An: Wow...? I actually made a short-ish oneshot, mostly focused on my interpretation of Xigbar/Braig, sometimes i impress myself... not that there isn't scads of memory file expounding on this in forty more directions, but im comfortable with this...

PS - I tried to correct where i had any typos, silly spell check wanted Brain/Brian rather than Braig and right now my spell check is set to expand The to Theresa, please just let me know if I missed it? Thanks!

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Leaning into his Keyblade, pressing it deeper into the ground, Braig took a deep breath, finding most of the memories silenced for once instead of taunting.

What blessed relief, he scoffed to himself. It only took eight hours of nonstop training!

Sitting on the ground, he pulled the Keyblade over his lap, his single eye gazing at the eye in the hilt.

He did what he had to, little as it comforted him when the nightmares came. It was his legacy, each generation of his family had to give up an eye to this wretched thing, to catch those glimpses of time beyond time…

But he had been happy, at least happy enough for a time…

Even with the Event he could see coming, being among the Apprentices had been a dream to his naive self. Being the number two among them? Even better! Who could doubt his brilliance then?

Who could believe him just a shadowed copy of his family?

They hadn't done what he had, hadn't proved themselves to the Lords of their Eras to take such a coveted place!

The Event was just par for the course…

It was Fated that he would turn his back on his Master, everything had to go full circle. While he was not a primary key of the Event, he was still considered important enough that, had he not followed willingly…

He still shuddered at just the memory of the worthless puppet he would have been reduced to. Xemnas had gotten too close to that just following his second defeat, when their hearts and Nobodies had first reconnected!

His Keyblade had been all that saved him.

Pressing his forehead to the hilt, eye closed, he just breathed.

He had not been willing that time, to just fall in line, but had he done anything else, the chance of stopping Xehanort before another decade passed was infinitesimal. Not because he was so useless, but because he would do too much, if he truly became just a lackey for that asshole.

Xehanort, with his skill for farseeing? That was not to be borne.

But the actions, both taken and not, left him where he was…

Unable to face Ansem.

Incapable of facing Lea and Isa, knowing they had initially only been innocent casualties of that fucked up, so-called war…

The faces of every casualty there had been began to cascade through his memory, but he could only stop on one, the casualty he himself had in turn, used to abrogate his responsibility, to feel, just for a little while, that he wasn't a total fuck up himself.

…Roxas…

"I am done," he breathed out raggedly, making himself look at that eye - his eye - again.

The icy blue iris just gazed back, mockingly, unaffected by him or his grief.

Snarling, he ripped it out of the blade, letting the blade go and ignoring it as it vanished into the ether. The eye dulled, clouding over.

But his rage consumed him, even as the grief tried to choke him, and he flung the eye away, not caring where it went—

Leather creaked, as another person huffed. "I didn't think you'd be happy to see me."

Braig froze completely, staring at the ground blindly.

"But throwing things at me? Really?"

Braig took a bracing breath, and looked back at the speaker.

To see Roxas.

To see the impossible.

To see…

Snarling suddenly, Braig ripped the apparent marble out of his hand before he truly saw it, chucking the thing in a whole new direction while watching to make sure it didn't hit a single other soul.

"Xigbar?" the familiar voice asked in confused surprise.

Braig turned back to him, and as he settled his lone eye on that familiar face, his mind virtually exploded with questions, few which he could answer…

At least… no answers that wouldn't result in the complete shattering of everything he was, only this time it wouldn't get fixed.

Cupping one hand close to Roxas' face, but carefully not actually touching him, he fell back into habits he didn't really remember that he had.

He spoke aloud, but to himself.

"It finally happened," he breathed, looking between those confused blue eyes.

Roxas smiled, a little bit confused, and a touch worried. "You were expecting me?" he tried to jokingly ask.

