-in b4 69 jokes-

No, but in all seriousness, I'm glad I finally got this chapter done. And I just want to apologize in advance for how very filler it is. Dx I just meant to finish Port Royal and this day in this chapter (because let's face it, one day hasn't stretched so long in this fic since the TT/Space Paranoids/Hollow Bastion/SoChar sloppy makeouts chapters), but then the characters and the details and the emotions and Falcon/Char having eyesex got away from me and now it's a 19-page long monster.

tl;dr: Please don't hate me. LOL. ;_;

Disclaimer- I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

So much for "be right back," Char thought wryly. She supposed she might have anticipated this much when Falcon had stepped into the building, only to stiffen and dart off in the opposite direction, leaving her and Riku there staring blankly after her.

She looked over at him. To her frustration and shame, actual anxiety flared inside her at having to meet his gaze; then again, what with their argument earlier, her reluctance to look at him made more than a little sense. Either way, the fact remained that she fought the urge to twist her head away and glare at the ground as those amber eyes turned toward her.

"Well," he muttered, "she's not going to be back for a while."

"Wow, what makes you say that?" Char sighed, folding her arms. When the stare cast on her became withering, she dropped her arms back to her sides, genuine contrition seeping into her. "Sorry. Habit."

Riku blinked, slowly, as if absorbing the oddity of her actually apologizing. In spite of herself, contradicting the image of herself presented by said meaningful apology, Char narrowed her eyes, mildly irritated by his bemusement. However, he said nothing about it, only turning away and gazing at the interior of the city hall. "I've never been to the one back home."

Char blinked, as much due to his sudden change of subject as the ambiguity of his meaning. "Back home?"

"The city hall in Destiny Islands, I mean." He clarified this without turning to face her, making her wonder the exact extent and scope of the emotions flitting about inside him. Nostalgia, of course, seemed first and foremost; and yet she found herself detecting a hint of wistfulness and sorrow as he continued. Made the mistake of continuing, really, because without even meaning to he was revealing his feelings to her. "I know the mayor there raised me and all, but he never exactly had a 'take your son to work' day."

"Wait," Char interrupted, brow furrowing at this new piece of information. "The mayor of Destiny Island raised you?"

He still didn't turn around, but she picked up the light stiffening in his shoulders that told her he had just realized his omitting his exact origin during their year together. With the rational part of her mind – a very scarcely-exercised portion nowadays, and a bit rusty in use, but present nonetheless – she understood that the subtle indignation flowing through her now made no sense in light of all the secrets she was keeping from him.

Like the fact that I'm in love with his best friend, that's a little thing I can't tell him. And, gods willing, she never would.

Then again, the secret of the Organization's bloody birth and her part in their lives before they had embraced the darkness had somehow worked its way out of her, between Sora chipping away at her heart and fighting Heartless at his side.

For perhaps the umpteenth time that day, dread began to crawl up inside her at the thought of telling Riku about her true emotions, and for perhaps the umpteenth time that day, a treacherous section of her mind wondered why telling him would be so bad.

Ironically, Riku himself spared her from having to dwell on her indecision any longer by responding. "Yeah, he did." A beat, then, "I'm sorry I never told you before. It just…"

"Never came up?" Char quipped dryly.

Riku cringed slightly, the movement so miniscule that only she, who stood nearby and liked to think she knew him so well, saw it. "You could say that."

Char opened her mouth to speak, before it hit her that she had no earthly clue how to continue the conversation. So she just uttered a "hm" of acknowledgment, before hastily changing the subject before he could turn it back around on all the secrets she was hiding away. "We're not going to wait out here for Falcon forever, are we?"

Riku turned back around then, dark cloak swishing in his wake. Char found the movement of its hem almost hypnotic, even as it settled, before she realized the garb of her enemies had drawn her into a trance and snapping out of it at once. She followed the line of the coat upward, drawing both courage and ire from slowly taking in the Organization's coat, and saw him eyeing her with an odd mix of annoyance and sympathy. Annoyance, due to her newfound urge to pry; the sympathy, though, she couldn't quite puzzle out. She had the distinct feeling it was because of what had happened to the people who had served as her own family.

But then a deep, vaguely familiar voice was growing louder, rounding the corner and becoming more coherent as it filtered into the main hallway where they stood. Both heads of gray and red hair turned toward the sound, and Char stifled a groan when a blonde-haired figure eventually made itself visible.

"…should watch the area around the citadel a bit more close – hm?" Copperhead halted, both verbally and physically, with a suddenness that made the older, smaller man behind him nearly collide with his back. Violet eyes took them in with gradual recognition, and he grinned broadly. "Oh, hey, Riku! Blaze! What brings you to my part of town on this lovely afternoon?"

One eyebrow lifted none too calmly over an icy eye. "Do you even remember what my name actually is?"

The blonde shrugged, locking his fingers behind his back and rocking back and forth on his feet. "Yeah, but I still like mine better." Riku sighed and rolled his eyes at that, and Char felt mildly gratified that he understood how she felt before she remembered she was still pissed at him.

Copperhead turned to the man behind him, who was steadying himself, with respect drifting into his stance. "Mayor, sir, these two are Char and Riku," he introduced, gesturing to redhead and gray-haired young man in turn. He hesitated, making Char blink; she had only known him for a couple of days, but somehow she got the feeling that was odd for him. "They're, ah… visiting for a little while."

It didn't take long for Char to pick up the strain that the weight of their reason for being here put on his voice. Once she did, the reason for his pause became clear as well. She didn't think Donald's whole objection to revealing just where they were from extended beyond the duck's neurotic tendencies, but she had been wrong before.

Riku dipped his head to the mayor. "Very pleased to meet you, sir." He threw a hard glance over his shoulder at Char, making her hasten to mumble a greeting as well. Under any other circumstances her hospitality would immediately have set upon chiding her for her sluggish response, but the thought of Sora and the others and what exactly they could be doing now slowed her instincts.

"The pleasure's all mine!" the mayor said jovially. "Any friend of Copperhead's is a friend of the town. Isn't that right?" He turned to the blonde as he spoke the question, delivering a hefty blow to the back of his subordinate's shoulder. From the way Copperhead actually flinched before returning the grin, the old man was stronger than he looked.

Char folded her arms, amusement at the man who reached maybe the bottom of Copperhead's clavicle ebbing in favor of briskness. "Sir," she began carefully, making him look at her, "we, ah…" It was her turn to pause, eyes darting down to the floor, mind churning furiously to work out a less blunt way to retrieve Copperhead.

