Rhiannon: I've been told on numerous occasions that I am having way too much fun writing this story... I'm kind of inclined to agree... but oh well...

Chapter 13—The Other

Rare is not always how you were born. Such as the brave are not born brave but become as thus. Rare is the ability to be a good person when all that you see around you is the ugly in us all.

Sora and Roxas standing side by side could almost be twin brothers. More then almost really considering all factors of the equation. The only difference that Riku can really see is between Sora's spiked in all directions brown hair to Roxas rather upward spiked blond hair. Their personalities fortunately, at least to Riku are nothing a like. Of which, Demyx finds this utterly amusing.

"Long time no see Roxas!" The blond called as he approached his fellow nobody.

"Is this where you've been all this time Demyx?" Roxas asked shaking his head.

"Well… see… What had happened was… I was attempting to open the roads to the Olympus Coliseum to the Heartless and Nobodies when I got capture by the king of Disney Castle." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "And here we are."

"Wow." Roxas shook his head. "Not one of you finest moments."

Demyx shrugged as if it didn't bother him at all. "I've never been much of a fighter… so… why are you here?"

"I um… came to meet my other." He nodded over at Sora and Demyx paused and for the first time in the year that Roxas had know him, the Melodious Nocturne was silent. "What?"

"Are you… are you sure that Sora is your other?" Demyx asked as he looked back and forth between the two.

"What's wrong?" That came from Leon, whom, Demyx had to grudgingly admit, was growing on him despite his cold demeanor.

"According to Vexen's research… unless there are strange circumstances… when in the presence of it's other… a nobody will merge…" Demyx pointed it and then pointed to Sora and Roxas. "I see no merging going on here. I think we might want to find some circumstances."

"Want me to pull them out of my ass?" Roxas asked dryly. "Seriously Demyx don't play me for a fool."

"I'm serious… I um… saw the experiment that proved it." He mimed vomiting. "It wasn't pretty."

A pregnant silence descended upon the room as they all pondered this. Sora after a few moments even approached Roxas and pressed their hands together but nothing happened. Nothing that was supposed to anyways. A soft glow surrounded them, one that confirmed that they were connected but other then that, they stayed two separate beings Sora and Roxas.

"Er… that can't be good." Demyx murmured.

"Maybe the… special circumstance is that Sora isn't a heartless?" Kairi asked lifting her hands up in the air.

"Maybe." Leon shrugged dispassionately from where he stood leaning against a wall.

Sora slowly stepped back and then smiled at Roxas brightly. Roxas rolled his eyes but grudgingly smiled back. "I bet you're a total sap."

"I resent that!" Sora cried indignantly.

"More like resemble." Riku teased throwing an arm around him. "We should probably go talk to Laguna about what he thinks we should do next."

Yuffie Kisaragi-Loire slowly folded her arms behind her bed as she lay staring at the ceiling. Today had been a day of shocks. Roxas and Sora had met and it had been… interesting to say the least. While the King had given them useful information it hadn't been enough. And tomorrow, they were splitting up yet again.

Yuffie was to stay and control the border between the first and the second district. Leon was going to take the keyblade trinity and go exploring the worlds for clues. Frankly, she feared for her brother more then for herself. Border patrol was easy anyways. There was always plenty of back up between Areith, Cloud, Tifa, Hayner and many of the townspeople. Leon on the other hand was only going to have the trinity and Demyx to back him. And while she trusted the trinity, she wasn't so sure she trusted the nobody.

She hopped up and walked downstairs and found Roxas and Demyx talking, catching up on what they knew about the organization. She knew that Kairi had gone to visit Hayner. Which left her wondering where Sora and Riku were… deciding to leave them alone especially after she um, interrupted them earlier that day. She figured it was in her best interest to leave them alone. She decided to go find her father and set up next weeks schedule for the border patrol.

Riku and Sora were up on the roof again. This time though, Sora had sought out the older teen how was once again sitting on the ledge, only this time he was looking towards the sky instead of the barrier. Sora walked up to him slowly, watching as the sun glinted off silver locks before he spoke quietly.

"What'cha thinking about?" Riku smiled up at him and waved Sora over, idly wondering who would interrupt this conversation.

"About when we were younger and we built that raft. You remember, because I wanted to explore other worlds?"

"Yeah, and we got stuck out at sea for three days sunburned and our mothers nearly killed us." Sora smiled at the fond memory, back when they lived on Destiny Islands. There had been Kairi, Riku and him of course… and then Tidus and Selphie and Wakka. Now that he thought about them he bit his lip roughly. In all the days that they'd been in Radiant Garden the only childhood friend he had seen was Selphie.

