Chapter Summary: Roxas has to go to Wonderland. Saïx needs to do paperwork. Sora the Heartless doesn't know how to computer.
These events are in no way related to each other. (Except they are.)
Up until that point, Saïx had had a fairly ordinary day so far.
He had gotten up at exactly 6 am sharp, as he always did these days, so he could focus onb maintaining a meticulously groomed appearance. Contrary to what some people assumed (Axel), it was a difficult feat to tame his wild blue hair, but it needed to be done. It was necessary to look sharply dressed if he wished to enforce the image of the imposing second-in-command of the Organization. It was bad enough that the likes of Demyx did not take him seriously enough; he would not have the other members seize any opportunity to dismiss his authority. (On that account, he really needed to do something about Marluxia and Larxene; their attempts at rebellion were laughable at best, pitiful at worst.)
After he managed to fix his hair, Saîx strode into the Grey Area calmly, like any person of his stature was wont to do. There, he waited until the members of the esteemed Organization slowly trickled in, some yawning (Axel), some still dead on their feet (again, Axel), others acting as though they could not wait for the day to be over (Demyx). Honestly, it was like they felt annoyed for getting up in the first place.
Hmph, as if they all had a Heart to feel things with.
During the last few hours, he roused out the lazy goers who had yet to completely wake up, and managed to browbeat Demyx into a recon mission (which he was most likely going to either fail and slack off, or succeed and hand in more atrocious mission reports).
He even managed to hold in his irritation at seeing how the puppet cosied up to Axel (the traitor) and the keyblade wearer's Nobody.
Now came the fairly difficult, unreasonably annoying job.
For that day, he had assigned Number XIII and X to scout out Wonderland with two goals: to eliminate as many Heartless as possible (offerings to their Kingdom Hearts), and to destroy any Shadow Globs that might interfere with the mission. A mission that was fairly easy to accomplish normally, but due to the twisted system that ruled Wonderland, it became more than tiresome to tackle. Still, he had faith that together, Luxord's luck and Roxas's Keyblade should finish the mission before anything went amiss.
Unfortunately, owing to the unpredictable temperament of the realms's Queen of Hearts, Roxas could not bring his pet Heartless along this time around, unless he wanted to see its head cut off.
Which brought him to…this.
Saïx glared at the Shadow sitting on top of his paperwork.
Why in the name of Kingdom Hearts did he even volunteer to watch over it?
The Shadow cocked its head curiously at Saïx for a moment, before shifting off his desk and attempting to leave.
Ah, that's right. If he hadn't agreed to take the Heartless in, it would have tried recklessly following Roxas to Wonderland. Even now, as Saïx promptly scooped up the Shadow and dropped him onto the nearest chair, it was trying to escape into a Dark Corridor in an attempt to locate Roxas.
"Roxas will be going on a mission. He cannot take you along this time. Do behave and there will be no trouble." Saïx glared down at the Shadow, who was currently fidgeting on the seat.
Saïx glared at the Shadow for a few more minutes before turning away to work on his paperwork—wait, was that the sound of a Dark Corridor forming?
He whipped around in time to catch the Heartless by the scruff of its neck as it once again attempted to escape. "This is ridiculous," Saïx growled. He yoinked the Heartless back to the chair and impatiently waved closed the Corridor. "Were you not listening? Number XIII has gone to Wonderland, a place where anything can happen. For your own safety, you were left behind." To emphasize his statement, Saïx bent down to eye level with the Heartless. "Unless you wish to cause a disturbance, it is best if you cooperate and do nothing." He narrowed his eyes.
"Do not get in the way."
The Heartless, stared at Saïx for a few seconds before lowering its gaze, suitably chastened. Satisfied that he got his point across, Saïx straightened up and turned back to the paperwork that required his much needed attention. He scowled. It was bad enough that Demyx's sloppiness cost him several days to fix up his reports, but now he had to deal with Axel's reticence in spying on the puppet's performance on top of babysitting a Heartless. A Heartless who shared the same name as Number XIII's original being (why Roxas felt the need to name the Heartless in the first place was in any Nobody's guess).
Crash! Saïx whirled around and saw the Heartless standing near a paper stack that had fallen over. Judging by the guilty glimmer in its evil yellow eyes, it was clearly responsible for the mess. That and its claws were still stretched out like they were about to push something.
