A Wishful Thought: Time to update Nonexistent! X3

I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed last chapter:

I'm Seriously To Lazy To Log In, KeybladeMaster97, CupcakeLerman, Sato Tadashi, overreactiveteenagemindsxo, Reflecting Knight, and Future X13!

You guys are awesome! :D

Disclaimer: I still don't own Kingdom Hearts, and I probably never will. I also don't own "Emergency" by Paramore, or "The Great Escape," by Boys Like Girls.

Notice: I know that switching POVs might not be that great, but I felt that I had to do it once here. XD And for the singing, I'm trying to make it easier to tell when one or more person is singing and all that jazz.

Bold- Is when the main singer is singing
Italics- Is when the backup singer(s) is/are singing
Bold Italics- Both

N 0 N 3 X 1 $ + E N +: Oh, it's ON!

If you asked me, I'd say that none of us should really be here.

Of course, none of my "friends" took the courtesy to ask me.

This was it. Our first performance as a so-called "band." And though we had rehearsed a decent number of times, I could easily say that we still had no idea what the hell we were going to do.

Sure, sure. It was no problem when it came to song choice. Axel gave us each a copy of some sheet music, and we all learned it pretty easily. Playing the song wasn't much of an issue either. Demyx came over every once in a while to give us tips on how to play better and how to sync ourselves. Costumes weren't a problem too, since Axel took the liberty to pick out our clothes since he said that it was part of his job as our "band manager." No, no. None of that was a problem.

Our problem was Sora.

. . . And Tidus.

. . . And Hayner.

. . . And Hope.

. . . Okay, fine. And me, too.

To put it simply: We were all too distracted to give a good performance.

Axel continuously told us that if we were going to give him the "Boy Band" look he was shooting for, we'd have to be overly-confident on stage, no matter what. According to him, it was our image we had to worry about the most, not our music. His example was Justin Bieber, which sent Selphie (who had been invited by Tidus) ballistic.

Yeah, we played the song well, but apparently it was too robotic. Or as Axel kept shouting into his megaphone, "IT AIN'T GOT NO SOUL!"

Of course, it was easy to point our fingers to Sora, who (when we were able to convince him) would uncomfortably stand in front of a mic stand and mutter his lyrics. When we would all stop playing since we couldn't hear him, we could still barely understand what he was saying. Sure, it was easy to tell that he was hitting a majority of his notes, but when I would come in on my back-up vocals, I easily overpowered his voice.

And that obviously showed us that this wasn't working out.

So I wasn't extremely shocked when Tidus, Axel, Hope, and Hayner came up to me, an hour before we scheduled to perform, to ask me if it would be alright if I took vocals, while Sora played the guitar for me.

"C'mon, Roxas! Do it for the band!"

"Hayner, you're bein—"

"Roxie, you're all gonna look like idiots up there if you don't sing!"

"Okay, Axel. You know that I hate that nick—"

"I think that I have to say that I agree with Axel, shocking as it may be."

"You guys, stop interruptin—"

"We have to do good! Yuna's cheering me on! I can't look stupid in front of her!"

Nice, Tidus.

"All of you, shut up," I yelled, flailing my arms angrily. To my surprise, they listened to me. "Okay, this isn't going to work out. Do you guys really think that Sora will be able to learn my part on the guitar in less than an hour?"

There was more silence, until Hayner let out a string of curses.

"Dammit, we should've made the switch earlier!"

"Oh no, Yuna's gonna think I have no talent!"

"Dear Lord, we're going to look like idiots in front of a bunch of people. Great."

"I told you guys that this whole band thing was a horrible idea!"

In an attempt to calm us down, Axel spoke up, "Now, now, kiddies. There's only one thing left for us to do."

It didn't exactly calm any of us down, but it did catch our attention. Gradually, we stopped bickering with each other long enough to turn our attention towards Axel.

Though I had a strong feeling in my gut that told me that Axel was up to no good, I forced myself to ask, "And what would that be?"

As I expected, a devious smirk took place on Axel's features, "You'll know soon enough."

I felt a grimace make itself present on my features, "Oh, I'm sure I will."

You know that feeling you get when you do something, and you really regret it? Like, really regret it?

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've been going through the past couple of days. . . weeks. . . Okay, months.

Sora here. Yeah, it's me, I'm still alive. I suppose.

But does it matter? I don't feel alive.

Wow, look at me! I'm acting all depressing! I personally thought that it was extremely difficult to act upset for such a long time, but I guess not.

