Dinner was probably good. Aqua couldn't tell. All of the Bistrot's rich food felt tasteless.

Roxas shot her pitying bites over his beef saute. Lea tried to engage her in conversation about Roxas-and-Ven's past. Van looked increasingly ready to murder both of them for her sake. Only Isa had the tact to pretend like everything was fine.

Everything was fine. Aqua and Lea both had their friend back, technically. Roxas had forgiven her of the grudge she hadn't known he'd been holding.

…Ugh. Who was she kidding? She hated everything about this. She hated everyone tiptoeing around her feelings, but Lea had seen the depths of her darkness while she'd been searching for Van. He probably thought she could snap at any minute.

He was probably right.

But they made it through dinner without incident. Roxas, true to his word, covered everyone's meals—even when Aqua tried to pay for her own. He had more munny, since he'd been fighting more Heartless than both her and Van. He didn't have the same emotional exhaustion from it that they did.

She let him pay. Her pumpkin veloute curdled in her stomach.

"Who knew you'd grow up to be a gentleman?" Lea clapped Roxas on the back.

"It must have been Aqua's influence," Isa said dryly. "It certainly wasn't yours."

"Hey, I can be gentlemanly! I can, I dunno, give you my coat or something—"

"You're wearing a sleeveless vest. Do you even own a coat?"

"...Does the Organization uniform count—"

"Aqua." Roxas grabbed her arm as they exited the restaurant. "Can I talk to you."

It should've been a question, but it wasn't. He wouldn't be taking no for an answer.

She clenched her jaw. "Of course."

Van raised an eyebrow, silently asking if she was alright with being left alone. She gave him a shallow nod. Though he didn't look convinced, he jogged ahead to tell Isa and Lea to go on without them.

Roxas pulled her around the side of the restaurant, away from any prying eyes. She braced herself for the outburst that was sure to come.

But instead of anger, Roxas just sighed.

"Are we ever going to stop doing this?"

"Doing wha—"

"Stop." His fists clenched. "This is what I'm talking about. You're mad. I finally know what I've been missing, and you're mad at me for it."

"I'm not mad at you!" she shouted defensively.

It wasn't anger. It was—frustration. Jealousy. Loneliness. The darkness she'd accepted bubbling up inside her.

It was her problem. Not Roxas's. Not Lea's. She could deal with it herself.

"You're acting like a little kid!" he snapped back. "I'm not some toy you have to share. I'm a person! I have other friends besides you!"

"Are we even friends?"

It came out in a desperate cry. Like a piece of her soul being torn off and laid bare. She shook, goosebumps raising on her arms despite the warm evening air.

"You don't want to talk to me," she said hoarsely. "We visited all the worlds you wanted to, and you still weren't happy. I thought you were—I thought we were fixing things—but then you saw him and it was like… like I never even existed."

"Because I wasn't paying attention to you for two seconds? Really?" Roxas grit his teeth. "You're the one who hasn't been paying attention. I still care about you! I've cared about you this whole time, even after you made me wake up to you kissing Vanitas! And you're perfectly fine to ignore me whenever you want to go make out or whatever, which would be fine if you didn't freak out the second I might want to spend time with someone else!"

He breathed raggedly, his shoulders rising and falling with each unsteady inhale and exhale. As if he was the one being battered with barb after barb, blow after blow.

"I've done everything I can to get to know you again," he practically growled. "And you don't even want to try to get to know me."

"How can I get to know you if you keep running away!"

He looked stunned for a moment. No, it was more condescending than that—more like he couldn't believe she was bringing it up.

"You still think that's all I do?" He let out an angry huff. "Fine! Since you want me to do what Ven would do!"

After one last withering glare, he took off down the alley.

"You're just proving me right!" she shouted after him.

He didn't answer. He turned a corner, vanishing from her sight.

No. Not this time. Not again.

She ran after him, but behind the restaurant, the alleys and streets were a maze of turns and sharp angles. Which direction had he gone? She couldn't pick out any disturbed trash, or puddle-footsteps, or anything else that would betray his path.

Roxas had lived here. Roxas would know how to escape. Aqua didn't.

The sun slipped behind the roofline, leaving her in darkness.

