Roxas was still walking through the desert, slowly getting closer to the forest. He'd probably only been walking for about a half hour or so, but with the immense heat and utter dryness of the forest, it felt like he'd been walking for hours. He wasn't used to this kind of weather, hot sunny days were quite the rarity in England after all. So when he saw a rather large man sitting atop a boulder with small animals walking in a circle around the boulder you could imagine why Roxas would believe this was a mirage. As he got closer though he found that they did not vanish. He furrowed his brows in confusion as he watched the small animals tiredly stumble around the boulder and the man held his hands up to a small fire. He couldn't figure out for the life of him why in this heat the man would even need a fire. Especially with those clothes. He was wearing black dress pants and shoes with a white button up and nice purple pirate jacket with gold trimming. His hair was long and black, done in dreadlocks and he wore a dark brown captain's hat that sat crooked on his head.

"Excuse me sir, might I ask what you're doing?" Roxas asked politely as he approached the boulder. The man looked up in surprise upon hearing the blond's voice, but then quickly lowered his head once more. His thick brows pinched together and his frown deepened.

"We are having a caucus race." The man said. His voice was deep and hoarse, as though he hadn't used it in a very long time. Roxas frowned at this and raised his brow in confusion.

"What for?" The man raised his head slightly and looked at Roxas from beneath his eyelashes.

"To see who will dry up the fastest."

Roxas was beyond confused. They all appeared to be completely dry, so why were they continuing to race? And in this heat, it simply made no sense.

"But you all appear to be dry, so why are you still racing?" The man sighed and shook his head.

"No you stupid boy, we are not racing till our bodies have dried, we are racing till they have dried up. As in dying." The man spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. At the mere mention of death all the animals groaned in agony.

"What is the point of that?" Roxas asked with wide, shocked eyes.

"There is no point to it. It is our punishment for defying the queen."

"What could you have possibly done to deserve such a punishment?" The man sneered at this question and turned away from the boy.

"That is no business of yours. We're just lucky we didn't lose our heads." All the animals and the man gulped at this and rubbed their necks.

"Well why don't you just run away or something?"

"You think we're morons? It is magic that keeps us in this place and magic that keeps their legs moving just as it keeps this fire alive. This is our curse and punishment chosen by the queen. A slow and torturous death. Now begone! I don't wish to speak with you any longer!" And with that the man turned his gaze back upon the fire, refusing to acknowledge Roxas when he tried to get his attention.

"Well would you at least tell me where I can find this hatter person?" The man looked up at this, but not at Roxas. He looked to the forest.

"Go through the forest and there you will find, a tea party, the only one of it's kind."

"What on earth does that mean?" Roxas asked, but the man had gone back to ignoring him by now.

With an irritated huff and a stomp of his foot Roxas walked away from the man and the animals, mumbling about "stupid riddles" and profanities. He soon arrived at the edge of the forest. He gazed up at the tall trees. They were much taller than he had expected and all the leaves gathered on the branches made the forest much darker than most. He was quite wary about entering the large forest. There was no telling what was hiding within the shadows of such a place, and he wasn't too keen on finding out. Though if he wanted to find this supposed hatter he had no choice. So with a deep breath he squared his shoulders and marched into the forest.

At first it was quite difficult to see where he was going. He'd tripped over several roots stubbed his toes on three rocks and even ran into a tree. Finally when he fell over a log he noticed that more light was beginning to filter through the leaves as they thinned out a bit. He looked around at his surroundings for a moment then got off the ground with a sigh. He had no clue where he was, but at least now he could see. He continued his walk through the forest, though he hadn't gotten very far before he heard a twig snap from behind him. Roxas jumped at the noise and quickly spun around, but there was no one there.

"Sora you dolt! We were supposed to be sneaking!" A voice said to his left from behind a tree.

"Who's there?" Roxas asked as he began to cautiously walk over to the tree.

"I was being sneaky! That twig came out of no where, honest!" Another voice said to his right. He glanced over to the tree there, but continued moving toward the tree on the left.

"Whatever. Don't do it again and were gonna have to play a penalty game." Roxas raised a brow at this. What on earth was a penalty game?

"Aww, I don't like your games! They hurt!" The voice whinnied. Roxas finally made his way over to the tree and looked behind the large trunk, but there was nothing there. He was sure he'd heard the voice come from behind there. But if he wasn't there, then where was he?

He felt a tap on his shoulder and he jumped, quickly turning to face the person. A boy with black spiky hair and yellow eyes stood there, smirking cockily at the blond. The boy wore a short sleeved light yellow shirt with an orange vest. His shorts had wide white and orange horizontal stripes and he had red high top sneakers with white socks bunched at the tops.

