Hello all! It's been months since I've uploaded anything to this story of mine, and whoever has missed it I'm deadly sorry. I didn't want to become one of those people who never finish their stories and it seems like I'm becoming one, but I will not let that happen. I will finish this story, even if no one reads it or leaves a comment (which happens to motivate me and others to keep on writing). I was seriously distracted the last time I was working on the next chapter, which was months ago with school and work. I just started working on it recently again since I've been inspired to do so. I hope you like this chapter I'm working on and the rest of the story. Thank you for reading.

~P.S I'm also thinking about shortening some earlier chapters, what do you think? Are they to long?

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts except for this story and my characters

Questions...a clue?

"You know what? I think I'm turning into a vegetarian," Axel mused as he bit into his banana, his back pressed against the wall fully facing me.

"Ooh I would love to see you try…you wouldn't last a week off of bananas monkey boy…" I snickered while Axel snorted, my eyes observing the spotted banana peel that laid on my lap.

I sighed, turning my head to my right to stare at the woven basket full of fruit that Tarzan and Jane picked out for us to eat. "Ahh, it feels good being here…" I said softly, grabbing a shiny apple for a quick hard bite as its warm juice penetrated my taste buds.

"Mmmhmm…yea it's alright," Axel said in a relaxing tone. "I feel like royalty in this tree house and being catered to like this."

I scoffed, glancing at him and his calm form, his hands hiding behind his head like he was on a beach seat somewhere even though it was a window seat we were on, his one leg up to his chest while the other barley touching the basket. "Yeah…I totally deserve this…so please…" he paused, sliding his leg down as both booted feet moved closer to the fruitful straw basket next to my hand. "Wash and massage my feet servant, now it's your turn to pamper me."

My mouth twisted at his nonchalant attitude, eyeing his big flaked muddy black boots until my boisterous eyes found his grinning face, his head bent back where one could see his Adam's apple protruding out of his neck, suddenly my throat feeling thick. I broke my grimace into a grunt, hiding the feelings that has once again returned, my eyes darting from floor to vine from flower to pots.

"Eh he…Axel you're not all that you know," I said, turning back toward his smirking glance, suddenly feeling witty. My smile turned sardonic. "Bet those feet hasn't been clean since you've put those shoes on, what's it been ten years?"

His mouth partly opened as if surprised by my silly speech, clearing his throat as he fixed his posture more upright in unease. "Dag Deonna that's cold," he said, his eyebrows sinking like ships as he leaned over his upright knee, quickly eyeing his boots.

I shrugged casually as I bit into my apple, trying to act unfazed at his reaction as I leaned back on my right hand. "Well, is it true stinky?"

"Hmm for a matter of fact smart aleck, I happened to have taken a shower at Keeshes place remember?"

I covered my mouth with my palm as I tittered. "Yeah bet that was like your first shower since dinosaurs came into existence, no wonder you're so adequate with fire you must have been leader of the cavemen when they discovered flames." My body shook as my eyes could hardly keep themselves open as I looked at Axel's stiff dazed expression, while I bent over my legs, covering my mouth as I laughed at myself. Oh man I crack myself up…

Of course I wasn't trying to hurt Axel's feelings. Just entertaining myself by making Axel the pit of my jokes. Is that annoying to him though? Then a coherent thought crossed my mind, wondering would Axel get me back for insulting him. My giggles droned, patting my chest as I swallowed with repeated blinks, arching back up to stare at a cat eyed Axel, his hardened face wanting to choke me telepathically. "Ah hehe…" I chuckled nervously, letting the apple roll out my hand onto the seat that dropped on the woodened floor as I crawled over to him, his green eyes watching me like I committed murder.

"Uh, Axel, I was just playing with you…you know that right? Axel?" I said, sitting on my knees on his left side with my hands on my lap, the air in the room feeling more polluted with heat than I would want it to be. I inched closer to his face, hoping he would give into my pleas with the a look I usually showed when I was begging for something I wanted. "Hmm? Come on Axel don't be so sensitive…" My hands reached for his face, squishing his warm cheeks playfully, trying to soften his tense aura. There wasn't much change in his expression, only the fact that his eyes became more like a narrowed line you would see on a piece of paper . I whined, wishing he wasn't mad at my idiocy. "Axel don't be mad, get glad," I said with a small grin, entertaining myself once more.