XXX

"So. Roxas is Roxas. But Roxas is also Ven. And he's also you. Am I getting this right?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Vanitas answered his question.

Lea nodded. It made just about as much sense as anything else in his crazy messed up life.

He leaned against a wall, watching as the tram passed between him and the alley Roxas and Aqua had disappeared into. He balanced his to-go box between his arm and hip, trying to project nonchalance, but he couldn't help the worry eating him from the inside out.

He'd considered that Roxas might not want to stay with him, for a whole slew of reasons—Lea was a terrible cook; Isa was living there; Roxas's last memory was of Axel trying to kill him—but he'd never imagined Roxas could have a whole other family. A whole other life. It finally explained why he didn't look much like Sora, unlike the other Nobodies and their Somebodies.

It was okay if Roxas didn't want to stay. He was alive, and he didn't hate Lea. And he actually remembered him this time! From their conversation over dinner, it was pretty obvious that some things were still fuzzy, but all the big stuff was there. Roxas knew Xemnas's name. He remembered sea salt ice cream and the Clocktower. He remembered learning to open treasure chests, and flying in Neverland.

He probably remembered the not-so-good stuff, too. He'd confront Lea about it eventually—the orders to bring him back to the Organization, the secrets, the fight with Xi—

He straightened abruptly. There it was again. That feeling, that something he was so sure of, until he tried to focus on it.

It started with Xi. Pronounced she like shield, not zih like Xigbar.

"It looks like you're the one who needs a coat," Isa noted, looking at Lea's goosebumps.

"Nah, it's not that…"

Before he could tug any further on the memory, Aqua came slinking out of the alleyway.

Alone.

"Void," Vanitas mumbled under his breath. "This is gonna be bad."

"What? You know what's going on?" Lea asked.

He wasn't stupid enough to think that Roxas and Aqua were just having a friendly chat, but. They just had to get their anger and confusion out of their systems, right? Aqua hadn't exactly been willing to compare notes with Lea, but surely she'd listen to the guy she called her brother.

But he wasn't there. Aqua made it across the street with no sign of Roxas.

Lea jogged up to her, unwilling to wait for answers any longer than he had to.

"Did Roxas need to stop back at the bathroom or something?"

She looked up. Her eyes were red with tears.

Lea's heart plummeted.

"I guess that means 'or something,'" he said, his grin stiffening like concrete. "Now. Can you tell me what exactly that or something is?"

"He's gone," she said in a dry whisper.

Something inside of Lea cracked. Like a snapped ice cream stick, like a broken promise.

"Gone where?"

Roxas wouldn't leave without a good reason. He'd stayed in the Organization until Axel had refused to answer his questions. Until he'd decided protecting Roxas was worth losing him.

But Roxas had no reason to run now. He wasn't in danger here.

…He wasn't in danger here, right?

"Is the Organization here?" Lea asked quickly. "Did they hurt him?"

He couldn't take that thought any further. Roxas couldn't be gone, not when Lea had finally gotten him back—

"No." Her jaw set. "But I will as soon as I get my hands on him."

Lea blinked. So Roxas wasn't dead. Problem one solved.

"What the hell happened?" he asked.

"A hundred munny says he took off again," Vanitas said from behind him. His voice sounded exhausted.

"Why would he take off? Unless it was, uh, the threats of violence…?" He gave Aqua a side-eye, raising one eyebrow.

"He doesn't want anything to do with me!" Aqua burst, her fists clenching in rage. "Now that he's got you back, he thinks he doesn't need his real family. Like everything I've done for him means nothing!"

Lea stared. And stared. Waited for Aqua to take back the obvious insult.

No dice.

"Are you kidding me," he said flatly, a stark contrast to the heat rising in his blood. "You pissed him off so bad he made a run for it. And you're blaming me."

"Yes, I am," she hissed.

Lea nodded slowly.

"Cool. Real cool of you. After everything I did for you, too, huh?"

She punched him in the face.

What the hell?

It was a messy blow, barely grazing off of his jaw. Still strong enough to hurt, though.

"Alright. This is how you wanna play, huh?" He held his to-go box out to the side. "Isa."