I was standing in front of the mirror in one of the bathrooms (the ones made for single person usage, mind you) in the Orphanage, putting on the clothes that Axel had chosen for us to wear. Being the weirdo he was, he didn't let us see what he was making us all wear. That alone was enough to make me feel nervous.

I glanced down at the backpack that Axel had thrust at me that was apparently holding my "wardrobe." It couldn't be that bad, right? Axel was trying to help us, so he wouldn't set us up. . . Right?

I could only hope.

With a sigh, I opened up the bag and took out a different bag that I could only assume carried the clothes. Once I opened up that bag, I felt my eyebrow lift itself skeptically.

What. . . What in the world? . . .Or rather, "What in the World 2.0?"

Ahem. Excuse the horrible pun.

On top of the clothes in the bag, was a rather large business card reading, "Thank you for shopping at Bieber Fashion Industries Inc.! Let's support Justin through all his endeavors!" And then it hit me: Axel obviously bought us knock-off Justin Bieber outfits created by the superstar's very own fans.

He was actually serious when he said that we should strive to be something like Justin Bieber.

I let out a sigh, but stripped off my clothing anyways, genuinely not in the mood to strike up an argument. I honestly didn't have much of a problem with the clothes, but I knew that Hayner would have a huge one once he found out that we were buying things from Justin Bieber fanatics.

I threw my former clothing (the pants, t-shirt, and even my shoes) onto the floor, telling myself I'd stuff it into the backpack when I finished dressing. I was just about to take out the jeans that Axel had got for me to wear, when something absolutely shocking happened.

The door to the bathroom opened, and a young man was tossed into the room.

I blinked in surprise, muttering a string of curses as I remembered that I had forgotten to lock the door. I turned to yell at the intruder for not even knocking, but it seems that the guy had already beaten me to it.

"W-What the hell! ? Let me out, Axel! Stop being a freaking idiot!" I couldn't see his face since he was currently banging on the bathroom door that wouldn't seem to open, but I could see familiar spiky black hair protruding out of his head.

I glared at him with all the strength I could muster, "H-Hey!"

The young adult turned to look at me, and right afterwards, his eyes widened and he let out a somewhat manly shriek, immediately pounding his fists harder on the door, "HOLY SHIT! AXEL, THERE'S A NAKED GUY IN HERE! LET ME OUT!"

I furrowed my brows, as I glanced downward at myself, "I'm not naked, I'm still wearing my boxers!"

"I don't fucking care! Two dudes in a bathroom, one of them pretty much naked, and the other looking this screwed up? People are going to think we had sex!"

"Then why don't you fix yourself up, and get out of my freaking bathroom! ?"

"Why don't you put on some fucking clothes! ?"

I opened my mouth to retort, but quickly closed it realizing that the guy had a point. "Can't you just leave so I can put on my clothes in peace?"

The young man sighed, turning an icy glare towards me that made my blood run cold, "I'd love to, but in case you haven't noticed, that goddamned idiot out there," he harshly pointed towards the closed door that he had previously been pounding, "won't let me out until I give you some kind of stupid pep-talk, something that I have absolutely no intention of doing. Now man up and put on some fucking clothes so that when Axel finally lets us out of here, I won't end up looking like I just raped you, got it?"

My eyes were wide as I struggled to find words, but none of them would come. And when I ended up saying something, I think that I just ended up making the whole situation worse, "H-HOLY SHIT, YOU'RE THE FREAKING MAFIA BOSS!" The guy gave me a look of confusion, but I had already grabbed my backpack and was holding it in front of me defensively, "I-I thought I killed you with that golf ball!"

The Mafia Boss stared at me like I was an idiot, but eventually I caught a tiny bit of recognition in his eyes.

So I was really confused when he banged his head against the door and yelled, "Goddammit, Axel! You locked me in a room with this freaking idiot! ?"

At first I didn't notice the insult, because at the mention of Axel, I felt my fear (or at least, some of it) vanish. I dropped my backpack and ran towards the door myself, pounding on it as hard as I could, "A-Axel! I need the help of the Ninjas Next Door! The Mafia Boss is out to rape me!"

The Mafia Boss turned to look at me with an expression on his face that mixed anger, frustration, and even exasperation. "Holy shit, you're still naked! ? Put on some fucking clothes, dammit! And I don't want to rape you, you asshat! I don't even want to be here!"

"Then get out!"

"If you haven't noticed, Axel's not letting me out!"

I blinked, "B-But why would he do that? You're his mortal nemesis that came back from the dea—WHOA. WHOA. HOLD THE PHONE, YOU CAN BRING YOURSELF BACK TO LIFE TOO! ?"

