Okay, so I feel a lot better now :) And hopefully this chapter won't suck like the last one.

APOV

This girl. What is wrong with this girl?

I'm pulling her down the hall by her wrist, after keeping her ass out of trouble with the Organization, and consequently myself, and how does she repay me? Silence. And she's glaring at me. And she looks scared.

God, I'm inscenced.

It would be fine if she had a legitimate reason to be scared or angry. But she doesnt. Stupid whore.

This is why I hate my job. It's necessary, but the kidnapping gets old. As does the taking care of the kidnappees. "Axel, where are we going??" she whines. I figure if I just ignore the kid, she'll just leave me the hell alone. But ignoring her doesn't seem to get the desired effect. Crap. I can feel my hands warming up, and if I don't get myself under control, all the kid'll be is a charred mess on the floor. It was so much easier to be with the Organization... At least there, when I needed to blow off steam, there was always someone ready to go for an all-out brawl. Not here. I have to control my anger if my plan will work. Technically, I have to make friends with the girl, and get her to trust me for it to work, but I have to work in baby steps. It's in the job description.

She makes a little sound, and it sounds as if she's on the verge of tears. She can go find someone with the heart to care. I'm here to keep her out of trouble and get what I deserve, nothing more. I'm not playing babysitter to a girl who grew up with my best friend's murderer.

Ahem. I've said too much.

I've got to give her this though-- she reacted well to Xaldin's surprise! inspection of the place I currently call home. Meaning that Xemnas sent him to look for Kairi. I'm not complaining. I did kind of steal her...And they do kind of need her... But I need her more. And that's that.

I sneak a glance back at her. She's looking around herself, wonderously. It reminds me of how very little experience she has with the worlds. I know I should be glad that she's gazing elsewhere and so doesn't meet my eyes, but I feel nothing. Strange, but that never ceases to be a shock. I snap my fingers, and another of my buddies, the portals between the worlds, opens in front of me. Kairi's breathing gets fast and shallow, and I can feel her pulse quicken. I wonder if she finds it odd that, though she can feel my wrist, she will not feel a pulse? I know that this 'in-between' world, with its strange, floating symbols frightens her. I can tell that much.

The doorway that we enter through is to a world she knows. Or one that she thinks she knows. I know it better, after all, I was there for the designing of the city. Her shoes tap-tap on the stone of the street, while my feet make not a sound. The strange silence that inhabits this life is a strange thing to get used to, but not unbearable, as I thought at first. I take another look back at Kairi. She gazes around her, smiling. I can tell that she's thinking of the little freaks that she met earlier. She wants to believe that they can help her away from me, so she smiles. I know better than she does, however, that they can't. So I laugh.

Her head whips around at the sound of my laughter. Mind, it wasn't really laughter, just a smirk accompanied by an odd, little...snorting...or something like that. But it could definately be called laughter. She studies me with those blue eyes, and I think about hitting her again, just to make my point. But then, I have to factor in possible witnesses. I'm more than a little unusual-looking, and it simply won't do to have people who can say they saw me hit a little girl. So I refrain.

"Um....Axel?" she mumbles. I know at some point I'll have to speak to her, and in fact I'll have to even earn her trust. Might as well be now. "Mmm? What is it, Princess?" She stumbles a bit, her feet not quite finding enough purchase on a slippery stone to hold her up, and it concerns me for a brief moment, until I remember the things she's said to and about me. I'll let her fall if that's what it will take to earn me some respect. But, fortunately for her, she doesn't fall, only finds her balance just in the nick of time. I turn to smirk at her. "Were you going to say something, Princess?" I murmur softly. Her face turns bright red, as it does whenever she comes in contact with the slightest bit of emotion. She turns her head to the side, as if it matters that she blushed and I was a witness. "Nothing. Never mind." she whispers, more, I think, to herself than to me.

We are nearly halfway to our destination when Kairi suddenly collapses. I hang back a few feet at first, unwilling to go near her if this is a trick or something. When I can assure myself she isn't faking, I kneel at her side. Her eyes are closed, her lips slightly parted. She looks almost as if she were sleeping. I take her thin wrist in my hand and am searching for her pulse when the first reactors to the accident arrive. Once I've located her slightly faster than usual pulse, I try and assure the onlookers that she'll be okay, she's alive, and she will wake up in a few moments. I wish I were as confident as I sounded. They finally all disperse.

She opens her eyes when she's been on the ground for just over three and a half minutes. She then shakes her head in confusion. "It's okay, Princess, it's alright. You're okay." I mutter near her ear. She speaks, her voice a shrill wail. "Axel! Axel, I can't see!" This worries me just a bit more than her fainting. Young girls do that sometimes, right? "It's going to be okay, Princess. Probably just a temporary thing."

Her small hands search for something, though for a moment I can't imagine what. Then I realize with a shock: She's scared. She wants someone to hold her hand... That seems like a very human thing to do. Fortunately, I've mastered the role of 'non-human trying to fit in'. I move my hand from my side to just where she can reach it. She slips her tiny hand into my large one, and almost immediately, her heart rate slows to a reasonable ratio. Any other time, I would take apart what that would mean, but I just don't have it in me today. This shock was enough. I don't need any more stress.

A small movement of her hand alerts me, and I look down at where her hand fits in mine. She's laced her fingers into the spaces between mine, and, though my hands are nearly twice as large as hers, the movement feels right. When I look at our hands, it just looks right

KPOV

I wish I could tell Axel that I regained sight almost immediately after he gave me his hand to hold. But that....That would have ruined the surprise, the pure joy of seeing his face change as I entertwined our fingers together. No, no, the smile, the real, genuine smile, was simply too precious to risk spoiling with his innate dislike for me....

AN-

Sorry this chapter took so long. There was a lot of family drama and I had major major writer's block. As always, thank you for your outstanding praise for this story, I really don't know that I deserve it. Critisicm is welcome and appreciated!

D-o-D