"Who the hell are you?" Roxas asked, looking oddly at the other boy. As he went to answer though, he was interrupted by the other voice.

"He's Vanitas Dum! And I'm Sora Dee!" A boy said as he jumped out from behind a tree onto the raven haired boy, who scowled at this action. His hair was a chocolate brown and he had bright blue eyes that were reminiscent of the sky. He was dressed just like the other boy but his shirt was orange and his vest yellow.

"Sora don't lie!" Vanitas said, hitting the brunette on the head.

"Ow!" Sora whinnied as he rubbed the top of his head.

"I'm Vanitas Dee and he's Sora Dum. We're brothers." Vanitas clarified, glaring at his twin.

"No you're not!"

"Yes I am Sora!"

This continued for a couple minutes before Roxas lost his patience.

"That's enough! I don't care who's Dee and who's Dum! I just want to know where the hell you came from!" Roxas yelled. The two stared at him in shock for a moment before Sora spoke up again.

"Oh, why didn't you just say so!" He said cheerfully.

Because you didn't give me a chance to! Roxas thought bitterly as he looked at the two boys in annoyance.

"Well, we've been following you since you entered the forest!" He said, as if it were completely normal. Vanitas hand instantly met his face after that statement.

"You've been stalking me?!"

"Tut tut tut. Not stalking. Following." Sora corrected.

"There's not really much of a difference between the two, Sora." Vanitas said in exasperation.

"Yes there is!" Sora argued, but Vanitas decided to ignore him and continue on with the explanation. Roxas was grateful for this.

"Look, we just wanted to know what you were doing. Plus, it was kind of funny watching you stumble through the forest like a blind man." Roxas narrowed his eyes at Vanitas. He was no longer grateful.

"So what are you doing?" Sora asked curiously.

"I'm trying to find this hatter person." Roxas explained.

"Oh! We know where he is! We can lead you to him!" Sora grabbed him by the arm and started to drag him off into the forest.

"Sora I didn't agree to this!" Vanitas yelled as he hurried to follow them.

"You don't need to agree. I'm perfectly capable of leading him to the hatter on my own if you don't want to come along. Besides, I go to see the hatter much more often than you do, I know the way better." Sora said, turning his head to stick his tongue out at the other boy.

"Sora, I told you not to go there without me! I don't like you around that guy!"

"Oh you just want me to stay with you so you can play more penalty games."

"What's a penalty game?" Roxas asked, breaking the conversation between the two boys.

"Why do you ask?" Sora asked, raising a brow to the blond.

"Curiosity."

"Curiosity killed the oysters you know." He said matter-of-factly. Roxas's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Isn't the saying 'curiosity killed the cat'?" Roxas asked.

"Is it? Well, either way it did kill the oysters. Would you like to know the story?" Roxas shrugged.

"I gue-"

"You don't want to hear it." Vanitas interrupted as he suddenly appeared next to Roxas.

"Why not?" Sora and Roxas asked in unison. Though Sora's came out with a bit more of a whine.

"Because it's a boring, long story about how this fat walrus eats a bunch of baby oysters. And his human friend gets pissed and starts chasing after him to beat the shit out of him. There, that's the story. I just saved you ten minutes of your life." Vanitas said.

"Aww you ruined the story!" Sora said with a pout.

"Thank God I did."

As they continued to walk, Roxas noticed that the trees were starting to thin out a bit and die. The sky was cloudy here and there was a thin layer of fog covering the ground. It reminded Roxas of home and all the cloudy days he'd spent outside by his father's grave. On some of the trees were random signs pointing in different directions some with words painted on that Roxas didn't understand and others saying "this way" "that way" "up" and "down". He couldn't help but think of how bizarre the signs were. One of the arrow signs even had an arrow painted on it in the other direction.

Sora suddenly stopped as they reached a fork in the road, looking between the two roads for a moment. He finally turned to face Roxas and Vanitas with a slight pout to his lips and a light blush on his face.

"I have no clue where I am." Sora stated bluntly. Roxas sighed in exasperation as Vanitas face palmed again.

"I thought you knew where you were going!" Vanitas yelled, hitting the boy on the head.

"I did know where I was going, but I don't remember ever going through this place to get to the hatter!" Sora said, rubbing at his new found wound.

"Come on you moron, it's this way." Vanitas said as he moved to go down the right path.

"But I get this feeling it's this way." Sora said, pointing to the left.

"You just said you don't even know where you are! Now you're trying to tell me you think it's that way?"