"You're thinking too hard again." Riku looked over at him and reached out and took his hand and pulled him closer. "Don't think so hard about things you can't change. What's important now… is that we… is that we save these worlds."

"Is it really that clear cut and simple?" Sora asked quietly and the silver haired teen shook his head.

"'Course not… but you're not alone all right? Don't forget that."

Sora nodded having nothing to say to that and then climbed up on the ledge with him and sat and looked up into the sky with his friend in companionable silence. Riku reached out and grabbed his hand and held it firmly and this caused the darker haired teen to turn and look at him.

"Riku?" He asked quietly.

"I meant to kiss you earlier." He whispered and squeezed his hand firmly, eyes still on the horizon. "But now…"

"You…" Sora turned to look at him with wide eyes.

"Everything's going to hell around us Sora. In a hand basket with gasoline." He spared a look at his best friend before his eyes became glued to the horizon. "And I didn't want it to go unsaid."

"Riku…" Sora didn't like how tense the situation had become, he paused for a deep breath and then smiled at him. "Now who's thinking too hard?" He leaned forward and kissed Riku, more of just a meeting of lips before he pulled back and smiled at him. "See, it's not that hard if I can do it."

Riku rolled his eyes but tugged him forward and kissed him gently cupping his head and Sora brought a hand up to play in silver locks before he pulled back with a devious smile.

"I don't think the ledge of a roof is the best place for this… what will we do if Yuffie comes back?" He teased and Riku couldn't resist a smile.

"Tell her to come back later?" He raised an eyebrow. "Come on."

"Where are you dragging me?" Sora asked as he was pulled off the ledge and towards the door.

"Food." The older teen replied and Sora couldn't help but laugh.

At least some things would never change.

Roxas unfortunately didn't have the stomach to deal with Demyx for long periods of time. The hyper nobody essentially went off onto wild tangents about his adventures with Sora and the others. Although, one thing he had learned of importance from his time in the Organization was to listen because Demyx told important things to people he could trust. Currently Demyx was talking about the Pride Lands and about being a baboon and Roxas happily tuned him out wondering about what Axel was doing.

"…and then I told him about how Axel became a nobody." Demyx stated, nodding his head firmly.

"How Axel became a nobody?" Roxas looked up at him startled, wondering how that bit of information had managed to infiltrate his 'ignore Demyx' bubble.

"Didn't he ever tell you?" The older nobody asked as he stared at him, almost seriously.

"Uh… I just kind of assumed that nobody remembered how they became nobodies." This conversation had taken an odd turn to say the least.

"Those that chose to become nobodies remember, especially if they're powerful enough… like us. Axel is a special case like that."

Well, Axel never did anything in halves, Roxas thought before prodding Demyx a bit more. After all, if he told Sora, what was stopping him from telling Roxas? After a typically rambling Demyx response Roxas had learned quite a bit about his errant friend and felt a bit guilty for just assuming that like him, Axel remembered nothing.

Roxas wondered what it would be like, to have no choice but to tear your self in two. He thought back to Sora and realized that if he'd been in that situation he would have done it too. He was glad he didn't have to though. He pulled a knee up to his chest and wondered if he'd ever see Axel again on the same side of the battlefield. He knew that Axel had made it possible for him to come here and meet Sora but Axel probably hadn't expected him to completely betray the Organization, because he realized idly, that was what he was about to do.

He didn't want to leave. He felt wanted here. And had friends… sure they were no Axel but… He wanted Axel to be here with him, not go back to the Organization. There was nothing there for him he was beginning to realize. Because after all, what was the point of having a heart if there were no friends or family to share it with?

"Man… I didn't think you'd be so quiet."

"Just realizing that maybe I didn't know as much about Axel as I thought." Roxas shrugged his shoulders idly but Demyx smiled at him deviously.

"Maybe he just didn't want you to know yet. After all, what does the information mean to you when you don't have a heart?" That stung… a lot.

Roxas swiped at him half-heartedly and looked away. It wasn't that he didn't want a heart. In fact the person who held his heart was somewhere in the house they were sitting in at that very moment in time. Except now… he didn't want to bond with Sora, he wanted his own heart.

"I wonder if we all look so much like our others. You and Sora could pass for twins." Demyx thought out loud as he was prone to do and Roxas decided he'd had enough of the Melodious Nocturne for one day. "Of course… if you get a heart maybe we can call you Roxas Miryoko."

Roxas Miryoko… he had to admit he kind of liked the sound of that, having a last name as if he really existed.

A name doesn't always mean that you exist… it's the meaning behind it.

Rhannion: Um... shit... I forgot what I was going to say... Oh yeah! Now I remember... I decided to change the summary... incase no one noticed...