Riku must have seen her struggle, for he took the proverbial step forward. "Copperhead, about that thing we were talking about yesterday…" Here, he trailed off purposefully, just staring expectantly at the other.

Copperhead blinked, head tilting to the side in a way that made his loose ponytail slide off his shoulder. "The… thing?"

Oh, for the love of the gods. "You know," Char interjected irritably, "the thing… about why we're here…"

The mayor's stocky body moved as he looked from Copperhead to Char and back again. "Is there something these young people need you for?" he inquired.

Somewhere between Char's pointed remarks and his boss speaking, realization had lit Copperhead's face, making his eyebrows jump further into his already-long bangs. "Oh. Oh! That. Heh, right."

He turned to his boss again. "Sir, is it all right if I go with them for a little while? It involves scouring the town for Heartless," he added, "so it's not like I'm totally taking a break." Despite Falcon's bitter assurance of Copperhead's complete freedom and the mayor favoring him, an almost pleading tone heightened his voice.

Char watched the stout man appraise his subordinate thoughtfully, not knowing whether to hope for the extra help or pray that the mayor would detain him here. On the one hand, Copperhead's release for the day would validate their trip here and prove they hadn't wasted their time; and yet something – something that felt distinctively like concern for Falcon's comfort – kept her from fully wanting him around. She held back a growl of frustration. If this was what Sora had felt toward her in the early days, when she had shunned his friendship and focused only on her goal, she could identify with him more than ever now.

Oddly, thinking of Sora only caused a dull ache within her heart, rather than the pure misery that had plagued her initially. Instead of dwelling on the shift, though, she focused on the mayor's decision.

In the end, he only waved a dismissing hand. "If it involves protecting the town, then it's still a part of your job, right?"

Copperhead brightened at once, that same insufferable grin that had crossed his face at lunch yesterday returning. "Thanks. You have no idea how much this means to us."

"You mean to you," Riku muttered, before raising his voice to address the mayor. "Thank you, sir. We really appreciate it."

"Hopefully it's not a bother if we borrow him for a few hours," Char added.

Their stiff, polite words were met with a smile from the mayor. "It's not a bother at all, Blaze."

The nickname made Char wince and Riku eke out a snicker; she glared at him before turning back to the mayor, who was ushering Copperhead over to stand beside them. She forced her annoyance to die down to a weak simmer inside her and just inclined her head respectfully. "With all due respect, sir, that's just a nickname that your subordinate gave me."

Pervert, space-invader, object of the hatred of this world's Keybearer, her mind filled in, but before her completely unfounded wonderings as to what had happened between Falcon and Copperhead could arise anew, she stifled it and continued. "Please just call me Char."

"All right," the mayor nodded. "And in exchange, you and Riku can call me Hickory. Is that an acceptable deal?"

Copperhead had been bouncing from one foot to the other, apparently unable to restrain his anticipation at assisting the search for the machine, but when his boss spoke, he stilled at once. "You don't even let me call you by your first name," he complained.

"That's because you work for me," Hickory chuckled, tickled grin widening at Copperhead's pout. He waved his hand in a dramatic flourish. "Now. Off you go, you three." Turning on his heel, he strode off as gracefully as one of his age and stature could.

"Well, you heard him," Riku said to Char and Copperhead. "It's past noon; we've lost enough time as it is."

"Oh, what, no lunch?" Copperhead asked, quirking an eyebrow. "I've only been here since before dawn, y'know."

"We don't have time for that," Riku huffed, calm brusqueness immediately morphing into exasperation as he strode down the hall, leaving the others to catch up. While Copperhead scrambled to do so, Char trailed behind a bit more sedately. Hickory's last remark, offhand though it seemed, had reminded her of just who they were missing.

"We're going to have to wait anyway," she pointed out, making both young men halt in their tracks. As both amber and violet eyes alike honed in on her questioningly – the former marred by irritation and the latter by disappointment – she sighed and elaborated. "Falcon's still in the bathroom?"

To Riku's credit, he looked properly ashamed at having forgotten about their main host in his hastiness. A stroke of irony, since normally Char would have taken up that hurried mantle; but even she, she who regarded this whole matter with a kind of rushed aggravation, understood that they needed to find a way back to Falcon's house at the end of the day. "Right," he muttered, staring down at the ground.

Copperhead blinked, the mention of Falcon having thrown him out of his childish antics at once. "Wait, you guys brought Fal here?"

"We kind of had to," Char explained, folding her arms and starting off down the hallway in the direction Falcon had fled. She continued speaking without turning around, but the sound of dual sets of footsteps, along with a whirlwind of black in her periphery that signified Riku matching her pace easily, told her they were following. "She's the only one who knows her way around town."

"Hm," Copperhead mumbled, and his unnatural amount of reticence made Char glance sharply over her shoulder.

"What?" she asked, warily.

They passed by a set of cubicles, from which the bright lights of working computers and the sound of low voices emanated. Char had just an instant to be reminded disturbingly, painfully, of the days she and Riku had spent with their only concerns revolving around the information another computer screen held, before something seized the back of her coat.

Surprised at the unexpected shift of gravity, she hissed and whirled around, ready to summon her blades if necessary; however, as Riku halted beside her and gave her assailant a startled look, she found herself glowering at Copperhead's curious expression.

"You guys must've stayed at her place last night, then?" he asked.

Char's eyes flickered down to where his dark-gloved hand still gripped her jacket. "Let go of me first, and I'll tell you," she said, unable to keep a threatening growl out of her voice.

Strangely, he lingered only an instant longer before releasing her; the sensation of the fabric settling back against her side made the muscles there shiver, but she ignored it in favor of answering his question. "Yeah, we did."

"It was the closest place, and we had nowhere else to go," Riku added, eyebrows rising on his forehead. Were he not swathed in Xehanort's appearance, his bangs would have swallowed them up, the way they had streaked his black blindfold with silver in the past.

Before he had had to take such extreme measures to capture Roxas.

"Is that a problem?" the dark boy queried, folding his arms and appraising Copperhead with no small amount of apprehension.

Picking up the slight suspicion in Riku's voice, Copperhead dropped his hand from where it had hovered in the air and quickly tried to justify his intrusive behavior. "N-no, it's not," he said. "It's just…" He paused, tapped the fingers of one hand against the opposite hip, then sighed almost explosively, as if figuring remaining silent wouldn't help matters. "I used to live there, with Falcon. And I was curious. That's all, okay?"