After that I observed Axel's face muscles soften as a small chuckle escaped his lips, his glossy green eyes on mine, suddenly catching me off guard because now my I could hear the pulse of my heartbeat. My hands were still on his oily face, which I have forgotten until he grasped them with his hands, his head tilting to the side in the process with an adorable childish look. "Deonna it's alright, sometimes this one wants to feel special to…"

"...What?"

Axel just smiled, moving my hands off his face and angling forward to take a green pear from the basket. I sat back, just now understanding what just happened here as I observed Axel trying to peel the dirty pear of its skin. My eye twitched like a fly. Axel…he just played me for a fool…

I pointed my finger at him, my mouth partly opened as my nerves began to rise. "Axel, you did that on purpose didn't you?" I caught a glimpse of a smile on his face before he turned his head to the right, his body shaking with slight muffles of laughter. "No r-really I am hurt…really hurt…" he said, sounding like the boy who cried wolf. My hands found their way onto my hips as my eyes slit. "Liar."

"Well, I like it when you beg me for your forgiveness, I feel like we're even now, don't you?" he said, his head turning in my direction with an impish grin as he slouched over, sticking the already bitten fruit under my nose with it juice contents rolling over itself. "Pear?"

"Oh I oughta…" I raised my fist at him with a mild tremble. "Psst chill dude-I mean, uh, girl…" he said with uncertainty, looking away to eat his pear. I huffed, quickly dismissing what we were talking about with a tired comfortable yawn, thinking when Jane would come back to see us. My eyes were bricks, the cramps in my stomach making me fall forward on top of my belly, lying next to Axel's elongated leg like it was a log. Hmmm, when would Jane come back with that tea? I definitely want to try it. Jane set out to get me some herbs for my period, something called 'Black'…something and it's supposed to help me with my cramps. I wonder how well these herbs will do, especially since they're not exactly solid supplements. The seeping of sleep wanting to devour my mind and body, I let it, even though there was much to do in the day ahead. Ahh…I think…a nap…would be…fine…

Just before I could submerge myself into lala land, a poking sensation on my shoulder shook me from my fatigue. "Deonna, get back up don't go to sleep now."

"Hmm? What?" My head rose up, observing Axel's hand now shoving me to move.

" Come on girl you gotta stay alert, no matter how tired you are, even during that girl thing you're on heartless could come up anytime…" he said, helping me sit upright, even flickering water in my face from a bowl. "Ah ok ok sheesh! Stop that I'm not unconscious!" I growled, flapping my hands at him. He laughed, grabbing hold of my shoulders and shaking me mad, light-headedness clouding my head.

"Axel you pest! Stop or I'll foot slap you!" I barked, putting my hand on his face to push him away.

"Hehe…" He rubbed his nose, eyeing me with mischievousness. "Foot slap?"

My arms crossed with hooked eyebrows. "Yeah, a technique that requires flexibility and focus, which shouldn't be to hard for me even in this state."

"Uh-huh…well since I'm such a good person, I'mma let you lay here for a bit," he said, waving his finger at me, "but no sleeping you hear? I don't want you to kill me for waking you up because some heartless decided to show…" I giggled a bit, watching him slide towards the floor. "And you're going to sit there?"

"Yep, on the dirty ratty old floor."

"Ha, what a gentlemen…" I said, lying in his spot where it was warm. "I like that…"

He didn't respond right away, folding his arms as he said, "Go to sleep."

My brow raised, observing the side of his face. "Ah!" I chirped, "someone's blushing~" He groaned, shaking his head. "I don't even know what that is…"

"Yea Axel you're such a good person to me, such a gentlemen," I teased, playing with his hair. His hands came upon his head as if to guard it from me, his head turned in my direction with an awkward facial expression, his face partly red. "You're evil…your hormones are definitely off."

My mouth opened, but remained silent as I saw a lady out of the corner of my eye coming from the door by the entrance. I eyed Jane with a shy grin as I straightened myself upright, rubbing my clothes of imaginary dirt. Axel turned to see what threw me off the subject and remained silent with a small wary smile, observing the small tray in her hands that held a white floral tea cattle and a matching teacup on top. Jane smiled at us like we were children, standing right in front of us with a nice pleasant smile on her sweaty face.

"Ah right, how you two doing? Was the fruit good?"

I nodded with a grin. "Yes, the fruit was good. Thanks again."

