Chapter 3: Brooms

{September 8th 2013, Disney Castle: 6:52am}

Roxas was running down the hallways of the Disney Castle as fast as he could so as to not arrive late to training – he had been late on their third day of training and Sora had made him dodge fire-spells for an hour straight as punishment, and he had no desire to relive that again. The blonde teenager raced by people and objects as swiftly as he could until he heard a scuffling noise and a wet sloshing as he turned a corner and slid on the soles of his shoes down a corridor that had been freshly mopped. It caused him to practically skate across the white-gray marble like it was ice until he was at the end of it.

"Okay, that worked perfectly!" he said to himself as he started to move, and then he heard a thunderous bristling noise and turned around to see a hoard of brooms and mops coming for him.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Roxas continued to race down the corridors, now not concerned with being late to training, but ending up in an early grave.

Roxas had been warned during his and Namine's first week at the castle that stepping upon a freshly mopped floor would result in the brooms and mops seeking vengeance; however, he hadn't seen much, if any proof of that until right this moment when he was being chased through the hallways, reminding him greatly of a game where he had to deal with a group of allies going through a dungeon and having to avoid something called a Waterwraith. Roxas turned a corner and slammed into someone, and looked up into cyan colored eyes – instantly he knew it was Riku, if not only for the fact that he was taller than him, and if it had been Sora, he would have bumped heads with him because of their near-identical height – taking in a deep breath, Roxas jumped behind Riku, who raised an eyebrow before he heard the familiar thunder-like bristle noise.

"Oh, you have got to be joking!" Riku looked to Roxas, who gave him a sheepish smile.

"I was running late, and..." Riku turned on his heels and started running as soon as he saw the shadow of a broom appear.

"I suggest you explain later!" he said as he started down the hall, and Roxas took off to catch up.

"And do what?"

"KEEP RUNNING!"

The two Keyblade Wielders raced together through the corridors, down a secret passage, several flights of stairs, and finally they were running down the hallway until they flew into a room and slammed thick, heavy doors behind him. At long last, they were safe; however, Roxas turned and was face-to-face with a certain chestnut-haired Keyblade Master, who gave him a once over before sighing in defeat as he heard the thunderous noise of cleaning supplies just outside the doors. The chestnut-haired sixteen-year-old drew his Keyblade and looked at the others in the room. Without question, Sora knew that there would be only two options available to the five of them: run, or freeze the brooms.

"You may want to draw your Keyblades – we're going to be learning some spells on the fly today," he said.

"What?!" Sora looked to the group and raised an eyebrow.

"I said – draw your damn Keyblades! Unless, of course, you want to become a sacrifice to the Brooms of Master Yen Sid," Sora told them.

The group instantly drew their Keyblades, preparing for the sudden change of lesson plans the broom invasion had brought on. Sora raised his Keyblade and with the word Blizzard, he froze several of the brooms in place before moving on to the next batch of them. Roxas looked at the brooms in faint panic as Namine held up her own Keyblade and shot a small blizzard spell at one broom that drew close, while Kairi used a stronger one. The blonde boy glanced at his Keyblade once more before moving it in the motions that he believed he had seen Sora and Kairi use before he pointed the Keyblade at one of the brooms. In mere seconds, as everyone else was using Blizzard – or Stop, in Riku's case – a sudden sharp pull had dragged the broom to Roxas, who turned on his heels to run and ended up with a broom stuck to his back. The blonde boy jumped, hopped, and screamed as he did his best to unglue himself from the frantically waving broom attached to his back; however, it was as this fiasco was taking place that Riku finished off the last broom, and they turned their attention to him.

"What in the worlds are you doing, Roxas?" asked Namine.

"I don't know what happened!" the boy jumped again, trying in vain to get his arms back far enough to get the broom off.

"That's a...funny dance there, Rox..." Ocean-blue eyes looked to sky-blue ones, and he narrowed them.

"Sora! Don't laugh at me!" the boy whined as he felt the broom continue to struggle.

"I think that's the most interesting way to catch one of those brooms yet," Sora said as he looked his student over.

"Just get it off! I don't like these things attached to me!" the chestnut-haired Keyblade Master laughed ever so slightly

"Okay, just hold still," he stated.

It took Sora only a few seconds to de-spell the broom, as it frantically took off past its frozen brethren and into the hallway, where it continued to scurry off. Roxas sighed in relief as he looked at the Keyblade in his hands, and then to Sora, who frowned as he held out his hand for the weapon and slowly took it from Roxas, who had a concerned look upon his face as the chestnut-haired Master looked it over before sighing as he handed it back and started to look at the frozen brooms and mops.

