there. Have you seen it?"

Roxas frowned, his gaze turning back down to his sketchpad, he gasped as he really looked at the picture, then slammed the pad shut. A hot pink color crept across his face as Wakka's room-filling laughter echoed off the walls, causing a couple customers to stop and look for a moment. The teen sighed, deeply, and stared down at the cover of the pad, a deep frown etched into his features.

"It's nothing, really."

Wakka stopped, tilting his head to the side like he was actually mulling over what he said, "Don't look like 'nothing,' Rox, that looks like something, a definite something."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"You don't want to talk about it? Or you don't want to talk about him?"

Roxas scowled, worrying his lip, "Neither, I just don't-"

"Understand, want to get hurt, live, feel, fear? Which one are ya, Buddy?"

Roxas scowled again, "I said I don't want to talk about it."

"What else is there to say?" Wakka's gaze began to feel like it towered over him, making Roxas gulp. Sinking back down into his seat, he finally turned his sight up to see Wakka still smiling at him, "You like 'im, a lot, don't ya?"

He nodded, hesitating a bit, but gave in.

"Then why are you still mopping around here?"

"Well, it's not like I can just go back!"

"What's stopping you?"

"His parents! And-"

"You."

He turned away and stared out the window, breathing becoming quicker in his frustration as he felt his scowl turn into a more pitiful expression. He could hear Wakka sigh and stand up, brushing off imaginary dust, "Fine, ya pout and mope all ya want, but when you're done with that, I want to see ya do something about this. Because this isn't what Roxas would do, Roxas would do something."

Yeah, he knows.

He walked away, leaving Roxas to sit alone in the shop again. Glancing back at his sketchbook, he lifted the cover just a centimeter to peer inside. A pink shade ran across his checks again, and he let the cover fall back down.

Why did he feel like he did something wrong?

I wonder what it is you could have seen in me.

Sora's jaw hung slack as he stared across the office at his father, shock finally beginning to lessen to an amount that allowed him to process this information properly.

"W-What?"

"It's gone," His father's head was on the desk, his laptop on the floor, half open, to the side and only a couple feet from him. His mother just stared at it, like she expected it to jump up and scurry into a hole in the wall.

"But… That doesn't make any sense-"

"It makes perfect sense!" His head snapped up, causing Sora to flinch, the anger and desperation clear on his features to the others in the room now, "Fucking Shinra! Everything is gone! My data, my work, everything I had in the making, the money! It is all fucking gone! That bastard did not even try to hide that he stole it! He must have done it while that brat was staying here, that nephew of his was probably a spy!"

"Roxas wasn't a-"

"SHUT-UP! I don't want to hear it from you! You were suppose to watch them, but you let them steal everything from us! We are ruined, Sora! What part of 'everything is gone' do you not understand?"

Silence reigned over them again, Sora turning his gaze away from his father's eyes. Was that why Riku and Reno had made themselves so invisible? To steal information from his father's office? Roxas wasn't involved in it, Sora knew that much, but he could believe Riku and Reno would do that.

Roxas he couldn't believe could do that.

He bit his lip, with-holding his words, knowing they wouldn't make the situation better, instead turning his gaze around until finally spotting his mother. Sitting quietly in her seat, like always, her gaze straight ahead, her face back into the porcelain doll mask she had practiced so well. Sora could feel his blood boil, and suddenly the words were rushing past his lips.

"Roxas had nothing to do with this! And it is not like you can turn this around and blame it on me, maybe if either of you were home more than a couple times a month, maybe you would have noticed that something was off."

His father's head snapped around quickly, enough to make Sora wince in fear of whiplash, "Are you talking back to me?"

His voice would hesitate, "Yes! I am!"

"Of all the things I have done for you, you have the nerve to stand here and disrespect me? We work for you, we work to make sure you will have a good future, and you-"

"If you had wanted me to have a good future, then maybe you should've actually raised me. Maybe if you were around enough, I would've felt like you were actual parents. Maybe if you were more like parents, Axel wouldn't have left!"