"Yes, no problem sweet heart," she said, her smile never fading, leaning over with the tray of tea toward me. "Here are the herbs I told you about. Black Cohosh…"

My eyes sparkled, observing the evaporated smoke coming from the dark tea. Huh? As my nose grasped the smell of the tea, my eyes became hollow and my smile grew glum, decreasing my yearn for the tea. Ah crap… I controlled myself from making a funny face at the smell of tea as I took it from the tray, hiding my true feelings with a sheepish grin. "Th-thank you Ms. Jane…"

"Oh your welcome," she said with a grin, bending back as she set the tray beside me. "But I must say it won't taste all that pleasant though."

"Wow that smells…delightful…" Axel said with a cunning smile.

I stuck my tongue out at him then focused back on the smell of the tea, which was something I was to let in my mouth. Great it's already hot but I don't want a nasty taste in my mouth to go along with it…

"Come on now it's not going to help you by just staring at it! Come on drink drink!" Jane urged as she sat down beside me.

Then Axel decided to chant along. "Yeah come on Deonna! Chug! Chug! Chug!"

"Shut up Axel!" With that I decided to set my feelings aside about the smell and just drink it down, thinking it probably wasn't all that bad. I was wrong. My eyes bulged at the bitter taste that compared perfectly to its smell as it covered my tongue, forgetting how hot the tea was as I squirted the liquid right out of my mouth like a spray bottle. Both Jane and Axel flinched and yelped, startled by my sudden waterworks. I didn't look at their expressions since I was more focused on what just happened to me, my face turning warmer and warmer like sand on a hot beach.

"Uhh…" I licked my lips, bowing my head out of embarrassment.

"Good christ Deonna!" Jane scolded, now up on her two feet in shock. "Yeah, I pity you now," Axel said who was still sitting down, but scooted away when I exploded, his tone lacking sympathy but sarcasm. "Uhm…sorry?" Shoot…

After that incident Jane decided to add some sugar to the tea, even though she added some before she gave it to me. If the tea tasted that bad then I needed a whole bag full of sugar to get rid of that bad taste that was left in my mouth, something that peanuts did to me when I ate them. Few minutes passed by as I finally killed the rest of the tea that has been sparsely sweetened, even asking Jane for another cup for Axel who bugged out at my offer. Then finally, we decided to talk.

"Okay Deonna and Axel, what brings you two here at the jungle?" Jane asked, her knees crossed as she bent forward in curiosity, sitting on an old chest in front of us.

"Well uhm you see-" Axel started but was cut off from Jane's anxiousness. "Where are you two from? How are the worlds like compared to this one?" I chuckled, observing Axel's piqued expression from Jane's cheeriness. "

Well let's see…" I began, taking Axel's place. "I'm from Destiny Islands and Axel's from…" I said, gesturing my hand in his direction for him to speak for himself. "Hollow Bastion, though it used to be something different, but that was a long time ago…"

Jane's expression turned to oddity, her fingers on top of her lips. "What? I don't think I understand. Something different?"

…Axel might not want to talk about it that much… My eyes glanced in his direction, wondering what he was going to say next. His profile was sharp and stiff, seemingly reluctant to answer that question as he stared into space. My lips pursed, his tense body rubbing off on me as my eyebrows felt heavy. We finally got a chirp out of him within a few seconds, replying in a brooded voice, "Heartless happened, that's what changed it to Hollow bastion…"

"Oh…" Jane said in a sympathizing voice, "I'm sorry I didn't know." Axel shook his head, raising his leg above his other. "No it's all right, but like I said, it happened a long time ago…" After that the room was silent, the birds outside the tree house sounding as if they were right next to out ears, singing to us a pleasant melody. I wiped the sweat off my forehead, wanting this marathon of silence to end. My fingers held each other as I coughed to encourage more talking, forcing a grin within the stubborn atmosphere. "All right Jane, is there anything else you want to ask?"

Jane looked at me, leaning back upright with a small smile. "Well I don't really want to intrude-"

"No it's all right Jane just ask me okay? Your not a nuisance." My right eye snuck a glance at Axel, wanting him to say something so Jane wouldn't have to worry. I was about to whisper his name, but caught it when he spoke aloud.