The Mafia Boss gave me a look that pretty much screamed, "I WANT TO MURDER YOUUU!" But he didn't have time to respond to me. Why? Because from the other side of the door, a somewhat familiar voice yelled, "VANITAS. Go with it!"

Vanitas (whom I could only assume was the name of the Mafia Boss) glared bloody murder at the door, "Hell no! I've degraded myself enough, and I'm not even getting paid this time!"

I stared at him in confusion, "Paid? W-What?"

My black-haired look-alike simply ignored me, waiting for the response from his collaborator from the other side of the door. Quickly, a response was made, "C'mon, Van! Do it for your buddy!"

"The fuck! ? You're not my 'buddy!' I only deal with you, because you usually pay me to do so!"

There was a loud gasp from the other side of the door, "Why, Vannie! I can't believe you'd say such a thing! Think of all the good memories that we've shared together!"

Vanitas simply groaned, "You make it sound like we've known each other our whole lives, and like this is a big deal. Maybe, this would've been different if you hadn't SET YOUR RABID HIGH-SCHOOLERS ON ME!"

I heard another voice from the other side of the door that eerily reminded me of Hayner, "Aw, c'mon! I'd say we were pretty gentle!"

The "Mafia Boss" (I was seriously beginning to get confused here. Was he a Mafia Boss or not?) glowered at the door once more, "Gentle! ? You sprayed me with pepper spray, wrestled me away from my post, gagged me with some filthy, old sock, and threw me into a bathroom with a naked teenage idiot while screaming at me to give him some stupid pep-talk!"

A voice that reminded me of Roxas' spoke up, "I'd say that that's gentle compared to what they did to me. The idiots broke into my house, tackled me and captured me in a headlock, covered my mouth with duct tape and bound me with rope, stuffed me into a garbage bag, dragged me into my School Gym which they had also broken into, and forced me to memorize a freaking script."

Everyone seemed to ponder this for a moment before a voice that sounded like Hope's spoke up, "Then again, you have to remember that we gagged Vanitas with Tidus' sock."

There was a short silence until the Roxas-like voice responded with a simple, "Touché."

Vanitas rolled his eyes, "Exactly. I still have the horrible taste of sweaty sock in my mouth thanks to you guys."

That was when someone that sounded like Tidus spoke, "Sheesh. I'm sorry that I hate doing my own laundry, alright?"

My look-alike merely groaned, letting his head fall against the door once more, "Just let me out of here. Please."

Sheesh, was my company really that bad?

That was when Axel's familiar tenor returned, "Sorry, Vannie! No, can do. Don't want to degrade your image by opening the door and having people think that you're a rapist. Just trying to look out for you, ya know?"

I swear, I saw smoke escape Vanitas' ears. He yelled a bunch of curses at the closed door before turning to me, "PUT ON SOME DAMN CLOTHES ALREADY!"

Eyes wide, I hesitantly turned to do so, but was stopped when I heard Axel's voice once more. "Sora! This is the leader of the Ninjas Next Door speaking!" I couldn't help but let out a gasp since Axel had obviously taken the trouble to sneak away and put on his Ninjas Next Door outfit without anyone noticing. "Do not listen to Vanitas! It's a trap that'll brainwash you!" I let out another gasp, ignoring Vanitas as he facepalmed himself. "Trust me on this one, I have resurrected Vanitas myself using my ultra, super, ninja powers! He has mostly become a good guy, but he still holds a grudge against me, and if you put on your clothes before I tell you to, he'll turn evil again!" I let out another gasp as I turned to look at my look-alike with shock.

Vanitas groaned, "Axel's just telling you that so he can make me give you some stupid pep-talk!"

"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, SORA!"

I hesitated for a moment, before firmly planting my butt onto the dirty, bathroom floor. Sure, it was extremely disgusting, but I was going to do everything in my power to stop Vanitas from turning into his former, evil, Mafia Boss self. I mean, no look-alike of mine should ever be evil!

. . . And maybe Axel would let me become a member of the Ninjas Next Door. Maybe.

Vanitas growled, before pounding on the door with more force, "AXEL! JUST LET ME OUT GODDAMMIT!"

To my slight confusion, Axel responded in a singsong voice, "Not until you give him that pep-talk!"

It was then that the whole "pep-talk" thing finally registered with me. A pep-talk about what? Why did I need pep-talk?

Inner conflict openly showed on Vanitas' face, but it seemed like he finally gave in. With an anguished sigh, he plopped down onto the floor next to me. "Alright, here we go. . . Sora, was it?"

