I have sad new, everyone... I'm taking a long, looong break from this story. It has nothing to do with you guys, or the lack of reviews, but because I wrote 160 pages in less than 4 months and I'm really sick of this story... *sigh* So, this is the schedule for this story; nothing's going to be written for a while, but for the rest of January, and February, I'll be posting a chapter each week. Then, in March, I'm not going to be posting so I can focus on my original story, then I may come back to posting in April. It depends on if I have my groove for this story back... it'll come back eventually, so don't worry, but for now...

However, I'll still be writing. I'm going to be working on another fanfic of mine that isn't posted here that's completely serious and only for me to work on my description and flow, two things this fanfic seems to lack... *sigh*

Anyway, this chapter was interesting for me to write, but it's not edited. Now, before you get mad at me, I spent the last two days laid up in bed because I was in so much pain I couldn't move, then I was high on pain meds (prescription), so I couldn't write. But, chances are I won't be editing anymore of the chapters in this story until... well, ever. I think I found a beta finally...

So, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and as always, please review :)

~Sunechirei

Full chapter title: Boycott Shampoo. Give me the REAL poo

(Taken from my chem teacher, who got it from somewhere...)

Halloween. Every child's favorite day of the year, with the exception of Christmas and their birthday. It's a day where little kids get to walk around in costumes, in the dark, ringing the doorbells of strangers, and accepting candy from these people without question.

I find that to be a bit creepy.

I mean, what kind of insane maniac thought of the idea of letting their child roam around the streets at night and get candy from complete strangers? For all they know, those strangers are child molesters, or murderers, or psychopaths. Those children aren't safe out there! There should be some kind of law against this holiday, especially the parties...

"Oh come on, Roxie. The party is going to be a lot of fun. You should come."

And Red should be locked up so I don't have to deal with him.

"For the last time. No! I don't like Halloween."

"Roxie..." Red draped his arms around my shoulders, letting his chin rest on my shoulder. I blushed slightly, but not enough for Red see it. He would never let it rest if he knew that I was embarrassed by a simple gesture such as this. Of course, this position wasn't exactly normal between business partners, but then again, nothing was normal about Red. In fact, if it weren't for fact that Ellie had known the weirdo for years, I would have been convinced that Red was an alien from some random planet out there whose sole purpose for being here was to annoy the hell out of me.

It seemed plausible.

"Get off me. Go bug Sora or something," I muttered, trying to shrug Red's arms off of me. However, instead of his arms falling off, they tightened around my neck, pulling me closer to him.

"But Sora isn't as fun to be around as you are," he whispered almost seductively in my ear. So I elbowed him in the stomach. That got him off me in a hurry. Composing myself so that Red wouldn't know I had been completely and totally flushed during that time, I spun my chair around to face him, and smirked. He was leaning against the back wall, his arm across his stomach, and his face contorted from pain.

Serves him right.

"You have serious boundary issues," I muttered, hoping that Red had learned his lesson and wouldn't try to do anything else. But of course, I was wrong. I'm always wrong about things like this.

"You're right, I do have boundary issues," Red said, rubbing his stomach. "That's such a shame, isn't it?" I didn't like the sound of his voice. "Now, if only you weren't so adverse to my touch, this wouldn't be a problem at all." My chair was spun around before I could stop it, and Red placed his hands on the arm rests, leaning towards me. "Why don't we fix that."

The door to the office opened suddenly, before Red could do anything about it, and I heard Naminé let out a screech of frustration.

"Axel! Get away from him!" She yelled storming over to us. Red backed off, and I stared at her in shock. Never, not once had I heard her raise her voice like this. She stopped in front of Red, glaring at him, "I need to talk to you. Now." Red looked scared, but obliged, leaving the room without a word. I got up to try and follow them, but Naminé snapped at me, "This is none of your concern, Roxas."

None of my concern my ass. This was totally my concern. After all, it had to do with me, right? Once Red and Naminé were out the door, I jumped up and walked as quietly as I could to the door, hoping to catch some of their conversation. However, the two had disappeared, so I opened the wooden door, getting ready to go out and search for them.

"Roxas, why do you look like you're about to do something bad?" Right, I had forgotten about Kairi. Laughing nervously, I turned to face her, hoping that something good could come out of this. "Can I help with whatever you're doing." And something good did come out of it.

"Well, you see, I would say you can help, but I don't think you would be interested..."