"I can't in good conscience recommend this," Isa told him. "You know that Roxas counts you as family. You have nothing to prove."

Isa accepted the leftovers anyway.

"It'll be fine. Even if she's wrong, a good fight will make her feel better," Vanitas said. "She's gone too long without beating anyone up."

"Who says I'm gonna get beat up?" Lea summoned his keyblade in a flash of flames.

If she wanted to fight, they were gonna fight. No one was going to get away with hurting Roxas ever again.

"Give me all you've got," Aqua snarled, summoning her keyblade and taking up a reckless stance. "Don't hold back. I'll show you I can take it!"

Something shifted. Like every color had moved half an inch to the left.

For the briefest moment, Aqua's hair looked black.

Please don't hold back, Axel. Promise.

He hissed, his head pounding with the echo of those words. Of the voice he knew and didn't know.

"What's your problem?" he shouted. He wasn't sure which keyblade wielder he was talking to.

(She wielded a keyblade. Xi wielded a keyblade.)

"You think you can do whatever you want." He tried to fix his focus back on Aqua. He wasn't going to get his butt kicked, not after talking such a big game. "Well, I'm sick of it!"

She rushed him first. Either she was too furious to care about technique, or she thought she didn't need to spare the effort—but either way, her footwork was sloppy. Riku had taught Lea better than that, and Riku had never had a formal master.

Lea dodged to the side, crouching and sweeping a leg under her. It was a move most traditional wielders wouldn't consider. If he could just catch her off guard, win this fight before she could do anything really stupid—

But she cartwheeled over it. A second later her weapon swung for his arm, and he barely got Flame Liberator up in time to block the attack.

Right. She was still a Master. He couldn't get cocky.

She pushed back against his blade, her weapon gathering magic, light-and-dark and every color in between. She had better not be having one of those darkness episodes. He wasn't about to talk her down from one this time.

He managed to shove her away, blades grating like nails on chalkboard, and her multicolored blast flew past his ear. Her boots threw up sparks as she skidded against the stone street.

She didn't give him time to catch his breath. Shots of Thundaga crackled towards him. That wasn't a spell you could just block, not with a metal weapon.

He threw himself into a dodge roll, but still felt one bolt graze his arm. He'd picked a bad day not to wear his black coat.

"Farewell!" she shouted, summoning orbs of light that surrounded him.

Light. Then this wasn't because of her darkness—she was just being a regular old asshole.

She teleported into the air, ready to smack one of the orbs towards him like an oversized, blinding volleyball.

They rained down. Angry light, the kind he'd only ever felt from Roxas and—

(And.)

He blocked as many orbs as he could, but she was stronger than him. She had more training than him. If he stayed on the defensive, it was only a matter of time before she landed a blow that he'd have to sleep off for days.

He didn't have days. Unlike her, he had a job. A family. (A _.) He wasn't going to let them down.

He regained his footing, bracing the flat of his blade with his left hand.

"You asked for it!"

With a swift swing, he knocked one of Aqua's orbs back towards her. It crackled red as it rebounded, as if he'd tainted it somehow.

It did the job—Aqua took the hit hard, falling from where she'd been levitating near the next orb. Her back hit the street, and she bounced with a thud that made Lea wince.

She'd be fine. She did ask for it, after all.

The remaining light orbs fizzled out, evaporating like morning fog.

The sudden silence pressed in on him. Everyone with two or more brain cells had long since fled. They knew the drill from over a year of Heartless attacks. That left only two faint noises: his own labored breathing—

And Vanitas munching on a bag of popcorn.

"H…heh… Hope you enjoyed the show." Lea cast Curaga before dismissing his keyblade.

"Coulda gone on a little longer," Vanitas said with his mouth full. "Nice to watch Aqua fight without worrying she'll kill anyone."

The fight had gone on long enough for Vanitas to leave, buy popcorn, and come back. How long did he expect a fight to be—and who else had Aqua almost killed?

"The counter was a cheap shot," Isa said. "You can't always rely on your opponent to have such a hole in their defenses."

Isa took a handful of popcorn from Vanitas's bag. Lea wouldn't have been surprised if they placed bets on who'd win. He hoped that if they had, Isa would've bet on him. Isa was smarter than that, though.