I nodded hesitantly, now somewhat nervous as to what this former Mafia Boss would have to say.

"Axel is forcing me to give you a pep-talk about your. . . Uh. . . Lady troubles."

"Axel, can you tell me why you insisted that we make Vanitas give Sora a pep-talk about women?"

The pyromaniac who was now sitting at the base of the bathroom door, gave me a look. "Roxas, you may not believe this, but Vanitas has vast experience when it comes to the ladies."

I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this, "Really?"

There was a short pause before Axel simply shrugged. "To hell if I know. I'm not that close to Vanitas, actually. I just thought that since they looked so alike, they had to click somehow, am I right?"

Wow. The logic of Axel never fails to amaze me.

Roxas here. Again.

Hayner, Hope, and Tidus had dispersed off into different directions to locate another open bathroom that they could change in. I had opted (read: been forced) to stay with Axel and wait for my brother and Vanitas to come out of the bathroom.

It honestly felt like hours had passed, though I knew that that was impossible. If several hours had passed, then we would've already made it through our stupid performance. And according to my watch, we still had twenty minutes to go.

Even though we were inside the Orphanage, it was still easy to hear the music coming from the makeshift stage outside. There had been all types played: Rock, Punk, Pop, hell, someone even tried Classical. Of course, I wasn't sure if that band would end up making it to the next round, but whatever.

A high-pitched squeal interrupted me from my thoughts. And Axel looked somewhat surprised by the sound too. The two of us turned to look in the direction it had come from, and I think that I can safely say that we were kind of shocked.

"Hello! The Nonexistent Fan Club, at your service! Just thought that I'd bring in some of the members to personally wish you guys bad luck before you performed. The others are saving our front row seats!"

Vanille had actually been serious.

The colorful girl was currently holding a large poster with our band name and faces on it, a large grin on her face. Behind her, I recognized some of her friends from school: Rikku, Penelo, and Krile, just to name a few. And goodness, Tidus hadn't lied. Yuna was standing next to Naminé, the two of them somehow managing to look both excited and nervous at the same time.

At the sight of the flaxen-haired girl, I felt my face heat up, and I immediately looked away from her. To be honest, I still wasn't too sure about her. I hadn't been able to think about it much, since I was so busy trying to pull something together with my "band." Still, once I got the music memorized, she served as one of my main distractions. . . Next to the whole situation with my mom and Zack, of course.

Vanille wore a large grin on her face, but it seemed to fade a little into confusion as she took in the sight of only Axel and I. "W-Where's everyone else?"

Axel simply shot her a grin, "They're getting dressed," at this explanation, the overjoyed smile returned to her face, "Did you bring the stuff I asked you to bring?"

"The makeup and cologne?"

"Yup."

Vanille's grin seemed to widen, and her eyes flickered to Yuna, who sheepishly held up a decently-sized cosmetic bag.

I felt my eyes bug out of my face as I turned to look at Axel in shock, "Makeup! ?"

The older man simply rolled his eyes, "Cool your balls, Rox. It's only stage make-up. Some foundation, a little bit of blush, maybe some mascara. . ."

I couldn't help but let the horror on my face grow as I turned my gaze towards the cosmetic bag in Yuna's arms.

At my expression, some of the girls actually giggled, making me realize that it would probably be them that would be applying my make-up.

I silently prayed that they'd be merciful.

Time really does fly, doesn't it? Especially when you really don't want it to.

Before I knew it, Sora and Vanitas had finally gotten Axel's permission to be released from the bathroom, me and the rest of the crew had changed into our stage outfits, Vanille and her friends (minus Naminé and Yuna) had applied our ridiculous stage make-up (to my surprise, it didn't even look like we were wearing any make-up, which kind of defeated the whole purpose), and now we were waiting behind the makeshift stage for our turn to perform.

And I was nervous as hell.

A little less than ten minutes to show time, and I still had no idea what I'd end up doing on stage. Or if Sora would actually sing out for that matter. But something inside of me told me that he would. After his pep-talk with Vanitas, Sora strangely came out with slightly more confidence in himself, and the two looked like they could actually start a good friendship.

Haha, that's a total lie. Sora was following Vanitas around like a lost puppy, and Vanitas still looked like he wanted to shoot himself.

"Ooh lala! You boys clean up nicely."

The members of the band (plus Axel, Vanitas, and Vanille and co.) and I turned to see Larxene as she strutted towards us, Xion, Olette, and Kairi not far behind.

I didn't even need to look at Hayner and Axel (and perhaps even Sora) to know that they had died a little on the inside.