"Don't bring him into this!"

"He's a part of this, too! He's a huge part! He's your son, but you toss him aside and try to pretend he doesn't exist because he doesn't shape to the way you want him to! If I don't either, if I turn out like him, too, will you try to forget me, too?"

"This is not the time to be talking about this-"

"Why not right now? When else is a good time? There is never time with either of you! You're never around!"

"I am talking right now! Do not interrupt your fath-"

"It's not your turn to talk! I'm talking right now, and you are going to fucking listen to me!"

The room was dead silent again, time feeling like it had frozen still as the scene felt like it was being photo-copied into his mind. He could see it now, how they stared at him, he could feel the recognition they were finally giving him. Not for achieving something, never for achieving something, because to them there was always something more he could have done to be better, something he would always fail at.

They were looking at him with shock, because they were actually seeing him. And he liked it, he liked how his mother looked heart-broken, how his father looked ready to fall apart, it was horribly cruel, it was messed up. It was just what he needed.

"I'm gone."

I can hear you now

Gotta love how it's somehow all on me

He hated this so much, he couldn't stand it even a bit. He was really consumed, wasn't he? This wasn't healthy, he should really learn to move on, Sora couldn't be healthy for him. He was supposed to just be some pretentious rich boy in Roxas's mind, especially after he returned to Bastion and became the old Roxas again.

So why wasn't it happening? Why was there no shift of personalities? Why was he still dreaming of seeing Sora again? Because he was a masochistic dumbass, that's why.

"Okay, we're your best-friends and all, and we're gay, but we're still guys, man, and you seriously look ready to cry, so you have to know how awkward this makes us feel," Roxas jumped a bit, flying out of his thoughts to stare at Hayner and Seifer, both were giving him concerned looks as they held their struggle bats.

They were concerned over him? They were supposedly dating now, and their idea of a date is to grab some struggle bats and beat the shit out of each other. Roxas wasn't sure to call that a healthy orf insane relationship, but it seemed to be working out for them… so…

"You're zoning out. Did you fall down some stairs and give yourself a concussion or something? You're a total space-case," Seifer smirked at him, making him shake his head and sigh.

"Nah, I'm fine, just thinking about some stuff."

Hayner scowled, looking like he just ate a sour gummy worm, "What happened to you on Destiny Island, man? You've been acting all weird since you came back."

Roxas flinched, instantly making eye contact with him, "Nothing happened, alright! It's nothing!"

"Fine! Don't flip out on me! I was just asking!"

Seifer started laughing at them, making Roxas relax and lean back against the wall. This was miserable, living like this, but there was no other way to do it, was there?

Something smacked him over the head, making him yelp and glare up at Seifer, but the older teen cut him off before he could protest the action, "Wakka told me about that guy you drew. All I gotta say to ya is that waiting around like this, figuring you can't do nothing, you're wasting everybody's time. Don't wait forever, don't make the mistake of beating yourself up all day everyday because of it, just go. Forget what's stopping you, and just do it."

Hayner looked up at the older teen, feeling his face redden as he realized Seifer was speaking from experience.

Looking at the two, Roxas felt something rush over him, something that made his stomach turn into knots, and his eyes burn, and his head ache. He grabbed his board muttered something about not feeling good, and left the two to themselves.

I must look like I'm running away

To you at your faster pace

Kairi looked at the ceiling, resting her head against the pillow of one of the living room's couches, gently holding the phone to her ear, listening to the person on the other end. Surprise was a major understatement for how she felt.

It was balanced somewhere between floored and comatose.

"Kairi? I-I know that we don't exactly, well…"

"No! No! You-You can, I, well, I am just surprised is all. You are welcome here. Actually… I had some things to talk about to you…"

"… Me?"

"It's about Roxas…"

I wonder what it is you could have seen, in me.

Roxas stared down at the photo album, one thought in mind:

There was nothing of Sora.

I'm the evil one who said,

I can laugh it off.