"Does it have to do with the fact that the normal passive Naminé came storming out of your office, nearly dragging Axel down the hall?" I nodded. "Well, you're right, that doesn't interest me." I swear there is something wrong with all the women in the world.

I headed towards the stairs, saying goodbye to Kairi, but a darn obstruction blocked my path.

Sora.

I hadn't seen him in a while, almost like he wasn't really that important in the office building. It made me wonder how he, Kairi, and Riku became friends in the first place. They must have gone to the same college or something.

"Roxas, why is it that you're not going to the party tonight? It's going to be so much fun! And we all go every year. You have to come. You just do. There's no question about it."

"Wait? Roxas isn't coming? How lame!" Kairi jumped out of her chair, and leaned across her desk, looking at me expectantly. "You really should come. If you don't you'll be shunned by the rest of us."

I doubted that Kairi was exaggerating. It wasn't like her to exaggerate on certain things, this being one of them. Well, unless she's high on caffeine, but she wasn't at that moment. I hoped. It would be so annoying if she was, but it was just like Red to do something so annoying again…

"Look," I began, backing away from the couple, "I don't like Halloween. I never really have. Sorry, but I don't want to-"

"Too bad. You're coming, whether you like it or not." Sora grinned, causing my anger and frustration to rise even more than it already was. I stormed past him, snapping;

"Shouldn't you be doing your job? Your break doesn't start for another two hours." Sora cringed at my words and started muttering to himself, but I didn't stop to hear what he said, as I wanted to know why Naminé and Red were fighting. That was more important than what the brown haired teen had muttered about me. However, before I could even get to the stairs, the door burst open and Naminé stormed in.

She stopped before she hit me, and looked up, tears in her eyes.

"Nami! Are you okay?" I asked. She shook her head, but didn't say anything. "What is going on?"

"It's nothing, Roxas. Just leave me alone." I wanted to say something else, but Kairi's hand on my shoulder stopped me. Glancing back at her, I saw that she was shaking her head, telling me not to push it.

"Come on, Nami, let's go get some coffee or something."

The two girls walked out of the room before I could say anything, leaving me alone with Sora.

The hyped up young man walked over to Kairi's desk, jumped up on it and said, "Man, you cause a lot of drama."

"Excuse me?" I had no idea what he was talking about. Me? Cause drama? Never in my life have I been involved in such a thing (unless you count Hayner's crap).

"Wow, you haven't noticed the whole thing between Naminé and Axel?"

This guy was kind of an idiot. I just asked Naminé what was going on, didn't I? And I was trying to chase after them until Sora decided to stop me and ask why I wasn't attending the stupid Halloween party. How would I not have noticed what was going on?

"Of course I did. Why do you think I was-"

"Yeah, but do you know what they're arguing about?"

"No... do you know?"

"Of course I know. Everyone knows. Well, except for you, anyway."

Great. I'm a topic of gossip in the office. Just what I wanted. I swear that this place is just like high school. Except that I'm actually involved in the madness this time. Usually, I avoided drama and gossip like it was the plague, cuz if you think about it, it kind of is a plague. "What do you mean, 'everyone knows?' Everyone knows what?"

Sora pondered this question for a moment, and my irritation rose even higher. "Just tell me!" I hissed, taking a threatening step forward.

"Okay, I wi-"

"Well Roxie, it's settled. You're coming to my party tomorrow night."

I flinched, irritated not only by the sound of Red's voice, but because of the fact that he had interrupted Sora when he was about to tell me what the hell was going on! You know, I don't get why I'm always the one out of the loop. I mean, I've been working here for five months and the others act like I'm just a kid who knows nothing about life and is completely unobservant. Neither of which are true.

"What do you mean by that. I never said I would go."

"Yeah, well, your girlfriend did."

"What?"

Silence. Why are there always awkward silences? It's starting to get on my nerves. That's a lie. It started to get on my nerves when I started working here.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm not very happy working here.

"Naminé. Your girlfriend. She said you should go. So you're going. Okay?"

No, it was not okay. Why did Naminé get to decide if I was going or not? It's not like I wasn't going because of her, it's because Halloween scares the shit out of me. And that has nothing to do with her, either! I mean, I didn't know her when I was seven and she had absolutely nothing to do with...

Never mind, I don't want to talk about that.

"Helloooo? Earth to Roxie."

Sighing, I turned to Red, irritated beyond all belief. "Fine. I'll go."