The girls looked. . . Well, absolutely nothing like they usually did. It took a while, but then it clicked that it was Halloween after all, which ended up explaining their outfits.

Not that I ever could. Each outfit seemed so unique, and there was such detail on their dresses and on their make-up. So I was lucky that Selphie took the liberty to explain each one of them personally, seeing our expressions. Of course, this process felt like it took ages, so I think I'll try to translate it from Selphie's "LOLOLOLOLFASHION!" lingo, to modern-day English. Just for you guys.

Because I have no idea how to start since I'm absolutely horrible when it comes to describing clothes, I'll just start out with the theme: "Gothic Lolita Zombies," as Selphie had called it.

Larxene was assigned the role of the "Graveyard Keeper," with a dark gray dress that reminded me of something that the Grim Reaper would wear, or something eerily reminiscent of those dementors from Harry Potter. However, she managed to pull off the look, and Axel had said, "Holy shit, my girlfriend makes shapeless rags look sexy." Apparently, she was wearing slight makeup designed to too away her somewhat tan complexion, but it didn't make her as pale as the rest of their band.

Xion was wearing a short, dark blue, sleeveless dress with black lace over it. Selphie also described it as being "corset-like," though I'm not entirely sure what that means. She had a miniature black top hat that had a dark blue ribbon tied around it pinned to the side of her head, and her make-up made her look extremely pale. "A mixture of eyeliner and dark eyeshadow" was used in the area around her eyes to give her a "death-like" look. Fake blood streamed from her shoulder down her arm, and according to Selphie, they used different shades of purple eyeshadow to make her legs look bruised.

Olette had abandoned her usual orange clothes for a dark green and black dress that was had short "puff sleeves" that ended in dark green lace. Though Xion's skirt flared out slightly, Olette's did much more so, and was slightly longer than Xion's skirt, ending just above her knees. A dark green "choker necklace" with black lace was around her neck, and her hair had been styled into voluminous curls. Like Xion, fake blood streamed from her shoulder, and down her arm. She had the same make-up around her eyes too. Fake scars were all over her legs, most of them looking long and bloody.

What shocked me the most was that Selphie wasn't wearing bright colors. At all. And that her dress seemed to be the most simple out of all the other girls. It was a dark brown shade, that tied in the back with a somewhat large ribbon, and around her neck in an X shape. Her skirt had slight ruffles and there was beige lace along her neckline. She had slight poof sleeves that were shorter than Olette's and only covered her shoulder. Like Olette and Xion, she was wearing make-up to make her seem deathly pale and to give her eyes that same "death-like" look she had mentioned earlier. Unlike them, blood coated her hands (namely her fingers), but seemed to travel upward up to her elbow messily. There seemed to be a large, bloody hole in the side of her neck, which Selpie admitted, "Was supposed to be a gunshot wound, but I figured I'd have to make it larger so that people in the audience wouldn't miss it."

Contrary to the dark colors that the other girls were wearing, Kairi was wearing a white dress. Like, pure white. The dress had something that Selphie called, "Simple, yet beautiful." Like the others, her skirt had a sort of bell shaped to it, hers being layered two or three times. There was a large bow in the center on her boobs (well, I don't know how else to describe it) and though Selphie said that the dress was ultimately sleeveless, two lacy straps that seemed to come out of her chest area rose towards her neck, where she wore a lacy white choker necklace. There was more white lace along her neckline, and a spiked white tiara that seemed to hold a white rose inside adorned the side of her head. She had the same makeup as the rest of her band (though Selphie didn't mention whether or not they needed to apply makeup to make her look pale), but it was obvious that she was the most bloody. Staining the dress where her heart should be was a hell of a lot of fake blood, and it dripped down the remains of her dress. There were ugly "scars" covering her arms, and Selphie had used eyeliner to draw on Kairi's face, making it look like her mouth had been stitched shut.

So, yes. Standing next to them made me feel horribly underdressed.

There had been some sort of technical error with the stage equipment (something about fruit punch, I think), and Demyx (who was tonight's MC) explained that it would take about fifteen minutes to fix it all up. Hearing this, I had expected all the volunteers at the Orphanage (Terra, Aqua, Lightning and them) to be running around trying to fix it. So I was somewhat surprised when the three of them walked up to us.

Seeing them, Vanitas managed to escape from Sora's grasp, and stumbled towards Aqua, who shot him a confused expression. Terra shot Axel a look that I couldn't decipher and simply said, "The Organization wants you."

At this, Axel rose an eyebrow, "Why's that?"