This marked the second piece of new, startling information within the hour, and accordingly, threads of curiosity pulled Char away from her normal response of just silently absorbing and dismissing it. Inwardly, she chided herself for the shock coursing through her; after all, she herself had lived with six other men for eleven years. Yet she couldn't picture Falcon condoning just one other man's presence in her home, whether she had tolerated said man's antics or not at the time.

Rather than share in Char's surprise, Riku plastered a carefully neutral expression on his countenance. "Falcon told me that much," he said. "I'm just curious about why you had to live with her."

A very subtle shift in Copperhead's demeanor had occurred as Riku spoke: dread, to anxiety, and then calmness again as Riku admitted Falcon had only revealed their brief proximity together. It was a shift that Char saw despite the blonde's unfamiliarity and regarded with mild suspicion.

As much as her better judgment told her not to give an honest damn about Falcon and Copperhead's little quarrels, she found herself thinking back to the anathema and desperation on Falcon's face when he had shown up yesterday afternoon. The matter of why he had breathed out a sigh of relief when Riku had confessed he didn't know the source of that anathema wormed its way into Char's thoughts again as well.

"I guess she didn't tell you what happened that I had to, huh?" Copperhead asked, almost as if to dodge the question.

Riku straightened and regarded the other man with an almost impatient look, as though knowing Copperhead was stalling. "No, she didn't." The silence that dropped off the end of that confirmation filled in the question they both left unspoken.

Copperhead shrugged, violet eyes darting from girl to young man. For some reason, he finally settled on her, and she narrowed her own eyes just slightly, albeit not without meeting his stare evenly. Guess it's easier to look at me than Riku, she reflected, and couldn't help the burst of incredulity that followed the heels of that thought.

Because barely a month ago, the opposite would have held true.

So wound up was she in fighting reminiscences at that moment that she didn't notice the almost searching manner in which he was watching her until the sounds around her – the ringing phones, the clicking keyboards, the murmuring voices – suddenly filtered back into her ears and forced her to pay attention to reality. Feeling as though she had just left deep water behind, she stared back at him for a few more moments before it became clear to her. He's wondering how much I know.

Well, she thought in a mental rebuttal, he was going to be disappointed, because Falcon did not trust her near to the extent that she apparently did Riku. Probably never would. The idea stung a little, really.

Then Copperhead looked back at Riku and answered his silent query. "My older brother died," he admitted, so smoothly that it made Char wonder until he elaborated. "A little over a year ago. My parents were never around, so when he died, our main source of income did, too." He saw the slightly accusatory gleam in Riku's eyes and hastened to amend himself. "For the record, moving in was Falcon's idea, not mine. I was gonna try and get a job that could actually pay for the house and stuff."

"And I'm guessing living together didn't work out," Char commented.

The words had slipped out almost of their own accord, so acrimonious and pointed in their emergence that even with her apprehension and slight annoyance toward Copperhead she immediately wanted to snatch the snide comment back again. Almost the instant that regret crossed her consciousness she felt Riku's stare burning into her hair, could almost hear his unspoken be a little more rude to the guy who's helping us, why don't you?

She chose to ignore that and the shame that traced hotly against her back. Instead, she met Copperhead's gaze, her head tilting almost defiantly to the side away from Riku.

Copperhead shrugged again, angling his face away from hers. "No, I guess it didn't." Char blinked, startled out of her confusion at his lack of acknowledging her rudeness, when the light caught off a not-so-subtle shadow flitting over his face. Before she could even so much as consider asking about it, though, he looked back at her and Riku, blithe mask affixed firmly back in place. "Well," he announced, "if you guys need me, I'll be there. Just let me head back to my work space and get my scythe."

"You take your weapon with you to work?" Riku asked, bewilderment on his features.

Copperhead nodded a little self-consciously, already turning away and waving over his shoulder. "I do a lot of field jobs. Like hell am I going out there without anything to protect myself. I'll be right back," he added, tossing the last part after him as he swept around the corner and the black-and-white of his coattails vanished.

Immediately, Riku rounded on Char, eyes narrowed in an emotion that she couldn't distinguish between irritation and offense. "Did you really –" he began, but Char cut him off with a sharp completion of her own.

"Ask that question? Make him look like an ass? Yeah, I did," she spat, ignoring the way his eyes widened ever so slightly – just slightly, just enough to show her acerbity surprised him. For some reason, she thought, so different from how Sora would react, he'd blink and get that damned puppy-dog look and try to calm me down, and for some reason, that only pissed her off more.

Rather than succumb to her anger and release it at Riku, though, she found herself wondering what the point of that would be. After all, only moments before, she had loathed her callous remark. And besides, they were in public. So she sighed and folded her arms, ignoring how very much like a refuge the familiar action felt. "Look," she grumbled, "I didn't mean to sound rude there. It's just…"

"You were curious, right?" Riku finished, making Char stop abruptly and regard him with a small start. I shouldn't be surprised that he can read me that easily; he's known me for over a year, and, Sora aside, that shouldn't change too much in just a month. Reminding herself that Riku's accurate hypothesis made sense didn't assuage the surprise building up inside her, though.

Taking her silence as confirmation in and of itself, Riku continued, voice unnaturally subdued without even a hint of sarcasm or dryness. Just frustration. "I've been curious about it for a month," he admitted. "I don't talk to Copperhead as much as Falcon, so I didn't know the exact details until just now."

Char blinked; that at the very least explained his suspicion, the edge of interest poking up from beneath the surface of apprehension. He was hoping I could worm the answer out of him. "But nothing about why they stopped being friends?" she couldn't help asking.

Riku shook his head, but he never got to do much more than that – never got to witness more than the momentary blaze of annoyance on Char's countenance or begin to wonder for more than an instant why she was so damned curious – because the female half of the discussion called out from nearby.

"Riku?"

As one, the two of them turned in the direction of Falcon's voice. Briefly, Char reflected on the similarity of yesterday: hearing Falcon approach in the midst of conversation and glancing toward her with the same uncanny tandem that had drawn her to him in the past. Yesterday, though, the setting sun had stained the sky around them orange and heated the air around them; yesterday, belligerence had marked the way both of them had turned their heads, instead of commiseration over unfounded interest.

It was weird, how much could change in just one day.

Falcon stumbled to an unceremonious halt in front of them, standing fairly steadily in spite of her panic from earlier. Clearly, the minutes she had spent hiding had gradually filtered through said panic and allowed it to dissolve, for the gaze she fixed on them – or, really, on Riku, but Char could see as well – shone clear in the artificial lighting.