But Braig shook his head. "No, I finally cracked after everything," he answered. "After all the years, the decades of chasing that asshole to minimize his effect…"

That alarmed Roxas. "The war only stretched ten years Xigbar—"

"No, no it didn't," Braig shook his head. "And don't call me that, Xigbar is dead, Sora killed him…" His breath hitched slightly. "Just as Ansem killed you. For me to see you, here and now, this is my warning, I need to pass it on before I fully crack, I need…" His eye lost focus for a moment. "I need her," he muttered. "But who…? Shion? Xara? No, no those two weren't it, they're younger, safer…"

Roxas tried to get his attention, but he had no other name to address him by, and using the name he knew drew no reaction.

With a sigh, he stepped back and drew out his phone.

Sora answered after the second ring. "Yo—"

"Help," Roxas told him bluntly, and Sora stilled, eyeing him. "Xigbar thinks he's lost it just because he saw me."

Both brows lifting, Sora asked, "Have you tried his real name?"

Roxas scratched his cheek sheepishly. "I kinda, um, forgot?"

Sora rolled his eyes. "Yo Braig!" he hollered. "You listening?"

"Unless the world is at imminent risk of total meltdown, I try not to listen to you Sora," the man called back, counting something on his fingers. "You're the one who turned into a total Christmas dweeb the likes of which I haven't encountered since _I_ was a toddler!"

Sora sputtered, before mocking him, "You can remember that far back?"

"Unfortunately, yes, eidetic memory is a real bitch to live with," Braig deadpanned. "While you have the blessing of just maybe remembering blurs of color and lights—" Braig stopped. "Lights, something with…" His eyes widened. "Hikari! That was her name! Thanks Sora!"

"Wait!" Roxas yelped, but Braig was gone in a flash. "Damn it!"

——-

Ansem had to take them to Yen Sid, when they came to him with concerns about Braig utterly losing his mind.

"He was always closest to Master Yen Sid," the older man told them with a tired smile. "I never quite got why that was, but he was."

"He knew I would listen to him without sending him off with a pat on the head," Yen Sid shot back as he entered the room. "Closeness to me implies you are talking about Braig, have you found him yet?"

"Only to lose him again," Sora raked a hand through his hair. "Do you know who he would have been talking about, when he said 'her name was Hikari'?"

Yen Sid cocked a brow at him. "Hikari is a taboo subject," he said evenly. "For what reason would he mention her to you?"

Roxas explained the convoluted talk he had managed to have with Braig, before the man recalled that name.

Yen Sid frowned deeply. "You are certain, he said that he must 'pass it on'?" he asked gravely.

Roxas nodded. "He needs to 'pass it on' before he fully cracks," he repeated.

Yen Sid breathed deeply. "The woman you want to learn of," he said quietly, turning to stare out the window. "Would be Oikawa Hikaru, and she will not take it lightly if you use either her birth name, or Braig's name. She is his oldest sister."

"Wait, he isn't an orphan?" Lea asked. "I always thought…"

"What they wanted you to," Yen Sid nodded at him briefly. "They deny knowledge of one another unless it is dire need, I will not tell you what their requirements are for that, as I was told in confidence. That he didn't even recall her name for a few moments worried me, his distraction must be complete, to block that dratted memory of his."

"I thought it was complete when he thanked me for the help," Sora said ironically.

Yen Sid chuckled. "That as well," he said with a fond smile. Then he sobered. "I will need to go through my records, their location is a well kept secret."

"Their?" Riku asked. "Multiples?"

Yen Sid breathed for a moment, then simply stated, "They are kept secret for their safety, that they would not be used against their brother, or for their family bloodline."

Sora shrugged. "While I would like to meet them, because they have to be every bit as awesome as their brother if what Roxas tells me about him is at all true, I can live with just knowing he actually has family out there keeping safe, to keep him safe."

"What has Roxas told you?" Lea asked, bemused. "I can't see him as being considered all that awesome…"

Sora laughed. "You don't have the memory of him teaching Roxas either," he shot back. "He made it fun! I actually passed math with a straight A, I have never done that!"