Saïx rushed towards the messy pile. He cursed, realizing that the reports were some of Vexen's final research papers. Not only were they written in illegible chicken scratch, they were covered in dust from disuse. It was going to take him hours to sort out the reports!
Saïx resisted the urge to growl as he gathered up the papers. "Why Vexen never learned to use a computer is beyond me…!" He grumbled, carefully dusting the papers as he did so. In fact, he was so focused on fixing the papers that he lost focus on the rest of the world.
Including the Heartless, who was now standing in front of his unattended computer.
Sora watched Saïx in confusion as bent down to gather the "reports." Why couldn't he go with Roxas? Why was Saïx stopping him from leaving? Sora was upset that Roxas didn't take him with him on his mission. That's not what he normally did! Sora had to go with Roxas, to protect his Nobody!
Besides, this Wonderland sounded nasty. What if Roxas was in trouble?
(—"Off with her head!"
A large lady with a crown on her head said angrily, as some cards gathered around a blond girl who looked very scared—)
Sora had to leave! But how can he escape Saïx?
Wait…
Sora turned around, and saw the "computer." Roxas told him that sometimes he had to do his "mission reports" on the computer and not by hand. But Roxas wasn't so good at the computer and Saïx always had to help out.
Maybe if Sora helped Saïx computer, Saïx would let Sora go save Roxas!
And with that thought in his head, Sora lifted a claw and began smashing away.
It took Saïx a while to notice the noise but eventually he recognized the sound of computer keys being tapped. Only this time it sounded like they were being smacked—and he wasn't the one doing it. He lifted his head. "Hey!" he barked as he realized what was going on. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!"
The Shadow stopped smacking the keyboard and turned around, almost guiltily if Saïx didn't know any better. Not that he cared at that moment as he rushed to his computer to assess the damage done. To his dismay, he discovered that many of his files had been deleted, a folder containing his private poetry had been opened, and a virus was currently being downloaded.
"Tch…! !" Saïx promptly canceled the download and started shelving his folders away back to where they belong. Luckily he always backed up his files but it would take him a while to know which files had been deleted. Ah well, he did need to do some reorganizing anyway. But still…
Saïx took a deep calming breath before he turned a stern look onto the Shadow. It was near impossible to look after it. It didn't act like a reasonable being like a Higher Nobody but it didn't act like a senseless creature like ordinary Heartless. In fact, it was reminding him of something. It was…it was…
A cat. The Shadow, for some inexplicable reason, was reminding Saïx of a cat. A cat that was cute to look at but difficult to tame even in the most trying time.
A pity it was acting like a cat. If it acted more like a dog, it might have been able to endear itself to him. He had been fond of dogs as a human; he even kept one as his pet.
The Heartless twitched briefly before it shuffled around to gaze at Saïx. Its guileless eyes bored into his own. Saïx frowned. What was it trying to do? He didn't understand. But there was something that was just out of reach…
Nobodies had no Hearts. They could not feel a thing: not sorrow, not anger, and certainly not joy.
So what…what was this feeling?
(For one fleeting moment, he recognized the feeling as something he once felt with his pet dog—)
Sora blinked at Saïx for a second. Then it turned around and knocked over Saïx's coffee mug, causing the contents to spill all over the keyboard. The computer fizzled once before the screen blacked out.
It took Saïx all the willpower and years of experience he had with Axel to not give in to the beast within and go Berserk on the damned creature.
Roxas blinked tiredly as he came back to the Grey Area. "I'm back!" he announced to no one in particular. His eyes brightened up as they landed on the Shadow. "Hey, buddy, I'm back! Did you miss me?" he asked as he picked the Heartless up and hugged it. The Shadow nodded furiously. "You won't believe the day I've had, Wonderland is crazy! Though I think Luxord got the worst of it." Roxas paused as if he just thought of something. He hesitated before asking Saïx (who had been standing impatiently next to him):
"Was Sora good? He wasn't a bother, was he?"
Saïix thought back to the messy, torn up paperwork in his room, the scrambled files that he had to declutter from his computer, and the coffee stains he had to wipe down from his desk before saying, through gritted teeth, "He was no trouble."