"Don't worry Jane, I'm just not up to speaking about my home world right now. Come on I don't bite…" Jane's face turned to relief, her body appearing to soften at Axel's reassurnace. I smiled, brushing my shoulder against his arm. My heart began to beat when he looked at me.

"Well Deonna, so how is your home world like?" She said with her hands holding her chin up. I gave her back my attention as I tried to ignore the feeling in my gut. "It's a great place to live. It's an island with other miniature ones around it. The sunset's are great and the ocean's water is refreshing to swim in."

"Yeah fish water…" Axel said. "You always got something to say do you?" At least you're acting normal though…I'll take the annoying Axel then the sensitive sad Axel any day.

Jane was giggling as she observed us. "You two are funny characters. It must be l-o-v-e…"

At that moment Axel and me turned in her direction, astonished at the letters that came from her mouth. "Uh-huh?" Axel asked like a dummy. Jane just giggled more with her hand on her mouth like a little girl. My eyes were stuck on her, my throat growing big. Did she just spell what I think she spelled? My face could blister from the heat that seethed from me like a volcano, sitting like a rock as I avoided eye contact with Axel. Why does it have to be true though…why?

"Uhm, lady, I'm not in love with her…" Axel said, who suddenly stood up. Jane just waved her hand in disbelief. "Oh pish-posh, you just don't know it yet…oh for goodness sake I'm just teasing you two…"

"Oh…" I squeaked, turning away to avoid eye contact with anyone, my cheeks tingling. Axel grunted, sitting back down with unusual tension as he scratched his head. "I knew that." Yeah right…

After that, Jane asked us why we were here, which finally brought Sora into the picture. My insides fluttered when she told us she knew Sora, but evaporated soon after; she was reluctant to tell us where Sora went to, especially since she didn't know us very well, another bump in the road. Even though he cloaked it, Axel was bothered about explaining himself to her, a fake grin on his face before he spoke.

"We need Sora because-"

"We need-I need Sora to help me…that's why Jane," I blurted, piercing her eyes with mine like ice. I need her to tell me.

"There's a darkness on the rise and I need him to help me defeat it, and time is seriously wasting Jane, so please tell me…" My voice sounded low, almost like a groan, trying to hold in my excitement by griping my pants. Both eyes were on me, my head hanging low from being in the spotlight. There was a pause before anyone said anything, which broken from Axel's mouth. "Yeah what she said, true story…" He pushed me gently, waking me up from my anxious thoughts. My eyes wondered into his where I spotted a twinkle as if he was saying, 'Stop worrying you douche…'

I bit my lip, trying to contain a smile as I looked away, focusing back my attention to Jane. I knew that Jane was focused on thinking about what I said, for it was mapped all over her face. She then spoke within the few seconds that passed by. "Hmm…well alright then," Jane said as she stood up stiffly, staring at me with compassion.

"I'm sorry my dear please be patient with me, y'know I have to look out for the boy. Something's always after him…" She walked towards the door, hands clutched behind her, the eerie silence emitting from her making it seem like she had a lot to say. My suspicions grabbed hold as I rose, following the path towards the door to see what she was looking at.

"You see," Jane began, "I'm not really sure where he went to exactly, for he was just here a while ago." My eyes widened, staring at her like a lost puppy.

"What? Really!"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, the only thing he told me was that he was searching for something that is of great value, a person actually…"

What? A person? What does that mean?

Axel stood there out of the corner of my eye with the same thinking expression as mine. "A person huh? Seems pretty ironic don'tcha think?" Axel stated, rubbing his chin with a small beam, the detective unfolding the case. Insecure, my eyes wondered around as I reflected what I just learned.

"Y-y'a mean he's…looking for…me?"

Axel shrugged. "That might be the case, but we can go with that…of course unless," Axel folded his arms, a new idea popping up into his head, "he's looking for your sis to or someone entirely different, I don't know I could be wrong."

"…"

His ideas stood out in my mind like a puzzle, figuring out which pieces went together or not. My sis…?Could that be true? We might just be looking for the same person…or could that person be me or…?

Axel snapped me out of my thoughts. "Either way we still gotta look for him."

"…yea we do…" I said, scratching my cheek, both ideas stuck in my head as I peered down towards the floor. "So now what? What you two plan to do to find him?" Jane asked, wanting in on the plan. I was doubtful, my mind going blank for some reason as I gazed at her.

"What we've been doing all along," Axel chimed, " playing hound dog."