Terra still had that look on his face, and I was beginning to think that he didn't really like Axel either. Sheesh, what had Axel done that was so bad to these guys? "Didn't you hear? There was an incident with all the stage equipment. The Organization is in charge of the equipment, and not us, so I suppose they'll need an extra hand to fix it up."

Axel muttered a few curses before nodding and stomping off; probably to go and find Demyx and yell at the poor guy.

Penelo, who had come in with Vanille, spoke up, "I think we should be going too! Don't wanna have to fight the crowd to get back to our seats later, and I think that they'll end up solving the problem in less than fifteen minutes." The girl turned to look at Vanille, but the bubbly "President" of our Fan Club seemed to be in deep conversation with Hope and Lightning. She then turned to look at Rikku, who I suppose was a Vice President of some sorts, but the skimpily dressed girl seemed to be laughing it up with Tidus, while Yuna simply smiled at them.

I couldn't see what she did next, because Sora bounded up to me, excitement present on his features, "Look what Vannie gave me! Look!"

My older twin was shoving his wrist into my face, obviously trying to show me something. Though I'd usually show him my annoyance, I was happy that he seemed happy, "Sora, stop moving. I can't see what it is if you keep waving your arm around like that."

He paused for a second, but stopped moving his arm, "Riiiiight."

I eyed his wrist for a few seconds, before eventual confusion escaped onto my features, "A. . . Rubber band?"

Sora nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah! He told me that physical conflict is easier to deal with than internal conflict! So he said it should be easier for me to be myself when I'm having a physical conflict over an internal conflict!" I didn't like where this was going. At all. I nodded skeptically, and Sora took that as his cue to continue, "So anytime I think of. . . of. . ." My eyes widened in horror as Sora grabbed an end of the rubber band and stretched it out, before releasing it.

A loud SLAP! was heard as the rubber band made contact with my brother's skin. "I just hit myself with this rubber band, and eventually, everything'll be alright! Isn't that awesome! ?"

My eyes were still wide with a mixture of shock and terror as I stared at my brother, "N-No! That isn't awesome! Sora, that's absolutely—"

"AND WE'RE BACK! Sorry for the delay, everyone, but this contest is back on track! Let's see, our next performance is—"

"Oh! Girls, we better head back out to our seats! Kairi, your band's performing next, right?"

Kairi, who had been talking about something with Naminé and Selphie smiled, "Y-Yeah! That's right."

Naminé blinked before grinning at her cousin and hugging her, happily shouting, "You'll do great!"

"And after you guys is Hope's band, right?"

Hope hesitantly nodded, "Yeah. . ."

"Ah! Hopie, you'll do great!" Vanille had embraced the poor guy tightly, and he looked like he could barely breathe. Naminé, who had been walking over towards Hope (probably to wish him good luck), paused, before beginning to walk towards me.

Instantly, my eyes widened, and I tried to hide myself behind Sora. This time, I couldn't help but be upset that Sora had picked now to return to a majority of his happy-go-lucky self. My twin brother smirked at me, before grabbing me and pushing me off in Naminé's direction.

I stumbled forward, and the next thing I knew, the flaxen-haired girl and I were next to each other. "R-Roxas, you alright?"

I nodded slowly, "Y-Yeah, of course."

She gave me a wide smile, and I chastised myself for blushing. She didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary though, "Are you nervous?"

Still trying to avoid her gaze, I merely shrugged. There was a short pause, before Naminé poked me square in the chest, "Now, now. Don't go denying it! I think denial only makes everything worse!"

Her voice was playful, teasing even, but her words only made my heart sink.

"Be alittlemore mature at least. So what if you're jealous and lashed it all out on Hope? At leastadmitit."

I shook away the memory of Sora's words, and forced myself to smile at her, managing to simply look at the top of her head. Hopefully she'd think that I was looking at her (as was the polite thing to do when you were in a conversation with someone) directly. I managed to see her lips twitch downwards for a second, but it was gone quickly, and I couldn't help but wonder if I had simply imagined it.

"Naminé! Let's go!"

The shorter girl blinked, before giving me another smile, and grabbing my hand. She squeezed it as she looked directly into my eyes, and I couldn't find it in myself to look away, "Hey. . . Don't be nervous, alright? You're gonna do great."

I opened my mouth to say something, but the words didn't come. She continued to stare at me, as though she was trying to figure something out, but ultimately, she dropped my hand. "See ya on stage, Roxas."

"Y-Yeah."

Why is my heart. . . beating so fast? I glared at no one in particular as I clutched my chest, hoping that it would somehow make it stop. Of course, no such thing happened, and I could only sigh.