It was five o'clock, and I was at Sora and Red's apartment, trying hard not to be noticed by the crazy people known as Red's friends. Or, I think they're his friends. I'm not exactly sure who any of them are, or that he had any friends. He seems like the kind of guy who sat in the corner of his classroom and didn't talk to anyone because he thought he was better than everyone. It just seemed to, you know, fit his personality.

I began to wonder what I should do here. I didn't belong, obviously, but I was also expected to talk to people. I think. Red said something about Naminé wanting me to be more social, which is stupid seeing as all the people here are at least five years older than I. There was also the fact that Naminé and Red weren't getting along at the moment, so I highly doubted she wanted me to associate with the crazy guy's friends.

But here I was, waiting for something interesting to happen, well, more like not happen. I didn't exactly want to be here.

"Are you Roxie?"

Flinching at the use of my stupid nickname, I looked up into bright blue eyes that were staring down at me with interest, and was taken aback by his strange hairdo and bored look on his face. I nodded.

"Dude, Axel's told me so much about you. It's nice to finally meet the guy-"

"Demyx, let's not go scaring my business partner, okay?" Red's voice immediately cut off the dirty-blond haired guy. "He's still a bit of a baby."

"Business partner? I thought-"

"No, you didn't think. You never think."

"Hey!"

"Sorry cuz."

I got two pieces of information out of this conversation. One; This Demyx guy was Red's cousin, and two; Red talked about me to other people.

Okay, that's a lie. I got three pieces of info. The third was that Demyx knew something about me that I didn't, and I had a feeling that it had to do with why Red and Naminé were fighting. This intrigued me greatly, and I started devising a plan to get this information out of the guy. Maybe coming here wasn't such a waste after all….

"Hey, um… whatever your name is, stop interrupting Demyx. I want to hear what he has to say." I still couldn't remember Red's name, and I could tell it was pissing him off. He deserved it.

"Whatever," Red muttered, before reaching forward and grabbing my wrists, pulling me off the couch. I tried to protest, but as usual, I was too weak. Again, the gym. "Come here, Roxie. Riku, Sora and I are planning something and you should come help us." The irritation had disappeared from his voice, and he seemed to be completely ignoring my request.

"Hey! Wait! I want to-"

"No one cares what you want, Roxie."

This guy...

I was pulled through the crowd of people, despite my protests, and I really wished that Red would just leave me alone. I couldn't quite understand why he was always so... so... so attached to me. No matter where we were, he was trying to be near me, talk to me, touch me... it was kind of creepy.

"Hey, it's Roxie! You actually came!" Sora's bubbly voice sounded through the crowed, and I knew then it was too late to get away. The idiotic guy had seen me; and now, there was no turning back.

I...

Was...

Screwed...

"Yeah..." I managed to mutter, pulling my arm out of Red's hand.

"Come here, we have something to talk about," Riku said, pulling out one of the chairs from the table, and I was shoved down into it, but I didn't protest. There was really nothing I could do, was there...

Red sat down next to me, grinning madly, and I had a feeling that this was going to turn out like that day when Hayner decided he wanted to kill his next door neighbor. Of course, that wasn't that bad, but still...

Before anyone could say anything, Sora pulled out a piece of paper that had interesting design on it. "This, is what we should do to get back at the adults who won't let us go trick or treating."

At that point, I had no idea what trouble Sora was going to be getting us into. The picture on the paper was almost unidentifiable, and I had a strange feeling that it had something to do with getting back at certain people.

But that wasn't very important.

"Why are you trying to get back at adults who won't let you go trick or treating? Aren't you too old to go?" I really shouldn't have said this. All three boys turned to stare at me like I was insane. "What?" I asked, shrinking back in my chair. Sora let out a sigh.

"Roxas, you're never too old to go trick or treating!"

"That's true, but that doesn't mean the people you go to will actually give you candy." Riku laughed. Sora nodded in agreement. "So, we've decided that it's time to get back at all the people who wouldn't give us any candy starting from where we were in high school." I did not like the evil tone that was Riku's voice.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," I groaned. The party had ended an hour ago, but was I at home, safe and warm in my bed? Of course not. I was stuck behind a bush with three immature adults who were planning on getting back at people for not giving them candy. They could just go to the store and buy a few bags! It can't cost more than twenty bucks, and the three of them could certainly afford it. I mean, look who they work for.

Next to me, Red patted my head, and grinned. "Roxie, obviously you don't understand the meaning of 'revenge.' We can't just let these people get away with such monstrous acts! We must retaliate!"