…Except Lea had won. That was still taking some time to sink in.

"Man. Nothing impresses you, huh?" Lea grumbled and shook his head. "Hey, Vanitas, uh. Aren't you worried about your girlfriend?"

He nodded in Aqua's direction. She was still sprawled out on the street. He couldn't tell if she was unconscious, or just wallowing.

Vanitas walked over and kicked her in the side.

"I swear'm gonna…" she muttered. "Oh. It's just you."

Lea reluctantly followed Isa over to her. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he was just tired. At least he'd already decided to call in sick tomorrow to spend time with Roxas.

Assuming Roxas still wanted to after this mess. Ugh. At least Lea had kept Aqua from chasing after him and driving him further away.

Vanitas was dropping some popcorn into Aqua's mouth. Her expression wasn't contorted in rage, so Lea figured that was a good sign.

"I believe apologies are in order," Isa said, sounding like he was scolding kindergarteners. His gaze was mostly focused on Aqua, so Lea didn't take too much offense.

"Don't tell me what to do," Aqua mumbled up at him before choking on her popcorn.

Isa's gaze hardened. Lea's heart warmed a bit that it was on his behalf, instead of directed at him.

"You quite literally attacked my—" Isa's irises flickered to Lea's briefly. "—companion. You are fortunate that he was the one to fight you rather than I. I would strongly suggest you make amends for your actions."

Companion. That was probably the sweetest thing Isa had ever called him. It almost distracted him from the backhanded compliment that had followed after.

"He's got a point." Vanitas poked Aqua's cheek. "You lost. The loser has to apologize. That's fair."

Aqua scowled. "Who's side are you on?"

"The losing one." Lea couldn't help from grinning.

She glared at him, but finally relented with a sigh. She looked even more exhausted than he was—which made sense. She'd lost. Had she even used Cure?

"I lost. I keep losing, and losing, and losing…"

Tears welled in her eyes. Dang it. He wasn't going to feel guilty about beating her up when she'd literally asked for it.

"I'm sorry," she admitted in a mumble. "It's my fault that Roxas doesn't want me. Not yours."

Despite his best-slash-worst intentions, she looked too pathetic to stay mad at. Kind of like the wet kittens Isa always told him to stop bringing home.

"C'mon. He doesn't not want you."

His brow furrowed. Did he say that right? Ah, whatever.

"Sorry for beating you up too, I guess," he added. "But hey, you're pretty impressed, right?"

That somehow got a chuckle out of her.

"You're creative, I'll give you that."

"It's called 'flexible thinking.' I'm thinking about getting it trademarked."

Isa rolled his eyes, but a small grin tugged at his lips. Winning that was more impressive than beating Aqua.

"Feel better now?" Vanitas asked while helping Aqua to her feet.

"...A little," she admitted, finally casting Curaga over herself. "And a little more now."

"I knew it. Violence was the answer." Vanitas looked smug.

She slugged him on the arm. "Yep. You're right."

He rubbed his bicep with a grin.

"Alright, I walked into that one."

Was this how they always solved their problems? Lea knew his idea of "normal" was skewed by his years as an empty husk, but he was pretty sure that wasn't the environment he wanted Roxas to stay in.

That was up to Roxas himself, though. Lea knew better than to try to trap him anywhere. He'd made that mistake long before Aqua had.

("Go on, you just keep running.")

He clutched his chest, gasping with the sudden memory.

("But I'll always be there to bring you back!")

He'd never said those words.

(To Roxas. He felt the fire scorching his throat, a desperate shout to keep her alive, to keep her from becoming less than nothing, to save—)

(Xio—)

A water bottle was in front of his face. Isa to the rescue, again.

"Heh. I look that rough, huh?" Lea tried to play it off. Trying to keep Isa from worrying was always a losing battle, but it was one he kept fighting anyway.

"You did go toe-to-toe with a Keyblade Master," he said. "I would be more surprised if you didn't."

Lea took the water.

"Fair enough."

He would tell Isa about these flashes of memory soon. Not in front of Aqua and Vanitas, though. Sometime after they made sure Roxas was okay.

He would find her.

(He would remember her.)