"I didn't say I think, I said I had a feeling!"

"And where do you're feelings always get us? Hopelessly lost!"

"That's not true! They're pretty spot on sometimes!"

"Ohh sometimes! Do you really think that's supposed to make me listen to you and your feelings?"

As this continued on Roxas heard a noise, as if someone was trying to get his attention. He looked around curiously for a moment but saw nothing. He shrugged it off, figuring it must be his imagination. He heard it again though, this time louder, and his brows furrowed in confusion and irritation. It sounded like it was coming from the right. He looked over to the path on the right and noticed something pink and purple flicking out from behind a tree.

Was that a tail?

Roxas glanced over to the two boys, who were still arguing. This seemed like it would probably take a while, so he decided to go investigate. He watched Sora and Vanitas for a moment as he walked away, and when he was sure they didn't notice him he hurried over to the tree. When he got there he found that it was just a tail. Floating in the air. It was striped pink and purple and on the end was a little hoop piercing with a shiny metal cat head dangling on the hoop. His brows furrowed in confusion and he went to grab the tail, but it suddenly disappeared.

"What the hell?" He muttered in utter bewilderment.

"Hey cutie." A smooth, silky voice said from behind him. He felt fingers trailing up his arm and quickly spun around to face the person. His eyes widened to the size of saucers at the sight of the man before him. He had long fire truck red hair that was spiked back and on either side of his head stuck out dark pink cat ears that faded to purple at the tips and along the sides were three piercings on each ear. His eyes were an acid green with purple liner spiked on the ends. Under his eyes were two upside down tear drops. He wore a sleeveless jacket that came just below his butt. The front of the jacket was black and the back was striped with pink and purple. The third button of the jacket held it closed around his chest, but it opened around his stomach to show off his pale smooth flesh. Around the collar and bottom of the jacket was poofy purple fur and around his neck there loosely hung a thick dark red collar. Attached to the right of the red collar was a long metal chain that attached to his pants. His pants were pitch black jeans that sat low on his hips and hugged to his legs quite nicely. Just above the pants he had two more piercings on his hips and a hoop pierced in his belly button. For shoes he had nice black military boots with the laces untied and tucked into the boots. On both hands he wore black fingerless gloves with large rings attached to the tops with small chains hanging off and looping inside the gloves.

"You gonna stare at me all day kid?" The man asked with a seductive smirk.

"U-um... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Roxas said as a dark red blush spread across his face.

"It's okay. So what's your name cutie?" The red head purred, tilting Roxas's head up to look him in the eye.

"... Roxas." He said quietly. He honestly wasn't even sure he'd actually said it out loud until the red head repeated it, being sure to roll the r.

"I like it. My name's Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?" He said, circling Roxas then tapping a finger to his forehead.

"I guess so."

"So what's such a cute kid like you doin' hanging around with Tweedledee and Tweedledum?" Axel said, pointing a thumb in the direction of the two boys still arguing.

"They were taking me to see the hatter." Roxas explained. Axel made a face at that.

"Why are you going to see him? Especially when you can see a sexy kitty like me." Roxas chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm not exactly sure why I'm off to see the hatter. A man named Luxord told me to go speak with him."

"Leave it to that dumb rabbit to take away my fun." Axel pouted and placed his hands on his hips.

"Well, you're never gonna get there if you keep waiting on those two. They'll just argue until Sora gets his way. I'll lead you there."

"You will?" Roxas asked in surprise. Axel chuckled at the blond's reaction and nodded.

"Of course! I get to spend more time with you that way don't I?" Axel asked, smirking at him again. Roxas smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Indeed you will."

"And maybe after we visit the hatter," He trailed off, disappearing for a moment and reappearing behind Roxas. His mouth was right beside his ear when he spoke again. "I can take you back to my place and show you my new hand cuffs."

Roxas rolled his eyes but smiled at the comment.

"Maybe. If you're a good kitty." Roxas said seductively and started to walk down the path with dead trees. Axel grinned and growled at the boys retreating form, watching as his hips swayed back and forth. He could tell this kid was going to be a lot of fun.

Ahh! I'm so excited about Axel's appearance in this chapter! He was going to be the hatter, but I'm sorry Yuki, I love him so much more as the cheshire cat! And oh my god, if I could see Axel in that outfit, I would die a very happy girl lol. I don't know what it is, but he just screams sex kitten to me XD

Penalty games. Really makes you wonder doesn't it? Lol

Anyways, I do hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will see you all on the next update! Goodnight, good morning, good afternoon and good evening! Much love to you all!