"This is so juvenile and pointless. You could get arrested for doing something like this!" I hissed at him, moving away from Red. Of course, that meant I was moving closer to Riku, who still hated me for thinking Ellie had a crush on me, so that wasn't much better.

"Juvenile? Maybe. Pointless? You wish." I cringed at Riku's words, and tried not to grumble to myself at how stupid some people could be. It was angering.

"I wish? I don't wish it was pointless, I wish you idiots wouldn't do it!" I tried to back away, but of course, they stopped me. They being Red and Riku. They wouldn't let me go to the edge for fear that I would just run off. Of course, they were absolutely correct, but I wasn't going to let them have the satisfaction of being right about something... "Come on! We're going to get in trouble for this!"

Red let out a sigh. "No we're not, Roxie. We'll be perfectly okay."

I felt the great urge to slap myself in the forehead, but I refrained from doing so, mainly because I didn't really want to feel pain, but also because Sora and Riku would probably make fun of me for thinking they were idiots. Red probably wouldn't say anything.

"Look, I'm not going to get in trouble because you three are mad. Halloween is not that great of a holiday. It's not worth it." I attempted to get away from them again, but of course, Red and Riku each grabbed one of my arms, keeping me from going anywhere, despite how much I struggled. It was amazing how strong the two of them were, and I couldn't help but wonder why I wasn't like that. Was it not in my genes to be strong or something? I mean, my parents weren't exactly the kind to be good at fighting, or strong in anyway, so...

"Okay, I've been curious for a while now, but why do you hate Halloween so much? Did you have childhood trauma or something weird like that?" Sora's voice sounded from the other side of Riku, and he glanced over at me with wide eyes. Memories of that night eleven years ago flashed through my head, and I shuddered, nodding a little bit. Immediately, Sora and Riku started laughing at me (I should have been expecting that) and Red patted me on the head.

"Oh, poor Roxie. Did the big bad werewolves scare you?" The mockery in Red's voice was almost deafening, and I ended up punching him in the arm. "Ow!" He shot me a glare, but it didn't seem to be exactly hateful, or full of anger. I found this to be rather, strange. But, I didn't have much time to analyze that, because Riku and Sora were now catching their breath after laughing extremely their guts out, and were about to question me about it. Not really wanting to deal with their questions, I sighed and started to tell them a shortened version of what happened.

"Eleven years ago, when I was seven, I went out trick-or-treating, like all the other kids in my neighborhood, and it started raining. I ended up taking shelter in the park near my house, unable to get home, and there were these two strange teenage boys there, and they practically tortured me."

I looked at the three guys, and was surprised to see Sora and Riku exchanging uncertain glances. "What?" I asked.

"What park?" Riku asked me, confused, I told him. "Were you dressed up as a strange soldier guy?" My stomach dropped. I had dressed up as a SOLDIER, a type of mercenary from one of the stories my mom told me when I was young. I looked like a normal military person, of course, even though I wasn't...

"Yeah, I was, wh-"

"Wait," Sora interrupted me, his jaw dropping slightly, "that was you?"I blinked, and suddenly, everything fit. Why it fit, I'm not exactly sure, but it did, and it was terrifying. Then again, I don't really know why it was terrifying. I was confused...

"Holy shit! It is him!" Riku suddenly exclaimed, jumping up. "That's so funny!"

These two were the ones who practically ruined my Halloween, no wait, not practically, completely ruined it.

"Dude, I had completely forgotten about that Halloween. Man, it seems like just yesterday... that was so much fun." Sora grinned idiotically and I felt sick to my stomach. Enjoying another person's misery seemed to be just sick. How anyone could like the fact that they tortured a seven year old who just wanted to have a fun Halloween…

"I know! Man, I miss being fourteen. That year was the best ever."

"Wait, what happened?" Red asked, looking extremely excited.

"Oh, well, you see-" Sora began to say, and I immediately tried to keep him from talking. However, I wasn't the one to get lucky enough to shut him up.

A deep voice was the one who interrupted him, saying, "What are you doing here?" My heart skipped a beat, and I thought for sure I was going to be arrested. Turning around, I saw a very tall man with long black hair standing behind us, an irritated expression on his dark face. I could tell that the other three were also a little freaked out, as none of us had heard this man walk up to us, and we were behind a group of bushes in a place with hundreds of dead leaves. There was no way he could have just walked up to us without making a sound, or, that's what I thought at least.

