CM: FOR SHAME, FOR SHAME!

Zexion: What is it now?

CM:... No one reviewed my last chapter. It must have been HORRIBLE. I know it was, but I didn't mean for it to be so Mary sue, but I had to get that plot point in there. I cant believe-

Zexion: If you want to stop her bitching, REVIEW! She doesn't own Kingdom Hearts.

Zexion awoke to find himself covered in a sheen of cold sweat. He sat up and tried to calm his shallow breathing. "What did that dream mean? It was probably just a result from last nights 'festivities'," he thought. Laying his head back down onto his pillow and looked out of a window to his right. Rain drops tapped at his window, creating a wonderfully calming music. The almost-full moon shown brilliantly through a gap in clouds. It was a breath taking picture.

The thought of getting back to sleep seemed impossible now. Rolling onto his side, Zexion remembered how sore he was. He groaned. "Well, I guess I'm stuck like this til morning." He frowned at the thought.

Just then, a soft tapping came from the door. "Are you awake, Zexion?"

"Yes, come in." The door slid open slowly to reveal Michelle. "Oh, Michelle , I didn't expect you to be up this late."

"I just wanted to talk to you about what happened. I'm extremely sorry, and was stupid to be so unprepared."

"It's nothing to worry about, I'm fine." She stood there for a couple of seconds. "I also wanted to see if you wounds had stopped bleeding so we could get you properly cleaned up. If it's okay with you, I need you to sit up so I can check your bandages."

"Of course, I understand." Zexion sat up and unzipped his cloak, wondering why they hadn't taken it off when bandaging him. As if reading his mind, she said, "We didn't take off your cloak because we didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable."

"I appreciate that." Moving to his side, she bent down and undid the bandage on his waist, to reveal the deep wound from the crash had stooped bleeding. "Well, that was your deepest cut, so I think that it would be okay for you to take a warm bath." She undid all of his bandages and slid of his cloak, leaving him in his black pants. "I have some clothing for you to were while I repair this."

Picking up the tattered cloak, she beckoned for him to follow her out the room and down the hall. She lead him into a whit bathroom with a bathtub filled with steaming water, a sink with a mirror above it, and a closet. "I'll let you take your bath. A pair of jeans and a tee shirt are sitting in that closet. Come my room when your done; I should have your close fixed by then." Michelle walked out of the bathroom, taking the cloak with her.

Zexion slipped out of his black pants and boxers and slipped into te hot water. The water stung against his wounds, at first, but after awhile, it stopped and relaxed his weak and soar muscles. He sighed and leaned against the side of the tub. Steam filled his lungs, but it wasn't suffocating like he thought it would be. Grabbing a bar of soap that smelled faintly of lavender, and a white wash cloth, he began the gently clean of the dirty skin around his wounds.

When he was done, the water had turned brown. After getting out and pulling the plug and getting out, he looked up into the mirror. His skin was a few shades paler than it had been when he walked in and his hair was knotted and messy. "Maybe Michelle will have a brush I can use." Zexion pulled a pair of jeans and a plain, black tee shirt from the closet and put them on.

He stepped out into the hallway to see that te view from another window aloud him to see that the rain had stopped and te sun was sitting just underneath te horizon, spilling some of it's light into the morning sky. The stairs gave out low and quite shrieks tat showed how old this house was. At the top of the stairs stood a door. He knocked on it, only to receive a, "Come in."

As the he stepped inside, Zexion could have sworn that if he had a heart and were able to feel emotion, he thought that is breath would have been stolen from his lungs. On the wall across from im, there were three windows. The middle one was a plain, clear, circular window, but the ones to it's right and left were two amazing stain glass windows. One showed a scene were a woman was holding her child, while her husband stood next to her. Both were smiling. The next scene showed an angel sitting on a cloud.

There was also a painting on the wall to his left. It showed the back of a blond woman wearing a black, flowing dress. Black, feathered wings jutted from in-between her shoulder blades. She faced a small village that was set on fire. The buildings were collapsed and turning into ash. The ash mingled with her hair and wings. The picture was so detailed that upon seeing this picture, one would expect to hear the crackling of flames surrounding them. "What do you think? I painted it, myself. A friend of my father made the windows for me."

"It is beautiful."

Michelle sat in a chair next to her bed and smiled up at him. She held his cloak up in the air and said, "There, good as new." The cloak was beautifully repaired. "You can were in now, if you want."

"Thank you, but I think I'll leave it off for awhile." Zexion actually felt a lot lighter with out his cloak. "Well, that's probably for te best. I want to go out today with you and Josh to survey the damage. It rains a lot here, so we should probably get a tarp and cover it because we will probably be doing most of the repairs there."

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Good, now let's go get some breakfast, I'm hungry." They walked down stairs and into the kitchen to see Josh making eggs and pork. "Does this house always smell so good," thought Zexion. It was a nice change from the sterile taste and smell of the air back at the castle. The food was much better here, too. Xaldin and himself usually did the cooking, but with members like Axel and Xigbar, nothing stayed intact or edible for long, what with all their pranks and such.

The three sat down at the table and enjoyed their meal. Conversation was lacking, but there was a comfortable silence drifting in the air. All of a sudden, Michelle's face looked up from her meal and she looked at Josh and Zexion. "I think I'll run upstairs quickly and get our weapons. Josh, could you clear my plate while I go get them."

Michelle ran up the stairs as Josh and Zexion cleared their plates. When she came back, a messenger bag was slung across her shoulders. In one of the belt loops of her jeans, a pistol was positioned so that it wouldn't fall out. He had expected all of this, of course. What he hadn't expected was there to be a large sniper rifle in her hands. Zexion had to ask. "How did you get these weapons?!"

"The military is very sloppy with their weapons when they're trying to get out of a city of blood-thirsty monsters," she said, a small smirk graced her face. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out two more pistols and handed them to the two boys. "Josh, go grab your tools while I take Zexion outside and show him how his gun works."

As Michelle and Zexion walked outside, they were greeted with breath taking sight. The morning sun shown through the trees and made the grass, which had been soaked in rain drops, sparkle like the stars in the night sky. Looking away from the picture, she pulled pulled the pistol out of her belt loop and shot a pine cone out of a pine tree. It separated from its branch with a loud crack and hit the grassy ground with a muffled thud. "So, Zexy, what do you know about guns?"

"I know that they shoot things," he said in a sarcastic tone. "I'll take that as 'absolutely nothing in the least bit helpful'. So first, I'll show you how to load a gun." After showing him that, she showed him how to aim efficiently and quickly. Luckily, Zexion was able to take in large amounts of information at one, hence his nickname as "The Cloaked Schemer", because all of the information was a lot to take in.

"So, do you think you've got it memorized." An image of Axel saying his overly used catch phrase of, "Got it memorized?" He smirked at this, but that didn't go unnoticed by Michelle. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, what you just said just reminded me of someone I know."

"Oh, okay." She smiled up at him and said, "Hey, Zexy?"

"Yes?" She playfully shoved him. "No emotions my ass." Zexion could only stand there and blink as what she said was slowly processed in his usually bright mind. Just then, Josh walked out of the cabin, carrying his box of tools. "So, sis, are we heading through our around town, this time?"

"Let's go around, since we have Zexion with us." Zexion put on a front of mock hurt and said, "What, you don't trust me enough not to get killed?"

"No, so let's go!" A smile was spread across her face as the morning sun made her blond hair glow.