"Well, that didn't go as well as I'd hoped, but we didn't do too bad..." Roxas sighed.

"Yea, except for me, who couldn't even grasp a spell as simplistic as Blizzard..." Sora frowned, and looked the boy over.

"Roxas? What's your sign?" the blonde eyed him.

"My what?" he asked.

"Your celestial sign? You know...your zodiac?" the boy perked up.

"Oh...sorry...I'm a Gemini..." Sora hummed momentarily as he thought.

"I'm an air sign, Aquarius, but...Kairi is a Pisces, Riku is a Scorpio, and what about you, Namine?" he asked. The blonde girl smiled.

"I'm a Leo." he nodded.

"I honestly figured as much..." he said. Roxas rose an eyebrow.

"Why?" Riku laughed a bit.

"What's so funny, Riku?" Namine questioned.

"I'll let Sora explain." Both blondes turned their attention back to Sora, who smiled.

"Here's the thing: a zodiac sign will actually assist in me knowing what kind of element based spell to teach you first. By knowing you are a Leo and a Gemini, I can pinpoint which spells will be easier for you to pick up," Sora explained this, and the two nodded.

"Why does it help?" Clear blue eyes looked at Roxas.

"Because your sign is attributed to an element. Namine might be more prone to using fire spells because she's a fire-sign, and Roxas might be a natural with air or wind spells because he's an air sign like myself. However, there are instances where personality changes the results of the element the person is most connected to," the Keyblade Master further divulged this, and the two eyed him and then one another.

"But, Namine isn't really a fire person..." the fair-haired girl sighed.

"He's right...I'm not really okay with a fire spell..." the boy looked Namine over, and soon was circling her faintly, trying to pinpoint which would be best for her.

"You have a point...and you did pretty well with the blizzard spell...I think you're a lot like Kairi – you're hot-headed with a cold touch," he said in half-thought.

"What do you mean I'm hot-headed?" Sora flinched, and Riku took a few steps back.

"Kairi, I didn't mean it like that – you just get really foul-tempered sometimes," he tried to explain, but the girl only glared.

"I'm not hot-headed! And I don't have a cold touch, either!" she stated a bit sharply as Sora winced.

"Look, it's not like that! Kai...it was just that you do have some harsh moments, and in those moments you tend to...why are you looking at me like that?"

Kairi didn't say a word, she just summoned her Keyblade and moved towards the boy, who decided to take the opportunity to leave the training hall and sort this out with his girlfriend in private – if he could. Sora took to running as Kairi chased him down the hallway, and Riku groaned in defeat as he realized this was going to be a long day and an even longer night while Roxas tilted his head in questioning and Namine folded her arms across her chest with a sigh. Sora was in for a long twenty-four hours, but between Kairi's sudden anger and Sora's ability to sweet-talk people, Riku believed that they could have it sorted out by tonight.

"Must be that time of the month," Namine said as Roxas shifted away from her.

"I wouldn't worry too much..." Roxas looked to Riku.

"Why?" the silver-haired Keyblade Master shrugged.

"They're perfect for one another...and they're both hot-tempered with a cold touch, trust me. Sora and Kairi will have it sorted out by tonight."

{Disney Castle: 9:00pm...}

They would have it sorted out by nightfall – Riku had never been so wrong in all his life. Between the death threats that continued on into dinner and well past it, Kairi had not let up on Sora, who – though he had apologized – still couldn't seem to remove himself from the girl's warpath. It was now time for them to settle in, and they were prepared for bed with their doors shut and their night clothes on already when a strange scuttling noise was heard from the hallway. Riku had been relaxing with a book by the fireplace when he heard it and looked to his door before opening it in curiosity – at the same time Riku had been reading, Namine had just finished with her shower, gotten dressed, dried her hair, and was now brushing it out before preparing for bed; that had stopped when the strange scraping sound caught her attention as well.

Lastly was Roxas, who was busy writing about the strange events of the day in a journal so to keep up with the events he was dealing with now – if all this mess ever ended and their lives returned to normal, he'd like to have something interesting to recant to his children, and possibly later on, his grandchildren – however, his concentration was broken when the same noise that had attracted the attention of Namine and Riku also took hold of his, and he stood to open his door to the strangest of sights.

"What in the...Sora?" the chestnut-haired teenager struggled.

"Let me the fuck go! You damn brooms! I'll use you for firewood after I get done with using you for target practice!"

"Sora?" Riku asked as he watched the boy.