None of us spoke for a time, and eventually, the man sighed. "Get out of here," was all he said, and we listened. There was just something really strange about the way he said that, and the way he was looking at me, that was kind of strange. It was really creepy.

The four of us were back at Red's apartment, which seemed like a tornado had just passed though, and everyone but me was laughing their ass off.

"That was so weird! That guy just came out of nowhere and scared the shit out of us!" Riku managed to say, "I wonder who he was."

"I know, right? That's not something you see every day," Sora added, clenching his stomach. "Why is this so funny, anyway?" That's what I was wondering. I couldn't understand how being scared half to death was so hilarious, but then again, two of these boys were the ones who ruined my Halloween eleven years ago...

"Can I go home now?" I asked, crossing my arms in a sort of pout. I had tried earlier to just get in my car and take off... it hadn't worked very well.

Red stopped laughing and gave me a serious look. "No. Not until I find out what Riku and Sora did to you all those years ago." Man, he's persistent.

"Okay, let me tell you-" Yes, I was the one who got the pleasure of shutting Sora up this time.

"Sora, you better watch what you say. Don't forget, I control your job," I hissed, standing up and moving away from the group of guys, "That goes for you too, Riku." That kept them both quiet, and with that, I walked out of the apartment, to my car, and drove home without a second thought.

I was extremely tired the next morning. Staying up all night was not a very good idea, even if I did get some interesting information out of it. I mentioned the strange man to Mom when I got home (I didn't tell her how we met him, of course), and she had a funny reaction when I described what he looked like. For some reason, I couldn't help but think that she knew this guy, and that there was something she wasn't telling me and Dad, as he had absolutely no reaction to the description.

However, when I tried to question her about it, she paled and told me to go to bed, like I was some kind of child. It was angering, but then I remembered that I was eighteen and living with my parents while training at my dad's company... really, I had no choice but to listen to her.

Dammit.

So anyway, I spent the next four hours thinking about where Mom could have known that guy from. I came to the conclusion that she probably knew him from college, and they didn't get along, though how she could recognize him from just a description was kind of strange. Surely his looks have changed since Mom was twenty.

Anyway, because of this, I was so tired the next morning, that I felt like I was a zombie, and according to Naminé, I looked like one too.

"I don't think you could look any worse today, Roxas," my girlfriend giggled when I walked in the front door. I rolled my eyes and trotted over to her, checking to see if I had any documents to take to my dad. There were none, thank goodness. I really didn't want to deal with the anti-socialness of my father at the moment, and I was too tired to think.

"So," Naminé continued, "did you have fun last night?"

I looked up at her, surprised by the question, and shook my head. "Nah, it was really boring. Though I did find out something really interesting." Naminé instantly tensed up, looking at me with wide, fearful eyes, like something bad was about to happen.

"What was it?" She was nearly whispering, and I could see that she was internally praying for something. Weird, no?

"Well, there was this guy who we ran into when-" I froze, not sure if I wanted to tell her about the madness Sora and Riku were going to try to put me through with the help of Red, and in the end, I shook my head, "Well, it's not important where we met him, but when I mentioned this to my mom, she was acting really strange. Kind of like how you are now."

I wondered if the girl in front of me noticed the hint in my voice, my silently asking her if she was going to finally tell me why she was acting so weird recently. Unfortunately, if she had noticed it, she completely ignored the hint, leaning back in her chair, relaxing. The relieved look on her face wasn't very comforting, as that meant she was worried I had learned something else interesting, and for some strange reason, I had a feeling it had to with Red.

"Nami...," I began, but she cut me off with little laugh.

"Well then, Roxas, I suppose you should get to work now. Axel and Ellie are waiting for you in Ellie's office. Something about shoplifting?" I groaned, not really wanting to think about that insane day when Red had decided he wanted to video tape people shoplifting, and I, of course, got dragged along for the insane ride.

"Okay," I muttered, "thanks for letting me know..."

Heading to the elevator, I started to think about what had happened last night, starting with meeting Demyx. He was going to say something about me, something that Red didn't want him to say, something that seemed to be connected to why Red and Naminé were fighting all the time. It seemed important, but I just couldn't seem to figure it out.

Well, in the end I figured I was wrong about it being significant, and that Naminé and Red were just having a little spat about her work, and Demyx was being stupid, and it had nothing to do with Red and Naminé.

I couldn't have been more wrong.