"Hey," Riku greeted, sparing Falcon a small, albeit friendly smile. An odd expression for Xehanort's face to hold, and on this particular incarnation of him only sent shudders of revulsion along Char's spine, but she tamped down her emotions. It was rare for him to express something like this – normally he had his smiles on reserve for talking about Sora and Kairi – but, awareness of Falcon's feelings or no, he had placed a distinctively reassuring slant to this particular one. "You feeling better?"

Char watched as just with that little gesture, Falcon's features loosened from their strained exertion in running back here, in favor of a tentative grin of her own. The redhead risked a glance back at Riku, who to his credit was standing his ground in the face of Falcon's admiration, and had to wonder what they were thinking about. Whether Falcon was remembering Char's words about only caring for him as a friend, or whether Riku was regretting even that paltry display of friendship and concern.

However, Falcon just nodded, walking a little past them and speaking over her shoulder. "I think so," she replied. "Just… just waiting for him, I guess." There was no question as to who he was. The hitch in her voice skidded none too gently against the smooth cadence of their surroundings.

Riku's mouth shortened into a contemplative frown. There's a more familiar look, Char thought with a surge of powerful relief, clinging to that familiarity both in Riku's nature and in Xehanort's. Before he could do much more than draw words to his tongue, though, another voice swept through the hall, growing louder as it approached.

Even with her back facing them, the way Falcon's back stiffened as she recognized that voice was just as poignant as if Char could see her face contorting in dread. That dread had a contagion about it, and so within moments the redhead had to look at Riku to distract herself from its effect on her. He merely stared straight ahead, a look of deceptive apathy wiping away the reassurance from earlier; however, Char could see the tightness in his jaw that belied his façade.

"Okay, guys, I think I'm ready. I'm almost out of healing items, though, so maybe we should stop by the shop before –" Copperhead glanced up from where he had been readjusting his scythe's scabbard along his back as he spoke, only to halt abruptly, both verbally and physically, at the sight of Falcon in front of him.

For a moment the two of them just watched each other. Discomfort rippled along Char's body at the obvious distrust in the slight arch of Falcon's spine, along with knowing just how much fury she had expressed this morning about the presence of this particular assistant.

Copperhead had dual shock and apprehension warring on his face – oh yeah, Char remembered belatedly, we kind of forgot to tell him she was coming along – along with… reluctance. An unspoken maybe I can just turn and get back to work now that resonated as loudly as if he had spoken it aloud.

On his face there lingered fear, and that rattled Char, for some reason.

She told herself she was probably overthinking things, the thought echoing in a timbre that reminded her distinctly of a spiky-haired, key-wielding boy. Yet the anxiety revealed itself to her nonetheless, and it kept nagging at her with its oddness.

Then Copperhead drew himself up with a rather weak grin – that, while pathetic, at least was a vast improvement over nervousness. "Afternoon, Fal," he greeted. An awkward pause, then, "I'm guessing Char and Riku told you why I'm coming along?"

If his display of trepidation shadowing his every shift from one foot to the other surprised Char, it vanished instantly in her mind at his failing to use the inane nickname he had coined for her. Reduced to little more than a blinking, dumbstruck fool as she was, when Riku let out a tiny murmur of shock she just acknowledged it rather than delivering a sardonic remark about it.

Besides, even she knew she didn't want to hold the knife that cut the tension vibrating the air between Falcon and Copperhead.

Falcon, too, said nothing, though obviously out of something else rather than the pure bewilderment that rooted the boy she loved and – whatever the hell Char was to her, in place. What that something else answered to, Char didn't know. Fear, at the past that clung to this boy's back? Weariness, at the events of the day already having exhausted her emotionally?

Annoyance, at the presence of the very person she claimed to loathe so much?

Either way, Char realized she needed to stop dwelling on the dark-haired girl's emotional stability and focus on her own. The sooner we find that machine, the sooner I can see Sora again. "We should probably get going," she suggested, distracting herself from her asinine interest in Falcon's emotions with sounding brusque. "It's the middle of the day already, and I think Falcon said something about having multiple places to go?" She addressed this last part to the dark-haired girl, who turned to her with the distinct look of dread fading into disinterest.

Char held in a sigh. At least she still had enough energy to scorn her.

"Yeah," Falcon answered, speaking slowly, as if gathering her thoughts from where Copperhead's appearance had shattered them. Whether she had spent her time between stealing away to hide and now mentally preparing herself or not, now it seemed like those efforts were finally being put to good use. She looked at Riku, carefully avoiding both the redhead and the object of her hatred. "I'll lead the way. Let's go."

"Um, Fal?" Copperhead piped up tentatively from behind them, making her whirl back with undisguised annoyance.

"What?" she growled sharply.

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but he kept his response fairly bereft of aggression. "The item shop first," he suggested. One hand reached into his pocket and pulled the interior of it out to show it held nothing, and he brought that hand palm up almost anticipatively. "I told you I need some healing items."

Falcon looked as if she would very much like to argue, but seemed to understand that they still stood in the middle of the city hall – his workplace, much less a public corridor – and the idiocy of snarling at him now. So she just turned on her heel and threw a "fine" over her shoulder. Very quickly, the opaque oaken doors had swallowed her form up.

"This should be interesting," Riku muttered under his breath as the others began to follow, trying to catch up to the smaller girl's brisk pace.

"Gee, I wonder why?" Copperhead beat Char to the sarcasm, hefting the scythe's scabbard further up onto his back. The slightly venomous tint to his rhetorical inquiry made her glance at him, surprised.

Noticing her bemusement, he cocked an eyebrow, incorrigible grin slicing back into his features. "What? I can be mean, too." He punctuated the last part with a smirk-like quirk of his lips and a newfound glimmer lighting his eyes.

Char sighed, confusion immediately dissipating into exasperation. Yep. He's back to normal.

She was starting to really resent Riku for not letting her pick up some munny before he had dragged her off.

When she voiced this to him, he stopped in his tracks, one hand resting on the glass door, and gave her an incredulous look. "You can't be serious. And you're saying this now… why?"

"Because it's a pain in the ass having Falcon and Copperhead pay for everything, that's why," Char retorted, folding her arms across her chest.

Behind her, Copperhead looked up from where he was emptying the plastic bag holding his purchases into his pockets, attentively listening at the sound of his name. "Wait, what about us paying for every – damn it!" he suddenly yelped, stumbling to try and catch the multiple vials that had fallen out of his grasp during his maneuvering. As the shopkeeper had just vanished into the hall behind the sales counter, the only people effectively startled were Riku, Char, and Falcon.