It wasn't long until Kairi's band was called up, and we followed them towards the exits of the stage so that we could get the best possible view of their performance. We wished them good luck as they walked out onto the stage, some of the guys in the audience wolf-whistling at their outfits.

It was around eight o'clock now. Since we had signed up so late compared to everyone else, we were scheduled to be around the last to perform. The stage was illuminated with light until a member of the Organization with strange, pink hair handed Kairi a microphone, and the rest of the band got their instruments ready. When that was settled, the lights flickered off, and silence echoed throughout the area, everyone patiently waiting the beginning of their song.

And then the song started.

The melody seemed almost haunting, and as each member of the band started to play, a spotlight would shine over them. Eventually, Larxene pounded on her drums, changing the melody from haunting to punk-rock, and illuminating the entire stage (minus where Kairi stood) with light. Larxene was obviously enjoying herself, already banging her head to the rhythm of her pounds, and Selphie and Xion were putting on a pretty good show too. Olette was more focused on making sure she didn't mess up, but she too was moving to the beat.

The lights flashed once, illuminating the stage, before dimming slightly. Kairi had finally been revealed, clutching the mic stand in front of her, her eyes closed as she started to sing.

"I think we have an emergency. . .
I think we have an emergency. . ."

Kairi's violet eyes opened as Selphie and Xion joined her on backup vocals for about two lines, before Kairi was singing solo again.

"If you thought I'd leave then you were wrong
'Cause I won't stop holding on. . ."

"So you listening. . .?
So are you watching me. . .?"

Kairi was giving up a performance that was absolutely riveting, and the rest of her band was doing a good job when it came to backing her up. Xion and Selphie came in on backup once more, and I realized that they were switching between giving Kairi backup, and letting her have her limelight.

"If you thought I'd leave then you were wrong
'Cause I won't stop holding on. . ."

"This is an emergency. . .
So are you listening. . .?"

"And I can't pretend that I don't see this!"

"But it's really not your fault,
When no one cares to talk about it,
To talk about it. . ."

The beat picked up a bit, and Kairi used the moment to grab her mic from its stand and began to move around the stage accordingly, making the crowd go wild.

"'Cause I've seen love die, way too many times
when it deserved to be alive. . . (When it deserved to be alive)
And I've seen you cry, way too many times
When you deserve to be alive, alive. . ."

There was a quick instrumental, and I turned my grinning face to look at Sora, who looked shocked, and was repeatedly hitting himself with the rubber band Vanitas gave him. I didn't have time to stop him, because the singing started up again quickly.

"So you give up every change you get,
just to feel new again!"

"I think we have an emergency. . .
I think we have an emergency. . . "

"And you do your best to show me love,
but you don't know what love is!"

"So are you listening. . .?
So are you watching me. . .?"

"And I can't pretend that I don't see this!"

"But it's really not your fault,
When no one cares to talk about it,
To talk about it. . ."

"'Cause I've seen love die, way too many times
when it deserved to be alive. . . (When it deserved to be alive)
And I've seen you cry, way too many times
When you deserve to be alive, alive. . ."

Since there was another short break, I looked out of the corner of my eye at Sora, who now seemed to be staring at his bright red wrist with a look of pain in his eyes. Of course, Kairi started singing again, this time without the accompaniment of Selphie and Xion's voices.

"These scars will not. . . Fade away. . ."

There was another, slightly longer intermission and Kairi seemed to simply be humming or audiating along, now paused in the middle of the stage, eyes closed, and giving it her all. She was still doing that when Xion and Selphie sang a single line together,

"No one cares to talk about it. . . To talk about it!"

Larxene pointedly hit the drums, and Kairi turned her back to the audience for a moment, long enough to shoot a sad smile at Sora, though her eyes were now sparkling with excitement. The moment was over quickly though, because she turned around again, now singing directly to the audience, which were gladly eating up their performance.

"'Cause I've seen love die, way too many times
when it deserved to be alive! (When it deserved to be alive)
And I've seen you cry, way too many times
When you deserve to be alive. . . alive. . ."

The band let out a few more notes, before ending in perfect synchronization, the audience going wild and the rest of us backstage cheering crazily as well. Minus Sora, who now seemed deep in thought.

"You guys were amazing!"

The rest of us yelled in agreement with Tidus' statement, before Larxene smirked at us and simply said, "Hope you can top that."

As though we were all thinking the same thing, we all shot a nervous look at Sora, who had returned to hitting himself with a rubber band.

Hayner groaned, "We're doomed."

We were given a five minute break before we were about to go on. Sora had left for the bathroom to do who knows what, and the rest of us could do nothing but panic. I mean, how were we supposed to upstage that?