"That's a truth," Kairi teased. "The teachers had to test you six times to confirm it was no fluke!"

"I passed every test!" Sora puffed out his chest proudly. "He made it so easy, it didn't feel like a test."

Roxas nodded. "I actually helped Olette with her summer homework," he confessed. "When my mind had been screwed with? It didn't touch that, I could still remember the math, just not where I'd learned it. Now I remember he was actually teaching me about angles and degrees, it was part of his spatial awareness instructions."

"Did it help?" Riku asked, lifting a brow at the other teen.

Roxas flushed, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. "It took an entire week, but I managed to do well enough that he gave me three sticks of sea salt ice cream!"

Lea paused. "That's where you got those sticks that week?" he asked with an odd look on his face. Roxas nodded. "How were you sure he hadn't poisoned them?"

That brought a fond smile to the blond's face. "I was sure, because by that time, Xigbar and I were involved together," he answered.

"Involved."

Though the tone was flat, Roxas paid it no mind. "It was strange at the time," he admitted. "But I didn't realize then that Xigbar actively disliked me—"

"He couldn't!" Riku objected. "As a Nobody he shouldn't have been able to feel!"

Lea blinked slowly. "But he did," the redhead breathed out. "He _hated_ Roxas with a passion after they met! All Roxas had to do was make a noise, and Xigbar would wear this fearsome scowl for a minute, as if— as if he couldn't stand any noise of any kind from him, no matter why…"

Roxas smiled uncertainly. "Yeah, I kinda had the idea he wasn't fond of me," he admitted softly. "After the number of walls he slammed me into, it wasn't hard to get that I kept pissing him off somehow."

"How did you become involved then?" Ansem asked, frowning.

Roxas blushed. "I kinda… interrupted his muttering once?…"

Sora grinned wickedly at him. "With a kiss," he chortled. "I've never seen such a dumbfounded look as what he had, when you pulled back! But then he slanted his mouth over your's, and events went from there, you certainly weren't arguing!"

"I wasn't," Roxas agreed, cheeks turning red.

Riku lifted his head, frowning. "How far did he let it go?"

"Dressed frottage," Now Roxas frowned, remembering. "He had the self control to shut me the fuck out when I pushed too hard, he could and did walk off in the middle of it if I tried to in any way strip him and the one time I walked into the shower while he was there… He outright left the room."

Yen Sid unwound, his tense shoulders settling. "Because you were not of age," he said with quiet dignity. "And Xigbar swore a long time ago to never be his Father, he had twelve older sisters, and his Father raped every single one of them, trying to force the birth of a different son that wasn't Braig. To hear even his Nobody will not cross that line is a relief."

"But it wasn't rape!" Roxas had objected furiously.

"You were under the calendar age of eighteen," the old Master said with finality. "That it made it rape every time."

Riku blinked, but also relaxed. "It would still be rape," he acknowledged. "Because the younger would not be of an age to have his vote count for anything otherwise, that you were willing, is fact, but by law, you didn't have that option. While I hate that a memory of his own Father left such a deep, visceral drive within him to affect even his Nobody? I am glad he didn't tumble down that slippery slope."

"So, getting back to the point," Lea huffed, folding his arms and tapping his foot. "You got involved with fucking XIGBAR of all people?"

Roxas scowled at him. "I would have fucked me if he let me!" he said hotly. "But he never did!"

"I would have!" Lea fired back. Roxas blinked at him, and Lea's cheeks went red, but he didn't falter. "I would have," he repeated. "And maybe that makes me less of a man than he proved to be, but that was my truth. I did everything to get your eyes on me… just never realized I had any competition."

Yen Sid forcibly retook the conversation from there. "From you the laws would be different, you were only a year or so older, for Xigbar they would be much more clean cut, he was at least five years Roxas' elder at the time. But now we need to find him, you said he was hunting for Hikari?"

Ienzo let the others talk, easing himself next to Roxas. "You got close with Braig?" he asked the teen softly, interested.