Sora was wrapped up in a thick net and was being dragged behind a series of brooms that merely continued to drag him towards a white door with pink accents on it as if the array of death threats and swear words didn't even exist. It was unbeknownst to the others at the current time, but Sora had been chased up to an archway by both Kairi earlier, and a few errant mops that seemed to have a bone to pick with him as well, and had been settled there mulling things over when he heard the bristling noises and looked down to find the brooms building a ladder with themselves to reach him, while a few who were climbing the already in place ones were carrying a net – the one he was now in – to do heaven knew what.

It took a matter of seconds and Sora was in a net, being dragged away, down the hallway, up the staircase, and through another hall to where he was now. The brooms finally stopped and knocked upon the door, to where Kairi stood in her night clothes before sighing as she looked down at him as he turned his eyes on her through the net before he was thrown in, and the broom slammed the door shut before knocking imaginary dust off its hands as it went back down the hallway without a care in the world. As the brooms left, Riku looked to Roxas and Namine.

"Did you just see..." the two nodded.

"Yep..."

"Me, too..." the silver-haired Keyblade Master nodded.

"Okay, just making sure." There was a momentary pause.

"Um..." Roxas started as Riku held up a small foam piece.

"Earplugs?" he offered. The two raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" Riku walked over to a table near the door and grabbed a pack of earplugs off it before holding it out to them.

"You'll need it...trust me on this..." he stated. The two blondes grabbed them, and then Riku looked to the door just a bit down from his.

"Do you think Sora will be okay?" Riku nodded to Namine's question.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. Kairi might torture him a bit in some form or fashion, but she won't hurt him, and they'll be fine by tomorrow," he mentioned. Roxas gave him a bland expression.

"Didn't you say something along the same lines earlier today? Around nine-ish?" he received a blatant look.

"Your point?" Riku asked.

"We see how well that worked out, didn't we?" the silver-haired teen looked him over.

"The student is slowly becoming the teacher..." Roxas frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"You've been around Sora too long...you're starting to troll people on his level of insane."

"I'm going to bed now...goodnight..." With that, Namine shut her door.

"And that's my cue to go back to my book..." Roxas gaped momentarily as the two left him there.

"These people...are going to put me in a straightjacket by the time I'm thirty..." With that, he went back into his room, shut the door, and walked back to his desk to grab a memo pad, where he decided to make himself a personal note:

Beware of the BROOMS!

Roxas hoped he never forgot that note either, or he might find himself chased up an archway, tied up in a net, and dragged across the castle to an unknown destination, for one never knows – especially with the things in the castle they lived in.

{Disney Castle: 6:20am}

Sora was settled in a chair next to Kairi, who seemed rather calm compared to yesterday. The boy appeared no worse for wear, and the red-haired girl was even holding his hand and occasionally giving him kisses on his cheek. Riku gave Roxas a knowing look, and the blonde gave the boy a glare almost as lethal as his master's, while Namine did some light reading on ice-based spells. Kairi was chatting calmly with Sora now, who was agreeing while the boy continued to speak with her as well, and Roxas was frowning while he ate a simple breakfast of oatmeal with cinnamon and brown sugar. It was a relatively quiet morning, but it set him on edge, because if this castle was quiet, things were about to get loud, psychotic, and possibly dangerous.

"How did you sleep? Kairi? Sora?" asked Namine.

"Fine, thanks. What about you?" the girl nodded.

"Great, I should probably use earplugs more often," she stated.

"Earplugs, huh?" Sky-blue eyes gave a knowing look to Riku, who took a sip of his tea while reviewing a few notes given to him that morning by an uncharacteristically hyper Chip, who dropped them off and took to flying down the corridor before he could say a word.

"So...what's training going to entail now?" asked Roxas.

"Well, I'm going to give you guys a few training tips on spells, and then in a day or two, we'll begin training with Wisdom Form." the blonde dropped his spoon.

"That's the one where you glide across the ground, shoot bullets made out of magic from your Keyblade, and move like a freaking bullet in blue, right?" Sora smiled.

"Yep, so, get plenty of rest, and prepare for the most grueling, pain-inducing days you've ever experienced!" he said in a happy tone.

"If I didn't know better...I'd say he had dissociative identity disorder.."

{…..}

I'll be right here now, to hold you when the sky falls down. I will always...

{…...}

Author's Note: So, here we are. This one was pretty short – only 9 pages – but we'll be making up for it soon. Like I said, this story is a precursor to a much more extensive and comical adventure that you will see the origins of soon enough.

I hope you guys enjoyed it! And let me know what you think!

Preview:

"What are you?"

"Well...that failed.."

"There is a book missing..."

Chapter 4: Spell Mishaps