The very latter spared him only a rudimentary glance – one that, however brief, smoldered with all the scorn that didn't condense itself in her voice – before striding past where he was trying to pick them up. "Come on, Fal!" he whined, but gathered his purchases into the pockets of his long coat nonetheless.

However, she ignored this, too. Didn't even spit an obligatory demand for him to not use that nickname. Instead, she just cocked her head at Riku. "I was thinking we would walk around the forest some more. There are some places we haven't looked at yet – some hidden areas where the Organization could've stashed the machine." She stumbled over the name of their enemies, as though it had just recently become familiar to her.

Which, in all likelihood, it had.

Char couldn't help wondering why Riku had withheld the name Organization XIII from Falcon. Probably because in the end, it mattered to no one but her, she who carried the most personal grudge toward them – a feeling that, while slightly dulled by Sora's calming influence, seethed and festered deep inside her nonetheless.

"Hidden parts of the forest, huh?" Riku pushed the door open, the movement heralding a high-pitched jingling noise that startled Char at first until she saw the bell above the door had rung and tried to relax. The four of them stepped outside, Falcon tactfully slipping forward to lead them.

They made their way through the town square, past the pathway that led to the interconnected office buildings, toward the dazzling blaze of brightness that was the river in the distance. Falcon answered Riku fairly smoothly, without turning to face even him. "Yeah, they're places we – I found a while back," she quickly amended.

Char heard Copperhead suddenly gasp behind her and twisted her head over her shoulder just in time to see his jaw drop slightly ajar and his lips quirk upward. "Are we going to go to the falls?" he asked eagerly, and the glow on his face shone so damn bright that Char almost wanted to look into the sun for a couple of seconds to dull the glare a bit. "Man, I still remember the day we found those."

"Don't," Falcon interrupted sharply, the word condensing into a low, threatening hiss. She stopped so abruptly in her tracks that Riku's chest collided with the back of her head, coaxing a grunt out of him. Char was spared his fate, though she did give Copperhead a warning look before he could crash into her in turn; he laughed sheepishly at the sight of her death glare, but even that amusement petered out as he stared at Falcon.

The dark-haired girl had pivoted on her heel to glower at Copperhead. Although quite a few inches of height stretched upward between them – not as much as between her and Riku's current body, but a fair bit – her tilting her head back to meet his gaze properly didn't muffle her fury in the slightest. An instant later, she whirled back around and set off again, leaving the others to hurry and catch up.

Again.

Char narrowed her eyes. This is getting ridiculous. She could understand Falcon not wanting Copperhead around – she had the same little issue with unleashing the full power of her temper on Organization members, even though time and companionship had filtered most of that anger recently – but her emotions had, so far, only proven detrimental to finding what they sought.

Maybe her rapidly-thinning patience finally wormed its way into her tongue; she wasn't sure. Either way, though, she heard herself open her mouth and ask anyway.

"Nowhere near the citadel, I'm guessing?"

Falcon froze for two seconds. Just a couple of seconds, during which Char felt a fiery surge of triumph at having gotten a genuine reaction out of the female Keybearer. It was a testament to how strongly that triumph leaped within her, then, that only a few moments later guilt began to replace it.

She heard a sound that seemed caught between a grunt and a strangled gasp emitted from behind her – the verbal counterpart of Falcon's speechlessness and complete blankness in those emerald eyes on Char – and almost absently filed away that Copperhead seemed to share Falcon's fear toward the citadel.

No – not fear. Apprehension, the flare of panic that lanced along one's spine at the thought of a site of pain.

The same feeling Char herself used to experience when so much as brushing the notion of visiting Hollow Bastion again.

Riku's amber eyes slid from Keyblade wielder, to seventh apprentice, to possible traitor, then between the three of them again. Around them, the hustle and bustle of the town rolled onward, as tireless and impassive as waves lapping at Riku's island, and the sound of footsteps swapping timbre when the surface beneath them changed from wooden bridge to concrete land. He thought about interfering, about taking Char aside and chiding her for the bluntness that had marked her for what felt like the umpteenth time that day, only for it to hit him rather abruptly that rebuking her made next to no sense.

The revelation felt a little like getting backhanded, with much the same result: staggering back, albeit mentally, and regarding the hand with a measure of shock.

Because hadn't he all but coveted the return of her straightforwardness?

Char focused on Falcon's face, on all the emotions swimming throughout her gaze, finding a bit of fascination in the way they shifted fluidly there. Fear, to dread, to anger, and then to resignation. "No," was all she said, before resuming once more.

Even though the older girl had turned so quickly she had offered Char only a glimpse of her final expression, the redhead had picked it up nonetheless. Sorrow.

An emotion not unlike the one that had haunted her every thought of brown hair and dark blue eyes when she had first stumbled out of that portal and Riku had pinned her against the palace walls.

Thinking of Sora and everything they had gone through brought Char up short, all but jerked the reins holding her rampant fascination toward Falcon and Copperhead's dilemma and demanded why she had let it loose in the first place.

I'm here only to get what I need to stop the Organization. Nothing else.

The thought carried her after Falcon, past the still-gawking Riku, and over the bridge.

One final swing of the crimson-bladed Guardian Soul proved too much for the anchor-wielding reaper Heartless, and it dissolved into smaller wisps of darkness. Sora lowered both his recently-found Keyblade and the Circle of Life, feeling the power that King Mickey had given him in Hollow Bastion thrumming throughout his entire body.

Although a thin thread of golden sunlight bathed the sea's horizon, the moon still held sway over the sky, and he glanced to Jack to see if defeating the Heartless had done what they wanted. To his relief, the pirate was lifting decidedly muscular arms and eyeing himself with a subdued smile: his equivalent of pure glee.

"I guess it worked," the Keybearer remarked. It was odd to not hear Donald and Goofy voicing their agreement; when he had transformed, almost without meaning to, the duck and dog had receded to the back of his mind, much like Goofy with Sora's Valor form and Donald with his Wisdom form. He tried to ignore the stark silence – female absence notwithstanding, of course, but he was not going to dwell on that now – and slumped his golden-clad shoulders in exhaustion.

Jack nodded, only to straighten immediately as his gaze caught something just beyond Sora. "Ah, not quite." He pointed to somewhere behind Sora, making the brunette turn.

A bolt of sickening dread shot through him as the dim lighting revealed Luxord standing there, the same accursed smirk plastered across his face. The pink glow offered by the heart in his hand dubbed his form in that telltale light. "Bravo, Sora," he congratulated. He tossed the heart up toward the heavens, and Sora all but ran toward it before he remembered the inevitability of its destination and just stared despondently as it twirled up into the clouds.