Roxas colored. "Y-yeah, I did, for a little bit," he agreed softly.

Ienzo grinned at him, nudging his shoulder. "That's awesome," he said sincerely. "There was a time that I wondered if Braig was even human, he was so above everything and every one."

Dilan shoved them both, smirking. "He wasn't the only one to wonder," he rumbled fondly. "But now isn't the time to check and see what makes Braig tick brat," He ruffled Ienzo's hair roughly.

"Hey!" Ienzo ducked away. "No blame-shame asshole, you would have asked if I didn't!"

"I would have chosen a better time for it," Even admitted with a smirk. "But yes, I would have asked."

Roxas blinked at them. "But… don't you know?" he asked, at a loss. "He was an Apprentice with all of you!"

Aeleus grimaced. "We may have been Apprentices, all together, but friends, we were never quite," he admitted sadly. "It's what made it so easy to turn us, against Master Ansem and each other."

Ansem sighed. "Sad, but true," he agreed. "I thought it would help you to keep that competitive spirit… and I was wrong."

"We more or less kept Braig separate," Dilan sighed. Even, Aeuleus and I made the choice to raise Ienzo, after his parents were vanished, Braig was kept occupied with Master Xehanort… we drifted. He was called on hard by the Master, and often, he seemed more robot than man sometimes."

"Yet he was never less than exactly that," Yen Sid said firmly. "Just a man, and just a boy for that matter, who took it upon himself to erase his Father and save all of his dozen sisters."

"That we never heard anything about!" Dilan pointed out, exasperated. "How much older were they?!"

"Hikari is twenty years his elder," the old Master said evenly. "And the rest stair step from there, roughly two years but never more than three apart in age."

Aeleus frowned, tilting his head. "So definitely some twins in the mix to get more than ten…"

"But wow," Even smirked. "Baby boy after so many sisters? Geez he would have been a spoiled shit anywhere else!"

Yen Sid smirked briefly. "If they didn't keep tossing him at Father for a distraction, I imagine so," he agreed mildly. "Father tried so hard for a son, that first year he would never shut up about him, the girls grew to loathe him! Until, after that first year, Braig awoke as the next OverSeer." And he didn't need to say more, the first six Apprentices got it.

"No way," Ienzo croaked, paling.

"But he never—" Aeleus snarled.

"He wouldn't," Even agreed thickly, closing his eyes.

"But if he was—" Dilan stuttered, before backing up. "Then that means he—" And realization turned him ashen.

Even blinked suddenly, and turned to Roxas itch a sharp stare. "Wait a minute: you said he loathed you, in the start?" he demanded.

Roxas blinked. "Absolutely. It didn't matter what sound I made, he hated it! I could laugh, growl, talk, it didn't matter: he would get such an angry look on his face… I kissed him to see if I could calm him down…"

Dilan sobered, an aching look coming over his face. "What?" Even snapped at him. "You know what that means! Share!"

"His Blank," Dilan murmured, watching him. "The one being in all his life he would never see, because to see him die would shatter the Seer, irrevocably."

Even stilled. "If the Seer cannot erase their Blank before they get attached," he spoke softly. "They will defend them to the death. Only Braig was never allowed to do that with his Blank, he had to stand back and watch him die…"

"Fuck!" Aeleus slammed his weapon into the ground. "And if the Master had ever known he had the OverSeer and his weakness in hand, so close to him…"

"The worlds would be destroyed," Dilan agreed thickly.

"Hence, you now see why he thinks he is breaking and losing it," Yen Sid said mildly. "For those of you listening who do not understand," he slanted a look at Sora, Riku, Kairi, Lea and Isa. "Just put it in perspective: Everyone you meet in your life, it only takes just one meeting, to see all that they are and will be, their interactions with you if you let them happen… and then there is one, with whom you cannot see. Everyone else, you can plan out to the end of all how to make sure they live, happy and free, or tortured and tormented endlessly until they breathe no more. But this one… you cannot see: not their reaction to just a simple greeting, and not their reaction to just seeing you… nothing at all is in your field of vision."