Of course, we weren't able to get very far in our discussion, because before we knew it, we were being called to the stage.

"Some band manager Axel is. He's nowhere in sight, and neither is our lead singer! Roxas can't you just play guitar and sing?"

I rolled my eyes, "Tidus, I only know the harmonies to most of the actual song."

"Nonexistent, to the stage. I repeat, Nonexistent, to the stage."

Hayner cursed under his breath, while Hope let out a somewhat worried, "Where's Sora?"

And that's when my brother came out of nowhere, a determined expression on his face as he threw his arms around Hope and I, "Right here. Now c'mon, we have some butt to kick."

We shot him skeptical smiles, but for the first time in a long time, Sora's smile looked genuine.

Before we knew it, we were on stage, the lights were off, and the crowd was patiently waiting to hear us play.

It was difficult to see my band members, but we all managed to share an encouraging smile before we began to play. The melody was a familiar one, something that I'd heard on the radio before Axel told us to learn it, and so I was pretty sure that others would recognize it too.

Based on the cheers from the crowd (and not just Vanille and our "fan club!"), I guessed that they did.

As soon as Tidus hit his drums, the stage was illuminated with light. For a second my heart stopped as I realized how big the crowd looked. But I forced myself to shake away the thought, and resorted to closing my eyes and focus on the music.

Sora's entrance was coming up soon, and I could only hope that he'd sing out.

"Paper bags and plastic hearts,
All our belongings in shopping carts,"

I opened my eyes in gleeful surprise as I realized that Sora was actually trying this time around, and a quick glance at the rest of my bandmates showed that they were just as surprised and happy as I was.

"It's goodbye,
but we got one more night.
Let's get drunk and ride around,
And make peace with an empty town."

"We can make it right. . ."

I grinned as I watched my brother prance around the stage, the rest of us finding some spark of focus and confidence to move around like he did. Knowing that our "duet" together was coming up, Sora ran towards me, and we sang (well, I played too) back-to-back.

"Throw it away!
Forget yesterday!
We'll make the great escape,
We won't hear a word they say,
They don't know us anyway. . .
Watch it burn,
Let it die,
'Cause we are finally free!
Tonight. . ."

I smiled widely at him as he began to walk towards center-stage again, touching the hands of the girls in the front row. So mainly just touching Vanille and her friends' hands, but I suppose there were some strangers in their midst as well.

"Tonight will change our lives,
It's so good to be by your side.
But we'll cry
We won't give up the fight."

"We'll scream loud at the top of our lungs,
And they'll think it's just 'cause we're young.
And we'll feel so alive. . ."

"Throw it away!
Forget yesterday!
We'll make the great escape,
We won't hear a word they say,
They don't know us anyway. . .
Watch it burn,
Let it die,
'Cause we are finally free!
Tonight. . ."

The crowd was cheering loudly now, and looking at Tidus, Hope, and Hayner, they were enjoying themselves as much as I was. But it was Sora that was stealing the show with his newly found energy. As my twin bounded around the stage working the crowd, the four of us playing the instruments managed to share a quick smile before returning our focus onto our instruments.

Sora could worry about his weird, Kairi troubles later.

Tidus could swoon about Yuna some other time.

Hayner could worry about Olette afterwards.

I could think about Naminé, my mom and Zack, and Sora's strange fascination with hurting himself with rubber bands later. . . maybe.

And Hope? Well, the kid was always the more focused out of all of us anyway.

A Wishful Thought: Wow. This was kind of a disappointing chapter, wasn't it? XD Not much Namixas in this one. O_O But we have a. . . one-sided bromance between Sora and Vanitas blooming! XD

I don't think I'll ever have a whole chapter about their whole band competition again. XP It's such a pain describing the music. But I'll admit it was a fun distraction trying to find dresses online to base Kairi's bands outfits on! XD Speaking of which, I have yet to name her band. XP Oh, scratch that. There's one other time that I'll have to return to the competition, but I think that for every other round, I'll just mention what they did. That alright with all of you? XP

Next time, I hope to go more in depth with the whole drama aspect of the story, hoping to address most of Sora and Roxas' problems. Sorry, Hayner, but your Olette troubles shall be answered some other time. XP

I'm also leaving for Vancouver in less than two weeks, so I'll try to update before then! :D

I have a rather lengthy Chapter Drabble on my blog, and you can find the link to that on my profile. The dresses that I had based Kairi's Band's dresses off of are on there. If I could draw, I'd show you my designs for them, but unfortunately I can't. XD

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