Glancing back down again, he stifled a groan, for the final strand of darkness in Luxord's portal was just swirling out into oblivion. He clenched his fist – the one that, while normally free, currently gripped the Circle of Life's creamy hilt – and felt confusion mar his anger for all of about two seconds before he remembered he held it.

The next moment, he blinked in shock as Donald and Goofy stumbled back into visibility. Donald rubbed a feathered hand over his eyes, apparently pushing dizziness out of them, before whirling on his heel and glaring at Sora. "Next time, warn us before you do that!" he growled.

Goofy just nodded in tacit agreement, blinking hard to get both exhaustion and nausea alike out of his system.

Sora laughed sheepishly. "Sorry, guys." He meant the apology; after finding the Interceptor's remains, the four of them – Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack – had spent the better part of this world's night and their internal clock's afternoon traipsing about this world, land and sea alike, searching for the stolen medallions.

Admittedly, with the Nobodies' off-white pallor, camouflaging into the night was impossible for them. However, that didn't by any means give them any less ability to hide. Sora thought back to how he had had to practically drag a struggling, card-wielding lesser Nobody out from behind a broken mast in the ship graveyard and held back a cringe at the memory.

He sighed. "Luxord got away, though."

"Luxord?" Goofy asked, the name curling out oddly from his lips in the manner of an unfamiliar word.

Sora stiffened; he had all but forgotten that his friends knew next to nothing of the knowledge Roxas' presence in his heart yielded to him. "That guy we just fought. One of the Organization. Number X, actually." The title poured forth before he could stop it, and he shook his head before he could say anything else. Brief though their face-to-face encounters had been – and as little as just seeing the other boy's presence in his dreams could tell him – Sora could almost hear Roxas dryly remarking, you wanted to know, and I let you. Isn't that what you wanted?

"The Organization of what now?" Jack queried from behind them, making them jolt slightly before facing him. One eyebrow had risen over a kohl-rimmed dark eye as he appraised them with aloof interest.

"They're…" Sora stopped immediately when it occurred to him that confessing even that much might tread close to the boundary between meddling and not; but when Donald tugged his pant leg and just nodded, both relief at the permission to withhold any awkward lies and fear joined the blood in Sora's veins.

Because if even Donald, who had always given his stalwart opinion against saying anything about being from another world, eschewed his philosophy at this point, then maybe Sora wasn't the only one who wanted to see home and the ones he loved so badly.

He turned back to Jack Sparrow and spoke. "That guy that keeps showing up? He's part of an Organization that collects hearts." Now that the Circle of Life had turned back to Keychain form in his grasp, his nails freely dug into the palm of his hand, and he was reminded that he should probably trim them soon. "First, they release Heartless into different worlds. We defeat those Heartless. And…"

Fear and self-deprecation tightened his voice, strangling it until just thinking about the Organization's ultimate victory in his actions rendered it gone entirely. Sora stared down at the ground, watching the greasy, short grass and grasping desperately to find some purpose there. Looking down, he couldn't help thinking, and now they have Kairi, and heaven only knows where Riku and Char and King Mickey are…

Noticing the pain that made itself known even with the boy's hair obscuring his downturned face, Donald took it upon himself to finish. "And then they get the hearts," he said, quietly.

Jack appraised Sora with an expression of concern, muffled though it was. He reached forward as though to place a hand on the Keybearer's shoulder, then seemed to remember just what he was supposed to represent and dropping his arm back to his side. "So what's the plan, then?"

Sora lifted his head, blinking at the pirate. "The plan?" he echoed.

"You know, to make sure this Orga-who-whatsit never bring more Heartless here. Savvy?" Jack gestured vaguely with one hand in the air.

The plan. Char's suggestion from that last breakfast in the Gummi ship echoed in Sora's mind, and he echoed it, her words channeling into his. "We're going to find their stronghold, and take them down once and for all."

Reaffirming just what they were doing – his ulterior motive, besides revisiting the friends they had made on this journey – injected a fresh stream of determination into his heart, and the light offered by that effectively blotted out all his despondency. Thinking of Char now, he realized that the sorrow and confusion and fear that had accompanied her memory before had vanished. Had been replaced by the same resolve that had driven him toward Riku and Kairi all this time.

Somewhere during the day, somewhere between hunting the Nobodies down and fighting the reaper who held all the medallions, the memory of his terror as he watched maybe-Riku drag her into darkness had become less raw and painful. And Sora found himself only pushed onward by Char's phantom voice and eyes and kiss, instead of bogged down.

About damn time, Key-boy.

Goofy placed a hand on his shoulder then, and he turned his head to meet the dog's gaze. The same determination that had just filled him was in Goofy's face; looking down at Donald, he saw understanding there, and relief as well.

Relief, at knowing their leader was back.

Jack raised his eyebrow higher. "I take it your missing lady friend is in their lair as well?"

Sora nodded, not even flinching at the obvious reference to Char. "We think so. But that's not the only reason we're going there. They have some of our other friends, too."

The sound of footsteps coming from nearby made them turn, just in time to see Will and Elizabeth approach. When the reaper Heartless had first appeared with the chest of medallions in tow, Sora and his companions had drawn their weapons, and he had shouted at the couple to hide. Of course, Will had insisted on helping, but his injuries from the battle with the Nobodies on the Isla de Muerta had forced him to join Elizabeth in a hidden alley.

Now, the young man winced and brought a hand to the bandages on his chest briefly before speaking. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Anything at all," Elizabeth added, casting Will a worried glance before looking back to the group.

Sora folded his arms in thought. He knew they couldn't exactly take three extra people on the Gummi ship, and they still had other friends to visit. In the end, he brought his arms back down to his side and looked from pirate, to blacksmith, to woman. "Just make sure the Heartless don't get ahold of the medallions again. We all know how that ended up."

Thinking of the previous battle, Donald whipped out his staff and cast a healing spell on all of them. Emerald light cascaded over the four fighters, and Sora sighed in relief as his more minor cuts closed up. "Thanks, Donald," he told the mage.

Jack put a hand to his side, before remembering that he had been in skeletal form for most of the fight and, therefore, having bled considerably little. "Never gonna get over how weird that is, mate," he remarked, shaking his head.

Donald huffed indignantly. "If you don't want my help, just say so!"

"Calm down, Donald," Goofy said, only slightly ignored.

"Well, if beating back the Heartless is all you need, then we'll be ready," Will said, smiling at the trio.

"But not just yet," Elizabeth told him firmly, turning him away and beginning to walk off. "You need time to heal first."