"Scary," Kairi giggled. "That means they can sneak up on me and kill me with no warning, right?"

Yen Sid smiled at her. "They could," he agreed softly. "Most often however, they end up being your everything, your heartbeat, the essence to your soul. If you had to stand back, and watch someone kill them…?"

Riku blanched, but stood tall. "I would erase the one who destroyed them," he said quietly. "And then myself."

"Ah, but you are the OverSeer," Yen Sid reminded him. "The one being, most often a man, who has to observe life happen, and ensure it happens as it was foretold, you are not allowed to destroy yourself until it is your time. Preferably the next Seer will be a son of your loins, but failing that, if will be a child of a close family member, like a sister or so on."

"I would probably tell Destiny and Fate to fuck themselves," Lea drawled. "Or each other for that matter."

Yen Sid grimaced. "He tried. It never ended well, they are not human, and thus lack our morality and bylaws that you would expect from another person. They control how, where and when you will reincarnate, and he has been on this world for a very long time."

"How long?" Roxas asked, frowning at him.

"Since the dawning of the Wars, when he was still Master Luxu," Yen Sid held his gaze. "Back when the Masters were only just learning what it meant to be a Master, what it took to be a Master. And he remembers, as his Master deigned for him to, to protect that black case of all is, was and will be."

Sora startled. "The case Maleficent and Peter are after!? That case?" he demanded. "I thought it was a myth!"

"Braig is no myth. So the case is no myth," Yen Sid rolled his shoulders briefly. "I saw it once. I begged never again, I have no need of that knowledge."

"So, wait, has he read it?" Riku asked sharply.

"His Master bade him not to, I hold faith yet in him that he would not break said edict. Not without a push to do so," he amended.

"A push like losing his Blank?" Dilan asked dryly.

"But he was shocked to see me," Roxas pointed out. "Almost horrified even, that I was in front of him!"

Yen Sid nodded. "If you know how tans where to look, Braig is an open book, which makes him the excellent spy, because you do not believe that such an open person could be a spy, do you?"

They were quiet, just absorbing all that they had learned.

"How will I find him?" Roxas asked finally, looking at each of them. "Now that I know, that I am his… whatever, Blank, destined, whatever you want to call it… how do I find him?"

"Listen to your heart," Yen Sid told him calmly. "Let it guide you, it's his favorite phrase, 'let your heart be your guide', your heart will take you to him."

Roxas nodded, taking a breath. "Let my heart be my guide," he repeated softly, closing his eyes.

"And Roxas?"

He looked at Master Yen Sid. "Hm?"

The old Master smiled at him. "I want a wedding invitation."

Roxas blinked, jaw dropping. Then, with a squeak, he yanked open a portal and vanished, blushing.

Those left laughed.

——-

Braig looked out over the town Festival, staying strictly out of it: This wasn't his world, not his to celebrate, he was just… basking in the glow, of life, of laughter, for all that this was a sleeping world, they still knew how to throw it down…

A larger figure swung over to land a little heavily at his side, and he welded the metal joists together with a brief Firaga spell, just as they tried to break, and a fast Blizzara.

"Oops, sorry about that," the figure sheepishly scratched his neck. "Why aren't you joining us?"

"It's not my scene," Braig answered calmly. "Why aren't you joining? I thought they were throwing this all for you?"

The other male laughed deeply. "As you say: it's not my scene, Hikari knows that, she only demanded I be there for the initial sound off, I was never going to handle being around everyone for long."

"Hear that," Braig agreed. "Can't stand the sappy shit myself, but I can handle just sitting back and letting it go on."

He settled beside the slimmer man gently. "She says you do a lot of that, watching it pass you by. Doesn't it get lonely?"

Braig stared at the Festival without seeing it. "Lonely and I became great friends a long time ago," he said quietly. "Don't know what I'd do without it."

The other laughed again, slapping him on the back but keeping him from being knocked down. "Never know if you don't try," he said kindly.