Their voice eventually receded behind the walls surrounding the area, and Sora looked to Jack again. The pirate had been watching the other two world natives walk off, mouth twitching at Will's insistence on his status, but he turned back to Sora. "Sora, you can't really expect a pirate to stay very long, can you?"

Sora laughed, rolling his eyes. "Of course. The Captain Jack Sparrow has places to be, right?"

"And so do we," Donald reminded him.

Goofy nodded. "We should be gettin' back to the vessel."

"Right, right," Sora chuckled, sparing Jack a wave. As he turned away, he heard Sparrow call his name; the fact that he had actually gotten the word right startled him into glancing back. Guess he finally learned my name… that or he knew it all this time and was just trying to bait me. Knowing Jack, it was probably the latter, a fact that made Sora suppress a sigh.

"What's goin' on?" Goofy asked, tilting his head to the side in a way that made his ears swing.

Jack's eyes darted down to the Keyblade in Sora's hand. "The next time you come back," he said, "I'll have a bloodthirsty crew ready to take that blade of yours." He dipped one finger down toward the Guardian Soul as he mentioned it.

Despite the almost obligatory nature of the vow, the Keybearer caught the covetous gleam in Jack's gaze. A grin tugged at his lips as an idea to return Jack's teasing came into his mind. "You can take it now, if you want," he offered, trying as best he could to keep an amused tremor out of his voice. "I've got a million others like it."

Like the Oathkeeper – a promise.

Jack blinked, his equivalent of widening his eyes in shock. "Wait a tick," he said suspiciously. "Where's the rub?"

"No rub," Donald grinned, clearly having caught on to Sora's trick. Beside him, Goofy put a hand over his mouth to stifle his giggle. "It's true. He does have other Keyblades."

The pirate squinted at them, but soon his greed proved too much to resist. He strode forward and plucked the Guardian Soul out of Sora's outstretched hand, eyeing the Keyblade with awe and satisfaction; an instant later, though, the light of it vanishing from his grip illuminated his startled expression. It reappeared back in Sora's hand, and he lifted his free hand, palm up, as if to apologize. "It just does that," he explained smoothly, while Goofy let out an "a-hyuck" of pure mirth.

Sora fought back laughter of his own when Jack's mild surprise faded back to his normal expression. "There," he commented, "I knew there was something more to it. But mark me, Sora – one day I'll be back for that blade."

"With Will and Elizabeth?" Donald quipped.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not." Jack shrugged.

"But you've always got the Pearl," Goofy pointed out.

"Aye, that I do." The pirate turned away, sparing them a glance over his shoulder. "Sora! Make sure you take down that Organization, so they never plague the seas again."

Sora nodded. "Aye, aye, captain!" he joked, making Sparrow sigh indulgently before sauntering off, back to the harbor where his ship waited.

Turning back to his friends, the Keybearer blinked when he saw the pure happiness on their faces. "What's up, guys?"

"We're just glad you're not all sad anymore, Sora," Goofy said, a sniffle marring his voice. Astonishment spread throughout the Keybearer's body as the glint of the rising sun caught off the brightness in the knight's gaze.

Donald huffed and folded his arms. "Yeah, it was kind of stupid," he grumbled, though his annoyed tone wobbled a bit as well.

"Guys…" Sora began, then cut himself short with a sigh. Stooping down, he gathered the two of them together and hugged them close; predictably, Donald struggled a bit at first, only to relax into the embrace.

"I still want to get her back," he confessed, suddenly needing to assure his friends once and for all. At the same time, though, he felt a rush of warmth to both his heart and the back of his eyes at knowing they were still here for him.

That, at the very least, he would never be alone.

"More than anything," he went on, "I want them to be here again. Riku, Kairi, Char, and the King. But there's no use in letting sadness for them keep us down for too long."

As he spoke, he couldn't help cringing a little, as his words belied the true melancholia that had plagued him at having Char gone. However, he said nothing of this, just released them and stood up again. "Let's get back to the Gummi ship."

"Yeah!" Donald said, gripping his staff and nodding firmly.

Once they returned to the ship and stepped inside, pale brown blurs announced Chip and Dale leaping onto the dashboard and frantically waving them over. "What's up, guys?" Sora asked, walking over to greet them.

"While you guys were gone, we got a weird reading on the map," Chip explained, wrinkling his black nose in confusion.

"So we went to take a look at it. But…" Dale wrung his paws.

"But?" Donald prompted, hopping onto a chair to see them better.

"See for yourselves," Chip said, gesturing nervously down at the map. Together, Sora and his friends leaned close, to see a blur of paler green swirling just beyond Twilight Town's tower globe on the screen. Unlike the other worlds on the screen, this misshapen mass moved about, converging together and dividing again like multiple cells.

"That's weird," Sora remarked, brow furrowing in bemusement.

"You don't think…" Donald began. The knight and the boy looked at him, as did the chipmunks. Seeing the others listening to him, Donald obliged them and continued, an odd sort of tentativeness in his voice. "What if that's the Organization's stronghold, and it just hasn't shown up fully yet?"

Sora's eyes widened. "That makes sense! But… why is it so blurry on the map?"

Dale shook his head. "We don't know, Sora. But we do know you can't get near it just yet."

"So we gotta keep lookin' for a back way in," Goofy said. Chip and Dale nodded in confirmation.

Sora sighed, his momentary burst of hope dying down into disappointment. Thoughts of reuniting with Kairi, which had flown into his mind at the notion of heading straight to Organization XIII's world, vanished as well; the darkness left behind by her smile and her warm eyes on him was almost painful. "I figured there was a catch." Like Jack said: there's always a catch. "Well," he added in a hasty attempt at optimism, "all we can do is keep going to the worlds and look for a way. Right?"

"Er, about that, Sora…" Goofy cut in hesitantly.

Hearing the cadence of words left unspoken, Sora shifted his gaze to the knight, who was twiddling his thumbs and staring down at the recently-cleaned tile floor. "What's up, Goofy?" he asked, settling into the chair nearest him. As fate would have it, he had chosen the pilot's seat.

Donald blinked, then his longtime friend's meaning seemed to become clear to him, and he tapped Sora's shoulder from where he knelt on the next chair over. "I know the sun's just now coming up here," he said, "but searching for the medallions took almost all night."

"And we haven't even eaten lunch yet," Goofy added, apparently invigorated out of his polite silence by Donald's boldness in speaking up. "It feels like it's kinda late, a-hyuck."

The brunette blinked. Now that the adrenaline of the day's events had worn off, he could detect the exhaustion that weighed down his companions' shoulders and dulled their eyes.

And that began to seep through him, deadly as a toxic fog and twice as heavy, as well.

Reminiscing on what all had happened today – waking up, shoving breakfast hurriedly down his throat, finding Auron and Anxclof and taking down Hades, the emotional conflict that seeing Luxord had heralded, returning the medallions to their proper place, and recovering his resolve – only enhanced that feeling, until it became an effort just to keep his head upright. He glanced over his shoulder, the movement feeling sluggish, and honed in on the clock Cid had stationed on the wall when he had renovated the Gummi ship. Although the engineer had set the clock to Hollow Bastion time, Sora and the others' internal clocks operated on that time, and so he winced when he saw the numbers blinking redly out at him. 7:29.

"I didn't realize we'd spent so much time in this world," he breathed. Chip and Dale exchanged nervous glances before hopping back down into their own chamber, while Donald folded his arms against the top of the dashboard, almost guiltily gratified. Goofy just stared uncomfortably at the ground.

Looking back at them made all four Disney residents meet his gaze: the chipmunks popping their heads up, and Donald and Goofy raising their faces to him. "I'm sorry, guys," Sora said, fighting back a sigh. "I forgot how long running around two worlds in one day takes." When he had departed from Traverse Town on his first journey, fear for Riku and Kairi and the loneliness brought on by being separated from them for the first time in years had driven him almost manically onward. At least, until Donald had all but pinned him against the controls and snarled at him to take things one day at a time. They had stayed up for nearly twenty hours a few times, wandering around the worlds and picking up secrets.

Sora had hoped that in a year – an infuriatingly blank year, but a year nonetheless – he would have changed a bit.

But the same thing's going on, he reminded himself. You'd just lost the most important people to you. Riku and Kairi.

And now it's happened again. With Char.

He clenched his fist; if she were here, she would undoubtedly take Donald and Goofy's stance on this situation. Calm the hell down, Key-boy, rushing isn't going to change anything.

A dull ache reverberated throughout his body at the thought of her, but at least the pure visceral agony from before had finally receded, after what felt like years.

And so he found himself surrendering to Donald and Goofy's unspoken wishes; they were clearly remembering the old days as well, for the dog actually winced openly. "We'll take things one world, one day at a time," he promised.

His word was true, and yet guilt struck him momentarily at how his friends sighed in relief. "Thanks, Sora," Goofy said, standing up and smiling gratefully at the Keybearer. "We all really appreciate it."

"We know you're in a hurry to find your friends again, Sora," Dale said, startling said brunette into looking down at the chipmunks.

"But if we're too tired when we do find them, that won't do, will it?" Chip finished.

Sora nodded, understanding completely. Beside him, Donald uttered a begrudging grunt of thanks. "So," he said, turning to Goofy, "what's for dinner tonight?"

"Well, that was a pointless day of aggravation and pain," Char sighed, all but falling against Falcon's back door as it swung against her. Thankfully, Riku caught the door before it could add a nosebleed to her already-prolific list of injuries, minor though they were, and she cast him a grateful look, exhaustion bogging down her instinctively questioning his manners.

She dragged herself over the threshold and, seeing Falcon settle on the couch as gracefully as she could with the events of the last few hours weighing her down, had to fight the urge to flop down under the table and join her in stretching out comfortably. Dammit, but she hadn't been this tired in a while – hadn't experienced this achy, physical fatigue that rendered her all but useless.

"I didn't think there would be so many Heartless around the falls," Falcon sighed, straightening briefly only to hunch over again and lean over the table. "They're usually lurking closer to the center of the forest." Her fingers groped about, in search of something; Char watched, confused, for a few moments, before her brain caught up and recognized that Falcon was seeking some bandages.

Briefly, a confused frown stole across Char's face, and then she remembered that healing magic's abilities only extended so far. Although a simple Cura spell could close up most of the trio's wounds, Char found herself unable to blame Falcon for not mustering up the mental energy to use any mana.

Riku cast Char a concerned look. "You all right?" he queried.

The redhead shrugged, only to almost trip over her own feet not a second later; Riku's steady hand at the center of her spine kept her from a humiliating fall, and even though she knew his heart belonged to a girl he had known since childhood and had for over ten years, Char couldn't help shivering at the contact.

Some amount of that movement must have transferred into his palm warm against her back, for he quickly withdrew his hand as if he had reached into flame. "I'm just tired," she confessed, syrupy grogginess all but devouring her words.

The gray-haired young man nodded, rubbing his side. Earlier in the day, while he had busied himself fighting off a swarm of the ganglier Shadow Heartless, one of the robotic ones that had given Sora and Char trouble in Hollow Bastion had crept up and gored him just beneath the ribcage. While the robot had paid for this mistake with its life, the blow had done its damage, both to Riku and to his outfit. The leather of his coat had torn and given way under that sword's sharpness, and so dried blood peeked up from within the billowing darkness' confines.

"You're telling me," he groaned. "Stupid things wouldn't leave us alone."

"Go to bed if you need to," Falcon suggested, coming up wielding a roll of gauze in each hand. From the neutrality on her face, she had either not seen Riku's hand all but sifting through the ends of Char's hair or was pretending she had not. Char chose to believe it was the former, if only because tiredness kept her from immediately assuming the more negative option was true.

"Seriously," the dark-haired girl added, pupils sliding from one teen to the other. She must be tired, Char mused blearily, if she's actually talking to me for once. "You guys look like hell."

"And you don't?" Riku retorted, only half-jokingly. He turned to Char. "You should sleep; you'll need all the energy you can get when we search again tomorrow."

She blinked. Had the day not commenced the way it did, had it not lasted as long as she felt like it had, she might have taken umbrage at his only including her in needing that energy. Would have interpreted the comment as condescending. However, thoughts of bed and sleeping in that bed pervaded any indignation she might have felt, and so she only sighed. "What about you?"

Riku shrugged, staring down at the rip in his cloak. "I need to get this fixed up. Wouldn't want it to break open in the middle of the night and bleed all over Falcon's couch."

"Your courtesy is noted and appreciated," Falcon said, smiling a little. Much as weariness inhibited Char's ability to think coherently, the warmth in that tiny upward slant was not lost on her. If anything, that warmth had increased after Char had told Falcon she wasn't interested in Riku that way.

But it was too much to consider right now, and so she just bid them good night and trudged up to her room to strip off her jacket and collapse into bed.

Bluh bluh boring shit. DX At least during the next day some RELEVANT shit will actually happen. And hey, Sora and Char aren't depressed anymore? Aren't you proud of me?

Review, please?