Braig snorted derisively. "Oh, I know," he said darkly. "Not that I want to…"

The other grimaced. "Right, sorry, bad timing."

Braig got to his feet. "I said what I came to say to her, she gave me her response… she will see where the dice fall for herself. Have a good night Quasimodo, go enjoy the festivities while they last."

"Go make your happiness rather than letting whatever curse or gift you operate under steal it away," Quasimodo insisted.

Braig sighed. "That, I will just have to see, I can't foretell what he will do in my lifetime."

"Give it a chance," the hunchback encouraged.

Braig didn't answer that one, just left as quietly as he had come, stepping into a portal when he was unseen.

It let him out at the top of the tower, on the renamed Hollow Bastion, former Garden, once more Garden, and he stopped on the edge, staring out over the vastness before him… remembering what was, what is, and what will be…

A portal snapped open beside him, shunting out a spluttering, blushing Roxas, and he stilled, just staring, speechless.

Roxas looked up, feeling the stare. "Xigbar! I was looking for you," he yelped, stumbling. Where have you been?"

"I went to my sister," he said numbly, just watching.

Roxas blinked at him. "Oh? And what did… Hikari? Have to say?"

Braig knelt, then sat down, his lone eye still focused on the teen. "Oh, the usual, I'm an idiot, don't contact her enough, need a phone that can trans-portal connect…"

"Seriously?" Roxas deadpanned.

"Honestly! She wants to have a better connection to share her latest, I'm the asshole that tiptoed through time to collect her before senior jack ass broke her, which makes me the eldest now…"

Roxas laughed. "Truly! Wow, and did you do that on purpose?"

"Well…" Braig scratched his neck, ducking a swat. "I didn't exactly try to become the eldest, but I had to collect them when it be of a good time to keep him from breaking them… it just worked out that way?"

Roxas shook his head at him, laughing silently, and sat down beside him.

They both remained silent, looking out over Radiant Garden in between stealing glances at one another. It came to be Roxas that couldn't stay quiet.

"You know… I was told, something about Blanks? That I am one, and that's you can't see me, which makes me pretty damn important to you…"

"Pretty damn terrifying actually," Braig corrected.

"Yeah," Roxas smiled tightly. "Only I don't want you dead. I want you living, and talking to me, maybe, you know, something more…"

"Which is worse," Braig nodded, focusing on one spot just to do so. "I could be ripped apart into tiny pieces only not visibly, and no one would see it because I am that asshole who can smirk and snark even when I'm leaking blood like a sieve, and that's just a whole other kind of raunchy mess—"

Roxas shifted to kneel before him. "We were something," he said intensely. "Before I fucked it up, charging into your shower when you were naked to try and force something more. Yen Sid explained how intricate and inate your code of honor is for you, Luxu, Braig, Xigbar, whatever your name is now—"

Braig caught his breath, hearing his names said irreverantly, and by him of all… he lifted a hand, letting it cup that pretty face and shutting him up in the same gesture. "Braig," he rumbled softly. "I am Braig, now…"

Roxas smiled, covering the hand on his face. "Can we give it a try?" he asked softly. "I don't want to go through my life, never knowing, always wondering what we could have been, could have had, not when the chance is right here in front of me. We were good, I was just impatient for something I didn't understand, can we try again?"

Braig wheezed, spreading his fingers and catching the ones that slid between his. "I will murder the next Gods bedamned fool that tries to take your life," he rasped. "Even if it is Master Riku… I will take joy in hearing his dying screams, because I will cause them!"

Roxas smiled wetly. "So that's a yes?" he asked huskily. "I am eighteen now and all, they wouldn't let me hunt for you until I—"

Braig hauled him closer, bringing him in for a bruising kiss and holding tight. Just before they totally lost all oxygen, the older man's let them separate. "That is most definitely a yes," he whispered, before kissing him again.

Roxas melted into his hold and his kiss, not bothered at all.